“But the damn song doesn’t make any sense!”

Sometimes I wish Kevin would just shut up. It’s been such a long day, and we all just want to go home. He hasn’t exactly been helping the situation.

We finally finished recording for our upcoming album, Millenium. And now we’re in a meeting with management to give our opinions on what songs should make the album.

For the last album we didn’t have much of a choice and to be honest, I’m not so sure we had one now. I think Jive was just entertaining the idea.

It’s not exactly like we were seasoned veterans…yet.

“Kevin, I don’t think the lyrics are that bad. Really, Max knows what he’s doing. The man knows how to make hit songs.”

Gotta love Sweet D. Always the peacemaker.

Kevin looked skeptical. Brian and AJ seemed to both like the song. I guess I should speak up too, but I looked away for just a minute…ooh, is that a penny on the floor?

“NICKOLAS GENE!”

Oops.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for like five minutes. Are you even listening to the conversation?”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

I made a mental note to get the penny later.

“Look Kev, the song does make sense. You just need to read into it deeper.”

Sounded good enough.

He wasn’t buying it and looked at me like I was nuts.

“Oh really, Nick? I never wanna hear you say that I want it that way? If she was the one desire then why wouldn’t we want to hear her say that? What the hell are we even singing about?”

I shrugged.

“Look guys, I’m not trying to be an ass. I guess I just hoped that we would sing songs that actually made sense now that we’re getting a little older.”

“Speak for yourself, Kev! You’re the one that’s getting older. Not us. HA!”

Carter: 1 Kevin: 0

I looked around because no one else was laughing.

“Well Frack, we’re actually all getting older. It’s just that Kevin is the oldest.”

Leave it to Brian to bring logic to this situation. He always hated it when his cousin and I would fight.

AJ snickered. I hate him sometimes.

“Look guys, it’s been a long day.”

I almost forgot that management was in the room. They were probably wishing they weren’t.

“This is the last song that we need to vote on and then we can go home.”

I’m with them. But then I felt a rumbling from deep within.

I raised my hand, and they all looked at me.

“Um, can I go to the bathroom first?”

“We’re almost done, Nick.”

There was no way this could wait. I gotta push this thing out now.

“I gotta go NOW!”

I looked around and stood up. I’m pretty sure Howie winked at me.

That’s just creepy. I don’t need a “have fun in the bathroom wink” from Howie. I seriously think that he winks so much that he doesn’t even realize when he’s doing it.

“Fine whatever.”

I ran to the bathroom, did my business, and came back to the conference room. I can hear them talking from outside the door so I put my ear against it. I wanted to see if they were talking about me.

I can only hear snippets of Brian talking. But it was clear as day.

“-so disgusting. He smelled like shit all day. –so pissed because the whole house reeked.”

The room roared with laughter and I turned red. That’s it. I busted the door open.

“I can’t believe you would tell them that, Frick! It only happened that one time and you blab to them about it? And if you were so mad about the house reeking and that I smelled like shit, you should have offered me a change of clothes!”

It got quiet really quickly. Oh God. Maybe I forgot to zip my fly. I did a quick inventory because I wasn’t wearing boxers today.

“Um Nick, we weren’t talking about you. We were talking about when Lil’ Tyke rolled in his poop in the backyard.”

Shit.

“Wait, what the fuck were you talking about?” Great. Now AJ had a shit-eating grin on his face. Pun intended. I wish he would eat shit.

“What? I was joking. Where did management go?”

“Somebody got a call and had to step out. I think the others just followed because they were sick of us.”

Thanks, Kevin. He took pity on me and ignored what just happened. I glanced over at AJ who still had a smirk on his face.

Sometimes I just wanted to tackle his scrawny, bony ass.

I think Howie saw the tension.

“Look guys, why don’t we just shut up and wait for them to come back.”

We all sat around the table and got quiet. I got up and grabbed the penny. I saw it first.

About forty-five minutes went by of me admiring my penny. I finally looked up to see what the other guys were doing. Kevin was reading some paperwork, and Brian was just staring out the window.

Howie had his head down on the table and was fast asleep. I’m pretty sure AJ was halfway there as well, but he was wearing his sunglasses so I couldn’t tell. He sure was quiet, and I could see his head falling back and then pop back up.

Finally Brian broke the silence. When he did, AJ jumped up and almost fell out of his chair.

“How much longer is this gonna take? Feels like forever! This reminds me of that movie with the people in the room. I think it was a jury or something, Yeah.”

“Oh that movie, with the jury, Rok?” Kevin was such an ass. I could tell by the look on his face that he knew exactly what movie Brian was talking about.

“Oh yeah, that one guy was trying to convince everyone that the guy on trial was innocent. What’s it called?” Howie seemed to know what was going on too.

I glanced at AJ. I was lost.

“It has a number in it and it’s real simple.”

“Umm, 101 Dalmations?” Damnit! Why don’t I think before I blurt things out?

“What the fuck, Kaos? Uh yeah, 101 Dalmations was about a jury.”

I wanna kick him now.

“Seven?”

“No, it’s really old.”

Oh ok, so nobody laughs at AJ’s ideas. I see how it is.

Right then the crew walked back in.

“It’s Twelve Angry Men. I can hear ya’ll down the hall. But kudos to Nick for his dalmation idea.”

I was proud for a second and then realized he was being sarcastic when everyone was laughing.

“Moving on. Vote time. I’m tired, so let’s do this. Nobody talk. Raise your hand if you want I Want It That Way on the album.”

We all raised our hands. Well, except for Kevin. Howie was last, knowing that Kevin didn’t want us to do that.

“Sorry, Kev. Ok guys, I’m gonna give your picks to Jive and see what they come up with.”

They all packed up their paperwork and left. We waited all that time for a two minute vote? We then headed to the elevators to head back to our hotel.

I think the tiredness was starting to set in. It was really quiet until Howie felt the need to apologize. “I’m sorry Kev. It’s just that the song is so catchy. I just have a good feeling about this.”

“It’s alright. Personally, I don’t like it, but we are a team. The lyrics are dumb and don't make sense, but I guess they can be worse. It’s not like we’re singing about rubbing our hands on girls’ booties or anything.”

We all laughed.

“No way,” Brian clarified. “I’m never gonna be singing about booties. Leighanne would kill me. “

“Oh trust me. We’ll never be singing about that crap as long as I have a say so in anything to do with this group,” Kevin said while laughing.

“I’m hoping that this song doesn’t make the album. If it does, it better not be a single. I’m telling you. I’m normally right about these things.”

I rolled my eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Months later during an interview to promote Millenium

“So guys tell us about your first single, I Want It That Way.”

“Well you know, it’s just a catchy beat and a fun song. We all pretty much do some solo vocals on it so it really showcases all of us.” Good one, AJ.

“Tell us about the lyrics. What is the song about?”

Uh oh.

Slowly, we all looked at Kevin. I’m running after this interview. And I’m running fast.