He and I danced the entire night together. We were inseparable. We couldn’t have had more fun had we known
each other for years. It was like a
dream, me dancing with a Backstreet Boy.
Not just a Backstreet Boy, but Kevin.
“Isabelle you are an amazing dancer.” Kevin told me as we walked back to the table after about
forty-five minutes of non-stop dancing.
“Thanks, you’re a great dancer yourself.” I said taking a seat at our table. Everyone else was still on the dance floor,
or out by the bar. Kevin took the seat
right next to me. We tried to manage a
conversation over the deafening music.
“No, really Isabelle. You
were burning up out there. What? Are
you a dancer?”
“Me?” I questioned finding
the idea laughable. “No, I’m not, but
thanks. I did take like 4 years of
ballet when I was younger.”
“How old are you?” He
asked.
I hesitated for a moment.
“Um…I’ll be nineteen in June.” I
said, putting it that way even though my birthday wasn’t for another seven
months. At the moment I felt so much
older than I actually was. Maybe it was
the freedom of being in a club, dancing and drinking and not being twenty-one
yet, or maybe it was my much-developed companion. After all Kevin was nine years my elder. But he was so composed that he didn’t make
me feel inferior to him at all. Much
more, I knew I was attracted. And I
could see the intrigue in his eyes. He
definitely was interested in me. He wanted to know more about me, and that set
my thoughts to work.
“Yeah, that’s what I was guessing.” He said looking my face over.
“You could even pass for twenty.”
“Really? I’ve always heard
the opposite. Everyone tells me I look
much younger than I actually am. Some
go as far as to say I look fifteen.” I
said with a subtle laugh.
“I can see why someone would say that. You do have somewhat of an innocent look to you, but the way you
carry yourself…no,” He said as if he’d come to the perfect conclusion. “You’re so much more grown-up than most
girls your age.” The admiration was clear in his voice.
“Thank you.” I said a bit
self-conscious by his expression of approval.
He began to talk about something, about the dancing, how he thought I
should become one of their stage dancers.
How I should meet Fatima, and have her see what I can do. But I really wasn’t interested in becoming a
performer. Most of what he was saying
just blew over me, as I was charmed by his beautiful green eyes. He continued to talk on about how some of
the dance routines Fatima was beginning to teach them were much more
complicated than the once she had started out with. But all I could grasp at the moment were his handsome
features. His notable straight,
black, hair. His blemish free skin, his
perfectly shaped, thick, black eyebrows. His all too perfect structure, and his
thin, but desirable lips. And of course
I kept going back to his heavenly eyes.
He was just picture perfect.
“Isabelle,” he said pulling me away from my meticulous evaluation
of his face. “I’m going over to the bar
to get us some more drinks.” He looked over at the empty glass I held in my
hand. I hadn’t even noticed that I had
drunk the liquor. “Is there anything
specific you want?”
“No, anything is fine, thanks.” I told him. I watched him walk away to get the
drinks. AJ was already sitting on a
stool in front of the bar. He had taken of his white, collar shirt, revealing a
wife beater tee underneath. A vast
display of tattoos ran down the length of his arm. On his left arm, he had a large medieval cross, followed by the
Heart of Jesus, and some Chinese lettering.
On his right, another Asian design, the inscription “Laugh Now”, and the
ever-symbolic Mask of a Performer. I
looked around for Angelina, but she was nowhere to be found.
Kevin and AJ spoke for a while, before AJ left Kevin, and came to
the table. He looked as if he had drunk
a bit too much. His cheeks and eyes
were red, and he lost his footing just a bit when he reached the table.
“Hey Isabelle. Having a
good time?” He asked trying to focus
his eyes on me.
“Yeah, I am. Thanks for
inviting us.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“So, where’s Angelina?” I
asked.
He looked at me and pondered my question as if it was a
riddle. “I don’t know. She said she was going to get herself
another drink. But that was like
fifteen minutes ago. She must be out
there dancing.” He said pointing towards
the crowd of people who were practically elbowing each other. He shot up from the chair, and yelled back
at me as he walked away. “I’ll go find
her.”
I decided to go find her myself.
I had a feeling she was probably in one of the restrooms. I looked over at Kevin, and he was still
waiting by the bar. He was talking to
Howie now.
I got up, and walked over to the ladies room. There was a huge line of women waiting their
turn to get in. I went past them;
seeing as I didn’t need to use the bathroom, just check if Lina was in there. As I did this, some of them started cussing
at me for cutting in front of them, but I just ignored them. When I got in, I looked around for her, but
she wasn’t there. Towards the exit of
the bathroom, there was an adjacent room, with vanity mirrors lining the
walls. I almost missed her as I walked
out of the bathroom, but her reflection in one of the mirrors, caught my eye.
“Lina?” I said walking over to her. She was sitting on a lounge chair,
and she had her head down over its arm.
“Angelina?” I called out once
more. This time, she raised her head
and her appearance shocked me. I could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were tear stricken, and her mascara
had smeared, making two black streaks run down her face. I looked her over quickly. She wasn’t hurt, at least not
physically. I sat down next to her, and
put my arm around her. “Sweetheart,
what’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer me back.
Instead, the touch of my arm around her made her cry even harder. Women, who were retouching themselves in the
mirror, or moving towards the exit, stopped to stare at us.
“Ok, c’mon Lina.” I said
getting up and holding her up. “Let’s
get you outta here.”
She got up without wavering.
As I led her to the door a thought came into my head. Angelina Mayfield was a mess. I couldn’t just take her out there looking
like this. I needed to get her out of
here without anyone seeing her. Not the
Backstreet Boys, and definitely not the press.
And I was sure the press was lurking around here somewhere, if not in
the club, then outside waiting for Boys to make their exit.
I walked Lina back to the couch and sat her down. She looked up at me, confused. I knew she was a drunk. It was in her eyes, and on her breath, but
she was still coherent. “Lina, hun,
wait for me here. I’ll be right back,
ok. Just wait for me right here.” She nodded, and as I was about to let go of
her arm when she held on to my wrist.
“Take me home, Isa.” She
said grabbing on to me even tighter.
She looked like a small child begging their mother not to leave them on
the very first day of pre-school.
I kneeled down on the floor next to her. “Home, Lina?” I asked
her, beginning to get confused myself.
“We are going back to the hotel, ok?
We can’t go home now. And I know that you don’t really want
to. Look, we’ll go back to the hotel,
and then you can go to bed, ok. You’ll be fine, sweetheart. Just wait for me here.” She nodded again,
and reluctantly let go of my wrist. I
walked away quickly afraid she might pull me back again. When I got to the bathroom exit, I looked
back at her. She looked so small and
helpless, and I hated leaving her alone there.
I walked out, and headed back to the table. Kevin was sitting there, alone, a drink in
his hand, and one set by where I should have been sitting.
“Hey, there you go.” He
said when he saw me reach the table. “Where did you run off to?” He asked.
“Um… I just went to look for Lina…”
“Oh, did you find her, cuz AJ’s been looking for her too.”
“Um…she went back to the hotel.
Yeah…Amy just told me. She left the message with her.” I lied taking a sip of the drink he had
gotten me. I hadn’t spoken to Amy since
she ran off with Nick. “Angelina wasn’t
feeling well.” I added before he could
ask me anymore questions. “I think I
should go back and check on her.”
“You are going back to the hotel?”
I nodded. “I really should…I mean I wish she would have told me
she was leaving, but I guess her stomach was really bothering her. Well, you saw what happened earlier.”
“Yeah, well I’ll just go find Jay, and he’ll give you a ride
back.” He said getting up.
“No, really.” I said too
quickly. “It’s ok. I’ll find him myself, thanks. Talk to you later Kevin.” I was in a rush to get back to Lina.
“Aren’t you even going to finish your drink?” He called after me.
I just shook my head no and waved back at him. Sorry Kevin, I thought to myself, maybe some
other time. I did go to find Jay, and I
asked him if he could give us a ride back to the hotel. He said he would, and he didn’t mind. He told me he’d wait right outside the club.
I went back to the bathroom, this time entering through the
exit. Lina was still where I left her,
her eyes closed. She had fallen
asleep. I went to the sink to wet a
paper towel, and wiped the black streaks off of Lina’s face. I never noticed exactly how thick her
mascara was. I did the best I could to get rid of the black smudge, and then I
helped her to her feet. She was still
half-asleep, but she managed to walk out of the club, and into the Range Rover.
There wasn’t much of a crowd outside the club. Besides the obvious, there was
just a man and three women with cameras, I wasn’t necessarily sure if they were
professionals and two young girls that looked like fans. As Jay drove off, I realized we made it out
unrecognized.
Jay drove us to the rear entrance of the hotel, and offered to
help me take Lina up to our room. I
told him it was all right and he should just go back. I felt bad for having taken him out of the club and making him
give us a ride though I knew that was his job.
We went in, and headed straight to the elevators. The lobby was practically empty with just a
receptionist, a couple of bellhops lounging around, and some hotel guest on the
central couch. Luckily, no reporters,
and especially no Yvonne. The elevator
arrived and we stepped in, I pressed three.
By now, Lina was passed out, and I was practically carrying her. We got
to our floor and she was dragging her feet as she walked to our room. Her purse was strapped around her like a
sash and I reached for it to look for the key. She wasn’t being very
cooperative, so I sat her down on the floor.
As I rummaged through her purse, I heard the distinct sound of a
doorknob being turned. I immediately froze.
“Isabelle?” Someone whispered.
Shit! I thought to myself as I turned around and looked down the
hall to see Brian poking his head out his hotel room door. I didn’t say anything.
“Is that Angelina?” He
asked showing concern, his voice still a whisper. He was walking towards me now focusing his eyes to the light and
looking down at Lina. He was wearing
hunter green flannel pajama pants and a Winnie the Pooh T-shirt.
“She’s fine,” I whispered back.
I then remembered. Angelina had
given me the key. It was in my coat
pocket. I fished it out, and slid it in
unlocking the door. “She’s just really
tired that’s all.” I went to reach for
her, and he bent down as well.
“Here,” he said, “Let me help you.” He slipped his arms around her back, and under her legs, and
carried her into the room without any effort at all. It would have taken me another half-hour to do so. I followed shutting the door behind me. He asked which bed he should lay her down
in, and I pointed to hers. He put her
down gently, and began to take off her coat.
I walked over to him. “Just
tired?” He said giving me a questioning
look. The tang of liquor was apparent
on her breath.
I looked down ignoring his question and started helping him with
Lina.
“It’s ok…don’t worry, she’ll be fine.” He assured me in a low whisper, putting his hand over mine.
“I know,” I said forcing a smile.
He smiled back. “Thanks,
Brian.”
“You’re welcome.” He said
sitting down on my bed. Everything went
silent while I took off Lina’s shoes and pulled the covers over her. I brushed aside the hair away from her face,
and kissed her forehead. I knew she
would be all right, this was not the first time I had tucked Lina into bed in
this condition.
Blood rushed to my face as I noticed Brian watching my every move.
He smiled when he saw my face turn red.
“Sorry if we woke you.” I said
walking over to the small refrigerator and taking out a bottle of water.
“Naw, you didn’t. I was
already awake. You know…” he said
whispering even lower. “Leighanne kinda
snores loud.” He joked, making me laugh
out loud. “Shhh…you’re gonna wake her
up.” He said pointing to Lina. She stirred for a moment, and then all was
silent again. He looked over at the
clock and stood up. It was three in the
morning. “You should go to bed
now. You must be tired.”
“Yeah, I am.” I said, the
suggestion of sleep making me yawn.
“All right,” he said walking over to the door. He opened it, and just stood there for a
moment. He looked over at Lina, and
then at me, a thought on his mind. He
opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it just as quickly, and shook
his head as if to brush away the thought.
He smiled and whispered.
“Goodnight, Isabelle.”
“Goodnight, Brian and thanks.” I whispered back. He nodded and closed the door behind him.
I headed to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, but
quickly made a U-turn. I was too tired
to do so. I got out of my clothes and
grabbed the first long T-shirt I found in my bag, and put it on. I slipped into bed, and pulled the covers
over my head.
A couple of minutes later, I heard Lina call me. “Isa?”
“What?” I moaned.
Then in a small voice she asked.
“Can I sleep with you?”
Without removing the covers from over my head, I moved over in my
bed to make room for her. I felt her
get in beside me and once again she said my name.
“Isa?”
“What is it, Lina?” I said more annoyed than I had wanted it to
sound. The lack of sleep with tonight’s
occurrence was making me the slightest bit cranky.
“I love you.” She said.
“I love you too sweetie.”
I said, closing my eyes, and drifting off to sleep.
Four hours later, our phone rang.
It was Angelina Mayfield’s wake up call. It was time to get up.
I hung up the phone with a sigh, and sat at the edge of the bed
debating whether or not to wake Lina up right away. She was to be at the venue by nine. I showered and changed into black jeans and a red pull over
sweater. I decided to go down to the
Café and get Lina some coffee before waking her. I opened the door and almost
knocked over a small brown paper bag that was left on our doorstep. Inside were two cups of coffee. They were still hot. One was light and sweet, the other straight up
black, and there was a note scribbled in black ink on the bag.
Belle,
I though you guys might need it.
I am sure you know which one is yours.
-B