Chapter 1
“Hey,
Riss, you okay?” asked a voice.
Marissa
blinked, finding herself looking up into the eyes of her boyfriend, Shawn
Roberts.
“Uh…
yeah,” she mumbled, struggling to sit up.
He offered her his hand and helped her up.
Marissa
looked around the room and realized she was in one of the bedrooms of the house
she had been partying in. “What
happened?” she asked.
“You
passed out. Too much to drink, I
guess. Luke and I carried you in here,”
Shawn replied.
“How
long have I been out?” she asked.
“Just
about ten minutes,” he said. “You ready
to go home now?”
“Yeah,”
she said. She looked up at him. “You driving?”
“Of
course,” he said.
She
studied him. “How much did you drink?”
Shawn
eyed her defensively. “Not enough to
pass out,” he said. Her face reddened,
and he continued in a kinder tone, “Don’t worry, I can drive.”
“Well…
okay,” Marissa said, shrugging. She knew
he was drunk too and shouldn’t be driving, but what was her other
alternative? Call her parents to come
get her? Yeah right. They would kill her!
“Luke
and Kaelyn are waiting for us,” Shawn said, taking Marissa’s hand and leading
her out of the room, through the large rec room, where people still partied,
and to the front door, where Marissa’s best friend, Kaelyn Ross, and her
boyfriend Luke Milton, who was Shawn’s best friend, stood.
“Hey,
Marissa, are you all right?” Kaelyn asked, her now glassy, baby blue eyes
filling with concern.
“I’m
fine,” Marissa replied, tucking a lock of her cropped, dark hair behind her
ear. “Let’s go.”
***
Nick
Carter bounced around on the sofa in Brian Littrell’s living room, feeling
euphoric. He and the rest of his group,
the Backstreet Boys, had just finished their concert in Atlanta, Georgia. The concert had gone perfectly, and now that
it was done, they had two days off before their next concert in
Philadelphia.
The
only thing they had to do was perform at the Superbowl the next evening, but he
was looking forward to that. Plus, not
only was it Superbowl day tomorrow, it was his twenty-first birthday as well,
something he had been looking forward to for months.
The Boys didn’t have to leave for Tampa, where
the Superbowl was being held, until mid-morning the next day, so for that
night, they were to stay in Atlanta.
Since Brian happened to live just outside Atlanta, with his new wife,
Leighanne, he had invited his four bandmates to stay with him, rather than
paying to stay in a hotel.
“Jeez,
Nick, calm down,” Kevin Richardson said, chuckling as he watched his younger
friend.
“Sorry,
I’m just in a great mood,” Nick said, bouncing once more and then settling down
on the couch. “So, what are we going to
do?”
Brian
glanced at his watch. “It’s already
almost midnight. What is there to do at
this time of night?”
“I
dunno, but we gotta do something,” Nick whined.
“We
could go clubbing,” AJ McLean suggested.
AJ loved to hit the clubs.
“Naw,
Bone, I don’t wanna tonight. I’m
tired. Maybe tomorrow,” Howie Dorough
said.
“Okay,”
AJ said with a shrug. “I guess I’m kinda
tired too.”
“I’m
not!” Nick said. “Come on, guys, let’s
do something.”
Brian
yawned. “You’re really not tired,
Frack?” he asked incredulously. “I know
I am.”
“No,”
Nick said, shaking his head vigorously.
“I’m wide awake. And bored.”
“That’s
cause you have such a short attention span,” Kevin said. The rest of the guys chuckled, knowing how
true that was.
Nick
ignored them. He was used to them
picking on him, just because he was the youngest. “Hey, we could watch a movie,” he suggested.
“Okay,”
they said half-heartedly.
“Whatcha
got, Bri?” Nick asked Brian, scooting onto the floor to poke through Brian’s
shelves of movies. He pawed through
them all for a few minutes and announced, “I don’t wanna watch any of these. Can we go rent some?”
“Aw,
Nick, I don’t really wanna go out again,” Brian said.
“You
don’t have to. I’ll go,” Nick replied.
“Well…
I dunno, Nick. You don’t really know the
area well,” Brian said.
“I’m
not stupid. I can find a video store,”
Nick whined. “Where’s the closest one?”
Brian
sighed, then realizing Nick wasn’t going to back down, he gave Nick directions
for the closest store.
“Anyone
coming with me?” Nick asked, glancing at the other three. AJ and Howie shook their heads.
“Will
you be okay going by yourself, Nick?” Kevin asked. He didn’t want to go either, but he wasn’t
sure he liked the idea of Nick going all by himself.
Nick
rolled his eyes. “Kev, I’m not a kid
anymore, okay? I’ll be fine.”
“Okay,
sorry,” Kevin said.
“Here,
you can take my car,” Brian said, handing the keys to his sporty little BMW to
Nick.
“Thanks,
Frick,” Nick replied, taking the keys from his hand.
“Wear
your jacket. It’s freezing out,” Kevin
warned, as Nick started for the door in only his sweater. “And grab your cell too.”
Nick
rolled his eyes again, but put on his long coat, dropping his cell phone into
one of the pockets. “See you guys
later,” he said, and headed out the door.
“Drive
care-“ Kevin started to call, but the slam of the door cut him off.
Brian
watched his cousin with an amused expression on his face. “Dude, you’ve got to lay off the concerned
mother routine,” he said, chuckling.
Kevin
cracked a smile, rolling his eyes. Just
as Nick was used to being picked on for being the youngest one, Kevin was used
to being teased for being the oldest one and the most concerned. But he couldn’t help it. Over the years, he had unofficially become
their leader, and he felt it was his job to watch over the rest of them. Even if it did get annoying to them.
***
