I don't know N'Sync, their sexuality, or their personal preferences, I don't know them in any way, nor do I have any connection to them. This story is fiction nothing more than the fantasy of the author. Enjoy!
Poor Little Rich Boy - Chapter One
Hi, my name is Max Cutler. I'm not sure whether you've heard of me or not, so I'm going to presume you haven't. Most people haven't heard of my family, we tend to keep to ourselves, you see, we're quite well off. No, that's not exactly true, we're not well off. We're rich. My dad owns the Cutler Corporation, and his name is high on the fortune 500, Forbes and Time rich lists. He's normally referred to as an 'industrialist', but the truth is he has his hands in everything. We live in Maryland, but we have homes in most states, a couple in places like New York where we have one in the city and one upstate.
I'm gay. My family knows, and on the whole they don't have a problem with it. My parents do have one caveat though: 'don't start flaunting your lifestyle in our faces and we won't have any problem with it'. Basically, my family is ok with me being gay as long as I don't start waving rainbow flags in their faces. Perhaps I should get on with my story, then you'll see why this is so important.
My dad had this stunner of an idea: give the kids a portion of their inheritance now, not only so we can avoid inheritance tax, but so that he can see how we plan on spending our money. Thing is, between me and my two sisters, the money he was planning on giving us combined to over $20 billion. And he had a plan to make sure it was fair that we got it now rather than later. We each had to do the task he set for us and, after a month, we would get our inheritance. Suzie, my eldest sister, who was three years younger than me, had to be the 'perfect housewife' to her husband, for one month. She was terrible at everything to do with housework: we have maids, cooks, butlers, chauffeurs, and so on. She was going to have to learn a lot and fast. Now my youngest sister who is 8 years younger than me and still only 18 and still in school had even more to think about: she was not allowed to use credit cards for a month, she had to improve her GPA by at least 0.4 up to 3.8, and she had no car, all this for a month. Now, she has never been without her credit cards since she was about 12, so I didn't know how she was going to handle this. My dad handed me my envelope with my task in as we were driving to his offices downtown in the limo.
"Don't open it yet son." He said with a smirk. He opened the door and told me to get out. I was standing on the sidewalk with a confused expression on my face. "Just remember son, we love you, I know you're going to manage this." He said with a weak smile. The door shut and the limo sped off. I looked down at the envelope in my hand and opened it. As I opened the card inside, some money fell into my hand, about $200, which I stuffed in my pocket. I read the card:
'Max, you have to survive for one month living as a homeless person. You are to have no contact with family or friends, and your credit cards have all been reported stolen, so don't try to use them, or you'll be picked up by the police in no time. Make the most of this money, you've got to make it last a month. We love you Max.' I looked up in the direction the limo had just gone, the task he'd given me was too hard, there was no way I could manage this. I had never been without money, I'd never been without a home, I'd never been without my friends. This was too hard for me. But there was nowhere for me to go. My Dad's office. I headed there straight away. I didn't realise how long it took to walk there, I mean I'm in great shape, but hell, it was a long way. Cutler Corp. is a huge glass building, and as I walked in the lobby, I felt the heat blast my face. It was freezing outside, and this was a welcome change. Suddenly, two security guards grabbed me.
"Hey, what's going on? Do you know who I am?" I shouted.
"Sir, please keep your voice down, yes, we do know who you are, but we've been ordered by your father not to permit you access to this building unless you're dying, and as far as we can tell, you're fine. Please don't return." The chief guard seemed genuinely apologetic, but I needed to get in.
"Fine." I said, and turned to walk away. Just as the guards turned to start walking in again, I turned as well back to the building, and attempted to run in past them. Too slow, they grabbed me by a shoulder each, and practically threw me back out onto the street.
"Please...sir." The guard pleaded for me to stay out on the street. I got up and walked away. I spent the rest of the day walking. I didn't know where I was going, I didn't know my way around very well, I'd never had to find my way around before. About 9:30, I saw a motel that claimed to be very cheap, so I went in. I arranged for their cheapest room, I know my dad said I had to stay homeless, but I mean, he gave me the money, surely the idea was to get things I needed - a place to sleep seemed logical. The next morning I woke up, starving hungry. I went to get breakfast, at a local 'diner'. I'd never been into one of these places before. Ordering was an ... experience. I went back to the hotel, and I spent most of that day in there. The next day I did exactly the same thing. I figured I could keep this up almost for most of the month, I was only spending a few bucks a day. But, apparently my dad had other plans, I went out for breakfast on I think the sixth day, and when I got back to the hotel, I went up to the front desk where I'd left my key.
"Can I have my key back please?" I asked the old guy behind the desk.
"Err...sorry sir, I can't give you your key back."
"Why not?" I asked not believing what he was saying.
"All I can say is we're under new management. I can give you this back though." He handed me my coat. I couldn't believe it. This was my dad's handiwork. He'd bought the motel so that he could chuck me out. Bastard! I couldn't believe he was doing this. "I can give you this too." He handed me a flyer - 'soup kitchen, open Jefferson Ave. 5-10'.
"Why do I need this?" The guy behind the counter looked around for a second, then looked nervously back to me.
"Check your pockets." He whispered. "I don't think your pa liked the fact you cheated." I reached my hand into my coat pocket, then tried the other. My wallet was gone, he was punishing me for not spending last night homeless. Now I was fucked. No money, no place to stay. I looked back at the flyer, and asked the guy where it was. I would need it by this evening I figured. He told me the directions, it was right across town, so I figured I'd better start walking now. My clothes were looking like shit now anyway, I'd been wearing them for a week solid, my shirt was stained under the armpits and I could have done with a shave. It took me most of the day to find Jefferson Avenue, see, I carried on getting lost, and whenever I asked somebody where this place was, they carried on turning away from me. Finally, I asked a homeless person, sorry, another homeless person, and he said he was going too, and he'd go with me. I was really glad that he'd help, and we talked as we walked along. This guy wasn't stupid - far from it, he was a smart guy, not book smart, but just from watching people he knew how the world worked, he couldn't have been much over 35, 40, but he was so intelligent, it surprised me. When we drove past people like this on the streets, my sisters and I always presumed that these people were here because they were too stupid to get jobs. I was wrong.
Finally, we arrived, about 7 o'clock at the soup kitchen on Jefferson Avenue. There was a queue, that went outside. "Aww Shit man, look, TV cameras. Must be one of those charity drives. Shit, we're never gonna get our food now!" He mumbled. I guessed he meant that some high profile person would be coming in to serve the homeless, I always used to watch them on the news. I always thought that they were really good people because of what they did. I never thought that homeless people might actually complain about what was going on, or that they might be really slow, so some people might not get fed. I guess what they're doing is really just a selfish act designed to get them publicity.
Once we were towards the front of the crew, I saw some people who I realised, from where the cameras were pointing, were the celebrities. There were five of them behind the counter, serving out soup. I was getting closer, I could smell that soup now. I was about three from the front.
"Justin will you stop fucking about!" I heard an angry voice shout from somewhere in front of us. My head jerked up. I thought I recognised the guys from somewhere, MTV or something like that, but I wasn't sure, and I couldn't exactly say anything. I took my tray and then moved along the line, somebody put a plate of food on my tray, a big guy with a beard. Then another guy, about my size with a goatee asked me if I wanted potatoes. I nodded, and moved on after thanking him quietly. Moving along another place, a guy gave me a bread roll, then a young guy gave me a cup with soup in it. Finally I came up to the end guy, and he asked me if I wanted some dessert. I nodded, and he put a bowl on my plate. Then I saw him jerk his head to the side, towards the younger guy, and shouted again: "Justin! Quit it!" The young guy had chucked a bread roll at one of the other guys, a blond haired guy who was a little shorter than me. He turned back to me and smiled sheepishly. "Kids!" He smiled, and I nodded back, and walked off to look for somewhere to sit. I saw the guy I had walked here with, and he called me over. I sat down next to him. We started eating, and by the time I'd finished the main course and started drinking my soup, there was no queue left.
"Well, they did pretty good for some stuck up rich kids!" The guy said. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Max." I answered before I thought about whether I ought to tell him a fake name.
"I'm Michael, just call me Mike though. Listen, do you have a place to sleep tonight?" I looked up at him and saw he was concerned for me. I shook my head. "Ok, come with me after we leave here, I'll sort you out somewhere to sleep ok?" I nodded and thanked him. About two minutes later, the guy next to me left, and another guy who, I noticed had just a bowl of soup sat down next to me. It was after 10 now, so although they weren't serving anymore, we could still finish our meals. When I looked up, I noticed it was the last guy in the line who had served me, he smiled when he noticed me looking at him.
"Hey, I'm Josh, how are you?" He asked as he held out his hand to me.
"I'm ok, thanks for asking." He greeted everyone sitting around us. When I looked around, I noticed the other guys who had been serving were sitting at various points around the room, the rest were in twos though, this guy was on his own. Cameras were pointing at the other guys. Just then some other cameras came over and pointed at Josh, and a short blonde woman started asking him questions, like why he was doing this, did he think this was important, he didn't answer any of them, he just waited for her to stop talking, and then he turned to look straight at her.
"I've been answering questions all night, go and talk to Justin, he likes having a camera pointed in his face, now leave me alone." He said in a really harsh tone. I had kept my head ducked down, I didn't want anyone I knew to see me here.
"Aren't you supposed to answer her questions if you're like famous and everything?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah, but, I just hate answering questions. I'd like to be left alone, I mean, we're here because of all you guys, and yet, we act like we're here to get some publicity. I don't like that, I think we should get all the cameras to wait outside, and when we're done they can interview us. But, it's management's decision, so I don't get much of a say in it." He stirred his soup with his spoon. "Either way, I don't really want to talk about it. Sorry." We all sat there in silence for a while, until the Michael spoke up.
"So, who are you guys?"
"Together we're all called N'Sync." My heart caught in my throat, I knew I'd heard of them - they're one of the most famous pop groups there is. "There's Justin Timberlake over there, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Lance Bass is the one with the spoon hanging off his nose over there." We all looked over and there were a load of people at the blond haired guy's table laughing at him as he attempted to hang a soup spoon from the end of his nose, while juggling with bread rolls. We watched for a while until the spoon fell and hit the floor, and the bread roll hit somebody in the head. Josh shook his head and went back to eating his soup.
"Well, thanks for serving us." Mike finished. Josh nodded his head as if to say 'you're welcome'. Finally, about 10:45, Mike said we should get going. We'd all been talking for a while, and when Josh looked up as we stood, he seemed disappointed.
"Hey, we're going to be serving here all week, will you be back in?" Josh asked hopefully.
"Yeah, right Mike?" I turned to him.
"If you carry on serving at the same speed you're going now, you can count on it." Mike said and then turned and left.
"See ya soon Josh." I said, then turned and left also. That night was rough - we were sleeping under a freeway bridge, and it was cold. I didn't have extra layers like Mike did, and I didn't have the nerve to ask if I could borrow one of his coats ( he had quite a few ) so I lay there freezing my butt off, until finally I fell asleep. I woke up real early, and when I did, I felt a big overcoat laid on top of me. I looked over at Mike. "Is this yours?" I asked him.
"Nope."
"Oh, wonder where it came from?"
"Well don't bitch about it, just put it on!" Mike laughed at me. I shrugged it onto my shoulders, it was made for someone broader than me, so it didn't really fit right, but I wore it anyway.
The next few days went by the same, Mike and I walked around a lot, we got money where we could, I even worked for a while doing some construction work to earn a few extra bucks. I shared them with Mike. Every night, we went back to the soup kitchen and talked to Josh. He was genuinely a nice guy, but I had to keep quiet, it was difficult for me to talk too much as I couldn't let anything slip about my real life. On the Friday night, which was Josh's last night at the soup kitchen, he offered to take me and Mike to get cleaned up. We agreed quickly. Josh was being so nice I couldn't believe somebody would actually do this! He took us back in his car which was really nice, and we went up in an apartment building. His apartment was really nice, not too expensive looking, but stylish. It suited him really well. Josh is a really handsome guy. He showed us where the bathroom was, and Mike said I could go first. I did, I took a shower, shaved, Josh had given us extra razor blades and a toothbrush, that sort of stuff, and I basically scrubbed up. I saw some of Josh's gel on the side of the basin, so I took a small drop of it in my hands and brushed it through my hair. I looked almost as good as I do when I'm at home. I went out into the kitchen, where Mike and Josh were. They looked up and I heard Josh take in a breath when he saw me.
"Wow."
"Geez Loueez. What happened to you?" Mike said loudly. I smiled back to him.
"Bathroom's all yours."
"Wow, if you come out looking like that, well, I should look like Brad Pitt by the time I get out of there!" And with that he ran into the bathroom. I sat down next to Josh and he looked at me with an unbelieving look in his eyes.
"I can't believe how different you look." He said to me. I smiled at him, and then we went and sat in the living room. "Max, why don't you talk much?"
"I get nervous real easy." I said, trying to feign apprehension in the hopes of fooling him.
"But the first night we met you talked to me ok."
"Yeah, but, I didn't know I fancied you then." Ok, that was unlike me, to just say what I'm feeling. But, I figured, I've got nothing to lose. He could kick me out, no biggie. But he didn't. He smiled.
"Do you need a place to sleep tonight?" He asked. I looked over at the bathroom where Max was singing loudly in the shower. "He can stay too."
"That would be amazing, but can I ask, why are you doing this?" I asked him.
"Just accept my hospitality for now, I guess I might tell you, but not just yet." He stood up and walked through to the kitchen. "Do you want something to drink, or eat?" He shouted. And so it went for the rest of the night, Max came out of the bathroom looking refreshed. We all ate together, well, Josh ordered pizza actually. At about 10, Mike started yawning. Josh said he was pretty tired too. Mike had been very enthusiastic about staying in this apartment. Josh explained how one of us would have to sleep on the couch and one of us would have to share with him. This guy, well, I wondered whether he was all there - I mean up in the head - who would let two homeless guys sleep in their apartment, and, share a bed with one of them??? I was about to say that Mike should share with him, being older, he could probably do with the extra comfort, plus the fact that I was feeling guilty about taking all of Josh's hospitality when I wasn't really 'homeless'. But before I could say that Josh said that he'd like it if we could share. Mike smiled at me, and told me to 'go on'. I think he knew I was gay, but Josh hadn't actually said anything yet, so I didn't know what to expect.
The next morning, I woke up, and Josh's arm was over me from behind. He was spooning me! I wriggled away and got up. I pulled my shirt on, and I walked out into the living room. Mike was still asleep on the sofa. About an hour later, Josh woke up and came into the kitchen where I was sitting. I had been sitting there staring at my hands for the whole hour, wondering what I should do. He came over and put his hands on mine, smiled, then asked if I wanted any breakfast. Mike came in almost right away, and was I ever glad to see him. We both took Josh's offered breakfast, and sat down to eat. Josh said that he had to work, but we were welcome to come back that evening, and have dinner with him again, but it wouldn't be much more than the previous night's take away. We both agreed enthusiastically, though I was more nervous than ever about Josh now. We did as he said: we left, around 10, and he went off to work at the same time. He seemed apologetic that he had to lock us out, but Mike put an arm around his shoulder and said that it was better to trust some and keep a few friends than trust all and lose everything you own. Mike's apparent 'wisdom' made Josh smile, and he offered to drive us anywhere before he went to work, but seeing as we had nowhere to go, we just walked around for the 8 hours or so until we went back to Josh's place. When we arrived, Josh already had the food waiting, he had Chinese though. It was only 6, but we ate early, and then Josh offered us some beer and we sat around talking. Although Mike talked the most, Josh never took his eyes off me, and I really started feeling bad about taking his hospitality.
*** Ring Ring ***
Josh's phone rang halfway through our conversation. "Shit." Josh mumbled and went to answer it. He came back in a moment later, and with a confused expression on his face, walked over to me with the cordless in his hand. "Umm, Max, it's for you. It's somebody says they're your father. How did he get this number?" He seemed genuinely confused. I took the phone, and pretended to be confused as well, though really I was terrified. If they found out, they'd hate me.
"Max?" My dad asked.
"Yes?"
"Get to my office now." He ordered. My dad had two tones of voice: Fatherly, and Orders. This was the latter, you didn't answer him back when he used that voice. I hung up the phone and looked at it for a second. I could hear my heart beating in my ears, and I finally looked up, and saw Josh looking at me with a questioning gaze. I grabbed my coat, and ran for the door.
"I'm sorry Josh, I've got to go, thanks for everything." I ran out the door, slamming it just as I heard Josh shouting 'what's wrong'. I half ran- half jogged over to my dad's office. Fortunately, Josh's apartment was downtown and quite close to the building. I walked through the main entrance, the security guards who had escorted me out so kindly before nodded in my direction, and I went up to the top floor in the elevator. I knocked on the door of my dad's office, and he shouted to come in.
"Max." He said in a sort of greeting.
"Dad. What's wrong?" I asked him.
"You managed 10 days, and now you're staying at someone's apartment." I looked down to the floor. "The idea was to see if you could survive homeless. Obviously not. I won't say we're surprised Max, but it would've been nice to have seen you manage it." I looked at my dad sadly. I could hear the disappointment in his voice, and I could feel the tears in my eyes. "You survived for a third of it, you get a third of what you would have got. That's $2.4 billion." He stood up and walked towards me. "I'm glad you're ok." He said, then hugged me. I hugged him back. I knew I'd disappointed him, but all I could think about was Josh.
TBC
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