Amber's View
(a couple of months later)

"I wish I didn't have to go," AJ said as I lay in his arms, both of us snuggled under the covers.
"No you don't, you love your work, and you love New York, besides you and the guys need some alone time to come together as a group again."
"Yeah but I don't like the idea of you being here by yourself," he said unconsciously pulling me closer.
"I won't be by myself – I'll have Rhonda and Missy's moving down here, not to mention all the security you've hired lately. I'll be fine."
"Yeah – but still…"
"But still nothing," I said as I rolled over on top of him. "You said you'd make me feel safe and you do. Steve is out of the picture now for good – he wouldn't dare touch me with all the armed forces you have surrounding me."
AJ laughed, "I just can't argue with you when you lay on me like this."
"That's the point," I said as I kissed him. "Now we need to get up so you can finish packing. The limo will be here in a little while and you still have a lot to pack." He tried his hardest to convince me otherwise and it almost worked, but in the end I won out and he started to pack.
"Which ones of these do you think I should bring?" he asked holding up a bunch of hats and wearing one on his head.
"I like the red cowboy one that you're wearing now." He looked at all the hats he had in his hands and then through them all into a bag. I sat there on the bed laughing. "Did you leave any clothes in your closet?" I said looking around at all the various bags that were lying in the room.
He stood there and looked around laughing too. "I guess I have a lot of clothes." Just then AJ's cell phone rang. "Hello? Yeah – o.k. – we'll be right down."
"The limo's here?" I asked already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, I guess we've got to take this stuff down now."
"Correction – you packed it, you take it," I said jokingly as I grabbed a bag and headed down the stairs.

We threw all of AJ's stuff in the trunk of the limo. The driver had to pull some of the other bags out and rearrange them to make AJ's fit.
"My god AJ! And I though Howie packed a lot of stuff," Rhonda said stepping out of the car to see what was taking so long.
"I think it's mostly hats and sunglasses," I said laughing.
"O.k. everything's ready to go," the driver said as he finally got the trunk to close.
"Come on," AJ said smacking my ass, "Get in the limo."
"Yes sir," I said climbing in after Rhonda.
"Now there's the attitude I like," he said laughing and smacking me again as I climbed in.

Soon we were settled and the limo pulled off and headed towards the airport. I was sitting there in the limo with AJ sitting beside me and Rhonda and Howie on the other side, when an image of a story flashed in my mind. It was a story I had read in one of the erotic Backstreet Boy fan fiction sites. It had to do with Howie, AJ and a girl in the back of a limo. I started laughing so hard my eyes were watering.

"Well I feel good," AJ said sarcastically. "I'm leaving and instead of being sad and missing me already my girlfriend is sitting there laughing her head off."
I looked at Rhonda and did that silent communication thing we were so good at doing. I could tell the exact minute she got what I was thinking of. Rhonda burst out laughing too.
"What?!" Howie said giving Rhonda a funny look as she doubled over from the pain of laughing so hard.
"Should we tell them?" she asked laughing almost to hard to speak.
"No way! It would put too many ideas in AJ's head," I said finding it hard to speak myself. Besides there are one too many here."
Howie and AJ just looked at each other and shook their heads.

Rhonda's View

Howie and I took a long time walking through the terminal. Both of us were quiet the whole way to the gate. AJ and Amber were already starting their goodbye kiss.
"You know its only going to be for two weeks," Howie said.
"I know and Missy will be moving down so I'll be helping her unpack. I'm sure I won't even notice that you're gone."
"You don't have to go that far!" Howie laughed. "You can miss me a little bit."
"I miss you already," I said as I kissed his lips.
"I don't want to leave," Howie said. "I've just gotten use to waking up next to you every morning."
"Howie, we've talked about this before. Part of your job is traveling, whether it's touring, recording your album or doing promotional stuff. I told you that I can live with it – as long as you promise to come home."
"I promise," he whispered. "Just don't ever think of replacing me."
"You could never be replaced."

Amber's View

"Final call for those boarding to New York."
"I'm going to miss you," I said as AJ wrapped me in his arms and held me tightly.
"I'll miss you too," he said drawing me closer and kissing me again.
"Come on you two, break it up," Nick said as he passed by us to get on the plane. We continued to kiss.
"J come on we're gonna miss the flight," Howie said finally letting go of Rhonda and trying to pull us apart. "You guys can continue the kiss when we get back."

AJ finally drew back and looked at me:

"As we part and I must go
Know I love and will miss you so
Till again we're face to face
In my heart know you have a place."

He kissed me quickly again and headed to where Howie was waiting for him laughing. "You are so corny!"
"Yeah but my girl loved it," he said as they disappeared down hall leading to the plane.
Missy's View

My father just bought a new house and decided that he would give me his old one so I could move to Florida to be closer to JC. I couldn't believe my father did that for me, but I knew that he really liked JC. I called my mom to tell her that I made it down here safely. I then tried to call JC, but he didn't answer his phone. The doorbell rang and I ran to the door hoping that it was JC.

"JC, good you're here! You can help us unpack," I said as I leaned in to kiss him.
He only kissed me briefly. "Hon, I just stopped by to say hi. I have business things that I have to do. If I can, I'll come back later tonight," he said with a weird tone in his voice.
"I just moved down here and you can't find five minutes to spend with me? Is this how its going to be?" I asked trying not to sound as mad as I was.
"Babe, its business stuff, please understand," he said and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

It was a couple of days after Patrick and I settled into the house when Rhonda came over. As soon as she pulled into the driveway, I ran out the door and over to her car.
"Let me out of the car!" she said with a laugh.
"I'm just so happy to see you! I saw JC two days ago and have only seen Patrick and boxes since that. I'm just glad that someone is excited that I'm living down here."
"Well Nick is pretty happy that you're living down here now. He's still asking about you. He's still pretty bummed that you and JC are getting married."
"I know he's upset and it's probably because of what happened at your birthday party," I mumbled. "Rhon, I don't know what to do. JC doesn't know what happened. I can't ever tell him. But I have to explain to Nick that I'm sorry about what happened. I really care about him, but I'm with JC. I have to do what's best for Patrick and Patrick loves JC."
"But what about you? Do you love him?"
"I...I don't know anymore."

We unpacked for awhile and talked about some things other than JC.
"So have you and Howie talked about getting married?" I asked Rhonda.
"Yeah but I think its going to be a couple of years. We're pretty happy living together at the moment."
"Speaking of Howie, where is he?"
"He's up in New York doing promo stuff for their new album."
"Yeah JC is busy recording his new album. Speaking of that, he mentioned that they were going to do some MTV news thing at their studio today. Hand me that remote," I said to her.

I flipped on the tv in time to catch the news special. "Who the hell is that chick?" I asked Rhonda.
"That looks like Amanda, AJ's ex-girlfriend," I said. "She dated JC for awhile too. I guess she broke up with JC to date AJ, but bounced back and forth for awhile..." Rhonda suddenly stopped realizing that I knew nothing about Amanda.
"JC has never mentioned an 'Amanda'. What the hell is she doing with her arms around him?" Rhonda tried to grab the remote control from me but I stopped her. "They seem a little close don't you think?" Rhonda just stood there looking at my getting madder and madder.
"I can't believe that asshole! No wonder why he freaked out when I told him I was moving down here. I guess I blew his dual-life. Do you think he's been cheating on me for awhile now?"
"I don't know honey," Rhonda said, "I don't know."

Rhonda's View

Missy and I tried to make sense of the whole situation with JC and Amanda as we drove to Dairy Queen.
"I can't believe him," Missy kept saying.
"Miss – maybe you should just call him and confront him about it. Maybe she was just in the studio next door and stopped by to say hi..."
"She was all over him!" Missy shouted. "I can't believe that he would cheat on me."
"Well Miss, I hate to bring this up but you did kinda cheat on JC with Nick."
"But that was just one night."
"You can deny all you want that you still have feelings for Nick, but maybe JC knew that something happened."
"Is it that obvious how I feel about Nick?"
"It is to those of us who have been in the same room with you guys."
"I need to talk to Nick."
"Too bad he's in New York."
"Maybe we should just go up there," Missy said as she turned the car around and headed back to her house. I grabbed my cell phone and told Amber to start packing. I'm sure that she would want to go up there with us.

Missy's View

We all stood in the lobby of the hotel trying to figure out how we would find the guys' rooms.
"Rhonda – I can't do this. I can't face Nick again. I'm so scared."
"You have to face him. You have to tell him what happened with JC."
"Can you do it for me? I can catch a flight back to Florida and wait for you guys to get back."
"I'm not doing this for you! It's your mess, you clean it up! Besides, who knows what could happen," Rhonda said as she headed over to the front desk.

Amber and I sat down on the couch and hoped that Rhonda would be able to get in touch with one of the guys.
"I don't get why you're so nervous about talking to Nick," Amber said to me.
"Do you know what happened at Rhonda's birthday party?" I asked her. She shook her head no.
"Nick and I slept together on the beach at Rhonda's birthday party and Nick thought that I would break up with JC, but that obviously didn't happen. Nick called me over the next couple of months hoping that I would realize what we had together. I kept telling him that I wanted to stay with JC. I don't know if I can look at him now."

"Don't worry Miss, let's just see how things go. You'll just have to talk to Nick and your heart will let you know what to do," Amber said and gave me a hug.
Rhonda walked over to us with a smile on her face. "AJ's in room 1043 and Nick and Howie are sharing room 1046."

"Knock, knock!" Rhonda said as she knocked on the door of Howie and Nick's room.
Howie opened the door and looked extremely confused. "What are you guys doing up here?" Howie said as he pulled Rhonda into his arms.
"Missy?" Nick asked as he saw me standing there.
"Nick...um...how are you?" I could hardly get the words out of my mouth. I looked at him and had all of these mixed feelings.
"I'm good," he said.
"Nick, is there somewhere we could go talk? I think we need to talk about some stuff, but...can I use your phone first?"
"Yeah, you can use the one in the bedroom," he said as he pointed me towards his bedroom.

I went into the bedroom. "I need to call JC before I talk to Nick," I thought to myself. I picked up the phone and dialed JC's cell phone.
"Hello?" said an unfamiliar female voice. I realized it was Amanda.
"Um, yeah, is JC there?" I asked.
"Who is this? How did you get this number?" Amanda asked.
"I'm assuming this is Amanda. Well this is Missy – would you mind putting JC on the phone?"
JC finally got on the telephone. "Hello Missy, what's up?"
"So, how long have you been cheating on me?" I said pissed off but not really that hurt.
"Missy, this isn't the right time to do this. Why don't I come over there and we can talk about it."
"Save it JC. I don't want to hear your excuses. Besides, I'm not at home. I'm in New York with Rhonda...and Nick."
"Oh seeing Nick again huh? Maybe I should ask you how long you've been cheating on me!"
"Were you planning on telling me about Amanda or were you going to stand me up at the alter?"
"I was going to tell you Missy...I just didn't know how to tell you and Patrick. I really love him you know."
I began to cry thinking of how Patrick would react to all of this. I was more concerned about Patrick losing his "father-figure" rather than me losing a boyfriend. JC and I talked a bit more and agreed that there was nothing left of our relationship that was worth saving.

I came out of the bedroom and noticed that Rhonda and Howie were gone. Nick was sitting out on the balcony. I walked out there and Nick said, "Are you okay? You look a bit upset."
"I just found out that JC has been cheating on me with his ex Amanda so the wedding is off. But you know what? I'm not that upset because I think...I think I'm in love with someone else."
"I'm sorry to hear that you guys broke up...wait a minute...you're in love with someone else? Who are you in love with?"
"Nick you really are a blond aren't you?" I said as I sat on his lap. "It's you. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since Rhonda's party. I wanted to make things work out with JC because I knew that Patrick really loved him, but I didn't love him. I love you Nick."
"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to say that?" Nick said as he leaned in to kiss me.

Nick and I stayed outside on the balcony talking about everything that we've been trying to hide the last few months. At some point in the night, I fell asleep in his arms.

(Next morning)

"Morning Miss, did you sleep all right?" Nick asked as he wiped the hair away from my face.
"I think it was the best I've ever slept. I didn't know someone could sleep that well on lounge chairs," I laughed.
"Oh, so it was the lounge chairs? Geez, I thought it had something to do with me," Nick said slightly annoyed.
"You know damn well that it was you Nick. I can see that someone isn't a morning person."
Nick looked up at me, "Come on, let's go inside."

When we walked inside of the hotel room, Howie and Rhonda were coming out of their bedroom.
"Hey guys," we said. Rhonda grabbed my arm and dragged me into her bedroom.
"Talk!"
"What?" I said sarcastically then laughed. I told her about the conversation with JC on the telephone and then with Nick on the balcony.
"You didn't do anything with Nick did you?" she asked.
"No, I didn't do anything with him. Not last night or today. We were just talking."
"Well, just take things slow. You have a tendency of jumping into things too quick."

Howie and Nick knocked on the door. "We just talked to Tim and he said that we could use his cabin up in the mountains this weekend. Are you guys up for a little road trip?" Rhonda and I shrugged and agreed to go.
"What about AJ and Amber?" Rhonda asked.
Howie looked at his watch. "It's only 8:00, let's give them a couple of hours and then we'll go tell them."

Rhonda's View

Us girls spent the day shopping in New York while the guys finished up some of their promotional interviews before the weekend.
"Oh my god! I can't believe that we spent all day shopping!" I laughed.
Amber looked at all of her bags, "Well as long as I bought something for AJ he won't be mad at me for using his credit card."
"Did you actually get something for him?"
Amber looked at all of her bags again. "Did anyone see a hat store around here?" Missy and I laughed.
"I think there was one way over there," I said trying to lift my arm up but the bags were too heavy. "Why don't you go get AJ a hat and Missy and I will keep this nice bench warm."
"Fine – then watch my bags. I don't think my arms could take much more."

We got back to the hotel and expected the guys to still be gone. When Missy and I walked into the hotel room, Howie and Nick were sitting on the couch with their arms crossed.
"Where have you been?" Howie asked.
"Um..." I said and just looked down at my bags. "Do you really need an answer to that?"
"Shopping again??"
"Well, yeah...but I went to Vicky Secrets," I said as I batted my eyes and waived around the bags.
"Okay ... well, we need to get going," Howie said as he grabbed one of the Victoria Secrets bags and threw it in with our other clothes.