Chapter Fourteen
Both the sound check and the concert that night went smoothly. Stephanie had the time of her life at the concert. She may have been surrounded by a bunch of screaming, preadolescent girls, but that didn't bother her. Especially since she was mentioned twice indirectly during the concert. Before they sang "I'll Never Break Your Heart", Kevin said "This goes out to all the lovebirds in our house tonight" with a look at Brian, who looked down at her and grinned. And before they sang "All I Have To Give" Brian announced that they were singing this song as a special request and dedication. Stephanie blushed as Carly and Maryanne squealed and began jumping up and down. One of each of them was on each of Stephanie's sides with Phillip next to Maryanne and Charles on the other side of Carly. Stephanie got the attention off of her by asking them at intermission what was going on in each of their love lives. They both blushed, laughed, and giggled. The guys had been sent to buy cokes for each of them.
Later that night, Stephanie went to get her shower so she wouldn't have to bother with it later. Brian, whose room adjoined hers (Nick and Aaron had been kind enough to switch rooms with Stephanie, though she didn't escape without teasing), had agreed to get his shower at the same time so that they could spend as much as their remaining time together as possible. The Boys had agreed to pay for the plane tickets to get Stephanie and her friends home. Stephanie's parents had insisted that she come home immediately, so she had a flight at 10 A.M.
Stephanie had just gotten out of the shower and had begun to dry off when she realized that she didn't have anything to wear to bed. Hoping that Brian had taken a shorter shower than she had, she wrapped the giant hotel towel around herself and went to knock on the door that joined their room. She could hear the TV on the other side of the door.
"Come in!" he yelled over the sound of the TV laugh-track.
Stephanie opened the door and saw Brian stretched out on his bed. "Brian, I kind have a problem..." she started out.
"What?" he asked before tearing his eyes from the TV screen. "Uh, Steph, where are your clothes?" He saw her standing in the doorway wearing nothing but a towel with her wet hair dripping beads of water.
"You see, that my problem. I forgot to get something to sleep in so I was wondering if-"
Brian broke her off. "If you could borrow something. Sure." He jumped off his bed and went to the corner of the room where his overflowing suitcase sat. Clothes were strewn all over the corner, on the doorknob leading out to the hall, on the chairs. "What exactly did you want?" Brian asked her, but trying to keep his eyes off her. If this wasn't temptation, then he didn't know what was.
"A really long shirt's okay, but I can make do with a T-shirt and a pair of shorts" she said, walking over to where he stood, trying not to step on anything.
Brian leaned over and began searching through his junk. "Ah hah" he said triumphantly and held up one of the many Kentucky Wildcats T-shirts he had with him, though this particular one was his favorite. He handed her the shirt and scanned the mess once more. He saw a pair of his Umbros peeking out from under a pair of jeans and pulled them out. "There you go" he told Stephanie as he handed them to her.
"Thank you so much, Bri" she said as she got up on her tiptoes to kiss him on his cheek. She walked towards her room, unaware that Brian stood rooted to his spot watching her, and closed the door.
Stephanie quickly changed, blow-dried her hair, and brushed her teeth before going back into Brian's room. Now he was on the phone, with the TV turned down some. Stephanie picked up the remote from off the bed and started flipping through the channels, half listening to Brian's conversation. She soon figured out that it was Nick, and that it wasn't really a conversation worth listening to. Stephanie stopped at the preview channel, sat down on Brian's bed, and watched the previews to see if anything interesting was on. She saw a bunch of reruns were scheduled, and some movies that didn't really interest her. Then she saw something interesting- HBO was playing Titanic, and it had only started 20 minutes ago. Stephanie flipped to the channel, turned up the volume a little, and laid down on the bed on her stomach, with her feet towards the headboard and her chin resting on her hands. She soon became so engrossed in the story of Jack and Rose, that she never noticed that Brian had gotten off of the phone.
Brian watched Stephanie for a minute before laying down next to her. She didn't acknowledge him. "Boo!" he whispered, tugging on a piece of her hair, which hung loose.
"Brian!" she whipped her head around to glare at him. "Quiet! Cal and Rose are fighting!"
"Great! I finally get some free time to spend with my girl and she'd rather watch Leonardo DiCaprio!" Brian teased her. That got her attention.
"Oh, Brian, I'm so sorry!" she wailed, flinging herself into his arms. "It's just that I haven't seen this since it first came out, and you were on the phone!"
"It's okay!" Brian laughed. "I was only teasing! We can finish watching it together." With that settled, Brian turned around and piled all the pillows against the headboard. He leaned back to watch the movie while Stephanie came to curl up against his side, using his chest for a pillow. Stephanie had her hand resting on his chest, so Brian picked it up to hold it while his other hand played with her hair. Despite himself, Brian actually watched the movie, and enjoyed it. He especially liked the part where Jack died. Brian hadn't cared much for Leonardo DiCaprio since Leo had gone and insulted the Backstreet Boys' music on live TV.
Stephanie hated the part where Jack died. It was so sad! She tried to hold her tears in, but they spilled over and soaked Brian's shirt. She used her free hand to wipe her eyes. Brian reached over onto the nightstand and pulled a tissue out of the box and handed it to her. "Thanks" she mumbled.
"No prob" he told her. Of course, she would cry for poor old Leo. When the movie was finally over, Brian turned off the TV. The room was totally dark now. The bedside clock told him that it was 1:30 A.M. "I hate to be the party-pooper here, Steph, sweetie, but it's late and neither of us exactly got a lot of sleep last night!"
She laughed. "Another understatement of the year!" she told him. "Hey, Bri?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't mind if I stay here do you?" Stephanie asked, holding her breath.
"Not as long as you don't get fresh with me, young lady" he teased.
Stephanie laughed. "You're absurd!" she told him.
"Thank you, thank you. Unfortunately, I cannot bow at the moment-"
Stephanie lifted her hand and lightly smacked his chest, giving a satisfying thump.
"Oofff" he grunted. "Now what was that for?"
"Getting a swollen head" she said sweetly.
"I'm gonna have to teach to keep tour mouth shut, young lady" he threatened.
"How's that?"
Brian sat up, grabbed her under her arms and dragged her up the bed until she was leaning against the pillows. "This is how" he whispered as he leaned over and began to kiss her.
