“Because it’s a small apartment,” explained Justin which wasn’t a complete lie. “Too many people won’t fit. Plus Lance has a paper due on Monday so he’s also going to be around.”
“I still don’t see a problem since we all won’t be there at the same time if we’re going to be going back and forth between the apartment and the car.”
“Let it go C,” grumbled Chris, lot looking forward to seeing Lance again. “We need someone here to help unload since this will take more than one trip and I’ve already claimed driving duties and I’m not doing all the unloading by myself. Plus you don’t want to be around that punk or his boytoy.”
“Is Lance really that bad?” asked JC, they never really hold him the entire story. All he knew was that three night ago Justin had showed up with Chris and Joey and hand been staying with them ever since. He knew that Justin had a huge fight with his best friend/roommate Lance and Lance’s boyfriend, but other than that he was clueless.
“Only since he started dating Nick,” grumbled Justin. Although Justin had tried acting normal for the past three days, he still missed Lance and it still hurt that Lance betrayed him.
“And he’s not listening to you?” asked JC in disbelief. “You’re his best friend why would he listen to Nick over you?”
“I don’t know,” moaned Justin banging his head against the table. He didn’t really want to be having this conversation right now. “All I know is I’m not looking forward to seeing Lance his afternoon and I pray that Nick isn’t there.”
“It’ll be okay Curly,” said Joey patting Justin on his back. “If Nick causes trouble we’ll handle it. Plus we promise to work quickly so you won’t have to be there long.”
“Thanks,” mumbled Justin turning back to his breakfast, hoping that everything would turn out okay.
*~*~*
“Oh goody no Nick,” grumbled Chris an hour later as he, Justin and Joey began packing Justin’s things.
“I told him not to come by,” informed Lance glaring at Chris.
“Well what do you know, you do have some brains,” replied Chris sarcastically.
“Chris,” warned Joey. “Behave.”
“Who me?” Chris innocently asked.
“Yes you,” laughed Joey. “And if you’re good I’ll take you for ice cream when we’re finished.”
“Yay! Ice cream!” cried Chris jumping up and down like a five year old.”
“And if you’re really good, we’ll go clubbing tonight.”
“We go clubbing every night,” laughed Chris. “Curly and JC are the only ones smart enough not to go.”
“Speaking of JC, I met Faith Hill yesterday.”
“What?!” cried Chris. “But I told you to call me next time!”
“I met her too,” spoke up Justin. “She was really nice.”
“But you had class!”
“Well, Joey called before class started and told me so I skipped.”
“That’s it Joey!” cried Chris lunging at him. “This means war!”
As Joey and Chris played wrestled around on the floor, Justin began laughing finding the whole thin amusing. Even Lance was trying hard to fight the smile on his face. Everyone was so involved in the fight no one noticed when the door opened and a new person entered the apartment.
“Well, well, well,” spoke up the new person’s voice, halting the action as four pair of eyes turned to the doorway. “Dumb, Dumber and Stupid are back.”
“Nick,” hissed Chris standing up with Joey by his side.
“Nick?” asked Lance looking at his boyfriend with a confused expression before walking over to him, hugging him loosely and placing a kiss on his lips. “I thought I told you it was best for you to stay away today.”
“Well I thought you would need help to make sure the fools didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to Justin.”
“You little-” cried Chris angrily lunging at Nick however he was stopped by Joey who was trying to hold him back.
“Guys we have bigger trouble than Nick on our hands,” warned Justin. When Nick entered the apartment Justin couldn’t face the love fest between Nick and Lance so he began staring out the window. That was when he saw their bigger problem. However Chris and Joey didn’t hear him.
“Hello?” called a voice as the half-opened door was pushed all the way open.
“JC?” whispered Joey, both him and Chris freezing.
“Yeah I figured if I brought my SUV over you wouldn’t have to make as many trips between places.”
“Shit!” hissed Chris exchanging glances with Joey.
“What’s going on here? Asked JC taking in the scene in front of him, his eyes finally falling on Lance who had his arms around Nick’s waist.
“James,” whispered JC, tears forming in his eyes. “I, umm, I have to go.” With that JC turned on his heels and raced out the door.
“JC! Wait!” cried Joey hot on his heels with Chris and Justin close behind him. The trio raced to the elevators but JC was too quick and the doors had already closed by the time they got there.
“Stairs!” cried Justin leading them to the stairwell and they began running down the six flights of stairs. When they finally reached the bottom level they discovered JC a few feet away making his way towards the exit.
“JC!” cried Justin but JC ignored him as he hopped into his SUV and sped off.
“Fuck!” cried Chris as they stood around on the sidewalk trying to figure out what to do. “We need to find him!”
“Where would he go?” asked Justin. “The studio.”
“No,” replied Joey shaking his head. “He knows that, that would be the first place we’d go to look for him.”
“What do we do then?” asked Justin, but before Chris or Joey could reply, Lance came jogging up dragging Nick behind him.
“What the hell just happened?!” asked Lance. “Who was that guy? And why did he run out like that all of a sudden?”
“That was JC,” replied Chris coolly. “JC Chasez. Also known as Joshua Chasez. And he ran out of here because he fucking loves you ‘James’. I’m still trying to figure out why though.”
“Josh,” whispered Lance dropping Nick’s had as if it burnt him. Tears, started forming in Lance’s eyes. ‘My Josh?’ Lance’s mind raced back three days ago when Joey was telling him about JC being dumped.
“Oh God,” moaned Lance. Years of happiness were wasted because he had been stupid. Now he was miserable with Nick and suddenly everything Justin ever said about Nick became clear to Lance. Justin was right, he didn’t love Nick, he loved Josh.
“Chris stop it!” yelled Joey. “We need to find JC right now. You can tell of Lance later!”
“Come on,” announced Chris. “We’ll try driving around for awhile, seeing if we can find him.”
Lance wanted to go with them, but he merely watched as the three men piled into Chris’ car and drove off.
“Good, now we’re alone,” announced Nick, slipping his arm around Lance’s waist.
“Good-bye Nick,” replied Lance coolly walking away from him and towards his own car, which was parked in the parking garage of the building. Hopping in Lance didn’t know where he was going but he knew he needed to find Josh.