Brian woke up slowly. It was close to noon already. He stretched and sat up, kicking his covers off onto the floor. "God, I love days off," he said to himself.
He reached into his suitcase and pulled out a pair of baggy Levi's and his dark red football jersey. He opened his door and entered the larger room adjoining his. Two of his bandmates were still there. A tall blond with blue eyes sat at a small corner table, working on his newest drawing. On the other side of the room, a much smaller Latin guy with dark hair and almost black eyes sat in an armchair reading a book.
The blond looked up as he heard Brian enter the room. "Hey, look, Howie!" he said. "Brian's not dead after all!"
"Ha, ha. You crack me up," Brian said with a mock smile. "Shuddup, Nicky," he said, the smile fading as quickly as it had come. "Now, if neither of you mind, I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed."
"Good!" Howie said, trying not to laugh. "Put some clothes on. I don't want to look at that nasty scar on your chest."
Brian picked up a rumpled t-shirt that was on the floor and threw it at Howie. "Be quiet, you!" he said, laughing. "I like my scar. It's manly."
Howie threw the shirt back at Brian. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that!" he shouted after Brian as he shut the bathroom door.
"Hey, Howie, come look at this," Nick said after Brian was in the shower and they could faintly hear the water running.
Howie set his book down on the arm of the chair and came over to stand behind Nick. "What am I looking at?" he asked.
Nick held up his drawing, which was a portrait of all 5 guys. "You like?" he asked.
Howie was impressed. "Nick, that's really good," he said. "Did you just do that out of your head, without looking at a picture or anything?" Nick nodded.
"Well, you suck!" Howie said, smiling. Nick stuck his tongue out at him and they both laughed.
Brian came out of the bathroom wearing his Levi's and jersey. His auburn hair was still soaking wet. "OK, I heard y'all talking. What'd Nicky draw this time?" he asked.
"Nothing you'd be interested in, Frick," Nick said, slamming his sketchbook shut.
Brian shrugged, playing along. "OK, fine. I didn't want to see it anyway. I just thought I'd be polite." He went back into his room to find a pair of socks. After finding them, he went back in the other room with Nick and Howie. He sat down on the couch and turned on the TV.
"Where'd AJ and Kev go?" Brian asked, flipping through the channels.
Nick put his pencil down and flopped down on the couch next to Brian. "I dunno, they just said they were going to look around."
Brian was still channel surfing when someone knocked on the door. Howie went to answer it.
A young desk clerk was at the door. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Dorough, but you and your friends are needed down in the lobby." She sounded serious.
"OK, we'll be down as soon as we can," Howie told her. He thanked her and closed the door.
"Come on, guys, they need us downstairs," Howie said, picking his shoes up off the floor and putting them on. Brian and Nick stood up and waited for Howie in the doorway, confused.
When they got to the lobby, there were several police cruisers parked outside. "What the hell..." Nick started to say, but he trailed off when he saw AJ and Kevin. They were both white with fear and trembling visibly.
"What's the matter? What happened?" Howie asked as AJ sat down in a chair in the corner and buried his head in his arms, sobbing silently. Kevin just stood there, still stunned.
"OK, will someone please tell us what's going on here?" Brian asked. A small mob was forming in the lobby as more people noticed the commotion outside.
A uniformed police officer stepped forward and put his hand on Brian's shoulder. "We should probably go somewhere else to talk about this," he said. He turned to another officer a few feet away. "Get these people back to their business, and get the cruisers out of here." The other officer nodded and started shooing people out of the building.
The police officer led the 5 young men into the small lounge area just off to the side of the lobby. AJ and Kevin were still trying to regain control of themselves.
"There was a shooting a few blocks away," the officer said. "We think the suspect was aiming at AJ when he fired, but he missed. A bystander was shot and killed instantly. It was a young girl by the name of Christina Wesson. She was 16 years old."
The officer stopped when he saw the looks of shock and horror on every face in the room. "I'm sorry," he said. "And please, be careful." With that, he left the room.
The 5 young men sat there in silence for a few minutes.
Kevin finally regained his ability to speak. "I can't believe that just happened," he said, his green eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "That girl just died because of us."
AJ stood up angrily. "No. Not because of us," he said. "Because of me! That guy was aiming at me! I'm never going to cause something like this again. I quit!" He stormed out of the lounge and ran up the stairs to his room.
Brian followed him. "AJ, you can't blame yourself for this!" AJ didn't listen to him. He entered his room and threw all of his belongings into a suitcase.
"AJ!" Brian said, losing his patience and raising his voice. "You can't just walk out on us! It wasn't your fault!"
AJ turned around with a look of combined rage and fear in his eyes. He brought his face to about an inch from Brian's and said, "That girl just died because of me. I can't deal with that. Screw it! I'm going home. I quit!" He turned back around and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
Brian didn't try to stop him; he knew it wouldn't do any good. He turned back toward the window, trying to force back the tears that were forming in his bright blue eyes. He watched as AJ walked out onto the sidewalk from the main entrance of the hotel and put on a pair of sunglasses before hailing a taxi. Brian cracked the window open just in time to hear AJ tell the driver to take him to the airport. The cab pulled away from the curb and the tears spilled over on to Brian's face as he watched one of his best friends walk out on everything. His career. His fans. His friends.
When Brian turned back around, Nick, Kevin and Howie were standing in the doorway of the suite. No one said a word as Brian, Kevin and Howie all went into their rooms, doors closing quietly behind them.
Nick was left alone, standing in the middle of the room. He walked over to the table he'd been sitting at and picked up his sketchbook. He took out the drawing of the 5 of them that he'd just finished and sighed heavily. Crumpling the drawing in one hand, he tossed it in the wastebasket, then dropped the sketchbook back on the table. "Guess that's the end of that," he said under his breath, and then he walked into his room and shut the door behind him.