Seventeen

Seventeen, a "Slice of Life" that a.) takes place after “Living” and b.) makes no sense

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: Nick Carter/Brian Littrell/Drew Lachey, Aaron Carter/Joel Madden

Disclaimer: The young men who comprise the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, 98 Degrees, and Good Charlotte are their own people. So is Aaron Carter. The author has not met anyone here described, nor does the author mean to suggest that these people act this way in real life. This writing is a work of fiction. I make no money from this venture.

Notice: This story is the product of a horrible, terrible brain misfire. Do not take it seriously. Unless you want to. Technically, it’s a Slice, but mostly it’s just me amusing myself.

Aaron appeared in the kitchen with an aggressive air of determination. “I’m seventeen.”

“Seventeen what?” Nick asked, glancing up from his breakfast with vague curiosity.

“Seventeen years old! Today,” Aaron said. “Like you forgot.”

“Oh,” Nick said.

“Happy birthday,” Brian said, tugging Aaron closer to his chair and planting a kiss on Aaron’s temple.

“Happy birthday,” Drew said, pulling him in to brush a kiss over his cheek. “Maybe now you’ll figure out how to run the disposal.”

“Hey, I guess you’re old enough to watch NC-17 movies without an adult now,” Nick said. “Good for you.”

“I’ve been watching NC-17 movies since I was a kid,” Aaron said.

Nick snorted without looking up. “You’re still a kid,” he said, and took a slice of toast from Drew’s plate. “So, what, now you want a birthday present or something?” he asked.

“Do you even fucking listen when I talk?” Aaron demanded. “What the hell have I been talking about all week?”

“Probably the same thing you’ve been rambling at me about for the past six months,” Nick said.

“Sit down, have breakfast,” Brian urged Aaron.

“You’re going out today, right?” Nick asked Drew.

“Yeah, why?” Drew asked.

“While you’re out, you should pick up a cake or something.”

“Sure,” Drew said.

“You said when I turned seventeen we’d talk about Joel,” Aaron said. “I’m seventeen, now can we fucking talk about Joel?!”

“Sure,” Nick said, setting down his fork and sitting back. “What about him?”

“Can I fucking date him already?!” Aaron demanded.

“Nope,” Nick said, picking up his fork again. “Are you going to drink that?” he asked Drew.

Drew slid his glass of orange juice towards Nick. “What kind of cake do you want?” he asked Aaron.

“You’re not doing this to me,” Aaron said.

“Guess he doesn’t like cake,” Brian said to Drew.

“I can pretty much do whatever I want,” Nick said. “I can even send you to your room, want to see?”

“I’m not your fucking-”

“Yeah, well, I’m your fucking guardian, and this is my fucking house, so guess what, we’re all going to live by my fucking rules,” Nick said. “At least until next year. Turn eighteen, and we’ll talk.”

“I don’t have to live by your fucking rules, do I?” Drew asked.

“Yeah, I wish,” Nick said. “Don’t say ‘fucking.’”

Aaron leaned across the table, grabbing Nick’s fork and slamming it down. “You’re the one who introduced me to Joel!”

“I didn’t know you were going to get so damned attached to him!” Nick said. “He’s nine years older than you are!”

“Eight,” Aaron said.

“Eight years and nine months,” Nick said. “He’s older than I am, Aaron, and I’m what, twice your age?”

“You told me to back off. I backed off. You told me to wait. I waited. You said if I had to see him, it could only be here or at Chris’s house and only with at least two other people in the room at the same time. You said if I had to call him, it could only be once a week for half an hour. You said I couldn’t get within a foot of him.”

“That was a good one,” Nick said. “And don’t forget the no nicknames rule, that was a good one, too. Why was he calling you ‘cutie,’ anyway? It’s disturbing.”

“I thought it was kind of nice,” Brian said.

“I thought it was kind of weird and scary,” Nick said.

“It’s a private joke,” Aaron said, glaring at Nick. “Sweetheart.”

“Yeah, that’s a new rule, no private jokes,” Nick said.

“What’d you call Joel?” Drew asked Aaron.

“Please don’t encourage him,” Nick said.

“I’m just curious,” Drew said.

“Superstar,” Aaron said.

“Ah,” Drew said, and looked down at his plate, barely hiding a smile.

“Yeah, the no nicknames rule stands,” Nick said.

“You made all of these elaborate rules, and I’ve followed every single one, no matter how stupid,” Aaron said. “I kept my distance, I only called him twice a week, I didn’t murder you in your sleep when you were telling him to back off every other day, I only saw him when you thought it was appropriate, I kept my hands to myself.”

“Which seems to be genetically impossible for people in your family,” Drew said.

“Ask me what runs in your family,” Nick said. “Aaron, I know, you were a very good boy, what do you want, a medal? You didn’t date a grown-ass man, good for you, sixteen-year-olds shouldn’t date grown-ass men.”

“I’m not a kid anymore! This is so fucking hypocritical! How old were you when you hooked up with Brian?”

“Whoops,” Drew said.

“Nobody was looking out for me,” Nick said. “Lucky you, you have people looking out for you.”

“I have hypocritical tight-assed pricks looking out for me!”

“Oh, what, now I’m Kevin?” Nick asked.

“I did everything you told me to do! I hated it, I hated you, but I did it. And you kept saying that when I turned seventeen we’d talk about it, you said that every damned day. Now I’m seventeen, and you’re still pulling the same old power trip! Damn it, Nick, I’m not some stupid kid who’s never been out of the state and hangs out at the mall and takes his girlfriend to the movies in his mom’s car every weekend. Maybe I’m not twenty-five, but I’m not some fucking kid! I’m let’s see, a millionaire-”

“Money’s one thing,” Nick said. “Maturity’s something totally fucking different.”

“How much life experience do you think I need?!” Aaron demanded. “How much of the world do you think I should see?”

“Hmm,” Drew said.

“Shut up,” Nick said.

“He has a good point,” Drew said.

“No, he doesn’t,” Nick said. “That was a nice little speech, and you could probably impress a lot of people with all of that,” he told Aaron, “except maybe me, because when I was seventeen, I was-”

“When you were seventeen, you were fucking a twenty-two-year-old,” Aaron said.

“My sex life is none of your business,” Nick said.

“My sex life is none of your business!”

“Except, since I’m in charge of you, I’m in charge of your life for the next year, and that includes your sex life,” Nick said. “Which, if you want it to include other seventeen-year-olds, we can talk.”

“I don’t want other seventeen-year-olds,” Aaron said. “I want Joel.”

“What is this, Romeo and Juliet?” Nick asked. “Why are you even into him?”

“He’s cool and he’s a great writer and he has all of this emotion inside and all of this genius and he’s really creative,” Drew said with Aaron’s enthusiasm.

“He’s good at basketball and he has a really soft-looking pouty sort of mouth and his eyes are, like, just so full of…” Brian’s voice drifted off dreamily.

“So full of him,” Drew finished with adoring emphasis.

“So full of emotion and love and anger and happiness and skepticism and sex and everything, it’s like I look into his eyes and I just…”

“Melt,” Drew said. “But at the same time, it’s like he makes me feel so good inside. Really good, like, alive.”

“I know if I could just fucking be with him and get rid of all of Nick’s fucking rules, it would be so good,” Brian continued. “So good, really good. And it’s not about sex, I mean, it is, he’s so incredibly fucking hot, I want him like - - never mind. It’s not a hundred percent about sex. It’s also about, about…”

“About other things,” Drew said. “Things like… Like we could really start something, like it’s really the beginning of something big, something real, something…”

“I’m not making any sense,” Brian said. “I just, I feel this big huge thing inside me, and if I could just be with him, I could get it out. Right now it’s just inside me, building and building and making me sort of…”

“Forget it,” Drew said. “It’s never going to happen. Nobody gets that I can handle something like this. I can’t ask Joel to wait a whole fucking year, and Nick’s going to drive me insane before that anyway. I just… I wish people could see when they look at me that I’m older than I look, that I can handle shit. If I could handle recording and touring and promoting and everything else when I was practically in fucking diapers, why can’t I be responsible enough to date Joel now? The three hundred sixty-five days between seventeen and eighteen are three hundred sixty-five days I want to spend being allowed to tell Joel how he makes me feel when he says my name.”

“It sucks,” Brian said. “I really think I might, I don’t know, I don’t want to say I’m in love with him, because I’m not trying to be assimilated into the whole fall in love, get married, change your last name thing you guys keep doing. But every time I look into his eyes I feel like I want to be with him forever. And I can’t tell him that and it’s, it’s…”

“It’s killing me,” Drew said.

Silence.

Nick looked at them. “That was so word for word it was freaky.”

“At least they listen to me,” Aaron said, so fucking embarrassed he moved on quickly. “Why don’t you respect me enough to let me make my own decisions? Why won’t you give me a chance to date him, at least?”

“Because dating leads to fucking and you’re not having sex with a grown-ass man,” Nick said.

“You could try to trust me,” Aaron said.

Nick snorted.

“You can set up more of your fucking rules if you have to, I’m so sick of them I don’t even care anymore, I’ll only kiss him on Wednesdays if you’d just let me see him,” Aaron said.

“Yeah?” Nick asked. “And what’s my guarantee you’ll actually follow whatever I set up?”

“What, I swear, I promise, what do you want?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know,” Nick said. “You’re a spoiled brat and you’ve been lying like a rug since you were five.”

“You always make me so happy I moved in here,” Aaron said.

“Okay, come here,” Nick said. “Come here,” he insisted, grabbing Aaron’s hand and dragging Aaron around to stand beside him. “You know I love you and I’m doing everything I can to protect you because I love you and I want you to be safe and happy.”

“Yeah, I know,” Aaron said. “That doesn’t make you less of an asshole. But, yeah, I love you, too.”

Nick stood, brushing Aaron’s hair out of his eyes. “Good, I’m still taller,” Nick said. “And older, and bigger, and I can totally take you out any time I want.”

“For now,” Aaron said.

“I know you’re really mature and responsible and experienced in a lot of ways,” Nick said. “I also know you’re not that experienced in other ways. You can fuck a hundred girls in two months and still be really fucked up when it comes to actual relationships. Physical maturity and emotional maturity aren’t at all the same thing.”

“I know,” Aaron said. “I really understand that, I’m not just saying ‘I know’ so you’ll stop lecturing me.”

“Good,” Nick said, resting his hand on Aaron’s shoulder, tugging lightly on the ends of Aaron’s hair at Aaron’s nape. “It’s your birthday, and you’ve been getting a lot better about shit lately. Must be Drew’s influence or something, I don’t know. So I’m going to think about changing some of the rules.”

Aaron blinked. “Are you serious?”

“I like Joel, he’s awesome, he’s been really respectful about shit. I like him. We’ll work something out.”

“Oh my god,” Aaron said. “Thank you, Nick, thank you,” he said, squeezing Nick into a tight embrace. “I’ll follow all of your stupid fucked-up rules, I promise. Can I call him?” Aaron asked, pulling back. “I have to call him.”

“No, you can’t call him,” Nick said. “If you wanted to call him today, you should have saved one of your calls for this week. I’ll call him, later.”

“I called him Sunday because we talk every Sunday, and I called him last night at midnight because it was finally my birthday and he said to call so he could wish me a happy birthday,” Aaron said.

“I’ll call him, later,” Nick said. “Don’t start looking pissed off at me, that’s not going to hurt my feelings. Sit down and eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Yeah, you’re really mature,” Nick said. “Look, if it’ll make you feel better, I was just teasing earlier. There’s a birthday cake in the next room, it was just delivered this morning, we put it in there to hide it from you. Go eat that, get yourself a nice sugar high.”

“You’re going to talk to Joel today?” Aaron asked.

“Yes,” Nick said. “I promise, I’ll talk to him today.” Nick kissed his forehead. “You know I love you.”

“You know I love you back,” Aaron said, and hugged him.

“Happy birthday,” Nick said, and kissed his cheek. “Go get cake.”

“My own birthday and I’m serving myself cake,” Aaron said. “Did you at least get me a present?”

“I’ll get around to it,” Nick said.

Aaron rolled his eyes and left the room, going into the next room to-

Joel smiled at him. “Hey.”

Aaron stared. “You’re not fucking here.”

Joel grinned. “I’m right fucking here.”

“Oh my god,” Aaron said. “When did you get here? You should have told me you were coming!”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Joel said.

“You should have told me anyway. God, I can’t believe you’re here, I thought I wasn’t going to get to see you until New Year’s.”

“I wouldn’t miss your birthday,” Joel said. “C’mere.”

Aaron hesitated, staying at his twelve-inch distance.

“It’s okay,” Joel said, reaching out and wrapping his hand around Aaron’s wrist, sliding his fingers across Aaron’s skin and drawing Aaron closer. “Nick said I could give you a hug.”

“God,” Aaron said, and let himself be pulled into an embrace. “God, I’ve wanted this for how long now?” He closed his eyes, inhaling slowly, sliding his hands up into Joel’s hair, imprinting everything into his memory. “You. Are the best birthday present. I’ve ever had.”

Joel held on tighter. “Happy birthday, cutie.”

matthew@matthewtime.com