~*~August’s point of view~*~

I was still kicking myself the next night. I had finished unpacking my stuff in Carmen’s guest room. Well, my room now. “It’s Gotta Be You” was blasting on the stereo.

Why? The one time I encountered a celebrity, I couldn’t see them clearly enough to make out who he was. And who’d been sitting with him at the club? I thought back to the sunglasses.

AJ Mclean. It had to have been.

Of course, what would I have done at the time if I had realized who he was? Well, I might’ve asked for an autograph, but I had to give myself some credit. I wasn’t a “teenybopper.” There’s no way I would’ve started crying. I laughed when I saw fans on TRL doing that.

Yeah, maybe that was a little mean. But it was humorous. But how could they be in love with someone they’d never met before? And how could just seeing them be the happiest moment of their lives? I respected the Backstreet Boys and loved their music. But I wasn’t in love with any of them.

Yes, they seemed nice on TV. But who could tell for sure? I hadn’t met any of them (except for Brian, apparently), so for all I knew, fame had gone to their heads, and they were selfish and egotistical. Well, aside from Brian, as I said. He hadn’t seemed either.

Well, even if I never found out how the rest of them were like as people, I had gotten to talk to Brian for a minute. And that was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Hey, don’t kill me,” Carmen came into my room with a guilty expression on her face.

“Uh-oh. What?”

“I know we were gonna go out to eat tonight, but my boss just called, and Nicole, this chick I work with, is sick with the flu and left early, and they want me to cover for her. Usually, I’d just tell them ‘whatever,’ but I’m hoping they’ll make me a manager soon…”

“Okay, okay. I get it. That’s fine,” I nodded.

“I’m sorry. You know how busy the mall is on a Saturday night.”

“Chill, Carm. I said that it was fine,” I laughed. “I’m not leaving any time soon. What time do you think you’ll get off?”

She worked at Bath and Body Works. “Um… probably 10:30 or 11.”

“Could you give me a ride to Wal-mart and drop me off? I need to get some stuff.” My car had made the long drive to Florida… but it hadn’t lasted a second longer. I was going to pick it up from the shop next week.

“Sure. But how are you going to get home?”

“I’ll call a cab. Or I’ll call your cell, and you can swing back by when you get off. You’ve only got to cover for a few hours.”

“You’re going to hang out in Wal-mart till 11 or so?”

“Well, it’s a popular hang-out spot where I come from.”

“So where you come from there’s absolutely nothing to do? That’s sad,” Carmen commented.

“Hey, not all of us have had the opportunity to live in Florida forever.”

“Whatever. One problem at a time. I’ll deal with your sad idea of a Saturday night another day. You’ve already been to a club this weekend. Even I’m not a miracle worker. Let’s go!”

~*~Brian’s point of view~*~

“Man, I told you it’d still be crowded,” I felt like slapping Nick on the back of the head.

“Well, it’ll probably start clearing out soon,” Nick shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. “If I get mobbed by fans…”

“Maybe no one will recognize us.”

“Nick, there are pictures of us all over the store. Especially since Millennium sold the one million copies, it’s being advertized like crazy.” Of course he knew the sales figures as well as I did, but I hadn’t grown tired of saying it yet. I was so proud of this album. It was even more rewarding since three songs I’d co-written had made it onto the CD.

I couldn’t help but smile. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that we’d be so successful. It was a blessing.

But I reminded myself that I was scolding Nick. Success did have its drawbacks. With fame came losing a lot of freedom.

Like being able to go out on a Saturday night. I lowered my Kentucky Wildcats hat. It was becoming a daily part of my attire.

“We couldn’t have come much later, anyway. We have that photo shoot in the morning. And a meeting after that.”

The meeting was to discuss the tour. We were in high demand right now, and would have dates around the world. “So why are we here in the first place?”

“Because you called me and said that you were bored,” Nick said.

“Well, there are a million other places we could’ve gone besides here. Is there something you need to buy?”

Nick smiled mischievously. “Well, when you called me, I was checking my e-mail. And I was reading this…” He handed me a piece of copy paper.

I unfolded it. A heading at the top read “65 Things to do at Walmart.” I skimmed through some of the activities. “If we did some of these, they’d probably kick us out of the store.”

“It’s not like we haven’t been kicked out of plenty of hotels… Of course, that was due to fan hysteria. Not because of anything we did. But still. What’s one more building?” Nick reasoned.

Maybe this was something a teenager would want to do. But I was 24. I was an adult. I couldn’t possibly agree to this.

Although it did look fun.

“Well, I don’t have anything better to do,” I justified.

But he saw the smile I was hiding. “Don’t give me that ‘I’m too old for this’ act. You’re the one who called me the other day, asking if you could come over and play my N64.”

“I try to spend time with you because I think you need to have a mature influence in your life,” I laughed. “So let’s do this.”

He led us over to the toy department. “Set up a battle between the Barbies and G.I. Joes,” he paraphrased.

“Well, we’ve got plenty of Barbies,” I looked at the aisle, which contained everything from scubagear Barbie to a mini-Barbie dressed up as a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz. “I’m not seeing any G.I. Joes, though. They must be outdated… like from Kevin’s childhood.”

“Hmm.. what else could we use?”

I looked one aisle over, and I couldn’t help myself. I guess he was the one who was influencing me. “There are some NSYNC dolls over here.”

“No way!” He rushed over, not believing me until he saw it for himself. “No Strings Attached?” he read the box that contained a Lance Bass.

“I think that’s what their next CD is going to be called.”

We grabbed one of each member. “Hey! You’ve got one, too! I didn’t know there was a Nick Carter doll!” I held up the Justin Timberlake one.

Nick simply rolled his eyes, though he looked like he was restraining himself from throwing a Joey Fatone at me. He got the comparison all the time, both being the young “heartthrobs” of each group. It wasn’t a role I envied.

We set up all their band members facing the Barbie’s. Nick moved the Justin doll in front of Holiday Barbie, singing “I Want You Back,” then motioned the Barbie to smack him. I was just waiting for a reporter to jump out at any moment. What a front page story in the Entertainment section that would be? “Backstreet Boys Having Playtime With NSYNC.”

And that didn’t’ sound right.

Just then, someone did walk by. She stopped when she saw us and stared. It took me a second to realize that she wasn’t staring at us, about to start screaming. I wasn’t trying to sound vain, but that’s what I was used to now.

She was staring at the battle scene we’d created. With a bunch of dolls. Makes you wonder why so many people think of us as “larger than life,” doesn’t it?

Nick smiled sheepishly and stood up.

One I realized I wasn’t going to have to prepare for screaming and hugging, I recognized her. She was the brunette from the club. She was a couple inches shorter than me, and looked like a dwarf next to Nick. Unlike in the dim light last night, I could also see that her eyes were the same shade of blue as my own.

“Hey… fancy running into you again,” I said.

“Yeah.” She looked at the ground. After a pause, she said, “What are you doing?”

“Umm…” Nick stuttered.

“Sixty-five fun things to do at Wal-mart,” I shook my head, my tone as if to say, What else would we be doing?

“Oh, of course. What was I thinking? I mean, it looked like you two were playing with Barbie and… is that NSYNC?”

“Yup. I’m thinking about purchasing JC,” I joked. “They’re my favorite group.” I wondered if she understood the irony? She didn’t seem to know who we were.

“My friend would seriously like one of those,” she shook her head.

“So do you two know each other?” Nick was obviously lost, judging from the expression on his face.

“Sort of. Hi, I’m Brian,” I extended my hand.

She shook it. “August.”

Well, she still hadn’t asked for an autograph. Or proposed marriage. There was no startled expression when I told her my name. August showed no signs of being a fan. But she looked to be a few years younger than me, and as I said, I wasn’t the teenage heart throb of the group. I needed to put her to the test.

“And this is my best friend Nick. Carter.”

She smiled politely. “Nice to meet you.”

Wow.

“Well… I’d better let you finish,” August said after a few seconds of silence.

A fan also wouldn’t miss the opportunity to hang out with two of the Backstreet Boys.

“Or you could stay and help us out,” I didn’t want to miss the only opportunity I’d get to get to know her. Although it suddenly occurred to me that she had no reason to want to stay. She wasn’t starstruck. And as a person, I hadn’t exactly been impression. All she’d seen from me was me spilling and then slipping on my drink and now playing with dolls.

Yeah, Brian. Score.

“Oh. I don’t know…”

“Really? Great, come on,” I pretended like she’d said yes. I would show her that I wasn’t a complete moron.

Nick looked a little annoyed that I hadn’t checked with him first. I sent him a “Is this okay?” looked. He shrugged and then looked pleased that his event was gaining momentum.

“Umm… how about his one? That’d be hilarious,” he read one to us.

“You’re kidding right?” August asked, wide-eyed. She could see that he wasn’t. “All right, be my guest. At least I don’t have a part in this.”

We went to find some towels. August handed me a blue one and Nick a white one. We draped them over our shoulders.

Nick started walking up and down the aisles. Occasionally he’d blurt out, “I am Batman! Come Robin. To the batcave!” and swing his “cape” in true superhero fashion. He even found a boomerang and declared it was his “Baterang.”

“Come on,” I grabbed it from him. “Like Batman’s not already having a bad day and you want to take a key crime-fighting piece of equiptment!” Nick didn’t remember the quote, and simply grabbed it back. August and I laughed.

One family with two daughters who looked about high school age stared at us for a little while. But I think they reasoned that there was no way Backstreet Boys would act like we were acting.

If this was hysteria repellant, I’d be more than happy to dress like Batman and Robin any day.

Nick put his arm around my shoulder and pointed to an employee a good ways away, trying to ignore us so that he didn’t have to deal with the situation.

August smirked. “Aww, you two are pretty as a picture. I guess what they say about Batman and Robin are true?”

“Alright, alright,” I shoved him off of me.

Add homosexual superhero on my ever growing list of impressive character traits.

Nick took on the next task, after we put the towels back. He found his victim: an elderly woman who was grocery shopping. She had glasses on, but was still holding each can of food close to her face and squinting.

“Excuse me?” Nick approached her. The woman turned her squinting from the food to him, but didn’t say anything. “I was wondering… do you have any Gray Poupon?”

Still she just stared at him. His face reddened. He hadn’t been expecting that reaction. Or lack thereof. He stared over at us, helplessly.

“Um… do you have any Gray Poupon?” he repeated to her, louder this time. Still nothing. “I need some. It’s for my… dog.”

I smirked. August clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. “He has no idea what it actually is, does he?”

“Nope!” I laughed. Then stopped. “What is it?”

August looked at me. “Oh. I don’t know. It’s just funny that he doesn’t… maybe he should ask the woman.”

We pulled various other stunts. I began to wonder who had taken the time to create this list, and if they’d ever actually completed every item on the list.

“Your turn,” Nick said.

“Huh?” August asked.

“We’ve done plenty of stuff. Now it’s your turn to do one. You’ve still got a bunch to choose from. This one looks easy.”

“I can’t do that…” she looked at the piece of paper.

“Why not? It’s easy,” Nick repeated.

“Maybe you’re cut out to stalk random people, but I can’t go up to Walmart employees acting crazy. They’ll think I’m.. crazy! There’s no way.”

A few minutes later, we were walking up to the customer service employee.

“Hi, I’d like to put this on layaway,” August said.

The clerk looked at her skeptically. “Huh? Why?”

“Because I don’t have enough money to buy it right now. But I can come back tomorrow and get it.”

“Well…” he looked at the item in question. “You could always just get a different bag tomorrow. We have lots of M&M’s.”

“Yes, but how will I know that this bag is still here?”

I laughed inwardly as she purposefully twitched slightly.

“Well… none of the bags are any different than this one.”

“Actually, the exact number of M&M’s will vary slightly between each bag. Not to mention the ratio of each color,” August corrected him. “I want a bag with the highest proportion of blue ones.”

He stared for a few seconds. He looked to be around my age, and getting tired. I wondered if his shift was ending soon. “But who’s to say that bag has more blue ones than the others do?”

“Oh. I can tell.” She grinned widely. “I have a sixth sense about these things.”

“Wow,” Nick said as we were walking out o the store. “Wow. I can’t believe you got him to do it. You’re really good at pretending your crazy.”

“Who said I was pretending? I could tell that that one had the most blue M&M’s.”

“Okay, just stop. You’re freaking me out,” he said, as she did her crazy smile again.

I laughed. “And just think, you almost weren’t going to do it. Now that guy has a story to tell all of his friends.”

“Well, I’m out guys. See you tomorrow, Brian. Nice meeting you, August!” He gave her a high five.

“You, too,” she said, as he headed towards his car. “Well, it is getting late.”

Ask her out, a voice in my brain was screaming. “Umm… where’s your car? I’ll walk you to it?” was what ended up coming out of my mouth.

“Oh, it died. I’m gonna call my friend and see if she’s gotten off work yet. She’s supposed to pick me up.”

“So you just got dropped off at Walmart tonight? I can give you a ride,” I offered.

“Oh, thanks, but that’s okay. You shouldn’t have to go out of your way. Carmen works right at the mall.”

“It’s no problem, really. I’m not leaving you standing out here by yourself,” I added.

She relented, and we headed to my jeep.

“So how long have you lived in Orlando?”

“Well, I’m at school down here. I was staying on campus and had gone back home for the summer. But Carmen’s roommate dropped out, and she asked if I wanted to move in. So I moved in this weekend. It’s so much nice than where I was living, too. And cheaper.”

“So how old are you? Nineteen?”

“I will be in August.”

“Oh, and your name is August. What a coincidence!” I held the door open for her.

“Yeah, imagine that.”

“That’s how old Nick is, as hard as it is to believe.”

“Nineteen? Are you sure? I was thinking, you know… twelve, thirteen! Of course, you were having fun with the NSYNC dolls, too.”

I hung my head. “I can see that I’m never going to live that down.”

She shook her head. “But, no, I’m really glad I found Carmen. I transferred down here in January. It’s been a semester, but I spent most of it studying and didn’t get a chance to meet to many people or see a lot of Orlando. Or Florida in general.”

We mainly talked about what was good to do here in the summer. She didn’t live too far away, so before I knew it she was saying, “This is the apartment complex right here.”

I pulled over to the side of the street.

“So… it was good running into you. Again,” I finally managed.

“Yeah. You, too. Well… uh, bye,” she opened her door and got out of the jeep.

“Do you want to do something sometime? Maybe I could show you around Orlando… Now that you don’t have classes to worry about,” I offered, surprised that I was getting the words out while my nerves were in overdrive. I barely knew her, but she was so… refreshing compared to most of the people I was dealing with these days.

August stared at me, seeming surprised. I couldn’t tell if that was a good reaction or not. Every second was like a slap in the face. I found myself wishing for an instant, enthusiastic response. Maybe the fans had just spoiled me, though. It was so rewarding to see their smiling faces in concert.

Finally, she said, “Sure… I’d like that.” A slow smile spread across her face. It matched the one already on mine. She wrote down her number, and I drove home not caring about how late it was and how early I had to be up in the morning.