Fallen Star (Part 3): Laughter! Tears! Facials?!?
This is a fictional story, describing erotic relations between two consenting adults. If this makes you uncomfortable, or if it is illegal for you to read something like this, then why are you here in the first place?
The following story is entirely a product of my imagination, and is not intended to imply anything about any real people.
Permission is granted for this story to be distributed solely by the Nifty Archive: http://www.nifty.org/. You may of course keep a copy for your own use, but you may not redistribute it.
Author's notes follow each installment.
"Are you coming?"
Justin's voice snapped me out of my reverie. He was smiling at me from the door of the hotel.
"Yeah, I'll be right there."
As we entered the lobby, I was surprised to see the other four guys dozing on a group of sofas in a corner. I nudged Justin and pointed at them. He responded with an evil grin and motioned for me to follow him.
When we were within about ten feet, Justin broke into a run, launching himself at JC. He landed squarely on top of his midsection. Several obscenities poured forth, but not from Justin's victim.
"Goddammit, Justin! What the fuck are you doing?" Chris shouted at the younger man, leaning up on his elbow.
"Jesus Christ, J!" Joey said.
Lance was more restrained. "Gosh, Justin, that wasn't nice."
All this time, I was concerned that Justin had hurt his target with his landing. I was proved wrong when the still-sleepy JC bucked his hips and flung a giggling Justin on the floor.
"You know, you could have just SAID you were back."
Justin was still laughing when he answered. "Yeah, but how would that be fun?"
I snorted at that, not because it was all that funny, but because it was just the kind of comment I had come to expect from Justin. He seemed to be the cut-up of the group so far, not crazy like Chris was, but more innocent and interested in fun.
My noise had drawn attention to myself. The five guys turned towards me almost simultaneously, and the light-hearted mood of the room vanished.
"Uh, Dean," Chris said. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine, really, thanks. I made Justin bring me back to apologize for how I was acting. It was really foolish of me to..."
"Why don't we go upstairs? More privacy that way, if you know what I mean," JC indicated a small crowd that had been drawn by the commotion earlier.
"Alright, if you're sure."
"We're sure. I think we have a lot of apologizing all around to do," Lance said. He smiled weakly at me.
"Sounds good."
I followed them over to the elevators. The ride up to their floor was quiet, although I could feel a lot of eyes focused on me, one pair in particular. The doors opened on the biggest black man I had ever seen in my life.
"Excuse me, sir, but this floor is closed to the pub...oh. Hi guys," he said.
"Hey, Lonnie," Joey said. "This is Dean, a friend of ours. He's cool."
"Nice to meet you, Dean," Lonnie said as he enveloped my hand to shake it. It was a surprisingly gentle touch.
"Same here, Lonnie." I was still in mild shock from Joey's comment about being a "friend" of the guys as we walked down the hall into a suite.
"Dean, I'm so sorry. I had no idea that you would get so upset, and it really wasn't any of my business," Lance said to me with a downcast look.
"Oh, Lance, you have nothing to be sorry about. You didn't know anything about the situation. I overreacted, and I'm really sorry. All of you." I looked around the room at each of them.
"Don't worry about it. What are friends for if their not there to let you blow off steam?" JC said with an ironic smile.
"I can't believe you guys count me as a friend. I'm basically just some guy you met on the street today. You don't know what that means to me."
"Well, we don't have a lot of friends, Dean. You seem like a great guy, and I don't just mean the person from TV. We're still sorry," Joey said.
"I don't have a lot of friends either, but I wish you guys would quit apologizing. I think I owe you an explanation."
Lance shook his head. "No, Dean, you don't have to say anything at all. We underst..."
"Lance, did I ever tell you about how stubborn I am?" I saw Justin smile across the room. "Now, I want to tell you about what happened two years ago..."
A half hour later, there had been some laughter, mostly when Joey fell out of his chair while leaning too far forward in anticipation. It had been perfectly timed during the story, relieving the tension that had been building up.
There had been a lot more crying, mainly from me. I was grateful that the guys were sympathetic, with Lance and Justin even joining me in shedding a few tears.
"Oh, Dean, I had no idea. I'm so sorry, please forgive me. I should have never said anything," Lance said, wiping at his eyes.
"Lance, like I said, you never could have had any idea about this. You should have seen me when Connie Chung asked me the same thing...I think I'm banned from ABC for life. That diner stuff was nothing."
"Come here," Justin said.
"What?"
"I said, come here," he repeated, holding his arms out. I blushed and walked over. He and Lance got up simultaneously and wrapped their arms around me. I felt the other three guys come up behind me and join in.
"This is kind of a group tradition after a really emotional episode," JC explained.
I was touched; these guys were great. It was one of the sweetest moments in my life; it was also one of the sappiest. I mean, come on, I used to be a TV drama actor, and I'd never been in a scene this corny. I started giggling at that, which touched off a chain reaction.
"Okay, I think we've had about enough of this," Chris spoke up for the first time in a little while, still laughing. "I don't know about anyone else, but I've had enough emotion for tonight."
"Movie?" Joey asked as we disengaged from each other.
"Sounds good to me," Justin said. He still had a hand on my shoulder; it was sending shocks through my body. "What do you think, Dean?"
"S..sure, sound like fun. Are you sure you guys don't have anything to do?"
"Nope, day off tomorrow," Lance said, leaning back into the cushions on the couch.
JC called over from the phone. "What does everyone want from room service?"
"Dean?" Justin looked at me.
I was kicking off my shoes. "Surprise me," I said, smiling back.
Boy did they surprise me.
"I've never seen so much food. Didn't we just eat three hours ago?"
"But, we're hungry," Joey whined, making me laugh at him over my soda.
"Joey, I doubt you're never not hungry."
The look of shock on his face was priceless. "Low blow, Archer."
Chris and JC were laughing. "Good one," they said in unison. I saluted them with my glass.
"Can we just watch the movie?" Joey pouted, causing the rest of us to start laughing at him.
The movie was interesting, but not the best I had seen. I'm not a fan of Ethan Hawke after having had worked with him before. It was just fun hanging out with these guys. They obviously had a very close relationship. JC and Lance were sharing a couch, with Chris and Joey on another one. Justin and I had opted for the floor, sitting in front of Joey's couch. We were laughing along with the others, but I could feel his eyes on me at times. I turned once and caught him looking at me. He blushed, but returned the smile. We settled back to watch the movie.
After a little while, I happened to glance over at the other couch. Lance was staring at JC. Not just a simple look, but basically trying to look through him. He must have been alerted to something, because he looked my way and blushed. I could see the color through the dark of the room. He got up suddenly and walked out into the bathroom. JC looked after him with a look of concern.
Weird.
I woke up in a dark room. Not that strange, I do it every day. What was strange was the head resting on my midsection. I sat straight up.
I was disoriented and frankly a little confused until I noticed the hotel room's outline. The events of the previous evening came rushing back, and I smiled. I was really beginning to like these guys. Justin made a little noise at my side as he shifted to accommodate the loss of his pillow, but stayed asleep. He looked so cute sleeping. My smile widened. Yes, I was really starting to like these guys.
The rest of the guys were splayed out on the floor around the room, looking suspiciously like a pillow fight had occurred at some point. I managed to make out the clock on the other side of the room and realized I needed to be getting home to meet my sister for lunch. I drug myself to my feet, trying to make as little noise as possible. I made my way towards the dresser to leave the guys a note, taking footsteps as quietly as I could. I lifted my foot carefully and...stepped directly onto Chris's hand.
His shriek of pain effectively defeated my entire purpose, as all of the guys woke up at that.
"Oh, my God, are you alright?" I said to Chris, who was still whimpering. "Let me look at it."
He held his hand out to me, and I checked it out as best I could.
"What are you doing?" Joey asked.
"Well, I took a whole bunch of first aid classes during the last season of the show when I was in the hospital. You look fine; nothing appears to be out of the ordinary. We could get it x-rayed if you want, though."
"No, but why don't you keep your big clodhoppers to yourself in the future," Chris said.
"You know what they say about men with big feet," I said, laughing, until I saw Justin grinning at me from his place on the floor. I started sputtering.
"Are you okay?" JC asked as he clapped me on the back.
"Yeah, something must have gone down the wrong pipe. Well, the reason that I crushed Chris's digits was that I needed to write you guys a note about why I was leaving this morning, but I guess I can just tell you. I have to meet my sister for lunch."
"And you have to leave why?" Joey said. "Afraid to introduce us to the family, eh?"
"Well, I didn't know if you guys would want to go, but I'm sure that she'd like to meet you. If you don't have anything else to do, that is."
"Nope, nothing at all, let's go, guys," Justin said rather quickly, causing some looks to be thrown his way. He blushed, making him even cuter. "I mean, I want to go."
"Why not?" JC asked, to which Chris and Lance nodded.
"Okay, will you guys be ready to go in like an hour? I'll come pick you up."
"Deal."
"See you guys soon," I said while walking towards the door. Justin followed me to the door while the other guys waved.
"Bye," he said, smiling at me. Why does he make me feel all funny when he does that?
We walked into the restaurant right on time, and I started looking for my little sister. It didn't take too long.
"Dean!!!" Julie screamed as she ran towards me and through her arms around my neck. "I've missed you."
"I missed you too, for the two days we haven't seen each other," I said, hugging her back and laughing. "Julie, hey, Julie, let go of me a second, I need to introduce you to some people..."
She interrupted me. "Dean, I'm 17, don't you think I know who these guys are." Turning to the guys, she started pointing. "AJ, Howie, Kevin, Nick, and Brian, it's great to meet you guys. I've been a big Backstreet Boys fan for a long time."
The five of them, from the looks on their faces, didn't know whether to laugh or feel pity for her.
I elbowed her. "Please behave, you know I don't introduce you to my friends very often because of this kind of behavior."
"I know, I know, so, Lance, you want to tell me how you hooked up with loser?" she said, hooking her arm through his as we walked towards our table.
JC looked at me with a question on his face. I just shook my head, shrugged my shoulders, and motioned that we should follow.
Lunch was great. The guys were even funnier today than yesterday, and they all seemed to like my sister. We laughed loud enough to attract some stares, and more than once I saw the wait staff look at us with disapproval. Who cares?
We decided to leave after two hours at the table. By that time I had been thoroughly embarrassed several times. I grabbed hold of my sister's arm and held her back, saying that we'd be with the rest of them in a little while.
"Thanks, Julie, for being so nice-I know it takes an effort."
She slapped me in the arm. "Stop that. I like them, Dean, I really do."
"So do I."
"I know, so, which one is it?"
I coughed. "What do you mean?"
"Which one? I know, I bet its Justin."
"How did you kno...you tricked me, dammit. I hate when you do that." My family knew I was gay, but Julie was my confidant for everything about my life.
"Shh! Not so loud. Dean, it's obvious to me. Probably not to him, but I know you."
"Julie, he tried to kiss me. I really like him."
"Well, don't look now, but I think he might be having this same conversation," she said, pointing discreetly towards the door. JC and Justin were engaged in a small discussion, after which JC walked over to the other guys and began talking to them, while Justin walked towards me.
"I think I'll make myself scarce," Julie said as she started for the door. She passed Justin and smiled at him.
"Hey," Justin said.
"Hi. What's up?" I was pretty nervous now.
"I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner tonight."
"That sounds great. I don't think Julie can join us, but I'd like to hang out with you guys again."
"Well, actually, the other guys were going to go to a club, and since we're underage, I thought maybe we could hang out alone tonight." He had a look in his eyes that I recognized from the cab.
"That sounds good," I said, trying to play it calmly. Inside, I was doing backflips. "What time do you want me to pick you up?"
"Actually, can you come by the hotel around 7:30? We can go from there."
"Okay, sounds good. I'll, um, see you later." I was suddenly shy.
He smiled back at me. "I can't wait."
Next time: Umm, Okay.
Hi guys. This one feels a little blah to me, but I needed a bridge. I'm leaving for my vacation/business trip, so don't look for anything until the first week of August.
I have a question: is the story dragging? Is there a character that needs more development? Let me know at dean_archer@hotmail.com; your comments really help me, both with story direction and overall motivation. Flames help me by providing fuel for starting my barbecue pit when I print them out.