Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 23:25:23 -0400
From: Dale E Wright <bwicub@hotmail.com>
Subject: "The Lottery Winner" Chapter 42

Hi everyone...

In order to accommodate people who are asking me about notification lists,
I've finally created an YahooGroup (Gods, Yahoo is like the Borg!)  to do so:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dale_writings

******

As always, Gabriella is my main cheerleader.  Mark has also been great.
I've even inspired him!  Check out his story "Blind Date", it's also here
in the Boyband section.

I'm a bit nervous--so if people could please e-mail me at
bwicub@hotmail.com--I'd really appreciate it. I love e-mail!!

My story is hosted on another website.  Here's it is:
http://railwayshoes.net/hosted

It's partway down the site, just look for "Lottery Winner".  There's lots
of other great stories there so check them out.

DISCLAIMER: The names of the people are fictional (well, except for the
members of the group).  This is a fictional story that came right out of my
own mind. I have no knowledge if any member of N Sync are gay or
whatever. That being said, please enjoy the story and remember-- write
me!!! (Especially write me if you're a member of the group! GRIN)

Thanks guys and gals,  Hope you like it.

Dale


--THE LOTTERY WINNER...


"Dale...

"Go ahead and answer it Mark."

"Hello this is the shithead's phone...

"Um, Dale?  Did I dial a wrong number or something?"

Mark laughed.  "No you got the right phone.  He's in the other room paying
the pizza guy.  Hang on a sec."  Mark pulled the phone away from his face
and let out his patented bellow.

"DALEGETYOURASSINHERENOW!!!!!"

"Can I tell him who's calling?"

"He'll know...

I walked into the room carrying a pizza box.  "Gods, I'm away for two
minutes and you can't bear to be without me or something?"

He wiggled my cellphone at me.  "Some man.  Sexy voice.  Wouldn't say who
he was.  Very mysterious."

I took the phone from him and went into the kitchen to get myself something
to drink.

"Hello?"

"Dale?  Was that Mark?"

"Hi Joey.  Yeah that's him.  Where are you guys?"

I heard a rustle followed by a clang.  "We just finished the San Diego meet
and greet.  After tonight's show we head to Vegas then on to Phoenix!"  I
heard someone say something to him, followed by him covering up the phone
and talking briefly to whoever it was.  "Sorry about that Dale, I'm back.
I already told Johnny that we're going to be staying around Phoenix for a
day or two after the concert ends.  I think the only one who's going back
to Orlando is Justin."

"How's Lance doing?"

"He's putting on a good show, but I can tell he's depressed.  Chris won't
hardly talk to anyone either.  JC and Justin and I are doing all we can to
draw them out and it's not working.
  What're you and Mark doing tonight?"

I headed back into the living room.  "We're going to gorge on pizza and
watch really bad horror movies.  Tomorrow we're going to go camping and get
away from everything.  Call my cell when you guys get into town and we'll
head over and meet you.  I gotta scoot for now Joey."

"Me to babe.  Hey Dale...

"You too Joe."

Mark and I had a great time that night.  And it was nice to getting out of
town the next morning.  The drive out to the desert was pretty uneventful.
I felt the stress levels lowering, and somewhere inside was a pang of
nostalgia since I hadn't been in the desert for awhile (I used to live in
the Mojave Desert out in CA).  My cell phone kept ringing with random
people calling me "to check on me", so I gave it to Mark and told him that
the only person I'd talk to was Joey when he called in a few days.

We set up our tent, the place he picked out for camping was great!  The
campground is at the edge of a bluff that's a couple of hundred feet tall.
You could look down and the view was so breathtaking, it truly is a
beautiful place.  We sat around just talking about random stuff, I think he
could tell that something was bugging me...

"So Dale," he took a swig of his beer, "how does it feel knowing that you
can have whatever you want and do anything?"

I didn't say anything, thinking about how to answer that.  "Mark, did you
ever want everything and know that you''ll never get it so you wonder why
even bother?"

He finished his beer and put the bottle back in the box.  "That's bullshit
Dale.  You are only as limited as you allow yourself to be."

I got up and began pacing around the fire that he'd started.  Grabbing a
beer, I opened it and drank about half the bottle in a single gulp.  "You
know that big charity concert that's taking place here next week?  I put
that on."

"WHAT?  No way!  That's so great."  He gave me a quick hug then sat back
down.  "They're saying that it's going to pull in like almost a million for
charity.  Wait a second, the group's N'Sync."  His face drained of color.
"Holy fuck.  You weren't lying were you?"

I smiled at him as I finished one beer and opened another.  "About what?"

He got up and was in my face.  "You know damn well about what!  When you
showed me the picture of Joey from the group and said he was your boyfriend
you weren't lying were you?"

"No Mark, I wasn't.  You have to swear by everything that you hold sacred,
not the least of which is our friendship, that you won't tell ANYONE."

"Hhmmm...

"DAMMIT MARK!"

He let out a laugh at that.  "Jesus Dale, chill.  I'm only kidding.  I
would never out anyone.  That's a personal choice.  So, spill bitch.  How'd
you two meet?"

For the next three hours I told him about the past months.  I didn't hold
anything back.  His eyes lit up when I told him about Lance being gay.
"Hot damn, he's the cutie of the group!"  After I finished filling him in,
I told him about buying the house just before coming out here.

"Hey Dale, think I could room with you when I get to Orlando?"

I did a doubletake.  "'When you get to Orlando?'"

He giggled since he was now a bit drunk.  "Guess this now as good a time as
any to tell you.  I got hired by Universal Studios for their Event Planning
Division, and my start date is in three weeks.  I was going to fly there
this weekend, then decided to wait when I heard you were coming here.
Thought I could probably guilt ya into letting me stay with you for a few
months then I can move into my own place."

"We'll figure something out.  Just make sure you don't bug my cat."  We
finished a twelve pack of beer between us, and staggered to our sleeping
bags.

I was only lying down for an hour or so and felt like I couldn't stay in
the tent any longer.  I pulled on sweats and tennis shoes and staggered
over to the rocks by the bluff.  I sat there near the edge for awhile just
staring into space and thinking.  I was racked by a crying jag, and after
about twenty minutes it lapsed off.  I heard a noise from the tent, and the
door being unzipped.

"Dale?  Where are, DALE!"

"Dale what are you doing out there?  Come back in please!!!"

Huh?  Out there?

I looked around at where I was sitting.  How did I get this far down the
rocks?  I pulled myself up and slowly made my way back to where Mark was
standing.  As soon as I was by him he grabbed me by my shoulders and began
shaking me.

"WHATTHEHELLWEREYOUDOING?"

"I don't know Mark.  I'm going to go back to bed."  I headed back to the
tent and crawled into my sleeping bag.  I heard him come back in a few
minutes later.

"Dale?"

*sigh* "What Mark?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just stressed over the past few weeks.  Good night."  I rolled
over and went to sleep.  About an hour later I remember hearing a ringing
noise, but I couldn't wake myself up enough to care.

Mark wasn't able to sleep, and he jumped when Dale's phone rang.  "Hello,
Dale's phone...

"Is Dale still awake?"

"No, he's sleeping.  Hang on a second though...  walked outside.  "Is this
Joey?"

"Yeah, is this Mark?"

"Yeah.  Hey, there.  I'm worried."  Mark then told Joey about what he'd
seen earlier.  After he'd finished he could hear crying on the other end of
the phone.  "Dale said he was under a lot of stress lately, but this seems
like more than stress.  When do you guys get in town?"

"Tomorrow morning.  The group decided to skip getting rooms here and just
crash on the bus for a few hours.  We have rooms set aside for us at the
Biltmore, I'll be able to be reached there anytime after eleven in the
morning.  When are you two getting back into town?"

Mark glanced at his watch and saw it was almost three in the morning.
"I'll time it so we're meeting you at the hotel.  I'll swing by my place
about an hour before so we can clean up and be presentable.  Is your
security gonna need to know what kind of car I drive or something?"

Joey took down the info on Mark's jeep, and promised to give it to their
security people.  "Mark, please keep an eye on him.  I'm worried now."

Mark promised, and hung up to go back to bed.  Joey hung up his cell phone
and headed to the front of the bus.  Chris was playing Nintendo, and Lance
was sitting over in the corner reading some papers that had been forwarded
from FreeLance for him to look over.  Lance looked up at Joey, and saw that
he had been crying.

"Hey Joey, what's wrong?"

Joey smiled sadly at Lance.  He didn't want to burden his friend right now
since Lance was going through some issues of his own.  "I'll be fine Lance.
Just a little worried about some stuff."

Lance put his papers down and glared at Joey.  "Stuff?  Come on Fatone,
talk."

"Okay, I'll talk about mine if you talk about yours."

Lance sat and stared at Joey for a bit, and finally said softly, "deal".

Joey led Lance back to the bunks, and they squeezed into the one that Joey
usually uses.  They sat facing each other, and just started talking.  It
was the first time in months that the two friends had talked about what was
really going on in their lives and in their hearts.  Joey started crying,
Lance put his arms around Joey and held him tight.  Joey returned the favor
when Lance started crying over things with Chris.

They fell asleep in the bunk holding onto each other.  Joey woke up a few
hours later from a nightmare, and missed Dale terribly.  He had been
looking for Dale and couldn't find him.  The guys weren't helping, just
standing around telling him what a mistake he was making.  Joey lay in the
bunk crying softly so he wouldn't wake up Lance.


"Joey, wake up.  Lance, come on."

Joey felt someone shaking him softly.  It was JC.  "Come on guys, we're in
Phoenix.  Lance, you're supposed to give Johnny a call."

Joey remembered the conversation with Mark, and wondered what Dale wasn't
telling him.  He got out of the bunk, stretching and feeling the muscles
protest.  Lance got out of the bunk and staggered to the front of the bus
where he'd left his cell phone.  He grabbed the phone and the folder of
papers and headed in to the hotel so he could settle into his room.

After throwing his bags into the corner of the room, he called to check in
with his company.  He knew from talking to Joey last night that the plan
was for Dale and his friend to meet them at the hotel in a few hours.  He
decided to try and get to the bottom of his questions.  He called JC's room
from the hotel phone and got a number, then called it from his cell.

"JesusChrist! It's awful early in the fuckin' morning so someone BETTER be
dead!!!"

Lance had to laugh at that.  "Not that I know of Gabriella, but then again
the day's just started."

She squealed.  "OOH, my favorite dirty talker.  Say something kinky big
daddy!"

Lance felt his cheeks heat up as he blushed.  "Yeah whatever Gab."

"Aw, don't get upset Lance.  You just have the perfect voice for phone sex.
Both sexes get wet when you say anything!  So what do I owe the phone call
at this ungodly hour?"

He laughed.  "It's after nine in the morning there, so if you're still
sleeping then it's your own fault because every one else is awake."

"Hey, I didn't go to sleep until like four, so don't get all high and
mighty on me.  I have to get up anyway so I can look pretty for class."

"Anyway Gabriella, I'm calling about Dale."

"Oh."

"How bad has he gotten?"

"Don't really know Lance, for some reason I've been on Dale's shit list or
something.  I was going to the hearings to be moral support and after one
of the sessions he suddenly got all weird.  Stopped answering the phone,
wouldn't call me back.  I tried talking to him at the house and he blew me
off, closed the door on my face even!"

She took a deep sigh.  "I'm worried."

"Join the club Gabriella.  Joey and I are going to see him today.  Maybe
those two will finally talk and Dale will tell him what's going on.  Okay,
I'm going to go nap before we start our running around.  I'll fill you in
on how things go with Dale.  Deal?"

"DEAL!  Stay cute blondie...

Lance curled up on his bed and promptly fell asleep.  He was woken up a few
hours later by someone pounding on the door.

"Open the door, it's Dale!"

Lance opened the door and felt a shock as he saw how haggard Dale looked.
Standing next to Dale was...

Was...

--/"That is one of the most handsome men I think I've ever seen."--/

  Lance tried hugging Dale, but was stopped from that when Dale pulled
away.

"Um, Lance.  This is my friend Mark.  I've been staying with him for a few
days until you guys got here.  Mark, this is Lance.  Well, really James."

Mark was speechless.  Lance was speechless.  Finally, Lance giggled as he
shyly asked Mark a question.

"Mark, do you want to go for a swim?"

Lance pulled Mark into the room, "you can come in while I change in the
bathroom.  Dale we'll catch up with you later."  Mark shut the door behind
him with a resounding thud.

Dale was left standing in the hallway.  After staring at the door for a few
minutes he slowly walked down the hall to another room.  He knocked softly
on the door and waited.

The door swung open, and Joey was standing there.  Joey grinned.  "Oh baby,
I've missed you."  He pulled Dale into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Dale tensed, and pulled away slightly.