___Balance
<chapter 4>

"Hey, Nick, can you pass me my coke real quick?" AJ McLean, one of his friends and bandmates, asked engrossed in the movie that was being broadcast on TV. Nick looked at him, annoyed at how lazy he was. "Damnit, J, you have arms. You can get your own coke." 

AJ shook his head lightly, his eyes not moving from the screen. "No, dude... I can't.." he said slowly. Nick eyed him. "And why the hell not?" Nick questioned. AJ grinned wickedly, totally engrossed in the movie. "The good part is coming... seriously. I can't miss a part with out interruptions, you know. I can't do two things at one time," AJ reasoned.

Nick rolled his eyes and sighed. He grabbed AJ's half full can of Coke and handed it to him. "Here, bro, here's your coke," Nick said as he pressed the can against AJ's arm. "Wait, wait... here... it-"

"We interrupt this presentation to bring you this special 6 News bulletin."

"NOOOOOOO! God... YOU STUPID SON OF A-" "AJ shut up!" Nick yelled at him.

"Hello, I'm Connie Johnson with an exclusive update on the murder of Officer Brian Creighton, Sr. We have gathered exclusive tapings of security cameras within the premises of the station. We go to Jorge, who, for the past 6 hours, has been covering the story. Jorge?"

"Holy shit... it's that case, the dead officer one," Nick whispered. 

"Eh?" AJ asked. "Sh, sh, sh," Nick motioned at him.

"Thank you Connie. We have, indeed, gathered some footage of the security cameras, um, outside of the station. As you can see from the footage,"  the screen showing Creighton leaving closing the door. "As you can see, the other figure with him is, indeed, Lt. Charleston, but when the shooting was taken place, Charleston had left the scene."

"AJ, hey, AJ... you see that? It can't be that guy." Silence answered his question. "AJ?" AJ was silent, his face long as he stared at his coke can. "I was watching the, the.. movie and... it stopped. It was getting to the good part." Nick sighed, shaking his head at AJ's mourning. "Look... I'll buy you the movie ok? You can watch Angel's In The Outfield anytime you want," Nick promised.

AJ shrugged his shoulders, taking another gulp of drink. "So-" AJ began his statement until his cell phone rang. "Oh, hold up."

Nick nodded his head lightly, his eyes on the broadcast. "No other witnesses have yet been on call or came forward to identify the killer, but we did get a statement from Sandra Watson, daughter of Officer Creighton. She states, quote, 'I don't know who wanted to take my father's life away. He was always a good man and whenever he was working, he did his justice and never put any one down. I really don't know if it's related to the case he was working on or just a random thing some psycho decided to pull on someone. I have no other way to explain the way I feel right now. My mother and I wish this was a dream or a joke, but I guess it's not,' unquote. Our condolences and prayers go out to Mrs. Creighton and their family. Tomorrow, if not, later in the week, we will have a taped interview with her and ask her some questions. Connie."

"Ok, thank you. If nothing, we do have some sort of extra evidence found on Officer Creighton, am I correct?"

"Well, evidence wise, the investigators have found out what kind of gun was used. The bullet that had penetrated and killed Officer Creighton was a .44 Caliber gun. As I'm speaking, investigators are going through every file out in the U.S. for the gun. Hopefully that'll help the investigation. Again, no leads as to the killer, but we will bring some more evidence tomorrow morning on Early Sunrise at 6 in the morning. Back to you Connie."

"Thank you again, Jorge. As he mentioned, we will keep up the investigation and new information on this case tomorrow morning on Early Sunrise. Now back to your previous broadcast which is in progress."

Nick tried to soak up all the information that was leaked out by the reporters. Then he started thinking 'why am I so interested about this?'. Then realized he lived in the Tampa area, that he father may have some sort of connections with the police department, and well... he was just like Jorge... curious.

"Hey, Nick, I gotta bounce. Howie called me a minute ago and was telling me he wanted to go chill at the club," AJ announced when he re-entered the living quarters. 

Nick nodded his head, looking up at where AJ was standing. "Maybe it'll get your mind off the movie, especially the part that you missed so tragically!" Nick dramatically acclaimed. 

AJ walked toward the door and gave a sarcastic laugh. "Later, white boy." 

"You's a ho.." Nick called back. Before AJ could close the door, he peeked his hand around and flipped him off. 

"Nice, J. Enjoy you're trip," Nick giggled after him.

"Well, girl," he said to his dog, Nikki, "better get to bed. We got a long day ahead of us." Nikki, his wrinkled, youngest pup, grunted and turned on her back, waiting for Nick to pick her up.

Nick sighed, shaking at her actions. "Not tonight. You need to start learning how to get your lazy butt up and walk." Nick got up from his chair and headed up the stairs. As he walked, he could hear Nikki whimpering, begging him to come back and carry her up with him. Nick picked up his head as if knowing what was going to happen, yet frustrated by her callings. He marched back downstairs to her and sighed.

"This is the last time I do this. You're getting too spoiled for this," he said to her as he picked up her and carried her under his arm comfortably.

"The last damn time."

TBC... <chapter 5> coming soon