Kenneth turned around with a surprised look on his face and was relieved that Nick hadn't changed much since he'd seen him when he was younger. Otherwise, he would've been asking these guys who the hell they were and what were they doing here...."Hello!" he said with forced enthusiasm as he noticed AJ. He'd expected a more reserved look for the entire group. "I've been waiting for you. Come on in." He motioned to the center of the room, trying not to appear intimidated by them. "Angela will be down in a minute. She'll be directing your work efforts. She's upstairs checking out what needs to be done." He felt like he was blabbing excessively.
AJ, Howie, Brian, Nick & Kevin moved to the center of the room and huddled together, looking around. Nick was shifting his feet without even realizing it, due to his "delicate" condition, prompting Brian to speak up and extend his handshake to Kenneth. "Hi, ummmmm...."
"Kenneth!" Kenneth said in an authoritative voice. He stood up straight and restated his name even louder. "My name's Kenneth, and I'm a friend of Jane's, Nick's mom. I'd like to thank you for taking the time to come here to Edgell and help out. My....."
"Excuse me. Kenneth?" Nick raised his hand as if he were in school. "Where's the bathroom? I really have to go." He smiled sheepishly. "Long drive..."
"Oh, um...." Nick's question resonated through Kenneth's mind like an unpleasant gong as he realized, suddenly, that he would have to be the one to tell them about the bathroom arrangements. The port-a-pot hadn't seemed like a big deal before, but now he felt oddly humiliated having to tell them the truth. He looked around the room, quickly, hoping that Angela had amazingly appeared, but realized there was no escape. "Well, Nick," he said in a much more humble tone of voice than he'd been using before. "I'm sorry to say, but there's no running water until Thursday and all we have is the port-a-pot out back." He could see the semi-disgusted look on Nick's face and felt slightly angered as the others laughed. He didn't like to be laughed at.
Nick's facial expression continued to show his true feelings about the situation, but he replied, "Thanks. That'll do," as if it were no big deal. He half-ran out the back door, not hearing Kenneth's added information about there not being a lock on the door.
AJ walked over to a big box marked "Kodak" and kicked it. "What's this?"
Kenneth's smile at AJ was fake, and he hoped he wouldn't see how much his appearance bothered him. "That's the cameras, disposables. We wanted to kind of have you take pictures as you're doing the work. Thought it would be a nice little 'documentary', so to speak." He laughed forcefully as he talked about the pictures, and thought to himself that he hoped the majority of them would be of the others and not AJ.
Brian perked up at the mention of cameras and he looked towards the back door and smiled. "Can I have one of those?"
Kenneth was pleased at Brian's enthusiasm for the idea and thought to himself, What a nice boy. "Sure, of course! Help yourself! That's what they're here for."
Brian snatched up one of the cameras and headed out to the port-a-pot. The other guys were yelling out words of encouragement like "Go, Brian!" and "Get 'im!" and Kenneth didn't quite know what to do. Stop him? Let him go? Say something? And he thought once again, "Where the hell's Angela?" as he checked his watch. The Backstreet Boys made him uncomfortable, and now it was his turn to feel uneasy about them staying at their house for the next few days.
Nick was not happy when he discovered there wasn't a lock on the door, but at this point he didn't care. He looked around one last time before he let the door of the port-a-pot slam behind him and set about doing "his business." As soon as he started, he heard the door open and tried to look over his shoulder as he continued peeing. He saw Brian, but he couldn't stop now, so he did his best to shield himself. "Dammit, Brian! Shut the door!"
Brian laughed, evilly, and said "Smile!" as he held up the camera and clicked. The look on Nick's face was priceless: The typical 'I can't believe you're doing this' look he'd been hoping for. "Now that's one for the record books," he said as he let the door swing shut. He could hear Nick yelling after him, but he knew he was still peeing, so it didn't matter. Brian was free and clear and ran back into the house, laughing.
Howie asked, "Did you get it?!"
"Yeah! And you should've seen the LOOK on his FACE."
They were all laughing now - even Kevin. Brian ran over to the box of cameras and threw his in and shook the box just as Nick came running into the house.
Nick headed straight for Brian, yelling. "Brian, you dickhead, give me the camera!"
Brian looked around innocently at the other guys and shrugged. "What camera?"
"You KNOW what camera, dumbass!" Nick grabbed Brian and started searching his clothing. "Where is it?!"
"Ohhhhhh," Brian said with mock realization. "You mean, THAT camera?" He pointed at the box of disposables. Nick's mouth dropped when he saw all of the cameras and he rolled his eyes as he turned back to Brian. "Very....funny...." He saw Kenneth out of the corner of his eyes, rubbing his hands together nervously as if he were expecting a fight, and decided to let it go for the moment. He whispered so only Brian would hear. "You're a dead man." Brian just smiled widely and whispered back in his southern twang. "I love you, too."
Kenneth had had enough. These guys were nothing like he'd expected, especially the one with all the tattoos. He had thought they would be clean cut and well-mannered. Angela was definitely going to have her hands full with this bunch. Better her than him. He glanced at his watch one more time before deciding it was time for him to make his break and leave her on her own. He made mention that he had to go to work and left the room quickly.
Angela's thoughts were interrupted by Kenneth shouting up the stairs at her, telling her they were here and it was time for him to go. She'd heard them come in, but she had decided not to go downstairs until Kenneth called for her. "Okay! I'll be right down!" she replied as her stomach flip-flopped. This was it.
When she heard Kenneth's car door outside and she realized he'd left her without introducing her, she almost fainted. That selfish bastard! He LEFT without INTRODUCING me! Her hand went to her back pocket instinctively for reassurance. She would do one last read-over of her notes...but.....it was empty!! "Holy FUCK!" She said to herself and almost started crying. The notes were DOWNSTAIRS on the STOOL! She was afraid to even go down now -- what if they'd seen them? "Oh my GOD!" she said out loud again, frantic and unsure of what to do. She paced the floor, thinking out loud, and tried to calm herself. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" She could hear them laughing and carrying on downstairs and was sure they had found the notes and were reading them right now. Of course, they'd been laughing and carrying on since they'd arrived, so she wasn't totally sure. "Be calm. Stay calm. Be calm. Stay calm," she said to herself as she took a deep breath and started down the stairs.
Chapter Six
Chapter Four
Story Index
