I want to thank all those people that emailed me after part 4, Its good to see that more and more people are reading the story. I will be putting in more time between chapters so each one will be larger, I know they have been sort of short. Please feel free to email me with comments or suggestions at everybodycrys@yahoo.com. I also wanted to say that some of the stories that I’m reading in the archives are really good. When you get the chance you have to check out, Lance in Shining Armour (brilliant), Brian and Me (very good), Studio in the Country, Forever, and Flowers never bend with rainfall. There are others but these stand out in my mind right now.

Please remember that if you are under 18 or offended by material of a homosexual nature this is not the place for you, please turn around and make a hasty retreat. and as always this a work of pure fiction and no claims are made to the actual sexual orientation of any of the characters real or imagined.

So on with Part 5....

The rain was starting to come down harder, but Matt was all smiles as he pulled out his umbrella, grabbed his case and headed for the parking structure. These last few weeks had been good for him. When he gotten back from Catalina he had spent the first few days practically camped out by his phone. After hearing nothing, he had pushed Nick out of his mind and behind him. He had no way to contact him and if he wasn’t gonna call, Matt wasn’t going to spend anymore time waiting. Not that it wasn’t hard, every night he went to sleep thinking of those eyes and wondering where he was.

Matt got into his car and headed for his apartment. He had to decide what to do with his summer. With juries over and finals about done he was almost done with this semester and his lease on the apartment only took him to the end of the month. He would probably just head home again to his families house as much as he dreaded that. As much as he had been able to work past his feelings he still had a huge sense of guilt anytime he was at home. That was the place where he was taught that these feelings were so wrong.The place where now he felt like he was behind enemy lines. He had no intention of ever sharing any of this this with them. Every thing was going so well now he didn’t feel like making waves.

He got home, entering his apartment he dropped his case on the sofa and headed to his room to change. He grabbed a sweat suit and put it on. He got a soda from the fridge and took a seat in his big comfy chair that faced the big window. He loved days like this, warm and comfortable inside watching the rain fall outside. He glanced over at his phone and decided to check his messages. Picking it up he pushed his code for the answering service.

“You have two new messages” the voice informed him.

“Message one... Hey there golden boy,” Marian's voiced beamed at him, “ Just calling to see what your plans are now that the semesters over. Give me a call, I’ll be in all night.”

Matt smiled, maybe he could spend the summer with Marian in L.A. she had a year round lease with her place and he was sure she wouldn’t mind. He decided to give her a call after dinner.

“Message two....Hello, Matt?..” Matt immediately felt his stomach tighten. He knew that voice,” Uh this is Nick, I know its been a while but I wanted to tell you we’re in San Diego for some promotional stuff. Lets hook up, we’re at the...” He proceeded to give off the hotel, time to meet and a number to call if he ran into trouble. Matt saved the message and put down the phone. He didn’t know what to think, half of him was upset that this had come up again just as he was getting over it, but the other half was in blissful shock. In truth this was what he had been waiting for all this time. He looked at the clock, if he was going to do this he was going to have to start moving. He sat back took a deep breath, let it out and then stood up to get ready. ‘One foot in front of the other” he thought.

“How can you be so dumb. This is not a game Nick,we have to be careful. Its hard enough with all the media trying to find any way they can to pin us into some scandal, we don’t need to start providing them.”

Nick started getting angry, “ First off, don’t call me dumb. I don’t think inviting friends over to spend time with is going to end our careers. This is not a big deal.”

“You don’t think its a big deal, I’m not so sure, especially when I have huge doubts about you guys being just friends.”

Nick was shocked. “Where the hell do you get off saying that. I’ve only seen the guy twice on Catalina and now you have us in some relationship. God Kevin, I thought we were friends.”

“I saw the way you were on the boat, there's more there Nick and your just ignoring it. This is going to snap back and hit you hard. I don’t wan t to see that happen.” He sat down next Nick on the bed. “ Look we’ve always been there for each other and I’ll be here for you regardless of what happens. I just want you to think before you do something you might regret.”

Nick looked over at Kevin, “Kevin, I don’t know what I’m feeling right now, but this is something I want to pursue. I....I need you to understand and support that.”

Kevin nodded, “I’ll be there for you, but before you go can I ask you something?”

Nick nodded and Kevin continued, “We’ve been skirting the issue for a while but I think we need to get it out in the open. Are you... do you have feelings...uh”

“ Am I gay?” Nick blurted out taking Kevin by surprise. Kevin looked embarrassed but nodded.

“I don’t know, maybe. I’ve never found myself sexually attracted to men, but the way I feel about him goes deeper then that. Maybe I'm bi, but then I never felt this way about anyone. Its new to me and I need to explore that.”

Kevin thought about it for a few minutes and then asked another question, “What about him?”

Nick thought about, “ As crazy as it may seem, I think he might be in the same boat I am, but I can’t be sure about it.”

Kevin put his arm around Nick’s shoulders. “Please be careful then, you could end up hurting him, and more importantly to me, he could end up hurting you. I don’t want to see that.” With that he pushed Nick off the bed and onto the floor.

“Hey, ouch that hurt you bitch.” Nick yelled out trying to hide the smile. Kevin laughed.

“Give it up, if I’m right then you have to get ready.” Nick looked at his watch and jumped up.

“Damn it, okay thanks a lot Kevin, I promise I’ll be careful.” And with that he ran into the bathroom to take a shower. Kevin smiled and walked over to join the other guys in Howie’s room. Brian looked up as Kevin walked in.

“Everything okay over there?” He asked

“Yeah, I think it’ll be fine. Well, I’m really hoping it will.”

A.J. looked over at the door and whispered over to Kevin, “You want me to follow him, I can go deep undercover and all.”

Kevin shook his head with a grin, “ No, that's quite okay, last thing I need to do at four in the morning is go bar hopping looking for you.” seeing right through him. “But, speaking of which you guys want to go out tonight? We can head over to Tsunami’s.” Everyone agreed, that was truly one of the prime party spots in San Diego and busy enough they probably wouldn’t be bothered. They all started back to their rooms to get ready.

Nick got off the elevator and ran into the lobby. Running late as usual he hoped that Matt was still here. He spotted him at the door. ‘ Damn’ he thought.

“Matt” he yelled out, making most of the people around him jump. “Matt, wait up!!”

Matt looked back and saw Nick running across the lobby. He smiled and stepped back away from the door to let people by. He waved

“I’m so sorry I’m late, I never get anywhere on time. I lost track of time and the guys had left so no one was there to tell me how long I had. It was a real mess.”

Matt smiled again, “That's okay, I was beginning to think you weren’t coming. But that's cool. So what's on the agenda tonight?”

“I was thinking we’d catch a movie and then some dinner, and since you know the place, I’m at your mercy.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Matt looked around, “Is there anything you need to take care of here first, body guards or anything.”

Nick smiled, “No, we didn’t advertise we were coming and I’ll just throw on a hat. we’re really not suppose to go out alone with out calling management so they can get a “escort”. But we rarely do that, it really pisses them off.”

“Okay then, lets take off. My car is parked right down the street.” They took off. Matt decided their best bet at catching a movie would be at Horton Plaza. They ran through the maze of stores. Who ever designed that place was on crack. They got there just in time to see “Mission to Mars”. The movie was pretty good. Matt was glad they hadn’t been forced to see some boring flick. This movie was visually stimulating enough to keep him mind off the fact of who he was sitting right next to. After the movie was over they decided it was warm enough just to walk around downtown and see what restaurants were open. Neither one of them had brought a jacket, but the rain had stopped, so they weren’t worried.

Matt looked at Nick as they were walking. “This is weird, we’re almost wearing the same thing.” Nick looked at Matt. Sure enough both of them were wearing white shirts and dark colored pants. “The only difference is that stupid hat you got on. You’d think if you wanted to blend in you’d pick something normal.”

Nick smiled and took off the hat. But Matt could see that he was nervous.

“I wouldn’t worry, its almost all college kids down here and I don’t think they’d bother you.” Nick relaxed and they walked down the street until they found a small restaurant that seemed nice enough. They went in and grabbed a table near the back. Their waitress came and soon they had some great Italian food in front of them.

“This is good, I can’t believe I didn’t find this place sooner.” Matt said between bites.

“You go out often?” Nick asked.

“No, in fact I go out very little, but I’m a sucker for good Italian food and try to find all the good places.”

They continued to talk, and soon it was like their last conversation on Catalina. Nick told him all about their tour and how soon it would over and what was coming up next. Matt told him about school and the juries.

“So, what are your plans for the summer?” Nick asked

“I’ll probably hang out with Marian in LA and get some summer gig.”

“You gonna play music or get some real job?” Nick said as he smiled.

“There's more truth to that then you know, I did that last summer and it was a pain. finding a gig as a instrumentalist is getting pretty hard. If you don’t play in a band your useless. I might be able to get something as a studio musician, perhaps for Disney.”

Nick nodded and smiled, he knew what kind of competition there was in the studios. They continued to talk for a while until Matt glanced at his watch and noticed the time.

“Damn, its getting late we better head back.” Matt said

“Yeah, and that waitress has been staring at us a little to often. She either wants to get rid of us or recognizes me.”

Matt smiled, he hadn’t thought about that all night. He guessed it was just one of those things you had to experience to understand. They payed the bill and walked out of the restaurant. They stood under the awning.

“Damn,” Matt said “its raining again.” Sure enough it was, and it was pouring. Nick pointed in the direction of the lot where they left the car.

“If we hurry I think the car is right down there.”

“No, its on the other si.....” Matt was interrupted by a scream. They turned and saw a huge group of about thirty girls about a hundred feet away.

“Oh my god !!!!! its him its Nick.” one of them screamed. They started running towards them.

“I knew that waitress was staring at us a little too much.” Nick said. and he started to run down the street. After a few steps he turned and saw that Matt hadn’t moved.

“what are you waiting for?” he yelled

“I don’t think those girls are after me.” he said with a smile. He thought the expression on Nicks face was priceless when he had seen the girls.

“Dude, I’m not going anywhere without you so its your fault if something happens.” Nick said trying to get Matt to move. He had seen what girls like this could do, even to people just associated with them. Nick turned and saw the girls bearing down on them.

“Lets go!!” Nick said and grabbed Matt's arm. Matt gave in and they started running down the street. Nick led the way and soon they were running through downtown trying to lose the hoard behind them. eventually they left the group behind and ran into a parking lot. They knelt down behind some cars waiting to see if they had lost the girls. No one seemed to be behind them. They stood there trying to catch their breaths. They were soaking wet and the rain was still pouring down. Matt looked over and Nick and smiled.

“You go through this a lot?” He asked with a grin.

“More then you would think.” Nick paused to catch his breath, “Most of the time its just running through them to get in our hotel or concert hall.” He looked at Matt. They’re eyes locked. Matt was instantly captivated by his eyes. Nick was also lost when he looked at Matt.

“You..know, where we are?” Nick said slowly

Matt continues to stare silently. Nick stepped closer until they were only about a foot apart. He looked at Matt and took in the way the white shirt clung to his skin, his hair soaked and matted. the muscles that shifted under the soaked clothing. He was beautiful, both in mind and body. The rain continues to pour down around them. Matt looked deep into Nick’s eyes and saw his own reflection in them. ‘This is right’ he thought, ‘ there's nothing wrong with this’. And as if he could read his mind Nick reached up and put his hands on Matt's shoulder and leaned in. As their lips met, the world around them disappeared and they were lost in each other. Matt had never felt anything like this, it was surreal, it was unbelievable, it was perfect. They continues to stand there in the rain holding each other. Each one lost in the moment and lost in each other.