Scarlett had locked herself in the nearest room with a lock, which happened to be the TV room, and refused to let anyone in or come out. Everyone could hear her crying throughout the entire bus.
Every member of both Wild Honey and Backstreet was trying their luck to get her to come out. "Please come out here Scarlett!" Angel begged her best friend, close to tears herself. "No!" came the muffled reply. "Scarlett, please!" she pleaded. "I'm not coming out, so you might as well give up!" Scarlett replied, her voice thick with tears.
"Look, Scarlett, we know how you feel--" C.C. began pleading with her cousin. "No, I'm sure you don't!" Scarlett yelled. "Scarlett, please just let someone in or come out!" C.C. snapped impatiently. Ebony and Briana had been listening for a while and decided that if her best friend and cousin couldn't get to come out, their luck wouldn't be any better. They walked off.
AJ slouched up and asked if he could try. "Hey Scarlett, I know you don't know me, but I'm AJ. I'd really like to meet you. Nick's just being a dick. Don't worry about him. Just let J and Kev and Bri and your buds here in and we can leave him out here all alone and bored and lonely," AJ coaxed in his raspy voice.
After AJ had been turned down, Kevin decided to try. "Scarlett?" he twanged in his softly defined Southern accent. "What?" she replied. "Can I please come in?" he requested. "Who are you?" she questioned. "Kevin," he said. "Which one is that?" she asked. "The tall, dark handsome one," he replied, a grin showing in his voice. She smiled inside the door as he added, "That's too old for you." Reluctantly she said, "Oh, I don't know."
"Hey, hey, hey!" an even more Southern accent said quickly. "Don't forget about poor old Brian out here!" he said. Scarlett snickered a little. "Ooo, I heard that!" he twanged. "Which one are you?" Scarlett demanded, trying to stay serious. "The short, handsomer cousin of the tall, dark handsome one!" he replied with a hopeful grin.
Scarlett couldn't help it. He sounded so funny that she broke into a grin and snickered pretty loud. "Come on!" Brian said impatiently. "Let us in! I'll make you laugh more!" They heard Scarlett get up and unlock the door. "Howie, Ebony, Briana!" C.C. yelled. "Come here! Try your luck!" She only said that so that Nick wouldn't try to come with them. The other 3 soon showed. Scarlett cracked the door opened and let them all in.
Everyone except for Nick flooded into the room. Brian locked the door behind them as the rest took up various seats around the room. Scarlett looked terrible, but not too bad. Brian checked her out suttly. She was quite beautiful. He didn't understand why Nick had been so cruel to her.
"So what exactly happened?" Kevin asked sympathetically. "I really don't wanna talk about it," Scarlett said uneasily. "Aight then, it's time for introductions!" Brian said happily, sitting next to Scarlett and putting his arm around her.
She looked at Brian like he was crazy. He spoke in his Southern twang and said, "I'm Brian Littrell and I'm 20. I'm from Kentucky and Kevin's my cousin." She smiled at him and replied, "I'm Scarlett D'Angelo and I'm 15. I'm from Texas and C.C.'s my cousin." Brian turned his heart-melting smile on her and said, "Well, we've got a lot in common, don't we?" She nodded and giggled a little.
Kevin spoke up next and said, "I'm Kevin Richardson, I'm 23, and I'm from Kentucky, too. I'm the oldest Backstreet Boy and, joy, Brian's cousin." Brian made an indignant face and said, "Hey!" C.C. interrupted, "That sounds like me. The being oldest member, that is. I'm Catherine Devereaux, everyone calls me C.C., and I'm from Louisiana. Scarlett's my little cousin."
"I'm AJ McLean and I'm 17. I'm supposedly the crazy flirt in the Backstreet Boys. And I personally love picking on Nick," AJ said. As he said the last part, he winked at Scarlett and said, "We'll have to hook up and bomb his ass!" Scarlett laughed. "I'm Ebony Holbrook and I'm 16 and I'm the party chica in Wild Honey!" Ebony was quick to say. AJ turned his attention to the attractive young black girl and winked suggestively. "We'll really have to hook up sometime!" he said.
"AJ!" Kevin warned softly. He grinned sheepishly and said, "Sorry Kev." Angel spoke up in her Texas twang softly, "I'm Angelique Duncan, call me Angel, and I'm 19. I'm from Texas, if you can't tell." Brian grinned cheekily at her and said, "Well, well, well. What's up Lil' Miss Texas?" She smiled shyly at him, her pale green eyes gleaming brightly.
Angel. The name fits her perfectly. She's beautiful and sweet and just..well..perfect! Brian thought to himself.
Briana cleared her throat and said, "I'm Briana Ray and I'm 20 and I'm shy...that's me." Brian laughed and said, "You'll get over being shy around us pretty fast." She blushed and to rescue her, Howie said, "I'm Howie Dorough and I'm 21. You guys leave the poor girl alone. It's bad enough that Nick harassed Scarlett so bad."
Scarlett's face fell a little at the mention of his name. Brian squeezed her shoulder, pulling her into him and said, "Don't worry about Nicky Boy. He's just upset cuz his bitchy girlfriend dumped him and cheated on him. He didn't mean anything that he said, so don't take it to heart." Scarlett managed a smile through the pain. When he had squeezed her, Brian had made her bruised, possibly cracked, ribs shoot through with pain. She had been so mad when Nick had knocked her down that she hadn't noticed the pain.
"What's your nickname Scarlett?" AJ asked. "Well, I really don't have one..." she trailed off. "Yes you do!" C.C. retorted. "What?" Scarlett asked, momentarily confused. "Oh no! C.C., you wouldn't possibly!" she yelped. C.C. grinned and said, "Little Lettie!" Scarlett groaned and prepared to be teased for the rest of her life.
As she expected, all the guys burst out in laughter. "Little Lettie!" Brian howled, rolling on the couch they were sitting on. Scarlett scowled at him and said, "Shut up Brian!" He said, "All right, Little Missy with the big mouth! That's it! I'm not takin no more!!!" With that he pounced on top her, holding her wrists down and sitting on her stomach, and began tickling her ribs. The others moved to join in and were quickly stopped by her shrill scream of severe pain.
Brian's face turned nearly whiter than Scarlett's did. All the color slowly drained from his face as her screams turned to whimpers. Angel and Kevin were immediately by their sides. "Scarlett! What's wrong?" Angel asked, her voice hysterical. Her pale green eyes were huge saucers in her pale face. Scarlett shook her head a little and Kevin moved to her.
He put a huge hand on her face and stroke it. She flinched; she had almost forgotten about the place he'd hit her jawbone, but was now reminded. He turned her head slowly and ran his finger over it again. She pulled her head away from his hand as his eyes clouded with anger and concern.
Brian slowly moved off of her stomach to sit next to her on the edge of the couch. She was still taking shallow breaths in pain and Brian ran a gentle hand through her tangled mane of curls. Kevin motioned for him to lift up her shirt to see what had hurt her so badly when Brian had tickled her. He hesitantly did so.
All 8 of the members in the room were shocked by what they saw. Brian slowly lifted up the baggy white t-shirt all the way up to where they could all see the sports bra she was wearing fully. Besides that, there was a huge amount of bruises that varied in color from purple to yellow and green to black.
Angel turned extremely white and nearly fainted. She grasped Kevin's arm to keep her balance. Her eyes somehow managed to get even huger. Brian reached out his gentle hand and moved it up and down her ribs, causing tears to come to her eyes and whimper some more.
"AJ, you guys, come see this," Kevin growled, his voice extremely low and angry. AJ, Howie, Briana, C.C. and Ebony came over to the couch and gasped. AJ's eyes immediately became pools of snapping black anger. Howie frowned. Ebony and Briana looked horrified. C.C.'s eyes started blazing furious green fire.
Angel began crying silently. "Who did this to you?" Brian growled, his tone matching the look in his and Kevin's eyes. Scarlett opened her eyes and said, "I can't tell you Bri." Brian grabbed her wrists with one hand and put his other hand on the side of her face, turning her head back to him. "The hell you can't Scarlett. Tell me!" Brian demanded.
"Devin," she whimpered. "Who's Devin?" he inquired the other members of Wild Honey. C.C. and Angel gasped, shocked. "That's her boyfriend!" Angel said. Brian's eyes were transformed into blue fire. "Well he's gonna get his ass kicked!" Brian stated angrily.
They all got her up and turned to take her to her bunk to doctor her and were intercepted by Nick at the door. None of them had seen him come in. "What are you doing in here?!" Kevin practically roared. "How'd you get in here?!" Scarlett lifted her hand and said, "Kev...no." His blazing green eyes focused on her as he said, "What?" She just repeated, "No." So they all carried her to her bunk, doctored her up and decided what to do the next day.
