"Of course you-ve got all the romantic ones right?" John Norris teased waiting at his post to read MTV news in about five minutes. He giggled and the camera moved back to Carson, who was laughing.
"Yeah we've seen and read it all, moon light, candles, "Sugar we're going down" playing in the back ground to some rather-intimate stuff" He continued to laugh. "If you still want to enter your story to win the fantastic month on tour with the Backstreet Boys head over to www.mtv.com and sign up. All the terms and conditions are on there. We'll be announcing the winner in a couple of week's time." Carson heard through his ear piece that Howie Dorough was on the phone ready to talk about the competition and the tour.
"I've just been told that we actually have Howie on the phone, how you doin- Howie?" He asked as Howie's name appeared at the bottom of the screen and screams erupted in the studio.
"Hey, I'm doin' great,how is everyone there doing?" He replied happily sitting on speaker phone with Nick to his right and Brian to his left in the venue they were rehearsing in, picking at their lunch. Nick smiled humbly at the screams he could hear. He mimicked them along with Brian. "Who else is there?" Carson asked with a smile.
"Nick and Brian are here too, acting like babies!" He protested playfully, giggling.
"Shut up, Howard!" Nick said equally as playfully. Kevin popped his head around the door and put a finger to his lips to Nick, telling him to be quiet and behave. Nick sighed, he was having fun.
"So guys, how are the rehearsals going?" Carson asked enquiringly, listening intently to the bad feed from the phone.
"Yeah they're going well, we have our first show of this tour in a few weeks here in the US and we're all looking forward to seeing our fans again" Brian answered as Howie chewed hastily on a pasta salad. Nick scooped loudly at a very nearly empty yoghurt pot-he could feel himself in a mood now.
"So, let's talk about the competition" Carson forwarded the conversation aware they only had a short amount of air time left before he had to introduce "Incomplete." "Now you all have been reading every story that has come through, and we've had hundreds, that must eat away at your time" "Yeah, it does, but it's fun." Nick answered bluntly as Brian had nudged him, suggesting that he spoke for a bit. Brian sighed at him, and looked at him as if to say "be mature". Nick continued. "We have read some fantastic and very creative stories, but we're not going to tell you the ones that we like" Nick confessed playfully.
"Oh come on" Carson encouraged. "Not want to name drop a couple of fans, a couple of stories"
"That would ruin it!" Brian continued playfully. "But most of us, have been reading about 2-3 stories a day, and sometimes even more, Nick even fell asleep on a story about a week ago" Brian described and there were giggles to be heard in the TRL studio. The one Nick had fallen asleep on was the one he had liked the most, and fell asleep on it because he had read it six times. He recalled the story and knew he was definitely going to pitch it as the winner when it came down to choosing the top five stories.
"Anyway, listen, it's always a pleasure to talk to you guys" Carson ended their exchange.
"Our pleasure" Howie said into the phone.
"So do you guys want to introduce "Incomplete" today?" Carson asked which raised more excitement from the audience. Howie and Nick looked to Brian who was happy to introduce it.
"I'll do it!" Brian said eagerly, keeping the upbeat tone of this brief interview.
"Ok, go for it, Brian." Carson said, and Brian took over.
"Here's our video "Incomplete" on TRL." He said simply, and the phone conversation was shortly ended after a quick thank-you from producers for their time. Each went back to their lunch quietly. Nick picked up a spare fork and tried to steal some of Howie's pasta but he pulled a playful face and got up to where Nick couldn't eat his food. Brian moved along to sit in Howie's seat and shared his pasta.
"You should go into catering and get some if you're still hungry" Brian suggested, taking a drink of chilled water.
"I'm not hungry, I just wanted a little bit" Nick said sombrely swallowing his second helping before putting down the fork and relaxing back in his chair.
"Your neck given you any trouble?" Brian asked after Nick's injury a few weeks prior as Nick stood up and stretched. He felt sleepy and liked the idea of lying down for a while. Nick shook his head and yawned.
"I think I may go lie down though" Nick told Brian moving around the table, hoping Brian wouldn't ask too many questions.
"Didn't sleep?" Brian asked, but before Nick could answer Baylee came running into the room screaming "Daddy!" carrying a sketch he had drawn.
Nick took this as the cue for his escape.
