Thunder pounded outside, shaking the walls of the building. Rain fell hard on everything below it, soaking anything and anyone stupid enough to be out in it.
A dark figure, huddled beneath a black hooded sweatshirt, was just this stupid.
Racing through the parking lot, the figure bolted passed the cars lining the lot, towards the front doors. Reaching its destination, the doors swung open, providing shelter from the vicious rain.
Soaking wet, the figure walked through the hall towards the desired room, the sound of soggy shoes squeaking on the floors.
Sighing, another door opened and the figure emerged into another room, greeted by the amused smiled of his friends.
"Fuck off," Justin said, immediately raising his hand. "Don't any of you say one fucking word"
Lance grinned. "We didn't say anyth--"
He was cut off by Justin snapping his fingers at him. "Shh!"
"But--"
"Ssshhh!"
"We just--"
"www.sshhh.com!"
"Justin--"
"I have a whole bag of shhh with your name on it!"
"J--"
"SSSHHHH!!!"
Everyone couldn't hold it in any longer, and the room erupted in laughter. Justin, unamused, walked unhappily towards the couch in the corner of the studio, flopping down with a soggy squish.
"Ugh, Justin" JC whined. "Your soggy ass is going to leave a butt print on the couch."
"Hey, I wonder how much that would bring on eBay?" Chris added.
Justin narrowed his eyes at them as they laughed. "Fockers." he grumbled.
Looking around the studio, Justins head shot up. "Hey, where's Joey?"
"Not here yet," JC said as he passed Justin the lyrics for the song they would be working on that day. "He called and said something came up, and he would be a little late."
"Did he say what was up?" Justin asked, taking the sheets from JC.
"Nope." he shrugged. "Just said something came up, but that he would be here."
Justin nodded, looking down at the papers handed to him.
He wondered what Joey was doing. He knew he wasn't with Lois, because she and Lauren had just dropped him off at the studio.
Lauren, still mad at him for the last time he left her in the rain, parked at the far end of the lot, making him get out and run to the building in the rain as payback.
He was already plotting his revenge on her at that moment.
But his plotting was interrupted by his wondering. What was Joey doing? He had called his house that morning while Lois was in the shower, but there had been no answer. Which probably meant that he hadn't come home that night. Justin wasn't about to call Rae and ask if he was there, knowing that that was certainly not a good move right now.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and Joey walked in. He was soaked, but didn't appear to care. His shoes squished beneath him as he walked over to a chair in the corner, sitting down with a thunk.
"Nice to have you join us, Joe." Chris grinned. "Late night?"
Joey responded with a simple one fingered gesture, and Chris raised his hands in defense. "Dang, man cant even ask a question."
Justin looked over at Joey, and smiled. Joey looked at him, but only for a moment before looking down at the pages JC had just handed him. He didn't smile. He didn't scowl. Nothing.
Justin knew he was probably pretty pissed off at him for intruding last night, but he didn't care. He knew that Joey was being a jackass, and wasn't about to let him treat Lois that way. Sure, she was a pain in the ass that hid his underwear and replaced it with hot pink thongs, but she was like the sister he never had and he sure as hell wasn't going to let anyone treat her that way. Even if that anyone was like a brother to him.
"Okay, you guys ready to start?" a slightly balding man in a white t-shirt asked.
"Yup," Lance said, stretching his arms over his head.
"Okay then," Adjusting some of the buttons on the control panel on front of him, the man looked over at JC. "C, you go in there first. Then we'll throw Lance in there when you're done."
JC nodded, pushing himself up from his chair and entering the booth.
Chris rushed off to get doughnuts and coffee, while Lance quietly read over the music in front of him.
Justins eyes were grazing the sheets in his lap, but his eyes didn't focus on their content. Occasionally, he would look over at Joey, to find him doing the same; looking at the pages without actually looking at them.
Justin wondered what he was thinking. Was he thinking about what he had said to him last night? Was he thinking about what he had done to Lois? Was he realizing just how much of an asshole he was being?
Any of those options would have been good.
Another technician joined them, sitting in the chair Chris had vacated. He went over some of the harmonies with them, just reviewing what they had covered the day before.
The day was long, but finally after about five hours, they had gotten most of what they needed down. There would be more adjustments made over the next couple days, but hopefully that wouldn't take long and they would be able to move on to a different song by the middle of next week.
The guys all sat around the booth, chatting with each other while the technicians went over the tracks they had laid down. As soon as they were given the okay, they would be free to leave.
Joey had said nothing to Justin all day, except for the occasional 'pass the doughnuts'. Justin understood his hostility, but that didn't mean he appreciated it. He was only trying to help, and didn't think he was doing a bad thing.
But he knew that it wasn't right to start a fight with Joey over this. He had enough on his mind already, without adding Justins whining to it.
The balding technician looked over at them and smiled. "Sounds good guys. You can go."
The moment those words left the mans lips, Chris was up and out the door. "See you guys tomorrow!" he yelled as he ran down the hall.
Lance laughed. "He had a date with Kate tonight. Something about the anniversary of something."
"I thought their anniversary wasn't until next month?" JC asked as he pushed himself up and out of his chair.
"No, man. This is a completely different kind of anniversary."
JC thought about it for a moment, before a look of horror came to his face. "Eeewww!" he whined as he made his way over to the door.
Lance laughed. "Yup, you know better than to ask when it comes to Chris."
JC frowned as he grabbed his coat from the rack at the door. "See you guys tomorrow." he called back to Justin and Joey as he and Lance left the room.
"See ya, man." Justin called, while Joey nodded.
Lance waved, as he laughed at JC when he 'Eewww'ed again.
The two technicians left the room, leaving Justin and Joey alone in the studio.
Neither man said a word, and made no attempt to get up and leave.
Suddenly the door opened, and Lois walked in. Her eyes went wide when she noticed Joey sitting across the room from her, but they quickly adverted over to Justin. "You ready to go?" she asked.
Justin looked at her, then at Joey. He hated the fact that she was ignoring him, and he hated more the way Joey wouldn't even look at her.
This had to stop.
Standing up, he stretched his arms over his head. "I gotta go pee." he said, making his way to the door.
Lois rolled her eyes. "You can pee when we get home." she said firmly.
"No, I mean it." Justin countered. "I really gotta go. You wouldn't want me to pee my pants, would you?"
"Yes, I would." she said.
Justin gave her an unamused look. "Ha." he said dryly. Pushing past her and out the door, he called over his shoulder as he closed the door behind him. "Ill be right back."
Lois groaned inwardly, before turning back to face Joey. He still wasn't looking at her, and it killed her to know that he was avoiding her this way.
Crossing the short distance between where she stood and the closest chair, and sat down and waited for Justin.
She would be damned if she was going to leave and wait in the lobby, just because Joey had a hair up his ass over being told the truth. If he hated being in the same room as her enough, he could leave. There was no one keeping him there.
Bouncing her leg uncomfortably, she glanced over the buttons on the control panel beside her.
"I hope you're happy." Joey's voice called out to her.
"What?" she said, her voice sort.
"I said, I hope you're happy." he repeated with an unmistakably hint of anger.
"About what?"
"I told Rae today." he said. "I told her the truth. About the bet."
Lois couldn't help the look of shock from coming to her face, but it was gone just as quickly.
"And let me just say that she didn't take it as well as Brian did." he said firmly.
Lois didn't respond. What did he want her to do about that? It wasn't her fault that Joey told Rae. He was just as much to blame for the bet as she was. No one made him go through with it, and she would be damned if she was going to let him blame her for it all.
"I'm sorry to hear that." she said.
Joey laughed. An angry and bitter laugh. "Oh really?"
"Yes,. Joey. Really." she spat. "I didn't want to hurt that poor girl. Just as much as I didn't want to hurt Brian. But Ill be damned if I'm going to let you make this out to be my fault." Lois noticed her voice starting to raise, but she didn't care. "You made the decision to go along with this, and now you have to live with it."
Joey stood up quickly. "Yes, I did make the decision." he yelled back. "But you just had to go and change all the rules!"
"What the fuck do you mean I changed the rules?" she said, standing to meet his aggressive stance. "How did I change them? And what the fuck does that have to do with me loving you?"
Joey groaned. "Don't say that." he said. "Its bad enough I had to tell Rae all of that shit about the bet today, but I also told her about last night."
Again, Lois looked at him shocked.
He laughed bitterly again. "Yup," he grinned evilly. "I told her everything. But believe it or not, she was actually understanding about it. She's supporting YOU! She's sympathetic to YOU! And she doesn't want me to push YOU away!"
Lois couldn't say a word. She only watched him get angrier and angrier in front of her.
"She told me that she had been through the exact same thing. How she had set her best friend up with someone, to find that she loved him herself. He walked out on her when she told him the truth, and she doesn't want me to do the same to you." he said, his voice raising as he spoke. "But that was before I told her about the bet. Before she yelled and screamed at me. Before she pushed me out of her apartment."
Lois shook her head. "I told you I was sorry for that. For her being hurt. But that was your doing, just like mine was with Brian. I cant help it if he took it better. That's not my fault."
"No, its not." Joey said, nodding. "But you did have a hand in it, so don't act all innocent."
"I'm not!" she screamed at him. "Fuck, I said I knew I was to blame, but so are you. For fuck sake, you don't even know what you're talking about anymore!"
"AND NEITHER DO YOU!" he screamed back. "All that shit last night about being in love with me? Fuck, Lois, you don't love me! You may love me as a friend, but that is it. You cant love me!"
Lois looked at him amazed. "How can you say that?" she asked, her voice low and soft. "How can you say I cant be something that I am?" Joey didn't respond and she continued. "That's so stupid. How can you tell the sun not to shine when clouds exist? How can you tell the leaves not to fall when the wind exists?" Pausing, she took a step closer to him. Tears brimming in her eyes, she sighed. "How can you tell me not to fall in love when you exist?"
Joey stood in front of her, his angry eyes not softening at her words. They stood staring at each other for a long while. Neither saying a word or moving at all.
Finally, Joey shook his head. Raising his hands as if in defense, he walked quickly around Lois and to the door.
"Joey!" she called to him. "Don't leave. Don't walk out on me again."
Joey stopped, his hand on the doorknob. He didn't turn around. He didn't say a word.
For what seemed like years, she watched him. Waiting for any sign that he was actually listening to her.
Finally, he sighed. Before turning the knob, and rushing out the door. Closing with a slam, Lois was left alone. Again.
Tears slid down her cheeks, as she fell back down in the chair. She quickly wiped them away, refusing to cry over this again. She had cried too much last night, and she hated to cry.
Moments later, the door opened again. Quickly, she jumped up, expecting it to be Joey coming back. Coming back to tell her he was sorry, and that he believed her.
But it wasn't. Instead, it was Justin, looking down at her red, swollen eyes with sadness in his own blue ones.
"What happened?" he asked as he approached her. Pulling her to him, she cried into his chest.
"What I told you he would do." she cried, sniffling. "He walked away from me."
