“I bet Kevin set this time up,” I mumbled as I slowly slid out of my waterbed and stumbled towards the bathroom, turning the shower on full blast. As quickly as I had forgotten something important, I remembered and quietly walked down towards the guest room at the end of the hall and banged on the door.
“Lizz, it’s 6am, time to get up.”
Nothing.
Okay, I knew she was a hard sleeper and I always hated trying to wake her up. A year ago I used to page her when I knew I would be online in the morning and there were many days that she would sleep through three or four pages before she would finally come online. I balled my fist up and banged harder on the door.
“LIZZ! 6am! Rise and shine, don’t make me come in there and physically drag you from the bed!”
“Oh, god, ten more minutes, please?” came a tiny voice from the other side of the door.
“Nope, you gotta get up now, I want to go through the drive thru for some chow before we get there. You would hate the complimentary donuts they offer with the weak coffee.”
“Alright alright! I’m getting up now,” Lizz groaned as she got out of bed.
I shook my head as I headed back towards my room and the inviting shower that was waiting for me. My eye caught a glimpse of myself in the partially steamed mirror. I had debated last night about doing the hair color thing to lighten my hair back up to it’s original blondeness, but I decided I liked my original color much better. I’m sure that management would have me switch back, but this was kinda a statement, almost defiant.
After the shower, I stared at my face, doing an inventory. The scrapes were gone and the bruises had faded to a slightly greenish-yellowish hue. The ones on my neck were still distinctive to me - fingers that had wrapped around my neck. The scar on my chest was still a nasty looking dark pink that I knew deep down was the best it probably would ever look.
Grabbing the razor, I quickly shaved off the moustache and the stubble, knowing that it would be the first thing to be decreed gone by management. I walked into the bedroom and started the monotinous chore of pulling out suitable clothing to wear at this godforsaken press conference that I was dreading with all my body and soul.
After I got dressed, I walked down the hall past Lizz’s door and told her she had only fifteen more minutes before I would leave without her. I heard her cussing and I couldn’t help but laugh quietly. Women were always holding up the guys and Lizz wasn’t the acception to the rule here.
Ten minutes had passed finding Lizz plodding down the carpeted steps and into the living room where I was sitting. I glanced at my watch and gave her a playful scolding look.
“It won’t work Nick, I had time to spare so save the look,” Lizz replied, giving me a stern look in return.
I held my hands up in the air as if I surrendered. “Okay, okay, but we oughta get going so we can swing thru McDonalds, is that alright with you? I definately need my coffee at this early hour of the morning.”
“Why is it so early anyway?” Lizz asked as she followed me out the side door leading to the garage.
I wasn’t sure if I should tell her or not, but I knew she would figure it out eventually. “It’s cause we’re gonna have a live feed on the Today Show, CBS Morning Show and Good Morning America as well as taping for Mtv and Much.”
“I can’t do that,” Lizz replied quietly.
I turned around to see Lizz, leaning against the garage wall, her face pale and she was shaking like a leaf. She quickly cupped a hand over her mouth and bolted back into the house.
“You can do this,” I called out to her. “Just shake it off, it will be okay, you don’t even have to talk.” I winced as I heard the distinctive sounds of her wretching in the bathroom. “Good lord Lizz, we’ve been through shit and back and you’re gonna let a live feed do you in?”
She emerged from the bathroom, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, her face as white as a sheet. “That’s so damn easy for you to say Nick, it’s not fair.”
I took her hand and led her to the car and helped her in. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to say a word if you don’t want to, I’ll let them know that, it’s gonna be okay.”
We pulled into the parking lot with twenty minutes to spare. Because of Lizz’s nausea I reluctantly drove past the fast food strip and opted for the weak coffee and nasty stale donuts that would be at the conference. Just as I figured, Kevin was standing in the doorway, tapping on his watch.
“Hey, we’re twenty minutes early!” I yelled in defense.
“Well, they miscalculated how much time for makeup and stuff, hurry up you two.”
“Skip me, okay,” Lizz begged as she filed in past Kevin.
“No, they want to see you too, Lizz.”
“She’s a little nerved up over this, got sick before we left and once on the way and....” I stopped as I watched Lizz duck into the bathroom, hand over her mouth.
“She coming down with the flu?” Kevin asked as he gazed past me at the bathroom door.
“No, I kinda told her about the live feed on the major networks and she sorta freaked on me.”
“Nice one Nick. Hey, how come you didn’t get your hair back to the regular color? I thought management would have specified that already.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “I dunno, I guess I kinda like my natural light brown color.”
Lizz emerged from the bathroom, not looking any better than what she did the last time. I took one arm and Kevin took the other and we led her down towards the greenroom so she could lay back on the couch.
“You really don’t have to go through this if it’s making you so upset,” I stated as I knelt down beside her on the couch.
“Nick, this conference is really for you guys, not me. Besides, I really don’t want to barf on national television. I’ll be with you in spirit right here, safe on the couch,” Lizz stated as she patted the couch.
I looked at her, worried that she had more than stage fright. “Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?”
“Just peachy, don’t worry go get your make up and stuff done,” Lizz insisted.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Peachy? Yeah, right.”
“Seriously.”
“And......three......two......one.”
“Roughly six weeks ago, Backstreet Boy band member, Nick Carter was delcared dead at an Oklahoma City Hospital. His funeral was televised on Mtv, thousands of fans lined the streets....”
I shifted nervously in my seat as I listened to Katie Couric drill on about the false events that had happened over six months ago into the camera with the flashing red light. I glanced at Brian out of the corner of my eye, he didn’t look any better than what Lizz had after I left her. He appeared almost gray and chalky looking, wanting to throw up at any given moment.
“The last that the Backstreet Boys had been seen was at the time of Carter’s death when band member, Kevin Richardson held a press conference on Mtv to explain the events leading up to Carter’s death.”
As Katie droned on about the details over the past few months, a camera with a flashing red light slowly started panning. First AJ....then Howie.....then Kevin.......I baced myself as it panned on Brian and then suddenly the red light shut off. God, miracle from heaven! I caught Kevin’s look at me out the corner of my eye. I think he was wondering if I was going to wig out on him on live television. I gave him a slight “thumbs up” to indicate that I was fine. He nodded ever so slightly and focused his attention back to Katie.
“Okay, Kevin, you’ve got some news to tell the world about Nick Carter’s death?” Katie queried, almost leaning forward in her chair. “I’m assuming that you’re planning on a comeback?”
Kevin laughed nervously. None of us spoke a word or uttered a sound at this point. Katie’s question hung thick in the air. Kevin was placed on the spot and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“I never died,” I blurted out.
I couldn’t believe it, but there actually was gasps coming from the stagehands as well as from Katie.
She looked me up and down as if in disbelief. “Excuse me? Did you just say that you didn’t die?”
I nodded slowly. God, I wanted to jump off the couch and run somewhere to hide. I swallowed hard before I continued. “You see, there was this guy named Marcus and he was looking for revenge when his sister became paralyzed because of me. He had told us that he wouldn’t rest until I died and he even threatened to start picking on fans and hurting them. I was in a coma and Brian and Kevin decided the best thing for everyone was for me to have a false death to give the authorities time to pin Marcus and have justice served. So for my protection and the other girl that was involved in all of this, Lizz, we went into hiding, getting false identifications and having our looks altered. Marcus is dead, so it’s safe to come out of hiding.”
“Don’t you think that was mean to tease your fans into this?” Katie bristled. “It was all over the press that after your death was announced, at least four teens commited suicide.”
“That wasn’t proven that those deaths were because of Nick,” Kevin interrupted. “We did what we felt was necessary. Marcus was a nasty, evil man and he would not stop at anything for revenge.”
“Not all of us had the privledge of knowing that Nick was alive all that time either,” AJ interjected. “Howie and myself went through the whole funeral thing and the weeks afterwards thinking that Nick had died in the hospital, so it wasn’t an exclusive thing to trick the fans or something.”
“And so where are you going to go from here?” Katie asked to no one in particular.
“A well deserved stress-relieving vacation,” I winked.
