A Day in the Life Of... (Day 175) Lexington
Chris waited backstage with Leighanne, laughing as she bounced around to the music. "Glad to see Brian again, are you?"
"You'd think it had been months, right?" Leighanne watched him dance around on stage, her eyes shining. "It's only been one, just feels like longer. I missed him terribly."
"Are you going to join us on tour? Brian didn't say."
"For a week. I had to be here for the hometown show tonight, of course." She smiled. "Tomorrow will be fun as well." Brian was planning on throwing a pool party at his family's house outside Lexington the next day for everyone, in honor of his being home and the weekend off.
"Get some sun, some air, yeah, it'll be fun." Chris grinned. "I'm getting far too pale, I think I'm nearing translucent now."
Leighanne laughed. "You'll be ok. How's it been for you out there, lately?" she gestured towards the stage.
"Fine," Chris smiled. Nick's little statement on Rosie had done just the trick, except for the random comments from girls she met at their hotels and outside arenas, the 'protect Nick movement' seemed to have died out entirely. "Ever since he went on Rosie, things have been pretty much back to normal with the fans."
"You two getting along again?"
"Yup." Chris replied. "Friends."
"Just friends?"
"Just friends." Chris shook her head. "More would be a bad idea."
"Did you two ever talk about what happened?"
"Not really, Nick said he was sorry, but that was kind of it." Chris shakes her head. "I think he really believes that's all he had to say to make things right again."
"If you started talking to him again after he said it, of course he would." Leighanne laughed. "He's a man, Chris, he'll do as little as possible to get the result he wants."
"Just as well." Chris tensed up as the song ended. "I think I spent far too much time worrying about Nick. I gotta run, see you later." She waved, and ran onto the stage, smiling at the sound of cheers. God, how she'd missed that.
****************************************************
Death: "Mostly they aren't too keen to see me. They fear the sunless lands. But they enter your realm each night without fear."
Dream: "And I am far more terrible than you, my sister."*
AJ was bored. Kevin and Brian had taken off with their families after the show, Howie had barricaded himself in his hotel room, and watching Nick play Playstation games in the suite was just not cutting it. "Come on Chris, this can't be fun for you either."
Chris yawned. "It's not, but I'm gonna go to bed soon anyway."
"We have a day off tomorrow, we should have gone out and PARTIED tonight!" AJ jumped up and ran to Howie's room, banging on the door. "Wake up man, I'm coming in." He flung the door open and walked in, finding Howie standing by the dresser, putting something into his mouth. "You're up!"
"Hey," Howie stared at AJ in surprise for a moment, before quickly shoving the pill bottle in his hands into a drawer. His face scrunched up as he swallowed whatever was in his mouth, then turned to his friend. "What's up?"
"What was that?" AJ's face was serious, voice sharp.
"What was what?" Howie asked nonchalantly.
"Don't play dumb with me, Howie, what's in the drawer?" AJ moved towards the dresser, his eyes narrowing when Howie stepped in his way.
"Nothing."
"You just took something, I saw."
"AJ..." Howie pointed to the camera buried in the hotel ceiling.
AJ snorted and shook his head. "No fucking way. Enough pointing at the cameras and not talking, I'm sick to death of everyone using the cameras for an excuse. What did you just take?"
"Nothing! It's not important."
"You can't not live it just because it's going to be on tv, Howie. That's what we're all doing, you know...we don't want the ugly shit to show up on camera, so we're ignoring it, pretending it isn't happening. We're kinda forgetting that the nasty shit is part of life." AJ's eyes were hard, his voice rising with every word. "The fact that my best friend is taking fucking pills and refusing to tell me is VERY nasty shit, man. And it IS FUCKING IMPORTANT!" He shouted, quieting down again when Howie flinched. "You tell me what the fuck I just saw you swallow, or I'm gonna drag you to the hospital and pump your stomach myself."
"AJ, don't." Howie sat down on the bed, his head in his hands. "It's not what you think."
AJ sat down next to Howie and took a deep breath. "Just tell me what's going on."
Nick and Chris poked their heads in the doorway, they'd heard AJ yelling. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Howie mumbled.
AJ looked at Nick and Chris, appearing to think something over, then stood up. "No, you know what, get in here. Nobody is hiding anything anymore." He closed the door behind them and sat down on the bed. "We're waiting until Kev and B get back, then we're talking." Nick opened his mouth to argue and was silenced with a glare from AJ. "You have no choice in the matter. This is important, Nick, trust me. You too, Chris."
"What's up, AJ?" Chris asked, sitting down on the floor with Nick, confused.
"You'll find out soon enough. When Brian and Kevin get here." AJ grabbed the television remote and turned the volume up high, without another word.
They sat in silence for an hour, awkward looks going around the room. AJ refused to look at Howie, while Howie was trying to get AJ to look at him, trying to figure out what he was doing. Nick hadn't sat so still for so long in years, but something was clearly wrong, and he was terrified to find out what it might be. Chris just stared at the floor, thinking she didn't belong in the middle of whatever was happening.
Finally Brian and Kevin knocked on the door, the blaring television coming from the room drawing them in.
"Music's a little loud, Howie." Brian walked into the room, his face dropping when he saw the serious expressions. "What's going on?"
"Have a seat. We all get to find out now" Nick waved to the floor and the two sat down, looking around curiously.
"Ok." AJ started slowly. He'd spent the last hour figuring out what he was going to say, he was going to take his time saying it. "I just realized something. It's sad, I gotta tell you all, that I'm the one who realized what's been going on, but I did, so there ya have it. I'm setting down a new ground rule for the tour, starting now." AJ looked around the room, taking in everyone's gaze. "No more fucking lies."
"AJ, what..." Nick started.
"Wait, hear me out, all of you." AJ raised his hand to quiet the younger man. "We're all talking in code, do you realize that? Maybe we're not telling blatant lies, but the things we don't say because the cameras are around....the things we've been hiding because we don't want America to know about it? We've been hiding them from each other too. And we can't fucking do that!" He stood up and started pacing. "We have always been able to rely on each other, pull each other through anything. Because we always TALKED to each other. But right now, we all think everything's great, right?" He looked around the room, getting shrugs from everyone.
"All's peachy." AJ said sarcastically. "It's a fucking lie. We've turned our lives into a nice little lie for America. We are all, and Chris, you're here because you're as guilty of this as the rest of us, we are all hiding what's going on inside our little heads, and it is KILLING us."
"AJ, chill, man," Kevin said, quietly.
"Hear me out!" AJ barked. "You don't know what I know, none of you do. And I'm really fucking sick of it. I've been waiting for things to go back to normal, and they haven't. So I'm just going to force it along a little. I'm getting sick and tired of being the only one who knows what's going on here, so now, you're getting the grand list."
AJ took a deep breath and stood up, standing in the front of the room, turning to face each person as he spoke, the anger clear in his voice. "Howie's popping pills, doing drugs. Kevin's fucking Julia. Little Nicky's fucking his way across the country. He's also not getting along with Kevin. Brian's tearing himself apart trying to figure out what's going on with Nick and Kevin to the point that he's not sleeping at night. Chrissy, you got brutally attacked, you ever really deal with that? You still have nightmares... And just what DID happen with you and Nick, pray tell? Me, I may just be the sanest one in this room at the moment, and that's pretty bad in itself, seeing as how I'm single again and trying not to lose my mind." He glared at them all. "What the fuck have we all been doing for the last 5 months?"
Chris gaped at AJ, mouth wide open. Julia and Kevin...Nick and...what! Brian? Amanda and AJ...Howie and pills? "Oh jesus," she breathed, shocked by everything she'd just heard.
Brian stared at AJ in shock. "You just said a lot of things, AJ," he took a deep breath.
"Kevin," he turned to his cousin. Family first...he'd deal with each in order. He could feel his hands start to shake and balled them into fists. The time to get upset would be later.
"Brian, don't even try it." Kevin glared at him. "My wife watches this show, as does your fiancee."
Brian's face turned ashen. "I would never cheat on Leighanne, don't you dare imply that just to get back at me. I'm not the one who can't keep my pants up."
"Sounds like I'm not the only one with that problem, huh." Kevin sneered, looking at Nick.
Nick was staring into space, his eyes bright with tears, Kevin's words not even registering in his shock. Howie doing drugs, what was going on? Of all of them...not Howie. For some reason, of everything, that hurt him worse than he could have imagined. Howie doing drugs. The same guy who'd screamed until he was blue the day he caught Nick with a joint, the one who would NEVER touch a cigarette...what the hell. "Howie, man, are you ok?" Nick's voice cracked as he asked the question, afraid of the answer.
Everyone turned to look at Howie, who shook his head. "I'm not on drugs, will you all stop it." His voice was soft, AJ's outburst and the accompanying news had shocked him, and he didn't have the energy to speak any louder.
"Then what did I see you take?" AJ spat out the question. "Stop trying to deny it, nobody is leaving until we ALL talk things out."
"Sleeping pills." Howie mumbled. They were starting to kick in, he could feel his eyelids getting heavy.
"Why were you hiding them, Howie? Nothing wrong with sleeping pills." AJ said, sitting back down on the bed next to him.
Howie shook his head, biting his lip. "You don't get it."
"So tell us, Howie, what's wrong?" Brian asked, concerned. What hadn't they been seeing? "You've never had trouble sleeping?"
"The nightmares..." Chris said softly, looking at Howie. "Right?"
Howie nodded, blinking quickly. "I don't dream when I take the pills. But my doctor wouldn't renew my prescription, I'm almost out. So I've been trying to sleep less, tonight's one of my nights where I get to sleep. I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out..."
"Jesus, Howie, you can't do this to yourself." AJ grabbed his friend, hugged him tight. "We'll get you help, but you have to let yourself sleep. They're just dreams, man"
"You don't know what they're like, AJ, they're terrible I can't go on dreaming like that every night, I won't." Howie pushed him away. "This is the only way."
Chris sat, feeling helpless. What could she say...she was scared to sleep too, it had been weeks since she'd gone more than 2 nights without a nightmare. She'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming, shaking, cold, thinking she was back on the ground in DC, New Year's Eve. It was awful.
Chris saw Nick shift around next to her and looked at him. Hearing that Nick had been sleeping his way across the country disappointed her, more than anything. She'd thought more of him, hoped he'd thought more of his fans. Then again, she'd come to realize exactly how little she did know him, over the past few months, hadn't she.
She sighed and turned back to Howie. "We're here until Monday, why don't you go to a doctor, tell someone what's really going on? That you're afraid to sleep because of the nightmares, not that you have trouble sleeping and need sleeping pills."
"I bet my family knows a doctor who could keep his mouth shut." Brian offered.
Howie looked at everyone, then nodded slowly. "I guess, it can't hurt."
"Keeping yourself awake all night so you don't dream isn't the way to cure nightmares, D." AJ shook his head. "Ok, one down. Who shall we tackle next. Nick? Kev? Chris?" His eyes darted around the room as if he were drugged, ready to solve someone else's problem.
"This is mean, AJ, enough's enough." Howie looked at him, the exhaustion apparent on his face. "And I gotta get some sleep, the pills work well, you know." His voice fell to a whisper. "And you're kinda scaring me, acting like this."
AJ looked at his friend and his face fell. "Sorry D, just seeing you there, popping those pills, something snapped in me. I've seen too many lies going around here for too long, I couldn't take it anymore." He hugged Howie tight, his arms wrapping around his back. "Don't you EVER scare me like that again."
"I won't, I won't." Howie replied honestly, returning the hug.
AJ stood up. "I'll let this go for now, D's right, it's late. But I want a promise from all of you. No more talking around things. From here on out, we REALLY act like the cameras aren't there. Talk like we did tonight. We're hurting each other too much otherwise, can't you all see that?"
Brian nodded solemnly and hugged AJ. "I can't believe we all got so screwed up without realizing what was going on."
"Good at hiding things, all of us." AJ laughed lightly.
"We'll talk about that later, AJ." Brian said to him firmly, grabbing his hand tight. "I want to know what happened with Amanda."
"It's not pretty, man." He shook his head. "Good night all. Sorry to do this as dramatically as I did, but, it had to be done."
Chris stood up, ignoring Nick next to her.
"You'll be ok, Howie." She moved to the bed and hugged Howie tight, shocked to feel him shaking. How had none of them noticed how little sleep he was getting? He could barely keep his eyes open now. "Sleep well." She hugged Brian and left as Kevin made his way to Nick.
"Get away from me." Nick shook off Kevin's arm, his eyes bright. He'd learned far too much tonight, he couldn't deal with Kevin, not now. "Your cousin wants to talk to you."
"My cousin wants to talk to you too." Kevin laughed, looking at Brian's upset face. "We should get out of Howie's room."
"Gone." Nick turned and fled from the room without another word, slamming the door of his room behind him.
"After you." Brian waited for Kevin to leave, then cornered him in the suite's living room. "So?"
"You know what AJ was referring to, don't act so surprised." Kevin shrugged. "I'd be more worried about little Nicky..."
"Shut up for a moment, would you Kevin? You swear to me you were only with Julia that once?" Brian looked at him in disbelief. "The way he put it, it sounded like it was an ongoing thing."
"I love Kristen, Brian, don't worry about it." Kevin ran his hand through his hair. "In fact, I'm going to go join her in our room right now, since AJ's little heart to heart is over." He appeared completely unaffected by the news AJ had dropped on them all, bored during the talk, even.
"Kevin, did you somehow not notice what was going on in that room? You're normally the one who picks up the pieces when things go to hell, what on earth was AJ doing it for? You're not acting like yourself." Brian concluded. "You're not acting like yourself, Howie's not acting like himself, AJ's acting like you, which definitely isn't himself, and Nick isn't acting like himself. God, we're in great shape here, aren't we, cuz. Let's have a party tomorrow, why don't we!"
"The party tomorrow will be good, give everyone time to relax and hang out."
"Like we did a week ago, Kev?" Brian shook his head. "I don't think one day is going to fix any of this."
"Well, I'm going to go make love to my wife, cuz." Kevin walked off to his room, waving at Brian. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Brian watched Kevin disappear into his room, not really believing his cousin could act so heartless. He had to still be sleeping with Julia...if it wasn't that, what else could it be? Something was clearly clouding his judgment, he wasn't thinking with his head. Next, he thought to himself, and knocked on the door to Nick's room. He rolled his eyes when he heard a muffled 'fuck off,' from inside, knocking again. "Frack, it's me, let me in."
The door slowly creaked open, and Brian slipped inside, closing it behind him.
"Lock it." Nick said, sitting back on the bed.
"Sure." Startled by the request, Brian made sure to locked the door before joining Nick on the bed. His blue eyes were sad, his voice soft, as he talked to his best friend. "Sleeping your way across the country? I thought you stopped doing that a long time ago, Nicky."
"AJ made it sound worse than it was." Nick grumbled, turning to look at Brian with red eyes. "Why did he have to say that at all, though? Chris didn't know, she didn't ever have to know."
"I didn't even know, Nicky, what on earth were you doing?" Brian couldn't get over the fact that he didn't know. This meant Nick had been sleeping with fans again, like he'd done last tour, and he didn't know. "We talked about this long before we started this tour, you said you were over it."
"It wasn't that much, just for the month or so where she wasn't talking to me. I haven't done it in a couple of weeks, now." Nick sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Toby would pick out a couple of girls, I'd meet them at the door of the room, pick one, bring them into the bathroom, the cameras never saw a thing. You know the old routine, just add the bathroom. I don't know how AJ knows, even. I was just lonely, Brian, they didn't mean anything."
Brian shook his head. "You only hurt yourself when you do things like that, Nick."
"I was lonely." Nick repeated, staring at the floor. "I still am."
"Don't go asking Toby to find you anymore girls, Nick."
"I won't, I know which girl I want now. I didn't realize it then." Nick looked at the door wistfully. "Should I go talk to her? AJ said she's still having nightmares..."
"I'd talk to her tomorrow, it's getting late." Brian looked at the clock. "We should all probably get going to bed."
"She's gonna hate me, isn't she." Nick's eyes were filled with tears. "After all my complaining that I didn't want to act like a star, I went and did it anyway with those girls."
"She knows you, Nick, she'll hear you out."
"I hope so, man, I hope so."
A Day in the Life Of... (Day 176) Lexington
Chris groaned as she poured out the last of the coffee from the pot. "They're going to think I'm insane," she sighed as she picked up the phone to call for her third pot of the morning. She'd tried to sleep the night before, she really had....but she couldn't keep her mind from churning. Between her own personal issues to deal with, there was Howie, Brian, AJ, Nick, Kevin, even Julia had to be dealt with in some way, if she was still sleeping with Kevin. And then there was MTV looming over it all. Her cameras had captured every moment of the night before on film. Just the thought of confronting the MTV brass over this was enough to make her stomach churn and keep her rolling around sleepless. At 5am, the hour room service in the hotel opened, of course, she gave up sleep and ordered her first pot of coffee.
Chris had spent the morning doing some catch up on her online browsing. Since things had started to turn in her favor, she hadn't had a chance to really sit down and read what the websites were saying about the show, and about the guys. All in all, not bad, although fans of the show on MTV's site were starting to worry that it was becoming a PR cover for the Backstreet Boys, and not a 'real' behind the scenes look. The Backstreet Boys fans, meanwhile, had absolutely adored Nick's appearance on Rosie with Chris, there's nothing a girl likes better than seeing a guy be a good friend.
At the knock on the door, Chris shut her laptop and went to open it, expecting to see someone from room service on the other side with her coffee. "Oh...hi," she said in surprise.
"Morning." Nick ran a hand through his hair and looked at her nervously. "Can we talk?"
"Sure," Chris waved him in. Today was bound to be a very long day, filled with a lot of heart to heart talks in the aftermath of AJ's revelations.
Nick sat down on the bed and turned to face her. "Last night, what AJ said?"
"AJ said a lot of things." She said softly, sitting down next to him on the bed. "Have you seen Howie this morning?"
Nick nodded, "He left early to go see a doctor Brian's family found. AJ went with him, they're gonna meet us later at Brian's."
"Oh good." Chris looked at Nick, noting his messy hair and bloodshot eyes. "Are you ok?"
"Couldn't sleep." He shrugged. "AJ dropped a lot on us..."
"Yeah."
Nick turned to face Chris, staring into her eyes. "What AJ said about me, Chrissy..."
Chris didn't let him finish, "you don't owe me an explanation, Nick."
He looked at her, eyes wide. "What?" After he'd spent all night preparing what to say, she wasn't even going to listen? Chris sighed, "Nick, if you want to sleep with half of America, it's not my right to stop you, you don't have to explain yourself to me." She had decided that the best way to handle Nick would be this way, cold, distant, like she didn't care.
"Oh." Nick stared at her, a hurt expression on his face. "AJ made it sound worse than it was."
"Doesn't matter." Chris shrugged. "You're an adult, Nick, you can sleep with whoever you want."
He nodded solemly, looking disappointed. "So you don't care."
"Not my place to." Chris looked at him, puzzled. Why did he look so upset at that?
"AJ said no more lies." Nick said softly, looking at the floor. So Chris wasn't going to take AJ's advice just yet. He'd wait, then. With a sigh, he looked up. "How are you?"
"Fine." Chris jumped up at the knock on the door. "That must be my coffee." She opened the door and accepted the pot greatfully. "You'd be surprised how long it can take them to get a darn pot of coffee up here. Want a cup?"
Nick nodded and looked around the room for a spare mug. "Here," he held a cup up, and Chris poured. "Thanks."
"No problem."
"So how many pots have you had so far today?" Nick asked wryly, noting the empties in the room.
"I couldn't sleep last night," Chris explained.
"Nightmares?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Just couldn't fall asleep."
"AJ said...."
"AJ said a lot of things." Chris said again.
"But you are still having nightmares, I remember from the Carribean.." Nick let his voice trail off. How could he forget Chris screaming, holding her tight as she cried in her sleep.
"They'll go away eventually." She brushed it off, turned to pour herself another cup of coffee, trying to hide how shaken she was by that. She hadn't realized she'd had nightmares then, she remembered the Carribean as her last nightmare-free time. Why didn't she remember??
"Dammit, Chris!" Nick burst out, then looked down as if shocked by the sound of his own voice.
"What?" She whirled around to face him, nearly spilling coffee all over herself.
"Sorry. Didn't mean to sound so upset." He couldn't understand why he felt so angry at her all of a sudden, but he did. Nick spoke carefully, keeping his voice very smooth, steady. "You're not telling me all there is to tell."
"The nightmares will go away, Nick." Chris replied just as smooth.
"You need to talk about the nightmares, Chris." Nick put a finger under her chin and turned her face up to his. "And you need to talk about me." "A Day in the Life Of..." by Bobbi
Chris felt the air rush out of her lungs and stared into Nick's eyes. Oh no....she couldn't let this happen again. WHY did he always blindside her like this. "About you?"
"About us."
"There is no us," Chris shrugged away from him, clutching her coffee mug to her chest.
"There should be." Nick said quickly.
Chris could help but turn to stare at him. He hadn't just said.... "Nick, I can't..."
"I know." He replied. "I'll wait."
"Wait?" Her voice was barely a squeak.
"For you."
"Now who's the one not talking, Nick?"
"I said all there was to say." Nick grinned, enjoying how flustered Chris had become. Definitely a good sign.
"You'll wait."
"Yup."
"For me?" Chris felt a need to clarify this fact. Everything suddenly felt very strange....this was not what she had expected to hear from him.
"Yup."
"But..."
"You can't talk me out of it, it's my decision. Now, since you won't talk about us, are you going to tell me about your nightmares?" Nick looked at her, eyebrow raised. "My nightmares?" Her head was whirling. Maybe she'd had too much caffeine?
"What are they about?"
"Take one guess, Einstein." Chris said sarcastically.
"I'm cutting you off," Nick grabbed the coffee from her, running into the bathroom and dumping it into the sink before she could get off the bed.
"Damn, Nick! Why'd you do that?"
"Because you just called me Einstein." Nick grinned sheepishly. "That means something's very wrong."
"Ever heard of sarcasm, Carter?"
"So that was an insult, then?" He looked at her, eyes twinkling.
Chris took a step backwards cautiously. "No..."
"Oh, I think it was." Nick grabbed Chris and threw her on the bed, sitting on her hips and tickling her stomach. "You must pay!"
"Nick!" Chris couldn't help laughing as she tried in vein to push him off of her. "I'm ticklish!"
"So I see." He couldn't conceal how much fun he was having, the grin on his face could have lit up all of Lexington. "Say, let's see, what should I make you say. 'Uncle' just doesn't feel adequate." He grabbed both her hands in one of his, and sat back, pretending to mull it over.
"Let me go, Nick." Chris squirmed under him, trying not to look at him, he looked far too adorable when he tried to look so serious. Not to mention, ending up flat on her back with Nick on top of her was not exactly one of the steps on the way to avoid sleeping with him again.
"Not just yet. I think you should say..." He stroked his chin thoughtfully, a grin coming over his face. He ground his hips slowly into hers, looking into her eyes, waiting for her to react.
"What are you doing, Nick," Chris tried to pull her arms out of his grasp, but he just pulled them up over her head, trapping her fully. She tried to move her hips away from his, but it was impossible, he was completely on top of her. Every movement she made just pushed him into her again, the sensations he was sending through her making her strangely uncomfortable. Chris bit her lip as she clearly felt how excited he'd suddenly become, her panties feeling very warm and wet. This felt far too good....she had to stop it now.
"Trying to think about what you should say."
"Enjoying it a little much, aren't you?" Chris said softly, looking down pointedly.
"Problem with that?" Nick bent his head and whispered in her ear, his voice becoming gruff. "Not to mention, I think that makes two of us enjoying this." He emphasized that with another slow grind against her, watching as she tried desperately not to react.
"Let me go, Nick." Chris replied, determined not to think about it. She couldn't think about how good his body felt against hers, how familiar he smelled, how sexy his voice was like that, his hips, his eyes, his....couldn't think about it.
"You sure you want me to?" He pushed his hips into hers again, his grin becoming wider when Chris moaned. "You DO like that."
Chris felt like her body betrayed her, she didn't mean to moan, but of course what he was doing felt good. "Please, Nick, let me go."
Nick moved his hips into hers one last time, moving in an excruciatingly slow circle, watching her eyes dilate as he rubbed against her. "Ok, Chrissy." He let her hands go and got up, smiling. "We should probably get ready to head out to Brian's anyway."
Chris stood up quickly and nodded. "I should go take a shower." God damn him, now she was all excited. Well, at least he was too, she thought, letting her eyes drop to his crotch. Yup, very much so.
"Me too." Nick kissed the top of her head. "See you in a few." And with that, he left.
Chris went into the bathroom for her shower, still cursing Nick for getting her all worked up. Just when she'd nearly had herself convinced she wasn't attracted to him anymore, he had to go and prove her wrong. And was it just her, or did it seem like he was ENJOYING teasing her? Like he knew the power he had over her like that....she sighed and stepped into the cold water, clearing her head. Today was going to be a VERY long day, indeed.
Chris stepped out of the shower, and slowly dressed, feeling somewhat refreshed. She was resisting the urge to continue cursing Nick, and trying hard not to replay every moment they'd just spent together. Grinning slightly, she pulled a tank top and shorts on over the bikini she'd bought the week before. Nick teased her? Now she'd tease him.
Walking out of the bathroom, she jumped at the pounding on her door, and opened it to find Julia standing on the other side.
"What are you, deaf?" Julia was all set to go, sunglasses, sun hat and all. "I've been banging for ten minutes."
"I was in the shower." Chris shook her head. "Come in, I still need to get my stuff."
"Stuff? We're going to Brian's house, what do you need?" Julia walked in impatiently. "Kevin, Brian and Nick are waiting for us in the van. Probably very unhappily surrounded by fans."
"Let them sweat, it'll do Nick some good." Chris laughed, throwing sunblock and her lipstick into a bag. "And I need the same stuff you have in your bag, darling."
"Before we go, you should know, Brian's set a rule for today." Julia's tone became serious.
Chris groaned. "Please, no more rules, I'm starting to dread them."
"No business, no talking about last night. We just have fun today." Julia's tone gave away nothing about how she had felt reviewing the tapes of the night before.
"Isn't that going to be a little difficult?" Chris looked at Julia closely.
"Wait until you see Brian," Julia met her friend's gaze. "He's cracking, he really is, I think he really needs today to be fun, and stress free."
"Cracking?"
"You'll see." Julia replied. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah." Chris followed her friend out the door, waving to Elaine as they went.
The women made their way to the front door of the hotel, pausing while Elaine went outside to check the situation. Elaine poked her head in and waved the ladies out, a few scattered screams resulting in the fans gathered around the van outside.
Chris and Julia got in the van and they pulled out slowly, Kevin behind the wheel, carefully avoiding hitting fans.
"Morning." Chris said to nobody in particular, breaking the awkward silence.
"Morning." Nick replied, turning to look back at her with a grin.
Julia turned to stare at Chris, clearly dying to ask what the grin was about.
Chris just shook her head and turned to stare out the window.
"So Brian, you got a pool, right?" Julia asked.
Brian turned around to face them, laughing. "Yes I have a pool, Julia. And a hot tub."
Chris looked at Brian and felt her heart sank. Even though he was laughing, his eyes were dull, bloodshot and red-rimmed, his skin sallow and pale. You wouldn't think a boy with cheekbones like that could develop bags under his eyes like that either. How had she not noticed how badly things were effecting him? Why had AJ been the only one? "How deep's the pool?"
"Just standard 10 feet, although it's a bit bigger than most home pools." Brian replied. "Nicky seems to like it enough."
"For a pool, anyway." Nick added. "When we're in Tampa I'll throw a thing at my place, you can see some real water." He looked at Chris. "I got a real boat too."
"Can't put an ocean in a backyard, that's true." Brian smiled lightly.
"A pool will be fun." Chris said softly, her mind drifting back to thoughts of Nick on the boat in the Caribbean. They'd felt so at peace, unable to see anything around them other than the ocean, lost in each other. The ocean...it made you feel isolated, like you could do whatever you wanted without consequences. No wonder Nick loved it so much. "Nick's an ocean and Brian's a pool."
"What?" Julia asked.
Chris covered her mouth with a gasp. "I didn't mean to say that out loud!"
"Explain?" Nick was laughing. "I'm an ocean and Brian's a pool?"
She squirmed in her seat. How was she going to explain this.... "Well, I was just thinking about how the ocean makes you feel so alone, so isolated...like you're in a world of your own. You like that kind of escape, Nick, it's why you play games and read comics and stuff."
Nick nodded in agreement and waved for her to go on.
"Brian, meanwhile, likes this world just fine. He likes knowing what's going on around him, likes making sure he effects what happens around him. Writing music, all of that. Pools are grounded, surrounded by land on all sides...in land. In reality. I just think people always fit where they live in more ways than they know. So Brian with his pool and Nick with his beach...it fits." Chris finished and shook her head. "That probably didn't make any sense to anyone but me..."
"That's a great analogy, Chris." Kevin called from the front of the van. "Could make for some interesting lyrics."
"The difference between a pool and an ocean?" Nick thought out loud. "Maybe."
"2 bodies of water." Kevin smiled. "There's some potential there."
"That's also very perceptive of you, Chris." Brian said softly. "I do need to have an effect on what happens around me." He couldn't resist shooting a look at Nick. Not knowing about Nick's little late night trysts hurt him more than he could even explain to himself....Nick was his best friend. They weren't supposed to keep secrets from each other.
"I didn't mean to.." Chris looked down. They weren't supposed to bring up last night, right?
"Don't worry about it." Brian shrugged. "We can only try."
"Looks like Howie and AJ beat us here," Kevin called as he drove up the driveway to Brian's family's house. "I see the SUV parked up ahead."
Nobody spoke, although their minds were joined in one thought...how was Howie.
That question was quickly answered when the front door to the house opened and Howie walked out smiling, followed closely by AJ.
Kevin pulled the van to a stop and they got out, Nick grumbling about low ceilings as he bumped his head on the doorframe.
"You're just getting too big, Nicky," Howie grinned, grabbing Nick in a hug. He was clearly all set to have a fun day, no signs of the night before apparent in his demeanor.
"I'm not too big," Nick pushed Howie off, slightly uncomfortable with the carefree attitude. He was dying to ask how it had gone at the doctors, but one look at Brian's face reminded him why that wasn't such a good idea.
"So can I see this pool?" Julia asked Brian impatiently, a smile on her face.
"This way." Brian lead the group into the house, giving the grand tour as he went.
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