Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 16:10:59 +0000
From: Jared
Subject: Boy Bands - On The Streets - Part 46

On The Streets - Part 46

>>>Kevin's Point of View<<<

	We were at the airport, waiting for the plane carrying Jared's brothers to
arrive. It had been delayed due to some bad weather off the coast of
Maryland, so we were just sat waiting for an extra hour or so. Today was
Friday, I hadn't had to go into work, so I'd basically got the house ready -
put sheets on the spare beds, checked towels in the bathrooms, that sort of
thing. Jared had to sort out one client at about two o'clock, but in the
morning he'd helped clean the house too. He seemed to get more nervous
throughout the day, and I carried trying to reassure him, we'd even had a
little fun a couple of times, just to try and relax him, not that I didn't
enjoy it or anything. He'd gone to deal with that client and he was finished
by three. I went to pick him up at 3:15, so that he'd have enough time to
shower and get changed. We drove to the airport, his hand on the gear stick
with mine, he just wanted to touch me I think. As we approached, he rested
his head on my shoulder, and I turned and kissed it, then turned back to the
road.

	The plane was now due at 5:45 pm, so we decided to go and get some coffee
and sit outside the nearby cafe. "So, what are your brothers like?" I asked
him. He hadn't really given me much information, in fact he'd been pretty
secretive about them, and carried on saying 'you'll see when they get here'.
Well, it was getting pretty annoying, and I think Jared could tell I wasn't
going to accept the regular answer again.

	"I think you'd have to see them to believe me. Umm, I guess what I can tell
you is that Adam is very over-protective, he looks out for anyone he loves.
If he's on your side, then you're safe for life, but cross him and he'll cut
you down so fast..." Jared chuckled slightly. "He's also very giving, he
will go without so that someone he feels sorry for, or just someone he likes
can have what they want." I nodded, he sounded like a nice guy. "Seth, well,
he's a big kid at heart. He's very optimistic about everything, everything
will always work out in the end... he wouldn't hurt a fly, oh and even when
things seem pretty bleak, he can always make you see the good side." Jared
smiled slightly, and looked down into his coffee cup.

	"It'll be ok Jared, they'll be ok. They've come down here to see you, they
wouldn't do that unless they wanted to see you again, and they know you're
gay and everything, and they still wanted to see you. I'm here for you
Jared." Consoling Jared is surprisingly difficult, especially when I really
didn't know what his brothers were like.

	"Thanks Kevin."

	"It's almost half past, do you want to go and wait at the gate?" I asked
him. He nodded, then drained the cold coffee from his cup. We'd been sitting
there for about half an hour. Walking through the airport, I noticed people
recognising me, their heads flicking around suddenly, but with Jared there,
and with the expression on my face, I think they could tell that I didn't
really want to be bothered. The airport was surprisingly warm, normally
these places seem a little cold, after all, they're huge, and the doors are
continuously opening onto the outside, but this place was just right, room
temperature, maybe a bit warmer. We arrived at the gate, and leant on the
metal bar which was meant to guide people to the exit, and waited. The plane
had just landed, and I watched Jared's reaction as that was announced. His
face paled slightly, almost imperceptibly, except to me. Then the longer it
took, he started sweating, his forehead was covered with droplets of water.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. "Jared." He turned
to look at me, and took the handkerchief.

	"Thank you." He wiped his forehead, I love it how he knows what I'm
thinking sometimes. He handed it back a few moments later, and he looked a
little better. Finally someone came out of the gate way. I was presuming as
it was a young woman that it wasn't his brothers. Then a youngish family
came out, with two maniacal little boys tearing around the exit. Then some
other people came out, mostly middle-aged businessmen. Just then, Jared
tensed up. He could see further into the gate than me because he was leaning
over the bar. He moved down slightly, so that there was now no metal bar in
the way, and he just stood there. Finally, I saw them...I think my jaw
dropped. There was Jared, and Jared, and Jared. They looked exactly the
same! There were two women with them as well, but the guys looked exactly
like Jared! Finally, the two who were walking from the gate stopped pushing
the trolleys with their bags on, ran out from the side, and ran up to Jared.
They paused for a second, and Jared looked almost afraid, then they grabbed
him into a hug. Once Jared realised he was ok, he hugged back, so fiercely,
like I've never seen before. I could see Jared's face in between his two
brothers, and although he had his eyes shut, he had a tear running down his
cheek. I couldn't believe how alike they looked. I turned to look at the
women who came with Adam and Seth, then walked up to them.

	"Hello, I'm Kevin Richardson." I introduced myself.

	"Lara O'Brien, pleased to meet you." She was short, maybe 5'1", and had
auburn hair, almost ginger, but not red enough. I shook her hand and smiled.

	"Michelle LaPen, very pleased to meet you." Oh, she was French obviously,
the accent. She had brown hair, cut quite short, so that it hung in bangs
around her face. She was also short, but not quite so much, maybe 5'4".

	"We should probably get moving, would you like me to..." I motioned that
I'd push the carts along, and when they looked back, they realised that we
were blocking the exit from the gate. They nodded, and they took one of the
carts, while I took the other. The brothers were still hugging, and they
didn't look like they'd separate any time soon, so we sat down in the
waiting area for the gate, and waited for them to be done. "I can't believe
how alike they look." I said to the ladies.

	"Well identical triplets tend to get that." Lara said with a smirk on her
lips.

	"They're identical triplets? I didn't realise, I thought they just looked a
lot alike." Identical triplets? What are the chances of that? I looked over
at them, and they were in a sort of loose hug now, and they were talking
quietly. They seemed oblivious to the rest of the world.

	"Seth and Adam have been...frantic trying to get hold of Jared since they
saw him on the TRL on the weekend." Michelle said.

	"I'm sure, it must be terrible for triplets to be split like that." I said.

	"You have no idea." I heard all of a sudden. I looked up, and saw Jared and
his two brothers with their arms around each other's waists. They'd been
standing there for about half an hour, just talking, and I think they'd
decided it was time to head home. "Can we go?" The worst thing was, I had to
look down at the clothes to realise it was Jared talking to me. They were
identical, and it was very disconcerting. We walked out to the SUV I'd
borrowed from Howie, and the three brothers climbed straight into the back,
without even checking with us. So I was driving, Lara was next to me,
Michelle was behind me, and Seth was next to her, half twisted around to
talk to his brothers. Adam and Jared were in the back seat.

	"So who's the oldest?" I asked Lara as we were driving back.

	"Adam is, then Seth, and Jared's the youngest. They've been talking about
getting back together with their baby brother for the last week or so
constantly, since they saw him on TV. Did Jared not tell you they're
triplets?"

	"No. He never told me about these two brothers, he only told me
about...Paul, his eldest brother."

	"Ah, yes. Paul." I heard Michelle say, she was leaning over slightly, so
she could talk to us. "I take it you have not met him?"

	"No. After his parents and Paul threw Jared out, he didn't want to go
back."

	"Paul's a bastard, don't worry, no one likes him much." I turned to her.
"He insults everybody, but if you insult him back, he gets very defensive
and starts shouting. He's got a very short temper. He's also bigoted against
everybody, gays, blacks, everybody."

	"How can someone like that be brothers with people like Jared, or Adam and
Seth?" I asked them. This seemed strange, that these three could be so close
to someone so horrible.

	"Maybe being excluded a lot did it. I mean can you imagine if you were the
older brother, and you had three younger brothers who practically know what
each other is thinking all the time?" I looked in the mirror at Jared and
his brothers. It was strange - they'd stopped talking, and they each a hand
up, and they were just touching each other's fingers, and looking at each
other, like it was the first time they'd been together. Well, it had been
four years.

	"We're here!" I said as I pulled into our driveway five minutes later. The
doors swung open and everyone climbed out.

	"Nice place." Adam said to Jared.

	"Thanks, but it's Kevin's really." He answered.

	"Hey!" I said to him. "This is your home as much as it is mine, you've been
here a couple of months now." He walked up to me and put his arm around my
waist, and we all walked in, each with a bag or two in our hands. Jared took
the bag that I was holding when we got into the hall, and headed straight up
the stairs. His brothers followed with their bags without saying a word. I'd
seen them do the same to their fiancées as Jared did to me - they just took
the bags and carried on walking. This was kinda freaky - they did everything
without talking. We went through to the kitchen, and sat down and started
talking. I found out about what Adam and Seth knew about Jared's
disappearance, and I filled in Michelle and Lara on what I knew.

	About an hour later, Jared and his brothers came down, and they all just
started scouring the cupboards for something to eat.

	"Guys?" I said suddenly, they all looked at me. They'd changed their
clothes. Bastards. I had no idea which one was Jared. I looked closer and
closer, and still couldn't see anything. "Jared? Umm, we've got restaurant
reservations remember?" I was looking from one to the next.

	"You can't tell can you?" Michelle asked.

	"What, which one's Jared?"

	"Yeah, you don't know which one's which."

	"Well they've changed their clothes! How am I supposed to tell? They're all
exactly the same!" I whined. This was kinda upsetting, I mean shouldn't I be
able to tell the love of my life from his brothers?

	"Well, we'll do to you what we had done to us, though we only had Adam and
Seth to deal with." Lara started. "Guys, stand side by side." They stood in
a row. It was freaky - looking at three people standing together who looked
exactly the same, it was like one of those halls of mirrors, and it was a
reflection or something. "Right, now go up and look closely, and see if you
can tell them apart. We will do this every time by the way, every time you
get confused, we're gonna test you." I groaned, and stood to look at them.
How am I supposed to identify Jared when they're identical down to the
genetic level? Then I remembered Jared's hair. He'd dyed it back last night,
so I looked closely, and realised that one of them, the end one on the right
looked like he'd had a dye job recently. I slipped my arms around him, and
smiled.

	"Hey!" Michelle stood up. "That's not Jared!"

	"But, Jared dyed his hair, this one's had a dye job."

	"You think no one else dyes their hair?" She looked at me like I was mad,
and then went back to the others. Their hair length was slightly different,
but not enough to tell the difference between the two. Then I looked further
down, and on the very edge of the right hand one's neck, where it joined the
shoulder, there was a hickey. That was Jared, I gave it to him this morning.
I wrapped my arms around him, and he kissed me, and hugged me back.

	"Don't worry Kevin, you'll get the hang of it." He whispered in my ear,
then kissed me again. We headed back out again, to head to the restaurant,
I'd found a seafood restaurant, and it was only about twenty minutes' drive
away. Once we got into the restaurant, we were seated right away, and we all
sat down. Once I'd checked to make sure that it was in fact Jared I was
sitting next to, I was happy. I looked up and Adam and Seth were looking
straight at me.

	"This feels so weird."

	"What does?" Adam and Seth both asked at the same time.

	"Having you two look at me - I mean, I didn't even know Jared was one of a
triplet until now! And now, I've got three of you sitting around the table!"

	"Sorry, I think we were both thinking that Jared did pretty well for
himself, after what he did after he left home, then he became your fitness
trainer, and your boyfriend, and I mean you're like a famous singer, and..."
The one who was talking, either Adam or Seth trailed off.

	"I think what Adam is trying to say is you're a pretty good looking guy.
We're just impressed with Jared's taste, and the fact he managed to hook you
in the first place." Seth finished. I could feel myself blushing. This felt
like Jared complimenting me, but like twice or three times as good. Jared
leant over and he kissed me.

	"Aww!" The rest of the table said, and I could feel my face get even redder
as all the blood rushed there. The meal came soon after, and we all settled
to eat. Just then, a hand passed over the table, it was Adam's. He passed
the salt to Jared, but Jared hadn't even asked for it. Jared smiled at Adam,
and started shaking. This was really going to take some getting used to.

	"I'd really like the guys to meet Adam and Seth. Can we invite them over
tomorrow?" Jared asked me.

	"Well, um, Nick is in the Bahamas with Leo. He left this morning, as we
leave on Tuesday, he wanted a relaxing break before then, but the others are
all available. And, I happen to know that Britney is in town, so you could
invite her over if you want."

	"Cool! That would be so great, guys you're going to love Britney, she's the
best." Jared said to his brothers.

	"Jared, we're just glad to see you." Adam leant across the table slightly,
and held out his hand. Jared reached across and took it. Seth's hand joined
theirs. The three of us who didn't look alike just watched the entire
exchange and then caught each others' eyes. It was incredible to see these
three. All of us talked really well, the three brothers unfortunately had a
habit of regressing into 'triplet talk', where they didn't actually say
anything, and just spoke through their eyes, and slight movements, that only
they understood. We made sure that they knew what they were doing, and they
stopped towards the end of the meal. The ladies and I laughed when we
realised that all of their favourite desserts was ice cream, and they all
ordered the same thing. Finally, we were on our way back home. Once we were
inside, it was past 11, and Adam and Seth and their fiancées all said how
tired they were after the flight and everything, and they said they needed
to get to bed, so they all headed upstairs. Jared and I stayed downstairs,
he phoned the guys, and tried to get through to Britney, but her answering
machine came on, and then we sat on the couch in the living room.

	"I don't know how to say this Kev... thank you, for everything. Today meant
so much to me, and having you there when I met my brothers again, it just
made it perfect." He leant over onto me.

	"It's ok Jared, I had a great time too. Your brothers are great, and well
it was a shock, seeing three of you, not a bad shock, in fact a quite nice
one, but..." I didn't know how to finish that.

	"Mr. Richardson? Are you saying you got turned on by my brothers?" I froze.

	"Well, no. But, I mean, I find you very attractive, in fact, hell, you're
just incredible, and you look the same!" Jared smirked, and I realised he
was ok. I mean, you can't exactly say, you can be attracted to me, but you
can't be attracted to these two guys who look exactly the same, now can you?

***

	The following morning I got up and, realising that Jared was already up, I
headed downstairs. It was pretty early, about 8 o'clock, and the guys
weren't due until about 11. I walked through the ground floor, and couldn't
see him, then I looked outside in the back garden, and saw him with his
brothers, sitting around the edge of the pool. Apparently they were all
pretty early risers when they wanted to be. They had talked so much over the
past 12 hours or so, they must be catching up. I didn't want to disturb
them, even though it was probably the most sexually attractive sight I've
seen in a long time - they were all topless, and wearing shorts with their
feet hanging in the pool. They looked like Greek gods or something, sitting
around the pools on Mount Olympus. I grabbed a cup of coffee, and went to
sit down in the sitting room. I watched TV for half an hour or so, there was
nothing particularly good on, there never is at that time of the morning on
a Saturday - it was all kids' shows. About forty-five minutes later, I heard
someone coming down the stairs, and as I was lying on the couch, I sat up
and looked in that direction. It was Lara, and by the sounds I could hear
through the floor, Michelle was up too.

	"Good morning." I said to Michelle.

	"Morning." She said through a yawn. "Where are the guys?" She said as she
rubbed her eyes which were watering after she finished yawning.

	"They're out by the pool. I didn't want to disturb them." She nodded and
sat down.

	"So, who is coming today?" She asked me.

	"Well let's see, there's Brian, my cousin, um, Howie, and AJ, who I work
with and Jared does too, and Jared tried to get through to Britney, but only
got her answer machine, so we're not sure whether she's coming, depends if
she's available or not." She nodded.

	"Do you think I don't know who Brian, Howie, AJ and you and Nick are?" She
asked me with a sceptical expression.

	"Huh?"

	"Well, you explained how Brian was your cousin and Howie and AJ you work
with, well, those guys might have come from England, but I've lived in
America all my life, I'm from New Hampshire, and Michelle, well she's been
here for 10 years or so." She looked at me with a smirk.

	"So, you would know about the Backstreet Boys?" I said with a grin.

	"Yeah." She said jokingly. I think she was just waiting to say something
like 'Duh!' to me. Michelle walked down the stairs.

	"Hey." She said as she sat down on the couch next to me. "I take it the
guys are off somewhere talking?"

	"Yeah, do you two want some breakfast?"

	"Hell yeah! Come on." Lara stood up, and practically pulled me to my feet,
before heading into the kitchen. I noticed the guys, still sitting by the
pool, talking away.

	"Pretty nice sight isn't it?" Michelle asked.

	"Huh?"

	"The three of them. If you find one of them to be... attractive, then I'm
guessing you find three to be...um, how do I put it, the stuff of dreams?"
She said with a smile.

	"Yeah, I guess, three of them together is pretty amazing. I've got to
admit, they've got to share some pretty amazing genetics, to look like that,
I mean."

	"Yeah." Then all the guys stood up, and started walking towards the door.
Their shorts clung to their legs, and butts as they walked in. I turned away
quickly, and started foraging in the fridge for something to eat. Thank
goodness we stocked up yesterday. By the time we were done with breakfast,
it was 10:30, and we had to go get dressed.

	"Hey." Jared put his arms around me once we were in the bedroom, getting
dressed.

	"Hey." I kissed him. "Are you having a good time?" He nodded, with a slight
grin.

	"Umm, listen. When the guys start arriving, let me and my brothers answer
the door, ok? You just stay out of sight for a bit, ok?" I looked at him
sceptically, and then nodded.

	"What are you up to?" I asked him.

	"We're just gonna pull a triplet trick." He laughed, and I just shook my
head, I was guessing what was going to happen.

***

	At ten past 11, the doorbell rang, and Michelle, Lara and I were herded
into the kitchen. I heard one of them run up the stairs, one of them in the
living room, and one of them head to answer the door.

>>>Jared's Point of View<<<

	This was going to be so cool, I couldn't wait to see the look on whoever's
face it was. I answered the door, and it was Brian with Leighanne. I gave
them a huge grin, and a hug, and let them in.

	"Hey, you look happy. I guess your brothers are here?" Brian asked.

	"Yep, they are. Hey could you guys just wait out here for a moment?" I said
as I started walking towards the dining room, to the right of the hall.

	"Um, sure." Brian said as I turned the corner. I peeked my head back out,
and watched. They were looking straight ahead, and that's when Adam came
down the stairs, wearing the same outfit as I had on.

	"Hey guys, how you doing?" Adam asked. Brian and Leighanne's faces both
paled slightly.

	"But, but, how? How d'you do that?" Brian asked.

	"Hold on you guys, I'll be right back." Adam turned the corner of the
stairs, and went down the passageway to the kitchen. Just as he was
disappearing through the kitchen door, Seth came from the living room to the
left of the hall, and caught their attention.

	"So, what have you guys been up to?" He asked them. "Oh damn, hang on a
sec, I'll just be a moment." And he disappeared back into the living room.

	"I guess you guys are sick of waiting in the hall, huh?" I asked as I came
back out from the dining room. They flicked their heads back to me, and
stared. I think the pieces were starting to fit together, especially as I
couldn't keep the smirk off my face. I'd told the guys about my 'brothers',
but I hadn't told them we were triplets. Their faces looked so funny. "Adam!
Seth!" I called out. Adam came from the kitchen, and Seth from the living
room. Brian and Leighanne did a sort of comic double, or triple, take,
flicking from one of us to the next.

	"But you guys are..." Brian started.

	"Triplets!" They both said together. I walked around the back of Adam, and
stood between the two of them.

	"Yep!" Seth said with a big grin.

	"Oh my God, I can't believe there are three of you! One of you was bad
enough!" Brian said with a grin. All of us took a step forward, and snarled
at him, and he jumped back so far he banged his back against the door. Kevin
came out of the kitchen just then.

	"Hey Brian, guess what? I got three of them now!" He said with a grin on
his face, then he came up to me, and kissed me on the cheek.

	"Kevin?"

	"Yeah Jared?" He said.

	"You knew?" He'd guessed which one was me.

	"Yeah, I guess I did." He said with a slight grin playing on his lips. Paul
had never really managed that, and we'd been able to trick him even when we
were about 23 or so, our parents had us figured out, though we could fool
them on the phone. I was so glad that Kevin had figured it out so quickly,
maybe what we have is deeper than I thought. "Are you gonna pull this trick
with everyone who arrives today?" He asked me. I turned to look at my
brothers.

	"Yes!" We all answered at once.

	"Would you guys like to come on through, there's still a couple more people
to meet, and I'm sure you'd like to sit down after the drive." I took Brian
and Leighanne through to the conservatory where Michelle and Lara were
sitting. "Brian, Leighanne, these are my soon to be sisters-in-law, Michelle
and Lara. Michelle, Lara this is Brian, and Leighanne." Just then the door
bell rang again, and I caught my brother's eyes, and I could see the twinkle
that I also knew was in mine. We all piled back through the house, running
to our locations.

	"Hey Howie, how are you man, can you just hang here a sec? I'll be right
back." I said as I opened the door.

***

	"So, who's the oldest?" AJ asked as we sat around the table in the
conservatory. There was me and Kevin, Lara and Adam, Michelle and Seth,
Howie and his new girlfriend, Andi, AJ and Amanda, and Brian and Leighanne.
But it felt great, like family. And I loved to talk about my brothers now
that we were back together.

	"I am." Adam answered before I could.

	"No, I'm sure I am!" Seth whined.

	"Hey, I thought I was!" I said with a smirk on my face. We all knew who was
the eldest, it was just a sort of game we played. We were all born in the
space of half an hour, and so the difference was practically negligible. In
fact, if our parents had ever muddled us up, which could have happened for
all we knew, then we'd never know. However our parents told us when we were
younger that they kept name tags on us until they could distinguish between
us. When we asked if they ever got confused about which one was oldest, they
told us that they got our names from the Bible, and we were named in order,
Adam was before Seth who was before Jared, well except for a few generations
missed out, but they weren't gonna call me Mahalalel, now were they?

	"Come on you guys, really who is the oldest?" AJ asked again.

	"Adam is." Seth and I both answered together.

	We had lunch together, nothing too fancy, just some steaks Kevin cooked up,
and some salad. When we were done, Kevin and I packed the dishwasher. The
doorbell rung again.

	"Who the hell's that now? Haven't we got enough people here?" Kevin asked
as he stood up, wiping his hands on a dishcloth. I went through the door to
the dining room, and when I looked out the window, I saw Justin Timberlake's
car.

	"It's Britney and Justin." I said excitedly. Can you get my brothers? I
called to Kevin, but they were already coming in the back door. "Get in
place, this is going to be a good one!" I said with a grin on my face. Adam
ran up the stairs and around the corner, and Seth hid around the corner of
the living room. I went to open the door. Britney instantly flung herself at
me, and hugged me. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about the last time we saw each
other. She kissed me a few times on the cheek.

	"Oh Jared, it's so good to see you again, are you ok?" She said, looking
slightly upset. I still wanted to play my trick though.

	"Britney, I'm absolutely fine ok? I'm sorry I upset you so much, and I'm
sorry I misread what happened." She nodded slightly, there wasn't much else
she could do. "Could you just wait here for a sec?" She nodded again, and I
ran into the dining room.

	"Hey you guys!" Adam said as he came down the stairs.

	"Jared? But you just ran...? How?" Justin asked. "Hold that thought a
moment, I'll be right back." I listened to Adam walk into the kitchen, then
Seth came out from the living room, and I heard Britney let out a yelp,
almost a scream, as I knew they could probably still see Adam's back
retreating into the kitchen as Seth came out.

	"Jared? But we just saw you, what's going on?" Britney said, clearly
distressed.

	"What's wrong Britney?" I asked as I came and leant on the doorpost leading
into the dining room.

	"Yeah, what's up?" Adam copied me leaning on the doorpost leading into the
living room, and Seth leant back against the banister of the stairs. Britney
actually screamed. We all started laughing, and Justin visibly paled and his
jaw was just hanging open. We were all practically on the floor, laughing at
their expressions. Eventually, Britney recovered, at least her senses, and
she came and slapped us all on the back of the head.

	"Hey!" We all said at once, with hurt expressions on our faces.

	"I don't know which one of you is Jared, but whichever one it is, that was
for not telling me that you were one of a triplet!"

	"I'm sorry Britney." I said as I stood up. I think she could see that I was
genuinely apologetic, I didn't mean to lie to her, but I hadn't told anyone
about Adam and Seth, so I guess she just fell into the 'anyone' category.
She hugged me again, which I was really grateful for, and then I introduced
her.

	"Did you guys deliberately wear the same clothes to confuse us?" Britney
asked, looking down at what we were wearing. I just shook my head and smiled
at her, and then we headed through to the conservatory.

	"Hey everyone!" Britney said to everyone at the table. I introduced her to
Michelle and Lara, and then I noticed that Adam and Seth were in the corner,
where the pile of folding chairs was.

	"No, I got it first."

	"Back off old man, I'm getting it."

	"Guys! What are you doing?" I asked them, and they suddenly turned back to
look at me. Everyone in the room was staring at them, as they both had their
hands on the top folding chair.

	"I think I know." Lara started. "And if those two don't get over here right
now, and sit down..." She said in a warning tone. Adam and Seth sort of
dragged their feet, and sat down.

	"I don't get it, what was that?" Kevin asked.

	"Perhaps I should explain." Michelle started. Apparently these two knew why
they were fighting in the corner. "All of the other men in this room either,
prefer the same sex, or have been around Ms. Spears over there for quite
some time." She paused. "Adam and Seth on the other hand have not, and only
know her from the glamorous shows on television. They were fighting because
they both wanted to be the one to get her a chair."

	"Thank you!" Britney said with a big grin.

	"Perhaps someone shoulda told 'em though that their fiancées are sitting
right here, and don't appreciate it when they start drooling!" Lara added
in. Both of them blushed, and looked down at their laps. Suddenly everyone
realised exactly what was going on, and started laughing. I looked over at
Britney, and found her laughing too. Well, I could hardly let everyone at
the table laugh at my brothers now could I?

	"Hey, well, we might as well get that sorted out right away shouldn't we?"
I asked. "Here Britney, drink some of this." I handed her a beer from the
middle of the table.

	"Why?"

	"Just drink it." She tipped it back and took a couple of swallows. I held
up my hand with my fingers open. "Now, here goes that glamorous image!
5...4...3...2...1.." And all of a sudden, Britney released the longest,
loudest burp you've ever heard. I knew that beer had that effect on her -
when we went out, all through the night, she'd had the burps, and now was no
exception. Everyone at the table was shocked for a second, and everyone
started laughing, Justin first. My brothers just sat there with their mouths
open. They soon joined in, and we had a laugh at Britney's expense instead,
and she slugged me on the arm.

	I think that helped relieve a bit of tension, and we all sat around
talking. Apparently the novelty of having three of us wasn't going to wear
off any time soon. We got the same questions again unfortunately from
Britney - who's the oldest, and some others that we'd answered three or four
times already. "You know what would be really funny?" Seth started. You just
knew when he started like this, that it just wasn't gonna be funny. "Is if
Jared joined us in the practice, then we'd have to change all the signs and
adverts, and letterheads and everything!" Seth seemed to find this amusing.
Adam and Seth had both done a year long law conversion course in England,
and then taken the bar when they'd got over here and passed first time. They
were doing pretty good for themselves, having gotten in with a senior
partner, who retired after only two years, and left them the business to
run.

	"Why would that be funny Seth? Neither of us did law at university, and
then we took the bar, and passed anyway. Jared's just as likely to be able
to. He's welcome to try for the bar, and then come up and join us. Heck, if
he wants to just come up with us, I'm sure we could give him a pretty high
non-legal position, that would pay higher than his current job. We'd love to
have you working with us Jared. Even if it does mean changing all the
letterheads." Adam cast a dirty glance at Seth. That's when I realised that
everyone was looking at me. But I looked straight back at my brothers.

	"We're not trying to get you to join us or anything Jared, or trying to
force you. We're just saying the positions open." Seth added. I looked
around again, and realised that I didn't want to leave this place. My
brothers would still be there, whether I joined them or not, and I'd rather
not.

	"I'm sorry guys, but these are my friends, and I don't want to leave them.
I like working down here, and I enjoy my job." I looked back at them, and
they were both nodding. "And besides, I've heard the weather gets pretty hot
down here in the summer." I smiled at them, and everyone else around the
table sort of sat back, relaxed. I was glad so many people were counting on
me to stay, especially Kevin, not that I would've given him up for any job.
He placed his hand on my knee, and rested it there. I leant over and kissed
him, and he beamed with pride, and I took his hand and linked it with mine,
and we sat back and listened to our group of friends and family talking
about this and that, and we were happy.

***

End of Chapter 46
TBC...

Hey Two chapters in three days! How's that for a record for me *grin* - I
hope everyone's happy with the way the story's going, and I want loads of
feedback! Just went to see Spiderman by the way, and I thought it was great,
it only came out yesterday over here, and I thought it was just a really
great film! Just thought I'd tell you all about my social life, lol.