Chapter Seven
Alana woke up the next morning to a very familiar sound. It was singing. She not only heard Nick’s voice, but she also heard each of the four Backstreet Boys’ voices. She hadn’t seen all five of them together since their last tour. She knew about Kevin performing on the Broadway show "Chicago." She knew that Brian and Leighann had a son, Baylee Thomas. She also knew that A.J. (Alex as he liked more now) had gone into rehabilitation for alcohol treatment and drug abuse. Nick had told her personally about his solo album. Alana had seen each of the guys separately, when they came over to visit. Leighann would always bring Baylee with her when she and Brian were in Florida visiting friends. She was so excited to finally see them together again.
Carefully, not wanting to hurt herself, she made her way to the bathroom and took a shower. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was wet from her shower. She finally saw the stitches from her operation. It was about two inches long on lower right side of her abdomen. It was still red and puffy.
She got dressed slowly. She dressed in soft cotton gray shorts and a dark blue Nike shirt that she stole from Nick’s collection of clothes that were stashed in the bottom of her closet. Alana ran a brush threw her tangled wet hair and made her way out to the living room where the sounds of singing were coming from. She stopped at the end of the hallway, with the support of the wall, and just listened.
She loved hearing the five of them together singing their old collection of songs. They finished singing “It’s True” from their album Black and Blue (released in November of 2000). Nick heard scraping coming from the direction of the hallway. He looked over and saw Alana standing there.
“Hey Lana,” he greeted her.
The rest of the guys were happy to see her. AJ helped her settle on the living room couch. AJ sat on one side of her and Howie on the other side. Kevin and Brian settled themselves onto the sofa that was adjacent from the couch. Nick sat in the chair on the opposite side of the living room. He just sat back and listened to them talk with Alana. They talked about how their lives were going.
Nick looked at the clock. It was almost 6:00 p.m. He then looked at Alana. Her head was resting on AJ’s shoulder.
Brian looked at Nick. “She’s passed out, man,” he said.
Nick got up and stretched.
“Do you need help getting her to bed?” AJ asked.
“Nah just let her sleep on the couch. If she moves too much, it might tear the stitches,” he answered.
AJ and Howie carefully helped lay Alana out on the beige sofa.
“Ok, Nick, we’ll talk to you soon,” Kevin said as they all said their good byes.
He watched his brothers as they left her house. She lay out stretched on the sofa. He didn't want to leave her again, but this was his life....wasn't it?
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