“Ow... that hurt!”
“Life’s tough, Carter, get a helmet.” She said as Nick rubbed the spot where she had hit him. She smiled and rolled over so that she was on her stomach. “Awww... did I hurt the poor baby?”
“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction of letting you hurt me.” He stopped rubbing his head and looked at her. She was his best friend and had been for a long time.
“Yeah well, after that whole cousin’s thing you pulled, you’re lucky I didn’t hurt you.”
“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” He hated it when she was mad at him... it always made him feel so bad.
“Just say it one more time and I’ll forget about it.”
Nick looked her straight in the eye whispered, “I’m sorry.” She smiled at him and laid her head on his chest.
“It’s OK, Nicky.” He smiled and kissed her on the top of the head before going back to watching the TV show they had been watching before she smacked him in the head. For some reason it felt right to be there with her, even if she was just his friend.
“Are the youngsters in there?” Howie asked, nodding his head towards hotel room that Nick was ocuppying while they were in Fout Lauderdale.
“Yep, they are.” Brian said from the couch in the main room of the large suite that they were all sharing. Each of them had thair own room, and there was a common living room and kitchen area.
“Who are you talking about?” Kevin asked, walking out of his room.
“Ry and Nick. They are in Nick’s room.”
“What else is new? They are always together.”
“You saw what happened today... he told everyone that she was his cousin... that’s gotta hurt.” Howie said.
“Yeah... what I don’t get is why she was so mad... I mean the fans will leave her alone now...” AJ said.
“Maybe she doesn’t want to be his cousin because that would make the kind of relationship that she wants to have with him incest.” Brian commented.
“I think that you areall reading was to much into this.” Howie said shaking his head “So what does everyone think of Sarah?”
“She seems really nice.” Brian said, with a smile. “Of course I’ve only known her for a little while but she seems really nice.”
“Yeah, she’s working really hard, but I don’t think that she is exactly where everyone else is in the dancing.”
“Um, Kev, she’s had a day to learn the dances that the rest of us have had at least a month to learn. I’d say she’s doing pretty well.” Brian defended.
“Yeah... I guess. And I talked to her for a few minutes. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders.”
“She was talking to Ryleigh a lot durring practice, and I guess Ryleigh told Nick that she was asking a lot of questions.” Brian added.
“Well, I guess I would be asking the girl who’d grown up with Nick a lot of questions too if I was new to the tour. And if I didn’t know Nick was such a big pain in the ass.” Kevin said, emphisising the last sentence so that he was sure Nick heard him. He got his answer when the blond hair and blue eyes came out from behind the door they had all been talking about only moments before. A second later he was shoved into the room by the short brunette that had been standing behind him.
“What about everyone’s royal pain in the ass?” She asked as she walked into the kitchen.
“Oh it was nothing really, we were just talking about Sarah and how she was asking you so many questions. Kev said that he’d probably be asking you questions about Nick too if he had just joined the tour and he didn’t know that Nick was such a big pain in the ass.”
Ryleigh looked over the counter that seperated the kitched from the living area. “She wasn’t just asking questions about Nicky, she was asking questions about all of you, well mainly the women in your life. It seemed like every answer I gave her was the wrong one, like she was looking for something.”
“Ever thought that maybe she just wanted to know about the people that she was going to spending the next year with?” Nick asked, sitting down on one of the stools at the counter.
“Maybe... but I don’t know... she even asked about ManDUH.”
“Will you stop doing that, it’s annoying as hell?” Nick asked, rolling his eyes.
“No, Nick, it was annoying when you were dating her, now it’s funny.” Brian grinned.
“And besides anyone who even thinks about spelling their name like that is just asking for it, I’m sorry. Not that spilting up your lst name into two words and going by that is a whole lot better, but I’m not ever gonna go here.” Ryleigh jumped up and sat on the white marble counter that was opposite the counter that Nick was sitting on. It was then that she noticed that AJ had been quiet ever since she and Nick had come into the room. “What do you think, Bone Daddy?”
The corner of AJ’s lips twitched into a smile at hearing her call him that. He always thought it was funny that someone like her would have the audacity to call him that. “I don’t know... when she went to the bathroom she made a phone call, and when I asked her who it was too she told me it was her brother... I don’t know.”
“So she’s got a brother who cares about her... what’s the harm in that?” Howie asked.
“I don’t know yet... but I think that something’s up.” Kevin said.
She poured over her computer, once again staring at the names, in their order of birth:
Bethany McKay
Alyson Thomas
Cassandera Rogers
Kelly Hart
Sandra Ferguson
Teresa Kellington
Reann Anderson
Emily O’Connor
Erin Johanson
Tanya White
Breeana Greier
Olivia Prinze
Yolonda Rodriguez
Was there something else that she was missing? There had to be something else that they killer was saying by selecting these girls, instead of anyone else with the first names that began with those letters. But the more and more that she poured over them the more she believed that she had everything she could get out of them names. What else could they have in common? None of them spelled out any of the same words and none of them seemed to have any symbolic meaning. She wasn’t going to find out what it was that they had in common until she found the girl who had the first name that started with an S. ‘Why does this have to be so damn complicated... someone must have done something to really piss this guy off... why else would he go to so much trouble to find girls that spelled out Backstreet Boys?’
Just then there was a knock on the door. She jumped up from where she was seated at the desk and answered the room. “Hi Sarah!” Ryleigh said, smiling at her.
“Hi, Ryleigh. What’s up?”
“Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping, just the two of us. Cause it’s the last day before the tour starts and I think it’s gonna be a long time until we get a chance to do something like this. And plus it will give us a chance to get to know each other better.”
‘Get to know you better? That might be helpful.’ Sarah thought as she nodded. She looked at her watch. 10:30 am. “Yeah, OK, hold on, let me grab my jacket.”
“OK.” Sarah walked back into her room, saved what she had been doing on her computer, grabbed her room key, her purse and her jacket and went back to the door. “OK, lets go!”
The two girls walked down the hall to the elevators. Once they were in the lobby they walked outside and there was a cab waiting for them. “You called ahead?” Sarah asked as she climbed into the back seat.
“Yeah, I figured I’d ask you if you wanted to go, and if not then I would have asked Nick to come. But that would have meant security tailing us everywhere. I think this will me much more fun!” Ryleigh quickly told the driver where to go and in a matter of minutes they were getting back out again. Once they had paid the driver they turned to the shopping center. “I swear, if anyone comes up and askes me if I’m blondie’s cousin, his ass is grass!”
Sarah laughed at the younger girl and they walked into the mall.
