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) 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) Jamie's Romance (Justin) Brian and Me (Brian) Kevin and Dustin (Kevin) <- I just read this one, and I can't wait till the next instalment, I can't wait to see what happens! Justin's Dancer (Justin, sort of!) Tales of a Real Dark Knight (Lance) Good Life (Justin) Under Management (Lance) Brian and Chance (Brian) That's it, I know there are more I read that I haven't mentioned, but I can't remember them right now, sorry! I just want to say before this chapter WAY TO GO USA! Beating Portugal in the playoffs of the World Cup! McBride's goal was an absolute classic by the way, and I felt so sorry for your guy who scored the own goal! Anyway, here's chapter 45...
On The Streets - Part 45
Last Time...
"Thank you Kevin." I smiled at him, then reached over and turned off my lamp again. A moment later, I felt him shifting behind me. I turned my head slightly, and his was right there.
"Hope you don't mind." He said, biting his bottom lip as I felt him spoon against me from behind. He wrapped one arm over me, and one arm under my neck. His bicep made a very comfortable support by the way.
"Not at all." I grinned at him again, and he grinned back. We fell asleep shortly afterwards, wrapped up together, and at peace with one another.
Now, on with the story...
Kevin's Point of View<<<
We had to arrange for the start of the cross-country publicity tour, and I was starting to worry about Jared. I mean, he's said before that he doesn't really like being alone. He's had so much of that in his life, I don't really want him alone while I'm off running around the country. Maybe he could come with me? That would mean giving up everything here, and stopping the fitness instructor stuff. I know he has a lot of fun doing that, but which would he rather do? Thursday morning, we went into work together, and Jared was telling me this joke he'd heard from one of the clients he'd dealt with yesterday, when the receptionist in the lobby called us over.
"Mr. Healey?" Well, she called Jared over, but I had my arm over Jared's shoulder, so I went with him.
"Yes?" He asked her.
"Umm, Mr. Healey, Jive have been receiving a number of calls from two people called, umm...Adam and Seth. They're claiming to be relations of yours, and they have been very persistent. We wanted to ask if they are your brothers or whether we should continue screening the calls." I readjusted the gym bag strap over my shoulder as Jared listened to what she had to say. When she stopped, Jared had tensed up.
"Umm, can you continue screening for now, just tell them I'm very busy or something, I'm not sure, but thanks for telling me." Then he quickly walked off towards the gym.
"Jared?" I followed after him. He turned to look at me, and his eyes looked slightly withdrawn, like when I'd found him after he went missing. "Jared, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." He replied. "Why would you think there was anything wrong?"
"Don't do this Jared, please. I need you to talk, I know something's wrong. You got all tense when you heard that those people had been trying to call you, and then you just walked off."
"Oh, sorry Kevin, I didn't mean to walk off without saying goodbye." He leant over and tried to kiss me on the cheek, but I backed away.
"No, Jared, I don't want you to say goodbye to me, I want you to tell me what's wrong." He looked at me for a second, just staring into my eyes, and I could see him get this far away expression in his eyes. Then they started watering up, and he dropped his head to look at the floor. Suddenly his whole body started shaking with sobs. I didn't know what to do, we were standing in the middle of the hallway, and there were people around us, and Jared was just standing there crying. People were starting to look at us a bit funny, so I decided to get Jared out of there. I took him to the dance studio as quickly as possible, and guided him in. I locked the door from the inside, and also locked the changing room door, in case anyone came in from there. "Jared, please, I don't care what it is. I really don't, just tell me what is wrong!"
"I can't!" Jared moaned out, his back slumped against the wall, and then he slid down, and was sitting on the floor. I knelt in front of him, and rested one hand on his knee.
"Jared, please, just tell me what's wrong, I'll do anything for you, just let me help you." Jared wiped his hands across his face, the tear marks running across his whole cheeks. He shut his eyes and swallowed, then took a deep breath.
"I don't know if I can do this Kevin. I've gone so long without this, I don't know if I can think about them now." He looked down at his hands, and just sighed gently.
"Jared, please, I don't know what else to say except that I'm here for you, I don't want anything to hurt you, and if this is hurting you, then I need to know what it is." I told him, I was getting desperate, how can I help Jared if I don't know why he's crying? He sat back again and hit his head against the wall, and just shook his head slightly.
"I don't know how to bring this up again." He looked straight into my eyes, and we were just staring into one another's eyes for a couple of minutes, I stared at him for so long, I thought about how much I love him, and how much I want to be with him. I hoped he saw in mine just how much I care, how much I need him. "Yeah I do. Do you remember I told you how my parents threw me out, and my older brother was there, and my parents were there, and they told me to fuck off?" I nodded slightly, not sure what he was going to say. "My eldest brother was Paul, and he was very homophobic. He spoke about how much he'd like to kill gays all the time, I hated him so much." He paused and looked down at his hands. "No, I didn't hate him. I felt sorry for him, but I didn't hate him, I couldn't hate my own brother. Anyway, Adam and Seth, they're my two other brothers." He stopped.
"You have three brothers? Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked him, I wasn't trying to interrogate him or anything, just find out.
"You see? This is what I mean. You're already upset because I didn't tell you, Kevin, I'm sorry ok? I just didn't want to... le me explain... I was closest to Adam and Seth. The night I came out to my parents, Adam and Seth weren't there, and I didn't want to see them. I was scared that if my parents reacted like that, then Adam and Seth would too, and if I lost them, well, I would've killed myself." He stopped talking, and he'd stopped crying, and he just got this far away gaze, and stared at the parquet floor.
"So, you still don't want to talk to them?" This was such a huge thing that I didn't really process it, I just focused on what was going on.
"I don't know, I still don't want to disappoint them."
"I hate to be really logical Jared, but if they found you here, that means they probably either saw you on TRL, or in Advocate, or in the newspapers, which probably would've mentioned you were gay, so I think it's quite likely that they know you're gay." Jared just looked up at me, and blinked. Then he stood up.
"Are you angry at me for not telling you? I mean about having two other brothers?" Jared asked, his voice low.
"I'm surprised, kinda upset that you didn't tell me, but I mean you had a lot of issues to deal with Jared, and anyway, you don't know everything about me, even if you watched all of my videos!" I smiled at him, and he smiled back. "I guess this is just one of those times, we're probably gonna get some of these, in the future I mean, when we find out things about one another." He looked into my eyes, then took a step forward and kissed me.
"I need a phone, and I need to go to reception to find out what number they've got now." I looked at him in surprise.
"You mean you're gonna call them now? Are you sure?" I asked him sceptically.
"Kevin, I need to do this, to find out if they still accept me, and besides, if they're being persistent with how much they've been calling, they must have some reason for wanting to get hold of me!" He said, and then he started for the door.
"Jared, hold on, you go to the reception, I'll find you a phone to use."
"Thank you Kevin." He said with a smile, and then headed off to reception. I headed in the opposite direction. Man, this was a hell of a morning! We'd been talking for almost half an hour, and Jared's family had gained a couple of members, we'd talked about trusting each other, and the fact that we're not gonna know everything about one another. We only knew other for three months before we moved in together, and we only met since now, just over four and a half months ago! I walked up to Pete Richardson's office, and knocked on the door. I explained how I needed to use the phone, and it was kinda private, and he said I could use his office for an hour or so as he had a meeting. I thanked him, and then headed towards reception for Jared, I met him coming back towards me. He had a confused expression on his face.
"What is it?" I asked. He handed me the piece of paper with a number on it. "Yeah, it's a telephone number." I smiled cockily and passed it back. He held it up and pointed at it.
"Look at it more closely, now what do you notice about it?" He asked me.
"It's an American number." He nodded.
"There's no international code, they must be in this country. Did you find a phone I could use?"
"Yeah, yeah sure, Pete Richardson's office is free for an hour or so. Do you...do you want me with you?" He sort of shuffled his feet, and looked like he was thinking, then looked up at me. "I don't mind if you want to be alone Jared, I understand this might get pretty emotional and everything." He nodded.
"Thank you Kevin, but I really need to do this by myself, if that's ok?" He asked me. I could see he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but right now, I was concentrating on Jared. He obviously didn't feel too good about not telling me about his brothers, and now if I upset him again, I'd make him feel even worse.
"Of course." I hugged him. "I'll go to the dance studio, and well, when you're done come along, I've got some work to do." I looked at him, trying to make sure he was ok, he seemed it. "I love you Jared." I kissed him.
Jared's Point of View<<<
Kevin knew, and he accepted it. I was so happy. I was hoping this would never have come up, but now it had, I was glad that it had. It meant I had less secrets from Kevin, I wanted him to know everything, but then, I guess no one can ever really know everything about you. I knocked on Pete's office, and when there was no answer I tried the handle. Looking inside, there was no one in there. He must have already left, so I walked in and sat down beside the desk, and picked up the phone. As with all the phones in this building, you had to press the star key to get an outside line, and then I dialled the number on the piece of paper.
The phone rang a couple of times, and then a woman's voice answered. "Healey and Healey, how may I direct your call?" Ok...
"Ermmm, hi, err, can I speak to Adam, or Seth please?"
"The Mr. Healeys are in a meeting right now, may I ask who is calling please?" The woman had that annoying voice you always get in TV commercials.
"Yeah ok, err, my name is Jared Healey, Adam and Seth are my brothers, they've been trying to..."
"Oh Mr. Healey they've been expecting your call, please hold while I patch you through." She interrupted me. Patched me through? But I thought they were in a meeting. Just then I heard her voice again, it sounded like she was talking to someone else.
"Mr. Healey? Your brother is on the line." She said.
"Really, Jared? Ok, patch him through to our office, we'll take it in there." I could hear the excitement playing through Seth's voice, and I was glad that he was excited. A few moments later, I heard his voice again. "Jared?"
"Hi." I said, suddenly not sure of myself.
"Oh my God!" I suddenly heard Seth shout. "This is so cool!" I could practically hear how excited he was, and see the tears in his eyes, his eyes always watered when he got excited.
"Jared?" Adam's voice.
"Yeah?"
"I can't believe this! We thought we'd never see you again."
"Give me back the phone!" Seth shouted.
"Just pick up your extension!" I heard some scuffling, and Seth came on the line too.
"Where have you been Jared? We looked for you for years." Adam said.
"I had some pretty rough times guys."
"But, you ran away, why'd you do that?" Seth said quietly.
"Ran away? I didn't run away, Mum and Dad told me to leave, cos I'm gay. Didn't they tell you." I asked, suddenly worried that they actually didn't know.
"We knew you were gay before you left, we just didn't confront you about it. We don't care if you're gay Jared, we love you. But Mum and Dad didn't tell us they threw you out! They just told us you left with all your stuff!" Seth said.
"Yeah, and we looked for you for like two and a half years, but we couldn't find you, that's when we moved our practice over here, and set up shop here.
Then, well, we saw you on TRL. We're in New York Jared, and we saw you on the front of that gay magazine..." Adam started.
"Yeah! Advocate! And we saw you in Men's Fitness, we both buy that magazine. It was so weird when we opened it up, or just when we bought it!" Seth filled in. "Jared, if you're in the US, why don't you come up here? Adam and I have got a pretty big apartment, with a spare room, you could stay with us for a while, we really want to see you, please?" He whined the last bit.
"Yeah Jared, please?" Adam added.
"Why don't you guys come down here?" I asked.
"We could do that! We could be down, umm, Adam?"
"We can be down tomorrow evening Jared. We need an address and everything, umm, and a phone number would be useful, besides that bitch on the Jive front desk." Adam chuckled.
"Hey! She's not a bitch, she's pretty nice actually." I filled him in.
"Yeah, ok, I guess, it'll be good to see you again Jared." Adam said.
"Yeah, I can't wait!" Seth added. I gave them my address, and my cell number, and Kevin's and my home phone, and after a long drawn out goodbye, we hung up. They both had fiancées who they wanted to bring down, and I told them it was fine, after all, the house has like four spare bedrooms, so unless all the guys suddenly want to stay over together, there's not gonna be much of a problem! I sat at the desk for a minute, and held my head in my hands. This was really too much, I couldn't process it all, I was going to see my brothers again in about 30 hours, guys who I hadn't seen in about 4 years. My mind was reeling. I got up, realising I'd spent almost forty minutes on the phone, and headed to the door. I went along to the dance studio. I walked in, and Kevin was sitting cross-legged on the floor, with papers spread out all around him. He looked up the moment I walked in, and jumped up to his feet.
"How'd it go? Did you talk to your brothers?" He asked with raised eyebrows.
"Yeah, yeah I did, umm, I hope you don't mind, but I invited them to come visit, down here."
"Of course I don't mind Jared, when are they coming down?"
"Tomorrow."
"That soon, wow, where are they?"
"They're in New York. I wish I'd known before last weekend, I could've visited them while we were up there. But apparently they've seen me a few times, on TRL and umm, in Advocate, and that fitness magazine." Kevin nodded slightly, then started clearing up the papers on the floor while he was still talking.
"So, do you want to do anything with them? Do we need to get anything in?" I ignored the question for the moment.
"What are those papers?" I asked. He sighed, then stopped and looked down.
"They're the itinerary." He filled me in. "For the publicity tour."
"When...when do you leave?" I asked.
"Next Tuesday, I think, or early Wednesday." He looked downcast for a moment. "I was gonna ask you about this, but then all this stuff happened this morning. Jared, we're gonna be touring on and off for the next six months at least. I wanted to ask you, you know how we were before, when you were just our fitness instructor on tour with us, whether you wanted to go back to that." He paused. "I know it's a big decision, and you don't have to decide on anything right away, and I know you like doing this a lot, and although it would be great if you came on tour with us, I don't mind if you just want to stay here, and carry on working, we'll be able to see each other pretty regularly anyway. We'll talk more about it later, if you want, just think about it ok? What you want to do, I mean. I don't want to pressure you or anything." I nodded slightly. Give up teaching, again? I don't know, but being away from Kevin, for months? Could I do that. I had too much to think about, so I decided to drop that, at least for the moment. I nodded again, more firmly to Kevin, and he went back to cleaning up the papers.
"We have to get something for us to eat tomorrow." I said to him. "I mean, for tomorrow dinner, with my brothers."
"Ok, but, wouldn't you prefer to take them out to a restaurant?" Kevin asked.
"That would be nice, but we need to find somewhere that serves fish." I said. "It's Friday tomorrow, I know I don't keep it, but those guys might have followed the rules a bit more closely - we're supposed to eat fish only on Fridays. No meat." Kevin nodded.
"Well, I'm sure we can find a good seafood restaurant." I nodded.
"Hey, shouldn't the guys be here by now? Aren't we supposed to have a session?" I asked him.
"I checked your schedule, and when I saw that you didn't have anyone else till lunchtime, I phoned the guys and told them not to turn up till 11:30, I hope that's ok." Kevin said. He'd picked up the papers, and was slipping them into a file.
"Yeah, that's great, thanks Kev." I reached over and kissed him. I don't know why, but at that moment, he seemed so perfect. I just couldn't believe that he was with me. He wanted to be with me, and he accepted that I'd lied to him, and everything. I just wanted to hug him, and hold him close to me. So I did. I grabbed him in a hug, and held him tight. We stayed like that for some time, I could smell his scent, and I could taste him when I kissed his neck. Next thing I knew, the door to the changing room was making funny noises.
"Ow! What the fuck?" I heard, and the door banged. I looked at the door, then pulled away from Kevin.
"Did you unlock the changing room door." He looked sheepish, then grinned at me, and shook his head. I whined slightly, then walked over to the door, and flipped the catch. Inside was AJ, looking at the door.
"Did you do that deliberately?" He asked me. I shook my head, and smiled at him. They all walked in, and started stretching. Kevin came over once he was done, and whispered in my ear.
"Do you want to tell them about your brothers?" He asked me, then looked me straight in the eyes. I nodded. "Take your time, you don't have to if you don't want to." Then he started jogging around the gym with the others.
"Guys! Could you come in?" I sat down on the table. "There's something I need to tell you..." And so I started telling them about how my brothers had been calling and how they were coming down the next night.
The rest of the day I took up with the lunchtime sessions, Janet Dakes' session, and a 98 degrees session in the afternoon. After work, Kevin and I went along to the mall cos there were a few things I had to get. I wanted to look how they remembered me, so I picked up some hair dye. I was gonna dye me hair back. Kevin seemed a little peeved, but he didn't really care too much, as long as I promised to have it dyed blond again some other time. He really liked it blond. I couldn't see it, but I guess it's just his taste. We picked up a couple of little things, some extra food, as I was hoping the guys would stay the weekend, and drinks, that sort of thing. Kevin only got stopped about four or five times to sign autographs while we were in the food market. Finally, we got home. After putting the food away, I went to do my hair, and Kevin came to help as I'd never really done this on my own before.
"But I liked it how it was before!" Kevin whined, my hair was back to its original dark brown, and Kevin didn't like it.
"This is how it was before! The blond is the unnatural one!" I said back to him with a smile on my face. Kevin just whimpered slightly.
"Oh for God's sake, I've already told you I'd dye it back, and besides, I just want my hair like this for when I meet my brothers. You'll see why tomorrow, I said with a big grin on my face. That piqued his curiosity, and he instantly started pestering me with questions.
We had dinner together in front of the TV, and we showered together as well. As we were lying in bed, we started talking about little things.
"What time are they arriving tomorrow?" He asked me.
"Umm, late afternoon, four thirty or five I think." I answered. "I've already cleared my schedule except for one appointment from two to three, so I can make it to the airport can't I? An hour and a half is enough isn't it, to get from work to the airport?"
"Yeah!" He giggled. "Unless every car in Orlando decides to go to the airport at the same time! It only takes like 15 minutes to get to the airport."
"Cool." I sighed.
"Are you ok? With all this, I mean? I know you've got a lot of stuff to deal with, with your brothers and well, your job I guess. I don't want to stress you too much."
"No, it's fine Kevin, and I don't mind having a lot of things to deal with, it's better than having nothing to do! I'm really looking forward to seeing my brothers though, I haven't seen them in so long. I hope you forgive me for not thinking about the tour just yet, it's just I'm looking forward to this so much." I said, with a certain amount of glee in my voice, but also apologetically. I was feeling pretty guilty for not thinking at all about the tour and whether I wanted to join Kevin and the guys.
"No, it's ok, absolutely. I want you to have a good time with your brothers, and I hope I get to know them a bit too." He paused and looked at me. "Why are you grinning like that?"
TBC... End of Chapter 45
Well, I hope everyone liked this chapter, cos it's pretty obvious I said something wrong in the last chapter! After the chapter before when I got about 25 emails, I only got one for the last chapter! I hope people are still reading, and enjoying my story. I'm guessing this chapter was a bit of a surprise - bringing Jared's family up out of nowhere, but a lot of people have been suggesting that I bring up something from Jared's past, so here you go!