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Chapter 3
Moments later, while Brian and Nick were coming up with their "master plan", Kevin happened to be video taping the two girls that were sitting front of him, without their knowledge.
"Candace," Terah said looking at her friend who was turning ghostly white, "Don't be nervous. People fly all of the time. We will be fine, I promise."
"I know, I know," Candace said trying to convince herself.
"What would Nick say right now," Terah asked trying to get her mind off of flying.
Candace let out a giggle and replied, "He would say, 'It's all good!', but he wouldn't really believe it because he is scared of flying, too!"
From behind them, the two girls could hear a slight giggle come from the two guys that had just come up and sat behind them. Terah and Candace just exchanged glances and laughed.
Terah just shrugged off the fact that their conversation had been overheard and continued, "But, Candace, flying is just as safe as driving a car these days. You know you are more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash."
"Sounds like something that you would tell Nick," Howie whispered to Kevin, as he kept videotaping all around the plane.
Kevin smiled and replied, "Well, it's true."
Howie just let out another stifled laugh while he watched as Brian and Nick quickly walked up to the front of the airplane, trying hard not to be noticed by the two girls in the front.
Candace and Terah both saw the two figures dash past them, but didn't really pay to much attention to what they were doing.
A moment later, a young woman's voice came over the speaker, "Good morning everyone, and welcome to Cincinnati International airports direct flight to Las Vegas, Nevada. Your Captain is William Davis and my name is Beth. I will also be assisted today by two gentleman that I am sure that you all know. So, to explain our in-flight procedure, here is B-Rok."
All of a sudden, Candace and Terah jerked their heads up and saw standing just 10 feet from them, Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys.
Terah immediately started giggling with the rest of the group, while Candace just dropped her jaw.
"Thank you very much," Brian said in his most Jim Carrey-esque voice. "OK, so everyone knows my assistant, Kid Nicky. Well, he is going to demonstrate how to buckle your seat belts and show you how to activate your life jackets and air masks in case of an emergency landing."
It was then that Nick walked out wearing a life jacket around his neck and a face mask covering his mouth and nose. To top it all off, he was wearing a seat belt around his waist.
Simultaneously, the entire plane erupted in fits of laughter, except Candace of course, who just sat their in complete awe. She couldn't help but giggle a bit, but not as much as Terah, who was practically hyperventilating.
Nick looked at Candace, and almost lost his concentration of what they were doing. He couldn't help it though. Since the minute he laid eyes on her, he couldn't think straight. He was never one to believe in fate, or anything like it, but he had to admit, it was kind of weird how she was in the very spot in line in front of Denise. I don't know what this feeling is, Nick thought to himself. He could not even explain what was happening to him at that very minute. He felt lightheaded; his pulse was racing, butterflies in the stomach. Was it the fact that he hated to fly, or was it something about this girl? So many things were rushing around in his head, that he almost forgot what he was doing. Stop this, he said to himself!
Snapping back to the present, he heard Brian say, "Nick will know demonstrate the proper way to buckle your seat belt. Please remember that Nick is a trained professional, and you should not try this at home."
"Yes," Nick said, "Just like this."
To masses of laughter, Nick haphazardly buckled and unbuckled the seat belt.
Candace was still in total shock while Terah was having a fit and could hardly
breathe.
"Also, whatever you do, Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT pull
this cord!" Brian said pointing to the chord on the life jacket.
Nick looked at him with a quizzical look, "What cord?"
Brian smiled as if Nick had said the
magic word, "This one!" Brian pulled the cord and the life preserver
instantly in inflated.
No longer being able to keep a straight face, Candace burst out laughing along with the rest of the plane.
Seeing that they had broken the entire
plane into hysterics, the duo quickly took a bow and said thank you. The real
flight attendant took over the mike and said, "Let's hear it one more time
for the comedy duo of Frick and Frack." Everyone gave them a round of
applause. "We will be taking off in 5 minutes."
The two quickly thanked the flight attendant and took their
seats right across from Terah and Candace.
Terah who was still in the midst of her giggle fit, was by
now coughing and hacking and somewhere in between she was still laughing
uncontrollably. "Are you okay," Candace asked with a
slightly nervous giggle.
Brian look across the isle and asked, "Is she okay?"
"Yeah," Candace laughed, not believing that this is actually happening to them, "She does this all the time."
Kevin stood up an leaned over the seat
trying to give his bottle of water, "Would this help?"
"No!" Candace stopped him, "That is the last
thing that you ever want to give her when she is having one of her giggle
fits." Candace shook her head and patted her friend on the back,
"Trust me, unless you want to see something really, really gross, never
give her anything to drink while she is laughing."
"Why," Kevin asked with a grin on his face.
Feeling a little calmer Candace smiled
and said, "She has a slight tendency to shoot things out of her nose. It is
not pretty." The guys all laughed.
When Terah finally calmed down from her laughing/coughing
fit, Kevin asked, "Are you okay?"
Looking back behind her, not believing that she was actually talking to Kevin Richardson, she answered, "Yes, thank you. I sometimes get a little out of control when I find something funny."
At that moment, the real flight attendant interrupted them and announced that they were ready for departure. Introductions would have to wait for just a few minutes.
The entire group all settled down and buckled their seat belts. Terah was in the window seat, with Kevin directly behind her, while Candace was in the isle seat with Nick right across from her.
When the plane began to pick up speed for take off, Candace could feel herself getting very tense, so she laid her head back to try to forget about what was she was doing.
Terah looked at her friend and said calmly, "It's okay, we will be perfectly fine."
Candace just closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, "I know, but you know how I get during takeoff."
Realizing this perfect opportunity, Nick looked over and asked, "Hate to fly?"
Candace looked over and nodded her head. "Me too," he said, "I always find it easier if you have someone's hand to hold."
Candace looked over at an almost equally scared Nick, who was holding out his hand to her. Reluctantly, she reached her hand toward his and he grasped it firmly. She smiled and said, "Thanks, by the way, I am Candace."
"Nick," he said introducing himself, smiling he said, "Don't worry, I won't let go. Not until you feel safe."
Terah leaned forward and said to Nick, "I hope you know what you are saying. She is likely to need your hand the entire flight."
Hearing this, Brian leaned forward and said, "That's okay, Nick is just doing that because I told him that I wouldn't hold his hand anymore."
Terah giggled and said, "Hi, I am Terah."
"Nice to meet you," he laughed, "I'm Brian. It is pretty sad that we have two scaredy cats for best friends."
Candace and Nick just ignored the two
chatting over them and just concentrated on each other. Nick starred into
Candace's eyes and her into his. She couldn't help but think how she could
easily get lost in his eyes forever. Staring into his eyes, she felt a great
calm come over her, and holding his hand made her feel like she would be safe
for all time. He made her feel so safe, as if he was the one holding the plane
in the air. Somehow
she knew that with him holding her hand, everything was good.
Nick was also in his own little world. So much so, that he hardly noticed when the seat belt light went off indicating that they could get up and walk around if needed.
Terah quickly took off her seat belt, and turned to face Candace, who was still holding on to Nick's hand.
"I think that I will be okay from here," she said loosening her grip on his hand.
Nick smiled awkwardly letting go of her hand, and said, "Sorry."
"That's okay," she laughed nervously, "I appreciate the help."
"Anytime," he said, and deep down, he really meant it.
Kevin stood and finally began the official introductions. "Hi, I'm Kevin."
Quickly turning around, she stood up. "Terah," she stated, "Sorry about my little episode. I don't really know what came over me."
"It's all right," he told her, "we usually keep an oxygen tank around when Brian and Kevin are on the loose."
Brian and AJ both made their way to the seats in front of the girls.
"Hey there, I'm AJ, but you can call me Bone," he said extending his hand to each of the girls, "Denise is my mom."
"You mean our guardian angel," Candace corrected him. Terah added, "Yeah. I still can't believe that she was so kind as to let us come along for the ride. We were really freaking out."
"She told us that your plane was overbooked," AJ said, "I can't believe that would happen."
"Well, I guess everything happens for a reason," Candace said, "Who knows?"
Brian shot a glance at his best friend.
"Fate," Nick said, sort of
under his breath.
"Huh?" Candace asked not quite hearing what Nick
had said.
"Oh, nothing," he smiled. Brian had heard him
though. He had never seen Nick like this before. Usually he was extremely shy
around girls, unless it was it was at their concerts, and then he rarely saw him
be overly outgoing. He definitely knew something was going on with his friend.
After chatting for several minutes of chatting, Kevin asked the girls if they wanted to come back to meet some of the band members. Terah quickly jumped at the chance, but Candace, wasn't really ready to move around all that much, so she told Terah to go ahead and go. Terah got up and followed Kevin, AJ, Brian, and Howie back to where the others were sitting.
Brian turned around to Nick and said,
"Yo, Frack, you coming?"
"Naw," nick said looking at Candace and then back
to Brian, "I think that I will keep Candace company."
Brian smiled and said to Candace, "If he starts to really get on your nerves, you just give me a holler and I'll take care of him for you."
"Okay," Candace giggled and then asked Nick, "Would you like to come over here?"
"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Nick said standing up, making his way over to where Terah had once been sitting.
Once he was comfortable, the flight attendant came over to take their drink order. At the same time Candace and Nick both said Dr. Pepper. The two laughed at the coincidence.
After a moment of silence, Nick looked at Candace and asked shyly, "So, I hope your boyfriend won't be too upset that you held a perfect strangers hand for a little while."
Hoping that this was Nick's way finding out if she had a boyfriend, she smiled and answered by saying, "No I don't think he'll mind," seeing Nick's face drop she finished, "considering, I don't have one."
Happy with her final answer, Nick just smiled, "So, where are you from? Tell me a little bit about yourself."
"Not to much to tell," Candace began, "I'm from Cinicinnati, but I attend UK. I am majoring in photography, with a minor in musical studies."
"Wow that is impressive," he said in awe, "What do you want to do after you graduate?"
Thinking for a second she replied, "I would really love to be a concert photographer. You know, following around bands being their personal photographer. I would love to do that."
"That is great," Nick said, "But life on the road gets kinda lonely, don't you think you would miss home."
"Yeah, but Terah will be my personal assistant, and she is studying psychology, so she could counsel the people whose pictures I take," Candace laughed at her own joke.
Nick laughed and said, "Yeah, and we could really use counseling."
The two laughed and talked for a little while and then, already knowing the answer Nick decided to ask, "So, what is bringing you out to Vegas?"
Thinking about it for just a second she wondered if she should tell the truth, and so she did, "You."
"Me?" He asked in shock.
"Well, not just you," she laughed and then began to explain, "My cousin lives in Vegas and I was coming out to see her as well. She got me tickets to the VH-1 Fairway to Heaven golf tourney."
"That is really cool," Nick said, "I wish that I could just pick up and go to do something like that."
"Well," Candace replied, "we had the week off from school, and we had always wanted to visit Vegas, and when my cousin called to tell me about the concert and tourney, we couldn't resist."
"Well, I am glad you didn't," Nick said smiling and asked, "Did you know that we were going to be their playing?"
With a shocked look she smiled and said, "No, not a clue, but it is nice to know."
"Yeah," Nick said, "I completely agree."
"Well, I guess we will be seeing
each other again this week," Candace said.
"A lot more," he said adding, "I hope."
Blushing, all Candace could do was smile.
Chapter 4 - Coming Soon!
