Shrugging Kevin’s hand off his shoulder, Brian bit his bottom lip as he approached the closed office door of Lou Pearlman’s. Every step he took towards the door gave him more strength and determination from the anger that was welling up inside of him.

Anger for having to postphone his surgery.

Anger for having priveledges denied time after time for some stupid reason that Pearlman saw fit to levy for punishment.

Anger for being treated like pets or animals in a circus. Trained to act for Pearlman’s amusement and benefit of making the fat manager more money. He stood in front of the door for a moment as he tried to summon the courage to knock on the door. Kevin started to call him back but Brian ignored his cousin’s pleas and balled his fist up, firmly knocking on the wooden door.

“Come in.”

Walking into the office, Brian found the manager sitting behind a desk, a mixed drink in one hand, long documents in the other. The manager’s only aknowledgement was a glare over the tops of the glasses that had slid down his nose.

“Mr. Pearlman, I need to talk to you about something important.”

“Go ahead.”

Brian waited for the manager to make some type of eye contact with him, but after a few moments he realized that the only way to get his attention would be to start talking. “Um, I’m, uh, we’re concerned about Nick.”

“What did the boy do now?”

Brian narrowed his eyes as he looked at how Pearlman seemed to me more concerned with reading than with what he had to say about Nick. “He didn’t do anything, at least I doubt he did anything. Could you at least look at me while I’m trying to talk to you?”

Pearlman lowered his papers and took a sip of his drink, the ice clanking onto the sides of the glass as he raised it to his lips.

“Could you at least put the papers down?”

The manger’s face flushed with anger as he set his work down. “I run a business and you people are not the only kids I’m responsible. What is so important that you have to interrupt me?”

“Like I was saying, we’re concerned about Nick....”

“About what?”

“You’re pushing us way too hard and you’re not being fair about anything!”

The manager threw an angry glare at the young man standing before him. Brian felt the urge to turn and dart out of the room, but somehow he swallowed his fear and kept his feet firmly planted.

“Nick is sick and you still had him doing the meet and greet. I swear he was going to pass out again during that!”

“He didn’t though, did he?”

“We were lucky that he didn’t.”

The stout manager grunted as he pushed his body away from the desk and grabbed his drink. “I’m a manager, goddamn it. I am the best. You snot nosed brats would be nowhere if it weren’t for my expertise! Obviously you don’t realize what I’ve given you, do you?”

“All I’m telling you is that you’re pushing everyone too hard and it’s taking a toll on Nick. He’s the youngest and he’s really sick and you don’t seem to care at all.”

“Oh, I care..... I care a lot.”

As Brian watched as the old man refilled his glass with whiskey, he shook his head. “What is it gonna take for you to realize that we’re not animals, we’re human beings?”

“You are under contract by me, you will do as I see fit and that’s to make money not to sit on your fat asses, which is one thing that Mr. Carter can do for all of you by the looks of it lately.”

Brian clenched his jaw when he heard Pearlman make another remark about Nick’s size. “That’s another thing too! You’re always on Nick about how much he weighs, you of all people don’t have room to make comments about someone’s weight.”

“You will be getting your time off in a week----”

“You’re only giving us two weeks off,” Brian interrupted.

“You’re lucky you’re getting that!”

“Two weeks is hardly enough time for anyone to recover from the time changes, jet lag, being sick---”

“Learn to adjust to it,” Pearlman growled.

“I can’t believe how unreasonable you are! Everyone has been putting their personal lives on hold and now we’re all paying for it. Forget about me needing open heart surgery, let’s talk about Nick’s health or the fact that our own parents have no idea how you’re treating us----”

“Do you want to be a singer?” Lou barked.

“What?”

“Simple question, do you want to be a singer?”

“Of course I do, you know I do.”

“Do you want to keep on working?”

Brian nodded his reply.

“Then I would suggest that you go back to your little world and let me do what I do in mine or I’ll see to it that you never sing a note in this business ever again, is that understood?”

“Yessir.”

“Good. Close the door quietly when you leave.”

Brian did as requested, running into Johnny Wright when he turned to walk away from the door. Johnny grabbed the young man by the arms, keeping him from falling when they collided.

“Whoa, sorry.... are you okay?”

“My fault, I wasn’t watching where I was walking,” Brian apologized.

The black manager studied Brian’s face. “You look upset, did something bad happen in there?”

Brian sighed. “Does anything good ever happen with him?”

Johnny shook his head. “Seems like lately nothing good goes on.”

Brian shrugged his shoulders.

“Care to tell me what you’re upset over? You don’t have to if it’s none of my business.”

“I was told to mind my own business, but I think I should tell someone that will listen to me, it’s obvious that Mr. Pearlman doesn’t care about anything but himself and I really hate saying that about anyone, but he really is self centered.”

Johnny wanted to smile at Brian’s politeness when he started complaining about Lou Pearlman. He knew the young man was raised with “Southern Manners” and to talk about your elders disrespectfully was one of the worst things a person could do. “Go ahead, I want to know what he’s done to get you this upset.”

“Well,” Brian started out, wringing his hands as he spoke, “I went to Mr. Pearlman because I was concerned about Nick and how sick he’s been this tour. He hasn’t been well at all and it seems to me that Mr. Pearlman isn’t interested in us as people. He was so sick last night and he still had to do the meet and greet.”

“Well, I know Lou only looks at you guys from a business angle.”

Brian shook his head in agreement. “Yes I know he does. He even told me that I have to push back my surgery until after we’re done with this tour for good and he is always on Nick for things and it’s not fair---”

The black manager narrowed his eyes and quickly held his hand up in the air to silence Brian. “What did you just say?”

“He’s always on Nick for things?”

“No, you said something about pushing back surgery. What surgery are you talking about?”

“The one on my heart,” Brian replied quietly.

“Jesus, I thought that was cancelled by your doctors,” Johnny muttered as he pushed his way past Brian, thrusting the door open to Pearlman’s office.

“Littrell... I thought I told you to leave...oh it’s you Johnny.”

“What the fuck are you doing to these kids?”

“I told him to keep his whiney mouth shut, what bullshit did he tell you about now?”

“Just the truth. Why do you think you can keep on manipulating these kids?” Johnny gestured toward the door with his head. “He just told me you postphoned his heart surgery!”

“It can’t be helped---”

“It’s on his goddamned heart for crying out loud, what the fuck are you thinking?”

“To repair a small hole, that’s all,” Pearlman lightly defended.

“You act like this is nothing! This is serious shit. And while we’re on the subject of the kids, what the hell are you doing to Nick? I thought you stopped that diet nonesense with him!”

“The kid is fat.”

“He’s just a kid for chrissake.”

“And he’s fat. If I don’t stop this he’s going to be so big he won’t be able to fit in his stage clothes by the end of this tour.”

“You’re a piece of work Pearlman. Can’t you see you’re hurting them?” Johnny snapped as he lifted the receiver to the phone on the desk. Pearlman reached out and put his hand on the connection, shutting the phone off.

“Who do you think you’re calling? You will put the phone down and you will let me run my business if you know what’s good for you.”

“You can’t keep doing this to them--”

“I can do as I please and I can ruin you if you persist on interferring with my plans for this group.”

“Your threats don’t scare me--”

“I can ruin you and it’s not a threat.”

Johnny laughed definatly at the fat man.

“Remember that little prostitution ring you were heavily involved in back in 87?”

“You wouldn’t dare bring that out!”

“Try me....”