A friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you. 

~Elbert Hubbard, The Notebook, 1927

   ~ 5 ~ 

Fish for Breakfast

I woke up to the sound of birds chirping right outside our tent. At first I was confused and reached my arm out to find my wife. This was my favorite part of the day, early morning. The first few moments of the day before Mason started crying for us. I’d pull Kris close to me and give her a hug and kiss under the chin and just soak in my new life. When I went to pull her close though, I quickly retracted when I saw Nick coming my way.

“Well, that could have been awkward.” I said to myself as I laughed. Luckily Nick slept right through my almost molesting of him.

I sat up and ran my hands through my morning hair. I needed a shower. Maybe we could walk about a mile down the wooded path to a nice waterfall. Nothing made your hair feel better than a natural shampoo under a huge waterfall. I suddenly felt the urge to go and hug a tree but I decided against it.

I looked down at Nick and shook my head. The boy had such an unusual way of sleeping. He is the only person I know who sleeps on his back with his arms crossed in front of him. He has done this as long as I’ve known him. He sleeps like a vampire in a coffin. It looks so uncomfortable I almost want to roll him onto his side. I have done that a few times over the years but he almost always ends up on his back again.

Back in the days when we were being run ragged by our management, Nick would always end up finding a space to fall asleep. Sometimes it was in normal places like a couch, or a bench at an airport, but most times, he found weird places to take a few minutes of naptime like under a recording console or in a bathroom stall. On the set of the Everybody video he actually fell asleep in Howie’s coffin while standing up dressed like the mummy. I took a picture of it and blew it up to poster size. The plan was to give it to him on his birthday, but before that happened, the poster mysteriously disappeared. I think a fan snuck into my dressing room and stole it, even though I’ve never seen it turn up on E-Bay or anything. If it does, I may have to bid on it.

The slumbering Nickolas slowly opened his eyes and yawned at me while he stretched his arms over his head. “Is it morning already?”

Great, now I found myself yawning too.

“Yup, I was going to let you sleep for a little longer.”

“What time is it?”

“6-ish.”

“Jesus Christ that’s early.”

“I know.”

“Are the booted fish even awake yet?” He sat up and scratched at his head.

“Yes, but they probably don’t have their boots on.”

“Slackers…so what are you making me for breakfast?”

“What am I making you?”

“Uh huh.”

“I was thinking… nothing.”

“Yeah, I don’t much like that, what else you got?”

I laughed at him. This morning felt like every other morning that I’ve known him. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling or uneasy like I thought it might be. I was afraid that after coming all this way, we’d find ourselves at some kind of impasse. Nothing is worse than realizing you suddenly have nothing in common with a good friend anymore. Not that I really thought that would happen with Nick, but honestly, you never know. Today he was the playful and fun Nicky of the past. He seemed to wake up with no worry on his face and a sense of calm in his demeanor. That made me happy.

“Hrmm…well I did bring some eggs and bacon, but I was hoping we could catch a few fish for breakfast.”

“Fish for breakfast?”

“Yeah.”

“Do we catch the fish and force them to make us breakfast?”

“No, we catch the fish and force them to BE our breakfast.”

“Uh…yuck?”

“Yuck? So, you won’t eat fish if we catch any?”

“Yeah I’ll eat it but not for breakfast.”

“Nick, what difference does it make what time it is?”

“Would you eat a hamburger for breakfast?” He asked giving me that one raised eyebrow of his that I swear he learned from me.

“I would if I caught it.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You would say something like ‘that’s not healthy enough!’ and try to track down some granola or something.”

“First of all, I don’t sound like that!” He made me sound like a whiny George Bush on crack. He does a horrible southern accent. I mean absolutely terrible. “And secondly, you are an ass.”

He found that funny.

“So, what you’re getting at is that we aren’t going to eat breakfast until AFTER we go fishing?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“I might very well starve before then.”

I looked in one of the backpacks I brought and grabbed a granola bar out of it, tossing it his way. “Eat this.”

“I KNEW you’d have these with you! Nice to know some things never change.”

He opened the package and took a bite out of it like some kind of ravenous wolf. “Are you going to whip a Starbucks coffee out of that bag too?” He asked hopeful.

“No, but I do have some coffee singles if you want to start a fire so we can boil some water.”

“That I can do, I think.” He said tossing the plastic wrap from the granola bar on the floor of the tent and standing up. His knees cracked just like he said they would.

After drinking our fake coffee next to the fire that I had to start, I managed to convince Nick to follow me down to the waterfall so I could clean up a little bit. It was also a great place to go in for a quick swim and wake ourselves up before we started fishing. I was determined to catch enough for dinner tonight. I did not want to eat beef stew out of a can.

“Wow this place is beautiful.” He said in awe as we approached the falls. They were so loud it sounded like we were about to be hit by a tornado. “How can something so calm make so much noise?”

I slowly approached the small hill which led into the water, “I have always loved the roar of a waterfall. If I could put it on my I-Pod I would.”  I stuck my foot in and smiled when I felt the water surprisingly warm, for this time of morning “This is awesome!” I said jumping in.

“Jesus! Isn’t it cold in there?” He asked now making his way down the hill very carefully. The rocks and moss surrounding the area was very slick, creating a natural slide.

“Come on in and find out!” I ducked my head under the water and suddenly felt wide awake. “Before you do, toss me the shampoo out of my bag!”

“Kevin please tell me you are not going to get all naked when I’m in there.”

“I’m not.”

“Okay good.” He said grabbing the shampoo and tossing it my way.

I put a dollop in my hair and massaged while watching Nick slowly make his way over towards the edge of the rocks. Part of me wanted to just walk over there and pull him in. Get him back for all the times he has done that to me, but I was enjoying watching this slow, calculating blond move as if he was a one year old. By the time I made my way to the falls to rinse out my shampoo, he managed to get his feet in the water. I heard him yell a few colorful words just as the roar of the falls overtook my hearing. I guess he didn’t think the water was as warm as I did.

Ah well…

“Kevin how can you think this water is warm?”

“I didn’t say it was warm, I said come in and find out.”

“I’m not coming in, my nuts will fall off.”

“Mine didn’t.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure. They are probably floating downstream.”

“You should come in, once you’re in the water is fine, unless you’ve become some kind of wussy boy since the last time I saw you.”

He cocked his head at me, “Wussy boy?”

“You heard me kid.”

“Are you actually challenging me to get into the water with you?”

I smiled, this was too easy. Nick folded his arms in front of him and went to stand up. When he did that, he slipped on a rock and went sailing right into the water making a huge splash as he landed.

“Shit! That’s not what I was going for!” He said when he resurfaced.

Of course I waited until I knew he was okay before I started to laugh my ass off and man I was really laughing hard, so hard in fact I was crying. “That was so smooth!” I managed to get out after a few seconds. “My favorite part was the cool way you….” I had to take a second to breathe before I acted out the next part, “flailed your arms as you tumbled down.”

“I meant to do that.” He was trying his hardest not to laugh. “That was all for your amusement.”

“Well than, thanks for that!” I wiped my tears away and once again tried to stop myself from full on laughing. It didn’t work. I was in the middle of a laughing fit.

“Jesus Kevin, what did you put in your crappy cup of coffee this morning and can I have some?”

I looked over at him and started laughing really hard again. I could tell I was amusing the boy. He wasn’t sure what to do. This was unusual and kind of Freaky Friday opposite of how things used to be. “You really don’t get out much anymore, do you?” He asked finally allowing himself to giggle. Now that he was laughing, it was all over. There was no way I would stop now.

“I forgot how funny you could be little man, that’s all.” I sighed and once again wiped a few tears out of my eyes.

“I’m glad I bring you so much enjoyment. See what you’re missing on a daily basis?”

“Good thing, otherwise I’d have to start wearing Depends.”

Nick laughed at that as he made his way over to the waterfall. “Can I tell you a secret?” He asked as he grabbed the bottle of shampoo that was floating next to him.

“Yup, go ahead.”

“One of my secret fears has always been being in water taller than me.”

“What does that even mean, water taller than you?”

“You know like waterfalls and those giant sized water fountains.”

I was shocked that fish boy was afraid of anything to do with the water. “Really… I did not know that about you Nickolas. So are you crapping your pants right now?”

“I have overcome that fear for the most part but when I was little I used to be afraid that the water would eat me.”

“Eat you?” Once again he was amusing me.

“Yeah, because if you stand and look at a waterfall for long enough it looks like it has teeth…just watch.” He pointed over to the falls as he continued to lather the soap into his hair.

I stood there and watched the waterfall intently and he was right, after a few minutes the rough white of the water as it gradually fell down started resembling sharp teeth, coupled with the roaring sound, what he was saying almost made sense…almost.

“Ah, you see it don’t you? I can tell.” He glanced over with a look of pride on his face.

“A little, yeah.”

“Think of a mini me seeing that. It’s scary isn’t it?” He asked again.

“Yup, I can see that but, water fountains?”

He made his way under the water to rinse his hair. “I have issues!” He yelled really loudly trying to be heard over the sound of the falls.

“Yes you do and because you just screamed it so loudly, the rest of the free world knows it too!”

“I’m sure they already did.” He said walking out from under the falls and shaking his head like a wet dog.

“True.” I agreed as he splashed water at me. I was starting to get a little chilly so I headed out of the water, using a limping branch as a booster.

“You’re getting out already? I was just starting to have fun!” He pouted at me and once again splashed with all his might before diving under.

He’s just like a little kid. Once you get Nick Carter in the water, it’s almost impossible to get him out. I should have remembered this about him. “We should get going or else we’ll miss our fishing window.” I took a towel and started drying my hair, arms and legs.

“But we just got here! Please Kevin? Can’t we stay a little longer?” He purposely made his voice high and gave me those puppy dog eyes.

“This is our last chance to fish Nick. Don’t you want to do that?”

“Why is this our last chance?”

“Because tomorrow AJ and Brian will be here.”

“And we can’t fish with them?” He tilted his head the same way a puppy does when he sees something for the first time.

“I kind of want fishing to be our thing.” I admitted to him.

I really wanted this one on one time with Nick. Just the two of us fishing and bonding before my cousin and AJ got here. He seemed genuinely moved by what I said as he made his way over to where I was sitting and held his hand up for help. I bent down and grabbed onto his arm and let him lean on me as he made his way out of the water.

Sitting next to me he started to dry himself off, “I hope you weren’t just yanking my chain about that.”

“Nope, I’m serious.” I looked over at him and smiled, “I want fishing to be a Nick and Kevin thing.”

He smiled wide, “Me too!”

I stood up and once again lent him a hand to his feet, “Well let’s get going buddy! We have a whole day ahead of us.”

“So, were you ever afraid of anything when you were a kid?” He asked me as we started walking back towards our tent to get the fishing gear.

“Huge stalks of corn.” I answered.

“Really?”

“Yup, I always was afraid there were giant gnomes living inside of them ready to eat me!”

“Are you shitting me Kevin?”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh.”