“Mmmm, no…” Ally groaned as she opened her eyes. She looked over at Matt, blinked a couple of times, and then rolled over on her opposite side, falling back asleep.
Frustrated, Matt yelled for Ally’s other roommate Natalie for help. “Nat, you’re the only other person that I know, besides Nick, that can get this girl out of bed. Help me.”
“C’mon Matt, it’s so easy.” Natalie laughed as she walked over towards Ally.
“Well if it’s so easy, then do it.” Matt challenged.
Natalie grabbed her headset off the side table and switched it to on. Once the volume was up full blast, Natalie put the headset up to one of Ally’s ears.
“Oh my God.” Ally screeched as she bolted upright in bed. “Turn it off!”
“Done,” Natalie said as she smiled at Matt. “Whoa, I need a break, that was some hard work.” “What do you mean,” said Ally, who was finally waking up. “What was hard work?”
Matt looked over at Ally and then at Natalie. “Okay then, what do you do? Nick does the same thing…I don’t get it.”
Natalie turned the volume down to a reasonable level and handed the headset to Matt. “Here,” she said.
Matt laughed the second that he heard it: “Everybody---YEH---Rock your body---YEH---Everybody. Rock your body right---Backstreet's back all right.” “Good move Nat.”
“I seriously hate that headset,” Ally said.
“But it works everytime,” Natalie yelled from the hallway. “See ya guys.”
Once Natalie had left the cabin for the meeting Matt looked over at Ally, who had gotten out of bed and was over by her dresser grabbing some clothes.
“How are you doing?” Matt questioned.
“I’m actually doing a lot better. Hey, listen, I never really got a chance to talk to you last night after the questioning. I wanted to thank you for everything that you did. You really helped keep things under control with everyone last night.”
“No problem,” Matt said dryly.
“No, I’m serious. Thank you.” Ally turned to face Matt. Matt was looking at the floor. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Matt said.
“Right,” Ally said sarcastically. “What’s wrong?”
After a few uncomfortable seconds, Matt replied, “You and Nick. Last night you gave him a complete explanation about everything and you didn’t give me so much as another word after the questioning.”
“I’m sorry Matt. I should have told Nick to keep his mouth shut. I wanted to tell both of you alone so that I could be sure everything was okay afterwards…” Ally, rubbed her forehead nervously, forgetting about the cuts let on it from the night before. Almost involuntarily, her body jumped with pain.
“It’s not just last night.” Matt interrupted. “Lately, you and Nick are always hanging around each other and frankly, I am sick of it.”
“What do you want me to say?” Ally asked. “You are both really good fri…” Before Ally could finish her statement, a cell phone rang from somewhere around the cabin. As a rule, when a phone rang and you were around, you were required to answer it. Because everyone was at the meeting, it was between Matt or Ally.
“You better get that one,” Matt said. “It could be Nick.”
Ignoring Matt’s comment, Ally followed the sound of the ringing phone, which seemed to becoming from Nick’s room. Thinking that everyone, except for her and Matt, had left for the meeting, Ally pushed the door open and began searching for the phone in the midst of old pizza boxes, clothing, video games, and pop cans. After the seventh ring, she finally found the ringing cell phone and pressed the TALK button. “Hello,” she said, out of breath.
No one was on the other end. Shrugging her shoulders a little, Ally turned the phone off, set it on the table behind her and turned to leave. The sudden movement from one of the other bunks caught her eye. Thinking that it was just John, one of Nick’s roommates, Ally continued on her way out the door.
“Who are you?” A voice mumbled from one of the bunks.
Somewhat startled, Ally whirled around in the doorway to become face to face with a guy she didn’t recognize. “Who are you,” the guy repeated.
Before she could say anything, Ally felt someone creep up behind her. “Hey AJ,” Nick yelled as he put his hands on Ally's shoulders causing her to jump. “Your up.”
“Your quick Carter,” Ally said. “You know, you should consider trying out for Jeopardy. I hear they’re looking for a guy that buzzes in all the time without knowing the answers to boost their ratings.”
“Hey…I thought that you weren’t a fan. How’d you know about that?” (Think MTV’s interview right when Millennium came out.) Nick blushed.
“Sophie told me.” Ally smiled.
Getting a little annoyed, AJ, who was still dressed in jeans and tee-shirt, climbed out of the bunk and interrupted. “Face it Nick, everyone saw you make an ass out of yourself on national television. If they could of only gotten the unedited you…now that would be priceless. Anyway, are you going to introduce me, or am I just gonna have to do it for myself?”
“Sorry Bone,” Nick said. “AJ, this is Ally Parker, the girl who I have been telling you about. Ally, this is AJ McLean.”
“Your serious?” Ally laughed, looking at AJ questioningly. “Nick did that on tour.”
“Okay…” Nick interrupted loudly. “So anyway…”
“No Carter, I wanna hear this.” Ally said.
“I’m dead serious,” AJ confermed.
“That probably the funniest thing that I have ever heard” Ally said.
In the midst of all the laughing, Matt walked through the doorway. “Ally, aren’t you forgetting about something?” He said, glaring at Ally.
“I’ll be there in a second.” Ally defended. “God Matt.”
“You’d better be,” Matt said as he turned to leave the room. Suddenly, he looked over at AJ. “Who are you?” he questioned.
“My name’s AJ McLean…” Matt looked puzzled. “From the Backstreet Boys.” AJ continued.
Matt nodded a little. “Why are you here?”
“I just flew in from the Bahamas and I am supposed to meet with Howie, another member of the group, in an hour to discuss a song deal with management.”
“And so you are here because…” Matt said a little more forcefully.
“I just stopped on my way to the city to check on Nick and I decided to rest a bit. Relax.”
Matt paused. “Well, both Ally and Nick should be in a meeting right now, so they are gonna have to talk to you later…okay?” Matt walked out the door.
“Okay,” AJ repeated. “That guy’s a little pissed.”
“No kidding,” Ally said. “He’s been like that since he woke me up and he was even an ass about that.”
“Wait,” Nick said looking over at Ally and nodding his head playfully. “You got the headset treatment again. Didn’t you?”
Ally looked over at Nick. “No,” she said smiling.
“Haha,” Nick said. “Works everytime.”
“Headset treatment,” AJ questioned. “What’s that.”
“We really have to get going,” Ally said as she stood up. “C’mon Nick.”
“No Parker,” Nick retorted. “You heard my tour story, so I’m gonna tell your headset story.”
“Well then your gonna do it without me in here. I’ll see you at the meeting. AJ, it was nice meeting you. If you get a chance, come back for dinner tonight. It’s Pizza and Twister night.”
“I think I might just do that,” AJ said. “It was nice meeting you too.”
After Ally had left the cabin, AJ spoke up. “Damn Nick, you’re right. Her boyfriend cleaned her good.”
“You should have seen her last night. That was horrible.” Nick said.
“I bet that she’s hot though without all the cuts and bruises.” AJ grinned slyly.
Nick looked down at the floor. “Yeah, she’s amazing.” He sighed.
“Then go for it,” AJ said. “It’s obvious that she likes you too.”
“I can’t,” Nick uttered.
“And why not,” AJ demanded.
“Too complicated I guess.” Nick said, standing up from his bunk. “Anyway, I’ll catch you later. Tell D that I said ‘hi’ and that he’s welcome to come too.”
“I’ll do that.” AJ said as he watched Nick leave the room. “He we go again.” AJ sighed.
Chapter Eleven
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