Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2001 23:32:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chica
Subject: The Next Day-Chapter 9

Wow, it's story time once again!

DISCLAIMER: I do now know the sexualities of the Backstreet boys, and I
only will if they ever admit them themselves. Only time will tell!

Chapter 9

I had to admit, Australia was almost exactly like a city in the United
States. Except a lot of people had that strange accent about them. They
even had basketball, but I was too distracted to notice the teams or the
scores. I was currently staring at Brian who sat two seats away. Every time
I'd see his face turn just a little towards me, I immediately turned my
gaze back to the game. By the end of halftime, the couple of hotdogs I had
eaten were swimming in my stomach unpleasantly and I needed to go to the
bathroom. I got up from my seat.

"Hey, are you going to the bathroom?" AJ called to me.

"Yeah." I answered meekly.

"We need to go too." Never in my life have I've ever went to the bathroom
with a couple of guys willingly. It kinda scared me, cause after I had
flushed the toilet in the men`s bathroom, I caught AJ staring at himself in
the mirror, plucking an eyelash hair.

"I can never get these things less bushy." AJ complained. I laughed
inwardly, staring at my own reflection aloofly. I looked like shit, as
usual. A toilet flushed and Brian stepped out, toilet paper trailing from
his shoe like a dork. AJ raised an eyebrow at him and laughed. Brian looked
down and hastily shook the offending tissue away. It really was rather
cute…But I didn't need to start thinking that or anything else in the
nature of my ex being cute.

"Are we ready to go, girls?" I asked sarcastically, opening the door. They
both chuckled and followed me out the door. We were just fixing to climb to
our seats when a lizard mascot spotted us and ran over to us. I flinched. I
hated mascots. Then the lizard spoke.

"Are you the Backstreet boys?" It asked in awe, it's bugged eyes asked us
imploringly.

"Um, yeah." AJ said, giving the thing a small smile.

"AHHH!!!" A girl voice in the mascot uniform screamed, jumping in the
air. I gazed in utter horror as she landed in my arms, straddling me in a
hug. I held her in place, patting her back awkwardly. She wouldn't stop
screaming while she hugged me, and trying to be as polite as I could, I
dumped her on the floor. But the damage had already been done. Girls of
every age and race were stampeding from the stands. We ran. Fast. I could
only follow a blurred shape of what I hoped to be AJ as we went through the
doors, up a staircase, around a plant, through a hall. Hundreds of excited
screams and the pounding of high heels on tiled floor followed us the
entire time. Luck was on our side for a second as an open elevator came
into view and we rushed on. There was only another man in there, who stood
with a hand over his chest, shocked beyond reason at what he had just
seen. We breathed hard, smiling at each other happily.

"I think we've lost them." AJ said, smiling broadly and slapping our backs
joyfully. The elevator doors opened again and to our amazement, there was a
crowd of girls just coming from the stairwell. Brian frantically pushed the
button to the elevator, willing the doors to close. They did just as a
rather speedy girl was just about to touch it. We breathed in again,
pushing the button for the roof.

"We'll be able to lock the roof door when we get there." AJ said loudly. We
stared at him in question.

"You both act like I've never been chased." He said, looking back at them
in an annoyed manner. Conversation was cut short, however, as the doors
opened and again to their surprise, tired young girls were pouring through
the doors. We looked at each other, then we fled to the safety of the
roof. Me and Brian raced through and AJ closed the door swiftly, locking
it. He leaned against it, laughing in happiness.

"We did it! We did it!" He cheered. He smiled. The door behind him lurched
and he stopped smiling. He backed away slowly, watching as the door was hit
repeatedly by the restrained crowd. We edged toward the end of the roof,
staring nervously at the street 100 stories below us.

"It's okay, we're not going to die." AJ joked, letting small, nervous
laughs escape him. The door burst open and girls flooded the roof, arms
stretched towards us.

"OH SHIT WE'RE GONNA DIE!" AJ bellowed. I looked around vainly for a way
out, then I spotted a small window washing basket on the side of the
building.

"Come over here!" I yelled to them, and they both blindly followed my
order. "In here." I said breathlessly, letting each of them into the
basket. AJ found the controls next to him and tried to find the right
button to start it's descent. It stalled for only a second before slowly
descending. The girls stayed back, with only one or two valiantly trying to
hop into the basket. AJ whooped happily, but I noticed that Brian had gone
white in fear, cowering as far away from the front edge as he could. It
seemed that I had forgotten about his incredible fear of heights. The
basket was old and rickety, and even I, who loved to bungee jump
nonetheless, was a bit scared. Another lurch brought a sort of squeaking
sound from Brian, and I felt him wrap his arms around my waist and bury his
head into my chest. I reveled in our closeness and I absentmindedly stared
out at the tall buildings around us. I saw AJ smile at me, giving a feeble
thumbs up. I smiled back, closing my eyes as I wrapped my arms around
him. I heard him sigh and I felt his little body shake from fear, or was it
fear? Yet now was not the time to analyze the situation as we were in a
risky situation. We had only crept slowly down the face of the building for
two minutes and we had only gone five floors. It was better than nothing,
though.

"It's okay, we'll get through this Brian." I whispered to him, feeling a
breeze waft though the cool, clear day. He nodded against my chest and
sighed again. I felt him relax considerably. I heard a strange buzzing
sound and my head shot up, my ears perking up to the sound. AJ immediately
turned his attention to the controls, but nothing he did helped. The basket
stopped completely. I groaned as I knew we were now stuck up here. Brian,
who thought we had finally got to the bottom, looked over the edge. He gave
a terrified yelp and clung to me once again. Despite being stuck about 90
stories in the heat, I still smiled broadly.

"Man, I don't have my cell phone." AJ admitted, leaning against the back of
the basket.

"Well, someone has to get us. We're three Backstreet boys stuck on a
building. How much more obvious can we be?" I asked lightly. The basket
suddenly started up again.

"Alright! We have some good luck now…" But just as he said it, the
basket stopped dead once again. Brian had now gone pale, completely miffed
by the possibility of riding on a dysfunctional window washing basket. This
was nothing like a roller coaster at a theme park, which was what I kept
comparing it to in my own mind. It stood still for another five minutes,
then it rumbled once again and descended rather shakily. I breathed a sigh
of relief. I felt Brian also breath a little more slower.

"Okay, now we can get off this stup…" It stopped.

"Damn it AJ, when the damn thing starts to move, shut your mouth!" I yelled
as the basket shook threateningly.

"It isn't my fault! The damn thing is fucked up!"

"Did you press something? Lord knows you'd screw up something so simple as
a fucking basket…"

"No, it just can't handle all of your weight…" I tried to grab at AJ,
but surprisingly Brian pulled me back.

"We're not going to accomplish anything with the two of you at each other's
throats." Brian yelled. Me and AJ both stared open mouthed at him,
surprised that he had the courage to speak. Brian gave us both a parental
stare until we both resigned ourselves to looking at the view again. I
began to hate the stupid buildings and that fucking wind messing up my
hair. Brian had let go of me but didn't dare look at the ground. Perhaps
that's why now everything seemed so bad, I had thought miserably. The
window washer clinked, and we waited to see what it would do. With a grind
of protest, it started again. Then we heard metal scraping metal and to our
horror we were rushing through the air at an alarming rate; we were
falling.

Each of us screamed as we fell faster and faster to the ground. This was
it. As the hair whipped my face and I saw the other two screaming, Brian
grabbed blindly at me and held me tight. Still terrified, I held him back,
feeling tears prick my eyes. In the matter of seconds I was going to be
laying flat on the ground. I waited for death to arrive, my last thought
being how I wished I had been nicer to Brian. The ground came nearer and
nearer and we were going to hit I winced considerably…Something pulled
us back. The cart had stopped just a foot from the ground. I felt my
insides lurch up and I struggled to regain my sanity. Everything came into
focus and people were watching us, amazed just as much as us that we had
not died. They clapped and cheered and I felt immensely pleased that we
weren't dead.

"Oh, I think I've broke a butt cheek." AJ moaned and I saw that he was
sprawled out on the cool metal of the basket. After rubbing his butt
tenderly, AJ immediately jumped out of the cart, perhaps because he didn`t
know what it would do. I tried to leave, but Brian was still holding on to
me with his eyes tightly closed as if he were still falling. I smirked and
prodded him on the shoulder. He jumped backward, nearly falling down. I
smiled at him and he looked around, then smiled at me. I think it was the
most happiest smile I had ever seen. Overjoyed, he leaped forward and
grabbed me in a bear hug once again. Happy though he was, I was actually
quite shocked when he actually picked me up from the ground in a hug. We
shared one last happy look as we left the possessed basket behind us.

From that day forward me and Brian were officially friends once again. I
mean, there are just some things in life that happen where you can't help
but like the other person. For us, it had taken a 100-story plummet to bond
us again.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friends again? Who woulda thunk it? Well, will Brian NOW listen to Nick or
still be an ignorant little prick? Will they re-grow the balls they once
had? Find out next time!