Rebound

Obligatory warnings and disclaimers:

1. If reading this is in any way illegal where you are or at your age, or you don't want to read about male/male relationships, go away. You shouldn't be here.

2. I don't know any of the celebrities in this story, and this story in no way is meant to imply anything about their sexualities, personalities, or anything else. This is a work of pure fiction.

Questions and commentary can be sent to "writerboy69@hotmail.com". I enjoy constructive criticism, praise, and rational discussion. I do not enjoy flames, and will not tolerate them.

That said, we now continue.

I left my empty plate at the table with everyone else's, figuring that we would just pick them up later, and followed JC and Justin down the hall. Justin was bouncing along eagerly, and JC had a noticeable little spring in his step, too. When I walked into the studio, right behind JC, Justin was already flipping the lights on, and turning on switches on the board, which, to me, was as incomprehensible as the controls on a jet liner would look. I'd taken a little peek in here both times that I'd toured the house, on my own and with Justin, but both times I'd just kind of leaned in and leaned out, since I didn't know what anything was, what purpose it served, or what might happen if I touched something.

Now I gave the room a second look as Justin settled onto a low stool in front of the boards. There was a pair of them, although JC was still standing while I looked around, and against the wall by the door we had just come through there was a matching couch, all three of them padded with soft, caramel colored leather. There was a cabinet against the wall, too, and inside I could see racks of tape and tape cases. Aside from the soundboard there was also a lot of counter space, and I wondered if they had someone design this room, too. Everything was tastefully trimmed in dark wood and black lacquer, and there were speakers set in the walls in addition to the sound panel by the door that I'd seen so far in every room of the house. On the other side of the control panel was a thick window, and through it I could see a very small studio room, covered in that weirdly designed gray acoustical stuff that you always saw in those kinds of rooms on television, and there was also a keyboard on a stand, a guitar, and another one of those stools in the room.

"You guys couldn't do a whole album in here, could you?" I asked, looking around.

"No," JC answered, shaking his head. Justin was looking through the tape cases, reading JC's carefully written labels. "This is just a really basic home setup that we use sometimes. We can do rough cuts, but not something that, you know, we could really share with a lot of people. Right, Justin?"

"Yeah," Justin answered distractedly, not looking up. "Where'd you put the mix you were working on?"

"I left the tape in the deck," JC answered, frowning a little. His blue green eyes narrowed as he glanced back and forth between Justin and I. "Anyway, like I was saying, it's good if we want to sketch something out and have the guys listen to it, or a producer, but we can't really get the kind of quality in here that we could put on an album. Did you want to see some of the equipment? I could tell you what it does."

"He doesn't really need to know that," Justin said quickly, still flipping switches and turning things on. "I mean, it won't mean anything to him anyway. Are you ready to work on this?"

JC's mouth pursed, his lips thin, and a little line appeared between his eyebrows as he glanced again at Justin. I walked over to the couch.

"Justin's right," I said, shrugging. "I don't know what any of this does, and really don't need to, and I'm just kind of keeping you from working. I'll just sit back here and listen, and you guys go ahead and listen to your mixes and stuff."

If Justin was actually listening to me, rather than focusing on the music they were about to work on, he might have caught the tiny hint of bitterness in my tone. Once again, as I had been so many times already since we came to Florida, I felt like I was being pushed aside. I hadn't quite been shoved out a side door again, but Justin had casually brushed me off, reminding me pretty handily that my place wasn't with the band. Whatever the reasons Justin had brought me here for, whatever I was to him, it was clear that where this aspect of his life was concerned, I was a spectator, not a participant. The fact that he wasn't doing it on purpose, that he didn't even seem to realize that he'd stung me, made it even worse.

As I sat on the couch, folding my knees up, wrapping my arms around them, and listening to them work, I tried not to be mad at Justin. After all, we'd just had a discussion about talking to each other, and not holding things in. I figured it could wait until later, since disturbing Justin with it now might throw off their efforts, but the minute I thought that I got pissed again, because I knew that he would, indeed, look on it as a disturbance. At the same time, though, I knew that Justin was a musician. This was his career, but also most of his life, and when he was working on it, he was focused. He was fully immersed in it, and I'd known he would be like that when we got together. I knew that it was this important to him, and this much a part of him, so I was being unfair to think of coming in between. At the same time, if I was important to him, too, why wasn't he trying to share all of his life with me?

He didn't seem to have a problem sharing it with JC. The two of them were hunched over the board, speeding things up or slowing them down or adjusting the reverb, or any number of other things that I heard but didn't understand. Maybe I would have comprehended it a little more if Justin had bothered to include me, but that wasn't on his list of things to do right now. Instead his list included music and JC, in that order. They got very excited as they chattered back and forth, and the creative energy between them was almost palpable. At one point JC went into the recording room and tried a different beat and rhythm on the keyboard as Justin offered directions and suggestions from the control board, recording a new reel of tape and grinning at JC through the glass.

JC, a little more observant than my own boyfriend, seemed to catch a little bit of my mood, no matter how well I covered it. He'd looked a little tense at the beginning, when he'd been about to show me around and Justin had cut him off, and now, as they were about to start on another song, finally satisfied with the first one, he gave me a little shrug. His face, as always, was hard for me to read. I realized that I could only get a feeling for what JC was thinking when he was very upset, and all I was getting now was that same thin lipped, slightly tense look, as if something was irritating him. Was he irritated with me?

"Justin, do you want to take a break?" he asked, looking away from where I still sat on the couch, my knees still folded up. It was interesting to watch them work, but not terribly exciting when they kept working on the same song over and over, and when I glanced at my watch I saw that we'd been in the studio for over two hours.

"No, I'm cool," Justin answered without turning around. The little frown line between JC's eyebrows got a little more pronounced. "Why? You need to hit the bathroom or something?"

"No, I'm good," JC sighed. He caught Justin's eyes, moving off to the side, and deliberately fixed his glance from Justin to me. "I just thought maybe Chris might be a little bored or something."

Justin glanced over at me, his eyes barely meeting mine. He had a slightly irked look on his face, and I could see his shoulders tense up.

"Chris, you're fine, right?" he said, putting words in my mouth, already letting me know what answer he expected. I felt something sharp inside, another little pang of hurt. "You don't mind if we keep working?"

"Do whatever you want," I said, shaking my head. My tone was a little harsher than I'd intended, my feelings finally showing through, and Justin blinked as I stood, fighting the urge to ball my hands into fists and stomp out of the room. "I'm going to go clean up dinner or something. You just stay here and work as long as you want to."

The three of us stared at each other for a minute, Justin with his head cocked to the side in that surprised and curious way of his, JC's face unreadable as his eyes darted back and forth between the two of us, and me fighting the urge to scream at Justin to notice that I existed and give me one damn minute of his time, while also fighting the idea that I was being unreasonable and that he didn't have to spend every waking minute taking care of me and coddling me. I broke the stare first, turning away and stepping into the hallway. Behind me I heard JC, his voice low and polite as always.

"Justin, we can stop for the night," he began, and Justin cut him off.

"No, get out the mix for 'Tearin' Up My Heart'," he commanded sharply, in his spoiled pissed off little boy tone, the one I thought of as the Airport Voice, since it was the first one I'd heard. "I'll be right back."

I was already halfway to the kitchen when he caught up with me.

"Chris!" he said sharply from behind me. I stopped and turned, meeting his annoyed gaze with my own. "What's your problem tonight?"

My problem?

"Excuse me?" I asked tersely.

"Why are you being like this?" Justin asked, dropping his voice as he stepped closer to me. He glanced back down the hall, but JC was still in the studio. "First you want me to spend more time with JC, and now you're acting all jealous and pissy. All you've been doing all day and all night is going back and forth, and I'm getting tired of it."

My hands clenched into fists anyway, even after I'd tried to keep them from doing it, and I let out a long, slow exhale as I tried to calm down. I couldn't believe he couldn't see what the problem actually was, but it really didn't surprise me. Justin's perspective was always a little narrow.

"Justin, I'm not jealous of JC," I said carefully. I was about to go off on him, but realized there was no point to it. I didn't want to make him choose between his music and me, and I realized right then that I also didn't want to spend any time with him tonight. Right now I actually wanted to be away from him. "I guess I just, maybe I'm tired, and I'm a little bored. I'm sorry. You go ahead and have fun, ok?"

Justin swallowed, reaching out to rub my shoulder.

"I know that music's not really your thing, Chris," he began, and I bit back the urge to point out that I might be more interested if I had any idea of what they were doing. "It's just, I've waited a really long time to work on this, and this stuff is really important. I know I've been a little bit of a jerk tonight, but I really wanted to get some of this done."

Sure. OK. Justin was always sorry after he was a jerk. That was unfair, though. He was trying to be sorry, and after I'd lectured him earlier about meeting people halfway, I needed to try to do the same thing.

"It's ok, baby," I said, shrugging. I didn't really feel it yet, but if I thought about it all night I might convince myself that I really wasn't bothered. "I know this is important to you."

Justin wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tightly against him and giving me a good squeeze before he let go.

"You're important to me, too," he said, smiling. "And tomorrow we'll go do something fun, ok? Just let me work on this tonight, please?"

He looked so earnest, and so plaintive, that I had no choice but to nod. I wanted him to be happy, and as I gave him another hug and accepted a quick peck on the lips, he certainly seemed to be. I watched Justin bounce back down the hall, and no matter what I'd promised him or promised myself, I couldn't help but think that Matt had never treated me this way. If I was upset about something, Matt would have recognized it without needing to be told. He would have looked at me with his warm brown eyes, searching my green ones until his found what was wrong, and he would have made it better. He never would have given me a kiss and walked away down the hall to go back to his own needs, because when I was with Matt there wasn't ever a difference between his needs and mine, and I couldn't say the same for me and Justin.

At least JC seemed to recognize that there was a problem. He had tried several times to get Justin to include me, and when Justin didn't JC had even tried to do it himself. JC was doing his best to try to be a friend to me, and at the moment I was sad to admit that he was doing a better job of it than my own boyfriend was.

For the rest of the night I tried to decide if I was right to be mad at Justin or not. Sure, he was making me feel like an inconvenience, and he was pushing me to the sidelines as he put his own interests above mine, but I hadn't told him how I felt. I had my chance to in the hallway, but I let it go, trying to smooth things over rather than actually working them out. Since I hadn't taken that chance, and I had let it go, wasn't I supposed to let go of being angry, too, especially when Justin had promised that we would do something fun tomorrow to make up for this? He was trying, and maybe I should be, too. On the other hand, I already had. The whole reason we were in this house was because of me. The reason Justin was spending all this time with JC was because of me, and what I had done. How much more was I expected to do to appease Justin? How much more would I have to give before what I was getting in return stopped feeling like concessions and handouts and felt more like, I don't know, like I actually mattered?

I hadn't sorted it out by the time I went to sleep after cleaning up dinner and watching television alone for a while. I wanted to call Michelle, or April, or even Joey, but doing that felt like I would be admitting that the relationship was failing, and I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to prove them right, and I didn't want to think that, either, when it might not be true. Lots of couples fought, argued, and had difficulties. Justin and I had argued from the minute we met, and we both knew and accepted that. If we didn't get past this, then the relationship might collapse after all, but if we did get past it, I didn't want these lingering doubts floating around in everyone's heads if I called them now. I didn't want them thinking he and I were on shaky ground, because we wouldn't be if I could just accept the way that Justin was going to treat me sometimes, the way he seemed to treat everyone at one point or another, or if he could change a little. Maybe, if he loved me, I would be exempt from it. Maybe he would put my needs above his at some point, mirroring what I did for him.

I was still awake when he came to bed much later and slid under the covers with me. I was sleeping in boxers, and as he moved beneath the covers to spoon up behind me I could feel that he had his briefs on. His touch on my shoulder, just one hand at first, was a little tentative as he laid his body against mine, his chest settling in against my back and his head dropping onto the pillow next to mine. His nose brushed my hair as he settled in against me, and when I relaxed against him he finally draped his arm across my chest, pulling me in tight. I felt his breath on the back of my neck as he gently caressed my chest for a second.

"Chris?" he whispered, his voice feather soft. "Are you awake?"

"Kind of," I answered. "Did you get a lot done? Was it good?"

"Yeah," he answered, squeezing me. I could hear the smile in his voice. "Yeah, I think we have 'Sailing' all worked out, and we got a lot done on 'Tearin' Up My Heart'. JC wants to do it all bluesy, and I wanted to do it kind of technopoppy, but it sounds better his way, so I think I'll let him have that one and then we'll do 'Gone' my way. It's my song, anyway."

"I'm glad you had fun, babe," I whispered, feeling a little better about it. He sounded so happy, but at the same time I was getting that patented Me-First Justin vibe from this, too. I didn't think there was really supposed to be a "mine" in "Nsync", and remembered what April had said about Justin taking over the last album, and JC letting him. "And that it was good work."

"It was," he said, kissing my shoulder once before he settled his head back on the pillow next to mine. He sighed. "I, um, thank you, baby. Thanks for giving me that little push. It was good to work on stuff again, and to work with JC. It's not the same, but for a little bit, it felt like, I don't know, like we connected again, at least a little. He wasn't so sad, and I wasn't angry, and we got along. I love you, Chris."

"I know, Justin," I answered, and right then, I believed it. He loved me. "Get some rest now, ok?"

"Good idea," he said, pressing himself against me. "We're going to have a big day tomorrow."

"Oh, are we?" I asked, smirking in the dark.

"Yeah," he answered, chuckling against me. "I have to do something nice for you, since you did something nice for me, like I promised I would."

There, see? He was trying. I had to give him credit for that, and stop letting all of these stupid little doubts get in the way of what we had. I fell asleep resting against him, slowly trying to convince myself that I was being unfair and unreasonable, and wondering if maybe I was jealous of the time that Justin was spending with JC, and acting out because of that without wanting to admit it to myself. I'm not really sure how successful I was, but I eventually fell asleep.

I woke up before Justin, who was wrapped tightly around me. I could feel his morning wood stiffly pressed against my hip, and his arms were tight around me. I was on my back, but he was on his side, and had burrowed his face into the crook of my neck. When I woke I must have shifted a little, because he nuzzled against me, murmuring softly. I smiled, letting him play his octopus game again, while I softly breathed in his scent, a soft, fresh, kind of musky smell. Justin, by himself, smelled good, but it was hard to ever catch beneath the cologne and lotion and shower gel and everything else he always wore. In the morning, though, when his soft skin slid against mine, if I leaned into him I could always catch a little whiff of it. I wondered if I had a scent, too, and what it smelled like, and whether Justin enjoyed it.

I didn't wake him, not knowing what he had planned for us, and I showered and dressed alone, trying to be quiet. When I was done, I drifted downstairs, turned on the coffee pot, and started looking through the refrigerator for something to eat. I knew that there were some bagels in there somewhere, and also some fruit, but it was the largest refrigerator I'd ever seen in a house, and as I leaned further and further in I seriously thought for a minute that the door might close behind me and trap me inside. As I finally found the bagels and cream cheese I heard noise behind me as someone else walked into the kitchen.

"Justin?" I asked without turning around. I needed the creamer, too. "JC?"

"The second one," JC answered. "Good morning."

"Hey, good morning," I said, smiling. Breakfast with JC yesterday had been nice and calm, and he was the only person in the house that I wasn't quite angry with. I still held it against him that he'd hurt Justin, but that wasn't really a hurt against me, so it didn't sting as much.

"Could you grab the milk while you're in there?" he asked, opening a cabinet. "I want cereal."

"Sure," I answered, turning around with my arms full. We both laughed as he helped me get everything onto the counter, and then he and I busied ourselves with getting our breakfast together. Like me, JC was the kind of person who had to get up and get right in the shower, and the ends of his long brown hair, streaked with gold highlights, were still damp and curling a little. I wasn't sure about the mullet he was growing in, which Justin hated, as I thought it looked kind of good on him. He was barefoot again, but I was starting to get used to that, too.

JC brought in the newspaper from the front of the house, and the two of us split it up while we ate breakfast. It was quiet and relaxed, and I had several cups of coffee to match the tea that he kept drinking as he poured honey into cup after cup. We talked about the things in the paper, and I discovered that JC had a much better grasp of the world and of current events than Justin did. JC explained that he caught up on the news at least once a day from CNN as he divided up an orange onto two paper towels. He pushed one of them toward me, the sections neatly piled in the center, without me asking, and I thanked him for it as we continued trading the sections of the newspaper back and forth. When we finished up breakfast, he carried his bowl and spoon to the sink to rinse them.

"Are you and Justin doing anything today?" he asked, rinsing off my bagel knife and plate, too. He opened the dishwasher.

"He said he wanted to take me somewhere fun," I answered, shrugging. I got up to pour myself another cup of coffee. "Since we didn't really do anything together last night."

"Oh," JC said noncommittally, busying himself with loading the dishwasher. I continued reading the paper, since there weren't any hard feelings between JC and I about Justin's behavior last night. "Chris?"

"Yeah?" I asked, looking up. JC was leaning against the closed dishwasher with his arms crossed, that same little troubled look on his face. I wondered if he was naturally inexpressive, or if he was just guarded around me. The only expressions he seemed to let through were grinning happiness and this pensive, hesitantly frowning look when something bothered him. Oh, yeah, and the crushing unhappiness that I'd glimpsed a couple of times, but I was trying very hard not to see that.

"You haven't ever seen Justin working before, have you?" he asked. I shook my head. "Justin, and me, too, he's very focused when he's working. He could go for hours, and he wouldn't remember to eat, or to take breaks. He also, you know, what with going to see you and stuff, hasn't really gotten to work for a couple weeks, and he's not used to that, so I guess he was just eager last night to get back to it when he had the chance to. I guess what I'm saying is that he, um, I could tell you were a little upset last night, even if he was distracted and didn't really notice, and it might not be my place to say so, but I don't think you should hold it against him."

"You don't?" I asked, folding my arms as I leaned back in the chair.

"No, I don't," JC said, shaking his head. "He didn't do it on purpose, and on some level, he must realize he did something and feel bad about it. He's trying to make up for it by taking you out, and I think you should meet him halfway."

People kept saying that around here lately, but it was good advice. I wasn't sure how I felt about taking advice on how to deal with my boyfriend from his ex boyfriend, but while JC had that door open it probably wouldn't hurt to ask questions.

"Did he do this with you?" I asked bluntly. "I mean, are you telling me to accept it because he treated you this way, too?"

"Not exactly," JC answered, shaking his head. "I told you, this is the way I work, too. This never happened between Justin and I, because I was right in there with him. He's not used to that with you, because he's still used to working with me."

Of course he was, and that was a line of thought that I didn't want to pursue. After all, if Justin was used to living with JC, and working with JC, and being best friends with JC, it wasn't that great a leap to realize that he was also used to being with JC, and that he feelings might lead him back to all of his old habits. JC snapped me out of that before I could start to dwell on it.

"Look, Chris, I'm sorry if it wasn't my place to say anything," he said, holding out his hands. "I just, I didn't like knowing that you were upset, and that it was kind of my fault, and I wanted to try to smooth it over. I guess, well, I know how Justin thinks, even if he always doesn't."

Of course he did, since he'd known Justin so much longer than I did. I wondered for a second, looking at his blankly helpful face with his good chin and good hair and multifaceted eyes and those damn perfectly sculpted cheekbones that I would never have if he was really trying to be helpful, or if he was just trying to subtly emphasize that he knew Justin in ways that I didn't, and that he always would. Maybe he was trying to undermine us, even now, under the guise of friendship. It didn't seem like something he would do, but, then again, I didn't really know him that well at all, did I? Maybe when Chris's direct approach had failed, JC had decided to sneak back in under the radar, covering his intentions under the guise of friendship. Or maybe I was just letting this whole place make me more paranoid, unsettled, and unconfident as every day went by.

"You're not overstepping your bounds," I said finally, shrugging, unsure. "I guess that's just something else I need to think about."

"Thank God," JC said, smiling widely. "I know this is going to sound stupid, and that's why I wasn't sure if I should say anything, but I should have known that you were smart enough and mature enough that you wouldn't take it the wrong way."

I smiled back at him, and then we both turned to look at the doorway as we heard Justin approaching, sparing me the need to think of a response to that. Justin smiled at both of us, coming down today fully dressed rather than running a second engagement of yesterday's skin show in the kitchen. He'd showered already, too, and as he went to the cabinet for a cereal bowl, his standard breakfast, I watched JC push a teacup toward Justin automatically, and Justin reached for the honey, murmuring a thank you. As he sat down across from me I smirked, and both of them caught it. JC rolled his eyes as he left the kitchen, but he was smiling, too.

"Good morning," I said to Justin, still reading the paper.

"Morning, baby," Justin answered, blowing me a kiss across the table. "What are you smirking at?"

"The two of you, and your tea," I said, nodding toward the pot. "You'll never get me off my coffee."

"It's for my throat, dumbass," Justin said, rolling his eyes. "Are you done eating?"

"Yeah," I answered, still sipping my coffee as I flipped through the paper.

"Good," Justin said, grabbing my hand. He pulled it toward him and kissed the back, smiling at me as his eyes locked onto mine. "As soon as I finish my cereal, you and I have a big day. I'm taking you to the zoo!"

I wasn't sure how to take this. I liked zoos, in general, but it just seemed so random. Justin waited, grinning, across from me, still holding my hand, his eyes sparkling, and I remembered what JC had said, about Justin trying to make up for last night, even if he wasn't sure what he'd done, exactly. I could have explained it to him, but everything seemed ok today, and he was trying to make up for it. If I started complaining, it would just ruin the mood, and I didn't want to do that. I wanted to think about today as a fresh start. Since Justin and I had gone to bed without discussing the argument, after we promised that we wouldn't go to bed angry, I didn't feel like I should bring it up again.

The zoo was actually nice, set in rolling parkland, and Justin and I strolled around, followed at a distance by one of the ubiquitous bodyguards. Justin was wearing a floppy canvas rainhat and a pair of sunglasses, which went fine with his casual t-shirt and cargo pants, and I don't think anyone recognized him. Since we were in public we weren't holding hands and we were careful not to really touch each other, even if we walked next to each other. Justin picked up a little disposable camera at the gift shop on our way in, and we took a lot of pictures of each other standing next to things, making stupid faces, and trying to pet the animals. Justin was relaxed and playful, making up stupid little songs and doing little dances, trying to get the monkeys to copy his movements, and I figured maybe it was good that he'd done that work last night after all. After a while, though, I noticed that he was starting to fake his interest, and I took him aside near the crocodiles, wondering why they had them in the zoo, anyway, when we were in Florida and you could see an alligator in the marsh along the highway.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking around. The last thing we needed was for someone to see us standing this close together, leaning toward each other, or, rather, it was the last thing Justin needed. He blinked at me.

"Nothing," he answered, shaking his head. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, but Justin, I know you, and I can tell when you're faking it," I said, crossing my arms. "You're bored, aren't you?"

Justin looked down, sighing.

"A little," he answered. "But you like stuff like this. You like zoos and museums and stuff, like when you took me to the aquarium in Boston. You don't like this? You're not having fun? I wanted you to have a fun day, and I wanted to be with you."

"Justin, I am having fun," I sighed. "But I won't if I know you're bored. It's more fun for me just to spend time with you, just for us to be together, and I'd rather do that with something we both like. Now, is there anything you want to do? We already have the bodyguard, so we wouldn't have to get one. Is there anywhere you want to go?"

Justin thought it over for a second.

"You want to go shopping?" he asked finally, grinning.

"Sure," I answered.

We had a much better day at the mall, as neither of us was faking it for the other's benefit. I hadn't been shopping with Justin since I took him to the market in Boston, and he'd spent hours in the Abercrombie, so I'd forgotten what it was like to follow him from store to store. He did the same for me, though, insisting that we should both have fun, and he even tried to help me pick out some things. Along the way we didn't talk about ourselves much, just talking about the stuff we were looking at, how much it cost, and whether or not we should buy it, but it was still nice to just be together, like I'd told him. We had lunch at the mall in one of the sit down restaurants, giving the hostess a little extra to put us all the way in the back and the bodyguard at a table near ours, and as the afternoon rolled on toward dinner we finally headed back to the house, laughing and carrying our bags.

"JC?" Justin called as we traipsed in from the garage.

"We're home!" I yelled, both of us giggling at some joke the bodyguard had told before he headed back to the guard booth, wishing us a good night.

We dropped the bags by the stairs and peeked into the music room, wondering if JC had gone out. We were both giggly, and having spent the afternoon slipping into and out of clothes, I knew that we were also both horny. If JC wasn't home, then maybe we could have a repeat of yesterday. I was about to tell Justin that I didn't think JC was home when we heard voices down the hall, coming from the kitchen.

"You don't understand," JC said, sounding tired and frustrated. "This is what I want."

For a second I was terrified that his ex was over here, and that Justin was about to run into him, face to face, in his own house. The voice that I heard instead didn't really do anything to make me feel better, though.

"This is bullshit, JC," Chris snapped. "You're better than this, and you deserve better than to be here in this fucking house with the two of them!"

To be continued.