“I called this meeting for a reason,” Kevin sighed as he looked at the sober faces of Brian, AJ and Howie. “I want to let you know first off that this wasn’t my idea.”
“Then how come the kid isn’t here?” AJ rasped, scowling.
“Because the meeting is about him,” Kevin replied in a calm voice.
“Great what did Kaos do this time? Steal towels or soap or something?” Brian questioned.
“Bet he pissed off someone in the lobby and we’re getting yelled at about it,” Howie filled in.
“Nah he probably did something really crazy knowing that dork,” AJ snickered.
Kevin rubbed the bridge of his nose as he listened to the younger men debate on what the meeting was about. He didn’t look up until the comments had finally died down.
“C’mon dude, what the hell are we sitting here for? I got things to do with my downtime besides sitting in a freakin hotel room listening to you,” AJ spat.
“I was waiting for y’all to shut the hell up,” Kevin remarked, still rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“We shut up, tell us so we can leave please,” Brian begged.
Kevin looked up at the three men sitting on the bed across from him. “The reason I called this meeting was at the request of Lou, Johnny and Donna---”
“Oh shit,” AJ muttered, getting an angry glare from Kevin tossed his way. “Sorry, go on.”
“The reason I called this meeting was because management wants us to keep a tighter watch on Nick and we all have to take our turns.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Howie questioned.
“What I mean is that since Nick is a minor and he cannot be left unattended because of his past mistakes, we, as a group have to pull together and take turns.”
“Take turns?” AJ questioned the words, a suspicious look in his eyes.
“That’s right, take turns.....I guess you could call it babysitting,” Kevin muttered.
”Babysitting?! No fucking way am I gonna babysit that foul smelling brat!” AJ muttered as he stood up.
”Sit down! You can and you will do it, we’re all going to do it and we will be taking turns doing it,” Kevin growled.
AJ folded his arms across his chest. “Why should I have to be responsible for that dorkhole?”
“Because we are all taking our turns and on the weekends we will do a lottery to see who takes the Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays,” Kevin explained. “And because you’re 18 now, and as much as I hate to say it, that makes you an adult.”
“I’ll take Mondays” Brian offered.
“Tuesdays,” Howie called out quickly, winking as he glanced at a scowling AJ.
“AJ that leaves Wednesday or Thursday up for grabs,” Kevin urged.
“I can’t believe I have to babysit that blue eyed freak of nature.....”
“Okay AJ you get Thursday,” Kevin stated as he wrote on the pad of paper, “and I’ll do Wednesdays.”
“Thursday? You gotta be shitting me!”
“Yeah, you didn’t say a day so I picked one for you,” Kevin smiled. “And I think the best way to determine who does weekend shift, I think we should go alphabetically - by first names, so that means AJ you get this Friday, Brian gets this Saturday and Howie will have this Sunday.”
”Hold on! Someone got the good end of the deal on this!” AJ protested.
“That’s the way things work, end of story,” Kevin snarled. “Well since today is Thursday, you will be on duty today and tomorrow AJ.”
“Okay now this is absolute bullshit,” AJ protested.
“Treat Nick nice AJ, he doesn’t know about this and he won’t know about it so you better be on your best on your days, understand?” Kevin eyed the rebel singer with a glare. “If I hear that you did other than what you’re suppose to be doing, Lou will be getting involved and you could be on full detail Sunday through Saturday until the end of the tour, is that clear?”
“This isn’t in my contract,” AJ sputtered.
Howie clamped a sympathetic hand on AJ’s shoulder. “Just think of Nick as your baby brother.”
“I’m an only child, asshole!”
“Wakey wakey Nicky,” AJ grinned as he softly called to the young blonde sleeping peacefully in the hotel room.
Groaning, Nick threw the pillow over his head, rolling over onto his stomach. “Leavemealone!”
“Rise and shine Kaos....time to get a move on kid,” AJ sing-songed.
A long, boney arm came out from under the blankets, flailing toward the offending voice. “Go away!”
AJ pulled the neatly tucked blankets out from the bottom of the mattress at the foot of the bed. Gritting his teeth, he attempted to pull the covers off of Nick but was met with resistance as the blonde grabbed the covers from his end.
”NOOOOOO LEAVE ME ALONE!
“Listen Nick, you have to get up, it’s not my idea but fatass Lou’s.”
“But why?” Nick whimpered. “I thought we have today off.”
“Yes and no,” AJ corrected.
The blonde finally emerged from under the covers; hair disheveled, eyes red rimmed from lack of sleep. “What does Mr. P want now?”
AJ fanned his face with a hand. “Whew Nicky you stink!”
“I Do not! I showered last night!”
“I wasn’t talking about your body, good god Kaos, did you eat a giant bowl of garlic before you went to bed?”
“Leave me alone or I’ll blow on your face,” Nick retorted.
“Just get yourself up and ready, go hit the john and I’ll get your clothes out for you,” AJ replied as he stepped over the pile of clothes on the floor. “Jesus Nick, don’t you take care of anything you wear?”
“Dammit AJ don’t touch my stuff, get out of here and leave me alone!”
“Calm your whiney ass down a notch!” AJ rasped as he picked up a pair of jeans with the tips of his fingers.
Nick reached out to grab the jeans; AJ stepping aside so all Nick grabbed was air. “Where’s Bri? Why are you in here anyway, this is our room not yours!”
“Room assignment change, you’re gonna be my buddy for the next two days,” AJ replied dryly.
Nick furrowed his brow as he stared at his older brother. “No way, I thought you weren’t suppose to bunk with me, your mom made that clear to management.”
“Unfortunately, things have changed, now get dressed kid.”
“Quit calling me kid, I’m sixteen!”
AJ spun an index finger in the air. “Whoopdedooo, sixteen. Well I’m eighteen and you have to listen to me cause I don’t want to get my ass chewed and I have things I’d like to do today besides being stuck in this hotel room with a whiny sixteen year old pain in the ass.”
Tears welled up in Nick’s eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. Without hesitating, he stomped off into the bathroom at a fast pace, hoping that AJ didn’t see the tears. God forbid he would be labeled as a crybaby!
“Hurry up cause you have to be with Ruth in a few too,” AJ cackled.
”Shit!” Nick mumbled as he stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. If it wasn’t bad enough that he had to work last night and didn’t get to bed until well after midnight, it was another thing that he had to sit for two hours with his tutor as well and today was geography day - his most hated subject!
“Ah the joys of being a highschool student,” AJ laughed as he threw himself onto the other bed.
After a few minutes of standing in the bathroom, literally ripping the comb through his hair when he was having a stubborness fit, Nick finally emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped tightly around his waist.
“You are alive! I was beginning to wonder if you flushed yourself down the toilet.”
“Can you just go away or something?”
“Nope, can’t do that, we’re bunk buddies, remember?”
Nick stood glued to the carpet, a firm grip on the towel. “Since when does that include rights to watching me get dressed you perv?”
“I am not a homo and don’t you ever think that, you got me kid?”
“Then go someplace besides in here, okay? I can’t get dressed with you laying there staring at me!”
AJ picked up the remote control and turned on the tv. “Satisfied? I won’t take my eyes off the tv.”
Nick scooped the clothes that were laying on his bed and walked back into the bathroom.
“Jeeze, and you think I’m queer?” AJ scoffed when the bathroom door slammed shut.
The breakfast meeting was unusually quiet with Nick picking at his food, sitting slouched in his chair. Kevin couldn’t help but notice that the normally wound up teen was silent.
“Something wrong Nick?”
“No, just tired,” he replied, covering his mouth as he yawned.
“You wouldn’t be tired if you hit the sack after the show instead of foolin’ around with your damned video games,” Lou Pearlman snapped.
“But I didn’t play video games last night, I swear,” Nick defended. “Right Bri?”
Brian held his hands up. “Don’t drag me into this Nick.”
Nick shot a pleading look at Brian, giving his ‘puppy dog eyes.’ Brian tried to look away from the teenager. “Seriously Nick.”
“Well that will stop tonight since he’s bunking with me,” AJ replied, placing an arm around Nick’s shoulders. “Ain’t that right?”
“It never started,” Nick mumbled. “I only played to one level it wasn’t a big deal, I needed to wind down.”
“You need to learn to restrain yourself Carter,” Pearlman sputtered. “That’s the problem with you and I can see it will only cause more problems when you get older if you don’t learn some better habits now.”
Nick jumped to his feet, scooting the chair back. “Oh like everyone else here is the perfect person? I’m outta here!”
“Where do you think you’re going? I didn’t say this meeting was finished!” Pearlman boomed.
”I have classes this morning! Remember? I’m only sixteen.”
“Just let him go,” Denise McLean stated as she shook her head. “He’s a spoiled little brat and he’ll get whats coming to him someday.”
No one made a reply to Denise’s remark, but Brian and Kevin exchanged sideways glances. They knew from prior experiences that Denise’s opinions weren’t something to dispute.
“There is the reason why you boys need to be with Carter 24/7. No one is to leave him alone, is that understood? Alex I am counting on you today and tomorrow,” Pearlman growled.
“Why is my AJ being counted on?” Denise questioned.
“Because we’re taking turns watching Nick,” Kevin explained.
“As far as I’m concerned that Carter boy is nothing but trouble and I really don’t like the idea of Alexander being placed with him.”
“We are all taking turns and Nick is not that bad of a kid,” AJ defended to his mother.
Denise raised an eyebrow in question at her son. “That has yet to be proven otherwise.”