Oreos for Breakfast: Nick BSB Fiction

Oreos for Breakfast - Chapter 13
By The Paperbag Princess and The Pumpkin Coach

Corresponding KTBPA Message Board Posts (Fictional!)

"I'd forgotten how big this all was," I smiled over at Nick as we walked into the back of the arena, their massive stage set taking over a quarter of the floor space. In just a few hours this place would be packed with screaming fans, all waiting to see the return of Backstreet. I got goose bumps just thinking about it. I couldn't even imagine how Nick was feeling.

"Yeah, compared to your clubs. But not as big as the Millennium set. That was huge. We had to have two sets that leapfrogged one another, two crews, it was insane."

I looked over at him and he grabbed my hand. He'd barely let me go since I'd stepped off the elevator at the hotel. I squeezed his hand and followed him toward the stage as he told me about the setup.

"Nick!" A man called from behind us, and Nick glanced back, grinning and shaking his hand as he ran up to us.

"Marty, dude. What's up?"

"You're early. Didn't expect to see you until 2 minutes before soundcheck," Marty's phone rang, and he held up a hand to Nick before answering it hurriedly with a series of 'yeah, yeah, no way in hell, call me back.' He sighed and looked back to me, "Is this her?"

Nick smiled down at me proudly, "God, yeah. Sorry. Marty, this is Rachel. Rache, this is Marty, he's our tour manager."

"Oooh, the Lola!" Marty gave me a clueless look, and I laughed, "Sorry, our tour manager, her name is Lola." I extended a hand, and Marty took it quickly. "Nice to meet you."

"I hear you'll be hanging with us quite a bit, Rachel. We need to get you set up, then. Where's Frank, dude?"

"Chillin' in back. Figured we were pretty safe here, you know. I wanted to show my girl around." Nick boasted, grinning at Marty before leaning into me and stage whispering, "You get a pass to Backstreet Land, too!"

"Cool! Can I decorate it with glitter and Backstreet Boy stickers?" I asked, smiling at the memory of Lola and me making Nick's pass for our tour. We'd made it a few weeks ago when he whined that we'd needed better security. It was "laminated" with packing tape and decorated with stickers from a bubblegum machine and glitter, like on my guitar. It mostly hung in our bunk in the bus, though. Our security was Steven and Lola, everyone in the band just slapped a standard meet and greet pass on when venue security arrived, in case they didn't know us on sight.

"Nah, standard issue, sorry." Marty disappeared behind the sound board briefly and emerged with a digital camera. "But it will let you go where ever you want. Now stand back a bit and say cheese."

He held up the camera, and before I knew it, the flash went off and he'd taken my picture. He ran off after that, yelling to Nick that he'd be back in half and hour and to tell Kevin something or other if he came by.

"He's got a bit of energy," I teased, and Nick laughed, walking me over to the stage where people were busily adjusting monitors and lights and equipment. Typical pre-gig stuff. Just then there was a loud noise, and someone popped up out of the middle of the stage.

"Shit!" I stepped back, startled.

"Danny!" Nick hollered, waving to the man now magically standing center stage. We ducked under the stage and there he was again, back down his fox hole and standing in front of us. "I didn't think you were going to be here when we started back up."

"What? And let one of the others pop you from the toaster? Nah. Kelly's not due for another month, so I can stay on. Gotta get in as much time as I can before I'm stuck at home, you know." He looked past Nick and nodded at me, "You're Rachel from Sudden Silence! I recognize you from MTV! Cool."

I smiled at him. It was kind of nice not to be identified solely as "Nick's Girlfriend." I hadn't realized it had bothered me until this moment, but I guess it had. All day I'd been meeting people and my only claim to fame was "Nick's new girl," it seemed.

"Yeah. Nice to meet you. So you pop Nick up onto the stage?"

"Among other things."

"Danny here is cool, Rache. He sails, too, and his wife is gonna have their second baby any second now. Glad you're with us, dude. Hey! Rache, you wanna see the view from up there?" I turned to her, and she eyed me suspiciously as I took her hand again and pulled her over to my circle on the floor.

I loved showing her around and just having her with me. This was all so different from her shows, and it was fun to hear her reactions. During the first show she'd been to, I'd been too worried about whether she liked me or AJ to really watch her react to the technical stuff. But now it was fun. And tonight when I stood up on stage, I'd look down, and she'd be in the pit cheering me on. It'd been a long time since I'd gotten my own cheering section down there.

"What are we doing?" she laughed as I put my arms around her, pulling her to me so that her back was flush against my chest and we both would fit through the hole in the floor. She looked up and then back at me, "We aren't both gonna fit, Nicky."

"Sure we will. Won't we, Danny? Take us up like the opening number?"

"You got it," Danny called back.

Suddenly we were rising up through the stage, and I felt her body stiffen slightly, so I pulled her closer to me, leaning down so my mouth was by her ear, "It's okay, Rache, I got you."

As we cleared the stage floor, I felt her relax a bit, "Ever get stuck, Nick?"

"Only a few times. Usually because I'm doing something dumb like shaking my ass for the crowd when Danny's bringing me down."

She laughed and leaned her head against my chest. "Wow. There are going to be so many people here tonight."

I looked out at the empty seats and felt a familiar tightness in my chest. I always got nervous before the first show. "You're the only one I care about, Rache." I whispered as the platform stopped in position. She turned her head sideways, and I kissed her quickly.

"This is so cool," she breathed, and we stood there for a moment just taking it all in. For a second it was as if all the noises around us faded away, and I tried to see this from her eyes. It was cool.

"I'm the luckiest person on the planet, Rache. A month ago, I didn't know if we'd make it here."

"'We' - you and me or 'we' - Backstreet?" she asked, tilting her head back so she could see me.

"Either. It was scary when AJ was gone," I nearly breathed, not able to get my voice to raise above a whisper.

She took a deep breath and pulled my arms around her tighter, "I know, bunny. But he's fine and you're fine and we're fine. We're all fine fine fine fine!" she ended, singing that line from her song, making me laugh.

"Thank you for being here, Rache," I whispered before kissing her shoulder lightly, feeling her shiver in my arms.

Danny called up, and then we started to descend. As soon as we were safely on the stage level, she turned in my arms, reaching up and running her hands through my hair and grinning up at me.

"Thank you for letting me, baby. I know this is scary for you, but everything's going to be great. The fans are so excited that you are all okay. Hell, they might even be accepting me a little bit!"

That made him smile, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. All week he'd been cranky, and I hadn't known what to say to make him feel any better. He wasn't really mad at me, just annoyed. I knew it was the pressure of all of this, but I couldn't really do anything to help.

I hated feeling that powerless. It seemed as if it was so easy for him to help me when I was feeling overwhelmed, all I needed was for him to pull me into his arms and I felt a little safer, a little more grounded. But I had no idea what made him feel that way. I had the Point House and my family and the music.

He hadn't even hinted that he wanted me to meet his family. Outside of a few conversations with Aaron, I didn't even know if he was talking to them. When we'd talked on Monday at the Point, he'd said that touring was like being home and I forced myself not to think about that too much. What an odd life he'd had, there was no way I could even grasp what he might be feeling now.

I realized I was staring up at him, and he smiled widely before kissing me on the forehead tenderly, and I heard a "click."

"Oh, that will be a good one," Em's familiar voice called somewhere to my left, and as if on cue both Nick and I blurted out, "make me a copy."

"God, now you're talking in unison. You're so in love, it's sickening," she complained before raising her camera and snapping about 6 more quick shots.

"Okay, enough! Enough!" But she kept clicking, "Emma!" I finally hollered, and she put down the camera, smiling at me sheepishly.

"But you're so cute standing here on the stage with all these people running around!"

I looked around and realized I had completely spaced out, lost in Nick's eyes. Man, I sounded like a sappy boy band ballad now. I pulled away from Nick and we joined Em by the side of the stage.

"So, you're getting the full tour?" she asked and I nodded.

"I get a laminate and everything, 'cause I'm an important person!"

"Is it gonna say 'fuckbunny' on it?" she teased and I slapped her playfully.

"Nah, that's my nickname," Nick deadpanned, and we both shook our heads. "Oh! I'll have Marty put "buttercup" on yours, Rache!"

And he was off, leaving Em and me standing alone on the stage.

"Did he just leave me?" I questioned, and Em put an arm around me.

"It's okay, he's got the attention span of a gnat. He'll be back soon, buttercup."

I groaned and pulled out of Em's reach, "Just stop! I know all the sappy nicknames Alex has for you, don't you forget!"

"You do not. We don't have any, Alex is far too English for such things."

I pouted at her, and she just laughed, "Shall we go find AJ to tease instead of me?" I pouted. "Aren't they paying you to do a job?"

"Yeah, yeah. I think I'm annoying the clean and sober one, though," she admitted.

"I can't imagine! You and that camera getting annoying? Never!"

She glared at me, "No more practically free video shoots for you, missy!"

Running back to find Marty, I nearly ploughed into AJ, "Dude! Watch where you're going!"

"Oops… sorry, dawg. I was looking for Marty, seen him?"

"Nah." We heard Em and Rachel laughing, and AJ peered around the corner and then turned back to me, "Hide me, please!" he pleaded, clutching my T-shirt dramatically.

"What's up, Aje? It's just Rachel and Em."

Just then they walked into the room, laughing, having found Frank in the 20 feet between the stage and here, and I immediately felt better. She was so pretty, even just wearing an old T-shirt of mine and her jeans. After we'd made love, she'd stolen that T-shirt saying she wanted to feel me near her all day, even when I was off doing press. She was always saying sweet things like that.

"AJ!" Em called and he moved behind me, like a child scared of Santa Claus and clutching his mother's legs, "I could be missing some great moment!"

"Fuck that. I'm telling ya, I'm going to be stoic onstage, just to piss you off," AJ responded as I pulled away from him.

I felt an arm around my waist and grinned down at Rachel, "Stoic, that's a word I often associate with you, Aje."

He pulled a serious, expressionless face at her, making her giggle. "See, the whole show, just like that. No reaction."

"You want to waste that sort of money? Do you have any idea how much you paid her to catch your angst?"

AJ rolled his eyes. "I didn't pay her. Wasn't my idea."

"Hey!" Em whined, "Do you hate me?"

"Can you not take my picture for like, 5 minutes?" he begged.

"Of course, sweetie," Em smiled. "I'm sorry. I'll take the happy couple's picture!" She snapped a picture of us before I could blink, and Rachel giggled, snuggling up against me. I liked her like this. Comfortable around my friends and happy, wanting to be close to me. Sometimes I thought it was just me, but then she'd be like this and I knew it wasn't. She loved me, and we'd figure all this out. She'd visit, and I'd come join her when we had a day off. That's what money was for, right?

Kevin stood in the doorway, "MTV in five, dudes! Em, can you come talk with Marty for a second? He wants to show you where you can shoot from once the show starts."

Em smiled at AJ, "A brief reprieve for you! Rache, are you going to watch the blond wonder run the press gauntlet?"

Rachel bit her bottom lip and considered me. No, she couldn't. I didn't want to let her leave my side. Mentally I was counting down the hours until she was going to have to leave, but I knew she shouldn't be there. It would just cause more rumors and publicity about us.

"No," I answered for her, and she smiled slightly. "Want her to help carry your cameras?"

Em laughed as Marty appeared seemingly out of nowhere, "Sure. I bet she won't whine as much as you did!"

"Very funny," I laughed. Everyone started to follow Marty and Kevin, and I pulled Rachel back.

"If you want to come you can, Rache."

"No. Thank you, bunny. But you know what will happen."

I sighed, "I'm sorry I'm such a liability, Rache."

She leaned up and kissed me quickly but as she pulled back, I wrapped my hand in her hair, pulling her closer and deepening our kiss. She moaned softly as she opened her mouth, surrendering to me, her finger tracing a tiny circle on the back of my neck and making me shiver.

"I love you, bunny," she sighed as we pulled apart. "Soon we'll be old news and Jeremy won't scream every time you are mentioned in a Sudden Silence article. Promise."

I nodded, "I know. I'll try and make it quick, okay? I'll come find you and Em when we're done, and we'll have a few moments alone before the show."

"Cool," she smiled at me, finally pulling away and disappearing down the hall to find Em and Marty.

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