Chance of a Lifetime Chapter 5

Chapter 5

We arrived at the Next stop, which happened to be in North Carolina, at 1pm the next day. I had been up for a few hours talking to A.J. and Nick's Mom's. They were both very sweet, and I had fun hearing some baby stories about them both. When we got to the venue I changed from by boxers and t-shirt, to some boot-cut jeans with holes in the knees, and a white, ribbed tank top. I put my hair into a claw-clip so it wouldn't be in my way when I was helping to unload. I couldn't really help unload the heavy stuff, so I headed right to the stage to help empty the crates as the guys brought them out of the sound truck. It takes forever to set everything up for a show so it took an hour and a half just to get everything unloaded from the trucks. My job for most concerts was to unload the lights in sequence and help set up the sound system, making sure mics were in the right place and so on. We had been working for almost 2 hours when, all of a sudden, while I was reaching up to untangle some chords in the lighting, I felt a pair of arms go around my waste.
"Yikes," I cried, suprised.
"Good Morning, Beautiful," I heard A.J.'s voice say in my ear.
"A.J. McLean!!!! What were you trying to do give me a heart attack?" I exclaimed, pulling away, and turning around. "Anyway, it's nearly 3 o'clock in the afternoon, morning is long gone."
I stood there with a mad look on my face for a few seconds while he started to apologize.
"I was just kidding around," he said.
"Well, don't let it happen again," I said, and then totally changed my attitude, giving him a smile. "Gotcha, didn't I," I said laughing, "You should have seen the look on your face when I yelled at you!"
"Oh aren't you funny," he said, pulling me into a hug.
"Did you guys sleep okay last night?" I asked when we seperated.
"Good as usual, we're pretty used to it by now. How about you since you're kind of new to this?"
"Oh I slept great. I travel a lot so I am used to sleeping pretty much anywhere, but thanks for asking."
"Well, I better get back to work before I get kicked off the tour. See ya later!", I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

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Later that nights the guys put on another great show, and afterwards it took about 3 hours to tear down everything and pack it in the trucks. We were staying in a hotel that night so after we finished loading I caught a ride back to the hotel with Johnny and Donna. I was feeling a bit gross from the sweating I had done during set-up and tear-down so I went to the room I was sharing with one of the female crew members and jumped in the shower. My roomate wasn't there when I got out, so I threw on a college sweatshirt and a pair of boxers. I had just started watching, 'Contact', when the ohone rang, it was Nick.
"Hey what's up," he asked.
"Not much, just a bit of channel surfing, why?"
"You wouldn't wanna come over to play some video games would you?"
"I'd love to, although I have to warn you that I haven't played in a long time."
"Ah, that's okay. I like to win anyway."
"Oh really??" I said sarcastically
"I am in room 602, come on over if you can stand to lose!"
I just laughed, "Okay I'll be over in a minute. Bye!"
After I hung up I slipped into some sandals and headed up to the sixth floor. Nick answered the door when I got to the room.
"Hey," he said smiling, "come on in!"
"Good grief!" I said, "This room is messier than mine usually is. Are you sure you can FIND you Nintendo?"
"Ha, ha, it's right over here," He said plopping in front of the TV.
"Have a seat."
I grabbed a control pad, "Uh, you're gonna have to explain the buttons to me, I have never played with one of these before. And where is Brian anyway? Probably buried alive under one of these piles right?"
"My aren't we just full of jokes tonight!" he said slightly exasperated. "Brian is in one of the other guys rooms, he gets tired of playing with me. Now look..."
It only took a few seconds to explain the control and he popped in some racecar game. I lost the first 2 games but I had played a game like this before a lot, so I won the 3rd game. He got so mad...
"Dang it!!!" he yelled, chucking the remote, and sitting there fuming.
"Good grief, you really DON'T like to lose!"
He wouldn't even look at me, so I said, "Come on Nick lighten up." And then I started to tickle him.
"Stop it!" he said, trying to push my hands away.
"Ah, come on Nicky," I said, tackling him. "I am gonna tickle you until you smile."
After a few minutes I could see he was breaking down, he was laughing so hard.
"Okay I'm smiling, I'm smiling!!!"
"Really? I don't know...no, i can't really tell..." I said slowly still tickling him.
"Okay that's it!" He finally recovered enough to grab my arms and flip me over so that he had me pinned down. At just that moment Brian and A.J. walked in the door.
"Wow, guess we should have knocked," said Brian, looking at us. Nick realized what it must have looked like and we scrambled to get up.
"Hi guys," I said, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"So do we dare ask what you were doing?" asked A.J. without a smile.
"I called and asked Nicole to come over to play some video games. She beat me and started to tickle me to cheer me up, so..."
"Yeah sure," Brian said, laughing, as he turned towards the other bed. "No really, you beat Nick? Nicole, I am impressed! Although I am suprised you are still alive to tell about it."
"Shut-up, Brian," Nick said, a bit ticked off.
"Hey, Nicole, do you wanna go for a walk or something?" asked A.J., gesturing towards the door.
"Um, sure," I said, giving him a slightly strange look. "Thanks, Nick, I had a lot of fun, we'll have to do it again sometime. If you can learn to handle losing that is," I said giving him a wink.
A.J. closed the door behind us and we walked our of the hotel in silence. We had walked for just a few minutes outside the hotel when A.J. said, "So was that really what happened?"
I just turned and looked at him, a little suprised.
"Of course," I said, "I never lie, honestly. It's one of my biggest pet peeves!" I said looking into his eyes.
"Okay, I just needed to hear that from you."
We started walking again, because we had stopped and I felt him take my hand. I just smiled without looking at him. There was a park nearby so we walked to it and walked around the gardens inside for a while. We talked a little bit but mostly just enjoyed each other's company. We ended up sitting on one of the benches there and he just held me as we looked at the stars. It was one of the most romantic times I had ever experienced. It felt so wonderful just to be in his arms, I didn't want the moment to end.
"Nicole, can I ask you something?" he said in the middle of a conversation we had been having.
"Sure, A.J., what is it?"
"Can I kiss you?"
"I'd like that," I said, in a whisper, barely able to breath. I leaned my head against the back of the bench and closed my eyes as he kissed me. It was such a sweet, innocent kiss my heart nearly melted.
"Wow," I whispered, as I opened my eyes, looking into his.
"Hey are you okay?" he asked, concerned when he saw how badly I was shaking.
"Yeah, I am just fine, it's just...well," I said looking down embarrassed.
"Well, what?"
"That was my first kiss," I told him, refusing to look up.
He gently lifted my face so that I was looking into his.
"That's nothing to be embarrassed about, darlin', just shows you were waiting for the right time, the right guy."
He then kissed me again,, but a little longer this time. "We'd better head back to the hotel, its getting late, and you have to sing," I said, reluctantly, realizing the time.
It only took us a few minutes to walk back to the hotel and I was practically walking on air. He walked me to my room and kissed me at the door.
"Goodnight, A.J.!"
"Sweet dreams, Nicole!"

Email: catpolo@mailexcite.com