by Zoicite

Joey noticed his favorite sweatshirt was missing as soon as he started picking up the clothes strewn about the floor and stuffing them into his suitcase. “Fuckers,” he muttered, pushing through the adjoining door into the next room. “Lance, if you’re gonna take my –“ Joey stopped mid sentence. Lance wasn’t wearing his sweatshirt, but instead had donned something much warmer. He was pushed up against the real door of the room, Chris holding him there with his hands, and his lips, and probably his tongue. Joey couldn’t really see that much; the back of Chris’ head and Lance’s face, flushed, eyes closed. It sounded like there was tongue involved though. It sounded hot and wet, and Lance was moaning low in his throat, and Joey turned on his heel and walked back into his own room, shutting the door behind him. Joey decided the sweatshirt wasn’t that important and tossed the rest of his stuff into his bag. “Do you have my sweatshirt?” Joey asked later on the bus, sitting across from Lance at the little kitchen table. Lance was doing a crossword puzzle and wearing one of Justin’s sweaters. It was ugly and pastel lavender. “The blue one?” “Nope,” Lance said, not looking up from the puzzle. “It’s fucking freezing in here,” Joey muttered, running his hands up and down his bare arms. Joey didn’t get cold often, but the bus was always freezing. “Mm.” Lance responded with a nod. “Don’t you have other clothes? There’s a blanket in my bunk if you want it.” Joey nodded but didn’t move from his seat. “So, what have you been up to lately?” He tried to sound nonchalant, like he was just striking up a friendly conversation and not fishing for information pertaining to who among their closest friends Lance might be fucking. “Not much,” Lance replied. He was still studying the crossword, tapping a pencil against the table, but now he had one eyebrow arched, “What’s a five letter word for uptight?” “Lance.” Joey suggested. Lance flipped him off. “Kevin?” “Oh, maybe.” Lance penciled it in and Joey laughed, getting up to go get Lance’s blanket. Joey could usually tell when Lance was in a new relationship. He blushed a lot and said insanely sweet things at odd moments. Lance wasn’t doing any of that. But then, Joey couldn’t imagine saying too many insanely sweet things about Chris. Lance usually told Joey about his relationships. Not always, but if they had any chance of becoming serious, Joey usually knew. It’d been a week and Lance hadn’t said a word about Chris that wasn’t sarcastic and normal. He watched Lance a little, looking for slight changes in body language or something when they were together. He couldn’t detect any changes and he thought he was being discrete about it until Justin poked his arm one afternoon by a hotel pool in some random city and said, “Quit starin’ at Lance, man. You in love with him or somethin’?” Joey threw Justin into the pool but he stopped staring at Lance after that. He tried watching Chris instead, but when Chris caught him he didn’t just give Joey a strange look in return. Chris gave him a strange look, punched him hard in the arm, and said, “What the fuck, Joe?” Joey rubbed his arm and tried to make a save, asking, “You have my blue sweatshirt?” “No, you ass,” Chris shook his head and flicked Joey on the back of the head, “You asked me that two days ago and I told you that I didn’t.” Joey thought that maybe it was just a random make-out incident. Those happened right? He’d never had an urge to push Justin up against a door and stick his tongue down his throat, but then, Joey thought he was pretty straight. Lance wasn’t. Joey could mostly brush it off except that he was usually staying right next to Chris or Lance. And it turned out that neither of them were quiet. “Justin says you have a crush on Lance,” JC said when Joey sat beside him backstage. Joey snorted and rolled his eyes. “You don’t then?” JC handed Joey a bottle of water, cool and wet with perspiration. Joey wiped the sweat from his forehead and drained the bottle. “Justin’s an ass. I’m just. You think Lance is acting sorta funny?” “No, not really.” JC wouldn’t notice something like that. “How ‘bout Chris?” JC was quiet for a while, watching as Chris chewed up a whole bunch of carrot sticks, laughing in an exaggerated way and spitting carrot chunks all over a disgusted Lance. Justin slapped his thighs and squealed with laughter. “Um. No. Seems pretty normal to me,” JC said. “Yeah. It really does,” Joey had to agree. Lance flicked chewed up carrot at Justin, who backed off the stool and fell to the floor, his feet kicking in the air. Finally Joey threw in the towel, deciding to forget about it. If Lance or Chris wanted to say something, they would. If they wanted to play tonsil hockey and have it mean nothing, then that was up to them. Joey stared at the ceiling and pretended he couldn’t hear Lance’s low moans through the wall. Kentucky was one of those strange states that Joey could never quite figure out. It was pretty, all rolling hills and horses, but it was southern and boring too. It wasn’t cool, like California or Louisiana, but it wasn’t as bad as say, West Virginia, either. Joey didn’t have too many Kentucky memories. He’d been to the Kentucky Derby once or twice, and once he and JC rode some horses at a farm near Louisville. That had been fun, even though Joey hated riding horses. JC had made a big scene and insisted they wear big cowboy hats and take lots of pictures. Lance was sick and couldn’t go, but he got all pissy when they showed him how much fun they had. Joey stared out the window. The signs told him that they were on the Bluegrass Parkway. He wasn’t really sure where they were going, Lexington, Louisville. They were pretty much the same. Both started with L even. Was there a city in Kentucky called Frankfort? Maybe. Joey wasn’t sure if they ever played there though. They’d been driving through Kentucky for a few hours at least and already Joey was bored. Kentucky was probably more boring than he remembered. Probably more southern too. Lance wandered up from the back of the bus, closing his cell phone and kicking at Joey with his foot. “Who were you talking to?” Joey asked, not because he really cared, just because he was that bored. “Management,” Lance replied, smiling at Joey. Lance could tell that Joey was going out of his mind. Lance found things like that amusing. “Fucker,” Joey muttered. “Fucker?” Lance grinned, “I don’t even know ‘er!” Joey rolled his eyes, but he had to smile at that. Lance sat down beside him and patted his knee. “Just another hour or so, Joe, then we’re off the bus for two days.” Joey nodded. “It’s a state law that every citizen of Kentucky must bath once a year.” “Good to know,” Joey grunted, eyeing a bright red splotch on the back of Lance’s neck. “What do you mean our schedule is cleared tomorrow?” Chris asked, his eyes narrow and dark. Joey thought that Chris was overreacting a bit. A day off. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, or whatever. “That radio interview was canceled. We don’t have to be to Birmingham until Friday. Tomorrow we’re on our own,” Lance said, matter of fact, poking his palm pilot and not even really looking Chris’ way. “What the hell are we going to do?” Chris’ leg began bouncing, shaking Justin’s bed. Joey tapped his fingers to the beat on his stomach. They were all gathered in Justin’s room. Chris sitting at the edge of Justin’s bed, strumming with un-spent energy. Joey and JC were sprawled across it, although Joey was pretty sure JC would probably move soon. Joey gave it another minute or so before the finger tapping and the leg bouncing got to JC. Lance sat at a table by the window, some papers scattered across it, and Justin sat on the floor, his back pushed up against the wall, legs sprawled out in front of him. It was an unofficial meeting, Lance had announced when they’d arrived at the hotel. They’d all grumbled at him, but showed up at Justin’s door promptly at the specified time. And now Kirkpatrick was bitching about the fact that they had a fucking day off. “What is there to do in Lexington?” Chris asked, and Joey thought he was starting to sound a lot like Justin. Chris was bending over now, his shirt riding up in the back when he leaned he elbows on his knees. Joey stared at the strip of skin and wondered if Lance had touched Chris there. He probably had. “There must be something,” JC said, getting up off the bed and sitting beside Justin on the floor. Joey glanced at his watch. 42 seconds. “Lexington consists of a school. Only a school,” Chris pointed out, and Joey could almost agree with that. That seemed to be Justin’s cue to perk up. He’d been consumed in some Game Boy marathon throughout the meeting, even though Chris had spent the first five minutes making fun of him for still playing the prehistoric game system. Chris owned three Game Boys so Justin rightfully ignored his poking and laughter. Now he paused the Game Boy, setting it down. He grinned his mega-watt superstar grin, which was the first thing that clued Joey into the fact that Justin had an idea and planned to suck them all in with his pretty face, and asked, “Basketball?” just as anyone would have predicted Justin would suggest. JC groaned, collapsing against Justin as though all the bones in his body had been removed. It sort of freaked Joey out how JC did that, went completely limp. Joey could pick up an arm, limp with as much dead weight as any limb connected to JC Chasez could hold, and he could flop it around to his heart’s content and JC would just let him, lying there boneless. It was especially fun to carry JC around in this state, their own personal rag doll. Lance groaned, and Chris was the only one who seemed even vaguely excited about the prospect. Surprisingly, Justin shrugged and went back to his game, admitting defeat. “I’ll find us something to do,” Lance stated. “Great,” Justin mumbled, “It’d better be good. Now y’all can get outta my room.” Maybe Justin wasn’t okay with his suggestion being shot down after all. “Geez,” Chris muttered, standing up and heading toward the door. He didn’t even wait for Lance to gather up his things. “So what are we doing?” Joey asked Lance when he ran into him in the hall. They had arrived back from the venue about an hour ago, and Joey had just finished his shower, his hair still damp. Lance smiled and Joey noticed that he was carrying his toothbrush, although he was trying to hold it against his side inconspicuously. “You’ll see,” He said in his ‘I’m being mysterious’ voice, which was a bit higher than his normal speaking voice. Joey frowned and cuffed Lance’s shoulder a little, because that’s what he did when Lance kept secrets from him, and then he watched as Lance laughed and continued down the hall to Chris’ door. Joey had actually been on his way to visit Lance, see if he wanted to hang out, watch a movie, play cards. Anything. But he was pretty sure that that plan wasn’t going to pan out. So he knocked on JC’s door instead. He watched Lance watching him, and then disappearing when Chris’ door swung open and when he turned again, JC was staring at him. “Joey,” he said, a hand in his hair. “What’s up, C?” Joey asked, pushing his way into the room. “Nothing,” JC replied, waving his hand toward the table where he’d abandoned a bowl of cereal, “Just, ya know – want some?” Joey nodded, following JC toward the window and watched as he pulled another bowl out of his duffel. JC preferred to eat soups and cereals out of green bowls. He said that the color contrast helped him digest better. It would sort of be ridiculous for JC to request something like that wherever he went, though no one would say anything if he did, so instead he packed his favorite green bowls and brought them with him. Now he poured some cereal into a bowl for Joey, grabbing a small carton of milk out of the little refrigerator. Joey took the milk JC handed him and frowned into his bowl. Corn flakes. JC ate the most boring cereal ever. “So,” JC said, swirling his spoon in his bowl, “where’s Lance?” Joey shrugged and thought about Lance and Chris, holed up in Chris’ room, right next to his. “Mind if I crash here tonight? My, uh, TV is broken.” JC snored a little but it was pretty quiet and a lot less distracting than what he’d been falling asleep to for the past week. “Sure,” JC nodded. Joey was about to take a bite of his cereal when he noticed that JC was all cuddled up and snugly in a very familiar blue sweatshirt. “Dude.” Joey said, putting down his spoon, “Didn’t you tell me that you didn’t take my sweatshirt?” JC looked down at himself, plucking the material between his fingers. “No. You never asked me if I had it.” He shrugged and smiled at Joey, pulling the sweatshirt tighter around him. Joey sighed, “Just give it back when you’re done with it, man. And that doesn’t mean next year. I love that shirt.” JC’s grin stretched wider and he nodded emphatically before going back to his cereal. Joey was the last to climb into the van at five minutes to ten. He’d somehow managed to wake up later than JC, which never happened. It was probably the most he’d slept in days, and it didn’t even both him that JC was prone to sleeping tangled up with whoever happened to be closest. JC was small and warm, and only snored in Joey’s ear a little. He was already in the shower when Joey rolled over, trying to untangle his legs from the bed sheets. He’d slipped out to get ready and was surprised when he ended up being the latest getting to the van. Even Justin was already curled up by a window, yawning and rubbing a hand through his curls. JC was dressed, alert, and in the driver’s seat, patiently waiting for everyone to settle in. “You aren’t really letting him drive, right?” Chris was saying. He was still standing in the parking lot, holding his hands up like there was no way in hell he was getting into the van until JC moved. JC rolled down the passenger side window and yelled, “I’m driving. Shut up and get in. You’re navigator.” He was grinning, and even Joey thought he looked a bit nuts. “Fuck. I’m not going to live to see tomorrow, I know it.” Chris grumbled, dramatically getting into the passenger seat as though climbing into his grave. JC poked him and Lance tossed him the map. Joey settled beside Justin in the second row of seats, behind where Lance was all sprawled out. Lonnie and Mike sat in the way back, sipping large cups of coffee and talking about what sounded like the upcoming schedule. “We ready?” JC asked, starting to pull out without waiting for an answer. Chris was already gripping the armrests a bit too hard. Most of the ride was uneventful. Joey even managed to doze off for awhile, his head resting on Justin’s shoulder. He woke up to bickering from the front. “We’re going to be late,” Chris was saying, pointing at something on the map. “We are not,” Lance replied, still playing around on his laptop, “You don’t even want to go.” “Yeah,” Chris muttered, “But I especially don’t want to be late.” Lance ignored Chris’ late comments after that, fiddling around with his laptop. He claimed he was doing work, but Joey found it a bit hard to believe that Lance was doing work all the time. He was on his computer a lot. Joey thought that Lance must surf a lot of porn sites or something, but he was in the van and he wasn’t connected to the internet, so that theory didn’t really apply. Joey was thinking about Lance and porn and Chris and so he wasn’t looking out the window when the sign flew by, but Chris saw it, whooping loudly. He pointed out the window and yelled “We’ve entered Central Time, baby!” “Told you,” Lance said flatly. JC hadn’t been saying much, but even he shouted a little as they crossed time zones and then he swerved, right onto the ridges lining the highway. Chris screamed, because he was twisted around in his seat and hadn’t seen it coming and Justin squealed and called out “Driving by Braille!” He was giggling and bouncing in his seat, and his shoulder kept smacking Joey’s face, so Joey shoved him a little and moved away. “Fuck, C” Chris turned back around and checked to make sure his seat belt was fastened. “Pull over.” “What?” JC asked, his eyes darting toward Chris, “Why?” “I’m switching with Joe.” “Chris,” Lance said, “We’re almost there.” “I don’t care. I’m too fuckin’ close to the windshield.” Lance said something else to Chris then and Justin was trying to convince JC to drive by Braille again, and they were all talking at once and Joey sort of zoned out, watching all of their mouths move, but not really hearing what they said. Their conversations ended up like that a lot. Just a lot of loud talking, all garbled together, and really, except for Lance, they all sort of sounded the same. Joey was pretty sure they didn’t always sound so similar. At one time it had been a lot easier to tell JC from Chris, when they got that tone, the joking tone. And Joey thought that what probably happened was that they would do impressions of each other. How they said things. And it would stick. And suddenly when JC was in a certain mood he sounded like Justin. And sometimes Joey did too. And Justin was starting to sound more and more like Chris as time passed. Lance sucked at impressions. JC was pulling over, right over the ridges, and Justin was squealing again. Chris jumped out of the van as soon as it came to a mostly complete stop. Lonnie and Mike were chuckling quietly in the back, and Joey flashed them exasperated looks before Chris threw open the door and started yanking him out. “Come on,” he grunted, pulling on Joey’s arm, “Your turn.” Joey let Chris drag him, and he settled into the front seat, grinning at JC and positioning the map in his lap. “Hey,” JC said, smiling. “I hear that Chris doesn’t like your driving.” Joey glanced down at the highlighted route, fingering their destination. Mammoth Caves. Lance had been all secretive about what they were doing and Joey was mostly sure that it was because he’d had absolutely no idea until that morning when he randomly pulled some ideas out of a Kentucky tour book, tossed them into a hat, and made Chris close his eyes and pick one out. Mammoth Caves, what kind of cracked out idea of fun was that? “I think Chris just has a different idea of who he’d like to spend his company with.” JC said, pulling back onto the highway. Joey raised his eyebrows just as Chris shouted “Lance is playing Snood! Hah! I knew it!” He thought JC was probably right. The Visitor’s Center at the park contained a small museum. Joey walked around, idly reading plaques on all kinds of things, from the tuberculosis hospital that used to be in the caves, to the blind cavefish that lived in the underground river. Lance was talking to some woman at the front desk, trying to acquire a band-aid for a cut that Justin had on his arm. Chris accosted him in the parking lot and they ended up eating some gravel, and Justin whined about how he was bleeding the whole way to the building. He was convinced it would scar, to which Chris replied, “Cool,” and Joey peered at the cut over Justin’s shoulder. It was tiny, a scratch really. Justin was such a drama queen. Eventually, they were led to one of the cave’s numerous entrances, where they met up with their tour guide, Charlie, who spoke with a deep melodic southern accent, and looked a lot like a giant garden gnome. “Your great uncle,” Justin said, nudging Chris in the ribs. Chris just rolled his eyes and Charlie began talking about the discovery of the caves, and all the other impressive tidbits. Joey sort of tuned him out after hearing that the caves were the longest in the world, at something like 300 miles of explored and mapped tunnels. Really the tour was sort of boring until they got to the Grand Avenue. The first part was all about mining and dead people doing boring dead things, rather than cool dead things, but when they entered the Grand Avenue Joey felt his mouth drop open a little. It was huge, a wide arching ceiling, and Joey almost couldn’t believe that this wasn’t man made. He staggered when someone hit his back and turned to find JC backed up against him, staring up and around him in awe. Charlie directed them over toward one side where an electrical box was fixed to the rock wall. “Mammoth Caves is one of the few places in the world where you can experience total darkness and total silence. You don’t really get an authentic feel for the stillness of a cave, the way the first explorers would have felt it, with my talking and the electricity lining the walls. So now we’ll turn off the lights, and if y’all are quiet, I think you’ll get a sense of what it’s actually like down here,” Charlie said, reaching over to flip a switch. The hall was plunged into darkness, and Joey could hear nothing but JC breathing beside him. No light at all infiltrated this deeply into the cave system, and they weren’t deep enough to hear the water of the appropriately named River Styx below them. Instead they were surrounded by nothing. Darkness. Silence. And above them Joey could imagine the visitor’s center, teaming with tourists who really had no concept yet of the wonders hidden right beneath their feet. Time seemed to stand still, and Joey wasn’t sure how long they stood there in the darkness. He brought his hand up in front of his face, but he couldn’t see anything, not even the faintest outline. JC leaned against his side a bit, his presence warm and comforting. Joey moved to put a hand against JC’s back, a hand that he couldn’t even really tell was attached to his body anymore, but stopped when Justin’s voice, unaturally harsh and loud, pierced the quiet. “Um,” Justin said, “Can we –“ Charlie flipped the switch back on and the hall was bathed once again in the warm glow of the lights that lined the edges. Justin blinked and let go of his firm grip on Lonnie’s arm. Chris had his arms wrapped around Lance’s waist, hands clasped over Lance’s stomach, and Lance was smiling a little. Joey wondered what they had been doing. Whatever it was they must have been really quiet about it. He wanted to point, kick Justin, and make him look. Make him see, but Justin was sticking close to Lonnie and Mike, spooked by the void-like nature of the cave, and JC had moved away and was staring up at the ceiling again, and then Chris looked over at Joey, smirked, and released Lance from his arms. They continued deeper into the cave, past a large rock called the Giant’s Casket, which looked like just that, a casket for a giant. Chris announced, while poking the back of Justin’s neck, that they were on a “Mystical Cave Journey.” Joey laughed, and Lance snorted, and Justin bitched about the neck poke-age. JC agreed with Chris and they spent the next ten minutes of the tour at the back of the line, ignoring Charlie’s spiel about the river dissolving the calcium carbonate to create the caves, seaping down into fissures and joints until the entire river moved down a level, leaving an empty passageway behind. Instead JC and Chris attempted to create a mystical cave journey theme song. Their voices echoed and bounced off the walls of the cave, and the song, most of which Joey couldn’t even decipher, was really horrible. They crossed over two long, thin bridges that spanned deep crevasses, the bottoms obscured. Charlie announced that this was as far as the earliest explorers made it. They weren’t able to cross the large gaping pits. Joey wondered how deep they really went and imagined spears at the bottom, bones, something out of a pirate film. There probably weren’t too many pirates in Kentucky. Justin was a little disappointed to find out that the tuberculosis hospital was not on their tour route. But when Charlie sat them down at the lowest point on their path and told them that the river was right below them, and explained the inhabitants of the river including the blind cavefish and the albino shrimp, even Justin muttered an awed “cool,” and forgot all about the tuberculosis hospital. Chris mumbled something about Lance’s albino shrimp cousins, but Joey thought he was probably the only one that heard it. They took a bathroom break then, Justin and JC running for the bathrooms, not because they really had to go, but mostly just so they could say that they had. Joey talked with Charlie about the blind shrimp for awhile, but he quickly decided that they were mostly just creepy and dropped the conversation, turning to bug Chris and Lance instead. Lance was whispering something in Chris’ ear. Lance did that a lot, he liked to whisper. It was a weird Lance thing. Usually it wasn’t even secrets, just stupid things, like he’d come up behind Joey on the bus, lean close to his ear and whisper, all low and quiet, “We just entered Kentucky.” He had done that when they entered Kentucky, actually. Joey had jumped, nearly falling off the couch. He’d been looking out the window, trying to sleep, and he’d seen the sign, knew that they were in Kentucky, but Lance whispered it anyway, laughing at Joey’s reaction and heading toward the bunks. Now Lance whispered in Chris’ ear and Chris smiled, his hand hovering over Lance’s knee. Joey looked over at Charlie, but he was talking to Mike and Lonnie and when he looked back at the others, Lance’s tongue was wrapping itself around Chris’ ear. Joey’s mouth dropped open and he lifted a finger in an accusatory point. He sucked in air, ready to speak, probably just to shout “Aha!” or something equally as lame, and hear it echo off the cave walls but then Justin and JC were back from the bathrooms and JC was throwing himself at Joey, going all limp when Joey tried to catch him. Justin was yelling that he had peed in the biggest cave in the whole freaking world and Chris had begun shrieking with him. Joey stared around JC’s curls at Lance, but Lance just stared back with innocent green eyes. He was smiling a little, too. “Fuck,” Joey muttered at the same time that Charlie announced that, “Next on our journey, we’ll be passing through what we like to call Fat Man’s Misery” Charlie raised his white eyebrows and pulling his beard a little to appear mysterious. Chris nudged Joey in the side, laughing, and Joey just rolled his eyes. Justin quickly joined in with Chris, saying that Joey should just turn back now, save himself from the embarrassment. Joey ignored them, noting that Charlie was bigger than he was and Charlie was in these caves every day. Fat Man’s Misery was narrow, but only around the chest region, it widened out below the waist. The ceiling dipped low in places and they had to hunch over as they walked. JC kept a hand on Joey’s back, and Joey was grateful, the hand keeping his mild claustrophobia at bay. Soon enough they were out of the narrow passage and back in a more spacious room, and Joey sighed with relief. Finally, as they neared the end of their mystical cave journey, they entered Mammoth Dome. A huge room, tens of stories high, with a spiraling metal staircase in the center. It was much more impressive than the Grand Avenue had been, and another plus was that things lived here. “Bats!” Justin squealed, pointing at the tiny bats flying about overhead. They could be seen clinging along the high walls of the dome on all sides of them. Lance grimaced a little, and started up the staircase behind Charlie. “Wow,” Joey said, following Lance up the staircase that led them out of the caves, Chris following close behind him. “Well, I doubted you, but the mystical cave journey lived up to its name,” Chris announced, flopping an arm over Lance’s shoulders as they headed across the parking lot. “Really?” Lance asked, “I thought it was sort of boring actually.” “No way!” Justin protested, “that was definitely cool. The bridges, and the blind albino fish, and the bats!” “And your favorite part was when Charlie shut off the power,” Joey said, smiling a little. “Shut up,” Justin hissed. Lonnie laughed quietly behind them. If Joey stopped to think about it, he could imagine that the quiet stillness of the cave was so much a contrast to Justin’s life that it probably was pretty scary. Justin’s life was nothing without the screaming of adoring fans. Joey shook his head. Enough with the deep thoughts for one day. “Mammoth Caves. Scale of 1 to 10. I say seven,” he announced. “Eight,” Chris said quickly, right before Justin said “Eight point five.” “No halves,” Joey amended. “Fine,” Justin frowned, “eight.” “Three,” Lance said and JC followed with “Seven.” “Well, it’s unanimous. Lance finally had a good idea,” Chris reiterated, adding, “I could kiss him.” And he did, tightening his arm around Lance’s neck and quickly kissing the side of Lance’s mouth. Lance scrunched up his nose, but he didn’t pull away, and he was smiling. “I could kiss you too, Lance,” Justin said, moving in toward Lance’s other side, but JC stopped him, pulling on Justin’s arm. “What?” Justin asked, “I could.” “No, you couldn’t,” JC said, fishing in his pocket for the van keys. “Lance doesn’t like you,” Chris added, pinching Lance’s cheek. Lance pretended to be amused. “He does too!” Justin said, turning to Joey for support, as though Joey would know if Lance harbored secret Justin love. Joey ignored Justin and just watched the exchange, suddenly thoroughly convinced that JC knew exactly what was going on with Chris and Lance. “We should have taken the wild caving tour,” Lance said, flipping through a brochure he had picked up, “It says here that it requires lanterns and knee pads and takes you on paths off of the normal routes. A lot of squeezing and climbing.” “Next time,” Joey suggested at the same time that JC called, “Everybody in,” changing the subject and unlocking the van doors. “Uh, uh,” Chris released Lance and grabbed a hold of JC’s arm tightly. “What?” “You are not driving us back to Lexington,” Chris stated, trying to grab the keys out of JC’s hand, but JC was quick and he was already holding them up over his head and just barely out of Chris’ reach. Chris jumped a little, trying to reach them, then just stood his ground and glared at JC. “Fuck,” Chris cursed, “you want to play dirty? Fine.” And with that he grabbed JC around the waist and hauled him over his shoulder. “Hey!” JC yelled, laughing as Chris swung him around in circles a bit before walking him over toward Lance. Lance pinched JC’s cheek and plucked the keys from his flailing hand, sticking the ring in Chris’ mouth. “Thanths, thlancey,” Chris said, dumping JC on Joey, who nearly dropped him because he wasn’t expecting it. He recovered quickly, though, hooking an arm beneath JC’s ass until JC was comfortably slung over his shoulder. JC just sighed. “So, you’re driving then?” Joey asked, frowning a little. “You betcha,” Chris replied cheerily, climbing into the driver’s seat and pulling it closer to the steering wheel. “Yeah,” Joey said, “that’s quite an improvement.” He slapped JC’s butt a little and headed toward the back of the van. “You know.” Joey said, situating himself behind JC on the bed. JC just nodded. They’d arrived back at the hotel a few hours before, without incident, although Joey thought that Chris’ driving was much more erratic than JC’s, and he guessed that from the greenish hue of Justin’s face, he probably agreed. JC had changed into worn drawstring pants and a tank, and then appeared at Joey’s door wearing only one sock. “How?” Joey asked, because JC had been the last person he’d thought would know. “Chris told me,” JC shrugged, “I asked him.” Joey should have guessed that JC would choose the direct route. “Does Justin know?” JC shrugged again, “Probably not. You and Justin don’t usually pick up on most things.” “And you don’t think it’s strange?” Joey asked, choosing to ignore the jab at his mental awareness and instead rubbing a hand along JC’s shoulders. JC curled his arms on his bent knees and rested his head on them, exposing his long neck. “Nah,” JC murmured into his crossed arms. “Why would I?” “They just…” Joey kneaded JC’s shoulders a bit and tried to decide what it was that he didn’t understand. “Chris. And Lance.” JC chuckled. “yeah, I get what you’re saying. Keep doing that.” “They just. Lance doesn’t even like Chris.” “Sure he does,” JC said, grunting a little as Joey worked his lower back, “Lance likes all of us.” Joey didn’t say anything, just kept kneading a little, pulling up JC’s shirt to get at his skin. Joey prided himself on his massages. “I always thought we were the more likely couple,” JC said into his arm. Joey wasn’t sure that he had even heard JC right. “Yeah?” He asked, wondering if JC would care to elaborate. “Yeah,” JC said, “You and me. It just makes sense.” “Mmm,” Joey said noncommittally. “It’s sort of strange that the hotel furniture is made out of wicker,” JC mused, closing his eyes. “Wicker?” Joey mumbled, accepting that JC had changed the subject, “I don’t even know ‘er.” JC laughed, shaking beneath Joey’s palms. Joey was pleased that he was the first one to the buses the next morning. He climbed onto his bus, yelling out to Lance, but was answered with silence. He threw his bags in his bunk and spread himself out on the couch, staring at the ceiling of the bus. He didn’t really want to think about the fact that JC believed they belonged together, not quite yet, so he thought about Lance and Chris instead. It was hard not to when they kept him up half the night. He was going to have to start requesting rooms further away from them. Maybe trade with Justin, who always seemed to end up next to JC. Finally Lance rushed onto the bus, slapping Joey’s leg on the way to throw his stuff in his bunk. He spent a lot of time back there getting everything situated. Lance liked his bunk neat, his bus neat. Joey really didn’t understand how Lance could stand Chris. Lance finished tidying up and sat down at the end of the couch, moving Joey’s legs out of the way. Joey had promised himself that he wouldn’t say anything. Wouldn’t ask, but as soon as Lance turned and looked at him, Joey said, “So you and Chris, huh?” Lance chuckled, rubbing Joey’s calf a little, “I wondered when you’d get around to saying something.” “Yeah,” Joey sighed, “I was, I don’t know, waiting for you to say something, I guess.” Lance nodded, “Me and Chris. Pretty weird, eh?” “Eh.” Lance laughed, rolling his eyes and stretching out a little on the couch, as much as he could with Joey’s legs holding him down. “B. Come on, you wanted to talk about this. Let’s talk about it.” “C.” Lance looked pointedly at Joey. “Ok, ok. Sorry. And yeah, it is pretty weird. I thought I’d imagined it for awhile there. Because you. And Chris.” Joey pointed forward, toward the other bus, and then scratched at his chin a little, rubbing his hand through the stubble. “Joe. You walked in on us. How could you have imagined something like that.” Joey shrugged, “So, you knew I was there.” Lance nodded. “And you still didn’t say anything?” Lance sighed and fingered a magazine in the rack beside him. “Chris thought it would be funny to wait for y’all to figure it out yourselves.” Joey nodded, “He would think that was funny. Well, at least I wasn’t the last to know,” Lance’s grin was huge, but he just shook his head a bit in agreement. Joey poked Lance a little with his toe, “So tell me about it. What’s it like?” Lance shrugged, “I don’t know. It’s mostly the way it was before. With sex. Good sex.” “No shit,” Joey rolled his eyes, “certainly sounds like good sex.” “What the fuck,” Lance muttered when the buses took a surprise turn off the interstate before they’d even gotten out of Kentucky. Joey looked up from the computer game he’d been playing on Lance’s laptop and shrugged, watching as Lance shook his head in disbelief and stalked toward the front of the bus. He was fuming a little when he came back a few minutes later. “What is it?” Joey asked, closing the laptop and sitting up straight. “Timberlake,” Lance muttered, “They shouldn’t let that kid look out the windows. He saw a sign for the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken and freaked.” Justin and Chris were out and running as soon as the buses pulled into the small KFC parking lot. Joey climbed off his own bus and looked around. He had absolutely no idea where they were. Kentucky obviously, south of Lexington, most likely. He didn’t think it classified as a town, it was pretty much just a rural road with a Kentucky Fried Chicken along the side of it and a tiny motel. Chris and Justin were chirping and laughing, standing in front of a plaque and grinning like idiots as Lance took their picture. Joey smiled at JC, who had fallen into step beside him. “Birthplace of KFC, huh?” “Yep,” JC said, “You should have seen those two on the bus when they found out we were actually going to stop.” “What?” Joey grinned, “You weren’t jumping for joy?” “Sure,” JC laughed, “It was just a bit more subdued. They woke me up with all their yelling and carrying on.” “Ah,” Joey nodded in understanding. Upon closer inspection Joey saw that the amazing photo opportunity plaque was just some historical blurb about Colonel Sanders as a model citizen of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He rolled his eyes at his friends’ cheesiness and followed them into the restaurant. It was a regular fast food restaurant, but attached to the dining room was a little KFC museum. You could walk through pieces of the Colonel’s original kitchen, and part of his bedroom, as well as look at display cases of all kinds of original Kentucky Fried Stuff. It was really kind of boring, and not worth stopping at all in Joey’s opinion. But they were there, and the girls behind the counter were excited to have them there, so they ordered food and ate in relative silence, for them, until Chris belched, stood up, and announced that he was going to “shit in the Colonel’s bathroom.” Lance groaned, and Justin giggled maniacally, and Joey and JC got up to look around the mini-museum. “I always wondered what kind of bed the Colonel slept in,” JC commented in the little bedroom alcove. “Yeah,” Joey said, then thought about it for a moment and added, “ew,” squinting a little at the bed. “Wanna try it out?” JC asked softly, and when Joey turned to look at him, he was smiling mischievously. Joey laughed, not thinking that JC was serious, until JC hopped over the rail and plopped himself on the bed. “C!” Joey hissed, looking around the room for cameras, “What the hell?!” “Come on, Joe,” JC patted the bed beside him, “You know you want to.” Joey rolled his eyes, “Peer pressure,” he grumbled, vaulting himself over the railing. He climbed onto the bed and kneeled over JC, his hands resting on either side of JC’s head. “Hey.” “Hey,” JC grinned, his eyes crinkling up into tiny happy half-moons. Joey sort of wanted to kiss him then. His eyelids, his cheeks, and the tiny little gap between his front teeth. It just seemed like the thing to do. Kiss JC on the Colonel’s bed. It made sense. Joey had never really thought about it before. It was probably a really bad idea. Instead he pulled at the sweatshirt that JC was wearing. “I still want this back, man,” he said, rolling off JC and settling on the bed beside him. JC nodded. “You think they have cameras in here?” he asked, turning onto his side and looking at Joey. “Probably,” Joey said, “those girls at the counter will probably rush in here any second to arrest us for ruffling up the Colonel’s bedspread.” He plucked at the white pill-y fabric. He thought JC would laugh, but he didn’t, he just watched Joey finger the bedspread. Joey was definitely thinking about it now. “So,” Joey started, and JC looked up at him then, eyes large and watching, “You and me, huh?” JC ducked his head and ran a hand through his hair, but Joey thought he saw him nod a little too. “How long do you think we’d last before Justin figured us out?” Joey sat up and smoothed out the rumpled bedspread. “A few years, at least,” JC said seriously. Joey grinned and helped JC up off the bed, following him out of the bedroom alcove and into the main dining area. Chris had returned from the bathroom and Justin was explaining to Lance that the proper way to eat a potato wedge was to bite off the end, and then squeeze out the inner potato, leaving the crispy outer shell for last. Chris kept grabbing the outer shells from Justin’s hands and eating them and Justin picked up another wedge, waving his greasy fingers around and talking with animated sweeps of his arms. Lance chewed on his thumbnail and nodded, eyebrows raised in a practiced arch, pretending to be interested in what Justin was saying. “See,” Justin said, waving a potato wedge in Lance’s face, “It’s like Ursula. You know, the sea witch? And –“ JC shrugged at Joey and pulled him into another room by the sleeve of his shirt. It was the Colonel’s kitchen. Wooden counters lined the walls, covered with neatly stacked white plates, various ingredients that Joey seriously hoped did not date back to Colonel Sanders’ time, and numerous pots and pans. A huge black stove sat against the window, looking old and outdated and fitting right in with the archaic looking blender that sat beside it. It was probably exactly what his grandmother’s kitchen used to look like when his mom was growing up. Except hopefully hers was less sterile looking. Joey glanced at the plaque attached to the railing and hoped that JC didn’t have any plans to test out the Colonel’s cookware. “Lance is probably going to get sick of Justin any second now and herd us back onto the buses,” JC mused. “Yeah,” Joey agreed, furrowing his brow, “Um, about that.” JC looked up from reading a plaque about dishes. “I think I maybe have a bit of, uh, a Lance thing.” JC nodded. “I know.” “You know?” Joey asked. He hadn’t really even known until he’d said it. “Sure,” JC smiled and raised his eyebrows. He folded his arms over his chest, palms rubbing the soft material of the sweatshirt and said, “But I have a Joey thing, and I’m pretty confident I can make you forget your Lance thing.” Cocky little – “oh yeah?” “Yeah,” JC’s grin was coy now, such an act. And it was working. Maybe kissing JC on the Colonel’s bed was a bad idea, but kissing him in the Colonel’s kitchen sounded just fine. JC propped himself against the rail, both hands gripping it behind his back and leaned a little, still smiling. If that wasn’t an invitation… Joey leaned in, placing his hands beside JC’s on the rail. Looking at JC, he thought maybe he’d already forgotten that Lance thing. What Lance thing? Lance who? And then there was JC’s smiling mouth, teeth, tiny glimpse of pink tongue, right there, so close, and Joey leaned in, JC’s body pressed up snug against his. “Hey guys, Lance –“ Justin walked into the kitchen and stopped dead in his tracks. “Fuck.” Joey didn’t even bother turning, just dropped his head to JC’s shoulder, sighing at the inopportune interruption. He sniffed a little against JC’s skin, smelling warmth and the salt of sleep and something indescribably JC. He felt rather than really heard JC say “Hey Justin, We. Um.“ He felt the shrug that came right afterward. “Uh uh” Justin said, holding up his hands, “Not you guys too. This is not happening.” Joey turned around, keeping one hand pushed up beside JC’s on the rail, “Us too?” Justin nodded, eyes wide and disbelieving, “Yeah, like first Chris and Lance and –“ “Chris and Lance,” JC repeated. “Yeah,” Justin said in his breathy ‘I’m exasperated and you’re an idiot’ voice. He even rolled his eyes and looked like he thought JC was the stupidest person ever, “They’ve been together for like, months.” “Months,” Joey said and Justin laughed at him. “Okay, maybe only two or something, but still, it’s been awhile.” JC looked at Joey and shrugged. “How long’ve you known?” Joey asked. “Since like a week after they hooked up, man,” Justin looked from Joey to JC and back again, “What? You didn’t? They’re all over each other.” “No, no,” JC said quickly, slipping his hand around Joey’s wrist and pulling him away from the railing, “Of course we knew.” “Yeah,” Joey agreed, “Um, did you say that Lance wants us to get back to the buses?” He let JC pull him through the door, leaving Justin wide-eyed and frowning in Colonel Sanders’ kitchen. Back/Feedback