The match starts and within ten minutes Liverpool have scored twice. I bounce up and down on the bed in excitement and Kevin yells a lot. The match is amazing. Some fantastic soccer being played. About 20 minutes into the first half, Alaves score.
“Fuck!” I yell at the TV. “C’mon boys, you can hold on!”
“Get another goal!” orders Kevin.
There’s a knock on the door and I bounce off the bed to open it. It’s Nick. His hair is all over the place and he looks totally pissed. When he sees me, he looks confused.
“Jade?! Huh? Isn’t this Kev-“ He looks past me at Kevin. “Huh?”
“We’re watching the soccer,” I explain.
“You woke me,” he pouts. “What’s with all the noise?”
“Liverpool scored two goals! And Alaves just scored one!” Kevin keeps his attention on the TV. “Come ON!”
“It’s the UEFA Cup Final,” I explain. “We’re supporting Liverpool.”
“Oh.”
Just then, Liverpool’s striker Michael Owen is fouled in the penalty area by Alaves' goalkeeper Herrera.
“PENALTY!” Kevin and I yell together.
“Penalty?” Nick comes into the room, shutting the door behind him. “To Liverpool?”
“Yeah! C’mon McAllister!” I yell.
Nick sinks down onto the bed as McAllister takes the shot for Liverpool. He scores.
“YES!!” All three of us jump up and punch the air.
“3 – 1!!”
“Suckers!” Nick sits down and leans forward intently. “This is good.”
After 45 minutes of play it’s half-time and the score is still 3 – 1 to Liverpool.
“We are SO goin’ to win,” I declare happily as there’s a knock on the door. Kevin flings it open to a dishevelled Brian.
“Hey bro.”
“You woke me THREE times now,” he complains. He looks past Kevin at me, “And I already got woken by YOU.”
“Sorry,” I say.
“What y’all doin’?” he takes in Nick as well.
“Watching this soccer cup final!” Nick explains excitedly. “We’re winning 3 – 1!”
“Ok. Take the noise down,” he turns round and stumbles sleepily back to our room.
“Oops,” Kevin shuts the door.
“This is cool,” Nick grins. “It’s usually YOU tellin’ ME to be quiet and you got yelled out by Bri!”
“You were makin’ all the noise Nicky.”
“Nuh uh,” Nick shakes his head. “I got woken up by YOU.”
“That was Jade,” he blames me and I gasp.
“Hey there holler boy! I’m not the one who thinks yelling at the TV is gonna affect the game!”
“Oh!” Kevin sticks his tongue out at me and then laughs.
An hour later and the match is over. It’s been pretty exciting. The final score was 5 – 4 to Liverpool and the three of us joined in singing You’ll Never Walk Alone (the club’s anthem) with the fans loudly. I check my watch as the coverage ends. It’s just gone 5am.
“You guys tired?” I ask. They both shake their heads. “Me neither. I’m jazzed.”
“What can we do?” Kevin starts flicking channels.
“Play b-ball!” Nick offers and we groan.
“I’m not THAT jazzed,” I tell him.
“It was an idea,” Nick mutters.
“Hey, there’s an all-night convenience store down the block,” I remember. “Let’s go find a video or somethin’.”
“Yeah, sounds good,” Kevin stands up and we all head out of the hotel.
“Dirty Dancing,” Nick says with a laugh. “Oh, real DIRTY stuff.” He puts the video down with a snicker.
“This?” Kevin yells, holding up Scream 3.
“Seen it,” Nick and I chorus.
We carry on browsing the video racks as the door opens and a group of girls wander in. They make straight for the video racks and start throwing Nick and Kevin confused looks. After whispering amongst themselves, one of them approaches Nick.
“Hey, aren’t you Nick Carter?”
“Yeah,” Nick quickly puts down an X-rated movie as I smother a giggle.
“I knew it. It IS him!” she yells to the other girls. “And that’s Kevin!”
Kevin bites back a groan and walks over with a smile. “Howdy.”
“Oh boy, nobody’s gonna BELIEVE this!” she turns round and races out of the store.
Nick looks at Kevin. “I guess you need a shower or somethin’.”
“Or somethin’…” Kevin says, staring out of the store window.
We follow his gaze and see a coach parked outside.
“That’s freakin’ big!” Nick says. “Bigger than we ever get.”
“We better hope it ain’t full of fans,” mutters Kevin.
The doors open and girls stream off it, clutching posters and cuddly toys.
“You’re outta luck,” I say.
“No, YOU are,” Nick says, slipping behind me.
Kevin sidles over to the storekeeper. “Ok, much as I hate to ask this… You DO have a back exit, right?”
He nods and points us over behind the candy shelves. Nick and I follow Kevin as the girls enter the shop.
“Whoa, they got twinkies!” Nick exclaims, trying to grab a couple.
“Nick!” Kevin grabs hold of his arm and pulls him along faster. “We gotta get outta here NOW.”
“I’m with ya,” I say, breaking into a run as the girls realise we’re about to escape.
The three of us run like crazy down the street, closely followed by roughly 200 girls. After ten minutes of ducking down side streets and alleys, we’ve lost our pursuers. We’re also hopelessly lost.
“I’m sure we passed by here already,” says Kevin looking up at an old apartment building.
“We did,” Nick groans. “Oh great. We’re goin’ round in circles. Man I’m hungry!”
“We’ll find our way soon,” Kevin marches off round the corner. “I’m damn sure it’s this way.” Before we can follow him, he re-appears. “Dead end.”
“Oh jeez!” Nick complains.
“Shut up,” Kevin marches straight ahead and we follow him.
“I was goin’ to grab some Twinkies but you stopped me!” Kevin doesn’t respond. “So if we all starve to death it’s YOUR fault!”
“Nick, how can we starve in the middle of Pittsburgh?!” Kevin says. “Now c’mon. Walk faster, we gotta get outta here soon.”
“This remind ya of a bad army film?” Nick asks me before breaking into an exaggerated march. “Left, right, left, right, we are lost in Pittsburgh. Whose fault? Kevin’s! left, right…” he sings. I start giggling as Kevin turns round to shoot him a glare. “Uh ho, Kevin’s eat-shit look… Be scared,” Nick whispers loudly to me. Kevin throws him another look. “Oh, that was the and-die look.”
Kevin finally stops walking and we catch up. “Ok, we’re lost. Any ideas?”
Nick shrugs. “Find a phone?”
“Yeah!” I agree.
Kevin feels his pockets and produces his cell phone with an embarrassed blush.
“Ya had that the WHOLE time!” Nick yells.
“Yeah…sorry. Who do I call?”
“GHOSTBUSTERS!” I yell and Nick busts up laughing.
“And in the real world?” asks Kevin.
“Brian,” Nick and I say together.
“Yeah, I guess we already woke him three times.”
“Four,” I say.
“Ok, how MORE pissed can he get?” Kevin dials the number of Brian’s cell phone. After a while, he answers.
“Hey bro.”
“What?!”
“I guess I woke ya again?”
“It’s…6am,” Brian groans. “What can you want at 6AM?!”
“Uh…” Kevin covers the handset and looks at Jade and Nick, “He’s pissed.” He goes back to the phone. “Bri, we’re kinda lost.”
“Lost? The hotel ain’t THAT big. Follow the signs.”
“Well we’re outside the hotel. We went to this store and had to run from these girls cos they recognised me and Nick and now we’re lost.”
“So what do you want ME to do? Send a tracker dog out?” he asks sarcastically.
“Uh, no… But could ya maybe come find us?”
“You gotta be kiddin’ me!”
“Bri… Please just get in a car and then we’ll go find a street sign to stand by.”
“I’m gonna kick your asses when I find ya.”
“That would be ok.”
“Jade with ya?”
“Yup. Wanna talk to her?”
“Yeah, put her on.”
“He wants to talk to ya,” Kevin hands Jade the phone.
“Hello sweetie,” she decides to start with the endearments already.
“You’re lost in Pittsburgh with my two dumb bandmates and you woke me up for the FIFTH time and you’re callin’ me sweetie?!”
“Honey?” she tries. “B-bear? Darling? Gorgeous? Hero?” she keeps going until she hears him laugh. “Was that a laugh snookums?”
He laughs harder. “Ok, lemme just get dressed.” He hangs up and Jade gives the phone back to Kevin.
“He’s coming.”
“Snookums?!” Nick bursts into giggles.
“Hey, it worked,” she shrugs.
“Snookums!” Nick greets Brian as he climbs out of the car. He throws his arms around Brian as Brian squirms to get away.
“Shut up!”
“Aww, snookums…” Nick starts trying to tickles Brian.
“Ok, you’re not riding in this car,” Brian says pushing him away. “Anyone else want to piss the saviour off?” Kevin and I shake our heads and climb into the car.
“Snookums, you know ya love me really,” says Nick climbing into the car before Brian can react.
“I know I don’t,” Brian mutters getting back into the car. “Ok, so what made ya hit the store at 6am?”
“Munchies,” Nick declares. “Hey, you got anything on ya? I’m starved.”
“You must be mistaking me for a candy machine,” says Brian dryly.
“Liverpool won the UEFA Cup Final,” I tell him.
He gives me a look and I shut up. Brian is not at his best when his sleep gets interrupted. I can’t blame him either. I’d be as ratty as hell in his shoes. Actually, he was bein’ amazingly controlled compared to what I’d do.
“Come here honey,” I decide to play safe and wrap my arms around him as he rests his head against my shoulder. His hand rests in my lap and I stroke it lightly.
“So, where WERE we?” Kevin leans forward to talk to the driver.
“I bet we ran MILES!” Nick exaggerates.
The driver laughs. “Not quite… You ended up round the back of the hotel.”
“We what?!” Kevin says, staring out of the window as we pull up to the hotel. “Oh man.”
“That’s dumb!” Nick laughs.
“Yup. It’s definitely gonna make my dumbest passengers EVER story,” agrees the driver with a grin.
“Would a BIG tip make you change our names?” asks Kevin hopefully.