“Hello. Is this Mary?” A voice asked into the phone. I couldn’t’ quite recognize it.
“Yes. Who is this?” I asked.
“This is Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys.” He informed me. I could’ve died.
“Uh. Hi. Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed.
“You won the phone call contest so now I’m calling you. Are you surprised?”
“Yes. Extremely!”
“Well don’t faint or anything! He laughed. “So what do you want to talk about?”
“Well I was wondering about this one thing for a little while. Have you met any Christian music groups before?”
“Some. I’ve met Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman.”
“Cool. They’re my favorite Christian singers.” I replied. “Have you ever met DC Talk?”
“Not yet, but I hope to. How old are you?”
“I’m fifteen.”
“So you’re a sophomore?”
“No I’m a freshman.”
“Oh really? I bet your friends are really jealous of you aren’t they?”
“Yeah. Especially my friend Tiffany. She practically worships you. When she found out I thought you were cute she wouldn’t let me look at any of the pictures she had of you. My friend SoCy really likes Howie. If he’s there could you tell him that she is his biggest fan? Cause I’m sure she is.”
“Well he’s not here right now, but I’ll be sure he gets the message.”
“Do you still have a girlfriend?”
“Not really.” He answered.
“Do you ever go into those chat rooms people have about you?”
“Yeah, sometimes.”
“I hate it when people go in there just to mock you guys. That’s just wrong.”
“So do I.”
“What is your screen name? I promise I won’t tell anybody. I could instant message you if I see you.”
“Well its BSB4me so I look like another fan. I don’t have a profile for obvious reasons.”
“Does Nick go online a lot? And if he does has he ever used the screen name Queen Cait?”
“Uh. Yeah I think so. Why?”
“Because I’ve run into him before and I talked with him. It was pretty cool. He said Howie and Chris of ‘N Sync get along great.”
“Yep.” He answered. “Well I really gotta go now. It’s been a delight talking to you. I mean I was afraid you were going to ask stupid questions. You know like what’s your favorite color? In fact how would you like to visit us on our tour? I could send you some airplane tickets so you can come over here.”
“Are you serious?” I asked shocked.
“Of course I’m serious.”
“Then absolutely.” I agreed enthusiastically.
“All right I’ll see you later. Bring your friend SoCy with you.”
“I sure will.” I replied.
“Goodbye Mary.”
“Goodbye Brian.” I sighed. Of course I immediately called SoCy. She would definitely want to hear this. “SoCy?” I asked.
“Yeah Mary what’s up?”
“Oh. Nothing except Brian Littrell just called!” I squealed.
“No way!” She gasped.
“Yes way! Remember that phone call contest? Well I won!”
“You are so lucky.”
“That’s not all. We had the most interesting conversation. He’s gonna send me tickets to visit them on their tour! Isn’t that awesome?”
“That’s so smooth! I’m happy for you.” She said sounding a little jealous.
“I’m not through yet. I told him you like Howie a whole lot and he said you should come too!” I was practically screaming.
“Really? That is so cool. I can go to? All right. I have to call Tify now. She’ll be so jealous!”
“Okay bye.”
“Bye!”
I was so geeked I called all the people I could think of. I called Rachel at Ryan’s house. I told my mom and dad. I called my best friend Tiffanie. I even called Dawn to rub it in her face. After a lot of yelling and jumping around I finally fell asleep. I woke up the next morning thinking it was all a wonderful dream. SoCy called and jabbered excitedly about what she was going to wear. I was half-awake and the excitement had not yet struck me. I was in half daze the whole week. Of course my friends were extremely jealous of SoCy and me. We were too excited to care. Brian was supposed to call on Friday so I invited SoCy to come to my house. It was around 5:00 when he called.
“Hello?” I answered quickly.
“Hey Mary?” He questioned.
“Yeah it’s me. My friend SoCy is here. Would you like to talk to her?”
“Yes I would.” He replied. So I handed the telephone to SoCy and she talked for quite a while before finally handing the phone to me. After talking to Brian for a while I wanted to ask Nick a question. He was there so I had the opportunity to ask him. It was something that had been bothering me a lot now that I could correspond with the Backstreet Boys.
“What did you want to ask me?” Nick’s voice sounded.
“I was wondering if you had any relationship with a Kristina Tackett?”
“I don’t know any Kristina Tackett sorry.”
“No problem. I knew she was lying.” I assured him.
“You did?” He questioned.
“Well I was pretty sure.” I stressed.
“Here’s Brian again.”
“Hey Mary!”
“Hey Brian. So when should the tickets arrive?”
“Probably a few more days.”
“I hate having to wait.”
“That’s the way it is.”
“I have to go now. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. See you later. Bye.”
“Bye.”
SoCy and I talked forever about how cool all of this was. She stayed for the whole weekend. It was absolutely fantastic. At school we couldn’t talk about anything else. I’m pretty sure my friends found that really annoying. SoCy and me wrote about a dozen notes on Monday. SoCy called everyday asking if the tickets had arrived yet. They came finally on Wednesday. I was so excited, but I had to wait until SoCy called because she rode the bus home. It was only thirty minutes, but it felt like longer. Finally the phone rang. Before she said anything I spoke.
“Yes SoCy they came!”
“Really? Oh my gosh! That is so cool!” She screamed. “So when do we leave?”
“This weekend. And we’ll be staying for three weeks. Isn’t that great?”
“Of course it is. Well I better start packing. See you later Mary. Bye.”
“Bye.”
SoCy and me went through school that week in our own world. I don’t think I talked to any of my other friends. I did, however, call Kristina.
“Hello?” She asked.
“Hey Kristina. It’s Mary.”
“Hey what’s up?”
“Oh you mean I haven’t told you yet?”
“Told me what?”
“I’m going to Europe for three weeks to visit the Backstreet Boys on tour.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Nope. And I’ve talked to them on the phone a couple of times too.”
“You have?”
“Yeah and Nick says he doesn’t know any Kristina Tackett.”
“So you know.”
“Yeah. Why did you lie to me?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I ever thought you would meet them.”
“Have you ever run into somebody who you thought was Nick Carter or who claimed to be Nick when you went on line?”
“Yeah, but I never believe them.”
“Do you remember any of the screen names they used?”
“One of them was like Queen Cait or something, but I told that guy off.”
“Oh my God, you told off Nick Carter!”
“That was Nick? Nick Carter?”
“Yep.”
“Oh God. Could you tell him I’m sorry.”
“Sure. Gotta go now. Bye.”
“Bye.”
SoCy came home with me Friday and spent the night. We headed to the airport on Saturday. The flight was like nine hours long. We were perfectly occupied the whole way there. When we weren’t talking or giggling we were listening to BSB music. I pulled out my lap top computer and logged on to a BSB chat room. Amazingly the Boys, or one of them, was chatting. I instant messaged him. It was like so:
ME: Hey who is this? (All the BSB knew my screen name.)
HIM: This is Nick.
ME: Hey Nick. I’m on the plane coming over.
NICK: Cool. Wanna talk to B-Rok?
Me: Sure.
BRIAN: Hey Mary. So you’re on your way over?
ME: Yep.
BRIAN: And SoCy is there too?
ME: Yeah. And she’s listening to Millennium and I don’t think she’s paying much attention.
BRIAN: Do you know what song she’s listening to?
ME: Uh. Don’t Want You Back.
BRIAN: That’s a good one.
ME: I’ve got about three more hours and it’s driving me crazy.
BRIAN: Just be patient. You should really take a nap.
ME: I probably should.
BRIAN: You log off now and get some rest.
ME: Okay bye. Tell everyone I said hey.
BRIAN: I will bye.
I logged off like Brian asked me to. I actually slept very well. SoCy woke me up as we were about to land. The Boys obviously couldn’t greet us themselves so they arranged for someone to pick us up. They were waiting at the hotel. I hugged them all. I couldn’t believe they were really there.
“It’s good to finally see you in person.” Brian smiled.
“You have no idea how great this is to meet you guys.” I smiled this huge smile. “I want lots of pictures to show my friends.”
“No problem.” Nick smiled. “You can show that Kristina you aren’t a liar.”
“There’ll be plenty of opportunities for pictures later.” Kevin said. “Right now we’ll show you to your room. Okay?”
“Yeah sure.” SoCy agreed. Our room was next to Brian and Nick’s room. Actually the two rooms were connected. In about an hour we were all settled in and it was time for our first concert. We were right up front. It was awesome. We could’ve died when they invited us on stage. After the concert we talked, laughed, and joked for a while. Finally we went to bed. I woke up early the next morning. Fortunately it wasn’t too long before everyone else woke up too. There was no concert that day so we could just hang out. I remembered it was Sunday. So I approached Brian.
“Is it at all possible that you could go to church with me?”
“Yeah I guess so. Howie will go too, I’m sure. We’ll just find some church around here. Would SoCy want to come?”
“I don’t know. I’ll see.” SoCy was excited to go. It was a very new experience. We talked late into the night again. Actually Brian and I stayed up really late.
“Well I really better sleep now.” I yawned.
“Yeah probably.” He just sat there on the edge of my bed for a moment. He leaned over and kissed me. I was completely stunned.
“What was that?” I asked wide-eyed.
“Sorry I couldn’t help it.”
“You don’t have to be sorry. It’s just that that’s only happened in my dreams.”
“Well consider this a dream come true.” He smiled and kissed me again. I was so tired, but I didn’t want him to leave anymore. But he had to. We agreed not to say anything about it unless it was necessary.
The next morning I woke up really early and Flew over to SoCy’s bed. “SoCy wake up now. There’s something I have to tell you. It’s about me and Brian.”
“Okay. Spill.” She ordered.
“Last night he kissed me.” I smiled.
“I knew that.” She replied mischievously.
“How did you know that? Unless. You were awake listening to us weren’t you?”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not really, but don’t go making a habit of it.”
When I saw Brian that day I smiled at him and he winked back at me.
Every night SoCy and I would girl talk after Brian left. Sometimes Howie would stick around for a while too. The first night he hung back SoCy and I didn’t get to sleep until 3 am.
“So, are you and Howie an item now?” I asked anxiously.
“What do you think?” She paused. “Of course. Isn’t he wonderful?”
“Yeah. He is awesome. Who would’ve thought that we would ever end up being so close to The Backstreet Boys?”
“Only in my stories. I can’t wait to tell Tify all this. I’ll bet she’s gonna get really pissed off at you.”
“You’re probably right. What’s gonna happen when we have to go back home? We can’t stay with the guys forever. Well you could legally, I mean you’re over 16.”
“If this is how it’s supposed to be it’ll work out somehow.” SoCy said getting philosophical. We talked more, but fatigue overwhelmed us and we went to bed.
One day right before a concert Brian and I were kissing in my room. Nick inadvertently entered the room.
“Oh my gosh.” He gasped. “Am I interrupting something?”
“It’s not like that.” Brian stressed. (Meaning sexual.) “We really like each other though.”
“How long has this been going on B-Rok?”
“Since the day after she got here.”
“Whoa. And you’re happy?”
“Very.” We both answered.
“Then I’m happy for you.” Nick approved. “But we gotta go now.”
“Okay. And Nick, can you keep this quiet for a while. We have to find a time to say something to everyone else.”
“When? She’s leaving next week.”
“Yeah. I don’t know what we’re gonna do.” Brian confessed. That’s where we left it for the night. The next day I woke up to a phone call.
“Mary?” A voice asked. I was sleepy so I didn’t recognize it.
“It’s Rachel.” She said. She sounded upset. I was very concerned.
“Rachel. What’s wrong?”
“Mom and Dad were in a car accident. They didn’t make it.” She started to sob. I was just stunned.
“Oh no.” I finally gasped. I started to cry too. After Rachel regained herself she told me the funeral was gonna be on Wednesday. I was sobbing uncontrollably when I got off the phone. I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders. When I looked it was Brian. He seemed very concerned.
“What’s wrong? Who was that on the phone?”
“It was my sister.” I gasped. “She told me that my parents were killed in a car accident.”
“Oh no.” He responded sympathetically.
“I have to go back for the funeral. What am I gonna do? I don’t have a home to go to anymore.” I sniffed.
“We’ll figure something out.”
“What we?”
“Well I’m certainly going to help you any way I can.”
“Thanks.” I whispered wiping away my tears. I started packing up my things. Brian told the others what happened. They cared very much. Before I left they, along with SoCy, approached me with an idea.
“We want you to live with us.” Kevin said right out.
“Join us on our tour. We’ll be your family.” Howie encouraged.
“That’s okay. I couldn’t.”
“Please? Mary I need you to stay with me.” Brian pleaded. The guys looked at him strangely. He responded by giving them a look that meant he would explain later.
“Really?” I questioned.
“Really.” Brian confirmed.
“Yes. I’ll come back and stay.” I promised.
“I’ll miss you. Just give me a call when you want to come back.” He assured me. He kissed me in front of Socy and the guys. They didn’t say anything because it wasn’t the right time. I said goodbye and got on the plane. The funeral was so awful. I didn’t dare go near the caskets. I stayed home for two weeks. I felt so alone I couldn’t stand it anymore. Rachel didn’t want to be home by herself after I left so the boys made arrangements for her to come too. It was a great comfort for me too, knowing I would have family with me. The funeral had made us really close and we were like best friends now. Brian was glad to see me again. He had already explained to the guys about our relationship. They were really supportive. AJ was glad to meet Rachel and soon after we got back they started going out. Rachel told me that coming to stay with the Backstreet Boys was the best decision she ever made. SoCy and Howie got together and SoCy was gonna stay for the summer. I had taken a huge step forward in my life. I was ready to go through whatever was ahead as long as Brian was by my side.
