PART TEN

*Melody*

"Guys," I announced as I sat down in the sofa group next to Nick and Howie. "I have an idea you'd might like to hear."

"Has Melody been creative again?" Nick asked in mock surprise and placed his arm around my shoulders. "Damn girl, that brain of yours is working overtime."

I grinned and shook my head. In the 6 weeks I'd been working with the Backstreet Boys, work had been progressing according to plan with only very few setbacks. But even though there was a lot of work involved in our relationship, it was safe to say that I had made 5 friends for life.

"Someone around here has to do the work, don't they?" I asked with an evil glance at Nick, who suddenly seemed extremely preoccupied with his innocent whistle. "Anyway, you wanna hear this idea?"

"Sure," Kevin said, who was sitting in the chair across from the couch. "You've got more songs for us?"

"I've got a few on the way, yeah," I grinned. "But that's not what I wanted to ask you. All right, here goes." I paused a little for theatrical effect. "How would you feel about doing a duet on the album?" I then asked.

All five guys looked at each other quizzically for a moment. "What do you mean?" Brian asked with a raised eyebrow. "On a full song?"

"That's usually what a duet requires."

"Do you have someone in mind?" Howie asked.

"Actually, I do," I replied. "I don't think you know her, she's not very famous in the States yet. Her name is Lorna Malorny and she's one of the most talented singers I've ever worked with. I think you could make an incredible harmony together."

Kevin seemed to play with the thought in his head, and said, "Well, I think we need to hear her perform first before we can make a decision."

"I'm way of ahead of you," I smiled as I waved a CD cover in front of me. "I'll just put it in the player and give you guys some time to decide-"

"No, stay," Nick said and offered me a smile. "You're a part of this too."

His gesture warmed my heart beyond belief and the lump that formed in my throat prevented me to do anything but nod. "Okay," I smiled and got up from my seat to the CD player.

With quick fingers, I placed the CD in and pressed play. As the intro played, I walked back over to my seat and Nick once again wrapped his arm protectively around my shoulders. His hand gently massaged the back of my neck and a small smile played on my lips. I quickly glanced at AJ, who was busy drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair and was oblivious to anything around him. I let out a frustrated sigh and leaned closer into Nick in a friendly embrace.

We all slipped into our own little world as Lorna's voice filled the room and wrapped us all into the comfort of her words.

We belong together
And you know that I'm right
Why do you play with my heart
Why do you play with my mind?

Said we'd be forever
Said it'd never die
How could you love me and leave me
And never say goodbye?

Although we've come
To the end of the road
Still I can't let you go
It's unnatural
You belong to me
I belong to you.

Come to the end of the road
Still I can't let you go
It's unnatural
You belong to me
I belong to you.

"Not one of your creations, I hear," Brian smiled as the song faded out.

"Afraid not," I smiled back. "But what did you think? AJ?"

His silence made me curious to hear his opinion. He still sat with a thoughtful look in his eyes and didn't make eyecontact with me. Then again, he rarely did these days. During the last couple of weeks he'd been more distant towards me than ever before, and it seemed I needed to make all the efforts to get a conversation going between us. "I liked her a voice," he then said. "A lot. And I think it could be fun. I for one am all for it."

"Same here," Brian nodded.

"I second that."

"Yeah, it's a great idea."

"So that leaves you, Howie," I said and looked to my right to face him. "What do you think?"

He nodded silently. "It sounds good," he said. "We've never done this on an album before and hopefully it'll help us all. Did you have a certain song in mind, Melody?"

"I'm working on it," I said with a smug smile. "It should be ready within the end of the week. But if you don't like it, I'll let you decide."

"All right then," Brian said and rubbed his hands together. "Seems like we got another project cookin'."

I grinned at him from across the table. "Yeah well, I'll take Lorna with me tomorrow so you can meet her and then we'll see," I replied and shrugged. "For now, we need to get back to work. I'll get Nathan back in here and we can start on the background vocals for, 'Caught In the Middle.'"

"Oh man," Nick sighed. "We've done those three times already. Can't we just use one of the previous ones?"

"Well, I guess we could," I said and put on a fake thoughtful expression. "But then I want you to ask yourself: do you want it easy or do you want it good?"

"Touchι," Brian exclaimed as he slapped his knee and chuckled along with the rest of the group, making Nick blush all the way down to his toes.

"You know, sometimes a comeback isn't necessary," he pointed out dryly.

"But in your case it always is," Howie grinned and received an evil glare in response.

"Aww, my boys," I gushed mockingly and wrapped an arm around both Howie's and Nick's shoulders. "Aren't I lucky?" I asked with a sigh and battering eyelids.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say she was mocking us," Howie grinned as he looked over my shoulder at Nick.

"Dude, I think you're right," he chuckled and ruffled my hair in a swift movement. The rest of the guys were all smiles and fits of laughter over our little display and it was safe to say that I enjoyed the attention. From one person in particular.

"Yeah well, that's what happens when we don't do things my way," I smirked and got up from my seat. "I'll go get Nathan and we can get back to work."

*Nick*

As the door closed behind Melody, I leaned back in my seat with a lopsided grin on my face. That girl always got things the way she wanted them. I guess that was one of the many reason why I valued her so much. Work never had a dull moment when she was around, and she always made sure that everyone was comfortable and happy. People like that were rare to come across these days.

One thing I had noticed was how much she'd changed since I first met her. Even though she always wore thick sweatshirts and turtlenecks, I could see that she'd lost a lot of weight. Her cheeks had lost some of their puffiness and her eyes seemed even bigger than before, if that was possible. My guess was at least 7 or 8 pounds. If that wasn't admirable, you'd be welcome to call me Steve from now on.

I scanned the remaining company left in the room. Howie was busy flipping through a magazine and I knew better than to disturb him when he was engrossed in something. Brian and Kevin were busy with one of their 'married men' discussions. I rolled my eyes to myself. But then I saw AJ sitting all alone, looking like a mixture of confusion and exhaustion. That expression had barely left his face for several days now. I frowned slightly and got up from my seat to sit down in the chair next to his.

"Hey," I said as I got settled. "Something wrong?"

AJ looked up at me with a quizzical expression. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You've just seemed pretty down lately," I shrugged. "I was just wondering. Is it Lilith?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, I'm just tired."

"Come on, AJ, we both know that excuses like those aren't gonna work," I said and raised a knowing eyebrow. "I know you. If you don't wanna tell me, that's fine, but when you sit there and look like you can't even decide between red or blue, it usually means something's up."

He cracked a smile and glanced at me hesitantly. "No one thinks up examples like you do, Nicky," he chuckled and leaned back in his seat. "It's nothing really. I just have a lot of things on my mind."

I nodded. "Woman trouble?"

"I guess you could call it that."

"Anything serious?"

"Don't know yet."

I sighed in frustration. "And you don't wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

"I figured," I muttered and shook my head to myself. Sometimes that guy was like an open book, and then other times, like these, you couldn't get a conversation going about anything other than the weather. But that was his own headache then.

My line of thought was interrupted when the door opened again and Melody walked back in. But she wasn't alone this time. Nathan, our producer, walked up behind her and then another man stepped inside. Someone I definitely hadn't seen before. He stood tall and mighty beside Melody, who looked slightly uncomfortable next to him.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet someone," she said with a halfhearted smile. "This is Fletcher, my ... boyfriend."

The last word was spoken hesitantly and she looked at all of us with an expectant expression. And I didn't blame her, I think we all looked a little surprised. Since when did she have a boyfriend? Kevin especially glanced at Melody with a puzzled expression, but he didn't say anything. I knew his questions would come later, though.

Fletcher walked around and shook hands with all of us, before he sat down in the remaining free chair with a loud thud. He was a rather large man, but I couldn't tell if it was muscles or fat behind his dirty overalls. Maybe a little of both. He took out a handkerchief and wiped the beams of sweat off his forehead with a deep sigh.

"Damn, it's hot out," he remarked. "How do you wear those sweatshirts in August, Mel?"

"I'm not a hot-blooded person," she grinned and walked over to stand beside his chair. "Besides, I like sweatshirts."

"Oh, so it's not to cover up some of that?" he asked and patted her stomach without any gentleness whatsoever. "There seems to be plenty of it."

The room went dead silent as we all looked from Fletcher to Melody and back to Fletcher again. Melody kept her gaze to the floor and her hands immediately seeked her stomach to cover it up as much as possible. The comment hurt her, that was painfully obvious.

"So," Brian coughed, as he was the first of us to recover from the shock. "How long have you been together?"

"About 8 months," Melody said, and smiled a little as she put her hand on Fletcher's shoulder. "Fletcher came by today to pick me up for lunch. Do any of you wanna join us?"

We all shook our heads with a polite, "thank you, no." No, we had other plans. Or at least pretended to have other plans.

But I figured I should give him a chance, so I asked, "What do you do for a living, Fletcher?"

"Move furniture," he replied and nodded slightly to reaffirm his statement. "It's definitely not an easy job. And it doesn't help that I come home every day to see Melody do nothing but write her sappy love songs. Honestly, it might be fun for your spare time, but how can you call this a real profession?"

"Fletcher, please," Melody pleaded in a hushed tone. "Not now, okay?"

"What do you mean?" he groaned. "The boy asked me a question, so I answered it. And don't tell me what to do, woman, sit your fat ass down and shut up."

My fists clenched behind the arms of the chair, and I did my best to not grit my teeth in front of everyone. I was just about to speak up when someone else said the exact same words I was thinking.

"I don't think you should be talking about Melody like that."

My head turned to face AJ, and a slight chill ran down my spine. If I had thought I looked enraged, it was nothing compared to him. Even though his outside appeared pretty laid-back, his eyes blazed with an anger I rarely ever saw in him. His hands gripped onto the arms of the chair so hard his knuckles had turned white, and I could see he struggled to not run up and give Fletcher a real piece of his mind.

"Oh really?" Fletcher questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Well, have you seen her complain?" Melody still looked at AJ with the widest eyes I had ever seen and her jaw hanging open. If the tension in the room hadn't been so loaded, I probably would've burst out laughing.

AJ simply shrugged. "At least I don't talk about things I know nothing about," he said dryly. His voice was as low and raspy as ever, but his eyes still sparkled fiercely. "Melody is talented and puts of a lot of time and effort into her work. We've all experienced that first-hand. And I hope you know that you're insulting everyone in this room by saying these things. But then again, that's just my opinion."

The two men held a staring contest for what seemed like an eternity when Fletcher finally mumbled, "Are we going or are we gonna stay here all day?"

Melody finally snapped out of her trance and nodded slowly. They gathered their things and Fletcher stormed out of the room without saying goodbye to anyone. Not that I would've returned the gesture anyway.

But before Melody was out of the room, she turned around and smiled as she whispered, "Thank you." Her gaze fell on AJ as she once again said, "Thank you," this time with a lot more meaning than those two words could ever hold. "I'll be back soon." Then she closed the door behind her and the room turned quiet once again.

It took a while for all of us to gather our thoughts again. Then Nathan grinned and exclaimed, "AJ, my man." He walked up to AJ's chair and slapped his back. "You damn well read my mind with those words. Thank God someone let that bastard have it."

"I'm still speechless," Brian muttered and shook his head. "That was ... something else entirely. It's a good thing one of us has the right vocabulary for those situations."

AJ grinned slightly. "We were all thinking the same thing," he said softly.

We all nodded. "If he ever insults Melody in front of me again, so help me God, I'm gonna punch him," I muttered under my breath.

"I just hope I never have to see him again," Howie said and crossed his arms over his chest. "I pray that Melody knows what she's doing."

"So do I," Kevin said softly as he looked at the table with a blank expression. A part of me couldn't help but wonder if his words held more than general concern. It seemed like he knew something the rest of us didn't. But what could that be?

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Chapter 09 » Chapter 11