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Author's Chapter Notes:

This story is more like a captured moment in time. Nothing overly exciting happens but isn't that how it is in real life? LOL Hope you enjoy it!

 

Let Them Eat Cake, Baby Cakes!

 

AJ

 

 

I really am beginning to love this studio. At first, I admit I wasn’t that big a fan. It was very old feeling. Not that I don’t like me some vintage stuff, but it just had this vibe about it, as if the walls were going to crumble down all around us if we turned the dial up to eleven. Of course this is what Kevin found so endearing about it. He loved all the old equipment, especially all the really old keyboards. It was kind of like walking into a museum. Now that we’ve been here for a week and have really explored every inch of the place, I found myself feeling more and more comfortable being here. I guess the 800 plus hour days helped as well.  

The big fluffy purple couch didn’t hurt either.  I decided to claim it as my own before anyone else had the chance. Today was going to be another long day, but it was also going to be a very boring one, for me anyway. That’s how it’s been going recording this album. Some days I was so busy I barely had time to pee, while others, like today, I knew I was just going to spend sitting around and waiting. It really came down to what songs we were working on any given day.

Today was going to be a very heavy Nick vocals day. He had to lay down his leads on about five tracks. That was me yesterday. Speak of the devil; he just walked into the studio carrying a pretty big box.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know, some fan handed it to me and told me to enjoy it!”

He placed it on the table and actually walked away, not the least bit curious as to what it was. I don’t care who gives me stuff, I always have to open it up right away. Some of us have been desensitized to stuff like that and it kind of made me sad. Imagine how much crap we are given by our fans to be able to leave such a ginormous box unopened without a second thought. A really good, smelling…bakey, deliciousy.. The aroma wafting was a pretty nice one.

I had to open it. There was food in this box! So I decided to sacrifice my purple couch to see what was inside.

“Carter, can I open your box?”

“Wow that sounded sexual!” Brian said coming up behind me and making me jump. “You want to open his box, huh? Care to have a peek inside?” He raised his eyebrows and licked his lips. Everyone thinks I’m the pervert, they have no freaking clue. I think Brian needs to have sex.

“Yeah, go ahead man; let me know what it is.” Nick said as he placed his headphones on and made his way towards the sound booth.

I carefully broke the seal to the box only to see the biggest cake on the planet staring back at me!

“Wow, that’s a big cake.” Brian said.

“It’s a cake, Carter!”

I swear the second I said that, he came running back into the room, with the headphones on his head!  

“Wow! That’s pretty awesome!” He went to put his finger in the frosting, but I slapped it away.

“After you sing!”

Brian laughed about that, “Yeah, you have to sing for your supper! We’ll keep your cake company.”

“Don’t eat the whole thing!” He shook his finger at the two of us, like we would eat an entire cake.  I admit it made me want to put my face in it just a little.

When he went into the booth, I took another glance down, deciding I needed a piece right that instant, even though I wasn’t the slightest bit hungry. I wasn’t singing today, so I could easily indulge. In fact, I felt an obligation to.

“I am going to get some plates, you want some cake?” I asked Brian as he watched Nick get ready to sing one of his parts.

“Yeah, that would be great!”

Because this was an old, converted house there was a kitchen that was still used as a kitchen. There was a big fridge, a sink and even a small little stove.  I went digging for forks and a knife as well as a few plates. Laughing at all the coffee mugs I came across. You would think this was a teacher’s lounge or something.

By the time I got back out there, everyone was swarming around the cake. I mean swarming like a pack of bees!

“Where did this come from?” Kevin asked as he took the knife and cut into the cake at a really weird angle. Wow, he really sucks at cake cutting.

“It was a gift for Nick.”

He placed a big old hunk of it on his plate, “Cool!”

He then handed me the knife and walked back over to the console. I tried to save the massacre as best I could but it was no use. The thing was destroyed. Luckily he took a picture of it first. No idea why, I mean it’s not like the fans want to see a picture of a cake or anything.

Kevin… poor guy, he has no clue what the fans want to see.

I bit into it and it was really delicious! Moist and gooey and just overall great! Our fans rock my world! I hesitated just a second before taking another bite.  Memories of bodyguards warning us never to eat things the fans gave us just in case, came rushing back at me suddenly. It’s funny that those thoughts never once crossed any of our minds. I briefly looked over to see if Kevin had keeled over dead. When I saw he was still standing, I figured we were safe.

“I’m going to take a piece over to D.” Brian grabbed a plate and plopped some cake on it. Howie was sitting at the console intently listening to Nick sing. He was committed to this song since he wrote most of it with both Brian and I lending a hand with the bridge and the pre chorus.

When Nick saw Howie eating he stopped singing, “Man! Cool it with the cake!” He then placed his hand right over his eyes so he could see us over the glare the glass was giving off. “Oh my God, are you all eating right now?”

“Hey, the quicker you get done singing the faster you get some of your cake!” Kevin said holding out his plate and then taking a bite. “And it’s good!”

“Shit!”

“Just do that last part again Nicky and then you can take a cake break.” Howie of course said that as he took a bite of the cake. We really are ball busters, Ha!

“It’s MY cake! I don’t recall anyone asking me if it was okay for you all to eat it in the first place!”

“It’s not like your name is on it!” I said shaking my head.

“Actually his name was on it, but I ate that part!” Brian said with a huge ass grin on his face.

“You all suck! Even you D, Why you do me so wrong?” He sing-songed in his favorite whiny voice.

“Tough love, now sing!” Kevin scolded as he toasted Nick with taking another bite of the cake.

I grabbed another piece and once again claimed the purple couch as my thrown of the day. Whoever thought about buying this was a genius. It was much too comfortable to do anything useful. Maybe it was their tactic. You know the longer we sit and lounge around the less we get done and the less we get done the longer we have to stay and the longer we have to stay the more we have to pay… Eh, but it’s comfy.

Brian grabbed a swivel chair and rolled next to me as we watched Nick in the booth. It was kind of like staring at either a really boring movie or a fish tank. It was more amusing to think of Nick in a fish tank or that Houdini water trick tank. We could fill that thing with water and have a lot of fun!

“He sounds great.”

I nodded at Brian, “I bet if we filled that thing with water it wouldn’t leak.”

“What?”

“The booth.”

“Of course it wouldn’t leak, that’s why it probably costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“Just in case someone was to accidentally fill it with water?”

He put another bite of cake in his mouth and made sure to answer with it full, “Precisthly.”  He stuck out his tongue filled with chocolate goo before swallowing. “I think I need a tall glass of milk. You want some?”

“Sure!” He handed me his plate, “I’ll be back.”

“I have to do it again? I thought that was a great take!” Nick, complaining again.

“Do it one more time, Nicky.”

“You’re just stalling because you don’t want me to have my cake.”

“Yes, that’s exactly the reason, it’s a cake conspiracy. It has nothing to do with a few missed notes or anything.”

“Hey!”

“Just one more time.”

“Ugh, Fine!”

The song started up and he went at it again. I really do think it was a cake conspiracy because the first take sounded great. Howie walked over and grabbed another piece while Nick was mid emoting.

“I couldn’t resist.” He said winking at me before walking back over to the console.

Brian walked over and handed me a coffee mug full of milk. It was the British flag with a huge Pip Pip Cheerio written alone the rim. “Wow, talk about stereotypical.”

“I know, when I saw it, I couldn’t resist. Look at mine!” His had a picture of the queen on it.

“I want to steal these.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”

“So, how’s Rochelle feeling?”

I nodded just thinking about her. Two more weeks and then I’d be home! I was wondering how she was dealing with her midnight cravings without me. She was having the most obscure cravings for things. Like ice cream and tomatoes. Yuck! She’d wake me up at around 2 almost every night to go get her something, usually that gross concoction, but sometimes it was a run to McDonald’s for fries and a chocolate shake.

“She’s good. Just a little achy, she said her ankles are swelling.”

“That happened to Leighanne too. For a while there I thought her ankles disappeared. She had those cankle things going on. Don’t you dare tell her I told you that!”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’d ever be mentioning her cankles.”

“I gained a lot of weight when she was pregnant. Sympathy weight, I called it.”

“I remember.”

He motioned to me and my almost gone second piece of cake, “Be careful buddy! It’s hard to dance with a fake baby in your tummy!” He reached over and squeezed my stomach. He was actually able to squeeze my stomach. That’s not good. It almost made me not get up and get another piece of cake…almost.

Of course he laughed when he saw me go for my third. “I’m eating for two.” I half laughed motioning over towards Nick in the booth. When I glanced down I noticed there wasn’t really all that much cake left. We finished this thing off pretty fast. I made sure to cut only a tiny piece just as Nick finally made his way to the table. He looked down at the cake and his expression was priceless. I took out my camera and made sure I took a picture of myself looking at him and his disappointment. Poor Nick.

“Jesus, you guys are fucking pigs!” He whined.

“Nick…there’s plenty left.”

He sighed and grabbed a plate and the knife. “Damn.”

“What?”

“Now I don’t know if I should be eating it at all.”

“Why?”

He then looked at me with such a serious expression I thought he was about to tell me he was going to die or something. Instead he says, “Because cake is my crack.”

I don’t know why, maybe because he said it so seriously but I burst out laughing so hard everyone and I mean EVERYONE in the studio stopped what they were doing and looked over at me. You could hear a pin drop.

“Sorry, he said something funny.” I pointed at Nick who had a really comical look on his face, his head tilted slightly as if he was a puppy trying to understand what just happened.

After quite a few headshakes, everyone returned to what they were doing.

“I think you should just go ahead and have a piece, Nick. One won’t kill you and you can always jog it off tomorrow.”

He placed his head really close to it and took a big whiff; this kid was cracking me up. “It does smell delicious.”

Oh how tempted I was to just push his face into the cake, he was really daring me too. I know he was.  Of course I was too late because Brian beat me to the punch. He didn’t do it all the way though, just enough to get Nick’s nose all black with frosting.  

Nick let out a weird “Blagh…” That’s what it sounded like. The sound someone would make if they were either drowning in a vat of cake or had just swallowed a two year old. This of course caused further laughing fits from me and now Brian as well.

“Guys, work?” Kevin said in his I’m trying to be stern Kevin but failing miserably at it, voice. The reality being that he was laughing right along with us. I love new, less anal Kevin.

“You look like Rudolph trying to hide his shiny nose!” Brian joked as he handed a napkin to Carter who tried to be mad but instead opted to try licking the frosting off of his nose, causing more laughter. We Backstreet Boys are very easily amused.

“Nicky, I need you back in the booth baby cakes.”

Baby cakes? That’s a new one.  Ever since we got here, we all have decided that it’s time to give Nick a new nickname. He was unaware of our mission, but that’s okay. What he didn’t know didn’t hurt him.

“What the?”

Howie smiled, “You know, you are the baby of the group as you so often like to remind us and now you have cake…baby cakes!”

He shook his head, then sighed and put the knife and plate down looking defeated, “Guess the cake will have to wait. Save a small piece for me, please?”

“Will do, baby cakes.”

He rolled his eyes at me and walked away.

I plopped right back down on my purple couch and gladly placed another forkful of cake into my mouth. Smiling as the sounds of Carter singing wafted through the air. Or should I say Baby cakes?  Yes, life was good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter End Notes:

I'm sad that the boys are actually on their way home now :( the stories will keep coming until I get them to the airport for their flights home! Next one up is a night at home in the Backstreet House!