Brian sighed as he knocked on Nick’s door the next morning to make sure he was awake.
“Why do I always end up picking the little straw?” He said with a sigh, laughing slightly to himself. He knocked once more and gave up when there was no answer, hoping the reason he wasn’t answering was because he was in the shower and not asleep.
He then moved on to Ashley’s door. AJ had asked him to check on her too since he was already on Nick duty. He knocked lightly on the door and waited for a response, putting his ear close to try and hear movement from within. After a moment he knocked again. He put his ear to the door once more and heard grumbling and footsteps getting closer. The door handle jingled and a sly smirk appeared across his face when he saw who was on the other side.
“Wow Ashley, you sure look different in the morning.” He laughed.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Nick grumbled through his tired haze.
“Last time I checked this was Ashley’s room and you’re not Ashley.” The smirk stayed on his face as Nick realized where he was.
“It’s not what it looks like.” He said nervously.
“Chill out.” Brian chuckled. “I’m not AJ, what you do is your business.”
“We just fell asleep watching a movie.” He said still with a hint of anxiety.
“Like I said, what you do is your business, not mine.” Brian shrugged. “Just be more careful, cuz if it were AJ at this door instead of me you’d have a lot more explaining to do.”
“I know.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “So we’re cool, this stays between us?”
“My lips are sealed.” He promised. “Now go get ready, we have to leave for the arena in two hours and we need all our stuff.”
“Alright, thanks again.” Nick sighed in relief, knowing he could trust Brian. He closed the door thankful it had only been Brian. He knew the other guys wouldn’t take their friendship as well. They would have to be more careful from now on, if they wanted to keep hanging out.
He made his way back to the bed, taking a seat where he had laid. He smiled to himself as he watched Ashley sleep for a moment. He knew he shouldn’t have feelings for her, but he just couldn’t help it. When she hugged him last night it took all that he had in him not to kiss her. He wanted to so badly, but he didn’t want to freak her out. Especially right after she opened up to him about her ex boyfriend. They had a great connection and were becoming good friends, and he didn’t want to ruin it by jumping the gun before he even knew if she had feelings in return. A part of him believed she did but at the same time his own insecurities clouded that judgment. He would just have to wait it out and see if she gave him any indication that she too liked him.
He glanced at the clock and knew as peaceful as she looked he had to wake her so she would have enough time to get ready. A part of him wanted to be evil, but he decided against it and gently shook her instead.
“Hey Ash, it’s time to get up.” He said quietly.
“Go away.” She grumbled and pulled the covers over her head.
“Someone’s not a morning person.” He laughed and pulled the covers from her face. “Come on we need to get up and get ready to leave.”
“I don’t wanna.” She grumbled again, turning onto her stomach and burying her face in her pillow.
“Don’t make the evil Nick have to come out.” He threatened with a smirk.
“Leave me alone, I just want to sleep.” She whined and tightened her grip on her pillow.
“You asked for it.” He laughed as he began tickling her.
“Nick stop!” she squirmed as she tried not to laugh.
“I tried to be nice.” He laughed. “But you brought this upon yourself.” He said as he continued tickling her.
“Please! I’m up, I’m up.” She said breathlessly through her squeals as her face turned red from laughter.
“You promise?”
“Yes!” she said trying to regain breathing. He stopped tickling her and she laid there for a moment before grabbing her pillow and smacking him hard in the head.
“Hey!” he said rubbing his head.
“I hate you so much!” she said with a smirk as she smacked him with the pillow again.
“You’re gonna get it.” He laughed grabbing a pillow and hitting her lightly.
“Hey you’re not supposed to hit girls!” she pouted.
“Technically I didn’t. See if I use an object to hit you, like this.” He laughed smacking her with the pillow again as he grinned. “Then I’m not really doing the hitting, the pillow is.”
“You’re such a loser.” She laughed and shoved him playfully.
“You’re just hating cuz you know I’m right.” He said with a smile. “Now get up.”
“Can’t make me.” She stuck her tongue out at him and clutched her pillow once more.
“Oh I can’t?” he raised a brow as his hands went for her sides once more. Before he could even get to her she jumped from the bed.
“Ok, ok. I’m up. Happy now?”
“Very.” He said triumphantly as he made his way towards the door connecting their rooms. “We have to be downstairs by noon.”
“Yea, yea.” She laughed and kicked him in the butt as he headed through the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ashley wandered around the backstage area of the arena sometime later. The boys were getting ready for sound check and Leighanne was putting Baylee down for a nap, so she had some time to kill. She got some coffee and headed for the stage area to see what was going on there. Peeking out from the side she could see a small crowd of people begin to anxiously file in. This was the first time she had been to a sound check party, rather then just a small meet and greet, and she was excited to see what it was all about. She knew there weren’t many people there so she could probably blend in fairly well to watch from the seats.
“Boo.” A voice came from behind her.
“Brian!” she said as she jumped a little. “Don’t creep up on me like that. You scared me.”
“Sorry.” He laughed for a moment before his slight smile turned into a smirk. “So, did you have a fun night?”
“Umm I guess?” she said looking at him questionably. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh Nick didn’t tell you about his nice little wake up call this morning?” Brian laughed.
“Huh?” she said still clueless as to what he was getting at.
“See, I drew the short straw so I’m in charge of making sure Nick’s up on time for like the first month of tour. So AJ asked me if I would check in on you too so when I went to knock on your door this morning to see if you were awake you can imagine my surprise…” he trailed off as the light bulb went off in her brain and she finally got what he was hinting at.
“We just fell asleep watching a movie, that’s all. Nothing happened.” She said nervously.
“What are you guys reading from the same script?” he laughed. “I’ll tell you exactly what I told him. What you do and who you hang out with is your business, but be more careful if you don’t want to deal with having to explain yourself to everyone else. It could have easily been AJ or Kevin on the other side of the door this morning.”
“So you’re not gonna tell anyone?” she said biting her lip.
“It’s our little secret.” He laughed and walked off to find his wife.
Ashley sighed as she watched Brian walk away. Although she knew she could trust him not to blab about her and Nick’s little movie sleepover, a part of her was nervous that it might somehow slip and cause more trouble then needed. She pushed it to the side as she heard the announcement that sound check would be starting in a few minutes. She made her way around to the front of the stage and sneaked by the small crowd of fans. She went back about fifteen rows and took a seat dead center so she would have a good view but still be out of the way. She looked around and knew she really didn’t have to worry because with Marcus manning the floor it would be tough to slide past him. The crowd began to cheer as the boys took the stage and setup, talking and goofing off with each other. Ashley smiled as they began to sing their first song. It had been a while since she had seen them all on stage together and she had to admit she missed it. Watching them she couldn’t help but get just a little excited about what the summer held in store while on tour with them.
She smiled and sang along as they performed a few songs. Occasionally she would catch Nick looking her way with a smile. Every time he would look at her she would make a funny face to try and catch him off guard and make him laugh. It was funny until fans started catching on and were turning back to see what was distracting him. She sunk down in her seat slightly knowing she had blown her cover of going unnoticed. She was thankful when the announced that they would be starting a short question and answer session because it brought the attention back towards the stage.
As the question and answer session came to an end the security started to herd everyone into a line towards the side of the stage to get their pictures and autographs. Two girls hovered towards the end of the line and when no one was paying attention snuck away in Ashley’s direction. She sighed as she saw them approaching but smiled at them. As they got closer she gave them a friendly little wave and stood to greet them. Upon closer look they both seemed to be just a little older then she, but with their skimpy clothing and caked on makeup she knew they weren’t her favorite type of fans.
“Are you Nick’s girlfriend?” the one girl asked rather bluntly, not bothering to greet her.
“Umm no.” she laughed a little. “I’m Alex’s sister.”
“Who?” The other girl looked at her as if she were dumb.
“Alex…AJ…the tattooed one.” She said hinting them until they finally caught on.
“Oh right…” the girls tone was unamused. “We’re just fans of Nick.”
“Well how nice of you to come support him.” She smiled fakely. She wished she could get them to go away, but with the pictures going on security was occupied trying to keep control. “Aren’t you gonna miss your pictures?” she said pointing just left of the stage where the line was nearing the end.
“We’ve met Nick plenty of times, it’s no big thing.” The first girl shrugged. “So how do you know Nick then?”
“Um how would I not know him?” she tried to control a laugh as she looked at the girl wondering if she was really serious. The girl raised a brow as if waiting for her answer. “My brother is a Backstreet Boy and Nick is a Backstreet Boy…it would be kind of impossible not to know him.”
“Right whatever.” The girl rolled her eyes at her sarcasm and tossed her long hair behind her shoulders. “He was like really excited when he saw us in the audience. He didn’t know we were coming, we wanted to surprise him.”
“Well then maybe you should go say hi.” She forced a smile, trying to figure out a way to get away from the pair.
“Thanks everyone for coming out, but we have to empty out the arena so we can prepare for the show.” Said the coordinator over the speakers.
“Oh well, maybe next time. Do us a favor, tell him Tiffany and Jana said hi and that we had a lot of fun last night.” The girl smirked as if trying to get one up on her.
“Last night?” Ashley played along as she laughed to herself knowing these girls were just trying to get a rise out of her.
“He’ll know what we’re talking about…don’t worry about it.” She snickered as they walked off.
“Might wanna get your eyes checked if you think you were with him last night.” She said to herself, laughing as she headed towards the backstage area.
“Hey. There you are.” Leighanne said as she walked by. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Sorry I was down front watching from the audience. What’s up?”
“Kris and Leigh just got in and they’re starved. We have some time before the show starts so we’re gonna grab a quick bite. Want to come?” She smiled.
“Sure sounds good.” She returned the smile.
They got in a van and went just down the road to quaint café style restaurant. Ordering some soups and sandwiches they took a seat and began some light conversation.
“So how was your flight?” Leighanne asked as she handed Baylee some crayons and a picture to keep him occupied.
“Long.” Kristin laughed.
“I hate the whole going ahead hours thing, I feel like I lost a whole day.” Leigh added.
“I just hate flying period.” Ashley laughed.
“You didn’t mind it yesterday.” Leighanne said with a smirk. Ashley gave her a teasing glare as Kristin and Leigh looked on confused. “Can I show them the picture?”
“I know you will anyway.” Ashley laughed as Leighanne reached in her bag for her camera to show the girls.
“Aww.” They said in unison. “That is so cute.”
“It’s just a picture.” Ashley laughed a little knowing her cheeks were flushing slightly. “And before you say anything we’re just friends.”
“Friends who look absolutely adorable together.” Leigh said with a laugh. Her cheeks flushed even more and the girls couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ok, ok, enough embarrassing you.” Kristin laughed handing the camera back to Leighanne. “How was the big dinner last night?”
“Great.” Leighanne smiled. “The food was amazing and the restaurant was very accommodating. I wish you guys could have been there.”
“No crazy after dinner parties?” Leigh laughed.
“The only party I had was getting this crazy one to sleep.” Leighanne laughed tousling Baylee’s hair. “What about you Ash, do anything fun last night?”
“Watched a movie and fell asleep halfway through it.” She shrugged.
“Ashley we’re getting up there, we don’t have the stamina to stay out and party all night long anymore. We need to live vicariously through you!” Leighanne teased. “So no more of this watching a movie and falling asleep. We need spice and sizzle.”
“You’re crazy but I love it.” She laughed. “If I tell you something it never leaves this table. You have to swear.”
“Girl talk is always sacred we might be old but we know.” Kristin laughed.
“Well watching a movie and falling asleep alone is lame, I know, but I never said I was alone.” She smiled a little.
“So that’s what husband was mumbling about this morning.” Leighanne laughed. “I thought he had gone out of his mind.”
“It’s still just as lame as it seems.’’ She laughed. “We talked about some stuff for a little watched a movie and fell asleep.”
“We’re talking about who I think we’re talking about right?” Kristin laughed trying to make sure she was up to speed.
“That is so adorable.” Leigh said with a sweet tone. “We need to make this happen because I love the idea.”
“We don’t need to make anything because he and I are just friends and that’s it. Remember that.” She laughed as her phone began to ring.
“We will, when we’re reminding you later of how in denial you were.” Leighanne teased.
“Haha…” she said with a smirk as she got up from the table. “It’s mom, she probably just got in, I’m gonna take it outside.”
Once she was out the door Leighanne turned to her friends.
“I’m spicing this tour up a little ladies. I’m starting a bet and you’re all in.” she laughed.
“And this bet is what? Who can get them together first?” Leigh joked.
“Oh no, much easier then that. Believe me we don’t need to do anything for that to happen.”
“And what do we win?” Kristin said enticed.
“Losers are in charge of cleaning the winners dirty tour laundry before we leave for Europe.”
“And what if they’re not together by then?” Leigh asked.
“I don’t think that will be a problem.” She laughed. “But we have to agree that we wont do anything to get in the way. Just let nature take its course. Are we all in?”
“You know it, anything to get out of doing all that laundry.” Kristin laughed.
“You can say that again.” Leigh added.
“Great well then submit you’re guess in writing and we’ll see who wins.” She smiled as Ashley walked back into the café. “And remember this stays just between us.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
NEW CHAPTER! hope you guys like it! thanks so much for the amazing feedback you've been leaving KEEP IT UP!
