Eleven

 

"I have an idea," Lance said, falling onto his bed.  "Let's make a vow that when we get to be rich and famous, we NEVER stay in a hotel where we have to share a bathroom."

"Deal," Justin agreed.  Lou had found some pretty bad places for them, in order to save money, but this was ridiculous.  "And room service. I like room service."

"Your mom brings you dinner, Justin. You don't NEED room service," Lance teased.  Lynn was along for the ride again, and it had taken everything Lance had to convince his own mother not to come along.  At almost eighteen, he really didn't think he needed a chaperone...especially when everything he would have misbehaved with was sleeping in the bed across the room from him.

"Shut up," Justin muttered, though Lance knew that Justin still enjoyed getting babied now and then.  "So...there were a lot more people here...at the show."

"I know.  Y'know, I even saw a few signs with my name on them!" Lance said.  He still expected to be thrown out of the group at any given moment, so anything that seemed to boost his popularity was quite appealing.

"I know...I paid those girls to hold them up," Justin said with a straight face.  Lance yelped and tackled him, pinning him to his bed and tickling him.  Justin gasped for breath. Normally he would have used his height as an advantage over Lance, but when he was tickled he had NO strength.

"Hey, infants," Joey said, popping into the room. "Okay, am I old enough to see this?"

"Probably not," Justin said from under Lance, rubbing slightly so Lance could feel the erection that was beginning to form in his jeans. Lance blushed and jumped up.

"I owed him a tickling," Lance said, trying not to look down at Justin.

"I think we need to go rescue JC from his television. We need to sneak out and get something to eat," Joey said. "Would your mom mind, J?"

"Nah.  If she does, I'll beg...but I'm thinking she's beginning to not like Lou so much."  Justin sat up and straightened his shirt.

"Nobody likes Lou much except Lou," Joey said.

"Why do we need to rescue JC?" Lance asked.

"He found 'Evita' on some TV station, and he's in there bawling his eyes out.  They only subtitle it in German, and he already knows every lyric of every song, and he's singing along."

"And Chris?" Justin asked.

"Chris is hiding under his pillow, cursing me because I get the single," Joey said, laughing.

"JC sings good," Lance said, in his friend's defense.

"Yeah, but you'd think after seeing the damn movie nine zillion times, he'd figure out that it doesn't have a happy ending," Joey replied.  "C'mon."

"I'll pop in on my mom," Justin said.  "Maybe I can get some money from her."

Lance followed Joey to Chris and JC's room.  Chris was indeed hiding under his pillow, while JC hugged his pillow to his chest, occasionally sniffling into the sleeve of his shirt. "Hey, Lance."  JC smiled, but his eyes were red and puffy.

"Dude, if we go out in public, you better hope we don't see a photographer," Joey said, grabbing JC's pillow from him and wailing on Chris with it.

"I'm sorry...it's just...the music...I wanna write like that," JC sniffled, sighing.

"You will," Lance promised. "You're definitely the next Andrew Lloyd Weber."

"Okay, Mom says cool, so I am outta here," Justin said triumphantly. "Let's roll."

 

Chris threw a friendly arm around Lance's shoulders and ruffled his hair before moving on to jump on Joey's back. "I'm sorry," Lance said to JC. "You have to room with THAT."

"I won't say anything about your roommate," JC teased gently, and Lance turned beet red.  "Have you shared my little gift with him yet?"

"Jayce!"  Lance whined, hiding his face in his arm. 

"I take that as a no," JC said. "You know I'm just playing with you, Lance."

"I know...I just..." Lance paused and pulled back a bit, letting the other three hurry ahead of them.  "We did fool around...a while ago...and then I didn't think it was a good idea. I didn't wanna corrupt him or anything. So I stopped it...then right before we came back here he confronts me...and he was all hurt and rejected.  So I let him talk me into it again."

"You fooled around?" JC asked.

"Touching, that's it!"  Lance insisted, still seeing "Big Mouse" in JC's eyes.

"You're not gonna corrupt him, Lance. He's young, but he's not an idiot. And Justin has also NEVER been one to give in to peer pressure," JC said reassuringly. "Promise."

"I know," Lance sighed.  "I mean, I like it, but..."

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to," JC said quickly.  "I trust you."

"Thank you," Lance said.  JC squeezed his shoulder.

"Just don't tell me you're gonna surprise him with something on his birthday," JC said in a pointed tone.

"No...he already WANTS to do that, and I said no way." Lance blushed a little. "I have something else planned for his gift."

Twelve