Description: Lara and Nick are forced to tell about a strange night they spent together in Portland.
Rating: R for indelicate language.
Author's Note: This story didn't turn out exactly the way I expected. If you don't watch The X- Files you may not like this story. It's also quite long. Personally, I like and enjoyed writing it but it is very different from most BSB fiction. Maybe it's worth a read . . .
On with the story!
"Nick! No! Put those down! They are mine! Uhg! Nick! Nick! Nick! Nick! Nick! Just stop! Listen to me! Put them down! What are you doing! Good, finally! No . . .! No . . .! Don't even think about it! Nick! I'm warning you! Ah! Stop! Put me down! Down! No, Nick down is that way! Arhg! Nick!" After Lara had finally convinced Nick to put down her luggage, and allow her to carry it herself, he had gotten some strange idea that she wanted him to pick her up!
Finally, in one last attempt of escape, Lara grabbed hold of his ear and pulled hard.
"Ahhh! Lara!" Nick cried, putting her down immediately. She didn't release his ear.
"You just don't learn do you?" She teased. Suddenly, she was pinned against the wall and turned away from Nick.
"Nick are you okay?" The large male holding Lara asked. Nick looked at his body guard Alex with surprise. Then he started to laugh.
"She's my - my - my -" He couldn't get the words out over his laughter.
Lara jerked very suddenly and elbowed Alex hard in the ribs. "Girlfriend!" She informed him smoothly. Alex didn't attempt to regain his hold on her.
"What?" He asked, his large brown eyes popping out.
"That's it! I'm outta here!" Lara told them confidently. She grabbed her two large, blue, vinyl suitcases and headed toward her room. Nick made an attempt to grab her arm, but she walked away quickly. Lara set her suitcases down and fished around in her pocket for her room key. She quickly slid the small plastic, credit card like key through the slot and opened the door. Grabbing her bags, she walked into her room, closing the door on Nick's face.
"What's wrong with you girlfriend, Nick?" A.J. asked sarcastically, glancing over at his friend.
"Ah, nothing!" Nick replied. "I tried to carry her bags for her, then Alex attacked her and -"
"Alex attacked her?" Brian asked incredulously. The guys were suppose to be having a brief and informal meeting in Nick's room, but it hadn't turned out that way.
"Yeah, she was pulling on my ear and well, he didn't know she wasn't a crazed fan!" Nick explained.
"She was pulling on your ear?" Howie laughed. "Why?"
"So that I'd let go of her," Nick told him.
‘She actually wanted you to let go of her?" A.J. asked. "Hmm, smart girl. Maybe she isn't a crazy fan after all . . ."
"I guess Alex is the only one who's seen this mystery maiden of Portland!" Kevin commented.
Lara slipped into their room without being noticed. She had lifted Nick's key off him earlier.
"I still don't believe you even have a girlfriend!" Brian joked. "I mean, who would go out with a ditz like you?"
"Hey! He's got an excuse for being a ditz! Check out the blond, amigos!" Lara laughed, jumping up behind Nick and playing with his hair.
The guys all jumped about three feet up. A.J. let out a girlie scream "Aaaa-aah!"
"Ha, ha, ha - And they say I don't know how to make an entrance . . . mmm Snickers!" Lara observed the candy bar on the table.
Kevin's eyes went wide. "You're Nick's girlfriend!?!"
"Damn straight! Are you going to eat that?" Lara inquired, pointing to the candy bar.
"You can have it," Brian offered, handing it to her.
"Hey! I was going to eat that!" Nick objected.
"You idiot!" A.J. commented. "Always thinking with your stomach! Eat the Snickers uh - Nick's girlfriend!"
Lara laughed as she opened the package. "I'm Lara, don't tell me Nick never mentioned me!"
"Oh yes, he did!" Howie told her. "He talked about you everyday! It's just that . . . uh . . . well we never really um, payed much attention."
"And may I ask why not?"
The guys began to snicker. "Cause we didn't believe him!" A.J. finally cried. They erupted with laughter.
Lara gave them a weird look. "But I came to your concert in Portland! I stayed over night at the hotel! Nick and I even-" She stopped short. "Uh, never mind . . . you probably never saw me . . ." Nick and Lara shared a meaningful glance. "I . . . should go," Lara said slowly. She smiled at Nick. "It was nice to have met you all, you seem like really nice guys. Thanks for the Snickers, bye!" Lara waved before heading out the door. Once on the other side of the door, Lara gave a sigh of relief. "Ahh! That was close!" With that, she headed off to her room.
"Whoa! What was that all about?" A.J. turned to Nick.
Nick shrugged. "I dunno . . . nothing . . ."
"Nick?" Brian raised his eyebrows. "What happened in Portland?"
"Nothing!" Nick said quickly. "I told you nothing! Nothing happened! Nothing!"
Nick hurried out of the room and slammed the door behind him. "Nothing," He assured himself. "Nothing happened."
"Something is afoot here, boys!" A.J. announced in a British accent to the group. "I believe he is hiding something from us!"
"Indeed my friend Watson! Something is smelling badly! And it is not Brian's feet as usual!" Howie laughed, copying the British theme.
"So, we do have a mystery on our hands here, don't we gentlemen?" Kevin inquired.
"Precisely!" Brian proclaimed. "And we shall not rest until we have solved it!"
"I will!" Kevin disagreed. "I'm tired! Goodnight to you all!" With that he left to catch up on his much needed sleep.
"Well, what would a real detective do in a situation like this?" A.J. wondered aloud. Suddenly he had it. "Question Donna!"
The three cornered their manager in her hotel room with her husband. She was sitting in a comfy chair reading a book. Her husband, Johnny was talking on the phone.
"No, the boys do not have time to make an appearance on the Hit List! How many times have they been on your show already? I don't care if you were one of the first shows that promoted them!" He just kept rattling on.
"What happened in Portland?" Brian cut to the chase.
Donna gave a brief worried look, then replaced it with a sweet smile. "Portland? Nothing that I know of! You guys sold out there!"
"No, the last time we were there and Nick's girlfriend came. What happened?" A.J. persisted.
"I have no idea what you guys are talking about!" Donna insisted. "Nothing happened in Portland! Nothing!"
Johnny hung up the phone. "Portland? What about Portland?"
Just then Nick walked into the room, with his own key, while sort of knocking on the door. "Nothing happened in Portland!" He snapped quickly.
"What is up with Portland?" Johnny demanded. He was beginning to get confused.
"Nick and his girlfriend won't tell us!" Howie accused.
"They are entitled to they're secrets!" Donna argued.
"Ha! So you admit they are hiding something!" Brian jumped.
"Hiding what?" Lara asked as she walked in behind Nick. "Oh hey Donna! It's so nice to see you again . . ." Her voice trailed off.
"You two have met before?" Johnny inquired.
"In Portland." Th two womyn said quietly, avoiding direct eye contact.
"I think we need to talk," Johnny started. "I want to know what happened in Portland."
"You can't make us!" Lara cried suddenly. "You can't make me do anything!"
Nick caught her arm before she ran out the door. "We might as well tell them . . . It's not like they'll get us in trouble. Maybe we can still salvage a reputation . . ." he offered. She nodded.
Lara and Nick sat in relatively comfortable, hotel room chairs facing each other. The rest of the group, Brian, A.J., Howie, and Johnny stood around them. Donna sat on the edge of the bed, nervously nibbling at her fingernails.
"This really isn't that big of a deal!" She finally said. "Why don't you start Lara?"
Lara nodded. "Well here it goes: Like Donna said it really was no big deal. Nick and I had met a month earlier in Las Vegas. There was an electrical outage in Caesars Palace and we were trapped in the same elevator for an hour. We got to talking and really liked each other, so we agreed to have dinner later . Anyway, we really liked each other, so we agreed to meet again in Portland. I came down to visit some family, but also to catch Nick's concert and spend the night at the same hotel . . ."
~Portland~A while back~
"What the Fuck do you mean there are no rooms left?" Lara cried angrily. "I had a room reserved! Do you know what that means? It means that no one else can take it! It's mine!"
"I'm sorry Miss-"
"That's Ms. to you!"
"I'm sorry - Ms. - but there were some very important customers-"
"And what am I, dog shit?" Lara was getting very upset.
The man behind the counter shrugged her attitude off. "I'm sorry Ms., but there's nothing I can do! Go somewhere else!"
Lara was pissed, royally pissed. Her flight had been a two hour delay with tons of turbulence once it finally did get off the ground. It had been raining all day, so she was soaked from standing outside waiting for a cab. The cab driver had been mean to her.
"Lara!" A familiar voice called. Nick rushed toward her with open arms, smiling gleefully. "I'm so overwhelmingly happy to see you!" He cried.
"I did not!" Nick interrupted. "I never talk like that! And I wasn't that happy to see you!"
Lara gave him a sly smile and in a funny voice said: "Shut your mouth!"
Nick's eyes went wide, as if to say ‘you wouldn't!'. He was quiet.
"As I was saying!" Lara continued.
Nick gleefully hugged his favorite female friend and offered to take her bags.
"Please don't, I'm fine" She declined. "This has been an awful trip! When's the concert?"
"It's tonight, don't worry about it!" Nick told her happily.
Lara nodded. "Oh by the way . . . I don't know how to ask this . . . but could I stay in your room tonight? For some reason they canceled my reservation and this place is all booked up! I have no where else to go, unless I leave for my Aunt's now and then I'll miss your concert! I don't want you to -"
"Oh goody gosh!" Nick cried, clapping his hands. "Of course you can! You didn't even need to ask! We can stay up all night talking and become life long friends!" He squealed.
Nick took Lara to his room and mentioned that it might not be a good idea to let management in on this. "It could be bad publicity and I don't want any nasty rumors spread about me!" Later, they went to the concert, and that pretty much went uneventfully. Lara made friends with one of their fans, but most of the girls there were snotty, obsessed teeny boppers. Things only started to take a major turn that night . . . in Portland . . . in the hotel.
"You're telling it all wrong!" Nick interrupted.
"I am not!" Lara snapped.
"You are so! And our fans are not snotty, obsessed teeny boppers!" He argued.
"When's the last time you spent your free time with a fan?!" Lara replied.
"I'm telling the rest!" Nick stated. "Anyway! First of all let's get a few things straight. You didn't ask if you could stay in my hotel room, you told me you were. You also warned me that if I carried your luggage you would slug me and I have never said ‘oh goody gosh!" In my entire life.
"You don't know what you say in your sleep!" Lara laughed.
"May I ask how you do?" Johnny interrupted.
Nick gritted his teeth. "Now that the accurate -"
"Inaccurate!"
"-Changes have been made, I will continue . . ."
"Wow! What a show! You guys were amazing! I've never seen such a great show in all my life! Wow! You are fantastic Nick! Thank you so much for opening my eyes to the world!" Lara gushed after the concert.
"I so did not say that! I insulted your performance and told you all that all the other guys were better!" Lara interrupted.
"Ah! Whatever! One small detail!" Nick shrugged.
"Thanks," Nick smiled. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Did you get dinner?"
Lara shook her head. "No Nick!" She said sternly. "I expected you to get dinner. I flew all the way out here to see you, Nick. You! I do it all for you! Why don't you get dinner? All I've had to eat all night is half a bagel with cream cheese and it wasn't even real cream cheese it was light cream cheese and I ate it on the plane!"
Nick nodded politely. "Alright, we can order in." Nick picked up the hotel room phone and ordered six cheese burgers, two salads, two grape slushies and a banana cream pie for desert.
"Liar!" Lara accused. "How could you possibly forget what we ate that night? It was pizza! Two large pizzas! One pepperoni and one extra cheese with green peppers, olives and mushrooms! And we had bread sticks!"
"Oh yeah . . ." Nick muttered. "Fine, it was pizza. Now stop interrupting me!"
"Thanks for asking what I wanted on the pizza!" Lara snapped. She gave him an evil look.
Nick's eyes went wide. "Oh, I'm so sorry! That was so inconsiderate! Is there anything you want switched?"
"It's fine!" she replied sarcastically.
There was a knock on the door. It sounded urgent. Lara made no move to answer it.
"I'll get it," Nick offered, hurrying to the door. As he opened it he was faced with two crazy looking teenage girls.
They screamed. "Oh my God Nick! Nick I love you! Ahhhh!"
"Whoa, calm down!" He smiled. "Hi, it's nice to meet you. Would you like me to autograph something?"
"Would I ever!" One of them cried. She had huge blue eyes, blond hair pulled up in a high pony tail and rather large breasts.
The girl ripped her shirt open and popped the front clasp of her white satin bra. She handed Nick a big, red, Crayola marker. "Do you think you could make it out to Bambi?" She asked in an overly seductive, sultry voice.
"Her name was Bambi?" Brian interrupted.
"Yeah," Nick nodded. "I guess so. But I didn't talk to her for very long, I just -"
"Her name was Bambi?" Brian repeated incredulously.
"Yeah," Nick replied more slowly. "ANYway . . ."
Bambi raised her eyebrows. Nick was at a loss for words.
"N - n - n - no, I don't think that would be a good idea . . ." He said jerkily. Finally pulling his eyes off her to stare at the door frame. "How ‘bout I just sign a poster or something . . .?"
"Please . . .?" Bambi asked again. ‘I won't tell anyone . . ."
"N - n - n - no . . . I think you should go, or, or, or I'll, uh, have to, uh, call security!" Nick told them, in effectually.
"But you haven't even signed what I wanted you to sign!" The other girl whined. She began unzipping her Bluenotes Jeans.
Nick's eyes popped out. "Whoa! I uh . . . No that's not! No! I should! Uh! Go! Nice to have met you both! Bye!"
He slammed the door and tried to breath.
~What he didn't know about~
The girls turned to each other in disappointment.
"Don't worry, I've got an idea!" Bambi smiled. She grabbed her friend's hand and led her down the hall.
~Back to what he did know about~
"Oh my God!" Nick sighed. "Those girls just asked me to sign their . . . Oh my God!"
"Oh poor you!" Lara replied sarcastically. "Having fans constantly adore you and treat you as Gods. That must really weigh you down. I can image how awful it must be. But then again you did put on such a great show tonight! Wow! It was fantastic! I've never seen such a great performance! On second thought, maybe I can see why all those girls love you! And they were so nice! Thanks again for opening my eyes up to the world!"
"That's it! I'm telling the rest!" Lara took control. "You are way off there pal! For one, I'm not a bitch and two, You have not opened my eyes up to anything but the sound of lousy music. Now! As I was saying!"
A few minutes later there was another knock on the door.
"Oh no!" Lara shrieked. "It must be those evil fans out to get you again!" She rolled her eyes and added. "I'll get it this time."
She opened the door and didn't see anyone. Lara looked to the ground and saw only a tray of food and a discarded little bellhop's hat.
"If he thinks I'm leaving a tip in his hat, he's nuts!" Lara commented out loud. She thought it was strange that he hadn't stayed around to get a tip or to deliver the food tray himself. Oh well! Lara brought the tray in, set it down on the small hotel room table and immediately dug in. She took a slurp of her grape slushie. "Uhg!" She gagged. "It's so sweet!"
"Oh Yum! Just the way I like it!" Nick cried. He glanced over at how she was eating. "Pig!"
Lara barely took notice. She was already half way done her pizza, but she was feeling a little sleepy. She glanced over at Nick. He was almost finished his slushie. "Uhg! I don't know how you can eat those things!"
Lara crawled up on the bed to rest her head, then she glanced back down at Nick. He had disappeared. Lara sat up suddenly and looked down on the floor. Nick was sprawled out on his back. His eyes were closed and the grape slushie was melting into the carpet. Just as she was about to get up to help him, she went out like a light.
"I guess I should take over here," Donna told the group. She gave a nervous smile and continued.
Donna walked out to her room and down the hall towards Nick's room. She and her husband weren't always on tour with the boys, they had far more responsibilities, but they would often fly in for a specific tour date to check up on them. She wanted to talk to Nick about his performance that night. He hadn't seemed very focused.
Just as Donna turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. Coming out of Nick's room were two teenage girls. One of them had her shirt undone and they were both giggling. Luckily they turned away from her, walking toward the elevator.
After she was sure that they had left, Donna turned the corner. Giving a sigh of relief, she hurried to Nick's room. The door was open, just a crack. The T.V. was on. An episode of The X- Files was blaring.
Apprehensively, Donna pushed the door open and stepped inside. She was shocked by what she saw. There was pizza, everywhere. It was stuck to the ceiling, the walls, the floor - it was everywhere. Nick lay on the floor. His shoe laces were untied and his fly was unzipped. Purple syrup was dripping out of a white cup in his right hand. There was a big, red, Crayola marker in his left hand.
Donna's eyes went wide. She looked over on the bed. A teenage girl with long, brown hair was lying face down. Donna couldn't see if she was breathing. Just as she was about to touch her, Lara moved. She sat up and shook her head. Finally, Donna got a clear view of her face. It was covered in red lipstick. "Nick?" Lara asked, glancing around.
"Who are you?" Donna asked sternly.
"I'm Lara, a friend of Nick's. Who are you?" Lara replied sleepily.
‘I'm Donna, Nick's manager. May I ask what you are doing in his room?" She continued to question the girl.
Lara yawned. "I had to visit some family down here. Nick wanted me to see his concert, so I decided to stay the night at the same hotel. My reservation was messed up and there were no other rooms left, so I had to stay with Nick. We're just friends though . . ."
Donna was confused. "Well, then, what happened in here?"
For the first time, Lara took a good look at her surroundings. Her eyes went wide and popped out. "Oh my God!" Lara cried. "What the hell happened in here?"
"We should try to wake Nick," Donna suggested.
Crouching beside him, the two womyn shook Nick a little. Lara slapped him lightly across the face. He opened his eyes slightly and made some incoherent noises. Then he started to speak: "Who's the black private dick, who's a sex machine with all the chicks? [his voice went high] Shaft? [it went low again] Can you dig it? They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother - shut your mouth! You talkin' about Shaft!"
Nick stood quickly. "I did not!" He said firmly.
Donna and Lara exchanged smiles and shrugged. "Then . . ."
Nick came to and looked up at the blurry faces of Lara and Donna. He sat up quickly.
"I explain this! I can!" He looked around the room and was silent.
"Don't worry Nick!" Lara shushed him. "She knows we aren't a couple, it's just - look what happened in here!"
Donna was quiet.
"Is that all?" Johnny demanded.
"Well, we had room service clean up the mess and asked security if they'd seen anything . . ." Donna said slowly.
"And I can neither confirm nor deny events that Nick claims occurred, outside my presence . . ." Lara continued.
"And I can neither confirm nor deny events that Lara claims occurred, outside my presence . . ." Nick nodded.
"I was drugged," Nick said finally.
"That is essentially exactly what happened," Lara finished.
They exchanged glances.
"Except for the part about Shaft!" Nick told them quickly.
Fade out . . .
TH E ND
So what did you think? Is it better, worse, the same, different, do you like, dislike? I'd love to hear from you! Please leave me a note in the Guestbook, Forum or drop me a line at BSB Poetry!
Get your own Free Home Page