Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter Four
By The Paperbag Princess and The Pumpkin Coach

Corresponding KTBPA Message Board Posts (Fictional!)

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 2.5 | Page 3

"This is my street. Did your directions get you here, Frank?"

She looked in the rearview mirror at him, grinning.

"No," he admitted grumpily.

Please let this work. Please leave tomorrow. I wanted to leave everything Backstreet behind, and just be with Rachel. Even just as friends, that was okay.

"And there is my house!" She cooed, pointing ahead of us to a long circular driveway. The house was long and low, gray siding and a million windows. I could just see the water in the distance, sunlight reflecting off of it. There was a little garden in the middle of the driveway, filled with flowers, and an older woman was there, cutting flowers and putting them in a basket. Two little girls were playing basketball, yelling at one another.

I loved it. It looked like a home. I could just feel the happy memories coming out of it.

"Who is that?" Frank hissed as we pulled into the driveway.

"My mom and nieces."

"I told you, no one can know he's here!"

She looked over her shoulder at him as she parked the car. "And I told you, I'm not hiding him like a fugitive. My nieces are fucking meeting him, I don't care if you like it, they are freaked about AJ and I'm going to fix that." She shut off the car and climbed out, calling to them. "Girlies!"

Frank and I exchanged a look as the two girls came running over to Rachel, yelling "Aunt Rachel, Aunt Rachel!" The tone of her voice to us meant business. I couldn't fix how two little girls worried about AJ. I couldn't fix how I was worrying about AJ.

"Now, I know you're Nick. The girls have pointed you out to me on their walls a time or two." I looked up as Rachel's mom extended a hand to me. She was Rachel in 25 years, laugh lines around her eyes and gray streaked through her curls.

If Rachel looked like her mom when she got older, that would be okay. I would still think she was gorgeous.

Like I'm going to still be talking to Rachel in a year, let alone 25. Get a grip, Carter. Enjoy this while it lasts.

I shook her hand, remembering my manners. "It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Connor."

She smiled at me, Rachel's warm smile that always made me feel better, then turned to Frank. "And you must be Frank."

"Yes, ma'am."

I loved it when he called women 'ma'am'. It cracked me up. He called me 'punkass' and 'little man,' but he was always polite to ladies.

They shook hands. "Welcome to the Point, gentlemen." She glanced over at Rachel and the girls, still talking, then leaned down to us. "Did Rachel warn you, that they're big Backstreet fans?"

I smiled at her. "Yes." She had told us many stories of their obsession; they were going to come to our show on Long Island before it got cancelled.

Postponed. The show was just postponed.

"They're very good girls. But there may be some screaming."

There wasn't. They were too amazed to scream. Rachel led them over to the car, talking intently to them. "Did grandma tell you I was bringing friends?" They nodded at her, glancing over at me and then stopping dead in their tracks, their mouths falling open. The little one stared up at her and then grabbed Rachel's hand.

Rachel grinned at me, then looked back at them. "You didn't believe me when I told you I met the Backstreet Boys, did you?"

I got out of the car, kneeling down in front of them and holding out my hand to the older one. She had Rachel's curls. "You're Katie, right? Rachel's told me all about you."

She just nodded at me, her eyes wide, looking up at Rachel. I gave up and smiled at the other one. "And you're Colleen."

She nodded, her red hair falling in her eyes. They were both adorable, and I loved the way they clung on to Rachel.

"Girls, this is Frank, Nick's bodyguard."

They looked up at him, and Colleen frowned. "What are you guarding him from?"

Rachel laughed. "That's what I said. There's no one out here, right?"

"But..." Katie started, obviously putting things together. She was 11, probably old enough to know about the fans that followed us everywhere.

"That's why Nick's here, because he can be alone and no one will bother him. So I have to ask you to keep this secret, okay?" They just looked up at her, half-pouting. "Because your little friends will tell their big sisters and then everyone will be here. Got it?"

She used that stern tone with them, and they nodded. "I'll get him to sign some stuff, you can be the coolest girls in school in September."

They grinned at that, and she laughed.

"Girlies, why don't you show Nick and Frank around the house? I have to say hi to grandma."

She went over to her mother, throwing her arms around her and they hugged for a full two minutes. I never hugged my mom like that.

"What did you do to your hand?" Katie ventured, sounding nervous.

"I hurt it playing basketball." Lie! I broke it because Frank wouldn't let me go to Rachel's gig and I punched a wall. But even Rachel didn't know that. "I saw you guys playing, are you any good?"

They shrugged, looking shy, and I stood up. "If you take after your Aunt Rachel, you must be pretty good."

Colleen giggled. "Daddy says she sucks."

I laughed, as Rachel turned around to glare at her. "Your daddy is just jealous that I can sink that basket from over here. I rock and he knows it."

She took her keys out of her pocket and popped the trunk. Frank took all of her bags along with his, obviously trying to impress the mom. I scowled at him as I put my backpack on, grabbing my bag. I need Mom points!

They led us inside the house, and I stopped as soon as I walked in. This was Rachel's?

It was amazing, of course it was hers. Everything about her was amazing.

I'd never seen her in context. I'd seen her at gigs and bars and hotels. But this was her home, this was her family, and I suddenly understood why she seemed so sane and stable to me.

Look at what she had. My brand new professionally decorated house seemed soulless by comparison. This house screamed history and memories from every inch of it.

It was open and airy, with bookshelves on every available wall, family photos and things scattered on every surface. I wanted to look at every one of them and hear every story.

"How old is this house?"

Her mom smiled at me, letting Rachel lead Frank to the back somewhere. "It was built in the '20s, for my husband's parents. It didn't have the second floor then. In the '70s, when the winery started to do well, we added the addition and opened up all the walls down here. When you put your bags down, I'll give you the tour and show you where things used to be."

"It's beautiful. Rachel told me it's the best place in the world, and I believe her now."

"You haven't even seen it all yet," I smiled at him, starting up the steps, the girls running ahead of me, giggling with one another about where Nick should sleep.

He followed me, glancing around, trying to take it all in. He loved my house! This was the first time I'd brought someone new here when it was mine, not my parents, and I was nervous about being the hostess. But it didn't look like it would be a problem, Nick and Frank both seemed suitably impressed.

It wasn't the Ritz Carlton. But it was mine. I still had trouble believing that.

"Nick should get the green room! Green's his favorite color!" Colleen insisted.

"But there's only little beds in the green room," Katie argued, stopping in front of the blue room.

I looked back at Nick, who was smiling at the girls. "I put Frank downstairs, there's one bedroom there, with a bathroom. My room is back there, I took over the master suite."

Because after my father died, I wanted to be there with all his things. Even after mom moved them all out, I felt better there. I could feel myself starting to miss him, and pushed it to the back of my mind.

"Where were you before you did that?"

"Here. Perks of being the girl, I got the room with the big bed."

He went into the room, glancing out the window. I loved that view of the water, it stretched on forever. I guess he did, too. He smiled and put his bag on the bed. "Can I sleep here?"

"See, I knew he'd want the big bed!" Katie smirked at her sister.

"He hasn't even seen the green room," Colleen protested, and Nick went over to her, taking her hand.

"Well, show me."

Now Colleen got to smirk at Katie, since the Backstreet Boy was holding her hand. She led him back to the green room, and I realized Frank was behind me, holding all my bags. "Gosh, give me those. You are sometimes polite to a fault, Frank!"

"Which room is yours, Rachel?"

I grinned, opening the door at the end of the hallway. He dropped my bags on the floor and looked around. "Nice."

"Thanks." After mom took all of her and dad's furniture to the other house, I'd run up my credit redoing this room and making it mine. Mom insisted that the owner of the house had to have this room. She was right. It was the best room in the house, a view of the bay from one side and view of the trees from the other, and a bathroom to die over. He hadn't even seen that yet.

"It's a beautiful house, Rachel. Thank you for letting me join you."

I smiled at him. "No problem."

"I know I invited myself along, and…"

I punched his arm. "Stop it. You're a guest, and a friend, don't apologize."

He flashed me a rare sly smile. "I know you put me downstairs for a reason…"

Glancing around him to where the girls were still arguing over Nick in the next room, I shook my head at him. "I did not. I was just giving you the best room."

"Yeah. Right." He started to go on, but Nick wailing my name interrupted us.

"What, Nick?" I called, stepping into the hallway.

"Is there another room for me? There might be bloodshed here."

"Girls!" They stopped bickering at the tone in my voice, looking up with guilty expressions. "Let Nick pick his own room, and don't take it so personally. Come here, help me unpack." They came over to me, dragging their feet and glaring at one another. I pulled them into my room and sighed at Nick, who was grinning at me.

Damn, I loved that boy's grin.

"Get my mom to give you and Frank the tour. Let me have a word with these two."

"They're fine, Rache."

I rolled my eyes at him. I knew a Backstreet Boy in their house would be too much for them. "Mommy?" I called out.

"Yes, dear?" She answered from somewhere downstairs.

"Give Nick and Frank the tour? I need to have a word with the girls."

"What did they do?"

"I'll handle it." I looked back at Nick and Frank, who were considering me. "She doesn't bite! Go."

They went downstairs and I went into my room, where the girls were sitting on the loveseat, looking thoroughly chastised.

"Sorry, Aunt Rachel," Katie said. "But she had to be a baby!" She pushed her sister, and I took her arm, sitting her on the bed.

"Quit it, both of you!"

I loved my nieces. I really did. I had to remind myself of that sometimes.

Sighing, I tossed one of my bags on the bed, opening it and unpacking without really thinking about it. I had a lot of laundry to do. "Girls, Nick's going to be staying with me for a few days. Could you not fight every time you see him?"

They glared at one another as I started throwing clothes into piles to be washed.

"He's just a guy. Honestly. I know he's cute, but he's perfectly normal."

Colleen giggled. "You think he's cute…" she singsonged. "Is he your boyfriend?" She said this like it had just occurred to her, and she and Katie looked at one another, excited. A Backstreet uncle!

"Not even. Don't get any ideas in those cute little heads of yours."

Not that I didn't have some ideas of my own…

He'd be sleeping across the hall from me. Could I stand the temptation?

"He's just a friend of mine. I met him a few weeks ago, and he has some time off, so I invited him up here."

"How long is he staying?" Katie wondered.

"Dunno, kiddo. As long as he wants. Frank might leave if he's convinced that Nick won't be mobbed by fans, so act decent, alright?" I zipped up my empty bag and went to shove it in the closet.

"Doesn't Frank want to stay?" Colleen wondered. She agreed with me, this was the best place on earth. Why would anyone ever want to leave?

"Frank needs some time away from Nick. He's Nick's bodyguard, know what that means?"

"It means he makes sure that Nick doesn't get bothered," Katie answered, trying to be impressive with her knowledge. "That's why he's all big and scary."

I laughed. "Frank's not scary. He's really nice." I opened another bag, pulling out more laundry. Jesus, it was going to take me my full two weeks off to do all this laundry. "Anyway, you're right. Only Nick gets bothered all the time, so Frank is with Nick all the time." I stressed the last three words. "He and Nick are a little tired of each other. Ooh, want to see something cool that Nick did for me?"

I pulled out the poster tube that contained the picture Nick had drawn for me at breakfast last week. Colleen came over to sit next to her sister on the bed, both of them nodding at me eagerly. I unrolled it for them. Except for the syrup stain, it was still awesome.

"Wow…" Colleen breathed, looking up at me. "That's you."

"I know. I'm a superhero. Isn't that cool? And that's him, we're off to save the world."

They agreed with me that it was very cool, and helped me find a place to hang it, above the loveseat. I needed to get a frame, but for now tape on the wall would have to do. I went back to unpacking while they examined the picture minutely.

"So are we cool now, girlies? There will be no freak outs around Nick?"

"Yeah…" they agreed. "Can he draw us pictures?"

"Well, not until his hand is better. But I'll ask him."

"Aunt Rachel?" Katie asked, and I looked over at her, tossing dirty clothes over my shoulder into the white pile. Where was my laundry basket?

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Why is Nick here? Is it because he's sad about AJ?"

Their mom had told me that they were full of questions about AJ after seeing them on TRL. My girls were TRL junkies.

"Yeah," Colleen added. "Nick was crying on TV the other day."

I sat on the bed and pulled them over to me. "Yeah, he's sad. He wants to not be bothered for a while, so that he can deal with it. This is a big deal, they had to change their whole schedule around and everything. I know you guys just see them on TV and think they're cool, but they've been on tour for months and months now, they're all tired."

"Why didn't he go home to his mom?" Colleen, the momma's girl, asked.

"Because when Nick goes home, there's always fans outside." They were surprised by that. "He told me so. That's why I don't want you guys telling everyone that he's here, or someone will figure it out. He's just here for a few days, to be quiet and not be bothered."

"Does he get to talk to AJ? Is AJ okay?" Katie wanted to know, and I sighed.

"No, AJ isn't supposed to talk to any of them for a while. It's how he'll get better, he needs to just think about himself and not the band for a few weeks."

Not that I thought that was enough, but no one ever asked me.

I needed my video camera. The view off the deck was too amazing, I hadn't realized that the house sat on a hill that rolled down to the beach. I rummaged in my bag and could hear Rachel talking to the girls.

"But what happened to AJ? Why would he be depressed?" One of them asked, I couldn't tell them apart yet.

"Well, there's a lot of reasons, sweetie, and I only know what Nick's told me, really. But I think a lot of it started when his grandmother died. Remember how sad I was when grandpa died?"

Trying to be quiet, I moved into the hallway to hear better. I could just hear her voice, sadder than I'd ever heard it, I couldn't see them.

"And I was really mean to everyone?"

The girls whispered agreement, sounding a little… nervous? How bad had Rachel been when her dad died? They must have been really close.

"Remember, I was sad and grumpy and mean and I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was lucky, I got be here at this house for a really long time until I started to feel better. AJ didn't get to do that, he really loved his grandma and the day after her funeral, he had to go back to work. See, when I was grumpy and mean, I got to be alone. He was grumpy and mean and he had to be with all sorts of people, so they fought a lot. And to make himself feel better, he drank too much."

"Did you drink too much when you were sad about grandpa?"

Rachel hesitated a second. "Yeah. A few times I did. But it was different than AJ's problem, I think. When you guys get older, you'll understand about drinking more. Drinking's okay, but you can't overdo it all the time. And drinking's more fun when you're with other people. When I was drinking because I was sad, I was by myself, and that wasn't any fun. It just made me sadder. But when AJ was drinking, he was with lots of other people, so he just drank more and did stupid things. I think after a while, the only time AJ could feel okay was when he was drinking or on stage. And that's not good. So he needed to take a break and get out of that situation. Like when I was sad about grandpa, I needed to leave this house for a while."

"But you're not sad in this house anymore."

She laughed. "No. This is the best place in the world, isn't it?"

They giggled with her, agreeing. "So AJ will go away for a while and when he comes back, he'll be okay?"

"Yeah. I think so. It's a good thing he did. He's making himself better. So don't worry about him, all right? He'll be okay, and we'll get to see their show in September now."

She's still planning to go to the show in September. She can't disappoint the girls, I could see that. So she needed me for favors for a little while yet.

"But it was supposed to be next week!" One of them whined, and Rachel laughed.

"So I got your very own Backstreet Boy to stay here for a few days. Not a bad trade, huh? Who's the best aunt ever?"

They squealed her name and then I heard them getting up and Rachel instructing them to go find laundry baskets for her. I rushed back into my room and tried to look busy.

"You okay in here? Thought mom was giving you the tour?"

I turned around and my breath caught in my throat as I looked at her. She was so good with them just now. I would never be able to talk that way to kids. Hell, I couldn't even be that eloquent with the reporters yesterday. "We got the tour. It's not a big house, Rache. Frank is unpacking, I think."

"And you?" She came into the room and sat down on the chair next to the bed. I looked down at my bag, half unzipped.

"I guess I should unpack, too. I was actually just going to look for my video camera. The view here is amazing."

She smiled, looking out the windows, "Yes. I love this room."

She closed her eyes, leaning her head back. She looked so peaceful. I just wanted to touch her. Maybe part of that serenity would rub off on me.

"Rache?"

She didn't open her eyes, "Uh-huh…"

"I heard you telling the girls about AJ."

She sat up and looked at me, a bit startled, "I had to tell them something. Sorry if I wasn't supposed to."

I sat down on the bed and busied myself by looking through my bag. How did I only bring two pairs of jeans? I was so bad at this real life stuff. "No, it's okay. It's just… you were so good with them. I don't think I could explain AJ that well."

"Well, it's your life. Hard to analyze your own life."

"I guess." And five t-shirts? Did I not bring a sweater? Didn't she tell me it got cold here at night? I'm such a dork sometimes. "Thanks for letting me come up here. I know you were looking forward to your week alone."

He looked so sad again. Damn. He'd just been laughing 20 minutes ago. I could tell his hand was hurting him, he winced every time he moved it. I went over to the bed and picked up the shirts and jeans he was unpacking.

"You had to bring the fugly one?" I teased him as I put them away in the dresser.

He shrugged, "I didn't do a very good job packing. Two pairs of jeans, lots of shorts and five t-shirts. "

"We have stores here, Nick. We'll go shopping later this week. I have to pick up tour essentials." He looked positively clueless. "You are so bad at this real life stuff, Nick! Do your minders follow you everywhere you go?"

"No," he responded defensively. I knew he hated talking about his life, but I couldn't help but be fascinated by how everything worked. Tomorrow I'd probably sit down and make out a big list of the things I needed for the tour. I bet he threw his five favorite t-shirts and two pairs of jeans in his backpack and assumed someone took care of the rest. But I was supposed to be making him feel better, so I dropped it.

"Are you tired? Do you wanna take a pill and have a nap?" I couldn't help myself, I leaned over and ran my fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes, leaning into my touch. I felt myself stiffen as he moved closer to me, his forehead practically resting on my stomach as I stood in front of him. Immediately he pulled back, that sad look back in his eyes. Damn, having him here was too dangerous.

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

I nodded down at him, "I'll have mom take Colleen and Katie home and we'll let you get some rest. Do you have your pills?" I stopped myself. "Listen to me. Sounding like your mother!"

"You are so not my mom, Rache," he deadpanned.

I wasn't sure if he was trying to flirt or tell me something about his mother. I had to admit I was more than a little curious about the infamous Momma Carter. She wrote a tell-all about her son, after all. And was all that stuff about her going to the National Enquirer and trying to break he and Willa up true? I never got confirmation from him on that. But now wasn't the time to start grilling him about the home life, was it?

"Sorry. If you need anything, I'll probably be downstairs."

He smiled and I backed out of the room. Maybe he just needed some more sleep. He'd feel better in a few hours.

Chapter 4:
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