Part 4

"I have never appreciated pizza so much before in my life!" Justin muffled through his mouth full of pizza.

"Gross, Curly! If you're going to talk, at least swallow first," Chris laughed, wiping pieces of cheese off his face.

Justin just shrugged and continued eating.

"Man, I can't believe how immature Backstreet was being. They massacred our songs," Lance said, shaking his head after taking another bite of pizza.

JC nodded his head in agreement. It had taken all his willpower not to lower himself to their level. He didn't know where they got off making fun of their songs. With songs like 'Boys Will Be Boys', JC didn't know where they had the nerve to even open their mouths. That song sounded something like what The New Kids On The Block would've sung.

And they called them imitators.

He smiled at Justin as he happily ate his pizza. He was glad they had had the challenge. It helped pull them all back together and had lightened Justin's mood. Nick acting like a jerk towards them during the challenge had obviously helped Justin get over a little of his guilt.

It must've. Justin had been brave enough to throw a "Mandy" insult in Nick's direction with Rambo standing right next to him. He was surprised Kevin hadn't said or done anything.

"But look at where it got them. Choking down rice while we're enjoying pizza!"

Justin grunted. "It's a good thing they lost, too. Nick's fat enough without having to add pizza into the equation. Besides, he actually looks like he's been losing weight."

Chris laughed. "Hey, if a man can make it to the moon, then I guess it's possible for Nick to lose weight."

Justin gave an evil smile. "The odds would be better at finding the cure for Cancer than for the cure of Nick's eating disorder."

JC rolled his eyes. The Nick 'fat' jokes were getting old. They were making him sound like King Kong.

"It's a good thing we're doing him that favor, then," Chris laughed. "He definitely won't want have an appetite to eat anything after what we do," he muttered to himself.

"Favor?" JC and Lance asked, each concentrating on one of their friends.

JC watched Justin worriedly and Lance gave Chris an exasperated look.

"What are you two up to?" Lance asked.

"Nothing," Chris cackled.

Justin laughed at Chris. He wasn't trying to be discreet at all.

"Justin?" JC asked, trying the other. They wouldn't get anything out of Chris unless he wanted them to get it out of him.

"I dunno what you're talkin' about," Justin smiled brightly, a piece of pepperoni stuck in his teeth.

Lance laughed. "Saving some for later?" Lance asked, showing his own teeth and motioning for Justin to clean them.

Justin laughed with him. "Heck, yeah. Save what you can because this is the last time we'll be enjoying pizza for awhile."

JC shook his head. He didn't want Chris and Justin doing anything drastic to the Backstreet Camp. They were all already tense and angry over the realization of Justin's temporary relationship with Nick's girlfriend. Who knew what they would do if Chris and Justin went snooping into their camp to do whatever it was that they were planning to do? It would just be another reason for Kevin to whine about why they've had it harder than NSYNC.

Like Kevin knows shit about what we've been through, JC thought to himself.

JC shook his head again. If the devil ever wanted to take over the world, Justin and Chris would always be a good place to start. Those two were always up to no good.

"Justin," JC tried again.

"What?" Justin asked, giving JC an innocent 'what do you need?' look.

"Justin...." JC said again, his voice sounding like a disapproved parent.

"What?" Justin repeated.

"What are you two up to?"

Chris laughed. "JC, you're too uptight. We're not gonna do anything."

JC looked between the two of them and knew that Chris' comment was as true as Kevin's eyebrows were thin.

JC set down his pizza. "You guys, I'm being serious. You know how protective Kevin is. I don't want a reason to have to fight with him trying to protect you all from his psycho babble. And I definitely don't want you giving him a reason to go off on you. That's surely going to piss one of us off if we see him yelling at any of us only causing more problems."

"JC, if Mother Goose wants to go off on us, we'll be ready to go off right back," Chris said.

JC shook his head. He swore as many times as he shook his head at them that it would slowly unscrew itself off.

"Chris-"

"JC-" Chris said in the same tone. "You don't have to be sensible about everything, you know."

"Besides," Justin interrupted, "whatever Nick gets Nick deserves," Justin said.

"Let karma take care of Nick. You worry about yourself," JC said.

"The Backstreet Boys certainly aren't worth us fighting over," Justin said, pretending not to hear JC.

JC realized that he was fighting an already won battle. Chris and Justin were going to do what they wanted to do, regardless of what he said. JC only hoped they would come to their senses.

He gave himself a look. What was he thinking? Those to weren't anymore sensible than AJ was conservative.

And Justin was right. The Backstreet Boys weren't worth fighting over.

--

Brian watched as Nick slowly made his way to shore, sitting down in the wet sand. They had all had a good time getting back to their camp, but AJ had accidentally slipped, mentioning Justin and Mandy. He was only trying to be funny, and had the situation not been real, it might've made Nick laugh.

Brian caught Kevin's shoulder as he tried to make his way to Nick.

"Let me go."

Kevin nodded and stepped back as he watched Brian make his way to Nick.

"Hey buddy."

Nick didn't even look up. "More 'let me help you understand that everything works out for the best' talk?"

Brian smiled, taking that as an invitation to sit down. "You know it."

Nick sighed. "Will it help me feel better?"

"I don't know. I hope so." Brian bit on his lip, thinking of a thousand different ways that he could ask Nick his next question. He didn't have to think of a question, though. Nick answered him before he could even get it out.

"I didn't want you guys to feel sorry for me," Nick said, his blue eyes following the ripples in the water. "That's why I didn't tell you. And it was like," Nick paused, thinking. "It was like two years ago. No point in bringing it up now."

"Yeah, there was a point in bringing it up now, Frack, when it still bothered you."

"What makes you think it still bothers me?" Nick asked, picking at the sand.

"Gee, I don't know," Brian smiled. "Maybe sending Justin flying into the ground tipped us off a little?"

Nick smiled his all to recognizable half smile. "I guess that did tip you guys off, huh?"

"Just a tiny bit," Brian smiled, picking up his hand to show an inch's width between his index finger and thumb. Brian tried to sound casual in his next comment. He didn't want Nick to know that he was kinda hurt that he had kept something so big from him. He thought they told each other everything.

"Nicky.....why didn't you trust me enough to tell me? I wouldn't have felt sorry for you," Brian said, knowing that sounding casual went right out the window. He sounded like a wounded animal.

Nick turned to look at Brian. "It wasn't that I didn't trust you, Frick. It's that....I felt stupid. You guys were already starting to dislike Mandy and to tell you that she went out behind my back with the curly headed pop wonder from that other group certainly wouldn't have helped anything."

Brian nodded, knowing what Nick said was true. It didn't make it any less hurtful, though.

"Just know that you can always talk to me, Frack. Always. I promise to always keep an open mind. It's not like me and Leighanne haven't made mistakes in the past in our relationship, and if we can make it, then so can you and Mandy."

Nick looked at Brian surprised. It almost sounded like he was supporting him and Mandy.

"Yeah, I know," Brian laughed. "It's something about this island....I dunno," Brian said looking around. "I've never been sure about you and Mandy's relationship, but I've always known how much you love her, and I know that, in her own way, she loves you, too. Believe in that love and don't worry about what anyone else thinks."

Nick smiled. If anyone was going to be on his side concerning Mandy, he was glad that it was Brian. Nick turned around to look at Kevin. It would be nice if Kevin agreed with Brian.

"Don't you wish Kevin was as sensible as I am?" Brian laughed.

"Yeah, I do," Nick said sincerely. "Sometimes Kev treats me too much like a kid. I love him more than I love myself, but, I don't know," Nick said, shaking his head. "He's too hung up on me as 'Nicky' than 'Nick'. It's like he's scared to let me grow up."

"All of us are," Brian said seriously. "Sometimes we underestimate how strong you really are. But trust me, you've shown us here just how wrong we are about how fragile you are. You handle everything thrown your direction way better than any of us could."

"Really?" Nick asked, turning to see if he was just saying those things to make him feel better. There wasn't a hint of a smile on Brian's face or in his blue eyes.

"Really. You grew up, Nick, and we were too busy babying you to notice."

"Wait till Kevin finds out," Nick joked. "He's gonna freak. 'What? Nick grew up? When?!'," Nick said, looking around himself crazily to imitate Kevin.

Brian started laughing harder when he saw Kevin trying to look for what Nick was looking for.

Kevin smiled softly at Nick and Brian. If anyone could get Nick laughing, it was Brian. He approached them as they continued to laugh. "What's so funny over here?" Kevin asked.

"Nothin'," Nick smiled.

"Yeah, right. You and Brian together isn't good. Especially with ya'll laughing. You've either planned something or are laughing at someone."

Nick and Brian exchanged knowing glances. "Laughing at someone? No way, Kev," Brian smiled innocently, winking at Nick. "Not us."

"Not us at all," Nick smiled.

"Hey guys."

Kevin closed his eyes. If that was who he thought it was-

"How are you doing, Nicky?"

Kevin didn't even have to turn around to know that it was.

"Hey, Justin," Kevin said, slowly turning around. He saw that Justin was accompanied by only Chris. Either they were incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.

Kevin felt Nick stand up right next to him.

"Anything we can do for you?" Kevin asked annoyed.

Chris smiled innocently. "Actually, we wanted to do something for you."

Nick raised his eyebrows.

Justin pulled a pizza box from around his back. "For you guys," Justin smiled. "We're tired of the fighting and I wanted to apologize for earlier."

Kevin looked at them suspiciously. The box was probably empty.

Brian, of course, was the one in their group to be nice first, suspicious last.

"Thanks," Brian smiled. "That's really nice of you," Brian said, taking the pizza box.

"But it's not necessary," Kevin said, reaching for the pizza box.

"I want it," Nick said. If those jerks wanted to give up their food, he didn't care. He'd eat it happily.

Justin smiled happily at Nick. Just what he was hoping he would say.

Kevin opened the box to see if there was indeed a pizza inside.

Sure enough, a full pizza lay inside the box. He shut the box and clenched his jaw.

"Thank you. You can leave now."

Chris smiled. "No problem. Enjoy your pizza, guys!"

Justin and Chris waved goodbye and walked away.

"They're not gonna know what hit them," Justin smiled cheekily, slapping Chris' hand when their backs were all that the Backstreet Boys could see.

--

Nick sat up suddenly, looking around their camp. He could've sworn that he had heard a loud noise.

He looked around the see that Kevin, Brian, and AJ were still asleep. Nick yawned, wiping the sleep from his eyes. Maybe he was just dreaming.

Crack!

Nick turned to his left. There it was again. Nick squinted his eyes, trying to focus them on the darkness behind the trees. Nick's ears perked up as he heard leaves rustling.

He looked around strangely. There wasn't so much as a gust of wind. How were the leaves rustling?

"Whoooooooo........."

Nick sat up even more. Did he just hear a howling? He couldn't tell if it was a person or animal. It was so soft. Almost inaudible. It was hard to tell if he had heard anything at all.

Nick held his index fingers up into his ears and rapidly moved them back and forth to make sure that his ears were clear. Wide awake now, Nick stood up.

"Maybe it's just the wind," Nick said, ignoring the fact that the wind was as still as his sleeping friends.

"Whoooooooo......."

Nick halted mid-step. Or maybe it was just NSYNC trying to scare him. He wouldn't put it past those jerks. Nick shook his head. They had no life.

"Whoooooooo....."

But it didn't really sound human. It was really low and Nick couldn't really distinguish the sound correctly. He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. He suddenly noticed that his breathing was faster, along with his heart rate. Nick started to unconsciously bite his nail.

Why hadn't they done any research on that island? Who knew what was out there? What if it was haunted?

A sudden movement caught Nick's vision. It moved again quickly out of the corner of his eye.

Nick turned abruptly to see what he was seeing. He didn't see anything. Nick rubbed his eyes again. He wasn't half asleep, was he?

Nick turned around when he felt something touch his shoulder. All he saw was the ocean. The wind picked up suddenly and Nick forced himself to take deep breaths. Maybe it was the wind. Nothing was there to touch his shoulder......right?

--

"Justin, wake up!"

Justin woke up, sleepily yawning. JC continued to shake Justin awake.

"Okay!" Justin yelled. "Geez, didn't the moving and yawning tip you off that maybe I was starting to wake up," Justin asked annoyed, sitting up. "What did you want to do? Shake my organs out of me?"

JC rolled his eyes. "We got a note," JC said, holding it up. "Did you have anything to do with it?"

Justin peered at the note and smiled. "Why would I have anything to do with a note from Steven?"

JC shook his head. "It isn't from Steven."

Justin yawned again as he reached out to read the note. "Meet us at the spot we were at yesterday. Don't think you got away with it."

Justin looked up at JC and smiled. "Who's this from? The Backstreet Dorks?"

"No, Justin, it's from that other pop group on the island."

"So why are you waking me up?"

"Because we're getting ready to go. Chris and Lance are washing off real quick in the water and they said they didn't know what the note was about. Do you?" JC asked, eyeing Justin suspiciously. He and Chris had disappeared the other day and had told Lance and JC that they had just gone for a walk. A walk his ass.

"No I don't know what it's about," Justin said, standing up.

"What did you and Chris do yesterday?"

Justin smiled. "All we did was give them a pizza. We felt bad," Justin shrugged.

JC shook his head. Was he going to have to buy one of those child wristbands for Justin so that he couldn't wander more than a couple of feet away from him?

"What did you do to the pizza?"

"Nothing!" Justin said, shocked.

"Did you spit on it?"

Justin made a disgusted face. "No way, C." Justin shook his head and body. "Gross. I wouldn't do that....not even to those retards."

JC watched Justin to see if his face betrayed anything. It didn't make sense. Chris and Justin disappear. Chris and Justin give away a pizza...that alone was unbelievable as much as they ate, but they gave it away to the Backstreet Boys. Fast forward to this morning and the note JC was holding in his hand. Something wasn't adding up.

"Ready to go?" Lance called to them.

"Yeah," Justin said, running to jump on Chris' back.

They laughed and Justin jumped off his back to walk along side him. They didn't whisper anything between the two.

JC folded the note and put it in his pocket. Whatever was missing in this equation he was sure would soon be filled in at this mysterious meeting.

--

"Here they come," Brian said, sitting next to Nick. They had all woken up that morning to see Nick sitting guard with a large stick in his hand. Dark circles inhabited his face and he was distraught.

He explained the noises he had heard, what he had thought he'd seen. Every little noise seemed to freak him out. Kevin was sure that Justin was behind it. Out of them all, Nick was the one who believed in ghosts, hauntings, and aliens.

"What's this about?" JC asked annoyed. "I thought the deal was you stay on your side of the island and leave us alone and we'd do the same."

"See, that's what I thought," Kevin said angrily, "but it seems as though you guys haven't been keeping up your end of the bargain."

"What are you talking about? You're pissed because Justin and Chris brought you a stupid pizza? I sure didn't see them come back with the box."

"Wasn't it good?" Chris spoke up smiling.

AJ looked at him annoyed. "Yeah, it was. You should've tasted it," AJ said, smacking his lips.

"We did," JC said. "Had more than our fill, remember?"

"Not of that pizza we didn't," Chris smiled. "That was a special pizza for you boys."

Kevin looked at Chris and got a sinking feeling. What the hell was that reject talking about?

"A special pizza?" Brian asked.

"Yup. Tell me, boys," Justin smiled. "How does rat taste?"

AJ almost choked on his tongue. "Rat?!"

"Yeah," Justin laughed. "Chris and I got bored and decided to cook a rat. We were going to keep him as a pet, but he was eating too much of our food."

"For awhile I thought Nick was sneaking into our camp," Chris laughed.

"So instead we decided to do a good deed with him. We cooked him and added it as a special topping to your pizza. Was it mmm-mmm good?"

Kevin was getting ready to yell at JC, but saw that JC and Lance wore the same shocked expression that he did.

"You gave us a rat?!" Kevin yelled, directing his anger at Justin.

"Then what was this about?" Chris asked confused.

"Last night Nick heard noises and thought he saw stuff," Brian said. Brian didn't tell them about how it kept Nick up all night long. "We think it was you guys and this meeting was to tell you to stop. To let it go and get a life."

Justin laughed. "If Nick's going crazy, that isn't our fault."

Kevin walked rapidly up to Justin and Justin only smiled warmly at Kevin. Justin's face was suddenly replaced with JC's.

"Back off, Kevin."

"Move out of my way," Kevin said, practically spitting in JC's face.

"Don't you have any damn dignity? Justin's a kid. An immature kid whose mouth runs faster than his brain can think. Try and tell me that Nick and AJ don't pull the same shit with you."

Kevin gritted his teeth. "Don't you ever try to compare Justin to Nick."

"I'm not trying to. Justin is way out of Nick's league."

Justin raised his eyebrows in surprise. JC usually came to his senses by now, just walking away. He must've really had with Kevin by now.

"Like hell he is," Kevin said, reaching out to shove JC.

JC collided into Justin, both of them falling on the ground. Justin quickly jumped up, helping JC to his feet and walked briskly to Kevin.

Kevin's eyes raised in surprise as he saw that he and Justin were near the same height. Justin wasn't the scrawny little kid he remembered him to be. He was just as built as Kevin was. He didn't understand why JC was always trying to protect him.

"You push my friends, and you mess with me," Justin said, roughly pushing Kevin. Kevin underestimated his strength as he went colliding into the ground that Justin and JC had just been aquatinted with.

Nick's lost look was suddenly replaced with an angry one. Justin was suddenly eye to eye with Nick.

"So we meet again," Justin smiled. "Just when I was staring to miss you."

"You have a lot of nerve," Nick said.

"Oh I do, do I?" Justin smiled.

Nick nodded his head. "What makes you think you can just push Kevin and think that's nothing going to happen?"

"What the hell makes Godzilla think he can just push JC? What did dumb Kevin think we were going to do? Play ring around the rosies together afterwards?"

Nick stepped in closer to Justin, and Justin did the same. Neither seemed to be intimidated by the other.

Kevin and JC quickly tried to make their ways to their little brothers, but someone from each side stopped them. AJ held onto Kevin's arm as Chris held onto JC's. It was time that Justin and Nick worked out their problems because they weren't about to just dissipate.

"When are you going to let it go?" Justin asked.

Nick didn't even have to ask what he was talking about.

"Don't you dare bring her into this."

"But isn't she the reason for all this?" Justin asked, crossing his arms across his chest. "Isn't she why you hate me?"

Nick clenched his jaw. "She's none of your business."

"Why are you so blind, Nick? Don't you see that she was just playing you? She knew who I was and she knew I didn't know who she was. She came and found me at that club. She came up to me. She flirted with me. She asked me to dance. She did it. I didn't do anything but stupidly take the bait. Why are you so blind to her?" Justin repeated.

AJ shook his head. That was what he wanted to know.

"That's not what she said," Nick finally said.

AJ rolled his eyes. What was she going to say? "Yeah, Nick, I purposely planned all this and messed around behind your back. Now take me back and give me back my credit card."

Justin shook his head. "What did you expect her to say? I'm telling you, I didn't know who she was. You know as well as I do how many blondes will come up to you at a club trying stupid shit with you. What would have made her so different to me? She didn't have 'Nick's girlfriend' tattooed to her forehead, you know."

"Did you fuck her?"

"Hell no," Justin said. "I'm not that stupid. I don't just sleep with anyone....although, she seems to have a tendency to." It was a cheap shot, he knew. But it was getting really exhausting putting up with Nick's little fits. He was acting like Justin stole one of his toys.

Nick's fist flew out but Justin caught it with his hand. "Is this what you want? To make it physical?" Nick kept his fiery gaze locked on Justin's. "Because if you want to throw down, that's fine," Justin said, shoving Nick's fist back at him. "Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons."

Justin took a step back, raising his balled fists to protect his face. JC and Kevin looked on anxiously. They both wanted desperately to stop the inevitable, but their friends were right. It was between Justin and Nick.

Before a punch could connect with anyone's face, the familiar sounds of helicopter wings were heard.

Everyone turned to see a disappointed Steven emerge from the helicopter.

"I came out as soon as the producers told me what was happening," Steven said, walking up to them.

They had forgotten that they were taped and wore microphones. The microphones all held little cameras that they weren't allowed to take off. Taking them off meant being disqualified.

"It seems as though the main problem here is your girlfriend, Nick," Steven said, reaching them. He raised his hand behind him and they saw someone emerging from the helicopter. "That's why this next challenge is important. It's a reward challenge," Steven continued.

Everyone forgot about the person coming from the helicopter and focused on Steven. They were all interested to see what this challenge entailed.

"We're already having another challenge?" Lance asked. This wasn't much different from their real lives. They never seemed to just get a day off.

"Yes," Steven said. "This challenge is meant to alleviate the tension here. And I have just the person to help with it."

Steven turned around to lead the person from the helicopter into everyone's view.

Everyone seemed to have stopped breathing as they recognized the blonde in front of them.

"Mandy?" Nick choked out.

--

"I don't believe this," Justin muttered to himself.

"Man, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing," Chris said. "Do they want ratings or do they want ratings?"

Lance shook his head. "He said this is supposed to bring us together somehow. It's supposed to decrease the tension. How, I don't have a clue."

JC was the only still sitting silently. For once, he was actually worried about not only Justin, but Nick, too. How was he taking seeing Mandy after all this time? After everything that Justin had told him?

Nick had thought up until Steven interrupted them that Justin had sought Mandy out. He didn't know that it had been the other way around.

JC rubbed his eyes. What he wouldn't give for a bottle of aspirin.

--

"Are you okay?" Kevin asked, resting a hand on Nick's shoulder.

"Just peachy."

Great, he was closing down. Nick always did that when he got mad enough.

"Nick-"

"Why the hell is Mandy here?" Nick asked, knowing that Kevin had as much a clue as he did. "When this stupid idea turn into the biggest plan to humiliate me?"

"I don't know," Kevin said. "But I'm going to go and talk to Steven right now."

AJ grabbed Kevin's arm. "Let it go, Kev. Steven knows what he's doing. He knows what's been going on here. How many times has he walked in on us arguing? Mandy has a reason for being here. He wouldn't have brought her otherwise."

"Maybe he just wants to see Nick and Justin go at it."

Brian shook his head. "I don't think so. If that was the case, he wouldn't have come to stop them from fighting. He didn't just find Mandy. It's something he's probably been planning ever since he found out about the whole Nick/Mandy/Justin situation."

AJ nodded his head. "He's always interrupting our fights," AJ agreed. "And he said that this reward challenge is meant to dissipate the tension. I'm with Bri, so don't worry Nicky, we've got your back."

Nick looked at AJ weirdly. "Dissipate? When did you learn what dissipate means?"

AJ shot Nick a look.

"Everyone over here please," they heard Steven call from his microphone. "This reward challenge is going to be a trivial questions sort of challenge. As you notice, Mandy is up here in the middle," Steven said, motioning his hand above his head to Mandy. She waved timidly to everyone.

Chris was the only one who waved back.

"Nick and Justin are going to sit down here in these chairs on either side of Mandy," Steven continued. "The remaining 6 of you are going to ask Mandy questions pertaining to Justin and Nick and she will answer."

Kevin's brow furrowed in confusion. "How does this work? How do we know who wins if Mandy," Kevin practically spit her name out, "is the one answering?"

"You guys," Steven said talking to the Backstreet Boys, "are going to ask her questions pertaining to Nick." Steven turned to NSYNC. "You will ask her anything you want about Justin." Steven smiled at them all. "Justin and Nick will be sitting here to listen to the entire thing. The winner is determined by who can control their temper."

The guys all stared at Steven like he was crazy. Mandy was the entire reason for the discomfort on the island. She was the reason Nick and Justin didn't get along and now they had to ask her questions about them and not get mad?

This was Mandy. She was bound to say something that would piss someone off.

AJ rolled his eyes and Brian smiled. "We could ask her who has curly hair and she'd probably say Nick," Brian said.

AJ smiled at him in return. "Or who had a little brother named Aaron and she'd just twirl her hair and smack her gum." AJ began to twirl his imaginary hair and talk in a high pitched voice. "That, would like, be Justin, riaaght?"

Kevin turned and shot them both disapproving looks. He wanted to hear Steven.

"This reward challenge has nothing to do with wit, brains, or strength. It's mental," Steven said, tapping his temple with his index finger. "This has to do with self control. I've noticed how you guys seem to have a lack of control when you're around each other. You're going to learn how to control that today."

"And what if no one loses their temper?" Lance asked.

Steven smiled. He hoped that this worked. "If no one loses their temper, then the game is over when Nick and Justin have joined together to, as you guys might say, squash their problems....when they realize that hating each other isn't the answer."

Justin and Nick looked at each crazily. If someone didn't lose their temper, they'd be there all night.

***

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