Tour--Chapter Eleven and Twelve
Tour--Chapter Eleven
'ahhaahhhhh...." I yawned trying to wipe the sleep
from my eyes. A single ray of sunlight streamed
through the curtains and right onto my face and
although it bothered me I didn't feel like getting up
to close the curtains.
> > Suddenly I realized that the sun being out meant
that it was at least past 7 AM 'great I overslept and
I've kept everyone waiting-way to go Erika you are so
smooth-dang its already 8:45" I talked to myself as I
got up and looked at the clock. As I put the clock
down I started to walk towards the bathroom and did a
double take to the night stand. Next to the phone was
a yellow sheet of paper, I picked it up and read
-good morning guess your awake. Well we all decided
that you needed to sleep in and we didn't think you'd
mind missing technical rehearsal, we left at 7. when
you are ready to come down page John and he'll pick
you up-Don't forget your security pass. Before you
come make sure all you re stuff is packed and bring
it with you, don't forget anything as we probably
won't get to go back to the hotel before we leave
tonight.
> > Call me when you wake up
> > Denise.
> >
> > I read Denise's note and fell back on my bed as I
thought to myself 'geesh they're thoughtful, but I
still feel like a bit of a nuisance'. I grabbed the
phone and dialed Denise's cell number "Hi its
Erika.." I told the voice on the other end, it didn't
sound like Denise,"is this Denise?" I asked a bit
perplexed "no its Earl, the security guard, Denise is
in a meeting at the moment I can call her.." "noo
thats OK, can you please just tell her that Erika
called and she's awake.." I interrupted him cause I
didn't want him to interrupt the meeting, "I
appreciate it Thank you" and I hung up. I walked to
the window and opened the curtains. I was hit by a
wall of hot Georgia sunlight -baddd idea- I thought
to myself and closed them. After I did the normal
morning routines I got dressed in a loose t-shirt
with a design of breaching dolphins on the front on a
ocean background and blue jean shorts. I went down to
the hotel's restaurant and ordered a fruit platter
and a strawberry/banana smoothie for breakfast. As I
ate I watched all the people that came in and out of
the restaurant and wondered about how different each
of their lives are. Twenty minutes later I got my
check and payed the cashier, leaving a tip on the
table. As I walked back to my room my cell rang, it
was Denise. "Yes I'm fine... you guys should have
woken me up, I feel like such a burden. Well I'm
going to do some laundry before I pack up and then I
was going to call my mom for a few minutes.. do you
or the guys have anything you want me to wash?" "no
thanks, they did their own laundry before they left
this morning and I did mine while you guys were out
yesterday. After you fell asleep in the van last
night and Nick had to carry you to your room no one
had the heart to wake you this morning so we let you
sleep. You need to come before noon ok? just call
John and he'll pick you up, talk to you later bye..
oh by the way your journal is safe on the bus.." we
hung up and I kept walking. I thought of how
incredible the last five days had been and how close
I felt to all of them. I stopped briefly at the
concierge desk and asked where the laundry room was.
When I got back to my room I threw the curtains open
and let the sunlight flood my room. After I brushed
my teeth I realized it was already 9:30. I stuffed
money and my cell into my pockets, grabbed my laundry
bag and went to the laundry room. While I waited for
my laundry I called up Megan. At first she was upset
that I woke her up before noon but she got over it
quickly. We talked for about 25 minutes and then I
let her go back to sleep. Then I called my mom but
she couldn't talk for long because she was on a long
distance call with a very important customer, she
promised to call me back at lunch. It took the
laundry longer then I expected so I grabbed the
newspaper that was sitting on a chair next to me and
read it. To my surprise the boys were on the cover of
the entertainment section. The journalist
complimented the concert and the boys' skills and
talked about the raging fans. I laughed remembering
all the teddy bears and chocolates we had to pick up.
Before I could get to the second part my laundry was
done so I took the paper and my stuff with me back to
my room. I was not at all surprised to see lots of
people in the hall ways of the hotel, I then realized
why the guys left so early. One of those people was
one of the girls from the pool the previous day, and
she recognized me. She walked next to me "Hi, I'm
Jessica" " Hi, I'm Erika" I tried to shake her hand
but I would have dropped all my stuff if I did, we
both laughed. "So are you like one of the guy's
girlfriend?" "pardon?" I said shocked at weather I
had heard the question right or not. "You know, one
of the backstreet boys.." "No We're just friends.." I
said still in slight shock. "well then how come you
are staying in the hotel with them? Are you the girl
that won that contest?" "the one and only.." I said
smiling. She seemed like such a nice person "well it
was nice meeting you, enjoy your month of bliss"
"thanks, I'll tell the guys your a fan. I might see
you at the concert. Bye." We had reached my room and
she noticed that I was in a bit of a rush. While I
was walking it was the first time I had really looked
at the hotel, it was amazing. The walls and carpeting
were coordinated in a smooth calm color pattern. I
went into my room and finished packing. By the time I
was done it was already 10:20. I refixed my hair and
put on lip gloss,the last few days had of excitement
were murder on my lips. I beeped John and a minute
later he called back "Ok I'll pick you up in the
front of the hotel. I'll be there in about 15
minutes, OK? good. Make sure you don't get lost, I
don't want to be the one to lose you 5 days into your
adventure" "thanks John, I think I'll manage bye." I
hungup and inspected the room to make sure I hadn't
forgotten anything. I was glad I did since I had left
a lipstick and my saints necklace in the bathroom. I
must have taken it off to go swimming. I did one more
round of the room till I was satisfied that I had
forgotten nothing. I checked to make sure that my
security pass was inside my shirt,I put my sunglasses
on my head, I grabbed both of my bags and my room key
and left the room. I checked out at the front desk
and left them my key. I still had time so I made a
pit stop at the gift shop to buy some candy. I ended
up buying 2 packs of NERDS and 2 packs of bubble gum
since I probably wouldn't get to stop in a
convenience store any time soon. I walked out the
front door and stood for a few minutes. The doorboy
was pretty cute, he looked like a surfer, so I
started talking to him while I waited for John. We
were talking and after I told him who I was he said
"oh so you are the girl that security was guarding
all last night and this morning... cool" "pardon what
did u say about security?" "oh you didn't know, the
hotel was told to have you under security so since
last night there's been a security guard outside your
room and watching you when you left it...the whole
staff is talking about you and the Backstreet
Boys...we've had big name actors here before but
never music stars.." "really I was under security?"I
said in a daze,at that moment I heard a car honking
and I turned to see John pulling up to the curb "well
it was nice talking to you Dean,bye", I walked up to
the van and sat shotgun. The whole drive there John
and I talked about our lives. The whole time though I
kept pondering the security situation. John was
extremely pleasant and smart. At the theater he
opened the bus for me to put my stuff in, it was
parked really close to the back door of the theater.
The only noise outside were the birds chirping under
the blazing sun and the background noise of cars and
trucks speeding on the street nearby. I left my stuff
in the bus but kept my duffel bag with me. We climbed
up some stairs and stopped in front of a black door.
John went in first, when I stepped through I saw one
of the security guys standing against the wall to the
right of the door. I was about to show him my
security badge when he smiled at me and said 'its ok
Erika I know who you are' I smiled back. I thought to
myself that everyone who works with the guys is
really nice. When I stepped into the backstage area
it was like I had stepped into a completely different
world from that outside.
> > Inside was a cacophony of sounds. The part that
I walked into was the very back near the dressing
rooms and parts of stage craft. Inside it was almost
as bright as it was outside, except without the heat,
the thermostat must have been turned to 70. There
were people bustling about, every one with something
to do and quickly. John left me because he had stuff
to do also so I slowly walked to the stage trying as
hard as I could to stay out of everyone's way. It
didn't work so I decided to help instead. I helped
one guy fix a light that had broken during last
night's performance. I finally found Denise helping
to reorganize security for the night's show. I
patiently stood in the background till she finished.
"Hi your here good, I hope you slept well. I'm sorry
we left you but we really had to get here and we
didn't want to wake you up.." "Oh I understand, I
just wish I weren't such a burden on everyone."I said
trying to apologize "You a burden don't be
ridiculous, if e thought you were you wouldn't be
here. Plus you keep those guys inline and its nice to
have someone on the bus to talk to that isn't
controlled by testosterone.." we both laughed. "Do
you want me on bear detail again today?" I asked
"would you please, that would be so helpfull""in the
meantime I could find someone who needs help.." I
said planning on making myself as usefull as humanly
possible "Ohh you don't have to, this is your
vacation""but I want to,otherwise I'll feel useless
and I'd rather help.." "OK just don't get yourself
killed or your mother will have my head" she said
smiling as she walked away to do something.After
Denise left I made my way to the stage and found that
the guys were practicing dance moves with their
choreographer. She is incredibly beautiful and smart.
Her dancing abilities are incredible. She always
comes up with new and more interesting routines for
the guys. I admire her talent and dedication. The
guys were wearing sweat pants and t-shirts, they
looked as if they were absolutely drenched in sweat,
thats probably why the AC was turned so low. I found
myself a chair behind and to the left of the guys and
sat down to watch. They had just finished going over
some old routines that they had down packed. They
then started practicing a new routine which I had
never seen before. Out of the corner of my eye I saw
a lock of blond hair coming my way and turned to see
Aaron walking towards me. I waved hi to him and he
waved back. He found himself a chair and sat down
next to me. "So why aren't you over there too...?" I
asked teasing "I get a break cause I don't need to
know that routine" he said with a smug expression on
his face, I then realized that he had been sweating
too and was drinking a bottle of water. "so when's
our next math lesson?" I asked him teasingly
"tomorrow, I have more homework.." he said in one
long sigh. We both just sat there watching the guys.
They had to repeat the routine several times, they
were concentrating so hard they didn't notice the
first couple of times Aaron and I laughed when they
messed up the routine. The routine was really
difficult and the guys were starting to get
frustrated with themselves, so she told them to take
a ten minute break and cool off physically and
mentally. The guys said something to each other
quickly and then came walking towards us, suddenly
they started running towards us. Not knowing yet
expecting the worse Aaron and I made a run for it and
headed for the dressing rooms but we weren't fast
enough. The guys reached us and gave us huge bear
hugs making sure to get as much of their sweat on us
as they could ".aahhwhww you guys reek..." I said in
between breaths, they really did reek and although
they had on deodorant they had been working hard for
a couple of hours so by now it had worn off. Everyone
watching must off thought that we were being squeezed
to death from the screaming, they just laughed and
kept working. Aaron and I shriveled in disgust as
they let us go while they laughed so hard they could
barely breath "well..good morning to you
too...ahhwww.." I said as I tried not to think about
how gross that was. "And you guys... thought we...
didn't hear... you laughing..." Kevin said through
laughs, the rest of them were still trying to
recuperate from the laughter "I'm sorry..we just
couldn't resist.." Brian said tossing me a towel, "It
was Aj and Nick's idea...but boy was it a good one.."
Howie said regaining his breath "well I'm glad you
guys enjoyed it cause I sure didn't expect that as my
morning greeting" I said letting a half disgusted
smile come through. Aaron was just plain old
disgusted, he jumped on AJ and gave him a noogie. I
finished drying myself off as best as I could and
tossed the towel in Nick's face and he caught it just
before it hit him. We laughed. The five of them were
still so sweaty that their hair was completely wet
from it. We went to the food table and they guzzled
down almost a liter of water each. While they drank
the choreographer came bye and said "You guys worked
really hard today, lets just end rehearsal for today,
you all look terrible..." the guys cheered in
agreement and thanked her. They fell to the floor in
exhaustion, Aaron and I just stood there still
feeling a bit of disgust from the previous moments.
While the guys were passed out on the floor we helped
one of the crew with the wiring of the lights. When
the boys finally recuperated we helped with some of
the tasks that needed to be done like moving
equipment, setting it up and so on, nothing could be
too permanent since it would have to be quickly
dismantled and loaded onto trucks that night. By then
the seven of us reeked and we were all dripping
sweat. I smelled worse than when I usually work out
because of their little trick earlier. Kevin
realizing all my stuff was in the bus gave me a clean
t-shirt from his bag so I could change, I thanked him
several times.They changed clothes too and at least
they didn't stink anymore. At around 12 everyone
started getting hungry and the guys were in the mood
for pizza, "Ok so I'll order 8 extra large, ROk,
Aaron,ET you guys want extra cheese, Nicky and D you
guys want pepperoni, Train you want black olives, and
I want green peppers, sounds good, you guys want
anything else...ok" AJ said as he went to a phone to
order the pizza, "bone get hot wings.." Nick yelled
at him "K...", AJ yelled back. After having seen
these six eat, I was hoping it would be enough. AJ
came back after 5 minutes. The behind the scenes area
was incredible, there were hundreds of lights and
sounds. The musical instruments were finally set up
on the stage, they had been removed so the guys could
practice their choreography. "so how did you sleep.."
Howie asked me as he sipped on some apple juice,
"great, I just wish you guys had woken me up when you
woke up, I feel like such a burden.." "don't worry
about it, we wish we got to sleep in like you do.."he
told me trying to make me feel better about it. "if I
fall asleep in the car again you can wake me up,
thanks though.." I said laughing to Nick "it's ok,
you looked really peaceful and none of us felt like
waking you up, I was kind of jealous... did you know
you talk in your sleep?" he said 'the stuff you said
could be really incriminating in the hands of the
wrong person.." AJ said laughing, a bit worried of
what I could have said I asked them smiling "I know I
mumble but what did I say..?" "can't tell ya..."
Kevin said smiling in amusement "great I probably
told you guys some dark secret that nobody knows..."
I said smiling though a bit worried. "Anyway, how
come there were so many girls at the hotel, I thought
we had kept it pretty low key..." AJ asked Kevin
"...don't change the subject on me...come on tell me
what I said.." I said in a slightly pleading voice to
them. We were sitting at a round table near the food
towards the front of the stage. "I guess you'll never
know.." Nick said laughing "... you are absolutely
horrible.." I said to him laughing and I threw a
carrot stick at him, I would soon regret it. The
carrot bounced off of Nick's head and hit Brian on
the forehead. "ohh yeah..." Bri said and threw a
carrot stick at me, we ended up in a mini food fight
that consisted of carrot and celery sticks and pieces
of raw cauliflower and broccoli. The rest of the band
was sitting with us and they got into the acting too.
Even Kevin who usually was the most reserved got into
it. We finally stopped when we ran out of carrot
sticks and my cell rang, it was my mom. Her and I
talked for about ten minutes, every once in a while
someone would break out laughing and she could hear
it. I didn't tell her though. We said good bye and I
promised to call her that night from the bus and hung
up We realized the mess we had made so we cleaned it
up. "Did you guys order pizza?" came a yell from the
back door, "yeah we did, I'll get it" Nick yelled
back and went to get it while we reorganized the
table and chairs, Aaron got paper plates and napkins
from somewhere. He came back with the pizzas and hot
wings,inhaling as much of the aroma as he could, they
must have been ravenous with hunger. We sat down and
had lunch. Every time someone would go by Brian
offered them a slice of pizza, a couple of people
accepted. Denise sat down and had lunch with us.
Brian and Nick acted foolish the whole time making
everybody laugh. I wondered if they spent all their
time like this. I was surprisingly hungry after I
realized I hadn't eaten dinner in three days. When we
were done there wasn't even a trace of anything that
might resemble a pizza, the only thing left of the
hot wings were the bones. By the time we finished
cleaning up and reorganizing the little area we
messed up it was 1:30 PM. "we should start practicing
our music guys, D wanna start us off with some
guitar?" Kevin's powerfull voice broke through the
amusement, "good idea, I've been feeling like some
good drumming today.." Nick said his eyes shining at
the idea. We all washed our hands and went to the
stage. The guys all took turns playing their
respective parts of several songs. At one point Nick
just played the soul out of his drum set as we held
our hands of our ears, he found it extremely amusing.
Around three o'clock they all took a break.
Incredibly I had run out of gum by then because I
shared with everyone. "guys I'm gonna take a walk to
the convenience store two streets down, anybody need
anything...?" I asked "yeah hold on a sec.." Brian
said and I saw that they all needed something. 10
minutes later I found myself walking down the street
with a list of things to buy and $30 dollars in my
pocket from the guys. The sun was high in the sky and
beating down hard, it was really hot outside. The
roads were busy of cars coming and going with a
purpose. Twenty minutes later I finally got to the
store, I relished the cold air inside the store. It
took me about ten minutes to find everything that the
guys wanted. The cashier must have thought I was
creating some survival pack. I had 15 packs of gum,
several magazines, candy, chips, a few bottles of
Orbitz, and some other stuff. It took her a while to
scan everything so we chatted about stuff, I found
out she would be going to the concert. In my mind I
thanked Kevin for the shirt, it was light and airy
especially since it was a few sizes too big. I walked
out of the store with three bags of stuff. By the
time I got back to the theater it was 4 o'clock and
since tonight's concert was going to be an early
bird- 7PM, there were already tons of people waiting
outside the front doors and even by the back door. I
forcefully made my way up the steps and to the door,
having to walk through a wall of girls. At the door I
knocked the way John had and Earl opened the door
slightly. I smiled at him and showed him my pass. He
smiled back and whispered "get in quick...". some of
the girls by the door saw the door open and started
screaming. I ran through the door.As Earl closed it a
bunch of girls started knocking on the door till some
security guards pushed them away. I found the guys
and sighed "hope you don't plan to leave any time
soon... you'll have to part the sea of fans.."
"seriously they are already out there...geez" was
Aaron's comment, "do you guys want any of your stuff
now, otherwise I'll put it away...?" "yeah toss me
some gum please.." AJ yelled from the other end of
the stage, I pulled out a pack of the gum he asked me
to buy and tossed it to him long-distance. "anyone
else going once....going twice...gone.." I said and
put the bags in my duffel bag so I could put them on
the bus at the end. Howie and Kevin had gotten gum
from AJ and were popping bubbles. "Allright let's
start practicing..." Nick announced. The band went to
their instruments and started playing Aaron's song. I
figured they were going to do it in the order of the
concert. I sat on the edge of the stage indian style
facing them. Aaron did a 2 song set and then the guys
did their thing.They sang as they danced, just like
the concert. They practiced the songs with the
hardest routines. The time flew by and at 5 they
dropped the courtaines. The guys went and changed
outfits to get ready for the concert. Denise showed
me to a dressing room and said I should put on the
clothes in the closet. I opened it and found a racing
Tommy outfit like the guys wore. I was thrilled and
put it on quickly and then freshened up. I went back
out and the guys were wearing the same thing, we all
laughed when we saw each other. About 30 minutes
later we heard the crowd starting to file in. The
guys warmed up some more a-cappella, I sat on a
speaker listening. When they finished we waited for
Aaron to come out. At 6:15 they raised the curtains
and the crowd started screaming, unfortunately there
was noone on it. At that moment the teddy bears
started flying onto the stage and I and the rest of
the bear crew went into action "come on, make
yourself useful.." Nick yelled at me from behind the
stage, I laughed and so did everyone else. I looked
out onto the stage and saw Mary sitting in the third
row with whom I guessed to be her niece, I waved at
her and she waved back. When we finished picking up
the bears I went back to the guys. "you guys remember
Mary from yesterday? I saw her and her niece in the
third row.." "We know... here's two passes do you
think you can go get her? Earl will go with you.."
Brian said to me handing me two backstage passes, "we
talked about it and decided we wanted them to come
back for being so nice to us yesterday.." Howie said
to me. "no problem.." I took the passes from him and
checked mine to make sure I had it on. Earl was
standing next to me and he said "ready to brave the
crowd?" "lets go get them.." I said smiling. I was
glad I had the racing outfit on because although I
was constantly moving I could feel the cold of the
AC.I was glad Earl was coming with me, he was big and
tall and felt pretty safe with him. We went to the
stage and the crowd started screaming and running
towards the stage, some guards had to come and hold
them back. The two of us went down one of the side
stairs. I waved at Mary again so she would see me.
Earl and I made our way to her. When we got to her I
made them put on the passes, her niece's name was
Jessica. It was even harder taking them backstage, if
Earl hadn't been there we would have never made it. I
lead them back to were the guys were standing around.
When Jessica saw them I thought she was going to die
from excitement. "Jessica, I'd like to introduce you
to six of my best friends..." I said to her smiling
and each of the guys introduced himself and gave her
a hug. Within five minutes they must have taken a
full roll of film of pictures with her- I and the
whole band got in the pictures too. Before she left
the guys signed her t-shirt, she was on cloud nine,
it felt really good to make someone so happy, I
understood why the guys love their fans so much. Earl
and I escorted Jessica and Mary back to their seats
and as soon as we got on the stage the fans started
to scream again, it was actually extremely amusing.
When the two of them got back to their seats they
were surrounded by girls who asked them hundreds of
questions about the guys. On my way back Earl had to
keep a couple of girls from trying to rip my clothes
by grabbing them. On the stage I had to do some more
Teddy bear detail. When I finally got back to the
guys Aaron was getting ready to go on, I made it in
time to give him a hug and be part of the first group
prayer. He stood on the stage behind the curtains and
the light went down and the girls started screaming,
thankfully backstage you could barely hear the
screaming. Security was really tight. Aaron
energetically did a set of four songs and got the
crowd hyped even more, if such a thing is possible.
On the last song Howie drank his herbal tea and the
five of them calmed down a little, but only for about
10 seconds. We huddled together and said the group
prayer, by now I learned all the words and said it
along with them. They had 10 minutes before they
would go on. They started getting really hyper, AJ
kept stealing Nick's goggles and the two of them were
running around and then Brian and I got involved and
Kevin got everyone calmed down. 1 minute before they
were on stage I gave them each a hug and wished them
good luck. They literally exploded on stage with
fireworks and streamers exploding into the crowd, the
screaming drowned out all other noise. Watching from
the side of the stage I was just as excited as the
girls in the crowd. Having seen the guys perform so
often I had begun to learn the routines too. The
first song they performed was Lets Have a Party to
get the crowd going even more. When they sang
Everybody, the guys came out of caskets that had been
placed on the stage. The concert was incredible.
Halfway through the concert I realized that I was
still wearing the racing outfit and since I didn't
feel like changing I just left it on. Nick and Aaron
performed a duet after the guys sang like a child. It
was really amazing how similar their voices are.
After that Aaron joined the guys for 4 songs. The
guys each performed a solo with the other four as
backup. In the middle of the concert they all sat on
the edge of the stage and started talking with the
crowd nearest to the stage, I could see some girls
actually crying. They asked one girl her name and
began singing QPG and put her name in the song while
Howie played his guitar. Everytime the guys came
backstage for a wardrobe change I would tease them
about something and ruffel their sweaty hair. Like
the previous night I would toss them water bottles
from offstage and everyone would look in amazement.
For a few songs Nick took over drums and Kevin over
the Piano, they were incredibly good. The boys never
messed up a single move and they looked great while
doing it. The concert got pretty long since the guys
did five encores. When it ended they became hams on
stage, Nick leaned over the edge of the stage and
poured water over his head letting it fall on the
fans. They came backstage but the crowd was still
screaming. I patted them all in the back and
reassured them of the great job they did, they were
too sweaty to hug. I wondered why we hadn't gone to
the bus yet, but Denise quickly explained it. We were
waiting for two girls who won backstage passes and
the photography crew from a magazine. The seven of us
took this chance to quickly change. I changed back
into the shirt Kevin gave me and a pair of loose
pants and the guys changed into fresh t-shirts and
pants. The guys each had two towels trying to dry off
the sweat. We only waited about ten minutes for these
people but the crew had already begun to take
everything apart and stack it into the trucks. The
guys did the usual talk and pictures with the girls
who were both really young. The seven of us then took
about twenty pictures for the magazine. Everyone was
starting to get tired and the guys were physically
exhausted although their minds were still hyper
active. We were all fooling around in front of the
camera and the guys were as wild as usual. They did a
quick five minute interview and the magazine guys
left. The stage and backstage areas were complete
havoc, even more than earlier. We all grabbed our
bags and headed for the back door. Earl and the other
body guards surrounded us protectively. As we walked
out the door we were greeted by a bombardment of
screaming, there must have been 100 girls standing
around the stairs to the door and screaming. It
wasn't completely dark outside and the lights from
the buses made it pretty bright. The guys gave out a
few autographs but it started getting pretty wild so
Earl told us to vamoose for the bus. It was hard to
get to the bus but the bodyguards made a way for us
and we made a run for it. Denise got on the bus last.
We stuffed our bags over our heads and fell on the
seats. Although the guys were tired it was only 10:30
and noone wanted to sleep. I took the opportunity to
put the drinks in the refrigerator and the rest of
the food in the cupboard. I sat in the corner of the
couch and put up my feet in a comfy position. Nick
sat down on the other end of the couch.
Tour--Chapter Twelve
Although I could tell he was physically tired when I
looked into his gorgeous blue eyes I saw that his
mind was wide awake, I looked at the rest of them and
saw the same in their eyes. I was too hyper to be
tired. It took about twenty minutes just to pull out
of the theater's parking lot and by now the only
light outside came from street lights and passing
cars. Inside the bus the lights were on but dimmed.
"You guys were great,I definitely understand why you
love doing what you do.." I said in a general
direction trying to get them to talk. "thanks, so how
have you enjoyed the last few days...?" Nick asked me
"I've had perhaps the best time of my life, your life
is tiring but extremely exciting, I don't think I can
remember the last time I laughed so often in one
day..." I said smiling at him. The way the light hit
his face made him look like an extremely attractive
ghost, I had a sudden urge to draw him. "well with
these guys you never know what will happen..." Brian
said to me from across the aisle. Although they were
mentally awake the guys looked like they had been
doing physical labor without food or water for the
last three days, they looked distraut. Nick got up
and headed to raid the fridge. "Oh I put your Orbitz
and the other stuff you asked me for in the fridge,
the rest of it is in the cupboard.." I remembered and
told him. I got up and looked for my journal, found
it, and sat back down in the comfortable position I
was in earlier. "catch.." Nick tossed Brian and AJ
each a bottle. They each caught it. Howie boiled some
water to make himself a cup of herbal tea, "Hey D can
you boil me some water too..? " I asked him turning
my head around trying to move as little as possible,
"no problem... do you want me to just leave it in the
pan?" "yes please..thanks.." I said and turned back
around. At the store I bought myself some of my
favorite Japanese green tea. "hey B-Rok how you
feelin man.." Kevin asked Brian, he seemed a bit
concerned "aside from the tired, fine, since the
operation I don't get nearly as tired as I used to"
he seemed extremely pleased with himself, his eyes
were bright and limpid like a tide pool. When the
water was boiling I got up, pulled the tea and a mug
out of the cupboard, put the tea in the mug and put
water in it. I found a lemon and some sugar and put
that in my tea. "oh yes.. its quite the time for
tea...would you have some crumpets with that too..."
Brian said in a very snotty British tone "nooo I
don't quite like crumpets, they go right to me bum.."
AJ replied in his own high pitched British voice,
everyone broke out into laughter. "Yes quite right
now, crumpets just will not do..." Nick joined in. By
the time I sat back down with my cup we were all
speaking in British and laughing. "You guys just love
attention, then again you have no problem getting
it..." Denise said to all of us laughing. When we
finally settled down I sipped at my tea letting the
warmth and flavor relax me. I hadn't heard Howie talk
for a while so I turned around and saw him reading on
the other couch, it reminded me that I had also
brought a couple of books along, but tonight wasn't
the night for reading. When we hit the highway the
only light from outside was an occasional light post
strategically placed to light the highway. "here...
try some" I said to Kevin as I handed him my cup
after realizing that he had been intently analyzing
my reaction to the tea. Kevin took a sip and liked
it, he passed it to Brian who also wanted to try it
"not bad.. its kind of relaxing..." he said making a
really funny face. He offered it to AJ to taste and
instead he said " Nope I'll stick to my sugar filled
Orbitz" sticking out his tongue with a whole bunch of
the little jelly pebbles on his tongue, it was pretty
gross. Nick finished off the rest of my tea "Good
thing none of you like tea, otherwise I'd be done
for.." I said getting up and making more tea "anybody
else want some..?". "And here is ET making tea, she's
teaching us about the finer things in life..." Kevin
said pointing his video camera at me while I boiled
water. "hi, can you believe that no matter how tired
these guys are they are never tired enough to quit
being jokers..." I said laughing into the camera.
When Kevin first filmed me I was a bit nervous but
within the last five days I became oblivious to it. I
ended up making four cups of tea as we all talked
into the camera at the guys' families. "Hey Howie say
something.." Kevin said snapping him out of his book
"Hey mom, I miss you guys, we're having a blast...we
are all still alive so we are behaving some what..."
Howie finished as Kevin moved the camera over to
Brian. We all spent about 20 minutes being foolish
and saying hi to everyone on camera. We all suddenly
realized that we hadn't eaten since lunch and the
hunger pains started catching up to us. "John how
about we pull up to the next mciddies...?" AJ said
"you know your not supposed to eat so much junk
food..."Denise reminded him and all of us too "I know
but its not like we're lazy, we dance it off, and our
lovely lady doesn't need to worry about calories.."
he retorted -he is such a flirt- "AJ stop flirting,
you'll make the poor girl nautious..." Howie said
from his book with a grin on his face. "Sorry D,
didn't mean to make you jealous" AJ said looking
amused and walked up to D and messed up his hair. It
was extremely funny, Howie had gotten riled by AJ and
now the two were in a noogie war. The temptation was
too much for Aaron, Nick, and Brian, finally they
joined in. Kevin and I were laughing so hard that
tears were streaming down our faces. The guys finally
stopped when they ran out of energy and just
collapsed on the floor. "so you find us amusing do
you..?" Brian said to me in a southern accent "why
yes I do.." I said in my own semi-southern accent.
"Ok guys lets chill for a second... we have to go
over the schedule for the next few days..." Denise
interrupted in her business voice. We all suddenly
became very mature and quiet. We huddled around
Denise at the table and spent the next 30 minutes
going over the schedule- she tired us mentally. When
we finally finished the little meeting we were even
more ravenous than before. "John my man where is the
food? we're dying of starvation back here.." Brian
asked him walking up to the front.It was so dark
outside that every car that passed us by flooded the
bus with light. Half because of hunger and half
because of boredom we started harrasing the
motorists on the road. We would shut the lights off
and then when someone drove by we would get in front
of the windows and turn on a light under us and make
horrible faces. We must have looked like demons but
we were having so much fun that we didn't stop till
we got to the rest stop. We unanimously decided to go
to Mcdonalds. The plaza was almost completely
deserted. Aside from the trucks, there were only 4
other cars in the parking lot. I had no idea what
time it was but I figured it was probably around 1 or
2 in the morning. Nobody in the plaza recognized the
boys and they seemed somewhat relieved. In the last
week I had learned that the guys ate like pigs but
they truly surprised me, even Aaron and the
bodyguards, Richard, Andre, and Q ate like there
was no tomorrow. I just ordered a cheeseburger,
fries,
and a milk shake. Thankfully food calmed the guys
down and we didn't make a lot of noise. When we
finished Brian and Nick decided that they needed to
restock the fridge on the bus so they took off for
the food store in the plaza. The rest of us were
about ready to pass out so we went back to the bus.
Outside there was a gorgeous full moon. Back on the
bus we were all waiting for Brian and Nick. When they
finally came out they were each carrying 2 bags of
whatever it is they bought. John started the bus and
made it look like we going t o leave them behind and
they started running. They finally got on the bus and
we were back on the road. I had taken Nick's spot and
was laying the length of the couch. We were all
finally both mentally and physically exhausted. The
couch was long enough so that Nick was laying across
from me and our legs were next to each other in the
middle of the couch. We shut the lights off and the
bus became dark, peacefully tired silence blanketed
the inside of the bus and we all fell asleep.
Read on!
