Chapter Fifty-three



“Nick, hey buddy come on are you gonna sleep all day?”

Nick rolled away from the voice and pulled the covers up over his head. He ignored the laugh he heard coming from behind him.

“Typical teenager!” The voice with a distinctive southern drawl laughed.

Nick opened his eyes and stared at the wall for a moment. It took a full minute for him to get his bearings and realize that he was on the bus.

“Where are we?” Nick asked without turning away from the wall.

“Toronto Canada, you’ve been sleeping since Indianapolis,” the voice replied.

“Is Jess up yet?”

“Jess?” The voice starting laughing. “Nick! Wake up, would ya?”

Nick rolled over quickly and came face to face with deep blue eyes.

Nick blinked a few times and then rubbed his eyes. “Brian?” Nick immediately jumped out of the bunk and wrapped his arms around Brian and squeezed him tightly, causing Brian to cough.

“Hey, how come you’re so glad to see me?”

“You were dead!”

“Huh?”

“Oh, man, I had the wildest dream, we were at this concert and I fell off the stage and you went to rescue me and then you fell off the stage and AJ and then you died,” Nick recalled the events quickly.

“Wow, some dream. You were sick when we left Indiana, gosh, you must have really been sick,” Brian replied and put his hand on Nick’s forehead. “I think you’re running a temp.”

“Probably,” Nick replied, then his face grew serious. “There was this girl in my dreams though. God, Brian she was the most amazing girl.”

Nick told Brian about the dream he had up to the point where he was woken up. Brian just smiled as he listened to Nick.

“Sounds like you have found the ideal girl, too bad she’s only in your dreams Nick,” Brian chuckled.

“Ha, oh really funny!” Nick sputtered.

“Get dressed we have sound check in an hour,” Brian called out over his shoulder as he walked away.

Nick got dressed as his thoughts were still on the dream he had just had. He was relieved that it was a dream, that Brian didn’t die, but in the same instance, Nick was disappointed it was a dream because Jessica seemed so real to him and was so perfect for him.

Grabbing his duffel bag, Nick followed AJ and Kevin towards the auditorium for sound check. After waiting a few minutes for the band to warm up, Nick decided to go check out the auditorium and stood up.

“Where you going?” AJ questioned.

“For a walk,” Nick replied.

Brian looked at Nick, concerned. “Don’t go off too far, you still look a little pale to me.”

“Okay Dad,” Nick smiled.

Nick walked towards the back of the stage, checking out all of the props that were being stored against walls, making the hallway a narrow path. Coming upon a swinging door, Nick pushed it lightly and found there was some resistance on the other side. He gave it a hard shove and heard a female’s voice cry out and then a thud.

This time Nick slowly pushed the door open and found a girl sitting on the floor, papers strewn about her.

“Oh, god, I’m so sorry, are you alright?” Nick asked as he bent down to help gather the papers.

The girl kept picking the papers up, not stopping to look at Nick. “Yeah, I’m okay, I’m just gonna be late for my appointment.”

“I’m really sorry, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing,” Nick replied.

The girl stood up and then finally looked at Nick as she took the last of the papers from his hands.

Nick’s heart immediately started pounding and his mouth dropped open.

“Is something wrong?” she asked when she looked at Nick.

“Um, have we met before?” Nick asked hesitantly.

The girl laughed. “No.”

“Are you sure? You look familiar,” Nick asked again.

“Postive. I think I would remember if I met Nick Carter before.”

Nick took a deep breath in, and plunged into his next question. “I’m sorry, what is your name?”

“It’s Jessica, but I prefer Jess,” Jess replied, smiling and held her hand out for Nick to shake.

“Oh my god,” Nick thought to himself, “it’s her, she’s the one I was dreaming about.” He decided he had to get to know her at any all all costs.

“Could I make it up to you for knocking you down?”

Jess laughed. “I said I was fine, don’t worry about it. I really have to go, I’m gonna be late!”

As she turned to leave, Nick followed her.

“Can we have coffee?” Nick asked.

“I’m really late!” Jess replied without stopping her steady pace down the hall.

“Please?” Nick pleaded.

Jess stopped and turned to look at Nick. “This must really mean a lot to you for some reason,” Jess replied. She glanced at her watch. “Okay, there’s a cafe across the street, I suppose I could take my lunch now.”

Nick smiled. “Thanks, you won’t regret this, in fact, this may change the course of your life!”

Jess looked at Nick as if he had completely lost his mind.

“Ah, okay, if you say so.”

“Trust me,” Nick replied, grinning.

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