Part 6
"I can't believe we
lost, man," Chris said.
JC and Justin looked at
each other, and then looked at Chris. If he said it one more time...
"I can't believe we
lost, guys."
"Get over it!"
JC and Justin yelled simultaneously. They looked at each other and started
laughing. And they kept laughing. And laughing. And they didn't stop. They
didn't know why, but everything was suddenly so funny to them.
The poll. The deserted
island. The Backstreet Boys. Chris.
But Chris was just weird
that way, and that just made them laugh harder.
Chris looked at them like
they were crazy. "Uh...okay. It's a good thing we're rich."
JC and Justin softened
their laughing to look at him.
"Why?" JC
asked.
Chris yawned, stretching.
"Because it means you can afford therapy."
JC laughed, throwing a
small rock at Chris. Justin smiled, shaking his head.
"I can't believe we
lost."
"CHRIS!" JC and
Justin yelled.
"What?" he
asked innocently. "It's true. I'm in total shock here. They kicked our
asses!"
Justin smiled.
"Their fans kicked our asses. Nick's speech worked wonders. He knows all
he has to do is say three words and they're all over it faster than Howie can
wink."
"That's true,"
Chris nodded. "I was watching TRL once and the fans were voting for their
next single. I don't remember which one was winning, but it wasn't 'The One'.
Nick called in, said he personally wanted 'The One' next, and.....well, we're
suddenly stuck hearing 'I'll be the one, I'll be the light, where you run, I'll
make it all right' for the next three months." Chris shrugged, sure that
those probably weren't even the correct words to the song, but what was he?
Backstreet extraordinaire? "Ugh...I swear if I have to hear that cheesy
song one more time, I'll kill myself."
Justin smiled gleefully
as he sang what he could remember of the song. JC joined in, laughing at the
disdained look on Chris' face.
"Just watch!"
he cried playfully. "One day I'll be gone and you'll look back on this
moment and wish you weren't so mean to me!"
"Wait, did he just
say that one day he'll be gone?" JC asked. "Is he just trying to get
our hopes up again?"
Chris stuck his tongue
out at them and pouted pitifully.
"Aw, Chris, you know
we love you," Justin smiled, jokingly blowing him a kiss. "Somebody
has to."
"I don't think it
was a speech," JC said suddenly.
"What?" Chris
asked.
"What Nick said. I
don't think it was a speech."
Justin looked at JC
curiously. He worried way more about those boys than they deserved. Justin
finally gave in, rolling his eyes.
"I didn't think it
was a speech, either. I was just saying it to piss Nick off."
"I'm sure you
succeeded," JC nodded absently. "What you said probably held more truth
than he'd like to admit. That's probably what got him so mad."
"What did JuJu
say?" Chris asked, trying to remember.
"Old age is getting
to you, Chris," Justin smiled. "I thought Alzheimer's held out until
you were at least 50. I mean, come on, you still have ten years to go."
Chris laughed, throwing
something at Justin. JC continued talking as if nothing. He was used to their
vexatious behavior.
"That the fans were
all Nick had," JC answered. JC chewed on his lip. "What's sad is Nick
doesn't even realize how true that is for all of us, not just him. Even his
friends. Sometimes the fans are all we have."
"Well, I don't want
to mope around over Nick Carter. Every time I start to feel sorry for him and
try to get along with him, he goes and does something stupid, like talk,"
Justin said.
JC looked back into the
woods in the direction of Backstreet's camp. Before he could open his mouth,
Chris knew what he was thinking.
"Yes, we did the
right thing, and no we're not going back to undo it. We'll only get caught.
Besides, it only works if Nicky boy actually sees it and falls for it."
JC shook his head and
continued to stare off into the woods as Justin and Chris continued their
conversation. He caught himself hoping for something.
For what, he wasn't sure.
--
Nick took a deep breath
as he continued to make his way back to camp. He had realized too late how dark
it was getting and that he was all alone. He had been tempted to turn around
and join Brian and Kevin in what he was sure was their trip back to camp, but
had decided against it. No reason to give them more reason to think he was a
baby.
But he hated walking out
there alone. Maybe he could go back and meet them and say that he was just
really bored. Thirty minutes had already passed so they had to be done with
their phone calls.
Phone calls.
He'd felt so stupid when
Kevin and Brian had given him those pitied 'I'm so sorry you don't have anyone
to call' looks. For a second there, Nick thought Brian was about to lend out
his mother to Nick or something for a phone call.
But then he'd felt even
sadder because the second Leighanne and Kristen had picked up the phone, Nick
was nothing but a distant memory to them.
He sighed, reaching out
to push away the hair the wind had blown into his face. He wanted someone to call.
He wanted someone at home to want him to call.
A real someone. Like
Mandy.
"Shit," Nick
muttered.
No matter how hard he
tried, she always made it back into his mind. He knew they would probably be
getting back together. Mandy was everything he knew. She knew him. As much as
he hated it sometimes, she knew him like no one else did.
And it's not like he was
a perfect angel. A wild night in
He sighed again. He
needed a distraction from Mandy. Something to take his mind off the girl who
was now his ex-girlfriend. Something to take his mind off the girl he still
loved.
Screech.
Nick stopped. Had he just
heard a screeching sound?
Screech.
"I was just kidding.
Really. I don't need a distraction. Nope, not me. I don't mind thinking about
Mandy," Nick said. "Not...at...all! So if you'd stop
screeching-"
Screech.
Nick looked around the
bare island, noticing that the second he heard the noise again, the wind
fervently picked up, as if trying to push him along back to camp. As if warning
him to keep going and not look back.
Nick shook his head at
himself. He was so silly sometimes.
Screech.
"What in the hell is
that?" Nick continued to look around for the answer, unaware of where the
sound could be coming from. Another strong gust of wind caught him off balance
and pushed him forward a little more.
Sleepless nights suddenly
rushed into his thoughts as the same anxious feelings seeped through his heart.
His heart, which he noticed was now thudding. It wasn't supposed to be doing
that. Beating, yes. Thudding, no.
"Is anyone out
there?" Nick called out. "Great," Nick muttered. "If
anyone's out there, it's probably some psycho killer who hates boybands and
I've just pointed out my location. I wonder if I respectively argue points on
why NOT to consider us a boyband, if he'll leave," Nick nervously babbled.
Nick stopped, realizing just how stupid he sounded talking to himself.
Especially while talking about non-existent boyband killers. "Hello?"
Nick called out again.
Screech.
"Shit," Nick
muttered again. "Shit, shit, shit." He really needed to expand his
vocabulary.
It sounded like something
scratching against something. He suddenly thought about Freddy Kruegar and thanked God that you had to be asleep to bump
into that 'in desperate need of cosmetic surgery' nightmare. And Linda Tripp
thought she had it bad.
Nick stopped as a
thoughtful expression crossed his face. Remembering what Linda Tripp looked
like, he shook his head. The woman did have it bad. At least with Freddy Kruegar you only saw him in your nightmares. That woman
walked around in broad daylight.
Screech.
Nick was brought out of
his thoughts and he knew he should keep walking, or running. Whichever got him
away the fastest. But he wanted to know once and for all if he was imagining
things. If his reasons for staying up all night were validated, or if he really
was just letting his imagination take over reality. If someone really was out
there, he figured he could just run back in Kevin and Brian's direction
screaming like a girl, and the "thing" would eventually crawl back
into the forest. Or if it didn't, he could just hide behind Kevin while he
lectured it to death.
He could just hear Kevin
now. "Is living out on this island while you scare people really what you
want to do with your life? Do you know how immature that is? It's time you grew
up and faced reality. Don't you know there's no Gucci, pizza, or women out
here?"
Nick smiled as he
imagined the native saying, "Apparently there aren't any tweezers,
either."
Screech.
It was barely audible,
but he could hear it. It was going in a steady rhythm, as if it was sliding
back and forth against something.
Nick put his hands on his
hips, thankful that no one was around to see the petrified look of terror he
was sure was on his face. The small camera was on his shirt, and no one could
see his face unless one of the other guys was around.
Nick's face suddenly lit
up. If he found out there was footage of this, he'd know it was NSYNC. That's
the only other way that the show could get his reaction.
But Nick had a sinking
feeling that NSYNC wasn't out there anywhere.
Nick was turning to walk
away when a black lump caught his vision. He squinted, trying to bring the
object into more of a focus. It looked almost human.
"It's too still to
be human," Nick muttered, slowly inching towards the tree supporting the
black lump. He stopped to look around. He hadn't noticed the lump there before.
Or had he not really been paying attention?
What if during his calls
to whoever was out there, they were able to find him and had sat themselves
there, waiting for him to near them?
"They must know the
blondes always die," Nick muttered. "You know I dye my hair! I'm not
really blonde! Not since I was 15 years old have I been a natural blonde!"
he stupidly yelled.
The black lump still
didn't move.
"Curiosity killed
the cat, Nick. Turn around and walk away." Nick shook his head. But he
wasn't a cat. If anyone was a cat, it was that pussy, Justin.
"Justin? Why the
hell are you thinking about Justin when-"
Screech.
"...when stuff is
screeching?"
Nick stopped. Who needs a
phone call when you can just talk to yourself?
He inched closer to the
lump, hoping it was just a big, black rock. Hoping that this would prove he was
just hearing things all along. Hoping it would prove that his imagination was
in overdrive. Hoping that it just wasn't anything breathing. Or worse. Hoping
that it wasn't anything not breathing that could still move.
Nick stopped when he
heard something crunching underneath his shoes. He lifted his foot to see a
bunch of sticks in a strangely familiar pattern. He bent down, resting his arms
on his knees, to get a better look.
They looked like the
stick-like figures he had seen in The Blair Witch Project.
What in the world would
the Blair Witch be doing out on this island? Was she trying to gain frequent
flyer miles? This was stupid, it had to be NSYNC.
Nick smiled, feeling more
at ease. It was stupid NSYNC. But a closer look at the pattern erased Nick's
smile from his face.
They weren't tied
together. The sticks were just laying there haphazardly. It was easy for them
to just end up in that reckless way. The wind could've easily done that.
Nick stood back up,
wiping his sweaty palms on his shirt. Why was he acting like this? All he had
to do was go back to camp. Back to camp. One foot in front of the other. That
would definitely help in getting him back to camp.
But he continued to stand
there, staring at the lump again. Nick gasped as he swore that the black lump
blinked. Nick blinked quickly, knowing how easily his eyes could play tricks on
him. He stepped forward, feeling his foot slightly snag something, and heard
something snap.
Everything happened so
fast after that.
Something was suddenly
flying at him and leaves were whirling all around him. He screamed louder and
higher than he would ever, ever admit to doing.
Nick's eyes seemed to be
working faster than his legs because his eyes quickly flashed over the spot he
had been focusing on, and suddenly the black lump was gone. It seemed to
instantly disappear. Not even a complete second later, Nick felt something
crawling on his flesh, and he screeched at the top of his lungs, sounding more
like one of the 12 year olds who screamed over them than himself.
Nick didn't even pause
long enough to see what it was that had flown out at him. He turned around and
ran as fast as his feet could carry him, and he didn't look back. Not because
he couldn't, but because he wouldn't. For his own sanity, he wouldn't look
back. Not even if his life depended on it.
And he was scared it did.
--
"What on
earth?" JC stopped, looking towards the direction of the scream. It had
echoed on the quiet island all the way to their calm camp.
Justin and Chris were
only quiet for a second before they suddenly burst out laughing.
"He found it!"
Justin jumped up.
"Yes!" Chris
jumped up at the same time. "Yes, yes, YES!"
Justin and Chris did a
little dance together, swinging their knees in and out towards each other. It
looked like some sort of rejected touchdown dance.
JC covered his mouth with
his hand. They had worked with some of the best choreographers in the world,
and THIS was the best they could come up with? They continued to laugh as they
ran in half circle the scream.
"You don't think
that was-"
"I think it
was," Kevin said, already running towards their camp.
Brian was immediately
behind them, briefly slowing down when he saw a bunch of leaves and lizards
crawling around the beach. He shook the confusion off his face as he picked up
his pace to catch up with Kevin. If NSYNC did something to Nick, he would
personally kill them by pulling out each and every curl on Justin's head and
shoving them down their throats. Watch them try and sing like that.
Kevin stopped when they
reached their camp and looked worriedly at Nick. Brian was at Kevin's side
seconds later, breathing deeply with Kevin. Nick was knelt down, praying. As
Kevin neared him, he could clearly make out Nick's fast whispers.
"Our father, who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen." He was quickly repeating the
prayer over and over again.
"Justin is going to
need a lot of forgiveness for his trespasses, and the second I see him, I'm
going to need forgiveness for my trespasses, also," Kevin angrily
whispered to Brian. "Cause I'm gonna trespass all over his ass."
Brian knew as well as
Kevin did that Nick was really scared. He wasn't a highly religious person, and
for him to be kneeling on the beach openly praying meant he was frightened and
really freaked out.
"Hey, Nicky,"
Kevin smiled.
Nick immediately jumped
up, startled. His fast breathing slowed and a small smile crept over the
shocked look on his face as soon as he recognized his best friends in front of
him. He didn't even hesitate or try to pretend that everything was okay.
"I'm scared, and I
want you guys to please stay up with me," he said quickly.
"Please."
Kevin and Brian looked at
each other. Since when did Nick admit to needing help or being scared?
"Sure thing, Nicky.
Sure thing," Brian smiled. "I'm not even tired."
Kevin and Brian walked to
the fire and sat down on each side of Nick. He immediately reached out and held
their hands.
"We're unbreakable
together," he said nervously, his anxious blue eyes shooting in every
direction at once. "Unbreakable," he whispered.
Kevin shot Brian another
look. NSYNC was going to need a lot more than prayers when Kevin was done with
them.
--
Kevin was barely even
hearing Steven. It was all he could to do not to fall over. He was so
unbelievably tired from their slumber party the night before. Not that they
actually got any slumber. The second Brian or Kevin would fall asleep, Nick
would desperately shake them back awake.
Kevin could barely keep
his eyes open. The few seconds they were open, they were spent glaring at
NSYNC.
They looked all bright
eyed and bushy tailed.
Kevin stopped thinking to
make a face. Did he just think that they looked bright eyed and bushy tailed?
He shook his head tiredly. He needed more sleep than he had thought.
"Does anyone have
any questions?" Steven smiled.
"Yeah, when are you
leaving?"
"Do you have a
wife?"
"Why hasn't she
divorced you, yet?"
Steven lost his smile.
Why was he even surprised?
Kevin's ears decided to
finally pick up on the conversation and he smiled at the discomforted look on
Steven's face.
"Any, uh..real questions?" Steven asked again.
"What's the
challenge?" Kevin asked.
Everyone turned to look
at Kevin surprised.
"What?" he
asked, sheepishly. "I'm allowed to not pay attention every now and
then."
Nick laughed. "All
of this is recorded right? I want a copy."
Steven started laughing
with Nick and Brian and they both immediately stopped and looked at him like he
was crazy. Steven started coughing to try and cover up his laughter.
So much for that.
"Kevin, your
immunity challenge today is pretty simple. You just have to swim out to that
point," Steven said, pointing out to where the red flags stuck out of the
water, "and swim back as fast as you can. Once a team member has hit
shore, the next member jumps in to do the same. First group with all team
members back on shore, wins. Any questions?"
"Yeah," Kevin nodded.
"When are you leaving?"
Steven's shoulders
deflated.
Justin and Chris suddenly
started laughing uncontrollably, jumping up and down to hug each other.
Everyone, including JC,
looked at Chris and Justin like they were out of their minds. They were still
laughing and hugging each other while they jumped up and down when Justin
turned his laughing face to catch the weird looks on everyone's faces.
He let go of Chris,
clearing his throat as he tried to recompose himself. He let out a nervous
laugh and Chris did the same.
"What....is....WRONG...with
you?" JC asked, a curious eyebrow arched.
"Uh," Justin
said, searching for something to say.
"Yeah, uh, we just,
um, saw-" Chris tried.
"Birds!" Justin
finished, pointing up at the clear sky.
"Yeah!" Chris
nodded enthusiastically. "Birds! We saw tons of them," he said,
looking up at the bare sky with Justin. "Whew, those suckers sure did fly
by in a hurry."
"Birds?" JC
asked.
"Yeah," Justin
said, nodding his head. "We haven't seen any since we've been here, so we
got a little excited."
JC didn't believe a word
they were saying. He could practically see the horns sprouting out of their
heads. Bonnie and
"Man, you know I'm
tired when I can't even think of anything smart to say to that," Nick
said, shaking his head.
"It has nothing to
do with you being tired, Nick," Justin smiled. "You just can't think
of anything smart, period."
"Thanks for that,
Justin. I always wondered what those dots at the end of my sentences were
called."
Justin just rolled his
eyes. Chris had spotted something that was too perfect to ignore, and nothing
Nick said was going to get him down. Missed opportunities meant possible
regrets, so there was no way he was going to turn down Chris' proposal. He
wasn't going to let anything spoil this.
--
Chris and Kevin were the
first ones to start the challenge. Chris playfully batted his eyelashes and
smiled innocently at Kevin. Kevin shook his head at Chris. How in the world did
they not get sick of that weirdo?
Chris shook his head at
Kevin. How could they stand such a bore?
The whistle suddenly
sounded and both Kevin and Chris shot into the water, paddling themselves to
the red flag.
Brian and Nick stood
cheering Kevin on from the shore. Nick stopped cheering when he heard only JC
cheering for Chris.
"Where the hell did
Justin go?" Nick asked Brian.
Brian turned to look at
where their opponents were standing, but continued cheering.
"I don't know,"
Brian said, turning back to his cousin to finish cheering.
JC seemed to realize the
same thing as he turned around in a circle, not seeing Justin anywhere. He
stopped cheering to put his hands on his hip.
"Justin, what the
hell are you up to now?" JC asked quietly.
"GO!" Chris
suddenly yelled in JC's ear.
JC jumped at the yell and
took off a little behind Nick. He had been so caught up in looking for Justin
that he hadn't even noticed Chris back on shore.
Nick quickly looked over
his shoulder as he swam to the flag. JC was quickly gaining on him. Nick paddled
his feet faster and cut his arms through the water smoothly as he picked up his
speed. Nick smiled as his head dipped from side to side in the water. He loved
being in the water. He felt so at peace that even the competition was slipping
from his mind. He could swim in his sleep. Nothing could ruin this experience
for him.
Except that.
Nick suddenly stopped in
the water as JC passed him by.
"JC, STOP!"
JC didn't hear Nick's
desperate yell as he swam by. Nick guessed that the splashing of the water by
JC's ears was easily covering up Nick's voice. Nick's voice quickly got caught
in his voice. He opened his mouth to yell at JC again, but nothing came out.
The fin of a shark was
ahead of him and it seemed to be turning in endless circles. Nick's wide eyes
watched as it seemed to ignore JC splashing by it. Nick shook his head. JC was
the stupidest person on Earth to not have noticed the huge shark only a couple
of feet ahead of him.
The shark suddenly
stopped it's endless circles and started in Nick's direction.
"Oh my GOD!"
Nick yelled, quickly turning around to swim as fast as he could. "HELP!
HELP ME! PLEASE HELP ME!"
Nick tried to calculate
how much further he had to go, but his brain wasn't working with him. All he
knew was that he still had a ways to go. He quickly swam back towards the
shore, praying over and over again in his head. He only hoped he'd make it.
"This is just
great," Nick said to himself hysterically. "If it's not some scary
ghost thing on the island, it's hungry sharks. Who knew there really were
scarier things out there than living on the same island with NStink?"
Nick screamed as he
realized the fin was right by him now. His arms reacted without his thinking
and pushed his body back and away from the fin. He felt something small bite on
his leg and Nick startled wildly flailing his arms. Out of panic he suddenly
started kicking and screaming.
"HEEEEELP! IT'S GOT
ME!"
"Nick! Nick!"
Nick could hear JC behind
him but his mind wasn't comprehending it. Nick felt his head go under water and
he immediately pushed himself back to the surface. He was panicking so much
that his body was forgetting to swim.
"HEEELP!"
"Nick.....Nick!"
Nick could hear Kevin and
Brian on the shore. He looked at them desperately and saw Steven and the crew
holding them back from getting into the water. Nick must've been really scared
because he wasn't even shocked when he saw Kevin's fist fly out to punch Steven
in the face.
"OW!" Nick
yelled as the shark bit harder. His eyes grew wide with tears at the pain and
as he saw his blood lapping with the water. "OH MY GOD! HEEELP! I'M
BIT!"
"NICK!" Nick
turned to see JC wrapping his arms around him. "Come on, Nick! Paddle your
legs, COME ON!"
Nick felt his legs as it
kicked against the shark. He saw it back off a little as they began to swim
away.
Nick and JC swam as fast
as they could. JC felt Nick starting to slow down and pull back. JC pulled Nick
forward with all the force he could muster out of his body.
"Come on, Nick.
We're almost there, come on."
Nick was crying now and
he didn't care that JC was there to witness it all. He didn't care that his and
JC's arms were wrapped around each other's necks and waists. He didn't care
that he was totally panicking in front of JC as JC helped pull him along. He
didn't care that he was completely depending on JC to save his life.
He was scared and he
wanted his friends. That was all he cared about.
Kevin and Brian were
immediately in the water as JC and Nick got to the base of the shore. Chris
helped JC out of the water as Kevin and Brian helped Nick.
"Oh my God,
JC," Chris said, shaking his head worriedly at JC. "Are you okay,
man?"
"Are you okay?"
Brian asked JC as he struggled to catch his breath. JC was desperately holding
onto his ribs as he tried to catch his breath.
"Yeah," JC
said, his jaw shaking. He was cold from the blowing breeze. "It's Nick I'm
worried about."
"It bit me,"
Nick suddenly cried out as he saw the red stain on his leg. "It bit
me!"
"Oh my God!"
Kevin yelled. "We need medical assistance! Medical assistance!"
"What is that shark
doing?" one of the crew members asked.
"Who cares?!"
Kevin yelled as a medical examiner looked over Nick's leg. "That damn
shark can die for all I care!"
"No, really?"
Chris asked smartly. "I would've thought that you'd want to invite him to
your release party."
"You son of a-"
"Chris," JC
said, shaking his head. "Not now."
"Not now?!"
Chris asked incredulously. "You're in pain here! Something could have
happened to you because of this hippo!" Chris yelled, waving his hand at
Nick. "He was ready to leave you out there and you end up helping him back
to shore!"
"I called out to
him!" Nick yelled.
"Yeah, Nick, that's
why JC swam right by you, right?!" Chris yelled.
"I did call out to
him!" Nick yelled, angry.
"That is a weird
shark," the crew member said again. "Maybe they're smarter than we
give 'em credit for."
"Would you forget
about the STUPID shark?" Kevin yelled.
"No, he's
right," Brian said.
Kevin looked up to see
Brian's eyes concentrated on the water. Kevin maneuvered his head to where he
could see the water. Everyone was running around screaming into walky talkies and cell phones about sharks and Nick's leg.
Kevin couldn't make out what else they were saying because their voices were
all mixing in with each other's.
Kevin finally saw what
Brian was seeing. The shark swimming back towards them.
"What in
the...?"
"That shark swam out
to the red flag and is swimming towards us, Kev. What is it doing?"
Kevin looked up at Brian
annoyed. "Gee, Bri, hold on while I pull out my "Why Sharks Do What
They Do" book. I know it's in here somewhere. It's right next to my
"Why Brian Asks Stupid Questions" book."
Brian rolled his eyes.
"Rob, come look at
this," the medical examiner called out. Rob came to the medical examiner
and his eyes widened. "It's barely bleeding. Where did all this blood come
from? What kind of bite is that?"
Kevin was now watching
the examiners. He wanted to know anything that they were saying about Nick's
condition.
The examiner shook his
head. "It almost looks like he was bitten by a-"
Nick's blue eyes were
full of fear as his grip tightened on Kevin's hand. "It wants me!"
Nick erratically yelled, interrupting the examiner. "It's coming back
because it wants me!"
Chris opened his mouth to
say something, but JC's hand quickly clamped over it. "Don't even think
about it, Chris."
Everyone's eyes widened
as they saw the shark still nearing the shore. Even when it seemed to be
swimming over the sand, it continued. It continued coming closer and closer.
"What the hell is it
doing?" Kevin yelled frantically. "What kind of shark is that?!"
Before anyone could
answer, the shark was on the base of the shoreline.
And the shark stood up.
Everyone's mouths dropped
open. Nick's teary eyes immediately squinted with anger.
"You son of a
BITCH!"
The shark was Justin.
JC's eyes popped out of
his head as everything slowly began to make sense. Justin was dropping a
rectangular looking gray object onto the beach as he made his way to them. He
acted like he had just gone out for a swim as he wrung his hands through his
wet hair.
JC's head slowly turned
to Chris. Chris noticed JC staring at him and gave a sheepish smile and laugh.
"Oops..." Chris
smiled. "Did we forget to mention that I found that gray thing and that
Justin and I had planned a teensy weensy little joke?"
"Yes, you did,
Christopher," JC said through his tight lips.
Chris gulped. JC called
him Christopher. That wasn't good. Next thing you knew he was going to be
calling Justin, Justin Randall.
"Justin
Randall," JC called.
Forget Justin, I'm
running, Chris thought, already turning around. He didn't get anywhere, though.
JC grabbed Chris by the back of his shirt and pulled him back.
"Oh, I know you're
not going anywhere."
"No, not me,"
Chris smiled. "I was just going to go over there and see the uh...the um,
the uhhhmm, the birds! Yeah, the birds! I see them
again!"
"The only birds
you'll be seeing will be the ones flying around your head after I pound it
in," JC threatened. "Stay...here," JC said angrily.
"You son of a
bitch!" Nick was yelling.
JC saw Kevin holding him
back, and JC was surprised that no one was holding Kevin back. They probably
would have to soon enough.
JC grabbed Justin's wet
arm roughly and Justin easily slipped out of his grasp.
"What is your
problem?" Justin asked. "You freaking grabbed me hard, JC!"
"Well, JUSTIN, don't
you think I have a reason to get mad?"
"NO! You still have
your teeth."
"What are you
talking about?"
Justin opened his mouth
wider and JC freaked when he saw all the blood.
"Oh my God, Justin!
Are you okay? What happened? How did you do this? Why did you do this?"
"The game is Twenty
Questions, JC, not 101 Questions," Justin said.
Before JC could say
anything else, a fist suddenly flew out and punched Justin in the face.
"Justin!" JC
yelled, immediately bending down to Justin's side. He looked up to see an angry
Nick Carter looking down at Justin.
"What the hell is
your problem?!" Justin yelled.
"You scared the crap
out of me out there! I thought I was going to die, you asshole! Do you know the
thoughts that were going through my head you worthless piece of shit!?"
JC suddenly noticed how
all of the camera crews were surrounding them. Ratings here they come.
"Such language,
Nickolas," Justin said, holding his now bleeding nose.
Nick bent down and
immediately picked Justin up roughly by his shoulders and pulled him into his
face.
"You think you're
funny, Timberlake?"
"Yeah, that's why
I'm not laughing."
JC jumped up and pulled
Justin out of Nick's grasp, violently pushing Nick back on his shoulder.
"Don't you ever
touch him again, Carter."
"Did you know about
this?!" Kevin yelled.
"Yes, Kevin, I did,
that's why I fought like crazy out there to bring Nick to shore. That's why my
mouth dropped open with yours when Justin came out of the water." JC shook
his head. "How are you so stupid? Is there something in the water back in
"Guys, stop,"
Steven said.
"Mind your own
business!" Kevin yelled.
JC looked at Steven and
saw the light blue and purple bruise forming around his eye. If he wasn't so
mad, he'd probably take the time out to congratulate whoever hit him.
"You guys did that
to Nick last night, didn't you?!" Kevin yelled, angry now. "Didn't
YOU?!"
Despite the fact that
Nick knew that Justin was the shark, he was still shaking from the near death
experience.
"Did what?" JC
asked, trying to act dumb.
"He told us
everything! How he saw that big black lump you planted out there by the tree!
How it blinked! It had to be one of you sitting out there with a big, black
cloak. Big, black lumps don't just disappear!"
JC blinked his surprise
and looked at Justin and Chris confused. If they had gone behind his back to do
something else, he'd kill them. This little prank was bad enough.
But he saw Justin and
Chris exchange the same confused look that JC wore. They all seemed to be
wondering if the other had added to their original prank.
Nick felt his shaking get
worse. Justin, Chris, and JC all looked genuinely confused. They didn't have a
clue what Kevin was talking about.
"Don't try and act
dumb with me!" Kevin yelled.
"Kev, calm
down," Brian called from Nick's side. He had his arm around Nick, trying
to calm him down. "Look at them, Kevin. They really don't know what we're
talking about."
Kevin looked at each of
them carefully. He didn't know they had picked up acting as a hobby.
"Kevin, ask Steven.
Check the tapes. We were not there. If you coincide the time on Nick's camera
with the times on our camera's, you'll see that we were all at our camp. You'll
see all three of us sitting around our camp talking, even right when Nick
yelled. We heard it all the way over there."
Kevin could hear Steven
making some quick calls from his cell phone through the entire argument.
"He's right,
Kevin," Steven confirmed. "The times on all videos were synchronized
together, and all three members of NSYNC were at their camp at the time of
Nick's 'discovery' of this black lump."
"Maybe it was one of
you two," Chris said.
"What?" Kevin
asked, scrunching his green eyes.
"You heard me,"
Chris said. "Were you with Nick when this happened? It sure doesn't sound
like it."
Kevin looked back at Nick
and he was looking at Brian and Kevin horrified. He was so desperate to believe
it was them just to ignore the possibility of what it could have been.
"No, we weren't with
him, but I'm sure if they check our videos, they'll see we were on our way to
camp. How could we have beaten Nick there? We had been on the phone with Leigh
and Kristin. Why would we do that to Nick?!" Brian yelled.
Steven made another phone
call before another fight broke out.
"Who knows why you
would do it? Maybe you and Kevin are trying to get Nick to crawl back into his
hole so that you can take control of his life again. You just can't stand the
fact that he's fine without you babying him," Chris said.
Before they could
continue arguing, Steven confirmed that they, too, had been walking to camp.
They had been nowhere near Nick.
Brian noticed how Nick
started to shake more.
"Hey, Frack, calm
down. It's okay. Don't think about it. You said it was gone so fast, you could
have been seeing things. The sun was setting and it could have been shadows or
anything. You're already scared out here, so your mind's inventing things
around you."
Nick looked at Brian
scared.
"Yeah, Nicky,"
Kevin said, walking to Nick. "Remember when you were younger? You were
convinced that you needed Bookie Bear on tour."
"Bookie bear?"
Justin laughed.
Kevin ignored him.
"You were convinced that you couldn't sleep unless he was in the bunk with
you when, in reality, you could sleep fine without him. Your mind," Kevin
said, tapping the temple of his head, "convinced you that you needed him.
You know that's true. You're able to sleep fine without him. Maybe now your
mind's trying to convince you of something again. It's not real, Nick.
Nothing's out to get you." Kevin smiled. "Blonde or not."
JC, Justin, and Chris all
looked at each other. What in the world did being blonde have to do with
anything?
Nick nodded his head even
though nothing that Kevin was saying was making him feel any better. He was
actually wishing Bookie Bear was there right now.
"Guys, something has
been brought to my attention," Steven said.
"And what's that,
Steven?" Brian asked, annoyed.
"A contract has been
violated. Your contracts specifically say that you can not exude any
threatening physical force on anyone from opposing teams. The only physical
force, technically included, was pushing, due to some of the challenges that
you may and have endured. Nick, you are in violation of your contract, and that
gives Mr. Timberlake the right to terminate everything right here, right
now."
"What are you
talking about?" Brian asked.
Everyone was giving
Steven the same confused look Brian was.
"Your contracts say
that in the event that you physically threaten and carry out any physical
violence on someone on this island, the person who was attacked may legally end
the transaction if they choose."
"In damn English,
Steven," Kevin said.
"Justin can end this
entire competition right now if he wants to. Because Nick violated his
contract, NSYNC can automatically win this on Justin's word."
Brian's mouth dropped
open. They could lose everything they had worked so hard for, everything that
meant anything to them. Everything they had gone through on that island could
all go to hell if Justin felt the need to say so? They were dead. They were so
dead.
Brian looked at Justin as
a satisfied smirk covered his bloodied face.
"You mean,"
Chris smiled, "we'll be able to go home and, and...and we win? That's is?
It'll all be over?"
"That's what I
mean," Steven said. "What is it going to be Justin? Does it end
now...or do you want to continue with the competition?"
Nick looked down at the
ground as tears automatically filled his eyes. This couldn't be happening.
Justin held their careers in his hands and there was no way he was going to
just let this go. No way. Justin hated him.
Justin looked at Brian,
Nick, and Kevin's faces and saw the fear and horror settle in. A person they
had spent their time trying to torture decided whether or not their career as a
group ended right there and then. Justin tried to ignore the looks on their
faces, but his eyes kept falling back to them. Man, having a heart sucked
sometimes.
Justin looked at Chris
and saw the happy, relieved, and gleeful look on his face. Justin turned to
look at JC, hoping he would know what he should do, but JC stood there with a
blank look on his face. Maybe he was in shock.
It should've been an easy
decision, but it wasn't. Justin and his friends had fought so hard to be where
they were musically and physically. They had gone through so much to survive
this long, and winning by a damn default wasn't sitting right with him. The
deal was whoever survived, not whoever went the longest without hitting the
other.
Justin took a deep breath
and hoped that Chris wouldn't kill him.
"To hell with your
default. We're going to win this, all right, but we're going to win it the way
we originally planned to. We don't need any handouts." Justin spit out
some blood from his mouth. "NSYNC doesn't take the easy way out."
Justin almost laughed as
Nick shot his shocked face up from the ground and Brian and Kevin let out huge
sighs of relief.
"What?!" Chris
yelled.
JC put an arm on Chris'
shoulder. He was just as disappointed because they were so close to this being
all over and being able to go home, but Justin was right....for once.
"We'd only be selling ourselves out, Chris," JC said quietly.
"To have done all this just to win because of some broken agreement in our
contract?"
Chris angrily looked down
at the ground. He knew JC and Justin were right. But, it didn't make anything
seem better.
"You guys are
right," Chris said, still looking at the ground. "We don't need no
easy way out. We can do this without useless help."
"Thank you,"
Brian said. Kevin and Nick looked at Brian. Though they were relieved and
somewhat impressed with Justin, they weren't about to show it.
"Don't thank
me," Justin said, wiping the blood off his face with the wet cloth that
one of the crew members had given him. "I don't take the easy way out. We
worked hard to be where we are as NSYNC, and we're going to work hard to earn
the right to stay NSYNC. At least now there's one less Backstreet Boy on this
damn island," Justin said, turning to leave.
"What are you
talking about?" Kevin asked.
"We won, so you have
to vote someone off," Justin said like it was obvious.
"This competition
never finished!" Kevin yelled, angry again at Justin's confidence. If he
thought they were going to just back out of this challenge because he didn't
end it all, he was stupid.
"Like hell this
challenge didn't finish. In case you didn't notice, I swam out to that flag and
swam back. So did Chris, and so did JC. JC had already hit the flag when he
realized that Nick was in 'trouble'. Nick never even got to the flag and you
never even got into the water," Justin smiled at Kevin. "First team
with all members on shore after hitting the flag wins. Do the math, you
backwoods reject."
Kevin's face turned red.
"This can't be right, Steven! He sabotaged the challenge! He can't win!
Nick was too scared to continue!"
Steven smiled at Kevin
now. Kevin had to be stupid if he thought Steven was going to go out of his way
to unjustify Justin's actions after he punched him.
Steven's eye was throbbing because of Kevin, so Kevin's head was about to throb
because of Steven.
"Sorry, Kevin.
There's nothing in the rules that says you can't pretend to be a shark during a
challenge. I'm afraid you're just out of luck. See at you at tribal
council."
Justin's gums were
killing him and his nose was throbbing as blood continued to still make its way
out. He began to walk away with the medical examiner to get himself fixed and
checked out when he stopped to turn around.
"Have fun at tribal
council, losers."
"You won't get away
with this, Justin!" Kevin yelled.
"So take me to
People's Court," Justin sarcastically smiled. He smiled sweetly as he
sarcastically blew a kiss off the palm of his hand to Kevin.
Justin turned around to
walk with JC and Chris to the medical examiner.
"Would it be too
much to ask that they vote Kevin off?" Justin asked.
JC smiled. "We'd
have a better chance at meeting every single one of our fans. At least THAT can
happen."
--
"JuJu?"
Justin looked up from his
place by the fire to see the most worried look he'd seen on JC yet.
"Yeah?"
"May I?" JC
asked, motioning to the space next to him.
"Sure," Justin
said, sitting up.
JC looked over at Chris'
sleeping form and lowered his voice. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I swam out in the
ocean, got kicked in the face, lost a tooth and got punched." Justin
stopped to smile, the missing gap in his mouth visible. "Oh wait, that did
happen. Silly me."
JC smiled. "I can't
believe you did that, JuJu."
"I can't believe you
didn't yell at me."
"Ah, well, Nick
punching you kinda threw that right out the window," JC smiled.
"Figured he'd gotten you good enough for the both of us. That jerk."
"Hey, I deserved
it." Justin made a face. "I actually feel kinda bad. He was really
shaken up, huh?"
"Yeah, he was,
Curly."
Justin sighed, scratching
his head over his bandanna. "I didn't want to scare him that badly, JC. Do
you think he's okay?"
"He has Brian and
Kevin. He will be."
Justin hated admitting
any sort of concern for Nick Carter. "But one of them is leaving. You
don't think that all these jokes were badly timed? He's gonna be torn up when
one of them leaves. He's obviously the closest to them."
JC smiled at Justin.
"He'll be okay. They won't be separated forever, just a few more weeks, or
days. However much longer this lasts. Are you sure your nose is okay?"
"Yeah," Justin
nodded. "It's not like I didn't get what was coming to me," Justin
said, making a face as he touched his bruised nose.
"What possessed you
do that, Curly?"
"It was Chris' idea.
He found this leftover piece of gray stuff. He cut it into a rectangular piece
somehow. He wanted to go out and scare us with it tomorrow. He was supposed to
swim out, then yell for us, duck under water, and surface the fin. Then when he
found out about what our challenge was, he flipped. He thought it was perfect
to scare Nick." Justin smiled and shook his head. "Besides, I was
still pretty pissed off about my hair, so I was more than willing to go along
with it."
JC laughed. "Is that
what you two nimwads were laughing and jumping
over?"
Justin let a small smile
crawl onto his lips. "Yeah," he giggled. "It was just so funny
when Chris told me. We couldn't let it pass."
JC stretched, moaning at
the pain in his tired muscles. "You scared me, too, you know. I thought I
was gonna die out there with Nick, and I was so scared for him. He was really
freaking out, Justin. I felt for him, probably more than I ever will again in
my life, but I did. When I saw all the blood...." JC stopped. "Wait,
you barely bit him, where did all that blood come from?"
Justin smiled as he
removed his bandanna. "Those red root things can be used for more than
just hair dye."
JC laughed, shaking his
head. Justin was something else.
"Is that where you
had disappeared to?"
Justin smiled, nodding
his head. "I jumped into the water when you guys weren't paying attention.
It wasn't too hard. Everyone was concentrated on the swimmers, anyway."
"JuJu, did you go
back and put that black lump that Backstreet was talking about?"
Justin immediately began
shaking his head. "No way, man. I promise. We were together the entire
time. I already asked Chris and he said he didn't know anything about it."
JC was quiet. What if
there really was something out there?
"Are you sure?"
JC asked again. "I won't get mad."
"JC, all we did was
the leaves and lizards. You were there. When Nick stepped on the string holding
the leaves and lizards up, it would snap and let everything come crashing down
on him. We didn't put any black anything anywhere."
JC shook his head. He
didn't believe in supernatural things and he'd think that the producers of the
show would have been smart enough to check and make sure that the island wasn't
inhabited.
"I believe you,
JuJu. I'm thinking that maybe Backstreet made it up to try and scare us. Maybe
they want to get back at us for the leaves and lizards. Notice how they didn't
even mention it? Maybe they were trying to get us to say, 'No, we didn't do the
lump, we did the leaves!'"
Justin nodded his head.
"You're right. Entrapment. This might all be a trick." Justin
relaxed. "Thank goodness, too. I was starting to freak thinking something
was out there."
"There's no one out
there, other than those nut cases," JC said, referring to the Backstreet
Boys. JC slung an arm around Justin. "Despite your stupidity leak today,
I'm proud of you. You made the right choice back there."
Justin instantly knew
what JC was talking about. "You think so? You don't hate me for making us
stay on this island longer than we have to?"
"No, man. Don't you
know by now that there's nothing you could do to make me hate you? You're my
little brother. I love you, Justin. No matter how scary your fro gets."
Justin laughed. "I
love you, too, JC. Even when I'm whining and complaining and making your life
hell, I love you. Besides, it's my job as the little brother to wreak
havoc." Justin smiled. "I think I made the right choice, too. I want
us to win this fairly, JC. We said the survivor wins, so the survivor wins.
None of this breach of contract bullshit. They think we took the easy way into
our fame by following them, and that's just not true. I HATE that they think
that. They're trying to discredit everything we've done to get here. We worked
hard to get where we are, and we're going to show them that we're going to work
just as hard to STAY where we are."
JC looked at Justin. He
would never understand that boy as long as he lived. Justin could be the most
immature person he'd ever come to know, then in the blink of an eye, have more
sense and maturity than JC could ever muster.
JC smiled. That was
probably what he loved best about Justin, and he hoped he never changed.
--
For the first time, in a
long time, Kevin had no idea what to say. They had dragged themselves back to
their camp in silence, and no one even knew how to begin the conversation they
knew they had to have.
Nick dropped himself in
front of their fire, pulled up his knees and buried his head in his arms.
"Frack, don't,"
Brian said gently. "Don't beat yourself up over this anymore."
"Those
assholes," Nick mumbled. "Those fucking assholes."
"Yeah, well those
assholes are getting back at us for being assholes," Kevin said sitting
down next to him. "I knew we should have just kept things clean."
"Dyeing Justin's
hair does not compare to what they did," Brian said settling down on
Nick's other side. "Rules against psychological warfare should have been
written into those stupid contracts. Did you guys know there was a no fights
rule?"
Nick didn't bother to
answer.
Kevin just sighed. They
had learned the very hard way to scour every single contract they ever signed.
How could they miss all the death traps in this one?
"Well, I didn't know
either. God knows they have picked enough fights with us." Brian shook his
head. "This just sucks."
Kevin looked from the
dejected Nick to his for-once pessimist cousin. It did just suck, and he was
thinking ahead. Things were just going to get worse.
"We lost guys,"
he said like they didn't even know. "What are we going to do? We can't go
in there unprepared."
Nick didn't move and Brian
was suddenly very interested in his feet.
"Guys?"
"Well, what can we
do, Kev? We're screwed. No matter what, we're screwed," Brian shook his
head. "Damn Justin should have gone ahead and ended the whole damn thing.
Put us out of our misery."
Kevin sighed and
stretched his aching neck.
"This wasn't
supposed to happen," Kevin mumbled. "This was supposed to be easy for
us. We're the ones who know what all this is about. We're the ones who want
this more than anyone."
"Hell cuz, it's
obvious that they want it too. We just never knew that they'd be willing to go
this far." Brian's eyes were on Nick. A really big part of him wanted to
send him home and away from all of the mess. Another part of him kept hearing
Leigh's last words to him on the phone. "Come home."
Nick screwed his eyes as
tight as he could. He was wishing the whole world away, but it never worked.
Many things in his life had left him feeling that empty, that scared, that
lost, but he knew that wishing them away never, ever worked. Someone had forgotten
to give him the number to the tooth fairy, leprechaun or angel that had the key
to his charmed life.
Kevin looked at the both
of them and wondered which was the worst of two evils. Making Nick stay on the
island where he could keep freaking out, or making Brian stay and start a war
with Leighanne. He honestly had no clue.
“Brian, go home,” they
heard Nick mumble.
“What?”
“Nicky?” Kevin asked.
“Just go home. This is
your chance,” he said finally pulling his face out of his arms. “If you don’t,
Leigh’s gonna be really mad, and all of this isn’t worth losing her.”
Brian’s face crumpled
between a smile and confusion.
“What about you, Frack?
You just gonna stay here? What if something else happens?”
Nick sniffled and pushed
against his eyes. “Nothing’s gonna happen. Me and Kev are gonna be fine.
Leigh’s not happy, and we lost. We might as well just accept that and do what’s
right.”
Inside, Nick was hoping
Brian would refuse. He wanted the cousins to take on that protective role they
always had with him, so he could be a coward and go home. In his mind, they
would insist that he go home and away from that God-forsaken place.
Then it hit him.
Home to what?
If he went home, he’d
still have to deal with demons and hauntings, only
these would be very real.
“Just go,” he said more
softly than he meant to. “Someone has to get something positive out of all of
this.”
Brian shook his head,
still feeling lost and torn. The last thing he wanted was to cause Nick more
stress. The kid had been through enough. At the same time, he knew he truly
only had one choice.
Kevin clicked his teeth
at their sadness. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He never should have let
things go this far.
He sucked in air and
threw his arm around Nick’s slumped shoulders. It was time to take control.
“Okay,” he sighed. “This
is it. This is what we’re doing. Brian, you’re going home.”
Nick shut his eyes again.
Brian was afraid to look
at either of them.
“Nick and me will be fine
here,” Kevin continued. “We’re gonna stay up all night if we have to. We’ll
rebuild our hut if that makes us feel safer, but we’re staying. We’ll do
whatever it takes to make it through these next couple of nights. Because it
can’t be much longer now. You know Steven’s dying to get all this over with.
I’m sure he wants us all out of his hair, so he can get on with his non-life.”
Kevin was the only one to chuckle at his “joke.”
Nick leaned his chin on
his knees letting Kevin’s words settle.
“I can’t just leave you
here, guys,” Brian began.
“You don’t get a choice,”
Nick said.
“He’s right,” Kevin
agreed. “You don’t. You’re going. Before you know it, you’ll be home with
Leigh, eating real food and watching us be miserable on TV.”
“Gee, that makes me feel
better,” Brian mumbled.
Nick finally turned to
him, his best friend. The guy who had practically made him the easy-going,
push-over sap he’d become. “You’d better feel better because this as bad as it
gets.”
Nick and Kevin were
something else. Brian remembered when they could hardly stand each other. All
the times that Kevin hollered at him to grow up, and all the times Nick
promised he would then did something to prove he had lied. Sometime, somewhere
in the last few years, they had become so alike it was hard to tell them apart.
Somewhere, sometime, the need to take care of others had surpassed the need to
take care of themselves.
Brian swallowed hard,
“Okay.”
--
“What was that?” Justin
whispered though they were the only ones around.
“I didn’t hear anything,”
JC said.
“You mean the moaning?”
Chris asked.
Justin’s eyes grew to the
size of dinner plates. “It was a moaning?”
“Shut up, Chris,” JC said
for what seemed like the hundredth time in one day. Well, maybe he hadn’t said
it aloud, but he had said thought it enough times.
“It was moaning, like
someone was dying. I actually think it might be something undead,” Chris said
matter-of-factly then got to lying down on his blanket. “Good night.”
Justin was still glaring
at JC who had been sitting peacefully watching the ocean before him. After such
a disturbing day, he had wanted to get some quiet time if just to focus on what
was coming. Of course, what he wanted always came second to whatever plan,
scheme, crisis, dilemma Justin and Chris had cooked
up.
“There’s nothing out
there, JuJu,” he said when he saw Justin swallow hard and look around at the
night that had quickly surrounded them. “Remember, it was our idea to scare
Nick. Therefore, there is nothing out there that we didn’t invent.”
“There’s a black lump
that blinks,” Justin reminded him. “It’s out there. Remember?”
“Nick Carter is a basket
case who seems blinking lumps in his own gym bag. And they’re usually his
stinky socks come to life. Forget it,” JC said. “He probably needed his twinkee fix, and there wasn’t any around. This is your brain.
This is your brain on twinkees. You think Lou taught
him to eat like that? Because I saw Lou eat, and boy, he can really put it
away. I mean, sometimes, he needed a fork lift to get him away from the dinner
table. Can you see Nick onstage in ten years when he’s so fat that... ,” he
stopped when he noticed Justin was looking past him. “What?”
“I heard it again,” he
said softly. “Did you hear it?”
“No,” JC said assuredly.
“And if there’s something out there, it’s probably Backstreet sobbing all the
way to Tribal Council. Or maybe Brian and Kevin are whooping it up because
Nick’s finally gone.” Nothing, JC noted. Not even a chuckle. “Stop it, Justin.
Don’t let our prank backfire on us.”
“It’s our prank, huh?”
Justin said coming back to himself. “You’re right. It was just our prank.
Stupid me.” He smiled at JC. “You’re right.”
“Right,” JC said. “So how
much longer do you think till we get the heck out of here? I‘m read to eat some
real food.”
“Probably not much
longer,” Justin said. “I mean how much longer can--?” he stopped. “There it is
again, JC.”
“What?” JC asked honestly
stumped.
“That noise. It’s a
funny, strange noise.”
“It’s the camera. Or the
microphone. Stop freaking out. It’s nothing.” He quickly tried to think of
something to get Justin’s mind off the things that went bump on the island.
“Think they’ve voted Nick off yet?”
Justin forced his gaze
away from the dark jungle and shrugged. “Probably. I mean, I would have voted
him off first. At least Howie’s not certifiably insane.”
JC chuckled happy to
start having a normal conversation with his best friend.
Then he heard something
strange too, something he hadn’t heard this whole time on the island. He tried
not to focus on the airy, faraway sound behind him.
He cleared his throat.
“What are you gonna do when we get out of here?”
Justin smiled and rolled
his eyes. “That’s a dumb question. I’m gonna go see Brit.”
“Yeah, do you really--?”
The end of his question
got caught in his throat when their fire suddenly went out leaving them sitting
in almost complete darkness
“Shit!” Justin cried.
“It was the wind,” JC
explained getting up and feeling for the matches.
All they heard was
flapping, and at first, it was really far away. Then it seemed to come closer.
“Is that bird?” Justin
whispered as he squinted. He was desperately trying to get his eyes to focus on
something.
“Or a bat,” JC said kept
feeling blindly for the matches.
“Bat?”
“They don’t do anything,
JuJu. They’re just rats with wings,” he explained and cursed himself for not
carrying the matches around like he thought he should. “Shit!”
“What if it’s a vampire
bat?” Justin said his voice rising an entire octave.
“No JuJu...,” JC began
then dropped off because the flapping was closer, and now there was a strange,
high-pitched sound attached.
Justin’s stomach dropped
to his knees, and he actually began to feel for JC just to have someone to hang
on to.
“It’s okay,” JC said
quickly when he felt Justin grab on to his neck.
Well, he thought it was
Justin.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
was all JC heard then the grip tightened.
“JUS-tin!” he screamed.
“You’re...! You’re... you’re.... You’re choking meeee!!”
he finally got out.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh
my GOD! Let that damn noise stop. Let it stop!” Justin screamed in JC’s ear.
JC struggled for air as
his hand finally found the small pack of matches. Just then a large swoop
seemed envelope them, and then it was all quiet.
--
“Well, you’re down to two
members tonight, Backstreet. Everyone feeling okay?” Steven asked trying to
seem light-hearted in spite of the fact he knew how much they hated him.
Kevin smiled looking at
his handiwork all over Steven’s face. “I actually feel pretty good tonight,
Steve. How are you feeling?”
Steven blinked to clear
the blurriness from his throbbing eye. “I feel fine,” he said shortly. “Let’s
get down to business. As usual, you have to write the name of the person you’re
voting for on the scrap of paper. You also have an opportunity to address the
folks back home through a camera and microphone we installed for these last few
Tribal Councils.” He smiled a big, fake smile at them. “After some of the stuff
you guys have all been pulling, addressing your friends, families and fans,
might not be such a bad idea.”
Nick didn’t bother to
look up at him. Brian gave him a rare half-smile.
“Can we just do this,
please?” he asked knowing he was just hours away from seeing his wife. He was
also minutes from abandoning his brothers.
“Go right ahead,” Steven
said. “Brian, you’re first.”
Brian sucked in air as he
headed the few feet away from the guys to the voting area.
“Damn,” he muttered
taking the pen and scrap of paper in his hands. “Leighanne honey, I hope you
know right now how much I love you,” he said. The red light shone before him
signaling that the small camera was recording his every word. “This is the
hardest thing I have ever done, and I wouldn’t do it for anyone else but you.”
He quickly wrote down his
own name and finally looked up at the camera. “I love you, baby. See you soon.”
He didn’t even smile.
“Kevin,” Steven called
when he saw Brian returning.
Nick had already started
getting up. “But I wanna--.”
“Kevin,” Steven repeated.
“What’s the difference?”
Kevin asked annoyed. “Let Nick go next.”
“There’s an order for
everything,” Steven said mustering up all the patience he owned. Besides, he didn’t
really want to two, matching black eyes. “Nick,” he repeated.
Kevin looked at Nick who
sucked it up and sat back down. “Go Kev,” he muttered.
Kevin shook his head and
patted Brian’s shoulder as he disappeared toward the back.
He quickly wrote down his
cousin’s name and looked up at the red light for what seemed like a long time.
He was trying to find just the right words.
“I’m sorry,” he began
slowly. “I’m sorry if you guys are disappointed in us. We never thought things
were going to be this way. We’re just doing what we need to do to survive. You
guys know that’s what it’s always been about for us, to get through all of this
together. And we will. We’ll be fine. Right now things are hard because it
feels like we’re losing. But know this one thing, we’re never going to lose as
long as we’re together, and Nick and me are gonna make it.” He smiled in spite
of himself. “We’ll be cool.”
He slowly folded up his
scrap of paper and turned to leave then came back.
“Oh and one more thing.
If I had to a chance to replay the whole shark incident again, I would
definitely punch Steven again. No question.”
He smiled a small smile
and dropped his paper in the pot before exiting.
The sight that greeted
him back at the council made him lose what smugness he had mustered, and his
heart just about broke.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,”
Brian was telling Nick who was deep in the middle of a meltdown right in front
of the camera. “I know why we’re doing this. You know why we’re doing this,
Nick. Just go. Just go write my name.”
Nick cradling his head in
his hands again while Brian tried desperately to pull him together. Kevin
stepped directly in front of the camera to block it’s view.
“Don’t,” he said
squatting down in front of the guys. “Nicky, don’t do this for them. They’re going
to make millions of dollars watching you fall apart. Don’t.”
“I don’t care,” Nick
said. “I don’t care what’ they’re making money. I don’t care.”
Brian tightened his grip
around Nick’s shoulder and made a desperate face at Kevin who scooted in closer
to block the insistent camera.
“Nick stop,” Kevin begged
pulling his hand away from his face. “Don’t do this anymore.”
“What else can I do?” he
cried and pushed away the tears he’d been trying to hide with his forearm. “I’m
too tired to think or even do anything else to help us anymore, Kev. And it‘s
gonna be just us.”
Bri bit his lip. “We
can’t turn back now, Nicky. Kev and me voted. I’d changed my vote for you, but
I can’t.”
“And I wouldn’t,” Kevin
said.
Brian looked up at him,
and Nick sniffled felt beyond confused. “What?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t
change my vote, baby. I don’t care. I don’t care how tired you are, or how much
you think you can’t do this, but you can. We can. Think about all the things
we’ve already done. Think about you being a scared, little kid getting on a
plane to
Nick closed his eyes
letting the reassurances wash over him. They had never, ever failed him before.
Kevin’s words had always rung true.
He just wasn’t so sure
this time.
“Kev, you’re stuck with
me. This is the worst, hardest thing we’ve ever done, and--.”
“No it’s not,” Kevin said
more sternly this time. “This is not even close. Putting up with that sick,
fuck Pearlman was. Or watching Brian go into surgery. That was hell in itself,
remember? We were there, Nicky. You saw it. You saw the whole thing just like
me, and you made it. All that was hard. This might be stupid because we’re on
the verge of losing so much, but it’s not the same.”
“Besides,” Brian chimed.
“We’re unbreakable. You said it. You may have been freaked out as hell, but you
were right. We were unbreakable then, we are unbreakable now. Got that?”
Kevin smiled watching his
cousin. Brian always made things better.
Nick was nodding and
fighting hard for control.
“I’m sorry,” he managed
to choke out. “I’m sorry for doing this to you guys so much.”
Brian smiled. “It’s
nothing.”
“It’s nothing to me too,”
Kevin said glancing over his shoulder. “But it’s going to be this guy’s ass in
a minute.”
“Cuz, you have to stop
hitting people,” Brian said. “Next thing you know, you’ll be the WWF number
contender. And in this corner, weighing 185 pounds, Kevin the Backstreet Brawler.”
Brian giggled.
“Shut up, Rok,” Kevin
chuckled.
Nick rubbed his nose and
pushed his growing hair out of his face.
“Yeah, yeah,” Brian
continued. “Your gimmick will be your eyebrows, and your move will be the
eyebrow slammer.” Brian laughed as he crossed his eyes trying to push his
eyebrows together.
Nick shook his head and
Kevin reached up to box Brian.
“Yeah, and you’ll be my
first victim.”
“Guys?” Steven prodded.
“We’d really like to do this before the storm hits.”
They didn’t even bother
turning to him.
“Are you okay?” Brian
asked Nick. “If you need more time, it’s okay.”
“I’m fine,” Nick said
standing up. “Let me do this before Kevin pulls out the metal chairs or
something.”
Kevin smiled at them and watched Nick go.
“You’re gonna have your
hands full,” Brian said softly. “He’s in bad shape right now.”
Kevin shook his head.
“He’s fine, Bri. It’s all piled up on him, and he’s had to let it go. He’s
fine.”
“Not so sure about that,
cuz.”
The sound man stepped
closer to them, and they shut their mouths.
--
“What was that?” they
heard Chris’ voice call before they were able to say anything, much less move.
“I don’t know,” Justin
said and realized he had JC in a death grip.
“Ughmmmf,”
JC muttered in what he thought might be his last breath.
“Sorry. Sorry, bro. I’m
sorry,” Justin apologized letting go.
JC gasped feeling the air
fill his lungs. “It’s okay,” he coughed. “It’s... it’s fine.”
“Are you okay?” Chris
called and struck a match lighting up their immediate surroundings. “What are
you guys doing?”
“I’m fine,” JC breathed. “I’m okay. It was nothing. It was a bat.”
“A huge bat,” Chris said.
“A huge bat that turns off fires and leaves piles of sticks.”
“What?”
“Chris!” JC protested.
“If you’re trying to scare us, you’d better--.”
“JC, look,” Chris ordered
and struck another match. He squatted down to illuminate the small piles of
sticks that surrounded them.
“Oh my God,” Justin
breathed.
--
“... and the last vote is
for Brian. Brian, bring me your torch.”
Brian smiled over to Nick
and Kevin who were watching him with the longest faces he’d ever seen on them.
“It’s gonna be okay,
guys,” he said smiling. “I wouldn’t trust my future to anyone else, but you
two.”
“Be careful who you
trust,” Nick said uneasily.
“I’m sure,” Brian said as
they all stood. “You guys will be great. Or don’t bother coming back, got it?”
Kevin smiled as his
cousin pulled them both into a hug.
“I love you guys,” he
said softly. “I really don’t trust anyone more than you. Really.”
“We won’t let you down,”
Kevin said. “Go do what you need to.”
“Thanks,” Brian said
letting go. “You guys take care. Don’t let those freaks back there get the best
of you. That goes for Nsync too.”
They actually laughed.
“Bye cuz. Tell Kris I
love her,” Kevin said.
“Sure. Later guys. Later
Frack.”
Nick made himself smile
though he felt like crap inside. “Later Frick. Tell Kris I love her too.”
Kevin laughed even harder
and tightened his grip around Nick’s shoulders.
“We’d better hurry Brian.
There’s a storm coming, and we want to get you off the island safely,” Steven
said.
“Okay,” Brian nodded and
suddenly tears twinkled in his eyes. “Be careful, guys. God bless.”
“Bye,” Kevin waved.
Nick just turned around
to look into the dark night and that long walk back to their camp.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Kevin
said.
Nick tried to smile. He
really didn’t want to be a scared little kid that needed to someone to walk him
all the way back to camp or stay up all night with him, but it was too late. He
had given in to that tiny part of his brain that held on to his childhood and
told him that someone was out there. Just what it was, he had no clue.
“Any day now, Frack,”
Kevin said gently when he saw Nick stay behind.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
They started down the
familiar, dark path and the cool sea breeze swept over them, and it smelled
like rain.
“It hasn’t rained since
our first night here,” Kevin remembered. “Right?”
“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “I
think it’s been that long.”
“Think it’s as big a
storm?”
Nick looked up at the
strangely-lit sky. It looked totally different than it ever had back home. He
could tell weather pretty well back there.
“Hell, this isn’t home,”
he muttered to himself. “I don’t know.”
Kevin chuckled. “Why does
it seem like home? Why does it seem like this is all we’ve ever known?”
Nick frowned at him,
confused. “Home?”
“Yeah. Every time we go
somewhere, do something, it just seems like we get used to it right away. Like
maybe--.”
“Our lives change so much
that all we know is change?” Nick asked.
“Exactly. Yeah. I think
I’m like a turtle and carry everything I need on my back.”
“But we didn’t get to
bring anything,” Nick said. “And I know you miss Kris much more than that.”
Kevin smiled in spite of
himself. “Yeah Nicky, but I’m used to that too. I’ve been missing her longer
than I’ve been with her. That’s normal for me.”
“That’s true,” Nick said.
The lightening finally
flashed above them.
Nick squinted. “We’d
better hurry. I’d rather not get stuck in the jungle. I mean, after last time
and all.” He shrugged apprehensively.
“Sure,” Kevin said
quickening his pace. “You went through here?”
Nick nodded looking
around and remembering that awful night.
“We can go around,” Kevin
offered.
“It’ll take longer.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Whatever you want.”
Because Kevin knew this
was going to be a long night, and the least he could do was make it as easy as
possible on both of them.
***
