JC was in his car tooling through West Hollywood that Saturday morning, looking for a Starbucks that was possibly not as damn crowded as all the damn others. He was feeling too tense and hyped-up to be very tolerant of lots of people at once, the warm rippling effects of last night's social drama still bubbling through his system. As his fingers tapped the black leather-bound steering wheel to a song he wasn't listening to except for the subconscious rhythm and beat, his cell phone chimed on the passenger's seat beside him. When he reached for it and glanced at the caller's ID, he sighed out a huge breath he'd just sucked in and then pressed "Talk." "Top o' the morning to you, CK. What's up, dude?" Chris hesitated for a moment before answering shrilly. "YOU are, Chasez! What in the hell are you doing up and about so damn early on a Saturday in the a.m.? I walk all the way up to your pad to find out how your little, um, 'lesson' with Kid Handsome went last night, and you're not even fucking there, man! How not you is that?" "Ah, but you tracked me down anyway, didn't you?" JC chuckled. "And now check out this ultra-chipper little mood you're in and all!" Chris went on, energetically. "This can only mean one thing……….You got yourself some booty last night, didn't you? Oh, yes. That's it. You sly, sexy dawg. I can hear the ol' I-just-got-laid-good tone in your voice, dude. Am I right, or am I right, C?" "You're dead-wrong, man," JC laughed again quietly, amusement ringing in the lilting sound. "What? Hell-oh!" Chris banged his phone a few times on whatever dull surface he was closest to before pressing it to his ear again. "Did I hear you right, dude, or is something wrong with the connection here? Come again? Hello?" "Um. So not funny, CK. Not even." "Didn't you two go out after your little game or match or whatever you call it?" JC smirked/smiled, aware already where this was headed. He'd awakened that morning, much earlier than usual, with the stale smells of Burkhart's all over him - bitter cigarette smoke and acrid old alcohol. But to him, they were the hovering sweet scents that reminded him of being at that place with Justin. And he'd breathed them in willingly as he lay in his bed alone with the warm memories. "We did, indeed. Up the beach to a mostly gay bar/restaurant. We had some food, downed some pitchers of beer, and chatted. For hours." "Hmm. Pitchers of beer," Chris repeated enviously. "Nothing like tasty, ice-cold social lubrication to loosen things up, is there?" JC laughed out loud. "It worked fine. But that was the only lubrication getting some use last night, man." "Fuck, dude! I was all psyched up for a juicy-hot, porny story about your first time with the fresh, new meat, C." "About two boys, um, going at it, Kirkpatrick? Homo sex gets your motor cranked now, dude? Something you want to confess? Finally? I always guessed you might have the tendencies." Chris grunted. "Well, I was mainly hoping you got your wick lit, pal. Finally. Since it's been, like, ages and ages for ya." JC rolled his sun-shaded eyes slowly but still smiled as he drove along. "Sorry to disappoint you, man. But there is no juicy-hot porny story to tell. Not yet anyway." Chris perked up, reanimated, if that were possible. "Not yet? Did you say not yet? Woo hoo! Does that mean there's more to - eh, totally bad pun totally intended here - COME?" JC snickered, imagining his friend's excessively wide dark eyes on the other end of the phone call. "CK, you're crazy. Absolutely whacked in the brain. And you're, like, scaring me at how excited you're getting over this, man." "Oh, Chasez, don't lie and tell me you're NOT excited about it. I hear you grinning and blushing through the cell in my hand, dude. This cheap little piece of metal is scorching hot, I'm talking. The new youngster has got you all in a twitter." "In a what?" Chris huffed. "You heard me. Look at you. You get up and out of your loft before 10 in the morning on a fucking Saturday. That's an amazing feat for you right there, I'm saying. I have so got to meet this kid." JC laughed gently again. "I was craving me some Starbucks latte, man. And I just had to get out of there. Too much energy pumping through the ol' blood, you know?" "Yeah, I know. I hear ya," Chris hummed nonchalantly. "You've got it awfully bad for this one already, C. That's what's pumping through ya." "He's not a kid, by the by, CK. He went to college, so he said. That would make him early 20s, at least." "Whatever, man. No more calling him a kid then. Just to suit you. From now on out, he's a sexy scrumptious morsel." JC almost choked on his snicker. "A what? You haven't even seen the guy, dude!" "Yeah, but YOU have, Chasez. And you liked what you saw. You know you did. He's fresh, young, and new for you. And you must've dug what he was like, man, after chatting with him for hours, seeings how there's a positive-sounding 'not yet' promise factor in that mix. NOW am I right, or am I right?" Chris was clearly pleased with himself, pleased for his pal. "Busted. You're right, CK. We got along, like, famously, I guess you could say. It was sort of like, well, like I was drawn to him, being pulled in by the hot fire of all that he is, like all the deep quiet places inside me were waking up and talking to and linking up with the deep quiet places inside him. We connected on some level, more than something physical. I'm sure as fuck he thought so too. There was something in those lively eyes of his, something that said there was so much more in there to explore and discover, and that he was inviting me in to do just that." "Hmm, that's promising," Chris whispered, not wanting to interrupt the flow. "Our time around each other and all the talking we were doing just seemed to move along like peaceful waves of the ocean or something, you know, so smooth and rolling, so free and comfortable……….It got late so fast, so soon." JC murmured the last part, remembering the strong, almost visible, liaison he'd felt with Justin after their long conversation. "Way too fast and way too soon?" Chris asked softly. "Exactly. And even though we didn't really get physically intimate or anything, I sort of felt afterward like we did." JC decided not to bring up the brief, sweet contact of their hand-holding on the beach nor the breath of a kiss they shared in the parking lot. He wanted to keep both memories inside, close, secret, and warm for himself. "Wow. Like a kind of lingering bond hanging out there between the two of you, tying you together?" JC's forehead wrinkled as he smiled. "Yeah. A lot like that. How'd you know, man?" "'Cause I speak that heavy language of severe head-over-heels too, Chasez. I gotcha." JC giggled. "Damn, man. To be a hetero, you're sure a hell of a big ol' drama queen." Chris laughed. "Thanks to hanging around your non-hetero ass so much." "Okay, CK. Since you obviously have nothing better to do, why don't you eat me?" JC jabbed at him. "You're liking on the fair-haired boy, aren't you, C? You can tell Daddy Tricky." "I guess I am, Daddy Tricky." "But no humpty dance for the two of you?" Chris whined. JC laughed again, as if he couldn't help it, and rolled his eyes. "No. No humpty dance, man. And where in the hell did you come up with 'humpty dance' anyway? That's just wrong." "Never you mind that, mister. Let's back up to the Land of Not Yet, if you don't mind. When do you get to eyeball this guy again?" "The fair-haired boy and I will be hooking up again tomorrow evening. Put it on your calendar, since you have such a grand interest in this little matter." "Tomorrow evening? What about your gig at the hotel? Did you even tell him about the hotel?" "AFTER my gig at the hotel. And yes. I told him I worked there. But I didn't go into a lot of specifics." "Why so vague, C? You kill me being all secretive and undercover about that shit." JC sighed, forgoing an explanation at the moment. "Look, Chris. I'm pulling into the 'Bucks on North Robertson. You want to bring your dead ass down here and have a coffee with me? I need to cut you loose now." "You buying?" JC laughed, shaking his head. "Sure. Get a move on, man. I can't sit still long, you know." "Give me 10 and I'm there."