“I’m sorry, I can’t believe I did this.” She said her face full of humiliation and her body trembling.
AJ looked down at her as she was still holding onto his arm from
when they had collided. I couldn’t read
the expression on his face through his dark, thin, rimmed shades. I don’t think anyone could. He took a look around the room, and saw that
everyone was standing motionless awaiting his reaction.
“Yo, why is everyone just standing there!” He yelled to the room. “Someone move your ass, and get this girl
some help. Sit her down…calm her. Can’t you tell she isn’t feeling well?” He said.
And the room started up again, everyone looking confused, and
distracted. Just before someone came
over to pull Lina away from him and get her to a chair, AJ lowered his glasses,
and whispered to her. “It’s alright doll face. I’ve been there, and if I didn’t
have to go onstage in a minute, I would’ve gladly been the one to help you.”
Lina stared up at him amazed at how concerned he was being. “Thanks,” Lina said smiling as she walked
away with one of the stagehands that was leading her to a chair.
They wiped the mess off of AJ.
He was lifted into the air, and carried off onto the stage, reeking of
the stench.
Everyone rushed over to Lina. “Are you ok? Can I get you
anything? Do you wish to go back to
your hotel room?” They all asked at
once. There were some photographers
backstage, who were there to take pictures of the artist as they prepared for
the performance. They snapped some
pictures in Lina’s face before they were ushered away by one of the bodyguard, the
same one who had blocked the entrance to the dinning room the night
before. Then the tall and built black
man shouted above everyone’s voices.
“Give the young lady some air.
Move out of the way, before I push you out.” Everyone conceded to his warning. They walked away leaving just me. He looked over at me, wondering why I hadn’t budged. He was very, very tall, and he towered over
me like a hungry bear.
“It’s ok Mad Dogg.” Lina
told him. “That’s Isabelle. My cousin”
“Oh, sorry. In that case,
nice to meet you.” He said his voice
deep and gruff. He offered me to take
his hand. His compared to my petite hand looked colossal, but his shake was
gentle.
“Nice to meet you too…um Madd Dogg.” I said.
He laughed, “Well my real name is Theodore. But everyone calls me Madd Dogg. Actually, the Backstreet Boys gave me that
name. I use to be their bodyguard when
they first started out in Europe, now I’m Angelina’s personal guard dog.” He said laughing a lot louder than
before.
“Yeah” Lina agreed with him. “We met during rehearsal this
morning.”
“So, are you ok?” He asked
taking on his sense of duty as her personal guard. “Do you want to go back to the hotel, cuz I can just drive you
back myself if you want?”
“No, I’m ok.” She assured
him taking a sip of the water someone had gotten for her. “I was just nervous that’s all. There were so many people out there. It was unreal.”
“You did great Lina.” I
told her.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything?” Madd Dogg asked her again.
After she nodded no, he went back to where he had been standing before
talking to some Backstreet fans that had snuck in backstage.
Lina looked over at me as I took a seat next to hers. “I can’t believe that happened. I’m so mortified.” She said covering her face with her hands. “And all over AJ…Ugh!”
I wished I could comfort her by telling her ‘no one noticed’ or
‘it wasn’t that big a deal, everyone will forget it happened before the show is
over’, but everyone had seen, heck, I felt embarrassed for her.
“Don’t worry,” I said putting an arm around her. “By tomorrow morning this incident will be
forgotten.” I lied.
“Oh God, I hope you are right.”
She said. Then brightening, she
put on a smile. “AJ was so sweet about the whole thing though. I can’t believe I puked on him right before
he had to go onstage.”
“Yeah! You got great
timing.” I said making her laugh.
“Oh shut up.” She said giving me a mild shove. “If it was you, you wouldn’t find it so
funny.”
“Maybe, but it wasn’t me…Thank God!” I said starting up the
laughter again.
“Haha…” Then in a singsong
voice she added. “Ok, if you don’t stop
it, I’m not going to tell you what he called me.”
“What who called you?” I asked stopping my gaiety immediately.
“Hello, who are we talking about?” She asked sarcastically.
“AJ?”
“Duh! Yeah, AJ.”
“When, what did he call you?”
I asked.
“Right after everything started up again. After I…you know.”
I nodded my head.
“Suspense, you are killing me. What did he call you?”
She breathed in as if these were going to be the most important
words she had ever uttered in all her life. “Doll face.” She sighed getting lost in the moment.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh
wow.” I said without any emphasis,
teasing her.
“Hell Yeah, Oh Wow!” She
said with elation. “AJ McLean was
flirting with ME.”
I let out a laugh. “Isn’t
that what AJ does? Isn’t he supposed to
be the flirt?”
“Well I don’t care, I ain’t gonna stop him. He can flirt with me all he wants.” She laughed. I had to laugh too.
After the concert was over, the guys came backstage and some of
them signed autographs for the fans that had gotten past security. As soon as AJ came through the entry, he
headed straight to where Angelina and I were sitting.
“Hey there, shorty.” He said taking the seat on the other side of
Lina.
Normally Lina hated been called shorty because of the fact that
she actually was short. This time though,
she didn’t mind.
“Hi.” She said batting her
eyes, and giving him a sugarcoated look.
“I’m so sorry about before…” she began.
“I already told you,” he said taking her hand and working it
tenderly with his, “It’s alright.”
“Well I still want to thank you.
I was just so nervous on stage.”
Lina explained. She had her
whole damsel in distress act down pact.
AJ was flirting with her, and she was flirting right back.
“I was watching you, you didn’t look anything but stunning.” He said laying it on really thick. Even though AJ had an abrasive natural
voice, the quality of it was appealing.
Lina’s expression gleamed with anticipation then she looked up at
him, then at me. This was my cue to find
something better to do, but as I was about to leave he stopped me.
“No, stay, I’m about to go and change anyways, I just wanted to
ask if you two gorgeous ladies would wanna accompany us to the Crow Bar, it’s a
local club a couple of streets down from here?
Me and some of the other guys are heading there after everything here
dies out.”
“Sure, we’ll come, not like we have anything else planned.” Lina
said accepting the invitation for both of us.
“Alright, great.” AJ said
clasping his hands together. “Just wait
here, we’ll be out in a few.” He said heading off towards his dressing room.
Once he was gone, Lina started. “Oh yeah, he wants me. I worked him good.” She said making me burst out laughing.
“Yup gulr, now I know.
When you wanna man, puking on him is the way to go.”
“I’m telling you, they love that ‘I’m helpless would you rescue me
skit’. It was all part of my plan.” She
joked. Making me laugh even harder.
She got up from her chair, and went over to tell Yvonne where we
were going. Yvonne was talking with
some people from the press. As soon as
Angelina went over, they started asking her a few questions. Angelina looked over at her manager for the
go ahead. Yvonne said it would be all
right, and they proceeded with a small interview.
While I was waiting for either Angelina or AJ to return; awwe both
their names start with A, I thought to myself.
Hello! You are a freshman in college, not high school. Anyways, while I was waiting, someone came
up behind me and covered my eyes with their hands.
“Guess who?” a familiar voice whispered.
“Um…Brian” I said guessing correctly. He immediately uncovered my eyes, and took the seat where Lina
had been seated.
“Oh, you’re no fun.” He
kidded. “You’re supposed to keep
guessing.”
“Sorry.” I said. “Next time I promise to play it right.”
“You’d better.” He said, his smile spreading. “So, did you enjoy the concert?”
“Well actually, I didn’t get to see it. I was back here with Lina the whole time.” I said. It triggered his memory about what had
happened earlier.
“How’s she doing?” He
asked.
“Better. She was just a
bit nervous about performing in front of so many people. She doesn’t usually get this nervous, but
being it her first time, you really can’t blame her.”
“She was excellent.” Brian
said sincerely. “You would’ve never be
able to tell she was nervous by her performance. Well tomorrow night,” he said.
“if you promise to be in the audience, I’ll wave to you.” He said to me.
“Ok,” I said thinking it sweet of him. “I promise to be in the audience.”
“Then I promise to wave.”
He said. His eyes intensely fixed on mine while his face moved in
closer. I was surprised at how his lips
seemed only inches away from mine. Was
he planning to kiss me? I could feel my pulse begin to race. Then he hesitated, actually waiting for me
to make the move he had set up. Why was he doing this? From the beginning he’s been flirting with
me. What is running through his head,
he’s engaged? I couldn’t.
“So,” I said running my hand through my hair. “Are you coming with us to the Crow Bar?”
“The what?” he asked shifting back on the chair seemingly
agitated.
“The club, the Crow Bar…um, AJ invited Angelina and I to go
tonight.”
He looked confused for a minute, then said, “Oh yeah, yeah. I’m going.”
“Going where?” Leighanne
asked coming up behind us. Her face was
full of repugnance as she looked down at me in the chair. I never notice her sneak up on us. It made me wonder had she been eavesdropping.
“To the Crow Bar, we are going there tonight. It’s a club.” He told her.
“Oh, we are?” She said making it sound more mocking than a
question. “And since when are we going clubbing, I thought we were going
back to the hotel room right after you were done here, Brian. Besides, I’m tired.” She added looking directly at me, as if I
should regard her condition before making any decisions.
“Come on Leigh. It’ll be fun.” He said getting up from the chair and
going around to her. He wrapped his
arms around her waist, and pressed his body to hers. She smiled down callously at me. I turned my head away. Her smile reminded me that of the Treasure
Cat from Alice in Wonderland. It was
simply tainted.
“So can we go baby?” He
asked looking to her for permission and playfully giving her the facial
appearance of a puppy that had lost his way home.
She turned around in his arms to face him. Leighanne looked straight at him looking past
his humorous gesture, and plainly replied in a stern voice, “Brian, I said I was tired. I want to go to bed end of discussion. Got it?”
Brian sighed, and unwrapped his arms around her. “Fine Leighanne, fine.” He said looking straight at her, his tone
bitter his eyes cold.
When AJ and the others came out, they came straight to where
Brian, Leighanne, and I were. “So, we ready to go?” AJ asked looking around for
where Angelina had went. She had finished her interview, and was talking to
Yvonne now. He casually walked over to
them, and seized Angelina by the waist.
“Excuse me,” He told Yvonne interrupting their conversation, “but you are holding up my date.”
“Oh, and since when is this a date?” Angelina said turning her head to look at AJ.
“Since you said yes you would come with me tonight.” He said winking at her. “Now come on, I’m in
the mood to shake my bon bon.”
“Bring her back in one piece.”
Yvonne told him.
“Oh are you playing mom now?”
AJ kidded. Yvonne had been the
boy’s personal manager when they first joined The Firm. She was in-charge of the new acts. So they always played around with each
other.
“Don’t start with me McLean.”
She quipped. “You know I played
the role of your mama, and I can still whip your ass if you don’t behave.”
He laughed. “Aight, aight, I’ll behave.” Then mockingly whispering to Lina, “She would whoop my ass too, you know.”
They all laughed. As AJ
took Lina’s hand into his and started to walk away, Yvonne yelled back at
him. “Make sure she’s in bed before the
sunrises. She’s got a concert to do
tomorrow night.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she’s in bed much earlier than
that.” AJ joked winking at Lina. She playfully punched his shoulder.
“Ouch!” He said pretending
she had hurt him. “What, you gonna
whoop my ass too?” He asked.
“Maybe” she told him, her voice full of tease. “But on the dance floor.”
“Alright” he said becoming excited with anticipation. “That’s what I’m talking about.” They walked back to where the group of us
had gathered. It was Howie, Nick,
myself and three of their dancers. Amy
Allen, Earl Manning, and Roland Tabor.
Brian and Leighanne had left their own separate way. “Ok, c’mon lets
bounce. I’m ready to go.” AJ said
impatiently.
When we got out of the black Range Rover, Howie told their driver,
to go park the car, and join them if he wanted. Jay, their driver agreed.
There was a long line to the entrance of the club that ran around the
corner, but we walked straight to the entrance of the club, and without
hesitation were let in.
Inside, it was wild. The
music was blaring, the lights bouncing, and the people were going crazy having
a good time. After we had gotten a
table, and ordered a couple of drinks, everyone except for Nick, Amy and I went
to dance.
Things between AJ and Lina began to heat up as soon as they hit
the dance floor. They were physically
flirting with each other now. Lina
wasn’t one to waste any time. And by
the looks of it, neither was AJ. She
was moving to the pulsating rhythm of the music, and she was enticing him. AJ had taken off his glasses, which he
rarely did. His eyes surveyed her every
curve. He seemed completely captivated
with the sensual flow of her body.
“Oooh, that’s hot.” Nick
commented about Lina to himself. Then
he noticed both Amy and I were staring at him.
He stopped watching Lina’s dancing, and turned to me.
“So” he said trying to start a conversation. This was the first time Nick and I had
actually encountered.
“How do you like the tour so far?” He asked.
“It’s cool.” I said
considering it was only the second day I’d actually been on the tour.
“So, where are you from?”
“Orleans, Ontario, in Canada, but originally from New York
City.” I told him.
“Really I lived in New York once.” He said. It was funny how
I had already known that.
“Where in New York exactly?”
I asked him trying to keep the conversation going, but I knew what he
was going to say.
“Jamestown.” He said. “I lived there from when I was born till I
was…” He didn’t finish his sentence. A
pretty blonde in a short red dressed passed by grabbing his attention. Amy rolled her baby blue eyes, and let out a
sight.
“Nick wipe that drool off your face, and c’mon lets dance.” She said getting up and grabbing his arm
leading him towards the dance floor, leaving me by myself, or so I
thought.
“A beautiful lady like you shouldn’t be sitting here alone by
herself.” Came a sweet southern drawl
from behind me. I turned around, and
immediately recognized the intense eyes staring back at me. I was surprised to see him here. “Would you like to dance?” He asked.
I smiled up at him, as he took my hand and led me to the dance floor.