Chapter 29

Christmas had come and gone, all the joyous holidays ending with little more than a small dinner together.  As hard as everyone tried to get into the holidays and party spirit, it never happened.  It seemed as if the Boys’ lives were slowly being destroyed by some unknown force.

AJ’s depression had increased and no matter what anyone did, he couldn’t get over the drama from the previous six months.  His life was falling apart.  Things had gotten so bad that he even cancelled a performance of his Johnny No Name act on his birthday.  He quickly took to drinking and found it as his only escape from the world around him.  Howie was extremely concerned about him.  They had been best friends for over 10 years, and it suddenly seemed like their friendship was breaking apart.

Howie had tried everything he could think of.  The only things Howie had going for him was his relationship with Katrina.  He had finally decided that he was going to ask her to marry him, but was waiting for the right moment.  He had talked to Nick about it.

“Dude, I’m gonna ask her. You don’t think it is too sudden, do you??” Howie asked nervously.

“Too sudden??!!  Hell Howie, I asked Heather after only going out with her twice.  And you think you are being too sudden!” Nick laughed.

“Okay, you have a point…I will ask her this week.” Howie finished.

For some reason, Howie was starting to confide in Nick more and more.  Even Kevin was coming to Nick for advice.  Everyone was learning that “little Nicky” was all grown up, the father to a beautiful 1 ½ year old, and the loving companion to a woman who gave strength to everyone.

Brian and Leighanne had been trying for another baby.  It wasn’t until the week before Nick’s birthday that Brian had decided to call Nick.

“Frack man, you are never gonna believe this…” he said so quickly that it almost sounded incoherant.

“Slow down man!  What’s going on?” Nick said puzzled.

“I’m gonna be a daddy!” Brian announced.

“Frick, that is awesome!!  Congratulations!” Nick cheered as Liz and Katie looked across the room at him.

“Yeah!  This is great!  But Frack, don’t tell anyone else yet, except for Liz.”  He asked. “We want to keep it low key until we make sure that everything is going okay.  It’s just that we don’t want to rush the excitement like last time, okay?” he finished.

“Sure, Brian.  My mouth is shut.  I swear I won’t say a word.”

“Thanks, I know it will be hard to hide it after a while, but we will tell everyone later.  And, she will be with us on the tour, so I won’t have to fly back to Atlanta every week to see her.”

“Speaking of the tour, do you think that AJ is ready for this?” Nick asked cautiously.

“Well, Nick, I hate to say this, but if he isn’t, then it will be the end of us.  We need all the good publicity we can get right now.  Things aren’t looking too good for all of us, ya know?” Brian replied.

“Yeah, I know.” Nick sighed.  “That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Look, this is the way I see it.  I have seen the guys at Jive talking.  I think they are all trying to find a way to break our contract.  Right now, they can’t…we are just a little too successful for them.  But, one wrong move, and they will have a reason to end this rollercoaster ride we have been on for so many years.” Brian explained.

“And, with all this bad publicity—the court case, AJ punching that reporter, and our lack of visibility to our fans, it sure seems as if we are killing ourselves.” Nick said solemnly.

“But, to tell you the truth Frack, I don’t know how to fix it.” Brian sighed.

“And neither do I Frick.” Nick replied quietly.

“Hey, Nick, do you feel the same way I do?” Brian asked.

“What’s that?”

“That the reign of the Backstreet Boys is about to come to an end?” Brian asked before he hung up the phone with his best friend.
 

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