Noise, there’s a lot of that going around lately. And it’s not the nice kind of noise. You know what that means, the kind of noise that tells you you’re not alone, the kind that puts you to sleep knowing you’re surrounded by people you trust. The kind where if you slipped into unconsciousness forever, never to wake up again, you’d be okay with it because the last thing you feel is loved.

This noise is not it.

Now Silence, she’s a rarity these days. Jumped off this crazy wagon a long time ago. He missed her.

Not that she never drops by for a visit, mind. Silence can never leave for good. But she’s changed. These days, Silence is intense. She’s heavy with unspoken thoughts, and none of them would put anyone at ease. She’s dangerous, Silence, because she doesn’t stay buried for long, and when she let go, well, it’s out there, no take backs.

Right now, noise is having a go at AJ and Kevin. He had stayed with them for quite some time now, Noise. He whispers and he pokes and they took the bait and soon, the yelling and scuffling started again like it never ends.

Silence is having an Ménage à trois with Brian and Howie. They might be as far apart as they possibly could, trapped in this moving bus of hell, but the silence dance they were having is as dangerous as ever. And it doesn’t matter who will explode first, because like falling dominoes, one will come after the other, sequence and all.

Now Nick, he’s a wildcard. At least in this current game, he is. You see, Nick is busy playing Final Fantasy on the Playstation. It’s the kind of noise he could get behind. It’s either that, or sleeps, and sleep has been hard to find lately, so that was a no go.

It’s not that Nick hates the noise or is siding silence, because anyone who has eyes and a pair of good ears will tell you that he had been in both courts more times than he could remember. He is not without faults; the healing flesh wound on Kevin’s left ear is a testament to this. It’s just, he’s tired and it’s almost eleven at night and it’s an early day tomorrow with press junkets and more radio interviews before a concert at night and they’ve yet to reach the hotel.

He could yell, kick something and let all that frustration out, let silence out, but Final Fantasy seemed to let him do just that, and not get physically hurt in the process. The last thing he needed to wake up to is a splitting headache or two.

So of course the best way to end that night is for the bus to break down.

“Something’s wrong with the engine.” Their driver said. The dumbest bitch in the world could have told you that.

Kevin declared he’ll go with and have a look at the engine, but not before he pointed his finger at AJ and said don’t you fucking move, I’m not done with you!

Firstly, we all know AJ will fucking move and secondly, Kevin knows nothing about engines and how they work.

I’m gonna call for back up, Howie said. Yeah you do that, Brian replied. Howie asked, what’s that supposed to mean? And Brian said I mean just that.

An impromptu staring match occurred and Nick was still confused over the sudden interruption and the fact that he had lost his friggin game!

AJ slumped on the empty seat next to him, kicked the game console off his hands and said, this is your fault!

Now, Nick could do two things here. One, yell at AJ with the usual ‘what the fucking fuck, man! You fucking kicked my hands!’ or, two, totally ignore the pain and yell ‘how is this my fault?’ Nick did neither though; he didn’t even say a word. What Nick did though, was made a grab for the fallen game console and smacked it right on AJ’s head and before any of the guys could react to that, he walked off and out of the bus.

He will regret what he did, but that will only happen later that night. He will not apologize because AJ asked for it. Also, Nick’s too proud to say sorry. There’ll be more silence between, which will eventually break either by mutual agreement over a bottle of JB or, an old-fashioned fistfight. But this will happen a few days later, not now.

Now, there’s this.

They were in the middle of a crossroad, in some back street America. Kevin and their driver were having a heated conversation over what failed but they were just white noise now.

It’s a lovely night out here. Splash of cool air, clear sky smattered with stars…it’s a lovely night for someone out there.

Not for the Backstreet Boys though. They couldn’t appreciate a lovely night if it dropped on their laps anyway. They’ve been falling for quite a while now and there’s nothing to break their fall. It just, breaks.

Nick stood there in the middle of the crossroad, a broken bus behind him.

Except, it’s more than just a broken bus.