Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 01:06:05 EST
From: Kb79@aol.com
Subject: Fixing the Backstreet Boys, Chapter 2, Boy Bands

DISCLAIMER: The story that follows is a work of fiction. The characters
are completely fictional. This is not saying anything about the sexual
orientation of the Backstreet Boys.

WARNING: This story deals with homosexual themes. The sex will be
light, but it will be present. If this offends you, don't read. If you
are under 18 years of age, don't read. If reading this story causes
you to break any laws, don't read.

FEEDBACK: This is my first story. So if I'm doing a horrible job, or if
you love it, or if you just wanna say hi, email me at Kb79@aol.com and
we can chat. Thanks a bunch

Thanks to everyone who emailed me. It totally made my day every time. You
guys are great.

FIXING THE BACKSTREET BOYS
CHAPTER 2

Kevin went to answer the door and wasn't surprised to see that it was the
room service being delivered. He figured it wouldn't have been any of the
boys yet. He knew if he was in their position he'd be dragging his feet
getting to dinner also. He let the man push the cart of food into the room
and then gave him a good tip for getting it up there so quickly. Kevin set
out the chairs in the room so that none of them were very close to another
one, but so that they were still all facing each other. He knew that if he
let the boys pick they're own seating arrangement the group would probably
end up in the corners of the room facing the wall as they ate. He didn't
want that. He wanted them to look at each other in hope that they may be
able to finally talk all of this out. This better go well. Kevin
thought. If they were still at each other's throats when this 'therapist'
guy showed up he may figure it out to quickly and then they would be
finished. Finished as a group, and finished as friends.

Kevin ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Why do I have to be
the one to make sure we talk and work out this little 'problem'? Kevin
thought to himself. Where did it say in my contract that I had to handle
all the 'internal' conflicts? Nick was right, I'm no more important than
anyone else in the group. But what Nick didn't realize when he said that
was that it also meant that Kevin shouldn't have to put up with keeping the
group in line. That should be everyone's job not just his. The group
shouldn't have to have a 'father' figure; they should all be able to take
care of themselves.

"I guess it isn't the time to be feeling bad for myself." Kevin said out
loud to no one but himself. He felt silly talking to himself, but how often
was it that there was someone there to listen? "Ahhh... I'm beginning to go
crazy, I need to get my act together, the boys will be here any second."

It was about ten after 6:00, and Kevin knew that the boys couldn't drag
their feet any longer without feeling guilty. And as if on cue there was
yet another knock on the door.

Kevin opened the door to see all four of his band-members standing outside
the door. They were spread out so it was hard to see who had knocked.

"Let me guess, you've been standing out there for two minutes deciding
which one should make the first move and knock on my door." Kevin stated.

All of the boys looked a little sheepish at that accusation.

"Okay then, so who finally got up the courage to hit their delicate fist on
the horribly hard door?" Kevin said feeling a little sarcastic.

"It was me, I figured the sooner we got in there, the sooner we could get
away from each other." Nick admitted. "And drop that tone okay, none of us
are in the mood."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it, just trying to break the tension a little." Kevin
tried to apologize.

"Well I doubt making fun of us will do that." Nick said.

"I said I'm sorry, alright, let's just go in and eat dinner." Kevin was
aggravated already.

He walked in the hotel room and was almost surprised when they all
followed. They began to grab food and such from off of the room service
cart. Brian was the first one done and began to position his chosen seat so
that he wasn't facing the rest of the chairs.

"Leave that chair where it is!" Kevin barked at him.

Brian jumped for a moment almost spilling his dish of food.

"Sorry, didn't mean to yell. I just want us all sitting together. We need
to talk and we can't do that if we aren't facing each other." Kevin said
softly.

Brian put his chair back where it was. The rest of the boys sat down. They
all tried to push their chairs as far from each other as possible, but
quickly realized they were already set up that way. They all set to their
food, but it was obvious by the way they were picking at it that no one was
really all that hungry. No one knew what to do with their eyes. They kept
glancing at each other and then darting away. After a few minutes everyone
was just staring at their untouched plates.

"I guess I should begin, shouldn't I?" Kevin asked.

"Well you did call this meeting." Howie said.

"Okay then, how do I start this?" Kevin said more to himself then to the
others.

"Just spit it out Kevin, we all just want to get out of here." Nick told
him.

"Our manager came to talk to me after all of you left this afternoon."
Kevin began.

"What about?" Howie asked, showing a little more interest, and a bit less
hostility.

"About us, the way we've been acting lately." Kevin continued.

"The way we've been acting?" Nick asked, also being a little less hostile.

"Yeah, he noticed something has been up, that we haven't all been ourselves
lately." Kevin said.

"You didn't tell him did you???" Howie screeched, the hostility returning
to his voice.

"Hell no, I didn't say anything. He was pretty angry with me because of
it. He wanted me to tell him everything, but I didn't give him any
information." Kevin explained.

"Good, no one needs to know what happened but us, it's bad enough that we
need to know." Nick said.

At that comment both Brian and AJ got up to leave. They looked at each
other and quickly looked away. Kevin shot them both an exasperated look and
they sat their asses back down.

"Guys we need to bring this up, we haven't had a chance to talk it out, and
if I had to guess, not talking this out is what is causing us all to
fight." Kevin started again.

"It's what happened, not refusing to talk about what happened that's
causing us to fight!" Nick spit out. "I don't believe we should talk about
it at all."

"I think your wrong Nick, I think if we finally bring this out into the
open we can finally resolve what is going on." Kevin said. "What do the
rest of you think?"

"I don't know anymore, we need something." Howie started to sound defeated
also.

"Yeah, we do." Kevin said. "What about you guys?" he addressed to AJ and
Brian.

Brian and AJ didn't even look at him. They stared at their laps and didn't
even make a motion at the question.

"Guys I know it hurts but we have to talk about it." Kevin told them.

AJ finally spoke up. "Why?" When no one spoke up he continued. "Why do we
need to talk about it, why can't you guys just forget about it and move on
with our lives?"

"I think we've tried AJ, but it isn't working. We need to bring this out in
the open and try to resolve it." Kevin told him, happy that AJ was finally
actually talking.

"But why Kevin, why now?" Brian asked.

"This is gonna be hard to tell you guys, but I have to." Kevin said. "You
know how I said that our manager came to talk to me today?"

Four heads nodded yes slowly.

"Well he figured he needed to get us some help, so we can work out this
'problem'." Kevin continued.

"Help?" Howie asked.

"Yeah, he said he's bringing in a therapist to talk to us." Kevin said.

"A Therapist?!?" Nick exclaimed.

"Before you all flip out, it isn't what you think." Kevin tried to placate.

"Well what is it?!?" Nick asked again.

"The guy is supposed to be some kind of relationship therapist. Supposedly
he has worked with similar situations like this." Kevin said.

"Situations like this, they do know!" Nick screamed.

"Nick calm down, that isn't what I meant. Situations like this meaning
working relationships where co-workers are having problems with each other,
fighting and such." Kevin informed.

"You sure it's not just a cover up?" Howie asked.

"No I don't know for sure, but our manager has never lied to me before, I
don't know why he'd start now." Kevin said.

"Well I don't think we should talk to him." Nick stated.

"We don't have a choice guys. I told him that we weren't interested, and he
said we had no choice." Kevin told them.

"We don't have a choice?!? We're the fucking BACKSTREET BOYS!! I think we
have a choice." Nick was livid.

"No we don't, I hope I'm not the only one who ever pays attention during
contract negotiations, because If I am then you guys are in for a rude
awakening!" Kevin was tired of being calm and nice with everyone.

"We do pay attention Kevin, though I don't understand what you're getting
at." Howie said.

"I'm saying that in our contract it is stated that we have no choice put to
accept help if a situation pops up where we may be jeopardizing the group."
Kevin said. "We did all agree to it."

"Yeah, but I bet we never figured that something like this would happen."
Nick said.

"Yeah." Said Howie.

"Yeah." Kevin agreed also.

Nick, Howie, and Kevin looked at AJ and Brian. AJ and Brian looked back.

"Well...?" Nick said.

"Well? Well what? Are you looking at us for the answer? Are you looking at
us because we caused all of this mess and you want us to fix it? Maybe go
back in time and make it so it never happened? Well guess what? We can't!
I'm sorry that we can't just disappear! It won't happen. I'm sorry you had
to see what you saw, but just get over it. It happened and it can't be
changed!" AJ exploded with the feelings that had been held in for so long
that it was eating at him.

He sat back down in his chair and lowered his head. Then he began to
cry. He waited a second, expecting someone to come comfort him or at least
say something. No one did. It made him cry harder. He remembered a time
when the minute one of the guys even threatened to shed a tear everyone
would be there with hugs and kind words. What had happened? Where were his
friends?

Brian had begun to cry also. He couldn't believe that AJ had said all of
that. They had agreed to just stay quiet whenever this topic came up. Why
couldn't he just stay silent?

The other three guys sat there silenced. They couldn't believe how AJ had
exploded. He couldn't expect them to just turn their heads at what
happened. What happened, why did it happen?

They all just sat there and thought. Some of them crying, some of them
angry, some of them confused. But they were all thinking, thinking about
that night.

*FLASHBACK* Three weeks ago.

The concert had just ended about an hour ago. The Backstreet Boys had
headed back to the hotel as soon as possible. It had been one of those
fantastic concerts and their adrenaline was running very high. They all
retired to their rooms to take showers and to get a good night sleep before
traveling again tomorrow.

AJ had got into his bathroom and went to turn on the shower. Nothing
happened.

"Dammit, why do I always have to get the defected room?" AJ wondered out
loud. He considered going to bed without a shower, but with all that
dancing he was pretty rank. It seemed he would have to go ask one of the
guys to borrow their shower.

"Whose room is next to mine?" AJ thought out loud again. "Brian. Good he
won't mind."

Brian and him had been getting a lot closer lately. Nick and Brian had
always been best friends and Kevin and Howie had always been pretty close,
but as of recently Kevin had been busy with all of that business crap and
Howie and Nick had been working on some song. So that left Brian and AJ. It
was only natural that they would spend some more time together. It was
pretty cool and they had begun to click in a way they never had gotten a
chance to before. They now had some kind of bond, AJ wasn't to sure what it
was but it just felt good to have a friend like he now had in Brian.

AJ knocked on Brian's door.

"Hold on a second." Brian's voice rang out. He then opened the door. His
hair was wet and he only had on a terry cloth robe. "Hey AJ what's up?
Everything alright?"

"Yeah, sorta, my showers broke. I was wondering if I could borrow yours?"
AJ asked.

"Of course bud. I just finished up, it's all yours." Brian flashed that
killer smile of his.

"Thanks Brian! You're the best!" AJ smiled back.

AJ grabbed his stuff from his room and went into Brian's shower. The hot
water felt good. He began to finally relax after their full night. He
stepped out of the shower and dried off. He threw on a pair of boxer shorts
and a tee shirt. Running a comb threw his hair and brushing his teeth he
completed his use of Brian's bathroom.

AJ stepped out of the bathroom to see Brian lying on the bed in his in his
underwear watching the TV.

"What ya watching Brian?" AJ asked.

"What? uhh, nothing." Brian said quickly flipping the channels on the
remote control.

"Ohhh... What was that Brian, watching a little spank 'o' vision?" AJ
teased.

He went over to Brian and wrestled the remote control away from him. It
took a minute but he overpowered the blond boy lying on the bed. He quickly
hit the channel return button. A scene of two men kissing each other
appeared on the screen.

"Brian what were you watching?" AJ asked.

"Nothing it was just a movie." Brian said as tears started to well up in
his eyes.

"A movie about gay men?" AJ asked again.

Brian nodded.

"Just for entertainment value or something else?" AJ noticed Brian wasn't
looking him in the eyes anymore.

"Something else... AJ can I tell you something?" Brian asked.

"Of course you can B-Rok, anything." AJ reassured.

"I, I, I," Brian stuttered.

"It's okay Brian. No matter what you say I will still be your friend. Just
take a deep breath." AJ instructed.

Brian followed his directions. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly,
and said "AJ, I think I'm gay." And with that he began to cry.

AJ wrapped his arms around the crying young man and held him softly.

"Shh Brian, it's okay, don't cry. There's nothing wrong. If you're gay,
you're gay. It's nothing to cry about." AJ said lightly.

"You don't think so?" Brian asked through his tears.

"No of course not. All it means is that you like men, it's not like it
means your hair is gonna turn purple and you're going to grow another 3
sets of appendages." AJ joked with him.

That got a smile from Brian. He tightened his hug around AJ and felt a
little better.

"You alright Brian?" AJ asked.

"Yeah I guess I just figured you'd be grossed out and tell me you hated
me. We've gotten so close the past few weeks that I didn't want to ruin
that." Brian said.

"You could never ruin that, nothing you could say could end our
friendship. How long have you known?" AJ asked.

"Since I broke up with my girlfriend. I never felt comfortable around her
and after a while sex just wasn't, umm, 'working'. So when I noticed I
looked at our male fans in the crowds instead of the females and dreamed
about James Dean instead of Natalie Wood after watching REBEL WITHOUT A
CAUSE, it just came to me. I hit a point of realization I guess I had kept
bottled up for a long time." Brian filled him in.

"Well I'm glad you were able to realize it before you got into another bad
relationship with a girl you could never really be happy with." AJ told
him.

"Really AJ?" Brian asked. AJ nodded. "That makes me feel so much
better. I'm glad you support me. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're to sweet man, I don't deserve all of that." AJ was beginning to
blush.

"Yes you do, you've been my life saver these passed few weeks." Brian said
to him.

"Anything for you Brian, trust me you've done just as much for me these
weeks as I've done for you." AJ told him.

"Really?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, it's kinda silly, but you have Nick to be your best bud, Howie and
Kevin always pal around, and it kinda left me out. I mean you guys never
exclude me from anything, but this is the first time I've had a friend to
talk to aside from all five of us chatting together. It has really meant a
lot to me." AJ confessed getting a little misty-eyed.

"Come on don't you start crying to. Only one at a time. I think that should
be out rule." Brian said as he adjusted the hug a bit so they both were
getting comfort out of it.

"It feels nice to be held by you Brian." AJ said quietly.

"It feels nice to be held by you also AJ, and to hold you." Brian admitted.

AJ sighed and snuggled into Brian a little deeper. They both stayed there
holding each other for a few minutes.

"AJ, are you gay?" Brian finally worked up the nerve to ask him.

"Brian I don't know man, but this feels so right and so comfortable. And
these past weeks, our friendship has been so amazing that I can't help
wondering if there is a little something more behind it then just friends."
AJ looked up at Brian when he said this.

"AJ, you took the words right out of my mouth. I've been wondering that for
a few days now, I just didn't know what to say to you. I guess I'm lucky
you won the wrestling match over the remote control huh?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, I don't know what this means, but at the moment I really don't
care." AJ said. They were now looking at each other with this starry look
in their eyes. It was the look of someone who just noticed that everything
they had ever wanted had been sitting under their noses the whole time, and
they had just realized it now. They both smiled.

"Who would have guessed?" Brian said through his grin.

"Yeah, who woulda!" AJ said feeling this sense of fulfillment fill his
body.

"Would you like to stay and watch the rest of this movie with me, it only
just started." Brian asked.

"Sure, sounds like fun, maybe I'll learn something about myself." AJ
grinned at Brian.

They both sat on Brian's bed and continued to watch the movie for about a
half an hour. It was good, mostly a love story, and no sex, just some
kissing. The air conditioning was doing an overly well-done job of cooling
down the room and both boys began to shiver.

"Do you want to get under the covers?" Brian asked AJ.

"If it's okay, but I could always go back to my room and put on something
warmer." AJ said.

"Nah, come on it's fine. This way you won't miss anymore of the movie."
Brian told him.

"Cool, thanks Brian." And with that both of them slid into Brian's bed to
try to warm up.

The movie continued and reached a particularly mushy happy ending. The boys
looked at each other and sighed sappily.

"That was a real sweet movie, they ended up so happy, despite all the
bullshit they had to go through." AJ said smiling.

"Yeah it gives me hope that I may find someone someday." Brian said back.

He looked at AJ and noticed a strange look on his face.

"What's wrong AJ?" Brian asked.

"Nothing, just feeling kinda lonely all the sudden." AJ said softly.

"Don't go back to your room then, stay here tonight." Brian offered.

"Really? I think that would be good." AJ said his face returning to its
happy look.

"Well then it's settled." Brian turned off the TV and slid down into
bed. AJ followed suit and also laid down. It was still cold in the room so
the boys moved as close to each other as possible without touching each
other. They just looked in each other's eyes for a while. Finally when it
felt like they could stay awake no longer AJ leaned forward and kissed
Brian softly on the lips. They both smiled even harder than they had in the
past two hours and leaned into each other's arms to fall asleep. Just as
they had almost drifted off Brian whispered into AJ's ear "I think I have
found my somebody." And they fell asleep. Smiling.

	If only they could have woke up that peacefully. They were still
entwined around each other when there was a loud knock on the door. Without
even waiting for a response, Nick came bounding into the room.

"Hey Brian, you awake?" Nick said on the way in. He then screeched to a
halt. "What the hell?!? What's going on here?!?" He said noticing the
snuggled bodies.

That woke Brian and AJ up quickly. They looked at each other and then at
Nick with absolute terror in their eyes.

Howie and Kevin heard Nick scream and came running into Brian's room.

"Nick, what's wrong, is Brian okay?" Kevin said and then rammed into
Howie's back because Howie had stopped short.

"Holy shit." He heard Howie whisper.

Kevin then moved around Howie to see what the fuss was about. What he saw
was a huge shock. There was Brian and AJ both in Brian's bed, half sitting
up, but still wrapped around each other a bit.

"Get out of here!!!" AJ screamed regaining speech.

"Hold on AJ, what's going on here?" Kevin questioned.

"Isn't it obvious? The two fags are sleeping together!" Nick screamed.

"Hold on maybe it's something else, let's hope, give them a second to
explain." Kevin tried to reason.

"Kev I think it's kinda clear to see, look at the way they are holding each
other." Howie stated.

Brian and AJ not realizing they were still clinging to each other, quickly
let go. Then AJ got out of bed and pointed at them.

"Get the hell out of here, this is none of your business!"

"See Kevin, they wouldn't be so upset, if it was 'something else'." Nick
stated sarcastically.

"Maybe you're right, what do you think they are doing in bed together?"
Kevin asked facing Nick and Howie.

"Did you not here me?!? If you're gonna talk about us like we're not here,
the GET THE HELL OUT!!!" AJ screamed lunging toward them ready to shove
them through the door.

That chased Nick, Kevin, and Howie out of the room. They looked at the door
that had just slammed shut with very confused looks on their faces.

"What the hell was that?" Nick asked.

"I have no clue, are they gay? Are they dating? How come we didn't know
about this?" Kevin questioned.

"Guess they didn't want us to know. That is so weird, they have been
spending a lot of time together lately. But I figured it was just cause the
rest of us were so busy, not because they were a couple of queers." Howie
said.

"You think they've been 'together' these past few weeks? Ewww... that's so
disgusting." Nick looked completely repulsed.

"Guys come on we don't know anything yet, lets not jump to any fudge
packing conclusions." Kevin said trying to be reasonable.

"I think from what we saw we know enough, I don't wanna know anymore than
that. Fuck, my best friend is a damn homo." Nick said with a voice filled
with hate.

"Let's just forget about, don't even think about, pretend like it never
happened. We don't need this fucking with the group." Howie said.

"Yeah I agree, just ignore it, hopefully it will go away." Kevin agreed.

"In order to do that I'm gonna have to ignore those little queer fucks all
together." Nick said.

"Well if that's what ya gotta do, but don't let it interfere with work
okay?" Kevin offered.

"I'm going back to my room, this has just been to much for one morning."
Howie said.

"Yeah me too, I'm going back to bed, screw going to the mall with
everybody." Nick started to walk back to his room.

Howie walked to his too. That left Kevin standing outside Brian's door all
alone.

"Aw great! What the hell is gonna happen now?" He said to no one in
particular. "Might as well go back to sleep also, if we aren't going
shopping I still got 4 more hours till we have to be on the bus again." And
with that he walked back to his room.

Brian and AJ had heard every word the other three had just said. They just
looked at each other. They hadn't planned on saying anything to the guys,
being the weren't so sure themselves. But hell, look how they responded!
Who would ever guessed they were such homophobes, such jerks. The nasty
things they had said about their best friends, it was just too much. Brian
began to cry. AJ offered his arms and Brian crawled into them. AJ began to
cry too.

"Hey you're breaking our rule." Brian tried to make a joke, but he just
made them cry harder. "How could the be so mean? They're our friends, they
shouldn't treat us like that."

"I know Brian, I know. What the hell is their problem?" AJ asked sobbing on
the top of Brian's head.

"This completely ruins us doesn't it?" Brian asked.

"NO Brian, don't say that!" AJ exclaimed. "Maybe they'll cool of once the
shock wears off."

"You know that won't happen. You heard them, they thought we were sick."
Brian bawled even louder.

"Well then, what should we do?" AJ asked his friend.

"We won't let it happen again, we need to just forget it, pretend it never
happened. Go on with life like this night didn't occur." Brian stated, his
tears beginning to subside.

"You just want to forget this all? It meant so much to me, I thought we had
something?" AJ sounded so hurt.

"NO! In our minds it just was a fling, okay, nothing happened! And if it
comes up we keep our mouths shut like we don't have a clue about what
everyone else is talking about!" Brian demanded.

"Brian... I can't, it won't work. I think I love you." AJ pleaded with him.

"NO YOU DON'T!!!" Brian screeched. "IT was a mistake!"

AJ cried so hard that he thought he was going to throw up. He ran out of
Brian's room for his own. He flung himself on his bed and just cried and
cried. It wasn't a fling, he fell in love with Brian these past weeks, and
he had just broke his heart.

"I love you too AJ." Brian said to the slammed door. To late of course, he
had just lost all chances of ever getting to say those words to AJ's
face. Brian began to cry again. 'Why did I do that?' he thought to
himself. 'Why didn't I just stand up for the two of us?' He slid down on
the floor and just cried and cried. He just lost his final chance for
happiness.

*END OF FLASHBACK*

Kevin looked up and saw tears streaming down everyone's eyes, except his
own of course.

"Guess we were all thinking about the same thing, huh?" Kevin asked the
guys.

Four pairs of eyes looked at him.

"That morning?" He asked.

Four heads nodded.

"Come here guys." Kevin held out his arms.

They just looked at him.

"Come on, we need a hug, I know we all hate each other right now, but it's
gotta be done." Kevin told them.

They listened, it was a miracle, but they listened. They all went to Kevin
and wrapped their arms around him and one another. Nick, Brian, AJ, and
Howie were crying very hard. Kevin tried to hold all of them at once. He
wanted to cry too, but he couldn't break down also. Someone had to be
strong for everybody. And as usual that somebody was he.

"It's over isn't it?" Howie asked. "The group is over isn't it?"

"NO, no it's not, we can work this out. We've got to. We're best
friends. There has to be some way." Kevin said to all of them.

They all separated from the hug.

"How can we? This has torn our friendship to shreds." Nick stated.

"Then we will rebuild it. We have all been too close, for too long to end
it over one problem." Kevin said.

"It's a big problem though." Howie said.

"We've worked through bigger." Kevin stated.

"But never anything like this, I don't think we are strong enough." Nick
sounded defeated.

"We are brothers, even if not by blood. We are strong enough to work
anything out." Kevin insisted. "So let's start, who wants to say
something?"

No one made any answer. Instead they settled into different spots on the
bed and close chairs.

"Okay, I'll start." Kevin sighed. "I over reacted. I should have let Brian
and AJ explain what happened. Or just let them have their privacy until
they wanted to tell us. I also shouldn't have let it go so long before
approaching the subject."

"It wouldn't have done any good, nobody wanted to talk about it, no one
does now." Howie said.

"We have to, for our own good. As friends guys, screw the group for now,
let's just save our friendship." Kevin told them.

"It might help if we knew exactly what happened." Howie offered.

"How about it Brian? AJ? Are you willing to tell us the whole story?" Kevin
asked the two boys.

"Why the hell should we? After the way you guys treated us? The things you
said about us? Why should we let you know the details if all you are gonna
do is bash us for what happened between the two of us privately. Nothing
that effected you, something that was just between Brian and I." AJ shot at
them.

"AJ if we promise not to bash you and just sit and listen, will you tell
us?" Howie asked.

"How do I know if I can trust you?" AJ said.

"Because we are all friends, and we love each other." Kevin told him.

AJ let out a sarcastic little noise, which said very clearly he wasn't
buying it.

"I know we hurt you AJ, you and Brian both. I'm sorry, I can't take it
back, but I can admit now that we were out of line and I am very sorry."
Kevin looked at Howie and Nick hoping they would back him up.

"I'm sorry guys, I was just shocked, I didn't mean to be so cruel." Howie
was wiping the still falling tears off his face with the back of his hand.

Brian and AJ just continued to cry. They didn't know what to say. Could
they except the apology? It wasn't going to give them back what they might
have had with each other.

"I'm sorry too. I'm still having trouble with this, but everyone's
right. We are too important to one another to let this tear us apart. I'm
sorry I barged into the room. I'm sorry I yelled. And I'm really sorry for
all the names I've called you for the past 3 weeks." Nick finally added.

"We'll tell you." AJ said looking at Brian. "OR at least I will."

"Go ahead, have a field day. You already broke our deal." Brian shot at AJ
without even looking at him.

"Our deal, you mean you telling me that our night never happened? The one
where YOU said I meant nothing to you and it was just a fling?" AJ was a
strange mix of furious and completely heart broken.

Brian just covered his eyes and sobbed. Kevin went over to him to put his
arm around him, but he shrugged it off.

"You alright to tell us AJ?" Kevin asked.

Despite crying fairly hard he said "Yes, you guys deserve to know."

AJ took a deep breath and began.

"The night before you guys found us we had just gotten back from the
concert. I went to take shower in my room to discover that it didn't
work. I figured if anyone would let me borrow his shower, it would be
Brian."

Nick raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Due to the fact" AJ continued. "That for the good part of the month before
you three were all so busy Brian and I had been spending most of our time
together. We had gotten a lot closer than we ever had before, and were
having a great time together, as friends. So of course Brian let me borrow
his shower. When I was done I noticed Brian watching a movie, and when he
wouldn't tell me what it was, I wrestled the remote control from him and
turned it back on." Before continuing he looked at Brian for permission to
fill the guys in on the rest of the story.

Brian stared at him for a moment. AJ looked so hurt. Was it the guys who
caused all that pain, or was it me, he thought. It had to have been him. He
owed it to AJ to let the guys know the truth. He nodded to AJ to continue.

"Okay, well the movie Brian was watching was about to male lovers. When I
questioned him, he broke down crying and admitted to me he was gay." AJ
said as Brian visibly winced. "Don't say anything guys, let me get it all
out. I held him when he cried and he asked me why I hadn't run away. I told
him because we were such good friends and NOTHING he could say or do would
change that. I started getting a little weepy myself telling him how
important he had become to me. So we just sat there and held each other. It
just felt right. Brian asked me if I was gay, and I told him I wasn't
sure. But the past to weeks had felt like more than just two friends
getting closer. He agreed and invited me to stay and watch the rest of the
movie. It was a silly love story, and it made us feel good. Brian admitted
it gave him hope for finding someone someday. That made me feel lonely, so
Brian offered to let me stay. We laid there in bed staring at each other
for a long time. I kissed him for a second on the lips. We held each other
and went to sleep. And that's where you found us in the morning. After all
the commotion, Brian told me it was just a fling and to pretend nothing
happened. Of course it was very hard to, Brian wasn't talking to me
anymore, Nick was throwing every gay insult he could, Howie distanced
himself, and Kevin was yelling at every little thing we did. I was supposed
to pretend it never happened, but you all reminded me of it every five
seconds. There you go. End of story." AJ finally finished.

"So you guys hadn't been fucking each other up the ass, for the past month
and a half?" Nick asked.

"NO, Brian hasn't even talked to me in three weeks. It was just that one
night." AJ told him, offended he would something as crude as that.

"We really did overreact, didn't we? That's almost kind of romantic. Listen
you two, if you want to get together, you have my support." Kevin told
them.

"No way, you heard me, Brian says it was just a fling. There's nothing for
the two of us to get together about." AJ said visibly very upset.

"Brian? Anything you want to say?" Howie asked him.

Brian just kept crying into his hands and shook his head. He missed AJ so
much. He wished he hadn't fucked up so badly. But after what happened they
could never be together.

AJ was crying so hard now he felt himself begin to get sick. He ran for
Kevin's bathroom and threw up violently. When he was done he staggered back
into the room.

"I can't take much more of this. I'm going back to my room to sleep." AJ
told them.

"We understand. Do you think you can make it there on your own?" Kevin
asked him.

AJ nodded.

"The therapist will be here tomorrow at 12:00. You need to be in my room by
then okay?" Kevin told him. "That goes for everybody, okay?"

AJ nodded again and left the room.

Brian got up and went for the door. He turned for a second. "I'll be here
at 12:00." And left.

The other three guys looked at each other.

"Wow, that sure was heavy." Howie said.

"Oh yeah, I mean that story was amazing. Kinda sweet too. To bad it won't
work out, maybe they could have made each other happy. AJ sure seems
heartbroken." Kevin sighed.

"I wonder why Brian made him act as if it never happened?" Howie asked.

"Because of us, because he thinks we would have made their lives
miserable." Nick said fighting very tear-filled eyes.

"We did." Kevin admitted. "Each in our own way we took it out on them, and
then we turned on each other."

"What are we going to do?" Howie asked.

"Go to sleep, tomorrow we'll have some professional help." Kevin said.

"You are actually gonna let this guys help us?" Nick asked.

"Yeah I don't think we can do it on our own. Maybe he can help us, or at
least lead us to a good starting point." Kevin sighed again.

"Well the I guess we'll all be here tomorrow by 12:00 then. Good night
Kevin, Nick." Howie got up to leave.

"Good night Howie." Kevin said.

"Hold on a sec. I'm gonna go back to my room too. Good night Kevin." Nick
went to join Howie.

"Good night boys, sleep tight." Kevin told them as they left.

They had made some lead way, but was it good enough? The whole story was
out in the open, but did it help matters? Who knows? Kevin turned on the TV
and grabbed a bottle of tequila from under his bed. This was the only way
he was getting to sleep tonight.

*Little more information everybody. It's coming along. I wonder what will
happen next, don't you? I'll have the next one out soon I promise.*