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“Look Michelle, I don’t need a lecture. I just called you yesterday. Do you need me to call you every five seconds?” 

Nick watched as AJ paced back and forth in his dressing room after the show.

 “This is ridiculous! You know we’re out on tour and I have commitments I need to take care of.”

 Kevin and Brian let out a collective sigh.

 “I’m not an asshole and I do care about your feelings!”

 Howie just shook his head.

 “Fine! Goodbye!”

 AJ threw his phone onto the couch and sank down into the chair, obviously in a foul mood.

 “Everything ok?” Nick asked cautiously.

 “No, everything is not ok! Weren’t you listening to the conversation?” AJ snapped at Nick.

 Kevin decided that enough was enough. This had been going on for a year already and everyone was sick and tired of the drama.

 “Why do you stay with her J? She makes you miserable.”

 AJ narrowed his eyes at Kevin. Sometimes he took his role as the older one in the group too seriously and AJ didn’t like being told what to do.

 “I don’t need dating advice from you Kevin. I know you have the “golden” relationship but not all of us are as perfect as you!”

 Kevin was going to make a sarcastic remark but decided against it and left the room slamming the door behind him.

 “You don’t need to bite his head off just cause you’re in a bad mood.” Nick said.

 “I don’t need advice from you either.” AJ stood up. “Let’s just get out of here. We don’t have a show until tomorrow night and I plan on hiding out until then.”

 “Actually, we have that trip in the morning.” Brian reminded.

 AJ groaned. “Why do we have to do this thing again? Can’t we just skip this one?”

 “Because she’s a huge fan and it was our idea. And no, we’re not skipping this one.”

 The group had decided two months before the tour that they would pick one lucky fan to visit in each state or province they were in. They asked for submissions and they chose each fan before they went out on the road.  The fan from Boston had never actually submitted an entry. She taught at one of the local schools and her students had made a video explaining why the guys should pay a visit to their teacher. It was a sweet idea and they had even made a montage of pictures of her and them and set it to the song “Bigger Than Me”.* The kids explained to them that she did a lot for her students and they wanted to pay her back with a big surprise.

 “We’re not going to back out of this J so you’d better just get some rest and deal with it.”

 “Fine.” AJ grumbled. “Just don’t expect me to be happy about it.” He stormed off and left Brian, Howie and Nick to talk.

 “He better not screw this up.” Howie said angrily. “She’s a fan and they need to know how important they are to us.”

 “Look, J’s not normally like this. Maybe his bad mood will just pass and he’ll be fine in the morning.” Brian suggested.

 Nick and Howie traded a look saying that they weren’t so sure about that.

 

* Lyrics to “Bigger Than Me”

 First off I can’t keep a promise
I'm no one to count on at all
Add on that I'm a coward
Too scared to return your calls

But you don't care
You keep sticking around
While I'm acting a clown
You're bigger
Lalala
Cuz you're still here
Your feet stuck to the ground
Despite how silly it sounds
You're bigger
Than me
Lalala

Its known that I'm a liar
Often they're blacker than white
Add on my uncanny ego
No one’s less humbled than I

But you don't care
You keep sticking around
While I'm acting a clown
You're bigger
Lalala
Cuz you're still here
Your feet stuck to the ground
Despite how silly it sounds
You're bigger
Than me
Lalala

All the messed up things I do
Yeah I swear I'll make'em up to you
Before you go and have enough
Just let me make it better
I'll try to measure up
I'll try to measure up to you

I'll make it up to you

But you don't care
You keep sticking around
While I'm acting a clown
You're bigger
Lalala
Cuz you're still here
Your feet stuck to the ground
Despite how silly it sounds
You're bigger
Than me
Lalala