Chapter Sixteen
The pizza guy everyone had mistaken me for arrived bearing three large pies and Tattoos put out his cigarette and Nick evidently stopped trying to shove Howie into the overhead bins and Jenn, Tattoos (whose name turned out to be AJ), Nick, Howie, Brian, and I ended up sitting on the couches with the pizzas. Nick had shoved aside the duffle bags - most of which had turned out to be his, including the sneakers - and things had gotten relatively quiet while everyone chewed their food. Well, like I said, relatively. Nick was one of those people who talked around the food in their mouth.
"I'm so excited," he gnoshed, "Like I can feel my blood like rolling around in my veins and my blood's excited too."
"You can't feel blood," Howie said, picking mushrooms off his pizza and dropping them onto Nick's plate.
"I can so feel my blood," Nick answered, "It's wet."
"Can we please not talk about blood?" AJ asked, swallowing the mouthful of pizza he was chewing.
"Blood freaks AJ out," Brian explained to me.
"But I can feel it," Nick insisted.
"It's physically impossible," Howie repsonded.
"If you could feel blood, you'd be feeling it all the time," Jenn pointed out to Nick.
"No but I feel it right now because it's moving quicker because I'm excited," Nick reasoned. He looked at me. "Can you feel your blood?" he asked.
"No," I answered.
"See? You can't feel blood," Howie said.
AJ was slightly green. "It's okay, J," Brian said, patting him on the back.
"But I swear to Christ I can feel mine," Nick argued. He shoved a big mouthful into his mouth. "Ifff noff lidd uhh cab tabbe wuduh fuhh," he grunted around it.
"God Nickolas, chew your food," Jenn said, rolling her eyes and looking away from him as a pepperoni escaped his mouth and fell onto his chest. He plucked it off his chest and shoved it into his mouth again. "I'm sorry," she said to me, "These guys are still working on progressing through the evolutionary cycle and as you can see Nick's only just made it to the walking upright part."
Nick choked trying to say something and ended up with his hands up in the air over his head trying to swallow and breathe at the same time, his eyes watering. "Serves you right," AJ said, throwing a piece of crust at Nick, which hit him in the side of the head, geting crumbs and traces of sauce in his hair.
Brian showed me to some folding chairs to one side of the stage, "Here's your seat... Jenn hasn't talked to Rick yet about where we're gonna put you, but for tonight you can sit here." The stage was huge. Beyond the curtains that blocked off the backstage areas from view, I could hear people milling through the auditorium, their voices echoing off the rafters. Brian reached in his pocket and pulled out a laminated pass that said VIP BSB on it and my name. It was teal. "Keep this on," he added, dropping it around my neck.
"Okay." I studied the pass and he bounded away. It was holographic. When I tilted it one way, a picture of five silhouettes appared, when I tilted it another way, only four remained. I looked up at the stage and sighed as I watched people scurrying around, connecting wires and setting out bar stools and waters.
Jenn sat down next to me. "Hey," she said, crossing her legs, "How's tour so far?"
"Loud," I answered, since that was the only adjective I really had for it.
Jenn laughed, "Yeah, the commotion can take some getting used to," she nodded, "It's a lot of fun though."
"It seems it," I answered.
"I talked to Rick and he's gonna have you start tomorrow, okay?" she asked.
"Okay."
"We need some extra help up in the rafters I guess," she explained, "I hope you aren't afraid of heights?"
"I don't think I am," I replied. I really didn't know.
"Fair enough," Jenn replied with a smile.
"Hey Jenn? Argument in the dressing room. Sounds like Nick's trying to dunk Howie in the ice cooler again."
I shook my head and turned back to look at the stage again. Nick needed a keeper by the sounds, a full time person who did nothing but look after him and keep him out of trouble. I'd known the guy less than twelve hours and very seriously thought about yelling at him several times.
"Jesus." Jenn turned to me, "See ya around Ben." Jenn sprinted off to rescue Howie.
Once the show started, though, I understood why Nick would've been excited enough to feel his blood earlier. I'd never ended up going on Google to listen to the Backstreet Boys so the music was all new to me, yet I felt like I'd heard it all a million times. I watched as they danced their choreographed routines and shared dialogue with the girls in the crowd. Brian leaped and danced around, at one point even doing a backflip that made all the girls in the front row get this look on their face like they were going to lunge forward and catch him incase he fell down. The only thing about the whole show that I didn't understand was why there were five stools and microphones on stage at all times when there were only four Backstreet Boys.
I nudged Jenn, who had returned once the Boys were on stage. She looked up at me.
"What's the fifth stool for?" I asked, yelling over the music.
"Kevin," she answered, "He left the band a few years ago."
"Why?"
"Wanted to start a family," Jenn answered, "I'm sure there was more to it, but I wasn't here at the time when he left." She shrugged, "He thought about coming back a couple years ago, but it didn't happen."
"Yeah? Why'd he change his mind?"
Jenn shrugged, "Some stuff came up. But it's become kind of a tradition now, to have the fifth stool, you know? We started doing that on the 20-year anniversary tour."
"Twenty years?"
"Yeah. Well, twenty-two now."
"That's a long time."
Jenn nodded. "That's why they're all such good friends." As she said the words, Nick had Brian in a choke hold on stage and was giving him a noogie.
"Hey Not-The-Pizza-Dude," Nick called. Obviously he'd forgotten my name already. He trotted up beside me. The show had ended and the Boys had gone to get changed. Nick was still in the suit he'd had on during the show, but the shirt was unbuttoned and the bow tie was in his hand. We were in the parking lot, I was leaning against the arena wall, waiting for Rick to come out. Jenn had said he'd show me where the roadies slept. "You comin'?" Nick asked, coming to a stop in front of me.
"Coming? Coming where?" I asked.
"To the after party," he replied, "I'm gonna rip some awesome beats." I stared at him, not really sure what the hell he meant by that. "I'm deejaying," he explained.
"I'm supposed to meet Rick."
"Ehh you've got a million-trillion times to meet Rick, and only one first after party." Nick grinned, "You know you want to."
"I dunno," I replied.
"Aw c'mon, it'll be fun. Plus, it's probably the only night the whole tour that you'll get a chance to see Brian get drunk. Hilar-to-the-ous." Nick nodded.
I couldn't picture Brian drunk, so this was the main selling point that had me following Nick back to the bus to head off to the after party.
After Self by Pengi
