~*~Brian’s point of view~*~

“What? Tonight?”

“Yeah,” AJ said.

Luckily, he couldn’t read my expression over the cell phone. “You miss us already? We’ve been back in Orlando, what? Fifteen hours?”

“You got something better to do tonight?” He’d said this as a joke, but then he thought it over. “Wait, you do already have plans, don’t you? We’ve been back, what? Fifteen hours,” he mocked me, “and you’ve already called that chick you were talking about last week, haven’t you?”

“It’s not a big deal.” I found no reason to tell him I’d actually gone straight to her apartment.

“Oh, I think it is, Rok. She must be something to have pulled you out of your hermit phase.”

“I’ll be there tonight,” I said, to show him that he was getting ahead of himself. August would understand. I could reschedule for tomorrow.

“Why don’t you bring this girl with you?”

“I don’t think...”

“Hmm... a big enough deal that you won’t introduce her to your best buds, huh?”

Touché, Mclean, I thought. “No, of course not. I’ll invite her and see if she wants to come. You just want to meet some college girls,” I laughed.
“Don’t we all. Aiight, I gotta go call D. Later!”

“Bye,” I hung up the phone and immediately called August.

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

When I picked up August, her roommate was there and didn’t have any plans, so I invited her along. That would show AJ that this wasn’t a date tonight.

Whatever the two of us would have decided to do had he not cornered me into coming would’ve been a date. But he didn’t need to know that.

“So is he having a party?” August asked.

“No, not really. Originally it was just going to be the five of us. He bought a new house and wants to show it off basically.”

“Did he just move in? When’s he had time to?” she wondered.

“He closed on the house last month. It came fully furnished, and he’s been unpacking his things whenever we’ve been in town.”

I noticed their astonishment at the words “fully furnished.” It’s funny how just a year or two ago I would’ve had the same reaction. But so many things were possible all of a sudden.

We pulled into the neighborhood, and I glanced at the post-it I’d written his address on.

“Jeez,” Carmen said. “Which one’s your mansion?”

My jaw had dropped slightly at the sight of these houses, too. Driving down the street, it somehow became real to me.

“Haha,” I said sarcastically. “I don’t have a mansion.”

But I could, that was the thing. I mean, not literally a mansion. These were certainly mini-ones, though. These houses were Cribs worthy. Heck, AJ’d probably be getting a call from them any day now.

“Where do you live?” August asked. I could tell she’d never thought about it before, which made me smile inwardly.

“Umm...”

“What? Your estate only half this size?” Carmen said, drly.

“I have an apartment.”

“You mean condo?”

“No,” I told Carmen. “Kevin, Howie, and I share an apartment.”

“All that money, and you...”

“Carmen!” August cried, exasperated.

With Millennium, I’d been thinking about getting a place of my own. We’d been successful for several years, but in the last month or two, we’d reached a new level. Regardless of more success, I’d been home so little the past few years, I hadn’t felt the need to bother with my own apartment or house. Who’d take care of it all the months of the year I was touring around the world?

And a lot of my time off was spent with my family in Kentucky, anyway.

Besides, the home AJ had purchased had been a bit of a gamble. It had been out of his price range unless the CD did extremely well.

Lucky for him.

“Well, the lease hasn’t run out yet,” I said. I could tell Carmen wanted to ask more, but one look from August silenced her on the subject.

I got to the end of a cul-de-sac. I looked at the house numbers on the mailbox and said, “This is it.”

Our mouths dropped open. There was a U-shaped driveway. I parked next to Kevin’s car. Stone steps led up to the double doors of the two-story home of who knew how many square feet. The backyard was surrounded by a tall fence, which no doubt held the pool AJ was so excited about. I rang the doorbell, and AJ soon answered. He quickly shoved me aside and said, “Well, hello ladies!”

August smiled politely. Carmen smiled flirtateously.

“This is August and this is Carmen.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m AJ, the best the Backstreet Boys have to offer. Which one’s yours?”

I shot him a look. “Niether are yours, and that’s all that’s important.”

August laughed.

“Got it,” AJ said, taking that as an answer. As if any regular girl wouldn’t find me funny. He put his arm around Carmen and led the three of us inside.

“Hey,” I greeted Kevin as he came into the entryway from what, I assume, was the kitchen.

“This makes our place seem pretty pathetic, huh?” he asked.

I laughed. “This is August and Carmen.”

“Hey, nice to meet you,” he shook each of their hands. He looked from August to me, but had the self-control AJ lacked to keep whatever he was thinking to himself.

“This is my bachelor pad!” AJ said.

“Can you give us the tour yet?” asked Kevin, who’d obviously been forced to wait until others arrived. “Howie said he’d be late, and Nick’s… well, Nick.”

“Well, I really wanted to show everyone at the same time, but…” It was obvious he couldn’t wait any longer.

He led us up the staircase first. He had an office that was still in need of some unpacking and a guestroom that looked like something off of HGTV. His master bedroom was three times that size, complete with a bathroom.

“This is as large our apartment,” Carmen marveled, staring at the marble tub underneath and arched window.

AJ looked pleased with himself as he led us back down the hall. “I saved the best for last,” he opened the door and ushered me and Kevin in.

It was like he had his own movie theater. There was a large screen against the wall, with a projector opposite it. The room was wired with surround sound.

“Wow, AJ,” Kevin plopped down on a comfy couch. “I’m willing to ditch Brian and D if you want a roommate.”

AJ grinned. “I could use a maid…”

I laughed. Kevin was usually the one to do the cleaning in our apartment.

We heard the doorbell ring and headed back downstairs.

“Hey, D!” AJ said. “About time you got here.”

“You showing off the new house without me, huh?” Howie said.

I did introductions yet again and AJ showed us the rest of the home. We ended up on the back deck, after grabbing some sodas by the fridge.

“I wish we could go swimming,” Carmen glanced at the pool, longingly. It was a humid night. “Me, too,” August agreed.

“Who says you can’t?”

“Umm, none of us brought swimsuits,” she laughed.

“Oh, that’s perfectly alright,” he said to her, mischievously.

“Alex,” came a slightly annoyed voice from the screen door.

Like a kid trapped with his hand in the cookie jar, AJ turned around. “Hey, babe! I thought you had to work tonight.”

“Got off early,” she said.

“Come on out. You know the guys already. This is August and Carmen. And this is Natasha.” After glancing at her expression, he added, “My girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you,” August smiled.

Natasha smiled back, but I didn’t think it was sincere.

“So AJ, I never got to see the upstairs of the house,” Howie reminded him after a moment.

“Well, right this way,” his arm around Natasha, the three of them went inside. But not before Natasha sent Carmen and August a look. Carmen wasn’t looking back at her, but August glanced at me, raising her eyebrows.

“So what do you two do?” Kevin made conversation.

“We’re students mostly,” Carmen said. “Working to get through school.”

“Oh,” Kevin nodded. “Do you go the same college

Carmen nodded. “And we’re roommates now, too. We…”

We could heard the doorbell through the screen door.

“It’s probably Nick,” Kevin said. “We’d better get it in case AJ can’t hear it upstairs. He might have his surround sound speakers turned up in his theater!” he laughed.

Carmen decided to go with him.

“Did you see that?” August asked.

“What?”

“Carmen.” Noticing no dawn of comprehension on my face, she added, “She perked up at the sound of Nick’s name.”

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I totally missed it.”

“Boys,” she said airily, then smiled. “Seriously, pool party next time,” she fanned her face and leaned against the deck’s railing.

“Is that a waterslide?” I squinted in the dark. It was.

“Imagine that! What a house,” she said. She stepped out into the yard to get a better look at the slide, and I followed her.

She glanced back towards the house. We could see the Natasha pass by one of the windows.

“She seems… nice,” August said, dryly.

“Natasha just gets jealous of any girl AJ flirts with. Which is… every girl,” I laughed.

She did, too.

“Look, he’s got a diving board, too,” she pointed to the other end of the pool. A cloud shifted, causing the moon to shine brighter, reflecting off the water and giving us more visibility. “So you guys looking for a sixth Backstreet Boy?”

“Hmm… not sure you could really pull it off. You know, seeing as how you’re not a boy.”

“Brian Littrell, that’s so sexist!” she put her hands on her hips, in a mock-annoyed tone.

“You’d have to be quite the singer and dancer.”

“Oh, I am,” August said, matter-of-factly. And then, loudly and off-key, she sang, “It’s tearing up my heart when I’m with you! And when we are apart I feel it, too…”

“My ears!” I cried, just as dramatically as she was singing. I covered them with my hands.

She pulled them back down, getting in my face and continuing, “And no matter what I do, I feel the pain…”

“Yeah, I’m feeling the pain, too!”

“Don’t lie. You ready to sign me into the group yet?”

“You should just be glad I’m not throwing you into the pool.”

She squatted next to the pool to feel the water. “It’s the perfect temperature.”

I shoved her lightly, but then grabbed her shoulders so she wouldn’t fall in.

“Very funny!”

“Why thank you,” I said, feeling the water myself. “I’m about ready to jump in with my clothes on.”

August tried to call my bluff. “No one’s stopping you.”

“What? You don’t think I would?”

She shook her head.

I kept her gaze, raising my eyebrows as I walked over to the diving board. Her mouth opened slightly, but she still looked skeptical. I climbed the few short steps. Walked to the end of the diving board. One of her eyebrows was raised now.

I jumped towards her and did a cannonball. When I came to the surface, I could see her stepping back and shaking some water off of herself. “If you were really Backstreet Boy material, a little water wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“I’m just saying,” I said, treading water in the deep end and enjoying a break from the heat.

August stood there a moment in consideration. “You know what?” She ran to the diving board and jumped in.

“Hey, I did a trick.”

“Oh, yeah, because a cannonball is really difficult,” she splashed me.

“What in the world?”

I looked over to see Nick standing next to the pool. Kevin and Carmen were standing behind them.

“Come on in, Nick. The water’s perfect!” I said.

He glanced at Carmen. “I’m just surprised that she’s in the water,” she said, and then added to August, “You know I’m in.” She used the diving board like we had, but Nick took one look at the waterslide and went in that direction.

“Kev?” I said.

He looked amused, but didn’t move. He didn’t have to speak for me to know exactly what he was thinking.
Kids