Part 6
“Before we do anything, we have to make a stop at the local
hospital,” Richard said pointing to a brick structure down the street.
They entered the hospital and walked down a quiet hallway
but were stopped by a nurse. “Can I help you gentlemen?” she asked kindly.
“Yes we’re looking for Lance Bass and Joey Fatone,” Charlie
stated briskly.
“Oh yes, those two nice boys that came in last night for
food poisoning. Their friends came to pick them up about an hour ago.”
“What? I gave strict orders that Richard and I were the only ones to check them out,” Charlie said, his voice rising.
“Sir, the boys that came by said it would be okay and Lance
and Joey seemed to know them so we let them go.“ The nurse blushed.
Charlie and Richard looked at each other. Those stupid kids
had come to pick Joey and Lance up against their orders.
Richard smiled at the nurse. “Don’t worry about it. Was
everything taken care of?”
The nurse nodded, relieved that she was off the hook. “The doctor said they are
as good as new.”
They talked a little while as Alex looked on. She was a
little confused as to why Charlie had reacted the way he had when he found out
that someone else had checked those boys out of the hospital.
The two men stopped talking and turned to leave with Alex
tagging behind.
“You shouldn’t have freaked out like that. Have you
forgotten that Lonnie was guarding the room? No one would touch the guys with
him around,” Richard said to Charlie.
“I know. But you can never be too careful. It wouldn’t be
the first time that someone has tried it.”
Alex walked behind them completely mystified. Who was
Lonnie? Why would these Joey and Lance guys need to be guarded? What was going
on?
The two men talked on until they finally reached their
destination.
“Here we are,” Charlie said, turning to Alex. He was
pointing towards a five-story building. On the front it said The Kinnington
Hotel.
They walked in and were met by the front desk clerk. “Mr.
Harris. Mr. Goud. The young men are in the dining area.”
Charlie nodded his head in acknowledgment and he and Richard
headed towards the restaurant.
Richard turned and smiled at Alex. “Come on and meet
everyone.”
Alex smiled nervously back and followed the men into the
dining room. It was a simple eating area and it was very plain much like the
rest of the hotel. A little bar was at the corner and at the far right was a
small stage.
There were only seven people dining in the room. Two were
sitting at the side drinking coffee. One was black, the other white, they were
both large. The kind of large that was wide at the neck, burly in the body…and
a whole lot of scary.
In the center of the room were the five remaining occupants. The men all
unsimilar in appearance were lounging around the table looking casually at
their menus, while a slightly flustered looking waitress stood waiting for
their orders.
Alex watched as Richard and Charlie walked up to the five
men. Charlie turned his head when he saw Alex tagging slowly behind. “Here’s
your captivated audience,” he said quietly and smirked.
He turned to the guys. “This is Alex Greene. We’re thinking
of hiring him for the guitar position. We think he’s very good but it’s up to
you and the band to decide whether you want to keep him or not."
The guys looked up at her appraisingly, making Alex very
uncomfortable. A short haired brunette, wearing a really cool shirt saying
“Fuman” across the chest, was the first to comment.
“He looks a little young.”
A snort was heard from the other side of the table. “Anyone
under 30 is young to you Chris,” A blue eyed guy with a buzz cut said
mockingly.
“Aha ha ha…bite me!” Chris replied.
“In your fantasies maybe.” Was the snappy retort.
Charlie interrupted before the conversation completely went
off topic. “Don’t worry he’s old enough. He’s not a minor anyway. He’s
nineteen.”
Richard who was standing beside Alex leaned in and
whispered. “That’s Chris and the buzz cut kid is Justin. The green eyed, blond
is Lance, and the guy next to him with the baseball cap is Joey. And the last
one is JC.”
Alex nodded, glancing quickly over the five without really
looking at them.
“Nineteen still seems pretty young for a kid to play in a
show of our scale.” She turned her attention back to the conversation as Lance
spoke up.
“That’s true but we think Alex can hold his own,” Charlie
replied.
“Is he as good as Rue?” Justin asked, referring to their
previous guitarist.
“As good, if not better.” Charlie looked at the disbelieving
faces of the guys and said quickly, “I know you find that hard to believe but
if you listen to him you’ll see what we’re talking about.”
She glanced at the table to find five pairs of eyes looking
at her speculatively. She felt annoyance starting to take over her nervousness.
What the hell was their problem?
“Look,” Alex heard herself say. “If I wasn’t any good, they
wouldn’t have brought me here. If you don’t have faith in what your people have
to say, why are they working for you?”
Everyone, including Charlie and Richard, looked at Alex in
surprise. Where had that come from?
Chris blinked. “Whoa buddy! Chill! We have faith in our
people but this is an interview of sorts is it not? We wanted to know a few
things about your skill before we listened to you. Is that okay?”
Alex suppressed a blush that she knew was working its way up
her neck. Why couldn’t she keep her big mouth shut?
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Joey answered. He turned to
Charlie. “Why don’t you call the band and tell them to come down so they can
listen to Alex too and then we can decide.”
Charlie took out his cell phone and called Cole, the bassist.
“They should be down in a couple of minutes,” he said after he had hung up.
“Alex why don’t you take a seat and warm up,” Richard said
to her.
Alex took her guitar out of its’ case, as she did she
noticed that one of the clasps had broken off during the day. One had already
fallen off years ago, so now there was only the clasp in the middle keeping the
case together. Perfect. Just great.
Grabbing a chair from another table she sat down and rested
the guitar on her thigh as she waited for the other band members to come into
the room.
She didn’t have to wait long. A little over a minute later
five men walked into the room.
“Hey guys, this is Alex,” Charlie said to them.
The band members mumbled greetings and sat at a nearby table
waiting for Alex to start.
She grimaced as she looked at them all nervously. She
couldn’t do this. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She took a deep breath. She had to calm
down. She looked up, and saw the mixture of boredom, cynicism and expectancy on
the faces of the eleven men who were waiting for her to play and something
inside her resolved itself. She was going to play and show them all that she
could do this.
She chose another song that she had written. She began the
intro to the song but her fingers slipped and the chords came out in a a
horrible twang. She looked up in embarrassment and saw a couple raised brows
and snide smirks coming from the band.
She swallowed and tried again but was so conscious of making
a mistake that she screwed up once more. She stopped abruptly. She couldn’t
look anyone in the face, especially Charlie and Richard.
Then she caught a blue-eyed gaze. JC, she remembered. He
smiled at her comfortingly and mouthed, “You can do it”. She looked down and
blinked back tears. She was such an idiot, tearing up because someone had given
her a warm glance and a few kind words.
Strangely enough JC had made her feel better. She looked
back up at them with new resolve. “I’m a little nervous. So if you don’t mind
I’d like to do that one more time.”
A few of the band members gave her derisive glances but
everyone else agreed to let Alex go again.
Alex tapped her feet in count and started playing. She
ignored them and soon forgot they were there, she was so in tune with the
music.
Once she was done her melody, she played around with an old
rock and roll song and then moved into an acoustic version she had made up of
NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye. When she was done, she looked up and saw Richard
and Charlie beaming at her and when she glanced over at the nine other men they
were looking at her with a mixture of awe and admiration.
Justin was the first to speak. “Alex man, that was off the fucking
hook!”
Cole got up and walked over to her. “Yeah kid. I didn’t
think you had it in you but you know what you’re doing. I think we all agree
when I say, you’re in.” He turned to the other guys in the room and they all
nodded their agreement.
As soon as he finished, all of the other men got up and started crowding around her asking how she had learned and who had taught her. Alex was flustered at all the attention but was pleased. She was in. She was in. And that was all that mattered.