< Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chris quietly crept through his house, relieved that everyone was asleep. He was slightly later getting home than expected and didn’t want to wake his mother up. After dropping Nick off, he had driven Justin home. Of course, they had spent an indeterminate amount of time, parked in Justin’s driveway talking. And kissing. Chris’ lips curled into a grin at the memory of how soft Justin’s skin was and how good it felt to touch him after a whole week of barely getting to see him. They hadn’t gone any further than kissing and light petting, but Chris’ whole body was humming with sexual excitement. Justin’s throaty whimpers and soft pleas were still echoing in his ear, and had they not been worried that his mother or father would hear the car outside and come to the window to witness their shameless display of hormonal affection, they would still have probably been out there.

It was just after one in the morning and Chris grabbed a glass of water as he headed down to the basement where his room was. He knew that he should get some sleep, but he was wide awake. None of his books held any interest, there was nothing on TV that Chris wanted to watch and the thoughts of listening to music held no desire for him. His eyes flickered around his room randomly, landing on a photograph taken at graduation of himself, Kevin, Joey and Brian. Without a second thought or a glance at the clock, Chris picked up his phone and dialed.

~*~*~*~

"NICK. PHONE!" Aaron’s voice carried through the house from where he’d answered the phone in the living room to Nick’s room where he was sketching. He’d gone to the art store with his mother that afternoon and picked up a few new supplies. With Kevin’s birthday quickly approaching, Nick had gotten inspiration on what to get him and wanted to start as soon as possible. He’d been sitting in his room for over two hours, working on the first part of it. As he heard his brother call him, Nick looked at the clock with a start.

"Shit, already." He was across the room and at his computer chair almost instantly. "Hello?" He asked, breathless. They waited for the click that would indicate that Aaron had hung up. Nick heard the other person on the line exhale and he grinned.

"Hey there Romeo."

Nick paused at Kevin’s nickname for him. He looked at the receiver in confusion. "Huh?"

"Oh, I wasn’t sure if you’d be home."

"Of course I’m home, where else would I be? You said you were gonna call tonight."

Kevin snickered causing for Nick’s stomach to flip nervously. "Oh I don’t know, I thought you might be on a date with your new girlfriend or something." Kevin paused as he heard Nick gasp.

"How did you know ..." Nick asked in awe. He knew that Justin or Lance definitely wouldn’t have told Kevin about everything, which didn’t make sense for Kevin to know. A thought of Kevin possibly being angry crossed Nick’s mind and he started to panic. "Oh my god, are you mad? If you know about Olivia, then you know about the letters and the kiss..."

"THE KISS?" Kevin said, trying not to laugh. Just as he’d been coming in from the party the night before his and Drew’s phone had been ringing. Stumbling across the mess in their room, Kevin had caught it before voice mail picked up and was pleased to hear Chris’ voice on the other end of the line. They had ended up talking until after four, during which time Chris had filled Kevin in on Nick’s romantic exploits of the week. At first, Kevin had decided not to say anything until Nick brought it up, but the more he had thought about it all day, the more he realized that it was too good an opportunity to pass up. He wanted to have a bit of fun with Nick by teasing him.

"Oh my god..." Nick whimpered. He could feel his cheeks heating up and his stomach flipping nervously. A million thoughts ran through his mind until finally it dawned on him. He growled and shook his fist in the air. "Chris. Chris, that bastard."

Kevin’s laughter told Nick everything he needed to know. He’d found his snitch. "I don’t know what you’re talking about," Kevin tried to speak through his laughter, but it came out garbled.

Despite himself, Nick was laughing as well. "He told you."

"Not everything," Kevin confessed. "He phoned last night when he got home from taking Justin home and we talked for a bit. I was asking how he was, and he mentioned that he’d been to the dance, and then we got to talking about what happened at the dance." Kevin took a sip from his water bottle and made himself comfortable on his bed. "So, you kissed her eh?" Kevin fought the green monster known as jealousy that resulted in thinking about Nick kissing anyone else except him. He had no idea who this Olivia girl was, when Chris had mentioned it the night before, he’d gone to his yearbook and looked her up, growling as her smiling face looked up at him, almost mocking.

"SHE kissed ME!" Nick pointed out. "How much did Chris tell you?" He wanted to know exactly what Kevin knew before he told him.

"Not nearly enough."

"It started last year, the first issue of the Lincoln Report that Lance had worked on and put the personals section in," Nick explained. "I got this message from a secret admirer saying what a good basketball player I am and how cute she thought I was. She asked if I had a girlfriend and if I wanted one. That was it, but then on Wednesday, when I came back to my locker there was a message from a secret admirer." Nick went on to divulge the contents of the first letter before he continued on to tell Kevin about how the second letter was mistakenly put in Mandy’s locker.

"So she gave you nine reasons that she likes you?" Kevin asked, both jealous and proud of his boyfriend. He wasn’t blind to how other people looked at Nick, and knew that there were at least a dozen girls in Nick's class that had gone to every single one of his basketball games the year before, giggling and gossiping about how cute he was. He knew this for a fact, because he was at every game the year before, forced to listen to them the entire time he played.

"Yeah, weird huh?"

Kevin nodded, his mind whirling. "Yeah. Weird." He made a mental note to make a list of his own, one that included a lot more than just ten. If he was going to do this, he was going to show this Olivia Weston girl who was boss.

"So then she put a message in the paper, and left me ANOTHER note that she’d see me at the dance." When Nick finished telling Kevin about the dance, the kiss and everything else, he was relieved to find that Kevin wasn’t angry. "So, you’re not mad I kissed her?"

"She kissed you," Kevin reminded Nick. He was touched that Nick was so upset on his behalf, and wasn’t at all angry with him. As worried as Kevin was that Nick would find someone else to replace him while he was gone, he was certain that it wasn’t this Olivia girl in his classes. And for that, he knew he had nothing to worry about. He was happy that now he had something to tease Nick about. "Well Romeo, it sounds like you’ve had quite an eventful first week of school."

Nick growled loudly at the ‘Romeo’ comment yet there was a grin on his face. "Oh shut up."

Kevin laughed. "I’m serious, you’re a heartbreaker. You’ll have to get used to being that guy."

"What guy?"

"You know, that guy. That guy who walks down the hall and has the girls all swooning over him. That guy who every girl wants to go out with, and every guy wants to be."

To Nick, that guy sounded an awful lot like Kevin. He couldn’t let the moment pass without saying something. "You mean, like you? You were that guy."

Although no one was in the room with him, Kevin blushed. "I wasn’t." They both knew he was.

"Uh, do you or do you not remember that time last winter, when you walked down the hall and Brit and Chrissy jumped out and threw themselves at you? When you signed their binders and pictures?" Nick rolled over so that he was lying on his stomach, head propped up on his elbows. "And how many times did you walk down the hall to have ME swooning over you? Not to mention a stadium full of people who came to watch you play football." Nick giggled at the way Kevin was making sounds of protest on the other end of the line. "So Kevin Richardson, you so ARE ‘that’ guy."

"Yeah, well I’m gone and YOU are now that guy," Kevin pointed out.


"I’m not THAT guy yet," Nick admitted. "I mean, it’s just the sophomores.."

"And some juniors, I’m sure."

Nick paused. "You think?"

Kevin nodded as he voiced his answer. "Yes. Probably some seniors too."

That thought hadn’t even occurred to Nick. His mind was now wandering, wondering if there was anyone else that had a crush on him. He was so lost in thought, that he hadn’t heard Kevin talking to him.

"Nick? Where are you?"

"Oh," Nick laughed. "Just thinking about all these girls that are in love with me." He paused for a moment before remembering that Kevin had gone to his first college party the night before and he hadn’t asked him how it was. "So, how was your party last night?"

Kevin had never been to a real college party before last night, and although Drew had given him a bit of information on what to expect, it was different experiencing than hearing about it. Drew’s older brother Nick was in his third of four years at UNLV, and thus Drew had been up on more than one occasion to visit his brother. He had been to a few college parties, and thus was prepared. What Kevin was most surprised at was that Nick hadn’t been too far off when mentioning the sex that went along with the parties. He had walked into the laundry room, looking for Jordana, only to find someone he vaguely remembered as living at the end of their hall half naked and just about to have sex with his girlfriend, who had barely even registered Kevin entering the room.

He’d stumbled on about three other couples, mid-coitus until he’d managed to track Jordana, Adam, Celena and Drew down in Dale’s room, a freshman that Kevin knew from his Psych 101 workshop. Kevin felt the need to keep that bit of information from Nick though, he didn’t need the blonde worrying about sex and whether Kevin was getting some from someone else.

The party was not what he’d been expecting, but Kevin found that he’d had a great time. It was just what he needed after a very stressful week and a hard first football practice, which he’d endured earlier in the day. At practice, it was only reinforced what he’d already learned the hard way at every single class he’d attended that week, college was sure as hell not high school. Kevin was playing in the big leagues now and was struggling to survive.

Everyone had sat around, playing drinking games and getting to know each other. They had two whole days off before the cycle started again and for a moment, Kevin fought to remember how things were just a week earlier. Drew hadn’t even moved in, Joey, Chris and Brian were still visiting and he hadn’t a clue as to what to expect for his first week of college. Now that Kevin knew what he was walking into, he would be ready come Monday to show UCLA what Kevin Richardson could really do.

Midway through the night, a girl that Drew had been eyeing all week in classes had walked past the room they were hanging out in. It took him less than five seconds to bid the gang good-bye before he chased her down the hall, their laughter following him. By midnight, Kevin found himself sitting in another room, whose, he wasn’t sure, with Jordana, the two engaged in a surprisingly serious talk.

They spoke about Jordana’s last boyfriend, how he’d played around on her and one night, as she’d gone to visit him when he’d claimed to have been sick. Upon hearing loud music coming from his dorm room, Jordana opened the door to find him in bed, naked with not just any girl, but his best friend’s girlfriend. Both Jordana and Darren, her boyfriend’s best friend, had been devastated, which had led her to make some serious decisions. One of those being no boyfriends until she could handle another serious relationship. She had been doing fine with the no romantic relationships thing until a week earlier, when Brian Littrell had walked into her life. She had fallen, and fallen hard.

Kevin spoke of his ex-girlfriend Gretchen and their parents’ plans for them to court and excel in respectable professions before settling down for marriage. He told her how they had been good friends but the pressure had soured that, leading them down a path of resentment and spite. How they had finally broken up, but that it was possibly the best thing for them because now, after time had healed their wounds, they’d become closer than ever. He skipped all mention of his current relationship, anxious for her to bring it up.

Finally, she had.

Kevin danced around the subject until finally Jordana gave up, yet Kevin knew she suspected more than she was telling. The hug she gave him let him know that no matter what secrets he was hiding, she would be there for them. It was when they’d both started to yawn, that they decided to leave the nameless student’s room they had crashed into and head to their own rooms. Kevin hoped that he wouldn’t find anyone currently occupying his room. Thankfully, it was empty and the second he opened the door was when the phone had started to ring.

"Did you drink alcohol?" Nick was curious as to how much Kevin partied. He had mixed feelings about Kevin drinking, and although he knew that a lot of people in college did it, he worried about his boyfriend. Nick had tried wine a few times before, and his father let him drink beer every now and again, but he didn’t want Kevin to start drinking a lot and become an alcoholic.

Although there had been plenty of temptation for Kevin to drink, he hadn’t. It was mostly due to the fact that it wasn’t allowed for athletes to engage in drinking or drugs while training, but also because he saw what drinking did to people and he hated to think about it happening to him. He’d heard stories about people drinking too much, partying too hard and doing things that they were embarrassed and ashamed of in the morning, not to mention that he didn’t really want to deal with a hangover, which almost always came with drinking too much. So rather than drink, he’d hung out with Jordana, who had been drinking Gatorade all night. Kevin knew that Drew had indulged in a few beers, but that had been his roommates decision to make, not Kevin’s.

"Not really, I mean, there were tons of people drinking, but I wasn’t." Kevin heard Nick’s sigh of relief and grinned. "Drew had beer and said I could have some of his, but I wasn’t interested."

"Did you want to drink?’

Kevin wasn’t at a point that he was comfortable enough drinking in front of these people. People he barely knew and had to face in the morning, no matter what happened. If it were the guys from back home, Kevin wouldn’t think twice about doing something innately stupid in front of them, because he’d grown up with them and knew they wouldn’t care, but if he said the wrong thing, or did the wrong thing in front of these strangers, Kevin wasn't sure how they would react. And so, rather than risk it, he decided to play it safe. Plus, he was one hundred percent certain that if he got drunk, he’d start to miss Nick more than he already did, and would have confessed his secret about his ‘girlfriend’, not to mention would have probably called him at two in the morning, waking up Nick’s whole house just to hear his voice.

"I thought about it, but not really. I was having fun talking with Jor."

"Your new girlfriend?" Nick said before he could stop himself. The amount of times that Kevin mentioned Jordana’s name in the conversation alone, let alone in his emails was astounding. Nick was starting to believe that Jordana was Kevin’s new soul mate, a position that he currently was holding. Or at least he thought he had. Nick cursed the jealous tone in his voice and hoped that Kevin hadn’t noticed.

No such luck.

"Excuse me?" Kevin laughed. "My what?"

"Nothing."

"Have you been listening to me?" Kevin asked. He knew that he’d mentioned her name a lot, but he’d also mentioned half a dozen times how in love with Brian she was. Kevin thought Nick’s jealousy was cute especially since he had nothing to worry about.

"I have, enough to have counted the number of times she’s come into the conversation. Who’s calling who Romeo?" The way to divert attention from himself was to make a joke out of it, thankfully, Kevin went along with it. "You say I have a new girlfriend, I think it’s you."

"Oh yeah, me, Romeo. Hanging out with a girl who’s after one of my best friends," Kevin said with a snort.

"Is she hot?" Nick asked shyly, his voice serious. He held his breath during the silence that resulted.

"Do you want the truth or what I think you want to hear?" Kevin asked, just as serious.

"What I want to hear," Nick chuckled nervously. "Tell me that she’s totally ugly and so not your type and you’d rather be single for the rest of your life rather than be with her."

"Oh god Nick, she’s so gross. I swear, sometimes I have to close my eyes when we’re in the same room because I can’t bear to look at her. And, my type? Totally not. I’m telling you, I so would rather be alone than with her." Kevin smiled as he heard Nick’s intake of breath. He could just picture Nick smiling at the other end of the line and felt his stomach flip a few times.

"Really?" Nick asked. He didn’t believe a word of it, but he loved Kevin so much for trying to make him feel better. Kevin’s next words caused him to laugh out loud.

"No, not really. Actually, she’s totally hot with a killer body. She plays basketball ..." Kevin paused for dramatic effect. "I have a thing for basketball players you know, so yeah. Unbelievably hot." Kevin licked his lips and waited for his stomach to stop rolling. "Actually, I think even you’d probably think she’s hot."

"And she’s into Brian?" Nick couldn’t help but ask again. He needed Kevin’s reassurance on that.

"Totally into Brian," Kevin reiterated. He paused and knew that his next piece of information would definitely soothe Nick’s mind. "So much that she was looking through my photo album and stole one that we’d taken at the end of junior year. Well, she didn’t steal it so much as beg me to have it."

Nick started to giggle. "Seriously?" He could just picture this girl being so in love with Brian and begging Kevin for pictures of him. Nick felt so much better about things already.

"Seriously, so don’t worry about me and her. And yes, she’s pretty hot and really sweet and all of that, but she’s not you and you’re who I want." Kevin took a deep breath of relief. Nick wasn’t at all concerned about Jordana, the last thing Kevin wanted was for him to feel threatened, especially when nothing could have been further from the truth. As sweet and smart and beautiful as Jordana was, she couldn’t compare to Nick.

Nick’s whole insides were warm. He crawled under his sheets and shut the lights off, listening to Kevin’s voice in his ear. The weekend before Kevin’s birthday couldn’t come fast enough, all he wanted was for Kevin to be there with him, in his arms.

~*~*~*~*~

"So what did you think about last night?" AJ asked Lance. They were sitting in Lance’s basement, watching TV with Stacey. She hadn’t spoken to them all night, but every once in a while, he caught her looking over at them curiously. AJ knew that Stacey hadn’t asked Lance too many questions about his sexuality or what it meant. She was most likely curious but unable to accurately voice her thoughts.

Lance’s eyes widened and he turned his head to face his boyfriend. They were sitting side by side on the couch, hands clasped between them and their feet tangled together on the coffee table. The movie Legally Blonde was on and they were watching it for what felt like the millionth time since TBS had been on a Reese Witherspoon kick lately. "Oh my god, I know. It was so weird huh?"

"I never would have suspected that she was the one with the crush on Nick." Out of the corner of his eye, AJ caught Stacey’s head whip around to look at them, curiosity in their depths. He knew she wanted to ask what they were talking about, but wouldn’t actually do so. For some reason, Stacey and Lance, who up until mere months ago had been very close, had been at odds, both finding it fun to torture the other. AJ knew, both from Lance’s accounts and eye witnesses, that Stacey was the one that had ultimately started the war, but at the same time, Lance didn’t seem too quick to end it.

Lance nodded in agreement. "Never would have thought it was her. For like ten seconds, I was thinking it was Ashlee Simpson."

AJ cocked his head to the side, "Jessica’s sister?" Jessica Simpson was a friend of Gretchen’s. Since she was a year younger, she was still at Lincoln, now a senior. Her sister Ashlee had started at Lincoln the year before and had been in a few of Lance’s classes. Of course, she’d also been in a few of Nick’s classes and Lance knew from listening to her whisper to her friends every time Nick was in the room, she was totally in love with him.

"Yeah, she was in a few of our classes last year, plus she was always at games and she totally has a crush on him. I thought it was her."

"Definitely not," AJ snickered. The memory of Nick’s expression both when Olivia had asked him to dance, and then again when she had kissed him had been priceless. AJ wished he had have had a camera for it, as it was something he wouldn’t have minded documentation of.

Lance could feel Stacey’s eyes on him and he turned his head to give her an unimpressed look. "Yes?"

Stacey blushed and turned to focus on the screen, pretending to ignore them. "Nothing."

Lance rolled his eyes. He squeezed AJ’s hand as his boyfriend leaned in to whisper for him to leave her alone. Stacey turned to face them again, clearly wanting to say something. "Who has a crush on Nick?" She asked softly. Lance rolled his eyes while AJ grinned.

"Besides you?" Lance answered. Stacey's' face turned even more red as her eyes darted to AJ in horror.

"Uh, whatever. I don’t have a crush on him."

Lance laughed openly while AJ tried to hide his chuckles. "Whatever, he told us that you said he looked hot on Tuesday. That you were so all over him and in love with him."

Stacey looked mortified, which only caused Lance to continue. Stacey had squealed on him earlier in the week when he’d been up and on the computer past his bed time, which resulted in him losing his Internet privileges for a week because he’d lied. Embarrassing her in front of AJ would be his payback because they both knew he would tell Nick about it, and AJ would be there to back him up. Her eyes narrowed and she was practically growling at him.

"We all know you are in love with him. Him and Justin. You probably practice your signature and write your names together to see how they’ll look..."

"Shut up," Stacey moaned as she stamped her feet on the floor. "Shut up."

"Stacey loves Nick .. Stacey loves Nick..." Lance sang softly. It only further aggravated her until she stood up, near tears.

"I hate you," she cried. Lance’s giant grin only added insult to the injury and she fled the room, stomping up the stairs to her room where she slammed the door and threw herself on the bed.

Lance looked rather proud of himself but AJ could feel him trembling in his arms. He knew that whatever had caused for Stacey to turn on him, was affecting him more than he’d let on. When they’d moved to Middletown from their old home, the only friends they had was each other, and when Lance had started to hang out with Justin and Nick, they slowly started to drift apart, but never to the point where he’d hated her.

"Why did you do that?" AJ asked softly. He knew that attacking Lance would only result in them fighting and he didn’t want to do that.


"Because she was being a nosy bit..."

"Hey," AJ warned. He tried to make Lance look at him, but his gaze was focused on something across the room. "Look at me."

Lance shook his head.


"Please?"

Lance felt horrible inside. He could still hear the pain in her voice, and see the tears in her eyes. He knew that teasing her would end with her running out of the room crying, as nearly everything did lately, and Lance had honestly thought it would make him getting into trouble earlier feel better, but it didn’t. It made him feel worse, and now he had guilt on top of the anger to deal with. He didn’t want to look at AJ because he knew what he’d done was wrong and the last thing he wanted was to see the disappointment in his boyfriend’s eyes.

Lance’s parents had gone to a movie and dinner for a rare night out. They were usually too busy with work or other things to go out and enjoy themselves, so when the opportunity had presented itself, they’d jumped at it. Both Lance and Stacey were old enough to stay at home alone, and knew that if anything happened, they had a list full of numbers they could call. Lance and AJ took that opportunity to stay in and watch some movies without any parents around. What they hadn’t intended on was Stacey being home and joining them. If Lance had thought it had been tense earlier, it was nothing to how it was now.

AJ pushed Lance over and pinned him to the couch, forcing him to meet his gaze. "Look. At. Me!" He ordered. Green eyes met brown and both teens melted.

"I know it hurts you," AJ whispered. He pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of Lance’s mouth. A ripple of pleasure echoed through him as Lance darted his tongue out to lap at AJ’s mouth.

"I don't know what you’re talking about," Lance pretended, ignoring the stabbing pain in his chest.

"She’s just ....things are different for her. She’s changing and going through puberty and everything is so out of whack for her, and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. So she’s lashing out at you because it seems so easy for you. You’re going through the same thing, but it doesn’t seem as obvious.. Does that make sense?"

Lance shook his head. It made absolutely no sense.

"She is confused and hormonal and emotional and she looks at her cool, unbelievably hot older brother who has the sexiest boyfriend in the world and the second sexiest best friends in the world.."

Lance cleared his throat and AJ grinned.

"Sorry," he corrected. "Third sexiest best friends in the world. You’re the second sexiest person."

"Uh, first!" Lance argued. AJ shook his head.

"No, I'm the first." When Lance raised an eyebrow AJ nodded. "Trust me."

"Fine."

"But she doesn’t know how to act around you, doesn’t know what to say so she’s just flipping out."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Lance felt hopeless. As much as they’d been fighting lately, and as much as he was sure he hated her, he missed Stacey. He missed the old Stacey who he had so much fun with and loved spending time with, no matter what they were doing or where. "She hates me, she makes my life miserable ..."

"Forgive her. Don’t react, just be there for her. It can’t be easy for her, so you have to help."

Lance was about to protest when AJ pressed their mouths together in a soft, reassuring kiss. Their tongues met and AJ tasted all of Lance’s mouth before letting him go. "But she’s always so.."

"You’re her big brother," AJ reasoned. "Despite how she seems possessed by the devil lately, she loves you. And she looks up to you."

Lance was about to shake his head when AJ took that opportunity to kiss him again. "Next year she’s going to be freaking out because she’s got to start high school, and as much as you pretend to hate her right now, I know you love her. And you miss her, and it hurts you to see her so miserable all the time."

Lance grumbled, wondering why he should have to be the bigger person. AJ ground his hips down on him, making him loose all track of his thoughts. "More," he begged. AJ repeated the action, causing for Lance’s whole body to tremble. They were play fighting, both taking any opportunity to rub up against each other when Stacey’s voice filled the room.

"Umm, Lance?" Lance looked up to see the shocked expression on his sister’s face. He hadn’t expected her to come back out of her room at all for the rest of the night, so he hadn’t felt awkward in fooling around with AJ, even though it had been relatively tame compared to their usual games. It was the first time she’d ever really seen them physical, more than holding hands, and Lance could see the shock in her eyes.

He was just about to ask what the hell she wanted when AJ’s elbow jabbed into his waist roughly, cutting off the remark. "Yeah Stace?" Lance rolled off of AJ, landing on the floor with a thud. He stood up and readjusted his clothing. "Sorry about that ..I didn’t know you were coming back."

Stacey shook her head, looking anywhere but at Lance or AJ. Her face was red and she looked very uncomfortable. "I just ...phone ...for you ...Justin." She put the cordless phone on the table next to where she stood and ran back up the stairs as fast as she could. Lance sighed when he heard her bedroom door slam shut.

"Go to her, I’ll talk to J," AJ prodded gently. Lance gave him a desperate look, asking what he should do when AJ smiled. "Just listen to her."

"I can’t believe this," Lance grumbled. He headed up to Stacey’s room and knocked when he arrived at her closed door. No answer was forthcoming so he knocked again. Very slowly, the door opened and Stacey’s eyes peered out from the crack. "Can I talk to you?"

"I’m sorry, I knocked but you didn’t hear me. The phone rang like four times, I thought you would get it," there was a note of panic in Stacey’s voice which cut through Lance like a knife. "I won’t tell mom..." The last thing Stacey wanted to do was tell her mother what she saw Lance doing with AJ. Not that they were doing anything bad, their clothes were still on and she could see their hands, but still, it was way embarrassing to admit that she’d seen her boyfriend making out with another boy. It wasn’t a secret that he and AJ were going out, but at the same time, she’d never before witnessed them together, especially not without parents around. It only made her wonder what they did when no one else was in the house, and how far they went.

"I’m not mad," Lance assured her. He could see how nervous she was and felt bad that she was uncomfortable around him. She knew he was gay, but at the same time, knowing it and having to witness it was very different, and he hoped that she wouldn’t have a problem with him now that she’d seen him with AJ. "I just ....wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" Stacey opened the door just a bit more and peeked her whole head out. AJ was nowhere to be found, it was just Lance.

"Why you hate me. Why you’re suddenly this crazy..."

Stacey moved to slam the door shut but Lance stuck his foot in the way. It squashed his foot hard, but he stayed firm despite the pain. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Too bad." Lance pushed his way into Stacey’s room. Everything looked exactly as he’d remembered it from the last time he was in there, except for the fact that there was a picture on her night stand in a frame. It was a picture of Justin and Nick that they had taken in the summer at one of Nick’s pool parties. Lance had wondered where the double to that picture had gone, but no one could seem to find it and he assumed that they’d just lost it. Stacey’s eyes followed his line of sight and she gasped as she saw what he was looking at. It took her only a few seconds to run across the room and flip the frame around. In what was a split second decision, Lance ignored what he’d seen. He knew what it was like to have a crush on someone from afar, knowing that it would never ever happen. Stacey knew that Nick was in love with Kevin and that Justin was in love with Chris, and he felt a twinge of sadness that she had a crush on both of his best friends which would never be returned.

"Why are you here?" Stacey was guarded and suspicious. She refused to let him know how bothered she was.

"I want to know why all of a sudden you hate me, why you’re out to get me. And why you won’t look at me right now."

Stacey met Lance’s eyes and was startled at the expression on her brother’s face. Along with the annoyance and frustration was concern and fear. These were the same eyes she’d been looking in her whole life. These were the eyes to her best friend, her only confidant and the one person she knew she could always turn to. These were the eyes of her big brother who always protected her, even when she was horrible to him.

It was then that she confessed everything. How she had liked a boy in her class and they had held hands a few times at recess. They were starting to get along and one of her ‘best friends’ had gone behind her back to start spreading rumours about her. She had liked the boy and when he admitted he liked Stacey better, the girl had started to turn everyone against her. Stacey hadn’t expected everyone to follow her, but they had, leaving her alone. That had been before school had let out and during the summer, she’d been pretty much alone, no one talking to her or wanting to be her friend for fear of being turned on as well.

And the boy that had been the cause of it, he had decided he didn’t really like Stacey all that much after all.

All the while she was miserable, Lance was having the best time of his life in high school, never even noticing how miserable she was. He had a boyfriend. Awesome best friends. Went to dances. Parties. Football games. Everything, while she would sit at home, no friends and no one to talk to. Even her old friends back home had started to get boyfriends and were out more, not online when she was home to talk to her.

It was then that Stacey’s jealousy had started to cause her to turn on Lance. If he was happy, she would hate him more. She didn’t want to be mad at him, but he was the easiest target.

As Lance thought about it, he realized he had been too self involved to notice Stacey’s behaviour. She had often asked if he was staying home, upset when he confessed he wasn’t. She would ask if he wanted to go to a movie, or hang out, and he would always blow her off, citing that next time they would do something. She’d been deserted by her brother, her best friend. Lance felt horrible.

It had taken a phone call to Jane Carter about Nick’s sleep over to change things for Stacey. Diane had spoken to Jane, and they had set up a girls’ day out with BJ. They had gone shopping and to lunch. Where Stacey had been in one of the grade seven classes, BJ had been in the other. The classes didn’t often mingle much, which was why they had never spoken before. Although BJ could remember hearing how Alicia Werthings had been chasing after Cole Reid for ages and when he had admitted liking Stacey Bass, suddenly Stacey was to be treated as a social leper. Since she ran in different social circles, BJ hadn’t thought much about it, but when she and Stacey had spoken that day when they’d gone shopping, she had to admit that Alicia was a bit of a bitch and she’d never liked her. The two had become friends instantly.


They had a common bond, their brothers. They had an even more common bond, their adoration for Justin. It took Stacey a bit of time to admit that she also had a huge crush on Nick, BJ insisted that she wouldn’t hold Stacey’s questionable tastes against her. What Stacey learned that week, the first week of grade 8, was that although they were in separate classes, BJ’s status was a lot higher than that of Alicia Werthings and now the people who were once treating her as an outcast and nothing, were all fighting to be her best friend.

Lance took a deep breath and felt his stomach do flips. He couldn’t believe that he’d missed so much of Stacey’s life, especially since she’d been so unhappy for so long. They had both taken a seat on her bed, sitting cross legged, looking at each other. "I’m sorry," he finally said with great remorse.

Stacey’s eyes filled with tears and she shook her head. "It’s not your fault. I mean, you didn’t make her turn on me and tell everyone to be mean to me.."

"But I should have seen how miserable you’ve been. I should have noticed and tried to talk to you about it."


Stacey bit her lip and gave a reluctant nod. "I guess so." Their eyes met and she tried to smile. "I’m so sorry for being so mean to you and getting you in trouble."

They talked for a few more minutes, both finally getting everything they’d been wanting to say to each other off of their chests. Lance couldn’t help but bring his sister close to him and hug her tight, needing her to know how much he loved her. "You know, no matter what, you’ll always be my best friend, right?" He asked softly. They both pulled away and he looked deep into her eyes. "There’s nothing you can’t ever tell me or talk to me about, even when we’re fighting and you think I hate you, I’ll never hate you so much that I won’t be there for you."

A million thoughts ran through Stacey’s mind as she nodded her head. Before she could stop herself she asked, "What’s it like to be gay?"

Lance’s eyes widened and she blushed. They were both silent for a moment. "Uh, I don’t know what it’s like to not be gay to compare," Lance answered truthfully. He took a deep breath and clasped Stacey’s hand in his. "I’m sorry that you caught us making out."

"Do you make out a lot?"

Lance hesitated in answering, afraid that she would go to their parents to tell. She must have been able to sense his reluctance because she frowned.

"I’m sorry, you don’t trust me and you probably don’t want to tell me."

Lance closed his eyes and took a chance. "Not all the time. Like, yeah, we do make out, but it’s not all we do." He thought for a second before adding, "But we haven’t done IT yet."

‘Gross." Stacey shuddered, causing Lance to laugh. "I’m never gonna do IT." She stated confidently.

"Even with Justin or Nick?" Lance teased softly. He winked to let her know he was teasing. She shook her head.


‘Even with Justin or Nick. Kissing is one thing, but that’s just gross."

Lance laughed as he pulled Stacey close for another hug. "You’re so gonna be changing your mind about that Stace, trust me."

"You’re not going to tell them ...are you?" Stacey looked up at her brother hopefully, afraid that he would tell his best friends how in love with them she was, even to the point that she had their pictures in a frame beside her bed.

Lance wanted to tell her that they already knew, but decided against it. They were his best friends, but so was she. "Of course not Stace." He was taken aback by the way she flung herself in his arms, hugging him tightly.

"Thanks Lance. And I really am sorry about everything. I’ll be a better sister from now on."

"And I’ll be a better brother," Lance promised. Never again did he want to fight with Stacey for as long as they’d been fighting. He hated when things weren’t right between them and was glad that AJ had forced him to come to talk to her. They’d gotten a lot of issues out in the open and were finally both on the same page. "Do you want to come back down and watch more TV with us?"

Stacey clearly did, but at the same time didn’t want to intrude. "Nah, I’ll just stay up here. You guys probably want to be alone."

Lance shook his head as he grabbed his sister’s hand. "We can be alone any time, I’d really like you to come down and join us." The smile on his sister’s face was worth a million times more than anything in the world. She tightened her hold on his hand and let him lead her down to the basement. AJ was waiting for them, a surprised expression on his face as he watched them come downstairs together, both of them smiling and holding hands.

"Everything okay?"

Stacey nodded. " Yeah, thanks. And I’m sorry for.." She was cut off by AJ shaking his head.

"No need to apologize."

They all made themselves comfortable once again, AJ and Lance cuddling on the couch while Stacey took the chair. "So, what did Justin want?" Lance asked. He ignored the way Stacey’s attention focused solely on AJ’s answer.

AJ shrugged. "Bored and wanted to talk."

"Wasn’t he at Chris’?"

"Yeah," AJ answered with a laugh. "Figure that out."

End Chapter 15


Chapter 16 >