sat in his hotel room, looking out over the snow-covered city. It looked like a frosted cake. He was supposed to be resting up for their big performance. Westlife had been asked to perform as one of the studio party acts on New Year's Rockin Eve. It was a huge break in the U.S. for them and they were thrilled. Even as they stepped out of the airport in New York City, the buzz of New Year's Eve excitement filled the air. All the guys felt it, they were pumped to perform tomorrow. Which is what was supposed to be resting up for, but he couldn't. He knew she was here somewhere. How could he be so close and still not see her?

**Flashback**

"I think that we could sneak you into my brother's tree house, then you can just stay here with me."

"?!?" she laughed, "Seriously though, I can't believe I have to go home in one week. I can't leave you, I love you more than anything." She started to cry. She had been resting her head on his stomach, as they lay on his bed. As she cried he crossed his arm around her stomach and pulled her tighter, burying his head into her hair. He hated to see her cry. Maybe because when he thought about the reason for he tears, it made his own stomach tie into knots.

had come to as an exchange student for a year. She had applied to go anywhere in Ireland and a nice older couple had chosen to host her. She met the first week of school. They had almost all the same classes. Most of the guys in school were interested in her, mainly because she was different from the same girls they'd grown up with. But was the one that had caught her eye. He was always trying to make jokes and act silly in class. When the teacher would tell him, once again, to stop being disruptive, he'd look back to see if she'd noticed him. Although, he didn't have to do all that to get her attention. His electric smile and to-die-for eyes had drawn her attention the first day. It didn't take long for and to become inseparable. He loved taking her around and showing her his town and she loved sitting and showing him pictures of her life back in Michigan. But the year flew by and her day to fly back home was quickly approaching.

"What am I going to do without you here?" he whispered against her head.

"Well.." she sat up and tried to wipe her eyes, "you're going to get a lot more school work done. What is it that Mr.Price always says ,'without that loud American girl distracting you." They both laughed at her perfect imitation of their history teacher.

"I love the distraction." he kissed her softly and could feel her wet cheeks rub against his.

"It's not like we're never going to see each other again, right? I'm going to write to you everyday and as soon as I graduate I'm coming back here." They had often talked about it and looked forward to a future together. And for awhile they stuck to their plan. But slowly, the distance started to get the better of them. Westlife started up for and had been given a full scholarship to the University of Michigan. They still kept in contact. loved to hear all about Westlife, she was so proud of him. He was also excited for her scholarship, but was jealous deep down too. He knew she couldn't turn it down, but he wanted her back with him. Eventually the letters became few and far between. The last on he had received from her was 3 years ago. It was about how excited she was that she had been offered a prestigious design job in New York and was moving out there in a week. Although it hurt, he knew they were never going to be together again and decided to just let it go and move on, holding onto the false hope that she may come back one day, was hurting too much. He sent her one last closing letter that read :

Dear ,

Congratulations on the job, I wish you the best in life!

I will ALWAYS love you.

XOXO

**End of Flashback**

And now here he was. Looking over the busy city, wondering what she was doing. He pulled the blinds shut. Figuring he better at least make an attempt at getting some sleep.

"!" the pounding from the door was hard to ignore. " c'mon man, get up!"

"Go away!" he yelled and pulled the blanket over his head

"We've got 30 minutes. Get your lazy arse out of bed!"

groaned loudly and threw the covers off. Sitting up, he stretched and walked over to the door.

"Well, hello."

" , yo are the most annoying alarm clock on the planet!"

"Why thank you. Get dressed sleeping beauty. We have to be at the tv studio in half hour."

"Yeah, yeah, but I still don't get why we're filming a New Year's Eve show at 8am."

just laughed and left the room.

"That was cool." said as they walked out of the studio.

"That was weird." disagreed.

They had spent more than 5 hours being taped and having to pretend it was almost midnight. They were told that they tape all the indoor performances ahead of time and then put them in with the live outdoor shots.

"So, what now?" looked like a kid in a candy store. He loved New York and the fact he was here to ring in the New Year meant he couldn't even sit still.

"I don't know, " shrugged, " What time should we head to Times Square?"

"The hotel clerk said to get their early." had asked when he checked in yesterday.

"O.K. so then let's get something to eat, go back to the hotel and change and then head on over." suggested.

"Sounds good." They all agreed. And headed down the street to find something warm to eat for lunch.

"Oh, this is just what we need." whined.

"Its's snowing!!" yelled, looking into the sky.

Other people in the huge crowd were yelling it too. just grumbled, he was already freezing and his feet were aching , they had been standing for hours. But it was worth it, being in the crown of millions waiting for the ball to drop at that magic hour. Even in the cold and with all the chaos around him, his mind wondered if she was somewhere in the crowd. He remembered how much she loved the holidays and could picture her face light up here, just as excited as everyone around them.

"We're back and thanks for joining us on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve. We are down to our last 5 minutes of 2007 and the crowd is in the spirit tonight!" The camera left Ryan Seacrest and panned the crowd. The guys were shouting along with everyone as it passed them. It was then that saw her. She was standing by a group of people across from him. His heart stopped, was he really seeing her or had he just thought about it so much his mind was making her up? But as she smiled at her friend, he knew it was really . It was the same smile he remembered from years ago, that made his body turn to jell-O, even now. He began to push through the crowd.

", where are you going?" his friends yelled at him, but her couldn't hear anything. His whole body focused on getting to her. As he got closer, she turned her head and looked right at him. Her face dropped. He stepped next to her, "?"

"My God, ." As he spoke to her, she was speechless. She used to dream of seeing him again, but never imagined her heart would jumpstart like this. Every feeling she had ever felt for him, hit at once. Suddenly all the lights died and the bright glow of the ball illuminated everything on the street.

"10, 9, 8, 7..."

"I can't believe you're here." she smiled at him.

"6, 5, 4, 3.."

He just looked into her eyes, they sparkled like diamonds with the giant crystal ball reflecting in them.

"2, 1, Happy New Year!!" The crows erupted.

grabbed 's face , pulled her to him and kissed her. She felt the same jolt coming from his body as she felt in her own. It made her numb from head to toe. Was this really happening?

As they broke apart, showered with confetti and streamers, they heard Ryan Seacrest over the speakers," Happy New Year everyone! 2008 is going to be a very exciting year!"


TO BE CONTINUED



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