"Yo!" AJ called out as he banged on the bathroom door, "Hurry up we have to leave in ten."

Stepping out of the shower Nick pulled down the towel from the rack. "I´ll be out in a sec," he shouted back as he wrapped the white towel around his waist. Glancing into the steamy bathroom mirror he stuck his toungue out to the reflection that was staring back at him. With disgust he noticed that his stomach was actually getting pretty big. Sucking in his breath, he tried to make himself look skinny. It didn´t work for long since he had to exhale. He hated his stomach. No matter how much he worked out or went on a diet he still looked like he was bloated. Nick knew that he wasn't actually fat otherwise, for some strange reason it all went to his stomach.

"Crap!" he muttered to himself as his stomach became bigger again. "I´m getting a freakin' beer belly." It was totally ironic since beer was something he seldom touched. It had it´s explanation since he once got so drunk on that stuff one time in Germany. He often said in the media that he never drank and that was not true. Okay, there were not many times that he drank, but like almost all eighteen year old guys he had gotten drunk at some occasions.

The first time he was drunk was on dark larger back in '96. AJ had tricked him into trying it and soon he was having the time of his life. They were riding on the bus and at first the guys had thought he was pretty funny, that was until Nick got the taste of what drinking too much did to your body. Johnny had been scared shitless that the media would find out what the Backstreet baby had done so he had refused stopping. The result had been that Kevin and Brian had taken turns staying up with him in the bus bathroom. It was his worst experience ever and from that day he swore that he would NEVER drink larger again. And he had still kept his promise!

"NICK Get your ass out NOW. We´re getting late!" His thoughts were interrupted by AJ´s harsh words. The banging on the door was deafening. Ignoring Bone's words he pulled up his jeans. As he was about to button them he noticed that they were a bit too tight. 'Shit,' he thought desperatly, 'Johnny is right. I really need to get on that diet'. The management kept telling him that NOBODY liked a fat popstar and that he had to watch what he ate.

No matter how much he tried to pull in his stomach he still looked fat, and the button made his gut hurt. Opening it up again he felt comfort again and he decided that he had to leave it open. If he put on a shirt over no one would notice his demise and he could pull off that stunt.

Nick sighed.

They were going to do another meet and greet before the concert and he didn´t feel like it at all. After traveling the whole day in a bus he was tired and sore. The shower had done a little bit to perk him up, but still he would rather stay in. Maybe call Manda and then go to bed early. Dark bags under his eyes was proof that he wasn´t getting enough sleep. Having shows almost every night was rather exhausting and at some nights he only got a few hours of sleep. This was way too little for a growing teen.

"If you don´t get out of there before I count to three I´m leaving you," AJ barked before counting, "One, two," there was a brief pause, "Okay I am leaving on three."

"Well leave then," Nick yelled back. To tell the truth he was getting fed up with AJ nagging on him all the time. He loved and looked up at his 2 years older brother, but he honestly thought that he was getting way too much crap from him lately. Okay, he knew that Bone was pretty homesick, but he refused to be AJ´s doormat.

"THREE!" AJ yelled, " Bye..Buttermuffin!" A loud laugh was heard before the door slammed shut.

A pang of unease ran through his spine. Nick didn´t like to be alone. As a matter of fact he often wanted some other person at his side and this was the main reason why he often shared hotel rooms with someone else. The guys used to joke with him that he needed someone to hold his hand when he was on the crapper. And this was not far from the truth. Nick had practically died when AJ had told on some Tv show in England that he needed some other person with him when he went to the restroom. Even if it was true, he didnt want the whole world to know what a sissy he was.

When he opened the bathroom door he noticed that AJ had made action of his threat. He was alone. MTV was blasting from the tv in the corner and he was actually happy that it wasn´t all silent. Picking up his jeans jacket he tucked his wallet in his jeans pocket and also grabbed the key card. Checking one more time in the mirror he pulled his hand through his hair and then decided that it would have to be good enough. He still looked like crap, but at least his hair didn´t look so flat and dull anymore. The shower had done him good.

As he hurried down the dusky and damp hallway towards the elevator, he felt his nerves make him all jumpy. Even if he liked the meet and greet it still made him nervous meeting so many fans. A bit further down he spotted Kevin walking slowly and not wanting to be alone he yelled, "Kev, Kev Wait up!"

The dark man, deep in his own thoughts, jumped as he heard the teens loud and shrill voice. Stopping, he waited as Nick run up to him.

"Hey," the blonde said, grinning.

Kevin didn´t return the smile, instead he said in his calm, Kentuckian drawl, "There's no need to shout. I´m not deaf. Yet!" The voice was so hoarse that Nick looked at him with surprise.

"Wow! You sound like that English dude..you know..Rod..Rod Ste..something."

"Rod Stewart," Kevin corrected him with a sigh as he coughed hard into his arm.

"Yeah man," Nick nodded, "How are you going to preform sounding so shitty?"

Kevin shrugged tiredly. The dark man looked haggard. His eyes had a feverish shine into them and he coughed ever so often. His hunched posture revealed that he would rather be buried under tons of blankets instead of doing a show.

The flu was taking their hostage everyday at the Backstreet camp. Today's new victim was Howie and the Latino was everything but fine. He had been holding his head over a bowl the whole afternoon and Johnny had seriously reconsidered that he would be able to pull out. But they were doing a BIG pay per view show and it would be taped for German tv. So there was no backing out.

Brian and Kevin were not as bad off, but with Kev´s hoarsness and B'rok's stuffiness the concert wouldn´t be a huge sucess for the 20,000 people that had bought tickets.

"You should get a red card," Nick said a bit concerned as he pressed on the button to the elevator.

"Yeah right, Bri and D' are sick too you know and I don´t think that it would look good if we didn´t preform at all," Kevin sneered.

Nick looked a bit hurt. "There's no need to sound so pissed," he muttered. God, they were all mad at him. He had no idea what he had done to bug them all so much. Okay, he did his pranks like putting glue in Kevin's boxers or hide all of AJ´s clothes. And then was that time when he put green food coloring in Howie's shampoo and itching powder in their clothes. He was mostly a pain in the butt, yet there were no need to be so upset when all he wanted to be was being concerned.

Kevin most have sensed that he came across sounding harsh, "Sorry Kaos. I didn´t mean to sound like that but I have a splitting headache." He coughed violently.

Fending off the germs that were floating through the air, Nick nodded. "S´okey."

As the car arrived they stepped inside. Luckily it was empty and Kevin instantly leaned against the mirror wall, closing his eyes. Frowning Nick concluded that if Johnny had ANY sense in his small and narrowed brain he would see that several of the guys were too sick to preform. This years attack of the Backstreet bug was bad and he hoped that he wouldn´t be the next victim. Bugs like this had an tendancy to seek him up and he was surprised that it hadn't hit him yet.

When the elevator stopped, Nick spotted his band brothers sitting in the sofas down in the lobby. Both Brian and Howie looked like death reincarnated. AJ was the only one that looked pretty healthy.

Howie slouched on the sofa, leaning heavily against Brian. His facial complexion held a tone of more green than pale and he held a paperbag in his shaking hands. Sweatdrops coated his forehead and upperlip and everyone could see that this boy was not well at all to go up and preform.

Brian sat next him, looking almost as bad off. The flu had moved from his stomach up to his respiratory system and he was coughing phlegm and blowing a nose that was as red as a firetruck. Chills seemed to wrack his skinny body and the glossy eyes told that he was running a high fever.

If Nick had been the manager he would have given all three the red card. Pronto!

Johnny, however had no such ideas. "Good there you are," he stated as he saw the missing Backstreet Boys walking slowly towards them. "I need you Nick and AJ to go out and sign some autographs." The manager nodded towards the entrance where hundreds of fans were waiting for them to come out.

Stiffening, Nick looked outside. Girls in all ages were trying to get inside. They were screaming and panic surged up inside him. "You..you want u..us to go ou..out there?" he stuttered, not believing his ears. Johnny actually wanted to throw them out into that crowd.

Not that he had anything against his fans. On the contrary he was very grateful that they exsisted and showed so much appreciation for them. It was just that such big crowds often made him feel at unease, especially when they were going hysterical, screaming and trying to touch him. Ever since that incicdent last year when a girl had jumped over him, clinging onto his back as he ran inside the hotel, he was scared at meeting crowds like this. She had almost strangeled him and he had gone into panic.

"Yes Carter," Johnny sounded irritated as Nick interrupted him.

"But..but we..we will get crushed." Nick hated how he stuttered when he got nervous, but lately Johnny often made him feel like crap. His self esteem was hitting rock bottom.

The manager sighed heavily. The kid was getting on his nerves." You have any better idea? Maybe I should send out poor Howie to the fans. He could be puking over them. Or maybe Kevin could use sign language to communicate." Sarcasm was dripping. "Brian, Brian he could sneeze up their faces. They are sick, but you Carter, complains that you dont want to go out there beacuse you are afraid to get crushed. Man you sure are pathetic."

Nick shifted nervously, looking down to the floor. The rest of the boys seemed uncomfortable too and the way Brian bit his lip, clenching his fist he looked like he was ready to go up and punch the manager in the face. Yet they all kept their mouth shut, knowing that it was no idea to tell their manager off when he was in a bad mood. It would only come back to them later.

Looking hard at the teen the black man continued, "So do you think that I am asking too much out of you when I want you to go out and meet YOUR fans?"

"No..No" Nick mumbled, "But..but I think.." He was cut off by his manager once again.

"Carter this is NOT an option! You want me to call Lou and tell him that you are still disobeying orders even tough we had a long talk about your attitude?"

Shaking his head furioulsy Nick opened his mouth to interject. AJ mouthed a "NO!" It was clear that he thought it was better that his friend kept his mouth shut and didn´t say anything unwanted. Nick was a specialist to say the wrong things in the worst situation and he often made stuff worse by doing this.

He was about to repeat his mistakes when he whined, "You always nag at me!"

AJ shook his head, franatically trying to change Nick's path in irritating Johnny even further. Looking around in the lobby he tried to spot Clark Kent who was the only one who could stop the disaster that was about to happened.

But superman was nowhere when you needed him!

Ignoring AJ´s desperate attempt to get him to shut up before he said something stupid, Nick continued in an irritating tone, "I will call my parents and tell them that you are treating me like crap!"

There are situations when Nickolas Gene Carter should have hold his mouth shut, and this was one!

The manager, set his eyes into the teen, "Are you threatning ME? You little punk!" There were a threat in his voice. "I really think you should reconsider what you are saying. I wouldn´t be too cocky if I had a hundred dollar long distance phone call waiting to get paid. And I somehow doubt that Mommie Dearest would like to pay up for that one."

Nick tensed. It was true. His mother wasn´t too found of Manda and she would rather see him leave her on the spot. Biting his lip he went silent.

Instead Kevin's hoarse voice was heard in the lobby, "A hundred dollar bill! What were you thinking?" The scolding was hanging in the air. "If it was AJ I would have understood, but you Nick?"

"Well thank you buddy," AJ muttered in the background, still shaking his head as he knew that Nick had dug his own grave. He could only hope that Johnny wasn´t in such a bad mood that it would be a massgrave. Judging from the managers foul look the outcome wasn´t promising.

Ignoring the skinny man, Kevin continued with almost no voice, " I wouldn´t have expected this from you. Is she really worth it?"

"NO!" AJ called out, getting a pissed look from Nick. Both Brian and Howie felt too bad to even consider to participate in the conversation.

"Eh..eh," Nick stuttered not knowing what to say.

The annoyed bottled up feelings that the manager had towards the "kid" was flaring up again. Nick was a hand full and he needed to be taught some sense. "I could just as easily decide that you are not," he stopped momentarily, thinking what to say next, "allowed to call ANY long distance phone calls at all."

"NO!" Nick yelled, "No, you can´t!" There was desperation in the eighteen year old voice. He was seeing all of his daily phone calls with Manda get washed down the drain. She would be so pissed that he didn't know if he could face her when he came back home. She would be so upset that he had screwed up and not calling her so he doubted that she would ever want to see him again.

AJ waved desperately for Nick to stop whining since he saw that Johnny's eyes turned suddenly black. It was like horns grew out from his skull as he turned towards the teen, leaning in on him. "Really? You think so?" Spit was flying from his mouth as he talked through gritted teeth, trying to stay calm. "Well from now on ALL long distance phone calls are called off, except to your family."

It was like Johnny had stabbed a knife into his heart and Nick could feel panic surge up inside him. "NO!" he called out, desperately. There was no way he could get to Manda now and when she didnt hear from him she would think that he had cheated and then she would breake up. Tears welled up in his eyes. He was surprised over how incredibally mean the manager could be. Johnny loved being in demand. He had liked the black man when they had started in the business, but the more successfull they had become the more greedy he became and the smaller Nick felt.

Kevin laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, squeezing hard. No words had to be said, but Nick could sense that the young man felt bad for him. The teen had frozen assets and he had to relay on the management for stuff like that. As a matter of fact they all had a bit of frozen assets and this was the main reason why Kevin was taking it up to a lawyer.

But Johnny wasn´t finsihed yet, "Lou called me earlier and he mentioned that you all have too high telephone calls. So until further notice I am cutting off all outgoing long distance phone calls that isn´t for family." He looked at each of them, "And that goes for you ALL of you."

The words that followed down in the lobby was not meant for human ears. Nick could swear that he saw the satisfaction in the manager's eyes. It was something different with Johnny these days and he suspected that he had a hunch that Kevin had spoken with a lawyer about getting out from Lou and the guys. There were also several rumors that Johnny was setting up a new group with some guys from Florida. Howie had mentioned that an old highschool friend of his named Chris was supposedly having contact with Lou and Johnny. Yet they couldn´t think that the Firm was that stupid that they signed another band.

"Ladies!" Johnny shouted when he thought that they had been arguing long enough. "I know that you are upset, but I honestly think AND hope that you are so mature that you don´t have to call back to your girlfriends every fucking day!" The comments that followed was not nice. Ignoring this he turned to Nick, "Well if you are done acting like pussies maybe you are up to fullfilling your obligations. And this means that you, Carter and Mclean better get your asses out there and greet the fans." He pushed their backs forward towards the entrence.

Glaring at his manager Nick wanted to flip him off.

Noticing the sour look, Johnny stated, "I don´t think that the girls would appreciate that grumpy face. You better put on the Backstreet smile or I´m kicking your ass."

AJ walked beside him and even if he was so pissed at the teen he couldn´t help to grin. Johnny spotting this said, "Wipe off that smug grin off your face, because it is because of the blonde here you don´t get to talk to Amanda for a while."

AJ´s smile faded as quickly as it appeared and he glared irritated at his little brother. Nick feeling the tension told a lame joke, just to be met with a hard stare from his brother. Smiling nervously, wetting his lips he felt awful when he knew how much Amanda meant to AJ, even if he was cheating on her ever so often. That was a part that Nick couldn´t understand - but then it was many things that he couldn´t understand with AJ!

As they were about to step outside to meet the fans, AJ leaned into Nick, whispering, "If Johnny does this so I'm not getting to call Amanda I will get pissed," he paused slightly, "and then your ass is grass!" With those words AJ opened the doors and stepped outside to the screaming hoard of fans. Their bodyguards were doing the best to fend off the fans that were attacking Bone. He smiled to all of them.

Nick however, was not smiling.