All I Have to Give
© 2001 Bereccaemarie

I sat on the cold concrete curb outside the McDonald's restaurant 
crying into my hands. I was so engrossed in my sobbing that I didn't 
even realize someone had walked up behind me. "Is everything okay?" a 
masculine voice asked me.

I sniffed and wiped my eyes before looking up at the man and choking 
out the word, "Yes." Through still blurry eyes I looked at him. He was 
in blue jeans, tennis shoes, and even though it was a nice spring day, 
a grey hooded sweatshirt. He had the hood up on his head and was 
wearing dark sunglasses.

"It sure doesn't seem like it. Do you wanna talk? I'll buy you a coke 
or something." He offered a hand to me and I took his offer of help up. 
Once on my feet, he placed a hand on the small of my back and held open 
the door to the lobby of the restaurant for me. He led me inside, 
ordered two large drinks and allowed me to fill my own cup with Sprite. 
He then led me to a table and sat down across from me. He didn't remove 
his sunglasses or his hood. I was too lost in thought to even care.

We sat in silence for a long time. I finally opened my mouth and 
started to speak. "I should be happy today," I said softly, not looking 
up from my hands, which were clasped around my soda.

"Why?" the man asked me.

"Because I'm seeing the Backstreet Boys tonight. This is something I've 
always wanted to do."

"What? See the Backstreet Boys?" the man said with all seriousness.

I smiled slightly at his comment. "Not entirely," I replied. "My friend 
Jen and I have always wanted to see Backstreet on the last night of the 
tour. See, the last night of a tour for them is deemed 'Crazy Night' 
because they just go crazy. We've wanted to be at a Crazy Night concert 
and to sit first row balcony since we both discovered we were BSB fans. 
Tonight is the last night of this leg of the tour and we are in the 
second row of the lower level."

"Wow. Those are good seats," the man said, taking a drink of his soda. 
"So then why are you crying?"

I sniffed, once again remembering my dilemma. "Because my boyfriend was 
supposed to be here right now, but he stood me up."

"That jerk. Why would he stand up such a pretty little thing like you?"

"Well, I don't think of him as a jerk," I replied, standing up for my 
man. "He just had to work. He said he was called in and that's why he 
couldn't make it. It just seems that he's not even making an effort. We 
haven't seen each other in two months and he doesn't call, write, or 
email."

"Why haven't you seen him in that long?"

"I live up north," I explained. "He lives only a couple hours away from 
here and since I'm down here, I figured he would move every mountain to 
try and get here to see me."

"And he hasn't done anything like that." I nodded at his comment. "And 
you're wondering if he even cares about you." I nodded again. "You 
obviously care about him if you're still sticking up for him after all 
that he's done." Again I nodded. Everything he had said was true. 
"Well, let me make your day," the man said. He reached behind him into 
his back pocket and set a plain white envelope on the table in front of 
me. "You can't open it until you're at the concert. Once you open the 
envelope, you have to put on what's inside, one on you and one on your 
friend. Then go to stage left and talk to Jerry. He'll take care of you 
from there." I looked up at the man with eyes that I knew had to be red 
and puffy from crying and smiled. "Now could you do me a favor?" he 
asked.

"What?"

"Tell me what 3679 means."

I stared at him for a minute and then looked down at my shirt. He was 
asking about my shirt. The only thing he could see was the number 3679 
written in blue puffy paint on a dark blue tee shirt. "Oh. As of today, 
it's been exactly 3679 days since I last saw a boyband in concert."

"Which boyband was that?"

"New Kids."

"Okay. You've gotta be older than you look. How old are you?"

I smiled and said, "Twenty."

The man in front of me smiled. "I just turned twenty-one a couple of 
months ago. Anyway, I'd better get going. I've got places I need to be. 
Have fun tonight," the man said, getting up and heading out the door of 
the restaurant. Before I could thank him for the soda, he was gone. I 
looked down at the envelope on the table and just stared at it. What 
could be in it? And why wasn't I supposed to open it until the concert?

A short while later, I got up and headed out the door. I walked down 
the street back to the hotel that Jen and I were staying at. I slid my 
card key into the lock and opened the door. There was Jen sitting on 
the bed with her nose stuck in a book. I think she had gone through the 
entire library back home since the credential program had dropped her. 
"Hey Jen," I said entering the room.

"Did lover boy show up?" she asked lifting her head from the book.

"No, he didn't show," I replied with a touch of sadness in my voice. 
"But I met someone there at Mickey Dees."

"It wasn't Howie by chance was it? Because if you met him and didn't 
tell me..."

"No, Jen, it wasn't Howie. Just some guy. We got to talking and well, 
he gave me this envelope."

Jen marked her place in the book and got up off the bed. "So what's in 
it?"

"He said I can't open it until the concert tonight."

Jen snorted and replied, "Well, there went that guy. You had to mention 
Backstreet didn't you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "He seemed pretty enthused about it for me."

"Yeah, so did Brad remember? The only reason you two clicked was 
because you had Backstreet and he had Buffy."

Again I rolled my eyes. "Alright, alright. Enough already." I looked 
down at my watch. "Let's get ready, we've only got four hours till its 
show time." We put on our Backstreet CDs and rocked out singing along 
to the songs and packing what we were going to bring with us to the 
arena.

That night at the show, we danced and sang with all the fans there. It 
scared us that we knew every word to every song they sang. At one point 
in the show, Nick said, "This one is for a friend of mine." The guys 
then broke into "Get Another Boyfriend." Somewhere towards the end of 
the show Jen reminded me about the envelope. In the dark, I tore into 
the white paper and pulled out two rectangular things. They were dark 
colored and in the darkened arena, I couldn't really make out what they 
were. I handed one to Jen and told her to put it on and I put mine on 
the leg of my black jeans. When the show was over, Jen and I sat back 
down in our seats and waited. I hated crowds and I really didn't want 
to move at that point. When some of the crowd had thinned down, Jen and 
I headed down to the floor of the arena and to the left of the stage. 
When we got there, there were about fifty girls screaming around this 
one muscular black man with a black shirt that was a little too small 
for him that said "Staff" in white. We pushed our way to the front of 
the crowd and I started talking. "We were given these stickers and told 
to come see you..." I said.

The man nodded and turned around slightly to knock three times on the 
door behind him. The door opened a smidge and I saw a face appear. 
"Mike, take these two to room two thirteen," the black man said to the 
face. He then held open the door enough for Jen and I to squeeze 
through. Once on the other side, I got a good look at Mike. He was a 
short muscular white man in a black shirt that also said "Staff." He 
didn't say anything to us, but instead, walked very stiffly and quickly 
down a long hallway. We followed as quickly as we could. I couldn't 
help but think what I had gotten myself into. He reached a door and 
stopped. When we caught up with him, he held open the door for us and 
we entered. Right behind us the door closed and I looked at Jen with 
fear in my eyes. I then looked around the room. It was quite spacious, 
about the size of a small apartment. There were several couches and 
chairs about the room and on a table was a bowl full of M&M's. Jen and 
I paced the room for a while, musing over what we had done and then sat 
down in front of the bowl. She started eating the green M&M's and I 
started picking at the blue ones. After a while, the door we had been 
let in opened and in entered about twenty people. They all looked 
extremely fit and extremely tired. Jen and I continued to pick at the 
candy before us, when a door on the other side of the room opened. In 
walked the Backstreet Boys, looking fresh and pressed and ready to 
relax. The room erupted into spontaneous applause for the men and they 
in turn applauded the other people in the room.

"Thank you all so much for all your hard work!" Kevin Richardson said 
above the applause.

"Yeah, thanks for putting up with our shitty attitudes sometimes," AJ 
McLean said. The crowd laughed.

"You all have the next month off as we prepare to tour the world!" 
Brian Littrell exclaimed, wrapping his arm around a beautiful blonde 
near him. The blonde had to be his wife, Leighanne.

"Now, let's party!" Nick Carter said, shoving his fist into the air. 
From somewhere on the other side of the room, some music started and 
people began mingling. Several bottles of champagne were opened and 
glasses appeared in people's hands. Jen and I continued to sit in our 
spot on the sofa, picking at the candy before us.

"What? You're not crying?" Jen asked in my ear.

"Why?"

"Brian's within ten feet of you and you're as dry as a bone. What's up 
with that?" I shook my head and continued to down M&M's like they were 
going out of style.

I became so engrossed in my candy that I didn't notice Nick Carter walk 
up to me. "See, guys, this is the girl I was telling you about," I 
heard him say. "She hasn't seen a boyband in concert in ten years and 
her boyfriend is being a jerk."

At the mention of the boyband-ten-years comment, I looked up at the 
five men before me and said very calmly, "Have we met before?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "Today at McDonald's." I shook my head slowly, 
indicating I didn't remember. "You were crying over your boyfriend. I 
bought you a soda. You told me about your shirt. That's its been a 
little more than ten years since you saw New Kids in concert."

"That was you?" I squeaked out.

"Yeah," he replied softly. "Guys, do you think we could do what I 
talked to you about?"

"Sure," the other four men replied. Before I knew it, they had broken 
out into "All I Have to Give." The whole room grew silent as they sang. 
When the song was over, I had tears in my eyes.

"You know, I never got your name," Nick said when they finished.

"Oh. My name's Becca and this is my friend Jen. That was beautiful."

The men nodded their various thanks. "Look, I uh, invited you back here 
because, well, I was wondering if we could be friends?" Nick asked, 
stumbling over his words.

I smiled slowly and then said, "Only under two conditions."

"And those are?"

"Jen gets Howie's email and you guys sing the song 'Faithfully' by 
Journey."

Nick grinned and turned to Howie, who nodded and then looked at the 
rest of the guys who shrugged their shoulders. "Well, Howie's game, but 
the guys don't know 'Faithfully' like I do, but I'll be more than glad 
to sing it for you sometime."