It's A Roller Coaster Ride We're On

“Alright gang. What would you like to do first?” Lauren asked Denise, Kevin Sr. and Frankie.

“How about we do the interview first… before things get too loud?” Kevin Sr. suggested.

“Sounds good,” Lauren said. “Mel might snap a few photos here and there though while I’m asking questions, depending.”

“Or if the guys start soon I might take some of them.” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Right, okay, Denise my first question is for you.” She said. “Did you think when you became a mother, that your children would one day be famous?”

“Famous? Not at all, I just hoped for the best for my children. I wanted them to be able to grow up into very healthy, happy, successful, responsible, people filled with the greatest morals and appreciation of life. I never dreamed in a million years that this would happen. Granted, music was bound to run in the family.”

“Wonderful,” Lauren said, jotting some stuff down as well as recording the entire conversation. “Do you ever wish you could have had a little girl? This question is for both of you if you’d like.”

“Well, I think every father dreams of having his ’daddy’s girl’,” Kevin Sr. said, “But in our case, that didn’t happen and we wouldn’t have it any other way. With four boys, we’ll have four daughters-in-law.”

“Yes, it would have been nice though to be able to have girl time at home or go on shopping trips. Off the record, I’m hoping the three of us could have that time together.” Denise said, smiling.

“Absolutely,” I said, snapping a picture of her and her husband. His arm was around her shoulders and he was smiling at her as her eyes were to the side, watching Frankie.

“What about you Frankie?” Lauren asked, “Do you ever wish you had a sister?”

“Well, I don’t know. I can wrestle with my brothers and if I had a sister she’d probably worry about… breaking a nail or ruining her hair or something.” He said. The four of us laughed at that.

“What’s so funny?” Joe asked into the mic. His voice echoed throughout the empty venue.

“Your brother,” I responded.

“Frankie or these clowns?” he asked, gesturing over his shoulder to the other two.

“Hey!” Kevin and Nick said at the same time.

“Me, duh” Frankie said, looking at his brother.

“Frankie, come over here, I have more questions for you,” Lauren said, waving him over.

“I think I’ll take pictures of the guys now.” I said.

“Alright,” she said. “Do what you do best.”

“Be sure to get my good side,” Joe said as Jack started counting out the beat.

“What good side?” Nick asked. I laughed and he looked down at me and smiled and winked. I blushed and brought my camera to my face, snapping a photo of the band springing into action.

****

“Knock, knock,” someone said, knocking on the door to the dressing room I was in.

“Who is it?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at my back in the mirror, trying to get the zip of my dress up.

“Nick… can I come in?”

“Um, yeah I guess.” I said… someone needs to help me.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you weren’t ready yet. I’ll just wait outside,” he said, keeping the door open.

“No, no! I need your help. The zipper’s stuck. Can you fix it?” I asked, turning my back to him and pulling my hair over my shoulder. I saw his reaction in the mirror and he took a gulp and closed the door.

“Yeah, uh, sure,” he said, sounding nervous and tentatively stepping forward.

Sure you could see the back of my bra but, why should that make him nervous? A bra’s like a bikini top… His hands seemed to be shaking as they came closer to my body, he didn’t seem to want to actually touch me. Finally he grabbed the zipper and after a few seconds of difficulty slid it up. He stepped back as quick as he could, his cheeks turning pink.

“Thank you so much.” I said, turning to smile at him.

“You’re welcome.” He said, smiling shyly. “You look… beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I said, blushing myself now.

“Lyss,” Joe said, rapping on the closed door. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, come on in Joe,” I said, going to the mirror and fixing my mascara.

“Nick, what are you doing here?”

“Well, I came to see if Mel was ready and her zipper was stuck so I helped her.” Nick said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking down at his feet. He glanced at me under his brown curls and I smiled at him again.

“Oh, well, are you ready Lyss? We have to go to lockdown in five minutes and Dad’s trying to get us all together.”

“Yeah, just have to get my camera. Your Mom is watching it for me.” I said, grabbing the clothes I had changed out of and putting them in a bag. “Okay, let’s go.”

****

Lockdown took place in the very back of the backstage. Seriously, we were so secluded from everyone else it was kind of creepy. It was just me, Kevin, Joe, Nick, and the four guys in the band; Jack, John, Ryan, and Garbo. Lauren and I were briefly introduced to them before sound check earlier. We were about 25 minutes into the lockdown and the band guys were doing their own thing. Kevin and Nick were harmonizing and Joe was stretching in the corner.

I walked over to him and snapped a picture of him with his foot on the wall. He was leaning forward to touch his toes. After I took the picture he looked at me and winked.

“Did I tell you that you look beautiful?” he whispered, smiling.

“No, and thank you.” I whispered back, smiling and looking down at my feet. “Now focus.”

“It’s hard…” he whined.

“Why is that?”

“Because you’re here.” He said, turning to stretch a different way.

I stood there staring at him for a moment but he was now focused on his stretching again. I looked up and caught Nick’s gaze. His eyes looked kind of sad but he shook his head back and forth, making his curly hair bounce and started pacing with his eyes closed. I took a picture of that and he smiled slightly, keeping his eyes closed.

****

“Alright, fifteen minutes until show time,” Kevin Sr. said, opening the door to the lockdown room. “Let’s go head up so we can pray.”

I let all the guys so out ahead of me. Kevin Sr. lingered to talk to me.

“So, did they focus?” he asked as we walked.

“It was like I wasn’t there.” I said; my eyes set on the backs of two heads walking in front of me. One curly, one flat ironed. Oh boy.

“So how was the lockdown experience?” Lauren asked me when we walked back to where she, Denise, Frankie, and Rob were.

“Interesting,” I said, “I have to talk to you.” I whispered.

“During the concert.” She whispered back.

“Alright, let’s pray,” Kevin Sr. said, waving everyone together. Somehow I ended up between Joe and Nick. Joe laced our fingers together. On my other side, Nick held onto my hand very gently, yet firmly, and he was stroking his thumb over the back of my hand. I shifted my weight, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Somehow, both hands, felt right. It was hard to explain…

“Good luck,” I said, smiling as I hugged Kevin before he went out.

“I’m going to be looking back to make sure you’re watching,” Joe said as I hugged him.

“Joe, you know I will be.” I said rolling my eyes.

“How do I know that? I’ll need proof.”

“Whatever Joe,” I said, laughing.

“We’re going to dedicate a song to you and Lauren.” Nick said while he was hugging me.

“You guys don’t have to do that.” I said.

“So?” he asked, shrugging his shoulder. “Want to know which song?”

“Fine,” I said sighing.

“It’s going to be, ’BB Good’.” He said, smiling.

“I’ll pay extra special attention then.”

“Cool, see you after,” he said, as he lowered his guitar over his head. I waved as he ran out on stage; the sound of thousands of screaming girls reaching my ears.

“Alright, spill,” Lauren said as soon as all the guys were on stage.

“Okay, here’s what happened,” I said, letting out a breath. I told her about what happened with Joe during lockdown and she smirked.

“See, I told you. They both like you.”

“I know,” I groaned, glancing back out on stage. Nick and Joe both happened to be looking. Nick winked at me as Joe smiled. I couldn’t help but smile as I turned back to Lauren.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“That’s the thing. I don’t know what I should do. They’re both great and I still don’t think Joe knows that Nick likes me too. And I hate seeing Nick’s face all pained like that, it hurts.”

“Do you think that means you like Nick more?”

“I don’t know what it means!” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “Help me?”

“I’ll see what I can do. Do you mind if I talk to Kevin about it?”

“Go ahead. If anyone knows what’s going on with those two it would be him.” I said, nodding my head. “What’s going on with you two anyway?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, turning her attention to the boys performing, slightly dancing along with the song.

“I mean, you two in our room this morning… you were smiling a lot. During sound check, I saw him wink at you. And don’t think I didn’t see him kiss you on the cheek before running out on stage not twenty minutes ago.” I said, crossing my arms and grinning at her.

“Okay, well, we like being in each other’s company. We talked about a lot this morning. We have quite a bit in common.” She said. She couldn’t help but smile.