Day two…

"Oh god…" Kel groaned as she halfway sat up in bed and put her hand to her head squinting her eyes to see through the bright light of the morning. She heard a chuckle and jumped at the sound as she turned her head much too quickly to see where the sound came from. "Oh god…"

Nick laughed again and gently pushed her back down to a laying position on the bed, "Go back to sleep…"

"I’m never drinking again…" she groaned.

Nick chuckled and covered her up with the blankets, "We’ll see about that… but for now, go back to sleep. I’m going to go home and run some errands and crap. But I’ll be back here at seven. It’s 12:30 now…"

"Seven?" Kel croaked with one eye open looking up at Nick, who she thought frankly was too chipper for his own good. "What’s at seven?"

"We’re going out again…"

"No…" she sighed and rolled over twisting herself in the blankets.

Nick laughed and kissed her temple, which was about the only thing still peaking out of the blankets, "Yes… I’ll be back, and you’re going with me. I still have a key you know?" He laughed again as she groaned in response, "Sleep sweet, chickie, I’ll be back…"

~~~~~

"AJ’s going to come home and find me whimpering in pain from too much playing with you…" Kel laughed as she and Nick slow danced together at the club they’d decided to go to after they had dinner. They’d been dancing for a few hours and were covered in sweat, but loving it all.

Nick laughed and shook his head, "You’re too young to have so little energy, Kel… what happened to the girl who used to go clubbing every night on tour after our concerts and hardly ever slept?"

"She got sober with her boyfriend and traded all night clubbing with Al-Anon meetings and an early bedtime…" Kel chuckled. When Nick laughed with wide-eyes Kel shook her head, "I can’t believe I just said that…"

"Oh you said it…" Nick laughed.

"I’m horrible… you know I didn’t mean it that way…"

"I know…" Nick smiled. "But I have to say it was funny… and you know what?"

"What?"

"It’s time for another drink…" he grinned pulling her by the hand to the bar.

"Nick no… I can’t drink anymore. I’m already tipsy enough as it is…"

"It’s not going to hurt you… come on. One more drink and I swear we’ll stop for the night."

Looking up at his blue eyes Kel found herself weak. She couldn’t deny the fact that she was having a blast with Nick, hanging out with her best friend and just being wild again for a change. And she did love the buzz she had running through her body. "Fine… one more, then we’re done."

Nick smiled and looked at the bartender, "Two shots of tequila…"

"Nicky no… I said a drink, not a shot… I’ll puke if I start doing shots…"

"One shot, not shots, and you’ll be fine… come on, no one ever does tequila with me anymore. You were the only one who could tolerate it... well, aside from…"

Kel nodded, "Yeah… I know. He loved the stuff…"

The bartender put the two shots on the bar and Nick looked from them to Kel, "How about we do these shots to say goodbye then?"

"Goodbye to what?"

"Goodbye to the days of tequila shots…"

Kel chuckled, "You’re going to give up tequila shots just because I won’t do them with you anymore?"

Nick shrugged with a smile, "No fun without you, baby…"

She picked up the salt shaker and licked her hand before salting it, "One shot…"

"Cool…" he smiled and followed her lead salting his own hand.

She held her glass up to him and they toasted, "Goodbye tequila…"

"Goodbye licking my best friend’s hand…" he giggled and licked the salt from her hand as she laughed and did the same to him and they threw back their shots.

"Oh good… GOD!" Kel sputtered as the alcohol burned down her throat and she did a little dance to help it on its way. "Oh man…"

"I haven’t done that in a long time…" Nick laughed as he made a face at the taste of the shot and watched Kel dancing around.

"You’re telling me? Oh man… yuck!" she laughed and reached over the bar grabbing a cherry from the bartender’s stash while his back was turned. She put the cherry in her mouth and then smiled, "Much better…"

"I could totally make a bad joke about you popping a cherry right now…" Nick laughed.

"Don’t you dare…" she laughed back. "I just did a shot for you and now I’m going to be completely drunk…"

"Then you know what that means?" he smirked.

"Yeah…" she smirked back and took his hand. "It’s time to dance…"

Hours later when they drove up to Kel’s house she looked at Nick and yawned, "You’re staying the night…"

"But, Kel, you have a boyfriend…" Nick laughed.

She rolled her eyes, "Not funny… you’re staying. Come on…"

"Yes, ma’am…" he smiled and turned off the car. He followed her up to the front door and giggled as she handed her shoes to him so she could fumble with the keys and unlock the door. "You have little feet…"

"Compared to yours… sure I do…" she said as she pushed the door open and they stumbled into the dark house. She punched the security code in and turned on a lamp, "Why the hell he has to keep it like a fucking icebox in here is beyond me…" she groaned and ran her hands over her arms.

"You could turn the temperature up…" Nick laughed. Kel had always been an interesting drunk. Her usual, tell-it-like-it-is attitude was only magnified by alcohol and she always found something to complain about, but in a cute kind of way.

"I don’t know how…" she sighed. "We just got this new system put in while we were in LA and I can’t figure the damn thing out. He has it programmed so that at certain times of day it’s a specific temperature. At night, it’s set for Arctic."

Nick laughed again and kicked his shoes off, "Where is it?"

"Don’t bother… if you break it he’ll get pissed. We can just go find blankets or go outside…"

"Bullshit… where is it…" he persisted.

Kel pointed down the hall as she walked toward the backdoor to let the dogs in, "Down there… knock yourself out." As he set off to inspect the evil thermostat, Kel let the dogs in and poured two large glasses of orange juice. She looked at the clock and laughed, "Two nights in a row that boy has kept me up until dawn…" She opened the fridge again and smiled, "Oh yeah…"

"What are you oh yeah’ing about?" Nick laughed as he walked into the kitchen and found her looking in the fridge.

"Cold pizza from Demarco’s…" she said with a big grin.

"Oh yeah…" he laughed and took the box from her and took it to the kitchen table. "Got any orange juice?"

"Way ahead of ya, Blondie…" Kel smiled and moved the glasses to the table.

"Perfection…"

"Yeah… except that I can’t stay in this skirt any longer," she said and began unzipping the side of her skirt as she walked out of the kitchen. "Do NOT eat all of my pizza…"

"Yeah, yeah…" he chuckled as she disappeared. He took a bite of pizza and smiled at how perfect everything felt right then. He had his best friend back in his life, he’d spent all sorts of time with her in just two days, and he was eating their traditional cold pizza with orange juice after a long night of clubbing. The hole that had been left in his life eight months before suddenly was full again. Well, except for the part where AJ was still missing.

Thinking back on it, he couldn’t even remember exactly how it all happened. AJ’d been out of rehab for several months, and things seemed to be going well. But one night of the three of them hanging out as usual, minus the alcohol, ended up in a whole lot of yelling, hitting, and doors slamming. A few days later they hadn’t made up at all, and instead of putting Kel, whom he loved dearly, in the middle, he walked away. Telling himself he’d give it some time and space, he set off on his own for the first time in years. Then, with Backstreet on hiatus, Kel not in his life, and a whole lot of free time on his hands, he somehow ended up with a solo career.

Of course, putting his solo CD out just before he and the guys were supposed to work on the much anticipated Backstreet CD didn’t exactly make AJ come calling for a reunion. But as Nick saw it, he had the chance to follow a dream of his while AJ and the rest of the guys were busy with their own stuff… maybe the timing wasn’t right for them, but for him it was perfect. He had all intentions of continuing his career with Backstreet, but a solo CD was his dream, and he wasn’t about to turn down a dream just when it was staring him in the face.

"Someone is deep in thought…" Kel chuckled as she returned to the kitchen in her pajamas.

"I was pondering the secret of Demarco’s pizza…" Nick smiled as he handed her a piece and she sat down in the chair next to him.

"Liar…"

"Whatever…" he mumbled with a mouth full of pizza. "I fixed your thermostat by the way… I have the same kind at home. I’ll teach you how to override it when we’re not so tired…"

Kel smiled and kissed Nick’s cheek, "I knew I kept you around here for some reason…"

"I’m good… I know it…" Nick said with a nod and then chuckled.

"Tell me what you were really thinking about…" Kel said softly and rested her head on her hand while looking at him.

He shook his head, "It’s too late…"

"You’re telling me it’s too late? After keeping me up for two nights in a row drinking… I don’t think so. Spill it… what’s on your mind?"

She watched as he picked assorted items off of the pizza and popped them in his mouth before looking at her cautiously, "Has he heard it?"

Kel nodded, "Sure he has…"

"Has he… I mean, well… You know what? No. It’s not fair, that’s putting you in the middle again. I don’t want to do that…"

Reaching out, she put her hand on his arm and smiled, "He loves the song… I believe his words were, ‘You did it Nicky…’" Nick dropped his head into his hands and closed his eyes. If there was one person he wanted to like his solo work, it was AJ. AJ had always been the one to support the idea of Nick doing his own music when the time was right. But not being able to really know how AJ felt about his CD was torture, and when Kel told him that AJ actually did like his first single, it actually hurt. Kel’s own heart hurt watching Nick and she moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders pulling him as close as she could. "I know how important his opinion is to you honey… even if you haven’t talked to him in a long time..." She felt him shudder and she squeezed him a little tighter as he put his arms around her waist and buried his head against her shoulder. "He loves you, Nicky… I know you want to hear it from him instead of from me, but I’m telling you not to give up, it’ll happen. He’s proud of you honey, so proud."

"I keep thinking that I’m never going to have him back in my life…" Nick whispered as he held tight to her. "Like I fucked it all up. Backstreet will be over, and everyone will blame me."

"Oh, honey… no…" Kel said shaking her head. "That’s not going to happen."

He looked up at her, his eyes red with unshed tears, "How do you know?"

"I don’t know, I just do…" she said taking his face in her hands. "They all love you too much for that to happen. I think you just need to see each other for starters… look what running into you at the grocery store has done for us. Eight months honey… we went for eight long months without talking, and now you’re back in my life. You haven’t seen AJ since that night that you two fought."

"Yeah I guess…" he said sadly and took her hands off of his face and held them in his own in his lap.

"We’ll make it happen together okay?"

"I don’t want you in the middle…" he said shaking his head.

"Maybe it’s time I get in the middle… Maybe that’ll make him understand how important both of you are to me."

"Does he even know that you’re spending time with me?" Nick asked with a sigh. Kel shook her head and Nick’s mouth fell open, "You’re kidding… Jesus. You’re sitting here telling me all about how you know this is all going to work out, but you haven’t even told him that you’ve been hanging out with me?" He pulled away from her and stood up.

"Nicky, I…"

"Don’t, Kellie…" he growled. "Just don’t… don’t lie, don’t sugar coat it, don’t fucking try to make it better! Because you can’t!"

"I was going to tell him today!"

"Yeah, sure you were!" he yelled back, his voice making Fred & Ginger scatter. "I can’t believe this…"

"Nick…" she sighed. "I want this to work out… I…"

"You just wanted to keep me a secret from him… that’s what you wanted to do. You’ll spend all your time with me while he’s gone, and when he comes back you’ll go right back to bending over backward for him and doing everything he wants you to do. I can’t believe I thought you were really ready to stop this shit. But you’re not… I can see it in your eyes. You’re just as scared about him coming home to find out that we’ve been together again as I am…" Nick shook his head and walked out of the kitchen heading for his shoes and his keys.

Kel followed him with tears in her eyes, "Please don’t go…"

"I can’t stay here…" he said as he slipped his shoes on. "I’m afraid of what I’d do or say if I stayed here." Kel’s breath caught in her throat at his statement and he looked up from tying his shoe to see the look on her face. It’s a look he’d seen on her face before, but one he’d never been responsible for. He shook his head as he stood up and looked at her, "I don’t want to hurt you…"

"Then stay…" she said quietly, her chin trembling.

"I can’t… I’m sorry." He kissed her forehead and then turned and walked out of the door never stopping to look back at her.