Part 222
Kevin and Alex were the last to show up for lunch, and they smiled as they watched what appeared to be a heated debate taking place.
"What's up, guys?" Kevin asked, slipping into a vacant seat.
"Nick doesn't agree with my choice for Song of the Year." Becca went back to arguing with Nick, punctuating her comments with her fork and coming close to whacking Nick in the nose with a piece of cantaloupe.
"But, Bec-"
"Don't 'but Bec' ME, Nickolas Carter. I'm one of the consumers, yanno; one of the 'little people' that you guys are so fond of thanking when you win your high and mighty prestigious pieces of plastic up there on those stages."
"You kill me Bec. There's no WAY that song would've won. Besides-"
Becca set her fork down and grabbed his hair, pulling him in for a mind-blowing kiss.
Kevin and Alex sat watching, speechless.
"Game, set, match," Brian drawled with a grin.
Kevin shot him a blank look.
"It works every time," Brian said.
Howie agreed. "Yep, when's the last time you heard Nick and Becca argue?"
Kevin thought and thought. "Never?"
"Damn straight," Sarah said. "Bec puts an end to it every time."
"Damn," Alex said, whistling in appreciation. "Kev, you mean all these years when Nick argued with you, you could have ended it just by-"
"Alex? Do NOT even say it."
Becca giggled, having surfaced from her connection with Nick's lips. "I still think you two make a cute couple," she laughed.
"NO!" Nick and Kevin shouted in unison.
Nick wrapped his arm around Becca and as everyone else laughed, he blew a kiss at Kevin, who in turn blew one right back.
"You guys scare me," Sarah said shaking her head.
"Just keepin' it in the Backstreet Family, baby," Kevin grinned. "So Bec, did you have a good time last night?"
"Awesome, Kev," she smiled. "I have to admit to being totally star-struck, though. I'm amazed I didn't fall flat on my face walking into the building."
"I can think of someone else I'd like to have seen fall flat on their face…" Nick mumbled, taking a long swallow of his iced tea.
Alex laughed. "Yeah, the Beast was in rare form last night, Kaos. Why didn't you give her an interview?"
"I wouldn't give that bitch-"
"Nick!" Becca gasped, trying to keep a straight face.
"It's true, Bec. Jesus, I was just so relived to be able to keep her away from you last night."
There was an awkward silence as Sarah and Howie and Becca glanced at each other.
Nick set down his glass. "What?" he asked. "Did I miss something?" He looked down at Becca.
"Umm, yeah, I guess you could say that," she replied with a grin.
"It was interesting," Sarah added.
Howie just smiled.
"So, are you planning on sharing this with me or do I get to guess?" Nick was not liking the vibes he was getting.
"Sarah and I ran into Willa on the way out last night," Becca said.
"With a truck?" Alex asked hopefully.
Nick snickered at the mental picture.
"Nick, you're bad." Becca shook her head as he continued to daydream.
Brian was humming, and it took them all a minute to figure out the melody. They still didn't get it so he started singing, "I wanta be bad wit-cha bay-bay …"
Under an assault from six cloth napkins and a dinner roll, he stopped, grinning wickedly.
"Bec, what did she say to you?" Nick was not pleased and it was evident by the look on his face.
Becca grinned. "Not much."
"Bec!"
"Nick, relax," Sarah said.
"Oh for goodness sake, Nick, nothing she could say would bother me," Becca insisted.
"You don't know her the way I do," he argued.
"Thank God," Becca said, shuddering. "And stop right there," she said holding up a hand, "because that brings up a mental picture I do NOT need."
"Bec, I mean it, what did she say?"
"You mean before or after letting me know in no uncertain terms that it was only Howie's presence that kept you out of her bed in Baton Rouge?"
"Fuck," Nick spat, throwing down his napkin and leaning back in his chair. "Bec, you know-"
Becca laughed. "Nick, of course I know it's not true!"
"You'd have been really proud of Bec last night, Nick," Sarah added.
"Yeah, Nick, even Billy mentioned it earlier." Howie laughed, wishing he could have seen it all.
"Billy? Of course, he was there. Dammit Bec, I pay him to protect you from scum like her."
"Oh good god, Nick, give it a rest!" Becca was over it. "I let her know in no uncertain terms that we were together because we wanted to be, not just to 'give your bastard child a name' as she so sweetly put it."
"Called her 'trashy', too," Sarah grinned.
"You what?!"
"More or less," Becca shrugged. "Nick, she's a loser. She tried to get to me and it didn't work. What, she thought just because she tried to intimidate me I would tuck my tail and run?"
"Sure," Alex said. "And then Nick would run right back into her loving arms." He sighed dramatically and then cackled loudly.
"Not even remotely funny, Alex," Nick scowled.
"It's over Nick " Becca said. "Just let it go."
Easier said than done. "I've got half a mind-"
Kevin chuckled. "We’ve known that for years, but we love you anyway."
"Ha fucking ha," Nick grumbled.
"So how were the parties last night?" Becca asked, desperate to change the subject.
"God, Bec, it was GREAT!" Sarah began to bounce in her seat as she described the people and the food and the music and-
"Hey, Tig!" Alex called. "Enough with the bouncing!"
"Alex? Bite me!" Sarah retorted sticking out her tongue.
"Yeah baby, back that thing up and I'll see what I can do," he grinned.
"Sis, where's your hat?"
Sarah began to giggle again. "Up in the room. Can you believe that Richie gave me a new hat? And he played for me, Bec. OHMYGOD! I was so psyched. Do you remember all the times we used to stay up all night listening to Richie and Jon?"
"Yeah," Becca answered, a suspiciously dreamy expression on her face.
'Jon'? Nick mouthed at Howie.
Howie grinned back at him, scribbled something on a piece of his placemat and passed it back to Nick.
The girls continued to squeal like teenagers, unaware of the side conversation that was taking place.
Nick read the slip of paper and smirked. 'Bon Jovi' Howie had written, drawing a smiley face beneath it with a line of x's and o's. This was rich. He silently filed away the information to have as possible ammunition in the future.
"Oh, and the best part?" Sarah was going on and on, unaware that Howie and Nick had tuned her out ages ago.
"What Angel?" Howie asked, picking right up as if nothing had happened.
"I invited him to the show tonight. He said he wants to hear me sing again." Her face was lit with enthusiasm and Kevin, Brian and Alex just sat and watched her ramble on and on.
"That's fine, sweetheart. We'll arrange for passes when we get to sound checks."
"Which should be soon," Kevin said, looking at his watch.
"Should we leave a pass for his friend, too?" Nick asked Becca with a grin.
"Huh?" Becca asked, clearly confused.
"Jon, Richie's friend." Nick grinned again.
Becca blushed bright red. "Time to go," she said, standing up and avoiding the question entirely.
"Becca, you're so easy," Brian chuckled.
"You don't know the half of it," Nick laughed.
Becca's only response was to turn around and stick her tongue out at all of them before raising her chin haughtily and walking away.
**************
Sarah sat on the edge of the stage with Kevin beside her as they looked through the play list from the last show. They were busy making changes, taking out, adding in, and rearranging the order. Howie and AJ sat in the front row of seats giving their two cents about the play list.
"Kevin, I want to do one of Richie’s songs tonight…from his last CD."
Emphatically, Kevin said, "NO! You need to do your own stuff."
"Why? I’ve done other people’s stuff before and you didn’t seem to mind."
"That was before we had all this new material for you. We need to see what the people like so we know what to put on the CD. You know, you’re leaving soon to record and you need to know what’s going on it."
"One song is NOT gonna make that big a difference," pointed out Sarah.
"I said NO. Now drop it," snapped Kevin.
Under her breath, Sarah mumbled, "I don’t know who died and left you boss!"
"I’m just trying to help, damnit!"
"FINE!" barked Sarah as she got up to get ready to run through her set.
Kevin looked at Howie for help but Howie simply shrugged his shoulders.
The band and Sarah went through the set song by song as Kevin, Howie, and AJ looked on. They stopped Sarah when something needed to be fixed or redone and nodded their approval when Sarah hit it right.