Disclaimer: This story is a work of pure fiction and is not intended to imply that Hayden Christensen is gay.

If it is illegal for you to be reading this story in your city, state or country, or you are offended by homosexual activity, then leave now.

The story's time frame is about March/April 2002, the time when Hayden was in the west-end starring in "This is Our Youth". Remember, this is fiction, nothing more.

Constructive feedback, good or bad, is much appreciated. I am a novice writer, so I need to hear this shit.

IS THIS OUR YOUTH?

Chapter 4

The theatre was packed to the brim, much different to the matinee that had finished just a few hours ago. That matinee had only been three quarters full. Now, people were busy moving to their seats, trying to find the toilets, and buying snacks or programmes. The whole place sounded alive with voices; more like the start of a small concert than that of play.

Kelly was lost in the moment. She kept dragging Joe to all the individual vendors to see what they were selling.

"Joey, we have got to buy a programme. It won't have a memento if we don't."

Joe was too distracted to pay attention. "What the fuck is he doing here? Shit! I can't take this. He shows up...now!"

Kelly went into upper-class mode. "Watch your tongue. I've never heard such vulgarity come out of your mouth." Returning to normality and sympathy, "When we go back to sit down, make an excuse for you and Tom to leave, so that you can ask him what happened. And don't worry about Alex, I'll look after him."

Kelly lifted her hand to Joe's left ear, and started to rub the back of it. The effect was working. He was starting to calm down. She then took his hand and led the way. She had her work cut out; Joe was resisting all the way to the VIP Stalls.

"Hey Tom, there's a Ben and Jerry's Vendor," said Kelly. "If you want any, you better go up there before they sell out."

"Okey dokey," Tom replied, realising what this was really about. "Come one, Joe. Let's buy the whole stock."

Tom got up, and Kelly took his seat next to Alex. As Joe and Tom walked away to have their talk, Joe looked back to see Kelly and Alex getting very chummy. He really didn't want to see that. To him, it was like seeing your wife in bed with your enemy, although Kelly was most definitely not his wife, and Alex was not his enemy.

"What happened? I thought Aidan was coming? Why is Alex here? I can't believe you invited Alex. Are you nuts? Are you punishing me for something? What did I do to you?"

"What's with the questions? Jeez! Aidan couldn't make it. He called saying that his dad needed to taken to the hospital for some reason. He didn't go in to details. I bumped into Alex on the road. I sort of told him that we had this thing going on, and that Aidan wasn't able to attend. Alex, with his round-a-bout way, got me to invite him. I'm sorry. But remember why you're here. It has nothing to do with Alex, and everything to do you with this Hayden character."

Joe nodded. He knew without hesitation that Tom was right. They took their seats, with Joe sitting on the other side of Alex, as if to prove something to himself.

A familiar scent entered Joe's mind. He breathed it in deeply, savouring its beauty. When he realised what he was doing, he tried to dispel it from his consciousness. So many times before, he had wanted that scent to be close to him. So many times before, that scent had been right in front of him, but completely unattainable. At this very moment, that scent was sitting right next to him as though the last year had never happened.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked. "You seem a bit distant."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Joe lied. "I just want the play to start."

"Tom said you know one of the actors, and that's how you got the tickets."

"`Know' is overstating. But I hope that will change soon."

Shit. Joe had given too much information. After all that bravado and composure, Joe had given Alex a bit of his secret. But Joe barely noticed. The music had started and the curtain had been pulled. The play had begun.

Second times are never perfect. The connection between Joe and Hayden was certainly there. Hayden kept working in subtle glances into his performance; glances that only Joe, Tom and Kelly noticed. Joe couldn't wait for the play to finish. He just wanted to be back in Hayden's company, and away from Alex, and his mobile phone.

Alex kept unintentionally interrupting the performance by allowing his phone to be left on. The first time it went off, it was only heard by the four companions, and Alex quickly exited the auditorium to take the call. He came back fairly quickly. On the second interruption, the phone echoed through the entire auditorium, but they managed to ignore it and continued to watch the play. Once again, Alex exited to take the call. He came back looking extremely flustered, angered even. Joe was thankful that the interruption hadn't caused a scene between Alex and a very annoyed patron. He also hoped that it had not broken Hayden's, or his cast-mate's concentration.

The third interruption was the last straw.

"Turn that phone off, for Christ's sake!" shouted a heavily built man in the upper circle.

Alex answered the phone. "Would you stop calling me? I've already told you I'm watching a play..."

"Is that wanker talking on his phone? Someone should stick that thing up his arse!"

"Alex, come on!" Joe grabbed Alex's arm and pulled him from his seat. As Alex was being dragged, a massive applause erupted from the patrons.

"Hey, can you here that?" Jake asked Hayden, still in character.

"Yeah, sounds like its coming from outside," replied Hayden, catching on to what Jake was doing. The two of them then pretend to look out a window.

"It looks like some guy is being pelted with tomatoes, and the whole crowd is cheering."

"He probably deserves it."

"And so anyway..." Jake said; now ready to continue with the play.

Thank God for improvisation.

Joe practically pushed Alex through the doors leading back into the foyer. He never thought that he would be as angry with him as he was now, and with something as embarrassing as interrupting a play with a mobile phone.

"Jesus Christ, Alex! Why didn't you turn off your phone when you went into the theatre? It's fucking common courtesy!"

"I'm sorry Joe, I forgot. I just broke up with Jen and..."

"Okay, I get it," Joe's anger started to melt. He wanted to offer up something meaningful, profound even, but all he had was, "If you need to talk about it..."

Alex interrupted, "No, that won't be necessary. It will probably make you madder at me."

This was unbearable. Joe wanted desperately to talk to Alex, if only to get closure. But he also wanted to rememorize his voice, his eyes, his lips, and his skin; the final picture of a deep crush that almost killed him; a memento before his move on to the next stage of his life.

Alex was the one to break the lingering silence. "We better go back in, and don't worry; I've already turned off my phone."

"Lead the way."

During the intermission, Joe was given a card by one of the ushers. It was an invite from Hayden for Joe and his three companions to come back stage after the performance. The usher would come back to lead them to Hayden's room. The air had certainly cleared, and now there was only half a performance left before things can really get started.

"Where's Alex disappeared to?" asked Kelly.

"He said he was gonna go to the gents," Tom replied. "He should be back any second...hopefully he won't come back at all."

"Now listen here, Alex is still a mate, regardless of my past feelings towards him. And that thing with the phone...well, there's a good reason for that, and although we all know that he should of just kept it off, it's easily forgivable."

"You have far too much heart, and that's why you get hurt so easily, my dear," responded Kelly, taking a spoonful of her Chunky Monkey ice cream. "If I were you, I would look for as much negatives about the guy as possible. No easier way to get someone out of your head than by focusing on their faults."

"I think we should stop this conversation right now..."

At this very point, a voice came on the intercom system. "The play will resume shortly, but first, if you will turn your attention to the stage, we have someone with a few words to say."

Joe, Tom and Kelly, along with the whole auditorium, looked in the direction of the stage. It was Alex, in all his lean glory, with a microphone in his hand.

"Testing, testing...one, two, three." Alex tapped on the microphone, making sure it was working. He looked so nervous, but he told himself that he had to continue. "Hi, my name is Alex. I'm up here to apologise for the incessant ringing of my mobile, and I truly do apologise. I probably embarrassed my friends to no end, but I'm sure they'll survive...oh, and to the man, seated in the upper circle. I believe he's seated in UC F 10." The secondary spotlight was now focused on the surly man in UC F 10. "Yes, I am a wanker, and probably everyone in the room has been in some point in their lives, but I don't believe I've had the pleasure of having a phone shoved up my arse."

The audience erupted in laughter, all except the surly man in UC F 10.

Alex continued. "Perhaps you should try it. Maybe it would loosen you up a little."

Surly Man was now standing up, as with ready to attack on a moments notice.

"Whoops, I think I angered him a little too much. Here you go, have a drink on me."

The same usher that gave Joe the card was now on the upper circle, handing the surly man a bottle of champagne. The man understood the gesture, and decided to accept. He gave Alex a long distance nod and sat back down. The audience gave another massive applause, much louder than the one that had shamed Alex.

"Right, with all the formalities out of the way, all I can say now is `on with the show'!"

Alex now exited the stage and went back to rejoin his friends. When he sat back down, Joe just had to say, "Always trying to be the smart-ass!"

"Alex replied, "Well you know, `when in Rome...'"

Just as Joe was going to ask what he meant by that, the lights went down and the curtains went up. Hayden was lying on a bed, pretending to be asleep. The intercom buzzed. He sluggishly got up to open the door to an excited Jake Gyllenhaal, and now, Joe felt at peace.

Just as before, the play finished with the three actors coming onto the stage and bowing to a track from The Strokes called Is This It'. Joe and Tom were already familiar with it; they had been big fans of The Strokes since Last Nite'. Kelly thought it was some obscure song from the early eighties, seeing as the play was set in the Regan era. Standing ovation filled the auditorium, and Hayden spent most of it facing Joe's general direction. He whispered something to his co-star, Anna Paquin, and then the three of them left the stage. Immediately after, the usher came through the curtains that enclosed the stall. He told them that Hayden was ready for them to come in, and so they followed him backstage.

Thankfully, there were no other guests backstage. Joe had dreaded a barrage of teenage girls, begging for autographs, making it impossible for him to reach his goal. He asked Hayden about it when he went in.

"That's because they're all outside the theatre," Hayden replied. "We don't let anyone in here unless they're important."

"And so my friends and I are important?"

"Definitely; where are they, by the way?"

"They're behind the door. They're a bit scared to come in. They think you're a god!"

"Very funny; Come on, bring them in. I want to meet them." Hayden gave Joe the puppy-eyes routine, and even whimpered, but then his look became cheekily devilish. "I really want to get it on with that Asian chick!"

"What?"

"And that guy with the lean body and creamy skin," Hayden continued. "There are all kinds of bad that I want to do to him."

Joe was dumbstruck. He really didn't want to be hearing this.

Hayden exploded into laughter. "Jeez, you take me way too seriously. I want to get to know you first...before I start messing around with your friends."

"You aren't funny at all." Joe was on a high. The deranged flirting was really turning him on; that, and Hayden getting it on with Alex.

Hayden had moved in really close to Joe. Joe's eyes closed, and Hayden did the same. Their foreheads were now resting on each other. Their lips started to lightly brush against each other, when the door flung open, and Kelly came rushing in.

"Hi, I'm Kelly. I've heard so much about you!" Kelly gave an I-caught-you smile to Joe, who returned it with an I-hate-you-right-now scowl. "I just loved the play. It was so funny, I almost peed my pants."

Hayden didn't know what to make of this little bundle of energy, except that he liked her; she seemed so sweet. If only he knew the depths of her lunacy.

"Kel, where's Alex and Tom?" asked Joe.

"They went to the Gent again," replied Kelly. "You know what; I think something saucy is going on between those to boys."

Joe gave Kelly another scowl. "I seriously doubt that."

Just then, Alex and Tom walked in. "Did we miss anything important?"

"Just Kelly accusing you two of being fags!" replied Joe. "But we all know that it's just her sexual fantasies coming through her mouth, as usual."

Hayden loved to see other people's rapport with their friends. As an actor, you strive to understand how a character interacts with others on the stage; without that understanding, the actor falls flat.

From the moment they left theatre (after the endless signing and photo-taking), Hayden observed all the conversations and stories, and all the interactions.

He found it intriguing that Joe's friends were at ease to poke fun at each other's sexuality. To him, Kelly seemed to relish the idea of being Joe's `fag hag', hamming it up to theatrical proportions. He could definitely see her as being an actress someday.

Tom seemed dependable. Hayden already knew that from when he first ran into him and Joe at Neal's Corner Sandwich shop, and by the way Joe talked about him in their conversation. He knew that Tom was Joe's rock; his pillar of strength in times of need. That's not to say that he's boring, or not as quirky was Kelly. Sometimes, Tom would just say a word, as though he had Turrets syndrome (which he doesn't).

Hayden found Alex to be the rogue element. Sure, he liked the guy, but he couldn't see him as being a regular fixture in Joe's close circle of friends. Something that would later be confirmed after the fourth round of drinks in The Crow Bar, one of Joe and Tom's favourite late-nite hangouts.

"Alex is part of the group," said Tom his words slightly slurred. "It's just that he doesn't o-pen up enough to let anyone get close. Isn't that right Joe...no...sorry, Alex?"

"That's right, Tom," Replied Alex, his eyes a bit dazed. "You see, Hayden...it's all a defence mechanism. Humour is an easy fix to avoid giving anything up."

"So let me get this straight," interjected Hayden, his eyes closed but his finger ready to point. "Joe, Tom and Alex were in High school together. Tom and Joe have always been best friends...so how does Alex fit in?"

"Alex is close friend of Aidan's, Tom's other best friend," replied Joe. "Sorry if this gets a bit confusing. I didn't really hang around with Aidan until we all reached sixth form, and then Alex started to hang around us as well." A flash of memory sparked in Joe's mind. It was time to change the subject. "So anyway, there's me, of course, Tom, Alex, Aidan, Emma, Sarah, Lucy, Lucas, and Kelly."

"Yay...me," Kelly exclaimed.

"Kelly's new," Tom added. "Those other people, we became friends with them in high school and sixth form. But Kelly, She was a peace offering from Joe. They met in Art College." Tom then started to nod, like those toy dogs that you have on car dashboards. "He went off to Art College and forgot about us for a while, and so when he came back to us, he brought us Kelly."

"And what a fine peace offering she was," said Alex.

"Stop, please...your make me sound like a whore."

"Ah, we know you're not a whore. You're a right little madam." Joe then leaned over to kiss her on the forehead.

"The Bar is now closed!" shouted the Nordic blonde bartender. Tom liked her a lot.

Hayden asked, "So, what now?"

"We usually go back to Joe's place. His folks work nights."

"They're also out of the country. They're taking an extended holiday in the motherland. They won't be back for three months."

"What about your brothers?"

"Mike usually stays over at his girlfriend's. And John moved out to live with his girlfriend last month. I'm practically there by myself."

"All kinds of bad could be done there." Hayden added. He looked at Joe and gave him a devilish grin.

TO BE CONTINUED