CHAPTER 14

Kellen looked at the guys. None of them expected his question. “Well, I guess that means you don’t want to come back with me.” He said faking a hurt face.

Lance regained his composer and spoke, “No Kellen, we’d like to. But we don’t want to impose on your family.” He paused. They did what to go and had planned on it at some point, but Lance didn’t want to sound like he expected an invite. “Actually, we were planning to surprise you and fly out to visit while the break is in session.”

“That’s cool and you wouldn’t be imposing. I wouldn’t have offered it if we couldn’t handle you all. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have the space.” Kellen said

“We can all go. It’ll be fun. We can ride horses everywhere we go and sit on the porch drinking iced tea and watching the sun set over the horizon.” JC said looking at everyone. Kellen’s eye brow rose this time and he looked at JC. JC noticed Kellen staring at him. “What?” JC said absent mindedly.

“Josh, I hate to make you feel bad, but we don’t ride horses everywhere for many reasons. One, because it’ll really make your ass hurt.” Kellen quickly looked at Joey and Chris and cut them off before they could say anything. “And don’t either of your make a comment about my ass hurting.” Joey and Chris threw their hands up in defeat. “And another reason is because I own a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee and I’m not about to just let it sit in the garage all the time. And another thing, I haven’t even sat on the porch watching the sun sat since I stayed with my great grandparents eight years ago.” Kellen said giggling at JC’s statement.

“So, does this mean we’re going to Oklahoma?” Chris asked looking around the room. Everyone nodded their heads. “Ok, then it’s settled. We’ll be joining you on your plane trip home.”

“Awesome.” Kellen said excited. “Excuse me for a moment.” He got up and went to the back lounge. The guys all talked about what they were going to do when they got there. Each one had an idea about ranch houses and horses, and even playing cowboys and Indians. Lance’s just shook his head at them all. He’d experienced the same thing when he first invited the guys the Mississippi. They all thought it was some backwoods place without running water or something.

“Guys, I don’t think they still live in the Stone Age. We’ve all been through Oklahoma and I didn’t once see a cowboy riding off into the sunset.” He said being realistic. They guys just nodded their heads in understanding.

“Well guys, I added you all to my flight list and your tickets should be at Orlando International tomorrow night when we get there. They had to dig to find us seats at the last minute though and with any luck, we’ll be in Oklahoma in a couple of days” Kellen said coming back into the room. Things settled down after that. The guys all went about doing their own things while Kellen and JC hung out working on perfecting the music for the next album. JC enjoyed Kellen’s company and even thought of him as inspiration for some of the music. The two work for hours and before they realized it, the bus was stopping to fuel up.

“Hey, we’re gonna go in and grab some munchies. You two want to come with?” Lance asked as they flowed out of the back lounge.

“Sure, I could use a good stretch.” JC said standing up. He and Kellen followed the other guys out of the bus. When they walked into the travel center, JC realized that he’d forgotten his sunglasses and hat.

“Don’t worry about it Josh. We’re in North Carolina; I doubt anyone will recognize you in this travel station. Besides they all look like trucker folks to me.” Kellen said nudging JC forward. Just then they heard the bell behind them ding as someone else walked into the station. Kellen turned around and saw a group of four teenage girls walking in. “Oops.” Kellen whispered in JC’s ear. “I spoke too soon.” JC started to turn around. “No!” Kellen said. “There are four girls behind us. Keep walking and don’t let them see your face.”

“Why don’t we just go get back on the bus?” JC said

“We will, but let’s get some snacks first.” Kellen said. He and JC walked over to the chip isle and shuffled through the different brands. As they were trying to decided, one of the girls walked around the corner to get a bag of chips. She glanced at Kellen then briefly at JC. Both Kellen and JC looked at the girl when they heard an ear piercing scream from the other end of the store.

“OH MY GOD! IT’S JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!”

Kellen and JC kept looking at the girl on their isle hoping she wouldn’t scream also. “I Thought I recognized you. You’re JC Chasez.” The girl said pronouncing JC’s last name correctly.

“Yes, I am. Would you like an autograph?” He offered.

“Sure, but I don’t have any paper.”

“It’s okay. We also keep CD’s in our jacket pockets.” He said reaching into his pocket. He pulled out an unopened No Strings Attached CD and tore the wrapping off of it and then he signed the cover with a black Sharpie. “Here you go. The other guys are in here if you want to have them sign it also.”

“Thanks” the girl replied as she walked over to the other guys who also had their Sharpies ready.

“Let’s get out of here before anyone else comes in.” JC said. He and Kellen walked up to the cashier to pay for their things. They walked out of the gas station and got on the bus. When they sat down at the table, Kellen started laughing. “What’s so funny?” JC asked.

Kellen stopped laughing and caught his breath before speaking. “They are going kill you for sending that other girl over to them.”

“Yeah probably so, but at least we don’t have to sign for those other girls. I thought I was going to go deaf when they started screeching like that. Being a celebrity does have its perks, but it also has it downsides.”

“Well, if you hadn’t been a celebrity, I wouldn’t have met you because there wouldn’t be an Nsync, my parents wouldn’t have bought me those tickets to your show and today wouldn’t have ever happened.”

“Well then I’m glad I’m a celebrity.” JC said giving Kellen a kiss.

“They abandon us, and we find them getting ready to make the nasty on the bus.” Chris said stepping into the lounge laughing. JC and Kellen separated.

“What?” JC said like he didn’t know what they were talking about. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” The innocence in his voice would have almost sounded convincing if they hadn’t known him as long as they did.

“Yeah sure JC.” Justin said walking into the back of the bus laughing. The other guys followed him to the back and shut the door to play video games. Kellen looked at JC and kissed him again.

“Ya know, I could keep this up all night.” JC said breaking the kiss after a couple of minutes.

“I could also, but I need to do some work. If I’m going to move in to a new house, I need to shop for some furniture.” Kellen said getting off of JC. He reached up to the bunk above his head and pulled his laptop out of it. As he plugged the Ethernet cable into the port on the wall he looked at JC who was watching him.

“What’s wrong?” JC asked.

“I just thought of something. I don’t need to shop for furniture, but WE need to shop for furniture.” Kellen said accenting the word WE.

“You want me to help you look for furniture for your house?” JC asked.

“For OUR house? Of course I do. I mean we are both going to be living in it aren’t we?” Kellen said scooting over making room for JC in the booth.

“Did you make an arrangement with your dad to buy the house?” JC asked.

Kellen shrugged his shoulders and then spoke, “Actually I did. He wants to give it to instead of me buying it. I talked to him earlier on the bus and he called Mom to talk to her about it. She isn’t thrilled about me moving out, but she wants me to do what makes me happy. They both agreed to give it to me since they gave Camden a mansion in New York.” Kellen logged on to the internet and went to a furniture website. “And” he paused for effect then continued, “By tomorrow at noon, I will be the deed holder of the mansion and it will be in my name.”

JC looked at him amazed. “That’s awesome. I think you’ll like owning a home. There is nothing like creating your own space and defining it in your own way. It’s kind of like music. You can fashion it any way you want to and use your own style. Then it becomes truly yours because you created it”

“Well, we will get to design it any way we want to. You are my boyfriend and it is our space.” Kellen said then he realized something and JC noticed his shoulders sink and his head turn down.

“What’s wrong?” JC asked concerned.

“I want you to move in with me Josh.” Kellen said then paused. JC started to speak, but Kellen put a finger to his lips then finished. “But we need separate rooms for now. I trust you Josh, but I don’t want to give my virginity up yet.” Kellen said as he sank his head lower. “And if we shared a room, the temptation would be too much for me.”

“I can appreciate that. Is that what you’re afraid of? Are you afraid I’ll get mad because you don’t want to share a room yet?” JC asked lifting Kellen’s head.

“Yes.” Kellen said. “I just don’t want you to think I am a prude. One day, we can take that step Josh. But after the other night, and what that guy did to me, I’m just not ready yet. I want us to be truly committed to each other first.”

“I feel that same way and I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want to do.” JC finished. They shared a kiss and JC looked down at the laptop. “So, what do we have here?”

“Well, a good friend of the family owns a furniture store chain and it just so happens that he has a store in Orlando and his website has photos of every single piece of furniture that they carry in stock. If we see things we want, then we can order them. Since Jerry is a friend of ours, he’ll make sure that all the furniture is in the mansion by tomorrow afternoon.” Kellen said scrolling through the living room section.

“How much furniture do you think we’ll need?” JC asked.

“Hmmm…I don’t know. Maybe at least twelve semis full, maybe more.” Kellen said casually. JC’s eyed bulged for a second. Then he looked back at the laptop. Kellen continued to talk, “We need to buy furniture for thirty-five bedrooms, several living rooms, family rooms, a ballroom, library, kitchen, formal dining room, breakfast dining room, hall furniture so that the halls won’t look huge and bare, two study’s, 40 bathrooms, furniture for the lounge in the sound room, the gym in the basement, and the four other rooms in the basement, and what ever else I haven’t seen yet.”

“It didn’t look that big when you showed me the plans. This place sounds like it’s huge. Do we really need that much space?” JC asked

“You’ll fall in love with this place when you see it. It’s so gorgeous. It mixes Georgian architecture with a little Colonial. I know it sounds too big, but when the holidays come around, you’ll thank having enough space for everyone. It’ll save on hotel bills.” Kellen said. “I should call Jerry so we can coordinate with him everything we want and have him order it over the phone. Oh, and Josh?”

“Yes?”

“The formal dining room table will seat up to 34 people; sixteen on each side and one on each end.” Kellen said showing him the picture of the table he wanted to order.” JC looked at the computer screen. By the way Kellen talked about it, he was already starting to fall in love with the mansion and it was even beginning to spread to JC.

Kellen dialed a number and put his phone to his ear and waited.

“Hello?” came a voice through the phone.

“Jerry? This is Kellen Bradley.”

“Hi Kellen, what can I do for you today?”

“Well Jerry, Mom and Dad are letting me move into our new house in Florida and I kind of need to furnish it by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Tomorrow afternoon?” Jerry said surprised. “I think we might be able to do that. Do you know what furniture you want?”

“Well, I’m looking at the website now and I figured we could go through the entire selection of the furniture you have in stock and then go from there.”

“Okay, let me go to the site and we’ll start. What is your budget?”

“I’d like to keep it under $1,400,000.00 if possible.” Kellen said.

“I think we can accommodate that easily. If it was anyone else, I’d have to say give me a few weeks, but for you, I’ll get everyone I’ve go on the project.” Jerry replied.

For the next three hours, Kellen and JC sat in the booth on the bus looking at the furniture on the laptop while talking to Jerry, who was busy on his end writing the orders and quantities down. Kellen even faxed Jerry a copy of the floor plans for the mansion and told Jerry where he wanted each piece placed. Jerry placed a barcode stamp for each piece of furniture on its corresponding place on the printed out forms of the blue prints. Once Kellen and JC had finished the last room Jerry tallied the total and placed the order assuring Kellen that the furniture would be delivered and the house would be ready by the time they arrived in Orlando the next evening.

Kellen shut his laptop down and put it away. “Well, that’s done. Tomorrow morning I’ll call a couple of friends of mine and have them get their interior decorating team out to the house to spruce it up a little and get some pictures, flower arrangements and all the other interior things done that they can get. They’ll even go grocery shopping for us if I ask them to.”

That works for me, because I can guarantee you that when you step off this bus and walk into the mansion, your going to want to plop down and not get back up.” JC said smiling. “Do you think they can get it done in such a short amount of time though?” he asked with slight trepidation.

“Yeah, they both know my likes and dislikes in interior decorating and they have a staff of 70 so it shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, my mom already had an interior decorator come through and take care of the kitchen. That was the trouble room and it looks really good. I do think we should let Justin help us with the gym in the basement. It has a single basketball court, game room, family room, and media room. And I’d like for you to help me with the sound studio in the basement. We will make it our very own.

The sun was starting to set over the horizon and night was coming upon them. The bus eventually found a small town and stopped outside a McDonald’s. As the breaks hissed the other guys came out of the lounge from playing video games.

“Crunk! We got McD’s.” Justin said. Kellen raised an eyebrow to him he just shrugged and laughed.

The rest of the guys started putting their hats and sunglasses on. “Wait. Guys, why don’t I go get the orders and then we can avoid any riots or screaming girls.” Kellen volunteered. The guys agreed that it was a good idea so they gave Kellen their orders and he walked in to get the food.

“Wow, I think they are having some sort of teenage girl retreat in there.” Lance said looking out the window of the bus.

“What’s up Scoop?” Joey asked moving to the same window.

“I see a lot of teenage girls in there eating. I’m glad we sent Kellen in there. He isn’t famous like we are so he has nothing to worry about.” Lance rationalized.

Kellen stood in line at the McDonald’s. In his hand he held the guys’ orders as he read their orders off, he started to notice a group of four girls looking out the window at the bus, then they looked at him and then focused in on the list in his hand. Their eyes got wide and they started to giggle amongst themselves. They got up from their table and went over to their friends at the next table. Kellen started to get nervous as he watched them. They were gathering numbers quickly, almost like a flock of buzzards focusing a dying animal.

“Here is your order Sir. We put all the sauces in this sack for you. Is there anything else we can get for you?”

“No, that’s good.” Kellen said watching the group walk towards him. “Thank you, I have to go now.” Kellen said grabbing everything and filling his hands almost to the brink. He started walking hurriedly to the door.

“Do you work for Nsync?” a girl said as the group cut his exit off.

“Um yeah, I kind of do.” Kellen said. “Excuse me.” He said trying to move around them to the door. Suddenly he got pelted with napkins and pens and the borage of screams started.

“HE WORKS FOR NSYNC!!! OH MY GOD!!!” several of them shouted all at once.

All Kellen could hear was screaming girls they were all jumping up and down. He heard several girls ask about autographs and pictures and every other question about the guys they could think of. He started moving through the crowd but as he did, some of the girls started pulling at his hair and clothes. One of them ripped part of his shirt off and started screaming about getting Nsync’s personal staff member’s shirt. One of the girls even tried to get at the food in Kellen’s hand. He had to do several quick maneuvers in order to avoid spilling the bags of food in his hand. They seemed to close in around him and Kellen was getting angry. He started pushing girls aside and out of his way. Another girl reached down and attempted to take one of Kellen’s shoes. He lifted his foot up to kick her hand away, but she grabbed his pant leg and ripped his jeans up to the knee, then took his shoe. While she was profiting his shoe, other girls were tearing off pieces of his shirt. Unpleasant memories were starting to creep into his mind as hands roamed all over his body tearing his clothes apart. With his hair messed up, and his clothes looking like he’d just came out of an alley fight, he pushed them all back into tables and chairs and started running out the door. He ran up the steps of the bus and the driver shut the door and started driving out of the parking lot with a small mob of girls running after the bus.

“Dude, what happened to you?” Chris asked looking at the most disheveled version of Kellen he’d ever seen. Some of the other guys were cracking up at Kellen’s state.

Kellen looked at each of them. JC looked at him worriedly, but the others were cutting up and making small jokes about his facing his first mob of teeny boppers. With a defeated look, he set the food on the table and wiped the tears he’d been holding in and ran into the bathroom locking the door behind him.

“What happened?” Justin asked turning his laughter into somberness. The other guys quickly got just a somber.

JC went over to the bathroom door and knocked. “Kellen, It’s Josh.” He said attempting to open the door. “Kellen, can you unlock the door so I can come in?” There was no answer form the other side. JC reached above the door and picked up the door key. He unlocked the door and opened it. “Oh God!” He said. There cuddled up in a corner by the toilet was Kellen, rocking back and forth shaking with sobs. “What’s wrong Baby?” JC said very soothingly. He embraced Kellen and Kellen seemed to fall into his embrace. “What happened?” he asked as he rubbed Kellen’s back. The other guys huddled near the door each one feeling a sudden pain of worry and guilt.

Kellen shook a few more times before he could speak. “It was like being at the park again. I felt defenseless. They tore my clothes off, and grabbed my shoes, touched me, tried pulling my hair out. It was almost like I was back in the park and he was all over me again.” Kellen said crying into JC’s shoulder. After about five minutes, he passed out from exhaustion.

JC managed to pick him up off of the floor and laid him on a small couch in the lounge. Unfolding a blanket, he gently placed it over Kellen. JC looked down at his boyfriend and saw his peaceful sleeping form. He bent down and lightly brushed the hair from his boyfriend’s face. Kellen resembled an angel laying there. JC didn’t think it could be possible for any human to get any more beautiful without some form of divine intervention from a higher power. “You are so beautiful Kellen Bradley and I love you so much that it hurts sometimes.” JC said to his sleeping boyfriend. JC wish that he could make Kellen’s pain disappear forever. ‘Someday’ he vowed. Someday Kellen would be happy again. One day his pain from what that bastard in the park did would be wiped away forever.

TO BE CONTINUED…