Birds In Your Garden - Chapter 7

Message Board Posts for Chapter 7 (fictional)

She was walking down the hall from the vans with some of the other dancers. Hearing footsteps and laughter behind her, she turned, but it was too late. Before she even turned around, she was lifted up and carried off in Kevin's arms to cackles of laughter. "What're you doing?" she laughed, kicking her feet.

"Taking you to the prom, baby," he teased, swinging her around as she clung to him with her arms around his neck.

"You geek!" she cried out, hearing more laughter behind them with Nick repeating 'geek!' and AJ calling 'loser!' behind them. Brian and Howie started chanting 'Go, Kevin! Go, Kevin!' as the dancers chanted 'Go, Jana! Go, Jana!'.

He put her down a few steps further and wrapped his arm around her shoulder comfortably. "It was too easy," he explained without being asked. "Besides, we've got a few steps ahead so I could do this." He pulled her around a corner and pinned her against the wall, kissing her fervently.

She dropped her head back against the wall once he pulled away to catch her breath and blinked at him. "Did you take a testosterone shot or something on your ride over?"

"No," he said with a slow shake of his head, dipping forward, teasing to kiss her but pulling back before his lips touched hers. "I was just watching you walk." He dropped his chin and put his hands on her waist, making them sway slightly. "And thought…I need to feel that sway more personally."

"A little aggressive, aren't we, Kevy?" she laughed, sliding her hands around his hips and down his butt, pulling his hips against her. He didn't bother to answer. His mouth sought hers out, kissing her fiercely as he reached down and lifted her leg up slightly around him. She wrapped her foot around his leg and pushed her hips against him, feeling his erection through his jeans. "What's gotten into you?" she chuckled.

"Ever have one of those moments when all you can do is think about how amazing sex is with someone?" he asked, running the back of his hand over her tee shirt.

"You can't control the urges?" she asked, cocking her head to the side with a lift of the eyebrow.

"Do I have to?" he asked with a deep voice, kissing her again and thrusting his hips against her.

"Um," she hesitated, looking around the room they were in, "I don't quite call this private and discreet." She reached up to run her hand down the back of his neck and pull him back for a kiss, sliding her leg down his calf. "I think you might need to wait, baby," she whispered, breaking from him.

"Jana," he moaned against her.

"Use that tension for your fans," she said, sliding her hand down his groin, caressing firmly as she kissed him again. "I'll wait for you in your room where it's a bit more private." She could feel her heart pounding against her chest with desire. He was so close to her, smelling of aftershave and his hands caressed her hips and torso. Her knees wanted to buckle beneath him, but somehow she managed to slide along the wall and break free. When she turned to look at him from the doorway, his forehead was against the wall, his palms flat against the wall, eyes closed, and biting his bottom lip.

She went back to stand behind him, resting her cheek along his spine and sliding her arms around his waist. "I am so going to make it worthwhile, Kevin," she promised before stepping away from him.

'Damn them,' she thought, watching Kevin hit each move in front of her. 'Damn all 50,000 of them. What was I thinking back there?' Kevin's hair was already sticking to his forehead, and neck and each time his arms came out, his black jacket somehow accentuated every move he made. Even when he took a step, she could see each muscle pulling taut beneath the leather pants. She'd spent the last hour trying to forget the image of him standing in front of her, caressing her with such an intense look in his eye, and now he had the same look as he stepped back and glanced to her. He knew precisely what he was doing, be it for the fans or for her, he had his sexuality turned full blast and was positively lethal. He was definitely using that tension up here and she was quickly falling victim to it. Another image flashed through her mind as he tossed his head back, eyes closed, skin coated with sweat and his hair matted to his forehead, bathed in the blue light with his arms stretching out to his sides, hips thrusting forward. If it weren't for the 50,000 people screaming, she'd grab a handful of his hair, pull his head back and kiss him until he couldn't breathe…right here and right now. 'Damn all 50,000 of them!'

Private and discreet is not grabbing hold of Jana in front of a screaming audience and doing things to her that half the kids in the audience hadn't even had explained to them yet. Right now, he stood on the walkway over the band, watching her dance in the mist below, oblivious to him watching every step and movement she made. Each time she arched her back he could feel the desire stir deep inside and images of her straddling him in their bed swirled through his head. The stage lights seemed warmer than usual, and he could feel his collar rub against the back of his neck. Maybe no one would notice if he pulled her down into the mist…

They could hear the video playing, the audience screaming through most of it as they mocked one another over what they were really doing down below the stage. It was nothing as calm or organized as what the fans were watching. Clothes were tossed to assistants and dropped on the floor. He pressed a towel against his face and slid it over his hair to wipe the sweat pouring down his neck, hastily stepping into his pants and pulling a tank top over his head. Everything felt like it was sticking to him. Nick complained about not being able to hear his mix right. Alex was attempting to clear his throat. Brian and Howie were splashing water from their water bottles over their heads.

"Dude," Nick said, hitting his shoulder playfully, "are you here?"

"Hum?" he asked, turning to look at the rest of them.

"You seem a little distracted," Alex said, slapping his towel against Kevin's butt. "Has our fair Jana been stealing your attention this evening? Hummmmm?" He stepped right in front of Kevin and lifted to his toes, lifting his eyebrows and widening his eyes curiously.

"Mind your own business," he said with a smile, grabbing AJ's towel and play strangling him before starting back up the steps for the introductions.

She couldn't help herself, honestly. She knew the steps by heart, as did Kevin, but there was plenty of room for improvisation, and she was going to see just how good he was on his feet. She stepped up in front of him, suppressing a giggle as she started to dance with him. Instead of the usual turn, she locked her knee around his leg, just like she had done in the side room earlier. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and she put her hand at the back of his neck, arching her back with him supporting her before joining up with the routine and the other dancers. He didn't lose a step or a note, but she saw the laugh behind his eyes and the teasing reprimand in the way he tilted his head and grinned. He didn't have to be so damn sexual, she considered playfully as she turned past him, running her hand along the firmness of his abdomen and causing a loud squeal from the audience as she grabbed his butt quickly. AJ saw that one and called out a playful 'Good God!'.

Barely off stage, she felt Kevin come up along side of her, draping his arm around her shoulder. "That wasn't very nice," he said in her ear.

"I couldn't help myself," she giggled.

"Yeah, well, I can't help myself now," he replied dragging her into the fellas' dressing room.

"Kevin!" she squealed, trying to back away, but he wouldn't let her go and dragged her inside, closing the door immediately and leaning her against it. "Private? Discreet?" she laughed as he peeled his shirt off over his head before leaning over to kiss her, slipping his tongue inside her mouth to just taste a part of her.

"Yeah, Kevin!" AJ called, pounding on the door outside. "Private? Discreet?"

"Fuck," he muttered, scowling. "I hate being in a group."

"Not much longer," she purred into his ear, squeezing his butt with both hands before the door was pushed open.

"Kevin! Dude!" AJ laughed coming in, followed by Howie and Nick.

"I hate y'all," Kevin announced with a wave of his arms, stepping over to his section. He tossed a shirt on, not bothering to button it and grabbed his bag and started out the door, taking Jana by the hand. "And I'm not letting you out of my sight for a second."

"I have to get…" she started to protest, but he squeezed her hand and continued walking to the waiting vans with the rest of the boys in tow.

"Reminds you of the good 'ol days, doesn't it fellas?" AJ teased, climbing in beside Kevin and Jana, holding Sarah's hands.

"What good 'ol days, man?" Nick whined. "Your good 'ol days meant y'all were getting' somthin' and I went home to play fucking Nintendo by myself. I'm not seeing what's so dang good about them!"

"Or just play by yourself," AJ teased.

"This fucking sucks," Nick groaned, slouching down into the seat with a scowl.

AJ stuck his thumb and pinky finger out, lifting them to his hear. "Hello, Rache?" He put his hand up to Nick's ear. "It's for you."

"Aw, dawg!" Nick groused, pushing AJ's arm away. "Just fuckin'…bite me!"

"Not in mixed company, Nicky" Alex protested, squaring his shoulder.

They continued to tease each other and Kevin lowered his head, pretending to whisper something to Jana. Instead, he took her earlobe between his lips and sucked lightly until she shrugged and pulled away, trying not to giggle and busied her hands by running her hands over his chest in the darkness of the van before buttoning his shirt up.

"…And they're getting' it on over there!" Nick waved a hand at them. "This sucks!"

She tried to let go of Kevin's hand as they got out of the van, but he refused to let go. Instead of following everyone else to the front of the hotel, they followed Carlos through the back entrance, passing three or four fans on their way in, and went through the kitchen and up the service elevator.

"Good night, Carlos," Jana called as she was dragged down the hallway. She turned slightly and waved, laughing when Kevin tugged her arm a bit.

Once they were inside the door, Kevin picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, placing her down on the bed. "Enough of this foreplay," he said, keeping his eyes on her while his hands easily unbuttoned his shirt and he ripped it off his shoulders and let it fall behind him. He put a knee up on the mattress and took hold of the bottoms of her sweatpants, sliding them off her just as easily before stepping out of his pants. As he was doing that, she pulled her tank top over her head and sat up to point to his suitcase. "You still need something," she reminded him. He groaned deep in his throat and went over to the suitcase, pulling out a box of condoms, letting the box drop to the floor once he had one. "It's worth the hassle for the view, baby," she encouraged, sliding her hands over his bare hips once he came back to the bed. "I'm tellin' ya, that's the best ass walking."

He went directly to her once the condom was on and put his knees on either side of her legs. Leaning over to kiss her neck, he could taste the salt on her skin and he ran his tongue up behind her ear, taking her ear lobe between his lips again. He pulled back, sliding his tongue inside her parted lips to taste more of her before he dropped his mouth to her breasts, circling each nipple with the tip of his tongue.

Her hands rubbed along his back before she moved them between his legs, each palm encasing one of his balls and massaging them gently. She then ran her hand over his length and was rewarded with a deep groan of pleasure. She shifted beneath him, wrapping her legs around his and lifted her hips up to guide him into her wetness. This time, he lifted up on his hands and dropped his head back with closed eyes as he buried his length inside of her, unable to even start with a slow pace.

He had been aching to be inside of her for hours, and she felt so good beneath him. He could feel the heat of her palms hold onto his waist before reaching down to pull him deep inside her. He dropped his chin to watch her bite her bottom lip and sigh heavily with his thrust, pulling him inside of her again and lifting her hips up to meet him quickly. He lowered himself down to rest on his elbows to kiss her, trying to find his breath in between, but she pulled him against her again and he rose back up onto his hands to thrust deeply. This time she gasped 'God, yes,' in response and arched her back up.

Just hearing her pleasure was enough to send him over the edge, bucking against her as he came with his own grunts and moans.. She squeezed his buttocks against her, still moving her hips beneath him, moaning with each thrust she made until she arched her back again and pushed her head into the mattress with a loud cry.

She slid her hands up into his hair and pulled him against her, kissing him deeply and writhing beneath him, wrapping her legs up around his butt to hold him in place. It was all she could do to breath, but she didn't want to lose the sensation of feeling him inside of her, how his lips felt against her, or the way his tongue responded to hers.

Finally, he dropped next to her, lifting his arms up over his head and panting heavily. "Well, that wasn't very discreet," he chuckled. "I think they heard you down below."

"Let 'em have an accurate fantasy," she replied, rolling on her side and draping a leg over his. "Kevin Richardson makes you scream in pleasure when he fucks you senseless."

"What the hell did they put in the water here?"

"Whatever it is," she said, pressing her lips against his chest and nipping at his bare skin, "don't you dare come in and try to fix it."

"Are you kidding me? I might have to bottle it and keep it all for myself!"

They had driven most of the night to get to Michigan from their last venue the day before in Buffalo the night before. When he had gone to sleep, the sun had been just about to rise. Kevin woke up to pounding on his door and squinted his eyes open in the direction with a loud, tired groan. The bedside clock read 12:30, and he had no intentions of getting up just yet, but the knocking persisted and soon he heard Brian calling his name. He slowly kicked the blankets off and dragged himself from the mattress, rubbing his bare chest with one hand and his eye with his other as he stumbled towards the door, opening it and walking away as Brian pushed his way in, closing the door behind him.

"Well, we've got a problem," Brian said, standing in front of Kevin with his hands on his hips.

"What?" Kevin asked, laying down on the couch and covering his eyes with his arm.

"Kristin's talked," Brian said, watching Kevin intently as Kevin sat up, immediately awake and concerned. "To the press."

"Oh, fuck, you're kidding me," he muttered angrily.

"No, I'm not kidding you." He shook his head slowly. "E! News Daily. She was at some event in L.A. and someone talked to her, asked her about you and she said she wouldn't know as you were involved with a dancer on your tour and asking for a divorce."

"She fucking didn't!" Kevin growled, his jaw dropping open as his eyes widened in disbelief. "She fucking didn't!" Brian only nodded slowly in response. "I'll fucking kill her!" Kevin stomped through the suite room to get his cell phone and dialed Kristin's speed dial.

"Kev! Kev…don't!" Brian said, following behind him quickly and pulling the phone from him, clicking it off. "Chill out first," he reasoned. "We need to talk to the rest of the fellas and the Firm is sending someone up to discuss it and we'll work something out."

"Does Jana know?" Kevin asked quickly, whirling around to the phone on the nightstand and punching in her room number. "Shannon?"

"She's not here, Kevin," she said gently.

"Where'd she go?"

"I don't know," she said. "She got a call earlier this morning, got dressed and rushed out of here. What's going on?"

"We'll talk later," he said, thanking her quickly and hung up. "She's gone. Someone must have called her. Fuck," he muttered with an angry sigh, covering his chin with his hand and looking to Brian with wide eyes. "Fuck!"

"I'll go get the rest of the guys," Brian said. "Get dressed, and we'll talk through how we're going to handle it."

"I need to find Jana, Bri," Kevin said firmly, walking across the room to his jeans in a heap on the floor and stepping into them. "Let me go see where she is first."

"Kevin, we don't know what's waiting for us out there," Brian said, pointing to the door.

"And I'm not going to let her face it on her own, Brian!" Kevin pointed too, his face covered in anger and fear. "Let me go make sure she's okay and let her know if she doesn't already."

Brian sighed but nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I'll go collect the boys and we'll meet you back here."

"Yeah, okay." Kevin grabbed a tee shirt and started towards the door, pulling it over his head as he walked. He could barely contain his anger as he stepped, feeling each muscle start to shake with the tension and his jaw clenched. If Jana rushed out after a phone call, she knew. Someone had called her. He couldn't believe Kristin would go to the press. Not like this, anyway. It wasn't even remotely in her character to be this deceitful, in spite of what was happening between them. It had to be a mistake; a huge, fucking mistake, but a mistake.

He tried to figure out where Jana would be, but there was no one in the hallways. He went down to the dancer's hallway and knocked on the door, but Shannon answered, pulling him into the room nervously, asking what happened.

"It's in the media," he said quickly, looking around the room. "You know who called or where she went to?" Shannon shook her head, her eyes opening wide in shock. He looked to her and closed his eyes quickly. "I have to get back upstairs and have a group meeting. When she comes back, tell her to come up immediately. If she doesn't know, don't tell her. Just tell her I need to talk to her."

"Who would go to the media?" Shannon wondered aloud.

"Kristin," he answered gruffly and headed out of the room, feeling the dread of what today was going to bring. He barely saw, much less, spoke to anyone he met in the hallways. He headed into his room, looking as soon as he opened the door and saw the rest of the group sitting around the suite room, looking at him. He closed the door behind him and locked the door, taking a deep breath before heading further into the room.

"Sorry, man," AJ said with a sincere glance.

"Yeah, man, sorry," Nick echoed quietly, sprawling his legs out from where he slouched on the couch.

"I don't know where she went," Kevin sighed, dropping to the floor in front of the coffee table and sitting Indian style, looking around to them. "I'm sorry, guys. I didn't expect her to talk to the media just yet."

"Well, how do you want to handle it?" Brian asked.

"By wringing someone's Goddamned neck," he answered furiously, fixing Brian with a firm glance.

"Well, that's not likely," Brian answered calmly. "What're we going to say if someone asks?"

Kevin closed his eyes, trying to take a breath and calm his thoughts. Instead, he could feel his hands forming into fists and his jaw clench. His thoughts wandered to where Jana might be. He shook his head and looked down to the carpeting, forcing another breath.

"Kevin?" Howie prompted patiently.

"I don't know," he answered, looking up to them all watching him with concern. "Going public with AJ going to re-hab was something that was going to affect the shows, and the fans and all that. This isn't going to affect that. Or, technically, it shouldn't."

"But it will," Brian added knowingly. "You know it will."

"I know it will," Kevin growled, fixing him with a look. "Can I just…" He exhaled deeply and closed his eyes.

"Give him a minute to think," Howie said to Brian, leaning over the back of the couch and nudging him.

"Management is going to be pounding on the door in a minute," Nick said hesitantly as everyone looked to him. "Well, you know they are!"

"Dude," AJ said, looking over to Kevin, "I think you're on to something. I had to leave the tour, that was going to affect everything. We didn't hide from it. We didn't lie about it, and in the end, we did the right thing. I don't think we need to go into details of what's happening, but we can't cover it up and lie about it. There's too many people that know around here that will contradict whatever story we come up with. So, we gotta go with the truth as much as possible."

Kevin shook his head. "I want to talk to her," he said. "I need to figure out why the hell she said something and get the whole story." He stood up and headed back into his suite room, finding his cell phone on the bed and pressed the speed dial number again. Kristin answered, her voice scratchy from being woken up. "What the hell did you do?" he barked into the phone.

"Kevin?" she asked.

"Yes, Kevin! What the hell did you do, Kristin!" he yelled. "You took it to the media?"

"No!" she argued. "What… I didn't talk to anyone!"

"You didn't tell someone from E! that I was having an affair with a dancer yesterday?" he grilled.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "He wasn't a reporter! Kevin? Oh God, he was a reporter?" her voice rose in panic. "Oh, God, no!"

"Oh God, YES, Kristin!" he screamed, slamming his hand down on the chest of drawers furiously. "Who the fuck are you telling anyway, Kristin? You know better! What the fuck?"

"I thought he was a friend of Kelly's!" she protested, her voice shaking. "Oh, God, Kevin, I'm sorry! I swear to you…I didn't know he was a reporter!"

"How do you not know a reporter from E! News Daily? Do you know what you've done, Kristin?"

"I swear, Kevin!" she cried. "I swear I didn't know!"

"What the hell else did you tell them, so we know?"

"Nothing!" she said, her voice shaking in sobs. "He asked me how you were, and I had a bit too much to drink and wasn't thinking. It was just some sarcastic comment."

"And what did you say? Exactly?"

"That I didn't know how you were because you were having an affair with a dancer on the tour and stopped calling me. I was just bitter, Kevin. It just came out! Oh, God, I didn't mean to start this! I swear to you! I didn't mean to start anything!"

"Well, you have," he snapped angrily. "Don't fucking talk to anyone about this, okay? Let me see if we can do some Goddamned damage control."

"Kevin," she cried, "I'm sorry!"

"Well, you'll get your chance to prove that," he said gruffly. "You had better go along with whatever it is we come up with."

"I'm so sorry, Kevin."

"You know, I wanted this to be nice, Kristin. I don't want it to get ugly," he spat.

"Neither do I! We haven't even had a chance to talk about anything! I don't know what happened!"

"You fucking do too!" he yelled. "And if anything, you just gave us clearance to go public depending on how well we can manage the situation." He dropped his head back and closed his eyes, attempting to take another breath. "So help me, Kris, you'd better agree to whatever we come up with."

"Look, Kevin, go talk to whoever you need to talk to and call me," she said, her voice shaking. "I won't leave the house and I won't answer the phone for anyone but you, okay? We'll talk it through, okay?"

"I'll call you back," he answered, clicking the phone off and throwing it across the room furiously. Brian came into the room, sticking his head in and looking around for him with wide eyes. Kevin was leaning against the dresser, his arms folded and his head lowered, biting his lips. Brian closed the door and came in to sit on the bed across from him. Kevin lifted his head to glare at him. "She didn't know it was a reporter," he said, unable to lose the anger in his tone.

"You have to chill out, Kev," Brian said slowly, knowing how hard Kevin was struggling to be calm. "We're all here to talk it through and work it out. It can work out, but we've got to think and stay calm to figure it out, okay?"

"I'm trying!" Kevin yelled, lifting his hands up seconds later knowing Brian was going to tell him to calm down. "I'm trying," he said with more reserve. "I'm concerned about Jana."

"We can't help that right now," Brian said. "And she's going to catch a lot of the blame for it just because they're going to kiss your butt to keep you innocent. She's going to take a lot of the heat for this. You both had to know that."

"It wasn't supposed to come out like this," Kevin said, swiftly shaking his head. "We didn't talk about how it was going to come out. Just that we both knew it would."

"Yeah, well, we all didn't talk about it, either," Brian said. "And we're all in there waiting to talk about it, but you need to get your head together so we can."

"I know," Kevin agreed with a deep breath. "Give me five minutes, okay? I'll be out in five minutes. I just…I need to…"

"Yeah, all right," Brian agreed, pulling himself up. He stepped over to Kevin and placed a hand on his shoulder. Kevin patted Brian's hand and nodded before closing his eyes.

He was too angry and knew it was fueled by his concern for Jana. There was a mix of emotions making their way into his thoughts, and he could feel his eyes tear over with the frustration. She was going to have to leave. He knew that it wasn't fair, and he didn't want her to leave, but he knew.

He believed Kristin, too. The shock in her voice and the sincere tone… he knew. It was going to haunt her as well. Regardless of how upset she was, she wouldn't have brought all this on herself. It was going to be a nightmare if the media ran with it, and they would. Another scandal in the Backstreet camp, just what they were hoping for!

He pulled his hair off his face and formed his hands into fists. Pushing himself up from the dresser and lifted his shoulders in a breath and exhaled loudly, then headed back into the suite room. No one was talking. Nick was looking down to his lap, AJ was picking at his jeans, Brian was sitting on the floor watching his foot bob and Howie had his head lowered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry," Kevin said softly, joining them and sitting in the chair. "I just needed…"

"'S' all right, dude," AJ said. "We know."

"I don't want to bring it to the media," Kevin said. "I don't think we should even hint at it or bring it up."

"We know that," Howie said, looking to him. "But people are going to ask. What do you want us to say?"

"I don't want to lie about it," Brian interjected. "I think AJ's right. We can't try to cover it up. Everyone knows there's something going on, and we can't start lying to them all now. We just can't. They'll know."

"I don't want y'all to lie," Kevin said, looking at each of them, waiting for Nick to look at him before going on. "I don't think we should go into it, but if it comes up, let me talk."

"You're not always going to be around, though, Kev," Nick said.

"Than just say…it's not something you think you can answer. It's a personal situation that really doesn't play in to what Backstreet's about." He looked to them all curiously. "Is that something y'all can live with?"

"What're you going to say when it comes up?" Howie asked.

"That it's a personal situation that has no place being aired in the media," he said, falling back into the chair. "We never claimed to be perfect and people make mistakes."

"That's gonna sound like Jana's the mistake," AJ said.

"Yeah," Kevin agreed with a nod. "I don't want it to sound like that."

"How about, we're just human and we have faults and because we're in the public eye, the normal faults of everyday people are highlighted more than anyone else?" Brian said.

"Sometimes the best intentions just don't work out and we have to handle them as best we can," Howie said. "Because we're in the public eye, our human side is sometimes overlooked because we're held up to a higher standard but we are just normal guys trying to deal with personal issues privately?"

"That's good," Kevin said, leaning forward with a nod. "Then I could say something like, what's happening in my private life isn't going to affect what I give to our music or our fans and that the shows are still going to take top priority and hope that our fans understand..."

"We hope our fans understand that we need to keep our private lives private," Nick added.

They all turned, hearing knocking at the door, and Kevin got up, looking through the peephole before he threw the door open. Jana came in, her eyes brimming with tears, and she was immediately brought into Kevin's embrace. She couldn't even speak yet and reached her arms around him, clutching his tee shirt with tight fists and began sobbing against him.

"We're done," AJ said to the rest of them quietly, sliding off the table. Each of them patted Kevin's back or shoulder as they made their way past, and Nick stopped just before leaving to turn back and brush his hand down Jana's back tenderly. She lifted her head up to him with tears streaming down her face and broke into another burst of sobs at his gentle expression. Kevin attempted a grateful smile, but barely managed to form one as Nick closed the door behind him.

"What happened?" Kevin asked, leading them over to the couch.

"It's over," she said, her voice in a high pitch as she tried not to break down again.

"What's over?" he asked, pulling back in a panic to look her in the face.

"I'm leaving the tour," she said, biting her bottom lip.

"They just fucking fired you without…"

"No, Kevin!" she said shaking her head quickly and placing her fingers over his lips. "No, they didn't fire me. I quit," she said softly, pulling her hair off her face as more tears streamed down her face. Kevin's expression twisted in confusion, and she continued. "Oh, come on, Kevin! You know it's the only thing we could do! You can't leave! And if I stay it's going to become all about trying to catch us doing something we shouldn't be! There are already people downstairs asking the fans questions about it. If anyone's seen something, if anyone heard anything… It's the only responsible thing to do! Besides, if I didn't quit, it was only a matter of time before they asked me to leave. I had to pretend to be at least a little professional to rescue what little bit of Fatima's reputation is left. She's livid with me right now, and I don't blame her! Your management company is having a total shit fit. The sooner I'm out of here, the sooner you all have a chance to kill the story and make it history."

"Make what history?" he asked quickly, putting his hands on her arms and bringing them down, his eyes widening in question. "Us? Absolutely fucking not, Jana!"

"No, the story, Kevin!" she emphasized, shaking her head side to side with a sigh.

"Who called you this morning?" he asked, reaching over to wipe a tear from her cheek as it slid down.

"Leslie," she said, closing her eyes and more tears fell, which he wiped away. "She was getting ready for work and heard it. As soon as she said it, I knew I would be quitting. By the time I made it to the lobby and saw way too many adults with professional cameras outside, I knew there was no other option. It's going to be a madhouse until I leave." He sighed, hearing a firm knock at the door and looked to her. "They're here," she said gently, pulling back from him and wiping her face.

"They can fucking wait," he said, sliding closer to her.

She shook her head and leaned away from him. "They can't," she said. "Go ahead. I'm fine."

He glanced back to her as he made his way to the door and opened it, finding Connie and Jim from their management team, The Firm, on the other side. The rest of the boys were making their way down the hallway as Connie pushed her way into the suite with a scowl. "Do any of you know what kind of chaos this is going to create?" Connie started.

"Yes, we're aware!" Kevin yelled. "We're not fucking stupid!"

"It's happened now," Howie said reasonably. "There's nothing we can do about it, but work out a solution."

"Some Goddamned solution," Kevin grumbled. "She's out."

Everyone but Connie and Jim looked to Jana quietly sitting in the corner of the couch, doing her best to disappear and keep from sobbing again. She hadn't ever wanted to see Kevin lose his patience, but it was happening. His jaw was tight, and his eyes were flashing at everything he looked at. It almost seemed like his muscles grew he was so tense, and he could barely keep still.

"She's out?" Nick asked, looking to Kevin and Connie and Jim. "Jana? You're out?" he asked her, moving past them all to stand in front of her. "You can't just fire someone without talking to us!"

"I quit," she corrected, her voice barely audible. "It was the right thing to do."

"Jana! No!" Nick protested, dropping down next to her and his eyes widened as he turned to Connie and Jim.

Kevin said in a deep voice. "She may not tour with us, but she'll be around."

"Kevin…" Jana started.

"I'm not going to hide you!" he interrupted. "And I'm not going to lie to the media. It's none of their business and I'll tell them so. But I'm not going to act like I made a mistake!"

"We'll discuss what's going to be said," Connie said sternly. "And how we're going to approach the media."

"It's been discussed," Kevin said, returning the stern tone.

"Okay," AJ chimed in, walking over to Jim and putting his hand on his shoulder, leading him towards the door. "We're going to take some time here and cool off. Why don't we order lunch and talk then, okay? That'll give us some time to calm down and be a little more rational." He walked Jim to the door and turned, opening his arm out to Connie. "Connie? Okay? We'll have lunch. We'll discuss it all then."

"Fine," she said, storming past Kevin with another defiant stare.

Message Board Posts for Chapter 7 (fictional)

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Read the companion story:
Oreos for Breakfast (Nick Fanfic)
by The Pumpkin Coach & Paperbag Princess

c. 2001, 2002 by Coriander
Some content not suitable for children. You have been warned.

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