Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 13:55:26 EST
From: aCi 2785 <aci_85@hotmail.com>
Subject: Love Interest - Chapter 13

Last time on Chapter 12 of Love Interest -

"What the fuck were you thinking? I'm with Justin, I love him." Josh
asked in anger, as Chris looked up. Chris caught a pair of eyes in the
door way, and smiled. His plan was going to get moderated, but maybe it
would work better this way.

"It's okay baby, Justin already knows. He just caught us." Chris said
smiling, and Josh turned to see Justin in the door way. Justin looked at
him, tears in his eyes. Josh felt his own heart ache. Looking at Chris,
he found nothing to say. But he found something to do, and with a quick
punch, Chris was no sooner up then he was back on the ground. This time
his nose bleeding from the hit.

"We are not fucking involved. And Justin just caught you being an ass."
Josh hollered, and turned. Justin was still standing there, tears flowed
down his face. Justin could feel pain throughout his whole body. And
slowly, he fell to the ground, crying as he held himself. Josh ran to him
quickly. Justin wanted to fight to get away from him, but he knew Josh
didn't do anything.

But words never left the three. Chris sat watching, waiting, anticipating
that he had ruined there relationship. Justin layed crying, still in
Josh's arms. While Josh cried as he held him, no words could speak for
how sorry Josh was, but he didn't know if anything he did could mean
anything to Justin any more.

____________________________________________________________________________

It had been two hours since the ordeal had went down. Justin was asleep,
but Josh was not with him. Josh had left Justin with Brittney while he
left to sort things out. He needed to be able to tell Justin everything,
and explain it, but he needed to cool down before he went back. He had
left one specific warning for Brittney though, and that was to keep Chris
away from Justin.

And for the most part Brittney had done just that. But Brittney found
herself asleep, and Justin managed to slip out around her. He exited the
bus, figuring Josh might be out there. But instead he caught Chris
resting against the bus, a small smile on his face.

"You know Justin, it's funny. I kissed Josh like two hours ago, and I'm
still feeling the electricity. Think he felt it too?" Chris laughed, and
watched as Justin fumed with anger.

"Your an ass Chris." Justin screamed, but was surprised that he slowly
started to walk towards Chris. Grabbing Chris by the shirt, anger took a
hold of his emotions.

"Justin, you don't want to start a fight with me." Chris replied to the
threat, by issuing one of his own. Quickly he was able to block Justin's
punch, and he connected with Justin's gut with a punch of his own. Justin
fell to his knees from the initial shock. "Josh won't want you after you
ain't pretty no more." Chris laughed, and kneed Justin in the face.
Justin flew back, grabbing his face. No bled was shed, so he knew it
wasn't that bad. "You really think I was joking? That I won't get Josh,
I'm not gonna give up Justin, he's mine." Chris laughed, as he grabbed
Justin by the hair. Lifting the younger man to his knees, he punched him
in the stomach again, and the once in the face for good measures. "Josh
is just gonna love his man now, all black and blue. Oh you might wanna
get some ice for that eye of yours. And maybe a rag to wipe the blood
from your lip." Chris smiled, and walked onto the bus. He knew it would
be a while before anyone found Justin crying outside. He had watched Josh
leave, and he knew Brittney was asleep. Meanwhile the others had went out
to lunch.

____________________________________________________________________________

"Oh my god!" Christina exclaimed as she got closer to the bus. When she
came close enough to tell, it was obvious that Justin was in pain. His
eye was slowly becoming black. And his face had dried blood from his lip.
Tears were mixing with the blood, keeping it with a fresh look as Justin
slowly rocked himself on the floor. "Are you okay?" Justin nodded his
head yes, and went to say something, but was hoarse.

"Josh...." Justin managed to get out the second time.

"He's not back baby, he wanted to cool off so he could talk to you with
out getting upset." Samantha answered, as she and Christina helped Justin
off the ground. Justin shook his head in acknowledgement.

"Gonna, nap, wake, when Josh back." Justin mumbled, and went off to his
bunk. He walked right by Chris without saying a word. Chris smiled, and
as Justin got into his bunk, he fell asleep quickly. Brittney woke up,
but just slid out of the bunk to give Justin some privacy. She didn't
even take notice of his bruises.

Christina and Samantha turned around to see Joey and Lance walking to the
bus, while JC was in the distant, apparantly they are picked him up on
there way back from the restaruant they had eaten at. Christina ran
towards Josh, and stopped breathlessly in front of him.

"Um, Justin's asleep right now, but you might wanna wake him up."
Christina didn't know how to say what had happened.

"Why? It can wait, I know he isn't upset with me, and he knows what
happened was not my fault. I don't want to wake him." Josh explained
casually, but Christina frowned. She didn't want to tell him the truth.

"Well, the thing is, he kinda might wanna be with you. I came back, and
we found him out here crying." Christina replied, still neglecting to
tell Josh the main part of the story.

"Why?"

"He has a black eye, and his lip is bleeding. It looked like he was in a
lot of pain." Christina added, and watched Josh's face turn blank. She
could see the pain in his eyes, and the fear. It was something no one
would be happy to see, but it nearly broke Christina's heart, and she
knew that Josh's was breaking.

"I'm gonna fucking kill him. That ass, if he doesn't quit we are." Josh
screamed as he ran towards the bus. He was stopped by Joey and Lance
before he could get inside. "Let me down."

"Why? So you can kill him?" Joey asked, thinking level headed for once.

"Yeah!" Josh replied, but was caught off guard when Chris opened the bus
door.

"Hey Josh. I hope you weren't dating Justin for his looks, cuz his face
is pretty messed up right now." Chris laughed, but slowly fear took over,
as Joey and Lance started to loosen there grip on Josh. Up until that
point, they did not know that Chris had beaten Justin up.

"You hit him?" Lance asked, waiting for answer from Chris.

"He started it. He came up to me and threatened me, I retaliated for
protection." Chris replied, defending himself.

"Go!" Joey yelled, and Chris slowly walked away. He just headed back into
the building, he knew if he brought the subject up to management it would
be better then a group meeting against him. Joey, wasn't sure of anything
at that moment. He knew nothing besides the fact that Chris and Josh had
kissed, and he only knew that Josh said it was forced on by Chris. But
what if Josh was laying. Chris always had been a good friend to Joey, and
Joey didn't know what that meant to him in this situation. "I'm gonna go
find out what's going on from Chris's point. I'll talk to you guys
later." Joey mumbled and chased after Chris.

With Joey gone, Josh was now free to do as he pleased. Lance knew that he
alone couldn't keep Josh away from what he wanted to do. But when Josh
felt his body grow free from the grip, he contained himself from chasing
after Chris. Turning, he looked at three frightened faces, and felt
embarrassment hit him. Brittney, Christina, and Samantha were shaking,
but were visibly calming down from what they had almost watched.

"I'm sorry" Josh whispered, dissappointed in himself.

"No, it's not your fault Josh." Brittney realized what Josh was thinking
when he apologized to them. "Go talk to Justin." Josh didn't even wait
for any other words, as he took off for the bus. Opening the door, he
rushed inside. Heading straight for the bunks, he jumped into the one he
shared with Justin quickly, and slid all the way over to his sleeping
beauty.

"Baby" Josh rubbed Justin's arm gently, waiting for him to wake. He was
surprised that it took rather ease for Justin to open his eyes. And once
they were open, Justin sat up, looking Josh right in the eyes. His own
fear, was magnified ten times in the eyes of Josh. "I need to explain
some things to you Justin." Josh broke the silent, his eyes pleading for
Justin to agree.

"Mmhm." Justin just mumbled an agreement, and waited.

"I'm really sorry about today, and I guess it's a lot to explain. I went
outside to talk to Chris about what happened yesterday. He was the last
one with you before you were crying, so I figured he might have known
what was wrong with you. While we were talking, he said stuff he didn't
know, and then he started talking bullshit. And one thing led to another,
and he kissed me." Josh replayed the story over and over in his mind as
he retold it.

"Chris, he told me..." Justin started, and let out a little sniffle, not
enjoying the story he was going to tell. "he told me, that, he, he loved
you. And that I was too young to love you like he did." Justin's sniffles
turned into tears, but Josh soon encompassed him with a hug, letting him
know he could take all the time he needed to tell the story. "And, and
that he was going to get you, no matter what." Justin finished, gripping
Josh for support. Josh saw it as a small sign, but he still wasn't sure
if Justin had completely forgiven him. He knew Justin would have turned
to him for support no matter what, so he was unfamiliar on whether or not
they would still be a couple after this talk.

"I love you baby. I could never love Chris, not even as a friend anymore.
What happened between him and me was an accident, and I told him that. I
through him to the ground and hit him after that. I let him know clearly
that you were the only one I wanted."

"I know" Justin creaked out, as he still clung to Josh.

"I know it may take some time for you to forgive me for kissing Chris,
but I'll give you all the time you need." Josh couldn't believe he was
saying it, but he knew he had to give Justin that option.

"no" Justin spoke for the first time at a loud voice. Josh looked at him
surprisingly, as Justin was now sitting upright. He could clearly see the
black eye and the cut lip Chris had given him. "I know you didn't do
anything, I don't want you to leave me. I need all the time I can have
with you, not without you." Justin finished his explanation to 'no'.

"Thank you." Justin just nodded. Josh was happy that Justin wanted him,
it meant that they could patch things up between themselves. "What
happened while I was gone Justin?" Josh asked, as he brought his hand to
the younger man's lip. Justin didn't even flinch at the touch, as Josh
looked it over. Justin watched him move his hand to his eye, and he could
feel almost a little relief at the touch of Josh's hand to it.

"I don't want to talk about it." Justin answered flatly, now turning away
from the touch.

"I want to know why that ass touched you. I want to have a just reason to
kill him. That is after I kick him out of this group." Josh returned with
anger. Justin looked at him again, and he knew that Josh only wanted to
solve the problem.

"I went outside, and he was still out there. He told me he felt
electricity when he kissed you, and he asked me if you felt it too."
Justin replied, almost like he had been defeated at something.

"You know I didn't baby, I only feel electricity with you. God, I feel
electricty when I'm near you Justin, not just kissing you. No one could
take away from me."

"I got pissed though, and I threatened him. When I went to punch him,
well, let's just say he kicked my ass." Justin said almost embarrassed to
admit it to his boyfriend. His head drooped, he didn't want to look Josh
in the eyes after admitting it.

"What did he do to you?" Josh asked, lifting his face to look at him.

"He punched me in the stomach. Then in the face, then he kneed me in the
face while I was on my knees. He stopped after that, but then he told me
that you were definetly his now. He said you were only dating me because
of my looks, and now that he had taken them from me, that I wasn't what
you wanted."

"That's not true Justin. I don't love you just for your looks. You, you
are so beautiful Justin, not just because of your angelic face, or toned
body." Justin blushed at the response. "But because of the kid I grew up
with. The intelligent, mature, and caring person that I shared a room
with every tour. And most of all your beautiful, because your Justin
Randall Timberlake, right now, even with a black eye, and a cut lip, you
are ten times more perfect then anybody else on this world. Every day I
thank God that I am lucky enough to have you as my boyfriend, even if you
didn't have a face, I would still be that lucky."

____________________________________________________________________________

TBC.....

____________________________________________________________________________

This chapter worked out one of the conflicting issues. Justin and Josh
are still together, and that is obvious from this chapter. But the
conflicts between Justin, Josh, and Chris are no where near solved. Not
to mention none of us know what happened between Joey and Chris yet. That
will be solved in the next chapter.

Let me know what you think should happen.