Pissed off about the entire meeting he had with Johnny and Lou, every bite Nick took was his way of fighting back at management.

“How the hell can fatass Lou judge my looks?” Nick tearfully commented outloud. “Fuck him!” he spat angrily and shoved another mouthful of food into his mouth.

Past comments from AJ also crossed through his head. “Fatass? You’re the fatass you skinny freak!” Nick sneered and then shook his head. “That didn’t make sense,” he commented to himself.

Looking around the bed, turning over bags and wrappers, Nick discovered that he had eaten everything he ordered. He felt uncomfortably full but he didn’t care. Nick felt sleepy and decided to lay back and take a nap, figuring that after a few hours he would feel better.

Not knowing what to expect when he entered the room, Brian inched the door open and closed it softly behind him. From where he stood, he only saw Nick’s feet covered in white socks. As he moved further into the room, his breath caught in his throat.

“Oh Nicky,” Brian sighed quietly.

He stood looking down at his sleeping friend for a few moments, sadly shaking his head. Nick laid ontop of the comforter, amid cheeseburger wrappers, french fry boxes and empty apple pie cartons. The mistake made from the kitchen with Nick had him hit rock bottom, Brian assumed.

The meeting had continued without Nick’s presence and Johnny didn’t seem to be overly upset with the way Nick had left the conference room, Brian thought. There were sponsors that had shown up after the lunch and talked with the remaining men for a few hours and Brian was only there physically, mentally he was worried about his young friend.

With only thirty minutes left before they had to be down to the lobby for the shuttle van to the venue, Brian had no other choice but to wake Nick up. He put his hand on Nick’s shoulder, gently rubbing it.

“Nick?”

The only response Brian was rewarded with, was a shake of the head and Nick rolling over ontop of the papers, crinkling noises, and a soft moan.

“Nicky, come on you gotta get up,” Brian coaxed.

“I can’t, I-I don’t feel good,” Nick moaned after he hiccuped.

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” he replied grimly. “Did you get sick?”

“I wish.”

“Did you try?”

Nick shook his head in reply.

Brian eased his body down onto the foot of the bed. “Why did you do this to yourself?”

Nick’s only reply was a shrug of his shoulders. The reason was too embarrassing for him to talk about.

“Hey, you can tell me, we’re friends,” Brian pressed. “There has to be a good reason why you did this.”

“I was hungry,” Nick stated, it sounded almost as a question instead of a statement. He could see that Brian wasn’t buying his excuse. “I don’t want to talk about it. Tell them I’m too sick to go out tonight.”

Brian gave Nick his saddest puppy dog eyes. “And disappoint the fans?”

Nick groaned and rolled his body off the bed. “Okay...alright...okay, I’m going.”

“You realize, this conversation isn’t done though, don’t you?” Brian pointed out.

As he rubbed his tender stomach Nick sighed. “Maybe not for you, but it is for me.”

“Kaos.....”

“Just drop it, okay? I’m not going to talk about it again!” Nick shouted as he grabbed a pair of sweats and a tee shirt and slammed the bathroom door behind him. “EVER!”

Brian sadly shook his head as he directed his attention from the closed bathroom door to the littered bedspread. Grabbing the small trash can that was next to the desk, he went about the task of clearing up the papers and bags. He heard Nick burp in the bathroom, the tile floor and walls made it echo and sound louder than what it really was. “Gross Nick!”

Nick snickered.

“Okay, that’s sick!” Brian called out.

“Hey, can’t a guy fart in the bathroom without your comments? It’s neutral and safe territory!” Nick defended. “Would you like me to come out there and share it with you?”

“NO! Just hurry up, okay? You don’t want to get Johnny pissed off again.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Johnny can kiss my ass.”

Brian stopped throwing trash in the basket. “What did you say?”

“I’ll be out in a second,” Nick lied. Taking his shirt off, he couldn’t help but notice that his stomach was a little swollen from his eating binge. “Great, something else for them to pick on me about tonight,” he decided as he pulled the white Nike tee shirt over his head. The waistband from the sweatpants dug pressed into his stomach, so Nick cured that problem by lowering the waist down a bit, not caring that it emphasized his gut. “Screw ‘em.”

“Who are you talking to?”

Flinging the bathroom door open, Nick burped loudly again. “Myself.”

Brian’s face showed disgust. “You need to brush up on your manners, kiddo.”

“It’s just you and me in here,” Nick argued.

“True, but if you keep on doing that, you’re bound to slip one of these times.”

Taking a deep breath in, Nick belched out: “Oookaaay.” He immediately regretted doing that manuver when he hiccuped.

“Nice job there Nickolas,” Brian chided. “Ready to go?”

Holding his breath to keep from hiccuping again, Nick nodded yes. Brian knocked on the adjoining door. “Ready in there yet?”

The door creaked open with AJ shoving his face in. “Yep, security is ready.”

“Let’s go then,” Brian stated as he motioned for Nick to follow him through the open door.

“Hey fatty, you feeling better now since you had that temper tantrum?” AJ grinned.

Nick scowled and gave AJ the finger. AJ reciprocated by placing his hand on Nick’s stomach. “So when you due?”

“AJ, knock it off and leave Nick alone, okay? Let’s have one nice night for a change,” Howie pleaded.

AJ wrapped an arm around Nick’s shoulder. “We’re buds, he’s not offended are you Nicky?”

Nick picked up AJ’s arm by the wrist with two fingers and flung it off his shoulder. “Leave me the fuck alone, McLean.”

“I think we need to keep you two separated,” one of the bodyguards smirked.

Nick hiccuped again, this time it came in a series of squeaks.

“Oh for the love of god,” AJ hissed, slapping Nick in the back of the head. “That’s so damned annoying Carter.”

The three men walked to the waiting elevator and quietly got on. Silence was only broken with the sounds of Nick’s hiccups which seemed to be coming on quicker. Brian gave a glance over at Nick and could have sworn that his skin had a greenish tint to it. “Are you gonna get sick?”

AJ slid his shades down his nose and eyed Nick. “God, I hope not.”