Chapter 24
The show kicked off with a bang, there was an amazing atmosphere and the boys were giving a performance of a lifetime.
Kim sat at the side of the stage again her eyes were glued to Nick as he worked the crowd sending the girls crazy with his provocative moves.
Each time he glanced over to her, she felt her heart melt like it was the first time she had ever seen him. As the final song began, Kim jumped off the trunk she was sitting on and headed backstage to wait for Nick.
Resting her head against the wall all her memories from the past 4 months came flooding back. Everything from that first meeting when she thought he was a little weird, to the night in Germany where they danced in the moonlight then shared their first kiss in the hotel, all the way, up to how Nick had surprised her last night and they came together for the first time.
Every thought, feeling, encounter, touch and word swarmed Kim’s head like a plague of wasps buzzing around her. Her eyes began to fill up and she swallowed hard trying desperately to suppress all her feelings of sadness, the last thing she wanted was for Nick to come off the stage hyped up and her to bring him crashing down by crying.
The music finally ended and there was a loud rattling from the stairs as the boys came flying down them.
A huge crowd had gathered now and Kim could not see over them to find Nick, panic began to set in as she thought he would be whisked past her and she would not get to say her goodbyes. Suddenly Q appeared through the crowd, took hold of Kim’s hand and led her through to the dressing rooms at the back.
“He’ll be in, in a minute.” Q’s voice boomed.
“Thanks” Kim smiled back.
Q lent in and gave Kim a hug. “I guess I’ll be seeing ya in a few months then. Have a great Christmas and try not to miss us too much.”
Just then, the rest of the boys spilled into the room closely followed by their partners and the tour team. Everyone cued up to say his or her goodbyes to Kim and to wish her a Merry Christmas, as the room slowly emptied Kim finally saw Nick leaning up the wall waiting patiently to get to say his goodbye.
As soon as Kim saw him smile at her, she felt her eyes begin to sting again, Nick mad his way across the room and threw his arms around her. Kim closed her eyes and buried her face into his chest. There was a deafening silence as the two of them just stood there; holding each other, afraid to speak in case it broke them.
A wave of calm and serenity came over them and for a brief moment, everything was OK. Finally, Nick took a deep breath a spoke.
“God I’m gunna miss you so much.” He bit down on his lip trying to force back the tears.
Kim still could not speak she just looked up to Nick through her blurry eyes.
At the sight of her being upset, he instantly placed his lips on hers and kissed her with everything he had in him.
They were interrupted by a loud knock at the door. They both laughed as if it was almost expected.
“5 mins Nick” someone shouted through it.
It was no use; Kim could not hold it in any longer, the tears fell from her eyes one after the other.
“5 minutes? That’s not long enough, it’s not enough time.” She cried.
The pain in Nick’s heart was unbearable he felt his chest closing in as it pained him to breath.
“I know.” he whispered. “I know.” He softly stroked her cheek trying to comfort her.
“I knew this was gunna be hard but I really didn’t think it would be this hard.” Kim sobbed.
Nick could not say anything; he just held onto her and kept kissing the top of her head.
“Nicky it’s time.” The voice came back to the door again.
Nick shook his head. “Fuck.” He shouted. “I fucking hate this. I can’t just walk away and leave you this upset.”
Kim hugged him a little tighter.
“It’s Ok, come on we can do this Nicky we’ll be back together before we know it.” Kim tried to be brave for his sake.
Nick kissed her on the lips as he whispered.
“I love you.”
It suddenly dawned on Kim that this was now the third time Nick had said those words and she still had not said them back to him.
Nick pulled away as the voice behind the door returned this time a little more irate.
“Nicky come on we’re gunna miss the flight.”
“OK, OK I gotta go.” He said between kisses.
“I gunna miss you loads and I’ll call you as soon as I land OK, even if it means I have to wake you from your dreams of me.” He laughed.
“Ok.” Kim responded through her tears. “Have a safe journey, I’m missing you already.” She kissed him again.
Nick reluctantly let go of Kim and picked his bag up, he turned to go to the door but spun back round to take a final kiss before his departure.
“Ok I’ll see you soon then baby.” He turned and headed for the door as strong as he had tried to be, a single tear fell from his eye as he walked through it.
Kim took a deep breath and ran to the door she watched him walk to the end of the long corridor and shouted after him.
“I LOVE YOU TO.”
Nick turned around a huge smile spread across his face and he blew her a kiss before disappearing through the fire exit.
Kim took a deep breath and composed herself knowing she still had work to do. She slowly headed back into the main arena, dragging her feet as she walked.
The arena was now completely deserted, wiping her eyes she called out to Ash but there was no answer so she began to dismantle some wires while she waited for his return.
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As Nick reached the car, his heart was heavy with sadness. AJ appeared behind him and placed an arm around his shoulder.
“It’ll be OK bro; you’ll be back together before you can say Backstreet Back.”
“Alright” Brian chipped in from the backseat of the minivan causing Nick to smile.
As he opened up his backpack to get his iPod out Nick saw the green velvet box sitting on top of his stuff.
“Oh crap.” He mumbled feeling his heart sink even lower.
“Sup?” AJ asked.
“I forgot to give Kim back her present.” He paused for a moment, just staring at the box.
“Can I have 5 minutes just to run it back to her?” He said turning to Jenn and pouting.
Jenn looked down at her watch.
“Please Jenn, it’s important.” Nick begged.
Jenn sighed. “OK but hurry up and you got 3 minutes.” She shouted after him.
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Ash still had not arrived back into the arena so Kim had started dismantling the speakers. It was so quiet inside the arena Kim had not even noticed the tall figure standing in the shadows behind her. She pulled her IPod out of her pocket and popped the headphones into her ears as she pressed the play button.
Kim hummed away to the music as she tried to concentrate on her work instead of Nick but Here Without You by 3 doors down came on causing her to fill up again.
A cable had become tangled in the speaker so Kim leant back to find her tool bag but instead found a pair of feet standing behind her causing her to jump. She got to her feet and looked up to see the feet belonged to Andy, instantly she felt uncomfortable, so she took a step back but as she did he followed her.
“Can I help you?” her voice shakily asked as she pulled the earphones out of her ears.
Andy’s nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed into those little black dots. Kim cleared her throat.
“Well do you want something?” Kim tried to read his face but she got nothing but coldness from him.
Seeing she was getting nowhere she tried to step past him but he moved into her way, again taking yet another step closer to her.
“What the fuck Andy, I can’t be arsed with your bullshit so fuck off. It’s really not the best time for you to continue to be a dick!” Kim growled at him.
Andy took another step to Kim causing her to become backed up against the wall.
“A dick? I’ll show you what a fuckin dick is.” He hissed.
There was an almighty smack, which echoed through the quiet arena as Andy’s hand made contact with the side of Kim’s face. Her hand instantly went up to hold her stinging cheek but Andy knocked it down as he grabbed hold of her face digging his fingers into her cheeks.
“You just don’t get it do you?” his voice was deep and gritty.
Kim could not speak as her mouth was squashed by Andy’s hand but the fear in her eyes told Andy everything he wanted to know.
“You just fucking appear here, taking up some other hard working man’s place. You lead poor Ash on to get a fuckin job here, then you fuck him off when that backside boy shows you a little fucking interest and now he’s gone and your calling out for Ash again. Fucking slut!”
Andy laughed a little but it freaked Kim out even more at how menacing it sounding.
“You know some people have worked this job for nearly 20 years, your here 20 minutes and you get a fucking extension on your job. What the fuck, it just don’t add up sweet heart maybe I should have sucked Nicks dick then I would have got a nice job out of it. Huh?”
He slapped her face again this time the ring he wore caught her just above the eyebrow and cut it, she cried out from the pain but this infuriated Andy even more so he lashed out again.
Kim fell to the floor, afraid to move she lay there listening to Andy spewing venom about how hard done by he was and how worthless she was.
The blood from her cut seeped down into her eye, she did not know if she was imagining it but she thought she heard voices across the room. Andy however was too far into his hate campaign to notice that Ash and John had arrived just in time to stop him from laying into Kim again.
Ash instantly darted up onto the stage as soon as he saw Kim on the floor and threw Andy a right hook causing him to stagger backwards into some speakers. Ash instantly jumped over them and began to lay into Andy, each punch clouded by the vision on Kim lying helplessly on the floor.
John soon intervened pulling Ash off telling him to go and see to Kim.
The noise had caused the other crew members from outside to run in to see what was happening, John shouted at them to help him restrain Andy and get him out, as he was dragged outside he continued to curse Kim with all he had left in him.
Ash’s face was blood red with anger; he knelt down beside Kim and gently put his hand on her shoulder.
“It’s OK.” He whispered.
“He’s gone now, for good.”
Kim lifted her head to look at Ash her eyes were stinging from the tears and she could not see properly from the steady trickle of blood that had gone into her eye.
Ash gasped as he saw her face for the first time. Her cheek was bright red from where Andy had hit her and the side of her eye had already started to bruise.
“What the fuck was that about Kim?” Ash shook his head as he placed his hand over his mouth.
Kim cried as she gently felt the side of her swollen face and winced from the pain. Ash shook his head again not knowing what to think but just grateful he had gotten to her in time.
Ash tried to help her to her feet but she was to shook up so he just sat down next to her trying not to cry himself as what had just happened slowly began to dawn on him.
Kim's sobs became heavy again so Ash put his arms around her, pulling her into a safe embrace and held her tightly.
“Sssshhhh, sssshhhh.” Ash gently rocked Kim as she buried her head into his neck.
Ash knew nothing he could do or say what make her feel any better at this time, all he could do was stay with her and try to make her feel safe again.
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Nick paced down the never-ending corridor, his smile getting bigger and bigger, picking up speed as he finally came closer to the stage entrance. Bursting through the back door, he came to a halt as he reached the end of the stage only to find Kim sitting in Ash’s arms.
Her head was snuggled into his chest as Ash softly kissed the top of her head and stroked her back. Nick’s smile soon faded, his arms dropped to his side and he felt his heart plummet to the bottom of his stomach as he stared on at the woman he loved sitting cosily in the arms of another man only minutes after they had said their goodbyes.
Nick felt his eyes sting like never before and his dry throat made him unable to speak, he swallowed hard and slowly placed a hand over his mouth.
A wave of sickness came over him, he could not bare it any more the pain he felt was cutting into him like a dagger. Fighting for breath, Nick couldn’t look on any longer he needed air so he dropped his head and darted out of the main arena.
The corridor seemed even longer on the way back to the car, not even attempting to make any sense of why Kim would do this to him the vision of her and Ash stuck strong in his head. The pain soon turn into disbelief then rage, not saying a word to anyone as he entered the car he slammed the door shut behind him and buried his head in his jacket as it sped off to the airport.
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Chapter End Notes:
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