Much to my relief, the bus smelled a little better than it did earlier. AJ, unfortunately didn't seem to happy when he discovered that they tore up his bunk and packed his comforter from home and his pillow in a large garbage bag.

"We didn't have a choice," Kevin said.

I knew that AJ wanted to smack me by the way he was looking at his now bare bunk area and rubbing his hand across his face. He was pissed!

"I'm sorry."

That sounded pretty lame but what else could I say? I couldn't help what happened and if I had the choice I would have thrown up in my own bunk or not thrown up at all! I could tell that Kevin must have been giving him the 'look' because AJ suddenly turned away and brushed past me.

"Jay be an adult would you?"

"Just leave me the fuck alone, okay D."

"Nick feels bad--"

"You don't understand Dorough! Just shut the fuck up!"

AJ called Howie by his last name.....this was never a good thing. Now I had Howie getting in trouble because of me.

"Nick....Nicky?"

Feeling a hand on my shoulder I jumped, startled. Turning my head, I noticed Brian looking at me, grinning.

"You spaced out on me."

I ran a hand trough my hair. It came back wet with sweat. Yuck!

"Are you feeling alright?"

I groaned. I wanted to scream 'no I don't feel alright! my mind is like swiss cheese! I'm missing the last two days of my life!'

"Yeah, just a little tired," I lied. Actually that wasn't a lie, I was tired not to mention my head felt like it was going to explode.

"Maybe you should lay down on the couch until we get to the hotel."

I nodded. Just as I turned to go lay down on the couch I noticed that AJ was sprawled on it.

Brian moved up to AJ, smacking the bottom of his foot. "Mind moving? Nick needs to lay down."

"I was here first!"

"Yeah so Nick needs to lay down so get up!"

AJ smiled an evil grin up at Brian. "So let him sleep in your bunk, I'm sure you wouldn't mind."

"He wants to lay on the couch, move your butt."

"Guys please don't fight. I'll just sit here."

Brian and AJ stared at me like I was a freak or something.

"Since when did Nick give up so easy?"

"Who cares, at least he figured out that I wasn't gonna move," AJ replied, shifting his weight on the couch.

I laid my head on the table, eager to find the safe cover of sleep. AJ must have felt bad because he tapped me on the shoulder.

"Kid, go ahead on lay down on the couch."

Normally I would have argued about him calling me a kid but right now I was happy to lay my throbbing head on something soft.

It seemed like I had just closed my eyes when the distinct smell of cinnamon greeted my nose and Kevin's insistant voice telling me to wake up.

"Nick...wake up, we're here."

I slowly sat up, rubbing my eyes, trying to wake up. At first everything looked double and when I finally saw only one of everything I discovered that things were blurry. Must be I slept too hard or I should be wearing my glasses more often, I decided.

"Nick, let me take that for you," Brian said as he took the backpack before I had a chance to take it.

"You already have enough stuff to carry," I protested.

"It's okay, you have enough to manage just walking into the hotel by the looks of it. You don't seem to be awake enough yet."

I really still felt out of it in a way, I admitted to myself.

"Whoa dude, you're dog tracking!" Howie said as he grabbed me by the arm, trying to steady me.

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't watching where I was going."

Howie stopped me and turned me to face him. He was staring at me. "You sure you're okay Nicky?"

"I'm fine!"

Okay where did that come from? I honestly don't know why I snapped at him but I could tell I hurt his feelings because Howie moved his hand from my arm like I had burned him.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly.

"It's okay Nicky, lets get you in bed."

I swear Howie has a heart of gold. No matter what you do to him he never seems to get pissed off.

I had only been laying in my bed for what only seemed to be a few minutes when Howie tapped me on the shoulder.

"C'mon Nick, we have a meeting in fifteen minutes."

Did Howie just say a meeting?

"It's still night," I protested.

"I wish it was," Howie replied with a shrug.

"But I just went to bed," I whined.

"Nicky, you've been asleep for almost nine hours," Howie corrected me as he started to unzip my bag.

"I really don't feel up to doing a meeting," I said as I pulled the blankets over my head.

"Tell that to Lou when you get to the meeting."

Great! Now Howie was turning on me? What happened to him being concerned? Reluctantly, I got dressed and brushed my teeth and combed my hair. I didn't care how greasy and matted it looked. I felt like complete shit and I didn't really care how bad I looked. Maybe management would finally realize how bad they are for making me get up and go to some stupid assed meeting!

My life totally sucked!

I was barely out of the bathroom when Howie started toward the door. "C'mon we're already late."

"And this would be a bad thing, how?"

"Geeze you really are a crab in the morning," Howie commented as he stood by the door.

"Just hold on a sec, I need to get my glasses," I mumbled as I unzipped my backpack. Once I found them, I slipped them on, blinking my eyes several times. The blurred vision continued no matter how much I tried to clear my eyes. Maybe my prescription was getting bad.

"Are you okay Nick?"

"Huh?"

"You keep rubbing your eyes. Do they hurt?"

Okay I am seriously gonna have to lie or Howie will put some kind of eye drop in my eyes if I say no.

"No, they don't hurt," I spat back.

Well that was the truth, they didn't hurt....it was just that I couldn't see a fricken thing if I wanted to right now!

Howie smiled. "Well, lets go then, we don't want to keep them waiting."

Man, could this guy get any more cheerful?

I probably looked like a man on death row walking toward the chair as I followed Howie to where the meeting was being held. I seriously had better things to do than sit in some stuffy room listening to management go off on us about how we let the fans down or broke some stupid Backstreet Rule. I swear Lou Pearlman was gay like that sometimes. He had too many rules and laws as far as I was concerned and by the way I felt right now I was going to let him know where he could shove his rules!

"Well....well.....well, looks like you two finally found your way in."

I hate Lou Pearlman!

Taking the first available seat, I tried to desperately become invisible. My head was throbbing and my eyes were playing games as I tried to focus on Kevin sitting across the table from me. One Kevin...Two Kevins.....One Kevin again....one big bushy eyebrow!

Good thing I wasn't sitting next to him because the 'second Kevin' looked like he wanted to kick my ass.

"Nick...sit up."

I didn't want to sit up, I wanted to lay my head down on the table. This meeting sucked and I couldn't see why they couldn't just report back to me what this was all about. Looking up, I noticed that the ceiling tiles were water stained in a weird pattern then I looked down to see if the water made marks on the table we were sitting at.

"Nick!"

Oops, I mustof been caught spacing out!

"S-sorry," I said as I rested my head against Howie's shoulder. I wanted to crawl under the table now, I felt so dizzy.

The next thing I knew Kevin was yelling at Lou and Lou was yelling at Kevin. God, this really was making my head hurt more!

"C'mon Nick," Brian said to me as he pulled on my shirt. "We're done."

"Remember, the show starts at seven, not eight, not eight thirty!"

Show? What is Lou talking about? What did I miss?

"C'mon Nick.....lets get some rest before the schedule starts up again," Howie said as he grabbed my arm.

"What schedule?"

"Lou has got us doing a charity show tonight," AJ grumbled as he walked past.

Charity show tonight? I feel like baked shit!

My life really sucks!