Chapter 11
Riana woke up the next morning to find the sky gray. She shook her head, gray clouds always foreshadowed a bad day. She stretched, and noticed she was wearing the same clothes she had worn the night before. Riana shuddered at the chill from the opened window. She walked over to it and shut it, but stopped and looked through it to see the many people in the small town. It bustled with business, almost looked too chaotic to even go sightseeing a little bit. She walked out of the room and was welcomed with the aroma of bacon and eggs. She looked up and saw Nick sitting on the kitchen counter, eating a bagel and reading the sports section of the newspaper. He looked up when he heard her emerge from his room.
"Hey Riana," he said, hopping off the counter and walking over towards her. "Did you have a good night's sleep?" he asked. He walked back over to his bagel and took a bite.
"Yeah, I did. Thank you, Nick. Did you make all of this yourself?" she asked, gesturing towards the food. He shook his head.
"Good ol' Room Service," he said with a smile. He stood up from his chair and walked over towards the food on the counter in the kitchen. "Ok, we have fresh fruit, bagels, pancakes, cereal...You name it, we've got it!" He laughed, rifling through the bags.
"Well, I'm actually not really hungry," she told him. She sat down at the table and he followed her.
"OK, that's fine. But if you do, there's plenty of food," he said. She nodded and they sat in comfortable silence for about ten minutes. Riana sat in the chair, daydreaming at the floor while Nick occasionally chuckled from the Funnies in the paper. Riana cleared her throat and spoke.
"I want to thank you, Nick. You know, for allowing me to stay in your bed last night. It was appreciated," she said. Nick looked at her for a second and then laughed.
"It was no problem. But, I do have one question. Is it just me or does every single person I meet from England always have to be so proper?" he asked. Riana laughed.
"Well, it's just my nature to be polite, Nick. I can't help it." She said. She watched him laugh again. "Now what's so funny?"
"The way you talk! Say 'can't' again," he begged. She looked at him strangely before obeying him.
"Can't."
"You did it again!"
"Did what again Nick?" she asked him. She was getting confused.
"You said 'con't'!"
"That's how you say it, isn't it?"
"No, it's can't, not con't! I know its the British accent you have, but it sounds funny," he said.
"Oh, shut up," she said. She reached over and smacked his head with his newspaper.
"So what do you want to do today?" Nick asked her. She turned to look at him.
"Well, I looked outside the window and there is so many people out there today. It looks almost too hard to even walk!" Riana said with a smile.
"Well, we can try it," Nick said.
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"You were right!" Nick said as they dodged mothers with kids, grandparents, and strollers.
"I told you so," Riana teased. Nick turned around from his status in front of her and stuck his tongue out. They walked into many shops, revealing that the Philippines were very expensive for the money they had. Only a few people stopped Nick for being a Backstreet Boy, and a few stopped for Riana for being a model. They both knew that if they wanted to get through the day peacefully, they needed disguises.
"Welcome, my friends," a woman said to them as they entered the store. The store was filled with costumes.
"Hello," they said politely and continued looking. Nick picked up a chicken costume.
"How about this Riana?" he asked. She looked at him from her Marylyn Monroe costume. She burst out laughing.
"I dare you to wear that, Nick." She challenged. "Only if you wear this," Nick said, pulling out a dragon costume.
"Fine," said Riana, walking over to him to take her costume. She disappeared into the dressing room first and struggled with her costume. After many tries, she finally fit the suit over her body and put on her mask. She walked out to see Nick laughing at her.
"Riana. You look so funny!" he laughed. He held his stomach from laughter.
"Well, go get your costume on." She said. She shoved him into the dressing room and closed the curtain shut. She meandered over towards the jewelry section of the store, careful not to knock over any precious materials with her tail. She stopped by the door and noticed an old woman, sitting there looking straight ahead into the ocean.
"Excuse me, miss, can I help you?" the womman asked suddenly. Riana jumped. The woman had startled her.
"Um, no thank you. I'm just looking," Riana said, taking the mask off her face so the woman could see her.
"We have a wonderful collection of lucky rocks," the woman said. She waddled behind the counter and took out a box of carefully wrapped fragile rocks. They were many colors, grape purple, ocean blue.
"Wow, these are beautiful rocks," Riana said, picking up the blue one.
"You can have it. It's free, my dear. Do you know what these rocks mean?" the woman asked. She leaned closer to Riana.
"No," Riana said, shaking her head.
"Well, my dear. The one that you have chosen means love. You will find love with someone very close to you. Closer than you know it. Just give it time, love. He will come to you and you will be very happy." The woman finished. Riana just stared at her with a blank expression on her face. Who could she be talking about? That's when it hit her. Nick. She was talking about Nick. How could this woman know anything about Riana's love life? Or what was to become of it?
"Thank you very much," Riana said with a smile on her face. She placed the beautiful ocean blue stone inside her costume. She walked back towards the dressing room and waited for Nick to come out. She couldn't get the woman's words out of her head. 'Just give it time.' How much time? Riana awoke from her thoughts when a patch of feathers blurred the corner of her eyes. She took one look at Nick and laughed, forgetting all about what the woman had said.
"I wouldn't be laughing," Nick threatened, raising a feathered finger in her direction. They both laughed as they paid for their purchases and walked out into the busy streets. The old woman shook her head. "Soon enough, my dear. Soon enough."
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Nick and Riana ignored the looks that the pedestrians gave them and laughed. They had walked into stores and bought many things.
"Hey, wait!" Nick said. He stopped and pulled Riana into a small shop containing cameras and camcorders.
"Let's buy this one!" Nick said, picking up a camcorder. "
Nick! That looks like a lot of money!"
"So? I can spare some money, so can you." Nick said. He walked up to the counter and bought a few blank tapes along with the camera. They sat themselves down on the bench outside the store and Nick fiddled with the camera, finally figuring out how to press the record button. He took off his chicken head and looked into the camera.
"Hello, my name is Nick, and to my left, is the lovely, Riana," he said. He focused the camera on the dragon next to him. She laughed and then took off her mask, smiling a beautiful smile into the lens.
"Hello!" she said. Nick turned the camera so it faced him, and began to blab away about where he was when Riana noticed a group of girls look strangely at Nick. They must have knew who he was despite his chicken suit, and they ran in their direction. Nick looked up just in time to see Riana's eyes widen. They quickly jumped up and ran as fast as they could. They ran through stores, but only noticed that the group had expanded to about twenty curious people.
"Look! It's the ship!" Riana called and ran faster than she had ever ran in her life. When they reached the ship, they slowed down and stood on the deck and watched as the crowd came to a halting stop.
"That was close!" Riana said. She put her mask back on.
"Yeah, I know. And I got it all on tape," Nick said with a laugh.
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"So, let me get this straight. Both of you went out into the busy streets and bought disguises as a chicken and a dragon," Brian repeated that night during dinner. Nick and Riana both nodded.
"That's one of the most funniest things I have ever heard!" Leah laughed. Riana smiled. She had long been out of her dragon suit. Now she sat at the club wearing a short spaghetti strap black dress. She let her blonde hair flow down tonight. She had just finished her meal and was eager to get out onto the dance floor. It looked so tempting.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to boogie!" AJ said.
"I'm right behind ya," Leah said. AJ led her onto the dance floor and Kevin and Howie soon followed.
"Nick, you wanna dance?" Riana asked him. She hoped for a yes.
"Nah, I'll be out there a little later," Nick said, focusing the camera on Riana. She laughed.
"Are you ever going to put that thing down?" Brian joked.
"No, it's his new toy," Riana said.
"Well, if Nick's not gonna dance, would you like to dance Riana?" Brian asked.
"Sure," Riana smiled. Brian took her hand and led her to dance. The music was blasting and the beat was great.
Nick watched from the table as Brian and Riana danced to yet ANOTHER song. He had lost count a while ago. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy towards his best friend.
"Why should I? She's not mine," Nick said outloud. He smiled when Riana returned to the table.
"Hey Nick!!" she said loudly. She reached for Kevin's drink and gulped it down in a second. "Woah," she laughed, falling into the booth.
"Riana, are you ok?" Nick asked.
"Me? I'm just GREAT!" she slurred. Nick could tell she was drunk. "Where's Brian?" Riana asked. She ran back to dance before Nick could say a thing. A few moments later Brian returned with Riana dangling loosely on his arm.
"Riana's a little tired. I'm gonna take her back to the ship, ok?" Brian asked Nick. Nick nodded.
"Sure, I'll see ya later," he said. He zoomed the camera onto Riana's too happy face.
"I'll see ya later Nick," Brian said. He sounded a little tipsy, too. He watched them leave and decided to follow them.
"I feel like an idiot," Nick said to himself as he followed twenty feet behind them. He stood behind a plant and watched them as they neared Riana's door. He heard the door open and he felt a tap on his back. He turned around, not realizing that he still had the camera on.
"Yes?" he asked the woman.
"Are you Nick Carter?" the woman asked. Nick sighed and signed an autograph just as his camera recorded Riana's door closing.
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"I don't think you're well enough to walk on your own tonight. How many drinks did you have?" Brian asked as he walked Riana into her bedroom. He placed her on her bed and sat next to her. Even though he was half drunk, he was still extremely happy to be with his secret crush.
"Oh, I don't know. 1, 2, maybe 12," Riana laughed.
"Well, you go to bed and I'll mall you in the corning. I meant, call you in the morning," Brian slurred. They burst out laughing and didn't realize they were getting closer by the second. They realized when they felt their lips touching one another. Brian pulled away.
"Good night, Riana." He stood up but she grabbed his arm.
"Where are you going?" Riana asked and kissed him again. She reached behind her and turned off her light just as their clothes fell to the floor.
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