Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 20:42:16 -0600
From: Charlie Lambert <grandbaykracker@hotmail.com>
Subject: nsync complications chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: Hello everybody, first off, this story is going to be about
establishing relationships, not purely about sex, but there will still be
encounters. I must however state that I do not know anybody's sexual
preferences in REALITY, however, in this little fiction world of mine, they
are what I choose them to be. Once again, the "Duh Factor": if you are not
old enough to view this material, go away. If homosexual material offends
you, why are you here?

Special Thanx: Jessie! You are my main inspiration! Also, a special thanx
to Alex, James, Jimmy, and Chris. Thanks for the motivation!

Reminder: Lance's thoughts are in greater than, less than arrows <> and
Joey's are in regular brackets []. Thanx and enjoy!

In the previous chapter:

The guys of N'Sync fly down to Mobile, Alabama. Lance is still in shock and
so are the other guys. Lance stays at the hospital that night with his
sister while the other guys and Britney go to the hotel. JC convinces
management to try to get a hold of BSB's management and ask Kevin to talk
to Lance, considering he lost his father. Stacy wakes up in the middle of
the night and Lance has to tell her the news, and now I'm going to zoom
ahead a week or so after his parents' funeral.

Chapter Four

Management had deemed it necessary to cancel everything for at least three
months. Considering all they had was some promotional appearances, it
wasn't that hard to manage. They wanted to give Lance and the rest of the
gang time to recover from their loss. After all, they were like parents to
them too. The guys have returned to Orlando, and Stacy with Lance. Lance
insisted that she come stay with him until she gets better and can do stuff
on her own. Lance was in the process of waking up this one Saturday morning
when he heard the doorbell ring.

<What the hell? Its 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I know none of the
guys would be up this early. Ugh...I don't want to get out of bed.>

Of course, the doorbell rang a second time and Lance started to get out of
bed. He put on his green robe and started toward the front door. He opened
the door and was shocked to see Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys
standing there.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Kevin asked, looking at Lance who was still
groggy.

"What? Oh, well, yeah you kind of did, but I needed to get up anyways. Come
on in."

"Thanks, you have no idea how hard it was for me to get up this morning,
but since it was a personal favor to somebody, I felt like I needed to get
here on time."

"Personal favor?" Lance asked, motioning for Kevin to have a seat in the
living room.

"He didn't tell you? That's just like him, JC asked me to come have a chat
with you."


"Oh, he did? What about?" Lance asked, playing dumb and taking a seat
opposite Kevin.  "Don't play dumb, you know that he is worried about you,
they all are."

"I'm fine, I've told them that a million times since it happened."

"Are you?" Kevin asked, looking directly at Lance.

Lance looked right back at Kevin and saw that he was being serious, Lance
could tell that Kevin wanted to help. Lance thought about it a second, then
continued.

"I...I honestly don't know anymore..."

"Exactly what I said when I was asked that question."

"Huh?"

"My dad passed away from cancer and I was depressed for a while, until
B-rok started asking questions and I finally realized that I didn't need to
play Mr. Tough guy anymore and that my friends were there to comfort me and
be there for me."

"I'm sorry that you lost your dad like that, but...my situation is
completely different."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not trying to play Mr. Tough Guy, it doesn't take much for me to break
down, and I'm getting over the fact of living without my parents, its not
the fact that they're...they're dead, its just..." Lance let the sentence
come to an end.

"Just what?"

"Its personal."

"You won't feel better until you talk about it, I know that for sure."

"I know, but I can't just blurt it out like that, I mean, I don't want to
ruin the guys."

"Ruin the guys?" Kevin gave it some thought for a few moments and then
started again, "I think I know where this is headed."

"How could you?"

"We had the same situation in our group. It took AJ a while to admit it,
but I was finally able to get him to confess and it made him feel so much
better afterwards."

"Confess?" Lance asked, he knew what was coming next.

"Lance, are you bi?"

Lance, a little startled by the question took a few minutes to respond.

"Not exactly, this is a one way street and it goes the opposite way." Lance
immediately regretted using that analogy because he felt like an idiot
afterwards.

"You're gay?"

"Yeah..." Lance replied and then he decided it was time for a little rant
and rave. "I don't know how to break it to the guys, I've only told Joey
and I know that if it was to get out, it would ruin N Sync and all of them
have worked too hard for me to screw it up for them."

Kevin, feeling that that wasn't the real reason for Lance's behavior,
"There's something more though, you know that the guys would accept you for
who you are and it isn't too hard to keep certain things from the press,
what is it?"

"They died...and I couldn't tell them. I didn't tell them, I was afraid
that they would shun me and...deep down I knew they wouldn't, but it was
the fear of it all and then they go and get in this horrible accident..."

Kevin got up immediately and crossed to where Lance was and sat down next
to him, pulling him into a hug. Lance returned the hug and dried out what
was the beginning of tears.

"It'll be alright Lance, you really should talk to the rest of the guys and
let them know how you feel, right now, they are your family and you need to
tell them so they can help you."

"Thanks Kevin...I...I really appreciate this "little chat" we had."

Kevin laughed, "No problem."

Lance, feeling a little bit childish after his outburst, thanked Kevin
again, gave him a hug and told him he'd call the guys right away. After
showing Kevin out, he called Joey.

"Ugh...hello?"

Lance, remembering that it was still before noon on a Saturday, cursed
himself silently, and then he started talking.

"Joey, its me, Lance."

Joey immediately showed signs of wakefulness. "Lance? Oh, what's up?"  "I
was wondering if you could get a hold of the guys and ask them to come over
around noon, I'm going to tell them."

"Sure man, no prob, I'll get a hold of everybody and see you around noon,
alright?"

"Thanks Joey, see ya then."

Lance then remembered his sister and immediately ran up to her room. She
was just waking up when Lance walked in.

"Good morning sleepy head."

"Good Morning Lance, ugh, what time is it?"

"It's about ten thirty. You hungry?"

"Not really, is there anything you wanted to pamper me about today?" A hint
of sarcasm underlining her voice.

"Haha, very funny Stacy. Not really actually...but there's something I
needed to tell you."

"Okay, I'm all ears, what is it?"

Lance crossed over to Stacy's bed and sat down next to her. She sat up and
was looking at him when he took a deep breath.

"It's taken me a while to realize the way I feel about...relationships and
I wanted to tell you before I tell the guys."

"You're a little late on that flight Bro, I already know that you're gay."

"What?! How'd you know?" Lance almost jumped off the bed in shock.

"I am your sister after all, not to mention there were little signs that I
picked up on here and there." She smiled at him. "I'm okay with it Lance,
whatever makes you happy makes me happy."

Lance, unsure of what to do, hugged his sister and thanked her a million
times for taking it so well. Then a question popped into his
head. "Did...did mom and dad know?"

"They suspected as much, they loved you Lance. They were happy as long as
you were happy."

A huge wait was lifted off Lance's shoulders at that moment. Stacy feeling
rather curious, "So the guys don't know?"

"Joey does, I'm going to tell the others today."

"So...what kind of guys do you like?" A devious grin came across her face.

Feeling really awkward at that moment, "As if that's any of your business"
His face turning beet red.

"Haha, you're turning crimson little brother."

Lance and Stacy laughed it off for a little while and then he remembered
the guys were coming over. So he headed downstairs to put a pizza in the
oven for lunch. Stacy, feeling tired from her meds went back to sleep.

It only took him a few minutes to get the pizza in the oven and was
contemplating taking a shower; however, the doorbell rang at that exact
moment. Lance looked up at the clock and realized it was noon already. He
jogged over to the front door and sure enough, the rest of the guys were
there. All of them looking still a tad bit groggy, but concerned none the
less.

"Hey guys come on in and get comfortable."

The all sat down and JC was the first to speak up. "So...what was it that
you wanted to tell us on this Saturday morning?"

"Afternoon," Joey corrected, giggling a little bit.

"Either way, you're right, there's something I need to tell you guys, but
first I wanted to thank you JC."

"For what?"

"For getting Kevin from BSB to come speak to me, it really helped, and it
shows how worried you are about me, thanks."

"No problem, you know you're like a brother to all of us."

"That's the reason I decided to talk to all of you guys now. I want you
guys to promise to listen to what I have to say and wait until I'm done,
then...we can talk if you want to."

All the guys nodded in agreement, and all getting looks of concern on their
faces.

"Okay. Gosh, where to begin?" Lance tried to lighten the mood. The guys
smiled accordingly. "Well, you guys all know that I was really depressed
whenever I found out about my parents and all of you were there for me. I'm
getting over that now, slowly but surely I'm learning how to deal with not
having my parents anymore. The reason I'm kind of 'out of it' so to speak
has to do with my parents and you guys. I never got to tell them something
really important. I was afraid to, although now I know it was a childish
fear. I'm worried about telling ya'll because I don't want to do anything
that could endanger 'N Sync. We've all worked so hard to get this far in
life, but I have to tell you." Lance took a really deep breath and
continued. "I've had to come to terms with something extremely personal,
having to do with the types of relationships I want to get involved
with...I'm gay."

 Lance was staring off at the floor, unable to bring himself to look at
anybody for fear of the looks. Chris, being serious for once, "So this is
what you were going to tell us before all this stuff happened, back at the
hotel in Atlanta?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Whatever makes you happy hombre," Justin replied.

Lance looked up at this point in time and stared at Justin. <Did he just
say he is okay with this?>

"Same goes here Scoop," Chris replies. <Oh man, they are taking this really
well so far.>

"Yeah, this is what had you weirded out for the past couple of weeks? You
should've told us sooner Scoop," JC said. At this point in time, Lance
started crying, and for the first time in a long time, this was for pure
happiness. "Thank you guys, you have no idea how long I've wanted to tell
you."

"Group Hug!" Joey yelled at the top of his lungs. All the guys got up and
went over to Lance, all grappling and giving a humongous hug to him. Lance
was extremely happy.

[I'm glad everyone took it so well. I'm really glad to see Lance so
happy. What is this weird feeling I've been having lately? I've been
worried about Lance, but it just seems like something else is there...]

Uh oh! What's going on in Joey's head? Hmmmm...=0) Let me know what you
thought about this chapter. I LOVE EMAIL!!! If I can, I will respond to
everyone's that I get. I love helpful criticisms. Whether they are
constructive or not. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Later,
Charlie. grandbaykracker@hotmail.com