Chapter Eleven:
Miss You Love
It was the twenty-seventh, five days before New Years and Dana was getting ready to head back to Orlando. Her flight left the next afternoon, it had been cheapest for her to book a Wednesday flight.
Meghan was sitting cross-legged on the bed. "Dana?"
She folded a tee shirt. "Yeah Meggy?"
"Tell me again why I couldn't meet any Backstreet Boys except Brian?"
Dana groaned. Meghan had been obsessed with meeting them the whole time she'd been in Florida, and each time Dana refused Meghan peppered her with more questions. Thankfully Meg hadn't been asking Brian all these things. Dana was starting to think it had been a mistake to introduce Meghan to him. "Just because, Meg."
"If Brian hangs out with you, why don't the rest of them?" Meghan was full of questions.
Dana squeezed the edge of the suitcase and vowed not to scream. "Because," Dana growled through clenched teeth.
"Because why?"
"Because!"
"Oh."
Dana was convinced that her outburst would shut Meghan up, but any hopes flew away in a matter of seconds.
"Brian smelled nice when he hugged me," Meghan cocked her head to one side, and smiled.
"Meg!" Dana shouted finally.
Meghan was silent, and tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.
"Aw, Meghan, come on. I didn't mean to make you cry... " Dana tried to hug her sister, but Meghan pulled away stubbornly. " You just have to realize, Brian doesn't need people treating him like a famous person."
Meghan sniffled, and Dana wiped her cheek.
"What Brian needs is some friends who don't care that he's famous. You know, just regular friends like you and me. I think he was real happy to meet you, someone who didn't ask him for his autograph all the time." She was sucking up to Meghan, desperate to stop the crying.
"Honest?" Meghan peered up at Dana through big eyes.
"Seriously," Dana nodded.
"I liked meeting him too."
'Well duh,' Dana thought sarcastically.
"He was nice," Meg continued. "He was funny too, and-"
"I get the point, Meghan."
"Oh."
"Listen, why don't you go help mom make supper?" All Dana wanted was some quiet time. As much as she loved Meghan, nine straight days with her was a pain in the ass.
Meghan galloped out of the bedroom, and Dana shut the door behind her. She clicked the lock, and dialed Brian's house. As soon as she heard the phone pick up, Dana spoke.
"You better be happy, my sister is your newest biggest fan," Dana told him.
"Hello to you too," Brian smiled.
"God, I'm about to strangle myself, you should have never hugged her, never made her laugh, never said a word! Jeez, she's a pain in the ass!" Dana fell back into the mass of pillows.
"I'm sorry, we'll just prepare a script next time," he told Dana sarcastically.
She laughed.
"There we go, that's my favorite sound!" Brian exclaimed.
"I miss my apartment," Dana sighed.
"I miss you," Brian murmured.
"I get home tomorrow," Dana said hopefully. She missed him too, but was afraid to say so.
"I know, I will too."
"How did Christmas go?" she wondered.
"Great. I never realized how much I missed being home," Brian admitted. "It's nice to see all my old friends, know what I mean?"
"Yeah. It's not the presents that are important anymore, it's the people." Dana laughed. "God, I never thought I would say that!"
"I know. Sometimes I wish I could go back to being a teenager, live everything over again," he reminisced.
Dana grinned into the phone. "I dunno if I'd go that far, but maybe for a day or too it'd be nice."
"Innocence was a great thing," Brian was nostalgic.
"Anyway, before I get weepy eyed, what time does your flight come in?" Dana asked.
"Sometime in the morning, 11:30 I think," he stated. "You?"
"Afternoon, 1:45 or so..."
"I'll meet you at the airport." Brian didn't want to miss the chance to see her.
"Yeah, if I don't die on the plane. I almost wet my pants flying up here, going back will be worse!"
"Naw, just think of me waiting at the airport, and it'll be fine," he insisted.
"Aw, sweet," Dana coughed. A touch of her cold still lingered. "You're my angel."
"I'm your angel," Brian sang back.
She was taken by surprise, but he kept singing.
"I'll be your cloud up in the sky, I'll be your shoulder when you cry, I'll hear your voice when you call me, I'm your angel..."
"Thanks... I needed that," she whispered.
"I wish you were here," Brian told her.
"I wish I was too," Dana responded.
- - -next day- - -
Dana boarded the plane, and strapped herself in. She almost cried when the engine started and the flight attendant started talking about emergency procedures. She was deathly pale, and her hands quickly grew sore from clutching the armrest. When Brian spotted her walking away from the gate after the flight, she was literally shaking.
Brian held out a rose.
"It's pretty," she managed between shakes.
"I wanted it to see how beautiful you were," Brian said sweetly.
"Thanks," her voice quivered.
"Are- are you okay?"
Dana lowered herself to the floor and sat on the dirty carpet. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Just let me remind myself that I'm on solid ground, and we can walk away."
He suppressed a laugh. Dana was crouched on the floor rubbing the carpet with one hand, holding the rose in the other one.
A crowd of girls was slowly moving towards them.
"Uh, Dana?" Brian asked warily.
She stopped rubbing momentarily. "What?"
"We need to get you out of here... "
The girls were getting steadily closer.
"Why?"
"Because someone recognizes me," he explained, pulling on her arm.
Dana shrugged. "So? Just go say hi, it's only one person."
"Actually it's about fifty."
Dana looked up. About thirty metros away there were fifty solemn faces staring at her. "Oh God."
"How about you head down towards the parking lot, I'll grab your bags and uh, come out later." The last thing Brian wanted was for someone to bust out the camera and get photos of Dana all over the Internet.
"Uh huh." Dana looked like a deer caught in headlights. "I'll do that... "
"If- avoid crowds of girls and please, please keep your head low," he advised her.
"Okay, I will."
"Don't talk to people, just go straight out. My car is in lot D, the green-"
"The green jeep," Dana finished. "I know."
"I know you know," Brian smiled.
"You. Go. Fans."
They separated. Brian walked towards the group of girls, Dana went for the door.
- - -a while later- - -
"I don't understand what the big deal is," Dana folded her arms across her chest and stared at the ceiling of Brian's jeep. She was lying across the floor in the trunk, next to her bags.
"It's a matter of publicity," he explained from the front seat.
"It's stupid!"
"It's not stupid Dana." Brian pulled out of the parking space. "It's a precaution for what may happen."
"Nothing is going to happen!" Dana was furious. After waiting in the car for an hour, Brian finally showed up. Dana expected an apology for the wait, maybe an offer to go out for coffee, but something totally different happened. He'd made her get out of the jeep, and get into the trunk with her bags. He dropped a sweater over her legs and told her not to move around too much. "It's not like there was any tabloids or anything!"
"Dana the press don't have to be there for something to be published."
"Okay, let's think that little sentence through, shall we? If the press isn't there, they won't know about it. And if they don't know, good God, they can't publish!" She was waving her arms, and Brian could see a flash of hands in the rear view mirror.
"I'm not thinking about the publishing part, it's just..."
"Just what?" she challenged.
"You've been spotted with me in the airport holding a rose. If somebody sees you in my car, boom. There goes the rumor mill and all of the sudden you're is all over the Internet, 'Brian was seen twice in the same day with the same girl.' " he paused to breathe. " Someone that saw you today will research, ask around, and find out your name. That goes on the Internet. Once your name is out there, pictures will show up from everywhere and you will be resorted to an object. Just like that."
"That would not happen." Dana put one hand behind her head. "People are not that pathetic."
"You'd be surprised."
Dana scoffed. "Plus, how could the press do anything without your consent?"
"Freedom of speech and publication, blah, blah, you get the idea. I have no control over what anybody says."
"And because of this I have to ride in the trunk?" She still didn't believe him.
He sighed and turned on his turning signal. "Yes."
She frowned. "That's a stupid reason."
"I don't care," Brian insisted stubbornly. "Do you want to be on the Internet where zillions of people can see you, or ride in the back of a jeep for thirty minutes and keep your privacy?"
"I think I'd go with that second one."
"I thought so."
Dana sat up. "Do I have to lay down, though?"
"Yeah, the rearview mirror can't exactly see through your head," he pointed out.
She stuck her tongue out before lying down. "Obviously."
"You know you could be grateful to me."
"Oh yeah, that's gonna happen," Dana laughed.
They rode in silence for a few seconds.
"Can you at least put on the radio? Its really boring back here."
He obliged, and surfed through stations until Dana said stop. "You like silverchair?"
Dana nodded, but realized Brian couldn't see her head because of the seat. "Yeah, especially this song."
"What's it called again?"
" 'Miss You Love.' "
Brian smiled. "How convenient, I miss you too."
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