Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 22:31:59 -0000
From: Tris <mystories@btinternet.com>
Subject: Under Management Chapter 5

Author's Note:

Hey everyone, this is my first submission to the Nifty Archive. I hope you
enjoy reading it as much as I am writing it. I'm trying to get as much
realism as is possible in a story of this type, so the characters will need
to get to know each other before there is any sex. It's also not exactly a
'two guys fall in love, and live happily ever after' story, there are going
to be a few bumps in the road. Thanks to everyone for the e-mail. I would
be great if it would keep coming, it encourages me to continue to write,
oh, and it keeps me happy.

If you have any comments, questions or criticisms e-mail me:
mystories@btinternet.com

Disclaimer:

This story is a work of fiction. I don't know or own any of the celebrities
mentioned in it. I also don't know anything about the personalities or
sexual orientations of any of the members of *NSYNC, and the purpose of
this story is not to imply anything about them.  Secondly, this story
contains adult themes and content as well as gay relationships. If you're
too young to, or don't want to, read what's contained within, then leave
now. Everyone else, enjoy...

Under Management by Tris


Chapter 5

A few seconds later my vision returned. I was confronted by the sight of
Chris crouched in the corner of the room. "Oh, God, Oh God, Oh God..." he
repeated over and over. I attempted to stand from my position, sprawled out
on the couch, but my head began to spin and I had to lay back down to keep
from throwing up.

"Chris..." I croaked out. "Chris... it's alright." His head snapped up in
my direction, he wiped the tears from his cheeks with his sleeve.

"You're Ok?" he asked uncertainly "I thought I'd knocked you out... I
thought... I thought..." he choked up.

"No, I'll recover." I snivelled, as blood began to drip from my chin. I
wiped it away, before it fell onto my shirt. I tried to sit up again and
this time I succeeded. Chris left the room for a few moments and returned
with a damp washcloth. He sat next to me and began to gently clean up my
face.

"I'm so sorry Alex." He sniffed back tears "I didn't meant hurt
you. I... I'm not just sorry for that though... I'm sorry for
everything. I've been a bastard to you, and I can't believe I hit
you... I've just been taking out my own problems on you... I'm so sorry."
He apologized.

"Chris, I don't know what to say. For the past week you've pissed me
off... you've punched me and you expect me to forgive you just like that?"
I was stunned at his arrogance.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. It's just... I've got all this shit going
on... and I'm angry... angry with myself."

"I think I deserve a better explanation than that!" I said indignantly.

"I don't know where to start."

"The beginning!" I snapped.

"Um... well first of all FuMan Skeeto is going down the pan, and there's
nothing I can do about it..." he trailed off.

"Oh... I thought that it was doing well..." I was unsure of how to console
him.

"So... did I... until a week ago when I saw this quarter's accounts. So,
that put me in a dire mood, I was kinda pissed off last Thursday after I
saw them, and I said some things I shouldn't have. My girlfriend, Alana,
she dumped me." He explained sadly. Things were falling into place, I could
now begin to understand his bad temper, but there was something else. I sat
in silence waiting for him to tell me more.

"As well as that..." he continued "...the next day, the Friday, Lance
called an emergency meeting. He said we were in trouble, the office work
wasn't being done, and he couldn't do it all himself. I wanted to help
him... I wanted to, God damn it! But I couldn't... I don't know a thing
about that side of this business, I felt so useless." Suddenly it all
clicked into place in my head, I was shocked, but as is usual in these
cases the simplest answer is the nearest to the truth.

"And then you came." He paused "And you fixed things, you sorted out
everything, you overcame the problem with the studio, you sorted out our
appearances, you did the paperwork, no problem, and the other guys liked
you." I nodded my head; I now understood... he had been jealous of me. Now,
how to cheer him up?

"Chris, there are things that you do, which I could never do. You sing, you
dance, you perform in front of thousands... millions if you count the TV
audiences. And above all you act like a father to four of the most famous
people in the world.  They trust you Chris. Didn't you notice? Whatever you
said about me, they didn't question you... they automatically realized you
had your reasons and didn't push you. You've got four great friends and a
carrier that most could only dream of...  you don't have to be good at
everything... just be good at what you do." I tried my best to make him
feel better and I think it worked as I began to see a smile creep onto his
lips.

"Thanks Alex... I guess we can't all be good at everything, right?" he
questioned, I nodded in response. But he soon became downcast again, "I
still have to do something about FuMan... if not for me, then for the
group, the press coverage would be dreadful, '*NSYNCer's company subject to
mismanagement, as thousands of dollars disappear from the books.'"

"Why don't you bring those accounts over to my apartment at some point? I
could look over them for you if you want." I offered.

"You'd do that for me?"

"What are friends for?" I grinned.

***

It might be a strange statement to make, but you know you've made up with a
friend, or in this case made a new one, when they take you to the doctor's
because of a nose bleed that they caused. I tried to tell Chris that it
wasn't necessary, but he insisted. So, now I was sitting in a doctor's
surgery with a flashlight being shined up my left nostril. Chris had also
maintained that he should come into the examination room with me; he sat in
chair to the side of me, looking on worriedly.

"I would normally send you for x-ray to confirm this, but it looks like
you've broken it." He paused, removing his flashlight. I looked over at
Chris who seemed to have turned very pale. "However, it isn't a bad break;
it won't need to be re-set or anything like that." Chris exhaled heavily,
if the doctor noticed he didn't mention it. "That must have been one very
heavy door that you walked into." I grinned at the story I had concocted,
sure it made me look stupid, but it saved the inevitable mountains of PR
work that I would incur if the truth ever got out.

"Thanks Doc." I said appreciatively "I'm sorry to waste your time like
this."

"Not at all." He smiled warmly.

"Yeah... um thanks" Chris said, standing.

"If the headaches get any worse then you may have a concussion. Bed rest is
the best thing that I can recommend." He advised.

"Ok, thanks again." I said on the way out. Once the door had closed behind
us and we were walking back down the long empty corridor towards the
reception, Chris apologized once more.

"I'm so sorry about all this Alex. I don't know what came over me." He
waved his arms expressively.

"It's all sorted out now Chris, it's in the past." I brought my hand to my
nose, lightly brushing against it. "What say we keep this between
ourselves? How about, I went to your place, we talked it over and now it's
all good?" I suggested.  He simply grinned and nodded a response in the
affirmative.

That evening, after Chris had driven me home in my car and then caught a
cab back to his place, I did as the doctor ordered and got to bed
early. Thanks to all the painkillers I had taken, I found it easy to float
off into a pleasant sleep.

***

The following day I was woken up by the noise of the intercom on the front
door.  It was one of those systems where visitors have to be 'buzzed in'
before they have access to the building. I struggled out bed and dragged
myself to the panel beside the door. I pressed the button and spoke into
the microphone. "Who is it, and what do you want?"

"It's me, sorry to wake you, but I thought..." Chris's voice crackled over
the speaker.

"Come on up." I said, cutting him off. I pressed another button and a green
light came on, signalling that I had opened the front door. I rushed to put
some clothes on and straighten out my hair. There was a knock on the door;
I grudgingly opened it to see my friend's concerned face looking back at
me.

"Hi Alex. You feeling alright this morning? You sounded a bit off on the
speaker thing." He had come to check up on me. I smiled at the thought.

"Thanks for coming Chris. I'm feeling fine... I'm just not very good in the
mornings."

"Have you had breakfast? I brought bagels!" He exclaimed, holding up a
paper bag with the local bakery's logo on it, which caused me to giggle.

"Well... uh... as well as not being a morning person, I also not a
breakfast person."

"Oh..." he pouted childishly "... you said that you cooked breakfast for
Lance yesterday. Look! You don't even have top turn on the stove. Please?"
he whined.

"Chris... I felt queasy all day after that fry up with Lance. Why don't you
eat the bagels and I'll make us some coffee?" I tried to placate him.

"I suppose so." He continued to pout as he followed me into the kitchen. I
suddenly had a brainwave, I needed something to show Chris that I was
feeling better and to stop him from mulling over my refusal to eat
breakfast with him - I had the perfect plan.

Chris took a seat at the kitchen table and I placed butter and cream cheese
in front of him. I then filled the coffee maker with water and flipped the
switch on the side of the contraption. I sat opposite my friend and decided
to make my suggestion before he got pissed with me again. "Say Chris, how
do you fancy a cookout? This afternoon maybe?" His whole demeanour changed,
the smile that had faded when I turned down his bagels returned, along with
a strange glint in his eye. I guess my proposal meant more to him than I
realised.

"That's a great idea Alex! But...um... this is a third floor
apartment... you don't have a garden, much less anywhere to put a grill."

"Sure I do! I have the roof garden... I mean, I share the roof garden with
the other residents but there are only eight of us. I'll phone around and
make sure that they don't mind us having some privacy up there for the rest
of the day.  There's already a fancy grill and everything up there." I
explained.

"Wow! This is so cool! I've gotta go tell the guys." He stood, rushing
towards the door. "Don't worry about the food, we'll sort it out!" He
called as the door closed behind him. I giggled at his excited, childlike
manner. I then noticed the remnants of a bagel on the table and popped it
into my mouth without thinking. When I realized what I had done, and
remembered how Chris had made such a fuss over my not doing it a few
minutes ago, I laughed to myself.

***

I opened the door to see the grinning faces of my five new co-workers and
friends. Joey was holding an ice box, presumably filled with many meaty
treats.  Justin and Lance were fooling around in front of the elevator
doors. I greeted them warmly and invited them into my apartment. "Hey guys!
Come on in... I'm going to need some help getting all the stuff up to the
garden."

"Where is this oasis anyway?" Justin stepped up to the window. "All I can
see is concrete."

"It's on the roof, isn't that cool?" Chris answered his question.

"I hope you have some beer somewhere in here. I'm thirsty." Joey whined

"Sure thing Joe." I waited for a reaction to my abbreviation of his name,
but there was none, so I continued. "You can help me get it upstairs,
there's a few more things that'll I need some help with too." I hinted.

"We'll help!" Justin offered his and Lance's services. Joey and I grabbed
cases of beer from the fridge, while our helpers carried the rest of the
stuff that I had laid out on the counter. Our quartet moved towards the
door, I stopped when I saw Chris and JC standing in the middle of my
sitting room and was about to suggest that they should help us carry our
loads when I noticed the ice box, that Joey had dumped, between them. As
Chris and I had so recently patched things up, I chose to go easy on him.

"Chris could you get the door for us?" He smiled. JC groaned. Chris's
reaction was to poke his tongue out at his friend. He then skipped over to
the door and opened it, holding it for the five of us, after we had passed
him he allowed the door to close.

"We can take the elevator right?" he checked. I simply shook my head to
inform him that we could. He pressed the call button, nothing was said as
we waited for the elevator to arrive. The six of us rode up to the roof
together, it was slightly cramped, but there were no complaints. The doors
slid open and we stepped out in the bright sunlight. The initial reaction
of the guys was as expected - they were stunned. All of the residents had
put money together to make our own little paradise.

There was a fountain in the center, to right of which was a large barbeque
grill and to the left was a table surrounded by chairs. There were pot
plants scattered about with more impressive trees and shrubs around the
edge, beside the largest was a swing bench. "Hey! This is amazing!" Chris
exclaimed. "It's so private as well. Hey Joe, will you help me with the
food?" Joey followed Chris over to the grill, placing the beer he was
carrying in the shade. They began to fiddle with it and soon called JC
over, who was still holding the ice box.

Justin had instantly been attracted to the water in the fountain, and was
already splashing Lance. I went to his rescue. "Justin have you seen the
basketball hoop over there." I pointed to the hoop which was attached to
the side of the elevator shaft. His eyes became wide and he ran off towards
the others who had now lit the barbeque. In just a few seconds he returned,
dragging JC behind him.

"You do have a ball, don't you?" he asked worriedly.

"There's one in the storage shed." I pulled out a bunch of keys, selected
one, and handed it to him.

He snatched the keys off me and continued to pull JC behind him as he moved
towards the shed, shouting a "Thanks!" on the way.

I turned towards Lance, who was slightly damp, but had been saved from the
worst of the water. "Hey, how are you holding up?" I asked, his response
was a weak smile. Seeing that, I pulled him towards the swinging bench,
grabbing two beers on the way. "Sit!" I commanded. He did as he was told; I
sat next to him, pushing us back and setting the swing in motion. I handed
him one of the cans I was holding, "Talk to me Lance." I said.

He sighed, took a sip of his beer and began to speak softly. "I feel
gay... for the first time someone knows about me. You know about me. And
its like, from now on, I can't turn back. I'm always going to be
different."

"Do you want to turn back?" I asked gently.

"No, No. I don't think I do. It just feels like I'm in limbo. I'm gay, but
I can't be gay because the guys don't know about me. I can't comment on a
cute guy's ass and I have to pretend to be interested in all the girls that
I'm set up with." He explained. I was afraid he was going to cry and so I
tried to lighten the moment.

"They set you up?" I giggled. "They send you on blind dates, huh?"

"Oh, shut up." He punched my arm playfully. I became serious once more as I
stood.

"Lance, you have taken a major step in talking to me, just take your time
with this. It'll sort itself out eventually." He stood behind me, and
followed me over to the grill where Joey and Chris were fighting over a
spatula.

"Chris, it's my turn to flip the burgers." Joey whined, as Chris reached
over to pull it from his hands. "Get your own spatula." He snatched it
away.

"Children! Children!" I shouted as I pushed between them, removing the
object from Joey and handing it to Lance. "The food'll be fine. Why don't
we play some basketball with Justin and JC?"

"Are you sure it word burn?" Chris looked sceptical.

"I'm sure." I answered. We joined JC and Justin in shooting some hoops. We
worked up quite a sweat. We messed around for twenty minutes or so, before
teaming up - three on three. After several jokes, it seemed appropriate for
the oldest three, Chris, JC and Joey to be on the same team. Our game was
interrupted by the ringing of my mobile phone. I wiped the sweat from my
forehead and walked towards the table, where my phone was resting.

"Hello, Alex Michaels speaking."

"Do you always have to be so business like?" My brother asked.

"Ah, shuddup! What do you want?" I joked with him.

"I wanna know where you are. You never go out on a Sunday... and yet,
you're not home." He stated. I turned and looked towards the grill where
the guys were piling all of the food onto plates.

"I'm on the roof, having a barbeque with a few friends. How do you know I'm
not home?"

"Because I'm here, and the place is empty, and what's this about you having
a few friends? You only have one friend, two if you count me." He teased.

"Are you going to come up here, or not?" I wanted to finish the
conversation.

"Be there in a sec... don't eat anything without me... I'm starving!" He
laughed and then hung up. *NSYNC had now sat down at the table and were
busy scooping out salad and squiring various sauces onto their plates. I
walked over to the table and leaned against the back of Justin's chair.

"I hope you don't mind, but we have some company." I informed them. They
looked apprehensively at me.

"Is this company of the female variety?" Joey questioned.

"That's all it's ever about with you, isn't it Joe? Sex. Sex. Sex." Justin
joked.

"I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but it's my brother." I said.

"As long as he doesn't freak out when he sees us..." JC began.

"I don't think there's much chance of that." I assured, walking over to the
elevator, as it chimed and the doors opened. My little brother stepped out
into the sunlight, although I probably shouldn't call him 'little' any
longer. He was now my height, and at 17 was surprisingly well defined. I
greeted him with hug.

"Hey Jess." He returned my embrace.

"Hi. Now get off me, you big oaf!" He said as he pushed me away. He moved
towards the table, where *NSYNC had stopped eating and were looking towards
him. He stopped a few paces short and turned back to face me. "I might have
known you would be having lunch with a boy-band." He groaned and crinkled
his nose. I stepped up alongside my sibling, placing my arm around his
shoulder.

"Everyone, this is Jesse, my brother." I introduced him. He was greeted
with various 'Hey's and 'Hello's. He took a seat next to Justin, and began
to help himself to the food on table. I took the remaining place, between
Jesse and Lance.

"He sure isn't shy, is he?" Lance whispered in my ear, as the seventeen
year old next to me devoured a spare rib while at the same time laughing
loudly at one of Justin's jokes.

"Nope, timid is not one the words I would use to describe him." I whispered
back.  Lance giggled and continued to eat. We sat at the table for over an
hour, although all of the food had disappeared after twenty minutes. We
chatted, laughed and fooled around - it felt great to relax with a group of
guys, I hadn't done anything like this for years, although I still felt
slightly out of place.

When we were out of beer Joey offered to go down to the grocery store to
get some soft drinks, as we had all drunk enough considering it was still
mid- afternoon. Justin stood from the table.

"How about some more b-ball? We didn't finish that three-on-three earlier."
He asked, there was a resounding yes from the other band members, but I was
slightly more reserved.

"I think I'll sit this one out." I said, offering no explanation, the truth
was I just didn't feel like jumping around. I never could hold my drink
very well, and the hot sun wasn't helping.

"Me too, I've got some catching up to do, with big bro." Jesse stated.

"Suit yourselves." Justin shrugged. My brother and I sat on the swing
bench, which was now under the dappled shade of the trees. We said nothing
for a few minutes; we simply watched the basketball game, laughing when
someone fell over. Joey returned with the drinks and handed them out, he
then said that he wanted to clean the barbeque and leave it as he found it
- his mother had obviously taught him better than I had given her credit
for. We went back to watching the game, until Jesse spoke.

"You like him don't you?" he said softly. He took my by surprise, but he
did that often, he was very perceptive for a teenager.

"I'm not sure. He's cute, got a great personality, but there are other
issues involved..." I trailed off.

"Like Britney?" He asked, which caused me choke on the cola I was sipping,
I coughed and spluttered, the drink squirted out my nose and I spat the
reminder onto the floor. I sat back and regained my composure.

"You were talking about him? I thought we were talking about..." I was
stopped by Jesse's hand slapping over my mouth. It was then that I realised
I had been yelling at the top of my voice, and all of the band were looking
in our direction. I removed the hand, and spoke loudly so that they call
all hear, "Simple misunderstanding - nothing to see here." I waved for them
to continue with their game. I turned towards my brother and said simply,
"Thanks."

"So, who did you think I was talking about then?" I looked towards the
basketball hoop, where four sweaty members of *NSYNC had removed their
shirts. He followed my gaze. "Oh." He said in understanding. "I suppose
Lance is more your own age. You know he's not a natural blonde, right?" He
asked, which made me giggle. "I hope he's gay; then you could get
together. I never thought I'd say this, but you'd make a good couple." He
stated warmly. "Now, let's see what I can do about getting you some quality
time alone with your 'boyfriend'." He took on a childish tone as he said
the last word. He jogged over to the makeshift basketball court and began
to talk with Justin, who called a stop to their game. After a few short
seconds they resumed. Joey had finished his cleaning and joined them, along
with my brother. Both had removed their shirts beforehand. I watched their
game, chuckling to myself at their friendly banter. I marvelled at the way
my brother could just come into a group and be 'one of them' this
quickly. I soon became tired of my musings, and decided that I was now
ready to join the game.

As I stood, I saw Lance jump for the hoop, he dunked the ball successfully,
but as he landed his ankle buckled and he ended up on the floor. He groaned
loudly and rolled around, clutching his foot. I panicked when the accident
transpired in front of me, and ran towards the huddle that had now formed
around Lance. I pushed my way passed my brother and Justin and knelt down
next to my injured comrade.

"Lance!" I snapped my fingers in front of his face to draw his
attention. He looked towards me and stopped moaning, "Is it only your ankle
that's hurting? Or is there something else?" He shook his head and pointed
to his ankle. "Can you move it at all?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders
and wiggled his ankle; then he winced in pain. "Ok, it's probably a
sprain. Let's put some ice on it." I said gently to him. I then looked over
my shoulder at Justin. "Would you help me get him up?" I asked him. Justin
and I eased Lance up onto his one good foot.

"Alright, I can take it from here... you have fun." I suggested as I helped
Lance hobble to one of the chairs at the table. I took the ice box, and
removed a cooler pack; one of those gel filled ones. I took the chair next
to Lance and looked at him sympathetically. "How are you feeling now?" I
asked him.

"Ok, it's kind of a dull ache. I'm not going to need crutches or anything
am I?" he was concerned.

"No, don't worry. You've either sprained it a little or just bruised it,
we'll put some ice on it and you can rest it for a while. You should barely
be able to feel it by tomorrow. It might hurt a little when I take your
shoe off, I'll try to be gentle." I informed him. I pulled his sneaker off
his left foot, followed by his sock; each action caused a small yelp from
Lance. I then placed the cold object onto his ankle and raised it into the
air, resting it on another chair which I had pulled up.

"Thanks Alex. It's usually me that administers the first aid... but since I
was the injured one..." his voice faded, he shrugged his shoulders and sat
back in his seat. We sat in silence, watching the others play once more, I
found it strange that I was no longer bored. I put it down to being with
someone, even if we weren't talking. I felt comfortable sitting next to
Lance.

"Your brother is quite good looking." Lance said out of the blue. I
laughed. Lance turned his nose up and looked the other way in
mock-indignation. "Well he is." He defended himself.

"Yeah, I suppose he is." I agreed. "He's also my brother, and he's only
seventeen."

"Really? Oh." Lance's face turned a deep shade of red, which only served to
make me laugh more.

***

The seven of us were now lazing around in my lounge; we left the roof after
the sun had gone down. Oddly enough we had the TV on a cartoon channel, it
was the joint choice of Justin and Joey. I had suggested MTV, and then
several other music channels but each was quickly shot down by the band
members. I found it surprising that after all the time they had spent in
the spotlight they still found it weird to see themselves on the
television. My brother was the first to leave. "I'm sure I'll see the lot
of you again soon. Bye." He shook several hands, and then came up to me and
hugged me. "I'll call you." He said into my ear, when he heard the 'Aww's
coming from the members of *NSYNC he broke the embrace, and flipped them
the bird. I walked him to the door, and he moved down the hall to the
elevator. As the doors were closing he shouted, at the top of his voice,
"See you around Tad!".  I cringed at the nickname, and silently prayed that
none of my friends, who were in the apartment behind me, had heard.

I turned and closed the door behind me. To my dismay the first question
that was asked was in relation to the name that my brother had used. "Who,
or what, is Tad?" Chris asked.

"I'm glad to know that you're not losing your hearing in your old age,
Chris." I joked.

"You'd better spill... or I'll be dishing out some payback in the near
future." He threatened.

"Ok..." I gave in "... Tad is sort of an abbreviation for my middle name."
This seemed to puzzle Justin, who gained a thoughtful expression.

"What on earth is your middle name to give you a nick name like Tad?" He
asked. I looked at my feet, not that I was ashamed; more that I was
preparing myself for the onslaught of jokes.

"It's Thaddeus." I winced as the laughing began. They cracked a few jokes,
none of which I hadn't heard before. Finally, JC decided to come to my
rescue.

"It's getting late, and I think we've offended you enough. Time to go
guys." He instructed. They stood in unison, only to hear Joey tell them
that he needed the bathroom, causing the others to flop back into their
seats.

"I'll help you with these glasses." Lance motioned to the glassware
scattered around the room. I grabbed a few, and he did the same. He
followed me out to the kitchen. Looking over his shoulder to make sure that
we were alone, he moved close to me and spoke softly, "I'm going to tell
them tomorrow. Could you... um... call a meeting for me?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Not everyone is going to react as well as
I did."  I became worried.

"I think they'll be Ok about it. We'll just have to see, won't we?" He
grinned, perhaps too widely. It caused me to wonder if he was truly
prepared for what could happen.

***

I was the first into the boardroom the next day. After taking a seat at the
table, I opened my briefcase and removed the files that I would need. I was
early, but that was the way I liked it. However, just a few seconds after I
had laid the files out on the table in front of me, Lance entered. I looked
up at him and smiled.

"You're early" he observed.

"Well, so are you."

He took a seat at the head of the table, fairly close to me and for the
first time since he had walked in that morning, I really looked at him. He
was pale, had dark bags under his eyes and from the way he shifted uneasily
in his seat, I could tell he was nervous.

We talked about anything and everything for a few minutes; I thought it
would help to take his mind off of the task at hand.

I had him laughing openly by the time the rest of the guys walked in, but
as soon they did Lance remembered why he was here - his demeanor changed
instantly.  I turned my attention to the rest of the group,

"Hi guys, take a seat, this shouldn't take long."

I was greeted warmly by them, and they did as I said.

By about five minutes into the meeting I had sorted out one appearance with
them - MTV still wanted their interview - an update on the album and stuff,
they were going to do that on Friday. I was ready to start discussing their
next appointment, when Lance leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"I'm not feeling too great, I think I'm gonna be sick."

I really felt for him, and so I made a decision. It may not have been the
best one I have ever made, but it seemed a good idea at the time.

"So, what's next?" JC enquired.

"Next, I want to talk about the interview for Smash Hits magazine," they
groaned, but before anyone could say anything else, I added, "But first I
think Lance has something slightly more important to say."

He looked at me, and then turned whiter than I had ever thought possible,
his face then took on an interesting shade of green. He somehow managed to
keep from heaving. Following a few seconds of silence, Lance began,
"G...g...guys," he stuttered,

"What is it Lance?" Chris seemed worried, the others had leaned forward in
their seats, he certainly had their attention.

"Well... Um... I guess there's no easy and painless way of saying this..."

"What's wrong, are you sick Lance?" JC interrupted.

"Shhhh... Let him finish." Joey put his arm in front of JC to stop his
inquisition.

"Well... I'm gay", and just like that Lance dropped his bombshell.

Instinctively, I looked at the other four and tried to work out what they
were thinking, I decided I would know soon enough and turned my attention
back to Lance. I noticed he was looking at me; I smiled supportively and
nodded my approval. He seemed grateful for my support and smiled back. I
think Justin, who was sitting opposite me and just as close to Lance,
caught our exchange as he squeezed his shoulder and repeated my actions
exactly. He said nothing. I returned my attention to the three remaining
guys. We were caught in another silence. JC had developed an interest in
his hands; he was busy clicking his knuckles. Joey was sitting back in his
chair and had not yet moved since he had heard the news. Chris turned to
face Lance and looked as though he was about to speak, but stopped when JC
stood and walked behind me to stand next to Lance.

"Stand up Lance." he said calmly, but when Lance didn't move instantly, JC
became annoyed. "I said, stand up!" Lance began to stand, but JC grabbed
him by his shoulders and yanked him to his feet. "C'mon you fucking faggot,
get up!"  Chris and I stood; Justin was shocked and glued to his seat.

JC began to shake Lance, screaming expletives at him. When he saw Chris and
me closing on him, he let go of Lance. "You can't be a homo, do you know
what this will do to us... to *NSYNC. Have you thought about that?"

"N...N...No..." Lance answered him.

"That's right you haven't, have you? You're stupid Lance, you're a stupid
queer!"  and with that he pulled back his fist and swung at his band
mate. I grabbed Lance and pulled him away from the right hook. Chris
stepped in between Lance and JC and for the second time in three days he
broke a nose with a punch to JC's face. I had to hold Chris to stop him
from doing any more damage.

I looked towards Justin for help. He stood and dragged a dazed JC out of
the room, but not before he could yell "Burn in hell, fag!" It was at this
point that I noticed that Joey had left without saying a word, Lance was
now slumped on the floor and Chris was sitting on the table. I walked over
to Lance and pulled him up, guiding him to a chair. Once he was seated,
Chris began to talk, "You know Lance; that was pretty major thing to drop
on us. We need time to deal with it."  He paused "He had no right to try to
hit you, but to be honest, it didn't surprise me." With that, he made his
exit, leaving Lance and I alone.

Throughout all of this, Lance had done nothing; he had just allowed it all
to happen. Now that the rest of the group had left, he began to sob. I
pulled him up from his chair and embraced him. Lance broke down; he
squeezed me tightly and cried into my shoulder.

***

End of Chapter 5