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Behind the Lime Light - Chapter 5

The promotion lunch dragged on forever. Kevin and Howie were busy making small conservsation with Sonia as well as the rest of the producers from the television company. They were talking about their upcoming tour as well as answering questions about how it was being a Backstreet Boy. AJ, as well as Brian filled in from time to time but mainly they concentrated on the full plate in front of them. It was steak and mash potatoes and since they were hungry after just eating a small breakfast they were busy stuffing their faces full. The same couldnīt be said about the youngest member in the group.

Sitting in a slumped position, looking like a bag of potatoes, Nick picked uninterested at his food. Normally he would have been pretty hungry at lunch time, especially when he woke up this early but today he wasnīt hungry at all. His head hurt too much to do any kind of action and it was even a hard task keeping his body straight and all he wanted to do was to lay down on the sofa and get a few hours shut eye. But that was impossible, especially with the tight schedule he was running, and he had to be up and about 24/7, preferably smiling.

"Nick..Nick.." His friend Brian shook his arm and he jerked upon hearing his name. Looking up a bit dazed he mumbled, "What?"

"Sonia was asking you a question." Brian explained while he looked with a worried _expression at the teen. The older man didnīt have to say it but Nick could read in his eyes that he was questioning how he was doing, both physically as well as probably mentally.

"Yes," Kevin filled in. "Sonia was asking you a question about how you like flying."

"Oh Ok.." Nick smiled sheepily. "Sorry I just spaced out."

"That is allright." The interviewer smiled. "The boys were just telling me about how you donīt like flying."

"Uh,,eh..". Looking at his brothers he briefly wondered what they had told about him when she continued, "They say that you are afraid of flying. Is that true?"

Bastards! Nick glared at them. For some natural reason he didnīt want the whole world to find out what he was and wasnīt scared about. Flying was one thing, darkness another yet he wanted to keep some kind of privacy. "A little." He shrugged, trying to act like it didnīt bother him.

" So Nick do you like being here in Canada?"

Nick looked up from his plate, glaring at her. What kind of stupid question was that? Heīd been in Canada for approximatly what? 2 hours? Idiot! Opening his mouth he was about to say what he thought about being asked such a stupid question when Kevin stopped him, giving him a hard look. Changing his mind.

"Eh..uh..sure. Itīs Ok." That was the only answer he could find.

"Aww..," she chuckled. "Only Ok?" When he didnīt answer a witty reply back she continued with a broken english. "The girls are soooo excited that you arrived here Nickolas. They think you are so cuuuuteeee. Which by the way you aaareeeee" She smiled widely, dragging out on the last syllabels like it was on purpose.

A red tint of embarressment crept up on his cheeks.

If there were one thing he hated it was when someone called him cute, like some freaking cat or baby. The rest of the guys who know what he felt about being called something like this laughed loudly and he knew that there would be comments afterwards.

"How do you like being called cute?"

More laughter.

Licking his lip, searching for something to say he wanted to tell her to get out of his hair, but Kevin's green eyes were constantly on him. Guarding him, preventing him from saying or doing something stupid.

"Itīs Ok." Nick wasnīt a man of many words today.

"He likes it!" Howie most have sensed the urge to butt in, cover his ass, since he continued with a large smile. "Nick likes it. As a matter of fact we all likes it. Weīre such hams."

Normally Nick would have been grateful for such a comment but today the sugar sweet tone of the latino merely sounded fake making him nauseated. The rest of the table didnīt think so cause they were all laughing have a good time. Nick wasnīt.

'God canīt this lunch be over and done with soon?' he wondered while trying to block his nose from the offending smell of the food in front of him. A headache the size of Texas combined with this Sonia character was making him wanting to find an exit. But no matter how much he wanted to leave the place he knew that he couldnīt. He was a Backstreet Boy and a Backstreet Boy did always have to be ready. Ready for stupid questions with false smiles.

"Nick stop playing with your food and eat!"

Kevin Richardsson was in a bad mood.

Not only did he have to answer stupid question after flying for god knows how many hours, he also had to watch the youngest in the group playing with his food like he was some kind of three year old and then answering with short one word answers whenever he was asked a question. After watching Nick building a mountain with his mashed potatoes, squishing his peas with his fork as well as making a moat with the gravy he simply had enough! It was bad that the teen was disecting his food like it was a frog at lab, but the fact that he was acting sourly and grumpy to every one was getting on his nerves, especially since they were at a promotion lunch and he knew that Nick had better table manners. Or at least hoped he did.

Not saying anything Nick didnīt even look up from his plate and instead continued stabbing his peas like he was picturing Kevin's face in front of him. Irritated over not getting an answer back Kevin snarled in a hushed voice, "Sit up straight. Weīre working."

It would have been so easy for Nick to reply that he wasnīt hungry and that his head was just about killing him, yet he was way too stubborn and instead concentrated on stabbing the peas with his fork. As he took up his fork to take a stab into a piece of cucumber in an attempt to mush it up, it happend! His fork slinted and the piece of cucumber drenced in gravy flew like a rocket across the table only to land on someone elses plate.

"Ooops!" Nick felt his cheek go red when he saw where the cucumber landed. In Sonia, the interviewers plate, only to splatter gravy on the white table cloth, Sonias pants as well as Kevins shirt "Shit!" He had no idea that something so small could cause such an explosion.

Maybe it was the tension or the fact that his head hurt so much that it was hard thinking straight or the fact that he felt totally like an ass for embarressing the group like this..again. Whatever it was he did the worst thing anyone could do in a situation like this.

Giggling.

And it wasnīt a small giggle, no it was a big one. That kind of giggle that came from the toes and up and that couldnīt be surpressed no matter how you tried. The laughter inside of him made it hard to sit still and even if the rest of the guys as well as the producers around the table stared at him he couldnīt stop. It had to be a chain reaction, that was something he was sure of, since both Brian as well as AJ saw the humor in the situation and started to laugh too, even if they were doing their best to stiffle it.

Howie nor Kevin laughed. Neither did that Sonia character and their gloomy sight made him want to laugh even more especially since Howie seemed to get red in his face from embarressment and Kevin from anger. Biting his lip he did his best to stop but soon he was laughing so bad that he was jumping in his seat, hand covering his mouth. As to add to the situation people around him where staring to their table and they looked pretty disgusted.

At that moment Nick wanted to die. On the spot!

"NICK!" Kevin/s voice was loud and irritated. He was wiping his shirt with the linen table cloth, but it did nothing for the stain, only spread it wider.

"That isnīt funny." Howie commented, his teeth clenched. He was doing his best to help the interviewer out by dry wiping her pants. No success there either.

"I kno..know..Iīm so..sor.." The teen panted while doing his best to catch his breath between the giggle attacks. No matter how he tried he couldnīt stop and that lead him pressing his hand towards his mouth in a vain attempt to stop.

He could only be happy that Johnny was out of the room making a phone call and hadnīt have to view the disaster. Kevin however was and he was not happy.

"Nick what were you thinking?" The older man said, face red like a cooked lobster, after giving up any attempt to save the shirt.

"I said I was sorry." The giggles had died down and now he felt mostly pitiful.

"Thatīs allright," the Sonia character said with a forced smile while she excused herself to leave to go to the powder room. No doubt trying to get the stain out of her pants. Even tough she did her best to act like it was no big deal Nick could still see in her eyes that she was anything but happy about him. Probably thinking that he was a brat!

Nick nodded, while feeling the tears burn in his eyes. This was such an disaster. He could hear the rest of the guys excusing him and trying to make it all better. One of her personel followed too.

As soon as she was out of the view the youngest expected the shit to hit the fan and he didnīt have to wait long for result.

"How the hell could you do something like that?" Kevin was yelling.

"Hush," Howie was doing his best to keep the older man calm by tugging at his arm. "Relax. Nicky didnīt mean it."

Grateful that the peace maker once again had made an entrance the teen nodded. "Iīm sorry." He more or less whispered the words, part from feeling so embarressed, part from not feeling all that sorry.

"Hell Nick you know better." Kevin argued at him for a while and he couldnīt do anything but just listen and trying not to object too much. After all the dark man was right. Heīd acted like an ass.

If Kevin had left it with that but being in a bad mood before all of this happened as well as getting your favorite shirt ruined was a bit too much. This made Kevin snap even harder. "Fuck Nick why do you always have to screw things up."

Angry as well as sad about being accussed in such a manner Nick bit his lip. "So..sorry." He was stuttering. Tears burned in the corner of his eyes again and it didnīt help that the bright light from the lamp made his eyes hurt too. He had really fucked up.

Not listening Kevin went on in the old fashioned way that he always did. "If you could only act mature just once..but no that is apparently too much to ask." The older man quarreled.

"Dammit! I told you I was sorry allright." Nick snapped. It wasnīt like he had committed a crime or anything. God Kevin could be so anal sometimes.

"Donīt swear." Now Howie was on his case too.

Nick just wanted to cry. Everybody was against him.

AJ and Brian had sat quiet while the fighting went on at the table, or more like the cussing out of Nick. AJ shifted nervously. He didnīt have much to say and Brian looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. Just to break the tension the eighteen year old said, "Way to go dude!"

Brian lit up. "Yes." He showed with his hand how the cucumber had flown across the table and splashing like a missile. "What an explosion." He smiled towards Kevin, "Hey cus, I know that Kaos can be a pain in the ass, but heck you gotta admit it was quite funny."

If there were someone that could get the older man to brighten up and see the funny in a situation it was B'rok! And thankfully it worked this time too. That and the fact that Sonia was coming back from the ladies room.

"Ok," Kevin said quickly. "B is right. It was kind of funny, but," he put a warning finger up and said in a hushed tone, "If you pull a stunt like that again or something else on this tour I will kick your ass so hard that you get to eat your own nuts." He smiled as he said the last words as Sonia sat down next to him and there were no one beside Nick that heard the last words. And the blonde didnt doubt them either.

Kevin was generally a kind of a nice guy but when you get him upset he could be like a monster. And that was not something Nick would like to encounter. Any time soon.

"The stain went away," the hostess said with delight, before adding, "Oh well accidents happened and I must admit that it was quite funny." She laughed and Nick felt for the first time a bit more at ease. That and relief.

Turning to Kevin he did his best to try and get him in a better mood but every hope to see his brother smiling quickly dimished when he saw his dark irritated eyes. Kevin Richardsson was not an happy man and would give him hell for this. No smiling could make him change his mind and being in the hands of an annoyed Kevin was no fun. No not at all.

Nick sighed. He knew he was in for hell and he didnīt look forward to it either. Yet there was not much he could do, but to wait and see what would happen next. He prayed it wouldnīt be too much since his head was starting to hurt more and more each minute and soon he was going to have to go and ask Howie for those pills or else he was sure his head would explode. And that wouldnīt make Kevin Richardsson too happy either, the explosion that was. Sighing Nick concluded that whatever he did would be wrong.

He could never win...

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Outside it felt like it turned several more degrees colder and stepping out off the lunch resturant to go to a sports stadium for a small meet and greet after they did some other entertainment stuff which Sonia seemed secret about. After that its finally back to the hotel to shoot some interviews. Lots of fans, girls, were standing outside waiting for them when they came out from the resturant. They were all holding a piece of paper in their hands as well as an instamatic camera, hoping to get a sight and possible a picture of their favorite idols.

Kevin felt sorry for them. Why they would spend their time standing out in the cold was beyond his comprehension and his heart told him that he wanted to make sure that they got a cup of hot cocoa as well as get inside the warmth, yet there was very little he could do. The security was tense and the moment the guys stepped outside the girls started screaming very loud, doing everything to get to the boys.

Since Kevin was the last to step out into the chilled air he could hear Johnny shouting to the screaming fans outside that if they wanted to get an autograph or a photo they had to calm down and dont push so much. Both Brian and AJ had tended to their tasks and they were busy writing their names down to excited fans that were looking at them with admiration in their eyes. Howie was also busy with taking pictures and to Kevin's dismay he noticed that Nick was the only one that looked like he wanted to get the hell out of the way and get back into the warmth of the bus.

The teen stood with his hands in his jeans pockets, his white hood on his head like he was freezing cold. There were an uninterested look plastered on his face as two girls approached him, paper and pen in their hand.

Annoyed Kevin watched as his younger brother reluctantly grabbed the paper, scribbled his name and then handed it back to the girls with not even a single smile on his lips. The older man realised that the reason for this action could be tiredness, yet that was not an excuse since they were all obligated to tend to their schedule, smile and please the fans. It was their living and without the fans they would be nothing. He knew that in the past Nick had pulled a stunt or two, claiming that he had a headache to get away off the meets and greets and autograph signing and as soon as Kevin would get a few minutes over he would have a word with the teen. Telling him what he thought of the way he acted towards those two girls. The kid needed to be straightened out right now to be back on the track again.

Soon Kevin was distracted too with girls wanting to take pictures with him and he did it with a smile on his lips. The girls were talking fast, telling him how much they meant to them and it was these kinds of encounters that filled his heart with warmth even on a day like this. In the corner of his eye he noticed that everyone but Nick was still giving out autographs. Glancing up he spotted the person in question stepping up on the stairs of the bus and this had him even more irritated than before. It was time for autograph signing and taking pictures, Johnny had decied that, and then they could do nothing but obey. If the teen thought that he could get away with special treatment he better re-think twice.

Trying to focus on the girl in front of him he said with a southern drawl, "Whatīs your name honey?"

The brunette that looked like she had froze all of her limbs standing there in a short top and a jacket that were open so they would see the blue stone in her belly button, no doubt making that action so they would think she was sexy, squeeled in delight "Joan."

"Thatīs nice Joan." Kevin smiled at her as he took her piece of paper from her shaking hand. "Are you coming to the concert?" he asked while scribbling down his name.

"Yes," she squeeled. "Yes me and my sister are going." A brief pause. "We have first row tickets."

"Oh." Kevin looked up. "That is nice. I hope that you enjoy the concert." He handed back the paper to her with a smile. "You take care."

"Thank youuuuu." The girl looked like sheīd won first prize in a lottery auction.

"Your welcome." Kevin was about to accept another piece of paper when she stopped him. "Yes?"

"Do you? Do you think that I can have a hug?" There was stutter in her words like sheīd really tried to find the courage to ask him.

"Yes sure." He took her in his embrace and she almost got lost into his arms. Noticing that she was shaking, possibly from the cold or nervousness or maybe both, he said to her, "Joan you have to get inside so you don't get a cold."

Those words most have really warmed her cause she said to him. "Wow you are the nicest Backstreet Boy."

He laughed at her. "Really?"

"Yes," the girl continued, "Youīre not like Nick who doesnīt even wanna sign anything and just went into the bus."

Hearing these words Kevin felt like heīd been hit in the stomach. Nickīs behavoir was not good and the worst thing that could happend was if the fans started talking bad about them. "Iīm sure he had his reasons." Kevin did his best to try to act like what she told didnīt disturb him, which was nothing but a lie cause it did.

"No he was just being rude," her friend filled in. "He even snapped at me when I wanted to have an autograph."

He didnīt know what to say, just tried to act like heīd hadnīt heard that being said. Now there would definatly be a talk to the teen. Opening his mouth to appologize he heard Johnny call for him.

"Kevin we have to get going now."

"Ok." He gave both of the girls a short hug before hurrying away. "Sorry I have to get going..." Before he knew what hit him he was back in the warmth of the bus again. Kevins first intention was to talk to Nick but then he discovered that Brian has sat down beside the blonde and by the look of it Nick had his eyes closed, either trying to take a cat nap or shielding from the world in an attempt not to be talked too.

This had Kevin sighing. Sometimes Nick was acting so immature, and he wished that the teen would grow up. He knew that the business was hard and that it was rough on his friend, yet he refused to accept such behavoir like Nick had done today. Even if you were in a bad mood it was unexusable being rude to the fans. No matter how tired you were.

Sitting down on the seat next to Howie he closed his eyes. The flight was taking its toll on his body and even if heīd acted all happy with the fans he was still way to tired to go to a meet and greet and do interviews and things like that. Being the perfectionist that he was he didnīt allow any slip ups and therefore pressed himself into working harder than anyone else. This was often the only thing that had him going and strangely enough he liked it.