Chapter 3

    Lexa and her family walked down the road they were living on to a large house with a gate, the one that she had seen the day before.  She couldn't help but stare; the house was huge.  Once they got to the backyard they were greeted by a person Lexa assumed was the owner of the house.
     "Dawn, Pete.  I'm so glad that you could make it," she said, shaking both of their hands.
     "Hello Jane.  You remember our daughter Kayla," her mom said, pointing to her sister Kayla.
     "Yes, of course.  Hello Kayla."
     "Hi Mrs. Carter."
     "Oh please honey, you can call me Jane.  Aaron and the girls are on the beach if you would rather go hang out with them."
     "Can I mom?" Kayla asked, looking to her mom.
     "Of course.  Just stay out of trouble," her mom said as Kayla ran towards the beach.
     "Jane, this is our oldest daughter, Alexandra."
     "Nice to meet you.  You can call me Lexa, everyone else does," Lexa said, shaking Jane's hand.
     "Same here.  You know, I have a son around your age.  You're about 19, right?"
     "I'm actually 18, I'll be 19 in October."
     "Oh, well he's 20, but still you two should meet.  He should be here soon."
     "Who should be here soon?" asked a tall blond standing behind Jane.  He had short blond hair that had the sort of bed head look to it.  The first thing that Lexa noticed, however, were his blue eyes.
     Jane turned around at the sound of her son's voice.  "Nickolas, you scared me.  It's good to see you, though.  I thought for sure you'd be late."
     "Gee ma nice to see you too."  Nickolas said with some sarcasm in his voice.
     "So are you all settled back into your place."
     "Yeah, its weird having the house all to myself though."
     "Mandy moved all her things out already?"
     "Yeah, she moved her stuff out before I got back.  But enough about that.  I'm just ready to relax and have some fun.  I invited the guys over, okay?"
     "Oh of course honey.  You know they are always welcome here."  Jane turned back around and suddenly remembered she had been speaking to guests before.
     "Please excuse my manners," Jane said to Lexa and her parents.  "This is my oldest son, Nick.  Nick, these are our new neighbors, Dawn, Peter and their daughter Alexandra."
     Lexa's mom was the first to hold out her hand for Nick to shake and her father was the next.  Lexa had figured that he would just wave or say 'hey' but instead he was standing right in front of her with his hand out to shake. 
    "Hey," was all he said, but something in his voice made Lexa feel weak in the knees.  She thought it might have been the way he was looking at her.
    "Hi," Lexa said shyly while shaking his hand.
    To her, it seemed like Nick was holding onto her hand longer than he held the others.  He took this time to study her face and body.  She had some of the bluest eyes he had ever seen that didn't come from the mirror.  He noticed she had brown hair under her kerchief and she stood around 5'6".  She wasn't a stick figure, but she wasn't fat either, she was just right.  He finally released her hand.  "Alexandra, right?"
    "You can call me Lexa, everyone else does."
     Nick smiled at her.  "Yeah, I know how that goes."  He motioned for her to follow him.  She did and they sat down at a table on the deck.
     After they sat down, neither spoke for a moment.  Finally Lexa broke the ice.  "So how long have you lived in Florida?"
    "Almost all my life.  I was born in Jamestown, NY though."
    "No way.  I have a friend from college who lives there."
    "Small world.  When did you move down here?"
    "Well, my parents and my sister moved down here in April but I just got here yesterday."
    "Why so much later?"
    "I go to school in New York and my finals just got done two days ago.  The day after they were done, I hopped a flight down here and got here around one."
    "Wow, busy couple of days.  Where do you go to school?"
    "I go to Columbia University.  I'm a biology major."
    "Ooh, big city girl," Nick said teasingly.  "The summer here is gonna kill you."
    "Not quite.  We used to live in the country upstate.  My next door neighbors were cows, literally."
    Nick let out a small laugh.  It was the first time in a while he had felt happy.  The past few months had been absolute hell for him.  He still smiled for the fans and always had the happy face on for the family.  He had finally ended things with the person making him unhappy, yet he still didn't feel any better.  If anything, he felt worse.  He figured it was the incredible fear he had that he might end up alone.  As long as he had Mandy, he at least had someone, no matter how miserable she made him.  Suddenly a hand in front of his face interrupted his thoughts.
    "Still there?"  Lexa asked.  Nick had been quiet for a while and even after waving her hand in front of his face he remained quiet.  "You know, you don't have to tell me what's on your mind, if you don't want."  Deep down, she hoped that even though he didn't know her, he would still want to talk to her.  Only he didn't.
    "Its not that I don't want to tell you, it's just a really long and complicated story that I don't want to bore you with."
    "It's alright Nick.  I'm not offended or anything.  I realize we don't know each other well but I thought you might want to get a few things off your chest.  I figured I'd be good for that cause I am totally unbiased."
   "Thanks.  I might take you up on that sometime."
   "Your welcome.  So, next subject, where did you come back from?"
   "Huh?"
   "You're mom asked you if you were all settled in.  Where were you for so long?"
   'Oh no,' Nick thought.  The dreaded question of 'What do you do?'  "Um, well, I have been traveling for a couple months."
   "Oh really?  Where?"
   "Europe."
   "That's cool.  I was there last summer.  I loved it.  In fact I'm going back to England next January for a study abroad program.  So why did you decide to travel in Europe."
   "Well, it wasn't really my decision."  Here it goes, he thought.  Anyway, she seemed like someone he could trust not to get all crazy.  "I was on tour with my band."
   "Oh, you're in a band.  What one?"
   "Ever heard of the Backstreet Boys?" 
   Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys.  Lexa racked her brain trying to figure out where she had heard the name before.  Then it hit her.  "They sing 'I want it That Way,' right?"
   "Yeah, that's them.  That's the band that I am in." Nick said, bracing for the declaration of love or hysterical scream, but it never came.
   "So the guys that are coming over, that would be the rest of the boys?"
   "Yeah, and speaking of the devils," Nick said pointing towards the front lawn.  Lexa turned around and saw four guys walking toward them.  One was tall, older than the others and looked pretty serious.  Next to him was a short, all-American looking guy.  Next was a Latin looking guy and finally there was a tattooed, sunglass-wearing guy.  Nick walked up to each guy and gave them a slight handshake.  Then he motioned to Lexa to come closer.
   "Lexa, I'd like you to meet the guys.  This is Kevin, Brian, Howie and AJ."  Each shook her hand, except for AJ, who kissed her hand.  Lexa could feel the blood rush up her cheeks.  That one was a charmer, she could tell.
  "Guys, this is Lexa.  Her family just moved next door to Mom and Dad."
   Lexa said 'Hi' and made small talk for a few minutes.  'Where was she from?, What school did she go to?, What was her major?, Did she like it here?'  Finally, Lexa excused herself to go find her parents and give Nick some time to speak to his friends.  After she was gone, AJ was the first to speak.
   "Gonna be spending plenty of time with the family this summer huh Nicky."
   "J, what are talking about man?  And don't call me Nicky."
   "Was I the only one who saw that hot girl who now lives conveniently right next door to your parents?  And Nick, you're a single guy now."
   "Thanks for reminding me AJ," Nick said quietly.
   "Oh come on Nick.  You two were barely together as it was.  You two fought all the time." 
   "Jesus AJ, give it a rest," Brian said finally, seeing Nick was becoming less and less upset and more and more angry.  Nick finally got sick of it and walked away.  Brian rolled his eyes at AJ and took off after Nick.  "You know he doesn't mean stuff he says.  He's just being AJ."
   "I know.  I think what bothers me the most is that he's right."
   "What do you mean?"
   "We were always breaking up over stupid things.  Then 2 weeks later she'd be moving her stuff back into the place.  I guess I figure if I wait long enough for her, she'll eventually come back.  Brian, if you don't mind, I'd kind of like to be alone right now.  I think I'll go for a walk."
   "Whatever you say," Brian said, patting him on the back as he turned to walk back to the party.  As he was walking back, he ran into Lexa.  "Lexa, right?"
   "Yeah, Brian?" He nodded.  "Have you seen Nick?  My parents are ready to leave and I wanted to say goodbye."
   "Actually he just left to take a walk."
   "Oh," she said, looking a little disappointed.  "Um, if you see him could you tell him I said bye and that is was nice to meet him."
   "Sure thing."
   "Okay.  Thanks Brian.  It was nice to meet you too.  Who knows, maybe I'll be seeing you around."
   "Maybe.  It was nice to meet you too Lexa."  With that Lexa took off in the direction of the house.  Brian couldn't help but wonder what Nick didn't see in the girl.





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