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Forty-nine

~ Oakland, CA… Day two… Concert # 26 ~

I hung up my cell phone and sighed as I sat down next to AJ. He smiled, "What happened now?"

"My cousin is getting married…" I groaned.

"Which one?"

"Cindy…"

"Isn’t she twelve?" AJ laughed.

"Just about… she’s nineteen."

"Pregnant?"

"Swears she’s not, but I wouldn’t doubt it. They’re rushing. The wedding is in a few weeks."

"Wow…"

"I know…" I sighed as I ran my fingers through my curls. "I, of course, was offered by my mother to take the pictures. Nice of her to ask huh?" I buried my face in my hands with a sigh and groaned.

"Are you going to do it?"

"Of course I am… If I don’t I’ll be written off yet again as the daughter who is irresponsible and doesn’t care about anyone but herself."

"So you miss a few dates of the tour… no big deal…" AJ said as he put a hand on my knee.

"Yeah I guess… It’s the weekend of the San Diego concerts. Then we’re on break for the rest of that week until Mexico City on the weekend. So I should be able to meet back up with you in time to fly down to Mexico."

"See? Everything will work out just fine…"

"I hope so…"

~~~~~

I sat nursing an iced coffee later that afternoon as I watched the guys messing around on stage during rehearsals. AJ was bouncing around with his normal amount of endless energy taunting the dancers, Howie was talking to Brian, and Nick was chasing Faith around trying to tickle her. Kevin sat down next to me and nudged me, "Hey, kid…"

"Hey…"

"You’re pretty quiet today… wanna talk?" I shrugged and kept my eyes on the stage. "Something happen?" I shrugged again and took a long drink. "Want me to shut up?"

I hesitated for a moment and then looked at Kevin, "No…"

I looked back at the stage and he leaned back in his seat wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "AJ told me about the wedding…" I nodded. "You and your parents still having trouble getting along?"

I laughed wryly and shook my head, "Having trouble… that makes it sound like we ever did get along."

"Didn’t you? I seem to remember you getting along okay."

"That was an act. They didn’t know you then, so they wanted you to think we were a perfect family. They wanted to impress you in case you were a potential son in law."

I could see Kevin nod out of the corner of my eye, "I see…"

I shrugged, "I shouldn’t let it bug me as much as I do. But it still fucks with me you know? You wouldn’t know though would you? Your parents actually love you…"

"Oh, Kel…"

"AJ doesn’t get it either. Even with his dad being the fuck up that he is.., Age just doesn’t get it. He just says, ‘It’ll be okay…’ Well you know what, Kev? It’s not okay. It’s not okay when your parents don’t give a rat’s ass about you. He should know that… I know he’s got Denise… and god he’s so lucky to have her. But he should at least understand because of Robert… I suppose he does understand but he’s not ready or willing to deal with it…"

"That could be… have you talked about it with him?"

"Til I’m blue in the face…" I sighed. "It’s one of the only things I can’t talk to him about. He figures that because my parents are still married that it’s okay. That I’m blowing it all out of proportion or something… I’m ‘too hard’ on them…"

"Sounds like he’s not ready…"

"Yeah… well…" I said with a shrug.

"What else is on your mind?" Kevin nudged carefully.

"The blonde on stage…"

"There’s three blondes on stage… which one?"

"The female one…"

"Hmm…"

"What’s that mean?"

"I haven’t made my opinion on her yet."

I looked at Kevin, "Talk…"

Kevin sighed, "Something about her doesn’t sit right with me. I haven’t figured it out yet."

I shook my head and looked up at the roof of the venue, "Finally…"

"Finally, what?"

"Yet another thing that AJ thinks I’m overreacting to. ‘She’s a nice kid, Kel, leave her alone…’"

"Well sure she’s nice, but there’s something else there. She like…" Kevin paused and thought about what he was going to say. I meanwhile looked at the lights in the ceiling of the arena and wondered who changed them and how. "It’s like she’s not a fan… doesn’t know anything about us… but then I catch hints of recognition when we talk about old music of ours or videos. I just wonder how much she really knows about us and how much of this is an act."

I nodded and turned my head to look at Kevin, "She seems really fake at times… I can’t figure out though if it’s her being sneaky, or if she’s just doing that girlie flirt thing with Nick. You know that, ‘I’m a girl and everything you say makes me giggle like a fool and is just so… cute!’" I rolled my eyes again and Kevin laughed.

"I’m so glad you don’t like being a ‘girl’… cause you know… if you acted like that, you and I never would have gotten so close."

I chuckled and nodded, "Yeah… and I probably would have ended up in bed with you a lot sooner…"

"I do not fuck girlie girls!"

"Not anymore you don’t… but you did."

"Bullshit…"

"Bullshit my ass!" I laughed. "You were horrible… you had no standards aside from female and breathing… Thank god you found Kristen!"

He laughed and shook his head, "Whatever… we digress…"

I looked back up to the stage to where Nick had tackled Faith to the floor and was teasing her and holding her down, "Yeah…"

"So how do we find out what her deal is?"

I smiled a mischievous smile and looked at Kevin, "I say we get her drunk…"