Disclaimer: this story was made up in it's entirety by me, AJ. I'm not saying it happened, and I hope it doesn't.
This is the chapter you've all been waiting for! The end! How do you like that? (Well after the epilogue of course.)
Email me and tell me what you think! ajsaysyourefired@yahoo.com put 6bsb in the subject line.
~*~
"I still can't believe you did that." A voice from behind us said. It was Chris.
"Yeah, well, what are you gonna do, cry about it?" I said, shrugging.
"You are such a gay faggot!" Lance yelled.
<You are so redundant!> I thought, but found it best to just ignore.
"Hey Lance," Nick said, getting fed up. "Want to play a game?"
"What game?" He said, immediately suspicious.
"It doesn't have a name." Nick said. "I say something, and you say whatever comes to your mindfirst. Word association, if you will. Whatever thefirst thing that comes to your mind is, is thetruth. The questions will have to do with yourpersonality, decisions you would make, choices.Okay?"
"Okay..." he said, still wary.
"Okay. Blue or red?"
"Blue."
"Pink or purple?"
"Purple."
"North or South?"
"South."
"Rock or pop?"
"Pop."
"Metal or rap?"
"Rap."
"Christina Aguliera or Britney Spears?"
"Christina."
"Friends or Will & Grace?"
"Will & Grace."
"Scream or Scary Movie?"
"Scary Movie."
"CDs or tapes."
"Cds."
"Video cassette or DVD."
"DVD."
"Republican or Democrat?"
"Democrat."
"Blonde or brunette?"
"Blonde."
"Do you feel all your answers are 100% correct?"
"Yes."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-two."
"When's your birthday?"
"May 4th, 1979."
"You know all your answers are 100% correct?"
"Yes."
"Dance or watch?"
"Watch."
"Sunrise or sunset?"
"Sunset."
"Roller blades or roller-skate?"
"Roller skate."
"Looney Tunes."
"Bugs Bunny."
"Pokemon."
"Pikachu."
"McDonalds."
"French Fries."
"Take out."
"Chinese."
"Pizza."
"Tip."
"Motel."
"Riot."
"Whore."
"Madonna."
"Are you homosexual?"
"Yes."
Silence. Nick just looked at Lance. We all stared athim.
"You're gay?" I squeaked.
He looked at me blankly. Then realized what he said.
"You tricked me!" he yelled at Nick, furious.Luckily, the building was deserted except for ourrecord reps and managers who were on the other side.
Nick looked smug. "No, I didn't. That game alwaysworks. You said twice your answers were 100%correct. And Brian and I can tell when another manis homosexual. It was your vibes, not your actions.I could tell the first time I saw you, at yourconcert." Nick suddenly grinned. "Gaydar is awonderful thing, man."
Lance just stared at Nick. His face was very red.His mouth opened and closed several times as if hewanted to say something, but couldn't.
"Lance?" I said. Slowly, he turned to face me."Why?" I said, VERY hurt. "Why did you do that to mejust because I'm gay, when you are?"
"I...I..."
"Yeah, I-stutter all you want, it can't help younow." Brian said, incensed, angry beyond words. Heseriously looked like he wanted to kill him.
"I...I'm sorry." He said. All the anger had deflatedout of him and he looked confused, lost and sad."I'm...I'm so sorry..." He said.
"Why?" I whispered again. I felt like I would crysoon. Why had he done this to me? Why?
He looked at me like a rabbit who's been dropped in a snake pit and has just spotted the snake, helpless.
"Oh Justin." He pleaded. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Idon't know why I did that to you..."
"Yeah, why did you?" Chris demanded. "Why'd you dothat to him when he did nothing wrong, especially when you're gay too!"
"I...just...let me explain." He begged. He looked atme. I nodded. He swallowed, and looked at his shoes. Maybe he was realizing how interesting his shoes were. I usually found a zillion new things about my shoes every time I had to talk to them.
"It's okay." I said gently. "I'm sure it will be okay,just explain."
Lance glanced at me, and his eyes wondered how I couldbe so forgiving, they said that plain as day. He swallowed again.
"I've been gay my whole life." He started, in a verysmall voice. "A year and a half ago Brian and Nick came out to theworld. I was considering it, but then Justin told us he was. JClooked shocked, Joey and Chris looked shocked and a little bit angry. I didn'twant you guys to hate me like I thought you were going to hate him.
"After he left right after he told us, I realized youguys didn't hate him-he was our friend and his sexuality doesn'tmatter. But what if y'all met someone who told you all gay people were fags sex-freaks? You'd hate Justin-and if I told, me too. I decided to see how easily your minds could be changed, and it turned out very quickly. Joey and Chris's minds were changed very quickly, but JC was harder.I never did feel like I got to him. Even Joey and Chris would show abit of remorse every now and then for what we did to Justin.
"That's why I was such a...cheesedick, or a bitch toyou, Justin. I really didn't like it, and I honestly didn't or don'thate you, but I didn't want to tell and get hurt if someone elsepersuadedthe others. As you can see, it was easily done." He finished. He looked up at me. "I know how truly wrong it was to deliberately hurt youbecause I didn't want to chance getting hurt, but very very soon it was too late. I couldn't chance stopping it, or like I said to JC when he tried, I could be labeled a sissy or a fag, wanting to stop hurting you. And I did want to stop, since the very beginning, but you see, I couldn't."
I was quiet a minute. "I see." I said finally.
"So you manipulated us to hate him because you didn't want someone else to manipulate us to hate you." Chris said, folding his arms.
Lance was quiet a minute. "If you want to say it like that-"
"I want to say it like that." Chris narrowed his eyes.
Lance sighed. "Yes then."
Silence. "Brian?" JC ventured.
"Yeah?"
"Could...do you think I could talk to you? Privately?" he asked, looking troubled.
"Sure. We can go into this empty office here." He motioned. JC nodded and followed him in. "You just wait till I deal with you." Brian threatened Lance.
"I think I'm going to take care of it." I told Brian gently. He shrugged and went in.
I looked at Lance. I sighed, and he looked at me anxiously. "You hate me don't you." He said sadly. "I totally and completely understand. You have every right to hate me."
I shook my head slowly. "No Lance, I don't hate you. And I understand (but don't approve of) your actions."
"Really?" He whispered. "You don't hate me?"
"No, I never did. Are you sorry for hurting me and hating me?"
"Yes, yes!" he said.
"I forgive you." I said.
Silence for a full minute while everyone (excluding JC and Brian cause they were off talking) stared at me, not believing I said that.
"What?" Lance said.
I looked at his green eyes. "I forgive you, it's okay. I don't hate you. And I'd like to be your friend again."
He just looked at me, then started to cry silently, tears falling from his eyes. "No Justin." He said. "You can't forgive me, I did something too terrible to you."
I came over to him and hugged him. He threw his arms around me, crying. "I'm so sorry Justin." He said.
I held him for about five minutes while he cried. "It's okay, don't cry." I kept saying. "It's alright, we should let it go. Can we be friends again?"
"I hope so." He stepped back finally, wiping his eyes. I handed him a tissue box, and he blew his nose. "It's all up to you." He said. "I did something cruel beyond words to you. I not only physically tortured you, I got these guys to do it to. And we-I-broke your heart. I'm so truly sorry, and I hope so much we can put it behind us and be friends again."
I took his hands in mine, and rubbed them, looking in his eyes with a faint smile on my face. "I hope so too." I said.
He sighed, eyes down. "Thank you so, so much."
"Justin?"
I let go of Lance's hands and turned around. Chris and Joey were standing there.
"I'm sorry Justin." Chris said. "I'm so sorry I hit you and hurt you. It doesn't bother me if you're gay."
I smiled. "Thanks."
"I'm very very sorry to. And it doesn't bother me either." Joey said.
"Okay." I said, smiling.
"Do you forgive us?" Chris asked.
I smiled again and hugged both him and Joey. Then I reached an arm out and pulled Lance to me too.
"Big group hug!" Nick said, and joined it.
Howie and Kevin rolled their eyes and shook their heads while AJ rolled his eyes and smirked.
"Nick you are so gay." He said.
"Duh." Nick said, without batting an eye.
I let go of my friends and the eight of us sat down to wait for the final members of our bands.
"Do you think you'll come back to *NSYNC?" Lance asked timidly.
I thought a minute, then shook my head. "No, I think I'm going to like being a Backstreet Boy. I need a change, a dramatic change anyway. I think I'll stick with the BSB."I said, and Lance nodded. "But we can still be best friends again. All of us." I offered.
Lance finally smiled. "Thanks." He said. Joey and Chris nodded.
The door opened, and JC came out, followed by Brian.
"Justin?" JC said, looking terrified.
"Yeah?" I stood up. "Something wrong Josh?"
"I...I...have something to tell you." He said, swallowing thickly.
"Yeah?" I took a few steps forward. "What is it?"
JC looked frantically over to Brian, who gestured to me. "Tell him." Brian said. "He won't hate you. I know Justin, he won't. You should know he won't. I'm telling you, he'd be happy."
"But what if he does hates me?" JC whimpered.
"I won't hate you." I said. "I don't hate Lance or Chris or Joey. I totally forgive them, and if you're sorry, I would you too. I want to be friends with you guys again. I'm staying Backstreet, but I want to put all this mess behind us. So I won't hate you, okay? I want to be your best friend again."
JC looked down at his shoes. "I'm gay." He mumbled.
I just stood there, stunned, sure I'd heard him incorrectly. "You're a what now?"
"I'm gay. I'm gay, and I have a massive crush on you." He looked up, his sad eyes into mine. "I'm in love with you, Justin. And it hurt me so much to see you hurting, and to hurt you. It just broke my heart into a million pieces to see you cry because of how much we hurt you. And once, when we hit you and you cried and then were unconscious, it was the first time I'd hit you, I sat beside you and told you I was sorry."
I sighed, dumbfounded. "I thought I'd imagined that."
He shook his head. "No, I actually said it. And sometimes-did you know you cry in your sleep?"
"No."
He nodded. "You do. Usually after you were beaten. You'd cry out and literally cry while you were asleep. I usually would cover you up and wipe away your tears and kind of hold your hand until you calmed down. Sometimes I would even kiss your forehead." He continued sadly. "I would cry when I saw you cry. In private or when you were sleeping, so no one would see. I would hear you crying at night, and I would get up, sit beside you, cover you up and hold you hand and wipe away your tears, crying myself as I kissed you, telling you I loved you and not to cry, it would all be okay someday. I love you Justin, and I'm so so sorry. I would give my life to take back those times when I hit you. And...well...I know you probably don't return the feelings, and probably hate me for never telling you or for hitting you, and I...I completely understand." He looked down at the ground.
I looked around quickly to see that no one besides us was in eyesight or earshot. I then reached out, tipped his chin up, and kissed him warmly on the lips. I slid my tongue into his mouth. He flinched a little, then gladly accepted the kiss. He opened up his mouth for me and got into it. I kissed him for a long time, and even got a little hard. His hands gently went to my face, and stroked my face and hair, and I got harder. Let's face it, I was horny for him.
I gently broke it away, and held him at arm's length, smiling like there's no tomorrow.
"Does that answer your questions about returning feelings?" I said.
"You...You Like me too?" He said, baffled.
"Sure." I shrugged. "You were the nicest to me. You never hit me, up until these last two weeks. You treated me like a person when we were alone. I used to have a crush on you. Hell, that's how I realized I was gay. When I was 16, I realized I liked you on a much more intimate level than friends should. I wanted to hug you and get hugs from you constantly. I wondered how good it would feel to kiss you, like on a dare or something so you wouldn't get suspicious or nothin'. I realized I had a major crush on you, I even loved you. It's kind of faded away to just a friend love since then, but now it's back, I love you, I want to hug and kiss you-my mouth wants you Josh."
"That's not all that does." Nick said, pointing to my stiffy.
JC and I looked down, and this time it was I who turned the shade of red you can never get from crayons. JC made an appreciative face, then looked up at me. "Are you horny for me?" He asked curiously.
I nodded, embarrassed.
He smiled sweetly, and draped his arms around my shoulders. "That is so sweet." He said. He let me go, then stepped back. "Do you really mean it? You want to be with me?"
I nodded. "Hell yeah."
He looked shocked. "Even after how terribly cruel I was to you?"
I took his hand. "Josh, I don't care. I forgive you. I want to put it all behind us. Like it never happened. Do you think you can do that? Cause if you're going to be apologizing about that every five minutes, you're going to annoy me more than usual." I said with a straight face.
He looked at me a sec, then smiled. "Okay." He said. "Only if you really really think it's okay we can be together."
"I do, I really do." I said, rubbing his hands. "Do you really really want to be with me?"
"I do, I do so badly." He said.
"Then we can be together."
He started to cry, much in the same fashion Lance had a few minutes earlier. "How can you be so good to me?" he said. "You're so loving and forgiving when you've been beaten and tortured and heartbroken."
"He is." Brian agreed. "That kid is one in a million." I glanced over and smiled at him a little.
"Oh, I know it." JC said. "And I love you so so much."
"Shh don't cry, it's all okay now." I said.
"I'm just so...happy." he said.
"You know what I wonder?" Nick said all the sudden. "Bri, if we could tell Justin and Lance were gay, how come we couldn't tell JC was? I was shocked by his confession!"
"Yeah, me too, when he told me." Brian shrugged. "Maybe our gaydar is malfunctioning. We'd better take it to get tuned...Actually, I think it was his love for Justin that threw it off. And he just doesn't give off any signs. With Justin it was his eyes, his goofy childish nature. And the way he looked at his bandmates told me they hit him. Then I looked into his eyes and saw he was gay. And plus, we haven't spent that much time with JC. I just think it was cause he didn't show it. You're very good at hiding, JC."
"Um...thanks, I guess." He said, his arms around me.
"Is that why you hated Lance so much? Cause you could tell he was?" I asked Brian.
"Yep."
"Did you know why he did it though? His explanation?"
"Nope. Not a clue. That made me hate him more, cause to me it was like, this gay guy is deliberately hurting this other gay guy just because the latter is gay. Um...DUH, do we have confusion here? I just couldn't figure out why someone would want to hurt you. Ever." He shook his head.
"Well, we're okay now. Huh Josh." I said, hugging him to me closely.
"Aww." The other's chorused. I ignored them and began kissing JC passionately. He returned it eagerly. I slowly moved against him, grinding him (pushing my stiffy against his crotch).
"Whoa, whoa, save that for...the closet or something." AJ said.
"We don't need to see that!" Joey seconded.
"Get a room!" Brian called, laughing.
"I have a room. It's at your house." I said, raising an eyebrow up and down. He zipped his lips, still smiling.
"Closet! Now!" AJ said, seeing me and JC pressed together and hugging like that.
I broke away from JC. "I'm not in a closet. I'm not coming out of the closet. That sounds like an erection."
"Well you have one." AJ retorted.
"Indeed I do." I said sarcastically. "So...um...blow me."
"No." he said without batting an eye.
"I will." JC offered.
"Please add 'later' onto that statement." Howie pleaded.
I looked at JC. "You will?"
"Later."
I laughed. "Whatever."
"I think it' so sweet that you two love each other so much." Brian said. "I've always thought that when two people love each other it's never wrong, and nothing should stand in their way; age, gender, race, nothing."
"Brian," I said, "think about what you just said. And use it." I instructed, holding my Josh to me. Brian looked at me, confused. I pointed to Nick. "He loves you. You love him. So what is so wrong that you left him? You don't leave someone for love. He wants nothing more than to be with you. He won't be with anybody but you, and you won't be with anybody but him. So you can be with the man you love, that loves you more than life itself, or you can both be lonely and miserable for the rest of your lives. If you honestly, truly love him Brian, you'd be with him right now."
Silence. Brian just looked at me with a slight hurt look on his face.
"This is the part where you protest." Nick informed Brian. Everyone one else was silent.
Brian heaved a great sigh, then walked over to Nick, slowly. Everyone watched him. He got down on his knees in front of Nick, and took his hands.
"Nicky..." he said, his voice very cracked and soft. "Will you take me back, Nicky?"
Nick just looked at him, then smiled a wonderful smile at him. I could only imagine how happy Brian was to see it. Nick picked him up, and twirled him around and kissed him. Brian put his hands on his face and kissed him madly.
"Of course I will!" Nick said, still smiling that wonderful smile. "I love you more than anything Brian. You're my Brian. You'll always be my Brian."
Brian had tears of happiness in his eyes. "I love you soooooo much!" he said. "I'm so sorry, I'm so very sorry to put you through it all, when my heart knew full well that we belonged together. I'm so sorry, and I love you soooooo much! You'll take me back? We can be together again?"
"Yes." Nick said. He put him down and began kissing him again.
"Now that deserves an 'aw'!" I said.
"Aww!" everyone chorused.
"Let's all go back to my place so we can celebrate our new loves and friendships." Brian offered.
"Let's." I said, holding JC's hand. I went with him in his car (to sit with him and give him directions was my excuse. While I did do that, I also gave him a rubdown in the car while he was driving. I thanked my lucky stars he had tinted windows, hehe.) Brian and Nick went in Brian's, AJ, Howie and Kevin in AJ's car, and everyone else in their own.
When we all got to Brian's place, he got out some drinks (wine and champagne) so we could toast. Joey, Chris and Lance sat on the couch; AJ, Howie and Kevin on the floor, me and JC in one armchair and Brian and Nick in the cuddle chair.
"Here's a toast to our new friendships." Howie raised his glass. "May we be friends and find good fortune together, forever."
We clinked our glasses and drank.
"A toast to Brian." JC said. "Who's understanding, caring, friendship and love has helped everyone here, especially Justin, Nick and me. We all love you Brian. Thanks for being such a good friend." He said sincerely. Brian blushed.
"Hear hear!" I said. We all clinked and drank to B-Rok.
"To lifelong happiness." I said.
"To love." Brian said, looking Nick in the eyes.
"To our sixth Backstreet Boy." Nick said.
"Hear hear!" AJ said. We all clinked and drank.
The end! (But go to epilogue)