< Chapter 16

Chapter 17

"What are you doing here?" Justin dribbled the basketball between his legs effortlessly. The sound of the gym door opening beside him had slightly startled him, the fact that it was Lance had thrown him completely off.

Lance held up the camera he had around his neck and grinned. "I’m covering the first Varsity practice of the year for the paper. Em is on the football field covering the cheerleading try outs and football practice."

"Timberlake, this isn’t social hour. Get your backside over here and run drills with everyone else," Coach Griffiths barked from the bleachers. Justin waved and nodded in his direction, not exactly moving. "NOW!"

Lance burst into laughter as Justin yelped and sprinted across the basketball court to where the rest of the team was running drills. There were about two dozen people sitting on the bleachers, watching the boys practice. Some were hopefuls, watching and gathering pointers for when they, themselves tried out in the upcoming week, but quite a few were girls, sitting around, giggling and watching the boys play.


Lance immediately recognized Olivia Weston sitting with her usual posse of three. He took a picture of them, cheering and clapping as Nick and Justin both went up for alternating jump shots. There were a few more crowd shots that Lance knew would be perfect and so he maneuvered around the gym, taking random pictures as he went. Once he’d made his way to the bleachers, he sat in a vastly empty section, snapping photos of the team as they went through a vigorous hour and a half of practice. Drills went for just over a half an hour, and once they were finished, the team divided into two smaller teams to play against one another.

They were given a ten minute break midway through the practice, where Justin and Nick joined Lance on the bleachers. "Oh my goodness, I have news for you." Lance whispered when they sat down with him.

Nick’s eyes opened wide as Justin toweled off the sweat on his forehead and neck. "Gossip?"

Lance nodded. "Total gossip. But you can’t tell anyone, unless they tell you." He could see the confused expressions on their faces and sighed. "Like, if you’re talking to Chrissy or Brit and they tell you, you can tell them you know, but don’t tell them until they tell you."

"Oh, okay," Nick said, getting even more excited. This sounded like extra juicy gossip and they had been at a serious lack of it lately. "What is it?"

"Last night," Lance started, "Marshall Mathers asked Emily out."

Both Justin and Nick’s jaws dropped while Lance grinned knowingly.

"I KNOW!"

"Oh my god, are you serious?" Nick squealed in surprise.

For the remainder of their break, Lance told Nick and Justin in detail everything that he and Emily had talked about the night before. As they’d showed up at the Report office that afternoon to collect the cameras for their assignments, Emily had confessed that she and Kyle had discussed Marhsall and everything that had happened the afternoon before. Lance had been worried that Kyle would be upset, but surprisingly, he was really cool with it. In fact, Emily had mentioned that Kyle wasn’t surprised that other guys thought she was sexy and beautiful. He trusted her and so wasn’t threatened by Marshall’s advancements. Of course, Emily confessed that he had been a little more attentive to her as they had been kissing good night, which only made the night better for her.

"He wouldn’t admit it, but he was a little jealous. So he was trying to remind me just how much he loves me," Emily had whispered. Lance had blushed and shook his head. He didn’t need any more information than that.

"Carter, Timberlake," Coach Griffiths called from centre court. "Would either of you be joining us again today?"

Everyone on the gym turned to look at them, causing them both to stand up and wave.

"That’s enough show offs," Griffiths laughed. "Unless you want twenty laps each, you’ll be down here..." At the sound of twenty laps, both Justin and Nick were across the floor faster than Justin had been the first time Coach Griffiths had yelled at him.

After rehearsals and try outs, the gang had decided to all meet at the Shake Shack. Chris was out of class early that day, and had arranged for his sisters to stay at Mrs. Wilington’s house until his mother was off work, that way he could meet up with Justin and the gang at the restaurant. Nick was at one end of the table sitting with Christina, Britney and Josh while Justin, Chris and Lance were at the other end of the table, with everyone in between. They had just received their drinks when Christina lightly pinched Nick’s thigh.

Nick turned to look at Christina who was watching him through wide eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows, silently asking her what was wrong when she widened her eyes as if to tell him she had big news for him.


The atmosphere around them was loud and boisterous, everyone laughing and joking as Britney told them stories about try outs and Emily confessed how much fun she’d had taking pictures for the Report. Nick looked around, noticing that no one was paying them any attention, so he scooted his chair away from the gang. Christina followed suit. Last minute, Nick got an idea and stood up. "Anyone have quarters?"

Christina narrowed her eyes but he silently pleaded for her to follow his lead.

"Why?" Lance asked, checking his pockets. Within seconds the gang had thrown up a few dollars in quarters, all which Nick scooped up gleefully.

"Jukebox," was all Nick said as he grabbed the quarters and Christina.


"Good idea," Christina whispered as they had their backs to the group, who were back to discussing the events of their days.

"So what’s up?" Nick asked. He desperately wanted to know if Christina knew about Emily and Marshall, but knew he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone unless they knew. He couldn’t find out if Christina knew without telling her, so he hoped that she would be the one to bring it up. Knowing how close Christina, Britney and Emily were, he assumed that she would know by now, but at the same time, wasn’t sure.

"I don’t know, what’s up with you?" Christina asked, just as guarded as Nick. Emily had told her and Britney that afternoon about Marshall Mathers asking her out the day before after school, and since then she’d been dying to tell Nick about it. Marshall had been one of the guys the year before that had thought that her reputation had been accurate and had spent many an afternoon, hanging out by her locker, trying to convince her to skip class and drive down to the point.

At the very start of the year, she had been very naive and trusting. One afternoon he had offered to drive her home from school. Thinking that it had been a genuine offer to just drive her home, she had accepted. It wasn’t until he’d driven around for a while and suggested more, then made the move to kiss her that she had asked him to just take her home. He had protested that he’d heard from friends of his that she was easy and just wanted to have some fun. She wasn’t up for that type of fun. In his defense, he hadn’t forced himself on her nor had he been rough, but the emotional pain had been enough to make up for the physical pain she’d been spared.

They stared at one another, neither speaking until finally Christina broke. "Do you know?" Nick inserted a few quarters into the machine and made a few selections. He turned to her with a sly smile on his face.

"Maybe, do YOU know?"

Christina growled and punched him lightly on the arm. She knew in that moment that he knew, if he didn’t know something and she did, he would be begging her to tell him. "Can you believe it?"

"Believe what?" Nick teased. They glared at one another until they both started to giggle. Nick looked over his shoulder. No one was paying them any attention, he then turned to Christina whose eyes were wide. "Who told you?"

"Em," Christina answered. She raised an eyebrow silently, asking him the same question.

"Lance," Nick said, as if it were obvious. He paused for a second. "What do you think?"

"I can’t believe it," Christina admitted. "I mean, not that she’s not pretty, because she totally is. But, Marshall?" The shudder that wracked her body caused for Nick to step in and hug her tightly.

"And the fact that he was like ‘if you change your mind, let me know? Like he was asking her to cheat on Kyle," Nick whispered. "Did you tell her..."

"Everything," Christina finished for him. She’d told Emily everything she knew about Marshall. She’d made sure to assure her that he’d never forced her, but at the same time, explained his blatant disregard for women in general, especially how he treated them like sex objects, as he had done to her. "She told me that she wasn’t ever really interested in him like that, but was still flattered that he was so forward."

"Lance said he was freaking out when she told him. At first he thought she was going to dump Kyle for him."

Christina burst into laughter, which caught the attention of a few people at their table. Seconds later, they were joined at the jukebox by Justin. "What are ya’ll talking about?"

Nick opened his eyes wide as Christina mumbled "Emily."

"Ohmygawd, how Marshall Mathers is hot for her?" Justin said in an excited whisper. Christina laughed and rolled her eyes while Nick just sighed.

"SHHHH."

"No one heard me." Justin turned to Christina. "Her and Kyle are okay, right? He’s not, like, freaking out?"

Christina shook her head. "No. They talked about it. It’s all good."

They talked for a few more minutes as they picked the last of their songs and headed back over to the table. Nick slid into his seat with his eyes focused on Justin and Chris. Seeing his best friend with his boyfriend was bittersweet for Nick. He knew how much Justin missed Chris since they didn’t get to see each other as much as they had before, but at the same time, was jealous that Justin could see Chris at any time where he could only see his boyfriend via their web cams.

In the middle of the table, Kyle was focused on the conversation between Billy and Josh, while his mind was drifting to his girlfriend and the fact that she had been asked out the day before by a guy that was definitely not him. He knew that he had one of the most beautiful girlfriends in the world. Since the minute they’d met, he had become instantly attracted to her, that attraction only strengthened the closer they became. Never in the duration of their relationship, had he ever felt cause to not trust her, and even now, after finding out that just the day before, Marshall Mathers, some dude in her calculus class had asked her out, that trust hadn’t wavered. The moment they had pulled away from the school when he had picked her up, she told him that she needed to tell him something.

An hour later, when they were hanging out in his basement, they had the house to themselves and had spent a good portion of the time making out, she had confessed that she’d been approached and propositioned by someone in her class. Kyle listened while she told him the story, not saying a word until she asked him his thoughts. In honesty, he thought that it was flattering, that other guys wanted his girlfriend. The whole part where he wanted her to call him if she changed her mind, not necessarily if they broke up, irritated him, but he knew that Emily wasn’t the type of girl to play him like that. If she was, then he wouldn’t have fallen as much in love with her as he was.

They had spent a lot of time the night before talking about it, she had confessed that she’d told Lance, but he promised not to say anything until Kyle found out. All day, Kyle had been trying to get Josh and Billy alone so he could tell them what had happened, to get t heir opinions, but every time he started, someone else would approach. Either Christina and Britney had come by, or AJ had needed to talk to Josh about something, not to mention actual classes getting in the way.

With Christina gone to the juke box with Nick, Kyle leaned in to say something to Josh. "After you drop Chris off, come by my house."

"Everything okay?" Josh asked, mildly concerned. It wasn’t often that Kyle asked him to come by, and by the looks in his eyes, it was serious.

"Totally. I just ...don’t want to tell you in front of everyone."

Josh nodded. No more would be said until Kyle was ready. Kyle then turned to Billy, motioning him to lean in. "Tonight, after we drop everyone off, you and Josh are coming to my place."

Billy saw something in Kyle’s eyes and nodded without even questioning it. He knew his best friend well enough to know that it wasn’t negotiable.

"For sure."

~*~*~*~*~

Kyle stretched out on his bed while Billy sat on the chair in the corner. Josh was curled up on the floor with one of Kyle’s body pillows. The TV was off, and his CD player was on low in the corner of the room. Once everyone had gotten comfortable in ‘their’ spots, Josh and Billy looked at Kyle expectantly. He had been the one to call the ‘meeting’ of sorts, so he would have to be the one to start it.

"So, someone asked Em out yesterday."

Josh’s eyes nearly bugged out while Billy burst into laughter. Billy’s laughter died out when Kyle glared at him.

"You’re serious?"

"Uh, yeah."

Josh turned to Billy, confusion written on his face. "Why are you shocked someone would ask her out?"

Billy blushed and shrugged. "I don’t know. It’s ...everyone knows that you two have been together forever. No one would even try."

"Not true," Josh argued. "That might have been the case at St. Peter’s, but you’re in a whole different world now. No one knows you guys, at least not yet. They might see the two of them together, but they wouldn’t necessarily know."

Billy thought about it, finally giving Josh a shrug. "I guess you’re right." He then turned to Kyle and offered an apologetic smile. "So, who was it?"

For a second, Kyle didn’t want to tell his friends who the guy was, especially Josh. That afternoon, Kyle knew that Emily had told Britney and Christina about what had happened the day before. It was then that Christina informed Emily of her past dealings with Marshall and what had happened. Emily had then gone to Kyle to tell him what Christina had told her. If he hadn’t disliked Marshall before, he surely did now. Knowing what had happened between Christina and Marshall, Kyle figured that Josh wasn’t all too fond of him, and thus didn’t want to get his friend upset or angry.

"Well?" Josh prodded. He didn’t like the look on Kyle’s face and sat up.

"Uh ...it was ... Marshall..."

"MATHERS?" Josh sat up quickly, the colour draining from his face. Memories of what Christina had told him about the countless guys who had assumed she was easy and would put out flooded his mind and he felt his blood boiling. Although he had been grateful that Marshall hadn’t been forceful or violent with his girlfriend, it didn’t mean he didn’t like or trust the other teen. In fact, Josh made certain to avoid him and his friends at all costs. Now, learning that he had propositioned Emily only refueled those feelings. "Are you kidding me?"

Kyle shook his head slowly. He could see the confusion in Billy’s face and sighed. Josh explained very succinctly, who Marshall Mathers was and why he disliked him. Billy listened with a frown on his face, and when Josh had finished with his story, he turned to his best friend and gave a shake of his head. "Are you serious? This guy asked Em out?"

It was Kyle who nodded this time as he told Josh and Billy the story Emily had told him the afternoon before. They listened quietly until Kyle signaled that he was finished. The room was silent for a few minutes later until Billy started to chuckle. The soft laughter echoed against the walls and before they knew it, all three were laughing hysterically.

"I’ll bet you wanted to kick his ass," Josh said through his laughter. He saw Kyle nod.

"At first I was ready to beat the shit out of him, but then I was kind of flattered that someone’s after my girlfriend so hard core." Kyle saw Billy raise an eyebrow and laughed. "And then I wanted to beat him up again, just for thinking about her."

Just the thought of Kyle fighting with anyone caused for Billy’s laughter to resume. His best friend was definitely not a fighter, in fact, Billy couldn’t think of a time Kyle had ever been in a fight. "So what are you going to do about it?" Billy asked.

Kyle shrugged. "Nothing, I mean, not unless I have to. She said that he acted like nothing had happened and he was the same with her as he always is. He was flirting and stuff, but nothing I should worry about."

"What if he keeps trying?" Josh asked. He knew Marshall and the type of people he hung out with, and was not eager to start anything with them. He would back Kyle up if necessary, but hoped it wouldn’t go to those lengths.

Kyle shrugged. "I’m not going to let him get away with it. He has to realize that she’s my girlfriend, not public property."

Kyle then told Josh and Billy what Emily had told him about Lance, and his reaction to her news. When Emily mentioned that she’d talked to Lance about it, Kyle had felt a little uneasy and wasn’t sure how Lance would react or what he would think about it, but had been pleasantly surprised at how offended the younger teen had been on his behalf. The two of them had never been close, Kyle could barely remember the two of them having more than a half dozen conversations total, but knowing that he was concerned about Kyle’s feelings and how Emily was treating him caused for Kyle to develop an even deeper respect for him.

"Wow," Billy said, clearly impressed. Josh only nodded, a wide grin playing on his lips.

"Lance is a pretty cool guy. If I had to pick someone for AJ to be with, I would pick him." Josh could still remember the first time AJ had spoken to him about questioning his sexuality. He had been scared, but nevertheless had confessed to Josh that he might not be as straight as he’d always led him to believe. There hadn’t been any definitive moment that had clarified anything for him until the day Nick and Justin had invited Lance to the quad for lunch. It took two seconds of looking into Lance’s eyes, seeing him smile nervously for any questions AJ might have had to be answered. That night, they’d had their talk. The confession had come as a shock to Josh, but he’d never questioned his friendship with the younger teen. AJ had always been his best friend and always would be, being gay wasn’t going to change that.

"I’ve never really talked to him, not for longer than a few seconds here and there," Kyle admitted. Billy nodded in agreement.

"He’s very quiet, especially compared to Nick and Justin. They’re loud, more extroverted. Lance is too when he’s comfortable with you, but for the most part, he’s more quiet and reserved. One of the smartest people I know, I mean, he’s a year ahead in math which I suspect wasn’t his idea. From what Aje says, he should probably be a few years ahead but they had to fight with him to skip the one grade. He didn’t want to bring too much attention to himself by skipping more."

"Well, he was pretty cool with Emily. She said that she was really comfortable talking to him," Kyle said. He turned to his best friend and nodded in his direction. "What do you think about all the guys that are always drooling over Brit? Last year, you didn’t see it as much since we were at St. Petes, but now you see how she is at school, how guys are always checking her out."

It was true, the year before Billy never had to witness Britney at school, nor had he known about the guys who were always walking by her locker, smiling at her or saying hello. Some asked if she wanted them to carry her books to class, something that Billy hadn’t realized that guys still did. At first he thought it was annoying and drove him crazy, but once Britney had assured him that there was nothing to worry about, and he saw for himself that she only had eyes for him, he chose to ignore it. There was also the issue of girls watching him and smiling as he passed by in the hall. It wasn’t something that either of them could control, so rather than get worked up about it and upset, he chose to just ignore it.

The three talked for another hour. It was getting late and they all agreed that they should get going. Josh drove off in one direction while Billy went in the other knowing that in less than twelve hours, they’d be seeing each other again.

~*~*~*~*~*~

To: kevin.richardson@ucla.com
From: Nick Carter <gooberpatrol02@hotmail.com>
Subject: Randomness
Date: September 16 2005 9:04PM
Attachments: nicky1.jpg, missingkev1.jpg, nicky2.jpg, blowingkisses.jpg, howmuchiloveyou.jpg

Hey Kev,

I just got home from the Shake Shack and was checking my emails when I thought I would write to you and say hello. I hope that your second week is going just as good as your first week did and that you aren’t stressing out too much. I know how sometimes you like to pretend that everything is okay and you tell me that you’re fine, but really inside you are freaking out and don’t want anyone to know. I know this because I see your face, when you are here anyways, when you aren’t here I can’t see your face ...but I see your face and your eyes are twitchy and you play with your hair more than usual.

Maybe I should e-mail your roommate and ask him if you’re stressing out. I can give him a list of signs to look for and what to do if you’re stressed out.

But I’m sure that he might not be as eager to kiss you and cuddle with you and whisper sexy words into your ears like I do. I know that always calms you down, and by the time we’re done making out, whatever you’re stressing out about is forgotten and you’re okay.

I so wish I were there right now just so we could do that. I miss you tons and I hate that I have to sit at lunch every day and watch everyone else making out with their girlfriends and boyfriends. I know that Justin doesn’t have anyone to make out with at school, but then when we go to Chris’ rehearsals, or we all get together, Chris is there and then THEY are making out too and I’m all alone.

But enough about me, how are you? Really? You don’t have to pretend for my sake. Unless you’re having a fabulously awesome time that you’re so glad that you’re gone from here and don’t miss us at all, because if THAT’S the case, then I don’t want to hear about it. Not all of it anyways. LOL.

So basically, I want you to tell me how much you miss and love me and wish you were here but glad that you’re where you are because it only makes you miss and love me more so when we see each other at the end of the month (you’re not allowed to cancel now! I’ve already got your name with a heart around it on the Friday you said you’d be coming down), you’re going to pounce on me and do fun and sexy things with me.

Okay, enough about you now. Sheesh. Lets talk about me for a bit.

Just kidding.

Everything’s good here. Olivia Weston and her gang of girls have been at every basketball practice so far, plus they’re always giggling at us in the halls and watching us in the quad at lunch. I think that her friend Jena Watson is in love with Lance though, which is so funny because he thinks it’s funny that the girls all love us, but when it’s him it’s horrible. Duh! That’s what we’ve been telling him this whole time with Stacey and Beej liking Justin and me. Well not Beej liking me because ewww and gross, but you know what I mean. You better know what I mean!?!

Brit tried out for cheerleading yesterday. Emily is working with Lance on the Lincoln Report now. She takes pictures. Apparently she’s always wanted to be a photographer, but never really thought she was good enough, and Lance was saying at lunch earlier this week that they needed more people to take pictures for the paper and the yearbook. Kyle said she should go out, she wasn’t sure if she should and Lance wouldn’t let her not. So she went, they loved her, she loves it and she’s doing that now. Between her, Lance and this fresh meat kid that they’ve coerced to take pictures, they’ve got to cover all events and social gatherings, so she took the cheerleading try outs and the first post win football practice of the year, while he came to the basketball practice.

So from what they all said, Brit was awesome, so they’re so going to pick her. I think she finds out tomorrow or something. We’re having try outs for varsity in the next few weeks, first week of October I think. I’ve noticed a few guys at our practices, some that tried out last year, some new faces. There are a few freshmen that are sitting in, watching us play, but I don’t know how good they are. We’ll see I guess.

Oh, and the biggest news has been that Marshall Mathers, do you remember him? Well, apparently he’s been sitting with Emily in their calculus class or whatever. He’s always flirting with her and talking to her and walking her to her locker after class. Well, the other day Kyle met her after class and they walked to her locker together, and Marshall thought that he was making a move on her and decided that he was going to have to make his own move soon, so the next day after school ....which was yesterday actually, so yesterday he goes up to her after school and tells her that he thinks she’s hot and wants to go out with her. Now, I think that he just meant have sex with her, but he might have meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend. Well, she told him that she was flattered and he thought she did want him so he got all excited until she told him about Kyle.

And do you know what he said?

He said that it didn’t matter. That if she changed her mind, then she should call him. He didn’t care that she was with Kyle, he still wanted to sleep with her. What a jerk. I remember last year, he and his friends gave Chrissy a hard time when they thought she was a slut and wanted to sleep with her. They almost made her transfer to another school and it wasn’t until she started dating Josh that they backed off. Now, they pretend she doesn’t even exist, which she prefers, but hopefully he won’t bug Emily like that. So that was exciting. She told Lance ...Lance, of all people! Huh! Funny! But yeah, she told Lance and then he suggested she tell Kyle, which she was already going to do. They talked about it, then Lance told me, Aje and Justin, but Emily told Chrissy and Brit. And I heard Kyle telling Josh and Billy that after we all left tonight he wanted them to go to his house, so I’m sure he’s telling them, so the whole gang knows, but it’s so weird that Marshall was totally hitting
 on Emily and it’s this huge piece of gossip that everyone knows but we’re all supposed to pretend that we don’t know.

Nick winced, trying to figure out if there was anything else he’d missed in his letter to his boyfriend. He’d taken to keeping notes in his journal of things he had to remember to tell Kevin when he wrote or spoke to him. Scrambling across the room, Nick pulled out the journal to see what he’d written.

-basketball practice
-emily and lance working on paper
-britney trying out for cheerleading
-marshall asking emily out
-this year’s play
-kevin’s birthday

Nick grinned and did a seat shimmy.

So they are talking about this year’s play. Chrissy was hanging out with Joey during Drama this morning, at least that’s what she was saying. Apparently he has a spare that period and so he’d been in the drama room and she’d gone in to get a few props for a game they were playing. They got to talking and he mentioned that they were trying to decide which play to do. Joey wanted to do a musical, while the department wasn’t sure that doing another musical so soon was smart, so they’re in discussions about that. I know Christina wants to do another musical, so she’s totally on Joey’s side for that. He assured Aje and I that no matter what play we do, he totally wants us to work on the set design. I’m really excited for that, I was really worried last year about it, but it was so much fun, and I learned a lot too. So I’ll keep you updated on what play we do and when they put it on. You’ll totally have to come down to see it, if not just for my wonderful set design.

You still haven’t told me what you want for your birthday!!!! I won’t know what to get you if you don’t give me some idea. I was thinking a book or a CD or something, but that’s so cheesy and I don’t want to get you something that you’ll think is lame. I was thinking I might make you something, so don’t be too surprised if I do, but then that’s kinda dumb too because what are you going to really do with a painting or a drawing or something. Plus I don’t want to be a cheap boyfriend. So if you could give me some idea of what you want, I’d be really appreciative. *really* :) And you have to tell me what you want to do for your birthday when you come up. What we did for Lance’s birthday, and mine and J’s too this year was went shopping at the mall, went to a movie and then for dinner, which I don’t think you’ll want to do. You’re going to be 18, you won’t want to do lame, kid things for your 18th birthday.

Maybe we’ll have a pool party at my house or Chrissy’s house. It should be still nice and we can have a barbeque and have everyone over. You can invite your other friends home for the weekend, (not your now school friends, but your school friends from last year ...but you can invite your UCLA friends too) and then we’ll just have a big party, like the one you had before you left for college. But it’s up to you, you just tell us what you want and we’ll do it.

Or you can tell ME what you want, and I’LL do it! *hint hint*

Nick was blushing at the implications of his suggestion. He felt his stomach flip excitedly as heat pooled in his belly and groin. He had hoped that at some point while he was writing Kevin’s e-mail, the older teen would sign online and they could talk. No such luck. Nick looked at the clock and saw that it was past 10pm. He was going to have to get to bed soon. Not to mention his eyes were drooping. He still hadn’t gotten into the swing of early mornings and such full days. There was still at least an hour of homework he had to do before bed, something he was supposed to have had done before he could e-mail Kevin.

I don’t want to have to cut this short (short LOL ...this e-mail is anything but short), but I have to get going. I promised mom and dad that I would have my homework done before I emailed you, but of course I didn’t. I couldn’t wait so I came right on. Now I have to actually get my homework started so they don’t flip out and have a cow on me. But what else is new lately! LOL

Everything is going well with me. I miss you tons, but that is about the only thing that isn’t news! I think about you every single day, a million times a day and still sometimes look down the hall and hope that you’re going to walk around the corner at any minute, with Chris, Joey and Brian at your side just like you did every single day last year. I was asking J about it, and he said that sometimes he looks over his shoulder, waiting for Chris to stop by his locker until he remembers that he’s gone too.

We miss you guys tons. I miss you tons.

I love you more.

When you have a free minute or fifty, give me a call, I’ve been missing the sound of your voice in my ear.

In a split second decision, Nick turned his web cam on and waited for the programme to load. When it was ready, he took about half a dozen pictures. They were saved into a special folder and attached to the e-mail within minutes. Nick’s face had broken out into a giant grin and he had butterflies in his stomach, fluttering excitedly. He knew that Kevin would really enjoy his e-mail and the accompanying pictures. Nick just wished he could have been at Kevin’s end to see the expression on his boyfriend’s face when he opened it.

Good night my wonderful boyfriend. Sleep sweet with dreams of how much I miss you dancing in your head. Write back soon. Send pics.

I love you tons and tons and tons.

Hugs and kisses,

Your Nicky. Xoxoxoxox

~*~*~*~*~

Quietly, Kevin crept into his dorm room, aware of the soft snoring coming from Drew’s bed. Kevin hadn’t intended on being out as late as he was, but he’d run into Jordana at the library and after they’d both read enough to make them both cross eyed, they agreed that what they needed was some fresh air. Hence, they’d taken a refreshing walk around campus. It was just after midnight.

The computer hummed quietly as it loaded. Kevin turned the volume down so that it wouldn’t disrupt Drew’s slumber. Once he had logged onto his UCLA e-mail, Kevin quickly scanned the new messages he’d received. One in particular caught his eye and he grinned, opening it immediately.

He read the e-mail eyes slightly misty, a grin covering his face. Kevin inhaled and exhaled deeply as his eyes darted to a picture that sat on the desk, eight smiling faces, all staring at him. One face in particular stood out and Kevin grinned at it. The soft gasp echoed in the room as Kevin reached the end of the e-mail and found the presents it contained.

Immediately he clicked on ‘Reply’. Sleep would be a long time coming tonight.

End Chapter 17


Chapter 18 >