After spending a week with Brian in Lexington, I catch a plane back to Tampa. I spend the rest of the time off just basically chilling out, writing, hanging out with Ali and talking to AJ on the phone. He is doing so much better. He has been sober since that night in Boston and we are all so proud of him. The other Backstreet Boys all flew out to spend a week with him in LA when he was on day rehab. They attended counselling sessions and talked out a lot of issues and figured out how best they can support him when the tour starts up again. The tour starts up again tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to being with everyone again. But I know that in a week’s time I will be fed up already. But hey, that’s life.
I spent most of my time off from the tour taking photos for Rolling Stone. I’m hoping I might get a permanent job with them cos they seem to like my work. I’ve worked with a lost of bands now and my favourite has to be Nsync cos I totally messed with them. They are SO easy to wind up. I had Justin believing it was a totally nude shoot for like an hour and he was practically hyperventilating. Plus, seeing JC again was worth it. He had pretended not to recognise me and I had dropped all kind of dirty hints about him liking to wear suspenders in bed and shit like that. It had been real funny. Nick has been hanging out with Aaron and his sister Leslie. He went on Aaron’s tour and got pissed when I wouldn’t join him. I mean, have you SEEN those two together?! No way on earth was I gonna submit myself to that without getting paid. He’s gotten over it now anyway. Now he’s just pissed about the tour starting up again. The boy got too used to doing his own thing. He kinda forgot he’s halfway through a tour. He must have forgotten at least HALF the dance routines already. Apparently when he had met up with the other guys and AJ in LA, they had gone through a routine and Nick had tripped Howie three times by going the wrong way. Poor Howie, I certainly wouldn’t choose to dance by Nick. Anyway, the tour starts up again tomorrow.
“TOUR TIME!” Nick yells, bounding off the bus and into the arena at Minnesota. The rest of us follow him a lot less enthusiastically. I suspect Nick’s enthusiasm is more for the games room than anything else – he broke his XBox on day three. Nick disappears down the corridor and a few seconds later we hear him yell and then a clatter. Kevin and I race round the corner to find Nick pinning AJ against the wall in a bear hug. We look at each other and roll our eyes as the others catch us up.
“Ok, ok Nicky!” AJ laughs and manages to extract himself from Nick. “Hey guys,” he greets us all. “I guess I beat you here.”
“AJ!” we all yell and launch ourselves on him in a bug group hug.
“Air!” he yells and we let go. “I guess you missed me huh?” he deadpans.
“Hell yeah!” I tell him giving him a hug. “I missed my cousin.”
“Me too!” Jade gives him a long hug. “It just wasn’t the same hitting the malls without you.”
“Not even with Britney?” AJ asks and Jade laughs.
“She didn’t even come close babes.”
“Good to know,” he grins and wraps an arm around her and me. “So, you guys wanna get a coffee with me?”
“Sure,” we both nod.
“Hey, what about us?!” Howie asks and AJ grins.
“I would ask but there’s a reporter waiting through there for ya. See, I already did mine!”
“Ugh,” Nick pulls a face.
“So, me and my harem will be sipping coffee in catering,” AJ says and we walk away.
“Harem?!” laughs Jade. “Wow, you’re back to normal.”
“Of course. I’m sober but I’m still me,” he grins.
“Good,” Jade smiles.
“I’ll second that,” I grin.
“So, was rehab good?” I ask AJ over our coffees.
“Yeah, it really was,” he nods. “I always thought it’d be full of do-gooders and all that shit but it wasn’t. They were pretty tough but I needed that.”
“Did you give up alcohol like straight away?” Ali asks and AJ nods.
“Uh huh. I haven’t had anything even REMOTELY alcoholic since that night in Boston. I mean, sure I still want it but I just gotta take it one day at a time y’know?”
“Yeah,” we both nod.
“AND…” he says dramatically. “I met somebody.”
“You did?!” Ali squeals. “In rehab?!”
“Hey, lower the voice honey,” AJ groans. “No, in LA. She wasn’t in rehab. I met her before actually, in a karaoke bar.”
“Oh, I remember you talkin’ about her,” Ali says. “You lost her number right?”
“Yup. Well, I saw her in KMart and I went right over to say hi. And we went on a date and…”
“You guys are dating now?!” I ask and he grins happily. “Wow!”
“Yeah! Her name is Sarah and she sings too. Nothin’ professional yet but she’ll get there,” he says proudly.
“When are we gonna meet her?”
“Next week. She’s gonna join the tour for a while.”
“Cool,” I grin. “I can’t wait.”
“Hey baby,” I settle myself on Nick’s lap and wrap my arms around his neck for a kiss. “How you doin’?”
“I’m good,” he smiles and kisses the tip of my nose. “You? Not bored already?”
“No, I’m fine,” I tell him. The tour has been back on for almost two week now and I’m back into taking photos, developing them on the road and having them okayed by the guys before handing them onto Jade to put captions too. It’s a routine that keeps me pretty busy. I think Jade might be getting a little bored of writing about the same topic day after day.
“Guys,” AJ walks into the room, a pretty brunette follows him nervously. “I want you to meet Sarah. She just got in.”
“Hi Sarah,” I stand up and shake her hand. “I’m Alicia, AJ’s cousin. But call me Ali please.”
“Good to meet you Ali,” she smiles.
“I’m Nick,” he shakes her hand as well. “AJ’s told us a lot about you already.”
“He has?” Sarah blushes slightly and AJ wraps an arm around her.
“All good,” he murmurs in her ear.
“It had better be,” she giggles.
“C’mon, I’d like you to meet my other friends,” AJ tells her and then looks at us. “See you later.”
“Yeah,” Nick sits back down and pulls me back onto his lap. We watch the new couple walk out of the door.
“What’d you think?” I ask and he shrugs.
“Seemed nice.”
“Yeah. Real pretty too,” I comment.
“Yeah, she was,” he grins and I dig him in the stomach with my elbow. “OW! Hey, you said it first!”
“Yeah but you’re supposed to be non-committal!”
“Sorry,” he rolls his eyes. “I just can’t get used to you women and your so-called questions.”
“It’s easy. You agree with everything I say UNLESS I say somebody else is pretty,” I tell him and he nods. “Got it?”
“Yup.”
“Good,” I giggle and kiss him.
“Brian!” I giggle as he pushes me back down onto a row of seats about halfway back from the stage.
“What?” he murmurs, kissing down my neck to my collarbone.
“I’m writing,” I tell him half-heartedly, loving the feel of his lips on my skin. “Mm,” I rub my hands over his back as he lifts his head up to kiss me. “And you shouldn’t start anything you can’t finish.”
“Who says I can’t?” he asks with a grin.
“Uh, maybe because there’s people around?” I giggle and he kisses my shoulder.
“You could be quiet,” he laughs.
“I could, I guess,” I agree as his hands travel down my body to rest on my hips.
“Uh guys…” comes a voice from above us and I look up to see AJ and a girl staring down at us. Brian is still covering my collarbone with kisses.
“Brian,” I murmur but he doesn’t hear. “BRIAN!” I say loudly and push him slightly. He falls off me and takes me with him. We land on the floor with a bump and AJ peers over at us, stifling his laughter.
“OW!” Brian complains, rubbing his elbow.
“Sorry to interrupt,” grins AJ.
“You’re not sorry at all,” I mutter, scrambling off of Brian and standing up. I give him my hand and he stands up as well, brushing himself down and glaring at AJ.
“Sorry,” AJ chuckles and then turns to the girl standing next to him. “These two are Brian and Jade and they REALLY need to get a room,” he adds looking back at us. “This is Sarah.”
“Hi Sarah,” Brian shakes her hand with a smile. “It’s good to meet you.”
“Hi,” I shake her hand as well and smile brightly. “Welcome to the lunatics’ tour.”
“Thanks Jade,” she giggles. “I’ve heard a lot about you, ALL of you.”
“And you still came?!” I gasp.
“I’m a sucker for punishment,” she says dryly and I giggle. I like her already.
“You would have to be, dating this guy,” Brian grins.
“Hey!” AJ looks affronted and then laughs. “Brian is WAY worse. Just ask Jade.”
“He IS pretty hard to keep up with,” I deadpan and Sarah grins.
“He sure looked it a few minutes back,” she says, making Brian blush.
“Aw,” I put my arm around him. “You made him blush…”
“Which isn’t hard,” AJ adds.
“See?! They all gang up on me!” Brian exclaims and Sarah giggles.
“He just makes it so easy,” AJ grins. “C’mon, let’s go find Howie. He’s dying to meet you.”
“Ok,” she nods. “Bye guys. It was good meeting you.”
“You too,” Brian grins.
“We’ll do something together,” I say, “when the guys have interviews.”
“I would like that,” she smiles and heads off with AJ.
“I liked her,” I tell Brian as we watch them go.
“Me too. And it’s about time AJ got himself a girl.”
“Totally,” I agree.
“So,” Brian pulls me closer to him. “Where were we?”
“In the process of finding a room,” I giggle.