Birds In Your Garden: Chapter 4
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Jana stood in the kitchen, staring into the refrigerator and looking for something to make for breakfast. She had thrown on a pair of shorts and was teased by Kevin for taking his shirt as she slid it over her head. It was still raining heavily and thunder still rumbled in the distance, but the rest of the house was quiet.

Leslie came out of her room, peering down the hallway quickly before bouncing on her toes in the kitchen in front of Jana excitedly. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" she whispered in excitement. "You did the wild thang with him! Please, please, please tell me he's as good as he looks like he'd be." Her eyes widen playfully, tugging at her sleeve. Jana giggled and reached into the refrigerator for the eggs and bread. "Jana," Leslie whined quietly, following a step behind her and tugging at her sleeve. "Do it for the rest of us single girls that dream about people like him? It's your civic duty," she teased.

"I'd like to think that I'm better than my looks," Kevin said, standing in the doorway in a pair of long shorts.

"Kill me now," Leslie said towards the ceiling, dropping her hands to her side. "I'm sorry…I'm embarrassed…Oh God," she cried, turning to face him, her face bright red. "I'm mortified."

"I think it's flattering," he said in a deep voice, leaning down to speak in her ear as he went over to Jana. "Why didn't you answer her?" He poked her between the shoulders and came behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Maybe I've had better," Jana answered with a shrug. She stepped aside with Kevin still behind her closely to get a frying pan from the cabinet.

"Maybe?" he asked, looking over to Leslie. "I think that means I still have a shot at perfecting it, don't you?"

"She's never satisfied," Leslie said, shaking her head. "You might be setting yourself up for an impossibility."

"Oh, but won't the trying be fun?" he laughed, biting Jana's neck playfully as she squealed.

"You're going to get hit with the frying pan," Jana warned. "You said you were hungry. I'm trying to be a good hostess, here."

"Can you cook?" Leslie asked, furrowing her eyebrows together. "I don't think I've ever seen you cook. You can cook?"

"I think the trick is to make her work up an appetite," Kevin advised with a knowing nod.

"Then in that case," Jana said, folding her arms, "you'd better cook." She tugged his hair playfully and stepped away from him and the counter.

"How do you want 'em?" he asked, playfully kicking at Jana before stepping forward to the counter.

"Oh God," Leslie giggled, "not only is he good scenery, he can cook too. Damn, I'm impressed."

"I think he comes fully house trained," Jana commented, sitting down at the small table. "Do you whistle while you work?"

"No, but I've told I can sing on occasion," he said, looking over his shoulder as he cracked an egg into the frying pan. "But I lose my concentration if I attempt to do two things at once."

"Yeah, I've caught your show," Jana giggled, poking her toe into his calf.

"Listen, Missy," he turned around, wagging the spatula at her with a laugh, "I've had about enough out of you."

"Try living with her," Leslie said with a knowing nod.

"Living with her?" Kevin asked. "Hell no! I'd never get any sleep."

"That's why you were snoring earlier, right?" Jana asked.

"I was not," he protested.

"Well," Leslie interjected, "it wasn't really a snore snore, but it was some kind of un-human-like sound. Not very musical."

"I don't need to take this from y'all, you know," he said looking to Jana and Leslie. "I can go back to the fellas if I'm going to be under-appreciated."

"We could burp if it would make you feel more at home," Jana offered playfully. "Hey, Emeril, pay attention to the stove, you're burning the eggs."

"Leslie, will you be joining us?" Kevin asked, ignoring Jana's comment.

"Love to, but no," she said. "I'm gonna be late for my appointment."

"Les, it's a holiday weekend!"

"Yes, I know, but they tip well," she said and headed towards the bathroom.

"What does she do?" Kevin asked, sliding some eggs onto the plate waiting on the counter. He popped some bread into the toaster and turned, putting the plate in front of Jana.

"By day she's a financial advisor, but she does massage on the weekend," Jana said, poking at the eggs.

"They're just eggs," he teased. "No different than if you made them."

"I know," she said with a smile. "Let me play with my food if I want to."

He turned back to the stove and cracked two more eggs into the pan for himself before placing the toast on Jana's plate. "So, has she taught you how to do massages?"

"Some," she said, getting up for the butter. "I try not to learn so I don't have my friends telling me about their aches and pains in order to get a massage. I let her do my accounting, though, and I know crap about what she does or how she does it. She just tells me not to worry and she'll take care of my old age. So, I do."

"And what do you do for her in return?" Kevin asked, leaning over as Jana lifted the toast for him to take a bite.

"Ah," she paused, thinking, "nothing."

"Be my best friend and confidant," Leslie called from the hallway.

"Oh, right," Jana laughed. "I'm her best friend and confidant."

"Good swap," he chuckled, lifting his leg over the back of the chair as he sat down and started eating. "How'd you meet?"

"She was at the ballet school for a month or two," Jana explained, finishing the toast.

"Was? She quit too?" he asked, looking over to her.

"Someone had to pay the rent," Leslie said coming back down the hallway with the keys in her hand. "We have a deal. I pay the bills now and when she becomes some rich and famous dancer, she'll take over. Kevin, it was a pleasure meeting you. You going to stick around awhile?"

"Love to, but I can't," he said, standing up to take her hand before giving her a quick hug. "Need to go back into New York for some work. But it was a pleasure meeting you. Will I see you at the show Tuesday? Hey," he winked at her, "I can hook ya up."

"Oh, how could I refuse such an offer?" she giggled. "And I get to see Jana do her stuff?"

"If you're paying attention to the dancers," Jana answered.

"I'll scream my head off for you," she promised, lifting her hand up and giving her the Girl Scout honor salute.

"I'll leave your name on the guest list," he said with a smile.

"You get the coolest boyfriends," Leslie teased. "See you later."

"That was sweet," Jana said, reaching out to run her hand down his arm gently. "Thank you."

"You can invite anyone you want, Jana," he told her. "It's your time to show off too, you know; your tour too."

"I know," she said with a shrug. "I just didn't want to abuse the privilege." She finished the eggs and gave him the other piece of buttered toast. "So, how are you getting back to New York?"

"I'll call a car," he said easily. "Have Carlos meet me outside the studio just in case. You coming with me?"

"And what?" she asked with a grin. "Goon at you?"

"Well, you could go over to the hotel," he offered. "It's got air conditioning," he tempted. "Then we can go out and do the town."

"Do the town?" she chuckled. "Is that star speak for doing lunch? My people calling your people and all that?"

"That's Kevin speak for would you like to have dinner this evening?" he said, dropping his chin slightly to look at her seriously.

"Sure," she said, leaning over to kiss him quickly. "But I'll meet you in the city."

He nodded. "Bring an overnight bag," he said with a grin, "cause I'm not going to let you go home."

"Hell, you've got air conditioning! I wouldn't leave anyway."

~

"Oh, well, looky here!" AJ exclaimed looking over the sheet music as Kevin walked into the room. "And he's only…" he looked to the wall, "four and a half hours late!"

"Sorry," Kevin said heading over to the group sitting around the table and taking a seat.

Nick lowered his music and glared at him. "Sorry?" he asked snidely. "That's it? Sorry?"

Kevin looked around the table and back to Nick sitting next to him. "Yeah," he answered. "That's it."

"Where were you?" Nick asked angrily. "The rest of us had to be here. You did too."

"Sorry," Kevin said again, widening his eyes slightly. "I wasn't."

"Nicky," Brian said, trying to calm him down.

"No!" Nick exclaimed, slamming his music down on the table and standing up, pointing to Kevin and looking to Brian. "You know damn well that if any one of us came in here four and half hours late he'd be all over our case about our responsibilities, dude! I have other places I want be, too! Why should he get off the hook?"

"What do you want me to do, Nick?" Kevin asked, growing angry. "Fall to my knees and ask for forgiveness? I'm fucking late and I'm sorry. Deal."

"No!" Nick argued. "You're always all over us about taking everything seriously and being on time!" AJ dropped his music on the table and sat back with a sigh as Howie lowered his head to the table. Brian kept looking between Kevin and Nick, unsure if she should try to get in the middle. "Well? Where the hell were you, Kevin? I wanna know why it's okay for you to do as you please and not okay for us?"

"Nick, I said I was sorry," Kevin answered in an aggravated tone. "Knock it off."

"No, Kevin!" he yelled, leaning over the corner of the table towards him. "What's your excuse? When I wanted to postpone this, you told me that getting laid wasn't a good enough reason to give up our responsibilities! That we had to act like real professionals! What is a good enough excuse? Because that's what you were doing, wasn't it?"

"Nick," Kevin's voice boomed in anger, "fuckin' drop it."

"What's the excuse, Kevin?" Nick asked again, tilting his head towards him. Kevin dropped back into the seat and let his hands hang between his open legs without comment, merely blinking back at Nick.. "You're going to go right back to making up your own rules again!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kevin asked with annoyance.

"You invented "Backstreet Time", dude!" Nick yelled. "That's what I mean! Every time Kevin was getting laid, he could show up whenever he wanted! I didn't care back then, but I'm gonna care now! If I have to be here, you do too!" He pointed to Kevin furiously.

"Jesus, Nick!" Kevin said, waving Nick's finger from his face. "Is all this because you can't bag Rachel?"

"Fuck you!" Nick growled, swiping a fist towards Kevin, but Kevin pulled back quickly. Brian grabbed a hold of Nick's shirt keeping him from falling onto the table.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Kevin said, leaning his elbows on the table.

Brian still held onto Nick's shirt as he struggled to break free. "You fucking watch what you say about her!" He pointed to Kevin again.

"Grow the fuck up, little man!" Kevin yelled, dropping back into his chair with a scowl. "The world isn't going to end because you're not getting laid right this second."

"But it would have if you didn't?" Nick bellowed, finally breaking free from Brian. "Cause that's why you're late, isn't it, Mr. Married Man?"

"Knock it off!" Kevin roared, standing up. "We're not going to sit around here listening to you whine, got me?"

Nick reached out to grab Kevin and had him with his elbow around Kevin's neck. AJ, Howie and Brian scrambled to their feet, pulling at Nick and Kevin as they started wrestle, punches flying and insults screamed at each other. AJ managed to get between them as Howie held onto Kevin and Brian held onto Nick. "Okay," AJ said, looking between them as Nick and Kevin panted and glared at each other, "I think this means we need to take a bit of a break and cool ourselves down, boys, don't you?"

"A break?" Nick asked angrily. "He just showed up!"

"Yeah, a break," Brian agreed, pulling Nick back towards the doorway.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Will the Backstreet Boys please go off to their separate corners?" AJ said in a deep announcer's tone. "Round One is officially called by the referees!"

Birds In Your Garden: Chapter 4
Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16

Birds In Your Garden Disclaimer | Email Coriander

Read the companion story:
Oreos for Breakfast (Nick Fanfic)
by The Pumpkin Coach & Paperbag Princess

c. 2001, 2002 by Coriander
Some content not suitable for children. You have been warned.