“Don’t do it Rod, we’re going for a short sentence, c’mon, right now you could get off at five years,” A loud gunshot came from the building followed by a scream. ”Rod, you son of a bitch! Don’t touch her!” A woman yelled into a cell phone outside of a warehouse with police cars surrounding it. “She’s a thirteen year old girl!” The apparent anger in her eyes was growing stronger.
“Adia, that’s not the way you negotiate with a terrorist! Give me the phone,” the man shook his forefinger in front of her face, but she turned around, flipping her hair in his face. “Adia, give me the phone!” she ignored him yet again. “Adia!”
“Rick, I can Handle it!” Rick grabbed both of her hands and struggled the phone away from her. It took a while, but eventually he got it.
“What are your demands?” Rick asked quietly when he had the phone. Adia gave a contemplative glance to her side, but then stared over at the headset sitting on top of the police car
“Okay, listen up, I want three things,” the man on the other end of the phone began.
“Yeah, well I’m your fucking genie, so tell me your three wishes,” Adia’s voice rang over the headset. Another officer gave a hesitant glance towards Rick, but Rick dismissed it with a shake of his hand and let Adia continue seeing as though she had calmed down. Well, somewhat.
“I want Twenty million, five cases of the best damn Cuban cigars on the market, I also want a helicopter on the roof, with the keys on the dash. If you guys try anything, I’ll shoot the kid.” The last few words repeated in her head a few times.
*:: Flashback ::*
“Rod, come on it’s not that hard to do,” a little girl with big blue eyes persuaded another five year old.
“I can’t, I’m not good at Basketball.”
“Just shoot the ball Rodney!” she said almost meanly
“Fine,” he shot the ball and it circled the rim six times until it finally went in. Her arms flew around him and gave him a loose hug.
*::Flash::*
“Ha, I beat you!” two kids about ten played nintendo(really old version). They sat on the edge of the bed. A little boy jumped up and began to do a victory dance.
“Oh well, I beat you three times in a row yesterday,” she said with a smile.
“Oh you did you?” the little boy fell to his knees and began to tickle her in the only spot she was ticklish. Under her left knee.
*::Flash::*
“I can’t believe our parents let you come with us to Disneyworld!”
“I know, it’s so cool to have your best friend come with you on a vacation, it makes it thirty times more fun,” the girl replied giving him an adventurous look that spread over her face like a kid who had just stolen candy. Suddenly her eyes lit up and her grin widened like she had an idea...
“NO!” he told her as soon as the look came over her face.
“Come on Rodney, we’ve got to.”
“Yesterday we rode on space mountain until we blew chunks, I am not doing it again JR!”
“Can’t we just go once,” Adia pleaded.
Rodney sighed and lowered his head for a second. “ONCE!”
*::Flash::*
“Rodney loves Adia, Rodney loves Adia!” Two blonde girls with pigtails sang as they ran accross the playground. They looked exactly alike, probably twins.
“I do not!” A boy yelled after them just a his best friend came up behind him and him face turned bright red.
*::End Flashbacks::*
Adia looked up from the ground she had been staring at for the past few seconds. “Rod, you haven’t actually hurt anyone have you? You could still plead temporary insanity or something and you wouldn’t have to do very much time,” tears began to surface in Adia’s eyes. “Rody, say to didn’t hurt anyone man . . .” her voice cracked.
He sighed on the other end of the phone. Then there was silence. “You’ve got fifteen minutes AR. You bring me my money unarmed,” the other end of the phone went dead.
Adia’s face recoiled like it had been slapped and she fell to her knees in tears. Emotion never got the best of her like that. In fact she couldn’t even remember crying before. Rick rushed to her and got her in a hug.
“Get someone in that building to give the crazy son of a bitch his material shit!” Rick yelled over to another officer, waving his hands in the air. The young man looked a little uncomfortable, but then nodded.
Adia stiffened up. “No, he said he wanted me to do it.”
Rick looked at her concerned. “Adia, what’s going to happen if you have to shoot him down? You won’t be able to do it.”
“I honestly don’t know what will happen Rick, but I do know that he specifically asked for me. You don’t give someone a McWrap when they ask for a BigMac. Especially if he’s got a gun.”
Adia sat up and began taking all of her guns off. When she was done, she unconsciously patted the side of her thigh and felt the cold metal of her last hidden gun touch her warm thigh giving her goosebumps. (NOTE: Snow boarding style pants have a lot of pockets in them. They also have two holes at the side that you can unzip and touch your bare skin. That’s made so you can get to your wallet if it’s in another pair of pants on underneath.) Rick sighed and conceded to let her enter the building.
The phone rang again and she answered him, “I don’t have any guns on me, and I’m entering the building. All right?” Her teeth clenched. lying to your best friend
“Yeah, go ahead.”
She walked in with the bags of cigars and money. He gave her directions that led halfway up the building. When she came to an empty room he spoke over the phone, “Set the bags down now. Adia, I’m letting the girl go after she brings you to this room... a gift from me to you.”
The girl down to the room she was in. Adia guessed all of this was because Rodney didn’t want everybody on the police force to know what room he was in, too bad, she had a trcking device on her. She asked the crying girl in a concerned tone, “Are you okay?” She didn’t answer.
“Are you okay?” The girl pointed to her ear. Adia bit her lip for a second then smiled a brilliant smile. She signed out, ‘do you know sign language?’
‘yes,’ the girl signed back.
‘what is the room number?’ she questioned her.
‘fifth floor, number sixteen,’
‘Are there two entrances?’ Adia gestured.
‘only a window’
‘that’s good enough,’ Adia turned to the girl ‘can you make lots of noise when you come back to the room?’ the girl nodded. ‘I’m going up to that window. You go back up very slowly and pretend I’m with you.’ With that she patted the side of her thigh again (nervous habit) and shivered a little as the cold metal of the hidden gun touched her warm thigh. She climbed up the outside of the building using the window frames.
The girl walked up to the room and when they got there Rod was waiting. He turned his head to see the girl come through the door.
“Rodney, put the gun down,” she told him. He sighed and his gun dropped to the floor. He turned around to face the gun barrel of her 9mm automatic.
“Adia, you are pitiful,” he began with a smirk on his face, “You can’t shoot me. You know you don’t have the guts. . .” Adia’s bottom lip began to twitch.
“Rodney, please. . .” her voice was barely audible.
“What, Adia, what do you want me to do?” he paused. “You don’t have the guts to shoot me. You know it.”
Adia’s eyes welled up with tears. She fell to her knees and dropped her gun, right when a gunshot came out of no where and hit Rodney square in the back of the head.
*::Flashback::*
“Rodney!!!” A little boy fell off his bike and skidded on some of the gravel on the side of the road.
*::End Flashback::*
“Rodney!” she screamed as he fell to the ground. She ran over to him, in tears and collapsed on his silent chest. She looked up and Rick was standing in front of her.
“Adia, don’t, you’ll just make it harder,” Rick told her patting her on the back.
Adia glared at Rick. She screamed inwardly. Her brow creased. “You unbelivable bastard,” she said to herself as she looked at Rick. She went back to the way of expessing her feelings that was so rare - she cried.
Some Where Else
"SEX!" Justin’s head came soaring up from his blue pillow and hit a hard piece of wood covered by some ugly rainbow carpeting. "Good, now that I have your attention get your pretty boy ass out of bed! We’re sneaking out to go clubbing!" Chris yelled this at him hanging upside down from the bunk above Justin. He gave an annoyed look. "Oh, come on, it's one-thirty and we have to have some fun. We get to go home for a little while! I'm wide awake. I'm perky. Do you know why?"
Justin's vision faded in and out a few times until it came back to normal as he rubbed his head in pain. He stared at the upside down figure and asked, "Prozac? Nah, Coffee. How many cups did he have?" Justin whispered to Joey who was sitting on a chair at the table reading a brochure. Clean dishes lay on the table because there wasn’t enough room in the cupboards to put them away.
"Three, three cups. No that's not why I'm perky, I'm perky before I have my coffee, by the way, have you seen the playstation controller I misplaced it-," Chris told him, but was interrupted.
"Chris, you had at least six!" Joey yelled spitting his orange juice out onto Justin. A chorus of shushing tones came from the back of the bus. Joey glaced back over at the table and looked at the once clean dishes which now had Joey’s spit in them, not to mention the darker wet marks on the paper of the 'Statue of Liberty' brochure. JC collected them. Joey was in for it
"Did not! Six cups of coffee could kill someone! What the hell is this? Wasn’t bust Chris’ chops day last week?" Chris retorted looking slightly defensive.
"Yeah, but today is screw Chris over day, don’t you remember?”
“Oh, yeah!” Chris said. Joey rolled his eyes and hit him over the head with a rolled up newspaper.
“You see only people that stupid would have six cups of coffee in the morning!” Joey insulted him.
"Did not!"
"You did too!" Joey whispered as Britney (Yes Britney Spears. She admittedly is Justin and JC's good friend, and I think if they can like her then I should at least have some respect for her. I'm not against her, but everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Please don't e-mail me with hate mail for including her in parts of this story. She won’t be by any means a main character, but she won't be mean.) came into the kitchen/bunk room, took a glass from the table and poured herself some coke for the caffiene, since she didn’t drink coffee.
"I did not!" Chris whispered.
"Did too."
"did not"
"Did t-"
"SHUT UP!" Justin and Brittany whispered at the same time trying not to wake the bodyguards. It was totally silent.
"Okay, sorry for yelling, but now that's it's quiet in here, will someone tell me what you were fighting about? We have to hurry up and leave," Brittany spoke calmly. Justin glared at her. “Brittany, that coke has Joey spit in it. He spit out his orange juice all over the clean dishes a few minutes ago.” Brittany choked and spat her coke all over Justin, making him even more grumpy than he already was. Oh that’s just great Timberlake, you haven’t even been awake five minutes yet . . .
~~Back With Adia~~
"Adia, you all right? I have to talk to you." Rick asked her as her shoulder got bandaged up.
"Yeah, I'll be okay," the paramedic was finally done. He handed her a cup of hot coffee and a blanket to wrap around her shoulders.
"How'd you get cut?" Rick asked as they began to walk around a little bit.
"Oh, when I shot the window to get through it. It was locked. Some of the broRod glass cut me." She slurped up some of the liquid in the 7-11 styrofoam cup.
"Well, I'm sorry about Rodney," she scowled inwardly at his comment. I’m sure you are, you’ve only been chasing him for the last four years of your career.
"It's okay. It was him or the kid," she lied, it seemed to be becoming a habit, she’d been doing it so much lately.
Yeah, you're old best friend or a thirteen year old prepubescent kid. she though, but the scolded herself She was a nice kid and Rod wasn't the same person he used to be.
"You are so professional, you were made for this job," Rick remarked.
"There's a lot about me you don't know Rick," she sighed. "You were a cop at eighteen weren't you?" she asked him changing the subject.
"Well, yeah, but I wasn't a agent by that age. You must be setting the world record."
"Well, I had good connections. As well as a few marionettes that had very easy to reach strings. I was put into school early, and then I skipped a grade. I graduated at fifteen." She let out another long sigh and stared up at the stars. "But when you were my age, did you ever wonder how much more fun and care free another eighteen year old's life could have been?" She had already begun to forget about Rodney and forgive Rick. He was hard not to forgive.
"When I was your age. . . “ he shook his head “. . . I’m not that old! I’m only twenty five! You’re making me sound like Mickey Roonie!”
“Who’s Rickey Moonie?” she asked raising an eyebrow “Some really old actor that only twenty-five year olds know about?”
“It’s not Rickey Moonie, it’s Moonie Rickie-er Mickie Rooney! Now you got me doing it!”
“Good. I would have wondered how they got their family name if it was Moonie. Sounds like what my brother’s family name would have been if he was born in 16th centry Ireland. No, I’m just playin’ I know who Mickey Roonie is. Anyway, back to the question at hand . . .Did you ever wonder what a normal eighteen year old would be doing?” she asked suddenly serious.
“I guess I did, I don't know. I always wanted to go to college, but I never had the chance."
"I don't know if I want to go to college, but . . ." she glanced over at him for a second and laughed at him.
“What?” he asked. “Do I have something on my face?” she shook her head no, still laughing. “My teeth?” she shook her head again. She kept on laughing. “What?”
“I’m sorry, I just never pictured pouring my heart out to you Rick. I mean the day I came to the department, you were drinking your orange juice through your nose. . .” she trailed off still laughing. When she recovered from laughing her sides hurt. “What the hell is this? It tastes like dishwater, I have to go and get me some Starbucks,” She remarked pouring out the awful coffee. “So you want to come?” she asked smiling and pointing at the Starbucks across the street.
“Yeah. Hey, what were you going to ask me before you began laughing in mid sentence?”
She stared at the neon sign thoughtfully for a second, “I can’t remem- Oh, I was just thinking how much easier life must be for people without careers like ours. Like the average teenager,” she spoke looking at him as she hit the crosswalk button.
"Well, Everybody's lives have problems, for us, it's 'Is the murderer around that corner waiting to kill me? But for the average teenagers, it's 'where the hell is my Playstation Controller?'" Rick pointed out to her trying to choose his words carefully, but not succeeding.
~*~
"Chris, where the hell is my playstation controller?" Justin asked from the back of the bus as he scatched the back of his neck.
"I tried to tell you that I lost it! What does it matter, just hurry up and get changed before the bodyguards wake up," Chris came up to him.
"I am changed-WHAT? You lost it?"
"Yes," Chris told him in a hushed tone.
"What? You should have been more careful!" yelled an irritable Justin, who was immediatley hushed by JC, Joey and Brittany from the kitchen.
“Come on, let’s go!” Joey grabbed Justin and Chris.
“Ow, damn man, loosen that baby grip!” Chris said as they ran to the front of the bus, only to be greeted by an annoyed looking Johnny that jumped on with a cup of hot chocolate.
“Johnny,” Brittany said looking very surprised as she glanced nervously back at the five guys behind her, “What are you doing up so late?”
“I could say the same for you guys,” he countered.
Brittany crammed for an idea, “Well, we had that chili for dinner and the lavatory still needs to be emptied, so we have to go to the hotel,” she explained with hand guestures and strange facial expressions.
Justin remembered the night before. The hotel had been booked up and the driver needed to sleep, so they parked the bus in the parking lot. He thought about Brit’s excuse, not bad... if it were Joey.
Johnny just smiled, “You guys are young, I’m sure you can hold it till the morning. Back to bed! Oh, you guys, you should take lessons from Brittany, she’s a lot better at this than you.”
Justin smiled as he remembered Joey’s ‘there’s a sale at macey’s and it ends at two o’clock’ excuse.
Joey turned around, “But Johnny, I really have to go!” He looked serious.
Johnny glared at him. “You have five minutes, I’ll be waiting,” he held up his fingers to signal five.
“Thank you,” Joey said.
“Joey, car keys,” Johnny stated as he held out his right hand. Joey rolled his eyes and tossed the keys to the van at Johnny.
~*~
"Anyway, Rick spill the beans, you said you had to talk to me and all we've done is small talk," Adia prompted him crossing the street. He all of a sudden looked hesitant.
"Adia, I talked to the chief and . . . . .you're being layed off."
"I'm what?" she repeated looking surprised and agitated at the same time.
"Yes, you're fired."
"Why?"
"Why? You disobeyed a direct order! You fucked with Rodney and you let Rodney fuck with you. You could have killed the little girl, not to mention yourself."
"You're going to have to give me a damn better reason than that! I saved her life, I led the tracking device up to the room that claimed my best friend’s life. How much do you think I love my job? Way too much. I also saved a shit load of cuban cigars that ten minutes ago, we were gonna smoke for victory, but now I'm fired!” she paused as she thought with a deep look on her face. “You know what? I’m actually kind of glad because the way the world works, two people are worth more than one. To tell you the truth, I would rather have myself and the kid die than have a dead Rodney!” her tear ducts were being stretched again. “This world is so screwed over! I gave up pretty much my whole belief system to try and get along with you, and the people in this job." She yelled in his face.
"I'm sorry Adia, I can't give you a better reason for why you were fired. I don't know why the hell the chief fired you, but you'll just have to accept it!"
"No, Rick, I'm going to have to do more than accept it, I'm going to have to live with it. I have to live with the fact that I'm dissapointing the only person other person, besides the one that’s lying in that body-bag over, that ever gave a rat’s ass about me. This was the job my dad wanted me to have. The same one as him. You know what, that doesn't matter anymore, my life's screwed no matter how I look at it. Goodbye Rick!" With that Adia ran towards the side of the street and called for a taxi. One stopped right away for her and she rode home to her apartment.
Rick sat in his car and was giving himself hell for firing her just as she had opened up to him. It wasn't his choice, it was just the way it worked. He just had to do the dirty work.
seven hours later
“And today, ladies and gentlemen, we have a hot new release from Geri Halliw-” A hands with three silver rings and chipped lime green nail polish flew up from a white quilt and hit the alarm clock so hard the bright red numbers on it dissapeared for about three seconds and then came back. A head of black hair sat up in bed and groaned. You couldn’t see the face, it was covered in hair. She took her thumb and index finger and flipped back her mop of hair remembering the events from the night before.
“Oh Damn! Dang, darn it!” she said to herself trying to control her profanity as she threw off her quilt and ran to the door when she heard her doorbell ring. She never thought to cover up her short Miami dolphin’s football jersey and short North Carolina basketball shorts. She swung open her creaky apartment door and made a mental note to herself to put some WD-40 on it when she had the chance. A friendly face greeted her at the door and her eyes lit up.
“Adia, how are you? How are you holding up? I heard about Rodney,” he told her giving her a hug.
“Thank you so much for coming Mike,” she told him not wanting to let go of the only safe embrace she had felt since her father had died.
“Adia, it’s okay shh, don’t talk,” he told her knowing exactly what she needed. He walked over to the couch, with her following him. She just hugged him for a long time. Mike had been like her dad when he biological father died. When she finally felt better he sighed, “Now, you can tell me everything.”
~*~
“Ladies and gentlmen, the virgin megastore is proud to present JC, Justin, Lance, Joey and...” the announcer glanced over to the man next to him. A silent conversation went on. “Chris,” he finished with a sheepish grin. Chris rolled his eyes coming from behind the backdrop to sit down at the table for the press conference. Lance laughed at him and nudged him in the back. Chris turned around and gave him a glare. He ignored it and sat down at the table.
“What do you feel is the biggest price you pay for being famous?” a reporter asked.
“Well, especially with me,” Justin began, “I missed high school, and a chance to have a lot of jormal friends.” Chris nudged him. “No Chris, you’re not normal.”
“We also don’t get to see family and friends that often because of the fact that we’re on tour nine out of twelve months a year.”
“Do you guys have girlfriends?” another reporter asked.
Justin groaned inwardly we shouldn’t even have to dignify that with an answer. Even if we did, we’d still have to say no.
“No none of us have girlfriends,” Joey sighed into the microphone. JC looked at him and could tell he was thinking of a sixteen year old girl he had met back in Cincinatti. His thoughts were no doubt illegal.
“Would you guys date a fan?”
“Yeah, personally I think I would,” JC answered into the microphone. Chris, Joey and Lance nodded in agreement.
“What about you Justin?”
“I would date a fan, but not any fan. She has to be smart and help you have some sense of normality. Maybe, you know someone that would occasionally pick on you a little bit, just to keep you grounded. I personally think I would be more drawn to a fan than another person in the entertainment industry. It would really depend if she walked up to me and screamed and fainted in my face, or if she calmly asked me if she wanted to go get a cup of coffee around the corner. Sincerity makes all the difference in the world to me,” he nodded and took a sip of his water.
~*~
“ . . .and then he fired me,” Adia ended facing Mike.
“Adia I’m so sorry, I can’t believe that happened to you! They shouldn’t have even put you on that case.”
“Well, what can I say, I’m unemployed now, I one of the people making the unemployment percentage of the country bigger!” she said drying her eyes.
“Adia, I have a confession to make. . .” Mike began looking a little bit evasive. He took a sip of orange juice.
“What?” she asked looking a little confused.
“Well, I knew that you were fired . . .” She had a blank look in her eyes.
~*~
The Guys collapsed on the floor in a fit off laughing. “I can’t believe she quit!” Joey yelled. They were laughing because they had just made another annoying your photographer quit. She really wasn’t a very nice person.
“Oh well, she was getting just as annoying as Pierre!” JC told them.
Just as the laughter was dieing down, Joey and Chris thought about their old gay photographer and said, “Work it baby work it!” They collapsed in laughter again. Justin, JC and Lance gave them a look, like they were insane.
“Inside joke,” Chris explained.
Johnny walked up to them and glared. “It wouldn’t be so funny if you had to hire a new photographer. Not to mention the hairstylist you chased away. Oooo, and then there was the bodyguard. Oh and the wardrobe lady. Oh my goodness, and then there was the assistant manager,” Johnny stated with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “I would almost make you guys to the hiring if I trusted you,” Johnny walked off.
~*~
“I knew you were fired. It’s actually part of the reason I came,” Mike told her. Adia sighed and felt a little hurt.
“What does it matter if I was fired?” she asked him.
“Do like to travel?” he asked her. She nodded.
“Do you think you can do another job where there’s a gun envolved.”
“What does all of this matter. YES! Now get to the point.”
Mike smiled. “You’re as good as they come Adia. Did you ever consider becoming a bodyguard?”
“Mike, I am so nervous! What if I don’t get this job? I’ll be blowing all of my money on this ticket to Orlando okay?” she told him. That morning, one of the first things she did was put a braid in her hair. She got to ware whatever she wanted today, and that made her really happy since she didn’t do it very often. She chose a pair of Tommy carpenter overalls and a plain white tee Mike watched her pace back and fourth in the room. She looks a lot like her mother . . . he thought. The same dark and soft skin, full lips, high cheekbones, the same 5’5 stance. She had no idea where she inherited her big green eyes though. Anyway, to put it lightly, Adia was stressed out. She still had her noxema spread onto her face and she would draw in a sharp breath once in a while because it was stinging a little bit. She lifted up her bed’s matress and took out five hundred dollars and a package of cigarettes. She looked at them, sighed and threw them in the garbage. “Awful habit,” she said as she bit her right pinkie nail. She smiled at herself and slapped her own hand as if she were punishing herself for biting her nail.
Mike glared at her. “Jaquline Lee Rialto . . .why was there a package of cigarettes under your matress?”
She gave him a guilty look, “My mom came up a couple weeks ago and I was stealing her cigarettes so she wouldn’t smoke them. I threw most of them in the garbage, but . .
*::Flash Back::*
“Honey, I’m going to take a shower. Where is it?” she asked snooping around Adia’s apartment.
“Oh, you have to go through my bedroom to get to it,” Adia explained pointing at the door going into the maroon walled bathroom.
“Oh, ok,” her mother dropped all of her luggage and went to take her shower. Adia heard her mother cough in the bathroom as soon as she swung the closed. Oh no! Mom! Adia said to herself as she ran into the bathroom to her mother’s side.
“I’m okay Adia,” she told her clearing her throat and shooing her out of the bathroom.
Her smoking is going to get her killed. I remember when I was a kid. I used to take her cigarettes and throw them accross the lawn. I remember when I set the lawn on fire. Haha. Wait that wasn’t funny! Adia eyed her mother’s purse mischeiviously. I the snap of a finger, she was digging around in it looking for her mother’s cigarettes. She knew that this wouldn’t help much, and that it was very juvinile, but she was still doing it. She heard the door handle turn just as she had the cigarettes. She felt like a child that was caught stealing from the cookie jar.
“Damn door!” she heard her mother yell from the other side of the door. The door was jammed Adia sighed thinking of how she would never try to steal her mother’s cigarettes. She quickly shoved the underneath her matress and walked over to the door and fixed it so her mother could get out. Her mother started coughing again. Every cough felt like a nail was being hammered into Adia’s heart. Maybe they weren’t all that close, but it was still her mother. “I forgot (cough) to get a (cough) tow- (cough) -el,” her mother cleared her throat once again and Adia ran into her bathroom wondering why there were no towels left. She sighed when she saw no towels and went into her room and took out a newly folded towel that was still warm from the dryer. She threw it to her mother who was coughing again.
::*End Flash Back*::
“I didn’t know your mom smoked!” Mike told Adia, he felt taken back.
“It’s okay. You only came over a couple times for dinner. You knew dad better than I did though,” she stated as she rinsed the noxema off of her face and patted it down with a towel like in the commercial. “Noxema girls get noticed!” she laughed. Mike looked at her strangely.
”Adia, we better leave, we’ll miss the flight,” Mike told her pointing to the door. She grabbed her backpack and her navy jacket with the FBI logo on it. Mike eyed it for a second, but then shugged it off, it was probably just a keepsake. He sighed, grabbed her suitcase, took one last look at the apartment and then closed the door behind him.
~*~
The members of ‘N Sync were sitting around the Johnny’s desk playing poker. Well, Lance was just dealing because he didn’t gamble.
“How many you want?” Lance asked Justin.
Justin kept a straight face and said, “None.”
Joey eyed him, then turned to Lance. “Two,” Joey told him taking two of the five cards out of his hand.
When JC recieved his cards, his face drooped and his cards slammed uside on the table, “out.” Chris did the same and shugged.
“Justin? Joey?” Lance asked them.
Justin smiled, “What do you have?” Justin spread a diamond flush out in front of Joey.
Joey mentally cursed himself and set down a pair of kings and a pair of aces. He sighed and Justin raked the money towards him.
“You guys, did Johnny hire a new photographer yet, because I’m starting to feel bad about her,” Justin told them.
“Justin, we all did wrong,” Lance stated shuffling the cards. He went to bridge them and they flew all over the room.
“Fifty two pick-up!” Chris sighed and began to pick up the cards.
Justin bent over and helped Chris. “I know we all screwed the photographer over, but I chased away my body-guard.”
“Yeah well, Joey chased his body guard away,” Chris began.
“Yeah, his ex-kept hitting on him. Eww, that girl was nasty. No wonder Fred quit,” Lance stated matter-of-factly.
“Oh come on you guys! Greta was hot! Admit it,” JC added and bent over with Chris and Justin to pick up the cards.
“Yeah maybe, to you, but you never saw her first thing in the morning without make-up. She never washed her face! It looked like she had mini volcanos exploding all over it. Then she had that accent. She sounded like . . .like Fran Dresher,” Joey told them making them all twitch like someone had just ran a metal rake over a chalkboard. “Oh well, the point is, you don’t have to feel too bad about chasing him away, you always end up with the hardest bodyguard to shake. I mean, Mike is bad, but Lonnie, he was impossible.”
~*~
“Adia you gonna be okay?” Mike asked opening up the little window so he could see how far they were from the ground.
Adia instantly slid the window closed and she tensed up.
“Scared to fly?” he asked her smiling.
“Just a teencie weencie bit,” she said, her back totally stiff, they hit an airpocket and her feet flew up from the floor to the seat in front of her and her seatbelt was tightened once again.
The flight attendant came by. “Can I get you anything?”
Adia thought for a second. “Some ether would be nice. . .” she sighed. She was getting hysterical.
The flight attendant looked at her quizzically. Mike patted the flight attendant on the thigh sympathetically. “First time on an airplane. She really doesn’t want to remember it,” Mike tried to explain it to the flight attendant. She nodded evasively.
She gave a glance over to Adia again. “Do you want something to drink miss?”
Adia nodded. “Some vodka would do nicely.”
The stewartess glanced at Mike as if to clear it. Mike looked at her. She had both hands on the arm rests and they were gripped so tight her knuckles were turning white. Her seatbelt was so tight that he wondered how she could breath. His face turned back to woman and he nodded sadly.
~*~
60 minutes later
“Can I have something to drink?” Adia asked the stewartess that came by for the fourth time. Mike eyed her thinking about how this wasn’t a very good idea. She looked a little bit tipsy.
“No. She can’t,” Mike said almost scared. The stewartess nodded knowingly and walked past them. “Adia, I want you to get a cup of coffee when we get to the airport okay?” he asked a little slowly. She nodded.
She suddenly got a drunen evil smile on her face. She hit the little button above her that turned the air conditioning on. She put out both her arms and let out her hair. “Vroom, vroom, I’m flying. I’m coming in alpha five. Boom, Boom, Boom. Vroom, I coming around for another pass! t-t-t-t-t-t-t Boom! Mission complete-” she was cut off by Mike.
“Adia, try to control yourself!” he hit the air conditioning button again and it turned off. Adia gave him a look like she was about to cry. “Stewartess! Can you get me a cup of coffee? Black?” She nodded. Mike got the cup of coffee and took a sip of it. After deciding that it was strong enough, he handed it to Adia.
The rest of the flight was almost silent. When they landed at the airport all Adia could do was complain about how badly her ears hurt and how she had a headache. “I don’t think I have ever had a headache this bad before.”
“That’s because you’ve never had hard liquor before,” he told her pushing her into the cab.
“ . . .and never will again,” she added.
“Everybody says that. Transcontinental Studios please,” he stated to the driver, who nodded in return.
“What if I don’t get the job?” Adia asked a little bit nervous, still holding her head.
“Adia, try not to worry about it. You are great at what you do,” he told her as he patted her on the back.
She leaned back in her seat giving him a questioning look. “What’s the test going to be like?”
“They’ll just look at your records of entry for the Feds.”
“What if -?”
“sshh don’t worry, it doesn’t pay to say what if,” he smiled.
“Ooo, Men in Black flashback,” she said rubbing her temples. They sat in the cab silently on the rest of the way to the studio.
~*~
“Justin, my boy, you’re getting a new bodyguard today!” Johnny told him as he entered the studio. “Lou called me and told me that Mike called him.... he’s got somone that can handle you. You had better not chase him off-”
Justin didn’t hear him and continued playing air hockey with Chris on his desk using erasers and a white out container. Johnny stared after him and rubbed the side of his head. “Oy,” he rolled his eyes.
Justin turned around happy that he had won the game and looked at Johnny, “Tell me again why we each have to have our own bodyguard?”
JC sighed. Johnny began, “Justin, you all have to have your own bodyguard because of when you want to split up. On holidays you all have to split up and go see your familys. I want a bodyguard with you 24/7 and your mother said that she prefe-.” Johnny stopped when he saw Chris mouthing the words that he was saying. “You guys, get out of my office and go to the dance studio or something. Ivan said he wanted you to practice Tearin’ Up My Heart because it’s getting sloppy.”
“Can we just-”
“Get out, get out!” He yelled through clenched teeth.
“Okay, fine, we’re leaving!” Chris conceeded slamming the door behind him.
~*~
“Okay, I’m nervous.”
“Adia shut up! All you have to do is turn that handle,” he pointed at the door in front of him that read Louis Pearlman.
“All right, I can do this,” she said more for her benifit than anybody else’s. Her hand made contact with the knob and she instantly pulled away “No, I can’t,” she sighed and started cracking her knuckles.
“Adia, go in there. Either you try or you don’t. If you don’t try you won’t get it anyway and you’ll have spent five hundred american dollars getting here,” he told her urging her to enter the room. She took a deep breath and turned the handle. Mike went in first.
“Ahh, Mike, where is he? I want to see him. I want Justin to meet him-” Adia entered the room. “Well, hello, Miss, can I help you?” he asked, his brow creasing.
“We-” Adia began, but was soon interrupted by Mike.
“Adia, can you wait outside for a second?” Mike asked her looking a little worried.
“Sure, Mike,” she left the room.
“Well, what was that about Mike?” Lou asked him.
“I’ll tell you if you promise that steam won’t come out of your ears and you don’t pop a blood vestle.”
Lou Just looked at him and nodded.
“Did you watch CNN last night?” Mike asked him.
“Yeah, I did.”
“You know the ransom case in New York?” Lou nodded again. “This is a long story. Adia knew Rodney Finch, they grew up together. They were basically best friends. She’s an FBI agent and she had to give him the money. When she couldn’t shoot him, she was layed off...”
Lou’s eyes got wide, “NO WAY MIKE! Do you honestly think that a girl can do this job? This is a tough job. Whether she was in the FBI or not.”
“Lou, look, I know this girl and I know what she’s capable of. If she tried hard enough she could grow wings and fly! She’s as good as they come. Look at her records!” Mike threw them down on Lou’s desk.
Lou glanced through it. “As impressive as it is, she can’t handle this job.”
Mike sighed, “Lou, she passed the physical test fourty-five seconds faster than me, setting the fifth largest time ever recorded, and you’re telling me that she can’t handle it.”
“Look, she got fired because she let personal feelings interfear with the task at hand. We can’t have that happening here. Dear lord! Bodyguards are supposed to be transparent, how do you make a woman that looks like that transparent? How do you make a woman look transparent at all?” Mike pointed to his black suit. “No, suits on women are chic now, I may be old, but I’m not fashion impared. I am getting way too far into this! These are just small details. What if she gets trampled? How is she supposed to handle someone like Justin, JC maybe he sleeps on his day off, but Justin? No!” Lou pounded on the desk.
“Lou, I know she can do this. I’ll bet my job on it. You’re my boss, but I’m still going to have to dissagree with you on this! Give her three weeks on tour with us to prove herself. Ask Johnny how she’s doing. I guarentee you, she will be doing a better job then Lonnie ever could have done! Trust me on this!”
Lou was silent, he looked at her records, “Bring her in here and let me talk to her alone.” Mike nodded a little bit pleased that he got him to loosen his grip a little. He left the room.
Adia was sitting in the lobby drinking water from the big water despencer beside the glass doors you enter the building from. She was hunched over and glacing at the many magazines that lay in front of her. “Adia, come on you have to talk to pearlman by yourself.”
She looked up at him and nodded. “What did he say to you?”
“He doesn’t think a woman can do the job,” she looked at him as fire started in her eyes and her temper sky-rocketed. Mike knew that it would make her mad, and make her seem more enthusiastic to prove that she can do it. He laughed at the petite girl as she stormed into Lou’s office and slammed the door. The secretary gave him a questioning look. He just looked at her and laughed harder.
Adia stood in front of Pearlman’s desk and kicked the door shut making a loud noise. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the gyprock walls started to crumble. When Adia was pissed off, she swore she had no control over her actions.
“Look Mr. Pearlman, I don’t know what Mike told you, except for the fact you think a woman can’t do this job! At the risk of sounding cheesey and like a Spice Girl, I’ll tell you one thing honey, I can do this job better than any man ever could. If you saw GI Jane, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” Lou looked at her. He liked her already, he admitted that. He knew that was what he needed dealing with Justin. A smile spread over his face. She was a smart ass, but was she smart?
“Adia, will you please sit down? I think we can discuss this calmly and rationally,” he told her pointing to the chair accross the desk from him. She calmed down a little bit and sat. “Adia, do you know who Lilith is?” he questioned her raising an eyebrow. She thought for a few seconds.
“In the bible she’s a demon. But, the story in Jewish literature was that, when god decided that he wanted a wife for Adam, he created her personality fairly the same way as the hard headed man. Adam didn’t treat her equally, so she left him. Adam wanted her back. Granting Adam’s wish, God sent three angels down from heaven to retrive her saying that one of her demon-children would die every day that she said no. She swore that she would never return to Adam. Belief in the Jewish myth hasn’t died down. In the nineteenth century women used to hang amulets over their beds when they had baby’s for her blessing that their children wouldn’t die. It’s now a symbol of feminism, resulting in things like Lilith Fair. So the question is, sir do you know who Lilith is?” she countered to him a little curious as to what he was getting at. He was silent and it even made Adia a little bit impatient, “Mr. Pearlman, what are you getting at?”
“Miss. Rialto, there’s no mistaking that you’re good at what you do. I just don’t know if everybody on this tour will treat you equally. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sexist. But one thing I am sure of, is that some people on this tour are. You may go through some harrassment. . . .” he looked at her. She was slouched back in the comfy chair with her size eight and a half doc martins resting on his desk. “Has anyone ever told you how quickly you grow on people?” he smiled and laughed.
She looked at him with a hopeful smile. “Sir, I can do this job. Harrassment is natural for any woman doing a job like this out there. Whether people choose to believe it or not, this country is still sexist, it’s racist too. People that live their little suburban lives just don’t see it. When I decided what I wanted to do, there was always a door slammin’ in my face. I’m a black female and the only reason they even gave me a chance to prove myself to the FBI was because my father was an agent, my father was white. I proved myself to them. I’m just asking you to let me prove myself to you,” she looked at him, all seriousness in her eyes.
He looked at her and turned around in his roller chair to face the window. He sighed and stared at the tree in front of him. “What does a woman wear to look transparent?”
Adia smiled.
“We leave Friday morning,” Lou Pearlman told her.
“Thank you so much Mr. Pearlman, you won’t regret this!”.
Mr. Pearlman stared at her, “I hope I won’t,” Adia sat up, ran out of the room and into Mike’s arms.
A few minutes later, the secretary came in and gave him an apologetic look. “Chris Kirkpatrick wants to see you sir.”
“Ugh.” he answered. The last thing he needed was a conversation with Chris. “Send him in.”
“Are you sure?” she asked him.
“Yes.”
Chris came bounding into the room, “Mr. Pearlman, can we use your desk for an air hockey table? Johnny’s getting pissed.”
Lou inwardly groaned. “Get out.”
Friday Morning
“Johnny, I would like you to meet Adia,” Mike stated as walked into the hallway oftranscontinental studios.
“Hi Adia. Are you are new wardrobe lady?” she hadn’t anticipated this. She shook herhead. “Oh, you must be the make-up lady!” again she shook her head. “Hairstylist?”
“No, I’m not, I’m the new bodyguard,” she was in for it and she knew it. It was a little bit ofa toss up, but after her explosion at Pearlman, she thought she had better just let Mike explain it.
“Ha! That’s a good one! Mike how much did you pay her to say that?” Johnnylaughed, that is until, Mike shook his head with a completely serious look in his eyes. “She’s thenew bodyguard?” Johnny asked him as he guestured to the petite girl that was walking into theroom that had the words dance studio printed on the metal doorframe. When she shut thedoor behind her, he continued. “Are you insane? She’s a toothpick! She’s tiny! How in God’sname is she supposed to intimidate the guys?”
“Trust me, she will,” he told him, “She intimidates the hell out of me.”
“Mike, she’s a girl.”
“Johnny, she could tackle your ass and so could I. I’d drop the subject if I were you.”
~*~
“No, no, no! You guys are getting it all wrong. It’s out, up, croutch, turn; not turn,out, up, croutch! What is wrong with you? We’ve done this a million times!” Ivan was yelling atthem over the music of tearin’ up my heart.
“Sorry, we just haven’t been on stage for a while,” Lance began apologetically.
“Yeah, well, I’m taking my lunch brake, you better keep practicing,” he told them ashe began to head out the door when he passed Adia, “Hello, I don’t think we’ve met.”
“No we haven’t, I’m Adia Rialto.”
“Ahh, hairstylist.”
“Well, no,” she remarked getting slightly annoyed.
“Make-up-”
“I’ll just save you the trouble of guessing,” he had an expectant look in his eyes. Sheglanced over at the guys, “I’m the new bodyguard.”
“You’re the new bodyguard? Ha, really? No kiddin?” he laughed. She shook herhead just as Mike had making the smile on his face drop. “Oh, I’m sorry, I just didn’t think thatPearlman would hire a...” he looked her up and down.
“You know what, it’s okay, everybody’s doing it to me,” she threw on anundersyanding smile and headed towards the guys that she assumed were ‘N Sync.
“Joey, it’s a simple backflip! Just do it!” JC yelled at him as he set up to do anotherone.
Adia watched them amused for a few minutes, she didn’t notice that one of themwas standing in front of her until she counted them. One, two, three, four . . . “Oh hi,” shesmiled brightly with a bit of an embarrassed look on her face.
“Hi, I’m Lance, you’re the new hairsty-”
“No. I’m not, I’m this guys named Justin’s bodyguard! Can somebody broadcast thataround the studio so I don’t have to explain it to everyone one at a time!” She screamed.
“Well, you may have just done that,” Lance smiled putting his hand out still calm.
She laughed and accepted it in a firm shake. “Thank you, I’m sorry for yelling. Youknow what? You may be the first person that has even begun to understand me!”
He looked a little thoughtful, “Pearlman must understand you if he hired you.”
“Pearlman shows pity towards me, he doesn’t understand me,” she shot back a littlesadly.
“Pearlman has pity for everyone. No one has more money than him,” Lance told her.
She laughed a little, “Well, Lance since I know you, can you maybe tell me who iswho?” she asked him then looked over at them.
“Yeah, sure. The one that is six feet tall with the blonde curls, would be Justin. Chrishas the red dreadlocks. Joey’s got the whiskers, you might want to watch out for him by the way. He’s the flirt of the group. Then there’s JC. He’s like the dad of the group, even though Chris isolder than him,” he told her and she nodded taking this all in.
“Thanks. Anyway, you probably have to get back to doing whatever it is that you’redoing,” she remarked as she watched them practice their choreography. “I think I’m going to gocheck out the tour bus,” she smiled.
“Okay. It was nice meeting you Adia,” he said before he turned and walked to thepolished dance floor. The guys had barely even noticed he was gone.
He came up to Justin who was staring after Adia, “Who was that?” he asked a littleout of breath from practicing.
“Adia,” Lance remarked simply.
“She the new hairstylist?” Chris asked comeing up behind them.
~*~
Adia walked down the rows of bunks in the enormous tour bus. She had to admit,they looked more comfortable than her own bed. She set her bags down in the bunk that had noname on it and she assumed was hers because it was right above JC’s.
The bus sank a little as she felt someone get on. “Adia?” she heard Pearlman’s voicecall.
“Yes.”
“Did you meet the guys yet?” he asked coming up behind her.
“Just Lance, the others were busy,” she began unpacking her sleeping bag. She washaving trouble getting the knot on the little bag undone.
“Adia, I have Justin’s files here and you need to read over them. You go home withhim on holidays. You follow him on all outings. You get the point?” She nodded.
“One question. What if I have to go to the bathroom, or if he has to? In a publicplace?” she asked him more to annoy him than to learn.
“Well, hmm. I don’t know.”
“Forget it Lou,” she dismissed him. She had finally finished unrolling her sleepingbag when she took out her Winnie-the-Pooh teddy that she got from Disney World when she wastwelve.
That minute the guys came barrelling onto the bus along with the bodyguards andJohnny yelling after them.
“Johnny, geez lighten up on the guys will ya?” Mike asked him when he walked by. Johnny sighed.
“Mike, I’m gonna go get on the other tour bus alright? I have a headache,” Johnnysaid as he left the bus.
“Well,” Mike began, “are you going to meet them or not? You’ll be living with themfor the next who knows how many years.”
Adia began to think of how big of a commitment this would be. It was a job yes, butit was a full time one. The bus driver had finished loading all of the suitcases and when he got onthe bus he yelled out “Attendance! Chris!”
Chris ducked under the kitchen table and kept silent. Joey spoke up, “Chris is out to lunch,” he laughed. But was soon silenced when Chris kicked him in the leg from under the table.
Adia looked at him strangely as he bounced around the room holding his right calf. The bus driver didn’t even have to turn around, “Chris, get out from under the table now. Gostand in the corner and take a time out,” Chris stood up and actually went to the corner.
Adia was just scared now.
“Justin,” the driver called.
JC glanced over at him and poked him in the stomach. “here!” Justin tore his eyes offof the chocolate swirl cheese cake sitting on the table. The bus driver went through everybodyelse’s names and then, came to Adia’s.
“Adia?”
“Adia?” Joey echoed.
“Here,” she said meekly. The slight noise brought a lot of attention towards her.
Justin’s mouth dropped when he noticed that there were only four bodyguards andthen the girl. “This is my new bodyguard?”
“No, I flew out of your ass and I’m your new hairstylist!” she countered, makingLance have a heart attack laughing. She walked up to him and gave him a sarcastic smile.
Justin looked a little confused, “Um, she’s a girl.” Everybody else looked at himblankly. “A girl as in ‘Tampax’, she weighs like one-hundred pounds,” he finished.
She rolled her eyes. “Wow, you’re observant!”
He looked at her, “I didn’t mean it that way. I was just saying-”
“You were just saying that you don’t think I can do this,” she finished for him.
“That’s not what I meant, I meant that” he lied, his brow creasing. whoo boy,good move Justin piss off your body guard the first day you meet her. You’re batting athousand.
“Justin, do you know that when you lie through your teeth, the pupils of your eyes getbigger?” she asked him and walked off towards her bunk, grabbing an apple out of the fridge onher way. She didn’t look the least bit offended.
Mike looked at Justin as soon as Adia left the room and burst out laughing.
“What?” Justin asked innocently, making Mike laugh harder.
Mike just waved his hand in dismissal. A soft whiney sound came from the back ofthe bus. “Mike! Can you come here, I can’t get up the bunk, there’s no ladder.”
Mike was still laughing as he walked to the back of the bus, trying to regain hiscomposure.
Two size eight sandled feet were dangling in the air, followed by a frustrated growland a little body dropping back to the ground.
“Why is there no ladder in this bus?” She asked giving him an skeptical look.
“That’s because you are the only person on this bus that isn’t at least 5’9.”
“What about the guy with the dreds?”
“HEY!” Chris hollared from the front of the bus.
Mike glared a little strangly in the direction of the voice without a face. “Anyway, I’lltalk to the lighting crew and see if I can get you a step ladder on a little stool of something. Howthe hell do you pass the physical test so well and not even be able to get on a bunk?”
“Babbling,” she said simply making him shut up.
“Whatever, here,” he grabbed her waist and lifted her up to the bunk. “Good?”
“Yeah thanks. Hey, where we going? My tour schedule is in my backpack.”
“Toronto, Ontario,” Mike told her as he dug around for the tour schedule in herpack..
She got a weird look on her face. “We’re going to Canada?”
“Yes.”
“Canada as in ‘EH’? Canada as in ice and snow?’” she asked with hysteria.
“Yes!” Mike said as he began to leave the room.
She was leaning over her bunk a little too much. “Mike, Mike wait!” thump “Ow.” Adia fell off of the bunk. She and Mike laughed about it hysterically for a while, thenMike helped her back up to her bunk.
Adia sat lazily in her bunk reading when a noise came from the other side of thecurtain.
“Hey loner!”
She sighed and opened the ugly green curtian. “This bus needs some majorredecorating.” Chris stood in front of her.
“Hi, I’m Chris.”
“I’m Adia,” she told him shaking his hand.
“Cypress Hill?” he asked jumping up into her her bunk.
“Yeah,” she pointed at her stereo.
“Love Cypress Hill! Insane in the membrane, insane in the brain!” He sang, makingAdia smile a little. “I apologise for Justin’s behavior, he can be a little insensitive at times.”
“Are you saying these words?” she asked him a little surprised at his behavior before.
“I think I am, but it might just be the ghost of my long lost twin brother talking, helikes my body you know.”
She cracked another smile. “Sorry, you just sounded so mature there for a second.”
He gave a mock distress expression. “I can be mature.”
“Maybe you can, but can the ghost of your long lost brother be?” she asked himraising her eyebrows.
“You know what?” he asked her flipping his braids back.
“Um, dentist’s decided to switch to Reach, so now Reach is the brand of toothbrushmore dentist’s use themselves?” she asked one eyebrow going up.
“Nope, I think this is the begining of a friendship that will be like Extra sugarfreegum.”
She looked at him strangely, “And why would that be?”
“Because, of course, the flavor lasts and lasts and lasts and lasts...”
“Okay, I get the point, I’ve known you for, what? Fifteen minutes, tops, and you’realready describing our friendship as a type of gum.” They sat together and talked for an awfullylong time. Until,
12:00 noon
“Yeah, we want ten BigMacs, five Cokes, two iced teas, three Sprites and...can youhold on a second?” Justin turned from the counter to Mike, who had a dreamy look in his eyes.“What does Adia have here?”
“Huh? Oh! Six piece chicken McNuggets with sweet and sour sauce, a large rootbeer, small fries, extra ketchup, vinager, salt and mustard.” Justin looked at him like he wascrazy.
“How do you remember all that stuff man?” Justin asked him giving him a surprisedlook.
“Just little things that fathers- close friends learn over the years,” he covered his slipup.
Justin looked at him suspiciously for a few seconds, “Mike what are her allergies?” heasked jokingly.
But Mike actually spoke, “Bees, hornets, wasps, anything in that family. Certainmedicines, C-clor, most types of pennisylan. Spiders, daisies and roses,” he finished. Justin’seyes were wide, but he soon turned to order what Adia wanted.
“What’ll it be?” A woman with messy black hair, an accent, and lipstick smudged allover her teeth.
Justin slapped himself in the head, he had forgotten what Adia wanted already. Heturned back to Mike with a helpless look. Mike nodded and told the lady what she wanted.
Adia, Chris and Lance sat at the table away from the others because there was nomore room there.
“Wow, I can’t believe that!” Lance told Adia. Chris had an equally surprised lookon his face.
“Yeah, well, that’s how I was fired,” she gave a reluctant sigh.
*::Flashback::*
The girl walked up to the room and when they got there Rod was waiting. He turnedhis head to see the girl come through the door.
“Rodney, put the gun down,” she told him. He sighed and his gun dropped to thefloor. He turned around to face the gun barrel of her 9mm automatic.
“Adia, you are pitiful,” he began with a smirk on his face, “You can’t shoot me. You know you don’t have the guts. . .” Adia’s bottom lip began to twitch.
“Rodney, please. . .” her voice was barely audible.
“What, Adia, what do you want me to do?” he paused. “You don’t have the guts toshoot me. You know it.”
Adia’s eyes welled up with tears. She fell to her knees and dropped her gun, rightwhen a gunshot came out of no where and hit Rodney square in the back of the head.
“Rodney!” she screamed as he fell to the ground. She ran over to him, in tears andcollapsed on his silent chest. She looked up and Rick was standing in front of her.
“Adia, don’t, you’ll just make it harder,” Rick told her patting her on the back.
Adia glared at Rick. She screamed inwardly. Her brow creased. “You unbelivablebastard,” she said to herself as she looked at Rick. She went back to the way of expessing herfeelings that was so rare - she cried.
*::End Flashback::*
Tears started to well up in her eyes again. Lance looked at Chris, and Chis lookedback. They both shrugged and hugged her.
“No! It’s okay, I’m going to have to cope with it sooner or later, it may as well besooner,” she pushed them away from her.
“Hey guys, food!” Justin yelled.
Eight guys ran to Justin and Mike to collect their food.
“Geez,” Adia muttered to herself. They appeared to be having some sort of fight. Lance walked back to the table with a strange look on his face.
“Justin screwed up the order, he ordered an extra coke instead of a sprite,” Lanceexplained. When the riot was finally over, Adia got her order from mike and sat down to eat it. Mike and Justin came and sat down with Chris, Lance and Adia.
“So, how long is this tour?” Adia asked as she tried to open the sweet and soursauce. With on final jerk, the sauce finally opened.
“This tour isn’t that long, it’s only about a month,” Chris shugged taking a a fry andplacing it in his mouth.
“How long are they usually?” she asked giving the guys a questioning glance.
“About four months,” Justin told her taking a sip of sprite.
She did a double take, “Four months?”
“Yes,” Mike finished.
~*~
Two weeks later
“Justin, I swear to god if you don’t hurry up in there I’ll kill you,” Adia yelled intothe men’s public washroom of the Royal Bank.
“No you won’t,” he said back snidely.
The brisk pace of Adia chewing her gum slowed at that remark. She closed her eyesand mumbled something. She looked over at the huge clock sitting in the middle of the bank, 4:56. I really need to deposit this check and get this foreign money order. She looked across the huge bank to the line-ups at the counter, they were about 100 feet away and she couldn't get to them without, unless she disobeyed orders. “Justin please, of all times to screw with me, thisisn’t one of them.”
Justin sat at on the counter smiling, Adia and him hadn’t been getting along all thatwell. They were both stubborn as hell around eachother.
“Justin, please! I know you had that potent crap for lunch, but can you please showsome humanity?” he heard the annoyed voice state as he very slowly got of the counter andwashed his hands. He looked at his watch 4:58, she is so going to pay for telling that girl shewas my parol officer.
“Just a second,” he called, “I’m almost done.”
Adia sat outside the bathroom tapping her foot and blowing bubbles with her greenapple flavoured bubble gum. “Justin, get your pretty ass out of there, or I’ll tell everybody aboutyour little medical self esteem problem.”
“I don’t have one!”
“Oh, yes, that’s right, your ego is too big. Don’t tell me you don’t have one, I had atalk with Chris,” she smiled as she heard a fist pound against the wall.
“Asshole!”
“I try. Now get out!”
Justin sighed as he looked at his watch. 4:59
Adia watched as one by one the tills began to close. “Justin, I am going to rip everyappendage from your body starting with your-”
“Alright, I’m coming,” he told her as he came out of the bathroom.
Her eyes narrowed. She grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed him upagainst the wall. “Any last words?”
Justin looked at her a little surprised. “Your gun is digging into my thigh.”
“Which one? The 9mm. automatic that I was planning to kill you with in the morning,or the Uzi?” she tilted her head sidways.
“I think it was the Uzi, but-”
She just groaned and let go of him, walking off to the exit with him following closebehind.
“Why don’t you just use the bank machine?” He asked simply.
“Because, my friend, bank machine’s don’t let you deposit checks in a foreigncurrency,” she stated matter of factly as she dug around in his pocket for his car keys. When shefound them, she unlocked the passenger side.
“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was that important!” he apologised as he grabbedthe car keys from her and stood behind her trying to talk to her. She kept her back to him.
“Look, Justin, all I ask is a little respect. I know you don’t think bodyguards have alife, but they do and sometimes they need to do things, blah, blah...” Justin zoned out when awasp came buzzing around him. He made a couple swipes for it, but it eventually landed on theback pocket of Adia’s navy cargo pants.
::*Flashback*::
“How do you remember all that stuff man?” Justin asked him giving him a surprisedlook.
“Just little things that fathers- close friends learn over the years,” he covered his slipup.
Justin looked at him suspiciously for a few seconds, “Mike what are her allergies?” heasked jokingly.
But Mike actually spoke, “Bees, hornets, wasps, anything in that family. Certainmedicines, C-clor, most types of pennisylan. Spiders, daisies and roses,” he finished. Justin’seyes were wide, but he soon turned to order what Adia wanted.
::*End Flashback::*
She’s allergic to wasps, he said to himself as he raised his hand and went tohit the wasp as it moved away from the back of her pants. His hand landed on the back of herpants.
“And it’s not as-” she turned around stopping her speech. “Did you just slap me?”she asked looking him straight in the eyes.
Justin swallowed and spoke, “There was a bee on the back.”
She looked at him strangely, said nothing and got into the car.
He sighed and sat down next to her in the driver’s seat. He was immediatelyregretting the whole night. He started up the car and backed out of the parking space leaning hisshoulder over the seat.
“Look, Adia, I’m serious, there was bee on your butt, I would never ever slap yourass! I would never even consider it.”
She glared at him. “Am I that ugly?” she asked him feeling a little offended.
Justin’s eyes got wide Oh, damn boy, you are cornered “No, you’re cool,you’re pretty and all, you’re just not my type.”
She raised an eyebrow. “My favorite color is baby-blue, my favorite b-ball team inNC, my favorite show is friends, my best friend in the world is Chris and you say that I’m notyou’re type?” He gave her a pleading look. “Oh, I get it! Blonde hair, big perky breasts, longeyelashes, cheap, mostly plastic and silicone, anorexic, ditz.”
“Okay, I get the point! I didn’t mean it like that!” he yelled as he stopped at a redlight.
She looked at him. “Do you know that that’s the twelfth time you’ve said that to mein the last five days?”
“Look, you deserved it! You are way too uptight! All you do is bitch. You havenothing to bitch about, you barely even work! You just follow me around! You probably don’teven know what hard work is.”
Justin was about to park in front of the hotel, when Adia pulled the emergenceybrake, opened the door and ran into the hotel. She turned back when she realised she could getfired for leaving him alone.
Justin jumped out of the car and handed the valet the keys. Adia waited at theelevator until he got in then she hit the ‘close door’ button as quickly as possible. Her expressionwas unreadable. “Jeez Adia! What crawled up your ass and made a permanent home there?”
“Nothing crawled up it, but something slapped it!” she retorted as she got off theelevator followed by Justin.
“You’re allergic to bees! There was a bee on your butt!”
“Look, that’s not what I’m mad about, and if you don’t know what I am mad about, then you need a cat-scan,” she walked to her room which she shared with Dakota, thehairdresser, took out her key card and put it in the slot as the little light beeped green allowing herto access the room.
“Adia-” the door slammed in his face.
“Hey Adia!” Dakota greeted her as she came into the room.
“Hey Dacky!” Adia immediately went into the bathroom and changed into a pair of black silk boxers and a black sports bra.
She came out and immediately walked over to the full-body mirror. She looked at the image of herself insecurely. What is wrong with you, why do you even care? She looked back at the mirror and looked at her short body and her really muscular legs.
“Adia, what do you think you are doing?!” Dakota asked her as she walked up to her.
Adia ran her hands over her petite body feeling really self consious. “I don’t know! Dakota, it sucks being the short little girl underestimated by everybody!”
“Nobody underestimates you! You’re really cute Adia!”
“Oh please, when we were at the after party for the MTV video music awards, do you remember what Britney said? ‘Oh, hi, I’m Britney! You must be Adia! I’ve heard so much about you! I pictured you being taller, it’s amazing how...masculine a woman can be. Oh, I like those red cargo pants, I have almost the same ones, except I got mine from the tommy wearhouse.’ ” She sighed, “Look, I’m not really the type of person that attracts attention, that is unless I wear my red cargo pants and a wonderbra.”
“Oh come on Adia, don’t listen to Britney! I personally think she is a total ska-”
“Look, the point is, I’m insecure okay? I’m 5’5, black hair, green eyes and I’m only 32 b! Britney may be a skank, but, she doesn’t need her red cargo pants ‘from the tommy wearhouse’ and a wonderbra to be noticed,” Adia finished.
Dakota stifled a laugh. “She did need a wonderbra before her seventeenth birthday though!” Dakota’s face finally seemed to register something, “You’re only 32 b? I thought you were at least-”
“Nevermind!” Adia grabbed the covers of her blanket and dragged them to the couch, which sat in front of the TV.
“Adia, really, it’s okay!” Dakota came and sat beside her.
Easy for you to say Miss. 5’9, red headed, 36 d, long legged pal! Adia loved Dakota they were really good friends, but no one really seemed to understand her.
“So any chick flicks on?” Dakota asked her with a sly grin. Adia’s frown was turned into a smile.
They both turned to eachother and yelled, “Sleepless in Seattle!”
In minutes they were vedged out in front of the TV and eating doritos and double chocolate swirl ice cream with a nice thick coating of hot fudge.
“That’s a chick flick!” Tom Hanks said from the TV as they both turned to eachother and laughed.
Adia stirred her ice cream around in the bowl, “You ever notice how eating one pound of fudge makes you gain two pounds?”
“I hear you girlfriend! I saw this thing on the dicovery channel that said when a woman eats chocolate, they get a certain feeling that you can only get when you do two other things.”
“...and what, prey tell would those two other things be?” Adia asked really curious.
“Lots of exersise and you probably know the other one..”
“Okay, I can guess, but I don’t know for sure because I’m a...” Adia trailed off feeling a bit embarrassed.
Dakota looked at her strangely, “Adia, are you a virgin?”
Adia turned and blushed, “Yeah.”
Dakota looked at her wondering why she was embarrased, “Adia, it’s not a big deal, I personally wish that I was one! It was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life. It lasted-”
“Nononono, don’t go into the details, I don’t need to know them.”
They laughed a little and went back to the movie.
“You slapped her ass?!?!” Chris yelled, his eyes nearly falling from their sockets. “Oh my friend, you must have escaped within an inch of your life because the Adia I know would have slammed you up against the wall and asked for your last words.”
“For the last time! There was a bee on her butt!” Justin walked around their hotel room trying to explain his little mishap.
Chris looked at him, “If we are in public and anyone asks, I have never seen you before in my life!”
Justin rolled his eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me!”
“What are you my mother?” Justin raised an eyebrow.
“No, but I know that’s what your mother would have said had she been in this room right now,” Chris stated flopping down on the couch.
“Is it just me or do you get more and more annoying every second.”
“Go on...” Chris persuaded.
“What do you mean go on, I’m done my sentence?”
“You said, ‘Is it just me or do you get more annoying every second...’” Chris looked at him expectantly. “Every second what? Every second smart ass comment? Every second stupid remark I make? Every second what?”
“Okay, I’m taking a shower,” Justin said before he walked out of the room and into the bathroom.
Knock, Knock
Adia sighed and glanced over at her door. Should I answer it?
knock, knock!
nah! Adia turned back to the final scene of Sleepless in Seattle.
“Adia, it’s Chris and I know exactly what you’re thinkin’. Now get of you’re skinny little ass and open the door or I’ll make you tell Lance why Johnathan Davis called his band Korn!”
Adia sighed and threw her stuffed Piglet (from Winnie the Pooh) at the door. When it hit the door the little recording device in it went off, “I’m scared.”
“Adia, open the freaking door!” Chris actually sounded mad.
Adia sighed and got up, “Well, I’m sorry for taking sarcasm to the next level!” Her face came from behind the door. “What do you want?”
“I have nothing to do.”
“You have nothing to do?! You got me up here, missing the end of my favorite chick flick with my favorite actress and my favorite actor in it, and you, have nothing to do?”
“Yeah, I have nothing to do,” Chris told her simply.
“Well, you can come in and watch a movie with me,” she told him widening the opening in the door. “Dakota went down to the pool to go swimming.”
“What movie do you want to watch?” he asked her, making her smile.
“Come in and we’ll pick one out,” Adia invited them in and they sat on the couch and went through the movies on the TV, finally deciding to go to the video store and rent a movie.
Adia slipped on sandals and threw on a baggy CK sweatshirt.
She was about to lock the room when Chris asked, “What are we going to do about Justin?”
“Well, if he has to go somewhere, he can go with your bodyguard.”
“No I mean, what are we going to do about my friend Justin?”
Adia looked at him, her eyes wide. “You want him to come?”
“Are you crazy Jared?!” a yell came from the room next door. “No!”
“She deserves to know!”
“Why? It would just open healed wounds.”
“The wounds never healed, I know you’re ashamed of what happened, but you’ll just have to accept the fact that you made a mistake.”
“Jared, I’m not going to say anything else. She’s already hurting. It’s hard to leave and them just come back with news like that! This conversation is over!”
“Bu-” SLAM! Justin heard a door slam. His eyebrows fell trying to comprehend what just happened. What were Mike and Jared talking about?
He shrugged it off, thinking of how he should just mind his own buisness. He stepped out of the shower and put on a pair of Fumanskeeto cargo pants and a baggy CK sweatshirt.
“Yo, Justin, we’re going to the video store, you going to come?” Chris smiled at Adia who stared at him a little harshly.
“Who’s we?” Justin asked as he walked out of the bathroom holding a wet towel. When he laid eyes on Adia, a smile spread on his face. Ha, she’s going to have to listen to me now! “Sure, I’ll come.”
Adia was in the romance section of the video store City of Angels, no too sad. I need a Meg Ryan movie! IQ? Didn’t see that one. She picked it up off of the shelf. Chris came up behind her.
“Are you getting another romance?” Chris asked shaking his head.
“Yeah, why?” she asked clutching IQ to her chest.
“I just don’t know what you see in those movies.”
Adia looked at him and frowned, “If I can’t have it, why can’t I watch it in the movies?”
“What?” Chris asked looking a little concerned.
“Nothing Chris.”
Chris still looked concerned, but left it alone.
Adia walked over to the new releases. You’ve got mail, this is definately the one!
“Um Adia,” he rubbed the back of his neck and coughed. She looked up at him. “I wanted to say sorry for what I said and I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot.”
She looked at him and hesitated. “I’m sorry too,” did those words just leave my mouth? “As for the wrong foot thing, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, tripped over a log and left our driver’s licence at home because we have been pissing eachother off for weeks!”
He smiled. “Well, we can always dust off our knees, walk back home and get that driver’s licence.”
She smiled back, “I hope you have your runners on because it’s a long walk.” Chapter 5
“Okay, what movie are we going to watch first?” Chris asked as he bounded onto the couch in Adia and Dakota’s suite. As Chris said that Dakota entered the room.
“How’s the pool?” Adia asked her as she set a bowl of peanuts down on the table.
“Oh yeah, it’s good. It had a cold last week but it’s all better now!” Dakota cracked. Adia’s hands were on her hips and her lips perked out.
“Dakota, that was really lame,” Joey said opening the door and coming in behind her, an annoyed Jared following him.
Adia forehead creased, “Jared are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” he rubbed the back of his neck.
“You can go back to your room, they aren’t going anywhere.”
Jared looked up, “You sure?”
“Yeah, get lost, you’re not wanted here!” Adia smiled and rubbed him on the back opening the door for him to go into the hallway.
Justin looked after him, This doesn’t have anything to do with...na, can’t be.
Jared was always kind and quiet. Most of the time he just grunted answers to the guys, but Justin was beginning to notice that whenever Adia was around she was always a little more personal than the other bodyguards.
“What movie are we going to watch?” Chris said for the second time.
“What movies did we get?” asked Adia who hadn’t been paying as much attention to the guys in the movie store as she probably should have.
“We got...” Justin opened the bag from the movie store, “You’ve Got Mail, , and...All Dogs Go To Heaven?”
Everyone looked over at Chris. “What?”
Joey slapped him on the back of the head. “All dogs go to heaven?”
“It’s a classic!” Chris said simply before walking over to the couch.
Adia looked at all of the people in her hotel room then got a weird look on her face. Weird.
They soon decided to watch ‘you’ve got mail’ first, then to watch the horror movie later. Chris was a little bummed that they weren’t going to watch his movie, but Adia promised to buy it for him some time and then she would watch it with him all he wanted.
“Welcome to American Airlines nonstop service from Toronto to Las Angeles,” Adia glanced nervously back to Mike who was one of the three bodyguards put into buisness class instead of coach. Buisness class were the only seats left. She slammed her window panel closed. Oh my god, oh my god!
Justin sat beside her looking through his backpack for his discman. Mike glanced back nervously trying to look at Adia. There was no way that he was going to sit with her again, but he was still concerned. This was the first time on the tour she had to fly and he didn’t want a repeat of what happened the first. Coming in Alpha 5?
Justin glanced over at the nerve racked Adia and decided to put his discman back. “Adia, you okay?”
She gave a nervous smile and nodded way too quickly, “Uh huh.”
He leaned over her and opened the window shield. As soon as he moved his hand away she slammed the window back down. He smiled, “That’s what I thought. Do you want to switch seats?”
She looked at him, “How is swiching seats going to help me if the plane is crashing to the ground in flames?”
“You are such a hypocrite!”
“I am not!” she glared at him.
“Yes you are!” he shot back.
She crossed her arms over her chest, “How am I a hypocrite?”
“Why do you close the window when it has about as much relevance as moving to the aisle seat?”
“You are so wrong. I close the window to be considerate!”
“How is closing the window considerate? What if I wanted to see the bright lights of Las Angeles when we land!”
“Well, if the window’s open, you’ll not only get to see the bright lights of Las Angeles, you’ll also get to see the bright orange of the carrots decomposing in my stomach right now!”
Justin cringed at the thought, “Nevermind, I just thought you may have wanted to be closer to the emergency exit when we-”
“Oh, my god, we’re gonna die aren’t we?” Adia asked getting hysterical.
“I meant ‘if we crash’ not ‘when we crash’,” he said trying to make her feel better. Both feet were up on her seat, her head was leaning on them and her arms were on top of her head. Oh god this is going to be a long flight. Think of something Timberlake! “Adia remember that scene in ‘french kiss’? Kate hates to fly right?”
“Hey, hey, so do I. What’s your point?” she peeked up from her knees.
“Well when Luke comes back to get her-”
“It’s Luc!”
“Luk?”
“No Luc.”
“Whatever, when Luc comes back to get her before she goes back to the USA, she’s not scared to fly right? She learned that it’s not that bad. Haven’t you ever been on a plane before?”
“Um, yeah,” she answered.
“Well, was it that bad?”
“I can’t remember,” she answered simply.
“Why not?” his eyebrows creased.
“I think the five glasses of vodka may have had something to do with it.”
Justin looked at her startled, “How did you get vodka?”
“Simple, listen and learn. The lady said, ‘Would you like something to drink miss?’ and I said, ‘some vodka would do nic-”
Justin rolled his eyes, “I meant how did you get vodka, you’re underaged.”
Adia looked over at him, “I told you, she said ‘would you like someth-”
“Nevermind!” Justin yelled.
“Please make sure your seatbacks and tray tables are in their upright and locked positions.”
Adia hit the back of her seat to make sure and she tightened her seatbelt once again. When they hit the speed bump right before they went into the runway, Adia grabbed Justin’s shirt, “What was that?”
He looked over at her, “Adia, it’s alright, just a speed bump.” His breath slowed a little bit.
Adia looked him in the eyes and her breath slowed, “Sorry.”
“It’s alright,” he bit his bottom lip. “I think you should probably let go of my shirt,” a smile came to his face.
“Yeah,” she snapped out of her trance and let go of his shirt.
“We’re about third in line for take off so sit back and relax we should be taking off shortly,” the pilot’s message came over the intercom. Justin glanced over at Adia who seemed to have calmed down a little bit.
His shoulder tingled a little bit. What was that?
Adia inched her finger closer to the closed window and slid it up about an inch and a half. Justin looked up from his magazine and glanced over at her. He smiled as she slid it up a little more.
He saw a few lights peek from the window and he leaned over her to look at the city.
The window was completely open now and a smile spread accross her face. “I’ve never been to California before.”
“You haven’t? There are so many clubs here. We’ll probably go to one,” he stated taking off his tinted glasses and setting his magazine on his backpack.
“Oh my god! Is that Disneyland?” Adia gasped as she looked out the window to a theme park. She didn’t know what it was until she saw Sleeping Beauty’s Castle sticking up.
“Yeah, that would be Disneyland. It’s a lot smaller than Disney World though. There’s better rides at Disneyland, but Disneyworld has Epcot and stuff. If we have the time I think we’ll be able to go there too because we have a show in Anehiem. Have you ever been to Disneyworld?”
Adia nearly choked on her gum.
*::Flashback::*
“I can’t believe our parents let you come with us to Disneyworld!”
“I know, it’s so cool to have your best friend come with you on a vacation, it makes it thirty times more fun,” the girl replied giving him an adventurous look that spread over her face like a kid who had just stolen candy. Suddenly her eyes lit up and her grin widened like she had an idea...
“NO!” he told her as soon as the look came over her face.
“Come on Rodney, we’ve got to.”
“Yesterday we rode on space mountain until we blew chunks, I am not doing it again JR!”
“Can’t we just go once,” Adia pleaded.
Rodney sighed and lowered his head for a second. “ONCE!”
::*End Flashback*::
”Adia? You okay?” Justin asked feeling her forhead.
“Huh?” Adia shook her head and looked up at Justin, her sparring partner, who seemed to have a look of concern in his eyes.
“Are you alright?” he asked looking at the slight tears forming in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
Adia shook her head You don’t know about Rodney and I’m not going to tell you! “It’s nothing, I’m just a little tired,” she yawned.
“Are you sure?” he raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah I’m fine,” she patted his shoulder in reasurrance. By then they were rounding the runway and landing.
