The Shoot - Part Ten by Gboy
DISCLAIMER - I don't know Nick Carter or any of the BSB's or any other celebrity mentioned in this story. If you are under 18 or are offended by the thought of two men engaged in sexual activities then a) why are you here? and b) please dont read.
Cheers to Matt, Rdr, Tyrone, Jimmy, Ryan and everyone else who's emailed me. It's great hearing from y'all!
PS Just so you dont get confused there is a one hour time difference between London and Paris. OK? Good.
PART TEN - A Tale Of Two Cities - 2
LONDON - Saturday 6am
I looked out over the broiling mass that was the River Thames. I watched as boats sailed up and down it. Inhaling deeply on my freshly lit cigarette I rubbed my tired eyes. I tried to pass it off as Jet Lag but truth be told I was starting to miss Nick more with each minute that passed. Was he thinking about me? I had no idea but I hoped that he was and that when I saw him the day after tomorrow we'd be able to talk.... like that first night.
"Carl?" I heard the voice holler at me. I turned and faced the large double windows that seperated me, on the balcony, from Jem in the living room. My flat was only small but it had a fantastic balcony and view. I had on occasion sat out here for hours just watching the world pass my field of vision. I had written my first (and only, I might add) screenplay on this balcony.
"Yo." I said lamely as Jem opened the door.
"Jeez! It's cold out here." She wrapped her arms around herself. "You must be freezing?"
"Hadn't noticed." I replied as I watched a pigeon circle above me. Oh, to be a bird. Just being able to fly and circle and dive and.... whatever without having to face the outcome.
"Carl," Jem crouched down by my seat "I hate seeing you like this. Let's go somewhere.... out, ya know. Like we used to. Just walk.... talk, have a fag?"
She was trying so hard to make me feel better but it wasn't working.... but I did need to get out.
"Give me a minute to get changed." I said as I got up and breezed into the flat.
PARIS - Saturday 7am (Same time)
Nick stood once more at the window of the hotel. The other boys had arrived a few hours ago and were sleeping off the jet lag, leaving him to fend for himself. Again. The boys had grown apart in the last few weeks and months. With Nick and AJ's 'flirtation', tentions had surfaced within the group. Sometimes the atmosphere felt like Big Brother. With the world always looking in on them twenty four hours a day, and each of them with there strong personalities jostling for supremecy. Carl had a calming influence on the situation..... well, after the AJ thing had been sorted. Nick couldn't believe that after only a few days, one man had made so much difference.
"Fuck this!" He said aloud and left the room. He had to get out.
LONDON - Saturday 6.28am
I kicked a coke can at the river wall as we walked under the London Eye. It amazed me how anyone could come up with the idea to put a giant ferris wheel on the river bank and expect people to pay nine quid to see the mirky and sometimes dank areas of London. But it was obviously popular. Making money, unlike the Millenium Dome. Enough crap. I was lost in my own thoughts as Jem and I walked. We walked over Westminster Bridge. I could see Waterloo station. I could see the Eurostar train. I could just imagine Nick waiting at the other end of the three hour journey.
"I've got to go to him." I told Jem as I started purposefully forward to Westminster tube station.
PARIS - 7.37am
Nick sat in the warm early morning sunlight. He went over the events once more in his head. They wouldn't leave him alone, they played like an old movie. Over and over. He pulled his mobile out of his pocket and dialed a US number.
"Leemans Detective Agency, Carla speaking."
"Carla its Nick Carter." Nick had used the agency before when he needed favours.... like having AJ followed, but he would never tell AJ that!
"Hey, what can I do for you?"
"I need you to find a number for me." Nick said before sipping the coffee the waiter had just brought him
"A number? Is that it?" Carla sounded slightly dissapointed
"Yep, that's it."
"Name?"
"Hayden Christensen." Nick stated
"Wow." Carla was taken by suprise "Um... land line or mobile?" She quickly regained her professional persona.
"Mobile if poss." Nick pushed his sunglasses on to the top of his head. He needed to know the truth about the other night and the only way to do that was talk to Hayden himself. If Carl was up to something he would obviously deny it. But Hayden.....? He didn't have any other choice.
"Right," Carla said scribbling the name down. "Give me twenty minutes." She hung up. Nick replaced his glasses and stood, he walked towards Notre Dame. He loved looking at the magnificent carvings in the medieval church. It was also quieter that the cafe he had been sitting at. It may still be early but Paris was already humming.
WESTMINSTER TUBE STATION - 6.38am
"Are you sure this is the right thing?" Jem asked for the fifth time as we walked down to the platform to wait for the tube train that would take us to Waterloo.
"Damn sure." I said.
A huge number of people were coming up the stairs that we were going down. BAM! I walked straight into one of them.
"Jeez, I'm sorry." I said as I picked up the bloke's paper off the floor. I looked at him. "Shit." I froze on the busy stairs.
"Hi Carl." The voice I had tried to push to the back of my mind so many time rang over the noise of the commuters.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked Darren, stunned.
"I heard you were back in town." He said
"I didn't know you knew I'd left." I said looking into his hazel eyes. They were as beautiful as I remember. Nowhere near as gorgeous as Nicks.
"I heard that too."
"Who from?" I suddenly guessed from the way Jem kept quiet, I realised why she had wanted to get me out. "What the hell!!"
"I thought he needed to know" Jem protested
"Like fuck he did!" I shouted making a few people look at me. "He walked out on me. He doesn't need to know shit!" I turned, pushing my way through the crowd.
When I was back on ground level I turned right and quickly made my way down Whitehall. I ran past Downing Street and into Trafalgar Square. I turned left at the top of Whitehall and made my way down the Mall to Buckingham Palace at the far end. I was exhausted when I finally stopped. I was at the Queen Victoria monument in front of the palace. I sat on the cold steps.
PARIS 7.40am
Nick's mobile vibrated descreetly as his eyes gazed at the stained glass windows of Notre Dame. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out the phone.
"Hello?" His heart was pounding at the prospect of confronting Hayden.
"Nick?," Brian's voice rang down the phone "Where are ya boy?"
Nick let out the breath he had been holding; "I just went for a walk," Nick started "Ya know, to clear my head."
"Cool," Brian stated simply, his voice crackling as Nick turned away from the church. "The rest of us are having breakfast, wanna join?"
Nick thought about it. There was no use waiting for the call, Carla had said twenty minutes but it could take ages; "Yeah, why not."
Nick said he would be there soon and shut the phone off.
Back at the hotel Brian replaced the hand set of the phone and turned to the other guys who had already encamped at a large table in the resturant.
"He's on his way." He told them
"How did he sound?" AJ rubbed his tired eyes
"Same old, ya know." Brian couldn't really discribe how Nick had sounded, normal yet at the same time not........ something like that.
"This things gotta be sorted." AJ stated as he removed his shades.
"We can't interfere," Howie started "They have to sort this out for themselves."
"But we're his buddys..... His family." AJ placed one hand on the table.
"What can we do," Kevin sipped his coffee "Even if we wanted too?"
Just then Nick walked into the deserted resturant and pulled a chair out from the table the others were sitting at.
"How's Nick this morning?" Howie asked
"Ya know..." Nick stated simply.
"Where've you been?" Brian looked at Nick over the rim of his large coffee mug.
"Out." His head was pounding. He had expected the call from Carla but it had been Brian. He couldn't concentrate. They made conversation for about half-an-hour before Nick felt the phone vibrate in his pocket. He grabbed the phone and literally ran from the resturant.
"Hello?" He panted down the reciever.
"Hey," Carla's Bronx twang resounded "I got what you wanted."
She relayed the number to him. He looked at it. A gazzillion thoughts played in his mind. Did he want to hear what Hayden had to say? Damn yes. He dialled the long number into his phone. After a few clicks and whistles as the number connected. It rang.
"Hello?" The smooth voice sounded faint but still audible.
QUEEN VICTORIA MEMORIAL LONDON 7.15am
My head pounded. I had been sitting at the base of Her Majesty's statue for forty five minutes. What the fuck was I gonna do? The one person I thought I was the most close to in the whole entire world had betrayed me. I had put Darren to the back of my mind. I had banished him. Now she had brought him back. I wanted Nick. I knew that but seeing him again had stirred up my stomach. He was still as cute as ever. He still had those eyes I had fallen for.
But all that was in the past. I had moved on. He had no right to waltz back into my life making me feel these emotions I had buried. As for Jem. Well.... she hurt me. I had spilled my guts to her when Darren walked out. She had been my shoulder to cry on. What the hell was she thinking?
Hundreds of cars zoomed past the monument at this early hour. London never slept. Well, if it did it was only a nap. Millions of people made up the pulse of the city. Being one of them made me feel..... I don't know.... special, somehow. There were times I cursed this place but all in all I was London and London was me. I had tried to break away. I had gone to America. I had fallen in love, I had wanted to get far far away. But she always called me home.
I heard footsteps behind me. I knew who it was.
"Why did you run?" Darren asked.
"Why did you have to come back?" I answered his question with one of my own.
"I love you." He replied
"Like fuck you do!" I turned to look at him, my eyes flashing dangerously. "You didn't seem to have those feelings when you walked. You left me, you hurt me. Now you expect me to fall into your arms again? No way, not gonna happen."
"I DO love you. I just needed time to think." He sat beside me
"You wouldn't have come if Jem hadn't made you." I spoke quietly "I suppose she told you about the job."
"Yep."
"And my salary." I knew he was here for a reason and it wasn't love.
"Whoa. You know I would'nt....." He started
"No. Stop right there. You came for the money don't try to cover your arse."
"Yeah......" He said slowly "I'm in a bit of trouble."
I laughed. I knew. I hated him all over again. If there was any love left it was now gone, dead.
NICKS HOTEL ROOM, PARIS 8.30am
Nick had been on the phone for an hour. He had asked question, listened to answered and made up his mind.
"Thank you," He said down the phone. "I needed to know."
"I didn't really get to know him," Hayden said quietly "but Carl is a cool guy. You wanna hold on to him."
"Yeah, I do." Nick made his goodbyes to Hayden then pushed the END button on his phone. A huge smile broke out on his face, his first in days. He ran down to the resturant where the guys were still sitting.
"I'm going to London!" He said smiling.
QUEEN VICTORIA MEMORIAL 7.30am
"No." I said firmly
"Carl please." He begged me.
I stood up ignoring his pleas. I started down the steps.
"CARL!" He shouted grabbing my arm "I need this!!"
"Forget it." I pulled my arm from his grip and turned once more. He grabbed again. I tried to dodge him, my foot slipped and I stumbled into the busy road.
SCREEEEEECCCCHHHHH!!!!
Pain ripped through me. Everything went black.
Oooooooh! What will happen now??
Sorry this part has taken so long but we've had a four day weekend in the UK for the jubilee!! God bless the Queen!!
keep writing I will always write back - (If I can!!!)
Caio gboy
nickysboy@hotmail.com