January 29, 2005
Target Center
Minneapolis, MN
“Belated Happy Birthday, Nick.”
Leighanne greeted me as she walked past me; we were on backstage waiting for the sound check party to start. Leave it to my best friend’s wife to fly back to the tour when the celebration was over. Not that I would have invited her to the night out because that was exclusive for my boys, but I did treat the whole Backstreet family to Charlie Trotter’s and she would have enjoyed that.
Contrary to rumors or what I called fans’ speculations, I never had even an ounce of hatred towards Leighanne. Fans could list down million reasons why I supposedly hated Leighanne, taking my best friend away from me had always been the top answer, but I honestly didn’t hate her. How can I hate her if she made my best friend one of the happiest men on earth? How can I hate her if she took very good care of Brian?
Though, I had to admit that sometimes it seemed like there was an invisible wall between us; the age difference might have been a big factor or maybe she just simply didn’t like me. She admitted in one of her interviews that she and AJ got along the best. The woman never even dared to answer any Nick related questions in twitter or in real life.
I gave her a sincere smile “Thanks, Leigh.”
Baylee handed me a small box covered with sparkling blue paper. “Happy Birthday, Uncle Nick.”
“Awwww. Thank you, Bay.” I tousled the little rugrat’s blonde hair and pinched his fluffy cheeks. I loved Brian’s mini version to bits. I considered him my first nephew.
“Ok, boys,” Jen clapped her hands with excitement “Time for soundcheck.”
“See you later, buddy.” I smiled as the little boy nodded. I followed Brian, AJ, Howie and Kevin into the stage.
I was in the mood to goof around, which was a very good thing because the girls would have a one hell of a sound check party. I grinned as I made my way into the stage. We were greeted with loud screams from the more or less thirty girls in the audience.
‘It’s gotta be you’ was the first request for the day. It was easy and one of the songs I’d always had fun performing.
Baby, it’s the way you make me, kinda get me go crazy, never wanna stop. It’s gotta be you…..
I noticed a dark-haired girl on the right side area of the stage. I wondered why she chose to sit on that side, she didn’t have a good view of us plus she was alone and like twelve feet away from the screaming girls in the front center of the stage. She was sprawled on the chair, her arms folded in her chest and watching us with boring eyes. She was wearing a white shirt with a printed picture of the Millenium album cover, her shiny dark brown hair which was a bit messy were pulled back. I chuckled inwardly when I thought she would have fit perfectly in the early 2000 era, and she reminded me of the girls who watched the Black and Blue tour.
I decided to make her day, she deserved some Carter charm. I winked at her, waved a little, and finished it off with a seductive smile. She quickly sat up straight when she saw I acknowledge her presence. She was obviously surprised by my action; her mouth was open when she looked behind her, probably to check if there was anyone else in that area. She looked at me, pointed to herself and mouthed ‘Me?’
I gave her the infamous lopsided grin of mine and nodded. She looked beautiful with all those cute reactions, and it takes a lot for a fan to get my full attention. Maybe the fact that I was not dating anyone at the moment made me more aware of my beautiful fans. I was thinking if I should go to the far right side of the stage to sing to her when I felt Brian tapped my shoulder.
“Your turn.” Brian whispered to me, he pointed to my microphone using his mouth.
I tried to remember what was the song we were singing but I lost it. The fans were staring at me like I had gone crazy. When I looked at the spot the pretty brunette occupied; I was pretty upset to find she was gone.
After we performed a few more requested song, answered the fans’ random question, and took pictures with the VIP holders, the sound check party was over. We had two hours to eat dinner, relax, and do whatever we wanted to do before the concert.
The concert was successful and amazing as usual; Minneapolis rocked it tonight. The ladies fell for the Carter’s charm over and over again. I was damn sure they preferred my smile over Howie’s wink. I was a little disappointed, though, that the pretty brunette was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t see her all throughout the concert; she seemed to just vanish after the sound check. I would have enjoyed blowing kisses her way.
I made my way to the backstage, grabbed my things from the dressing room and headed straight to the shower room. I was shocked to see Miss pretty brunette standing outside the shower room, her back leaning against the wall. We have the best and most amazing fans in the world, and some were crazy enough to find their way to the backstage and stalk us, just like Miss pretty brunette here. But for the record, I didn’t mind at all.
“Hey, Nick.” She softly said when I stopped in front of her.
“Hey,”
“Can you really see me?” She asked, her eyes full of doubt.
“I’m talking to you right now, aren’t I?” I chuckled; I was trying so hard to play it cool.
“Wow. This is amazing. I’ve been waiting for this moment to come for four years.”
“I can imagine.”
“I can’t believe you will be the first one to see me.” She answered in an excited tone.
“Do you prefer Howie over me?”
“I wouldn’t mind since I’m a Howie’s girl.” She answered with a playful smile.
“Ouch, girl!” I put my right hand on my left chest, just where my heart was and pretended to be hurt. Fine, I was hurt. Damn, I thought I was everyone’s favorite Backstreet boy.
“Hey, you know I love you.” She smiled “I don’t know how to tell you this but I really need your help.”
“Really?” No fan has ever asked me for help, unless helping them undress was counted.
“Please Nick, I need you to tell my mother I’m already dead.”
I started to laugh hysterically, the guys were so lame for getting back at me for my pranks. Seriously, was this all they could do? Tricked a fan into the backstage to tell me some crazy stuff, they should have known better that Nick Carter won’t fall for that shit.
“You know, you can tell AJ, Brian, Howie or hell, even Kevin that they should start thinking about other pranks. I won’t fall for this, this is so lame.” I laughed
again “Now, if you’ll excuse me--------“
“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh”
I practically screamed like a girl when she blocked the shower room’s door with her zombie-ish face. I tripped over my damn foot and landed on my butt. I blinked so many times to make sure I wasn’t being fooled by my eyes. When I looked up she was still there, she looked so pale like there was no more blood circulating on her body. A big wound appeared on her left temple, and her left face was covered with blood. She was the scariest thing I’d ever seen, and she was wickedly grinning at me.
“Nick, what happened?” AJ appeared out of nowhere “Dude, speak up.”
I opened my mouth to answer but no matter how hard I tried, no voice came out. With shaky hand I pointed at her, with my left hand covering my eyes.
Chapter End Notes:
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