Mr. and Mrs. Carter: I Need You Tonight

Chapter 1

November 30, 2001 Tampa Bay, Florida
LILI'S POV
I smiled as I looked at the pictures we had all taken for New Years back in 1999. Two years ago. So much had happened since then.

First off, the Y2K virus wasn't a problem anymore, a terrible terrorist attack had happened on September 11, Nick's little brother, Aaron has become a successful musical pop artist at thirteen, Nick prank called Britney and Justin, the guys had released an album, Black and Blue a year ago and flew all around the world in 100 hours as promotion, AJ's drinking problem had gotten worse, and he had been in rehab, but he was better now, fans had literally bombarded their bus in Rio, I learned that AJ was terrified of clowns, Brian and Kevin got married to Leighanne and Kristin, and I was free from Steve.

A year ago, Nick had overheard a phone call I was having with him. He had went straight to the police and there had been two months of court battles. I shuddered, remembering how ugly it got. But in the end, Steve was sent to jail, and all the money he had stolen from me was given back to me. He had stolen 200 million dollars.

But I pushed that out of my mind. I had become a global sensation as well, winning countless Emmys, SAG Awards, Peoples Choice Awards for Filthy Rich Teenagers, and it was now being directed by a new director. The series was still going.

But the two most dramatic things were that the world had found out about Nick and I. After the whole court case battle had ended and I had won, Nick had kissed me, and the photographers obviously were shocked and they took pictures that would be seen everywhere. At that point, we had just decided to come clean and let everyone know that we had been dating since we were fifteen. We had even appeared on The Oprah Winfrey show for it.

And, I was living with Nick now in his new house in Tampa Bay for about a year now. Shortly after the Millennium Tour had concluded, he had moved out of his parents house and bought this huge white one with views of the ocean. Around the same time, I had decided that it was time for me to move on to a new house as well. I didn't have the heart to sell my old one, so I kept it and started looking in Miami, which was three hours away from Tampa. It was also where Filthy Rich Teenagers was being filmed now. But Nick had begged me not to go to Miami.

"Please don't go so far." Nick begged. I sighed.
"I don't have anywhere else to go Nick. Don't worry, it's only three hours away. We can still see each other." I squeezed his hand. But Nick shook his head.
"No. Stay here, with me." he said.
"What?" I asked.
"Move in with me. I moved out and bought a beautiful white house in Tampa Bay." Nick put his hands on my shoulders. "Please?"
"Move in with you?" At the time, that seemed like a whole new step in our relationship.
Nick nodded. "I love you. I want to be with you as much as I can. I want to wake up next to you every morning." His words touched me. I made my decision. I breathed out.
"Okay."

I smiled remembering the conversation. I loved living with Nick, but he was a little weird in the morning. When he woke up, he would do a strange loud stretch. I will never understand the male species at all. Personally, what I thought was the best part of everything that had happened was finding out that when Nick was fourteen, he had been part of a garage band called "The Funky Chickens" I started laughing by myself.

"What are you laughing at?" Nick came in. He was holding a bag.

"Oh, just remembering the Funky Chicken thing." I chuckled. He rolled his eyes.

"You guys are never gonna leave me alone about that and the "I resign in Florida" thing are you?"

I grin. "Nope." I see the bag in his hands. "What's that?"

"Oh, it's just wine." Nick set the bag on the table and took it out. I nodded. We were both twenty one, so we could drink. He got two glasses and poured the red wine into them. Then, he sat down next to me on the couch. He handed me the glass and I took it.