*
After I got into the cab, I laid down on the backseat. It was so comfortable, more than I deserved. I began thinking about myself again, and how much Angie might have seen. There was only one way to prove it to myself that she hadn’t taken those pictures. I really didn’t want to develop them, but I guess I had no choice.
The cab driver asked me where I wanted to go and I gave him the street address. For some reason, I gave him Mandy’s instead of mine. I didn’t want to go there and bug her, but I didn’t want to open my mouth either, because I felt like puking all over again.
The cab driver, who was Angie’s dad, started talking to me. “Thank you for being nice to my Angie,” he said, “She worships you, you know. Not very many people are nice to her either.”
“She’s a great girl, really sweet,” was all I could muster. If I had the strength I would have gushed on and on about her.
“Wow, you look real sick. Do you want me to drive you to the hospital?”
“Naw, no thanks. I don’t want this to get blown out of proportion. I just want to sleep. I’m such a lousy conversationalist when I’m tired, I’m sorry.” I wanted to say that hospitals give me the creeps, but I didn’t want to get into that with the guy, as much as I liked him.
“It must be hard for you. Lots of people have a hard time understanding that because you get more dough then the rest of us. But don’t worry, I’ll put in a good word for you.”
“That’s really good of you. I don’t think that I deserve it though.” I meant that too. I didn’t think I deserved anything. Here was this great guy gushing about me just as I was thinking about developing that film. I thought about giving it back to the guy, but then I remembered that I would have to explain what happened. I didn’t want to be phony with the guy either, because I honestly wasn’t too happy about the thought of my picture being taken unnoticed.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what the hell happened to you?” He peered at me through the rear view mirror. The guy looked generally concerned and not phony, so I decided to tell him.
“The door in the stupid outhouse on the beach whacked me on the nose. It hasn’t stopped bleeding since. Plus, I went to the beach instead of my bed, so now I’m paying the price.” That was the short version. Anything longer and I probably would have puked on the nice man’s clean seats.
Angie’s father just chuckled lightly. “You need to learn how to swear boy!” he exclaimed before chuckling some more. “Here’s your stop.”
I sat up slowly and waited for my stomach to settle. Angie’s dad said that I didn’t have to pay him, but I did anyway. Since he wouldn’t take it in his hands, I put it on the dashboard. I don’t remember exactly how much I gave him, but I know that it was a lot.
Stiffly, I made my way up Mandy’s stairs. I knew where the spare keys were, but I didn’t bother because it was rude. Also, I was afraid that I’d scare her if I just barged into the house. She was probably still sleeping.
I rang the doorbell and balanced myself against the rail until she came. At one point in time, I felt everything go black, then return to normal. I was really run down.
When she didn’t come, I banged on the door with my fist and called her name. I pressed my ear against the door and heard her footsteps. She opened the door with me still leaning on it, so I almost fell on top of her.
“Nick where have you been? You look like shit!” That’s what she said to me, but I was used to it.
“Can I sit down?” I asked sweetly, putting my arm around her waist.
“No! You’re filthy, go wash up!” she rejected my arm by slapping it away. She’s not that mean usually. I’d caught her at a bad time, I thought.
The biggest problem I had with going to her bathroom was that it was all the way upstairs. I had to crawl up the stairs like a baby. It was harder than I thought; I was panting and sweating like a maniac. By the time I got up the stairs I was at the peak of exhaustion. I barely made it to the bathroom, where I puked my guts out. One good thing about being a Backstreet Boy is that you learn to push yourself even when you’ve got no energy left to spare.
I knew that I would be to tired to wash up and my nose would continue bleeding away, so I put the bath mat into the bathtub soft side up and some towels and made myself a bed.
As soon as I had put my head down, I fell asleep. I got about twenty minutes of resting time before Mandy noticed that something was up and rained on my parade.
I woke up to “What the hell Nick?” and some rough shakes.
“I said go wash up! I didn’t say sleep in my bathtub, what part did you get wrong?” she continued, ripping the towels off of my back. “Now get up and wash yourself! I’m not you’re mother!”
You sure as hell aren’t, I thought. But I felt badly for her. Her work schedule is different than mine so most of the time when I’m off she has to work.
“I can’t move Mandy,” I said slowly. I was so close to tears; I just wished that she would understand me.
I think that she saw it in my eyes how close I was to crying. “Alright Nick you win.” She went over to the sink and wet a cloth. I just felt cold and like crying and pathetic even, sleeping in the bathtub and all.
Mandy rolled me over onto my back and rubbed my face roughly with the cloth. She sparked the flow of blood coming from my nose to bleed more and swore profoundly.
“I’m not letting you on that couch until that nose of yours stops bleeding! And I’m calling your mother and letting her know that you’ve been in a fight.”
“Mandy, you know I’m not like that!”
She began cleaning my hands roughly with that cloth. “Take off your shirt and prove it to me.” When I hesitated, she threatened to get up and leave so I just did it. She just shrugged and began working on my legs.
“You’re getting fat again,” she said and somehow I knew that she was teasing. She knows how sensitive I am about that. Before I knew it, I started to cry for no reason. It was like a waterfall or something and I couldn’t control it. I sniffed in the process too, and sent rushes of blood into my epiglottis. I nearly choked on it too, but I just cried harder. I’m not a baby or anything; I’m sure this happens to you sometimes. Maybe it was my body’s way of saying, “SLEEP!”
“Hush up Nick, I was only kidding!” she tried to smile, but I kept on crying. She finally gave in to her emotions so early in the morning and hugged me. I rested my head on my head on her shoulder. The blood seeped into the towel she had draped over it and I watched it until she made me let go of her.
“I’ll be right back,” she said and I smiled lightly from inside the bathtub. I had softened her up. She’s rough around the edges, but really is an old softy deep within.
Mandy came back with a few blankets, a pillow and a mattress and placed them in front of the bathtub. I struggled to my knees and she watched me with an amused look on her face as I tried to roll myself off of the bathtub and onto the floor. I succeeded in landing face down on the mattress, which I was thankful for. There are a lot of sharp objects in Mandy’s bathroom that I could have landed on. The only discomfort I had was that my legs were a lot longer than the mattress because it was a child’s mattress. Don’t ask me what she was doing with a child’s mattress.
“I’ll call Brian and ask him to help me move you,” she said before I fell asleep. If I wasn’t already half asleep I would have had the sense to tell her that calling Brian wasn’t a good idea. Now she had to find that out for herself.
When I woke up, which must have been a long time later, there was something like a big wad of gauze attached to my nose. I noticed that there wasn’t much blood on it, so my nose must have stopped its reign of bloody terror. I also noticed that I was in a bed, so Brian must have not been that mad after all!
I sat up stiffly in the bed and I felt all right. No queasy feelings in my stomach, no headaches, no bleeding nose, no excessive warm or cold feelings – I was doing okay. Sleep was what I needed the whole time, I thought.
Then Mandy came into the room and I don’t think she noticed me. So I called her name and she jumped half a mile.
“Look who’s awake,” she cooed, “how do you feel?”
“Pretty good.” My voice was all stuffy sounding because of the gauze. “Did Brian come over?”
“Yeah…I was going to ask you about that. See I had to beg Brian to come over by saying that I would strain my back carrying you that far.”
“Don’t lie Mandy.”
“Okay, okay, I said I’d come over there and beat him up then kidnap Leighanne if he didn’t come. I was just joking! But did you guys have a fight or something?”
“Not even! He’s just standing up for AJ, it’s a long story though.”
“Tell me.” So I told her the whole story about Dania and going to the beach. I didn’t mention giving money to the girl or Angie. I’m a very modest person sometimes.
After I told my story, I was sorry that I hadn’t lied. Mandy smacked my face with all her might with the back of her hand. Her mood changes were simply abominable.
“How could you!” she screamed, “ After I help you and everything, you just sit there and calmly tell me about how you cheated on me with this girl! You’re…argh! I hate you, get out of my house!”
I think her slap triggered another nosebleed for me, I could feel it soak through the gauze and dribble down my chin. You should have seen her though; she was full of piss and vinegar. I got out of the bed as quickly as possible to avoid getting hit by her anymore. She’s very temperamental; maybe she should she a doctor about that.
Anyway, she starts throwing my shoes at my head. I caught the first one above my head but the second one sacked me down low. You probably are wondering why I didn’t fight back; well, I was brought up never to hit a lady even if she deserved a good smack.
The staircase wasn’t much of a challenge this time; I bounded down it as fast as I could with my shirt in one hand and my shoes in the other. Before I left, I checked what time it was on Mandy’s wall clock. It was 7 am the next day; I couldn’t believe I’d slept that long!
I slipped on my shirt and shoes and ran home as fast as I could. My house wasn’t that far from Mandy’s, but if I go to her house too often, she’ll have a fit and she won’t open the door for me.
I was hurrying not only because I didn’t want to be seen and I wanted to get away from Mandy, but because I had forgotten all about poor Milky and Wilkie, my pugs. They had been locked inside my house since the day before and they were probably starving to death. Usually one of the guys goes and feeds them if there’s trouble, but they’re probably all mad at me now. Even Howie, I guessed and he never takes sides. They were all in this together, some sort of conspiracy it was.
You should have seen how happy those dogs were. Not to see me, but to get out and dump in my backyard. The dogs had been fed all right, but they had used my house for their toilet. I found a note on the table in the kitchen that said, “We don’t believe in cruelty to animals, so we feed the guys. Don’t expect any more favors.” That sure had been warm. I spent three hours cleaning up the mess – what a wonderful way to start my vacation. My house still stunk after all that. I used everything – bathroom spray, spray deodorant, dog off, whatever I could find that smelled good. My house still reeked. You would have laughed if you saw pictures of me in magazines cleaning up my house, but you’d been surprised. I know I don’t put off a manly image, but I clean my house, do laundry, cook, everything. Except when I’m on tour, then I hire someone to check on my pugs and make sure that the house is fine. I don’t trust house sitters though. They always make a mess. After I finished making my house smell like pines and lemons, I set out in search of telephone. I’d decided that it was high time to apologize to AJ, since I felt okay now.
Chapter 4
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