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Author's Chapter Notes:

***Author’s Note***

                It occurred to me that I was confusing myself with the timing of this story. So I thought if I was confusing myself I might be confusing my readers. So I’ll try to clear this up a little bit.

                Kalie and Heather have been stuck out side in Hurricane Irene for about half an hour to 45 minutes.

                The Backstreet Buds realize that Heather has been gone for about 15 minutes and that’s when they start to go looking for her.

                Nick has been looking for Kalie the entire time but was interrupted by Jen for a few minutes at a time.

                The incidents between Rich, Harper and Harlow, and between Nick and Marcy took anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes each… But anyways let’s back to the story.

Chapter 11 I’ve Got A Bad Feeling

 

***Heather’s Point Of View***

                I can’t tell you how long Kalie and I had been outside but the rain had died down but hadn’t completely stopped. She and I walked around to the other side of the building to try our luck there.

                We walked in silence for a while until she said hesitantly, “I hate to sound nosy but what is your greatest fear? You said that everyone has a greatest fear and you already know mine. Also not a lot of people know my greatest fear to be honest. Only a few of my family members and Nick know. So if you don’t mind me knowing what is your greatest fear?”

                I took in a deep breath and before I could open my mouth she blurted out, “I’m sorry. If you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to. I have a bad habit of asking ridiculous questions and being nosy when I meet new people. You can ignore my curiosity.”

                I shook my head, “No it’s ok. You told me your worst fear and it’s only right that I tell you mine.” I paused before I spoke, “My greatest fear is losing my best friend in this entire world. That best friend just happens to be the love of my life and not to mention my first love.”

                “Oh Heather,” Kalie said with sympathy in her voice.

                “Rich and I grew up together and he was my very first best friend. Ever since we were in middle school we had been flirting with each other nonstop without really noticing it. We didn’t start secretly dating until high school.”

                “What do you mean by secretly dating?”

                “No one knew we were seeing each other as more than just friends. I mean we weren’t friends with benefits it never got to that but it never got to the point of us actually dating. It’s kind of hard to explain. The both of us dated other people but every second of free time we had was spent together. I had multiple bad break ups and Rich was always there for me. He even blew off his girlfriends for me. I blew off my boyfriends for him too. We were always happiest together.”

                Kalie waited for me to continue as I took another break, “I almost lost him once. Forever. He started hanging out with my ex best friend, Harlow, and his step sister, Harper, when I went away to college and he stayed home not knowing what he wanted to do after high school. He and his step sister never got a long by the way. To be honest they hated each other with a passion. Harper and Harlow were addicted to drugs since high school and they got Rich addicted when he started dating Harlow. I got a call one day from Rich’s dad saying that he found his step daughter dancing at a strip joint just to get money to feed her addiction. My ex best friend was dancing on the pole right next to her and Rich was in charge of the music and announcing the strippers. I rushed home that night and went straight to the apartment Rich shared with the druggies as I call them. I found him half dead on the couch with his then girlfriend hanging all over him shooting God-knows-what- drug into her own arm. His step sister walked out of her bed room half naked with some guy handing her money before he left. I got there just in time. The paramedics said that if I had gotten there a few minutes later Rich would’ve been gone. He stayed in the hospital for at least two months and it was touch and go for almost all of those two months until he was strong enough to go home. The afternoon he got out of the hospital he checked himself into a rehab. He almost died and it scared the shit out of me. I dumped my then boyfriend and missed an entire semester of college just to take care of Rich and made sure he stayed sober after that ordeal.”

                “Wow,” Kalie nearly whispered, “I didn’t realize Rich’s condition was that bad.”

                “Seeing him lying in a hospital bed clinging onto life scared me like nothing else can. He understands me like no one else can or ever will and he has always been there for me. Rich has always loved me like nobody else on this earth ever could even more than my own family. I never really had a family to be honest. When I was 4 my father left us and my mom went crazy. When I was 16 she was finally admitted into a mental ward. When she died when I was 18 my sister, who is 2 years older than me, became my legal guardian. Rich and his family are the only family I have besides my sister. Tonight with the fight and the way he acted toward me I’m afraid that my greatest fear has come true. I fear that I have lost his love for good.”

                “Don’t say that!” she said with passion in her voice. “You two just had a really bad misunderstanding over something. That’s all. Mark my words, he’ll come to realize what a fool he has been and come looking for you and plead for your forgiveness. You two have loved each other for so long! You two really sound like Nick and I. I have found my true love in Nick and I believe that you found your true love in Rich. And if I know one thing about true love, it will never end and any problems you come across will be fixed, you just have to have a little faith.”

                 I didn’t know what to say to her so I just nodded my head and we continued walking.

                After a few minutes of silence I suggested, “How about we go across the street and try our luck by the hotel. Let’s see if their doors are open.”  

***Back inside with Kalie’s Besties***

                “Where the hell can she be?” Michelle asked.

                “Wait here’s the other dancers let’s ask them if they know where Kayl is,” Dan said.

                They walked up to the other dancers who greeted them warmly once they recognized them as Kalie’s best friends.

                “Have you guys seen Nick?” Tiffany asked.

                Sue added, “Jen wants the show to start but she can’t find Nick.”

                “Not since before the show,” Crystal answered. “Have you guys seen Kalie?”

                They all shook their heads and Hanna said, “We haven’t seen Kalie since she was finished getting her makeup done.”

                “Maybe they’re together,” Chris said raising his eyebrows.

                “You pervert,” Crystal scolded her best friend.

                “Honey,” Michelle sighed at her husband, “You know Kalie wouldn’t let Nick do that when there’s other people around and only minutes left until the show starts.”       

                “Well maybe they figured the show was canceled because of the power outage,” Dan suggested.

                “Stop defending Chris,” Crystal said half jokingly to her husband. “You know Kalie would be mortified if someone walked in on them and she wouldn’t take that risk no matter how hard Nick would try to convince her.”

                Dan and Chris hung their heads in submission, “Yeah you’re right.”

                “So do we continue looking for them?” Chris asked.

                “Yes,” Michelle answered quickly. “I have a feeling deep down in the pit of my stomach that something’s not right.”

                “Oh no,” Crystal breathed out, “What do you think happened Mich?”

                She shook her head, “I don’t know but whatever it is it’s not good.”

                “We better get a move on and find them then,” Chris said. “We haven’t checked the bathrooms by the dressing rooms yet.”

                The Backstreet dancers were very confused. Sue spoke up, “What’s wrong?”

                “We don’t know but when Michelle gets these bad feelings they have known to be right,” Dan informed.

                “I hope this time her feeling is wrong,” Tiffany said concerned.

                The besties sped off toward the bathrooms next to the dressing rooms.

***Back with The Backstreet Buds***

                “I’m really starting to worry about Hermie,” Carly said after looking everywhere in the front of the concert hall feverishly but they couldn’t find their best friend.

                “Where could she be?” Melina asked.

                “I have no idea. But why do I have a feeling that she’s backstage with Nick trying to get in his pants?” Jess tried to make her friends laugh. She got slight chuckles out of Melina and Carly but Kelshie stayed straight faced.

                “I have a feeling that something bad happened to her,” Kelshie said as she continued to walk towards back stage.

                “I take that joke back then,” Jess gulped. “Where are you going Kelshie?”

                “We haven’t checked back here and who knows she might just be backstage or with Kalie in her dressing room. I’m just hoping my feeling is wrong.”

                “We do too,” Jess, Melina and Carly responded.

***Switch it back to Kalie’s Besties***

                “Do you hear that?” Crystal asked as she and her best friends got closer to the hall way leading to the dressing rooms.

                “It sounds like screaming,” Michelle said.

                The screams were muffled at first but as the group of friends got closer the screams became clearer.

                “That sounds like Nick!” Dan gasped as the voice became semi familiar to him.

                Chris, who was closest to Nick, sprinted ahead of the group toward the screams.

                Michelle, Crystal and Dan were close behind.

                “NO! Let me go! Stop! Help me! Someone help me!” the screams were blood curdling, incredibly loud and… not Nick’s.

                The four friends stopped dead in their tracks when they saw DJ Lani wrestling with two girls. He looked scared shitless and his voice was becoming a little hoarse from screaming so loud.

                He made eye contact with Crystal and she saw the desperation in his eyes.

                “Please help me! Help me!” he pleaded.

                Crystal shined her flash light on one of the girls and saw a needle in her hand, “They’re trying to drug him!”

                Michelle gasped and Dan and Chris sprang toward the two girls. It took a few seconds for them to pull the girls off of Rich. Chris grabbed the one with the needle in her hand and Michelle knocked the needle way from her so no one could get hurt. She looked for the needle with her flashlight and once she found it she became frozen and never took her eyes off of it. Dan grabbed the other girl and Crystal went to Rich’s side as he slid to the ground.

                “Are you ok?” She looked all over Rich’s arms with her flashlight looking for any needle marks. She knew what she was looking for because her mom was a nurse and she taught her daughter a lot. “Did you get pricked?” Rich’s eyes were wide and he was breathing heavily but his muscles were stiff. She feared that he had been drugged.

                Rich panted, “I don’t think so.”

                “Are you sure?” she said calmly.

                “No I wasn’t,” he said strongly. “I… I’m just… scared out of my mind right now.”

                “Ok just try to take deep breaths and relax. Those two are restrained and you are fine. We’re here now.”

                “Rich if you hadn’t screamed you would be extremely happy right now,” Harper hissed.

                “Who are you? And why did you attack him?” Chris demanded.

                “She’s the bitch of a step sister I told you about. And the other one’s the crazy slut who thinks I still love her which is false,” Rich replied angrily.

                “What’s going on here?” a big booming voice said from behind.

                Crystal turned around to see two of Backstreet’s body guards

                “These two girls just tried to drug DJ Lani. The four of us heard him screaming and Dan and Chris grabbed them before the needle could puncture his skin. Its right over here and nobody has touched it besides the one who tried to drug him. I made sure no one else touched it so it would be easier for the cops to process as evidence.”

                One of the body guards called the cops and then Harper and Harlow were handed over to the body guards.

                Michelle and Crystal helped Rich up to his feet and as the druggies were being dragged away Harper chuckled and said, “I wonder if your precious Heather has survived Hurricane Irene.”

                Rich stared angrily at her, “What did you do Harper?!”

                She smiled a devilish grin, “I pushed her outside.”

                He charged at her and got in her face, “You bitch! She could’ve died out there in this storm!”

                     “She probably already did. She’s still out there,” she flashed another evil smile but it didn’t last long because Rich’s hands wrapped around her throat and started to constrict.

                Dan and Chris pulled him away from her as she got dragged away.

                “YOU BITCH! YOU FUCKING BITCH! HEATHER’S OUT THERE! SHE’S OUT THERE IN THAT STORM! HEATHER! HEATHER!”         

                He broke out of Dan and Chris’s arms and ran toward the closest door. Chris and Dan tried to catch him but he was too fast. He was out the door and into the dark night and just as he vanished out of sight thunder boomed and the rain started to fall heavier again.