By Julie
“Hey,
why are we stopping?” seventeen year old Nick Carter asked, glancing out the
windows of the Backstreet Boys’ tour bus.
He found that the bus had pulled over to the side of the road in what
looked to be the middle of nowhere.
The
other four guys, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, and Kevin Richardson
glanced out the windows as well.
“What
the heck?” AJ asked.
“I’ll
go ask Lonny what’s up,” Kevin muttered, heading towards to the front of their
bus to confront their bus driver, Lonny.
A
few minutes later, he came back. “Guys,
the bus broke down. Lonny doesn’t know
what’s wrong, but the engine died, and he can’t get it to start again.”
“Damnit,”
AJ cursed.
“Watch
your mouth,” Howie said automatically, giving nineteen-year-old AJ a look.
“Yes,
Mother,” AJ said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Nick laughed. The others did not.
“Well,
what are we going to do?” Brian asked.
“Can
we get off this thing? It’s hot in
here,” Nick whined.
“Yes,
get off,” Kevin said in exasperation.
Being the oldest of the group, and nearly a decade older than Nick, it
never took long for Kevin to get annoyed with him. The guys were all used to it by now.
Before
Nick could get off the bus, Lonny came back to where they were sitting.
"The bus is stalled. You guys might have to miss your next
performance," he said apologetically.
"What!? We can’t! This one’s the most important one," Nick
whined as he sat down and crossed his arms.
"Sorry, guys.
I'll call a tow truck and management," Lonny said as he walked off.
"We could always reschedule it," Howie
said as everyone nodded. Howie
was always the optimist, finding the good out of everything that went wrong.
Brian suddenly felt a sharp stabbing pain in his
chest. Alarmed, his hand automatically
went to the left side of his chest. He
quickly pulled it away, not wanting to scare the others.
"I'll be right back,” Brian said suddenly,
making his way out of the tour bus, trying to act casual. His breathing had become harsh and rapid, and
his chest felt tight. He sat down on the
curb along the street outside and took in slow, deep breaths, but the pain
wouldn’t go away. Suddenly fatigued and
worried, he put his head in his hands.
He waited there for a few minutes, and finally, the pain
diminished. It was a good thing too, for
at that moment, Kevin emerged from the tour bus.
"You okay, Bri?" he asked, his green
eyes peering down at Brian in concern.
Brian nodded quickly and stood up. "Yeah, I'm fine, just needed some fresh
air," he explained casually, as they walked back into the bus.
Once inside, Brian headed straight to his bunk and
sat down, pretending to become engrossed in the latest issue of Sports
Illustrated, as the other guys puttered around outside, waiting for help to
arrive. But Brian could not concentrate
on the magazine. He would not admit it
to anyone else, but inside, he was scared.
***