"Stop it!" JC yelled. He kicked Lance's hands away from his bare feet. Lance smiled and proceeded to tickle him. "I said stop it! Get your disgusting hands away from my feet."
"My hands are only disgusting because they're touching your feet." Lance said.
"Well, if my feet are so disgusting than stop touching them." JC bent his knees so that his feet were closer to him than to Lance. Lance brought his arms to his chest and glared at his older brother.
"You're mean." Lance said.
"You're meaner." JC retorted. Lance stuck his tongue out at JC and continued to glare.
"Well, you're the meanest." JC smiled.
"I can't be the meanest 'cause you're meaner."
Lance sat up on his knees, puzzled what to say next. "Well, you're just...really mean." JC laughed and smiled again at Lance's expense.
"Well then, you must be really really mean because you're meaner than me." Lance opened his mouth to say something, but then quickly closed it. He was stumped.
"You're mean a thousand times infinity."
"You can't have a thousand times infinity. There's nothing bigger than infinity. You don't get it." JC said, shaking his head.
"Shut up!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you're stupid." Justin chose this opportune time to walk into the room. Lance looked over at him anxiously.
"JC called me stupid." he whined. Justin walked over to the couch.
"JC, don't call your brother stupid." he said, not really paying attention. He had already recieved a headache that day and wasn't exactly in a complaining mood. "Come on, you have to help me put the groceries away. Afterwards, I have to run next door to get the neighbors mail." They had been asked to retrieve their neighbors mail and newspapers while they were out of town.
Lance stood up on the couch. "No! Don't leave me with him! He's mean!"
"First of all," Justin walked over to Lance and picked him up, putting him on the floor. "Don't stand on the furniture. Second of all, solve this little tiff between you two now."
"Where're Chris and Joey?" JC asked.
"Chris took Joey to get his driver's license. Yesterday was his birthday so now he's officially sixteen." Justin said.
"I thought he already had it." JC said.
"No, he took the test, but he failed. You have to wait a month before taking it again so here we go."
"Just like all the other tests in his life. He failed." JC teased. Justin pointed at him sternly.
"You hush." He turned to Lance. "And you be good. Now apologize to each other and come in the kitchen. I'll be waiting."
Justin leaned down and kissed Lance's forehead before going into the kitchen. Once he had left, Lance turned to JC.
"I got a kiss and you didn't." he pointed obnoxiously at JC.
"Kisses are for babies and I'm not a baby."
Lance frowned. "Neither am I."
"Then why'd you get a kiss, Baby?" JC taunted.
"Shut up! Kisses are not just for babies."
"Oh yeah? Do you ever see Joey getting kisses?"
"But-" Lance objected, but JC cut him off.
"But nothing, Baby." JC patted his head and pushed himself off the couch. He left the room, smiling that he had won the arguement. It hadn't even occured to them that they hadn't apologized.
Lance slowly trailed over to his first bag and began pulling items out. He stopped when he saw an unfamiliar container. "Justin, what's this?"
Justin looked over and smiled. "Flintstone vitamins. For you and JC. I thought perhaps you two needed vitamins since you were so short."
"Yuck." Lance glared at Justin and put the vitamins down. JC walked over and picked them back up, tearing the top off.
"You know you're right, Lance. These vitamins aren't for babies. You're just too darn young." JC popped one in his mouth and winked over at Justin, who laughed.
"Really? I want one." JC held the bottle out of Lance's reach. "Come on, JC."
"You sure you want one, Baby? I thought you said they were gross."
"I want one, I want one." Lance grabbed the bottle and dug one out with his finger. He stuck it in his mouth as a disgusted look came across his face. "Ew."
"It's a gimmick," JC said. "Adults think they can put a cartoon character on something and make kids like it. Here is living proof that that don't work."
"You liked it." Lance pointed out.
"Well, I'm not a kid." JC said. Justin shook his head and continued to put food away.
"Come on, finish." Just as they were about to help, Joey burst through the back door with a big smile on his face.
"I passed!" he screamed. Chris came in behind him, a lot calmer than Joey had been. "Did you hear me? I can drive!"
"Yes, and we're all very happy about that." Chris said, although you could tell he didn't mean it.
"Well, don't sound too excited." Joey scoffed. Justin put a hand on his shoulder.
"Well done, Joey. But you do realize that you won't be getting much practice around here, don't you?" Justin asked.
"What do you mean?" Joey tilted his head at Justin.
"I mean, we only have two cars. One's Chris' and one's mine. I can't imagine you driving either one." Joey let his head fall on Justin's shoulders.
"I'll get a car eventually, Chris said so. In the meantime, though, Mallory's gonna let me drive her car. She says it'll get me some practice. I'm gonna drive the two of us to my birthday party tonight." Joey explained.
"Woah, what birthday party? Where's this at?" Chris asked, startled by this sudden information.
"Oh, did I not tell you? It's over at a friend's house." Joey said.
"Uh huh, and will there be any parental supervision over this 'party'?" Justin saw the look in Joey's eyes and knew the answer was probably a 'no'. He turned to JC and Lance and grasped their hands.
"We'll finish putting the groceries away later. Let's go play a game or something." he said, pulling them out of the kitchen. Lance couldn't peel his eyes away from the kitchen as Justin drug him out.
Chris noticed them leave and turned right back to Joey. "So?"
"Well, his parents said that they'd be out to dinner as kind of a favor to leave us alone. So they won't be there, but nothing bad's gonna happen."
"And there will be girls there? Joey, come on." Chris shifted, letting his foot drop softly to the tile.
"Just Mallory. I've grown a lot since I last did something like that. Mallory's a good influence on me and you know that. Her dad's a priest, remember? I've got to mature sometime. You can trust me."
Chris sighed. "What about having the party here? What's wrong with that?"
"You know as well as I do that if I had the party here, JC and Lance would be popping in out to bug us and you would be popping in and out to check on us. Please? I wanna have some real fun. I never get to go anywhere unless it's with Mallory."
"Yeah, and you said Mallory was going so what's the difference?"
"Exactly! Mallory's going so I should be able to go too. Besides, the party's for me."
"You haven't earned my trust yet. Sometimes you can act grown up, but sometimes you can act like an immature brat."
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not the only one in this family who's like that. No one is completely grown up all the time. Everyone has their immature bratty moments. This isn't one of them."
"Oh really, Joey? Because arguing with me seems really childish. You're trying my patience and talking back to me."
Joey groaned loudly. "Everybody in this family gets away with talking back to you but me! Everybody in this family gets to do what they want but me! How come you're penalizing me? What did I ever do to you?"
"I shouldn't have to expect this from you, that's what! You're sixteen now and you have to start taking life seriously. In a couple years, you'll be out on your own and I want you to be able to take care of yourself. I want you to go to college. And your grades are ruining that chance. You just don't care about school!" Chris yelled.
"Since when did my grades get into this? I try and I try and I get nothing from it. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I'm just stupid? That there's no chance in hell that I'll ever go to college?"
"Don't talk like that. I don't want to hear you saying things like that. All your brothers, including you, have been and will continue to be brought up to suceed. Even you. So don't doubt yourself and say you're stupid. You're not stupid. No one in this house is. So straighten up and start respecting me."
"What if I don't want to?" Joey muttered.
"Justin, can we play Candy Land? You said we'd play a game." Lance jumped up and down anxiously in front of Justin. "I wanna play!"
"OK, OK. Geez, settle down." Justin put his hands on Lance's shoulders to stop his jumping. "Get the game and we'll play."
Lance ran into his closet to retrieve the game. Justin went and sat down next to JC's laying form, on his bed. He put a hand on his back.
"What's wrong? You not like Candy Land?" Justin asked. JC chuckled a little and shook his head. He tried to manage a smile, but the yells from downstairs made him frown even more. He turned to face Justin.
"Why are they yelling at each other?" Justin nodded, realizing what the problem was. JC hated seeing people mad at each other and he sometimes got scared of Chris when he'd yell that way.
Justin and JC looked up as Lance came out of the closet with the game in his hands.
"Why don't you set it up? I'll be over in a second." Justin said. Lance nodded and sat down on the floor to set up the game. Justin turned his attention back to JC. "They're just straightening their differences, you know? Trying to agree on something. Yelling just expresses their points more. You get what I'm saying?"
"No." JC said.
"OK, so I can't explain it. Sometimes they just can't get along. They can't see eye to eye. That's just the way it is. I'm sorry, but it is."
"Justin, I'm ready!" Lance shouted. Justin laughed.
"You OK?" Justin asked JC.
"Yeah."
"You wanna play Candy Land with me and Lance? It'll be fun."
"I guess so." Justin and JC got up off the bed and sat down by Lance to play his game.
That evening, Justin walked passed Joey's room, noticing his brother in front of a mirror messing with his hair. He walked in and stood next to Joey.
"You know with your hair all poofed out like that, you look almost as tall as me." Joey frowned and grabbed his comb to flatten it.
"I'd rather be a few inches shorter than you than have poofy hair." he said. Justin up and down at Joey's attire.
"You get to go to the party, huh?" Justin asked.
Joey smiled. "Yep, Mallory's gonna be here soon. I have to be back by ten o'clock, though. My curfew, as Chris says. It's my part of the agreement."
"Uh huh, and do you plan to hold up your end of the agreement?"
"Of course I do. Why would you think that I wouldn't?"
"Because I know you, Joey. I know the way your mind works. You'll be there and ten o'clock will come quickly around the corner. You'll start thinking, 'Hey, I bet no one would notice if I stayed an hour longer'. So you stay and never call, and make us all worry about you."
"You apparently don't know me at all because I would not do that. Sure I lie, but I don't stay out longer than I'm suppose to. Have a little faith in me, will you?" Joey put his comb down, finally satisfied with his hair.
"In my opinion, you don't deserve to go to this party."
"It's my party, though. Without me, there is no party. So I have to go."
"Fine, but I know something is going to go wrong tonight. You're going to screw it up, badly. Very badly."
"Oh shut up. I know what I'm doing."
"I'm not so sure of that, considering you always get caught when you do things like this. Always."
"I don't always get caught. There could be times that you don't know about because no one ever knew. Besides, there's nothing to get caught from. Chris said I could go. I'm not breaking a rule."
"Yes, but like all of the things you do, it starts that way."
"Why can't you ever be a big brother to me? You're always ordering me around and treating me like a kid. Why can't you ever bond with me?" Joey said.
"I know where this is gonna go so don't even start. It's gonna go right back to the fight you had with Chris earlier so just shut up and go to your dumb party."
Joey turned and started for the door of his bedroom. "Everyone in this family hates me, I know it." he muttered. When he was walking down the stairs, he heard the doorbell ring. He rushed to answer the door before any of his brothers could. He opened it to Mallory dressed in a very casual attire. "You look nice." he said.
Mallory laughed and rolled her eyes. "I'm wearing jeans. Looking nice isn't an option."
"Oh be quiet." Smiling, she stepped over the door step and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Keys?"
"You wreck my car, you die. I'm serious." Mallory held them out and dropped them in his hand. Although she meant to be serious, her tone still came out jokingly. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, hold on." Joey looked around and saw no one. He sighed and yelled, "I'm leaving!"
"Well, that was a nice way to say goodbye." Joey grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the house, shutting the door. Once they got in the car, Joey took a deep breath. "Don't do that. It makes me nervous."
"Don't do what?"
Mallory demonstrated for him and took a deep breath. "That, it makes me nervous. And if you would be so kind and say everything you're doing when you do it so I know what you're doing."
"Ummm...OK. I'm putting the key in the thing."
"Ignition, hun." She put a hand on his shoulder. "You sure you're ready?"
"I like it when you call me hun." Joey smiled, shyly. "Makes me feel like we're married."
"Don't go there. You're not even my boyfriend, let alone my husband." Joey frowned and pulled on his seatbelt, proceeding to start the car. He looked behind him, switched the car from park to reverse and pulled out of the driveway. Once in the street, he changed to drive and moved forward.
"So how did I do backing out?" he asked.
"Very well. I can tell you're one of those scared drivers. I would have expected you to be one of those typical teenage drivers." she said.
"What do mean?"
"Well, you're driving like ten MPH, speed up." Joey pushed on the gas pedal a little more, boosting him up to around fifteen MPH.
"We're still in residential so don't make me speed up more. Once I'm out on the street, I'll go faster."
"Whatever, so how did you talk Chris into letting you come?"
"It wasn't easy. Negotiation was a big problem. But he said as long as I'm home by ten o'clock, it's fine. What about you? How did you get out?"
"Well, my dad trusts me."
"How could your dad trust you with all the rumors that go around about you?"
"What? You think I tell him these things? You have to be crazy. Absolutely crazy."
"Sorry, geez."
"How did you do on that test?" she asked, referring to their previous Geometry test that day. Joey shrugged. "I know I did well. Ninety-seven percent. Usually I get like B's, but this is a major improvement."
"Well, aren't you special." he retorted. She chose to ignore his tone.
"What'd you get?" Joey shrugged once again. "Don't do that. You know what you got now tell me."
"Fine, I got a sixty-eight. Happy?" Joey pulled up to a stop light.
"Sixty-eight? No, I'm not not happy. Do you need help?"
"No!" he shouted. He quickly lowered his voice. "I don't need help. It was just this one chapter. I'm sure the next one won't be as bad."
"Well, maybe after tonight when you prove how responsible you are to Chris, we can start studying together."
"I don't need help." Mallory shook her head. She knew how proud he was of himself and wasn't about to let someone help him.
"Even if we don't study, it'd be the perfect excuse to spend time together. We hardly get to see each other outside of school." Mallory said, hoping to convince him. She couldn't stand to see him fail their class.
Joey left her offer unanswered as he pulled into his friend's driveway. The two of them got out of the car and went up to the porch. His friend came to open it for him and Mallory.
"Hey Will." Mallory greeted him. He smiled back, and looked at Joey.
"What took you so long? We've been waiting." Will grabbed Joey's arm and pulled him inside. Mallory followed. When she stepped inside, she distinctively noticed the smell of smoke in the room and frantically turned to Will.
"Have you guys been smoking in here?" she asked in distaste. The boys sitting on the floor all laughed. She frowned and looked back over at Will.
"My brother smokes. Sorry about the smell, I know how girls are. All girly and dainty and stuff." Mallory glared at him and he chuckled at her response. "Come on, it's only a joke."
"It may be a joke, but it's my nose. And it stinks. Get some air freshener, will you?" Mallory scoffed. She sat down on the couch.
Will went into the kitchen, leaving Joey the chance to apologize to Mallory. He sat next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I know you're like allergic to the smoke."
"I'm not allergic to it, I just don't like it. It gives me headaches. I'm already starting to get one." Joey put an arm around her and began running a hand over her head. "Sometimes your friends just freak me out. Why couldn't we invite some of mine?"
"Because your friends don't like me." Joey said.
"Well, your friends don't like me either. And I bet you anything that Will smokes too. He probably gets the cigarettes from his brother."
"He does not. I've known Will since I was ten. He wouldn't do anything like that."
Will came in from the kitchen, and threw a can of air freshener at Mallory. "Here, Mal." he laughed.
Mallory threw it on the floor in anger. "You think that's funny, don't you?"
Will ignored her and began tossing beverage cans around the room. He gave the last two to Joey and Mallory and kept one for himself. Mallory looked at the label.
"Beer? You're kidding, right?" she asked Will. He answered her by opening the can and taking a drink. "Let me guess, it's your brother's."
"Nope, my dad's."
"Aw, I see. Well, if you don't mind, I'd rather have a Pepsi or something. I don't drink." Mallory held the beer can back out to him.
"Fine. You want something else, Joe?" Will challenged him. Joey shook his head.
"No, I'm fine." Will went back in the kitchen to get Mallory her pop. Mallory turned to Joey and took the beer can from his hand.
"You're not actually gonna drink it, are you?" she asked.
"Hell no," he saw her look and corrected himself. "Heck no, I'm just gonna open it so it appears like I'm drinking it. That way no one will think I'm a dork." Joey explained.
"Are you calling me a dork?"
"No, I don't think that. They understand that a girl wouldn't want to do that, but a guy is supposed to be gutsy. Gotta take risks."
Joey snapped open the can as Will came back and handed Mallory a Pepsi. She opened hers as well and began to drink. She watched Joey, cautiously, making sure he only took tiny sips as he pretended to drink the beer.
Justin looked over at the clock and sighed. It was almost ten o'clock, and a part of him wanted to believe Joey would be walking in the door in about fifteen minutes and the night would have a sucess. But another part of him wanted Joey to get in trouble so he wouldn't be able to go out again. He loved his brother, but most of the time he was a typical teenagaed kid.
JC and Lance came walking down the stairs in their pajamas and joined Justin in the living room. Lance jumped up on the couch and sat on his knees.
"Can we watch a movie?" he asked, anxiously. JC nodded in agreement and sat down on Justin's other side. "And eat popcorn?"
"Aren't you tired?" Justin said to Lance. He put a hand on his back.
"Nope. It's Friday, I'm not supposed to be tired." Lance said.
"All right, we'll watch a movie. You two can pick one out while I go and get your popcorn." Justin pushed himself off the couch and went into the kitchen as the boys went over to movie cabinet to pick one out. The phone rang as they were looking over all of them.
"I'll get it!" Lance yelled jumping towards the phone next to the couch. "Hello."
"Hey Lance, it's Joey." Lance smiled.
"Hi!"
"Yeah, hi. Is JC around?" Lance's smiled turned into a frown because his brother didn't want to talk to him. He motioned for JC to come over to him and held the phone out. JC took it hesitantly.
"Hello?" JC said.
"Hey, I need a favor." Joey answered quickly.
"Why should I do you any favors? You've never done anything for me. Maybe if you asked nicely-"
"Please? I'll really love you forever if you do this." Joey cut him off. JC ignored the fact that he should love him forever anyway and gave in reluctantly.
"What's the favor?"
"Where's Justin and Chris at right now?"
"Justin's in the kitchen and Chris went to bed."
"OK, I need you to listen carefully. I'm about to give you some complicated instructions."
"All right."
"You need to make a distraction so that Justin isn't anywhere near my room or the living room or the kitchen at around ten o'clock. Then later, when Justin starts to wonder where I am just say I came home when he was in this other room."
"What other room is there?" JC asked. He wasn't really happy about helping Joey in his situation. "And why do I have to do this?"
"Because I'm having a really good time and I don't want to come home. Now listen, just get him up to your room or do something gross so he'll throw up or something. He'll be in the bathroom, then. Just make sure it's possible for me to come home without Justin seeing me."
"But I thought you were staying longer."
"I am. It's just that if Justin doesn't see me then you can say I came home and he'll believe you." Joey said.
"What's in it for me?" JC asked, slyly.
"I'll...walk Scooter for two weeks. OK? That good enough?"
"Fine, I'll do it." JC gave in.
"Thank you so much. I'll see you later tonight. Bye."
"Bye." JC put the phone back on the table and looked in the kitchen, making sure Justin was still busy. He slid to the floor next to Lance and started to tell him his plan to protect Joey.
"It's all set. I can stay for at least another hour." Joey said, smiling at Will. "My brothers are gonna help me out."
"I wish I had little brothers." Will said. "Mine always tells on me when I wanna do stuff."
Mallory came up behind them, her jacket and purse in hand. "We better get going Joey. It's almost ten o'clock."
"It's OK, Mal. I called JC and he's gonna cover for me. We can stay for a while." Will left the two of them to get another beer for himself. "Come on, put your stuff down and let's have fun."
"What makes you think I wanna stay longer? I wanna go home. And I very well could just leave you here. It's my car."
"You wouldn't do that to me, would you? I mean, if I don't have a ride-" Joey stopped mid-sentence, and thirstily took a drink from his can. Mallory gasped and grabbed the can from his mouth, noticing that it was almost empty.
"You promised me you wouldn't drink. The whole can is almost gone." Joey waved his hand dismissively.
"It's OK, I'm not drunk or anything. Besides, that's like my third can. Not my first. I promised I wouldn't drink the first one." He took the can back and drank the rest of it down.
"You are to drunk, and you're acting really weird. Now stop it, we have to go. You're starting to scare me." Mallory grabbed his arm and started to pull him away from the room. Joey jerked away from her.
"I'm fine now leave me alone. I didn't drink that much. It couldn't hurt me."
"It can do plenty to you when you've never had alcohol before. You can't handle it, now let's go. I'm serious. If you don't come with me, I'm leaving." Mallory had no intention of leaving him there, but she hoped she was threatening enough.
"Fine then. Maybe without you nagging me, I can have some real fun. I'm getting another beer." Mallory desperately reached out to him. When he broke away from her, she jumped on top of him, knocking him to the floor. "Fine, geez. I won't drink anymore. But I don't wanna go home."
"Why? Scared you'll get in trouble for being drunk?"
"You can't even tell I'm drunk. I was just talking on the phone with JC and he didn't notice nothing."
"Well, I can. We'll leave as soon as you've sobered up a little. Probably be a little late, but you can say we had to stop to get gas."
Mallory grabbed his hand and they walked over to the couch in the living room. She sat him down and moved his hair out of his face.
"I don't see what the problem is. It's not like I'm falling over when I walk. I look fine." Joey said.
"You don't sound fine. You sound weak and delirious. You sound like you're sick." Mallory rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
"I feel sick," he muttered, suddenly grabbing his stomach. "Mal?"
Mallory sighed and helped him to Will's bathroom to throw up what he had consumed that night.
JC peeked out of the doorway of the bathroom. He saw Justin coming out of the kitchen and the perplexed look on his face when he saw neither of them in the living room.
"Guys!" he shouted. JC returned fully into the bathroom and yelled back to him.
"We're in here!"
Lance sat up on the counter with a washcloth held up to the front of his head, wetting his blonde hair. JC dripped water onto his face to look like tears as Lance tried his best to pretend to cry.
"What happened?" Justin appeared in the doorway and immediatly took charge of the situation. He wiped the "tears" from Lance's face and lifted the washcloth.
"Lance bumped his head on the coffee table. I tried to take care of it myself, but-" JC started.
"It's OK. Can you go get me some ice from the freezer then? Put it in three bags so it won't melt through." Justin instructed JC.
JC nodded and exited the bathroom, going through the living room into the kitchen. He got a plastic bag and filled it with ice cubes and then placed the bag in two more bags as Justin said.
On his way back, he opened the front door and then closed it to make the charade even more real. He looked at the clock. Ten o'clock on the dot. JC returned to the bathroom with the makeshift ice pack.
"Thank you," Justin said, taking it from JC. He removed the washcloth from Lance's head and placed the ice there to keep down the pretend swelling. "There you go, feel better?"
Lance nodded and took exasperated breaths in to compensate for his crying. JC gave him a 'thumbs-up' from behind Justin, telling him that he was doing good.
Justin turned around to face JC. "Was that Joey coming in a second ago? I thought I heard the door."
"Yeah, he said he was really tired and was just gonna go to bed."
Justin nodded, knowing JC wouldn't lie to him, or so he thought. "I think maybe we should skip the movie tonight. You need your rest."
"No!" Lance whined. "I'm fine."
"I'm sorry, but if Chris was in my shoes, he'd do the same so I have to." Lance sniffled as real tears started to form in his eyes. The three of them turned towards the doorway as they heard a noise. It was Chris.
"What's going on?" Chris asked, observing the scene.
"Lance just hit his head. He's fine, but I was just saying how he should probably go to bed now." Justin explained. Chris nodded.
"He should. Come on, Bud." Chris picked Lance up off the counter. "You too, JC. It's getting pretty late."
"What? Why do I have to go to bed? I didn't hurt myself." JC complained. It was fine when Lance had to go to bed early, but he was mad that now he had to too. "It's not my fault."
Chris used his free hand to push on JC's back, leading him out of the bathroom and towards the stairs. As they were walking up to their bedroom, the doorbell rang. Justin went to get it while Chris put them to bed.
When he opened it, he saw Joey and Mallory standing on the porch. He turned his head upstairs towards Joey's room, remembering that JC had said he was up there. He returned his gaze to the two of them. It was then he noticed how pale Joey's face was.
"Are you OK?" Justin pulled him gently into the house. It was obvious that he had been throwing up the last twenty minutes, but it wasn't obvious why. Normally, Mallory would have told the truth, but Joey had pleaded with her not to tell. He promised her he'd never do it again.
"He got sick at the party, he should be fine." Mallory lied. She put a hand on his arm and moved it up and down, soothingly.
"Geez," Justin put a hand to his forehead. "Well, you don't have a fever, but you're sweating all over. Come on, let's get you to bed."
"Bye Mal," he said, weakly.
"Bye Sweetie. I'll see you on Monday." Mallory made her exit, as Justin helped Joey up to his bedroom. They met Chris coming out of JC and Lance's room.
"What happened to him?" Chris pointed at Joey in concern.
"He got sick at his little party." Chris repeated Justin's actions and felt his face for fever. "He feels fine, he probably just ate too much or something. Could you put him to bed? I need to ask JC something before he falls asleep."
Chris nodded and walked with Joey down to his bedroom as Justin went into JC and Lance's bedroom. He wandered through the dark to JC's side of the room and switched on a lamp.
JC opened his eyes and squinted. "What?"
"I thought you said that Joey came home." Justin said.
"He did."
"Well, then why did he just come through the door downstairs with Mallory?" JC froze. He didn't want to get in trouble, nor did he want Joey to get in trouble, but only because of the deal he had with him.
"It was ten and I didn't want Joey to get in trouble, so I lied. I'm sorry." JC tried his best to sound pathetic.
"Oh, well that's sweet. Wouldn't expect you to do that, but OK. Apology accepted, now go to sleep." Justin kissed his forehead and left the room.
"Baby!" Lance shouted out, referring to his kiss.
JC laughed and turned on his side. He knew he could have told Justin the truth and gotten Joey in trouble because of his attempt to stay out later than he was told, but it felt good for him. He had waited so long to have a secret with his big brother.
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