Masquerade

By: Lara

“No…Jayce…it has to be SCARY,” Chris said, filling his small fridge with cans of whipped cream. “None of that Romeo and Juliet shit.”

“Chris, I’m not in the mood to come up with something like that,” JC said, sighing.

“JC, you’re a writer. You’re artistic. You’ll come up with something. Borrow some of Justin’s sex toys or something…that right there is scary enough,” Chris said with a grin.

“Euww,” JC said, shivering. “What he does with Britney and her pink handcuffs is just too much information for me. Okay, Chris. Your Halloween part is in three days…I’ll come up with something.”

“Good. Because if you’re not scary, I won’t let you in.”

“Okay…scary.” Joey looked through his closet. “I don’t have anything scary.” He moaned and fell onto his bed. “Fucking Chris and his theme parties.” A knock on his front door startled him. He wandered down to the first floor and opened the door. “Yeah?”

“Sign here, Mr. Fatone.” The messenger handed him a clipboard and he scrawled his name. “Have a nice day, sir.”

“Thank you.” Joey took the strange looking bag and closed the door. He opened the bag and grinned. “Damn,” he said, laughing out loud. Inside was the strangest bouquet he had ever seen. Bundles of uncooked linguini made the stems of roses, and the petals were carefully cut out pictures of himself. “The best looking flowers I’ve ever seen,” Joey read from the card. He grinned to himself, taking the package into the kitchen.

He had come out to the group three months before, and about a week after that, the packages had started coming. And they were always like this, simple things that involved objects he enjoyed, such as pasta, and an additional compliment about his looks or talent. He had a premonition about who was sending them; Justin had been the quietest when Joey had mentioned he was bisexual, and he had caught Justin looking at him a few times. Joey knew that Justin was straight and probably just curious, but it flattered him to think that one of the world’s biggest heartthrobs had a hard on for him.

“JC, will you answer the damn phone?” Justin griped.

“Hello?”

“About damn time, dumbass. I’ve been calling you for over an hour.”

“I’ve been working on my costume for Chris’ party tomorrow.”

“That’s why I’m calling. I need an idea.”

“Go as Pinhead.”

“Boring.”

“Go as Dracula.”

“Way overdone.”

“What’s Lance going as?”

“Some dumb hayseed. There’s some weird folklore scary story around where he grew up, and he’s going as the killer from that. Like anyone’s gonna know who he is.” Justin sighed. “I need an idea.”

“Fuck.” JC sucked on his finger, watching the blood spurt out from where the needle entered his skin. “Justin, I need to concentrate. Go buy a Scream mask or something, okay?”

“JC, you’ve been treating me like Typhoid Mary for weeks now. What’s your damage?”

JC sighed and stared at the fabric in front of him. Justin was right. JC HAD been avoiding his best friend. He knew that Justin would see right through him if they spent any kind of quality time together. “I’m sorry, J. It’s nothing personal…I just have a lot on my mind, okay? I’ll talk to you tomorrow at the party. I swear, it’s nothing.”

“Okay, Jayce. Later.”

Joey foraged through the box of costumes he had taken from Johnny’s office. “I can’t believe they keep this shit around!” He held up one of the ugly jumpsuits triumphantly. “God…I will be GLAD to dump blood all over this.” He had decided to just gore himself out, wearing one of their old red track suits as the basis of his costume. He had red paint to use as blood, and he had found a cool hatchet thing to wear over his head, making it look like someone had tomahawked him. The doorbell rang and he sighed. “Just as I was about to get bloody,” he muttered. He smiled as he saw the usual messenger on the other side. “Hi, there.”

“Hi, Mr. Fatone.” The messenger smiled as he handed Joey the envelope. “You’ve got quite the admirer.”

“If you only knew, buddy,” Joey said, thinking of Justin’s bright smile as he signed the clipboard. The messenger left and Joey opened the envelope. Inside was a piece of tablet paper with one typewritten line on it. “Tomorrow the secret will be revealed.”

“Joey, you are absolutely disgusting,” Britney said, wrinkling her nose as Joey got out of his car in front of Chris’ house. She and Justin had just arrived as well.

“What are you two supposed to be?” Joey asked, watching Justin carefully. The boy was cool, he had to give him that.

“We’re Bonnie and Clyde AFTER they got shot down,” Britney said with a giggle. She looked down at her 1930s style suit, which was riddled with holes and caked with a dried red substance. “I think Justin looks so hot in that suit, don’t you?”

“Well, he could do without the air conditioning,” Joey commented, motioning to the bullet holes in Justin’s suit.

“Me too. It’s freezing out here!” Justin led the way to Chris’ door and rang the bell.

“Hey there!” Chris opened the door, smiling as he saw who was on the other side. He wore a Bride of Frankenstein wig and a long black gown.

“Is there something you need to be telling us, Chris?” Justin asked.

“Nah…I’ll leave that coming out stuff to Joey here. The shoes are in the freezer, beer is in the flower bed,” Chris said, and moved off to mingle.

“Huh?” Justin asked.

“I gotta see this.” Joey grabbed Britney’s hand, who grabbed Justin’s hand. They went to the kitchen. Inside the freezer were ice cream desserts, shaped like shoes, complete with licorice strings. Bottles of beer lined a cooler on the floor, and did indeed look like a flower bed.

“That boy is not right,” Britney said.

“Guys!” Lance fell onto Justin, laughing hysterically. “Did you see JC’s costume? You are gonna DIE…it’s the scariest thing I’ve seen in weeks!”

“Are you drunk?” Justin asked.

“Working on it, my boy. Working on it.” Lance gave Britney a messy kiss and moved on.

Joey mingled through the party, wondering when Justin was going to make his move. It was kind of difficult, seeing how Britney was hanging all over him. Joey sighed and grabbed another beer from the cooler.

“Hey, Joe…can you grab more beer from the garage?” Chris asked. “The cooler’s low.”

“God…am I getting paid to be your slave?” Joey grumbled, but he headed out to the garage. He opened the door, shivering in the cold air of the large garage.

“It’s about time he got you out here,” a voice said. Joey squinted in the dim light. He caught sight of the bald head and grinned.

“It’s about time you got me out here. I’ve been waiting all night.”

“Really?” The voice said, and Joey frowned. He went to the door and flipped on the overhead light. JC blinked hard, his blue eyes reacting to the light.

“JC?” Joey gasped, taking in JC’s outfit. JC rubbed his hand over the latex that covered his brown hair. “You’re dressed…”

“Like Justin, yeah.” JC smiled a tiny smile, looking down at the pants and shirt that he had borrowed from Justin months before and had recently found in his closet. “Chris said scary, and I thought this was as scary as it got.”

“But I thought Justin was…” Joey’s voice faltered, and JC blushed, studying his shoes.

“You thought he was the one sending you the stuff? Sorry to disappoint you. He’s straight, you know,” JC said quickly.

“Yeah, I know,” Joey said almost sadly. “I just thought it was cool, you know, if he wanted to experiment, that’d he’d pick me.”

“Yeah, Justin’s pretty something.” JC was silent for a moment. “Well, then, um, I won’t send you stuff anymore. I’m sorry. It was dumb.”

Joey put a hand on JC’s arm. “Jayce, how long have you felt this way?”

“A few years,” JC said shyly.

“YEARS?”

“Yeah…um…since the end of the Ain’t No Stopping Us tour. I just woke up one morning and realized I was in love with you. Of course, I thought you were straight and all…”

“So did I,” Joey said with a grin. “God, Jayce, you shoulda said something sooner.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t know. Justin knew…and he kept watching you to see if you were figuring it out,” JC said, and Joey realized why Justin had been keeping such a close eye on him.

“I had no clue. I’m kinda thickheaded,” Joey admitted. He reached over and touched JC’s head. “I don’t like this. I miss your hair. I love your hair.”

“You do?” JC blushed.

“Yeah…it looks like it would be nice to run my fingers through,” Joey said, and JC’s eyes widened. “Think I’ll ever get the chance?”

“I know you will,” JC whispered. “But I need to keep this on long enough to freak Justin out.”

Joey laughed softly. “Okay.” Joey touched JC’s face, then gently kissed him. “Let’s go back in. Chris will be screaming for beer in a minute.”

“Okay,” JC said, helping Joey pick up a few cases of beer. Joey watched JC walk in ahead of him and grinned. He was glad it wasn’t Justin…and he was glad that his secret admirer was no longer a secret.

The End

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