I knock on AJ’s room door and Sarah yells for me to come in. I’ve left Brian sleeping peacefully after checking whether his temperature has gone up again. It hasn’t so I feel a little better about him doing the concert last night. Sarah’s sat in front of a laptop and I walk over to sit by her.
“Hey Sarah,” I greet. “What ya lookin’ at?”
“You’ll think I’m dumb,” she blushes before angling the screen so that I can see it. “I just got curious and figured I’d search Backstreet.Net.”
“To see if they know about you?”
“Uh huh. And they do!”
“I used to check it ALL the time with Ali,” I admit with a giggle. “So it’s not dumb at all.”
“Cool,” she giggles and then gets serious. “Uh, I’m on a message board and they’re all wondering ‘bout why the New York shows got postponed.”
“Aw,” I groan. “Lemme guess, I’m Backstreet Enemy Number One?”
“You AND Ali,” she tells me and I start to read the messages.
You heard bout the NYC shows gettin’ cancelled all of a sudden?! Anyone know why?! They havent split up???
I heard. I am SO bummed. I was going to the first one that got cancelled. I was like on my way there when it came over the radio. I heard its either cos of Brian’s heart or Aj got drunk. I dunno which but I really wanna know!
Its all Brians girls fault, I bet ya. I heard she got demanding and crap, and then just left him so he hadda go get her. That’s why the shows got cancelled cos he wasn’t even IN New York. I think its real bad and he should dump her ass already.
OMG! That is totally sucky! What is he doing with a bitch like her? He deserves so much better. I thought she was a slut when I first saw pictures of her wrapping herself around him. It was SO gross. I hope he wakes up to her.
I heard it’s cos of Nicks girl leaving him for some other guy and he locked himself in his room to get totally drunk and couldn’t do the shows. I hope he realizes shes so below him.
No way?! How can anyone do that to Nick?! He is SO hott!
FrickChic@hotmail.com
CarlyT@yahoo.com
Bbabe@aol.com
FrackGirl@aol.com
NGal@aol.com
FrackGirl@aol.com
“I know. It sucks that you got blamed. It gets worse after the MTV thing. I mean, it WAS a pretty bad excuse they gave.”
“I know but they couldn’t exactly tell the truth,” I say. “I mean, it’d cause the police all kinds of problems. Plus, “my girlfriend got kidnapped” – can we say hello, trashy detective novel?” I roll my eyes and Sarah giggles.
“Ah, they’ll move on,” she tells me. “Hey, want me to go out and slap a couple for ya? Then I’d be Backstreet Enemy Number One.”
“Thanks but I’ll just ride it out,” I laugh.
“Offer’s always there babes.”
“Thanks,” I smile at her. “What you up to?”
“Not much,” she sighs. “The guys are out all day. Is Brian in bed?”
“Uh huh,” I nod. “The concert pretty much tired him out.”
“That all?” she asks with a wicked grin and I blush slightly.
“Yeah, that’s all!” I lie with a giggle and she laughs. “Anyway, I wondered if you wanted to go shopping with me?”
“Love to girl!” she switches the laptop off and jumps up. “Let’s go already.”
“Wow, you really ARE AJ’s girl,” I giggle and follow her outside.
Nick pulls out his cell phone and flips through his phonebook until he reaches P. He stops and stares at the number. He had put Ali and Jade’s home number in his phone under Pink Monster, a joke over their couch. He stares at the eight digits and then finally presses call. He has no idea what to say to her but he just needs to say hi. The phone rings for a few minutes until she answers.
“Hey,” she greets.
“Ali, it’s me,” he says. “Uh, Nick.”
“I haven’t forgotten who me is,” she jokes lightly.
“I just figured that maybe I’d stopped being a me to you,” he says.
“You’ll always be a me to me,” she tells him.
“Thanks. How you doin’?”
“I’m good. I did a shoot today. You?”
“Ditto.”
“I keep seein’ you on MTV.”
“Uh huh? Who you been shooting?”
“Uh, Bitchney…”
“Ya didn’t call her that?!” he chuckles.
“’Course not!” Ali giggles. “She barely said three words to me the whole time. She asked about Jade and that was it!”
“Cool.”
“How’s everyone? I talked to AJ a coupla days back.”
“What’d he say?”
“He just said hey, asked me what I was up to, that kinda thing. I don’t think he knows what exactly happened,” she admits.
“He knows we split up,” Nick says. “But Jade didn’t want to tell him about you guys arguing.”
“Oh, that was good of Jade,” Ali says sarcastically and Nick sighs.
“I thought she was your best friend?”
“She is.”
“So, what’s your problem with her?”
“MY problem?!”
“Ali,” Nick says calmly. “I don’t want to fight with you. But it might help if you told me why you have such a downer on Jade all of a sudden.”
“I don’t have a DOWNER!” she exclaims. “I just… She’s so PERFECT. She has this perfect past, perfect family, perfect boyfriend… And what do I have?”
“You have me,” he murmurs.
“I don’t have you the way I want you.”
“I’ll always be your friend Ali. And I will always love you. I just need a little space to work out if we should be together or not. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I know you don’t,” she sighs.
“And Jade is not perfect. She is so far from perfect! You haven’t forgotten the whole JC thing already?!”
“No, but she still has Brian. Would I still have you?”
“If you’d done that?” he asks. “I don’t know. That’s kinda what I’m trying to figure out.”
“If you love me enough,” she sighs.
“Ali…”
“Nick, it’s ok. I’m fine. Really. Thanks for calling me.”
“I miss you,” he smiles.
“I miss you too. All of you.”