“Holy shit,” Kevin groaned as he steered the BMW into the parking lot of the bar where AJ and Howie were. His green eyes scanned the full lot for a place to park. “This is not good... not good at all.”

“He has a knack for picking the hot places to go, hey there’s a space over here!” Brian pointed.

After pulling into the parking space, Kevin killed the engine and leaned over the steering wheel, grumbling words that were inaudible to Brian. Sighing, Kevin finally leaned back. “Okay, let’s go get AJ before hell breaks out.”

Brian nodded in agreement as he grabbed his sunglasses and ball cap.

“I doubt that’s even going to make a difference Brian, just leave the sunglasses off, okay? I’m sure they’ll spot us either way with AJ in there doing God knows what for the bar patrons.”

The bass from the live band was felt by the two as the approached the entrance which had a long line of people standing out front waiting to be admitted into the bar. A bulky bodyguard stood at the front of the line, the look etched on his face showed that the man was obviously serious about his job at the bar.

”OMIGOD! Look! It’s Brian and Kevin from the Backstreet Boys!” a woman’s voice cried out from the line of patrons.

“Great, how come Backdoor Fags are in here?” a male voice snapped.

Ignoring the comments, Kevin and Brian stepped up to the bodyguard.

“Look at that, those assholes get to the front of the line everywhere! This sucks!” the same male voice barked. “Hey we were in line too ass! Go wait in the rear, you’re used to that shit!”

“Where’s Nick? Is Nick in there?” a girl called out.

“Gay bar is down the road quarter of a mile!”

Kevin shook his head as he tried to block out the man that kept harrassing them. The guard looked like he wasn’t going to allow either one of them through.

“I need to get in,” Kevin stated as he tried to go past the man. The bodyguard matched his moves, blocking the path.

“No can do, you wait like the rest of these nice peeps,” the bodyguard stated as he nodded his head towards the crowd.

Kevin narrowed his eyes at the burly black man. “Look baldy, we have to get in there!”

Brian reached out and put a hand on Kevin’s arm to settle him down. looked at the name tag on the guard’s shirt. “Um, Al? We have to get a friend out of there.. actually two of our friends are in there and we’ve come to pick them up.”

“Is Nick in there drunk again?” a woman asked, her voice contained a bit of excitement mixed with dismay.

“I don’t care if you’re in here to pick up George Bush, get to the back of the line, okay? Don’t make me have to get violent on yous,” Al threatened, cracking his knuckles.

Kevin tried one more attempt at passing the guard and again was met with every move he tried, step for step by the black man. Defeated once again, the two stepped away from the bodyguard and the crowd of patrons.

“Well, what do we do now?” Brian whispered as he glanced over at the entrance.

Kevin sighed. “How the heck should I know? Mister I-own-the-club won’t let his mother pass if she isn’t in the front of the line.”

Brian nodded in agreement. “True... but hey, I’ve got an idea!”

“Rush him?”

Brian looked at Al and then back at Kevin. “Like we’d have a prayers chance in hell with that idea. No, I’ve got a better idea but it’s going to cost us.”

“I don’t care what it costs, just tell me the plan.”

Brian held his hand out, palm side facing up. “Give me your money.”

“What?”

Brian laid his hand back out again and repeated his request.

“Why my money?”

“Because I don’t have anything on me since Leighanne went shopping this afternoon,” Brian replied sheepishly.

A slight grin tugged at Kevin’s lips. “I see.”

Brian rolled his eyes and took the wad of bills from his cousin. “Just follow my lead, okay?”

Approaching the crowd of growing line of patrons, Brian selected a girl that seemed to be receptive to the idea he had in mind. As the two of them walked up to the line, the girl started acting nervous, whispering to her female companion.

Brian pasted his famous stage grin. “Evening, ladies.”

The girls nodded.

“I was hoping you could do both myself and Kevin here a favor. We have a couple of friends in the bar that we need to get to and take home and that bouncer won’t let us in out of line.”

One of the girls snapped her gum, the look of boredom in her eyes.

“Are you good at acting?”

The two girls looked at each other and giggled.

“What’s so funny?” Kevin growled, his patience wearing thin.

“Sorry, nothing, it’s just that me and Susan here are majoring in drama at FSU, you just happened to pick out someone that can act.”

“Thank God!” Brian smiled. “Okay, we’ll pay you if you agree to help us out.” He held open his hand, revealing the wad of money.

Both of the women looked interested once money was introduced into the plan.

“For that amount of cash, I’d b---”

“Susan!” the other woman cut her friend off. “Okay, tell us what you want us to do.”

Brian outlined the plan for the two girls and handed them the money. After the diversion was laid out, he and Kevin walked back over to where they were originally standing - a few feet from the bouncer. Giving the young women the signal with a slight nod of his head, the plan went into action.

”OH GOD! OH MY GOD! SWEET JESUS!”

“Susie! What’s wrong?”

The woman started breathing fast - almost like she was panting like a dog. Just as Brian was hoping, the crowd started to form a circle around the young girl.

”OH MY GOD! PLEASE HELP ME! I...C-CAN’T BREATHE! I’M DYING!”

“Susie! No, please don’t! God, please!”

Brian managed to sneak a look at the bouncer out of the corner of his eye, and just as planned, the man’s attention was distracted to the drama that was unfolding in the parking lot.

“Help us, she’s not breathing! Please!”

The bouncer took the bait and pushed his way through the crowd towards the girl now laying on the ground. Jerking Kevin’s arm, Brian pulled him to the entrance.

When the bouncer reached the women, the girl laying on the ground, stood up, brushing her pants off.

“HEY, I thought you couldn’t breathe!”

The woman giggled. “That, my fat friend is what we call, acting!”

Standing inside the doorway, both Kevin and Brian scanned the packed bar looking for any signs of Howie or AJ. It didn’t take too long before they both picked up on the commotion from the rear of the bar. Pushing their way through the crowd, it seemed to take them forever to reach where all the action was happening at.

“Oh for the love of God,” Kevin moaned.

Brian could only stand alongside his cousin, his mouth agape. Standing before the crowd, was AJ, swaying back and forth, long neck beer grasped tightly in his hand. Howie was standing helplessly off to the side, wringing his hands.

Kevin rushed over towards Howie. “What the fuck is going on? Why didn’t you stop him!” he demanded.

Howie faced Kevin, his brow knitted in anger and confusion. “Me and what army? You know how AJ gets when he’s been drinking!”

Both Brian and Kevin knew exactly what Howie was talking about. AJ had a stubborn personality - not as bad as Nick’s but pretty comparable. When AJ had anything stuck in his mind that he set out to do, he did it and usually accomplished his mission. Judging by his actions, one of his main goals was to get shitfaced drunk.

“Do you know what brought this on?”

Howie and Brian stared at Kevin in disbelief.

“What the hell kind of dumb question is that?” Brian snapped.

As Kevin opened his mouth to defend his remarks, he was interrupted by AJ as he draped his arm heavily across the man’s shoulder. “Kevy, Kevy Kevin, how the fuck are you?”

Kevin sized his young friend up and down. His baseball cap was cocked sideways, trademark sunglasses were halfway down his nose, smeared with lipstick and fingerprints. “You’re drunk,” Kevin spat.

AJ stared back at Kevin, a mock look of surprise pasted on his face. “Shit, really?”

“Come on Aje, let’s go home,” Brian coaxed as he tried to take the beer from his hands. AJ drew his hand back. “Seriously, AJ, we need to go home, Nick’s probably worried about us.”

Upon hearing his young brother’s name, AJ immediately burst into tears.

“Shhhh, it’s okay,” Howie soothed as he tried to place AJ’s other arm across his shoulder.

Almost as suddenly as he started crying, AJ pulled his arm from Howie.

”FUCK...FUCK....FUCK....FUCK!”

“Shhhh, Aje, people are staring, calm down,” Brian and Kevin admonished.

”THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT! FUCKING BULLSHIT!”

“Comeon buddy, let’s go home and talk about this,” Howie asked.

AJ stopped in mid stride, frozen in his tracks. He started shaking his head and laughing like a madman, scaring Brian, his eyes growing wider.

“Come on, let’s go back to Nick’s,” Kevin begged in a hushed whisper.

AJ shook his head furiously. “Nick’s? Nicky’s?” he stated in a slurred voice.

“Yeah, Nicky’s, we’re in Tampa, okay, we’re staying at Nick’s remember?” Brian calmly reminded.

AJ spun around, nearly falling. ”I’M NOT A FUCKIN RETARD LITTRELL, I KNOW WHERE THE FUCK WE’RE STAYING AT GODDAMN IT!”

Brian shrank back, as if the words burned him.

”HOW MUCH LONGER WILL NICK BE AROUND ANYWAYS?”

”AJ!” Kevin barked.

”NO, REALLY, I WANNA TA KNOW,” AJ slurred, swaying as he spoke, taking a long slug from the bottle of beer.

”MONTHS...WEEKS? HOW LONG DID THEY SAY? HOW MUCH LONGER WILL HE BE AROUND?”

”AJ.... THAT’S ENOUGH!” Kevin shouted, grabbing the tatooed man’s arm.

AJ started laughing again. ”YOU KNOW HE’S DYING.. WHY CAN’T YOU SAY IT KEVIN?”

For the first time, Brian noticed that the bar was completely silent. People were turned, staring at the young men arguing.

“AJ, let’s go,” Brian stated, grabbing AJ’s wrist. Kevin grasped the other one and together, they started forcing AJ to walk towards the exit.

Dragging his feet trying to stall, AJ kept on with his laughing jag. He repeated the same phrase over and over all the way through the bar:

”NICK IS SICK.. NICK IS SICK... HE’S SICK!”

Howie merely walked behind AJ, his eyes glued to the floor in front of him as he walked, not daring to make any eye contact with the crowd.