Part 46

Tuesday morning found Sarah up early trying to get things together. Howie had insisted that she go with them to New York and she wanted to make sure she had everything set for the Benefit. She was on the computer checking last-minute emails when she spotted a message from one of the BSB lists that she had stumbled across while at the clinic. She wasn’t as bad about it as Becca but then again, she hadn’t been away from Howie but a month. Now she opened the mail and started reading.

Kevin had to laugh, the first time he'd actually listened to the words of this song he'd choked on his drink. Now they were in Howie's condo for one last party before the second leg of the tour when the song played again and the next four minutes would be forever burned into his memory. Sure, they were several drinks beyond what should have been their limit, but up until then it was no different from any other pre-tour party they'd had over the years.

The condo was wall to wall people... friends, family, record company reps ... but when Nick took to the dance floor, Kevin saw nothing else.

Damn .. when had he grown up? Scratch that ... he knew. He could remember the exact date and time, and he was damn glad, because the thoughts that held him captive right now could have gotten him prison time less than a year ago. And how come he never knew what a dead-on impersonation of Janet Jackson that Nick could do? It was a scream.

Sarah covered her mouth as she read, trying to muffle the laughter as she read the story.

Howie asked sleepily, "What are you doing?"

Looking up at him, she saw that he had just woken up. "I’m just reading something I found on the Internet."

Moving to stand behind her, Howie leaned to her and kissed her neck. "Anything good?"

"Well, sorta. It’s a fan fic about Kevin and Nick."

Sarah had told Howie about the stuff she’d found on the various sites for them and he asked, "Who wrote this one?"

Sarah went back to check the name of the person who’d sent it. "Some chick called Becky. I’ve seen a couple of her stories. Damn good! I’ve had to take a cold shower after a couple of them."

"Read me some of it."

"I was just getting started on it so okay."

Sarah continued reading the rest of the story to Howie who got a kick out of it. When she was done, he asked, "You should print that out and give it to Becca for a wedding present."

"Oh, I’m sure she’s seen this stuff. We’re both on an email list but I don’t post much."

"So what’s your screen name…Howie’s girl?"

"No. I had to go with ‘SweetDsAngel2001’ but I have others too. I have several places I go to so I use different names, like the Groupies board, I’m ‘TheDarkSideFanatic'…for you, Kevin, and AJ. "

"You’re kidding?"

"No."

"What do these people say?"

"Most of the time they talk about the concerts or send pictures that they’ve found or someone has taken at a show. They also talk about the different events that you guys are doing. From what I can tell, the Benefit is the biggest topic of conversation right now."

"In these fan fics, which one of us gets the most attention?"

"Mostly Nick and Kevin, then AJ and you. Brian doesn’t get a lot. Each one of you have your own lists….there’s the HowieHootchie list, the KevinHootchie list, the NickHootchie list. Then there are several for just fan fics and several that are for the whole group."

"What, no AJHootchie list?"

Sarah laughed, "No, and he’d be disappointed, I’m sure. There are several lists for him though."

"And you get emails from these lists?"

"I did while I was at the clinic but once I went out on the road with you, I stopped reading most of it. I don’t have time for it."

"I want to hear some of these fan fics. Can you print some out?"

"I guess."

"Cool. Print a couple so I can read them on the plane today."

Sarah went to the website she’d found with some stories with him in them and printed them out. Then together, they went to get ready to go. They were meeting the others at the airport at noon and they needed to do a couple errands before leaving.

Part 47        The Dance Index