JC and Justin were something. It was hard to describe there relationship. When people asked about them, you simply smiled and replied, ‘They’re something, aren’t they?’ There weren’t a couple, as far as anyone could tell. As far as you could tell, and you had always considered yourself a fairly observant person. They’d never openly admitted to being involved with each other in something sexual. And you had watched them closely. Intrigued with their actions towards each other. You had studied them. Hell, you’d gone as far as taking notes on them. And all you could come up with was, they were something. They weren’t typical best friends. What they had was not your everyday, run-of-the-mill close friendship. You knew this from experience. You were Justin’s best friend. You played basketball and video games with him. You talked to each other about your newest addition to your motor-vehicle collection. Whether it was one of your new bikes, or one of his new sport cars. That was the relationship between the two of you. You adored it, and smiled when he said you were his best-friend. Lance and Joey were best friends. They talked about film scripts and families. Conversations that made your eyes droop. Sometimes you nodded off when they were talking. It wasn’t on purpose. And you really did try to stay awake. You didn’t feel so bad about that anymore when you saw Justin, head propped up with one hand, eyes closed, drool running down his chin, let out a snore while Joey was talking to him and Lance about changing diapers. You realized that’s how things were meant to be. It was an unspoken rule. Lance and Joey were best-friends. Justin and you were best friends. JC was a different story. JC was...well JC was everyone’s best-friend. Everyone except for Justin that is. When JC was around you couldn’t help but to mold yourself to his personality. His interests would tap into to everyone’s identity. He made you smile. You and everyone else. That was just how JC was. But you were puzzled. Thinking about it, well frankly it made your head hurt. JC and Justin didn’t fall into a best-friend category. It was puzzling. How two men that had known each other for so long, knew so much about one another, how they couldn’t be considered best friends. Because you might have been Justin’s best-friend, but it wasn’t your lap he curled up in when he was homesick. And he didn’t once let one tear fall while in the presence of anyone else, yourself included. Except for JC. You thought about it for what seemed like an eternity before simply settling on the fact that, no they weren’t best friends. They were just something. They weren’t enemies. Far from it. You had never seen them fight. Physically fight. At first you didn’t think much of it. Maybe they just weren’t fighters. You changed your mind on that when Joey had to pull Justin off Lance one day after a long, tiring rehearsal. And you’d never forget the sound of JC’s fist hitting your jaw, let alone how badly it had hurt. So maybe they were fighters. But never had you seen them lay a hand on each other. You never heard an actual argument between the two of them either. Something that you recently realized, and once you thought about it a little bit you scoured your brain for any recollection of it and had asked damn near everyone you knew. Not until all of your resources had dried up and still no one had come for with an actual memory of them fighting did you firmly believe it. But they did fight. You’d seen it happen. And it scared the hell out of you. It was almost as if they shared a brain. Or had some sort of ESP. They never spoke when they fought. But you thought the look in their eyes was more powerful than any words in the English language. Their body language, gestures, each little turn of their head. It all meant something different, and the only people that had the code-book to understanding each movement was them. Sometimes you found it humorous and you literally had to stuff your fist in your mouth to keep from laughing. Especially, when JC gave Justin that particular look that always made Justin stomp his foot and revert back to a stubborn five year old. But then the realization of it would hit you. The fact that Justin asked JC a question, without a word ever leaving his mouth, and JC had answered, yet the air around them still silent, vacant in a way. And inevitably one of them getting pissed, red faced and breath becoming labored, yet still remaining wordless. You could feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up and you couldn’t help but shiver. No, they weren’t enemies but, they were something. At first you thought it was some twisted form of hero-worship. You patted yourself on the back, smiling, because damn, those psychology courses in college really were worth it. You thought briefly of sending a note to your old professor, whom you had once asked why this information was necessary, only to have him tell you that in may indeed come in handy one day. But the more you thought about it, the more you realized your old professor was full of shit, because all those classes did was fill your head with useless ideas that you tried to use as explanations. Because honestly, if it was some sort of hero-worship going on then why would Justin choose JC as the star. Yes, he was older, but all the guys in the group were older than Justin. And it would have been perfectly logical that Justin have demonstrated this hero-worship with anyone else. You, for example. Because you were the oldest of everyone. It would have made sense that Justin looked up to you. You were his best friend and you were older. Okay, so he had known JC the longest so maybe it did make sense on Justin’s part. But it couldn’t have been hero-worship for one underlining reason. JC was the same towards Justin as Justin was to him. And JC wouldn’t have feelings of idealistic hero-worship on someone younger, less experienced. No. It wasn’t hero-worship. JC and Justin were something. You reflected, coming to the conclusion that if you added together all the hours spent scrutinizing their relationship it would probably total to at least a full year. And you realized then, that yeah, you really needed to get a life. But you couldn’t help but appreciate their relationship. The beauty. The undeniable curiosity that reverberated from them. And even now. As you sit here watching them. The way they communicate. JC’s hands working at newly grown curls in Justin’s hair. Their eyes locked, speaking louder than anything you had ever seen. A comfortable aura surrounding them. Justin’s right hand clasped in JC’s left, their fingers intertwined. The lights dimmed low, the television a peaceful hum in the background. Their legs, twisted, almost coiled into what looked like one large, tangled, rope of muscle. Their faces close, noses almost touching. Lips, a whisper away from being connected. Justin pillowed by JC’s body. Something you’ve never really understood, because Justin is so much larger than JC and even when he was younger, well there wasn’t much size difference between them. And you smile. Because a detail like that was so insignificant, considering you never really understood anything about them. All you really know is that JC and Justin were something. And you knew that when people asked you about the dynamics of their relationship you would give your famous, patent answer, stating for the hundredth time, ‘They’re something, aren’t they?’ You had never been one to cry, to show your emotions so openly, wear your heart on your sleeve. But this. This always got you a little choked up. Because you never knew that ‘something’ could mean so many different things. That something stood for impenetrable. That something stood for special. And something stood for love. Something stood for beauty, grace, and life. Yeah. JC and Justin. They were something.
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