They had just made it out of the shower and Rachel was finished dressing, watching Nick get ready when there was a knock on the door,
"I knew you wouldn't make it." Nick rolled his eyes and smiled,
"Yeah, yeah..I'll be ready in ten minutes."
"Good because that's all you have. Here." Tim handed him a covered dish and a glass of orange juice,
"You're so good to me." Tim rolled his eyes and as he was closing the door he called out,
"I'm standing right here. Ten minutes." It was going to be a long day. It was CD release day and they had to do TRL, but there was no telling how much stuff MTV wanted them to tape before they even went on air. Then there was the CD signing at Virgin, after that they went directly to the airport to hit the next city; he didn't even know what city they were headed to next,
"So, what do you guys have to do today?" He looked over to see Rachel helping to gather his things together,
"MTV, Virgin then we get on a plane and fly somewhere." He glanced up just in time to catch the disappointment in her face although she tried to hide it. He walked over to the other side of the bed and stood next to her, taking a shirt out of her hands and throwing it in his bag,
"I'm sorry we can't hang out more." She shrugged,
"It's cool, you have stuff to do. Where are you guys going next?" He sighed and walked back over to put on his shoes,
"I really don't know. Boston or Chicago...something like that. I don't know." He looked at his plate and smiled as he picked up a breakfast burrito, good ole Tim, he loved these things,
"Want some?" She looked over and smiled as she shook her head,
"No thanks." He went back and forth between eating his breakfast and packing his bags. He knew he needed to say something to her,
"I'm gonna get going, I already ditched class today so I might as well run some errands and get some sleep before I have to be at the station tonight." He nodded,
"So um, what...do you have to talk about us, I mean me, on the radio?" She shook her head,
"Don't worry, I won't mention what we did. Besides, they don't even know we went out together, those were my friends from college not the radio station." He nodded his head and picked up his cell phone,
"What's your number?" He entered it into his phone and walked her over to the door,
"Good luck and have fun." He smiled as he pulled her into a hug,
"Thanks...get some sleep." He pulled back and kissed her until he heard her moan. He opened the door and shook his head when he saw Tim,
"Man, I'll be down." He smiled as Rachel walked by him, turning briefly to wave goodbye then made her way down the hall,
"I don't trust you."
Nick and Tim made it down to the lobby and were greeted by the MTV Diary cameras. He looked around and only saw AJ standing with a few people from their entourage,
"Where is everybody?" AJ looked over as he stretched,
"Howie and Brian are already in the van and Kevin is running around doing something." Tim was over by the desk talking to a couple of the other security guards when the camera came over to him once the tour manager called out,
"Ok people, let's go." Nick looked at the camera,
"See, look at this. Carrying my own bags. This is bullshit I'm a fucking star." Suddenly, from no where a bell hop appeared and picked up Nick's bags. He was mortified and quickly grabbed the bags and they began a tug-of-war with his suitcase,
"Oh no, no, no. I'm sorry, I was just messing around. I didn't mean...it's ok, I got it, its cool man." He nodded as the bellhop slowly released his bag and Nick pulled out a twenty and gave it to him. Tim laughed and shook his head as he walked over,
"Yeah, ok, a star. You better pick up that bag and come on." Nick stood in the middle of the lobby with a fake frown on his face as he looked into the camera,
"See how they treat me. I bet Justin Timberlake doesn't have to deal with this."
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Chapter 96