Nick shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I thought we were working with that guy that just left." He glanced around the room to summate the work that needed done, and a piece of paper on the stool in the center of the room caught his eye. "Hey, maybe that's a list." He ran over and picked it up, looking cautiously to see if Angela was around. Not that he was doing anything wrong, but not that he wanted to be the one caught sneaking a peek at the work details.
"Well?" Kevin asked impatiently, obviously not over his moodiness.
Nick started reading out loud. "It says....'you are my fire', 'as long as you love me' " and he read louder when he came to AJ's description, ".....and AJ / FUNKY - TATTOO?!?!"
"Whaaaa? Gimmee that." AJ tried to grab the paper from Nick, but to no avail. Nick swerved around and continued reading, laughing uncontrollably as he read about Brian........ "Brian/Big Nostrils!!" His expression turned serious and he turned to Brian. "You know, Brian, you've got some big-ass nostrils there, and WE'RE not the only ones who notice it."
Brian was laughing, but it was because he didn't believe Nick. "It does NOT say that."
"It does TOO!" He shoved the paper in Brian's face defiantly and pointed with his middle finger, purposely. "Brian / BIG NOSTRILS. Right..... there!" (still waving his middle finger under the writing).
Brian grabbed the paper out of his hands and read it again in disbelief. "I do NOT have BIG NOSTRILS! I am so sick of people saying that! Who wrote this?!" He glared around the room even though there was nobody else in it but them. The observation was nothing new, but it made him angry coming from someone outside of his buds.
Kevin snatched the paper from Brian's hands and studied it. "It looks like a girl's handwriting. Angela, maybe?" He skimmed past what had already been read to find what was written about him and scoffed as he read his description out loud. "Kevin / Eyebrow Man. THAT's original."
"Hey!" Nick said, "What's it say about me?!" He knew it would be good.....unless she thought he was fat....and nobody else's was extremely flattering.
Kevin intentionally ignored him and read out Howie's description. "Howie / Killer Eyes"
Howie smiled, happy with his I.D. "The ladies like the Latin Lover's eyes, you know what I'm sayin'?" AJ gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder, proud that his bud got a compliment out of the deal, too. "Da funky man & da Latin lovah."
"What does it say about me, dammit!!." Nick reached out to grab the paper from Kevin when they all heard the footsteps on the stairway. Kevin responded, "It says 'Nick/Fat Ass'," and handed the paper to Nick, knowing that he wouldn't have time to find it.
Everyone instinctively moved away from the stool, except for Nick, who was obviously torn between risking getting caught with the paper while trying to verify his "fat ass," or folding the paper back up and throwing it on the stool while he still could. Kevin nudged Brian and winked at him. He knew the fat joke would get to Nick, but he was relieved that it WASN'T written on the paper. Once more, it was a joke that was acceptable to be shared among them, but not with outsiders.
As Angela's footsteps neared, Nick surrendered and placed the folded paper back onto the stool in its original position.
Chapter Seven
Chapter Five
Story Index
