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Chapter 4
"I don't wanna..." I whined knowing Nick was shaking me to wake up.
"C'mon, Linds. You've got a long day ahead of you." Nick said referring to my long schedule. I was supposed to appear at the Z100 radio station in the morning and then be at the MTV studios for an appearance on TRL. I rolled over in bed and decided to wake up. I opened my eyes to see Nick staring at me. His eyes were really blue this morning. I reached up to run my hand through his tousled hair. Just seeing him smile urged me to get my day started. I sat up and kissed him on the cheek. I have this thing where I cannot kiss someone on the lips in the morning when I wake up. I'm kinda afraid of morning breath.
I jumped into the shower, changed into a black muscle tank top and a pair of dark denim jeans. I grabbed my black sunglasses and brushed my hair out. I felt Nick run his hand through my hair, so I turned around. We were in the middle of a kiss when someone started knocking on the door. I smiled and pulled away from Nick. I answered the door and was greeted by Denise, AJ's mom. She would be working with us for a couple weeks since we had a lot of appearances to take care of.
"Sorry Nick, but I gotta steal Lindsay for a few hours." Denise said walking into our room. She walked towards Nick to give him a hug.
"No problem. I don't want her anyway." Nick said sarcastically.
He smiled at me .
"Wait till I get back, Carter." I said as Denise and I left the room. We walked down to the lobby and found a small crowd of girls who I thought would be there for the guys. I slipped on my sunglasses and began walking briskly towards the van Conrad was gonna drive to the studio. Then something shocked me. The group of girls started screaming my name.
Some girls gripped onto the Teen magazine I was on the cover of.
"I think they're screaming for you, hun." Denise said smiling wide. I think she was really happy for me. The other night, her and I sat down and talked about everything to get to know each other. I smiled and walked back towards the girls. I took a few pictures and signed a few autographs. I was so pleased, I couldn't stop smiling. I jumped into the van and we were off. "OK, you are gonna be on the Z Morning Zoo on Z100, then Brian, Alex, and Nick are gonna show you around New York. Then, they are gonna escort you to MTV. You'll do your appearance, talk about your album, etc. Then you are gonna have to get to your press conference in a matter of fifteen minutes." Denise rattled on with my schedule. It was funny whenever Denise called AJ, Alex. I could tell he didn't really like it, but it was just cute.
We arrived at Z100 and I was escorted to studio by this guy named Greg T, who was on during the morning show. He was probably just a little older than me. There weren't too many people crowding the door, so we walked in easily.
~30 Minutes Later~
"So, Lindsay, you enjoying the Backstreet tour?" Danielle, a dj, asked.
"Of course. I'm with a great group of guys. They are so sweet and they are a great group to hang out with."
"And you and Nick are dating, correct?" She asked.
"Yes we are. We have been for a few months now." Nick and I had
decided a while ago to be open with our relationship. Some fans hate it, but I have more respect for people when they are honest, so we decided to come clean.
"Getting any nookie on the tour bus, yet?" Elvis, another dj, asked.
~In The Hotel~
"I can't believe they just asked her that!" AJ said laughing
"What'd they ask?" Nick said appearing from the bathroom.
"They were talking about you two and then they were like 'getting
any nookie on the tour'." AJ said and began laughing again.
"So now we're gonna play your first single Step Back." Elvis said.
"Don't you love her voice?" Nick asked throwing himself down on the
bed next to AJ. They were just sitting in the hotel room listening to the radio.
"Yeah, of course. It's so different. Not like Britney Spears or Christina. Lindsay's definitely got soul in her voice." AJ replied looking towards Nick. He had his eyes closed and a smile glued onto his face.
~30 Minutes Later~
"So how was it?" Brian asked as we roamed the streets of New York City.
"It was interesting..." I said slipping my sunglasses on. Brian and AJ laughed recalling some of the questions I was asked earlier. I heard my stomach growl and stopped walking to place my hand on my stomach. The guys walked a little ahead of me, but after a few steps Nick turned around and noticed that I wasn't moving.
"Linds, you OK?" Nick asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I guess. I think I'm hungry." I replied. The truth was, I had
no idea if I was hungry or not. That seems to happen a lot lately. I get these pains in my stomach and I never know if I'm hungry or not. So, I usually skip most of my meals. I don't think anyone notices, but I just don't wanna force myself to eat.
A few minutes later we were at a restaurant. We rushed into the place so quickly, I didn't even get a chance to check out the name of the restaurant. I guess the guys had been there before, 'cuz as soon as the hostess saw us, she seated us quickly and quietly in a back room. I was thinking about one of my songs when I felt someone's hand near my knee. My head jolted up. It was Brian's hand. "You OK?" He mouthed. I nodded 'yes' and he removed his hand. He just did it to get my attention.
"What are you gonna get?" Nick asked eyeing up the menu.
"I don't know. Maybe just a salad." He looked at me oddly
considering I was the one who kinda suggested we stop and eat.
~Later That Night (About 9 PM)~
"Linds, we're gonna leave in a half hour. You gonna come dancing with us?" Howie asked opening the curtain to my bunk. I rolled over and looked at him almost as if he was crazy. I had almost no energy. I was so tired from all the promoting I was doing.
"Sure, I'll be ready in twenty minutes." I replied. Where the hell did that come from? How am I gonna dance when I barely have enough energy to stand?
Sure enough, twenty minutes later, I was ready. I splashed some water on my face and got ready. Now I was wide awake.
"It's alive!" I heard AJ say as I approached the guys waiting outside the bus. I punched his shoulder just hard enough so that he would stumble a little.
"Let's go. We should be there in a few minutes." Kevin said as our group began walking. I started to walk by myself, but Nick wrapped his arms around my waist startling me.
"Hello there." I said sweetly looking up at him.
"How you feeling?" He asked.
"Great, why do you ask?
"Lindsay, don't lie to me. You weren't feel well earlier. Your stomach was making weird noises and then you barely ate your lunch. Is everything OK?" He asked as he grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine.
"Everything's fine. I just had an upset stomach earlier."
"You sure?" Nick asked as he placed his hand on my stomach.
"Yes! Now let's walk a little faster. I wanna dance with you." I
said smiling as we walked a little quicker to catch up with the guys.
~In The Club~
"C'mon Nick. Don't give up!" I said. We had only danced for three songs and he was tired.
"I'm gonna get a drink, you want one?" Nick asked slipping away from my grasp.
"Yeah, get me a whiskey sour and leave it on our table. I'll get in a few minutes." I said and kissed him on the cheek. I saw AJ talking with Brian at our table. I didn't want to sit down, 'cuz if I did, I wouldn't get back up. I walked up to the two. "Hey guys. AJ, can I borrow you for a sec?" I asked sweetly. He shrugged and got out of the booth. I dragged AJ to the dance floor and we started dancing to some dance song that had started a minute ago. AJ and I began dancing a little wildy.
Nick sat down at the table Brian was at. He placed both our drinks down and looked onto the dance floor to see me and AJ. "What the hell is that?" Nick asked looking at us.
"That is what you call bumpin' and grindin', my friend." Brian said smugly. He glanced at Nick seeing a look of hurt on his face. "Frack, you need to calm down. They are just dancing." Brian said trying to make him feel better. Nick realized Brian was right and began drinking the margarita he ordered. The song ended and AJ and made our way back to the table.
"Hey sweetie." I said sitting next to Nick and placing my hand on his thigh. "Thanks for the drink." I said before I downed half the drink. "C'mon let's dance!" I said and grabbed Nick's hand pulling him to his feet.
After about five minutes Nick started complaining. "Lindsay, I'm tired. Can we sit now??" I didn't want to reply. I kept dancing. "Linds...Baby, let's stop!" Nick said loud enough to make me stop. We sat down at the booth and I finished my large drink. I looked at Nick. "Want another?" Damn, I swear that boy can read my mind!
After two more drinks, I was pretty much wasted. Yeah, I know it's sad, but the drinks were pretty large and I really didn't eat anything that day. I didn't intend on getting drunk. So there I was lying down in the booth while everyone else was dancing. "Lindsay... Linds." I heard someone whisper. I sat up and saw Brian.
"Hey B." I said excitedly. All of a sudden I had energy.
"Linds, I'm taking you back to the hotel. This is our last night andyou are gonna need some sleep." I nodded and tried to stand up. Brian helped me walk to the exit of the club.
"Brian, you can stay. I saw you getting your groove on out there. I can walk by myself." I didn't want any pity from Brian. I thought he was having fun out there.
"Lindsay, unless you plan on crawling your way back to the hotel, you're not gonna make it alone." I laughed a little and placed my right arm around Brian's waist. He put his arm around my shoulder and we walked to the hotel easily.
As soon as Brian and I reached the room I was sharing with Nick, I threw myself down on the bed. Brian took my shoes off and sat next to me on the bed. "Why don't you take a shower? You'll feel better and then when you come out, we can hang out here for a while." I nodded and promptly jumped into the shower. I came out in a pair of boxer shorts, a T-shirt, and my long hair was damp. I only blow dried it for a few minutes so it wouldn't be soaking wet. I was feeling a little better, but I knew I the liquor definitely wasn't out of my system. Brian was laying on the bed, so I ran to it and jumped on it almost landing on Brian. "Calm down, child."
"I'm not a child." I said almost pouting.
"That pout there would make me think otherwise." He said smiling. I threw a pillow at him and then we wound up having a pillow fight. "Linds, I think you need to calm down."
"Nah. I'm full of energy." I said running to the other end of the room.
"More like full of liquor." Brian said as he got comfortable on the bed. I took that chance to jump on the bed like I did before, only this time I landed on Brian. Our faces were a few inches apart and at the moment something rushed through me. I looked into Brian's eyes and I could have sworn I saw the same feeling. Then, without thinking, I bent my head down and kissed him.
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