Bab 18: Mr. Man Next Door (2)
Burt
"Any other questions?"
"How long am I supposed to be on this diet?" I asked. Jamie bit down a snort, but we all heard it and started laughing. Ned smiled at us. Maybe if he got mad back then, he would get better respect from us, but that's just how things turned out.
Nobody ended up calling us Old Winos Next Door, either, though I always wondered what would happen when we were no longer boys. The other boys were uncomfortable about that as well.
"What happens when we're no longer boys?" LJ asked when it was just the five of us. LJ had always been in the biggest hurry to grow up.
"Do you think our boyband will even last that long?" Jamie asked.
"Don't tempt fate, man," Mark slapped him on the back of his head. Jamie punched him on the chest to retaliate, while Mark looked around the room for wood to knock on.
"Well, it looks like our fate is sealed because it's even in the song lyrics," Jamie pointed at the page in his song book. "I will always be your boy next door... Nice, now we have to live up to that for the rest of our lives, thank you very much."
"Which song is that?" Mark asked as we flipped our own song books open.
"Girl. It's our debut song. This sucks."
"Hey, I like Girl," was all I could say. I didn't know what else to say.
"Yeah, it's a good song," Jamie said, helpfully.
"I know it's a good song," Steve said, irritated. "It's a great song. It's gonna be huge. And when we have fans, they'll keep asking for that song, and we have to sing that we will always be the boy next door. But you know, we have to grow up sometime. Like, what would our wives say to that?"
"Nobody gets famous on their debut song anyway," Mark pointed out, which was true. It was always a third or fourth song that people started paying attention to, never the debut.
"Yeah," Jamie nodded. "Only hardcore fans remember the debut song."
Except in our case, we turned out to be the exception to that rule. Girl made us famous within the day we debuted and we still sing it nine years later. The last time we sang it was last night and when we listened to the stadium scream that line, "I will always be your boy next door!" Steve looked at me and rolled his eyes.
As we ran back to the dressing rooms, I grabbed Steve's shoulders and hugged him, thankful that he agreed to debut with us even though he hated our concept. "I will always be your aging man next door..." Steve sang to me in falsetto while in that hug and we laughed all the way to the dressing room.
—
This wife was having a bit too much fun at her aging man next door.
I pulled her closer to me and bit her nose. "There's a 'Suddenly'?" I asked.
"You never heard that? Haha, I knew you probably had no idea," she giggled. "Suddenly because whoa, where did that come from?" As she said 'that,' she pressed her hand on my abs.
"From here," I grabbed her hand and pulled it lower. She quickly rolled away and I felt like a bumbling ogre who reacted too slowly.
"I have to add another egg if you're joining us for breakfast," she blew me a kiss and disappeared into the kitchen.
I lay on my back and closed my eyes, listening to the sounds in the house. I heard Billy pass our room, describing his firetruck to lord knows who. This is the first time in a long time I'm having breakfast with my family, with my son. It felt good.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
SongforJ
SongforJ My friend had to make a chart to keep track of who was who. I hope you’re able to figure out your own way of keeping track of all the characters, it can be too many people to remember, I have to admit.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone