“Goodnight
and thank you Minneapolis,” AJ announced as he and the Boys were lowered under
the stage for the final time, still singing their harmony for “I Want It
That Way.”
“That
was good,” Howie said with a smile, “What say we all go out together and
celebrate?”
“Go
out where?” Brian asked, “Please don’t say clubbing. I hate clubs, you
know this.”
Howie
hid his grin, “Yeah, I do, but I am itching to go dancing tonight. Ok,
AJ, Kev? How about you guys?”
AJ
looked eager, “Yeah, we haven’t gone clubbin’ together in a while.” AJ laughed,
“In fact almost a year!”
Howie
grinned, and looked to Kevin, “No Howie… Unlike you two, I actually have
a girlfriend.”
“What?”
four mouths dropped open.
“Her
name’s Kristen. I’ve known her forever, and we finally hooked up before the
tour,” Kevin was positively glowing.
“This
must be love,” Brian sang, a chord from Brian McKnight’s song “This Must Be
Love.”
“Shut
up Bri,” Kevin said, but smiled, “I’m just gonna go back to my room and give
her a call tonight. I told her I would, so she’s probably waitin’.”
“Oooh
la la…” Nick and Brian cooed.
“Shut
up Evil Twins,” Kevin said with a laugh, “What are you two gonna do tonight?”
“Video
game tournament,” Brian said, “Kaos here seems to think he’s the video game
champion of the world, and I have to set him straight before he tries to tell
that to someone else and gets laughed at.” Brian grabbed Nick in a
headlock, and started tickling him.
“Brian!”
Nick complained. Kevin stepped back as the two began wrestling each
other.
”Well,
I guess we had better get on the bus,” Howie said, “Come on Tweedle Dumb and
Tweedle Dumber.”
“What’re
you taking?” Brian asked Nick curiously as he spread out across the bed
unpacking Nick’s Dreamcast. Nick’s eyes trained over to Brian as he sat
down a glass of water and tucked the pill bottle away in his pocket,
“Migraine tablets.”
He
sat down on the bed and helped Brian unpack the Dreamcast.
Brian
frowned and looked at his friend with concern, “Maybe we shouldn’t play then.
You should get some sleep.”
Nick
blinked, “Brian, you challenged me…”
“Yeah,
but I didn’t know you didn’t feel well, Nick. Get some sleep, we can play
games in the morning, ok?” Brian looked at him expectantly.
“Yeah,
yeah ok,” Nick shrugged, he watched as Brian began repacking his Dreamcast,
“You don’t have to, you can just leave it.”
Brian
glanced at him sharply, and was suddenly suspicious of him, “You’re not gonna
rig this thing up after I leave, are you?”
Nick
laughed, “No… no, I’ll go to bed. My head’s killing me.”
Brian
eyed him for a few more seconds before biding him goodnight and leaving.
Nick
watched him go, and sat down on his bed. Goodnight Brian…
“Ok,
now that last one was definitely a man,” AJ commented dryly to Howie who was
licking salt off his wrist and getting ready to take another shot, “Man AJ, I
don’t know what it is with you and attracting them. I told you not
to dye your pink.”
“Man,
Howie, my hair looks cool,” AJ protested.
“Sure
it does,” Howie laughed, “I’m sure that he-she over there thinks so too, she’s
eyeing you.”
“Man!”
AJ hopped off the bar stool, “That’s it, I’m moving to the other side of the
bar. Maybe there will be girls over there!”
Howie
snickered as he watched AJ trooping further and further away from the bar.
“Hello?
I’ve been watching you from across the bar…”
UGH!
With AJ gone the he-she girls had come to call on him. He threw back his
drink and sucked the lime, then excused himself to find a bathroom. Now
where did AJ go? Something familiar caught his eye, and it wasn’t AJ.
“Howie,”
AJ had appeared behind him and grabbed his elbow, “You see who I see over
there?”
Howie
squinted, “Yeah, yeah I do…” And he was in trouble. There was a lot of
yelling, and Nick was in the center of it, shooting his mouth off. A thin
girl was draped across his arms, apparently instigating the fight on. A swing
was aimed and that’s when the chaos broke out. Howie and AJ pushed their
way to the center of it ducking and dodging punches to get to Nick. AJ
got there first and got a good grip on him as he and Howie then proceeded to
drag him out of the fight. No one noticed three Backstreet Boys leaving
the club. Blue and red lights alerted them that the authorities were
making the scene, and they couldn’t leave it fast enough. Howie and AJ sat
up front with Nick in back rambling about how he wanted to go back and kick
“that guy’s lyin’ ass.” It was like he couldn’t get his words out fast
enough, his mouth was moving at a mile per minute.
AJ
kept glancing back in the backseat with an odd look on his face, “Nick, are you
on something man?”
Howie
glared daggers at AJ, how dare he ask Nick such a question, “Have you been
drinking Nick?” Howie smoothed over AJ’s question.
Nick
stopped his rambling to stare up at the two in the front of the car, “Drinking?
Well, yeah, but only a few, I promise.” Nick looked sorry
enough about it.
“Yeah,
well you’re gonna feel real sorry about it in the morning,” Howie commented,
still shooting AJ hard looks.
AJ
ignored him for the duration of the drive back to the hotel.