The guys were now at a photo shoot/interview with some music magazine and Alissa, Carolyn and I had tagged along.
"This is one of the parts of being a Backstreet Boy that I hate the most," Nick says as a makeup artist puts foundation and powder on his face.
"Sure, sure. Like you don't actually enjoy wearing makeup," I joke.
I look over at Carolyn as she flirts with the prop guy.
I rub Nick's shoulders. "I'll be right back," I smile. I walk over to Alissa, who's helping Howie pick out an outfit from a rack of clothing selected especially for him.
"Liss, can I talk to you?" I ask, shooting a look over at Carolyn. She looks over as Carolyn feels the prop guy's biscep.
"Oh oh," Alissa says as she follows me over to a corner away from everybody.
"What is she doing?" I ask, with a slight tone of over-reaction in my voice.
"Looks like she's flirting with the prop guy," Alissa says, stating the obvious.
"Well I can see that," I say. "But she's not supposed to be flirting with the prop guy, she's supposed to be flirting with A.J," I say, pointing in his direction.
He looks up at me and smiles. I wave just so that he won't think I'm ignoring him or something.
"Listen Ally, you seem kinda stressed out." She puts her hand on my shoulder. "Now, I know that things are going kinda crazy lately and I don't want to worry you any further, but I had a little chat with Carolyn yesterday." She looks at me worriedly.
"What'd you chat about?" I ask sadly, preparing myself for the worst.
"I was asking her about A.J, and she happened to mention that seeing him again has made her realize that she did miss him, but not in a boyfriend kinda way." She waits for my reaction.
"What do you mean not in a boyfriend way?" I ask, feeling my stomach turn.
"Well she said that being around him is all that she missed. You know, she missed having him as a friend."
"You mean she doesn't want to get back together with him?" I ask as tears well up in my eyes.
"No, sweety. I'm sorry," she says regretfully.
At that, I can't hold my tears in any longer. The whole A.J. situation had completely stressed me out and the thought that my plan of getting him and Carolyn back together would never work, just made everything worse.
"Oh, Ally." Alissa hugs me comfortingly. "Don't cry. Things will work out."
"What am I supposed to do, Alissa? I feel so helpless." I continue to cry as I speak. "A.J. and I were such good friends before all of this and now everything is so confusing."
Just then, Nick spots me crying from his makeup chair and rushes over. "What's going on?" he asks with concern, hugging me in Alissa's place. "What happened?" He rubs my back gently.
I try to stop crying but it's no use. All the emotions that had built up were finally coming out.
"I think she's just tired," Alissa explains, knowing that I have no excuse planned.
"You wanna go back to the hotel?" Nick asks, wiping a tear from my cheek.
"Yeah, I think that would be best," Alissa answers for me.
By now, both A.J. and Kevin had noticed me crying from where they'd been sitting.
"What happened?" A.J. asks, placing his hand on my arm.
"Yeah, what's going on?" Kevin asks, as he comes up behind A.J.
"She's just tired," Nick replies as he continues to hug me. "I'm gonna take her back to the hotel."
"No, Nick. You should stay and finish up here. I'll take her back," Alissa offers.
"I really think I should take her," Nick says, sounding pretty concerned.
I break away from the hug and wipe my eyes. "No, Nick. It's OK. Alissa will go with me," I say weakly.
"You sure?" he asks.
"Yeah."
"OK. I'll see you later." He kisses me softly. "I'll get back to the hotel as soon as I can, OK? You sure you're going to be alright?"
"Yeah. Don't worry." I hug him once again. "I'll see you later," I say as Alissa begins to usher me over to the elevator.
"Bye." He goes back over to the makeup chair and watches as Alissa and I get into the elevator.
"They must all think I'm insane," I say once we're inside and the doors have closed. "Crying because I'm tired?" I ask, with a slight laugh.
"That's all I could come up with that quickly," she laughs.
I look at her seriously. "Thank you," I say gratefully.
"No problem."
It was now around 6:30p.m. and the guys had returned from the photo shoot hours ago, but I had been taking a nap and was just now waking up.
"Hey," I say sleepily as I awake to see Nick laying beside me watching television.
"Hey sleepy head," he smiles and gentle brushes a piece of hair out of my face. "You feeling better?"
"Yeah," I reply, feeling kind of embarassed. "I'm really sorry about that."
"Don't be," he says sweetly.
"Did Carolyn stay for the whole photo shoot?" I ask, sitting up.
"Yeah, but she didn't come back with us. She went out to dinner with the prop guy, Mike," he explains.
"You're kinding?" I ask, not so thrilled to hear about her date.
"No. Why?" he asks.
"No reason," I lie.
It was now about 10:00 a.m. and no one had even heard from Carolyn since the end of the photoshoot. Alissa and I had been the early birds today and had already eaten breakfast. The guys were now all down in the restaurant having their's.
"Hello!" Carolyn says, cheerfully peaking her head into the hotel room where Alissa and I were now painting our nails.
"Where have you been all night?" Alissa asks with a smirk on her face.
"Well," she says, coming into the room and shuting the door. "Actually, I spent the night at Mike's place," she smiles.
"Mike? As in Mike the prop guy who you just met yesterday?" I ask rather bitchily.
"Yes," she answers simply, catching on to my bad mood.
"You slept with a guy that you haven't even known for 24 hours?"
"Oh like you've never had a one night stand!" she snaps back. "What's up with you anyway?"
"Oh, I don't know," I say with sarcasm and anger in my voice. "Maybe the fact that you said you 'missed A.J. and wanted him back' and now you're sleeping with prop guys."
"I did miss him. But once I saw him again, I realized that it was just as a friend," she replies angrily. "What's it to you anyway? You're acting like he's an old boyfriend that you're trying to pawn off on me. Is there something going on that I don't know about?" she looks at me accusingly.
"No Carolyn, there isn't," I lie. "But maybe I just don't appreciate having to hear what's going with you through Alissa!"
"I was going to tell you, it just hadn't come up."
"Fine. You know, I think I'll go finish my nails somewhere else," I say, getting up to leave.
"Don't bother," Carolyn says, giving me a dirty look as she leaves the room, slamming the door.
After a few minutes of silence, Alissa cuts in. "Don't you think you were a little hard on her?" she asks quietly. "I mean she has no idea what's going on with you and that you wanted her to get back with A.J. so badly."
I think it over and realize that she has a point. "You're right," I sigh.