Kevin finished up the introductions around the table and smiled. He had brought along one of Angie's assistants who he'd become really good friends with as his date for the night. Lara looked up at Kevin and grinned. "My grandmother is gonna freak when she sees me like this."
Howie had decided to take his sister Pollyanna, and Brian had called up a friend of his, Cara to accompany him to the banquet. All in all they basically knew each other but were all a little nervous at everything to really talk much.
"So did the rest of you get the evil eye like a zillion times out there" Sarah piped up, rolling her eyes.
"Uh-huh, Cara and I were given the finger about five times, which is beyond me cause we weren't even neat Brian or Kevin" Lara remarked."I think Polly was the only one left unscathed."
"Wanna make a bet?" Pollyanna laughed. "I'm his sister for crying out loud and some reporter asked me how long I'd been dating Howie for."
"Gross" AJ scowled.
"You're telling me" Howie retorted, cringing slightly.
"Okay guys let's not go there, dinner's coming soon" Brian laughed, noticing the room had settled down a bit and the waiter's were coming around. The banquet had been a relatively informal setting, with guests seated around the tables, being served dinner before the awards were given out.
"Oooh food" Nick smiled happily.
"Every man for himself! Nick eats anything that's not bolted down" AJ declared jokingly, before Nick glared at him. Everyone darted their eyes between the two and laughed.
"That's it! Next time you get wedged between the fans and the tour bus I'm leaving you there" Nick threatened.
"And next time you split your pants on stage I'm not gonna cover you up" AJ taunted back. He stuck his tongue out knowing he had Nick.
"And that ladies and gentlemen is the reason why we don't let these two out very often" Kevin intervened jokingly. "We better get on with dinner before they kill each other."
**************
"And the winner is...."
Natalie crossed her fingers, feeling tense for the boys. She watched them bow their head down and concentrate on the table. She turned to Nick who was beside her and patted his leg. "Goodluck" she mouthed.
Nick grinned at her. "Thanks Nat."
"Would you hurry it up" AJ snapped impatiently.
"The winner is or should I say are the Backstreet Boys!"
Natalie gave an excited shriek causing several people to turn to her and the guys curiously. Nick gotup, a huge grin on his face as he high-fived Sarah and smiled down at Natalie. AJ grinned at Natalie, who was giving the guys a thumbs up and clapping wildly. AJ bent down to Natalie's eye level. "Calm down Nat, we won, not you" he joked.
Natalie laughed. "I know I'm excited for you all." She continued to applaud as the group ascended the stage, receiving a congratulatory kiss from the model who was handing out the awards. She laughed as AJ gave the tall brunette a lingering look and only snapped to attention when Howie tugged at his jacket.
"Well what can we say..but thankyou. It's an honour to receive this award" Kevin said into the microphone, throwing his arm up into the air.
"We'd like to thank our management, our record company, our family and our friends" Howie chirped in with a grin.
"And most importantly, our fans" Brian smiled.
AJ decided to step in. "You guys rock" he yelled into the microphone. Nick smiled and moved AJ to have his go at the microphone. "Yeah!"
Natalie and everyone at the table burst into laughter. Pollyanna was giggling, before taking a sip of her water to calm herself down. "I must admit, Nick becomes more eloquent as he gets older."
"I am so ashamed of him right now" Sarah said jokingly. "The whole dictionary and all he can say is yeah."
"Well we wouldn't want him to strain himself now would we" Natalie remarked, causing everyone to start giggling again.
A ringing cell phone broke the laughter as everyone looked down to check if it was theirs. Natalie spotted Nick's cell phone and grabbed for it, trying to catch her breath before answering. "Hello?"
"Uhh is Nick there?"
"Nope he's with the media at moment, who's this?" Natalie inquired, trying to figure out who was on the other end. She thought it might've been Jane or BJ but she wasn't sure.
"Umm it's Cassie."
"Cassie?!" Natalie exclaimed.
Sarah snapped her attention to Natalie, pulling faces at her. "Cassie!" Sarah said through clenched teeth. "What the hell does she want?!"
Natalie shrugged her shoulders and focused her attention back to Nick's phone. "Did you wanna leave a message?"
Suddenly Nick appeared at her side grinning from ear to ear, clutching his award happily. He looked down at Natalie curiously, noticing she had his cell phone. "She's not making long distance phone calls is she?"
"No" Sarah said, raising her eyebrow. "On the contrary, she's talking to Cassie."
Nick's smile fell from his face. "Oh."
**************
Nick clicked his phone, ending the phone call with Cassie. She had basically seen him on TV and was calling to congratulate him and ask for a second chance at the same time. Nick had politely declined, before he made his way back into the ballroom. He spotted Natalie, smiling as he saw her dancing with AJ. He knew he only wanted one girl and he was looking straight at her.
**************
"You" Sarah said, grabbing Nick by the ear and dragging him to a remote corner to talk. The banquet had ended and Sarah had ventured out to find out what was going on with Cassie and Nick.
"Owww..ooh..ahh..Sarah..that hurts" Nick whined, before Sarah pushed him into a seat.
"Are you stupid?! I can't believe you and Cassie are together again" Sarah said in exasperation. "After we talked about Nat and everything."
"Whoa..calm down. Who said Cassie and I were back together again?" Nick said, holding his hands up in defence.
"Well she called, then you disappear for ages, what am I supposed to think?"
"That I meant what I said. I really like Nat, I was gone for so long cause I had to finally put everything with Cassie to rest" Nick explained, rolling his eyes at Sarah.
"Well brainiac, because of that, Nat is even more determined to forget you than ever" Sarah countered. "I was talking to her before, Rob already asked her to well..be more than what they are now and I don't think she knew what to do before but after that performance I think she's decided. She's gonna talk to him about it as soon as she gets home."
"Shit" Nick said, slumping down into his seat. "What do I do?"
Sarah glanced down at her watch. "You've got approximately until twelve to state your case. You better get your butt in there Nicky, before you completely lose her."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
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