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25

I fell asleep on Brian’s bed right next to him. He had let me into his room and we talked for a little bit. He apologized, I apologized and then we played some Nintendo. Next thing I knew Howie was shaking me awake. Brian slept in a heap next to me, very close to the edge of the bed and I thought for just a split second about pushing him and making him fall. I know I’m mean but if it’s there ya gotta take it right?
“You pretty much had us all worried sick about you last night Nicky” Howie said sternly. How odd the only lecture I thought I had escaped since joining the Backstreet Boys was going to come at the hands of sweet D.

“I know. I’m sorry”

“I’m just glad you are okay”

“Thanks. I’m all good D my man besides would I let anything happen to me?” For some reason I was in a really good mood. When you consider that less than 24 hours earlier I was as gloomy as gloomy could be.

I turned towards Brian and smiled when I saw I had missed my window of opportunity to push him off the bed. He was slowly getting himself up. “God you are a real bed hog you know that Kaos?”

“Am not”

“Are too”

“Am not” He smiled at my playfulness. I think he was grateful that he didn’t have to deal with Nick the brat today.

“So what’s the plan today?” I asked AJ as he stumbled by me razor in hand.

“Do you ever know what’s going on Nick?”

“Nope”

“We are going to a meet and greet and then something at MTV AGAIN!” Howie said walking past me and looking down at my undressed self. “You better go and get yourself dressed Nicky and while you’re at it wake Kevin up. I have tried three times”

“No way!”

“Yes way and besides it’s your fault that he is grumpy anyway” Brian said smiling with a devilish face.

“Okay fine but if I don’t come back alive…”

“I get his Nintendo stuff”

I stuck my tongue out at Brian and made my way back to my room where Kevin was still sound asleep and snoring away.


~*~*~*~*~*~
“Pick out anyone you want…like I said my treat” John said to his eldest son who was staring with mouth agape at the collection of sports memorabilia in front of him. “Dad…I can’t they are much too expensive” Mike had picked up an old baseball card of his hero Joe DiMaggio and was staring at it in awe.

“Hey son, do you remember when we would go to your little league games and then always manage to make our way to one of these stores to look at the cards?” Mike nodded. It was one of those nice childhood memories he would recall when his life was going down the toilet.

“Yeah and Mom always refused to come in saying she had better things to do”

“Yup” John’s face went from a smile to a frown. “That woman hated for us boys to have fun. I wonder if she ever let Nicky join a little league team”

“Doubtful he had time dad”

“True, what with him being a mega star and all” John placed the Joe DiMaggio card back on the shelf and continued to walk through the store.

“Do you plan on speaking to your Mother?”

Mike had been dreading that question since his father had gotten here. The one good thing about fleeing from their lives when he was a child was the fact that he didn’t have to ever be a part of a custody battle. No pitting kid against one or the other for their love.

“Not sure. I have mixed feelings when it comes to Mom” Mike grabbed a baseball signed by the 1964 Mets.

“Well, I won’t hold it against you if you want to talk to her”

“I’m not sure if I have anything to say to her”

“She was your Mother”

“Yeah, that’s the word though dad…WAS”

John gave his son a sympathetic look but deep down inside he was pleased. It would have killed him if Mike had decided to try and make nice with Jane. He found himself clutching a baseball glove tightly to his chest while memories of his life with her passed before his eyes, some good but most horrible.

Mike had walked past his father and was making his way out of the store. John took that as an opportunity to pick up that Mets baseball and buy it for the boy. He would give it to Mike over dinner and a movie; A boy’s night out, just the two of them…no worries. Maybe he would even invite Nicky.

“Is that all sir?” The older man behind the counter asked, putting down his Sports Illustrated magazine and acting like taking care if his customer was the biggest burden in the world.

“Yes thank you”

The cashier rung up the sale, “That’ll be $450.00”

John slowly held out his son’s credit card to the man, hoping the guy wouldn’t even give it a second look which happily for him, he didn’t. He decided just to be safe he would sign his son’s name. He had become a master at forgery while in prison. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do with his time there.

He took his bag and thanked the man who had reluctantly helped him with a wave of his hand.

Mike was standing outside pacing and looking at his watch.

“You bought something?” He asked eyeing the bag.

“Yup but you can’t see it. It’s a surprise”

“Okay…well dad I really need to be going to work”

“Have a good day son and thanks for the breakfast” John winked at his son who smiled in return.

“Yeah yeah yeah…you’re welcome. I’ll see you when I get home”

“Okay sounds great”

“Let me know if Nick calls okay?”

“So does that mean I have permission to talk on your phone? Wow I feel so privileged” Mike rolled his eyes at his father’s sarcasm.

“Yeah but whatever you do, DON’T scare him away” The telling tone Mike used when he said that temporarily hurt John’s feelings. Did he actually think a man would hurt his own son? As he watched Mike walk away he had to laugh at himself. Duh you idiot you are using the boy’s money aren’t you?

This reminded him to look at his watch. He had his own meeting to keep, a big poker game which would most likely give him the chance to start over.

“Son this could be my out. I hope you understand” He said to the credit card as he placed it back into his pocket, walking across the street to the ATM machine. When he had first gotten the card, he noticed that there were four numbers printed in ink in the top corner of the card. He was sure it was his son’s PIN number for the card. Now it was time to test it out. He stuck the card into the machine refusing to look directly at the camera above him. When he put in the four digit number he didn’t breathe until he heard the clinking of the cash coming from the machine. “Stupid boy! Don’t you know you are NOT supposed to put your PIN number right on your card?” He said to himself as he grabbed the $500 out of the machine and walked down the street towards Mickey’s Pool hall.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I sat there in a fog for most of the interview at MTV. To be honest, that place just gave me the willies. Everything about the people that worked in that building rubbed me the wrong way. It was as if all of the sleaziest people in the music business rented out a building and called it home. I don’t think any of us really enjoyed being at MTV for extended amounts of time. We just knew it was what needed to be done in order to get somewhere. You had to pretend that nothing on earth made you happier than spending quality time with Carson Daly. He was so nice to us every time we came within whispering distance of him, but once we were gone, he would talk about us like we weren’t fit to wipe his boots.

Gotta love show business.

“Hey! You need to focus” I hated when Kevin yelled at me in front of people, especially these people. By the looks on their faces they were all amused. Kevin was NOT in a good mood as I and everyone else guessed he wouldn’t be. A tired Kevin was a grumpy Kevin but since I was in a rotten mood the day before I decided to let him have his attitude.

“Seriously Nick, you think you can concentrate for more than two minutes?” Again chuckles from the interns.

I wanted to be mean, and ask some of these people who were so much older than me to stop laughing and get me some coffee. Since the best thing they would ever do is wipe an MTV exec’s butt.

I decided to keep that thought to myself.

“God Kevin quit hounding me, I’m all set. Let’s just get this stupid thing over with” He was turning my sunny mood into a dull and rainy one fast.

“Okay guys we are going to do some promos for your upcoming special and then you guys get to do TRL” Some blonde chick was spewing out our schedule to us as we walked briskly down the hallways.

“Nick?” I wasn’t paying attention. I was actually counting the number of yellow tiles I had passed by.

“Yeah?”

“Is that okay then?”

“Is what okay?” Kevin sighed at my question. I decided not to give him the satisfaction and pretended to know what the hell the girl was talking about.

“Oh yeah that’s fine. Whatever it’s all good” I was NOT going to admit I had no idea what I had just agreed to.

“Excellent, the car will be waiting for you right after we are done here”

“Car? Okay yeah cool” The four boys were staring at me. THEY knew I wasn’t listening.

When we finally reached our destination I grabbed Brian’s hand and whispered, “Where the heck am I going?” He laughed.

“Out on a date with a lucky fan from TRL”

“What?” I thought he was kidding at first. I really did because surely they couldn’t have possibly let me agree to that, could they?

“Okay guys sit down here” The woman said pushing us to our spots.

“See what happens when you don’t listen?” Kevin said batting me upside the head.

I hated when he did that.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“You in?” The smoke in the small room at the back of the pool hall was thick, making it hard to see. John had to squint to make out the three cards he held in his hand. Two kings and a nine of spades. He had lost a lot of Nick’s money today in the few hours he had been playing, only winning one hand. Since then he had made two more trips to the ATM machine taking out $500 bucks a pop. Now he was down to his last hundred bucks. He knew two kings weren’t that great of a hand but maybe he would pick up another nine or better yet another king and win. The pot of money was big, very big.

He threw in his fifteen dollars, “I’m in” He said trying to hold back his anxiety. “I’ll take two” He slid the two discarded cards towards the dealer who in turn gave him his two new ones.

He took a deep breath and looked at the first card he pulled; a nine of hearts, that’s two pairs right there baby! Then he turned the other and had to hide his excitement when he saw yet another nine; the nine of diamonds. Now he had a full house, a sure winner.

They went around the table and almost all of the guys dropped out throwing their cards down in frustration. When they got to him John just smiled and said, “I’m in”

The man he was playing against. A big man wearing sunglasses in the dark room and a fedora hat, smiled “I’m in too and I raise you a hundred bucks… but uh oh…looks like you don’t have it” The man laughed a sinister laugh and placed both of his chubby hands on the pile of money.

“Wait!” John yelled. “I have this” He said whipping out his son’s credit card”

“Um…this is poker idiot. We don’t take credit here”

“No, I’m putting it up. If you win, I’ll withdrawal $1000 for you”

The man seemed amused, “And how do I know you have that kind of money?”

“Because it’s my son’s, he’s a big pop star. I swear that thing is worth more than any money on this table”

The guy picked up the card and looked it over, “You sure this is legitimate?”

“I swear it is”

“You seem like a nice enough guy, fine I’ll take it” The man threw Nick’s card into the middle of the table and said call. John let out a sigh of relief; he knew he was going to win. A full house king high would beat about anything.

He threw down his cards proudly, “Full house King high” Everyone gasped dramatically even though they really couldn’t care less.

“Wow, not bad Johnny except I have myself four of a kind” He said tossing down his four threes.

“No! that’s impossible…you cheated!” John said enraged. The man who had been smiling took great offense to that and stood up ready to fight.

“What did you just say?”

“I said you cheated!”

“Care to say that again?” now the man was in John’s face.

“You cheated scum bag!” And with that being said he lunged at the guy and knocked him over the table.

It took a few minutes to calm the scene down. The last thing the pool hall wanted to do was call the police, so instead they settled on throwing both guys out of the place and let them finish outside.

As the chubby man with the sunglasses stood up and wiped his bloody lip he said, “You know, nothing will make me happier then spending your stupid kid’s money!” He dangled the credit card over John's head before putting it in his pocket and ready to walk away.

“Go to hell!” John growled reaching up to try to grab it from the man who kicked him in his side. "That's what you get for caling me a cheater!"

As the man walked away, John put his hand up to the cut that was bleeding right above his left eye, why did all the crappy things have to happen to him he wondered as he staggered down the street towards the bar he planned to wash all his sorrows away in.