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It was coming,”Nick repeated aloud to himself. He was sitting on his hotel bed with his laptop—writing. “Okay, so I’m stuck now.”

A knock on his door interrupted his concentration and he quickly closed his laptop. “Just a sec,” he called. He knew it was one of the other guys—likely Brian or maybe AJ. They were coming to tell him to get ready to leave for the venue. Even after all these years they still treated him like a child that they had to take care of. “Doesn’t matter that I’m 23 years old,” he mumbled to himself.

When he opened the door, Brian smiled. “Hey man, just came to tell you that we’re gonna be leaving in about 20 minutes or so. Be ready.”

“’Kay.”

Nick didn’t understand why they still didn’t get the fact that he wasn’t a kid anymore. Sure he wasn’t always the most mature person, but he knew when it was time to be serious. With a sigh, he re-opened his laptop and read over what he had so far.

It was coming.

“It’s coming alright,” he said sadly.



***



“You’re late,” Kevin’s voice boomed across the empty arena.

“Yeah, sorry,” Nick said with little emotion. He heard Brian whisper something to his cousin, but couldn’t understand him.

“Where have you been?” Kevin asked, trying to keep his temper under control. Nick was almost an hour late and he had long been pissed.

“My mom called,” Nick said, looking at his older brother. As much as he loved the other four guys, he couldn’t wait to get home. They only had three more shows left before the tour was over, and Nick was becoming very impatient. “Sorry to keep you waiting with such petty things like my family.”

“Okay, that’s it.” Kevin had finally lost it. He was tired of Nick’s I-don’t-care attitude and he was going to put a stop to it. “I don’t know what crawled up your ass, but I think you need to get over it. We’ve busted our asses while you sit back and pity yourself and treat the rest of us like we’re bothering you.”

Nick looked at Kevin and walked up to him…keeping his eye contact. “You know what? To tell you the truth, I’m not happy any more. You guys—especially you Kevin—don’t treat me like a grown man. I’m tired of being talked down to and told what to do. You have to face the fact that you can’t control me anymore.” When Kevin made no attempt to comment, Nick continued. “After Friday I’m going home and I don’t intend on doing this anymore.”

“Nick-” Brian stopped when Nick held up his hand.

“I’ll be here for the show tonight, but I’m not staying here right now,” he turned and stalked off.

“Great going Kev,” AJ said sarcastically.


***

“That was a great show,” Howie said energetically as they all made their way backstage.

“Yeah,” Brian agreed.

“Hey,” AJ spoke up while wiping his face with a towel. “Why don’t we all go out tonight? A sort of celebration. One last night on the town.”

“Yeah,” Brian smiled. “I think we should.”

“I’m up for it,” Kevin said. Then they all looked at Nick.

“You guys can go, but I don’t really feel up to it. I have to finish packing anyway.”

“Come on Nick, for old time sake…” Howie tried to coax his fellow band mate.

“Y’all go and have fun.”

***

“BSB what time is it?”

Nick looked around at the group. He smiled and felt a rush of adrenaline course through him. He always loved right before they went on stage…they were all so excited. He glanced toward Brian who had the cheesiest grin on his face and he was bouncing as they chanted.

Howie was smiling, and as always, every few seconds he would wink at someone. Nick would never understand why.

Kevin, leading the chant, looked professional even in the silliest of times. Nick never thought he looked much like a musician, but he wouldn’t dare say that to Kevin. Instead, he kept it to himself.

AJ had dyed his hair…again. Tonight it was blue. Not quite as funky as some nights, but Nick guessed that AJ had gotten lazy.

As they finished their chant and prayer, they all lined up to go on stage. The crowd was going crazy with their continuous chant for the group. They had started the chant halfway through the opening act and it was still going strong.

“Okay, you guys ready?” Kevin’s voice boomed over the crowd. “Let’s go!”***

“Where do you think he is?” Brian asked, looking around at his fellow band mates. They had gone out without Nick, and now it was almost 3 in the morning. “He’s still not answering his cell phone.”

“Rok, you worry too much,” AJ mumbled. “You heard him today…we don’t treat him like a grown man.”

“Yeah, but we have a right to be worried about him,” Brian gave AJ a hard gaze. “I mean, what if something happened?”

“I doubt he even went out tonight, Brian,” Kevin’s voice broke the silence that had fallen over them.

“Uh, yeah he did Kev. I saw him leave,” Howie told them. “I figured it wouldn’t do any good for me to question him about it. I thought it would just piss him off, ya know? He left right before we did.”

Brian turned his gaze toward the passing buildings. He couldn’t believe what was going on. Nick was upset at all of them and he could be anywhere. Brian tried calling his cell phone one last time. He thought maybe Nick would finally answer, but he had no such luck.

“Just don’t worry anymore,” AJ said. “He told us how he felt today. He’s a big boy so we can just let Nicky take care of himself.”

***

Nick stumbled down the sidewalk of a street he wasn’t familiar with. He glanced at his watch and barely made out 4:36 am. He had been to nearly every bar he had passed and gotten a drink. Now, he was completely wasted and he didn’t know his right from left.

“The guys are gonna kill me,” he slurred to himself. Almost loosing his balance, he began to laugh. “That was a close one.”

Looking around the dark street, Nick tried his best to remember which direction he was supposed to go in order to make his way back to the hotel. His mind, however, wasn’t cooperating with him. He had no clue where he was and there was no one around for him to ask.

“What will the guys think? I’m sure this won’t be good for our image,” he chuckled drunkenly. “Oh, never mind. There isn’t an image to uphold anymore, is there? Nope…sure isn’t. I can do what ever the hell I want to and get away with it.”

Suddenly, Nick heard something behind him. He turned slowly so he wouldn’t fall, but didn’t see anyone. He shrugged to himself and decided it was his imagination running wild. After all, alcohol had that affect on him. “What was I saying?” he continued to think aloud.

Before Nick knew what was happening, Nick heard footsteps quickly approaching him. Then without any warning at all, he felt a bottle come crashing down against the back of his head. Everything was quickly fading, but he managed to stumble a few more feet before he lost all consciousness. He never saw his attacker and the satisfied smile on their face.

***

“Hello?” Kevin’s voice was thick with sleep when he answered his cell phone. Looking at the clock on his bedside table, he saw the large, red numbers read 5:58. We don’t have a wake-up call, he thought, confused.

“May I please speak with Kevin Richardson?” a polite female voice asked.

“This is Kevin. May I ask who this is?”

“Mr. Richardson, I’m Joanna Merritt from Memorial hospital,” she began her tone grave. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. We just had a young man brought in unconscious and he had your name and number on his emergency contact card.”

“Oh my God. Nick?” he questioned, alarmed. He knew what her answer was before she even spoke.

“Mr. Carter was found on Lincoln Avenue a short while ago. Apparently, he was assaulted with a beer bottle. He has some rather severe abrasions on the back of his head and he is still unconscious at the moment.”

Kevin sat completely shocked. Nick was assaulted. Who could have done this? Who would want to do this? he thought to himself trying to find any reason that came to mind. He couldn’t think of anything. “I’ll be there in a few minutes,” he told Joanna and ended the call. Kevin then immediately made his way to wake up the other three. He didn’t remember ever getting them up…it was all a blur to him. The only thing that kept racing through his mind was Nick. He was attacked and no one knew why. There had to be some reason, but nothing that Kevin could think of. They just had to pray that Nick was going to be all right.