Chapter 10
The doorbell rang. The girls had already been sent to their
bedrooms and told to stay there until they were called for. I had just
finished a shower and had gotten dressed only a minute before the guys
arrived.
"Hi Nick!" I said. He threw his arms around me in a hug. It felt
really good to have him there.
"Hi to you too! How have you been?"
"I only spoke to you this morning." I laughed. "I don't think
much had changed since then!" I pushed him to one side and saw Brian
there. He also gave me a hug, not to be out done by Nick.
"Hi Fiachra! Long time no see! Love the single by the way!"
"Yeah!" Said AJ. "We all went out to buy copies. Hope we
helped you get a number one somewhere!"
"Hi Fiachra." Said Kevin, squeezing me tightly. "How have
things been?"
"Great! You lot don't know what you've done for me!" I said.
"Hi Howie." I said. Of the group, he was the one that I had
spoken to least so I didn't really know him as well as I knew the others.
He hung at the back of the group awkwardly, but I gave him a hug as
well.
"Hey Fiachra. AJ's already said it, but great single!"
"Thanks, it means a lot that you lot like it." I said. "Come on,
let's get your stuff in here before someone tries to steal it!" I cast a
meaningful look at Nick, who grinned innocently at me.
"Come on. You have to meet the people who're putting you up
for the night." I brought them into the sitting room to introduce them to
my parents.
"Mum, Dad, this is Nick, - pointing at each of them - Brian,
Howie, AJ, and Kevin, who you already know."
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Said my father, my mother
echoed his sentiments and then added."
"AJ... is that what your mother calls you?"
He grinned. "No Ma'am. She calls me Alex."
"Then that's what you'll be called around here. And don't call
me Ma'am, my name is Una, and my husbands Conor." My phone
buzzed in my pocket. I guess that it was Helen. She had probably seen
the limo pulling away past her house.
"Hello."
"Hi Fiachra! So, planning anything for tonight?"
"Oh, I dunno, I might be going out with some friends. Why?" I
asked, knowing fully what she was playing at.
"I just thought that you might be at a loose end."
"Helen, just come over. You know you want to." I said, ending
the charade.
"If you're sure it's not too much of an imposition..."
"Quit messing! The sooner you hang up the sooner that you can
be in our sitting room!"
"Good point. I should be there soon!" She hung up.
"Helen?" Said my mother. It was more of a statement then a
question.
"You know it." Then I addressed the guys, who had been
introduced to my sisters. I decided to rescue them.
"Do you want to put your bags in your rooms?"
"Sure. Which way?" Asked Kevin, taking charge of the 5 of
them.
"Just out the same door you came in and up the stairs." I led
them to their rooms. Nick, Brian and Howie were sharing the bigger
guestroom and Kevin and AJ shared the other one. I showed them where
the bathrooms were. The bigger room had an en-suite but the other
didn't.
"This place is huge Fiachra! How many bedrooms are there?"
Asked Brian.
"There are nine. When we bought the house it needed a lot of
work and we got it cheaply. But I think it was worth it, don't you?"
"Yeah. I can't believe that you've got this much space this far
into the city. Which one's your room?"
"Just in here." I said, opening the door behind my back,
revealing my private domain.
"Wow! If I'd had this when I was 17..." He trailed off. I didn't
really see what was so great about my room. Sure, it was big. I had
enough space for a sofa across the room from my double bed. With
enough left over for a desk, with my computer and TV, and shelves lined
with books.
I heard the doorbell ring. Helen must have forgotten her keys in
the excitement of getting over here. I looked over the banister, and
seeing that Fiona was going to the door, dawdled down the stairs. Fiona
opened the door and then gasped. She opened the door further to reveal
Helen in her glory. She had straightened her hair and it was silkily
flowing down her shoulders. She had delicately applied make up and her
face looked extraordinarily beautiful. She had on a low-cut purple dress
that made no attempts to conceal her amazing figure. She was stunning.
She looked up at me expectantly. "Well, what do you think?"
I gaped at her for a moment before I regained my composure.
"Helen... I don't think that words would do." I said. "You look.
amazing." Fiona retreated to the sitting room, trying to control the envy.
"Come on up, they're in the two guestrooms." Brian came around the
corner upstairs and looked down to see who I was talking to. His mouth
dropped down and he stopped walking, just staring down.
"Brian." I joked. "Don't you know that it's rude to stare?"
He glanced over to me and then blushed. "I'm so sorry. I
presume that you're Helen?"
"That's right." She said, making her way up the stairs to meet
him. "And you're Brian."
"How did you know?" He asked, a moment before his brain
caught up with his mouth. "Oh, yeah, right."
She smiled sweetly at him. "Helen!" I called up the stairs. "Are
you staying here tonight?"
She turned to me. "Only if you want me to."
I sighed exasperatedly. "Whatever. You can decide when we
get back."
Meanwhile...
Nick closed the door behind him and looked up and down the
hallway. To his left he saw Brian leaving a room further up the hall, past
the stairs. Smiling at his best friend he started to walk towards him when
he saw Brian look downstairs at someone and then he stopped walking
towards him. He actually saw Brian's jaw hang open! Until then he'd
thought that it only happened in movies. Brian forgot completely about
Nick.
Fiachra's voice floated up the stairs towards Nick. "Brian." He
said. "Don't you know that it's rude to stare?"
Brian was eyeing up Fiachra? That's not right! Brian's married!
Nick dismissed the thought as quickly as it had come. Then Brian spoke.
-
"I'm so sorry. I presume that you're Helen?" Helen! Thought
Nick. He'd heard Fiachra mention her a couple of times and he knew
that she'd been in the background for a couple of their phone
conversations. He heard her sensuous voice come up the stairs, getting
nearer all the time.
"That's right." She said. "And you're Brian." Nick listened as
Brian went down a couple of steps to meet Helen and heard him make a
fool of himself. Then Fiachra asked Helen if she was going to stay the
night. And she said only if he wanted her to! Nick was livid. Fiachra had
never mentioned a girlfriend! And especially one that he was sleeping
with! Nick retreated back into the room that Fiachra had put him into,
not wanting to speak to anyone. Fortunately, Howie had decided to take
a shower.
Back to Fiachra...
Kevin, Howie, Brian, AJ, Helen and I were all seating
downstairs in the den waiting for Nick.
"Will I go up and see what's keeping him waiting?" I asked.
"No." Sighed Brian. "I'd better." Brian got up and left to see to
Nick.
Upstairs...
Brian knocked on the door and waited for Nick to answer it.
Eventually Nick came to the door and opened it.
"Hi." Said Nick, who had gotten dressed for going out, and
then had just moped around the room without really knowing why.
"Are you coming out with us?"
"I guess."
"What's wrong?" Asked Brian. Nick had seemed so excited on
the way here, he was the one who'd been pushing for it, but now he just
looked dour.
"Nothing really. Are we going?" Said Nick, pushing Brian out
the door and then closing it behind him. Nick didn't know what to do
about the feelings that he had inside. He was confused and scared by
them. He knew better then to try to cover them up to Brian, but did
anyway.
Brian saw straight through Nick but decided that maybe a night
on the town might cheer him up so he left him be. "They're all waiting
downstairs, come on!" When they got to the den Brian pushed Nick in
before him. Everyone inside burst out in applause.
Nick looked over to Fiachra with a look that almost amounted
to one of betrayal. Both Helen and Brian saw it and they both saw the
way that Nick looked at Helen as well.
He could see why Fiachra would want to go out with Helen;
she was beautiful in every sense of the word. She captured the audience
with one look and seemed to occupy all of Fiachra's attention. Nick
hated her for it. How dare she! What did she really think that she had to
offer besides looks? Nick realised what he was thinking and was scared
by it again. He covered by leaning down to kiss Helen's hand, but his
best friend could see through that too.
Was Nick gay? Brian asked himself. Nick had never said
anything to him, but from the looks that he was giving Fiachra and
Helen... did he think that they were going out?
Kevin took charge again and pushed everyone out the door to
the waiting limo. First they were going out for a meal, followed by as
much partying as they could possibly fit into one night.
And back to Fiachra again...
The journey to the restaurant was spent laughing and joking
about things that had happened to the Backstreet Boys over the years,
and especially in the last year.
"And last year, you should have seen it! We were here for the
MTV Europe Music Awards and afterwards." Kevin was cracking up
over this, which left us waiting for an ending. "Afterwards, this fan, oh
god! She'd gone to all this trouble to meet us and had sneaked into the
press conference, only, - for some reason Helen was going red - when
she got in there she leaned over the cameras at the back and tipped one
over, which fell onto the next, and by the time security had gotten to her,
all the fucking cameras in the whole place had fallen, taking a load of
reporters with her!" The others were bent double laughing as they
remembered it.
"It wasn't my fault!" Burst Helen out. "With all those cables it
was an accident waiting to happen!" The guys slowly stopped laughing
as they realised what she was saying.
"It was you?" Gasped Brian, still out of breath from laughing.
"Just shut up, ok?" She sulked. Helen hadn't even told me that
story so she must have been fairly embarrassed by it.
We pulled over to the side of the rood and stopped. The driver
came around to the door and opened it before Kevin could open it from
the inside.
"Thank you." Said Kevin uncomfortably. I could tell that he
didn't really like people waiting on him. "I don't know how we'll be, but
it's going to be more then an hour so if you want to go off..."
"Thank you Sir, but I'll be perfectly comfortable right here."
"Ok then. Come on people! Let's get inside, shall we?"
Commanded Kevin. He went in first followed by the rest of us. Nick
trailed behind.
Dinner went smoothly enough, I suppose. The restaurant was
lovely, as was the food, and they put us at a very secluded table towards
the back. But during the entire meal Nick refused to make eye contact
with me. It wasn't that he wouldn't talk to me, but he would always be
looking at his plate or something else, like a picture on the wall. I knew
that the others noticed it too, those that had spent eight years in his
company, and I could clearly see the worry in Brian's eyes.
After dinner, at a nightclub, he avoided me as much as possible,
always finding an excuse to be elsewhere to where I was.
Brian and Helen were sitting in a booth to the side, talking.
"Can I trust you Helen?"
The question surprised her. "I don't know. I know I can be
trusted, but I don't know if you could trust me."
He grinned at her answer, but the smile was fleeting. "I'm
going to."
"Ok then. What about?"
Brian ignored her question and asked her one instead. "Have
you noticed what's been going on between Fiachra and Nick tonight?"
"Yeah, they've been avoiding each other." Helen said
diplomatically.
"Bullshit. Nick's been avoiding Fiachra." Replied Brian.
"Ok then." Helen was surprised by the vehemence behind Brian
cursing.
"And I want to figure out why." He said.
"Ok. I thought it was Nick's idea to come over?"
"It was! That's what's got me so confused! He even gave
Fiachra a bear hug as soon as he saw him!" Answered Brian.
"So if it was something that happened between them then it had
to happen between then and when Nick came into the sitting room. Were
they alone together at all?" Helen suspected Fiachra's crush on Nick, but
didn't think that he'd do anything to jeopardise their friendship.
"I don't think so. There wasn't the time." Brian didn't know
that Nick was gay, but Brian had been watching him closely recently,
and whenever someone had mentioned Fiachra's name he seemed to
perk up. And some of the looks that Nick had been giving Fiachra... But
he didn't think that Nick would do anything to risk ruining his friendship
with Fiachra either. Suddenly it came to Brian! The time in the hall
when he'd seen Helen and Nick was there, but what could have been
gleaned from that conversation? Holy Shit! It suddenly stuck Brian.
"You said that you were sleeping at Fiachra's house tonight?"
"Yeah."
"Where do you sleep?"
"Oh, I've got my own room!"
"You've got your own room?! In someone else's house?"
Exclaimed Brian.
"Yeah, I know it's a bit strange, but when I was younger my
parents had to go away a lot for work, and it suited to be able to stay
with Fiachra's family whenever, and you've seen how big the house is.
It's been mine since then." Relieved, Brian went onto explain what he
thought was going on in Nick's head. He even said that he thought that
Nick was gay.
Helen was shocked by his bluntness and said so. She also said
that she thought Fiachra had something for Nick too.
"All that remains is to get them together." Said Brian.
"Are you sure that you want to mess with them like that? What
if we're wrong?"
"Then Nick's going to ruin what ever they've got now! Look at
him!" Helen glanced around the dance floor and saw Nick moving away
when Fiachra was coming towards where he was. She knew Fiachra well
enough to see that he was getting very annoyed.
So they formulated a simple plan, both were going to confront
their best friends and get them to admit to what was going on. After
that... they'd see.
-----------------------------
"Howie, could leave us alone please?" Howie knew that Brian
meant business and left to go visit the other two. Brian held the door
open for him and the closed it firmly behind him.
"What's going on Nick?" He asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Cut out the fucking crap! You know what I'm talking about!"
Said Brian angrily.
"I dunno Frick. I'm just so confused..."
Brian softened his tone. "Do you think that Helen is Fiachra's
girlfriend?" Nick nodded his head.
"She's not. They're only friends." And before Nick could ask
he continued. "She's got her own room in the house." Brian let it sink in
and then asked. "Are you gay Nick?"
Nick choked back a sob. "I don't know." Brian pulled him into
a hug.
"You *like* Fiachra, don't you?"
Nick nodded shakily. "Do you hate me?" He asked.
"What?! No! Nothing could make me hate you Frack. Nothing.
You remember that."
"But I'm gay."
"So? Listen Nick. Just because you're gay doesn't mean that
you're a bad person! It's only a part of what you are. You are one of the
most incredible people in the world, and don't you let anyone tell you
anything else."
"Thanks Frick."
"Shh." Brian kept Nick in his arms until he fell asleep. That
was the way that Howie found them, both asleep, when he came in an
hour later.
-----------------------------
"Fiachra?" Came Helen's voice from outside the door.
"Yeah? Come in." I was topless, but she'd seen me naked more
then once so I didn't really think about it.
"What the hell was going on tonight between you and Nick?"
"I wish I knew. He was fine when he came over this afternoon,
and then."
"Do you want him?" She asked bluntly.
"What? Helen!" I choked.
"Well? I'm waiting for an answer here!" She demanded.
"Well... Yeah, I guess."
"Ok." She left the room as quickly as she'd come in. I blinked,
wondering if I'd imagined the whole thing. I dismissed it, crawling into
bed, knowing that I was going to have a headache the next morning.
Chapter 11
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