Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 08:28:55 -0500
From: JM Stories <jm_stories@yahoo.com>
Subject: Just Together 22

Disclaimer: This story is fiction. It makes no claims to the true
personality or sexuality of anyone involved. You already know if you
shouldn't be reading this.

------------------
Just Together
by jm_stories
------------------


Chapter XXII

=-=-=-=-=-= Jonah =-=-=-=-=-=


*** [ Dec 24, 2001 ]

"Jonah. Jonah," Michael said and gently shook me awake.

"Yea?"

"Come on. Get up. We're going somewhere."

"We don't have to be at your folks until this evening."

"We're not going there."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise."

"Okay," I yawned and stretched. He wouldn't let me take a shower and
barely let me get dressed. We went out to my car and he made me put on a
blindfold.

"Where are we going?" I asked Michael after we'd been driving for about
ten minutes.

"You'll see."

"Not with the blindfold on."

"Okay. We're here," Michael said and pulled the blindfold off me.

I looked around. We were on some street with a boarded up building on
one side and a park on the other.

"Okay... Where's here?"

"I have the key. Let's go in," Michael smiled.

He unlocked the steel front door and flipped a switch. A couple bare
bulb work lights turned on. The place was mostly gutted.

"So? What do you think?"

"Um, I don't know. What am I supposed to think about a gutted building?"

"It's a theater."

"Okay. What am I supposed to think about a gutted theater?"

"Wouldn't it be cool to own a theater?"

"Yea, but, shit... This place needs a lot of work before you could use
it. A lot of work and a lot of money."

"Let me show you some more. It's not as bad as it looks. It's got a new
roof, new electric, new plumbing, new windows on the upper floors. Come
see the stage," Michael said excitedly and dragged me along.

The auditorium had possibility. Probably a 100 seat house that slightly
raked down to a thrusted proscenium stage. The stage floor looked like
hell. The fly system was hemp, and all but useless. There was no
electric that I could see, but there was a shredded pile of what
appeared to have been a movie screen in a former life.

"It was a movie house for a while. Come on. Let me show you the
upstairs."

There were three floors above the lobby and house area -- totally
gutted. Well, it was actually four floors, but the second floor was only
partial due to the higher ceilings in the theater. The ceilings on the
top floor were at least 16' and there were the same large windows as the
lower floors, plus a large half-round window above them. All the lower
floors were concrete and the top floor was a hardwood dance floor over
concrete -- though it was in sorry shape. It could be a really cool
space.

"You see the potential, don't you?"

"Yea. Are you thinking of buying it?"

"Nope. Already did. It's ours. Merry Christmas, and Anniversary,"
Michael smiled and gave me a deep kiss.

"You bought a building? You bought a theater?"

"Yea. Isn't it great? You don't like it?"

"Yea, I love it. I'm just in shock. You bought a theater."

"I know. Some dot-com was remodeling it for their offices and went
bankrupt before they could finish. I got it on a bank repo. Dirt cheap."

"Good, 'cause we're gonna need all that money to make it usable."

"I know. Don't worry about that right now. We'll make it work. So here's
what I was thinking. The theater below could be a working theater, and
we make this floor our new apartment, or a couple apartments, or just
make ours huge and a couple efficiencies. Like I said, the roof and
mechanicals and windows are new, so we save that money. If we get the
apartments built first, then we can rent out our current place and have
that money coming in. Plus we can rent out apartments here. It'll all
work out. We can even get investors for the theater part. I've already
talked to a few people who would be interested. So?" Michael rambled
excitedly and looked to me expectantly.

"This is, by far, the most over-the-top gift I've even heard of. I love
it. *Kiss* Really. *Kiss* I'm just wondering how we're going to do all
the work it needs."

"We'll make it work. You're the practical one. We've got five years to
bring everything up to code."

"Five years?"

"Yea. It's part of the deal. Tax abated for the next five years if we
bring it up to code in that time. We can extended that for up to 15
years if we continue to make improvements and have the theater running."

"Did you check the building code? Are we even allowed to have living
space above the theater? I know in some places it isn't allowed."

"Yep. I checked. There were apartments on the third and fourth floors
before. The walls and floors are reinforced concrete, and the stage
extends from the building so there isn't any living space above the
flys."

"Great. So you said the mechanicals were all new, but I don't see any
plumbing up here, and only basic electric."

"Not all the stuff. Just the mains. A new electric box and service to
each floor. The plumbing on the first floor and the drains are new."

"Heat or air?"

"None. We have to do that."

"Wow. We have a theater."

"Yea. Isn't it cool?"

"You're crazy, and I love you for it," I smiled and pulled him into a
deep kiss.

"I'm glad you like it," Michael smiled as we parted.

"Is there light everywhere?"

"Not much, but yea. What do you want to check out?"

"Is there enough backstage to have real productions?"

"There're dressing rooms and storage in the basement. There's a small
shop area and dock."

"How close are we to the train?"

"About three blocks away."

"Where are we?"

"Ocean Avenue."

"I'm not sure where that's at."

"We're a block west of Flatbush. That's Prospect Park out front."

"We have a theater," I repeated, still not quite believing it.

"Yep."

"When did you close on it?"

"Yesterday morning."

"Ah, so that's where you went. Sneaky."

"Yep. What do you want to see now?"

"Are there existing plans for the building?"

"The original plans, but I don't think they're still accurate."

"When was it built?"

"1927. Oh, there's a freight elevator, too," Michael said and pointed
out a hole in the far wall. "The call buttons don't work, but it goes
from top to bottom just off the loading dock."

"That'll make things easier."

"Wanna go make out on stage," Michael grinned.

"As soon as we get some heat. I'm freezing my ass off."

"Then let's go home. I like your ass the way it is."

"Aw. You say the sweetest things," I teased and gave him a quick kiss.

*

"So...god...there're tons of things to think about to get the building
ready. What do you see? What do you want there?" I said to Michael as we
warmed up with some hot coffee and fresh croissants from the bakery down
the street.

"You're gonna do the plans?"

"Of course. I'm sure I'll have to have them checked by someone for the
commercial spaces, but I can do most of it. So what do you want? What
features? What are we even going to call it?"

"The Mars Theater, of course," Michael smiled.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because you bought it. Why not the Pitt Theater?"

"But I bought it for both of us."

"Okay. How about the Pitt Theater at the Mars Building?"

"Why not the other way around?"

"Because there are pits on Mars," I smiled. He rolled his eyes.

"That's bad. The Mars Theater sounds better than the Pitt Theater."

"Okay. How about The Marpit?"

"The Mosh Pit?" He grinned.

"The Marpit, though The Mosh Pit works for me."

"The Marpit... I think that'll work as a working name unless we come up
with anything better."

"Good. So... We should probably get the apartments, or at least our
apartment, done first. Agree?"

"Absolutely. Then we can rent this place out and have that money coming
in."

"Okay. What features would you like to have?"

"Mmm... I want a big shower. You know, one of those tiled rooms with a
glass door. And heated floors like that B&B in Amsterdam."

"Oh yea. That sounds good. Maybe radiant floor heating throughout the
living spaces. We'll have to see how much it costs."

"Let's not worry about cost right now. We can cut it down to budget
later."

"Okay. What else?"

"Central Air."

"Absolutely. How about hardwood floors?"

"The top floor already has them."

"I know, but we'll have to pull that up if we put in radiant floor
heating. I don't know if we could even put the same stuff back down
since it has to be nailed down."

"Okay. If we can save it, and keep some of the marks and stuff in it,
then hardwood floors."

"Character?"

"Yep."

"Okay. What else?"

"A big kitchen area that's open to the living room. That way we can talk
to people and stuff while making dinner."

"How about a music room?"

"Definitely. With sound proof walls so I can turn up my amp and not
freak anyone out."

"Guest rooms?"

"Yea. We should have at least one. Probably two. Are we still going to
have roommates?"

"Yea, I think so. At least until everything is done and the theater is
running. Every little bit helps."

"Yea. What do you want there?"

"I'd like to do something with different levels and built-in cabinetry.
We've got huge ceilings there. It'd be a shame to waste all that
vertical space."

"That would be cool. Like our bed in a loft?"

"I don't know. I think it would cool to have our bed in front of one of
those big windows, but maybe in a loft in front of the half-round
windows as well."

"Okay. Then we can give the people across the street a good show,"
Michael smiled.

"The glass is tinted. Gotta love office building glass. We'd only have
show time at night if we left the lights up bright. Besides, the park is
across the street."

"I'm not concerned about it. How about a sound system, too? You know,
one that has speakers in every room so you can hear it everywhere
without having to blast it from one room."

"Very good. And maybe wire the building for a network to the internet
that everyone shares for internet access. It'd be a good feature."

"Oh yea. How should we do the apartments? Condos or co-ops? Or just rent
them?"

"I don't know. I'd say co-ops or rentals over condos. We want to have
some control over who lives there. We'll have to check out which makes
more sense financially and legally."

"That's the practical side."

"Yep. What about the theater? Do we want to just rent it out, or try to
get a company to move in?"

"Either way. A company would be cool, but it'll be busier if we rent it
out."

"And we'd also have to have someone dedicated to finding renters."

"Maybe. If it turns out cool, all you need is to get a few people to do
something. After that, word of mouth would keep it busy."

"Probably. We're going to have to have investors for the theater. It's
gonna get really expensive really quickly."

"I know. Gus expressed some interest. So did Lance. They both,
obviously, want to wait until we're further along and have some sort of
business plan."

"Damn business people," I smirked. "Okay. We're getting away from
features. What else?"

"Um... I don't know. I think we've covered the basics."

"Okay. Let's go room by room. Kitchen?"

"Sink. Stove. Refrigerator. Cabinets. Counters. Dishwasher."

"No wine rack?" I laughed.

"Oh, and a wine rack."

"Good. Bathroom?"

"Sink. Toilet. Shower. Cabinets."

"No tub?"

"I guess we could. We'd only use it once in a blue moon. I'd rather have
a hot tub."

"Ah, yes. A hot tub. Where would we put it?"

"In the living room."

"And have the fumes and noise? We'll have to check on the stability of
the roof. Maybe have a terrace up there."

"It should hold it."

"That's a lot of weight in a small space, plus we'll have all the HVAC
stuff up there. It'll probably be huge since we'll be doing the whole
building -- if we do the whole building."

"That can come later. How much of this do you think we can do
ourselves?"

"I can do the walls, electric and built-ins. I could probably do the
plumbing if I got a book and checked the codes, even though I hate
plumbing."

"Why do you hate plumbing?"

"I guess new construction won't be so bad, but repair work is messy and
a pain in the ass."

"You've done it before?"

"Here and when I lived in Chicago. Not professionally, just fixing my
own stuff."

"How about building buildings?"

"Not to this extent. Obviously I know carpentry from the family biz and
theater. A lot of the house specific stuff I learned working for Tony
during the summer."

"Who?"

"Tony. Tommy's dad. Joey, Tommy and I usually worked for him during the
summer. Not anything big, but helping out with enough things to know a
little about every step. Obviously, that stopped after I came out."

"Obviously. I thought Joey said he hated that stuff."

"He does, but it was good money. It's also different than the furniture
building that Uncle Jeff does. Completely different skill set. How much
can you do?"

"I'm an actor," he said and made a face. "I can hold things and follow
directions. Just don't ask me to use any power tools."

"Right. We'll have to contract out the HVAC stuff, at minimum. I don't
know what else. I'll have to do a complete assessment and get plans down
before we'll know."

"You'll have it all done by next month," Michael teased.

"Yea, right. More like next decade."

"Maybe for everything, but we should get most of it in the next year or
so. Right? I mean, you graduate in May, so you could work on it full
time. I could take some more film work to bring in more money to throw
at it. We could probably even hire some assistants."

"Yea. I want to get started on the as-builts as soon as possible. Before
we go to Orlando. Well, at least get the measurements done."

"As-builts?"

"The plans, basically, but taken from direct measurements. The original
plans are what was supposed to be built. The as-built plans are what is
actually there," I explained.

"Ah. Gotcha. Want to go back over now and start measuring?"

"No. I'll need to make a copy of the existing plans to write on, plus
get a longer tape measure. Mine is only 30'. Maybe I'll see how much
those laser ones are."

"Laser?"

"Yea. It's pretty cool. You just hold it up and it measures the distance
using lasers."

"Lasers are good," Michael smiled.

"Yea, but this is kinda boring as far as lasers are concerned. I think
it'd be cool if they made a laser table saw or miter saw. No saw dust.
Perfectly accurate cuts. No waste from the saw kerf. No blades to go
bad..."

"They don't have that?"

"Not that I've seen. Norm Abram doesn't have one, and he has
everything."

"True. True. I guess I should start paying more attention when you're
watching those shows."

"Yep. You need to expand your woodworking skills to other types of
wood," I smiled.

"I'm still learning all the tricks of the wood I know," he smiled back.

"I don't know. You're pretty good at turning softwood to hardwood and
back again."

"Not bad. We're gonna have to get a bunch of tools, aren't we?"

"Unless you have some hidden somewhere. At minimum I know I'll need a
table saw and a miter saw. I already have a screw gun, though another
one wouldn't hurt. An air compressor with a nail gun and paint sprayer
would be pretty useful. We'll need some things just occasionally, so we
can rent them."

"Like what?"

"Like a floor sander. Possibly a tongue and groove nailer. Maybe
scaffolding or a drywall jack. I don't know. There're so many things
that I'm just used to having when I've done things like this."

"What about a welder? I've always wanted a welder."

"You have?"

"Okay. Not really, but I think it would be cool."

"It is. Yea, we could probably use a welder, too."

"You've welded?"

"Yea, of course. I am a tech in the theater, you know. We use lots of
steel."

"Good. You can show me how. I want to make a huge sculpture for the
lobby. No. I know. A new marquee. Make it like one of those signs that
look like they're punched out of steel."

"That would be really hard, and you'd have to use a torch instead of the
MIG welder."

"Isn't that what we're talking about?"

"I was talking about a MIG welder. It uses electricity. I've never
welded with a torch -- just cut. To be practical, I think we're gonna
need to get a remodeling line of credit. We'll go broke before we can
rent it out if we don't."

"Probably. Let's find out how much it's gonna cost before we get into
more debt. Oh, your name is on the deed as well."

"Okay. I wasn't worried about it."

"I know, but I just wanted you to know. I mean, you're gonna be spending
time and money on it, too. You should know you have some legal
ownership."

"Planning to break up?"

"No, and you better not be, either. It's just so, you know, in case
something happens to either of us. Not that it's going to, but just in
case."

"I know. That's very responsible."

"Lance brought it up," Michael shrugged.

"We need to make him the Box Office Manager, or at least the booking
agent for the theater."

"We'd make money. I don't know if I'd agree with his artistic choices
for booking acts," Michael said.

"That's why we have a separate Artistic Director. Anyway, let's get back
to the apartment. What style?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean style of apartment. Victorian. New York loft. Country cozy.
Craftsman."

"I'm not a Victorian kinda guy."

"No kidding?" I teased. "Me, neither. Just off the top of my head I'd
like it to be open and airy, but with lots of natural wood. Not like the
typical New York loft look, though."

"I like the big steel sliding doors."

"I do too, but they don't really fit the look of the building, and
they're only cool when they're old and beat up on a brick wall. We don't
have any interior walls."

"Yea, okay, but I really like the doors that slide out of the way."

"We could make the interior doors pocket doors," I offered.

"Those are the ones that slide into the wall?"

"Yep."

"Okay. That works. How about a place to put a pool table?"

"Sure. By the time we're done we'll never want to leave home," I smiled.

"Good. Home should be that way. It'll be nice to have someplace big. We
can have people over and not be on top of each other -- unless it's that
kind of party," Michael smirked. "So where're my Christmas presents?"

"You'll have to wait until tomorrow morning."

He pouted. "I gave you yours early."

"It was for you as well, and I bet it's just 'cause you couldn't wait,"
I countered.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

*

"Don't say anything about the theater to my folks," Michael said as we
were driving to his parent's house.

"Why not?"

"Because it'll start an argument."

"Why would it start an argument?"

Michael sighed. "Because I'd talked with them about it before I made an
offer on the building. All I got was a bunch of shit about how I'm not
mature enough for the responsibility. How it's wasting my money, and
every other reason they could think of to piss on my parade."

"Great. Sounds like it'll be a fun evening," I said sarcastically.
"Between Rob and your folks..."

"Yea, I know, but we promised we'd be there."

*

"Hey, Mikey. You're really looking like a girl these days," Rob said as
he opened the front door and let us in.

"Hey, Rob. In that turtleneck you look uncut," Michael shot back and
walked past him.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Figure it out, dickhead," Michael called back.

"Hey. I'm Jonah," I introduced myself and tried not to laugh. Rob was
the antithesis of Michael. Slightly shorter. Stocky and built like a gym
bunny. Regulation crew cut.

He looked me over for a few seconds before holding out his hand. "Rob.
You're not what I expected."

"What were you expecting?" I asked as I shook his hand. He tried to
strong-hand me, but I gave back as good as I got.

"Someone a little more faggy looking."

"Well don't worry, honey, I'll let my flame shine bright tonight," I
camped before catching up with Michael, who was laughing.

"One of these days you'll grow up and realize how stupid you sound,
Rob," Michael said.

"Stop it. Both of you. You'll play nice tonight or I'll be knocking some
heads together. Got it?" Their dad warned.

"Dickhead started it," Michael said.

"I just said..." Rob started.

"Shut up. I'm stopping it."

It went on like that all night. Michael and Rob were constantly throwing
comments at each other. They'd get yelled at. It'd stop for five
minutes, and then start up again. Needless to say, we didn't stay very
late.

"See what I meant about Rob? He's an ass," Michael said as we drove
home.

"Yea, but you did keep up your side."

"So? I'm not just going to sit there and smile when he gives me shit.
I'm gonna throw some back."

"I know," I sighed.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just tired."

"Just say it."

"Stop trying to pick a fight. If you want to argue I'll take you back to
your folk's and you and Rob can go at it all night. I've had enough for
tonight."

"I'm not trying to pick a fight," Michael snapped.

"Sorry, my mistake," I said sarcastically.

"I'm pissed off. I know you wouldn't know how that is since you get
along with everyone in your family. Everything is happy."

"Haven't you been paying attention? My family is just as fucked up as
everyone else's. Just because you didn't see it on the one time you
spent any time with them doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. You're
worked up from arguing with Rob? Fine. Just don't drag me in because you
still want to fight."

Michael huffed, turned up the radio, and slumped down in his seat,
folding his arms.

We were quiet the rest of the way home. I parked the car and walked to
the apartment, not waiting for Michael. I hate being dragged into a
fight -- especially one that had nothing to do with me.

"Wait up," Michael said and softly and tugged the back of my jacket.

I slowed down, but didn't say anything or look at him.

"Are you not going to talk to me all night?" He asked as we walked in
the door.

"No, just until you stop trying to get me to be Rob's proxy."

"Sorry."

"Okay."

"I mean it. I'm cooled off now. I'd prefer you weren't Rob's proxy."

"Good," I said, softer now.

"Besides, if you were Rob's proxy I couldn't do this," Michael said
softly before leaning in for a slow kiss.

"Yea. That would be sick," I smiled as the kiss ended.

"How about some make-up sex?"

"I think that could be arranged," I smiled and pulled him by his belt to
the bedroom.


*** [ Dec 25 ]

I woke up to the feeling of Michael's erection between my legs, his hand
around my erection, and his lips on the back of my neck. I just laid
there and enjoyed it as he stroked me and humped my legs. As I was
getting close I reached back and rubbed his butt.

"Mornin'," he mumbled into my neck.

"Mornin'," I said and felt him coming against the back of my balls. He
pumped me faster as he did and I wasn't far behind. After the explosion
was over, I turned and straddled his lap, leaning over him and rubbing
our cum-slick crotches together. "Merry Christmas," I smiled and gave
him a quick kiss.

"Mmmm," Michael groaned and pulled me back into the kiss, thrusting up
as I pushed down onto him. We were only half-hard, but that was
changing. Before we went any further I pulled away, to his protests, and
sat back on his legs.

"Save it for later, stud," I said and gave him a light slap on his belly
before heading to the shower. He was right behind me.

"That's the first time you've called me 'stud'."

"Is it?" I asked.

"Yea."

"Sorry. It's just a weird word. You like being called a stud?"

"Once in a while. It's not like I am, but it's nice to hear."

I just looked at him and rolled my eyes before stepping into the shower.

*

"So?" Michael asked as we were having breakfast.

"So what?"

"It's Christmas morning."

"Impatient for your presents?" I teased.

"Don't tease me. You've got another one, too."

"Who's teasing who?"

"Okay. I'll get yours and you get mine."

"Okay," I said and went to Scott's room to get the huge box that had all
of his gifts in it. It was too big and heavy to lift so I pushed it into
the living room. Michael appeared from our bedroom with a medium sized
package that looked like clothes.

"Shit? You buy a building, too?" Michael laughed as he watched me push
the box to the sofa.

"Nope."

"Here," Michael said and tossed me my present before digging into his.

He had the paper off and was trying to rip the box open before I even
sat down. I taped it really well. I opened his present to find a nice
wool cable-knit sweater, and two pairs of silk boxers.

"Silk boxers, huh?" I smiled as he grabbed a pair of scissors to cut the
tape so he could get the box open.

"Yep, bastard. I should have wrapped them in duct tape," he muttered.

"Too late now." I made sure there were no tags and then put on a pair.
"Nice." Michael was just getting to his first present. I put multiple
presents in the box.

"Uh, wood? You got me wood?" He asked, confused, as he opened the top
present, which was a dozen 12"x18" sheets of masonite.

"You give me wood all the time," I smirked. "Anyway, there is a point.
Continue," I said and sat back down with my coffee, watching Michael dig
in for the next package.

"MŽdoc!" He smiled as he pulled out the first bottle. "And more MŽdoc,"
he added as he pulled out another bottle.

"A case," I said.

"Wine and wood. Still doesn't make sense."

"Keep digging."

It took a while before he got all the bottles out and dug to the bottom
of the box, bent over the edge with his butt in the air. He finally
emerged with the next package and sat down to open it. It was a boxed
set of oil paints, brushes, pallet and fold-out easel.

"Thanks," he smiled as he looked it over and then gave me a quick kiss.
"I love it."

"Thank you, too. No more excuses. There's one more in there that you
should have opened first.

He set the box on the table and dug around until he found the last
present, a small bucket of Gesso.

"What's this for?"

"It's Gesso."

"I see. What's it for? This is the paint you use on your white models,
right?"

"It's like primer. You paint the masonite with it before you paint."

"Ah, okay. Let's go to the grocery and get some stuff to make a big
dinner. We should have done it yesterday."

"I don't think it's open until noon."

"Then we can snuggle until then."

"How about phone calls first?"

"Okay. Who first?"

"Kids, of course," I said as I grabbed the phone and called Uncle Joe's
house.

"Merry Christmas," Uncle Joe answered.

"Merry Christmas. How's everything there?" I asked.

"Hey, Jonah. Everything is loud. Here you go."

"Hey, Jonah. Thanks for the CDs," Jay said happily.

"You're welcome. What else did you get?"

"I got a new pair of roller blades and some books and clothes. No
PowerSkips, though," Jay said.

"They were kinda expensive."

"I know. Here's Jonny."

"Hey. What's up with the IOU?" Jonny said.

"Merry Christmas to you, too," I laughed.

"Sorry. Merry Christmas. What's up with the IOU?"

"Your present won't be released until next week. You'll get it and
you'll like it."

"Um, okay. What did you get?"

"A sweater and some silk boxers. I got Michael wine and an oil paint
set. How about you?"

"I got an iPod and some clothes."

"That's cool. I'd love an iPod, but I can't afford it right now."

"Yea you could."

"Nope. Michael just bought us a theater that we have to fix up."

"A theater? He bought a whole theater?"

"It needs a lot of work, so it's probably just half of a theater right
now," I smirked. I heard him telling everyone else there about the
theater.

"That's cool. Where's it at? Is it big?"

"It's down across from Prospect Park, and it's big enough. We'll
eventually have our apartment there as well."

We both eventually talked to everyone and then made our other calls. It
took a while.


*** [ Dec 26 ]

We were up by eleven and went to get supplies after breakfast. Michael
went to get the plans copied and I went to the hardware store to get a
long tape measure. While I was there I found some kerosene construction
space heaters on sale. I bought one and a couple large cans of kerosene.
We'd need it until the heat was installed, or spring arrived. Michael
met me at the theater and we brought everything inside.

"Now we can use the stage," Michael smiled as we carried in the heater.

"If we leave it running for a while. Um, let's take it upstairs. Since
we're going to be doing that space first, I'll get that measured first."

We carried everything back to the elevator. It was only accessible from
the dock on the first floor. It was pretty beat up and creaked and
groaned as it went up, but it did go up and, mostly, stopped at the
floor -- six inches lower.

"That'll be a good thing to get fixed first."

"Without a doubt. I'll call someone after New Year's," Michael agreed.
"So let's fire this puppy up."

We unpacked it and I read over the instructions while Michael filled the
tank. I plugged it in, checked the settings, and then fired it up.

"Ahh. Heat," Michael sighed and rubbed his hands in front of the blast
of hot air.

"It won't make it warm in here, but it'll at least take the edge off the
cold," I said and looked around. "Did you look at everything before you
bought it?"

"Pretty much. I just looked out the roof door and glanced at the
basement. I had an inspector check it all. Why?"

"Just wondering. I'm think I'm gonna check everything out and compare it
to the plans," I said and grabbed the plans.

"Want some company?"

"Yea, of course. Sorry, I'm just trying to think about how the hell
we're gonna do all this. I guess I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed."

"It doesn't all have to be done right away. We have time. Don't stress
about it."

"I know, but you know I'm going to no matter what," I smiled.

"True."

We started our inspection, comparing what was actually there to what was
on the plans. Obviously, most of the interior walls were gone. The top
floor, however, had always been a dance studio. The outer walls were
correct as far as the basics. There were a few holes in the floor for
mechanicals to run, as well as the holes for the old bathrooms. We would
probably have to raise the floor of the new bathrooms to run plumbing.
There were a few places in the ceiling towards the back that were
boarded over. I don't know what they were there for. We went up on the
roof next. The boarded over holes in the ceiling were skylights. They
were mostly boarded over.

"Cool. Skylights. Didn't know about those," Michael said.

"Once we repair all the glass in them they should be pretty nice. See
those piers and the steel beams? They were going to put a terrace up
here, or there was already one here. I'm pretty sure that would hold
just about anything we put on it," I said.

"Hot tub, baby," Michael smiled.

"Oh, yea."

The roof looked new and there were also piers that probably used to hold
the old HVAC equipment and water tower. There was a fire-escape ladder
that started at the elevator shaft and ran down the back of the building
to the 5th floor. It didn't go anywhere after that. Probably more of a
roof ladder. The roof for the flys was right at the 5th floor.
Satisfied, we headed back down to the relative warmth. The fourth and
third floors were roughly the same. All of the previous apartment walls
were gone. The plumbing cut-outs were still there, however, and the
windows were the same new commercial windows. All the windows on the
front and unattached side of the building, except the first floor, were
two 12" awnings below two 3'x4' picture windows and went from about 2'
above the floor to 7'. Huge and expensive. It's no wonder the previous
owner went belly-up before they finished. It's also kinda strange for an
office to be putting in windows you can open -- not that I'm gonna
complain about that.

The second floor was only partial -- above the lobby and the side. The
projection room was still there, but the rest of the walls were gone.
There were projector parts in the projector room, but no projector.

"We've got dwarf housing," Michael smirked and pointed to a short door
up high on a wall facing the house near the elevator.

"If they walk on the ceiling. Let's check it out," I said and pried open
the door. I flashed my flashlight around for a light switch. None.
Looking into the darkness, it appeared to be a beam slot over the
theater.

"I say we wait until we get some light in there before we try to walk
it," Michael said.

"I'm in no hurry. Let's go downstairs."

The lobby area had plenty of room for a box office, concessions and
public bathrooms. I noticed some paper sticking out from under a couple
sheets of plywood that were probably used to board over the windows at
one time. Flipping them over revealed the full set of plans from the
previous owner.

"Hey. Look what I found," I smiled and held up the drawings.

"What are those?" Michael asked as he walked over.

"The plans from the previous owner. Probably accurate, as well as what
they were planning to do."

Michael started laughing. "And they wanted me to pay and extra $10,000
for them! Fuck 'em!"

"This certainly makes things easier," I said and set them by the stairs
to take up.

We continued our inspection. The theater, proper, was on the right side
of the building. The theater seats were still in the theater, but in
horrible condition and piled against a wall. The stage was actually just
a proscenium. The thrust was built out over the orchestra pit, but there
wasn't a way to see into the pit from the house. The stage was probably
30' wide with not much wing space and, maybe, 20' deep. The fly system
was stripped of most hemp. The grid was steel and the pin rail was a
large wood beam with a few of the pins still there. The only working
electric was a few work lights. There was a large mess of wires on posts
running down the proscenium wall that appeared to have gone to the
original lighting system. There was a slot for a fire curtain, but no
curtain. The ladder to the grid and loading rail was coming apart in
places from missing bolts.

Backstage to stage right was an overhead door to the two stall dock, and
the freight elevator. The room was the width of the building and about
15' deep, except for the hall that went to the freight elevator. The
workshop Michael had referred to was basically just a walk-in tool cage
against the stage left side wall and next to the mechanical room for the
theater that only had a few electric panels in it. Against the stage
back wall was a set of stairs to the basement. At the bottom of the
stairs was a large room that was probably a green room. A long hallway
that ran from front to back was on along the far side. The dressing
rooms were under the backstage and all had full bathrooms. Storage rooms
were off the hallway, as well as a small door to get to the orchestra
pit. There was what looked like a piano and some music stands and
chairs, but it was covered in cobwebs and dark -- we weren't about to go
crawling through it.  The middle storage rooms had a lower sloped
ceiling from the rake of the house. The storage room at the front was
still full of crap from one of the building's past owners. The light in
that room didn't work, so we decided to wait to explore it. There was
another mechanical room at the very front of the building that also had
new looking stuff in it that was probably for the main building spaces.
We headed up the front steps, grabbed the new plans and went back to the
top floor, which was pretty comfortable now that the heater had been
running all that time. We sat down on the floor near the heater to warm
up.

"I'm only gonna say this once," Michael started.

"Okay..."

"What the fuck have I gotten us into," he groaned and laid back,
covering his face.

"A whole hell of a lot of work, is what. It's going to be a while before
it's a theater."

"You know, we don't have the make the theater look palatial or something
before we use it."

"No, but we'll have to at least have the bathrooms done, the electric
done, some lighting, HVAC and a fire curtain."

"Why a fire curtain?"

"I'm pretty sure they won't let us open the theater to the public
without it. We're gonna have to deal with a ton of inspectors and
permits and shit. Insurance too. Do we have property insurance on it
yet?"

"Yea. Part of the mortgage."

"Mortgage?"

"Yea. I didn't just pay cash for it. We wouldn't have any money to do
the renovation. I got a fifteen year mortgage. Pretty good rate, too.
Interest rates are great right now."

"What did it cost -- if it's okay to ask?"

"Yea, it's okay. It was $500,000."

"Wow. You truly did get it for a song. I figured an empty lot this close
to the park would be that much."

"Told you. The economy is sucking right now, so the bank was having a
hard time getting rid of it. I talked them down from $750,000. Well, I
had some help with that, but the end result is the same."

"Damn. That's quite a talk-down. Who helped?"

"Lance. He's a shrewd businessman. He's missed his true calling by
singing crap instead of negotiating contracts. We're also on the 'wrong'
side of the park. The same building in Park Slope would be tons more. We
also have the tax break on this side because it's an Empowerment Zone,
or whatever. The city is working to bring this side up. Because it's a
commercial and residential building, we qualify for the tax abatement."

"Good. Let's go home and get something to eat. I can start redrawing
this."

"Do you have a program that will do that?" Michael asked as we shut
everything down to head home.

"Kinda. I have the lighting design version of the program. There's an
architectural version available for it that I'll probably have to get.
It's expensive as hell -- even with academic pricing."

"What's expensive?"

"The lighting version cost me $700. Regular price is around $1200. It's
cheaper than some of the other ones, though."

"Shit. All that money just for a program?"

"A highly specialized program that you need to work perfectly. It'll do
practically everything except build the drawing. You can automatically
generate schedules. Do 3D renderings and walk-throughs. Automatically
generate elevations. Have a change in one place automatically register
across all drawings. It's worth it."

*

"I've got something for you -- for us," I said and pulled two rings out
of my pocket. I held them up, smiled and then leaned in for a kiss.
"Happy anniversary. I love you."

"I love you. Please don't tell me you want us to get married," Michael
smirked as he took the ring and looked at it.

"Okay. Sure," I smiled and got down on one knee. "Michael, my love, will
you be with me always and forever," I said really sappy.

"Even when you're in the bathroom taking a stinky dump?" He smirked.

"Even then," I cooed.

"Eh, okay," he shrugged.

"Okay. Good enough for me," I smiled and sat back down next to him.

"That was it?" Michael laughed. "We are so not sappy romantic that it's
scary."

"Hey! I'm romantic. I'm just not sappy," I protested.

"I happen to know for a fact that you've got plenty of sap in your
wood."

"Despite your best efforts to suck it all out, you got me there."

"And I'm gonna keep you, too," he smiled and we kissed again. "So cool
ring. What's it made out of? Titanium?"

"Nope. Stainless steel. Make sure it fits," I said and he slipped it on
his ring finger of his left hand.

"Yep. Fits perfectly."

"People are going to think you're married if you wear it there."

"I thought we just got married."

"Okay. I was thinking more about public stuff."

"I'll just be evasive and say I'm engaged or in a committed relationship
if someone asks."

"Good answer," I smiled as I pushed him back on the sofa and smothered
him in kisses.


*** [ Sat, Dec 29 ]

Michael and I took the train to the airport to pick up Randy and the
rental minivan for the trip. We stopped by the theater to show it off,
and then headed home and continued getting ready. We would leave for
Orlando as soon as Scott and Brian got here. Six o'clock was the agreed
upon time. They finally stumbled in the door at a little after five.

"Didn't think you were going to make it," I said.

"Hey. We almost didn't. The roads were really bad in Pennsylvania. We
couldn't do over 35," Scott said.

"I am so dead," Brian said as he dropped down onto the flip-n-fuck.

"What time did you leave?"

"2AM."

"Hell, you probably could have driven straight to Orlando in that time."

"I know. I really, really hate Pennsylvania," Scott grumbled.

"Hey, Scott. Nice to see you again," Randy said after he came out of the
bathroom.

"Hey, Randy. That's my friend from home, Brian."

"Hey. Love your show," Brian mumbled sleepily.

"Thanks."

"Okay. Do what you need to do and let's hit the road. We won't make
either of you drive first," I smiled.

Fifteen minutes later we were on the road with Michael driving. Scott
and Brian slept. We stopped for dinner just past Baltimore. I drove as
far as North Carolina, and then passed the driving off to Randy, who
eventually switched off with Scott, and then Brian. We were past St.
Augustine when Michael took the wheel again. I moved up to sit in the
passenger's seat, but was nodding in and out -- mostly out.

"Jonah. Jonah. Wake up," Michael called and nudged me.

I stretched and opened my eyes. It was light out now, but raining.

"We in Orlando?" I asked.

"Yea. Can you navigate. The drivers here are pathetic."

"Why's that?" I asked as I grabbed the directions Justin gave, as well
as the directions I got from Yahoo! Maps.

"I don't know. I've already passed three accidents. Maybe they don't
know how to drive in the rain. I need to concentrate on the road."

"Okay. Where are we at?"

"I just turned south onto 92."

"Okay," I said as I called Justin to let him know we were in town and
would be there soon.

Twenty minutes later we pulled up to the entry of a gated community. The
guard checked Michael's new driver's license, made a phone call, and
then let us in.

"I never want to live in a place like this," Michael muttered.

"You won't as long as I have anything to say about it. Wait, I think we
just passed our road."

"What road are we looking for?"

"Shady Brooke Lane."

"As opposed to Shady Oak, Babbling Brooke, Eagle's Creek and the other
twenty words they rearrange to name these streets?" Michael joked as he
backed up.

"Yep. Nevermind. It was Shady Oak," I smirked.

"I don't understand subdivision streets. Can't they draw a straight
line? Okay. There's Shady Brooke Lane," he said and turned on it. We
went around a curve and around a lake.

"Okay. Townhouses. That's a good sign. 1825. Should be another block or
so."

We finally found it and pulled into the driveway. It was slightly easier
to find since Justin had the garage door open and was slouched on his
car, nursing a cup of coffee.

"We're here," I yelled before rolling out of the van and stretching. It
wasn't raining here.

"Hey, guys," Justin said in a voice that suggested he was sleepwalking.
He gave Michael a quick hug, and then me.

I pulled open the side door. Only Scott was awake, but looking quite
dazed.

"We're here," I called out again.

Scott gave Brian, who was lying on the floor, a nudge with his foot and
reached back to tap Randy on the shoulder. Randy rolled over and fell to
the floor with a thump and flailing arms. I had to chuckle.

"Oh, I'm getting too old for this shit," Randy muttered as he sat up and
tried to work the kinks out of his back. "What time is it?"

"Around 8:30," I answered and took my bag from Michael, who was
unloading the back.

Eventually everyone rolled out and, after introducing Randy, we headed
inside.

"You guys are up here," Justin said to me and Michael as he led the way
upstairs to the guest room. "My bedroom is across the hall. The bathroom
en suite. I'll let you guys get cleaned up. I've got doughnuts and
coffee downstairs."

"What about the others?"

"The sofa flips out to a queen size, and I've got an air mattress. I
figured Scott and Brian are friends so they could share the sofa-bed,"
Justin said and then headed downstairs.

"You want to take a shower now or after breakfast?" Michael asked me.

"After. The coffee is calling my name," I smiled.

"Yea. I think I hear it mumbling mine, too. Hey, he's got a hot tub,"
Michael said as he looked out the window onto the back yard. It was a
fairly large back yard for a townhouse and enclosed by a high wall and
all screened in. It looked more like a large courtyard. "A pool, too,
but it's a bit cool for that."

"Hot tub tonight," I said as I went to the bathroom. "Damn. This
bathroom is as big as our bedroom. Bigger, I think."

"Our new bathroom will be like this, but without the garden tub,"
Michael said as he joined me.

"That how you pictured the shower?" I asked and pointed to the shower
that was glass on two sides.

"Not really. I was thinking more of a room with tile everywhere. I think
glass like that would just show water stains and make me want to clean
it all the time -- not that I would."

"I'm sure Justin just has the maid do it."

"Maybe we can get him to pay his maid to do our bathroom, too," Michael
smiled.

"He probably would if we gave him one of the apartments."

"Oh well. He'll have to pay like everyone else."

We cleaned up and then headed downstairs. Everyone else was sitting at
the kitchen table drinking coffee.

"Everything okay?" Justin asked.

"Yep," Michael answered. "Hot tub tonight?"

"What? Oh, sure. I haven't used it in forever."

"Why haven't you used it?"

"I don't know," Justin shrugged. "It's winter, so I don't go out there
very often. A hot tub is only nice if you're with someone, anyway."

"I can see that," I said. "So how was your xmas?"

"It was okay. The best part is seeing the kids get all excited. I wish I
could still get that excited about it. How about you guys?"

"Michael bought us a theater," I smiled.

"Okay. What about...He what!? You what? You bought a theater?!" Justin
choked over his coffee.

"Yep," Michael grinned. "A five storey building with a theater in it. It
needs a lot of work, but it's ours," he explained and then gave me a
kiss.

"And all I got was some underwear," Randy muttered. We all laughed.

"You really bought a theater?" Scott asked. We hadn't talked much about
anything on the drive down.

"He really did. You're welcome to help with the renovating," I said.

"Yea, sure. Wow. Your own theater..." Scott sighed.

"You need an architect?" Brian asked.

"Probably. You know anyone?" I teased.

"Me."

"You're not an architect, yet. We can take a walk-though when we get
back and I'll be happy to pick your brain for ideas."

"Love to. You need to have a registered architect sign off on the plans,
you know."

"For the public spaces, yea. I don't think we'll need to for the private
spaces."

"So what are you going to do with it? I mean, you've got a lot of space
if you've got five floors," Justin asked.

"The first two floors are the theater. We're gonna put apartments on the
other three floors," Michael answered.

"You gonna rent them or sell them?"

"We don't know yet."

"Let me know when you get closer. I may be interested," Justin said.

"Me, too," Randy added.

"You want a place in NYC?" I asked both of them.

"Why not? We're there pretty often. Not a big place. Just a comfortable
apartment," Justin said.

"Same here. I'm in New York more and more when we're not shooting,"
Randy said.

"You should just have an apartment that you rent out by the week. Like a
corporate suite or something," Scott offered.

"I'd want to have a bed that was just my bed and a place where I can
leave my junk. If I have to carry everything in and out it's just like a
hotel without room service," Justin said.

"Make it a larger apartment with multiple bedrooms. Each person could be
like a time share owner with their own bedroom. That way you're not
spending all that money for an apartment you only use a few weeks out of
the year," Brian reasoned.

"That could work as long as the bedroom was large enough to have a work
and relax space if I didn't feel like dealing with anyone," Justin said.

"We'll think about it," Michael said.

"I still haven't designed anything. I'll have to see what works out.
Okay, what about your xmas, Scott?"

"I didn't get a theater. I just got some clothes, a new iBook and an
iPod."

"Don't bitch about it. I still have that PII tank with Windows95," Brian
complained.

"I told you I'd sell you my old iBook."

"No thanks. I think I'd rather have a PII tank than a lime toilet seat,"
Brian smirked.

"But then again, thinking never was your forte," Scott countered.

"Point," Justin smiled. "What about you, Randy?"

"Books, music and clothes. Nothing exciting."

"That's a lie," I said.

"What?" Randy asked.

"The gift you said you got from Gale..."

"Oh," Randy said and rolled his eyes.

"What was it?" Scott asked.

"A blow up sex doll."

Everyone laughed.

"The thing is, it's a woman. What the hell am I supposed to do with it?"
Randy smirked.

"You could give it to..." Michael started.

"So what'd you get Michael?" Justin asked me, interrupting Michael and
giving him the finger at the same time.

Michael held up his hand to show off his ring, and I held my matching
one up.

"You proposed?"

"No. We're just together. We always will be. A ceremony won't change
that. I think it's just a warning for anyone taking a look," Michael
smiled and gave me a quick kiss.

"Yep. Hands off. Anyway, that was the anniversary present. For xmas I
got him some oil paints and a case of our favorite wine," I said.

"What's that?" Randy asked.

"MŽdoc," Michael answered.

"French?"

"Oui."

"Rouge ou blanc?"

"Rouge. Il est semblable au merlot," I said.

"D'Accord."

"We're in Florida. Speak Spanish or English," Justin said.

"Don't know much Spanish," I shrugged. "Of course, I don't know much
French, either."

"TrŹs vrai," Michael smirked.

"At least I didn't try to order poison for dinner," I smiled back.

"Poissons, poison, poissons, poison. God, I thought that waiter would
never stop trying to get me to say it correctly," Michael sighed.

"What's that supposed to be?" Brian asked.

"Fish," everyone answered at the same time.

"I guess I'm the only one who hasn't taken French," he shrugged.

"I just know if from touring Europe. We each chose a language to become
functional in. I got French. Lance got German. Joey got Italian, of
course. Chris got Spanish," Justin explained.

"That worked out well," Randy said.

"Mostly. Don't ever trust Chris, though."

"Why's that?"

"He ordered this calf brain jello for dinner one night. From the menu he
told us it was steak."

"At least he got the animal right."

"So? Do you know what calf brain jello looks like? I had to leave the
table," Justin laughed.

"So is there a plan today?" I asked.

"Not really. We're going over to Lance's for dinner tonight, but nothing
until then. Charlie and Kate don't get in until four."

"Where are they staying?"

"With Lance."

"Why not here?"

Justin gave me a look. "Not enough room. He RSVP'd too late. We can go
to Universal or something if you guys want."

"I want to take a shower and then a nap. I didn't sleep much on the way
here," Michael said.

"Me, too," Scott agreed.

"Okay. How about everyone rests and then maybe we can go out later and
play putt-putt or something?" Justin asked.

"Putt-putt?" I asked.

"Yea. I'd suggest b-ball, but I know how much you suck," he smiled.

"He sucks at the only balls that matter, too -- but that's a good
thing," Michael smiled.

"Thanks for sharing," Justin groaned.

"Basketball wouldn't be bad," Brian smiled.

"You can play?" Justin asked.

"I'm from Indiana. Of course I can play. It's required."

"Cool. Are you any good?"

"Not bad. I was on the varsity team in high school."

"I may have finally found some competition," Justin smiled.

"Scott was on the team, too," Brian said.

"Don't look at me to even it out," Randy said.

*

"Everyone ready?" Justin asked. We were getting ready to go play
basketball.

"Let me grab the car keys," Michael said and started upstairs.

"You don't need them. We're just going to the club house. We'll walk,"
Justin said.

We headed out and walked back around the lake to the club house
facility. There were all the things you'd expect: restaurant, tennis
courts, basketball courts, playground and a large fountain instead of a
pool -- probably because most of the houses likely had their own pool.
There was a group of teenagers already playing on one of the basketball
courts, and both tennis courts were in use.

"They let kids in this neighborhood?" Michael teased.

"They'll let anyone in who has the money," Justin shrugged.

"Do they attack?" I asked.

"Nah. They're used to seeing me. We'll probably be challenged to a game,
though. See that guy in the red shorts?" Justin said and pointed.
"That's Chris. He's fuckin' good. He's gonna go pro one day."

"Y'all suck!" Justin yelled to the four guys in the next court as we
walked onto our court.

They all stopped to look who it was.

"Lookin' to lose again, Tumblefake?" Chris yelled back.

"Tumblefake? Cute," I laughed.

"You'd better not have been shitting me about knowing how to play,"
Justin muttered quietly to Brian.

"We'll give 'em a challenge," Brian whispered back as we approached the
other guys at the fence in-between.

"Hey, man," Justin said and bumped fists with Chris, and then the other
guys there.

"Hey, man. You need a whole team to take me?" Chris teased.

"Wanna play?" Justin asked.

"Sure. Four on four?"

"No. Three on three. Those three can't play worth shit," Justin said and
gestured to Michael, Randy and me.

"Okay. I'm Chris. That's Eric, Pete and Art," Chris introduced his gang.

"Oh yea," Justin said and introduced us.

After the introductions were over they decided shirts or skins -- our
team being skins -- and decided to play to 30. Pete sat out to even up
the teams. They gave our team a few minutes to warm up, and then started
playing. Brian and Scott did know how to play and played well together,
but weren't in sync with Justin. Chris' team worked as a team, but it
was obvious that Chris was in charge. Neither team had it easy.

"So how long have you guys known Tumblefake?" Pete asked me.

"About a year. How'd you give him that nickname?"

"One of the first times he played us he did this fake dive thing like he
was hurt, and then grabbed the ball and ran. It was a good fake, but he
can't use it anymore. Even if he really was hurt, we'd probably just
trample him," Pete explained.

We continued watching the game, but Pete kept glancing over at us like
he thought he should recognize us, but couldn't figure out from where.
The game was hot and fast. The score was ten-twelve, their lead, when
Justin called for a break and came over to get some water.

"We're doing great, guys," he huffed to Scott and Brian, who were also
chugging water.

"They're really good," Scott huffed.

"We're still losing," Brian said.

"We're doing great. If I was playing with Josh and Joey right now we'd
be behind by 50," Justin said. "We need a little more teamwork, but
we're doing good. Ready?"

"Let's go," Brian said and they headed back. The game started again and
Justin made a basket right off the bat, tying them.

"Are you guys famous?" Pete finally got the balls to ask.

"Apparently not if you don't recognize us," Michael smirked.

"Sorry, man. I just figured if you were hanging out with Tumblefake, you
know..."

"No problem. I'm a rock star in Lithuania," Michael smiled. "Jonah here
is a porn actor, and Randy is a prison guard."

"A prison guard? I want to be the porn star," Randy protested.

"I'm the porn star," I countered.

"Just accept your place in life, man," Michael smiled to Randy.

"You guys are shitting me," Pete smiled, slightly unsure.

"Yea. I'm the rock star, and it's in Bulgaria, not Lithuania. Michael is
my opening act. He plays the spoons. Believe it or not, the spoons are
really big in Bulgaria. Randy is my bodyguard," I explained.

"I'm thinking of branching out to forks. I don't want to be limited to
spoons," Michael said.

"Y'all are as bad as the guys in his group. Can't get a straight answer
out of them about anything," Pete said.

"That's 'cause none of them are straight -- except Lance," Michael said.

"Serious? I thought it was the other way around. Really? So it's all a
cover or something?"

"No, but it's the best come-back I could think of at the time," Michael
smiled.

"Right. Don't trust a word you guys say," Pete said and turned back to
watch the game.

Who knows what the score was, but the play was just as frantic as when
we'd been paying attention. The game was apparently over when Scott
scored a three-point basket. Justin grabbed him and threw him over his
shoulder, bouncing around and cheering. Scott was just trying to get
down. Justin finally put him down and Brian gave Scott a quick masculine
hug.

"Good game," Chris said between heavy breaths and shook their hands.

"Note this day in the history books. The day Chris Erols lost a
basketball game to Justin Timberlake," Justin yelled.

"Don't be a bad winner -- 'cause you know I'll kick your ass again the
next time you play with your group," Chris smiled.

"It's my one moment to gloat. Let me have it," Justin shot back.

"You should have had me in there instead of Art," Pete said.

"He's got a point. We could have lost a lot quicker and not be so
tired," Art smiled.

"Fuck you," Pete smiled back. "So Tumblefake, who are these guys,
really? They wouldn't give me straight answer." He asked and point to
all of us.

"Yea, they're like that. You probably wouldn't have heard of them.
Michael is a clown. Mostly kids parties. Jonah directs dog food
commercials, and Randy is a porn star," Justin said.

"Vindication!" Randy laughed.

"I'm a porn director," Brian added.

"I teach ballet to quadriplegics," Scott smiled.

I busted up laughing. Michael was smoother and just buried his face in
his hands as he shook with laughter.

"Obviously they're related to your band," Chris deadpanned.

Justin shrugged. "Well, thanks for letting me have a taste of victory.
We've gotta split."

There was a little more banter and then we walked back to Justin's
house.

"Teach ballet to quadriplegics?" I asked Scott.

"Yea..."

"Fuckin' brilliant, man. Fuckin' brilliant," I laughed and gave him a
pat on the back.

"So I'm a clown, huh?" Michael said to Justin.

"Duh," Justin smirked.

"Porn director was so boring. You can do better than that," Scott teased
Brian.

"Sorry. There was a porn actor, so there needed to be a director," Brian
tried to justify.

"You guys are now officially my best basketball pals," Justin said and
put his arms around Scott and Brian. "I'm gonna fly you in whenever I
need a win."

"I hardly play anymore, so you may want to rethink that," Scott said.

"No way, man. You've just gotta keep playing," Justin said.

"You two didn't play that well when we were playing in Chicago," I said.

"It was late. Besides, we didn't want to show you up," Brian smirked.

"It wasn't a competition," Scott said.

*

There was already quite a group of people there when we got to Lance's
house. It was a regular house and much larger than Justin's. Charlie and
Kate were sitting together on the patio talking to some people I didn't
know.

"Hey! The gang's all here," Charlie smiled as he saw us enter the patio
area and got up to meet us.

"Hey, man," I said and gave him a hug. "So introduce me to Kate. I'm the
only one who hasn't met her," I prodded.

"You will. Be patient," he said and gave Michael a hug, and then Justin.


"This is Scott and Brian," Michael introduced.

"Nice to meet you," Charlie said and shook their hands. "Hey,
doppelganger," he said to Randy.

"Hey, prototype model," Randy smirked back.

"Good one. The title is all yours. Okay, Jonah, come meet the love of my
life."

"AKA Kate," Kate smiled. She was very attractive. "Nice to finally meet
you."

"You, too. I'm glad you gave Charlie a chance, 'cause he was smitten at
first sight," I teased.

"You're seriously hurting my cool points," Charlie stated.

"I already knew. It was mutual," Kate smiled and gave Charlie a quick
kiss on the cheek.

"You had cool points? Who'd you steal those from?" I smiled.

"Certainly wasn't from you," Charlie smiled back.

"Okay, it was me. He was desperate, so I loaned him some," Michael said.

"Dealing in stolen merchandise?" Justin said.

Michael shrugged. "Some of us can't afford to buy our coolness," he said
and then gave a huge grin.

"Still at it, I see," Charlie commented.

*

"Jonah, can I talk to you in private?" Charlie asked me.

"Yea, sure," I said and we went inside to find a private room. "What's
up?" I asked as we were alone in the guest bedroom Charlie and Kate were
staying in.

"I'm going to propose to Kate on New Year's Eve."

"Serious? Man, that's fast."

"Yea, I know, but she's the one. You and Michael knew right away,
right?"

"Not exactly. After we finally got together, I guess we did, for the
most part."

"Right. Same thing here. I can't imagine my life without Kate in it."

"It's so nice to see you so much in love," I smiled.

"Thanks. It feels nice, too."

"What do you think she'll say?"

"I'm hoping she'll say 'yes'," he said like it should be obvious.

"I know what you're hoping. What do you THINK she'll say?"

"I think she'll say 'yes'."

"Good. Then good luck," I said and gave him a quick hug. "Have you told
anyone else?"

"Not yet. The reason I'm telling you is that I'd like you to be my best
man," Charlie said.

"Serious?"

"You keep saying that."

"I know. I'm honored. Really. But also kinda confused. Don't you have
anyone you've known longer or are closer to?"

"That I've known longer, but not who I'd trust with the responsibility.
I wouldn't trust the twats I call friends back in the UK to water my
plants, much less help with my wedding. That leaves you, Michael and J.
Asking J to do it would just be too weird. Michael isn't very organized.
You're a good friend and organized. Seems like the perfect choice to me.
So do you accept?"

"Yea, I accept. Definitely. Wow. So do you have any ideas for the plans
yet?"

"Thanks," Charlie said with a relieved sigh and gave me another quick
hug. "No definite plans yet. I think we may have the wedding on the east
coast. Maybe New York. Kate has family in Connecticut and it'd be a
shorter flight for my family than bringing everyone to LA. I don't know
when. I'm not in any real rush."

"Except to propose."

"Yea, well once she accepts it's almost like being married. It's the
commitment that counts."

"You said the 'c' word," I teased.

"Cunt?" Charlie smiled.

"The other one. So when are you going to ask her?"

"Okay. This is how I have it planned. Tell me if it sounds stupid."

"Okay."

"Okay. So it's midnight and everyone is hugging and kissing and so on. I
hand her her glass of champagne with the ring attached. When she notices
it I ask. That sound okay?"

"Yea, but everyone usually has a glass before the champagne gets
poured."

"Hmm. I'll just have to hold that glass until then and then hand it to
her."

"That'll probably work. So let's see the ring."

"Oh yea," Charlie said and went to dig in his suitcase. He pulled out
two crystal champagne flutes. One of them had a very nice diamond ring
around the stem.

"Very nice. How'd you get the ring there and how's she supposed to get
it off?"

"I had these made. I just gave them the ring and they put the ring on
before they attached the base. She'll have to break the glass to get the
ring. Think of it as breaking with the past or something."

"Nice idea, but then she has to dig around in broken glass to get the
ring."

"Shit. I didn't think about that. I knew I should have talked to you
about it before I did it. See? This is the kinda stuff that you just
think about and notice. Fuck me. What do I do now? 'Will you marry me?
Say yes by slicing off a finger?'" Charlie ranted.

I started laughing. "Relax, man. You've got time. I'd say two options
with keeping the same idea. You can get a piece of velvet or something
and a small hammer so you can safely just knock off the base of the
glass if she says yes."

"WHEN she says yes."

"When. Anyway, you can also just break it now and get two new champagne
flutes. This time just tie the ring to the stem with a ribbon."

"The second way. Well, there's two-hundred dollars down the drain."

"That's how much the flutes cost?"

"Yep. Custom made."

"Well, you were gonna have to break one of them, anyway," I shrugged.

"Yea. So can you go out with me tomorrow to get some new flutes?"

"Yea, but I don't know where anything is. Justin or Lance would be a
much better choice."

"I didn't want to tell anyone else, yet. Do you think you can keep it to
yourself for two days?"

"Even from Michael?

"If you would. Please?"

"Yea, I guess. That's gonna make it harder to sneak away to go
shopping."

"We'll just say we're going out. Early tomorrow morning. I'll check the
phone directory for places and we can both try to pump a local for good
places and directions."

"Okay."

"Thanks, mate," he said and gave me another hug. "Let's go back to the
party."

*

"Where were you?" Michael asked me as I sat down beside him.

"Just talking with Charlie."

"Where? I didn't see you guys."

"Inside."

"Anything good?"

"I've been sworn to secrecy for now."

"Oh, come on. Tell me."

"I'm going out with him tomorrow morning to get some things."

"What are we getting?"

"Just me and Charlie. No one else."

"Should I be jealous?"

"Yea, sure. Like I could take him away from Kate," I smiled.

"Okay... How long do I have to wait to know what's going on?"

"Probably on the first."

"He's gonna propose, isn't he?"

"I'm not saying."

"I know he's gonna. He doesn't waste any time."

"So what were you and Kate talking about?" I asked.

"Change of subject. Smooth."

"Avoiding the question."

"I just told her about..."

"You bought a theater?!" Charlie yelled. Kate had, apparently, told him.

"...about the theater," Michael continued.

"You twat! Why didn't you tell me you were buying a theater?"

"You know now," Michael shrugged.

"That's brilliant! When's the first show? What's it going to be?"
Charlie continued.

"It's pretty much a gutted building right now. There won't be any shows
for a while," I explained.

We explained again what it was and what we were planning to do with it.
Charlie also put dibs in on getting one of the apartments. Michael
commented that we'd have all the apartments rented out by the end of the
trip at this rate. We talked with Charlie and Kate a little longer and
then went to mix and talk with some other people.

*

"You wanna know what I think?" Michael asked me softly as we were
enjoying an after dinner Irish coffee.

"It depends."

"I think that Lance and Randy would make a cute couple," Michael said
and pointed over to the two of them talking in a corner and laughing.

"Yea, they do. That might actually be a good match. They're both very
relationship oriented."

"We'll have to do what we can to make sure they get a lot of time
together while we're here -- just to get to know each other."

"I don't know Randy's look, but Lance has his 'I want to jump his bones'
look in his eyes," I smiled.

"You guys about ready to go?" Justin asked as he walked up to us.

"Already?"

"Yea. It's kinda winding down and a few people are going to bed."

"Can we wait a little longer? Or at least until Randy and Lance get
interrupted?"

"Why?" Justin asked and looked over to them. "Oh."

"Don't you think they look cute together?" Michael asked.

"Yea, they do," Justin said softly. "Leave them alone. Leave them
alone," he whispered as a few people who were staying with Lance walked
up to them. "Oh well. Let's go."

*

Michael and I got undressed and wrapped towels around ourselves before
heading down to the hot tub. I sighed as I sank into the hot bubbly
water. It felt so good. It had cooled down to about 65ˇF, so it wasn't
too hot to be in the hot water.

"We really need to get one of these," Michael smiled softly and spread
out before the others joined us.

"It would be perfect if we could get one on the roof. I'll work on it."

"How is it?" Justin asked as he came out.

"Wonderful. What's with the swimming suit?" Michael asked.

"Strangers?" I asked.

Justin looked at us a few seconds. "I'm guessing you don't have anything
on."

"Just a smile," Michael said and we both grinned hugely for Justin.

"What the hell," Justin shrugged and dropped his bathing suit before
sinking down into the water. "I like it better this way, anyway."

"It's in your own private yard. Why would you do otherwise?"

"Not everyone is as comfortable with nudity as you guys are."

"That would be Scott. Hi, Scott," I smiled as he walked out.

"What?" He asked cautiously.

"Au natural, man. No suits," Michael said.

"You're kidding."

Michael and I stood up for a second.

"You're not kidding. I should have known," he grumbled as he slid his
bathing suit down while holding his towel in front of himself.

Randy let out a loud wolf whistle as he walked out to the sight of
Scott's bare ass.

"Nice ass," Brian teased.

"Yea, whatever. No suits in the hot tub."

"Good rule," Randy smiled and dropped his suit.

"Thanks. We just made it up," Michael said.

Scott set down his towel and quickly got into the water. Randy casually
walked over like being naked made no difference to him. Brian was
somewhere in-between. Everyone just relaxed the first few minutes.
Justin closed his eyes and sank down so the water was just below his
ears.

"Stop touching me, Scott," Brian teased after a few minutes and splashed
him.

"You wish. It was Randy," Scott mumbled.

"If you'd stop pulling my hand into your lap, I wouldn't be touching
you," Randy countered.

"I'm gonna cool down," I said and got out to jump into the pool. The
cool water was a shock. "Ah! Damn, that's refreshing!" I yelled as I
surfaced.

"I know you're lying, but I need to cool off, too," Michael said before
he jumped in. He surfaced with a scream. "Damn! Refreshing!"

"Did I mention that I don't have the pool heater on?" Justin smiled.

"It's not that bad. Warmer than snow," I said.

"Why would I have snow in my pool?"

"I don't know. When I was in high school there was a girl in the drama
club who had a hot tub. We'd only use it in the winter. Stay in the tub
until you got hot, and then roll around in the snow before jumping back
in."

"Ah, yea, okay. I've done that when we've gone skiing, though it was
more like a snowball fight instead of rolling around in the snow."

"Ouch. A good shot could really hurt," Michael grimaced.

"Yea, I know," Justin smiled and joined us in the pool.

"So what's up with you? You seem down?" I asked Justin softly as I
cornered him in the pool. Michael had swam over to the side and was
floating.

"Do I?"

I nodded. "You have been all day."

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Just the holidays, I guess. Another year
alone."

"Alone? What am I? Or Michael? Or everyone else?"

"You know what I mean. Friends are great, yea, but I'm talking about a
love. Charlie even found someone right away. Before you say it, no, I'm
not upset about it. I really like Kate and he totally loves her."

"But a bit envious?"

"Yea, probably," he conceded.

"Is that the real reason he isn't staying here?"

"What? No. It would just be weird," he said and then started chuckling.
"Just think if you guys were here and Charlie and Kate were here. He
would have slept with everyone."

"Does she know?"

"Just that's he's slept with guys, not which ones."

At that moment, when he thought people weren't looking, Scott jumped out
of the hot tub and into the pool. Justin and I looked and his eyes got
huge.

"Damn. He's hung," Justin said softly.

"Yea, but he's as self-conscious about it as you are about your
endowment," I said.

"Or lack there of..." Justin groaned and then went down as Michael
shoved him under from behind.

"Ha!" Michael laughed, and then was pulled under a second later. I
quickly swam over towards Scott and out of their reach.

"See? It's not so bad," I said as I reached Scott.

"I know. I'm still getting used to being an exhibitionist when not
drugged up," he said as we both turned to watch Brian jump to make a
dive into the pool, but slip and end up doing a belly flop. We both
busted up laughing, as did Randy, who just hopped in.

"Ouch! Fuck," Brian yelled as he surfaced.

"Real nice, graceful," Scott teased.

"I slipped," Brian groaned and moved to the shallow end stairs to sit
and recover.

"Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink," Randy said softly as
he approached me.

"Save me, you deserter," Michael yelled as he swam behind me and
positioned me between himself and Justin.

"I'm not your momma," I said and sank down between his legs, putting him
up on my shoulders and standing up. The water was almost chest deep
here, so it was pretty easy.

"Chicken fight!" Michael roared. "Who's the first to bow down before
us?"

"Come on, Scott. On my shoulders," Justin rose, or rather, sank to the
challenge and went under. Scott tried to get away, but he was too slow
once he realized what Justin was doing.

"Put me down. Let's do this the other way. Me on bottom," Scott
complained as he rose into the air.

"I'm much heavier than you are. Take them down. Wipe that smirk off
Michael's face," Justin growled and headed straight for us.

Michael and Scott were trying to push or pull each other off while
Justin and I tried to trip each other.

"You do realize that if Scott gets a hard-on that it'll probably go
through your head, right?" I tried the psychological approach, as Justin
was much more steady on his feet than I was.

It worked. He got a stricken look on his face and then busted up
laughing. That was enough and I lunged forward. They went down.

"Still the victors. You went down like the cheap whores you are,"
Michael taunted, and then started singing "We are the champions."

"Not for long," Brian challenged as he, on Randy's shoulders, plowed
into us from the side. I lost my footing where the pool got deeper and
pulled out from under Michael. When I got to the surface, Brian was
singing "We are the champions."

"You cheat!" Michael yelled.

"It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose," Brian
countered.

Scott and Justin had remounted and grabbed Brian from behind, pulling
him backwards. They were down before they knew what happened to them.

"Just like a phoenix," Scott smiled smugly.

"I'm going back to the hot tub. You could cut glass with my nipples
right now," I said. Everyone agreed and the hot tub was soon full again.

"So what does everyone want to do tomorrow?" Justin asked as we relaxed.

"Universal," Scott said.

"Definitely," Brian added.

"I need to go out with Charlie in the morning, but we should be back by
one, at the latest," I said.

"What are you doing?" Justin asked.

"Just going to get something."

"It's hush-hush. He won't even tell me," Michael said.

"Yep. So, Randy, how do you feel about Lance?" I asked to change the
subject.

"I don't know. I haven't felt him," Randy smiled.

"You have my approval if you guys want to get together," Justin said.

"Do I need it?"

"Pretty much. We watch out for each other."

"Okay. Well, thanks for the approval."

"Just don't fuck around on him if you get together. I will hunt you down
and castrate you if you do."

"Harsh."

"I'd hold you down while he did it," I added.

"I'd hand him the spork to do it," Michael smiled.

"Okaaay. This is frightening," Randy said hesitantly.

"Just don't fuck around. If you're together, you're together. If you
want to sleep with someone else, then break up. Simple as that," I
stated.

"We've already talked about this. You know I don't sleep around now. Why
would I do it when I was with someone?" Randy said.

"I'm not saying you would. I'm just letting you know what would happen
if you did," Justin stated simply.

"What time does the party start tomorrow?" I asked.

"Nine. We'll probably leave here around 8:30," Justin answered.

"We're going in a limo, right? I couldn't possibly show up in anything
less," Brian joked.

"The rest of us are. You can walk if you're gonna be like that," Justin
shot back.

"Why a limo?" Michael asked.

"Because we're gonna be drinking."

"Why not a taxi?"

"'Cause there're six of us. We'd have to take two taxis. It's not a big
deal. It's not one of those huge stretch limos. Just big enough for the
six of us," Justin explained.

"Okay. So how do we want to do tomorrow? Can you drive to Universal so I
can take the van out with Charlie?" I asked Justin.

"Why don't you take my car and we'll take the van? There are more of
us," Justin offered.

"I don't know. I think I'd be afraid to drive your car."

"It's insured, and I know you're a good driver."

"Yea, okay. So do you just want to meet up at Universal?"

"What time will you guys be done?"

"I don't know."

"Then that kinda makes it difficult to meet up."

"Everyone has a cell phone. What's so difficult?"

"Oh. Right. Yea, okay. We'll have to leave the park by five, so I
wouldn't bother coming if it's past three."

"Why leave by five if we aren't leaving for the party until 8:30?" Scott
asked.

"Six people have to get ready," Justin said.

"Now that that's decided, I'm gonna head to bed," I said and climbed out
and Michael joined me. "Night, guys." We took a quick shower, snuggled
and were out almost instantly.


*** New Year's Eve

"Hey, mate. Ready to go?" Charlie said as I answered my mobile while we
were eating breakfast.

"Just eating breakfast. Twenty minutes?"

"I'll be here," he said and hung up.

"Charlie?" Michael asked.

"Yep. Can I get your keys, Justin?"

He pointed to a hook beside the door that lead to the garage. "What's
Kate doing while you guys are going out?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask. Maybe you should call and invite her to go
with you guys."

*

"How about these?" Charlie asked me, again.

"They're fine. So were the last thousand we looked at. It's just a glass
for fuck's sake. Pick one," I snapped.

"It has to be perfect."

"It doesn't matter. You want her to pay attention to the ring, and then
to you. Just get this one. Plain and simple. Classy."

"Yea, but I kinda fancy the ones with the curl in the stem."

"Great. Get those. You can tie the ring so it hangs down from the curl.
I'm making a Best Man decision. He'll take these," I said to the sales
clerk.

"You don't think they're..."

"No. I don't. They're perfect," I interrupted. "If you're this
indecisive when it comes to making decisions for the wedding you won't
have to worry about it. I'll kill you."

He gave me a look and rolled his eyes.

*

I put the key in. Before I could even start the car, it jerked hard and
the back door window shattered. Someone hit us. Shit. We aren't even
moving. Hell, the car isn't even started. It took a few seconds for my
heart to start beating again.

"Fuck me!" Charlie yelled. "I think I just pissed myself."

I look at his lap. "You still look dry," I said, suddenly feeling very
tired. I did not want to deal with this. I looked back to see what hit
us -- an older Toyota pick-up truck with a young guy driving who looked
just as startled as we were, not to mention probably freaked that he hit
a Mercedes. I tried opening my door, but it was pinched shut by the
crumpled back door. Charlie opened his and we both slid out the
passenger side.

"Can you call 911 and have the police come?" I asked Charlie. "I'll deal
with the driver."

"Yea, okay," Charlie said. He was still kinda shaky. So was I.

I walked over to the kid who hit us, and he was a kit. Probably not even
18 yet. He hadn't moved from the driver's seat and was clutching the
steering wheel, looking straight ahead with tears running down his face.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I approached his door.

He jumped like he was startled, and then quickly wiped his face with his
hands.

"Yea, um, I'm fine. I'm really sorry, man. I was just, like...um, I
think my tire blew. I couldn't stop or get control of it fast enough."

"It happens. That's what insurance is for. At least no one is hurt," I
said and looked at his front tire. It was in pieces. Major blow-out.

"Shit!" The kid said and slammed the steering wheel with his hands
before getting out. "I knew I needed new tires, but I thought they'd
hold out for a little longer. Shit. I'm gonna be late for work," he said
and pulled out a mobile to call into his work.

"At least you weren't on the highway when it happened," I said after he
hung up.

"Yea, some consolation. Instead I hit a Mercedes. Why couldn't I have
hit a cheap car?"

"Or even just run off the road. I'm Jonah," I said and reached out to
shake his hand.

"Steven. I'm really sorry," he said as he shook my hand.

"It's done," I shrugged.

"They said it'd be ten minutes or so," Charlie said as he walked around
the car to join us.

Steven did a doubletake. He, obviously, recognized Charlie.

"So what the bloody hell happened?" Charlie said to me.

"His tire blew and he lost control."

"Brilliant," he sighed sarcastically and slumped against Justin's car.

"I'd better call Justin, too," I said and walked away from them as I
pulled out my mobile.

"Hey. You guys at the entrance?" Justin said as he answered.

"No. We're at a mall. We got hit."

"What?! What did you do to my Merc?"

"We got hit. We were in a parking spot and didn't even have the car
started, much less moving. Some kid's tire blew out and he crashed into
the back side. The cops are on the way," I explained. "But thanks for
asking. We're all okay," I added sarcastically.

"Sorry. I figured you wouldn't be calling if you were dead..." He said
and a short struggle ensued as Michael pulled the phone away from him.

"What happened? Are you guys okay?" Michael asked.

"Hey, babe. Yea, we're fine. Just smashed up the back of Justin's cars.
Someone hit us while we were parked."

"You need us to come get you?"

"Yea. I don't think his car is drivable."

"Where are you at?"

I told him where we were and Justin verified he knew where it was at.
They would be here as soon as they could.

"Worried about his car?" Charlie asked like he knew the answer.

"Yep," I sighed and sat next to him.

"Um, you're Charlie Hunnam, aren't you?" Steven asked.

"No. I'm Jonah Mars," I smirked.

"No. I meant him," he said and pointed to Charlie.

"Yea, that's me," Charlie sighed.

"Wow. I can't believe I hit Charlie Hunnam's car. I love 'Queer as
Folk'."

"Actually, you hit Justin Timberlake's car," Charlie smiled.

"What!? Justin Timberlake?"

"Yep. You hurt his baby," I added.

"No one is going to believe me. You guys know Justin? What am I saying?
Of course you know him or you wouldn't be driving his car. What's he
like?" Steven rambled.

"Really pissed. He's on his way here, as soon as he stops and picks up
his shotgun," I said seriously. Charlie shot be a small grin.

"Shotgun?" Steven asked.

"Like I said, he's pissed. You hurt his baby."

"Stop trying to scare him. You know the last guy deserved it. This was
just an accident," Charlie said.

"Yea, but what about the guy before that? All he did was ask for an
autograph."

"He deserved it, too. He interrupted him while he was having dinner. It
was rude."

"Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway. I'm sure the police will be here
before he gets here. He won't do anything with the police here," I said.

"Unless he's been drinking. Where was he when you called?"

"At the bar," I cringed.

Steven looked pale. Another few minutes and we could probably get his to
piss his pants. He was almost in tears.

"Hey Steven..." I said.

"Um...yea?" He gulped.

"We're just messing with you," I smiled.

He looked at us a few seconds as Charlie and I smiled.

"So this isn't Justin Timberlake's car?" He asked hesitantly.

"Oh no, it's his car, and he'll probably be pissed, but the only thing
you'll have to worry about is him going diva on you and maybe crying
over the car. He's harmless," I said.

"Unless he starts telling jokes, then you'd better run for cover,"
Charlie added.

Steven kinda chuckled and looked relieved. "You had me going there."

I shrugged. "Just don't freak out around him, or Charlie."

"Here come the cops," Charlie said and stood up straight.

We gave our statements to the cop. Steven was cited and the cop stayed
until Justin got there since we weren't the owners of the car, so he
said. More likely to get an autograph for his daughter or something, and
he did. Steven stayed around as well and personally apologized to Justin
for hitting his car. Justin accepted the apology, but was almost in
tears at the sight of his damaged car. We waited for the tow truck and
then headed back to Justin's house to get ready.

*

"I thought the party was going to be at Joey's house?" I asked as we
pulled up to warehouse in a business park.

"It used to be. It just got too big and too noisy. He pissed his
neighbors off last year," Justin answered.

"How many people are going to be here?" Michael asked.

"I don't know. Probably at least 200," Justin shrugged.

"Just a few friends getting together, huh?" Scott smirked.

"It just kept growing. He said he wanted to keep it small this year, and
then invites every person he runs into and tells them to invite who they
want."

*

"Hey, Jonah. Pour me one, too," Lance said and threw his arm around me
and his glass in front of me.

"How strong?"

"Just enough to taste it."

"Gotcha. So you seem to be getting along with Randy," I smiled and
wagged my eye brows.

"Yep. Thanks for bringing him," Lance said, and then whispered. "He's
really hot. I can't believe he likes me."

"Everyone who knows you likes you, Lance. You're Mr. Nice-guy," I
teased.

"Thanks a lot," he groaned. "Just watch me on the dance floor. Mr.
Nice-guy is taking a break tonight," Lance grinned and headed back to
Randy.

*

"Okay. Next up is Jonah Mars and Michael Pitt. Now would probably be a
good time for everyone to visit the bathroom," Chris announced.

Michael and I made our way to the stage area amidst the laughter.
Michael grabbed the electric guitar while I went to the keyboard and set
the sound to drums. We adjusted our mics. He gave me a look to make sure
I was ready. I nodded. He turned up the guitar and stomped on the
distortion pedal. The feedback was immediate and loud. He struck a chord
and let it ring.

"Thanks, Chris, and those of you who aren't participating in the piss
party. We'd like to dedicate this first song to our hosts," Michael said
calmly and then yelled, "1-2-3-4!"

I came in on the keyboard drums as we played our very fast punk rock
song. We did about 15 seconds of just guitar and drums and then did the
only verse -- at hyper-speed, of course.

"Boy-bands suck," Michael yelled.

"And pretty damn well," I echoed.

We repeated that twice more and then stopped with a huge orgasmic sigh.
The whole song lasted twenty seconds. The laughter and cheers lasted
much longer.

"Thanks. I see by your response that we're not the only ones who feel
that way," Michael said and got another laugh.

"Anyone who is unsure can visit Chris in the bathroom. There's a sign-up
sheet near the bar," I added. More laughs.

"Okay, just one more song," Michael said and adjusted the guitar while I
changed the keyboard sound to a piano. We did one of Michael's songs,
with my additions on piano. It was a thousand times slower and more
musical than our first song. One song to have fun and one to prove we
did have musical talent. I'm pretty sure we both got some sort of
perverse pleasure out of it, considering the audience. We got a nice
round of applause afterwards.

"Thanks," Michael said after we finished and put down the guitar.

"Thanks, Jonah and Michael. I might actually get some tonight," Chris
joked as he grabbed the mic to do the next introduction.

"The sign-up sheet is still empty!" Joey yelled from the bar.

"Empty? Come on, ladies," Chris pouted. "Anyway. The night is still
young, and speaking of young, our next victim...uh, performer, is Scott
McManis. Get up here, Scott."

There was some commotion towards the back and suddenly Scott was in the
air, being carried to the stage by Justin. Justin set him down on the
stage and stood there to make sure he didn't try to run off. Scott gave
him a nasty look and then moved in front of the microphone.

"Um, since I don't really have a choice," Scott said hesitantly and shot
Justin another nasty look.

Justin just folded his arms and smiled.

"Um, okay," Scott said and took a breath before softly singing. "Justin
had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Justin had a little lamb.
AND THAT'S JUST SICK!" He finished with a yell. The crowd exploded in
laughter -- even Justin.

"Thanks," Scott smiled and exited the stage as quickly as he could.

Chris quickly grabbed the mic and loudly cleared his throat. "Um,
Justin. Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

"Yea. I want my lamb back, Chris!" Justin yelled.

"Oops. Busted," Chris joked. "Moving right along, our next..."

We ignored him and went to get a drink.

"We kicked ass," Michael smiled and gave me a quick kiss.

"Yep. We're good together."

"And Scott's quicker than I give him credit for."

"Yea, he's just full of surprises. I think we all did pretty good. The
performances are hilarious."

"Justin doing 'Mmm bop'?"

"Mmmm, okay. Pretty funny, though I think Charlie and Kate doing
'Muskrat Love' beats it."

"Good show, Scott," Michael said as Scott joined us.

"Thanks. You too, or you two too. However that works. A little warning
would have been nice," Scott said.

"It's best just to throw you in. If you have time to think about it you
get freaked out," I smiled.

"Yea, but since you didn't tell me, I didn't tell Brian. He's freaking,"
Scott laughed.

"He can just pick one of the karaoke songs if he doesn't have anything
better."

"No. You don't understand. He can't sing. Not even a little. Children
cry and people run for cover when he tries. Think of a tone deaf moose
being dragged behind a truck."

"Interesting analogy," I said and gave him an odd look.

"You'll understand," Scott smiled.

"There you are. Man, I can't do that," Brian slurred as he stumbled up.
It was obvious he'd been taking advantage of the open bar. "I can't. I
totally can't. I'm gonna make a total ass of myself. You know I can't
sing."

"At this point I think you could do the Dead Kennedys' 'Too drunk to
fuck' pretty believably," Michael smirked.

"Huh? I'm too not durnk," Brian protested.

"Or drunk, even," Scott corrected, though Brian didn't catch it.

"I think you should do some diva song and act really serious as you
slaughter it. It'll look like you meant to do it," I offered.

"Yea. Good. What song?" Brian asked as Chris called his name.

"That's you. You better get up there," Scott teased and gave him a push
towards the stage.

"No. Wait! What song?"

"Do 'The Greatest Love'," Scott laughed. "You know, that old Whitney
Houston song."

"Ugh! I hate that song."

"So? Go do it."

Brian stumbled his way to the stage, with Scott's not-so-gentle nudging.
Scott said something to Chris and they both laughed as Chris set up the
karaoke machine for the chosen song. Brian looked like he was going to
pass out standing in front of the microphone. The music started. Brian
came in late and kinda mumbled through the first few lines to catch up.
The crowd yelled for him to sing louder. He did. Well, he did get
louder. Singing...I don't think it could actually be called that. I
didn't know it was possible for someone to sing so horribly. The crowd
must have thought the same and thought he was pretending. As they
laughed and cheered he go more and more into it, camping it up. Oh, it
was horrible. The pain. The pain. Chris finally gave him the "gong", ‡
la "The Gong Show". Thank you, Chris.

"We'll now take a ten minute break for everyone to regain their
hearing," Chris joked.

Scott rejoined us, laughing his ass off, with Brian, who wasn't quite
sure if it had worked or not.

"So? Did it work?" Brian asked.

"I think my ears are bleeding," I cringed and held my hands over my
ears.

"Is there such a thing as hysterical deafness?" Michael said with a
pained expression.

"I told you!" Scott laughed. "It was great, man. You'll never be asked
to sing again. The stories of your performance will become urban legend
and passed down through the generations," he continued to tease.

"Fuck you. I need a drink," Brian sneered and stumbled off towards the
bar.

"He's a pleasant drunk," I commented.

"He gets enough practice. He's always telling me about these parties he
goes to every weekend," Scott said.

"Every weekend? How are his grades?" I asked.

"I don't know. He wouldn't tell me. His folks are pretty pissed,
though."

"Is he flunking out?"

"I don't think so. Not yet, anyway."

*

"I'm having second thoughts," Charlie said to me as we headed back to
our table to get the champagne flutes he'd stashed. The music had
already stopped and noise makers and such were being handed out.

"It's not too late. Maybe it's a sign that you really don't love her and
don't think it'll last," I shrugged.

"That's reverse psychology you're trying, right?"

"Yep," I smiled.

"Okay. I can do this," Charlie said to himself and took a deep breath.

"Of course you can do it. You know she loves you as much as you love
her."

"Yea, I know," he smiled with a sappy grin.

"And if she doesn't say 'yes' we'll kick her ass," I smiled and gave him
a sideways hug.

*

"Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!!" The entire Eastern time zone yelled
at once.

Kisses and hugs all around, followed by the pop of several bottles of
champagne. Charlie gave me a quick look before shoving his glasses in
the group to be filled by Joey, who was basically pouring it around and
hoping that it hit a glass, and pretty successfully. Charlie got his
glasses filled and shot me another look before heading back to Kate and
leading her away from the crowd. I gave him a smile and stuck my tongue
out at him. He laughed.

"He's gonna ask her now?" Michael asked me, pulling my attention back to
him.

"Ask who what?" I smiled.

"Nevermind," he groaned and pulled me over near Charlie and Kate.

Kate had just noticed the ring and Charlie was going down on one knee.
There was too much noise to hear what was being said, but by the time we
got to them she had pulled him up and they were kissing.

"Are congratulations in order?" I asked as they parted.

"Yep," Charlie grinned and attacked me in a hug, and then Michael.

"Congratulations," I said to Kate and gave her a hug and a kiss on the
cheek.

"Thank you," Kate said through her tears of happiness.

"Do you want to make an announcement on the PA?" I asked Charlie.

"Um... I don't know half the people here, but sure...what the hell. Is
that okay with you?" He asked Kate.

"Go ahead," Kate said, still smiling broadly and teary eyed.

"I love you," he smiled and gave her a quick kiss before pulling me
through the crowd to the PA. "Make it dramatic," Charlie said to me as
he reached for the microphone.

"Me?"

"Yea. You're my best man. You get to give the speeches."

"But you're the performer."

"You'll figure something great to say. You always do."

"Yea. I always put my foot in my mouth."

"Be modest later. Here," he said and shoved the microphone in my hand
and turned up the volume. "I'll be with Kate," he said and ran off.

"Bastard," I muttered under my breath. Okay. Think of something. Quick.

"May I have everyone's attention, please," I said. It took a minute
before it got quiet and everyone was looking at me.

"Thank you. I have a special announcement to make. Towards the end of
September this year a wacky but lovable Brit that you may have met
tonight found his true love. His description of her before he even knew
anything about her was, if I remember correctly, 'an amazing, really
sexy and fantastic and intelligent and beautiful woman.' Yep. It was
love at first sight. This goddess took pity on the Brit and they had
their first date. It just snowballed from there. So, getting to the
point. Tonight, being the wacky but lovable guy he is, the Brit asked
the Goddess to marry him. Obviously you can guess the outcome since I'm
talking about it. Congratulations, Charlie and Kate. I wish you a long
and happy love."

*

"Hey, Randy. Just on time. We're about to head back," Michael said as
Randy and Lance walked up to us.

"Actually..." Randy started.

"He's gonna stay with me tonight," Lance completed.

"Good for you," Michael smiled.

"Both of you," I added.

"Have fun," Justin almost smiled.

"I'm pretty sure we will," Lance smiled and lead Randy off to their
ride.

"At least someone is getting some tonight," Justin sighed.

"Don't be pouty. Maybe you can get with Scott or Brian," Michael teased.

"Or not," Scott said.

"No thanks," Brian slurred. He didn't look well at all.

"Are you okay, Brian?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh, yea. I'm fine," he half-smiled.

"Okay. Let's split," Justin announced and we claimed our limo and headed
back to Justin's house.

*

"You wanna do the hot tub before bed?" I asked as we stumbled into the
house.

"Yea, sure," Michael said and hopped onto my back. "To the hot tub," he
laughed and pointed forward.

"I'm just gonna crash," Scott mumbled and fell onto the sofa bed,
seemingly asleep right away.

"I'm gonna go sit in front of the toilet," Brian slurred and stumbled
off to the bathroom.

I got a better grip on Michael's legs and stumbled outside. I walked
towards the pool and stumbled around like I was going to toss him in.

"If I go in, you're going in," Michael said and held tight.

I smiled and trudged to the deep end.

"You can't be serious," Michael laughed and wrapped his legs around my
front and held on tight. I took a few steps back and then ran for the
pool, almost doing a full flip before we hit the water. I was suddenly
reminded that it was January and it didn't matter that we were in
Florida. Michael let go as soon as we hit the water. I came to the
surface laughing, coughing and screaming from the cold water. Michael
came up and tried to dunk me, but we were both too drunk and tired to go
on for long. We stripped off our clothes and threw them onto the patio.

"That was fun," Michael said breathlessly as he treaded water in front
of me.

I reached back to grab the ladder and wrapped my legs around Michael's
waist, pulling him close.

"This is fun, too," I smiled and leaned forward to kiss him.

"I wonder if we can get a pool in the basement," Michael said as he
wrapped his arms around me and started kissing me again.

"Not in my pool!" Justin yelled.

We both looked back to see Justin sitting in the hot tub.

"Shit. I forgot he was here," Michael whispered.

"Me, too."

"We'd better join him in the hot tub before he starts crying."

"I'm hangin' a little low right now -- despite being shriveled," I said.

"So am I. He'll enjoy the show -- give him some new masturbation
fantasies," Michael teased and pushed away from me, doing the back
stroke to the other side of the pool. I dropped underwater, pushed off
the side and swam underwater to the shallow end. Michael was climbing up
the stairs out of the pool. I paused to admire his cute butt and then
followed him to the hot tub.

"Sorry, Justin," I said as we dropped into the hot tub. "We got a little
carried away."

"You don't say," Justin said sarcastically and a little annoyed.

"You don't have to be so pissed off. We didn't spunk in your pool or
anything," Michael said, picking up on Justin's mood.

"Sorry. I just don't like being ignored. You guys want anything to
drink? I've got some hard cider."

"Woodpecker or Woodchuck?" I asked.

"Um, Woodpecker, I think."

"Sure," I said.

"I guess. I haven't had hard cider before," Michael said.

"I'll be back. Don't start making out while I'm gone," Justin said with
a grin and climbed out. He was naked, as we expected, and walked into
the house.

"Nice ass!" Michael called out.

"Thanks," Justin called back and continued on his purpose.

"You think he's gonna try to get in our pants while we're here?" Michael
asked me after Justin walked inside.

"We aren't wearing any," I smiled.

"I gotta stop setting myself up," Michael laughed. "You know what I
mean."

"I'd say that he's gonna try, but I don't know why. Since he doesn't
have a partner he's gonna be jacking-off anyway."

"That's not how it ended up with Charlie."

"You still want to fuck him, don't you?" I teased and playfully pinched
his nipple.

"If it works out. He seems like he could use a good fuck, anyway."

"He'd better be quick about it, then. We leave tomorrow."

"Three Woodpeckers," Justin announced as he walked back out.

Michael looked at me and burst out laughing. "Or three woody peckers,"
he howled.

"Horny bastard," Justin grinned and dropped down into the water.

"Yep," Michael smiled and took a drink of his cider. "Different. Not
bad," he said and took another drink.

"I drank these all the time a couple summer's ago when I was working
summer stock," I said.

"Where?" Michael asked.

"Stratford on Avon."

"Fancy."

"It was fun. I learned a lot. Especially how to hold my liquor," I
laughed.

"This stuff is hardly liquor."

"Still get you drunk after a couple."

"So you're saying that Justin is trying to get us drunk and take
advantage of us," Michael said and shot Justin a grin.

"You're already drunk," Justin said.

"That better be YOUR hand, Michael," I teased.

"God! Would you guys quit throwing it in my face," Justin huffed.

Michael and I started laughing at the implication.

"What?" Justin said.

"Throwing it in my face," I laughed.

"You guys are sick, sick, sick," Justin grinned and shook his head.

"If you really just wanted to get laid it would take you, what, about
five minutes to find someone who would go to bed with you?" I said.

"Twenty-five if I wanted them to be of legal age," Justin smirked.

"Then go for it," Michael said.

"That's not what I want," Justin sighed.

Michael shot me a look and moved over to Justin. He put his arm around
Justin. "What do you want?"

I moved over to Justin's other side and did the same.

"I want what Charlie and Kate have. I want what you guys have," Justin
said softly while looking straight ahead, and then turned to look at
each of us. "Hell, at this point I'd even like the new possibility that
Lance and Randy have."

"I thought Charlie was the only guy you were interested in," Michael
grinned.

"That's not what I meant. I meant that I want to find my soul mate.
Someone who loves me unconditionally and who I love unconditionally.
Someone who couldn't give a shit about my career, but still be able to
deal with the pressures of it. I want someone forever, not just for
now."

"You have to try 'just for now' before you can find 'forever'," I said.

"You guys didn't. You knew as soon as you got together. Same thing with
Charlie and Kate."

"We didn't know that from the start," Michael said. "It just happened
that way. I love Jonah with all my being now, but when we met we were
just friends."

"We were attracted to each other, but not in love yet. That took time to
get to know each other and experience things together," I added.

"I know all that. I'm fine. Really. It just gets me down sometimes --
especially when I see you two together, or Charlie and Kate, or Chris
and Nina," Justin sighed.

"I'm sure your soul mate is out there. After all, there are a lot of
stupid people in the world," Michael smirked, and then slightly raised
out of the water as he gasped.

"Fuck you," Justin smirked.

"Let. Go," Michael gasped, and then relaxed. "That was totally uncalled
for," he pouted and rubbed himself underwater.

I caught on to what Justin did and grabbed him by his balls, noticing
that he was erect.

"If you damaged my man, you'll have to have these surgically
reattached," I said and gave him a squeeze.

"Got it," Justin gasped. "Sorry, Michael," he said and I let him go.

"I think you should kiss it and make it better," Michael teased and
quickly moved to the other side of the hot tub.

Justin splashed him.

"I don't think we want that. He's already hard. He'd shoot all over the
hot tub if he had to kiss it better," I teased and moved over to
Michael.

"I don't have a problem with a hair trigger, thank you," Justin said.

"Even after all these months with just your hand?" Michael said.

"My hand is getting pretty good. I can go for a half-hour," Justin
smiled.

"A half-hour is nothing. We've gotten our love making sessions to last
four hours," Michael bragged.

"I'm talking about until I shoot the first time, not the tenth."

"So am I," Michael smiled.

"Really? Four hours and only shooting once?"

"It wasn't easy," I said.

"It was damn hard," Michael grinned hugely.

"Yea, I'll bet. Was it worth it?" Justin asked.

"As an experiment or a rare thing. Takes too much energy for every day,"
I said.

"Ah, yea. I remember every day," Justin sighed.

"We don't do it every day. It's not as good if you do it every day,"
Michael said.

"Still better than not at all."

"I don't know. Like anything else, if you have too much it becomes
routine," I shrugged.

"I guess you guys would know," Justin yawned. "I'm gonna head to bed."

"Yea. Us too," Michael said and stood up, pulling me with him.

Justin threw us some towels after wrapping one around himself and headed
inside.

"Let's pay him a visit in his room. Just give him a hand-job or
something. Maybe all jack-off together," Michael whispered in my ear as
we collected our wet clothes.

"Just that?"

"We've got other people in the house. I don't want him screaming out in
pleasure and waking everyone," he smiled.

"Okay."

"Can you guys lock the patio door?" Justin asked as he went to check the
front door.

"No prob," I said and flipped the lock.

"You okay, Brian?" Michael asked Brian, who was sitting in a chair and
looking pretty ill.

"I drank too much. I'll be fine. I just can't deal with the room
spinning when I lay down right now."

"Did you puke?" I asked.

"Yea."

"Okay. Well, night," I said and we headed upstairs. We hung our wet
clothes in the shower and went to knock on Justin's door.

"Yea?" Justin asked as he answered. "What's up?"

"This is only gonna happen this once, so enjoy it," Michael said and we
pushed our way in.

"What?"

"We thought you might like a little...relief. You weren't there when we
did it with Charlie, and we can't really do all that with a house full
of people, but we figured a hand-job with a hand that isn't yours
wouldn't get too loud," I said.

"Really, guys, I appreciate the offer, but..." Justin started.

"So that hard-on is 'cause you gotta piss?" Michael interrupted and
gestured to Justin's obvious erection -- obvious because he was naked,
as were we.

"If you'd really rather jack-off by yourself, we'll leave you alone," I
said.

"We just wanted to give you a hand," Michael smiled.

"This is just too weird, guys."

"So is that a yes or a no?" Michael said and moved behind Justin,
putting one hand over Justin's eyes, and the other over his belly.

"It's...um..." Justin stuttered.

"What was that?" Michael whispered and slid his hand from Justin's belly
to his nipple and pinched gently. Justin groaned and pushed back into
Michael.

"I'll take that as a yes," Michael smiled and removed his hand from
Justin's eyes, sliding it down to his erection. Justin kept his eyes
closed and his hands by his sides. Michael gave me a questioning look
and I just smiled and gestured for him to continue. It was a pretty
erotic sight from where I was.

Michael continued rubbing around Justin's chest and all around his
erection without actually touching it. Justin was so hard he was almost
pointing straight up. He laid his head back on Michael's shoulder and
let out a soft moan. This wouldn't last long.

I moved to in front of Justin and took his hands and placed them on my
body. He opened his eyes for a second and then closed them again as I
felt myself up using his hands. Michael motioned that he wanted a kiss,
so I pressed myself against Justin and we kissed over Justin's shoulder.
He didn't seem to mind at all. We parted from the kiss and I noticed the
bottle of lube sitting on Justin's bed side table -- he was probably
getting ready to jack-off when we interrupted him. I went to grab it and
Michael started kissing Justin's shoulders and neck.

"Fuck me," Justin groaned.

"Shhh. You'll wake Scott and Brian," Michael whispered and continued
kissing.

"I said fuck me. There're condoms in the nightstand."

"Are you sure?" I asked as I grabbed a condom.

"No, but fuck me. Oh god, please," Justin sighed.

"Go lay down," Michael said and pushed him away.

Justin practically ran to his bed, jumped in the middle and pulled his
knees against his chest. Michael gave me a look that was asking if it
was okay, as well as acknowledging that this was going further than we'd
planned. I'd had my thing with Charlie, so I wasn't going to deny
Michael taking Justin, but I had no desire to fuck Justin. I just smiled
and handed him the condom and lube. I climbed up on the bed and
straddled Justin's head, my balls hanging across his nose. He
immediately started licking my cock and sucking my balls. I leaned over
and did the same to him as Michael lubed him up and put on the condom.
When they were both ready I pulled off, to Justin's protest, and Michael
moved into position.

"Are you sure?" Michael asked as he leaned over Justin with his erection
at Justin's hole.

Justin answered him by pulling him down into a kiss and pulling him
forward. Michael eased into him and Justin quivered and moaned into the
kiss. While Michael was staying still to allow Justin to adjust, I
grabbed another condom and lubed Michael. He pulled away from the kiss
long enough to give me a grin, and then was pulled back. I put on the
condom and eased into Michael. Justin pulled away from the kiss and
opened his eyes to see what the added pressure was. I smiled at him from
over Michael's shoulder.

"Oh my god," Justin moaned.

"Remember. Quiet," Michael whispered. He pulled back and waited for me
to push forward. We knew the rhythm from when we did this with Charlie.
A few more times and Justin couldn't keep his moans quiet. He grabbed a
pillow and pulled it over his face to muffle the sound as he arched his
back.

"This isn't over yet," Michael whispered and continued his thrusts.

Justin pulled the pillow back with a look of relaxed lust on his face,
if there could be such a thing. Michael's thrusts were getting more
insistent and Justin's eyes were rolled back in his head as he was
biting his lip to keep from making any sound. I could feel Michael's
orgasm starting before it hit. He made a few grunts and slammed hard
into Justin, not relying on me. His ended just as mine started and I
slammed him into Justin a few more times. We held that position for a
minute as we came down, and then separated. Justin was still hard, or
hard again, when Michael pulled back. He grabbed Justin's erection and
firmly jacked him, using Justin's cum as lube. Justin let his legs down
on either side of Michael and raised his hips slightly as Michael
continued to masturbate him. I removed my condom and Michael's while he
worked Justin and went to get a washcloth. Not more than a minute or two
later, Justin came again, shooting his load all over his chest and neck.
Michael slowed down and gently milked out the last of it before taking
the washcloth from me and wiping off his hands. Justin laid there in
post-orgasmic bliss, only opening his eyes and looking at us when
Michael laid the washcloth on his belly.

"Damn, I needed that," Justin smiled sleepily.

"Oh my god! I just fucked Justin Timberlake," Michael teased, squealing
softly.

"Damn well, too," Justin smiled as he put his foot on Michael's chest
and pushed him back off the bed.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Yea."

"Good. We're gonna take a shower and go to bed. You might want to, too,"
Michael said as he got up.

"Hey guys?" Justin asked.

"Yea?"

"Thanks and... Just thanks," Justin said.

"No prob," Michael smiled and we walked back to our room.

"So?" I asked Michael as we climbed into the shower.

"It was good," he said casually.

"Just good?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe it's because he was trying to be
quiet or whatever, but it was better with Charlie. Justin was too
passive. I expected him to be more...I don't know... Aggressive, I
think."

"Yea, I feel that way, too. It almost feels like we raped him."

"Except the fact that he was very willing."

"Yea. I never expected him to beg you to fuck him."

"Me neither. It probably could have been really good if he'd
participated more. He's really tight. Why didn't you want to fuck him?"

"I don't know. Justin just doesn't do it for me. Besides, he barely
lasted long enough for you to fuck him, much less for me to get in there
too."

"Yea, but he did cum twice. I wonder what will happen in the morning."

"How he'll feel about it?"

"Yea. Let's get to bed. The drive home tomorrow is going to suck,"
Michael said and turned off the water.

"Yea. At least there are five drivers."

It was 5AM when we finally climbed into bed.

***

It was just past noon and the sun was shining brightly when I woke up. I
sat up and then jumped as I noticed Justin sitting in a chair in the
sitting area of the bedroom, watching us.

"Morning," I grunted. I had a slight headache, but didn't feel too
hung-over.

"Morning," Justin said back softly.

"What's up?"

"Scott is. Brian was still asleep."

"No. I mean what's up. Why are you sitting in here waiting for us to
wake up?"

"I...um... I just wanted to talk about last night...or rather, this
morning."

"Okay. You know, we didn't intend for it to go as far as it did. Are you
regretting it?"

"Yes and no. I mean, I'm glad we did it, but it was kinda stilted
because we did it so fast and had to be quiet. I'm not gonna get weird
about it. I just wanted to make sure that you guys aren't gonna get
weird about it. I mean, this isn't going to affect our friendship, is
it?" Justin said.

"I hope not. It didn't do anything bad to our friendship with Charlie."

"I know, it's just that Michael made that comment about finally getting
to fuck me, and... I don't know. It just stuck in my head."

"He was just teasing you Justin. Same as he always does. Same as you do
to him. This hasn't been some long drawn-out plot to get you in bed," I
smiled.

"No. I didn't think that. I don't know. Maybe I'm just being weird about
it. I mean, it was just sex. Right?"

"Between friends, yea. Not meaningless fucking, but it wasn't making
love, either."

"I know."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Why did you want Michael to fuck you? I mean, of all the things..."

"Why would I want to get fucked." Justin interrupted.

"Yea."

"I don't know. It's just what I wanted at the time. If I was going to
have sex with a girl I could get a blow-job or fuck her. The only thing
I can only do with a guy is give a blow-job and get fucked, and I did do
that last night."

"You thought all that?" I smiled.

He chuckled. "No. I was too fuckin' horny. Charlie wouldn't tell me what
you guys did, but he did say it was the best gay sex he's ever had."

"He said that?"

"Yea."

"So are you disappointed?"

"About last night? No. It was still fuckin' hot. I'm only disappointed
that I wasn't there the first time -- minus the whole Danny incident."

"Yea, I'm sorry all that crap happened. Have you heard from Danny since
they officially broke up?"

"Nope. Haven't heard anything. Scoop doesn't talk about it. Won't talk
about it. I think it really hurt him. He thinks that he wasn't enough
for Danny."

"No one will ever be enough for Danny."

"Maybe. I hope Randy doesn't turn out that way if they get together."

"I don't think he will. We've known Randy for a couple months now. We
aren't around him all the time but from what he's talked about I think
that he's pretty relationship oriented. He would rather sit at home and
read a book than go clubbing."

"Didn't you say you've gone out clubbing with him?"

"Yea, but you know how often we go out clubbing. It was just something
to do together and let off some steam."

Michael stirred and sat up beside me. "Morning," he mumbled. His eyes
were still closed. "What time is it?"

I glanced at the clock. "Half past noon."

He growled a loud yawn and stretched before opening his eyes.

"Morning Justin. Walking okay?" Michael grinned.

"Just fine, thank you," Justin said casually and flipped him off. "I'll
let you guys get cleaned up. Scott's got coffee made," he said and got
up to leave. He was walking a little funny.

As soon as the door closed Michael turned to me, "I don't know who he
thinks he's fooling."

"Hopefully everyone. I'd rather this not be as publicly known as when we
did it with Charlie," I said as I climbed out of bed. "So how much of
that did you hear?"

"From around when he said it was the best gay sex he's ever had,"
Michael smiled.

"He was talking about what Charlie said about his time with us."

"Oh. You wound me," Michael goofed. "Yea, I figured it wasn't about last
night. If it was I was going to have to make fun of Charlie."

We took a shower and packed everything up to go before heading
downstairs. Randy was back, with Lance, when we got downstairs. They
were holding hands and all smiles, but looked really tired.

"Hey guys," I said as I got a cup of coffee.

"Someone get lucky last night?" Michael teased Lance.

"Probably you. We just talked all night," Lance countered.

"You're right. I did get lucky," Michael smiled and shot me a look.

"I know. I heard the headboard banging against the wall," Brian mumbled.

Justin looked scared for a second.

"Sorry. You need to get a padded headboard for the guest room, Justin,"
I said.

"With you two I'd have to pull the bed into the middle of the room,"
Justin shot back, relaxed now that no one would suspect he was involved.

"That sounds like a challenge -- see if we can get the bed to bang
against the wall by starting out in the middle of the room," Michael
said and took the cup of coffee I offered him.

"Are you sure it wasn't Justin?" Lance smiled and motioned like he was
jacking-off.

"I didn't need that image in my head," Brian groaned.

"But you did need Jonah and Michael banging the headboard against the
wall?" Scott teased.

"One or the other. I can't block out both at the same time."

"So you're coming back with us, Lance?" I asked, moving past the topic.

"How'd you know?" Lance asked.

I just looked at him.

"Yea, okay. I'm coming with you guys," Lance said. "If it's okay?"

"Of course it's okay," Michael said and slapped him on the head.

"Now we have five drivers again, since Brian seems to be out of
commission," I said.

"Yea. I'm out of commission. I wish I was out of my body right now,
too," Brian said.

"For someone who goes to parties every weekend, you sure don't handle
your liquor very well," Scott said.

"The weekend parties are usually just beer, and you have to walk from
party to party," Brian justified.

"Uh huh. I'll remember this the next time you make fun of me," Scott
smiled.

"At least I didn't get drugged and take off all my clothes," Brian
snapped.

"You told him?" I asked Scott.

"I didn't think you'd share that story with anyone," Michael added.

"Apparently it was a mistake," Scott said and looked a bit pissed off at
Brian.

"Sorry," Brian mumbled and laid his head on the table.

"I'd love to hear that story, but I guess it's off limits?" Randy tried.

"Yea. It's off limits," Scott said.

"Better than your weekend in Toronto?"

"Much worse. Now drop it, please."

"Okay. So are we gonna hit the road soon? I've got a meeting I have to
be at tomorrow night."

"And I have to drive back to Muncie," Brian mumbled.

"We'll go after breakfast," I said.

*

"Thanks for having us down. Take care," I said as I hugged Justin
goodbye.

"Thanks. For everything," Justin said back and squeezed me tightly.

Michael hugged him next and whispered something in his ear. They both
chuckled and parted. Scott went to shake his hand, but was pulled into a
quick hug.

"You found great roommates. Don't fuck it up," Justin said to him.

"Yea, I know. Thanks for letting me stay with you and all," Scott said.

"No problem. Keep up your basketball skills. We can play when I'm in the
city."

"Yea, okay."

"Thanks, man. No hug or I'll throw-up," Brian tried to smile.

Justin gave him a fake smile and continued on.

"Guess it's my turn. Thanks. I'll probably be seeing you again
sometime," Randy said.

"Hopefully," Justin said and gave him a quick hug, whispering something
in his ear. Randy just nodded.

"So, Scoop. Try not to have so much drama this time," Justin teased.

"I can't come out twice," Lance shrugged. "I'll be back next week," he
said as they hugged.

"Okay. Y'all hit the road. I'm going back to bed," Justin said with a
tired smile and headed inside.


******************

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