Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 13:51:13 -0800 (PST) From: Dennis Urban Subject: Sounds of Silence Chapters 6 - 12 Legal Disclaimer and Authors Note: First off, this is fiction, nothing is meant or implied about the sexuality, persuasions, etc of any or all of the members of Boyzone. This is I repeat an entirely fictional work. Hey we can all dream. If any of the members of Boyzone, should happen to read this, Hey I am not trying to be insulting or anything at all. If you have comments, ideas suggestions etc. write to me. Hey you never know. The same goes for all of you loyal and caring readers feel free to write me at Denn0113@yahoo.com First off I would like to state if your unable to handle male/male sexuality, romance, etc don't read on. If your underage or it's not legal for you to read this where you are don't read on. If the subject of abuse in any form is not something you can handle I advise you not to read on. Please note that I am not being funny hear. Now for the note part: Abuse is a very sad and serious topic of discussion. I am dealing with it here in a very simple and straightforward manner. This is a topic that has a lot of meaning for me. I myself am a survivor of abuse. I will not go into the details. I am not writing this for pity or sympathy. I am trying to explain part of how my perspective comes into play. I dealt with being abused for over 15 years. I was abused as a child up to and through my teens. As a child I faced all forms of abuse including sexual abuse. First off rape and sexual abuse are not about sex. They are about power and control. The abuser/rapist gets off on the fact that they are in control and able to hold power over you. I have a area of discussion about this particular topic on my website. If you are going to write me and take an attitude about how I tackle this topic, guess what I am going to respond in kind. If you can't be civil than don't bother to write me. If you go beyond rude and are insulting and/or flaming in your comments I will be sending a copy of the e-mail to both your e-mail/isp provider along with a complaint to them as well as doing the same to the e-mail provider I use. I won't respond at all except to tell you that you have been reported for harassment. This is a precautionary warning and statement. I haven't as of yet had someone do so, but fore-warned is fair to you and me both. That said, read on if your legally able to do so and enjoy. Sounds of Silence `Hello Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again, Because a vision softly creeping, left it's seeds while I was sleeping. but the vision that was planted in my brain still remains within the sounds of silence' Chapter Five Early Afternoon the next day Authors Note, this dialogue until otherwise noted is from the perspective of the character of Danny. "Hi Danny?" a hesitant voice asked, after I answered the phone, "It's me Jimmy, did I catch you at a bad time?" "Jimmy, it's good to hear from you, how are things going?" I asked in a cheerful, upbeat voice. "All right I guess, could I pop over by you for a little?" Jimmy asked a little unsure of himself. "I already checked with Mom. She said as long as I am not pesting you it's cool." "Sure Jimmy, I would love to have you over. I promise to make the girls behave, and try to keep them from beating you up too much." I chuckled at the thought. "Shall I meet you over at the school you go to then?" "I can probably swing over by you just as easily. Where exactly are you at again?" Jimmy asked. "All right," I responded laughingly give up, It's at 10th and Pine. You know where that's at?" "Yep, I am not even a 5 minute walk from there" Jimmy said. "Besides, you can help me with my homework right?" "Of course I can, but you will be doing the actual homework, I will give you pointers. that's all. All right I'll see you in a few minutes then." I said and waited till he hung up. Chapter Six approximately 15 minutes later... Ding-Dong, went the doorbell. Hopping up I went over to answer the door. "Jimmy" I said "I was starting to get a little worried about you. What's up my friend?" "Sorry about that, It took me a few minutes longer than I expected to get here." Jimmy said, slightly out of breath. "Well come on in to my humble home, I have the brats out in the yard for the moment. Would you like something to drink? I have water, soda, iced tea." I said, glad to see him as I had been a little worried. "Iced tea sounds good." Jimmy responded. "All right, two secs and I will have an iced tea for both of us." I responded. "Come with me, and we can sit down at the kitchen table and have a drink and talk a little" "All right, sounds good to me." "By the way Jimmy, do you like Boyzone?" I asked mischievously. Glad that my back was to him so he couldn't see the grin on my face. "They're all right, I suppose" he said a little hesitantly. "Why?" "Oh no particular reason. I just happen to have a pair of spare tickets and backstage passes to their concert Friday night." I replied in a level voice. "My niece was supposed to pop in for a visit, but she had to cancel out because she isn't feeling well." "Your kidding me" Jimmy hollered. "I love them and you have a pair of backstage passes as well. I would die to go and see them in concert." "Well, since you like them so much," I said with a smile "We can check with your mother and it shouldn't be a problem at all." "Your the best Danny, this has made my day" Jimmy replied crowing with happiness. "I am glad I could." I responded. "Now care to tell me what's bothering you? I am not going to push, but I am a good listener and there is absolutely nothing you could say that would shock, offend or spook me." "Why do you think anything's wrong?" Jimmy asked. "Everything's, great. Why wouldn't it be?" "Jimmy, buddy" I said "I could tell from the way you looked, and your expression that somethings bothering you. Besides which I am very good at spotting when folks are hiding something that's bothering them." I said. Softly I went on, "After all, I used to do the same thing all the time myself." "What do you mean, what could you possibly have to hide that's all that bad?" Jimmy asked me. "Very well, I will tell you just a small part of it. As it's a very long, and very old story. As a kid, I saw my mom get beaten up by my father. It was a scary thing, but even worse was the fact that she wasn't the only one being abused. I didn't admit it to anyone, not even myself for years that I had been abused. I finally did accept the fact that I had been abused and just didn't talk about it all that much." I paused to take another deep breath before plunging on. "I mean why did I want peoples sympathy, sorrow or pity. It happened, it was over and I had moved on with my life. At least that's what I had thought. I finally went and got some help for it. I had made some mistakes before I did though." I finished softly. I hoped that the tears weren't showing in my eyes, but I expected that they were. Looking over I could tell that Jimmy was unsure why I had told him this. And also that he was fighting his own inner battle. "Jimmy, I didn't tell you this so that you would be upset, I told you this so you could see that your not the only one who's been there. If ever you need to talk to me about anything, just call me and we can talk." I said gently with a hint of pleading in my voice. "I.. I... Danny, if I tell you something can you promise me that it will be between the two of us only. No one else knows about it, unless I tell them or tell you to tell them. Please?" Jimmy asked with an obvious reluctance. "I will tell you what Jimmy, provided that It's nothing that would cause you problems such as you trying to kill yourself, doing drugs or the like, I will keep it between us. But you have to promise me something in return, after all I am breaking the rules here." I replied "If I do this for you, your going to have to trust me and will agree to listen and think about what I tell you after you tell me something. I am not asking you to agree automatically with what I say, but just think about it." "All right, I guess I can do that. After all your putting your trust in me, so I should do the same." Jimmy responded. "Shall we shake on it?" Smiling, I said "Sure, we can shake on it." Thus we shook hands and began a bargain that would have unexpected joys and sorrows for me. For what Jimmy was to tell me in the future would leave me shocked and shaken. Chapter Seven (Told from Laura's POV) I had just gotten in the front door when the phone had begun to ring. Slipping out of my coat, I yelled for Jimmy to grab it. As it kept ringing, I realized he either hadn't heard me or wasn't there. Walking over to the phone I grabbed it. "Hello" "Is Miss Roka, there please?" a pleasant voice asked on the other end. "Speaking," I responded. "Who is this please." "Miss Roka, I'm calling from Dr. Finch's office. He needs to set up an appointment for you and your son James, to come in. He said that it's important and that he needs to discuss the test results with you. Would Friday afternoon at 4:30 be good for you?" the nurse continued. "I, yes of course, that's good. But what's going on? Why does he need to see us so soon?" I went on worried and a little upset. "I am sure I don't know, Miss Roka, all I know is that he said that it's important. We will see you Friday at 4:30 then. Good bye." the nurse finished. Sitting down on the sofa, I slumped back. What a day it had been so far. Work was insane that morning, Jimmy was apparently not around the apartment, and now the Dr. called. Well, still plenty to do yet today, first off I better throw dinner together, and I should probably call over to Danny. I bet Jimmy, the little scamp that he is, is over there. Getting up, I put the coat in the hall closet, checked the machine for messages. Three messages, hmm who was it and what did they want? 'Message One' said the mechanical voice of the machine. "Hi this message is for Miss Laura Roka, this is Dr. Finch's office calling. Jimmy's test results are in and we need to schedule an appointment for him then." Said the pleasant voice of Anna, from the Dr.'s office. "Message Two' "Hello, Miss Roka, this is Julia Bancroft, from Friends School for Children. I am Jimmy's math teacher. I need to set up an appointment for a parent/teacher conference with you. I am afraid Jimmy's homework of late has not been of a passing grade. I would like to see if we could meet and see what could be done to help him. I can be reached at 215 235-3242 anytime tomorrow or Friday till 3:45." 'Oh Jimmy,' I thought to myself, 'What's going on with you now?' 'Message Three' "Hi Laura, it's Danny. Jimmy called up and asked if it would be all right to stop over here and work on his homework. I told him that it was no problem. If you want, I can keep him for dinner and you can have a night off to relax. Just let me know and I will drop him off later tonight about 8 if it's good for you." Sure enough there was the message I was expecting. Well, let's see. First thing to do is call Danny and go from there. Dialing his number as I had written it down by the phone. I waited while the phone rang. "Hello" I heard his familiar and friendly voice answer, on the third ring. "Hi Danny, it's me Laura, I just got your message." "What's wrong?" he asked me "You sound a little stressed out." "It's nothing, just a long day at work, and a couple of messages on the machine. Anyway, If you can keep Danny for dinner I would be really grateful. But could you drop him off at 7 or 7:30. I need to have a talk with him about his schoolwork." I said. "I can probably use the hour or two of peace and quiet. Thanks again Danny, and I am glad that you two hit it off so well." "Not a problem. If you want I can stay for the conversation and see if I can be of any help." he offered. "I don't know, we'll see when you get here." I said. "I'll talk to you a little later Danny, thanks again." with that said I hung up. Chapter Eight Meanwhile at the Ritz Carlton in CC, Philly... (Enter the Management and Members of Boyzone at long last) "All right guys" Bret began as the five members of Boyzone filed in. "We need to go over what is ahead for the next few days. It's going to be a bit busy as we have some interviews, the concert and a morning show to do." "Oh Great" Stephen responded. "It's not enough that we have just been basically run down from the last concert, with the meet and greet. Please tell me we aren't going to have any suprises again at this concert." "We don't have any meet and greets this concert, but we do have one last minute add on. I just found out about it today, so bear with me guys, all right?" Bret said. At this the five of them started groaning. "Oh come on man, not another frigging gaggle of girls who have passes for after the concert?" Ronan chimed in. "Well...,Not quite a gaggle of girls, but something else. There are going to be two folks coming back stage after the concert. This was a specially arranged thing and I would like it if you guys were careful about what you said." Brett replied. "Like I said, this was a last minute arrangement and it was done with CMN." At their puzzled expressions he took a slow deep breath. "CMN, is more commonly known as Children's Miracle Network. They basically work with kids in sad situations to grant them their one wish. In this case, the kid's wish is that he gets to see a Boyzone concert. Management decided that it would also be a nice thing for him to meet you guys in person as well." Pausing for a moment, Brett, took a deep breath before going on. "The kid's name is Jimmy, and he's got cancer. It's a terminal case and he's got at best 6 or 8 months left. His parent's are divorced and he's going to be accompanied by a gentleman who works with the Big Brothers Association. Just do me one favor guys." At their slow steady nod, Brett went on. "Just don't treat him special or different. Jimmy doesn't know that this was pre arranged at all or that you guys know about him. He is very withdrawn about the subject of his cancer. So unless he brings it up, you don't either. If there's nothing else, you guys are free till tomorrow morning. We have a interview here at 10:30 so just be ready for that." Chapter Nine Getting off the phone, I put it back on the hook. Glancing over at Jimmy, I concealed a smile. "Well Jimmy, that was your mom. She apparently just got in and had a off day. So your free to stay with me for dinner and we can talk some more then." I finished off. "Great" Jimmy responded. "Can we have pizza then? When do I get to meet your puppies as well?" "Well, I suppose we could have pizza for dinner, if you promise not to spill it to your mom. As for the puppies, why not now. We can take them out for a short walk and you can get to meet them." I said. It felt good to see him happy again, even though it was only a temporary thing. Grabbing the two leashes from the hook by the kitchen door, I went out and rounded up my two babies. Since they were already wearing their harnesses the only challenge was getting them to hold still long enough to be hooked up. That was swiftly accomplished and I led them back into the house. "All right Jimmy, this little one in the cute blue harness is Mika, she's the younger one. Her sister here wearing the green harness is Annabelle." I told him. Holding the two close to me I went on. "They aren't going to hurt you, but they are very big babies who love to be friendly. So be careful as they have a lot of strength." I warned. "I'll be allright" Jimmy said. Walking over he extended his hand for them to sniff. "Hi there you pretty girls" Jimmy said, reaching out and gently rubbing and petting them. "They're beautiful Danny." "Thanks Jimmy, now if your up for it we can take them for a quick walk and then order the pizza" I replied with a grin. With that we headed out for a short brisk walk. After about ten minutes we got back and I dug up a spare pizza menu for a local place. Picking up the phone I prepared to call in the order we had agreed upon on our walk, when I heard the familliar double beep that meant I had messages. Dialing the number of the pizza place I placed our order and then called up my voice mail number. Grabbing the pad of paper and pencil I habitually kept by the phone I listed as my voice mail began. 'You have 4 messages' Rolling my eyes, I wondered what it was now. 'Message 1' blank message, whatever I thought. 'Message 2' "Hi Danny, it's Ryan. I was just checking into see how things are and to let you know that I was going to be out for a few days. I had an emergency come up, so that your going to have to deal with Dave in the meantime. Don't start cursing, or muttering. There's nothing I can do about it, sorry. Catch you later." 'Message 3' "Hi Danny, it's me again. Naughty, naughty aren't we. Entertaining little kids now are we? I will call you later, we have a lot to catch up on and discuss." 'Message 4' "Hi son, it's me mom. I was wondering how things are going for you? It's been a while since I heard from you, so I figured I would give you a quick call. I really wish you would come home and visit for a weekend sometime or something. I do miss you and just don't understand why you don't spend time here." Sighing I hung up the phone and took a minute to calm down. I quickly jotted down a few notes for myself about who had called and to return the calls later. "Something wrong?" Jimmy asked seeing my expression. "Nothing really" I replied. "Just nagging parents, and a snag at work" I laughed. Just then the doorbell rang. "Probably the pizza, Jimmy. I'll be back in two seconds." I said and went to answer the door. It wasn't the pizza, but a old friend of mine, well of sorts. "Good God Brad, is that you?" I said staring in shock. "Well it's good to see that you can still remember me." Brad said grinning. "Well are you going to invite me in or not?" "I guess I can, but I have a guest over. I'm involved with Big Brother's now as you know and the kid I am working with is over. But if you don't mind the extra company?" I said. "Sure, I would love to meet the kid, maybe I should tell him a little about you." Brad said jokingly. At my expression he froze. "Oh..., Oh I see, you still aren't out are you?" "No, and If I still want to be able to work with the kids I can't be. I was going to be cutting back my involvement before this point but, well it's a long story." I said. "I was actually expecting you to be the pizza guy." "Well, If it's imposing I could always catch up with you another time." Brad said in an unsure voice. "Well, it shouldn't be a problem, but if you could. It'd be great. Say Saturday night we can go out and see what's happening and catch up on old times?" Danny asked. "Sure Saturday works for me. Shall we say 7:00 and I can meet you here?" Brad suggested. "All right sounds good to me. You still have my number of course?" I asked. "Yep still got it. "Brad replied. At which point we were interrupted by "Pizza delivery." As I quickly paid the pizza guy, Brad had slipped off. Turning around I closed the door softly and headed towards the kitchen. "Well the pizza's here finally" I called out as I went to the kitchen. "Cool, I was starting to wonder." Jimmy's voice responded. "So who was at the door before that?" "Just an old friend, he decided to see if I could go out clubbing with him tonight. Of course I turned him down. I have several more important things. Including you going at the moment" I replied with a grin. As we sat down at the table to eat, Jimmy had an odd expression on his face. I could tell that something was bothering him, but what I didn't know. As the silence crept on it felt like we were in some old fashioned movie. I decided that it was time to break the silence just as he looked over at me to speak. "Danny, you know how you promised to keep secret anything I tell you in confidence?" Jimmy asked me. At my nod of agreement he took a deep breath and went on. "I guess you know about the fact that my dad, used to beat on my mom a lot of the time. It wasn't just her that he took things out on." Jimmy said tears forming in his eyes. Getting up, I went around to just stand beside him and offer him the comfort of my presence. "Jimmy, you don't have to go into details, if you aren't ready. But can you tell me what all he did to you?" I asked afraid to find out, but knowing it was important. "He.., He.. He would come into my room late at night usually after Mom was asleep and he had been drinking. He would touch me and do things ..." Jimmy broke off bursting into sobs. 'Oh God' I thought to myself. Pulling his chair out I pulled Jimmy into my arms. "It's all right Jimmy, he's never going to touch you again. I swear to you. I won't ever let him hurt you again. Just let it all out, I know how much it hurts." I told him softly. As I gently held him in my arms, as he sobbed away. Chapter Ten "Well Guys, who's up for going out clubbing a little tonight while we can?" Shane asked. "It's a lot better than just sitting around here all night, after all." "Count me out guys, I'm just a little too tired to go out and party with you. I'll probably just order a movie and then head to bed." Stephen responded. "Aw come on Stephen, it's so much more fun when we all go out together." Mikey replied. "After all the rest of us are going, so why not you as well?" "Thanks all the same, you guys go out and have fun. I'm cool here. Don't worry about it." Stephen replied. Chapter Eleven "You feeling a little better now Jimmy?" I asked gently as his sobbing wound down. "Yeah, thanks. I just, it's not something that mom knows about. If she did find out about it, she'd blame herself. I just can't help it at times, it's just too much to handle. Besides Mom has enough to worry about without this as well." Jimmy said. "Jimmy, will you make me a promise? If ever you need to talk about this, call me or come over. I know what it's like to go through this all alone and have no one to talk to. Just don't do anything stupid ever. Please, just promise me that." I asked in a soft, unsteady voice. "All right. I promise you, that I won't do anything stupid and I will talk to you if I need to." Jimmy promised. "All right, well we better take you to the bathroom and use a cold cloth on your face. You look a mess bucko from the crying. After that we should have enough time to walk over to your apartment and still be on time." I replied. As we headed up to the bathroom, I couldn't help but wish I could give that bastard his just desserts. For now, all I could do was try to help Jimmy. I had promised him to not reveal his secrets and oh what a hellish promise that was now. Getting out a washcloth, we quickly got Jimmy back to looking normal, or as normal as a teen-ager looks. I chuckled at the last thought. Soon we were on our way to head out the door. As we walked to his house, we talked along the way about inconsequential things of no importance. All too soon we were there. Pulling out his key, Jimmy let himself in the foyer of the apartment building. Motioning me in, I followed. "So are you gonna come up or not?" Jimmy asked. "Not too likely that Mom will bite." He added, seeing me hesitate. Grinning, I replied. "Tempting as it is, I do have a few things to do yet tonight. I do need to call your mother tomorrow or later tonight. Just let her know that I will be, with her permission, taking you to the concert Friday night." "Cool, so we're still on inspite of what I told you?" Jimmy asked. "Of course we are. Why wouldn't we be." I responded. "Besides another time, I have a story or two of my own past to share with you. Well for now good night Jimmy and tell your Mom I'll try to call 'tween 10:30 and 11, or else tomorrow sometime." Giving Jimmy a quick hug, I said good bye and watched as he headed up to the apartment. Chapter Twelve As I walked out of the foyer, I decided to walk a little while. Hopefully, it would help settle my mind. Slowly taking the scenic path about Center City, I was lost in my thoughts. This was interrupted all too soon by a softly accented voice saying "Ah excuse, me but could you help me a moment." Focusing back on reality, I spotted the owner of the voice. Taking a quick mental assessment of him, I thought to myself, young maybe 20 or so at the most. Quite cute, polite (a shocker) and a innocence to him that seemed totally natural. Focusing on his face so that I kept myself under control, I replied. "Sure, what can I do for you?" "I'm sort of lost, It's a tad confusing. I was looking for 'Millennium Coffee', but I can't seem to find it. Although it seems like, I should be able to. I'm in the right hundred block according to the address." The cute kid replied. "That's easy enough to explain." I replied. "It's the right hundred block, but it's on the other side of Market street. On this side it's the north half of 12th, and Millennium Coffee is on the south half of 12th." I said, with a soft chuckle. "Oh, that would sort of make sense then." the kid replied with a self-conscious grin and a chuckle. "Well, I'm Danny. Since I happen to be heading that way anyway, I can show you where it's at." I replied. Something about this damn kid, was familliar, but damned if I could place it. "Hi Danny, it's nice to meet you. I'm Stephen. So your heading down that way as well then?" Stephen asked, in his softly accented english. "Yes indeed. I live only a few blocks from there. But let me ask you something, forgive me if it seems rude. But are you Gay, I mean Millennium Coffee is a mostly gay hangout. If your interested in just a coffee shop there's a couple of others just as nice." I replied. Well here's hoping I told myself. If I didn't just scare him off, maybe, just maybe I'd have a chance to get to know him better. "Err, uhmmm. Well, yes I'm gay. But it's not exactly something that I broadcast. I sort of have to play that down. My career and all." Stephen replied. "Forgive me, but I have to ask. You did seem familliar, but I just can't place you." I said, slightly embarrassed. "Are you serious?" Stephen said. "You really don't recognize me?" At my negative response he laughed a little. "I'm a member of Boyzone. We're one of those 'boybands' as the press labels us. Personally, I find the label a little insulting, but hey that's life." As he mentioned Boyzone, it suddenly all fell into place for me. Good god, I thought to myself. What the hell am I thinking about. It's impossible for me to make a move on him. Long Distance relationships are hell at best and rarely, if ever work. "I can just imagine. All those adoring fans screaming for you and going nuts." I replied with a small laugh. "Well, like I said, I can show you where the place is. I was just heading back that way anyway." As we walked we talked of things that were common place, such as the weather and other small things. Hell maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought I caught him checking me out. I know I'm not that bad looking. But he's so young, and to folks his age I seem ancient. All too soon we arrived at Millennium Coffee. As I stopped just before we got there, I decided to say my good bye. "Well I guess I shall see you around if I'm lucky" I replied with a chuckle. "It's been nice talking to you." "What are you leaving already?" Stephen asked. A note of sadness? In his voice. "I was hoping we could just sit and chat some more. Maybe even do some people watching." "Well, if you really like my company that much.." I trailed off in a teasing way. "Of course I will stay if you want." "Great, you can tell me all about you, as I expect you like the rest of the world knows all about me." Stephen said in a odd tone. Starting off happy, but ending somewhat bitterly it seemed. "Well, let's see if we can get a cup of something and a corner table at the window. Then we can chat all you like and people watch at the same time." I replied with a grin. God, I hoped the few folks I knew weren't here tonight. If they were, I knew I would never hear the end of it. As we walked into Millennium Coffee, I looked around. Good none of them are here. As we walked over to the counter we quickly placed our orders together. I decided to indulge and got a slice of their delicious chocolate cake as well. As Dave rang it all up, I grabbed my wallet to pay. Giving me a look, Stephen started to say he would pay. But I interrupted him, "This one's on me. Next time you can treat" I replied with a grin. Dave of course, just gave me one of his knowing smile/smirks. I knew this was going to make the rounds all too soon. 'Oh well,' I thought to myself. As we walked over to the free table near the windows, I balanced the cake in one hand and my cup of hot coffee in the other. Sitting down we just looked at eachother for a moment. "Well, since you said you'll let me treat next time, we have to make sure there is a next time then." Stephen said with an absolutely straight face. "After all, you seem like a very interesting person, from what I can tell." "Ah Stephen, I'm not all that interesting. It's just your imagination." I replied. "As far as another time, if you insist. I certainly won't refuse" I said giving him my best innocent expression. Cracking up he took a moment to catch his breath. "All right you tease, tell me about you now. You seemed a tad pre-occupied earlier for some reason." Stephen asked. "And don't think I won't hold you to that promise of a next time." "All right, you have me there. Let's see Friday night, I believe you guys have your concert and I already have plans for that night." I replied with a devilish grin. "So that leaves either Thursday night or Saturday. I don't have any plans for those times. Unless you do?" I asked raising a eyebrow. "Oh your evil, but I promise you that I won't let you off the hook that easily." Stephen said. He was about to go on when he was interrupted by the distinctive ring of a cell phone. As he slipped it out of his pocket he answered "Hello" nodding he listened for a moment. "Mmmm-hmmm, yeah I decided to just go out to a little coffee shop I heard about. Oh, by the way Keith, what's our schedule like tomorrow night." He paused a moment apparently listening to what Keith was saying and mentally figuring something out. "Cool that sounds good. I will see you guys a bit later then. Don't worry, I doubt I will be out as late as you all. Yeah see you then." he replied hanging up. "So I take it that was Keith? Checking up on you?" I asked. Yep, right on the money." Stephen responded. "He was wondering where I was as I hadn't planned on going out. But we are on for tomorrow though. I hope you won't try to slip out will you?" "Well, since you asked so nicely, I promise not to slip out. But if I do have to I will make it up to you. I don't expect any problems though." I replied. "Now you were just about to tell me about you. So don't try to change the subject on me. Tell me all about you." Stephen said with a smirk. "I may be cute, but I'm not that foolish as to let you slip away that easily." "Hmmm, let me think. All about me, that's a very boring subject. Sure you want to know about me?" I asked. At his look of 'don't try it' I gave in and decided to cover just the most important points that he would be interested in. "Well I work with Big Brothers of Philadelphia in my spare time. I'm an author, don't ask. I'm not telling you what I write. I do use a pen-name so you won't find out all that easily" I replied with a laugh at the last. "I have two beautiful babies at home. My darling puppies that is, a pair of pure-bred dalmations. Currently single and likely to stay that way. I just don't do the bar/club scene. I'm pretty much a loner." "Mmmm, sounds interesting, but I do want to know what you write. I would like to read something that you wrote." Stephen said in a soft insistent tone. "I am not a person who takes well to being thwarted in my desires." "Ah you'll live, curiosity never killed anyone yet." I laughingly replied. "But you might, just might eventually find out what I write if your good." "Oh, I can be very good." Stephen said, "But I can be even better when I'm bad." "Naughty, Naughty. Don't tease like that or I might not be able to resist finding out how true that is." I said with a grin. "But tell me about you. I know your in a group, but beyond that I don't really know anything about you." "Oh come on, you haven't read up on all the gossip, misc. details of odds and ends and such?" at the negative shake of my head he just grinned. "Well, then. This is a suprise. You didn't recognize me at first and know nothing about me. Oh my, what a dream come true." "Oh?" I asked. "Because someone would treat you as you, instead of the image, the singer, etc? I asked." At his nod, I just felt sympathy for him. "I guess it's a tad hard having to live up to an image that the public has of you." As he went on to tell me about the tour and what it was like I found myself zoning out slightly. The events of the whole day, just seemed so overwhelming to me. I found myself just lost in my thoughts once again, as I relived events of the day. Noticing that I had zoned out again, Stephen just looked at me for a moment. He seemed to sense that something was wrong, but didn't pry. Calling my name once or twice softly he watched me still sit there lost to the world. "Danny." he called a little more sharply. "Huh, oh yes I agree." I responded. "You weren't really paying attention to what I was saying were you?" Stephen asked. "You just seemed a little out of it again. Want to talk about it?" "Stephen, I'm sorry. It's just been a very long day and I had a lot happen that I didn't expect. I really did mean to pay attention to what you were saying. Sorry I drifted off like that." "It's all right, we all have off days. So would you prefer to just go back to your place and we can talk further or what?" "Well... I suppose the best idea would be for me to drop you off at your hotel, so you don't get lost again. But if you really want to we could go over to my place and talk some more if you want." At Stephen's grin when I said the last I knew what we would end up doing. To Be Continued Don't you hate when folks just leave ya hanging like that? Lol, sorry folks for the delay in getting out this segment. Life has just been crazy here for me. I have two other main stories besides this which I am working on. Also this one is very slow going for me, as it's a lot more detailed and plot oriented than the others. Also for those who read this, it's a lot more emotional for me writing this. It's not just a story for me, it's a way to deal with parts of my own life. Hey no one's perfect. Anyway, figure about every two weeks or so and a new installment will be out. Also for what it's worth here's my recommendations for some really good stories here in the boy-bands section: Studio in the Country, Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall, and of course my fave of all Forever. If by chance DJ your reading this, your just as evil as me, leaving folks hanging with that ending. That's all for now folks. Oh do check out my website at http://members.xoom.com/slashfic I promise to keep things updated and get more info out to you folks as soon as possible. Dennis