Chapter 23 In the morning, Justin was the first to wake up. He looked over at the other side of the room and smiled at his two friends. He had totally forgotten about them in the mess with Joey. Luckily, Lance had left the door unlocked for them. Britney was sound asleep on his bed, and Josh had crashed on the floor. He had missed hanging out with his friends. It would be nice to spend some time with over the next week. He missed his family and his brothers too. Thanksgiving would be nice. The only bad thing was that he would have to be away from Lance for the whole week. He looked down at the sleeping boy next to him. In his slumber, Lance looked so peaceful. He hated the thought of being away from his boyfriend for seven days, but he knew that going home would be nice too. A noise from the other bed made him glance up. Britney was smiling at him with sleepy eyes. "You okay, Juju?" Not wanting to wake up Lance he nodded. Britney sat up in bed pulling her up into a messy bun. "You know as soon as Josh gets up, we need to go. Are you packed?" Justin lay back down mumbling, "Yeah." Britney got up from the bed pulling out fresh clothes from her over night bad and walked towards the door. "I'm going to go freshen up and change." When he heard the door shut, he closed his eyes laying his head on Lance's shoulder. At the movement, Lance opened his eyes slowly smiling when he saw Justin's curly head laying on him. Reaching up his hand fingers ean through the soft curls, and Justin raised his head. "Morning." "Morning," Lance said ahs he lowered his head to brush his lips again Justin's forehead. Justin sighed as he hugged Lance closer to him. "I'm going to miss you, baby." "Me, too, but it will be fun hanging out with Brit and Josh and my little brothers all week. I only wish I could see you too." "Morning, guys," a half asleep Josh said from his make-shift bed on the floor. "You doing better, Justin?" For a second, Justin had almost forgotten about what had happened the night before, but the memories returned fresh in his mind at his friend's question. "I guess. It'll be nice to not see Joey this week." Justin moved to get up from the bed, but Lance held onto him. Justin turned to look at Lance smiling briefly before disentangling himself. The next hour was spent getting ready to leave for the trip home. Josh and Britney were ready quicker than Justin cause now that the time had come to leave, he didn't want to. "Justin, come on. Let's go. You'll see Lance in a week.," Josh said as he slung his backpack onto his back. Britney pulled on Josh's arm. "Let's go outside. Nice meeting you, Lance." The second the door was closed behind his friends Justin wrapped his arms around Lance in a tight hug. He pressed his lips to Lance's briefly before stepping back. "I need to go, or I won't." Lance nodded. "I'll call you." Justin laughed as he reached the door. "You better." Glancing back one last time, Justin closed the door behind him, and looked towards his friends standing in the hall waiting for him. "Let's go." Britney wrapped an arm around his waist as he led him away. "We'll have fun, Justin." "Yeah, we'll do all the things we couldn't do on your weekend home." As they walked back the front of the dorm, Justin looked up and smiled as he saw Lance wave to him from their room. 'It was just a week.' changes 22 menu changes 24