“I want her out of the tour Kevin. It is as simple as that” Nick and I stood in Kevin’s room after the fight. AJ was there for moral support. There was no one else in the room but us.
“I still need to have a very good reason for that” Kevin was sitting down looking at Nick with a smug look on his face. It was weird why Nick still didn’t explain the situation, he just barged in to the room, finding AJ and I there first, demanding that I have to be fired, with no explanations what so ever.
“I just need her fired. I can’t work with her anymore.” We all could tell that he was fuming with anger; he kept his cool though, trying to convince Kevin that his decision was a right one.
“Then, I’m sorry, I can’t.” Kevin said, then stood up, went to the mini bar, grabbed a soda for himself and started drinking it. He knew, as well as everyone else in the room, that he was making Nick mad with his indifference. I didn’t know why he was acting like this, but as long as I keep my job, I didn’t care.
“Why?” Nick asked through gritted teeth.
“I can’t give you a reason unless you give me one as well”
“I can’t work with her, this is my reason”
“I’m sorry, it is not good enough for me” He was still drinking his soda. AJ and I, however, couldn’t move. It was as if the fire emitting from Nick and Kevin’s eyes will burn us if they acknowledged us in the room.
“Listen Nick, It is written in the contract that I should pay her one million dollars if I fired her for no good reason, same if she quits. If she wants to quit, then she will have to pay me the same fine. And to tell you the truth, I am not ready to throw my money down the drain just because you can’t work with her. It has been two month now, Nick. All of a sudden you can’t work with her?”
His little speech made all of us surprised. I didn’t know that this was in my contract. Apparently, I would need to read the contract with a lawyer first before I sign anything. “What the hell did I put myself into?” I kept thinking. Hey, wait a min, I was insulted here. Was I the “drain”?
“Now, I told you my reason. Tell me yours” Kevin challenged.
“I will pay you the million, just get her out of the tour” Nick simply replied. As if a million dollars to him was like a cent given to charity.
“I’m sorry, I don’t accept charity from anyone” Kevin replied. See I told you.
Nick sighed. Apparently the “trying to keep his cool” plan was not working, or was failing terribly.
“Kevin, please…”
“No, Nick, I beg YOU to drop it. You are starting to give me a headache and can’t handle that now. Suck it up for the rest of the tour, and let the poor kid do her job. You were starting to get better…”
“GET BETTER. I DIDN’T KNOW I WAS SICK TO BEGIN WITH” Yeah, the “keeping cool” plan went down me, I mean the drain. MAN.
“You know what I mean.”
“NO, I don’t know what you mean Kevin. All of a sudden I found a masseuse shoved down my throat to fix something wrong with me, As If I need to be fixed. I AM FINE. YOU CAN’T ACCEPT THAT I MATURED…”
“MATURED… MATURED. You call yourself mature Nick. You are everything BUT. You drink and act like a teenager. And when you don’t get your way, you whine. Just like today, I don’t know what Julie did, but you came here, WHINING, to get her fired. When you didn’t get your way, you stormed and turned into a four year old boy having a tantrum. And you call yourself MATURE”
“If she doesn’t leave Kevin, I will. It is either me or her” And the answer was, surprisingly a high pitched laugh from Kevin.
“Neither of you are leaving. You are both bound by your contracts, yours with the agency, and hers with me. Nick you know better than that. So, I guess you are both staying. PERIOD” Kevin justified.
I guess Plan B also failed with Nick, because all he did was storm out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
“What the hell did you tell him that made him this mad?” It was the first time AJ spoke during the “Session”. He didn’t sound mad, just curious. I couldn’t see him because I kept my eyes on the floor. I was ashamed that I caused a fight between two friends.
“Julie!” That was Kevin of course. His tone was different from AJ’s. His was demanding. I only mumbled my answer. I know they must have not heard me because AJ, who was sitting right beside me, didn’t hear me.
“What did you say?” He asked.
“I… Well… I… Ummmm… I kinda, would have called him gay” the last word was barely a whisper. However, they heard it perfectly. Both of them had their eyes wide as saucers and didn’t know how to reply. It made me feel more ashamed.
“YOU DID WHAT?”
“Well, I didn’t mean to, he said Chris is handsome, and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut…” I was babbling, but yet I was interrupted.
“You were jealous that Nick called Chris handsome”
“AJ, Shut up. You are not even making any sense” That was again, the voice of reason, Kevin.
“Why would you tell him he is gay?” He asked.
“I told you, he said “let’s talk about your handsome boyfriend”. I just told him that gays call other guys handsome. And no, I wasn’t jealous.” I addressed the last sentence to AJ. Freak.
“Julie, he was trying to have a friendly conversation with you.” Kevin commented.
“Oh!” I was about to cry now.
“You blew the chance, MAN.” Then he sighed and continued “Let’s just hope we will have another one”
“But he was sarcastic, like he was trying to make fun of me. And he did make fun of me.”
“He was trying to be funny. Nick has a weird sense of humor.” AJ explained. “Come on honey, don’t cry. You didn’t know” I guess I didn’t know that the tears escaped my eyes. He gave me a hug, I was sure that Kevin looked annoyed, but he didn’t comment anyway. So I guess I am safe.
“It’s ok Julie. Just like AJ said, you didn’t know” He patted my back. I felt guilty.
“Nick was always self conscious about being called gay. When he was younger, it used to affect him bad. He turned into a play boy just to prove that he is a ladies man. I guess that wound didn’t heal yet.” Kevin continued. If this was his way of trying to make me calm down, he sucks at it. My tears turned into sobs. I felt even guiltier now, if that was possible.
“Give him some space. You can apologize to him later, ok?” AJ said.
“Like he would accept it. I’m sure he hates me, now.”
“Trust us, Nick is soft hearted. He doesn’t hold grudges for long. Besides, he knows that the situation is not that horrible, that’s why he didn’t give his “reason” to Kevin” He actually made the quotation marks with his fingers and glared at Kevin.
“Anyway, you aren’t going anywhere. You are staying on tour with us. But please, I don’t want anyone to know about what happened. Nick shouldn’t even know that you told us the whole thing. Ok?”
I nodded.
“Don’t tell anyone, especially your sister. I don’t want her to haunt Nick down. She seems like the kind who holds grudges”
Oh you have no idea…