Brizee stood backstage watching the Backstreet Boys onstage performing. She was their tour manager and she was best friends with all the guys and with the wives. Her cell phone vibrated. She pulled it out and saw Kevin’s number and smiled.

        “Hey Kev, what’s up, what, you serious, of course it will be okay, it will be great, the guys will be thrilled, I’ll tell them and have one of them call you, bye!” Brizee said. She hung up just as the guys came backstage to change.

        “Hey Briz!” Nick said hugging her.

        “Hey guys, I have good news real quick, Kevin just called,” Brizee said.

        “What did he say,” Brian said.

        “Well, let’s just say when you guys start recording your next album, instead of the four of you, there will be five of you,” Brizee said smiling. The guys looked at each other and looked at her. She smiled and nodded.

        “Kevin’s coming back to the group!” Brizee said. The guys cheered and hugged her and went to change. They came back.

        “Call him after the show, one of you or all of you,” Brizee said. They nodded and went to finish the show. Brian’s wife, Leighanne, Howie’s wife, Leigh, AJ’s wife, Rochelle, and Nick’s girlfriend, Lauren came up to them.

        “Hey Briz, what’s up, I heard the guys cheering,” Leighanne said. She smiled.

        “Well, they got some good news,” Brizee said.

        “What is it,” Leigh said.

        “Well, on the next album, there won’t be four guys, there will be five,” Brizee said smiling.

        “Kevin’s coming back?” Rochelle said.

        “Yup, the guys are excited, they really miss him being in the group,” Brizee said.

        “You bet they did, Brian was upset when Kevin told them he was leaving,” Leighanne said.

        “I think they all were,” Brizee said.

        “I wasn’t with Nick when Kevin left the group so I don’t know how he was,” Lauren said.

        “He took it harder than the rest of the guys, he really looked up to Kevin, he’s the big brother, Kevin has helped Nick through so much,” Brizee said.

        “But he had Brian, AJ, and Howie,” Lauren said.

        “I know, but it was different with Kevin, when Nick joined the group, he was only thirteen and he couldn’t travel without his mom or dad, but they had the girls and Aaron back home who needed them so Kevin kind of had to take Nick under his wing, Kevin had to be the big brother, Kevin, Brian, AJ, and Howie helped Nick become the man he is today, Kevin most of all, Nick always went to Kevin for advice, he knew Kevin would listen to him and understand, he even went to Kevin for help with personal stuff,” Brizee said.

        “You seem to know a lot about them,” Lauren said.

        “Yeah, I do, I grew up with Nick,” Brizee said.

        “How come you two never got together,” Lauren said.

        “Because we didn’t want to lose the friendship, we were both afraid that if we got together and it didn’t work out, we would lose the friendship and that was something we didn’t want to risk, but we were each other’s first time,” Brizee said.

        “I thought Nick’s first time was with someone older,” Lauren said.

        “Rumors, all lies, I was his first, he was mine, we both didn’t want anyone else to be our first’s, he wanted me to be his first, I wanted him to be mine, because we trusted each other, I trust Nick with my life,” Brizee said.

        “And I trust her with mine,” Nick said from behind them. The girls turned and went to their guys. Nick kissed Lauren and motioned Brizee to them and hugged her and Lauren at the same time. Brizee smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. Lauren rested her head on his other shoulder.

        “My two girls, I’m so lucky to have you both in my life, my best friend, and my girlfriend,” Nick said.

        “And we are lucky to have you in our lives,” Lauren said.

        “What she said,” Brizee said.

        “Guys, we all are going out to celebrate Kevin coming back to the group, let’s go!” Brian said.

        “You guys go ahead, I’ll go on back to the hotel,” Brizee said. The guys looked at each other.

        “Briz, we are not letting you do that,” AJ said.

        “You have to come with us, it wouldn’t be the same without you,” Brian said.

        “Guys, I’m really tired, I’ll be fine, you guys go for an hour and be back to the hotel by midnight, we leave at nine in the morning,” Brizee said. AJ and Howie linked their arms through hers and smiled.

        “Nope, you have to go with us,” AJ said.

        “Guys, come on, I don’t want to go, I don’t drink, you know that,” Brizee said.

        “We know that, who said anything about you drinking,” Howie said.

        “Guys, please, I want to go back to the hotel!” Brizee said.

        “Guys, she’s tired, let her go back,” Leighanne said.

        “In fact, you four go on, us girls will go back to the hotel,” Leigh said.

        “Plus, we do have a babysitter for Baylee and James and we need to relieve her,” Leighanne said. The guys nodded and decided they all would go back to the hotel.

        “Let’s just have coffee in the hotel restaurant,” AJ said. They all went back to the hotel. They went to the restaurant and ordered coffee.   Brizee sat there staring at the table. She felt a nudge and looked and saw Nick.

        “You ok?” Nick asked.

        “I’m fine,” Brizee said.

        “You sure?” Nick asked. Brizee nodded. An hour later, everyone went to their rooms. Brizee walked into hers and went and showered and got out and heard someone knocking and she wrapped a towel around her and went and looked through the peephole and saw Nick standing there. She opened the door a little and looked out at him.

        “Nick, it’s late,” Brizee said. He came in and saw her in the towel. She closed the door.

        “Sorry, just needed to talk,” Nick said.

        “Let me get dressed,” Brizee said. She went into the bedroom and got dressed and came out and looked at Nick.

        “What is it,” Brizee said sitting down. He sat down.

        “You seemed out of it tonight, and you know you can talk to me about anything,” Nick said.

        “I’m just tired, that’s all,” Brizee said.

        “That’s not it, it’s something else, something that is bothering you, I know you too well, Briz,” Nick said.

        “Nothing is bothering me, Nick, okay, just go to sleep and I’ll see you guys in the morning,” Brizee said.

        “We are not done here, we will talk about this tomorrow,” Nick said. He left. Brizee went to the bedroom and laid down on the bed. She knew if she told him the truth, she would lose him. She knew she could never tell him the truth. The next morning, she got up and changed and packed up her stuff and got everything together and went out the door and down to the lobby. She saw Brian, Leighanne, Baylee, Howie, Leigh, James, AJ, and Rochelle down there. They hugged her. Nick and Lauren came down with their stuff. They all went out to the buses. Brizee got on Nick’s bus with Nick and Lauren. She got into her bunk and faced the wall and pretended to be asleep as Nick came into the bunk area. He saw her lying there and he sighed and went back up front with Lauren.

        “You okay, sweetie,” Lauren said.

        “Yeah, just wanted to talk to Briz, I think she’s hiding something from me and doesn’t want to tell me or something is bothering her and she knows she can tell me anything,” Nick said. Lauren held his hand.

        “Just be patient and she’ll come to you if she wants to talk,” Lauren said.

        “That’s just it, she said nothing is bothering her but I can see there is something bothering her,” Nick said. He got up and went to the bunk area.

        “Briz, Briz, wake up,” Nick said.

        “What do you want,” Brizee said.

        “We need to talk,” Nick said.

        “What about,” Brizee said

        “You can’t hide anything from me, Briz, something is bothering you and you can’t hide that from me,” Nick said.

        “Nothing is bothering me, Nick, you are bothering me right now, I just want to sleep until we get to Chicago,” Brizee said.

        “No, you just want to sleep so you won’t have to talk to me,” Nick said.

        “For god’s sake, Nick, will you just let it go, if I say nothing is bothering me, then nothing is bothering me, I would tell you if something was bothering me,” Brizee said. Nick sighed and went back up front. The tour arrived in Chicago and they went to the venue. They all go off and Brizee went to talk to the people in charge of the venue as the guys found their dressing rooms. Lauren talked with Leighanne, Rochelle, and Leigh and they went to find Brizee. They found her talking to the guy in charge of the venue. She turned and saw them.

        “Hey, did the guys find the rooms okay?” Brizee asked.

        “Yeah, we should talk,” Leigh said.

        “About what,” Brizee said.

        “Lauren told us about the whole thing that went on with you and Nick on the bus,” Leighanne said.

        “Briz, you know Nick can read you like a book, if something is bothering you, he can see it, you need to talk to him,” Rochelle said.

        “There is nothing bothering me, I’m fine,” Brizee said.

        “No you aren’t,” Leigh said.

        “Yes, I am, I got to get some stuff taken care of,” Brizee said. She walked down the hall. She checked her phone and bumped into someone and looked and saw Nick.

        “We need to talk,” Nick said.

        “Nick, there is nothing to talk about, okay, I’m fine, okay, nothing is bothering me, I got work to do,” Brizee said. He pulled her into his dressing room and closed the door and stood in front of it.

        “Nick, I got things to do,” Brizee said.

        “No, you don’t, not until we talk,” Nick said.

        “Nick, how many times do I have to say there is nothing to talk about!” Brizee said.

        “Yes, there is, Briz, we have been friends for a long time, we know each other inside and out, I know when something is bothering you, all I’m asking is you be honest with me, okay, I have never lied to you or kept anything from you, but you are keeping something from me and we are not leaving this room until you tell me what is going on with you, what is it that you are hiding from me,” Nick said. Brizee looked at him.

        “Why are you so certain I’m keeping anything from you, Nick,” Brizee said.

        “Because I know you, Briz, we promised each other that we would never hide anything from each other, that we would always be honest to one another, please, Briz, be honest with me,” Nick said. Brizee sat down and took a deep breath.

        “I never wanted you to know, I wanted to protect you, I didn’t want you going through the same pain I did,” Brizee said.

        “Briz,” Nick said.

        “Remember when we slept together, our first times,” Brizee said. Nick sat down beside her.

        “Yeah, what about it,” Nick said.

        “Something happened that night,” Brizee said.

        “Briz,” Nick said.

        “I got pregnant, Nick, I was pregnant with your child, I spent the next two days, trying to think of ways to tell you, but I started having pains, so I went to the hospital and got checked out and they said I had a miscarriage,” Brizee said. Nick took her hand in his.

        “Oh Briz,” Nick said.

        “After I got home from the hospital, I just couldn’t believe that I had this little life inside and it was gone, I lost our baby, Nick, I just could never bring myself to tell you, I’m sorry about that, I just didn’t want to go back, I wanted to move forward,” Brizee said. Nick took her in his arms.

        “You know you can tell me anything, you know that, Briz, please don’t hide anything from me again, you are one of the most important people in my life, promise me you will not hide anything else from me again,” Nick said.

        “I promise, I’m an open book, nothing else to hide,” Brizee said. Nick smiled and hugged her. Lauren came in.

        “Everything okay?” Lauren asked.

        “Yeah, everything is fine now,” Nick said. Brizee got up and left the room. She went to get stuff done. The crew was working on the stage and getting everything set up for the show. She walked down the stairs to backstage and saw Lauren come up with her bags.

        “Lauren,” Brizee said.

        “Goodbye, Brizee, have a nice life,” Lauren said.

        “What, wait a minute, what’s going on,” Brizee said.

        “Ask your best friend,” Lauren said. She went out the door. Brizee went down to Nick’s dressing room and knocked and opened the door and saw Nick sitting on the couch holding his head in his hands.

        “Nick, what’s going on,” Brizee said coming in and closing the door.

        “Lauren broke up with me,” Nick said.

        “Why,” Brizee said.

        “She can’t handle being on the road all the time, she wanted me to quit the group, I told her there was no way I would quit the group, she said fine be that way, we are done, goodbye and she left,” Nick said. Brizee sat down and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close.