"Thanks, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it," Shayla said. "Come look at this view of the beach," she said leading her to the huge glass sliding doors on the back of the house. She flicked on the light switch and lights lit up the path leading down to the beach.
"Oh it's beautiful," McKenzie gushed. "I'm gonna be spending a lot of time here this summer when school gets out," McKenzie said.
"For more than one reason I'm sure," Shayla hinted referring to Brian being her neighbor.
"Well he and Nick are best friends. They spend a lot of time together. He probably has a girlfriend though and anyway why would he be interested in someone like ordinary me?" McKenzie pouted.
"Actually, from what Leighanne has told me, he recently broke up with some girl he's been with off and on for a while. It was apparently a very tumultuous relationship and very bad for him. And what's wrong with being ordinary? You're beautiful. But I think it would be hard to date someone that famous and who's gone all the time. But hey, you guys could become very good friends," Shayla told her.
McKenzie shot Shayla a look like just friends was the worst thing in the world. Shayla laughed. They changed clothes because they had been all sweaty from the concert and freshened up real quick.
"Here take one of my sweaters in case we end up outside. It gets kinda cold by the beach at night," Shayla said tossing her a sweater.
"Shayla thanks so much for all of this. This has been absolutely wonderful. I love you," McKenzie said hugging Shayla.
"I love you too, and you're welcome. Now come on, let's go. The guys should be back by now and you want to see Nick," Shayla said flipping her hair and talking in a sultry voice to tease McKenzie.
"Oh and you don't wanna see AJ? Puh-lease," McKenzie teased back.
"I don't know if I want anything more than just friends with him right now," Shayla said as they walked out the door.
"Girl are you crazy? Do you even realize that he...... No I guess you don't since you don't know him as a Backstreet Boy," McKenzie rambled.
*At The Party*
Leighanne led Shayla and McKenzie through the house out to the back patio. The place was jumping with music and noise. There were a lot of people there. Some of the Backstreet Band and their dancers were there along with just some of their regular friends. "Hey there you are. I've been waiting for you to get here," AJ said as Shayla and McKenzie appeared. AJ placed an arm around Shayla immediately. She knew by now that AJ was a constant flirt and was partly just being friendly so she allowed him to leave his arm around her. Leighanne nudged Brian and pointed to AJ. Brian rolled his eyes and told her to stay out of it.
"Hi McKenzie," Nick said from his spot next to Brian. He always got goofy and awkward when he first met someone he liked. Plus he was unsure of himself because he just broke up with someone.
"Hi Nick. Do you think if you have time later, you could sign that shirt for me?" McKenzie asked him.
"Yeah sure, I can do that," he said with a big smile.
"Are you having a nice birthday?" Howie asked McKenzie. Howie had brought a date with him. A new girl he just started seeing named Allie. No one knew much about her.
"This has been the best birthday ever," McKenzie raved.
"Hey we haven't asked you guys if you enjoyed the show?" Brian said.
"Actually Shayla was just giving us rave reviews," AJ said as he and Shayla walked over to them.
Shayla gave Brian hug, "thank you so much for the tickets and passes Brian. We had the best time. And happy birthday," she said. Shayla pulled away from the hug as Brian squeezed her. They looked at each other oddly. It was a strange sensation anytime they touched.
McKenzie gave each of the guys a hug thanking them. Nick held onto his hug as long as he could without making it look obvious to everyone that he was interested in her. Shayla noticed and looked at Leighanne giving her the thumbs up sign.
"I'll be back, I need to get something from the kitchen," Leighanne said.
"I'll help you," Shayla said following her. She needed to break away from AJ for a minute. He was coming on pretty strong and she knew that was just the way he was but she just wasn't sure about it.
"So what are we getting in here?" Shayla asked Leighanne.
"This," Leighanne said turning around taking a huge cake from a box. They both started laughing. It said, Happy Birthday Brian and McKenzie on it.
"Oh my gosh! Aww you're so sweet. Kenzie's gonna be thrilled," Shayla said.
"Here, help me put the candles on," Leighanne said handing her some.
"Ok," Shaya took some of the candles. She and Leighanne were cracking up trying to organize all the candles. There were 25 for Brian and 18 for McKenzie. "Shsh, she'll hear us and come in here," Shayla whispered.
"Nah, she's too busy making goo goo eyes at Nick," Leighanne said as they both started laughing again.
"I think my sister is going to be visiting me a lot this summer," Shayla said.
"And what about you and AJ? I think he really likes you. He kept watching the doors waiting for you backstage tonight," Leighanne said.
"I don't know," Shayla said concerned.
"What don't you know? He's a good guy and he's sexy and funny," Leighanne said handing her a lighter to light the candles.
Shayla began lighting the candles. "I just don't know if I like him like that or if it's a good idea. He's gone all the time and I'm gone a lot too. I just don't know."
Leighanne picked up one side of the cake and Shayla took the other. "Well maybe you should just go out with him and then see how ya feel."
"I guess it couldn't hurt to just see how it goes," Shayla said as they carefully walked through the back door.
"You won't be sorry. And if you just wanna be friends in the end, he'd be a good friend to have," Leighanne continued.
"Alright, alright, you can quit now," Shayla laughed.
Shayla and Leighanne carried the cake out and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Brian and McKenzie. Shayla took pictures of them blowing out the candles. McKenzie was so surprised she looked like she might cry. Everyone "Awwed" when Nick held back McKenzie's hair so she could blow out her candles. Kevin video taped the event and Shayla took lots of pictures. After they'd all stuffed themselves with cake they lounged around the deck. Some of the band wanted to play pool so Shayla sent them over to her house. She kept a close eye on McKenzie. She had told her she could have a drink or two but to not drink to much. Luckily McKenzie was too busy talking to Nick all night to think about drinking. Shayla knew McKenzie was usually responsible when she drank but she was in Shayla's hands and she was underage so it was Shayla's responsibility.
"Wanna go for a walk on the beach?" AJ asked bringing Shayla another beer.
"Sure, let me grab my jacket," she said. She grabbed her jacket and they started down the path to the beach. The moon was bright so the beach was pretty well lit, and there were lots of stars.
"We'll be back in a little while," AJ called back to the others.
"So where are you guys off to next?" Shayla asked as they walked.
"We have to travel tomorrow to be in New Orleans the next day. Then we're going to Texas where we'll do five shows in different parts of Texas," AJ said.
"You certainly seemed to enjoy yourself up on stage," Shayla said remembering some of the things he did.
"I love it. I absolutely love it. I go nuts when we're not performing. It's so much fun," he said. He reached down and took her hand in his. Shayla smiled at him and he took that as it was ok.
"How much longer are you on the road?" she asked.
"March 15th is the last show. Then we have a few weeks off. Well the other guys do. I'm gonna do a solo tour, then we go to the Bahamas to write songs for the next album," AJ told her.
"A solo tour? What for?" she asked.
"It's just something I started for fun back in January on my birthday. All the proceeds go to charity and I get to do things like I want to. I use an alter ego, "Johnny NoName". It's a lot of fun," he said. Feeling more comfortable AJ put his arm around Shayla, relieved that she did the same.
"Sound cool. I can totally see you doing something like that," shayla told him.
"You'll have to come watch one of the shows. I got the band playing for me and Mindi's gonna open for me to promote her new cd," AJ said.
"Mindi sings?" Shayla asked.
"Oh yeah, she's good too. She does a lot of things music wise," he said. I keep forgetting you don't know that much about us. We don't usually find people like that. Usually people know everything down to what kind of underwear we wear. I wear Tommy Hilfiger by the way, in case you were wondering."
Shayla laughed out loud. That was the AJ she thought he was. "I have to confess that I had McKenzie tell me a little about you guys. I hear you like to do some pretty wild things with your hair."
AJ laughed now. "Yes, that I do. It's always a different color. It's either my hair or another tattoo. The guys say they can't give me too much time off or I'll change my hair or get another tattoo." They both laughed. "Do you have any tattoo's? Obviously I don't see any in places I can see, so how bout anywhere else?" he teased.
"As a matter of fact, I do have one. It's no 69 on my belly button, but I have one on my lower back, above my butt. It's an angel, a cupid angel," Shayla said.
AJ suddenly stopped walking and pulled on her shirt. "Well let's see it girl," he said.
Shayla stopped and raised her shirt. AJ took the liberty of pulling her shorts down a bit by flipping the top of them over to see the tattoo. "Aww, isn't that cute," he said sarcastically. Shayla swatted his arm as he laughed at her. "No it's cool, I like it." He put his hands on her waist as she turned around facing him. "I like a girl with a tattoo," he said as he moved his face slowly to hers so he could judge her reaction. When she didn't move away he placed his mouth on hers and kissed her. It was a nice kiss, very soft, warm and gentle and lasted a long time as he caressed her back. Not what she really expected from him. She figured him to be more aggressive. Which he probably was once you get to know him.
Shayla was surprised that she actually enjoyed the kiss. Maybe she did like him more than she thought. But still AJ had quite a reputation. She didn't know if she wanted to get involved with him. Plus he wouldn't be around much and she'd learned from past experiences that long distance relationships don't work out very well.
"Well," she said regaining her breath. "We probably should get back, it's getting late."
"Ok," AJ said. They started back to Brian's.
"So what time do you guys leave tomorrow, or today I guess?" Shaylas said looking at her watch seeing it was already 1:30am.
"Aroud 5:00pm," AJ said. "Would you like to go to lunch tomorrow? I'd like to see you before I go," he said as they walked up the path arm in arm.
"Yeah I'd like that. Oh!!" Shayla gasped and froze.
"What is it?" AJ asked thinking something was wrong.
"Look," Shayla said pointing to a chair in a dark corner of the lawn by the pool.
"Well, well, well. I'd say her birthday is complete now," AJ said rubbing Shaylas' back. They had stumbled upon Nick and McKenzie making out in a chaise lounge. They were really going at it but in a sweet kinda way. They kept walking trying not to laugh.
"How was your walk?" Leighanne asked.
"Leighanne," Brian scolded. Leighanne ignored him.
"It was nice," Shayla said smiling at AJ.
"Very nice," AJ said giving her a quick kiss.
"I knew it!" Leighanne exclaimed triumphantly. AJ and Shayla laughed at her.
Kevin and Howie and his girlfriend said goodbye to everyone, they were ready to go. Nick and McKenzie came up for air and came to say goodbye. "Thanks for everything Kevin, it was nice meeting you. You too Howie," McKenzie said.
"Oh something tells me we'll be seeing more of you," Kevin winked.
McKenzie blushed and Nick put his arm around her. "I certainly hope so," he said.
"See ya'll later," Howie said and they left.
"We probably should be going to McKenzie. I'm sure Brian and Leighanne would like some alone time since they haven't seen each other for a while," Shayla said slyly.
"Sounds good to me," Brian said nuzzling Leighanne's hair. Shayla thought it was odd, that Leighanne seemed to be annoyed by it.
"Ya wanna come over for a little bit?" McKenzie asked Nick.
"Sure," Nick said. He definitely wanted to spend more time with her.
"Thanks for everything and happy birthday Brian," McKenzie said as they got ready to go.
"Glad you enjoyed it. I'm sure we'll see ya when we get back this summer," Brian said.
"See you two later, happy birthday Brian," Shayla said.
"Thanks, see ya," he said.
"Come on I'll walk you home," AJ said as they followed Nick and Mckenzie.
Nick and McKenzie went to McKenzie's room to be alone so they could pick up where they left off. Shayla and AJ sat on the sofa and talked for a little bit and listened to some music. AJ told her where he lived. It wasn't far, he'd just moved from Orlando not to long ago. He told her a little more about his plans for his Johnny NoName tour and she told him about her work and some upcoming assignments. She took him around the house and showed him some of the pictures she'd taken that were hanging on the walls. He was very impressed. It turned out Shayla was going to be in New York when he was for the Johnny NoName tour, so he invited her to come see the show and spend the day with him, which she accepted.
"Well, I'd better get going," AJ said.
Shayla walked with him out to the porch. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said.
"I'll pick you up around noon ok?" he said.
"Sounds good." She knew he was going to kiss her again. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight while he kissed her, leaving her breathless as he pulled away turning to go. He was teasing her and he knew it.
Shayla went back inside and went to bed. She laid in bed thinking for a while about the evening. It had been wonderful and so much fun. She thought about AJ. She like him and knew he'd be fun but something just seemed to be missing. She eventually fell asleep forgetting all about the fact that Nick was still there and in McKenzie's bedroom.