Chapter 4

            Andrea and Annie looked at each other and gulped.  They started to walk behind one of the men, and the other man walked behind them; they were sandwiched between two very large, beefy guys, and Andrea and Annie felt very awkward. 

            “How’d you like to have your body guarded by one of these guys,” Annie joked to Andrea as they were walking down a darkened hallway. 

            “Dude, shut up, they could probably squish us with one finger.  I don’t want to piss them off,” replied Andrea, in a very cautious tone.  She looked back at the bodyguard behind her and turned back to Annie.  “What do you think they are going to do to us?”

            “Hopefully a full pat down and a strip search,” Annie laughed as she looked back at the bodyguard behind them.  She noticed the slight smile that was curling up on his lips and she felt very content with her comment.  “Aw, I think he likes us,” chided Annie as they approached the door at the end of the hallway. 

            “Okay ladies,” the man they were following said.  “My name is Marcus; the guy behind you is Q.  We are two of the bodyguards for the guys.  AJ asked us to escort you after the sound check to his tour bus.”

            “Oh my God, I wasn’t serious about me being the one to do the nasty with them on the tour bus!” Andrea shouted with a hint of panic in her voice.  She quickly looked from the bodyguards to her cousin.  “Dude, tell these guys that I wasn’t serious!”

            Annie began laughing hysterically, as did Marcus and Q.  “Andi, relax, I’m sure they are quite capable of meeting fans without doing them!” Annie responded.  “You only have to have sex with them if you want to,” she quickly added as Marcus opened the door and they all walked out into the late afternoon sunlight.  The girls looked from side to side and noticed barricades set up on each side about 100 feet from where they were standing.  Behind the barricades on both sides were mobs of girls watching their every move.  They also noticed three large buses parked in front of the doors. 

            “This way ladies,” Q said, as they escorted the girls into one of the buses.  “Bone, they’re here,” he announced as they entered the bus.  “We’ll be outside if you need anything,” and both men turned around and walked off the bus.

            Andrea and Annie watched the bodyguards walk off the bus and looked around, trying to figure out what was happening and what they should do.  They appeared to be in a living room type setting, there was a couch and couple of bean bag chairs, a TV and some game systems.  They just stood there staring wide-eyed at each other, and then they heard footsteps approaching.

            “Hey Nick, I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen fans who actually look scared to see us!” AJ yelled to the other end of the bus as he walked further into the room.  Andrea jabbed Annie in the side, signaling her to say something.

            “Ow, umm, we aren’t scared, just wondering what is going on and how we ended up on this bus,” Annie said, trying to sound as calm and casual as could.  She wanted to let AJ know that they could handle this, so she added, “Andrea was just worried that you guys thought she was serious about doing the nasty with her on the bus!”

            “Oh, I was,” said Nick as he emerged from the back of the bus with a sexy, sly smile on his face.  He walked up to Andrea and introduced himself.  “Hi, I am Nick, and you are?”  Andrea just stood there for a minute and didn’t say anything.  All she could do was stare at him, he was so damn attractive. 

            “I’m Annie, nice to meet you Nick,” Annie butted in, hoping to save her friend from any further embarrassment.  Nick grabbed Annie’s hand and bent over to kiss it.

            “Likewise,” he said in a sultry voice.  “But who are you?” he asked again turning toward Andrea.  Seeing Nick kissing her cousin hand snapped her out of whatever trance she was in, and she responded,

            “My name is Andrea.  And before you get any more dirty ideas in your head, I am not doing the nasty on this bus with you right now!”

            Nick looked directly into Andrea’s eyes, and she felt goose bumps rising on her skin.  She was about to cut the gaze between them and look away, when he grabbed her hand and bent down to kiss it as he had done with Annie’s hand.  “At least you didn’t say you are never going to do the nasty on this bus with me.”

            Annie and AJ started laughing and Andrea just smiled at Nick and once again, turned beet red.  In hopes of cutting some of the sexual tension exploding throughout the room, he stepped up to introduce himself.

            “Ladies, it is a pleasure to meet you.  I’m AJ, but I would really like you to call me Alex.  Did you enjoy the sound check?”

            Andrea was too busy staring at Nick to respond, so Annie told him that sound check was great and they could not wait for the concert tonight.  She told him how this was their first concert since 1998 and how her and Andrea have been fans since she was 13 and Andrea was 14. 

            “So, Nick and I were wondering….are you two sisters?” AJ asked as casually as possible.

            “Well, most people think we are, but we are actually cousins.  We have just done everything together for so long that sometimes we even think we are sisters,” responded Andrea responded, breaking the trance she had been enveloped in. 

            “Kind of reminds me of Brian and Kevin,” said AJ, as he motioned for the girls to take a seat in the living room area.  Annie thought the guys would expect her sit on the couch next to her cousin, so she decided to plop down in one of the bean bag chairs instead.  Annie never did like to do things that people expected her to do.  AJ sat down in the bean bag chair next to her and just smiled.  She totally seems like my type of girl he thought to himself as he scooted his chair closer to hers.

            Andrea had no other choice but to sit down on the couch next to Nick.  She was very nervous, but she didn’t know why.  There was no reason for her to feel like she was doing something wrong.  It was time to start making herself happy again, and if this was the road back home that God had planned for her, then she was just going to hold on for the ride.

             She slid back onto the couch next to Nick and he pretended to yawn and stretched his arm above his head, then lowered it behind Andrea’s neck.  Andrea looked up at him and he smiled at her.  “I just got a cramp in my arm, so I need to stretch it out,” he said, trying to sound serious. 

            “Oh, a cramp, that must be painful,” Andrea responded, playing along.  She suddenly felt a pain in her heart; she and Michael used to joke around like that when they first started dating.  She had not had enough time with him, five years is not long enough, and now a bitter feeling was taking over her.  Annie saw the change in her cousin’s expression, and knew something was up.

            “Andi, are you okay?” asked Annie, trying to not let on to Nick and AJ that there was more behind that question than they could possibly know.  Andrea looked at her cousin, and then she looked up at Nick and over at AJ, and saw the concerned looks on their faces.  She would have to deal with her issues at a different time.  There was no reason to bring any of it up when this was a one-time deal and she would never be on this bus again. 

            “I’m fine.  We just haven’t eaten anything since ten o’clock this morning when we stopped at a rest stop during the drive, and I guess it just caught up with me now,” Andrea said.

            “Okay, this problem we can fix,” announced AJ, completely oblivious to the deeper issues that accompanied Andrea and Annie.  “Where do y’all want to go eat?”