Howie whistled “Quit Playin’ Games” while he was in the shower. His thoughts drifted back to Vanessa. “She was really pretty,” he said to himself out loud so he could think better, “I think I’m gonna give her a call to check on her.”

He turned off the water and grabbed a towel. He went into his room and found a pair of jeans and his favorite tee shirt. He went back into the bathroom to fix his hair.

As he finished messing with his hair, he went back into his room to find Vanessa ’s phone number.

“Damnit! I know I put it here somewhere!”

He turned his room upside down looking for her number. He couldn’t find it anywhere. He sat down on the bed to think what he could have possibly done with it. He went through last night’s events in his head slowly, so he would remember what he did with it.
“As she was leaving, I asked for her number. She wrote it down on that ugly green…THAT’S IT!” he shouted jumping up from the bed.

He dug through a pile of discarded clothes until he found the pants he was wearing last night. He rummaged through the pockets until he found the ugly green piece of paper.
“YES!” he shouted, with her number in his hand, “Now, where did I out the damn phone?”


“What’s up?”
“Look, Nick I want to talk to you about last night. That was an accident. I guess it happened because of all the stress we’re going through, all the pent up emotions we have, I don’t know, a lot of reasons.”
Nick was crushed. He knew, deep down, that she felt the same way about him that he did about her. He wanted to tell her just how much she was hurting him. But his foolish pride took over.

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess now that we’ve got it out of our systems, then it shouldn’t happen again?”
“Right. But I’ve got to go now, Nick. I’ve got some running to do. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yeah, later.”
She walked out of the room, feeling her tears begin to well up. After walking a few steps, she broke into an all out run. She ran straight for the elevators, almost knocking A.J. down in the process.
“Hey, Angie, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m late, she called back, hoping he hadn’t seen her face.
She walked into the elevator and jammed the “door close” button.

Inside Brian’s room, Nick threw everything he could. He threw Brian’s clothes all over the room. He kicked the bed, hurting his foot in the process. He fall onto the bed and screamed into the pillow, half in rage and half in pain.

“DAMNIT!”
Angie punched the lobby button in the elevator. She screamed the exact same time that Nick did.


“Hello?”
“Um…Vanessa? This is Howie.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know, Howie from the Backstreet Boys?”
“Yeah, right. Chris, leave me alone. I’m really tired."
“Who’s Chris?”
“Oh shit. I’m sorry, Howie. I thought you were my friend Chris. He calls and wakes me up that way sometimes.”
Howie laughed. Yeah. Sometimes, I call my friends up pretending to be Joey from *N Sync. But they never believe me.”
“So…What’ s up?”
“Well…I was just wondering if…Ahem…” he cleared his throat. It was never this hard to ask a girl out.
“ ‘If…?’ “
“If you’d like to go to the mall with me today.”
“Hmm…Lemme check and see if I’m free – Okay.”
He laughed, “So, can I pick you up at uh, 11:30?”
“Yeah. I live at 3462 Sycamore. Do you know where that is?”
“Yeah…Well, I’m sure I can find it.”
“I’ll tell you what, why don’t we meet at Alma’s?”
“That’d be great.”
“Okay, see you then.”
She hung up the phone and screamed into her pillow, not believing that HOWIE DOROUGH just called her and asked her out.
She looked up at her clock and jumped up. It was already 10:00! She only had an hour and a half to get ready!


In the elevator, Angie still wasn’t quite sure where she was going, but she knew she had to get out of the hotel before she ran into Nick again. Her vision was blinded by her tears, so she sat down. She wiped her face off with her sleeve and cleared her throat. She let out another scream, trying to clear her head. It wasn’t working.


Nick stormed out of Brain’s hotel room, leaving a note for Brian telling him that he was sorry and he’d pick up the mess later. Nick walked down the hall to his room. He opened the door having a little difficulty.

“Fucking electronic keycards,” he muttered.

He walked into his room and over to his luggage. He put on a tee shirt and some Adidas jogging pants. There had to be a gym somewhere that didn’t charge an arm and a leg to work out for half an hour. He grabbed his wallet, keycard, sunglasses, and walked out the door. He walked to the elevators and punched the “down” button, hoping it wouldn’t take forever for it to reach him.


Angie pulled herself off the floor as the elevator reached the lobby. When the doors opened, she ran to the front door, not wanting to be bothered by anyone. She turned right and ran blindly into the crowd of people on the sidewalk, praying she didn’t run into anyone.


The phone rang as Vanessa finished drying her shoulder length brown hair. She put the blow dryer down and ran for the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey Nessa.”
“Chris!” she said, checking to make sure her hair was dry.
“What’s goin’ on?” “You would not believe what happened to me at the concert last night…”


Dani, Kev and Aaron walked out of the theater with Aaron chattering away.
“Wasn’t that a great movie? Larissa is so pretty. And that Andrew Keegan guy reminds me of Brian.”
They had gone to see “10 Things I Hate About You,” and Aaron hadn’t shut up the entire time the movie was on.
“Yes it was a good movie, yes Larissa is pretty, and Andrew was only acting. He’s not really as perverted as Brian,” Kevin replied.
“Oh, okay. So, Dani, what did you think of the movie?”
“It was great,” was all she replied.


“Wait a second, Howie Dorough asked you out?”
“Yeah. We’re gonna meet at Alma’s in an hour. But I gotta go. I still have to get dressed and do my makeup.”
“`Kay, bye Nessa.”
“Bye,” she said, hanging up the phone, “Okay, what to wear, what to wear…”

She rummaged through her closet, finding a pair of jeans but no shirt. She ran to her sister’s room to see if she had anything to wear in her closet. She found her favorite shirt in the very back. Making a mental note to yell at her sister, she raced back to her room. She put on her favorite pair of tennis shoes and ran to the mirror to apply what little make up he wore.
After she was through, she wrote a note to her family.

Hey. I’m gonna meet a friend at Alma’s for lunch and then we’re gonna go shopping.Don’t wait up, I’ll be home late.
Love,
Nessa

She put the note on the fridge, grabbed her keys, and walked out the door.


Angie ran until she was out of breath. She stopped at a park and sat under a tree. She felt a wave of drowsiness overcome her. She quickly fell asleep.


Nick jogged down the street looking for a gym or some other place to calm himself down. He spotted a sign that said a park was near, so he picked up is pace.


Angie ran down the path, looking for Nick.
“Where are you?” she called.
She couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Nick?"
She stumbled and fell, scraping her knee. Not caring, she got back up and began running again.
“Nick?”
She turned off the path, deciding that she might have better luck if she tried the typical Nick thing to do, be crazy.
“Nick, where the hell are you?”
Stumbling again, she fell onto something soft. She looked down to see Nick unconscious.
“NO!” she wailed, “Nick, wake up!”
She tried shaking him and calling his name, but nothing would revive him.
“Please wake up, Nick. You’re all I’ve got left.” “Angie?” she heard him say.
“Nick?” she looked at him. He hadn’t moved.
“Angie?” he repeated. His lips still hadn’t moved! She felt helpless.
“Angie, wake up!”
Angie’s eyes flew open when Nick shook her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I guess I fell asleep.
“That’s a dangerous thing to do in San Fransisco. Do you want me to walk you back to the hotel?”
“Please say yes,” he thought.
“No, that’s all right. I’ve got some things to take care of before I get back. Thanks, anyway.”
“Okay, later,” he said, disappointed.
Angie jogged back to the hotel, praying that she didn’t talk in her sleep.

Chapter 5