It’s all Howie’s fault…
I wonder if I can make the trash can from where I’m sitting. It’s clear across the room. Yeah if I were a betting man, which I’m not…I would say that I can indeed throw this balled up piece of paper into the garbage can from here.
I grabbed the ball of paper, which contained probably the stupidest song lyrics I had ever written, and aimed at the trashcan, of course making it in on the first try.
“Two points for Littrell…and the crowd goes wild.”
Why was no one ever here when I did stuff like that? And then of course when I brag about it later, I won’t be able to do it again. So, I figured I’d practice by grabbing another piece of paper and balling it up, once again flinging it into the trashcan that was way across the room. This time I missed.
“Dang!”
Now that I was quickly bored with that, my mind wandered to how anxious I felt as I stepped off the plane. I’m glad that the second I saw Howie at the airport, I calmed down. Not that I was ever really nervous in the first place, but still…it’s been awhile. The second I saw D walking towards me with phone in one hand and huge bag in the other, it felt like normal.
Maybe I should have gone with him to pick Kevin up. I thought it would be fun to just hang around here by myself but that’s when it occurred to me how little time I have actually spent all alone. Having a family kind of changes your idea of alone time. It suddenly goes from being alone time to family time and you know what? I liked that.
I already missed my little family and I haven’t even been gone for an entire day yet. This was going to be harder than I thought it would be. Suddenly thoughts of my wife and child flooded my mind and I almost picked up the phone and called them, again. Yes I already have called them twice actually; once when I landed on California soil and the other as soon as Howie walked out the door. To call them three times in less than a half day would label me as officially pathetic.
But still…
Luckily the sound of knocking on the door made me put the phone down. Instead I jumped up and ran over to the front door to greet someone who I hoped would take my boredom away. Sure enough Howie was standing there, carrying one of my cousins bags while my cousin was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Kevin?”
“He decided he needed stuff from the store in the lobby.”
“Oh, so was it bad? Did you have a hard time finding the airport?”
“Not too bad, I almost got lost…any word from Nicky?” He walked past me and flung the bag onto the floor.
“Not directly, AJ is calling him.”
“Oh okay so we heard from AJ? Is he close?”
“He wasn’t sure.” Howie laughed.
“You know, you left your cell phone here D. Did you miss it?”
Howie looked excitedly over at the coffee table I was pointing to, “Thank God!”
I laughed when he grabbed it and placed it in his pocket. He probably loved that thing as much as I loved my wife.
“Did it ring while I was gone?”
“Yeah about a thousand times, I didn’t pick it up though, I just let your voicemail take it.”
Howie grabbed the phone out of his pocket, “Okay thanks.” He quickly put it up to his ear and walked away.
I was amazed how much Howie had grown since the last time we had been together. You know he was one of the people I haven’t really seen or talked to much during our time apart. It’s not like we ever hated each other or anything, but for some reason we just never had much to say to one another. I remember randomly calling him on his sister’s anniversary, which seems odd I’m sure, but out of the blue I looked at the date and remembered Caroline. So I called, he seemed pleasantly surprised.
At first the conversation was a little awkward but you know what? We ended up talking for almost two hours! I think towards the end of the Black and Blue tour that was probably the amount of time I talked to him spread over a span of two whole months. He caught me up on his business ventures with his brother and I told him all about Baylee. It felt good and really it was when I got off the phone with him, that I told my wife how badly I wanted this reunion to happen.
It was all Howie’s fault.
“This is all Howie’s fault!” I said to my one bag when I finally found it and brought it back to the chairs I was told to sit in and not move from. I only hoped that AJ hadn’t come and gone in the time it took me to re find baggage claim and then file a missing baggage form since my other luggage was nowhere to be found, just the small one which was lying by its lonesome near the bathroom.
Great way to start over Nickolas! I shook my head in disgust, telling myself once again that I would never stay up so late that I have half a head for important things like this. Lord only knows what happened to my luggage. Some freakazoid could have taken it and even now as we speak can be selling my drawers on E-Bay.
I let out a sigh and fished in my carry on to find the bottle of aspirin I at least had enough sense to bring, but of course when I found it I audibly ughed because I didn’t have anything to drink. There was no way I was going in search of water now, not even a fountain. With my luck, I’d come back to find nothing here when I returned.
So I did the only thing I could possibly do in this situation, I opened the bottle popped four of the aspirin in my mouth and sucked down a big gob of my own spit.
“Okay headache go away now please!” I said closing my eyes, ignoring the stares I was getting from people waiting for their cars to be brought around to them, lucky over 25 year olds.
I found myself nervously shaking my ankle, a bad habit I am pretty sure I inherited from Kevin, if you can inherit habits from people who you weren’t really related to. When I was a kid, I remember that used to bug the hell out of me, he’d always set himself right next to me for every interview we ever did with the sole purpose of putting his arm behind me and pinching me if I said or did anything dumb.
And when that foot went, my whole body vibrated with it, he’d make the couch move and I would roll my eyes and sometimes even put my hand on his ankle and tell him to stop. Next thing you know, I was doing the same thing.
“Excuse me?” I glanced up to see a woman standing next to me with a youngish, salivating girl. She was staring at me holding a sharpie in her hand and even though I was saying ‘dammit it all to hell’ on the inside, I instantly and out of habit gave them my smirk.
“I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking a picture with my daughter. She is a huge fan of yours.”
I stood up, trying not to lose my balance (yes I was that tired) and wrapped my arm around the little girl who started blubbering the second my body made contact with hers. I felt like Santa meeting a reluctant kid. I used to be one of those reluctant kids, terrified of Santa Clause. I would cry from the second we stood on line right up until I was on the guys lap.
Now I found myself rubbing the girls back to try to calm her down as her mother took a picture of us. I’m sure one the girl would look back on and be embarrassed by as she was grimacing, her face all contorted from crying as I had a cheesy ass ‘take the picture already’ grin on my face.
When picture time was done, I took her sharpie and signed her shirt for her, hoping that we hadn’t really drawn that much attention. Luckily, no one much cared who I was, at least at the Hertz rent a car counter. So I sat back down and pulled my baseball cap lower on my head, hoping that AJ would get here soon so I could get to a bed and crash.
I found myself sinking down on the row of chairs and lying there, falling into a semi restful sleep.
“Hello is someone going to let me in or are you all sleeping in there?”
I banged on the door of what I only hoped was the right suite. Why I didn’t take a key from Howie before separating at the elevator was beyond me. I forgot how big these rooms were sometimes, chances were they could all be in there but in their rooms and I would just be stuck banging on the door until I would finally have to go down to the desk and have security let me in. Yup it wouldn’t be the first time either.
Once I had to do that only to find Nick and Brian sitting in the main room playing Nintendo, neither one willing to get up and let the other win. If that’s the case this time…
“Hello!!” I banged on the door a little louder and much more impatiently and was rewarded when I heard Brian’s annoyed voice answer.
“Hang on, I’m coming!”
Finally the door opened and there stood my very tan and very blonde cousin. He looked good, healthy and older. Not that it had been such a long time since I’d seen him. We made it a point of seeing each other, his wife and my wife trying to bond, going to his house for weekend visits etc.
“Where is the fire exactly?”
“Sorry, I just wasn’t sure you heard me.”
“Who couldn’t hear you? The entire hotel probably heard you.”
I dropped my bag and pulled him into a hug, “Nice to see you again Bri.”
“Same to you!”
I sighed and dropped onto one of the couches in the main room, “I’m so tired I can sleep right now. I hate airports.”
“I know you do.”
“Are AJ or Nick here yet?”
“Do you see them?”
“Wow so a day away from Leigh and you already have transformed into your old obnoxious self.”
“I think you guys do that to me and no they aren’t here yet although rumor has it that AJ is getting close.”
“And Nick?”
“Anyone’s guess.”
“Did anyone think to call him?”
“AJ is handling that.”
“Great so we get the one that probably missed his flight to call the one that probably forgot he had a flight, that’ll work out for the best.” I put my head back and closed my eyes as my cousin laughed at my quip.
“I’m sure he’s on the way Kev.”
“I have to get myself used to staying on top of him again; I’ve been randomly practicing on my cat.”
“I’m sure he greatly appreciated that.”
“Eh, he’s a cat.” He laughed again and I smiled this time.
“Where’s D?” I asked after a few minutes of silence, I felt myself falling asleep and I didn’t want to, not until the babies arrived.
“On the phone.”
“Oh, he stayed off the phone the entire time he was with me, I was impressed.”
“He left it here by accident.”
“Oh, never mind then.” I found myself sinking deeper into the nice leather couch, maybe I would just take a little nap, because a little nap never hurt anybody.
“Are you hungry? I was thinking we should order some food while we are waiting.”
I opened my eyes and forced myself to sit up, “Food sounds good to me.”
“Pizza?”
“That works I’m starving.” It was almost like my brain was waiting for my mouth to say those words, my stomach started to grumble on cue.
“I need to eat for I am starving lalalalalaaaaa.” I sang my new I’m getting grouchy because I’m tired of driving and I’m hungry song as I finally saw the sign for Delta. Naturally when I asked Nick what terminal he was in he didn’t answer with the terminal name you know. Like I’m in terminal A… no he said Delta so I had to scour the entire airport looking for Delta. That kid, I swear to God.
My back ached and my butt was numb, I hated long drives, why on earth do I always think I can handle driving that long alone until I actually do it? Never again!
I pulled right up to the front door where it said Delta and of course, no Nick. “Why am I not surprised?”
That’s when I remembered I told him to stay by the rental cars, which weren’t anywhere near where I was parked. Yup, I’m annoyed. “Kill the blonde I’m going to kill the blonde…” That was my new kill the blonde song. Oh I have a million, the guys will love them.
Finally after circling the airport about ten times! NO joke!! I finally found the rental car place. I parked in front expecting to see Carter standing there waiting for me but once again, no Nick. So I had to go find a parking spot since when I went to leave the van unattended, security wasted no time getting on my ass about it. As I pulled away he said, “Nice van” and laughed at me.
I parked about ten light years away from the entrance and when I finally got inside I was ready to choke the kid I hadn’t seen in a few months. All that went away when I actually did see him though.
There he was lying on a row of three chairs, sound asleep, using his bag as a pillow. One leg was dangling off the chairs completely while the other was stretched out the length of the chairs. His arms folded against his body as he gently snored.
He looked like crap.
I walked over to him and squatted down eye level, “Nick.” I whispered.
He opened his eyes and sat up with a start, rubbing at them as he shook the sleep away. “Where the hell? AJ?”
“Hey.” I waved, why the hell I did that I have no idea.
“I must have fallen asleep.”
“Yeah you did. You okay? You kind of look like shit.”
He sat up straight now and yawned, “I’m tired, got to bed really late last night and now I have a headache.”
“Well let’s get the hell out of here then.”
“Sounds good to me.” He stood up and actually almost lost his balance.
“You sure you’re all right?”
“I’m good, I just need sleep!”
“I can see that.”
I grabbed his bag for him, which I know was a very nice thing to do on my part, and we made our way to the van. “Is this all you brought with you?” I asked noticing how small the bag I was carrying looked.
“They lost my other bag.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“Tell me about it, God AJ why did you park so far away?”
YAY after a four hour drive I have won the crabby, whiny Nick. This excites me greatly…not!
“Sorry, if you had waited outside for me I could have just pulled up.”
“You told me to stay put.”
“Since when do you listen to me?”
“I always listen to you.”
He had a point there because he really did always listen to me, it used to drive Kevin crazy. He would sit the boy down and lecture him tirelessly about every little thing known to man. Warn him, threaten him and yell at him, but still at the end of the day Nick did what Nick wanted to do. Meanwhile, all it would take was for me to say, “Do that again and I’ll kick your ass.” And he’d stop.
Gotta love the power of me.
“Oh my God you’ve got to be kidding me?” I looked up to see a very amused smirk cross his face as he stared at my van.
“Shit.” I grumbled under my breath.
“Did you drive this thing here?”
“Shut up and get in the van Carter.”
“This is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.” He was giggling now; the van seemed to wake him up, which was good because I planned on running him over repeatedly with it.
“Shut up or you can walk your ass to the hotel.”
“Hotel? What hotel?”
“You think we are just going to sleep in the van?” I asked him buckling my seat belt and grimacing as he ignored his.
“No, I mean I am going to Tommy’s house.”
“Tommy’s house? Who the hell is Tommy?”
“Lee! Tommy Lee, he gave me keys to his house.”
“Nick, what the fuck are you talking about? We’re all staying at the Hilton.”
“But Tommy…”
“You can figure that out tomorrow, the only place we are going now is the Hilton and possibly McDonald’s.”
“I’m all for that one.” He turned towards the window, placing his hat as a shield between the glass and his head.
“Okay McDonald’s it is…”
“You know you can rent a better car here.”
“Shut the hell up and go to sleep.”
“AJ…”
“Yeah?”
“It’s nice seeing you again.”
I smiled and reached over to grab him in a sideways hug, “Same to you now shut the hell up and let me drive this smelly ass car.”
Hey guys! thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying this one! I'll be back on Monday with a new chapter :O)
