The song “Walking on Sunshine” had new meaning. It was like looking at the world through different eyes. Everything seemed nicer than it ever had before.
The next day, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I’d called Carmen last night liked she’d asked and once she’d finished saying, “I told you so!” she moved onto plotting the demise of Sandra Dwaine.
But even the likes of her couldn’t ruin my mood today. Brian took me out on Valentine’s Day, not her.
I’d already practiced for a few hours this morning and run through the sound checks and everything. I had a few more hours to eat lunch and rest up for the show tonight. I found Brian at the drink machine.
He smiled when he saw me. “Did I tell you about this beautiful girl I took out for Valentine’s Day last night?”
I laughed. “Well, I was going to see if you were free for a couple of hours, but if you’re seeing someone else then I guess I’ll have to hop on the Bandwagon of all the other fans and start trying to get Nick’s attention,” I teased.
Brian put his hand over his heart. “That was harsh, August. But I’ll fight Nick for you. We can have a dance off, and I actually know all of the Everybody routine!” He leaned his forehead against mine.
“Brian Thomas Littrell, look what we have here!” AJ smiled, peering at us overtop of his sunglasses. “And I thought I was the one who’s supposed to be the ladies’ man.”
“Well, Alexander James, you are not going to be this lady’s man,” Brian said. “I told her that I’d fight Nick for her, and I’m not scared of you either.”
“Anyone can take Nick. The boy sleeps in Power Ranger pajamas...”
“Hey! I’m right here! Why is everyone fighting me?” Nick came up confused.
“And he’d have that expression on his face the whole time you were fighting him. So taking him on won’t make you anymore of a man,” AJ finished.
“What the heck did I do?” Nick wondered.
“Rok is worried that we’re going to try to steal his girl away.”
“What girl?” Nick asked, looking around. He glanced at me and realization dawned on him.
“There it is,” Brian sighed. “If you’ll excuse me,” he slipped his hand into mind and we walked outside.
“You all are unbelievable,” I was still laughing.
“I know,” he said. “How’d sound check go this morning?”
“Pretty good, actually. They said I’ve improved a lot since I got here,” I said. “So thank-you.”
“For what?”
“If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be here. I’d be... well, I have no idea what I’d be doing, actually.”
“Glad I could help.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Good show,” I smiled as I got into Brian’s tour bus late that night for another long drive. I yawned.
“Oh, yeah, it was obviously invigorating!”
“I’m just not used to all of these long nights. It’s one o’clock in the morning!” I said, sitting down next to him.
“Everyone decent?” Nick stumbled up, his hands over his eyes.
“Very funny, Carter,” Brian threw a pillow at him and almost knocked him back out of the bus.
“Now I know why we call this the Black and Blue tour. We should’ve just come out and say the Pick on Nick tour!”
Howie came up, looking prepared for any other objects that could come his way.
“Relax, D, Nick took my only ammunition.”
“Poor kid,” Howie sighed and sat across from us.
“And all this kid stuff. I’m the same age as August and no one calls her kid! I protest!”
“Aww, the baby learned a new word,” I joked.
“Man, you’ve been spending too much time with Brian. He probably can’t even reach the kid stuff at Toys R Us!” Nick shot back.
I gave Brian a sympathetic pat on the back.
“At least I have someone to console me when you say something. You just have to settle for crying yourself to sleep at night.”
“Okay, okay,” Howie put up his hands. “I’d really like this not to be the last Backstreet Boy’s tour. Can we talk about something else?”
“Sandra’s CD comes out next month,” Nick said.
“Are you serious?” I couldn’t believe it.
“How did they put out a CD that fast? We didn’t even meet her until eight months ago. There’s no way.”
“I guess Jive wants to put her out there while she’s still riding high on all the media about not being our opening act anymore,” Howie suggested.
“It can’t be that good of a CD then if it was produced that quickly, right?” I asked.
“Won’t be anything unique, anyway. I think the lack of time and preparation will show,” Brian said.
“I don’t know. Her first single has been playing a lot,” Nick.
“Who’s side are you on?”
“I’m just stating a fact,” Nick said. “This is what I’m talking about. Everyone’s always jumping on my freaking back!”
“Sorry, Nick. It’s not you,” I said.
“This time,” Brian said matter-a-factly. Nick let it slide.
“So she was lazy. I’m not denying it. It’s probably better that August is our opening act instead...”
“Probably?” I asked.
“You know what I mean,” Nick shrugged, not answering my question. “She focused on Brian more than practice because he wasn’t interested in her. Can you blame her for that, August? You obviously like him.”
“But... I mean...” I just blushed, trying to think of something to say. It was true what he said. I just didn’t want to have anything in common with Sandra.
“All I’m saying is that doesn’t make her a bad person,” Nick reasoned.
“Yeah, Nick, I guess you’re right,” Howie said.
“What about what she said about August to the press?” Brian still wasn’t convinced.
Howie shrugged. “We never actually read what she said. We just know that August’s interviewer said she said that. We’ve been misquoted before.”
“So the person just randomly made that up?”
“No, of course not,” Howie said. “Maybe she said something similar. It must’ve really bruised her ego when we fired her.”
Brian and I both started to argue.
“Whatever,” Nick said. “It doesn’t really matter. I don’t want to spend the rest of the night talking about her! Brian, shouldn’t you be thinking more about your birthday?”
I froze. His birthday? When? Why hadn’t he mentioned anything?
Brian shrugged. “We’ve got a show that night. I’ve had plenty of birthdays and I’ll have plenty more.”
“You are getting old, Frick,” Nick laughed. “August, why are you wanting to date a senior citizen anyway?”
“Well, I felt sort of sorry for him,” I smiled. But I was still wondering what I was going to do for his birthday.
Brian shoved me lightly. “Guess I won’t invite you to play Bingo with me next week!” he laughed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“What am I supposed to get him? We’ve been on one date!” I groaned on the telephone the next day.
“Hmm,” Carmen started to think.
“Brian’s a Backstreet Boy! He can buy anything he wants. You don’t just give a Backstreet Boy a nice gift certificate to Best Buy or something,” I paced around my bus.
“Well, make the day special. Take him out somewhere,” Carmen suggested.
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me! I only know because of Nick,” I said.
“Oh... not to change the subject or anything... but it’s getting boring around here without you. Want some company again for a little while?” she asked.
“Yes! That’d be wonderful! Sure you can take that time off?” I asked.
“Yeah, yeah... I have the rest of my life to work. I don’t even have my full law degree yet. But the summer classes to finish everything up won’t be until... well, this summer. So it’s no fun around Dad’s law firm yet,” Carmen reasoned.
“Well, let me know when you figure out when you’re coming!”
“Okay. Well, I have to go. My minutes are almost up on my cell. I’ll talk to you soon,” she promised.
“Bye,” I said.
I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing piano. I started playing some songs I’d learned and thought of something.
He was a musician. Wouldn’t he love to get a song for his birthday? He’d already written them for other people.
No, I decided. That wasn’t a good idea.
I’d only ever written a few songs and none of them were worthy of him. What could I say that wouldn’t sound cheesy? And he’d written so many great songs- The Perfect Fan, Larger Than Life, The Answer To Our Life, That’s What She Said...
No, I thought again, you couldn’t just write a song for a musician.
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Fourteen
Dreaming of Destiny
Frick's Fairytales