Chapter One


The flight was much anticipated. She couldn’t believe her luck. Her hard work and devotion
finally was about to pay off. She sat in the first class section of the airplane just awaiting the
wonderful opportunity that was to come. She suddenly felt very sad, because she had no one
to share this exciting time with. Here she was, going to Brussels, opening up for some kind
of boy band named the Backstreet Boys, whom are in the second leg of their tour. She hadn’t
met any of them yet. She hadn’t even heard of them before when Donna Wright, her manager,
told her that she was to replace the existing opening act. Something about one of the guys
got the flu or something like that. Donna wasn’t out there or anything. She was alone.

She stepped off of the flight and looked for the baggage claim. She was offered help from
several of these European guys, but she politely declined and thanked them for their
offering. She got all three of her suitcases finally. Thank god her mom had thought of buying
the kind that all fit together. She snapped them all into place and proceeded to wheel her
and her luggage out of the terminal and into the pick up area.

“Lori? Lori Hissom?” A huge black man asked her once she stepped out of the exit doors.

“Yeah. That’s me,” she replied. “Are you here to take me to the hotel?”

“Yes, ma’am. My name is Marcus.” He stuck out his hand and she shook it. Nice grip. “I’m
actually one of the body guards that go on tour with the guys. Just follow me to the car.” He
took her luggage and she followed after him.

“Oh wow. So, they must be pretty famous if they need bodyguards, huh?” Lori asked. The
entire plane ride she wondered what these guys were like.

“They are pretty popular with the ladies over here,” Marcus replied with a laugh.

“With the ladies?” Lori asked. She wondered why they needed huge big tall guys to protect
them from a bunch of girls.

The hotel was pretty nice. She had never been in one so extravagant before. It wasn’t the
Hilton or anything but still nice. According to Marcus, she had the rest of the night to herself.
Then, in the morning she had to go do sound check for the concert later that night.

She took a long hot shower and changed into her pajamas. She then proceeded to call her
mom to let her know that she arrived safely and that she was settled in the hotel. She
watched the TV and then decided to just go to sleep. The jet lag was getting to her finally
anyway.


The next morning, Lori was woken up by a knock on her door. She opened the door and
Marcus stood there with a schedule in hand. “Lori, you will have to be ready in a couple of
hours. We have to be at the venue at eleven o’clock.”

“Thanks Marcus. Oh hey, Marcus, um, do you know if I will meet any of the guys today?” Lori
asked. She was really anxious to meet these people that she was going to be spending the
next five months with.

“Yeah, I’m sure you will meet them at some point today. I’m sure Kevin will be at rehearsals
early. He always is there at least an hour before everyone else,” the big man replied as he
walked down the hallway.

Lori quickly closed her door and jumped into the shower. She changed into her pink warm up
outfit and proceeded to head down to the hotel restaurant to get something to eat.


She walked onto the stage. She had never seen an amphitheater as big as this one was. She
had performed in front of a substantial amount of people before, but not this many people.

From what she could gather from Marcus, she was going to have just about 50,000 screaming
girls of all ages sitting in each and every one of these seats. She suddenly felt very nautious
looking out there. She just wanted to run and hide and maybe try it again some other time.

Then, as she was just about to turn around and run for her life, they started playing the music
for her first song of her set. Damn! It was too late by then.

It got easier as she sang the next three songs of her set. By the third song she felt like she
could do another hour’s worth of songs, but unfortunately, her time was up. She ran off of
the stage and went to her dressing room where the wardrobe personnel were waiting to get
her into her clothes for the night. As she dressed and undressed, she learned that the
Backstreet Boys weren’t doing a sound check until after the lunch break.

She was disappointed, but she figured that she had five months to meet at least one of them.
She was desperate to make friends. She had never been the type of person to not have
friends around her constantly.

She got dressed back into her warm up suit and decided to take a look around and find some
sort of food. She had heard that there were caterers around somewhere. So, she decided to
go find them. Food always motivated her.

It only took her ten minutes to follow her nose and find the food. There was a spread the size
of Florida it seemed. She was in heaven. She got in line behind some guys and waited for her
turn to tear into the buffet.

By the end of the buffet, her plate was so full she didn’t know if she could carry it to a seat
without spilling it. She probably should have gotten another plate, but of course she wouldn’t
think about that kind of stuff. She got to one of the tables, where a tall dark haired guy had
waved her over there to join him. He was pretty cute, so she decided to go for it. He helped
her set her stuff down, so she didn’t spill anything.

“Eat much?” he asked with a laugh.

“Of course not,” Lori replied. “I eat when I am nervous.” She took a bite out of the macaroni
salad that was one of the many piles on her plate. “Oh, this is fantastic!”

“I’m Kevin,” he said, reaching his arm across the table. Lori shook it and covered up her
mouth until she swallowed the food.

“Lori. Nice to meet ya.”

“I saw your rehearsal earlier. You seemed a bit nervous at first but then you really did well,”
Kevin said.

“Oh, thank you. I was very nervous. I was going to run off stage, but then they started playing
my music and I figured what the hell?” Lori said with a laugh. “What do you do around here?
There are so many people I won’t know how to keep track of everyone.”

“Oh, I’m in the Backstreet Boys,” Kevin replied. “I’m sorry. I just assumed that you knew who
we are.”

“Oh no. Actually I have never seen you guys before. Sorry,” Lori apologized.

“No, it’s cool. Don’t worry about it. You sticking around for our set?” Kevin asked as a couple
more guys sat down at the table.

“Um, yeah, I am very interested to see what you guys can do,” Lori said. “I figured you guys
must be amazing to be so popular with the ladies over here.” She smiled at Kevin.

“Kevin, quit flirting with her and introduce me,” the tall blonde haired one who sat at Kevin’s
left said.

Kevin rolled his eyes and said, “Lori, this is Nick. Nick, this is Lori. She’s the one who
replaced EYC for this leg of the tour.”

“Oh, hey. Have you done your set yet?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, just got through with it right before lunch,” she replied smiling.

“Oh, I’m sorry I missed it,” Nick said. “I’ll have to see it sometime.” He flashed the greatest
smile that Lori had ever seen before.

“You’ll see it tonight, retard,” the little man sitting next to Nick said.

Lori laughed and caught the attention of this guy. “I’m Lori. How are you?”

“Great. Brian. I have to apologize for Nick. He’s a little slow sometimes. I think it was because
he got dropped on his head when he was little and then there was the getting run over by a
bus incident…”

“Shut-up Brian. That was Jay by the way. Wait a minute, where is AJ?” Nick asked his
bandmates. “Cause, there’s Howie over there and no AJ at all in here.”

“He’s always late,” Kevin muttered. “You guys know that. You’ve known each other for four
years now, I would think you would have figured it out.”

“Kevin, you have older brother syndrome real bad,” Lori replied.

“I know. I feel like I’m forty, not twenty-six,” he replied.

After a couple of minutes, Lori felt like someone was staring at her. She quickly looked up
and saw a guy with sunglasses on standing at the door a few feet from the table. She looked
back down and continued to eat and chitchat with her new friends.

As soon as they were getting up to leave the room, the same guy came walking up to the
table. “AJ, where have you been? You were supposed to be here an hour ago,” Kevin
started in on him big time.

“Hey, chill out. I’m here now okay?” AJ said. He raised his sunglasses and looked at Lori. “I
know you.”

Lori looked at him a moment and then it clicked. “Oh my god. You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Chapter 2

“What are you doing here?” Lori asked. “I thought that I was home free once I moved to
North Carolina and sure enough here you are!”

“It’s nice to see that there are no hard feelings anymore,” AJ said with a hint of sarcasm in his
voice. He took off his sunglasses and stuck out his arms to hug her.

She stood there looking at him. “I wouldn’t touch you if you were the last man on the Earth! I’
m out of here. Thanks you guys for a great lunch.” She turned and started to walk away. “Oh
and Alex, stay as far away from me as possible.” With that, she walked out of the room and
disappeared until the beginning of the concert.

The guys were bugging him all night about what the scene was during lunch. AJ didn’t want to
talk about it at all. He couldn’t believe that she was still bitter about everything. “Mom, she’s
still really mad at me. She totally flipped out today when she saw me. I was shocked as hell to
see her and I kind of liked the fact that she was on tour with us, but now I think this is a bad
idea.”

“Lori is a good person. She will deal with this situation the best way she can. She’s probably
just lashing out at the fact that you were standing in front of her after seven years.” Denise
put one hand on her son’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t let it worry you too much.
Things will get better eventually.” With that, she left the room.

Tears were streaming down Lori’s face as she looked into the mirror. She just finished her set
onstage. She thought the performance went well, but that wasn’t what was bothering her.
She couldn’t believe that AJ was Alex. How lucky could she be, right.

She just wanted to go to bed and not even stay for the concert, but she was informed that she
had to be at the meet and greet after the show to promote her new album that was coming up.
She just fell back onto the couch and fell asleep until someone knocked on her door.

Nick was nervous walking up to her room. He never had acted like this before when it came
to girls. And he had seen lots of them come and go. There was something about Lori that he
liked and he wanted to get to know her a little bit better. He totally did not understand the
reason why she had flipped out on Jay like she did, nor did he understand how they knew
each other. He didn’t get a single answer out of AJ before the show. He figured it must have
been something pretty huge for AJ not to talk about it. AJ blabbed his mouth about
everything, whether it was personal or not.


Lori jumped off of the couch when she thought that she heard something. She was still in her
stage clothes and she wondered what time it was. She heard the knocking again and went to
the door.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Nick asked once she had opened the door. “Were you asleep?”

“Yeah. Shut-up and get in here,” Lori replied as she opened the door wider. “So, I’m
assuming that your part of the show is over.”

“Yeah, it was pretty good. I saw your set. You’re really talented,” Nick said.

“Thanks. I’m glad you liked it. I wasn’t really in the mood for anything at that particular
moment though, so I couldn’t really enjoy myself too much.” Lori went over to the little mini
closet to try to find her clothes to wear to the meet and greet.

“Yeah, look, I just wanted to say that I hope you are feeling better and that you will stay with us
on tour even though you and AJ have bad feelings towards each other,” Nick said.

Lori found what she was looking for and said, “I know. Believe me this is a major career move
and I am not about to let Alex stand in the way. It will not be an issue at all. Like I said to him,
as long as he stays away from me then things will be okay.” She went into the bathroom and
changed into her jeans and tank top. She came out of the bathroom shortly and then went
over to the vanity table where she began to put on her make up for the evening.

“Things will get better, I’m sure,” Nick repeated and then got up and started heading towards
the door. “See ya later, Lori.”

“Thanks, Nick,” Lori said as she got up from the table. She ran over to him and kissed him on
the cheek. “I really appreciate you guys going out of your way to make me feel welcome.
Especially now, since you guys probably think I’m a bitch because of the way I flipped out on
Alex.”

“Nobody thinks you’re a bitch, Lori,” Nick said. “I don’t even think AJ thinks that you are.” He
turned around and walked out of the door.

Lori followed him to the door and watched him walk down the hallway. She smiled to herself
and thought about how nice it was going to be on this tour after all. She was totally feeling
Nick and she thought that he might be feeling her too. So, with Alex thrown into the mix, she
knew it was going to be a very interesting tour.

Chapter 3

Here it was, Lori was on tour already for three months and she and AJ were still not
speaking. No one knew what the problem was between them, but she didn’t really care to
reveal it because she would get even madder at him. She was kind of surprised at herself by
the way she was reacting to his presence. She was usually really laid back about things, but
not when it came to Alex, or AJ as everyone now calls him. What a stupid name, AJ. She didn’
t understand what was wrong with the name Alex.

He had changed a lot since she had seen him. One day, she was feeling a little better about
the whole thing and Nick gave her a CD of theirs for her to listen to. She liked the songs and
had to admit that Alex still sang very nicely. She flipped through the CD booklet and read the
thank you’s. That’s when she got really mad. She read Alex’s and at the very bottom she read
what he said about “MJ”.

She threw the book down and stormed off to the other room and left Nick sitting on the couch
by himself. He knew better than to go console her. He didn’t feel like getting yelled at for
thirty minutes. Plus, he couldn’t bear to see Lori cry anyway. She seemed to be doing a lot of
crying lately. But, then again she would have her days when everything was perfectly fine.
Nick couldn’t understand what the problem was and he was tired of seeing her miserable and
seeing AJ acting all distant towards everyone.

Nick sat there for a minute and could hear Lori crying in the other room. He went to go find
Brian. He knew that together they can get something done about this situation. They were all
pretty stressed about it and it seemed to be affecting AJ and Lori’s performances.

Later that night after the concert, they all got there stuff together and headed outside to the
tour buses. Nick had asked Lori to come ride with them for a change. Lori hesitated, but then
finally gave in to him. She wanted to spend some time with Nick anyway. They were on the
bus for about thirty minutes when Nick said that he would be right back. They were watching
TV in the backroom of the bus. Lori waited for a few minutes and was about to open the door
when all of a sudden someone came into the room and knocked her onto the ground.

She opened her eyes and saw Alex’s face inches from hers. She suddenly got this nauseous
feeling come over her and quickly threw him off of her. “Get off of me! What the hell are you
doing here anyway?”

AJ stood up and went over to the door. “They shoved me in here. Sorry, it was out of my
hands,” he replied pulling on the door handle. “God Damnit! Open!” AJ growled as he pulled
even harder on the handle.

“God, how many brain cells have you lost over the years?” Lori asked. She shoved him out of
the way and tried to open the door.

“It’s locked Lori. Deal with it. I think they are trying to tell us something here,” AJ said sitting
on the couch. “I guess we need to talk.”

“No way. I think you need to shut-up!” Lori banged in the door again and yelled profanities at
the door making sure that everyone on the tour bus could hear them.

“Lori, look you need to stop this,” AJ said getting off of the couch and grabbing Lori’s
shoulder to turn her around.

“You have no right to tell me how I am supposed to feel. You have no right to even speak to
me after what you have done to me.” Lori glared at him and when AJ started to apologize she
said, “Shut-up Alex. I don’t want an apology from you. It’s a little too late for that right now.
Because of you I can’t date anyone.”

“What?” AJ asked out of surprise. He backed up a couple of steps. “What are you talking
about? You mean to tell me that you haven’t dated anyone in the past seven years? That’s
crazy!”

“Fuck you, Alex. I can’t trust anyone. After what you did to me, I can’t fall in love anymore. I
can’t forget about everything. And I am extremely bitter because of it. I never expected to
see you again. And I wish it was that way right now, but I’ll be damned if I leave this tour and
jeopardize my career just because you are here.”

“Lori, I was thirteen! What do you expect me to do? How did you even know what love was?
You were eleven years old. You were no better than me,” he replied. He looked at her. He
could just see the rage in her eyes. He knew he screwed up.

Lori looked at him for a second and tried to rationalize with herself about why he had said
what he had said. That was a losing battle and Lori just basically gave up on it and did the
most natural thing that she could do. She pulled her right arm back and hit him the hardest
that she could. Score! Right in the mouth.

AJ looked up at her from the couch. He managed to stumble to the couch before falling on
the floor. He couldn’t believe that she did that. He felt the side of his face and realized that
his lip was busted open. He knew that he would not let this one down with the rest of the
guys.

“So, you call a year of my life was wasted! You call my virginity being taken wasted?” Lori
screamed.

“Lori, no. That’s not what I meant at all! I loved you, I did.” He walked over to her and took
her hands. He was a little afraid that she might retaliate on him once more, but decided to
take the chance. “It was just a different kind of love. I just never thought that it would affect
you this way.”

Lori fell into his arms and cried her ass off. “Alex, I have been so closed up inside for all of
these years. I don’t know if I will ever let go of it entirely.”

“It’s okay, sweetie. You won’t be alone this time. I promise you, we will work through this
together. You and me, baby.” Alex stroked her hair and comforted her.

“And me,” Nick said coming into the room. “I’ll take care of her.”

AJ looked up at him with this puzzled look. “You stay away from her Nick. She’s mine.”

Chapter 4

“Excuse me,” Lori said as she lifted her head off of AJ’s shoulder. “Wait a minute.”

“Lori, look, it’s our problem not everyone else’s,” AJ replied. “I mean, no offense Nick, but
there is no reason why you should even get involved.”

“Well, I’m involved with Lori, so therefore what goes on in her life affects me too,” Nick said.

“He’s right, Alex,” Lori said stepping away from AJ. She walked over to Nick and he put his
arm around her and they left the back room. “Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

“Well, that’s no problem,” Nick said.

“Oh and Nick,” Lori started. “Um, about this whole us involved thing, um, I don’t think I’m
ready for it yet because of obvious circumstances.”

“Oh okay, I mean, just take your time, it’s cool.” Nick gave her the famous Carter smile and
gave her a hug.

Lori hardly talked to AJ at all over the next couple of months. Every time he went to say
something to her she found a reason to leave the room. She managed to avoid him for
awhile until Christmas.

Lori and the rest of the Boys spent their Christmas Eve in a hotel room in Amsterdam. She
thought that it was kind of sad because she was extremely homesick and wanted to see her
parents.

She was in her room getting ready to go over to Brian and Nick’s room when there was a
knock on her door. She was actually happy because of the fact that she wasn’t spending
Christmas alone. She was donning a cute little Santa Clause outfit. A little red dress with
white fur around the hem of it and around the sleeves of it. She knew that she was going to
get teased for it by the guys but then again she didn’t care and this was how she was
celebrating Christmas.

She went over to the door and opened it. AJ had a rose in one hand and a present in the
other. “Don’t even try to kiss my ass, Alex. I’m still mad at you.” She walked away from the
door and he followed her inside the room.

“I’m not kissing your ass, Lori. I just wanted to say Merry Christmas,” AJ said handing her the
present and rose.

She looked at him suspiciously and then decided to just go ahead and take the present and
the rose. “Thank you Alex. I didn’t know that you were going to get me anything or else I
would have gotten you something.”
“I don’t need anything.” Alex replied. “So, you want to open now or tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow of course,” Lori said putting the present and the rose on the dresser. “Let’s go
to Nick and Brian’s room.” As they proceeded to walk out of the door into the hallway, they
found themselves underneath the mistle toe. “Hey, can’t break tradition.”

“I guess you’re right, but um, just don’t tell anyone.” AJ said.

“Okay,” Lori replied. AJ put his arms around her and kissed her.

“Wow,” Lori said after the kiss was over. “Talk about memories.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” AJ replied. “That’s it though. Nothing can come of it.”

“Alex, Nick and I are starting something, so I definitely don’t want to jeopardize it,” Lori
replied. She found it a little strange how he was being so defensive about the whole thing.
Then again she had that tingling in my stomach. A hint of how she felt in the past. She just
smiled at Alex and walked into Nick and Brian’s room.


The plane ride back to the US was crazy. It was a huge mess because it was hard trying to
get everyone ready to get on the plane. Brian and Nick disappeared for awhile and Lori had
to hunt them down. And for some reason people were coming to Lori like she knew where
Nick and Brian were. It was really annoying to her all morning. They were leaving Paris to go
to Orlando so there were a lot of people on the plane.

Lori was looking out of the window at the clouds below them when all of a sudden she felt
someone tap her shoulder. She turned to find Brian had taken Nick’s seat while Nick was
somewhere else.

“Hey, Brian,” she said. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” Brian said. “I get really nervous on planes and AJ’s asleep, so I figured I would
come bother you for awhile.”

“That’s fine with me. Where’s Nick anyway?” Lori asked.

“Have no clue,” Brian replied. “He might be over there bothering Howie and Kevin. They
are trying to write songs and Nick has to be in the middle of it like always.”

“Have you been writing anything lately?” Lori asked. She always wished she was that
talented. She had tried writing songs and they all turned out to be disasters.

“A little, but I can’t really do much while we are on tour,” Brian said. “So, was the tour okay
for you?”

“Oh yeah,” Lori replied. “I love it. It’s a lot of hard work though.”

“Yeah,” Brian said. “I agree.”

“You guys have a great stage show and I am truly honored to be a part of such a wonderful
production. I swear that it was destiny that brought me to you guys. I feel like I have known
you all forever.” Lori looked down at the book Brian was holding for a second before
returning her gaze to Brian’s face.

“We all feel the same about you, Lori. You’re family now. You’re stuck with all of us whether
you like it or not,” Brian finished.

“Are you crazy?!” They heard a voice from a couple of rows ahead of them. “Oh please, I’ve
had better sex on a roll of hay in a barn!” This female was screaming at someone and Lori
and Brian started laughing uncontrollably.

Then, suddenly, a face appeared from where the voice had been coming from. She was tall
and had long dark auburn hair. She was dressed in a business suit. “What are you guys
laughing at?”

Before Lori could speak, she saw this girl’s expression turn from anger to complete shock
and then to nervousness. She quickly turned around in her seat. Lori looked at Brian to ask
him what she thought she saw, but could see that Brian had the same exact look on his face.

“Brian, you and her have the same look on your faces. What’s going on? Do you know
her?” Lori asked.

All Brian could say was, “I got to find Kevin. He won’t believe this one.”

Chapter 5

Jennifer Hart sat in her seat in a panic. She was a nervous wreck and she didn’t know how
to react. “Oh my god. Oh my god.” She kept saying this to herself as she flagged a
stewardess down and ordered a double of vodka. The stewardess asked if she was
alright and Jenn replied that she was fine.

Her double soon came and before the stewardess could ask if she needed anything else,
it was gone. The empty glass was set back onto her tray and the girl proceeded down the
aisle.

“She’s where?” Jenn heard the voice that she was praying that she wouldn’t hear for the
rest of her life. Kevin. Jenn quickly looked for something to hide her face with. She
found a magazine. “That will work.” She thought to herself as she hid her face among the
pages.

“Jenn?” Kevin called as he looked down the aisle. He got out of his seat and walked
towards the row of seats that Brian pointed at. “Jenn, is that you?” All he saw when he
got to the seats was a magazine of Jennifer Lopez.

“No, Jenn here, sir.” Kevin heard a strange sounding European voice come from behind
the magazine. “The only Jenn is this one.” She pointed to the front cover of the magazine.

“Jenn, come on. I know it’s you. You still have that southern drawl to ya and you can’t
hide it.” Kevin grabbed the magazine and tore it from her hands.

All of a sudden, Jenn felt naked and vulnerable. “You can’t just take stuff from people!
Quit hassling me! Stewardess!” She stood up and pushed the help button.

“I need some assistance in removing this man from my seat. He has been doing nothing
but hassling me this whole plane ride and I can’t stand it anymore.” Jenn exclaimed to the
lady.

All Kevin could hear were Lori, Brian, Nick, Howie, and AJ laughing their asses off. He
looked back at them and gave them an evil look and in the process he saw everyone in the
first class section looking at him either with disgust or bewilderment. “I’ll go to my seat
and stay there. I’m sorry about the misunderstanding, Miss. My apologies.” He walked
back to his seat.

Jenn just stared at him as he walked back to his seat. “Is everything okay now or should I
have him removed once we land?” the stewardess asked her.

“It’s alright. I don’t think he will be any trouble from now on. Thank you though,” Jenn
gave her a smile and sat back down and ordered some brandy.

Once the plane landed, Lori decided that she was going to go talk to this Jenn girl. She
didn’t really know what to say, but she was going to try to make things better between her
and Kevin again.

She watched Jenn walk out of the terminal towards the pick up area. “Hey, I’m Lori. Look, I’
m really sorry about how my friends and I were laughing at you. No hard feelings I hope.”

“You’re okay. I just kind of freaked out about something,” she replied. A black limo pulled
up to meet her and the driver went around the car and opened up the door for her. “It was
nice meeting you, Lori.”

“Hey, Jenn, um, look, I would love to have a friend around here and I was hoping that you
would maybe want to come to a party we are having in a couple of days,” Lori said before
Jenn could close the car door.

“Um, when is it?” Jenn asked.

“Oh, on the ninth, it’s one of our friend’s birthday. Here’s a card with my cell number on it.
Please call me and let me know something,” Lori said handing Jenn the card.

“Will do. I will see if I have any meetings or anything for the following day. Talk to you
later,” Jenn said. The driver closed her door and walked around the car and got in.

Lori ran back over to the baggage claim and then grabbed all three of her suitcases from
Nick. “What do you put in these things?” he asked her.

“Shut-up, Nick,” Lori said with a smile. She turned to Kevin and said, “I invited Jenn to
come to the party and now it’s your turn to convince her to come.” She gave him a smile
and walked away with Nick.


Lori was so excited. She had managed to get her parents to fly down to Orlando, so she
didn’t have to fly up to Charlotte and back down to Orlando in a matter of days. Lori was
going to stay in a hotel, but Denise insisted on her staying with them until she could get an
apartment of her own.

So, Lori lugged all of her stuff into Alex’s old room and found it quite ironic that after all of
these years she still ended up somewhat a part of the McLean family. She smiled to
herself and unpacked her suitcases.

Nick called her and made plans with her the day of the party. She had no idea what to
wear, but it wasn’t going to be too big of a deal because she knew all of the people that
were going to be there. She never got anything out of Alex whether or not if any of their
old friends were going to be there. He just said that it was going to be a small gathering of
people, but when it came to Alex, there was no such thing as a small gathering.

Lori felt really stupid showing up at Alex’s house by herself. She was going to ring the
door bell, but decided against it. She just opened the door and walked in. She had found
the red dress that she packed for an occasion just like this one and was dying to wear it.

Nick wasn’t going to be there until a little later. He had to do something with his family and
wasn’t going to be able to get there until after ten. She didn’t feel too lonely because by
some miracle, Jenn decided to come to the party after all. Lori thought that maybe Kevin
tracked her down and went for a little visit.

She spotted Brian over by the pool talking to a couple of females. He was being charming
as usual. “Hey, Lori, what’s up?” he asked her. “This is Kim and Tiffany.”

“Hey, I’m Lori,” Lori said. She shook their hands and they mentioned something about how
they had to go powder their noses or whatever. They didn’t seem too brainy to her.

“Um, quick question,” Lori stated.

“Quick answer,” Brian replied with a smile.

“Samantha?” she asked.

“History,” Brian replied.

“Good for you,” Lori said putting her arm around Brian. “Wanna dance?”

“Love to,” Brian replied. They danced to the slow song that was playing over the speakers.

“Brian, how did Kevin convince Jenn to come tonight?” Lori asked. She was very curious
to know.

“By the grace of God, I suppose,” Brian replied.

“So, Brian, why did you have that sick look on your face when you saw Jenn on the
plane?” Lori asked him. All of a sudden she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Can I cut in?” Lori turned around and stared into the face of Alex. She couldn’t really feel
too partial either way. Who she really wanted to dance with was Nick, but since he wasn’t
there at the moment Brian seemed like the perfect substitute.

“Well, I guess so if Lori wants to dance with you,” Brian said looking at me. No one really
knew that Lori and Alex were halfway decently getting along. All they knew was that shortly
after they locked them in the room together, Lori walked out looking extremely pissed off
and Alex came out with a busted lip.

“I guess it’s okay,” Lori replied. “Thanks Brian.”

“No problem. See you guys later.” He walked off and flagged down Kevin and Jenn who
had just walked outside from the house into the backyard.

“So, are you over Nick now?” Alex asked her.

“What are you talking about?” Lori asked him.

“You and Brian seemed awfully comfy dancing together and I could tell that he didn’t want
to stop dancing with you,” Alex said. He guided them over to a remote area of the
backyard.

“Excuse me?” Lori asked. “Alex, I did not come here to get all pissed off at you!” She
turned and walked down the backyard towards the docks.

“Lori, you can’t blame me for being a little bit jealous,” Alex exclaimed.

“Whatever, Alex,” Lori replied. “This is just a game to you. Some weird game and I really
don’t want any part of.”

“Lori, I love you. I always have and I always will,” Alex said.

“Why should I believe you? You didn’t even have the decency to give me a call to say that
you have found someone else. Right? I mean I didn’t have to come here tonight because
I knew that Marissa would be here with you tonight. Like I really want to go through that
humiliation to be nice to her and her knowing that she took you away from me,” Lori said.

“Lori, I’m really happy that you came tonight. I don’t care if Marissa is here or not. I love
you and I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t love you,” Alex said. He took her head in his hands
and gave her the most passionate kiss of her life. Despite what she thought in her head,
her heart was telling her to go with it and let him take control of her.

Then something interrupted that moment. Lori broke away from the kiss and looked right
into the angry face of Nick. Before she could say anything though, she heard a splash
over by the docks and screaming.

Chapter 6

Lori ran over to the docks leaving Nick and AJ arguing. She didn’t even want to be over there
when that discussion was over. She ran out onto the docks and said, “Hello? Anyone there?”

“We’re fine!” Lori squinted her eyes and noticed that Jenn and Kevin were the ones in the
water. They struggled to swim over to the docks and Lori helped them out of the water.

“You guys! You could have drowned!” Lori said laughing at the same time she was trying to
sound concerned. “What’s wrong with you guys?”

“We’re drunk,” Kevin said putting his arm around Jenn.

“I can see that,” Lori replied crossing her arms. “Let me help you guys to a bedroom. I think it’s
bedtime for both of you.” She started walking up to the house with them, when Nick stands in
front of her stopping her from continuing.

Lori saw AJ start walking with Jenn and Kevin up to the house. “Nick, I can totally explain what
you saw,” she started.

“Look, AJ already told me everything,” Nick said. “Look, I understand because you and AJ have
a past and I guess I was wrong in assuming that we might be able to share something.”

“Nick, look, tonight was crazy, but all I thought all night was how I wanted to be dancing with you
and how I wanted to spend time with you, not Alex,” Lori said. “Please give me another chance.”

“Lori, I can’t do it. I’m sorry. You go on with your life and I go on with mine, okay?” Nick replied
turning around. He started walking up to the house.

“Wait, Nick,” Lori said running after him. “I don’t want us to be on bad terms, okay? Can we be
friends?”

“Sure. Sounds good to me,” Nick said giving me that Carter smile and gave me a hug. “I think
that it might be better that way anyway.”

“Me too,” Lori said, putting her arm around him as they walked up to the house together.

Jenn rolled over the next morning and noticed that someone was in the bed with her. Once she
saw who it was she screamed as loud as she could. “Oh my God! What the hell are you doing in
bed with me?” She threw the sheet around her and jumped out of the bed. She grabbed a vase
that was sitting on the nightstand beside the bed and was prepared to use it as a weapon.
Kevin laid there naked on the bed in the sun. Jenn couldn’t help but notice how muscular he
still was. “Damn he looks good. No. No, he’s a prick!” she thought to herself.

“Hey, dumbass! Wake up!” she screamed at him. She poked him with the vase and he finally
started to arouse from dreamland.

“What the hell?” Kevin said. “Where am I and what am I doing in bed with you?”

“Good question, asshole!” Jenn exclaimed. “I just asked that myself.”

“Whoa!” Kevin said. He just noticed that he was naked. He pulled his boxer briefs on and
paced about the room trying to remember any of what went on the night before. All he
remembered was him and Jenn in the limo on the way over to AJ’s house getting into the mini
bar. Everything after that was a blur.

“Where are our clothes?” Jenn asked after she looked around the room.

“I have no clue,” Kevin replied.

“Look, Kevin. I don’t even want to know why we are naked, why we are in bed together, and
where our clothes are. Just do something about it,” Jenn said.

“I’ll go find our clothes. You wait here,” Kevin said heading over to the door. “Put the vase
down, Jesus!” With that he quickly exited the room and went to find someone that would know
where his clothes were.

Kevin walked into the kitchen to find Lori making herself something to eat. “Ooh Kevin. Thank
you for gracing my presence with your body! Grr,” she said wiggling her eyebrows.

“Haha! You shouldn’t even be looking at me! You’re seventeen!” Kevin said trying to hide
himself with a pillow off of the couch.

“Oh please Kevin, I’ve seen a naked man before you, sorry,” Lori said rolling her eyes.
“Besides, who do you think helped you and Jenn take off your wet clothes? AJ sure as hell
wasn’t going to do it.”

“You know where my clothes are?” Kevin asked. “Jenn needs hers too.”

“They’re in the laundry room, if ya can find it,” Lori replied sitting down at the table to eat. As
Kevin exited, AJ entered.

“I’m surprised you’re up so early this morning,” Lori said.

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep a lot,” AJ replied. He looked in the direction that Kevin scrambled off to
and asked, “Was that Kevin running around in his underwear?”

“Yeah, fraid so, Alex,” Lori replied giggling.

“Hey, look, Nick told me that you guys called it quits last night. I feel really awful. I’m really
sorry,” AJ said.

“Um, it’s okay because we decided we would be better off as friends anyway,” she replied
giving him a smile.

“Look, I just hope that you aren’t under the impression that I am just going to leave Marissa
right off the bat, I mean…” AJ started.

“Wait a minute! I don’t want a relationship with you Alex! For the last time!” Lori exclaimed. “I
swear you are so fucking weird! Go ahead and continue fucking Marissa and leave me the fuck
alone, already! God!!” Lori went to the front door and left the house. AJ watched her go.

Chapter 7

Lori was so sick and tired of walking around on her tip toes when it came to Alex. She just
didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. Lori hated Marissa. She couldn’t think of a
better person to get even with. Especially when Marissa was the one that took Alex from her
anyway. Lori did think about maybe trying to get Alex away from Marissa and have him break
her heart just like he had broken Lori’s, but then she realized that she would be stuck with
him after that. That was never going to happen, if Lori had anything to do with it.

The tour had started again and Lori was excited because she wouldn’t have to deal with Alex
until they came back to Florida. Lori had a bunch of stuff to do anyway. Jenn had set up
some studio time with her producer friend. He was going to help Lori with her album she
was supposed to be working on. She had tried her luck again with writing music, but all she
could come up with was “Kung Fu Dancing Queens.” She looked up at the clock and noticed
that it took her two hours to come up with the most ridiculous song she had ever seen. She
looked down at the floor and could barely see the carpet because of all the balls of paper
everywhere.

“God, I suck!” Lori said. She was in the apartment by herself. Denise was on tour with the
Boys and Lori was so bored. She called Jenn and was hoping that she would be at home.

“Whats up?” Jenn said.

“Nothing. I’m bored and I have been trying to write songs and I really suck at it,” Lori replied.

“Not doing any better at it?” Jenn asked.

“Of course not,” Lori said. “What are you up to today?” She was hoping to get out of the
apartment for the first time in a couple of days.

“Nothing,” Jenn replied. “Why? You want to come over?”

“Um, yeah,” Lori replied. “I’ll be there in ten minutes!” She hung up the phone and jumped
into her new 1998 Saleen Mustang GT. It was in her favorite color too, school bus yellow.
Howie helped her pick it out before they went on their tour.

Lori got to Jenn’s house and rang the doorbell. Jenn answered and looked like she had just
gotten out of bed. “Why are you still looking like that?” Lori asked her as she walked
through the front door.

“Maybe it’s because it’s eight in the morning,” Jenn replied pouring herself a cup of coffee
in the kitchen.

“Oh,” Lori replied. “So, what’s in your agenda until the guys come back?”

“I’ve got to go away for a meeting in a couple of weeks, so is there any way that you can
maybe feed the cat for me or better yet,” Jenn replied. “Maybe you can just stay here until I
get back.” She sat down next to Lori on the couch.

“I don’t know because I’m kind of holding down the fort with Denise being gone and all,” Lori
replied. “I mean, I will if Denise thinks it’s cool, but what am I going to do about Toby?”

“Who?” Jenn asked.

“Toby, it’s a dog,” Lori replied. “Look, Alex and Denise has had this dog forever and he and I
are getting to be good friends again. I can’t bear leaving him there all by himself.”

“Well, he can be here if he stays outside,” Jenn replied. “I mean, the backyard is fenced in
and he should be fine out there.”

“Really? Awesome! I’m going to call Denise then and ask her if that’s okay, then I will let you
know for sure,” Lori replied. “How long are you going to be away?”

“Probably, just a couple of days,” Jenn answered.

“Where ya going?” Lori asked. She was a bit suspicious about what Jenn was going to be
doing. “Back to Paris or what?”

“Um, Paris,” Jenn answered. “You are absolutely right. I have a couple of fellow investors
out there and we are all getting together to look at a piece of property that’s for sale. Real
political stuff, you don’t want to hear about it. So, how are things going with AJ? You guys
are like a damn soap opera.”

“I’m not mad at him anymore, but he’s so damn arrogant! He really gets to me,” Lori replied.
“He thinks he is God’s gift or something. Makes me sick. Why he would think I would ever
consider going back to him after what he did to me is beyond me.”

“I feel the same way about Kevin,” Jenn replied getting up and going to the kitchen to get
more coffee. “Did you want any juice or anything?”

“Oh no. I’m good,” Lori said. “Well, I best be heading off. I’ll let ya know about house sitting
for ya. I’m recording this week, so I probably won’t see ya too much. Take care.”

Jenn lead her to the door and said, “Talk to ya later then.”

Lori worked her ass off for a month or so recording her album. She really liked the producer
guy. He was really talented, and not to mention pretty damn hot. Jenn went to Paris and
came back. Lori ended up staying at Jenn’s house with Toby for the rest of her time in
Florida.

Jenn was off at a meeting when Lori’s cell phone rang. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.” The voice sounded grave and depressed with a hint of fear.

“Nick, what’s wrong?” Lori asked. “Is there something going on with Alex? Tell me!”

“It’s not AJ. It’s Brian,” Nick replied.

Chapter 8

By eight that night, Lori and Jenn both were flying up to Lexington, Kentucky. Lori hadn’t
stopped crying since she had hung up with Nick. Jenn just started panicking and it took Lori
an hour at least to get her under control.

They did not talk on the plane ride. They didn’t talk in the cab to the hotel or in the cab to
the hospital. Neither of them knew what to say. They were just worried about Brian.

They ran into the Emergency Room and didn’t find any Backstreet Boy in there. So, they
went to the admissions and found out that they needed to go to the third floor. They ran into
security and they let them pass through. They pointed to a door that said Private Waiting
Room. Lori opened the door and Jenn followed her in.

“Hey,” Nick said as Lori and Jenn walked in. He hugged Lori and said, “I’m so glad you’re
here.”

“Anytime, Nicky,” Lori replied. “I can’t believe this. What happened?” Jenn walked over
towards the family and gave Jackie Littrell a hug.

“Um, I’m not too sure,” Nick said going over to the couch. Lori sat down next to him. “He’s
having open heart surgery right now though and he should be out by like eleven. That’s all I
got out of it because you know doctors, they talk in big words. I just can’t understand.”

Lori could tell that Nick was terribly upset and she put her arm around him and tried to
comfort him as much as she could. All of what had happened in January was over with they
both had moved on surprisingly well. After four months of being mad at Alex, she was ready
to talk to him as well. Nick hugged her again and he held on for awhile this time.

She looked around for Alex and saw him sitting by himself in the corner. She knew that he
was having a real hard time just because of the fact that he was secluded from everyone
else. Soon, he will have a crying fit and Lori knew that she had to be there and talk him
through it. He would never let anyone else see him like that, with the exception of his
mother.

“Nick, he’ll be okay. You know Brian. He’s been through this before and he’ll get through it
again,” Lori whispered in Nick’s ear. She rubbed his back and he just started to sob. His
body shuddered with every breath he took. Lori couldn’t stand seeing him like this. The
tears flowed down her cheeks and she clenched onto Nick even tighter. She somehow
knew that this would not be the last time that something would bring her and Nick closer in
their friendship. This incident would make them inseperable.

“Nick, I’m going downstairs to get some coffee. Would you like something to drink?” Lori
asked.
“Um, Coke,” Nick replied with a hint of a smile. “Thanks Lori.”

“No problem,” Lori replied. She got off of the couch and spotted Alex walking out of the
room. She ran to catch up with him. “Hey.”

“Oh, so you’re talking to me now?” Alex stared straight ahead and didn’t even look at her
when he said that.

“Alex, look, you know me better than anyone ever will. You need to stop and look at me,”
Lori said. She stopped in the middle of the hallway. AJ stopped and looked at her. “Alex,
you just have to be patient with me. You know a year ago I didn’t ever want to see your face
again and I didn’t care if you lived or died. Now, now I know that if something happened to
you I wouldn’t know what to do. I mean this whole thing with Brian really shows me how
special you are to me and how much I want you in my life.” Lori grabbed both of his hands in
hers.

AJ looked at her. He knew she was being honest, but he couldn’t take it. It was the last
thing that he had wanted. He was perfectly happy with Marissa until Lori showed back up.
Then he had to get jealous about Lori and Nick. He couldn’t ever tell Lori about staging that
kiss so Nick could see it and then break up with Lori because of it. But, he wasn’t supposed
to feel anything after they had kissed at his birthday party. But he did. He still hadn’t came
to terms with it and he wasn’t prepared for it. He caved. He started crying and he couldn’t
say a damn thing. All he could do was fall into her arms.

Lori guided AJ to a couch and held him. Now that she admitted the way she felt, it was like a
huge relief to her. “Alex, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Is this about me or about
Brian?”

“Brian, mostly. But, you too,” AJ’s muffled voice came from her shoulder.

“Look, Alex, why don’t you come downstairs with me and get some fresh air okay? I got to
get Nick a Coke or something, okay?” Lori asked him guiding him from the couch and
towards the elevators. Marcus followed them close behind.


“Jackie, I can’t believe this is happening,” Jennifer said as she handed the older woman a
small cup of coffee. “I mean, I thought Brian had this happen before and it was all fixed.”

“I know Jennifer. I know,” Jackie replied. “I didn’t want my son to go through this again. It’s
so hard on him and the family. We all are really concerned too. The doctors seem confident
though. We all just have to pray for Brian tonight and hope that he has a good night.”

“How long do you think that he will be in Intensive Care?” Jenn asked.

“Well, a couple of days at least. Probably a week,” Jackie said sipping her coffee. “We’ve
been at the hospital since nine this morning. Brian was having a lot of chest pain over the
past couple of weeks and he flew over here to see his doctor yesterday. They said that they
needed to do surgery on him because they detected another murmer.”

“Oh goodness,” Jenn said. “I know he will pull through Jackie.”

“I hope so,” Jackie said. “I haven’t seen you in ages Jennifer. What’s been going on with
you lately?”

“Nothing really,” Jenn replied. “Doing a little investing. I’ve managed to save a lot from
Mom and Dad’s trust fund and then of course I run the business now. Life is okay.” She
smiled pleasantly at Jackie and put down her cup. She looked up and saw Lori and AJ
reenter the room.

“Well, I haven’t heard anything about you ever since you and Kevin called the engagement
off,” Jackie said. “I couldn’t believe that happened right after your parents died. How old
were you guys?”

“I was eighteen and Kevin was twenty when my parents got into that car wreck,” Jenn
replied. She hated talking about it, but she knew that Jackie wanted to get off of the subject
of Brian.

“Well, things are better I see,” Jackie replied patting Jenn on the leg. “How do you know
these gentlemen?”

“Well, I was on the plane with them from Paris in January and Lori and I became friends and
she was on tour with them in Europe I guess. So, I got reacquainted with Kev and Bri and
became friends with the rest of them,” Jenn replied. Jackie smiled and saw the doctor come
through the door. He walked up to her and Jackie reached out and grabbed Jenn’s hand.
The doctor had a grave look on his face and everyone crowded around him to hear what he
had to say.

Chapter 9

“There are some complications with Brian’s surgery,” the doctor started. “We repaired one
hole, but found another one roughly the size of a quarter. So, the operation will be another
couple of hours. And there was an instance where his heart stopped beating and we did
have to resuscitate him, but he is stable now.”

Jennifer and Jackie gasped and Jackie broke into tears. The doctor put his hand on her
shoulder and Jenn said, “Thanks Doctor. We appreciate the update.” The doctor left and
Harold put an arm around his wife. Jenn put her hand on Jackie’s knee and gave it a rub.
She got up and offered her seat to Harry, Brian’s brother, so he could sit next to his mother.
Jenn wiped her tears and walked towards where Kevin was standing.

“Hey, how are ya doing?” Jenn asked putting her hand on his shoulder.

“Not that great,” Kevin replied giving her a faint smile. “How are you holding up? I saw you
talking to Jackie over there.”

“Yeah, I’m doing okay. Just worried about my friend, ya know,” Jenn replied. “Jackie’s not
doing well at all, but I can’t really blame her. I hope Brian pulls through.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure that once Brian is back with us, then there will be some problems,”
Kevin said.

“What are you talking about?” Jenn inquired.

“Well, Lou Pearlman has pushed Brian more and more knowing about Brian’s condition.
Look, Brian was supposed to have this surgery six months ago, but instead Lou wanted to go
to Europe to tour,” Kevin said. He lowered his voice so only Jenn could hear. “This has got
to stop.”

Jenn looked up and saw that the doctor had returned and was talking to Jackie. “He will be
out of surgery and into a room in a matter of thirty minutes. He’s perfectly stable!” Jackie
exclaimed across the room to everyone. Everyone cheered and Jenn saw Lori and AJ walk
in as everyone cheered. Jenn was relieved to finally know that Brian was okay. Now, all she
wanted was to see him.


Lori gave Nick his Coke and gave him a hug when she found out about the news. She was
truly relieved. She apologized to Nick for taking so long and blamed it on AJ. Everyone took
their turns to go see Brian. Lori cried and Nick put an arm around her.

The hotel room was barely lived in. It had been a couple of weeks since Brian’s surgery.
Fortunately, Brian was doing well and recovering. Lori woke up one morning and went with
Howie, Nick and AJ to go say good bye to Brian. They were going to go ahead and fly back
down to Orlando that day. AJ said that Marissa had been bitching about him not being home
and he really didn’t feel like pissing her off even more. Lori had some more stuff to do to
finish up her album and Nick decided to get home to his Mom and Dad.

Now, Lori looked out of the window of the plane and was sort of excited to get home. She
was tired of the hotel room and wanted to sleep in the bed she had been sleeping in for the
past month. She thought about going back home to Charlotte and visiting her Mom and Dad,
but she had to get some stuff done with the album first.

“Lori, thanks for being there for me. I really appreciate it.” Lori looked at Nick and smiled.
She laid her head on his shoulder and went to sleep.

“Lori? Lori?”

She felt her body being shaken. She opened her eyes and saw AJ standing over her. He
looked different. His hair wasn’t a crazy color and he didn’t have his earrings in. He looked
like Alex, her Alex, only older now.

“Alex?” Lori asked. “What happened?”

“You fainted, I think,” he replied. “We were on our way to the church, in the limo and then
you fainted.”

“Church? Did someone die?” Lori asked.

“What?” he asked with a laugh. “It’s our wedding, Lori.”

Lori looked at him in disbelief and looked down at what she was wearing. She was in white.
From head to toe. “Oh my god. I’m marrying you? That can’t be right. You’re with Marissa
and we can’t just get married…”

Lori woke up with a jolt. Nick woke up and looked at her. “Are you okay? You’re sweating
really badly. I’ll get you some water.” He got up out of his seat and went to find some water.

“Lori, are you okay?” AJ poked his head over her seat and touched her shoulder.

“Ahhh!” Lori shrieked. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just leave me alone, Alex. I mean it.” She was
paranoid and he was the last person that she wanted to see at that point.

Nick came back with the water and Lori took a sip of it. “Was it a bad dream?” Nick asked.

“A nightmare,” Lori replied.

The rest of the plane ride was uneventful. Lori didn’t want to go back asleep again. She just
stared out of her window until they had landed at Orlando International. They got off of the
plane and Lori decided to go in a separate taxi to Jenn’s house. She just wanted to be alone
for awhile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the next couple of weeks, Lori had managed to put the finishing touches on her album.
She decided that she wasn’t going to go to Charlotte. She just wanted to relax because she
wasn’t too sure if she was going to go with Jenn and finish up the tour with the Boys.

“Well, I guess I can go with you for the rest of the tour,” Lori replied. She was talking to Jenn
on the phone. “I’m so bored here all by myself I could just scream!”

“Go visit AJ,” Jenn replied. “He probably could use the company. Oh and by the way, BSB
have no management as of right now, so yours truly and Denise are going to be calling the
shots temporarily.”

“Oh, how did you get stuck with that job?” Lori asked. She flipped the channel on the
television and saw it was yet again another infomercial.

“Long story,” Jenn replied. “I am way too tired to even go into it right now. It’s almost two in
the morning. I’m surprised you are still up. Are you done with your album?”

“Oh yeah. This totally sucks! My birthday is tomorrow and I can’t even spend it with anyone
because all of you guys are elsewhere.” Lori turned the TV off and laid her head on her
pillow.

“I’m sorry, Lori. Seriously, why don’t you and AJ hang out? You guys need to work out your
problems if you are going to be on tour together,” Jenn replied.

“Really? Like you and Kev?” Lori asked.

“Exactly like me and Kev,” Jenn replied. “Well, girl, I will let ya go and I will call you soon.”

“Give my love to Brian. Talk at ya laters,” Lori said, and then hung up the phone and placed
it on the receiver on her nightstand. “Nighty night Toby.” She pet the dog that was at her
side and turned her lamp off.

About fifteen minutes after she turned off the light, she thought that she heard a knocking at
the front door. She got up out of bed and crept down the stairs in the dark. She heard the
knocking again and as soon as she reached the front door, she saw a shadowy figure trying
to look into the windows.

Chapter 10

“Alex….” Lori muttered to herself when she looked through the peep hole in the door. She
opened the door and turned the light on. “Alex, what are you doing here? It’s two in the
morning!”

“I didn’t want to be alone,” he replied. He walked through the door way and into the entry hall.

“I know. I’ve been a little stir crazy too being in this house all by myself. Do you want
something to drink?” Lori asked him walking into the kitchen. “I made some sweet tea this
afternoon.”

“Yeah. That sounds great,” AJ replied. When he stepped into the light, Lori could tell that he
had been crying.

“Alex? Is everything okay?” Lori asked as she poured tea into the two glasses. “You look
really upset.”

“Well, it hasn’t been a good day for me,” AJ said. He took the glass that Lori handed to him and
they both went to sit on the couch.

After a few moments of silence, Lori got up and lit some candles on the table. “The lamp is way
too bright for this early in the morning,” she said as she lit them. “So, Alex, what’s up?” She
sat back down on the couch and looked at him. He tried to avoid eye contact with her as much
as he could, but he finally caved in and looked at her.

“I …. Um… Marissa and I broke up today,” he said looking down. “Look, I’m sorry I came here
to spill all of my problems because I know that you don’t want to hear them, especially if its
dealing with her, but I had nowhere else to go. And you know me better than anyone, Lori.”

“Correction, I know Alex. Not AJ. Sorry,” Lori replied. She didn’t want to disregard him like
that, but she had to protect herself because she knew what could happen to her again if she
gave in to comforting him.

“Lori, come on. Don’t be like that,” AJ said. He grabbed her hands and said, “I know that you
aren’t cold like that towards me. We’ve made a lot of improvement in the past year to make
amends and I thought that you had forgiven me.”

“Alex, I can’t do it,” Lori replied. “I can’t just let everything go and forgive and forget. I will
never forget it and that’s what is stopping me from getting close to you. I can’t share anything
with you because you totally disregarded me when I needed you the most.” She took her
hands away and wiped the tear that escaped down her cheek. “Look, I don’t want to talk about
this right now.”

“That’s your problem, Lori. You never want to talk about us,” AJ replied. “Look, I admitted a lot
of things to you and you just shrug it off. And then, in the hospital a couple weeks ago, you
were all about wanting me in your life. I never know when you’re going to turn me away again.
So, I’m not the only one that can’t trust someone’s feelings.”

Lori looked at him. She didn’t say anything for what seemed like an eternity to AJ. Here he
was, actually being as honest as he could with her for the first time ever since she came back
into his life and she didn’t say anything about it.

“What exactly do you want from me, Alex?” Lori asked. “You want someone to listen to you
while you spill your tears about Marissa? You want support from an old friend? Here’s news
for ya Alex. I was only your friend until we had sex, then it became a lot more than that. I was
way too young for that. But I did it anyway because I believed that you would make the right
decision afterwards. And you did. You stayed with me. For two years actually. I loved you.
And I believe that you loved me, but as soon as I left, something changed. I still don’t know
what changed, but I never heard from you until we ended up on the same tour. And now, that I
am one of the inner circle of friends, you want to patch things up with me. It would have meant
a lot more if it had happened four years ago. So, find someone else to make you feel better. I
had no one to help me and you see how long it has taken for me to move on. It still hasn’t
happened yet.” She left the room and went upstairs to her bedroom. She was going to go to
sleep whether he wanted to or not.

AJ blew out the candles and ran up the stairs after Lori. He had to make things right. He knew
that he was the one that screwed up countless times over the past year, but he couldn’t stand
the thought of Lori being so mad at him to the point where she couldn’t stand being in the
same room as him. She really laid into him down in the living room and he knew that he had
deserved it.

He found Lori in her room, moonlight poured in from the window. She was sitting up in her bed,
hugging her knees, wiping the tears that were streaming down her face. She looked up at him
when he entered the room. “I thought that you would have left by now,” she said. She sniffed
and a couple more tears slid down her face. AJ looked around for a tissue and he sat on the
bed next to her. He lifted her face with one hand and wiped it off with the tissue.

No words were exchanged between the two of them. AJ put the tissue on the night stand and
then took Lori’s face in his hands and brought her lips to his. This time it was real. He could
feel it and he knew that she did too. Once he got to unbuttoning her pajama top, he expected
her to pull away, but instead she lifted his shirt over his head and began unbuckling his belt.


They both awoke to the phone ringing the following morning. Lori tried to ignore it, she was
way too happy about being asleep. She felt AJ’s arm lift off of her side. “Hello?” His voice was
raspy from being awoken from sleep.

“Hello? AJ? Is that you?” Jenn asked. “What the hell are you doing there?”

“Um, well, I stayed the night,” AJ replied.

“Alex? Who’s on the phone?” Lori asked rolling over. “Is it Jenn? Is something wrong with
Brian?”

AJ handed the phone over and got out of the bed as Lori talked to Jenn. He suddenly got this
overwhelming sense of guilt as he got dressed. He used her and he knew it. She was going
to kill him. He knew that he had to come up with some reason to leave.

“Jenn, is Brian okay?” Lori asked as soon as AJ handed her the phone.

“Yeah, he’s fine. That’s not the reason why I called you,” Jenn said. “I just wanted to let you
know that Kevin and I got into a car accident.”

Chapter 11

“What?” Lori screamed into the receiver. “Are you hurt?”

“Well, Kevin was driving and I hit my head,” Jenn said.

“On what?” Lori asked.

“The steering wheel.” Jenn was really silent. Lori’s jaw dropped to the ground it seemed.
“Don’t ask.”

“Believe me. I will leave that subject alone,” Lori replied. She knew that what she thought
was true. Jenn and Kevin are at least sleeping together.

“So, why is AJ there?” Jenn asked. She had been dying to know.

“Well, he stayed the night last night because he was lonely at his house. And him and
Marissa broke up yesterday, so I couldn’t turn him away,” Lori replied. “I tried, but it didn’t
work out.”

“At least ya tried, Lori,” Jenn replied laughing. “Why was he in the same bed as you?”

“Why am I getting the third degree about this Jenn?” Lori asked. She really didn’t feel like
talking about it. “Look, I gotta go.”

“Okay, well, I will see you on tour then. I won’t be home at all until we get back in
December,” Jenn replied. “I’ll talk to ya later then. Oh happy birthday. Bye.”

“Right. Bye.” Lori hung up the phone and looked around the room. AJ was nowhere to be
found. “Alex?” Lori got up and put some shorts and a t-shirt on and walked down stairs.
He wasn’t down there either. “Why did he leave?” Lori asked to herself. Suddenly, she felt
very bad. She took advantage of him. She thought that maybe by having sex with him that
she would feel better about herself and it would prove to her that he’s only out for his best
interests. “What did I do?”


Lori was feeling extremely guilty, but she knew that she needed to talk to AJ about what
happened and get everything straightened out. Instead, she took the route of just avoiding
him in every way possible. It was easier that way.

July finally came and everyone went back on tour. The first stop was Charlotte, NC and Lori
was so excited to be back home and to see her parents again. They had made plans to be
down at the Orlando concert on New Years Eve when the Boys got back to town.

Throughout the tour, everything went okay. Kevin and Jenn became a couple officially.
There was love in the air and Lori was missing it more and more everyday. She kept a
watchful eye on Brian. She just thought that it was horrible that after the first couple of
shows, he had to breathe from an oxygen tank. She still managed to avoid AJ. She was
friendly when they were in the same room together but they really didn’t talk to each other
too much. Everyone else thought that they were mad at each other over something like
usual. Lori made Jenn promise not to say anything about the “staying the night” incident.
Lori didn’t want to talk about it either, so Jenn backed off of that topic.

Jenn could tell that her friend was miserable, but there was nothing that she could do. Lori
didn’t breathe a word to anyone about that night with AJ. She knew that that would just
make the situation worse somehow.

“Lori, what’s wrong?” Nick asked. He was really starting to get worried about her. It had
been weeks since the last time he remembered her laughing.

“Nothing, Nick,” Lori said. “I’m just tired. How many times do you need to ask?” That was
Lori’s typical response over the last week and a half. Nick didn’t buy it at all.

“Look, either you tell me what’s going on or you will have to mope around the rest of the
tour,” Nick said. “No one wants to be around you because of the way you’re acting. I mean,
everyone cares about you, so I don’t know why you won’t at least talk to me.”

“Nick, it’s a bad situation. I took advantage of someone and now I feel awful about it and I
don’t want to tell this person about how I feel,” Lori replied. “I’m just hoping that it will go
away soon.”

“Lori, look, I don’t know about what happened between you and AJ, but it sounds serious.
AJ is acting the same way that you are. He won’t talk either,” Nick replied. “But you guys
better figure something out before it gets the whole group down.” He got up to leave the
room.

“We had sex, Nick,” Lori replied before he left the room. “That’s how I took advantage of
him.”

Nick came back over to the couch and sat down next to her. “When did this happen?”

“Um, the day before my birthday,” Lori replied. A couple of tears slid down her face. “He
came over late because he didn’t want to be alone. He told me that him and Marissa broke
up earlier. I told him to go talk to someone else about her because I didn’t want to hear it. I
walked upstairs thinking that he was going to just leave and then he came into my bedroom
and I was crying. Then he kissed me. And I kissed him back. Then one thing led to another
and before I knew it I was awake and he was gone the next morning.”

It was a huge relief just to be able to talk to someone about it. “Lori, things like that happen
for a reason. Maybe deep down inside you and AJ want to be together,” Nick replied. He
hated to say it because he still had feelings for Lori and they didn’t seem to be diminishing
as the months passed by. He would never tell her though ever. So, he tried to be friends
with her and they seemed to be getting closer and closer everyday. He really didn’t want to
screw that up at all, not over some feelings he felt from when they were together. He knew
that they would go away eventually.

“That’s all I’m saying about it. So hopefully, you will leave the topic alone.” There was a
moment of silence between the two of them. “Um, Nick?” Lori asked. “Do you ever wonder
what it would be like if we got back together and maybe tried something again?” She was
being serious. He looked her in the eyes and thought about that sentence.

A part of him wanted to jump on that saddle again, because he couldn’t think of anyone else
he wanted to be with, but then he thought about the whole ordeal with AJ and how that
would make everyone feel, that was part of the reason Nick ended things to begin with. He
knew that she was feeling weak and vulnerable and he didn’t want to take advantage of that
and jeopardize their friendship. “Lori, I really….” He was cut off by Lori kissing him. She
wrapped her arm around his neck and for one minute he wrapped his arms around her waist
and pressed her to him. Then, his brain kicked in. He pulled back from the kiss. “Lori, I can’
t do this, okay?” He walked towards the door. “I don’t think it’s right. I’m sorry. Hey, I’ll talk
to ya later.” He left the room.


It was sometime in September when Howie heard the terrible news. His sister, Caroline,
had been fighting this disease called Lupus for awhile now. Howie’s mom called Howie on
his cell phone and told him the terrible news. “What?” Howie asked into the receiver. “Oh
my god. I’ll come immediately.” He hung up the phone and rushed out of the back room in
the tour bus. Everyone was in the middle of watching a movie.

“He looked really upset, guys,” Lori said right after Howie rushed out of the room. “Maybe
someone should go talk to him.” She coughed and sniffed. She was coming down with
something. She had been fighting a cold for like two weeks now and she wasn’t getting any
better. Nick handed her a tissue and Lori coughed again and wiped her nose.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Kevin said. He kissed Jenn on the cheek and got off of the couch and
walked out the door.

“So, what’s going on with you, Lori?” Jenn asked. “You look like hell. Why don’t you go see
a doctor?”

“Because I don’t go see doctors,” Lori replied. “I’ll get over this. It’s just the change in
weather and us being in a tour bus all of the time. I’ll be better in a week, I’m sure.”

“Right,” Jenn replied. She eyed Lori and then turned her head to look at AJ. Then she got
an idea. “Well, I’m going to go play a video game. Anyone care to join me?”

Brian and Nick both jumped up and ran after Jenn. “Jenn, play video games?” Lori asked
out loud. “That doesn’t sound right.”

“Yeah, I know,” AJ responded. They had both said something to each other for the first
time in like three months. AJ felt like he should say something else to her. “Lori, you really
need to go see a doctor. You look really bad.”

“Thanks for the compliment, Alex,” Lori replied flipping the channels on the TV. “I don’t
need your advise.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to help you out,” AJ replied. “I’ll leave ya alone.” He walked out of the
room.

Lori got off of the couch and followed him out of the room. “Alex… I’m sorry…” Her
sentenced trailed off when she saw everyone crowded around Howie. “I got to get on a
plane as soon as possible. It’s my sister, she’s dying.”

Chapter 12

All of the Boys just looked at him, and Jenn and Lori covered their mouths with their hands.
“Oh my god, Howie,” Jenn said. She reached over to hug him. “Let’s call someone and get
this arranged.” They both went to the back room and the rest of the people scattered and
talked quietly amongst themselves.

Lori just stood there for a second. She was feeling terrible for Howie. She couldn’t believe
what he had just said. When she finally moved, AJ was behind her. “Go get your stuff. We’
re stopping at a hotel for the night and then we all are going back to Florida for a week or
so. Howie’s leaving as soon as we get to the hotel.”

She looked at him and without saying a word she went to her bunk and started to pack
again. She sneezed and coughed. She felt really bad. She was thinking about going back
to Charlotte instead of going to Florida. She didn’t want to be alone in that house again.


Jenn looked at Kevin and sighed. She was actually feeling good about her life again and
then Howie about ready to lose his sister just brought back a flood of memories. She tried
to shut out the painful emotions of when her parents died. She was only eighteen at the
time. It was only a couple of months after Kevin had left her to go to Florida. And here she
was, twenty-five years old, feeling like that scared and lonely eighteen year-old.

“Kevin?” Jenn asked. Kevin turned away from the television and looked behind him.

“Yeah?” he asked. He could tell that she had been thinking about a lot of things. She didn’
t respond to his question, but he quickly turned the TV off and sat on the bed next to her.
They had been in there rooms for about an hour or so. Jenn had insisted that her and
Kevin go with Howie to the airport and see him off. He was going directly to Raleigh, North
Carolina where his sister lived. “Sweetheart,” Kevin started while wrapping his arms
around her. “You have been so strong for many years now. Maybe you should let some of
that stuff out and not keep it bottled up inside anymore.”

“Yeah right, Kevin,” Jenn replied wiping a tear that had ran down her cheek. “There are a
lot of events that surround my parents’ deaths and I know for a fact that you don’t want to
relive it. And I certainly don’t want to relive it either.”

“Well, okay. I just thought that maybe it might make you feel a little better that’s all.” Kevin
and Jenn laid back in the bed and closed their eyes.


AJ basically had to carry Lori to her room. She was about to pass out when they got off of
the bus. Marcus offered to carry her, but AJ knew that he had to take care of her. If she
wasn’t going to go see a doctor then he was going to do everything that he could to help
her get better. He figured that once she woke up and saw him in her room, she would yell
at him and tell him to leave her alone.

She had been asleep for a couple of hours. Nick had come in to check on her. The same
with Brian. Even Jenn and Kevin made an appearance. AJ didn’t even let them beyond the
door. He didn’t want her to wake up. She had been complaining about being tired a lot
lately. He knew that she must not have gotten any sleep the night before, because he
woke up to the sound of her coughing in the bunk next to his. He wanted to go over there
and wrap her in his arms and tell her that he would make it better somehow, but then he felt
guilty about “the night” and decided that it would be best for him not to interfere.

“Now, I don’t know how to feel,” AJ muttered to himself as he placed a cool rag on Lori’s
forehead. She was burning up and had beads of sweat on her forehead. He knew that
there was a special bond between them, but he also felt very guilty for taking advantage of
her the night that he and Marissa broke up.

“Alex?” Lori asked. She opened her eyes and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t worry. I will leave,” AJ said as he got up to get his coat.

“No, wait,” Lori replied. She sat up and held out her hand. She felt a little better than when
she was on the bus. “What happened? How did I get here?”

“You were about to pass out on the bus, so I carried you into the hotel and up to your
room.” AJ wanted to stay with her and take care of her, but he didn’t know if she would
want him to because the last time she trusted him with her, he did the unthinkable.

“My hero,” Lori said softly. Then she smiled. He hadn’t seen her smile in a really long time.
He smiled back at her and walked back over to the bed. “Stay with me, Alex. I really need
someone right now.”

“I’ll stay with you as long as you like,” he replied. “I think that you might have the flu.”

“Don’t tell me that,” Lori replied. She laid back down and put the rag on her forehead
again. “Alex, why are you being so nice to me? I mean, you have been here taking care of
me. How can I repay you once I get better?”

“You don’t have to,” AJ said. He took her hand and sat on the bed next to her. “But I’ll
have to think of something if you insist.”

“Okay. Fair enough,” Lori said giving his hand a squeeze. There was a knock on the door
and AJ got up to go see who it was.

“Hey, here’s the Theraflu that you asked for,” Nick said walking into the room. AJ muttered
a thanks and Nick came over to the bed to talk to Lori. “Hey sweetheart, how are you
feeling?” He grabbed her hand.

“I’m feeling a lot better since Alex has been taking care of me,” Lori replied. She smiled at
him and said, “Thanks for getting that stuff for me.”

“No problem,” Nick said giving her the Carter smile.

“Nick, that smile of yours would get anyone better,” Lori replied. She stroked the side of
his face and Nick got this overwhelming feeling to kiss her, but not only was she sick, he
had already told her that he didn’t think that they should go that route again.

“Yeah right, Lori,” Nick said. He gave her hand a kiss and left the room. AJ had been just
starring at the back of Nick’s head the whole time he was in there. He knew that there was
something between them. He left that whole topic alone though. He didn’t want to have
those jealous feelings anymore.

Lori wanted to kiss Nick so bad, but she knew at that instant that Nick would never be hers
again. She was okay with it though. They had bonded so much over the past year that she
couldn’t even remember how it had been between the two of them when they actually
dated.

“Thank you for caring so much about me, AJ,” Lori said. She never called him AJ and for
the first time, he felt connected to her on a different level. “You surprised that I said AJ
and not Alex?”

“Um, yeah,” AJ said. “Lori, I’m glad that you are happy about me being here with you. I
mean, we’ve been avoiding each other ever since your birthday and I really feel bad about
that. I hope you aren’t mad at me about that.”

“AJ, I’m not mad at you about that. Okay?” Lori said. “We both did it. I can’t blame you
without blaming myself. I thought that maybe you might be mad at me because I feel like I
used you some how.”

“I thought that I used you,” AJ replied. “You thought that you used me?” AJ laughed and
Lori smiled.

“Well, I guess that’s cleared up,” Lori said. “I’d hug you, but I don’t want you to get sick.”

“I understand.” AJ smiled to himself and turned the television on. “What do you want to
watch?”

“I have no idea,” Lori replied. She took AJ’s arm and scooted him closer to her. “ABC
works for me.” AJ put the remote down on the nightstand and put his feet up on the bed
and sat next to Lori. Halfway through the show, Lori grabbed AJ’s hand and held it. They
were both asleep by the time the credits were rolling.

Chapter 13

Jenn was working overtime. She felt like she was going crazy. “Denise, remind me again
why we decided to take on being management?”

“I wish I knew,” Denise replied. Both women laughed and Jenn ran out of the door to go
talk to the Pay-Per-View people. The Boys were going to be doing their first televised
concert in the US. Luckily, it was the last show of the tour and it was New Year’s Eve.

“Jenn, why don’t you go take a little bit of a break before the pre-show taping starts and I’ll
cover everything here,” Denise said as she came up behind Jenn.

“Are you sure, Denise?” Jenn asked. “I know you have family here and I’m sure that you
want to see them.”

“Oh please, I will see them on the break,” she replied. She shoved Jenn out of the door
and shut the door behind her. Jenn ran to the Boy’s dressing room and knocked on the
door.

“Anyone naked?” she asked before opening the door. “Better not be.” She opened the
door and walked in. She saw Lori sitting on the couch and noticed how remarkably better
she looked. Unfortunately, Jenn hadn’t had the time to see how Lori had been recovering
from the flu. She knew that AJ had been taking care of her, so Lori was in good hands.
“Hey Lori. You look a lot better.” Lori returned her smile and started talking to Nick again.
Jenn hadn’t noticed how close Lori and Nick had been getting as well. They were like best
friends now. Jenn figured that it would better that way anyway, Lori was only six months
younger than Nick and they seemed to have a lot in common.

“Sweetheart, I just wanted to say have a good show and I will meet you back here after the
encore,” Jenn said as she gave Kevin a kiss. “Hey, have you guys figured out where we
are going to go to spend New Years tonight after the show?”

“My house!” AJ yelled from the adjoining room. “We all have to get drunk by midnight.” He
walked into the room where the others were. He knew tonight was the night for him and
Lori. He could feel it in the air. They had been getting closer and closer since September,
but now she was well and he wanted to tell her about all of the feelings that he had been
denying for so long. He smiled as she looked over at him from the couch.

Lori shivered from the butterflies in her stomach. AJ had just smiled at her and she knew
that she was grinning from ear to ear. Nick noticed her doofy grin and rolled his eyes. Lori
hit the back of his head and he yelped, “Ow! Why did you do that?”

“Be careful, Nick,” Lori replied. “Don’t roll your eyes at me.” She turned her gaze back to
AJ and decided that she was going to tell him how she felt about him.

The guys soon headed off for their show and Jenn sat down next to Lori on the couch.
Jenn was exhausted and she just wanted to leave the arena. The girls chit chatted about
nothing in particular as the show progressed. They decided to leave a note for the guys
and go ahead and get ready at their house.

Kevin gave Jenn a call when everyone was at AJ’s house and the girls headed out the
door. They both had changed clothes and were ready to celebrate the New Year. “Well,
good luck with AJ,” Jenn said turning to Lori after she parked her car in the driveway.

“Yeah, I’ll need it I’m sure,” Lori replied nervously.

“Right, he’s crazy about you. Everyone knows it,” Jenn said as they made their way up the
driveway towards the front door.

It was already eleven thirty when Jenn and Lori got to the party. Kevin met Jenn at the
front door and handed her a drink. Lori laughed at Jenn and Kevin as they ran over to the
table with all of the food. She walked into the living room and spotted AJ talking to Howie
on the outside patio. She wasn’t sure when she should bring up the topic to AJ. But she
knew it was definitely going to be that night.

“Hey, what’s going on?” AJ asked Lori when she walked up to him. “Looking good, as
usual.”

“Shut-up AJ,” Lori replied. She blushed and stuck out her tongue at him.

“Hey, nice tongue ring,” AJ replied with a smile. “Going all out tonight.”

“Yeah, you know how it is,” Lori replied. “The record company trying to keep your
wardrobe half way normal and all. But, I just can’t stand not having my tattoos showing or
my piercings shining.”

“What else you got pierced?” Howie asked. Lori lifted her shirt up a little and showed
Howie her naval ring. “Wow. Matches your tongue ring.”

“Always,” Lori responded and pulled her shirt back down. “So, where’s Nick at?”

“He’s picking up Mandy and her friend and they should be here any minute,” Howie said.

“Oh, so I’m guessing this one is a keeper then?” AJ asked Lori.

“What? Nick’s new girlfriend?” Lori asked. “Why are you asking me?”

“Well, you and Nick are really close these days, so I figured that you would have some
inside knowledge,” AJ replied. “I was just wondering how serious this relationship is
going to be.”

“Well, I haven’t ever seen him this excited over someone, ya know, since…” Lori said.

“Since you?” AJ asked finishing her sentence for her.

“Um, yeah,” Lori said quietly.

Just then, the doorbell rang and Howie said that he would go answer it. That left AJ and
Lori alone. She was feeling nervous again. The butterflies had returned.

“Well, we are alone now,” Lori started. She didn’t know how to put what she wanted to say
into words at that minute. She was all twisted up and when she wanted to speak, nothing
came out.

“You want to dance or anything?” AJ asked. He was a bit nervous about that night, but
then again, it was New Years. He wanted the chance to start over. He wanted to start a
new life with Lori. He didn’t want to screw this up this time. That made him nervous
because he always was the one that messed up.

“Sure,” Lori said. AJ turned on the stereo that was out back and they started dancing. AJ
looked at his watch and said, “Damn. It’s almost midnight. We better get in there.”

Lori smiled at him and he grabbed her hand and they headed into the living room to watch
the ball drop. Everyone was huddled around the television when they got in there. Lori
didn’t see Jenn or Kevin, but she figured that they were busy celebrating their own way.
Lori also noticed that Nick and Mandy were there. There was a brunette standing next to
Brian, quietly talking to him. Lori figured that that was Mandy’s friend that she brought with
her. Maybe it was a blind date or something.

Everyone chanted the countdown with Dick Clark as the ball in Times Square dropped
closer and closer to 1999. When the countdown ran out, everyone cheered and grabbed
their dates they had brought with them. Lori made her way around to all of her Boys. When
she got to Nick, she just grabbed his face and kissed him. “Happy New Year, Nick.” The
look on his face was just too priceless and she wished that she had a camera at that time.

After Lori got done kissing Brian, she introduced herself to his lady friend. “I’m Sara.”
Sara stuck out her hand and Lori shook it. Lori spent a little while just chit chatting with
Sara and just getting to know her. It seemed like her and Brian was getting along quite
well and they had planned to go out by themselves sometime that week. Lori was happy for
Brian. She knew that his break up with Samantha had been a tough one and it had taken
awhile for him to get over it. It turned out that Sara was in college trying to get a degree in
psychology. She seemed very intelligent and when Lori excused herself she gave Brian a
thumbs up.

She walked out onto the patio again and sat down in a chair by the pool. AJ always had the
pool lights on and it looked really beautiful at night. She still had no clue when she was
going to talk to AJ. She did hope that he would feel the same way about her that she did
about him. She felt an arm going around her shoulders and she saw AJ beside her.

“Happy New Year, Lori,” AJ said.

“Right back at ya,” Lori replied smiling at him. “AJ, I never hear you say Zang anymore.”

“Wow. I haven’t used that word since we dated,” AJ replied. Lori noticed how he could say
that so casually. Neither him nor her had talked about it, but both had it on their minds
twenty-four seven.

“Well, I use it all the time,” Lori replied. “I mean, it’s the only Cantonese word that we will
ever know. We sound smart.”

“I don’t think taking a word from Wayne’s World, and believing that zang is the Cantonese
word for excellent is very credible.”

Lori rolled her yes at him. “You used to say it with me. Oh wait, I’m sorry. Alex used to say
it with me.” She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and she saw him crack a smile.
“Hey, AJ, um is there anywhere we can talk privately.”

“Yeah,” AJ said. He sat his drink down on one of the patio tables and grabbed Lori’s hand.
“I got to talk to you anyway.” He led her down through the yard and onto the dock. When
they got to the docks AJ noticed something and ran out towards the end of the dock. He
peered out into night.

“What’s wrong?” Lori asked running up behind him.

“One of my jet skiis is gone,” AJ replied. “I see it. Out on the water.” He pointed out into
the darkness. Lori squinted her eyes and tried to see what he was pointing at. It took her
a couple of minutes, but she finally saw what he saw.

“Wait, that’s Jenn and Kevin,” Lori said. A second passed before she saw them in the
light. “Oh my god! They’re naked!” Lori covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.

“Oh, man. That’s gross, dude,” AJ replied. He wasn’t laughing at all. “Damn! Now I’m
going to have to sanitize the seat on that thing!”

“They better be careful. I’m sure they’re pretty drunk,” Lori said putting her arm through
AJ’s. They looked out on the water. Lori figured that she would make her move and say
something to AJ.

“AJ…” Lori said at the same time AJ had said, “Lori…” They turned towards each other and
looked into each other’s eyes. Lori brought her hands to AJ’s face while AJ wrapped his
arms around her waist. Lori brought AJ’s lips to hers while AJ pulled her closer.

They pulled apart and embraced. They both knew at that instant that they had the same
thing to say to each other. They wanted to be with each other and nothing was going to
stop them. “That was easier than I thought it would be,” Lori said. AJ chuckled he
released her from the embrace. They held each other’s hands and AJ scanned the water to
make sure that Kevin and Jenn were alright. He looked around for a minute and he had a
confused look on his face. “Do you see them?” Lori asked.

As soon as she asked that there was a loud noise and the next thing Lori remembered was
darkness.

Chapter 14

“Lori,” AJ said holding her hand. “Lori? Can you hear me?” He shook Lori a little. He had
fallen on top of her when the dock shook from the wreck. “Oh my god.” He listened to see if
she was breathing. He knew that she was breathing, but he was still worried. She had hit her
head on the dock pretty hard and he knew that she needed to go to the hospital.

AJ ran over to where Kevin was lying. He had crashed the jet ski on the very end of the dock
and had managed to slide on his stomach the entire length of the dock. “Kev, are you
okay?” AJ asked. He tried to help him up, but Kevin just grimaced in pain. “Dude, I bet you
have some major ball burn.” AJ joked.

“Not funny,” Kevin replied. “More like splinters in that area. Where’s Jenn?”

“Right here,” Jenn replied climbing up on the dock. “Thanks Jay for showing concern for
me.”

“Well, now we all have to go to the hospital,” AJ replied. “You need to get those um splinters
looked at Kev and Lori is still unconscious.” He rounded everyone up after Kevin and Jenn
got their clothes back on. AJ called the paramedics and there was an ambulance on the way.
AJ sent everyone else, but Kevin and Jenn, home with a promise to call them in the morning
to tell them how Lori was.

AJ had managed to carry Lori up to the house and laid her on the couch to wait for the
paramedics. She had stirred a couple of times, but she never stay awake. AJ was worried.
He thought that this was just typical on the night that they make that next step that there
would be something wrong. AJ could hear Kevin screaming in the other room. He also heard
Jenn yell out, “Wow. That’s a big one!” AJ cringed. He tried to get Kevin to stay out in the
living room so the medics could take a look at the splinters, but Kevin said that he didn’t
believe in doctors and he would get them out himself. Jenn was happy to help him do it. She
had been cussing him dirty the entire time for not paying attention to where he was going and
wrecking the jet ski. Kevin apologized to AJ and offered to buy him a new jet ski.

“Please God. Don’t let her be hurt. I just now got her back into my life and I don’t want to lose
her again. Please, God. I love her,” AJ said sitting there holding Lori’s hand. He had tears
streaming down his face.

The paramedics got there and Lori still hadn’t woken up yet. They took her to the hospital
and AJ went with her. He told Kevin and Jenn that he would call them once Lori woke up.




****************

“Oh God.” Lori woke up with a jolt, but that only made her head ache worse than it already
was. “Oh my God. Someone kill me now.” She laid back down and put her hand to her face.
She could see that she was in a hospital room, but she wasn’t sure where she was or why she
was there. There wasn’t anyone in the room. She was all by herself. She couldn’t remember
what had happened at the party. All she could remember was kissing AJ and that was it. The
memory brought a smile to her face. She was so excited that her and AJ had worked things
out. She called the nurse and the doctor came in to check her out. He told her that she had
suffered from a mild concussion. She had been unconscious overnight and she would have
to stay an extra night at the hospital to make sure that everything was okay and then she
would be able to go home. “Thanks,” Lori said to him as he left the room.

“Your welcome, Mrs. McLean. I’m glad that you’re feeling better.” Lori’s jaw dropped. The
doctor left the room and Lori looked around frantically for a file or something with her name
on it. She grabbed the file at the end of her bed and starred at it. There it was. It said that
her name was Lori Ann McLean.

“Oh my God. Can this day get any worse?” Lori asked out loud. “Great. We just got back
together and now he’s passing me off as his wife? That’s not happening at all. I got to tell
someone the truth.” She turned over and was going to push the call button again when AJ
appeared in the door.

“Oh my God! Lori I was so scared that you weren’t going to wake up,” AJ exclaimed rushing
over to her bed. He kissed her and pulled her into a hug.

“AJ, the doctor called me Mrs. McLean. What the hell is going on?” Lori asked. “I mean
seriously. We can’t let them think that we’re married.”

“Baby, it’s the only way I’ll let my insurance cover it. I told them that we had just gotten
married last night and that we eloped so you won’t have to pay for anything.”

“I don’t know, AJ,” Lori replied. “It’s a little too soon, don’t ya think?” She smiled at him.

“It’s never too soon,” AJ replied leaning down to kiss her. “We’ve been in love for a long
time.”

“Alex, isn’t it called insurance fraud? I mean, you’re freaking me out right now. Let’s just
take one day at a time, okay? I don’t want to get all caught up in the moment with you and do
something stupid,” Lori said laughing.

“Doing something stupid? With me?” AJ asked. He smiled at her and held her hand.

“Oh my god. You never change do you?” Lori asked.

“Well, I got to go call Mom and everyone else to let them know that you’re up and okay,” AJ
said leaning down to kiss her. “I’ll be right back.” He left the room and Lori laid back down
and let everything sink in.

***********

Jenn and Kevin were being very frisky that morning. Well, as frisky as Kevin could be.
Needless to say, Jenn got most of the attention. Kevin had been in terrible pain ever since
New Years. Jenn couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, but then again it was kind of funny to
her. She felt that he deserved severe ball burn, even though riding the jet ski naked was her
idea. She always liked getting even with Kevin. She thought that it was so much fun.

The phone rang while they were having breakfast. Kevin was at her house all of the time
now. Jenn picked up the phone and was delighted to hear that Lori was awake and okay. She
did feel bad about what had happened to her. That definitely was not in the plan for that
evening. She also didn’t know if Lori and AJ got to work things out or anything. She hoped
so. She was happy to have Kevin back into her life and she hoped that Lori would find that
happiness too.

“We need to go to the hospital soon,” Jenn said to Kevin as soon as she hung up with AJ.
“Lori’s up. She just has a mild concussion, but they are going to keep her a couple more days
just in case something else is wrong.”

“That’s good news,” Kevin replied finishing up his eggs. “I’ll take a shower while you finish
up here, okay?” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Okay, I’ll be right up,” Jenn replied. “Oh sweetheart. Maybe you should have yourself
checked out while we’re at the hospital?”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Kevin replied grimacing in pain as he walked up the stairs.

*********

“You guys are all so sweet!” Lori said as she received some more flowers to add to the
dozens AJ had ordered for her. “You guys didn’t have to bring me anything. Especially you.”
She pointed to AJ and he leaned down and gave her a kiss. Everyone whistled and made
obnoxious noises. Lori and AJ both laughed.

It was now the second day that Lori was in the hospital and she was ready to go home. The
doctor had come in earlier and told her what she needed to do just in case something else
came up and she could leave at any time to go home. So, Lori changed into some clothes
Jenn had brought her from the house. She called her parents in North Carolina and let them
know that she was okay and that she was going back home. She left out the part about her
and AJ working things out. She was under the impression that her parents lost a little bit of
respect for AJ when things ended between them the way that it did. The guys were headed
off to Sweden the next morning, so Lori made AJ stay home and pack. She heard a rumor that
her and Jenn were going to be kidnapped and flown with them to Sweden too. Lori was a
little reluctant to go because she knew that Donna, her manager, would be calling her very
soon to tell her when her album was going to be released. It was being reviewed by Jive’s
top executives right now and they would determine if there were to be any changes or
whatnot to the album before it is released.

Jenn and Lori piled into her car and left the hospital to go home. Lori was so excited to be
home. Lori called AJ and told him that she was at Jenn’s house and that she would be over in
ten minutes. It was more like five minutes when she actually rang the door bell at AJ’s.

He whipped open the door and Lori attacked him with kisses. “We need to have sex, NOW.”
Lori said pulling his shirt above his head and unbuckling his belt.

“Jesus, Lori. I think you’re worse than me. Shit,” AJ replied laughing. “When did you get this
passion?”

“Oh please, Alex. All we ever have done was make love. Right now, I don’t want that. And it’
s been way too long,” Lori said running up the stairs taking one piece of clothing off every
other step. AJ stood at the bottom of the stairs with his pants around his ankles and noticed
his shirt was thrown into the plant by the door.

“My God. I think I am in heaven. Thank you God!” AJ ran up the stairs and into his bedroom
where Lori was waiting for him.

*********************

“So, when exactly can you have sex again?” Jenn asked Kevin. They were talking on the
phone for once because they both were packing for the trip to Sweden. “Cause I mean, we’ll
be off for awhile and I might want to you know.”

“Too bad,” Kevin replied with a smile. “You get nothing for at least a month.”

“Fine then,” Jenn said grabbing her cell phone. “Since you will be out of commission for
awhile, I think that I will need to make a few phone calls.” She scrolled through her phone list
to see who she had still left in her phone. “ Let me see, there was Mark from Paris. That was
the one I was talking to on the plane that one time. He was definitely a good lay. Hmm. Oh
there’s Josh and, oohh, Blake. I will definitely have to keep him in mind.” Of course there
wasn’t anyone in there, but if Kevin thought there was then he might comply to her needs
before the scheduled time.

“Don’t start that, Jenn,” Kevin replied. He knew that she was bluffing. “We’ll see what
happens, okay?”

“Fine. I will see you when you get your ass over here, right?” Jenn zipped up her suitcase
and man handled it to the stairs. Just in case, she grabbed the box of condoms on her
dresser and shoved them into her overnight bag.

“I just finished up packing, so I will see you in about twenty minutes,” Kevin said. “See ya.
Love you.”

“Love you too,” Jenn replied hanging up the phone. “Lori? Are you done packing yet?”
There was no response. Jenn went to Lori’s bedroom and saw that it was a wreck. “Lovely.”
She went downstairs and saw that one of her random bowls of condoms was tipped over and
emptied. “No shit! She took my damn warming sensation condoms! Fuck!”

She looked at the time and saw that Kevin would be over in a couple of minutes. She quickly
stripped her clothing off and sat on the couch facing the front door. She got another idea
and ran upstairs. She got her whip and her black leather boots out of the closet and put them
on. She ran back downstairs and she heard a car pull into the driveway. She quickly took her
position by the couch and got ready to crack the whip.

**********

Lori turned the door knob just as Kevin pulled up. She waited on him to get to the door
before she opened it. She opened the door once she said hello to Kevin and laughed at his
limp. She walked in the entry way and stopped when she heard the cracking whip. She
immediately put her hands over her eyes and turned around. When the image of Jenn naked
in a Dominatrics outfit finally registered to her brain she let out the loudest scream of her
life. She immediately ran out of the room and ran upstairs, shrieking the whole way.

She was already feeling dirty after her little three hour session with AJ, but this just made her
feel really disgusting, like she had been raped or something. She immediately jumped into
the shower and stayed there for forty-five minutes. She could hear Jenn yelling through the
bathroom door, but she chose to ignore it. Jenn stopped yelling and Lori turned off the
shower and walked into her room. She had to pack.

*************

Three days later they were in Sweden. Lori and Jenn had gone almost everywhere to see the
sights while the guys were recording. Lori was constantly looking at her cell phone every
hour. She was really anxious for that phone call from Donna. Jenn had been on her cell
phone a lot too. She had been communicating with Denise about the album release. Her and
Denise were really tired of being managers and they had talked to the Boys more than once
about finding new management. They had given them a deadline. They would manage up
until Millenium was released, but they were not going to do it for the upcoming tour. They
also had to plan for all of the promotional stuff that was coming up once the Boys were out of
the studio.

Lori was sitting in her room with Nick one night when her cell phone rang. Nick had been sick
and was unable to go to the studio that day. So, he was spending time with Lori while Jenn
was on a conference call with the record label in the other room.

“Hello?” Lori answered. She sounded really excited. Nick knew that she had been awaiting
anxiously for any news about her album. She had worked hard on it and was very proud of it.
Nick said that he would be the first in line to go get it when it came out. He had heard some
of the demos and he liked the sound of it, not to mention the songs that she had sung during
the tour last year.

“Yeah?” Nick stood up and looked out the window. The weather was rainy and it went with
the way he felt.

“What?! Are you serious?! There has to be a mistake or something!” Nick turned around and
saw tears streaming down Lori’s face. “Okay. I understand. Bye.” Nick could barely make
out those words, they were spoken so quietly.

He saw her look down at her feet and then she began to sob loudly and he ran over to her
and wrapped his arms around her. She obviously couldn’t talk and he just sat there with her
and held her until she was ready to talk.

Chapter 15

“Nick, oh my God. My life is over!” Lori exclaimed. She put her head on his chest and hugged
him as tightly as she could.

“What happened, Lori?” Nick asked.

“They didn’t like my album enough to keep me on the label,” she replied. “Donna said that they
had to take a different direction with another girl artist that they just signed. So, that means I
get booted off the label because they feel like this girl has more potential than I do.” Lori got
up and walked towards the window. She then started to sob again. “I’m a complete failure.”

“No you’re not, Lori.” Nick got up and walked over to her. He gave her another hug and let her
cry. He didn’t know what to do or say to her to make her feel better. “Lori, you are one of the
most talented singers out there and I can’t imagine anyone could be better than you, so I am
sure that another record label will pick you up. You really shouldn’t call yourself a failure.”

“Like you know what it’s like to fail at the one thing that you love the most?” Lori asked him
through teary eyes. Nick looked down at his feet. He knew what failure was like in television,
but not really in music. He felt really bad for her.

“I’m sorry, Lori,” Nick said quietly. “Just give yourself a couple of months and try it again. You’ll
get discovered.”

“I think this is it, Nick,” Lori replied breaking the hug. “I tried being a star once and it just wasn’
t good enough. Why should I do it again?” Just then AJ came through the door.

“What’s going on?” AJ asked. “Baby, why are you upset?”

“I think I should leave now,” Nick said giving Lori’s shoulder a squeeze as he exited the room.

“Baby, I have bad news,” Lori started. AJ walked over to her and grabbed both of her hands.
“Um, Jive didn’t like my record and they thought that it would be best if they didn’t pump
anymore money into me in the recording studio.” Her eyes glistened again. She thought that
she might cry again, but she held it back.

“They dropped you?” AJ asked her. He looked astonished. “Are they crazy? You’re great! How
could they do this to you?”

“I don’t know, Alex! I don’t even know how to tell Mom and Dad. They will be so disappointed in
me.” Lori looked down again and felt the tears come.

“Lori, they aren’t going to be disappointed in you. Just disappointed for you.” AJ brought her
close to him and held her tightly for awhile. There was a knock on the door and AJ released
Lori to go answer it.

There was Jenn, Kevin, Howie, Brian and Nick standing in the doorway. “We came to say that
we are sorry that things didn’t work out for you,” Kevin said.

“And that we still love you,” Brian added with a cheesy grin.

“Aww. Thanks you guys! I appreciate this! Even though it’s really embarrassing,” Lori replied.
She wiped the tears off of her face.

“Group hug!” Nick said dragging as many people as he could to join in. Everyone surrounded
Lori and AJ.

*****************

“Who the fuck do they think they are doing this too?”

“Man! They don’t know nothing!”

“Yeah man. Lori, you should like do something really bitchy.”

“YEAH! We can come up with something, right Bri?”

“Yeah. We’re creative.”

“What are we gonna do, man?”

*******************

“I swear. I don’t know why the three of them decide to get drunk the night that Lori finds out
that she’s dropped,” Kevin said. He had been listening to their conversation for the past hour
from the room next door. Brian had obviously decided to go out and get liquor for both Nick
and Lori.

“Well, I went in there and stole some of their alcohol!” Jenn exclaimed holding up a half empty
bottle of Jack Daniels and an almost empty bottle of Southern Comfort. “Let’s have our own
kind of fun!”

*****************
“Okay. So, we’ve decided that,” there was a hiccup, “that Nick’s going to grab the paintball
gun.”

“And, Brian will be a distraction.”

“And Nick will paintball her house!”

Lori plopped down on the couch. The room was spinning and she was glad that she was drunk.
She liked being drunk with her two best friends. They enjoyed each other’s company and they
always had a lot of fun together. Especially her and Nick. She couldn’t remember why AJ wasn’
t there. But she didn’t care, as long as the spinning didn’t stop. “Brian, you look hot when I’m
drunk.” Lori laughed at the comment she just made. She usually thought that she was a riot
when she was drunk.

Nick fell out of the chair he was sitting in and rolled around on the floor laughing. “Yeah, that’s
funny,” Brian replied. “I think a lot of people think I’m hot when they aren’t drunk.”

“Yeah, twelve year-olds,” Lori replied. This made Nick laugh even harder. “I wouldn’t laugh too
loud Carter.”

“Yeah, well, I must be hot if you liked me a year ago,” Nick spat back.

“You were a rebound,” Lori replied. Nick stuck out his tongue at her and Brian just rolled his
eyes.

When AJ came in, Brian and Nick both were in their underwear and Lori was fully clothed. All
three of them were sitting at the table in the room concentrating on the handful of cards in front
of them.

“What do you got, Nick?”

“Nothing. Man! I suck.” He laid his cards face up on the table.

“Nick! You fucking idiot! You have like a full house!”

“What? No I don’t!” A pause. “Oh shit! I do! Haha! Beat that!”

“That doesn’t count! You folded man!”

“No I didn’t. I was just testing you guys’ knowledge!”

“I want a strip tease, Nick!”

“Lori! You haven’t even shown us what you have!”

“You perv! Like you’ll ever see this body! Plus, I didn’t lose!” Lori glared at Brian.

“The cards in your hand, genius!”

“Fuck you, bible hugger!”

“You’re a bitch.”

“Yeah, a sexy bitch.”

“Okay, people. Jay is here. I’ll catch up.” AJ proceeded to take off his shirt and started to
unbuckle his pants. Clad in his underwear, he sat down in one of the chairs.

Lori just looked at him and said, “Alright boys. Out! Get out now! I’m done with you!”

Brian fell out of his chair when Lori yelled. Nick and Brian both protested as Lori shoved them
out of the room and locked the door. “All of these bottles are empty.” AJ held up several
bottles that were sitting on the various tables in the room. There were a couple on the table
they were playing Poker at and several on the dresser.

“Well, I think I might be able to help you out, baby,” Lori said stumbling over to the dresser. She
opened the top drawer and took out two unopened bottles of Jack Daniels. “These are for you,
baby.”

AJ took the two bottles from her and set them on the dresser. He pulled Lori closer to him and
said, “We’ll save those for later.” He picked her up and laid her on the bed and kissed her
passionately. At that time, there was a loud bang coming from the other room and then the
pictures hanging on the wall all came crashing down. Then, the next thing AJ and Lori heard
was Jenn moaning and another bang on the wall. The last bang wasn’t as loud as the last one,
but it was still loud enough to be heard down the hall. AJ looked down at Lori and said, “I think
we can do better.” So, the competition was on.

***********

Brian barely made it to his room before all of the alcohol decided to leave his system. He ran
into the bathroom, tripping over something in the process, and puked at least five times. It was
like it was never going to stop.

Nick was outside of the bathroom waiting to make sure that Brian was okay. His friend was
never really good with alcohol. He never drank anyway. This was the first time he had seen
Brian this trashed in a long time. It was a fun night though. Nick was starting to sober up a little
bit by being worried about Brian. Nick wouldn’t go into the bathroom with him though because
he knew that he would be puking too, right along with Brian. Instead, Nick just plopped on
Brian’s bed and eventually passed out.

It was early morning when Nick woke up. He didn’t even know that he had passed out. He saw
that Brian wasn’t in the room with him and went into the bathroom to check on him. Nick had
passed out by the toilet many a times, so he figured that that’s what happened to Brian.

“Brian? Wake up! I don’t really want to pick you up, man.” Nick rolled Brian over and gasped at
the sight before him. Brian was laying there, pale and his breathing was very shallow.

Chapter 16

Lori woke up to frantic knocking on her and AJ’s door. AJ jumped up and answered the door.
Nick was white as a ghost and was stammering something about Brian. AJ left Nick in the
room and ran in to Brian’s room to check on Brian. Lori hugged Nick and tried to calm him
down enough to get something out of him that she would understand.

Nick managed to tell Lori what had happened when he woke up this morning by the time AJ
came running back into the room. “Brian needs help. I have to call 911.” Lori grabbed Nick’s
hand and ran next door.

“Kevin! Jenn! Wake up!” They both heard a loud noise from inside the room and looked at
each other. They didn’t even want to know what they were interrupting. “You guys! It’s
Brian! Something’s wrong!”

“What?” Kevin said poking his head out the door. “What’s wrong with him?”

“We don’t know. He’s really pale and not breathing well. Alex is calling 911,” Lori exclaimed
as Kevin went back into the room and threw some pants on. “I’m so worried.” Kevin came
back out and ran to Brian’s room. “Oh my God,” Lori said. “What have I done?”

“It’s not your fault,” Jenn replied. “You didn’t know that this was going to happen.”

“I know,” Lori replied walking into the room and sitting on the bed. Kevin rushed past her
and Nick to go check on Brian. “I just feel bad that this happened. I just want to go back
home.”

“It’ll be okay, Lori,” Jenn replied sitting beside her and putting an arm around her shoulders.
“Brian will be okay, I’m sure. We all know that you have had a tough week.”

Nick grabbed Lori’s hand and didn’t say a word. He wanted Lori to feel better, but he wasn’t
quite sure what to say to her. He hated when she was sad or when she blamed herself for
things, which had been happening a lot more recently. He sometimes wondered if maybe its
because she had gotten back with AJ. He wasn’t quite sure about it.

AJ came in. He looked like hell. “Kevin is in there trying to keep him awake. You might want
to go in there and help him Nick.” Nick jumped off of the bed and ran out of the room. “Baby,
are you okay?” AJ came over to the bed and wrapped Lori in a hug. It was reassuring for
both of them. Lori quietly sobbed and AJ looked like he was about to cry too.

“Is the ambulance coming?” Jenn asked. AJ nodded his head and him and Lori both headed
towards the door.

“Wait. Did anyone tell Howie?” Lori suddenly asked. Everyone looked at each other and then
Lori said, “Shit you guys! He doesn’t know!”

“I’ll go tell him,” Jenn said getting off of the bed and heading towards the door. She walked
out of the room and down the hall towards Howie’s hotel room. Knowing him he was probably
still asleep during all of the commotion.

At about that time, two medics came running down the hallway and disappeared into Brian’s
room. Jenn and Howie came walking up the hallway a few minutes later and AJ told them that
the medics were in Brian’s room. They all waited out in the hallway to see Brian as the medics
brought him through. Nick and Kevin came out of the room after the medics.

“Thank God we finished recording yesterday,” AJ said watching Kevin scramble down the
hallway after the medics.

“Yeah, the sooner Brian gets better, the sooner we can get home,” Lori said releasing herself
from AJ’s grasp and walking to their room.

“She’ll be alright,” AJ said. “She just needs some time. Um, let us know when you hear
something from Kevin.”

“Sure,” Jenn replied. Everyone went their separate ways to go pack while they waited to hear
from Kevin.

Jenn talked to Kevin an hour later. He said that he didn’t even need his stomach pumped.
His body was just having a bad reaction to the alcohol. Kevin was going to check him out of
the hospital and then they were heading to the hotel. “Be careful. I will go ahead and get the
plane tickets taken care of so we can all go home tonight.” She hung up and left the room to
tell everyone that Brian was on his way back.

Jenn had packed hers, Kevin’s and Brian’s things by the time that they got back from the
hospital. Everyone was so relieved that Brian was okay. Lori gave him the biggest hug she
could when she saw him next.

“Look you guys, I don’t think I’m going to be partaking in any alcohol consumption from here
on out,” Brian said in the limo heading for the airport. Everyone agreed that that was a good
idea.



He had been seeing her for a couple of weeks now. She was really sweet and funny and he
hadn’t dated anyone in God knows how long. He thought that they fit together very well. He
didn’t have much use for Mandy, but he was really happy he met Sara. She had given him her
number before she left the New Years Eve party and he had called her practically the next
day to ask her out.

She was a sophomore in the local university where she was studying psychology. Everything
about her was great. Her humor, her intelligence, and she wasn’t bad to look at either. He
only got to see her for a week before Backstreet had to go to Sweden, but he talked to her
practically every night on the phone. Since Mandy had been taking all of Nick’s attention
recently, Brian was happy to be able to talk to someone other than the usual crowd. Plus,
everyone seemed to be preoccupied with their girlfriends at the time.

Brian had known Jenn forever and he was happy that her and Kevin had worked things out.
Then, there was Mandy. Brian wasn’t the judgmental type, but he could tell that she was
going to be more trouble than she was worth. Lori, on the other hand, was great. He really
liked her. He couldn’t imagine Lori doing anything else with her life besides singing. He
meant that in a good way. He felt really bad about her being dropped by Jive. At least her
and AJ had finally found each other. It took them a year to do it, but AJ had never been
happier with anyone else.

“So, Rok, why don’t you, Sara, AJ and me all go to a movie tonight?” Lori asked him. She
noticed the far off dreamy look in his eyes and knew that he was thinking about Sara. Brian
nodded and got up to give her a call.

Brian, Lori and AJ were sitting at AJ’s house watching the basketball game on TV. Nick would’
ve been there with them, but as usual, he was off with Mandy. Lori hadn’t seen or really even
talked to Nick since they got back from Sweden two weeks earlier.

Lori had just basically stayed at AJ’s house. She was really depressed about her failure at
having a singing career. AJ was trying to convince her to put a couple of demos together and
send them to record labels, but Lori didn’t really want to do that again. She said that she
would rather do something else, like act or something.

So, every other day, AJ had taken her shopping or went out to eat or he’d come home with
some kind of present for her to make her feel better. “Why don’t you come to Canada and
South America with us for the next month?” AJ asked her once Brian got up to go make his
phone call.

“AJ, I already told you,” Lori replied. “I might go to my parents’ house for a long visit. I just
need to get away right now.”

“Well, at least you’re coming with us to New York for the album release,” AJ said wrapping
Lori in a hug. “I love you so much and I want you to be happy.”

“I know. That’s why you spoil me rotten then?” Lori asked giving him a kiss. They both
laughed and waited on Brian to come back with the verdict for that night’s plans.

Chapter 17

By the time AJ came back from the promotional tour, he could tell a world of difference in
Lori. Not just mentally, but physically as well. She told him that she was using exercise as a
way to keep her mind off her bad luck. She also had been going to yoga and reading about
meditation. She seemed a lot happier which made AJ happy to have his girlfriend back.

During the next couple of months, AJ actually participated with Lori often in meditation. He
had to admit that it did help a lot with the stress, but he liked his method for stress relief,
that included the bedroom. Both methods did wonders for Lori and AJ.


Jenn was spending more and more time at her house alone. Her and Kevin had managed
to start bickering at each other over the littlest things over the two-month break before
Millennium was released. The constant arguing didn’t damper their sex life at all. Kevin
basically left the house after they had sex.

She was contemplating whether or not to even go to New York for the MTV special. But
she knew that Lori was going and she knew that she’d have fun up there with her. She
never saw Lori anymore, even though, technically, she still lived there. Lori came to the
house maybe once a week to recover from being over at AJ’s all week.

Here it was a couple of days before they were to go to New York to release Millennium, and
she was still undecided whether she wanted to go for sure. “Jenn?” Lori called coming
through the front door. “Where you at?”

“Kitchen!” Jenn had been drinking all day. A fifth of Jack Daniels sat in front of her and the
bottle was almost empty already.

“Hey Jenn. AJ was going to take me shopping for like the hundredth time this week and I
thought that… um.” Lori stopped her sentence when she saw Jenn at the kitchen counter.
“Is everything okay?”

“Baby! I think we should buy a new… dog…,” AJ said running up behind Lori. He stared at
Jenn and went over to her and sat down next to her. “What’s up Jenn? You aren’t looking
so good.”

“And you look better right now,” Jenn said glaring at him. “Now I see what Lori sees in you.
Sad I have to be drunk though.” She took another drink of liquor. “I really shouldn’t have
to hide my drinking.” AJ just looked at her and got out of his seat and walked out of the
room.

“Well, we’ll just leave you alone Jenn. It’s pretty obvious you want to be alone right now."
Lori turned around and ran after AJ. “Alex! Wait up!” Lori ran out of the house and caught
up with him at the car. “She didn’t mean that.”

“Yeah right, Lori.” His face had gone red, but Lori wasn’t quite sure if it was because he
was mad or embarrassed. “She wouldn’t have said it if she didn’t mean it.” He couldn’t
look at Lori. He was so embarrassed that she would see him tearing up a little.

“Alex, don’t be upset,” Lori said putting her arms around his waist. “Sweetheart, she’s
drunk and she obviously isn’t very agreeable when she gets like that. Don’t take it to
heart. I know that tomorrow she’ll apologize to you for the whole thing. Anyway, you’re not
here to impress anyone but me. I think you’re hot, so that’s all that matters.”

“You thought I was hot when I was thirteen,” AJ replied smiling down at her.

“I know. What the hell was wrong with me?” Lori laughed and gave him a kiss. “You are
the sexiest man I have ever been with.”

“Wait. I’m the only man you’ve ever been with,” AJ replied walking her to her side of the
car. He opened the door for her and she gave him a kiss.

“Put a sock in it McLean.”


“Damnit!” Nick muttered to himself. He was tired of feeling like a baby. Mandy always
wanted things her way. He had just gotten off of the phone with her for the fifth time in less
than three hours. She seemed to call him every thirty minutes to check up on him. Like
she didn’t trust him or something

He hated the way that she treated him at times, but he was determined to make it work. He
knew he screwed up with Lori and so he felt kind of pressured to make this relationship
work somehow. Mandy wasn’t helping at all. None of his friends liked her and she really
didn’t like them either. Lori absolutely despised her. And the feeling was mutual from
Mandy.

Jenn always kept her comments to herself, but Nick had heard through Lori that Jenn wasn’
t a Mandy fan either. Mandy somehow felt threatened by Lori and Jenn because they were
so close to the Backstreet Circle. Mandy thought that she should be the ring leader when
the girlfriends were concerned, but Lori had told her on numerous occasions that that
wasn’t going to happen ever and that she needed to learn a new role by keeping her mouth
shut whenever possible.

So, Mandy and Lori were never in the same room together. Which made it very difficult for
Nick. Lori was his best friend, but Mandy couldn’t accept that at all. Lori says that its “too
fucking bad” that Mandy doesn’t accept the friendship. “Just remember, Nick. I had ya
first.” Lori had said to him on the phone one night. He had to admit that she was right. Nick
was on his way over to the mall where Lori and AJ were supposed to meet him. Mandy
wasn’t too happy about that, but Nick really didn’t care. So, therefore, she bitched at him
about it until Nick said that he had to go. He turned his radio up and tried to drown out his
anger.


“Come to New York, Sara.” Brian had been begging her all afternoon. “I’m sure school will
be here when you get back.”

“Alright funny boy,” Sara replied. “Finals are coming up right after we would be coming
back. I have to study for them. Sorry Baby. I wish I could come with you.”

“Fine. But I’m dragging you to something this summer.” He got up after her and they
gathered the remains of their picnic up and headed for the car. Brian had been really
happy with Sara. He’d only known her for four months but it seemed like forever for him.
She was just so down to earth and friendly.

Brian dropped Sara off and they made plans for the following day. Brian decided to call
Kevin and see how he was doing. His cousin seemed to be alone a lot lately. Kevin and
Jenn were having problems and they both seemed a little isolated from the rest of the
group.

“Hello?”

“What’s up cuz?” Brian asked.

“Nothing. Just sitting here at the house.” Kevin’s voice was so lifeless. Void of any
emotion.

“Have you talked to Jenn?”

“Yeah. Things are looking up,” he replied. “Jenn’s coming with us to New York and we’re
going to try to reconnect or something, hopefully.”

“Sounds like a plan then, bro. I just wanted to call and make sure everything was okay.”

“Yeah, things are better around here.” He was lying through his teeth and Brian knew it.

“Okay, well then I will talk to you later.” Brian hung up the phone and made his way home.


Kevin hung up the phone and looked through the magazine in front of him. He had so
much to do to get ready for New York, but he didn’t feel like doing any of it. He missed
Jenn and he was just way too stubborn to drop this whole cherade they were pulling. Jenn
was just as stubborn as he was, if not more.

Kevin couldn’t even remember what he and Jenn had been fighting about last time. But, he
did remember Lori getting on the phone and telling him a thing or two about how
relationships were supposed to work. He was starting to think that she was right about him
apologizing to Jenn and trying to work things out. He couldn’t believe that he was listening
to a nineteen year-old about how to work a serious relationship.

He grabbed his coat and walked out the door. He got in his car and headed towards Jenn’s
house to make up with her. He thought that it was the best thing to do. He hoped that she
would forgive him before it was too late for both of them.


“Oh my God.” Howie climbed into the car and pulled out of the driveway. He sped down
the highway as fast as his Corvette would safely take him. He grabbed his cell phone and
tried to call Nick again. He was actually able to get through this time.

“Hey! Nick! Tell them I’m on my way man. Yeah. I’ll be there in like ten minutes, okay?
Bye.” Howie snapped his phone shut and threw it in the passenger’s seat. He knew that he
was looking like hell. He was running so late that he barely had time to take a shower.

“I’m not ever staying out until four in the morning again,” he muttered to himself. He had
been going out a lot lately, mainly to clubs and bars just to get away. He had just started a
foundation to help Lupus patients in honor of his sister, Caroline, and that was taking a lot
out of him.

He knew that drinking and hanging out at clubs wasn’t the answer for stress relief, but it
helped him relax. Maybe he needed someone to hang out with him. His brother, Johnny,
was good at home, but BSB were going to go back on tour pretty soon and Johnny wouldn’t
be on tour with them. He figured that he would ask AJ to come with him if Lori wasn’t going
on tour with them this time.

Howie pulled into one of the back parking places at the mall and made his way to the
entrance that he was supposed to meet Nick, Lori, and AJ at.

Chapter 18

warning...this chapter has a good bit of bad words and a sexual situation of sorts...so
consider yourselves warned!...Enjoy!

* Flashback*

“Hi, Lori.” Donna shook her hand and motioned for Lori to sit down. “Now I think I remember
you.”

“Um, yeah. I can’t believe you remember me. That was four years ago. I don’t even live in
Florida anymore.” Lori was amazed that Donna remembered her from the brief encounter
they shared when she was dating Alex. She wanted to ask her about Alex. If she knew what
had happened to the group that he was in, but she decided against it.

“Weren’t you dating one of my clients?” Donna asked her.

“Yeah. Unfortunately.” Lori gave a little laugh. She hated talking about Alex and she saw
that Donna sensed that. She dropped the topic and they started talking about the different
record labels that were looking for the future pop diva.

* end flashback*

“What a fucking bitch,” Lori muttered to herself. “She fucking used me.”

“Baby, what the hell are you talking about?” AJ asked her. He turned to look at his
girlfriend. They were on a plane headed to New York City for the album launch at MTV
studios.

“I was thinking about Donna. That’s all. Just realized something.” Lori wiped away the tear
that was sliding down her cheek.

“What do you mean? She used you how?”

“The same way she used you and Marissa,” Lori replied looking back down at her magazine.
“Denise tried to warn me during the tour but I wouldn’t listen. I’m so stupid. She didn’t try to
make my career work. She just wanted to make you more on your toes and isolate you from
everyone.” Lori glanced at AJ and then back down at her magazine.

“Baby, you didn’t know that at the time. You didn’t even know that I was in the Backstreet
Boys. Anyway, Marissa’s gone and Donna’s gone. So, we both win because we have each
other.” AJ gave her a kiss on her cheek and grabbed her hand.

Lori wanted to do something with her life. She was tired of basking in the fame of her
boyfriend and wanted a career of her own. She didn’t want to sing, so she was hoping to
kiss some ass in New York and maybe be able to swing something with MTV.

Unfortunately, Mandy was there too, to do the same thing. Lori hated Mandy more than
anything. She wished Nick would get tired of her and dump her ass. Lori didn’t like how
controlling she was. Plus, she was noticing the way Nick acted around her. He wasn’t
himself at all. He was at Mandy’s beck and call. He hadn’t even spoken to Lori the entire
plane ride. She also thought that Mandy must be doing something right for Nick to be
isolating himself from his best friend, not to mention the rest of the group. “God, I hate her.”

AJ looked at his girlfriend again and decided not to even say anything. He was looking
forward to doing Saturday Night Live and MTV the following day.

At that time, the seat belt lights came on and the plane started to shake. “Baby, what’s
going on?” AJ asked clenching onto his girlfriend.

“It’s just turbulence sweetheart,” Lori replied. “Put your seat belt on.”

There was a loud noise coming from down the aisle towards the rear of the plane. Lori saw
everyone’s heads turn towards the back of the plane.

The plane shook violently again and the next thing everyone knew, Jenn fell out of the tiny
bathroom with her skirt pulled up around her waist. Jenn was obviously intoxicated and
couldn’t get herself off of the floor. So, there she was, showing her stuff to the whole plane
and she was completely oblivious to it.

Another violent shake of the plane sent a half naked Kevin out of the bathroom as well.
Only, instead of him landing on top of Jenn, his pocket got caught on the door handle as he
was falling. Therefore, everyone also got a glimpse of his backside and his front side.

Of course this sent out comments from everyone on the plane. Lori whistled at Kevin and
Nick grabbed Howie’s video camera to record the whole fiasco.

Kevin struggled to get free from the door handle, but he was finding it very difficult to try to
free himself with one hand while trying to conceal his package with the other.

At this point, Jenn was still on the floor trying to regain some sense but everything was
spinning. She looked over toward Kevin and saw him struggling with his pants.

Only then did she realize that her skirt was up around her waist and she quickly sat up to fix
it. As she sat up and looked in front of her, she saw Nick with the video camera stuck to his
face. By that time, the turbulence had stopped but Jenn’s vision was still blurred and
spinning in all directions.

“Turn that fucking thing off!” Jenn exclaimed grabbing the camera away from Nick’s face
and shoving towards his chest. She got up and gave her skirt a final tug and ran her fingers
through her hair. She then looked at everyone and walked back to her seat not saying a
word.

At that time, Kevin finally got untangled from the door handle and grabbed his pants and
pulled them up. “Sorry,” he muttered, sounding very disturbed by the whole thing. He
looked at everyone and went back into the bathroom, where he remained for the rest of the
plane ride.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

“Oh my God! This is amazing!” Lori exclaimed looking out of the windows in the limousine. “I
can’t believe I’m here!” She had always wanted to go to New York City and here she was. “I’
ve got to go see everything!” AJ chuckled at his girlfriend and remembered back when he
first came to New York. He was fifteen and just as wide eyed as Lori was.

He was planning on giving her money to go out shopping with Jenn and then they were
going to have a romantic dinner later that night. AJ and the rest of the Boys had a meeting
at Jive head quarters until later that afternoon.

They all had decided to go eat lunch together before the Boys had to go to the meeting. AJ
told Lori that he wanted to go out and have fun with Jenn that afternoon, but she had to be
back at the hotel by five that night.

“What are you planning now?” Lori asked him. She knew that he was up to something. He
was actually starting to act like the Alex she once knew a long time ago. He’s the one that is
so easy to fall in love with. “AJ?”

“It’s a surprise, baby,” AJ answered. “We’re going to dinner, so buy something really
beautiful today.”

“Right,” Lori replied. “Is there something going on? You haven’t been real talkative at all.”
She had noticed that he kept staring off into space throughout the lunch and even some on
the plane.

“I just have a lot on my mind. Nothing real major,” AJ lied. Deep down he was really excited
about his alone time with Lori. He couldn’t think of a better place to be anyway for this
moment. He had to ask her a really important question that evening.

~*~*~*~*~*

After a long day of shopping, Jenn collapsed onto the bed in the hotel suite that she shared
with Kevin. Lori knew how to wear a girl out. The combined shopping and sight seeing all
day was enough to make Jenn so tired that she just wanted to crawl into bed and not
resurface until the next day.

Kevin came into the room ten minutes later to find a sleeping Jenn surrounded by
shopping bags. He had never seen so many bags at once. She even had AJ beat. Kevin
could only imagine the amount that Lori had. He kissed Jenn on the forehead and removed
the bags from the bed. He walked out of the door and closed the door behind him.

Kevin left the hotel room and went to Brian’s room to talk. He was planning on taking Jenn
out to dinner that night. He was also thinking about asking her to give their engagement
another try.

He saw that Brian’s door was open and he walked in. Brian was on the phone and it was
obvious he was talking to Sara. Brian got off of the phone and turned towards his cousin.
“What’s up, cuz?”

“Hey, um, I just wanted to talk to you about Jenn.” Kevin sat down on the bed.

“What about her? Ya’ll fighting again?” Brian asked. He had this funny feeling that Kevin
was going to bring up the past.

“Well, I was wanting to ask Jenn to marry me again, but I didn’t know what really went wrong
the first time.”

“Maybe it was the fact that you moved to Florida for like a year?” Brian asked sarcastically.

“Besides that, man. I mean, um, I was thinking that maybe it had something to do with
another guy. I mean, you were there. Did you see her with anyone else?” Kevin asked his
cousin.

Brian felt like he was going to pass out. He broke out into a cold sweat and wiped his hands
on his jeans before he answered. “Why don’t you ask her? Why ask me?”

“Come on Brian. You would know. You guys were inseparable. You’d notice if she was
seeing someone else.”

“Well, she acted the same around me. So I can’t help ya, Kev.” Brian got up and looked out
of the window. He could feel Kevin’s eyes burning into the back of his head, but he didn’t
turn around to face his cousin. He was too scared that Kevin could see the truth on his
face. Brian never was a good liar, especially when it came to family.

“Thanks, Brian. I appreciate it.” Kevin got up and walked out of the room. His cousin’s mood
changed rather quickly.

When Kevin got back to his and Jenn’s room, he noticed that Jenn was in the bathroom. He
went into the bedroom and changed into an outfit for dinner. When he emerged from the
bedroom he sat down in one of the chairs and watched TV.

Jenn came out of the bathroom in her robe and changed into the black dress that she had
bought earlier that day with Lori. She had also found the perfect shoes to go with it as well.
She was looking forward to what lay ahead for her and Kevin that night.

~**~**~**~**~**

“This place is great, AJ,” Lori said sitting down in the chair that AJ had pulled out for her.

“Kevin suggested it,” AJ replied sitting down. “You want a drink?”

“I’ll have a Coke,” Lori replied. She unfolded her napkin and put it on her lap while AJ
ordered.

It was after dinner when AJ decided to make his move. “Lori, I’ve been wanting to talk to
you about...”

As AJ was going on with his speech, Lori couldn’t help but wonder why he was talking like
he was. He was talking a lot about how committed he felt and how he loved her so much.
His eyes were really bright and she could tell that he was really excited about this
conversation.

“Lori, would you be willing to take this relationship a step farther?” AJ asked suddenly.

Before Lori could answer AJ’s cell phone started ringing. “D, this is a bad time man,” AJ
growled into the receiver. Lori couldn’t help but laugh. Poor AJ. He tries to be serious and
something always seems to happen. AJ finally got Howie off of the phone and made sure
that his cell phone was off this time.

“Howie called to tell us that he finally remembers meeting you in 1992. I can’t believe he
called to tell me that.”

“AJ, breathe, Baby. It’s okay,” Lori said. “It’s about damn time Howie remembered meeting
me. I know he has a picture of the three of us somewhere.”

“He said that he found it,” AJ stated. “Anyway, back to what we were talking about. What do
you think?”

Lori went to answer again when her cell phone started ringing. “Oops. I didn’t turn it off,”
Lori said smiling to herself. AJ looked irritated.

“Jenn, didn’t I tell you that AJ and I were going out tonight?” Lori paused as Jenn told her
the reason why she called. Lori’s face went pale and AJ started getting worried about what
could have happened. Lori hung up the phone and looked at AJ. She had a shocked
expression on her face. It was starting to scare AJ.

“Jenn’s on a plane back to Orlando. Someone burnt down her house.”

“Ms. Hart, we have a reason to suspect arson,” the detective stated to her once she had a
chance to walk around the remains of her charred house. “We don’t know for sure, but our
lab is running a few tests. Ms. Hart, do you have any enemies?”

Jenn looked at him dumbfounded by the statement that he had just made. “Detective
Conner, I’m involved with a Backstreet Boy. So is my roommate. There are psycho fans
everywhere. Anyone could have done this. Oh my God, Lori’s gonna freak.”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

AJ woke up the next morning to his girlfriend having some sort of panic attack. She was
running around the room searching through her suitcase and randomly writing down
things. “Baby, what the hell are you doing?”

“The realization of the fact that all of my stuff is burnt up has finally set in,” Lori replied.
Wiping a tear from her face.

“Baby, it’ll be okay. Calm down.” AJ got out of the bed and put his hands reassuringly on
Lori’s shoulders. Lori put her head in her hands and sobbed for the next thirty minutes.

At about the time Lori calmed down, Jenn called. AJ handed the phone to Lori and went to
take a shower. When he emerged from the bathroom, he saw that Lori was off of the phone
and crying again.

“Jenn’s insurance is cutting her a check, but it won’t come her until the investigation is
over. That could take months and I don’t have the extra money to find myself a place to live,
buy new clothes and furniture. I’m going to have to go back to North Carolina and live with
Mom and Dad.”

“No, no, no. You don’t have to do that,” AJ said. “Here Baby.” AJ pulled a credit card out of
his wallet and handed it to Lori.

“I can’t take that, AJ,” Lori said.

AJ took Lori’s hand and placed the card in it. “You will take it and you ill buy whatever you
want with it and no, you won’t be paying me back either. And, I think when you buy you a
new wardrobe you should put it up in the closet right by my clothes.”

“Whoa. Wait a minute. What did you just say?” Lori was in complete shock.

“I want you to move in with me,” AJ replied. “You need a place to live and I need a
roommate.”

“You don’t need a roommate,” Lori said cracking a smile.

“I need you. How’s that?” AJ replied giving her a kiss. He looked at her and when she didn’t
respond, he knew that she had given in to him.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

Lori went with the Boys to do Saturday Night Live later that night. AJ mentioned there was
going to be an after party, so she was ready to drown out her sorrows that night.

After the show, Lori and the Boys piled into a limo and were dropped off at a club where
they were escorted to the VIP section upstairs.

Lori felt like AJ’s arm candy all night. She was latched onto him as he mingled with everyone
there. There were so many big names there, that Lori started to forget whom she had met.
She took a break from AJ’s arm and moseyed over to the bar.

“I would love to have a Green Apple Martini please,” she said to the bartender as she sat
down in one of the chairs.

“I’ll have the same,” a voice said from behind her. She knew that she had recognized that
voice and she turned to see whom it came from.

“Why, Carson Daly, I’m a big fan of yours,” Lori replied holding out her hand. He grabbed it
and gave it a squeeze as he sat down next to her.

“Who might you be?” he asked as their drinks were laid out in front of them.

“Oh I’m sorry. I’m Lori Hissom. I date a Backstreet Boy.” She was so used to the title now
that she used it without thinking. “I mean, I’m AJ’s girlfriend.”

“Oh okay. They’re coming on the show tomorrow. How’d you guys meet?”

“Long story,” Lori stated taking a sip of her Martini. “I knew AJ when we were kids. We lived
in the same apartment complex in Orlando, Florida.”

“Oh cool. So, you guys got reunited and now you’re a couple,” Carson replied with a laugh.
“That’s crazy.” He gulped down his Martini and Lori did the same.

Before she knew it, her and Carson had ten drinks a piece and were laughing hysterically at
one another. AJ had finally decided to come over to the bar and to look for his girlfriend. He
found her and Carson in tears because they were laughing so hard.

“Well, I can see that you two have met,” AJ said sitting down next to Lori. He ordered his
favorite, Jack and Coke, and kissed Lori on the cheek.

“What’s’ up man?” Carson said giving AJ’s hand a shake.

“Yeah, well, all of us are here,” AJ replied. “We got done taping Saturday Night Live not too
long ago.”

“How’d that go?” Carson asked.

“It was cool,” AJ responded taking another sip of his drink.

“Baby, the bartender won’t let me have anymore to drink,” Lori said pouting.

“That’s probably a good thing,” AJ replied. “Well, maybe I should take you back to the
hotel.” He was starting to become uncomfortable about how flirty Lori was starting to act
with Carson.

“I’ll see ya tomorrow then.” Carson stuck out his hand and AJ shook it. “Nice meeting you,
Lori. See ya tomorrow?”

“Would I let you down?” Lori asked him playfully. “Bye.”

AJ and Lori informed Nick and Howie that they were heading back to the hotel. It turned out
that both Kevin and Brian had left the party an hour beforehand.

“I’ll have to call Jenn when we get to the room,” Lori said in the elevator of the hotel that
they were staying at.

“Baby, it’s three in the morning. I don’t think Jenn will be up. Plus, we have an early day
tomorrow. We have to be at MTV studios at ten tomorrow morning.”

“Oh God. That sucks. So, I guess that means we won’t be able to, um, have a little fun
before we go to sleep tonight? Lori asked as she and AJ walked into their suite.

“Baby, it’s never too late for that,” AJ replied picking Lori up and carrying her to the
bedroom.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*

“AJ! Are you ready yet?” Lori asked knocking on her boyfriend’s dressing room door. She
heard a muffled “yes” and walked in. “Baby, they need you in make-up. Everyone else is
ready.”

“Okay. How does that look?” AJ asked turning to face Lori.

“Here. Put this on,” Lori replied handing AJ’s leopard print cowboy hat to him. “I love you.”

AJ was taken back for a second. He had never heard her actually say that she loved him
before. They had only been dating for five months by then, but AJ knew that they had never
stopped loving each other. She just hadn’t actually said it to him and he had never actually
said to her either. “I love you too.” He gave her a kiss. “I’ll see you back her after the show,
right?” He paused a second.

“Okay! Go!” Lori exclaimed shoving him out the door into the hallway. There was only a half
hour before the show started and they were starting to let the girls into the studio.

Lori went into the studio and sat in the front row of seats. She wanted to be part pf the
audience. She’d only been dating AJ for a couple of months, so she seriously didn’t think
that any of the girls would recognize her.

By the start of the show, she had signed a couple of autographs and had taken some
pictures. Some of the girls said that they had known that her and AJ were together. She
found out very quickly that the girls only knew her because she was dating AJ. That kind of
disappointed her, but what’d she expect? It wasn’t like she had a singing career or was
famous like her boyfriend was.

Leaving MTV studios was a feat on its own. There were like fifty girls standing out by the
back door when they all were leaving. Lori booked it into the van as fast as she could. AJ
joined her a minute later followed by Brian and Howie. Kevin and Nick both tried to sign as
many autographs as they could, so they got into the van about five minutes later.

“Ya’ll were crazy with that game,” Lori said. “I mean, you guys looked like dumbasses up
there. Especially you, Carter. Hitting the button and not knowing the answer.” The rest of
the van laughed and Nick sat there, giving Lori the finger. “Oh Nicky! Did I hurt your
feelings? I’m sorry!” Lori leaned over and gave Nick a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Yeah, right,” he muttered, and then he smiled at her.

“We’re headed to the airport now, right?” Howie asked Kevin.

“Yeah. Security got our stuff while we were at the taping,” Kevin replied.

“Hey, have you talked to Jenn recently?” Lori asked.

“Yeah. I called her this morning and she said that the tests did come back as arson on the
house. So, now we have to worry about who did this and who’s next.”

“Fine. I’ll see you in Florida then, Mandy.” Nick slammed his cell phone shut and looked out
of the window. He was having a bad day and he knew that something bad was going to
happen within the next couple of days.

Chapter 20

Lori and AJ had been doing some major shopping the past two weeks since New York. By
the first week of June, Lori had her half of AJ’s closet filled with clothes and together, they
had managed to redecorate the living room, kitchen and dining room of the house.

AJ had been thinking about what to do for Lori’s birthday. Her birthday was on the eighth,
which gave him a week to figure out what he wanted to do. He ended up making a call to
his travel agent one-day when Lori was out with his mother, Denise, having lunch. The
destination would be Paris. It was the City of Love and Jenn mentioned that she had a loft
that was hardly used. AJ booked a flight to Paris for the weekend of Lori’s birthday. He
decided that he would surprise her the day before they would leave. It was perfect and AJ
couldn’t wait to tell Jenn and the others.

*~~*~~*~~*~~* Two Weeks Later *~~*~~*~~*

“Mandy, what do you mean you’re not coming?” Nick asked. “I told you two weeks ago
about this get together at AJ’s house. How can you be busy? You’re at my house.” Nick
paced the hallway outside of the living room where everyone else was.

“Hang up on the slut!” Nick could tell that that was Jenn yelling from the living room. And,
as usual, she was drunk. “Jesus Nick! Get a fucking brain!”

“Shut-up!” Nick yelled at her as he walked into the living room. Mandy had hung up on him,
so he knew for sure that she wouldn’t be coming over. “Stay the fuck out of my business!”

“She’s probably fucking some dude right now. She’s probably naked on top of him. In your
bed! And you’re too stupid to realize it,” Jenn retaliated.

“Fuck you, Jenn. Don’t fucking talk to me,” Nick said glaring at her. His face had turned a
deep crimson color and Kevin knew he had to do something with Jenn before Nick blew up.

“Jenn, lets go sober you up,” Kevin suggested, pulling Jenn off of the couch and out of
the room. As Jenn was leaving the room, she whipped around and gave Nick the finger. N
Nick’s face went even redder and he glared at Jenn until she disappeared completely out
of the room.

“Nick, are you okay?” Lori asked. “Do you need something to drink?” She got up from the
couch and headed towards the kitchen.

“No, I’m okay. I need to go to another room and cool down for a couple of minutes.” Nick
started walking towards the den.

AJ and Howie followed her into the kitchen. “I’ll check on him in a few minutes. Call Brian
and see where he is. I can’t believe that him and Sara aren’t here yet.” AJ pulled out his
cell phone and dialed Brian’s number. He walked out of the kitchen while Brian’s phone
rang.

“I’m going to go check on Nick,” Lori told Howie.

“Yeah, I think Nicky needs a friend right now,” Howie replied giving her a smile.

Lori walked past AJ on the couch and entered the den. Nick was starring off into space
when she walked in. He looked like he was in deep thought.

“Nick, how are ya doing in here?’ Lori asked. He hadn’t even noticed her being in there.

“I’m okay. Just thinking about things.” That was a typical response from Nick. Lori was so
accustomed to it now that she completely ignored it. “Look, I need to talk to someone.”
Nick decided to speak up as Lori headed towards the door to leave.

“I’m not talking about Mandy,” Lori stated.

“Lori, come on. I need a friend and you’re my best friend. Help me out will ya?” Nick
pleaded with her.

“Nick, that subject is off limits,” Lori replied.

“Please,” Nick said. “I just need to know why she does and says things like she does. I
mean, do you think she’s cheating on me?”

Lori took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Nick, Mandy is the type of girl that will stab
you in the back as soon as she what she wants.”

“No, she isn’t. You don’t even know anything about her. You won’t even give her a
chance. No one does!” Nick’s face was red again.

“Oh my God, nick! How fucking blind are you?” Lori exclaimed. “Look, you always end up
with these girls that spend your money and try to use your fame to get a record deal.” Lori
paused for a second. “You know what? I’m not doing this anymore!” Lori turned around
and walked away.

Before Lori could walk out of the room, Nick said out loud, “Just like you?” He paused as
Lori stopped at the doorway.

“What did you say?” Lori asked turning around and walking back towards him. “That’s not
true.”

“Oh. That’s a nice double standard, Lori. You talk all of that shit about my girlfriend, but
when it pertains to you, it’s not true. You’re no better than Mandy.”

The world seemed to stop in that instant and he knew he fucked up. He didn’t have too
much time to think about it because Lori’s right hand made contact with the left side of his
face.


In the living room, Kevin and Jenn returned to a commotion. They could hear Lori and Nick
screaming at each other in the other room.

“What are they fighting about?” Kevin asked.

“Mandy,” AJ replied.

“Oh no,” Jenn replied. “I hope she kicks his ass.”

“She wouldn’t hit him, would she?” Howie asked looking at AJ.

Everyone paused, then jumped out of their seats and ran over to the den. They opened
the door just in time to witness Lori slap Nick as hard as she could.

“Baby?” AJ asked as Lori ran out of the room crying.

“I’m going upstairs,” Lori said running towards the staircase.

AJ knew to go ahead and let Lori blow off some steam. He couldn’t believe that she
actually slapped Nick. He must have said something really bad.

Kevin, Jenn and Howie all went back to the living room in shock at what they all had just
seen.

Nick had his hand over the left side of his face. AJ walked into the room and looked at Nick
in disbelief. "Nick, what did you say to her?"

With that statement, the tears flowed from Nick’s eyes. “Man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what
I said.” Nick took his hand away from his face and AJ could see his girlfriend’s hand print.
“I told her that she was just like all of the other girlfriend’s that I have had. That she was
just living off of your money and fame. God, I’m so stupid.” Nick got up and left the room
to go outside by the pool.

“He told her that she was living off of me,” AJ stated as everyone stared at Nick, who was
over by the edge of the pool. “Brian and Sara are on their way.”

“They’ll be walking into something real nice,” Jenn exclaimed. Kevin, Howie and AJ all
agreed.

They all noticed what looked like clothes falling from the sky. Nick kept looking up and
yelling something. Everyone ran to the back door and listened and watched what was
going on.

“Fuck you, Carter! Here’s all of your shit!” Lori screamed from the bedroom window on the
top floor. She threw all of Nick’s t-shirts out of the upstairs window into the pool. She
picked up a pair of shoes and ran back to the window.


Brian pulled into AJ’s driveway finally. Him and Sara were only two hours late. They got
distracted at Sara’s house after she got out of school.

They both got out of the car and headed to the front door when they heard loud shouting
coming from the backyard. They looked at each other and started walking towards the back
gate.

They got around to the back of the house just in time to see Nick dodge one shoe and not
manage to miss the other one that came flying at him from the upstairs window. He
stepped backwards and fell into the pool. They saw Jenn run out to the pool, laughing as
hard as she could. They returned their gaze to the upstairs window.

All Brian and Sara could see come out of the top window was an arm and a hand with the
middle finger up.