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June 28, 2015 - The End Of “In A World Like This” Tour

“So, did you hear the good news?”

“That you’ll be coming home real soon to me and I get to have you all to myself? Yeah, I knew that.”

Nick laughed and shook his head; was it possible to love this woman even more than he already does? “Well, besides that… you haven’t seen anything on the internet or heard anything from anybody…”

“Apparently not if you have to sit there and interrogate me.” Lauren replied sweetly.

“I’m not interrogating you! But I will be now in asking you what you’re doing over there.”

Nick peered into the screen of his phone, seeing that his wife was sitting crossed-leg on their bed, shuffling through what he assumed were documents. They were FaceTiming each other, with Lauren having her phone situated on their bed while Nick was laying on his hotel bed, holding his phone above his face.

“Going through some of the mail… I was sent this sample of this new supplement called… fujiKale, and they’re asking me if I’d be interested in being their spokeswoman and appearing in their commercial.” She held a bag up to the camera.

Nick squinted as he read the words on the bag, “Organic… kale powder. What the hell? What’s organic about anything that’s in powder form? Whatever happened to a vegetable just being organic in itself?”

Lauren shrugged as she opened the bag and sniffed it, “I love kale, and it says here I can mix it with water, make a shake with it, add it to any of my meals… beats having to go through all the prepara-” she cut herself off in the middle of her explanation, just staring into the camera.

Nick stared back, wondering why she had fallen silent all of a sudden and just staring at him, “What?”

“I know what you’re doing Nickolas Gene Carter…”

“What?! What am I doing?! I’m just a confused man, trying to understand how a powdered vegetable is organic.”

“You weren’t trying to change the subject on the good news you have yet to tell me?”

“Change the subject…” Nick repeated, his voice laced with puzzlement, “oooh, of course I wasn’t, I just got wrapped up in what you were telling me. But as for the good news, thanks to our lovely fans, VH1 has agreed to sign us on for a second season!”

Lauren’s eyes widened in shock, “You’re kidding me!”

“Yup, the petition worked! I’m telling you, you want something done, leave it to our fans, they always make sure their voices are heard! Gotta love their loyalty!”

“Oh my god… wow, I was not…” she was truly at a loss for words, “I was not expecting that, that’s great news sweetie!”

Nick sighed as he pushed himself up off the bed and made his way into the bathroom, “Yup, and even better since we’re done with this tour, so it’ll be easier come filming.” he propped his phone up on the sink and began to pull out his toiletries to shave.

“Well, what would this season be about? Did they contact you themselves or was it something you heard through the grapevine?”

“They contacted me… said it’ll focus more on our life ever after and how everything settled after the wedding and tour.”

“And, what exactly would our happily ever after be Mr. Carter?” Lauren asked seductively with a smirk.

“Sex, definitely the sex! For some reason, it’s sooo much better after you put a ring on it!”

“Nickolas!”

“No I’m serious!” Nick laughed as he began to slather shaving cream on the lower part of his face. “It’s like, ooh, who’s that beast chick on the cover of Women’s Fitness? Lauren Kitt-Carter? Wife of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter? Say whaaaaat?!”

“Oh really…”

“How did he land that?! And man, look at that ass! I’d wanna tap that! But guess what, they can’t! Why?! Because it’s mines... Lauren Kitt-Carter is mines!”

“This ass was always yours Carter, ring or not.”

“Ooooh,” Nick shivered and moaned, “I like the way you strung the words ‘ass’, ‘yours’, and ‘Carter” all together in one sentence. Say it again. Slowly.”

Lauren rolled her eyes and laughed, “Anywayyy… what are your plans for tonight? Looks like you’re getting ready to head out somewhere.”

Nick tilted his head back, deciding to start shaving at the nape of his neck. “We’re going out to dinner, as a celebratory thing with the whole team. Wish you were here with me… we’d be going out to enjoy some authentic enchiladas…”

“Yeah, but instead I’ll be enjoying some green eggs and ham all by my lonesome.” she pouted in a little kid’s voice.

“Don’t worry baby, I’ll be home real soon to enj- shit!”

Lauren’s head immediately snapped up from what she was reading, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Nick seethed, quickly placing his hand over his throat, “Just nicked my neck. Let me call you back real quick.”

“Are you okay?” Lauren’s look of shock upon hearing his exclamation turned into a look of concern. “Must be pretty serious if you have to call me back.”

Nick shook his head, hand still covering the wound. “Nah, not serious, I’m just gonna finish getting ready then I’ll call you back before we head out.”

“Alright, love you baby.”

“Love you too, bye.”

Once the FaceTime screen closed out on his phone, Nick gently pried his hand away from his throat, not wanting his wife to see the resulting injury of his accident prone self. “Shit!” he muttered as a fresh bead of blood oozed out; he must’ve cut himself a little deeper than he thought.

Reaching out to grab one of the hand towels, his eyes found itself transfixed with the sight of his own blood on his hands. As he grabbed the towel, he fell into a trance with seeing his bright red blood stain the starch white towel. It was a beautiful contrast.

“What the fuck?!” he voiced out, shaking his head as if snapping out of a daze. Did he really just think his blood was… beautiful?

He turned on the faucet and plugged the drain, letting the water collect up in the sink. He dunk the stained hand towel into the water in attempt to clean off the blood, but once again he found himself staring. He watched as the water lapped up on his hands, trying in vain to wash away the crimson substance, but his blood was thicker. Before you knew it, the sink was filled to the brim with tainted water.

His attention no longer on trying to clean the towel, he scooped his hands into the sink-full of blood, the thick liquid pooling in his palms. The odor of it assaulted his senses, smelling and tasting that of sharp metal. His eyes glazed back up into the mirror, wanting to inspect the nick he made at his throat, assuming it had scabbed over. Tilting his head back, he watched in sick satisfaction as a new river of red pushed through, running down his collar bone and disappearing down his chest, immediately seeping through the cotton shirt he wore.

Bathe in it. Taste it. The thought nagged in his mind, and at this point he wasn’t sure if those words belonged to the numerous voices he would hear in his head or purely a thought on his own. He decided it didn’t matter as his hands now rose up to his face, his eyes falling shut as he began to rub the blood he had scooped up from the sink all over eyes, cheek, nose, mouth.

At first his lips remained purse as he painted himself, but slowly they parted open, curiosity enticing the cat as his tongue drew across his lips, sighing at the biting taste of tangy copper. Then, his eyes cracked open, droplets of blood clung to his lashes; striking blue piercing through angry red. Fire and ice. Love and hate. Peace and war. Innocence and guilt. The corners of his mouth tugged up into a fierce grin; he was a beautiful sight to see.

NICK?!?!

He snapped out of his trance at the sound of pounding at his door and someone shouting his name. His heart was racing erratically as he mind drifted back to what he was doing seconds ago, unsure of how he’d clean up all the blood, but as he glanced up in the mirror, he did a double take when he noticed… nothing there.

Breathing heavy, he reached up to touch his face, which was cleanly shaven. He now focused on his hands on his face through the mirror, bringing it down in front of him, staring at it as if it were foreign to him. Beyond his hands he now looked into the sink, which was clean as well. He grabbed the hand towel, only finding remnants of shaving cream streaked on it.

Looking back up to the mirror, he tilted his head back, seeing if he had really nicked his throat or if that was all in his head too. It was small, not even a cut really… just a small razor burn. “What the fuck…” he muttered to himself.

“Aye yo Nick, you alive in there or what man?!”

He quickly left the bathroom and made his way to the door, pulling it open without even looking, finding his bodyguard on the other side.

“You okay bro?” Mike questioned in concern, eyeing his friend up and down, “I was pounding at your door for the longest.”

“Yeah sorry, I was just in the bathroom.” Nick replied sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, “I thought you could hear me saying I’d be out in a minute.”

“Well, I guess it goes to show you how soundproof these rooms really are.” Mike cracked as he nudged at him, as if asking if he understood his reference.

“I guess so, since uh… Hannah and I had a wild time in the bathroom, if you know what I mean…” Nick joked back, a sly grin on his face as he reached out and started wiping his hand on his bodyguard’s burly shoulder.

Mike immediately ducked and backed away, “Ugh bro, that’s disgusting… you ain’t right! Just hurry on with whatever you were doing, the fellas are at the restaurant already!”

Nick’s head shot up upon hearing that, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, they left like fifteen minutes ago. I’ve been trying to let you know man, why?”

He shook his head, “Nothing, I’ll be out in a little.” he replied as he retreated back into his room.

Was he really in the bathroom that long? And since when did the guys just leave him behind? Normally it’d be Howie or Kevin, hell even Brian would check on him, see if he were ready to go and they’d all leave together. But none of them came to check on him, not even a text or a phone call.

Now that he thought about it, why was this bothering him so much? They were grown men, who didn’t have to wait for each other, but during tours it’s what they normally did with Nick. He was more bothered with the fact that none of them had even contacted him, and just left without letting him know. If it weren’t for Mike, would he still be here at the hotel, waiting, while they assumed he wasn’t going to join them? Some friends they were being right now.

Grabbing his shirt off the back of his chair, he took off the one he was wearing and replaced it with the new one, vaguely remembering about his supposed “cut” during shaving. He still had to deal with what happened with that, and aside from documenting it, didn’t have a clue as to where to start with figuring it out. It was in his head, he knew that much, but… was he really going crazy?

He grabbed his phone and dialed Lauren’s number, adjusting it between his ear and shoulder to collect up his belongings as he waited for her to answer.

“How’s your neck?” Lauren answered on the third ring.

So he did tell her about cutting himself while he was shaving; it wasn’t all in his head. “Just turned out to be a razor burn. What are you doing?”

“Just got done making me something to eat, now I’m about to go feed Nacho. Speaking of which, you better be eating some nachos for me right now because this fujiKale tastes like something I’ll be getting over real fast.”

Nick chuckled as he tucked his room key into his wallet and slipped it into his pocket, “Yeah, powder that turns everything green… I don’t trust it. But I’m actually heading to the restaurant now… the stupid guys left me behind, so Mike and I will be heading up there now.”

“Aww,” Lauren cooed, “why does my baby sound all sad? Are you mad that they left you?”

“No, it’s just… they didn’t even tell me they were leaving is all. I just… I just can’t wait to get home to you.”

“I can’t wait too baby.” Nick could hear her smile as she said that, “Now, don’t be grumpy and have fun okay? Eat up for me and call me when you get back. Love you.”

Nick sighed and smiled, “Love you too.”