"I could never love again the way that I loved you, I could never cry again like I did when I left you...I could never love again now that we're apart" Debbie Gibson

Foolish Beat

Chapter -- 52
by JT Poole

Early Tuesday -- Memphis, TN -- Baptist Medical Center - Chapel

Diane Bass' POV

Gracious Lord I don't know what's gotten into my baby boy. Why is he doing this now Lord? I always knew I was taking a chance with him when I allowed him to join those guys. If I'd known then what I know now, I would've never let him go. Lord please deliver him from this evil, it's not his fault that he's fallen the way he has. Please Lord, don't blame him for the things he's done, he's not responsible; the guys he's been with for the last few years are the cause. Once I get him away from them, he'll be back on the right path back to you Lord.

Tuesday Afternoon -- Mount Hampton, VT -- The Radisson-James Hotel

Sean's POV

I'm finally glad we're here and that Joey has calmed down at least for now. Since we left the others back in Memphis, he's been freaking out just about every little thing. I know he's scared, jumpy and a little bit upset, but he needs to try to keep his cool. We just got here to the hotel and he's already caused a small scene that I pray that doesn't come back to bite us in the ass. Please God, calm his nerves before I have to smack him or something.

"Joe...Joe what's wrong?" I ask him, walking into the bedroom and sitting next to him.

"Everything's going wrong," he tells me as he held his face in his hands and starts crying yet again.

"Joe calm down," I tell him, rubbing his back and then kissing his cheek as he wiped his face. "Everything's working out baby."

"But all the stuff that happened last night and today Brandon..." he says as he sniffles and wraps his arms around me.

"Don't worry about that Joe, those were just small obstacles that we got around," I tell him as he looks up at me and smiles. "This is going to work in our favor baby, don't worry about a thing."

"Promise?" He asks me as I kissed him again and I pull him up. "Okay, what time are we supposed to meet with the Justice of the Peace?"

"Our appointment is around three this afternoon," I tell him.

"Did you call to check on our marriage licenses baby?" He asks, sitting back down again as I pull him back up again so we can head out to go handle some other matters.

"Yes I did Joe," I tell him, pulling him over to the door. "We have no time to be lazy, we have some other place to go."

"Oh all right," he says as I kiss him again as we head out in search of the place where I purchased our rings.

Indianapolis, IN -- Sullivan Stadium

JT's POV

I'm not a happy camper at the moment. I'm standing here in the box office of Sullivan Stadium and the box office manager is telling me they sold tickets for the damn concert with the wrong dates printed on them. Instead of fans having tickets for Thursday's show, they have tickets for Thursday two weeks from now. I can't believe this is actually happening. What are we going to do to fix this error? The date they have on them is not part of any dates the guys will even be performing. This is really going to set a few people off. I guess I can call Sean and Johnny to see what they think I should do about this matter.

"Well I'm sorry Mr. Poole, but it's an honest mistake," the box office manager states as he pulls out the fax transmittal reports to show the dates to see that the information I provided him was correct.

"I don't know how you guys could have printed the wrong dates on the tickets," I say, getting a little bit angrier than I already was.

"I don't know how that happened either," he says as I turn around and pull out my cell phone.

"Excuse me, I'll just step outside and find out what we're going to do about this matter," I say, walking out of the office, waiting on Johnny to answer his phone.

"Wright Entertainment Group, how may I direct your call?" I hear the receptionist ask as I look at the phone strangely, knowing I had dialed Johnny's phone number directly.

"Johnny Wright please," I say, wondering what was going on.

"I'm sorry, Johnny Wright is away from the office today, may I direct you to someone else?" The receptionist asks as I shake my head in frustration.

"No thank you," I say as I press the end button and dial Sean's number next.

Memphis, TN -- The Starlight Hotel -- Justin and Kevin's Room

Justin's POV

What are we going to do now that Lou is back? I'm really scared and I don't want to go through any of that stuff again. If Lance's condition is any indication of what's to come, then we're all in danger, all of us. I thought that after we sued his ass, we wouldn't hear no more from him. I guess I was fucking wrong again. I wish Diane wouldn't have kicked me out of his room, I wanted to find out what it was that Lou did. I don't really believe that Lance was doing drugs, I think Lou has been fucking around with him and feeding him the crap, I just don't know why.

"Baby are you alright?" Kevin asks me as he sits down on the bed next to me.

"No I'm not alright Kevin, we're all in danger here!" I shout as he watches me with wide eyes. "I'm sorry baby, I really am, but we're in danger. The longer we stay here, the quicker it would be for Lou to find us. You know if he got Lance, he'll come for the rest of us. I don't want him...him touching me like that ever again!"

"Baby...baby calm down," he says, wrapping his arms around me as I started crying. "Don't think about Lou right now, I'm here to protect you."

"You can't protect me Kevin!" I shout at him, pulling away from him. "No one can keep me safe from him! He's going to hurt me all over again!"

"Baby what do you mean hurt...oh my God!" He shouts, getting up from the bed and rushing over to me. "He hurt you the same way he hurt Nick."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I shout at him, turning away from him, not wanting him to know how dirty I was.

"Baby please...please turn around," he says, reaching out to touch my arm, but stopping when I moved away from him again. "Justin I love you, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Just leave me alone Kevin, I'm dirty!" I shout at him as he hangs his head down, tears falling from his eyes as well.

Kevin's POV

Oh my God, I don't believe what I'm hearing right now. I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means. Justin is acting strange, he's acting the same way Nick acted back when we found out that Lou had raped him. Please God, please don't let Justin be another one of Lou's victims. That fucker got away with hurting Nick, if he hurt Justin too, I'm not going to let him get away with it. How can that monster hurt those two angels, they didn't deserve that kind of treatment from him, hell they don't deserve that kind of treatment from no one.

"Baby please talk to me...don't shut me out like this," I say to him as he just leaned up against the wall with his face covered as he cried.

"Don't touch me Kevin! Just get away from me!" He shouts at me as I just wanted to leave and go find Lou and kill his ass, but I also wanted to stay here, so I could hold and protect him.

"Baby please, I love you. You're not dirty Justin," I tell him, stepping closer to him this time as he let me touch him.

"Kevin I'm dirty, I'm dirty!" He shouts as me as he turns around and I pull him into my arms as he continues to cry. "I'm not worthy of being with you, you have to leave me alone Kevin!"

"No Justin, I'll never leave you alone," I tell him as he kept on crying, beating me in the chest now, not really hurting me, but I could tell that this was hurting him.

"You have to leave me Kevin, I'm a dirty whore," he says, pulling away from me again and running towards the door.

"Justin stop!" I shout, running after him as he opens the door and runs out into the hallway.

Oh God, what is he going to do? He's upset and he's still acting like Nick. I hope he's not trying to go do something drastic like Nick did. If so, I don't think I can handle that right now.

"Justin baby, please stop!" I call after him as Lonnie and Bruce turn around to see us running down the hall towards them. "Lonnie, Bruce stop him!"

"What's going on out here?" Lonnie asks as he grabs Justin's struggling form. "Justin calm down."

"Let me go Lonnie! Just let me go!" Justin shouts, kicking and thrashing around in Lonnie's arms as he held him tight.

"Just take him back down to our room please. I'll explain down there," I say as Lonnie looked at me and turned to carry Justin back to our room as Bruce shrugged his shoulders and followed us as doors on the floor started opening.

"What's going on out here guys?" JC asks as he got a glimpse of Lonnie carrying Justin back into the room. "What's going on with Justin and Lonnie?"

"I don't really know Josh, but maybe you can shed some light on things since you're more closer to him than I am," I say as Josh turned to look at Brian and Brian looked at me.

As the two of us walked into the room, we both stopped in our tracks when Justin popped Lonnie in the eye, stomped on his foot and elbowed him in the stomach. Letting Justin go, Lonnie toppled over and Bruce jumped over to help him as Justin bolted past me and JC, taking off through the door.

"What the hell was that?" JC asks as I take off down the hall after Justin again.

Back in Mount Hampton, VT -- A Clothing Store

Joey's POV

We've been standing here now for almost an hour looking at clothes and shit. I'm not in the mood for this right now, I just want to stand in front of the person who's going to marry us and that's it. Any other time this would be fun, but right now it isn't.

"Baby what's wrong?" Sean asks me as he turns to face me with a ton of clothes in his arms.

"Nothing's wrong baby," I tell him as he raises an eye at me.

"Don't lie to me Joseph Anthony Fatone," he tells me as looks around quickly and then leans in to kiss me on the cheek. "I know something is wrong, I can hear it in your voice."

"Brandon there's nothing wrong," I tell him as he just shakes his head at me.

"I know you're telling me a fast one baby," he says as he looks at the expression on my face and ponders something for a few seconds. "You don't want to be here shopping do you?"

"If you're happy, I'm happy baby," I tell him as he grabs my hand and pulls me along as we head to the front of the store as he places all of his things on the counter and smiles at the young man and hands him a credit card.

I guess he knows me better than I thought. Good thing to know that we're getting married and all. It's good to know that he can read me just like I can read him. A few minutes later we had all of his bags and we were walking down the street back towards the hotel.

"Come on handsome, why don't we go get something to eat...or would you rather go be frisky until our big moment?" He asked me, smirking up at me.

"We could go eat, but the frisky part sounds so much better to me, but I would settle for the eating right now. We can be frisky for the honeymoon part." I tell him as his cell phone rings again.

"Hello?" He says into the phone as I grab his things and hold them as he leans up against street sign.

Indianapolis, IN -- The Meyers Hilton -- JT and Nick's Room

JT's POV

I don't know what to fucking do right now. I've never in my whole time of working at Jive or MTV encountered a problem like this. First the damn stadium has the wrong dates for the show and then the next venue doesn't have us listed at fucking all. I don't know what the fuck is going on, but something has to give. I'm not going to put up with this shit.

"Sean we have another problem," I tell him as I can hear him sigh.

"What is it this time JT?" He asks me as I shake my head. "Go ahead and lay it on me. I'm ready for it."

"I called ahead to Springfield and they have nothing booked for the guys at all. It's like someone cancelled the show there and the one in Chicago," I tell him as I could imagine his eyes going wide too.

"What!?!" He screamed, almost damaging my eardrum in the process. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know Sean, but whatever it is, it's getting on my nerves. I've called and left a message with Johnny, but I haven't heard back from him yet. Right now I'm totally confused about this whole matter and basically the only outlet I see for this tour is call it quits and then establish some replay dates for the people that already purchased tickets for the shows the guys didn't get to play," I explain, writing some things down.

"Did you call ahead to the venue after Chicago?" He asks me as I write that down and make a note of something else.

"No I didn't call over to Flint, but I'm betting I'm going to get the same thing as with Chicago and Springfield. I'm thinking someone is working against us and it's not funny," I tell him as Nick walks into the room.

"JT I believe you're right on that," he tells me as I sigh now. "Give me a few hours, I'll get back with you on this matter. Don't do anything else, just wait until I call you back."

"Okay Sean," I say as I smile weakly and look over to Nick who in return frowns back at me as I ended the call.

"What's wrong baby?" Nick asks me as he sits down next to me.

"I think someone is fucking up this tour," I tell him as he looks at me strangely.

"What makes you think that baby?" He asks me as he held my hand.

"Someone has cancelled all the events for two of the shows and you know how things turned out here," I tell him as he frowns again.

"Who would want to do something like that baby?" He asks me as I myself who would want to cause problems on this tour and ruin their careers like this...

Memphis, TN -- A Shady Motel

Lou Pearlman's POV

Thank you Jamieboy for leaving behind this tour agenda. I always said when the opportunity presented itself, I was going to ruin «N Sync and Backstreet. With your help baby, I'm going to ruin all of your lives. I'm going to fuck up your lives so badly, you'll all wish you never left me and treated me the way you did.

"Yeah ah, could you connect me with the Michigan State's Attorney office please?" I ask the operator as the phone clicks and the phone rings.

Once I'm done with those guys, they'll be begging to come back to me. I told them a long time ago that they couldn't get away from me and I meant every word of it.

TO BE CONTINUED...

STORY WARNINGS & DISCLAIMER:

I don't know any of the members of «N SYNC, Backstreet Boys or any other celebrities mentioned. I don't know anything about their sexual orientation or the orientation of any other celebrities in this story (even though I wish some of them were gay). This story is fiction and you shouldn't take it for anything else but that. This is for entertainment value only folks.