January 27 - Atlanta, Georgia
He could hear her complaining about having to wake him up as he pulled away from her,
"Nick, come on." He whined,
"For what? Why? I'm tired." She sighed,
"I know but we're at the hotel, in Atlanta. There's a nice big bed waiting for you." He shook his head,
"I'm already in a big comfortable bed." Even half asleep he knew he had a good argument and he knew she was standing there giving him credit.
"Ok true, but you still need to get up and come inside." He didn't answer and she sang,
"Before the fans get here." That was it, that was all it took before he was sitting straight up,
"Ok, ok, I'm up." He loved the fans. Everytime he said it he meant it but they were quite the excitable bunch and sometimes you just needed to get away from that. He slid on his flip flops and held her hand as she led him off the bus and into the hotel. Tim was behind them with both of their suitcases as they walked straight to the elevator and took the key from the tour manager,
"Thanks." he heard her say. She was always the nice and polite one. He heard something about wake up time but he just stood there with his eyes closed as once again she acknowledged the person who was speaking to him.
"Come on baby, you can go back to sleep soon." He leaned against the wall of the elevator once they stepped inside and before they made it to their floor he was asleep.
He moaned and groaned once he felt her shaking him,
"Get up Nick, get up." He didn't fight it as much as before,
"What time is it?" He rubbed his eyes and looked over at the clock, it was one-fifteen,
"What am I doing today?" She frowned,
"How should I know? I'm not the Backstreet Boy, that's your schedule." He rolled his eyes at her and sighed, they both knew she knew the schedule,
"You have to be at the venue at three, you have a meet and greet at three-thirty, soundcheck from four fifteen to five, dinner is at six I think, radio at seven o'clock hour, it's live and that's all I know." He nodded,
"You earned your paycheck today." He smiled when she hit him with the pillow. He was enjoying this, this was going to be so good. The two of them together all the time. He once said he would never have another girl on tour with him but she was different, she wasn't a problem, a distraction, she was going to be his sanity.
"You coming to the venue with me?" She shook her head,
"No." He frowned and looked at her,
"Why not?" The whole purpose of her being there was so she was with him at all times not to go off shopping or lying around hotel rooms,
"I'm still kind of tired from the flight, staying up all day, the concert and stuff. I'm going to stay here and catch up on some sleep while you're gone." He guessed that was understandable,
"Alright, but are you going to eat lunch with me?" She nodded,
"Yeah."
They were all sitting at the table waiting for the moderator of the fan meet and greet to get things rolling. Brian leaned over to Nick,
"Happy Shayna is here with you?" He couldn't help but smile as he leaned back, his hands behind his head,
"Oh yeah man, it's great. It's going to be the best tour ever, I can feel it." Brian smiled,
"We need to keep Shayna around you more often because you sure as hell wasn't this happy the first couple of weeks during rehearsals and the shows before Charlotte." Nick shrugged,
"What can I say?" Kevin leaned over,
"What are you guys whispering and giggling about?" Brian leaned over Nick, who was in between Kevin and Brian,
"Just talking about his girlfriend being on the whole tour with him." Kevin nodded,
"Yeah, I meant to talk to you about that." Just as he was about to say more the fan conference began,
"Ok, everyone welcome to the Backstreet Boys Atlanta Fan Meet and Greet." There were cheers and she waited for the fans to settle down before continuing,
"We are running late so we're going to jump right into it." That was it, that was all he could take, he didn't want to pay attention. Brian knew the deal, when something was directed towards him Brian would nudge him under the table. For the most part he would pay attention but he was generally the one to zone out and think about what birds did during tornadoes and hurricanes and if it were true that if you were being chased by an alligator you should run in a zig zag motion because their tiny legs couldn't move that fast. He liked doing these things at first but it got to the point where it was the same things over and over again. There were only so many questions that could be asked. That feeling wasn't limited to fan questions either, they hadn't been asked an original question by someone in the press since 1999. He felt Brian's nudge and mentally woke up to see a teenage girl,
"You said a while ago that you were lonely and you wanted a girlfriend." He nodded just so she knew he was listening,
"Have you found one?" That was the question, she would probably never get to ask him another question again ever in her life and that was it? That was the question that she wanted to ask a celebrity she admired? That always seemed like such a waste of a question to him but whatever. He cleared his throat and readjusted his body in the seat,
"Well um hi. And to answer your question, no. I haven't found anyone yet. I'm sure I will one day soon but not yet." He didn't know why he said that, well it wasn't their business for one and he wasn't in the habit of announcing his business to the world. He hoped that none of the other guys ratted him out with puzzled expressions on their faces. More than anything he was just happy that AJ didn't blurt out something stupid like,
"Yes you do man. Remember you and Shayna are back together?" He smiled as the girls moaned their awes in repsonse to his proclamation that he would soon find someone for himself. The rest of the interview was on par with what he expected with questions like favorite song on the album, who wrote what, what did it mean, what were they in store for with the concert and so on.
They were sitting around on stage when Kevin called out,
"Let me ask you a question Nick." He nodded,
"Go ahead."
"Do you think it's good for Shayna to be on the entire tour with you?" He looked up at him,
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be good?" He sighed,
"Remember the last time you had a girfriend on tour with you? There was so much animosity from the fans and problems with her." Nick shook his head,
"They are two different people. Shayna loves the fans, she understands them, the situation. She can handle it." AJ frowned,
"But she's never had to deal with it like this. A couple of weeks is one thing but to see the women throw themselves at you like something that you only think happens in the movies is another." He rolled his eyes,
"Everything will be fine, I promise."
