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Author's Chapter Notes:
Not quite as long between updates this time. :) Hope you like it!

~*~Brian’s point of view~*~

What a weird day. Aaron and I had been up late playing video games, and then Brian—or “Nick”—had been dragging me around Orlando since waking me up, bright and early.

Now he was telling me that I was really Brian Littrell. What in the world was he talking about? He seemed so passionate about it, though. So adamant. I was trying to be supportive.

“Can I use your bathroom?” I asked AJ.

He’s just told Br… Nick that he’d sold a skull. Nick looked like he was about to freak.

“I… what? Yeah, sure,” AJ let me past him.

I used the restroom and slowly meandered back. AJ had some pretty cool artwork on the hallway walls. Some of them were rather creepy, to be honest, but they caught your attention all the same.

Nick seemed in a slightly better mood when I got back. “Come on, Brian, let’s go.”

“That’s… nevermind,” AJ said. He’d started to correct him but apparently didn’t see the point. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“At this rate he will be Nick pretty soon,” Nick said sadly.

He said goodbye to AJ, and I followed him outside.

“If I’m actually you, then how come I don’t even remember switching?”

Nick shrugged.

“Where are we going?”

“To get the skull. Hopefully.”

“Can we get lunch on the way? I’m hungry. And thirsty.”

“No,” Nick said sternly. “If I get you a soda, you’ll just have to pee again… jeez, it’s like babysitting a four year old.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” he muttered as we got back into the car. He passed me a piece of paper. “That’s the address we’re going to. Any idea where it is?”

Something slowly registered. I didn’t know why, but I’d been to that street before. “Yeah, actually. Take a right once you get out of the neighborhood.”

We arrived at an apartment complex fairly quickly because of my navigating.

“Cross your fingers,” Nick said. “Ok, I think it’s this one.”

We climbed a set of stairs and he knocked on the door.

“Be there in a second!” I heard a female voice respond.

Nick took a deep breath, and he seemed nervous when the door opened.

“Hel.. oh. What are you doing here?”

The girl was looking at me for some reason.

“Kate, can we come in for a minute?”

She started to shake her head.

“It’s an emergency,” Nick said.

Her look of annoyance lessened suddenly. “Are you ok?” Again she was looking at me.

“Not really… can we please come in?” Nick answered for me.

“Fine.”

We sat down on the couch. It was a spacious living room and very tidy. There were two huge bookcases and purple curtains hanging in front of a window. A comfy chair was in the corner under a light. I imagined that was her favorite place to read.

“What’s the emergency?”

“We need the skull.”

“Why?”

“Because… you wouldn’t believe me. But we really need it. I’ll pay whatever you want for it,” Nick said.

“This isn’t about money,” she looked offended. “Are you ignoring me?”

“What?” I asked.

“I can’t believe that you’re acting like you don’t even know me!”

“Have we met?” When she stared at me, I decided to be polite and introduce myself. “I’m Nick… er… Brian.”

Nick elbowed me.

She raised her eyebrows, stood up, and starting pointing towards the door.

“Kate, he doesn’t remember you. That’s part of the emergency.”

“What? Does he have amnesia or something?”

“Sort of…”

She stared at him, silently demanding more of an answer.

“He thinks he’s me.”

“Huh?”

“I’m Nick, and he’s Brian.”

“Wait, what?”

“We switched bodies. The skull is really magical.”

“Did he put you up to this?” she asked. “You have a lot of nerve.” She poked a finger into my chest. “I told you I didn’t believe in all the magic stuff, and now this is some sort of a joke. I don’t appreciate it.”

“This is not a prank! Please,” he said again. “I didn’t think you’d believe me. I’m sure he never did either, which is why he wouldn’t tell you about the skull. But it’s really magical, and now he’s gotten… lost. If I can’t figure out a way to switch back now then he’s going to be lost forever.”

Kate stood in front of me, and I stared back at her. I was confused, but what else was new? This day was getting freakier and freakier.

Again I had the feeling of déjà vu. Like I’d stared into her beautiful eyes before. I could see several images, though they seemed far away and cloudy. Her reading a book in the shop where we’d just met Faye. Her smiling at one of my jokes.

Kate had looked like she was about to open the door to show us the way out. Now she faltered and sighed. “Hold on.”

She disappeared and Nick and I exchanged looks.

“Where’s she going?” I asked.

He didn’t have time to answer though. She gave back with a gift bag. I knew that inside of it was the skull. Nick embraced her in a friendly hug.

“Thank you!” he exclaimed.

She looked surprised. “You’re welcome.” Now she really did walk us to the door. She gave him a quick goodbye and simply gave me a sad look as we left. We went back to my house… or was it his house if he was me and I was him? I started to ask, but Nick looked like he was deep in thought. And I didn’t want to distract him while driving. He managed to nearly take out two dogs and an elderly woman on a walker during the short drive because he was in such a rush. Now he was running inside.

“Come on, Brian. Time to switch!”

“What’s the hurry?” I asked. I was still a little bummed he had refused to buy me a Happy Meal.

“I keep having to suppress the urge to say ‘ya’all.’ I’m this close to being you,” he held his fingers so that they were nearly touching. “It’s time… time to look where we are and what we’ve…” he began singing one of our songs and then shook his head. “See, there’s the you slipping in. Focus, Nick,” he told himself. “Although it’s true,” he mused. “Look at what we have been through… Oh, It’s True, that’s another one…”

Once we were in the living room, he pulled the skull out of the bag.

“Ok, you really believe me, right? That you’re really Brian?”

“Um… yeah,” I said, attempting to sound convincing. I was trying as hard as I could, but it was such a ridiculous idea.

“We have to connect thoughts… what are we going to think about? It has to be the same thing,” he said.

“Umm… The Mario Brothers.”

“All the things in the world, and you want to think… fine. Mario,” he said.

He held up the skull and commanded that I close my eyes. Mario. Mario. Yoshi. Mario theme song. Luigi in the green outfit.

I opened my eyes. “Now what?”

He opened his, too. “Darn it! Brian, you’re Brian. You have to find your soul or whatever… can’t you remember anything?”

I thought of Kate’s eyes. That had brought back something, but I still couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Here, grab the skull again,” Nick said.

As much as I called him that- Nick- in my head, I could also see him. And in seeing him, he was short with brown hair and blue eyes. Brian Littrell. I’d known him since before I could drive. I’d looked up to him. He’d seemed so cool. Though he was five years older than me, the age difference hadn’t come between us. He’d been the Backstreet Boy to not treat me like a kid.

“Come on, Brian. I know you’re in there somewhere. You were always the brains of this operation,” he laughed a little. “Now you leave me to try to fix something this major? I can’t do it.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s the truth… I screwed everything up. You know the reason I came to the cook-out?”

I didn’t remember the event he was talking about. But now didn’t seem the time to point that out. “Why?”

“It wasn’t about the group. I mean, I wanted to see everybody. And I wanted to make new music and reconnect with the fans. But mostly, the real reason… I wanted my best friend back. I wanted you to believe in me again.”

I saw the look on my face when I found out I was leaving the group. Then, instead of looking at Brian, I was Brian. And Nick was leaving. I felt the swirl of emotions. I wanted to punch something. How could he ditch us like that? We were all going to leave the record company together. They didn’t have the group’s best interest at heart. But… he’d stayed. He didn’t have the group’s best interest at heart, either. Nick didn’t care that he was leaving me.

Then I was back to being Nick. I thought again of my memories of Brian. I’d wanted to make him proud. To show him that I could be like him- grown-up and could handle things on my own. Yes, I was doing a solo CD, but I was still coming back to the group. But I didn’t want to make anymore music with them until I could prove myself.

Nick sighed. “You know, if I have to spend the rest of my life as someone… there’s no one I’d rather be than you, Bri.” He took the skull back and threw it on the couch.

“What now?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“But… we didn’t switch back… did we?”

Nick shook his head. “Who are you now? Are you still the same or did you change somehow?” he sang, narrating the situation with a song we’d just recorded. “It was too late… Man, listen to me. I sound more Kentucky already.”

“So… what do we do?”

“Do you wanna play some video games? You’re right, they are better with two player.”