Nick sat, playing with an empty water glass in front of him, he sighed and looked at the guys who were seated around the table at the cafe. Brian leaned back in his chair, "This is bull! She was s'pose to be here already! It's one thirty!" He glanced quickly at the chair in which Gwen was s'pose to be seated at, "We've been had. She's full of it!"
Howie sighed and looked down, "C'mon, let's wait till two, maybe she got caught in traffic?"
"Maybe," Kevin said, "but what if she didn't." They were quiet for a moment.
"What if she's already here?" AJ perked up, "But because we've never met her-we don't know what she looks like!"
Howie nodded, "He could be right."
"But he might not be." Brian said crossing his arms, "But, we'll wait till two anyway." Some time later, one of the waiters spoke up by the counter.
Is there a Nick Carter here? You have a call! Nick Carter?" Nick winced, they were trying to lay low. Slowly, he got up and walked to the counter to receive the call, a few people were staring at him curiously, but thankfully, no one got up or went into hysterics. He silently thanked God.
"Hello?" he spoke into the receiver. The voice on the other end spoke.
"Nick? Hi! It's Gwen! Listen, I'm sorry I'm not there yet I'm running late, give me another forty-five Okay?"
"Uhmm, Okay.." He answered. She laughed.
"I'm really sorry! Oh! I'm going into a tunnel and my cell isn't that good! Gotta go! Bye!"
"Bye." He cradled the receiver and walked back to the table. "She's running late. She said to give her forty-five minuets."
"What did she sound like?" AJ grinned.
"I don't know, what do you mean?"
"I mean," the rebel stated like it was obvious as to what he meant, "what did she SOUND like."
"I HEARD the question, but you're loosing me."
"You've been lost a while, Carter." Nick playfully smacked him at his retort. "Now, what did she sound like?"
"Jeez 'Jay, she sounded like a girl."
"I mean did she sound hot?"
Kevin raised his eyebrows, "How do you 'sound hot?' "
"Easy, I sound hot, and I am."
Howie crackled, "I beg to differ!"
Groaning AJ said, "You guys suck!"
A half hour later, the boys were picking at the remains of five sandwiches they had ordered. Brian once again leaned back in his chair. "Where is she?" He sang impatiently
"Give her time," Howie said, "she's still got some time."
"Hello!" AJ said leaning forward, the guys turned around to see what he was looking at. "Too richly looking but hot!" AJ said referring to a girl who had just walked in. She was fair skinned, brown eyes and brown hair. She wore a neatly pressed pants suit and several pieces of jewelry. The girl looked around, seemingly lost.
Brian leaned farther back in his chair, but leaned to far back. His chair tipped backwards and he fell. The girl spun around at the sound of something falling and stifled a giggle at the sight of Brian on the floor. A hand reached down to help him up and she followed to arm up to a smiling blonde. She grinned and walked forward.
"Nick Carter? I assume?" She stuck out her hand, a definite match to Andrew she silently noted to herself. "I'm Gwen." Nick looked up and immediately forgot about his fallen friend.
"Yup, that'd be me." He stood up and shook her hand. Brian got up and fixed his chair.
"Thanks for the help Nick, you're a real friend."
"Shut up Brian," Nick laughed and pulled out a chair that was in between him and AJ. She took a seat and glanced at her neighbor. Her mouth dropped when she looked at AJ and his messed coloured hair and multiple array of tattoos, obviously she wasn't used to that sort of look on anyone. AJ looked proud at her response of his looks. He was clad in a white tank which only showed his tattoos even more. His dark sunglasses covered his eyes as he grinned at her.
"Hi, I'm AJ." His deep raspy voice said.
"Um...hi." Gwen said a bit unsure. A soft sweet voice spoke up from the other side of the table.
"Just ignore him." She looked up to be faced with a handsome Latino. He smiled sweetly, "I'm Howie. Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." She knew immediately that she liked him. AJ on the other hand seemed a bit too odd for her, and a bit too confident. She knew she liked Nick, he didn't talk much but was nice enough. She eyed the boy who had fallen out of his chair. "Are you Okay?"
Brian laughed, "Yeah, not the first time that happened!" Instantly, she feel in love with his soft southern accent, "I'm Brian." He shook her hand.
"May I ask where you're from? I noticed your accent."
Brian softly laughed, "I'm from Kentucky. And so is Kevin over there, the one who doesn't talk," He laughed at his own joke, "we're cousins."
"Oh." She said and turned to face whoever he was talking about. She nearly jumped when she saw him. He was the complete opposite of Brian. He was huge in stature whereas Brian had a small build.
"Hi, I'm the one who never talks." He grinned. Gwen was a bit taken aback by his voice, but recovered quickly.
"So," she said, not wasting anymore time, "What did you bring to prove you do live in the Cartelle mansion and you are who you say you are?"
"Well," Nick started slowly, "I didn't know what to bring and Howie suggested I just bring me, you know, since I look like Andrew, so that's exactly what I did." He shrugged, "We couldn't think of anything else."
"That's Okay, I sort of figured that. You are an exact match to Andrew. Blue eyes and everything." She said referring to Nick's deep blue eyes, " You don't really see those type of eyes anywhere, Normally, it'd just be bright blue eyes, but yours are deeper. It's a Cartelle trait."
Nick shrugged again, "Sometimes they look bright blue." She just nodded.
"So," She said eyeing the rest of the boys, "tell me about yourselves so I know what I'm dealing with here." AJ began:
"Name: Austin Powers, Sex: yes please..." He paused to let the joke set in as everyone laughed, "Opps; wrong identity," He giggled, "anyway my name is actually Alexander James. I like long walks on beaches and candle light diners. And I love independent women." Kevin shook his head and lightly tapped the back of AJ's head.
"This isn't the dating service AJ." He laughed.
"Jeez, I keep getting mixed up..." AJ pretended to be bewildered about it.
Gwen laughed as the others told short stories of themselves, each, embarrassed by the attention even though they were used to it.
She looked at Nick, "Tell me about yourself. Where are from, what you like, that stuff."
Nick nodded. "Nickolas Gene Carter, twenty-three," He counted the things off his fingers, "moved from New York to Florida when I was very little, addicted to any type of Nintendo game, I like to draw, and as recently found out by the guys, I play the piano." She nodded her head in answer, "Now tell us about you."
"I knew that was coming, well, My full name is Gwenivere Raven Matiscalco, I'm twenty-five, I've always lived in Florida and I investigate haunted houses and study ghosts for a living as you guys know from my web site." She shrugged, "That about sums it up."
"No, are you single?" AJ asked only half joking.
"I'm currently seeing someone."
"Oh, she's currently seeing someone," AJ joked. They laughed and Gwen put her suit case on the table. Opening it she began:
"I have all the notes and research I've found on Andrew and the Cartelle family." She turned the suit case around as if she needed to prove it. "The only thing is; I'd rather not go over it here. These people are looking at me funny. I guess they're wondering why a girl is hanging out with five guys."
"Maybe," Brian answered knowing the real reason was that people were wondering whether or not she was a girlfriend. Gwen, Nick, Howie, AJ, Brian, and Kevin began to gather up their stuff when three teenage girls walked over.
"Excuse me? But- can we have you autographs?" One of the girls said, she was a cute brunette with light green eyes.
"Sure," Nick said as he took the paper that she held out to them, he sighed hers and the two other girls' papers and handed them to the other guys. When they were finished the girls thanked them and walked away. Gwen looked at the boys curiously.
"Oh yeah, we forgot to mention one little detail," AJ said.
Brian finished: "We're famous."
"Excuse me? Famous? How? I didn't recognize you?" Gwen eyed the boys.
"Well..." Nick said, "Are you into music? You know like pop and dance?"
"No."
"There's the reason." AJ spoke up, "We're singers. We're in a group called the Backstreet Boys. Nothing big." Gwen raised her eyebrows. "Okay; so maybe we've sold millions of albums around the world, have millions of fans....no biggie." He laughed.
"No biggie?" She shook her head, "You know something, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut. Who's car did you come in? Or did you all take sperate cars?"
"We took Nick and AJ's cars." Brian said.
"Okay, I'll follow you guys. Nick, you'll let me hear you play?"
"Sure." The guys looked at each other. They never yet, had actually sat down and listened to Nick play, it would be a first to them and to Gwen.
The house was quiet when they entered. The boys set their backpacks down.
"We can review the info later," Gwen looked at Nick, "sorry, but I really wanna hear you play!"
Nick laughed, "Follow me, the only piano we have in the house is the one Andrew played." That sent shivers down her spine but Gwen followed anyway.
Upstairs in the hidden room; Nick sat down at the piano. Gwen couldn't believe how beautiful it was, and after all these years! It was white small concert piano. She noticed something on top of it. A red rose.
"That's cute." She said to the boys.
"What?"
"The rose," She pointed to it, "professional, guess you guys figured I'd want to hear him play. You brought it?" She asked, something in their eyes told her they didn't put the rose there. "It was Andrew wasn't it?"
Kevin nodded, "Probably, but why?" They shrugged.
AJ said, "Andy boy seems to have taken a liking to Nick. Maybe it was a gift?"
"Maybe," Nick muttered, "you know I've yet to have to tune this piano?"
"Another gift." AJ stated. Nick nodded and stretched out his fingers, taking care to gently crack every one of his knuckles. "You know something Gwen, this'll be the first time we'll listen to Nicky also, the only other time we heard him is when we found out about it. But we were all to freaked to remember."
"I'm not surprised. Nick?" She nodded towards him.
"I don't know the tittle of this song, my grandfather taught it to me when I was young. It's sorta long, but it's one of my favorites."
Gwen, AJ, Howie and Kevin crowded around the piano. Brian took a seat next to Nick on the bench.
Nick paused for a moment and closed his eyes, his hands, ready over the keys. He took a deep breath and placed his hands on the keys. Opening his eyes again, he began to play. The melody was soft and sweet. Before they knew it, each had their eyes closed drifting in a haze of the music. Nick played passionately, happy to finally have an audience.
As the last notes echoed through the room, The four other boys and Gwen opened their eyes. A smile crept on each lip. Nick sat, his hands still on the piano, with his eyes closed. It was obvious how much he loved playing.
He waited for the last drops of music to fade away until he opened his eyes and placed his hands on his lap. Everyone was quiet, and Nick was afraid they didn't like it, but in truth, the music was still sinking in. They couldn't believe how well he played.
Smiling, Brian began to clap, soon joined by the others. Nick looked at them gratefully, noticing the small tears that hung out of the corners of their eyes.
Howie put his arm around Nick. "That was beautiful Nicky."
"Truly," Kevin smiled, "I'm really proud of you."
"Thanks guys." Nick smiled, "Guess we should go over the information now huh?"
"Guess so." Gwen said. Nick stood up, a wave of dizziness washed over him and he fell backwards into Brian's arms.
"Whoa! Nicky..." Nick steadied himself and forced a smiled to the worried faces that surrounded him.
"Sorry, I'm a bit tired, you guys were my first audience, I guess the emotional excitement got to me. I'll be fine. Don't worry."
"Either way," Kevin said, "you should go to your room and rest. We don't want that happening again."
"I'm fine guys really."
Howie shook his head, "Please Nick, just rest. Take a nap, you don't look to well." Nick gave in and allowed the boys and Gwen take him to his room. After they were sure he was asleep, they left him to go downstairs.
The hour was as planned, Gwen, AJ, Howie, Brian, and Kevin went over their information and organized things. They researched the Internet and found out more about the day that Andrew Cartelle died. However, they couldn't figure out just how he died. It was a mystery all these years.
They were just into their second hour of researching when the sound of Nick screaming broke through their concentration. Racing upstairs, the five burst into Nick's room. Nick sat upright in his bed, some tears still streaming down his cheeks.
"Nicky, what's wrong? Nicky?" Kevin took him in his arms. Nick held on to him tightly and let the remainder of his tears dampen Kevin's shirt. When he finally calmed down, Kevin turned his questioning gaze on him. "Tell us Nicky, what happened?"
"It was a dream.." Nick mumbled.
"Of what?" Gwen asked.
"I-I," He looked up at them, "I know how Andrew died."
CHAPTER TEN
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