Firstly, I want to say I do not know nor do I make any presumptions about the sexuality of the Backstreet Boys nor any other celebrities who may appear in this story. This story is entirely the product of the sick imagination of the author.
Secondly, there's also a couple of things I'd like to say to any authors out there, read a couple of stories like Forever, Josh and Just, My New Life, Brian and Justin, JC's Hitchhiker, and My Surprise Romance and there's probably a few others I can't think of, but they are great stories, especially Forever (but I advise you not to read Equilibrium - it's a bit too depressing for my liking, and it hasn't been finished which is really annoying), it is a really beautiful story and addresses so many emotions it's incredible - trust me, it is the Holy Grail of the Nifty author.
Chapter 22
"Whoa - no way Kev!" I said firmly. His face dropped.
"Why not Jared? You said you loved me. Prove it." Did he really just ask me to prove my love for him?
"What did you just say?" Kevin stood up from the end of the bed where he'd been sitting.
"You carry on saying you love me, well prove it, say you'll marry me." He said.
"I can't believe you're even saying this! Kevin listen to yourself! You're saying that if I don't agree to marry you, then it will prove I don't love you." I said solemnly, but getting worried.
"Jared, I've waited all my life to meet someone I love as much as I do you, now why won't you marry me, it will show me how much you love me if you say yes."
"Kevin, I've waited so long for someone like you in my life, but please understand me, I will not get married to someone who needs me to prove my love to them - that is not a reason for marriage." Kevin sighed and sat down on the end of the bed again.
"You're right, I'm sorry. That was selfish of me, I didn't think how that would make you feel." I knelt down in front of him. "But if I had just asked you, and hadn't made all that fuss about it proving you love me, would you have married me?" I paused.
"No." Kevin sat back a bit and nodded. He looked up again into my eyes, and looked like he was about to cry. "No, Kevin it's not like that." I said exasperatedly. "Kevin, there's a lot of stuff we don't know about each other yet, and I don't know about you, but I want you to know everything about me, before we get married, or do anything like that. There is some stuff I don't feel I can tell you yet, and I think those things I'm just gonna have to tell you in time, so until then, we should just carry on finding out stuff about each other. Ok? Kevin?" He looked up at me and smiled, then took my hand and kissed the palm.
"I love you Jared."
"I love you too Kev." I reached up and ran my hand through his hair before leaning in to kiss him softly on the lips.
"Can we get your bags unpacked though?" Kevin asked.
"Sure. Come on I'll help you sort out the cupboard." I answered. Kevin and I spent the next hour trying to get all our stuff to fit in his closets and drawers. It was a tight fit. About 12:30, we were done.
"We should probably try to get to bed, but I'm really not tired yet." Kevin grumbled. It was gonna be hard adjusting to the weird time zone change. "Shall we go and watch some TV Jared?"
"Ummm, sure." I was actually pretty tired, but I didn't want to grumble about being with Kevin. We went and sat on the couch in his living room together. We lied down together, him with his back to the couch, and me in front and he flicked on the TV with the remote control. He started passing through the channels and I noticed after a while that he was still going up through the channels and he hadn't stopped yet. "Kevin?" No answer. "Kevin?"
"Yeah?"
"How many channels do you get here?"
"Ummm, I've got satellite, so, almost 500 I think."
"What? Why do you need so many?"
"Cos there's hardly ever anything good on. Don't blame me anyway - loads of people have satellite TV."
"Oh, well, I guess it's just been a while since I really watched TV. Oh yeah, except for when we watched that stuff in China, that was just funny." We both chuckled a bit.
"Here, do you want to choose something?" He said as he handed me the remote control.
"Ok, so what channels are good?" I asked as I sat up on the front of the couch with Kevin lying behind me. Kevin started to list off a few, and I flicked around a bit, soon enough though I was used to the constant flicking up and down, and I was looking through for something I wanted to see.
"Do you want something to eat?" Kevin asked as he sat up next to me.
"Um sure, actually could I get a drink please?"
"Sure, be right back." Kev said as he retreated to the kitchen. I carried on flicking through the channels. There were a load of music channels, and sports channels, movie channels and some black and white films were showing. Kevin came back and handed me my drink. We sat together watching whatever happened to be on. I have to admit, it was a little attractive, being able to turn onto one of the other 499 channels whenever something bad came on the channel you were watching. "You know Jared, we've been down here for a couple of hours already, it's almost three. Do you want to go up yet?" Kevin asked, obviously tired. I leant over and kissed him, trying not to take my eyes off the TV screen.
"You go up, I'll join you in a bit, I promise I'll be up soon." Kevin nodded and went up the stairs. I turned my head to see his legs disappear as they retreated to the upper floor, then went back to channel surfing, once I had turned it down a bit.
Before I realised it, it had been almost two hours, and I was still in front of the TV screen. It was 4:30 already, and I had promised Kevin I would be up soon after he went up. I turned off the TV and went upstairs. I saw Kevin lying in bed, I couldn't tell whether he was asleep or awake, though a quick snoring sound soon told me. I climbed in and saw the clock on the bedside table red 4:45. I would have to make it up to Kevin tomorrow.
I woke up before Kevin. It was only 9:30, but I was pretty much wide awake. I got out of bed, and pulled on a pair of boxer-briefs. I went downstairs and into the kitchen. I decided to make breakfast for Kevin. I looked around the kitchen, and there was quite a bit of food, I was surprised seeing as Kevin had been gone for a few months, but then I thought he probably had someone bring in some food for when he got back. I saw bacon, and some eggs, there was some milk and bread I found in another cupboard. I soon had the food started and on the stove. I saw a radio in the kitchen, and turned it on quietly so as not to wake Kevin.
"Thing you've got to realise what we're doin' is not a trick, we got the gift of melody, we're gonna bring it till the end, doesn't matter, bout the car I drive, what I wear around my neck, all that matters is that you recognise that it's just about respect." The radio blared out. I started dancing around the kitchen, I know I probably looked stupid, but hey no one's around to see me, and I don't know - it's fun dancing while you're doing something like cooking. I put on the eggs, and I realised it probably wasn't a good idea dancing around while they were frying as the oil could spit, so I just swayed my hips to the music. As I put on the second load of eggs, I felt a set of hips grind against mine from behind. I turned around with a shock, and there was Kevin, looking incredible. I loved the way he looked in the morning. His hair was just on the border of being too long, and it had this tousled look first thing in the morning. His eyes had a passion in them first thing in the morning, and it was his favourite time to 'fool around'.
"Hey, what you doin'?"
"I was cooking you breakfast, but by the looks of things, you want other things." I said with a grin as I pointed down to the bulge in his crotch. Kevin smiled and looked down, then cast an eye over the food that was on the stove.
"What happened to your healthy lifestyle? Bacon, eggs, fried toast? This all part of your regular..." His voice trailed off. "Do you know what you're listening to?" I looked at him confused for a second before I realised he was talking about the radio, I listened for a moment, then shook my head. "It's N'Sync."
"What you mean those guys we met a couple of weeks ago?"
"Yup."
"Oh. So?"
"Well, you're not supposed to listen to them, you're supposed to listen to us! They're the competition!" He said.
"You're kidding? You guys seemed to get along quite well with them, I thought Nick and Justin were close friends anyway."
"Actually, we're all pretty close, but according to all the papers and media and the fans we're actually in this huge war to see who's the best boyband, it's quite funny really. If they knew that we're actually pretty close friends I think our sales would drop quite suddenly." Kevin chuckled. I shook my head and went back to cooking breakfast. "So, what is up with this meal? What happened to all the healthy stuff?"
"Well, I kinda felt bad about last night, I stayed up a bit late watching TV, I didn't notice the time." Kevin chuckled. "What?"
"I was too tired to do anything anyway, I didn't even notice you come to bed. I must have fallen asleep the moment my head hit the pillow."
"Oh, well, I might as well throw this fatty food out then."
"NO! Hey, you came to bed late last night, I think I deserve a nice breakfast." Kevin grinned wolfishly. He started munching on the bacon that was sitting on a plate with kitchen roll on it that was soaking up the grease. I whacked his hand with the back of the spatula and he went off with a mock hurt expression on his face, and he was rubbing the back of his hand. He turned off the radio as he was leaving the kitchen. I was about to go over and turn it back on when music started coming from somewhere, and I realised it was the Backstreet Boys. I looked around for speakers, and finally saw two little black boxes located in opposite corners of the kitchen. He had a full home system, nice. He came back in grinning as 'The One' came on. I served up breakfast, and we ate it at the kitchen table. This was our first meal together in our home - it was wonderful.
"The guys want to meet up later." He mumbled as we cleaned away the plates into the dishwasher.
"What for? You've just seen them for the last few months, all day every day!" I said with a grin on my face so that he knew I was kidding.
"Oh, we have this kind of tradition thing - we always go and get a meal together once we get back from a tour. Just a sort of celebration that the tour's over. Then we don't see each other for at least two weeks - just so that we don't start getting on each others' nerves too much." Kevin grinned. We went back upstairs and got showered together. I was starting to love doing this: we didn't get to do it much while we were on tour, we were always either too late getting up, or the showers were too small for both of us to fit into. We washed each others' hair, and had a bit of fun while we were in there, and we were ready and out of there by 11 or so. We were meeting the guys at 12:30. While I sat down again to watch TV, Kevin went and sat in front of a desk and I watched him open up a laptop computer and power it up.
"What're you doing?" I asked him.
"Just looking over my website." He answered while he clicked on some of the buttons on the computer.
"You have a website?" I said as I stood up and leant over his shoulder to see what he was looking at, even if I had no idea what he was doing.
"Well, there is the Backstreet Boys website, but I'm actually looking at the Just Within Reach website, it's the charity I run." He had mentioned this before, something to do with the environment.
"Oh. Ok."
"You don't remember what my charity does do you?" I squinted for a second, trying in vain to remember. I finally shook my head. He smiled and wrapped an arm around my waist, and I sat on one of his legs. He started showing me his website, pictures of him took up a lot of it, but there was some information on things to do with cleaning up the environment. Apparently there was a new section showing examples of Just Within Reach projects, and pictures of students who Kevin's charity had put through University because they were studying Environmental Sciences. I think that impressed me most: investing in young people - there's the teacher in me coming out, but the picturesque scenery that Just Within Reach had worked to clean up was incredible too. Once we had looked at all the pages, Kevin shut down the screen, and a picture of me was on the screen, I sat back shocked at the sudden reflection.
"What's that?"
"My desktop background." He grinned at me as I sat back on to his leg more.
"You have a picture of me on there?" He nodded. "How did you get it in there?" I asked. He reached over to the desk and picked something up.
"Digital camera, plugs straight into the computer." He said. I still didn't understand, but just accepted it. "You don't mind do you?" I shrugged. It was just like having a photo of someone on your desk. He smiled at me, and put his arms around me, and rested his head on my chest, then just hugged me tightly, really tightly. Once he let me go, I took a deep breath, relieved to have my breathing capabilities back.
"What was that for?" I asked.
"I'm never gonna let you go Jared, remember that." He said as he stood up and took my hand, and we headed out to meet the guys.
Lunch with the guys was really relaxed. All the guys, Leighanne, Kristin, and Howie and AJ's girlfriends were there. I was starting to feel kinda sorry for Nick, he was always the odd one out at these things, or he was lumped with Kristin cos Kevin was with me. I spent most of the meal talking to Brian for some reason. He was telling me how good it was to be back, and how he and Leighanne had been up for hours talking, and how good it felt to be back in his own bed. I suddenly heard Kevin yawn very loudly from behind me.
"Late night Kev?" Brian asked with a smirk on his face.
"Well I wouldn't have had one if this idiot here." He grinned wolfishly as he pointed at me. "hadn't got to bed at 4:45 after a TV marathon!"
"You were awake! I knew that snore sounded fake!" I shouted back to him, though quietly enough so that no one else where we were could hear us.
"You were up till quarter to five watching TV? What was on at that sort of time in the morning?" Brian asked, not quite sure if Kevin was kidding about the time.
"Um, well most channels, they were like advertising stuff on, like um, cooking utensils and stuff like that. Then there were some old films on some channels, MTV was playing songs constantly, and a few re-runs of programmes from yesterday that sort of thing. A few channels hadn't started yet, so I just flicked through them. There was the God channels, they were all running, don't those people get tired? I suppose they're all re-runs too." Brian had his mouth hanging open. I'm pretty sure he thought Kevin was kidding. I had to laugh at the cute expression on his face.
"Couldn't you just wait till this morning to watch TV?" Brian asked. I blushed a bit - maybe it was a bit daft of me.
"Hey! He hasn't watched any TV in a long time - give him a break!" Kevin cut in for me. Brian chuckled and went back to eating.
"So, what did you end up watching?" Nick said. I could see he was trying to get into the conversation, having obviously been ignored from the one that Howie, AJ and their girlfriends, and Leighanne and Kristin were involved in.
"Well, I watched those God channels for about an hour, then I watched the beginning of some old film, but it got boring, and there was some straight porn which kept me interested for about 10 minutes!" I chuckled. Nick blushed and went back to eating, probably wishing he hadn't tried to join our conversation.
"So, what did you think of the tele-evangelists?" Brian asked with a grin on his face.
"Well...I think I'll reserve judgement until I've seen them in the light of day - I think I spent most of my time staring at their hair - how do they blow dry it like that? Probably the most outrageous hair I've ever seen!" I said with a grin.
"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" Kevin said as he leant over and whispered in my ear. I turned to him with a confused expression on my face. "You haven't exactly got the most normal of hairstyles!" Kevin said with a smirk.
"Oh...yeah, I was gonna talk to you about that - I think I'm gonna have it cut off." Kevin sat back, surprised. We both had similar hair, though his was slightly darker than mine, and when mine was out of the cornrows, it was only slightly longer than his.
"Oh, ok." Kevin said then went back to eating. I frowned at his reaction, then finished off my meal. The guys all hugged one another, and we all said goodbye for at least a week as Kevin had ordained over the end of the meal. He had actually set restrictions - No one band member can see another one for seven days. There shall be no gathering of more than two band members for 10 days and there shall be no more than three Backstreet Boys in any one place for another 14 days. After that, they were free to meet in any size of group they wished. I reckoned he had actually practised that speech so he got it right. Then I had to wonder to myself if Kevin was violating some sort of Freedom of Association rights? Kevin and I left the restaurant, having said goodbye, and Kevin said he'd see Brian next Tuesday - that was the first chance he'd get to see him, according to his rules. We drove most of the way home in silence, it was quite a long drive, about 40 minutes, but I guess we were still both pretty tired.
"Can you leave your hair Jared?" Kevin asked.
"What?"
"Can you not cut your hair off?" He said.
"That's what I thought you said, why not?" I asked back.
"This is gonna sound so stupid." he said as he pretended to keep his eyes only on the road and ignored my face. "But Jared, I like the fact we're the same, and I like your hair that way. Can't you leave it?" He asked with a pleading expression on his face.
"Sure, I guess, I didn't realise you felt that strongly about it!" I answered back. I thought he was going a little bit mad, but I didn't care really - I've had my hair like this for years, and if it makes him happy, so what? We arrived home a little bit later, and parked the car in the driveway. Just as we were walking up the drive and into the house, two police cars pulled in behind us, and we turned and stared at them for a second, then looked at each other. Two police men jumped out of each car and came up to the house.
"Mr. Richardson?" He asked. He was tall and blond haired - a combination I never found very attractive.
"Yes?" Kevin answered.
"Um, sir, your silent alarm was triggered and we were alerted. We believe someone has tried to break into your house. Would you care to open the door, and we'll check it out for you." Kevin obligingly unlocked the front door and stood aside. Once two of the police had gone in, we followed them in.
To Be Continued... End of Chapter 22