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I didn’t realize that the sound check party was finished until the girls lined up for the souvenir photo. It was time to ready again my well practiced picture-perfect smile. I positioned myself behind the barricades, and sandwiched myself between AJ and Brian.

The fourth girl in line caught my attention, not because she was pretty but because of the little girl beside her. She was wearing a black Backstreet Boys shirt while the girl wore white dress. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the Millenium tour because we actually had younger fans back then. The little girl looked familiar to me; I just couldn’t remember where I saw her.

“He needs to forgive himself.”

The little girl startled me when she appeared beside me and whispered those words to me. I did everything I could to stop myself from screaming. I wished the camera didn’t capture that moment or else the whole world would see how freaked out I was. I still managed to smile for the pictures even though the little girl’s presence beside me was making me uncomfortable.

“Mr. Carter, please help me.” The little girl begged; the woman she was with was next in line “My brother is waiting for her outside. Please help me tell my brother to stop blaming himself. I’m tired of being here.” She had the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. Then I remembered about my vision earlier, she was the little girl who was trying to escape when I heard the gun shots.

She disappeared while the woman she was with approached us. I put my left arm around the woman’s shoulders and smiled. She smiled sweetly and thanked the five of us. I saw she approached Gayle, one of our production assistants, before she headed to the exit door.

Thirty five smiles later and we were finally done. We had almost two hours before the concert, and I decided to look for Gayle. I smiled when I found her in Brian’s dressing room.

“Hi, Gayle.” I flashed her the smile that made millions of girls crazy.

“I’m afraid to ask what you want, Nick.”

“I saw you were talking to one of the fans that went to the sound check party.”

“I didn’t sneak her in; she paid for her VIP package.”

“You know her?”

“She’s my niece, daughter of my husband’s cousin. Why?” She raised her eyebrow.

“I need a fan to interview me for the A Day with Nick Carter contest.”

“Really? Why am I not aware of that contest? Should I check with Jen?”

“Jen doesn’t know anything about it; it was a contest on the website being run by fans for fans.” I stammered and hoped she would just believe in me.

“She has a boyfriend, Nick.” She warned me.

“That’s actually much better. Look, Gayle, I’m not looking for someone to screw tonight. It’s just that I promised this website that I’d spent two hours with a fan to interview me; people are expecting that interview.”

“Why Melissa?” She asked; she wouldn’t make this easy for me.

“Do you really want me to pick a random crazy fan to interview me?”

My lips formed in a half smile when Gayle frowned and was obviously thinking about it. She had been one of our production assistants since the Millenium days, and she had witnessed what a crazy fan was capable of.

“Melissa, that was her name right?” Gayle nodded “She seemed like a nice girl and you know her; I’d be safe with her. She can bring her boyfriend during the interview if she wants.”

I silently wished that Melissa would actually do it. I needed to see and talk to her boyfriend; I’d do everything to help that poor little girl.

“Aren’t you supposed to pick a fan who joined that contest or something?”

I let out a deep sigh; I was slowly getting annoyed at her for giving me a hard time.

“There was no strict mechanics or something; I mean fans should just post a message on the site’s message board why I should pick them. That’s why I don’t really want to exert so much effort on this one. I don’t think I’m cheating because Melissa is a fan, and she would get to interview me for 2 hours. All the questions would come from her.”

“I’ll call her and let you know if she’s up for that interview.” Gayle nodded and practically shooed me away.

“Tell her to bring her boyfriend.”

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

Melissa and her boyfriend were sitting comfortably on my dressing room’s couch when I entered the room. I was nervous as hell, and hope everything would turn out fine. The worst could happen today if Melissa and her boyfriend won’t believe me.

“Hey,” I tried to sound cheerfully, but slightly failed.

“Hi.” Melissa stood up and offered her hand to me “I’m Melissa Foster, and this is my boyfriend, James Davis.”

“Nick Carter.” I shook James’ hand after Melissa’s. “Please sit down.”

“Thank you for picking me.” Melissa said sweetly while gently squeezing her boyfriend’s hand. She was obviously nervous, but not as nervous as me. “Can we start?”

“Sure.” I saw the little girl standing on the doorway from the corner of my eyes.

Melissa asked twelve easy questions, and I’m thankful they weren’t very personal. Grace, the little girl with white dress, was patiently waiting for us to get finish. Her eyes lit up when Melissa said she was done asking questions. She looked at me with hopeful eyes.

I took a deep breath, and ready myself for rejection. “James?”

“Yes?” He looked up at me with a surprised look on his face. He had been quiet for the last thirty minutes or so.

“I need to talk to you about something, about your sister Grace.”

I knew right away that this won’t be easy when I saw his friendly facial expression turned into an angry one.

“This is really hard to believe but I can see ghosts. Grace wants you to stop blaming yourself because what happened wasn’t your fault.”

It might help being straightforward; based on James’ reaction he might walk out of this room any minute.

“Fuck off, Mr. Carter.” James angrily stood up and grabbed Melissa’s arm “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“James, please listen to me for a second. Grace is here and wants to talk to you.”

I couldn’t stand the way James looked at me. I might question my own sanity in a few minutes.

“You’re just wasting your time because I wouldn’t believe any of the damn things you say.”

“Mr. Carter, please tell him that I’m thankful he still takes very good care of Princess Boo Boo.”

“She’s my favorite stuffed toy.” Grace added with a smile when I looked at her confused.

James froze in the doorway when I told him Grace’s message. Hopefully, he would turn around and listen to me or everything would be fucked up.
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