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Chapter 10

It was in the afternoon the next day, and Cassidy was sitting in bed, reading a magazine and watching MTV as she heard a knock on the door.
“It’s opened” she said looking up. Nick walked through the door.
“Hi there.” He said, “Can I come in?”
Cassidy nodded, but didn’t say anything. She pressed the mute button on the TV remote control and put her magazine down next to her bed. Nick walked across the room and sat down next to her.
“How are you feeling?” He asked her.
“Better.” She forced a smile, remembering what she had told herself the day before about trying to be nice to him. Actually, she had been thinking about it all night too. She had to let him know that everything was ok, and maybe then he wouldn’t be so concerned that he had to come and see her every day. It would be better for her if he moved on and forgot about her. Then maybe she could move on too.
“Cassidy?”
She shook her head slightly and turned her attention back to Nick.
“Yes,” She said, looking at him.
Nick shook his head. “Nothing, you just looked kinda lost there for a moment.” He said.
“Oh…”
“So, how was your day?”
“It was fine. You can call me Cass, by the way.” She pushed back a strain of hair from her eyes.
Nick smiled at her. “Sure. How old are you Cass?”
“22. And you?”
“I’m 25”
Cass nodded. He looked younger, she thought. Or maybe he didn’t look younger, he just acted younger. She wasn’t sure.
“So tell me about yourself.” Nick said.
Cass hesitated. She didn’t know if she wanted Nick to know too much about her. Opening up to people wasn’t exactly her strongest side, and the few times she had, it always backfired.
“Umm… I don’t know. There isn’t much to tell, really. Why don’t you start?” She said, trying to avoid his question.
Nick looked at her, as if he knew she was hiding something. But then again, if she did, he knew exactly how it felt. He was wondering if he should tell her about him being a Backstreet Boy. He didn’t think she knew, at least, she hadn’t said anything to him about it.
“Ok… Well. I’m Nick.” He paused, and then laughed a little. “I feel like I have been telling you that more times then I should have, actually.” Cass smiled and nodded, as he continued. “I grew up in here in Florida, Tampa to be exact. I have three younger sisters and a brother. My parents got divorced a couple of years back, so I moved to LA after that. I’m staying at a friend’s house right now.” Nick looked at her, but found that her attention had been turned to the TV.
“Oh my God,” she whispered.
Nick followed her gaze over to the TV, and his heart sank as he watched himself singing in front of the burning car in the video for ‘Incomplete’.
“Oh…” He paused, “and I do…. that.” He said pointing at the TV.
“Oh my God.” She said again, never taking her eyes off the screen. “That’s you.”
“I know.” Nick said, not knowing where to look. He suddenly felt very uncomfortable. He truly didn’t want her to know just yet, but that was too late now. “I was getting to that part.”
“You’re a Backstreet Boy.” She said, still in a whisper. It was more a statement than a question, but Nick decided to answer it anyway.
“Last time I checked, yea.” He said, trying to loosen up the mood. Cass had turned on the volume on the TV by then, and was watching the video without really paying attention to Nick’s comment. Nick watched her throughout the song, and as it finished she turned off the volume again and turned to him.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know. I feel stupid now.” She said apologetically.
“No, don’t! I’m glad you didn’t know. It gave me the chance to let you see the real me, at least for a short time. I hate it when people judge me before they have spoken to me.”
“Didn’t you use to date Paris Hilton?” Cass asked curiously, forgetting that she really didn’t want to get to know him.
Nick sighted. “Well, yeah. But that’s a part of my past that I really don’t like to talk about,” he said honestly. “We’re not exactly friends anymore, to put it that way.”
“Oh.” She nodded.
“But, now that we are talking about me being who I am, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Ok.” Cass said.
“Well, the guys, you know the other four in the group, wanted to know if they could come and see you too, tomorrow. They really wanna say hi.”
Cass hesitated. She knew deep inside that she didn’t want to meet them. It would only make it harder for her to forget. But she felt like she owed Nick something for being so nice to her, and for being such an idiot back.
“I don’t know Nick…” She said. “I’m really not a social person. I’ll only feel stupid. I mean, I don’t know much about you guys. I mean, I’ve heard some of your songs, but I don’t even know your names. I wouldn’t even recognize you if I walked past you on the street”
Nick laughed. “Hey, that doesn’t matter. They just want to meet you and see how you are.”
“Well, can’t you tell them that I’m fine and leave it with that?” She almost begged.
“Cass, if you don’t want them to come, just say so. I won’t get mad.”
Cass sighted and shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t want to Nick. I guess I’m just nervous about it, that’s all. I mean, now that I know who you are and everything.”
“But it’s ok that I bring them, then?” Nick begged, looking at her.
Cass had to smile. “Why are you giving me that look? You’re not helping Nick.”
He kept looking at her.
Finally, she gave in. “Ok, ok. But they can’t stay for long. Not more than 30 minutes.”
Nick smiled at her. “Great. They are going to be so happy when they hear this. They’re really looking forward to meet you, Cass.”
“Well, I wish I could say the same about them.” She sighted, suddenly regretting that she had agreed to see them.

They continued to talk for almost an hour, until Nick decided that it was time to leave. Afterwards, Cass lay in bed thinking about what had happened. Nick being a Backstreet Boy suddenly changed everything. She knew she definitely couldn’t trust him now. Even though she actually had had a good time that afternoon, she knew that it didn’t matter. At the same time, she felt relieved. He would most likely leave soon to go on tour or something anyways, and that meant that she would probably never see him again. In her mind, that suited her just fine, but her heart told her otherwise.