Chapter 42
“Can I have your
name, please?” The
thirty-something-year-old receptionist smirked.
Nick smirked
back. “Yeah, it’s Art Crenick.” The alias was one of many that he used to
sign into hotels; this one was not as creative as some, only the letters of his
name rearranged. But it worked.
(AN: As far as
I know, this is not one of Nick’s aliases.
I made it up. So if any boppers
are reading this, please don’t go from hotel to hotel asking for an “Art
Crenick” cause you aren’t going to find Nick that way. ;) )
“Okay, Mr. Crenick. Welcome to the Revelation. Here’s your room key. Suite 8B.”
“Thanks.” Nick took the key card from the woman’s hand
and flashed her his infamous half-smile; he was well aware of the fact that
that smile worked wonders on many women and used it to his full advantage. Now it was one of the few aspects of his
looks that he still had left; his blonde hair was nearly gone, its sorry remains
hidden by a baseball cap pulled low over his face. His face… yeah, the “baby face” the teenage
girls all thought was so adorable was no longer full and vibrant, but thin and
pale. And that was not the only place
his weight loss over the past few months was showing. His clothes all hung on his frame. He figured people would talk about that when
they saw him on TV. Some would think he
had been taking care of himself, dieting and exercising to lose the weight. But he knew otherwise; this weight loss was not
healthy.
For once, he was
glad they had make-up people; they would be able to cover his sallow complexion
and make him look as close to his old self as possible for the TRL
appearance. But at the moment, he looked
pretty grim, and he just hoped no one would find out what hotel they were
staying in. He really didn’t want to be
seen this way, not until the news was out.
Then they would understand. But
if they got a good look at him now, rumors would run rampant… drugs, alcohol,
eating disorders… God knows what the press would say about him.
A bellboy came
immediately to take his suitcase.
Normally, Nick would have waved him off and carried the luggage himself,
especially with it just being one suitcase and the carry-on duffel bag from his
flight. But, tired and weak from the
after-effects of the chemo, he gratefully surrendered his burdens to the hotel
employee, who escorted him to his suite.
“You can just set
them down here,” said Nick as they reached the door to his suite. Pulling out his wallet, he gave the bellboy
his tip, and when the man had left, stuck his keycard into the slot, unlocking
the door. Clutching the knob with one
hand, he hauled up his suitcase and duffel in the other, grunting at the effort
of it, and started to open the door. He
was completely shocked when the door quickly swung open from the inside, almost
pulling him down with it.
“Nick, there you
are!”
It was AJ,
standing in the doorway with a wide smile spread over his face.
“AJ! Jesus, you scared the hell outta me! I’m gonna have a heart attack!” Nick cried,
his heart racing from the startle of having someone else open the door from
inside his suite.
AJ’s eyes
widened, and Nick could have sworn his face paled a shade or two. “I’m sorry!
Are you okay??” He looked truly
worried, and Nick stared at him in surprise.
“Dude, I’m
fine! I was just kidding about the heart
attack thing…”
“Are you sure?”
AJ asked warily, studying Nick as if he expected to keel over at any minute.
Nick just
stared. “AJ, what the hell? Cancer doesn’t give you heart attacks, you
know.”
“Shh!” came a
hiss from behind AJ, and then Kevin appeared.
“Cripes, Nick, don’t say that in the middle of the hall! What if someone heard you?”
Nick checked
quickly; the hall was empty. “It’s fine,
Mr. Anal. Anyway, they’re gonna find out
tomorrow, so who gives a shit. And what
the hell are you two doing in my room anyway?
Not that I’m not glad to see you, but-“
“Actually, this
is our suite,” corrected AJ. “All
five of ours.”
“What?! We’re sharing? Where the hell is Howie?”
“Uh, actually, it
was my idea, Nick.” A meek Brian
appeared between Kevin and AJ, smiling sheepishly at Nick. “I just thought it would be nice if we all
shared a suite, like old times.” He
shrugged, offering Nick a cheesy grin.
AJ snorted. “We didn’t share a suite in the old times
anyway, Rok, it was a room. A
tiny, crappy room with two double beds if we were lucky. And you want to recreate that experience
because…?”
Brian rolled his
eyes good-naturedly. “So sue me. I just thought it would be fun, and Howie
agreed, so there.”
“Well, what does
Nick think?” AJ shot back, and of course, they all turned to Nick, even Howie,
who had come up with the other four.
“Uh… I dunno, I
think it’s cool,” Nick said finally.
Really, he had to admit that he did like Brian’s idea… he had fond
memories of the “old days,” the nights they would spend cramped all together in
dingy hotel rooms, staying up talking and playing Nintendo into the early
morning hours, almost like a slumber party.
Of course, anal Kevin would eventually try to force them all to go to
bed, and then Brian, AJ, and Nick would tease him and purposely disobey and
annoy him further, but hell, that was half the fun of it. Now that he thought about it, he actually
missed those days… back when things were simple and uncomplicated, when he was
just a teenager with nothing on his mind but girls, money, and the lifelong
dream of fame that seemed on the verge of coming true.
“See? Ha!” Brian gloated, laughing in AJ’s
face. Playfully slinging an arm around
Nick’s shoulders, he led his younger friend into the suite. “It’s a little more swanky than what we had
in the old days, huh?”
“Yeah…” Nick
agreed, checking out the bedroom, where there were two queen size beds. “Wait,” he said suddenly. “We’re not actually gonna sleep
together, are we? That’s so…”
“Gay?” offered AJ
with a smirk.
“Uh, yeah,
very. I think I’ll take the floor.”
“Aw, Nick, you
don’t have to do that,” Brian said quickly.
“You take one of the beds, and somebody else can have the other
one. Then the couch in the living room
is a hide-a-bed, so someone can have that.
And the other two will just sleep on the floor. We did that in the old days, too, no big
deal.”
“I call bed!” AJ
and Kevin both shouted at the same time.
“Sorry, J, I’m
older, I get it,” Kevin claimed, crossing his arms over his chest smugly.
AJ rolled his
eyes. “Yeah, whatever, old man. I’ll just take the couch bed then. Rok and D, guess you’re stuck on the floor.”
“That’s fine,”
conceded Howie with a shrug, and Brian nodded.
“I can sleep on
the floor too if one of you guys wants the bed,” Nick offered.
“No, no, Nicky,
take the bed,” Howie insisted, and Nick scowled. In ordinary circumstances, he would have been
forced on the floor simply because he was the baby of the group. Now he was being treated differently… and he
knew exactly why.
“No way, you take
it. I’m the youngest, and Howie, you’re
gonna be hella stiff if you spend the night on the floor, old man.”
“Old man?!” Howie
exclaimed, mouth dropping open in indignation.
“That’s Kevin!”
“You’re gettin’
up there too, dude. Who’s turning the
big 3-0 this year, huh?”
Howie rolled his
eyes. “You’ll be there too before you
know it, kid.”
Nick laughed
lightly, but no one else did. As silence
fell, he couldn’t help but notice the looks exchanged between the others. What, did they think he wasn’t going to live
to see thirty? Wow, way to be
optimistic, guys. Well, he would
show them. He wasn’t going to let the
cancer take his life, oh hells no. He
was gonna beat Ewing’s sarcoma’s bitch ass.
Yeah… take that…
Sure… right… as
if he really had any control. Like it or
not, he couldn’t help but admit that he really had no say in what happened to
him. His future now lay in God’s hands
alone, and only He could decide whether Nick would win the fight for his life…
or lose it.
***