Nick narrowed his eyes at all the attention Denise was showering on AJ. All the attention he craved from his own mother. It hit him exactly how homesick he really was. He and his mother didn’t have the relationship that AJ shared with Denise, but the thing that bothered Nick the most was the fact that AJ’s mom was with him 24/7 and his own mom wasn’t. She was too preoccupied with his sibs.
Now he had the difficult task of sucking it up and acting all happy at AJ’s birthday party bash. No expenses were spared for her baby and the tables were filled with the finest foods that money could buy. Bottles of beer and wine were sitting on ice in huge steel tubs that were set at different ends of the hotel lobby.
Easily accessible.
“Hey Nickster, see you found where the food was,” AJ laughed as he clamped a hand onto the blondes shoulder.
“Yup,” Nick mumbled in reply as he kept walking out of AJ’s grip towards a table that was away from everyone. He decided he wanted to be alone in his misery.
To his dismay, AJ flipped a chair backwards and straddled the seat, facing the table. “So, you having fun? Isn’t this a great party that ma put on for me?”
“Just peachy,” Nick replied with a mouthful of food. “Wait until my birthday, my mom’s gonna have a spread like this one too.”
AJ nodded, but his mind was elsewhere as he watched some of his guests enter the room. He abruptly stood up, grabbed his bottle of beer and left Nick by himself.
“Asshole,” Nick mumbled as he watched AJ walk over to a few recording excutives. Denise rushed up to stand beside AJ, fussing over her son. Rolling his eyes, he plowed his fork through the potato salad and started shoveling the food into his mouth.
“Hey Nick, some party, eh?” Howie asked as he took a seat opposite of his band brother.
Nick nodded his head and kept up with his preoccupation with his plate, not wanting to get involved in a conversation with anyone.
“Can’t you at least look at me?” Howie questioned.
Nick looked up from his plate briefly, batted his eyes and then looked back down, scraping the fork across the now empty china.
“Oh really sweet, I’m touched,” Howie joked. “What’s bugging you?”
Nick sighed. “Oh, it’s stupid I guess.”
“No, tell me!”
Nick looked around the room, resting his gaze on AJ’s back. “Okay, how come Denise is being Miss Liquor control around here and AJ gets to drink beer and if I go near the booze Denise barks at me and says ‘Nick’s drinking soda, right Nick?” he mocked in a not-so-flattering voice for AJ’s mother.
“Image maybe? I don’t know for sure Nick,” Howie replied, shrugging his shoulders.
“Well it sucks and I’m not gonna have Denise tell me what the fuck I can do,” Nick decided. “She’s a pain in the ass and she always acts like she’s my mom or something. My mom wouldn’t ride on my back the way that woman does,” he grumbled.
Brian joined Nick and Howie at the table with a plateful of fresh fruit.
“Aren’t you gonna eat any ham?” Nick wondered aloud as he looked at Brian’s choices.
He shook his head. “Nope, I’m limiting my protein intake.”
Stuffing a half of a ham sandwich into his mouth, Nick grinned. “Suit yourself. Howie, go grab me a beer.”
“You can’t have a beer, you can, however, have a soda,” Brian politely offered.
“But I want a beer,” Nick whined.
“You’ll get nothing and like it,” Kevin interrupted as he walked past the table. Nick flipped his older brother off.
“Nickolas Carter!” Denise McLean glared at the young boy and shook her head disapprovingly.
Sighing, Nick slumped back into his chair. He glared darkly at Denise. “God, why can’t she just leave me alone?”
“Because she knows your track record, son,” Howie pointed out. “Hey, where ya going now?”
Nick stopped and spun around. “I’m going back to the buffet table, is that okay with you mother?”
“I thought you already ate, you’re still hungry?” Brian and Howie questioned.
Nick threw his hands up in the air. “Well, I can’t drink so I might as well eat.”
“Now there’s a smart theory,” Howie mused.
“Yeah like Wild E. Cyote, Super Genious versus the Road Runner,” Brian chuckled, shaking his head.
“Aren’t you two keeping an eye on Nick?” Kevin hissed as he leaned over his cousin’s shoulder.
“I didn’t know we were supposed to watch the boy,” Brian replied, brow furrowed.
All eyes were trained on Nick as he walked back with another plate piled high with food.
Kevin patted the back of Brian’s shoulder. “Someone needs to watch him or plan on staying up with him tonight because he’s gonna have one hell of a belly ache if he keeps up. Just do it!”
Howie and Brian exchanged glances.
“Well, he seems to be concerned about Nick but not enough to take care of him,” Howie observed. “Leave anything on the table?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Nick growled, placing a protective arm around his plate of food.
“Seriously Nick, you need to slow down or you’re gonna get sick,” Brian begged.
Only his middle finger was held into the air as his reply to Brian’s pleading.
“Okay, this is just stupid Nick,” Howie huffed as he pushed himself away from the round table. “What kind?”
Brian’s mouth dropped.
“Bud,” Nick replied with a mouthful of food.
“Bud it is, be right back,” Howie grinned.
“But Howie, he’s not supposed to drink,” Brian called after the Latino.
“You’d rather have the alternative? I’m not going to be sitting around with that gas bag after he stuffs himself the whole fricken night!”
Nick belched loudly on cue. “What are you talking about?”
Brian looked like he would throw up at any moment. “That right there, that’s gross!”
Kevin ran a hand through his hair as he stared at Brian and Howie. “You know I gave you two specific instructions about Nick!”
“What we did wasn’t wrong,” Howie defended.
The sounds of wretching carried out of the open bathroom door.
“Yeah and Nick puking his guts out is the aftermath of what you did is okay?” Kevin paced.
“AJ got shitfaced too!” Howie pointed out.
“AJ is Denise’s problem tonight, not ours,” Kevin hissed, watching Nick crawl on his hands and knees out of the bathroom towards his bed. "And you two can spend the night with him since you decided to get the kid drunk."
Howie, not being a fan of someone throwing up winced at Kevin's suggestion. "But..."
Kevin turned as he reached the door. "Have a good night," he smiled, cutting off Howie's protests.
Howie watched the young teen crawling into the bed and grimaced when Nick started burping and moaning. "Thank you Kevin Richardson!"
