Ok, I don't know the BSB, nor do I know any other celebrities, particularly those portrayed in this story: N'Sync, Britney Spears... I don't know the sexuality of any of these celebrities and I don't claim to. This story is entirely fictitious, and the author accepts no responsibility for any of the twisted and sick storylines which appear. But nonetheless, I would like to suggest that everyone read this story, just for a bit of fun...enjoy this chapter.
Last Time:
Eventually, Kevin and I, and Justin and Britney were the only ones left.
"Are you excited guys?" Kevin asked them.
"I can't wait." Justin answered as he wrapped his arms around Britney's waist from behind, and rested his chin on her shoulder. It was almost midnight now.
"Hey, it's almost the day of your wedding, you two aren't supposed to see each other before the service!" Kevin said with a grin on his face.
"Silly superstition." Justin mumbled. We heard a church bell in the distance strike 12. Justin and Britney both shrugged their shoulders. Kevin and I finally excused ourselves and went back to our suite, Justin and Britney said they wouldn't be far behind. Kevin and I both settled into bed and wrapped up close, though we knew we wouldn't stay like that through the night.
"Goodnight Kev." I said as my eyes drooped shut.
"Goodnight Jared." Kevin answered back.
Chapter 20
The following day was started with a gentle knocking on the door of Kev's and my suite. Kevin, annoyingly, managed to sleep through the sound, but it was too incessant for me to just turn over and go back to sleep, so I finally pulled myself out of bed, pulled on some trousers and went to answer the door. Standing at the door in a pair of sweats and a tank top was Britney, looking a little lost.
"What's wrong Britney?"
"Can I come in?" She asked hopefully.
"Sure, go through and sit down, do you want anything, drink or eat?"
"No, thank you." She put on a slight smile, and went through to sit on one of the couches.
"Do you want me to wake up Kevin?"
"NO!" Britney whispered loudly. "I just want to talk Jared, I'm nervous, my friends are coming in today, and I'm worried about them, and I'm just so worried about so much. What if it's too soon, what if I'm too young? How am I supposed to know if Justin is the one?"
"Britney, does he make you feel how no-one else does?" She thought for a moment, then nodded. "Do you want to spend the rest of your life with him?"
"That's the thing, it's so long, I mean it could be 60 years, I don't know, it just seems like such a huge step." Britney was almost in tears now, I felt so sorry for her: her friends weren't here yet, nor was her mum, and the only people who were present were members of boybands who were basically closer to Justin than they were to her. I guess I was what she considered 'neutral ground'. "Do you love Kevin, Jared?"
"Yes." I answered without hesitating. I had finally got over the initial wavering of whether I loved Kevin or not, and I came to the conclusion both with my heart and with my mind that I did.
"How do you know? Could you spend the rest of your life with him?" I had to think for a moment.
"Britney let me ask you something. Do you love Justin up here?" And I pointed to her temples.
"What do you mean?"
"Is Justin a friend? Do you love him at least partially because, well for logical reasons? Can you understand why you love Justin?"
"Yes, I think so. I've known him for so long, we are friends, we were friends for a long time before we ever started dating seriously. I guess Justin's always been there for me, and he's put his own needs behind him so that he can put me first, I love him for both of those things." She answered.
"Right, now comes the hard bit. We know now that you love him up here." I pointed to her head again. "But do you love him here?" And I pointed to her heart.
"I don't know!"
"Britney what would you give to make Justin happy?"
"I'd give everything." She answered immediately.
"I think you've got your answer: Justin means more to you than everything else." I said. She looked down for a second, thinking through what she had said, and what I had said.
"Lordy! You're right, oh thank you Jared!" She reached over and hugged me. I smiled back at her as she pulled away.
"Now, I'd like to ask you something, well, your wedding is today and everything, I kind of expected there to be more guests, where is everybody?" Britney smirked at me.
"Well, you know that media blackout thing, that we were aiming for?" She asked, her Southern accent thick. I nodded. "Well, to try and keep the reporters off the trail, what we did was, we flew all our guests over to Europe about three or four days ago, and we put them in hotels across Europe, from Budapest to Dublin. That way, the reporters will be confused about where the actual location is, because we know that some of our friends are followed regularly to work out where we are, and it also gives them a chance to get used to the time zone, so we can all be in the same time zone for the big day, today!" I chuckled at Britney's exuberance at their master plan: it was quite clever actually, but anyway...
"Hello?" I heard Kevin's voice shout out.
"I'm in here Kev." I answered. Kevin came into the living room wearing a pair of sweats and nothing on his top half.
"Hey, oh, Britney, hey are you ok?" Kevin asked, noticing Britney's expression.
"Ummm, Kevin, have you been working out with Jared?" She asked with a confused look on her face.
"Yeah...why?" Kevin asked.
"Ummm, well, you just look a bit better than you did before, heck with that, you've got a better body than any of the guys here!" She exclaimed. Kevin and I both started chuckling. Kevin had been working out, and after his little episode, I started writing up complete diets for him. We worked out together more regularly than with the other guys, I know that might be a bit unfair, but I was still performing all the necessary duties with the other guys, and I Kevin was the happiest I'd ever seen him. Only problem that came with working out as much as we had done was that Kevin lost about an inch off his waist from the time I took up the position as the guys' fitness instructor, so none of his trousers really fit. All the costume people were grumbling about it constantly. Also his arms, and to a lesser extent, his chest had changed proportions. Kevin was fast approaching the age where he would no longer be able to adjust his proportions very easily, so it was important now to get to a point where he was happy with his shape: he was not yet. I think he wanted to be closer to my size, so he had a bit more work to do, but with the way it was going, Kevin seemed really proud, and he didn't mind walking around without his shirt on anymore. "I don't get it - why didn't I notice that Kevin's body had changed so much before?" She asked looking between me and Kevin. I looked back at Kevin, and we both shrugged.
"Maybe you were paying attention to Justin instead?" I asked, hoping the answer would enlighten her a bit more.
"Yes, maybe that's it, then again maybe it was just because he was standing next to you!" And she started giggling. Kevin and I both gave her strange looks, but then shrugged and chuckled a bit. We asked Britney to join us for breakfast, her friends would be here in about an hour, and I agreed to go with Britney to pick them up. The other guys had breakfast in Brian's room as Kevin phoned them up, and basically told them to stay over there - I had told him when we had gone into the bedroom to get dressed that she might feel overwhelmed, or less on neutral ground, if all the other guys were there. Britney, Kevin and I all ate, talking about things not related to the wedding: when Britney would be back to work, what about N'Sync, how many of her friends were coming, what her family was like, that sort of thing, trying to skirt around the wedding, but we found it increasingly difficult, and we ended up just going over what Britney was doing today in the lead up to the wedding. Apparently she had one more fitting to go to, then she was basically done. The wedding was at 4, thankfully it was November, so the heat wouldn't be so bad, Capri in summer wouldn't be funny at that time of the day.
After breakfast, Britney and I took a limo to the airport. Another limo followed behind, for the apparently quite large number of Britney's friends and family who would be arriving shortly. Apparently, this wasn't enough, and one of the limos would have to make at least a couple of trips. Around 11:30 was the time of the first arrival. Britney and I stood and waited for the first load of friends to arrive. Basically, because it was November, and because about half the island had been reserved by the Timberlake-Spears, there was no-one else coming in, apart from those invited to the wedding. When the first plane arrived, we saw that the next plane would be arriving about two minutes later - an unfortunate occurrence. Britney carried on jumping around to see which of the guests would arrive first. She knew where the plane was coming from: Berlin, but apparently there were two flights coming from there, she had deposited about 20 people there apparently, and they were doing lay-over flights, hoping to make it more difficult for the reporters to follow. So, the first flight's doors opened, and the people started streaming out. I looked over at Britney, when all of a sudden I heard an ear-piercing scream, and Britney got an exasperated look on her face. "Christina." She mumbled. Suddenly a shock of blonde hair flew past me, and was hugging Britney. A slightly taller girl, though without the impressive figure of Britney was gripping her around the shoulders. Britney looked over her shoulder at me, with a depressed expression on her face. "Hey Christina!" Britney said as she shoved the girl away. "I'd like you to meet Jared."
"Nice to meet you." She held out her hand to me, and I shook it gently. "So Britney, are you psyched about the big day?" Christina asked in the sort of voice you expect to hear at a girls' slumber party.
"Yeah Christina, I'm really excited." Suddenly, we heard more voices coming up the ramp, the rest of the passengers off Christina's plane. "Becky! Melia!" Britney shouted as they grew closer. The girls coming up the ramp dropped their bags, and came running towards Britney. Both seemed quite tired, but ran as fast as they could to reach their friend. All three girls hugged viciously, seemingly cutting off each others' throats. Britney picked up one of each of their bags, and came walking back towards where Christina and I were standing. "Jared, I'd like you to meet my best friends, Becky, and Melia." She nodded to each of them as she said their names. Each of them held out their hands in turn and I shook them.
"He doesn't say much does he Britney?" Christina asked. I think I heard a growl come from somewhere in Britney's throat, but I couldn't be sure if it was her or on of the other girls.
"I can speak plenty when I need to." I answered before Britney could respond.
"Jared is Kevin's boyfriend." Britney said to the three other girls. They all murmured a little, then Christina had to open her big mouth again.
"Kevin's? I thought maybe you were Nick's, but I would have never said you would have gone out with Kevin! I mean look at you!" She said in that high, screechy voice. I could feel my fist start to clench, this girl was probably the first girl I had ever, and I mean ever actually wanted to just hit, as hard as I could.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked with a sneer on my lips. I could see the other three girls out of the corner of my eye all take a step back at the tone in my voice.
"Oh, nothing, ummm, I mean, it's just, oh I don't know, you know what I mean, I just meant, that, well..." She started babbling.
"There's a limo over there, I suggest you take your bags, and go wait in it." I said in the firmest tone I could muster. She looked over at Britney, but Britney and the other two girls were looking everywhere but back at her, so, with the smallest stamp of her feet that she thought she could muster without angering me any further, she picked up her bags and carried them over to the limo where she deposited them before climbing in the back, without a second glance back at the rest of us. "I'm so sorry Britney." I said, unable to meet her face. I suddenly felt really bad. I had preached to Kevin about how I felt about people with a temper, and I had gone and let my temper get the better of me. I felt so stupid, and so bad.
"Don't be silly Jared." She came over to me and put her arms around me. "You did actually what she deserved. In fact, I thought what you did was quite reserved. She coulda got a lot worse!" Both of the other girls started chuckling, and I just smirked: I still felt really stupid that I could do something so nasty, and so quick-tempered.
"Britney!" Came a high-pitched, little girl's voice from the ramp.
"Jamie!" Britney screamed back. She ran down the ramp towards the girl who appeared to be a smaller, somewhat less developed version of herself. The girl appeared to be 11 or 12, but it was hard to tell, maybe a bit younger. The two hugged, the younger girl in Britney's arms. They were talking quietly, I could hear bits about how happy they were to see each other, and so on. Finally, they came walking back to us at the top of the ramp which the guys and I had walked up just the day before. "Jamie, this is Jared, Jared, this is Jamie." Britney said, beaming with pride. The girl, who couldn't have stood much over 5 foot, held out her hand and I gladly shook it. "Jamie is my sister Jared."
"I guessed - the resemblance, well, it gives it away." I said with a smirk on my face.
"Jared? So you're Kevin's boyfriend?" Jamie asked.
"How did you know about that?" Britney asked as she looked down at her sister. She had only just told Becky and Melia and they had all been together for the last few days, so...
"Mum told me. Apparently, she spoke to Aunt Lynn, and that's how she found out, and then she thought she had to phone me up and warn me not to stare if I saw two men dancing together on the dance floor! I mean how stupid does she think I am? I've seen JC and Jimmy together before, so what difference should it make?" She ranted on and on. Britney was standing slightly behind her and was holding her hand making flapping motions with it as if her hand was the petite girl's mouth and she was wording the ravings of her younger sister. I started laughing when I saw Britney's actions and her sister turned quickly. "Oh!" She shouted as she gave Britney a playful slap on the arm.
The other guests came up the ramp shortly after. There was another six in total, on top of Becky, Melia, Jamie and Christina (shudder at the name). They were all distant cousins of Britney, and I couldn't for the life of me remember all their names!
As we approached the limos, Britney finished introducing her most distant cousins to me and I greeted them all politely. Then we got to the limos, and Britney and I stood back: one of them had Christina in, and neither of us wanted to go in that one, so basically, we got Jamie, Becky, Melia, Britney, myself and one of Britney's cousins into one of the limos, and the other was for Christina and the remainder of the cousins. We drove back to the hotel making small talk, mostly Becky and Melia talking to Britney who they apparently hadn't seen for a while.
Back at the hotel, I met up with Kevin in our suite, and we agreed to have lunch together down in the hotel restaurant. We sat around as we noticed more guests arriving: Britney had asked if I would go again with her to pick up more of her guests, but Kevin had intervened and suggested she take Becky or Melia. We saw Britney walk through with loads more people, including her brother, Bryan and her other friends from back home. Justin went out and picked people up too, including his younger brothers, his parents and their respective spouses. When Mrs. Harless arrived, she came over and introduced herself.
"Kevin, it's good to see you again." She said as she hugged Kevin and he kissed both her cheeks. "And you must be Jared, it's nice to meet you." She smiled and held out her hand, which I shook. "I'm glad that you two came together." She told Kevin. "Last time that all of us got together, JC felt so out of place with Jimmy because they were dancing together. At least with you two here, he won't feel so out of place." Kevin and I both smiled, though the statement did sound a little strange.
About 2:30, we all started getting ready for the wedding itself. We noticed the N'Sync members getting worked up, and really excited the later it got. Kevin and I retired into our suite, and showered together. We somehow got into a position where we were just holding each other, our heads resting on each others' shoulders under the hot spray of the shower. I washed Kevin's hair for him, and he did the best he could on mine without making the newly re-tied cornrows come loose. We both shaved and finished in the bathroom, before heading out to get dressed. At about 3:30, Kevin and I both came out of the suite, fully decked in our new suits. We checked on the other guys to make sure they were ready. Nick had already left with Justin and the other N'Sync members, and Brian, Howie and AJ were basically ready to leave. We all left the hotel and headed up to the site of the wedding. The white chairs were set out in rows, which curved gracefully around the whole structure of the ruins. An elaborate arrangement of flowers had been set up, to circle the bride, groom and minister when they were on the pedestal at the front. The chairs had all been labelled with who was supposed to be sitting where. A lot of guests were already here, and so it was easy to see where as many of us as there were in the group were to sit. About 10 rows back from the front, on Justin's side of the chairs, we found them: AJ, Howie, Brian, Kevin. That was it. Kevin was in the aisle seat. Nick wouldn't have one: he was part of the service, and was one of Justin's witnesses. But there was no seat for me. I looked at Kevin for a second. We looked at the seats in front and behind, but there wasn't one for me. Kevin said he'd go and talk to the N'Sync people and ask where my seat was: I was kinda hoping they actually had one: what if they'd forgotten to put one out for me? About two minutes later, Kevin came back with a frown on his face, and he walked up to me, then straight past. Kevin was walking down the opposite rows of seats, across the aisle, and he got to the sixth row from the front, and pointed to an aisle seat. Confused, I walked up to him and looked at the seat, which had a label on it with my name written on it in bold, black pen. "Why am I sat up here?" I asked Kevin.
"Apparently the little princess wants you on her side, you seem to have made quite an impression on the little bitch." Kevin answered sternly.
"Kevin!" I almost shouted back at him.
"What? I wanted to sit next to you Jared, this isn't fair." Kevin answered, clearly upset. "She can't just do that - we should be sat together." I touched Kevin's arm.
"Well, we can do one of two things then, we can start bitching about it, and if they move us, then we may upset a lot of people, not least the person whose day this is supposed to be, or we could just accept the seating plan and remember that we'll be together again soon enough anyway, remember we've got the reception to go to afterwards anyway." I looked at Kevin, I was hoping he wouldn't pick the first option.
"Ok Jared, I was just hoping we could sit together, but I guess we'll be together again soon anyway." He leant over and kissed me on the cheek. I watched him go back to his seat, and I sat down in my seat. I knew Britney and I had talked over the last few days quite a bit, but moving me so close to the front, and over to her side did seem a little excessive - but then again, I did her know her better already than the groom, so...
About quarter of an hour later, the groom got into position. He actually had two best men: Nick and JC. A few minutes later, the minister appeared, and a few minutes after that, some soft music started to herald the arrival of the bride. Everyone went silent and rose to their feet. When everyone saw Britney, the silence descended even lower - she looked incredible. She had gone partially traditional - white dress, including a train behind her that flowed along the ground, and the upper section of the dress was form fitting, but the lower half flowed out. Her hair was in plaits, but they had been coiled up on her head, and flowers were woven into the plaits. Her face had not been heavily made up, and she looked incredible. She made her way down the aisle fairly quickly - I always hated those weddings when they play `here comes the bride' and the bride takes a step every few seconds - it's just cheesy. As she walked past, she smiled and blushed as she looked at the people she walked past. As she walked past the guys, she smiled and they all beamed back, obviously taken aback by her appearance: all I can say is that she scrubs up REAL good. As she approached me, I smiled and she saw me and blushed again, then smiled back broadly. Finally she approached the pedestal, and walked up to face Justin, who was grinning broadly at her.
The wedding lasted just over an hour. I carried on glancing back at Kevin, and he had his eyes on me most of the time. I think he was more upset than he was even letting on. As Britney and Justin came back down the aisle, we all stood again and they walked past smiling happily. They both half-waved, half nodded goodbye to as many guests as they could as they went down the aisle, even though we would see them all again at the big reception this evening. We got back to the hotel about 5:30, and Kevin and I went up and changed into shirt and trousers. The dress code was completely relaxed for the evening party: Britney had told me she didn't like wearing formal wear much - a sentiment apparently shared by Justin. The party was due to start about 7, and Kevin and I were sitting in the living room, just lounging about until the time swung around. Kevin was really quiet while we were sitting in the living room.
"Is something wrong Kev?" I asked him as we sat on opposite ends of the same couch.
"No." He sighed.
"Don't bullshit Kev. Tell me what's wrong."
"It's nothing Jared."
"No! It's obviously bothering you, whatever it is, and I want to know, especially as for some reason it's stopping you from talking to me."
"Fine. I'm jealous ok?" Kevin answered sharply.
"What? Of what?" I asked, confused.
"You." He answered shortly. There was a long silence, and I just sat there not quite sure what to answer: how could he be jealous of me? What have I got that he hasn't? "Jared, I don't know how to explain it, but, well, oh for god's sake, why is this so hard?" Kevin whined. I moved closer to him, and took his hand in mine. He looked up sadly into my eyes. "Jared, you remember when we first met, I told you I was lonely, alone a lot of the time, and I just wanted someone?" I nodded.
"Yeah, I remember Kev." I was still confused.
"Well, that loneliness wasn't because I wanted it to be that way, I mean that's pretty obvious, it was because I'm not good with people Jared. I have trouble just opening up to people, I mean, we're both pretty quiet most of the time, and I like that, but when you want to be, you can be really open, and people listen to you, and you listen to them, and you can become friends with people so quickly. Britney took an instant liking to you, everyone in N'Sync likes you, even Justin's mom likes you. I just wish I'd had that. I probably wouldn't have been alone so long, if I had just been able to open up how you can. That's why I'm jealous, and I hate it, I love you so much Jared, I should never, ever be jealous of you, but I can't help it. I think of all the years I spent looking for someone, but failing and I see you, and it's like you could just be with anyone, it's like everyone loves you so easily, and I just wish I had that." Kevin's voice broke, and I pulled him close to me and hugged him. I made shushing noises to calm him down, and just held him for a while.
"Kevin, do you not remember how everyone treated me when I first arrived? Not everyone loves me. And as for being able to open up to people, you have no idea how hard it is. I told Britney what I did before I joined you guys, but it was so hard getting it out, I almost gave up and just didn't answer her. I do find it hard Kevin, I have to force myself every time I want to do something. But Kevin, you have nothing to be jealous about, you could do the same thing, and as for me being open about my feelings, I've seen you do the same thing. When you apologised and forgave Nick after the fight you guys had, you really opened up to him. And when we first met, how you were so upset because I was a prostitute, so you couldn't be with me, you opened up then too. Don't worry about being open with your feelings Kevin, they come to you and you're open about them when you really need them, that's what's important. I should be the one who's jealous of you Kevin."
"Why?" Kevin asked. He actually seemed confused, and I didn't really want to go into this.
"Why do you think Kev? You have everything I ever wanted." Kevin scrunched up his eyebrows. "Kev, look at your life. You have a family who still love you, you have friends, real friends who care a helluva lot about you, you have a career, a job which you love, you have everything Kevin. I should be the one who's jealous."
"You missed off the one thing I have which is more important than all of them. You." Kevin smiled slightly, then leant forward and kissed me. My eyes shut, and I savoured the taste of Kevin's lips on mine. I felt his hands cup onto the sides of my face, and support our faces. I loved this man so much, I felt like I was gonna explode.
Just before 7, Kevin and I went down to the hotel garden, which had been covered with a huge marquee, and there was a dance area, tables set up all around, and a raised table where the bride and groom were already sitting. They came over to greet us, as there were only a few people already in the place. Kevin and I were holding hands, and it felt so good.
"It's great to see you two, you're some of the first people down here." Justin stated as he and Britney walked, their arms linked around one another towards us. Britney had changed into a summer dress, and Justin into shirt and slacks.
"Thanks, the wedding was really beautiful you guys, so, is it just N'Sync that are here so far?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Britney replied. "And their guests for the wedding. There's Chris and Danni, Lance and Danielle, Joey and, oh what's her name?"
"Cathy." Justin filled in.
"Oh yes, that's it, and JC and Jimmy are just over there." Britney pointed to JC, who was with a tall dark-haired man over by the flower beds in the garden area that wasn't covered by the marquee. Kevin and I found our seats and sat down. We were on the third table. They were all covered in white, and they had centrepieces of large arrangements of flowers on them. Kevin and I both sat there drinking out of the jugs of water that had been placed on the table and watching the other guests arrive. JC and Jimmy we found had been placed on our table with us - did they think we would be able to talk to each other because we were all gay? Anyway, it could have been coincidental - the rest of N'Sync were pretty much spread out. Jimmy was a latin looking man with dark hair that hung to his shoulders, and he and JC seemed to joke a lot. Jimmy would lean over and whisper something into his ear and JC would have a hard time keeping his starter down from all his laughing. They served the courses pretty quickly, and after the speeches were done, it was almost 8 o'clock. It was just beginning to get a little darker outside the marquee, but there were lights around the inside of the tent, so we were bathed in the luminous glow of the halogen lamps as we all stood to watch Justin and Britney take the first dance. Once again - they'd gone traditional, and actually started with a slow dance, that looked a little like a waltz, though I think neither of them had ever been told how to do a waltz, so they added in a few steps here and there, it was still nice to watch though - they were both very graceful, and they were obviously enjoying themselves. Gradually more and more people joined in, but I hung back, not sure whether Kevin wanted to dance or not, and not wanting to force him, though I really, really wanted to. The end of the first song was playing, and another slow song was starting up when I felt Kevin grab my arm and jerk me onto the dance floor. I looked at him, and he had a smirk on his face.
"Let's show them how to dance." Kevin said in a husky voice in my ear. Ok, now what happened next, at least for me, was kind of embarrassing. While I didn't mind dancing club-style with another man, dancing ballroom-style, which is what Kevin launched us into, was kind of embarrassing. I felt really weird as we spun around the floor, narrowly avoiding some of the other dancers. Suddenly, I noticed as my eyes settled on someone before they were spun off, that Jimmy and JC were following us, doing pretty much the same moves. We moved in a spiral as we spun, getting closer and closer to the centre of the dance floor, which Britney and Justin had vacated after the first dance. A lot of people had now stopped, and were staring at us as moved quicker and quicker. I could see Kevin's head flicking from side to side with each spin, and every time I missed my footing, he caught me up with a quick lurch forward. Once we reached the centre floor, we moved in very small circles around the very centre of the platform. JC and Jimmy joined us a moment later, and we moved in circles around one another. We never touched them and they just moved around and around, like two atoms orbiting one another, while orbiting themselves. I knew everyone on the dance floor was watching now, and when the music died down there was silence, before some people started clapping, and soon enough all of them were joining in.
The wedding was tiring: Kevin and I danced a lot more, but occasionally we were split up as people asked to dance with us. Britney asked to dance with me once and I agreed, but Justin cut in half way through, which I didn't really bother about: by that time, my feet were killing me. Britney seemed very happy - the smile never left her face, and Justin was smiling at her the whole time, I was really happy for them.
Kevin and I went up to our suite just after midnight, and fell asleep in each others' arms. We were leaving tomorrow for Scandinavia, but the past few days had been so happy, our birthdays, the wedding, we just didn't want to leave it behind just yet.
Leaving the following morning was difficult: none of us really wanted to leave this paradise for the wintry north, but it was to be, and we headed off at about 10 the next morning for Norway. It was hard for me to say goodbye to Britney, she was another friend I'd only just made, and we had shared a lot even though we'd only really had a couple of days together. I think she was a bit upset too, but she was obviously still happy after yesterday, so I think that made up for it. We all hugged goodbye, and left Britney and Justin on the ramp where I had waited with Britney for her guests just yesterday.
Chapter 21
Scandinavia was cold. That was it. It was cold. Nothing else, just cold. Of all the stupid times to come to Norway: November, middle of winter. Idiots. Whoever planned this tour obviously had his stupid hat on that day. The guys performed in the capitals of Norway, Sweden and Finland, and actually ended up doing a couple of signings in Denmark, but they didn't perform there.
We were in Russia by the 10th of November. Ever wonder why Napoleon and Hitler were both unable to conquer Russia? The Russian winter. This had to be the coldest I have ever experienced in my life. I normally prefer cold weather, or at least being cool rather than hot, but this was ludicrous: it was even colder than Norway. I hardly left the hotel except to go the first performance of the guys. It was cold in the stadium too, and I had to wear the guys' coats which they weren't wearing while they were on stage. I didn't go out again after that except in the limo, which I hardly got out of. I did take a couple of pics of the guys in front of the Kremlin in Moscow, and when we went to St. Petersburg, the pics were of them in front of the Rostral Columns. Thank god it was only a week, and by the 17th we were on the plane again. We left the tour buses behind - they were to be placed on a cargo plane and taken back to the US. We were on our way to China. I'd always wanted to visit China, something about it just seemed really exciting. Fortunately Kevin was also excited about the visit. Apparently we would be there until the 3rd of December when we would leave for Japan, for two concerts there, before heading to the US.
So, we arrived on the Sunday, and settled into the hotel. We were told not to go outside the hotel without our escorts and that the sightseeing days had been allocated. Again, the time went very quickly. The guys worked out most mornings as there were only a few rehearsals and very few actual concerts. Well, even if Fatima was letting up a bit towards the end of the tour, I wasn't going to. The guys had once concert on Wednesday in Beijing, and one on Sunday in Shanghai. On the Tuesday, we had a sightseeing day, and we were taken around parts of Beijing with an escort before heading out into the countryside, where the scenery was incredible. We went up the side of a mountain in a creaking cable car, and we could see the tops of the clouds, and the mountainous countryside peeking through. We had come about two hours from Beijing, but it wasn't so far away that we couldn't see the lights as it started to get dark in the evening. We were taken back about 8 o'clock. I wished that I could've been closer to Kevin when we were sightseeing, this was such a beautiful place, but the same rules apply, no matter where we are. Everything was going by very quickly, and it was starting to piss me off. I felt like shouting out "STOP!" every now and again, just to get things to slow down, but I carried on because I knew this wouldn't last for too long, and we would be finished with the tour soon: I could suddenly understand why Kevin got bored on tours. I could see that he loved performing: his excitement before and after he was on stage was incredible, and he spoke so animatedly about his music to the guys and the technicians and other people that it was obvious he was deeply attached to the music, but all the same, it was obvious that the tour was taking its toll on Kevin, and he seemed tired most of the time. Most nights I just end up holding him.
"Two days to go guys!" Nick shouted as he walked out of breakfast on the 26th, and I gave a confused look to Kevin. We were in Shanghai and we were basically on a break in China until we had to go to Japan. The next day Nick walked in and shouted out to the guys who were already eating. "One more day!" I sighed heavily, Nick was way too loud sometimes.
"What is one more day?" I said back to him. The other guys stopped eating. "What?" I asked.
"Ummmm, Jared, tomorrow's Thanksgiving." Nick said.
"Oh right." I said. I looked down at my food - not only did I not know it was Thanksgiving, I didn't know what you did for a Thanksgiving. "I've never celebrated Thanksgiving before." I said to Kevin once all the guys had left.
"It's ok." Kevin chuckled.
"Do we like give gifts at Thanksgiving."
"No." Kevin laughed out.
"Hey! You don't need to laugh - just because we don't have that holiday in England. But shouldn't you be back in the US for this then? I thought thanksgiving was usually a family thing?" Kevin swallowed.
"It is. But we just couldn't make it back this year, by the time we sorted out all the arrangements and everything, got everyone flew over to their family homes and everything, we would have to be flying back. We spoke to our families before we left, and they agreed that we should stay away for thanksgiving, just as long as we made it home for Christmas, or else. The 'or else' was my mum's words on the subject." He smiled and looked over at me. I nodded and we spent the rest of the day in the gym, in the pool or in our room. I was working through the books Brian had got me, and Kevin had somehow managed to get hold of some American newspaper from somewhere.
The next day, we laid in. Only getting up around 11, and going straight in to get showered, I came back into the bedroom to find Kevin still sleeping with his head on his arm. I stroked his sides as I sat behind him on the bed. His eyes slowly opened.
"Happy thanksgiving Kev." I said. "You do say that on Thanksgiving right?" He smiled and nodded. He leant up and kissed me on the lips.
"Happy Thanksgiving Jared." He smiled and laid back down on the bed, pulling me on top of him and kissing me passionately.
End of Chapter 21
Well, that's chapter 21 now, I know these two chapters might seem a little rushed, or disoriented, but I've had so much work this week it's been unbelievable, so I hope they made sense, and I hope everyone enjoyed it. There's less than two weeks left of the tour now, so they should be back in the US soon, and I'm hoping to bring in different and more interesting plot structures (hence the fact I seem to be skipping countries like Scandinavia and Russia, which quite frankly seem a little boring!). I hope everyone is still liking the story.