Seventeen
Lance slept until almost ten the next morning. He
was shocked when he looked at the clock, thinking that he was still working
outside. He then remembered that Joey
had given him permission to stop working for a while, and relaxed. He rolled over and realized, to his dismay,
that he was all alone. He hadn’t even
heard JC get up, and he felt a bit hurt that he hadn’t even bothered to say
goodbye.
Lance rolled onto his back with a sigh. Here he
was, making more of the entire thing then he needed to. Yes, he had partially
given the man his virginity (he wouldn’t consider it complete until it happened
the other way someday), but that didn’t mean JC owed him anything.
Lance skipped breakfast, not feeling really hungry.
He felt useless and bored, and decided to go for a walk. He threw on a pair of jeans and a tank top,
and headed out of the house, waving a good morning to Nick over his shoulder. He had made it about a half mile from the
house when he heard someone calling him.
He turned around to see Alex, Howie’s brother,
walking towards him. He sighed. Alex
had decided to extend his visit, and it made Lance uncomfortable to be around
him. He felt like a little pig to Alex’s big bad wolf. “Hi, Alex,” Lance said politely. “I was just
heading back in,” he lied.
“I’ll walk back with you.” Alex fell into step next to Lance. “So,
you’re not working today?”
“Uh, Joey decided I’d earned a few days off,” Lance
said. He was pretty sure that Alex
didn’t know about the whole JC situation, since it was something that Lance had
asked Joey to keep fairly under wraps.
Gossip flew, of course, but Alex wasn’t close to all that many of the
men in the house.
“That’s cool,” Alex replied. “Hey, Lance, I was wondering…”
Lance stopped walking. “Look, Alex, I thought I
told you, I…”
“LANCE!” Joey yelled out of a window, much to
Lance’s relief. “Phone call.”
“Really?” Lance paled slightly, wondering who was
calling. He had called his sister briefly, to give a contact number in case of
an emergency, but that was it. “Oh, God,” he said weakly. “I need to go, Alex. My sister’s the only
one who has this number.” Lance took
off at a run.
“Calm down, Lance,” Joey said as soon as Lance came
in the door. “Relax.”
“Is it my sister?” Lance panted.
“No,” Joey said with a laugh. “Take a few deep
breaths. He can wait.”
“He?” Lance asked. Joey smiled and pointed to his
office.
“Go on in and use the phone.”
Lance went in and sat behind Joey’s desk. Joey
closed the door. “Hello?” Lance said almost fearfully.
“Uh, Lance? This is JC Chasez.”
“Oh,” Lance said, sighing with relief.
“Wow, nice to hear your voice, too,” JC said
sarcastically.
“No! I mean, I’m sorry! It’s just that the only
person who has this number is my sister and I thought there was something
wrong.”
“Oh,” JC said in a kinder tone. “Sorry if I scared
you.”
“No problem. Uh, what did you want?”
“Oh.” JC
paused, and he seemed nervous, though Lance couldn’t figure out why. “I was…okay. I left, you know, but before I
left, I talked to Joey, and I asked him something, and he said it’s your
decision.”
“Okay,” Lance said slowly.
“I want you to come to Vegas with me for the
weekend. Stay here with me.”
“Are you serious?” Lance gasped. “The only time
I’ve been there was for your show!”
“Yes, I’m serious,” JC replied, sounding a bit more
confident. “If you want, you can even have your own suite, just for fun…but I’d
like you to stay with me at least SOME of the time.”
“Of course,” Lance said immediately. He sat back in
the chair, clutching at the phone. “Hey, JC…can I ask a favor?”
“You can always ask,” JC teased.
“Can I bring someone with me? This is like, I don’t
know, scary for me, for some reason, and I’d feel better if it wasn’t just you
and me. Is that okay?” Lance asked anxiously.
“Uh, sure, Lance…who did you have in mind?”
“Um, Justin.”
Lance could hear the grin. “Justin? That would be PERFECT, Lance. Of course you should bring him.”
