The surroundings just agreed with it. The room was already evenly lighted by the sun and steam was ruling in its spirit.
Her room is as blank as the rest of the house is. Only a bed, a dresser, a closet and a magazine rack made her room with a series of nine 11x5 rectangular framed paintings across the wall against the window.
She then went to the rest room to fix herself and after doing so, she stood in the middle of the house and she intuited that she was alone at her home.
She tapped Franco's door to his room that's right beside hers which was slightly opened - his room was in topsy turvy again making her think Franco rushed his way to somewhere else. She hurriedly went back to her room and then decided to change clothes from sleep wear to her favorite yellow cotton shirt and brown shorts upon hearing her stomach angrily growled.
On her way to the kitchen, she noticed that her answering machine's light was blinking two times and then she rushed to the answering machine to check them out. She then pressed the machine and after the first tone ...
"Hey Franco! Wake up man! It's me, Nick. She just won't step out of my mind. She hit me hard last night, man ... do you know what I mean? ... well, I can't talk that long in your machine so just drop by here at the hotel. I want to ask a favor from you ... well, not exactly about you but please drop by. Thanks"
Kathy was shocked to hear every thing saying to herself "What's going on?". She came into the thought that Nick was referring to her.
after the second tone...
"Kathy, I am at Shangri-La ... ah, listen. I've just been invited by the Backstreet to be with them in their rehearsals ... you're not going to wait for me to appear on TV because I'm not going to. Instead you're going to expect me to be back there to pull off some things important that I didn't have with me like my cell phone ... blah, blah. So I guess that's it"
The machine rewind as the last word of a familiar voice --- Franco. It seems that he's got himself involve that much this time, Kathy thought.
She then walked back to the kitchen to check out the refrigerator. The refrigerator made her day worse as she found no eggs. She forgot to drop by the grocery Friday afternoon. All she found useful for the breakfast was a bottle of full cream milk. She pulled the bottle off the refrigerator door and she slammed her way to close the fridge. She opened the cabinets above her and grabbed a box of cereals.
"It's twelve noon, it's lunch time not breakfast"
Kathy turned her head as she heard Franco's voice coming from the living room. She then saw not only Franco but also Nick who is in his red jersey shirt and the usual baggy blue jeans.
"Hi!" Nick said with a little hesitation to wave his hand
"Franco, come here" Kathy called Franco as if ignoring Nick's greeting
Franco jerked to the kitchen, "So, what's up sis?"
"You are not my brother and I think you deliberately brought this guy here. You know me a lot Franco" Kathy muttered to Franco with seriousness in her face
"Oh, bad morning huh," Franco took off the jerk in his face as he muttered back to her "Look, this guy has a name - it's Nick. The whole Backstreet's out there riding a van so if you won't mind, I have to rush"
Afterwards, he walked fast towards his room and slammed the door closed.
Kathy has her mouth opened expecting that Franco would stay for a while and answer few of her questions. But she felt Nick was staring at her and Nick can probably answer for him so she turned to Nick.
Nick eventually twitched his eyes pretending to look at the painting on the wall.
"Why did you bother following Franco at this house? He'll be rushing his way to his bedroom anyway, as he always does." Kathy asked Nick
"Well, I came down the van to personally hand you this ... liability that I had last night" Nick pulled a video CD at his back pocket "It's our latest behind the scenes video with the latest dance steps for our latest music videos ... it's already signed by the whole group. I just thought that you'll like it. Anyway, I told you last night that I'll visit you, right?"
"That's ..." Kathy approached him and took the video CD, "so thoughtful of you. Have a seat"
Nick smiled as he saw a wan smile from Kathy. He sat down not leaning his back but leaning his elbows to his knees and clasped his wet hand together as he was perspiring a lot --- it's his turn to be nervous.
Kathy then thought of starting a topic
"So, you really think I am a fan, huh"
"Ofcourse not. I mean, you told me that last night plus," Nick took a deep breath before speaking again, "The Backstreet has been telling me and Franco too ... hair color really matters a lot to you."
Nick bowed down his head and take a short pause seeing if there would be a response from Kathy. Since there was no response from Kathy, Nick continued.
"Well, I thought it wasn't really the hair color but it was ... Was it still some thing that happened in the past that reminds you whenever you see someone like me? I thought it wasn't like the guy will loose a chance or something"
Kathy starting to have flashback behind her mind and she felt Nick was showing a sign for her to feel, "Wait, where is this discussion heading? I heard you back there in the answering machine. Look, I am committed and I wish you'll leave things the way it is"
"I can't" Nick murmured to himself
"What?" Kathy asked trying to clear from him what he said
"But do you love him that much? Because I know ...I mean, I think ..." raising his head to look at her
Kathy was shocked to hear that from him. More questions came into her mind What else did Franco told him?
Nick's face shows that he's very positive with his hunch that could trap her.
When Kathy took a glance at Nick, it seemed to her that the Nick with her today was not the same guy that she sees in the video. He's aura to her now is as if she has known him for a long time and thoughts of a "blonde guy" attitude was out of sight.
"Step out of my life!" Kathy said firmly, "You're out of your mind! It's impossible to feel that as early as now. You're just like any other blonde guy around! It would not be that easy, ok!?! I can't believe this conversation will last this long! Can you just BACK OFF!"
"Ok" Nick said wanly then he lifted his butt from the couch sullenly still staring at Kathy. He walked towards the door not looking back to Kathy seated sedately across the room. He stepped out of the house with a big frown in his face.
Franco, on the other hand, ran towards the door from his room but then he stopped in the living room feeling an eerie atmosphere. He turned to Kathy seated on the couch with her head bowed down.
"What happened here? Where's Nick?"
"I guess I broke somebody else's heart ...serves him right!"
"What did really happened?"
Kathy gave a sullen look at Franco "You're asking me that? What do I usually react whenever you bring a foreigner here at home that you call client and asks me for a date?"
Nick, in the mean time, strode his way to board their van with a frown. The door slammed closed after he hopped in. He heard bickering from the guys in the van. He thought it was serious but ---
"Sheez! Could you just imagine the change that a hair could give to an individual" Howie drawled
"And hey, hey!" AJ butt in, "Look at those thick glasses! Man, I couldn't figure out how that nose was able to carry them! I mean, is there a special program to keep nose's muscle in tact to carry this?"
Nick saw that they're stooped at a certain piece of paper that they passed around.
"Hey, what's up?" Nick blandly said
Brian swiveled and held in the tip of his fingers a wallet sized photo
"You know, this makeover thing and this before-and-after thing that they show on TV is amazingly true, huh! I mean, this is Kathy, for what? For about five years ago?" Brian jerked
Nick focused his eyes and recognized the photo
"You've been hacking my wallet?" Nick squalled
The four recognized the averse reaction and caused all of them to stammer and stabbed a thumb against each other.
Bland was the perfect adjective to describe the expression that Nick gave to the guys which caught them to be silent for a few seconds. Then Nick grabbed Dana's photo and wobbly moved his head in search of his wallet. Howie raised the wallet in Nick's eye level and started speaking up.
"Okay, okay. Kaos, it was ... everybody's curiosity to see what's inside. Considering that you've never entrusted that wallet to be with us even for a short time of it ... and..." Howie ran out of reasons and just squinted to AJ and slightly shook his head
AJ twitched to Nick's side and dabbed him at Nick's shoulder blades, "It somewhat like what you guys did with my wallet before and I understood it was nothing serious then. You are dead-serious this time, bro. Was it about the Kathy or shall we say the Dana business?"
"Well of course, yes. My goodness, man!" Brian butted in
Nick grasped on his wallet.
Brian switched his voice to "Well, in behalf of the rest of us, we're apologizing. I mean, it's my fault. I told them that you were keeping a photo of Kathy in your wallet and because we were oh-so-curious about her appearance before that made her unrecognizable last night"
"I blew it! It so embarrassing!" Nick grunted to himself
"Hey, I heard that! Something wrong went out there so you have to tell it to us. Or maybe you wanted to open your laptop and start connecting wires again" Kevin yelped
"It's just simply stupid for us to spend days in this country with the primary purpose successful and the secondary purpose unsuccessful because of lack of research in the project" Nick said with conviction.
"I don't get it. You're sounding like the FEDs again" Kevin said with his face glowered, "Bring it home, Nick"
"In months, I prepared this plan which would take place as soon as I introduced myself as his virtual friend, Gene. My plan had an assumption that hair color would not matter. But it seem that it would matter now" Nick stuck a palm in his forehead and construed further, "I mean, I went there, defended my assumption but it didn't seem to work out. I just simply ran out of words to say"
"Maybe you just simply unprepared for this and maybe you just simply look like a sissy out there" AJ drawled
"What's your plan anyway?" Kevin primly asked
"Err..." Nick sneered as he continued, "just simply sending out the message in the least apparent manner that David's ... ah ... not the right ... is it necessary for you, guys, to know about this thing?"
"Yes" Kevin responded
"I think I'm getting the point here" Howie butted in, "But you know what, bro, if she loves the guy, no matter what kind of human being came into their life - even dark haired hunks - you're not gonna get to send the message clearly to her"
"No" Nick solidly said, "She really, absolutely, actually doesn't love the guy"
"How do you know?"
"I just knew"
"Oh that could get somewhere!" AJ disdainfully quipped in Nick and Howie's conversation
"The conversation couldn't get somewhere here, guys"
Kevin said with distinction and started speaking with leadership
"The problem in Nick's plan is that assumptions he set weren't true and he hadn't had a plan B to cover up his plan, right? So what do we say we make a plan B for our buddy here?"
AJ and Brian made a round of applause shouting out "Bravo! Bravo!" for Kevin as he jerked taking a bow
Nick squinted with disagreement, "Guys, you don't have to involve yourselves in here. I thought you said to my mom you're treating me as a grown up here so tell me, what's this?"
"But hey, Frac, we're also grown ups, right? Which makes us "birds of the same feather"!" Brian jerked
"Right," AJ drawled, "And we must flock together!"
Nick's hand passed over his face and thoughts were muddled behind his mind. As he was looking for a serious reason for him to involve these men,
"Buddy Frac, I know you've made up your mind to handle this alone but in this case, that you're so god damn serious about this that we miss the crazy Nick since you stepped into this country - we can't let you handle this alone. We miss the chaotic you" Brian said
Kevin added "And we're going to make sure that you're going to step out of this country fulfilled and no hanging questions left in your messy brain. There are things that an individual adult can solve and this pal, is not on the list. Let us help you"