“I hate all of you,” AJ says as he looks out the small plane’s window as the landscape of Sicily starts to come into view.
“Cheer up, AJ,” Kevin says turning around in his seat and looking at him.
“Why is he even living her? He doesn’t speak Italian.”
“ They all know English too,” Howie says, “Now be quiet we are about to land.”
As soon as the lands the guys get up and AJ grabs his carry on bag before looking around.
“Why are we not parked at the airport?”
“We have to walk down stairs from the plane and then ride a little bus thing to the airport because it’s so small.”
AJ just stares at him and sighs, but as soon as he steps outside and walks down the stairs he turns to look at Brian, “It’s the fucking surface of the sun out here.”
“C’mon, AJ, I’ll find you some air conditioning,” Brian smiles and walks over to a small bus.
The four of them pick up their luggage and get on a bus that will take them to their hotel, which had air conditioning for AJ. They go to their rooms, which were adjoining, and each room would be shared by two of them, Brian and Kevin shared a room while AJ and Howie shared the other.
“So how do we find him?” Howie asks walking into Brian and Kevin’s room with AJ, “It’s a good size island we have to search.”
“Someone has to know where he is,” Kevin says, “What about the police? I’m sure they know for security reasons.”
“Go call them,” AJ says motioning towards the phone and then walking over to the small balcony. He opens the door and looks out at the view of the ocean, “I have to admit this place is beautiful.”
“Yeah,” Howie says as he looks back over at Kevin who is talking slow even for Kevin to the person on the phone repeating the name Justin Timberlake about five times.
“Ok. Thank you,” Kevin says to the person on the phone as he scribbles down some things on a piece of paper then hangs up the phone, “We found him.”
The four of them stare at a three-story row house that had marble stairs leading up to the large wooden door. And a small gate in front of it that encircled the small front yard they had which was comprised of a small fountain, some plants and a table and chair set. There was no grass; there was no grass on the whole island because it was so dry. The house was a tan brick color like all the other houses they had seen.
“Can I help you?” a voice comes from behind them and they turn around to stare at a girl with black hair and a nice tan her gray eyes staring at him. She has holding two bags in her arms and looked she was about to drop them at anytime from their size.
“We’re looking for Justin,” Kevin says.
“Why?”
“We need to ask him some things.”
“You’re American.”
“Yeah, um we were the Backstreet Boys,” AJ says as he sees her eyes light up as she remembers the name.
“Oh come in,” she says walking past them and pushing the small gate open with her hip.
“Can we help you with those?” Howie asks motioning towards the bags.
“Oh please do,” she smiles as he takes on of the bags and they finally see her stomach, which showed her to be very pregnant at the time. She takes a key out of her pocket and opens the door walking inside as the four follow her, “Justin! Justin, you have company!” she yells walking into the house.
“Oh thank God air,” AJ says as he walks into the house last and closes the door behind himself.
To say the least the house was far from what they expected Justin’s house to look like. The bottom floor had a sitting room with bookcases, a piano, a couch, coffee table and some nice chairs. The floor was all tiles and there was a bathroom on the right. You could see straight through to the back of the bottom floor where a glass door was leading to a small garden with fruit trees and a table set. Around the wall from the sitting room there was a kitchen with the normal stove, microwave, refrigerator, counters, cabinets and a table with four chairs around it. There was a set of stairs leading up from the kitchen and a small elevator on the right side leading up to the next floors. The thing that surprised them the most was the whole house was spotless.
“Justin,” she yells up the stairs.
“What?”
“You have visitors.”
“Ok.”
“He’s coming,” she smiles and puts the bag on the table and Howie puts his down. She starts pulling out some food from the bags and puts them in the cabinets, refrigerator or freezer.
“Who is…” Justin says walking down the steps and staring at them, “Oh fuck no,” he says and runs back up the stairs.
“Justin, wait,” Kevin says and runs up after him as the other three follow.
Justin was walking through another sitting room, but this one was more of a living room with a big leather couch, a table, and a big screen TV along with a stereo. He stops and turns around to stare at them.
“Get out of my house,” he points his finger towards the stairs, “Now!”
“We need to ask you about Nick,” Brian says, “Please.”
“What about Nick?”
“Do you know where he went?”
“No,” he says shaking his head.
“He had to tell you something,” AJ says, “You told him about this.”
“I did not.”
“Yes, you did,” Ness says walking up the stairs and staring at him.
“Nesssss,” he whines, “I told you not to take the stairs. I had this damn elevator put in here for a reason.”
“I’m fine,” she says as he walks over to her and helps her over to the couch.
“Here,” Brian says and hands Justin the journal open to the entry Nick had written.
“I…I don’t remember this,” Justin says as he reads it, “God, I blacked out again during this time.”
“You blacking out anymore?” AJ asks.
“No,” Justin snaps glaring at him, “I stopped that shit as soon as I left the States.”
“Nick was scarred,” Ness says as everyone turns to look at her even Justin, “He didn’t want to be Nick Carter anymore. He wanted to be normal. He hurt himself a lot too, more then just the cigarette burns. Justin would be high and he would sit there making little cuts on his legs with a pocketknife he had. They were all up and down his legs. He passed out one night from drinking so much and I took it from him. I through it in Justin bag, so he wouldn’t find it. He only bought a new one though,” she sighs, “He told us that he wanted out so bad that it hurt. He said he was going to get out at any costs and I told him to stop talking crazy, because he talked like that even when he was sober. He told me to shut up and leave him alone. He wanted everyone to just leave him alone. He ran out of the suite, but came back the next night and apologized then he told me to watch out over Justin before it was too late. I never saw him again after that. The next night he vanished.”
“You never told me that,” Justin says staring at her.
“I never thought you would care.”
“He left because of me?”
“No, you just gave him the idea,” AJ says.
“Thanks, AJ,” Justin says sarcastically.
“He would of thought of it anyway,” Brian says, “He was too far gone.”
“Do you guys have a place to stay?” Ness looks at them as Justin stares at her in shock.
“Yeah, we have hotel rooms.”
“Are you sure we have three spare rooms down that hallway,” Ness points to the hallway behind her.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Brian says
“We better go,” Kevin says, “Thank you for telling us what you knew,” Kevin says as he heads down the stairs and the others follow him.
“Good luck with your baby,” Brian adds sticking his head around the corner and smiling before heading back downstairs.
“I like them,” she looks at Justin who only frowns at her in reply.
“That was pointless,” AJ says walking down the steps from the house.
“He was really lost, that’s all we’re sure of now. He got what he wanted and he wanted out,” Kevin says.
“Wait!” Justin yells standing out on his balcony looking down at them, “Nick had a chest at his house. It was blue. He told me to tell you about it.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier like a year ago,” AJ yells up.
“Because I hated you!”
“Oh well that makes it all clear now,” AJ yells again.
“I’m sorry. Just go find it. It’s at his house.”
“Thanks!” Kevin yells up.
“Your welcome!”
“Don’t you feel better now?” Ness walks up to him as he sighs and hugs her rubbing her stomach.
“Hey name your kid Alexander!” AJ yells up.
“Oh God,” Justin mumbles.
“I like that name,” Ness smiles.
January 15, 2001
We won a Grammy today. The other guys were making a big deal about it so I pretended that I cared. I thought I was going to see Kevin just break down and cry at the podium he was so worked up. They all really wanted this and we finally got it, so I’m happy. For them that is, not for myself. I could care less if we won or lost. I have about ten nomination things hanging on my wall. We all went out and partied afterward and honest to God I forgot about everything and just had fun. AJ and I got drunk and started singing any song they would play at the Firm party. Kevin was drunk and dancing around like an idiot while Howie was basically pimping himself again. Haha, Howie you crack me up I swear. Women are like exotic birds; it had me laughing for about a half an hour. I just wish he would stop calling me Nicky in public. Brian stayed with Leigh most of the time, but I caught him doing the electric slide with her. Brian and AJ also conned me into doing the “It’s Raining Men” dance. I swear if anyone ever sees that I will have to beat both of them. The best thing about it was that not one time the whole night did anyone ask me what was wrong with me or am I ok. If a Grammy gets us a party like that I want one every year. Well one every year until I’m gone that is.
Brian looks up from the journal that he was reading on the flight back to Orlando. He smiles as he pictures Nick being pulled by him and AJ onto the dance floor. He was drunk off his ass and seemed to know every move to the dance. It cracked Brian up while he was doing it. The three of them had spent the dance cracking up and bumping into each other until AJ fell over. Leigh had told him later she had never seen them all so happy in years, just genuinely happy.
Of course Nick always knew how to ruin the moment. “Well one every year until I’m gone.” He had already made up his mind that he was going to leave before they had even really known it had gotten that bad and that scarred Brian. It scarred him to know his best friend would be this far gone and he didn’t even have a clue about it. He hated being not informed about things, that was his major flaw. Him and Kevin both liked to be right all the time and try and fix other people’s problems, even where they weren’t needed.
All five of them knew that Nick was getting worse, but he put on this persona that he was happier then ever to the public and the public believed him. Hell, if Brian hadn’t known himself he would have bought it too. Nick was a good actor regardless of what other people thought. The worst feeling was one he had now though. Ness made it seem like Nick would do anything to get away from the life he lived. Brian was beginning to wonder more and more if AJ was right. Maybe Nick had killed himself and his body is still out there, but he didn’t like to think about that.
Of course the fact that Nick had learned from the best actors seemed to have an effect though. AJ who said he was fine now, was sipping on a glass of brandy his fourth on the flight. They all knew AJ was slipping back into his old lifestyle and that was what Brian was worried about now more then anything. He wasn’t going to lose another one of his best friends. Howie had pushed the idea of Nick being gone to the deep recesses of his mind. He dropped himself into his work and that occupied his mind all the time. Kevin had given up the business all together. It reminded him of Nick, so he got out of it. He would scout people for their label, but that was about the extent of it. Brian was and still is in total denial of the event. He could picture Nick strolling through the door one day and acting like he had seen him the other day.
It was official they were all screwed up and they wondered why Nick had become so messed up.
