< Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Things hadn’t been as tense since November when Nick and Justin had been fighting. Lance had decided that he wouldn’t be joining them for lunch in the Quad. Since it was the Sophomore space, he didn’t feel it was right to push AJ out, and he most definitely didn’t want to see AJ so after great debate of what was worse, the cafeteria or outside, he finally decided on the Report office.

"Chris?" Lance had asked as he poked his head in the door. Nick had apologized stating that he wouldn’t be eating lunch with them at all since he had a meeting to go to and Justin refused to join him knowing that Chris would be there. When Chris looked up, Lance was sure he saw surprise in his eyes before they hardened.

"What?"

"Can I ...maybe ...eat lunch in here?" Lance saw Chris’ eyes narrow before he nodded.

"Yeah. Why aren’t you eating in the Quad?" Lance’s face fell and Chris remembered his conversation with AJ on Saturday night at Joey’s house. He immediately cursed himself and shook his head. "Never mind, not my business. Feel free."

Lance smiled gratefully and sat down at the table by the window. He pulled out his book and started reading quietly. As many questions he had to ask Chris about Justin, he knew it was none of his business. He didn’t want to alienate either Chris or Justin and so he had made the decision to stay out of it. He looked up at Chris who was staring out the window, an unidentifiable expression on his face.

"You okay?" Lance asked softly. Chris snapped to attention and shrugged.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Chris studied him for a second, they sat silently staring at each other. "Don’t you hate me?"

Lance shook his head. "No." Chris seemed surprised by that answer.

"Really? I mean, Justin had to have.."

Lance held his hand up to stop Chris. "He told me what happened, it’s not my business. You did what you had to do."

"Hmm." Chris muttered. "So you don’t hate me? You don’t think I was wrong?"

"It has nothing to do with me," Lance admitted. "I’m not in your shoes, I don’t know why you did what you did. But if you really don’t feel anything for him, I think you did the right thing then. There is no point in leading him on when you aren’t interested. It might hurt him now, but better now than later, right?"

Chris nodded, a frown on his face. "I don’t want to talk about this anymore." He watched Lance nod, a look of relief crossing his pale features. Their lunch passed quickly, Lance spent the entire duration reading while Chris finished assignments and other work on the computer. As Lance was leaving to go to fourth period he stopped and looked back at Chris.

"Is it okay..."

"The door is always open Lance," Chris assured him. "You’re a member of the Report, so even if there’s no one in here, you still are allowed to be in here."

Lance smiled. "Thanks Chris."

"No problem Bass."

~*~*~

Justin showed up in the Soph Quad to find Josh, Christina, Britney and AJ already eating. He grinned at his friends as he sat down beside Britney. "Hey!" He greeted everyone. There were smiles and greetings back from everyone except AJ who simply stared at him. Justin smiled at his friend until he realized that AJ wasn’t going to smile back. AJ looked miserable.

"What?" Justin asked self consciously. "Do I have something hanging from my nose?"

"You’re eating here?" AJ asked, genuinely surprised that Justin had shown up for lunch with them. He had a feeling Lance wouldn’t be joining them, and figured that Nick and Justin would be avoiding them too.

Justin looked around, pretending he had no idea what AJ was talking about. He would have gone where Lance ate, just so he wouldn’t have to eat alone, but Lance was going to the Report office, and Justin didn't' want to risk running into Chris. "I’m sorry, this is the Soph. Quad right? The place that, except for temporary insanity in November and part of December, I’ve been eating lunch in every day?"

"Yeah but," AJ blushed. "I figured.."

"That because you and Lance are fighting that I’m going to turn my back on you and ignore you?"

AJ felt his stomach churn at Justin’s mention of Lance’s name but he nodded weakly. "Well, yeah?"

"Well too bad. You can’t get rid of me this easily. I’m not saying that I’m gonna be eating with you guys all the time. But he’s in the Report office and I’m sure as hell not going near there, so you’re suck with me." Justin then reached across the table and smacked AJ upside the head.

"What’s that for?" AJ whined, rubbing the back of his head gingerly.

"That’s for thinking I’m shallow enough to hate you because of what happened between you and Lance." Justin turned to Josh, and subsequently Christina and Britney. "Are you guys mad at Lance? Do you hate him?"

They all shook their heads.

"See? Then why would I hate you?"

"But..."

Justin watched AJ’s face go pale. He softened his features and covered AJ’s hand with his own. "I know what happened, at least his side of it anyways. And the thing is, it doesn’t involve me. Nick and I discussed it and although we don’t understand it, it’s not our place to judge."

"Well, he’s not here either." AJ grumbled as he felt his skin heat up in embarrassment. He knew Lance well enough to know that whatever he told Nick and Justin, it was probably what had really happened as Lance wasn’t the type of person to exaggerate, or slander anyone.

"He’s not here because he’s got some meeting for something. I don’t know half the shit he’s been up to lately. But that’s why he’s not here."

AJ looked as if he was going to disagree when he saw Christina nodding her head. "Yeah, he mentioned something today. How he hopes next year he’s smart enough to not get involved in things so he can eat his lunch in peace."


The table all laughed as they rolled their eyes. The Nick they knew was one of the most social people at Lincoln High. He was always trying to get involved in things and couldn’t not spend the rest of his time at Lincoln doing just that.

AJ knew he had to talk to Lance, and honestly, he had half expected his boyfriend to call him on Sunday to discuss their argument. AJ knew he had a lot of apologizing to do and after thinking about it, realized that they needed to talk about a few things that they’d both brought up in the heat of the argument.

Unfortunately, the call never came. And on Monday, Lance wasn’t waiting for him at his locker so they could go to Fresh Meat Lane together. In fact, when AJ passed by Lance in between first and second period, his boyfriend had put his head down and picked up his pace so as to not have to talk to AJ. He figured that Lance still needed a bit of time to calm down before he would approach AJ to work things out.

It was a week before AJ finally realized that Lance wasn’t going to talk to him. He’d even heard from Christina that he refused to even talk about what had happened between them and when she’d asked if Lance was going to talk to AJ any time soon, he’d told her to mind her own business thank you very much before slamming his locker shut and quickly walking away.

"Lance," AJ called through the hall. It was empty as school had already let out but AJ had to find out why the younger boy hadn’t returned any of his phone calls, notes and ran in the opposite direction every time he tried to approach. AJ knew that Lance was going to the Report Office for their regular Monday meeting. The February issue was due out that Friday and AJ had planned their conversation for when he knew Lance couldn’t ditch him.

Lance heard his name being called and sighed. Rather than run, he knew it was time to finally deal with this issue, once and for all. He slowed down and took a few deep breaths before turning around. "What?"

"I.." AJ was taken back at the cool tone of Lance’s voice. What was even worse was the way Lance was looking at him, through indifferent eyes. "We need to talk."

"Do we?" Lance tried to keep his tone even. He didn’t want AJ to know how much this exchange was killing him. "I think we said everything on Saturday night."

"What do you mean? We had a fight, of course we need to talk about it." AJ stepped in and tried to hold onto Lance’s hand. He flinched as Lance pulled his hand back forcefully.

"What’s there to talk about? You made yourself pretty clear. And the more I’ve been thinking, the more I have to agree with you. I mean, if you hadn’t meant what you’d said, you would have called me the next day. But you didn’t. So maybe you were right, maybe we are too different. Maybe this isn’t working out."

AJ’s eyes widened and he fought the way his stomach was churning sickly. He had no idea what Lance was talking about and feared that he’d said something he couldn’t take back when they’d been fighting. He knew he’d been irrational and the more upset he got, the harder it was to think clearly, but he was certain he wouldn’t have said anything too drastic. Would he have. "What ...what are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? I’m talking about how you were right for us to break up." Lance was impressed at how calm he was, especially when he was dying inside. The last thing he wanted was to break up, but it was already too late since AJ had broken up with him on Saturday. The fact that he’d waited over a week to seek him out only proved to Lance that AJ had been serious and after thinking about it, he was going to have to get over it and move on. He couldn’t go on hurting as much as he had been over the past week.

"I don’t know what you mean," AJ admitted softly. "Break up? What makes you think I want to break up with you?"

Lance’s laugh was sharp and hollow. "I may be only fourteen, too young and immature to understand anything complex like a real relationship, but I know what ‘maybe this isn’t working out’ and ‘we should end this’ means." Lance felt his heart break as tears formed in the corners of AJ’s eyes. "I can’t do this AJ, I can’t be what you need me to be. You want someone more mature? You want someone older, well go ahead. But they’re not going to love you as much as I do. And I know I like to hang out with everyone a lot, but I thought you did too. I didn’t know I was such a horrible boyfriend and if you had have just said something, I would have tried to stop. I would have done whatever you wanted, but you didn’t say anything." Lance blinked back the tears that had formed in his eyes and cursed the way he was trembling.

"I ...I’m sorry.." AJ cried.

"That makes two of us," Lance said through his tears. Out of the corner of his eye Lance saw Chris standing at the door to the Report and knew he couldn’t face everyone. It was as if the party at Joey’s was happening all over again, and it simply hurt too much. Lance headed back towards his locker and fumbled with his lock. He couldn’t see the numbers through his tears and it wasn’t until he felt someone’s hand on his back that he broke down, pounding his fist angrily into the lockers.

There were people talking softly behind him and Lance finally stopped crying to see that his locker had been opened. Standing behind him, rubbing his back comfortingly was Chris. How the senior knew his locker combination was on the tip of his tongue before he looked to the side to see Justin watching him with concern.


"You okay?" Chris asked. He fought not to react at Justin’s close proximity. It was Lance who he should be focused on, not Justin. Not Justin who had done exactly as he’d promised, by avoiding him at all costs. Justin who had practically disappeared, except for when Chris intentionally sought him out to get a glimpse of the freshman. Justin who hadn’t looked at him once since he’d appeared at Lance’s locker.

"NO!" Lance screamed, startling Chris. He hadn’t ever heard Lance raise his voice before.

"It’s fine Chris," Justin said evenly. "I’m here now."

"I want to make sure he’s fine," Chris protested, caught off guard by Justin’s tone of voice.

"He’s fine, I’m here. If you want to make sure anyone’s fine, go to Aje."

Chris knew when he was being dismissed and he fought not to let the sting affect him. He patted Lance’s back one last time before giving Justin a hard, searching look. When Justin refused to react, he headed back down the hall to where he knew he’d still find AJ, standing in the middle of the hall in shock.

~*~*~

News of the interaction between Lance and AJ spread rapidly through the grapevine and all of their friends were notified of the situation. AJ had pretty much started avoiding everyone, as did Lance. On Wednesday, everyone except the two of them were sitting in the Quad eating lunch, no one able to figure out what they could do to help their friends.

"Is this what it was like when Nick and I were fighting?" Justin asked sadly. His frown deepened when Josh, Christina and Britney all nodded.

"Worse," Christina said.

Nick’s only consolation through the whole ordeal was that since his Valentine’s kiss with Kevin, he would often find the senior waiting for him between classes or after school. Although Kevin had effectively turned Nick down for a romantic relationship, he’d picked up their platonic friendship, something that Nick was infinitely grateful for. Since getting to know him better, Nick was able to see him beyond the idolization stage. Kevin was no longer on the pedestal that Nick had previously had him on, and with everything else that was going on in Nick’s life, he didn’t have time to obsess about Kevin, which also lessened the strain between them.

It was Thursday afternoon, after school when he was doing some final touches on one of the Munchkin Land scenes that Joey came bursting into the theatre, screaming bloody murder.


"I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE THIS!"

Nick was so startled that he spilled a jar of paint on the stage. Cursing, he growled at Joey who looked like he was about to spit fire. "You just scared me, now I’ve got to clean this up!" Nick growled.

Joey looked at the paint before throwing his hands up. "That’s nothing. You want to know what problems are? Problems are your Dorothy forgetting that she’s the lead in the school play. Problems are finding out that your lead in the damn school play has, two months before show time, let you know that she can’t be in the play. That she auditioned not thinking she’d get the part, and that she knew full well the whole time she was moving in March and couldn’t do the play. Problems is her thinking she could skip out unnoticed, leaving us with no god damned Dorothy. THAT’S PROBLEMS!"

Nick frowned, looking down at the paint on the stage which would be cleaned by the time he left, he looked up at Joey and realized that his problem was rather insignificant. "So, what are you doing to do?"

Joey screamed before taking a few deep breaths. "I’m going to kill her, then hold last minute auditions for a new Dorothy."

"Why didn’t you have an understudy?"

Joey glared at Nick with such hatred that Nick didn’t bother to repeat the question when he got no answer.

"When are the auditions?" Nick asked. Joey looked at him skeptically.

"Why? You know someone?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah, kinda. The problem might be convincing her to come out, but I can see."

"Tomorrow, lunch. We NEED a new Dorothy by tomorrow at 3."

~*~*~


"So Christina," Nick said sweetly. "Meet me here for lunch today, I’ve got something for you to do."

Christina narrowed her eyes at Nick suspiciously. "What?"

"So whoever the girl that was supposed to be Dorothy in the school play, she’s moving away in like a week and a half or something, so they need a new lead. I told Joey that I knew someone, you, and you’re going to audition."

Christina’s eyes widened and her cheeks darkened. "Are you kidding? I can’t!"

"Of course you can, I’ve heard you sing." Nick argued softly.

"But ...it’s like 2 months away."

"Didn’t you say all those months back that the Wizard of Oz is one of your favorite movies? That you so would have loved to be in the show?"

"But that was months ago, when there wasn't only 2 months to learn the part." Christina argued without any heat. As intimidating as it sounded, it was just as exciting. And Nick had been right, she’d been dying to be in the show. She thought about it for a few more minutes, realizing that there wasn’t even a doubt she would be going. "Will you come with me?" She asked softly.

Nick’s answer was a hoot of excitement.

"Don’t tell anyone," Christina pleaded. "I don’t want everyone to know, in case I don’t make it."

Nick shook his head. "Ain’t no way you're not going to make it girl, but I’ll let you surprise them when you do."

~*~*~*~

"That’s enough." Joey shouted over the piano and Christina’s version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

"That’s it?" Nick said before Joey shot him a warning look and he shut up. It was only two verses and Christina had nailed it perfectly.

"That’s it?" Christina asked nervously. She’d heard others sing one or two songs in their entirety before being cut off.

"Yes, that’s it." Joey said as he approached the stage. He was the director of the show, as well as playing the Wizard and this had been the most stressful production he’d ever put on. He grabbed something from the front row before handing it to Christina. "This ...is the script. Equipped with songs, forms, everything you need. Please, you said you know the movie and play pretty well?"

Christina nodded excitedly.

"Good. I’d kill myself if I had to worry about you learning everything from scratch. You’d be amazed at how many people don't even know the movie."

"I know it off by heart," Christina promised.

"Can you be here after school? We need to go over rehearsals and dates and everything."

Christina nodded again, eyes wide and a grin nearly splitting her face in half. Joey stopped for a moment and looked at her closely.

"Why didn’t you audition in October?"

Christina blushed. "I ... Auditions were the same week as Cheerleading try outs. I had to pick one or the other."

Joey looked like he was about to either laugh or scream. Fortunately, he laughed. "I should kill you! We could have had you all along and you tried out for the Ho-Train. Stupid freshmen!"

Joey turned around to Nick and gave him a ear to ear grin. "This is twice you've saved my life Carter. One more and I’ll be indebted to you forever!"

Nick waved and jumped up excitedly, lifting Christina off of the ground and spinning her in circles. "We have to go tell the others." They both looked at Joey who nodded.

"I need you here at three thirty," he pointed at Christina who nodded.

"Definitely. Later."

~*~*~*~

Josh trapped Christina against her locker, holding her in place with his hands on either side of her head. He grinned as he leaned in and pressed their mouths together. "I’m really mad at you," he whispered softly.

"Why?" Christina asked, slightly concerned. He didn’t seem mad as he was biting gently on her ear, but she wasn’t sure.

"Because now you’re going to be busy most days after school, and I’m never gonna see you." Josh’s lips curled into a pout and Christina snickered as she bit on his lower lip.

"You’ll see me baby," she promised. "You’ll see me when you pick me up after rehearsals and I let you drive me home."

Josh backed up, pretending to think about her offer. "You’ll let me drive you home?" He asked, playing along.

Christina nodded. She leaned in and put her lips directly next to his ear. "I promise I’ll make it worth your while." Josh’s mouth turned into a wide grin and he wiggled his eyebrows.



"What are we talking about here?"

Christina held her breath. She’d been ready for a little while to go a little further with Josh, physically, but had been afraid to tell him. She didn’t want him to think she was still concerned with what Natalie, his ex-girlfriend, had said on New Years, but there had been times since then that they had been kissing or making out when she’d wanted him to go further.

"What we’re talking about," Christina started before kissing Josh deeply. "Is me and you, this weekend at my house. My parents are going to be out on Saturday, all day." She saw the excitement in Josh’s eyes and grinned. "And I was thinking that maybe, it’s time to go a little further."

Josh felt his groin tighten and he swallowed thickly, willing his pulse to stop racing. "R..really?" He knew by now that she wouldn’t go any further than she was ready for, so if she was coming to him with it, she was serious. "How ...far?"

"Pick me up after practices this week and I'll show you."

Josh growled as he kissed Christina again, tangling his tongue with hers playfully. When they pulled away he sighed. "You know, that I’d pick you up anyways right? You don’t have to pay me back?"

Christina grinned and winked at her boyfriend. "Just like I’d let you under my clothes without picking me up." She ducked underneath his extended arm, giggling at the way he was frozen to the spot. When Christina looked over her shoulder, she saw him staring at her, mouth wide open. When he didn’t say anything, she nodded. "Yep, you heard me."

"So what, I’ll pick you up at five?" Josh called as he followed her down the hall. He was now looking forward to the weekend for a whole new reason!

~*~*~*~

Chris was in what could have been considered as the worst mood ever known to man. He hadn’t realized until he’d been denied, how much he’d began looking forward to Justin’s impromptu appearances. It seemed as though before Valentine’s day, Justin always knew when Chris needed a little pick me up and at the times he was ready to scream, the freshman would pop his head into the office just to say hello. Or he would leave a note in Chris’ locker, letting him know he was thinking about him. Or he would claim that he needed to pick up some random supply or another, and when Chris would take him to the cupboard, Justin was press up against him and breathlessly ask him to kiss him, and as often as Chris knew he should fight it, he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

And now that Justin had cut him off entirely, Chris didn’t know what he was going to do. He thought that he’d been doing the right thing, but he hadn’t even been aware of how deeply he’d begun to enjoy Justin’s presence. It had been less than two weeks since Joey’s party, and in those two weeks, Chris’ life had gone from crappy to horrible. Not that it had been crappy before, he had thought it was, but really it had been heaven, he just hadn’t realized it.

The day before, Justin had come by the office to get Lance after lunch. He’d quickly knocked on the door three times, paused and then two more. Chris had been curious as to how Lance knew that the knock was for him.

"It’s Justin."

"Why doesn’t he just come in?" Chris asked. His pulse raced and for the first time in two weeks, he felt butterflies in his stomach.

"You told him to leave you alone. You wanted him to stay away from you and to not come here and bug you." Lance put his things in his bag and stood up, trying to hide the grin that was threatening. "Chris, you made yourself clear. He likes you, but doesn’t want to crowd you. You made a deal and he’s upholding his end. I’ll see you tomorrow."

For the rest of the day, Chris had been miserable. He’d thought that Justin would crack and after a few days he’d be back to bugging him constantly. Not once had he expected Justin to keep away, and Chris hadn’t genuinely wanted him to. Chris’ life was a mess.

"Bass?" He called to Lance who was sitting at the computer. Lance looked up and Chris waved him over. "Can you do me a favour?"

Lance nodded. He sat on the edge of Chris’ desk, waiting for Chris’ favour.

"Justin asked me at Brian’s to let him know when we were doing another all ages show. I talked to the other guys and they agree that we seem to make more money on all ages shows, so we’re going to have one next Friday."

Lance smiled and Chris narrowed his eyes.

"What’s that smile for?"

"Nothing," Lance shrugged. "I’ll tell him." When he was sure that was the whole message, Lance went back to his desk across the room, pleased to know that Chris was missing Justin as much as Justin was missing him. He knew he was probably going to cross a line, but Lance had something he needed to know. "You know Chris, it doesn’t have to be a bad thing."

"What doesn’t?"

"That you like him. He’s a really great guy."

Chris inhaled deeply before deciding not to say anything. Instead, he rest his head down on the desk and finally admitted himself that Lance was right and he’d made a big mistake.

End Chapter 33


Chapter 34 >