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Two days passed, and Brian was released from the hospital. He met up with Howie at the hotel, finding it awkward to only see two Backstreet Boys occupying two rooms when it was normally five of them, running through the hall and bothering each other. None of them had heard from Nick, but come to find out, he had caught a cab back to his parent’s house the day he was discharged from the hospital.

Brian walked into his vacant hotel room, not really wanting to stay there by himself. Normally, Nick would be pounding on his door, planning out how they could spend their time together, but this time, that wasn’t the case. This time, he was at his parent’s house, helping them plan his younger brother’s funeral, which was tomorrow. His family should be landing anytime now, and Leighanne along with his personal bodyguard had gone to the airport to pick them up. Howie’s family was already here, they were occupying the floor of rooms below them, that’s where all their families would be staying.

Brian didn’t even seem to notice that Howie had slowly opened his hotel door and was peering in, looking to see what he was doing. “You okay Brian?”

Brian turned around, embarrassed that Howie had found him just standing there. “Yeah… just kind of phasing out.”

Howie sighed and pushed the door all the way open. “I know what you mean… but your feeling okay, right? Your not feeling lightheaded or anything…”

Brian chuckled at Howie’s “mother hen” behavior. “No mom…”

Howie laughed, “Real funny. Well, I just came by to ask you if you wanted to go and get something to eat… I know you must be happy that you no longer have to eat the hospital’s generic food… I know AJ would be happy. Could you believe he made me go and get him McDonalds?”

“He made you or you gave in?” Brian asked with a snicker. “At least we know AJ hasn’t lost his taste in McDonalds… cause if he did, I know that would’ve made national headlines!”

“So true.” Howie laughed, shaking his head. “Well, if you want, there’s a restaurant downstairs that we can dine in…”

Brian shrugged, “Sounds good to me.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Howie watched Brian as he simply used his fork to push his vegetables back and forth on his plate in silence. They ordered the buffet line, and Brian hadn’t grabbed much to put on his plate. Just some vegetables, shrimp, a slab of roast turkey and mashed potatoes.

Howie sighed and placed his fork down on his plate. “Okay… what is wrong with you Brian? You’ve really been out of it all day, tell me… what’s going on?”

“Aaron’s funeral is tomorrow…” was all Brian said in reply.

Howie slowly nodded, waiting to see if he was going to say anything else. “Yes… I know that, we all do.”

“Do you honestly think Nick would want us to be there?” Brian had asked him, stabbing his fork in a baby corn and drowning it in the gravy and mashed potatoes. “I mean… do you honestly think he would want to see the people who didn’t even tell him that his brother was dead?”

Howie sighed heavily this time. “It’s not about him Brian… it’s about Aaron. Who cares if we’re the most hated people on his list… we’re going to be there for Aaron and to pay respects to his family… we’ll deal with Nick later. There’s no way Nick can keep us from going to the funeral… he may not want to see us, but like I said, it’s not about him.”

Brian remained silent, continuing to play with the food on his plate.

“We were hoping to catch you two here…” a voice suddenly said.

Both Howie and Brian looked up to see both of their families standing there. “You guys aren’t done eating yet, right?” Paula had asked.

Both Howie and Brian looked at each other, but Brian broke his eyes away. “Well actually…”

Leighanne walked up towards Brian and touched him on his shoulder. “Sweetie, you haven’t eaten a thing on your plate, your not getting sick are you?” she asked him, placing her hand on his forehead.

Brian shook his head, gently grabbed his hand to bring it away from his head. “No, I just wasn’t in the mood to eat… didn’t really have an appetite, that’s all.”

“How could you not have an appetite?” his brother, Harold asked. “I know how the hospital’s food can be… and lets just say that there’s no gourmet chefs working there.”

Brian just stared up the families that was now creating chaos in his head. His mother was busy talking to Howie’s mom while the two dads were talking. Harold was holding Baylee and talking to John and Pollyanna, while Leighanne was checking to see if he was okay, invading what little space he felt he had left. Howie could only stare at him in helplessness.

Brian abruptly pushed away from the table and rose from his seat, causing all of them to stop talking and to look at him. “I’m gonna go now…”

But Leighanne grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks. “Why honey? We all just came to join both you and Howie for dinner.”

“Well, I’m done eating, you guys can stay and eat with Howie… he’s not done with his meal yet.”

He began to walk away again, but his mother called him back. “Brian!” Jackie called out. “Where are you going?”

Brian took a deep breath in. “I’m gonna go back to my room… I’m just feeling tired is all.” and with that, he left them all standing there, staring dumbfounded at him.

He brushed past the security guards that were guarding the front entrance of the restaurant and had walked right towards the elevator. As soon as he pushed the button, the doors slid open and he walked in quickly, pushing the seventh floor button, praying to god that the doors would close before his bodyguard came onto the same elevator.

“Brian, wait!” Earl, his bodyguard said, but the doors were already closing, and Brian did nothing to stop them.

He allowed his head to fall back, hitting the wall of the elevator. He needed to get away from everything and everyone, needed to clear his thoughts and rid himself of the mental pain that was ruining him. As soon as the doors opened, he walked off and walked straight towards his room, swiping his card through and pushing his door open. Once he walked into his room, he kicked off his shoes and had shut off all the lights, wanting his room, his world to be completely dark and cold.

He didn’t bother to change his clothes, he simply fell onto the bed and curled up into a ball, enjoying the feeling of the cold air embracing him. He was staring off into the darkness of his room, and slowly, black was drenched on top of black as his eyes drifted close and he fell into a deep world of slumber.