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Chapter Fifteen


The next day we were at the venue doing the soundchecks when Lou interrupted us. A guy in a business suit followed him as he crossed the floor of the arena. "Mr. Armando here is from the police department," he said. His eyes landed on Nick. "We need to talk."

Nick's eyes widened.

Kevin looked from Nick to Lou to Mr. Armando and back to Nick. "What in the hell is going on?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Carter, I just need to speak to you about the false fire alarm at the hotel you were staying at yesterday," Mr. Armando said patiently.

Nick slunk to the stairs at the front of the stage and went down them slowly, staring at his sneakers. Lou's face was a shade just under purple. Kevin looked on, outraged because he hadn't been answered as Lou wrapped an arm around Nick's shoulders. Nick shrugged his arm off and walked quicker, following Mr. Armando and Lou out of the arena. The rest of us stood in stunned silence until the echo of the doors at the far end coming to a close had died off.

"Keep on," Johnny said from the seat he was sitting in below, clutching a clipboard and his cellphone. "Just 'cos Nick's not up there doesn't mean the rest of you can't work." He waved his hand dismissively.

I looked helplessly at Kevin, whose brow was cinched together in concern and irritation. He sighed. "Might as well..." and the music started back up and we worked our way through the rest of the soundcheck without Nick.

After the soundcheck, Nick still hadn't returned, so we did meet and greets without him. Several girls looked supremely dissapointed in his absence, but we promised to pass along gifts and hugs to him when he got back, and they dealt with just meeting the four of us. In the dressing room afterwards, AJ said, "You'd think Nick was the only Backstreet Boy they care about for crying out loud."

"We all know they have favorites," Howie said.

AJ rolled his eyes.

Kevin sprung on AJ quickly, "You were with him last night," he said.

"What?" AJ looked up from the magazine he'd been about to open.

"You," Kevin said, wagging a finger at AJ, "You were with Nick last night when the fire alarm went off. Where were you two?"

AJ stared at Kevin for a long moment. "Actually, I wasn't," he answered.

"You two came out together," Kevin pointed out.

"Yeah because I ran into him in the stairwell on my way down to dinner and he was gonna go change and meet me down there," AJ shrugged. I waited at the bottom and when the alarm went off I ran up to go get him and he was just coming running down the stairs and we went outside. We were among the first few people out the door."

Kevin leaned back in his seat. He shook his head, "What in the hell would they need to talk to him for if they don't think he pulled the alarm?" he mused. He rubbed his chin, "Why in the hell would he pull it?"

I very carefully kept my eyes diverted from Kevin.

Kevin looked at me anyways. "Last night," he said, "When Nick was in our room. Did he say anything to you? He was acting really weird..."

I shrugged.

Kevin recognized my silence too well. "Brian."

I looked up. Howie and AJ were both staring at me. "He mighta mentioned he pulled it kind of," I stammered quietly.

Kevin closed his eyes and I would guess that he was silently counting to ten.

AJ crowed in humor, "Oh Nick is a bad ass after all! And here I thought I'd raised him all wrong."

Kevin glowered at AJ and he silenced. "What in the hell would posess him to think that is a good idea?" Kevin demanded.

"I don't know," I lied. I didn't feel like I needed to get anymore involved than I already was.

Kevin made an exasperated noise. "Pulling a fire alarm is against the law," he said, "It's a misdemenor in the first degree at best and a felony at worst." He pinched the bridge of his nose, "You realize he's gonna end up with some ridiculous fine? And could spend time in jail?"

My stomach twisted. All this over a damn sock on the door. Ugh.

"He's a minor," Howie pointed out. "For another week anyways."

Kevin nodded, "That very well may be the only thing that keeps him out of jail. Like we have time to spare for him to spend time in jail. Jesus Christ." He turned away, angry.

"Because our freaking schedule is the main problem with Nick going to jail," I snapped.

Kevin turned back, "Well it would be a big part yes."

I felt a surge of annoyance and anger surge through my body like my blood stream. I shook my head and looked away from Kevin. "What is with everyone in this entourage placing the stupid schedule ahead of peoples lives?" I demanded. "Everyone's so concerned with making sure we're there for every single overbooked notion of this tour and nobody's stopping to be like gee maybe this is too much on the fellas, maybe they have families and lives too, maybe they need time off."

"Don't take your frustration out on me," Kevin responded, "And besides that we had a day off yesterday, remember that?" He rolled his eyes, "I admit we're not getting them all the time but its called work and having ethic. We have to work hard to get where we want to be."

I shook my head, "What good does getting where we want to be do us if we're all dead from having neglected ourselves so long?" I demanded. Kevin didn't respond, and we all fell into silence.

We stayed that way until the last few minutes before the show, when Nick came slinking back in. "Everything okay?" I asked him. He nodded.

"What'd they decide?" Kevin demanded.

"I have to go to court next month," Nick muttered. He started tugging on his stage clothes.

Lou came in the door. "Hear me out now, all of you..." Johnny came up behind Lou and stood, hovering behind him, nodding as Lou spoke, "This is the last straw. There will be no more bullshit from any of you. I mean it. No more being late, no more drugs, no more drinking, no more pulling fire alarms." He glowered at each one of us in turn. "Am I understood?" he demanded.

"Yes sir," Nick muttered.

"And the rest of you?" he demanded.

"Yes," Howie, AJ, Kevin, and I all murmured.

"Good." Lou turned and shoved past Johnny and disappeared down the hall.

Johnny looked around at each of us, "It's for your own good," he said, "When we're protective of you, it's for you that we do it. Bad publicity could destroy you. You're at a really delicate spot in the process. We're not just picking on you for the fun of it, trust me, it's not any thrill for us to yell at any of you." He ducked out of the dressing room as his cell phone rang. "Sorry guys, I gotta take this."

Nick was buttoning his shirt, staring down at his hands as he worked his way up the buttons. "I don't wanna talk about it, okay guys?" he said quietly before anyone could ask any questions.

We all looked at Kevin.

Kevin sighed, "Okay."

We did the show that night without a hitch and rode across the state to West Palm Beach in a van Lou rented. By the time we reached the east coast of Florida, it was nearly three in the morning, so too late to bother getting a hotel. Instead, we went straight to the venue, where the five of us laid down on the floor, using our duffle bags as pillows.

About five o'clock I woke up and just couldn't sleep anymore so I lay in the semi-dark room thinking. We had a busy day - like that was different than usual - and I kept trying to tell myself that I had to go to sleep. Then I heard Nick shuffling around and I looked over and saw he was awake too. I motioned for us to get up and he nodded and we snuck away, leaving our bags on the floor by the other guys. We wandered out of the backstage area to the concourse. The venue was pretty much deserted save for the roadies that were already at work putting together the stage.

"I'm hungry," Nick whined, looking around at the food places that dotted the concourse. "Too bad this stuff wasn't open," he said. "I could totally go for a hotdog right now." He frowned at a picture of one floating high over our heads.

We walked in slience for a few minutes, and Nick stopped and grabbed a ketchup packet from one of the little condiment trays and opened it. I stared in disbelief as he started sucking on it. I wasn't sure if I'd ever in my entire life been hungry enough to suck on a ketchup packet. I didn't think I ever had been.

"So court, huh?" I asked.

Nick sighed, "Yeah," he answered, drawing the packet from his mouth. He frowned, "That Mr. Armando dude like chewed me out forever about it too, how if anyone had gotten hurt during the evacuation that I would've been liable and all kinds of stuff. They saw me on the security type, like you said." He paused. "I didn't mean to cause all kinds of trouble."

"I know," I replied.

Nick threw away the empty ketchup packet as we passed by a trash bin. "I didn't really think it was this big of a deal, to be honest."

"Kevin says it's a midemenor --"

"-- of the first degree," Nick finished, nodding. "Could've been a felony if anyone had been hurt but nobody got hurt so it's just a misdemenor." He frowned. "Mr. Armando says I'll just get a fine since I'm underage, but it still sucks. I mean I'm not exactly rich."

This comment reminded me of the fact that we were making minimum wage and I frowned at the concrete as I walked.

"Plus he called my parents," Nick continued.

"And?"

"My mom's probably seething."

"You haven't called her?"

"No."

We walked in silence for a couple seconds, then I plucked up the courage to ask, "Did you tell her about Lou?"

Nick frowned. "I tried."

"And?"

"She said I shouldn't make stuff up."

I sighed. "Is that why you came back early the other day?"

Nick nodded.

"She'll come around."

"Yeah well."

"Maybe you should tell Kevin."

Nick looked at me like I had four heads. "Why in the hell would I tell Kevin?"

"Kevin cares a lot about you and of the five of us he's the most likely to know how to handle it," I explained.

"I'm not telling Kevin."

We walked again in silence for a few minutes. "So Lou was okay with you taking a day off for the court, huh?" I joked.

Nick snorted, "He said I had to do it during the two weeks we have off next month. He bullied the cop into giving me a date then so I wouldn't mess up his schedule."

Apparently nothing could distrupt the schedule.