Four of the Backstreet Boys stood waiting in the dark, offstage. "Where the hell is Nick at?" Kevin growled as he looked over in the direction where the blonde should be appearing from.
"Kaos always picks the worse times to go missing," AJ pointed out.
"I'm starting to get a little worried," Brian stated as he fingered the mic by his mouth.
"I'll go back to the green room and see if he went back there looking for us," Howie offered. Just as he started to turn to leave, AJ stopped him.
"I bet the kid went to find some snacks, I'll go there and look."
"We can't have everyone go looking for Nick right before we're suppose to go on," Kevin sputtered as he ran a hand through his hair.
"So what do you suggest?" Brian asked.
Kevin leveled a glare at his bandbrothers. "I suggest you keep your butts planted and I'll go back to check the toilet by the green room."
"I still think the kid is getting candy," AJ mumbled as he watched Kevin quickly leave.
Brian shook his head in disgust. "Why do you always think that Nick is off someplace eating?"
AJ lowered his sunglasses. "Because nine times out of ten he usually is."
"I still think he went back to the greenroom since he gets lost easily," Howie stated. "Lets just head back there."
Brian and AJ nodded in agreement.
The three men were barely off the stage when they were met with a worried looking Kevin Richardson. "He's not in the greenroom or the bathrooms for the greenrooms. Where the hell is that kid?"
A female stage hand walked briskly past the men, a look of urgency on her face.
"She looks pretty concerned over something," AJ commented.
"Okay since when have you ever looked at a woman's face and commented on it?" Brian spat.
AJ rolled his eyes at the younger Kentuckian. "I don't always look at a girl's ass."
"Guys.....quit bickering!" Kevin shouted, grabbing a stage crew person on the arm. "Why is everyone running in that direction?"
"Someone said there is some commotion over by the mens public rest room."
"NICK!" the four men shouted in unison as they started off only to be stopped by two of their bodyguards.
"It would be best if you guys waited in the greenroom," the muscular man said. "You'll only cause more commotion and it would make it harder for us to contain the area."
Kevin tried to push his fears aside as he reluctantly agreed with the man. "C'mon we'll just have to wait until they bring Nick back."
I blinked several times as I tried to get my vision to clear. At first all I was seeing was the stained ceiling tiles and then unfamiliar faces started to appear. Aww crap! Did I faint again?
"He's starting to come to."
Shit....I did faint! Okay if I just get up, maybe they will stop staring at me and leave me alone.
"Lay back down Mr. Carter."
Mr. Carter? What the heck? "I'm okay...."
Okay, who is this woman and why the heck are these people looking at me funny? Just as I was about to ask what was going on and why was I on the floor in the mens room.....God I hope it's the mens room, why is she in the mens room?
A paper cup was being held above me as this woman took one of my arms. "Sit up slowly Mr. Carter and take a small sip of water."
I instantly felt dizzy when I tried to sit up. I knew better than to complain about that from past experiences with Kevin - wait a sec, where is the pain in the ass anyway?
"Take it slowly," the woman said to me as she held the cup to my mouth.
"I think I can take it from here," I replied as I tried to take the cup with my hand, which I just noticed was shaking like a leaf on a windy day.
"Your hands are shaky, it would be best if I held the cup."
I rolled my eyes beneath closed lids after she said that. What the heck does she think I am anyway? A two year old? Okay, why can't I see clearly two feet past me?
"How are you feeling Mr. Carter?"
"It's Nick," I replied, she could at least call me by my first name since she seems to want to mother me for some reason.
"Okay Nick, how are you feeling?"
"Peachy," I lied.
"His eyes don't look like they're focused."
Hello! I'm sitting right here! Why do people insist on talking about me in front of me? Kevin and the guys always do that to me.
"Hun, you got pushed pretty hard by the looks of it, they've called a doctor to come and take a look at you."
Shit! A doctor, Lou Pearlman will have a cow when he finds that out! "I'm fine, really." Okay, I know I'm not fine but jeeze, I really wanna go back to my room and go to sleep. "Please, just let me get up and you can go back to doing what you were doing before I fainted. This happens when I get warm sometimes."
Okay, paste a Backstreet smile on your face and they will go away........I looked at the sea of faces that were staring at me and I instantly for some reason started to feel sick to my stomach. The next thing I knew I was throwing up the water and probably lunch on the tiled floor. Not good.
"I'm sorry," I mumbled as I wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand. This was sooooo embarrassing.
"It's okay honey," the woman soothed me as she rubbed my back. Thankfully, I noticed that someone had taken action and placed a paper towel over the mess I had made on the floor.
The smell of vomit made me want to curl up and die somewhere. It was pretty embarrassing to puke in front of some complete strangers. Hell it was just embarrassing to throw up to begin with. I ran a hand across my face and it was instantly wet with sweat with a touch of stage makeup.
"Why don't you just lay back down until the doctor comes?"
For some reason, the room started spinning. I closed my eyes, praying it would stop. "I just want Kevin," I whimpered. Just having Kevin here would make me feel tons better.
Usually I would try and sound tough but God, I have to admit I was scared out of my mind. I seriously wanted to cry right now but I didn't want to in front of complete and total strangers. Hell I don't even know for sure where I was besides a mens room. Finally a familiar face came into view. It was Mark, my personal bodyguard!
"I believe he has a concussion," the woman said to Mark.
A concussion?!?
"Nah, I just passed out, I'm fine Mark, just take me back.....please?"
The woman pressed on my shoulder. "He shouldn't be moved until the doctor takes a look at him....I really don't feel comfortable about him being moved until then."
"And you are?" Mark questioned.
"I'm a resigstered nurse."
Okay that lady wasn't gonna back down to Mark? What the heck....
"Well he would be better off in the green room than laying on the bathroom floor don't you think?"
"I honestly don't think he should be moved until the doctor looks at him," the nurse pressed the issue.
"Let me check to see if we can get him safely back to the green room."
Okay I just feel really dumb now....why is Mark acting like this is a hostage situation or something? I wanted to die when he picked up his two-way and started talking to another one of the guys from detail.
"Alright, his managers are going to come over."
Crap! Why is he bringing Johnny and Lou into this? I was just gonna go back to the green room and act like nothing happened. Maybe I should just get up and leave, she wasn't in charge of me anyway.
"Lay back down Nick."
Why was this woman so persistent? Why was I feeling so dizzy and why was my stomach feeling like I was gonna get sick again?
"So what did the boy do this time?"
Shit......hearing Lou Pearlman's voice made me want to seriously throw up again. Instead of acting like everything was cool, I looked up and him and immediately started bawling my eyes out.
So much for acting like a tough guy.
"Lets just move him back to the green room and out of this circus," Pearlman barked to someone out of my view.
With a bodyguard on each side of me, I found myself being led back to the greenroom on my shaky legs. I kept my eyes down to the ground. I didn't want to see people staring at me. It seemed to take forever to get back to the greenroom. I don't remember walking that far away. Instead of feeling relief wash over me when I entered the green room, I instantly felt sick to my stomach and looked for someplace to throw up. Must be someone noticed I looked green because a wastepaper basket was promptly shoved underneath my mouth just in time.
"Shh...it's okay little man," Kevin said quietly as he placed a hand on my back as I was dry heaving into the basket.
I looked up at an out-of-focused Kevin Richardson after I was sure I was done dry heaving. "I'm sorry."
Okay I know that sounds lame, but I figured I had to say something like that. Hopefully Kevin would just let me off the hook and not give me the lecture I'm sure he had planned for me about leaving without Mark.
"What the heck got into you Nick?"
Okay, leave it to AJ to just jump into everything.
"Jay, go sit back down."
Thank you Kevin!
"Nicky what were you thinking about running off like that before the show?"
Lecture time!
"I had to go to the bathroom I guess." At least that was what I think I was doing.....to be honest, I really don't know what I was doing but that sounds like a good guess since I was laying on a bathroom floor.
"Lets get him laying down on the couch," Kevin said calmly as he grabbed a firm hold on my arm.
"I'm fine," I said weakly.
"You're not fine," Brian interrupted. "You just threw up."
Don't remind me about that!
"Someone said he has a concussion," Mark said as he led me to the couch.
"How did that happen?"
Now it was Howie that was asking questions. When I looked up, I noticed that Howie, Kevin, AJ, Brian, Lou and Johnny were staring down at me.
"I...I dunno...I guess they rushed me or somethin' like that." Placing a hand gently on the back of my head, I winced when my palm made contact.
"Did you bump your head?" Howie asked as he leaned in to look at me closer.
"I can feel a goosebump so yeah, I guess I did," I answered.
"You're lucky you didn't split your head wide open!"
I gave Brian a half smile. "Thanks, I knew you could look at the bright side of things."
"What in the hell did you think you were doing Carter!"
God....why did Lou have to yell?
"It's just like you to run off and fuck things up Carter! You were out of your mind running off without security! You've made another mess!"
"Lay off!"
Okay I was happy that Kevin came and rescued me from Pearlman's yelling but why did they both have to yell?
"Can you please stop yelling? It hurts my head," I whimpered, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
"You're lucky that it's only your head that hurts!"
"I SAID ENOUGH!"
"So when do you think you can clean yourself up to go out onstage?"
Now it was AJ coming to my rescue. "I don't believe what you just said. Didn't you just hear them say that Nick has a concussion?"
"Yeah that isn't the best idea for him to go out and run and jump around," Brian agreed. "You know how everyone expects us to dance and interact with the crowd. There is no way Nick can do that. A concussion is a serious brain injury."
"Well that is just ducky.....what am I going to tell that crowd out there?" Pearlman demanded as he mopped the sweat from his forehead.
"I don't know, that's your job not mine," Kevin sneered.
And so it actually happened.....not only was I given a red card but the rest of the group as well. Our concert was postphone until the next day and Lou gave the instructions that the crowd was told that there were 'security reasons' that the show had been cancelled. My relief was short lived when Pearlman informed us that we would be doing back-to-back concerts instead of getting a two day break for travel we would literally have to be performing as soon as we left the bus for the next three days!
My life sucked even more and thanks to me, everyone will have to suffer.