Blind Date Chapter Sixteen

In order to accommodate all the people who are asking me, about when the next chapter comes out, I've created a Yahoo Group (Gods, Yahoo is like the Borg!): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mark_writings

This is the page of the group, If you would like to be notified when a new chapter gets posted please go join my group. {smile} I'll try and make sure there's fun stuff along with this.

Wow, talk about a response! I got a bunch of emails about the last chapter and it was great! Ya'll loved it! I'm glad everyone liked it and I hope to be able to keep it up. The emails really are great!

Well I've gotten some emails asking which stories I follow, so in no particular order here are the ones I keep bookmarked:

"It's not the money, damn it Mark, don't you understand? Downloading from the net is piracy, it just like when you buy a movie that was tape recorded from the theatre."

"So you're calling me a pirate too?" I grabbed the door and flung it open. The guys along with Dale and Kris were gathered a few feet down the hall from it.

"I didn't say that, I just said…"

"I know what you said!" I reached out and pulled out my wallet and pulled out a bill. "Here's a twenty, " I threw it at him, "I hope you'll be very happy with it, cause you seem to care more about it than you do me!" With that I ran out the suite crying past the guys and down the hall to the stairs. Lance walked to the door, he had tears down his checks too and he slammed the door shut.

The guys looked at each other stunned. Chris spoke up. "JC, you go talk to Lance and see what all this is all about. Justin, you let Brit, Danni and the others know we're going to be late to the club. Joey let Lonnie know what happened, have him and the guys keep an eye out for Mark. Dale, you go with Joey, once you guys have talked with Lonnie help me find where Mark went. And Kris, hang out at your suite in case he heads there and you'll act as our command post as the three of us search for him." With that the group broke up to do their specific tasks.

Chris headed down to the lobby to see if Mark had gone out. None of the lobby staff or valets had seen him. He was walking towards one of the casinos when he bumped into Joey and Dale. Chris noticed they were standing rather close but he didn't think much about it. Joey said they had told Lonnie about what happened and none of the security guys had spotted Mark around. The three wandered through the main casino. After about 30 minutes of not finding him in any of the casinos, they decided to split up and each check the bars, restaurants and banquet rooms. First they called up to Kris only to find out that the Mark hadn't returned. Justin reported that the girls understood what had happened and had asked if they could help but Justin said he didn't know how so they went ahead and said they would just meet the rest of them when they finally found Mark. JC reported that Lance was still sobbing and hadn't told him what had happened. Joey took the restaurants, Dale took the banquet rooms and Chris went to check the bars. After searching about 12 bars Chris finally spotted Mark hiding in a booth in the far corner of one of the bars at the back of the hotel. He was sitting alone with a bottle on the table and it looked like the bottle was over have empty. Chris grabbed one of the waitresses that was walking by.

"Excuse me, but do you know how much that gentleman over there has had to drink?" He pointed over towards where Mark was sitting.

"Well he came in about 40 minutes ago, ordered a bottle if whiskey. Looks like he's drunk almost half the bottle. It's funny he was adamant about it being Irish whiskey too." Chris chucked and thought to himself Mark can't be that bad if he likes Irish whiskey.

"Thank you." Chris handed her a five dollar bill and started walking towards Mark. Chris saw he had been taking shots, but now he was just drinking from out of the bottle. He had shifted a bit in the booth so that Chris was able to walk right up to the booth. He just stood there behind Mark for a minute, smelling the whiskey emanate from him.

"I know you're standing there, so you might as well sit down." Mark said, not really knowing who was there, not really caring.

Chris slid into the booth and sat across from Mark. They sat there in silence for a while, Mark still taking swigs from the bottle. Not knowing how to break the ice, Chris grabbed the bottle and took a swig of it.

"Smooth stuff, you know your whiskey." Chris remarked as he passed the bottle back to Mark.

"Irish whiskey, always the best." Mark replied as he took another swig. Chris could see his eyes were dilated, and he wondered just how drunk Mark was.

"I lost him Chris, he's so mad at me." Mark started to sob. Chris slid over next to Mark and Mark just grabbed him and continued to sob on his shoulder. Chris looked up and saw that Joey and Dale had come looking for him in the bar. Chris waved his hand signaling to them to back off and let him handle it. So they both decided to head up and let the others know that they had found Mark.

"Mark, you didn't loose Lance, I'm sure once he settles down he'll still love you. He's not one to hold a grudge."

'I don't know, he was really mad at me, he yelled at me, he's never yelled at me."

"He does that sometimes, it doesn't mean he stopped loving you."

"He thinks I'm a thief." Mark sobbed harder into Chris's shoulder.

"Mark, just what did you do?"

"I... I…I can't say, cause then you'll hate me too." Mark was in a full-blown cry at this point.

"Mark, I'm your friend, I won't be mad at you. I'm here for ya bud, now what did you do?"

Mark sat there, crying.

"You didn't steal money from him did you?"

"No, worse."

"What then? I swear I won't get pissed off."

"Music, I stole your music."

Chris felt his jaw tighten up. He didn't want to believe that Mark had it in him to do such a thing. "What do you mean you stole our music?" He said trying to keep his voice level.

Mark looked up at Chris, his eyes all watery, red and puffy and he had slowed his crying. "I downloaded some of your songs that I liked from the net and burned them on to a CD so I could listen to you guys whenever I wanted. He blew up at me when he found the CD in the player. I tried to explain but he just kept yelling at me. And then I said such a hateful thing to him and ran away."

Chris's jaw started to relax; it wasn't as bad as he thought. "You mean the bit about him liking money more than you?"

"Yes." Mark started sobbing again. "I didn't mean it, I love him. Now he never wants to see me again."

"Hey, hey, that’s not true, he's just a little upset, he'll get over it and I know he still loves you. You didn't do anything that bad. You just have to understand where he's coming from. We all don't really care for downloading free music and all, but you're intentions were good. Just Lance is touchier about it than the rest of us. Remember he's not just an artist, but he's also a promoter and manager, so he's both an artist and music management. He'll calm down, realize that its nothing to loose you over and he'll still love you. Now come on, let's get you upstairs and sobered up. Everything will work out, I promise."

Mark looked at him. "This you promise me?" He started to laugh in his drunken state. Chris just rolled his eyes.

"Yea, you're definitely an Irish boy, you've got a terrible sense of humor." With that he grabbed Mark and helped him out of the booth. Mark staggered as he tried to stand up, but Chris caught him before he hit the floor. "Ugh, come on big guy." Just as they started walking off, Mark grabbed the whiskey bottle and carried it with him taking swigs of it as they worked their way back upstairs.

Meanwhile, back up in the suite. Lance had fallen on the floor crying when JC knocked at the door. Lance just let whoever it was just keep on knocking thinking they would eventually go away. After a couple of knocks, JC pulled out the spare room card that they each had for each other's rooms. JC stepped in and found Lance in a ball on the floor up against the opposite wall. He was rocking back and forth and crying heavily. JC walked over to him dropped down and wrapped his arms around him. Lance just fell into JC's arms sobbing madly. "Lance, bud, what happened?"

"He's gone, I scared him away, I've lost him." Lance cried hysterically.

"Lance, settle down, I'm sure it's not that bad. He just was upset, he'll come back, and I know it. You both love each other too much." JC said, trying to console Lance.

"No, I overreacted about something, got mad at him and started yelling at him. He got pissed and left me. Now he'll never come back."

"Calm down, I'm sure its not that bad. Now what did you do?"

"I found this CD that Mark had made. He just wanted to listen to his favorite songs that we sing JC, he didn't mean to upset me. I just overreacted. Now he's mad at me, he's left me and I don't know where he went."

"Hey, it' ok, he'll come back, besides, everyone went looking for him. We'll find him. And I know he'll still love you. You just have to explain to him how you're sorry, that you didn't mean what you said and that you still love him."

"No, you should have seen the look of hurt in his face as I stood there yelling at him. God, I'm such an idiot. I blew it." Lance's crying picked up again as he collapsed on to JC's chest. With that Lance continued crying until he had worn himself out and had fallen asleep crying in JC's arms. JC picked Lance up and carried him into the bedroom, placed him in the bed and tucked him in. As he started to go, he kissed Lance on the forehead. "Cheer up bud, everything will work you, you'll see." He whispered as he left.

JC walked out of the suite just in time to see Chris come out of the elevator struggling to keep Mark upright on his shoulder as Mark kept coming and going from consciousness. "Oh christ, what now?" He muttered under his breath as he jogged over to give Chris a hand. He put Mark's other arm around his shoulder and helped Chris carry him down the hall. "So where'd you find him?"

"In one of the bars."

"Yea, I can smell that, just how much did he drink?"

"Oh, just a bottle of Irish Whiskey." They got to the front of Lance's suite and stood there. Mark came to for a little bit.

"Heeeyy JJJJCeeee! Wasssssuppppp?" He slurred. Then he saw where they were taking him. "Noooo! I ccan'tt. He haates me! He'll jjjustt yell at mmmmeee more." Mark struggled to get free from Chris and JC, but he was just too drunk.

Chris looked at JC, as they seemed to have the same thought. "Ok, come on, you can crash in my room." And they carried Mark into Chris's suite. JC swung Mark around so that Chris could pull out the sofa bed that was in the living room of his suite. Once again Mark had passed out. The two of them managed to get Mark undressed down to his boxers and into the bed. They walked out into the hall to meet up with the rest of the guys in Dale and Kris's suite. On the way, they each explained to the other what they found out had happened.

"We've got to figure out how to get these two to talk to each other. They're both stubborn and won't take the first step." JC remarked.

"Yea, and over such a stupid little thing. I mean Lance overreacted a bit, and I can't really blame Mark for what he did, he just wanted to listen to us sing. Tomorrow will definitely be an interesting day." Chris replied as they walked in to explain to the others what they found out and work on getting the two back together.

Well there's ch 16! So how will Mark and Lance get back together? And what will the guys do to get them back together? Ch 17 will be coming out in a few days!