Although our room was only on the third floor, the elevator ride
down to the lobby seemed to last forever.
Lina was complaining about how she didn’t like the skirt she was wearing
and that she should have worn the gray, shorter one instead. She spent a half-hour trying to figure out
which of the two skirts to wear tonight.
Asking my opinion while trying and retrying them both on before she
finally decided on the one she was wearing.
It was a sophisticated, black, French Connection satin, slip skirt,
which came right above her knee. She
had a black, spaghetti strap top of the same material with a low cut neckline,
showing off cleavage and her broad chest.
Her feet were adorned with sky-high strappy, leather sandals that where
closed in the back. Her dark blonde
hair was pulled up in a French twist showing off the stunning diamond studded
earrings that were given to her by management when she was signed.
I ran a hand through my light brown hair shifting the part from
the left side of my head, to the right, and back to the left. A dependency I
had when I got nervous and didn’t know what to do with my hands. As Lina continued to complain about what I
thought was a perfect outfit, I took a look at what I was wearing in the
reflection set off by the aluminum doors on the elevator. I had on a contemporary, cream-colored, silk
skirt with georgette embroidered flower design, which fell mid calf on my
legs. My tan, short pouf-sleeved,
blouse had a straight collarbone-exposing neckline, and was fitted to a
feminine silhouette, enhancing the curve of my bust. The shoes I was wearing complimented my outfit, just like I
thought they would have when I bought them earlier today. They had a four-inch thick heel, and were
closed toe, black, soft suede, with an ankle buckle.
When the elevator doors opened unto the lobby, we were greeted by
a swarm of journalists who had gathered in the lobby to catch a glimpse of the
affair. They looked at us, but didn’t
recognize us as interesting faces. They
then searched the elevator to see if there was anyone else in with us, when they
didn’t find anyone to capture their attention, they looked past us.
“Hmm,” Angelina moaned. “I think I was just snubbed by the
press.” She said looking in the
direction they were heading in. “How
rude,” She joked.
“Yup.” I agreed.
“But not for long.” She
added giving them an ominous stare.
We continued to watch, as the press grew loud and annoying in
frenzy as they headed for the corridor entrance to the dinning room, where they
had cornered AJ McLean. He looked cool
and collected, as he made his way past the reporters without a word, just a
simple wave of his hand. But that was
enough for them, for the room grew bright with the numerous flashes that were
coming from their cameras. They had
gotten more than they had expected.
Angelina and I made our way past the crowd who was blocking the
entrance to the dinning room. As soon as we were in front of the door, we heard
Yvonne’s voice call out to us.
“Angelina, quickly into the room.” She said.
Then one of the reporters bellowed. “Hey, one of those girls is Angelina Mayfield, Roger bring the
camera.” And with that the crowd got
rowdy again, cameras were shoved in our faces, and a pool of white light was
created.
We pushed our way past them and entered the room and immediately
two bodyguards of both massive weight and height blocked the entrance to a
reporter’s paradise. They were not
allowed past the door.
“Shit!” Yvonne swore. “How the hell did they find out about
tonight?” She continued her face
turning a light shade of red. “I’m
telling you, someone is leaking information.”
She said, more to herself than to us.
“If I would have know about this, I would have called for more
security. Sorry girls.” She apologized.
“We’re alright,” I told her.
“Just a little stunned.”
“Fluorescent lights will do that to you.” Yvonne said trying to make a joke to calm herself
down.
“Wow!” Angelina finally
spoke. “What a rush. That was amazing.” She said her smile widening with every word. “I can’t believe they know who I am. They were killing themselves just to get my
picture.”
“Yeah, and it gets better.”
Yvonne sarcastically told her.
“Now come. I need to introduce
you to someone.” She said walking away
with Angelina.
I looked around at the room full of about seventy-five people, not
including the waiters and waitresses who were flying around with piles of trays
in their hands. Informal dinner? I
thought to myself as I noticed that everyone was dressed stylishly. I looked down at what I was wearing. And I blend in just fine. Good thing I coordinated my outfit to what
Angelina and Yvonne were wearing or I might have shown up in something much
simpler.
The walls to the dinning room were draped with thick red curtains,
doubled over and twisted with green trimming giving it a holiday feeling.
The room was lined with rows of tables, each big enough to occupy
5 people. There was a solid white
tablecloth on each one and a green and red flower arrangement set in the center
as a suggestive discussion piece.
I took a glass off the tray of one of waitresses as she passed by,
and looked around for a familiar face.
Besides John, Levon, and Jerry, who I had met earlier today, I saw four
very household faces. They were all
spread out across the room. The first
one I noticed was AJ. I really hadn’t
kept my eyes off of him since I walked into the room. He looked outrageous. His
hair was dyed platinum blonde and cut ruggedly. He wore olive, button fly, straight leg pants that had large
pockets both in the front, as well as the back. He was wearing them with a long sleeved, black, crew neck shirt
that had Asian inspired lettering on the front. He had taken off his dark green leather jacket, and had placed it
behind the seat he would be sitting in.
He was talking with two ladies, both of whom had long black hair. They were giggling thoughtlessly at what he
was saying. But he didn’t seem to mind.
Nick and Howie were both by the other side of the room in
conversation with a short, bald man in a business suit. Howie had black, pleated corduroy pants and
a red polo style pointed collar shirt.
His hair was slicked back, and tied in a tight tail at the nape of his
neck. Nick wore a blue classic
turtleneck with gray, large, patch pockets cargo pants. His aided flaxen hair reaching to his chin
and in my opinion in desperate need of a cut.
They seemed deeply into conversation, actually from where I was
standing, it looked more like arguing.
The businessman who was even shorter than Howie kept slapping one hand
over his other, like he was trying to get a point across. I wasn’t sure, but I thought Nick looked as
if he were pouting and shaking his head while mouthing the words “no” over and
over. Howie seemed to be trying to calm
Nick down, and trying to explain something to the short man.
I spotted Brian standing by a small crowd that had gathered beside
him and Leighanne. They seemed to be
congratulating him; Leighanne was hugging what seemed to be one of her
girlfriends. She was in a long, thin
strap, navel neck, black dress. The
neckline was down so far, that if she were to shift a little too much in the
wrong way, her boobs would definitely be revealed. Her hair was hanging straight down her back. And her makeup was perfect. Brian had on a
mustard color, chenille Johnny sweater, with an open lattice pattern down the
front and navy blue, custodian styled pants having two green and red patches on
either side of the leg. Brian lifted
his head, and searched the room, till his eyes came across what they were
looking for. He fixed his gaze on me,
and quickly shot me an alluring smile that told me he had been anxiously
awaiting my arrival. When I notice
Leighanne trying to get Brian’s attention and then looking in the course of his
gaze, I quickly shifted mine, I turned to walk in their opposite direction, and
clumsily bumped into someone spilling my drink on the floor.
“Oh I’m so sorry,” I apologized.
“I wasn’t paying attention”
“It’s quite alright Miss,” came the deep voice of Kevin
Richardson. He was wearing a black,
long sleeved Versace collar shirt, with black slacks. “I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing
either.” He said smiling at me while
flagging down one of the waiters to have him clean up the spilled wine.
“I’m Kevin,” he said extending his hand.
“Isabelle.” I said faintly
hypnotized by his striking green eyes. The term tall, dark and handsome would
do him no justice, he reminded me of a Greek god. He had unbelievable stature
compared to mine. And his features were
sculpted into perfection. He simply
took my breath away.
“Isabelle, hmmm…Are you traveling with Angelina Mayfield?” he
asked.
“Yes, I am her…um…her,” I paused for a moment unsure of what to
say. Did he know I was just a friend,
or had he been told otherwise? “Her
cousin.” I blurted out hoping he
wouldn’t think me a liar.
“Oh…” he said, his mouth taking the shape of a circle. “Well that’s nice. It gets lonely out here on the roads sometimes. It’s nice to have family around to remind
you of home.” He said unknowing of my
pretense.
I smiled, as he continued the conversation. “I myself have a cousin who travels with
me. In fact, he is in the band. Brian.”
He said inclining his head towards his cousin’s direction. “It gives you a sense of security when you
are thousands of miles away from home, and have someone around who really knows
you inside and out.”
I nodded. He continued to
tell me about how when the Backstreet Boys first started out, it was really
hard for all of them to get accustomed to the idea of not seeing their
relatives. “We would sometimes try to call home every night, and would get
expensive phone bills at the end of the month.
Other times one of us would just start to bawl.” He said this with an embarrassed laugh, as
it must have been uncomfortable for him to confess this to a girl he just
met. “Yeah, but you do miss home a lot
when on the road.” He repeated trying
to erase the picture he had created in my head of a crying Backstreet Boy. “Especially your mom and dad.” He took a long pause after saying the word
dad. I knew he had lost his father to
cancer a couple of years back, and it had been a challenging situation for
him.
For a moment I forgot where I was, and with whom I was talking
with. I felt totally at ease and the
nervous feeling I had encountered earlier went out the door. I wasn’t talking to Kevin Richardson, the
Backstreet Boy. I was simply talking to
Kevin. And I was enjoying myself.
Our conversation was interrupted when I saw Kevin’s sparkling
green eyes remove themselves from mine, and look at the person who was standing
behind me.
“Hey man, how’s it going,” Brian said giving Kevin a hug. Even
though Kevin inclined a bit, Brian had to stretch out to reach his cousin’s
height. They had not seen each since
before their two-week hiatus, at the end of their European tour.
“Fine cuz. Especially now
that I found out what you had been doing in Canada for the past week. No wonder you were going around all
mysterious through the tour. What’s up
with that, not even telling your own cousin.”
He said teasing Brian.
“Well, you know me, Mr. Romantic.
I didn’t want anyone to know till I after I was sure this was what I
really wanted and I had first told the most important person in my life.” He said smiling over at me as if I was whom
he was referring to. He was about to
say something, when…
“Did I hear someone mention me?”
Leighanne Wallace said stepping up behind us. “Hey there in-law.” She
quipped and immediately gave Kevin a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Yeah, we were actually just talking about you. So, let’s see it. C’mon, you know you want
to show it off” Kevin said looking at Brian.
Leighanne stuck out her left hand, and Kevin took it into his, admiring
the diamond ring on it.
“Wow!” He exclaimed. That is a beauty. You outdid yourself cuz.
Congratulations to you both.” And Leighanne and him hugged again.
“He certainly did outdo himself.”
She said placing her lips on Brian’s cheek giving him a kiss. “He knew the exact ring I wanted, and knew
he could only find it in a Canada. We saw it once when you guys were on tour there. I love you baby.” She said giving him another kiss, this time on his lips.
Kevin smiled, and looked over at me, at first with curiosity as if
he had forgotten I had been standing there.
It was embarrassing. “Oh guys,
meet Isabelle. She is Angelina’s
cousin. She will be going on the tour
with us.”
“Hi, nice to meet you.”
Leighanne said extending out her hand.
This time, unlike the first time she had done this, it was
friendlier. “Welcome aboard.”
I took her hand. “Thank
you, but we have already met.” I told
her.
“Yeah Leigh, remember. When you came to pick me up…”
“Oh that’s right.” She
said “The little girl from the
airport.”
My face hardened, and I gave her a bewildered look. She noticed it, and gave me a plastered
smile. Kevin stared at my puzzled
expression, with one of his own, and Brian’s jaw had dropped.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized hypocritically. “I thought you were some teeny bopper fan,
who had bumped into Brian nagging him for his autograph, or even worse, some of
his time.” She said. The same smile still on her face.
There was a brief moment of silence, before Brian spoke.
“So… um Isabelle…. how long do you um… plan to stay on tour with
us.”
I tried to soften my face again, “Till the very end. I think that’s July right?”
“Won’t you be missing classes?”
Leighanne asked the smile gone from her face. “I mean, surely you can’t be past your sophomore year. You look so juvenile.” She spat.
“Why thank you,” I said not showing how insulted I was by her
judgment. “Some of us do look much
younger than we actually are.” I said
catching her flinch as if I had just slapped her right across the face. Brian chuckled, and appeared to be amused. Kevin continued to look confused. “Actually, I just graduated from high school,
and am taking off a year before I begin college next fall.” Fearing what
someone could possibly say to embarrass me more, I excused myself. “If you will excuse me now, I am going to go
take my seat.”
“Sure,” Kevin smiled at me.
“Talk to you later Isabelle.”
“Yeah, nice meeting you again, and welcome to the tour.” Brian said as I walked away toward my
table. I envision them staring at me as
I walked away
I took my seat, at the table where Yvonne was sitting, and I
thought to myself. I couldn’t
understand what was Leighanne’s problem.
Was she just naturally this nasty to people she just met, or had I said
or done something to offend her. Was
there a reason she did not like me? My
thoughts were interrupted by the shrieking sound of someone turning on a
microphone.
“Your attention please.”
Said the short bald man who had earlier been talking to Howie and
Nick. “If everyone could please take
their seats, we can begin the introduction, and get on with dinner. Cause I’m sure we are all hungry.” He said with a loud snort, while patting his
stomach. There was some laughter
amongst the crowd, though not many.
In my absentmindedness, I hadn’t seen Angelina take her seat
across from me, or the two gentlemen who sat on either side of her. They were in business suits, and looked as
if they had just come from a hectic day in the office.
“As you very well know,” The short bald man began when everyone
had taken his or her seats. “Tomorrow
night we kick off the Backstreet Boys tour here in the states, we wish them as
much success as they’ve achieved in Europe,” he paused, and let the gathered
public cheer for the success of the tour.
“We also know, that The Firm Management, who by the way arranged this
social tonight, has signed a bright, young lady to be the opening act on the
tour. We wish her much success as
well.” Once again everyone applauded.
I looked over at Angelina.
She was beaming with delight as all eyes were turned on her. One of the men beside her whispered
something in her ear, which she nodded to; she stood up, and slightly bowed her
head in acknowledgement, repeatedly mouthing the word thank you. Angelina enjoyed being the center of
attention. After she sat back down, and
the clapping had diminished, the man at the microphone continued. “Ok, now that that has been taken care of,
enjoy your dinner everybody.” And the
room started up again everyone talking to the people at their table as waiters
and waitresses came around filling up each of the tables with plates of bread,
salad, chicken and or salmon.
SOLD OUT SHOW AT THE MCI CENTER TONIGHT… read the headline of the
morning Washington Post newspaper that Lina had thrown on my bed awakening me
from my sleep.
“Look at it.” She
said. “Read the article. They mention my name a couple of times.”
She was already dressed and was sitting at the counter ready to
begin breakfast.
“You ordered room service?”
I asked.
“Yeah. I’m famished.”
I looked over at the clock by my nightstand, seven o’clock. “What time did you get up?”
“Five thirty.” She said
with mounds of repulsive energy. It was
way too early to be this wound up. We
had gotten in at one o’clock last night.
“Why so early?
“I went jogging. I could
barely sleep last night. I’m too
excited about tonight.” She said. “I can’t wait. C’mon eat something.”
“Give me a sec.” I said
pulling the covers off of me and walking to the bathroom to brush my
teeth.
“I have to leave in a couple of minutes.” She told me.
“Weh yhu hoing?”
“What?!?” she yelled back at me.
I spit out the toothpaste in my mouth, and repeated my
question. “I said, where you
going?”
“Oh, back to the venue. We
have to rehearse all day today. The
Backstreet Boys are going to be there this time; we have to do the whole
thing. From beginning to end.”
“Oh ok. What time do you
think you will be back?”
“Probably in enough time to get ready for the concert.”
I grabbed the
newspaper from my bed, and read the article.
Her name was mentioned a couple of times. It talked about how the Backstreet Boys were to open their US
tour here in Washington, DC. They had
sold out the venue, and it was going to be a mess of screaming hormones. They said how the Backstreet Boys management
company had signed a new act. Lina, and
how this would be her first appearance.
They also said, they predict she will be the “next big thing” since
Britney Spears.
“Aren’t you going to eat anything?” she asked me. “The pancakes are amazing.”
“No, not right now. I’m
not hungry, but leave me some, don’t eat them all.” I said, as she continued to stuff her face. I could tell she was nervous. Yeah maybe there was some excitement there,
but she was actually nervous about tonight.
And I couldn’t blame her. I
would never have the courage to face a crowd that big and sing for them.
The phone rang, and I went to answer it since Lina had her mouth
full. “Hello? Oh, hi Yvonne. Oh, ok….
sure she is right here, do you want to speak to her?” After another second, I cradled the receiver. “It was Yvonne. She wanted me to tell you to be downstairs in five minutes. They are going to pick you up and take you
to the venue.”
“Who are they?” She asked
me as if I had any clue. I just shrugged.
“So what are you going to do all day?”
“I don’t know, I guess wait here for you to come back. Unless Yvonne has something planned.”
“I don’t think so. She is
supposedly coming with us to the venue.”
“Oh, then I guess I’m just staying here.”
“Well, you can order cable, and…”
“I’ll be ok.” I reassured her.
“I know Isa. I just don’t
want you to feel… I don’t know like your bored, or left out.”
“I won’t.”
“Good,” she said. I notice
she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ok, later.”
“Bye.”
While they were away at the venue, I spent most of the day
writing, in my journal. I wrote
different things. Sometimes I wrote
about what was currently happening in my life.
Other times I just wrote poems or paragraphs expressing how I was
feeling. I sometimes even wrote what I
thought others around me were feeling.
Today, I basically concentrated on myself. I went down for lunch around two to the Hyatt Café, where I saw
Leighanne at the counter with a drink in her hand. I did my best to get my food and go past her without her
knowing. She really wasn’t one of the
people I wanted to spend some time with.
Angelina came back around five thirty; I was already dressed for
the concert. She walked through the
door, and headed straight for her bed.
“Oh my god. I’m so tired.” She said.
“We had to do my set five times, because I couldn’t get it right.” She complained. “Then, they couldn’t get the harnesses to stay on straight, so
the boys had to do it from the beginning every time it didn’t work.”
“Why?” I asked. The ideas seemed pretty ridiculous to me to
do everything from the start just because of a minor set back.
“Well they have to time everything, so that they know how much
time they have between songs.”
“Are you sick Lina?” I
asked looking at her pale complexion.
“No, just tired. I didn’t
eat anything, and I’m so hungry.” She
said picking up the phone, and dialing room service. Then she headed for the shower.
About half and hour later, a cart with a large pizza pie and some
soda’s were brought to our door. I ate
a slice, but Lina ate practically everything else.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you were hungry.” I told her.
“Yup. We didn’t have much
to eat at practice.” Just when she
finished off the pie, Yvonne knocked on our door.
“Are you girls ready?” she asked looking at Angelina.
“Yeah,” Angelina shouted.
“Let me just brush my teeth.”
I told Yvonne how I thought Angelina was really really nervous
about tonight. She said it happened all the time. And it was nothing to take precaution about. I was still worried though.
At the venue everyone was in a rush. Make-up people, wardrobe people, technicians, everyone even the
ushers and body guards were running around trying to get ready for
tonight. I tried my best to stay out of
everyone’s way, but on occasion, I got an “Excuse me,” or a “Move out of the
way” from people. I was standing in the
corner of a room where they were applying Angelina’s make-up. She wouldn’t stop talking. She was going on and on about how she loved
the outfit they had arranged for her to wear, or how good her hair looked once
the stylist was done with it. As we
drew closer to curtain time, Lina was ever so quiet. She came up to me and told me something that I was sure was the
last thing anybody wanted to hear.
“I don’t think I can do this, Isa.” She said her face even though covered by make-up looked pale.
“What? You gotta…I mean…”
I didn’t know what to tell her. “ Wait
here, I’ll go get Yvonne.”
“No, no, it’s ok. I’m
going to do it. I’m just nervous. Look at the crowd.” She said pointing to the monitor
backstage. The place was packed. There was not an empty seat left in the
stands.
“You’ll do fine Lina. I
know you. You can do this.” I said trying to calm both of us down.
Right there, a stagehand came around to where we were. “Your up in ten.” He told Lina.
“Oh God I feel like I’m gonna vomit.” She said, then looking at the horror in my face. “I’m kidding.” She said. “I just feel a little bit nauseous. It’ll all go away once I’m on stage.”
“You sure.” I asked. Beginning to feel nervous for her.
“Yes. Now go take your
seat, or you’ll miss my opening.”
“Ok. Good…” she stopped me
before I finished. “I mean, break a
leg.” I gave her a hug and a kiss on
the cheek. Then went out to the front
row.
As I waited for Lina to come out, the crowd was unbelievably
loud. Even though I was a Backstreet
fan, I had never attended one of their concerts. I had heard about how loud they could get with the screaming of a
thousand teenage girls, but I never could have imagined this. I covered my ears with my hands at a certain
point when a little girl behind me started screaming out for Nick. To my surprise, Leighanne who was sitting a
couple of seats to my left came over and handed me a set of earplugs. I put them on, and smiled at her hoping this
was her way of letting go of what happened last night. She didn’t smile
back. Instead she rolled her eyes, and
told me Yvonne had sent those for me.
Then she walked away. Before I
could even register what had just happened, the lights went down, and the intro
was played.
Angelina emerged from a rise under the stage. She looked better than when I had left her,
and she was smiling. She was dressed all in white. White tank top, white pants, and a white, long, leather
jacket. For a brief second, there were
a couple of boos, and “we want the Backstreet Boys” from the crowd, but once
Angelina began to sing “Tell me how it’s going to be” one of her up-tempo songs,
the crowd was hers. I stared up at her,
trying to make eye contact with her.
But the lights were too bright, and she couldn’t see much past the
stage. She still wasn’t accustomed to
the lights. She worked the crowd, as
well as the stage. She moved from one
part, to the other never leaving any section out. She was doing fine, until I saw her somewhat double over in
pain. I don’t think anyone else
realized it, but I was following her every move and her face looked ill. As soon as her set was over, she took a bow
on each side of the stage and quickly ran off.
She went underneath it and through passage that led backstage. I also took off from my seat and went
backstage. I got there just in time to
witness the Backstreet Boys, as they were getting ready to be harnessed. Lina came in running from the passage.
“Yo!” AJ bellowed, as Lina
ran straight into him and started to vomit.
“What the…!” He screamed waving
his hands in disbelief as her dinner ended up on his opening outfit.
Everyone just stared in shocked.
Poor Lina was
the only thought that crossed my mind as she realized what she had just done.
Even I couldn’t move forward to help her.
All she could do was look up AJ, and say, “I’m so sorry.”