Chapter 2
I wanted to be just like you
So perfect, so untouchable
Now you want me to be with you
Someone who used to have it all
Do you remember now
You acted like you never noticed me
Forget it
Cause the gone has come around
And you’re not allowed to be a part of me
- “Remember Me” by Hoobastank
The girl blushed
slightly. “Um… well, I figured you
wouldn’t recognize me. And you might not
even remember me, but I went to school with you. Grade school.”
At the word
“school,” it hit him. “Leah? Leah Gaylers?”
Her face broke
into a smile. “You do remember!”
“Yeah, sure, now
I do. Haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I know.”
There was another
pause, a rather uncomfortable one. Nick
struggled for words, knowing he should ask her what had been going on in her
life and all that, but also not really caring.
It wasn’t like Leah had been one of his old grade school friends or
anything. Quite the opposite, in
fact. By the time he had left the
seventh grade to join the Backstreet Boys, he had hated Leah Gaylers’ guts.
It hadn’t started
out that way. In fact, from about fifth
grade on, he had had a huge crush on her.
Leah Gaylers was one of those girls that you couldn’t help having a
crush on. She was pretty and popular,
student council representative, captain of the seventh grade cheerleading
squad… you know the type. But she was
also an extreme snob, something Nick hadn’t really realized until the beginning
of his seventh grade year.
The school was having a Back to School Dance, which was only open to seventh
and eighth graders. He had never been to
a dance before, nor had he ever asked a girl out, and he figured this would be
a good opportunity to do both for the first time. And instantaneously, he knew just the girl to
ask. Leah Gaylers, of course.
Looking back on
it now, he couldn’t understand how he hadn’t realized it wouldn’t work. Leah was practically royalty, and he was just
Nick Carter, one of those unfortunate “unpopular” souls, the skinny, weird one
who was teased because he was always getting out of school for his singing and
acting gigs. No one at the time ever
thought he’d be a star, and Leah was just like the rest. He wrote her a note, asking her to the dance,
and gave it her after school, blushing furiously and darting away as soon as he
had slipped it into her hand. Peeking
around the corner a few seconds later, he had watched her unfold it and read
it, a smile turning up her lips. He
still remembered the euphoric feeling that had risen within him; his heart had
begun to race with excitement as he realized that she was going to say
yes. Her smile told him so.
His intuition was
very wrong, however. A moment later,
Leah ran across the hall to one of her girlfriends, who was standing at her own
locker, and squealed, “Ohmygod, read this, just read this! Can you believe it?!” The girl read it and burst out laughing,
shrieking, “Nick? Ohmygod, he’s such a
weirdo; I can’t believe he asked you to the dance!” This of course brought a whole herd of girls
stampeding over, and before long, they were all gathered around Leah, laughing
hysterically at Nick’s note. Leah’s
laugh rose over the rest, more of a malicious cackle than the beautiful,
tinkling, girly laugh Nick had grown to adore.
His shoulder
slumped in defeat, his face red hot with embarrassment, Nick ran away down the
hall before any of those girls saw him.
Leah had never given him an official answer, choosing to ignore his note
instead. But he already knew what her
answer was.
And after that,
he hadn’t liked Leah so much anymore.
And standing here
now, looking into her older, but familiar face, the pain and utter humiliation
of that moment came flooding back to Nick in a whirlwind of emotion.
“So… um… how are
things going with you?” Leah asked the
question first, letting Nick off the hook.
“Oh… good… pretty
good,” he replied. “Uh… how are things
with you?”
“Fine.”
“That’s
good.” Nick waited for a moment, then
said, “Well, I better be getting back to my table; my friends are gonna start
wondering where I am. Nice seeing you
ag-“
“Hey, Nick?” she
interrupted him, touching his arm.
“Yeah?”
“Um… you don’t
have to or anything, but if you’re gonna be in Tampa for awhile… would you
wanna grab a drink with me sometime? You
know, catch up on old times and stuff?”
Nick stared at
her. The girl had laughed at him when he
had asked her out ten years ago, and now she was asking him to go out for
drinks with her? He knew exactly why she
had asked; it was the same reason most women wanted to go out with him. He was a Backstreet Boy. He was famous, and he was rich, and many a
beautiful but shallow girl had tried to get him to go out with her for that
very reason. And he had to admit, he had
fallen for their traps before. Like with
Mandy…
“Oh, I dunno, I’m
gonna be pretty busy,” he said, blowing her off casually. “I’ve got a tour coming up in a couple
weeks.”
“Oh, how
cool.” She smiled. “Well, I understand. It was really nice to see you again,
Nick. And congratulations on all your
success. I never you thought you would-“
“Yeah,” Nick said
shortly. “No one did.”
Leah looked taken
aback. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant… well… congratulations! I think it’s awesome.” She smiled again, and her brown eyes
twinkled. Nick gulped. She was still so beautiful, just like in
seventh grade. If she hadn’t have done
what she did back then, she would be completely irresistible to him now.
“Thanks,” he
said. “It was nice to see you too.” He returned the smile, but it was not
genuine. Then he headed back to his
table, half-surprised that she hadn’t asked him for an autograph so she could
auction it off for big bucks on Ebay. It
just seemed like the sort of thing a girl like that would do.
***