Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 19:13:21 +0000
From: James
Subject: Boy Bands - On The Streets - Part 31

I don't know the Backstreet Boys, or N'Sync, nor is this story meant to
imply anything about their sexuality, their private lives or their life
choices. Please don't take any of this seriously, it is just a story,
nothing more. Nothing in this story is real, it is the product of the
author's imagination. That's enough disclaimers I think...

Now some suggestions, seeing as everyone else seems to be doing it. My
favourite stories are:
Forever (Kevin)
Jamie's Romance (Justin)
My New Life (Lance)
JC's Hitchhiker (JC)
Get Another Boyfriend (Kevin)
Whiplash (Kevin)
Blind Date (Lance)
My Surprise Romance (Lance)
Josh and Just (Duh!)
Lottery Winner (Joey)
That's it, I know there are more I read that I haven't mentioned, but I
can't remember them right now, sorry!


On The Streets - Part 31

	The sight that met us as we pulled into Kevin's driveway was terrible.
Several of Kevin's windows had been smashed, there were eggs thrown at his
door, somebody had done graffiti all over his garage door, and in big red
letters it said "fuck off homos." It looked like somebody had put an axe
into the front door several times over as there were big sections of the
wooden door splintering out. The rainpipe had been pulled away from the
house, and when I looked up, I saw that even some windows up there had been
smashed. Looking around, there was no one in sight. I looked over at Kevin,
who had a tight-lipped expression. I couldn't tell if he was upset or angry,
but he just stalked into the house. Pulling out a phone book, he started
phoning numbers, and I sat down next to him on the stairs in the hall, and
held him, or rubbed his back. I couldn't believe they reacted so badly, and
so quickly to Kevin coming out. Kevin rung a glazier first, to try and get
the windows fixed. There was an express one which Nick had used when we'd
been broken in to a couple of months ago, and we used him again. Then Kevin
phoned somebody to try and sort out the door, and finally he phoned a
security firm. He was going to get guards for a while. This felt pretty
weird, but I guess Kevin knew what he was doing. I wasn't expecting such a
cruel and horrible response from people, but I guess this isn't my country.
I don't always know how the people will react to something.

	"Are you ok Kev?" I asked quietly.

	"What do you think Jared?" Kevin didn't sound angry, he sounded defeated.
"I knew this wasn't going to be easy, I thought I might be criticised, but I
didn't realise they'd come and destroy my home. This is my home, my private
life, it's got nothing to do with them, and yet they come and...damn it
Jared, it just makes me feel sick that someone would do this." I pulled him
into a hug, and I tried to hold him tight to me, hopefully calming him down.

	"It'll get better Kevin, I'm sure of it."

	"It's gonna get worse before it gets better." The clock in the hall struck
six, and Kevin pulled away. "MTV News might have something about us on
there, come on let's go see." We sat down in the living room and turned on
the TV. Kevin's picture came up as the first item on the news.

	"In a surprise announcement today, Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys
openly admitted to being gay and being involved with another man. He and his
lover, one Jared Healey appeared at the press conference at Jive HQ today."
They jumped to a clip of us at the conference. After about 5 minutes, they
jumped back to the newscaster. "Richardson has been applauded by various
civil liberties groups, as well as the music industry as a whole." They
jumped and showed some glamorous looking people who I didn't recognise
saying how much they supported Kevin. I looked up at Kevin and saw a glimmer
of a smile pass his lips. Then they showed Justin and Britney together. The
two of them were full of praise for Kevin - and me - Britney said she was
ecstatic about it, and that she thought of both of us as very good friends,
and supported our decision. The jumped back to the studio again. "However,
various family groups and religious organisations have openly criticised
Richardson's decision." They didn't show the views of these groups. "In
other news, the Backstreet Boys announced the release of their next album at
the very same press conference. Despite being overshadowed by Richardson's
announcement, the album is due for release in less than two months. As to
how well the album will do after this revelation, well...only time will
tell. In other news..." The TV flicked off. Kevin put his arm around me and
hugged me tight.

	"It's gonna be ok." He said quietly. I was just glad they didn't show the
religious right groups. I wondered just what they had to say about Kevin
coming out.

***

	The next day, Kevin and I didn't really leave the house. The windows were
all replaced, and the door, and the security firm set up 24-hour
surveillance.

	When we turned on the news, we were surprised to see that Kevin's
announcement had reached national level news. Admittedly it was the last
item, but the fact is they were reporting on it. I think Kevin was really
surprised about this. Unfortunately, these bigger stations did take the
views of the 'religious right': a Rev. somebody or other came on the screen
and started spouting his religious nonsense. I was sitting next to Kevin,
and I could feel how tense he was when this man came on. Kevin stood up and
started pacing, then walked out to the kitchen. "What do you want to do
Kev?" I asked as I followed him in.

	"There's nothing we can do Jared, that's why I'm so fucking pissed off."
Wow, Kevin swearing, he must be pissed. "I'm just hoping they get over this
shit soon, I grew up listening to people like that spouting that religious
crap, I never realised when I was younger just how hateful they were." Kevin
and I hugged a lot that day. He was tired a lot, I guess he was stressed
over everything that was going on, but at least with three huge guards
around Kevin's house we didn't need to worry about a repeat of yesterday.

***

	Over the next week, the 'religious right' quietened down. There was still
an occasional outburst, when Nick appeared at a club, there was a group of
people there who started shouting homophobic statements at him, and when
Howie was supposed to appear at a radio station for an interview, there was
a similar occurrence. But it got better. Eventually around January 10th,
Kevin was ok to go out again, he'd been really upset, and hearing about Nick
and Howie being heckled didn't help. Sometimes he just went up to bed and
lay there. He didn't cry, he just wanted to rest. I tried to cheer him up, I
even got some home gym stuff for him and worked out with him a bit as that
had always cheered him up before, I sat with him a lot, talking and we had
sex. A lot. He was always grateful that I was trying to cheer him up, but
until the end of the week, nothing seemed to work. Then towards the end of
that week, Kevin started coming around, seeing the Rev. something or other
losing his fight brought him out of it, and seeing as the guys had to go
into the studio in a couple of days to start recording, he had to break out
of it.

***

The 11th of January was a sunny day, it was unseasonably warm (apparently)
and the guys were all supposed to meet up at Kevin's. We all had lunch
together, I kinda felt like the third wheel as they were talking about
recording and stuff, and I had no clue what they were going on about. Nick
had phoned and said that he would have to be late, as he had to pick up his
brother. Nick arrived, with Aaron in tow at about 3, and they joined us in
the conservatory.

	"Hey Aaron, what've you been up to?" Howie asked as Aaron sat down. Aaron
grinned and, reaching into his bag, pulled out an American Football. "Cool,
you been playing football?"

	"Yeah, just mucking around with some of the crew off the tour." Aaron was
starting his own tour later that month, I guessed he was in rehearsals now.
"Hey, do you guys wanna play?" I looked over and noticed Nick grinning, then
he put on an entirely straight face.

	"Aaron, don't tease them, they're getting on a bit now, you can't expect
them to have the energy of us young people." Nick said with a straight face.

	"Err...Nick, as I recall, you collapsed before the other guys several times
when we were working in the gym." I said quietly. The other guys chuckled.

	"Yeah, well, that's gym work, you old guys couldn't keep up with us on a
football field." Nick mumbled.

	"But you don't have a football." I said to him, making fun of the fact that
a football in England is a bit different from one in America.

	"What do you call this then?" Aaron held the 'football' out in hand. I
smacked the bottom of his hand so that the ball came flying up out of it,
and I grabbed it.

	"I call this a rugby ball." I grinned at him smugly.

	"Yeah, yeah ok smart ass." Nick started. "Come on then, if you reckon
you're so good, let's play."

	"I don't know how to play American Football. If you want to play catch up,
I can do that."

	"What's catch up?" AJ joined in.

	"Two teams, facing off, you get an area of the pitch, or in the case,
Kevin's garden, to defend, like in American Football, I think it's the same,
and you just have to stop anyone from getting through. You can only pass the
ball backwards, like in rugby, and one team starts with 5 points, decided by
a flip of a coin. The other team has to 'catch up'. For every point the
opposition scores, their score goes down by 1, and when they get to nought,
the opposition wins." I sat back and threw the ball up and down in the air,
making it spin perfectly. I spent so many years while I was growing up with
a rugby ball in my hand, this brought back so many memories.

	"Ok, then let's play." Kevin answered. Huh? Wasn't expecting Kevin to
agree! We each stood up and walked out into the garden.

	"Ok, we'll play, but only if Kevin and Jared are on opposite teams." Brian
said as Kevin and I walked out the door together. We looked at each other
for a second.

	"It would be fairer, I suppose." Kevin started.

	"Yeah, we would kinda kill them if we were together wouldn't we?" I
chuckled. "Ok then come on guys, we'll finish sorting out teams when we get
out here." It hadn't rained for a few days, and the sun today had basically
dried out the garden. Kevin's garden was very long and was the width of the
house. Using some of those garden torches, we marked off where the goal zone
was at each end, and then we all took off the top layer of our clothing.

	"Ok then, Kevin, Jared, seeing as you have to be on opposite teams, you
pick teams, go on." So, Kevin and I stood next to one another, and I
motioned for him to choose first. He chose Nick, idiot.

	"Howie." I said firmly.

	"AJ." He said with a grin, going for the one he presumed would be stronger.

	"Brian." I said with a grin playing on my lips.

	"And we get Aaron." Kevin smiled.

	"Fine." I said as we moved away. Kevin had made a big mistake. Yes, Nick
was the heaviest out of the remaining guys, and AJ was stronger than Brian,
but for a start, Howie was stronger than any of the other guys (I knew
exactly how strong they were from what they could lift in the gym), and
Brian, well, Brian is fiercely competitive. He hates losing, especially in
sports, and especially against his cousin. We lined up facing one another,
and I still had the ball. "Ok, we need to decide who starts with 5 points?
Well, how about his, you can choose." I stated.

	"Fine, we'll start with the 5 points." And so the game begun. Kevin and I
faced off at the beginning, being the two biggest there. Howie got hold of
the ball almost straight away and took off down the side of the garden, only
to be brought down by AJ jumping on him. The ball fumbled, and Aaron got a
hold of it, running straight in my direction. Idiot. I lowered myself
slightly and went straight for him, grabbed him around his waist, and hefted
him over my shoulder, and carried him, running to the other end of the
field. I think the guys were a bit surprised, I got to our goal zone, then I
dropped him, took the ball and touched down. I turned around and started
laughing. I couldn't believe they hadn't done anything.

	"You know you're supposed to try and stop me right?" I said as I walked
back up to the centre. I heard Kevin growling. Kevin started with the ball,
came right at me. He got lower and took one hard run at me and his shoulder
connected with my midsection. He was surprisingly stronger than I though,
and I was knocked out the way. Brian stood in his way next, I was kinda
worried for Brian at that moment, how much damage could Kevin do to his
cousin if he could knock me straight out the way? He shouldered Brian as
Brian attempted to wrap him up, then Howie came into view. Kevin was
stepping from side to side, trying to dodge Howie, but then Howie thought
better of what he was doing, having seen me and Brian knocked out the way,
and he just stood to the side, and Kevin ran past and touched down. The rest
of his team cheered and then shut up when I glared at them. Lining up again
in the centre, we started with the ball and faced the line up, I decided to
bring in a few extra tactics, so I started passing. My team got the idea,
and we passed it back and forwards along our three each time one of us got
tackled. Finally, Brian got to the other side and scored.

	The game lasted an hour or so, we got pretty hot running back and forwards,
and it was fun. We never did get them down to zero, they were at one once,
but they kinda accepted that they were losing ground at the end. It was just
starting to get dark as we finished.

***

	After the guys left, Kevin and I settled down to watch some TV. The guys
were to go into the studio on Monday 13th. That was in two days' time. I
wasn't looking forward to this - what was I supposed to do with all my spare
time? I knew I had a job, and that would take up probably eight hours a
week, tops. If the guys had rehearsals or trips to different parts of
America then that would be reduced. We watched some TV for about two or
three hours, then we went and had something to eat before settling down in
the living room again.

	"Jared, there's something we have to talk about."

	"What? What is it?" I asked, concerned by the tone in his voice.

	"Since the announcement, there have been a lot of offers coming in, for
interviews, photo shoots, that sort of thing. They want to see me, or you,
or both of us together, in public, or in magazines." He said.

	"So, what's the problem?"

	"Well, for starters, I wasn't sure just how much you would want to do. We
can do none of them if that's what you want, but the fact is they're more
likely to accept us if we do get out there, if we do make appearances
together cos, well people will get used to us the more they see us." Kevin
held his hands in his lap, and I reached over and grabbed one of them.

	"You choose." I said. I kissed the back of his hand that I held. "You
choose exactly which shows we appear on, which magazines we're in, and where
we're seen in public ok? I will stand by your decision, whatever." Kevin
looked up at me and smiled.

	"You sure?" I nodded. He smiled again and leant over and kissed me. "Cool.
Anyway...I was also wondering, have you thought anymore about what you're
gonna be doing this week? I mean I can take you into the studio if you'd
like to, you can watch me work?" I paused, then looked up at Kevin with a
smirk on my face. "Ok! Ok! I know that would be a bit boring, I meant if
you've got nothing else to do." Truth is, I didn't. I knew my way around
Orlando fairly well now, but that really didn't help me much, there was
nothing I particularly wanted to do around here that could take up enough of
my time. But, I had a plan, you see, I still felt like Kevin was giving me
the world and I wasn't giving anything back, so I knew what I was going to
do - at least for the first week - I was going to give Kevin the ultimate
romantic experience - a kind of thank you that was the best thing I could
do. It was all gonna happen Friday evening, and trust me some of the stuff I
had planned was gonna take me the full week to prepare.

TBC

I know - a sombre chapter, but I hope everyone liked the way I dealt with
the coming out, but it's not over yet don't worry. There are some pretty big
plot changes coming up soon, I hope everyone's ready for some drama! Oh and
I'm sorry if it takes me a while to write my next chapter, but I'm revising
for exams at the moment, so I'm pretty busy.