Christmas was two weeks away so David, from Jive Records, told the boys that they could go home until New Year's Day. Then the day after they would have to hop on a plane to Europe where they would start their tour. The boys were excited by this news and couldn’t wait to see their friends and families. They had spent a year and a half in Canada doing shows, interviews, and recording there second album, Backstreet's Back. They only got to see their families on holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Only for a few days though. All of them were anxious for the new album to do well.
"Okay, this is Phil Myers and this is Good Morning Ontario! Today we are here with The Backstreet Boys!" he screamed. " You guys have really grown, especially you Nick."
"Yeah, I was 14 when the first album came out and now I'm fifteen goin on sixteen next month."
"Wow.", said Phil.
"Well I’m twenty-three now and my cousin Brian is twenty-one. AJ is seventeen and Howie is now twenty-two." Kevin added.
"You guys are so popular around the world. What about the U.S.?"
Howie answered that by saying, "We are itching to get home and perform, but we gotta make the move when the time is right."
"Do you guys have girlfriends?"
"No, but we do date a lot." Kevin replied.
"Do you guys fight a lot?"
"All the time. No just kidding.", Nick said with a smile.
"We're really good friends. We're close." Brian stated to Phil.
"Well good luck BSB! And Good Morning Ontario, Canada!"
Although Brian loved Kentucky, it was a real bare to fly home there all the time. Kevin, Howie, and Brian decided to move into a beach front apartment in Orlando, Florida. Kevin put the apartment under his name and the boys moved in. Nick and AJ still lived with their families. Nick living in Tampa and AJ in Orlando.
Kevin decided to have a little pre-Christmas party bash on the beach before they had to go back to work. It was mainly open house, whoever wanted to come could come. Nick and AJ decided that they would sleep over since it was a forty-five minute drive back to Nick's and AJ would probably drink.
"Hey Howie, we need more potato chips!", yelled Kevin to Howie who was in the kitchen cooking appetizers. Kevin then turned back to his gorgeous woman, who he was speaking to by the punch bowl. She was tall, slender, and had long brown curly hair.
People were scattered everywhere from the living room to the dining room to outside on the beach. Volleyball and Basketball games were goin' on as Howie fired up the grill out on the beach. Kevin and Alley, the girl he had been talking to earlier, went over to give Howie a hand.
Meanwhile, Brian and Nick were shooting hoops out in the front of the apartment.
"Use your wrist Frack!" Brian said as he coached Nick on his shooting technique.
"Hey, guys what up? Can I join ya?" asked AJ.
Both guys nodded as AJ received the ball from Brian and showed off his lay up, which wasn't too bad. "Wew, smokin' Bone, smokin'!", said Brian.
The three continued to mess around with the ball until Brian said, "Okay, you and Frack against me."
AJ and Nick looked at each other and smiled as if they knew they would crush Brian. Alone they didn’t stand a chance, but together they could cream him. The game was pretty intense and B-Rok was losin' by a lot. It was kind of rough on the defensive end of it because just as he would block Nick, AJ would take the ball down the court and score.
"Hey, got room for anymore?"
All three guys turned around and saw two girls at the end of the driveway. They looked at each other and smiled.
"You two any good?" Brian asked as he walked towards them.
"Well my sister is better than me, but if you're asking if we can handle you three? Um, yeah we can." Said the older girl.
AJ, the flirt that he was, came running over. "So ladies, what are your names?"
"My name is Michelle, but my teammates call me Mick and this is my younger sister Danielle."
"My friends call me Dani.", she said.
"Hey. How old are you kid?" Brian asked as he stared down Danielle.
"Thirteen years old." she replied.
Brian leaned over to her and whispered something in her ear and she smiled.
"Well how old are you Miss Mick?" AJ asked as Nick decided to finally come over and see what was goin' on.
"I'm seventeen and if you wanna know we are on Christmas Vacation. Now lets play some ball!" said Mick as she tried to grab the ball out of Brian's hands.
"Wait a second now hold up. My name is Brian, this is AJ, and this little one over here is Nicky." Brian explained.
"Hey how 'bout you ladies play and I'll go bring you guys back some drinks." AJ said then ran back towards the party.
"You don’t want to challenge me and Nicky do ya?", said Brian with a cocky smile.
"Look boy, I can take you on!" Mick cried.
Brian could see the competition in her eyes."Okay then, Mick. Dani's on my team and u get Nicky.", Brian said as he reached into his pocket for a coin. "Nick, heads or tails?"
"Mick?" he asked looking at her for approval.
"Tails." she replied.
"You herd the lady Bri." Nick said then Brian tossed up the coin.
"Tails it is. You two get the ball first." said Brian.
The game was close at first, but B-Rok and Dani were too much for Nick and Michelle to handle. Brian would fake to Dani, then take it up for a slam dunk and they would have the other two so off guard.
Finally, B-Rok and Dani scored thirty points, which was game, according to the rules they made in the beginning.
"Yeah Dani!You are a great b-ball player!" Brian screamed as he slapped her hand.
"I told you she was good." said Mick as she slapped both their hands.
"Well, what are you guys doin' now?" asked Nick.
"Maybe you could hang with us at the party?"
"We have to call our parents first. Can we use your phone?" asked Mick.
Nick escorted her to Brian's room and pointed to the phone. "There you go."
"Thanks Nick." she said as she sat on his bed and began to dial.
Outside, B-Rok was showing Danielle how to have a stronger follow through on her shot. Just then Nick came back an snatched the ball on the rebound. "Where's Michelle, Frack?" Brian asked walking toward Nick.
"She's calling her parents still." said Nick. "Hey D, you hungry?"
She nodded yes so Nick took her to the grill for a hamburger as Brian walked into the house. He felt really sweaty, so he walked towards his room to change. Pushing the door open with his foot he began to lift his shirt up, not realizing that Mick was in his room.
"Hold on Dad. Hey what's with the stripping?" she asked in shock.
Brian smiled, not embarrassed at all, as he put on a clean shirt.
"Can you just pick us up at eight then? But…"
"Hey Mick." Brian interupted. " I can drive you girls back no problem.
She looked at him in shock. "Really? Are you sure?" He nodded so she told her father that she would be home before one am. "Okay Dad, bye." she said then hung up the phone. "This water bed is really cool!" Brian came and sat next to her. "Yeah, too bad it like takes up my whole room." he replied. "So where on Long Island are you from? And where are you staying here in Orlando?"
"My grandparents live down here so we decided to come visit for the holidays. They usually come to East Meadow, where we are from, to visit us." she explained. "So does Nick live here or what?"
Brian looked at her and smiled knowing she had a thing for his bud. "Nah, too bad huh? We're best friends me and Nicky, if you couldn’t tell. See me, Howie, and Kevin live here wit me."
Michelle stood up and walked around the room. "This room is a pig stye. Ya know that don't cha?"
He just laughed and shrugged his shoulders, hot attempting to argue, since it was true. "I don’t have time to clean since I…"
"Do you play guitar?" she interupted.
He got up and walked over to her. "Maybe a little.",he said as he took if from her hands. "Brian, play something. Please!" she begged.
Not saying a word, he took the guitar to the bed and sat down. She joined him as he warmed up a little by plucking a few chords.
"What are you gonna play?", she asked in curiosity.
"Well I wrote a song. I could play that for ya Mick. If your want?", he suggested.
"Oh my God yes! I'd love to hear it!" she cried.
Smiling, he began to play and to her surprise, he began to sing. He only sang the first verse then one chorus:
That's what she said
She told me we'd see forever
That's what she said
mmmm--
Just as he finished, Kevin walked in. "Hey you gonna help me clean up cuz or what?"
"Hey Kev. This is Michelle..oh sorry I mean Mick. She's from Long Island."
Kevin smiled and waved. "Nice to meet you."
"What time is it Kev.?", asked Brian nervously.
"Ah, its twelve o'clock. Lets go now Bri!" he yelled as he walked out of the room.
Brian got up and put his guitar back in the case and asked Michelle if she wanted to watch him cleanup. She agreed being that she liked his company a lot so they headed outside where they saw Nick, Dani, and a bunch of other's playin' vollyball on the beach. Brian began to pick up the empty cans of soda on the ground.
"I'll help." Mick said as she held the garbage bag for him. "So, tell me where are you from? With that accent I have a hard time believing its Orlando."
Brian smiled, "Kentucky. Lexington to be exact. Me and Kevin both are." he answered.
"Kentucky?" she said surprised as ever. "Wow, you're a long way from home. Why are you’re here?"
That was the question. The question that he had hoped she wouldn't ask. "I told you Mick, I'm living with Howie and Kev. " he hesitated.
She knew he ws hiding something and she wanted to find out. "Do you have a have a job here? Did you like get transferred or something?"
Just as he was about to answer, Dani came back from the game and got him off the hook. Michelle could see she was tired so she asked Brian if he could drive them home now.
"Where's Nick?" asked Brian.
Danielle told him that he got a phone call from a girl named Sarah or something.
"Okay, guess he's not coming for the ride." Brian said as he rolled his eyes."I don’t know about that girl. I met her a couple of times and well I just don’t know." explained.
"That sucks. I wanted to say goodbye to Nick." Michelle said with disappointment.
"Hey, well I'll give you my phone number and you can call me before you leave so we can play some b-ball or something." he suggested."Let me just get some paper and a pen. I"ll be right back, don’t go nowhere."
While in the house, Mick told Dani about how Brian could sing and play the guitar. Dani was in shock and couldn’t believe it. Then Brian came out of the house and handed her his address and phone number. "Okay?", he asked.
She nodded and then they headed for his car. Brian, like a gentlemen, first unlocked the doors then opened them for Dani and Mick. Their grandparents didn’t live that far from his house. On the way, Dani fell asleep. "Looks like she's out back there." Brian whispered with a smile.
"You two seem like you're really close." Mick agreed then said the same thing about him and Nick. "You guys kinda remind me of me and my sis sometimes."
"What do I do here." he asked as they approached a street corner.
"Just make a right and it’s the third house on the left.
Brian pulled in the driveway to turn around, then parked in the street in front of the house. "I feel bad waking her up." he whispered.
"Dani get up! Come on!", she yelled to Brian's surprise.
She got up and walked into the house yelling thanks to Brian as she opened the door.
Michelle, not wanting to leave until she knew more about him, asked him again why he had come here. "I don’t mean to be annoying, but I would really like to know.
Brian looked at her then looked down. "I don’t want to tell you 'cause I think that you are a really cool girl and I didn't want that to change.",he said. Michelle, puzzled, asked him what the hell he was talking about.
"I'm in a band okay." he said quickly. "Me, Howie, AJ, Kevin, and Nick are in a band called The Backstreet Boys and we have two albums out. We are going on tour after New Year's and we're well known all over except the U.S. Okay, you happy now?!", he said as he looked away.
She didn’t say anything maybe because of shock or confusion.
"Well, what do you have to say? Huh?"
She gave him a snotty look and said, "What's with the 'tude Bri? Why were you so afraid to tell me you were in a band? What did you think I was gonna flip or something? I don’t need this. Thanks for the ride. Bye!", she said as she reached for the door handle. Brian quickly grabbed her arm. "Wait!" he exclaimed as she tried to escape his grip.
"Let me go Brian!" she cried.
"I will if you stay. Will you?", he sincerely asked. She saw that he was serious so she agreed, then he released her.
"Look, I saw how cool you were and how you could play b-ball. I just wanted us to be friends first.", he explained.
"Friends before what?",she asked with confusion. He hesitated then said, "Before you found out about me and treated me different."
"Maybe girls in Europe or Asia act weird, but I just wanted to play some b-ball with you.",she said to clear things up. "Look, I just saw my dad look out the window so I gotta go Brian."
"We cool now Mick?" he asked with a smile.
She agreed and slapped his hand. As she walked toward the door, Brian felt proud that day because he had made a real friend. Someone who liked him for him, not 'cause he was a Backstreet Boy and he wasn’t going to forget it.
Chapter Nine
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