Chapter
31
Over
the next few weeks, the Backstreet Boys and JADE only got to talk to Jenna over
the phone, since they were usually half way across the country during their
tour.
Nick
tried to act as if it didn’t bother him, but he was worried about Jenna. She sounded so depressed whenever he talked
to her, and he longed to go to Tampa to be with her. From what she had told him, and from what the
other three girls knew about the clinic where Jenna was, it sounded as if she
would be there for awhile. Ashalyn had
said she knew that recovering from bulimia was a long, hard process and that it
could be months before Jenna was completely well again. Nick knew then that there was no way Jenna
would be rejoining the tour. And that
depressed him.
He missed her greatly, missed spending time
with her, being with her every night.
And he knew she missed him too.
After their visit in the clinic that time, Jenna had gotten over her
anger with him and opened up. Nick
began to see sides of her that he had never seen before, even for those months
they had been dating. She had always
acted like she was on top of everything, like nothing bothered her. But now he saw how vulnerable she really
was. She needed him, and he knew
it. He vowed to be there for her, yet
talking on the phone everyday wasn’t enough.
He felt so helpless being so far away from her. He couldn’t be there to hold her when she was
upset, to comfort her. All he had was
his voice. But he knew that couldn’t be
helping her much. He needed to be there
physically.
Luckily,
the tour would only last two more weeks before a break. Nick knew that as soon as it was done, he’d
be on his way to Tampa and to his girl.
***
Two
weeks later
It was the night of the last concert, in Mexico City. As the Backstreet Boys took their final
bows, following their encore performance of “Shape of My Heart”, they were filled
with a mix of emotions. The last night
of any tour, they were always half glad to be done with it, yet half sad.
They
knew that they’d be coming back within the next few months for the second leg
of their Black and Blue World Tour, and that lessened some of the
sadness of ending the this part of the tour.
Of course, when that happened, JADE would no longer be touring with
them. Ashalyn, Elyssa, and Serena had
made a collective decision that once this leg of the tour was over, they would
do no more touring as a group until Jenna was back with them. And who knew when that would be.
***
That night, the two groups stayed in a fancy hotel in
Mexico City. They wouldn’t be heading
home until the next day.
None
of them could sleep, for they were all wide awake from the concert they had
just performed. And so, they found
themselves crowded around AJ’s room, eating late night snacks that they had
ordered from room service and watching Nick and AJ play each other on Nick’s
new Playstation 2, which he had immediately hooked up to the TV in AJ’s
suite.
As
Nick and AJ sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV, frantically
pushing buttons on their contollers, Howie and Serena were cuddled up with each
other on the other bed. Elyssa sat on
the bed behind AJ, laughing and playing with his bleached blond hair. And Brian and Ashalyn sat on the bed with
her, staring at the TV, but not really paying attention.
Ashalyn
glanced at Brian from the corner of her eye and sighed inwardly. She looked around the room and saw the other
couples and was filled with envy at their happiness. She longed to be so happy and carefree like
that again. When she was with Mike, she
had been that way. But now, even though
she tried her best to act happy, it was hard.
She felt happy at times, but at other times, she felt confused and
depressed.
What
was it she wanted? Was it Mike? Was she just still grieving over his
death? Or was it something else? Or someone else?
“Ash?”
Ashalyn
was jerked out of her thoughts by Brian’s soft voice. “Yeah?” she asked, smiling sheepishly at him.
“You
wanna go for a little walk with me?” he asked.
“Sure,”
she said, shrugging.
“Okay,”
he replied, smiling slightly as he climbed off the bed. “Ash and I’ll be back pretty soon, y’all,” he
said as he headed out the door. The
others just grunted in response. Brian
just shook his head and grinned back at Ashalyn as they walked out of the room.
***
