Tests of Friendship Chapter 8
Tests of Friendship, Chapter Eight:
By AD
Intro:
Well, here’s chapter eight. Is the story going to continue or not? I had a few emails about it, so read on and find out. Originally when I started chapter seven I was seriously considering ending the story at the end of chapter seven with Simon committing suicide. Sean, author of Insecurites/Six Months and my other proof reader, both tried to persuade me otherwise however. Did they succeed?, read on! Also, thanks to Jeff for his help on this chapter, you've been an invaluable friend. If you don't go read his great story, 'Twist of Fate' Well, let's get on with the show.
Usual legal stuff applies. This story is not supposed to imply anything about any of the characters mentioned. This story is completely fictional, and any resemblance to reality is completely coincidental and unintentional.
Chapter Seven:
I jumped at the sound of a click behind me. It took me a second to register what the sound was, "That sounds familiar. Who do I know who would break into my house, burn it down along with all my garages, and steal a Walther PPK from my gun cabinet. Hello Michael." I said turning round, to be confronted with the barrel of a gun pointing into my face. I tried to act calm, and not show any fear, but after his recent actions, I was bloody terrified that he might actually shoot me.
"Hello Adam, nice to see you again. I’m glad you like my handy work. It took a lot to pull that off."
"Why did you go it Mike, I’ve tried to help you, I gave you a job, I paid you a good wage, I gave you a good deal of money. You’re the one who deserted, not me, you were owed nothing, everything I did was out of generosity, which seems to have been stupidly misplaced." I said, taking a few steps away from the gun.
"You got everything, absolutely everything. I got nothing. You might have given me a job, a few thousand pounds, but you inherited everything. I didn’t desert, I was forced out, you forced me out."
"You bloody well ran out the house when I was 14 and told you I was gay. Ok, you were 29, but you never said a word of goodbye You just disappeared, no one knew where you went. Hell, Mum thought you were dead or something. You turned your back on mum and dad. Where were you at there funeral?"
"You know I wasn’t even in England, we’ve been through this before Simon. I couldn’t care less. I wanted to ruin you, let you suffer a bit, and now I’m going to finish the job and kill you you bastard. You’ll finally get what you deserve for being the fuckin’ fag that you are. If Dad knew about you, I would have received every penny, he wouldn’t have wanted someone like you to get it."
"I thought higher of you than this Michael. Well, go pull the trigger then, kill your own younger brother, the kid you used to play with as a young boy, who you used to take to walks. Go and, just pull the damn trigger and kill me in cold blood." I said, waiting a few seconds. "PULL THE GOD DAMNED TRIGGER YOU COWARD." I screamed at him.
He squeezed his finger on the trigger, the gun aimed square at my head. As his finger tightened, the inevitable bang followed...
Chapter Eight:
I jumped at the bang, realising I wasn’t hit. I looked besides where Michael was standing, and saw Justin standing in the door way , holding my 303 rifle, which I left upstairs. I looked at Michael, who was in mild shock. Justin had shot the gun straight out his hand in a precisely aimed shot (or a bad one if he was aiming somewhere else), somehow or other avoiding any injury. I just stood there, staring at the quivering heap in front of me, his index finger bleeding, the skin ripped off with how the gun was forced from his hand.
"Si, are you ok." Justin almost shouted at me. I managed a nod in reply. I had never been so close to dying before, I couldn't recall anyone ever aiming a loaded gun at me before either. "You, get out of here before we call the police." Justin shouted to Micheal. He scuttled out the kitchen area and ran through the front door. I heard the slight screech of tires as his car sped off.
"Nice shooting." I stuttered out, as I attempted to regain at least some of my compusure, "How did you learn how to shoot like that? It doesn't aim very precisely, the target isn't designed for close range."
"Lucky shoy really, I wasn't aiming for the gun imparticular. Why didn’t you tell me about him?" Justin said, putting the rifle down on the table, seeming surprised at his own accuracy, and in as much shock as I of the fact he just shot someone, even if he did miss the person. Avoiding the topic seemed the best way to continue at the time, and let the realisation of the situation sink in at a later stage.
"I don’t think about him too much. I don’t like him much, and he doesn’t like me. It never really came up, we try to avoid each other."
"So what happened, you came out to him when you were 14, and he deserted you."
"He disappeared about an hour afterwards. My mum and dad never even heard of him again. He never phoned, contacted or anything. Nearly ten years, he was no where to be found. A few months after my parents died, he turned up on my door step. He heard about the death, but didn’t come to the funeral, we had a very bitter argument about that. I decided to let him into the business, and gave him almost half a million pounds to set him up. Evidently it wasn’t enough, he wanted to inherit everything."
"Why did you let him go, you could have called the police." Justin asked questioning.
"Would you do that to Jonathan, could you go that to Jonathan if the situation were reversed? He’s still my brother, I used to spend half my time with him, he was someone for me to look upto."
"No, I don’t suppose I could, even if he did to me what Michael did to you. Let’s just get out of here, this place doesn't seem very safe. We can sit and cool off in the car for a while." Justin said. I reached over and picked up the gun, lying on the floor about a metre away. The barrel had been damaged by the bullet impact. I unloaded the magazine and put the gun on the table. I wasn’t completely certain what to do with it, since I wasn’t legally allowed to own it. I put it in my pocket, and decided to take it down to the local waste dump, since they had a secure holding for guns to be handed into anonymously, if it were still there. Justin drove off as soon as we got in the car, trying to get as far away from the place as possible. Knowing the next door neighbour, the police, MI5, FBI, CIA and ever other law inforcing organisation across the world had already been informed of the gun shot from my house...
We brought two tickets for Paris at the airport ticket desk for a flight in a little over half an hour. Justin paid for the car rental and we went straight onto the plane. There was no first class section on the flight, so were we sitting in standard coach class. Fortunately, no one recognised Justin. During the flight Justin called JC to tell him we were on the way back. We rode in silence, Justin handing me my medication to take, since I had forgotten it that morning. During the flight, we both contemplated in silence the situation we were in, by shooting another person, even if it was in self defense. The collective conclusion was to attempt to completely forget about what happened. We landed in Paris at about 3pm local time (GMT+1), and found JC and Nick waiting for us in the arrivals lounge. They walked over to us and gave each of us a slight hug, not wanting to be too obvious. They took us over to the waiting limo and we climbed in. Collectively we filled them in on what had happened in our short time in England. JC and Nick were both very sympathetic towards me. It was the first time for ages that I actually had people who really cared for me. Virtually everyone else I knew didn’t really care about me, only a few people who might just miss me if I died. Here I actually felt as if I had real friends, as well as a lover.
We arrived at the Paris hotel at just past 3:40pm. The limo pulled round the back to the service elevator of the Ritz hotel, where we headed up to the 12th floor, which had been booked for the two groups, there band and management staff. We walked into the meeting room on the floor, where the rest of the guys were sitting, eating some lunch. I went through the whole story again, getting myself some food, along with the other three. Justin sat next to me at the table, comforting me as I went through the whole story. Again, I received further sympathy from the rest of the guys, including Chris, who couldn't be said blame free over me leaving back to England in the first place. I decided to let it drop for a while, but would have a word with him later, I had no desire to cause any further tensions than those which already existed. Collectively it was decided that we’d all go out clubbing tonight, and I didn’t feel like arguing, although Justin reminded me that I’m not supposed to drink, which was unfortunate, since I felt like getting drunk.
At about 4:30 we headed back to our own rooms for a while. Justin flicked through the TV channels, while I relaxed on the bed. He ended up putting MTV:UK on, which was showing the US Top 20, and sat next to me. After about fifteen minutes of watching, I excused myself, and told Justin to wait for a minute or two. I knocked on Chris’s door, and after a minute or two it opened, Chris standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped round his waste. I didn’t bother saying anything, I just brought my fist in contact with the side of his face, making him stumble to the ground. I pulled the door shut and went to the lift, getting out at the lobby and walking over to the reception.
"Hello, I was wondering could you tell me where any decent jewellers are in the area?" I asked the lady at the reception desk.
"Yes sir. If you turn left out the hotel and walk down the street for about 500meters, and turn left, there is a small, but excellent jewellers. Another very good one is on the bank of the Seine, just before the Eiffel tower."
"Thanks for your help." I said, walking from the reception desk. I decided to go to the closer of the two, since I didn’t have a lot of time before Justin would start to wonder where I had disappeared to. I found the jewellers without too much difficulty, and went inside. The clerk, standing behind the desk, looked up and smiled. I looked over the selection of rings and necklaces, trying to find something suitable. After a while of searching I came across a gold ring, encrusted with blue aquamarine stones and one diamond in the centre. The assistant came over to me and got the ring out of its case.
"The ring is 24 carrot gold plate on a solid silver core, witha blue green aquamarine, part of the beryl family of stones, and a cluster diamond in the centre." He said, as he showed my the ring close up. I looked at it closely, and studied the intricate stone work.
"That looks perfect. Do you by any chance have two of them in stock in these sizes?" I said, producing a peice of paper from my pocket with Justin's ring size on, and mine
"I will just have to check for you Sir on those sizes, I'm not certain." The man said, walking into the back of the store. After a minute he came out with two small ring boxes and opened them for my inspection.
"You’re lucky sir, we just happen to have two available."
"That’s perfect. How much are they together?"
"This particular one is 10’000 francs sir, and engraving is available for a nominal fee. Together, however, we will say 20’000 francs, and no engraving charge."
"How about SW on one and JT on the other?"
"That would be no problem sir."
"And when would the rings be available?"
"We could have them finished in 10 minutes sir." The man replied.
"That would be perfect, I’ll take them." I said, handing the man my credit card. He ran it through the machine to check it cleared, then walked over to the engraving machine. After five or so minutes he came back and showed me the engraving, on the inside back of the ring, opposite the stones. I nodded, and he put the ring into it’s case, and wrapped it under my instruction, and left the other just in the case. I paid for them and left the store, feeling pleased for myself, trying not to think of the monetary issue. I headed back to the hotel and called the elevator, thanking the receptionist as I walked by. As the doors opened, Justin was standing in the lift, and walked out straight into me. I laughed as stumbled slightly, and we both got back into the lift.
"Where have you been, I’ve been worried about you, I thought you might have had a seizure of something!" Justin said excitedly.
"No where, I just went to get you a little something." I said, waving the bag in front of his eyes.
"What is it?"
"You’ll find out tonight, it’s just a little thank you present for standing by me, I don’t know what I’d have done without you to help me through all this." I replied, moving the bag behind my bag as he tried to look what was inside. I gave the bag to JC to look after, to prevent Justin from taking any sneak peeks. I had made some special plans for tonight, to keep my mind off all the recent events, and to give Justin a very big thank you. He walked back to the room, trying to look miserable. As soon as the door was shut I pushed him over onto the bed and started tickling him as hard as a could. He was laughing uncontrollably, and was helpless to try and retaliate. After a minute or so I let him get some air. "Now, remember, no peeking. You’ll find out what it is once you get back from clubbing. I’m going with you as well, so don’t try coming back early or anything, you’re going to have a nice night out, worry free. All I’ll say is you’ve got an enjoyable night ahead of you."
"That sounds kinky!" Justin said, grinning. I threw a pillow over at him before jumping onto the bed next to him, cuddling up and watching TV.
"Simon, come on, snap out of it. Come on, you’ll be all right." I heard, as I flicked my eyes open to see Justin standing over me. "Thank God you’re alright, I thought something was seriously wrong."
"Why?"
"Because you’ve been like that, unresponsive for almost half an hour. You’ve never had a seizure that long before."
"Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine." I said, messing up his hair. I glanced over at the clock, which now read 5:57pm. I jumped out of the bed and went into the bathroom. We shared a shower, since we were both quite sweaty after the plane flight and all. I forced Justin to keep himself to himself however, not even any kissing. By the time we had both finished getting ready it was gone half past. As we were finishing dressing, JC knocked on the door.
"Come in." Justin shouted out, as he pulled a baby blue sweat shirt on, and started lacing his trainers (sorry, sneakers:).
"Hi you two, I was just checking you were both ready. We’re going in a few minutes." JC said, sitting on the bed, whispering something into my ear. I just nodded once or twice, while Justin tried to get close to hear what was being said.
"I hope you’re not cheating on me or anything?" Justin said, in mock pain.
"Well, like I said, I thought it would be best to try the tables just to see how good your technique really is." I said, smiling over at Justin. He punched me lightly in the arm, before proceeding to trip on his shoe laces, which he had tied to each other, so he couldn’t move apart. He fell flat on his face, and JC and myself both burst out laughing. After a few seconds when he didn’t go to get up, I was concerned however. I ran over to his side and knelt down beside him. I was caught off guard when he sprang up and started tickling me, retaliating for earlier. He stopped after a few seconds, and stood up, correctly tying his laces. We walked out into the hall way and found the guys collecting around the lift. We joined them and waited a few more minutes until the others arrived. We went downstairs and entered the waiting stretch limos. The drivers headed off and took us to some of the better night clubs in the city. We entered them all pretty easily, the doormen usually recognising us.
Somehow or other Justin managed to get me dancing again, which was pretty miraculous, twice in a week virtually. Justin tried to get me to perform some karaoke, but fortunately, for me anyway, didn’t succeed. I just stuck to ginger ales all night long, and ended up giving myself the hiccups. Justin and myself headed back to the hotel at about 10pm, while the other guys stayed on for longer. We rode a taxi back to the hotel, and, after Justin signed a few autographs we headed back upto our room. I made Justin sit down while I went to JC’s room and retrieved the present I had purchased him. After a couple of minutes I returned to the room and sat down on the bed next to Justin.
"Well, first of all, I brought you a little something. I hope you like it, I tried to get it in your favourite colour. I just want it to signify a bond between us." I said, as Justin unwrapped and opened the ring box. He carefully lifted out the ring, and looked at it closely, as it diffracted the rooms artificial light into the full spectrum. As he looked up to me a few tears glistened down his cheek, as he pulled me into a tight hug. There were no words spoken, but so many thoughts conveyed. After a minute or so, he released me and looked on the small engraving placed on the back of the ring. He smiled, as he pushed it on his finger, before giving me a long passionate kiss. Our tongues intertwined for what seemed like hours, before we broke off. I placed my own ring on my finger Justin slippd it past my knuckle as we layed down onto the bed next to each other. We just stared into each others eyes, as we cuddled up together, still wearing all our clothes. When I planned this evening earlier in the day, I was intending to repay Justin for the previous night, but as time passed, it didn’t seem appropriate, as we shared a moment which seemed far more intimate and loving than sex could ever be, as we just held each others bodies, the window allowing the cool Paris breeze to blow across us. I had never been a lover of the city, I always thought it was very ugly in places, but as we looked out the window of the hotel, and saw the lights of the Eiffel Tower, glistening off the Seine, it wasn’t too hard to see how Paris had earned its title as one of the most romantic cities in the world.
Eventually we had to break our hold and get up, still no words being spoken between us, and changed out of our clothes, before climbing back into the bed. Neither of us felt like a shower, or doing anything more than absolutely necessary, which might result in breaking the moment. We just lay on the bed, staring out the window, Justin in my arms. The moment wasn’t sexual as such, but if anything spiritual, as we both seemed aware of the others persons thoughts, as our silence conveyed so much. I had to smile slightly when the sound of police sirens came flooding into the room from the road several stories below. We had shared almost 3 hours of such intimacy, just lying in silence. Neither of us heard the rest of the guys arrive back, but I expect JC made sure they were all very quite, so as not to disturb us. I had found JC, and Nick, to be both excellent friends towards me, caring and loving, in a way suitable for a close friendship. JC was still very protective of Justin, due to his youth and the close relationship which exists between them, after there many years of knowing each other and growing up through the teenage years together. I felt the same such protectiveness over Justin as JC did, since I was several years Justin’s senior, and JC’s as a matter of fact. JC was still only 22 at the time, while I was 23. [this story is currently in late June 1999]
Justin had fallen fast asleep into my arms, while I was in deep thought. I smiled over at his innocent, beautiful sleeping form, before laying down myself, and falling to sleep, still holding Justin in my arms. I realised I had forgotten to take my medication at that point, but I couldn’t wake Justin, so just made a note to take it the following morning. I fell asleep with a smile on my face, happy with how my life was turning out. I may have lost virtually all my money, but I gained something far beyond my wildest imaginations. I gained someone who loved me, and who I loved back, and a group of good, strong friends, something money cannot buy. Money can get one friends, but it’s purely the money that they’re friends with. I knew, whatever happened, that as long as they stayed by and supported me, I would pull through all this. Justin had allowed a part of me that I usually kept suppressed to remerge. All the tragedy I had gone through in life had turned me into a very cold person. I was never tactful in what I said, and I very often hurt a lot of people’s feeling. In business I was ruthless towards anyone who challenged my position, and away from business, no, I was never really away from business. Even when I went to see the concert for the first time, my holiday had been virtually non-existent, as I worked through most days. Since my degree course had finished, I tried to devote more time and more of my presence into the business, since it was afterall my property. The word was seems very appropriate right now. Justin had allowed a caring part of me, the part which existed before my parents died, before Mike left, to become a predominant part of my life. The past few days had resulted in me becoming a different person than the Simon Williams who existed only few weeks earlier, the Simon Williams who had contemplated suicide so many times through his teenage years. I was pretty certain that without Justin, suicide would have been very heavily on my agenda at this point.
I woke up late the following morning, and for the first time, found Justin had actually gotten up before me. I glanced over at the clock, noticing it was almost 11am. I never slept this late, never. I crawled out the bed and went to the bathroom. I presumed Justin had already gone for some breakfast, and didn’t want to disturb me. I got showered and freshened myself up before walking out the room and trying to find Justin. I heard his voice coming from the slightly agar door of JC’s room. I knocked the door before peeping my head round the corner. Justin smiled over at me and waved me in.
"I hope you’re not cheating on me, sneaking away early and seeing JC behind my back?" I said smiling as I jumped energetically onto the bed. Justin punched me in the arm, while JC blushed slightly.
"How long did you stay up for last night, you’ve never got up late yet." Justin said, as I noticed Nick walking out the bathroom, wearing only a towel. I said ‘hi’ as he collected some clothes and went back into the bathrom.
"I don’t know, I was thinking a lot after you fell to sleep. I must have lost track of time for me to wake up this late." I said.
"What were you thinking about?"
"You." I replied, smiling slightly.
"All good I hope?"
"Mostly. I was wondering what I would be doing right now if you hadn’t have turned up in my life."
"And what conclusion did you come up with?"
"You don’t want to know, I assure you." I said seriously.
"What, you would have been dating JC instead of me?" he said, pouting slightly.
"Haha, very funny. No, we’ll talk about it later, I’ve not had anything to eat yet. What’s lined up for you lot today?" I said, trying to move off the topic. Justin gathered this, and dropped his line of conversation.
"Nothing much really. We’ve got a few days off, since the Bonn concert was cancelled. We were having a couple of days off in Paris anyway, but we’ve ended up with a hole week." JC replied. "I’ll ring down for some breakfast for you if you like?"
"Thanks, I’ll have a croissant, baguette, chocolate pastry and a glass of orange juice." I replied, as Justin held my hand. I smiled at him before turning back to the conversation at hand.
"What’s happening between you two?" I asked JC, motioning towards the bathroom.
"Didn’t Justin tell you?" I shook my head, "Well, we’re sort of dating, a bit like you two really. Justin can fill you in on it all, I would have thought he’d have told you."
"Yeah Just, why didn’t you tell me, didn’t think I could keep a secret?" I said, pouting as I looked towards the ground.
"No silly, I just never thought about it. I found out when I was planning that night out for us two, and it didn’t really cross my mind, you had enough on your plate."
"Don’t you want any of the others to know?"
"Nick doesn’t want anyone else knowing he’s bi, after the reaction we got when Justin and me came out." I nodded understandingly, as Nick walked out the room.
"What, were you talking about me or something?" Nick said, noticing that the conversation had ended as soon as he walked in.
"Yeah Nicky, I was just telling the guys how great you are in bed." JC said grinning.
"I don’t want to go there!" I said quickly, while Justin made sick faces.
"What, don’t say you two aren’t at it."
"I’m sure you wouldn’t want to hear about it if we were." I said, but much to be disappointed both of them sat down in front of me, smiling, waiting for me to divulge all. I shook my head at the both of them and gave Justin a quick kiss. "Would you prefer a demonstration, I’m sure it could put things into context more than words!" I said, trying to be as serious as possible as I reached for Justin’s belt buckle.
"NO. We’ll just move onto something else!" Nick said smiling. "You’re right, I really don’t want to know." I laughed slightly, as JC opened the door and took my breakfast of the waiting bell hop. He gave him a tip and put the tray in front of me. I ate in silence, trying to avoid the stares of the others while I ate.
"You know, it’s not very nice to stare at someone while they eat, it’s quite off putting!" I said, finishing a bite of my croissant.
"Oh sorry." Justin said, turning away and entering a conversation with JC. I finished my breakfast before putting the tray over towards the door for when room-service came along. "Well then, what are we going to do today?"
"I don’t know, what do you think? We could go clubbing tonight, but we did that last night. Chris and AJ will probably, they’re too hyper for there own good. We could go Disney?"
"Yeah, it’s not too far to go from here. It’s not as nice as Disney World, but hey, it’s still Disney." I replied to Nick’s suggestion.
"Ok then, that’s settled, us lot will go to Disney. We’ll invite the others to come. I don’t think anyone has left the hotel. Wait here and I’ll go and knock on some doors." JC said walking out the room.
"So Nick, do you really like JC?" Justin asked
"Yeah, I do. He’s really kind to me and all, especially considering I’m several years younger than him, same as you two really." Nick said, not embarrassed, or afraid to talk about it. "I still don’t want to come out to the others though, but they probably have an idea. They’ve not been all that supportive to Justin and JC, or you. Nothing much was said with Brian. I know Kevin and AJ don’t mind, but Howie’s not all too keen. You’ve got Chris against you."
"It’s weird with Chris. We were such close friends, we talked to each other , told each other stuff, we went to each other when we were down. He was a really good friend. We really hit t off when we first met. I couldn’t believe it when he reacted like he did. I expected him to just change his opinion on gays, not isolate me." Justin replied
"He’s coming round though, he’s trying to get to terms with it. It must have been difficult for him, a guy he’s been really really close to for several years, someone he could talk to, one of his closest friends, suddenly as far as he’s concerned, turns out to be gay. All this time he was friends with something he didn’t like and was against. He just reacted off instinct against gays, rather than the fact you’re one of his closest friends." I chirped into the conversation
"Well Dr. Williams, since you seem to know so much about our relationship with each other, I’ll have to take your word on it!" Justin said smiling. I laughed back at him slightly, realising I had given a slight unintended lecture. "What did you say your degree was in again?"
"Computer science and physics, specialising in quantum mechanics. I have A levels in Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths, and then a bundle of slight lower stuff. Nothing in psychology though. I’ve got a teaching qualification too, as well as basic higher level English. I also have a qualification which tells me I can speak German fluently, and I’m not going to argue with a nice signed piece of paper! There’s one or two other lower qualifications to quote, such as computer programming things I did, but I don’t want to drag into them."
"Tell me something interesting then?"
"Why the sudden interest in my eminent genius?"
"Hey, don’t get cocky with me. I’m a straight A student myself, just haven't gotten as far as you in terms of nice letters after my name. There’s one, what letters do you have after your name?"
"Mr. Simon Williams PhD, BSc, LIT. Technically, I can go over the top and call myself Dr .Simon Williams, but I don’t think that sounds as good."
"Doctor sound far more impressive in my opinion." Justin said
"I always associate doctors with medicine, rather than other subjects though."
"I suppose. So do all those basically mean your a smart ass?" Nick said.
"Something like that. Way out of your league anyway Nick." I said smiling.
"Hey, I’m a good boy, just like your boyfriend. You don’t pick on him."
"Nope, he’s my boyfriend. You on the other hand are an easy target."
"Hey, he’s my boyfriend. You mess with him, you mess with me." JC said as he walked back into the room.
"I’m terribly sorry Josh, I won’t ever do it again, please forgive me, please don’t hurt me." I said, imitating a scared child, barely managing to keep a straight face
"Ok then, just don’t do it again, and don’t call me Josh, that’s for Nick to use!" I lost it at that moment and started laughing. JC joined in, while Justin just shook his head.
"I’m the youngest one here, and by far the most mature." He said over our laughter.
"No arguments here." I said, while JC just agreed with me. After a few seconds we were all in a pillow fight, everyone ganging up against me. As Nick started tickling me I felt a little light headed, and before I knew what was happening I was out.
"Stop you lot, something’s wrong!" Justin called out, as he realised I stopped defending. As he looked over at me he realised I had had another seizure. "We shouldn’t have been messing around, it’s my fault. He should be ok in a minute. I thought his medication was working, but the doctor said its effects wouldn't be instantaneous. It was probably just that he avoided anything to set them off. What set this off, there were no lights or anything." Justin said rapidly, switching almost into a world of his own. JC put his arm round Justin to try and comfort him, while Nick told him it wasn’t my fault. Justin then noticed the light shinning on the wall and looked down, seeing the new ring on his hand. He burst out crying, not giving any reason why to JC or Nick. JC tried to comfort Nick as I came round, only being out a few minutes.
"What happened? Another seizure?"
"Yes, are you ok?" Nick asked, as I saw Justin crying.
"I’m fine Nick, thanks." I said as I knelt down in front of Justin, getting over the slight dizziness. I had a splitting headache, but was ignoring it for the time being. I had had headaches on and off quite a lot for the past week, but didn’t want to say anything to worry Justin. I suffered from headaches my whole life, I always put it down to being in front a computer screen too much. "Justin, come on, what’s wrong?" I glanced at JC who shrugged. Justin reached his arms out and hugged me tightly, almost forcing the air out my lungs.
"It was my fault, the ring must have done it, shinning light in your eyes as I moved my arm" Justin said between tears.
"Come ‘ere stupid. Not all seizures are caused by light, they can just happen. You weren’t flashing it at me rapidly or anything, and it’s not instant, it takes a few seconds before anything happens. It wasn’t your fault, it was just coincidence." I said, as I hugged Justin back, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Well, what’s happening today?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Lance, Joey, Kevin and AJ are going with us. Chris and Howie have already disappeared, and Brian’s gone to meet John and spend the day with him. He was flying in today."
"Fair enough. We better get going, it’s quite late now. We won’t have too long there." I said as I got up, straightened my clothes out and waited for the others.
The day went quite quickly, going on most of the rides. There’s no really big coasters at Eurodisney, or any Disney in fact, I love roller coasters. We had a fun day though, having something to eat at about 3pm. We made our way back to the hotel at round 6, and found most of the others back. AJ, Chris, Howie, Justin and Nick all decided to go clubbing. I virtually had to force Justin out the door, since he wanted to stay at the hotel with me, but I wouldn’t have it. You could tell he wanted to go really. Brian called to say he was still out with John and wouldn’t be back till later. Kevin was a bit concerned for his cousin’s safety, which I found admirable. He ended up going out with Joey to catch a movie at the local cinema. That left just me and JC at the hotel.
"Why didn’t you want to go anywhere Josh? Can I call you Josh. It sounds better than JC."
"Sure, I don’t mind. I didn’t feel like going out tonight, and I thought it would give me some time to talk to you and get to know you better. I liked you since we met, you seem a nice guy. I just thought we could just talk."
"Fair enough, let’s just talk." I said, flashing a quick grin.
"Ok. Have you talked to Justin about what’s going to happen when we go back to America?"
"Not really. He’s told me I’m going to come back with him. Right now, I’m not really in a position to argue, am I?"
"No, I suppose not. What could drive your brother, your own family to do that to you, and then try to kill you. You came really close there, thank God Justin managed to pull off a good shot."
"Yep. He ran out on me when he found out I was gay, and I inherited everything, and he was bitter. He’s right, if Dad knew I was gay, I wouldn’t have inherited the whole thing, my Dad wasn’t really a lover of homosexuals, and my brother inherited that. I felt sorry for him, if we’d known how to contact him, he would have got some of the inheritence. When he turned up on my doorstep virtually penniless, I gave him quite a bit of money and made him second in charge of the business. He always used to help my Dad out, being older than me and all, and has as much a passion about cars as I do. I misjudged him, I thought he had healed and got over all the past bitterness. In fact, he was just waiting all this time to ruin me. At least no one was injured, that would really have messed things up. He was a senior company guy, so the insurance will be reluctant to pay out the little which the policy covered. As I said to Justin though, I won’t see much of it, the company had debts, after paying them all off, and giving the staff a wage packet, I won’t get many thousand back. I’ve got a few ten thousand pounds in my account, and ten thousand odd in shares, which I’ll sell as soon as the start to go up again." JC nodded occasionally as I spoke, and was listening to every word I said.
"How much did those rings set you back?"
"10’000 francs each. I know it’s a lot, but I couldn’t give a damn right now. That’s the money from the stocks and shares gone, I’ll live. I wanted to get something nice though, I know I might have gone to an overkill slightly, but hey, that’s me. Justin deserves it though, I don’t know what I’d have done without Justin, well I have a good idea. I’d probably not be here now, I couldn’t have got through everything that’s happened to me, the epilepsy, my business going down the drain, Mike trying to kill me."
"You shouldn’t talk like that. You spent what, $1600 about on a ring for Justin, and one for yourself. He would be mad at you for spending your money like that, after you lost so much."
"What else am I going to spend it on? I’ve still got plenty to pay my keep, and look after myself."
"Fair enough, but Lynn won’t let you pay your keep, she can be stubborn like that. I don’t know how she’ll take Justin, and then me being gay, but I think she won’t mind. She probably has an idea anyway. How many people knew you were gay?"
"Other than my brother, you were the first people I ever openly told. A few found out, as I’ve said, but I never told many people, and I tried to cover it up as much as possible."
"I can’t say much different here, no one knows about me except for all the guys and you now, that was the first time I had ever come out to anyone. I don’t think anyone even had any idea. I suspected Justin might be once or twice, but that wasn’t that strong, I always thought he was straight. You were saying earlier, what would you have done if you hadn't have met Justin?"
"Quite honestly, I don't know, I would have needed to be confronted with the situation. I think I might seriously have considered topping myself, it wouldn't be the first time. Do you want to watch a movie or something, we can still talk. I wouldn’t mind to know a bit more about you and your past. I don’t know a massive amount about you other than interviews you’ve done, and chats etc. You never find much useful from those though in my opinion." I changed the subject quickly, since I was uncomfortable talking about it. JC seemed to get the idea and let it drop
"Ok, any choice on what to watch?"
"I’m not fussy, pick what you like." I said, as JC flicked through the catalogue at the side of the bed. He finally settled on ‘Enemy of the State’, since he hadn’t seen it. After a minute or so the movie came onto the TV. We both lay down on the king sized bed, which faced the TV and watched the movie. We occasionally commented, but remained predominantly silent. Once the movie had finished, JC talked a bit about himself, beyond the usual magazine interview stuff, and more about himself on a deeper level. We weren’t that dissimilar, and even had similar tastes in clothes and cars. He learnt that I hated basket ball though.
"Justin won’t like you there. He loves the game."
"I noticed." I replied, smiling slightly. "I’m sure he’ll try and show me the error of my ways."
"Yep." JC replied. I glanced over at the clock, and it was now 11pm.
"They shouldn’t be too long getting back now. I hope Chris and Howie take good care of them all."
"They’ll be fine. You worry too much, you should be thinking about yourself now."
"I inherited that from my Mum, she could worry for England if it were an Olympic sport, and would undoubtedly get gold!" I said, laughing at the memory slightly. My Mum would dig deep, if there was nothing obvious to worry about, she wanted me to have all jabs when I even went to France, I wasn’t evened allowed into Africa, with her worrying about all the diseases I could catch. [jabs are immunisations]
"I know the feeling." JC said. Suddenly we heard the lift bell as the doors opened. We heard footsteps walking into there respective rooms. I was a bit surprised when Justin didn’t come into my/our room, since JC had joined me.
"I suppose we should go and get those two. The probably think we’re asleep or something and didn’t want to disturb us." I said, climbing off the bed.
"Yeah, we might as well get an early night tonight, let’s go and get them, they’ve had long enough to have fun." JC said as we walked out the room and down the corridor. He pushed open the door to Nick’s room and we were both shocked with what we saw.
"What the hell is going on here. Justin, get the fuck back into your room now, you’re obviously drunk out your mind." I screamed at him, hurting my throat. Nick and Justin jumped slightly at my shouts, but seemed oblivious, and went back to kissing. I could feel my hand shaking, out of fear and anger, as I turned and bolted. I had to get out of there, I knew I would end up doing something I would regret. I just kept running down the corridor and into the stair well. JC still stood in shock as he looked at Nick and Justin both shirtless making out on the bed.
"Hi Josh, ho... wassup?" Nick blurred out, drunk out of his mind, and with the looks barely conscious. He walked over to the two of them and pulled Justin off Nick and took him back to his own room.
"Justin, what the hell are you doing, being drunk is no excuse. Simon’s just ran off, you might not see him again. He needed you now, you were keeping him together. Just fuckin’ well go to bed and sleep it off." JC said angrily, slamming the door shut, as Justin just lay down on the bed, without a care in the world and went to sleep. When JC returned to Nick’s room, Nick was still lying on the bed shirtless. JC gave him the same lecture as Justin before slamming the door shut. He looked around for me, before slamming on Chris’s door.
***
What happens next? Good question, tune in next time to see what happens. I like cliffhangers as of late:) Opinions as always to trekster2@hotmail.com