Nick tried to stay calm, and as Kevin was there with him, he felt much better, but his anger was elevating, as he tried to sift through the crowd of reporters towards Kevin's car. They were leaving a restaurant on the Hollywood Boulevard.
"Did you beat her?" Another shouted, all of their note pads, and Dictaphones alive and ready.
Nick wasn't going to say anything. Kevin threw an arm around his shoulders, as they continued to his car, the reporters followed.
More questions, more camera flashes, more strange accents, and unheard of newspaper titles. "Can we see the tattoo with her name?" "Does she live up to her sex-tape reputation?"
One reporter chuckled and Nick's self-discipline was shattered. "I'd be upset to have lost that relationship too." Nick turned around violently on his heels, and swung a fist at the reporter, but he missed as Kevin grabbed him, and kept dragging him down the street.
"Fuck you; you know nothing about my life! Nothing!" Nick screamed, but this just provoked more questions and more flashes of cameras.
Kevin continued to tug at his arm as Nick's tears began to build.
His arm was hurting too. If Kevin wasn't a Backstreet Boy with him, Nick would have recommended he be a bodyguard.
"Come on man, you have your pictures can you not just leave us alone? He's just broken up with his girlfriend-how would you feel?"
Kevin reasoned with the paparazzi as he unlocked his car. Nick wanted another opportunity to punch that reporter but was crippled by emotion. Kevin opened the passenger door and slammed it behind Nick as he began crying in the seat. He covered his face with his hands, but could still see the flashing of the cameras. They were taking pictures of him crying through the windscreen. "What kind of people are you?" Nick thought to himself in hysteria. He corrected himself by reminding himself that the paparazzi were animals not people. Better yet they were machines- programmed to make money for newspapers and trashy magazines. More importantly, he didn't want his fans to see him like this, but now they were most definitely going to. Kevin slipped into the car, and Nick heard him shut the door and start the ignition. He carefully drove away, dodging photographers who had moved from the pavement and into the road.
"Are you alright?" Kevin asked, looking to Nick, then back at the road, and then back at Nick. Nick was so choked up that he could not say anything. Kevin's only answer was Nick's bawling. His trembling hands managed to secure his seatbelt, as Kevin pulled up to some traffic lights. Kevin took one hand off the steering wheel and held Nick's shoulder affectionately, like a father would do to his crying son.
"Forget them." Kevin instructed. "They want you to be like this, so their photographs can sell."
These words did not comfort Nick. Nick was drowning and dying in his sorrow- his breathing was irregular and he was only surviving on short gasps of oxygen, his heart was thumping and palpitating in his chest, he was getting a headache and he could barely see out of his water logged eyes. Paris was just one more thing he did not need right now, she had instigated what had been building up in Nick's mind and in his heart for a while. He was not happy with his life, but he by no means wanted to lose her. He didn't trust her, and had cheated on her once or twice, but he by no means wanted to lose her-she had been the only thing he had left, his only remaining life-line and it was gone… Forty-minutes later Leighanne was cradling Nick on the floor of her family's hotel room. She had instructed Baylee to watch some cartoons in the other room. Despite Nick being in an inconsolable state, he managed to ensure Baylee that he was doing fine when he had asked, but just needed some time with his parents. Brian had nipped to a nearby MacDonald's to get a Happy Meal for Baylee that he had promised him for being a good boy at the recording studio and was not back yet. Kevin watched on nervously but silently as Leighanne comforted him, worked her maternal magic on him. Nick needed the comfort only a woman can provide and she offered it gladly to him. He was one of the rare, nice, men and he did not deserve to be sat here in pieces in her arms. She herself had to wipe one or two tears that had escaped her eyes, as Nick poured his heart out to her. He would later in the evening feel embarrassed about this episode, but would thank Leighanne by buying her some flowers. As Nick lay in bed that night, with a throbbing headache, and sore eyes, the look of horror on Brian's face when he arrived back at the room plagued even his pleasant dreams, and the only thing that comforted him were the sleeping pills that were starting to take effect…
