“Austin, I need to talk to you. You’ve been all weird all week,” Kelly said looking hopefully at Austin. Austin paused from his paper work for a second and looked at her. “Why? What is there possibly to talk about, except that you flirt with a strange guy and now you have a huge bump on your head that you can’t explain. What’s there to talk about except that?” He collected his papers up and started to walk off. Kelly grabbed his arm. “Austin please? It would mean a lot to me.” “Okay, okay. Whatever. Let’s go.” The two walked off towards the doctors lounge. Once they got there Kelly shut the door behind them. “Okay. I’ll start. For the past couple of months, or like basically the last year, you’ve been kind of huffy and up tight with me. I know it’s hard getting used to the idea that I’m your supervisor, but please Austin, get over it.” Austin glared at Kelly coldly, “Is that what you think it is? That I’m jealous? Kelly, I’m so proud of you for all your accomplishments. I just don’t understand you the last couple of weeks. All you do is run and work. You hardly want to do anything anymore. It’s not me who’s the problem, but you.” “I know Austin. I have been stressed out lately. I’ve been so tired since my accident last year…” Austin looked up quickly and cautiously, “What accident are you talking about? I never heard about any accident.” Kelly realized that she had almost slipped. She had kept it from him for a year and she would keep it from him till she died. “Oh, nothing. I’ve just been tired. I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted. About the Kevin thing. Don’t worry about it. It was a one day flirt thing. I’ll never see him again. He won’t steal your best friend from you. Okay?” Kelly smiled and gave Austin a big hug. He hugged her back. “I’m sorry too. I’ve been a jerk to you too. I yelled at Kevin and now I feel bad. Anyways. You want to go to dinner tomorrow night? Somewhere fancy?” Just then Kelly remembered. “I forgot to tell you Austin. Madison’s back in town. She’s staying at my place for a couple of weeks. She’s got a show on Wednesday and she wants me to go. She didn’t invite you thought because she knows you hate the model shows, but would you mind taking us both out on Saturday?” Austin smiled, “Do you think I mind taking my two best friends out, who I might mention are some of the prettiest ladies in town? I would love to escort you two. It’s been almost a year since we’ve seen Madison huh?” “Yeah. Since she moved away. Good. I’ll tell her we have dinner dates for Saturday. I’m going home now though and putting some ice on my head. It’s killing me,” Kelly said rubbing the bump on her head. “You never told me exactly how you got that?” “Oh. Madison and I went to Studio 54 on Wednesday night and I was walking off the dance floor and I ran smack dab into someone and I guess I got knocked out. All I remember is waking up in my bed the next morning. I’m really living now, huh. Do you need a ride?” “No, I got my ‘Vet back yesterday. Thanks for the lifts lately though. You and I are both not working tomorrow so how about I pick you two girls up around 9:00? Good?” Kelly smiled, “Great. We’ll be looking forward to it. Bye.” Austin watched Kelly put her scarf and jacket on over her doctor’s scrubs and walk out of the door. He got up himself and got ready to leave. As he walked to his locker he noticed a piece of paper that had fallen out of Kelly’s locker. He picked it up and read what it said. In Kelly’s neat handwriting the whole paper was covered with: Mrs. Kelly Richardson.
Austin slipped the note in his pocket. “Good, she’s off my back about that stuff now. I just have to keep her thinking that I’m worried about her, which I’m not. Until she comes back to me I plan on making her life a living hell, and if it takes forever and a day I’ll give forever plus two more to get her.”
Same night at Kelly’s apartment…
“Hi Madison. I’m home,” Kelly said as she closed and locked the door. Madison popped around the corner of Kelly’s bedroom. She walked across the living room. “Hey girl. Come on. Dinner’s ready.” The two walked into the kitchen. Kelly sat down at the table and began sifting through her mail. “So Madi, how’d your rehearsals go today, and how was you date last night?” Madison came back with steaming plates of spaghetti and French bread. She sat the plates down in front of them. Kelly smelled the plate. “It pays having you around here. A good cook and all. Now tell me.” Madison took a bite and started, “Well, rehearsals were hard because some seamstress had messed up some of my measurements and none of the dresses fit right, so that part sucked. I got yelled at by Donatella for being late. I slept in again. Oh well.” Kelly laughed at her friend. “Do you ever set your alarm? You should you know or else you’ll never be on time!” Madison rolled her eyes at Kelly. “Yeah, whatever. Anyways about my date last night. It was so good Kelly. I know I told you that I was happy being single, but this guy was great. I had a wonderful time. We went to the Allstar Café and then went on a carriage ride to top it off. It was better because than if we had walked a lot of people would have noticed him.” Kelly was confused, “What do you mean noticed him’? Is he a really famous model or something?” Madison had forgotten that she had told Kelly that her date was a model, and she had almost spilled the beans about knowing Brian and the rest of the guys. “Oh, yeah. He’s real famous.” Madison hadn’t lied. Brian was famous, not just the famous model Kelly thought he was. “But whatever. It was great and I hope that I can see him again, soon. My head is telling me not to get involved, but my heart says go for it.” Kelly and Madison sat quietly for a few moments. Kelly spoke up, “I think you should go for it then. A heart never lies. I wish my heart would let go off Kevin. God, I only talked to him for an hour, but it feels like I should find him or something. I’ve thought about him a lot, but that’s something I should get over. It won’t happen.” Madison secretly smiled to herself at Kelly’s comments. She wanted to tell her friend so bad about what was going to happen next week, but she knew Kevin would kill her. She said this instead, “Why don’t you take your own advice? A heart never lies. Apparently your heart doesn’t want you to forget Kevin, so don’t. Hey, you never know what fate has in store for you.” Kelly smiled, “Yeah sure. I just wish I could see him again. But whatever. Tomorrow night Austin wants to take us out to dinner. Are you cool with that? He and I had a heart to heart today at work and I think that we worked things out. He’s just a little jealous.” “That would be great. I was hoping we’d get to do something with him.” Madison thought to herself, “I just hope Kelly’s right about making up with him, because after what she said in her sleep on Wednesday I thought he was a stalker or something.” The two girls cleaned up and decided that they would just crash early. They both got ready for bed and told each other that tomorrow they would sleep in and just have fun. Their lights were out and each girl was in bed by 11:30. The only sound was Riley’s little happy snores next to Kelly.
Same night, Friday December 4th at the BSB Hotel…
“What a day. I’m glad that rehearsals are done with. 12 hours today. Any more and Fatima might have killed us. We look good though,” AJ said as they ate around the table. All the guys had ordered room service and were eating in Brian and Nick’s room around their table. “Yeah. I know what you mean man. You’re right about looking good. That is one thing good about it,” Howie commented before filling his mouth with salad. Nick was chowing down on pizza and said with a mouth full, “I know we have to rest on Monday before the show, but we still have tomorrow and Sunday to hang before we have to perform. What are we going to do?” Brian thought for a second, “Well, tonight I say we all go downstairs and go to the healthclub and just relax in the sauna and play in the pool. I don’t feel like going out tonight, but it’s up to you.” Kevin had been quiet for some time now, but he spoke up. “Yeah, that’s cool. I say we chill tonight and tomorrow we can go sight seeing around this big ole’ town, and Sunday…” Howie jumped up and smacked his head with his hand, “We almost forgot you guys. On Sunday we have that Christmas caroling thing over the radio. We said we’d do it.” All the guys remembered suddenly. “Oh yeah. Good thinking D. We would have gone off and forgotten about it. I say tomorrow we look around, shop a little and then on Sunday we just chill and then do our radio thing. It’s better if we just hang low this weekend because we’ve had a hard week and two hard shows coming up,” AJ said. Everyone agreed.
The guys finished up their meals. Howie went to his room to change into his swimming shorts for the club while the rest of the boys hung in Brian and Nick’s room. “Hey Brian. Let’s play a joke on the room service people. I’ll hide under the sheet on the bottom of the cart and you can call them up to get our plates. They’ll wheel me off and then when they’re loading the cart on the elevator I’ll jump out and scare them.” Brian jumped up from his chair. “Good one Nick. Here get under.” Nick crouched under the cart and Brian carefully put the sheet over the cart. Brian wheeled the cart out the door and set it in the hall. “You stay quiet Nick or it won’t work.” “I know Bri.” Brian shut the door and called AJ and Kevin into the living room. “Hey you guys. Nick and me are playing a joke on the room service people. Watch and listen. It will be hilarious.” Brian picked up the phone and called the front desk and asked them to send up people to get their cart. The person at the desk said they’d send someone right up. Brian hung up the phone. “Okay guys. Let see if it works.” A couple of minutes later they heard a knock on the door. Brian opened it. It was a scrawny waiter guy. “I’m here to get your room service cart.” Kevin pointed to the cart by the door. “There it is. We piled up the plates on there, so it’s pretty heavy.” The boy thanked the guys and started to push the cart with Nick away. Kevin and AJ and Brian watched from the door as the boy waited by the elevator. Just then the doors opened and the waiter started to push the cart in. Nick jumped out from under the cart and yelled at the guy. The waiter jumped a mile in the air and grabbed the cart and jumped in the elevator and closed the doors quickly. Nick ran back to the room and all the guys were howling. Howie came out of his room and wondered what in the hell was going on. Brian answered through his giggles. “Me and Nick scared the little waiter guy out of his pants.”
Once the guys had calmed down they all changed into their swimming stuff. They went down and enjoyed playing in the pool and relaxing in the sauna. After an hour or so they all went back to their rooms and crashed. They didn’t even change out of their swimming stuff.