Prologue

“March 20, 2003 ….. one day away….” Nick thought as he walked into the bar of the hotel that he was staying in, “One more day..”.

“Can I get you something to drink?” asked the bartender as Nick looked around smiling for a second before saying anything.

“Sure… I’ll take a ice cold beer if you’ve got one.” said Nick as the bartender smiled.

“Right away.” said the bartender as he walked over to pour Nick a glass of cold beer. Then he walked back over, handing the beer to Nick, “You look happy…”

“I am..” said Nick as he smiled again.

“Must be love.” said the bartender as Nick started to laugh a little.

“That’s it..” said Nick smiling.

“Love is a great thing.” said the bartender as he started to wipe off the counter down below from Nick.

“That it is..” said Nick as the bartender smiled and went to serve someone else.

Nick took a sip of his beeer before he reached in his pocket pulling out a ring case, opened it up to see a gold wedding band. He took the ring out of the case and looked on the inside to see the initials A.C. as he started to laugh.

“Almost would pass for Aaron’s ring.” he thought as he started to laugh and continued to look at the ring, putting it slightly on his index finger, but it wouldn’t fit, “She’s got small fingers…”

Nick leaned up closer to the bar, resting his elbow on it, while he held his head up and continued to look at the ring.

“Man.. I can’t believe this is happening…” he thought as he started to smile and then wiped a tear away from his eye, “I’ve got one more day…”

“This is gonna look perfect on her hand.. matches her engagement ring perfectly…” he thought as he took the ring off his finger and held it up with both hands, looking at it, “Got good taste in everything… jewerly… the perfect girl….” as he started to laugh a little.

“Sir, would you like anything else?” asked the bartender as Nick put the ring down and looked at him.

“Can I ask you a question?” asked Nick.

“Sure.” said the bartender as Nick looked down at the ring.

“Have you ever loved someone so much you’d do anything for them and wanted to spend the rest of your life with them?” asked Nick as the bartender looked around.

“Can’t say that I have.” said the bartender as he smiled and walked away.

“Lot of good you are..” Nick thought as he held the ring up to his eye level again and looked at it, “I have….”

“Oh man..” Nick said outloud as the bartender looked over at him and Nick held his head down on the bar.

“I remember when I first met her…. I won’t ever forget that day…” as he looked up and started to smile, “August 15, 2001….. ”

Chapter 1

“D… I’m alright man…” said Nick as he was talking to his friend, Howie on his cell phone that hot August day, “It’s kind of a big place but I think I’m doing the right thing for a change.” as Nick walked by a park bench, sitting one of his bags down and looked around, then looked at map.

“Yeah Nicky, going to college while we’re taking a year off is a good thing… you sure you okay up there. I’m just down the coast some here in Panama City Beach.. I can come up.” said Howie.

“No man.. I’m fine.” said Nick as he looked at the map, “I mean… it’s not like I’m going to be staying in a huge big mansion.. I’m sharing a dorm room with some guy my age. On this paper it says his name is James. I might actually start to be normal for a while.. make a normal friend…. get a normal girlfriend.”

“One that’s not a bitch that wants to be a singer..” said Howie sounding in shock.

“That was cold D..” said Nick as he put his sunglasses on and fixed his baseball cap.

“So FSU is a big school up there.. never really went there.” said Howie.

“Yeah man… the campus is huge.” said Nick, “Shit the damn teenyboppers might actually stop calling me fat when we start back touring and crap.. I’m gonna lose weight by walking to class.”

“Yeah Nick’s gotta walk all over Tallahassee, Florida…” said Howie laughing as Nick looked over at a building and then looked at a peice of paper that had his dorm building’s name on it.

“D.. I just found my building with my dorm in it… I’m gonna let ya go okay.” said Nick.

“Alright man.. I might drive up there tomorrow sometime.. when does classes start?” asked Howie.

“Day after tomorrow.” said Nick, “Get my schedule tomorrow and books.”

“Alright… call me later… and be sure to call your mother.” said Howie.

“Yes Howie.. bye man.” said Nick as he hung up the cell phone, sticking it in his backpack.

“Damn D.. always worryin’ about somethin’…” Nick thought as he picked up his other bags and started walking over to the building, “Damn… there’s some cute girls here…..” as he looked around at some girls standing outside of the dorm building, “Shit.. might be just my lucky year.” as he walked into the building and looked around.

“Third floor…..” Nick thought as he tugged at his backpack that was about to fall off of his shoulder and walked up the stairs until he reached the Third floor to see some people around his age standing around in the hallways, moving into their dorm rooms, “349….” as he walked down the hallway looking at the door numbers until he says his.

“349..” said Nick as he unlocked the door with the key that the office had given him and he walked in seeing a pretty well sized room with two beds, two desk, two closets, among other things, “That James guy must have already gotten here…” as he walked in, shut the door.

He walked over to the only available bed, setting down some of his things on his bed and looked around.

“This place ain’t half bad..” he thought as he walked over, opening up his closet and looked in side, “Good room size… no walk in closet like I got in Key West…. Maybe I’ll go on back to my car and get the rest of my stuff…” as he walked out of the dorm room, running into a girl in the hallway.

“Sorry about that.” said Nick as he smiled and continued to walk down the hallway and on down the stairs and out of the dorm building, looking around while he made his way to his car. He noticed that some people kept looking at him even though he had on a baseball cap and sunglasses. I guess wearing a big necklace that said “BSB” didn’t do him that much justice of hiding out there in the middle of a bunch of college students.

“Gotta take the bling bling off Nick.. they gonna be thinkin’ you a pimp…” he thought as he started to laugh at himself as he made his way over to car, opening the truck and took the rest of his bags out. He shut the trunk and made his way back over to his dorm building where he walked back up the stairs and down the hallway.

“Damn hands are full..” Nick thought as he sat down a couple of his bags while he unlocked the door. He cracked the door open a little and picked up his bags as he kicked it open to see a girl standing there with her back to him with shoulder length brown hair.

“Oh hi..” said the girl as she turned around to see Nick, “Um are you my roomates boyfriend or something?”

“No…” said Nick as he looked around, “Are you my roommate’s girlfriend?”

“On my peice of paper it says that my roomate’s name is Nicky…” said the girl as Nick sat his bags down and pulled his peice of paper out of his back pocket, “Mine says James..”

“That’s me.. I go by Aimee though… James is my middle name.” said Aimee, “So… you’re Nicky?”

“Nick.” said Nick, “I think there was a mistake here…”

“Ya think…” said Aimee as she put the paper back in the pocket of her kacki shorts, “I’m going to go see the head of living arrangements or something… I can’t have a boy living here.. we’ll have to get you moved..”

“Me moved?” asked Nick as Aimee was about to walk out and she turned back around and looked at him, “I specifically asked for the biggest and nicest dorm room…. this is it I suppose.. so.. I’ll help you move your stuff when you get another dorm room.”

“I’m not leaving this room…. my sister had this dorm room while she was here and it is the nicest room so I requested it.” said Aimee, “So you will have to leave.”

“Do you know who I am?” asked Nick as Aimee scwinched her eyes a little.

“Maybe if you take the hat and glasses off..” said Aimee as Nick took his Nike hat and sunglasses off, “Oh good lord… a Backstreet Boy?” as she started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” asked Nick.

“Okay.. where’s MTV at or like that TV crew that plays jokes on people?” said Aimee as she looked around.

“I’m starting school here.” said Nick.

“Yeah.. and I’m Britney Spears…. so go on back to your mansion and your singer girlfriend and ta-ta…” as she walked over handing him one of his bags, “Here you go.”

“I’m not going anywhere… my name is on this room right here.. Nickolas Gene Carter, born January 28, 1980.. that’s me.” said Nick, “My room.”

“My room…. I asked to have a private room.” said Aimee.

“I don’t care.. this is my room.” said Nick.

“We’ll see about that..” said Aimee as she walked over and picked up the phone, “Yes.. will you connect me with the head of living arrangements…. Aimee Callahan… okay I’ll hold.”

“Aimee James… that’s a messed up name.” said Nick.

“Yeah… well… I can’t help that. Gene isn’t a very attractive name either.” said Aimee as she rolled her eyes, “Yes, there’s a problem here with our dorm. I asked for a private dorm room and my father had addressed this to the dean, but there is a boy here that has a peice of paper from you guys saying that I’m his roommate and this is his dorm room……”

“It is..” said Nick mocking her as Aimee looked over at him rolling her eyes again.

“Okay.. I will tell him that, hold on a moment.” said Aimee as she covered the phone, “He said one of us had to give the room up.. so… nice meeting you.” as she smiled.

“Naw.. I ain’t leaving.” said Nick as Aimee looked at him and went back to the phone.

“Neither one of us want to leave.. is there another dorm room with a male roommate that he can move in with or anything…. or another single room that he can go into?” asked Aimee.

“I’m not leavin’ this room.” said Nick.

“He says he’s not leaving.” said Aimee, “Uhh…. there’s no other rooms available? Are you sure….. fine.. okay fine. Thank you.” as she hung up and looked over at him, “There’s no other rooms available. Until next semester.. this is our room.” as she turned around and started to unpack her things.

“Oh this is great…. rumor gonna get around now I’m living with some girl at FSU.” said Nick as he turned around to unpack his things.

“Why aren’t you off living with your girlfriend… whatever her name is.” said Aimee.

“How do you know about her?” asked Nick as he looked over at Aimee.

“My sister has a anti-site about her.” said Aimee, “I don’t really like pop music.”

“What do you like?” asked Nick as he pulled out his laptop, and sat it over on his desk.

“Mostly country music… but I like rock and alternative… some pop is okay.” said Aimee.

“Country?” asked Nick as he started to laugh, “Oh joy… get some hillbilly crap up in here… some what is it.. “Achy Breaky Heart”?” as Aimee looked over at him.

“Well better than… tearin’ up my heart.. while we’re apart…” said Aimee as Nick threw his shirt down that he was holding and looked over at her.

“That’s ‘NSync…” said Nick.

“‘NSync.. Backstreet.. what’s the difference… your just the male version of the Spice Girls.” said Aimee as Nick turned around to finish unpacking, “Never answered my question about the girlfriend…”

“Can’t live with a girlfriend when you ain’t got one….” said Nick, “We broke up over a freakin’ year ago almost.”

“Oh.. well like I said I don’t know much…” said Aimee.

“I can tell.” said Nick as Aimee rolled her eyes and started to put a poster as Nick looked over, “What the hell is that?”

“Tim McGraw..” said Aimee as she put it up and looked over at Nick, “What?”

“Sweet Jesus… I have to put up with this until December?” asked Nick.

“No.. you can always leave.” said Aimee.

“No this is my room.” said Nick as he walked over to hang some things up in his closet, “Yeah well get use to it.. we’re sharing.” as he turned around and looked at her, pulling her hair up in a ponytail, “Where are you from?”

“Destin, Florida.” said Aimee as Nick looked confused.

“Where’s that?” asked Nick.

“A beach town… over near Ft. Walton Beach… near Pensocola.” said Aimee.

“Oh.. that’s not far away…” said Nick.

“Good 3.. 4 hours.” said Aimee, “You’re from Orlando right?”

“I live in the keys… well I’m from Tampa originally.” said Nick.

“Oh… cool.” said Aimee as she opened up her closet throwing her empty bags in there as Nick looked over at her again.

“You’ve got a lot of junk…..” said Nick.

“My belongings.” said Aimee as she was setting up some pictures around her part of the room.

“Who’s that? You’re boyfriend?” asked Nick.

“No… family.. friends.” said Aimee as she looked over at Nick who was putting some of his clothes in a drawer on his dresser, “So… why are you going to school? The group didn’t break up did they?”

“No.. taking a break and I wanna do this.” said Nick, “Why are you here?”

“I took time off from school and then decided what I wanted to do.” said Aimee.

“What?” asked Nick.

“Go to school.. don’t know what my major is.” said Aimee as Nick started to laugh, “I’ve gotta go get some more stuff out of my car… I’ll be back in a minute.” as she walked out of the dorm room as Nick walked over looking at the pictures and started to laugh.

“Maybe this won’t be so bad after all..” he thought as he smiled, walking back over to his things.