Brian and Sabrina were slowly walking down the empty beach. Hand in hand, they silently enjoyed the last minutes of sunlight over a purple sky. The waves died under their bare feet as the ocean sounds added warmth to the atmosphere. They were together, they were happy. Until Brian saw someone running toward them, screaming insults. He knew it was Nick. They stopped walking, but didn’t run away.
Nick ran until he was fifty feet from them. He starred blankly at who used to be his best friend and the girl he loved. Suddenly, he pulled a 9mm from his pocket and aimed at Brian’s heart. He loved the expression he saw on Brian’s face when he pulled the trigger.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Brian opened his eyes. It took him a few seconds to realized that his nightmare was over.
BANG! Someone was knocking on the door. He quickly got up and when he opened the door, Nick was standing in front of him. A second later Nick punched him on the nose and Brian fell on the floor.
“What’s wrong with you?” Then he saw the newspaper in Nick’s hand and he knew that this would be the worst day of his life since Alishia died.
Nick was looking at him and his eyes were shining with tears. There was something in his throat that made it impossible for him to talk. He was angry at Brian, but at the same time he felt so sad and alone. When he opened his door that morning and he saw Brian holding Sabrina in his arms kissing her on the front page of the paper, he felt like his heart had just broke into a thousand pieces. He felt he’d never be able to put them back together. He finally managed to say a single word, “Why?”
Brian sat on the floor. He had never been so ashamed in his life. “You have to believe me when I tell you that I didn’t wanted to hurt you. I would never do that on purpose Nick. You’re my best friend.”
“Don’t give me that crap Brian! She’s my girlfriend. We’ve been together for almost two years. And you were my best friend! How could you do something like that?”
“It just happened. I didn’t plan it. She’s always around, always there for me and Ryan and Delilah. She cares in a way that no one ever will again. Only Ali cared like that.”
“Not only are you stealing your best friend’s girlfriend, but you’re also having an affair with your dead wife’s best friend! That is just so pathetic!”
“Ali isn’t an issue anymore. She would have wanted me to be happy with someone I loved and who loved me and the kids just as much. I think she would even be glad that this person is Sabrina.”
“Sabrina doesn’t love you! She cares for the kids alright, but only ‘cause they’re Ali’s kids. It has nothing to do about you. She still loves me!” It was too much emotions for him. He sat on the bed and started to cry incontrollably. He obviously still loved Sabrina and he couldn’t believe Brian’s treason.
Brian knew that his friendship with Nick had few changes of surviving this. He was taking all the responsabilities for it. He still wanted to try to save whatever he could of that special relationship they had. He sat beside Nick on the bed and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
Nick was quick to push Brian away. He wiped the tears off his cheecks, standed in front of Brian and told him: “I don’t ever want you to speak to me again. Starting this very instant, I don’t want you to come near me or call me for whatever reasons. I’m not giving up on the Backstreet Boys. I worked too hard to let someone like you ruin all my efforts. I’m not expecting you to quit either. Just stay as far away as you can from me and I’ll be OK. That’s the last time I’m ever going to say a word to you.” He started to walk away from Brian. When he was about to close the door behind him, he said one last thing to Brian. “All of this goes for Sabrina too. Please tell her I loved her.”He closed the door.
* * * * *
Ring, ring, ring. “Hello?”
He smiled as he recognized Sabrina’s voice. “Sab, it’s Brian. How are you?”
“I’m fine but exhausted. When I got here yesterday at around 1pm, Joshua was at the airport to pick me up and we went directly to the studios. We finished filming at around 4 this morning so I haven’t slept much..”
“Joshua Jackson?”
“Yeah. He’s my co-star, remember?”
“He’s your co-star, not your personal driver. Why did he pick you up?”
Sabrina smiled. “Are you jealous Brian?” She liked the idea. It showed he cared.
“Maybe a little bit. I would have liked to pick you up myself.”
“You’re the one who drove me to the airport Brian. You can’t pick me up too.”
“OK, OK, I’m glad you have a co-star who’s so devoted to you. Anyways, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“I know. I saw the papers. It’s all over the place here.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“What do you want me to say? I’m sorry? I regret kissing you? Well, I don’t. It just felt right. But I am sorry I hurt Nick. I should have told him before he read the papers. It’s been going all wrong for awhile between us. I just don’t love him anymore.”
“Can I ask you a direct question?”
“I guess...”
“Do you have feelings for me? Do you love me Sab?”
“.....I love you Brian.” she said after a quick pause.
“Are you sure? Because if you don’t love me it’s not worth going through all this. We’re all going to be hurt: you, me and Nick.”
“I’m sure about my feelings. What about you? Do you love me?”
“I have for a while now Sab. If we really want to be together, we have to realize that it’s not going to be easy. Not everyone will understand.”
“I know. But I want to be with you Brian. That’s crystal clear in my head and in my heart. But I want to talk to Nick before making it official between us. I want him to know that you didn’t took me away from him, that I left. I had decided that it was over during my second week in Spain. You had nothing to do with that decision.”
“Thanks. Maybe it’ll be easier for him if he knows that I didn’t influence your decision. I miss you Sabrina. Can’t wait to be with you again.”
“I’ll see you in a week Brian. We’ll have a lot of things to talk about. Call me if you have some time.”
“I will. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Life wasn’t going to be easy for them for awhile. But they knew that as long as they were together, they would be happy. And no one could ever change that.
* * * * *
The next morning, the Backstreet Boys had a meeting with their tour director. They had been getting an increadible response in Asia. Everything had been going very well and every single concert had been sold out. They would be going home in three days and there wasn’t any immediate plans for them. Once the director left, Kevin asked them to stay to talk about what they wanted to do in the next month.
“I would suggest recording our fourth album. Millennium has been out for too long now and fans are getting impatient. If we start now it may take us a month or two to record, and then another two months for techniciens to put everything together and for publicity. What do you think?”
“Switzealand sounds nice to me!” Nick said. “Anywhere but home.”
“Why?” Kevin asked him.
“Oh, it’s an inside joke between Brian and I.”
Brian looked at Nick. He hadn’t told the others about what was going on but he sure was going to make him feel guilty for a long time. “I want to have some vacations. I was thinking about going to Canada for a few weeks. I’ll go see Ali’s family with the kids and maybe Sab’s as well.”
“That’s nice Brian, but what about the album. It really needs to be done,” Howie said.
“Yeah Brian, why don’t you stop behind so selfish and lazy and start thinking about the group for once?”
“Nick, just shut up! I don’t want to take the kids to Switzealand now. They need to be home for some time.”
“You just said you wanted to go to Canada. Is that your new home? It doesn’t seem far enough for me.”
“OK, that’s enough! What’s going on you two? It’s way more than inside jokes.” Kevin was getting upset. “This meeting is important. Can’t your little vacations wait a bit Brian? Like after we finish recording the album?”
“No. I need a break. Even if it’s only a week.”
“I think a week is reasonable. Is it OK with everyone?”
“I’d use a week of vacation easily.” AJ said.
“It’s fine with me.” Howie said
“Whatever.” Nick said.
“Brian, Nick, I hope this isn’t going to be a problem.”
“It’s not for me.” Brian said.
“Of course it’s not Brian. You’re the one who stole my girlfriend. You’re not heart broken. Your best friend didn’t took away from you the woman you love. You’re not the one who will have to move out of your house.” There was so much anger in his voice that it was scaring Brian.
Kevin looked at Brian. “What the hell did you do to him?”
“I kissed Sabrina at the airport on Sunday and there was a picture in the newspaper yesterday.”
That was too much for Nick. He ran out of the room. Nobody said a word for a couple of minutes. They were all thinking about what this meant.
A.J. was the first one to speak. “How can you do something like that to your best friend?”
A.J.’s question showed that he was going to be on Nick’s side all the way. “We have feelings for each other. It’s as simple as that. We want to be together.”
It was Howie’s turn to comment. “I read it in the newspaper yesterday. I didn’t wanted to ask about it because I thought it was impossible, despite the picture. I really thought there was a good explanation for it.”
Kevin only shook his head in disbelief. “I think the meeting is over. There’s only two concerts left. After that, you’re all free for a week.” A.J. and Howie left, only too happy to leave the room.
Brian and Kevin were sitting face to face, waiting for the other to say something. Finally, Kevin broke the silence. “I wish I could tell you that I’m truely happy you found someone Brian.”
“I’m sorry you can’t be glad that I’m finally happy.”
“I am, but now Nick isn’t. You robbed him of his happiness so that you’d be happy.”
“You’re not being fair Kevin. Sabrina doesn’t love Nick anymore. She hasn’t for a long time. I fell in love with her a while ago. She’s just perfect for me: she’s intelligent, talented, devoted, beautiful, increadibly good with the children. It’s not something I’m taking lightly. It’s not just a flirt or a crush. I want to marry her one day.”
“What about Nick? Did you think about him at all? Do you have any idea how much he loved Sabrina?”
“The last thing I wanted to do was hurt him and loose our friendship. But the fact is, Sab doesn’t love him. She would have left him anyways. It wasn’t planned between us. It just happened two days ago; we told each other how we felt. We had a bad luck with a reporter. We didn’t wanted him to learn it that way. But I didn’t stole her from him. She was going to tell him once we got back to the States. It’s not even official between us.”
“Not yet.”
“You’re right, not yet. I didn’t expect you guys to understand right away. One day, you’ll see me and Sabrina, married, with more children, totally happy. Also, Nick with another fantastic girl who will love him like he deserves to be loved. Then, maybe you’ll understand that it was the right thing to do.”
“Until that day, I just hope he won’t suffer too much. He doesn’t deserve that.” Kevin was concerned for Nick more than he wanted to tell Brian. After all, if Brian was happy, good for him. But he would definitely watch over Nick.
*It Never Ends* Chapter Index
Chapter 4
Chapter 6