[Nick]

I can’t believe Karie… hell, I can’t believe myself. Why the hell did that just happen? It’s 5 a.m. and I’m sitting outside her apartment building on one of my suitcases. I’ve tempted to call a cab and fly my ass back to Los Angeles where I belong but something can’t make me hit the call button on my phone.

Something also won’t let me leave this apartment building.

I can understand Karie not wanting to be a mother. Hell, I don’t even want to be a father, but it’s not like I have a lot of choice in the matter. Yeah, we could give the baby up for adoption and I would never have to think about it again.

But deep down, I would think about it everyday.

Brian and Leighanne could raise the baby, but I would know that the kid was mine and what would happen down the line if I wanted to tell the kid the truth? It could ruin the group and my relationship with my best friend.

Maybe every one was right. The relationship moved way too fast and it took a mistake on my part to bring both Karie and I back down to Earth.

Now I just have to figure out where the hell I’m going now

[/Nick]

[Karie]

“Hey Karie, you look like hell,” I heard Greg say as I stepped off the elevator the next morning. I hadn’t slept and simply pulled my hair in a ponytail with just a little make-up on. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, walking through the cubical to reach my office. I could see Greg’s refletction in my door as I walked around my desk and sat down.

“Something happen with Nick?”

“Yeah, I think we’re over,” I spat out. “I just, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“We kind of have to,” he said, sitting down in the chair across from me. “Page Six is reporting that Nick’s got a girl pregnant in California. Is it true?”

“Nick who?” I asked, trying to play dumb.

“Karie –”

“I don’t know anything about Nick’s life outside of Nashville, nor do I really want to know,” I said as I turned my computer on.

“If you know something about this, it would be good for your career,” he said as I looked at him. “Sure, he’s not Brad Pitt but any juicy gossip like this can put your name on the map and I know that covering country music and the Nashville music scene isn’t what you really want to do, is it?”

“I want to do Entertainment, but I love Nashville, so I’m fine with it here.”

“Write about it on the blog that you’ve been doing,” Greg said, standing up from the chair. “Get the information out to his fans and to the world or else everybody is going to think you’re the one that’s pregnant.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

“Yes you do and you know everything,” Greg said, putting his hands on my desk and leaning over to look at me. “Besides, your job depends on it.”

“What?”

“Your job depends on it,” he said, turning around. I watched him as he walked out of my office and I sighed, looking at my computer. It said I had 104 new e-mails. God, who could they possibly be from?

I opened my e-mail and saw that they were from my blog with the newspaper. It was obviously fans that wanted to know about the Page Six gossip.

Then I saw it.

Nick Carter.

Nick had e-mailed me.

I opened it up and leaned up in my chair to read it.

Hey Karie,

I’m sorry things went down last night like they did. I came back to Nashville to surprise you because I missed you so much. I never intended on leaving just a few hours later.

If I had known about your thoughts and feelings about babies and all of that stuff, I would have told you up front and it probably would have saved you and me the heartbreak. I guess we did move a little too fast but it was great while it lasted, wasn’t it?

I don’t want to be a dad, but I don’t want to just give the kid up either. I think if you ever got pregnant or were a guy and got someone pregnant, you would understand that. The fact that you don’t want or can’t have kids will never let you feel that confusion and indecisions that I’m feeling.

Apparently there’s rumors going around now about it now I just heard and I’m going to have to set the record straight and tell the world that I got a girl pregnant and now I’m paying the consequences.

I’m just sorry that consequence was you.

Love, Nick.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I stood up and marched through the cubicles to Greg’s office. I opened his door and glared at him.

“Yes?” he asked as I shut his office door behind me.

“So are you telling me that if I don’t write about Nick’s pregnancy ordeal that I’m going to get fired? Is that what you’re telling me?” I asked as Greg shook his head. “Yes or no?”

“It’s your responsibility as a journalist,” he said.

“What about my personal obligation to someone I care for?”

“This is why you don’t mix business with pleasure,” he said as I rolled my eyes. “In journalism, there is no personal obligation. You’re the watchdog of the government, or in your case, celebrities.”

“Greg, please… don’t make me write about this,” I said as he sighed.

“It’s your obligation as a reporter to write about it,” he said as I looked away. “Like I said, your job depends on it.”

“Fine,” I said, walking out of his office and slamming the door. I took my cell phone out of my pocket and began dialing Nick’s number as I marched back to my office.

Did I love my job or Nick more?

“Hello?” I heard Nick’s voice say, answering his phone.

“Hey, it’s me,” I replied, shutting my office door behind me. “I, I just got your e-mail.” I walked over to my desk and sat down, picking up a pencil.

“Oh yeah?” he asked. “Well?”

“My boss heard about the rumors, Nick and he wants something written about it,” I said, not beating around the bush. “He read Page Six, it’s in there today.”

“Fuck, Page Six? Great,” he muttered, already sounding annoyed. “So are you calling me personally or professionally?”

I didn’t say anything. What could I say?

“You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” he asked.

“Nick, he said my job depended on it,” I finally said. “I told him that I had a personal obligation to you but he threw all of this journalism ethics bullshit on me and told me that my job depended on it. I can’t lose my job.”

“You’re calling me for a statement about something you don’t want a part of?” he asked as I sighed.

“Nick, it’s not like that and you know it. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t write anything about this,” I said, hearing him grunt. I could tell he was getting pissed.

“I have a statement for you,” he said as I got a notepad to write down what he was going to say. “I made a mistake and got a girl pregnant. I wasn’t acting responsibly and now I have to pay the consequences because my now ex-girlfriend doesn’t want kids and is putting her job before me. Put that in your statement, Karie. I dare you.”

“Nick, please,” I said as I looked at my cell phone to see that he had hung up.

This is why I put off relationships for so long and just worked and went to school. This is why I didn’t want to get into a relationship or fall for someone. I would have to make decisions like this that could ruin the lives of people that I cared about.

[/Karie]

[Nick]

Sitting here staring at a picture of Karie and I from her high school reunion on my computer is making me sick. How could she even think about asking me for a statement when the subject of the statement is what has tore us apart. Brian said that she had every right to be angry and not want to take care of the baby with me. AJ seems to side with me, but then again, he would. He knows what it’s like to grow up without a dad and I don’t want my kid to grow up without me.

Just taking care of it, her, I mean, her, is going to be the problem.

“You need to stop staring at that picture,” Howie said as he walked up behind me. I looked at him and shook my head. “It moved too fast, Nick and you know it.”

“That’s not the point,” I said as Brian walked into the room, closing his cell phone. “What’s wrong?”

“Nick, you need to go check your e-mail,” he said as I stared at him. “It’s officially out.”

“What?”

“She wrote about it,” he said as I clicked out of the picture and went to check my e-mail.

In my e-mail was a link from our publicist to the Tennessean Web site, where a photo of me sat beside the headline “Backstreet Baby?”

“I can’t believe she would do that,” I said as I leaned closer to read the article.

The New York Posts’ Page Six broke news today that Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was becoming a father. The Tennessean can confirm that Carter, 27, is indeed an expecting father with an unnamed college student from California.

Carter and his three fellow Backstreet Boys have been in Nashville off and on the past few months recording for their upcoming untitled album.

“I made a mistake and got a girl pregnant. I wasn’t acting responsibly and now I have to pay the consequences,” Carter told The Tennessean.

According to Carter, who spoke to The Tennessean through e-mail and phone, the mother does not want to keep the child and is leaving the decision of what to do up to the father.

“I don’t want to be a dad, but I don’t want to just give the kid up either,” Carter said.

Stay tuned for more news on Nick Carter and the Backstreet Boys at The Tennessean.

“I can’t believe she would do that,” I said as I closed the laptop and threw it across the room. “She fucking used me!”

“Technically she didn’t use you,” Brian said as I looked at him. “You said that her boss gave her an ultimatum and she could have put a hell of a lot more in that article.”

“She could have given away Becca’s identity and she didn’t,” Howie said as I looked away. “She could have given away the sex of the baby and put her own personal anger into it and she kept it pretty clean.”

“Nick, she was a journalist when you met,” Brian said as I leaned back in the chair. “It’s who she is.”

“That’s not who she is,” I said, looking at Brian. “Or maybe I didn’t know who she was.”

“Could be both,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. “Do worry bud, we’re going to get through this.”

“I hope so,” I sighed, closing my eyes, wishing that I had never even met Karie and both of our lives would be a lot simpler.
[/Nick]