Two Weeks Later

“K man,” AJ starts. “We’ve got the outside scrapped. What do you want us to do next?” He drops his scrapper into the bucket and flops down on the floor.

“Hey, watch the floor man.” I yell. “Jayce don’t need your smelly sweat all over it.”

“Shut up youngun.” He smiles. “So where is the sexy one anyway?”

“Down the hall putting the new sink in one of the bathrooms. I wouldn’t go back there man. He just chased Kev outta there.” I state to AJ’s back. “Idiot, don’t expect me to help your crazy ass.”

A few minutes later he comes out ducking as a towel came flying out behind him. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Don’t even say it.”

“NICK!!” JC yells. “Could you come here for a minute?”

I walk down the hall and stop at the doorway admiring the bare back displayed before me for a couple seconds before I say, “Yeah?”

“Could you give me a hand here? Damn AJ almost dropped this thing on my head.”

“Sure baby, be my pleasure.” He looks up at me with a puzzled expression, shrugs and then returns to his work under the sink.

Within a few minutes he pops his head out and says, “K, turn it on and lets see if it’s gonna work.” Then he disappears under it again. “Now pull the plug and lets make sure it doesn’t leak once it gets full.”

I pull the knob on the sink so the stopper goes down and the water fills the sink, “How’s it look down there?”

“That’s good, you can shut it off now.” He scoots out from under the sink and stands up. “One down, three to go.”

I stand there for a second, “Three? But there’s only…”

“Gotta replace the kitchen one too Nicky.”

I smack the palm of my hand against my forehead, “Duh?”

JC smiles at me and says, “You gonna help me or what?”

We make our way down the hall to the next bathroom and repeated our routine in both the other bathrooms, then proceeded to the kitchen.

“Um…Jayce?”

“Yeah Chris?” JC questioned from his position under the sink.

“Um…Well…” Chris stammered.

“Josh, where you at baby?”

All activity stopped as Justin made his way into the house looking for JC. Everyone came out of whatever room they were in and blocked him from entering any room other than the living room. We had silently agreed that JC would be given the chance to leave without talking to Justin if that was what he wanted.

JC walked into the living room and into the circle we had created around Justin. “What do you want?”

“What? What do you mean what do I want?” Justin smiled brightly, “Baby what’s going on? Why are all these guys here?”

“Justin,” JC sighs. “I told you before…I’m not your baby. Why do insist on calling me that?”

Justin looked like he’d been slapped for all of about 2 seconds then recovered himself and began smiling again, “Josh hun, I know I messed up and all but why you gotta be like this? You know we’re good together. You can’t leave me, you love me too much. I know you do. I can still see it in your eyes. You never could hide it from me and you know it.”

JC slowly began walking across the room with a bright smile on his face. “Well J…You’re partially right. I am in love and I can’t and really don’t want to hide it. Your problem is, it isn’t you that I’m in love with.” He walks over, stops in front of me then turns and faces Justin again, “I told you last time you were here. We’re through. I can’t and won’t deal with you treating me like I’m some kind of toy for your sexual frustrations. I’ve found someone who treats me with respect and cares for me as a person, not as something to use and disregard. If you have a problem with this then you might as well speak up now while everyone is here. If you are gonna continue to act like there is something between us then Nsync is over. If you can accept it and move on, then we might be able to make it through this as a group. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Justin looked down at his feet and then back up at JC with tears in his eyes, “There’s no chance for us?”

“No Justin. You hurt me too much, too often. I can’t do that anymore.”

“I’m sorry Josh. I don’t know if I can do this but I don’t wanna lose you and Nsync. Can we at least try, for the group.”

JC took a deep breath and moved in front of Justin, “J…You’ll always have a small piece of my heart, but you abused my love and I won’t let you do that to me again. I deserve better. It is obvious to me now that we were never meant to be together in the first place. I don’t love you anymore Justin. I’ve moved on and am finally starting to be happy. You need to let us go and find someone who you can love.”

“But I love you Josh. I was just too stupid to realize it.” Justin cried.

“I’m sorry J, but I don’t love you.” JC turned and walked through our small ring to the piano room. Soon the soft music was flowing through the house.

“Hey…I know that song.” AJ announced loudly. “That’s…”

“Shhh.” Justin stated as he approached me, “He used to play this all the time. Used to be his favorite song. Said it spoke to his soul.” Justin stood there and listened to JC play the same song over and over for a long time then quietly turned and walked towards the door. He stopped, turned and looked at me, “I’ll be at home if any of you need to contact me. He’ll know which one.” He then walked out the front door and disappeared.

We stood around for a while and then Kevin took charge, sending everyone off to finish their appointed jobs for the day. He looked at me, “You better go take care of him. Not sure but I think I’ve got a pretty good idea who he was talking about. Just be careful Nick. I’m not all that sure he’s whole yet.”

“Thanks Kev.” I pat him on the shoulder then make my way down the hall. I stand in the doorway watching him play for a few minutes then make my way over and ask, “Hey there gorgeous. You wouldn’t happen to know a song called ‘Drowning’ would you? These awesome guys called the Backstreet Boys sing it.”

JC looks up at me, wipes away a small tear on his cheek and smiles, “I think I’ve heard of them. Is this the one?” He begins playing, “You wouldn’t happen to know the words by any chance would you?”

“You don’t want him to sing. He’ll mess up the whole song,” Brian smiles from the doorway. “Sides the beginning is my part.”

I turn and give Brian a dirty look but it smolders quickly when JC reaches up and puts a hand on mine, “I like the way he sings just fine. He has a beautiful voice, you guys just have too many tenors in your group that’s all.”

“What are you talking about? We don’t have any more than you do.”

“Yes you do. You have you, Nick, AJ and Howie. We have Justin, Chris and myself. Kevin is the only one in your group that can handle the low end stuff while we have both Joey and Lance.”

“So what you trying to say?” Brian asked with a slight hint of irritation in his voice.

“I’m not trying to say anything. Just that you guys have to divide up all the songs 4 ways where we only end up dividing them up 3. Well…unfortunately 2 since Jive doesn’t think Chris should be allowed to sing lead too much. That’s something I’ve always admired about you guys. You always try to make sure that each of you gets a solo somewhere on each cd. All of you, not just the guys that always get to sing lead.”

I’m not sure if Brian was silenced by the comment or the tone of JC’s voice but he quickly turned and left the room. I lean over a bit and whisper, “Thanks…I think.”

“You’re welcome. And yes, I meant it. I love your voice and the way you guys all stick together when it comes to everyone getting to be heard in your music. Wish we could do that.” JC states wistfully.

I slide onto the bench next to him and wrap an arm around him, “You got more than one issue going through that beautiful head of yours don’t ya?”

He looks up and smiles at me, “Yep, always. That’s part of my problem. Can’t decide which problem to dwell on first.”

“Well, you know I’d help if I could. Or can I?” I lift his chin up so that he has to at least look at my face.

He blushes, pulls his head away and whispers, “Not yet?”

I shift my body a bit and then pull him in close, “Soon?”

“Mmmm.” He sits with his head on my chest for a couple minutes then pulls away, “We should get back to work. I’d like to get the sinks in so we can finish up in here for today. There’s this really cute guy that offered to take me shopping tomorrow and I’d really like to go and not have to dwell on what’s not done.”

“Hmmm. What cute guy? I haven’t seen too many of those around here lately. Just a bunch of sweaty smelly boyband members. Only cute guy I’ve seen happens to be sitting next to me at this moment.” I smile.

JC looks around the room and then back up at me, “Where? I don’t see any other cute guys in here but you.” He blushes again at this comment but doesn’t look away this time.

I bring a hand up and brush his cheek with the pad on my thumb, “Right here.” I lean in and gently press my lips to his. His lips are so soft and smooth I had to really fight not to apply more pressure. JC’s fingers slid up into my hair as he began to kiss back.

“Hey…JC…Oh, shit…sorry guys,” Joey states as he turns and quickly departs the room.

Unfortunately, he had already broken the mood and JC had begun to pull away from me. I let him slide off the bench but hang on to his hand until he looks at me, “Josh?”

His smile is all the confirmation that I need to alleviate any apprehension I had. It was a small sweet smile. Then he pulled my hand up to his lips, kissed the palm and quietly stated, “Just give me time, ok?”

I stand up and pull him into another hug, “You can have as much time as you need Josh.”