The girl was waiting there with her mother and a little boy around the age of five. A bodyguard stood there with them.
"Hey," I said to her.
"Hi!" She squealed excitedly. I laughed and looked at the mother.
"Hi, I'm Alex." (Yep, that's me. Miss Formality).
"Hello," the mother said politely. "Are you the one that gave my daughter the backstage pass?" I nodded. "Thank you. She loves the Backstreet Boys and she's really excited about meeting them."
"Do you want to come, too?" I asked.
"I'd appreciate that," she said, nodding. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I don't really know you."
"Oh, that's understandable. My mother used to do that with me, too," I said. I looked at the little boy. "And what's your name?"
"Zachary," he said shyly.
"Hi, Zachary. My name's Alex," I said.
"Hi," he said. I tickled his chin and he giggled. I smiled and looked at Marissa, who was getting anxious.
"You ready?" I asked. She nodded excitedly. "C'mon, then." I let them by the gate and led them backstage. Donna followed, talking with the mother while Steve, the bodyguard, went ahead of us. I took Zachary from his mother (with her permission) and talked to Marissa.
"How old are you?" I asked her.
"Fourteen," she said quietly. I smiled.
"There's no reason to be shy," I said. "Just be happy."
"I'm just so nervous," she said, her hands shaking.
"You know, I only met them a few days ago," I told her. She looked at me in surprise and I nodded. "Yep. You have no idea how surprised I was. They're my favorite band, too."
"Really, cool," she said.
"So, who's your favorite?" I asked her as we neared the conference room.
"I like Brian," she said.
"Really? I like him, too," I said. She laughed softly. I turned to the little boy in my arms. "And who's your favorite?"
"You," he said, giggling hysterically. I laughed and Marissa rolled her eyes.
"He likes AJ," she said. "He loves to come in my room and stare at his earrings in this one picture I have on my wall." We walked to the door of the conference room, which was closed.
"You ready?" I asked. She nodded nervously. "Just remember, there five regular, weird, goofy guys. And I do mean goofy." I opened the door and went in, followed by Marissa, her mother, and Donna. Kevin looked over from a discussion he and Joanne were having, Rachel, Jamie, and Howie looked up from a game of cards they were playing, and AJ, Brian, Nick, and Maribeth stopped in action (they were having a pillow fight).
"Umm, guys, this is Marissa," I introduced her. I watched Brian, Nick, and AJ try to smooth out their hair and saw Marissa stifle a laugh.
"Hi," all the guys chorused. I lead her over to the couch next to Brian and she sat down. AJ sat on her other side and I placed Zachary in his arms.
"Watch out," I whispered to AJ. "He has an obsession with your earrings." He laughed and him and Maribeth started playing with Zachary. The other guys started talking to Marissa, who was quickly warming up to them. I joined Donna and Marissa's mother on the other side if the room. Brian looked at me and raised an eyebrow, motioning for me to come and sit on his lap. I shook my head and mouthed "You are her favorite." He nodded knowingly and started talking to Marissa again. After about an hour, their mother stood up and said it was time for them to leave. The guys signed her shirt and gave her quick hugs. AJ signed the little boys shirt and even gave him one of his earrings as a momento. I walked them out.
"Did you have fun?" I asked.
"That was a blast!" She said excitedly. She started reviewing for me everything they had talked about. I laughed and listened until we got outside. Zachary hugged me good-bye and so did Marissa, repeating thank you over and over. The mother thanked me and wished me luck in my singing career and I went back inside.
Instead of going back to the conference room, I went back to the arena. I sat on the edge of the stage and looked around. The room was so empty that you could hear the echo of my feet tapping against the stage. I laid back and stared up at the ceiling, not really thinking about anything. Then I heard footsteps.
"I was wondering where you were," Brian said, waking up the steps to the stage.
"Afraid I was kidnapped?" I asked, jokingly. He came up and sat down next to me, looking down at me while I lay there, still staring at the ceiling.
"What's wrong?" He asked. I just shrugged. "C'mon," he said softly, stoking my cheek with one hand, "you can tell me." I closed my eyes and a tear rolled slowly down my cheek.
"I don't know," I said. I got up silently and walked to another part of the stage. I don't know what I was avoiding, but I just had to move.
"Yes, you do," he said, following me. He put his hand on my arm and turned me around to face him. "Please," he said, his eyes pleading.
"I guess I'm just sorry my mother couldn't be here to see me," I whispered.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"She was a singer, too," I said. "She died when I was three."
"Oh my god," Brian said. He put his arms around me and pulled me close. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be," I said, turning around so my back was to him. he still held onto me.
"Well, what about your father?" Brian asked. "Won't he be there to see you sing?"
"He left when I was nine," I said. Brian was about to say something, but I stopped him. "Please don't give me any pity. If you want to know my life story, then here it is. After my mom died, my father went into a deep depression, burying himself in his work and taking his stress out on me. Abusing me. Only me. He ignored my three year younger sister, my identical twin, and my three year older brother. There were two more of us, though. You see, my sister and I were two out of four quadruplets. We all had the same looks, except for the fact that they had blond hair. Jessica, my twin, and I look exactly like our mother. The week or our ninth birthday, my dad took the other two and left. Not knowing what to do, I went and talked to Justin and his mother. She had been one of my mother's best friends and they were the only ones who knew about my situation at the time. Now, my brother and I weren't stupid. We knew that if we told anyone, we'd be split up. So, we provided for ourselves and had plenty of money because my mom had left everything she had made from her singing career, which was a lot, to my, him, Jessica, and my younger sister, Lindsay. When we needed rides to places, we got them either by the person we were going with or Justin's mom drove us if we got desperate. She helped out in any way she could, but we wouldn't let her do too much because it wasn't right to make her have to handle two families." I took a deep breath, and Brian tightened his grip around me from behind. "Well, that's basically my life story. I'm not gonna go into college and everything. It's not worth the agony."
"I'm so sorry," Brian breathed. I felt tears well up in my eyes, but quickly hid them. I broke away from him and wandered around the stage
"Don't be," I said, trying to stay calm. I had my back to him, yet I could feel him staring at me. "There's no point. I don't really care anymore." I think I was trying to convince myself more than him. I walked up the ramp, onto the still elevated center of the stage, and stood there. Suddenly, I just broke down. My knees gave way and I fell to the floor, burying my face in my hands. Brian rushed to my side and knelt down beside me. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close, just letting me cry.
"Shh," he murmured to me. "Everything's going to be okay. I'm here." He sat down and pulled me onto his lap, not letting me go for a second. I sobbed for what felt like hours, trying, but failing, to stop my tears.
"I'm sorry," I said as my tears began to subside.
"About what?" Brian asked, loosening his grip so he could look at me.
"I don't know why I broke down like that. I rarely do," I said, ashamed of myself.
"It's okay. There's nothing to apologize for," he said. I looked down at the floor and sniffed. He put his hand under my chin and lifted my face towards his so he could look me in the eye. He smiled softly at me and kissed me lightly. We sat there for a while, until we heard a voice behind us.
"My turn! My turn! I want a hug!" Nick ran up and practically tackled me and Brian, throwing his arms around us. I laughed and Brian pushed him off. Brian looked at me and smiled, letting me get up.
"Where have you guys been?" Kevin asked, coming out from backstage. "We've been worried."
"We've been here the whole time," I told him, watching everyone enter the room behind him.
"Don't tell me you've christened the stage," Joanne said, jokingly.
"No, we decided to leave that to Maribeth and AJ," I joked.
"You better have left that for us!" AJ said, wrapping his arms around Maribeth.
"As much as I'd love to, umm . . .No," Maribeth said, patting his head.
"Awe, man," AJ pouted.
"C'mon," Kevin said. "We'd better get going."
"Yeah," I agreed, looking at Brian's watch. "It's almost one in the morning." Kevin went and told Donna we were leaving and we met him outside. We got three cabs and went back to the marina. When we got back, we sat on the guys' boat. The guys went in to get drinks and us girls found seats. Maribeth and I climbed up to the fly bridge and sat on the long seat while Rachel, Jamie, and Joanne sat on the chairs on the back deck of the boat. Nick, Howie, and Kevin came outside and sat down with their girlfriends. Brian and AJ came outside and looked around confused. Nick laughed and pointed to the fly bridge. The two nodded and climbed up the ladder.
"What are you ladies doing up here?" AJ asked mischievously.
"We're having an orgy," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
"Seriously?" AJ said, his face lighting up.
"Oh yeah," Maribeth said, jumping on top of me. I screeched and pushed her off, the two of us laughing hysterically. I stood up for a second to fix my shirt and when I went to sit down again, Brian had taken my seat.
"And just what do you think you're doing sitting in my seat?" I asked.
"I'm not sitting in your seat. You're seat's right here," he said, pointing to his lap. I smiled at his vain attempt at yet another cheesy pick-up line and sat down on his lap (when you've got someone as gorgeous as him talking to you, you'd take advantage of the cheesy pick-up lines, too). He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and kissed my neck. I smiled and looked out onto the harbor, watching the cargo-ships in the distance.
"You guys have to leave tomorrow, don't you?" I asked, quietly.
"Yeah," Brian said, sadly.
"We'll see you at the Philadelphia concert, right?" AJ asked.
"Of course," Maribeth said, kissing him lightly on the lips. "Then we're continuing the tour with you. Are we performing or are we just coming along as guests?"
"You guys were too good tonight not to use you again," Brian said.
"What did you two do on the stage and what did AJ tell you about me?" Maribeth asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Not like that," I said, rolling my eyes.
"I know, I'm just trying to be hyper so I don't cry," she said, leaning her head on AJ's shoulder. He put his arm around her waist.
"There's no reason for crying," I said. "The week will have to pass by quickly. We have a meeting with Jessica on Monday to decide on outfits for the fashion show and we can 'steal' some things to bring on the road, on Tuesday, we have a gig at the Lighthouse, Wednesday we have tickets to the Flyers game and then they wanted some help backstage for when Jessica Simpson and everyone else gets there for the Celebrities on Ice show, Thursday we now have to find someplace for the dogs, but we can probably stick them with Jessica, and don't forget that on Friday, we have gift certificates to the spa that our parents gave us. Then the concert's on Saturday, and I think I can get us in early if I ask Adam's dad real nicely."
"We could also wait for you if you want," Brian said.
"You have to practice," I said.
"Who's singing at the Philly concert?" Maribeth asked.
"Besides us and EYC, I don't think anyone," AJ said. "Why? Do you want to?"
"Yes!" Jamie, Joanne, and Rachel chorused from down the letter.
"Don't you guys have anything better to do than listen to our conversation?" I asked.
"Nope!" Joanne said, giddily.
"Why are they so eager to perform?" AJ asked.
"There are a lot a people we knew from school that we know they're going to be there," I said. "We'd like to show them up."
"I guess they're not friends then, huh," Brian said. I shook my head. "I think you guys should perform. Donna won't mind. In fact, I think she'll love the idea. I'll go call her now."
"You're not moving," I told him. "I want you all to myself."
"This is gonna be a really long week," Brian said, brushing his lips against mine.
"I know," I said.