Kevin found himself standing alone in a room filled with flowers of every type and color. Instead of his usual jeans, t-shirt and Adidas sneakers he discovered he was wearing a dark suit.

The smell of the flowers didn’t cover up the scent of some type of horrible make up Kevin assumed, that hung in the large room. The lighting was dim and soft music was playing.

Looking around the room he noticed rows of empty antique white leather padded folding chairs and cream colored draperies that hung from the ceiling down to the plush cream colored carpet. As Kevin twisted around where he stood, his brows furrowed in confusion.

Where was he?

“There’s gotta be a goddamned exit,” Kevin muttered. Spying a brightly lit sign with the words EXIT, he darted toward the opening.

Walking toward the buildings entrance as fast as he could, Kevin didn’t look back until he reached the sidewalk adjacent to the deserted street. Resting on the manicured front lawn was a white sign with bold black letters JOHANSSON FUNERAL HOME.

“What the hell?”

Looking at the front doors, Kevin noticed a sign with small print. Curiosity got the best of him and since it was too far for him to read, he casually walked back to the building.

And there it was in small type:

“Kev....wake up you’re having...”

Startled, Kevin jerked upright finding Brian standing over him. Self conscious about being caught sleeping, he cleared his throat and ran a hand over his face.

“I’m sorry to wake you up but you were having a bad dream,” Brian apologized. “Care to tell me what it was?”

“Huh? Oh, I don’t remember,” he lied as he stretched his body. “What time is it?”

“Almost two-thirty.”

”Two-thirty?!?”Why did you let me sleep this late?”

“Nick said you didn’t sleep well last night so he decided to let you sleep.”

Kevin looked over at the tangled sheets on the empty bed, questioning Brian as he started to stand up. “Where’s Nick?”

“Calm down, he’s taking a shower.....he was on his way there when I knocked on the door....he let me in.”

Kevin looked at the closed bathroom door. “He’s taking a shower?”

“Yeah.”

Rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to gather his bearings, Kevin again looked at Nick’s empty bed. “How did he seem to you when he let you in?”

“Not sure, he didn’t say anything to me but he was walking slow, that’s about all I noticed.”

Wiping the steam from the large bathroom mirror, Nick studied his reflection. After last night, he decided he still felt like crap. The only thing that kept him going was knowing that today was the last day of this tour and by this time tomorrow, he would be on a plane headed for home.

Doing his usual ‘visual inventory’ on his body, Nick first noticed his face; his eyes especially. He thought they looked puffy but he quickly dismissed that as ‘too much sleep puffiness.’

“God I am getting fatter,” Nick moaned as he looked at how an extra chin seemed to have cropped up over the last few days. He attributed his weight gain to laying around and taking it too easy. He knew that excerise was completely out of the question until he got home, especially since his back ached 24/7 from that bladder infection but he mentally made a note of getting himself back on the right track once he arrived home.

Rummaging through his shaving kit, Nick produced his toothbrush and toothpaste and hastily went through the routine so he could get dressed and sit down. His back was aching and the dull headache that was still hanging around did little to lift his mood.

Pearlman had told him that he would be expected to sing tonight but was being halfway decent and said he could sit during the show and not have to dance. The way he was feeling, sitting would be better than having to actually move around on stage.

As he opened the door, he was surprised to see Kevin awake.

“I thought you’d let him sleep a little longer.”

Kevin jerked his head towards the doorway. “Nick, how are you feeling?”

“Felt better...but fine I s’pose.” He made his way over towards the dresser, lifting the pile of his clothes and going through his luggage, tossing clothes out of the bag onto the floor causing Kevin to shake his head in disgust.

“Can I help you find something?”

“Just looking for my Tylenol.....got a bad headache,” Nick lied as he continued to search for his stash of diet pills.

Brian held up a familiar red and white bottle. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

Nick jerked and felt his heart sank when he realized that Brian was holding the bottle of Tylenol. “Um, yeah........” He caught it one-handed as his brother tossed the plastic bottle at him. Uncapping the bottle, he shook out two of the white caplets.

“You look like you don’t really feel so good......I should see if Pearlman would reconsider you being out onstage tonight,” Kevin announced.

Shoving the pills into his mouth and taking a drink of coke, Nick shook his head. “No....I’ll be fine, besides, tonight will be the last night for a few weeks, I’m sure I can manage.”

After taking the Tylenol, Nick restarted his search for his hidden diet pills, emptying the suitcase until he found what he was searching for.......the wad of white tissue paper that hid his secret.

As he unwrapped his prize, he was unaware that Kevin and Brian’s eyes were trained on him the entire time.

“Nick, what’s that?”

“Just some vitamins I have,” he replied, grabbing two of the tiny white pills.

Brian grabbed Nick’s arm to look at the tissue he held in the palm of his hand. “Really? I’ve never seen vitamins that look like that before.”

As Nick jerked his arm away from Brian’s grasp, the tissue flew out of his hand spraying the tiny pills into the air.

“Jesus Nick, I thought I took those away from you!” Kevin roared as he examined the pills on the carpeted floor.

“Well they were mine and I took them back,” he snapped as he attempted to bend over to retrieve them.

“You don’t need to be taking shit like that Nick.”

“Lou told me I had......” he stopped himself before he spilled the secret.

“Lou told you had to what?”

“Nevermind.”

“Nick?”

“I said skip it....”

Kevin lightly grabbed his brother by the arms, spinning him around to face him. “Nick, what did Lou say to you?”

Swallowing hard, Nick shook his head.

“Nick, spill it!”

“I’ll get in trouble...”

“No you won’t, just tell me.”

“Lou told me I had to take one of these every day,” he whispered.

“Why?”

This time Nick rolled his eyes in disgust. “Can’t you see why?”

“See why?”

”Look at me Kev....I’m fat and those pills are the only thing that will help me loose the weight. God, I even gained weight laying in bed yesterday. It only happens to me. He’s tried different things with me to loose the weight but I think the diet pills are the only thing that will help.”

Kevin’s eyes flashed. ”Different things?”

“I said too much, just drop it.”

“NO DEAL, spill it kiddo.”

“He gave me a home remedy but all it did was make me sick so I stopped taking it.”

“A home remedy?”

“It was called Milk of Mag something.”

“Milk of Magnesia?” Brian asked.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

”LOU MADE YOU DRINK THAT SHIT?”

“Well yeah, but I kinda drank more than I was suppose to and it worked against me.”

Kevin shook his head in disgust. “And how many of those diet pills are you suppose to take?”

“One.”

“One? Why did you have two in your hand?” Brian questioned.

“Um, I haven’t taken them in a couple of days so I needed......”

“What you need is your ass kicked. Nick, don’t you realize why you look like you’re getting heavier instead of loosing weight? It’s the diet pills,” Kevin explained. “It’s making you retain all the water you’re drinking. You don’t need to be taking those anymore. With that bladder infection it made things more screwed up in your system.”

Nick looked at his older brother suspiciously. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent positive.”

“I bet once your body adjusts to getting off those things that Lou gave you, you’ll drop the weight in no time,” Brian assured.

“I better or I’ll be out of a job,” Nick mumbled.

“He can’t fire you, you’re part of the group,” Kevin replied as he pulled Nick into a hug.

“He’d have to cross Hell before he could break us up,” Brian added, patting Nick on the back.

“I hope you’re right because all I can see is my fat face in the mirror and gosh, my legs feel like lead weights.....”

“It’s all the water those pills made your body hold in, once you stop taking them, things will be back to normal,” Kevin replied in a calm tone.

“I hope so,” Nick sighed. “I’m getting tired of feeling like I gotta piss and nothing seems to come out.”

Kevin’s eyes widened. “Still?”

“Well, kinda but when I do pee it’s not like normal looking but who cares, it’ll be over soon.”

Brian and Kevin exchanged glances.

“Not normal looking how?”

“I dunno, it’s probably the infection.”

“Are you still taking your antibiotics?”

Nick scowled. “Yeah Dad, I’m still taking the antibiotics.”

“I’m serious Nick. Are you still feeling sick to your stomach?”

“Not too much today, I’ll be fine, okay? Let’s get ready for the show before we give Lou something more to be pissed at me for.”

“I really don’t li----”

“There’s nothing to like Kev, I’m doing what I have to do.”

Kevin shrugged his shoulders when he realized that Nick was right. There was nothing to like about this situation and like it or not Lou Pearlman had complete control over them and what he demanded they all did what he wanted to please him and only him.

They didn’t matter.......only management mattered.