Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:52:04 -0500 From: music teacher Subject: "This is the Night" chapter 19 Disclaimer: I have an overactive imagination, the result of which is this story. I do not know Clay Aiken or any other celebrities mentioned in this story, and I do not intend to imply anything about their true sexualities. Simply file this in the "Wouldn't it be nice...?" portion of your mind. Also, if you are under legal age to be reading this sort of stuff (18 in most areas), then leave now. All the rest of you who ARE of age, please enjoy my little mind trip away from the land of reality. *** CHAPTER 19 *** Of course I had nothing to worry about as far as getting the next Friday off of school. As long as I didn't take more than my allotted number of days off, the district didn't so much care *when* I took them. I just hoped that my taking so many days off at the beginning of the school year didn't come back to haunt me later in the year. Just because the school district wasn't asking questions, however, doesn't mean that other teachers weren't. On the Wednesday before my trip, Meg approached me. "Randy," she said, "the rumor going around is that you're quitting! Tell me that's not true!" "What?!" I said incredulously. "Meg, I think if I were quitting, you'd be the first to know. Besides, why would I quit when the school year has barely begun?" "Well, you ARE taking a lot of days off already," she said. I sighed. "Yeah, I know. But the first time, I was sick. I couldn't help that! And this time, I'm going out of town with my boyfriend." "Ohhhh, a little rendezvous?" Meg teased me. "He has...business to attend to in Atlantic City, and asked me to go with him," I said, looking away. "What kind of business in Atlantic City?" she asked. I decided to level with her...sort of. "OK, so I told you he's famous, right?" "Yeah..." she said. "Well, he got an invitation to go to the Miss America pageant," I said, leaving out the fact that Clay was performing at the pageant, something which would have given his identity away for sure. "Wow! That's so cool!" said Meg excitedly. "Yeah," I agreed. "But I do feel bad about leaving the kids *again*. So can you do me a favor and make sure the kids know that I'm OK, and I'm not quitting?" "Sure," she said. "IF you do me a favor..." Of course. With Meg, there was always a condition. God love her. "What's that?" I asked. "Well, I know that Clay Aiken is performing at the pageant," she said. At the mention of Clay's name, my eyes bugged out of my head for a split second. Fortunately, I don't think Meg noticed. "Do you think you could get me an autograph?" I wanted to burst out laughing right then and there. Fortunately, I kept all that laughter in check and simply said, "Sure, I'll try my best." "Thanks! Now have a great rest of the day!" "You too, Meg. Bye!" The rest of the week crawled by as I became more and more excited about my trip. It was only a weekend trip, so there wasn't much packing to be done. Besides, part of my packing had already been done for me -- Clay had rented me a gorgeous tuxedo to wear to the pageant. It actually look a lot like the white tuxedo he had worn on the finale of American Idol, and I told him so when I tried it on. "Really?" he asked. "Well, maybe there's a reason for that..." "Are you kidding me? It's the same tux?!" I was laughing by now. "Well, you and I are about the same height and build. I just had some minor alterations made," he explained. "I'm just sorry I don't look as good as you did in it," I said to him. "Oh please. You look mah-velous. Simply smashing," he said, affecting a fake British accent. "Well, I'm glad you think so," I told him, wrapping my arms around his waist and kissing him lightly on the lips. "OK, it fits! Now I just have to pack a little bit more, and I'll be ready to go!" "OK, I'll be waiting in the living room," said Clay. "Ten minutes until we have to leave!" he reminded me. Jeez...and I thought *I* was anal retentive about punctuality. I finished packing and Clay and I left for the airport. It was another private jet that Clay's management had arranged for. We arrived in Atlantic City later that afternoon and checked into the hotel. Our room was absolutely HUGE. I had never seen a hotel room that big. It was bigger than my apartment! "Let's see...private jets, limos, luxury suites...a guy could get spoiled!" I told him. "Seriously!" he said, gawking at the room. "I can't believe this!" Clay walked around the room, opening drawers and doors and jumping on the bed. I watched him and smiled. Sometimes I forgot that Clay hadn't been exposed to the perks of being a celebrity for very long himself. "OK, little boy," I said to him, dragging him by the hand to the door. "This hotel is ripe for exploring! Especially that casino!" Clay laughed. "I'll leave that up to you," he said. "Unfortunately, I have to get to rehearsal." "Awwww," I said, pouting my lips and giving him puppy dog eyes. "Do you HAFTA?" I asked like a little kid. "You know that look usually works with me," he said. "But there is nothing I can do about it this time. I'm sorry. But have a wonderful afternoon, and I'll be back in time to take you out to a fabulous dinner." He gave me a kiss on the lips. "Well, if you're going to bribe me like that..." I said. "How can I refuse?" So Clay told me to think about where I wanted to go for dinner, and then left for rehearsal. I then took my turn exploring the suite. It really was frickin' big. The bathroom itself was bigger than my bedroom at home, complete with Jacuzzi and two-person shower. There were two bedrooms and a living room, with a little kitchenette in the corner. After I had fully explored, I decided to go to the casino downstairs. Fortunately, I had brought some extra cash along. In addition, Meg had given me twenty dollars to put on "anything red" on the roulette wheel, and let it ride. So I did. When I walked away from the roulette wheel, I figured Meg would be happy with the $640 I won for her. Who'd have figured red would come up five times in a row?! Oh well, time to spend my own money. I had brought fifty dollars, and intended to put it through a rotation in the slot machines. I didn't feel like being *too* risky, so I made my way to the dollar slots. I took two cups -- one to hold the tokens I was spending, and another to hold the tokens I won. I went through my coins rather quickly without much luck, and wasn't quite ready to give up yet, so I cycled through the coins one more time. The second time around, I ad much better luck. By the time I left, I was up almost $150. I had never had such luck gambling. Rather than press my luck, and risk losing my shirt, I decided to cash out and head back to the room. It was almost time for dinner anyway. On the way out of the casino, I came up with a plan. Instead of waiting for Clay to take me out to dinner, I decided to use my casino winnings to order room service. I stopped at the hotel gift shop, which had a huge selection of flowers, and got a dozen red and a dozen white roses, which I took up to the room with me. When I got to the suite, I pulled out the room service menu and ordered dinner for us, complete with candles. In total, the meal and flowers cost me more than what I had won at the casino, but I thought it was worth it, and I was fairly certain Clay would think the same thing. I dug through the CDs I had brought with me on the trip and found a selection of light jazz that would set the mood perfectly. After the flowers were safely tucked away where Clay wouldn't see them, I changed clothes, flipped on the television, and waited for Clay to get home. About twenty minutes later, the door opened, and Clay walked through it, looking pretty exhausted. "Hey, sweetie," he said. "How are you?" I chuckled. "I'm pretty good, how are you? You look wiped out!" I gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Well, it's tough work being around all those beauty queens all day! Man, they just would not quit grabbing me and touching me!" He winked at me to let me know he was joking. "Those bitches better back off my man!" I said, grabbing Clay and drawing him close to me, as if to show no one in particular that he was "my property" or something. Clay laughed. "Yes, well...your man has to take a shower before we go out to dinner. Did you decide where we're going?" "Yes," I told him. "But it's a surprise." I gave him a mischievous look. "Hmmm...you worry me when you get like this..." said Clay. "But I'll just have to trust you, I guess. I'm too tired to argue." "Good," I told him, kissing him again. "Now go shower!" Clay grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom. No sooner had the water started, and Clay had begun singing, than a knock came at the door. I opened it, and the food was wheeled in. I tipped the waiter, and began to set things up. I made sure the table was set, with the food served and candles lit. I then retrieved the flowers from their hiding place and began to place them all over the room. I laid some on the bed, some on the floor, and put some in a vase on the table. I looked around and inspected my work. As soon as I was done, the bathroom door opened and Clay emerged. "What's all this?" he asked. "This," I said, gesturing around the room, "is where we are going for dinner tonight." "But how did you...when did you...?" Clay was dumbfounded. "I did pretty well in the casino this afternoon, so I thought I'd put the winnings to good use," I said proudly. "Besides, I thought it might be nice to...stay in...tonight." "Ohhhhh," said Clay, catching the hidden meaning in my statement. "Well, I'm definitely all for that." "Well, monsieur," I said with a really bad French accent, "dinner is served." I offered my arm to Clay, and he took it. I walked with him over to the table, where I pulled his chair out for him. I poured each of us a glass of water (after the anniversary wine incident, we had each sworn off alcohol for a while) and sat down. I raised my glass, and said, "Here's to us." "Here's to an incredibly romantic dinner...and to us," Clay concurred. We ate our meal in relative silence -- not a forced silence, but a comfortable one. Clay and I were simply enjoying each other's company. "That was absolutely wonderful," Clay said after we had finished. I agreed and began to clean up, but was soon stopped by Clay. "Let me get those," he said. "You went through all the trouble of setting this up, this is the least I can do." So I lay down on the bed and watched as my man cleaned up dinner. When he was done, he laid down with me on the bed, draping his arm across my waist and laying his head on my chest. I lightly stroked the top of his head as he lay there. "Mmmm," Clay purred. "That feels nice. I love you so much" "You know," I told him, "Sometimes at school, I have the absolute worst day I can imagine. But when I think about you, I calm down. I know that I have you to come home to. On those bad days, you are what has calmed me down. And on good days, I can't wait to get home so I can call you and tell you all about it. I never thought I'd be this lucky. I love you, Clay." No response. "Clay?" I asked. Still no response. One more try. "Clay?" "Zzzzzzz," came the light snore from Clay, who had fallen asleep on my chest. I chuckled to myself, and then slowly managed to wriggle out from underneath my sleeping angel. I went into the other bedroom, got a blanket, and gently put it over Clay. I then changed my clothes and crawled into bed with him. I wasn't quite as tired as Clay, so I turned on the television at a low volume and watched for a while until I got sleepy. Eventually, in his drowsed state, Clay snuggled up to me once again, so I flipped off the TV and got underneath the covers. The next morning, we were woken up by a phone call from Clay's management telling him what time he needed to be at the venue. Looking at the clock, we saw that we still had a few hours. Rather than waste the day (not that staying in bed would have been a particularly repulsive option) we decided to get up, shower, and head out. The hotel was actually within walking distance of the theater, so we decided to take a walk on the boardwalk for a while. All afternoon, we strolled, shopped, and ate. Since we were in public for so long, we were followed by a bodyguard, but luckily he stayed out of our way for the most part. After a while, I had almost forgotten he was there. Soon enough, we had reached the theater. We were still pretty early, so we decided to explore backstage. We eventually found a room with Clay's name on it. "My own dressing room?" Clay asked. "They shouldn't have!" We opened the door to find...well...it was a room...sort of. There wasn't much to it, except four concrete walls, a concrete floor, and a plaster ceiling. The room couldn't have measured more than 8x10. As for furniture, there was a really uncomfortable-looking couch along one wall, and a hanging bar with Clay's tux on the other wall. "They *really* shouldn't have..." I said dryly. "Well, it's better than nothing," said Clay, trying to make the best of things. "I might have had to change out in the open, backstage..." I laughed. "Yeah, that's true. I remember how freaked out you got at your mom's when *I* walked in on you changing!" "I just thought you were my mother!" he said defensively. "If I'd have known it was you..." "...you still would have freaked out," I finished for him. "You're one of the most modest people I know." Clay blushed a deep crimson color. I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around him. "And I think that is so... incredibly...cute." I punctuated those last three words with kisses to the back of his neck, his ear, and his cheek as I turned him around. "Yeah," said Clay. "I *am* pretty cute, aren't I?" He smiled as he leaned in to kiss me. What started as innocent kissing soon led to full-fledged making out. Our tongues were entwined in each other's mouths and our hands were roaming all over each other's bodies. We slowly made out way to the couch, and Clay laid me down so that he was on top of me. His hand began to roam up my shirt, and he began to play with my nipple. I began to moan loudly as he rubbed and pinched my nipples, and that made Clay start moaning as well. We were really starting to get into it, when all of a sudden.... "Oh my God, I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to...oh, shit..." *** That's it for Chapter 19! Looks like Clay and Randy have really done it this time. What do you think will happen? I could tell you right now (the next chapter is written already) but that would ruin the point of a cliffhanger, now, wouldn't it? So Clay and Randy getting caught has brought up an interesting question. Do you guys want to see Clay come out publicly? This obviously only pertains to the story...while I wish I could control real life like that, even I am not that good. At any rate, I'm still undecided, but I am leaning toward one way versus the other. I want to hear what you guys think. Send your comments and suggestions to musicteacher2002@hotmail.com Thanks! All the usual thanks apply.