Three

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong,” the doctor said, putting his instruments away. Justin looked at Lance in confusion, and when Lance slowly shook his head, Justin clenched his fists in frustration. “I mean, I’m not a specialist or anything. I can recommend one, though.”

Lance looked around the room and found what he was searching for: a hotel-issued tablet of paper on the nightstand. He grabbed it and scribbled a note to Justin. Justin quickly nodded and Lance looked at the doctor. “I think that would be a good idea…but it needs to be immediately.”

“I’ll make some calls.” The doctor looked at Justin and spoke slowly. “You didn’t fall?” Justin read his lips and shook his head. “Have you been sick?” Justin shook his head again. “Very strange. I’ll have someone give you a call here as soon as possible.”

“Wait. Let me give you my cellphone number,” Lance said. “We need to get some breakfast, and Justin wouldn’t…he wouldn’t hear the phone, anyway.” Lance wrote down his number and gave it to the doctor. “Thank you, Sir.”

“No problem.” The doctor gave Justin an encouraging smile and left the hotel suite.

Justin sat on the bed, long legs curled under him. He looked at Lance, lips drawn into a pout. But Lance knew it wasn’t for show. Justin was scared to death. “It’s okay,” Lance said, sitting next to Justin. Justin put his head on Lance’s shoulder.

“What am I gonna do, Lance?” Justin asked. “I can’t fucking hear. I can’t do interviews…I’ll barely be able to do a photo shoot.” Justin’s head shot up. “God, I can’t…can’t sing.”

“We don’t have to sing. Not for another three weeks,” Lance said. Justin looked at him. Lance sighed and grabbed the pad of paper.

“I know that…but I sing every day, Lance, if only for me.”

“Let’s get breakfast.” Lance pantomimed eating. Justin sighed and nodded. “The doctor will call me.” Lance picked up his cellphone and Justin nodded again.

It took everything Justin had not to grab Lance’s hand and hold it. The world was an incredibly scary place now. Everything seemed to move so fast. People scurried by on the sidewalk, and cars seem to speed by on the street. They went to a sidewalk café about three blocks from the hotel, wearing sunglasses and floppy hats.

“French toast,” Lance said, remembering the breakfast at the hotel that he never got to finish.

“Ham and Swiss omelet,” Justin said. He closed his menu and studied the tablecloth.

“And what kind of toast, Sir?” The waiter asked. Justin seemed to ignore him and the waiter got huffy. “I know who you are, you know. There’s no need to act this way.”

“He likes wheat,” Lance said quickly, smiling at the waiter.

“I heard the stories, but man, I never thought they were true,” the waiter grumbled to himself as he snapped up the menus and left the table. Lance sighed and stirred cream into his coffee.

Justin studied Lance carefully. “I’m sorry,” he said finally, and Lance stared at him. “I’m sorry you’re stuck with me. I could call one of the bodyguards…they’re probably wondering where we slipped off to, anyway.” Lance pulled out the tablet he had brought along, and jotted down a short note. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. The less people who know about this, the better,” Justin agreed.

“Um, can we have your autographs?” Two teenage girls nervously fidgeted by the table.

“Sure,” Lance said, smiling at them. Justin smiled as well, though Lance noticed a hint of irritation in the blue eyes.

“Can you write it to Stephanie?” One girl asked Justin, and of course, he ignored her.

“I’m sorry,” Lance said, adding “To Stephanie” above his own signature. “Justin’s got a bad head cold…he can’t hear a darn thing.”

“Oh,” she said, relieved.

The girls thanked them and walked away. Lance overheard one of them saying something about how Justin was a lot nicer than she had expected him to be. Lance wrote to Justin on the notepad. “I think this is the quietest you’ve been in a long time,” he tried to joke. Justin didn’t smile back.

“I’m just worried. Worried about what’s gonna happen. Worried about if this will last forever.”

“I’m sure it won’t,” Lance wrote. “I’m sure the doctor will find something wrong and fix it for you.”

Justin gave him a small smile, but said nothing. They were almost finished with their meals when Lance’s phone rang. Justin looked on with interest as Lance spoke, but frowned at the look in Lance’s eyes. “What is it?” Justin asked when Lance hung up.

“The specialist can be there in an hour,” he wrote, and that was all he would say.

Lance stood in the hallway as the specialist examined Justin in Justin’s hotel room. Lance paced like an expectant father, biting at a thumbnail. In a way, this Justin was nice to be around. He wasn’t flaunting himself, or being a jerk. And yet it was like it WASN’T Justin, and Lance didn’t like that one bit.

“Hey, dude, where the hell did you disappear to?” Joey asked as they walked up the hall.

“I was with Justin,” Lance answered. Chris rolled his eyes.

“Is the baby sick? Did he break a nail?”

“Look, Chris, it’s not like that,” Lance insisted.

“Is there something going on between you two?” JC asked suddenly, and Lance stared at him.

“Hell, no. He’s not even like that, JC,” Lance said, ignoring what Justin had told him the night before.

“Whatever. What’s going on, Lance?” JC asked.

The door opened and the specialist looked at Lance. “You can come in now.”

The four men filed into the room. Justin’s eyes widened with surprise as he watched their other bandmates sit down. “Well?” Lance asked.

“I see absolutely no cause for this ailment. I have no clue why your friend has suddenly lost his hearing. I…”

“Lost his hearing?” Chris began to laugh hysterically. Lance glared at him. The doctor ignored him.

“I think it would be best for him to go back to Florida and have more serious tests done, but he refuses.”

“What a surprise,” Lance murmured. “Is there anything we can do?”

“I understand that this must be kept low-key. At any rate, just keep an eye on him, look for anything else out of the ordinary.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” The doctor shook Justin’s hand, then Lance’s. He closed his bag and left the room.

“What the hell’s going on here?” Joey exploded.

“Let me explain,” Justin began, reading Joey’s confusion in his body language.

“Let me,” Lance said gently, and Justin nodded. “Justin woke up this morning and couldn’t hear.”

Chris laughed again. “Something new…a new way for the diva to get attention.”

“Chris, no, it’s not like that. He really can’t hear,” Lance insisted.

“It IS like that, Lance. God, I wonder if you DON’T have a thing for him, the way you let him fuck you over. He’s lying. He just wants attention, wants his name in the paper.” Chris glared at Justin. “I don’t buy it.”

Justin looked at Lance helplessly. The conversation was moving too fast for him to follow. “Justin, say something,” Joey said. Justin just shrugged and shook his head.

“This is low even for you, Justin,” JC said, shaking his head. He got up to leave.

“No. JC, wait. I swear…”

“I don’t wanna hear it, Lance,” JC said. One by one they left the room, leaving Lance to deal with a very bewildered Justin.

Four