**Gotta give props to a few people: Thanks go to David at Nifty for putting all these stories up on the site! Molly, RCJ, and Flip- thanks for the encouragement, ideas, and inspiration. Most of all Ad. ... You have come to be a great friend. Thanks for everything! Also, to those who have written and encouraged me, THANK YOU!
Usual stuff... Check the disclaimer in ch 1... this is a story dealing with gay relationships and situations, and is totally based in fiction. Blah blah blah. That done, let's get the party started!
~Jeff
Previously... on Twist of Fate (and they're off, down the backstretch...)
"What is going ON IN HERE?" We both stopped, Lance holding a pillow in attack-stance and me on the floor behind the mattress, out of view of our visitors. Lance looked over at the door to find two people standing in the doorway, amazed at the destruction before them. Lance dropped the pillow, turned to these people, and said, with a bashful look on his face,
"Hey, Joey! Hey Chris! Um......, I can explain..."
Chapter 5
"You BETTER explain why this place is a mess! You aren't going freaky on us or something, are you Scoop?" Chris asked, walking in to survey the destruction. As he proceeded a few steps, my body lying on the floor caught his eye and startled him.
"Whoa! Who is this?!" I slowly stood up, feeling like the stranger I was in this rather uncomfortable situation. I opened my mouth to start explaining, but heard Lance's voice instead.
"Guys, this is a friend of mine, Billy Wilson. Billy, this is Chris... and Joey..."
"Nice to meet you," was spoken simultaneously by all three of us, but nobody moved to shake hands. There was an eerie pause, and Lance continued.
"Billy is the guy that I was telling you about today at the meeting, you know, the guy that I stole the bag from. He's really cool. We got a chance to hang out tonight, and we went to the baseball game." Lance almost sounded as if he was trying to make excuses for me in front of his bandmates. It hurt.
"How long is he going to stay tonight?" Joey asked, facing Lance and seemingly avoiding me.
"I don't know, whenever. We were just wrestling a bit." They went on to him-and-haw over me for another minute, completely cutting me out of the conversation. During the whole exchange, I watched as Joey and Chris gave me the automatic cold shoulder. They weren't looking at me, but at Lance. They never talked to me except to acknowledge my introduction. It was getting extremely uncomfortable continuously being referred to in the 3rd person, and I was clearly the source of the guy's discontent. I couldn't take it anymore, so I just started walking to the door to leave.
"Hey, you know what? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause any trouble. I've imposed enough already, anyway. Lance, thanks for a great time. Maybe we can chat on the phone before you leave town," I said as I headed towards the hallway, keeping my head down and avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room, especially Lance. As I walked down the hall, I could feel my heart sink in embarrassment and humiliation from the events that had just taken place. I knew I didn't belong in Lance's world. The guy's reaction to me was proof enough of that.
The elevator took forever to arrive, but once it did I descended to the bottom floor. But nothing could have descended as low as my spirits. I walked slowly past Conan and Rambo. Don't those guys ever get a break? Remembering where I parked my car, I wandered over to it, and looked behind me at the hotel. I followed the windows up to the top of the building, sure that the guys were still bickering about the 'outsider'. I just hoped Lance would call so we could say our goodbyes. At least the friendship might end on a happier note than this.
As I reached for my keys to unlock my car, I realized I didn't have them. After another second, I realized I also didn't have my wallet. A whole second later, the miserable fact hit me that they were both in Lance's room. Could the situation get any worse? I turned around and fell backwards onto my driver's door, looking up at the sky. A wave of depressing frustration came over me, I exhaled, and my eyes began to sting. I breathed in deeply, but it didn't fix things. I slowly climbed onto the trunk of my car, setting my feet on the bumper, and leaning on the rear window. I started thinking. 'Why did Lance have to make excuses? Was he ashamed of me? Embarrassed? Was I simply a secret friendship he didn't want to tell his friends about?'
"I figured you wouldn't be going far." I jerked my head up at the familiar voice. Lance was standing in front of me, holding my keys and wallet in his right hand. I stared at him for a second, and simply tilted my head back to the sky. I didn't say anything. After a pause, Lance spoke again.
"All the guys are protective of each other. A while back, some of the guys made some friends with folks that were only out to mooch off the fame. One person was even trying to create a scandal. When you're in a business where image is everything, you have to watch out for each other. Chris and Joey were just looking out for me." I looked up, even more hurt. I spit fire.
"Which am I!? The moocher? Or the scandal?!?" I saw Lance's head drop as I looked back at the stars, and I felt just terrible about both the words and the tone I used. "I'm sorry Lance. I didn't mean that," I said, still looking up. I definitely couldn't look him in the face now. The car moved, and I felt a weight pressing on the bumper. I knew what was happening, but didn't want to look up and acknowledge it.
"You're neither, Billy. That's what I just spent the last ten minutes yelling at them about. They were jerks for treating you the way they did, and I was a jerk for letting it happen. No friend lets another friend sit through something like that," Lance spoke as he lay next to me on the trunk, also looking up. "You're not the stereotype. Actually, you break the mold! You seem to see me for who I am as a person, not for what I do on stage. That means so much to me, you have no idea." I turned my head to look at him, trying to read his mind and intentions.
"Why did it seem like you were making excuses for me?"
"Come on Billy, you know there aren't any excuses for you!" Lance laughed at his own joke, causing me to join with him, half-heartedly. Lance continued, "But seriously, I didn't know why I was acting like that. It's not like I'm not proud to call you a friend. It's just that the guys hadn't met you yet, and I wasn't sure how they were going to react. Think about what Joey saw. He walked in to a warzone in his room, finding some stranger wrestling with his bandmate. It's enough to get anyone on their guard. Don't worry, they're both cool now, and sorta feel bad about the whole thing. They want to meet you again, on better terms." I wanted to believe Lance, but I don't think I could handle another hostile encounter like the one a few minutes ago.
"Well, I was on my way out, but I was having trouble getting into my car. Lack of keys or something." I smiled as he shook the keys, making a jingling sound.
"I'll make you a deal. You come up and meet the guys for REAL and I'll give you your keys back."
"You know what, Lance? I've got one up on you. I have a spare key in my wal..." He interrupted by reminding me that he still had my wallet. I put on a frumpy face when I realized he had me in the palm of his hand. "All right, you got me. I can come back up. But I gotta take off at a reasonable hour. I have to work tomorrow morning, unlike SOME people I know," I said while giving him an elbow. We both hopped off the car, and Lance started to walk towards the hotel.
"Hey Lance?" I spoke to my departing friend after a few seconds. He turned back around, attentive. "Thanks." He looked confused, and said,
"For what?"
"For being a true friend. For coming down and talking. For caring." He smiled and walked a few steps back to me.
"Hey... that's what friends are for." He held his fist up, and I immediately gave him props. He then pulled me into a comforting hug. We sat there for a while, just hugging. There was no lust in this hug. No infatuating thoughts about this celebrity guy. Just a profound sense of appreciation for this friend I had found. We broke and walked towards the hotel in silence.
KNOCK KNOCK. Lance knocked on his hotel room door, knowing that Joey and Chris were inside. Lance would have used his key, but it was inside the room. The door opened, and Joey stuck his bright-red head out. "Come on in."
We walked in, and I saw Chris sitting in the chair next to the refrigerator, reading a magazine. He looked up, closed the magazine, and stood up. Joey and Lance walked in behind me after the door closed, and there was a moment of tension before Chris spoke up.
"Hey Billy... we want to apologize. What we did wasn't very cool, you know, you being a friend of Lance and all... it's just... well..." I interrupted them, saying,
"Don't worry about it, Chris. Lance explained the whole thing. It's cool." I was half-lying.
"Lance gave us a pretty good whipping. He told us how cool a guy you are, and we figured any friend of Lance is definitely a friend of ours. So let's try this again, shall we? Hi, I'm Chris Kirkpatrick," he said as he extended his right hand. I shook it, responding,
"Billy Wilson."
"Joey Fatone." Another strong handshake.
"Still... Billy Wilson." We all smiled and wound up talking about nothing for about 20 minutes. I sat on Lance's bed, Chris returned to his chair, Joey on his bed, and Lance leaned on the wall. Suddenly, Joey spoke up.
"Hey, Billy, it was great to meet you. I can see what Lance was talking about now. I wish I could keep chatting but I unfortunately have to get up early to catch a plane. I got some relatives up north that I'm visiting." We both stood up, and I said,
"Well, it was great to meet you. I best be running now, wouldn't want to keep you up!" Joey responded,
"Where are you going? Oh... no no no. I'm not kicking you out. I'm sleeping in Chris' room 'cause he's got to get up early, too. No no... you and Lance keep hanging out!" With that, Joey grabbed his suitcase, zipped it shut, and headed for the door, saying his goodbyes to Lance. In the meantime, Chris stood and shook my hand, then walked with Joey to his room. As soon as the door shut, Lance hopped on Joey's bed and said,
"So... do you feel better? Chris and Joey totally think you're cool. I guess you have that effect on people!" I smiled wide at the compliment, and was about to respond when there was a knock on the door. Lance went to answer it, and admitted two people in the room. The first yelled out,
"What's up, Scoop?" He gave Lance a high five, and Lance said back,
"Hey Curly... Hi Brittany. How was your evening?" I glanced over and saw two more blonde bombshells enter the room... Justin Timberlake and Brittany Spears. Man, if only I had my camera!
"Man, we couldn't find any place to go that didn't have mobs, so we just drove around in my rental. Burned off a nice bit of... gas... Oh I'm sorry Lance, I didn't know you had company." I was immediately on my feet, anticipating an introduction from Lance. Like a machine synchronized with my thoughts, Lance's mouth began to move.
"Justin, Brittany? This is a good friend of mine, Billy Wilson. Billy? Justin and Brittany." I was all smiles as I shook their hands. Unlike the last two I greeted, these two stayed pleasant.
"Nice to meet you!" was again spoken simultaneously, almost in harmony.
"Billy and I met the other day, and he's been showing me around San Diego. Billy, JC, and I even went to the baseball game tonight. It was fun!" Justin and Brittany looked at each other, and Justin smacked his hand on his forehead.
"Why didn't I think of that? We could have totally done that. I'll need to check with Billy here for some entertainment tips this week!" Justin said, nodding at me. "Can you point out some good, quiet places to hang out? Maybe a pool hall or something... or bowling! Something with TVs so I can watch the games."
"Sure! I've got a couple of things that would be right up... your... alley. Achhh, sorry, didn't mean that." We all hooted at my unintentional pun. If I do say so myself, it was very punny.
"That's good! All Justin wanted to do was check out the clubs downtown. First of all, he's too young to get in to any of them. Secondly, he'd been torn to shreds if he even got out of the car," Brittany interjected.
"Ah, the price of being me." Brittany delivered a swift smack to the back of his head, sending a yelp from Justin's mouth. "What was that for?!"
"No, we're not full of ourselves, are we?" She playfully rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"I think we better leave. I'm in big trouble now," Justin said as he smiled. "Billy, it was good to meet you. Maybe sometime this week you can show us the sights?"
"I'd like that very much."
"Great! See ya, Scoop. Exit stage right, even." In a flash, Brittany and Justin were gone. Lance hopped on his bed, thinking nothing of our recent conversation. I was a bit deeper in thought. Lance looked at me and said,
"What?"
"What do you mean, WHAT? I still haven't gotten used to this whole meeting-famous-people-thing yet. In the course of the last few hours, I've met all of N'Sync and Brittany Spears! Even for a guy that's supposedly grounded, that takes a while to sink in."
"Gee, I never thought about it that way. They're just always around me, I guess. I got used to them a long time ago."
"Well, give me a few more minutes." I looked around the room and found it still in a state of disarray from our earlier activities. I proceeded to straighten up a bit while Lance flipped through the channels on the tube. When I was done, I flopped on Joey's bed, looking at Lance. Lance turned his head to face me and said,
"What's it like to have a normal life?" I was taken aback at this question, and shook my head to be sure I heard it correctly.
"Wha huh? What do you mean?" Lance clicked off the TV and continued.
"I don't know. You don't have to answer the question. It was just rhetorical, I guess. It's just that I don't remember what it's like to have a normal life. The guys and I have been together for over four years, and even when we weren't as popular as we are now, life was still filled with rehersals, tours, costumes, audiences, performing, the 'image'... I spent the last half of my teenage years in front of people on stage, and I almost feel like I haven't been able to live during that time..." I listened intently to what would turn out to be a mostly one-way conversation as Lance shared a lot of what was on his mind, both exciting and frustrating. He talked about his family, his schoolwork, his church and how he missed attending regularly, his trouble maintaining friends, etc.
I don't know why, but about halfway through the conversation, I crawled over to Lance's bed. Maybe because I felt he could use someone closer. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to be closer to him, but Lance's feelings took absolute priority. He was sitting up on his pillows on one side, and I climbed up and sat Indian-style on the other side. Lance was my friend, and I wanted him to know he could share anything with me. Well, he did. Lance continued,
"...not always, not even sometimes, but very very occasionally I feel that this group has damaged me more than helped me. I had a close friend named William back in Mississippi when we were growing up. We were inseparable! Well, we sorta grew apart when N'Sync got started. We would call, and write, but soon that fizzled out. I wasn't in town, so we never saw each other, either. Well..., a few months ago...... I get a call from my mother telling me that............ William had died." Up until this point, Lance had maintained eye contact. However, his eyes quickly watered up and he looked away, trying to fight the tears. "He died from a diabetic coma because there was no one around to recognize the signs and get him help. It had been a year since I'd seen him when he died, and I never got a chance to say goodbye. I was able to make it back for the funeral, but it just wasn't enough... for me." I was always a sucker for tears. If I saw someone crying or even watering up, that was it for me. I reached for Lance's hand and gripped it lightly, rubbing the top of his hand with my thumb. He looked at me and smiled a 'sad-happy' smile and allowed a tear to roll down his cheek. He continued.
"I know what you're going to say, but I can't get over the feeling that if I had been there, hanging out with him as I always had... and not being so busy with the group... I might have discovered him in the diabetic coma and gotten help for him in time. No matter how I fight it, I still am haunted by the feeling that I'm somewhat to blame for his death." Another soft tear rolled down Lance's cheek, his watered eyes turning to meet mine. A tear mirroring his rolled down my cheek as I felt his pain and frustration almost flowing through the skin on his hand. He was trembling, so I gripped his hand firmly and said,
"Don't you dare blame yourself! Don't you dare! You were best friends, and nothing in the past or present is going to change that. What happened to him was not your responsibility. I can tell from what you're saying that you loved him as a close friend, and he loved you. Ya know, love seems to have an ability to break down even the barriers of time. That friendship you shared will never end. Never." This caused a few more tears to flow down both our faces. Lance sat up and leaned forward, releasing his grip from mine and grabbing my shoulder to pull me in for our third hug of the day. His tears moistened the back of my hair and shoulder, but I didn't care. I just rubbed his back with my hands, helping him vent these pent up emotions. We held the embrace for a few minutes, when Lance whispered into my ear,
"You're the first person I've told how I really feel about the whole situation. I couldn't really tell any of the guys, and I could never tell my mom or dad. Thanks Billy." As much as I didn't want to, I broke the hug, reached over to the nightstand, and grabbed two tissues.
"At the risk of sounding repetitive, that's what friends are for!" He laughed as he wiped his eyes and fell backwards, his head landing in the pillow. He sighed and we both sat in silence for a few minutes, occasionally glancing at each other and sharing moments of eye contact. I was still rubbing his hand lightly with mine. Finally Lance spoke up,
"Well, I'm done. Now it's your turn. What's your big secret?" My eyes got big for a split-second with a vision of the terror that would occur if I shared my 'secret'. I thought, and said,
"Hey... one outpouring of a soul per night, okay?"
"Hehe sniffle okay, sounds fair." I slid up to the pillow and propped myself up on it, facing up. Almost instinctively, Lance slid down a bit, rolled over, and propped his head up with his elbows, looking at me. We talked about this and that for a while until I saw Lance's slightly reddened eyes start to droop from being tired. I leaned forward to get up and said,
"Hey, you look tired and I don't want to keep you up. I've got to work tomorrow, and you could use some rest, so I'll just..." A hand grabbed my arm.
"STAY! I mean, please, if you could, um, er... that'd be great. I've got some clothes you could borrow for work." I didn't even need to think about it. I nodded and smiled.
"Of course I'll stay. No problem. Just give me two seconds." I hopped up and turned off the lights in the hotel room except for the one above the nightstand that separated the two beds. When I walked back to the bed area, Lance had already placed his head on the pillow, looking at me. I now had a choice. Sleep in Joey's bed, or sleep with Lance on his bed. I mean, the beds were big enough for two people to sleep without it being too weird. I bit my lip, allowed the Spirit to guide me, and climbed onto Lance's bed next to Lance. I was sitting up a bit with the pillow propping me up. Lance turned his head to the other side of the pillow and smiled at me. I had made the right choice.
Lance really was tired. I guess our little discussion had really pooped him out. He turned his head back around and we talked for a bit more. Finally, we hit a lull in the conversation. Lance took the opportunity to close things off.
"Goodnight, Billy. Thanks for being a friend."
"Night, Goof. Right back at ya, pal." I turned on my side facing his body and patted him on the back a few times. This caused what I could only guess to be an involuntary moan, quiet and relaxed. I kept my hand there for a moment, then decided to take my fingers and lightly rub his back through his shirt. He exhaled audibly, and I could tell that it felt good. I continued this for a while until I saw his back moving up and down in rhythmic motion. I knew without looking that he was asleep. I took of my glasses and reached carefully over him to turn off the light, and place my glasses on the night stand. Yet another amazing day had taken place in the life of Billy Wilson. I met N'Sync. I met Brittany Spears. I went to the ball game and made the most beautiful music ever. But more importantly, my friendship had grown with Lance. We had both learned to trust each other, and trust IS the strongest element in a relationship. I dozed off with a smile on my face.
"Billy. Billy, wake up. BILLY!" I was yanked from my slumber by a hand pounding lightly on my chest and my name being spoken repeatedly. I opened one eye and saw Lance's face over mine. I smiled.
"Good morning. Sleep well?" Lance was not as chipper. He looked as if he had just woken up himself, but his face was full of worry.
"Billy, didn't you say you had to work today?" WORK!
"Ohmygosh. I have to get to work!!" My body snapped to attention, folding at the waist. In the process, I inadvertently headbutted Lance, sending him careening off the bed onto the floor. The shock of the contact knocked me silly, and I fell back on the pillows, holding my aching head.
"Oooooooooooohhh" was all I heard coming from the floor. I was still trying to get my vision to straighten out as I propped myself up and look over the edge of the bed. There I saw Lance lying on his back with his hand to his forehead.
"LANCE! I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" He slowly nodded, saying,
"Yeah, just give me a minute to stop the little flying birdies. Wheeeee!" In an instant, I was by his side.
"I'm sooo sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I was just shocked when I remembered I had... SHOOT... I have to get to work!" I glanced at the clock, which read 9:38am. I was already 38 minutes late!
"Billy... I'm okay. Just give me a second. You need to get to work. I pulled out a couple things that I thought would work. OUCH. Look on Joey's bed," Lance said as he pointed to the bed behind him, wincing at the pain from moving.
"I'm not leaving until I know you're okay, Lance. Knowing my luck, I'll get picked up for assault or something." Lance smiled and pulled his hand from his head. A fairly well sized bump was already starting to form. I stifled a laugh that would have probably been inappropriate. To prove his rehabilitation, Lance forced himself up and sat on the bed, returning his hand to his head.
"GO! It's my fault for keeping you here and making you this late. Get dressed and go to work. It's your fault if you're any later!" I accepted my orders and grabbed a pair of khakis and a blue dress shirt, running in the bathroom to get ready. I was able to change, and freshen up in less than two minutes! A personal record, I believe. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to shower. Yick. Lance yelled through the door, offering anything in his overnight bag. I helped myself to some deodorant, some hair gel, and a touch of cologne. Opening the door, I found Lance holding my keys and wallet.
"A promise is a promise, although a bit late," he said as he handed me my stuff. I walked out the door and Lance followed me down the hall.
"Thanks, Goof. Sorry to run, but I gotta go! I'll call you or you call me. Wanna do something tonight?" I reached the elevator and summoned it with the button.
"You bet! We'll chat later. Hope you don't get in trouble!"
"Eh, it's a sucky job anyway. What are they going to do, fire me? I'd be happy!" The elevator opened, and I stepped in. As I turned around, I saw Lance with his fist out giving me props. I answered him back with a smack on the knuckles.
"See ya."
"See ya." We were both smiling and making eye contact until the doors shut and the elevator shuttled me to the bottom floor.
"Nice of you to show up today, Mr. Wilson," my supervisor scolded as I walked in the door of the cash office. I've worked at Mervyns for almost three years now. I started as a stocker in men's wear, then moved up to registers then finally into the cash office about a year ago. I thought this was going to be the greatest job ever. I even envisioned myself as the president of Mervyns one day. But my new supervisor for the past few months, Jamie, was a brutal person to work for, and my position has lost a bit of the glitter I once saw in it.
"I'm sorry Jamie. I know I'm late." My head dropped as I prepared for the barrage of comments.
"No Billy, you were late 45 minutes ago. This is borderline not showing up. You do realize we're trying to run a business here, don't you? In the time it took you to get here, I could have gone out and hired someone else to take your job. If it happens again, that's just what I'll do." I looked up slowly, to see Jamie's face. She was pissed, but she was more so trying to get a rise out of me. She wanted me to react in some way, get mad, but I didn't give her the satisfaction.
"I'll try to not let it happen again. I was entertaining out of town guests and overslept. I AM sorry."
"You'll try? No, you WILL. Or you'll be out applying at McDonald's." With that, Jamie stormed out of the cash office, heading off to use her power of intimidation on someone else. I saw on the wall that it was 10:20am. 1 hour 20 minutes late. I sunk down in the closest chair, and looked over to find my co-worker, Amber, sitting and counting money. I half-smiled and said,
"How many times have you counted that stack of ones? Must be difficult to concentrate when Jamie is ripping someone a new butt hole right in front of you, eh?" She looked over and give me a cringed smile, saying,
"That wasn't cool of Jamie. She can be a real witch sometimes. You were late. SO WHAT? I had everything under control, in fact, I worked quicker when you didn't show up so we'd be ahead and Jamie couldn't complain. So much for that."
"Thanks for covering. I've just been really involved with my guests, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep."
"Who's in town? You didn't mention anything last time you worked."
"Well, it was rather unexpected. They're... just some good friends of the family." Satisfied with the answer, Amber nodded and went back to her money. I grabbed some bundles of cash and checks from the day before's receipts and began organizing them, smiling to myself as I thought about those 'good friends' of mine.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Jamie visited again only to find Amber and I way ahead of schedule. She wasn't thrilled. She just went on lecturing about responsibility for a minute and left. Four o'clock finally came around and I punched out, thankful that time hadn't mysteriously stopped that day, forcing me to spend the rest of eternity in that little office. I walked around the store and said hi to some co-workers before heading home.
I walked through my front door to the sound of my phone ringing from my bedroom. Taking off on a mad sprint, I flew down the halls to my room, and answered the phone as the machine picked up. 'Hi this is Billy. I'm not home righ...'
"Hello!?" Dial tone. "CRAP!" I don't know who had called, but I had a few ideas, one of whom I really wanted to talk to. I pressed the automatic redial feature, *69, and listened as the phone rang. I got a phone company message: "Your custom calling feature is working properly. However, the number you are calling can not be traced by this method. We're sorry. This is a recording." 'Great. Well, who ever it was, they will call back... I hope.'
I pulled Lance's outfit off and tossed it on the bed, reaching for a T-shirt and shorts. I know, not terribly original. I just wanted to get comfortable. I turned on my stereo, the CD player automatically coming on and playing the N'Sync CD.
"Oh no..." I chuckled as I turned on the radio to some random song. I hopped on the bed and started thinking again about the past few days. This was the first time in a while that I had time to myself, and the events of the last 48 hours started rolling through my head. I must have dozed off thinking (or dreaming), because the phone ringing again woke me up. I reached for the portable.
"Hello?" I was sure I knew who it was. I was mistaken.
"Billy! What's up. I called you a while ago, but you weren't home. Are mom and dad home yet?" My little brother sounded like he was talking from inside a tin can. I had to quickly change mental gears to answer the question of this kid I hadn't seen in almost two weeks. I had even forgotten he had been staying up the street with the neighbors!
"Scotty! Long time, no see. Are you sure you're still my brother?"
"Yeah, unfortunately."
"You twerp. I'll get ya for that. No, mom and dad haven't gotten home. Knowing them, they'll be home over the weekend. How was your camping trip? Are you ready to come home?"
"How IS the camping trip, you mean. We're still here! It's totally cool. Adam and I are having a cool time. I was calling mom to see if I could go climbing. They have a climbing wall that's totally cool, but Mr. McGee said I had to call mom to see if it was cool with her." I wondered if my kid brother could fit 'cool' into the sentence a few more times.
"Sorry, twerp. They're not here. And I'm not going to say anything FOR them, either. No ideas."
"Awwwww... please? You could give me permission?"
"Sorry Scotty. That's mom and dad's call."
"All right. I gotta go. The pay phone is expensive. I'll call ya when we get home to the McGee's."
"Ok. Be safe." With that, the conversation was over and my brother was back to his trip.
I spent the next hour or so cleaning up the kitchen from the breakfast that Lance and I had. We had straightened up, but I went ahead and ran a load of dishes and unloaded when the machine was done. I had my head in the fridge for a good 15 minutes searching for a skanky piece of rotten something that was stinkin' up the house. I finally found a moldy chunk of cheese and some leftover chicken and potatoes that could have passed for a biology experiment. As I took the whole mess outside to the trashcans, I could faintly hear my phone ringing. I shook my head at the incredible misfortune I always encountered when my phone was ringing. 'Why didn't I carry my portable with me? Because then the phone would never ring, of course.' Murphy's law, I'm sure. I got to the phone after the machine picked up, and I heard the beep and the message begin.
"Hey Billy, it's Lance. I..."
"Hey Lance! Sorry. I ran to the phone, but the machine got it."
"Oh, no sweat. I was half-afraid you wouldn't be home. Then I'd be all bored and lonesome here at the hotel by myself," Lance said as he fake sniffled.
"Aw, poor wittle baby. What's everybody else doing tonight?"
"Well, Joey's visiting family, Chris and Justin have dates, and JC wanted to crank on a piano, so he's hanging out at some studio in town."
"Then I guess it's just you and me. Do you want to do anything tonight?"
"Stupid question #1. Of course I do. I don't have any ideas, though." Remembering how I enjoyed our one-on-one time last night, I thought of something quiet and alone.
"Well, we never did finish Austin Powers. The house is still all mine, so you could come over here. What do you want to eat? We could grab a bite to eat or something, then do whatever." Who knew what 'whatever' could turn into? 'Billy, stop that!' I thought.
"I'll take care of dinner. One question... do you have a grill?"
"Yup, dad filled the propane right before they left on vacation. What are we having?"
"Stupid question #2. Never ask Lance what's for a meal. You'll learn that."
"Great, so I'll see you soon?"
"Stupid question #3. No, I'm going to wait 3 days to come over. Yeah, give me a chance to go to the market, and I'll be there in about 30-40 minutes."
"See ya then. I can't wait!" I said. After a half-second, I figured I'd clarify what I couldn't wait for. "...to find out what's for dinner."
"Uh...huh. See ya soon. Bye!"
As soon as I hung up the phone, something hit me hard in my mind. For someone I had just met, I had gotten very close to, and dare I say, a bit careless around Lance. I could remember at least half a dozen questionable comments (like the one above) that had slipped out of my mouth to Lance that would have caused most guys to lift an eyebrow at me. Lance would smile and nearly blush at some of my slips, when the correct, 'hetero' response would have been to back off and question the person's intentions. It seemed like he was enjoying the attention, but I started getting scared that I was being a bit too, well, friendly. Holding his hand last night. Patting and rubbing his back. These were not necessarily things that a 'straight' friend would initiate.
I decided that I needed to watch what I said and did around him, though my feelings wanted to betray me. I reminded myself that Lance was my good friend first and foremost, and I would never do anything that could remotely damage the bond we had. He was too precious for that!
I was excited about seeing Lance tonight, but dreading the restraint I'm sure I would have to exercise. Give me strength!
I REALLY appreciate all the feedback I've received. I'm privileged to be able to call you all my friends. For some reason, y'all like the story, so I guess it will go on...and on...and on... If you don't like it, let me know!
Please don't be shy by not writing. I'd love to hear a "hi" from ya! Communication is my fuel. Until next time...
~Jeff Kaiser kaiser_goof@hotmail.com