Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 28

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

Oh my god. She looked… Katie had told me at dinner that Rachel looked incredible in the outfit she'd picked with the stylist, but…

Damn. Did they paint those silver pants on her? And since when did she wear heels like that?

Not for long. She tripped over a cord as they took the stage for a quick soundcheck and she grabbed onto James. "I hate these shoes!" she announced to anyone who would listen, and I moved over to the stage. They weren't soundchecking for a few minutes. The camera guys were still talking to the director about something.

"But they're fucking hot, Rache."

Smiling, she straightened up and came to the edge of the stage to look down at me. The stage wasn't that high, so I was about eye level with her breasts. That was a happy place to be. The loose white silk tank top she was wearing had glittery silver things all over it. It fell over her breasts just right.

She got to keep this outfit, right? Yeah… she'd been happy about that at dinner. Katie had gone with them to the stylist, while Aaron and I hung out in the room, and then we'd all met up for dinner. Katie went on and on about the clothes and how the make-up artist was going to do her make-up that night, and I was perfectly glad we hadn't gone.

But I'd missed a few minutes of Rachel in this outfit, and that was a sin. I knew she'd look great, because she was happy at dinner, but I had not expected this. They’d even made her naturally curly hair even curlier… and sparkly. Had they put glitter in her hair? That was cool.

Standing above me, she held onto my shoulders for balance, holding out one foot so that I could admire her shoe. "They're too high, but I'll suffer for the sparkly."

They were sandals with jewels on the strap that went around her toes. "Are those real?" Aaron asked. Right. Aaron was with me. And this is when we got to take Katie. She'd gotten ready here with the band, but now that the party was about to start, I had to keep an eye on her.

I had to keep my eyes off of Rachel to do that. Maybe Aaron could… no.

"I didn't get new toes for the occasion, Aaron," Rachel joked, putting her foot back on the floor.

He rolled his eyes. "I meant the shoes. Are those diamonds?"

"No," Rachel scoffed, and then looked at her shoes again. "I don't think. They would have told me that, right? Katie?" she called out, looking behind her. "She listened to everything the stylist had to say. Kate!"

Rachel looked back at me. "Wait until you see her. Her father is going to kill me."

Shit. That girl heading towards us could not be Katie. Katie in about 5 years, maybe. Her long brown hair was pulled back, with a few curls framing her face, drawing attention to her pretty eyes. Rachel had gotten her a dress when they were out shopping yesterday, and new shoes with high heels. Since Rachel was buying, it was a pretty demure outfit, a green sleeveless silk dress, with a skirt that stopped right around her knees. But it wasn't a little girl dress. Katie looked like a grown-up.

I was keeping Aaron far away from her. I looked away from Katie to glance at Aaron, and his mouth was open, gaping at her. I whacked his shoulder, and he jumped, looking up at me. I raised an eyebrow at me and he pouted. "But…"

I didn't even let him finish, shaking my head as Katie joined Rachel on the stage. "These aren't real, are they?" Rachel asked her, indicating her shoes, and Katie giggled.

That was better. She still giggled like a 12-year-old. "You have to give those shoes back at the end of the night, Aunt Rachel."

"Shit!" Rachel exclaimed, looking down at her feet. "What if my feet sweat? How much are these worth?"

"You're just giving back the strappy part. It's removable. They're worth a lot."

"How much?"

"Don't tell her," James interjected, joining Katie and Rachel at the front of the stage. "It'll just freak her out."

"But…" Rachel started, and James shook his head, putting an arm around her to guide her to her spot.

"You can afford it."

"But I don't need diamond sandals! They're giving me the clothes. They can't give me the sandals?"

"I thought you didn't want them," James teased. "C'mon, we've got work to do. Stop obsessing on your shoes."

"But…" James picked up her guitar and placed it over her head, shutting her up as she had to adjust it. That outfit looked even hotter with a guitar in front of it.

"You look really pretty, Katie," I heard Aaron say, and I stopped myself from staring at Rachel to monitor the situation.

"Thank you," Katie said softly, blushing.

"You should get down now," I told her, and she looked down, deciding if she could jump or not. Aaron offered her a hand, but I moved over, taking her around the waist and lifting her off the stage. I was going to have be between the two of them all night, wasn't I?

I should have made Katie wear jeans. She was too hot in that dress, and I didn't want Aaron getting any ideas. He was smiling at her now, and Nick caught my eye, giving me a panicked look. I laughed, blowing him a kiss before I went back to fussing with my guitar.

We'd already rehearsed here this afternoon. And last night. Why was my guitar fucked up again? Did MTV just expect us to perform to a track or something? I was not Britney freaking Spears. Hell, we didn't even have a track.

If we opened for Nsync, would we need a backing track? Didn't all those acts in the big venues use them? Backstreet didn't have a track, but someone was always talking to them in their little headset things. Dude, were we going to have to wear those headset thingies? Jeremy would lose his mind.

That would be cool. Then it would be Jeremy's fault we weren't going, not mine. I could tell Nick we got offered the Nsync tour but turned it down, and we wouldn't have to fight.

I went over to James. "Will we have to get those headset thingies?"

He plucked a chord on his bass, tilting his head to listen at the sound from the amp in front of him. Would we be able to do that in a big stadium? We'd played some big venues on the Christmas tour, but they were all radio shows and we barely ever got a soundcheck.

Would being an opening act suck like that? Nsync were probably divas, and we'd be lucky if we got five minutes to check out the stage before we had to go perform.

"What?" James asked, clueing in that I was standing in front of him.

"Those headset things, like Backstreet has. Will we need them, if we're playing big stadiums?"

He looked at me like I was insane. He might be a little right about that. I was freaking out about this tour, and not telling Nick, and I couldn't stand waiting for EMI to get back to us with a lawsuit or not. I just needed things to be… settled.

Tomorrow I was telling Nick. We'd take Katie to the train station, and Aaron to the airport, and then I'd tell him. In the car on the way back. We'd already arranged for a limo to make Katie’s trip perfect. He couldn't kill me if there was a driver in the front seat. Perfect.

"We didn't have them on the radio tour."

"But what if ‘Nsync are…"

James stepped closer to me, glancing over my shoulder. "Nick is right…" But then his face lit up as he smiled, and I knew it wasn't because he was looking at Nick. I turned around, seeing JC's curly head in the crowd. He looked up, giving James a quick smile, and then he started heading for Nick and Aaron. They knew each other, so that made sense.

"Does he know?" I hissed to James, and we exchanged a look. I knew that he and James were together last night. But did JC know that we were opening for them? More to the point, did he know that Nick didn't know?

It was scary, that I knew exactly what James was thinking. He'd been so excited about touring with JC that they hadn't talked about anything else. Shit.

"JC!" I yelled, stepping over to the edge of the stage. Shit. I could yell for him without blowing James' cover, right? Yeah, people knew that JC and I were friends. Hell, half the world thought I'd slept with him while Nick and I were broken up.

Great… way to start more rumors, Rachel. I was horrible at lying! I should have told Nick yesterday.

"JC!" I yelled again. "Get over here. James forgot his puppet!"

That made a few people around us laugh, and JC stopped, looking up at me. I gave him a big smile and waved him over. That was cool. Everyone knew about James' crush on JC.

Man, I couldn't keep a secret for a day or two from my boyfriend. James and JC's whole relationship was a secret. That had to suck.

JC was in front of me, so no time to think about that now. I kneeled down, kissing his cheek. "Nick doesn't know," I whispered, and he pulled away from me, looking over at James.

"He doesn't?"

Did they have to keep lists of who knew and who didn't? Suck. "Not about that. About the tour."

JC's eyebrows went up. "No?"

I met his eyes, begging with mine. "Please don't say anything."

"Are you plotting my birthday party already?" Nick asked, and I forced myself to be calm.

"You caught me, bunny. I'm inviting Justin as the guest of honor."

"Britney's gonna jump out of the cake," JC joked, but Nick just smiled at me.

"Britney who?"

How could I keep lying to this guy? I was evil.

Standing on the stage, I could see over the crowd to Times Square below us. It felt like the whole city was counting down as the ball started to drop. Rachel was in my arms with a silly tiara decorated with a huge blue "2002" on her head as we chanted the numbers with everyone else. This was the only way I wanted to welcome the New Year… with her in my arms. "Happy New Year!" was barely out of her mouth before I was kissing her.

The crowd disappeared as we clung together, wrapped around each other as we kissed. This time last year I'd had no idea she existed. Now all I wanted was to have her next to me every New Year from now on. I even liked the fact that the only reason I was on this stage was because of her. I wasn't performing. I could just stand there with Aaron and Katie and rock out to Sudden Silence's set. We only had another minute or two before they had to play again, but I was making the most of it. Screw her lipstick!

"I love you," she whispered, breathing against my lips, her eyes still closed.

"Love you, too," I answered, kissing her lightly while I caught my breath. Smiling, she leaned her head against my chest for a second, and then she screamed. What? Did she lose her expensive shoes?

Shit.

Right next to us, Aaron was kissing Katie. His hand was on the back of her neck and she was holding onto his waist like she couldn’t stand on her own. Okay, she wasn’t fighting him off.

Damnit! I went to yank them apart, but there was suddenly a camera in my way.

Oh, even better. I knew her parents were watching. I was toast.

Rachel grabbed me back, and I realized she was laughing. "It's okay, Nick."

"But he… she…"

She just shook her head, still giggling. "Dude, it’s the best first kiss ever. On MTV, from Aaron Carter. How great is that?"

It wasn't Aaron's first kiss. I was damn sure of that.

Katie stepped away from Aaron, bumping into me as the cameraman moved, and I caught her. She just looked up at me, her eyes huge and confused.

"Happy New Year!" Rachel shouted, giving Katie a hug. She whispered something to her and Katie cracked up, holding onto her aunt for a second.

Letting her go, Katie looked at all us with a satisfied smile. "Excuse me. I have to fix my lipstick."

She was going to grow up and be Rachel. She walked away with a confident step, and I wanted to call Jon and warn him. It was bad enough he had to protect his sister, the wanton sex goddess. Now his daughter was following in her aunt's footsteps. Great.

Rachel started to say something to Aaron, but someone started ordering everyone but the band off the stage, so she settled for punching his arm instead.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, grabbing his arm as we looked for a place on the floor to stand.

He shrugged. "I needed to kiss somebody."

How was he such a jerk at 14? That was Katie's first kiss. Probably. And he was acting like it was nothing. Punkass.

When did I become such a dad?

Aaron saw my expression and rolled his eyes. "And she looks really pretty tonight. Does it have to be a big deal that I kissed her? I'm pretty sure she doesn't think I'm her boyfriend now."

"Are you?"

"Since you won't even let us be alone together, I doubt she thinks I like her or anything."

Good point. "You were on TV, you know."

He smiled at me. "It’s MTV. Lindsay and Hilary were going to be watching, looking for me. Problem solved."

I could only blink at him for a second. That was good. He got to kiss the cute girl and have a good reason for Lindsay and Hilary to break up with him. "Where did you learn to be such a player?"

He laughed. "I watched you, big brother."

Now he was totally playing me. I never did anything that calculated with a girl. Ever. I just stumbled along and fucked things up. I glared at him, making him laugh harder.

"I always win, Nick. I'm better at basketball, video games, singing, dancing, and now girls. I rock!"

I whacked his head, and then realized that ringing noise was my phone. Or was it the band? They were singing 'bop bop bop,' and I looked over at them. No instruments. The ringing had to be me.

It stopped, and I pulled it out of my pocket to check the voicemail. It was probably Mom, calling to yell at Aaron. At least I was old enough to kiss my girlfriend on TV. And I only had one girlfriend to worry about.

The phone rang again, and I answered it. "Happy New Year!"

"Nick? May I speak to my daughter, please?"

Who was this? Couldn't be Rachel's mom, because she had to know that Rachel was onstage, because she…

Oh, shit, this was Vanessa. "Vanessa?" I asked, buying myself a second.

"Consider yourself fortunate that it's not my husband, Nick. Where's Katie?"

"She's fine, Van. Really. I'll get Aaron to talk to her."

"Is he there?"

"Yes." I would happily hand the phone to him. He was watching me, and I mouthed 'Katie's mom' to him, enjoying the way his face paled.

"I'll let you take care of him. But I'd like to speak to Katie."

"She's um… in the bathroom."

"Alone, I hope."

"Yes. Oh, here she comes now." Thank god. I ran through the crowd, standing in front of her as she sang along to the band, her eyes never leaving Rachel. How did she know this song? Wasn't this one of Duran's really early songs? Had Rachel been playing Duran to the girls in the cradle?

She looked at the phone and then up at me. "It's your mom," I told her, and she took it, taking a deep breath before saying 'hello' and putting her hand over her ear so she could hear.

She listened for a second, nervous, but then she laughed, relaxing.

What the hell did Vanessa say to her? I thought we were going to have to put her on the next train to Long Island.

"It was okay," Katie said. "His tongue was sort of slimy, though."

Tongue? He slipped her the tongue? Where the hell was my bratty brother?

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