Chapter
16
JADE
released their first single, “Why Don’t You See” on October 24, just over a
month before Jadeite was due out.
The album’s release date was set for November 28.
At
first, it wasn’t popular, for barely anyone knew who JADE was. But at the same time that JADE was promoting
their album, the Backstreet Boys were promoting their own album, Black and
Blue, which was set to come out the week before, on November 21. The Bsb made sure to mention JADE’s debut
album, as well as their own album in all the interviews they did and the shows
they appeared on.
The
media surrounding the Backstreet Boys was huge, not just because of the album
coming out, but because of the tragic car accident that had taken the life of
Leighanne. And as the public found out
that Ashalyn’s boyfriend had been killed in the same wreck, JADE suddenly
became more well known.
Their
song began to grow more and more popular, for they were gaining not just the
support of Backstreet Boys fans, but of some fans of their own as well.
Radios
throughout the country began to play the song, and before they knew it, it was
a hit. It even made it on TRL on a
regular basis. Elyssa, Jenna, and Serena
were thrilled beyond words by their sudden success. Ashalyn was happy for the group as well, but
she had a hard time being genuinely happy about anything lately, for she was
still mourning for Mike.
Brian
seemed to be the same. He politely
answered questions in interviews, but he always seemed so distant and
withdrawn, as if he didn’t care anymore, about anything.
The
members of both the Backstreet Boys and JADE were becoming more and more
worried about their members. It hurt
them to see their friends so depressed, and lately, it seemed the only time
Brian and Ashalyn seemed to be enjoying themselves was when they were together.
***
The
day that Black and Blue came out, the Backstreet Boys made an appearance
on TRL to talk about the album. They
then stayed in New York for the rest of the week, for that Saturday, they would
be live in the MTV studio again, but this time with JADE as well.
The
two groups had been asked to do a special together, where they would both talk
about their new albums and the car accident.
Ashalyn was not looking forward to having to talk about the death of
Mike. Luckily, she had not had to do
many interviews about it yet. She could
only imagine how hard it was for Brian, who could barely escape the questions
of the nosy press. The only thing that
was making it easier for her was knowing that Brian was going to be there. She sometimes felt that with Brian there beside
her, anything was possible. She felt so
comfortable around him, as if they had known each other for all their lives,
even though they had only been friends for a few months.
In
the meantime, united by the tragedy, Elyssa, Jenna, and Serena had grown closer
to AJ, Nick, and Howie.
Serena
and Howie seemed to be the perfect pair.
They were great friends, and it was only a matter of time before they
would end up as a couple. That was
obvious to everyone, both the Backstreet Boys and JADE.
It
also seemed obvious that Jenna liked AJ, to everyone but AJ, that is. If AJ did know she liked him, he didn’t
care. He was clearly interested in
someone else, and that someone was Elyssa.
Elyssa really did seem to be clueless about it though, unless she was
just playing around with him. But he
seemed serious.
Then
there was Nick, who was extremely attracted to Jenna. He flirted with her all the time, and she
flirted back, although they could still all tell she preferred AJ. Even Nick could see that, and it was slowly
breaking his heart. Jenna didn’t even
realize she was doing it, but she was hurting him, just as AJ was hurting her
by the attention he gave to Elyssa. There
was definitely a love triangle going on between the two groups, and the five
people that weren’t involved were getting worried. After all that had happened, they didn’t want
to see their friends getting hurt.
***
