Firstly, I want to say I do not know nor do I make any presumptions about the sexuality of the Backstreet Boys nor any other celebrities who may appear in this story. This story is entirely the product of the sick imagination of the author.
Secondly, you should know that I am English, I live in London, and that is where at least the first couple of chapters are set, sorry, but it's the only city I really know well enough to describe in great detail!!!
There's also a couple of things I'd like to say to any authors out there, read a couple of stories like Forever, Josh and Just, My New Life, Brian and Justin, and there's probably a few others I can't think of, but they are great stories, especially Forever (but I advise you not to read Equilibrium - it's a bit too depressing for my liking, and it hasn't been finished which is really annoying), it is a really beautiful story and addresses so many emotions it's incredible - trust me, it is the Holy Grail of the Nifty author.
Oh yeah, I'd also like to thank Jimmy for writing to me so much about this story, I pray that his back surgery goes ok, and keep on searching I'm sure you'll find him.
On The Streets - Part 8
"You know you don't have to sleep in here if you don't want to."
"What d'you mean? I'm still working for you."
"Yeah, but I mean you'll be working for the Firm from Saturday and I guess I'm just trying to say you could sleep in the other room if you want to. This is a double suite, so I guess you could just sleep in there. I mean that's probably how it will be registered at hotels for the rest of the tour, you'll take the other room in the suite with only one of us in, and as that's normally me, we'll probably be sharing a suite. I guess what I'm just trying to say is, I don't want you to feel like I'm still ... renting you, like a prostitute." I nodded in understanding and picked up my clothes and started for the door. Once I was in the door, I turned partially and saw the look on Kevin's face, and I walked out.
I walked into the other room and carried on getting ready for bed. I tell you I've never been so awkward as I was that night when Kevin and I bumped into each other outside the bathroom. I climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to my neck. It still felt cold. I tossed and turned incessantly for about half an hour. Then I started thinking about things that happened over the last few days, the concert, the photo shoot, Mark and Lukas hitting me, getting offered, and accepting the job, then I remembered the dream I had that made me accept the job. I shivered. Then I remembered what Mark had said just before he hit me: "He's lonely, he always has been, he needs someone and he thought it was you." The words spun around in my head, and the word 'lonely' carried on popping up. I thought to myself, what if Kevin feels the same way I do? The dream carried on coming back to me in flashes.
"Shit!" I gave up trying to sleep in here. I stood up and walked into the other room. Kevin was lying there with his eyes open. His eyes flicked down to me when he saw me standing in the doorway. "I'm, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come." I looked into his eyes, begging for him to ask me to stay. He did.
"Jared, please stay, I don't know if I can sleep on my own anymore." I walked over to the side of the bed I had been sleeping in and slipped in behind Kevin and we came close together. We were facing each other and our arms and legs tangled together. I smiled up at him and he smiled back. After a couple of minutes we both drifted off and slept peacefully for the rest of the night.
I was woken the next morning again to the knocking of the door. Seeing Kevin sleeping next to me brought a flood of emotions from last night, but I stopped them. I picked up a pair of jeans and made sure they were mine this time. I went and answered the door and saw Nick standing outside. I stuck my head out a bit further and looked around for the other guys but they weren't there, so I looked back at Nick with a confused expression on my face. He giggled at the look on my face.
"Where are the others?"
"They're getting ready - they should be about ten minutes, or in A.J.'s case about three quarters of an hour." He giggled again. Nick had a very endearing quality to him - like a teddy bear, but not quite so rounded. I opened the door to let him in and he went through to the sitting room to sit down. I joined him in there and asked him if he wanted me to wake Kevin, but he said it was ok, we could just wait for the other guys. I looked at Nick very closely. I could still remember the conversation we had the day before yesterday and how upset he was about not having the book smarts of the other guys in the group.
"Nick, do you remember Kevin telling you that I used to be a teacher?" He nodded. "Um, I don't know any other way of saying this but you know how you were telling me yesterday how you didn't finish your schooling and you were upset about it?" He nodded again and looked down at his hands that were in his lap. I sighed and got up from the couch and went over to get the bag from the bookshop yesterday. I picked up the bag and brought the books over to where Nick was sitting and sat down next to him. First I took out the Shakespeare book, then the book of poetry and finally the study guide. "Nick, this is a course guide for a correspondence course for an International Baccalaureate in English Literature. It's an internationally recognised qualification. If you want me to teach you this while we're on tour then I'll do it, in fact I'd be really happy to do it for you." Nick's eyes were tearing up. I heard him sniff once and then he turned to look at me. His eyes were flicking from one of mine to the other. He finally leant towards me and wrapped his arms around me. He pulled me close and leant into my shoulder and I felt him sobbing gently.
"Thank you Jared, I'd love it if you could teach me, the other guys have never even offered to do something like this for me, thank you so much, but I don't just want you to teach me English, I want you to teach me every subject you know, can you do that?"
"Yeah of course Nick, I'd love to do that. If you don't want the other guys to know that you're getting taught this though you'd better take these books back to your room, I wasn't sure whether you'd want them to know about it, that's why I was glad I got this chance to talk to you now." Nick pulled back from me and held my shoulders. He then did something that really shocked me - he leant in and slowly kissed me on my cheek, but very close to my lips. I pulled back in shock.
"I don't care if they know, thank you so much Jared, I don't know how I'm ever gonna pay you back for this."
"It's ok Nick, I'll be working with you anyway, and I do like teaching even if I had a hard time of it before." He nodded and we sat back on the couch chatting until A.J., Brian and Howie knocked on the door. This time, before I could get to the door, Kevin came out his bedroom fully dressed and answered the door to them. They all greeted Kevin and then came in. They greeted me as well as they walked past and when they got into the living room they mumbled some sort of greeting to Nick who greeted them back cheerfully. Apparently Nick had been the one to wake them all up this morning! They all sat facing each other on the couch while Kevin ordered some room service for breakfast. Finally, Howie noticed the pile of books in front of Nick and picked one up, the Shakespeare and looked it over.
"Jared, is this yours? I don't think I've read this before."
"Actually Howie it's Nick's." All the eyes in the room shot up to look at Nick. Howie dropped the book, Kevin dropped the phone and after picking it up explained the problem before finishing the order and hanging up and Brian and A.J. just sat there in stunned silence.
"Actually guys, Jared got the book for me, he offered to teach me English while we're on tour and any other subjects he can, and hopefully sometime I'll get a baccalaureate in English." He looked over at me proudly. I suddenly felt really stupid. I looked up at Kevin, and was glad to see that he was looking at me proudly too. His eyes were slightly watery but I'm guessing that's cos he just woke up and he's still yawning. Howie, Brian and A.J. just looked at me. I wasn't sure what they were thinking, but they didn't seem angry, just... surprised.
"Well, what can I say? That's great man, if Nick wanted this," A.J. looked over at Nick, who nodded, "then I'm glad that you're the one to do this, I know Nick's always kinda resented not being able to finish his schooling, I'm glad somebody came along who was willing to teach him." I smiled at A.J. who smiled back over the top of a pair of small sunglasses. I looked over at Brian and Howie, both seemed supportive of this, so I was happy.
"Yeah, thanks Jared."
"Thanks for helping Frack, Jared." Brian seemed most touched by my actions and I was glad I was getting along with him, I knew if I kept him happy, then it would probably help keep Kevin happy.
"Frack?" I looked at Brian sceptically. The other guys started sniggering and trying not to laugh.
"Us guys all have nicknames Jared." Kevin eventually filled me in. "A.J.'s nickname is Bone, Howie is D or Sweet D, Nick is Kaos or Frack and Brian is Frick. You can see they go together, Frick and Frack." He chuckled gently.
"So what's yours?" This should be good, I thought to myself. He shrugged his shoulders. I must admit I was confused.
"Most of the time I'm just Kev or Kevin - they don't normally call me anything else." He was holding something back and I could see the rest of the guys smiling.
"Are any of the rest of you gonna tell me what his real nickname is? Or am I gonna have to beat it outta one of you?" I said with a smirk on my face.
Brian finally spoke up. "Well, we don't exactly call him it that much anymore, but we used to call him Boo." I did have a bit of a hard time not cracking up, I mean come on this guy who towers over the rest of the group, who when he scowls can look really scary and is strong enough to just pick me up and twirl me around and the rest of the guys called him 'Boo'? I just sat there with an amused expression on my face.
I was almost laughing - I could feel it rising up inside of me and the edges of my lips carried on twitching up and down slightly and I could feel my stomach muscles start to contract, and my lower back was starting to ache from holding in the laughter, but I knew I couldn't keep this up for much longer. "Go on, I know you want to, just laugh at it, I know it's a stupid nickname!" I lost it, I just cracked up. Kevin literally flew across the room, and landed on the couch next to me where he proceeded to tickle me until I almost wet myself. He finally stopped and I was seriously out of breath and I had a tear running down my cheek. I finally managed to catch my breath a bit and I sat up straight. Kevin was still sitting next to me. He leant and kissed me and then moved back a bit and looked straight into my eyes. The view was breathtaking - His long hair framed his face perfectly and his goatee perfectly framed those beautiful lips. I leant in and kissed him again. "It's good to see you smiling, and I love your laugh, I hope I can keep you smiling while you're on tour with us." I suddenly felt like he'd been reading my thoughts. I looked at him closely and realised it was just what he was thinking.
The door knocked again and Nick jumped up to get it. The room service cart was rolled in and the other guys all jumped up to get their food. Kevin started to get up, but I held him down until all the others were crowded around the food cart. "Thank you." He leant in and kissed me again.
"Do you want me to get you some food?" I nodded my head. I watched him get up and move to the food cart. He was very graceful - I had noticed that at the concert last night, his movements were smooth and even though he was the tallest and biggest of the guys he moved with the greatest ease. When he reached the cart to find it surrounded by the guys, he grabbed hold of Howie's shirt and A.J.'s shirt and pulled them back before moving in in their place. He picked up two plates and piled them both high. Their was the normal pile of food - bacon, eggs, hash browns and so on. When he came back, my plate was piled high with food. I would never eat this much, but I made a start. The rest of the guys joined us and in the end, Kevin ate half my food.
"So what are you guys doing today again?" I asked no one in particular.
"We have an interview this afternoon, the schedule was changed last minute, but nothing really this morning." Kevin answered. "In fact, I thought maybe you'd like to take us to a couple of places around London - normally when we're in different countries, we try to get out on a sightseeing tour or two, just as a way to learn about different cultures, I think it helps to enrich the way our music sounds, and also knowing what the people are like that we're singing to, it helps us to relate to them."
I looked around at the group - I knew if they were out sightseeing, they wouldn't want to be mobbed. Where could I take them in London where you get strange looking people, where they can see some of the culture in this country, and where they can presumably do a bit of shopping or something as well? Then it struck me. "Ok, everyone get dressed, I know just where to take you guys!" The other guys filed out and Kevin came up behind me.
"Where are you taking us?" Kevin asked with a questioning tone.
"It's a surprise." I answered with a smile on my face. "One question though - do you really have to travel around in that limo?" Kevin shook his head.
"Not if the guards think it will be safe enough for us to travel normally." I nodded.
"So if we choose to go on public transport then they could travel with us and presumably they would think it would be safe enough?" Kevin nodded. I smiled back. "Then we can go on the underground. I know you've probably been on the underground in New York and stuff and I don't know about over there, but over here the Underground is the centre of London life - it's impossible to get around without it. London covers twice the area of New York, and traffic is just as deadlocked over a much larger area. So a lot more people come in by underground. You'll like it I promise, it's fun. I remember the first time I went on it - I just went round and round for hours, stopping at different stations and looking around and then getting back on and going to the next stop!" Kevin chuckled and I blushed - I had never admitted to that before.
We got dressed and came out the hotel suite. The other guys were ready except A.J.. I had to laugh - Nick was right - A.J. does take a long time getting ready - Howie had already showered this morning, so only A.J. had to go in the bathroom, but in the time he'd been in there, both Kev and I had showered and dressed! Eventually Kevin went in and dragged him out of there and forced him to pull his clothes on. A.J. came out very flustered but when he saw the smirks on our faces, he smiled back. "So Jared, gonna tell us where we're going yet?" I shook my head no and just led them down into the lobby. In the lobby we found the security guards and they wanted to talk to me about my plans. I took them over to another part of the lobby and chatted with them while the guys waited over the other side near the lift. The security team agreed to everything I wanted to do, but they wanted us to be back within 5 hours - before the rush hour started as it would be easy to lose somebody on the Underground if they didn't know the system and it was always busy in rush hour so anyway... The closest station was Liverpool Street and it was just down the road, so the guys snuck out with the guards and we made our way down the street. Fortunately, the guards hadn't dressed too conspicuously and even A.J. had managed to tone down a little! Anyway, we made our way to the station and our adventure begun...
To Be Continued... End of Part 8
I'm really sorry this part is so short, I was just really tired today - come on how many authors post a part everyday, and I know the idea of the BSB walking around London without being recognised and even going on the underground is really stupid, but hey it's my story, and besides who said they wouldn't be recognised. You'll just have to wait to see where Jared takes them. Now, I'm gonna try to write a part tomorrow (24th) but if I don't manage, please don't blame me. Then on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, well let's just say I doubt it, but I'll try. The 27th is a definite, I'll probably manage to get a page or two written on Christmas and Boxing Day, so the one the day after should be good, and it should be pretty long. Oh yeah, I think I found the funniest quote on the archive - in Tales of a Superhero Band - Joey says and I quote: "Batman has helped us out all those times, too" I just thought this was incredibly amusing - especially as Batman isn't actually featured in the story. Oh yeah and I read 'JC, Lance and Astral Fan', now I know it sounds a little cooky and everything, but it is still a pretty cool story. Oh yeah, and Blind Date - great story. Oh and finally, the ideas are coming pretty slow to me at the moment, unfortunately, I am a hormonal 18 year old (I know horrible admission isn't it?) and I am developing this MAJOR crush on Justin Timberlake, especially with the short hair and the six pack - wow! So lusting over him at the moment and trying to find NSync on MTV is taking up a large part of my time, sorry! So does anyone mind, or have any ideas about how I can skim over the next two concerts - it's only thursday in the story, and I have to get over Friday and Saturday night concerts before they head off to Europe on Sunday, so, any ideas?