The Sixth Member ** The following tale is fiction and contains consenting sexual material involving teenaged boys.
If this kind of material is illegal where you are, if you are underaged, or if material of this sort offends you,
you are urged to turn back RIGHT NOW. Otherwise please enjoy.
** As with all celebrity stories, this one is no different. I do not know the members
of Dreamstreet, I've never met them, so this story is meant to imply nothing about their
sexual orientation. This is FICTION, which means not real, so all you legal
types can mellow out and read. That is why you're really here anyway, right? :)
** And if you're in the mood, drop by my website, The Chamber
http://www.geocities.com/the_hellein/chamber.html
As always questions and comments are very welcome. Please send them to: twisted_dreemz@yahoo.com
Chapter Four
I stood there. Brain completely numb. Too scared to say anything. The only thing shattering the silence in the room was the pouring water in the sink. It was only seconds that passed but to me it felt like minutes, hours even that I stood there staring blankly at my reflection trying to figure out what I was going to do. One thing was for sure, though, I didn't have to worry about being flushed anymore. I was as white as a sheet.
Finally I gathered up enough courage to look over my shoulder at the bathroom door and respond,
"Y...Yeah?"
"You okay, man?" Greg's voice asked from the other side of the door, sounding concerned.
How should I answer him? What could I say that would make sense for the way I took off out of there...besides the truth?
"Ummmm." my brain worked at light speed to come up with more words to follow that. "I thought I was about two second from hurling all over the carpet, so I tried to make it to the bathroom. False alarm. Better now."
I turned off the water and grabbed one of the nearby towels. I dried my face on it but did it carefully so that I didn't mess up the towel so that I could put it back where I got it from.
I checked to make sure I wasn't showing anymore. My being scared had taken it down considerably, but it was still bulging just a little bit. I readjusted and started with hesitant steps toward the door.
"Okay, Brenden. Put your tough skin on and get ready for the worst." I prepared myself.
I opened the door to see Greg standing before me. Chris was off to his right side, but close enough to where he could see me.
"Dude, you don't look so hot. You sure you're okay?" Greg remarked, probably because I was looking so pale.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." I answered. "Like I said, false alarm."
"What happened?" inquired Matt's voice from the other room.
"Is he okay?" Jesse's voice asked next.
"He's fine. He just thought he was about to show us what he had for dinner, so he was trying to make it to the bathroom." Chris answered.
"Oh." both of them said.
"You sure you're cool? Do you need to sit down or something?" Greg checked again.
I nodded.
"I'm sure. Sorry for the scare. Damn Taco Bell food."
"Oh yeah. That'll do it." Chris said.
Greg gave me space to step out of the bathroom and him and Chris walked with me into the next room where the beds were. Frankie was laying across the one farthest away from the den with his head toward the edge of the bed, and Matt was lying across the other one in the same way. Jesse was sitting in the center on the edge of Matt's bed. All of their eyes were on me.
I kept waiting for one of them to say something. Because unless God had intervened and blinded them from the time I lost control to the time I took off for the bathroom, somebody had to have seen.
"I take it you're not in the mood to finish learning the moves, huh?" Matt's inquiry threw my train of thought completely off. That was the last thing I was expecting him to say.
"Huh?" I responded dumbly, before my brain kick started back into think-mode.
Answering his question with a yes was like going back into the lion's den after narrowly escaping. I really wanted to learn the entire routine because that was my only piece of them that I was going to have to take away with me (as well as my only close contact with Chris). But I also didn't want to take the chance of sprouting another A class boner if Chris got too close to me.
"Ummmm..."
I paused. Yes? No? Yes? No? What was it going to be?
"Sure, if you guys still want to." I answered.
Normally when I made a wrong or stupid decision, I knew it because it was like I could feel it. You know, that indescribable sensation that hits you and asks you: "why the heck did you just do that?" I was shocked when I didn't feel like that after deciding to head back to the lion's den.
"Man. Even sickness doesn't stop this guy." Frankie directed his comment at me, sliding himself forward off the bed and onto the ground. Standing himself up from off the ground, he came over to me at patted me on the back. "Jesse, it looks like we might have found your replacement."
"The only thing that's gonna need replacing are your teeth when I knock them all out." Jesse told him in a half kidding, half serious tone.
Frankie pretended to be shocked by what he said.
"And you wonder why the fans say your mean when they meet you in person."
The other guys started teasing him, agreeing with what Frankie said. Jesse just nodded his head and responded with his middle finger.
They all started making their way back toward the den so I followed, still waiting for somebody to say something about earlier. It never happened. For the time it took us to get situated and start practicing the moves again, until the time I finally had the second part of the routine down. None of them said a word.
"All right. Ready to go for it all the way through?" Frankie said to me after I had gone completely through the second routine without messing up for the fourth time.
"Yeah. I think so." I replied, feeling a little nervous and a lot excited.
Every now and then I would forget the fact that I was in the room of the five members Dreamstreet, hanging out with them on a friendly level, and being personally taught one of their dance routines. The second I remembered I would be in awe that it was actually really happening.
Frankie and Greg got up from watching to join us, and Jesse got the CD ready.
"Okay. Brenden, you're gonna stand behind me and in between Frankie and Jesse." Greg instructed me.
"All right." I said, going to where I needed to be.
"Chris, you guys be sure to make room for him and everything, okay?"
"Yeah. Cool." Chris answered.
"Jesse, if you would please?"
"Starting now." Jesse said, pressing the button and hurrying into his position.
Just before the music started Chris glanced back at me and gave me a quick smile and a thumbs up. I sort of smiled back, but didn't get to do much else because the music started.
Greg started his part
"Can you hear the music playing? Can you feel the rhythm swaying?"
He took his four steps forward from the group like he was supposed to do while continuing his verse. Oh man! It was almost time! I couldn't mess up now. Mess up bad.
"This is the sound of dreams come true. And I can promise you that..."
Like before, "I" was the signal for Matt to start stepping forward and "you" was Frankie's, Chris's, Jesse's, and my signal to come forward. Normally they would've moved in to close the gap between them since there were only three of them. With me being there this time they didn't really have to move in and just stepped forward.
The second I started dancing any nervousness that I was feeling completely evaporated. My mind was like: "okay, I know all of this and I'm going to make sure it happens".
Greg continued his singing with Jesse and Matt backing him up.
"You are the one and only. And I'm the lost and lonely. We are the perfect dream come true. And I can promise you that I hear a silly love song in my heart.
Chris and Frankie put in their vocals and they went into the chorus.
"It happens every time when I see you."
Chris, Frankie, Jesse, and me moved up as they went into the second line of the verse like we were supposed to. I got a tad concerned when I started thinking about where I was going to move to, but Chris and Jesse already had it figured out. They moved over enough so that there was a space for me between Chris and Greg. With us where we needed to be, they went on with the chorus, and we all went on with the simplest dance step of the routine.
"It happens every time when I think of you. It happens every time. Oh it's magic when we meet."
Jesse ended the chorus with, "Baby down on Dream Street" like he was supposed to do, and quickly Chris, Jesse, and me returned to the back and Matt moved back to take Frankie's spot. The way he was moving back was a sure sign that he'd forgotten I was there, because he was coming right at me. I stepped out of the way just in time and he took the spot I was supposed to be in and I stood next to him. As soon as he did it, he realized what he'd done and turned to me and whispered "Oops. Sorry." And I told him "No problem".
With Frankie now in Matt's spot up front everyone, except for me, went into the second verse. And everyone except for Frankie and Greg went into the second part of the routine.
"Let me take you by the hand and walk you down the Milky Way. 'Cause you make me feel I'm so alive. Though I promise baby I hear a silly love song in my heart."
The chorus came around again and Matt tapped me on my shoulder and nodded his head toward his direction. I figured he was trying to put me back where I belonged, so we switched places, just in time to start moving forward.
"It happens every time when I see you. It happens every time when I think of you. It happens every time. Oh it's magic when we meet."
The end was just a little bit different this time, but only because now I was in the center of it. My being there threw Frankie and Jesse off a little bit, but we all got into position seamlessly in time for the others to strike their pose and Jesse to sing the closing line,
"Down on Dream Street."
A mean rush of adrenaline shot through every part of my body as I realized that I had just danced with Chris and the guys through the entirety of one of their songs and didn't mess up badly at all. I had done it! I officially had my piece of Dreamstreet and Chris to keep with me forever. How many other people could say they have that as an experience!
Jesse stopped the CD Player and I heard low clapping to my left. It was Chris. He was clapping and smiling that sweet authentic smile of his. His clapping was followed by Matt's, which was followed by Jesse's, then Frankie's, and Greg's.
They patted me on my back or tousled my hair, cheering as loudly as they could while still being quiet.
"Way to go, man!" Matt congratulated me. "And sorry again for almost running into you."
"It's okay." I told him. "You weren't used to me being there. So don't even stress it."
"I'll tell you one thing, you're a damn good dancer." Jesse commented me.
"Heck yeah. You picked everything up really fast." Greg agreed with him.
"And made it look like you had some idea of what you were doing." Frankie added.
"Hey, I owe it all to you guys. Couldn't have done it without your expert training." I had to give my thanks to them.
"Plus the fact that I was helping you. There was no way you could go wrong." Chris said, smiling arrogantly.
That got him a little flack from the others, but we all knew he was kidding. Frankie went over to the CD Player where the case for the CD was at and picked it up. He came back over to me and stopped in front of me.
"Kneel down on one leg."
In case you didn't know it, a sixteen year old's mind can be a pornographic place sometimes. I'm sure I don't have to explain what kind of mental picture my mind started creating after Frankie said what he'd said.
"What for?" I questioned him, rubbing the mental picture out before my dirty mind could do any more with it.
"You'll see. Just do it."
So I did. I kneeled down onto the ground on my left leg and looked up at his face. My eyes paused on the closed fly of his boxers for a split second and the images tried to start up again. Reminding myself of what had happened earlier got them all to go away before anything else could react.
Taking a few steps forward, Frankie took the CD case in his hand and touched it on my right shoulder, his left side.
"By order of the fact that you got up and practiced with us, didn't even let getting sick hold you back, and that you picked up the routine and performed it very well, and the fact that you're a pretty cool guy who's not afraid that hanging with a boy band makes him some kind of freak, I dub thee the sixth member of Dreamstreet."
He crossed the CD case over my head and touched my other shoulder.
"You may now rise."
Everybody laughed and cheered quietly again for me. I had to laugh too because it was completely cheesy and it was funny that he'd done it with a CD case. But underneath all that it made me feel kind of special to know that they all thought that much of me.
"Oh man! Check out the time!" Jesse broke the celebration.
We all looked at the digital clock on the table between the two beds and saw it was almost 5:00 in the morning.
"Damn, it's 5:00 already?" Frankie said.
"It doesn't even seem like that much time went by." Matt said.
"You know, it never does when you're having fun." Chris remarked.
"I know that's right."
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna at least try to get to sleep now. Since we don't have to be up until twelve, I can at least get seven hours in." Greg decided.
"I'm with that." Jesse said. "This is the latest we've ever overstayed up."
"I better head out myself so I can get home and get some sleep too." I said.
"I'll escort you. Just let me get my pants on..." Greg started out of the den, but Chris shoved him aside and went on past him.
"I'll go with him. I'm more dressed for the part anyway."
He reached into an open black bag that was sitting against the side of the bed and pulled out a black shirt and put it on.
Greg wasn't in the mood to argue and just kept on going until he reached the nearest bed and sat down on it.
"Glad you dropped by, Brenden. See you tomorrow...well, later I guess." Matt said his goodbye.
"Yeah, it was fun." Jesse said his goodbye.
"Later." Greg and Frankie said, both waving at me.
"Thanks for having me up and teaching me and everything. I'll see you all later." I said as me and Chris went to the room door.
Sneaking from the room was a lot easier than sneaking to it. Well at least it was for me because I didn't have to go back to it. The guards had shifted and moved since me and Greg had gone by there, but were still pretty much dead to the world. The only time we got paranoid was when the head of the guard we had to pass to get to the stairs sort of rolled over from one direction to face the other. He never opened his eyes, though.
"Thanks for coming up and hanging with us. It's cool to meet another guy outside of our circle who's actually cool with us." Chris gave his thanks once we reached the stairwell.
I accepted,
"Well it's cool to find out that the members of the group are regular guys just like me."
It made him smile and nod a couple of times.
"I know all of us keep saying it, but you really are cool."
I smiled too.
"So are you."
That seemed to make his smile a little more brighter.
"Well I guess we'll see you later, huh?"
"Yeah." I responded. "Kinda looking forward to it."
"So am I...uh, we."
For a second his confident, beautiful smile became shy as did his eyes, the way they looked away from me suddenly and to the floor. Then it was gone and he said,
"I better get back. The guards are gonna change shifts soon and that'll be my ass if I get caught."
"All right. See you later then."
"Later."
Quietly he went back through the door and I watched him go until he disappeared back into the room. I made my way out of there, deciding to go out of the Hotel through the stairway entrance instead of coming out and going through the back doors. It made the trip to my car a little bit longer, but it cut down my chances of running into someone and having to explain why I was there at 5:00 in the morning.
I got to my car and got out of there without being seen. I was hoping that nobody had seen my car during my time upstairs and made mention of it to my Dad, or that he hadn't seen the car himself. Upset would not be the word to describe what he'd be if he found out what I had done. Not that he would've minded me being there. He just would've minded the method Greg and Chris had used to get me there and out again, and the fact that I willingly went along with it.
Once I was out of the parking lot and away from the Hotel, my thoughts drifted back to my little hard-on scene up in the room. Ninety-nine percent of me was convinced that I had gotten to the bathroom in enough time and they hadn't seen anything. With how ridiculously homophobic the male gender had gotten nowadays, there was no way in my mind that they would've let something like that go and not have said anything about it.
Then there was this 1% of me that wondered if maybe, just maybe they really did see but decided for whatever reason not to say anything about it or wig behind it. Oh well, no need to worry out about it now. They hadn't.
I made it home at about 5:30. The moment I went into my room it was like the air was filled with something that made me so sleepy that I just wanted to lay down and go to bed as I was. But I needed to take a shower first. I didn't really feel like itching and scratching all night as the chlorine from swimming sweated out of my skin.
The warm water of the shower relaxed me even more, which I obviously didn't need. I didn't even clean out the tub when I got through, opting to do it later when I woke up. I set my alarm for 11:00 and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
* * * * * *
Even though all of us had been together nearly all night, meeting up with Chris and the guys was so heavy on my mind that I had a full length dream about what the day was going to be like. My dreams are always really detailed and sometimes I don't know they're actual dreams until I wake up. I dreamt everything. From Drake picking me up, to going to Great America and seeing the guys perform on stage, to visiting with them backstage. At one point me and Chris were alone in their dressing room talking about me coming up to the room and hanging out with him and rehearsing. He told me how he was glad I'd let him teach me the dance moves and how I didn't freak out when he had to touch me or get close to me. I'd told him it was all about fun and learning something new to me, and I didn't even care that he was a guy. To this he said he would like to teach me something else if I was open to it. When I asked him what it was he only looked at me and smiled a little. Then it got quiet and suddenly I knew what that "something else" was. We started moving closer toward each other. His eyes started to close, so did mine. Then my alarm blared suddenly and woke me up before the moment could happen.
"Damn clock." I grumbled, coming back into reality and shutting it off.
I laid back down for a minute, thinking about the dream and the moment Chris and me almost shared.
"God I wish I would've know it was a dream, 'cause I would've been all over him." I thought aloud.
I got up and went into the bathroom to do the usual morning leak. My little dream had decided to leave me stiff in that part of my body, which did nothing but aggravate me. Either I was going to have to play target practice with the toilet, or stand there until forever until I was stiff no more. I opted for the easy solution, sitting down.
After my bladder was finally drained I remembered that I hadn't cleaned out the tub from taking a shower. I thought about just doing it later when I got home, or before I got ready to take a shower again, but changed my mind and did it right then. That way I wouldn't have to wash the tub out twice when I got ready to use it again. Once that was done I brushed my teeth and put deodorant on, before I went back into my room to pick out what I was going to wear.
Normally I'd reach in and pull out any old thing that matched, put it on, and go about my way. But this time I was ready to dress to impress. I stood there searching slowly over my wardrobe until something caught my eye. They were a pair of black cargo style pants with the zippers near the kneecap so the legs could be taken off and turn the pants into shorts. They reminded me of the pants Chris had worn the night before.
I took them off the hanger and started looking for a shirt to wear. It came down to a white wife-beater style T-shirt, a black white wife-beater style T-shirt, and a dark blue sleeveless shirt. I wound up going with the dark blue sleeveless shirt. I didn't really want to do black on black, and it seemed like every time I wore white every damn stain in the world was attracted to it.
I got dressed, did my hair, and made up my bed before I left my room to go downstairs. I looked down the hall and saw that my parent's bedroom door was still halfway open, so that meant my Dad had stayed over at the Hotel like he said he was going to have to.
It was 11:32 as I entered the kitchen and went straight to the refrigerator. I didn't really feel all that hungry, but I knew it was because I was excited and not because I wasn't hungry. I took the carton of milk out and went to the cabinet on the right side of the fridge where the cereal was and took out the box of Lucky Charms. That was my most favorite cereal in the world, and from the age of four through seven, it was the only cereal I would eat.
I put away two bowls of the stuff before I was full. I washed out my bowl, got a cup, poured a glass of juice, and took a look at the clock to see how much time I had to kill. I had a little over an hour left before Drake would be by to get me. That would give me enough time to satisfy the urge I suddenly had to play Capcom vs. SNK 2 on my PS2.
On my way out of the kitchen I noticed that the button on the answering machine was flashing. I went over to it and saw that it was the "messenger" button that was flashing, not the message button. Messenger let the answering machine act like a verbal post-it pad. My mother, my father, and myself sometimes left messages on it for one another. I figured my dad must've left one for me when he'd come in. I pushed the flashing button and the machine beeped twice.
"Hey, son. It's Dad. I just wanted to remind you that I stayed the night at the Hotel and that's where I'll be until 3:00 this afternoon, so try and keep it down when you get home because I might still be asleep. Have a good time at Great America today and bring me back one of those funnel cakes with the strawberries on top if you don't mind. Talk to you later. Bye." my father's tired voice spoke from the machine.
I held down the messenger button and pressed the clear button to delete his message. When it was deleted, I pushed down the messenger button and waited for the machine to beep.
"Hey, dad. It's me. It's about 11:57 and since I'm not sure how long I'll be at Great America I'm gonna take my cell phone just in case you need to call or something. And you know mom would kill you if she found out you were eating a funnel cake, so its your funeral if she does. Okay. See you whenever. Bye." I spoke into the machine's speaker.
I let go of the Messenger button and the machine beeped again and the button started to flash again. I ran outside to my car and got my cell phone out of the glove compartment while I was still thinking about it, then I went upstairs to do some serious gaming.
* * * * * *
Drake showed up at 1:00 on the nose. I got so happy and excited when I heard the doorbell ring that I didn't even bother with saving my game stats or rolling up my controller. I dropped the controller, turned the PS2 off and took off downstairs. As I opened the front door, Drake was just hanging up his cell-phone.
"Well then. Looks like you're all dressed up and ready to go." he greeted me, smiling.
"I didn't know if you were going to come through running or not, so I figured I'd better be ready." I remarked. Hoping that I wasn't seeming too eager about things.
"Actually today is one of those rare days when I'm not running, so it's all good. But I appreciate the courtesy."
"No problem."
"Oh and your dad wanted me to tell you to grab your cell phone just in case he needs to call you."
Just like I knew he would.
"Already ahead of him." I said, pulling it out of my pocket and showing it.
"Okay, then I guess we're set."
No more motivation needed then that. I set the alarm and locked up the house and then Drake and me left. He made a comment on how nice the house was and about the neighborhood. I thanked him and told him he should drop by when he had some time off. He just shook his head and said: "Don't hold your breath. I don't think I've seen a vacation since winter of 1992."
Great America was an hour and fifteen minutes away from where I lived. That's minus all the traffic or road work that normally got ran into along the way, which would put the trip anywhere between an hour and forty five minutes to two hours and thirty minutes. We needed to be there by 4:00 at the extreme latest. Drake was sure we'd be there by at least 2:30, 2:45 tops.
We talked for pretty much the whole trip. It started off with the usual how's life been treating you, how's school going topics. Then Justin and J.C., excuse me, N'sync came on the radio singing the remix version of Girlfriend with that rapper guy Nelly. I don't know if I made a face when I heard it or what, but whatever I did got Drake to ask me,
"Don't really care for this kind of music?"
I shrugged.
"Ahhhh. Well, it kind of depends on who's singing really."
He nodded in agreement.
"That's the way I see it too. Which brings me to a question I've been forgetting to ask since we got in the car, honestly what do you think of the Dreamstreet guys?"
"What do you mean? Musically or in general?"
"Have you heard any of their music?"
"One time when I was home sick and they were on one of those talk shows."
"Whoa. That was way back in the day when they first got started."
"Yeah. It was one of those recap shows where they were showing talented guests who'd performed on there and stuff."
"Ah. Recycled stuff to put a gap between yesterday's show about teen paternity tests, and tomorrow's show about teen paternity tests."
That got both of us laughing because it was so true. Every time I'd caught the end of a talk show lately that always seemed to be the subject they were on.
"Man, seriously." I agreed.
"They sound a whole lot different now than they did back then, and better if you ask me." Drake said.
Before I could catch it, it slipped out,
"I know."
Drake glanced at me sideways.
"So then you have heard them recently?"
"Uh, um, no. What I meant was they'd have to sound different now than they did then since they're older." I tried my best to cover up my blunder. Good one Brenden. Just spill all the damn beans why don't you.
Drake was silent for a moment before accepting my answer.
"Oh, I got you. Anyway, though, I actually meant in general."
"They're all right. I guess I was expecting them to be a bunch of stuck up punks, but they turned out to be normal average teenagers. It was kind of a surprise and it really changed my mind about them." I weaved in lie with truth. I was sort of expecting them to be a little on the stuck up side, especially after some of the stuff I'd heard about how Jesse was mean or rude to the fans.
"Really? You think so?"
"Yeah. They're not a bad bunch of guys. How come you asked that?"
"Just wanted to get a perspective of them from another male their age."
"What do you think of them?"
"In general, I'm just like you. They are a nice group of boys. Very down to earth, very hard working, and very serious and professional when they need to be. Now if we could just keep them from sneaking out of their rooms at night, everything would be cool."
My body tensed up so badly when I heard him say that that even the worlds strongest human being couldn't have bended me. I couldn't move. All I could do was face forward with my eyes as wide as saucers. He couldn't know about last night, could he?
"Keep cool, Brenden. Just chill out." I coached myself, feeling the heat as it rushed into my face to turn it red.
"Oh?" my voice cracked, continuing to mess up my attempt to play it off like I had no idea what he was talking about. "They sneak out of their rooms?"
Drake nodded.
"Yep. And sometimes, they even sneak other people in."
Oh shit he did know!
All I could think about was how my father was going to react when he found out. I'd probably be grounded so long that disco would be back in by the time I got out.
Drake must've been able to read my mind, because he laughed and patted me on the back.
"Don't worry, kid, I'm just giving you a hard time."
"Huh?" was the only noise I could think to make.
"We know the boys sneak out of the room sometimes. We've been knowing it since the first time they did it. Do you really think we'd hire security guards that fell asleep on the job?"
I thought back to when Chris and me were sneaking out of the room to the stairwell and we passed the guard and his head did that thing where it kind of rolled from one direction to the other. If I remembered correctly the direction his head had rolled toward was the same direction the stairwell was in. And the angle his chair was situated in would've let him see very well up and down the hallway without having to turn his head a whole lot.
"So those guards were watching us the whole time." there was no use in keeping the act up anymore.
"Yep. The guard followed Greg down to the first floor when he went to go get his Cherry Coke, saw the two of you talking, and let me know that Greg was getting ready to bring you back to the room. I told him who you were and that it was all right."
"You didn't tell my Dad, did you?"
"I let him know where you were just in case he needed to get in contact with you again. Plus he said he figured something was up when he saw your car was still out there."
Sometimes I could be so stupid. Where was the place my father's office window looked out on? The back parking lot! And where was my car parked?
"He wasn't mad?"
"At first he was, but I talked to him and reminded him we were your guys' age once too."
Man! And here we were thinking that we had gotten away with something when we couldn't be any more further from the truth. I could imagine the looks on Chris's, Greg's, Jesse's, Matt's, and Frankie's faces if they found out.
"But this little conversation stays between us, okay? I wasn't even supposed to let you know we knew." Drake requested.
"For the man that was able to talk my father down out of being mad, my lips are sealed." I obliged. Because it was NOT an easy thing to talk my father down when he got mad.
* * * * * *