As Brian and I went up to our room the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Into the chamber stepped a girl of about 14 years. If he had slapped her in the face she couldn't have been more surprised when she recognised Brian. I involentarily pressed another button on the panel so she wouldn't know what floor we were on. I then procedded to elbow Brian in the gut to wake him up from the dreamworld he visited so often.
He turned, after I gestured towards the girl, to find her completely calm. "Hi!" He said, being his usual, bubbly self.
"Hi Brian. Hi Faith." Of course I was used to this by now, but I still couldn't help but smile.
Brian turned to me. "I think that we have a fan on our hands. What do you think?"
"I think that you should shut up and find a piece of paper. Give the girl your autograph for God's sake!" The girls started laughing at this and laughed even harder when Brian began to search his pockets.
Her laughter came to a hault as soon as the elevator made the smae movement. We all instantly braced ourselves as the lights dimmed and flickered. "What ju - just ha- happened?" Her voice quivered and it was obvious that she was scared. Not that I could say any different for myself, but I had Brian there with me.
"I'm not sure. But whatever happened, it's gonna be OK. I'm here." Brian said, trying to comfort her from across the space between us and her.
"Well that just makes everything all better now doesn't it?" I said trying to lighten the mood a little. I think it worked.
"I'm gonna see if I can reach the from desk." Brian had spotted the bright red emergency phone before the lighted when off, and it was barely light enough in the enclosed space to see what he was doing. He picked up the phone, put it to his ear and reset it a couple of times before placing it back in the cradle. "It's dead."
"Oh God..."
"Hey Sweety, it's gonna be OK." He again tried to comfort the girl. "I'll just use my cell phone."
"Which is in my purse, which is in the baby bag, which is with Tommy, who is with Nick at the moment. DAMMIT!" I cursed before I could stop myself.
"Oh God...." There it was again. The poor girl was trapped in an evelator with two adults that she didn't know. Well, personally anyway.
I walked carefully over to where she sat curled up in a ball, on the floor. "It's gonna be OK. We are all gonna be alright." I sat down next to her and put my arm around her.
I few minuted later she had clamed down again and Brian was sitting on the other side of her. "So what's your name?" It was a basic question, but one that was going to have to be answered if we were going to be spending an extended amount of time together.
"Alexis. Everyone calls me Alex though."
"Hi Alex. I'm Brian, but you already knew that." she giggled a little and I could just see Brian smiling.
"And I'm Faith, but you knew that already too."
"What are you all doing here. Your show isn't until Monday night."
"The guys have a photo shoot this weekend."
"Cool. My sister is doing a shoot this weekend. She's suppose to start in a few hours." She looked at her INDIGLO watch as she spoke.
"Your sister?" I was courious.
"Yeah. She's six years older then I am and is taking photography in college. She's really good, so good that she landed this job for some magazine. That's part of the reason I'm here."
"Part of the reason?" Brian was being a smart ass. All three of us knew what the other reason was.
"Yeah the other reason is that I'm going to a concert on Monday night. It's a group of five guys, you know, kinda like *N SYNC."
By then my eyes had ajusted to the darkness and I saw Brian look at her in amazement. "Don't ever say that again! I'm insulted!" Alex laughed.
"Oh Brian! I'm kidding. You guys are a lot better then *N SYNC! But JC and Justin are cute."
"I'll be sure to tell you think so. You neve know I might even get them to sign something for you." I offered.
"You know them?!?"
Brian wore an amused expression. "You could say that."
"Brian be nice." I smiled at Alex. "JC is my cousing and I've know Justin since JC was in MMC with him. I've also know all the other guys for quite some time."
"Really?" I nodded. "That's so cool! Why don't you ever go on tour with them?"
"Cause I like it better with these guys. *N SYNC's fans are all eight years old and they scream a lot.... higher." Just then I remembered what we had been talking about right before the evelator stopped. "Hey, Bri. You find a pieve of paper for this young lady?"
"Nope. Sorry Alex. It looks like you are going to have to settle for waiting until we get out of this thing and having all the guys sign something for you."
"Oh darn! No really I think I can wait!"
"Isn't your sister going to worried about you?"
"Yeah. But she'll be happy that I'm OK and that I'm not up here by myself."
"Well, we'll make sure that nothing happens to you."
Nick's view.
I looked at my watch again. It had been an hour and a half since I last saw Brian and Faith. They shoulkd have been downstairs already.
"Momma!" Tommy yelled. He wanted to see Faith. I looked at everyone else. They were all becoming anxious as well.
"OK Tommy. Lets see if we can find your Mamma." I said, getting up from my seat and taking Tommy put of his highchair. "Guys I'm gonna go call again."
"OK." Kevin said, looking relieved that someone was going to.
I walked out of the hotel resturaunt and to the front desk. After asking to use the phone I put Tommy up on the counter and dailed Faith and Brian's room number. There was no answer. I looked around the lobby and over at the elevators.
A girl was standing there, looking half scared out of her mind. The elevator opened and she watched anxiously as a few people got off. When she didn't see the person she was looking for she became disappointed and even more worried.
I picked up Tommy and walked over to her. "Excuse me. Are you looking for someone?"
"Actually, yes. My sister. She was suppose to me down here about an hour ago."
"Really?" She nodded. "I'm looking for a couple of friends of mine. They were suppose to be down here a while ago..." She didn't say anything. The two elevators on the opposite wall opened and she watched as the people got off of both of them. Almost as soon as they closed the first one she had searched opened. "How long have you been searching the elevators?"
"About 45 minutes."
"Has this one ever opened?" I ointed to the elevator to the right of the one we were standing in front of. The one that I had seen Brian and Faith get on when we got back to the hotel.
"Now that I think about it, no it hasn't." We both looked at eachother for a moment and bolted for the front desk.
"Excuse me. How would you be able to tell if one the elevators had stalled?" I asked the lady at the front desk.
"Well, I'm new, but I thnk that the only way we would be able to tell that is if the people in the evelator called the desk." The woman then went to help someone else check in.
I turned back to the girl. "There has to be some other way to know, in case the phone doesn't work." She said. It hadn't taken me long to notice that Faith's purse, along with Brian's cell phone, was in Tommy's bag.
I nodded in agreement to her statment and turned back to the counter. I set Tommy back up on it and leaned over, after making sure that the woman was busy with the other costomer.
A flashing light right in front of me caught me attention. It had the words "ELEVATOR BREAKDOWN" underneath it and was accompanied by three other lights, although none of them were flashing.
"I think we've found what we're looking for." I said, after I pushed myself upright again. "Excuse me? Miss!" I waved down the woman we had talked to before. "How long has that light been flashing?"
"About an hour and a half. But I don't know what it's for."
The girl was standing next to me and leaned over to see what I was talking about. "We'd like to speak to the manager. Now. " She said in an even voice.
