"God itīs warm," Nick mumbled as he threw off the sheet, tossing and turning for what seemed like the umpteenth time that night. Catching a quick glance at the red glowing digitals on his travel clock he registered that it was early in the morning. 4.25 am!
The show the previous night had been very taxing and even though Nick was totally exhausted, he still felt too worked up to sleep. He hadnīt even managed to get an eye shut the whole night and soon it would be time to get up and meet the world again. The reason for his worriedness was called Alexander James McLean and he was nowhere to be seen.
The concert had been a total disaster! Not only had the flu hit them in the back, showing itīs ugly face with having three of them preforming with a fever running in their veins, no Nick had to be the worst klutz too.
When he was about to do a backflip, like he had done thousands of times before, he slipped and fell flat on his back. It had knocked the air out of him and he lay there, panting like a dying fish on dry land. It took awhile for the rest to register that Nick was still laying on his back, and normally one of them would have rushed to his aid, but today they were all too busy to cope, trying hard to stay on their own feet.
Howie, who was sick as a dog throwing up backstage, was the one that saw that Nick wasnīt getting back on his feet in the same pace as he usually did. He went over and offered a hand and dragged him up. A frown was etched on the Latino's face and even if he was so sick that he looked like an zombie he still managed to ask how the teen was doing. Regaining his breath, Nick had acted like nothing was wrong. He couldnīt let them know that he was hurt since they were all trying to do their best so this wouldnīt end up becoming the worst preformance in the Backstreet history. It was nearing this state pretty fast!
D' was one of the nicest guys that Nick knew and mentally Nick decided that her wouldnīt tease and play so many pranks on him like he usually did. Howie was an easy target to tease and he had a habit to pick on the Latino in all kinds of situations. Sweet D' often laughed and didnīt seem too effected. But if anyone thought that Howie D' was lame and didnīt have a temper they couldnīt be more mistaken. He was perfectly capeable of telling Nick off when he thought that the teen had crossed the line.
Rubbing his sore back, Nick winced. 'I better go and ask Kev for some pain medictaion tomorrow at breakfast,' he thought as he could have slapped himself for forgetting to bring a package of Tylenols with him on this tour. Since the schedule often messed up his system he was sometimes coming to the point where he was chewing aspirins like they were M&M's just to be able to stand upright.
His sore back had made it impossible to do some dance moves and AJ had afterwards commented that he looked like he had shit his pants. When the show was over Johnny had chewed them out. He said that they sucked worse than a bunch of ladies from an retirement home trying to do jazz dance. He had told them that they better shape up their act and he didnīt buy that kind of nonsense that they were acting so bad because they were feeling sick.
"Okay," he had said, "Three of you are sick, but what excuses do the rest of you have? This is a team and you are suppose to stand up for each other when any of you are feeling bad. This I saw nothing from today. As a matter of fact, you Nick and you AJ sounded worse than the Three Stooges," the manager waved with his hand towards the three miserable Backstreet Boys that sat on the sofa, looking like they were about to fall over any second.
It was more and more clear that Johnny was feeling the pressure from some direction, possibly the Firm and their sponsors. He was having a fit as his hands were tied to his back. The black man didnīt seem to enjoy his new role as Caligula, yet there wasn't much that he could do about it. The firm was in his hair and they were tightening the grip for some unknown reason.
After Johnny had chewed AJ and Nick out, the skinny man clamped shut. No attempts to get Bone in a better mood worked. Nick had tried his tricks, but the look he received from AJ said that he better shut up or he would end up in the ER with his face re-arranged. Alexander was not an violent man, but the teen had a habit to test his temper in a bad way.
As soon as they had gone back to the hotel, Kevin, Brian and Howie went straight to their shared room, trying to cure the illness so they would be fit for fight until the upcoming day. The schedule was hectic and early in the morning they would go to the next city and there awaited lots of interveiws, a meet and greet and one more concert. Nick had long forgotten where they were and all German cities looked about the same. He was actually grateful that he hadnīt screwed up and said "Hello England" or something like that to the people in Germany. They would soon be leaving for Austria and Switzerland. Brian had asked if Nick wanted to come into the sick abyss and watch a movie with them, but he had declined. It didnīt sound too tempting and somehow he convinced himself that he could do without watching the guys expelling all kinds of nasty human substances.
Instead he took the bull by the horns and went into the hotel room that he and AJ shared for the time being. The earier threats that AJ would kick his ass if Johnny locked him out off calling Amanda, hung heavily in the air. Bone wasnīt nasty, but he wasnīt overly nice either.
Nick threw himself on the bed and the turned on the Mtv. His back hurt from his earlier mishap, yet he didnīt want to say this to anyone, mainly because they were too busy attending to their own desmises. AJ didnīt seem that interested either. As a matter of fact he more or less treated Nick like he was thin air.
If it was something Nick disliked it was when they were acting like he didnīt exist. He would rather be the victim of a good beating up, than getting fully ignored. All attempts to make a conversation with AJ was futile and the man was giving him the cold shoulder, making him feel left out.
"Iīm going clubbing with Ritch and Bob and some other guys," AJ announced as he came out from the bathroom, having changed to a more outgoing look.
"Now?" Nick looked surprised, "I mean it is almost midnight and you know we have to get up early tomorrow and.." He didnīt have a chance to finish his sentence before AJ cut him off.
