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No. Oh, God, no, Marissa’s mind screamed as she stared at the recent pictures of Nick, lying helplessly in a bed, and the horrible words that went along with them. Permanent brain damage.
We did this, Marissa thought, her whole body shaking. We’ve ruined his life. He’ll never be the same now, and it’s all our faults.
“Are you ready to check out, miss?” a voice asked.
Marissa looked up and realized that she was up in line. She mumbled a yes and tossed the tabloid down with her eggs and milk. She numbly paid the cashier and walked out of the store with her bag.
Once she was in her car, she did not start the engine. Instead she glanced once again at the tabloid peeking out of her bag and began to sob.
Brian pushed a cart through the local KMart, picking up the items on the list Leighanne had made for him.
Usually it was she would did the shopping for them, but after weeks and weeks of spending all his time at the hospital or at home, caring for Nick, Brian was feeling restless and stir-crazy. Leighanne insisted that he needed to get out and sent him to Kmart to buy the things they needed.
Brian had been reluctant to leave Nick at first, but Leighanne had assured him that Nick would be fine with her. So he had gone, and now that he was there, he had to admit, it felt good to get out.
Brian got into one of the check-out lines and glanced at the magazine racks, as he usually did. He passed over the teen and women’s magazines and read through the tabloid headlines, for those were always the most interesting.
“Hm… ‘Leonardo DiCaprio Suicide Attempt’… ‘Baby Spice Battles Bulimia’… ‘Santana Charged With Child Molestation’… ‘Lance Bass’ Homosexuality Revealed’…” Brian chuckled at the latter one. But suddenly, his laughing stopped as his eyes came to rest on another headline on the front of the National Enquirer. “Nick Carter Impaired for Life,” it read.
Brian shook his head in shock and disbelief. No, please no, he begged silently, squeezing his eyes closed. But when he opened them, the headline was still there, big and bold.
He grabbed the tabloid from the rack and thumbed through the pages until he got to the article. He stared hard at the pictures that decorated it. These were recent pictures, taken in Nick’s room, in Brian’s own house! Who did this? Brian wondered, outraged.
He had no more time to ponder it, for he had reached the check-out counter. He slammed the magazine down onto the counter and unloaded the rest of his purchases. He couldn’t wait to get home.
“Brian? Baby, what’s wrong?” Leighanne asked as she caught sight of her husband’s angry face, as he entered the living room.
“What’s wrong? This is what’s wrong,” Brian snapped, slamming the tabloid down in her lap.
Leighanne studied it in shock. Brian grabbed it, flipped to the article, and set it back down in front of her.
“Oh, God, Brian,” Leighanne whispered, looking up at him with wide blue eyes. “Who would do such a thing?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Brian said, his voice low with anger. “No one has even been in this house with Nick besides us, the guys, and… the nurse.” His eyes flashed.
“You think Mrs. Thompson did this?!” Leighanne cried.
“Well, who else could have, Leigh?” Brian reasoned. “No one else has been in that room besides her.”
“But-“
“She had to have done this,” Brian continued.
“You don’t know that for sure,” Leighanne argued, unable to believe that the kind nurse would take advantage of Nick like that.
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Brian said, grabbing the phone.
“Brian-“ Leighanne started, but Brian had already finished dialing.
“Hello, Mrs. Thompson?” Brian asked when someone answered.
“Yes, this is she. Who’s speaking, please?” came the nurse’s voice.
“This is Brian Littrell,” Brian replied.
“Oh, hello, Mr. Littrell!” Mrs. Thompson greeted warmly. “How are you?”
“Not too good, actually,” Brian said.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Mrs. Thompson said. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I just came back from the store, and do you know what I saw there?” Brian did not wait for an answer. “Pictures of Nick in one of the tabloids. Recent pictures, taken at my house!”
"Oh my,” Mrs. Thompson gasped. “Who would do something like that?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Brian replied, speaking through clenched teeth.
“What? You’re not suspecting me, are you?” the nurse cried, aghast.
“Tell me, who else could have done it?” Brian asked. “You’re the only one who comes to see Nick. You’re the only one in his room alone.”
“Mr. Littrell, I promise, I didn’t do it! I would never do such a thing!” Mrs. Thompson protested.
“Then who would?” Brian asked.
There was a silence, and then Mrs. Thompson spoke timidly. “Well, I don’t want to accuse anyone, but what about that nurse that came while I was away? Alice Scott?”
It was then that it hit Brian. Alice had been there two weeks ago. Two weeks was the right amount of time to get a roll of film developed and sent out to a tabloid. And if it had been Mrs. Thompson after all, why would she wait so long to take the pictures? She could have done it weeks ago, when Nick was even worse off than he was now. It had to have been Alice.
“Oh, Mrs. Thompson,” Brian started shakily. “I think you’re right. I’m so sorry!”
“That’s okay, Mr. Littrell,” the nurse replied forgivingly. “But are you really sure it was her?”
“Almost positive,” Brian replied. “Like I said, no one else was here. The rest of the guys went home weeks ago, and of course none of them would do something so awful. We haven’t had any other visitors since Nick’s accident. That’s why I thought it was you. But I had completely forgotten about Alice.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Thompson said.
“What for?” Brian asked. “I’m the one that should be sorry.”
“Well, I’m the one that hired Alice. She seemed like such a nice young lady, and a good nurse too. I had no idea she would do such a thing!”
“Probably for the money,” Brian said with a sigh. “It’s all about money nowadays.”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Mrs. Thompson agreed.
“Well, I’ll let you go now,” Brian said. “Again, I’m very sorry.”
“It’s okay. I guess I’ll be seeing you tomorrow then?”
“Sure,” Brian replied. “See ya.”
With that, he hung up and turned to Leighanne.
“I was wrong. It wasn’t Mrs. Thompson. It was Alice.”
“Alice? Oh, Brian, how awful!” Leighanne cried. “What are you going to do about it?”
Brian shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think there really is anything I can do. But I guess we’ll have to keep our guard up even more about who we let in this house.”
Leighanne nodded. “I just wonder what the fans are going to do when they see those pictures.”
“Thanks for coming over so late, Kae,” Marissa said, letting her best friend inside.
“No problem,” Kaelyn replied. “Now what did you want to show me?”
“C’mere,” Marissa said, leading Kaelyn up the stairs to her bedroom. She pulled the tabloid out from under her bed and tossed it at Kaelyn.
As Kaelyn read the headline, her eyes widened. Wordlessly, she turned to the page of the article, gasping when she saw the same pictures Marissa had seen.
“Oh, my God,” she cried, her hand going over her mouth. She looked up at Marissa with watery blue eyes. “Riss-“
“We did this, Kaelyn,” Marissa whispered, tears filling her eyes.
“I know,” Kaelyn sobbed. “If only we hadn’t have been so stupid!”
“There’s a lot of ‘if only’s’… If only we had called our parents to come get us…. If only we hadn’t have drank so much… If only we hadn’t have gone to that stupid party in the first place,” Marissa said, her voice faltering with tears. “But we did do all of that, and we can’t take it back. And we’re not even paying for it! Shawn’s paying for it, just cause he was driving. Luke paid for it too. And so is Nick, but he didn’t do anything! Why couldn’t it have been me that got hurt instead of him? He’s the innocent one in this!”
“I know,” Kaelyn cried. “But we are paying for it. We’re paying for it by sitting here and realizing what we’ve done. Personally, I’d rather be dead than to be here.”
“Don’t say that, Kaelyn,” Marissa sobbed.
“But it’s true!” Kaelyn cried. “Having to live with what we’ve done is far worse than dying. I envy Luke!” Her eyes filled again at the mention of her boyfriend.
Marissa said nothing, just wrapped her arms around her best friend and sobbed with her.
“Well, I’m going to bed now, babe,” Leighanne said, yawning.
“Okay. Night, honey,” Brian said. “I’m gonna go get Nick ready, and then I’ll be up.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” Leighanne replied, heading upstairs.
Brian stood up, stretching, and headed into Nick’s room.
“Hey, Frack. Bedtime,” he said, pulling Nick’s pajamas out of his dresser drawer.
When he turned back to Nick, he saw Nick’s gaze fixed on the TV that was playing softly. He turned to the TV and saw that their own video, “The Call” was playing on MTV.
“That’s us, Nicky,” he murmured softly. “Back in the good ole days. Remember?”
He glanced at Nick to see that he was still staring at the TV screen. Did Nick realize that he was watching himself? Did he have any memory of those days? Or was it all just a simple source entertainment for him?
Brian sighed, wishing he knew what was going on in Nick’s mind. Would he ever know?
Marissa entered the living room, dropped her books in a heap on the floor and flopped down onto the couch, worn out from a stressful day at school. She turned on the TV to find TRL coming back from a commercial break.
“Welcome back to TRL. It’s a beautiful spring day here in New York, but unfortunately, the news we’re about to hear is nothing close to beautiful. Here’s John Norris with more,” Carson said.
“Thanks, Carson,” John replied. “At a press conference yesterday afternoon, the Backstreet Boys made the announcement that they are breaking up, due to the car accident over three months ago, which left youngest member Nick Carter severely injured. His recovery has not progressed as well as was hoped, and the other four members collectively made the decision that they could not continue without their fifth member. Here’s more.”
The screen switched to a shot of the Backstreet Boys at the press conference the previous day.
“It’s been months since the accident, and we’ve all been waiting around to see how Nick’s recovery would go. Unfortunately, the injuries Nick suffered in the collision were very severe, and although they are no longer life-threatening, Nick suffers from permanent brain damage that will prevent him from further making music with the group. The rest of us feel that it would not be right to keep going as a group without Nick, and so we’ve made the decision to drop out of the music business,” Kevin stated.
“This was a very hard decision to make, but it was one that needed to be made. Even though we’ve broken up as a music group, we’ll always be close friends with each other. To the fans, we’re very sorry about all of this, but we know that you’ll understand,” Howie said.
“Thanks for sticking with us throughout the years and for being there for us in these last few months, which have been the hardest of our lives. We will always appreciate your support,” Brian said sincerely.
“Thanks for keeping the Backstreet Pride alive,” AJ said. “Peace.”
The screen went back to the TRL studio.
“Sad news for the Bsb fans and for the music world,” Carson said.
“Yes. Yes, it is,” John agreed.
“Before we get into the number six video, we’ve set up a little tribute to the Boys, made up of some video clips and MTV appearances we’ve collected throughout the years. We’ll get right into that now,” Carson said, as the screen changed again.
Marissa felt tears rise in her eyes as she watched the pictures of the Backstreet Boys flash by in a nostalgic collage. Because of her stupid decision, their successful career was over. She had shattered their lives.