Swollen Issues - Chapter One



“Hey!” Kevin whispered in a sharp voice as he elbowed Nick in the side. Nick drew back from the offending movement and put a hand over his ribs, rubbing them as he glared at Kevin. “Pay attention, this is almost overwith!”

Nick rolled his eyes as he nodded and turned his attention from the scrap of paper that he was drawing on and watched Bruce, their PR manager go over the details of their mini tour to Japan.

“So, you will have connecting flights to Tampa Airport and leaving from there Tuesday morning, November 13th at 6:00, sharp. You will arrive in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday, November 14th at 5:00 a.m., Tokyo time, or 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 13th, states time. There is a thirteen hour time difference. This is why we are going to be in Japan early so that you have time to adjust to the change in times. Are there any questions?” Bruce droned as he peered over the tops of his reading glasses.

He paused as he looked at the faces of the young men seated at the circular conference table. He noticed the color of Nick’s face was flushed. “Nick, are you feeling alright?”

“Yad, I tink I’m geddin a cold,” Nick sniffled.

“You better medicate because you need to be over this by Monday the 19th for the show,” Bruce stated in a not-so-sympathetic voice. “You have less than a week to get better.”

Nick’s only reply was the sound of his blowing his nose.

“Alright, you have the itinerary, I will see you on the 13th then.”

With the meeting over, the group filed out of the conference room to the parking lot.

“Hey Nicky, you better go home and crawl into bed and get some rest, you can’t let this cold get the best of you,” Brian advised.

“I camt imagine libe withoud yor lob,” AJ laughed as he mocked Nick’s voice in singing Drowning with a cold.

“Shuddup, it’s nob funbe,” Nick sputtered, wiping his nose.

“Oh Dick, I lobe you,” AJ teased.

“Aje, leave him alone!” Howie scolded with a grin.

“Nick, seriously, go home and get some sleep, okay?” Kevin advised in a fatherly tone. “You need as much rest as you can get so you will be ready for this tour.

Nick didn’t reply as he literally crawled into the driver’s seat of his BMW, he had his sites set on getting away from everyone, he felt miserable.

Chapter Two

Chapter Index