Blind Date Chapter 21
Hey all! Sorry it's taken a few months for this chapter. I decided I wanted to pick up the pace seeing how the last 20 chapters all take place in just a two week-ish period. Hoep you enjoy the chapter.
First the dull, boring legal stuff:
Disclaimer: This story is not true. Its Fake. Pure Fiction. This never ever happened. I don't know anyone in N'Sync nor do I know the sexuality of Lance Bass or Joey Fatone or any of the NSYNC guys. What I do know is that this story is mine. Please do not steal it. Everything in the story is (c) 2003 Mark Quigley. You must be 18 or 21 depending on your local laws to read this as this story does deal with male to male sex at times.
That being said please enjoy the story and remember-Don't forget to write me and let me know what you think! I love feedback; it's what drives me to continue! ASUMark2000@yahoo.com is my email address and if you want to IM me on AIM/AOL, then my just email me and let me know and I'll give you my screen name!
In order to accommodate all the people who are asking me, about when the next chapter comes out, I've created a Yahoo Group (Oi, Yahoo is like the Borg!): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mark_writings This is the page of the group, If you would like to be notified when a new chapter gets posted please go join my group. {smile} I'll try and make sure there's fun stuff along with this.
Last time: Breakfast went on as the guys had a couple more helpings, with Lance seeming to be eating the most. Once everyone had their fill, everyone started to make their way to the elevators. Two arrived at the same time, Mark and Lance got into one and were then followed by Joey. The looks on the three faces must have been caught be everyone else as they went into the other elevator.
The doors closed and after a few seconds of silence Joey spoke up.
"Umm, Mark, I um, well, how come you didn't tell the guys that I hit you?"
The silence lasted a minute before Mark spoke softly.
"Because had I it would led to even more questions. I promised you that I wouldn't tell the guys what I saw and I will keep my word. Lance knows because we don't keep any secrets, we discussed this and both agreed that we have to be open and honest with each other in order to make this work. I'm sorry that I didn't think to tell you that Lance would probably find out when you asked me not to tell anyone and I'm sorry that you felt the need to knock my lights out. But most of all..." The elevator doors opened and Mark and Lance started to walk out when Mark stopped at the doors and turned around and faced Joey. "Most of all, I'm sorry that you put Lance in a position where he had to be torn between the love he has for his boyfriend and the love he has for his best friend Joey." With that Mark stepped back to let the elevator doors close leaving Joey alone.
And now Chapter 21!
Lance stood there looking at Mark. "Don't you think you were a little hard on him?" He spoke up once the two started to walk down the hall.
"Probably, but I felt it needed to be said." Mark saw the look of disappointment in Lance's face. "I'm not mad at him, really. I can understand where he was coming from; hell, I was there once myself when dealing with my sexuality. I'm more disappointed than anything else. Just give me a little time and I'll talk to him again. I'm not going to let this one setback ruin my friendship with him."
The two reached the door of the room. Lance opened it, grabbed Mark's hand and pulled him into the room and in an embrace as he shut the door with a swing of his foot.
"Thank you. It means so much to me that you be friends with the guys. The group is the main part of my life and I want you to be part of that."
"Sweetie, I'll bend over backwards to be with you. Joey's confused about himself right now. I can't be mad at him for that." Mark kissed him on the forehead.
Lance looked up, "Bend over backwards huh?" A smirk came across his face.
Mark laughed, "Go get ready for your sound check you dirty old man." And with that he gave him a playful push towards the bedroom.
Lance started towards the bedroom, "Hey, who's the older one in this room?" He padded into the bedroom before he could be hit with the sofa pillow that was airborne.
About an hour later everyone met up in front of the elevators where one of their guards was standing. Apparently there was a large group of fans in the lobby waiting for the guys to head to the concert hall for their sound check. Mark stayed up on the floor with Dale while the group went down to the basement and left via a service entrance.
Dale followed Mark back into his suite.
"So I understand you gave Joey a little dressing down this morning."
"I spoke to him briefly about how I felt, yes."
"From what little Joey told me it sounded a lot more than a brief talk. He seemed upset about it."
"Look, Dale, what I said to him was between Joey, Lance and myself. But if you must know, I told him I would keep my word about the two of you and I told him that I won't keep any secrets from Lance. That's that." Mark grabbed his bag and started to pack up his clothes.
"Going somewhere?" Dale knew better from Mark's tone not to continue down that path.
"Well the guys leave tomorrow morning for Denver and I thought I'd get most of my stuff packed up now. We've been invited to dinner and to tonight's show then Lance and I will have just a few hours till he has to get some rest and I'd like to spend as much time as I can with him." Mark placed the birthday gifts into a duffel bag. "We get a night here and then we fly back to Phoenix. We'll hang out, I'll let you ride along with me on patrol and we'll finish out your visit."
Mark finished up his packing while Dale watched. The two hung out around the hotel, did a little gambling, lunch and watched some movies. Dinner was uneventful and both Mark and Dale enjoyed the VIP treatment they got at the concert. The two made their way backstage towards the end of the concert. Justin and Chris wanted to go out dancing for their last night in Vegas, Joey was reluctant as he wanted to be with Dale but ended up going out to keep up appearances. Dale ended up tagging along with the others as it was obvious that Mark and Lance wanted to spend the evening alone together.
Everyone went back to the hotel to get ready. Lance and Mark had a more romantic night planned. Mark sat on the bed as he watched Lance pack his stuff up.
"I'm going to miss you so much. I really don't want to go."
"You have to, it's your job, your life and you and I both know you couldn't give it up even if you tried. Besides, I don't think I'd want to be with someone that didn't stick with their dream. We'll make this work if we both want it to and I know I want it."
"And I sure as hell want it too." Lance stopped his packing and turned towards Mark. "It's going to hurt not being with you. Lance walked over and hugged Mark.
"We'll make it work and we'll be together sooner than you think, you'll see, the days will fly by and then you'll be in my arms again."
Lance looked at Mark and nodded, kissing him gently. After a couple of minutes of gently loving kissing Lance went back to his packing. Once he was done the two moved into the bedroom and ended up making love until about five in the morning when the two finally fell asleep intertwined with each other.
Eight o'clock came around all too soon and Lance found himself awoken by the phone. It was Justin calling to let him know that they would have to board the bus at ten. Lance managed to wake up Mark and the two showered and got dressed. A knock at the door found that the rest of the guys had ordered breakfast for the two.
Eventually the time for Lance to leave came about. Mark followed him out to the elevators where the others were waiting along with their manager and security group. The group said their goodbyes and to Mark and Lance's surprise they all gave him a hug goodbye, even Justin and Joey hugged him.
Mark remained up on the hotel floor as there was a large crowd hoping to see the group as they left. Dale came up to see theguys off and move into the suite Mark and he would stay in for the last night. He said his goodbyes, shaking hands with everyone. Once the guys got into the elevator Mark went back to the suite and out on to the balcony to watch the guy's bus leave.
As Mark looked over the railing of the balcony down to the street he saw a bus drive by and his cell phone began to ring. He pulled it out from his pocket and opened it. He didn't even need to look at the caller id to know that it was Lance.
"Miss me already?"
"I could see you from the bus." Mark could hear sadness in Lance's voice.
"I had a feeling you might. Hey, don't be so sad, remember we'll be together soon. I don't have a job, so I am free for a while. Which means I'm sure well find a way to be together." Mark was fighting back the tears he could feel swelling inside.
The two chatted for about an hour with each other, mostly about what was yet to come and they both seemed to not talk about when they would be together as they could sense the sadness in each other. Eventually, the guy's bus had moved too far out into the Nevada desert and the cell connection was dropped.
Mark spent the evening exploring Las Vegas with Dale. The two walked the strip visiting the various casinos. They watched the pirate show at Treasure Island, viewed the water ballet of the Bellagio from the top of Paris's Eiffel Tower. They even took in a show at Mandalay Bay. Finally time came where the two had to fly back to Phoenix.
The flight back was uneventful. Dale stayed for two more days with Mark. The two hung out and just chatted about Mark's options. Lance called like clockwork four times a day. Mark always seemed to cheer up when it got closer to the times Lance would call. Mark applied for his unemployment benefits and started checking the net and newspapers for jobs. He placed his resume on several online sites and even faxed it to a few numbers that Lonnie and JC had given him. To keep busy Mark started to put more hours in with his volunteer job with the Tempe Police Dept.
Several weeks went by as Mark applied for jobs, went on interviews and spoke with Lance on the phone. Their love continued to grow even though they couldn't be with each other.
Mark had gotten a call back about a job with an airline and even though it paid a lot less than what he was used to he decided that since it had been the only offer in two months he would take it. The only down side was that the job wouldn't start for another month. Mark decided he wouldn't tell Lance about the job until it started as he didn't want to jump the gun to early. One of the nice things about the job was that after 15 day he would get free travel benefits on the airline and they flew to Orlando!
After talking with Lonnie, Mark discovered that the first weekend that he had his flight benefits would fall into a 3 week period that the guys would be in Orlando. Mark decided he would fly out and surprise everyone, but it would still be 6 weeks before he could do that.
Five weeks later
Mark had started working for a Phoenix based airline as a ticket/gate agent. It was busy work but it was a job and soon he would have his flight benefits to where he could fly for free on the airline and be able to surprise Lance. Their calls had gotten more frequent and intense. Lance had even tried to visit Mark one weekend but bad weather forced the guys to reschedule one of their concerts and rearrange their schedule.
Mark had the night off and was working on his volunteer job when Lance called him.
"Hey babe, how's it going?"
"Hey! It's so good to hear your voice. I've missed you."
"Same here I keep dreaming about you. I still am sad we had to reschedule last weekend; I really wanted to fly out there."
"Don't worry about it, we'll be together soon. So what are you doing?"
"Well, we're on break right now doing some rework on a few tracks in the studio. Still have a couple of hours to go, should be done around 7pm. What about you? Find a job yet?"
Mark winced, he hated to keep his new job a secret from Lance. But he really wanted to surprise Lance. "No, not yet. Right now I'm on duty on my volunteer job. Should get off patrol about 2 hours after you get done, waiting till after rush hour."
"Everything going ok today?" Lance always worried about Mark doing this volunteer job. The guys even teased him a little bit about how he was a typical cop's wife.
"It's been a little busy, just got done clearing a 962. Now I'm just patrolling around."
"What's a 962?"
"That's an accident with injuries." Some idiot ran a red light and wasn't wearing his seat belt. So he got ejected through the front windshield."
"Ugh, how gruesome, think we can talk about something else?"
Mark chuckled, Lance was always a little squimish. He remembered the night when the two watched Thirteen Ghosts on HBO at the same time while talking on the phone and how Lance would get when the gory scenes popped up. "Sure, we can talk about anything you want."
"Shit, Justin just popped his head into the room, they want us back in the studio so I have to go. I'll call you when you get off duty."
Mark sighed. "Okay, I love you and miss you."
"Love you too!" Lance hung up.
Mark continued on his patrolling for a few more hours. Things were pretty uneventful. He still had about an hour left when he started driving up the northbound side of Price Road. When he passed Southern Avenue he saw a car off to the side of the road with it's hood up. Mark flipped on the patrol truck's light bar and pulled up behind it to see if he could be of assistance. Before exiting the truck he grab the mic on his radio.
"Victor-425" He radioed in to dispatch.
"Victor-425" Was the response.
"585 Mary, 3209 North Price. Tan Olds Cutlass, Arizona 972 Sam John Frank."
"Victor-425 acknowledged." With that Mark got out of the truck and walked toward the disabled car. He noticed that there was someone in front of the car and looked like there was someone under the hood on the passenger side as well. Something didn't sit right in his gut as he walked closer to the car but before he had a chance to respond to that feeling the guy on the passenger side stood up and had something in his hand.
In a split second Mark saw what he had in his hand and that's when he felt the first bullet hit him in the chest, forcing him back with a force he had never experienced before. Four more shots rang out and struck Mark, each one pushing him back and causing him to stumble towards the ground. By the time the last shot's sound faded Mark had fallen on to the street. The two guys from the car started to run away towards a local housing development. Mark could feel the warmth of the black asphalt underneath him and his energy drained from him. Groggily he reached for his hand radio, managing to depress the small red button that was located on the front, then he stumbled his fingers to the mic key and managed to gasp out into the mic. "Nine, Nine, Nine."
With that his world went dark.