“I love this. It’s January and there is no snow. I’m going to hate going back to school next week.” I said.
It was three weeks into the break I had before the start of the new semester. The Backstreet Boys would be going on tour again in February but us girls needed to go back to school. These past few weeks Nick and I spent our days around Tampa and Orlando, shopping, going to the beach, and since I had never been to DisneyWorld Nick took me there.
“Too bad you can’t spend your birthday and my birthday in the sun.” Nick said.
“Yea, I know. Speaking of that, what do you want for your birthday.” I asked.
“You baby, only you.” Nick said with a laugh.
“Nick I have to get you something.” I said.
“You’ll think of something.” Nick said back.
Little did Nick know I already had something up my sleeve. Back in October Nick had given me a promise ring in the shape of a dolphin. For his birthday I was going to give him a simple gold band as my promise to him. I would have to give it to him early because I was leaving a week before my birthday and two weeks before his.
We had been sitting out on Nick’s deck for few hours just laying in the sun. All of a sudden the door bell rang.
“Who is that?” Nick asked getting up.
“I have no idea.” I said shrugging my shoulders.
We both got up and went to the door. Nick opened it and there stood Mandy, Brian, Molly, AJ, Ashley, Kevin, Howie, and Howie’s girlfriend Allie.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” they all yelled.
“What in the world are you guys doing here?” Nick asked.
“Well, we wouldn’t be able to celebrate your guys’ birthdays any later than this. So we decided to surprise you. Are you surprised?” Brian said.
“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Thanks guys.” I said.
“Yea, thanks guys.” Nick added, “now come on in and let’s have a party.”
Everybody filed into the house and there were hugs and kisses all around. We decided to go out to eat. Nick and I never had that much food in the house other than Nick’s “Cookie Crisp” cereal. We all decided on a local Italian restaurant. It was small and out of the way.
We got seated right away and began to tell stories of our vacations.
“So what have you guys been doing?” I said to Mandy and Brian.
“Well, we’ve done the DisneyWorld and Epcot thing. Also, plenty of drives down the coast. We went to Kentucky to see Brian’s family, then Brian came with me to Minnesota to meet my family for the holidays.” Mandy said, “What about you guys, Molly and AJ?”
“Well, we spend a lot of times going out to clubs and stuff. Molly helped with the Johnny concert.” AJ said
“Yea, that was so fun. It was weird seeing AJ up on stage, but it wasn’t AJ.” Molly said.
“I heard that the concert went well. Is there any chance for a solo tour?” Howie asked.
“I’ve been working on something. But don’t worry D. I’ll make sure I discuss it with you guys first. All things Backstreet is my top priority.” AJ said.
“Thanks man, we appreciate that.” Kevin said.
“You guys are my brothers and sisters. I wouldn’t leave you out.” AJ said back.
“So Kev, what have you been up to?” Nick asked.
“Well actually Ashley and I have been traveling around the country and doing the sightseeing thing. We just got back to Florida the other day.”
"Really, you and Ashley huh? What’s up with that?” I asked.
Ashley looked at Kevin and she nodded. “Ashley and I are together. I’ve also asked her to marry me.” Kevin stated.
“WHAT?” about five people said at once. The others were speechless.
“Don’t look so surprised guys. Aren’t you guys happy for us?” Ashley asked.
“Of course we are happy for you guys. I don’t know about anybody else but I didn’t think that there was anything like that between you guys.” Molly said.
“We didn’t think that there was anything either but we spend sometime alone together and realized how much we really loved each other.” Kevin said.
“So where’s the ring girl?” Mandy asked. “It’s being sized. We picked one out when we were in California. They are sending it to us. It’s a really beautiful ring though. Kevin actually picked it out.”
“How did you propose.” I asked Kevin
“We were at the jewelry store and I said that I wanted to get her that ring.”
“I asked why would you do that?” Ashley said.
“Then I said, ‘Because I want to marry you.’” Kevin said
“I didn’t understand what he meant at first. But then I got it, and of course I started crying the in store. But I said yes right away. I didn’t even need to think about it.” Ashley said with a huge smile.
Kevin and Ashley looked at each other with big smiles. I could tell that they were truly in love. I looked at Nick and he looked at me with that twinkle in he has in his eye before he says he loves me. Nick leaned in and kissed me on my cheek.
“Okay you two, what have you been doing?” Mandy asked Nick and I.
“We spent a lot of time at the beach.” I said.
“And we surprised Aaron on his tour in Canada. It was the best.” Nick said with a big smile.
“Yea, I saw that on that Entertainment Tonight show or whatever it is.” Brian said.
“Aaron was so cute. He started crying right on stage. I thought Nick was going to cry but he did good. I, however, was bawling the minute Aaron spotted Nick.” I said with a laugh., “I’m a big softy.”
“That’s okay, I’m sure that it was an emotional moment.” Molly said with a smile.
“Yea, it was pretty emotional, but it was also a great time.” Nick said
The rest of the meal we all talked about what we were going to do in the future and reminisced about things that happened on the tour. After we were done eating we made our way back to Nick’s house to party.
Chapter Sixteen
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