Chapter 14:
Boredom
Howie yawned, bored, and rolled over in
his bed to look at the digital clock next to the telephone.
Howie heard a faint voice and noticed the
door to AJ’s room was ajar. He rapped once, then pushed the door open to find
Nick, Kevin and Brian sitting at a side table, apparently absorbed in some kind
of board game. AJ, across the room, was crouched down, rummaging through the
tiny, but well stocked refrigerator. He pulled several small bottles out then
turned to give Howie a devilish grin. "Hey! Just in time, I was gonna call
you. Ready for an AJ’s delight?"
Howie rolled his eyes, wondering what
concoction AJ was planning to spring on him this time. He walked over to study
his friend’s selection and shook his head. "Man, this is going to cost ya!
Ever see the prices these hotels charge?"
AJ gave Howie a soulful look and shook his
head. "D. Does it look like I care? Come on, live a little!" He
reached into the frig and pulled out one of Howie’s favorite candy bars.
"Here, my treat." AJ reached over to give Howie a friendly slap on
the shoulder and sighed inwardly. Out of the five, Howie was the most
conservative with money and AJ swore to his last dying breath that he would
someday break D’s habit.
Howie opened the candy, took a bite, then wandered over to see what the other three were doing.
He peered down, then said in surprise, "Monopoly?"
AJ looked up from his bartending duties
and shrugged. "Yeah. Nick found it under his bed."
"His bed?"
Brian glanced up at Howie before returning
to the game. "Nick loves crawling under strange hotel beds."
Nick kicked him. "I do not. I was
looking for my shoe and saw the game there. Some kid must of left it behind.
Doesn’t say much for housekeeping, does it? Hurry up, Kevin! Do you want
Kevin couldn’t decide and Brian groaned,
combing his hands through his hair. "Jeez, Kev! You haven’t changed! No
wonder I hated playing Monopoly with you when we were kids!"
Kevin smirked at his cousin. "You
hated it because I always won!"
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Okay, Kevin doesn’t want
"Hey," complained Kevin.
"Too late!" demanded Nick,
grabbing the dice. "You snooze, you lose! Bri, roll."
"Sheesh!" commented Kevin.
"Just because your Nintendo got trashed, you get all cranky!"
"Hey, I didn’t want to play this
stupid game, but I agreed to be banker, just to keep things fair!" warned
Nick, irritated.
"Fair?" Howie looked at AJ,
confused.
AJ was concentrating on mixing his
"delight", so he didn’t bother to look up to explain. "Whoever
loses pays the winner in real money."
Howie whistled, impressed, and leaned in
closer for a better look. Brian rolled a six, landing him on an untaken
railroad. "I’ll buy it," he announced, quickly handing Nick the money
and placing the card with the others. "One more," he crowed to Kevin,
"and you’re in trouble."
Kevin shrugged, unconcerned. He rolled a
three and landed on a property Brian owned. Brian stuck out a waiting hand,
impatient for his rent. "Okay, okay. Hold your horses," said Kevin as
he tossed the Monopoly money over to Brian, who caught it neatly. Kevin turned
to Nick who was staring up at the ceiling, bored.
"Nick," growled Kevin, annoyed.
"Hmm?"
"My 200? For passing Go?"
"So?"
"So, I passed Go! Give it to
me!"
"Oh. Here." Nick handed Kevin
the 200 in fifty Monopoly dollar bills. Kevin stashed the money under his side
of the board, then thought the better of it and pulled it out to count it.
"Damn! Nick, you gave me only
150!"
Nick tried his best to act casual.
"Oh, sorry." He handed Kevin another fifty.
Brian had his head down but sneaked a
quick glance at Nick. Kevin, suspicious, caught Brian’s movement and suddenly
understood.
"That’s it. Game over. I quit."
He pointed an accusing finger at Brian. "No wonder I’m losing my ass! You
and Nick are cheating!"
"I’m not cheating!" cried Brian,
outraged.
"Oh, of course not," scoffed
Kevin, folding his arms across his chest. "Nick, how much was Brian going
to give you?"
"Half of whatever he won,"
admitted Nick calmly.
"Traitor!" yelled Brian.
Kevin folded the gameboard
in half, mixing all the playing pieces into a jumbled mess.
"There!" He got up and gave his
cousin a smirk. "You never could beat me!" he boasted as he walked
into the bathroom.
Brian blew him a raspberry then shoved
Nick. "Thanks a lot. Remind me never to take you to
Nick shrugged, then flopped onto AJ’s bed,
fumbling with the remote control. He surfed the channels a moment, then stopped
at a sports channel, pointing at the screen with an excited yell. "Hey
look, guys! There she is!"
They all turned to look at the TV to watch
what was happening. "Oh, man!" moaned AJ, forgetting his drinks.
"She’s even hotter than I thought!" They stared at the screen,
mesmerized, remembering the event that had happened just hours ago. The camera
showed them singing the national anthem at the baseball game; then just as they
were finishing, a zoom shot caught a beautiful and very well endowed young
woman racing over to them with her hands outstretched. The camera went into
slow motion as the girl bounced and jiggled in her attempt to reach them.
"Shades of Baywatch," breathed
Nick, hypnotized.
"Yeah," agreed Kevin, who had
emerged from the bathroom. "Too bad she wasn’t running after you!"
"How do you know she wasn’t?"
argued Nick hotly.
"Because," Brian bragged,
pointing at the screen, "she was running to me!"
The guys viewed the event before them,
watching as Xavier pulled her away before she could reach anyone of them.
"Hell," snorted AJ, going back to his creation. "She got nowhere
close to grabbing you, Rok!"
"Well, she almost did," said
Brian wistfully.
"Damn you, X!" laughed Howie,
"keeping Brian here from his dream girl!"
The boys all booed Xavier on TV, then
patted Brian on the back, giving him mock condolences for his lost fantasy
girl. AJ let out a whoop, and turned to retrieve his slowly melting creations.
He handed each guy one, then paused dramatically with Nick. "You’re under
age," he stated somberly.
"Since when did that ever stop me?
Gimme that!" Nick lunged and grabbed the drink out of AJ’s hand.
AJ nodded his approval. "Good boy!
You’re learning well!"
"A toast!" cried Howie, lifting
his drink. "To healthy women! May they never stop chasing us!" A
murmur of agreement sounded and they lifted the drinks to their lips.
AJ smacked his mouth. "Ah, good
stuff, huh guys?"
Kevin coughed. "Ah, strong
stuff."
Howie puckered his mouth and Brian crossed
his eyes comically. Nick shrugged. "It’s ok, I guess," then downed
the rest in one gulp. "Any more?"
"Nick!" screamed the rest,
amazed.
"What?"
Brian shook his head. "Never mind. I
guess you can’t kill what isn’t there," he commented, rapping gently on
Nick’s head.
Nick reached playfully towards Brian’s
half-empty drink, then snagged it. "Another toast!"
"Okay," agreed AJ. "What
to?"
Nick thought for a moment, then laughed.
"I don’t know!"
AJ sighed, then reached for his drink.
"No more for you."
"It wasn’t that good anyway!"
argued Nick and started snooping into AJ’s refrigerator.
"Hey, hey! You eat, you pay!"
warned AJ.
Ignoring him, Nick crammed some chips into
his mouth, and Kevin came over to inspect the rest of the goodies. He grabbed a
package and tore it open, relaxing on AJ’s bed.
"What is this? Do I look like a flop
house?" screeched AJ. "Get outta here!"
Everyone disregarded him, looking for more
munchies. A soft knock turned everybody’s attention from AJ’s stash to view
Xavier standing next to the door.
"Hey, Xavier! Come on in." Howie
waved the bodyguard into the room. "Care for a drink?"
Xavier shook his head in reply, scanning
the room until his eyes found Brian. "Got a minute?" He jerked his
head towards the door.
Brian finished a package of cookies, then
brushed the crumbs from his fingers. "Sure." He turned to the guys.
"I’m leaving. See ya’ll tomorrow."
They gave various greetings of goodnight
to Xavier and Brian as the two headed down the hallway and turned the corner.
As they walked in silence Brian yawned, suddenly tired, and wondered what the
bodyguard wanted. Stopping by his door, the young singer struggled to get the
entry card out of his pocket. He slid it in the slot, waited for the click, then pushed the door open. Brian turned to face Xavier,
slightly confused as to why Xavier hadn’t said a word the whole way.
"Hey, thanks for saving my hide
today; I could have been smothered!" he joked in reference to the Baywatch
fan. Brian looked up into the bodyguard’s face, noticing not a trace of
recognition to his jest. Unsettled, Brian found Xavier staring down at him.
"Uh, have a good trip?" he questioned, remembering Xavier’s request
for a few days leave of absence during the unexpected cancellation of their
show.
Xavier leaned close to the singer’s face.
"Excellent," answered Xavier, almost whispering.
Xavier’s behavior disturbed Brian and he
pulled back away from the bodyguard, noticing uneasily that Xavier’s mouth had
twisted into a cruel grin, his eyes, dark, glittering down at him with a manic
satisfaction. Now uncomfortable, Brian glanced quickly up and down the hallway,
hoping for a sign of life. Empty. He slowly began to edge backwards into his
room, tense, fingers feeling for the security of the door. Getting a grip on
the edge he almost slammed it shut, only to feel a mighty smash as Xavier
kicked his foot against the closing door, tearing it away from Brian’s grip.
Heart pounding, Brian watched as Xavier’s large frame entered the room.
Panicking, he made a desperate lunge around the bodyguard to escape. Xavier
quickly blocked his path, and Brian felt a large hand encircling his neck,
shoving him viciously back into the room. Off balanced, Brian fell, painfully
twisting his left arm as he hit the floor. Stunned by the fall and too
surprised to yell, he watched helplessly as Xavier swiftly closed and locked
the door behind them.
***
