Disclaimer--I don't know any of the members of *NSync, or their sexualities, and I am making no claims about either. This is all totally fiction. Feedback please. *'s indicate italics.
Chapter 2
Plink.
One stone.
Plink.
Now, another.
Plink-plink.
Two--that'd definitely get his attention.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
"Come on, Lance," Justin gritted almost silently, standing under Lance's bedroom window. Lance's light was on--he had to be awake, he just had to be. The night was balmy and slightly breezy, both the moon and the stars shining in full force. A perfect night to be outside. And Lance was wasting it by being deaf. Cursing his friend's hearing (silently of course--he was too young for the desire to rebel by actually saying the words to overcome his innate fear of getting in trouble by using them--even only saying them in his head made him feel slightly guilty), he laboriously made his way up the rose trellis conveniently placed outside Lance's window (or maybe not so conveniently--Lance's father, after all, had been a little boy, too, once upon an ago). Finally popping his head above the windowsill, he was met with the sight of Lance, dressed in his pajamas (his favorite--horses of all colors pranced gaily all over a white background), sitting crosslegged on his bed, grinning straight at him.
"Took you long enough," the older boy smirked.
"You knew I was down there? You heard me?" Justin was nearly apoplectic with rage.
"Keep your voice down. You know how good my mom's ears are." As if on cue, Mrs. Bass's voice floated up the staircase. "Lancey dear? Are you okay? I thought you were asleep."
"Fine, Mom," Lance called back.
"You heard me down there? And you still let me climb up?" Justin hissed, more quietly now, yet not to be diverted from his righteous anger.
"Of course. I wanted to give you the chance to keep getting your 'muscles and stuff'". Lance grinned slyly.
"Ha. Ha. And it's your fault I got scratched by your mom's stupid roses. Look." Justin held out his bruised hand for closer inspection.
"Awww, did the big bad knight-to-be get an owie?" Lance cooed mockingly. He collapsed into giggles under Justin's glare.
"Just come on." Justin was now attempting his own "agitated cat" impression.
"Okay, okay. I'm coming."
"Oh yeah, nice pajamas, by the way."
"Shut up." ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lance changed back into his day clothes, and the boys made their way quickly and quietly over the fields, surrounded by dancing fireflies. Their footing was sure, lit by cool, white moonlight, accompanied by the soft hooting of owls, and the bubbling of water in the various streams that ran through the countryside. They climbed up a steep foothill--to such small boys it seemed almost a small mountain, and lay down at the top, settling their bodies into the fragrant grass. They lay there a while, just absorbing the night.
"Lance?"
"Yeah?"
"How come you don't wanna be a knight?"
Lance shrugged, shoulders rasping against the grass. "I dunno. It just doesn't seem all that great to me--running around in that smelly armor, leaving your family, having to fight people, maybe getting killed. Doesn't that bother you?"
"Nah--it's too exciting. I'll get to see different places, and do lots of things. Besides, I won't get killed." Justin waved away such naysaying with the assured invincibility of youth. "So what are you gonna do when I leave?"
"Help my dad in the smithery, I guess. You know, make horseshoes and stuff." Lance's father was the town blacksmith.
"Do you really like that stuff?"
"Well, I don't really care, but I know I can do it, once my dad teaches me, and then I'll only have to work during the day time and I can do other stuff at night."
"Stuff like what?"
"Like, read. You know how much I like to read."
"Yeah." Lance had always been weird that way.
"Hey, Just." Lance turned his head left, toward his friend, whose indigo eyes reflected the night sky perfectly.
"Hn."
"You know Janna?"
"Taylor? What about her?"
"Well, she, um, kissed me." Cool, calm, relaxed Lance was suddenly fidgety.
"WHAT? When?" Justin sat up and stared at Lance, mouth open.
"After supper, she came when her dad came to my dad about some horseshoes. You know how moms always make you go off with other kids when adults are talking."
"Yeah." Not that he minded much. Adults were boring.
"Well, we went to the creek behind the barn and she told me that she decided to marry me when we grow up. And since I was going to be her husband, she could kiss me. Then she did."
"What was it like?" Justin asked, interested in spite of himself. As a rule, girls were annoying and were always giggling for some reason or other.
He was a confirmed bachelor, yes sir. Except for his and Lance's moms, the entire gender was more trouble than they were worth.
"It hurt. We bumped noses."
"Other than that, did you like it?"
Lance's face scrunched up, wrinkling his perfect brow as he searched for the right words. "Not really. Well, it wasn't gross but, I mean, she kinda took me by surprise and it was so quick...it was just kinda...there. Know what I mean? Besides, I don't like her all that much. She's always staring at me anyway. It's creepy."
"Oh." Justin, for perhaps the first time in his short life, was at a loss for words, and he suddenly felt incredibly young. Lance, his best friend ever since he could remember, had done something he hadn't. Lance, to whom he was so close that their parents often joked that they seemed to be joined at the hip, had moved beyond him somehow, and he felt a sudden pang of resentment that any sort of change should come into his life. He felt something else, too, but at the time he was far too young to recognize jealousy for what it was.
Copyright 2000-2001 Cat's Eye