This is part four of 'Love's Faint Echo', a story about lots of stuff that NEVER happened. Okay? NEVER HAPPENED. It's not meant to imply anything about anyone, particularly any members of any boy-bands mentioned. All for fun, folks. And don't be reading it if you're not supposed to, okay? Okay.
PLEASE, let me know what you think of the story, and whether you're enjoying it so far or not. There were a few of you who wrote last time, and it was appreciated. Input is very welcome at:
faint_echo@hotmail.com
Thank you.
And now.....
FOUR
Shelby set aside the paper and stood from his chair, then went into the kitchen to get himself something to drink. He had read through the entertainment sections of each of the three newspapers from the previous day, as Joey had suggested, as well as those of the papers that had been delivered that morning.
Coming back into the room, he looked at the small mountain of paper and smiled. "Lance was right. There's no way I want to be sitting in that audience." Talking to himself was a habit that he had picked up over the years that he had been living in the apartment. Being alone so much, the silence occasionally got to him and he had taken to speaking in order to break it.
He picked up the papers again, organising them once more and folding them back up, then carried them into the kitchen and dropped them into the recycling. After finishing his juice, he rinsed the glass out and placed it in the dishwasher, and then went into the bedroom to get dressed for his day.
Pulling on some boxer-briefs, he added a pair of black shorts and walked back out into the living room and then into the hall, pressing the button for the elevator as he pulled the double doors shut behind him. The doors of the elevator opened immediately as usual, and he stepped inside, already thinking about what he was going to do in the workshop. He wasn't sure if he should start with the new block of soap or whether to carry on with one of his wooden creations instead.
By the time he got to the workshop, he had decided to go with the wood. Picking up his chisel from the workbench, he looked the carving over, trying to get a feel for it once more, and decide exactly where and how to begin. Once he had the image fixed in his mind, he set to work.
============
The buzzer surprised him, and he almost took off more shaving than he intended, as well as part of a finger. He jerked his hand back just in time to save both, and checked the clock set into the wall above the door. "Shit," he muttered, then dropped his tools and headed for the door.
He grabbed a towel on the way out of the workshop and wiped the dust and wood bits off of his skin on his way to the street door. Punching in the code, he pulled the door open without a smile.
"Shelby."
"Jacob."
Neither one of them smiled as Jacob entered the building and stood waiting for Shelby to close and latch it. It had been made clear early on in their 'relationship' that Jacob was there for business, not for making friends, and so any thoughts that Shelby might have had at first about getting to know Jacob had been driven from his mind immediately.
There were only two things that Shelby knew about Jacob. The first was that Jackson paid his fee, and the second was that he could kick Shelby's ass with both hands tied behind his back. And he had repeatedly proven it.
Without a word passing between them, Shelby and Jacob walked together to the elevator, and pressed the button for the fourth floor. When they got there, Jacob lagged slightly behind Shelby, allowing him to go first an open the doors to the floor. Neither one of them gave the games area of the room even a glance, heading straight for the workout area, and the large mat that was positioned in the center of the floor there.
Removing his jacket, Jacob slipped off his shoes and stood at the edge of the mat, waiting for Shelby to take up his position.
Keeping his expression neutral was by now a simple feat for Shelby. One of the first things that Jacob had taught him was how to keep all emotion off of his face and out of his movements. With his years on the streets to draw from, Shelby had been a fast learner. He let his eyes grow cold as he stepped onto the mat and took up position opposite Jacob.
When these sessions had first started, Shelby had thought that he was going to be learning some form of martial arts, complete with fancy flips and kicks. However, while some of that was taught, he had been quickly informed that that was not the case. Jacob was there to teach him how to fight. How to defend himself and how to end an altercation in the fastest and cleanest way possible. There was no honor to be found here, just as there was none to be found in a brawl.
A large part of Shelby's job description was protecting Jackson, and keeping anyone from getting upstairs that didn't need to be upstairs. In order to do that, he needed to be able to protect himself and take care of any threat that came up. In the eight-plus years that Shelby had been working for Jackson, he had rarely needed to draw on what Jacob taught him.
But still, two times a week, Jacob showed up at the door, and they went through it all again, just in case. Jackson was nothing if not thorough. The only times that Shelby wasn't subjected to these workout sessions was when Jackson was out of town, four weeks a year. For those weeks, Jackson freed Shelby from all responsibilities, so long as he was back and ready to resume things once the week was over.
"Ready?" Jacob asked, looking through Shelby.
"Would it matter?"
There were really only two things that Shelby ever heard from Jacob. His name at the door, and the 'ready' on the mat. After that, there was hardly any talking whatsoever. He had heard the occasional grunt while they were sparring, when Shelby managed to land the odd blow, and very occasional comments on his performance, but that was all. Jacob wasn't getting paid to chat.
They came together on the mat, and Shelby cleared his mind, thinking only about how Jacob was moving, and how he needed to move to gain the upper hand. Bringing his hand around, he found Jacob's arm already there, blocking the blow. Spinning, Shelby broke away again, backing up slightly and getting ready to go at him again.
==============
Shelby had just started to gain the upper hand when the phone rang, breaking his concentration. Normally, that wouldn't have happened; he'd learned better than that. But this time, he knew who it would be, and he was looking forward to the call. The instant of hesitation was all that Jacob needed, bringing his leg in a circle and knocking the wind out of Shelby, driving him to the mat.
Shelby rolled away and stood up again, getting ready, but favouring his side. By now, Jacob had gotten used to Shelby being able to block his moves. When they had first started, Jacob had been slightly more vocal, giving him instructions. Their fighting had been real, but not forceful enough to actually hurt one another, just enough to know that it would hurt if delivered at full strength. After Shelby became more proficient, that had changed. There was little to no instruction, and the blows became painful if they landed properly. Thankfully, they rarely did.
"Pay attention," Jacob grunted, getting to his feet as well. He walked to the side of the mat and pulled on his shoes again, grabbing his jacket. Shelby limped slightly as he held up his finger, telling Jacob to wait, and went to grab the phone.
"Hello?" he panted, still out of breath and still holding his side. He knew that there was going to be a bruise, but it was his own fault for not paying attention.
"Shel? You run for the phone or something? You sound like you're out of breath."
"Something like that," Shelby told him. "Hey Lance, how's everything going?"
"Slowly, but getting finished. I talked to the tour people, and they've got a pass and everything for you for tonight. You won't need it to get in, since you'll be with me....us....., but you might be asked while we're on stage or something."
"I'll try and stay out of the way."
"We told you to stop saying that," Lance laughed. "What are you up to? You're still panting."
"Just working out a bit," Shelby said, looking over at Jacob. He wasn't paying any attention to Shelby's side of the conversation. "I fell wrong."
"You okay?"
"Yeah, no problem. Just should have been paying attention. So what time do I need to be ready?"
"How does a couple of hours sound? Do you have to be there until a certain time?"
Shelby checked his watch. "I've got to be here until six. After that, I'm all yours."
Lance blushed, though Shelby had no way of knowing it. "Okay, we'll be there shortly after that. We thought it might be nice to grab some dinner first, if you're up for it."
"Sounds good to me. Just hit the buzzer when you get here. I'll likely be in the apartment, so it might take me a minute to get to the door."
"That's okay, we'll wait. Just try not to leave us out there too long. Wouldn't want to be mobbed by a wayward band of fans."
"I'll be ready. Make sure to tell Justin that I'll be fully dressed, too."
Lance laughed, and Shelby heard him pull the phone away and relay the message. Justin must have been there with him. He heard them all laugh, and then Justin's voice say "Good!" in the background. "He's happy about that," Lance laughed, coming back on the line.
"Yeah, I heard him." Shelby heard Jacob clear his throat behind him, and realized that he was still waiting to be let out. That was one of the drawbacks of being there. Shelby and Jackson were the only two in the building who knew the code to open the door, so one of them had to make the trip down to let the few visitors they had out. The most trusted of the security people knew the code, but they were rarely at the house. Their knowledge was for absolute emergencies only, and they had the codes to every similar lock in the building. "Lance? I've got to go take care of something. I'll see you when you get here?"
"Alright, Shel. I'll see you then."
Shelby hung up the phone and went back to Jacob. "Come on, I'll let you out."
True to form, Jacob didn't answer. He merely followed along behind as Shelby led him back to the elevator and started it for the first floor again. When they got there, Jacob pulled on his jacket as Shelby punched in the code at the door. Without a word, Jacob was gone, and Shel got back into the elevator, intending to grab a shower and relax before he went to the concert.
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"Would you calm down?" Joey whispered to Lance. They were sitting in the back of their limo, on the way to pick up Shelby, and Lance looked about ready to burst. "You keep this up and you're going to tackle him at the door."
Lance laughed a little and took a breath. He'd been looking forward to seeing Shelby again since about two minutes after they had left the night before. He noticed the way all of the guys were looking at him, and the way they were all smiling.
"You going to make your move tonight, Scoop?" JC asked with a laugh.
Rolling his eyes, Lance tried to relax into the plush seat even further. "I don't have any moves, Josh. You know that."
"That's on the dance floor," Joey laughed. "I bet when it comes to guys, you've got moves you don't even know about."
"His moves have moves," Justin laughed, enjoying how embarrassed Lance was getting. They all knew that he liked Shelby, and their jokes were their way of making sure that he knew they were behind him.
"My moves are none of your business," Lance smiled around the back of the vehicle. "Honestly, I don't know. I mean, is it really worth trying to start something with Shel? He's here, we're everywhere. We'd never get to see each other. We don't even have much time to get to know each other to figure out if there's anything there."
"There's something there," Chris assured him. "I don't know if it's a long-lasting relationship, but there's something. He was checking you out last night just as much as you were checking him out. After he stopped being half-naked, that is. Before that, you were way in the lead."
"Shut up," Lance laughed, looking for something to throw at him. "It's not my fault he answered the door with no shirt on. Where else was I supposed to look?"
"No kidding," Joey backed him up. "Did you see how fine he was?" The guys all laughed while Lance tackled Joey and started punching him. "As much as I enjoy having you on top of me, Scoop, don't you think you should save it for Shelby?"
Lance punched him one last time and then sat back down. "You guys keep this to yourselves when Shel's around."
"Duh," Justin grinned. "He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that you joke about like that."
"Yeah, nice guy, but I don't think that he'd find it all that funny. At least, not until we knew him a little better."
"I wouldn't find it very funny either," Lance reminded them. "I know that you mean well, but this is kinda hard, you know? I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't need any of you trying to push the matter." He had focussed on Joey as he spoke, knowing that if any of them were going to do something to nudge he and Shelby together, it would be Joey.
"Alright, man, message received. Just don't mess this up because you're not sure. If it's meant to be, it won't matter that you're on the road all the time. Think about it like this: it's not like Shelby's going anywhere. You won't have to worry about someone else scooping him up. Pardon the pun."
Everyone except Lance smiled. "So he'd be settling. Maybe he's only interested because he knows that the odds are against him meeting someone."
"That's not what I meant at all, and you know it," Joey said, putting his hand on Lance's shoulder. "I suppose that it's something you have to figure out, but I don't think he'd be stupid enough to think that he was settling for anything if you two got involved. I do think that he's lonely. He's got to be. But I think he's genuinely interested in you."
"Maybe you should talk to him and see," JC suggested. "No harm in talking about it. He already knows that you're gay, and he did ask you out for dinner."
Lance nodded and looked out the window. "Maybe. You guys have it easy, you know."
"Bull," Joey said, smacking him in the leg. "What's so easy for us?"
"At least the world knows who you're going to be interested in. You can just walk up and ask someone out if you want to. And you don't have to worry about shocking them, or looking at the wrong person in public."
"Okay, maybe it's easier most of the time," Chris conceded. "And there's a lot of crap that you've had to go through that we can only guess at, but this is different. You're both obviously interested in each other, and you can be reasonably sure that you can trust Shelby even if things don't work out. I mean, he sees a total of four or five people a month, by the sound of things. And he doesn't give a damn about our being popular. He's not about to run out to the tabloids."
"So what do you guys think that I should do?"
None of them spoke up. Lance wasn't sure if it was because they didn't want to push him in one direction, or because they were afraid that he wouldn't like the direction they were going to push in. Finally, JC sat forward. "We'll flip a coin." He dug in his pocket and pulled out a quarter. "Heads you talk to him, tails you don't say anything."
"Flip a coin?"
"You got a better idea?" JC smiled, then flipped the coin and caught it in the air, looking up at Lance. "What do you want it to be?"
"I don't know."
"Yes, you do. You wanted it to come up one way. Which way?"
Lance looked out the window, and they saw a small smile cross his face. "Heads."
"There you have it," Joey laughed, then patted Lance's shoulder. "So do you want us to make ourselves disappear after the show for a while?"
"No. Let's just see how things go."
"We're about to find out," Justin said, pointing out the window as the car slowed. "We're here."
Lance was silently elected to go and get Shelby. Essentially, everyone remained seated when he got up. Smiling to himself, he threw the door open and stepped up to the door. He could feel their eyes on him as he reached out and pressed the buzzer, then stood back and waited.
TBC...
PLEASE send any comments to faint_echo@hotmail.com
Thanks.