Chapter Twenty-Two: In the Eye
It was like the house had been invaded, Kelsey thought, as she listened to the clamour of the five Boys surrounding her as they ate pre-recording-session lunch. They were all fighting over what to watch on TV as they ate big sub sandwiches, their mouths full as they shouted at each other. Nick was (loudly) arguing to watch a re-run of a Buccs pre-season game on some obscure NFL channel, which AJ was denying on the call that the Buccs always lost ("Not in this game though, dawg," Nick yelped desperately). Brian was singing the theme song to Hot in Cleveland ("ba bah-baaa-baaa...") after having seen it on the guide grid, while Howie and Kevin were discussing some news story that the two of them were keeping up on that the other guys clearly weren't. AJ had somehow managed to best the others by securing possession of the remote (which Nick was wrestling him for on the couch) and as a result they were all watching Guy Fieri worship a coffee-smoked pork chop.
Kelsey watched with one eyebrow raised at the commotion. It had taken hardly any time at all for her to realized exactly which Boy was which as far as exaggerated personalities went (Brian the clow, Kevin the parental unit, Nick the baby brother, AJ the rebel, Howie the diva), and she felt sort of like a scientist observing the behavior patterns of a new species.
Nick lunged for the remote control, just as AJ, seeing the attack coming, leaned back and tossed the remote into the air. Kelsey caught the remote and Nick received an eyeful of The Beard. "OW!" he yelled, clutching his face, "Beard! Your beard whipped me! In the eye!"
"So calm the fuck down and maybe my beard won't have to whip you in your eye then," AJ said.
Nick noticed Kelsey had the remote, "Gimme, gimme, gimme," he begged, wiggling his fingers.
"Don't do it!" Brian shouted, "He'll subject us to three hours of the Tampa Bay Buccanneers playing like a peewee team!"
"They don't play like a peewee team!" Nick whined.
"You're right," Brian said, "Even peewees win sometimes!"
"HEY!"
Kevin stood up, "Okay, let's get to work before this descends into kindergarten level insults."
"You mean he isn't rubber, and I'm not glue, and whatever I say and whatever I do doesn't bounce off him and stick to -- me?" Brian asked, eyes wide.
Kevin raised a wooly eyebrow.
Kelsey laughed and five heads turned toward her, "Y'all are crazy. Are you always this crazy?" she asked.
"Pretty much always," Howie answered.
"When we haven't been around each other in awhile," AJ said, "The crazy kind of gets... you know, magnified."
"Plus I think we're all energized by excitement right now. I mean, it isn't everyday our little Nicky here manages to write a hit song for us all to record," Kevin said, smiling proudly.
Kelsey looked surprised, "Nick wrote a song?" she looked at him. "I thought you were recording Desi's song?"
"Desi? Who the hell is Desi?" Howie looked confused.
"OKAY GUYS," Nick shouted, leaping off the couch and away from AJ, "I'll meet y'all up in the studio, I gotta -- show... Kelsey... something." He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room as the other guys all gathered together the wrappers of their subs and their drinks and started herding up the stairs, already onto another topic as their sneakers all thundered up the steps.
Nick pulled Kelsey into the kitchen.
"You wrote a song, too?" she asked, turning to face him, her back leaning against the counter. "I didn't know that. Why didn't you tell me? What's it about?"
Nick's palms were sweaty. He rubbed them across his shirt. "Okay, so it's like this -- I have a confession to make."
"A confession?"
"Yes."
"About what?"
Nick took a deep breath. "Okay so... see, before I came out here, I was having... issues. With drinking. Like a lot."
"Okay?"
"And so like the fellas, they said they didn't wanna work with me 'til I got those issues figured out y'know, so they figure if I could write a song that was like worth taping that I probably wasn't drinkin' and shit, you know? Like a challenge. So they told me to write a song and when I had a song ready for them then we'd start workin again and stuff."
Kelsey was staring at him and the intensity of her eyes made him even more nervous. He felt like he was a sponge and there was water just like pouring out of him or something. He wiped his palms again. "So anyways I'm kinda crap at writing songs," he said. "I've been tryin', y'know, but it ain't easy. It doesn't just happen for me. I mean I ain't great with words and stuff... So like... I kinda..." He licked his lips, closed his eyes, and said in a great rush of oxygen, "I-told-them-Desi's-song-was-my-song-and-that-I-wrote-it."
Kelsey stared at him.
Nick waited for a response.
She just stared at him.
"Kelsey?"
"But you didn't write it," she said.
"Right."
"Desi wrote it."
"I know."
"But won't they notice on the, like, credits, that it's Desi's song?" she asked, confused, her mind still trying to wrap around what Nick was telling her. The monolithicness of the his confession hadn't yet hit her.
Nick winced, "Well see, like, his name isn't on it anywhere."
"Why?"
"Because... he doesn't own any rights to it anymore."
"What?"
Nick's palms were getting wetter and wetter by the moment and sweat began speckling his brow. "Well, see, the contract Desi signed with me... it was... like, I wrote in there that I got all the rights to the song..."
"You're stealing Desi's song?" Kelsey shrieked.
"SHHH!" Nick shouted, and he looked at the doorway, as though expecting all four of the other guys to be there. He waved his hand for her to lower her voice, then said, "Well I mean I bought the song, didn't I, so it isn't really stealing..."
"How much did you pay him for it?" she demanded.
"Twenty-five grand," Nick replied, trying to make his voice carry the amount as though it were a huge pay off for a song.
"How much do all the rights to a song usually cost? Is that a good price?" she asked.
Nick hesitated. "Well, I mean, I haven't really ever bought a song's rights before but I mean..."
"How much is the average song, period, then, Nick?" she asked.
Nick felt his mouth go dry. He looked down at his sneakers.
"More than twenty-five grand?" Kelsey asked.
Nick looked up at her.
"Fifty grand?"
Still he stared.
"Hundred grand?"
"Well I mean --"
"Nick!" she shouted, "How could you? Don't you know how much this all means to him? He trusts you, he looks up to you. He thinks you're the most amazing person in the world because you're helping him... and you're really screwing him over aren't you?" Kelsey's eyes were more disappointed than angry and Nick felt sick to his stomach.
"Well I mean... I was gonna tell the fellas... really... eventually..."
"Before or after it's a hit song on the radio and you've made millions and he's still sitting on the twenty-five grand?" Kelsey demanded.
Nick felt his cheeks turn red. "I just... I wanted the fellas to... to come see... that... that... I'm not... I dunno, drinking... and..."
"Nick, like a week ago we were driving all over the city to find your car that got impounded 'cos you parked illegally at a bar and you and Desi came back to the hotel singing the Ghostbusters theme at the top of your lungs!" Kelsey cried. "You are drinking! So not only are you still drinking and lying about not drinking, but you didn't write the song they're all so excited about."
Nick felt like a four year old in trouble. He continued staring at his sneakers.
"They're gonna be pissed at you," Kelsey said. "I'm pissed at you. Desi's gonna be pissed at you."
"I know..." Nick said quietly.
"So you gotta make it right," Kelsey said.
"I'm gonna," Nick mumbled.
"Promise me you'll make it right."
"I promise," Nick replied.
Kelsey sighed, "Okay then." She shook her head, "I can't believe you."
Nick swallowed.
"I'm going for a walk," she said.
Nick nodded.
"They better all know who wrote the song by the time I get back or I'll tell'em myself."
He nodded again.
Kelsey opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, then headed to the door. Nick stood in the kitchen after he heard the front door close and leaned against the fridge. He pictured going up those steps, into his studio, and telling the fellas the truth and he couldn't quite imagine doing it. The expression of disappointment that was gonna play on Kevin's face... the sighs of exasperation from Howie, Brian and AJ... these were the things he hadn't really thought about when he'd initiated this plan.
"Nick!" Howie yelled down the stairs, "Where the hell are ya?"
"I'm comin'!" he shouted, and he dragged his feet climbing the stairs, dreading the moment when he told them all the truth.
Author's Chapter Notes:
This chapter is dedicated to Julilly, though only she knows why. ;)
