Chapter 3
Kim was awoken by Ash’s phone continually ringing.
“God dam!” she muttered. “That boy would sleep through the end of the world.”
She dragged herself out of her bunk, gabbed Ash’s phone of the ledge and threw it at him. It landed on his chest causing him to jump out of his sleep and bang his head on the roof of the bus.
“What the f!” he grumbled as it started ringing again.
Kim walked into the next part of the bus and flicked the kettle on, she giggled to herself as she replayed what had just happened in her head. She checked the time on her phone it was a little after 8.30am, as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes she checked her reflection in the mirror.
‘Dam’ she thought. ‘3 hours sleep really doesn’t look good on me, this is gunna take a lot of cover up!’
They had worked pretty much all night setting stuff up in the arena, thanks to the surprise rehearsal. Ash shortly appeared at the door way looking a little worse for wear.
“That was Al; the delivery will be here in within the hour, so it’s all systems go again.” He chuckled.
“How ya feelin?” He asked looking into Kim’s blood shot eyes.
“Could of done with another 10 hours sleep,” she jested “but I’m ok really, apart from some achy arms” she rolled her eyes at Ash.
“Get use to it matey.” he winked at her.
Kim began making them both coffees as she asked “So what’s the plan for today?”
Ash grunted “Well it’ll be another couple of hours before delivery arrives and is unloaded, the boys will be in for their rehearsal around 9.30-10am but I’ve explained to their manager we’re just gunna have to work around them. She seemed pretty cool about it though.”
“Super” Kim muttered.
“Awwwww is someone a little grumpy because she’s tired?” Ash mocked Kim as he patted her head.
Kim just glared at him too tired to retaliate.
“Don’t worry about today, it’ll be an easy one. We should be finished by about 2pm so you’ll have the rest of the day to chill out n sleep. Thanks to the early set up you’ll get most of tomorrow off too, we just have to be here for the last run through which is 2 till 4. Easy!” He laughed. “Lovely” Kim sighed. “I’m gunna go freshen up then I’ll be good to start all over again” She muttered as she gulped down the last of her coffee.
“Cool I just gotta make a few calls then I’m gunna do the same, oh I forgot to tell you your work T-shirts have arrived. I’ll leave them on your bunk for you.” Ash shouted after Kim as she made her way to the shower.
Kim was half way up a ladder adjusting some leads as the Backstreet Boys arrived inside the arena, she hadn’t noticed them talking to Al underneath her. She was trying her best to tear off a bit of duct tape with one hand as she held onto the ladder for dear life with the other. She was getting annoyed with it now and her temper was getting the better of her when it slipped out of her hand. She looked down to see it falling to the floor, she noticed the 6 men standing right next to her ladder, she instantly yelled out
“WATCH YOUR HEADS!”
Everyone looked up at her, with that AJ stretched his hand out to catch the falling tape. He caught it with one hand and looked quite pleased with himself for his quick responses.
Kim held a hand up and yelled down
“SORRY!”
she smiled broadly, hoping she wouldn’t get into trouble for nearly knocking them out.
Al glared up at Kim and tutted as he began faffing around the boys apologising.
“Hey don’t worry about it, better luck next time.” Brian shouted up.
“Dude!” AJ responded back to his friend looking like a scolded puppy.
Kim was laughing at AJ’s sad face as Howie joked “Come on like that would have knocked any sense into you anyway.”
“What’s this lets pick on AJ day?” he retaliated.
Kim was laughing so much she hadn’t noticed Nick just standing there, staring at her, totally oblivious to the goings on around him.
AJ looked back up the ladder and shouted “Do you still need this?”
“Oh, yeah” Kim shouted back “but you can just leave it on the chair there and I’ll come down for it in a minute.”
Before Kim had even finished AJ had whipped his jacket off and was clambering up the ladders to her. He was going rather fast causing the ladders the shake a little Kim grabbed on with both hands to steady herself.
As AJ reached Kim he handed her the roll of tape and said in his best English accent,
“There you go my dear.”
Kim smiled. He was only a step or 2 down from her so they were pretty close. She was immediately entranced by his eyes; they were like magnets drawing her deep into his soul.
“Errr Thank you.” Kim suddenly remembered to speak again as she shot out of her daze.
AJ took hold of her hand and gently kissed the back of it as he said
“You’re very welcome.”
He gave her a cheeky grin and with that he flew back down the ladders jumping off the last few steps.
“You’re a real smooth operator.” Howie teased him as he hit the floor.
Brian shook his head as he dropped it into his hands.
Their manager then called them from the stage to get a move on. AJ took a last look up the ladder and winked, as they walked off Brian saluted up to Kim and Howie waved. She waved back trying to contain her school girl giggles,
she then she noticed Nick who was still just standing there staring at her. She looked down at him and admired the blueness of his eyes. His hair was quite short now she remembered as a kid how much she loved his bright blonde curtains, but wow he was even cuter now. She was beginning to feel a little awkward and wondered why was he staring at her like that? Was he waiting for her to apologise specially to him for dropping the tape?
“NICK!” a loud voice yelled to him from further down the aisle, it was Brian. “Come on man, what are you doing?”
Nick jolted back to reality he kinda looked like he’d had a memory relapse and forgotten where he was. He quickly blinked a few times and headed towards the stage, as he got half way he turned around and looked back up to the ladder he reached Brian who suddenly pounced on him and got him in a head lock. Brian must have been asking him what he was doing but it was out of hearing range for Kim to understand what was being said.
‘How weird’ Kim thought to herself, ‘what the hell was that all about?’
Kim was feeling a little freaked out but she shook it off she needed to hurry up and finish off so she could get back to bed.
Kim carried on with her work but kept an eye on what was going on, on the stage. Every now and then she’d laugh to herself at the guy’s messing around, they were really funny and she was shocked at how good they sounded live, even though they were mostly messing around singing different words.
Although Kim had liked them when she was younger she’d never got the chance to go to one of their shows, but hey, she’d be making up for it now, hell she get to see them pretty much every night for the next few months.
As Kim taped down the last few leads Ash appeared.
“Hey stranger” she said when she saw him.
“Hey to you to,” he smiled back “You nearly done? I think it’s about time we had a break.”
“Yep all finished.” she responded. She kinda wished she had some more to do so she could watch the boys for a bit longer, but hey a coffee and a doughnut were a good substitute for her.
Outside the sun was shining down on Kim as she sat on her box chatting away to Ash.
It was winter time so the air was pretty cold and her grey hoodie wasn’t keeping her as warm as she’d like.
Ash’s phone began to ring again. It was his ex girlfriend. They’d split up nearly 4 months ago but she couldn’t let go and rang him at least twice a day. Ash rolled his eyes as he saw the caller ID flash up.
“I best take this else I’ll end up with 100 missed calls and messages.” He sighed. “You want me to grab you a coat from the bus you look a bit cold?”
“Yes please.” Kim quickly answered before he headed off.
Kim sat there with her arms wrapped around herself, bouncing her knees up and down trying to generate some warmth. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her IPod for entertainment. She flicked through her song lists and came across some power ballads. That’ll do me, she said to herself nothing like some 80’s rock to cheer you up.
She chuckled as she put the earphones in and turned up the volume. As she bopped her head along to the music she tried to light her cigarette but was having no luck with her lighter as the flint had gone.
Suddenly a flame appeared before he face, she jolted back from the shock nearly falling off the box, and looked up to see AJ standing in front of her.
“Need a light English?” he enquired.
Kim smiled and leaned in to light the cigarette. “
Cheers” she said as she blew out the smoke.
AJ walked around the back of her and grabbed a box. “Mind if I join you?” he asked as he sat next to her.
She laughed “Not at all, make yourself at home.”
“Nice spot you got here” he playfully said. “So you managing to stay out of trouble, English?”
Kim giggled “Yeah, for now” She sat there trying to act chilled out and cool but inside she wanted to burst. She couldn’t believe she was sitting next to a Backstreet boy, let alone beginning a conversation with one, who had appeared to have designated a nick name to her.
The pair sat there for about 10 minutes chatting about the tour and Kim explained how she’d ended up with the job. She was pleasantly surprised at how easy AJ was to talk to, it was just like she was talking to Ash. It probably helped that AJ had his glasses on so she couldn’t be sucked in by those eyes again.
“Cool so we get hang for a while then.” AJ grinned.
‘Wow is this for real’ she thought ‘I doubt we’ll hang but it’s nice of him to say it anyway’ her thoughts continued.
Nick suddenly appeared at the doorway. “AJ” he shouted over. “We gotta get started again, hurry up!”
“Yeah I’ll be done in a minute, Hey come over n say Hi.” He yelled back.
Kim watched as Nick headed towards her, she took a deep breath and kept repeating to herself
‘Be cool, stay calm and for God’s sake don’t embarrass yourself.’
“Hey” Nick said as he reached the two of them.
Kim swallowed hard and managed a “Hey” back to him. She pulled her gaze away from him before it was obvious she was staring, but he was so cute. He was wearing grey sweat pants and a white T-shirt. He’d obviously been working out before the tour his arms were very toned.
“So your working on the tour?” Nick asked finally breaking the silence.
Kim was about to answer when AJ interrupted to give Nick a general overview of Kim’s story about how she got the job.
“Pretty cool ay?” AJ questioned Nick.
Nick nodded before saying “Yeah cool.” His answers very quite blunt like he didn’t want to talk or felt uncomfortable. He turned to AJ “Dude we gotta go man else Jenn will beat us.”
“Alright, alright, we’ll catch ya later then English.” AJ said as he got up from his box.
“Yeah, have fun.” Kim smiled at the two of them, looking at Nick she softly said.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, like wise.” Nick responded and flashed a mouth full of pearly whites at Kim.
She felt like she was about 12 again, her heart began to race and she could feel her cheeks getting warmer.
Nick and AJ headed back inside just as Ash returned with Kim’s jacket. He jokingly chucked it at her so it landed on her face.
“Looks like you’ve warmed up” He teased her. “Now don’t go getting all groupie on me Mrs.”
Kim pulled a face at him “As if” she answered and began to laugh.
“Yeah!, Well I got my eye on you; I’ve seen your type before.” He jested.
Ash sat on AJ’s box and began telling Kim about his phone call. She tried hard to concentrate on what he was saying but she couldn’t get Nick out of her head. She just couldn’t work him out. He was all weird by the ladder then seemed a bit reluctant to make conversation, but he seemed really nice when he said bye, and he defiantly looked nice, she knew that for sure. Oh and that smile Wow!
She continued to get lost in her thoughts, she defiantly understood now how and why girls go so crazy for them, and they were all so sweet and talented.
Ash’s voice suddenly came back into her head as he said,
“A few of us are gunna go get a few beers after we’ve freshened up you in?”
“Hell yeah!” Kim chortled. “Just what I need, Let’s get outta here and have some fun.”
Chapter End Notes:
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