“You guys… we have uh… meeting in the next… hour or so… about…”

Okay, before the guy could even get the sentence out, I turned the hell around and walked away. How many of you guys think Kevin talks extremely slow and find it funny as hell? Don’t be afraid to say you do, because I’m right there with you. Luckily, you guys get to hear him during interviews and whatnot. I, on the other hand, had to put up with it for the last fifteen years of my life!! There are times where I’ll sit there and completely tune him out and just nod at every single damn thing he says, and other times I just finish his thought or his sentence for him. Yeah… it’s that bad.

So anyway, Kevin was trying to tell us that we have a meeting in the next our or so to discuss a photoshoot that we will be having on the plane to help promote our Black & Blue tour and to give the fans an inside glimpse. You think you know… but you have no idea. You seriously don’t. This is a lot of hard work man! You would think us having our own private Boeing 747 plane would allow us time to relax and just enjoy flying in luxury, but we can’t even do that; it’s all work and no play in the book of Backstreet.

“Where you going Jay?” Marcus asked me as I walked past him.

I stopped in my tracks, the question rendering me speechless for the moment, and I wondered if he caught on to the fact that I was standing right before him, trying to think up a lie. “I don’t feel too hot man.”

Marcus simply nodded, and before he could get another question or statement out, I continued my trek onward, trying to get as far away from everyone as possible. When I finally reached my destination, I pressed the button to open the recessed doors that led to a large private room. I quickly walked into the room, hitting the button and causing the recessed doors to slide close behind me. Idly, I began to search the room for something, anything that could help to make me appear sick.

I don’t know about the other guys, but when we’re on the plane, it’s our time to relax and enjoy not working, and that meant NOT listening to Kevin take a century in trying to get a single sentence out. Seriously people, the next time you’re extremely tired but just can’t go to sleep, put a recording of Kevin on, and I GUARANTEE that you’ll be out faster than you can say “Shut the hell up already!”. Speaking of sleep, did I mention that there’s this big ass king sized bed that’s calling my name? Hmm…big… bed… bingo.

~*~*~*~

Alright, so photoshoot, in one hour… I can deal with that I guess. Lucky ya’ll, as if filming us in our plane 24/7 wasn’t enough, you even get still shots!! I guess that’s the price you gotta pay when you’re a Backstreet Boy. Whatever. So I glance around the room to see what everyone else was doing. Kevin was talking to some of the interviewers that were allowed to fly with us, Howie was trying to busy himself in reading a magazine while Nick was pestering him, telling him to go grab something for him from his luggage. Nick is one brave soul. As for AJ… well, I don’t know where he is.

I shrugged as I pushed myself up from my seat, coming to the decision that I was not gonna spend my next hour, well… less than an hour just sitting here thinking how it was a dumb idea to have a photoshoot of us in a plane, I mean seriously, why? I began walking towards the back of the plane, not really having a clue as to where I was going, just wanting to find a way to busy myself to pass the time.

After walking aimlessly around, I decided to just head to the large room that was in the plane. Have ya’ll seen this room? It’s freaking HUGE!! AJ wasn’t lying (or even exaggerating. Shocking, isn’t it?) when he said that this jet was a flying mansion, it really is. The room itself was like a large suite… well, okay, maybe I’m exaggerating that part, but it was almost like my room back home, it was huge. Well, I pressed the button (and yes, if ya’ll are wondering, Nick and I were scolded for trying to break the recessing doors.) and walked into the room, walking in to find the missing member.

“What are you doing?” I asked AJ, cocking an eyebrow because here he was, lounged out on the bed, stripped down to his wife beater and black… cycling shorts.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” AJ replied as he tucked his arms behind his head, relieving a deep sigh.

“You do know we have a photoshoot in an hour… right?”

AJ nodded, “I knew it before Kevin could even get the words out.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“Never mind.”

“Well… aren’t you gonna get ready?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Cause I’m sick.”

“You don’t look sick.”

“I am. You can be sick too.”

“But I’m not sick.”

“And as long as you keep your mouth shut about that, no one will know you’re not sick.”

I continue to stare at him. AJ looked over at me and chuckled, “Or you could pretend that you’re sleeping and just not wake up. Either way, I’m staying here and playing this off.”

I really didn’t want to do the photoshoot, but at the same time Kevin expected us to do it. NO!! I will not fall to AJ’s persuasiveness!! He will not get me to skip out on the photoshoot with him, I’m gonna get him up when the hour comes around and we’re all gonna do this damn photoshoot, but… but…

“Move over.”

He has a way with words.

~*~*~*~

“Howie… Hooowwwiiieee… HOWARD!!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth. Why couldn’t this kid get the fact that I was IGNORING him?! Just… continue to ignore him Howie, you’re doing fine in giving him no reaction, you can do this…

Okay, I’m gonna kill the kid. “What?!” I seethed, slamming the magazine closed.

“Could you PLEASE go grab my wallet… pretty, pretty please… with a cherry on top.”

“Two questions Nick… one, why do you need it, and two, why can’t you get it yourself?”

“One, I need it cause Eric and I are making a bet… and two, because I’m kicking his ass right now and I’ll need my wallet to collect his money.”

I stared at Nick in disbelief. He wants ME to get up and go grab his wallet while he sits here on his ass, trying to beat Eric on that NBA game. They both were seated in front of the TV, completely engrossed with the game as they tried to knock the controller out of each other’s hands.

Sighing heavily, I pushed myself up from where I sat and began to make my way towards the back. Now, I know what you’re thinking… you can’t believe that I just gave in to what Nick wanted me to do. Eh, I can’t believe it either, but anything to make him shutup!! So, here I am, walking towards the back of the plane, not even knowing where exactly our luggages were.

I spotted Marcus and a few of the other guards lounging in their cabin area, playing poker and laughing up a storm. “Hey Marc, do you know where our luggages were placed?”

Marcus simply jabbed a thumb towards the back, not breaking his eyes from the fan of cards he held in front of him. “In your guys room, in the back.”

“Thanks.” I muttered out as I continued on to the room.

“Pretty, pretty please… with a cherry on top.” I mocked as I pushed the button to open the doors.

As soon as I walked in, I glanced over to the corner of the room, immediately seeing our luggages tucked neatly in the corner. “Nick is one brave soul.” I grumbled as I walked over to what I assumed to be his luggage. I opened it and began to rummage around for the blessed thing. When I finally found it, I pulled it out and held it above me as if I was holding the holy grail the something. I got up from the ground and was about to walk out of the room but stopped when I saw both AJ and Brian laying on the bed, staring at me.

“What are you guys doing back here?” I asked them.

“We’re trying to figure out a way to skip the photoshoot.” Brian replied nonchalantly.

“Would you like to join us?” AJ questioned.

I shook my head and chuckled in disbelief, “I can’t believe that you two are… no, I’m not going to join you, you guys are not gonna do this, and we’re gonna…”

“Do as you wish Howard.” AJ cut in. “But if you change your mind, you know where to find us.”

I continued to stare at AJ, but I was left in complete shock when I glanced over at Brian and realized that he wasn’t going to do anything but go along with AJ’s plan. First Nick… now these two?! The world has truly gone mad.

“Does Kevin know about this?”

Both AJ and Brian chuckled, “What do you think?”

I shrugged as I tossed Nick’s wallet to the side. If you can’t beat ‘em… join ‘em.

~*~*~*~

“Howie, what the hell’s taking you so…” Nick slurred off as he walked into the room, seeing a half naked AJ and both Brian and Howie fully clothed, lying in the large bed.

The three of them snapped their heads up to look at Nick. “What… the hell… are you guys doing?” Nick asked, never breaking his stare away from them.

“We’re sleeping.” Howie responded with a yawn.

“No you’re…”

Before Nick could get out his reply, AJ cut him off. “Shut it Nick, we’re sleeping.”

Nick remained silent, his eyes darting from AJ, to Brian, then to Howie. Without saying another word, Nick jumped into the bed, forcing himself right in between Howie and Brian.

“DAMNIT NICK!!” they all chorused out.

“Shh!” Nick shushed them, causing them all to fall silent and their ears to perk up. “Do you guys hear that?” he whispered.

They all remained silent, trying to listen for whatever Nick was hearing. They could hear Kevin’s distant voice from behind the closed door, talking to Marcus, asking him if he knew where the other guys were.

Nick glanced at his watch, “Shit man, the photoshoot.”

AJ grabbed one of the large pillows that were on the ground and had whacked Nick with it. “Shutup dude, just act like you’re sleeping.”

They all lounged back down on the bed, getting into their fake sleeping positions. Brian, who was lying next to AJ’s half naked self, glanced over at him and noticed the way he chose to sleep, which he had the large pillow situated in between his legs, his cycling shorts hiked up kind of high and his left hand near his groin area.

“Dude, you DO NOT sleep like that, you know good and well I wouldn't let you sleep like that next to me.” Brian whispered harshly, trying hard not to be heard by Kevin and ruin their plan.

“Then I guess you just don’t know me as well as I thought you did.” AJ whispered back.

Before any of them could get another word out, they heard someone right outside the door, causing them all to fall and remain silent, getting back into their sleeping positions and closing their eyes. They heard Kevin right outside the room, but heard his voice drift away.

Nick rose up and looked them over, “Dude, how believable is this, like seriously? Do ya’ll honestly think Kevin’s gonna walk up in here and be like ‘Wow, the guys are really sleeping, I think I’ll just let them sleep and cancel the photoshoot.’ I mean, look at us… AJ and I are the only ones that look like we’re really sleeping or whatever. Rok, since when the hell do you wear jeans to bed?”

“Since AJ decided to sleep the way he’s posing.” Brian grumbled.

Again, they all fell silent when they heard Kevin right outside the door of their room. Brian shot a look at AJ before he went down to the bed, “Damnit AJ, I swear you better move your hand before I…” he stops short of his sentence when he heard the doorknob jiggling, and they all pretended to be sleeping just as Kevin walked in.

“Guys… we…” Kevin slurred off when he found his four brothers passed out on the king sized bed. “Oh no guys… I am not falling for this… you guys can stop pretending because we’re gonna do this photo-”

Kevin was interrupted as their appointed photographer walked into the room, “Kevin, what’s going on?” he asked as stepped beside Kevin, seeing four of the five members crashed out on one bed, causing him to lightly gasp. “What is this?”

Kevin looked over to their photographer, “I’m sorry Richard, I was just coming in to get them up and ready.”

“This is brilliant!” Richard exclaimed as he brought his professional camera forward, “Don’t even bother waking them up, this is a perfect shot right here!”

Brian’s breathing hitched when he heard what the photographer said. “Move… your… hand… Alex.” he managed to get out in a whisper, near AJ’s ear.

“Do you mind not being in this shot Kevin?” Richard asked as he prepared to take pictures of the four sleeping Backstreet Boys.

Kevin could only stare at his four sleeping brothers. Deep inside, he was finding this moment funny, and couldn’t wait to wake them up and show them the picture Richard got of them while they were sleeping, but at the same time, this picture spoke volumes to him, and he just wondered if other people, including the other guys, would see this moment as he saw it. “I don’t mind at all.” he replied with a genuine smile. At that moment, he saw how strong their bond as brothers was, and he could only hope that people thought the same thing when they saw this picture.