AJ and Howie had already gone to their rooms for the night. Nick had gone into the room he and Brian were sharing. Brian and Kevin were in Kevin’s room talking on the couch. “I can’t believe I knocked her out. At least now I get too see her two more times. I bet you Madison won’t keep the secret though about the concert and the Versace show. Oh well.” Brian laid his head on the back of the couch. “Man, what a day. First your accident and then driving around town all day to find your rehearsals, and then Kelly and your head banging accident. I hope that the rest of the week is pretty uneventful. I couldn’t take much more.” Kevin got up and walked into the bathroom. He called for Brian when he got there. “Hey Bri? Can you help me?” Brian slowly got up and walked into the bathroom. Kevin had changed into some long black flannel pajamas. He had no shirt on. “God, you’re tan Kev. When did you have the time to go tanning?” “Found time here and there. Do you mind helping change these dressings on my stitches?” Brian looked at his cousin. Through the bandages you could see blood seeping through them. “The one on your shoulder is bleeding kind of bad. Did you move a little too much with Kelly in your arms?” Kevin carefully peeled the bandages off his stomach while Brian pulled the ones off his shoulder. “I carried her most of the night. I must have messed them up somewhere along the line. I’ll just put Neosporin on and put fresh bandages on and pray that they don’t get infected. I have to have them in for two weeks. Wow, I was just thinking. In two weeks we’ll be done with this tour and be back at home. There’s only two cities left. It’s already December 2 and I haven’t done any Christmas shopping. Anyways, when we get back to Orlando, I’ll have to go to the med center and have them take these out.” Brian had carefully cleaned Kevin’s shoulder cut and put on new gauze. “There you go.” He patted Kevin’s shoulder gently. “You’re right. We’ve been so busy with work I kind of had forgotten about what time of the year it was. How could I forget with all this snow though? I wonder if it snowed in Kentucky? I’m going back home for the holidays, aren’t you too?” Kevin carefully got up from the chair and he walked Brian to the door. “Yeah, I’m going home. Not excited about Kristin being in town at the same time, but I can’t wait to see the rest of the family. Oh my god!” Kevin walked across the room and sat on his couch. “I just realized something. Kelly is from Lexington too. She told me her family still lives there. Do you think that she would go home for Christmas? I’ve got to ask Ma about her family when I talk to her later this week. Brian, I think that fate is trying to tell me something.” Brian was holding on to the door handle just smiling at his cousin. He never acted this way. All excited and jumpy. “Yeah, Kev. Fate definitely has something to do with this. I’m sure you two will be seeing each other more than the two days that you have planned. Now get to bed. We’ve got rehearsals at 10:00 and then you have Versace rehearsals at 1:00. I know you won’t get up to your alarm, so I’ll come get you up myself.” Kevin gave Brian a peace sign and Brian closed the door quietly. As he walked away from the door, he heard Kevin yell, “Whooo Hooo!” Brian shook his head and smiled and walked to his room. “Fate definitely has something to do with this. Maybe fate has something in store for Madison and I.” Brian walked by AJ and Howie’s room and knocked, but after listening carefully all he heard was nothing. Brian got to his room, went in quietly and shut the door. Nick was asleep too. Brian changed his clothes and got into bed. He set his alarm for 9:00.
6:00 the next morning December 3rd, Thursday, Kelly’s apartment…
Kelly woke up to a cold wet nose rubbing her face. She sat up quickly but went down just as fast. “Owww, my head Riley. God, I must of hit that guy hard. I can’t even remember how I got here.” She looked at her alarm clock. “Riley, It’s 6:00. We’ve got to go. We’re already running late. The streets will be busy and I’ll never get a good run in.” Riley moaned and scooted under the covers. “Oh no you don’t boy. We’ll get lazy if we stop. Come on.” Kelly got up more slowly this time and headed into her closet. She pulled on some tight spandex Northface running pants, her Stanford sweatshirt, but this time, after looking out the window she pulled on a polar fleece pullover on top of the sweatshirt. She walked on through the closet into her bathroom. Her eyes adjusted to the lights as she turned her vanity mirror on. “God,” she said as she touched the bump on her head, “I did a doozy on my head. I hope that this goes away by next week so that I don’t look like a dork at her show.” Kelly tugged Riley out of bed and pulled him into the entryway. She clicked on his leash and they were ready. She pulled on her hat and gloves and they were off.
Madison woke up feeling cold too, except it was because she had forgotten to pull the shades and the window was freezing over her bed. “Better go check on sleepy head, to make sure that she didn’t kick the bucket or anything.” Madison pulled on a sweatshirt and flannel pants and walked down the stairs. As Madison came down them she could see that Kelly’s bed was empty and that Riley was gone too. “Damn, her. Doesn’t she know when to quit? She could faint or something running with the head injury she’s got. Damn. She’s the doctor, and I know that she knows better than to go running.” Madison ran back up the stairs and decided that since it was only 6:15 in the morning she would just go back to sleep. Rehearsals weren’t until one o’clock. She pulled the shade down and went back to sleep.
Kelly and Riley came back an hour later, cold and wet. “I’m sorry boy. I didn’t realize that it was snowing so much.” Riley shook off himself in the entryway and headed into the kitchen to be fed. She smiled at how well her dog knew the morning routine. Run and then get fed. She hung up her jacket and walked into the kitchen. She fed Riley and then picked up her phone. “I guess I should call Mom back.” She went into the formal living room and sat in the over stuffed chair. She pulled the shades so that she could watch the snowflakes fall as she talked. She wrapped up in a big blanket and dialed her parent’s number. “If it’s 7:30 here, it’s 8:30 there. They’ll be up.” The phone rang twice before it picked up on the other side. “Hello?” a southern sounding voice said.