"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 53
by JT Poole

Late Tuesday Afternoon -- Mount Hampton, VT -- The Federal Courthouse

Sean's POV

With all the stuff we've done today and having to take time out to deal with JT and Johnny I'm a little bit beat. We're here at the Courthouse now and we're waiting for the Justice of the Peace to marry us but like Joey, I feel something's not right. We've been sitting here for over an hour now and it's like we're being overlooked. I've already talked to the receptionist a few times and she's done everything she could possibly think of to get us away from her desk. Maybe Joey is right, maybe this isn't going to go as planned.

"Baby what's taking so long?" Joey asks as he looks at me and then back at the woman. "We've been sitting here for a while now. I thought our appointment was at like four or something."

"It was but she says the Justice is busy with something else and we have no choice but to wait," I tell him as he looked up at her again and then down to me.

"You know that bitch is lying Brandon," he whispers to me now as I gasp. "Well she is. Look how at the way she's been acting since we've been here. I think she hasn't even told him we're here. You know this place closes in an hour."

"She has told him baby," I say, thinking about his words now as I formulate an idea to check things out. "You sit right here I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back baby."

"Okay, I'll be waiting right here," he says as he gave me a smile as I got up to leave for the bathroom.

I'll just go outside and stand in the hallway and call to speak to the Justice of the Peace. While I'm standing out there she can't see me and I don't think she'll recognize my voice. If in fact the Justice is busy then she won't pass my call off to him and probably give me some cheesy line about he's busy and to call back later or something. Now if I talk to him, I'm going to tell him how we've been sitting out in the waiting area for him and that his receptionist has been giving us the fucking run around. This is starting to get on my nerves right now. All we need is this small start and then later on we'll have a bigger ceremony when time permits.

"Good afternoon this is Larry from over at River Creek Sales. Yes ma'am I need to speak with the Justice," I say, doing my best to keep my voice from cracking. "I have a young man here claiming that I need to talk to the Justice to verify information about him. Yes I can wait."

She's putting me on hold? Now I don't know what to think. Is he really busy with someone else or is she just fooling...

"Oh there you are baby. I thought you had fallen in or something," Joey says, walking up to me. "I don't know if it's Johnny or JT but whoever it is tell them to get off the phone it's our turn."

"It's our turn?" I ask as he nods his head at me and I move the phone from my ear in a hurry and turn it off.

Walking back into the room with Joey, the Justice was waiting out in the waiting area with two other persons. Walking over to the three men, Joey introduced me to the other men whose names were Tanner and David, whom which just got married by the Justice. He said that they could be the witnesses to the ceremony that we were about to have since we didn't think to bring anyone here with us. After talking with the two gentlemen for a few moments and then checking verification of their ID, yeah I'm skeptical, things were on the way. We were taken into another room that had this strange looking wedding-like motif and had basic wedding march music playing somewhere in the room.

"So are we ready to start things?" The Justice asks as both me and Joey nod our heads.

"We're ready sir," I say as he nods and the two gentlemen sat down behind us.

"We're gathered here in the presence of witnesses for the purpose of uniting in matrimony Sean Brandon Anderson and Joseph Anthony Fatone Junior," the Justice says, looking down at the information before him.

Oh God we're finally doing it.

"The contract of marriage is the most solemn and it's not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously with a deep realization of its obligations and responsibilities," the Justice says, smiling at the two of us now. "Please remember that love, loyalty and understanding are the foundations of a happy and enduring life together. No other human ties are tenderer and no other vows more important than those you're about to pledge before me, yourselves, these witnesses and God."

We're doing it, we're actually doing it. This is actually it, there's no turning back now. If he's really in love with me as he says, the next step would tell all. Of God...please...please let us be together...

"Do you Sean Brandon Anderson take Joseph Anthony Fatone Junior to be your partner for life?" The Justice asks as I snapped back to attention.

"Yes sir I do," I say, looking up at Joey as he was sweating now.

"Do you Joseph Anthony Fatone Junior take Sean Brandon Anderson to be your partner for life?" The Justice asks as he looked at me and smiled.

"I do," he says, still smiling at me.

"Do you two promise to love and comfort each other, honor and keep each other in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, for better or for worse and be faithful to each other as long as you both shall live?" The Justice asks the both of us.

"Yes sir I promise," the both of us say in unison as the Justice smiled at us.

"Now for the rings," the Justice says, raising his hands now.

"Ah baby do you have the rings?" I ask him as he looked at me.

"No baby you have them," he says, searching his pockets now.

"I don't have them you have them," I say as he shakes his head. "No I have them."

I was about to freak out about things until I felt something on the inside of my jacket pockets. I had forgotten I had put them there so we wouldn't leave the hotel without them.

"Place the ring on his finger and repeat after me to your partner," the Justice says, looking like he was a little bit shook up. "I give you this ring as a token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring I thee wed."

"Joey I give you this ring as a token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring I thee wed," I say to Joey as a few tears fell from his eyes as I slipped the ring on his finger.

"Now Joseph," the Justice says as Joey grabbed my hand and placed a kiss to the palm.

"Brandon I give you this ring as a token and pledge of my constant faith and abiding love. With this ring I thee wed," he says, slipping the ring on my finger as a few more tears escaped his eyes.

"Now that you've joined yourselves in matrimony, may you strive all your lives to meet this commitment with the same love and devotion that your now possess. By virtue of the authority vested in my by the State of Vermont I now pronounce you partners for life," the Justice says as smiling at us now. "You may now greet your partner."

With those words we started kissing like there wasn't going to be a tomorrow. We heard the guys behind us clapping and the Justice and the receptionist was now clapping too. When we pulled apart the two guys were throwing confetti at the two of us.

"Congratulations," Tanner says as he shook my hand again.

"Thank you gentlemen," I say as we turned around and waved at the Justice.

"Baby we did it! Let's go celebrate," Joey says as we all walked out of the room.

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

JT's POV

It's a little bit after seven and I've just gotten up. Nick is still sleeping and probably will remain that way until way after ten. I'm about to get to work and see what Johnny and Sean have done to fix the current problem at hand. I have my laptop, my Palm Pilotc and my cell phone. It seems like I have all the tools of the trade up in here. If I was at home right now with the other gadgets I have, the guys would probably think I owned an electronics store or something.

"Who's going to be first," I say aloud, waiting for the laptop to boot the operating system so I could get started. "I know Sean told me to wait until he called before I did anything else but right now I'm getting bored and sitting here doing nothing isn't working for me."

"Good morning baby," I hear from behind me as Nick walked over and sat down on the sofa next to me.

"What are you doing up so early?" I ask him as he rubbed at his eyes.

"I couldn't sleep without you next to me baby," he says, leaning on my shoulder now.

"Well I hope you don't think you're going to sleep on me right here because I'm about to try to get some work done," I tell him as he shook his head and groaned.

"Come back to bed baby. I thought you said Sean said not to do anything until after he called you back," he says in a whining tone that made me want to push him over and poke a pacifier in his mouth. "It's too early in the morning for us to be up."

"Us wasn't up, only me honey," I tell him as he shook his head.

"Come on baby let's go back to bed," he says as my cell phone starts ringing.

Looking at the caller ID I noticed that it was Johnny and picked it up. Loading some more applications on the computer, I grabbed my briefcase and pulled out some stuff that I would need to talk to Johnny about.

"Hello," I say into my phone as I flipped through some pages looking for an information flyer. "What's the word Johnny?"

"Good morning JT, what you know good?" Johnny asks as I flip through some more papers. "What's going on with the tour?"

"I really don't know what's going on Johnny. All I can tell you is that all of the shows that I called to check on have been cancelled. It's like we never set up the dates or I was told that there was an error in the information that they received," I tell him, grabbing my notebook and flipping some pages in it. "I think someone is blackballing us Johnny."

"Someone like who?" Johnny asked as I was preparing an email of the information I got from the venues I've already gone to. "Who would want to fuck things up JT?"

"I don't know Johnny but someone is doing something. Someone is a step ahead of us and they are fucking up things for these guys," I tell him as I heard snoring beside me.

"Well who would have something to gain for all of this JT?" Johnny asked as a whole lot of names ran through my mind.

"That would be a long list to run through Johnny," I tell him, thinking about who could possibly be behind all of this. "The only person that sticks out on that list is Lou Pearlman."

"What would he have to gain by fucking things up for the guys JT?" Johnny asks as I thought back to what the guys told me about Lance. "It's not like he's going to get any monetary rewards for his actions."

"Who's to say he's not," I say, connecting to Jive's servers and pulling up some back information on Lou Pearlman. "I bet he's trying to get back at the guys for what they did to him. They ruined him and now he's trying to ruin them. He might not be getting money from it but he's making them lose money."

"That might be a possible angle JT but we can't go blaming this on him without proof that he had something to do with it," Johnny says.

"I think he had help from Lance," I say, reading through some other stuff. "I overheard the guys talking about Lance was drugged up by Lou and that's why he's in the condition that he's in. Lance was with him for a few days in a drugged up state. Lance could've told him anything that had to do with the tour."

"JT be real here," Johnny says, clearing his throat now. "I know the guys ruined him but he bounced back. I admit he didn't have to do them the way he did but I don't think he's responsible for all the problems that's happening right now."

"Why are you taking up for that bastard Johnny?" I ask him as I closed out the file I was reading. "I was around when he did those horrible things to those guys. I was around for that abuse. You know he was wrong and you know this looks like something he would do. You might not believe he has something to do with this but I think he does. All of this has Lou Pearlman written all over it."

"JT until we have proof that he has something to do with this there's nothing we can do about it," Johnny says as I get up now and walk across the room to the windows.

"Why can't you see any of this Johnny? I just know he has something to do with all of this," I tell him as I turned to see Nick pulling my jacket over his body to cover himself.

"Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Until we have something to point at him he's innocent," Johnny says as I wanted to punch him for not seeing this crap for what it was.

"Fine Johnny, but I'm sticking to my guns on this. I think Lou has something to do with this," I say as he sighs.

"Well you can believe that JT but keep that under your hat until we have something to go on to prove that," Johnny says as my computer dinged to indicate that I had received some email messages.

Walking back over to the computer and sitting back down on the sofa, I opened the email window and started browsing through the stuff that Johnny along with the staff from the venue in New York sent.

"Its official then all of their dates have been cancelled. They might as well call it quits and go back home until we can straighten this stuff out," I tell Johnny, reading through the last of my messages.

"What do you mean JT?" Johnny asks.

"I mean that the dates for New York have been cancelled too. They might as well pack it up and let's head back to Orlando," I tell him.

"You head back to where the guys are and then we'll formulate a plan from there. I'm going to make a few phone calls and get back to you on things a little bit later on today," Johnny says.

"Alright then, I guess we'll head back to Memphis and get things on the way from there," I tell him as I log into Jive's flight reservation system and get a flight back to Memphis for myself and Nick.

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

Justin's POV

It looks to be a beautiful day out but with the current situation around here it's hard to enjoy it. Compared to the way things were yesterday I'm surprised that we're not all freaking out. With the way I was, I'm glad that I've calmed down and I'm not freaking out. I was scared when Kevin found out about what Lou did to me. I was sure he was going to leave me, but when he and the others found me, he assured me that nothing in the world could change the way he felt about me. I know Kevin wants to know what all that happened between me and Lou but I'm going to do my best to keep from talking about that stuff.

When we got up this morning he tried to get me to talk to him about what was going through my mind yesterday but I held my ground on that topic and kept my lips zipped. I know he wants to help me with what happened, but I can't tell him about all the things I let Lou do to me. Besides the stuff going on with me, things with everyone else is just as bad it seems. Mass hysteria seems to be the word to describe the things going on with Lance's mom Diane being around the rest of us. Hopefully things will calm down after she leaves this afternoon. Since she's been around us it's like she's doing her damndest to make us feel like we're the scum of the Earth or something and Josh's taking the brunt of it all since she found out about what really happened between her precious baby and him.

Compared to the way things have been going, it will be a breath of fresh air when she leaves and we can get back to our normal routines. Besides all of that, today is going very slowly for us. >From the things Brian and Chris told us earlier this morning we're not going to be doing much of anything since it seems all of our shows and events have been cancelled all of a sudden.

"Hey baby, what you feel like doing today?" Kevin asks me as he walked up behind me. "I just heard that we're going to be flying back home tonight and have a whole lot of time to go sight-seeing or something before then. How about we go shopping?"

"How about we stay in and make love," I suggest, pulling him to me as I kissed his lips and then grabbed his ass. "I know we made love just this morning baby but I miss you inside of me. You know I can never get enough of you."

"I can never get enough of you but we can't stay in here today. I told the guys I would hang out with them today," Kevin says as I pout at him, hoping that would change his mind about hanging out with the guys and stay with me. "Come on baby that's not fair. You know I can never say no to that."

"I don't want you saying no, I want you in bed and deep within my soul," I tell him as I grab his hand and pull him back towards the bed.

"Baby we can do that later on," he tells me as someone knocks on the door.

"Whoever it is has bad timing," I say as he leans in and kisses my check.

"It's probably Alex and Brian," Kevin says, pulling away from me and walking over to the door and opening as it was AJ and Brian standing there.

"Well are you guys ready to go shopping and sight-seeing?" Brian asks, waling past Kevin smiling until he saw the look on my face. "Are we interrupting something?"

"Yes you are," I say as Kevin turns and looks at me. "Fine then, you go with them and I'll stay here."

"Baby don't be like that," he says, walking over to me and wrapping his arms around me. "I don't wanna go if you're not with me."

"Well I'm not going to be with you Kevin, you might as well go. I don't want you here with me," I tell him as he looked at me with a hurt expression on his face as Brian and AJ both shot hateful looks my way.

"Justin..." he starts but I shake my head at him.

"Just go on Kevin, I'll see you later on when you get back. Maybe then I'll be in a better mood," I tell him as I laid down on the bed and picked up the remote control and turned on the TV. Talk about ruining the moment.

A Few Hours Later -- Downtown Memphis -- A Small Cafe

Kevin's POV

I can't believe he acted the way he did and said what he said to me. If I'd known he was going to act the way he did I would've never made plans to hang out with the guys today. I just don't get way he was acting that way. He knows I love him and he knows I love spending time with him but he has to understand that I have to spend time with my friends too. I wanted him to come but he shut me out again. I don't know if he did that because he was actually angry with me or what, but I don't like it one bit.

"Kev what's on your mind?" Brian asks as I look up at him.

"Easy guess man it's Justin," Alex says as I pick up my drink and take a sip.

"So what if I am thinking about him. I'm getting worried about him. Something's not right," I say, looking down at the table now.

"Why was he being rude Kev?" Alex asks as I glare at him.

"He wasn't being rude Alex, I think he's a little bit scared right now to be alone with Lou around," I say as Brian leans over to me.

"Does the way he's acting have anything to do with what was going on with you two yesterday?" Brian whispers to me.

"I don't know Brian and I don't even want to talk about that," I tell him as he frowned and straightened back up in his spot.

"I'm sorree," Brian says, taking a sip form his drink.

"Why don't we just call it a day and get back to the hotel so we can pack," I suggest as I get up and gather all of my trash so we can leave.

"Come on Kev I said I was sorry," Brian says as I turn around and glare at him this time.

"Let's just go, we have a lot of stuff to take care of," I say, thinking about solving problems with Justin while the others had to deal with getting Lance out of the hospital.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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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.