Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 18:52:00 +0000
From: JV
Subject: Boy Bands - Human All Too Human - Part Two

I don't know N'Sync, nor do I know that much about them, so excuse me if I
make any mistakes or imply anything about them which isn't true. This is all
a product of my imagination, and shouldn't be taken literally. Also, if it
is illegal for you to read this, wherever you are, then don't cos you might
get in trouble, and who knows? The karma might just come back and bite me in
the butt for some reason! Without further ado, please enjoy my new
story...'Human, all too human'.

Human, All Too Human - Part Two

>>>That Evening<<<

	Professor Carey walked into the student bar, suddenly feeling very
self-conscious of the fact that he was almost ten years older than some of
these people. "Hey Professor Carey!" A guy in his early twenties slurred at
the professor. "You having fun?"

	"Not as much as you apparently!" The professor shouted over the music
blaring out over the speakers. Mark Carey went up to the bar, and ordered a
beer. "Thank you." He said as he paid the barman.

	"It's ok prof. It's on the house! Your lectures still as boring as they
were three years ago?" Mark looked at the barman.

	"I don't believe it! Mike Nicholson! How are you?"

	"I'm doing ok! Told you I'd get a job eventually!"

	"I can see! How long have you been working here?"

	"Oh, only about six months. Hey, if you're here to see the live music, you
should get to the end of the bar, the good places will fill up soon!" Mark
nodded and said goodbye to his old student, a thought coming to him, do all
his students end up working in bars for other college students. The thought
caused him to shiver subconsciously.

	"Professor Carey!" Another student, who he couldn't remember the name of,
called him over and showed him a seat, which he gratefully took. He was
unaccustomed to these student gatherings.

	"Hi Professor." He turned around, and there was Charlie. "Glad to see you
made it. The guys were hoping you could. They said your class was great, the
best of the day." Charlie said with a smile.

	"Hold on wasn't your only other class with Dr. Clare?" He asked.

	"Well...yes." She grinned, just as the lights were going down, and the
faint introduction to some pop song started. Mark Carey wasn't used to this
type of music, and after three-quarters of an hour he was grateful that it
came to an end.

	"Hey everybody! Thanks for listening, you can all thank Charlie
Hardt here for getting us here! Oh yeah, and you can all thank Professor
Carey here for teaching us our new dance moves - for the ATOM!" Josh shouted
out jokingly, and then started spinning around like Lance had done, then
twirling his arms around like Joey had done in Professor Carey's class that
morning. He stopped and all the people were staring at him with shocked
expressions. "What?" He asked with a grin on his face. "No?" He asked again
twirling his arms around. When the only answer was a bar full of awkward
patrons, he got his answer. "Oh, ok then." He grinned again, and all the
guys left the stage, to mingle with the college students.

	"Hey Professor Carey!" Josh said as he came up to Mark. "Glad you could
make it!"

	"Thanks, err...Josh?" Mark started, not quite sure if he'd got the right
name. "You don't need to call me Professor Carey, you can call me Mark,
you're not one of my students!"

	"Hey, great, listen, I don't know if this is kinda forward, but we were
wondering if you were free this weekend, we all thought you were a funny guy
when we were in your class, and we wanted to know if you were free to come
to a barbeque?" Professor Carey looked nervous.

	"I'm sorry, I'm kinda booked up this weekend, I really can't. I'm sorry."
He looked down at the floor, and started to back away from Josh, then,
turning, he made his way through the crowd of students. Josh watched for a
moment, then he felt a hand on his back, turning around, he saw Joey, who
had an insistent expression in his eyes.

	"Fine! I'll go after him!" Josh said, and made his way to the other end of
the bar. By the time he got through the throngs of students, the professor
was just walking out into the night. "Professor!" Josh said out the door of
the bar. Mark turned to face him. "Look...Mark, I'm sorry if I said
something wrong I really didn't mean to..."

	"I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Look, I work on Saturdays,
I work in a research facility, so I can't."

	"It's on a Sunday though." Mark looked down at the ground again. When he
looked up again, he shook his head at Josh.

	"I have to go visit my mother. She's in hospital."

	"Oh, I'm sorry, is she ok?" Josh asked.

	"Well, the hospital is really more of care home, she has Alzheimer's, and
she's pretty much deaf, which basically makes her unable to care for
herself. I visit her on Sundays."

	"Do you spend the whole day there?" Josh asked.

	"No! She can hardly remember my name, I only go for a couple of hours from
about 11, but if you wanted a barbeque, that would make me late."

	"Well, we weren't planning on starting till two, can you get to Hollywood
by three?"

	"Hollywood? That's where the care home is! I can be there at 1:30 if you
want!" He said. "Though I would like to home and get changed."

	"Why don't you just bring a change of clothes with you. Look, here, are
some directions, and the address, and don't forget your trunks. Come
whatever time you get done at your Mom's, and oh yeah, Charlie will be
there, so don't worry about being the odd one out or anything." He actually
hadn't thought about that until Josh mentioned it.

	"Sure, err...thanks. That's really nice of you to invite me."

	"Hey, it's ok, you were a hell of a lot nicer to us than that Dr. Clare
was, we actually had fun today. The way Charlie described it when we picked
her up we thought we were going to be sleeping through most of her classes."

	"No one ever sleeps through my classes!" Mark said proudly. They both
laughed and then an awkward silence fell over them. "I should get going."
Josh nodded.

	"Ok, nice to meet you again, Prof... I mean, Mark." Mark grinned at him,
and they said goodnight.

***

>>>Sunday<<<

	"Mom!"

	"Andy?" She said as Mark walked into the room.

	"No Mom, it's me Mark. Who's Andy?"

	"I don't know." The old woman looked down at her lap, where her wrinkled
hands lay. Her grey and white hair was pulled back into a pony tail, and her
thin lips quivered slightly. "I don't know." She repeated, turning over her
left hand in her right.

	"What have you been up to Mom?" Mark asked as he sat on the bed in her
room.

	"Oh, the usual."

	"Like what?"

	"Visiting friends." She said, despite the fact she didn't get on with
anyone in this facility and she wasn't allowed out. "Drinking tea." She
wasn't allowed caffeine either. "Going for walks." She didn't do that
either, though she could've on the extensive grounds.

	"That must have been fun for you."

	"Not as much fun as when your father and I were fleeing Germany." She said,
and then she started telling the story. That actually happened, Mark thought
to himself. When the Berlin Wall went up, but how much of what she's telling
me is her imagination and how much is truth? Two hours passed very slowly.

	"Mom, I'm sorry, but I've got to get going." Mark said, a couple of minutes
after his normal time.

	"That's ok Mickey." Mark just sighed, and picked up his jacket and kissed
his mom goodbye.

	"Bye Mom."

	"Bye bye." She said, and he shut the door to her room. He felt guilty every
time, for leaving her, for putting her in here, but it was the only way.

***

	Charlie arrived at the house a little earlier than Mark did and Joey was
there to open the door for her. "Hey Charlie." He said as he took her
through to the back yard.

	"Hey Joey, is everyone here yet?"

	"Well, you'll see, we're still waiting for JC and for Professor Carey."

	"Oh, ok."

	"Charlie!" Justin shouted happily as she walked into the back garden. He
was wearing an apron over his swim trunks and nothing else. He hugged her,
and she blushed again when she realised that she'd just hugged a practically
naked Justin Timberlake. "Come on, there's a few extra people here you need
to meet." So he took her around. "There's Danielle, Lance's girlfriend.
That's Brianna, Joey's daughter, he's looking after her today. And Abbie,
Chris' Girlfriend." Justin filled her in. "JC should be here soon, and then
your professor as well, he had to do something, I think JC said he was
visiting his mother."

	"Oh!" Charlie said in surprise.

	"What?"

	"Well, you know, you never think of teachers as actually being human, you
always think they like disappear at the end of the school day, and reappear
the next morning, to actually hear that one of them has a mother is just...
a little weird." Charlie laughed nervously.

	"I...guess I can see that, but it's been like seven or eight years since I
was in school so I really can't remember!" Justin said.

	"Hey guys!" They heard JC shout from the back door. "How is everyone? Is
everyone here yet?"

	"The goofy professor isn't." Lance said as he came out the back door behind
JC carrying a tray of raw meat.

	"Hey don't be so mean, wait, I think I hear his car pulling up, I'm gonna
go check." The rest of the guys watched with smirks as JC went through the
house. Pulling aside a curtain at the front of the house, he looked out and
saw the professor just sitting in his car, staring down the road.

	"Why can't she just remember my fucking name?" Mark shouted to no one as he
hit the steering wheel in the car. He felt bile rising up in his throat,
partly from the guilt of leaving his Mom for yet another week in that little
room with people she didn't really know, and partly from the anger he felt
at her for forgetting who he was, the problem was, the angrier he got at his
mom, the more guilty he felt. Tears stung his eyes but before he had time to
wipe them away, he heard a tapping at his window, swivelling his head
around, he saw Josh, whose expression changed to one of concern and surprise
when he saw Mark's watery eyes. Mark quickly opened the door, and climbed
out, wiping his eyes as he did.

	"Hey Josh." Mark said, as he got his holdall from the back seat.

	"Err...hi Mark, is something wrong?" Josh placed a hand on Mark's shoulder.
Mark looked down a second, then looked back up at Josh.

	"I'm sorry Josh, I should've warned you...I get kinda depressed after
visiting my Mom. She doesn't remember my name, and I just sit there with her
listening to stories that I don't know whether they're true or not, or
whether she saw them in a film or something and she's just confused. I'm
sorry, it's just really hard seeing my Mom like that."

	"It must be, I'm sorry for running out here, I mean, I... look, do you want
to come inside and get changed or something, they're just putting the meat
on the grill." JC asked.

	"Sure, thanks Josh." Mark smiled at him, but it was a weak one. They walked
inside, and Josh showed him to a bathroom, where he could change before
coming outside. Josh rejoined the group in the backyard. Five minutes later,
Mark rejoined them, wearing a pair of shorts, like most of the people
outside, and a long-sleeved t-shirt which fit him snugly.

	"Hey professor." Lance said, as he carried out a cooler full of drinks.

	"Hi, um...?"

	"Lance."

	"Hi Lance, please don't call me professor, I'm just Mark."

	"Oh, ok." Lance went around offering a few people drinks, and Mark looked
around the garden and pool for Josh. Finally his eyes settled on him sitting
by the pool. Justin was a couple of places away from him on another lounger,
and they were talking animatedly. Joey came up and greeted Mark, and as he
walked towards the pool, Chris did too.

	"Oh, hey Mark, you remember Justin right?" Mark shook his hand, and then
sat down on the other side of Josh.

	"Course I remember Justin, the Muon." Justin looked at Mark for a second
with a frown on his face.

	"Oh yeah, right, the demonstration. God, I felt sick after that." Josh and
Mark snickered. "So what have you been up to?"

	"Eh...not much, school until Friday, then work again yesterday, and visited
my Mom this morning."

	"Cool. You work on a Saturday? I always thought teachers would get that
off?" Justin asked.

	"Well, if I only worked as a teacher, yeah, but I work in a research
facility as well."

	"Cool! Doin' what?" Justin asked, his curiosity piqued.

	"Oh just this and that, Mad scientist experiments, you know?" Mark added.
"It's not as good as my last research job, I got to bring stuff home from
that, this one's a military center though, so we get scanned as we leave."
Mark said grudgingly.

	"Wow, you work for the military?" Josh stated.

	"Only on Saturdays." Mark grinned. "Wow, it's getting hot out here." Mark
noticed Justin already had his shirt off, and was just sitting in his
trunks. Josh still had a vest on over his trunks.

	"Shall we go for a swim before lunch?" Josh asked.

	"Sure." Mark shucked off his trainers as Josh pulled off his vest, and he
saw the firm muscles in Josh's abs, and the sinewy, but obviously well toned
muscles in his chest. He licked his lips subconsciously. He stood up, and
pulled off his t-shirt. When he brought it down again, he swung his arms
back and forwards a few times. As Mark walked towards the pool, he noticed a
few people looking at him. He turned around to face Josh, and saw him
staring at him too, and Justin. Then when he turned back, everyone was
looking at him. "What?"

	"Sorry Mark, I don't think...we were expecting you to have that tattoo."
Mark had a large tattoo across his back. He started to explain to Josh how
after he went to university, he spent a year in Africa, Ghana, and the
symbol sketched across his back was called an Adinkra symbol, and it meant
'believe in yourself'. Josh smiled at Mark, and walked over to him by the
pool. "I think it was more the shock of seeing a tattoo on a college
professor at all than just seeing it." Josh smirked at Mark, and then put a
hand on his pec. "Nice pecs." Josh grinned, and Mark smiled back, then Josh
pushed, and Mark went flying back into the pool. Mark came up, splashing and
spluttering. Josh knelt down by the side of the pool. "That's for making me
a particle that doesn't even exist for half of the time in our reality!" He
smirked at Mark, and Mark shook his head while he pushed his hair back. Next
thing Josh knew, Mark had a hold of his arm, and he was flying head first
into the pool. Everyone started laughing.

	"Well, I guess that's for..." Mark couldn't think of anything Josh had done
to him. "Let's just call it a pre-emptive pay back." They both laughed in
the pool. They started swimming around, and after twenty minutes, they were
both just leaning on the side of the pool watching the other guys try to
control the barbecue. "Will this food be safe to eat?"

	"Well, I've had a few barbecues cooked by these guys, and I'm still here."

	"Why don't you try cooking it?"

	"You're kidding right? And miss out on all the fun of watching these guys?
Besides I can't cook." Josh admitted.

	"Really? I like cooking, but nothing too complicated, and nothing where
there's more than one pan on the stove at once." Josh and he both laughed.
Josh looked Mark up and down.

	"You know, I wasn't kidding before, for a college professor you haven't got
a bad body."

	"I sometimes go in the college gym. If it wasn't for the football
scholarships, I might go in there more often though. I spend most of my time
on the cardio machines cos of them. They're always fooling around, and I
just don't want to have to deal with them."

	"But you're like their teacher!" Josh said unbelievingly.

	"It doesn't matter, they're bigger than me. If one of them got angry and I
know some of them have got tempers, then I wouldn't stand a chance. You
think teachers don't get intimidated?" Josh looked into the water for a
second.

	"I guess I never really thought about it before." He paused. "So, cooking,
what else do you like to do?" Josh looked at Mark with raised eyebrows. Mark
frowned for a second.

	"Finding out my interests now?" He grinned. "What is this? A date?" He
chuckled, then looked into the water. They were both sitting on a raised
section of the pool floor, and were leaning back against the wall. As Mark
said this, Josh hunched forward. Mark fell silent.

	"So, you're not gay?" Josh asked quietly.

	"What made you think that?"

	"I don't know, I just, just thought...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have
presumed." Josh sat there staring into the water.

	"So I guess that means you are?" Mark asked.

	"Please don't tell anyone, I'm supposed to be more careful than this, with
us always being chased by the tabloids and stuff, I shouldn't just tell
people."

	"I guess I should tell you now, I am too."

	"But you just said..."

	"No, I didn't." Mark interrupted. "You presumed when I asked you why you
thought I was gay."

	"So, you are gay?"

	"Yeah." Mark nodded slightly.

	"That's great!" JC smiled.

	"Whoa! Hold on, first of all, I want to know, did you invite me as a date?"
JC sighed, but nodded slightly.

	"I guess that was a bit presumptuous huh? I should have at least found out
first." Mark grinned.

	"If it's a date, do I get a kiss at the end of it?" JC couldn't help but
smile.

	"Well... we could wait till the end of it..." JC said, and he licked his
lower lip. Mark grinned too, and reached over, and pulled JC's face to his.
Their lips touched, and slowly parted as they kissed gently. JC couldn't
believe the softness of Mark's lips as they caressed his own. Mark's hand
ran over JC's wet hair at the back. Finally, they parted, and looked into
one another's eyes. "Wow. Can we do it at the end of the date too?"

	"Sure." Mark said with a big grin on his face. They looked around, and
realised that the guys were still busy at the barbecue, Danielle and Abbie
had gone inside. Only Justin and Charlie stood apart. A miniature radio was
playing some hip-hop music, and Justin and Charlie had their arms around one
another, swaying slowly to it.  Justin was looking over her shoulder at the
two of them in the pool. He had a big grin on his face as he gave the
thumbs-up sign to JC. JC smiled and blushed, but Mark noticed. "What's the
matter?" He asked concerned.

	"Justin noticed us, I told him that I invited you, and he was just being
protective, but he told me to be careful. He was worried I might get hurt."
Mark nodded.

	"You and Justin pretty close?"

	"We've been around each other for years, constantly. We couldn't really not
be close." Mark nodded.

	"Grub's ready!" Chris shouted, unfortunately his voice jumped up a few
octaves and it came out sounding very squeaky. He coughed and said it again.

	"Yeah thanks, we'd prefer it if you didn't cough all over our food though."
Joey said as he picked up a plate, and using a pair of tongs picked up a
steak and a couple of sausages from the grill.

	"Just be thankful you're getting anything." Chris stated. Josh and Mark
started to climb out of the pool.

	"Should we get our shirts?" Mark asked, as they were on the opposite side
of the pool.

	"Nah, leave 'em." Josh said with a grin. "Besides, I think I'll enjoy the
view." Mark was a little surprised by Josh's forwardness. But he grinned
anyway. Josh and Mark both walked up to the barbecue, and Mark copied what
Josh was doing, he picked up a plate, and headed to the grill. Josh turned
around, and Mark realised he had two plates in his hands. Josh grinned when
he saw Mark standing behind him. "See where Charlie's sitting over there?"
Josh pointed to a bench set up by the back door of the house. Mark nodded.
"Go sit down, I'll bring you some food."

	"Thanks." Mark said, as a grin came over his face. He put down the plate,
and joined Charlie at the table.

	"Hey." He said as he sat down.

	"Hi professor." Mark chuckled.

	"You can call me Mark when we're out of school."

	"Oh, thanks." Charlie said. "Um... I don't know how to ask this, but you
know, about, um...you, and..." She pointed vaguely in Josh's direction with
her finger.

	"Josh?" Charlie nodded. "Yeah, um, well I'm not exactly sure either. Oh did
you mean you didn't know I was gay? Were you asking about that?"

	"Well, yeah sort of." Charlie admitted.

	"Well, I guess I am really. I've been with more women than men in my life,
but I guess I swing more that way than the other." Charlie nodded, and
looked at Mark.

	"So are you and Josh going out?"

	"Well, this is kinda the first time I've ever seen him outside of the
college."

	"Are you going to go out?" Charlie asked, thinking she was starting to
invade his privacy.

	"I wouldn't mind it, but he'd have to ask me. I guess I hope he will."
Charlie's eyes flicked over the professor's head for a second.

	"Why don't you ask him?" Charlie asked.

	"Well, I guess I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to social stuff, you know?
I was skipped ahead in school by about three years, I ended up in
University, and I was well under legal age, so I always ended up sticking
out at parties at stuff. I've never really asked another guy out, heck most
of the women I went out with had to ask me out." Charlie smiled at Mark.

	"So if I ask you to go out with me you'll say yes?" Josh asked. Mark jumped
as he realised that Josh had been standing behind him holding two plates of
food. Justin by this time had joined Charlie at the table, and Joey was
standing at the other end of the table with Brianna, trying to get her to
settle down and just eat calmly.

	"Um, yeah I guess." Mark said, uncomfortable for a moment.

	"Great!" Josh passed a plate of food to Mark. He sat down next to Mark, who
looked at him expectantly. "What?"

	"I...I thought you were gonna ask me out?"

	"He just did!" Charlie said.

	"No he didn't! He asked if I would say yes if he asked me out." Mark
replied.

	"Oh god. Is he the kind of teacher who takes off marks for things like the
papers not being stapled properly when you hand them in?" Justin asked
Charlie.

	"Yep. He's constantly arguing semantics with everyone over their papers.

	"Great, he and Josh will be perfect together, they're both perfectionists!"
Justin said. JC and Mark looked at one another, and smiled slightly, before
blushing and starting on their food.

***

	The rest of the day went well, and as the sun started to set, and the
leftovers had been polished off in a late dinner, Mark decided it was time
to leave. JC escorted him out. In the driveway, JC stood in front of Mark
with his hands in his back pockets. Mark leant against his car, trying to
decide the best way to say goodbye.

	"So, I'll see you on Friday right?"

	"Yeah, that'd be great. 8 o'clock, right?"

	"Yeah, I'll pick you up, I had a really good time today Mark, thanks for
coming." JC smiled at Mark, and the smile was returned.

	"Thanks for inviting me. I guess that just leaves, um..." Mark smiled
again, and licked his lips, before leaning in to kiss JC on the lips. As he
started to pull back, JC held his head close, and deepened the kiss. Mark's
hand attached itself to JC's hip, and the other to JC's shoulder. They were
locked together passionately. Finally, it came to an end, and they both drew
apart, panting slightly. "Wow." Mark said, blinking a couple of times.

	"Yeah, wow. I can't wait till Friday."

	"Me neither, give me a call if you need to or anything, you got my number?"

	"Yeah, thanks." JC said, holding up the scrap of paper he clutched in his
hand. "Do you mind if I call you even if I don't need anything?"

	"Not at all." Mark answered smirking again. "See you on Friday." JC grinned
as Mark climbed in the car. Just as he started up the engine, JC knocked on
the window. Mark put it down.

	"Sorry, couldn't wait." JC leant in again, and planted a shorter, sweeter
kiss on Mark's lips. As they pulled apart, Mark steeled himself and told
himself that if he didn't go now, he never would.

	"I'll see you on Friday Josh, bye!"

	"Bye!" JC shouted as the car pulled out the driveway. Until Friday, JC
thought to himself.

End of Chapter Two
TBC...?