We climbed on and got everything put away. We were heading to Syracuse but we were stopping along the way at a hotel, so we could sleep and shower. It was 2am when the bus finally got to the hotel. We still had another four hours of traveling to do the next morning. We all got off the bus. They handed us our keys and we went to our oomds. Brian headed to the bathroom. I dropped my bags on the bed and crawled into the other bed and went to sleep. Brian came out of the bathroom, he saw me sleeping in the bed and laughed. He shut off the lights and climbed in next to me. He put his arms around me and fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning, crawled out of bed and got in the shower. I got in cleaned off and got out. I dressed and went back into the room. Brian was still sleeping so I pulled my laptop out to check my email. I had tons and answered every last one. I had pulled out my discman and was listening to Billy Joel as I checked my mail. Brian put his arms around me. I turned off my discman. "Morning," I said still typing. "Morning," he answered back kissing the top of my head. "Whatcha doin?" "Writing my sister back," I replied. "Why don't you just call her?" "I don't have her number." He stopped and looked at me. "Alright you have totally lost me." I laughed. "She's not my real sister, she's my cybersister. Her name is Lauren." "Oh, can I say hi?" "Sure, knock yourself out," I laughed. He sat down in the chair next to me, pulling the laptop with him, so he could see and began typing.
He gave it back to me. I read his message. "From Twizzlerland with love?" I read. He grinned and nodded like a four year old. I shook my head and finished the email and sent it to her. I finally got through all my mail, so I decided to chat. Siggy was on, so I chatted with her while Brian got ready. "So when are you going to be here in Sweden?" she asked. "I dunno, I think sometime in December though." "Kewl." "So anything new in cyberworld?" "Nope, just the occasional poser, here and there." "Life like normal." "Yup, whatcha up to?" "Nothin much just chillin in a hotel room somewhere in between Hartford and Syracuse." "Ok?" "They had a show in Hartford last night and we stopped at a hotel on the way to Syracuse. Where we have a concert tonight. "Oh." Devon came on just then.
"Where's Kev?" she asked. "Well hello to you, too." "Hi, where's Kev?" "In his room, I think, why?" "Just wanted to know. Where are you guys?" "Somewhere between Hartford and Syracuse. We stopped for the night. You're coming to the concert tonight right?" "Um, stupid question!" "Sorry, just checking." I checked my watch. "I have to go. We have to be on the bus soon. I'll catch ya later." "Ok, bye." I disconnected my laptop and put it away. I packed my bags and we headed back to the bus.
We still had a few more hours on the bus. I took a seat on one of the couches and Brian joined me. Howie and Erika climbed on. Howie was his normal cheerful self and Erika was in one of her moods. She went back to the back room and slammed the door shut. I looked at Howie. "We talked all last night. She really loves Nick but she says that he doesn't show that he loves her. So she isn't sure how he feels," explained Howie sitting down. "Are you going to talk to Nick?" I asked. A grin came across Howie's face. "Can't tell it's a secret. But I have an idea to share with him. The two will be back together soon I guarentee it," he said with a smile. "Good maybe things will go back to normal and Erika will smile again."
The rest of the guys finally got on the bus and we pulled out. Howie had taken Nick to the kitchen table. He was showing him some sheets of music. Kevin was reading a book that he had and Brian, AJ and I were watching a football game. About an hour later we were still watching the game. "I don't get football." Brian and AJ laughed at my comment and kept watching the game. I got up and went to see what Erika was doing. I knocked on the door. "Who is it?" she yelled from inside. "It's Janice, can I come in?" "Yeah, sure." I opened the door. She was sitting on the couch with biology books working on something and had the radio on the sound system playing some music in the background. "Doing schoolwork I see." "Yup," she responded without looking up. There was a knock on the door. "Guys we stopped for some lunch," said Kevin through the door. "Alright thanks." I turned to walk out. "You coming?" I asked. "Nah, I'm going to chill here. Bring me back somethin?" "Sure thing." I walked out of the room and joined the rest of the guys.
Nick lagged behind and slowly walked to the back of the bus. He stood outside of the door and took a depp breath. He knocked on the door lightly hoping she didn't hear it so he could leave. "Who is it?" "It's Nick. Ccccan I talk to you?" There was a long pause. The door opened suddenly and Erika looked out the door. She stared at his blue eyes that were red and bloodshot from crying and the lack of sleep. She looked down and opened the door walking back to the couch to sit down. "Ok, I'm here. You're here. Talk," she said in a flat tone. "Erika, I love you so much. But for so long I didn't know how to tell you. I finally learned a way. I've been doing this so long that it's the only way I know of that I can express my true feelings." Erika looked at him. He stared at her and began to sing.
We walked into the restaurant and headed to the counter to order our food. While we were standing in line I noticed that Nick wasn't with us. "Hey does anyone know where Nick is?" I asked. "I think he's still on the bus. He said something about forgetting something," said Howie. I looked at Howie. "Spill it," I said crossing my arms. "What?" he asked with a smile. "You know something, so spill it."
As Nick finished the song he looked into Erika's eyes, she was crying. "Will you forgive me?" he asked quietly. Erika didn't answer him, she grabbed his chin in her hands and kissed him siftly on the lips. He put his arm around her and brought her closer. He began to softly kiss her neck. "I love you, Nick," she whispered. Nick stopped and looked in her eyes. "I love you, Erika." They fell back onto the couch, Nick still kissing her neck lightly.
"He wanted her back, so I taught him a love song in spanish to sing to her," he said as we ate. "So in other words, Nick is trying to be Casanova on the back of the bus?" AJ said taking a bite of his burger. "Basically," Howie said with a grin. We kept talking while we ate. When we finished we got Erika and Nick some lunch and headed back for the bus. When we climbed on Nick and Erika were sitting on the couch together. Erika was leaning against Nick and he had his arms wrapped around her waist. "Well it looks like someone got back together," said Kevin sitting down. I handed Erika the bag of food. She and Nick pulled out the food and ate it.
We all sat around and talked till we pulled into the arena in Syracuse. We got off the bus. "Kevin!" someone yelled across the parking lot. Kevin looked to see who it was. He saw Devon running towards him. "Devon!" he yelled back. When she reached him she wrapped her arms around him. We all walked past the hugging couple and walked into the arena. We went into the dressing room and sat down. A few minutes later Kevin and Devon joined us. I was half-asleep on the couch when I started sneezing. "Guess who got my cold," Brian said sing-songy. I glared at him. "Guess who gets cranky when they are sick." Everyone laughed. I moaned. "My throat hurts, my head hurts and my stomach hurts," I whined. "Don't you just love boyfriends? They share everything with you," said Devon with a grin.
The guys left to do a quick
sound check. I took a nap on the couch, so Erika and Devon went for a walk. "How's school?" Erika asked. "It's coming
along." "Anything exciting going on?" "Nope, not a thing. Life's boring up here." "I can tell. We just got back from Main the
other day. There was nothing up there." "So and you and Nick back together?" Erika smiled and nodded. "How are things with
you and Kev?" Devon stopped. "He asked me to come with you guys when you leave tonight." "He did?" "He wants to spend
more time together." "What did you say?"
"Hey sleepyhead, time to get up," Brian said nudging me. I opened my eyes and
looked at him. I went to swallow. It hurt so bad my hands covered my neck and I winced in pain. I slowly sat up. He put his
hand on my forehead. "Someone has themselves a fever," he said brushing my bangs back. "My throat is killing me," I said in
a hoarse whisper. "Shhh, just lie down and I'll get you some tea." He got up and walked over to the table and poured some hot
water into a cup and made me some tea. He put some sugar, lemon and honey in it and brought it over to me. I sat back up
and slowly sipped the tea. I sniffled and Brian smiled. "Looks like it's my turn to take care of you." I smiled weakly. He looked
at his watch. "I gotta get going. Just lie here and rest, you'll feel better." I nodded. Then I grabbed his sleeve. "What?" he asked.
I took his chin in my hand and kissed him gently. "Thank you," I whispered. He smiled and kissed my forehead and walked out
of the room. I continued to sip the tea. When I was done I put the cup back on the table and layed down. I fell asleep before
the concert started.
"So you are coming with us?" asked Erika excitedly as they walked to the dressing room. Devon nodded. "That's awesome. The three amigas together again. That reminds me, have you seen Janke?" Erika asked looking around. "I know she was lying down in the dressing room when we left. She migh still be there," said Devon. They both went in the dressing room, where they found me sleeping. Erika put her hand on my forehead. "She still has a fever, and it looks like she had some tea for her throat. Are you sure you want to come with us? We are all going to get what they had eventually," Erika said with a smile. "Come on, let her sleep and we can watch the show from the wings," said Devon. "Ok."
The gentle rocking of the tour bus woke me up. I opened my eyes and rolled over, the bunk was empty and I could hear talking going on in the front of the bus. I climbed out of the bunk and made my way to the front. "Morning princess," Brian said getting up from the table and kissing me on the forehead. "How are you feeling this morning?" he asked wrapping his arms around me. "Like crap," I muttered. He laughed as he pulled himself away. He still held my hands and lead me to the table. "Would you like some breakfast?" he asked getting up. "What's there to eat?" "I managed to save you a donut, a bagel and a Sunny D," he said placing the paper plate of food in front of me and the bottle of Sunny D. I slide over a bit so he could sit next to me. I split the bagel and put some cream cheese on it. I looked up to see what they had playing on the TV. They were watching Can't Hardly Wait. "Did you sleep well last night?" "What time is it?" "10am, why?" "I slept for 12 hours, I think I slept well," I said with a smile. He laughed at me. I put the knife down and began to eat my bagel.
"Ya going to eat that donut?" asked Nick. I pushed the plate with the donut on it over towards him. "Knock yourself out," I said with a mouthful of bagel. I finished my bagel and Sunny D and I sat with Brian, Nick and Erika talking. "Hey Janke, look where we are," Devon yelled back. I looked out the window just as the sign for Mansfield University past by. "Home away from home," I said with a smile. "Greg, we better be stopping," I yelled. He looked into his mirror back at me and smiled. "Ya know you love me, Greg." He laughed. "Now that, I agree with," he said with a laugh. He pulled off the highway and we drove over the bridge towards downtown Mansfield. "Now don't blink or you might miss downtown Mansfield and one of the two trafficlights in town," I said as we made out way to the campus.
We parked the bus in the parking lot and we headed down the hill. "Just think we have to walk back up this thing," AJ said. Nick looked back. "Oh my god!" he muttered. The hill was straight up. "This is Cardiac, don't worry I know a less stressful way back up," I said with a smile. We made our way to my old dorm. We walked into the lobby. "Andrea," I said walking towards her. "Andrea, this is Brian, Nick, Kevin, AJ, Howie, Erika and Devon." "Hi," Andrea said. "Guys, this is Andrea, she was my RA when I lived here. She listened to all my crazy dreams about working with y'all. She was the first one to know about my internship." "Yeah, I was sorting mail when I saw the envelope from Jive Records." "And she called me and told me I had to get my butt down here cause I had mail. I came down and opened my box and opened the letter and read it. And well yall can figure out the rest. Well I'm going to go up to my room and see Jess. See ya." "Bye."
We walked up the steps and down the hall to the elevator. We climbed aboard. "This elevator was not intended for a large group like us," AJ said as he got crunched against the wall. "Everyone inhale and hold it," I said pushing the button for the 5th floor. When the doors opened we piled out and took a deep breath. "OH MY GOD!" I looked down the hall to see Martha standing at the end of the hallway. We started towards them. "What?" asked Tammy coming out of the room. All Martha could do was point at us coming down the hall. Tammy turned. "OH MY DEAR LORD! Krista get out here!" she yelled. "What the hell do you want?" Krista asked coming out of her room. By that time we had made it to them. All they could do was point. "Annnn Mmmmarie get out here," stammered Krista. "Brian, Nick, AJ, Howie, Kevin, Erika and Devon. I would like you to meet Tammy, Martha, Krista and Ann Marie," I said with a smile. The guys smiled and shook their hands. "You're the Backstreet Boys," Tammy finally managed to say. We laughed. "That's what they call us," laughed Nick. I thought of something and whispered into Brian's ear. He smiled and whispered it to Nick who passed it on to Kevin, who whispered to Howie and then AJ. "Ready?" aske Brian. They all nodded. "I don't care, who you are, where you're from, what you did, as long as you love me." They sang As Long As You Love Me accapella in the hallway. Eventually heads started poking out of doors to see who was singing. When the guys finished the whole hallway broke out into cheers. The guys turned around and saw everyone and waved.
They went back in their rooms and we headed to my room. I put the key in the lock and opened the door.. "Nah, you weren't obsessed," laughed AJ looking around the room. I had 299 pictures of guys hanging around the room. The two bed were shoved into the corner to make one bed. There were desk lamps attached to either wall. One was over my desk and the other was over my bed. "I'm confused. Did we just walk into Nick's room?" Kevin laughed as he stepped over a pile of laundry. I knocked the candy wrappers and reminents of midnight snacks to the floor. Threw the books and things that were on the chairs to the floor. "Have a seat," I said sitting on the bed. Brian sat next to me. Howie and AJ sat in the chairs and Nick, Erika, Devon and Kevin sat on the floor. "Where's Jess?" asked Devon. "She lives across the hall now with Connie. I got my own room. I can't complain. Tons of wallspace." Brian looked around the room.
"Where did you get that?" he laughed. He was pointing to my 4 foot by 3 foot advertisement for their single Everybody. "Bought it down the shore. Cost me $15." I got up off the bed and walked to the closet. I pulled out two more posters. One was of Brian and the other was a cardboard advertisement for one of their concerts. "I bought this down the shore too." I handed the advertisment to Brian. "And this I bought for $10 at the concert I went to in Philadelphia." The poster was creased and torn. "What happened to it?" laughed Howie. "Well the creases are from after the concert. I stood pressed against a wrought iron fence. You kissed me on the cheek," I said pointing to AJ. "And you kissed me on the hand." I said pointing to Kevin. "Well the poster ended up between me and the fence and was destroyed." AJ took the poster and started laughing. "The hole is right on his nose," he said pointing at the picture. Brian put on a fake hurt look. "My mom told me, my nose was special," he said pouting. I sat down next to him. "Yes, you have a very special nose," I said smiling. He looked at me and smiled. I kissed him lightly.
We sat and talked for awhile, when there was a knock at the door. I got up to answer the door. "Hey Jess, come on it," I said as I opened the door. AJ was fiddling with the boombox. "What the heck?" he said running through the tuner. "Don't you get any radio stations up here?" I rolled my eyes. "Jess, this is AJ, Howie, Brian, Kevin, Devon, Nick, and Erika. Guys this is Jess." "Hi," they said at once. AJ went back to fiddling with the radio still not finding a station. I found him the campus station. He settled for it and sat down. Three minutes later he was up again. "What are you doing?" I asked. "I need something to listen to," he said fiddling with the tuner again. I pulled my CD book out of my book bag and handed it to him. "Keep them in order," I said as he unzipped the binder and started flipping through them. He finally found something and put it on. We talked for a little longer.
I looked at my watch. "Do y'all want to go to Manser for dinner? It's not gourmet dining but it's food." "Oh, college dining hall food," said AJ with his eyes wide. We all laughed. "It's not that great. Trust me," Jess laughed. We all got up and walked down the stairs and headed to Manser for some dinner. We all got our trays and sat down at two of the round tables. We had pushed them together. People kept looking at us as they walked by. I knew they recognized us but were keeping quiet about us being there. "Hi Jess," said Katie coming towards us. "Hey. This is Katie and her roommate Gretchen. They are in the marching band with me." They said thier hellos and Katie and Gretchen sat with us.
We finished dinner. When we left the hall, we decided it was time we headed back to the bus. We still had two hours till we got to Scranton for tomorrow nights performance. We took the long way back to the bus so we didn't have to climb Cardiac Hill and kill ourselves. We made it back to the bus and headed to Scranton. We pulled in at 9pm and headed to our rooms. I was so tired I took a shower and went right to bed.
The next morning I woke up. Brian was sitting at the table working on some lyrics. "Morning," I said pushing the covers back and getting out of bed. I pulled a pair of pants and a Flyers jersey out of my bag. I slipped them on. I walked over to the mirror and fixed my hair. When I was done I grabbed an orange juice out of the fridge and sat down next to Brian. He was still writing on the papers that were scattered all over the table. I picked up one paper and looked at the words that were messily scribbled on the sheet. "What's the title?" I asked taking a sip of my orange juice. "Huh?" he asked looking up. "Oh, I dunno. I can't think of one right now. Actually those are just some ideas. The real lyrics are over here," he said pointing to another piece of paper. I went to reach for it and he grabbed my hand. "When it's done you can hear but not till then," he said looking at me. He smiled and leaned forward and kissed me gently. "Ok," I said sitting back in my chair. "I'm going to get a shower. When do we have to be to the bus?" Brian looked at his watch. "Not for another four or five hours," he said. I looked at him. "Fatima isn't with us, so we don't have rehearsals anymore, so we don't have to be there so early." "Cool."
I got up and kissed hom on the cheek and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. After I got out I was toweling my hair and came into the room. I looked at my watch. "You up for some visiting?" He turned to look at me. "What do you mean?" he asked. I threw the towel back into the bathroom. "My family is from this area. I was wondering if you were up for some visiting." He dropped his pencil and rubbed his eyes. "I could use a break," he said yawning. He got up and pulled his wind breaker over his head. We talked to our guards and to John and convinced them to take us to visit my friends. We walked down the hallway and got on the elevator. When we got to the first floor we went to an exit towards the back where the van was parked. We climbed in. "Alright, where to?" John asked pulling out of the alley. "Pittston," I said with a smile. Brian smiled at me and I snuggled against him. We drove for awhile. "At this light take a right," I said to John. "Right here." John stopped the van. "If you need us you know the number," said Tim. Brian and I nodded.
The van pulled away. We walked around to the back of the house. I opened the screen door that lead to the porch and knocked on the door. A girl about my age opened the door. "Janice?" Erin?" "Oh my gosh! Janice, how are you?" she said hugging me. "Come on it." We stepped into the kitchen. "Erin, I would like you to meet Brian. Brian, this is Erin. We were best friends growing up." "Nice to meet you," he said shaking her hand. "Is Jen home?" "Yeah, she is in the living room." I walked out of the kitchen into the living room. "Hey Jen," I said. She looked up. "Janice!" She got up and hugged me. "Jen, this is Brian. Brian, this is Jen, Erin's twin sister." Brian smiled and shook her hand.
We sat down on the couch and started talking. Erin brought in some sodas. "I saw your jackets, do you work for the Backstreet Boys?" asked Erin. Brian chuckled. "You could say that," he said. I held his hand and looked at them. "Guys, this is Brian Littrell, he IS a Backstreet Boy along with being my boyfriend." Their jaws dropped to the floor. Brian and I laughed. "Guess they didn't recognize me," he saaid with a laugh. We sat and talked. I told them about my internship with the guys and some of the places we had gone. And they filled me in on the latest gossip that was going on. I got up and walked across the room and stared out the window. Brian looked at Jen and Erin. "The house next door use to belong to her grandfather. Someone bought it right after his death. Totally redid the place. She hasn't been in it since," whispered Jen. "It's been her dream since then to buy that house and put it back to the way her grandparents had it," added Erin. Brian looked at me. I sighed and looked at the floor.
I turned back around to face them. "Do the Centrella's still live across the street?" "Yup." "How about Allen? Does he still live in that house he built?" "Yup, his kid has grown up quickly." I sighed. Brian got up and put his arms around me. I turned into him and cried into his chest. He kissed the top of my head. "Why did they have to change the house? Why did they have to sell it?" I cried. "I dunno, princess, I dunno," he said looking out the window at the house. I pulled away from him and wiped the tears from my eyes. He kissed me lightly and I smiled at him. He turned to Jen and Erin. "May I use your restroom?" he asked. "Sure, up the stairs, third door on the left." He walked up the stairs. "He's nice," Jen said with a smile. I smiled to myself. "Yeah, he's good to me." "So ya know the Backstreet Boys?" Erin asked with a smile. "Know? I live with them 24/7," I laughed. "What are they like?" "NUTS!" I laughed. "Nah, they are like the four brothers I never had." "Any of them single?" asked Erin. "One. AJ, he can't fin that special someone just yet. I have Brian, my friend Erika is seeing Nick, my other friend Devon is seeing Kevin and my other friend Alex is seeing Howie." "In other words it's good to be your friend cause you get to date a Backstreet Boy." We laughed.
Brian joined us in the living room. I looked at my watch. "Hey you guys up for some Nardones?" "Sure." Brian looked at me. "You'll like it. I promise." We got up and headed to their car. Erin drove to Nardones which was a tiny diner in West Pittston. She parked the car and we went in the diner and took a seat in one of the booths. "Do you like chili?" I asked Brian. "Yeah." I took the menu out of his hands. The waitress came towards our table. "4 chili dogs with the works and two bowls of chili," I ordered. "Hungry?" he laughed. The waitress took Erin and Jen's orders and left. We just sat around and talked. As Long As You Love Me came on over the radio. I leaned against Brian as he lightly sang his part. The waitrss brought us our food and we ate. "Wow, that was good." "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach," I laughed putting my arms around him. We laughed. The waitress brought us the check. Brian picked it up. "My treat," he said. "Nope," I said grabbing it out of his hand. "You pay all the time. Now I'm going to pay," I said pulling my wallet out of my pocket and grabbing a twenty. "Fine, you can pay but I've got tip," he said sticking his tongue out at me. I gave him a quick peck on the lips and went to pay the cashier.
After I paid we went back to their house. "Guys, I'm going over to the Centrella's. I'll come back in a bit," I said. "Do you wanna come with me or hang with them?" "I wanna meet people," he said with a grin. We walked across the street and walked down their driveway. We walked up to the backdoor. "Does anyone use front doors in this town?" he asked with a grin. I elbowed him lightly. The door opened and an elderly woman stood in the doorway. "Aunt Argy?" "Janice," she said opening the door. "How are you?" she asked hugging me. "I'm good," I said coming in the door. "Aunt Argy, this is Brian. Brian, this is Aunt Argy." "Hi," he said with a smile. "Don't just stand there. Come in and have a seat," she said. We walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Do yous wnat something to eat?" "No, we just ate thanks." "Ok," she said sitting down. "So how's your mother?" "Good, I don't get to see her as much since I started traveling." "That's right, your mother was telling me about that job you got with that singing group. Can they sing good?" Brian laughed. "I think we are pretty good." She looked at him quizzingly. I laughed. "Brian is one of the members of the group." I reached into my pocket and pulled out a picture. "That was taken during their concert in Atlanta a few weeks ago," I said handing her the picture. "I probably wouldn't like your concert," she said giving me the photo back. "Why is that?" Brian asked. "Too loud!" We all laughed.
We heard the van pull up in front of Jen and Erin's house. "Well it sounds like our ride is here. So we have to get going," I said as we got up from the table. I hugged her. "I'll call when I'm in town again." "Don't hesitate to call if you need anything." "Alright, bye," I said as we walked out the door. We crossed the street and climbed into the van. John turned the van around and we left. I leaned against Brian. I watched my grandfather's house disappear ouf of view as we drove away. I felt tears welled up in my eyes. Brian saw me crying and held me tighter. He kissed the top of my head lightly. I just stared out the window until I fell asleep. Brian nudged me. "Come on sleepyhead, we're back."