chapter 12

"nick, are you done yet?" faye asked exasperated, as she finished her lemonade. the others had already finished their desserts and were now waiting for nick to finish his second swiss roll.

"faye, leave him alone," laughed chan as she wiped the crumbs away from nick's mouth. "i don't think sammy, dc and dallas will mind if we're a little late."

"let's hope not," grumbled faye. kevin, who was sitting next to her, put his arm around her and gave her a reassuring smile. faye looked up at him and did her best to smile back. when nick was finally done, they left the restaurant and headed over to the beverly hills hotel for youngstown's party.

when they arrived, they found sammy, dc and dallas, in the middle of a huge group of people, laughing, talking and signing autographs. the girls led kevin, aj, brian and nick over to an empty table. while they sat and waited for sammy, dc and dallas, a few people at the party had noticed kevin, aj, brian and nick. soon word spread around the party that the backstreet boys were there. people started coming over to their table asking for autographs, to talk and to take pictures. when sammy, dc and dallas finally joined them, they had heard and seen all the commotion about the other guys and they were annoyed, but they tried their best not to show it.

"hey you guys," said dallas as he took a seat next to chan, who was sitting next to nick. "glad you could make it." dallas went to put his arm around chan just as nick was about to do the same thing. they ended up bumping arms and pulling away quickly. the others noticed and started laughing at the two of them. nick muttered an apology as dallas shot him a dirty look. chan just sat in her seat and sighed, looking exasperated.

"hey ~ why don't we go dance?" joann asked, trying to break the tension. she grabbed brian's hand and dragged him to the dance floor. what joann didn't realize was that she had made the situation worse.

dc and aj had both stood up, holding their hands out to jamie, expecting her to dance with them. sammy and kevin had both turned to faye and asked her to dance at the same time, and dallas had taken chan's hand and was pulling her up from her seat just as nick was about to ask her to dance. the girls looked at each other, pleading for help from one another with their eyes.

aj noticed that they were all flustered and felt sorry for them. "you should go dance with sammy, dc and dallas," he said to the girls, almost apologetically. "it is their big night." sammy, dc and dallas led faye, jamie and chan out to the dance floor without saying a word to the guys.

kevin, nick and aj took a seat at the table and watched them on the dance floor, dancing to a slow song. "why do they have such a problem with us?" scowled nick when he saw how close chan was dancing with dallas.

aj gave him a look as he leaned back in his chair. "cause they know we like the girls."

"yeah," nodded kevin in agreement. "but i just wish we knew who the girls like," he added with a sigh.

--dance floor--

"dallas, why are you guys being so rude to kevin, aj, nick and brian?" chan asked while she and dallas danced.

dallas was silent for awhile before he finally answered. "this is supposed to out party, then they show up and all the attention is on them!" said dallas, as he scowled and nodded his head towards kevin, aj and nick at the table. chan rolled her eyes at him and shook her head.

"i can't believe you're being so childish! they didn't mean to steal the attention away from you, and you know that. they're here because faye, jamie, joann and i asked them to come." dallas just looked away and remained silent as they continued to dance.

-----

"why did you have to bring them?" dc asked jamie while they were dancing. because dc was a lot taller than jamie, he thought she didn't see the disgusted look he gave kevin, brian, aj and nick. but jamie saw. she pulled away and looked up at him.

"they haven't said or done anything disrespectful to you, sammy or dallas ~ so why the hell are you guys being such jerks to them?!" she demanded angrily.

"we have our reasons," replied dc with an attitude in his voice. jamie just stared at him for a moment, then she stepped away.

"you know what, dc? i really don't want to be around you right now. you're attitude is really disgusting to me. and you know what? you just helped me out with a tough decision." she turned and started to walk away. dc got angry when he realized what jamie meant, and he grabbed her hand. "dc, let go!" jamie said angrily.

"no. i want to talk to you," he said pulling her towards him. jamie tried to walk away, but dc still wouldn't let go of her hand.

"what the..." aj started to say when he noticed the commotion between jamie and dc. nick and kevin looked over at them as aj jumped out of his seat and rushed over to jamie. "hey, is everything okay?" he asked her with a worried look. jamie opened her mouth to reply, but dc stepped in front of her.

"it's none of your business, so get lost." dc said angrily.

"i'm not leaving until jamie says so," aj said, trying to remain calm.

dc gave him a dirty look. "well, i'm telling you to leave," and he shoved aj away. jamie gasped and tried to step between them, but dc held up his arm so she couldn't.

"dc, stop being so immature," jamie said angrily.

"why should i?" dc said smirking as he shoved aj again. aj just shook his head as he walked slowly towards dc...