“Ugh!! I can’t think. I hate this! School never used to be this difficult.” Brianna was complaining.

“Then put it aside for a while sweetheart. You don’t need to worry about all that right now do you?” Mitchell was asking. They both were on the floor in the living room of his house. He was propped up against the couch and she was sprawled out on the floor with her feet in Mitchell’s lap. Since the rape she had spent almost every waking, non-school moment with Mitchell, and usually at his house. And almost every moment she was with him he kept her in a drug-induced state of euphoria. “Come on, let’s go do something.”

“I can’t. I need to get this assignment done. Maybe I should go to the library?”

“No. No don’t leave. Here, let’s get on the computer. I bet we can find what you need on the internet.”

“I guess. I just really need a good grade on this assignment or else I might fail the course.”

Mitchell pulled Brianna to her feet. “You go get on the computer and I’ll go fix us something to drink. How does that sound?”

“Great.”

Brianna went into the study to do some research over the internet. It had been three weeks since the incident with Eric and neither she nor Mitchell had seen him at all; which was just fine by Brianna. She was too scared to sleep at home alone. And most nights, by the time nighttime came, she was too wasted to make it home safely anyway. She just wanted to erase that entire night from her memory. But even in her drunk and drugged induced sleep, many nights she still relived each and every painful moment. Her inebriated stated, rather than blocking out the memory, only seemed to make it more vivid and keep her trapped in a foggy world of nightmares.

Just as Mitchell walked into the study with their drinks Brianna’s cell phone rang. Looking at the caller ID she got butterflies in her stomach. “Hello.” She answered sounding more reassured than she actually felt.

“Bree? Brianna is that you?” It was Nick.

“Nick? Yeah it’s me. Where are you? You sound fuzzy.” She looked up at Mitchell and smiled a weak smile. Even knowing he didn’t mind her friendship with Nick, still after all the hassles with John it felt strange for her. Mitchell smiled back, set her drink next to her, kissed the top of her head, and left her alone to talk with her friend.

“Yeah, we must not have a good connection. We are on the road and I was just talking with AC and had a bad connection with him too. Must be the area we are in.” She laughed at him. It was good to hear his voice. “Anyway, how are you? Where have you been? What have you been up to?”

“What is this? 20 questions?” She teased him.

“No silly. I just haven’t been able to reach you lately. Either I get your answering machine or we are out of the cell service area. What’s up?”

“Well, you know, just the same old same old. School, studying, life, you know.” At one time she had wanted to tell him what had happened, but now, now she just wanted to forget it completely. And to tell him would mean to bring it all up again and make it fresh in mind, not that it had ever really gone away.

“I know. Things have been crazy here. You know the end of the tour changed don’t you?” He could hear the line breaking up and he kept praying the connection would hold for just a bit longer. It had been too long since he had talked with her. He missed her so much. Kevin kept telling him he needed to talk with her, but Nick told him right back that the talk they needed to have was not something to be done over the phone.

“Yeah, last time we talked you had mentioned something about it then, but at that time nothing was set in stone. So what is the plan now?” Her stomach was doing flip-flops. She knew what she wanted him to ask and knew what she would say if he did. What she was nervous about was what if he didn’t.

“We are doing two benefit concerts; one in New York and one in DC. So, we aren’t going back to California. Instead the show is ending in two days in Vegas, on the 19th.”

“Wow! This tour didn’t turn out anything like you all had planned. But then, do they really ever?” She was laughing. Sometimes when things didn’t go as planned all you could do was laugh.

“What? What was that? Dammit! I hate traveling out here; I can’t talk on the phone. You still there?” There was a lot of static and Nick thought the connection had failed. “Shit! Dammit! Mother F….”

“Nick! Nick, I’m still here. There is just a lot of interference on the line. You wanna try calling back in a while?” Brianna could just picture him in her mind cussing the phone up one side and down the other while stomping around the relatively small confines of his bus. More than once in the past he had been known to throw his phone and break it out of frustration. She just hoped this wasn’t going to be one of those times.

“Yeah? I mean No. I mean, shit, you are still there?”

“Yes, you big dork I’m still here.”

“Cool.” She could faintly hear him take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No I don’t want to call back later. I don’t know how long I’m gonna have service and I don’t want to risk not catching you again. Listen, I wanted to talk to you.”

“So talk.”

“No, no, not like this. Listen can you come to the show in Vegas, the last show?”

“What’s that? You want me to come to see you where?” The last part of his statement was cut off into static again.

“Come see me in Vegas. You know Las Vegas, Nevada?” He was practically yelling, as if that would do any good.

“I know where Las Vegas is silly. I just didn’t hear you the first time.” She wanted to jump up and down. He had asked her to come back out to see him. After all their problems he still wanted to see her. But then the thought hit her, did she want to see him? After everything that had happened did she really want to risk seeing him? Could she handle being around him? What about Mitch? The two of them had been inseparable. Would he be okay with her flying across the country to spend a few days with Nick? Here she was again in this dilemma, what to do about these two men? One of which she knew beyond a doubt she loved and the other she knew beyond a doubt wanted her around no matter what. Two Princes? Which to choose. Did she even have to choose? Was there any hope for one of them?

“Bree? Bree? Hello? Dammit not again!” Nick’s voice brought her back to the current moment.

“I’m here. I’m still here.”

“I know we have things to talk about and work out, that is why I’d really like you to come out and see the show. The last night and all things are going to be fun. I know it is short notice and all, but I was just kinda hoping that, well maybe you could come?”

“I just have a big assignment due tomorrow is the only thing. But after that class I don’t have anything important for a while.” Well not extremely important. She could blow off a few classes, again. In her mind she was already so hopelessly behind that a few more days wasn’t going to make any huge difference. She was running down the time frame in her mind.

Call the airport and reserve a ticket.

Finish my class work tonight.

Go to my first class tomorrow and turn it in.

Go home and quickly pack.

Rush to the airport.

Probably have a long lay over due to late purchase of the ticket.

Make it to Las Vegas sometime tomorrow night.

Be there in time to be with Nick and see the show.

Yes, it was feasible. “I think I can do that. If I can get a flight I can be in Vegas by tomorrow night. Nick? Nick?”

Somewhere on a bus, on a remote highway, in the middle of the US was a Backstreet Boy stomping from one end of his tour bus to the other. The last thing he heard before the line went dead was ‘I just have a big assignment due tomorrow is the only thing. But after that I don’t have anything important…’ That was all he heard. He had tried to call her back but the little phone symbol in the corner of the LCD display had a line through it.

“Fucking great! No service.” Sitting down on the big couch all he could do was sigh, run his fingers back through is hair, and hope that she would indeed be in Vegas when he got there. After all it did sound like she said she could make it. And thinking back he couldn’t really remember a time that Bree didn’t come when he needed her. And he really needed her. He missed her and needed to work things out with her one way or the other. This in-between status of their relationship was about to drive him insane.

Brianna looked up from staring at the blinking ‘Call Ended’ on her cell phone to see Mitchell standing in the doorway. He was leaning against the frame with his arms crossed. “You’re going to see him, aren’t you?” When she smiled and nodded her head yes Mitchell just turned and walked out of the room.

“Great!” She mumbled under her breath and rushed off to talk with him.

<~ Chapter 85 or Chapter 87 ~>

In the End

Karina 2003