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Chapter Eight

“Hey guys,” Rich asked, pulling his friends aside. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small box and opened it, “What do you think of this?”

Devin and Brad looked in the box and their eyes widened at the sight of a 1karat diamond ring that sparkled as the rays of sun bounced off of it. Brad let out a low whistle at the sight of it.

“Whatcha gonna do with that?” Devin asked.

“I’m thinking…no, I know that I’m going to propose to Adonica,” Rich replied as his band mates eyes grew wider at his idea.

“Okay, I know you like her a lot and all,” Brad told him slowly, “But dude, you’ve known her for six months. Don’t you think it’s a little soon?”

Brad and Devin saw Rich’s face fall and immediately felt bad for discouraging him and not giving him their full support, which they knew he was looking for in them. But the truth of the matter was, they did feel that he needed to take things slower and get to know the girl better before rushing into things. If anything, they felt that he should wait until at least a whole year and see where their relationship stood.

“I just want to do it before I lose the chance,” Rich replied softly, closing the box and sliding it back into his pocket.

“What are you talking about?” Devin asked, “Adonica is crazy for you. If you could see the way she looks at you the same way we do…that girl has got it bad. Trust me. She isn’t going anywhere.”

“She’s acting different lately,” Rich argued, “Almost distant. Besides, there’s something else that’s worrying me. I just want to ensure that she’ll always be mine and know that I love her. I know she loves me but…” his voice trailed off and he got a far away look in his eyes.

Devin looked at him expectantly to go on and Brad waited to hear what he was about to say next. He had a feeling as to where the conversation was headed toward. It was almost too predictable. Rich took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The thought had been bothering him for a few weeks now, an he’d tried not to make a big deal of it, but he had to let it all out now before he went crazy.

“I have this feeling that Kevin likes her,” Rich finally said, “And I’m afraid that if I don’t show her that I love her and want to take our relationship to the next step, that she will leave me for him. I want to be assured that our relationship is secure and not going to worsen”

“You must not have much faith in the girl if you think that,” Devin told his friend, “Don’t you trust her?”

Rich nodded furiously, “Of course I trust her,” he said, “And I trust Kevin. He’s a good guy. I know better than anyone that you can’t fight attraction to somebody so easily. He can’t help it…I just want to propose before he acts upon his attraction.”

Brad and Devin didn’t argue with him. They could see too that during shows, as they were watching behind the scenes, Kevin staring longingly at Adonica. There was no use trying to deny it for Riche’s sake because it was so obvious.

“Do what you want,” Devin said with a smile, “But we’d better be your damn best men.” He added with a wink.

“Of course,” Rich laughed, “I wouldn’t have anybody else. You’ve been my best friends for years now.”

“Ya know what we have to do now,” Brad said, not waiting for a reply, “Plan the best fucking bachelor party ever.”

Rich smiled at his friends, knowing that they would plan something crazy for him. He just hoped that Adonica would say yes to his proposal and make him the happiest man alive. He was sure that she would, but there was always that small chance that she would turn him down. He figured that all he could do was ask and wait to see what she said and hope for the best.

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

“What the fuck was that?” Nick asked breaking the silence that was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop.

Nobody answered, waiting to hear for sure what had happened. One of the ride operators quickly walked by and unlatched the shoulder harnesses as others frantically ran in all directions, speaking rapidly.

“Everybody, please step off of the ride,” somebody else announced, “Please step off of the ride and step away from the track to give room for those getting off of the ride.”

All thirty-two people slowly and unsurly unfastened the safety belts and crawled out of the cars. Everybody did what they were told, but curiously stayed close to the ride to find out what was happening. The empty train slowly begun to roll away and went down on a separate track that went underneath the ground.

“What’s going on?” Nick asked again, “Why’d we have to get off?” he whined.

Kevin elbowed Nick in the side telling him to shut up. Everybody waited in silence, too afraid to speak. Nobody had any clue as to what was going on, but had a feeling that it wasn’t good. The only sound was everybody’s breath coming out short and heavy and hearts pounding. Suddenly a screeching noise filled the air as somebody came on over the intercom.

“The ride seems to be experiencing technical difficulties. Please don’t be alarmed and stay calm. I repeat, the ride is experiencing difficulties. Please stay calm.”

Everybody began chatting, wanting to know exactly what had happened and what the horrible shrill noise had been. Kevin gulped, wondering why the three other trains hadn’t begun to move in yet. Fear gripped his stomach and he knew that there had been much more than just plain technical difficulties. He was going to find out. He quickly jumped down onto the track and climbed back up on the other side of it.

“Where ya going?” Nick asked, starting to follow him.

“Nick,” Kevin warned, making the mistake of saying Nick’s real name, “Stay there. I’m coming right back.”

Nick pouted a little as he watched Kevin walk into the control room. He was jealous and felt left out and like a little kid. Kevin was quickly ushered out though and Nick grinned. He could soon hear Kevin shouting though.

“We deserve to know what is going on, damnit,” he said, “Now tell me.”

“Sir, lower your voice,” a young girl said, “Please go back on over to the other side of the track.”

“Not until you tell me what’s happening,” he growled.

Nick watched in curiosity as the girl rolled her eyes and pulled Kevin down. He could hear her talking softly, but couldn’t make out what she was saying and he wanted to know. The girl released Kevin’s arm and walked back into the control room. Kevin stood still for a moment in a daze before crossing the steel track again to get back to Nick. Nick could tell that Kevin had paled a few shades and he swallowed the lump of fear that had formed in this throat. He’d never seen his friend so distraught and look so frightened before in his life. Nick looked at him with question in his eyes, silently urging Kevin to speak and inform him of the information he’d just been fed. Kevin just stared straight ahead, his eyes wide, his breath coming out shaky.

“Wha…what happened?” Nick asked, almost afraid to find out.

Kevin stood there for a moment without answering making Nick wonder if he’d even heard his question. But Kevin soon opened his mouth to speak and Nick had to listen closely just so that he could hear Kevin’s soft, quiet words coming out choked and forced.

“One of the trains de-railed,” he nearly whispered.

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

Dulcia looked at her watch and sighed, “We still have three hours before we meet everyone,” she said, “What do ya’ll want to do.”

“I dunno,” Alaura replied, “I miss Devin. I can’t wait until we spend time together this afternoon.”

Dulcia stepped back, acting wounded, “What? We’re not good enough for you anymore?”

Alaura laughed, shaking her head, “I haven’t been alone with Devin in I don’t know how long. I just really want to see him.”

“Eh, I know how you feel,” Dulcia laughed, “I miss my Bradley too. Maybe we can sneak off to some hidden place and get creative.”

Alaura and Adonica groaned loudly. Adonica’s mind soon wandered off to other things. She wondered what Rich was up to with the guys. She wondered if he had even thought about her the entire day, or if he was being attacked by hot female fans and she hadn’t even crossed his mind in all of the attention that he was receiving. It bugged Adonica at how insecure she was sometimes. She wished that for once, she could feel like she did matter to Rich, instead of always doubting him. She figured though that it was the scars that were left over from her past failed relationships which made her slightly weary of all men.

“Poor Nicky,” Dulcia laughed, changing the subject out of nowhere, “Stuck with Kevin all morning. I wonder how many historical exhibits he’s been to. Ohhh, I wonder if he was drug to Cowboys and Indians town to learn the past of the old wild west. How exciting!”

Alaura started to laugh really hard, doubling over holding her stomach. Dulcia’s sarcasm and wit had struck again at the best time. Adonica on the other hand, was less than amused. Normally, she would be laughing along with them, but this time, her heart went out to the older man. She felt like defending him, but decided to keep her mouth shut before it got her into trouble. There was no use in leading her friends to believe things that weren’t even true and accusing her of being in denial.

“Nick has the attention span of a gnat,” Dulcia then said, “He probably wandered off after a butterfly or something.”

Alaura’s laughter grew harder again as tears grew in her eyes. Adonica couldn’t help but smile this time, but felt bad for Nick always being picked on, even though she contributed to it a good bit.

“You make him sound like Ethan from Lizzie McGuire,” Alaura pointed out, “I don’t think our Nicky is that bad.”

Dulcia raised an eyebrow, “We love him to death. Hey, Adonica…maybe you two would make a good match. Ya both are blonde and well…slow.”

Adonica playfully slapped Dulcia, “Who are you to talk?” she asked, then her eyes grew wide, “What the hell is going on there?” she asked, pointing ahead of her.

Alaura and Dulcia looked at where Adonica was pointing towards and saw a huge crowd gathered around one of the rides.

“I don’t know,” Dulcia replied, “But I’m going to find out.”

The three girls ran towards the crowd to see what was happening but were too far back to see and everybody was so close together that they couldn’t squeeze through people to any closer to the front. Dulcia started jumping to try to see above everyone’s heads, but was having no luck.

“Come on, people. Some people aren’t six foot something.” She shouted, “Make a little room here.”

Just then, Howie came walking up to the girls, his eyes full of question. He looked around for a moment and then began to speak.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, “I went to get something to drink, was gone for twenty minutes, and I get back, and everyone and their extended family is gathered around.”

“We don’t know,” Dulcia answered irritably, then raised her voice, “But I wish someone would god damn tell me, or at least let me through.”

“The ride is having problems,” somebody shouted, “Looks like one of the train’s derailed, probably about eleven minutes ago.”

“Thank you, finally,” Dulcia replied, “Sucks for whoever was on that train.”

A look of panic suddenly came over Howie’s face as he looked down at his watch taking no time at all to do so. He started to shake uncontrollably when he saw the time that was staring him right in the face.

“What now?” Dulcia asked him.

“Aje and Brian were in line for that ride.” He choked out, “They were due to get on ten minutes ago.”

All three girls eyes grew wide with horror as they fought harder to get closer to the front of the crowd that was continuing to grow by the second.

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

The first of the three trains that were on the track pulled up to the unloading station to let the passengers off. Thirty-two pasty white people stepped off of the ride. As they individually pushed past those who remained at the top of the ride, Nick and Kevin scanned each face, growing more and more anxious with every second that passed.

“Where are Aje and Brian?” Kevin wondered out loud as the last of the people filed past quickly, “Why the hell aren’t they getting off of the ride?”

Anxiety grew in Kevin’s voice as his breathing grew heavier. Nick just stood there dumbfounded. No words came to his mind as he stared blankly ahead. He was literally speechless. Kevin’s question made his own come up in his head. Where were A.J. and Brian? Why hadn’t they been on the train that had just unloaded? A knot formed in his stomach. Had they been on the train that had had problems? Nick felt like he was going to be sick. More and more people on the other side of the track began going down the stairs to get to the bottom. Nick figured that they probably wanted to find a ride that wasn’t defective instead of waiting around wasting good time for one that would close for the day, or even months.

“Where are they?” Nick asked meekly, finally finding his voice for the first time, “They can’t be hurt.”

Now it was Kevin’s turn to be silent as he watched the train join the other underneath the building. He wondered if there would be another train coming up to unload and if there was, if their friends would be on it. He hoped so. He couldn’t deal with losing two of his best friends and band mates. He could hardly deal with the mere thought of it. This day of fun, their day off, was turning out to be a complete disaster. Kevin didn’t know exactly what to think. His mind was a jumble, his body frozen in one spot. He was paralyzed by fear and the thought of possibly losing two people who were extremely close to him.

A minute later, another train slowly rolled through the station and halted to a stop. Nick and Kevin took no time at all to walk straight up to the track to wait for it to unload. Again, all thirty-two people quickly jumped out of their seats and pushed to get away from the defective coaster.

“Do…do you see them?” Nick asked nervously, scanning the area over.

Kevin shook his head, “No,” he choked, “I...I don’t.”

Nick could feel himself beginning to lose all control. His knees began to buckle beneath him as he sunk lower and lower to the ground. Kevin continued to frantically look around as the people continued to unload. He thought he caught a glimpse of the two shorter Boys’, but they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared. With his heart pounding in his chest, he stood up on his toes to see if he could spot them again. He saw them again standing still in one place looking completely bewildered and in shock. He wondered what was causing them to look so distraught. Once everyone had cleared, Kevin quickly walked over to them.

“Aje,” he called, “Bri.”

The two men looked over and saw Kevin. They jumped back a little at the sight of him, but quickly started walking toward him. Nick looked up confused at all of the commotion and saw his other two best friends, He quickly picked himself up off of the ground and met the three reunited men who were all giving each other hugs. Once they finished with their hugging rounds, Kevin was the first to speak.

“Thank god you’re all right,” he gasped, “When you didn’t get off of the first train…I…I didn’t know what to think.”

“And when we didn’t see you get off of the second…”Nick’s voice trailed off.

“And when we heard that horrible noise,” A.J. began, “And looked behind us and saw the train just…soaring through the air. We thought that you were on that one. I swear, I think me and Bri both just started to bawl.”

Kevin looked around and noticed for the first time that all four of them in fact had been crying. He felt good to know that they all cared about one another that much.

“So, why weren’t you on that train?” Brian asked, “Thank god you weren’t, but.what happened?”

“Some kids pushed us out of the way,” Kevin replied, “So we had to…or were going to wait for the next ride.”

The guy’s all did another round of quick hugs when Nick pulled away, his eyes full of pain.

“What is it?” A.J. asked

“Kev,” Nick started, “We were supposed to be on that train. It was us that were suppose to be hurt…or worse.”

Kevin started to protest, but realized that Nick was right. If they’d fought for what were rightfully their seats on the ride, it would be them in the small kids places. Kevin looked at Nick and could read on his face that he was feeling extremely guilty, and as thankful as he was to be alive, he couldn’t help but feel the same.