CHAPTER SIX-“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Lina sat on the edge of her bed, drinking the coffee Brian had
left for her. Her eyes were puffed, her
hair was standing on ends, and her face still had signs of the muddled
makeup. She was taking sips of her
black coffee, as she slowly brought the cup up to her lips.
“I’m such a screw.” She
began. “It’s only the second day of the
tour and on my first night, I get all jacked up!” She complained to herself.
I was sitting on the small loveseat sofa, reading, well looking at the
headlines of that morning’s paper. I
didn’t interrupt. “If Yvonne were to
find out, I’d probably get my ass flown right back home. God forbid my dad ever finds out. Fuck, how could I have been so stupid! Getting pissed drunk like that. I’m just a fucking tard.”
“Lina you aren’t a tard.”
I said, the tone in my voice purposely not as reassuring as it should
have been. “And neither Yvonne or your
dad are going to find out. No one saw
you.” I said, not telling her about
Brian. I wasn’t sure if she knew, or
even if she cared. Either way it didn’t
matter, I felt we could trust him.
“Lina go take a nice warm shower.
Trust me you’ll feel better afterwards.”
“Yeah, like you’d know.” A
drop of spite as she said this.
I turned around to look at her, and she rolled her eyes turning
away from me. “And what is that suppose
to mean?”
“Well it’s not exactly like you would now how I’m feeling right
now.” She said. Then she caught herself. “I’m sorry.
I’m just a bit moody from last night.
I really didn’t mean anything by it.”
She said sincerely.
“I’m sorry too. Don’t
worry, everything will work out.”
“I hope so.” She mumbled as she made her way to the bathroom.
I put the paper down and thought to myself. Lina was right. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was going through. It’s not like I’ve ever been drunk before,
but I don’t think that was what Lina was talking about. Her problems ran much deeper than that. I just wish she would trust me enough to
tell me.
I continued reading the paper, when I heard a knock on our
door. “Hi.” I said as AJ stood on the other side.
“Hey, how you doing this morning?” He asked his voice rasping.
I estimated he didn’t sleep much last night.
“Fine. You?”
“Good, except for these damn wakeup calls. They seem to be getting earlier and
earlier.” He said with a laugh that
turned into a faint cough. “Yeah well,
what can I do? Just gotta deal, right.”
I smiled, not really sure what to say.
“You’re quiet.” He said
making me blush. “And shy.”
I laughed. “Yeah,
sometimes I tend to be a little too quiet.
But rarely shy. I just turn red
easily.” I laughed again. “I mean.
Its pretty simple when you’re as pale as me.”
This time he laughed. “
Awwe, don’t worry we’ll get you some sun.”
He said. “We take little trips
here and there when we get days off or something. If we get days off at all.”
There was a small pause in our conversation, and I noticed he had
shades on. Wow, I thought to myself
recalling an article I had read on AJ McLean in one of those overrated teen
magazine. He really never did take them
off. Right then I could see AJ’s eyes
widen through his shades, as Lina stepped out of the bathroom, wearing nothing
but a small white Grand Hyatt Hotel towel around her. Her hair and body was still wet from the shower. She didn’t notice us standing at the door
till I cleared my throat to get her attention.
“Oh.” she said looking at AJ.
“Hi.”
AJ just nodded. His eyes
drinking in Lina’s body, especially her generous bosom, where she had the towel
tucked in between.
“So…what’s up?” Lina asked
walking over to the door where AJ and I were.
“Oh…um…nothing…” he said.
I laughed to myself walking away, and sitting down on one of the counter
stools. I’m sure some “thing’s” up I
thought, casually and quickly looking in the direction of his dark blue
jeans. Lina was now standing where I
had been. He could smell the scent of
her Herbal Essence body wash. “I just
wanted to see if you two wanted to come down to the Café. We were all going to get together for
breakfast. I was going to tell you last
night, but you disappeared on me.” He
said smiling and regaining his coolness.
“Oh sorry about that, wasn’t feeling very well last night.” She said looking over at me.
“Don’t worry about it.
Just come down and have breakfast with us.”
“Sure ok, we’ll be down in a few.” She told him.
“Alright. Later.” He said
walking away. Lina closed the door but
not before we heard him yell “Dayum!” down the hall, making Lina and I laugh.
When we got to the table Nick, Howie, and AJ were already
there. Lina took the seat next to AJ,
and I took the seat across from her.
The table was already set; there were trays of toast, scrambled eggs,
sausages, hashbrowns, bacon and everything you could imagine. It all smelled amazing, and I was famished.
“Ok, I don’t care,” Nick said looking around the room. “I’m not waiting for Brian and Kevin. I’m starving.” He took his plate, and was
about to help himself when AJ stopped him.
“Calm down Nick, they’ll be down in a sec. Here.” he said handing Nick one of the
complimentary mints that were set on the table for after breakfast.
“Dumbass.” Nick mumbled, but he took the mint, unwrapped it, and
popped it into his mouth.
I smiled at Nick, and he rolled his eyes sticking his tongue out
at AJ. He was playing around, but AJ
just ignored Nick’s childish look, which made me laugh. I didn’t see what the big deal was with Nick
starting before everyone was here, but Howie shone some light on the situation.
“It’s just something we’ve done for a long time now,” he
said. “On our last day in a city, we
usually get together for breakfast, either at the hotel restaurant, or in one
of our hotel rooms. It’s nothing
special, just something that we do.”
“Oh ok,” I said nodding.
A couple of minutes later, Kevin, Leighanne and Brian enter the
Café. They were headed straight for our
table, when Leighanne pulled Brian back, and led him to a separate two- seat
table.
“What?” Nick said, his
nasal voice high pitched. He looked
over at Kevin. “Why are they not coming
over here?” Nick asked him. We all stared in Brian and Leighanne’s
direction.
“I don’t know. All I over
heard was she had to tell him something.”
Kevin told us as he laid the newspaper he carried on the table, and took
the seat next to me.
“Well are they planning on coming over here?” AJ asked.
His question answered, when we saw a waiter going over to their table,
taking their order.
“Oh well, I guess that answers that.” Howie said.
“Can we eat now?” Nick
asked completely irritated. I wondered
if it was because he was hungry, or Brian wasn’t joining us. “You know something,” Nick said filling his
plate with food. “She could have just
waited till after breakfast. Man, she
can be such a…” the last part, he mumbled to himself.
I took one last look at Brian and Leighanne. She was just talking away, while Brian
miserably looked over at our table. I
began to serve myself, with Nick’s words in my head. It seems I’m not the only
one who thinks she’s a real bitch.
“Can you believe we can’t go home this Christmas?” AJ asked, directing his question to Lina.
“I know man,” Nick butt in.
“And they tell us this just two nights ago.”
So that’s why Nick and Howie were arguing with the short man at
the dinner the other night, I thought to myself. Lina and I didn’t really care about not going home for the
holidays. By that time we were to be in
New York City, and management promised to fly in Lina’s family. They even offered to fly in my dad.
“Yeah, we’re scheduled to be at MTV’s New Year party, and since
it’s around the time we’d be there for the concert, they decided we would need
to stay.” Kevin said.
“So wait a minute. How
long are we planning to stay in New York City?” Nick asked looking confused.
“Well we are spending the holidays there. We’ll be arriving there in four days, and
staying through New Years. We have two
concerts there and two in New Jersey.”
Howie explained
“Now we’re going to Philadelphia, right? Lina asked.
“Yeah,” AJ said. “And then
after that, New York City.”
“And when will they fly in our families?” Lina asked.
“You’re family is the only one being flown in, for now. And they’ll probably have them flown in on
the Eve.” AJ said.
“Wait, won’t they fly in your families?” Lina asked.
“Nope, if we want them flown in, we would have to do it
ourselves. I know Brian’s flying his
parents, his brother, and Leighanne’s mother in. Nick your mom is coming right?”
Howie asked him.
“Yeah, so are my dad, and the rest of them. Nick said taking a gulp of his OJ.
“Well at least you’ll get to spend the holidays with your
family.” I said.
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “But
it’s not the same, you know. You are
out on the road all the time, and you just really wanna be back home for
Christmas.”
“Yo” Howie said looking at his watch. “We really need to get going.
We have a press conference at 9:30”
“What time is it now?”
Lina asked.
“Eight forty five.” Howie
told her.
“Well I gotta go too. I
have to go back to the venue and rehearse today.
“By the way…” Kevin said.
“You were great last night.”
“Yeah, good job.” Howie
said giving her a silent applause.
“Thank you,” Lina said, her cheeks gaining a slight color. “I was so nervous. I never imagined so many people would be there.”
“You did fine, babe.” AJ
said grabbing her hand as she stood up to leave. “Just like you’ll do tonight.”
Lina smiled at him, and said.
“I hope so. Well I better go
find Yvonne. I’m sure she’s looking for
me. Later guys.” And she walked away.
As soon as she was out of sight, Kevin reached for the newspaper
he had been carrying and opened it up towards the end. “Check this out.” He said sprawling the paper on the table for all of us to
see. As we looked at the pictures with
no article, just inscriptions; Kevin explained. “I didn’t want to say anything while she was here, but they got
some pretty bad shots of her in here. I
know she’s gonna find out, but I didn’t want it to be from me. Actually, Yvonne was the one who showed me
the paper, that’s why it took us so long to get here. We bumped into her on the elevator, she told us she would have to
tell Lina at rehearsal.”
There was one picture of Lina at the moment that she let it all go
on AJ and some others that must have been taken the exact moment after. I quickly searched the pictures, and to my
gratification, there were none of her from last night at the club, though there
were some of the guys as they were leaving the Crow Bar.
After breakfast, I headed back upstairs to our room. I had to collect all our things because we
were to be taking them to the tour bus today.
It didn’t take me very long since we never unpacked anything.
“Well that’s everything.”
I said to myself as I put our bags by the door. I would take them down as soon as Yvonne let
me know that the bus had arrived. I
yawned and turned to look at my bed.
Maybe I should take a nap. It’s
not like there’s much else to do.