Chapter 1 (Intro)

Over the course of 20 plus years, you tend to see things, do things, go places and meet people, not all are good or bad, but all will stick with you through out the course of the rest of your life. Being around for well over 2 decades worth of time, you meet those types of people who enrich your life; all kinds of people from all walks of life. Some are other celebrities that you have formed a tight friendship with; others maybe producers or writers that you now call friends; and amazingly enough, some are fans that you have gotten to know and allowed them to see the real you and indeed have formed friendships with.

The latter part of that sentence is probably a bit harder to believe, but it’s quite true. All five guys could probably give you a good list of about 10 or slightly more fans that have been there through it all and supported in so many ways; not to mention, when you constantly see the same faces over and over and over and…you get the hint, you can’t help but start to know a little more about them. Let’s just say, it’s those types of fans that really make the difference in ones life, even if they never knew it.

Chapter 2

~2014~

“Why am I the only one going to the special screening to begin with? Nick isn’t too far away; can’t he go to the New York showing?” Alex leaned forward on the table and looked around the room, first at his manager, then at the rest of his band mates. “Really? These fans are chosen for something special and no one is gonna be there? Wouldn’t you find that as a dis?”

“Look man, no one said they were gonna meet any of the guys. They were just gonna get a special screening to the movie.” Alex turned and looked hard at Nick.

“I will give you that man, but wouldn’t it be nice to surprise them?”

“AJ, I appreciate you trying to get someone else to go; it’s rather nice you’re giving up a few minutes to even hit up the LA show,” Jen said, tapping her pen against the arm of the chair. “But if no one wants to go, there’s nothing you can say that will make them go, you know that. Really, it’s best just to let it slide.” AJ nodded, but mentally huffed as he leaned back in the chair. To him, that wasn’t right. He thought it would be awesome if just someone else went out to New York to explain just a tad bit about the movie. So what if it got explained at the 20th anniversary party; why not shock the fans a little, huh? Oh well, he had no power to sway anyone else; the fans would just have to be happy that he was gonna be there, even if they didn’t know.


AJ got out of the car and made his way over to the entrance to the garage, seeing Jen and giving her a quick hug before walking up to the theater, waiting about 30 seconds before he heard the screams, and no matter how old he got, he could be honest and say that really was a sound he couldn’t grow tired of. Sadly, that was a sound of some kind of love. He glanced up at the crowd that seemed to have quickly gathered by the railing overhead and waved, before turning his attention back to the people who were so nicely hosting this special screening.

He talked to them for another five minutes or so while the fans were being lead into the room, after which both him and Jen walked up. Right as he went to open the door to walk in, a woman who was probably about six inches shorter than him opened the door and quite literally walked into him.

“Oh my gosh, I am so very sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t hit you with the door, did I?”

“No, you just ran into me, so no harm.”

“Well, thank goodness for that. I really am sorry.”

“Don’t worry; it doesn’t happen often so I won’t sue.” Now, that was rather unlike AJ to crack jokes with people he didn’t know, but sometimes, there are people you just feel comfortable with, and this one lady seemed to do that.

“Well I appreciate that, Alex, it means a lot.” She returned his smile and he actually didn’t take offense to her using Alex, when usually he would.

“Well, incase I have to, do I get a name?”

“Oh, it’s Kris! And might I say, I’m so proud of you guys for making this. You guys have such an amazing story and it’s about time it came out.”

“Thank you. Been a fan awhile?” But Jen stepped up and lightly pushed AJ.

“You gotta go in.”

“See you inside.” AJ smiled at her and walked into the theater, looking around at the crowd. He leaned against the wall, waiting to talk and was quite surprised to see her walk in during the middle of the directors speech and sit right before him, next to her friend. Why she would make any kind of impact on him was quite strange. How many fans had he met over the years? And yet, he couldn’t begin to describe why she did, she just did, didn’t feel like a normal fan to him.

-----

~BSB Cruise 2014~

Howie almost groaned as he got his plate of food and went to go sit down, the fans quickly finding him. Oh, he really didn’t mind stopping to talk to them or to take pictures, but did they really have to take them while he was eating? Just a few moments of peace would be so very nice. He looked around him and then looked back at the fans, almost running into a chair, but caught himself in time and was able to avoid it. Although, if he wasn’t mistaken, he could have sworn he saw those girls from DLF; God, what was their names? And even one he saw back in Seattle and he talked to her quite a bit? Terri? Rose? He made a face and knew those weren’t it. He was so very horrible with names. And he and his sister were just talking about her too.

But he gave up trying to remember her name as he sat down to eat. He had to save his energy to get through the mob that was already forming. And bless the over seas fans, but that was a lot of the problem, not that he could blame them.


30 minutes later, he shook his head, telling security he couldn’t take anymore and stood up to leave, the guards standing up as well. And as he turned to go, he was stopped by a few of the fans and he was the kind one to take them. And soon security had formed a pathway to get through the crowd, which of course, went right by their table. As he walked by, the taller one smiled and waved, which he returned back. He glanced at the other lady and smiled as she did.

“Hey Resa, it’s good to see you.” And with that comment, he went on walking by, actually loving the shocked expression that was on her face.

Chapter 3

She stared after him for a moment, kinda ignoring the fans who seemed to be glaring at her and than finally turned and looked at her friend.

“Amber, you know he sucks at remembering names!” Amber did nothing but shrug and smirk.

“Come on G, we gotta go hunt down the other ladies.” They both stood up, quickly glancing around. It seemed only those who had been crowding around Howie had heard anything, but again, by the glare, it was enough. Although, as she stood there and thought about it, Resa really couldn’t help but beam at the fact that he called her by name. Maybe, it wouldn’t be such a bad cruise after all.


They walked over to their friend’s cabin, seeing their door open and grinned, giving them hugs.

“Took you all long enough?”

“Sorry Su, but we were up on the Lido deck.”

“Where Howie walked right by our table, smiled at me but talked to Resa here, which totally shocked her.”

“Oh, she’s become someone important,” Su said, lightly bumping her shoulder.

“Stop, he just…got lucky. You all know that man can not remember names!”

“True. But G, you know that was not luck.” Resa rolled her eyes at Amber. Howie really took a stab; he just couldn’t have remembered. She has seen him how many times and he never called her by her name, or nick name; just sweetie, or sweetheart or depending on how many drinks, love; although, that was only once. So, this time had to be a fluke, really, she couldn’t believe that he would remember.

“Okay, stop bugging her, let’s go up on the deck; this chick need a drink and badly,” Janet, who was Su’s roommate, said as she stood up. This group of girls had been friends for many years, thanks to that one Backstreet Boy known as Howie.

“Amber here needs to lay off the drinks, or she will be passed out before the boat even leaves the dock.”

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Resa walked around the few floors, kinda groaning at the fact that the sail away party was inside. What was a little rain and wind? She leaned against the wall, her friend currently up a few levels and had left her alone. Of course, this was the main entrance, if you will, to the stair well, so if there was ever a spot to take a picture with one of the guys, this was really it. Although, the party was in full swing and none of the guys had left yet, which made her kinda pout. And of course her annoyance level was shooting through the roof, thanks to all the fans who kept pushing and shoving. Lord was she tempted just to leave for she really had no idea how long she was gonna be able to keep this up.

And right as she was about to turn to walk away, Howie walked out and waved to the crowd, which caused all those girls to surge forward. She groaned as she got pushed with the crowd, causing her to end up right in front. Howie walked by but then stopped and turned to look at her.

“Hey sweetie, quick picture?”

“Oh..,yeah.” She grabbed her phone and handed it to him, smiling as he took it and snapped the pic, giving her a little side hug before waving to the fans again and jumping in the elevator to go up to another floor.

These little things she was not used to. Oh, sure, he would wave to her, or wink, sorta single her out, but to go out of his way like that, that never happened.

She shook her head and tired to shove her way back through the crowd, wanting nothing more than to really call her best friend and explain everything, but she wasn’t on this boat.

Well, so far, she really had been blown away twice, and really, the boat was just leaving the dock. She looked at her phone and smiled as she saw the picture, always loving the glow she saw in his eyes; although a few people told her she was strange, that she was seeing things because he wasn’t always like that.

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2 hours later, after the party had stopped, and after the rain had ceased, Resa was hanging up on the lido deck, her jacket hugged tight against the wind that seemed to be making the boat rock even more. She closed her eyes, trying her best to fight the queasiness of her stomach. She wasn’t a sea sick person, but when the waves were that bad, she always had issues. She groaned as a rather big wave hit the boat and then almost screamed as someone seemed to run into her. If it was a fan…the thought stopped as she turned around to yell at the person, but couldn’t help but offer the guy a smile.

“I’m sorry, that wave…”

“No worries AJ.” He offered a small smile in return
“Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Minus the waves, yes.” He nodded, grabbed the smokes out of his pocket.

“Excuse me.”

“Go ahead.” She waved her hand and was about to turn around when he looked up at her.

“Weren’t you in LA for the movie screening?”

“I was, why?” She wrinkled her brows, rather confused by the question.

“You had a friend….”

“Kristal. What about her?” AJ looked around; making sure no fans had spotted him yet.

“Is she on Twitter or something?”

“Yeah, some times.” She crossed her arms, becoming all the more confused by this whole conversation. “If you want the name,” she took out her phone and he grabbed it, snapping a picture,” it’s alota_cookin.”

“Thank you.” He offered her a real smile and then went to finish his cigarette; glad he had service on the boat.

-----
She felt her phone vibrate, wondering who in the world would be sending her a message. Her best friend was on a boat, her boss was working with her, and no one else really texted her. Maybe it was Twitter and all the guys tweeting about the boat. She rolled her eyes at the thought, not wanting to read about all the fun times she was missing because she couldn’t get out of work.

20 minutes later, she finally pulled the phone out of her pocket and read the message that was from Twitter. She screamed and dropped the phone on the desk, her mind really playing tricks on her.

“Kris, are you okay?” her boss asked as she ran into the room.

“Beth, what does that message say?” Beth rolled her eyes, thinking Kris had freaked out about a spider or something, not a damn message.

“It says Skulleroz is now following you on Twitter. Who is that?” Kris took her phone back and sighed.

“Skulleroz is AJ!”

Chapter 4

Kris rushed home and looked through the many papers that were covering her kitchen counter. Some where, there was a phone number to call Resa’s cabin, and she had to ask Resa, because nothing else was making sense. Why would AJ randomly follow her? Hell, he wasn’t even on much, so that was even odder. But she knew that Resa, some how, some way, had a hand in this.

She smiled as she found it and than grabbed her cell and dialed all the information she could, knowing this very well could be a very expensive phone call, but she could not wait while this three day cruise went on and got no answers; that would drive her more than insane.

“Hello?”

“Resa?”

“Kristal? What the hell? Is everything okay? Is my mom okay?”

“Yes, everyone is fine. I had to talk to you.”

“What could be so important that you had to make this call?”

“Did you talk to AJ?” Kristal crossed her arms, picturing what her best friend was doing; which was probably leaning against a wall, wrapping the cord around her finger, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Oh, I might have. Why? Did something happen?”

“Theresa! You know damn well something happened.”

“Kris, he literally ran into me and then started talking to me and asked if you were on Twitter or something. And you know when you face any of those guys, it’s impossible to lie, so I gave him your name. If you have questions about why he did what he did, maybe you should DM him? I think he might answer. But I gotta go, love you!”

“But…” Kris groaned as Theresa hung up and sat her cell down. Sure, she could tweet…okay DM AJ, but he still wouldn’t respond. But, then again, he was to have some kind of plan, since he got on the next to follow her anyway.

She picked her phone up, looking at the notification and than sighed and sent him a direct message on Twitter, thanking him for the follow but was there any reason why he did it and than hit send. She sat her phone back down, not expecting any kind of response; after all, he was on a boat, working hard to impress those screaming females.

She started to walk back to her room when her phone went off. She stopped and slowly turned around, almost hyperventilating as she saw it was a notification from Twitter. She clicked the message open, letting out a breath as she saw it was just the Boys talking about the cruise. As she was about to set it down, it went off again. She checked it, frowning as it was from Twitter again and than shrieked as it was a DM from AJ.

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AJ laughed as he sat down on a bench outside, a few security guards around him as he smoked his cigarette and read the DM. He didn’t follow many fans on Twitter, and he certainly wasn’t on it, so very few people messaged him. So he knew who it was before he even opened it. He read the message than took a drag, thinking about to word this.

He really couldn’t explain why he wanted to talk to her some, and he knew that if he told her he just wished to talk, she would freak. Most fans freak when you show any sign of recognition. But, if you keep going to shows and VIPs, you start to see the same faces, so really, it wasn’t so impossible to say hi. Knowing them by name was a very different story, though.

He took another hit and then hit the message and replied, smiling as he started to text a simple kind of response that he wanted to say hi and figured that by following her, he would be able to do it hassle free.

He sent that and finished his cigarette. Both Nick and Kevin told him that it was odd for any fan to click with any of them. But Brian and Howie said differently, both of them, along with their families, were closer to some fans. See, it was possible, just rather unlikely.

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They walked into the dinning room, knowing they couldn’t avoid the fans all the time; hell even going to the bathroom wasn’t possible. Brian walked in the front of the group, the waiter taking them back by their table, of course, passing fans along the way. They smiled and waved but didn’t stop to take pictures or anything.

But LeighAnne stopped as she saw a fan she knew and dashed over to hug actually all the girls around the table, which caused Brian to follow. Howie looked at AJ and rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly and then kept walking. But AJ stopped him and pointed to the table.

“Isn’t that the chick you know?” Howie wrinkled his brows and looked at the table again and nodded.

“That is. Her name is Theresa.”

“From your DLF days? She wasn’t crazy?”

“Shockingly, no. She actually stood up for the family a lot. Why?”

“When we take the group pictures later, nudge me. I need to thank her.” Howie glanced at AJ, but by the look in AJ’s eyes, AJ was not going to explain more.