The song had haunted him for years. He didn’t write the lyrics, he was sure of that. Its as if they were told to him- in a dream. He’d wake up in the middle of the night, out-of-breath and sweating, with one lyric repeating in his head. The only way he was able to go back to sleep was to write the lyric down, so he always kept a bedside journal for just that purpose. Earlier that year, Nick was awoken for the last time.
Nick sat in the green room of the Radio City Music Hall, staring down at the bedside journal in front of him. Finally, after all those restless, sleepless nights, the song was completed. In retrospect, Nick didn’t know how he was ever so blind. Reading the lyrics for the thousandth time, Nick finally realized what his dreams had been trying to tell him for so long.
She take her time when she makin' sweet love, yeah.
She hold me tight in the night like a child.
She got a heart that's beatin' for me,
Yes I just wanna be a drug in her veins runnin' wild.
She's like a blues tune-
She simply takes away my blues.
Soft or tender-
Can't make her choose.
She make a dark day bright
Like a hard day's night.
My angel of a night-light
She make it alright.
She got a soft little whisper fillin' up my ear.
She got a naughty little laughter that says it all.
She make the trouble and the pain
Wash away like the rain.
She gonna catch her little baby if ever he fall.
She's like a blues tune-
She simply takes away my blues.
Soft or tender-
Can't make her choose.
She make a dark day bright
Like a hard day's night.
My angel of a night-light
She make it alright.
Nick couldn’t believe his ears when his little sister played the track for him. He’d never heard it before- the CD had been released after Nick had stopped talking to Melissa. But the second Nick Carter realized the song that had haunted him for years had been penned by a former MMC-er, an important connection was made. No matter how long it had been since they’d last talked, and no matter how many miles that separated them, there would always be some sort of connection between Nick Carter and Melissa Baras. This song only proved that point.
All the years they’d known each other, Melissa was perpetually taking care of Nick. In retrospect, Nick blamed it on the fact that neither had gotten along with their own mothers very well. Nick always needed a counterpoint to his mother’s often overbearing presence, and Melissa was eager to supply him with the kind of support that she wished she had received from her mom. Even those years when they weren’t speaking, Melissa always kept up on Nick, nurturing him from afar.
Melissa thought Nick was performing “Help Me”, the first single from his solo album, onstage before being joined for the premiere of the new Backstreet single. And to an extent, that was what was going to happen. Nick was going to sing the first chorus and verse from “Help Me,” before breaking off into “Make It Alright.” Tony Lucca had even agreed to duet the song. Melissa would go crazy. Nick couldn’t wait to see her reaction. The performance was a gift from Nick to Melissa, a gift that was long overdue.
“What’cha up to, bro?” AJ asked. He’d jumped over the back of a leather sofa to plop himself loudly down next to Nick.
Nick hardly noticed the disturbing entrance by his friend and band mate. That was just AJ. And frankly, Nick was just happy and relieved to see AJ be “just AJ” again. It had been over a year since his last drink, but sober AJ took some time to adjust to after years of AJ on the bottle.
Instead, Nick motioned to the journal in his hands. “I just can’t get over this song. It just fits us so perfectly, you know? I don’t know why I never realized this before.”
“That’s easy, man,” AJ supplied the answer. “You were blinded, just like I was. Me by my liquor, and you- well, you were just blinded by general stupidity.”
Nick glared at AJ. “I thought you’d be nicer after you sobered up.”
AJ reached an arm around Nick’s shoulders and pulled the younger band mate into a quasi-hug. “Aww, you know I don’t mean no harm.”
“You better not,” Nick warned. “Because I can whoop your skinny ass any day.”
“Don’t go starting fights, Mr. Carter.” AJ warned back. “You don’t want to get yourself arrested again, now do you?”
Nick winced. His arrest was still a soft spot that the boys loved to nag him about. “Do you have a point here?”
“Ah yes, my point…” Comically stroking his goatee, AJ got his thoughts back on track. “What I was trying to say earlier, was that your problem was that you never listened to MOI!”
Now it was Nick’s turn to snort. “Listen to you? As much as you’d like to think otherwise AJ, you’re not exactly a genius when it comes to love and relationships, AJ.”
AJ shrugged. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But it wasn’t just me. All of us guys were repeatedly trying to drop hints to get your ass running back to Melissa, where it belongs.
“I listened to you guys,” Nick whined in his defense. Even though he was twenty-two-years-old, and by law a man, Nick would always take advantage of the fact that he was the youngest in the group. He expected to be babied likewise, and only got away with it when Melissa was around.
“Yeah, you listened.” AJ agreed. “When it was almost too late.”
Author's Note: The song used in this chapter is entitled "Make It Alright" and was written by Tony Lucca. You can check him out on his site, www.tonylucca.com. Its not going to be on Nick's solo album, nor can I imagine him ever singing it. I just used it for the purpose of the story. Remember, its fiction.
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