Three

“I have an idea,” Chris said from his seat on the sofa. He was tossing popcorn up into the air and trying to catch it in his mouth.

“Mmph?” Joey responded, his mouth muffled by the carpet. JC had felt the need to work off some steam, and had decided to give Joey a massage. JC's massages were usually painful, but Joey had given in cheerfully. Everyone usually did give in to JC. Lance had noticed that JC was carefully watched and protected, like a piece of priceless glass. After what Justin had told him, Lance understood why. Added to that was the fact that JC was just a very sweet, very nice guy, and it made you feel good to be nice to him, like you were allowed to give a precious gift to a precious person.

“Let's…go through Lance's closet and throw out all the ugly, preppy clothes,” Chris suggested. “He'd be pretty much naked, but, hey, maybe he'd get a girl that way.”

JC frowned as he glanced over at Chris. Joey sighed and shook his head. Lance turned red and looked down at his shoes. Chris picked on them all, but his attitude towards Lance had never improved. “Chris,” Justin began slowly, sitting up and crossing his legs. He had been doodling on the cover of Lance's Trigonometry notebook, practicing his autograph yet again. “How comes you always pick on him? Look at some of Joey's clothing.”

“Hey!” Joey said, raising his head.

“It's okay, Justin,” Lance said, standing up. He knew that Justin all but idolized Chris, and he appreciated that Justin had attempted to stand up for him. “Let me handle this.”

Chris snorted and smiled with amusement. “Handle this?”

“Look, Chris, I've known since the first second I met you that you didn't like me. Maybe you're jealous. Maybe you're mad that at sixteen I sound more like a man than you EVER will. Maybe you're mad that we had a decent home life, with money and actual running water. Maybe you're mad that I'm not your buddy Jason. Maybe you're mad that Lou treats us like puppets and we HAVE to jump when he tells us to. I'm sorry that I have designer clothes. I'm sorry that I can pull off a look that you NEVER could. I'm sorry that my parents could pay for dental care. But I'm NOT sorry I'm in this group, and I'm NOT going home, no matter how hard you try to make me give up and run away crying. Yeah, I cry because of you, but notice that YOU'VE never seen it. In some ways, I'm more of a man than you'll ever be. So fuck off and leave me alone, before I kick your little mousy ass all the way back to Pennsylvania.” Lance kicked Joey's feet out of his way and stormed out of the rec room.

Four