Delaney woke up with a jolt and grunted with disgust when she recognized her sister's clock radio.
"Sierra, turn that off!" Delaney growled at her younger sister across the room. She put the pillow over her head and laid back down.
Sierra stood up and walked across the room to Delaney's bed. Pulling the pillow from her sister's head, she said, "Hey, if you don't like it, there's a couch out there you can sleep on! If I don't set my alarm I'll sleep all day."
"Explain to me exactly how that would be a bad thing," Delaney said. She had reached over to the nightstand between their beds and was just about to turn off the radio when the DJ's voice stopped her.
"And here in the studio this morning, we've got none other than the Backstreet Boys!" the DJ said. "Sitting in front of me, we've got Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, and a couple natives of our very own Lexington, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson!"
Delaney froze. "Kevin Richardson?" she repeated, not sure she'd heard the DJ correctly.
"Yeah, that's what he said," Sierra said, looking at her sister as if she had two heads. "So what?"
"What do you mean, so what?" Delaney asked. "You don't remember our neighbors, the Richardsons, in that first house we lived in?" She thought for a minute. "No, wait, maybe you were too young to remember. You were only 3 or 4 when we moved out."
"Well, that's probably why I don't remember it," Sierra said. "You know, us 23-year-olds don't have quite the memory span you old people have."
Delaney threw her pillow at Sierra. "Shut up! I'm not old! I'm only 27!"
"Exactly my point!" Sierra said. "You're pushing 30! That's older than dirt!" She laughed.
"Yeah, whatever, if you say so," Delaney laughed. "Now shut up so I can hear this. I want to see if this is the same Kevin Richardson I'm thinking of."
"...So, Brian, Kevin, I understand you guys both grew up right here in Lexington?" the DJ asked.
"That's right," a deep voice said. The guy had a slight southern drawl.
He was interrupted by another voice. "Me and Kev are cousins, so we pretty much grew up together," the second guy said. This one had a much more prominent accent than the first guy.
Delaney gasped. "That's gotta be the same Kevin!" she whispered. "I know the one I'm thinking of had a couple cousins that came over a lot. I'm pretty sure one of them was named Brian! He was about your age, I think." Sierra just looked at her and shook her head.
Delaney listened to the rest of the interview and quickly jotted down the phone number the DJ gave, hoping she'd be able to get through the the station. She ran out to the phone and dialed the number.
To her surprise, it rang. "WXCY 98.6, good morning!" the DJ's voice said. "I assume you're calling for a chance to ask these guys your burning question?"
Delaney cleared her throat quietly. "Well...sort of," she began.
"I know this sounds crazy, but I think I may have lived next door to Kevin when I was little."
The DJ chuckled a little before answering her. "Well, let's find out!" he said. "Kev, care to answer this one?"
"Sure."
"OK," Delaney said. "I heard your name a few minutes ago and I recognized it. You don't happen to remember a Delaney Duke, do you?"
There was a brief pause. "Delaney Duke," the voice on the other end of the line said thoughtfully. "You know what? That sounds familiar."
Delaney laughed nervously. "Good, maybe I'm not as nuts as I thought I was!"
Kevin spoke up like he had suddenly remembered something. "Wait a minute!" he said. "Delaney! You lived next door to us in a big brick house, right? You moved when we were like 7 or 8?"
Delaney smiled with excitement. "Exactly!" she said. "Thank God I got the right person! I would have felt so stupid if you were someone else."
Kevin laughed. "Well, I've done worse, so it wouldn't have been that bad," he said. "Hey, we should get together sometime."
The DJ interrupted the conversation to cut to commercials. After they were off air he spoke to Delaney again.
"So...Delaney, is it?" he asked.
"That's right," Delaney said.
"Well, Delaney, why don't you give me your phone number so we can call you back and set it up so you guys can meet sometime?"
"Sure, that sounds great!" Delaney said. She gave the DJ her phone number and thanked him, then thanked Kevin for his time and hung up.
Sierra came flying out of the bedroom into the living room. "Oh my God! Delaney! We know someone famous!" she said. Delaney was surprised she wasn't jumping up and down yet. For 23, she could be pretty immature sometimes.
"Whoa, hold up!" Delaney said, laughing. "We? As I recall, you thought I was insane!"
"Well, I changed my mind!" Sierra shot back, smiling.
Delaney shook her head. "Well, guess what?" she asked her sister.
"What?"
"The DJ's gonna call me back in a while, and he's going to set it up so I can meet Kevin sometime!"
Sierra's jaw nearly hit the floor. "PLEASE tell me I get to go!" she said.
"I'll see what I can do," Delaney said. "But you have to promise not to make a fool out of yourself and/or me!"
"Yessir!" Sierra said, smiling. "When was he supposed to call back?"
Delaney shrugged and was about to say she didn't know when the phone rang. "I'm thinking now?" she said, jumping to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Is this Delaney again?" the DJ asked.
"Yes, this is Delaney."
"OK, great!" the DJ said. "We think we've got a plan here. Wanna talk to Kevin about it?"
"Sounds good!" Delaney said.
Kevin took the phone from the DJ. "Hey again," he said. "This is kinda cool, I'd completely forgotten about you until you called."
"Well, thanks, I feel loved now!" Delaney laughed. "Actually, if it wasn't for my annoying little sister I wouldn't have heard your name and I probably wouldn't have remembered you, either." She stopped for a minute. "Anyway... are we going to get together sometime?"
"Yeah, I'd love to," Kevin said. "The only day I have off any time soon is tomorrow, though. Are you free tomorrow?"
Delaney thought for a minute. "Sure, that sounds great!" she said. Then she got an idea. "Hey, why don't I give you directions to my place? You could come over for dinner and then we could just hang out or whatever. Bring all the guys and anyone else who wants to come."
"Great," Kevin said. "We'll bring pizza or something so you won't have to do a ton of work."
Delaney smiled. "Sounds good, I can't wait!" After giving him directions to their house she said goodbye and hung up.
"Well?" Sierra asked, still excited.
"They're all coming over tomorrow," Delaney said. She glanced around the room. "Oh my God! This place is a disaster. Help me clean it up!" Both girls got to work.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Once the house looked at least somewhat clean again, Sierra flopped down on the sofa in the living room. "We did it!" she said. "Think we can keep it this way until tomorrow?"
Delaney laughed. "You'd better keep it this way! Otherwise you'll be cleaning it all up again by yourself!"
Sierra stood up and readjusted the cushions on the sofa. "In that case, I'm out of here!" she laughed. "I think I'm gonna go for a walk. Wanna come?"
Delaney shook her head. "Nah, that's OK," she said. "I'm supposed to be working on a site for the elementary school rec department. I'll probably work on that for a while."
"OK, suit yourself," Sierra said. She went into the bedroom and reappeared with her jacket. "See ya!" she said, walking out the front door.
"Bye!" Delaney called after her. "Don't get hit by any Mack trucks!"
Delaney sat down in front of her new IBM computer and turned it on. She had gotten a degree in computer science almost 3 years ago and now worked as an independent webpage designer. She loved her job. It was good money and she could determine her own hours. Besides, HTML was like a second language to her. It wasn't like she overexerted herself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Delaney had been working a lot longer than she realized. When she looked up at the clock it was almost 11 PM. Sierra had gone to bed almost an hour ago. Delaney decided to call it a night. She was almost sure she wouldn't be able to sleep, but she figured she'd try it anyway.
She shut down the computer and turned off the living room lights, then quietly went into her bedroom. Sierra was already asleep.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Delaney rolled over and looked at the clock. 6:15 AM. "Late enough," she said, getting out of bed. She hadn't slept all night. She was too excited.
When she walked into the kitchen, Sierra was already there. She was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal and writing furiously in her journal. "How long have you been up?" Delaney asked.
"About half an hour," Sierra said, not looking up, her pen still moving across the paper. "I couldn't sleep."
"Join the club," Delaney said, sitting down across the table from her sister.
Sierra stopped writing and put her pen down. "So," she said, looking at Delaney across the table. "How come you never told me about your famous buddy?"
"Well, for one thing, I haven't seen him in years," Delaney began. "I didn't have a clue he was famous, because I didn't really know much about the Backstreet Boys, so I didn't know their names. Trust me, if I'd known before, I would have told you. Would I keep something like that from you, dear sister?"
Sierra shrugged, then laughed. "Yeah, probably!" she said.
Delaney smiled. "No I wouldn't!" she protested. "Much as you annoy me, I wouldn't keep something like that from you."
Sierra seemed to accept that. "OK," she said. "So, tell me, what do you remember about this guy?"
Delaney thought for a minute. "Well...we were really young, so he might look different now, but he had dark hair and sort of green eyes..."
Sierra interrupted her. "Hold on, I have a magazine with them in it. I wanna see if you can point out which one he is. I don't really know their names either, except for AJ, but that's a different story."
Sierra left the room and returned with the newest issue of Rolling Stone magazine. "Which one?" she demanded, handing the magazine to Delaney.
Delaney looked at the picture, impressed by the guys' looks. She looked at each guy's face carefully before stopping at the one in the middle. She brought the magazine closer to her face for a better look.
The guy she was looking at was tall and muscular, with short dark hair, greenish eyes, and stubble on his cheeks. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans with a belt buckle and a tan button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
"That's him," she told Sierra, putting the magazine back on the table and pointing to the guy in the middle. "No doubt about it. That's the one we lived next door to."
Sierra looked at the picture. "I can't believe I don't remember him!" she said. "But, you said I was only 3 or 4 when we moved, right?" Delaney nodded.
Sierra sat down in the chair next to Delaney's. "Don't think you could pick out his cousin, do you?"
Delaney shook her head. "Probably not. He was about 3 the last time I saw him, and I only saw him a few times."
"Oh well. I guess we'll find out," Sierra said. She was flipping through the magazine when the phone rang. She stood up to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is Delaney there?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Yeah, she's here," Sierra replied. "Just a minute, please."
Sierra put her hand over the receiver. "Hey!" she whispered to Delaney. "It's a guy. Deep, sexy voice. Asking for you. Kevin?"
Delaney smiled and nodded, then took the receiver from Sierra. "Hello?"
"Hey!" the voice said. "This is Kev. Sorry to call you sort of early."
Delaney glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was almost 8:00. "No problem!" she said. "I've been up for almost 2 hours now anyway."
Kevin laughed. "Wake up early much?" he asked.
"Not usually, but you people are starting to have that effect on me," Delaney said, laughing.
"Well, that makes me feel loved," Kevin said. "Anyway, I was just calling to see when you wanted us to be there today."
Delaney thought for a minute. "Ummm...I don't know, whenever. How does noon sound?"
"Sounds great," Kevin said. "We'll try to be there by then. I can't wait to see you again!"
"Same here," Delaney said. "It's gonna be good to get together again. See ya!"
"Bye, Delaney!" he said, then hung up.
Delaney hung up the phone and headed into the living room to turn on the computer. Sierra followed her.
"So?" Sierra asked. "They still coming?"
Delaney nodded. "Yeah, at noon," she said.
"All of them?"
Delaney nodded again. "Yes, and that includes AJ, your one and only fantasy," she laughed.
"Oh, be quiet," Sierra said. "Can I help it if he's fine?"
Delaney laughed again. "Uhh...no comment." Then she added, "I'm going to go get dressed. Don't touch the computer."
Delaney went into her bedroom and opened her closet. "Guess I should at least look non-bum," she said to herself. After staring at her clothes for a minute she decided on a knee-length light blue skirt and a white tank top. She also pulled out a blue short sleeved, button-up sweater.
She walked back out into the living room and stood in front of Sierra. "Do I look OK?" she asked.
Sierra looked at her approvingly, then nodded. "Sure," she said. "Whatever."
"You're so helpful," Delaney said, sitting down in front of the computer. "Thank you so very much."
"No problem," Sierra said before disappearing into the bedroom.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The doorbell rang. Delaney closed her browser window and turned down the CD player that sat on the shelf next to the TV, then went to answer the door. Sierra was standing behind her, in the doorway to the kitchen.
Delaney glanced at her sister, then took a deep breath and opened the door. She stepped outside onto the doorstep, closing the door behind her.
Five guys and one girl Delaney had never seen were standing on the walkway.
The guy Delaney had pointed out in the picture that morning stepped forward and reached out to shake her hand. "Hi!" he said as she extended her hand to him. "It's great to see you again!"
"You too," Delaney said with a smile. "My sister's here somewhere, but I think she's being antisocial."
Sierra came outside, leaving the front door open behind her. "I am not!" she said. "Just fashionably late, that's all," she added with a shy smile.
Kevin smiled back at her. "Well, I guess I should introduce everyone. This," he said, reaching around behind himself and pulling a short guy with reddish brown hair and blue eyes out where Delaney could see him, "is my cousin, Brian Littrell, you may remember him." Brian smiled and said hello.
"Don't mind him, he's strange," Kevin said. Then, gesturing toward a tall, young-looking blond with blue eyes, he said, "This is Nick Carter."
Kevin looked at the guy standing next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. This guy looked Latin. He was fairly short with long dark hair that was pulled into a ponytail and dark brown eyes. "This is Howie Dorough, better known as Howie D.," Kevin said.
"And this," he continued, pointing to a guy wearing a leopard print cowboy hat and sunglasses, "is AJ McLean. He's the weird one, be afraid." AJ glared at Kevin for a minute, then smiled and said hi.
The girl Delaney had never seen was standing next to AJ, and he put his arm around her. The girl had blond hair and blue eyes and was wearing a pair of white drawstring pants and a white halter top. "This is Sabrina, my baby," AJ said.
Sabrina smiled, then let go of AJ's hand long enough to shake Delaney's. "It's nice to meet you," she said. Then, looking at Sierra, she added, "Both of you."
Sierra glanced at Sabrina, then at AJ, then back at Sabrina. "You too," she muttered, scowling a little.
Delaney shot a look at her sister before smiling at Sabrina. "It's nice to meet all of you too," she said. Then she continued, "Well, there's not much sense in standing around out here all day. Why don't we all go inside?"
Sierra stepped out of the doorway to let them in, smiling at AJ as he passed. He nodded and smiled. Sabrina shot Sierra a look as she walked in.
Kevin and Delaney hung back from the crowd. "We brought a couple pizzas," he said. "I'll go grab them out of the car." He headed toward the Toyota 4Runner parked near the curb.
"I'll help," Delaney said, following him.
"That's OK," he said, opening the rear door of the vehicle. "I got it." He reached into the back seat and pulled out two pizza boxes.
Delaney and Kevin walked into the house, closing the door behind them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"So," Howie asked, "how did you manage to catch that interview yesterday?"
Delaney laughed. "I've got little sister to thank for that," she said. "She sets her alarm on the radio function, and you guys just happened to be on when it went off."
"See?" Brian said. "It's an omen." Nick punched him in the shoulder.
"That hurt!" Brian said, trying not to laugh.
"Good! You deserved it!" Nick shot back.
Delaney shook her head and smiled. "You guys are nuts," she said. Then she turned to Kevin, who was sitting next to her on the couch. "How do you put up with them?"
"I don't!" Kevin said. "As soon as the cameras go off and the press is out of earshot I throw them back in their cages and lock them up." Delaney laughed.
AJ spoke up from his spot in an armchair across the room. "You heard that, right? Now we have proof!" Sabrina was sitting on the arm of the chair next to him.
Delaney stood up and picked up the now-empty pizza boxes. "I'm going to go throw these away," she said, heading toward the kitchen. "I'll be right back."
~*~WORK IN PROGRESS~*~