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Full of Grace: Chapter 11
I nodded as Nick's fingers raked through my hair, "I know. I'm sorry Nick,
I didn't mean to scare you. "
Nick smiled a little, "Well every time I went to open my mouth you gave me
this look like you were fixing to kill me, that tends to kick in your self
preservation instinct."
I sighed, "I know. You got really quiet there for a while. You never said
anything, even in interviews. Then I had the other three coming to me to get
me to see why you were so quiet. I couldn't come out and tell them I was
the reason. I really shouldn't have done that, but I was just so...."
Nick laid a hand on my shoulder, "Scared."
I heaved a sigh as I realized he was right, "Scared."
We both fell into silence as we each remembered.
"You got what??!!" Brian was looking at me, shock written all over his
face.
I looked him in the eye, "Carjacked, Brian. It happens."
He raised an eyebrow at me, not knowing what to believe, "What in the hell
were you doing in that part of town at that time of night? Nick said he
picked you up on Lanebrook. My god, you could have been killed!"
I fixed Nick with a look that would have frozen boiling water and saw him
retreat behind Howie a little. "Well Nick should have kept his trap shut!
I'm taking care of it! I couldn't sleep so I was driving around. I stopped
at a light, some guy put a gun in my face and told me to get out of the car
and when I didn't move fast enough he sucker punched me a few times. End of
story. Can we get on with rehearsal now? Is that ok with you, Nick? Can we
actually do our jobs now, instead of gossiping like old ladies? Can we,
Nick?"
Nick was now almost completely hidden by Howie's smaller frame. He tried to
talk, but fear had closed his throat, so all he could do was nod meekly.
We got on with rehearsal for the upcoming tour and even though it hurt like
hell to do the dance moves, I never once said a word about it, even refusing
the rest that Brian was offering, knowing I was in pain.
I just wanted to work, why couldn't anyone understand that? Here I had
control, here I knew what was going on. Once I got out of rehearsal, I
didn't know what was going on and somehow I had lost the control I had in my
life. Stefanie had it and I didn't know how to get it back.
I worked them to near exhaustion. I wanted perfection and I was going to
get it before I let them go. We went for hours at a time, not stopping for
anything. Howie, AJ and Brian were complaining bitterly, but not Nick. He
didn't say a word unless it was his time to sing or add something to the
ad-libbing between songs. He danced like he was afraid if he did something
wrong he would have the wrath of god on his head. In a way he would have,
because I know in the state of mind I was in, I would have come down on him,
hard.
When we broke for lunch, Nick took off like a scared little puppy, not
coming back until five minutes before we had arranged to get back to work.
He spent that time going over lines of choreography, over and over, so that
when we came back from lunch he was already drenched in sweat. He didn't
say a word as the rest of us fell into position and started in on "The One."
We did the number over and over until I was satisfied that it was perfect
and then we did it some more to make sure they remembered it.
Tommy wanted to go over a key progression with me, AJ, Howie and Brian
immediately sprawled out on the stage and guzzled back water like it was
going out of style. Nick just paced the stage, looking down at his feet,
deep in thought.
"NICK!"
He nearly jumped a mile and looked up to see my none too happy face in his,
"Jesus Nick, where in the hell were you? I've been calling your name for
five minutes. I Need You Tonight is up. Try not to screw it up too bad."
He just nodded and scurried to his position on the stage. Brian tried to
stop him and make him towel off a bit and drink some water, but he just
shook his head and stepped behind his mic. He cued the band to start and
they swung into the intro music of the song.
Nick gripped the mic and closed his eyes, trying to get it perfect. Needing
to get it perfect.
The cue came for him to start singing and nothing. Tommy cued him again
with the piano notes leading into him singing. Nothing. I opened my mouth
to really let him have it, but before I could say a word, he seemed to
crumble before my eyes. He swayed slightly and then, almost in slow motion,
he fell until he was sprawled out on the stage.
We all hopped to our feet from our stools and no one moved faster than me to
the unconscious boy on the floor. One thought going through my head, "Sweet
Jesus, what have I done to him?!"
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