Disclaimer: This story is purely fictional, and therefore it does not imply that any of the characters portrayed in this story (i.e. the five members of Westlife) are gay...
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WESTLIFE BEGINNINGS 1 by Jay Cee
Kian, Mark and Shane sat on their stools, facing the stage that had been set up at the Pod nightclub, in Dublin. They were joined by their new manager, Louis Walsh, and a couple of talent scouts. They were there to find two new members for their group, Westside, who Louis hoped would follow in the footsteps of Boyzone, and be a huge success at home, and abroad. The field had been narrowed down from hundreds of entries to 70, but even so, having to listen to all these guys introduce themselves, sing a number and then answer questions from the panel was starting to wear Kian and Mark out.
Shane on the other hand, couldn't be happier. He was loving the seemingly never-ending parade of guys that night. They were all cute, given the fact that they had made it this far.
"Louis, this guy's no good, wind him up can ya?" Mark said, getting bored of the rehearsal.
"Alright Mark, we'll take a break in a bit, but I think this guy isn't bad. What do you think Kian?"
"Ah, he's alright, got a good voice. Needs to lose some of the gel in his hair though."
Mark sniggered at Kian's comment, making Shane give them a mean look. He was taken by the guy on stage, but he wasn't sure if he was what the group needed. The hopeful boy on stage finished his song, then hurried off stage before they even had a chance to ask him any questions.
"Cool, break time comes early, no questions to ask." Kian said, relieved.
"You know, you and Mark should have a little more respect for those guys up there. We've had it easy so far compared to them."
Mark frowned at Shane's comment. "Stop giving Kian and me a hard time Shane. We've been here nearly three hours, and we haven't found a single person that would fit into the group."
"Still, if you can't handle it, you should've said so. We don't all need to be here for this."
Kian, deciding that it was time to step in said, "Okay you two, settle down. Let's have a break before we have to go back and sit through the last 20 candidates."
The guys retired to the green room out the back, passing the remaining candidates on the way. Most of them looked very nervous, except for two or three of them. Shane spotted one of them, at the front of the line. "He must be up next," he thought to himself. He eyes were fixed on his blonde hair, parted in the middle, which hung down on either side of his face, and his boyish looks.
"Can't wait till he comes up." Shane thought to himself.
"Daydreaming again Shane?" Mark said, noticing Shane's state.
"Huh? Uh, no, just tired I guess."
"Ah..."
Shane entered the green room, flashing a smile at the guy as he went by. He looked up from his notes, and smiled back.
"Shit, what was I thinking then." It wasn't a good idea to be making that sort of contact with someone before an audition, but Shane enjoyed taking a risk.
The four of them flopped down on the sofa, Shane drinking a coke, Kian an orange juice while Mark and Louis had coffee.
"Well, I don't know what we're going to do if none of the others are what we're looking for in the group. We might have to do this all over again." Louis' suggestion made Mark, Kian and Shane groan in unison.
Mark protested, "No, anything but this again! Please, once is hard enough!"
"We could always have a threesome." Kian suggested.
Shane coughed while he was trying to drink his coke, Kian's suggestion meaning something entirely different to him.
"Okay, time's up guys." Louis herded them back out into the main area of the nightclub, and to the last of the candidates.
They got settled on their stools, and awaited the next person to go through the drill on stage.
A shadowy figure approached from stage right, and ascended the stairs onto the stage, and walked up to the microphone, drowned by the spotlight.
"Its him." Shane whispered to himself.
He took the microphone from the stand, and without a single hint of nerves said, "My name's Nicky Byrne, I'm from Dublin, and well, I've always been interested in singing, especially after me sister got me into karaoke. I love football, and actually spent some time at Leeds United, but didn't get through, cause I wasn't tall enough. Now, what song would you like me to sing?"
"Love Me For A Reason," responded Shane. He got up from his seat, and approached the stage. Looking down at the paper in his hand as he walked along, he looked up when he reached the foot of the stage. He was greeted by that beautiful face again, which was smiling, wryly.
"Here's the words, in case you need them, uh, Nicky?"
"Yep, Nicky. Thanks, uh..."
"Shane"
"Thanks Shane."
Shane returned to his stool, trying not to smile too much, otherwise the others might get a little suspicious of what was going on. When he had sat down, the backing track started and Nicky launched into the song. It wasn't quite as good as Ronan Keating, or Stephen Gately for that matter, but it was the best performance of the night so far.
Nicky wrapped up, and Louis wanted keep things moving along. "Okay, thank you Nicky. If you could just move off to stage right, we'll get the next one up."
Shane felt a pain in his ribs, and it turned out it was Mark elbowing him. "Not bad huh? I think we might have found one of them."
"Yeah, agreed."
"I just might get the chance to get to know Nicky a lot better, as long as Kian and Louis agree," Shane thought to himself.
Kian looked over at Shane, giving him a thumbs up, while Louis simply nodded his approval of Nicky.
Shane sunk into a daydream, thinking of the fun that would lie ahead of them. He quickly snapped out of it though, as Louis spoke to the next candidate.
"Okay, your name please?"
"Bryan McFadden."
"Okay Bryan, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, then?" Louis said, a look of expectation on his face.
"Well I went to the blah blah..."
"Alright," said Shane, not being quite as impressed with Bryan as he had with Nicky, "we'd like you to sing, uh, let me see, here it is. 'Get Down' by the Backstreet Boys."
Mark shot a look of disapproval in Shane's direction, and Louis simply shook his head from side to side. Bad move Shane.
"Oh, sorry, uh, Bryan. That's for the next guy. Uh, you can sing 'Back for Good' by Take That."
Once again, the loudspeakers at the front of the stage sprang to life as the backing track started. Bryan stood on stage, just about to sing the first line when,
"Stop! Shit, I'm sorry Bryan," Shane said, getting up from his seat and darting towards the stage, thrusting a sheet of paper into Bryan's hands, "I forgot to give you the words, here."
"I could have done it without them, y'know. I've sung this song a hundred times."
"Well, then you should do a great job then" Louis said, putting Bryan under pressure to perform.
The music started up a second time, and Bryan began singing the Take That hit.
"I guess now its time, for me to give up...."
Louis was impressed, thoughts going through his mind that the group could use a third strong singer, and in his mind, Bryan fit the bill.
The song wound up, and Kian, Mark, Shane and Louis exchanged looks of approval. Bryan hadn't missed a single note, his nerves, if he had any, not showing up at all.
"Okay, Bryan, thank you. If you could just exit to the right of the stage, we'll get the next lad up."
Mark leant over to Shane, whispering "Westside, Mark, Shane, Kian, Nicky and Bryan."
Shane nodded. He didn't mind Bryan. From just a few minutes up on stage, he could tell that he would be easy to get along with, the kind of person that once you got to know them, it felt like you'd been mates forever. But it was the thought of being in the group with Nicky Byrne that made Shane's heart beat that little bit faster.
Time began to drag on, as the clock ticked past midnight and the last of the hopefuls were put through their paces on stage. Mark let out a yawn, too tired to bother covering his mouth, while Kian on the other hand, was wide awake, and in the mood to party.
"Well, that's it boys, the last candidate has finished, you can all go back to the hotel," Louis said. At last they were free.
"Well, lets go get a cab outside and get out of here," Mark said, desperate to get back to a warm bed, and some well deserved sleep.
"You two can go ahead," Shane said, "I'm going to stick around, maybe talk to a few of the guys, y'know."
"Shane, don't be getting any of their hopes up, that wouldn't be fair to any of them," Mark said, his mouth frowning slightly in disapproval.
"Mark's right Shane," added Kian, "you shouldn't be talking with any of those guys. We may think we know who we'll pick, but we haven't made a final decision, have we?"
"Look you two, I just want to have a word to some of them, find out a bit more about them, that's all."
"Fine then," Mark said, a puzzled look on his face, "do what you want, we're out of here, come on Kian,"
"Well, see ya later then Shane."
"Yeah bye Kian, Mark."
Kian and Mark headed out of the nightclub towards the street, in search of a taxi back to the hotel. Shane went out behind the stage, where some of the candidates were still gathered. He knew what he was searching for. Nicky Byrne.
He scoured the crowd, searching for that now familiar blond hair, but without success. Damn he thought to himself. There would be time for them later on though, when the group really came into being. The thought of it did little to console Shane though, he left the nightclub, saying goodbye to Louis on his way out.
Shane opened the door, the cold night air stinging his eyes, chilling his fingers, and forcing him to shove his hands deep in his pockets. Cars ebbed along the street outside. There wasn't a lot of activity about. He decided to walk back to the hotel, rather than take a taxi. It would avoid Mark and Kian questioning why he had returned so early.
He saw a figure up ahead, banging his fist on the roof of his car. Better cross the road Shane thought, those sort of people were best avoided. He glanced across the street, sneaking a look at the man who was still taking his frustrations out on the car.
"Godamnit!!" yelled the figure.
Shane knew that voice, he jogged across the road, to find that it was in fact Nicky who was doing all the yelling.
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Huh? Oh, Shane, it's you," Nicky said, surprised to be encountering Shane again, "I've locked the keys in the car. You're not good at picking locks by any chance are you?"
"Well, let me see, what sort of car is this?"
"A Ford Fiesta, not mine of course."
"Who's then?"
"My girlfriend's, she just leant it to me for the night."
Shane's heart sank. His girlfriend's. Then what was that look they had exchanged when he'd given him the song lyrics before?
"You're, uh, girlfriend's?"
"Yeah. What's wrong Shane, you don't look so good."
"No, nothing's wrong. Nothing at all." Shane did his best to cover up his feelings, but Nicky, being the perceptive guy that he was, sensed something was wrong. "Let's get to a phone so we can call and get your keys out."
They headed down the street, looking for a phone box, few words being said between the two of them. Eventually they found a payphone, Nicky calling up a locksmith.
"What, you can't tonight? But, I can't just... Okay then, tomorrow, thanks." Nicky hung up the receiver, disappointed. "They can't come tonight, first thing tomorrow he said. Shit, I've got no money to get home, and my keys are stuck in the car. Fuck!" Nicky kicked the telephone box in anger, the glass shuddering in the once still night air.
"It's okay, Nicky." Shane had an idea. "You can stay at the hotel for the night if you want. I can't let you stay out in the cold."
"Can I? That'd be great, thanks Shane."
That brought a smile to Shane's face, even if Nicky did have a girlfriend, he'd get some time to spend with him.
They got a taxi back to the hotel, arriving just a few minutes later. Climbing the steps up the floor where his room was, wicked thoughts started to cross Shane's mind. It would hard sleeping in the same room as Nicky.
Shane fumbled in his pocket for the key, finally finding it and inserting it into the lock.
"Don't get your hopes up, its nothing too flash."
"I don't mind, anything will do."
Shane pushed the door open, and flicked the light switch.
"Only one bed?" Nicky said, surprised.
"Uh, yeah" replied Shane, "only one."