Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 01:28:49 EDT From: Stuprivate@aol.com Subject: Black and Blue Chapter 3 Hi everyone it's Stu here, and I have the next chapter to this series!! Thank you to all who responded to the last chapter, and to the entire story!! I have been getting some great feedback from a lot of people, and thank god no flames! But if I did get any of those, they would have been introduced to the good 'ole delete button. Anywho, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and the whole story. So when you get done reading, please by all means necessary, send me an e-mail to Stuprivate@aol.com or Instant Message me at AOL Screen Name: Stuprivate Legal Bit: This story is that of pure fiction and is not to be taken all that seriously in real life. I do not know the Backstreet Boys or Aaron Carter, therefore this is only the authors image of what their life could be like. If you are one of the BSB or Aaron Carter himself and do not like that I am using their character, well sorry but you are famous! Now to the third chapter of Black and Blue!!! Black and Blue: Chapter 3 The sun rose once again in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was loving life. I, Zackery Scott Maither, had a singing career that would soon sky rocket, or at least turn some heads. I had gotten up early to watch the sun rise, and god it was a beautiful site. I could see the entire city, including the Georgia Dome where we would all be singing in concert that night. BY we all I am referring to the Backstreet Boys, Aaron Carter, and Myself. Anyway, as the sun rose I stood on the balcony, letting the cool, almost autumn air breeze right by me and into our room. Aaron was sleeping peacefully in his bed, looking like he was having a pleasant dream. It was getting way too cold outside for me to be standing there in nothing but a pair of boxers and a hotel robe, so I went inside and shut the door. Then I sat down on my bed and popped my favorite Playstation game, Final Fantasy VII in and turned the power on. Yeah I know that the game is pretty old, but I just love it too much to give away or sell it. So I played for awhile, and when I was about to beat the final 'boss', Sephiroth, I heard a knock on our door. I got up and glanced through the peephole, it was Nick. Upon opening the door, I heard Aaron start to stir behind me. " Good Morning Nick, whats up?" I asked as he stepped in. " Oh nothing much, just came to wake you guys up." He said shaking his little brother awake. " So are you still sore from yesterday's workout with Fatima?" he said laughing quietly. " Don't even get me going on that." I said grinning towards him. " So, has he played any pranks on you, yet?" Nick asked, motioning to Aaron, still half asleep. I smiled and shook my head 'no'. " That's surprising, well don't let your guard down, 'cause he's really sneaky." " Yeah I will, but I'm sure he won't pull anything on me, Aaron's pretty nice." I beamed while my head was turned the other way so he couldn't see my grin. " Ok, well I'm off, be in my room in about ten... twenty minutes for breakfast and if I know Kevin like I do, a rundown of what we're going to do today." He said while walking towards the door. " Alrighty then." I laughed as he shut the door. As he did, he attention turned to Aaron, who was sitting up in bed. " So, did ya sleep well?" I asked while walking to my suitcase. " Yeah pretty much, I am still beat from yesterday. But I can't wait for tonight, our first concert of the tour. How do you think you're going to do." he asked while slipping out of bed, wearing I think was a pair of bright orange silk boxer shorts, not my kind of color, but it works for him. " Hmm, I'm not so sure, I just hope that I don't screw up. Uh, I'm going to shower, so can you wait for me?" I asked walking towards the bathroom. " Yeah sure, just don't take too long." he said as I shut the door. " And don't drop the soap!!" I heard him laugh out. I giggled at the comment too. SO I turned the shower on and was about to remove my shorts when Aaron opened the door. " Uhh Zack." " Jeez Aaron!!" I yelled, " could you knock first!?!" I half yelled at him. I was shaken up for a minute, but then he grinned. " Sorry Zack, but I wanted you to try this shampoo, it works pretty good, just thought that you might want to try it." he said while looking down at the floor. I took the bottle from him. " Alright I will, sorry for yelling at you, but next time, knock first." I said sympatheticly to his charm. " Yeah, sorry 'bout that." he said shutting the door. So I stripped and got in the shower. ----- Aaron Carter laughed to himself as dressed and walked out the hotel room's door. He chuckled quietly before reaching Nick's, where all the guys had just gathered for breakfast, Kevin still in a zombie like, sleep walking mode. " Alright guys," he announced, " when Zack gets here, whatever you do, don't make any loud laughs or tell him what's wrong with his hair." he said smiling. This got Nick's attention away from AJ, who was sitting in his lap. " Why what'll be wrong with his hair." He asked as the rest of the guys listened in. Aaron just shrugged, " Oh nothing much, just that it'll be bright lime green. Like I said nothing much." he chuckled and the rest of the guys joined in. " Aaron, at least you could have waited until after tonight's concert for you to pull a prank on the poor kid." Brian said, still laughing. " Oh it'll wash out with 'normal' shampoo." He said, making a fingers quotation motion. " This ought to be good." Nick thought to himself. ----- I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off completely, the mirror was fogged up, so I decided on fixing my hair later. Aaron was right about that shampoo, it really does make your hair nice and clean. I then got out of the bathroom, threw on my jogging pants and a hotel robe, and headed for Nick's room. Upon entering I saw all the guys looking at me really weird. 'Great, I'm late again!' I thought. " Am I late again?" I asked nervously while grabbing a plate. " No, on time, so you ready for tonight?" Kevin asked, with a grin on his face. I nodded 'yes' and piled eggs and pancakes on my plate. I found Aaron, in the same spot as yesterday and took a seat next to him. " So Zack, what's your favorite color?" Howie asked me out of nowhere. I found that weird. " Uhh Blue, why do you ask?" I said, as Brian let out a small laugh. " Oh just wondering, I kinda thought it would be green, or lime green." He replied, as Brian and AJ laughed even more. Man this was getting confusing, why the hell were they laughing at me. So anyway as we ate Kevin ran down the schedule for today. " Well today we are all in the studios for some recordings on our new songs, Aaron and Nick, you two will be helping Zack write and record some new songs. Management want's at least one done and recorded by the time we leave there. Then it's off to the Georgia Dome to get prepared for tonight's concert." Kevin said, while we all listened in and chewed on various pieces of food. " Oh one more thing, Zack, I really don't think that your hair color is going to match up with the rest of your outfit." he said as everyone else in the room burst out in laughter. My face turned red and I sprinted to the bathroom to see what the hell he was talking about. Sure as hell as Kevin said, my hair was the brightest shade of green I had ever seen. " Aaron!!!" I yelled in rage, "I'm going to wring your scrawny butt when I get a-hold of you!!" as I walked out the door, I noticed that Aaron was gone, and the rest of the guys were still in histerics, Nick, Howie and AJ were rolling in circles on the ground. I bolted out of the room and saw him booking down the hallway as fast as his legs could take him. Fortunately for me I could run faster than him and I caught up with him pretty fast, tackling him down to the ground. I had no intention of hurting him, just really scaring the crap out of him. Anyway, I tackled him down to the ground and we rolled around, finally I got on top. Then I balled myh fist up and raised it in the air looking like I was going to punch him. But I smiled and started ruthlessly tickling his sides, where I knew he was the most ticklish. His laughter was more the enough to get me going, as I continued my 'assault' on Aaron, his face scrunched up, making his nose stick out. " Alright that's enough!" I heard Nick say as he pulled me off of his younger brother, who was wiping the tears out of his eyes. " Zack go and wash that stuff out of your hair and Aaron, apologize to him for screwing up his hair." " Sorry Zack, I just do this to all my friends... or brothers." Aaron said with a snicker. I laughed and headed to my room to wash the hair dye out. ----- " Nice going Aaron." Nick said with a laugh as they returned to their room. The other guys had left to their own to prepare to go out. Aaron, still in giddy from his latest prank simply let out a loud laugh as he plopped down in the giant, overstuffed chair, that was resting in the corner. " So how have you two really have been getting along?" he asked as AJ entered the room. " Pretty well, Zack is really cool. He likes just as much video games as I do, Nick!" Aaron beamed, his child-like face fading into a more serious one. " That's good, finally I can have some time alone and not with you bugging me." Nick laughed out. " I'm not that bad, am I Nick?" Aaron asked, looking a bit hurt by the comment. Nick walked over to his brother and gave him a big hug. " Aaron, I was only joking. I love having you around, but sometimes I need to spend more time with AJ and the rest of the guys. You know how much I care for you." He said as Aaron raised his head so he was looking right at him. " Well that's ok Nicky, I'll be around with Zack more, I can't wait for this tour to start up." he said, letting go of the older blond. Aaron left the room and headed towards his as AJ spoke up. " Don't you think that was a little harsh Nick?" AJ said standing up from the bead. He walked over and kissed his lover, " I mean he's your brother." " Well it's true, now he has someone else to hang with so we can have more time for 'us'." Nick explained, while hugging AJ. ----- " Aaron, is that you?" I asked, letting the sink drain out. I could see the dye and water spin down through the pipes. " Yeah Zack, it's me." he said with what I heard was a little sob. I combed my hair quickly and walked into the main room. " What's wrong, A?" I asked walking up to him from behind. He turned around and hugged me tightly, as I could see some redness in his eyes. " Aaron, if this is about me tickling you to death, I'm really sorry." he sobbed a bit more before speaking up. " Nick said that I bugged him to much and that it was good that we are friends, because now he'd have more time to himself and the guys." he sobbed even harder into my shoulder as I ran my hands through his short, blond hair and rubbing the back of his head. We rocked back and forth for some time. " Aaron, I'm sure that he didn't mean that to hurt you. Nick's old now, of course he's going to want to spend more of his time with the guys." I tried to explain to him. He stopped sobbing for a bit and looked at me. I wiped the tears from his eyes, " And you know what? Who cares about him, 'cause I'll tell you what. Tonight, after we do the concert. We'll come back here, get some ice cream and order a movie, then we'll just chill, just you and me." " Really!?!" Aaron said, perking up. I nodded, " Ok it's a deal." he said as he wiped the rest of his tears off his face. " Now come on, let's go." I said, offering my hand to him. He grabbed it and we were left to the elevator and to the lobby. We got there, on time, thank god, and hopped in the limo. Aaron had cheered up, so I was happy.... well I finally got my emotions to get the best of me. Aaron is such a great friend, so young and carefree, somewhat like me. Anyway, we pulled into the underground garage of what I assumed to be the recording studio and got out. We headed down some halls where Nick, Aaron and I went into one room, the rest in another. I saw all sorts of recording equipment all around me, and a large table with chairs all around in the middle of the room. We sat down and got a bunch of pads of paper out. A suit came into the room, a tape in hand. " Alright Zack, my name is Jack Rickardo, you can just call my Jack. I work for Jive Records and I've got a tape of music that we want you to listen to, then with the help of Nick and Aaron, write some lyrics to it, and record it over the music." Jack explained as he popped the tape in and played. It was nice, upbeat, kinda sounded like "It's Gonna Be Me" by *Nsync, but more 'rockish' I guess you could say. Anyway, after Jack played the music three times over, he left the tape with us and we got down to work. Hours went by, we got there at eight in the morning, and it was now one in the afternoon. After long conversations, a nice ham and cheese sandwich, and a few jokes later, I had my first song down on paper. We went into the recording booth and I took a seat, placed a headset on and the music cued. With the lyrics page in my hand I began to sing. "Let's Go" Zack Maither Jive Records Come on baby, let's go, The time is now, I ain't gonna let ya go If ya think you're gonna leave me here You better tell me now, cause the time is near. I've had enough of the games you play I'll leave now, 'cause I ain't gonna stay Girl, If you wanna keep me Just stop the way you've been treat'n me Let's go Let's go tonight Let's just go, 'till we're out of sight You know it ain't worth the fight Baby, Let's Go {Guitar and Drums Interlude} Let's go Let's go tonight Let's go, 'till we're out of sight You know it ain't worth the fight Baby, Let's Go Well girl, Your time is up By now, my pals would be saying, Hey wassup! Let's go Let's go tonight Let's go, 'till we're out of sight You know it ain't worth the fight Baby Let's Go!! As I finished the last line, I turned over to the window and all of the guys we're their, watching my recording, and boy were they cheering up a storm, even though I couldn't hear them through the sound proof glass. The music turned off and the production guy behind the glass turned on the loudspeaker and said, " Great work Zack, I got all of it on tape and the final thing will be done in a few more minutes." he said as I heard the rest of the guys cheering. The door to the booth opened up and Aaron rushed in and ran towards me, giving me a big hug. " My god Zack, that sounded better than it did on paper." he said as the rest of the guys came in. I was losing breath really fast. " Air!!" I managed to get out. " Oh sorry." he said before letting go of me. Brian walked up, " Man that song rocks!" He said giving me a hard slap in the back. " Yeah man, great work." Howie complemented me from behind, giving me another hard slap on the back. Before Kevin could say anything I got up and backed away. " Thanks guys, I'd accept more complements, but my back is really delicate and I need it for tonight's concert." I laughed out and was soon joined by everyone. We sat their for a bit and talked. Then the guy that was behind the glass came out with a CD in hand. He handed it over to me and I took it. " There ya go, I am making copies to send to Jive Records and to the tour producers so we can have it added in for possibly the next show." he said before walking out. " Alright," Kevin said glancing at his watch, " We have got to get to the arena now to get ready for tonight's concert." he said as everyone cheered. With Aaron at my heels, we walked to the limo in the garage and got in. I gave the CD to the driver and told him to, using Madonna's quote, "Put My Music On". Over and over we listened to it, each time I felt even better. I now had my very own song!! We soon were at the Geogia Dome and as we pulled in, I looked out the window to see the biggest group of teenage girls that I have ever seen!! It looked like thousands of them, all cheering loudly, their large signs held up for their favorite Backstreet Boy, and Aaron. I had seen none for me, but how could I? No one in the free world has seen a picture of me, outside my family. " Holy crap that's a lot of people." I said looking at awe to the outside, " the concert ain't for like four hours, what are they doing here so early?" I asked as the guys laughed, this is getting really old, I hate when people laughed at me. " Early?" AJ started, " This is late for them. Remember that time in LA they were waiting for us for about twelve hours." he said as everyone but Aaron and I nodded 'yes'. We finally got into a 'safe spot' and got out of the limo, entering an area full of staff workers, running around just like they were at the photo shoot. A short, blond hair woman walked up to us. " Ok guys, wardrobe is over their, Zack and Aaron you guys just put on whatever, Backstreet Boys there's an itinerary of what you'll be wearing so use that. After you change, go over to make up, where you'll be briefed on anything that you don't already know. Good luck guys, and welcome to the tour." she said, shaking all of our hands, then quickly calling someone's name and running off in the other direction. " Well that was spectacular." I commented as we walked over to an area with I swear had to be twenty racks of just shirts, then another fifteen of pants, then five racks of shoes, finally a rack of hats, probably all AJ's. Aaron and I changed with our backs turned to each other. He had put on something that I would have probably worn, had I not seen something better. An A&F blue shirt, a pair of black cargo jeans, and a handkerchief around his head. I, in turn, had put on a white beater, some khakis, a Tommy Hilfiger shirt that was made out of something like silk, or rayon, I kept it unbuttoned and opened up. The rest of the guys had put on outfits that were all similar, a nice black and blue color mix. We then went to makeup, where I sat down in a chair, which had my name on the back of it, just like a Hollywood director would have! This was so cool! Anyway, the woman there put all sorts of funky stuff on my, concealers and such, what the hell am I, a girl!?! " So Zack," she said in a perky voice, " how would you like your hair? Spiked, straight down? Do you want it bleached or anything like that?" Now normally I would not have anything like that done to my hair, but I glanced over to Aaron, and he was getting his bleached. " You know what, can you do the same thing with my hair, as he is doing to Aaron's?" I asked, pointing over to him. She looked, smiled and nodded. A few minutes later, I had bleach blond hair, spiked up, and looking just like Aaron's. Man does that bleach sting. I got out of the chair and went over to Aaron's. I looked in the mirror with him, " Oh my god, it's the doublemint twins!" I heard a loud woman's voice say from behind us. 'Fatima' I thought to myself, and sure as hell when I turned around, there she was. She walked up to us and gave each of us a hug, which was a little strange, seeing as is how she was yesturday. " Now I hope the bleach didn't seep into your brains and you forgot your dance steps, 'cause if it did, I'll kill you!" I said jokingly putting her hands around our throats. Aaron and I looked at each other and laughed. The rest of the guys had walked up to us and hugged the both of us, I tell you, there people in showbiz really have some sort of thing with hugging, I don't know if it's in the bottled water or what. " Alright, thirty minutes until showtime!!" some guy yelled at the top of his lungs. We all walked to the curtains and looked out to the crowd, it looked like thirty thousand people were out there, cheering so loud that my eardrums were hurting. " Ok guys, it's now time for our prayer." Kevin announced and we all joined hands together, I'm Roman Catholic so I know how this goes. With our heads bowed down, everyone recited the prayer, I just stood there. He finished it by saying 'Amen!' and then we broke off to our corners. A bunch of MTV guys had shown up and were interviewing each of the guys. Aaron and I had just stood in one place, talking about which movie we would get after this thing. " Let's get Scary Movie." Aaron suggested. " Oh no you don't. I saw that movie and mom would kill me if you saw it." Nick yelled across the way. " Why don't we get Scream instead then, it's not too bad." I said, he nodded his head 'yes' and then the MTV guys came over to us, the interviewer with a microphone in hand. " Hi Aaron, and you must be Zack." he said shaking our hands, " I'm John Norris, from MTV, we're just going to ask you guys a few questions, is that cool?" he asked. " Yeah it's cool, but make it quick, 'cause I'm starting in about five minutes." I responded. He turned to the camera and they started rolling. 'John Norris here at the opening concert of the Black and Blue 2000 Tour. It stars the Backstreet Boys, Aaron Carter, and newcomer to the music scene, Zack Maither. Here I am with the two young guys, Aaron and Zack. So are you two nervous about this concert?' " Well John, I can't speak for Aaron, but I sure as am nervous. I just looked out there and, wow, there's like a lot of people out there." I said enthusiastically. Aaron laughed an jumped in, " Yeah but it's going to be a great concert tonight, we're all revved up and ready to go. So all at home, we'll be in your hometown soon. Peace!" he said as they cut the rolling of the film. " Thanks guys." John said before leaving. The guys walked up to me and we high fived. " Ok kid, go show 'em what ya got." Howie said with a smile. " Yeah, get 'em ready for us." Brian said with a smile. I got wired and they handed me a microphone. 'Alright' I thought to myself, 'it's go time'. " Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a warm welcome to Jive Records newest performer, here to open the show, put your hands together for, Zack Maither!!" The announcer shouted as ran out onto the stage, the crowd roaring with cheers. " Welcome all you guys, and gals." I started getting loud cheers from the ladies. " like he said, my name is Zack Maither, and I'm going to be singing three of the Backstreet Boy's old songs, because I haven't had anything ready for this concert to perform. So Atlanta, Georgia, are you ready!!!" I yelled out to the crowd, and got back a large cheer. " I can't hear you, are you ready!!!" I yelled again, getting louder cheers. " Alright then, Mr. DJ, if you please." I said as he blasted the music to Everybody. As the music got louder I then sang to the music, getting cheered on by all the fans in the crowd. As the first chorus went by, the backup dancers came out and did the choreography behind me. I sung, Everybody, Quit Playing Games, and Larger than Life like none other. As the music turned down, the fans were going wild. " Alright everyone, it's time for me to jet, but don't fret 'cause here's my friend Aaron Carter!!" I announced as he jogged out on the stage to a large cheer from the audience. We high fived as we ran past each other. I went off stage and the entire staff was their, cheering for me. I was handed a towel, and a bottle of water as Nick came up to me. I panted for air and downed the water as Aaron started to sing, "Crazy little party girl" " Great job Zack, that was one hell of a performance." Nick said and thank god, lighty patting me on the back. " I know *pant* that was so cool!" I exclaimed while wiping the sweat off my forehead. The concert went on without a hitch, Aaron did his number, then the BSB went out, to a standing ovation, and did theirs, and finally with pyros going off in every direction, we all finished up with signing "I Want It That Way". As we walked off the stage, I looked back to the crowd, not one person sitting down, and smiled. I had finally become a performer. We all got changed back in our normal clothes and went back to the limo, but not without incident. I opened the door to the outside when Aaron shouted, " Zack no!!" and as soon as I opened the door, I was mugged by hundreds of fans. Security was trying to hold them back. People from all sorts of directions were asking for autographs. I signed a few before being pulled into the limo. " Man I almost lost my shirt out there." I said collecting myself. " Well that's what we have to deal with all the time, but we all love it." Kevin said grabbing his bottle of water. We rode back to the hotel, talking about the concert. We then went into our different rooms, and I picked up the phone and ordered six kinds of ice cream and the movie "Scream". I stripped down to my boxer shorts, as did Aaron, and waited for the stuff to get here. He was in a pair of blue CK's, and me in a plain old pair of green generic boxers. Finally the movie and ice cream got to our rooms and I tipped the guy. We popped it in and started to eat. " Man this is good Aaron, you have to try it." I said while eating some Mint Chocolate Chip. I scooped up a spoonful and offered it to him. He opened up his mouth and gladly accepted it. " Mmmm, good." he said with a smile. I looked at him and he had a small stream of cream going down his cheek. " Oh you got some ice cream here." I said wiping it off with my finger. He thanked me and offered me some of his ice cream, strawberry, it was damn good. I felt some run down my cheek too. " You got some here too." Aaron said, but instead of wiping it off with his finger, he leaned forward and licked it off my face!! I looked at him, wide eyed, and he then placed his lips on mine! I couldn't believe this, he was kissing me! I leaned back against the headboard as Aaron's tongue entered my mouth, swirling around on top of mine. I finally broke off, " Aaron man, why are you doing this?" I asked still in awe. " This is a thank you for being so nice to me Zack." he answered before going back to kissing me. 'There is no way in hell this is a thank you kiss, nor a friendly one either' I thought as I heard the door open up! " Yo Aaron, I was.... what the hell is going on here!!!!!" Nick yelled as he entered the room ----- To Be Continued Well ain't this a nice cliffhanger for you. What's going to happen in chapter 4? Well I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and the whole story so far. As usual, please send all comment, questions and suggestions to Stuprivate@aol.com Thanks for reading!!!