Fall From Grace
Chapter 41
By Danielle
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Despite the hundreds, if not thousands of times they had done this before, Nick never got over being nervous about it. No matter how big they were, no matter how many concerts they sold out, the feeling was always there in the back of their minds. Along with the nagging little voice that asked 'What if you go out there and no one is there?'. He knew they'd all had a dream before of going out on stage, ready to perform, only to face a wide, open chasm of vacant seats. In an industry where you are only as good as your last single and all but a chosen few had countdown clocks hanging over their heads, they knew this nightmare would come true one day.
Usually the feeling wouldn’t go away until they could peek beyond the curtains and see the people sitting there, their fans, waiting for them. But this time, to Nick, it felt different. The nerves were still there, but they weren't nearly as bad as they usually were. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt different today.
He looked to the other four in the room. Brian was saying a last minute prayer, Howie was pacing three steps forward and three steps back in the space by the door, Kevin was going over the show schedule and AJ was fidgeting and bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet. He smiled slightly; well at least nothing had changed with them.
The count in from commercial was started and they heard the small studio audience fall quiet and Carson Daly start the intro into the show.
With one last check over by a P.A. of their wardrobe and mics, they were shepherded out into the studio and into the stools waiting for them. As usual the squeals were deafening and for the first time he could remember, Nick had to concentrate on not wincing at the sheer volume.
Carson was sitting at the end of the row their stools were in, at a right angle so he was facing them. Waiting for the noise to die down, he looked down the line at each of their faces, Kevin, Nick, Howie, Brian and AJ all stared back and offered small smiles before facing the audience and giving them all the wide grins they were famous for.
When the audience commotion had faded away to a level where Carson could talk without it getting lost in the noise, he raised his mic to his mouth and smiled, "Good Afternoon, guys." He paused as they all greeted him and looked at Kevin sitting beside him, "We're just going to go into it right now and I'm going to ask the question everyone wants answered. You ready for it?"
Kevin nodded and took a deep breath, "I know what you're going to ask, but go ahead. I'm ready."
Carson paused, milking the moment. "We all know about the diagnosis of cancer. How are you doing?"
The audience quieted down to near silence as Kevin gave a small smile, "I'm taking it a day at a time. I've got a great support system in my family and these guys right here. It's a good day today."
Carson leaned over to look at the other Boys, "How are the rest of you doing?"
He was answered with various "fine" and "okay" comments when AJ clocked in with his comment. "I'm excited!"
The audience laughed softly as AJ bounced in his chair and Brian patted his shoulder, grinning. "You'll have to excuse Bone, we forgot to shove the Ritalin down his throat this morning."
Carson laughed, "What are you excited about, AJ?"
With a whoop, he threw his hands up in the air, like Carson was somehow hopeless for not knowing, "New video, man! Brand, spankin', NEW!!"
Rolling his eyes, Nick deadpanned, "I don't know about y'all, but I'm sensing he's a little jazzed about this."
Kevin elbowed Nick, grateful for the diversion that AJ was providing from his health. It had also given Carson the opening he needed to get onto the topic of the video.
Carson took the bait, "Speaking of the new video, Kevin. You're listed as one of the directors on this. How did that come about?"
Looking out into the audience, he saw their eyes watching his every move. They all looked concerned and were looking for any outward sign of him being sicker than he had let on. 'Smile dammit.' His face obeyed and he nodded at Carson, "That's right. We used footage from the last tour and made like a musical scrapbook and thank you to our fans for all the fun we had with them.
Nodding, Carson gestured to the audience. "What do you say we take a look at it?"
The audience went to ear ringing decibels again and Carson smirked, "I think that's a yes." He paused and waited, once again, for the noise to die down. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the world premiere of the Backstreet Boys latest single, the single you voted for on MTV.com, ‘The One,’ right here first on TRL."
With the video thrown, they all watched the monitors, their eyes flickering to the audience to gauge their reaction to it. They knew that the fans would have rather had them do a story video, but hopefully they'd take Kevin's health into consideration and accept this one. But then again, they were all thinking, even if they don't, it wouldn't make any difference with their next single or touring plans because there weren't any.
When it finished, the audience all clapped and hollered. It was subdued, but they accepted this one.
For as much as it didn't matter, Nick still felt relieved for the other guys. Both he and Kevin were done in this business, but that didn't mean that he wanted to leave anywhere but the top, to give the other three their best chance to fly on their own. He clapped Kevin on the shoulder and smiled at him, the same relief flashing in both of their eyes.
Carson was already at the audience line and lifted his microphone to the nearest person to him, "What did you think of it?"
The girl squealed and jumped a little, knocking herself into Carson, who reluctantly put out an arm to steady her, "It was so good! It's like being at one of their concerts, only you get to see more and you don't go home with ringing ears!"
Howie grinned at her, "Thank you, Sweetie!"
Raising an eyebrow, Carson smirked. "How many concerts have you been to?"
She rolled her eyes upward as she mentally counted them, "This tour or in total?" When Carson shrugged she answered, "This tour, six. Total, ten."
There were some whistles in the audience from some people who had yet to actually get their hands on tickets to a concert. The Boys on the other hand, looked stunned but not really surprised. They'd had fans follow them for entire legs of the tour and secretly had wondered if some of them had corporate sponsorship. 'This month of Backstreet stalking brought to you by Kotex, ready to go when you are…' AJ shook himself out of it and paid attention to what was going on, thanking god for sunglasses once again.
"…tattoos you have now?"
He'd snapped out of that just in time. He raised the microphone to his mouth as everyone waited for the tally, "Eleven right now, but more are coming. I want to get a dragon on my back next time I'm in Stockholm and I can get to see my tattoo guy."
That having been answered, Carson made his way back up to the dias where the Boys were seated and grinned in a mischievous way, "We've had the video for a few days now, and we have a couple of questions for you boys…..Howie."
The other four all looked at him and made "burn" noises as Howie looked at Carson wide-eyed, "Uh-oh! I didn't do it man, it was a set up!"
Grinning, Carson waved his hand at the monitor, "Then it wasn't you doing this?" The monitor leapt to life with a clip of the video where Howie was doing what could only be described as the "Spank yo ass as I ride you into the sunset" dance.
The audience broke out laughing as all of the Boys had their mouths hanging open comically at Howie who was blushing eight shades of red. Nick shook his head slowly, "Howard! What in the hell was that?!"
Howie opened and closed his mouth like a guppy for a minute while the audience laughed even harder, "Hey! What do you want me to do? I have to get my attention somehow! There was no way that was going to get lost in the shuffle of AJ shirtless, or Kevin's tall, dark and commanding, or you and Brian goofing around, was it, Buttboy?"
Silence. Total and complete silence. The whole audience knew it was a reference to Nick's cult of "Ghetto Booty" fans out there but for the boys themselves, the subtext behind it was even more hilarious.
Without a word, AJ let out a squeaking noise before he covered his mouth with his hand and ran for the hallway they had entered from, his howls of laughter carrying back into the studio.
Kevin just shook his head and put it in his hands, his shoulders shaking as he tried not to laugh out loud and still look embarrassed to be sitting with the rest of them.
Brian's mouth kept opening and closing before he gave up trying to speak and clapped his hand over his mouth, going red from trying not to fall on the floor laughing. He lost the fight and started laughing, taking the audience with him.
Nick was still looking at Howie with a mix of admiration and you-are-so-gonna-die in his eyes and a red face. His hand whipped out and smacked Howie on the back of the head, but his trajectory was a little off and he got his fingers caught in the bandana on Howie's head and whipped it out into the audience, baring his bald head for the world to see.
The silence was so great you could hear the studio lights humming.
They had planned to reveal that they all had no hair, but not quite in this way. Howie rolled his eyes at Nick and snatched the hat off of him and whapped him on the head with it, "Dork."
The simultaneous gasp from the audience would have moved Nick and Howie's hair, if they’d had any. Brian looked at the audience and could hear individual people blinking; it was still that quiet. Figuring it was better to shock them all at once, like ripping off a band-aid, he fingered the bill of his Kentucky Wildcats ball cap and removed it from his head, feeling naked now.
Kevin hadn't heard them exhale; yet they gasped again. Going on the same band-aid theory as Brian, he slowly removed the gray toque on his head and waited for…there it was. The same gasp.
The four of them and the audience all turned their heads when they heard the squeal of shoe rubber on the floor and they chuckled when AJ, being AJ, waltzed in from the hallway doing his solo hat dance from ‘All I Have To Give’ video. He ended with a flourish by bowing and removing his hat before sitting down.
Kevin rolled his eyes, "You just had to be a drama queen, didn't you?"
Grinning like a Cheshire cat, AJ nodded, "Yah-huh."
Standing from his chair and knowing that his planned thunder had been well and truly stolen, Carson cleared his throat, looking at the still too stunned to react audience. "Well, I guess it's a day of more than one premiere huh?"
Kevin smiled, "They just cannot hack someone other than themselves taking a bold leap in hairstyle, they all gotta follow along like little robots…"
Four hats went hurling at him as he laughed and ducked. "Seriously, the medication I'm on made me lose my hair and these guys, who are amazing, cut their hair off with me. We all locked ourselves in the bathroom and handed AJ a pair of scissors. The only surprise with that combination was that there was no bloodshed."
Snorting, AJ mock glared at him, "Boo? I'm thinking of a finger….guess which one."
TBC…