Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 28

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

I opened my eyes slowly, squinting as sunlight blinded me. I ducked my head and found the clock. 12:37. It must be a sunny day, from the way the light was coming in through the crack in the curtains.

Shutting my eyes again, I snuggled back against Nick. We didn't have to be anywhere, did we? The bed was comfy, and my flannel pajamas were warm and…

Pajamas? Did we not have sex last night?

Right. I smiled, remembering our night. We'd walked back to the hotel from the MTV studios after that party broke up. I'd even let the kids have a couple of glasses of champagne, so we were all happy and silly as we'd talked to random revelers on the way back to the hotel. It'd been a gorgeous night in New York, cold and clear.

By the time we'd gotten back here, Katie and I were freezing in our fancy clothes, so we’d put on flannel pajamas and ordered hot chocolate while we watched the repeat of the MTV party on the big screen TV. Nick and I had teased Aaron and Katie about their kiss, and they’d teased us that ours was much worse. Seemed like the whole kiss thing was okay. Katie had told me that her mom was cool with it. Hopefully by now Jon would be, too. Still, I had been happy to see Katie in her pink kitty pjs, her face scrubbed clean of make up. I wasn't ready for her to grow up quite yet.

"Morning," Nick mumbled, rubbing his cheek against my shoulder.

"Afternoon," I corrected. "It's… nearly one. What time is Aaron's flight?"

Yawning, he rolled away from me to stretch. "Four. Five. Something like that. Katie's train?"

"Every half hour. Something like that. Think they're up yet?"

Rolling out of bed, he went over to the door and opened it, listening for a second. "Not a sound from either room."

We exchanged a look, and then both of us bolted for the bathroom. Was it cute or gross that we had no problem peeing in front of one another? Okay, this bathroom had a separate little room for the toilet, but still… I had other things to worry about. We might only have a few minutes before one of the kids was in here, asking if we wanted breakfast.

"We did not properly ring in the New Year last night," Nick said, pulling me down onto the bed with him.

"Damn kids," I answered, kissing his neck. "Thank God we're getting rid of them."

"Definitely." He leaned over me with a smile. "I'm so glad you're here, Rachel."

"Where else would I be, bunny?"

Shaking his head, he kissed me. "Nowhere else. That's the great thing. If we spent New Year's together, we have to make it through the year, right?"

I touched his face, tracing his smile lightly. "I have to make a New Year's resolution, Nick."

"I resolve to tell you I love you every day."

His smile was blinding and I let him kiss me again as my heart tightened. I had to tell him. Right now. "I resolve to always tell you the truth."

The smile dropped from his eyes as he considered me. "You need to resolve that?"

Slowly, I nodded, and he sat back, away from me. I sat up to see him, taking a deep breath. "We found out who we’re opening for in the spring."

His brow furrowed as he considered that. "That's the secret? Who's touring in the spring?"

I didn't even have to say it. He knew the business. He especially knew Nsync's business. "No," he whispered, and I nodded.

"It makes sense, Nick."

"How the fuck does touring with N fucking Sync make sense?" He was off the bed, gesturing wildly as he paced around the room, glaring at me the whole time. "You couldn't tour with us when you got the chance, but you can tour with them? Jeremy tells you every five minutes that dating me is sucking all the indie cred out of your career, but you can open for Nsync? Open for Nsync? OPEN?"

Yeah, this was going about as well as I’d expected. I stayed on the bed, my legs pulled up to my chest as I watched him. "It's a good tour. They're trying to get some other cool bands. Puff Daddy might even be doing it. P. Diddy. Whatever his name is today."

"You hate him!"

"I don't. Not really." Okay, my band did like to make fun of the fact that he just stole other people's songs and made a lot of money off of them. "His songs sorta suck. But he's a smart guy, and he knows how to play this game. If he's doing it, it's got to be a smart move."

"Smart move? What the fuck happened to artistic integrity? I cannot believe that Jeremy agreed to this."

I shrugged. I couldn't quite believe it, either. I'd sat there at the meeting the other day expecting Jeremy to fight it, and by the time I figured out he wasn't, we were practically signing on the dotted line. "Pop bands have a limited shelf life, Nick. This is exposure to a new market for us."

"And a fat paycheck, I'm sure."

I just nodded. It was an incredible amount of money, at least to us. With this tour, it didn't matter if we ever sold another record. It didn't even matter if we didn't have a record deal. We'd all have plenty of money to retire. Not that we were planning to. But we could. There was a certain amount of freedom in that.

"What happened to the girl that thought the music was the most important thing?"

That was low. "It's the same music, Nick. They're not making us do Britney covers or come up with dance moves. I'm still allowed to take my guitar."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he growled, and I glared at him.

"Nothing. I wasn't saying anything about you or Backstreet. I was just saying that my band will be doing what we've always done. We'll just be doing it before Nsync does what they've always done."

"This is about James, isn't it?"

"What?"

"This is a pretty elaborate way for him and JC to make sure they get to see one another." I knew that, because for a brief moment last summer, I'd thought Sudden Silence would be opening for us, and I'd get to see Rachel every day.

"Please. No." Rachel rolled her eyes, dismissing me, and I threw a pillow at the wall. It was better than throwing it at her. I wasn't so mad that I didn't realize that.

"Of course not. Because isn't that the reason you didn't open for us when you had the chance?"

"There were a lot of reasons we didn't open for Backstreet. That was just one of them."

"Wasn't one of them that you didn't want our audience? Nsync has the same fucking audience, Rachel! Why are they good enough now?"

She started to say something but then stopped herself.

"What?" I demanded. But she didn’t even look at me. "Tell me!" I screamed, not caring who heard.

"They don't have the same audience. Their demographic cuts through some lines that yours doesn't."

"Bullshit!"

Why did hearing that hurt so much? Backstreet was on a break. It didn't matter who Nsync appealed to right now.

Fuck that, Nick. It mattered. It always fucking mattered. They were the copycats, the ones that came after us, and now they'd finally won. We were old and tired and needed a break, and Nsync had stolen my girlfriend.

"They do, Nick," Rachel said carefully. "Their new video premiered last night, and the single is already doing well on urban stations. We all know that after this tour, they're taking a break, just like you are. Sudden Silence came into this pop thing really late, and we need to catch a little bit of the wave."

"Pop music is dead. Do you want to attach yourselves to that?"

"It's not dead. It's changing. And if we're lucky, it's going to change in our direction. Your fans are getting older, and so are Nsync's, and they want a different kind of music. We want to be there when they're figuring out what they want."

"Great market positioning, Rache. Good plan. I'll get out of the way so you can catfight with Britney over Justin."

"Nick!" she protested, but I turned away from her.

"I'm going to take a shower. I need to get Aaron to the airport."

I slammed the bathroom door behind me, locking it when she pulled on the handle. "Nick!" she yelled, pounding on the door. "Don't do this!"

"Do what, Rache? Get pissed off that my girlfriend is opening for our biggest rivals?"

"Fuck, Nick, this is not some gang war. It's a couple of pop bands. No one even cares."

I cared. I cared way too much, but I couldn't stop myself right now. "Go away, Rachel," I warned, leaning my head against the door, suddenly exhausted. "Just… give me a few minutes."

I placed my hands on the door, wishing I could just hug him for a minute. "Okay," I said softly. "I'll be here."

"Take Katie to the train station," he said through the door, his voice tight. "A shower is not enough time."

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I blinked them back. "Alright. I'll see if she's up, and we'll get out of your way." I'd take her to breakfast. Lunch. Whatever. Just the two of us. We hadn't done that her whole visit here. I'd get all the details of her kiss, and then when I came back here, Nick would have calmed down.

The water turned on in the bathroom, so he must have moved away from the door. Shaking, I stepped away, sitting on the bed.

That was even worse than I'd expected. I should have thought about it. He'd hated the new Nsync video last night, cutting it down with Aaron while it played. I thought it was pretty good. It was 'Girlfriend,' and it was not a standard boyband ballad, even given the dorky title. Maybe I should have realized he was jealous. Backstreet could have done that song, but they seemed to be more trapped in the boyband label.

If he was jealous of a song, no wonder he was freaking out that we were doing this tour.

Shit. I was fucked now. How was I going to do this tour if Nick hated it so much? How could I not do this tour when even Jeremy agreed that it was a good idea?

"Aunt Rachel?"

Shit. How much did she hear? Getting up, I went over to open the door. "Morning, sunshine."

She looked up at me seriously. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sweetie."

"I heard yelling. Aaron said we should just let you figure it out, but I've never heard you and Nick fight before, so I was worried. What happened? You were happy last night."

Smiling, I smoothed down her hair. "We'll be okay. Get dressed and get your stuff together, and I'll take you out to lunch and tell you all about it."

"You will?" she looked surprised by that, and I laughed.

"It's not the end of the world, Katie. Nick's upset, but he'll cool off." I hoped. I really, really hoped that was true.

But he still wasn't very cool when Katie and I were ready to go half an hour later. Aaron had stayed out of our way, giving me a couple of funny looks, but he was basically fine. I guess he was used to overhearing fights. Nick had told me that his parents fought a lot.

I went into our room to get my shoes, and Nick was pulling on his socks, glaring at them like they'd insulted his mother. Leaving him alone was supposed to give him time to cool off, not get angrier.

"Katie and I are going to get some lunch before her train."

"Have fun," he said, not even looking at me.

Taking a deep breath, I gave him a long look. "Could you at least say goodbye to her? She didn't do anything wrong."

"She's probably thrilled that you're opening for Nsync. I'm sure all her friends will love the free tickets, since they've moved on from Backstreet."

I counted to ten before answering him. "I haven't told her yet. I was just helping her pack. She did overhear us yelling, though, so I'll tell her something at lunch. Please, Nick. For three minutes, be nice and say goodbye to her. None of this is her fault."

He shrugged, standing up from the bed. "You're right. I'm not mad at her. Did you say anything to Aaron?"

"No. He heard us yelling, though. Katie told me they were wondering what to do."

"Aaron knows what to do. He's heard fights before. Are you leaving now? I'll say goodbye to her."

It was scary, the way he could act like nothing happened in front of Katie. He smiled and hugged her and told her he'd loved spending New Year's with her. The only thing that told me he was acting was that he was almost too nice.

And he barely waved to me as we left. That hurt.

A couple of hours, and the kids would be gone, and Nick could scream at me all he wanted, until he got it out of his system. Or maybe he’d figure it out while I was gone and we could talk about it like grown-ups.

The girls left, and Aaron just looked at me for a minute, waiting for me to say something. What had he heard? We were being pretty loud. Well, I was being pretty loud. Rachel had been calm.

Fuck, she couldn’t even defend this. She knew I’d be mad. That meant I had reason to be angry, didn’t I?

"Get your stuff together. You’ve got to get to the airport."

"Are you coming with me?"

"You can handle a cab ride alone, can’t you?" I didn’t want to be with anyone. I wanted to throw things.

"I meant, are you coming with me to Florida?"

"No, I…" I fell into a chair. Florida might be good now. This morning, before she told me, I was going to ask if she wanted to go somewhere warm for a couple of days.

But I couldn’t leave. We needed to talk about this, didn’t we?

I didn’t want to. I knew it was the pansy way out, but I didn’t want to process this and talk it out. I just wanted to be mad.

"What did you hear?" I asked Aaron.

He sat on the arm of the chair next to mine. "Yelling. No words. Rachel looked pretty upset."

"Yeah, well… guess who they’re opening for in the spring."

He shrugged, then his eyes met mine, and his eyebrows went up. "Nsync?"

"N fucking Sync!" I yelled, throwing a pillow across the room. "They couldn’t open for us, but N fucking Sync’s demographic is better."

"That’s bullshit."

"About their demographic or Sudden Silence opening for them?"

"Both! How can she do that? I thought they were all into being better than the pop thing."

"They are. Evidently N fucking Sync is cool enough."

When did they become cool? They were never cool. We were the cool ones!

Even I knew that was bullshit. They’d so fucking won the war, and now they got the girl.

"Nsync sucks."

"I know!" I loved my brother sometimes.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, and I stood up.

"I’m coming with you to Florida. Where are you going?"

"Orlando."

I thought for a second. Where was my car? When did I leave Florida? Before Christmas… we were in Orlando. So my car was there. I’d driven the girls to the airport. I had no idea where I’d parked it, but I’d find it.

Christmas. A week ago, I’d left my family Christmas to be with Rachel, and now she was stabbing me in the back. All the crap I went through for her, and this is what she did to me?

Fuck her. I was going to Florida. I’d go to Tampa and hang out with my friends. Rachel hated my friends, so I hadn’t seen them since Halloween. Screw that.

"Get me your flight info," I told Aaron. "I’ll see if I can get on the same flight and then drive up to Tampa."

He wrinkled his nose at me. "I’ve got to be in Miami."

"Maybe I’ll come down there in a couple of days. But I want to hang out with my friends tonight."

He scowled at me, knowing that meant I wanted to go out drinking and he couldn’t come with us. Screw him, too. We’d spent plenty of time together lately. I needed to be with guys my own age.

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