Standing in the middle of a small bedroom, the stunning blonde dodged yet another article of clothing as it came flying from the closet.
"I can't believe I've lost it again!" came a voice from the closet.
The blonde sighed and looked at her fingernails, obviously bored her friend's antics. "Maybe if you put it up after you took it off you could find it every once in a while." she called into the closet. Seconds later, an equally stunning redhead emerged from the closet, glaring at her friend.
"Look, Hannah," she said "I don't need your attitude right now, I need to find that shirt because he'll be here in a few minutes." She finished and turned back into the closet to continue her search.
Hannah pushed herself off of the bed and with a sigh, dropped to the floor and peered under the bed. Moments later, she reached her arm under the bed and withdrew a silver and black tank top. "Found it." she said and stood up.
The redhead was immediately out of the closet and sent a dazzling smile her friend's way. "Glad to see you come out of the closet." Hannah said sarcastically and held the shirt out to her friend who ignored her and took the top from Hannah's hand and quickly stuffed it into the suitcase that lay open on the bed.
"Really, Lily, I don't see why you have to go on this trip." Hannah said as she lay on the bed.
"I'm going because I was invited and I want to go. Why is that so hard for you to understand?" Lily replied.
Hannah shrugged and said "I don't know. Couldn't he have picked a better place for a vacation? The Everglades? Lily, if you get eaten by an alligator..."
Lily rolled her eyes at her bestfriend and picked up her baggage and started toward the door with Hannah following. "I'm not going to get eaten by an alligator, Han. I'm sure I'll be perfectly safe. Besides, it should be fun."
"Whatever." Hannah said, dismissing the idea of 'fun' in the Florida Everglades. "I still don't see why-" Hannah was interrupted by the doorbell ringing and Lily's squeal of delight as she rushed to the door.
Flinging the door open, Lily's smile became even wider as she launched herself into the embrace of the young man standing there.
"I've missed you so much!" she told him as she rained kisses on his face. He only smiled and held her tight until she was finished. "I want you to meet my bestfriend." she told him and led her over to Hannah who was waiting patiently for the introduction. "This is Hannah. Hannah, this is my boyfriend, Brian."
"Pleased to finally meet you." Hannah said in her most charming voice as she shook his hand. "Lily talks about you constantly."
Brian smiled at Hannah and returned her greeting, then turned his loving gaze back to Lily. "Are you ready to go?" he asked her in his soft Kentucky accent.
Lily nodded and went to retrieve her only suitcase. "Is that all you're bringing?" Brian asked "Lil, we'll be gone for a month."
"I know." Lily replied "But half the fun of a vacation is shopping, right?" Brian rolled his eyes playfully and took her suitcase from her and carried out to his car.
After a long goodbye to her long time friend, Lily and Brian finally pulled out of the driveway on the way to the airport.
"I'm glad you finally get to meet the guys." Brian said softly as he took his eyes briefly from the road and laid a hand on her thigh.
"Me too." Lily said and returned his smile. The rest of the trip to the airport was spent in silence and Lily had a chance to think.
Since meeting Brian almost a year ago at a club in her hometown of Atlanta, they'd been almost inseparable. Although he'd been gone the majority of the time, they spent hours on the phone together talking about anything at all. Brian talked about his career and told her all about 'the guys' as he called them. Brian had told her so much about them that she felt as if she almost knew them personally even though she'd never met any of them. What seemed even odder to her was that, even though they were the Backstreet Boys, she didn't even have a face to place all of their names with. Hannah had teased her mercilessly for being so in the dark but Lily had such a demanding career she hardly had time for anything anymore. Nevertheless, Lily had never seen any of 'the guys' faces.
Sneaking a glance over at Brian she smiled again. Three weeks ago, Brian had called her and invited her to go on this vacation with him. He said the Backstreet Boys finally had a straight month off, with only one concert date, and dispite of being with each other so much, were taking a vacation together and Brian wanted her to join him. She immediately agreed and arranged for a month off from work to go. Brian had told her they were going to a series of places, one of which being the Florida Everglades, their first stop. Lily found it odd that they'd wanted to go there but didn't question it.
They finally reached the airport and Brian arranged for their luggage to be sent to their flight and they started making their way to the plane.
Before boarding, Brian stopped and looked at her and place his hands gently on either side of her face.
"I've missed you, Lily Knight."
"I've missed you too, Brian Littrell." she said gently and they shared a short, tender kiss before boarding the plane.
***************
Lily stood in the airport in Orlando by herself, waiting for Brian to finish the arrangements for the rental car. She looked around and stood on her tip-toes, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
As she looked around, Lily saw a man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, arguing fiercely with a woman behind the desk. Lily watched fascinated as the man yelled at the woman who stood behind the desk, obviously terrified of the man.
Lily would later use her engrossment in the argument as an excuse for her following actions.
She stood watching the fight and heard a growling at her feet. Looking down she saw a fierce looking dog standing at her feet, bearing it's teeth and looking ready to attack. Not wasting a moment in thinking, Lily panicked and drew back her hand that contained her handbag and hit the dog as hard as she could. To her great surprise the 'dog' shattered into a million tiny pieces.
Kevin heard the crash and immediately ceased his fight with the woman who was trying to charge him for a ticket he didn't use. He froze where he was, praying the crash wasn't what he thought it was. His brother, Jerald, would never forgive him if he didn't come home with that glass dog he'd been wanting. He turned around slowly and his eyes widened at the sight. A beautiful red headed woman was standing over what remained of his dog holding a hand bag looking as if she was ready to strike the thing again if it dared move. Kevin also didn't think, only reacted.
Lily stood over the broken pieces of glass, trying to figure out what had just happened, when she looked up and saw the man who'd been fighting minutes before and saw the fierce fire in his eyes still there. But there was something different about it this time. This time it was directed at her.
"Lady, I'm gonna kill you!" he said as he advanced on her with his hands outstretched as if her were going for her throat. Lily's eyes widened as she braced herself for the attack. The attack never came because someone intercepted the crazy man before he reached her and his attention had already been turned elsewhere.
"Do you know how much this stupid dog cost me?" he yelled at her as he dropped to his knees beside the rubble that was the glass dog. "I shipped this thing all the way from China! For my brother! And now it's ruined, all because of you!" he turned his attention back to her again and Lily backed up as he began advancing on her again.
"Look, Mister, I'm sorry, I thought the thing was going to kill me, OK? I didn't think, I just reacted." The man looked at her for a moment and his gaze seemed to burn a hole through her. He didn't say a word, just turned away and marched off in the other direction, giving the dog one final kick before walking angrily away.
