CHAPTER ONE

~ TOO CLOSE ~

"You guys?" Fatima Robinson yelled into a microphone, with her hands on her hips. All five of the Backstreet Boys stopped what they were doing and stood stock still on the enormous stage. Around them stood the back-up dancers, who also stopped dead in their tracks. Fatima stood down in front of the stage with everyone in front of her.   

"You rang?" AJ Mclean, responded, smiling charmingly at Fatima. Fatima was attempting to get the five men to cooperate with her and start dance rehearsals. All of them, though, had their minds on different things. The summer leg of the Black and Blue tour was starting in three days and none of the guys wanted to be stuck in the Florida arena, practicing.

"Can we PLEASE run though Get Another Boyfriend one more time before the band gets here?" she asked, ignoring AJ's smile. She had known the guys too long to let them try to get away with anything.

"The band is coming?" Nick inquired, his eyes widening slightly. That would mean Micah would be coming. Nick hadn't seen, talked to, or really even had time to think about Micah Saro in the past two months, since he had last seen her.

His question was drowned out by the beginning chords of "Get Another Boyfriend" and he rushed into his place to began the routine. The guys and the dancers went through the routine easily and did it to Fatima's liking. "It was good." Fatima told everyone, with an approving nod. "Y'all can take a break while we wait for the band."

Just as she said that, the band walked through one of the venue entrance. Nick immediately spotted Micah walking in between Sam and Dave talking animatedly, twirling her drumsticks in her left hand. Her attire was much like what she had worn to the audition. Baggy black jeans -- minus the holes this time -- and a tight red tank top that read 'Boys are like parking space -- all the good ones are taken.' Her hair was still in the French braids that ran down either side of her head and she had a red and black visior worn in the same fashion as the last time he had seen her -- sideways and upside down so that the bill of the visor was over her left ear and turned towards the ceiling. She looked even more beautiful than the last time Nick had seen her, if that was possible.

"Check out what just walked in with the band..." AJ muttered to Nick as the band approached.

"Her name is Micah Saro," Nick helped him out. Micah remained oblivious to both of their gazes, or at least she pretended too.

"How do you know?" AJ asked, looking at Nick with a bit of surprise.

"She's the new drummer. I was at the auditions."

"Hmm..." AJ muttered and Nick could practically see AJ formulating a way to get Micah interested in him. Nick had basically known this would happen and he hoped that AJ would simply back off. He also knew that the chances of that were next to nothing. "Guess it's a good thing that I'm single."

Nick rolled his eyes. He, Howie Dorough and AJ were all single men, in fact. All three had just been through break-ups over the past few months, some worse than others. "I feel bad for her," Nick joked, not letting AJ know about his own feelings for Micah. He would find out sooner or later.

AJ raised an eyebrow and smiled cockily. "Me too," he replied, bounding away from Nick, just as Brian appeared next to him.

"Checking out the new drummer?" Brian joked knowingly as he and Nick began to walk off the stage towards Fatima, the band, Kevin, Howie and now AJ. Nick and AJ were basically walking hormones.

"Of course," Nick responded, watching AJ eye Micah. He had yet to say anything which Nick found odd.

"She's cute."

"Cute? Are you serious?"

"I'm a married man, Carter. Cute is all I can do. Anything else would get me in trouble with the wifey," Brian protested. Back in September Brian had married his girlfriend of almost three years Leighanne Wallace.

"I think Leighanne would be more pissed if she found out you were referring to her as 'the wifey.'" Nick replied, rolling his eyes. Brian and Leighanne were so committed to each other it was disgusting.

Brian laughed before nodding his head. "I think so too," he agreed as they walked up to the group.

Micah stood on the far side of the group, feeling a bit uncomfortable and out of place but didn't let it show. Everyone knew each other from the first leg of the tour and were quite comfortable with each other. Micah knew and was friends with the band but didn't know any of the other people that surrounded her.

She was also overly aware of the fact that the two youngest Backstreet Boys hadn't stopped watching her since her arrival into the venue. It didn't help her comfort level either. She had been pretending not to notice it, just like she was pretending she wasn't uncomfortable. They were both cute though -- very cute in fact and very dateable.

"So you're the new drummer?" asked a new voice from her right side. Micah turned her head to find AJ Mclean -- one of the starers.

Micah smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah. I'm Micah Saro," she responded, shoving her right hand in the deep pockets of her jeans.

AJ returned the smile, flirtatiously, and shot a quick unreadable look towards Nick who was standing several feet away from them with Andy and Brian before looking back to her. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Micah," he answered, looking down towards the drumstick that she was still absently twirling in her left hand. "How long have you played drums?"

"Since I was four," she admitted. She quickly realized what he was looking at and stopped twirling the stick. It was a nervous habit and most of the time she didn't even realize she was doing it.

AJ nodded, almost in an approval. "I play a little bass and piano," he stated. He looked up into her eyes and saw a bit of surprise. He laughed slightly and asked, "What? You thought that just because I was in a boy band that I can only sing and dance?"

Micah shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. She HAD actually thought that. She knew the stereotype was wrong because when she had toured with *NSYNC they had all played some type of instruments. "Yeah well you know..." she muttered, feeling like an ass.

"It's okay. He really CAN'T play all that well." Sam piped up, with a smile.

AJ stared at Sam with mock outrage. "I can play better than you!" he retorted.

"Can not."

"Can too."

"Not."

"Too.

"Not-uh."

"Yeah-uh"

"You guys sound like four year olds," Micah broke in laughing and shaking her head. If the rest of the guys turned out to be like AJ, all would be good in the world of Black and Blue land for the next few months.

Sam and AJ looked at each other and then at her. "You're right," AJ agreed, nonchalantly putting his arm around her shoulders. Her face remained calm and she did nothing to move away from his grasp. He smiled to himself as his gaze unconsciously traveled back towards Nick.

The friends' eyes met and Nick was practically shooting daggers out of his eyes. AJ sighed without thinking. Nick had a crush on this girl. Perfect. "What's wrong?"  Micah asked, looking up at AJ, with a slight concern.

AJ gave Micah the same charming smile he had given Fatima earlier and pushed the thoughts of Nick liking Micah out of his head. "Nothing really. I was just thinking about having to get back to rehearsal," he lied. "We've been rehearsing ten hours a day, six days a week for the past three weeks."

"Yea. So have we. I've been practicing a lot a home too." Micah responded. She felt his pain. Her hands were practically numb from holding onto her drumsticks so much. It didn't really bother her though. She was a total perfectionist and didn't want to look like an ass in front of 35,000 people.

"You guys ready?" Dave suddenly asked everyone just as AJ was about to respond.

"MORE?" whined Brian, good-naturedly. Micah stepped out from under AJ's grasp and gave him a little smile as she walked towards the stage with the rest of the band. Backstreet and their dancers trailed a bit behind.

"I think I'm starting to do these dance steps in my sleep," Nick muttered to Brian as they climbed back onto the stage.

"Yeah, Leighanne told me I was singing in my sleep last night." Brian responded.

"Are we taking it from the top?" Tariqh asked, situating the guitar on his shoulder as everyone else got into their spots or took their instruments.

"Yeah. Let's just run through the whole show and find our weak spots." Fatima told him. Nick, though, was paying no attention. He was watching Micah get behind the massive drum set. Deciding that no one would notice if he walked back to talk to her because they were too busy getting ready.

Micah saw him coming and gave him a smile. "Coming to tell me where the closest modeling auditions are?" she teased him, when he reached the set, which was up on a riser in between the keyboards and percussion.

"Err...sorry about that," he responded, running his fingers through his short and spikey hair.

Micah giggled and Nick felt his knees turn to jello. Just like the rest of her, her giggle was beautiful. "It's okay. I'm a little bit used to it. When I tried out for the Janet Jackson tour, I kind of got the same thing. People are used to seeing a pretty girl being able to play the drums. They expect me to be playing...like the flute or something," she assured him. Nick Carter was definitely up there on the cute meter. She understood why some many teeny-boppers drooled over him. The posters did him no justice though.

Nick nodded, with a slight loss of words. "So you like the band?" he asked.

"Yeah. The guys are cool. I can't wait for the tour to start. I haven't been out on a tour in about a year. I kinda of miss the road."

"You miss the ROAD?"

"Yeah."

"You mean you like being on a cramped tour bus twenty four seven?"

"WELL, maybe not THAT aspect of it but I love being able to play the drums and just be on stage."

Nick nodded. He knew ALL about that. Even thinking about being onstage, singing his heart out every night gave him the chills. "How long have you been doing it?" he asked.

"Eight years. I started when I was sixteen," Micah told him.

'So that makes her about twenty-four.' Nick concluded. "That's how long I've been doing it too. It becomes almost like a second nature," he commented.

"NICK!" he heard Fatima yell from behind him. Nick turned around and held up one finger and raising his eyebrows. He was asking for one more minute. He knew it was a long shot for Fatima to give it to him but oh well. He didn't wait for Fatima's answer before turning back to Micah.

"Hey...um...AJ's throwing this going away party at his house the night before we leave," Nick started, feeling awkward, nervous and a bit stupid.

Micah nodded thoughtfully. "Oh?" she replied, breaking her gaze with Nick. She had been hoping this wouldn't happen. 'Maybe he'll lose his nerve.' she hoped, feeling a bit bad. It wouldn't kill her to go with him...if that was what he was asking.

"Yeah and uh, I was wondering if youwouldliketowithme?" Nick blurted out quickly. He knew he was being extremely forward but he knew that AJ would beat him to it if he didn't ask her out now.

"It sounds like fun, Nick..." Micah started, trying desperately to form an excuse. Her brain wasn't cooperating though because it was screaming at her to say yes and go with him. Have a little fun for once, her brain was telling her, It's not like he's asking you to marry him. "But I'm not really on the dating market right now."

Nick bit back a sigh. She must already like AJ. "Oh okay," he replied, hoping he didn't sound upset.

"But maybe we could go as friends?" Micah added quickly. She couldn't take the downcast look on his face.

Nick smiled at her. It was better than nothing. "Sure-" he started.

"NICK, STOP FLIRTING! WE HAVE WORK TO DO!" Fatima yelled, impatiently.

Nick turned bright red and Micah looked towards Fatima apologetically as everyone cracked up. "I'll talk to you later Nick," Micah told him, before he walked away from the drum set and to his place. 'It will be fun.' her conscience told her.

'But I can't let him get too close. I can't.' Micah retorted as she was cued to start playing 'Everyone.' And she wouldn't let him either.