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Do you remember the first time we met in the airport in Orlando, Nick? I think if anyone had told us we'd end up being best friends that day, neither one of us would've believed it. We were so different, it was incredible. I remember looking at you and thinking you were a little punk kid, and... what was the term you used for me again? ...I still laugh whenever I think of it. Do you remember it, Nick?



Nick smiled, "I can't believe he's bringing this up," he laughed, turning red.

Amanda smirked at the expression on Nick's face. Brian had known his questions would stir Nick's memory and, in the process, help him to heal from the loss. Brian, Amanda realized, was a very wise man. "What did you call him?" she asked, leaning over the table to see the journal entry as Nick laid the book down on the surface and turned to the box, digging.

"I called him a Country Bumpkin," Nick cracked up, his eyes squinting with the laughter.

Amanda's smile grew, "A what?" she asked, giggling, "What on earth is a Country Bumpkin?"

Nick's face was glowing as he withdrew an old, mangled looking Polaroid from the bottom of the box. He stared at it, his face reddening as he laughed silently, unable to even get the laughter out of him he was so overcome by it. "This," he answered, tossing the picture on to the table.

Amanda picked it up carefully, and looked down at the picture. It was taken by God knows who, and featured all five of the Backstreet Boys in their youngest stages. Kevin, Nick, Howie and AJ were gathered around a young, smiling version of Brian, who was wearing farmer jeans, a blue t-shirt, Nike sneakers, and a Kentucky Wildcats hat, which sat just a little crooked on his head. Amanda felt her laughter erupt from her chest, "Oh my God," she exclaimed.

"Right?" Nick laughed, too.

"He looks like a freaking Cabbage Patch Kid," Amanda wheezed.

Nick laughed all the harder at this, and he only just managed to squeak out, "He claims he never dressed like that at home, but - I dunno. It was just so bizarre. I mean, Kevin made Brian sound so cool when he was telling him about his cousin that could come sing with us. I was so excited. For like a week before Brian came I stayed up during the nights preparing myself with topics to talk about in the car ride back to Kev's apartment. I wanted to be as cool as Kevin's cousin. Then we get to the airport, and that walks off the plane..." He shook his head, "I was so pissed."

Amanda snorted. "Pissed? Why were you pissed?"

"Because!" Nick yelped in a voice that he knew mimicked that of his 13-year old self with the bruised expectations, "He was so not what he was built up to be. I'd thought of him to be like some hip person, like Kurt Cobain or something. Instead I get good Christian boy in farmer jeans..." Nick smirked, "I was so mean to him...."

"You look so innocent," she laughed, looking at the blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes of the 13 year-old Nick Carter. "And by the way, your clothes weren't a hell of a lot better than his..." she held up the picture, pointing at Nick's hideous plaid sweatshirt top, which hung loose and down almost to his knees. Under it, he had on a pair of shorts, which only barely peeked out from under the plaid monstrosity. His bony legs ended in gym socks that covered his shins and a pair of sneakers.

Nick snickered, "At least mine was a look that specifies a time. The only thing Brian's outfit specifies is a farm."

Amanda smiled, running her hand across the photo. "How did you two become friends if you were such at odds when you first met?"

"Well," Nick's cheeks turned pink, "It happened because of bubble gum."

"Bubble gum?" Amanda raised her eyebrows, "Okay. Please, do tell."

Nick took a deep breath. "Wait, I gotta see if the picture's in here. If I know him, he'll have it here." Nick dove into the box and pulled out a rubber banded group of photos from the bottom. He yanked the rubber band off and started shuffling through them quickly, passing memories he was certain Brian would bring up. Then he found it, and he stared at it, snickering a moment, "Oh man," he muttered, "My mom was so pissed, too." He handed the picture to Amanda.

It was a picture of Nick sitting on the floor in a messy-looking apartment. Under him was a towel, covered with blonde locks. On his knees beside him, tongue out in concentration, was Brian, wielding a pair of scissors, his hands holding up a clump of Nick's hair away from his head. Nick's face was pained and nervous, Brian's deep concentration.

"He was chewing this gum," Nick said, "And trying to blow the world's biggest bubble..."

"Oh my God, no," whispered Amanda, feeling her stomach twist with the impending laughter, "No. He didn't."

"It got stuck in my hair," Nick said, "And it wouldn't come out. We washed it like five times and Brian had tried pulling it and everything and it wasn't coming out. So he got the bright idea to 'trim it out'."

Amanda felt like she couldn't breathe as she tried desperately to hold in the loud burst of laughter that was threatening to come flying out of her at any second. "How bad was it?"

"Bad." Nick answered, "Really, really, REALLY bad."

She covered her mouth, dissolving into the humor. "How," she wheezed out, "Did that make you become best friends?"

"Because," Nick said, "When I had to show my mom, Brian took the full responsibility. Which doesn't sound like much - considering it was his fault - but my parents were really scary, and they would've been so pissed at me for that, like I can't even tell you how pissed." Nick smiled, "Brian told them he did it when I was sleeping."

Amanda laughed, smiling back, "Aw. Just so you wouldn't get in trouble?"

"Yeah," Nick's eyes were sad now. "He was always good like that."

Amanda nodded. "He was a great guy."

Nick's eyes were misting up, "Shit, you know, I still can't believe he's gone."

"Me, either," Amanda whispered.

Nick shook his head as he sifted through the pictures in his hands. "We were such a trip." He laughed, "Look at this one." Amanda took it. It was Brian and Nick, hugging each other around the shoulders, ski caps on their heads - Brian's embroidered with "FRICK", Nick's with "FRACK". Amanda laughed. "AJ's mom made them for us because once we'd become friends, we were more inseparable than the gum had been from my hair."

"Nice," Amanda grinned at the picture. Their faces were lined with so much happiness. There was something about the spirits captured there that could never, ever be explained. The lines around Brian's eyes as he squinted and grinned - the creases in Nick's forehead as his eyes danced under raised eyebrows... She wondered what it would've been like to know these youthful, carefree versions of the men that she'd come to think of as her boys. "You guys are amazing," she said, handing the picture back.

Nick smiled, "How do you mean?"

"Just... the spirit you two possess," she answered, "The energy, the love. I don't know how to describe it. It's not something that can be understood or explained, it's something you have to see." Amanda smiled at him, "But Brian was right, it's beautiful. It's amazing the way images can capture it... like it was so strong that even digitalizing it kept it pure, made it tangible. Incredible."