Only Brian and Leighanne are in the hotel.
"We can ask Leighanne to take some pictures of us," I suggest to Nick. "I only have pictures of you from the concert."
"And I don't have any pictures of you yet," Nick says. "I'll get my digital camera, I will mail the pictures to you," he adds.
"Okay, I'll ask Leighanne." I ask Leighanne and she nods enthusiastically.
"Sure. Let's go to Nick's room. Aaron, don't come in or I'll kick you out," she threatens Aaron who's grinning. She takes a lot of beautiful pictures of Nick and me together. Standing, sitting, kissing, hugging, laughing. Someone knocks the door.
"Who is it?" Aaron comes in.
"Sure, I'll make a picture of you and Rachel," Leighanne smiles at him. "I knew you would come." I grin at him and put my arm around his waist. He grins back and puts his arm around my shoulder. Leighanne takes the picture.
"Now the three of you, and that would be enough, I think," Leighanne says. I put my arm around Nick's waist and the last picture is made.
"Let's go downstairs, AJ and Howie and Kevin are back ," Aaron says. "They've been drinking, so they're real fun," he wispers to me.
Leighanne and Aaron already go downstairs. Nick pulls me close to him.
"I'm having so much fun today," I say.
He nods: "Yes, and I have the feeling I'm only starting to know you. I'm gonna miss you so much."
"I'm gonna miss you very much too," I sigh.
"Let's enjoy the moments we have together," he wispers and gives me a kiss. I give him a deep kiss, very long and intense.
"Come on, let's have some fun downstairs. The last evening is always the best. We have dinner for a long time, and the show is better than the others. And after that we'll drink and chill and talk for a couple of hours," Nick says.
We go downstairs.
"Hey, lovebirds," AJ greets us. I pretend to flutter.
"How many arrows has Cupid spend on the two of you? All?" Howie asks.
"No, just one for each. I think it hit right here," I say with a hand on my heart. "Or Aphrodite came by herself," I grin. I see a couple of asking.
"They're Greek gods. Cupid is the little naked fellow with the bow and arrows. When he hits you, you fall in love. Aphrodite is the goddess of love," I explain.
"Did you learn all that at school?" Kevin asks.
"Yes. I went to the gymnasium, so I've learned the language of the old Romans for five years. I learned a lot about their habits and gods. I've learned Old Greek for one year, so I know about their gods and I can read the Greek alphabet. The Greek and Roman gods are almost the same, they only have different names. There are beautiful mythes about them," I tell.
We pleasantly chat for a while and than we go to the Arena. There we get a dinner with many courses. Everybody is really cheerful and time flies. For desert we get all kinds of fruit. There are also peaches, I haven't eaten them for a long time. I take a peach and cut it to pieces, so I can eat it without getting all sticky. It's a really juicy peach, my hands are dripping from it.
"She likes it juicy," AJ says to Nick.
"What's juicy?" I say.
"Oh, finally we've got something she doesn't know," Kevin calls.
"I know that a peach is juicy, but you must have meant something else," I say to AJ. He grins.
"I'll explain to you later," Nick says to me.
"You're 21, that's pretty young, but you seem to know a lot. How can you know so much?" Kevin asks. "Sometimes I think you know more than we do, and we're a lot older than you."
"Well, I always have to prove myself. At school in the small town where my parents live, they were all really christian. All the girls wore long skirts, they all went to church twice at Sunday, they went to sundayschool. I didn't wear skirts, I went to another church, even in the church I didn't have to wear a skirt and we only go once at Sunday, and we don't have sundayschool at our church. So I was a bit different form the others, and they thought I was less than they were. So I had to prove I wasn't by getting high grades. When I went to high school, I didn't have to dot that anymore, but my little brother and me are the youngest in the family. I've got a lot of cousins, they're all pretty smart, and most of them are between 30 and 40 now. I was always the cute little girl, so I had to prove I am more than that. So I have always learned as much as I could, I am still doing that. My sister also played a big role in it, she always made me think I was stupid, she always looks down at me. I've learned a lot form my brother. He's six years older than I am, he went to university when I went to high school. I learned a lot when he told about what hed did, during dinner. He liked to use difficult words, that he had to explain to me. From him I learned to be strong with words," I tell them.
"Wow, it sounds like you've had a hard time," Kevin says.
"It's all right, I've never been really unhappy or something. It made me what I am now, and now I'm really happy," I smile.
"It sounds like your sister is a real bitch," Brian says.
"She was. She was very hard to handle when she was a teenager. She even walked away from home once. She terrorised me mentally. She still does that sometimes, but I don't know if she still does that on purpose," I answer.
"With what could she possibly do that now? You're smart, nice, happy," Howie asks surprised.
"She finished her study this year. Now she's got a great job. She vistis the different companies with the head of her company. It makes her think she's really important, she's always bragging about it. and she's had her boyfriend since she was 15. They're 10 years together now, they're living together for a couple of years now, they bought a house inthe beginning of this year. She keeps on asking if I still don't have a boyfriend. I just ignore her, or say I'm happy and that I don't have to live the life she does to be happy. But she can be really nice sometimes. She's all right," I shrug my shoulders.
"At least she can stop asking if you have a boyfriend," Nick says.
I nod. "Yes, but I can predict what she's going to say about it."
"That we don't see eachother enough to have a real relationship and that I will have other girlfriends somewhere else. We all know that prejudices," Nick says. The others nod.
"Exactly. And she'll say she's only telling that to warn me, to prevent me form being hurt. Well, at least I've learned an important thing form her. I always think before I say something. I'll never hurt anyone on purpose. I'm always careful what I say to my little brother, to make sure he doesn't think the same way about me as I do about my sister."
"I'm sure he doesn't, you're really kind," Aaron says.
"I try to support him, and to protect him, but sometimes he's really annoying and I get angry. He thinks I'm a real pain in the ass. But he doesn't hate me or something. He's getting old enough to dot everything on his own. He started studying in Utrecht this year. But now I've got a new little brother," I smile at Aaron.
"You should be a teacher, you like to learn people all kinds of things," Leighanne says.
"No, nobody wants to listen to their teacher, nobody likes their teacher. I hate it when people don't like me. That's why I chose to become a pharmacist. I learn people about their medicines. Almost all of them are willing to listen to me, and they will believe me," I grin.
"That's true," Leighanne smiles.
It's time for dressing and make-up. Nick pulls me over to the couch and I sit down on his lap.
"Well, we've definitely found the similarity between us. Always trying to prove ourselves," he says.
I nod. "I can hear that on your cd. You've got something to say. You're more than what people think you are."
He nods surprised. "You've heard my cd?"
"Yes, of course. I love it. I listen to it all day long," I nod.
"It makes me really happy to hear that. What other music do yo listen to?" Nick says.
"All kinds of music, mostly rock music. Some Dutch bands, Live, Prince, but also Britney Spears and Enrique Iglesias."
"And the Backstreet Boys," Nick adds.
"Yes, of course, otherwise I wouldn't have been here," I nod.
"I'm glad to hear you listen to rock music, not only boybands," Nick smiles.
"I listen to rock music to get rid of my emotions, when I'm angry or frustrated or sad. But I'm also hopelessly romantic, so I also listen to other music."
"That sounds exactly like me," Nick nods. I kiss him.
"I'm so glad I've met you," Nick wispers and gives me a deep kiss.
"Time to get ready for the show," he wispers when he gets called. "I love you," he says and gives me another kiss.
"I love you too," I say. With a shining smile he walks away. I go to Leighanne and Aaron.
"Jee, you're glowing," they call.
"What happened?" Aaron asks.
"He told me he loves me," I say shy.
"That's obvious, isn't it?" Aaron says.
"It means a lot when you say that to a girl," Leighanne says to Aaron. "And it means as much to Nick. He's glowing too," she adds and points at Nick. It's like I'm walking in the clouds. I didn't know I could be this happy.
"Earth calling Rachel, earth calling Rachel," Aaron says in my ear.
I smile. "What?"
"Let's go," he says and I see that Leighanne has already left the room. I nod and we quickly follow her. I throw another smile at Nick and get a shining smile back. Aaron pulls me with him.
"Hopeless," he sighs.
Chapter 22
In the hall are loads of screaming fans again. Aaron has to give autographs again.
"Who's that?" they ask him while looking at.
"Do you see her glow?" he asks the girls. They nod.
"When you see someone else glow like that, she's with him," he says grinning. The girls look at eachother with questioning looks and shrug their shoulders.
I smile: "You'll never give a straight answer, will you?"
The show starts. Nick is totally glowing. They give a flashing show, even better than the two before. The last evening is indeed the best.
There's a short break, so they can change clothes. The same girls as before are pulling Aaron's arm.
"She's Nick's girlfriend," the girls point at me. Aaron nods enthusiastically.
"Is it that obvious?" I ask Leighanne.
She nods. "Yes, you're both glowing, everybody can see it."
"You see I gave them a straight answer," Aaron laughs.
"I guess you're right this time," I answer.
The girls beckon at me. "Are you really Nick's girlfriend?"
"That's right," I say in Dutch.
"And you're indeed Dutch," they say.
"Yes. You've been reading the papers, haven't you?" I ask.
They nod. "Can we take a picture of you with Aaron and Leighanne?"
"What do you want to do with a picture of me?" I ask them surprised.
"Send it to the Hitkrant, with a picture of the show, to the Hitmail," they say.
"If you want that. But the Hitkrant gets the official news the first anyway, because I've met Nick because I won a meet and greet from the Hitkrant," I say.
"They want to take a picture of the three of us," I say to Aaron and Leighanne. They nod. "Okay."
They quickly take the picture, because the show goes on. If I remember right, Nick is going to sing 'Heaven in you eyes' after this song. That's the best part of the show to me. The song is over and Nick takes a microphone indeed.
"The next song, I want to dedicate to a very special person. To Rachel," he says and he's still glowing. I feel like I'm in the clouds. He sings the song especially for me! Howie winks at me and Kevin waves his arm. Than Nick starts to sing. I get goosebumps all over. He has never sang that beautiful! At the end he gives me a shining smile. I smile back.
"He's never sang for anyone before," Aaron calls in my ear and gives me the thumbs up. Now I can never stop smiling and shining anymore. This has to be the happiest day in my life.
The concert is over now. We go back to the dressingrooms as quick as possible. Still it takes us a while to get there. Nick has just finished taking a shower when we walk in.
I run to him and put my arms around his neck.
"Thank you," I wisper in his ear.
"I just had to do it," he wispers back. We look at eachother and both get a bigger and bigger smile on our faces.
"This must be the happiest day of my life," I say.
"For me too. We must remember this when we miss eachother," he answers. We give eachother a deep kiss for a long time. The others have also finished taking a shower and walk in.
"Wow, no sex allowed in here. There are children in the room," AJ calls when he sees us kissing.
"Hey Aaron, don't look at them," we hear AJ calling. We see that he puts his hands before Aaron's eyes and Aaron struggles to free himself.
"Hey, leave him alone. Jee, what's wrong with you? Have you eaten too much sugar or something?" I call and free Aaron.
We go back to the hotel, to the bar that's opened longer on saturdays. I order a beer and ask Aaron if he also wants one. He hesitates.
"Have you ever had a beer?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "I'm not allowed to drink."
"Are you serious? I've had my first beer when I was about four years old. We always wanted to taste my parents beer, so we got a little glass ourselves," I say and take my hands apart for about 7 centimeters.
"You're almost 15, aren't you? At 16 you're allowed to drink beer or wine. Just take one glass, you'll sleep really good," I say and order also a beer for.
"I don't think he'll like it," I grin to Nick.
He grins back and shakes his head. "No, he won't, you've got to learn to drink beer." We all have a glass of beer, only Leighanne drinks a soda.
"To Aaron's first glass of beer," I raise my glass. The others also raise their glasses, Aaron with a surprised look. We all take a pull and secretly look how Aaron takes his first swallow. He pulls a dirty face.
"Is this what everybody drinks? It's disgusting," he calls.
"My mistake, I thought you were old enough," I grin. That helps, he bravely takes another pull and tries not to pull a dirty face. Everybody laughs.
"The next glass will taste better," I nod to Aaron. Determined he drinks on. In a couple of pulls we all empty our glasses, even Aaron with a little bit of difficulty. We order another round. Aaron looks at his glass reluctantly.
"It tastes better if you drink the whole glass in one time," I laugh. "Wanna do a game and see who finishes his glass first?" I ask Aaron.
"Sure," he says brave.
"Okay, ready? Three, two, one, go!" I count down. I a couple of pulls I empty my glass, Aaron is just halfway.
"Yeah, you win," Nick says when Aaron empties his glass and pulls my arm into the air. "Where did you learn to drink? I've never seen a girl drink that fast," Howie asks amazed.
"She's a student, all students drink that fast over here," Nick says. I nod.
"Wanna compete with me and see who's drunk first some time?" I challenge Howie uit.
"That's a deal," he nods.
"Can't do that today, I've got to go to my parents tomorrow," I add quickly.
"She's coming over at Christmas for two weeks. We can have a contest than," Nick says enthusiastical. "I wanna see who can drink the most of us all. Who's in?"
Howie, AJ, Nick, Brian, Kevin and I raise our arms.
"That's a deal," I say. "Jee, I'll have to practise a lot. Of course, I have to win of you guys. I'll start to compete with Paul. He usually drinks twice as much as I do. But than he's really drunk, and I'm not."
"Don't do anything stupid. You don't have to win. Guys always drink more than girls," Leighanne says worried.
"Don't worry, I know when to stop. I've been really drunk before, and I always know how to get home. And I noly get drunk when I'm with someone I can trust, like Paul. When he thinks I can't get home safely, I stay over at his place," I explain.
"Don't worry, she thinks he's gay," Aaron calls.
"Hey, shut up. If you keep on talking, he'll be the only one who doesn't know he's gay," I say threatening to Aaron.
I grin: "Hey Aaron, do you feel your legs yet? Can you still walk normally?"
He nods. "Sure, you can't get drunk from two beers."
We order another round.
"This is the last one, we've got to close at two o'clock," the bartender says.
"That's good, he can't have more beer," I say to Nick and point at Aaron. We chat on for a little while. It's a pity it's all over so fast, I'm really enjoying myself. Everybody is, as I see.
"Let's go upstairs. I'm tired, and they want to close," Leighanne says. I nod and give Nick a hand and Aaron an arm. Aaron is heavily pulling my arm. I knew that three beers would be a lot for a first time.
"He's pulling off my arm," I wisper to Nick. He starts laughing. I take Aaron into the bathroom.
"Brush your teeth and go to bed," I say. I go to Nick in the room. I push him on the bed and sit down on his lap.
"I've had so much fun today. I'm really gonna miss you," I say and hug him.
"Me too." We give eachother a long, tender deep kiss.
"I love you," I wisper while I look deep into his eyes.
"I love you too," he wispers back.
"I'm going to sleep. Put Aaron in bed," I grin.
He grins back. "I'll do that."
I give him another kiss and go to my room.
"What time do we have to get up?" I ask Howie, who's almost in bed.
"Nine o'clock," he sighs.
"Nine o'clock? Than I'll go to bed quickly," I say shocked.
I quickly brush my teeth and pull on my nightdress. I wish Howie goodnight and fall asleep immediately.
Chapter 23
Sundaymorning.
I wake up and hear the phone ringing.
"That was our wake-up call. It's nine o'clock," Howie says and gives a yawn.
"Man, do we have to get up?" I grumble and pull the sheets over my head.
"Shit, you're all leaving today," I wake up with a shock and sit up. Howie nods. As fast as I can I take a shower and dress. I throw my stuff into my bag and knock Nick and Aaron's door.
"Come in," Nick calls. I see he's also almost finished.
"I never got up that fast before," I grin.
"Me neither, I'm almost finished," he grins back. He gives me a tender kiss. I lay my hands at his chest and push him to the bed, where I sit down on his lap. I take his face in my hands and give him a kiss. He puts his arms around me.
"I'm gonna miss you so much," he says and looks deep into my eyes.
"I'm gonna miss you too. I can't believe you have to go. We've just met," I sigh. "Yes, only three days ago, but it feels so much longer, but on the other hand it feels much shorter," he says thinking.
"It's just not fair. I've been waiting for someone like you for all my life, and now we have to say goodbye," I say sad.
"Please smile at me. I don't want you to be sad. I only want to make you happy. Just think of the good time we had and the good times that are to come," he tries to cheer me up.
With difficulty I put a smile on my face. "Yes, I know. But you'll go back home and be busy with your stuff, and I only have that stupid research I have to do. I don't think I will be able to think of something else than you."
"It's as hard for me as it is for you. I'll have to concentrate on my work, and be nice to everybody when all I want is to be with you. Call me any time you feel sad or lonely. I'll always make time to talk with you," he says and he raises my face so I look at him.
"Yes, I know all that, but what if the press writes again about you dating all kinds of girls," I say and feel a tear going down my cheek.
"You know I only love you. Don't believe whatever they say about me. You know I have to be on pictures with fans. But you'll always see that I'm wearing this necklace, and than remember the good time we had over here," zegt hij terwijl hij de traan wegkust. "Call me, whenever you want to. Even if it's ten times a day, or ten times a night," he smiles.
I smile through my tears: "It could be ten times a night, because of the time difference. Whenever I read something about you, it'll be night for you, because it's 7 hours earlier with you, isn't it?"
He nods: "I don't care if you call me at night. I'll be able to answer the phone than. During the day I can't when I'm doing an interview, or a show or something like that. But leave a message on my voicemail and I'll call you back as soon as I can. I'll call you very often and tell you what I've done, and where I've been, and what I have to do the next days, so you'll know exactly where I am."
I smile: "That will help."
"You can tell me everything. Tell me if anything bothers you, or if you doubt me, I'll always tell you everything," he says seriously.
"I promis. I love you," I say and see his face lightening up.
"I love you too," he said very sweet. I feel happy again instantly.
"Just remember that," Nick smiles. I give him a long, passionate deep kiss. He pulls me close to him. We go on kissing for a while. Then we hear someone coughing carefully. I look around.
"Sorry to disturb you, but I've got to collect my clothes and stuff," Aaron says shy.
"Hey, don't be so shy, it's just us," I smile, while still holding Nick tight.
"You're sitting on it," Aaron grins carefully.
"Oh, I didn't notice that. Sorry," I laugh. Nick pulls the clothes from underneath us while still holding me tight with his other arm. Aaron goes on quietly with packing his stuff.
"He's gonna miss you too. I've never seen him that happy, except for when he's at home," Nick wispers.
"I'll miss him too. He's funny," I wisper back.
"You know, the things your cousin does for you, listen to you, help you, you do the same thing to him. You help him to grow up. Puberty isn't easy," Nick goes on wispering.
"Tell me about it. I hope I can help him as much as my cousin helped me. He can always call me, about anything," I smile.
"I'll help him remember that when something bothers him," Nick nods.
"So, I'm able to make two boys happy. That should keep me happy," I smile.
"Boys?" Nick grins.
"Yes, well, you're my boyfriend, and I don't feel old, like I'm a grown-up woman, so I, well, it sounds kind of weird to me to call you a man. I know you're a man, but.."
He puts his finger on my lips. "I know what you mean. I'm not a boy, but I'm not a man either, it's exactly the way you feel it. It's funny, we feel the same about a lot of things, inside we have a lot in common. But we live totally different lives."
I nod: "That's what keeps it interesting. When you're the same, and you live the same lives, that would be boring. And when you're totally different, but live the same lifes, you will be always fighting, I guess. So we have to be the perfect couple," I grin.
"I'm sure we are," Nick nods and gives me a long deep kiss.
"Euh, guys, we only have half an hour left for breakfast," Aaron says and points at his watch. We go downstairs together.
"And the youngest are the latest again," we're greeted by AJ.
"Are you really that slow?" Kevin asks.
"I don't know about Nick, but Rachel was ready in 20 minutes this morning," Howie grins.
"Nick in 25 minutes," Aaron grins. "I've never seen him that fast."
"But it took Aaron more than an hour," Nick grins.
"Yes, because the two of you were sitting on my clothes," Aaron says indignantly.
"You're always spreading all your clothes through the room," Kevin comments. We quickly have our breakfast.
We take the suitcases and go to the airport.
"Time to say goodbye," Nick sighs. One by one I hug the boys and Leighanne and say goodbye.
I hug Aaron and say: "You can always call me, when something bothers you, or when you need advice about girls, or boys." I give him a kiss on his cheek. "Take care of Nick," I say.
"Take care of yourself," he answers and also gives me a kiss on my cheek.
I put my arms around Nick.
"Don't know what to say," I wisper.
"Me neither," he wispers back. He gives me a last deep kiss.
"I love you."
"I love you too." Reluctantly we let go of eachother. He turns around and follows the others.
Chapter 24
Suddenly I'm all alone. I take a deep breath and take my bag. I suddenly feel very small. I go looking for the trainstation. First I'll bring my bag home, than I'll go to my parents. I have to buy a ticket, I suddenly remember. It's Sunday, I can't travel for free. In the train I'm sitting and thinking and dreaming a bit. Luckily it's not very crowded.
At my room in Utrecht I walk around a bit, I feel useless. I'll go directly to my parents.
I feel a bit lonely, and call Paul. Shit, he's not there. I'll leave a message on his voicemail. I tell him that I have to tell a lot and have to talk to him urgently.
"You can come to me at my room when I've finished working tomorrow, around 21.30u," I end.
I call Karen. Luckily she answers the phone. I tell her I've just said goodbye.
"But I've taken some fantastic pictures of the concert. I'm going to the 1-hour photoservice tomorrow. You have to come by soon to look at them," I say enthusiastically.
"Yes, I definitely want to see them. You do have pictures of the two of you together, don't you?" she asks.
"Leighanne took pictures of us with Nick's digital camera. He'll mail them to me as soon as possible." We chat a little while and than hang up. Finally the train's in Gouda. Now I have to wait 20 minutes for the bus. I feel a bit lost. If everything goes right, Paul comes by tomorrow evening, but what am I going to do the rest of the week? I call Caroline, she cheers me up a little. I tell her about the pictures. She promises that we go shopping Thursday evening for clothes to match my new boots, than she can also see the pictures. It sound like real fun, buying a sexy black skirt. We agree that she comes to me Thursday after her work for her study, first have dinner at my place, after that shopping. I feel a lot more happy now.
The bus arrives, I'm almost there. When I open the fence, I get jumped by our two dogs. I tell my parents and little brother everything about Nick and Aaron and the others. With a big smile I show them the paper with the article about 'the unknown girl with which the boys are seen'. My parents have to laugh a bit about the article. They don't totally trust it yet, but if I tell them that Nick's coming by to meet them, their mind's at ease a bit.
When I've finished telling I go to my room.
I'm bored.
This has never happened before. What would I normally do now? Read some magazines, play computergames. But I don't want to do that now. With a shock I suddenly realize that Lilian, my cousin, doesn't know it yet.
She just knows that I had a meet and greet on Thursday.
I run downstairs to get the telephone.
"Call Lilian," I say when I see my parents with a questioning look. I call her.
"And what happened Thursday? Actually I expected you to be here Friday afternoon," she says surprised. I tell her about everything extensively. Once and a while she says: 'You're kidding', or 'Oh, that's great'. I promise that I visit her Friday afternoon to show her all the pictures. Someones calling me for dinner, so we hang up. Another appointment, great.
The days fly past. Nick calls every day. I've developed the pictures, Nick mailed me the pictures of us together, I've also put them on photographpaper.
All my friends, collegues at the drugstore, brother, sister, Lilian, everybody has seen the pictures and heard the story. Not everybody has seen all the pictures of coursed, some are too private. Everybody reacted as expected. Some enthusiastic, some reserved.
I've bought together with Caroline a supersexy skirt and a black leather tie. With a white blouse and a black shining panty that I already had, it's together with the boots a fantastic outfit. Paul has also seen it, his eyes almost popped out. I've been out with Paul a couple of times, and we drank loads of beer. I've made it really busy for myself, lots of appointments, so I wouldn't miss Nick too much. We call eachother every day, sometimes I call him from his sleep, because there's another stupid story about him in the magazines. I know that it's all not true, but I want to hear him say it.
He also called me a couple of times from my sleep, when he couldn't take it anymore. All those fans, being on a picture smiling all the time. And over and over again the same questions in interviews, if he really has a girlfriend in the Netherlands and if he misses me.
I've called Tanja from Hitkrant to tell her our story and sent her a picture of Nick and me together. There are only pictures of us at the airport, but on that pictures we're not very recognizable. So there's only one real picture of us. Luckily nobody has recognized me until now. At university they're gossiping about me, is it her, isn't it her?
Chapters 25 to 28
Home
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Chapter 17 to 20
Chapter 25 to 28
Chapter 29 to 32