Remember Me This Way

Chapter Twenty Six

When Brian awoke that morning, he jerked back completely started. Nick's face was inches away from his own, staring at him in amusement. His hair was going every which way, and looked to have only been awake no more than twenty minutes before Brian. He laughed, shoving him away. The two only had a one more day in New York City, the choice had been made to spread out the promotion, rather than jam all of it into one or two days. This way, the idea was that Nick could possibly handle it easier.

Or so Nick hoped.

"Morning Brian!"

The sky was still dark; no hints of the coming dawn had begun to show through the window just yet. The two had an early start that morning. Nick stayed on the bed, hopping on it excitedly. Despite everything, he loved what he did, and was trying his best to live for the moment. That meant rather than letting himself dwell on everything, he had to try and get everything together.

Also, there was something happening after the promotional bits, that he didn't want to think about. If it meant going back to his old standby of acting hyperactive and a bit crazy, so be it. At least then, he could try and get through the day with some bit of sanity.

"Huh?"

Nick jumped up to his feet on the bed, almost falling off the in the process. Suddenly, he felt like a kid again, when he'd come into Brian and Kevin's room daily to do this. So much so, that Kevin got sick of it and decided Brian and Nick would be sharing hotel rooms from then on, back in their beginning days in Europe. Oddly, it felt like everything in his life was coming full circle. Nick wasn't sure if that was just fate, or his own memories mixing in with the present as a result of his disease. He jumped again, this time, Brian rolled off. He landed on the floor along with the blankets and one of the pillows.

"Mmm better..." Brian mumbled. It was funny how he immune he was to Nick's antics. He beamed at his friend as he leaned over close, his hair falling into Brian's face. Nick held back the sigh that wanted to come, he wondered then how much Brian would miss them. Nick jumped again, letting him fall back onto the bed.

He wondered if somewhere inside, would he miss Brian?

"Wake uuuuuuuuup."

An eye peeked back open. "You know I love ya man, but..."

"But dude, I gotta tell you about this dream I had."

Chuckling, Brian climbed off the floor, shuffling towards the bathroom. Nick followed behind him. Part of him was curious if Brian even wondered how Nick broke into his hotel room. The two made their way in and as Brian brushed his teeth, Nick attempted to flatten down his hair a bit. It looked a bit more disheveled than usual.

"Dreumm uh?" He replied.

"Yeah, dude it was crazy. There was this girl..."

"Yah, 'ere's abays a birl..."

"Man, and she was this really hot alien chick. I ended up chasing her all around the freaking universe. Like in these Star Wars bad ass ships, speeding around trying to get some alien ass."

Brian drank some water, gargled, and spit it out into the sink. "You put your spacesuit on...so you could jump into your rocket!" He sang with a big grin. It was a song Nick had on his second solo album, released five years ago.

He laughed. "Mock it all you want, that song was fucking bad ass."

"If anyone's the alien, it's you."

"Well I am out of this world."

Brian rolled his eyes, but smiled. Yet, that morning, Nick noticed the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. The realization hit him; both of them were playing their part. Neither of them wanted to admit it, but both of them knew it. It just took till that moment for both of them to see it. Nick glanced around for a clock, just to break the silence.