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Jennifer emerged from the shower to find Carly awake, flicking the remote at the television angrily. "Problem?"

"The remote's busted, turn it on, would you?" Once Jen turned on the tv, Carly threw the remote at the wall, laughing when it shattered into pieces. "Oops."

"Cute, Carly," Jen shook her head and dug through her bag for her Advil, sighing with relief when she heard the familiar rattle of a full bottle. She swallowed the pills dry, then continued digging through her bag for her workout clothes. "We have a rehearsal today, right?"

"At 9." Carly was watching Jen with a curious expression on her face. "You ok? You look a little green."

"Hungover," Jen confessed, letting out an angry scream when she couldn't find her favorite tights. "Dammit, if I left them in our last hotel I'm going to kill someone...."

Carly started laughing and sat up in bed, "You said it wouldn't take long last night, instead you ended up getting wasted and coming home bright and early? Have fun?"

"No." Jen replied with a frown, unhappily settling on another pair of tights. She was not going to think about last night. Not at all. "I've been sick since the second I woke up."

"Why'd you go and get drunk then, girl? You know better, 'specially when we got a rehearsal so early."

"I'm an idiot," Jen shrugged, looking at the door in fear when she heard a loud knock. "Oh fuck..." she quickly located a sweatshirt and pulled it on before opening the door, unsure who she was more afraid to find on the other side. "Oh, Kevin..."

"Can we talk?" Kevin asked her, his green eyes twinkling as he pulled her into his arms in a hug. "I was an idiot last night. There. I said it."

Jennifer wasn't quite sure why she suddenly felt like crying, but she did, feeling Kevin's arms wrap comfortingly around her back. "Yes, you were."

"And I'm sorry." His voice was so soft, she could barely hear him, and she pulled away from him with a chuckle.

"Excuse me?" Jen looked up at him, a wry smile on her face. "What was that? I'd like to hear it again, please..." she cupped her ear and tilted her head towards Kevin's, waiting for him to repeat himself.

"I said I'm sorry," Kevin repeated into her ear, laughing when she giggled from his breath on her skin. "Happy now?" he whispered directly into her ear.

"Very!" Jen grinned and hugged him, her hangover temporarily forgotten in her glee. Kevin apologizing, now THAT was a rare event. Pretty damn rare, in fact....

"Good," Kevin smiled. "I'm heading down to breakfast, you care to join me?"

Jen groaned and held her stomach, a wave of nausea sweeping over her at the thought of food. "No thanks, I'll see you at rehearsal."

"Ok," Kevin hugged her again before leaving with a wave, in search of someone else to have breakfast with.

"Kevin's sorry for what?" Carly asked as Jen walked back into the room. The door had been open, she couldn't exactly have avoided hearing the entire thing, right?

"For being a jerk, which he is all the time," Jen looked at her bag, and then at Carly. "Can I take Pepto on top of Advil? Or is that, like, non-prescription hell or something?"

"I think you can, sure," Carly smirked. "So, um, Jen, riddle me this, if Kevin was apologizing for something that happened last night, why didn't he do it before you left his room this morning?"

Jennifer froze, the pink bottle of Pepto halfway to her mouth, and stared at Carly. "Uh..." God, it was far too early for her to be able to come up with a good lie...

Carly bounced on the bed and clapped her hands, laughing at Jen's reaction. "Ok, so you got laid last night. Who was it?"

Jen made a face and took a chug of the Pepto before answering. "You're nuts."

"No, I'm damn near psychic at times. You may be sick as a dog this morning, but you got fucked but good last night, I know the signs. Who?" Carly looked Jen over through narrowed eyes. "Now, I hear AJ's kinky, and I don't see any bruises or anything. Not to mention, I'd like to think that you can't walk straight after a night with Bone...do me a favor, walk on a line?"

"Fuck you," Jen returned the Pepto bottle to her bag before flopping down on her bed, head buried in her pillows. "I don't want to think about it..."

"Come on, Jen, babe, you gotta spill." Carly got off of her bed and joined Jen on hers, rubbing her friend's back consolingly. "You'll feel better if you talk about it..."

"I'll feel better if I forget it ever happened," Jen rolled over onto her back and looked up at Carly. "It wasn't supposed to happen the way it did...not that it was supposed to happen at all, but..." It had been better when she couldn't remember what had happened, but sure enough, every single sordid detail of the night before was burned into her memory, and now she couldn't forget it.

"But what?"

"I wasn't supposed to like it so much!" Jennifer groaned when Carly started laughing at her. "See, talking about it doesn't help."

"I'm sorry, babe, that just sounds pretty damn funny to me...you weren't supposed to like it?" Carly asked through her giggles, finally putting her hand over her mouth to quiet herself down. "Sorry."

"I was pissed at Kevin, I got drunk...I thought it would be a good way to get Kevin even more pissed off. That was the ONLY reason I did it...but then I really liked it, and he was amazing, and, god Carly, he wasn't supposed to care!" Jennifer shook her head and rolled her eyes. "He was so sweet this morning, it broke my heart leaving him. But it was never, ever, supposed to be anything more than sex..."

"You slept with Nick," Carly said with a nod. "Clearly."

"What do you mean?" Jen's brow wrinkled, and she stared at her friend. "I clearly slept with Nick?"

"AJ, Howie, I can see them doing the one night stand thing, totally. But Nick, not the way he's been looking at you over the last couple weeks, Jen, he's got it bad for you." Carly shrugged. "I'm surprised he hasn't tried something with you before now."

Jen's eyes widened in shock, and she waved her hands at Carly in disagreement, "oh no, he does not. He didn't do anything last night, it was totally my fault, I practically threw myself at him. He just went for it..."

"I think you're totally wrong, Jen," Carly shook her head. "You dance with him every night, you don't think he touches you a little too much at times? His hands linger a little too long in certain places?"

"Every guy does that," Jen shrugged. Getting groped by the guys you danced with was part and parcel of being a female dancer. It had happened on the NSYNC tour, so it had happened on the Backstreet tour. No biggie.

"Nick doesn't," Carly replied. "Never, ever, did he touch me like that. But I see him doing it to you. He ever hit on you before?"

"A couple times...." Jen answered slowly, trying to remember what had happened. It was hard, she'd always just dismissed him as being silly, drunk, horny, whatever...he was just Kevin's little brother Nicky, and she never thought anything of it. "It was a mistake, Carly, I've known him since he was 12 years old, I can't believe what I just did...."

"He's not 12 years old anymore," Carly looked at the clock and groaned. "You want first shower? We gotta get ready for rehearsal."

"You go, I took one already," Jen waved her friend off and lay back in the bed, staring at the ceiling. She'd made a mistake, plain and simple, and it was one she was never going to make again. Kevin would never find out, and everything would be just fine.

Or so she hoped.



Jennifer slowly collected her things after the night's performance, dreading getting onto the tourbus. She'd barely said two words to Nick all day, she didn't know what to say, and the expression in his eyes when he looked at her was killing her.

"Hey Jenny," Brian picked up her bag helpfully with a smile, waving towards a coffee stand. "Want a cup before we go?"

"You're a god," she grinned, and followed Brian, accepting a cup of coffee with a smile. "I could use this."

"I heard you had a rough morning," Brian looked at her as he sipped his coffee, before pointing to a set of chairs. "Sit."

Jennifer felt her stomach knot at the expression on Brian's face, and she sat down, wondering what he was talking about. "Did Kevin say something to you?"

Brian sat down across from her before answering. "Nick did."

Jen's face paled as she looked at Brian, "You can't say anything to Kevin, please, he'd kill us."

Brian's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head sadly. "I'm not going to say anything to Kevin, I wouldn't do that. But...why Nick?"

Jennifer felt tears form in her eyes at the tone in Brian's voice, and she wondered what on earth Nick had said to him. "He was there..." she said softly, knowing telling the truth was her only option at this point.

"So you go find AJ, or Howie, but jesus, Jen, did you have to go sleep with Nick?" Brian asked her angrily.

"What are you talking about??" Jennifer stared at Brian over her coffee cup. "I know I did a stupid thing, all I wanted to do was piss off Kevin, but Nick's a guy, he'll get over it. Isn't this what men DO? One night of meaningless sex?"

"Not Nick, and not with you!" Brian shouted at her, standing up and glaring at her. "Jen, he's had a crush on you since the day he met you, don't you know that? Didn't Kevin ever tell you?"

"Oh no..."

"I swear to god, Jen, you know Nick's my best friend, right? Me and Nick, we're like you and Kevin. And if it wasn't for the fact that I know you, and I know you're not really the bitch you're currently pretending to be, I would be telling Nick to get as far away from you as humanly possible." Brian told her, his blue eyes blazing. "I love you, Jen, but if it comes down to you or Nick, I'm on Nick's side, one hundred percent. Don't you DARE fuck with him."

"I didn't know..." Jennifer stammered, looking up at Brian sadly. "I never would have, if I'd known..."

"I hope not. Otherwise you're not the person I thought you were." Brian sighed, and offered her a hand up. "Come on, we gotta get to the bus, they're going to be wondering where we disappeared to."

"Right." Jen finished off her coffee and threw the cup away before following Brian to the bus, her heart feeling appropriately beaten in by Brian's lecture. She really hadn't known about Nick, but she should have known better....god, what had she done.