Chapter One

"Remind me again, why did I let you talk me into this?" Justin laughed.  "Come on, Jamie.  This is a once in a lifetime event.  Wouldn't it be cool to tell people you went to Woodstock?" "Yeah," I answered, "just what I'd want to tell my grandchildren, that I was dragged halfway across the country to attend a rock concert and receive all the drugs I would ever want." "Who knows?  You may even meet the man of your dreams here." I couldn't argue with Justin there.  My parents had kicked me out of my house when I told them I was gay.  It wasn't that I hadn't dated a lot, I had no interest in women.  They wanted me to go out with the daughter of a family friend, but I wanted her older brother instead.  Telling my parents was the hardest thing I ever did.  I kew it wouldn't go well, since they weren't even accepting of desegregation.  What I didn't expect was to be thrown out of my house.  So I decided to leave Mississippi and travel as far away as i could to start a new life.  I only got as far as Memphis before my car broke down.  It took all my money, but the mechanic, Justin, was nice enough to let me stay in his apartment.  We became fast friends, and when I told him I was gay, I was surprised to see him be supporitve of me.  Now here we were, a year later, and we're driving to New York to attend Woodstock.  Justin wanted to get high and meet and hopefully have sex with a few women.  I reluctantly agreed to travel with him. "Here we are," Justin said.  I must have fallen asleep because it was almsot dark.  "Where are we?" I asked, knowing we still had another day's worth of driving left. "I have no idea," he replied.  "Pennsylvania, for sure." We got out of Justin's car and went inside.  He had stopped at a place called the Clarion Motel that looked pretty run down.  Not that I cared, but hopefully it would be inexpensive.  We walked up to the front desk to ask for a room. "Now you two won't be making too much noise in there, right?" the receptionist, a short, elf-like man, joked. "Nah," I replied.  "We're just going to sleep.  We're actually on our way up to Woodstock." "Really?  My friends and I are heading up ther too!  Mind if we tag along?" Justin looked thrilled to be making friends with the receptionist.  "No way, man.  The more, the better.  I'm Justin Timberlake and this is my best friend Jamie Bass." "Chris Kirkpatrick," he relied, shaking our hands.  "My buddies Joe and Josh should be here soon.  Go ahead and have a seat unti they show up." Justin and I sat down and got to know Chris.  Although he looked about my age, he was really 29.  He had just recently broken off his engagement to his longtime girlfriend Danielle, and was going to Woodstock so that he could move on with his life.  Justin and I, in turn, told Chris about ourselves, steering clear of my sexuality.  We spent so much time talking that my stomach started growling, which made me realize how late it was. "Chris?  Do you have anything to eat?" "Sure, Jamie.  My mom owns the motel, I'm sure she wouldn't mind you going back to the kitchen and fixing a sandwich," he answered, pointing towards a hallway.  I went down and entered a room on the left.  Chris' mother was delighted to see me and told me to help myself to anything.  I fixed a sandwich and chips, grabbed a Coke, and thanked her.  I headed back to the lobby, not watching where I was going, and bumped into someone, spilling food and soda everywhere. "Oh, I'm sorry, I should have been watching where I-," I started apologizing, but suddenly lost all speech capapbilities.  I was staring into the deepest set of blue eyes I had ever seen.  I thought to myself maybe this trip won't be so bad after all. Next Chapter Chapter Index Story Index Main Page