Escape
The show ended to thunderous applause…as usual. The men ran off stage and headed for their dressing rooms. Kevin entered his and sank down in a chair. A feeling of being beyond tired washed over him. He was exhausted. Exhausted from the tour, from the autograph hounds, from the groupies, and even from being with his boys. “I gotta get out of here.” He thought “I’m going to go nuts.” He grabbed a small bag and threw a few things in it. As he opened the door, he nearly got punched in the face by AJ who was about to knock. “Kev??” AJ noticed the bag. “What’s with the bag, man? Where you going?”
“I gotta run J, I need some down time.”
AJ looked at Kevin as if he’d grown another head. “Oh well yeah, ok, why don’t I just step aside and let you disappear without telling security, management or anyone where you were going…Yeah, that’s gonna happen. The guys will have a fit, especially Rok, are you nuts?”
“Look if I don’t get away from everyone and every thing for a few days, I’m gonna go stark raving mad! Don’t tell them you saw me leave, AJ, just let me escape…”
“Escape what Kevin?” Brian, Howie and Nick were standing behind Kevin and caught the tale end of his remark.
“What’s up with the bag and where are you going?” Brian, who never got upset with anyone, was about to be extremely pissed with his cousin. “What are you running from?”
“THIS!! People pulling us like taffy, being told what I can and can’t say or do. Smile, don’t smile. Don’t have a freaking opinion about your life, except what we tell you have. Your favorite color is this, you eat this food. You guys tell me you don’t want me telling you what to do, but what the hell makes you think I like it?!” He stopped to breathe, knowing he was upset with the wrong people. “Look I just need a break. I can’t be “Kevin Backstreet” for another minute. I just want to be me for a while, please guys?”
Howie looked in his friends green eyes and could see exhaustion and sadness. There was something else there too……finality. Kevin had come to some kind of decision and Howie knew they didn’t want to push him on this.
“Look Kev, we’re tired too, but this Ft. Lauderdale show was the last one. We’re done with the tour. We just have a few promo pieces to do here and there and then we have some time off.” Nick tried to be enthusiastic, but he was burnt out too.
“Yea Nick a two whole weeks off. But is that with someone from The Firm calling us every five minutes or not? Or maybe Jive will send a messenger to track us down like they did when Bri was on his honeymoon. Yea buddy, that’s a real break.” Even Brian had the decency to look annoyed as he remembered the messenger tracking him down.
“Look guys don’t push me on this one. One of two things is gonna happen in this room tonight: either I get to disappear for a while or…”
“Wait, Kevin. Don’t even say it.” Howie thought fast and came up with an idea he hoped satisfied everyone.
“Ok, you don’t want security or management to be able to contact you, but you KNOW we can’t let you just disappear. Think, Kevin. What if something happens, and we can’t reach you or you can’t reach us? That would irresponsible and as bad as you want and seem to need this break, that’s not you.” Howie looked at his friend and saw that Kevin seemed to concede that point.
“So?”
“So how about this: We get you a new cell phone with a number management won’t have. You give the number to the four of us. You check into a hotel and give us the name and information of where you are…no lies and no tricks. We WON’T call you unless something happens. How does that sound?”
Kevin mulled it over for all of half a second. “Fine, but where are we going to get a cell phone at this hour?”
“Well, I may be able to help you with that.” AJ pulled out a cell phone. It was the ugliest lime green the guys had ever seen, and none of them had seen this phone before. “This phone is for my, uh…personal calls from “friends” I make on the tour.”
“Alexander you are a wicked, wicked man. You know you’re going to hell when you die, don’t you??” Brian said laughing. Nick and Howie howled along with him.
“Yeah, maybe, but what a ride!!! Look we can get the number changed now, I do it all the time. We’ll have it and you will that’s it. If we call you, then you know something really bad will have happened…but…”
“But what AJ?” Kev and AJ knew each other well…too well and AJ wasn’t taking any chances on his friend disappearing and not reappearing.
“But we go with you to check you in.”
“No!” Kevin was firm.
“Look, Kevin…you can talk about leaving the group all you want, but I know it’s a crock. You’re not going anywhere. You love this too much and you need it, just like me. You know we’ve got your back. We won’t let management find out about your “leave of absence” but we, hell, I need to know where you are and that’s the deal.”
Dammit! Kevin knew that getting by security would have been easier than getting by AJ. Hell walking through molten lava would have been easier than putting something past AJ. The others trusted him to tell them the truth. Brian trusted that their being cousins would preclude Kev from lying to him. Brian was dead wrong. At this point Kevin would have lied to his mother to get some time alone.
He gave AJ his darkest scowl and it worked… on Nick. He got nervous and tried to cower behind Brian. AJ just smiled. “Don’t scowl like that, Kevin. It’ll give you wrinkles and then you really will be the old man of the group. Now we can do it like this or I can call security and let them know what you were up to. If that happens we both know that they will call management and The Firm will give you a babysitter that will make Lurch look like Cindy Crawford!”
“Eeeww!” Howie and Nick were grossed out in unison.
“Dammit AJ…”
“Dammit nothing!” AJ was frustrated too, and it was about to show. “Look Kevin, I know you better than you think. I know you will tell us the name of a hotel that does exist and you will be 20 miles away from it. I’m not falling for it. So what are you gonna do?”
“So what’s to stop me from leaving the hotel that I check into with you?”
“You would do that?” Brian was hurt. It never occurred to him that Kevin could be sneaky and conniving. He’s been hanging with AJ for too long, Brian thought.
“No he wouldn’t. He knows that that once we take him somewhere he’s gotta stay there. That’s how responsible he is. Break or no break there are some things you just can’t change.” AJ’s brown eyes never lost contact with Kevin’s green ones.
“Fine. How are we going to find a hotel?”
Everyone looked at AJ. “Hey, I did my part with the phone. You guys have got to do some work too.”
They thought for a second. Nick finally broke the silence with an idea. “Well we aren’t that far from Miami. We should be able to find something there…maybe on the beach?”
Howie agreed. “Good Nick but not too close. We need something discreet. We don’t want him to be found.”
“I…I can help you with that.”
Back to Main
Back to Escape Story
Chapter 2
