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Chapter Five

The laughter continued to grow and Kevin could tell that the other four were joining in with the “evil” one. But the laughter wasn’t cruel anymore, but rather the kind where you think something is hilarious. Kevin was shaking so hard that he was surprised that his legs were still supporting him. He sure felt like he could have collapsed many times by now. He could feel his heart continue to race, and his anxiety kept growing with every second that crept by waiting to be done with. The waiting was the most torturous part, knowing what was coming next. Within seconds, the laughing began to die down and then completely stopped.

“I think we got him,” he barely made out somebody whispering.

Kevin jolted back in surprise, wondering what was going on. He slowly opened one eye, then another, staring at the five people in confusion. Their guns were now at their sides, pointed downward, no longer directly at him.

“Totally,” another one, a female this time, said, glancing at him, “It worked. We scared the living shit out of him.”

It took a moment for Kevin to find his voice, through all of the fear he’d undergone in the past minutes, but when he did, it came out shaky and raspy.

“Wha…what’s going…on?”

The five all looked at each other and slowly peeled their masks off revealing their faces for the first time. Kevin jumped back in shock. He was staring right into the eyes of Dulcia, Adonica, Nick, A.J. and Brad.

“Surprise,” they all yelled at once, starting to laugh again, slapping high fives with one another.

Kevin stared at his friends for the longest moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened. He could feel his heart beat starting to slow back down to its normal pace, but he could feel himself growing angrier with every second that passed, his face growing hot, his hands clenching into fists. He could even feel the vein on his neck starting to bulge out. It only did that when he was extremely mad.

“What the fuck,” he said, trying to keep his voice under control.

The group suddenly quit celebrating and looked to Kevin, their smiles dying quickly when they saw the look on his face. It was a mixture of hurt along with hatred. They realized that they hadn’t thought through very well what his reaction would be when he found out that it had been them.

“Were the rest of you in on this too?” he asked, shaking his head, afraid to hear what their answer would be.

The rest of the group sheepishly walked into the room, joining the five who had been the ones to take action and make the plan happen. They all looked at Kevin, giving him puppy dog eyes. Adonica stuck her bottom lip out in a sorry, please forgive me, pout, but he wasn’t about to develop a soft spot in his heart for any of them.

“It was payback for being over an hour late to the show,” Dulcia explained, “You work us so hard, get us up early, and then you go and have a nap and make us late. We all agreed to get you back, and we did. It was all my idea. They all just helped carry it though,” She proudly grinned.

“I don’t care what it was for,” he yelled, “I was scared out of my mind. All I could think about was the group, and you dancers. How you would cope after I was murdered. How much I hoped that you would continue as a group without me. All I thought about was all of you the whole fucking time. And Brian, you agreed to this? You of all people? I can’t believe it.”

“I’m sorry,” Brian apologized, “I didn’t want to.”

Brian got death stares from everyone else, but he figured the plan was over, so it didn’t matter what he said or did. He’d carried through and hurt someone he cared a lot about because of a stupid prank.

“But you did do it,” he said loudly, “You know what, I don’t want to speak to any of you for a very long time. This was below low and you all know it. We’ll continue the tour, but other than on stage, I want no communication with any of you guys. I won’t be here to help you out, so it’s up to you to get to the shows on time and know where we have to be and when. It’s time all of you start being more responsible and I quit fathering you.”

Kevin started to walk away, pushing past everyone, heading toward the door to get away from them all.

“We didn’t mean to…” Adonica tried.

Kevin whipped around, glaring at her, “I said I didn’t want to speak to any of you, including you Adonica.” He shouted.

He couldn’t even stand looking at her at the moment. He figured that was a good thing though. Maybe because of this, he could get over his attraction towards her once and for all. He turned around again, and quickly walked out of the room leaving all of his former friends looking dumbfounded and confused. Everyone was silent for a while, looking at one another, not knowing what to say.

Meanwhile, Adonica was trying to figure out what his comment had meant. He had said he didn’t want to speak to anyone, including her. Why would he treat her any differently in the first place? What made her so special that he would give her better treatment over the whole situation?

“Wow,” Nick stated, running a hand through his blonde hair, “I think we really screwed up.”

Everyone slowly nodded in agreement. Nick had said something that made since and was right.

“I didn’t think he would react that badly,” Alaura said, “ I feel really bad now. He won’t even give us a chance to explain.”

“I guess we’ll just have to give him the time and space that he needs until he gets over it and forgives us.” Rich stated, knowing that the rest of the tour would be hell until he did.

“IF he forgives us,” Adonica stated, biting her bottom lip nervously, “Kevin can hold grudges for long periods of time.”

Nobody argued with her point. Last time somebody had done something to piss him off, he wouldn’t speak to them in over a month. It wasn’t until the guy had been in a live or death situation that Kevin had saved him from that they were on speaking terms once again.

Brian gave everyone a look that said he was very angry and wanted to speak his mind, but was debating weather or not he should. Nobody still said a word and the silence was getting to him

“I can’t believe I let you fucking talk me into this,” Brian said, almost yelling, “It’s going to take a miracle to get my cousin to talk to me again. I thought that ya’ll were my friends. I’m outta here.”

With that, Brian briskly walked out of the room, not even turning back to give them a second glance. The room was quiet once more. Everybody was uncomfortable, the reality of how cruel the joke really had been.

“Oh my god,” Dulcia exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood, “Did we just get to hear Brian cuss. That’ll happen once in a lifetime.”

Nobody laughed at her, and continued to just stand there. One by one, the group started to leave the room, not saying a word to anybody as they walked out, feeling bad for what they had done. Dulcia was the last to remain in the room. She looked around, realizing that she’d been left alone. Her shoulders slumped as she looked guiltily to the ground. Operation Payback had failed, and it was her fault that the group wasn’t speaking since it had been her idea in the first place.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kevin sat in his hotel room, wondering where he’d gone wrong that the group would go behind his back and plan something like that. He was so mad at them all that he’d gotten his own room, moving his things out of the old one that he and Howie shared. He couldn’t believe that Adonica, the girl that he had been crazy for, would even agree to take part in something so cruel. And she’d been a part of the action. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to look at her in the same way again. He knew that for a while, all he would see was someone who he’d thought was a good friend who’d never hurt him in any way, but had.

“Don’t know who anyone really is anymore,” he muttered unkindly to himself, letting himself fall freely onto the bed. He was so mad at everyone, her especially, but in the back of his mind, he knew that Adonica was still the sweet, beautiful girl that he wanted to be with but couldn’t have.

Kevin wished that his friends hadn’t done something so mean to pay him back. He wished that it had only been everyone being late for a show, or locking him out of the dressing room in his underwear, like they’d done to Nick many years before. But the thing that they’d chosen to do was crueler than any prank that and of them ever been played on anyone. It was even cruel for someone like Nick, who was the king of doing stupid stuff. He had a feeling that Dulcia had put Brian up to participating. He knew that his cousin would never willingly agree to anything like that unless he was feeling pressured. Now though, he wanted nothing to do with any of them, including Brian, because he had agreed to it. It would be hard, but he was determined to try and avoid all of them, speaking to them only when it was absolutely necessary at shows, and even then, he would try to ignore them. Kevin wished that he could do something to show them how practical jokes like that aren’t funny because they are dangerous and there was a chance that something could have gone wrong and he really could have been hurt in the process of it. Or if he had yelled for help, all of them could have ended up in prison, weather it had been a joke or not. The hard part would be finding a way to show them and prove his point, getting it through their thick skulls.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Kevin, the set up crew wants to know where we should put the new amp,” A.J. said, pointing towards the stage, “It’s about twice as big as the old one and they’re having a hard time figuring out how to fit it in.”

Kevin shrugged, without even giving A.J. a glance and walked away, making A.J. know that it was up to him and the rest of them to figure it out.

It was almost a week after the whole prank had taken place and Kevin hadn’t spoken a word to any of them. The Boys knew that it was serious because he normally couldn’t lay his eyes off of Adonica. In the past week, he hadn’t so much as given her one sideways glance. His performance was better than it had been in weeks, as if he were giving it his all once again. It was also as if he were trying to make the rest of them look worse, but the Boys didn’t know if that thought was crazy or not. He’d insisted on continuing the tour despite his broken arm, which relieved the guys. But the silence between them all was enough to kill. The only time that Kevin did talk to any of them was when they were on the stage in front of the audience, when it was inevitable. But even then, his tone was cool and full of disliking, his words forced. They all knew that the fans were catching on to his actions, but nothing had been said or brought up about any of it.

“Kevin,” A.J. yelled after him, “You can’t ignore us all forever. We all have business matters to discuss. How will we do that with you giving us the cold shoulder?”

Kevin continued to walk away and disappeared behind a door, leaving A.J looking confused and dumbfounded by his hatred. In all the years they’d known him, Kevin had never been so hateful to any of them, for any reason.

“Still not talking to you either,”

Startled, A.J. looked up and saw Nick standing next to him. He shook his head, wondering what he could do to get the oldest member to talk to anybody again. So far, he had come up with no ideas.

“I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed to Dulcia’s idea,” A.J. remarked, “I guess I thought it sounded like it would be fun at the time.”

“So did the rest of us,” Nick reminded him, “I never knew how much he helped out until now and how much I need him. I never know what’s going on any more.”

“Nick, you never knew what was going on,” A.J. joked with a laugh.

Nick was about to protest, but then realized that A.J. was right, so instead said, “I need him there to put me back on the right track when I am about to mess something up,” Nick sighed, “I can’t tell you how much I’ve screwed up since he’s been giving us the quiet treatment. Nothing is the same any more.”

A.J. watched as Kevin came back though the door he’d disappeard into and walked across the stage to tell the set up crew something. He agreed with Nick. Nothing was the same, and he too had messed up a few times.

“It’s only been about a week,” A.J. said, trying to sound confident, but not quite pulling it off, “Give him time. He’ll come around…I hope.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Adonica sighed as she packed her suitcase, getting ready leave the hotel for their next destination. She was deep in thought, thinking about how much things had chanced in the past week. As she folded her silk nightgown, she heard a knock on the door, causing her to jump, distracting her from her train of thought. She finished folding the nightgown before walking over to the door. She opened it and Rich was standing in the doorway, his hands behind his back.

“Hi baby,” he greeted, leaning in to kiss her. She willingly let herself melt into the kiss, taking in the sweet smell of his cologne.

“Hi honey,” she said softly, “What are you doing here?”

“I miss you,” he pouted, sticking out his bottom lip to prove his point, “Tell me again why we can’t share a room anymore like we always did?”

Adonica sighed, knowing just how he felt. Alaura and Dulcia weren’t happy with the new rooming arrangements either, nor were their boyfriends.

“Kevin’s rule. He says that if we aren’t mature enough to respect him, then we aren’t mature enough to live with our mate.”

She shook her head in disgust. All six of them had tried to sneak and room with their significant other, but Kevin had quickly caught on when he’d needed to ask Devin a question, but had gotten Brad’s voice instead on day one. Ever since then, he was making all three girls share a room and all three guys share a room, and checked several times a night to make sure they were obeying him.

“Who does he think he is anyways,” Adonica grunted, “I mean, jeez. He isn’t my keeper or my boss…or any of us for that matter.”

“Because everyone looks up to him because he’s older,” Rich reminded her, “He’s respected and has more say over what happens to us than the other guys. What he says goes. He’s kind of taken position of head of the group.”

Adonica had to admit that he was right. Kevin did have a lot of authority. But it didn’t mean that he had to act like an old geezer over it. She felt that he was being immature ignoring all of them for so long and it was a double standard of him to criticize them for acting like children.

“So, whatcha hiding behind your back?” Adonica asked, trying to get a small peek. He backed up and smiled a little, “What is it?”

“Just a little something I got you because I missed you so badly,” Rich grinned, as if he’d done something extra special. He pulled his arms from behind his back revealing a medium sized teddy bear. It was kind of scruffy looking. Adonica had seen the kind in gift shops and knew that they were not cheap. He handed it over to her, and she felt like she could start to cry at any given moment.

“Oh Rich,” she breathed, taking it and hugging it close to her, burying her face into its soft fur, “It’s adorable. I love it. Thank you.”

She opened the door wider, and invited him inside, shutting the door behind him. She wrapped one arm around him as she kissed him tenderly on the lips.

“Squeeze its stomach,” Rich instructed.

Adonica looked at him cautiously, doing as instructed. She jumped a little when Rich’s voice came from the stuffed animal.

I love you Adonica. It exclaimed.

“Oh my god. That’s so sweet,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes, “How did I ever find someone so considerate?”

Rich blushed a little, and shrugged, “I hoped that it would make you feel better because of everything that has been happening lately. I know how that it’s been stressing you out a little.”

“It does make me feel better,” Adonica smiled, “Thanks baby. So are you about ready to get out of here?”

She set the teddy bear beside her suitcase delicately, and continued packing the last few things into it which she’d collected from the bathroom.

Rich nodded, “I’m all packed up. The only thing missing is you.” He sighed, “Damn Kevin. I’m not going to blame Dulcia because we all agreed. We’re all at fault. He needs to realize that it was a harmless joke and that we would never really hurt him over anything.”

“I don’t think he does know that,” Adonica pointed out, “I think that he thinks that if it had been real…I don’t know.” She shook her head in confusion, closing the suitcase and latching it shut, “If this continues for too much longer, I think I might look for another job elsewhere. I can’t take the silence.”

Rich looked at her in horror, “You can’t quit and leave me.”

Adonica laughed, “I’ll wait until the tour is over. Maybe I’ll even join your tour next year and follow you.”

Rich smiled at her, “I would love that more than anything. I love you Adonica.”

“I love you too Rich,” she said.

She leaned up to kiss him but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Hold that thought,” she whispered.

Running to answer it, she flung it open and saw Kevin standing there. His eyes looked past her, past Rich, his tone still icy.

“Just making sure you’re ready to leave,” he informed her in monotone, knowing that he was going against his own promise, but having to see Adonica, even though he was still irate with her.

“Yep. Just finished,” she said, trying to sound happy.

Kevin started to walk away but Adonica stopped him.

“Please forgive me,” she begged, “Don’t ignore me, or any of us any more. You’ve made your point crystal clear.”

She was surprised when he didn’t cut her off, and had some hope that he had considered her words, but his response shocked her.

“I still don’t want to speak to you,” he said, without turning around, “You’re lucky I came to tell you we need to leave. In the rare occasions I do speak to you, don’t say anything back. Just listen.”

He briskly walked away, not giving her a chance to talk again. Tears stung her eyes as she slammed the door shut. She turned around to face Rich. He comfortingly took her in his arms and held her as she cried. She felt as if she’d lost one of her best friends because of a small mistake that was supposed to be taken lightly and didn’t know if she could ever get their friendship back.