chapter 10

"what the..." faye started to say as she stepped through the front door, followed by jamie, chan and joann. Out on the walkway in front of their apartment stood sammy, dc and dallas, holding huge bouquets of sunflowers, daisies and tulips.

"i told you zat is was a nice surprise," laughed dc in the foreign voice faye had spoken to over the phone. he held up his cell phone and waved it around. "i guess i don't need zis anymore." he hung up his phone and stuck it in his pocket.

"omg...what are you guys doing here?" asked chan when she was finally able to talk.

dallas walked over to them and handed chan and joann each a bouquet. "we just wanted to apologize for acting like jerks the past few days."

"we didn't mean to give you such a hard time about the other guys," said dc as he handed a bouquet to jamie and smiled.

"yeah, so we just came over to say sorry and to bring you these. i guess you could call them peace offerings," added sammy as he handed faye the bouquet he was holding.

"aw, that's really sweet of you," said jamie as she sniffed her flowers. "of course we forgive you." the other girls were smiling and nodding in agreement.

"yeah, i mean, we're as much to blame too. so if you can forgive us, we can forgive you," said faye.

"deal," said dc. "whew, i'm glad that's settled. maybe things can go back to normal."

the others laughed as the girls led them inside the apartment. jamie got some vases from the kitchen for the flowers, and the girls placed them around the living room.

"thank you for the flowers you guys. they're really pretty," said chan as she took a seat next to dallas on the couch.

"and huge!" exclaimed faye as she fixed her flowers in the vase. "wow, you guys really know how to say sorry."

"well, you know. if we were gonna apologize, might as well make it good," sammy laughed. dc punched him on the arm and rolled his eyes. "anyways, we didn't just stop by to apologize, we also came to ask if you girls were coming with us to our party tonight. this is the last one we'll go to together for awhile. we're gonna be in europe for 3 months touring."

"oh, um, yeah. we were gonna call you about that," jamie said, looking at faye, joann and chan with a raised eyebrow.

"are you guys not going?" asked dallas frowning.

"oh no! we're still going, but the~~" jamie started to say when they heard someone cough at the front door. they all turned to see who it was and were shocked to see four familiar faces.

the girls had accidentally left the front door of their apartment open when they had gone inside with the guys and now standing in the open doorway was kevin, aj, nick and brian. they looked apologetic as they stepped into the living room. "we're really sorry for interrupting, but the door was open, and we tried calling, but the line was busy," explained nick with a sheepish grin on his face. he then noticed the phone that faye had dropped earlier on the floor by the door. he bent down and picked it up. "i guess this is why we kept getting a busy single," he added laughing as he hung up the phone and placed it on a coffee table.

"hi you guys!" exclaimed faye with a surprised look on her face. she walked over to them and led them into the living room. they said hello to the other girls, and shook hands with sammy, dc and dallas. "what are you guys doing here?" faye asked.

"well, we just finished doing the tonight show. when we were leaving, we tried calling you cause we hadn't heard from you all week. but like i said, the line was busy so we just decided to stop by and see what's up." said aj as he took a seat on the couch that dallas and chan were sitting on.

"yeah, we were also wondering if our plans for tonight were still on too," added nick as he sat on the arm of joann's chair.

"oh, well, um," faye stammered as she looked at jamie, chan and joann. "like we were telling sammy, dc and dallas right before you came in, there's been a slight change of plans with tonight."

"yeah, we didn't want to decide between you, and we wanted to hang out with all of you tonight." said chan. "so here's the deal ~ we were gonna go to dinner with kevin, brian, nick and aj, then we were going to head over to sammy, dallas and dc's party, and then after that we would all go to the palace." she smiled uncertainly at everyone around the room. the girls just looked at each other ~ faye biting her lip, chan with a raised eyebrow, and joann with a slightly worried look on her face.

the guys just looked at each other, and there was an awkward silence for a few moments. finally aj spoke up. "hey, that's cool with me. i mean, i personally didn't want to put you in this awkward position. so if this is the easy solution, i'm all for it." kevin, nick, and brian looked at each other and nodded. "yeah, it's cool with us too," added brian with a reassuring smile.

"okay, good," sighed jamie. she looked over at sammy, dc and dallas. "what about you guys? is it cool?"

sammy, dc and dallas, looked at each other. sammy shrugged at the other two and nodded. dc raised an eyebrow at them and just shrugged. "yeah, it's cool with us too," dallas finally answered. "and we're sorry for putting you in this position too."

the girls all sighed with relief and the guys laughed at their reaction. "okay, i'm glad that's settled," said joann laughing. "okay, so dinner with kevin, brian, aj and nick at 7:30. we'll head over to the party at 9, and then we can all head to the palace at 12. cool?" she asked everyone. they all agreed.

"okay, you guys. you better head out cause it's already 5 and we need to get ready," said chan as she pulled dallas and aj off of the couch. faye, jamie and joann started to usher the other guys towards the front door as well. "kevin, aj, nick and brian, we'll meet you at your hotel at 7."

"and sammy, dc and dallas, we'll see you later at your party," added faye as the girls walked them outside.

all of the guys called out goodbye as sammy, dallas and dc got into sammy's pathfinder, and kevin, nick, aj and brian got into kevin's rented expedition. when they finally drove off, the girls headed back inside their apartment. "it is such a relief to have that whole thing settled," sighed jamie as she shut the door. "so do you guys think everything will go alright tonight?" she asked as she turned around and leaned against the door.

faye dropped on to the couch with a tired look on her face. "i have no idea," she told the others wearily. "i was kinda worried with sammy, dallas and dc's reactions when we told them the plan. they didn't look too happy about it."

"i know, but what else could we do? we couldn't just choose one group and hurt the other group's feelings," replied joann as she headed to her bedroom.

"yeah, but why do i have a feeling that something bad is going to happen tonight," sighed jamie as she, faye and chan also headed to their bedrooms to get ready.
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(nick and brian's hotel room)

"i really didn't expect for this to happen," said nick to the other guys as he came out of the bathroom after taking a shower. "i mean, is it a good idea for us to be around the girls when they are around the other guys?" kevin and aj, who were sitting around the bedroom, just gave nick an odd look.

brian, who was sitting on his bed tying his shoe, looked up at the others and shrugged. "hey, i don't know what to say fellas, but i told you they still haven't made a decision. i guess the best advice i can give you right now is just be really good friends to them in the meantime. don't make the situation too difficult for them and hopefully it'll turn out in your favor."

nick made a face as he started pulling clothes out of his closet. "i guess you're right, brian. but that's gonna be kinda hard, you know?"

"or," said aj with an evil look as he got up from his chair, "we could look so good tonight that the girls won't be able to resist us." kevin and aj looked at him thoughtfully for a minute.

brian started laughing. "you honestly think that's gonna work?"

"it doesn't hurt to try," said aj as he rushed out the door and to his own hotel room.

"he's gotta point," said nick as he tried to put together an outfit.

"so do you nick, on the top of your head," laughed kevin as he headed to his own room to get ready.

nick just rolled his eyes. he then turned to brian with a serious face. "brian, when you're trying to get a girl you really like, you'd do anything. and that includes following aj's advice." nick couldn't hold the serious face and he started cracking up.

brian just laughed and left the room so nick could get dressed.
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(sammy, dallas and dc's townhouse)

"well, tonight is gonna be loads of fun," said dc sarcastically. the guys were hanging around their living room, lagging on getting ready for their party.

dallas sighed and rolled his eyes at dc. "oh i know. we get to be graced with the presence of the oh-so-wonderful backstreet boys. man ~ i'm gonna be hating tonight."

"you guys, try and be nice tonight. i don't want to give the girls another hard time. besides, you're gonna ruin the party for everyone if you're in bad moods," said sammy.

dallas and dc looked at each other and shrugged. "i can't promise anything," grumbled dallas.

"me either," said dc as he headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

sammy just sighed in exasperation and plopped onto the couch. "dang, you guys need to grow up," he mumbled to himself.


{Chapter 11} {If You Knew....Home}