Brian opened his eyes, shaken up. Leighanne had come back for him… No. He looked around, and he found that he was still on the airplane. It had only been a dream. Leighanne had not come back to him. He tried to calm his nerves, freaked out by the fact that he had dreamt about her.
“Are you OK?” Nick asked, noticing Brian.
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
“We have to meet one of our opening acts tomorrow, you know?” Nick asked.
“Who? The girl?”
“Yep. Kayla Norman. Supposed to be the next Britney Spears.”
“Yea,” Brian said dryly.
“We can’t be judgmental though. She might actually be nice.”
The next day…
“Guys, meet Kayla Norman,” Harrison Mitchell, the record exec, said.
The Asian-American beauty smiled brightly at the guys, and shook their hands.
“Kayla, how long have you been singing?” Nick asked.
“Since I was 4 years old,” she replied. “My mother would sign me up for all these talent shows and musicals, and I just loved it. But I never thought I would make it this far… touring with you guys! I am so excited about this. Thank you so much for letting me open for you.”
“Oh, it’s our pleasure, Kayla,” Kevin said politely. “How old are you again?”
“I’m older than the rest of the female pop singers. I’m 23.”
“Oh, so you’re really experienced then,” Brian commented.
“Well, I’m still learning.”
“Well, the guys have some things to do now, so the six of you can chat later,” Harrison said.
“Cool,” Kayla said. “See you guys later.”
“She’s cool,” AJ said after she had left.
“Yeah…”
As Kayla walked down the hall, she tried to hold back a squeal. She had just met the Backstreet Boys! Wow! They were like, really famous, and she hadn’t met a lot of famous people yet. And that Kevin… what a hottie! And he seemed really nice, too. She could already feel a crush developing.
1 week later…
“Yes, can you connect me to the Tampa Bay Hospital, please?” Kevin asked the operator.
He waited patiently for it to start ringing.
“Tampa Bay Hospital Information, how can I help you?” a lady said.
“Yes, I was hoping you could tell me if Mayor Mark Parker was still in the hospital or not?”
“Oh… yes, Mayor Parker is still in the hospital, but he’s not taking visitors. He’s currently in ICU.”
“Well… how is he doing?”
“That information is disclosed and I can’t give it out to anyone,” the lady said.
“Look, I’m a… friend of the family, and I can’t get in touch with them. Please, just describe his condition with one word.”
“Bad. Does that tell you anything?” the lady asked.
“Yes. Thank you…” Kevin said, downcast.
“Is that all?”
“Yes.”
“You’re welcome,” the woman said, and she hung up.
Kevin hung up the phone, and went to his laptop. After connecting to the Internet, he looked up a map of Florida. Tampa Bay was only an hour away if he drove. He printed out the map, and put it in his pocket.
Maybe there he would find what he was looking for.
“Why are you going to Tampa?” Brian asked, suspicious.
Kevin sighed. “To visit a friend. Chill out, Brian.”
“My big cousin tells me that he’s going to drive an hour and a half on his own without bodyguards to visit some mysterious person in Tampa, and I don’t have a right to be curious? Who’s the friend?”
“It’s someone I met when I was down there for the fundraiser. The father of this person has cancer, and so we have a bond. I just wanted to visit.”
“Well, I hope you can help that person then,” Brian said.
“I’m going to try. So anyway… talked to Michelle lately?”
“We talk every night. It’s going great.”
“Then why are you acting so weird?” Kevin asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“For the past week, you haven’t been yourself. You just stare off into space, looking complexed.”
“Maybe because I am. I’m not a simple person, you know. I have complexities.”
“Mmm-hmm. Sure.”
“I do!”
“Brian, just tell me what’s up.”
“It’s nothing,” Brian insisted. “You’re just paranoid.”
“ Right, ” Kevin responded.
“OK, Amanda. This is it. This is the talk. It’s way overdue, and I don’t want to deal with this anymore,” AJ said.
“OK…” Amanda said, sounding bored. They were talking over the phone.
“So, I’m going to be blunt: do you love me anymore?”
“Huh?”
“It’s a simple question. Do you love me anymore or not?”
“AJ… not over the phone, OK?”
“Yes, over the phone. I’m tired of this crap, Amanda. I refuse to put up with it anymore. Do you love me or not? Answer the question.”
“AJ… lately, I look at you… and I see you as a brother to me.”
“Aha…” AJ said. Not matter-of-factly, but sadly.
“It’s been great, AJ. You have always been there for me. But… the sparks are gone.”
“No. I felt sparks. If you didn’t, it was your own fault,” AJ said stubbornly.
“No. AJ, I met somebody.”
“What?”
“And, no I didn’t cheat on you. It’s just that for the past month, I have been torn between you and him, and it has been killing me. I really, really care about you, but I’m starting to really, really care about him too. He knows about you, and it hurts him to know that I’m with you. I don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t want to hurt him either. What we had is in the past. This other guy… he’s my future. And I really want you to understand. Please… I want to keep in touch with you, I want to be friends with you. Please, AJ… Please understand.”
AJ was silent.
“AJ?”
“Well… I always thought that the ‘Let’s just be friends’ speech didn’t exist. Now I know that it does,” AJ said coldly.
“AJ… please don’t be upset with me. I think it’s best that we both move on with our lives. Don’t you?”
“Actually, no. I was ready to keep my life the same for the rest of it. You were always the one pushing me to change. Good-bye, Amanda.”
AJ hung up the phone and sat in the dark for a moment. He didn’t shed a tear, though. He had never ever cried over a woman. They weren’t worth it.
Kevin slowly walked down the corridor, a wrinkled piece of paper in his hand. It was the number of the floor that Mayor Parker was staying on, and the number of the ICU room he was staying in.
‘Maybe I’m intruding…’ Kevin thought. ‘Well, it’s too late to turn back now.’
He turned the down the hall and saw the sign. ‘ICU #4 Waiting Room.’ That would be where the family was.
He approached the door, and heard laughing coming from it. He looked in and immediately spotted Lynnsey. She was sitting on a couch next to her mother. On an adjacent couch facing them sat an old man and woman. The woman looked like an older version of Lynnsey, so Kevin figured that it was grandparents.
Kevin stuck his head in the door, and finally got the courage to speak.
“Is this a bad time?” he asked.
“Kevin!” Lynnsey and her mother exclaimed at the same time.
“What are you doing here?” her mother asked, smiling.
“I thought I would visit. I was in town, so…” Kevin lied. They didn’t need to know that he had traveled there just for them. They would probably tell him that he shouldn’t have gone to the trouble.
“Well, it’s great to see you!” Lynnsey said.
“Introduce us,” the old lady said.
“Kevin, this is my grandpa and grandma. They’re my dad’s parents. Grandma, Grandpa, this is the Kevin Richardson we told you about. He was here about 2 months ago for a fundraiser and was a great comfort to us.”
“Well, Kevin, we have certainly heard a lot about you. It’s an honor to meet you,” Lynnsey’s grandpa said, shaking Kevin’s hand.
“It is,” Grandma said.
“What’s been happening lately?” Kevin asked.
“Things are just… great,” Lynnsey said weakly. Her mom squeezed her hand.
“You can tell me about it if you like,” Kevin said. “I understand it all.”
“We know you do, honey,” Lynnsey’s mother said. “It’s just that things haven’t gotten any better for Mark. We’re losing hope, but we try to stay strong.”
“You are strong,” Kevin said sitting down. “You just gotta keep going, you know?”
“Yes. We know,” her mother replied.
“What’s been going on with you, Kevin?”
“Well, I’ve had some vacation time, and me and the guys went camping… things have been… great,” Kevin said weakly.
“You can tell us about it if you like,” Lynnsey’s mother said. “We understand it all.”
“He’s dating Gretchen Jones for sure. There were pictures taken of the two of them at a park and then a restaurant in Los Angeles. They must be dating secretly,” Mandy said to her friend, Irene over the phone.
“How dare he replace you that quickly!” Irene exclaimed.
“Well… it has been a few months…” Mandy rationalized.
“No way! He should still be sitting at home by himself, like you, instead of already being committed to one person.”
“He’s not committed. Nick can’t be committed to one person if his life depends on it.”
“Well, I’d keep an eye on them if I were you.”
“Maybe Nick was right,” Mandy said softly. “Maybe I should just get over him.”
“No way!” Irene shouted.
“What’s your prob?” Mandy asked, shocked at Irene’s outburst.
“Uh… I just… don’t want to see you hurting, Mandy. You and Nick are meant to be together,” Irene recovered.
“Yeah…” Mandy reasoned.
Irene breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God Mandy was dumb. The sooner Nick and Mandy got back together, the sooner she could get closer to Howie.
“What do you want for Christmas?” Nick asked grinning over the phone.
“I can’t believe you’re already thinking about Christmas!” Gretchen exclaimed, giggling.
“Seriously, what would you like to get?”
“I don’t know yet. What do you want?”
“A new house,” Nick replied.
“Huh?
“Joke.”
“O-K…”
“When can I come to LA and visit?” Nick asked.
“Whenever we’re both free,” Gretchen replied.
“Yeah, but when is that? I have stuff to do every day practically, and you do too. I haven’t seen you in 3 weeks. It’s driving me crazy!”
“Nick, you don’t have very much patience, do you?”
“None whatsoever.”
“We’ll have to compare schedules one day…”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too, Nick, but let’s not dwell on that. We always come to this point in the conversation, and we get all depressed… Let’s think about when we’ll see each other around Christmas.”
“I’m thinking about it…” Nick said. “It’s so far away…”
“I know. We’ll make it through, though, right?”
“Right.”
“Thank you for staying up with me,” Lynnsey whispered.
“You’re welcome,” Kevin whispered back. The two were in the ICU waiting room. It was 2 AM, and Lynnsey’s mother was asleep on the couch. Kevin and Lynnsey sat on another couch, talking.
“You and your mother must be sick of the hospital. Spending day and night here, seeing the same things every day, being around all the depression…” Kevin said.
“Oh, I try not to look at it that way,” Lynnsey said. “Like, if I ever start feeling really depressed, I just go down to Wing 2.”
“What’s that?”
“The baby wing. I go look at all the newborns, and it cheers me up no end. New life makes me forget about dying life.”
“Wow… that’s incredible,” Kevin said. “I wish I could have been in thought like that when my dad died.”
“You handled it well, I would say,” Lynnsey replied.
“Maybe…”
Lynnsey yawned. “You don’t have to sleep here if you don’t want to.”
“I want to,” Kevin replied. “I got the floor. You have the couch, OK?”
“OK. Goodnight, Kevin,” Lynnsey said as she laid down on the couch.
“Goodnight Lynnsey.”