Chapter Four: ** She Loves Skinny-Dipping **

 Debelah snuck across the stage to the curtain, carefully opened the edge about an inch and peeked out. Her eyes widened and her lips curled at the sight of the thousands of people waiting for the show.  She put the curtain back and then proceeded to dance around in circles, laughing.

 “You know, I wasn’t really sure of it before but now I KNOW she’s insane,” Nick commented.  Debelah stopped and looked over to see the guys walking towards her.

 “Oh, and when she was SLEDDING down the STAIRS, that didn’t give you much of a hint?!” Kevin exclaimed.

   “Aw, c'mon, Kevin, ya know ya woulda had fun if ya’d trah-ed it,” Debelah said, a bit of southern accent slipping out, compliments of the two weeks she’d spent in N’Orleans last summer. The guys stared at her.

 “Oh, my God, she’s got the KFC accent,” AJ said.

“What’s that?” she asked.

Howie explained,” It stands for Kevin’s-Freakin’-Cousin’s accent.

Debelah started to laugh,” Well, oops, it just slipped out. “

“When did you go down to the South?” Brian asked.

She started to fidget, "Why don’t we discuss my past later, guys? I’m sure it’s not that interesting."

“Well, I see you already got ready.  When do you go on?” Kevin asked. She was wearing a short, bright orange dress with a swirled skirt and low neckline and her hair cascaded down in curls.

“Very soon.”

 “You nervous?”  Howie asked.

 Debelah shook her head, dancing in place a little,” Not really, but a bit, I guess. I’ve always performed one way or another.”

 Before they could ask her what she meant, Michael signaled for Debelah to get onstage.  Debelah smiled wide and took a step towards the guys,” Come on, I want hugs before I go on.”

  They each gave her a hug, wishing her luck. AJ was the last in line and he held her for a second longer, leaning forward to whisper in her ear,” You look gorgeous.” She stepped back and stared at him for a second before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, smiling, and running onstage. 

 “What’s up, Orlando!!” she screamed at the cheering crowd who roared back in response.

 Offstage, AJ grinned and left with the rest of the guys for the dressing room to get ready.

*                                  *                                  *

  “Thanks for being such an awesome crowd.  The Backstreet Boys will be out here in a second!” she yelled as the crowd cheered louder at the mentioning of the guys.  Debelah and her dancers ran offstage.

  “AUGH!!” Debelah screamed in excitement as soon as she got backstage and immediately started to dance and jump around.  She caught sight of the guys and ran over towards them, knocking over Nick who was in front with a giant hug.

  “I went out….they saw me dance…and I sang…and I…I think they liked it!!” she babbled, her eyes wide.  The guys grinned wide, laughing. 

 “Yeah, they did.  We heard them cheering,” Brian said.

Debelah peeked over Nick’s shoulder and looked at them with hopeful eyes, "You think so?”

Kevin looked down at her seriously, "Yes, I really do.”

“They loved you,” Howie said with a smile.

“You were amazing,” AJ said.

She looked at all of them and smiled really big,” I love you guys…. and I love being insane and I love sledding, and singing, and dancing, and skinny dipping, and shopping and…a lot of other stuff and now I’m gonna go get changed! Good luck, guys!”

 She ran off towards her dressing room, doing a few jumps and cartwheels along the way as the guys laughed.

 “I hope she feels that way after every show,” Nick laughed.

 “C’mon, guys, we gotta run on now,” Kevin instructed, in the ‘father’ mode. They said their prayer and then ran out on stage as the opening strains of the “The Call” came on.

 “Skinny-dipping, huh?” AJ thought right as he began to sing.

  *                                  *                                  *

 After the concert, at the club…

Debelah sank into the booth across from Nick and Kevin, her cheeks flushed and her hair wild. With her attitude, looks and outfit- a black miniskirt, knee high black boots and rose-colored halter-, it was no wonder the guys had seen her dancing with numerous guys so far that night.

 “Why aren’t you guys dancing?” she asked them, taking a sip of her water.

 “I’d rather be back at the hotel with my Play station 2,” Nick said truthfully.

 “I’d rather be with Kristen,” Kevin said.  Debelah looked at them,” Well, I’m getting one dance out of each of you before I leave tonight,” she laughed.

*          *          *

 Meanwhile, AJ sat at the bar, refusing to see Debelah dancing with another guy who attempted to grope her.  Even though she’s immediately stop them herself as soon as they started doing anything like that, he still wanted to go over there and beat the living shit out of every single one of them.

 He didn’t know what was the matter with him, why he didn’t just go up and ask her to dance. He’d swear he’d stopped breathing when he saw her ready right before they left for the club and he stared at her in the car as she danced along with the radio, energy pumping through her.

Now, he sat at the bar, -drinking Coke, mind you- averting his eyes from the dance floor. Of course, he’d danced with a number of girls that night, but it was considerably less than normal, because of his continuous glances over the girl’s shoulder at Debelah.

                                                                                *          *          *

 “Ok, I’m getting bored, now I wanna go dance again,” Debelah said, setting down her drink.  Nick looked over at her in mock shock,” Oh, so now we're boring you? Well, maybe we should leave,” he said, looking greatly insulted.

 “Oh, shove it, Carter,” she joked with a smile. “C’mon, don’t you guys wanna dance.  You KNOW you want to!”

 “Last time you said that was after you went sledding down the stairs and nearly broke your neck,” Kevin muttered.

“I did NOT almost break my neck,” she defended herself. “I was doing very good…insane people rock.  Now, c’mon, guys.  Are you gonna dance or not?”

 “Hey, Deb,” a man said, standing next to the booth, his dark eyes starting at her, "I missed you.”