Picking Up the Pieces Chapter Three
Author's Notes- Yadda... yadda... yadda... first Nifty posting... blah... blah... blah... Backstreet ain't gay unless they say they are... dodedo... 18 and over can be here, under 18 can't...
..... Oh and I wanna thank the five people that have emailed me about my story. You guys rock!! I could also tell you about some of my favorites... but that would take a while. Let's just say that if you don't read:
Beneath it All
Running Thoughts
Because I Love You
Mirrors
Loneliness Unmasked
Tears in Your Eyes
Heaven in Your Eyes
Not Meant To Be
Open Arms
The Fragile
Just the Truth
...You are missing out on some GOOOOD stuff.
And if you have never read Escape and it's companion Choices, Justin's Dark Angel, or 'N Sync Saga... then I am going to find out where you live and do EVIL THINGS to you in your sleep because it is a crime not to read those stories.
(Complains or compliments still go to the same place: Midnight_Violet18@hotmail.com... Oh and if you haven't noticed, I don't feed ANY fuel to the Boy Band Rivalry out there. N Sync and Backstreet are artists in their own right. In Forrest Gump Voice "And that's all I've got to say about that.")
Now you can read the story....(Don't expect me to do that again)
Chapter 3
I woke up to see the moon staring me right in the face. Jeez, what time was it? By looking at the radio clock on the nightstand, I saw it was 3 AM. I also felt a pressure on my lower body.
By looking up, I saw Kevin's sleeping face staring right back at mine. He probably didn't want to disturb me when he noticed I was asleep and must have fallen asleep watching over me. How sweet.
Wiggling out of Kev's embrace I managed to get off the bed. I knew that sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon so I decided to go watch some TV.
Turning on the TV, I plopped down onto the couch and started surfing though the channels, seeing if anything was on at 3 AM. Infomercial, infomercial, dang there are way too many infomercials in this world. Then I finally came across the movie channels. That's when the tears started. The first movie I saw had to be Austin Powers. With how crappy my day has gone so far, this is just the icing on the cake for me, a reason for God to spite me yet again.
Austin Powers is Zach's favorite movie. Him and I have watched it hundreds upon hundreds of times and we could recite the dialogue to tons of scenes in the movie. We had even see the sequel about a dozen times.
I pulled my legs up on the couch and curled myself up into a ball as fresh tears left my eyes.
Kevin woke up rather abruptly when he realized that the warm mass that he had been using as a blanket was no longer there. When his sleep clouded mind finally registered that the warm mass was Nick, Kev shot up from the bed immediately, frantically searching for his friend.
"Nick?" Kev called out softly into the hallway. He didn't get any response but he heard soft sobs coming from the common room. 'That's gotta be Nick.'
When Kevin finally made his way to the common room, he saw Austin Powers on the TV and Nick curled up in a ball on the sofa crying yet again. "Come 'ere." Kevin said softly as he sat down on the couch right next to Nick's crumpled form. All Nick did was silently comply as Kevin left his arms open for another welcome hug. "What is it this time?"
"The m... movie." Nick hiccupped through his tears.
That's when Kevin realized that Austin Powers was Zach's favorite movie. 'Aw geez, if it isn't one thing it's something else.' Kev thought. "Do you want me to turn the movie off?" he asked Nick sweetly.
Nick shook his head yes. Then Kevin shifted slightly as he grabbed the remote and shut the movie off. "Is that better?" Kev asked softly.
"Yeah." Nick said just as quietly.
Kevin and Nick just sat on the couch for a few minutes with Kev rubbing Nick's back muttering, "It's gonna be okay Nicky, it's gonna be okay."
"How'd ya do it?" Nick suddenly asked.
"Do what?" Kevin whispered.
"Get over Kristen."
"I never really got OVER her Nick. I just moved on."
"How'd you move on then? Cause you two were together for so long..."
"Nick, the thing about me and Kristen's break up was that it was mutual. Sure we still love each other, but we weren't IN love anymore. Do you get what I'm saying?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah." Nick said softly.
"What Zach did, was just wrong. No one should do that to someone as sweet as you, you don't deserve it. But me and the rest of the guys are here to help you get over it and move on, okay?"
"Okay." Nick nodded his head into Kevin's shirt.
"I mean that Nick. You can come to us when ya need someone to talk to."
"Kay."
Kevin kissed Nick on top of the head. "You'll get over Zach soon enough Nicky."
The only response Kevin got was Nick snuggling further into his body as he fell asleep in Kevin's arms for the second time that night.
"And it's 7:01 on New York's number one hit music station Z-100." The morning DJ said as Brian hazily woke up in Leighanne's arms to the radio alarm clock. Turning around, he shut the radio off, and wiggled out from her embrace to go take a shower.
"Bri?" Leighanne sleepily asked when her sleep had been disturbed.
"Just go back to sleep baby." Brian said as he kissed Leigh on the cheek. She complied seconds later with a slight smile on her face.
Brian took a quick shower and then put on his favorite pair of worn blue boxers, a pair of jeans, and a loose t-shirt. Him and the guys were supposed to go on Rosie and do a photo shoot a little bit after that, but with this latest break up of Nick's he didn't know what they were going to do now. All of the guys knew that Nick REALLY cared about Zach, and Brian didn't know what they were going to do with him.
Closing the door softly as to not disturb his fiancée even more, he turned around and was met with AJ's less than happy face. "Hey Rok." AJ sleepily said as he rubbed more haziness from his eyes. Of all the guys, AJ was the worst in the mornings. He took the longest to actually wake up.
"Hey J." Brian said as the two of them went to the common room to get some breakfast. That's when they saw Kevin and Nick on the couch.
"How'd they get here?" AJ asked as the two of them stopped in the doorway.
"Don't know J."
"Hey guys." Howie said as he came up on Brian and AJ. "What's going on?"
"Oh, we're just wondering what we should do about Kevin and Nick over there." Brian said as he pointed to the couch and Howie saw his two sleeping bandmates.
"My guess is we should wake at least Kevin up, see what's going on." Howie said as he walked into the common room and started to shake Kevin's shoulder to get him to wake up.
"Wha?" Kevin sleepily said as he started to wake up. "Hey guys." He said softly once he noticed AJ, Howie and his cousin staring at him.
"What's up with Nick Kev?" Brian asked as he looked at his best friend and cousin.
"Let's go in the kitchen." Kevin said as he broke his embrace from Nick and gently placed him back on the couch. The only response Nick gave was to snuggle deeper into where he and Kevin had been sleeping.
Kevin led his three bandmates into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes from sleep. He found the coffee in one of the cabinets and proceeded to make them all cups of coffee. Brian, AJ and Howie all sat down at the table in the small kitchen.
"So what happened yesterday Kev?" Howie asked minutes later as Kevin handed his friends three cups of coffee and took one for himself.
"Nick and Zach broke up yesterday." Kevin said simply as he took a sip of the hot brew and sat down.
"We know that." AJ said as he took a sip of his own coffee. "But we wanna know what Nick told you yesterday."
Kevin took another sip of his coffee. "Well it really isn't my story to tell. But basically when Nick ran down to see Zach at his loft, Zach was being screwed by his girlfriend of about one month. That's why he took so much offense to J's comment."
"That ass." Brian muttered under his breath, but everyone at the table heard him and shook their head in agreement.
"And now Nick's having what I guess you could call security issues and now he feels shitty." Kevin said as he took another gulp.
"Understandable." Howie said. "I'd feel shitty too if I got left for a fuck from someone else."
"So what do we do?" Brian asked.
"Well, I said that Nick could come to us if he needs to." Kevin said as the other three shook their heads in agreement, "and then he fell asleep a few minutes later."
"But how'd you get on the couch?" AJ asked.
"Oh. Well Nick woke up in the middle of the night and tried to watch TV, but he ended up flipping right to Austin Powers." Kevin said as he finished his coffee, the other three knew what was so devastating for Nick to turn to that movie, "then I woke up on D's bed and noticed he was in the common room crying. I comforted him there and we fell asleep in the positions you saw us in a few minutes ago."
The four awake members of the Backstreet Boys mulled over their own thoughts before Howie brought up the question that no one really wanted the think about at that time, "Um, what are we gonna do about the stuff that we are scheduled to do today? Is Nicky gonna come or not?"
"I don't know. On one hand, it would probably be a good idea for Nicky to go to Rosie to get his mind off of Zach, but on the other, with the way he was last night, I'm thinking maybe we should just leave him here at the hotel and tell Rosie he's sick or somethin'. We can always reschedule the photo shoot for later in the week, we'll just have a free afternoon today instead of on Thursday." Kevin planned in his head.
"Okay Kev. That sounds like the best idea we've got." Howie agreed.
"And we should ask Nick if he feels up to going on Rosie." Brian supplied as he finished his own cup of coffee.
AJ yawned as he too finished his coffee. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Tell me what Nick decides to do when I get out." He said as he put his coffee cup in the sink and went to his room, passing the still snoozing Nick.
"I can't believe Zach did that to Nick." Howie said as he shook his head and finished his coffee.
"Yeah, that was kinda heartless." Brian agreed.
"Well, we can't do anything about it now. We just gotta pick up the pieces." Kevin said as he collected his, Brian's and Howie's cups and put them in the sink. Taking out another cup and filling it with coffee, he said, "I'm gonna go wake up Nick."
"Okay." Brian and Howie chorused as they stood up and followed Kevin to the common room.
Kevin placed the coffee cup down on the end table next to the couch Nick was sleeping on.
"Come on Nick, get up." He said as he shook Nick's shoulder slightly.
"Mmn. Don't wanna." Nick said childishly as he turned away from Kevin into the pillows of the couch.
"Come on Nick, you need to get up." Kevin said sternly as he shook Nick's shoulder a little harder.
"Ugh. Fine." Nick said as he sat up and encircled his long legs with his arms. "You happy now?" He said somberly as he looked at Kevin with his bed head and red eyes.
"Here." Kevin said as he handed Nick the cup of coffee off the table to wake him up.
"How ya feelin' Frack?" Brian asked Nick as he sat down next to him on the couch.
"Shitty pretty much sums it up I think." Nick stated as he took a sip of the lukewarm substance.
"Well we're here for ya, like Kev told you last night." Brian responded.
"Mmhm." Nick nodded as he took another sip.
"Do you wanna tell us what happened Nick?" Howie asked as he sat down in the recliner and looked right at Nick.
"Kevin never told you guys?"
"Nope. I figured it was your story to tell, not mine. You tell them what you want." Kevin stated.
"I'm gonna wait for AJ to get here. Where is Bone anyway?" Nick asked.
"He just got out of the shower." AJ said as he walked into the common room and was rubbing his hair dry with a towel. "So what's up Nick? What happened yesterday?"
"Well, you guys saw that I hurried to Zach's right?"
"Yeah. It was hard not to see how happy you were that you were gonna see Zach." Howie supplied.
"Well I went to his loft and when he opened his door he was surprised to see me. We started to do a little talking but he wouldn't let me in, that's when Sarah came up to the door. She was just wrapped in a sheet and she wanted Zach to come back to bed with her. That's when I kinda went overboard and Zach admitted that Sarah was his girlfriend, of how long I don't know, I kinda ran out crying before that." Nick finished as he took a long sip of his coffee to calm his shattered nerves.
"Geez." Howie, Brian and AJ said.
The five member of the Backstreet Boys sat in silence as Nick finished his coffee. When he placed his cup on the table in front of him, Kevin said, "I'll take that to the kitchen."
"Thanks Kev." Nick smiled as Kevin got up and took the cup to the kitchen. When he returned he asked Nick, "Okay, we need to know if you're gonna go to Rosie or not today Nick."
"That's today?" Nick asked as he rubbed his eyes to get the final sleepiness out of them.
"Yup. So are you coming? Or are you conveniently sick today?" Kevin asked as he sat back down on the recliner he occupied a few minutes ago.
"I'll go. It'll be good to see Rosie again."
"Okay. Then why don't the two of you go take a shower and get changed?" Howie said as he eased back into the chair. "I can call Artman studios."
"Okay, thanks D." Kevin said as he and Nick went to their rooms. "Nick your stuff is in the second room on the right. That was originally supposed to be your room, but be careful, Amy is sleeping."
"Okay, thanks Kev." Nick said as he slowly opened up the door and took out his two duffels and put then in room he spent most of the night in.
Taking out a pair of boxers and a pair of jeans, a wifebeater and his favorite white button down shirt, he placed them out on his bed and went to go take a shower. Coming out about ten minutes later he got dressed and towel dried his hair. He threw the towel back in his bathroom for the maid to pick up and walked back refreshed into the common room.
"Hey Nicky, ya feeling better?" Howie asked as he saw Nick sit down on the couch with Brian and AJ.
"Yup." Nick nodded his head.
The phone rang just as Kevin walked in from finishing his shower. "I'll get it." Kevin said, since he was the closest to the phone.
Kevin's face considerably paled as he listened to the person on the other end. "One minute please." He said in a falsetto voice.
The four other Backstreet Boys gave weird looks to Kevin when they heard him. Kevin covered up the receiver on the phone and said, "It's Zach. What'd you want to do Nick?"
Ooooohhh. what is Nick gonna do? I guess ya'll are just gonna have to read the next installment to find out. On a musical note... Who else thinks that 'Black and Blue' is gonna kick ass when it comes out on November 21? Adios mis amigos. Jess.