Chapter 2
By
Bianca
“It
was coming,” Nick repeated aloud to himself. He was sitting on his
hotel bed with his laptop—writing. “Okay, so I’m stuck now.”
A
knock on his door interrupted his concentration and he quickly closed his
laptop. “Just a sec,” he called. He knew it was one of the other guys—likely
Brian or maybe AJ. They were coming to tell him to get ready to leave for the
venue. Even after all these years they still treated him like a child
that they had to take care of. “Doesn’t matter that I’m 23 years old,” he
mumbled to himself.
When
he opened the door, Brian smiled. “Hey man, just came to tell you that we’re
gonna be leaving in about 20 minutes or so. Be ready.”
“’Kay.”
Nick
didn’t understand why they still didn’t get the fact that he wasn’t a kid
anymore. Sure he wasn’t always the most mature person, but he knew when it was
time to be serious. With a sigh, he re-opened his laptop and read over what he
had so far.
It
was coming.
“It’s
coming alright,” he said sadly.
***
“You’re
late,” Kevin’s voice boomed across the empty arena.
“Yeah,
sorry,” Nick said with little emotion. He heard Brian whisper something to his
cousin, but couldn’t understand him.
“Where
have you been?” Kevin asked, trying to keep his temper under control. Nick was
almost an hour late and he had long been pissed.
“My
mom called,” Nick said, looking at his older brother. As much as he loved the
other four guys, he couldn’t wait to get home. They only had three more shows
left before the tour was over, and Nick was becoming very impatient. “Sorry to
keep you waiting with such petty things like my family.”
“Okay,
that’s it.” Kevin had finally lost it. He was tired of Nick’s I-don’t-care
attitude and he was going to put a stop to it. “I don’t know what crawled up
your ass, but I think you need to get over it. We’ve busted our asses while you
sit back and pity yourself and treat the rest of us like we’re bothering you.”
Nick
looked at Kevin and walked up to him…keeping his eye contact. “You know what?
To tell you the truth, I’m not happy any more. You guys—especially you
Kevin—don’t treat me like a grown man. I’m tired of being talked down to and
told what to do. You have to face the fact that you can’t control me anymore.”
When Kevin made no attempt to comment, Nick continued. “After Friday I’m going
home and I don’t intend on doing this anymore.”
“Nick-”
Brian stopped when Nick held up his hand.
“I’ll
be here for the show tonight, but I’m not staying here right now,” he turned
and stalked off.
“Great
going Kev,” AJ said sarcastically.
***
“That
was a great show,” Howie said energetically as they all made their way
backstage.
“Yeah,”
Brian agreed.
“Hey,”
AJ spoke up while wiping his face with a towel. “Why don’t we all go out
tonight? A sort of celebration. One last night on the town.”
“Yeah,”
Brian smiled. “I think we should.”
“I’m
up for it,” Kevin said. Then they all looked at Nick.
“You
guys can go, but I don’t really feel up to it. I have to finish packing
anyway.”
“Come
on Nick, for old time sake…” Howie tried to coax his fellow band mate.
“Y’all
go and have fun,” as he thought back to the exhilaration he felt before going
out on stage with the guys, back to simpler days
***
“BSB
what time is it?”
Nick
looked around at the group. He smiled and felt a rush of adrenaline course
through him. He always loved right before they went on stage…they were all so
excited. He glanced toward Brian who had the cheesiest grin on his face and he
was bouncing as they chanted.
Howie
was smiling, and as always, every few seconds he would wink at someone. Nick
would never understand why.
Kevin,
leading the chant, looked professional even in the silliest of times. Nick
never thought he looked much like a musician, but he wouldn’t dare say that to
Kevin. Instead, he kept it to himself.
AJ
had dyed his hair…again. Tonight it was blue. Not quite as funky as some
nights, but Nick guessed that AJ had gotten lazy.
As
they finished their chant and prayer, they all lined up to go on stage. The
crowd was going crazy with their continuous chant for the group. They had
started the chant halfway through the opening act and it was still going
strong.
“Okay,
you guys ready?” Kevin’s voice boomed over the crowd. “Let’s go!”
***
“Where
do you think he is?” Brian asked, looking around at his fellow band mates. They
had gone out without Nick, and now it was almost 3 in the morning. “He’s still
not answering his cell phone.”
“Rok,
you worry too much,” AJ mumbled. “You heard him today…we don’t treat him like a
grown man.”
“Yeah,
but we have a right to be worried about him,” Brian gave AJ a hard gaze. “I
mean, what if something happened?”
“I
doubt he even went out tonight, Brian,” Kevin’s voice broke the silence that
had fallen over them.
“Uh,
yeah he did Kev. I saw him leave,” Howie told them. “I figured it wouldn’t do
any good for me to question him about it. I thought it would just piss him off,
ya know? He left right before we did.”
Brian
turned his gaze toward the passing buildings. He couldn’t believe what was
going on. Nick was upset at all of them and he could be anywhere. Brian tried
calling his cell phone one last time. He thought maybe Nick would finally
answer, but he had no such luck.
“Just
don’t worry anymore,” AJ said. “He told us how he felt today. He’s a big boy so
we can just let Nicky take care of himself.”
***
Nick
stumbled down the sidewalk of a street he wasn’t familiar with. He glanced at
his watch and barely made out 4:36 am. He had been to nearly every bar he had
passed and gotten a drink. Now, he was completely wasted and he didn’t know his
right from left.
“The
guys are gonna kill me,” he slurred to himself. Almost losing his balance, he
began to laugh. “That was a close one.”
Looking
around the dark street, Nick tried his best to remember which direction he was
supposed to go in order to make his way back to the hotel. His mind, however,
wasn’t cooperating with him. He had no clue where he was and there was no one
around for him to ask.
“What
will the guys think? I’m sure this won’t be good for our image,” he chuckled
drunkenly. “Oh, never mind. There isn’t an image to uphold anymore, is there?
Nope…sure isn’t. I can do what ever the hell I want to and get away with it.”
Suddenly,
Nick heard something behind him. He turned slowly so he wouldn’t fall, but
didn’t see anyone. He shrugged to himself and decided it was his imagination
running wild. After all, alcohol had that affect on him. “What was I saying?”
he continued to think aloud.
Before
Nick knew what was happening, Nick heard footsteps quickly approaching him.
Then without any warning at all, he felt a bottle come crashing down against
the back of his head. Everything was quickly fading, but he managed to stumble
a few more feet before he lost all consciousness. He never saw his attacker and
the satisfied smile on their face.
***
“Hello?”
Kevin’s voice was thick with sleep when he answered his cell phone. Looking at
the clock on his bedside table, he saw the large, red numbers read 5:58. We
don’t have a wake-up call, he thought, confused.
“May
I please speak with Kevin Richardson?” a polite female voice asked.
“This
is Kevin. May I ask who this is?”
“Mr.
Richardson, I’m Joanna Merritt from Memorial hospital,” she began her tone
grave. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. We just had a young man brought in
unconscious and he had your name and number on his emergency contact card.”
“Oh
my God. Nick?” he questioned, alarmed. He knew what her answer was before she
even spoke.
“Mr.
Carter was found on Lincoln Avenue a short while ago. Apparently, he was
assaulted with a beer bottle. He has some rather severe abrasions on the back
of his head and he is still unconscious at the moment.”
Kevin
sat completely shocked. Nick was assaulted. Who could have done this? Who
would want to do this? he thought to himself trying to find any reason that
came to mind. He couldn’t think of anything. “I’ll be there in a few minutes,”
he told Joanna and ended the call. Kevin then immediately made his way to wake
up the other three. He didn’t remember ever getting them up…it was all a blur
to him. The only thing that kept racing through his mind was Nick. He was
attacked and no one knew why. There had to be some reason, but nothing that
Kevin could think of. They just had to pray that Nick was going to be all
right.
***
