LOVE AND MUSIC

LOVE AND MUSIC

BY WILDHEART

Subject: Boy bands

Rating: PG-13 to NC-17

Disclaimer or CYA Statement: THIS IS FICTION>>>>IT IS NOT REAL>>>>NO IDEA IF ANY CELEBS ARE GAY!!!

This is a story about friendship, love, romance, and family. While it will in time also include making love, this is certainly not a sex story. You really should be legal to read this story and of course if you are not, then at least do not get caught! Seriously, by reading this story you are agreeing that you are in fact of legal age, where you live, to be reading it. You may contact me at: wildheart407@runbox.com if you have comments, suggestions or whatever.

This story will be written with different points of view (POV), first person, and third person (narrator). The changes in POV should be easy to follow as I will try to clearly mark them.

AUTHORS NOTES: I have opened a yahoo group for this story and any other that I write and any others that anyone would like to allow me to use. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LOVE-AND-MUSIC/ I would rather have stories about love, romance and or friends and family. I also hope to build a web site sometime soon, and would REALLY like to host other stories on that site, so if you have a story and would allow it to be posted, let me know. If anyone out there would like to help me with the web site please let me know.

LANCE POV

As I stood there listening to all that went on around me, and seeing the look of horror that came across Cole's face when his boss told him he was fired and then the look of pure joy when Joey went off and again when Mandy was fired until she called us all faggots. As shocked as I was at all the events of the evening, I still had a small part of me that was amazed by Cole's ability to be so expressive with nothing but the look on his face.

Cole looked as though he had not really processed the fact that he had been fired and none of us had processed the fact that we had sort of been outted by Mandy, though there were not that many who could have heard her and most likely fewer who would believe her given that she had just been fired. I mean to be honest it really did not matter too much one-way or the other, but it was something that we wanted to be in charge of.

Cole's bosses must have taken out threat seriously because they were falling all over themselves to hire him back. It was then that I had the idea of hiring him to run the promotions and publicity departments at Freelance. I almost brought it up then, but decided to think about it some more and talk to the guys about it. I mean I did not have to talk to them, it was my company after all, but I liked to discuss major decisions with the guys. In this case, I am sure glad that I did.

I was glad that Joey had jumped right up and took care of the whole situation. I was not sure what to think of the whole deal with Mandy, and how what she had said would affect us, but in all honesty I really did not think that it mattered one way or the other. It was not as though we planned to be hiding much longer anyway.

COLE POV

It was just almost more than I could take, being fired, rehired and then outted all in the space of a very few minutes. I was so thankful to Joey for sticking up for me right away, I mean he did not have to, but did it anyway. It was nice to have a little bit of back up for this, even though the case could be made that it was their fault it happened, I went along with it.

I noticed that Lance was looking at me a lot, but did not think too much about it, cause I knew that even though I now knew he was gay, there was not way he could see me as interesting in any way. I did wonder why none of the guys seemed to be too worried about being outted by the PR lady, but since they did not seem to be too worried I was not going to worry about it. As for me, well I was not too worried about it, since I worked for the mouse and it seemed that well over half the people who worked for the mouse were gay.

After a while, I told the guys I was going to head for home, since I was exhausted. After making plans to get together to celebrate Christmas together the next day, I headed out. Once I got to my care, I leaned back and took a deep breathe and let it out to relax. I must have built up a lot more tension that I had thought. Finally I started the car and headed out.

As I drove I thought back over the night and thought about how many times I had caught Lance looking at me, and began to wonder if maybe he could like me. I had caught him looking at me far more often that simple curiosity could account for. As my thoughts wandered down this path, I was not paying as much attention to the road as I should, I guess. I noticed at the last minute that a car was in my lane headed right for me. I tried to swerve out of the way, but the other car caught the front bumper and I heard the sound of screaming metal then nothing.

JOEY POV

After Cole left Josh, Justin, Lance and Kevin all decided to go over to Cocoa Beach and stay in Kevin' condo for the night, I think that Justin and Josh were scheming or trying to play match maker or something. I know that Kevin is a great guy, but Kevin and Lance would not work well together. Oh well maybe they will have fun at least, I thought.

When I got home and showered, I felt a lot better and was thinking about starting to read a new book, when the phone rang. "Hello" I answered.

"Is this Joseph Fatone?" a voice asked me.

"Yes it is how may I help you?"

"Well sir, do you know a person by the name Cole Rogers?" the voice asked.

"I certainly do, what is wrong, who are you?" I asked.

"Sir I am with the Florida State Police and your friend was in an automobile accident tonight. He has been flown to ORMC and I would suggest you get there soon. I or one of the other guys on the scene will meet you at the hospital sometime soon." The voice said.

"Thank you, I will be there as soon as I can get there."

I kind of fell and sat at the same time, then picked up the phone and called Chris and told him what was going on, then I tried to call Josh's cell, but as I expected it was off. I tried the condo number, but the ringer must have been off.

I had asked Chris to call the BS guys so that I could get to the hospital, and then hurried to throw some clothes on and get to the hospital. I had to slow down cause I was a wreck. By the time I reached the hospital, I had calmed down a bit, and I walked into the emergency department and asked about Cole. The lady at the desk told me that she did not know anything, but that a police officer had wanted to talk to me and also said that she would let the doctor know that I was there.

I walked to where she told me the police officer would be and had just shaken his hand when Howie, Alex, Nick, Chris, and Brian came running in. I introduced everyone and we all sat down. "Well I should start with a couple of questions. First, did any of you see Cole do any drinking tonight?"

"Yes he had a glass of champagne with all of us to celebrate the concert going off well. That was all any of us had to drink tonight."

"Ok I guess that covers the next question of why he had your phone number in his wallet.' The officer said with a laugh. `We had to make sure that he was not a stalker or something, though I did not think he was since you all came down here. Stupid as it sounds we had to check. Now I guess you all want to know what happened, and from the scene of the accident, it looks like a car entered his lane, and he tried to avoid being hit. The car hit and caught the front drivers' side bumper instead of head on. That threw Cole's car over the side and it flipped 3 times. The driver of the car has been arrested for DUI, and other charges will likely follow."

"Do you know he is doing? Is he going to be ok, or have you heard anything at all?" I asked.

"I don't know much. I know he was not in very good shape when they brought him in. Mr. Fatone you should know that you are listed as next of kin right now and that means all medical decisions will be up to you. I had you listed since I could find no other information or phone numbers on him." The office said.

"That is fine. Come on guys let's go grab a seat and wait for some news." I said.

We sat there for the next four hours, waiting for some news, and not hearing anything. We all excused ourselves several times to run out and try and call the other guys or family members to tell them they would not be over or whatever.

LANCE POV

I did not sleep well; I just felt that something was wrong. I know that somehow it has something to do with Cole, but all the other guys as well. It was weird; I had never had this kind of feeling before. It was something that I could not explain.

I walked into the living room to find Josh sitting there looking like hell. "Hey Josh what is wrong? You look like hell." I asked, but before he could answer Justin came walking in looking just as bad as Josh.

"Well you both look as bad as I feel" Justin said.

"I did not sleep well, I am not sure why or how, but something is wrong with Cole. I am going to check my messages." I said as Kevin walked in.

"Something is wrong guys, don't know what it is, but I could not sleep." Kevin said.

"I kept dreaming that Chris needed me and kept trying to find me." Justin said.

I waited for my phone to get a signal and realized that I had not had my phone on for since yesterday afternoon. I can only imagine who had called since. I have got to remember to turn my phone on more often.

JUSTIN POV

As we all sat there watching Lance go through his messages, I thought about why we all had this feeling that something was wrong. I was really surprised that Lance felt something wrong with Cole. I only knew that Chris needed me, and at that thought I started to go get my phone. As I started to walk past Lance, I saw the color drain from his face. He dropped the phone and passed out. I grabbed the phone, and replayed the message.

"Lance this is Joey, Cole was in a car wreck and I am heading out to the hospital now, I will try to call you later. I have tried to call all of you guys and no one is answering. They flew him to ORMC and I have to go, talk to you later."

"Ok guys let's get ready, that was Joey on the phone, Cole was in a car wreck and they flew him to ORMC. Someone help me with Lance, and then we need to go." I said as we all tried to wake Lance up. He woke, but was not really there. He went through the motions and soon we were all ready to leave.

We told Kevin to drive since he was the least nervous of all of us. He drove over the speed limit, but he did not drive like a maniac. When we arrived in the emergency room about an hour later. Once we got there, we had to ask for a private area to wait because there was just no way to hide who we were and people did not need to assaulted by our fans.

JOEY POV

At about 4:00 A.M. a very tired looking doctor came looking for us to let us know what was going on finally. I was silently praying that Cole would be ok. "Mr. Fatone?" he asked our group. "I am Joey Fatone." I said.

"Ok do you want to go somewhere more private or would you rather stay here, it is up to you." He asked me. "This is fine; these guys are all friends of Cole's." I told him.

"Well Cole is still in surgery, we have stopped most of the bleeding. We had to remove the spleen, and re-inflate one of his lungs. He has lost a lot of blood, and there may be more damage that we will not know about for a couple of days. We hope to have him out of surgery within the next couple of hours and in recovery, but infection is a major concern. Right now, I have to be honest, his chances of survival right now are about 30%, but if he makes it the next 24 hours without major problems his chances will rise dramatically." The doctor finished.

"Oh shit, is there anything we can do, I mean can we donate blood or anything?" Chris asked.

"Well you can all donate blood, I don't know if it will be used on your friend since I don't you know your blood types, but we can always use blood and as for anything else, honestly if you are into prayer, maybe you should do that." The doctor told us.

We all donated blood and then we all went to the chapel over the next couple of hours, to quietly pray or just think. I know in my case, I prayed for the first time in a long time. I had never gotten over the churches position on gays and a few other issues. In this case, I was not concerned about the church, but about Cole and felt that if God listened, he would hear a prayer for another person.

When Lance, Justin, Josh, and Kevin showed up, I wanted so badly to hug and hold Josh, but I knew that we couldn't do it for a while yet. We all moved to a private waiting area and I had to tell the guys what the doctor had told me. I broke down about half way through and Chris bless his heart had to finish for me. Lance came apart at the seams. I think we were all surprised, but in truth we shouldn't have been. Lance has always felt things deeply. We finally had to get a sedative for him and laid him on one of the couches when he finally fell asleep.

"Do any of you guys know what that was about? I have never seen him like that before." I asked.

"I am not absolutely certain, but I think that Lance was starting to develop some feelings for Cole. I many be wrong, but I have caught him staring at Cole the last couple times we have all been together." Brian said.

"You may be right, I have noticed that too. I was not sure if I was just reading more into the looks or not." Justin said.

Josh asked me if I could show him where the chapel was, so I showed him and the other guys where is was and headed back with everyone but Josh. Over the next several hours, everyone had visited the chapel at least once, and most of us had been there several times.

At almost 5 P.M. a very tired looking young doctor came in and asked for me. Lance woke up as soon as he heard the doctor and came over to join us. "Ok at this point, he has made it through all the surgeries, and so far he has not developed any signs of infection. He is in a coma and if he shows signs of coming out of that in the next 36 hours, we will medically induce one. His body needs to stay comatose to heal some. If he can make it through another 24 hours without infection, then we think there is a pretty good chance of recovery. I would suggest that you all go home, get some rest, and come back tomorrow afternoon and hopefully you will be able to see him. You need to know though that if you do see him tomorrow, he is going to look like shit. He has two broken legs, his right arm is broke, he is covered in bandages, and is very swollen. I have to be honest, if he is going to make it through this, he needs you all at your best and that means you need sleep and you need to eat correctly. Now go home and try to sleep, if you need something to help you sleep, let me know before you leave. Oh my name is Doctor Cummings, so if you do not see me, just page me." He said and got up and left.

"Well things look better than they did last night. Why don't we just get a suite or two down the street and then head home and get some clothes and stuff and we can set up a schedule or something so someone will be here from today on. I also think that we need to call Rose and Will and I guess his parents, if we can find their number." I said.

"I have Rose and Will's number and I would bet they have his folks number too. I will call them after we get to settled in the hotel." Lance said quietly.

"Hey guys, we have some appearances that we were supposed to do, so we need to cancel them. Truth is I think that when we get settled in at the hotel we need to all talk, I mean all 10 of us." Alex said.

"Sounds good to me" we all said as we headed out. It turned out that the penthouse suite was available, so we got it and settled in. Since the couples were sharing rooms, that left Kevin and Lance to share a room, but they did not have to share a bed. There were two queen sized beds in the room so it worked out so that neither one was uncomfortable.

Once everyone was settled, Lance called Rose and Will, after having made a call to arrange a flight for them.

"Hello" rose answered.

"Rose this is Lance Bass from N'Sync"

"Oh my goodness, how are you Lance? We still can not believe you helped us like you did. I do not think that we will ever be able to thank you enough for that."

"Rose, I have some bad news. I hate to have to tell you this, but Cole was in a very bad accident. He was hit by a drunk driver on the way home from work last night."

"Oh my God. Is, is he goi going to be ok?"

"We do not know yet. Last night they did not give him much of a chance to live, but he made it through all the surgeries and such and so far is doing better than expected. I hope you do not mind that we took the liberty of making flight arrangements to bring you down here?"

"Oh goodness no, I need to get packed and tell Will, could you give me the flight information?"

"Your tickets will be at the counter in your name, and it is Delta Flight 838 and it leaves Louisville at 11:15 tonight. I know it is late, but that is the first flight I was able to get for you. I will be at the airport to pick you up. We have a room here for you so that is not an issue. Tomorrow we can get you a car to use while you are here. I have one other thing I need to ask, should we call Cole's parents? Could you give me the number?"

"Thank you so much for making all the arrangements. I can call his parents if you want, but I am not sure if they would speak to me."

"I will call them if you would give me the number."

"Ok, it is (812) 738-39xx but I am not sure it is the best idea to call them."

"Well I feel like I have to call them, but if they cause any trouble we will make sure they leave."

"Thank you again and I will see you in a few hours."

Once Lance turned off the speakerphone, he turned to all of us. "Well do you think I should call his parents? She does not seem to think it is a good idea as you all heard." Lance asked us.

"I am not sure, but from what little Cole told us his relationship with his folks is not good at all. Maybe we should all think about it for a bit before we do anything. Alex you said you wanted to talk about something anyway, so let's do that for now and come back to this in a little bit." Chris suggested.

That was met with a round of sounds good.

"Guys I was just wondering what was going to happen if we cancel the interviews and stuff? I know that none of us really gives a rats ass about the interviews when we have a friend who is in the hospital, but if we blow them off, then management may be able to use that against us in some way when we all drop them." Alex said hesitantly, knowing full well what he was saying and it hurt him deeply to have to be the one to say it.

"You are right of course. There is no way that any of us can cancel any interview or other appearance for the next week and 3 days, well 2 days. As much as I hate it, there is no way that we can avoid it, besides we only have a handful of interviews and I think that I can arrange for them to fly here to do them, at least the N'Sync interviews." Lance said surprising us all.

"We can probably do the same thing. I know that we had planned to do some stuff to piss management off, but I really did not think about it until today. I hope that the concert did not already give them the ammo to use. I do not see how it could, but you never know." Alex said thoughtfully.

Over the course of the next hour and a half arrangements were made to get the interviews done in Orlando and when asked about the change of plans, the guys said that a friend had been in a very bad car wreck and they were afraid to leave town as it was not certain that he would live. Only one person, with a Baptist magazine had any problem with the change. Since his interview was not scheduled until New Years Eve, we decided to blast him and his magazine in our other interviews and see what happened.

Finally we had to come back to the discussion of Cole's parents. No one wanted to call, but at the same time, we did not want something to happen to Cole and not at least give them a chance to know about it. After much discussion we finally decided to call them. Lance once again took it upon himself to make the call. He once again put the call on speaker so we could all hear the conversation.

"Hello, Rogers residence" a young male voice answered.

"Hi I am looking for Mr. or Mrs. Rogers" Lance said.

"Just one moment" the young man said, then heard him holler "Mom phone" and then a brief shifting sound and then a lady answered.

"Hello, this is Mrs. Rogers, may I help you?"

"Mrs. Rogers my name is Lance and I am calling about your son Cole. He was involved in an accident last night. A drunk driver hit him on his way home from work and he is not in very good condition."

"I guess we should come there then. Maybe we can still get him to come to his senses and get out of that life he chose for himself. I am not sure how long it will take to drive up there though."

"I can have tickets waiting for you at the airport in Louisville if you would like."

"Airport? Why would we want to fly to Indianapolis?"

"Ma'am Cole lives in Orlando, FL and has for quiet a while. If you tell me how many tickets to get, I will have them waiting on you at the counter. I know that there are still seats on Delta Flight 838 which leaves Louisville at 11:15 tonight."

"So he is living in the den of sin and you want us to visit that place? Fine, I guess we have to come. It will just be my and my husband and our son, so just three tickets."

"Ok they will be at the counter for you." Lance said, but spoke to a dial tone.

"Well that went well." I said, with sarcasm.

"I am trying to figure out who the son is, because Cole said he was an only child and that young guy was at least 16 or so by his voice. God I hope that this is not a mistake." Josh said.

LANCE POV

After falling apart and then sleeping most of the day, when the doctor told us that we needed to pull it together to be able to help Cole, I knew that I would have to calm down and pull it together. I pulled it together, made the phone calls, set up plane tickets, and helped rearrange all our interviews. Once everything was done, everyone went to take a nap. I had slept most of the day, so I woke first. I took a quick shower and then wrote a quick note to tell the guys I was getting some food and stuff and would be back in a while.

I ran to home, grabbed dishes, cookware, and then headed to the grocers to buy food and extra stuff we would need. I knew that none of us would want to cook tonight, but we would need to have home cooked meals. I grabbed pop and beer and a bunch of snack foods as well as real food. I called the pizza shop while I waited in line to check out, then headed to pick up all the pizza's I has ordered.

When I got to the hotel, I had to ask one of the bellboys to use his cart to put all the stuff on. He went up with me so that I would not have to bring the cart back to him. I got back to the suite to find everyone still asleep. I tipped the bellboy well and then sat and waited for the smell of pizza to wake the guys. Nick and Justin were the first ones out, naturally.

They were soon followed by Josh, Brian, Alex, Kevin, Chris, Joey, and finally Howie. "Wow food!"

"I went out and got some stuff and stopped by the apartment to get a few dishes and get some cookware and stuff. I figured we would want to have some home cooked meals here, if we have to be here for a while, and I am afraid that we will have to be here for while." I told them.

We talked at we ate, but we were all pretty thoughtful. Alex went to get a soda out of the fridge and came back his face very pale. "Howie I need you." Was all he said as he walked through. Nick and Brian went to the kitchen area and came back and looked at me like I had completely lost my mind.

"Lance I guess you didn't know or think about it, but none of us keep any kind of alcohol around now, not with Alex having a problem and all." Brian said quietly.

"Oh shit, I didn't even think about that. Let's get that shit out of here. I did not even want to get it, but I figured that our guests might want a beer or something, but they can go to the bar if they do. Right now, I would honestly be happy to give up drinking. Do any of you realize that it could have been us that hit Cole? I know that each and every one of us has driven at least once when we had too much to drink!" I stated.

"I am all for getting it out of here. I don't want to have it here too close for Alex. I am pretty sure he will be okay and would be okay with it here, but let's not take any chances." Brian said.

We pulled all the beer out and took it out to be thrown away. I would dump it when I left for the airport, then I went in to apologize to Alex for being so insensitive. Thankfully he was doing much better and he accepted my apology with grace.

The rest of the evening passed without incident and soon we all went back to nap again until I had to leave for the airport. As I got read to leave, Joey told me that he had gotten a limo, instead of a car. He said that he figured that would give us more room. As I rode to the hospital, I thought about my feelings for Cole. I knew that I really liked him a lot and if I was honest with myself, I would have to say that I was starting to fall in love with him.

Of course I had no idea if he even liked me. I hoped that we would get to find out. I certainly would not blame him if he did not feel anything for me. I just hoped that he would be ok. I then done something that I had not done in a long time. I prayed a silent prayer for Cole. I prayed that his family would not cause problems; I prayed that he would get well and I prayed that he would still be in my life in some form for a long time to come.

By the time I got to the airport, I was once again pretty calm. I got inside and found that the flight was delayed so I went out to inform the driver to pull out in the lot til I called him. I know that he did not want to have to set there and deal with security. He thanked me and drove off. I called the hotel and told the guys that the flight had been delayed and was going to be at least an hour late.

I grabbed a book from one of the shops and sat down to start reading. About an hour and a half later I heard an announcement that the flight had landed, so I called the driver and told him to be ready. He told me he would be right out front.

I turned to wait for everyone. The Owen's were the first off the plane, and we hugged and said hellos while we waited for the Roger's to deplane. In a few minutes Rose groaned and pointed them out to me. I walked over and asked if they were the Roger's and they said yes. I introduced myself as the guy who had called them. I could tell that the young guy, who was probably 15, knew who I was. He thankfully did not make any kind of scene.

When all of us headed to baggage claim, the tension and contempt was thick. Both sets of adults looked as though they had eaten lemons when they looked at the others. `oh great' I thought. When we got out to the limo, the Roger's looked surprised and Rose just smiled at me.

We rode is silence, until my phone rang. "Hello" I answered.

"Oh sorry about that Kevin, we are on the way to the hotel now. We should be there in 15 minutes or so." I said.

"Ok well Nick, Brian, Justin, and Chris can take the one room and that will open up the one we need. You know they will not mind. Ok talk to you in a bit." I finished.

"So Lance what kind of work do you do?" Mr. Rogers asked.

"Dad he is in N'Sync, he is a musician and singer." The young guy said with exasperation.

"Oh wonderful." He muttered.

The young guy looked at me sadly. Then he smiled shyly and said, "By the way, my name is Chad."

"Hi Chad, nice to meet ya." I said and shook his hand. I got looks of disgust shot at me and I knew that Chad would be in trouble later if the looks were any indication. With that we sat in silence for the rest of the ride to the hotel. When we arrived, the bellboy came out and got the luggage and handed out keys and explained that if security stopped them at any time, they would need to give the password, which he then gave them.

We rode in the elevator to the foyer area of the penthouse and I gave the bellboy a tip and asked him to leave the luggage for now. He left as I opened the door, and led them all in. Everyone was up waiting for us, and I had to introduce everyone. I thought poor Chad's eyes were going to pop out when he realized who all was there. I noticed that the guys were all looking at Chad with a kind of funny expression. I knew what they were thinking, cause I was thinking it too. This visit may be much more of a problem than any of expected.

CHAD POV

We got off the plane and I swear I about had a heart attack when I noticed who was picking us up. I just felt like I had been having one big long dream. I would finally get to meet my gay brother, at least I hoped I would, but since he was hurt I was not sure. I hoped to be able to meet him, cause he was my last hope. Then I get off the plane and there is Lance Bass, Omigod breathe, waiting to pick us up.

I had to open my mouth in the limo, and I knew I would be in trouble. Oh well, hopefully it would not be too bad this time. At least with other people around he could not beat me too bad, without them hearing. Lance looked like he knew something was wrong for just a few seconds, but I must have just imagined it.

When we got to the hotel and got to the room, not only was the rest of N'Sync waiting, but all of the BSB were there too. I swear I am going to pass out. They asked if we wanted to get something to eat or if we would like something to drink. They fixed drinks for everyone, and then Nick asked me if I wanted to play PS2 with him and Justin. Dad overheard him, "We do not allow him to play with Satan's toys. He will not grow up to be a sissy like Cole."

The whole room went dead silent, I looked around the room, and I honestly do not think I have ever seen people who looked so angry. Kevin got up and stood at his full height in front of my dad and said, "I will tell you right now, that no one, and I mean NO ONE, will use that kind of language around us. It is not tolerated around any of us. If you want to spew your hatred, I can arrange for a plane ticket to take you back home later this morning."

My dad just stood there and looked at him with contempt on his face. Finally he turned and asked were he would be sleeping. Brian showed him and mom to a room, and Lance said he would show me to mine. I stood and followed him to a room, and it was obvious that both beds had been laid on. "I don't wanna put anyone out of a bed or a bedroom; I can sleep with my folks." I said.

"I don't think so. You will be staying in here so we can keep an eye on you. I know that something it up; I am just not sure what yet. I am hoping that you will tell me what is going on, but I can make some quick guesses about some of it, however I will wait til a little later after your folks are asleep." Lance said. For some reason I decided to trust him. I decided that I would tell him everything if he asked again. \

When we walked back into the living room, I noticed that Justin was leaning back into Chris, Nick was doing the same thing to Brian, and if that was not enough for my tired and overwhelmed mind to handle, AJ and Howie and Josh and Joey were doing the same. They all moved apart when I walked in.

I didn't say anything, mostly because my mind just had way to much to process. I just knew that my decision to tell Lance everything was the right one. I was not sure what good it would do exactly, but I knew that I would have to feel better if I got it all off my chest.

Brian put a movie on and we watched it, and I just hoped that my folks did not come in and see me watching it, or I was sure that nothing would have protected me from them. I guess the reason I stayed to watch the movie was simply the fact that I wanted to be a normal kid for once. After the movie was over, Nick suggested that we head to bed, which we all did.

When we got into the room, I found that Kevin was the one that was sharing the room with Lance and I. Lance looked at me and appeared to be deep in thought, then it looked like he came to a decision and walked over and sat down, called Kevin over and finally asked me what was going on with my folks.

The compassion in both sets of eyes was enough to start my tears. I had intended to tell them everything, but I had hoped to be able to do it without falling apart. They just held me and let me get it out. Finally I calmed down and was able to start talking.

KEVIN POV

I had known that something was not right when Lance walked in the door. The look on his face told me that he thought that he had made a mistake in bringing them down here, but there was something else too. I saw it when he looked at the kid. It was a look I had seen before, but had never expected to see in Lance. It was almost like a mama lion type look.

When he quickly pulled me aside and asked if I would mind having Chad in our room, I knew that he was worried about something, so I said I had no problem with it. When that sorry bastard opened his mouth about Cole being a sissy, I just about decked his sorry ass. Suddenly I fully understood why Lance wanted Chad in our room.

When we all finally went to our separate rooms for the night, Lance and I went over to set down and try to get some answers when he suddenly broke down. The kid was a mess, he was crying so hard I began to worry about him. I was about to suggest we call someone when he started to calm down. After he had calmed down, he started to talk.

"My real parents died in a car wreck about 2 years ago. My real mom and mom were related in some way. When no one else wanted me, my folks took me in and things were fine for almost a year. I decided to join the drama club at school and was hanging out with a guy who was pretty effeminate. We were not like boy friends or anything, just friends. Well my folks hit the roof. They would not have another queer son, and shortly after that, they made me quit drama, I have not been able to go out with friends to do anything, and I get beaten for the slightest things. If you all had not been here tonight, I would have gotten a beating for my comments in the car, and if they had seen me watching that movie, it would not have mattered if you were here or not. I talked to someone at school once about he beatings, but nothing came of it. All they did was talked to my folks and that was it. The beating I got for that was the worst I had ever gotten, and I have scars from that one." He told us. Lance had to grab my arm as I had gotten up without even knowing it.