We arrive at the concert, as I step out of the limo, I am hit with the screams of anticipating concert-goers. "What's going on?" I ask. "Oh, just a promo for MTV. We ask the audience questions and such." I nod at Suzie's answer, while looking around at all the merchandise stands. Suzie must have seen me because she tells me that I will be getting BSB stuff later, as a gift. "We should get to our seats, Aaron will be starting soon." Missy and I follow Suzie down the many rows till we get to the front, I mean, practically-sitting-on-the-stage front. "You guys spare no expense, do you?" I ask and Suzie laughs. Right as we take our seats, music starts pouring out of the speakers. Out pops Aaron and two backup dancer/singers. He sings "Crush on You" while jumping all around the stage, and got the audience grooving with "Shake It". He is such a good performer for such a little guy. After Aaron, comes SOAP, and Jimmy Ray. Missy and I were having a blast already! "And now, for the feature presentation...Backstreet Boys!" the announcer yells. The crowd goes wild! Screaming, yelling, crying, it's crazy! They start the show with "We've Got It Goin' On". The Boys dance, sing and totally perform for their audience. Each one then sang a solo: Brian-"That's What She Said" (which he accompanied with his own guitar playing), Howie- "Betcha By Golly Wow", Nick- "Heaven In Your Eyes", Kevin- "10,000 Promises" (he accompanied with his own piano and Nick's drums), and AJ- "Brick House." Howie even threw red roses out into the audience while he sang. Then, the Boys were getting ready to sing "Anywhere For You", so they were going to choose a femme from the audience. AJ paces back and forth looking. He, then, stops in front of me, and crooks his finger telling me to come up. I am so embarrassed! I shake my head no. He holds out his and looks at me with pleading, puppy dog eyes. I look at Missy and she points at him and mouths "GO!" A body guard leads me up to the stage where the Boys are waiting for me. They sang to me and I was about ready to cry, it was so beautiful. After the song is over, Kevin introduces me "Tanya, Everyone. Everyone, Tanya." He holds the mic out to me "Hi everyone!" I wave. "Tanya is here because she was chosen to appear on MTV's Fanatic to interview us. Would you like to say anything to the viewers?" I nod, and he hands me his mic. "I'd like to say 'Hey!' to all my buddies and family. Can I say something to all those people who don't think I should be a fan of yours?" I ask them. "Sure, but no vulgarity." Nick jokes. " No problem. Well, before I left to come here, some people in school thought I was stupid to be fans of Backstreet, probably because they are so narrow-minded they think any group of five, male singers have to be gay." I turn and face them, "Sorry, but some people are that narrow-minded. Or they would say they weren't talented and so on and so forth." A couple of the Boys gasp for dramatic effect. "So, I have three reasons why they shouldn't be saying that stuff. Number one, this is directed to guys. You only don't like them because you are jealous. Am I right?" asking the audience and the respond with a tremendous cheer. "I mean, really, I don't blame you. Who is it that has hundreds of thousands of girls screaming after the all the time? Who is it, lets hear it for BSB!" The crowd screams and yells as loud as they can. I motion cut. "Or them?" Silence. I smile. "Now, number two, for girls who gave me dirty looks when they found out I got to meet Backstreet, its just because they were, also jealous, I get to be up here and talk to five very hot guys. Am I right?" I ask. The crowd, of course, screams as loud as humanly possible. "Thank you very much! And the last reason, directed to all BSB-haters, all you people who think BSB has no talent whatsoever, I want you to hear this loud and clear. Who is it that has sold millions of their CDs, and won a dozen awards for their music, I repeat music, not looks, music? Come on, you guys can answer this." I say as I motion at the crowd. "Backstreet Boys!" Screamed by hundreds of people has a pretty strong effect. "Thanks. Well, I guess I should go, I'm sure you want to hear them sing their hearts out now. So, peace and love makes the world go 'round." "I couldn't have done any better myself." Brian comments, "What do you think Alex?" "That was awesome! You were like a cheerleader on a power trip or something." "There is a rumor going around that Tanya does a pretty mean "Get Down" rap. Would you all, like to hear her?" I look at Nick. "Missy should get her tongue cut out or something." I'm in a joking mood, so I will make a fool out of myself, without caring too much. "So, how 'bout it?" Nick coaxes. The crowd cheers and I nod. "Ok, hit it!" The band starts to jam and the boys start to sing the song and dance. I join in on some parts of the dance, you never realize how watching music videos can be so helpful. "Get Down, get down and move it all around!" I love it! For the dance routines I don't know I make up my own, and just have fun with it. "You're the one for me, you're my ecstasy, you're the one I need!" Brian croons, that's my cue. "Bang, bang, bang, here we come, here we slam. It's the Fun Factory with the BSB's, get on your knees, tryin' to scream, or touch me please. Backstreet Boys, are you with it?" "Yeah!" They all yell back. "AJ hit it!" I am having so much fun, jumping, dancing, and singing. The crowd is so hyped, its unbelievable! The song ends and the crowd goes wild! I see Missy jumping up and down, she's having a ball. Where all my energy comes from, I have no clue, but its awesome. "That was crazy Thanks Goldie!" Howie yells. The rest of the concert was a blur. I couldn't concentrate, I was having so much fun. Suzie leads Missy and I backstage where a body guard informs us the Backstreet Boys went to their hotels to change, and they will meet us in a half an hour at the restaurant. We take their idea, and head back to our hotels to clean up and change. I change into black flares, black ankle boots and a dark blue camisole and mesh over shirt. The shirt makes my eyes almost as blue as Nick's. Missy puts on a short black dress and stiletto heels. "How are you going to dance in those?" I ask, astonished at her outfit. "Dance? Who's dancing? I'll be working the room all night." "No doubt, but be careful, ok, Miss? We're in Vegas, you can never be too careful." "Ok, ok, you're not my mother." "I know, but..." I am interrupted by a knock on the door. "House keeping!" Someone outside says in a falsetto voice. I raise my eyebrow at Missy. I mouth "Nick." "Wait one moment, please, I just got out of the shower!" I whisper my plan into Missy's ear. She nods and smiles. She walks over to the door, opens it a crack and crooks her leg around the door, showing him her leg, a little above the knee. "Do these shoes look good with my outfit?" "Ummmm..." Nick sounds a little uncomfortable, "What does your outfit look like?" "Nothing." She states. "I...uh...I'm..." He stutters. "How 'bout it, if I show you what it looks like all together?" She teases. "No...uh...that's ok." With that Missy swings the door open, "Like it?" Nick is standing there, with a completely red face, rubbing his neck, looking totally had. "Awwww, poor Nicky!" I tease. "All I try to do is come here and get you, and I get this. Sheesh!" Missy and I are laughing so hard, we can't even speak. After we calm a bit, Missy says she has to finish her make up and dives into the bathroom. Nick sits down on the bed to wait. "I'm sorry about that," I apologize while putting my silver hoop earrings on, "it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up." "I understand, it's just I'm usually the one who is the prankster, not the prankee." "Oh, Missy and I are notorious for that kind of stuff. We got in a bit of trouble on our school New York trip because of our personalities." "Really? What did you do?" Nick asked, intrigued. "Oh, nothing big. We just did prank calls to other students and such. We were up at 2:30 calling the desk, asking if we could order cheese, pickles, and ice cream for breakfast. It was pretty lame, but we were having so much fun." I explained. "That sounds like something me and Bri would do. We should do something to the guys tonight." "Like what?" "Just something simple, like a whoopee cushion in the car!" He suggests, with a mischievous grin. "Yeah. That'll be funny. When I was little we had a whoopee cushion war when my family was down at the beach, it was pretty funny." Missy appears, and we explain we need to drop off at the novelty shop, before leaving, and tell her our plan. We drive back to the boys hotel to pick the rest of them up. On the way, we unscrew the light bulb in the back of the car, so it will be dark, even when the door is open. We arrive and AJ is the first one in. As the others climb in, AJ sits directly on top of the whoopee and makes a large farting noise. My face is twitching with laughter. "Whoa, AJ, man, what did you have for dinner?" Missy asks. The three of us crack up. Kevin, Brian, and Howie look at us like we shouldn't have done that. "Very funny." He looks at us, with a hurt, yet mad look in his eyes. "It was just a joke. Don't feel bad, we're all your friends." I try to reason. "I'm not in a good mood, please, just let me be." We ride the rest of the way, in silence. When we arrive, AJ runs off by himself and the others follow him, but I pull Kevin off to the side. "What's wrong with Alex?" I asked, concerned. "Marissa just called him. They're over." Kevin explains. "Oh, geez, and I...I just made...I feel so bad." "Maybe you can talk to him, he doesn't want to talk to us." "Sure, I'll try." I hate having people feel bad. I enter the restuarunt/club, I can just feel the energy around me as I look around for AJ. I spot him, seated alone in a far corner, looking...alone. "Hey," I say, gently, "want to talk?" "Not really." "Are you sure? Maybe I could help." "I doubt it. What needs to be fixed, you could help with." "Why? What needs to be fixed?" I question him. "My heart. It's broken." I take a sit and sit down in front of him. "I really loved her. Two years, that's a long time. I loved her so much." He places his head in his hands and closes his eyes. I put my hand on his head, stroking his newly dyed hair. "I'm not going to lie and tell you everything will be all right, because I don't have any experience with things like this, but I don't know a lot of other people love you and don't want to see you in pain. That should help a bit." "I know it should, but it doesn't." He picks his head up, his eyes clouded with tears. I wrap my arms around him, giving him a hug. He hold tight, as if he doesn't want me to desert him. We sit there for a few minutes, just hugging, until he breaks it. "I don't think you're ready to deal with this yet," acknowledging the loud music psyched fans running around, "how about we go and get some ice cream?" I propose. "Yeah. That'd be good." "Ok, meet me outside, I'll go tell someone where we are going. "I walk off, in search of anyone familiar. I find Sweet D. cutting a rug with some girl. I tap him on the shoulder, and whisper in his ear where AJ and I are headed. He whispers back, "Is he ok?" "Yeah, he just needs to talk. "I leave and find AJ outside with a body guard. "Hi, I'm Andre, I'll be trailing you two, ok?" "Sure, lets go." I respond. We walk the first few blocks in silence. Thoughts milling around, but none spoken. "It's all my fault." AJ blurts out. "Why do you think that?" I ask. "I am always on tour. I never have time for her." "If she really cared about you, she would understand about that. She knows you can't drop everything and run to her." "But why didn't she break it off a long time ago. Save us both the trouble and pain." "I can't speak for her, but maybe she thought you would stop touring and run to her. Women will always try to change you, no matter what. But maybe what she wanted to change, didn't and thought why try anymore?" "I just don't know" he hangs his head down in frustration. "Or maybe she just needed time off. It must be hard being a celebrity's girlfriend." We reach the ice cream shop and he orders a double fudge cone, while I stick with my favorite-lemon sorbet. We sit and eat in quiet. I look up and he's watching me. I smile at him. "You know, we need someone like you on tour with us. Someone we can talk to." He says. "Don't you guys talk to each other?" I query. "Yeah, but they don't help much when it comes to what women are thinking." "I would certainly hope not!" I say in mock horror. "So, you really like theatre?" He changes the subject. "Most definitely. It gives me a chance to become someone else. Just leave all my troubles behind." I explain. "My first love was theatre. I never really did like to sing as much as act. It's just my personality. I can get up on stage, act a like fool, and then have people say 'Oh, he's suppose to be like that!' It's great." "Exactly! I mean, I love to sing-in choirs-I think I have a horrible voice. Even when people tell me I have a beautiful voice, I get all nervous and start to cry if I have to sing a solo. Everyone thinks I am such a self-confident person, I am, for the most part. They don't realize if I speak out about my opinion, later I will be thinking, that was so stupid, I can't believe I did that." "You do come off as a very self-confident woman." He compliments. " After I gave my little anti-BSB speech, I felt so stupid, even though I totally meant every word I said." "No, don't, don't regret things you do. That was awesome, I don't know many people with that much guts." I smile, shyly, at him. "This didn't register until right now, you said you didn't have much experience with this kind of thing, you mean, you've never broken up with someone?" "No..." I look down, embarrassed, "I've never been out with anyone." "Really? I'd expect a pretty thing like you to have thousands of dates." "I'm not pretty. The guys go for the beautiful ones." "Not pretty? You are stunning. You shouldn't put yourself down like that." "I'm not putting myself down. I'm just being honest to myself." "Shh, no, you are beautiful and don't say another word about it." "I..." "Pst." He points his finger at me, interrupting me from saying anything. "But..." "Pst." "You..." "Pst." I can't get another word in, so, I stick my tongue out at him. "Oh, very mature." I smile. "I know." "You know, for the past 20 minutes I haven't even thought about Marissa." "And there you go, breaking your record, by saying that!" I cry out loud. "You think you're ready to go back to the party?" "Yeah, I need to get my mind on something else. Lets go." He replies. We leave, with Andre following. On our way back, we babble on about everything, from plays to weird childhood stories. When we are about a block away, I see and ambulance outside of the restaurant, with Nick, Kevin, Howie, and Brian standing outside of it. I run the rest of the way. "What happened? Where's Missy?" I ask. "She's in there," Kevin says, gesturing toward the ambulance, "she dislocated her knee." I close my eyes and look up to the sky. "Please tell me she didn't run into a wall." I plead. "Actually, it was a door, has this happened before?" Before I have the chance to answer Missy steps out of the ambulance, with the help of some paramedics. "Yeah, twice, in the 8th grade." "I'm ok, Tan, don't worry." Missy says cheerfully. "Oh, believe me, I won't. Missy-a door?" I "Yeah, well, they didn't have any open walls available." She jokes. I just laugh and smile. "Maybe we should take her back to the hotel." Brian suggests. "No, I'll take her, you guys stay here and have fun." I refuse his offer. "It's getting late, we have to leave early tomorrow anyway." Howie informs me. The rest of the group agrees. We all hop into the limo and head back to the hotel.