“Joey!” Justin called for his friend when he spotted him by his locker.

“What do you want Justin?” Joey asked sighing wearily, preparing himself for the request that he knew was about to come. Justin stopped dead in his tracks, he really went too far with Joey.

“Nothing Joe, I wanted to ask you if you felt like going to a movie later” Justin asked his friend with a small smile.

“So you can go see your lover boy again?” Joey asked simply, careful at the volume of the word lover boy.

“I deserved that” Justin admitted shamefully, ducking his head.

“I’m sorry Joe, I’m sorry I got you in trouble. I’m sorry I asked too much from you and I know that but I just wanted to treat you to a movie or something, to thank you and to apologize” Justin explained. Joey glanced at his friend, yes he was sick of his requests and yes he was pissed Justin had gotten him detention twice but Justin was still his friend.

“No ulterior motives, I swear” Justin promised holding up his hands innocently.

“Ok” Joey agreed finally with a small smile.

“Good” Justin nodded satisfied.

“I really am sorry” he added softer.

“I know” Joey acknowledged.

“Tell you what, we’ll forget about it but…” Joey said pausing for a moment. Justin just knew this was going to be his pay back time but till his surprise Joey finished with a chuckle,

“I pick the movie” Justin’s face broke into a smile and he hugged his friend briefly.

“Deal” he said once they pulled back.

“Good, I’ll see you tonight” Joey said before patting his friend on the back and hurrying off to class. Justin watched him go and was grateful for the one friend he had, apart from Josh that was. He wasn’t even sure he still had Josh, maybe he’d long forgotten about him, he wondered sadly. He shook his head, don’t think about that Timberlake, he scolded himself. Josh would come later, he still needed an excuse to go see Josh and he didn’t want to ask for Joey’s help anymore that would be wrong. No he needed to come up with something good. He once again shook his head, first Joey than he would have time to think of a plan so he could go see his boyfriend again.

Justin was happy his grounding was over, finally released from all the essay’s he’d had to write. And he was glad at the change of scenery as he glanced around him to see if Joey had arrived yet. He saw James still parked in the parking lot a few yards away but he didn’t care. It had been one of his father’s conditions when he agreed to let Justin go see a movie. Justin had been fearful Howard would reject the request when he would reveal the friend he wanted to go with was Joey but he wasn’t going to let his father ruin this for him. And for once he put his foot down and supplied arguments so his father couldn’t say no in the end. Howard had agreed but reluctantly. He did have to admit he was proud of the work Justin had done in the past three weeks and he kind of deserved a break. Howard got James to drive Justin to the movies and instructed him to wait there till Joey got there, not leaving him there alone. Justin had agreed to this condition and so he got to go.

Justin wistfully looked at the pay phone on the right side of the movie theatre, wishing he could call Josh but he didn’t have a phone. Whenever he needed to contact Josh, Justin would always call the deli or something. Josh didn’t have the money for a phone that was why the beepers had been such an amazing thing. He remembered how easy it was for them to communicate but he didn’t want to think about that now. Justin was happy his grounding was over and he didn’t want to ruin it by thinking about how hopeless his situation was with Josh. He would find a way to be with him, he was determined. He turned towards the theatre checking out which movies they had when Joey walked up.

“Hey” Joey greeted friendly.

“Oh hey Joe” Justin responded, turning towards him.

“You’ve been waiting long?” Joey asked.

“Not too long, it’s cool. So which movie you want to see?” Justin reassured him before changing the subject.

“Uhh…” Joey stared at the posters of the movies lined up on either side of the entrance, thinking about which one he wanted to see. Justin in the mean time turned and waved at James to let him know Joey was there and that he could go. James started the engine after he’d checked himself that it was indeed Joey and drove away. Joey turned to see what Justin was doing, he got an angry look on his face when he saw Justin staring at the car as it drove away.

“I’m outta here” he told Justin before he turned and stomped away. Justin didn’t know what was going on, frozen for a moment not knowing why Joey was so pissed all of a sudden.

“Joey wait!” Justin called, wanting to know what was wrong as he ran to catch up with him. Justin grabbed his friend’s arm and spun him towards him.

“What’s going on?” Justin asked confused, looking into angry eyes.

“You know what’s wrong, you just used me again to see Josh before I got here. I know it!” Joey accused him and Justin’s head was spinning with the question; what the hell is he talking about? His eyebrows furrowed still confused at the change but then realization dawned on him; the car. Joey thought he’d met with Josh before they were supposed to meet, maybe even thinking he would disappear in the middle of the movie to see him again.

“It was one of the conditions” Justin informed him.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Joey asked, now his turn to be confused.

“That was my driver, James. He had to wait till you got here to make sure I was really meeting you, no one else” Justin explained calmly.

“Oh” Joey said, it was all he could say, great one Fatone, he scolded himself.

“Yeah” Justin acknowledged.

“I’m sorry” Joey offered.

“It’s ok” Justin assured him, it was his fault Joey responded this way.

“Let’s go pick out a movie, ok?” Justin added with a reassuring smile, letting Joey know he didn’t hold anything against him. Joey smiled in return.

“Ok” he agreed, walking towards the movie theatre together.

“Joey!” a girl’s voice rang out above the noise in the hallway of the movie theatre.

“Hey Kelly!” Joey responded happily to see his girlfriend, he hadn’t known she would be here to but he was happy nevertheless. Justin stood by silently, watching as Joey kissed his girlfriend, he just waited for introductions. Although he’d heard of Kelly, they’d never really met each other.

“Kelly this is Justin a friend of mine, Justin this Kelly my girlfriend” Joey introduced them when they pulled back, all of a sudden remembering he was with Justin.

“Nice to meet you” they said and shook hands. The three of them talked for a little while when they got interrupted by a girl from school who seemed to be very fond of Justin.

“Hi Justin” Tamara said all giggling and Justin could barely contain his laughter. He’d never really liked Tamara, she was stuck up and rich, extremely rich and he hated that but he was still nice to her.

“Hi Tamara” Justin replied with a smile. Tamara smiled back happily, she’d had a crush on Justin ever since she could remember, he was just so cute and sweet and and… she could go on like that for hours but she didn’t want to show him that.

“Joey I got to get going” Justin said, addressing his friend, knowing he would understand why he had to leave; James was probably already waiting for him outside.

Joey nodded, “We’ll walk you out” he offered as he took Kelly’s hand, leaving Justin with Tamara as they started to walk outside. Tamara grabbed Justin’s hand, startling him. He looked at her as she smiled sweetly. They walked outside like that, not wanting to be rude by roughly pulling his hand out of her grip. Joey looked strangely at the entwined hands when Justin got closer but Justin just shrugged.

“Well thanks Justin, I had a good time” Joey said thanking Justin for the evening.

“Me too, let’s do it again sometime k?”

“Definitely” Joey agreed.

“And I’m sorry… you know for…” Justin said feeling the need to apologize again but Joey didn’t want to hear it as he cut him off,

“Forget about that Justin, it’s alright. Now go” Joey ushered him.

Justin nodded grateful, turning towards Tamara he hadn’t even noticed she was still holding his hand.

“I’m sorry I have to go” Justin told her. She nodded and reluctantly let go of his hand,

“I’ll see you at school”

“Sure” Justin said doubtfully.

“Bye!” Justin said before he went to the parking lot where James was supposed to pick him up.

“Justin come here for a second” Howard called upstairs. He’d been on the phone when James and his son got back, knowing it would take a while he’d send Justin to his room. He’d talk to James when he was done and after that he could talk to Justin about his evening, he’d learned something from James that he wanted to confront his son with. Justin walked downstairs slowly, meeting his father at the end of the stairwell and following him into the living room.

“James has informed me about something he saw at the movies” Howard informed his son but Justin looked confused.

He didn’t do anything wrong, right?

Not this time anyway.

“What do you mean, dad?”

“James told me, he saw you and Joey coming out with two more people”

Justin understood now, he could never do anything right could he?

“Justin that was not the deal” Howard told his son sternly.

“I couldn’t help it dad, we just ran into them, I was with Joey I swear” Justin defended not ready for another grounding; he just got off being grounded.

“Yeah you were” he agreed and Justin looked up, confusion apparent on his face.

Did he just agree with me? Justin asked himself.

“So what’s your girlfriend’s name?” Howard asked interested, changing the subject completely, his tone fatherly, nothing like Justin had heard before at least not lately. Justin started to correct him but then thought better of it, this would be the perfect opportunity. His parents always wanted him to have a girlfriend and now they thought he had, they’d probably let him free at least they wouldn’t be on his case 24/7 because a girlfriend…. that was good.

“Tamara” he answered because yes that was her name, she wasn’t his girlfriend but let’s not get technical now.

“How long have you been dating her?” Howard asked again in an interested tone of voice.

“Not very long” Justin avoided the question, the vague answer satisfied his father anyway, something that would never have worked if it were about school stuff or Josh. Yes he would see Josh very soon now, he could use the excuse of him going to his girlfriend and instead he would go see his boyfriend. And if his parents would want to meet her, he would just say they broke up or something or say she couldn’t make it. Perfect! He thought happily.

“Where did you meet her?” his father asked intrigued.

“At school” Justin told him, not going into too many details he would just have to remember all the lies he told them now and the less lies he told them, the less there were to screw up.

Howard nodded satisfied, thinking Josh was finally off of his son’s mind. He grinned widely, his plan had succeeded; Josh was out of his son’s life and he had a girlfriend, he was normal again.

A few days later Justin was standing in front of Josh’s little apartment, smiling from ear to ear that he had succeeded. He’d once again found a way to go see Josh. He’d told his father he was going to see Tamara and till his surprise, his father actually let him go without an interrogation or a driver. He even said; have a good time. Justin was stunned; he’d been planning to just get out at Tamara’s house and then walk the other way or taken a cab when James was out of sight but that all hadn’t been necessary. His father had agreed easily and he saw how easy this was going to be and his future with Josh all of a sudden looked better than before.

After over 4 weeks, he was back at Josh’s place, he just hoped he hadn’t forgotten about him. It was Sunday and still early so he hoped Josh was up already. He gently knocked on the door, careful, for some reason he didn’t want to make a lot of noise. He knew it was stupid but he didn’t care, only focused on seeing Josh again. He heard shuffling on the other side of the door, then the sound of a lock being flipped and the door slowly opened. Josh was standing there, a blanket wrapped around him, his hair standing out and rubbing his tired eyes. Josh tiredly looked at the man who was standing in front of him, thinking he was still sleeping he blinked several times. When he still saw Justin standing in front of him, he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around the young boy, the blanket falling down in a heap.

“Oh, Justin, is it really you?” Josh asked, looking for confirmation, still not believing he was holding Justin in his arms again after so long. He’d never been so worried in his life.

“Yes Josh, I’m here” Justin responded, snuggling closer to the man he loved. After a few minutes, recovered from the first shock, Josh moved them backwards so he could close the door, he couldn’t have the neighbors seeing him in his boxers desperately holding onto this boy. Justin moved with him, not caring where they were going as long as he could still hold him.

“I was so worried about you” Josh admitted softly, as he moved them to the bed, lying down in each other’s arms.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t reach you, I wanted to let you know but I didn’t know how” Justin said in a rush, he wrote this down several times and dreamt about explaining everything that had happened to Josh but this time; this time it was real.

“What happened?” Josh asked curiously, for weeks all kinds of scenarios had been going through his head, he’d been dreaming of asking Justin what really happened and now he finally could. Josh pulled Justin closer, playing with the boy’s curls to calm him down. Justin glanced at his hands before he looked into Josh’s eyes only inches apart.

“They found the beeper at school” Justin started.

“How?” Josh wanted to know, how many times had he told Justin to be careful with the beeper? Hadn’t he been listening?

“I got your message and went into the bathroom to respond. I’d tugged it in my backpack but some kids in my class kicked against it and it went flying through the hall. Everything stayed in it, except…” Justin trailed off.

“The beeper” Josh finished.

“Yeah” Justin nodded a little ashamed. Josh noticed it,

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault” he assured him, accidents happen. A few tears escaped Justin’s eyes, he’d been holding back for so long. He’d been so scared he would never see Josh again, he was angry with himself he hadn’t tugged the beeper away better and now he was so happy he was laying next to Josh again that he just couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Josh embraced the young boy and pulled him totally against him, letting him nuzzle his head against his bare chest and cry until he had no more tears left in him.

“I’m so glad you’re here” Josh assured him, thinking maybe Justin was afraid he was angry with him.

“I love you so much” Josh continued to soothe and Justin slowly calmed down. A small smile tugging at his lips as he leaned in and kissed Josh longingly. How much had he missed that.

“I love you too” Justin told him, looking into Josh’s eyes. Josh brushed away his tears, his face tear streaked. When Justin started to get up, Josh reluctantly let go of him.

“You got to go again?” he asked a little disappointed he wasn’t going to stay longer. Justin shook his head with a huge smile on his face.

“No, I can stay for a couple of hours, till your shift starts maybe?” Justin informed him, ending with a mischievous question accompanied by a smile. He laughed at the expression on Josh’s face, when he noticed Justin laughing a grin passed his features as well. Justin walked towards the door and grabbed the blanket from the floor, placing it over Josh; he’d felt the man trembling and didn’t want him to get sick. Josh smiled as Justin tugged him in,

“Come here you” he said pulling him next to him in bed, snuggling close.

“I want you Josh” Justin told him longingly, needing to feel his lover against him. Josh moved to kiss him before he let his hands trail over the younger boy’s body. Justin enjoyed every second of it, how he’d missed those loving hands on him, he allowed Josh to unbutton his shirt and then lower, letting Josh love him like no one else did….