Kevin watched in amazement as Nick shoveled in spoonful after spoonful of the forbidden ice cream treat AJ ordered. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn that Nick was denied food of any kind by the way he was eating. "You can slow it down a little there Nicky," the older man suggested.
"This is really good," Nick replied, mouth full of brownie blizzard.
"Nick, don't talk with your mouth full," Howie admonished.
Brian handed a paper napkin over to Nick. "Here, wipe your mouth off."
AJ smirked as he studied Nick. "You know he'll never change his table manners."
Nick scraped the bottom of his cup and a loud belch escaped his lips.
"Whoa dude.....you better check your shirt!" AJ chuckled.
"Bone! Don't encourage!" Kevin reprimanded. "Nick, say excuse me."
Nick looked up from the cup over to Kevin. "Huh?"
"I said to say excuse me," he repeated.
"Why?"
Brian and Howie grinned as Kevin tried to reinforce manners into Nick. "I think this is gonna be a lost cause," Brian quietly stated.
"It won't be a lost cause until I make it one," Kevin insisted.
"My tummy hurts," Nick moaned.
AJ looked over at Nick with a sympathic expression. His way of making things up for what had happened to the blonde was buying him a large Brownie Blizzard and now Nick was paying for it.
Laying his head down onto the table, Nick started sliding his empty cup back and forth across the table.
Kevin poked Nick in the side of his ribs, whispering, "Nick, sit up!"
Nick obeyed but soon found himself slouching down into the booth, desperate to find a comfortable position.
Brian cupped a hand over his mouth. "Nick! Did you just fart?" Just as Brian's words came out of his mouth, AJ pulled the neck of his tee shirt over his nose and made gagging noises.
"Holy shit Kaos!"
Kevin's face turned a shade of red when the smell assualted his nostrils. "Nickolas Gene Carter.....there is a place called the bathroom when you need to do something like that!" His quick whispered lecture fell on deaf ears.
Nick started squirming in the booth. "I have to go to the bathroom," he announced loudly.
AJ grimaced, fanning the air in front of his face. "You probably already have."
"I think you were right about the lactose thing," Brian decided as he noted the look of discomfort on his best friend's face. "This was a mistake letting Nick eat that Blizzard."
Kevin looked across the table at his cousin, the expression on his face told Brian that he was thinking 'I-told-you-so', but didn't bother saying it.
Nick rocked his body back and forth in the booth. "I gotta go to the bathroom!"
"Nick! Did you just shit your pants again?" AJ snapped.
Nick looked over at the rebel, wincing. "I gotta go to the bathroom....bad!"
"It's back over that way," AJ gestured with his finger toward the doors a few feet back from their booth.
"You hafta come with me," Nick whined.
"You're a big boy. You can do this one on your own," AJ replied.
"AJ, go with Nick since you decided to buy him a large ice cream!" Kevin muttered.
"Fuckin great," AJ mumbled. "I'm not wiping his ass!"
"I wasn't expecting you to," Kevin groaned. "Just go and make sure he comes back."
AJ grumbled to himself as he eased his body out of the booth. His mouth dropped in shock when he noticed Nick standing in the aisle, squirming with one hand grabbing onto the front of his pants. "Nick, don't grab yourself," he said in a shocked whisper.
Nick quickly obeyed and without warning, grabbed AJ's hand.
AJ could feel the heat rise in his face after Nick took his hand. He instantly pulled his hand out of the young man's grasp and leaned over to whisper, "Big boys don't hold hands with guys in public places."
Although Nick's legs were longer than AJ's he couldn't seem to keep up with the tattooed rebel's quick stride toward the men's room. Brian watched with an arched eyebrow as 5 foot 6 inch AJ quickly out paced a 6 foot 3 inch Nick. The scene quickly ended with AJ and Nick disappearing behind the heavy steel mens room door.
"I hope he doesn't get mean with Nicky in there," Howie sighed.
"Are you kidding? AJ is feeling so guilty over Nick he'll treat him like he's his own son," Brian theorized.
"Let's just hope that Nick doesn't ask AJ to wipe his ass when he's done," Kevin muttered. "AJ can be so crass about things it's hard telling what he'll do in a situation like that."
Brian's face turned red. "I don't even wanna think about that."
AJ pointed at the toilet. "Okay kid, first stall, go in and I'll wait for you out here."
Nick entered the bathroom stall and closed the door. It quickly popped open. "It....it won't close."
"Judas priest...there's a knob you turn or something," AJ muttered, pulling the door wide open. "See this knob here, you turn it after you close the door and it keeps it closed. Okay? You do it."
Nick followed AJ's example. "Yeah."
"Good....like I said, I'll wait for you out here."
For a few minutes, it was just AJ and Nick in the bathroom. As he waited, AJ leaned against the wall. Suddenly the door opened and a man with a young boy entered the facilities. He looked at AJ suspiciously as he guided his son into a larger bathroom stall. "Ah, Nick, I'm going back out."
"NO! Stay with me!"
AJ rubbed a hand across his face dramatically. He knew that the man that was in there was figuring that they had to be a queer couple. "How about I wait right outside of the bathroom?"
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Nick yelled, his voice bouncing off the tiled walls.
"Oh for fucks sake," AJ grumbled, leaning back against the wall.
The bathroom grew quiet, punctuated only by the sound of the dripping faucet
"My tummy hurts," the blonde whined.
"I know Nick, you've already told me that once," AJ replied. "Just try to go."
The man and his son came over toward the sinks to wash their hands. AJ smirked at the adult. "This isn't what you think it is....my brother," AJ started out, as he gestured toward the closed stall door. "My brother is a little slow and it probably looks weird to you--"
The man shook the excess water off his hands, splattering the mirrors as he did the actions. He turned toward AJ with a foul expression on his face. "I have a daughter that is Down Syndrome and mental retardation is nothing that should be made fun of!"
"I wasn't making fun of anyone, asshole!"
"You had a stupid smirk on your face.....I take that as making fun of someone!"
"Fuck off!"
The older man took his young son by the hand, "Come on Mason!"
AJ shook his head and softly chuckled. "Bet that kid has trouble finding friends with a name like Mason....pansy ass freak."
"AJ?"
AJ sighed. "Yes Nick?"
"Those are bad words and Kevin would be mad if he heard you say those bad things."
"Yeah...yeah, I know. Are you done yet Carter?"
"Yeah....can you, um, can you?"
"Wipe your own butt...I refuse to do that!"
"I wasn't gonna ask you that! I can't get the door open!"
"Christ....you can't?" The sound of the door bumping against the lock acknowledged the statement uttered by Nick. "Turn the freakin knob."
"I tried," Nick whimpered.
"Turn it again!" AJ urged.
"It won't turn," Nick tearfully replied.
"Shit.....just crawl under the door....."
"I don't want to get all icky!"
"Well see you later then, kid."
"NOOOOOO don't leave!"
"Then hurry your ass up and crawl under the door!"
"Okay."
Just as Nick got half of his body out from under the door, an older man entered the bathroom, glaring at Nick laying on the floor and then at AJ.
"Door's jammed," AJ explained.
"You don't think Nick has a problem in there?" Howie wondered outloud.
"I hope not," Brian replied as he eased himself out of the booth. "I'll go check." Brian only walked halfway down the aisle when AJ and Nick appeared. "What the heck happened?"
"If you cared so much you would have went in with Kaos," AJ muttered as he walked past the younger Kentuckian.
"Nicky, are you feeling better?" Brian softly asked.
Nick rubbed his stomach as he shook his head. "No, my tummy still hurts."
Brian sighed. "I guess you shouldn't have eaten ice cream. We should have known better than to give you that stuff."
"I ran away from you one time when you were talking on a microphone."
Brian stared at his best friend. "Yeah I have talked into a mic before. What do you remember?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders. "I keep seeing you in my head holding a mic."
"We were in a singing group. Remember when you heard that song today that girl had?"
Nick nodded his head in agreement.
"That's what we did, we sang together and I guess you're remembering things that happened when we were on tour together. Do you remember seeing AJ with a mic?"
Nick looked over toward the booth where AJ sat. "Yeah but he was doing some funny things on the floor."
Brian mentally groaned when he realized that Nick remembered when AJ would hump the stage floor during concerts.
"AJ dances weird," he explained.
AJ narrowed his eyes at Brian. "I dance cool dipshit."
Brian swatted the rebel's shoulder. "Humping the stage floor has never been cool!"
Howie caught the look of confusion on Nick's face. "Um, guys I think this would be a good time to get back in the car and take Nick home. They told us he needed to be back before six."
Kevin glanced at his wristwatch. "Crap, I didn't realize it was getting late. Are you ready to go home Nicky?"
Nick shook his head. "I wanna have more ice cream."
AJ shook his head. "Sorry bud but that stuff makes you a total gas bag."
"Nick ice cream isn't compatible with your system," Howie quietly agreed.
"Whats compatible?"
"It sorta means that your stomach is having a fight with you," Brian explained.
"Oh...so that's why my tummy hurt?"
"Yes Kaos, that is why you farted so much and stunk up Dairy Queen."
Kevin shook his head with disgust. "You know AJ, you could use a little tact when you explain things to Nicky here."
The rebel threw his hands into the air as he started off toward the door. "It always falls on me, you guys can't blame the boy anymore so naturally you pick on Alex."
"You wouldn't have that happen if you weren't such a retard," Brian smirked.
After the five men returned to the vehicle, Kevin took the scenice route back to Sunvalley, relying with the OnStar that was in the rented vehicle to guide them since none of them had a clue to the backroads in Texas.
Looking into the rearview mirror, he caught sight of Nick with his head on Brian's shoulder, his eyes closed. "Is Nicky sleeping?" he asked softly.
"Yes," Brian replied quietly as to not wake the blonde up. A small whimper indicated that he failed in his attempt. "S-h-h-h, go back to sleep hon," the Kentuckian soothed.
"I don't feel good...my tummy hurts," Nick moaned.
AJ automatically cracked the window on his side of the vehicle. Kevin smacked the rebel hard on his shoulder. AJ jerked his body away from the older man, quickly rubbing the offended area. "What the fuck did you do that for?" he rasped.
"I've got the air conditioner on," Kevin hissed.
"Yeah well Kaos said his stomach hurts so you know damn well he's gonna fart any minute."
Kevin rolled the car window up and clicked on the window lock button from his control panel. AJ realized instantly what the older Kentuckian did when he tried to crack the window and was rewarded with only clicking noises for his efforts.
"You are such a dickhead," the rebel muttered.
"Guys, just play nice, wouldja?" Howie pleaded from the seat next to the blonde. "All he said was that he didn't feel good, he probably had just too much stimulation for one day." Howie turned his attention back to the ill blonde, smoothing the young man's bangs from his eyes. "It's okay, how are you feeling? Any better?"
Nick could only moan back in reply.
"You know that was really stupid of us to let Nick have that ice cream. Remember in Munich that one time when Pearlman caught him after he had eaten a half gallon of ice cream in the hotel room? Lou had Nick's ass in a sling for that after Nick spent the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening with the shits and his stomach got so bloated that his stage clothes didn't fit him well that night for the concert," AJ remembered.
Listening to AJ, Nick pictured a room with two double beds with floral bedspreads and bright blue carpet. It was a room he had never seen before. In his mind he saw a sweaty fat man yelling at him angrily. "Was Lou fat?" he asked quietly.
"Yes Nick, Lou Pearlman was a very fat man," Howie replied.
"Did he sweat a lot?"
Brian leaned over to look at Howie. "Do you remember Lou?"
"I don't know but I see someone like that."
"Nickster remembers fatass Lou!" AJ chuckled. "Of all the things for you to remember Nick, that's damn funny you'd remember fatass Lou!"
"What else do you remember Nicky?" Kevin asked as he glanced into the rearview mirror at his younger brother.
"Did they put girl stuff on my face?"
AJ turned in his seat. "Girl stuff?"
Howie snapped his fingers. "He remembers the stage makeup!"
"Yeah Nick, they put makeup on our face because the lights would make us look washed out," Brian explained. "What else do you remember buddy?"
Nick rubbed his hand across his forehead. "My head hurts."
"That's okay...we're home Nick," Kevin said as he guided the car into the parking space.
The men walked back into the facility, and then after checking in at the front desk, they walked Nick back to his room.
Once they reached the room, Kevin wrapped his arms around Nick in a fatherly gesture, hugging the young man. "Did you have fun today?"
Nick nodded his head in agreement.
"I had fun with you today even though you fricken stunk up DQ," AJ grinned as he patted Nick on the shoulder.
"We all had a good time," Howie offered, holding his arms open. "Can I have a hug before I leave?"
Nick allowed the Latino to hug him and lightly returned the gesture. Brian followed suit, giving Nick a bear hug and whispered, "I'll see you later buddy."
Tears sprung into the young man's eyes. "Will I see you again?"
"Aww, buddy we'll be coming back tomorrow if you want us to," Brian replied.
"I do!"
"Visiting hours are over and Nick needs to take his shower," a matronly nurse stated in a crisp voice as she entered the room.
"He's got a little stomach discomfort going on," Kevin explained to the woman.
The woman's stern looked relaxed. "Oh, poor baby, we'll make sure we get you something for your tum-tum."
"It's called a stomach!" AJ spat. "How can you people expect Nick to get better if you use baby names for every freakin thing?"
"Ignore my friend here," Howie jumped in when he detected the nurse's angry glare. "He thinks he's an authority on every subject."
The nurse grinned, "It's okay, I'm used to working with slow people."
Kevin chuckled. "AJ, you just got burned. Nick, we'll see you tomorrow," Kevin stated. "C'mon guys." With that the three men followed the eldest band member out of their brother's room, Kevin desperate to distance AJ from the nurse before he succeeded in offending her to the point of upsetting Nick.
