“How are we going to get there?” Annie asked, remembering that they didn’t have Andrea’s car to drive. “Maybe we should just go someplace we can walk to,” she suggested instead. Everyone started looking at each other, and Andrea knew that if it became an open discussion again, she would starve for sure. She resolved to use the same tactics she used with her kids when they had a hard time deciding, she decided for them!
“Okay, guys, we are not going to get back in time for the concert if we keep this up, so let’s just find a way to get out of this bus and away from the venue without hordes of fans following us, and we will go to the first place we see, sound good?” she suggested the most authoritative voice she could muster.
Nick and AJ just looked at each other surprisingly, they were not used to being talked to in such a commanding way; usually it was them that talked to people that way. Annie noticed the amazed look on the boys’ faces and started to giggle.
“Just wait until you do something wrong and need to be punished,” Annie said between gasps for air from her laughing fit. “Then you’ll be in for a real treat!”
Andrea shot Annie an uncompromising look. “Maybe instead of making me sound like a kindergarten teacher, you could help me out here!” she said, sounding exasperated.
“You’re right, Andi. Let’s go boys, find a way to get us out of here and get something to eat!” barked Annie as if she were a drill sergeant. “How was that?” Annie asked, turning to Andrea. Annie noticed Andrea looking past her towards Nick and AJ and laughing. Annie turned around and saw Nick and AJ standing at attention, saluting her.
“Aye aye, captain,” said AJ, and he walked over to the door of the bus and talked to Marcus about what the plan was. Marcus poked his head around the side the door and told Andrea and Annie to come out first and go inside the venue, then boys would be escorted into the venue a few minutes after them. From there they would be taken out a side door of the venue and ushered into a car that was waiting there for them.
Andrea walked off the bus first, followed by Annie, and the girls behind the barricades started screaming and yelling. At first they thought it was because Nick and AJ were coming off the bus, but when they realized it was “those b*tches that got to be inside the tour bus with Nick and AJ” they started yelling derogatory statements at the girls.
This is crazy, Annie thought to herself as they were walking towards the door to the venue. “I can’t believe they are saying things like that to us, they don’t even know us,” said Annie to her cousin, who was also looking around, overwhelmed by the way the fans were acting.
“I know, this is so unreal,” Annie replied to her cousin, looking at her. Just then she noticed an object flying right towards her cousin’s head. “Look out!” she yelled, hopeful her cousin would be able to move out the way before it hit her. Nick and AJ heard Andrea yelling and ran off the bus to see what was going on. They walked off the bus just in time to see a rock about the size of a golf ball hit Annie in the head.
“Oh my God!” yelled Nick, running off the bus, with AJ in tow. “Where did that rock come from?” Nick shouted as he was ripping off his shirt. He balled up his shirt and used it to apply pressure to Annie’s head, which was bleeding profusely. The entire crowd of fans became silent when they realized what had happened.
“Annie, can her hear me? Are you okay?” asked Andrea. Annie did not respond to her questions, she appeared to be unconscious. Annie’s head was bleeding so heavily the blood was starting to soak through Nick’s shirt, and showing now signs of slowing any.
Q had already called the paramedics that stay onsite during concerts, and they were coming around the building now. Marcus, however, was nowhere in sight.
“Where is Marcus?” Nick shouted at Q, afraid that the fans were going to bum rush them or worse, do something else to hurt Andrea or Annie.
I never thought it would come to this, that our fans could be like this, Nick thought to himself as the paramedics started working on Annie.
He looked up at Andrea, who looked like she was about to fall over, and probably would have if AJ did not have his arm around her holding her up. Then he looked into the crowd of girls and noticed Marcus pushing through them, guiding a young woman in front of him. By now, more security guards were supervising the barricades, and when Marcus and the girl approached, the guards moved the barricades to let them both through, then replaced them before a single fan could sneak through.
“I’m taking her to the security office until the po-po get here and decide what to do with her,” Marcus said to one of the security guards as he made his way into the venue.
“I’m sorry,” the girl pleaded as she was walking past the boys and Andrea. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I was just so jealous that you guys were on the bus with them….” She trailed off as her and Marcus kept walking.
“We are going to have to take her to the hospital,” one of the EMT’s said, as they were lifting up the gurney they had loaded Annie onto. “Do you want to ride in the ambulance with her?” he asked, looking at Andrea.
Andrea looked at the EMT and only nodded her head. Even if she had wanted to verbally respond, she was not able to form any words to do so. She knew if she started to talk, she would lose it, just as she had the day she lost her husband and her two kids, the day she watched the EMT’s load her husband and her babies into the ambulance and drive away, just as they were doing now with her best friend.
Andrea climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat down next to her cousin, grabbing Annie’s hand and enclosing it in her own. Just as the door was shutting, Nick stuck his hand into the door to stop them from closing it. He handed Andrea piece of paper with a phone number on it.
“This is my cell phone number, I want you to call me as soon as you find out what’s going on,” Nick instructed her. Andrea just nodded her head as the EMT’s closed the doors. Andrea tucked the piece of paper into the pocket of her jeans, knowing she would never use it. That was the last time she would talk to Nick Carter; that much she was sure of.
