Jordan

Jordan

By

RettaMichaels

Disclaimer:

This story is fiction. Any person, place, or event depicted in it is fiction, so get over yourself if you think otherwise.

If you are below the age of consent and are reading this story, then please know your doing so jeopardizes everyone's opportunity to do so. Please come back when you can do so legally, and we'll be happy to welcome you.

Chapter 1

Hi, My name's Jordan. It's Jordan Johns to be specific, but who's paying attention. Well, to be specific, a lot of people are paying attention, but I'm not complaining.

See, I'm a singer, songwriter, actor, musician, and just an all around nice guy. I'm in a band and recently, it's taken off. Our first song has hit number one and our second release is heading up the top twenty. Heck, we just released our second c.d. and it's soaring up the charts and is surely going to bypass our first which is in the top ten.

It's nice, but that's not what is really on my mind.

The other day, I was walking down the street. Yes, I can still walk down the street, but our management and publicists tell us to get out while we can because it's not going to be possible much longer.

For me, that's a huge problem. I have a few issues I need to deal with and one of them is I'm gay. The other is I'm kind of beginning to like someone. I'll tell you a little about him and then you'll see what I mean.

The very first day I met Chad, I was instantly captivated by his looks. We were in the hotel where we were all to meet for the first time and I was lost. Somewhere, I had taken a wrong turn and I was in an entirely different area of the hotel than where I was supposed to be.

The bad thing about it, is in south Florida, when you ask someone directions, you don't always get the best directions and they're not always in the best English.

As I said, I was walking down this hallway and I saw someone walking towards me. He was to die for good looking and was hispanic. My first impression was he worked at the hotel and could help me find where I was heading.

I couldn't have been much more wrong. As it turned out, I told him the meeting room number I was looking for and found out he was going to be in the group too. He'd apparently gotten the directions from the same woman, and now we were both lost.

Being lost with him made it fun. It made it an adventure. We laughed about it and the whole time, I was catching glimpses of him and thinking to myself how cute he was but in so many ways, he was beautiful. It was that instant I created a new word, "Cutiful". It described him to a tee.

We eventually found our way to the meeting room, but along the way, I found out his age, and enough about him that I found myself really lusting over him more. The advantage of it was when we reached the room, no one else in the room compared to him in looks. Maybe I'm partial, but I still think that to this day.

From that first day, we worked hard. It's not easy being in a boy band. There's a lot of singing practice. Then there's a lot of recording practice. Yes, we had to practice recording as it's expensive to go into a recording studio and they want us to do it in as few cuts as possible...which makes sense.

One of the things I discovered during this time was Chad and I had several duets we got to sing together. It wasn't intended to be that way, but our voices were such, the managers thought it'd be best for us to sing them together. If you should know anything about me, I'm an opportunist and I'm also a perfectionist, so I definitely decided Chad and I had to practice together.

What was nicest about it was we'd gotten to know each other better and we had much the same interests. We both liked to ride bikes and play hoops. The only disadvantage at that time was we lived on different sides of the city.

What was cool was our parents were really pulling for us to make it in the group. His mom saw it as an opportunity for him to make something of his life and mine saw it as a way for me to get a career in all the things they wanted me to do...singing, acting, and being a star.

My dad came up with the solution we didn't see ourselves. I had an extra bike and one day, we took it over to Chad's house. That way, I could ride the Metro and go over there to practice and get to be better friends with him. Then, my dad went out and bought another bike for him to use over at our house.

The first few months of the band practice were exhausting. There was very little time for us to be by ourselves and there definitely wasn't any time to be alone with him except for the practicing.

We came up with the plan of practicing together in hopes we could cut down on the amount of time we had in practice. It didn't work out that way. The managers acted like they were being paid by someone to be slave drivers and they used every available second to have us doing something else. That led up to us finally getting the recordings done, and then we thought we were home free. All I can say is one word...wrong.

After recording, we then had choreography. We had to learn dance steps and to do it over and over while singing so we weren't out of breath while we were doing them.

What most of you don't know is we had three different sorts of choreography. We had stage choreography. We had video choreography. And, we had stadium choreography.

I'll tell you the difference. With stage choreography, it's like what you see on the interview shows. It's a smaller stage and the space is limited. The video choreography is used in the video. Usually it's done in front of a blue screen on a sound stage and it's lip sinking. It's really noisy on a soundstage, so using our voices there wouldn't be good. Lastly is the hardest choreography of all...stadium. That's where we go out on stage in a huge arena and put on shows. Everything in those events is down to the second and is practiced thousands of times. It's to the point I found myself sleeping and dreaming the choreography it was drilled into us so much.

The good thing about the time there, Chad and I got to sing together. No, it wasn't all the time, but it was enough I looked over all the rest of it and looked forward to those times. When we finally were through with the choreography training, then we had to practice interviewing. Our release had been scheduled and we'd gotten a green light from the company they were pushing us for main billing.

Now here's something you probably didn't know. There are mainline/headline acts and there's secondary acts. Mainline acts get lots of money and they get lots of promotions. Secondary acts don't get squat. We got lucky and got mainline. We were told it was because our team was so talented. I can tell you now it was because we had our backs broken to get it done.

Interviewing practice is nothing but someone else putting words in your mouth to the point you think it and say it without even so much as giving a facial gesture it's nothing but hogwash. Here's a few examples.

Chad is latino. He comes from a good home in a quiet neighborhood and his mom really loves him. The way they spun him, he became a kid that was in a gang and his home was broken and his life was really shitty until the group. The implication even got made several times he would have been headed for prison if it hadn't been for the group. The actual fact was Chad had already been accepted into a major school in New York city to perform vocal arts.

Me. I was their blond haired blue eyed all American kid. I was the one they wanted standing out in front of the group in photo shoots and saying, "Hey America, I'm white bread...gobble me up!"

The other members of the group were just as exploited. There was some grumbling about it, but the alternative was we wouldn't be anywhere without them and we knew it. So, we said our lines and our personnas got spun.

The main thing which bugged me the most was the management saw Chad and I hanging around with each other so much they probably realized it was puppy love...at least on my part. That even got spun into me being such a nice guy and looking out for him so that he would have good moral values. My family even got into the mix on the family values kick. Pure hogwash because we spent most of our time at his house because there was no privacy at mine.

As I said, having a private life wasn't easy. There were a few off days but those were caused by management meetings, scheduling meetings, or something. Those days were few and far between and compared to the sixteen hour days of practices, the time we had off...no one really wanted to spend more time with the other members of the group.

When we were off from the group, Chad and I quickly learned we didn't want to spend it at my house. My parents were so off into the thorough brain washing, they wouldn't let up on us when we were home. Home time was like going through another interview practice and there was one time we couldn't even order a pizza because it wasn't "healthy enough". That night, Chad and I looked at each other and about fifteen minutes later, we were on the Metro heading to his house.

It was during one of those nights before everything hit, Chad played me a song on the piano and sang to me. I didn't know it then, but he had just as many feelings for me as I did him. What I do know is my first reaction was that puppy love sensation turning into complete and total adoration of him on my part.

Switching gears for a second, I'll tell you, it was hard. I knew I was falling in love with him and I thought he was straight. What I do confess is we spent so much time together, every jack off fantasy I had was of him.

When we finally burst on the scene, the comments from the media was a full blown frenzy. Everyone was calling us "overnight sensations" and our thoughts were they were totally wrong. We'd been working every waking hour for the past ten months so there was nothing overnight about it. Most of the time, the media people were like us...using words someone else put into their mouths. We'd walk into an interview and the personality wouldn't know us from Adam. He'd read the press release and suddenly, he's knowing everything about us and has heard all our music. It sounds good on a radio, but let me tell you...the guy was reading directly from the piece of paper.

The good thing I can say about all the practicing and spending time with the rest of the band was it prepared us for the grind. The interview promotion tour we had scheduled had us working our small stage performance, but in the background, the arena choreography was still being practiced. The arena tour was being booked, so it was a matter of time.

Our interviews would be two, three, or more a day and sometimes it was in different cities. I began to wonder how we could be such big stars and little town America couldn't figure out how they snagged us for the interviews. The real truth was when we went out on the road, we hadn't sold a thousand units...which is what cds are called in the business.

Once we hit the road and started doing interviews in the various markets. We did big markets like New York, Boston, and New Haven. And then we went on down the seaboard and hit anything which had a population and a radio station. By D.C., one of the guys overheard the management team talking and said if we hadn't hit a hundred thousand units by Savannah they had orders to take us on home and shut everything off. Believe me, that had me scared.

Why would I be scared? Let's see...can you even comprehend being a wash out and a failure at the age of being 14? Yeah, overwhelming. We were scared and had no idea what to do to even begin to make things better.

Fortunately, somewhere outside of D.C., we were in a van going to someplace in Maryland, when one of the managers saw Chad and I sitting next to each other. Apparently a sparkle hit his eye and at the next hotel, we got called in to their suite. Yeah, you read that right...they got suites and we got one bedroom units.

Anyways, Chad called to tell me he thought we were getting fired as he got a call. I'd just hung up from getting my call when he called. I began to worry when he said he thought we were getting fired. I thought about calling my parents, but then decided to wait and see if anyone else got the calls.

When we went to the manager's suite, we were the only ones there. Chad looked at me and I thought, "Either the other guys are getting fired, or we are". ..once again, I was wrong.

The management team sat us down and said, "Boys, things aren't looking good. If sales don't improve, we'll be cancelling the tour."

We looked at each other and basicly asked at the same time, "What do you want us to do?"

One of the women by the name of Jill said, "We were wondering if you two would be up to creating a little controversy?"

The first thing out of my mouth was, "If I try beating someone up, I'd end up getting the bejezus beaten out of me!"

She smiled and said, "No, we noticed you and Chad spend a lot of time together and we were wondering if ummm..... ummm.... you two would mind if we leaked it out you two were boyfriends."

Chad looked at me and I just sat there and smiled. He said, "Well, we are boys and we are friends, so that'd be o.k.."

She said, "No, we were meaning like you two were together....ummm....like boyfriends in uh..... uh... uh.... like you'd be gay."

Chad spoke up, "O.k., if I go along with this, what you're telling me is we're going to go out there and we're going to put our reputations out as being gay. You all clean up financially if we succeed in getting the public behind this...but, the rest of the band still gets the same as us. Are they going to be gay too?"

"Ummm.....no"

"Why not!"

"Ummm...because they're not going to like it and that's where the controversy comes in to play. Everyone will wonder if the band is breaking up and if it does, then we'll see you two get a hundred grand extra."

I was wondering to myself if Chad didn't like me. I wasn't saying anything because I didn't want to think about that rejection. Parts of me were wondering if Chad would pull away from my friendship over this and that really worried me.

The whole time I'm sitting there like a bump on a log, Chad was over there talking a mile a minute getting them to give us concessions. He said, "I think if the band breaks up, and we're still going to be sitting with the ten year no recording agreement in our contract, then that's stupid for us to even consider. What you're telling me is I agree...everyone benefits....and I'm to walk out of here with hopes of a hundred grand. I'm not in it."

He got up to walk out and my hopes just sank. He looked at me and said, "Jordy, I'll see you in your room. I'll be using your phone to call home and get bus fair for us."

He made it to the door and had it open when Jill said, "Chad, come back over and we'll agree to some things."

Chad said, "He gets the same thing. First of all, we get a bigger cut. After all, it's most likely us they'll be asking all the questions to in interviews. And, it most likely will be us who gets eggs thrown at us on stage."

"She said, "O.k., right now, the band gets fifty percent. You each get a sixth of that. What if we can get you an extra five percent?" she paused looking pleased with herself. "That's almost 12%"

Chad gambled and said, "Give us an extra 10% and we'll gamble away the hundred grand if the group fails." He looked at me and said, "You in for that, Jordy?"

"I'll be in for it, but these people aren't going to go for it." I looked at him and was feeling really sad. It was a lot for me right then. I knew they'd not go for it, and then our hopes of fame would be gone.

Jill said, "Guys, you're asking for almost 18% a piece!"

Chad said, "Yeah, and you're asking me to go out and say I'm a booty bandit. Would you do it for 12% of possibly nothing?"

"Well, ummm....ummm.... no."

"So, what we're saying is this....you spin us off as being queer and you get to clean up if it works. We face the crowds and we get to face a band that will supposedly hate us and we're going to do it for 5%. That's nothing."

She looked panicked. "If I can get the company to go for it, will you do it?"

Chad looked at me and said, "If you do this to us, we get a suite together....not a double room, but a suite. The rest of the band can do whatever they want, but my main concern is that 10 year non-recording agreement in that contract. Get it gone and the rest of the things I'm asking for besides the suite with Jordy are negotiable."

I saw a light at the end of the tunnel and said, "I agree to everything as long as Chad gets equal billing. If anything gets leaked out, I want it to be me that came onto him and not the other way around. You've already messed up his reputation enough with the gangster stuff you put on him. And, if we fail, the record company has to agree we have a standing contract to record as a group with just us two."

Parts of me knew if I threw that in, they'd not take it, but I figured while we were asking for the moon and gambling away our reputations and futures, we may as well have something from it."

Chad smiled and said, "I agree with that."

Jill said, "We'll have a meeting, but what we need from you two now is you won't go tell the other guys a thing about this meeting. They may not go with it and we might have to close this tour down. If they don't go for it, we'll still get you that hundred grand."

Chad and I agreed and we left the room. As we walked down the hallway to the elevator, I looked at Chad and said, "We are sooo sunk."

"I don't think so. They probably know something we don't and they'll probably knew it before we asked. They know we're the stars up on that stage and that's why they came to us."

I looked at him and said, "Chad, if they go with it, when this is over and we're recording as a duo, I want one of our first songs to be that song you sang to me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I really like it. It's a great love song and I think if we're going to be boyfriends, it'd tell the world how we felt for each other."

"I do mean it, Jordy." He paused and looked down.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I felt it the first day we were together as soon as I saw you in that hallway. Since then, I've grown to like you a lot. So, if you hate me now, please know I'm finally admitting it to you."

"No"

"What! Please don't do this Jordy!"

"Chad! No, I'm not hating you. I felt the same way. I didn't know how to say it, but now the way I see it if you'll be my real boyfriend instead of pretend, I'll really like it."

Chad had tears running down his cheeks. "Jordy, promise me however bad it gets you won't turn your back on me."

"Chad, I couldn't ever do that. We've already been through so much together."

"Let's go back and tell them we'll be in your room waitting on their phone call. I don't want them to think I took off."

We went back to the suite and told the management team. Jill was on her cell phone and had her laptop open. She was talking fast and telling the company what we wanted. She motioned for us to sit down and we sat.

Chad sat next to me on the sofa and leaned over to me. "Don't do a thing until they say they've got it approved, but just follow my lead."

"O.k."

"When we get back out of here, you want to move over to my room or me to yours?"

"It doesn't matter much, we've basicly got the same thing."

"How are you going to tell your parents?"

The question took me out of the water. I really didn't know how to tell them. What I figured was my parents would probably have to agree the contract we'd told them, so they'd get told that way. "Let the management team tell them. That way my parents know that way. They'll accept it eventually."

"I'm not worried about my mom. She already knows how I feel for you."

"You told her but you couldn't tell me?!"

"Yeah, I knew I couldn't lose mom if I told her, but I could you."

"Oh Chad, I'm so sorry. I wish I'd said something sooner."

"It's out in the open now, so don't worry."

Jill got off the phone and said, "I just spoke with the company and they had me on conference with the promoters. They'll draw up all the contracts this afternoon and have it on the next jet to Norfolk. I got you everything you wanted and then some."

"What's the "and then some"?"

"I told them I wanted to be your personal manager for the rest of this contract and the next contract too if that's o.k with you two."

Chad looked at me and then at her. "Jill, could you please have these other guys leave the room so we can talk with you?"

"Sure, one second." She turned to the other two guys and said, "Guys, we need privacy. Could you give us a moment?"

They left the room and she pulled a chair over and sat in front of us. "What's on your minds?"

Chad said, "Jill, just a few moments ago, when we were out in the hallway, we spoke about this and found out we do have feelings for each other and want to be boyfriends anyways."

She smiled. "Well good! Let me call down to the front desk and get your stuff moved into a suite."

I said, "We have one other thing to ask and you can tell us no now, and we can wait, but Chad wrote me a song in Florida that I think would really be great for us to record."

"Really!"

Chad smiled and I said, "Yeah, I didn't know it then, but when I heard that song, I knew what I was feeling was more than having a crush on him."

"Would you play it for me Chad?"

He went over to the Casio keyboard and said, "Jordy, would you stand over here so I can look into your eyes when I sing it?"

I went over and stood by the piano. He began to play and when the first words started to come out, his eyes misted up as did mine. As he sang, the tears started to slide down his cheeks and so did mine. I reached over and wiped them off his cheeks. He continued to sing and it was interesting because that's when the words in the song were, "Don't cry out and say my name because I'll be the one to blame." A chill went through me and instantly, I remembered the next line. I started to sing it, "I've loved you just the same, standing in the rain. My tears are all a part of my shame."

When we were done singing. The room was silent. He stood up and I went into his arms. We hugged and just stood there crying.

Jill came over and said, "Guys, I've got to make a phone call. We've absolutely got to get into a studio. That's songs going to make you two immortal."

I looked up at her and she had tear stains on her cheeks from where her eyeliner had ran. She smiled and said, "I want you two to sing that at the end of the next concert exactly like that. And, if possible, just as soon as we can get those contracts signed, I'm going to push them to release you two to go ahead and record that as a duo. It's not been done before, but I think they'll do it. I'd like for you to perform it in front of the management team and the studio brass tomorrow. Keep it to yourselves and what ever you do, try to think of more songs like that Chad."

She ran out of the room mumbling to herself, "Oh my God....oh my God....oh my God!"

We stood there hugging. He looked down at me and said, "This feels so good, I don't want to stop. Can I kiss you?"

I reached up and gently kissed his lips.

Apparently Jill had come back into the room as she'd forgotten her phone. She said, "Oh my God guys, you've got to do that too. That after that song is just going to be the icing on the cake. That will have girls crying, boys talking, and everyone out running to buy records. I think that'll be your video too."

I thought to myself, "Man, that woman never stops thinking." But, at the same time, I was really happy about Chad's song being so accepted by her.

Chad said, "Jordy, I've got another song I'd like to play you. It's something I've been thinking of in my mind and I'd like your help. Do you mind it we work on it together?"

"Sure, I'm not good with music, but I'm good with words. What you need filled in, I can do."

He started to play and the chatter in the background ceased. At first, I thought Jill had shut the door. Chad began to sing again and play. The melody was different, but the words spoke of such love it chilled me. He got to the chorus and said, "Here's where I need some words. What I'm wanting to say is how much I want to love you and how much I want to have the same returned."

I looked at him and instantly, I said, "The song's not a duet. What would be more impacting there is you don't sing, but pause and have your voice break like your too choked up to sing and just speak the words."

He began to play again and when he got to the point, he did it and the catch of his voice like he was choked up sounded like he was crying. When he went into the speaking of the words, he did a sniff and then went back into the singing, but softer like he was singing to himself.

In back of us I heard a sob and turned. Jill was standing there bawling. She said, "Guys....guys....guys....that's a pullover song. There's your second number one."

"What's a pull over song."

"It's a song which makes you pull over you're crying too hard when you're hearing it on the radio. Every song I've heard like that goes to number one. I forgot my cell phone. Keep working, but Chad, we need that song too."

Chad smiled and as Jill was walking out the door, "That's fifty percent a piece Jill!"

She kept walking, "You got it...give me at least four more songs like that and we'll have the first three records sown up on the contract. All the rest can be filler."

Chad smiled and said, "She must really like them."

"She'd be a fool not to..."

"You think they're that good?"

"They're better than good. They're in that "Oh my God!" category like she said Each one of them would instantly get you album of the year if you recorded them as a solo."

"You're not just telling me that, are you?"

"No, as much as I like you, I respect you too much to tell you something like that if I didn't really really like them."

"Good, because I don't want to be known as the crying Latino."

I laughed and said, "Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and the whole world buys your albums. They should have thought of that before they asked us to be gay."

"It would have been over just as soon as I sang because everyone would know who I was referring to when I sung them. The next one, I want to be something everyone can dance to."

"Yeah, like Madonna's Holiday song. As soon as the first notes of that song get played, everyone's running to the dance floor."

He played the first few notes of it.

"Yeah something like that."

"We need something which is in that style, but has a different upbeat melody. Everything else has been tried."

"Let's see...we could do something which has swing in it, or we can do something which has that music from Louisiana in it..."

"Zydeco?"

"Yeah, something which would have people tapping out a beat on their desks at work, or their steering wheel in their cars...but, I think we need a song which is an anthem to being young and being gay. Something which tells young gays it's cool and tells other people a message of acceptance for them."

Chad began to work with the first few notes of "Holiday" and when he got to the first beat, he put in a zydeco rhythm...slower than zydeco, but something which felt good to be a toe tapper. As he was doing this, I began to sing what came to my mind. "They say it's Pride..."

I stopped and looked at him, "That it! That's the name of the song!"

"What?"

"That's the name I think it should be called!"

To say I was excited was an understatement. As soon as I said the words, everything just clicked. Pride to me equals Gay and everything about it and I just knew we had it when I said the word.

"I'm sorry, as soon as I said that word, a chill went through me and I just knew this song was going to be special...like it was going to be a number one at the top of the charts for a long time."

"Wow! You think?"

"Oh, I'm sure, give it another go and I'll try to contain myself, but you won't believe how I feel now."

"I'm not feeling it, but I know you're sure excited, so it has to be good."

"Oh, it is!"

He began to play again, and somehow, I just knew he changed it somehow. It was a bit sexier and I could see a dance floor full of people dancing to it. I could feel the vibes and I just knew it was good. The words came out and from where they came, I don't know. If he'd asked me to say them over, I wouldn't have had a clue what I said. What I know was he started singing along and it was like we were picking it up off each other.

When he finished playing, he looked at me and said, "That's going to be good. I didn't believe it at first, but when you were singing, I could pick it up off you and if it was that easy for me, I could imagine a whole stadium of people singing along. It's catchy and it's got that beat that makes people want to rub up against each other."

"Yeah, it's coming from somewhere within me, but I'm glad you took the words because I had no clue what all I just sang."

"Well, I got it, but what I think we need to do is get a tape recorder in here so we can get it all down. If we forget something sometime, then we'll have it and then I can mimic the piano part again."

"I don't know what you did that second time, but it seemed sexier."

"I just looked at you while you sang."

"Wow!"

"Yeah, that's the way I feel when I see you sing. Your voice touches me and I just react."

He reached over and kissed me.

Jill came back in and said, "Guys, I've got your suite with a piano in it, what else do you need?"

"We need a recorder....ummm, something so when we sing and play, we can remember the words."

"O.k., what is it you were working on?"

Chad began to play again and I began to sing, he put the same effort into it again and what I know is it was coming a lot smoother. Jill came over and put her cell phone on the piano. "That's recording directly into my voice mail box. That way we'll have the words down so they won't be forgotten."

"Great."

As soon as we were done, she said, "That's going to be a great song. I can see a lot of people going for that song. It's not exactly gay, but it's definitely there. It's straight enough everyone will think it's telling everyone to have pride in who you are and not in what the world expects you to be."

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to tell everyone."

"Well, that's definitely going to come across. The dance beat is going to catch on too. That's three boys, now I need three more!"

"You're a slave driver."

"No, I'm just the one that's going to be driving your asses to the bank to fill it with the money you're making. Those percentages are fucking them good. I'm glad I'm in for ten percent off the top."

We laughed and said, "Get yourself twelve percent or fifteen."

"If I do that, they'll hang me."

I looked at her and said, "Colonel Parker got twenty five percent of everything Elvis put out."

"Elvis also got a lot less than you two are making. And, he sold more records. You two sell me a hundred million records and I think I can renegotiate my contract."

"Make that twenty million and I'll go in and get you the percentages for you."

"I think they'd do it for that."

"I know they will! Otherwise, I'll have us out of the contract at the end of the three record deal and have us down the street in someone else's company getting you that much."

"Well, let's not put the horse before the cart. You get me those songs and I'll get them on the records."

"Jill, tell them when we come in to lay down the tracks, we're doing the songs for all three records at once. No one else has had three records at once, and I think we can get all three into the top ten for them. That definitely would get us airplay and it'd get us a lot of publicity."

"That's a helluva idea, get me the songs and we'll get you guys in there!"

Chad looked at me, "Have you gone insane!"

"No, I just feel we've got it Chad. Don't ask me to tell you how I know we've got it, but I just feel it. Now, what I want is a dance rap song, give me a beat that's like the one we had when we were playing hoops up in New York."

"Oh, that's the one like this..."

He played I and it came out a lot better than what I remembered. I started rapping and the words were flowing smooth. It was a love song which if one listened to it, they'd know I was singing about a guy, but girls would hear it and they'd think it was about them. When we got done, I motioned to him to continue to play the beats....

He looked at me and continued to play and then I went over to his keyboard and made it so it was us playing it together. The way it went, it made it go from a rhythm to a honky tonk piano. He looked at me and I went right into another song.

"Wow! I like this!"

"You too, I think it's great. It'll be the first two part number one in history."

"No, I think Richard Marx had it with Hazard."

"No, this one's got two different beats and sounds."

"You're right there. This is cool, we could perform this so easy."

"That's what I'm thinking. The next song I want to do is going to be a high electronic sound like the Pet Shop Boys."

"I've got just the sound for you. I was thinking of it the other day."

He went into the song and I began to do some beat box to it. He began to do it in a different sound and the harmony of it was really good. He looked at me and said, "Man, that's good. I like it. It's going to have guys and guys and guys and girls and girls and girls all doing it together in order to get it right. It's going to be so cool. The only way I can see someone pulling it off better is if they record themselves and then play it and then do it with themselves in a mirror."

"That's amazing, as soon as you said that, I instantly thought of us doing that in a video. It's going to be hell to perform that way, but we can get it done if we have the rest of the group all dressed up like each other."

"Yeah, we need to think of some songs so the rest of the group can perform with us. Some of the songs they've had us do have been nothing but crap. I think that's the reason the record's not selling like it should."

"Yeah, but they're supposed to know everything."

"I bet if we talked with the guys, they could come up with some other songs. Let's save our songs for us and then come up with the ones for the entire group with them. Let them earn their percentages if they're going to benefit from it."

"O.k., but we need to help them out too. I don't want us going mainline and the rest of the group going secondary."

"That would suck, let's go get them together and get the session called to order."

We got up and Jill came in. "Remember, I need three more songs."

"We've already got them. They're on your voice mail. We'll have more as we've got some good ideas, but we want to get the rest of the guys together to have a jam session to get their input on some songs for the entire group."

"O.k., but we've got to get the first album to sell more before they'll allow another to be recorded."

"Oh, they'll have another album recorded. I imagine by the time we hit Orlando, we'll be over a million units."

"Get that done, and I'll have you studio time."

"Get it scheduled because you forget we're going into the heart of our own country and once they hear us down there with the new stuff, everyone's going to be out buying the old record looking for the new stuff."

She smiled, "You didn't like the songs the almighty's picked out for you!"

"It's not that, but some of the songs are crap."

"I told them, but they know it all. Now, you're telling me and I really think that's why the record's not going over."

"Well, we agree then. We're going to go get the guys together to get the new material together. We'll call your voice mail, you just pay the cell phone bill."

"Don't worry about that, the company's covering it."

We left and went to get the guys together. It wasn't hard as they were all in the same room. As soon as they saw us, they said, "Hey, you hear the shit they're trying to make us do?"

"Yeah, and we're o.k, with it. It's going to be o.k, guys."

"Well, how do you feel about it?" Jason asked.

"I feel fine, to be honest, it's true."

"Oh, well, we hate the part about not liking you guys over it because if the truth needs to be told, us four are couples too."

"Wow!" You could have knocked me over with a feather on that one. Maybe if we'd spent more time with them, we'd have known, but we hadn't. Now, we're together, the truth's coming out.

"Cool!"

Chad looked at the guys, "Guys, the reason we're here is we want to ask you guys to jam with us so we can get the group some more material. To be honest, the songs they're having us do suck."

"You telling us! Man, we've been talking about it for weeks!"

"Well, what we're thinking is if we get new material together and start performing it, then the powers that be will get us into the studio to get it so we can sell it."

"They won't go for it."

"Well, we kind of already have a deal with them to perform it. So, what we need is to get some songs. Our deal is if we perform it and can get them a million units sold by Orlando, they'll get us the studio time."

"Great!" Niles said, "I've got some songs I think would be cool. Let me play some for you and then you all can give me you opinion."

He went over to a piano and sat down. He began to play a few ballads and as soon as I heard two of them, I thought they were great. Chad went over with him on one and said, "Put in a tone of a music box rather than that guitar."

Niles did and as soon as he did, it went from being a song which was so-so to being a great song. It made it seem like a guy was singing to his baby girl instead of a teenage girl.

I looked at them, "The video for that song should be filmed from a crib showing a guy looking in and singing that song to his daughter. Have him dressed in a uniform telling her he's going to be gone. There won't be a dry eye in the place."

"Wow! That sent chills through me!"

"Yeah, and at the end of the video, have a shot of the guy going up the steps of a troop transporter and the final shot being of the baby's point of view watching her daddy fly off."

"Oooh, that's awesome!"

"Yeah, I never had that thought when I wrote that song, but as soon as you said it, I know that's way out of this world."

"Do any of you guys have a video camera?" "I do!" Bandy said. "What'cha going to do?"

"The next stop, I want us to go out and find someone who has a baby and get the shots filmed. Then, at the next concert, they're giving us time at the end of our songs to do the new stuff. That's when I want to have the jumbotrons showing the video we filmed."

"That won't look professional."

"No, the non-professional quality will make it look like that baby picked up the camera herself and that's her memory of her daddy. It doesn't have to look professional!"

"Wow! You're right! Let's go get the video filmed now!"

"If you've not looked outside, it's dark and tomorrow, we're off to another city...Norfolk which happens to be a Navy port."

"Where's the next Air Force stop going to be?"

"I don't know, maybe North Carolina, or South Carolina. We've got to have it before then, because I want to get enough buzz about this to have a special segment on CNN. Let's say we need it by Myrtle Beach, so make some calls and see what we can come up with."

The guys all thought amongst ourselves and Bandy said, "I've got a cousin in the Air Force, in Illinois who happens to have a baby. I don't know if it's a girl or not, but that's the best I can come up with."

"Call him and see where the closest base is to us. If not, we'll fly there and get some shots. It doesn't have to be his kid. All we need is a soldier getting on a plane."

"O.k, let me get him on the line. I'll have to call home to get the number. We're not real close."

"We'll wait, and while we do, we'll come up with some other songs."

The rest of us went over and got close to the keyboard. Wendell said, "I've been thinking about a song, but all I can come up with are the words. If someone can figure it out, I'll sing the words."

Chad said, "Give us a shot, I'm sure we can get it done."

He began to hum and then Chad toned in the keyboard. While he was doing that, I was immediately thinking of words I'd use on the tune. Wend began to sing and it was amazing the words he used as they were much what I'd been thinking. When he ran out of words, I stepped in and began to put in mine. He looked at me and said, "Wow! That's what I'm thinking! How'd you do that!"

"As soon as you hummed the melody, I started coming up with words. What was cool was you started singing and it was the same words I was thinking!"

He began to sing them again and I stepped in to harmonize. The sound was awesome. The guys all stepped in and instantly, I knew the group was pulling together better than we had in all those months of practice. Chills went down my spine and I looked over at Chad. I think he felt it too.

When we were done, Wend said, "Man, that's way better than the stuff they've been having us sing."

"Yeah, I'm feeling like the group is a whole lot closer than we've ever been. We should've done this a long time ago."

"Well, everyone's been busy doing their own things. Now, we're getting it done, so that's what matters."

"Guys, what we need are some songs that are going to be enough for two more albums. We need at least two solid hits for each album and the rest as filler. If we can get ourselves four on an album, it can insure the album's going to get a lot of airplay."

"We've got three now, and I've got a few more." Wend said.

"I've just thought of a song which I think would be good. Chad, take the keyboard and follow me on this."

I began to sing again and when he hit the beat it was in a swing or jazz melody sort of like the old songs out of the forties. He looked at me and said, "We need some horns and we need to up the tempo. It's too sad like it is now."

"O.k., up the tempo and put in a trumpet."

"I can't do it right now. If someone else has a keyboard and can follow me, then come in and see what we can do."

"I don't have a keyboard, but I've got a trumpet in the next room. Do you think the other guest will be pissed off if we play it in here?"

I looked at Chad, he said, "Let's go to our room and we'll play it there."

They looked at us and said, "What makes your room special? It's right down the hall."

"No, they just gave us a suite so us two can share to make the gay thing look more real."

"Then we want suites too."

"We'll talk to Jill. I think she'll arrange it since there's only going to be three suites instead of each having their own. She's going to shit. Do you guys have any songs you've been working on together as duets you'd like to sing together?"

Wend blushed and said, "I have a song I was wanting to sing to Bandy."

"Well then come on over and Bandy, you come over here and have him sing it to you. If there's a part of it in which Bandy can sing all the better, but this is going to blow her out of the water."

As soon as Wend began to play, I was blown out of the water myself. He started off with a spiritual song I sang as a kid and then paused a bit and turned it into a sort of country song. It started off with the song, "Deep and Wide" and then went into how his heart was a fountain flowing for Bandy and the love coming from his soul was never ending.

As he sang, the love between them was felt by me and Chad came over and put his hand in the small of my back. I turned and looked at him and he nodded. My arm went around him and when I looked over at the other couple, they were the same way. We all stood watching Wend sing to Bandy and Bandy was visibly moved. Tears were flowing and as soon as the song was over, he reached over and kissed Wend.

Chad spoke out, "Guys, we got us another great song!"

"Yeah, but they're not going to let us sing that to each other. We're supposed to hate gays." said Niles.

"Well, if you don't mind, we'll sing that on stage to each other and you two can know it's your song." Chad offered.

"That'd be cool."

I paused and then said, "Guys, that's bullshit. We're letting the management dictate to us what we should hate and if we stand up for that, then we're promoting hate within the group, and that flows out to the world. I personally am not going to go for it. Let Wend sing it to Bandy and fuck the management. If there's more than one gay couple in the group, so be it."

Chad looked at me, "They won't go for it. They're already spinning it the way they want to."

"And we have to go for it?"

"Well, let's talk to Jill and see what she says."

"Give her a call and see if she'll give us all an appointment."

"Chad called her room and she said she'd be over."

A few minutes later, she came to the room and we let her in.

I stood up for the group and said, "Jill, there's a problem you need to know about."

"What's up guys?"

"You might not know it, but the other four guys besides Chad and I are couples too. We're having a problem with it being spun off they're supposed to hate gays when they're gay too. Is there a way we can get around it?"

She paused and said, "I don't know. I think they're already putting out the press releases as to what they want."

"Well, can they tone it down, or can they get it so they can come around, or something?"

"I don't know. We sure didn't think about this happening."

"Jill, we didn't think about it happening either, but it did."

"This is going to give us a different dimension."

"The reason we're having the problem is we've got a great song that Wend just sang to Bandy and it's their song. Why don't you listen to it and see what you think."

Wend began to sing it again and when he did, Jill really listened. When he was done, she looked at us and said, "Wow! I never thought of it, but that'd be a way to spin you two off as a couple. Can you get me some more of that sound so I can approach the company with it?"

Wend smiled and said, "I've got a bunch of them."

She said, "I'm all ears and besides, I'm bored to death there in my suite. All the other managers want to do is talk business!"

Wend began to play and sing. Bandy began to harmonize like they'd worked on the songs together for quite some time. Together, they sounded a lot like a major country recording act. When they were done, I just knew they had themselves a contract.

"Guys, here's what I'm going to say. You may not like it, but I've got to lay it on the line with you."

Bandy said, "O.k., if it's bad news, let me sit down first."

"No, it's not altogether bad. So, hear me out o.k.?"

She then said, "Guys, country music has a whole audience which isn't going to go for the gay slant. I'll be up front with you on that. The segment of gays who like country is rather small and although you can get units sold, you'll starve to death before you ever get big. What I propose is you look straight forward to the audience when you sing and you'll be accepted like a country act. Two guys can sing together that way and it's not gay. They'll buy your albums and no one will be the wiser. You two have a great sound together and I can see a lot of people going for it. You've got enough material, I can get you a contract. I'll get that done, but what I want from you is to be your manager on this and I'll get it done so we can get you time to perform together. Is it a go?"

They looked at each other and nodded.

Chad stepped in and said, "Get them the same percentages and cut that to ten million each Jill."

She smiled and said, "I think I can get the percentage now Chad. We're handing them a gold mine and if they won't go for it, then I'll shop it elsewhere."

Chad smiled and said, "The group has a lot of new material for you to listen to and we need your help on filming a video."

We began to play the one song and I gave a description of the video I envisioned. Jill listened and when we were done, she was up and talking a mile a minute into her cell phone. She nodded to us and said, "We've got a crew and we'll get you that video shot. We've got to get that song released and I don't care how we've got to do it, but we've got to get you all back into the studio. You guys are going to be megastars!"

I put my hand on her arm and said, "Jill, there's more."

"What do you mean?"

"We've got about four more songs that are that caliber."

"Oh sheeeit!" She yelled.

Whomever she was talking with on her cell phone got hung up on. She looked at us and said, "Play it for me, I've got you studio time, now let's hear it!"

She was so excited she was dancing around the room. We began to play the songs and as we played them, the group came together into our own and sang in a sound I'd not heard up until then. As soon as we were done, her eyes were huge and she said, "Guys, I'm soooo sorry. We've went about this wrong. You've got it figured out and now, it's up to us to listen to you. You've got all your records you need and now we've got to get them down to be released. This is huge. This is so fucking huge, you'll be touring for the next five years off just what you've played for me here.

She looked at Niles and Red. "Guys, do you have something you would like to do, because they've got contracts and I'd like to get you yours."

Niles smiled at Red and said, "Go for it babe."

Red went over to the keyboard and began to play. The sound he was playing was like show tunes. The first thought which went through my mind was like Mickey Rooney or the old Judy Garland sound. He sang and Red kicked in. Red looked over and said, "This is from a play Niles and I came up with which is sort of like a cross between Oklahoma and Fiddler on the Roof. It may not sound like it completely, but it's got to have a big concert hall sound to it in order to be completely appreciated."

We all listened and then something instantly came to me. The parts were all for guys and the number of parts were the same number in our group!

I looked at Jill and said, "The group could do the play!" It's perfect! We could do it as a long video and we could sell it on DVD and the profits could go to them!"

She looked at me and said, "Would you all be up for it?"

Everyone nodded and she said, "Guys, I'll get on this. I have no clue how I'm going to get this one done, but I promise you that if I can't get it done, I'll get someone to get it done even if I've got to go to Disney to get it done."

She smiled and said, "This day's been great. I thought it was going to turn into a bunch of shit and this is just outstanding!"

She gave us all hugs and said to Red and Niles, "I'll be back with you all on it."

Chad stopped her and said, "Jill, talk to the company and get the guys suites too. They know we've got one and they'd like them for each couple too."

"I'll get it done. We've got hope now and I'll swing it financially."

Chad smiled and said, "Guys, how about if we all take it to our suite and then we'll have it to share tonight. I don't want to have it and you all not feel what it's like."

I smiled at him as I too felt like the group was now more whole.

Notes from Retta:

This here is my Christmas present to you the reader. It's more than one Chapter...well, it's seven chapters so far and growing. For me, it's a release as it's so uplifting and cheerful instead of being depressing like my other stories have been thus far.

I've not been into the boy band craze, and I've really never read any boy band stories, but this one just jumped out at me. For too long, they've had boy bands acting like they're not gay and having their careers in the crapper when someone does come out to be gay. Well, how about a new slant of one band whose career gets made because they're gay! So fuck the establishment and know there are some people out there who are so prejudicial they won't buy just because someone's gay. Heck, look at all of them who are either gay, or are reported to be gay...and then think to yourself, "How much bigger would their career have been if they had and the rest of the group had embraced the person because of their being different!"

So, with that said and done, I'm getting this sent out to you...my faithful readers. Thanks for a great year and may there be many more coming in the future!

-- From My Keyboard To Your Heart Rhett

Here is a list of stories I've written and where to find them:

With Love - Nifty - Beginnings Section Rural Love - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Write Me A Love Story - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com To Love Him - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Military Zone - Nifty - Military Section Evan - Nifty - Beginnings Section