”I am sooo tired,” Brian moaned as sank down beside AJ at the breakfast table. Rubbing his eyes frantically he tried to wake up. But it was no use. His body felt like lead.
“Yeah? How come?” Howie asked as he sat down on the chair, setting his full plate on the table infront of him.
“Well let me put it this way..there is NO way you can sleep when you have Nick running to the bathroom all night, making the most horrible noises that one can ever hear.” He wrinkled his forehead in disgust.
“Ewww that sounds nasty,” Howie agreed, “he was in no shape yesterday at all.”
“No, he wasn´t.” Brian sighed, then yawned loudly, “Sorry man,” he appologized.
“What a bum to catch the flu at this point. On his birthday and all,” Charles the drummer in the band said as he shook his head from pity.
"If the dude at least could have been drunk so it could have been worth it," AJ pondered, getting an eye both from Brian and Howie.
"What?" he asked, holding up a hand he defended himself, "I was just stating facts."
"The flu always sucks," Peter, their bass guitarist said., "Nick looked pretty bad off. I almost felt sorry for him," he grinned, "almost."
‘Yeah right,’ Brian thought. Even if he wanted to tell the rest of the guys about the bingeing he wasn´t about to do so. Deep down inside he felt a bit bad since Nick had gotten so sad when they said that they were going clubbing. The arranged surprise party had become a disaster Nick wise. He slapped himself mentally for not listening to his friend when he told him that he wasn´t feeling well at all. Yet he had pushed him, both from wanting to surprise him, but also from being pissed over the way Nick abused his body. He was no health freak but had the highest respect for the body feeling that it was a sacred place that one should take good care off.
“Man, helllloooooooo,” AJ shouted, waving a hand infront of Brian, “Anyone there??? Youuu hoooo?”
“Knock it off,” Brian swatted his friend's hand away like it was an annoying fly.
“Dude, you were spacin’ out like Nicky boy.” AJ grinned as he peered over his glasses, “By the way where is fatass at?”
“Sleeping.”
“Well he better get his ass up now,” Kevin said as he came into the room. “ Johnny and Lou are upset over the way he behaved yesterday and they want to have a loooooong talk with him.”
“Oh crap.” AJ shook his head. Now he knew that Nick was in for another round.
“Nick is in no mood to talk right now.” This was truth since he had left the blonde moaning in bed, still having an stomachache from overinduging himself.
“Yeah the flu can be rough,” Charles agreed.
Howie who also knew the secret shook his head. He had been very disgusted with the blonde and seeing all those candy wrappers as well as cookie crumbs had his stomach rumble. “Nick needs to stop eating so much,” he mumbled getting a surprised glance from the rest of the boys.
He could swear that Brian looked at him in a certain way, like he knew what was up with their friend. Nick always overdid everything. Whether it was being emotional to pigging out it didn´t matter. He was either high or low and resembled that Energizer Bunny from the commercial. He was energetic until his battery suddenly died down and there was no way in getting energy into the dude.
“Yeah, but I pretty much doubt that he will be in for any food today,” Brian said as he took a sip of his tea.
“Or cookies.” Howie added. This comment had Brian looking over at the Latino. Did he also know about Nick's binging? He tried to catch his eye, but Sweet D’ just looked away.
“Either way, he has to get up now because we should leave for Kansas city soon.” Kevin concluded, “and like I said, management wants to have a word with him.”
“Okay,” Brian stood up, pushing his full plate away. He had no appetite this morning and all he could stomach was tea and some toast. Being up all night always had Brian's system go haywire and he didn´t function properly on too little sleep or food. That made him grumpy and in the end sick. Brian Littrell needed his beauty sleep!
“Where are you going?” Howie asked, rasing an eyebrow, “you´re not gonna eat that?” He gestured with his fork towards the food that Brian had left.
“No,” Brian shook his head, “I´m not that hungry, besides I´m going to get Frack up and that is a task that won´t be easy.”
"Yeah," AJ grinned, "you better bring an oxygen mask. The way Nicky looked you might need one."
"Lethal waste." Charleds added and they all laughed out loud.
"More like Nulclear waste." Brian smiled too.
After making a few jokes, Kevin was the one that had them back to seriousness again. “You need to eat cuz, we can´t afford you to be sick on this upcoming European tour,” he said with a frown.
Brian glanced at the Kentuckian. Kevin always had a hard time expressing his feelings. He knew deep inside that he was very worried over the upcoming heart surgery, even if he didn´t say that out loud. To tell the truth so was Brian too. Worried. What if something happend? What if he didn´t make it? The thoughts swirled around his head and these days he felt pretty moody. He knew that he was not being much comfort to Nick who seemed always to be moody as well.
“I will, well I´m getting Nick now so we can leave.” With that he walked out of the breakfast room, leaving the rest discussing the way the youngest member had acted at the surprise party. Nick was always a topic for discussion. Good and bad.
Brian hesitated slightly before stepping in to their room. There were no sounds which indicated that Nick must have fallen asleep while he was away. It was dark since the curtains weren´t set aside and the smell of sickness lingered in the room. He pinched his nose since it didn´t exactly smell like roses. Walking over to the bed he saw that Nick was fast asleep, curled up into a ball. He was covered up to his neck with the bedspread and all that was showing was a piece of blond tousled hair. A moan was heard which had Brian hunching over on his knees.
Nick looked like a small boy, not the eigthteen year old that he was.
“Nick,” he murmured softly as he tried to get the teens attention. A slight movement, but not enough to wake his friend up from the fitful sleep that seemed to have him in his grip.
“Nick,wake up.” This time Brian shook him lightly, “Come on man.”
A groan was heard then a pair of blue eyes opened up, staring at him, “What time izzit?”
“It´s past nine. Nick you have to get up we have to to get on the bus.”
All that was received was a loud groan, “Not the bus!” His voice was raspy and Brian felt sorry for him. Nick was in no shape to go on a long bustrip.
“How are you feeling now?” he asked as he pulled the covers away.
“Like crap,” The covers were pulled up again, “I´m freezing.”
“I know,” Brian was silent for a while, “ But you better get started since both Johnny and Lou want to have a talk with you.”
Another loud groan.
“Nick?”
“ Not that too,” his voice sounded pitiful. ”I can´t take this!” A sob was heard and then he put his head under the pillow. “I feel so bad.”
“I know, I know.” Brian whispered. Even tough he felt that this was all due to Nick's own doing he still hated to see his friend so miserable. Standing up he glanced over the room,which was cleaned up from last nights events. Seeing what he was searching for he picked up the black sweats and the tee-shirt. “Is this ok?”
Nick peered up from his cocoon. A short nod, ”Yeah, I don´t want anything that touches my stomach.”
“That bad?”
“Mhmmm..” The teen sat up in bed, wincing, “ I feel like my inside are about to rip apart.”
“Did you get to puke some?” Brian asked frankly. The fact that Nick had been heaving and gagging without no results the whole night and morning had him a bit concerned. Usually Nick found it very easy to get sick, but this time when he needed the most relief it was like his body betrayed him and instead left him in a great deal of pain.
“Almost nothing.” Then he said, “So management wanna have a talk with me, you didn´t say anything to them did you?” He narrowed his eyes to Brian, “you know..about me eating and all.”
Brian shook his head, “No, but Howie knows.”
“Yeah he was with me yesterday when I,” A loud belch interupted his speech, “ahhh that felt good,just what I´ve been waiting for.”
“Nick!” Brian wasn´t squimish but hearing sounds like that in the morning made his stomach churn. From his point of view he thought it was sufficent enough that Nick was the only one enduring an upset stomach.
“What?” The teen rubbed his stomach, “Gosh I feel like an balloon. Now if I just could fart..”
“Nick!” Brian couldn´t help to grin. His friend was always so carefree with everything, including his bodily problems. “You were saying something before..”
“Huh?” The blonde looked puzzled, then he said, “Oh that..well D was here, he followed me and he saw it all.I hope that he doesn´t say anything to Johnny OR Kevin.”
“He won´t.” Brian reassured him. If there was one thing Sweet D’ never did it was talking behind someones back. In the early days he could be such a Goody two shoes, but not these days. Howie had matured and he was a great listener. In fact Brian often went to him to discuss different kinds of problems. He was the bands shrink.
“God,” Nick stood up, bending over slightly, “I´m still full,” he complained as he picked up his clothes and made his way to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him in the process. The sounds that followed were nothing but low. A relieved, “I needed thaaaaaat” soon followed which had Brian laughing. Apparently his problems were solved.
Nick could be such a gas.
