"Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?" Kevin murmured,
inhaling the strawberry scent of Naila's dark hair.
She giggled "Yeah, but it's always nice to hear"
Kevin tightened his strong arms around her slender waste,
his chin still resting on the top of her head.
"My gosh you two" Dawn laughed "So pathetic, yet so cute"
"You're just jealous because Howie is too shy to do the
same" Naila teased.
Howie, who had been leaning on the wall, minding his own
business, suddenly blushed "Funny!" he said awkwardly, his
voice cracking.
Dawn gave him a radiant smile "All in due time, right?!" she
winked.
He grinned. Although things were going slowly between the
two, they were still running smoothly. And he had a strong
feeling that it would all change the moment they'd be able
to go out on a real date.
About to speak, her cell rang. "Hold on" she smiled as she
answered "Hello?.... Hello?.... Hell..." she looked at it
and shut it off.
"Who was it?" Howie asked.
Dawn shook her head "I don't know. I've been getting wrong
numbers a lot recently"
"Maybe your phone is broken" Naila suggested.
"Maybe" Dawn shrugged. She quickly forgot about it. After
all, she had something more important on her mind: Howie.
**Same Time**
Alyssa hurriedly made her way through the cafeteria, trying
to get back as soon as she possibly could. This just
couldn't be happening... About to turn the corner, she
crossed a familiar set of shades.
"A.J!!!" she yelled, running over to him.
He frowned and looked down at her. She was panting, head
between legs. But still he didn't care "Look, just because I
accepted to be in this stupid video doesn't mean we're gonna
be friends" he explained plainly.
Alyssa looked up at him, pushing back all feelings of
resentment "Where's Brian?" she asked.
"I'm not talking to you" he said childishly, turning around.
"Look you stubborn fuck" Alyssa said losing patience, taking
him back by the shoulder
"This is not about you" and shoved the paper in his face.
A.J eyed her, then looked at it, his jaw soon dropping to
the floor.
"What is this?"
She shook her head "Where is he?"
He panicked, recalling how he'd just seen Brian storm by him like a bull a minute ago. His eyes grew large with worry
"I'll get Brian, you go to Eli" he said before speed walking
away.
Alyssa ran in the other direction, praying Eli was still
where she'd left her.
**Meanwhile**
Nick sat quietly in his dressing room, listening to his
walkman. He enjoyed being alone, considering how scarce
those moments were in his hectic life. As he stood up to get
a drink, the door flew wide open, Brian storming in.
"Hey Bri, what's---" BANG.
Before the words could even leave his lips, Brian's fist
collided with his best friends jaw, knocking him to the
floor.
Not being given the opportunity to gather, Brian pulled him
back up by the collar, and shoved him into the wall. His
eyes were flaming with fury "You bastard!" he cursed,
punching him in the face once again.
Nick pushed him away, and attempted to take a swing at him,
but missed, only having Brian punch him again, causing him
to stumbled onto a chair then roll to the ground.
Nick struggled to keep Brian off as he lunged at him
furiously, his rage swelling with every blow.
So caught up in pulverizing his friend, he failed to notice
A.J and Kevin coming in.
Kevin came up behind him and grabbed him "Calm down!" he
said firmly, trying to refrain him. Although Kevin was much
stronger than his cousin, Brian's rage had given him a new
found strength, and it took Kevin everything he had to hold
him back.
"Whoa!" A.J said trying to block him from Nick "It's not
worth it!"
"Fuck you! Let me at him!" Brian yelled, attempting to free
himself from Kevin's grasp.
"What's gotten into you?" Kevin whispered loudly in his
ear.
Nick stood up, wiping some of the blood away from his cut
lip with the back of his hand "That's what I'd like to
know".
"Son of a bitch!!" Brian scram. How could he still be acting
so oblivious. Why was he so calm? He wanted him to come at
him, so that Kevin would let him go and he could continue
kicking his sorry ass.
"Oh my god!" a voice exclaimed out of the blue.
They all turned to find Eli and Alyssa in the doorway.
I walked over to Brian with tears in my eyes, as she went to
Nick.
I didn't know what to expect from him. It was already
difficult enough swallowing what Lyss had just told me.
"Brian..."
"How could you do this to me?" he said angrily, finally
freeing himself from Kevin's grip.
I swallowed hard "I didn't mean to"
"How could you sleep with him?" he bellowed furiously.
By this time, Naila, Laurel, Annie and Kristy had already
gathered in the room. They all exchanged looks of wonder
with Kevin, who himself didn't know precisely what was going
on.
"It was an accident... we were drunk..." I tried to reason.
Right then, Laurel realized exactly what they were talking
about "Oh no" she gasped.
Brian was raging, he tried to keep his cool, but just
couldn't. "You tramp!" he yelled, for the first time saying
anything hurtful or degrading to his girlfriend. "So you
won't have sex with me, but you'll go right behind my back
and sleep with my best friend?"
My eyes filled with tears "I'm so sorry" I choked.
"Sorry isn't good enough!" he shouted "Shit... I had to find
it out in the fucking New York Times? Big headline: 'Angel;
Not So Angelic' "
He moved towards me, and at that moment, I thought he was
going to hit me. His eyes were teeming with anger and pain.
I'd lost my voice.
"I can't believe you. All we've been through, and you go
fuck Nick" he laughed in disbelief
"You deceiving little..."
Brian was cut short by the sting of Alyssa's hand across his
face "Shut up you jerk!" she hissed.
Brian placed his hand on his burning cheek. He literally got
some sense knocked into him. But Lyss wasn't about to leave
it at that. He'd pissed her off
"You're no better!" she said angrily, her face just inches
away from his "She was drunk, what was your excuse?"
He looked at her oddly "What are you talking about? Don't
turn this on me. I didn't do anything!"
"Don't give me that bull!!" she yelled back "I know what you
did. I over heard the dancers talking about you having your
tongue down some other chicks throat" she paused a moment to
insure he'd listen "Hypocrite!"
Brian looked at her, bewilderment splattered all over his
face. How did she manage to twist the situation around so
quickly? His eyes traveled from person to person, each with
varied expressions. She was right, but he still couldn't
bring himself to admit it.
He then looked at Felicity. Her face was tear stained, her
eyes glicening with sorrow.
A lump built in his throat. How could he have said those
cruel words? But it was too late.
"You did what?" I managed to stutter.
All he did was stare blankly at me with regret and shame.
"Brian, is that true?" I asked shakingly.
"I only...."
"You only WHAT, Brian?!" I questioned bitterly
"This wasn't about me" he protested firmly "You have no right
blaming me now. This is about you"
I shook my head vigorously "No Brian,this is about us"
An eerie silence fell over the room as we all stood, uncertain
about what to say or do. Neither of us had anticipated
things to turn out this way. But at that moment, it didn't
matter what they thought. He'd cheated on me. He'd cheated
on me consciously.
With out a word, I walked away.
"Jerk!" Alyssa spat, before going after her.
Kristy and Naila took Nick by the hand and lead him away.
"Let's get some ice for that eye of yours" Kristy's voice
was heard as she tried to ease the situation.
Laurel had already disappeared long ago, leaving only Kevin
and A.J behind with an over emotional, irrational Brian.
"You cheated her?" A.J said in disbelief.
Kevin shot him a dirty glare, then patted his cousin on the
back, only to have him shrug him off.
"Bri, it's alright" Kevin tried to soothe "You both made
mistakes"
Brian looked over at the two people next to him. They were
strangers to him.
"Leave me alone" he said.
A.J, who was quite disgusted with the whole ordeal, left
with out objection, as opposed to Kevin, who wanted to stay
behind.
"Go" Brian said coldly.
Kevin obeyed, but left him with a few wise words: "Don't do
anything stupid"
'Don't do anything stupid?' Brian repeated to himself. He'd
already done the dumbest thing in the world. But still...
there was no forgiving Nick and Felicity. The two people
dearest to him had ripped his heart out, and used it as a firing range.
What was he going to do?
**~~**
The shoot was postponed till the next day. Nick's face was
too severely bruised, impossible to be hidden by any amount
of makeup. On top of that, morale was down, and Brian was
gone. Miss Miller panicked with all the chaos that had
broken loose.
Obviously, since nothing was going to get done, everyone was
sent back to the hotel.
The ride back was silent. Eli refused to speak to anyone,
including Alyssa. Howie and A.J tried talking to Nick, but
he was just as mute as she was. Kevin on the other hand, was
too upset with Nick to even look at him. All he was able to
say to him was how much he'd screwed up, and how
disappointed he was in him. Nick didn't need to be reminded
though... He'd never felt more guilt in his entire life.
Laurel sighed. This was an awful day! So dreadful infact,
she'd almost forgotten about Michael. When they arrived at
the hotel, she made her way to her room and slammed the door
behind herself.
"Hey!" Michael greeted, his feet on the coffee table as he
channel surfed "What's up?"
She snickered. What a jerk! They'd just slept together for
the first time, she left with out a word, and he was acting
as though nothing had happened.
She pushed her hostility down. This was more important than
her.
"Remember the night at the party?" she asked, sitting down
next to him.
"Of course" he smiled "That's where I met you".
'way to play it Mike' he praised himself 'they love it when
you bring up that crap'
Laurel rolled her eyes "That's not what I meant. Remember,
Nick and Eli were drunk. I left. You stayed..."
"Yeah..." he said, his attention shifting to her.
"What happened with them after I left?" she asked.
Michael scratched his head "Well, nothing."
She squinted "Are you sure?"
"Yeah" Michael said certainly "They just fell asleep"
"They didn't have sex?"
"Oh hell no" Michael laughed "Felicity couldn't even keep
her head up straight" he then looked at her. She appeared
somewhat relieved "Why?"
Laurel preceded to tell Michael the story.
"I'm going to bed" she said to him, before going to the
washroom to clean up.
As soon as she stepped through that door, Michael left. He
had a hunch something fishy was going on. He reached the
room he was looking for, and knocked.
Annie answered with a grin "Hi Miky" she said sweetly "What
can I do ya for?"
Michael pushed by her "You did it, didn't you?" he said
angrily.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Annie responded
coyly.
"Don't give me that shit!" he said angrily. He then spotted
a news paper open on the table. He walked over and started
reading it.
"Angel; Not So Angelic" read the title. With, to it's right,
a picture of Eli on top of Nick, only wearing her underwear.
He continued.
"New teeny-bop sensation Angel shares her record label
with world wide phenomenon The Backstreet Boys. But a label
is not the sole thing this girl has been sharing with these
boys" was printed right bellow the almost explicit
photograph.
His eyes followed down the exposing article. It made
Felicity out as a cold hearted gold digger, whose career was
launched by seducing "too nice for his own good", Brian
Littrell, and her "all too perfect" relationship with him
leading to her infidelity with fellow group member, Nick
Carter, due to her "Need to create chaos".
The whole thing was horrifying, even to a ordinarily
inconsiderate person such as Michael. But the last sentence
was the most revolting of all. He looked up, and recited it
to his sisters face.
"Move over Britney; make way Christina- there's a new tramp
in town. "
Annie smiled as he folded up the paper.
"This is your style" he said with disgust "Signed with your
pen name"
"Oh Michael, don't look at me like that" she said innocently
"I didn't do anything wrong. If anything, they were wrong. I
just shared it with the world"
"It was a mistake, Annie" he shouted back "They made a
mistake. Just as you did"
Annie waved her arms in protest "Hold on, I didn't make a
mistake. I only gave the truth"
"No sis, you didn't" Michael said taking her hands "They
didn't sleep together. I was there. It's called liable."
Annie looked at him in utter shock.
"You just fucked up at least 3 lives for your stupid job.
Congratulations!"
Michael left his sister behind with very little sympathy.
But she had placed herself on to high a pedestal to let
herself fall now. She did what she had to do.
**A Little Later**
"Ouch!" Nick winced as he placed the chilled bag on his
swollen eye. He still couldn't believe he was beat up by his
own best friend. Or rather, former best friend. Not that he
held a grudge towards him. He completely understood Brian's
reaction. He only prayed that he would one day be able to
forgive him...
There was a knock at the door.
"Go away!!!" Nick yelled, depressed.
"Nick- It's me"
His brow pulled together as he stood up to answer. Why was
she here? Quietly, he opened the door and shut it
immediately after she stepped in. "Hey"
"Hi" I said weakly. He looked horrible! All bruised and
cut.... I shook it off. "I'm so sorry about what happened" I
apologized.
He shrugged "It's cool. It's not your fault"
"Oh, but it IS my fault Nick" I said, taking a seat on his
bed "It's all my fault!"
"You know that's not true Eli" Nick said sympathetically,
sitting down at my side "We all screwed up! Including Brian"
I blinked hard. The sound of his name alone was enough to
make me want to break into tears "No!"
"No, what?!" he questioned
"It's my fault, and my fault alone!" I admitted "I asked you
to the party, I got drunk, I tried to get back at him
through you because I thought he was cheating on me, I lied
to him, I pushed him away, I..."
"Ok. Enough!" Nick interrupted
I turned to him with confused eyes "I'm so sorry" I
sniffled.
"It's not all your fault! He did cheat on you and I was the
one that let you get drunk"
I sighed. There was no use arguing. You can't changed the
past. "Nick"
"Yeah?"
"What are we going to do?"
He looked at me with a lost expression and chuckled "I
really don't know"
