I don't know N'Sync, I don't own them, I don't have any connection to them, and this little story is all the production of my over-active imagination. I hope you enjoy it.
Poor Little Rich Boy - Chapter Two
Last Time
"I'm sorry Josh, I've got to go, thanks for everything." I ran out the door, slamming it just as I heard Josh shouting 'what's wrong'. I half ran- half jogged over to my dad's office. Fortunately, Josh's apartment was downtown and quite close to the building. I walked through the main entrance, the security guards who had escorted me out so kindly before nodded in my direction, and I went up to the top floor in the elevator. I knocked on the door of my dad's office, and he shouted to come in.
"Max." He said in a sort of greeting.
"Dad. What's wrong?" I asked him.
"You managed 10 days, and now you're staying at someone's apartment." I looked down to the floor. "The idea was to see if you could survive homeless. Obviously not. I won't say we're surprised Max, but it would've been nice to have seen you manage it." I looked at my dad sadly. I could hear the disappointment in his voice, and I could feel the tears in my eyes. "You survived for a third of it, you get a third of what you would have got. That's $2.4 billion." He stood up and walked towards me. "I'm glad you're ok." He said, then hugged me. I hugged him back. I knew I'd disappointed him, but all I could think about was Josh.
Now on with the story:
What my dad really meant when he said I'd only get a third of it was that I'd have to wait for the rest of it, like a normal inheritance. I hoped I'd be waiting a long, long time. I loved my dad, I'd rather have him than any amount of money.
Now, as I walked out with my dad to the waiting limo, I wasn't sure what to do. I knew when I felt the cheque in my pocket my dad had given me exactly why he'd made me sleep homeless. It was to teach me what it's like when we haven't got any money. It worked. I knew I was going to give a large portion of my money away.
The next day, half a billion went straight to the homeless charities. Suddenly, there were homeless shelters all over the downtown area, new gyms, facilities and care centres sprung up, and no-one knew about the mysterious benefactor. I knew there was someone I wanted to see especially, Mike. I went and found him in one of the new shelters one night. I told him my story in the manager's office, and he had a bemused expression on his face as I related the whole story to him.
"Yeah, I realised you weren't one of us lad. That's why I never asked too many questions about your past." He said. I realised he hadn't, and I nodded. Then I handed him a check for $100,000 and thanked him for helping me while I was with him. He looked at the cheque, then back up at me. "You weren't kidding about being rich were you?" I shook my head, and gave him a couple of my cards, and one of my dad's.
"If you ever need any help, or a job, don't be afraid to call either me or my dad. I realise you might not want to ask somebody younger than you for a job, but I'll tell my dad who you are, and if you phone him, he'll give you a job, obviously he'll have to check what you can do, but I'm sure he can find you something steady ok?" Mike nodded and shook my hand. He hadn't touched me since we met, so I guessed this was as close as he got, and he carried on thanking me. He walked out with a tear in his eye, and I realised he just wasn't very sentimental.
Unfortunately, I wasn't looking forward to my next visit: Josh. I was considering just paying him back for everything, and sending him the money, but I didn't think that was very polite. I also wanted a chance to explain to him, and I don't know, but I felt something for him, I was hoping maybe we could get a bite to eat or something. I got my driver to take me to Josh's apartment building. When I'd been out for the past week or so, this place had seemed like a palace, suddenly it didn't seem quite so lavish though. I went straight in and knocked on Josh's door, suddenly I didn't feel so sure of myself. What do I say? Hey, I'm a billionaire now, hope you don't mind that I deceived you for the past few days, hey do you want to go out for coffee? Shit, I hadn't thought this through, but the door was opening.
"Max! God, I'm so glad you're ok! Where did you go? Hey are you ok?" Josh looked into my eyes, genuinely concerned. I looked at him for a moment, and I could feel my legs coiling to run. I shouldn't have come. This was so stupid, I've lied to this guy, did I really think we could be friends now?
"I'm sorry Josh, I shouldn't have come. I've got this for you though." I handed him the cheque, and before he could look at it, I ran and sprinted down the stairs. I heard him shout from the top of the stairs.
"Max! Wait!" I looked up and saw him leaning over the top of the railing. "Max! Wait, what is this? Why are you running, what's wrong?"
"I can't Josh, I'm sorry." I shouted back up the stairs, and then I ran out the building, and back into the waiting limo. I saw Josh arrive outside the door of his apartment block as the limo pulled away. I could see his disappointment at not catching me.
A week passed, and while I knew that I wouldn't hear from Josh, I still longed to see him again. I think I bought everything I could find to do with N'Sync during that week. I was so happy to see his smile when he appeared on an MTV interview that week, but I noticed as he walked off the edge of the screen his smile dropped suddenly. He wasn't happy, I wanted to know why, but there was no way I could see him now. One week passed, then two, then a month. I grew detached from a lot of people. My Mom and Dad, I hardly spoke to them. I had my own place now, I'd bought an apartment in the city. I'd taken control of the homeless shelters and facilities I built. I needed something to take up my time, and this seemed as good a way as any.
"Thanks Mike, I'll take the food order slips to the office." I took the clipboard off Mike. He had wanted a job, and I gave it to him. He was now sub-manager of the non-boarding facilities. I'd split the stuff I'd built downtown into two groups: places to sleep, and other facilities. Mike had control of the latter. But I think he could see I was distancing myself too.
"Ok Max. Hey Max?"
"Yeah?" I said groggily. I was tired.
"Ummm, do you want to go get a coffee when we're finished up here?" He asked. We would be finished about 10:30 at night, I didn't really want to go, but Mike was very persuasive, so I just agreed anyway.
"Sure. Let me just finish up with these papers." He nodded and went back to checking the facility over. After about half an hour, Mike appeared at my door with my coat in his hand. He knew I'd already finished 20 minutes ago. I was hoping he'd go home and forget about the coffee if I waited long enough, but he didn't. "Fine! Jesus, I'm coming already." I rubbed my neck, sore from all the paperwork and other stuff I'd done over the last couple of days. Mike and I went to a local diner. We sat on the vinyl stools and ordered coffees.
"Wanna tell me what's going on?" Mike asked me.
"What do you mean?"
"Tell me, before you got that money, had you ever worked a day in your life?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Course. I went through university." I answered, a little angered that he should be so presumptuous.
"Nah, nah, that's not what I meant. I meant did you ever actually work, like work for a living, money."
"I guess not in that way, no."
"So why you doing it now?" Mike asked accusingly. I shrugged. "It's that guy isn't it?" Mike had no problem with me being gay, in fact he seemed to take it a little too well at times. I nodded to his accusation. "Then why the hell don't you go and see him then?"
"And say what? Hey Josh, good to see you. I lied to you when I stayed here - I'm not really homeless. I'm a billionaire." I realised I was shouting, and the other two patrons of the diner and the guy behind the counter was staring at me. I sat down and shut up.
"No, just ask him to talk, don't be quite so outright, but be truthful. Explain it how you did to me: how your dad made you do it to get your inheritance." Mike said quietly.
"He'll never believe me, and even if he does, he'll never want to talk to me, I'm just a stupid liar."
"Tell me, what lie did you actually tell him?" I looked up at him like he was stupid.
"What? Are you daft? I stayed in his home pretending to be homeless, I took his food, and his hospitality, I lied to him about everything."
"Did your dad kick you out that car that first day you were homeless?" I nodded. "And did he tell you not to come home? And he wouldn't let you enter his offices?" He asked.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well then, you were homeless. You also didn't have any money, you had to get food from somewhere." Mike's logic was impeccable. Unfortunately, I had a nasty feeling that Josh wouldn't see my arguments as logical, but as those of a liar. "And besides, you have to go and say sorry properly right?"
Mike knew exactly what had been gnawing away at me: I felt guilty that I hadn't said sorry to Josh properly. I'd shouted it to him as I ran away, but that didn't really count for much. I also knew Josh hadn't cashed the cheque, which just made me feel more guilty. I nodded in Mike's direction. "We've been working together too long." I smiled at him, put a $20 on the counter and walked out.
The Next Day
It was already 11 and I still couldn't get out of this damn shelter. We had a drunk guy here who I was trying to get to the bathroom before he threw up everywhere rather than just over his own sheets as he already had. Mike walked in and I called out to him.
"Mike! Can you come give me a hand?" The guy I was helping along stumbled a bit, and I had to lean down to catch him before he fell. When I looked up, I saw Mike standing there, and next to him was Josh. "Shit!" I shouted, and let go of the guy I was holding. Josh incredibly enough caught him, and held his arms. He didn't seem put off by the incredible stench coming from him, and just held him. And the guy threw up all over the front of Josh's clothes. Josh let go, but then caught him again before he hit the ground. He had a really grossed out look on his face. I can imagine how bad that must be. The guy threw up some on my shoes, and I thought that was disgusting, but all over his front? Gross. "Mike can you take him to the bathroom?" I asked him.
"Who? This guy or Josh?" Ah. Dilemma. I had spare clothes in my office, so I figured it would be better for him to take the drunk guy, as I told him to. "Josh, follow me, I've got some spare clothes for you." Once we were in my office, Josh started peeling off the outer layers of his clothes. He was trying so hard not to get any of the slimy liquid onto his skin, it was quite funny to watch. "There's a bathroom through there." I pointed to the staff bathroom. All the staff at this place were allowed to use my office, and walk in and out freely without knocking, so the staff toilet was actually in my office so to speak. He looked at me with a tight-lipped gratefulness, and returned a few minutes later having washed his hands and forearms. He was holding a pair of jeans in his hands, and his shirt which he'd taken off before rested over the back of the chair in my office, vomit side up. I handed him some pants, and a shirt.
"Thanks."
"No, thank you. It was nice of you to help that guy, I didn't mean to drop him. It was just, a surprise, to see you."
"Yeah, I should imagine it would be. What's it been? Two months?" He sat down in front of my desk and I slowly moved until I was behind it and sat down in my own chair.
"About that."
"Mike said you wanted to tell me...you know, about what happened."
"I want to ask you something first though: why didn't you just take my money?" I asked.
"Not that it's any of your business, but do you think I let Mike and you stay at my place simply because you were homeless? Did you think maybe I let you stay there because I enjoyed having you around? Maybe I wanted someone to talk to?" Ok, I hadn't thought of that, I just thought he was a really nice guy, and while the fact that he had let us use his apartment more than made up for the fact that he just wanted us there as friends, I hadn't actually thought of that as his reason for letting us stay there. "Why did you run off and never come back, and how are you now the manager of this place?"
"What's Mike told you?"
"Nothing, he literally just said that you wanted to talk to me, to explain what had happened. I really liked you Max, I wanted to know what happened to you." I nodded. I hesitated a bit longer. "So are you going to tell me?"
"Ok Josh, but, you've got to promise not to say anything, and not to leave until I'm finished. Please?" I looked up at him, and he nodded. I proceeded to tell him my story. How my father was a billionaire, how he'd set up tasks for my sisters and me, how I'd been lost once I had no money and nowhere to stay, how Mike helped me, and then meeting him, getting the phone call from my dad, running over, getting the money, and finally setting up all these homeless shelters. I told him how guilty I felt about taking advantage of him, I told him how much it meant to me that he had given us a place to stay, and I started to tell him how much I liked him, but he interrupted.
"Look Max, ok, I get the idea a lot's happened to you recently, but it doesn't answer my question, why didn't you come see me and tell me this before?" He looked over the desk at me. I was fiddling with a pen on my desk, but I could feel my stomach cramping up, and I felt a bit sick. I could smell Josh's clothes which were bundled up on the other chair in the room. I would pay for them to be dry cleaned, or get him new ones if they were ruined.
"I didn't want to lose you. We spoke a lot while I was there, and most of what I told you was true, even if it was distorted a bit to fit in with my situation at the time. I thought of you as a friend, and if I'd come to see you, to explain to you, I knew that everything would change. You wouldn't like me anymore, and I didn't want that. At least this way I could fool myself into thinking you'd still be my friend." I could feel the tears stinging my eyes. The truth is the only friends I'd ever had had been people who worked for us. I didn't go to school because my dad wanted us home-schooled, and so I ended up getting close to my sisters, and also a couple of the people who worked on our grounds all the time. There was the cook, Anna, who I really loved, the gardener or one of them, Ted and there were a couple of others, a brother and sister who worked in the house but they left a couple of years ago. I kept my eyes fixed on my desk. Josh was going to walk out, and I didn't want to see his back as he walked out the door. There was a knock on the door, and as I looked up, I noticed Josh was still there, looking at me. Mike opened the door and said that he was leaving now. I told him I'd lock up and he left, grabbing his coat on the way out. Now back to Josh.
"Why would I leave?" Josh asked. I looked up at him incredulously.
"Because I lied to you. I took advantage of you, I was an idiot."
"You didn't lie, you really were homeless, you needed someone to look after you, so you didn't take advantage of me, and why the hell are you an idiot?"
"Cos I didn't come and see you sooner and apologise then." He chuckled, and sat back in his chair.
"Look Max, I don't know what you thought I was going to do, but after the explanation you gave, I can understand why you did what you did. And after seeing what you've done with all these shelters, I can see that you're not the same person I met a couple of months ago: you're even better, you're a good person Max. Don't beat yourself up over something so small." I nodded. "Now, Max, I still want to be your friend, I know the circumstances have changed a bit, but I know we can still be good friends. How bout that?" He gave me the cutest grin you've ever seen, and I couldn't help but smile back.
"Sure. But I still owe you a couple of meals, so you've got to come over sometime ok?" I smiled back at him and he nodded.
"Actually, there's something else you could help me with."
"What's that?"
"Well, Mike called me, I gave him my number in case he ever really needed anything, and he told me to come up to talk to you, umm, and the thing is I didn't have a chance to book a hotel yet." He grimaced at the confession, and I knew what he was asking.
"Great! Then you can stay in my new place, I'm the only one who's been in there so far, it would be nice to finally have someone else see it and tell me how bad my taste really is." We both laughed for a second. "Come on, let's go." Just as we were walking out, a couple of the night staff walked past the office and looked in.
"Hello Mr. Cutler, are you off now?" The first one asked.
"Yep, we're just on our way." As I grabbed my coat, Josh grabbed the door and held it open while we walked out. We walked from the shelter to my place. They were both downtown, so it was less than a mile to my place. I realised when we were about halfway there that we should have caught a cab as Josh might have been tired, but he seemed okay, so we carried on walking, and we were soon at my building. It was actually one of my dad's office buildings. I'd bought the top floor and refurbished it, fitted the lift with a key lock for my floor, so that basically, it was a penthouse suite, it was in the middle of the business district and I loved it. I'd refurbished it strangely - it was now one big room, with a screen to hide the sleeping area. The kitchen hadn't really been used, but the living area certainly had, and I hadn't had a chance to make my bed yet. The covers off my bed could be seen on the floor around the corner of the screen. I looked over at Josh.
"Wow. This place is incredible. I thought the rental I had when I was here last time was nice, but this place, whoa." He looked around approvingly.
"Rental?" I asked him, I thought we were in his apartment.
"Yeah, I don't live in Maryland. I thought I told you that. I live in Florida."
"Oh yeah, you did mention something like that. I presumed you had another place up here."
"Hey, we're not all billionaires you know, can't afford to have houses in every state!" I blushed, it wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been so damned true.
"You can sleep over here." He dumped his bag in the spare sleeping area, and we came together again in the living room. It was 11:30, pretty late, but I wasn't really tired. "So, umm, are you tired?"
"No. Not really."
"Well, you want to stay up watch TV, talk or something else?"
"Something else?" He asked me with a raised eyebrow. He hadn't told me he was gay, but if he wasn't then he was the most flirtatious person I'd ever met. I blushed. "How about we just talk." I nodded, and we sat down on the big leather couches. "So, you're Max Cutler. Tell me what that's like." He said with a smile on his face.
"Huh?"
"Well, you know about me, I told you all about me when you were staying with me, but I don't know about you. You didn't tell me about your past." So, I proceeded to tell him about growing up and living, with my dad, my mom and my sisters, he asked a lot of questions about what it was like to be rich, like what was it like to have servants, and how many bedrooms were there in our family house. He thought it was really exciting, when I told him about our other homes across the US, he went wide-eyed, and when he asked about whether I'd been anywhere else outside the US, well let's just say he wasn't the only one who'd been on world tour, a few times. I got us some drinks about 1 o'clock, and I was getting a little buzzed from the alcohol. I know I don't normally act very outspoken, but I just blurted it out:
"Are you gay?"
"What?" He looked back at me.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that, never mind."
"No, it's ok, you've got every right to ask that, but can I ask you something first?" He said quietly.
"Ok, what?"
"How will you react if I say I am?" I was acting really stupid cos I was drunk and I was flirting, so:
"Well, if you're straight, no different, and if you're gay, well, I'll ask you out for dinner!" I chuckled at him. He didn't say anything, and his actions, or lack thereof sobered me up pretty quick. "Oh god, I'm sorry Josh, I shouldn't have put you in that position, that was so stupid, Josh just forget I said anything. Sorry." I mumbled off at the end.
"No, it's ok." He started slowly. "Look, I am gay, but I'm not looking for a relationship, I'm sorry but I just got out of a big relationship, and I'm just not ready yet." He got visibly upset. I went over and put my arm around him.
"I'm sorry Josh, I didn't mean to upset you, please forgive me. We don't have to do anything, I was kidding ok? I was just flirting, please just forget about it ok?" I wiped the tears from his eyes and held onto him again. We were sitting very close, and I noticed, but he didn't seem to, so I carried on hugging him. He smelt so good. His hair smelt of flowers, some shampoo I guessed, his skin smelt of cologne, and his clothes of whatever deodorant he had put on that morning. I didn't want to let go, but I relaxed my grip a bit. It was starting to feel weird, especially after he told me he didn't want to do anything with me. We both sat back on the couch and carried on talking. We talked about other things, his work, that sort of thing. We were both getting really tired, and we realised too late that we were too tired to move, so we grabbed a blanket off the end of the couch and threw it over both of us, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
TBC
End of Part 2
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