Yeah, Right…
Chapter 18: Fever
By: Sadie
Lance hopped from one foot to the other, impatiently waiting for Karen to answer the door.
"Hey Lance!" She finally greeted him from the entranceway.
"Thank you so much for taking JC to school."
"Oh, its really not a problem at all, Karen."
"Well, I think he's still getting ready…"
"I'll get him." Lance quickly offered, jetting past Karen and practically running to JC's room.
JC leaned over his dresser drawer, shirtless, digging through a collection of shirts. His back was towards Lance as he entered the room. Lance sneaked up behind JC soundlessly, wrapping his arms around his bare torso. JC sighed and leaned back into
his boyfriends embrace. Lance planted a light kiss on his neck.
"Good Mornin', Good Mo-ornin'" Lance crooned the Singin' in the Rain show-tune in JC's ear. JC pivoted in Lance's arms and pecked his lips sweetly.
"Good morning to you too." Lance remember how he felt when JC walked into his life for the first time, and how awe-struck he had been by the Adonis. Lance never thought he'd see him so intimately, he imagined that those first few feelings were nothing compared to what he was feeling now. The smoothness of JC's skin under his hands and the feel of his muscles curving under his caress was so much better than anything he had imagined.
"I'm almost ready." JC informed him, as he turned back towards his drawer. Lance took his hands grudgingly away from his chest.
"Good, Mr. Maddox is a real ass if you're late." JC quickly decided on a tight threadbare blue shirt to go with his khaki clam-diggers.
"Ready." He turned back towards his boyfriend and grabbed his satchel.
"Perfect." Lance admired.
"Okay, class, Jane is passing out to you your senior newsletter. Please read each bullet carefully. Pay special attention to the announcement about the Coffee House next Friday evening. If you wish to sign up to perform, please see me or Mr. Kelly."
JC poked Lance in the back.
"Lance." He whispered not too quietly.
"Ow."
"Sorry," JC rubbed Lance's back briefly where he had poked him, "what's the Coffee House?"
Mr.Maddox gave them a stern look. Lance rolled his eyes and ripped out a piece of paper from his notebook. Lance scribbled: Everyone sits around and eats, while some people perform. Anyone can, if they sign up. He tossed the note back onto JC's desk. JC read it quickly, then added with a smiley face: You should sing, babe! He passed it up to Lance "discreetly". Lance hesitated on the last word. Babe. How had this happened? This was surreal. Lance replied: Hell no. The coffee house just isn't my thang. No, No, No. In case you were gonna ask again. Then passed it back.
Was the teacher even talking? Lance had completely zoned out once he had said `Let's open our books to page blah, blah, blah." The rest was lost. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to go back to this morning, when his arms were wrapped around JC's chest and he could smell his freshly shampooed hair, and not leave, not ever. Babe. The word repeated itself in Lance's mind. He could get used to this. Lance tapped his fingers on his desk impatiently. When could he leave and be with JC alone? Without the staring and questioning eyes, examining his fading bruises and questioning his every move. Everyone knew now; that was obvious. Lance looked at his watch. Damn. Seven hours. No. Lance corrected himself. Six hours and fifty-five minutes. The now crumpled piece of notebook paper landed on his desk, yet again, and startled Lance out of his thoughts. Why not? Accompanied by an unhappy face. Then below that: You're the BEST! Mua!Lance rolled his eyes. And you're cheesy. Now shut-up. I actually need this class to graduate. As if he could concentrate, he just wanted to daydream about him without interruption. Lance turned quickly and placed the note on JC's desk.
As if on cue Mr. Maddox suddenly exasperated. "Bass and Chasez, if could possibly get you two to pay attention for ten minutes of one class period, I would feel as though a life-time of teaching was worthwhile." JC quickly threw the note in his satchel and faced the front of the classroom attentively.
"Lance, baby, are you okay?" Beth practically squealed as she made her way over to her best friend, plowing down many other students on the way.
"I'm fine, Beth." Lance assured his best friend while swatting away her hand.
"Good." She nodded quickly and pulled him out of the line of traffic.
"Sooooo, where's JC?" She asked in a pseudo-seductive tone.
"He had to go to the bathroom." He answered simply.
"Interesting. So, what the hell happened?" She was blunt now, tired of dancing around the subject.
"Well, he apologized for being an ass, first of all…"
She cut him off, "And you forgave him that easy?"
"No, well, I hit him."
"Alright." She gave him a high-five.
"Then he told me he loved me and kissed me."
"What?" Her jaw dropped in complete shock. Before Lance could reply again, Beth's expression changed drastically into a menacing glare. "Don't turn around now." She warned under her breath.
"Shit." Lance groaned, guessing who was behind him.
"Hey." Justin Timberlake said shortly. Lance spun around slowly. The large rowdy hall had transformed into a small suffocating space, the thick tension emanating from the two silenced everyone around them. Lance didn't say anything. He just stared incredulously into the blue eyes of his attacker.
"Listen…" Justin broke the silence, "I just wanted to apologize, ya know, for beating you up and shit and…"
"Stop it." Lance bit his lip, slurring the words so that they were barely audible.
"…and for the names, I realized that…"
"I said stop it, Justin." Lance said clearly and confidently, silencing his foe, "its my turn. So, don't stand here and give me some self-deprecating piece of shit speech that you jotted down last night on a ketchup stained napkin, then practiced it in the mirror before sleeping soundly, because you thought you had it down enough so there was no way I would see it for what it really was: bullshit. An assignment you gave yourself to win Kirkpatrick's approval so he wouldn't kick you off the team or maybe your last attempt at making yourself look like you care for other people beyond what they can offer you. Maybe your last attempt at making yourself look like you're a decent human being. Instead of like the homophobic, egocentric, shallow asshole that you are. Well, fuck you and your speech. I may be gay. That's right, Justin, squirm. I said the G word. Gay. Fag. Queer. Fairy. Fruit. I take it up the ass. I fuck boys and I suck dick. But there is no way in hell I'm kissing your pathetic ass and accepting your apology so you can sleep like a baby at night. Because I know there is no way you miraculously changed in these past 48 hours, Justin. You will never change. You will always be the guy everyone sucks up to, then calls you for what you really are behind your back: a prick. You showed me what I really was on Monday and now I'm showing you. Only difference is that I can be proud, you should consider yourself lucky if you have an ounce of pride left." Lance paused, finally taking a breath and letting his last words echo off the walls of the silent hall. "Now get the fuck out of my face," he said.
Justin, now red-faced, his expression twisted like someone had just punched him in the stomach, only hesitated a few seconds before turning and leaving, as Lance had commanded him. He bumped into Britney on his way down the hall. She jolted away from his touch like she had been shocked. "Asshole." She muttered, and he quickened his pace, making his way outside of the school.
JC stood in front of the door with the sign `Mr. Jacobs' Choir' and various music notes written on it. He had told Lance that he was going to the bathroom and that he would meet him in Government. Truthfully, he'd had an idea for the Coffee House during English, somewhere in between 20's Literature and Gatsby's portrayal of the wealthy in that era, it had come to him. He just hoped that the choir teacher would go for it. He knocked tentatively on the green door. A obviously gay man in his 50's, wearing a bright blue button-down shirt, sprung the door open.
"Can I help you?" He chirped.
"Um, yeah. You don't know me."
"No, I don't believe I do." He bubbled.
"I'm JC Chasez, a friend of Lance Bass."
"Oh." His eyes widened. "What a shame what happened to him on Monday, eh?"
"Yeah, it really is." JC nodded his head. "Listen, I wanted to ask you something concerning the Coffee House next Friday."
"Mm-hmm." He nodded vigorously.
"Do you play any jazz?"
"Oh, yes. Come in, come in." The giddy teacher smiled brightly, ushering JC into the vacant choir room.
"Hey." JC strode up beside Lance in Mr. Risinger's AP Government class.
"Hey, ba…" Lance cut himself off and oppressed the urge to nuzzle JC's cheek.
"Sit down and shut the hell up." The wry Mr. Risinger yelled at deaf ears, as the class continued its chatter.
"Guess who I ran into in the hallway."
"Who?" JC asked, clueless.
Lance raised his eyebrows. "Justin." He finally answered. Concern filled JC's eyes.
"He didn't give you any shit did he?"
"No." Lance smirked. "But I gave him some. God, I feel so damn good." Lance beamed.
"Good," JC laughed at his boyfriend. "What did you say? How did he take it?"
"Well, he was pretty damn speechless, if you ask me and, oh, about half of the student body."
"I am so proud of you." JC grinned widely, then moved closer to Lance and whispered in his ear, "I want to kiss you so bad right now."
Lance pouted and blushed. Which only made JC want to kiss him more.
"I have an idea." JC wriggled his eyebrows, then pulled out a notebook from his satchel. He quickly jotted down a note in his best feminine handwriting.
"How does this look?" JC handed the note over to Lance. Lance giggled as he read it:
Dear Mr. Risinger,
Please excuse my son, Lance Bass, from school at 1:30 for a
doctors appointment that concerns some of his bruised ribs.
Thank you for your help,
Diane Bass
"You are so bad." Lance scolded.
"I'll meet you out at your car in ten minutes." JC assured him as Lance took the note up to the teacher.
JC looked at the clock nine minutes later, shaking his leg impatiently. Good enough. He decided and presented Mr. Risinger with his forged note.
Hey Ronnie!
Please excuse JC from class at 1:40 today so he can attend a
meeting concerning the events of Monday in the school locker
room.
Thanks, man
Chris Kirkpatrick
Mr. Risinger mumbled something about kicking Chris' ass before giving JC permission to leave. JC practically skipped down the hallway and out into the parking lot. That was too easy. He mentally patted himself on the back.
Lance turned down the radio as JC hopped into the passenger side of the 4-Runner.
"God, ten minutes never felt so long in my life. I have to be back by next period though. But, I had to get out of there." JC rambled as he reached over and pulled the seat-belt around his waist. Lance had leaned over and began nibbling lightly on JC's earlobe, sucking on the tender flesh gently before whispering.
"I thought you wanted to kiss me." His warm breath tickled JC's neck causing a shiver that begun at the top of his spine to travel throughout his whole body, making him physically shake under Lance's hands.
"I do." JC mumbled inaudibly as Lance's mouth covered his own.
This is what it feels like to love someone. JC realized as he hungrily devoured Lance's mouth. To know and see nothing else but him. To want someone so bad that everyone bone in his body ached until he had him. JC didn't even realize the kisses had stopped, he sat dumbfounded in the passenger seat as Lance slid back fully behind the steering wheel.
"Lets go." Lance said as he pulled out of the school parking lot. JC nodded.
Lance parked that car across the street at Town Lake, and they got out of the SUV and began walking the dirt trail around the river. JC found his voice again.
"So, what exactly did you say to Justin."
Lance tried to recall the majority of his Oscar-worthy speech to JC, as they continued to walk. They eventually found a green patch of grass under a tree large enough to provide them the shade they needed from the Texas sun.
"Here." Lance pointed at the tree and plopped himself down in the grass. JC followed suit, sitting with his knees touching Lance's.
"How much time we got?" JC inquired.
"20 minutes."
"I love you." JC sighed. "I've never felt this way before, ya know. God, I'm one big walking cliché."
"I think its cute."
"You would."
"And isn't that all that matters?" Lance grinned then leaned over to his boyfriend placing a sweet, simple kiss on his lips, "And, I love you too, by the way."
"See, like that." JC proclaimed, once the brief kiss was over, "it literally made my heart do a cartwheel."
"Wow. Maybe if we make out enough, you could enroll in gymnastics."
"Hey, I never said I could do that cartwheel."
"I bet you could."
"No way." JC shook his head, determined.
"Oh. C'mon. Its not that hard. Look." Lance stood up and gave JC a perfect example of a cartwheel, "See? Now its your turn." Lance pulled JC's arm until he was standing.
"I'm gonna suck." JC groaned.
"Just try, for me." Lance pouted, and Lance knew that JC couldn't disappoint a pouting Lance.
JC rolled his eyes and attempted to mimic the position Lance started in, but would up only lifting his feel halfway in the air and to the side, before landing on his ass. Lance fell to the ground next to JC, doubled over in laughter.
"There." He said from the ground. "Are you happy now? I'm a regular Nancy Kerrigan." Which only caused Lance to laugh louder.
"Only Nancy Kerrigan is an ice-skater."
"Shut-up." JC rolled over on top of Lance, silencing him with a crushing kiss.
He pulled away and admired what Lance looked like underneath him. He had never seen anything quite so beautiful. Most of his gel was worn out his hair fell and stuck out in several different directions, his skin was completely clear, like the kind you would see on a baby, and his chartreuse eyes were accented by the lush grass that he laid down in. He brushed a stray hair away from his forehead.
"Wow." He said in awe.
He lowered himself for another kiss, this one slow and lazy, taking his time, gnawing gently on Lance's protruding bottom lip and listening to him moan lowly into his own mouth.
"Josh." Lance whispered hoarsely again, "Do you know sodomy is illegal in Texas?"
JC stopped kissing Lance's neck long enough to say, "Fuck it."
Lance laughed and JC could feel the rumble start in Lance's chest and travel through his throat before the sound actually made its way outside of Lance's mouth. JC had found his knew favorite feeling.
"Such a rebel." Lance said in between laughs.
JC made his way back to Lance's mouth, kissing gently and running his hands through his hair.
"Josh." Lance said after several more minutes, "we have to go, if we're going to make last period."
JC groaned.
"We can continue this later. I promise." Lance playfully shoved his boyfriend off from on top of him.
"There's no point in changing out." Chris told the team as they staggered into the gymnasium, "we're not practicing today. Just sit down in the bleachers."
JC noticed that most of team avoided making eye contact with him, and most were silent as they obeyed their coach. Justin entered a little later than everyone else, keeping his head down and sitting in the back by himself. Coach Kirkpatrick stood in front of his team with his hands on his hips.
"Jesus, guys." He dribbled a basketball nervously, "I'm not used to dealing with this kind of shit, do I really don't even know what to say, except that looking at all of you right now is making me sick. I'm so disappointed. Its too damn bad that talent doesn't always come with brains."
A few of the boys snickered at this. Chris snapped his head up from focusing on the ball, the ball rolled away as he snipped,
"Did I tell you to speak?"
Silence.
"Well I thought about this all night and I know most of you had heard that I was probably just going to throw Justin off the team, but I decided against that. This wasn't about just Justin, this is all yours dumb-ass mistake. And, merely punishing Justin isn't good enough. So, I decided that I'm going to withdraw us completely from the tournament. None of you deserve to go. I'm not sure what you think you are that you can make fun of someone and even beat them up for being different, but I'll tell you one thing you're not. And that's my basketball team."
Chris looked over the faces of what used to be his team, he could the read surprise and confusion and shock. That's what he expected.
"Okay, class is over. I gotta make some calls." Chris left the team sitting on the bleachers as he entered his office and closed the door behind him. After a full minute of silence the gym erupted into loud complaints and swearing. JC heard one guy behind him:
"I have worked all four years of high school to get to this fucking tournament, and some fag ruined it for me."
JC whipped his head around, and hissed. "Fuck you. Didn't you learn anything?"
"What the hell is your problem?" The boy retorted. "This wouldn't have happened if that fag didn't come into our locker room."
JC got right up in his face.
"Don't ever call him that. His name is Lance Bass and he is more beautiful, kind, intelligent, strong, and talented than you will ever be. And," he had the entire teams attention now, "if any of y'all ever give him any shit or lay of finger on him ever again, I will kill you." JC got up from the bleachers and stormed out of the gym.
Justin looked towards the door and quickly got up from his spot in the corner, most of team had forgotten he was there he was so quiet, and he followed JC out of the gym doors. The team fell silent again.
"JC! JC! Wait up!" Justin called down the hallway. JC ignored him and kept on walking quickly. Justin sprinted into a run to catch up with him.
"JC!" He called again. An elderly teacher poked her head outside of her classroom and shushed them.
"Please use your six inch voices." She scolded.
"JC. Listen to me please." Justin begged, once he caught up with him.
"What?" JC snarled, giving in. Now given the chance, Justin didn't know what to say. He opened his mouth, nothing came out and he closed it again. JC rolled his eyes and began to walk again, but Justin grabbed his arm.
"I tried to apologize to Lance." Justin finally spoke.
"He told me. You didn't expect him to forgive you that easily, did you?"
"Actually I did. But, he told me what I needed to hear."
"He did." JC nodded in agreement.
"I…I didn't know you were…gay…too." Justin stuttered.
"I am."
"But, you didn't say anything, like at the party. You seemed like the rest of us."
"I know. I was confused. I'm sorry I confused you too."
"Listen, if I had know I really think everything would be different, I wouldn't have ever hurt him if I knew he was your boyfriend, I thought I did what you would've wanted. Especially, after he hit me."
"You thought I would've wanted you to hurt another human being."
"I guess I wasn't really thinking at all." Justin offered.
"I don't really know what point I'm trying to make right now. Except that I'm sorry any of this ever happened, and I know I already apologized to Lance, but I owe you an apology too. I'm sorry, JC."
"Okay. I need time, Justin." JC said.
"I know. I just wanted you to hear that from me."
"I heard you. Are you done?"
"Yeah." Justin shrugged.
"Then bye." JC said shortly and left the school.
Justin reentered the gym. A few of his peers still sat in the bleachers talking amongst themselves, and they didn't even notice Justin slip into Coach Kirkpatrick's office. Chris turned around when he heard someone enter the office.
"What Justin?"
"You've got it all wrong." Justin said quickly. "This wasn't the teams fault. It was all mine. A lot of them only came in when the fight had already started. I'm pretty sure a few of them even told me to stop. But…but I wouldn't. But, you know how they are: `all for one; one for all'. But, I cant let them give up what they've been working for all of these years because of me. Let them go to the tournament, Chris. I know that you want to go, you deserve to go. I quit the team."
"Justin, there is no team to quit."
"So how was gym? Don't you have practice?" Lance asked when he got to his car and JC was already there.
"It was canceled. Everything was canceled. Chris ended the team and withdrew us from the tournament."
"You're shitting me." Lance's mouth dropped open.
"Oh. And the team knows I'm gay now, and so it wont be long till the rest of the team knows. I told everyone if they ever touched you again I would kill them, and Justin apologized to me."
"Jesus. My last period wasn't nearly as eventful. Backup. You're out?"
"Well, someone called you a fag."
"They don't learn do they?" Lance shook his head.
"And I rambled about you being beautiful and gentle and kind and talented and intelligent, you know the usual…" JC's blush matched Lance's, "Then Justin followed me out in the hall and apologized. But, I told him it would take time."
"Wow. Now, lets stop talking about all this for the rest of the night, okay?"
"Yes, sir." JC agreed as they pulled out of the school parking lot.
"So, what do you want to do tonight?" Lance yelled into the refrigerator.
"I dunno." JC called from his bedroom, "oh, I don't think we've had time to go shopping yet." JC added.
"I noticed." Lance grimaced and settled on a glass of water. Lance walked back into JC's room and joined him on his bed.
"Why don't we go to a gay club." Lance suggested. "You've never been to one before have you?"
"Nope." JC shook his head, "But, I highly doubt my mom will be too keen on me going out on a weeknight."
"JC." Lance sighed, amused, "what time does your mother usually go to bed?"
"About ten, ten-thirty."
"Okay, so I'll come pick you up down the street at eleven."
"Wow." JC gawked. "You're bad."
"To the bone." Lance smirked, then began planting small kisses on JC's neck, "One more thing, what time did your mom say she would be home from work?"
"6:15." JC answered.
"Perfect." Lance whispered as he kissed JC's lips.