The Story of Us (Book 1 of "The Story of Us" Series) [Completed]

Chapter 4 - The End of May

[Nick]

Winter passed and 1999 began. That year was supposed to be the year of the Backstreet Boys. Our second U.S. album had been set to be released worldwide in May. But 1998 ended on a great note, an even better note for me.

Backstreet Boys performed a sold-out show in Orlando on New Year's Eve that was televised live on Pay-Per-View. The best part of that evening was the fact that Harley showed up about thirty minutes before we went onstage. It was the first time I got to see her since Las Vegas. Sure, her parents were with her, which was kind of scary, but she was there and that's all that mattered.

We got to spend part of the next day together, going to Disney World and just hanging out. It was hard to do that kind of stuff since the Backstreet Boys were the biggest group in the world at the time and Harley was on the verge of the type of stardom people only dream about. We got spotted a couple of times but nothing major.

Then she had to leave and I didn't see her for almost a month. We were in New York City at the same exact time and we went out to eat for my birthday. It was kind of our first official date. We went out to eat at a nice restaurant, then went for a carriage ride around Central Park and were on our way back to the hotel that both of us were staying in until we were both spotted... by fans.

Suddenly it was all over the internet that Nick Carter and Harley Harper were dating. We kept denying it, just for the simple fact that fans have never cared much for my girlfriends. Our media people just played it off to the fact that the Backstreet Boys were trying to convince Harley to come on tour with us in Europe when the Millennium tour began.

But Harley's popularity hadn't shifted towards the European crowds and while we both tried to get it to work, it didn't and we ended up getting a band that was just getting started in Europe.

But people kept talking about me and Harley. We tried to keep everything on the down low until some fan spotted me in Montgomery, Alabama randomly when I went to go visit her on a weekend I had off before we started promoting the new album heavily.

We couldn't really hide it after that, especially since "Millennium," the Backstreet Boys' new album kicked Harley's album out of the number one position. Her third single, "I'd Lie," had pushed the album back to the top of the charts and the fact that she and a Backstreet Boy were dating made the entire thing even juicier to the press.

The press were making our relationship out to be something that it wasn't. Sure, we were dating and we liked one another. The press however made it out as if we were about to elope and trust me... at that time, eloping was the last thing on my mind.

[/Nick]

[May 1999]

Harley sat in her hotel room in New York City, staring at a People magazine. There was a picture of her and Nick in it from two weeks ago when they went to the movies together in Los Angeles when she was there for a talk show. She felt weird seeing photos of her and Nick together in magazines. Her parents were a little concerned. At first they thought it was cute, but the more she and Nick wanted to see of each other, the more her father started to get concerned.

"I'm not letting you fly to Tampa to spend the weekend with a boy who has his own house," Jon Harper had told his daughter. "If he wants to see you, then he will come here where I know he won't do anything to get you both in trouble."

In trouble.

Her mother was so concerned, she took Harley to the doctor to put her on birth control pills. Harley was mortified, especially since she and Nick had never gone past a few kissing sessions.

She hated that her parents didn't trust her, but if her daughter was dating some huge pop star, she wouldn't either. She couldn't blame them. She was falling head over heels for Nick Carter and she couldn't catch herself.

"Hold on," she said, hearing someone knock on her door. She slipped her cardigan over her tank top that she was wearing and looked out the peep hole and smiled. She opened the door to see Nick standing outside the door with a huge smile on his face. "Hey you."

"Just got here," he smiled, leaning over to kiss her lightly on the lips. "Threw my bags in my room and rushed right up."

"How long do you guys have before you leave?" she asked, shutting the door behind Nick as he walked in.

"Our flight leaves at ten in the morning," he said as she sighed. "Then I'm gone for three months." Harley sighed as Nick grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to him. "Hey, we have almost almost 18 hours of time together before I have to leave for the airport tomorrow."

"At least I'll be busy recording while you're away."

"And writing songs about missing me."

"Maybe," she smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck. She leaned up, kissing him and smiled against his lips as he felt his hands move inside her cardigan to wrap around her back.

"Your mom around?" Nick whispered against Harley's lips. She shook her head and smiled.

"She went out with my aunt who came with us so she'll be gone for a while," she said. She started to laugh as Nick picked her and carried her over to the bed.

She smiled up at him as he crawled on top of her, kissing her lips softly. His lips moved down to her neck and she knew she needed to stop him before he went any further. There was a part of her that didn't want to, though. There was a part of her that wanted him to keep going.

One of his hands moved up under her tank top, touching the skin on her stomach. Then he heard her moan as he sucked on her collarbone.

"I'm getting too caught up," Nick finally whispered against her shoulder. He moved off of her and laid back on the bed beside her. "I'm sorry. I just, you know..."

"No, I don't know," she whispered, trying not to look at him. "You just what?"

Nick didn't know how to say it to Harley. How was he going to tell the girl who was dating and who was considered his girlfriend and who he was pretty sure was a virgin, that he was horny and wanted to have sex with her before he left for Europe for three months?

"Nick?"

"Why haven't we did it yet?" he blurted out. He saw her sit up in the corner of his eye and he sighed, knowing he had just fucked up. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, but..."

"You know why..."

"Do I?" Nick asked, sitting up and finally looking at her. "We've never really talked about..."

He watched her as she put her hands over her face and he smiled. He knew it. He was right about her.

"You want to have sex, don't you?" Harley asked, moving her hands from her face. She looked over at Nick to see him shrug his shoulders. "I can't, Nick."

"Okay, but why?" he asked as she started to laugh. "What's so funny? Are you a virgin?"

"A virgin, yeah right," she said, sitting up on her knees to face him. "I'm not a virgin," she said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I did it once and that was it. With that ex-boyfriend of mine that I've talked about."

"So you're not a virgin?" Nick smiled.

"No, technically, I'm not," she sighed. "But, I had such a bad experience that I promised I wasn't going to do it again until I knew the guy really loved me."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No, no, not at all," she said nervously. "It was in the back of his Chevy truck in an abandoned corn field. It was a horrible experience and afterwards he told everybody at school. Apparently, he had only stayed with me as long as he did because he knew I was going to give it up to him after his junior prom. He was tired of me trying to start my career and he dumped me the next day."

"Shit," Nick sighed, looking down at the comforter on the bed. "You know I'd never do anything like that, right?" Harley nodded and Nick smiled, looking up at her. "Back of a Chevy truck? Seriously? A corn field? Shit, I would have at least taken you to a hotel."

"I know," she smiled, leaning over to wrap her arms around his neck. She leaned her head over, resting it on his shoulder and smiled. "I know it sounds completely cheesy as hell, but I really want to wait. I don't want our first time to be a quickie while seeing each other for a few hours before spending three months apart."

Deep down, Nick didn't want that either. But that nice thought didn't help the throbbing member in his pants that did want some sex before three months in Europe.

"I want it to be nice and romantic," she smiled as he looked at her. "We can spend like the entire weekend together or something. Just us, you know?" Nick nodded. Sure it would be nice, but her giving him a hand job right now would hit the spot.

"You okay?" she asked, moving her head so that she could look at him.

"My penis is disappointed, but I'm okay," he smiled, causing her to laugh.

----

After having dinner with her mother and aunt, Harley and Nick went for a walk in Central Park that wasn't far from the hotel they were staying in. They were tired of staying in the hotel but going out in public wasn't always a great thing because of people spotting them or the paparazzi in New York City. Thankfully, this time there wasn't anybody around. That might have been because it was one in the morning, but at least they were alone.

To Harley, that's all that mattered.

As they walked hand in hand along a pathway in the park, Nick motioned for her to sit down on a park bench. She cuddled up next to him on the bench and neither of them said anything. They could hear each other breathing when they didn't hear the squirrels running through the grass or jumping from tree to tree.

"I wish they had hired me for that tour," Harley whispered, feeling Nick push her closer to him. "I know we don't see each other all the time now, but three months is so long."

"I know," Nick said softly, running his fingers through her wavy blonde hair. He liked when she didn't straighten it and that it was naturally wavy. He thought she looked better that way.

"My mom said it would be a good test," Harley confessed, feeling Nick rest his chin on her head. "She said it would show if we really liked each other or if it's just a crush or something."

"Do you think it's a crush?"

"I know what I feel when I'm with you," she said, moving away from him so that they could look at one another. "I know that I'm going to have puffy eyes for my magazine shoot tomorrow because I'm going to be crying when you leave."

"You just have to promise me something while I'm gone," he said as she nodded. "European magazines are really trashy and will print anything. They're liable to print all kinds of stuff about us over there so if you hear of anything, don't believe it. Okay?"

"I promise," she smiled, feeling his hand rub against the side of her face.

"You just have to promise me that you won't get too famous for me while I'm overseas," Nick smiled. "I'm not joking. You showed me your songs that you're working on for the new album, Harley. They're awesome. Your next album is going to skyrocket you so that you won't be dating the Backstreet Boy. I'll be the guy from the boy band dating Harley Harper."

"You're just saying that," she laughed, crossing her arms over her chest shyly. "I mean, I know I'm good, but... I don't know about all of that."

"Well, I do," Nick smiled. "No one I know has ever written a song about me like you did and have it be so meaningful and thoughtful and fuck, it was romantic as shit and you didn't even really know me."

"You're just saying this stuff because you want to get in my pants," she teased him. She stopped smiling when she realized that he was being serious.

"I'm serious," Nick said, standing up from the park bench. He took her hand, pulling her up and pulled her closer to him. "Don't get too famous for me while I'm gone. I don't want to come back and find out you've dumped me for Brad Pitt or anything."

"Nick," Harley said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Brad Pitt has nothing on you," she smiled, leaning up to kiss him lightly on the lips.