Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 00:18:40 EST
From: Kb79@aol.com
Subject: Life's Discoveries, Chapter 5, BoyBands

DISCLAIMER: This story is a work of fiction. The characters are real
people but are being written in fictional situations. This is not
saying anything about the sexual orientation of anyone mentioned.

WARNING: This story deals with homosexual themes. If this offends you,
don't read. If you are under 18 years of age, don't read. If reading
this story causes you to break any laws, don't read.

FEEDBACK: We want to know what you think of it so... send us an email!
Kelly's email is Kb79@aol.com. Fred's email is SaetanSaDiablo@aol.com.
As most of you know by now, we are both friendly people who love to
chat, so free to contact either of us at anytime.

THANX: Hey, we got a good number of emails for that last one, thanks to
everyone who is reading!

OOPS: Well did it take a while to get this out or what? Sorry guys, I'm a
slacker, what can I say, the next one will be out a lot quicker, I promise!
:)

ONE OTHER THING: I got complaints about the whole Lance eye color thing, we
say it's green, he says blue... so by popular demand, please note the
change.

Life's Discoveries
Chapter 5
By Kelly and Fred

Last time on Life's Discoveries:

And as if on cue, the door swung open forcibly. And in strolled a young
man, each step oozing the confidence he had. He was tall, not quite at Nick
and Kevin's eye level, but easily passing Howie, Brian, and AJ's. He was
like Nick, not exactly one solid muscle, but a firm body that many people
found attractive. He was wearing a tight pair of jeans that hung low on his
hips and clung to all the right parts. His thin gray sweater appeared to be
made of silk and he had thrown a light weight, navy blue blazer over
it. His feet sported black Doc Martens and he had on a light amount of
silver jewelry. He just screamed stylish, despite the simple outfit. His
bleached hair was gelled up in skewed spikes, a planned messy look. His
complexion was so clear, you'd think he was wearing foundation and his
green eyes glowed the friendly, in charge attitude that possessed him. You
knew he liked who he was, and was comfortable strolling into almost any
situation. He had a smug smile on his face and was looking straight at the
five seated men. So, in walked James Bass, aka Lance into the scattered
life of the Backstreet Boys.

Nick and Kevin snapped their heads toward one another and both shot a
nervous look.

Brian looked down at his hands, that were fisted, and scowled.

Howie got up and walked toward his friend.

AJ just sat back and took in all the reactions of his friends. 'Oh boy,
here we go...'

And now we continue with Chapter 5...

Howie ran over to Lance and grabbed him into a hug.

"Lance! It's so good to see you man!!! How are ya? How was the ride over?"
Howie asked excitedly as he released his friend.

"Hey Howie, it's good to see you too D. It's been to long! I'm good, busy
but good. And the ride over was fine. I didn't even have problems getting
into the hotel." Lance answered, his eyes bright with the joy of seeing his
good buddy.

They quickly hugged each other again and walked over to sit down.

"Guys, this is Lance!" Howie said, almost triumphantly, as they both sat
down.

"No duh!" AJ joked. "Hey dude, how ya doin'?"

"Fine thanks, and yourself?" Lance smiled at the crazy man sitting next to
him.

"Doin' pretty okay, thanks." AJ smiled back.

"How's everyone? Brian, Kevin, Nick? How you guys?" Lance looked around the
table.

"Good, thank you." Kevin said, giving Lance a small smile.

"Okay thanks." Nick said, a little coldly.

"Alright." Brian said quickly, and softly.

"Well good." Lance's bright smile had faded a little at the last two
answers.

Luckily, before the situation could get any more uncomfortable, the waiter
came back in to leave their drinks and take their orders. They all decided
on their meals, Lance going last, since he had the least amount of time to
decide. Once their orders were all in, the waiter left, and they all turned
to each other again.

"So Lance, what's up with the guys? How they doing?" Howie asked.

Lance smiled, again, Howie never failed to be polite enough to ask about
the well being of his 'rivals'.

"Well, in one word, tired. That would probably describe to a 'T' how the
guys are. But otherwise they are all great, healthy, happy all that
stuff. Chris is busy with his clothing line, JC's working on a whole bunch
of music stuff for our group and some others, Justin has been spending a
lot of time with Britney, and Joey, well Joey's been clubbing and
womanizing, but, hey, it's what he does best. The tour is pretty much
wrapped up, hence why I was able to get some time off, it went really
well. We're all pretty much reveling in being number one at the moment."
Lance said with a smirk. "Sorry guys, had to say that just once, you know I
don't mean it that maliciously. We're all just gonna be in Orlando for the
next few weeks, getting things done and all that. Nothing to exciting. But
I'm completely babbling, what are your plans? Do you have a lot going on
right now?"

Howie laughed, whoever claimed this guy to be shy and quiet? "We don't have
too much going on, a few appearances here and there, some meetings, but
otherwise the next few weeks are pretty much devoted to making sure
everything is set with the new album. We're all heading back to Florida
today."

"Orlando?" Lance asked.

"Nope, actually we are all going to Nick's house in Tampa." Howie answered.

Lance looked confused. "But I thought...?"

"It's all my fault, I completely forgot we were going home so quickly when
I called you." Howie apologized.

"Well, if it's alright with you, you are more than welcome to come with us
to my house, if you are willing." Nick offered, the first time anyone
besides Howie had really said something to Lance.

Lance thought about it for a second. "That's alright with all of you?"

Lance received at least 4 nods.

"Okay, fine with me then. I guess it's better than having to go from place
to place, hotel to hotel. Having a stable base should make this all go a
lot easier." Lance said.

"Great! This should work out very good." Howie responded.

At that point their lunches arrived. They all sat around and chatted as
they ate. Lance was filled in on the plans for their new album and Lance
told them about the tour. When the were done the check was paid and they
went outside to wait for the limo that was going to take them to the
airport.

Howie was on his cell phone making sure it wouldn't be a problem getting
Lance a ticket to Florida with them. The limo arrived and they all climbed
in.

"It's no problem, they had plenty of seats in first class with us. They'll
have one waiting for you when we get there." Howie told Lance.

"Great." Lance answered.

The rest of the ride was taken in silence. Everyone was staring out the
windows at the world passing them by.

They were all thinking, lost in their own worlds. Nick was thinking about
Kevin, Kevin was thinking about Nick. Brian and AJ were thinking about
Kevin and Nick, but in different ways. Lance was wondering what the next
few days would hold in store for them all. And Howie, well Howie was
thinking about whether or not he should have had dessert at lunch.

When they got to the airport there was indeed a ticket waiting for all 6 of
them. The boarded the plane. Lance was hoping to sit next to Kevin,
thinking they could start talking. But Kevin immediately took a window seat
and Nick sat right next to him. And before he could snatch up the third
seat in that row, Brian sat next to Nick. That left Lance sitting in the
row with Howie and AJ.

'A public plane is probably not the best place to start on this anyway.'
Lance thought to himself.

The flight was uneventful. Brian clenched Nick's hand during takeoff and
landing as always. Kevin slept and AJ gabbed the whole time to the other
two. When they landed, they gathered their luggage and went in search of
Nick's Durango, that was supposedly waiting for them.

A half an hour later the six of them were heading down the highway towards
Tampa in an overstuffed SUV.

By the time they reached Nick's house, the six guys had never been so happy
to get out of a vehicle.

"Okay, here we are, welcome to my humble abode." Nick said as they all
dragged themselves, and their luggage up to the front door or Nick's
simple, yet large, private home.

Once they got in, Nick gave them the grand tour. When they were done, they
all ended up sitting in the living room.

"Nick, we may have a problem." AJ said.

"What's that AJ?" Nick asked.

"You have 4 bedrooms, which in total have 5 beds. Usually not a big
problem, but there is 6 of us now. What are we going to do?" AJ mentioned.

"Well, my couch pulls out in the basement. I'll take that, and then we have
plenty of beds." Nick sighed, the couch was damn uncomfortable.

"No way! We are not going to kick you out of your own bed." Howie said.

"Well are there any better ideas?" Nick asked.

"We could draw names." Lance suggested.

"Yeah, not a bad idea, some of the rooms are a lot better than the others,
so whoever gets picked first gets the pick of the rooms, and so on down the
line." Howie agreed.

"Alright, but Lance is our guest, don't ya think we oughta give him a good
room right off the bat?" Nick asked.

"Nah... come on, I'm just one of the guys to, right? Let's all play fair."
Lance smiled.

"Okay, well in that case, my name goes in to. We all play fair." Nick
smiled back. "So does anyone have paper and a pen on them?"

Immediately, both Kevin and Lance pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen
from their pockets.

The other guys laughed. "Oh no... another organized person... run!"

Lance and Kevin looked at each other and smiled. Lance slipped the supplies
back in his pocket, not wanting to step on Kevin's territory.

Kevin wrote the 6 names on slips of paper and then grabbed AJ's hat off his
head.

"Hey!" AJ yelped.

"Chill Bone, we need it to pull the names out of. You'll get it back."
Kevin told him.

"Okay, but if we are using my hat, then I get to pluck the names." AJ
insisted.

"Sure, just no cheating." Kevin told him, jokingly.

AJ got that 'who me?' look on his face.

Everyone laughed.

"So which room do we pull for first? Which is the best?" Howie asked.

"Probably mine, it's got the biggest bed, the best view, and gets the least
amount of street noise." Nick offered.

"Okay then." Kevin said as held the hat at AJ, just over his head.

"Hey! Lower that thing, I'm not that tall." AJ complained.

"Your not tall at all." Kevin smiled. "But you can reach this high, and
this way you can't see which name you are picking."

"Okay." AJ mumbled, reaching into the hat. He handed Kevin the first folded
up name.

"And the winner of Nick's room is..." Kevin began as he unfolded the piece
of paper. "Nick."

"It's been fixed!" AJ cried. "No wait, I'm the one who picked it."

Nick smiled. "Well, thanks than Bone."

"Okay, what room's next?" Kevin asked.

"Probably Leslie and BJ's room. It has a queen sized bed and is pretty
quiet. It's a little girlie, cause I let them pick the colors and all, but
still it's nice."

AJ plucked out the next name.

Kevin opened it. "Lance."

"Well that worked well didn't it?" Howie smiled. "The host gets his own
room and the real guest gets the nicest room."

"Yeah, but where do the rest of us get to go?" AJ got impatient with the
slow moving game.

"Okay, well whoever gets pulled next will get the guest room. It has a
double bed. Two people will have to be drawn for Angel and Aaron's room,
it's the one with the two twin beds. And then whoever is left gets the
couch." Nick decided.

The next three names were pulled. Brian got the guest room. AJ and Howie
were going to be forced to sleep in the kids' room.

"But Howie snores!" AJ accused.

"I do not!" Howie protested.

"Oh yes you do." 5 people shot back at him.

Howie pouted.

"I guess I'm on the couch." Kevin said sadly, as he pulled the last piece
of paper out, hoping it would say something else.

"I'll trade you Kev. You can have my room." Nick offered.

"No, it's okay Nick. We did this fairly. It'll be okay. How bad can a couch
be? It does pull out right?" Kevin lightened at his friends kind offer.

"Yeah, it does. But if you change your mind, the offer will stand." Nick
said.

"Thanks Nick." Kevin turned to everyone else. "Should we all go deposit our
stuff and then settle in?"

"Sounds good. Wanna meet in like a half an hour?" Howie suggested. "We can
fill Lance in on everything."

Everyone agreed and went off to their 'new rooms'.

The boys unpacked and attempted to make the rooms comfortable for their
next few days.

They all met back in the living room roughly 35 minutes later. Lance was
sitting on the bigger of the two couches, Kevin and Nick were on the small
couch, Howie sat next to Lance, and Brian and AJ both sat in armchairs.

"So guys, tell me what's going on. All Howie told me was that Kevin has
just had a messy coming out. But from the way all of you are acting, it
seems like there is a lot going on." Lance suggested.

Everyone looked at each other.

"Okay, who wants to start?" Lance asked.

"I guess I should." Kevin answered. "Do you remember my fiancée
Kristin?"

Lance nodded his head and Kevin began to tell him some small details of the
night Kristin left him.

"And that's where Nick found him." AJ butted in. "Has been glued to his
side ever since too."

"Is that everything though?" Asked Lance.

"No..." Kevin tried to break in.

"No, Kevin also had a pretty bad experience with telling all of us." Howie
filled him in on that part of the story.

AJ stifled a giggle.

Kevin shot him a dirty look.

"Sorry Kev." AJ said quickly.

"So how did you all take it?" Lance asked.

"Well..." Kevin began.

"Uhmmm... well most of us were pretty cool about it, Brian's been a jerk
pretty much throughout it all though." Howie informed.

"Howie, that's..." Kevin was cut off again.

"Hey, that's not fair." Nick said.

"Yeah, but it's true." AJ said.

"But still guys, we can be mature about this." Nick turned to Lance. "Brian
does seem to be having a problem with it all."

"Okay, understandable, now tell me is there anything else?" Lance asked.

Kevin went to speak again. "Well, we've..."

But once again someone cut him off. "We called you and now we're here. We
figured he needed someone to talk to, and you were a safe bet." Howie
interrupted.

"And that was okay with you Kev?" Lance asked.

At this point Kevin was very worked up. "Would it fucking matter even if I
wasn't?" Kevin's eyes were filling with tears. "I'm so glad this is so easy
and fun for you all. I'm also so glad it's all the sudden about YOU ALL! Do
the you think you could have let me say a fucking word for myself?"

And with that he burst into tears and ran downstairs to the den.

"What the hell?" Howie asked.

"Well y'all did keep cutting him off." Lance offered.

"Yeah, but we do that all the time, he usually doesn't react like that." AJ
mentioned.

"Yeah, but we just rehashed, in less than 500 words, the worst 48 hours of
his life. Shit, why didn't I think first? I'm going to go check on him!"
Nick stood up quickly and headed for the stairs.

Lance stood up also and stopped him.

"No, let me go. It'll be better if I talk to him. I know what he is going
through. You guys stay here." Lance told him as he headed downstairs.

"What?!?" Nick muttered, exasperated, as he watched Lance shut the basement
door.

"I tried to warn you Nick." AJ said.

"Fuck off AJ!" Nick said angrily.

Nick looked around the room, almost in a panicked state. Finally, he bolted
for his office, slamming and locking the door behind him.

Howie, AJ, and Brian looked at each other and shrugged.

"Wanna go play pool?" AJ asked.

"Sure, why not?" Brian answered, saying his first words since they had
arrived at Nick's house.

Howie shrugged and they all headed for Nick's pool room.

*Okay, that's it's for now... sorry for the abuse of the word smile. I know
it took too long... but I'm lazy. :) Bye all, later.*