Hi everyone...
Wow...people are actually reading my stuff. Thanks for the positive responses. -- As always, Gabriella and Mike and Charlie are my main cheerleaders. I'm a bit nervous--so if people could please e-mail me at bwicub@hotmail.com--I'd really appreciate it. I love e-mail!!!
DISCLAIMER: This is a fictional story that came right out of my own mind. I have no knowledge if any member of N Sync are gay or whatever. That being said, please enjoy the story and remember-- write me!!! (Especially write me if you're a member of the group! GRIN)
--The Lottery Winner Ch 10--
My mom came barreling out of the room and pulled me into a bear hug. I giggled and hugged her back. I noticed that her hair was shorter and she had new glasses.
"God mom, another new look? You trying to get on the cover of Girlfriends magazine or something?" She just laughed and pulled me into the room. She was in the process of closing the door when it hit something. She opened it and realized that someone was there. Her face drained of all color as she realized who it was.
"Um, Dale. Why is one of the Nsync boys outside my door?"
I started laughing and told Joey to come in before he got recognized. As the door shut mom's girlfriend Debbie came out of the bathroom.
"Chris, did you remember to pack the hair gel? What? DALE!!!" She pulled me into a hug. She then saw Joey standing there. "Hey, he's a cutie. Kind of looks like you Dale. You two make a nice couple. Hey, there's the gel! Gotta go fix my hair kid. Back shortly." She disappeared into the bathroom without a backwards glance. I smiled fondly after her.
"Um, Dale. Little explanation please." Mom sat on the couch in the room, waiting for me to sit. I sat down and Joey sat next to me. Mom's eyes widened as she saw Joey take my hand in his.
"So I take it this is why we're here? To meet someone? And here I thought you just wanted to see me." She stuck her lip out and looked like she was on the verge of crying. I thought Joey was going to have a heart attack when he heard what I said next.
"Oh stop it you old dyke. You know I try to get up there to Montana whenever I can."
"Dale! Why would you talk like that to your mom?" Joey was going to go on, when he saw mom giggling. He looked at me, and I was laughing too. He closed his mouth and sat back down.
"Joey, this crazy woman is my mom Chris. I love her more than anything and she's my best friend. The fact that she's my mom is like icing on the cake. Mom, as I'm sure you already figured out. This is Joey Fatone. He's, well, he's a little famous. I wanted to introduce him to you and Debbie."
She smiled broadly, and extended her hand. "A pleasure to meet you Joe." Then she turned to look at me. "Dale, no one is happier than I if you're going to start dating again. But are you sure you won't repeat the mistakes you made before? I don't know if I can live through another Lonnie revelation."
Lonnie...fuck, he'd been totally out of my mind. Leave it to mom to bring it up.
"Um, Dale. Who's Lonnie?"
Mom just smiled sadly at my reaction. "Dale, do you guys want to go talk then come back in an hour or two? We're going to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We'd love for you to join us?"
I got up without even realizing. "Yeah mom, that'd be great." I hugged her, and reached blindly for Joey's hand. He hugged me, and kissed my cheek.
"Come on baby. Let's go talk."
The ride up in the elevator was totally silent. I was lost in thought and Joe just stared at me. We got back to our room without seeing any of the guys (still were people yelling in Lance's room, but this time I ignored them). Joey went to the min-bar and poured two drinks. We sat on the bed, I finished my drink in one gulp, then lay back on the bed. Joey got up on the other side of the bed, and pulled over so my head was resting in his lap. He began massaging my head lightly with his fingertips.
"So...tell me about Lonnie."
"Well, not much to tell. He was the first guy I had a relationship with. I thought it was love but looking back now I know that it was me being controlled. We met when I was 18 and he was 23. We seemed to hit it off really well, and had lots of fun together. After a few dates, he asked if I wanted to move in with him, I did. The first two months were really nice. Then it happened...I was late getting home from work one night. A group of us had decided to go out for coffee and hang out. I got home, and Lonnie didn't appreciate the fact that I didn't come home to him. So he hit me."
I heard Joey's intake of breath, but didn't let it interrupt me.
"The next day he was apologetic, and showered me with gifts. Then about a week or so later it happened again. This time a little more severely. The beatings started coming more regularly. He took tighter and tighter control of my life. Before long I was doing nothing outside of what he wanted. I spent many nights in the emergency room getting bandaged up. I sat and recently figured out that the last year I was in the relationship I was sent to the Emergency Room 37 times."
Joey didn't say anything the whole time I was talking. After I stopped there, he leaned over and gently wiped away the tears that were streaming down my cheeks. "Oh baby...I'm so sorry. You don't have to tell me more if you don't want to."
"That's just it Joey. I want to! You deserve to know my baggage. Then you can decide if it's something that you want to deal with. I'd completely understand if you decided to kick me to the curb and go back to your life."
"Dammit Dale, would you stop that! I am not going away. You can't get rid of me that easily! Now if you're done trying to push me away do you feel like continuing?"
I sighed and reached for his left hand. I squeezed it and pulled it to me and kissed the back of it. When I continued, it was with a slight tremor evident in my voice.
"I went through hell those two years. Mom and Debbie knew that something was wrong, but I wouldn't tell them what was up. One time Debbie came over to the house a few hours after a beating and I just told her that I'd accidentally fallen down the stairs. I could tell that she didn't buy it, but I didn't have anything else to tell her. That was about six months before the relationship ended. What a fucked up night that was!" I felt myself welling up again with more tears, Joey just squeezed my hand, and I could feel the love and compassion radiating from him.
"One night after work I was getting ready to head home when the group came up to me and told me that we were going out for coffee. I kept saying no and they kept saying yes. I didn't really get much choice in the matter. Oh, I could have probably gotten away from them and headed home...but it was easier to just do what they wanted. That was something I noticed around that point in time. I had no fight left in me. I just did what was easiest for me. Well, there were five of us who went out that night. The whole time I kept looking at my watch saying I had to get home. But Brandy and Melissa wouldn't hear of it. They sat me there and kept me talking about the little things in my life."
I took a breath, looked into those gorgeous eyes of his...and continued.
"Finally I was able to break away, but the girls chased me to my car. They told me they were following me home. After arguing with them for five minutes I finally told them to do whatever they wanted to. The two girls followed me, with two guys named Joe and Mike following. The four of them followed me into my house. And then... then...they broke up the relationship."
He leaned down and looked at me in confusion. "What do you mean THEY did?"
"Just that. They followed me in, and the guys held Lonnie at bay while the girls threw some of my clothes in a bag. They told him that they didn't want identify me in a morgue. I slept on Brandy's couch that night. About a month later I was involved in a high-speed chase when Lonnie chased me for 20 miles. He was the passenger, leaning out the window swinging a baseball bat at Brandy's car. I totally thought I was going to die that night."
"I moved to California two months later. Almost two years after that, I finally got the nerve to tell mom and Debbie just what type of relationship I had with Lonnie. That was the only time in my life I've ever lied to her. She didn't take it well."
"He was such a son of a bitch Joey! I can't believe I was stupid enough to think that it was love. You don't rape someone if you love them!"
His face drained of all color. "Oh my god...he raped you?"
"Well Joey. Look at it this way. If he wanted to have sex, we had sex. Doesn't matter what I felt about it."
"Did you talk to someone once the relationship ended?"
I let out a bitter laugh. "What would that have accomplished honey? It was the early 90s. If I had said anything in Montana I would have been laughed at. Once I moved to California, I just immersed myself in a shell and let myself heal. It took time. Almost five years...but it worked."
He pulled me up briefly and then scooted down so he could wrap his arm around me. Nuzzling my neck, he ran his hand over my chest. "Dale, why didn't you say something? God, now I feel like shit."
I turned over and faced him, resting my right arm on his waist. "Joey no! I love what we do. With you I feel nothing except total love. For the first time, I feel complete."
I snuggled closet and kissed him. "I'm sorry for keeping this from you. I didn't want you to walk away."
He looked into my eyes, and didn't say anything for a moment. Then he kissed me, lightly at first then more insistently. Our tongues met, and then I moaned as his tongue entered my mouth. We lay there for a few minutes, kissing passionately. I broke the kiss, and looked into my lover's eyes.
"Joey, make love to me."
He smiled and then stood up to take off his clothes. I did the same. We met at the bottom of the bed and the passion swept over us. Our lovemaking was tender and sweet. Joey was hesitant at first, after learning the things I'd told him. But by my touches and kisses (and claw marks) I let him know that this was definitely something I wanted. His cries of release matched mine. He lay on top of me, panting from the hot and sweaty loving. I kissed his lips, then the tip of his nose.
"Come on baby...we gotta shower again if we are going to be presentable for My Two Moms."
We were just heading into the bathroom when the phone rang. Joey went to answer it.
"Hello? Hey Chris, it's Joey. Yeah, we're going to be down. We have to go shower." Suddenly he blushed. Oh lord, mom must have said something patently her. Joey looked at me, and he had this `deer in the headlights' look.
"Honey, just tell her we'll be down and come on. She'll understand."
I turned and headed into the shower. He got in with me about a minute later. "Lord Dale...your mom is a trip!"
"What'd she say?"
He was lathering me up, and was soaping his way down my chest and he replied. "She called to let us know that the restaurant was able to move our reservation back an hour, then she laughed at me and said that it'd be tacky to come to dinner smelling like we just got laid. Is she always like that?"
I sighed as his hand was down on my cock and balls, soaping them up. He began jerking on my meat slowly. "Yeah, but it's part of her charm. Now don't start something that we don't have time to finish. I don't want to be late for dinner honey."
He pouted for a second, but I wiped that off his face with a passionate kiss. We finished our shower and got dressed again. We left the room, and I saw Lance sitting on the floor by his room's door. He was crying. As we walked by him he looked up, then looked away. I stopped.
"Scoop, what's wrong?"
He sniffed and wiped his sleeve across his face. It was a gesture I haven't seen someone do in a long, long time. It tugged at my heartstrings. "Nothing. No, something. I'll talk to you later about it." He started getting up, and I just held out my hand. He looked at it for a second, then took my hand in his. I pulled him into a hug and held him tightly. He was all tightened up at first, then gradually relaxed into the hug. He started crying softly. I was shocked when Lance flinched away from Joey's hand that he'd tried rubbing on Lance's back. Joey reacted as if he'd been slapped. Joey cleared his throat, and said he'd wait for me at the elevator. I smiled and nodded. Once he was out of earshot I laid into James.
"What the hell was that all about? You just hurt your best friend's feelings you know."
He looked at me, and his eyes flashed with fire. "Dale, you don't always have the answers. This is something that I have to face and deal with." He pushed me away. "Go, we'll talk later." He then walked into his room and shut the door without a backward glance.
"Fuck...I don't need this right now." I turned and trotted over to the elevator. I noticed Joey was looking at the closed door. He had a tear in his eyes. When I saw that no one was around, I put my arms around his neck and pulled him close. Gently kissing his tears, I held him close.
"Come on Joe, let's go get some dinner." I hit the button and pulled him into the elevator.
I noticed his quiet, and kissed him on the lips. "For the time being let's not worry about it. Now, prepare yourself...you're about to meet my parents."
He smiled at me, and hugged me back. The elevator dinged and he pulled away. He followed me down the hall and I knocked on mom's door again. She opened it and pulled me into another hug.
The four of us then left to head off to a nice Italian restaurant down the street. We had reservations, so were able to be seated with no problem. The next few hours were pretty nice. Mom regaled Joey with all kinds of stories about me growing up. I think I spent the whole time blushing. Joey kept laughing and just smiling at me with that crooked smile of his. The time just flew by...suddenly it was 11 o'clock. I paid the check, and we all headed back to the hotel. I gave mom and Deb a goodbye hug and kiss...and then Joey and I headed up to our room.
As the door closed behind us to the room, I felt Joey walk up behind me and put his arms around me. "Thank you baby."
"For what?"
"I had such a good time meeting your parents tonight. Now I know why you are the handsome and sweet and adorable man that you are. I truly feel blessed that you're a part of my life. Now, I don't know about you sweetness, but I'm tired. Tomorrow morning is going to be hectic."
I kissed him, and held him tightly for a minute. "Do you think I should try and talk to Lance now? Or should I wait."
"I dunno, try giving him a call. I'm going to take a quick shower and hop into bed." He kissed me lightly and then took off his shirt.
"Damn baby, I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that." He wiggled his butt as he stripped his pants and boxers off. He took off into the bathroom, but not before walking over to where I was sitting on the bed. I put my arms around his waist, and we just held each other. He then leaned over to kiss me, and went to shower.
I reached for the phone, and dialed a number.
"Lance? It's me. You ready to talk? Great. Come on down."