“Bri.... I think you’ve been on tour way too long,” Kevin remarked with a sigh. “I mean, let’s analyze this. On one hand, we have Kaos, bullheaded sonofabitch that he is and on the other hand we have Lou. Do you really think that Lou could possibly scare Nicky into giving up his munchies?”

Brian shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what to think anymore.” He tucked a leg underneath the other one, sitting semi-cross legged on his hotel room bed. “But if you saw the look in that kid’s eyes, I’m sure you would be drawing the same conclusions.”

Pushing his gangly body up from the opposite bed, Kevin smirked. “Yeah, well Nick is a good actor and I think he’s just bored. You’ve been worrying about this ever since we got off the bus this morning.” He patted his cousin on the shoulder. “C’mon, we better go or Johnny will put out a search party for us.”

Scooting off the bed, Brian followed his cousin down the dim hall toward Lou Pearlman’s room for the group meeting. Shoving his hands into his front pockets as he walked, Brian sighed. “Wonder what he’s gonna yell at us about this time around.”

Kevin stopped as they approached the suite’s door. “Honestly Brian..don’t be so damned negative.”

“I’m just saying that....”

“You’re just being damned negative.”

“Who?”

Brian and Kevin turned to see AJ sauntering down the hallway, a jacket draped over his shoulder. “What’s Kev riding your ass about now Rok?”

Shifting his weight, Brian grinned. “You know how Kevin is when he’s on the road...everyone is negative when they don’t agree with him.”

AJ fingered the rim of the cowboy hat he was wearing. “Yeah, well I just want this meeting done and over. There’s some shops I wanna check out.”

“You and your shopping,” Kevin grinned as he rolled his eyes.

“I like to shop too,” Howie piped up as he sprinted down the hall to join up with the others.

“Must be Kaos is already here,” AJ observed as he looked at the men standing outside the door.

“Better be,” Kevin added, glancing at his wrist watch. As he balled his fist to knock, the door opened and Lou Pearlman’s bulky frame blocked the entrance. A fake smile instantly was pasted on the manager’s face.

“There you are. Glad you could make it.”

“Captive audiences don’t get better than this,” AJ muttered as he filed into the room behind the others.

“What? Nick isn’t with you? Tsk...tsk, I’ll bet that old nasty cold got the best of him.”

“Oh....don’t know Lou... he is the only one of us that has the luxury of a room to himself,” AJ grumbled as he threw his body ontop of one of the king size beds that occupied the room.

“I’ll go get Nick.”

“No Brian, I’ll go get him, afterall, I am the manager,” Lou stated as he stepped out into the hall. No words were exchanged as the door softly closed, leaving the men alone in the suite.

“You realize this sucks, don’t you?” AJ rasped, raising his body up as he looked around the room.

Brian followed AJ’s gaze. “What sucks?”

“The fact that we work our asses off on this goddamned tour and share a fucking hotel room and fatass Pearlman sleeps like a baby in suites.”

“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you---”

“I’m just stating facts, that’s all.”

Inserting the room card into the slot, Pearlman jerked the door open. “Carter, get your ass out of bed, we have a meeting and you’re late as usual.”

Nick jerked awake and rolled onto his side.

“I said get your fatass out of bed. Let’s MOVE!”

Rubbing a hand over his face, Nick slowly sat up, the cold medicine making his brain feel mushy.

“Here,” Pearlman huffed as he handed Nick a clean tee shirt. “Put this on.”

Obediently, Nick peeled off the soaked shirt he had been wearing and pulled the fresh shirt over his head.

“C’mon Nick, the rest of them are waiting in my room!”

Nick sleepily followed the fat man down the hall and gasped when Pearlman shoved a bag of chips at him. “Open those up and start snacking.”

Looking at the large bag of potato chips in his hands, Nick narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me boy.”

“Um, you want me on a diet, remember?”

“Yes and you will be on one, as soon as we go on our hiatus. You blew it for now with your fat mouth, so you better be eating because everyone will be watching you and if anyone catches on, there will be deep trouble, so you better just keep on stuffing your face until we go on break. Remember our agreement, you loose the weight on break or you get fired from the group.”

“I-I don’t understand...”

“You told Littrell about the diet drink, the demands to lose the weight and I told him you were delusional. I doubt he bought my story, but for now, you have to keep eating like the world is coming to an end because all of them will be watching you to see if your story was true.”

“But I’m not hungry.”

“Pick at them then, but whatever you do, make it look like you can never get enough to eat. Got it?”

“But....”

”DO IT! Pearlman barked at the young man.

Nick hung his head as he followed the manager into the suite.

“Look who I found,” Pearlman announced cheerfully to the rest of the group assembled in the room.

“I don’t know about you, but Nick looks like he’s feeling sick,” Brian whispered into AJ’s ear.

“When isn’t Kaos ever sick?”

Brian smiled mechanically at the young fan that was holding an 8 x 12 picture of the BSB, waiting for an autograph. “There you go sweetheart.”

AJ scrawled his name quickly across a CD cover, shoving it back at the fan, his face a mixture of business and boredom. He flashed a quick grin when the woman gushed her praises for the group.

Brian jerked when he heard Nick’s deep, barking cough. He looked over towards his young brother. “Are you alright bro?”

Nick smiled paley at Brian, nodding his head slightly as he uncapped his water bottle.

“You better take more of that cold medicine when this gets done Nicky,” Howie stated with a tone of authority.

Nick waved him off with a shake of his hand as he gulped the water. “I’m fine, just got some dust in my throat.”

“Yeah that sounded more like mucous coming up than dust,” Brian whispered.

“Jesus Brian, you want to make me sick too?” AJ moaned with disgust in his voice.

“Sorry people, but we need to cut this short....we have schedules to keep,” Johnny Wright annouced to the crowd that was still packed in the conference room.

“I waited all morning in line just to be told to leave? This is bullshit!”

Kevin arched an eyebrow in the direction of the displeased fan while AJ shook his head, grinning.

“Come here honey..... I like your style,” he called out as he pointed at the fan.

The young woman rushed up to the table, clutching a BSB tee shirt, some professional photos of the guys and a disposable camera.

“What’s your name darlin’?”

“It’s Melanie.”

“Mel, you want a picture taken?”

“God yeah.... yes I do.”

AJ gently took the camera from the girl and shoved it at Brian. “Take a picture of me and my new girl Melanie.”

Brian’s face became red when AJ shoved the camera at him and started ordering. He watched AJ prance around the table to be beside the young girl. She leaned against him as if they were longtime friends when he placed an arm around her waist. All the other fans stood whispering words like ‘she’s so lucky’ and ‘I wish I had the guts to say what she did.’

“Say sex,” AJ rapsed into her ear as Brian pointed the camera at them.

Melanie giggled as the camera flashed.

AJ hugged her quickly after the pictuer was taken. “Did you want an autograph too?”

“Yes, please.”

“What did you want me to sign for you?”

Instead of handing the shirt or a picture to AJ, the girl started unbuttoning her blouse. “I’d like you to sign my right breast.”

Brian’s mouth dropped open and Nick’s eyes grew round. Howie and Kevin chose to ignore the girl’s comments by acting busy with the pens and papers that were in front of them.

“Good thing I don’t have the letter I in my name,” AJ cackled as he took the felt marker and started signing his name in bold letters across the girls ample breast.

Melanie giggled in reply.

Capping the pen, he kissed the girl on the cheek. “I’ve got some free time, do you want to meet me in my room and show me how wild you really are?”

Stunned, Melanie shook her head yes.

Taking a slip of paper from the table, AJ wrote down Nick’s room number and a code word for the body guards. Folding the paper, he pressed it into the girl’s hand. “Come back after the show tonight and I’ll rock your world.”

Lou Pearlman shook his head as he looked over at Nick’s towel draped head. “I don’t know what you were doing out there on that stage tonight but that sure as hell wasn’t what people paid hard earned money to see.”

Nick kept his face buried under the white cloak, not giving the fat manager the satisfaction of seeing his hurt expression. “I told you I’m sick.”

“You’re always sick!”

The tears were stinging his eyes and Nick blinked to keep them from spilling. He was physically feeling bad and the mental abuse Lou was dishing out wasn’t helping him either. He wished the tour was over and his left could go back to being semi-normal.

“Nick can’t help it he got sick. The way you parade us around like circus animals would make the healthiest man get sick from time to time,” Kevin harshly defended.

“Well all of you are losing your touch out there and that has nothing to do with your schedule,” the manager bellowed. “I think you just plain don’t care.” The manager paused, directing his hard glare at Nick’s towel covered head. “Carter, you know what we’ve talked about before and you better do it or else!”

Upon hearing the manager’s words, Brian and Kevin exchanged a quick glance at each other. Suspicions were running through both men’s brains and they each wondered if it was about Nick losing weight. The actions that were taken by Nick shocked them next.

Flipping off the towel, Nick quietly announced, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving. Let’s get out of here and have the driver run through a drive thru on our way back to the hotel.”

“Nick, seriously, we don’t have time for that crap, besides I want to get back,” AJ growled.

“It will be my treat boys,” Lou offered.

“Well in that case, I guess we could stop then.”

"Good, I'm glad you've accepted my offer, hurry and grab your stuff so you can get there before McDonald's closes. I'll give the money to the driver."

Nick reluctantly picked stuffed the towel into his duffel bag and followed the rest of the group toward the garage where the van waited. Sleep was more on his mind than eating but he knew that as long as Lou Pearlman was watching, he would have to play his game. He had to be perfect in the manager's eyes.