Best of Friends

Best of Friends?

Best of Friends?

Disclaimer: This story is in no way based on factual events and is merely fictional entirely (to the best of my knowledge). In no way do I claim to know the actual sexual orientation of any persons mentioned herein. If you are offended by male/male relationships then either leave and be happy or read and be disgusted (it's your call).

I'm still struggling to find time for get this stuff up but I finish college in a few days for the summer WOOHOO!! maybe then i'll get some time to do it (no promises though)

Chapter 4:

Jc went back inside the hotel room, fromthe sub-zero temperatures outside into the air-conditioner maintained warmth. After removing the copious amount of clothes he was wearing, he crawled into the cold bed. His mind was occupied, seemingly thinking of everything at the same time. 'I'm so glad Steve wants me. What do I tell the guys? Why is it so cold in here? What do I tell mom?' After an hour of this, his body shut down and he eventually got to sleep.

"JC get up! Hey pig face I'm talking to you"

"What Justin? What's wrong? Is there a fire?" Jc mumbled into the pillow.

"No but it's a quarter-to-nine and if you don't get outta bed now you're gonna get your ass kicked"

"What time is it?"

"Are you deaf? 8.45, get up!"

"It's not fair, i've only had a coupleo f hours. Why've you woke me up?"

**"Pull your finger out, we're going in an hour"

"Yo JC! you're phone's ringing...hey freak!!" Chris used his sympathetic talents to wake up Jc who was asleep in the back of the bus
"What? This better be important"**

"Your phone is ringing boy. Answer it or turn it off, it's annoying me"

"Hello?" JC croaked into the phone

"Hey Josh it's me"

"hi Steve how's it going?"
"You still asleep or someting? You sound really spaced out"

"Sorry, I'm still really tired after ringing you so late"

"Dont apologize, you sound quite sexy in a dosile kinda way"

"Thanks, just what I needed to hear"

"That reminds me. Last night I said I loved you but you didn't return the favour"

"Steve I can't!" All the guys'll hear me" JC suddenyly woke up

"If you meant it, you'd say it"

"I can't!"

"Say it" Steve almost demanded

"Ok you win. I...love yoU" JC whispered into the phone

"I cant hear you, you still there?"

"I lvoe you" JC repeated, a little louder but still barely more than a whisper

"That;s all I wanted to hear. Bye"

"That's it?"

"Yep. Bye. Love you"

"Oh my god, who or what made you blush like that?" Joey demanded, seeing JC's over-heating face after he'd ended the call

"Nothing. I'm not blushing, I'm just hot"

"Hot my left foot. That's definately a blush" Lance said

"Yeah JC, spill. Did I hear the words 'I', 'love' and 'you' mentioned back there?" Justin also joined in

"yeah but to my mom" JC lied

"And how about the blushing eh?"

"I told you, I'm hot"

"Fuck off I'm hungover" Steve spoked into the phone

"yeah I love you too"

"Sorry Josh, I thought it was somone important"

"Hey! So I'm not important now?"

"Unfortunate choice of words, I sorry. What do you want anyway?"

"Just thought I'd catch you 'fore you went to work"

"I'm not going, I'm taking the day off"

"Why? late ngith?"

"more of an early morning, it was pretty wild?"

"Where did you go?"

"A house warming thing upstairs. It was pretty much an open invitation"

"As long as you had fun"

"I was ok til someone started passing round pot, after that I felt like shit. I don't usually but-"

"You smoked it?!"

"Is that a problem?"

"Well yes, actually it is. You never told me that you were a pothead, you should know that I don't like drugs at all"

"Yeah but that's because you hang around GodBoy so much"

"I know we're together and everything but please don't insult my friends, Steve"

"You're stickingup for him?! You're such a hypocrite Josh, how can you defend him after what he said? And then having a go at me, even though you did the same thing ages ago!"

"Excuse me? Hypocrite? I'm standing up for him because youdo nothing but slag him off even though I've told you that he's sorry"

"I don't need this" Steve ended, replacing the receiver

"Hey Josh I just wanted to apologise for this morning, but I guess you're busy or something since I got your voice mail/ Anyways I'm sorry for biting you head off this morning and for not giving Lance a break. It's hard to forget when peple call you faggot, but you wouldn't know that yet would you? So please accept my apology. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Speak later, bye"

"Fuck! Fuck this! Fuck everything!" JC shouted indirectly as he stormed out of the room

"What's up with him?" Lance asked, breaking the short silence

"Don't know. I'll go find out" Justin offered

"Is there something you know, that you aren't telling us Justin?"

"No. Why wouldn't I tell you?"

"I don't know but that's the impression I get."

"I'll go find him" Justin avoided further questioning, knowing he wouldn't hold up any further

**
"So this is where you're hiding?" Justin asked, walking up to JC on the roof**

"Leave me alone Justin. I don't need your kind of help right now"

"So what was all that about back there? It'snot like you to use that word so many times in one sentence"

"I've told you before - leave.me.alone"

"Steve?"

"No!"

It's Steve. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong

"Bullshit! There's something gone sour between you two"

"Here, listen to this message" JC said, passing Justin his phone

"So? He said maybe " Justin observed after listening to the message, "What caused this anyway?"

"Nothing much, it's pretty stupid really. He wen to this party and smoked some pot"

"And? That's it?"

"You know I can't stand drugs"

"Didn't stop you that night when it was your birthday, did it? And Steve supported, you, and us, against Lance"

"Maybe this was all a bad idea"

"You're giving up so soon?"

"It's not working"

"Look I know you two are assholes, but you're each other's assholes"

"Not if he's doing drugs"

"JC get off your soapbox here, you've done dope before so don't bother giving me, or Steve, your sermon on the evils of drugs. Besides I couldn't bear to see you two break up, not after all the effort I put in. So do the both of you a favour and stop preaching and get on with loving each other"

"And you said I was giving sermons?"

"That wasn't a sermon cuz I wasn't judging, unlike you. So get your damn phone out and apologise"

JC pondered for a second and reluctantly complied

"Steve? It's Josh"

"Oh"

"Jistin here made me ring you and apologise"

"Tell him thanks but an apology's worth nothing if you don't mean it"

"I do mean it but I guess it took Justin to make me say it"

"Why wouldn't you ring? It's not like we've nothing to talk about"

"Couldn't think of the words I guess. I disagree though, this wasn't a bad idea"

"Me neither but if you're gonna jump down my throat everytime I do something wrong..."

"I'll be more...mature next time. Promise. New York's next...Thursday by the way"

"How long for?"

"Just a day but it might be over night as well so..."

"I guess I should apologise too"

"Don't, all we seem to do is apologise to each other"

No I was wrong to smoke that stuff, I didn't think you'd be so pissed off about it"

"Maybe it was the hypocrite in me coming out"

"Josh I don't care what you've done in the past. I don't love you because of your mistakes, I love you despite your mistakes"

"So you still love me?"

"Of course. You?"

"Of course, now Justin wants me so I gotta go. Talk later, Bye"

Now that things were back on track with Steve and JC, the anticipation and excitement of seeing each other again grew. Eventually, the day arrived when NSYNC arrived in NYS, the first thing JC did was tell Steve he was here and would be around at 9tonight after they have finished a TV show.

**
"See you later, guys I'm going" JC said, leaving towards the door"**

"Where's he gone?" Lance asked

"He's meeting up with Steve tonight" Joey filled him in

"They sure do spend a lot of time together"

"They've hung out about 6 times in the last 2 years almost. That's hardly a lot"

"Yeah but they're always on the phone to each other"

"Lance, get off their case. When you don't see someone for 10 years it takes a while to catch up again. So stop playing mother hen and let JC fly the nest a bit"

"You know what Joe? That'd be a perfect analogy execept chickens don't fly"

**"Oh so what, Chris, now you're on my case? Argh! This group's gonna be the end of me! I need to go out, anyone coming?"

Justin said he would, but Chris and Lance rejected. As Joey and Justin headed out there were comments made about howmuch like old men they were becoming, much to the annoyance of Chris who hated to be reminded that he was the oldest.

"Ah, you're early" Steve said opening the door
"Am I? My watch must be screwed" JC lied
"Buy a new one, it's not like you can't afford it"
"I thought we were over all that. Besides how can you complain? You'll be a kept woman, 'cept you'll be a man, if you know what I mean"
"Sit down and sort your head out boyfriend, I'll go get changed"

Ten minutes later Steve came back and they left

"So how are things for you?" Steve asked as they grabbed a seat in the busy wine bar
"OK. I could complain but I guess I shouldn't. You?"
"I'm bored with that job now. It was great at first being the manager and everything but it's not got a future. There was a job in the paper the other day that I quite fancied"
"Doing what?"
"Long distance lorry driver"
"Are you joking? You must be"
"Seriously, plus I wouldn't be stuck around new york waiting for you to come home visit. At least I'd be busy"
"Whatever, you know I'll support you and everything. But wouldn't it make ut harder for us to see each other?"
"Why?"
"Well if you're going all over the country all the time the it's gonna be virtually impossible for us to be in teh same place at the same time"
"It couldn't be any worse than now. We only see each other a couple of months"
"Well whatever you want to do"
"Why weren't you so supportivbe the other week? I thought we were honna be over or something because of that party"
"I'd rather forget about it. I think we both said things that we didn't really mean. I know I was a hypocrite but I guess it's Lance's anti-drugs influence rubbing off on me and because XXX died of drugs"
"Yeah I forgot about that"
"Lance can be pretty insecure sometimes, probably more than all of us. But i think it's just because of people always saying hes the worst singer or the worst dancer and sometimes I think he takes it too personally. And he doesn't want anything to jeapordise our success and I think that's what he saw you as initially"
"That's he hates me? Cuz he thinks I turned you gay and now that's gnna jeapordise your sucess?"
"Lance doesn't hate you, he's still pretty mad at your phone prank, but he doesn't hate you. I doubt he's capable of hating someone"
"So Lance won't turn up on my doorstep with a bible and crucifix then?"
"Not unless you really piss him off, which is nigh on impossible"
"Maybe I'll try, sounds like fun. So how's your family?"
"They're OK but I really don't wanna tell mom"
"Well you have too sooner or later. It'll be easier than you think, honestly. Your mom's never had a problem with it, right?"
"Not that I know of"
"Either way you have to tell them"
"You've told your's?"
"Yeah but that was a bit messy. I'll tell you about it some other time"

"Come on Joey it's 1am, I'm tired, you're drunk and we've got to be up real early tomorrow" Justin pleaded to Joey on the dancefloor"
"Just one more song then we can go"
"Come on, we're going" Justin told him as he dragged Joey out
"J hold on a sec, I'm gonna heave" Joey said as they left the club
"Oh. My. God" Justin said to jimself a little too loudly
"What? Whats wrong?"
"Nothing" Justin said, unable to take his eyes off whatever had caught his attention, "Let's go. NOW!"
"What are you staring at?" Joey asked again, following Justin's line of vision, "Hey is that JC over there? And Steve?"
"Yeah, come on let's go 'fore they see us" Justin begged
"Justin? Why is JC kissing Steve?"
"Come on let's go. Come on!! It's probably not then, we've been drinking" Justin pulled Joey's arm furiously but he never budged him
"If you say so man" Joey conceeded knowing that his vision was being impared by his larger than usual alcohol intake.

Once Joey was safely dumped in his room, Justin ran to the room that Chris and JC were sharing. He knocked heavily on the door until Chris eventually answered
"Have you seen JC?"
"Have you seen the time?"
"Have you seen him?!"
"No"
"Shit, he's not back yet" Justin said to himself

Wa;ling back to his room he was JC coming down the corridor towards him

"Oh thank god I found you" Justin panted after running the length of the hotel corridor
"Justin? what's wrong?"
"It's Joey..."
"Justin? Please tell me what's going on" JC was impatient, "Is there something wrong with him? He okay?"
"He's seen it"
"Seen what Justin? What's going on?"
"He saw you. And Steve. And you kissing"
"Come on you need to rest a minute"
Justin sat on the floor against the wall whilst he caught his breath, Jc stood over him
"Joey saw you"
"Fuck, how much did he see?"
"Enough"
"Shit" JC slid down next to him
"What now?"
"I've not got a clue. I never meant it to happen like this. I had it all planned out in my head, what I'd say and everything but this just throws everything up in the air"
"Figure it out in the morning JC, I've gotta sleep" Justin said as he stood and headed to his room, leaving JC on the hotel floor....

**

**There you go. Another chap done and dusted. the good, the bad, and maybe some of the ugly to chrisg@judgejules.co.uk

**