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The Best of Both Worlds
One: ‘Till The End

As clichéd as it sounds, Danica is my best friend. I know, I know, you’re all groaning at the computer screen, but just hear me out! She’s been a dancer with us for quite a while, ever since we filmed the Backstreet’s Back video. It didn’t take long for us to start hanging out. We became friends almost instantly, and I’m pretty sure it was mostly because we share the same brand of ridiculous humour.

So, when it was time for us to audition for dancers for the Millennium tour, I quickly told her about it. And of course, since she’s pretty damn good she made it. I guess the fact that she was in a few of our videos helped as well. Either way, she’s touring with us now and I couldn’t be happier about that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not secretly in love with her or anything like that. She’s just my friend, and it would be unbelievably awkward if we dated. Trust me, we’ve talked about it before and we’re both on the same page in that regard. We’re just friends. Besides, I couldn’t even begin to tell you the kinds of drama that would happen if she and I started going out. For one thing, she thrives off of drama. I think she should have been an actress instead of a dancer, but hey, what do I know? She loves being overly dramatic. I think she thinks her life is a TV show or something.

Plus, AJ has been after her since this tour started. As soon as he saw that she and I were buddy buddy, he tried to use that as his in. It didn’t really work, she’s hardly attracted to him. That doesn’t seem to stop him for trying, though. He hits on her every chance he gets, and she turns him down just as often. I think she thinks it’s more funny than annoying.

Other than that little hiccup, everything seemed to be progressing fine over the course of our tour. I mean, we have our little issues, who doesn’t? But for the most part everyone gets along just fine.

Of course there’s been a couple of bumps in the road, the biggest one being that my girlfriend and I broke up a few months ago. It was pretty messy, she was an opening act on our tour and she liked to blame everything on the fact that I couldn’t commit to her. Get this, she really thought that Dani and I were sleeping together. I had to laugh at that, she couldn’t be more wrong! Either way, she ended up leaving the tour in a big elaborate dramatic way (so maybe it’s all girls that are overly dramatic, and not just Dani.) and leaving us without an opening act.

I mean, it wasn’t hard for us to find another one, but jeez! How annoying. Of course, even though she was the one to leave, she won’t stop calling me and pestering me to get back together with her. How much sense does that make? I will seriously never understand girls.

So I guess other than those couple of things, life here is pretty simple.

Usually, after the concerts some of us hang out in my hotel room and randomly watch movies and that sort of thing. It’s a nice way to relax after an exhausting show. Some of the guys go out clubbing, but I can’t really get into the clubs (I’m only 19) so I usually end up getting left behind. It’s not a big deal, Dani usually hangs out with me since she can’t get into the clubs either. Lately, AJ has taken to hanging out with us as well. It doesn’t bother me so much as it bothers her. And even then it’s not so bad. It’s not like he’s constantly hitting on her, but it is all little awkward since it’s so well known that he wants her.

Where was I? Oh right, we were hanging out in my hotel room. Dani was on the bed, I was on the floor and AJ, well of course he was on the bed too.

“I hate this movie.” Dani laughed, as she popped a potato chip into her mouth. “It’s not funny.”

I rolled my eyes. That was another reason I couldn’t ever date Dani. She and I had far too different tastes in movies. While she enjoyed sappy romantic chick flicks, I was more for the stupid college humour or some sort of classic horror movie. “Did I just hear you say that Office Space isn’t funny?” I asked her, and she gave a look that said, yes, she did in fact say that.

I clasped a hand to my chest and dropped my mouth open. “I don’t think we can be friends anymore.” I said, gasping. See? I can act dramatic too!

Dani just shook her head. I guess she was used to my brand of sarcastic over the top humour by that time. “Seriously, it’s not that good. I thought it would be, and I’m really disappointed by it.”

“Maybe you have to work in an office to get it.” AJ pondered. He wasn’t staring at the screen, but watching Danica instead. Could that guy be any more obvious? I don’t get why he fawns over her when he could have any girl that he wanted, but hey, it’s his life.

“What?” Dani asked, raising an eyebrow. “You mean like, it’s only jokes you’d get if you lived that sort of life?”

AJ nodded. “Yeah. Maybe it would be funnier if that were the case.”

I just started at them. That was so not the case! “No! This movie is priceless, he is going to burn the place down, how is that only funny if you work in an office?”

Danica just shrugged. “Well, maybe it’s just not funny at all then.” She giggled.

I rolled my eyes. Best friend or not, she really could get on my nerves sometimes. The way that AJ nodded in agreement with her was bothering me too. I was pretty sure that if it had just been he and I he would have been rolling with laughter.

Regardless of the fact that the two of them seemed to despise the movie, we continued to watch it through to the end. Dani continued to lay on the bed, absentmindedly popping potato chips into her mouth, AJ kept his attention focused on her, glancing back at the TV every once in a while.

And I? Well I enjoyed the damn movie!

“I can’t believe you didn’t like it.” I said, one the credits began to scroll over the screen.

Dani laughed and threw a pillow at me. “Don’t pout so much, Nickers.” She giggled. Did I mention she’s got annoying nicknames for me too? ‘Nickers’ is just the beginning, and it’s far from the worst. “It’s not healthy for you.”

“Well it was comedy gold!” I defended my stance.

She rolled her eyes. “Relax Nick, I’m only bugging you. It wasn’t that bad of a movie. The ending was pretty good.”

AJ nodded right along with her, as I should have expected. “Yeah, it did have a good ending, I’ll give it that much.”

I shook my head, getting up from my seat on the floor to stretch out my legs a little. “Now what?” I asked, glancing at the two of them. As far as I was concered, it was still early. We were spending the night in the hotel, and didn’t have a show the next day, so I figured it was okay to stay up a bit later than usual.

AJ and Dani looked at each other and shrugged. “I’m kind of hungry…” She said, trailing off a bit.

“Yeah, I could tell.” I laughed. “You hogged the entire bag of chips.”

“I did not!” Dani shot back, glaring at me. “You could have had some, you just needed to grab them off the bed.”

“And feel your wrath? Uh, no thanks.” I teased her, it was far too easy to get under her skin.

And get under her skin I did. The next thing I knew there was a pillow flying at my face. “Hey, what was that for?” I questioned, catching the pillow and flinging it back at her.

“Never question a girls eating habits.” She replied, giving me an innocent grin.

AJ rolled his eyes. I don’t think he liked it much when Danica and I got into our little teasing bouts. In fact, I think it made him feel even more helpless about his situation with her. That wasn’t really my problem though. Dani was my friend, I could act with her how I wanted. “So…” He interrupted us. “Where did you guys want to go for food?”

I shrugged. “There’s a pizza place across the street.” I suggested. “Just let me get changed first.” I said, ushering for the two of them to leave.

AJ left in a hurry, followed closely by Dani, but not without another comment from her. “Aw Nick, what if I wanted to watch?”

I rolled my eyes. “In your dreams, baby.” I winked, shutting the door as they walked out.

It didn’t take me long to get dressed, and just as I was pulling a nicer shirt over my head, I heard my cell phone ring from its resting place on the bed. I figured it was Dani, calling to ask why I was taking so long.

To my surprise, it wasn’t. Instead, it was a name that I knew all too well.

Kels.

Reluctantly, I answered the phone. I didn’t want to deal with her at all, but I knew that if I didn’t pick up she’d just keep calling and calling and calling… “Hello?”

“Nick!” She replied, a little too enthusiastically. Well, at least this was going to be a happy phone call. Sometimes she’d call me in tears wanting to get back together, other times she’d be in a good mood, asking me about how my life was and that sort of thing. It didn’t make sense to me. “How are you?”

“Good.” I replied shortly, not really wanting to get into a conversation with her. Not that I really had a choice at this point. “How are you doing?” I asked her, only because I knew that was what she wanted to hear.

She paused for a minute and didn’t say anything. I winced, this wasn’t going to be good. “I miss you Nick.” She said quietly.

I sighed. What was I supposed to say to that? I really didn’t miss her at all. “I know you do.” I said dumbly.

“Do you miss me?”

I ran a hand through my hair. Why do girls insist on making things so difficult? She was the one who had broken up with me, so why was she the one who was so persistent with calling me all the time? “Not…really.” I answered honestly, knowing it would make her upset. But I wasn’t about to lie! No, lying would be bad.

“Not at all?” She pressed, her voice shaking a little bit. “I mean, you don’t miss me not even a little bit?”

I took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to let me off the phone unless I told her what she wanted to hear. But I really didn’t want to get back together with her, and I really didn’t miss our drama filled relationship. “I miss you… but I don’t miss us being together.” I replied… hoping she understood what I meant by that. Oh, who am I kidding? Even I didn’t understand what I meant by that!

“What the hell does that mean, Nick?” She nearly shouted into the phone. Guess she didn’t understand. Oops. “You are just impossible, Nick! Call me when you figure out what you want!” She shouted, and hung up on me.

I just stared at my phone, dumbfounded. Before I could process another thought on what had just happened, I heard a loud knocking on my door.

“Nick!” Danica shouted. “How long does it take you to change? I’m starving, let’s go already!”

I grabbed my wallet off the side table and headed towards the door, leaving my cell phone on the bed so I wouldn’t have to deal with Kels while I was out. As I opened the door, I saw Danica standing in front of me with a silly grin on her face. She shook her head and made some comment about how it took me longer than a girl to get ready.

I laughed. Such is my life.