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Chapter Six


THREE YEARS LATER

“C’mon, hurry,” Darcy yelled, “We’re going to be late for the show. Move it, slow poke.”

Bianca laughed as her friend practically pushed Alex out the door and into the cramped backseat her small neon green car. As it was, they were leaving to be at the gate three hours early. They wouldn’t be late even if they were caught in heavy traffic for the entire car ride there.

“I can’t believe that I let you talk me into going to a Backstreet Boys concert,” Alex grumbled, “It’s going to be a bunch of screaming chicks.” But Alex knew exactly why he had agreed. His girlfriend had loved the band…if she would have enjoyed the show, then he figured he should give it a chance…out of respect for her.

Darcy shook her head, “I’ve missed four of their shows because it wouldn’t be the same without Abrianna. We all still miss her, but, maybe this time, it’ll bring back good memories…instead of painful ones.”

Alex frowned at the definite reminder of Abrianna. It had been a little over three years since her disappearance. There never had been any word on her being sighted other than in the park. She never had been found, and he still missed her with every breathing moment. He’d tried dating a few times, but it just didn’t feel right. He couldn’t bring himself to follow through and continue with anybody and two of the three times, he’d left his date making up an excuse to leave or just disappeared out of nowhere, not telling the girl where he was going…he just ran. He’d rather be alone that with somebody other than Abrianna. Pain filled his face and heart and he knew that going to see her favorite band ever would only hurt him worse than he already was.

“You know what,” Alex said, spinning around, “I don’t think I’m gonna go. I…it’ll just make me remember more. Besides, I have a lot of stuff that I need to get done…if I start tonight, it’ll get me ahead of things. Besides, I’m sure they could use me at work since it’s a Friday.”

“What?” Darcy asked in disbelief, throwing her arms into the air, “You’re bailing on us? You are a stupid, pathetic male, you know that?”

Alex shrugged, and backed away from the venomous woman before she could reach in and grab him, forcing him to stay against his will.

“I’ll catch you girls later,” he called, and sprinted off before he was captured and tied to the roof of the car.

Bianca sighed and shook her head sadly, “He’s still not over her. We’re not either, but he’s not moving on. At least we knew that he loved her more than anything. He still has that engagement ring, you know. For once, you were wrong. He is one guy that was head over heels in love.”

Darcy shrugged, letting Bianca’s comment go in one ear and out of the other. She was thinking of the memorial shrine they’d planted in the park, where she’d last been seen. She’d tracked the guy down that had seen her to ask exactly where it had been. They went every day to water the flowers and plant new ones in place of the ones which were no longer looking healthy. Everybody had given up hope that she was alive. It saddened everybody, but they no longer believed that she was out there somewhere unharmed. If she had been, then she would have come back long ago. Back to her home in Chicago, with her friends and family.

“Abrianna would’ve loved the Boys’ new material,” Bianca said with longing in her eyes, “I wish she were going with us.”

“I’m sure she is, in spirit at least,” Darcy replied, watching Alex disappear into a speck in the distance, then slid into her car, “Well, lets go…we all know he ain’t coming back to go with us.” And then she muttered something along the lines of, “His waste of one hundred dollars.”

Bianca sighed and opened the passenger door, getting into the car herself. Darcy was right. Alex had run like a coward and they deserved to have a good time…even if they had to force themselves to. She knew that it would still take a long time to get used to, but they’d have to eventually get used to the fact that Abrianna was no longer around to complete their trio. Darcy put her car into drive and flew out of the driveway and out onto the road accelerating to 60 mph. Bianca grabbed on to the door handle, but laughed because she was having fun despite her fear of the fast moving car that she knew wouldn’t slow down for anything until they were at the areana.

“Just wait until we’re on the freeway,” Darcy yelled over the music, “If Backstreet is involved, ya better get out of my way.”

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

“Nick, pack that damn thing up,” Kevin said, “We’ve got to be ready to go out on stage in less than two hours and we’re running late as it is.”

“Just five more minutes,” Nick mumbled, his eyes glazed over, concentrating fully on what he was doing, “I’ve never gotten this far before…”

Kevin sighed, wondering if Nick had even comprehended what he’d just said, or if it had gone in one ear and right back out the other…or even got lost somewhere in his mind in the middle of some wiring, “Then save it before I turn it off on you,” he threatened, bending down and placing his forefinger on the Nintendo game console’s power button to prove that he wasn’t making light of the situation.

Nick drew back in horror, quickly going to the main menu and saving the game, “I guess I could just…just pick up where I left off at after the show.”

Kevin nodded in satisfaction, getting up and joining everybody else at the door, waiting for Nick to finish up and turn the Nintendo off. After the lengthy process of saving his game, he quickly stood up, about to race toward the door. But before he could move more than three feet, his foot caught on the cord, pulling it out of the wall, causing him to stumble, then trip and fall flat on his face. Nick groaned loudly as he made impact with the hard hotel room floor.

Zaina tried to stifle a laugh as she witnessed Nick make yet another dumb blonde move. He was a sweet kid, but very clumsy. The guys all chuckled, not even attempting to cover up their making fun of their friend. Nick got up and looked around, casually walking toward the group trying to play off his smooth move as if nothing had ever happened.

“Too bad you pulled the plug,” A.J. said, “After all that hard work. Everything you’ve saved…lost…forever”

Nick’s eyes grew wide in panic as he ran toward the Nintendo, jamming the plug back into the wall. The group roared in laughter at A.J’s cruel joke.

“It can’t be,” he said, “That took me seven days to do…”

“Nick, chill,” A.J. said, “I was joking.”

Nick scoweled not amused with A.J’s joke. Everybody knew how important his game systems were and how seriously he took his games. Again, he got up off of the floor and glared at his five friends as they tried to wipe the huge smiles off of their faces. Even Kevin couldn’t help but snicker a little.

“Okay,” Kevin said, “Now let’s move it. We haven’t been in Chicago in years. We’ve got thousands of fans waiting. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of our biggest shows yet.”

The guys all piled through the door and snuck down a secret stairwell and into their limo eager to put on the concert. Zaina followed closely behind them, excited to see why the Boys’ were making such a huge deal out of this particular show. She figured that within hours, she would find out for sure.

After no more than ten minutes on the road, A.J. piped up, pointing out the window, “Look, it’s the spot where we first found Zaina.”

Everybody rushed over to A.J’s side of the limo, pushing to get a glimpse of the area before they’d passed it and it was gone. Sure enough, it was exactly where Zaina had been picked up by them. A tear of happiness formed in Zaina’s eye. After all these years, they still remembered something so small and what she had thought to be as meaningless. They really were the greatest friends that anybody could ask for and she told them so, hugging each one individually in thanks.

“We wouldn’t forget something so important,” Kevin told her, “None of us have been back here since we found you. Just want to make it a night you’ll never forget. I hope we’re doing just that.”

Zaina smiled, thanking Kevin for his kind words, telling him that she knew she wouldn’t, and she knew that it was true. Nothing that the guys ever did for her was forgotten, especially when they made her feel like the most special person on earth, which was pretty much every waking moment.

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

Darcy shoved through the mobs of people who had also gotten to the show early with Bianca directly behind her.

“So much for getting here early to beat the crowd,” she grumbled loudly, “Who would have thought that everybody had the same idea as me?” she asked.

“Darcy, we’re not the only two people in the whole entire world, who love their music, ya know,” Bianca laughed, “Now slow down a bit.”

“I so told you not to wear those damned boots,” Darcy said in her “know it all” voice, pointing down to her six inch platform heels.

Bianca didn’t say anything, knowing that her friend was right. She had warned her a million times not to wear the boots beginning weeks before the upcoming night that was finally there right before them. She’d told her before the Backstreet concert that they’d gone to with Abrianna, the trip to Cedar Point from when they’d lived in Ohio, the county fair, and the seven mile hike that they’d gone on down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon years before which had caused both her feet to swell up for at least a week. But every time, Bianca refused to listen. She liked the feeling of being tall since she was naturally only around five feet, four inches.

Darcy handed the guy at the gate their tickets and grabbed Bianca’s hand, roughly pulling her along, “We’ve got to get to our seats,” she pressured.

Bianca rolled her eyes, “It’s not like we’re not going to be in the exact same assigned seats,” she said, “God, I wish Abrianna were here.”

“Yeah, second row,” Darcy grinned, “She would have absolutely loved it. I work magic, I tell ya. Every show that I get tickets for are great.”

Darcy’s eyes then clouded over, and for a second, the thought crossed her mind of dragging Bianca right back out to the car and back home. But they’d gotten this far. She figured that they might as well stay and enjoy themselves for just one night. Plus there was something else. Some sort of feeling that she was getting in the pit of her stomach that was telling her to stay and something would happen. Every time she got the feeling, some sort of exciting event normally did end up taking place. She hoped that this feeling would bring her backstage to meet her idols, so she could tell them just how amazing they really were and how they had changed her life for the better. It was true. She couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but their music had made a major impact on her life. She just wished that she could figure out how, but decided that just the fact that it had was good enough in itself.

“You okay?” Bianca asked, as she found her seat and looked at Darcy, “No smart ass comments?”

Darcy smirked, “Just fine,” she replied, deciding not to tell Bianca about the feeling. If she was wrong, she knew that her friend would be disappointed if it were a false alarm. If something did happen, all the more fun it would be to see her face light up with excitement.

Bianca shrugged, putting her eyes back on the stage that was right in front of her eyes, almost close enough for her to reach out and touch. She soon joined in on the screams of everybody else, hers meshing in with theirs. By the end of the night, she was sure that she’d have absolutely no voice left, but she didn’t care. She felt that she was right where she belonged for the night. If she awoke sick with the sorest throat she’d ever experienced, then what it took to get her to that stage was what she was willing to do and she knew that Darcy felt the same. After all, Abrianna would want them to have fun, she reminded herself. That’s just what they were going to do.

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

“You guys about ready?” Kevin yelled over the screams that were coming from the other side of the stage.

The other for nodded in his direction, saving their voices for on stage. They knew that this show was going to be big. Chicago was a huge place and the past few years, they’d toured around the Windy City, but not in it. An eerie feeling came over Zaina just being in the area though. She looked around warily as if somebody were out to get her. Something just didn’t feel right. She felt like she were almost in some sort of danger. She was glad though that she had protection in all directions. Zaina remembered being picked up by the guys’ years before in this very area. She’d grown and matured a lot since then and learned to love the music that they performed. She couldn’t believe that on that day so long ago, she’d been afraid of these people. They were the sweetest, most generous guys’ she had ever met. They wouldn’t hurt her for anything in the world and were still so protective of her and her privacy. The only thing they’d ever lied about was underexagerating by a lot about how popular they really were, but she figured that that was just to protect themselves, so she was okay with the little fib.

“You okay?” A.J. asked, walking over to Zaina, concern in his soft eyes.

Zaina gulped and nodded.

“You’re sure you’re okay with us being here?”

Zaina laughed, “It’s not like you can change it now,” she replied, “And yes, I’m okay with it.”

A.J. hugged her and ran off to catch up with the others. Zaina smiled sadly as she watched him go. Regretfully, he never had approached her again after the time that Kevin had interrupted them in the middle of their talk. She had thought that he was going to ask her to be his, but since nothing had ever been said again about it, she figured that she was reading into it the wrong way. Zaina longed to be the one in A.J’s arms, the one he kissed goodnight. She wanted him and still wanted to be with him as more than a friend. Nothing had changed in that sense. Zaina wished that A.J. would like her in a romantic way, but knew that if it were meant to be, it would’ve happened already. Three years was plenty of time to decide if you were in to somebody, especially if you were with that somebody every single day in that time span. Zaina had thought about asking A.J. to be her boyfriend many times, but whenever she got the nerve, she lost it whenever the chance for them to talk came.

Peeking out from around a corner, Zaina saw the enormous crowd waving their arms in the air and heard their screams as the music started playing. She looked over at the guys, seeing them wait to go out on stage, to keep things intense with anticipation and wonder. Finally, after two minutes of intro, the guys all ran out onto the stage and began singing their new hit, Through With Your Lies. Zaina smiled, forgetting all about the feeling of uneasiness that something was going to happen. She’d seen the same show dozens of times, but it never got old. Each show brought on a new surprise of mistakes that the guys made, especially Nick, that made her laugh. They always found a way to keep things interesting and unique in each city, and no matter how serious the slip up, they always made it look like it had been intentional. They were all great at covering up their mistakes on stage.

Her heart melted when she saw A.J. quickly glance back at her and wink. She quickly blew him a kiss back. A.J. had always been a big flirt. He was constantly playfully flirting with her. She just wished that once, he would decide that it was for real. But again, she had a feeling that A.J. just wasn’t interested in her in that way. So in return, she’d begun to flirt back. Two could play his game. Zaina knew that she had it bad for him. Toying with the idea of possibly telling him how she felt for him after the show, she decided that it would be a bad idea. He didn’t need the extra stress on him of knowing that she liked him. It would only complicate things, and possibly land her stranded again right where she’d come from in the first place. No, telling A.J. that her heart accelerated in his presence and she grew nervous and clammy wouldn’t do. Keeping it in would have to until he confronted her, which she was almost positive would never happen. Focusing her attention back on the show, Zaina’s feeling of dread started to come back slowly. She just wondered why she felt so on edge in this area.

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

“I love you Nicky,” Darcy screamed at the top of her lungs, deafening Bianca temporarily.

Nick looked over at Darcy and smiled, waving in her direction. Darcy grinned from ear to ear.

“Did you see that?” she asked, “Tell me that you saw that. Tell me I am not losing my mind.”

Bianca laughed, “I saw it,” she assured her friend, not taking her eyes off of Kevin’s masculine body and sexy, husky voice. His muscles rippled through is shirt as he ripped it open revealing his strong abs that she knew he’d worked so hard to develop. A.J, Brian and Howie revealed their flesh as well, but she didn’t notice because she was concentrating souly on Kevin until Darcy began to pout.

“Once again, Nick is the ONLY one who leaves himself covered. He has a sexy bod…why wont he show it off?”

Bianca glanced over and saw for the first time that Darcy was right. She didn’t know why he was embarrassed either, but Darcy was always telling her that Nick thought that he had “chub” She found the thought to be hilarious.

“Admire the others then,” Bianca suggested, milking in the view of Kevin before he was covered again.

“Don’t wanna,” Darcy complained, “Nick is my favorite.”

Bianca paid no attention to Darcy’s stubbornness. It wasn’t going to make Nick strip down any no matter how much she wanted him to. She started singing along to the lyrics of the next song, a smile on her face. She knew something was wrong though when she didn’t hear Darcy beside her screaming the words out. Bianca looked over at Darcy and saw her staring at the stage with her mouth wide open, her eyes gaping out of her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Bianca looked at the stage and saw nothing of interest, and then back to Darcy.

“Darce,” she said, getting no reaction out of her friend, “Hey, Darce.” She waved her hand in front of Darcy’s face, distracting her for a brief moment, “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Darcy pointed out to the far right corner of the stage, her hand trembling. Bianca looked, not catching on quickly to what the girl was trying to get at, wishing that she’d just tell her already.

“What?” she asked impatiently.

Darcy tried to find her voice, and when she did, it was shaking, “It…it’s…I…think it’s…Abrianna.”