Part 1


Justin was sitting alone in the booth on the quiet bus waiting for the others to arrive. Johnny decided the group should travel on one bus together since their next stop was only two hours away from their last. Their concert was scheduled for Thursday, which gave the five men a well-deserved day off in between. Justin was glad for the break no matter how short it was. It would give him some alone time with JC and they could finally work out their issues. Well, at least Justin would be able to address his problem; he wasn’t even sure JC knew there was a one. The main issue Justin had was JC running around with Tony and he was sick of it. Just thinking about them together made his heart race and his blood boil. He was fuming about it; he has been for a couple days now, and he couldn’t understand how his boyfriend was so oblivious to it. Justin heard the door open and looked over determining who entered. It was JC. However, JC was not unaccompanied. The other members of the group also entered and as quickly as they appeared they disappeared into the sleeping area leaving JC and Justin alone together.

“Hey, sugar.” JC walked in Justin’s direction stopping in front of him, placed his hands on either side of his face and leaned down for a kiss. Justin pulled away. The brunette moved away from Justin and was taken aback by his boyfriend’s actions. “What’s up? Why are you giving me the cold shoulder?” JC stared at Justin. When Justin did not respond JC asked, “What did I do wrong now?”

Justin scowled up at JC, azure eyes meeting steel. “How could you?”

“What are you talking about? How could I, what?”

“Don’t play stupid with me, JC. It isn’t gonna work this time.” Justin turned his gaze away from the brunette and sighed. “God you can be so oblivious, can’t you?”

JC stepped closer toward Justin rubbing his knee against Justin’s. “Justin. I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. But it must be something extremely important for you to act like this.”

Justin stood up, sending JC back a couple of steps and snapped, “Acting like what. How exactly am I acting?”

“Like an asshole, you never act like this. You never sit and sulk without telling me what’s going on. You definitely never treat me this way. I need to know what I did wrong in order to fix it. Otherwise, I’m clueless.”

“Like that’s something new for you, JC. And if you can’t figure it out then maybe were better off not together.”

“What?” JC answered in a hurt laden voice. “How could you say that? I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t deserve that.”

Justin crept closer toward JC. “The hell you didn’t,” the blond went silent for a moment. Then without warning shouted. “Oh, that’s right. I fucking nearly forgot. You do everything right don’t you. I’m the perpetual fuck up. I do everything wrong and I’m the one who is always at fault. Aren’t I?” Justin pointed a finger into JC’s sadden face. “Not this time, asshole. You’re the one who’s at fault.”

JC’s vision was become blurry, but he did not want his tears falling in front of Justin. The brunette did not understand why Justin was treating him this way. He could not handle it anymore so he turned; intending on leaving the living area and heading back toward his bunk but Justin snatched his arm. “No, you don’t. I’m not gonna let you go running off somewhere. You always run away when there’s confrontation. Not this time,” he pulled JC into him, “not this time.”

JC’s tears began cascading down his face, “You’re hurting me.” He tried pulling his arm out of Justin’s grasp, but the younger man just tightened it. “Please, let go.”

Justin laughed, “Yep, right on cue, here they come…the tears. That’s so like you JC. Always the victim.” He shoved the brunette toward the door leading into the sleeping area. JC stumbled and would have fallen had he not reached out for the door jam. The brunette straightened his body and pulled his shirt down. He snuffed the tears back before he spoke. “What did I do, Justin?”

Justin face was red with anger. He took a menacing step again toward JC and the brunette involuntarily stepped back. “Hmmm…let’s see. Okay, C. Think back about two days ago while we were in Detroit.” JC nodded his head. “Is your little mind there yet?” The brunette shyly looked at the floor of the bus another tear making its escape from the cloudy blue eyes and again nodded his head. “Remember where we went after the concert, JC? Do you?”

“Yes,” JC’s voice trembled afraid to look up.

“Who went with us?” Justin screamed.

JC’s mind was racing desperately thinking back to that night. The brunette pictured Lance, Chris, the bodyguards, Justin and… and… “T… Tony,” JC whispered. Once the name was out of JC’s mouth he knew where the argument was leading. However, before he could speak Justin’s voice boomed through the bus.

“That’s fucking right, JC. Your fucking ex-boyfriend went with us. Why? Can you tell me that? Why did Tony go with us? Who invited him?” Justin waved his hands above his head and then folded them acrossed his chest. “Let’s ponder that for a second, shall we?”

“Umm… I can…I can explain.” JC’s body was quivering. He knew what Justin was getting at but he was wrong. Tony only went for publicity purposes; he was not the one who invited him.

“Yes, please do.”

The tears in JC’s eyes were becoming bothersome and his nose was running. He needed to compose himself before he could continue the argument. JC started walking toward the bathroom with the idea of getting Kleenex when again Justin grabbed his arm.

“Are you gonna answer my questions?” he sneered.

The brunette’s eyes filled with fear when he looked into Justin’s storming blue ones. He was in trouble, but if he could explain everything, Justin would be fine with it and they would continue their perfect life. “I…I …just… Kleenex.”  

“No.” Justin yelled, “I want my answers.” His grip intensified squeezing JC’s flesh relentlessly. “Tell me why he was there. I want to know why my boyfriend spent more time with Tony then he did with me. I want answers, JC.” Justin’s grip became tighter and tighter leaving small bruises on the slender man’s arm. The blond singer shook the older man and screamed at the top of his lungs. “Tell me now you fucking slut.”

Without thinking JC’s free hand stuck Justin across the face leaving a faint handprint across the smooth skin. He felt the blonde’s hand release his arm as Justin covered his face. Justin was shocked but his hesitation only lasted a second. He has never been struck before; instinctively he responded and Justin did the one thing that came naturally, the blond struck back.  

“How fucking dare you…” JC’s head snapped to the left as Justin’s clenched fist connected with the right side of his face. The force of the blow knocked JC’s smaller body into the doorframe; smashing his forehead into it. The brunette could feel the liquid flowing freely from his nose and down into his opened mouth. He slowly slid down the frame, rested on his knees and tried holding back his tears. JC ran his tongue out interrupting the trail of blood as it cascaded down his face and swallowed the coppery tasting substance. The brunette never thought he would taste his own blood again, he was promised he never would. That promise was broken just as his heart was. He brought his hand up and rubbed it across his face smearing his life’s essence onto the back of his hand and over his face. JC placed his hand back onto the frame hanging on with a tortured grip. The brunette’s head was spinning; body shaking and he wavered in and out of consciousness. He could vaguely hear his boyfriend speaking.

“Oh my God, JC, baby. I’m so so sorry. Oh God, oh God.” He ran over toward JC, knelt down and reached out for him but was stopped by a single hand in protest. “JC?”

“Don’t,” the brunette whimpered. “Don’t come…come near me. You…you prom…promised.”

“JC. I know. I’m sorry. Please, please you gotta forgive me. I didn’t mean it.” Justin again reached for JC, but halted his efforts when he noticed his boyfriend flinch away from him. “No, baby. I won’t hurt you anymore. I didn’t mean it,” Justin’s voice broke down as tears flowed from his eyes. “JC?”

“Justin, just…get away from me.” The older man stayed huddled near the wall fearing another blow until he heard Justin’s quickly descending footsteps. He slowly turned his head determining if it was all right for him to move. Once he concluded Justin was gone; JC gradually stood up using the doorframe for support and then bracing himself against it. His legs were even now a little wobbly and his vision blurry but he needed to move and check out the damage. JC blinked a few times focusing his eyes before he wandered toward the kitchen area.

When JC reached the kitchen he heard footsteps behind him. Without looking the brunette said, “Justin, go away I’m not ready for you yet. I’ll come talk to you later, when I’m ready. We just need to calm down,” his voice was nothing more than a mere whisper.

“It’s not Justin, C,” a deep voice sounded.

“Lance?” JC turned and faced the bass singer.

“Yeah, sweetie…holy shit he fucking hit you,” Lance’s voice was laced with anger. “He didn’t tell me that. Oh my God, he hit you. Are you all right?”

“Unn huh… I…I hit him, too.” JC leaned against the counter and closed his eyes. “I’m the one who hit him first.” He opened his eyes once more and stared directly at Lance, “He was… he was just reacting to it, defending himself.”

“That may be true JC, but you didn’t use a closed fist did you?” JC slowly shook his head. Lance walked toward the older man and gently grabbed his chin. He tipped the brunette’s head toward the light and examined the injury by probing it with his other hand. JC closed his eyes as the blonde’s touch caused a wave of pain. Lance grabbed a wet washcloth from the sink and carefully wiped up the blood from JC’s face. “It isn’t broken but the girls in make up are gonna have a fit about this one. What the hell happened between you and Justin? I mean we heard the screaming and all, but I never thought it would come to blows.”

JC threw his hands up nearly hitting Lance and exclaimed, “That’s just it Lance. I don’t know. I don’t fucking have a clue. He just started in on me when I walked into the room. I was gonna leave during the argument but he wouldn’t let me. He grabbed my arm and made me stay, I was to scared to do anything else but stay.”

The blond man set down the cloth and opened the icebox, pulling out a tray of ice. “Hand me a towel, C.” JC obediently placed a towel in Lance’s out stretched hand and leaned back against the counter. The bass poured the ice cubes into the towel and wrapped them up securely. He walked over toward the brunette and handed him the bundle. “You need to put that on your nose and just under your eye. Otherwise, the swelling is gonna impact your vision.” JC took the towel and gingerly placed it under his eye. “So what happened that caused you to slap Justin?”

JC looked away staring out a side window. “He… he called me a slut.”

“He called you a slut. Why would he do that?”

“Look Lance, if I knew the answer to that fucking question I wouldn’t be standing here with a black eye and a swollen nose. I think that’s a question you need to ask Justin.”

“Well, did he tell you anything, give you a hint as to why he was pissed in the first place.”

JC turned his gaze toward Lance, “How did you know that he was upset with me?”

“I didn’t really know he was upset with you in particular, but I could tell by the way he was acting something wasn’t right.”

“Oh… I don’t know, I guess I’m just a bad boyfriend. Cuz, I didn’t notice anything until about thirty minutes ago when he started yelling at me and calling me a slut. So I guess, because I’m a slut and never know what the hell is going on, that gives Justin the right to hit me.” JC fiddled with the towel for a moment before continuing. “Where’s Justin?” he whispered.

“The little hot head is talking with Joey and Chris right now. I wondered why he looked so guilty when he came back there. I think he’s feeling really remorseful because he hit you.”

“That’s because he promised he never would. He promised Lance and look at my face. I swore this would never happen to me again and just fucking look at me.” JC started crying uncontrollably. “Look… at my face.”

Lance quickly covered the space between the two men and engulfed JC in an embrace. “Shh…it’s okay, JC. Justin isn’t like Wade. He didn’t mean to hurt you.”

JC’s body gave out as he collapsed into Lance. “That’s what Wade always said. He always said he didn’t mean it but he kept doing it.”  

Lance lifted JC’s sobbing body up and carried him toward the couch. He laid the weary man down onto it and sat beside him. He tenderly rubbed JC’s back while he watched the older man cry. How could you do this to him Justin? You better make it right. He looked down at JC and thought; you better make it right.



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