Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 13:47:00 EST From: Bryan WriterMurf Subject: My Big Break Part 3 Disclaimer Exam: Please complete the following written test to determine whether or not you can read this story. Check True or False. Question #1: It is legal for me to read pornographic stories where I live: [ ] TRUE [ ] FALSE Question #2: I am of legal age to read pornographic stories where I live: [ ] TRUE [ ] FALSE Question #3: I wish to view pornographic material involving homosexuality: [ ] TRUE [ ] FALSE Question #4: (Analogy) Fiction : This Story :: Non-Fiction : An Encyclopedia [ ] TRUE [ ] FALSE Give yourself 1 point for each TRUE answer. - If you scored 4 points, please continue on to the story. - If you scored MORE than 4 points, please check your math. - If you scored LESS than 4 points, please visit a more appropriate site, may I suggest www.Yahooligans.com. - If you can't tell how many you answered true because your check marks don't scroll with the text, first go get some glass cleaner and clean off the monitor before the ink dries, then do the world a favor and put a bullet through your head. Notes (3, 4, 5, and 6 are new, 2 was 3 last time (thereby eliminating the old 2), and 1 is still important [confused? Just read them all!]): 1) Let me know what you think! Writermurf@hotmail.com 2) Stories to check out (in no particular order): Studio In The Country, Brian and Me, Search and Rescue, Escape, Choices, Forever, Kevin and Justin, Twist of Fate, and the list goes on. A couple of stories ended recently that you should definitely check out if you haven't already: Lance In Shining Armour (by Scotty T) and Separate Lives (by Chris Taylor). 3) I looked back over my last two installments and found something missing in each - my dashes. So if you thought that there should have been some kind of punctuation, instead of just a space, there probably was, but WordPerfect didn't convert the dashes correctly. I've checked this one before sending it in to make certain that my dashes do indeed appear, so hopefully that will erase some confusion. 4) Thanks to those of you who have taken time out to e-mail me. Some of you have really influenced how I write this story - for instance, I've changed the title to a more appropriate name (See below & thanks, Tom!) - and I've included a little tribute to one of my readers who made me laugh with his e-mail (Don't say I didn't warn ya, J!). 5) WARNING! For the first few pages of this installment, the cheese-o-meter is OFF THE SCALE - I had to, I'm sorry! 6) For those of you who like new and interesting disclaimers, sorry, I was spending too much time on the story to come up with a new, witty but effective disclaimer. :) +++++++++++++ My REALLY, REALLY Big Break (Damn, I'm a Lucky Bastard) Part 3 - Moving On +++++++++++++ The end of the last chapter... We all started watching the movie again. I decided that I was comfortable where I was, so I didn't move. Lance didn't seem to mind. I was out again less than five minutes later. The movie ended and everyone, except me because I was still asleep, got up to go back to their rooms. Before leaving, Alex turned around and asked, "Lance, are you sure you guys will be alright? We can get him back to his room if you want." "We'll be fine. I won't do anything to him." "I know that, that's not what I meant. I guess I meant that are you sure you're comfortable with it?" "Why wouldn't I be? I like him, you all but told me he likes me, plus he didn't get off of me when he woke up, so I'll take that as a good sign." Lance chuckled. "Alright, see ya in the morning." "Night. Would you mind hitting the light on your way out, I'm kinda pinned down over here." "Sure." He said as he flipped off the light and left the room. Lance did his best to wiggle down from his half-sitting position so he was lying down, then closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. ++++++++++++++++++ Part 3 Starts Now... ++++++++++++++++++ At some point in the night I woke up. I had a nightmare. I don't remember it exactly, but I'll give you three guesses as to what it was about - and the first two don't count. I found myself spooned up against Lance's back. It took me a couple of seconds to figure that out, but once I did, it was comforting. Tears came to my eyes when I remembered last night. I squeezed Lance a little with the arm I had around him. I couldn't stop the tears, but not all of them were because of last night, well in a round about way they were, but not all were bad. I was crying because I now knew who my friends were. Granted, five of them had been there before, so I wasn't scared about losing them. But there were now six more, six more friends that I knew I could count on when I needed to. I don't know if I woke up Lance or not, but he hadn't moved, so my guess was no. I was glad, I needed to get something off my chest, and it was actually easier for me to say if I thought he was asleep. "Lance," I whispered, "I don't know if you're awake or not, but I need to say this: Thank you. Thank you for being there today. Thank you for not treating me differently because of last night. Thank you for, well, for being my distraction." I was still crying as I whispered to him, then bent my head down and lightly kissed his shoulder. A tear fell onto the side of his neck, where it rolled down the front, but he didn't move to wipe it away - I guess he really was asleep. But then he moved his arm, not to wipe away the tear, but to put it over mine. He then took hold of my and that was on his chest and intertwined his fingers with mine, and gave a gentle squeeze. He was awake, but he didn't say anything - he didn't have to, what he did was better than anything he could've said. It helped me to relax, he wasn't going anywhere, his gesture told me that. I fell back into a peaceful sleep - for the moment. I woke up again - another dream. An arm was around me this time. In reality, it weighed about 15-20 pounds. But in my half-awake/half-asleep state, it felt like it was crushing me. I couldn't breath, I couldn't escape. I tried throwing it off of me, and was amazed when I could. I quickly moved away from it - to the other side of the bed. Lance was startled awake when I threw his arm off of me, he almost fell of the bed. "Wha-?" he said, still mostly asleep. "No! Please don't hurt me! Not again." I pleaded, still not registering my surroundings. "Nick?" Lance asked, coming quickly to his senses. "Nick, it's Lance, I'm not gonna hurt you. It was just a dream. No one here is going to hurt you." He flipped on the light by his side of the bed. I was blinded at first. "Nick? Do you hear me? Are you okay? It was just a dream. It's okay," he soothed. My eyes adjusted to the light and I saw him. I hugged him - a bone crushing bear hug - and cried on his shoulder. He hugged me, rubbing his hands up and down my back. Truthfully, I'm not sure how he was breathing, but he didn't say anything about it. After a minute or two, I eased up the hug, but still held on to him. He just rocked me back and forth, still rubbing my back. I fell asleep like that. "Nick?" Someone was shaking me. "Nick? Come on, it's time to get up." It was Lance. "What time is it?" I managed to grunt. "About ten, I ordered breakfast, it and everyone else should be here soon." "Wake me back up when it gets here." "Okay." I dozed off into a light sleep once again. "Morning Lance." Mark said coming in for breakfast. "You don't look so good, are you okay?" "I'm okay, Nick woke me up a few times last night. I'll just catch a nap later." "How is he?" Mark asked motioning towards me on the bed. "I dunno. Like I said, he didn't sleep too well, so I let him sleep in a little this morning, but other than that I just don't know." Mark and Lance sat on the couch and watched some TV waiting for the others and the food to arrive. It didn't take too long for the others to appear. They all noticed Lance's lack of sleep, and Lance gave them all the same reason for it. The food arrived with Justin, the last to arrive. Mel grabbed a plate for herself, and one for me. After filling them both, she came over to wake me. "Nick? Sweetie, it's time for breakfast." "Hmm?" "Do you want to eat some breakfast?" My stomach growled right on cue, causing Mel to giggle, "I'll take that as a 'Yes.'" I opened my eyes. "I guess my stomach is telling me to get out of bed." She noticed I didn't look so good, but was polite enough to me not to say anything. "Here, I fixed you a plate." "Thanks," I said as I sat up and stretched. Breakfast was relatively quiet. No one really had much to say, and mostly everybody's attention was on the TV. "What's on deck for today?" Justin asked. "It's a free day, so whatever you want," Lance answered. "Thank God for small miracles," I muttered. "Who's up for the coaster at New York, New York?" Joey asked. We hadn't done it yet, we had planned on doing it today. Most of us answered in the affirmative. "Who's up for losing some money?" JC asked with a gleam in his eye. "Who's old enough?" Mark asked. "I'm not," Justin said. "Me either," Geena chimed in. "I think they have daycare somewhere near the lobby." I offered. "I don't think that'll be necessary, thanks," Justin said giving me the evil eye. "Just a suggestion..." I said holding my hands up defensively, "Why don't we just walk around, we can do whatever catches our eye." "That's sounds good to me," Alex said. Everyone more or less agreed. We'd hit the coaster, then just walk around Vegas and see how much trouble we could get into. "I need a shower," I said. "No kidding," Lance laughed waving his hand in front of his nose. I mouthed with a smile, 'Fuck you.' "Maybe later, we have company." "In your dreams blondie. I'll be back in a few," I said as I headed to the door. I showered, got dressed, and headed back to Lance's room. Everyone was ready and waiting for me. "Are we like gonna go ANYTIME today?!" I said exasperated as I walked in the room. "About damn time you got back," was Justin's response. "I missed you too, Just." Joey and Chris got up and started running around the room yelling. "You two REALLY need to lay off the sugar!" I yelled over them. They stopped, looked at me, then each other, then back to me, then went back to yelling and running around the room. "Are they gonna be like this all day?" I asked JC who stood next to me. "Probably," He responded with a grin. "I got an idea!" I said as the light bulb went on over my head. "Uh-oh" JC said. "Chris and Geena, Joey and Justin, switch your ID's" The four of them looked at me. "Well, Justin and Geena can use Joey and Chris' ID's to go gambling with us, and we can use Justin and Geena's ID's to put Chris and Joey in daycare - where they'll be around other's their age group, well, at least their maturity level." We got an "Okay!" from Justin and Geena, but it was Chris and Joey's turn to give me the evil eye. "Again, just a suggestion..." "Let's go!" JC said pulling me and Tina (who in turn pulled Alex) to the door. Everyone else followed. We headed out of the hotel and went right over to the coaster. We coaxed everyone to get on and we did fill an entire train (they're relatively small trains). The ride was fun, definitely not the best coaster I've been on, but that's okay (because I'm good enough, smart enough, and, dog-gonnit, people like me - sorry, I had to...). We decided to split up, after all, a group of three or four is less likely to be noticed than a group of twelve. I went with Lance, Geena and Mary. T & A, and M & M formed another group, and Chris, Joey, JC, and Justin formed the last. We decided we'd meet back up at the Hard Rock Caf‚ for dinner at six - it was just after eleven. My group walked down to the Bellagio, where Cirque Du Solie was performing 'O' (actually it's 'Eau' ['water' in french], but it's pronounced like an 'O' so that's how they advertise it). None of us had seen it and it looked good, so we decided to. We got our tickets and waited in the lobby for them to let us in. I looked up and saw a guy looking at me funny. I brushed it off, but kept glancing back to see if he was staring at me, or something around me. He was definitely staring at me. Then he started walking up to me. "Dude, you look REALLY familiar. Dude - should I know you from somewhere?" he said. "Well, I don't know if you SHOULD know me, but I am a singer, so you might know me," I responded. "DUDE! You're in that band, right? Um, dude! What's their name?" He was thinking REAL hard, but I think he let the bleach sink in a little bit too far... "Uh, well, I'm not real-" I started. "'N SYNC - Dude that's it - you're, like, in 'N Sync right?" "No." I said flatly - I hadn't expected that. I shot a glance over to Lance, who was just barely containing himself. "Dude, you gotta be dude, your like what's-his-name - dude, Lance? Right?" I couldn't hold it in any longer, I broke out in laughter, "You figured me out, I'm Lance from 'N Sync - let me introduce you to my friends. This is Nick Mason," I said pointing to Lance, "He's touring with us. This is one of Nick's dancers, Geena, and that's Nick's personal assistant, Mary." "Dude! It's great to meet you! I'm Jeremy," he said. "Dude!" Lance said, barely holding in the laughter, "It's always great to meet a fan, isn't that right, Lance?" "Dude! You know it, Nick!" I don't think he caught on that we were mocking him, but we were having way too much fun to care either way. "Dudes - could you give me an autograph?" "Sure thing, dude!" I said. "Gnarly!" That one caught us off guard - Geena and Mary excused themselves, got about three steps away, then practically fell to the floor laughing. Of course Lance and I had to be a little more graceful. "Um, <>, do you, <>, have anything to write on?, <>" I asked. "Sure! - Wait! No..." He said. "Bummer, dude." I said, feeling his pain. "Not to fret, dudes, I think I have something," Lance said pulling some kind of brochure out of his pocket. "Cool beans, dude!" I said. He handed me the paper first, and we secured a pen from one of the ushers, I signed it - 'Dude, you're awesome! Lance Bass.' Then I handed it back to Lance. He read what I wrote and started laughing, signed it himself, and handed it back to Jeremy. "Dudes - you ROCK!" He said. "Great to meet you, Jeremy," I said out loud, then under my breath added, "And try to lay off the wacky-weed, okay?" Lance heard my comment, and gave me a little jab in the ribs, "See ya later, Jeremy." When Jeremy was far enough out of earshot, I said, "You know what I wrote, what'd you write, Nick?" "Jeremy, It's always nice to have fans that can identify me properly, Nick Mason." "You wrote WHAT?" He laughed, "Seriously I wrote, 'Dude, I agree with Lance, Nick Mason.'" "Please tell me you didn't." "I would, but my mother taught me not to lie." "You're an ass." "I try." he said with a smirk. Geena and Mary, seeing the coast was clear, decided to rejoin us. "Nice, ladies, real nice." I said. "What?" Geena asked innocently. "Leave us to deal with that - thanks, I know who my real friends are now." "And you exited SO... gracefully - you were all of two, maybe three steps away before laughing?" Lance added. "Dude!" I said, agreeing with Lance. That was going to be our word of the day. "Sorry," Mary said, "We'll try to wait til we're five or ten steps away next time." "See that you do." I said. After a few minutes, we were let into the theater. A couple of hours later, we left. We still had about three and half hours before we needed to head over to the Hard Rock, so we walked down to Caesar's to their mall-thingy (I wouldn't call it a mall, but it's certainly mall-like). We hit a few stores, and came out with a few bags - each. I had six bags, only one of which was actually mine. I was just nice enough to carry two out of Geena's seven bags, and I had three from Lance's pile of God only knows how many bags. Mary had a bag or two of her own, then also helped out Lance. We headed back to the hotel to drop off all our crap, then decided that we could be a little early to the Hard Rock, after all, they had a bar. Forty-five minutes, and two rounds later, T & A and M & M showed up. "Hey guys, how was your day?" Geena asked. "Good, how was yours?" Alex answered. "Good, we saw 'O,' then went shopping. What'd you guys do?" "We saw some awful magic show - definitely not Siegfried and Roy - then gambled a little." "How much did you lose?" Mary giggled. "I didn't, I won about $300 but -" Alex started. "I lost about $300." Tina said with a weak smile. We didn't need it spelled out anymore than that. "I just about came out even," Mark said. "I just about broke the bank," Mel said. "So I take it tonight's not your treat?" I laughed. "I think not," She laughed. "How long have you guys been waiting?" Mark asked. "About two rounds," I said. Lance and Mary looked at me funny, but everyone else knew that's how we counted the minutes when we went to a bar. I don't really know how that got started, but it did, and we've done it ever since. "That long? We were supposed to meet at six, right?" Alex said. "Yup, we were just really early," Tina answered. "Hey guys!" JC said coming up to us. "Hey dudes, what's up?" Lance said. "Not much, sorry we're a little late." "Not a problem, they just got here, too" I said motioning to T & A and M & M. "Cool. Do we have a table yet?" "We should, I told them that we'd need one about six, when everyone got here, we just have to go and see the hostess," Lance said. "Dude, he's so on the ball, isn't it sickening?" I asked JC. "Definitely." "Hey! You know I am right here, dudes" Lance said. "Do you hear something?" JC asked me, ignoring Lance. "No way dude, so what'd you guys do today?" I responded with a smile. No one had picked up on Lance's and my new found word. "We went down to the Stratosphere and rode the coaster there, then went to Circus! Circus! and walked around - Joey and I went on the coaster in there, but mostly we just shopped," Justin answered. "Did they calm down any today?" I asked pointing towards Joey and Chris. "Well, Chris did, after we threatened to throw him off the top of the Stratosphere," JC laughed. "Hey! That wasn't funny at all!" Chris said. "Sure it was, you were like, BLEH," Justin said making a scared looking face. "Shut up! You know I hate heights!" Chris said punching Justin in the arm. "Why do you think we dragged you up there!" JC laughed. "I hate you guys! Nick, can I join your group, I get no respect from them." "And you would in my group?" I laughed. "Okay, okay, I know when I'm not wanted..." he said wiping away a fake tear then turning around to leave. "Chris, I'm sorry, of course you can leave these hacks and join my group!" I said. "Who you callin' Hacks!" I got from the five of them. "Oh, turn on your new band mate just like that, huh, Chris? I see where your loyalties lie." I said. "Oh, no you don't, you're not getting out of this that easily - I believe you said hacks, now your either going to apologize or we're gonna have to kick your ass," JC said trying very unsuccessfully to be serious. "You wouldn't hurt a man who just got out of the hospital, would you?" I asked innocently. "Damn right we would!" Justin laughed. "And I'm sure you wouldn't mind taking out a couple of little, blue-haired, old ladies to get to me, would ya?" "No way, a few less of them on the roads would be a good thing," Joey smiled. "You got a point there..." "Well..." Lance said. "Well, what?" "Well, you apologize, or you're buying tonight!" Justin said. "I am so, so, very sorry about the hack comment!" I quickly blurted out. "I thought so," Justin laughed. "Is that how you get him to apologize? I've been trying to get him to say sorry to me for about a month now!" Tina said. "Well," I said ignoring Tina's comment, "Now that we know just how ruthless 'N Sync really is, can we eat, I've had a couple of drinks here, and haven't had anything to eat since this morning." Lance and Mary chimed in their agreement (Geena wasn't old enough to get a drink - her problem). We went up to the hostess, and she showed us to our table almost immediately. The meal was uneventful - we talked, we ate, we joked, we drank, we paid, we left - JC with his menu, and me with two glasses (a Hurricane and shot glass, for those who cared). It was about 9:00 (yes, it took us a while to eat...) and I was just about dead on my feet, and from the looks of it, so was Lance, so we decided to stay in, and everyone else decided to go out. We were leaving Vegas early the next morning - 4am. I don't really know why we had to leave that early, but that's what the schedule said so that's when we were leaving. We reminded the others of the departure time before they headed out for their last night in Vegas leaving Lance and I alone. "Alright, I'm heading to bed..." I said getting up. "Are you gonna be alright alone?" He asked. "I think so. I'm so tired, I'm hoping I'll just pass out." "Alright, well, you know where I am if you decided otherwise." "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Night." "Night." I got down to my room and opened the door. I did a quick spot check to make sure no one was in the room - nowhere near as good as the one I did earlier, but it was much better than I the one didn't do a couple of nights ago. I got undressed, turned out the lights, and laid down on the bed. At first I was a little uneasy, but it passed - until I started hearing the noises. You know the noises, like when the first time your parents left you home alone. You know, when you went to bed after making sure the house was more secure than a jail cell, you lay down and the floor starts creaking, the door starts opening and closing itself, and something taps on the walls. Chances are, all those noises were imagined, as mine probably were, but for some reason that wasn't very comforting. So, on the lights went. This of course calmed the noises, but wasn't helping me sleep any. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I've always had this thing about not being able to sleep in a room that was brighter than the sun - I'm just funny that way, I guess. So, I sat up, "Well, this sucks..." I said to the empty room. I decided I needed some background noises to drown out all my imaginary noises, so I grabbed my Discman out of my bag, set it and the headphones on the night table by the bed, and pressed play. I adjusted the sound so I could easily hear the music, turned off the lights again, and again, tried to go to sleep. This time I was successful - for a little while. A nightmare woke me up, and the lights went back on. Being alone, it took me a while to calm down. After I calmed down, I pressed play on my Discman, then turned out the lights and tried to fall asleep again. From 10:00pm to 3:30am when my wake up call came, I think I got about an hours worth of sleep. Today was going to be fun. I got up and threw my stuff into my suitcases, then grabbed a quick shower - quick enough to get clean, but not wake me up fully as I planned on sleeping on the bus. We all met down by the elevators. Out of the 12 of us, it looked like only Lance got any real sleep. Lance was in charge, whatever he told us to do, we did - we were all too tired to care. All we wanted to do was get on the bus and get back to sleep. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we got back to the comfort (if that's the right word to describe a bed on a bus) of a bed. I went right to sleep, I was comforted not by anyone or anything in particular, but by everyone, by my new, different surroundings, and by my lack of bad memories in the bus. I slept until I was woken up for lunch. We had stopped at some little roadside diner - you know the ones, great food if you can stomach the surroundings (and don't even TRY to use the bathroom). We ate in relative silence, at least I did. I pretty much ignored everyone and everything going on around me. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with people. It always took me a while to feel like engaging people in conversation after waking up - especially without my shower. I noticed a few concerned glances, but no one said anything to me (at least not that I heard). I was hoping that the bags under my eyes that were very apparent earlier were gone, but I hadn't looked in a mirror, so I didn't know. I knew I wasn't going back to sleep even if they were still around, I slept enough that morning. After lunch, it was back to the bus. I was about as awake as I was going to get without a shower. Alex pulled me aside. "Are you okay?" he said. "Yeah, I'm alright, I just didn't sleep well last night." "I could tell. Why didn't you stay with Lance again? He told us earlier he offered." "Because I can't be afraid forever, I need to try to move on. And I can't do that if there's always someone there protecting me." "Don't give me that, it's only been a couple of days, you need time to get over it - it's not going to happen overnight." "I know that - believe me, I know that - but I don't like being dependent on people - and you know that." "Yes, I know that, but you need to let us help you through this." "No, I need to get through this on my own as much as possible, and I need to talk to a head doctor." "Yeah, you do need to talk to a shrink, but that's been the case for years now." He laughed. "Don't I know it!" I laughed along. "Well, if you sure you're doing okay, I'll leave you be." "Yes, I'm sure I'm doing okay, but that doesn't mean you need to leave me alone." "Um, excuse me, Nick? Can I talk to you?" Lance asked coming from the back of the bus. "Scratch that - you need to leave me alone." I laughed, Alex lightly punched me in the arm, and Lance had no clue what was going on. "Sure Lance, what's up?" I asked after Alex headed towards the back of the bus. "Well, I'm not really sure how to ask you this, so I guess I should just go ahead and say it, right?" "I'm not sure I like the sound of that, but, I guess." "Well, how much did you hear the other night?" he asked hesitantly. "What do you mean?" I asked confused. "When Joey and Chris came into my room, when you slept over, how much did you hear of that conversation?" "I think all of it, why?" "Well, do you remember what I said?" "Shhhhh, Nick's asleep?" I laughed. "Not that part of what I said dumbass!" "Then what part would we be talking about Lance?" I knew exactly what he was talking about, but it was fun to watch him squirm a little. "The um, part about, um, about me liking you." "I vaguely remember something about that, but maybe you should refresh my memory." "You're gonna make me say it, aren't you?" "Damn right I am." "Okay, well, Nick, I like you. And I was wondering, well, would you like to go out sometime?" "Why, Mr. Bass, are you asking me out on a date?" "Yeah, yeah I am, what do you say?" "Well, I don't know, I have to think about it for a while..." "Okay, well, just let me know when you've decided," he said a little disappointed. "I've thought enough - sure I'll go out with you." "Really?" "Sure, why not? If we decide we don't like each other, at the very least it's a story I can tell my adopted grandchildren." "Oh, so that's all I am is a story you can tell your adopted grandchildren?" "Sure, I'm sure the grandkids will ask how I met their grandfather at some point." I said catching him by surprise. "Um..." "Relax, Lance, I was just joking - I'm not planning that far ahead. If we have fun, we do and we'll go further, if we don't, we don't and we'll know we're better friends." "Okay." "So what do you wanna do? - 'cause I'm not a cheap date, you know." "I was afraid of that..." he said laughing. "Tell you what, we'll figure that stuff out later, let's go see what's going on in the back." "Sounds good to me," he said as he stood up and held out his hand to help me up. ++++++++++++++++++ To be continued... I'm sorry this is so short (at least compared to the other parts) and that it took me so long to get out, but I'm having trouble getting the story to go where I want it to. I've got a future section written (well, some of it) which was supposed to be included with this section, but I'm having a hell of a time connecting this part to that part (without just losing at least few weeks of time). So there may have to be a section or two before I can post that section - which is okay with me, but I have to figure out what they're going to say before I can write them :) - in other words, there may be another wait before the next section - sorry. E-mail me if you liked it or didn't or whatever! Writermurf@hotmail.com Till next time...