Chapter 43
“It’s been almost
two years since their last TRL appearance, but today, Backstreet is back! Please welcome Kevin, Howie, Brian, AJ, and
Nick to the show!”
The Total Request
Live studio in Times Square erupted into wild cheers and screams and random
squeals of “Bsb rules!” and “I love you, Nick!”
Pasting a smile
on his face, which had been brightened by makeup, Nick followed the rest of his
group mates into the study, touching the excited fans’ hands on the way. The five men were seated on stools next to
Carson Daly, whom MTV had recruited to host the show that day, a rare
occurrence these days.
“Welcome back to
the show, guys,” Carson said as the audience died down, shaking the Boys’
hands. They mumbled their thanks, and
Carson continued, addressing the viewers, “The Backstreet Boys are here today
to make an important announcement, which they’ve kept top secret. Not even we here at MTV know what it is yet,
but they called last week asking to say it first here on TRL. The last time they did this was, of course, a
couple years ago when AJ checked into rehab for depression and alcoholism. AJ, how are things going with you now?”
AJ cleared his
throat, but when he spoke, his voice was still raspy. “I’m doing okay, Carson, thanks. Actually, what we want to talk about today
has to do with Nick.”
He paused, and
Nick saw him look to Kevin for help.
Kevin, their fearless leader, took over with only a slight
hesitation. Also clearing his throat, he
continued, “Uh, as y’all might have noticed, Nick’s leg is in a brace.” He motioned to Nick’s left leg, which stuck
out awkwardly in front of him, stiffened by the immobilizor brace. “Nick fractured his shin bone back in… what,
mid March?”
“Yeah, March,”
Nick echoed hollowly.
“March, yeah… so
a little over two months ago… anyway, he, uh… he went to the doctor, and they
found that he… that he…” Kevin trailed
off, his voice beginning to choke up. As
he looked away, pinching the bridge of his nose, Howie continued, surprisingly
calm and controlled.
“They found that
the fracture was caused by a small hole in bone, and, uh… th-the hole was
caused by a… a disease called Ewing’s Sarcoma.
It’s… um…” Howie swallowed. “It’s a form of cancer.”
Nick could hear
an ensemble of gasps from the audience, which was all teenagers, most of them
female. The tears started instantly,
girls hugging each other and wiping their eyes, tears leaving black trails of
mascara down their cheeks. He found he
could not look at them; turning away, he fixed his gaze on the floor of the
studio, afraid to look up for fear he would lose it himself. Fans were crying… hell, Kevin was almost
crying, and Brian probably was too, if Nick knew him as well as he thought he
did. Howie seemed to be holding it
together, and AJ… well, who knew. Nick
wouldn’t look over at him to find out… for the thought of seeing AJ cry… well,
hell, AJ almost never cried. The last
time Nick had seen him in tears was when he told them he needed help for his
alcoholism. He never wanted to see that
again.
The studio was
filled with a torturous silence, which was finally interrupted by Carson’s
quiet words, “I’m so sorry, guys… Nick…”
You gotta be
tough, Nick told
himself. For the guys… and most of
all, for the fans… He looked up,
swallowing hard, blinking away the mist from his stinging eyes. “It’s gonna be okay,” he said, trying to
strengthen his shaking voice. “I’m… I’m
on c-chemotherapy now, and I’m… I’m doing great, so… yeah… I’m gonna beat this
thing.” He pasted a smile on his face,
knowing it didn’t look genuine, yet not caring.
Carson smiled too,
though his smile looked just as fake.
Beneath it was a grave, concerned expression. “Well, we here at MTV will be praying for
you, and I know all your fans will be, too.”
The crying girls in the audience nodded vigorously.
“Thanks, guys,”
murmured Nick, wishing they could get out of there now.
“So, um… if you
don’t mind my asking, what does this do to the future of Bsb?” Carson pried,
ruining the moment.
Kevin didn’t look
quite composed yet, so Howie answered this one as well. “Well, we thought about putting the next
album on hold, but Nicky’s been a real trooper… he’s adamant that we don’t go
on another hiatus because we’ve been out of the scene for so long, so… we’re
gonna try to keep working on the album, and we’re looking at a release date
sometime this year still, hopefully in the fall.”
Carson
nodded. “Well, that’s great, guys, we’ll
be looking forward to it. Anything else
you’d like to say?”
“No, I guess
that’s about it,” Howie replied, looking to the others for confirmation. Nick nodded; Brian, AJ, and Kevin did not
respond.
“Okay. Well, again, I’m so sorry to hear this bad
news, but thank you for announcing it here on MTV first.”
Howie
nodded. “No problem. We wanted to get it out, let the fans know
before the rumors start spreading.”
“Yes, you guys
have always been great about being honest with your fans. Well, thanks for coming to the studio today,
guys. Sorry it had to be on such bad
terms. Hopefully you’ll be back this
fall when your album is released, and Nick will be in good health.”
Forcing another
smile, Nick gave a short nod, hoping the same thing. He would gladly tolerate another two-hour MTV
special full of psychotic fans, prying and/or stupid questions, and cheesy
trivia games that made him look like a total moron if only he could have his
health back.
“Well, again,
thanks to the Backstreet Boys, and good luck to Nick. Now, falling back to number two, here’s
Justin Timberlake with ‘Rock Your Body’…”
Oddly enough,
there was no screaming, no cheering, as the video came on, and the Backstreet
Boys walked out.
And that was
that.
***