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AJ glanced at Nick as they quickly changed clothes for their next set while Kevin was onstage singing his solo. He couldn’t help but notice how the young blonde’s movements were almost to the point of being slow and deliberate not to mention the sweat that was running off his face.

“You doing okay Nicky?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he mumbled back.

Still not taking his eyes off his brother, AJ furrowed his brow. “You better step on it, at the pace you’re moving, your song will start without you on stage.”

Wiping the perspiration away from his eyes with the back of a hand, Nick grimaced. “Yeah I know, I’m trying.”

As AJ rushed out of the dressing area as Kevin was finishing his song, knowing that he was next to go onstage, he called back, “Be ready in three minutes Kaos.”

Nick didn’t reply, instead he sat down gingerly on the stool, gripping the pair of pants in his hands. He had been feeling sharp pains on and off around his belly button, but now they seem to have settled for good and stayed.

“God Nick, you’re sweating a river!” Kevin exclaimed as he entered the dressing area, causing Brian and Howie to take notice at the young boy sitting slouched on the stool.

“Yeah I guess,” was all Nick could say as he slowly lifted a leg to step into the trousers. He stopped his movements for a moment as he felt a pair of green eyes staring at him. He lifted his head to lock his eyes with Kevin’s and snapped, ”What!?”

“Seriously Nick is something wrong?”

Nick sighed in exasperation as he tugged his pants up. “Like it would matter anyway.”

Kevin reached out to grab the blonde’s shoulder as he stood up. “You need to say something if you’re not feeling good.”

Nick dipped his shoulder away from Kevin’s hand, clenching his jaw. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll be fine!”

Kevin could only shake his head as he watched Nick exit the dressing area. “He is gonna give me a stroke one of these days.”

“I think he’s just got gas or something,” Brian grinned.

“That would be typical,” Kevin smiled.

The bright stagelights hurt Nick’s eyes as he stepped back out onstage. He adjusted the headset as he decided to sit during his solo song. Usually he would walk up to the edge of the stage, to interact with the fans, but tonight he didn’t feel like himself.

‘I wish this was over,’ Nick thought to himself as the intro to the song played. He looked out into the pool of darkness where the fans were at, the only thing that was visible was the strobe effect from the flashing of cameras. It always looked neat to him, seeing the lights flash from all over the auditoriums that they played at and it was always a thrill for him to know that they were actually wanting pictures of him - just him!

Closing his eyes as he started to sing, Heaven In Your Eyes Nick held a hand up to his chest to capture the emotions of the song. The perspiration was pouring down his face and his hair was matted with sweat. Upon hearing the screams of his adoring fans as he paused during the instrumental segment of the song, Nick licked his lips as he mustered the courage to stand up and make his way over to the edge of the stage. He needed to reach out to the fans that paid to see him. No matter how horrible he felt, he needed to be up close to the audience!

He remembered the comment made by Brian when he had left the dressing room. Maybe he did have gas......maybe, just maybe he needed to take a healthy crap, he decided as he tried to will away the cramps that were in his stomach.


***
“Did you fall in?” AJ rasped as he pounded on the bathroom door.

“Fuck no!” Nick shouted through the door.

“Then hurry your ass up, I have to take a leak!”

”Tie it in a knot and let me try to shit in peace!”

“I could actually tie it in four knots.....there’s plenty of it there to use,” AJ replied with a smirk on his lips.

Nick rolled his eyes at the comment. “Just give me a couple more minutes, okay?”

AJ’s eyes widened and then he balled his fist striking the door angrily. ”A COUPLE MORE MINUTES? Jesus Nick, you’ve already been in there for twenty minutes, what are you doing shitting your brains out?”

“I wish,” Nick mumbled dryly, reluctantly pulling his pants up. As he pulled the door open, he was nearly knocked over as AJ pushed him against the open door, rushing into the bathroom. Nick didn’t even get a chance to close the door; AJ immediately started to relieve himself.

“Ahhhhh......”

“That is really sick J,” Nick stated as he made his way over to the bed.

“I told you I had to piss dumbass,” AJ replied as he flushed the toilet, adding, “besides we’re all guys anyway, or at least some of us are.”

Laying down on the bed, Nick didn’t care that his pants were left unzipped and unfastened. He gently rubbed his stomach, quietly moaning a few times.

AJ looked down at his younger brother. “Stomach bothering you?”

“Yeah.”

“Something you ate?” Nick only shook his head in reply. “Well think about it Kaos, you practically ate a ton of crap from the mini bar---”

”I did not!” Nick retorted. “It’s not that kind of stomach ache.....”

“Got the shits?”

Nick screwed his eyes shut as his face flushed with embarrassment. Why did he always blush when confronted with questions about bodily functions? “It’s not that.”

“Just let one rip then, that’s what you usually do,” AJ coached as he packed a cigarette in the palm of his hand before lighting it.

“I can’t fart just to fart,” Nick muttered.

“Yeah you can, you’re a chronic method farter,” AJ teased.

Nick rubbed his stomach again, rolling onto his side. “Just leave me alone, okay?”

For a moment the conversation ended, and then Nick realized what AJ called him. Rolling onto his back, he looked over at him. “What’s a chronic method farter?”

AJ smiled showing his teeth as he blew the cigarette smoke out. “You know, someone that can always plan on where, when and how they will fart, you know, control the time and the sound.”

Rolling back onto his side, Nick drew his legs up towards his stomach. “I wish I could fart,” he muttered quietly.

AJ studied the blonde’s fetal position from his chair, concern in his brown eyes. “Are you feeling that bad kid, do you want me to get my mom?”

“No,” Nick whimpered, eyes wide at the thought of Denise McLean being involved in his bowel problems. “I’ll be fine, it’ll pass.”


Rubbing his stomach for a few moments, Nick quietly asked AJ for help. ”AJ?” He waited for a few moments for an answer, and tried to clear his throat, wincing as the action made his stomach hurt more. “AJ?”

“You say something?”

“Do you have some Tylenol or something?”

“Tylenol? I thought you had a stomach ache.”

“I do.......nevermind,” Nick sighed.


***
Nick woke early in the morning to discover he was laying ontop of the bedding, a thick blanket covering his body. He had fallen asleep in his clothes and it appeared to him that AJ had covered him up with a blanket from his own bed.
For a moment he tried to remember what he had done the night before that would have caused him to have fallen asleep in his clothes when it suddenly dawned on him.

He had a horrible stomach ache last night, but after doing a mental inventory, Nick decided that the stomach ache had sort of died down. It just felt like a dull ache.

A knock on the door, shook Nick from his thoughts. He looked over toward AJ’s bed only to find it empty and unmade, then he turned his head and looked toward the bathroom door, discovering that it was open.

“Crap,” Nick groaned when he realized he would have to leave the warm haven the bed had provided. Looking through the peep hole in the steel door, Nick discovered it was Denise McLean knocking on his door.

He cautiously opened the door. “AJ’s not here.”

Denise pushed her way into the room. “I know he’s not, I’m here to make sure you come down to the room they have set up for you boys for breakfast.”

Nick frowned. “I’m not hungry.”

Denise laughed. “Nonesense, you of all people can’t say you’re not hungry!”

Nick wandered back toward his bed, ignoring the woman’s comment. “I told you I’m not hungry.”

“Well hungry or not, your managers told me you have to come down to the meeting, so I’m here to make sure that you are there. Comb your hair, brush your teeth and snap to it!”

‘Why does this woman insist on treating me like a baby?’ Nick thought miserably as he wandered toward the bathroom. “You can go on without me, I’ll be down in ten minutes or so.”

Denise McLean sat on the edge of her son’s unmade bed, folding her arms across her chest. “I don’t think so. Hurry up.”

“You’re not my mother!”

“Thank God for that too,” Denise spat. “Hurry up!”

Nick tossed an angry glare at the woman. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

“That means get moving!”

“Not that, the thing you said before that?”

Denise McLean knew the comment Nick was referring to but chose to ignore his question, examining her manicured fingernails.

Growing impatient with the older woman ignoring him, Nick slammed the bathroom door shut expecting to hear Denise yell at him for his actions, he was shocked when he heard her mutter, “Spoiled rotten brat.”

Tears welled up in his eyes. He felt angry, alone and most of all homesick. He missed his family and even now more than ever, he especially missed his own mother.