Chapter Thirteen
Stephanie was to attend her first concert that night. She, Carly, Maryanne, Phillip, and Charles had been provided with consecutive seats in the fourth row, center. And since none of them had any clothes besides their work uniforms, the Backstreet Boys had promised to foot the bill for a minor shopping spree.
Once in Charlotte, the bus drove first to the hotel for check-in. Everyone but Fatima and the band dumped their stuff in their hotel rooms and got back on the buses that were going to the arena. Once there, the crew unloaded the equipment and began to set up the stage. The sound check was scheduled for 3 o'clock. It was 11 A.M. With 4 hours on their hands, the Boys, Aaron, the Mickey D's employees, and the BSB bodyguards loaded onto one bus and headed for the nearest mall. Once there, they split into three groups. Kevin, AJ, Howie, and two of the bodyguards made up group one. Phillip and Charles made up group two. Brian, Nick, Aaron, Stephanie, Carly, Maryanne, and the two remaining bodyguards made up group three. Aaron and the Boys all put on their hats and everyone split up.
Stephanie was having enormous fun. Her group was slowly but surely making their rounds of the 5 department stores and many clothing stores. Brian and Nick were constantly laughing at jokes between themselves. So Stephanie dropped back with Carly and Maryanne. They, of course, wanted to know all the details about what had happened between her and Brian. In between their many clothes fittings, Stephanie managed to tell them everything but the extremely personal stuff. They were both totally envious, but happy that she was happy.
The were in their last department store, having yet to make purchases, when they discovered a whole section filled with really cute dresses. Maryanne found a baby blue double-layered dress that showed off her blue eyes and blond hair. Carly found a tight, little black dress that showed off her athletic body and auburn curls. And Stephanie found a white dress made of eyelet lace. She had watched Brian's face when she came out to model it for him. His sudden intake of breath assured her that this was the perfect dress. She thought it showed off her curves quite nicely.
"Like it?" she teased as she went to give Brian a kiss.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, yeah" was all he could manage to get out. Stephanie gave him a self-satisfied smile.
"I thought you might!" she asserted and flounced back into the dressing room.
While they were there, the girls all bought a pair of jeans and a shirt. It was almost time to meet the others at the exit by the bus.
Stephanie's group was late meeting the others because, despite the bodyguards warnings of the time, Nick had absolutely insisted that he needed food. So everyone stopped in the food court and got their food to go. Back on the bus, everyone ate. Brian kept stealing Stephanie's fries, so eventually she just took to feeding them to Brian. Kevin thought this was an extremely cute thing, so he hunted out his video camera and began taping.
"Hey, Rok!" he called after filming them for a minute. Brian looked up. Seeing the camera, he waved and made a funny face.
"Hi, Mom!" he called out.
"How sweet! He calls the camera his mommy" Stephanie teased him.
"For that, woman..." he teasingly growled and started tickling her.
"Stop!" she screeched.
"Hey, Brian, I hate to interrupt ya again, but maybe you oughta tell Aunt Jackie who this pretty lady you're ticklin' is" Kevin suggested.
"Oh, yeah........." Brian grinned at the camera. "Miss Funny-Bones here" he pointed at Stephanie while looking at the camera, "is Stephanie. What did you say your last name was again?" he asked.
Stephanie rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed heavily. Everyone started laughing. "Mrs. Littrell, my name is Stephanie Bradl. Someday you're going to have to hear my side of how I met these guys. I'm not sure I trust your son here to give the straight facts" she managed to say with a straight face as she looked at the camera.
"You discounting my credibility here?" he asked, the injured puppy dog look on his face again.
"Excuse the language, but hell yeah!" she exclaimed.
"Mom, meet my girlfriend" he told the camera, laughing.
Nick, AJ, and Howie were practically in tears by this point. Even Kevin had to laugh at the martyred expression on Stephanie's face.
AJ finally said, gasping "Rok, she's a keeper! Anyone who can tease you and be this good at it is worth keepin' around!"
"Yeah, I think she's a keeper, too" Brian agreed as he dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. Stephanie smiled at him and leaned over to kiss the tip of his nose.
Nick groaned. "Great, the lovebirds are back" he muttered.
"You're just to young to understand" Brian told him loftily.
Nick grinned. "You seem to be forgetting the fact that your girlfriend is two years younger than me!" he pointed out gleefully.
"And may I remind you that until you hit somewhere in your mid twenties, you will be about three years younger in your maturity level, while girls such as I are mentally more mature than our age. That makes for a 4 or 5 year difference!" Stephanie cheerfully retorted. Nick groaned as everyone began laughing again.
"I challenge you to a game of Mario Kart" he announced.
"You're on!" she replied. Nick headed for the back of the bus.
"Uh, Steph, I hope you know how to play Nintendo" Brian said slowly.
"Not to worry, sweetheart. Have you forgotten already that I have a 16-year-old brother?" she cheerfully replied. She kissed Brian's cheek and followed Nick. The were in the middle of a close race when the arrived at the venue, so they vowed to put it off till later that night. Lucky for Nick......
