I don't know the Backstreet Boys, or N'Sync, nor is this story meant to imply anything about their sexuality, their private lives or their life choices. Please don't take any of this seriously, it is just a story, nothing more. Nothing in this story is real, it is the product of the author's imagination. That's enough disclaimers I think...
Now some suggestions, seeing as everyone else seems to be doing it. My favourite stories are: Forever (Kevin) Jamie's Romance (Justin) My New Life (Lance) JC's Hitchhiker (JC) Get Another Boyfriend (Kevin) Whiplash (Kevin) Blind Date (Lance) My Surprise Romance (Lance) Josh and Just (Duh!) Lottery Winner (Joey) That's it, I know there are more I read that I haven't mentioned, but I can't remember them right now, sorry!
On The Streets - Part 30
New Year's Eve was a blast. I haven't had so much fun in years. We were at Brian's house in Georgia, which, might I add, is really beautiful. It was couple of hours drive up there, but once we were there, it was incredible. Even I felt like I fitted in, all the people there were so nice, they all knew about Kevin and me, so we could all be open, there was all of Kevin's family there, including Tim and Jerald, there was Brian's parents, Kevin's other cousins, it was a huge family thing, and even Kevin's distant relatives were really hospitable, and kind. On the stroke of New Year's, everyone started singing and congratulating one another, and...kissing. I got to kiss Kevin on the stroke of New Year's, and it was the most incredible kiss I've ever had. Kevin kissed me passionately as we stood in front of Brian's fireplace, and we held each other for a good minute or two before other people pulled us apart so that they could say happy new year.
3 days later.
I woke up with a splitting headache this morning, and the person ringing our doorbell wasn't really helping matters much. Kevin stubbornly refused to wake up, so I got up and went down to open the door. When I opened it, there was a load of people standing there who I didn't recognise. They were dressed in heavy overcoats or winter outfits, and they all looked at me in surprise for a second, then started shouting stuff at me, I saw a couple of flashes go off, then I slammed the door.
"Kevin!" I shouted up the stairs. "Kevin! Wake up!" I started running up the stairs three at a time. When I got to the top, Kevin was just coming out of his room with a pair of boxer shorts on. His hair was all mussed up. "Kevin, there's a load of people outside, they were shouting questions and I think someone took some pictures of me!"
"What? You mean reporters?" Kevin asked as he pulled on a dressing gown.
"Ummm, yeah they might be actually. I didn't really think about it. Why are they here?"
"I don't know." Kevin said with a grin on his face. Oh right, how was he supposed to know? Kevin carried on down the stairs and I hid out in the bedroom. I heard the front door open, and there was the moment of silence again before the voices started, and I heard Kevin over them, shouting to either shut them up, or to answer them.
About ten minutes later, Kevin came back. I walked tentatively out of the bedroom and down the stairs. "Jared! I think you'd better get down here and see this." Kevin sounded upset.
"What is it Kev?" I asked as I came into the living room, where he was. He showed me a newspaper, the National Enquirer.
"We were caught, in Europe, together." Shit. There was a picture of us on the front cover, it was taken through a security fence, but you could clearly see who it was, it was me and Kevin around the back of a hotel, kissing before we got onto the bus. We'd been caught, I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but it was obvious he was upset, and I wasn't sure what to do either.
"What are you going to do?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"I don't know Jared." His voice was ragged but firm, and he sat down in the armchair. I sat down next to him, and we held one another for quite a while, before the phone started ringing. Kevin reached behind the couch and picked it up. "Hello?"
"Kev, have you seen the tabloids this morning?" It was Brian.
"Yeah Brian, we just got ambushed, there were about 20 reporters waiting outside when we opened the front door this morning.
"Whoa, we need to talk, umm, we should probably get to Jive, can you make it there?"
"Sure Brian, we'll get there. Speak to you in an hour ok?" Kevin hung up the phone, then looked over at me. He stood up and offered me his hand and I stood up with him. He pulled me into another hug which I returned. "Jared, whatever happens today, whatever they come up with, and whatever comes out of this, I'll always love you, you mean everything to me." Kevin pulled back, and I could see tears forming in his eyes, but they didn't fall. He rubbed his eyes, and smiled at me, then chuckled.
"I love you too Kev." We went upstairs and got ready, we dressed comfortably as Kevin was sure that this was gonna take a while. When we opened the door again, there were less reporters, but then we realised that they had just gone to wait in their cars. When we went out, we were mobbed by the 10 or so reporters left, Kevin got the worst of it, and only just made it to his car. I ran around to the passenger side, and we pulled out the driveway.
"God, I hate the press." Kevin mumbled, and sped away. We drove for about 40 minutes, I could see Kevin was concentrating about what he was going to do, so I let him think in peace. Once there, we parked around back, and went up to one of the top floors. The other guys were already there.
"Kevin!" Brian shouted and he came over and hugged his cousin. The other guys all came over and greeted him too.
"I'm sorry guys, I'm so sorry, I never meant for this to happen, I promise. We thought we were being so careful, it's just, it was an accident, I'm sorry." Kevin said quietly.
"Kev, man, it's ok. We know it was an accident, and it's all the fault of that bastard photographer." AJ said.
"Yeah we know Kev, now come on, we've got a meeting with Johnny. He wants to see you too Jared." Nick said. Kevin grabbed my hand, I think he felt me shaking, and I think he knew I was about to run when Nick said I had to go in too. As we approached Kevin's boss' office, I started breathing faster, and I could feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead, but if anything, it was cold in the corridor. One of the guys knocked on the door and a voice shouted 'come in'. Once inside, I realised it was a stereotypical executive's office. The window behind the desk which overlooked the city, the bookcases, the pictures on the walls, the standard pictures on the desks, and the desklamp. The room smelt faintly of furniture polish, but also of old man smell.
"Gentlemen please come in, ahhh, I see we have the newest addition to the group. Gentlemen please sit down." That's when I noticed the large number of chairs in the room, and also the incredibly advanced stereo system behind us on the wall as we walked into the room. The man who welcomed us in sat down behind the desk and pulled a cigarette from a packet. He offered them around, but everyone refused. He lit it and sat back. "It appears we have a problem. The fact of the matter is, we cannot allow this story to spread, women, girls, are our key demographic and fan base, to make it appear that they can't have you," and he looked directly at Kevin, "is as good as saying 'you can't have us', and it will destroy a huge section of the fan base. Now does anyone have any ideas, because I know my plan, and I know you won't like it, but I will enforce it if necessary, so, any alternatives."
"What's your plan Johnny?" Howie asked.
"Kevin will split up with Jared, and we will publicise Kevin's relationship with Kristin." He said bluntly.
"No." Kevin said quietly. "That won't happen Johnny. I'll quit if you try and force me, and I know you can sue me, and freeze my assets, I don't care. I love Jared, I won't leave him."
"Come up with an alternative then." He looked around expectantly. The guys suddenly found the office furnishings very interesting as they looked around rather than look at Johnny. "Anyone?"
"We do nothing." Kevin said. The guys' heads all shot up, including Johnny's.
"What? Are you mad?" Johnny spluttered.
"No. You said before, our key fan base is young girls. Well, I'm afraid I don't appeal to young girls anymore, in fact I could almost guarantee that most of my fan base on the female side at least, is married women, who frankly don't care if I'm married, gay, or have sex with fish. The fact of the matter is, Nick, Brian, Howie and AJ appeal to the pubescent girl fan base, I'm there to appeal to other groups, and one of the largest, probably the largest market that we have, besides young girls, is the gay market. Now, I am gay, we can use that, it can only do good for us, we reach another market fully, we won't lose anything, because well, I haven't appealed to young girls for quite a while now, so let's just try doing nothing," the guys looked at him sceptically. "What have we got to lose?"
"Everything! Are you completely stupid?" Johnny shot up out of his seat. "Some of our largest markets are the mid-west and the south, both religious areas of the country, the Bible Belt. How do you think they're going to feel about this?"
"We don't have a choice, your plan won't work." Kevin said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Johnny stuttered quickly.
"Last time I was caught in Seattle, there were photos, and we used Kristin as my wife to get rid of the rumours. It won't work again, they're not stupid Johnny. Now, have you got a better plan?" Johnny sat back, thinking.
"Get Out." Johnny stated simply.
"What?" All the guys said at once.
"Go to conference room 1 and wait, I need to sort out some stuff." Johnny ordered them, then got up and ushered us out.
"I can't believe you just said to do nothing!" AJ said with a grin on his face once we were in the conference room. Kevin just shrugged his shoulders. "Johnny's face looked like it was about to explode." AJ started giggling, and the other guys joined in.
About ten minutes went by, then twenty, then half an hour, finally, after about 45 minutes, the door opened, and Johnny came in. "Gentlemen," he began, "it appears I miscalculated where your fan base lies." He paused and looked over a folder he had in his hands. "According to our last poll of people who bought your CDs, the people who like Kevin most do appear to be older women and gay men. We will have to work on this though before we can make a press statement." Johnny sat down, and so it began...
3 Hours Later, we came out of the conference room. Johnny had asked me hundreds of questions, far more than had been required on my application form. He had drilled answers into all of our heads covering every eventuality, in case reporters asked us any questions. He said a press conference would be called the next day, partially to announce the date of their next album's release, and partially to deal with this. Kevin was gonna come out.
That night, Kevin was understandably nervous. He didn't want to sit down at first, he was walking around the house, rearranging stuff and opening and shutting cupboards, he just couldn't sit still. Finally, I grabbed him and started kissing him up against a wall. I pinned him there and held him.
"What was that for?" Kevin asked as I moved back.
"Will you just relax? You're making me dizzy you're moving around so much!"
"I can't relax. Tomorrow I'm coming out, I don't know what to expect, and because of me it could be the end of the Backstreet Boys, the end of four of my best friends' careers. How do you expect me to relax?"
"Look, just take it as it comes. You have to deal with the press conference tomorrow, you and the guys are gonna deal with it and it'll be fine." I said as convincingly as I could. Kevin's eyes narrowed as he looked at me.
"You weren't listening in the meeting were you?" Kevin asked with a grin on his face.
"What do you mean? Of course I was!"
"Jared, who's gonna be doing the press conference tomorrow?"
"You are."
"With who?"
"The other guys."
"I knew it! You weren't listening at all!" Kevin shouted with a grin on his face.
"Ok! Fine, I drifted off a bit towards the end, why?"
"Jared, you're gonna be up there with us. Why do you think Johnny drilled all those answers into you? It was so that you could be up there too. It's Johnny's tactic, he wants to make us seem as much like a normal couple as possible, if people see us more, they'll realise that we are just a normal couple, and it'll be better for all of us." Kevin grinned at me, I could feel my stomach lurching.
"You mean I have to stand, in front of all those people? And talk to them?" I could feel my breath getting shorter, and I felt bile in the back of my throat.
"Yep." Kevin nodded. "Well, except you'll probably be sitting, and you probably won't have to answer too many questions as we'll have to do that." I felt sick. I always felt like this when I was nervous. I remember playing rugby in university, I always felt really sick right before a game. I started pacing worse than Kevin, but finally we both decided we'd be better off if we went to bed.
"Goodnight Kev, I love you." I said, and I reached across and kissed him. My stomach was still turning.
"Love you too Jared, night." I laid there for about an hour before going to sleep, and I could tell Kevin was awake for most of that time by his breathing. We were both worried now, this conference could make or break his career, and if it affected him, if it made him unhappy, then it would hurt me, and the worst part was that it could be my fault, if I was up there.
The next morning, we had to be at Jive for an 11 o'clock press conference. We were there by 10. Kevin and I were both wearing sweatshirts and jeans, (not matching sweatshirts - we didn't want to look weird!) and we met Johnny in his office.
"Hello Kevin, the other guys aren't here yet. Would you like to come in, sit down." Kevin grabbed my hand as we went in and sat in the chairs in front of Johnny's desk. "Kevin, I really do hope this works."
"So do I Johnny, so do I." A buzzer sounded on his desk, and when he went over to push the button, a shrill female voice came out.
"The rest of the Backstreet Boys are here sir."
"Thank you Lisa."
"So Jared, you ready for this?" Johnny asked me. I nodded and swallowed. "First press conference huh?" He asked with a grin. I shook my head, but it got a smile which I was grateful for. "Ok, let's go." Kevin stood up and took my hand in his. We met the other guys and everyone said hello and everything, and then we went down to the 'press room'. I could see through the gap in the door that the press room was pretty full, there was two, maybe three TV cameras, one of them was MTV, I could see the emblem, there was maybe 5 photographers, and a load of reporters sitting down, maybe 15 to 20. Johnny went out first.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this press conference will be structured slightly differently from normal. The Boys will come on to the platform, first Kevin will make an announcement, then Brian will make a second. Please be patient and listen to both before asking questions. We will have a long time for questions considering the magnitude of the two announcements. Ladies and gentlemen, the Backstreet Boys!" He swung his arm out, and we headed out. Howie and Nick went first, then AJ, then Kevin went, dragging me along behind him. Brian came up the rear [no pun intended]. We all sat down in the allocated seats, except Kevin who stood at the podium.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this announcement is very important to me, and I want to make sure I say it right, so please bear with me." I noticed Kevin's accent had been turned up a few notches, and it now had a really sexy drawl to it. I wondered if that was considered more appealing somehow to the fans and he did it deliberately, or if it was subconscious. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have been living a lie. My marriage to my wife Kristin several months ago was a hoax, a ploy to remove media attention from my true self. You see, I'm gay. Just before I married Kristin I was caught with another man in Seattle, and my management considered it the best course of action for me to have a high-publicity heterosexual relationship. But I have not been living with my 'wife'. Kristin is a very good friend of mine, and I love her dearly, but my heart doesn't belong to her. Because it belongs to my boyfriend Jared. When we were on tour promoting our latest, 'Greatest Hits' Album, I met Jared, in England. After a...bumpy start to our relationship, we got very close, very quickly." He paused for a moment, I was listening more closely than the reporters I think, I wanted to know what he was gonna say. "I guess there's not much else to say. I guess I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I've had to put up with this lie for so long, and I'm sorry that I'm not what I appeared to be to our fans. Ummm, I guess that's it. Thank you for listening." A few people shouted out questions as Kevin sat down, but he didn't stop to answer them as he sat down next to me. Brian stood and took the podium.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here to announce the release of our next album, the release is scheduled for February 14th. We know that's not a long way off now, but this is because of the huge quantity of material written recently by one of our members in collaboration with another famous artist." He cast an eye in Kevin's direction and smiled. Kevin looked from him to the other guys, and realised they were all smiling at him. He was smiling incredibly broadly now, he was very happy with the guys' decision. "I guess that's all I've got to say, oh but before I step down for questions, I'm gonna guess there's one question that a lot of you are going to ask, so here's the answer. We support Kevin absolutely. Kevin is like a brother to us, we treat him as our brother, and we have nothing but respect and love for him. This is a very difficult time for him, and we are going to make it through it, no matter what. Thank you for your time." There were no questions asked as Brian sat down. Johnny took to the podium again as Brian sat.
"Thank you guys. Now, we'll take questions from the audience, please ask in an orderly fashion." Most of the hands in the room went up. Johnny pointed to a ginger haired woman in the middle of the group.
"Hi guys, Fran Gardner from E! News. I just want to ask, why now? I mean there's obviously the article in the Enquirer, but if you were caught before and you got away with it, why come out now?" Kevin took the question.
"Thanks Fran, the truth of the matter is we don't want to treat our fans like they're idiots. The same rumour coming up again and again would be too obvious, and besides, we felt that it was just time we got rid of these old personas and realised our true selves." She smiled, nodded and sat down. Johnny had organised an hour for these questions, I knew I was gonna get bored. After half an hour, of me just sitting there, looking stupid, Johnny stepped in.
"Jared, Jared, would you come up here?" He said from the podium. I looked confused for a second, then stood up and walked up there. "Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, do you have any questions at all for Jared?" I stood there in silence for a few minutes, then a couple of hands tentatively went up. I looked over at Johnny who nodded for me to ask one of them what their question was. So, I looked out, I know I shouldn't say this, but only women had their hands up, so I just picked the one I thought was the best looking.
"How did you and Kevin meet?" Oh shit. Trust the fit bitch to ask the question which I didn't really want to answer, then I remembered, Johnny gave me an answer to deal with that.
"Kevin and I met in a cafe in London, near Piccadilly Circus." I smiled at her and she sat down. I looked over at Johnny who motioned for me to continue. I nodded to another woman.
"The Enquirer article suggested you had some connection to the group in general, can you elaborate?"
"Yes, after Kevin and I met, I was offered the job of fitness instructor the guys, so I worked with all of them for the tour from England onwards."
"And might I say you've done a damn good job!" The woman said loudly. I blushed and looked down. This was easy. Finally, I pointed to a man who stood up.
"Pete Andrews, Advocate magazine." I saw the guys' heads out of the corner of my eye look up suddenly. "Don't worry guys, I know we've speculated about your sexuality before, but now we know, well there's no point is there? Jared, where do you see your relationship with Kevin going?" He sat back down again and looked up expectantly. I looked over at the guys and they all sat back in relief. Then I saw Kevin, who looked up at me expectantly.
"Well, I'm not sure how to answer this, cos I'm not exactly sure. I want to be with Kevin for the rest of my life, but I also don't want to push Kevin into anything he's not ready for, and I know he won't push me into anything I'm not ready for, so I guess we're going to see what happens, but in the mean time, I guess I can just say that we're in it for the long haul." I looked over at Kevin, hoping that what I had said was the right thing. He was smiling at me appreciatively, so I guessed what I said was right. Johnny took the podium back after a couple more questions.
"Are there any questions specifically relating to the album release?" The press conference went on for another twenty minutes, and then we left.
"That went ok I think." Nick said as we walked down the corridor.
"Definitely. One of the most painless interviews I think we've ever had." Johnny agreed.
"What was with those reporters? They all seemed really nice!" Brian said. Everyone was smiles as we walked into the main lobby of the building. Johnny said goodbye and walked down a side corridor, then we walked out.
As we left the building, Kevin and I dropped hands. Noticing this, Nick came up behind us and put an arm around each of our shoulders. "You know you guys are out now, you don't need to stop holding hands when you walk around outside." Kevin and I looked at him, then at each other, then wide grins broke out on each of our faces, realising the freedom we now had. We took each others' hands again, and Nick stepped back. "That's better." Nick smiled. Kevin picked up some groceries on the way home, but we got home within a couple of hours. Unfortunately when we got there, we had an unpleasant surprise...
End of Chapter 30 To Be Continued...
Hope you guys all enjoyed the coming out chapter. This was one of the hardest to write, so I hope it made sense. There were too many scene changes, and people changes, and people moving around, that sort of thing. Tell me if you think it's terrible. There are a couple of people I want to thank, for feedback, that sort of thing... Jimmy Ry Adam Christopher (neochris@edsamail.com.ph) Jack And a load of other people who I've prob. forgotten - sorry!