"Steph? Why would we want to clean houses? Especially our own??" Nick cried. He and Brian had to be the worst out of the five guys. They absolutely despised cleaning anything or keeping things nice and tidy.
"Aw come on Nick. Manda and I think it would be sooo much fun! I mean, all ten of us get together and go from house to house to house to house to house to house to house to house to house, cleaning each one. You know they need it, too. I mean, we've been gone for a month and pretty soon, we'll be gone for three more. If we clean them now, they won't be as dirty when we get back to them," I tried to explain. "And besides, Amy will be there." Nick sighed. He knew that if his girlfriend was there he would be involved as well, so he gave in. "Good! We'll meet at AJ's house at 2:00 and we'll do every house in a half hour." I hung up with Nick and dialed Memory 5. Kevin.
"Hello?" a rather tired voice answered. I knew I had woken Kev up. He slept the longest out of all of us, so I had decided to call him last.
"Kevin, it's 1:00 in the afternoon. What are you still doing asleep?" I asked him.
"Steph, I went to bed at around 6:30 in the morning. I haven't even gotten nine hours of sleep yet," Kevin yawned.
"Okay. Well, I'm really sorry that I woke you up, but we've all decided to have a big cleaning party today. We're going to go from house to house and clean them before we leave, okay? In an hour, we're gunna meet at AJ's house. So you can go back to sleep if you promise you'll be at J's at 2," I tried to compromise.
"Okay. Goodnight," Kevin mumbled before hanging up the phone and zonking back out again.
At 2:30, everyone was at AJ's house. Kevin forgot to wake up. Dani had to call him and yell at him to get out of bed. That boy....
"Okay. So who wants what?" Manda asked everyone. There were rags and Pledge, a vacuum, window cleaner and paper towels, tooth brushes, toilet bowl cleaner, a webster, and a squeegee all on a table on the back patio. We were determined to get every house done within five hours. We all grabbed what we wanted and went to work. AJ wouldn't let anyone touch most of the stuff, so he and Emily dusted the house. Kevin found the stereo and flicked it on to a random station.
I was cleaning the bathrooms, considering no one else wanted to and I personally didn't care what I did. In the middle of the cleaning, I found something that disturbed me more than words could ever say. I got up and stormed through the house until I found AJ.
"What is THIS?" I yelled, holding an empty cigarette pack. I was fuming. AJ turned around and his eyes widened. "AJaaaayyyy! You know my asthma can't handle that smoke! And you know it's not good for you! What are you trying to do? MAKE me mad all the time?" J sighed and rolled his eyes. He knew I cared about his health and his well-being, but he often got annoyed at my motherliness towards him.
"Steph. You know I don't smoke during tour. It's on the breaks, when....uhhh....god....come on, if life were as stressful for you as it is for me, you would understand why," AJ tried to explain as he looked into my hurt eyes and disappointed face.
"AJ. It's not good for you and you know I don't want anything happening to you. Your success could go downhill if you keep it up. Puhlease try to quit. For the good of your future. For the good of your career. I'm not asking you to stop for me. I'm asking you to stop for everyone here. For every one of your fans who believes in you," I attempted to tell him. AJ looked at me with concern in his eyes and didn't say a word for a few minutes.
"AJ. You're one of my....five bestest friends in the whole world, and I would absolutely die if something happened to you!" Bone cracked a smile.
"Steph, I know your concern. That's why I don't do it on tour. And, if it means that much to you and the rest of the guys and my fans, I will see if I can quit this next break, okay?" AJ sighed. I was about to wrap my arms around him in excitement, but J added, "but I am not promising anything." I understood and hugged AJ thankingly before returning to the bathroom.
A half hour later, we moved on to the next closest house: mine. I turned on my stereo and, with speakers in nearly every room, you could hear music all over the place. It was funny to walk from room to room because each person was singing a song and rocking out to the same music in a different, unique way. During a break, I announced that I was flicking stations because I was sick of the station we had it on. Ironically enough, as I passed a country station, I found "I Cross My Heart," right as it was starting. Kevin was vacuuming in the living room and turned to look at me with wide eyes. We both dove down the hallway, searching for Amanda and Brian.
They were in the hat room, dusting the hats. Brian had stopped and begun to sing to Amanda. She dropped her things and he grabbed her hand. Kevin and I gawked at them and I could sense him getting all teary eyed. I myself was getting a lump in my throat. From the back window, AJ, Howie, Nick, and Amy were watching. I was sitting on the ground, and was soon surrounded by Emily and Dani. We all stared at Amanda and Brock, lost in their moment. They didn't notice us either, which was an awfully good thing.
Brian was singing softly as he held Amanda's hands in his. She had tears streaming down her cheeks. I felt horrible, intruding in their moment. They looked so perfect together. All of us knew that nothing would ever be able to come between them, just by experiencing this. The love in Brian's voice, expression, and eyes was so strong, Nick could not believe that his best friend had met her at a bar/dance club. I could tell Amanda was taking this all in one slow breath at a time. Whatever had happened the week before was all the past. The distant past. As the song ended, I signaled for everyone in the window to leave and hustled everyone out of the doorway. While I was walking back to my room, I spied the two of them sharing a kiss.
As if timing weren't more perfect, Faith Hill's song "This Kiss" soon followed. I immediately went to locate Howie and sang the song to him as he laughed his head off at my gestures.
"Cinderella said to Snow White, how does love get so off course...whoa...all I wanted was a white knight, with a good heart, soft touch, fast hold. Ride me off into the sunset, baby I'm forever yours! It's the way you love me, it's a feel like this! It's centripetal motion, it's perpetual bliss. It's that pivotal moment, it's ahhhh...unthinkable! This kiss this kiss! It's unsinkable This kiss this kiss!" I sang with that horrible voice of mine. Howie started dancing with me. Not a few feet away, I spotted Danielle singing to Kevin. He stood, listening and watching her, completely amazed. When the song was through, Kevin gave Dani a kiss then grabbed her hand and quickly walked over to us.
"Have you guys heard her? This girl has got a voice!" Kevin cried, excitedly. "We oughta see if we can get a demo tape for her to give to the Firm!" Danielle blushed. She never thought she was that good, though she had taken lessons for about four years during high school.
"Kevin! I am not THAT good!" Dani modestly replied. Kevin looked at his girlfriend and raised an eyebrow. She didn't want to argue with him. She hesitated. "But only if you write the songs with me. You can play piano. But if you're getting me into this, you're sticking with me!" Kevin chuckled and gave her forehead a kiss. I took a glance at my watch.
"Uh-oh! Time's about up! We gotta move on to Howie's house now!" I declared, being the official time keeper. We rounded things up, let Chachi out of his traveling cage, piled things into the Expedition and the Durango, and drove off to D's house after locking up my house.
"Steph, we don't have to clean my house. Mom and Dad probably did already anyways. Seriously! Don't worry about it," Howie told me as we were riding to his house in AJ's Expedition.
"Yes we do! They do so much for us as it is! We gotta do this for them! They're so sweet anyways. I have always loved your family. Besides, I miss your mom and dad. Make sure there aren't any embarrassing pictures of me up in your room for fans to see when your mother invites them into your house!" I told D. Emily and AJ were in front seat, talking to each other, and Dani and Kevin sat in the middle seat.
"Hey D, Dani's never met your mom and dad before. Will they be here for her to meet?" Kevin turned around to ask.
"Uhhh...Mom's probably going to be gone somewhere, but Dad should be home. You've never seen my parents around, Dani?" Howie asked, surprised.
"Well I might've, at the concert way back when. But I've never met them," Danielle told him.
"I guess you'll get to meet them then! They're the sweetest people ever, Dani. They invite fans into the house for cookies and stuff. Howie's mom is the cutest woman and he looks so much like her. His dad is so much fun," I informed my friend. She giggled as AJ pulled into the driveway. No fans today to ruin our exciting job! No sooner had AJ parked in the driveway, Mrs. Dorough ran out of the house and to the Expedition. The Durango pulled up a few seconds later and everyone else climbed out. Paula covered the five boys in kisses and gave me a huge hug. Then, the other girls were all introduced to her.
"Mom, where's Dad?" Howie asked.
"He's in the back, mowing the lawn. What brings all of you here?" Paula asked us.
"We're on a cleaning mission and this is the third house we're hitting. So, you can sit down and rest and we'll clean your house completely," I explained.
"When not onstage dancing, we're cleaning. That's right. The Backstreet Cleaners. We're mean, we're keen, and we like to clean!" AJ declared with this announcer's voice. Everyone looked at him and cracked up.
"No we don't! What crack are you on?!" Nick exclaimed, shoving J.
"You guys are so sweet! Well, don't just stand out here in the sun! Come in come in!" she led us into the house, where we all sat in the kitchen and were told all about D and his family and the two of us when we were kids. The photo albums were brought out and the grls looked through them, laughing and awwing. They couldn't believe how much we had changed. Especially me. I was a big butterball. Some of the pictures I hadn't ever seen. Neither had D. There were pictures of my sister Rachelle and Howie and his brother John and sisters Angie, Caroline, and Polly.
"Wait a second, where am I?" I exclaimed.
"Oh that was before you were born!" Paula told me.
"WHAT?!" Howie and I both cried.
"But I thought we met when I was three!" I replied.
"Oh no. We knew each other before you were born. Look, here's a picture of John holding you where you were about 5 months old," Paula informed me.
"That's so cool!" I replied as I looked at the picture of me and John. We also found pictures of Howie when he was a little kid. As a six-year-old, he looked way different compared to now.
"Oh you guys have other things you must be doing! And I'm taking all this time to show you these pictures! I'm sorry!" Paula suddenly cried. We told her it was okay, then got up to start our job just as Hoke walked in. I went over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, then the introductions began again. As soon as Amy, Emily, Danielle, and Amanda got to know the older Howard Dorough, we split and started our job again. Howie and I took to the dusting, Nick, Emily, and AJ worked on the windows, Brian and Amanda vacuumed the furniture, and Dani, Kevin, and Amy cleaned the bathrooms.
I walked into Howie's room and stood in the doorway. It was the first time I had been in there since we had started going out. His room was covered with pictures of the two of us. Some I had never seen. There had to have been a picture of us from every year I knew D. I was completely amazed at what he had done.
"Like it?" Howie freaked me out, coming up behind me. I hugged him. "My mom did it a few months ago. She dug through all of our photo albums and found every picture of just the two of us and stuck them in frames and put them all over my room. There's more than sixteen pictures of the two of us in here!" I gave D a kiss and went to dusting his room, taking a few minutes to admire each picture. Howie had left to go dust his parents' room.
"This Howie D's room?" a voice from behind asked, frightening me. I turned around to see Amanda standing in the doorway.
"Yeah," I answered. "Oh the things we used to do in this room when we were little..." Amanda laughed and took a good look at one of the pictures. It was of me and Howie when I was 4 and he was 12. I had this cheesy smile on my face and we had one arm crossed over each others' shoulders. In most of our pictures, I had an utterly cheesy look. I was a ham when I was little. D just had his big smile and innocent brown eyes. Together we were always the perfect partners in crime.
"We put on shows for his parents and played super heros and he read me books and we played with his G.I. Joes and I forced him to play with my Barbies...."
"That is sooo cool that you two knew each other since you were little. Sounds like you were a match made in heaven!" Amanda cried. I laughed.
"Yeah...we got in so many fights too! They lasted for like a day before I came back over to play in the sprinklers or be a spy." Manda busted up. Then she walked over to one 8" by 10" picture over Howie's bed. I hadn't noticed it yet, or even bothered to take a good look at it. I was too busy studying one of me and D in shades and bathing suits, singing into the wooden ends of my favorite jump rope, in the middle of the sprinklers.
"Gilli, I didn't know you two knew each other since you were born!" she commented. I looked over at Manda, confused. She was staring at the big picture, which was one of Howie sitting in a chair, holding me. I was like 2 months old and he was 7 and had a big goofy smile on his face. "Whoa. This is like Sleeping Beauty!!!!" I laughed as we admired the picture.
"No one ever told me I knew him that long until today, Manda. Paula and Hoke never once told me. Neither had Mom and Dad," I explained.
"Do your parents even know that you and Howie are going out?" Amanda asked. I had never thought about that! Never had I told them, either!
"Actually I never told them. But I'm sure they've heard by now," I sighed. They lived in California and I was planning on visiting them when we got to Cali around my mom's birthday, in November. Manda shrugged and left, going back to finish her job.
There were soo many pictures of me and D in his room. There was one of the two of us in a pool, one of us in his parents' clothes, one of us on our first days of school (kindergarten for me, 8th grade for him), one of us at his first concert, one of us at another concert, one of us at an awards show, one of us underneath a pile of towels, one of us at one of his auditions, one of us at his graduation, one of us at Halloween (I was a princess, he was--ironically--a vampire), the one of him holding me, the one of us singing, the one of us arm and arm, one of us dancing, one of us both making silly faces, one of us in hats and sunglasses, one of us with Aladdin (AKA Kevin) and Jasmine at Disney World, one of us at our graduation party (8th grade for him, kindergarten for me), one of us at his 16th birthday party, one of us at my 16th birthday party, one of us at my 18th birthday party, and one of us at my 19th birthday party. There were probably more, I just didn't have time to look because we soon had to leave for the next house. The ten of us gathered our things, said goodbye to Howie's parents, and left.
The next house was Kevin's. Kevin was such a perfectionist and his house was so nice that it wasn't even really necessary to clean the place. Yet, we still dusted, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, and washed the windows. When the half hour was over with, we headed over to Nick's house, which was a mess. The pugs were back and making the mess even worse.
"Man Nicky. Why don't we just skip this house and call for a professional to come in?!" Emily joked. He scowled at her, putting away a box of cereal he had left out earlier.
"It's gunna take an hour for this place! It's 4:00 now and we still have five other houses to do!" I teased Nick.
"Oh come on! It's not that bad! Let's get to work before it's too late, please?" Nick asked. We shut up and got to work. Nick stuck Willie, Mikey, Houston, and Nicky in their cages so we wouldn't be tripping all over them while we worked. He turned on the radio and told everyone to stay out of his room because he didn't want us to see the huge disaster that it was. We cleaned up his place in 45 minutes and rested a little before heading for Dani's which was just down the street.
"Ya know you guys, I've been here all this time. We don't have to do my house. It's already pretty clean," Danielle announced as we were about to leave.
"Aw come on. We're doing everyone else's! I'd feel bad if we didn't do yours!" Kevin said.
"No really! My house is fine. Let's go straight to Emily's, please?" Dani begged, as if she were trying to hide something.
"Okay then, Emily's it is," Brian replied.
"Em?! That girl is a neat freak! Her house is so immaculate! Plus, isn't your sister staying there while you're with us?" AJ asked.
"Yeah. My house is fine. We don't have to do it," Emily added.
"Oooookay. That knocks two houses off the list. Guess our apartment is next, right?" Amanda wanted to know.
"Yup. Let's get going guys. Hey! When we finish, we can have a barbeque at my house, if you guys are all up to it," Brock suggested. We all liked the idea, then piled back into the cars while Nick locked up his house. I guessed girls had been camping out in the bushes next door because, before we knew it, cameras were flashing. AJ hung out the window of his Expedition and made faces at the girls as we drove off. Nick had to ask them to leave before he was able to drive off his property, so they got to the apartment nearly ten minutes after we had, leaving us locked out because both Amanda and Amy were in the Durango. When the girls got there, we went into the apartment and started to separate to clean it. Amanda and Amy went straight to their rooms. Amy was done with hers after about ten minutes. Amanda, on the other hand, stayed behind the closed doors for the whole half hour. We had begun to worry about her, then Brian decided he should check up on Manda. I looked at my watch.
"Ah. It's 5:13. The animal shelter closes at 6 and I wanted to go look for a dog today," I realized.
"What about Chachi?" Dani asked. "Are you getting rid of him?"
"Oh no! I'm keeping Chache. I just was gunna see to getting another dog," I explained.
"Anybody wanna come with me?"
"Oh you all go. Brian and I'll stay here with Amanda and Amy and we'll meet you guys over at B-Rok's when you get there, okay?" Nick offered. We all liked the idea so Dani, Kevin, Em, AJ, D, and I got into J's Expedition and took off for the animal shelter.
When we got there, we knew it would be empty because hardly anyone came in when the place was near closing time. The boys had been in the shelter plenty of times before, so it was no shock for the employees to see AJ, Howie, and Kev there. They were actually really friendly and polite and all yelled "hi" to the guys as we walked in. The five were known as The Rich Boys With Big Hearts And Tight Pockets because they were always in to see about adopting an animal for a pet because they would rather save a life and they didn't want to buy one when you could get one for free AND spare its life at the same time.
Howie's cat Christopher was adopted from the animal shelter. His parents bought Oscar, their Pekingese, a long time ago and the dog had to at least be 10 or 11 by now. We were thinking about getting them another dog for their anniversary or something, but weren't quite sure yet.
The shelter was filled with all sorts of dogs, full-breed, half-breed, mutts, and any other thing they found or were given. Most of the dogs were really tame because they had faced some form of abuse or other. There were plenty of mutts, a few golden retrievers, a great dane, some pugs, a bunch of dalmations, and two pit bulls. But no schnauzer. I asked and the employee told me they hadn't had a schnauzer come in for months. I was just about to walk out of the place when I noticed AJ talking to the great dane in a cage at the back of the room. The dog was huge, though it was only 2 years old, and was black and white. Instead of being the beast it looked like, the thing came right up to the side of the cage and began to lick J's hand. He laughed and reached in to pet it. We all walked over to him.
"This girl's like a small cow!" he said, petting it. I looked down at Bone and the dane, which was lying down on the ground, lazily, as it covered him in slobber. I bent down and held out my hand. She sniffed it and began to lick me as well.
"She's soo cute!" Dani and I simultaneously cried.
"You want her? She's been here forever but no one wants a big horse-like animal for a pet," the employee asked me. "She's a gentle thing. We should've put her to sleep a long time ago but everyone here just couldn't kill 'er because she's so nice and hardly hurts a fly.
She's completely full-bred and spayed, so it's really amazing there's no one here who would want her, considering she's a complete give-away. They all want to spend top dollar so that they can know their dog's pedigree." The six of us stared into the big brown eyes of the dog and I could feel all of us falling in love with her as the worker spoke.
"I'll take 'er," I finally decided.
"Really?! That's great. Let me get a leash for you and we'll get 'er out for ya," the worker said as he walked up to a hook and grabbed a thick leather leash. The minute he opened the cage, the dog's head perked up and she immediately sat up. The employee attached the leash to her leather collar and handed it to me. "Enjoy. It's so great to get the little cow out of this place finally! I'll miss 'er though." I thanked the man, then went up to the front desk to sign adoption papers while AJ, Dani, Howie, Emily, and Kevin cooed over the dane. When I was finished, we walked out and led her to the back of AJ's Expedition, where we had her climb in and lie down.
"Well, I hope Chachi's okay with the new dog," Howie replied, petting the dane's big head.
"Oh he'll be fine. That dog's gotten used to all these other dogs coming to the house. I think they'll be good friends," I told D.
"Now, about a name."
"Yeah. We gotta think of a name for that...that...Thing. Looks like oreo cookies 'n' cream ice cream," AJ mumbled from the driver's seat. "A big...giant...oreo thingy. Hey! Why don't you call her that?!" We all laughed at the thought.
"Hey! I think I will, since Panda is already taken," I exclaimed. "Do you want to be Oreo Thingy?" The dog licked my face with her big tongue, making us all crack up. "Guess so! Wait till the others see you!"
"Howdy howdy howdy!" AJ called as he walked into Brian's house. Amanda came out of the kitchen and waved to him, Kevin, Danielle, and Emily.
"Where are Gilli and D?" Manda wanted to know.
"They're walking Steph's new dog around the side to the backyard," Dani informed her. Amanda jetted out to the glass door and went into the backyard, where Amy, Nick, and Brian were. At that moment, we appeared.
"HOLY COW!!!" Brian yelled, his eyes wide.
"That thing is huge!"
"Yeah Gill. What happened to the schnauzer you wanted?" Nick wondered.
"Didn't have any. This girl was so nice and gentle I just couldn't give her up," I said.
"What's her name?" Amy asked as she and Manda walked over to pet my dog.
"Oreo Thingy!" I announced. They gave me a confused look. "AJ named her." The four all engulfed themselves in the great dane for about ten minutes, leaving Kevin to watch over the hamburgers on the barbeque. I let go of Oreo and allowed her to roam around. Unfortunately, she began to lap up the water in the swimming pool. Brian didn't care though, if he had even noticed. When the hamburgers were almost done, Brock whispered something into Amanda's ear.
"Hey guys guess what?!" Manda cried, bounding over to us.
"What?" Howie asked.
"I'm not going to Europe after all! Mark's letting me have you guys completely and letting Todd--that guy I was with at Planet Hollywood--take that new band in Europe so he can grow with them since they're both new at this. He said it's the best thing for ME and for you guys AND for Todd and the new band," Amanda announced. Dani and I immediately wrapped our arms around her.
"That's sooo awesome!" I replied.
"And we talked it over, and we want you AND Dani to come back on tour with us," Kevin declared, unexpectedly. I didn't know where he had gotten the us, but not one of us could object to adding two new members to the Backstreet Traveling Crew. Just then the doorbell rang. Brian jumped up to answer it. He came walking back with Lisa in tow.
"Hey Brighty, what's up?" I greeted her. Lisa said hi to everyone. It was quite a surprise to see her.
"Lise! What are you doing here?" cried Nick, rather excitedly, disturbing Amy. He ran over and gave her a big hug.
"Well I heard you guys were back in town so I thought I'd stop by and see if you wanted to do something. For my birthday, I finally got a car, so I've been taking it everywhere," Lisa explained. "Sorry to intrude on your little barbeque. I didn't know..."
"Happy late birthday, by the way!" I replied, realizing that it was this last weekend, when we had gotten home.
"Oh thanks! I had a big party on Saturday. I wish you guys could've come. I mean, it would've made it tons more fun than it really was," Lisa sighed, sitting down in a chair. I looked over at Amy, who was just dying to go over and rip out her guts. Amanda had a hand on her shoulder, trying to keep her calm.
"Hey are you coming to the concert on Wednesday?" Nick wanted to know.
"Yeah. One of my presents was front row tickets. I don't know how they got them, but I was thrilled," she said. "My cousins refused to tell me how they got them." Then I remembered Denise saying something about arranging front row tickets for a friend of Nick's and possible backstage passes. She wasn't able to get the passes, I didn't think, but Nick soon changed that.
"Good! Then you can come backstage before the show!" he exclaimed. Amy's face turned red with fury. "A birthday present from all of us."
"What?!" Lisa screeched. She jumped back up and wrapped her arms around Nick. Then she kissed his cheek. "That's by far the best birthday present I will have ever gotten. But how can I if I don't have a pass?"
"Oh that's simple. Just come on the bus with us and you can hang out with us for a few hours," Nick explained simply. Lisa's eyes widened and she kept telling him thank you over and over.
"Well, I don't want to be such an intruder on your barbeque. I really should get going!" Brighty suddenly changed the subject. "I feel horrible just coming in and taking over."
"Oh no that's okay. You can stay if you want," Brian invited her.
"I wish I could, but I've been out all day and I'm supposed to be home in a half hour," Lisa told him. She said good bye and thank you to all of us, then left.
Brian went back to the grill and started serving our burgers to us. We ate pretty much in silence, due to the fact that Lisa had stopped by. There was a little bit of tension in the air ever since she had left. I went into the house and turned on the stereo system so that we could have music on the back patio while we ate. That day had left the ten of us completely exhausted. The next day was the 4th of July and we were planning on having a big huge barbeque together and going out on Nicky's family's boat for fireworks.
"HEY GILLI!" Dani suddenly yelled, startling everyone.
"What?" I answered.
"Listen to the song!" I sat quiet for a few minutes, trying to recognize the song. When I finally did, Dani began to sing. I soon joined her.
"I can see me lovin nobody but you for all my liiiiifffeeee! When you're with me baby the skys'll be blue for all my liiiiffffeeee...me and you, and you and me. No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be. The only one for me is you, and you for me. So happy togetheeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...." we belted out.
AJ, Brian, Emily, Nick, Amy, Amanda, Howie, and Kevin all watched us, laughing as we sang our favorite song with each other, gesturing to the lyrics. A few songs later, "Uptown Girl" came on. Manda, Dani, and I cracked up and began to sing it, shouting out the
"Backstreet Guy" part. The fellas all busted up at us, never really actually thinking about that line. It had always been one of Kevin's favorite songs and he never really taken that line literally or made much out of it.
Half the time, the guys completely forgot that they were the Backstreet Boys. Towards the very beginning of their career, a little girl came up to Nick and asked him "Are you a Backstreet Boy?" Their fame hadn't really clicked with them quite yet, so Nick said,
"Uh no. I'm Nick Carter." This of course sent the little girl running to her parents crying, making Nicky feel awful, so he went up and autographed something for her and took a picture with her, to make up for his accidental rudeness. Of course, he was only 14 and he and I had been shopping with his parents, not being bothered by anyone. So a sudden change in such normal life startled the two of us, because of our young ages, and he didn't know how to handle a situation he wasn't used to.
"Anyone wanna go swimming?" Brian suddenly asked, waking all of us up from the trance we were in.
"Uh no. Actually, I gotta get home, wanna take me home, Nick?" Amy asked, sternly. I could tell she was going to go back and have a talk with him about Lisa. My watch read 7:54.
"Ah. I better get going to. I have to go to the store and buy some dog food before the night is out," I announced. Emily, Dani, and Amanda still wanted to stay, so AJ took me and D and Oreo Thingy home and then I set out for the grocery store while Howie stayed home with the dogs, watching to make sure they didn't kill each other.
When I got back from the store with a 50 pound bag of dogfood, which Howie D had to come out and help me carry in, and fed Oreo, we sat down to talk. I laid out an old blanket for Oreo to sleep on, which she immediately curled up on. Chachi jumped up and sat on my lap after I made myself comfortable on the couch, facing Howie.
"Okay. So, did you know that Amanda and Danielle were coming on the tour with us?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Actually, I don't think anyone did. Kevin probably just thought of it when he announced that they were coming," Howie told me. "I think it will be fun, though. I mean, those girls are really sweet and fun. They fit well with the rest of us."
"Yeah I know. I'm so glad things are definitely looking up for Brian and Amanda. They looked a lot happier together today. They're so meant for each other. The same with Dani and Kevin. Those two are so much alike it's almost sickening!" I cried. Howie laughed.
"Yes. Sometimes, the similarities between you and AJ crack me up. The two of you act the same, like the same things, even talk the same sometimes. It's no wonder you're such good friends," D sighed.
"Well look. You two are really close so I guess you just got to be good friends with him because you grew up with me hanging on your every word, action, whatever," I joked.
"Having a guy who acts like me is probably the best thing that could happen to you!"
"Ha! Well, I wouldn't bet on that. Some pretty good things have far surpassed that," D smiled at me. I knew exactly what he meant. I reached over and gave him a kiss. We sat there, saying nothing for a few minutes. Things had definitely changed since we had become a couple, but yet they hadn't. It was
8:30 and I was so tired. Howie turned on the music and I went and got some Country Time lemonade for the both of us. Then, we just sat there, me leaning against him with my head on his chest and his arm wrapped around me, Chachi on my lap, and quietly and slowly fell asleep on each other.