In the middle of dinner Grace excused herself from the table and walked outside and sat on the steps of the front porch. Lance saw this and promptly followed.
"What's wrong?" He asked taking a seat besides her on the top step. She glanced over at Lance, smiled and hesitantly replied.
"Nothing." She lied
"Yeah right. C'mon tell ole Lancey-Poo. I'll listen," He half joked squeezing her knee which made her laugh a little. Then his voice took a different tone, "but no seriously, I'm always available to listen no matter where I am, I'll always listen but you know that already."
"Yeah I know. It's just it's weird you know?" Grace sort of stuttered. "I'm just…it's…" she trailed off
"Grace! It's okay. I know it's hard saying what you feel. It always is! Especially for people like us, but you know you can trust me. Nothing said here today will ever, EVER, leave this stoop. I swear to you. I promise you that," Lance told the girl seated besides him reassuringly looking over to see several mixed emotions clouding her soft brown eyes and not one of them was happiness or joy.
She once again hesitated but finally stated with an almost mournful tone in her usually cheerful voice, "It's…it's Joey."
Lance looked relieved that that's all it was, "Oh him, he's fine; he screwed up, got yelled at, then he regretted what he said. It happens all the time, but don't worry he's probably in there giggling like a giddy little schoolgirl as we speak," he joked, thankful when she smiled but the small grin quickly vanished.
"No, it's not that," Grace whined, "boy I wish it were but it's not."
"What then?" he implored glancing over once again but this time, for the first time, he put two and two together and got four. It all finally clicked in his head as to what was going on, "Oh! You LIKE like Joey. Don't you?" he asked and she nodded slowly. "So what's the problem?"
"He's my best friend that's the problem!"
"So? I would date my best friend if he were a she and I liked her! Hold on. Let's get Josh out here he's better at this kind of stuff than I am. Okay?" Lance said looking over before yelling for JC. Grace cried worriedly, "Wait! I'm not as close with Josh as I am with you."
"Don't worry he won't talk he still is keeping secrets from kindergarten. That's the kind of guy he is," Lance smiled.
"Would you listen to me if I said no?" she asked the slightly older man but she already knew the answer to her question and she answered as she knew he would.
"Of course!" he exclaimed with just a hint of mock hurt in his voice.
"Then go ahead and call Josh," Grace reluctantly replied. Then she added, "but he better not say anything."
Lance was relieved that he didn't have to deal with this by himself, "Okay then," He opened his mouth then closed it turned to Grace and said, "Wait! You might want to cover your ears," once she had her ears good and covered he yelled into the house, "JOSH!" Then they just waited for about a minute until JC appeared at the bottom of the stairs leading to the next level up and he looked sleepy.
"Dang boy! You know for someone who barely talks half the time you sure can yell!" JC joked as he opened the storm door and walked out onto the porch and they all laughed, even Grace.
"Yeah, you know it's kind of like you and your energy; I have volume on reserve," was Lance's quick retort
"Okay, cute there JB really. Now what is it you called me down here for? I'm a very busy person you know?" JC said quickly.
"What? Were you taking a nap?" Lance teased and Josh looked a little sheepish. "Anyway my girl G-dawg has a bit of a problem in…uh…matters of the heart and since you're better at that stuff than I am I called you."
JC now quite intrigued by the whole deal asked, "Oh? What kind of trouble?"
"Well…Grace likes someone your age who has bright red hair and he's in our group, but she feels a little weirded out by the whole thing because they're best friends."
"You like Joey?" JC started pretending to be surprised, "That's cool so what are you going to do about it?" he asked hoping they would say they didn't know.
Lance started "Well…actually that's why we called you out here she needs to know what to do about this," and when he finished Grace nodded. JC pretended to think for a little bit and then gave them his plan
"Okay I got it! Okay here's what you've got to do. First off you have to hook up with one of the two of us. Joey'll get jealous after about a month or so give or take a little, he'll ask you out you'll 'dump' my boy JB, go with Joey and everybody lives happily ever after just like in the story books. Tha end," JC finished, proud of his 'quick' plan that he'd actually spent week perfecting both for lack of something better to do in his free time and because he got a big kick out of matchmaking for some sick, demented reason. Except one problem he didn't count on and Grace almost ruined it.
"How do you figure it'll work? He'll be happy for whichever one of you ends up being 'my boy' and for me." Grace whined.
JC had to think quick to come up with his reply, "At first, sure, because that's just the way he is but he also can be a very jealous person when someone else gets something and he decides he wants it. Hey I think it'd be more believeable if it was you and Lance so he can be your boyfriend. Plus I kind of have my eye on someone so it wouldn't be too slick to get envolved now," JC said giving Lance a little wink as he finished.
Just then Joey's voice was heard shouting from inside, "Hey! Where'd all y'all run away to?"
"We're out here!" JC called back then quickly turned to the new 'couple' and said, "Now remember you're going out now! Lance put your arm around Grace! Grace scoot closer to Lance!" he said all this very, very softly and very, very fast so Joey wouldn't hear. He got done and turned around just barely in time to see Joey coming down the stairs to the door.
"Hey what is this? Having a party and you didn't invite me?" Joey inquired with a huge smile on his face which promptly disappeared when he looked down and saw Lance, one of his closest friends, cuddling with Grace, who was also the girl he liked.
Josh grinned, "No way, dude, you're always invited! A party just ain't a party without the one and only 'J-Dawg'!" and they all laughed, or giggled, or smiled, or something directly along those lines.
Joey smiled proudly "See now that's what I've been tryin to tell you all the whole time and nobody ever believed me until today. So what's going on out here that you don't want me to know about?" he questioned pointedly grinning that huge, million dollar, Joey Fatone trademark smile. But really really pissed off at Lance, JC and Grace on the inside but he couldn't let any of them see it.
Lance glanced down at his watch noting the time, "Hey, y'all? I really hate to break up this party but it really is time to go to the venue it's about fifteen minutes until we have to be there for sound check." he finished and they got up to get the others and head on out.
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