Chapter
13
The next day, at promptly ten in the
morning, the five Backstreet Boys met in Nick’s hospital room.
Shortly after Nick’s grave diagnosis,
Howie had called Kevin, and AJ had called Brian. They both had sadly explained what Dr.
Fergeson had told them, and Brian made the decision to come to Orlando to be
with his best friend.
He had arrived late that night, but it
was past visiting hours, so the next morning was the first time he would get to
see Nick.
And now, here he was, along with
Howie, AJ, and Kevin. None of them said
much. Tension and emotions were high in
the room. Nick barely spoke to anyone,
just lay around listlessly. Not that any
of the guys could blame him. After all,
he had just found out that his liver was shot, and that if he did not get a new
liver soon, he would die.
Howie and Brian made some nervous
small talk, but Brian was a wreck. He
looked exhausted and depressed, his eyes bloodshot from crying and from lack of
sleep the night before.
AJ and Kevin barely looked at each
other, let alone talk.
But they knew they had to. As a group, they needed to keep together through
this crisis in order to make it through, whatever the outcome.
It was Kevin, their unofficial leader,
who finally got them together. “Well
guys,” he started. “We need to discuss
some things.”
“I don’t want to discuss anything,”
Nick said softly.
“Nick, we have to,” Kevin said. “This is something that’s going to affect
much more than just you. You know as
soon as management finds out, they’re going to be hounding us about touring,
press conferences, stuff like that. We
have to figure out what to tell them.”
“Well, we obviously can’t tour,” Brian
put in. “We’ll have to cancel the rest
of the Black and Blue tour.”
“Nick, did your doctor say anything
about what you could and couldn’t do?” Kevin asked.
Nick shrugged. “I dunno,” he said.
Kevin sighed. “You didn’t even ask?” he asked.
Nick glared at him. “No,” he said. “Did you really think I would? Let’s see, I just find out I’m dying, and
then I ask, “Gee Dr. Fergeson, what about touring? Can I still sing and dance and travel from place
to place on a fucking bus without any sleep?
Can I still sign autographs and have girls scream in my face? I sure hope so, because I wouldn’t want to
let my management down.”
“Grow up, Nick, you know what I
meant,” Kevin said, exasperated.
“Kevin, shut the hell up!” AJ
shouted. “Nick’s absolutely right! Do you really think that we’re going to keep
touring?! Look, I love performing, but
I’m not dragging Nick along on something that could hurt his health even more,
just for the sake of our management and our fans. I mean, I love the fans, but I know they’re
mature enough to understand! Now, why
can’t you be?!”
Kevin’s green eyes narrowed at AJ, but
he shut his mouth and sat back in his chair, his arms crossed tightly over his
chest.
“Well, I guess that’s settled then,”
Howie said. “We do need to talk about
doing a press conference though, and soon, since we have to cancel the rest of
the tour.”
Brian nodded. “Yeah, the fans need to know about this,” he
murmured. He glanced sadly at Nick, and
then looked at his feet.
“We’ll still make appearances though,
right?” Kevin asked, sitting back up.
“I think that’s up to Nick, Kev,”
Brian said, his expression growing cold as he stared as his cousin.
AJ couldn’t stand it anymore. “Kevin, what’s your problem?” he asked
angrily. “All you care about is us
touring and performing. The rest of us
don’t give a fuck about that! We care
about Nick! He’s more important to us
than the success of the group, or anything else. We’re not doing anything unless Nick
feels up to it. Get that through your
head!”
“Shut up, AJ!” Kevin screamed. “Just shut up!”
“Fuck you!” AJ shouted back, his eyes
blazing.
Kevin leapt up, as if he was going to
hit AJ, but instead, he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
“Guys, I’m sorry,” Nick whispered, and
his shoulders began to shake as tears of frustration and desperation filled his
eyes and began to overflow.
***
