“Howie, truth or dare?”

“What the hell, AJ? What are we, in fourth grade?” AJ slumped in a nearby chair looking defeated. “I’m boooooored…I don’t know why we had to get here so damn early when soundcheck doesn’t start until 5.Plus, don’t act like we never play this game.”

“They told us that it started at 4. And I’m pretty sure they told us that just to make sure we got here on time,” Howie explained. He had a point.

I glanced at my watch and sighed. It was 4:15, so I guess I can’t blame them. We were still late according to the time they gave us, but according to Backstreet time it was pretty good. AJ caught sight of my demeanor. “See D, Brian’s bored too. Come on…truth or dare?” Howie looked at AJ like he was nuts. “Neither. I’m taking a nap.” He got comfortable on a nearby sofa. I have to admit, it looked pretty cozy.

As if on cue, Nick walked in eating a sandwich. AJ quickly turned to him. “Nick, truth or dare?” Nick just shrugged and answered. “Truth.”

“Lame, dude. Gotta say, I expected more balls from you. Hmmm…I got one. If you could get with any of the other guys’ women, including mine, who would it be?” Damn. We sounded like a bunch of teenage boys hanging out in a locker room.

Nick didn’t hesitate. “Kristen. That was easy, she’s hot.” Howie mumbled from the couch, “Oooh, I’m telling Lauren!” We all chuckled. Nick threw the sandwich at Howie, who put it back together and finished where he left off. AJ and I thought it was hilarious. Nick not so much.

“Nick, Kristen doesn’t count because Kevin’s not in the group anymore.” AJ looked at me like I just committed blasphemy. He spun around quickly. “Rok, Kevin’s gonna come back. We always said that the door is always open. I mean, it still is…right?” Nick caught my eyes and I could tell he was thinking the same thing…AJ would never let it go. “Well AJ, Kevin is really happy doing…nevermind. Yes, the door is wide open.” That seemed to satisfy him.

“Fine. If Kristen doesn’t count then I pick Leighanne.”

“What?” I mean, don’t get me wrong, my wife is hot but I wasn’t expecting him to pick her. “Well, I had to pick one and yeah, she’s hot.” “Aw, thanks Frack.” AJ shook his head. He’s so jealous of my hot wife. He was almost sulking now. “Whatever Rok. I thought you weren’t playing anyway.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t play, I’m bored too.” I was. In fact, at this point I was down for anything. “So AJ, truth or dare?”

“Dare.” I have to say, I didn’t really have a dare in mind yet. I looked around backstage and spotted Howie, who was now snoring with his mouth wide open. How could he have fallen asleep so quickly anyway? It was too easy to mess with him so I kept looking around until I spotted a bottle of hot sauce on the refreshment table. Bingo.

“AJ, I dare you to pour some of that hot sauce on your tongue.” Nick started cracking up right away. I knew it was genius! AJ on the other hand was pouring on the theatrics…”WHAT? I can’t do that, dude. No way.”

I knew he would try to get out of it, but truth or dare had rules. No matter what, you had to follow through. “AJ, you gotta do it. I dared you. Quit acting like that and just do it!” After throwing a mini tantrum, he started making his way to the hot sauce on the table. The whole way, he was continuing his rant.

“Dude, this is gonna suck! I know it. You know, I just remembered I’m allergic to hot sauce. Yep, that and chocolate.” Wow, he was really reaching. “No you’re not, AJ. In fact, you’re not allergic to chocolate either. You were eating M&M’s earlier today.”
“Fine whatever. But get your phone ready to call 911 when I can’t breathe. How am I gonna do this?” He was holding the bottle now and taking loud, dramatic breaths.

“Nobody better be recording this…no matter what you do, I don’t want this shit on tape! Nick and I held up our fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

“God, my ass is gonna burn so bad later!”

I knew that AJ was gonna play this up. What can I say? He has a tendency to be a bit…dramatic. “Damnit. I can’t believe I’m doing this shit. And nobody touch the bottle either. I swear, I’ll do it but NOBODY better touch the bottle!”

“Shut up AJ!! Quit being a pussy and just do it!” “Nick!” I glared at him. He knew I hated that word. “Sorry dude. Vagina. AJ, you’re being a vagina.”

Finally, with one swift move, he took the cap off and started dumping it in his mouth. We were rooting him on now, “GO GO GO GO!” He finally stopped and looked up at us. His face was red and sweaty. He started gagging and ran out the room.

Oops. That was pretty funny. We were so loud that we apparently woke up Howie. We had to explain everything to him, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

Soon an exhausted and flushed AJ came back drinking ice cold water with an ice pack on his tongue and some…gauze? Great, now he’d be complaining about it all night.

Now that Howie was awake, seems like he wanted to play the game as well. He looked over at me. “Brian, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

Right then our manager peeked her head backstage. “Guys, it’s time to go on.” Thank God! Saved by soundcheck.

Needless to say, soundcheck ran smoothly. We sang the usual songs and answered the usual questions. Poor AJ was still hurting from the dare, but he was a trooper. He told the audience about the dare as well. How else could he explain the gauze and ice pack? But of course he told them he drank the whole bottle. Figures.

Now it was picture time with the VIP ticket holders. Shot after shot after shot. They were all blurring into one another. Of course AJ was complaining about his tongue the whole time and then Nick started complaining between shots as well.

“Dude, my balls itch. I gotta readjust or something.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Hearing it through his clenched teeth wasn’t helping, but I glanced at him and well, he looked uncomfortable. “Well just adjust yourself then Nick. No one’s looking.”

“Yeah right. You know I’m all these girls’ favorite anyway. They’re getting everything I do on camera so it can go on youtube later. In fact, half these girls are probably staring at my package right now waiting for it to do a trick or something.”

Howie rolled his eyes and suggested he turn around to do it. “Nicky, since when are you shy anyway? You know how many times these girls have seen your crack?”

“Yeah but that’s always on accident. Plus, there’s no time. We keep taking these damn pictures and shaking hands and shit.”

"Nick, just do it. It’s not that big of a deal. In the amount of time that we talked about it, you could have done it already.” Good point, Howie. I was sick of talking about his package.

Then Howie said it. “Brian, stand in front of him to block it.”

“WHAT? Hell no. Brian is NOT going near my balls.”

"Fine. Well Brian, I dare you to do it."I have to admit, I wasn’t crazy about the idea.

“Howie, why are you telling Brian what to do anyway?"

"Well it was my turn to dare him backstage,but Jen bailed him out. So now I’m daring him to either block you or just adjust you himself so you’ll shut up.”

I'm not adjusting anybody! Wow. Can you believe we had already started taking pictures again? We were actually having this conversation amongst ourselves between our clenched teeth.

“Jesus Christ, Nick. Just fucking do it yourself! Rok, I can’t hear this anymore. Just give him a love tap on his goodies and I’m sure it’ll do the trick. I mean, you’re always touching our junk anyway. The fans probably won’t even notice.”

Hey, no I don’t…ok, I do. But not because I like it or anything, it’s just funny. I glanced over at Nick who was squirming during each picture.

“No, I’m not doing it.” I immediately went for it as quickly and discreetly as possible. No one could have noticed. So fast that Nick didn't have time to react. Just a quick love tap…I had to do it. It was a dare!

“There is that better?”

“Damnit, Brian!” Oops. Maybe I should have waited between picture taking. But they wouldn’t shut up though and the pressure was on.

“Yes it’s a lot better actually. But that better not have come out in a picture or else there’s gonna be girls writing slash fanfics over this pic. And we wonder why people are always thinking we’re all gay. It’s because of your love taps.“

“Your welcome, Nick. Next time just wear underwear to keep yourself nice and tucked in. That’s why I like my tighty whiteys.” I did. They were so comfy.

“TMI Brian.” Oops. Sorry Howie. “And what the hell is slash anyway, Nick? You are so weird”