Chapter 10:
Back to Reality
Spending the night over Howie's helped me to clear my mind of all the
unpleasant things that had been happening in my life. Don't get me wrong, in
many ways this year has been the best year of my life hands down but sometimes
it's the small things that can damper any positive thing that happens. One of
my biggest flaws has always been concentrating to much on the
negative in my life while ignoring the great things that would happen along the
way. I could get fifteen compliments about the way I sing or my song writing
ability but I would focus on the one negative comment made. I have always been
my biggest critic and at times my own foe. This time the little thing that was
bothering me was in the form of a short blonde guy. Brian, even during my
conversations with Howie and our laughing fits last night, I couldn't help but
go back to Brian's words. I knew at some point today I would have to confront
him. I didn't want to. I wanted to act like nothing ever happened between us
but sometimes it's just not that easy.
I had to make my way back to the hotel to grab my things before heading to the
studio and as I was walking toward my door, I started to panic. My heartbeat
quickened and I broke out in a cold sweat. I immediately searched the corridor
and calmed down when I saw that Joe was a few steps in front of me getting
ready to enter my room. He gave me a signal to stay put while he checked out my
room and in five minutes he gave me the all clear to enter. My room looked just
as I left it. nothing looked violated and I didn't see anything even resembling
a letter. I quickly gathered my things and fled. As I was leaving, my cell
phone rang just about scaring me half to death!
"Hello?" silence on the
other end. "Hello?" I said again getting annoyed. This was the fifth
time this week I had gotten a hang up call. I was just about to hang up the
phone when I heard a barely audible voice "one from another..." then
there was silence again. I put the phone closer to my ear to see if I could
make out what was happening but all I heard was clicks. I
immediately looked at the caller ID fearing it was one of the guys even though
the voice didn't sound familiar at all. The ID button read unknown.
"Huh that was weird"
Joe looked at me with an inquiring look
on his face. "What was weird?" he asked me as we entered the
elevator.
"I just got a call from some guy
and all he said was one from another ." He took my phone and studied it as
if it held the key to some kind of mystery. He then shrugged and handed it back
to me.
"Maybe it was a wrong
number" he said.
I laughed "yeah, maybe they were looking for the
incomplete thought hotline." I thought it was funny but Joe just rolled
his eyes.
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We arrived at the studio ten minutes late only to find out that it would be
just three of us for most of the day. Brian and A.J had some charity event to
participate in which left me, Howie and Kevin twiddling our thumbs for about
the first hour of studio time. Part of me was relieved to find out that Brian
wasn't there. I had no idea how things were going to go between us today and
truth be told, I didn't really feel like dealing with the stress. The other
part of me, my inner child who I had fought to drown deep in the center of my
brain, told me to be jealous. I was jealous. Only as recent as January, any
charity event that Brian would be called for he would immediately ask me to tag
along. I did the same. now it seems he turns to J for everything. I never
realized how replaceable I could be but I guess life goes on right? I mean I
should have seen it coming. When we split from The Firm it was Brain's and J's
idea. None of the other guys had a clue. Bri and A.J went to the other guys and
told them their plan. They had said they spoke about it over some long talks
while sipping on coffee. Kevin and Howie finally agreed with them
and decided to hold a meeting with our management; leaving me totally in the
dark. Little did they know that I had been in talks with the Firm myself over
going solo. It was all going to be laid out in a band meeting which I had
called for later on in the week. I had told them I wanted to go solo several
times so it wouldn't have been much of a shock. The problem was, when we went
into the meeting the guys scheduled with the Firm, that was the first time I
heard we were firing them! Of course management had no choice but to tell them
about me staying on as a solo artist. When The Firm announced my alternate
plans, you could hear a pin drop in the room. I didn't even make eye contact
with them because I already knew what would be staring back at me. "Well,
what he chooses to do is his own deal, we however want to go elsewhere"
Brian had said before he stormed out of the room. Thinking back on it now,
that's the last time we had spoken before I rejoined the boys this past week.
When the meeting broke off after Brian's abrupt exit, Howie and Kevin looked at
me with a pure look of disgust. They didn't say anything to me about what
happened. It was A.J who said "How could you do this to us?" then
they walked out leaving me to feel alone. In many ways that day was the last
day that we were the Backstreet Boys....
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"That sounded great Nick! we'll keep that take" I took my headphones
off and headed into the booth to hear the playback of the song the three of us
were working on. Howie gave me a little hug as I entered the control room and
Kevin nodded in agreement with the compliment Glen had given me. It was about
4:00 which meant we were almost finished for the day. The three of us got a lot
of stuff done. We laid down tracks for 6 different songs and Kevin and I
CO-wrote some lyrics together. Brian and J called saying they weren't coming
today because their thing ran longer than expected. So it turned out to be an
extremely productive day.
"Hey, you guys want to go out for
dinner tonight? my treat" I said while putting my gameboy back in my
backpack.
"Did I just hear right? did
Carter just say he would treat?" Kevin asked while putting on his jacket.
"Man I'd hate to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity but I have plans
sorry dude." Kevin then waved at us and left. I looked over at Howie
"Sorry kiddo, I'm meeting Alex
for dinner, my guess is that Brian will be coming too but you're more than
welcome to join us if you want" he said and then gave me another friendly
hug. I wonder if he was jealous too? Probably not, it's to immature for D. It's
definitely more my speed than his.
"no thanks, If Brian was there it
would be to awkward. Go have fun and tell them I said hello."
After Howie left I ran back to put the
rest of my things in my backpack when I saw a manilla envelope sitting next to
my bag on the floor. I looked around nervously before slowly approaching the
envelope. I got up really close to it, grabbed it and was about to open it when
I heard a door slam. That got my feet moving and I ran out of the studio
leaving my bag behind. I wasn't looking where I was going and suddenly collided
with Joe knocking me to the ground.
"Where the hell is the fire
Nick?" He said helping me to my feet. I handed him the envelope and within
minutes, he was down the hall checking out the room. "There's nobody in
there, did you see her put this down?" he asked me while he walked towards
the other end of the hall.
"Nope, it was just there waiting
for me"
"Okay, well let's get out of here
then we'll open this later."
"I need to go get my bag" I
said as he followed me closely into the room where I had left it. I shook my
bag and unzipped it to make sure nothing was tampered with, then we walked out
not noticing the figure remaining in the room staring at us with a complete
look of satisfaction on it's face.
***
