Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 28

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 28
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

"'Secret Oktober'?"

"Done it."

"'Save a Prayer'?"

"Yawn… I’m not doing a ballad at midnight. Way to kill the mood."

"Depends on who’s on the couch with you."

I heard a thump and then Rachel whining at someone. "That hurt, you stupid boy!"

Oh, it was getting bad. When Katie and Aaron and I had left to get coffee, it'd been to leave the band alone for a few minutes, because their discussion of their set list was getting ugly. They were debating what song to do at midnight to ring in the New Year. They only agreed on one thing- that it was going to be a Duran song. After that… well, I guess they were still fighting about it.

Exchanging glances with Katie and Aaron, we headed back to the game room, which is where we'd left the band half an hour ago. I was hoping that they would have figured it out while we were gone. Evidently not. When we found them, Rachel was sitting on the floor, glaring up at James. I held out a hand and pulled her up. "What? Did they finally have enough of you and kick you out, dear?"

"Ha fuc..." she caught herself, looking over at Katie, who just smirked and handed her a hot chocolate, which was more whipped cream than hot chocolate. Katie insisted that Rachel wanted it that way. How did I not know of her whipped cream obsession? Apparently it was legendary in the Connor family. The thought of Rachel and whipped cream was more than I could handle while trying to keep an eye on the kids, though. "Ha. No. James here is just being a bully."

She was so cute when she whined. Her eyes narrowed, and her cute forehead crinkled as her pretty lips got all pouty and… kissable. I just had to steal one. Leaning over, I rubbed my hand over her hip, soothing her as I kissed her soundly. She tasted… like cigarettes.

"Ick!" Everyone laughed at that, and Rachel stepped away from me, huffing over into a chair with her hot chocolate. "Sorry, babe… you taste like an ash tray." The door to the balcony was open, which is why it was so cold in here. At least they weren't smoking in the room.

I heard Katie making gagging noises behind me, and then Aaron laughing with her. These two were getting along way too well. Rachel dropped the pouty attitude long enough to glare over at Aaron. He stopped laughing as if on cue, standing up straighter and moving away from Katie to hand James his coffee.

Was my bratty brother afraid of Rachel?

I glanced back over at her. Okay, I was a little afraid of her now, too. She was seriously pissed off, wasn’t she?

"I am tired of fighting about this. Can’t we just say 'Planet Earth' and be done with it? Why does this have to be a fight? Why does everything have to be a fight today?"

"Because you are PMSing and pissing us all off," Darien said under his breath. But not far enough under because before anyone could stop her, she’d poured her hot chocolate on his head and stormed out of the room.

We were all quiet for a moment, and then Darien started to take off after her. I caught him around the waist. "Don’t even. Leave her alone."

"Dude! She’s… that… fuck!"

The last word came out as more than a scream than anything, and I just shook my head. Good thing Katie had insisted on all the whipped cream, or we’d be taking Darien to the hospital with first degree burns. "I know your pain, dude. Believe me."

"What? You are admitting that Rachel isn’t perfect? Aaron, is your brother okay? Does he have a fever?" Jeremy joked, and Aaron smiled back at him, shaking his head.

"My brother is whipped, let me tell you."

"Stop talking about me, or I’m not playing tonight!" Rachel screamed from the hallway. I pushed Darien back in his seat, taking Katie’s hot chocolate and joining Rachel in the living room, where she was pacing around, kicking things.

"Don’t even start! You… you… boy!"

I held up both hands, a silent sign of surrender, and I thought I saw her smile just a bit. But I wasn’t pushing my luck. "I brought you hot chocolate. Well, this is Katie’s… yours is currently conditioning Darien’s hair. I'm the good guy, Rache."

She looked at me for a moment and sighed, falling onto the couch. "I hate this shit, Nick. I just want to go out there and play a few songs. I don’t want to debate it and worry that if we don’t do the single our career is over. And maybe if we really suck, EMI won’t give us an offer. I mean, they won’t do that. Will they?"

I joined her on the couch, putting her hot chocolate on the table in front of us. "I don’t know, Rache. Probably not."

"That’s not what you’re supposed to say."

"I know. Believe me. But this is a scary thing you're doing. I don’t want to butt in and I’m not going to. But it’s a gamble. When we left Lou, I felt like my entire world was going to come crashing to a halt. But it didn’t. Brian would say that when God closes a door, he opens a window."

"Don’t be philosophical and god-like, Nick."

She definitely was teasing now, so I moved over within striking distance and she smiled at me. "Sorry. It’s just… there’s something to it. You do things for a reason, right? Sometimes you don’t know what they are… but maybe that’s the grand plan."

"I just want it to be over and decided now," she whispered, leaning her head against my chest as I pulled her into a hug. Sometimes all she wanted was to be angry and someone had to let her vent. I had to try and remember that. But I wanted to make things better for her, so that was hard.

"I know you do, buttercup. And it will be. One way or another. But tonight is probably not going to break you, whether you play 'Brazil' or 'Secret Oktober'."

"It’s 'Rio', you stupid boy."

"I knew that."

She smiled up at me, picking up the cup and taking a long drink of Katie’s hot chocolate before looking back at me. I kissed her then, liking the feel of her warm, soft — and now sweet — lips against mine.

I tensed for a second as his lips opened against mine, worried that he could still taste the cigarettes on my breath. Evidently hot chocolate covered all sins, and I fell into him as he pulled me closer. This was sweet, a couple of minutes alone with him. Yesterday I'd been running around with Katie, and then we'd all gone out to dinner and a movie at one of the big theatres on Times Square. It was a nice day, but I missed being alone with Nick.

Then again, when I was alone with him, the knowledge that I had to tell him about the Nsync tour just got worse. When we were apart, I had a good excuse. I couldn't tell him if he wasn't around, could I?

I just knew that when I did tell him, he wouldn't be around after that. The longer I waited, the more angry he'd be, but… I'd been fighting enough today. I didn't want to do it again. I didn't want to see his hurt, angry face, and I didn't want to have to explain it all to Katie. And I really didn't want to do it while my band was here. That would just make it worse. Only James was really excited about the idea, but we all knew it was the right decision. Nick being angry about it could not be the reason that we decided not to do it. Then I'd just look like the weak, emotional girl.

Nick moved away from my lips, smiling down at me. "Where'd you go, buttercup?"

I leaned my head on his shoulder. "I am not PMSing."

"I know," he said, rubbing my back. "That's next week."

I smiled to myself. "You'd think the boys would know my cycle, too. But they just love to chalk my moods up to that."

"It does make it easier, Rache. Otherwise you're just being a bitch."

I punched his arm lightly and sat up, away from him. "Shut up."

Laughing, he pulled me back, nuzzling my neck. "Hey, there's no excuse for them. They're just being jerks."

"Damn straight," I agreed, letting him kiss his way back up to my lips. I kissed him, darting my tongue out to meet his, tracing his lips… this time I didn't let myself think of anything but the way he was touching me. Katie was leaving tomorrow, and so was Aaron. I'd talk to Nick then. We'd have no distractions, and we could talk it out like adults.

"Ew! Get a room!"

That is, if my band wasn't wandering through bothering us. I pulled away from Nick to look at Darien. He looked pretty silly with hot chocolate in his hair, and I had to giggle. "I'm sorry I dumped my hot chocolate on your head, D."

He shrugged. "I probably deserved it. We're gonna do 'Planet Earth.' Okay?"

I nodded. "Fine."

"I need a quick shower, but then we're going to head over to practice."

"I'll give you some clothes," Nick offered, letting me go and standing up from the couch.

Clothes… "When do we get styled?" I asked, and Darien and I scowled at each other. Styling freaked us all out. It had happened a couple of times for red carpet events but never for a show. That'd been part of our tension earlier, because Nick and Aaron had been telling us horror stories of bad styling that screwed up performances.

"Soon," Darien grumbled, and I waved him away.

"Shower quick, then."

As they walked out, I flopped out on the couch. It was going to be a very long day.

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