Nick stared down at the floor until he couldn't see clearly. He felt horrible.
"I'm really sorry."
And with that he ran out the door.
_____________________________________________________________
Later that night the boys said no more than two words to each other, other than 'Pass the salt', or 'Answer the door'.
Brian couldn't take the pressure any longer. He called all the boys to the back of the bus to discuss Nick's departure.
In the back of the bus they all sat in silence for a few moments. They could tell they had been crying, for their eyes were puffy and red. Especially Nick's. Brian decided they had to work it out eventually.
"Nick, why do you want to quit? We're doing excellent in our careers now! You can't leave! We all need each other!"
"Brian, I just feel it's time. I can't take any of this shit any more. I never said you all had to quit, I just said I was quitting. ME. You guys can stay together."
Brian put a reassuring arm around Nick. Kevin didn't want to beleive it was really happening. He knew it would come some day, just not this soon.
"Guys, just because Nick's leaving it doesn't mean we have to totally break up. We can still do all the songs and pull through this. Yeah, it'll be hard, but I think we could if we really tried."
Howie looked flatly at Kevin.
"Oh, right. We're gonna be just fine when half of our fans leave us sagging, then we'll lose our record deal, eventually one by one we'll all quit, we'll be the New Kids, and N Sync, LFO, 5ive and 98 degrees will take over the world before our eyes. Sounds good to me."
"C'mon Howie, it couldn't be that bad," Brian said, trying to be assuring, but knew the end would be similar.
AJ had had enough.
"Guys, let's just do what Kevin said. Lets enjoy our careers while we have them, put the past behind us and eventually move on. Okay?"
Everyone mumbled an 'okay' and went to bed.
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Later that night Howie's eyes hurt from crying. He couldn't beleive Nick was actually quitting. That was who he thought would be the last to quit. Little Nicky. Suddenly memorys started to fill his mind. He remembered the first time he met Brian with his southern accent. Playing fun tricks with AJ's clothes. Teasing Kevin. Playing video games with Nick. Watching the faces of the fans when they sang for them. Receiving the love letters they got every day. Joking around, making videos, and just enjoying being together. Now all that was gone. All of it. Backstreet would vanish, piece by piece. Howie layed his head back onto his pillow and fell to sleep.
Backstreet wasn't Back.
Chapter 8
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