Prologue
Kevin inhaled a deep breath of fresh air, as he could sense himself getting closer and closer to the lake with every mile that he drove. The sun poured down upon him on warm rays, his skin soaking them in gratefully. With his heart starting to beat wildly in both excited anticipation and nervousness, he truly felt like he was doing the right thing. But it had been the events over the past six months that had led him to this decision.
Kevin couldn’t believe that nearly two years had passed since the death of Anita, the woman whom he was convinced had changed his life forever. He was also persuaded that had it not been for him and his own selfishness, she would still be alive and enjoying life…cancer free. She had hit remission, only to die in a tragic accident months later because of him. He was the one who had left her alone after their fling in the hospital, returning to his own life. She had come to find him for an explanation, only to find that there had been somebody else all along…Kelly. After choosing Kelly after Anita gave him an ultimatum, she’d driven off in a rage of fury.
He had watched her car crash, seen her lifeless body inside the car. He had watched the woman he truly had loved die. What hurt the most was that it could have been avoided. It should have been avoided.
Over the next year and a half, Kevin had gone about the movements of life and touring, hanging on to Kelly, even after he thought he’d ended things for good between them, because letting go of something that had been a part of him for so long was just to hard to do in the end. It hadn’t been that he still loved her, or even that he had wanted to stay with her. It was more the fact that she had been the one thing in his life that could stay the same. In a life that seemed to constantly be changing for the worse, Kevin had been desperate to hang on to just one thing that would stay consistent for the better.
All of that had come to a halt six months ago though. The latest Backstreet Boys tour had just ended, and for the first time in months, Kevin had forced himself to sit down and really think about his life and what it had become. The things he had once enjoyed were nothing more than a burden to him anymore. With each beat of his heart, more pain was inflicted upon him. His mind had constantly been in another place, his concentration not where it needed to be. It was then, after much self-reflecting and re-evaluating his life, that Kevin had come to two very important decisions that would yet again change his life forever. He hoped this time, they were both for the better.
The first had been ending things with Kelly, for good this time. Through all of her tears and begging him to think about things before doing anything rash, Kevin had been calm, his face stone, his decision set. Nothing could persuade him otherwise.
The second choice had been to leave the Backstreet Boys, whom he had been touring with and been a part of for thirteen years. Thirteen long, glorious years. Although his four best friend hadn’t agreed with the decision, he was pleasantly surprised that they had not argued nor had they put up a fight. He could see that after hearing him out, his ‘brothers’ had understood that this was something that he needed to do. They could see that Kevin needed to do some serious soul searching and find what he truly wanted in his life that would bring back his spirit and the sparkle that made him who he was.
Which was what had led him to that moment. While in the hospital battling cancer, so many nurses and doctors had been there, helping him get through it. They had done whatever they could to make his quality of life as comfortable as possible, and because of that, he wanted to give back to those who were suffering in the present, making their time as enjoyable as possible. More than anything, Kevin wanted to help kids out, for he felt it was them who had the most to look forward to in the future, for they hadn’t really had a chance to truly live yet.
With that thought in mind, Kevin had found a summer camp in the North Carolina, signing up to volunteer as a counselor for children who needed some fun in their life, some of which for the remainder of what life they had left.
So there he was, on his day long journey to his destination, the fresh air and smell of ocean filling his nostrils, both of which brining on a calming sensation of hope to him. Kevin assumed he was less than an hour away from his destination, where he would meet with the other counselors for a week to set things up before the campers arrived for three months. Kevin had no idea what the summer had in store for him, but he was ready to tackle any obstacle that could surface with one goal in mind, and that was to give these kids the best summer of their lives. Nerves built up in his stomach though, as he just hoped that he could live up to his own self-expectations.
