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“Stop whispering! Stop fucking whispering!” Rochelle dropped her phone onto the table and ran her fingers through her hair. “I hate this!”

“We all hate this.” Kristin slid a Starbucks takeout cup along the table in Rochelle’s direction and waited for the other woman to look up. “Maybe we should stop watching for a bit.”

“I just want to know what AJ said to Brian.” Rochelle sighed. She lifted the takeout cup to her lips with shaky fingers. “I just want to know ...”

Kristin glanced down at the video that was still playing on Rochelle’s phone. “Do you think AJ is upset about – about what Brian said about you?”

Rochelle shook her head. “Nah.” She forced herself to take a sip of coffee. “Brian and I are ...” She stopped; changing her mind. “AJ can’t be mad at Brian.”

“Should one of us go and check on Leighanne?” Leigh hesitated; not quite sure if Rochelle was done delivering her vague response. “I’m sure she’s upset.”

Kristin licked her lips. “Brian didn’t say anything in that room that Leighanne didn’t already know. Their relationship has been a bit rocky lately. Kevin told me as much. If anything, Leighanne is upset that Brian exposed the truth beyond their perfectly staged Instagram posts.”

“It’s still not fair to her.” Rochelle pointed out. “Regardless of what’s going on between her and Brian at the moment, he still made her look like a fool; like some pathetic little puppy who follows him around so he doesn’t stray.” She paused to take a shaky breath. “If I were in her position, I would be devastated to hear my husband admit to the world that I wouldn’t be the one person that he would save.”

“Do you think that part was a surprise to her?” Leigh directed her question to all of the other women.

“She had to have known.” Lauren quickly responded. “Even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself, I think she already knew. I know without a doubt who Nick would pick if he was put in that situation, and I can tell you all with absolute certainty that it wouldn’t be me.”

“Knowing and having your husband confirm your suspicions are two completely different things. If she truly was in denial, Brian’s admission would have been a really tough pill for her to swallow.” Rochelle paused to consider her words. “Of course, I’m not defending her behaviour. This is why AJ and I have the type of relationship that we do; it’s easier to accept the inevitable than it is to try and prevent it.”

“Speaking of things that are inevitable ...” Lauren trailed off and wiggled her phone at the others. “They’ve posted the next poll: which Backstreet Boy is your favourite?” She choked on her words as she read the question off of her Twitter feed. “Let’s all take a guess as to who is gonna win that one.”

Rochelle picked her own phone up off of the table as it pinged with an incoming Twitter notification. She instinctively went to dismiss the message, but the word ‘plan’ caught her attention. “Try not to get too worked up, Lo.” Rochelle addressed Lauren as she quickly read the rest of the message. “It seems as though the fans are mobilizing.”

Kayleigh’s fingers were flying across the screen at an alarming rate. Her thumbs were beginning to cramp from navigating her phone’s keyboard, but she barely noticed. She hadn’t even looked at her ‘To Do’ pile for the work day. She was totally consumed by the situation that was currently unfolding on Twitter.

“Are you going to vote this time?”

Kayleigh checked to make sure that the door to her office was still closed. More and more of her co-workers were beginning to trickle in for the day, and she didn’t want anyone to know that she was obsessing over the Backstreet Boys instead of writing the progress report that was due before her afternoon meeting.

“I think that I have to vote this time.” Kayleigh glanced at the video feed that occupied her entire computer screen as she addressed her answer to the phone on her desk; Sophia was on speaker. “Did you get the Twitter message from Rose?”

“Yeah.” Sophia let out a long, almost tortured sounding sigh. “I don’t know how I feel about it. Did you see that the price is now up to ten dollars per vote?!”

“I’m just going to vote once.” Kayleigh clarified. “And I think that I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna vote for Howie.”

“But what if it doesn’t work out how everyone thinks it will? What if Howie wins and it turns out that he gets to go free?” Sophia voiced the worries that were swirling around in Kayleigh’s head. “I feel like I need to vote for Nick. I need to give him a chance to get out.”

Kayleigh’s eyes honed in on Nick and Brian. The two of them were whispering together on the screen; their voices too low to be picked up by the video feed. Her stomach lurched. Brian was her favourite. Maybe Sophia was right; maybe she should ignore what the fandom was saying and vote for the man who had stolen her pre-teen heart more than two decades ago with his cheeky smile and his soft southern drawl.

“What should we do, Kay?” Sophia’s voice had lost its edge. Now, she just sounded lost.

“I’m voting for Howie, Soph. I think it’s the right choice.”

Kayleigh made her decision as she watched Brian break down yet again. The idea of a world without Brian Littrell made her heart ache, but she knew that her vote would only make a difference if she went with the majority. It was obvious from the previous polls that the men behind the kidnapping knew the boys inside and out. As the message that was circulating on Twitter suggested, the kidnappers would be expecting Nick to win. If Nick didn’t win, there was a chance that it would throw the kidnappers off; cause them to make a mistake that would open them up to the police.

“Why did you do it?” Nick practically choked on the words as he caught Brian’s eye. “Why did you let them do this to you?”

Brian slowly lowered his legs and stared down at his marred chest; at the blistering letters that would forever remind him of this whole terrible ordeal. His whole body began to shake with a new round of tears as Nick gently pressed an antibacterial drenched washcloth against the top of the inflamed ‘R’. The lotion stung with a ferocity that made Brian clench his teeth, but that wasn’t why he was crying. He was sobbing at Nick’s tenderness; at the innocence and hope behind his words.

“I did it because I had to.” Brian sucked in his breath as Nick moved the cloth over to the ‘A’. “I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction ...”

“But ...”

“They would have used it against us, Nick.” Brian took another ragged breath; waiting for Nick to re-saturate the cloth before touching it against the ‘I’. “They’re trying to turn us against each other, but I don’t think that they know where to go from here. I mean, they seem to know a lot about us, but their understanding is all from the media; from what they’re able to read online. If it comes down to them pairing us off and making us choose or whatever ...”

“What do you mean?”

Nick looked up from tending to Brian’s wounds, and his own chest heaved at the look on the older man’s face. His fingers tightened around the cloth in his hands; squeezing out some of the medication. He watched as the liquid ran down the side of his hand and dripped onto Brian’s jeans, leaving a series of dark wet spots on the fabric. Nick swallowed hard against the lump in his throat. He had felt the other guys looking at him when Brian had said Leighanne’s name; had felt their eyes tearing him apart when the polygraph machine had started beeping. How come everyone had known but him? Why hadn’t he realized that their relationship was still very much intact?

“Nick, I’m sorry for making you believe that I had given up. I’m sorry if you thought that I didn’t care.”

Nick cautiously ran his fingers along the still tender wound on the side of his own face. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him. The scars that he and Brian had inflected upon each other over the past few years were finally visible, and now that they were both able to see them it seemed as though that they were both ready to admit that they had made mistakes. Nick’s heart was still hammering in his chest. Brian’s words were making things all too real for him. He had been catching fleeting glimpses of their early friendship for years, but now it was as if he was seeing Brian as a completely different person.

“Nick ...”

“I did it.” This time Nick did choke on his words. “I convinced myself that you didn’t care to make it easier for me to pretend that I didn’t care about you.” He took a much needed breath. “I did this to us.”

“You didn’t.” Brian shook his head. He reached out and grabbed a hold of Nick’s wrist, forcing the younger man to look him directly in the face. “Nick, that stupid lie detector forced me to admit what I’ve needed to say for more than ten years. I can’t keep doing this shit without you; I just can’t.”

Nick licked his lips. His heart was breaking. Brian looked so old, so beat up, so defeated. He was still crying; the tears rolling down his soaking wet and painfully puffy face. He could see the desperation shimmering in Brian’s swollen eyes, but he still held back his words.

“But, you and Leighanne ...”

“I made a mistake.” Brian interrupted. He kept his voice to a whisper to prevent the camera from picking up the conversation, even though he felt like screaming. “I love my wife, but I let her opinions dictate my own. I sided with Leighanne because a good Christian man always stands by his wife. Only, in my case, my efforts to be fiercely loyal to the woman in my life blew up in my face. It’s made me unhappy, it’s made me unfaithful, and it’s made me give up the relationships that I truly need.”

“I wouldn’t choose Lauren either.” Nick let out the admission in one breath; before he could lose his nerve. “I love her and Od – and the baby – more than I know how to say, but if I had been in your situation ...”

“I miss you, Nick!” Brian’s tearful confession came out louder than he had intended, and he hastily dropped his voice back to a whisper as the other guys all raised their heads. “I’m sorry that I fucked this all up. I’m sorry for all of it.”

“I’m sorry too, Brian.”

Nick opened his arms and tightened them around Brian’s smaller frame. Brian’s skin felt clammy under his touch, and Nick’s mind immediately jumped to the wounds on his friend’s chest. What if they were already infected? What if he and Brian didn’t get a chance to be best friends again? Nick couldn’t help it. He let out a loud guttural sob that rivaled the volume of Brian’s earlier declaration and twisted his arms around Brian’s back.

The two of them were both crying so hard that they were shaking; clinging to each other for support. It shouldn’t have come to this. They had both been stupid, arrogant, and self-centred to the point of destruction. What if it was too late? What if the past few life-changing minutes turned out to be for nothing?