"What did the doctor say?" Kevin looked worried. His forehead creased in deep wrinkles.
"Itīs..Itīs.." Nick debated with his conscience if he was going to tell the truth and as he was to say about the mumps he could hear himself saying, "Strepthroat!" Strep? What? Nick could have banged himself in the head. Was he stupid? Where had that come from?
Kevin breathed a breath of relief. "Okay..good then it wasnīt that bad?"
Strep throat also known as singers infection was something that all the boys had experienced several times. Although never this bad as Nick had it.
"No, just some rest and then I will be all up and raring to go." Nick seemed chipper although he wanted to die, both from sickness and lying.
Kevin set his eyes into Nick, feeling a flash of doubt. "You're not lying to me are you?"
"Yes Kevin. Itīs Anthrax!" Nick sounded annoyed, both at Kevin not believing him and also getting caught with a white lie.
"NICK!"
"Read my lips, I have the S T R E P T H R O A T" Nick spelled the words, auditive. With that he mentioned that he wanted to be left alone and that Kevin could go back to the meet and greet.
Kevin hesitated for a moment then he said , "Will you be all right then?"
"Yeah sure, Iīm feeling so much better now," he lied.
"Ok, call me on the cell if you need anything. OK? If you get worse or.."
" Knock it off Kevin," Nick said trying to steady his voice. "Iīm not some baby and yes father I can take care of myself." With that he ushered Kevin out of the room. As soon as the door shut, Nick fell into tears. He had never felt this bad before. Everything ached, he felt like he would blow up any second and his balls would explode. This was misery. Hell. Mumps had to be his punishment for all the bad things he had done in life. Especially since he had it in the lower region.
Moaning he curled into a ball. Why hadnīt he told his friends what his problems were? Hadnīt they been the first to know everything during the past years? The guys had always stayed at his side. They had been there when he had been homesick. Brian had even laid down beside him, comforted him. Kevin had been there when he had experienced his first drinking binge. It had been on dark larger in Germany and Nick still shuddered from the memory. He NEVER touched dark larger again. The guys had been there for him when he had been experiencing his first real break up with a girlfriend, they had comforted him when he had his ups and downs, even through his worst eating binges. They had never left his side and he could turn to them at anything.
But something had changed. Both Brian and Kevin were married men and he didnīt want to put his own worries on them. AJ went into rehab and he had his own problems and Howie, Howie was a great guy but he wasnīt a person that Nick used to talk to. It might have sounded corny that he didnīt want say to the guys that he had the mumps, but it was way too embarrassing to say that he had a children's disease. He was sick of getting treated like the baby in the band even tough he stood 6'5 inches tall and weighed NOTHING like a baby.
Heck he decided he didnīt even look cute anymore. Nick sighed. Life really sucked.
With that in mind he finally drifted off. When he woke up hours later he felt even worse than before. The migraine was so bad that he just lay there moaning. His balls where on fire, and his stomach was once again trying out for an enchore. He shivered so bad that not even the bed spread and the blanket couldn't give him any heat. His teeth were chattering but he managed to get up and put on another sweatshirt.
His bladder ached and he stumbled to the bathroom, where he sank down, relieving himself. The floor was spinning like the worst turbulence in an airplane and he had to grip the seat from not following off. Motion sickness was washing over him and if his stomach hadnīt been empty since before he would have decorated yet another bathroom. Gagging and dry heaving he waited for the worst vertigo to leave. Once it was overwith, he carefully stood up and walked with small steps back to his bed.
Squinting at the clock on the bed table he saw that it was 1:35 am. The boys would probably be back and he debated whether or not he should get them. He felt so bad and it was a safe bet that his temperature was pretty high. Licking his sore lips he wanted something to drink, water or anything. But he didnīt have the energy to get something and instead lay there panting, trying to get the pain in his groin to subside.
After tossing and turning for an hour he felt ready to cry. Again. He couldnīt remember when he last time felt this bad. Maybe when he had pneumonia. Yeah that might come close. As minutes passed the shivers became to wracking chills and no matter how he tried he couldnīt get some heat into his aching body.
'Fucking Japs,' Nick thought in his delerious mind. 'Not only had they bombed Pearl Harbor they were going to freeze him out too."
His head ached and he had trouble thinking straight. Strange thoughts went through his mind and the tylenol that he had taken hours ago had done nothing to lessen his pain. 'I want my mom," Nick sobbed when he didnīt think that he could feel even worse than before. 'That or Frick.'
With that in mind he decided that he wanted his best friend. Brian was the one he could turn to, always and he knew how to deal with a situation like this. Brian would tell the Japs to turn on the heat again.
Nick sat up in bed, sweat pouring off him, still shivering and decided that he would go to his friend. The room swayed dangerously as he set his feet on the floor and he walked unsteadily towards the door. Opening the door he saw that he was all alone in the corridor. Now all he had to do was find Brian's room.
Nick had a hard time concentrating and the numbers on the door seemed so blurry. Did Brian stay at room number 532 or was it 523??? Nick rubbed his eyes. Where could it be?
If someone had walked down the corridor they would have seen a sore looking figure. Nick was clad in not only his boxers, but several layers of sweaters, hair sticking on end, ghostly pale as he was stalking the corridor, looking all delousional. If someone didnīt know that that the singer was sick, drugs would have been a safe bet.
"Brian," Nick moaned as he walked down the hall. His head was spinning and all he wanted to do was curl down in a ball and sleep. Yet he pushed himself. He had to find his brother.
Stopping at room 523 he knocked. After no reply, he knocked even harder. Nick swayed, feeling like he was about to faint again. This time from fever and has the door opened he struggled to stand still.
"Frack!" But that wasnīt frack. Instead Bruce stood there, catching the young singer as he fell forward.
"What the hell?" he gasped in suprise as the youngest member nearly fell all over him, crushing him in the process. "NICK???"
"Bri I.." Nick mumbled some words that sounded like jibberish. "What the fuck are you doing? Are you high?"
Now Bruce had caught hold of the situation and he looked at the young man that stood there looking like he had been smoking tons of pot!
" Bruce?" Nick looked at his PR manager in suprise. "What are you doing with Brian?" He put his hand to his mouth, "Oh NO are you two SCREWING?" Nick shouted so loud that the whole hotel was about to wake up.
" Shhh.. shut the fuck up." Bruce was in no mood to be disturbed, especially not by Nick, high, in the middle of the night.
" Does Leighanne know?" Nick's brain was mush. His fever playing tricks with him. " Know what?" Bruce was very irritated over the situation. He dragged the blonde in, not wanting the whole world to see Nick in this drugged up state. The press had enough as it was and Nick was already feeding them headlines by the hour.
" That you and Brian are fucking," Nick slurred.
" Have you been drinking?" Bruce set his eyes in Nick. The boys eyes were glazed and his complexion did lookanything but healthy. "Or are you doing coke?"
"Coke, yeah that one I could use," Nick swayed as he sank down on Bruce's bed. "I snorted it once, but an ice cube got stuck in my nose," he grinned.
Bruce watched as the "drunken" backstreet singer closed his eyes, mumbling something that was hard to figure out and fell asleep.
'Thatīs it!,' Bruce thought, as soon as we get home Iīm calling the Drug Rehabilitation center.
