Chapter 12
"Hi guys, sorry I'm late, Kristen wasn't feeling too well and I had to hold her head up while she vomited." Kevin said bluntly, approaching A.J., Howie, Danni, and Nick who were all seated at a round table in the expensive italian restaurant. Immdietly, Howie had thrown down his fork, and stopped eating. "Thanks for sharing Kev. I now have lost my appetite." Howie scowled. "Oh man, sorry, forgot. You guys are eating." "Duh." A.J. said. "DUH!" Danni mocked, looking at Kevin with a stern look on her face, and than smiled and started laughing. Kevin looked at Nick who just continued pigging out on his pasta, completely unaware of Kevin's earlier comment or prescence. "So what are the plans?" Kevin wondered, sitting down next to Howie. "Well, our management wants us to promote oursevles with commercials, and more of Nick's comics. But we're actually deciding against it. Um, Nick and I along with Howie, were discussing some matters. We had talked to Brian earlier about it, and he said whatever you thought." A.J. began, and Howie chimed in. "Although I am NOT to keen on the idea, but A.J. did give me good reasons." "Well what is it?" Kevin asked, his curiousty peeking out of his cool exterior.
"We're thinking of taking a break from the group." Kevin's hands fell harshly on the table, causing the silverware to jump and a loud noise to erupt causing attention from other customers. "Are you serious?" He asked. Nick had finally forgotten his food and was now focusing on the conversation. "Let's face it Kev. We haven't been able to keep things up like we used to. We all got lives." A.J. explained. "Yeah, but I thought the Backstreet Boys were our lives?" Kevin said. "Key word, you said it yourself, *were*, past tense. Once you married Kristen and Brian married Leighanne, and me having Danni, well...we weren't doing very well before that anyway. The other bands were way up at the charts, and we were slowly starting to be forgotten. N'Sync was on every tv show, and on MTV all the time, we stopped doing videos, and the Burger King thing was the last thing we ever did for promotion. We think it's been over for a long time, we've just been trying to save the past, but it didn't work." Kevin sat there for a moment, letting what A.J. was telling him sink in, and thought hard about it. A.J. was right, they were lacking. They were practically not even there. Nick than chimed in. "I was upset when A.J. proposed the idea too, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. I'm 22, and I want to go back to school Kev. Don't you want to settle down already? Finally be able to start your family, the right way?"
Kevin nodded slowly, knowing they were right. He wanted to be with Kristen and the new baby that was on it's way. He sighed, and rubbed his forehead, thinking hard for another second. He looked back up into his bandmates eyes. It was such a hard decision...He loved these guys, he loved the stage, but it hadn't been the same. There was no longer little girls throwing themselves at them, there wasn't thousands of homronal teenagers at their concerts anymore, they were lucky if they got a few hundred now. No more "I want to have your baby" or "Kisses For Kev" signs. Now this idea, that his forever friends, the people he loved so dear. The people for the past 9 years he was never without. They were with him all the time, and now it was almost over. But he had to agree, they were old, tired, and it was time to finally get a real life. To finally think about themselves, and let their past go. "Alright guys. Your right. I'm willing." He recieved small nods, but no words from his other three bandmates. They all seemed half relieved and half upset that he agreed, because that meant, it was true, now over. Nick was the first to speak, and cleared his throat. "Um, well, I suppose we better hold a press conference for this." "Have you discussed this with management?" Kevin asked. A.J. nodded slowly. "Howie and I talked to them a little about it, and they said it was up to us. The truth was...we were pretty much dead weight to them. We weren't bringing in any money for them anymore, and we had no more contract, so they said if we wanted to quit, we could. They would most likely defintely set up the press conference for us."
Kevin nodded, and than stood. "No one else knows...right?" Howie nodded. "Just us, and Danni. You better go home and tell Kristen, the uh...," he refrained himself from saying *good news* "news...We'll all meet at the agency tommorow at 3 pm, and tell the management." Kevin nodded, feeling lost and confused as he left his friends behind in the restaurant.