London, 2006

The boys filed back into the dressing room, another interview to cross off their list. It was their last night in Britain and they planned on going out to dinner together and then heading back to the hotel to watch a couple of movies – that was the tradition.

AJ felt pretty good about how the interview went and was excited to spend the rest of the night with the other guys. He quickly went to the makeup table where he had dumped his wallet and phone and shoved them into his pocket.

“Have you guys seen my glasses?” he turned around to see the other guys gathering their personal belongings, seeming equally as eager as he was to leave the television studio and begin their night of Backstreet downtime.

“They’re on the chair,” Howie pointed to a lone chair in the corner of the room and AJ quickly snapped them up and put them on.

“Well, I’m ready,” he announced.

“Yeah, so am I,” Brian said, wrapping a coat around himself.

AJ looked around at the others. Howie seemed to be ready but was busying himself with combing his hair and Kevin was pocketing his cell phone. Nick was shoving stuff into his backpack – he always brought his backpack along to interviews.

“So where to tonight?” Kevin asked.

“I saw this really cool steak place on Piccadilly,” Howie suggested.

“I’m kind of craving Indian,” Brian put in.

“I’m good with anything,” I said shrugging.

“What about you Nick?” Kevin asked, turning to face the youngest member who was currently trying to zip up his bulging backpack. AJ vaguely wondered what he had in there.

“Oh, I was gonna skip that,” he said and AJ noticed that he never made eye-contact with any of them.

“What?” Howie asked. “But it’s tradition, Nicky.”

Nick managed to finally zip up his backpack and then swung it over his shoulder. “Traditions were meant to be broken, D,” he simply said.

 AJ watched him carefully. He would never admit it, but he was worried about the blonde. It was no secret that he was having a hard time – going through some major struggles in his life – and AJ could relate.

“Nick, we do this every time we finish up in a country,” Kevin insisted.

AJ noticed there was something off about Nick, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what. They always loved coming to England and Nick seemed to be really enjoying himself in the interview, being his usual chatty and goofy self. It was only just now that his demeanour had changed. He had become all silent and moody AJ wondered what could have happened between getting off the stage and making the short walk back to the dressing room that could have made Nick upset.

“I made plans,” Nick shrugged, walking past the other four and heading for the door.

“You made plans?” Kevin was not happy. “You know this is our thing.”

Nick never looked them in the eye and AJ got the sneaking suspicion that the thing that had mad Nick upset was them.

“Come on Nick,” Brian coaxed. “I even rented The Goonies.”

AJ was sure that if Nick was acting his usual goofy self, he would have rolled his eyes, instead all he did was open the door said, “I’ll see you guys on the plane,” and walked out.

AJ turned with a puzzled expression to the other guys. “What was that about?”

Howie and Brian shrugged. Kevin just looked pissed. “I don’t know,” he seethed. “But let him be like that, see if I care.”

Xxx

Nick didn’t have any plans; he just didn’t want to spend the rest of the night with the other guys. He needed space, especially after that last interview. He knew he shouldn’t feel the way he did at that moment, after all they were just teasing – isn’t that what big brothers were for? And besides, it’s not the first time they’ve teased him about that particular thing before, but they never did it on TV and they never embarrassed him like that before. Sure there was that one time Kevin threw him out of their hotel room in just his drawers but that wasn’t on television with millions watching.

He hated feeling this way – sad and alone. But that wasn’t the worst of it. When he felt sad and alone, often those feelings were accompanied by self-hatred and when that happened, he got hungry.

So, he flagged down the first cab he spotted and asked the driver to drop him off at a pub in Trafalgar Square.

Xxx

Dinner was a sombre affair for the most part. They had decided to go with Thai. Brian wanted to cancel, but Kevin insisted that they continue with the tradition – with or without Nick. They didn’t say much until dessert when Howie spilled ice-cream down his front which made Brian crack up.

“I’m glad you enjoyed that,” Howie cringed, grabbing a handful of napkins and wiping down his shirt.

“You should have seen your face,” Brian cackled, imitating Howie’s expression which succeeded in making Kevin and AJ laugh.

Howie threw a soaking napkin in Brian’s face which left a splot of chocolate ice-cream on his cheek, but Brian simply wiped it away and continued making faces.

Howie couldn’t help but laugh. And the mood instantly lifted from there – Nick and his absence forgotten.

Xxx

When they got back to the hotel Howie was carrying a bag of microwave popcorn he had bought from the local Tesco and Kevin had a copy of that morning’s interview on tape in his hand which their manager had given to him when they bumped into him in the hotel lobby.

When they entered the suite they all shared, Howie made a beeline for the microwave and the others kicked off their shoes and lounged around the TV.

“What movies did you rent Rok?” AJ asked, taking off his glasses.

“Indiana Jones and The Goonies,” Brian said.

Kevin ignored the latter title Brian had mentioned and held up the tape he still held in his hand.

“Anyone want to watch the interview?” he asked.

“Yeah, pop it in,” Howie yelled from the kitchen over the sound of popping.

AJ groaned. “You know we don’t have to watch every stinking interview we do,” he said.

“Well we have it, so we might as well watch it,” Kevin said, handing the tape to AJ which only made the younger member groan again. He grabbed it from Kevin and put it into the VCR.

“Hurry up D, it’s starting!” Brian shouted in a ‘Oh my God, I’m so excited to see this long anticipated movie’ voice.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Howie played along, opening up the microwave door and joining the others on the couch.

The interview was about a half hour long and Kevin was starting to regret ever agreeing to watch it. It was all the same stuff they say in every interview –‘No, we’re not changing our name to Backstreet Men’, ‘Yes, it’s really our own voices’ and ‘We didn’t break up, we just needed a break’. But then it came time for the fans to ask questions.

Kevin watched as a young girl came on the screen

“If it depended upon your survival, which Backstreet Boy would you eat and which part?”

The camera switched back to the guys sitting on stools and Kevin watched as Brian and AJ stood up and pretended to eat Nick as Howie and Kevin answered simultaneously ‘Nick!’ He heard the other guys laugh as they all watched and Kevin let out his own little chuckle, but that wasn’t the end of it.

On the screen, Nick pushed away from Brian and AJ and stumbled halfway across the screen, his big goofy smile playing on his lips. He lost his flip-flop somewhere along the way, put it back on and sat back down, all the while the voices of his bandmates could be heard shouting ‘We could survive for quite some time’, ‘We could survive a long time’ and ‘Nick’s got some ham-hops’.

Kevin noticed that the laughter in the hotel room had died down but he continued to watch as Nick tried to play it off.

“Honey, I’m a big boy. You can live a long time off of me,” he said in a red neck accent.

Then Kevin heard his own voice coming somewhere from off screen and instantly felt his face turn red. “Nick’s got some barbeque crackle over here.”

But it didn’t stop there.

“We’d all survive for quite a good time,” AJ was heard to say, as if it hadn’t been said just moments before.

“A little bit of salt and pepper and we’d be all good,” Howie chimed in.

There was a close up on Nick and his face was red. “Howie would be quite tasty,” he deflected. “He’s got a little Latin thing...so...”

“He’s a SPICY BOY!”

Someone had paused the video just then and Kevin just stared blankly at the screen, feeling guilty and ashamed, putting together the pieces and feeling his anger towards Nick ebb away. They all sat in silence for quite some time and when Kevin turned to face his band members it was obvious from their faces that they felt the same way.

“That wasn’t funny,” Brian said. “That was...”

“Cruel,” AJ finished glumly.

“That’s why he didn’t want to come tonight,” Howie said softly.

Xxx

Nick stood outside the pub and looked at the menu displayed on the window. His stomach growled viciously when he read down the list of cuisines. Lamb chops, grilled fish, burger and fries, steak with roast potatoes. Nick noticed another menu on the window a few metres down and went to see what that menu offered. When he drew closer to it he found that it was not a menu but an advertisement for a new 24 hour gym which had opened up nearby. Making up his mind, Nick turned his back on the pub and made his way towards the gym.

Xxx

They watched The Goonies, partly out of guilt. No one touched the popcorn Howie had made and no one laughed at any of the silly jokes.

Brian felt awful. He knew he was the one to start riding Nick about his weight during the interview and he should have known it was a bad idea. It’s not like he hadn’t teased Nick about his weight gain before – it was obvious, he was practically a stick figure when he was younger and then he just kept putting on the pound. But this was different – this was in public. The tabloids had been talking about Nick’s weight gain too and he would pretend it didn’t affect him, but Brian knew it did which makes this whole thing even worse. Brian knew Nick better than anyone else – he should have known not to ridicule him so much, on or off screen.

It was nearly midnight when The Goonies ended and Nick still hadn’t shown up. Even though Brian was tired and wanted to go to bed to wake up fresh for the flight in the morning, he needed to apologise to Nick before that could happen. Judging by the presence of his fellow bandmates, they felt the same.

“Maybe I should call him,” Kevin wondered aloud.

“I already did,” AJ admitted, turning red with embarrassment. “When I went to take a dump.”

Brian wanted to make a comment about sitting on the toilet while ringing someone, but decided against it.

“He didn’t answer,” AJ said. “He probably has his phone in his stupid backpack and can’t hear it.”

“I’m going to try anyway,” Kevin said, slipping his phone out of his pocket and dialling Nick’s number.

Brian watched Kevin anxiously, now starting to worry about the youngest member of their group. It wouldn’t surprise Brian if Nick was out getting drunk – so drunk that he wouldn’t be able to find his way back to the hotel. Brian was just going through the worst scenarios he could think of in his head when the door to the suite opened and in stepped Nick.

Kevin instantly shut off his phone and stood up, the rest of the guys following suit.

“Nick, where have you been?” Kevin asked but was interrupted by AJ.

“Are you wet?”

Brian looked closely at Nick who stood by the open door looking like a deer caught in the headlights. AJ was right, Nick was wet. His shirt was soaking and his hair was limp and stuck to his face. But it wasn’t water, it was sweat.

“Where have you been Nicky?” Howie asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

“I went to the gym,” Nick said, glaring at the four older men as if to say ‘serves you right’.

Brian didn’t know what to say to that and evidently neither did the others.

When nothing further was said, Nick stalked past his bandmates and headed for the bathroom.

“Hey, Little Man,” Kevin stopped him before he disappeared behind the door. “Come here for a sec.”

Nick hesitated but then dropped his bag on the ground and walked stiffly back towards the others.

“Look, today at the studio,” Kevin started, but then faltered.

“We were asses,” AJ picked up. “We shouldn’t have said those things.”

Nick remained silent, once again avoiding eye contact.

“We didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Brian chimed in. “We’re really sorry.”

“Are you done?” Nick asked coldly, once again turning his back on them.

“Nicky!” Howie rushed forward desperate to show Nick how sorry he was. “You know we didn’t mean anything by it. We love you man.” Nick still looked angry so Howie said something he knew he’s regret later. “We’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

Nick paused for a second, and then a smile appeared on his face.

Xxx

Nick went down to the hotel lobby where to the side all the hotel guests were waiting on the couches for the staff to open up the dining room where they would have breakfast. He looked around for his bandmates and saw that they had not yet arrived. He couldn’t wait for them to come down. He was brimming with excitement. He only had to wait a few seconds before the elevators chimed and the doors opened.

Nick watched in pure delight as Kevin, Howie, Brian and AJ each exited the elevator, running up to the hotel guests and performing the ‘Backstreet’s Back’ dance right in front of them, in nothing but their drawers. The hotel guests did no more than gape at the guys as a hotel employee quickly rushed over shouting something about hygiene. Nick openly laughed as Brian tried to serenade said hotel employee before running back to the elevators followed closely by Kevin, Howie and AJ, their faces red and Nick’s laughter following them all the way up to their suite.

Xxx

A/N: OK, so the reason I wrote this story is because recently Nick tweeted about the Harlem Shake video they did saying that he put on weight and now he has to work it off. When I watched the video I was actually thinking to myself 1. This shit is awesome and 2. Nick is really skinny. So the tweet reminded me of an interview they did in 2006 (I think it was) where the guys absolutely take the piss out of Nick due to his weight and I felt sooo bad for him. I constantly get picked on because of me weight, although in my case I’m quite skinny, so I can relate to constantly being criticised because of that. It had to be ten times worse for Nick because he had the media on his back and possibly rabid fans going on about how he looks! It should never be about looks and it should always be about health! Anyways that’s my vent of the week. Hope you all enjoyed and hopefully review! Thanks!

Oh, here’s the link for the interview this was based on:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdj8A2wH18