literally dragged himself out of the bed. “I gotta take a quick shower, I’m all sweaty,” he
mumbled as he walked toward the bathroom.
“He doesn’t have time to---”
Brian interrupted. “Yes he does AJ, Bruce can just sit tight, it won’t kill him.”
“It’s not Bruce I’m worried about getting killed,” AJ replied and then quickly added that
he was going down to the lobby to inform Bruce what the hold up was about.
“Why don’t all of you go down with AJ, I’m just gonna lay some clothes out for Nick, just
to make sure he keeps moving, we should be down there in less than fifteen minutes.”
“Good idea,” Kevin stated as he held the door open for Howie.
Brian breathed a sigh of relief as the men walked out of the room. He laid out a pair of
Nick’s jeans and one of his college sweatshirts, he had tons of them, and he noticed that
Nick was acting chilled lately, so he figured a sweatshirt would be a good idea.
“Hey buddy, how’s it going in there?” Brian called out towards the bathroom door.
“I’m about done,” Nick replied as he turned the water off. Stepping out of the shower, he
placed a hand on the full mirror that was over the set of double sinks. After he wiped the
steam off, he took a good look at himself, more importantly, his body and he decided he
wasn’t too thrilled with what he saw. “God, I’m getting fat,” he mumbled, looking at the
reflection.
“What did you say?” Brian called out.
“I didn’t say anything,” Nick lied. He looked back at the mirror, this time his attention was
directed to the pain in his groin. He wondered why he was getting swelling down there,
that was not a normal thing, he surmised. He discovered that coolness felt better on them
and maybe that was all he needed to do was to put a cold compress on them from time to
time, it made them feel better so it couldn’t be the wrong thing to do. After a few
moments, he wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out of the bathroom.
Brian’s breath caught as he saw Nick enter the room. His neck was clearly swollen and it
looked like he barely had a chin anymore. The other thing he took note of was Nick’s
stomach. It was never flat to begin with, but it definately looked like he was developing a
beer gut. He opted not to say anything to Nick about the weight gain he was suspecting.
Weight had always been a touchy subject with him and he didn’t want to get him more
adgitated then he already was.
“I laid out these for you,” Brian nodded towards the bed.
“Thanks, but I think I’ll just wear some sweats,” Nick replied as he walked over towards
the dresser.
“I was hoping you would want to dress up for this interview, you know the photogs will
be there,” Brian stated in a quiet voice.
“Yeah, well, I’m wearing what I want to wear, so if you don’t mind, you can go down to
the lobby to suck up with Bruce now, okay?” Nick hissed as he pulled a pair of sweats out
of a drawer and threw them onto the bed, ontop of the clothes Brian had already laid out.
“Whoa, hey don’t bite my head off, I was only suggesting----”
“Leave,” Nick growled.
“Nick?”
“Just go, okay?”
“Do you want---”
”I SAID LEAVE...I NEED TO GET DRESSED, GET THE FUCK OUT OF
HERE!”
Hurt at Nick’s harsh tone, Brian wordlessly left the room. All the accusations about Nick
were swimming in his mind and he was piecing things together. Drug use, alcoholism, all
of it seemed to fit when you looked at Nick. He was moodier than normal, he was filling
out in his stomach, that pointed towards drugs and alcohol.
“God, he is such an asshole lately,” Nick sputtered as he grabbed the pair of sweats.
Gingerly, he pulled them on, making sure there was enough room between his body and
the crotch region of the pants. He didn’t understand why he was so tender down there, but
he still figured it had something to do with strep throat and he would be damned if he said
anything to anyone about it, especially AJ.
Nick was disgusted with himself when he caught sight of his body in the full length mirror
that hung on the door. “Okay, I thought black was supposed to be slenderizing? This
sucks.” Sighing loudly, he grabbed the room card, and half walked/half ran to the
elevator.
“Well and we are so blessed to have you join us, Mister Carter,” Bruce snapped when
Nick stepped off the elevator. “You look like shit, don’t you realize that media will be at
this interview?”
“Bruce, lay off him, he’s sick,” Brian defended.
“Sick my ass, it’s all a ploy to cover up his alcohol problem, hangovers are a bitch, aren’t
they Nickolas?”
Before Nick could respond, Bruce started attacking him once again. “You are offically on
lettuce for the next month, so you should think about that before you stick anything in
your mouth, you’re getting fat and fat doesn’t sell records. You either sink or swim and
judging by the looks of you right now, you’d sink.”
“What the fuck is your problem?” Nick glared and then winced when his words made his
throat hurt.
“You, all along it’s been you! You have potential and you’re pissing it away,” Bruce shot
back.
“Bruce, that’s enough,” Kevin stated in a low growl.
Shrugging his shoulders, Bruce continued towards the hotel van, the group following him.
Nick was the last in line, detail making sure fans kept their distance from the boys.
The headache that Nick had, wasn’t going away, it wasn’t getting worse, but it definately
had stuck around much longer than he preferred. He shivered as he folded his arms across
his chest. Glancing down towards his stomach, he quickly pulled the sweatshirt away,
hoping it would look like it was the material and not his stomach that was showing.
Brian glanced warily over at the youngest member of the group. Nick’s face was void of
color, his lips almost looked fake, that was the only sign of color to him at all and it make
them stand out because of the paleness of his face. The more he looked at Nick, the more
he worried about him. About drugs, about alcohol. His eyes then focused at AJ. He was
staring out the window at the scenery. He knew that AJ had introduced Nick to the party
life. Now AJ was dry, he still smoked cigarettes and pot, but as for alcohol, he was dry.
Nick was now in the grasp of alcohol and marijuana, it was clear to Brian, but was it
beginning to become clear to others?
Digging into his backpack, Nick looked for something to soothe his stomach. He was
getting sick and tired of feeling like crap. He found the candy bars he had stashed and did
a sideways glance, making sure no one was watching as he quitely unwrapped the candy in
the darkness and privacy of the interior of the backpack. Hastily he shoved an entire
Butterfinger bar into his mouth, his cheeks bulged out.
“Dude, whatcha eating?” AJ shouted at Nick.
“Nothing, leave me along,” Nick replied, candybar crumbs spraying onto his sweatshirt.
“Uh-huh,” Howie winked. “Sure Nicky.”
“Lettuce! It better be lettuce, Carter!” Bruce yelled from the back of the van.
Nick rolled his eyes as he continued to chew. “You know what Bruce? You can’t control
me, so shut the fuck up!”
“I do own you, as part of management of The Firm, so do as you’re told!”
Pulling the other king sized Butterfinger candybar out of his backpack, Nick boldly held it
up for Bruce to see and tore the paper off the chocolate bar. “Watch this Brucey,” Nick
taunted as he shoved the candy into his mouth.
“NICK!” Brian hissed, “have you lost your mind?”
“Nope, I don’t like being controlled by anyone, Bruce included. If I want to weigh 350
pounds, I plan on doing it because I want to and Bruce has nothing to say to me about
that issue either. I’m sick of him pushing me around.”
“So you just want to make yourself sicker to prove a point?” Brian asked, shaking his
head.
“Yeah, well if I get my point across, then that’s what I’ll do, dammit.”
Bruce was about to say something mean in reply to Nick’s stupidity, but Kevin stopped
him with the all-too-familiar phrase, “Just let Nick do his thing, he’ll get tired of it in an
hour.”
“Settle down guys, we’re at the studio,” Howie pointed out as the van pulled up to the
entrance of the building.
“Bright, happy faces guys, please the fans that are out there,” Bruce urged.
Nick mocked the words and rolled his eyes. He groaned outloud as he stood up from his
seat. Everything on his body ached. This was going to be a painful and tortureous
interview.
