On The Line

By:  Lara

 

“Jayce…JC…Jayce, you dumbass, we’re at the hotel.”  Justin smacked JC repeatedly until he woke up.

“Huh? Oh. Good.” JC dragged himself out of the back of the van, wrinkles on his cheek from where he had been sleeping on Lance’s shoulder. “Bed…need bed…”

“God, that boy can sleep anywhere.” Joey grabbed his duffel and swung it up on his shoulder. He sighed and grabbed JC’s bag as well.  “You guys coming?”

“Where?” Lance asked, stretching.  The ride from the airport had been short, but having long JC snuggled up on your shoulder could really cramp your back.

“Out.  Me and Chris are gonna pick up some hotties.”

“I’m there,” Justin volunteered.

Joey patted him on the head in a condescending manner. “Aww…how cute. The wittle crunk baby wants to come out and play. Sorry, dude. We hear this club is serious about ID. You’re not old enough.”

“But I’m Justin Timberlake,” Justin said, actually shocked that someone would refuse him entrance.

“Go take care of Jayce,” Lance said kindly. “He’ll be lonely.”

“Whatever.”  Justin stalked off to his room, grumbling.

“You coming?” Chris came up behind Joey and Lance as they walked into the hotel.

“Nah…I’m tired. I think I’ll stay in,” Lance said, glancing at his watch. Almost midnight.

“Lance, c’mon. We’ll find you a cutie.  Maybe Joey might even let you have one of his castoffs.”

“No, thanks. Joey’s sloppy seconds aren’t what I’m into,” Lance said, grinning as Joey made a face at him.

“That’s right.  Hot Pants Lance here can get his own girl…right, Lancey?” Joey messed up the spiky blond hair.

“Right. And don’t touch my hair. Later, boys.”  Lance darted into his room before anyone could say more.  He threw down his bag, carefully dug out his laptop, and got it booting up before he hurried to take a shower.

 

JC woke up around three, refreshed and ready to party. Unfortunately, he had NO idea where anyone else was, and he didn’t dare go around knocking on doors in the middle of the night. He had tried that once, and Joey had almost blackened his eye.  He stretched and wandered over to the laptop Lance had given him for his last birthday. He was nowhere NEAR the computer geek Lance was, but he could find his way around. There was really only one site he went to online, and he visited it religiously. He turned the computer on and logged onto the internet.  There it was.  “A Little Taste of Heaven,” JC read out loud, grinning to himself. He couldn’t help it. He saw websites and mailing lists devoted to himself all over the place, but whoever ran this one…she was amazing.

“Hey…new pictures.”  JC clicked on a small picture of himself.  “Do I even OWN a shirt like that?” He wondered out loud.  He flipped through the thumbnails of pictures, chuckling as he looked.  This girl got up close and personal, whoever she was.  He clicked on the updates link, and saw that there was new fanfiction there as well.  That kinda bothered him sometimes; it was weird reading that someone wrote like they knew him, but whoever the owner of the site was, she only posted the good stuff.  He laughed again. She always posted a new disclaimer every week for the fiction page, to protect her writers.

“Hey, guess what…these writers don’t know JC. They don’t know the angel that walks the earth. They don’t know his tendencies.  Hell…they don’t even know what his breath smells like in the morning. It’s fiction. Remember or hit delete, you dumbasses.”

JC pulled a chair over to the desk and sat down, ready to read for a few hours.  The site owner always posted late at night, and it was a nice thing to look at before he crashed.

 

“Fuck you, Joey.”

“But really…I thought she was into you.”

“Fuck you, Joey.”

“It’s not your fault that she was cuckoo for Lancey Puffs here.”

“Fuck you, Joey,” Lance and Chris said together as they headed down for the breakfast buffet.

“What?  Lance, you weren’t even there,” Joey said, shoving him lightly.

“What happened?” Justin asked for the tenth time, exasperated.

“Chris was attempting to get his mack on with some girl, and she asked him about Lance.  A LOT.”

“Fuck you, Joey,” Chris snarled, and went to get coffee.

“Um, where’s Jayce?” Justin asked.

“I dunno,” Joey said, doing an impromptu dance step as he waited to order an omelet.  “Bed, I’m thinking.”

“We have an interview at ten…he’d better haul ass,” Lance said, piling up some ham and potatoes on his plate.

“So…Lance…you shoulda seen this girl,” Joey continued as soon as Chris reached their table.  “She was hot…she had this brown hair and these blue eyes. Incredible.”

“Hey,” JC said tiredly, falling into a chair and laying his head on the table.  Joey reached over and ruffled his hair.

“Morning, Glory.  Did we have a late night watching porno again?”

“Blow me, Joey.”  JC got up and headed for the buffet.  Lance glared at Joey.

“You KNOW how he is in the morning.  Back off.”

“What?”  Joey said innocently, then turned back to Chris.  “Chris, you’re probably better off without that girl. She looked like some kind of ditchbitchgutterslut anyway.”

“But that’s what I was LOOKING for,” Chris moaned.

“I’m sorry,” Lance said politely, not even sure why he was apologizing.

“It’s okay.  It’s not your fault that every girl I meet likes every one of you but me.”

JC returned to the table. “Struck out again, huh, Chris?”

“Don’t start with Pissy Chrissy here.  He’ll go ballistic on you.  He’s in that kind of mood today,” Joey told JC.  JC mumbled something then sleepily dug into his scrambled eggs.

“Joey, for the last time…fuck you,” Chris said, sighing.  Sometimes Joey was too much.

“See?” Joey said to JC. 

“Maybe you should try liking guys, Chris. Then you might get somewhere,” Justin suggested innocently. Lance spit his chocolate milk all over the table.  JC stared at Justin.

“What?”

“Yeah,” Chris said slowly. “That might work.”

“We could like put out an APB in all the gay clubs…tell them you’re looking for someone to put out so you get out of the Pissy Chrissy mood,” Justin said, eagerly warming up to the idea. 

“Yeah, but we’d put a picture of JC on the poster because JC’s hotter than me and…” Chris glanced at JC, who was staring at Justin. “Jayce?  JC…earth to Spazzmaster Jayce…” Chris waved a hand in front of JC’s face.

“Huh? Sorry.”  JC went back to his eggs. Lance watched him closely, wondering what was up.

“And we could just ask JC where all the gay clubs are in every town, because, like, don’t you have some kinda directory or something?”  Joey asked JC.  JC froze.  Everyone froze.  Joey looked around.  “Um…did I mess up?”

“Something like that.” JC kicked his chair back and left the table.  Lance, Justin and Chris looked at Joey.

“Oh, yeah…guys…JC is gay,” Joey said, smiling weakly.  “I thought you knew.”

 

“Thrustin Justin timba woo woo…Creole Lady Marmalade…” Justin sang, thrusting his hips to the delight of the screaming girls at the soundcheck.  Joey and Chris rolled their eyes.  JC sat on the edge of the stage, singing along when he had to but not even TRYING to put on a front for the audience.  Lance came over and sat next to him.

“It’s okay, you know.” Lance put a hand over each of their microphones.  “That you’re gay. It’s totally cool with me.”

“Whatever.”  JC kicked his legs, scuffing his heels on the stage.

“Really.”  The tone of Lance’s voice made JC look up sharply. “I think it’s cool.”

“Yeah, well, they won’t,” JC said, pointing at the crowd in front of them and thinking of the webpage.  What if they found out their “Little Taste of Heaven” had no interest in any fan that was female?

 

“Lance, can I ride with you?” Chris asked.  “I could really use some sleep.”

“No, because that would put Joey with Jayce and Jayce doesn’t like Joey right now,” Lance reminded him.  “And I have work to do.”  Lance frowned at his laptop as they waited for the buses to pull out.  Chris tried to look over his shoulder.

“I didn’t know you worked on the FreeLance webpage.”

“Yeah, well, I’m teaching myself html coding and all that,” Lance said, closing the laptop. “Can you go to your bus, please?”

“No.”  Chris hopped off the bus and came back with JC.  “See? Problem solved.”

“Oh, holy Christ,” Lance muttered, glaring at Chris.

“Sorry.  I didn’t know this was the anti-gay bus,” JC snapped.

“For God’s sake, JC, would you get off your fucking high horse?” Lance snapped. “You’re gay…woofuckinghoo. You’re not the only gay popstar in the world so deal with it.”  Lance grabbed the computer and went back to his bunk to work.

“Damn,” Chris said softly. “It’s…” He checked his watch.  “…almost one. After my bedtime. Later, token gay pop star.”  He darted down to a bunk before JC could hit him.  JC sighed and settled down on the sofa. 

Sleep wouldn’t come. He was still worried about Joey breaking his little secret, even though every one of the guys had taken it well.  Chris loved to tease him, pointing out guys in their audience, but JC ignored him. He could find his own man, thank you very much…except he hadn’t been finding shit lately.  He sat up and dug through his bag for his laptop.  He’d follow Lance’s lead and go online until he could get to sleep.

 

Lance hit save and yawned.  He needed to start working on this shit a lot earlier in the day. He was surprised anyone could navigate the site, the way he had been working on it lately. He got up and headed for the bathroom to brush his teeth.

 

“Dammit,” JC swore as his computer logged him off again. He would get the site open, and the Net would close down immediately.  The actual owner of the site had posted a personal editorial about how wonderful he was, and he wanted to read it. She was funny, and the things she said always made him feel good about himself.  Lance would know what to do. Even if he was still pissed at JC, he’d help him.  “Lance?”  JC called softly.  “Hey, man, I’m sorry about…” JC brushed aside the curtain to Lance’s bunk, but the bunk was empty.  He heard water running in the bathroom and started to turn away, but his eyes fluttered down to the laptop on Lance’s bed.  He fell to his knees with a thud, staring at it.

“Well, HE got it up and running,” JC whispered to himself, staring at the words “A Little Taste of Heaven” at the top of the page.  JC felt his blood boil then run cold as he looked at the html coding.  This wasn’t just any page…this was the page of the creator of the site.  The bathroom door opened and JC scrambled to his feet.

“JC?” Lance asked, then looked down at the open curtain of his bunk. “JC.”  Lance’s voice was strangled.  JC put a hand out between them.

“No, Lance.  Don’t.”  He stumbled out to the living area of the bus with Lance hot on his heels. 

“Jayce, wait. It’s just a thing.  It’s just…”

“Lance, I hit that fucking thing every night. I thought it was some sweet fan who liked to say nice things about me.”

“I’m sweet, and I like to say nice things about you,” Lance teased softly, but the glare he received made him shut up.

“This is crazy.” JC began to pace.  “You? You’re the one posting that shit?”

“I don’t write the stories…but I put up the pictures and…”

“You write the editorials?”

“Um, yeah,” Lance admitted, looking up at JC. It felt so good for him to tell the truth.  “I needed some way to talk about you, Jayce.  I couldn’t tell anyone around HERE how I felt, so I created the site. I never knew YOU were reading it.  I love you.”

“It’s not about love, Lance…don’t tell me that,” JC snapped.  “This is like some sort of obsession. Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”

“Hello…I didn’t even know you were gay until Joey said something.”  Lance’s green eyes were sad. “I’m sorry, JC.  I never thought you’d find out.  And I didn’t mean to hurt you or anger you like this.  I’ll shut the site down.”  Lance went back to his bunk, closing the curtain behind him.  JC sighed and fell onto the sofa.

 

“Hey, guys?” Lance poked his head out of his room as soon as he went in. “Did you guys get flowers?”

Joey went into his suite and came back out. “No.”

“Me either,” Chris volunteered.  JC said nothing, just went into his suite and closed the door.

“You got flowers?” Justin whined.  “You?”

“Fuck off, Justin,” Chris, Joey and Lance said together. Justin pouted and slammed his door behind him.

“Odd,” Lance said, scratching his head. He dug through the large arrangement of pink and white roses until he found a card.  He opened it and felt his body stiffen. 

“Who are they from?” Chris poked his head in the door.

“I don’t know…must be a mistake,” Lance said.  Chris shrugged and went back to his room. “This angel has fallen from heaven…I need you to show me the way back,” Lance read softly.

“Hey,” JC said softly, coming in and closing the door behind him.  “Do you like them?”

“Um, yeah…they’re something,” Lance said, nervously picking at the edge of the card.

“I’m sorry about last night…I just didn’t know what to think. I had no clue,” JC said.  “I’ve been looking and looking for someone…and I was angry that I never thought to look right in front of me.  All this time I’ve been hitting that site, on my worst days when I thought I was worse than dogshit…and you were the one writing the things that made me feel good about myself.”  JC blushed slightly. “Can you forgive me?”

“For what?”

“Being a dickhead. A blind dickhead.”  JC walked over to Lance.

“Of course I can,” Lance said, a little spark dancing around his heart. 

“And don’t take down the site…please…”

“I won’t,” Lance whispered as JC placed a hand on his cheek.  JC leaned forward and gave him a sweet yet passionate kiss.  “But those things I wrote that made you feel good about yourself…I’m just gonna be saying them out loud to you anyway…I don’t need the site anymore.”

“Good,” JC said, smiling as he kissed Lance again.

The End

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