I got out of the car. "Hey, man. Where took you so long?" When he didn't answer immediately, I barged on with my questions. "What's wrong, Frick? Are you OK?" I touched his shoulder, but he jerked back, as if afraid of my touch. Ignoring my questions, he said quietly, "I couldn't find any mechanic, Frack. I've brought a cab with me, and I think we should leave the car here to continue on our journey." I gazed at the cab. I couldn't make out the driver's face in the dark and somehow, I felt uneasy. "Brian, don't you think that it's a waste of money to travel by cab? Maybe I can call my friend here to have us stay overnight and tomorrow we can…" "No, I mean…" Brian interrupted, anxiously. "We shouldn't bother your friend… and I don't want to wait until tomorrow." He smiled, and practically dragged me towards the cab. "Come on, Frack. We don't have time to lose." I let him pull me. His hands felt so cold, perhaps because of the chilly wind, of course. In the cab, Brian told me that he had a change of plans. He didn't want to visit his aunt as we spend the weekend at the big glamorous city of Chaneen. "I just want us to spend time together… just the two of us," he said. Then he sank back in his seat, seemingly lost in thought. I gazed at him. Funny, how could he have changed into a completely different person in just 30 minutes out of my sight? I was tempted to ask, but decided against it.
He looked so pale, so frail and sometimes I noticed shadows of pain flicker across his seemingly calm features. I bit my lip. We, the Backstreet Boys had probably been on the road too much. Our manager had decided to give us the weekend off. The other guys, AJ McLean, Howie Dorough and Kevin Richardson jumped at the chance to go home to their families, whereas Brian and I decided to spend some time together in Chaneen. I hoped he wasn't getting sick or something. When I woke up the next morning, I found myself in a big white hotel room. Brian grinned at me, lighting up his somber expression. "Good morning! Are you ready to check out the city?" I looked around in confusion. "Brian, how did we get here?" Brian laughed. "I guess you were more out of it last night than I thought. You don't remember that we decided to spend the night here?" I shook my head. Brian shrugged. "Maybe you were so tired." He handed me some clothes and told me to get ready as soon as possible. "It's such a short time already, Nick. Don't make it any shorter."
When we went to breakfast, I noticed that Brian barely touched his food. I was concerned about his health, for he looked very pale the night before. Then again, maybe it really was my own eyes, because it seemed as if every other person in the café was pasty white. Better check my eyes soon, I told myself.
An hour later, we were exploring the city. Now, Brian was back to being the old Brian; he kept making dumb jokes, constantly making me laugh. He seemed pretty much as he used to… except for his pale features.
Once we were outside the hotel, I found that my eyes had returned to normal and only Brian stayed pale.
At a funfair, I saw a clown saying something to a little boy who was doubling up with laughter. I turned to Brian. "Wanna check out that clown? I wanna see if his jokes are as bad as yours." I started to walk off, but Brian stopped me, looking slightly worried. "Um… I don't think so Nick. I don't really feel like meeting anyone right now." He smiled. "Why don't we hit the streets and window shop for a bit?" "Sure," I said, feeling slightly confused. Brian had always been really friendly. Maybe something is seriously wrong. I made a promise to ask him later.
I followed him and we peered into windows, looking at whatever was on display. Usually, we would've spent obscene amounts of money, but somehow, everything seemed unappealing to me. However, as we stopped to look in the window of a knick-knacks kind of shop, I saw a silver ID bracelet, the kind you could engrave messages on. "Look, Frick," I said, pointing at it. "I sometimes wish I had a girlfriend to give that kind of thing to." Brian looked at me. "Then she could give you one too, huh?" I grinned. "Yeah."
After a few more hours of exploring, I felt exhausted and felt that it was time to go home. We were enjoying ourselves tremendously, visiting exciting places, taking silly pictures. We were closer than ever, although I was still baffled by Brian's behaviour. He refused to talk to anybody else and I noticed him falling more into sadness as time flew by. I couldn't believe he was sick, he was bubbling up with energy.
We traveled back to our hometown in a cab. I thought it was the same cab that brought us to the big city, but of course, that was impossible. How typical of my overactive imagination to go completely wild.
When we arrived at my house, Brian followed me to the gate. "Nick…" he called. I turned to him. Suddenly, I was enveloped in a bear hug. Surprisingly enough, I felt peaceful and I heard whispers saying that I was the best friend anyone could ever have, that I was like the brother he never had, that I would be missed terribly and that he hoped I would never forget him. What disturbed me was I didn't know where the whispers came from. I know Brian didn't say them; his lips were kept closely together.
When at last he released me, a sudden sadness washed over me, although I wasn't sure exactly why. Maybe it was the fact that Brian looked so sad. I tried to say something, but the words stuck in my throat. "Bye Brian," was all I managed to choke out. Brian smiled. "Bye Nick," he said, pressing something in my hand. I looked down to see that he had put a small box in my hand. When I looked up, the cab had already pulled away.
I walked into the house. It was surprisingly empty and eerily quiet. "Anyone home?" I yelled. I caught sight of the answering machine blinking, so I walked over to it, pressed the button and listened to the sole message on the machine. "Hey, Nick. It's me, AJ. Call my cell phone back now." Dialing AJ's number, I wondered what was wrong. AJ sounded so weary. As I listened to the dial tone and waited for AJ to pick up, I fumbled to undo the box Brian gave me. "Hello?" AJ's voice traveled down the line. "Hey AJ, it's me. What's up?" Silence. "AJ, you there?" I heard him take a deep breath. Without knowing why, I felt really nervous. "Nick, are you sitting down?" I heard him draw in another long, shaky breath. "Nick… I hate to tell you this, but… Brian was involved in a fatal accident last night. A damn drunk driver hit him. His car was found by the roadside, broken down. We had to bury him this morning but nobody knew where you were." AJ was sobbing quietly now. "We were worried sick that something might have happened to you, coz we knew you were supposed to be with him, but…" Numbly, I let go of the receiver. "No! No… it can't be true! Brian was with me today, he couldn't have died last night… he just can't!" My heart protested. I picked the receiver again, and dialed the operator to enquire about the hotel that I had stayed with Brian while we were in Chaneen, trying to pick up evidence that Brian was still alive. As I waited while the operator looked up the information, I repeated to myself, "This is a sick joke, this is a sick joke, this is a sick joke…" I broke off my chant as the operator got back on the line, waiting hopefully. My heart skipped a beat when the operator told me that the hotel didn't exist.
I replaced the receiver, and put my head in my hands. Slowly, everything began to make sense to me. In my sadness, I could see Brian's pale, sad but peaceful face, hear his strange words and all his strange behavior. Trembling, I opened the box on my lap, and through the haze of my tears, I found the silver ID bracelet inside it, with a little note. I picked the note up, and read it slowly. "Hey, Nicky Boy, you don't need a girlfriend for this. You just need a best friend."
My tears poured out uncontrollably as I examined the bracelet, and saw ' Frick & Frack' engraved on it. "Brian, you're a true friend," I stopped, choking on my words. "You even came back from the dead to give our friendship one final bloom…" and slowly my tears dropped onto the bracelet that symbolized our everlasting friendship…