Sandra thought that maybe if she waited long enough, the phone would stop ringing. It was only 8:30 am! Who the hell was calling her? Then she remembered her conversation with Angela the night before. "Oh, my God!" she yelled out, falling out of the bed in a mad rush to the phone. She picked it up and said, "Hello?" urgently.
"Hello? Who is this?" Brian asked, as Angela giggled quietly beside him.
Sandra was pissed when she realized she'd gotten out of bed for a wrong number or a crank call. "This is Sandra!" she snapped.
Angela was losing it as Brian laid on the southern accent. "Well, I just wanted to call you and see how you're doing on this fine and beautiful Monday morning."
"Who is this?!" Sandra demanded.
"You have to guess," he said, winking at Angela.
Sandra didn't like being toyed with, especially when she was awakened by an unwanted phone call. "Listen, buddy, I don't give a shit WHO you are, so I'm certainly not going to guess."
Brian was holding the phone away from his ear, partly because Sandra was half-yelling and partly so Angela could hear, too. "You know," he replied calmly, "You really should watch your mouth, young lady. I don't appreciate being cussed at on the telephone." Angela noticed he was exaggerating his drawl even more as the conversation went on.
"Then you shouldn't call people and wake them up, BUMPKIN." When Angela heard Sandra yell Bumpkin out at Brian, she put her hand over her mouth in shock. Sandra was going to KILL HER for this!
"Pumpkin?" Brian asked, nostrils flaring. "Am I your pumpkin? I mean, you hardly know me."
Sandra was obviously getting agitated, and it showed when she corrected him. "I SAID, BUMPkin!"
Brian put his hand over his heart as he spoke. "You know, you're breaking my heart here, Sandra. Just because I'm Southern doesn't mean I'm a bumpkin."
"How do you know my name?" Sandra demanded in a softer tone.
"What?" asked Brian, "did I say your name?" Angela was snickering at how casual Brian was being about the whole thing.
"Yes, you said my name, dammit. Who IS this?" Sandra demanded again.
"Guess." he replied.
There was a silence on the other end of the phone.
"Well?" Brian persisted, and when there was still no reply, "I'll give you a hint. My name starts with a 'B'."
Sandra was tiring of the game with her mystery caller. "Look, B for BUMPkin, I don't know you, and I'm going to turn your ass in for harassment if you call me again."
Angela could hear the phone slam down and couldn't help but laugh hysterically as Brian quickly hit the send button again before handing her the phone. "She's not gonna answer, Brian," she said, shaking her head.
He looked at her confidently, his blue eyes sparkling. "She'll answer."
Sure enough, after only two rings, Sandra answered the phone. "I TOLD you NOT to call back!"
"Sandy? What's the matter? Are you okay?" Angela asked sounding truly concerned.
"Was that you who just called? Who was that?!" Sandra asked, quickly adding, "and don't EVEN tell me that was a Backstreet Boy, because they're from Florida."
"Well," Angela paused, looking at Brian to see what was expected of her. She could tell he wanted the phone back. "Actually, it WAS a Backstreet Boy. It was Brian."
"Brian?" Sandra repeated, as Brian grabbed the phone back from Angela. "You mean, the....."
"Fag?" he asked, finishing her question. Brian's eyes lit up like fire from the sheer enjoyment of confronting Sandra. Angela got up and ran into the kitchen, laughing. She didn't even want to be in the same room with Brian now, because hell hath no fury like Sandra when she's the brunt of someone's jokes.
Her heart sank when she saw Nick sitting on the floor playing scientist, pouring several different cleaning solutions into the mop bucket and looking pitiful. He looked up at her and looked back down at the bucket without saying a word. It wiped the smile off of her face and made her want to reach down and touch his soft, blond hair and tell him it wasn't that bad, but Brian's words were there in her mind. Don't let him sucker you. Instead, she walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up, analyzing it objectively. It was definitely nasty. The sides of the inside were caked with God knows what kind of sticky, moldy substance, and the section for the eggs had remains of eggs that had broken in the holder and been left. The racks were rusty and dirty and would probably need sanded down just to get rid of it. The vent on the bottom was even more disgusting. It had the caked on sticky substance and was covered with cobwebs, as well.
Angela bent down and opened the vegetable and fruit drawer and discovered that there were moldy, soggy remains of some kind of food in the drawer. The stench about sent her reeling and she knew she was going to throw up, so she lunged at the trash can beside the refrigerator. Oh my GOD, she thought with each heave of her stomach muscles, I'm puking in front of him!
She thought she was finished, and considered standing up, but the drawer was still open and the ghastly odor drifted her way. She started heaving again, and In between gasps, she pleaded to Nick. "Nick, shut the drawer! Shut the drawer!"
Nick plugged his nose and shut the drawer. Casually, he closed the refrigerator door and turned to Angela, who was still leaned over the trashcan. "Are you all right?" he asked cautiously.
"Do I LOOK all right?" she snapped. How humiliating.
"I'm sorry," Nick said softly, stifling his urge to laugh at her. "Do you want me to go get Kevin? Do you want to sit down?"
Angela had regained control of herself now, but she didn't even want to look up. In fact, she wanted to die. She just stayed there, leaned over the trashcan, breathing heavily as her body recovered from the shock.
Nick finally held a wad of paper towel under her face and waved it until she took it. She stood up, wiped her mouth and checked the ends of her hair for vomit, still avoiding all eye contact with him. "You don't have to clean that, Nick," she said weakly, motioning towards the refrigerator. "It's disgusting."
Nick looked at her and smiled cutely. "I wasn't going to, actually," he confessed. "I was just waiting for Brian to get off the phone."
Angela eyed him, wondering what his intentions were.
Nick elaborated. ""Well, I was thinking." Nick eyed the refrigerator with a sly look. "It's really not fair to the kids to have to eat anything that comes out of that, right?" He paused and looked at her seriously, yet comically. "And seeing how I've got more than they do, it would only be the right thing to do by BUYING them a refrigerator, you know?"
Angela was touched by his generosity, but she had no time to tell him so. Brian had entered the room. "Nick, you are SO full of CRAP!"
"Why?" Nick asked, the corners of his mouth curling up, betraying his true intentions. "You don't think that's the charitable thing to do?"
"Anyone can BUY a refrigerator. The point was that we'd help out." Brian argued. "What, you want me to take your picture holding your credit card?"
Nick held his hand up beside his head as if he were holding a credit card and said "Nike shoes, $150. Nike shirt, $45. Nick Carter buying a refrigerator for a homeless shelter -- Priceless," and he smooched at Brian. "Besides," he taunted at Brian, "Angela is all for it."
Nick turned to her with his eyebrows raised expectantly, waiting for her to side with him. "Well," she said hesitantly, trying not to sound like Nick had 'suckered her.' "It is pretty gross, Brian."
Brian rolled his eyes and walked away, smiling. "Nick, I swear you can charm your way out of anything."
"Whaaaaaaat?!" Nick replied, holding his arms out and shrugging his shoulders. "I'm not charming my way out of anything." He flashed Angela a huge grin and winked at her. "Angela doesn't find me the least bit charming." He slid up behind her, wrapped his arm around her neck and set his chin on her shoulder. "Do you?!"
Angela tried not to smile, but it was impossible. Nick was batting his eyes at her, innocently. The unexpected camera flash practically blinded both of them.
Howie smiled as he forwarded the film on the camera. "My first picture of the day," he said.
"Hey, D," Nick said, releasing his hold on Angela. "You just missed her puking in the trashcan."
"What?!" both Howie and Brian asked.
"I'm okay," Angela said giving Nick a slightly dirty look for snitching on her. "I tried to tell you, Brian, that refrigerators GROSS. There's still moldy, gushy food in the drawers."
"It made you puke?" Brian asked in disbelief.
"Yes. All right. I puked, everybody. Can we move on, now?" Angela said, desperately wanting to change the subject.
"And THAT's, why we need to go shopping for a refrigerator," persisted Nick. "And some gum for YOU, Angela."
"No," interrupted Howie. "We NEED to get Kevin some caffeine in his system cos him and AJ are going to kill each other if Kevin doesn't get out of his mood."
"I'm kind of hungry, too," Angela said.
Nick punched her in the shoulder. "I guess! I didn't think you were ever gonna stop ralphing." He bent over and pretend heaved several times, mimicking her. Howie and Brian were laughing and, of course, Howie snapped another picture.
"Nick, will you STOP already?!" she said. It was embarrassing enough without him reminding everyone every two minutes.
"So is there a good place to eat around here, Angela?" asked Howie, trying to help her change the subject.
"Uh, McDonald's," she replied, sarcastically. "That's about it."
"Let's go!" said Nick heading for the back door.
"Wait, Nick," said Brian, grabbing his shirt.
"WE can't go to McDonald's. Remember? No-one's supposed to know we're here."
Angela shook her head in doubt. "No one will recognize you guys. It's 9 am in rural Indiana. Do you really think anyone's going to be looking for you guys at McDonald's? Besides, I don't have a vehicle."
"You can drive my Durango," Nick added in favor of the road trip.
"I don't want to go alone, you guys. That's gonna be a lot of food," Angela pleaded to Brian.
"I'll go," Brian said and left to get the keys.
"I wanna go," Nick griped. "Why can't I go, too?"
"I didn't say you couldn't," said Brian, returning with the keys. "But
let's
hurry. We haven't done any work yet and we've been here over an hour."
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