Science class, third period, Justin sat in the back row, overseeing the whole class. His basketball buddies around him, their fellowship came with his position in the team.

All the way to the right, the second table from the front sat his crush: Joshua Chasez. He was gorgeous, he always looked good, casual and extremely sexy. He mainly sat in the front of the class, he wanted to pay attention, he enjoyed school and it occasionally earned him strange glances and mean comments but Josh didn’t seem to care. He was perfectly happy with himself, he was confident but he could pull it off in a way were it wasn’t cocky or arrogant. He didn’t think he was better than anyone but he was happy in his own skin, Josh didn’t care what other people thought and it made him extremely sexy in Justin’s eyes.

As he watched Josh his mind wondered back to the scene he’d witnessed the previous week. Ever since he’d seen how Josh had pushed the guy he’d went out with away Justin had began to question himself.

Had he really seen it right?

Had Josh really been on a date with that guy or had he just wanted to see it?

Justin had began to doubt that maybe Josh wasn’t gay. Maybe it had just been a friend or someone who wanted to flirt with him and Josh hadn’t seen it coming, maybe Josh had thought it was just a friendly afternoon while the guy wanted more. Justin started to doubt himself. He suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore whether or not Josh was really gay. He wasn’t so sure if he should go up to him and ask him out, he was afraid he would say no or worse… that he wouldn’t be gay. Because after seeing Josh push away the guy he’d seen him with at the movies, Justin wasn’t so sure at all.

Justin couldn’t let it go, he was afraid to ask him out now, he didn’t want to take the chance. He wrecked his brain as to come up with a plan; how could he ask him out, without knowing for sure that he was gay, without risk? He couldn’t. But that wasn’t good enough for Justin. He needed to know for sure and therefore he had to find a way to find out if Josh really was gay before he could ask him out. How could he find out? He chewed on his pen as he stared straight ahead, a blur moving in front of his eyes now and then as his teacher walked past. She didn’t pay attention to him and vice versa. Justin thought long and hard and then suddenly between science’s sound formulas he got it. He got a brilliant idea, one that would show him, whether or not Josh really was gay and one that would make it safe for Justin to ask him out.

“Hey Josh” Justin greeted nonchalantly as he stopped the boy before he had a chance to go inside the school building, two days later. He had a plan; it was time to carry it out.

Josh looked up in surprise, he hadn’t expected someone to talk to him, and certainly not Justin Timberlake, captain of the basketball team.

“Uh hi” he said obviously uncomfortable; what does he want from me? How does he even know me?

“Can I ask you something?” Justin asked still neutrally.

“Okay” Josh agreed questionably. This wasn’t right. Justin bend forward, towards him before looking around to make sure no one was around to hear.

“Are you gay Josh?” he whispered straightforward after confirming there was indeed no one around.

Josh gasped, “Wha… what? No!” he argued lightly, also looking around quickly to make sure no one was around who could have heard the question. Justin shook his head.

“No need to lie, I saw you, saw you with your boyfriend at the mall”

“He’s not my boyfriend, he’s… just a friend” Josh protested lightly, a slight hesitation in his sentence and Justin easily picked up on it.

“Didn’t look like it, no looked a lot like a date, him buying two tickets…” he revealed, trailing off for effect to let Josh know he had indeed seen it. Josh’s eyes widened, he was busted.

“Please don’t tell anyone” Josh begged, knowing denying it was useless.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t” Justin challenged, curious what Josh would have to say.

“Because you’ll ruin my life” he whispered softly, fully knowing that if this got out, his pretty much easy life at school would be over. Sure you couldn’t go without an occasional teasing or pestering when you enjoyed school but it never went further than calling him names and Josh knew they were jealous anyway so it didn’t really bother him, however this was worse. If this got out, he wouldn’t be known as the kid who liked school, he would be known as the gay kid and calling him names would then only be the tip of the iceberg. Justin stared at him, shrugged and started to walk away. Josh stopped him, lightly grasping his upper arm.

“Don’t tell anyone, please, I’ll do anything” he said in a desperate attempt to save himself from having to take almost two years of torment and torture from homophobic schoolmates.

Justin smiled and nodded. Josh swallowed hard, wishing he’d never said that, wishing he could take it back. Justin leaned forward and whispered.

“Be my slave”

“What?” Josh asked confused.

“That’s a joke right?” Josh asked, wanting him to say yes but from the expression on Justin’s face he really wasn’t kidding.

“You can’t be serious” he said in disbelief, shaking his head.

“Oh but I am”

“Justin please”

“Take it or leave it” he shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter to me, I won’t be the one who’s going to have to defend himself” he added with a knowing smile, once again turning to walk away.

“Okay okay, I’ll do it” Josh agreed quickly, what other choice did he have? He was no where near popular, Justin Timberlake could ruin the little social life he had and it was almost two years till graduation. If Justin outed him, he would never be able to show his face again, or it would be a bruised face. Justin smiled victoriously, for more than one reason, nodded once before he turned and walked away.

Josh sat flabbergasted, his French teacher went completely unheard as he thought of the deal he’d made with the guy who’d found out his biggest secret. The secret he’d protected throughout his whole high school career. One moment, one unfortunate moment and this could be the end of his secret. He realized this all too well.

The deal he’d made was nowhere near watertight. He knew all Justin had to do was blab whether by accident or on purpose and he’d be doomed. Everyone would know then that he was gay and being gay would be anything but accepted. Maybe if he was anywhere near popular it wouldn’t be so bad but since that wasn’t the case he knew acceptance was something he shouldn’t hold his breath for. He feared only bad things would come off it and therefore he’d agreed to go along with the ridiculous suggestion of becoming Justin’s slave.

That was another thing, what exactly did he mean by that; to be his slave? He wondered what would be expected of him. He knew it couldn’t be anything good and he decided to avoid Justin as best as he could. If Justin didn’t see him, he wouldn’t be able to take him up on their agreement. Josh sighed heavily, dropping his head in his hands.

Why did I have to be gay?

And why out of all people did it have to be Justin Timberlake to find out about it?