J.C. had left his girlfriend's house and was turning onto Interstate 4. He tuned in his favorite radio station and beat his steering wheel to the sounds. Something made him think about Lance and wonder what had happened to him after he saw him arrive at Mercedes' house. J.C. figured the easiest way to find him would be to dial his private cell phone number. He put his car phone on speaker and automatically dialed Lance's number.
Lance reached into the pocket of his jacket. He held the cell phone and stared at it for a moment. "Who's this?"
"Hey, Lance. I'm sorry if I woke you, but you've been on my mind, man. Where'd you go after I saw you at the Barn?"
"Who's this?"
"J.C."
Lance was slouched on the floor of the kitchen, half asleep,his eyes glazed over staring out into the night.
After there was no response, J.C. said "Yeah. Hey, did I wake you?"
"J.C..."
"Lance, where are you? Are you alright?"
"J.C. I made a mess out of everything."
"Lance, where are you?"
"The kitchen."
"What kitchen, your kitchen?"
"Mercedes' kitchen."
"Lance you're still at Mercedes' house?"
"Yeah. I fucked up."
"Lance I can be there in maybe ten minutes. You stay right there. Do you hear me? I'm coming over and you stay there."
"I hear you. I'll stay here."
J.C. pushed the "end" button. Then he had his car phone automatically dial Joey's number.
"Hello. What do you want?"
"Joe."
"J.C.? What do you want, christ it's 4:30 am."
"You've got to meet me at Mercedes' house. Lance is still there and something's really wrong."
"Ohh shit."
"Joey, we should've told him."
"Of course we should've told him. Damn. Do you want me to call Chris, too?"
"Do whatever you think. But don't call Justin's house, Justin can be told later."
"It'll take me 20...I think."
J.C. drove down the long driveway and saw Lance's car still sitting next to the house. He opened the kitchen door and after his eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw Lance sitting on the floor back against the wall, next to the fridge.
"Lance?"
Lance looked up at him with a blank expressionless stare.
"Let me turn a light on so we can talk."
"No! No lights on," Lance pleaded. "I can see the barn from here, if you turn the light on I won't be able to see it."
J.C. knelt beside Lance. "What is it about the barn?"
"She's sleeping."
"Who? Mercedes?"
Lance nodded slowly, then covered his head with his hands.
J.C. put his arm around Lance's shoulder. "Do you want to start at the beginning, or just tell me about what happened tonight?"
Lance had no comment.
J.C. and Lance sat there for quite a while. Lance would hold his head shamefully, and then sometimes look towards Heaven with a sorrowful expression.
Finally Lance said," J.C. What have I done?"
Joey arrived. J.C. gave Joey an inquizative look that Joey took to be a question about whether or not he had been in touch with Chris. Joey nodded his head, 'yes.'
"Hey, Lance. Why are you sitting here in the dark?" asked Joey.
"Skip that Joey. We ain't turning any lights on Lance. Just tell me, what do you think you've done, Lance?" said J.C.
Lance began a bitter and yet sorrowful laugh. "He's watching down on me and having a good laugh. correction: He's watching UP from Hell, but he's still having a good laugh. He's loving this."
J.C. and Joey exchange looks.
"Who are you talking about?"
"Do you know how stupid I've been?" Lance said seemingly ignoring the question. "He had me pegged. He's loving this, how far the rightous have fallen!"
J.C. grabbed Lance's shoulder, "Who are you talking about?"
"Liam."
"Liam? What the...?" J.C. said incredulously. Joey rubbed his face and glanced at J.C.
"Lance, Liam had us all fooled for a while. It wasn't just you. J.C. and I finally saw through him, too."
"Mercedes. We should have talked guys. We should have protected Mercedes."
"Man, I wrestled with that one, too, Lance. But, she became pregnant and I was hoping that Liam would settle down. None of us wanted to hurt her. You seemed to admire him so much. I had no idea that you knew." J.C. said.
"I thought you were beating yourself up over Liam's death because you thought he was such a great guy. We were going to set you straight so you'd put it in prospective."
"You knew about Liam and the other women?" Lance asked.
"Well, okay, we saw him giving out his number to some women at the clubs. At first we rationalized that he was scouting for talent," J.C. said.
Joey did a "humph!!" noise. "Yeah, I figured out what kind of talent he was scouting for."
At this time they heard a car door slam and Chris knocked at the door and entered at the same time. Joey met him in the hall way and walked in with him.
"Hey, Lance. It's a little late for you isn't it?" Chris asked. "And it's damn dark in here."
Joey added quickly, "No lights, Chris. I'll explain later."
"OKay. Well, we've been over the 'Liam was really scum' part, correct?" Chris asked.
J.C. nodded.
"Now, I want to make sure I tell you that you shouldn't be beating yourself up over Liam's death. It's a shame, sure, but the guy wasn't everything you thought he was," added Chris.
"Apparently, Lance knew a few things about Liam that we didn't think he knew, Chris," commented J.C.
Joey looked over at Lance, "You know I thought afterwards, when we realized what Liam was about, that we owed it to Mercedes, as our friend, to clue her in to what was happening. It scared me to think about H.I.V. I even asked one of the ladies I was dating to drop an unsigned note off to her or something...chicken shit that I am. But she wouldn't go for it. Then when Mercedes said she was pregnant I figured, 'ohh good, Her OBGYN will take care of her.' I rationalized that. It got me off the hook," said Joey.
"Ohh God," Lance put his hands to his mouth. " I never...I never even thought..." Lance closed his eyes. "Ohh God."
"What happened tonight, Lance?" Asked Chris.
"I was determined to put Liam out of my mind. I just wanted to be able to hold her. I never intended..."
"Ohh Shit. You had sex with her," said Joey.
Lance buried his head in his hands. "God forgive me..."
"Lance. Lance, please tell me you used protection." said J.C.
"...She never even knew I was there."
"Okay, now we're entering the twilight zone," said Chris.
"Explain that to me," said Joey. J.C. threw Joey and Chris a nasty look. Joey threw his arms out to his side, 'well ?!'
"If she thought I was someone else. Jesus,Lord. I laid down with a woman who didn't know it was me she was making love to. What kind of man am I? What have I done?"
"Lance, don't," said Joey.
"That lying son of a bitch," said Chris. "He's dead and buried, but he's still fucking with people."
"But, Lance what makes you so sure Mercedes didn't know it was you?" asked J.C.
"The last thing she said to me was 'I love you Liam'."
"Hell, Scoop, my mother used to call me Steve and Steve Joey all the time. After being married for a few years, you'd expect her to slip and call you by Liam's name...especially in the bedroom."
"I hate to agree with Joey, but I've had girlfriends who...would call out their ex's name at inappropriate times..." said Chris.
"No, it wasn't just that. The way she asked me to come up and 'chrisen OUR bed', the way she said no one asked where I was, but that you guys had asked her if she had seen Lance."
"But, you are Lance," said Joey.
"I think that's the point, Joey," said J.C.
After a pause, J.C. said, "I think we need to do some snooping."
He stood up and walked through the hallway over to another wing of the house where the Master Bedroom was found. Joey followed, but Chris stayed with Lance. J.C. went to the medicine cabinet and checked all the bottles of vitamins and prescriptions. The one for Prozac had plenty of pills left.
"Well, I know this is for depression. From what I think I know it would seem that she's taking a pretty high dose. Did she drink tonight?"
Joey shook his head, 'no'. There was another bottle, empty. "We need to go 'on-line' and figure out what this is for. In the meantime, we need to take note of this Doctor's name in case we need to have him see Mercedes."
J.C. pocketed the pill bottle. J.C. went to the den where the computer was. Joey went to make some coffee. The sun had begun to rise, and light was washing over the scenery. Lance stretched and rubbed his eyes and head.
"This isn't exactly what I thought I'd be doing as the sun rose." Lance murmured as he closed his eyes and folded his arms in front of his chest.
Joey measured the coffee grinds and set the measuring cup down. He turned back to the coffee maker and glanced at a person strolling up the lawn. "Jesus, it's Mercedes."
Lance opened his eyes with a startled expression. Chris poked his head into the den and told J.C.
"Don't panic. We'll just tell her that we stopped by for breakfast," he said.
"Damn, we're certainly pushy," said Chris.
"Do you think I ought to leave?" asked Lance.
"You can't leave now, she'd see you go," said Joey. Mercedes opens the door to the kitchen.
"Hi!" smiled J.C. "Good morning! Hope you don't mind we came by for breakfast."
