Over the next several days, Nick threw himself into preparing for their tour. He scared Fatima enough to ask Brain if anything was up, but being loyal Brian, he only said Nick made a vow to be more attentive and responsible this tour. 

            The tour kicked off in Tampa the following week to rave reviews, all the critics saying that the Backstreet Boys had come into their own and were definitely a force to be reckoned with. Now the boys themselves could have told you that years ago, but it was nice for them to have their peers and critics finally realize it.

            The tour progressed as well as it could when two of the five band mates weren’t speaking to each other despite the fact they were acting as if they were in love for the public. Every night when they got on their tour buses, Nick and Kevin would climb on “their” and then 20 minutes later, they’d pull over and Nick would climb down and head over to Brian and Leighanne’s bus.  At first, Nick was quiet and aloof and mostly kept to himself, but as the tour progressed and he slowly came to terms with the fact Kevin was not making any effort to get him back. Nick decided he wasn’t going to just sit around and wait. Granted because the entire free world thought Kevin and he were still madly in love with each other, he couldn’t date, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t have fun. So about three weeks into the tour he invited Chris and Justin out for a while, and the three of them got themselves a tour bus together. So instead of sneaking on Brian and Leigh’s bus 20 minutes outside their stop, he’d sneak onto his own bus.

            Nick told Chris and Justin about what was happening. One, because the two men were his closet friends and he could trust them and two, because it’d look a little odd to be avoiding Kevin at all costs if he didn’t tell them. Chris and Just were completely cool and understanding and informed him that what ever he needed, they’d be there.

            It was two days after Chris and Justin had hopped on tour, five weeks into an eight-month tour. They had just left Cleveland and were headed for Chicago. Nick was planning on getting onto the bus Chris and Justin were waiting on for him twenty minutes outside Cleveland, but he never got there.

            Ten minutes after getting on the interstate a 18-wheeler traveling in the opposite direction slammed right into Kevin and Nick’s bus.