Chapter 9
The tour
continued on without a hitch, and Nick heard nothing more about himself and
Leah in the press. That is, not until an
interview he did for MTV the day before his Phoenix show in early March. His manager had arranged for him to call into
TRL that afternoon, which he didn’t have a problem doing. TRL interviews were always short and usually
more interesting and casual than most interviews. And so, that afternoon he called into the
show as planned from his hotel room.
The interview
went fine at first, with Carson, who was actually hosting that day, asking Nick
the usual, “How’s the tour going?” and “When will the new Bsb album drop?” sort
of questions. But then the questions
turned to more uncomfortable subjects, starting with Leah.
“So, rumor is you
have a new girlfriend. Is that true?”
“Um… yeah, I’ve
been seeing someone for a few weeks, but, um… it’s not really serious yet,”
Nick answered carefully.
“Yet? Does that mean it might get more serious at
some point?” Carson pressed.
“I don’t know,
maybe,” Nick replied, annoyed. “We’ll
just have to see what happens.”
“As we all know,
Brian and Kevin are married, and AJ’s engaged.
Do you want to get married too someday?”
“Yeah, maybe
someday, but not for a long time,” Nick answered firmly.
“So, tell us more
about your new girlfriend. Rumor has it
that she’s in the… exotic dancing field.
True story?”
“Uh… I’d prefer
not to reveal any career information about her,” Nick said slowly, hoping to
avoid any further questioning.
“Uh-huh.” Carson’s tone told Nick he could see right
through the answer. But he thankfully
changed the subject anyway and said, “Your album, Now or Never, recently
went gold. Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Nick
replied, relieved.
“However, Justin
Timberlake’s album, Justified, is several times platinum. How does that make you feel?”
Nick felt like
screaming right then, but he gritted his teeth and said, “Justin’s doing his
own thing, and I’m doing mine. I don’t
listen to comparisons because what we’re doing is totally different. I wish him the best and congratulate him on
his success.” That wasn’t the exact
truth, but there was no way Nick was going to admit how much it pissed him off
that a wannabe little prick like Justin could sell so many more albums than he
could.
The interview
ended a few minutes later, and Nick was left seething, vowing never to appear
on TRL again. He knew that would never
happen; he was sure he’d be there with the guys in a few months, before their
album was released. Besides, if he never
appeared on any show that had asked him about Justin Timberlake, he’d pretty
much have no TV appearances anymore.
Damn that Timberlake for deciding to go solo right after he did.
Suddenly, there
was a knock on Nick’s hotel room door.
He climbed off his bed, his anger fading, and went to the door. Leah stood outside it in the hall, waiting
for him.
“Hey,” he said,
smiling at the sight of her. “What’s
up?”
“Nothing
much. I was just wondering what we’re
doing tonight since there’s no show,” she said.
“Oh… well… I
don’t know…” Nick said slowly. He
actually hadn’t even considered it; his only plans were take full advantage of
sleeping somewhere that wasn’t a bus, as this was one of the few nights he got
to spend in a hotel during the tour. He
had been extremely tired a lot of the time lately and figured he just wasn’t
getting enough sleep in the cramped bunk he had on the bus. It would do him good to sleep in a real bed
in the hotel. “I actually planned on
just staying in tonight,” he told Leah.
“Oh.” Leah’s voice was filled with
disappointment. “I thought we could go
out on the town tonight.”
“Oh… well, feel
free to go out on your own if you want to.
But I’d really rather just hang out here.”
“Fine.” She started to walk out, but Nick reached out
and caught her arm.
“Leah? You’re not mad, are you?”
“No… it’s just…
we haven’t really done anything together, you know? I mean, we’ve hung out, but we haven’t done
anything… just traveled day after day.”
“Well, that’s kinda
part of the job,” Nick laughed.
Leah gave him a
patronizing look. “I know, but I thought
we’d get more chances to do other things, and now when we actually do have a
chance, you don’t want to.”
“I’m sorry, babe,
I just am feeling really tired lately cause of the tour, and I want to get a
good night’s sleep. We’ll go out
together once we get back to Tampa, I promise.”
“But that’s still
a week away. I miss you, Nicky.”
Nick cocked his
head at her. “You see me all the
time. How could you miss me?”
“I don’t know… I
just… I miss doing romantic things with you… all we do is sit on that damn
bus. I want to get out.”
“So go out! Go out tonight and have a great time! I’m not trying to stop you,” Nick argued,
annoyed.
“But I want to go
out with you! It’s no fun alone!”
“Not tonight,
okay?”
“Fine.” Glaring at him, Leah stormed out in a
huff. Nick started to go after her, then
decided against it. If she was going to
act that way, fine. She would come back
when she felt like it. Besides, he just
didn’t have the energy to fight with her.
In an overall
pissed off mood, Nick flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes, massaging
his temples to ward off the headache he felt coming on. Before he knew it, he had drifted off to
sleep.
***
When Nick woke
back up, he was shocked to discover that it was dark outside. He had unintentionally slept for a good five
hours. He expected to feel a surge of
energy after his unplanned nap, but instead, he was dragging even more than
before.
His first thought
was of Leah, and he wondered if she was still upset with him. After some consideration, he decided to go
next door to her room and see if she still wanted to go out that night. He didn’t feel that great and figured he was
either coming down with something or just run down from the tour, but he didn’t
want to let Leah down and told himself he could manage a night out on the town
with her, despite how he was feeling.
However, when he
knocked on her door, he found that she was not in her room.
“She left a few
minutes ago, Nick,” a deep voice called down the hall. Nick looked to see Joe walking towards him.
“She did?” he
asked, as the big black bodyguard approached.
“Yeah, she said
she was going to go hit some clubs or something,” Joe replied. “How come you didn’t go with her?”
“I didn’t know
she was going,” Nick admitted. “I was
asleep.”
“Oh. Well, were you planning on going out?”
“No…” Nick said
slowly. “No, I’m just gonna hang out in
my room, I guess. See you later, Joe.”
“All right, catch
you later, kid.”
Nick went back to
his room, half annoyed with Leah, half relieved. He was a bit hurt that she had gone out
without telling him, but then again, he had pissed her off, and he had been
sleeping. Maybe she had tried to call
him or stopped by before she left, and he had not woken up. And even if she didn’t, he couldn’t blame
her. She was mad, and he understood her
reasoning. And now he didn’t have to go
out after all; he could go back to his room and catch a good movie.
And that was
exactly what he ended up doing, returning to his room and ordering “Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers” on pay per view.
He managed to make it through most of the movie, but sometime during the
last half hour, he unknowingly drifted off to sleep again, plagued with bizarre
dreams of hobbits, elves, and… Leah.
***