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When I woke up in the morning, I had a terrible headache. I sat up slowly, holding my forehead, trying to get the room to stop spinning. It felt like the worst hangover I had ever had. I tried to remember last night, but it was fuzzy. All of yesterday was, actually. As well as the day before.

I stood up slowly, and I felt a dropping sensation right before my feet hit the ground. Maybe I had picked up some sort of virus. I headed into the bathroom. I closed my eyes when the light came on and stumbled to the toilet.

Right before I used the bathroom, a strange thought entered my head. It’s mine again. Since the room was still spinning, I had more important things to worry about than whatever the heck that meant.

I moved to the sink to wash my hands. As I was getting soap, I looked up to the mirror. Crinkled blue-eyes and wavy brown hair were staring back at me.

“Oh my God,” I said. I reached up and touched my face. “Ugh!” they were covered in soap, so I grabbed a wash cloth. I had never been so happy to be staring at my own image in the mirror.

I tried again to remember yesterday, but it was as if I’d been watching life through someone else’s eyes. And from a distance. I hadn’t been myself by the end of it, that much was clear.

I ran downstairs, ready to head over to Nick’s. As I opened the door, though, he was standing on the other side.

“Figure it out a bit quicker this time, did we?” I joked.

Nick had a huge grin on his face and gave me a hug. “I thought for sure it hadn’t worked yesterday… but I guess it was just like last time. The switch didn’t take effect immediately. Both times, we woke up after the fact.”

“What did we do yesterday? Why can’t I remember?”

“You don’t?” Nick said. “Well, that’s not really surprising…”

He told me about our visit to see Kate’s grandmother. And then about going from AJ to Kate, trying to find the skull.

“We saw Kate yesterday?” I said. Oh, no.

He gave me an overview of our visit to her apartment.

“Listen,” Nick said. “I wanted to tell you… if you want to date Madeline, then go for it.”

“I thought you…”

He shrugged. “It’s not worth it if it’s going to be one more thing to come between us.”

“Nick, don’t you get it? I was already losing it by then, and I was a… Nick Carter on Red Bull version of you. I was crazy in love with her because I was you.”

“I’m not in love with her,” he defended.

Maybe not yet, I thought. Having been him, though, I knew it was only a matter of time. But I didn’t think I should point that out to him. He’d figure it out on his own.

“It makes sense what you’re saying,” he said after a moment’s contemplation. “You liked her as me only because I like her…”

“No need to repeat everything,” I rolled my eyes. “We’ve established that.”

“She thinks I’m crazy, though. I don’t have a shot with her now.”

“No,” I smiled again. “She thinks I’m crazy. You have a date with her.”

His face lit up. “That’s right! You don’t think I should tell her…”

“That two of the Backstreet Boys were walking around as each other because of a South American skull that a third Backstreet Boy purchased? Not unless you want to make her rich when she sells the story of how crazy we are to TMZ.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Nick said. “Anyway, I was going to have the guys over tonight. A little burial.”

I understood his implication and nodded. “Sounds like a great idea.”

I didn’t spend the day doing a great deal. I checked my email, called my mom, and watched a movie on TV. Eventually, I took a shower and got dressed to go over to Nick’s. I was about to grab my keys when there was a knock on the door.

“Kate,” I said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Um…” she stared at me, seeming unsure of what to say.

“Come on in,” I offered, my heart racing. “Thanks for yesterday. Nick said you gave us the skull.”

“Ni… Bri… do you remember yesterday?”

“Bits of it are coming back to me. It’s hard to explain,” I shrugged. “And I know you don’t believe in any of this stuff…”

“I talked to my grandmother,” she interrupted. “So you’re… you again?”

I nodded.

“And you were in Nick’s body before?”

I nodded again.

“Why didn’t you tell me? All the time you came in the shop and were doing that research…”

“Would you have believed me?”

Kate laughed uneasily. “No, I guess not.”

“What made you yesterday?”

She stared at me. “The day we…” she blushed. “You know, kissed… it was really weird. Your eyes sort of… changed. It’s hard to explain.”

I laughed. “Was that your impression of me?”

“Yeah, and I thought it was pretty good.” Finally, she smiled a little bit, too.

“Listen, Kate. The whole thing with Madeline, that wasn’t me. I mean, that was me, as in I was still Nick, but I was sort of really Nick at that point, and so I wasn’t me. That was him liking her, and…”

“Okay, okay!” Kate said. “I know what you mean. Not because of what you said because who could understand that? But I figured it out on my own.”

“Oh,” I said, impressed.

“I did! Hey, I do a lot of reading. I know how the stories go.”

“So where does the story end for us?”

“With you asking me out and never pulling any of this crap again,” Kate said matter-of-factly. She laughed, and it sounded like music. “I mean, I always thought Nick was the cute one when I’d see posters, but it’s not about the looks, right?”

“Ha. Ha.”

“You sure you couldn’t just switch back again?” she teased.

“No, I was thinking of trying out AJ next time. Live life on the wild side,” I shot back.

“Well, he was my second favorite…”

“Ouch. Touché. I’m going to stop talking now,” I said.

“Good idea,” she said. “Brian,” she added.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and gave her a kiss.

*****

“Hey, man,” Nick said. “Do you want a piece of pizza?”

I’d been expecting a cook-out. The rest of the day had had an odd feeling of déjà vu, after all. Howie was already there, and Kevin and AJ arrived a short time later.

“How are you guys feeling?” AJ asked hesitantly.

“Great,” I said.

“Did you get the skull?”

Nick held it up, and AJ took an automatic step backward.

“What? Scared?” Nick teased. He threw it to me, and it sailed over AJ’s head. He ducked and moved out of the way.

“Not funny! I mean, are you guys back to normal?”

“As normal as we get, anyway,” I laughed.

“What’s the hole for?” Kevin asked, pointing to a spot in the corner of Nick’s yard. His arms were crossed. He still wasn’t pleased with us, but he had still come when Nick had invited him. I was sure he’d get over it in a few days, once we proved to him that we were ready to work on the album again.

“This,” Nick held up the skull.

“You can’t just bury that,” AJ said.

Howie looked completely confused, but he didn’t say anything.

“You’re right,” Nick answered. “It is missing something.”

I was about to ask Nick what when he ran inside. A moment later he returned with a sharpie. “You’re autographing it?” I laughed.

He didn’t answer, but he passed me the pen a moment later.

As I added my own name, I said, “You know you’re a pop star when…

We put the skull in the ground and covered it with dirt. The other guys were still on the deck, chatting and pigging out on pizza.

“I still don’t get exactly how we switched back,” I said. “We were supposed to connect thoughts, but I wasn’t really myself to do that.”

Nick shrugged. I was impressed at all he’d been able to accomplish without me. He’d really come through for me when I hadn’t been able to help at all.

“I just remember thinking that, if I had to live my life as someone else, I was glad that it was you,” he said this nonchalantly and was still using the shovel to cover the hole. He was sincere, though.

“I was thinking the same thing,” I said with sudden clarity. All of the memories of us I’d been having as Nick had stirred up something in the back of my brain. A little piece of me had still been me.

We smiled at each other for a second, but didn’t say anything else.

“There. Think that’s good?” Nick asked.

I inspected the ground and nodded.

“You’re not really going to quit the group, are you?”

I shook my head. “I can’t have you hogging all the solos in my absence.”

“What? Who’s on this album more, me or you?”

“You,” I said. He started to smile, but I continued. “Who was the one doing all of those parts?”

Nick’s face was overcome with the realization.

“I even sing you better than you, remember?” I grinned.

Nick held the shovel up and grabbed some of the dirt off the end, launching it towards my face. I managed to duck from most of it, but he grabbed more. I ran towards the deck, and Nick was close behind me.

We ran through the middle of their discussion, almost causing the pizza box that AJ was passing Howie to go flying.

“What are you guys doing?” Kevin called after us. “You’re acting like four year olds, the both of you!”

“Frick and Frack,” Howie said simply.

It summed up the scene rather nicely.

Chapter End Notes:
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