Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 04:37:52
From: M. F. Luder <jmfluder@hotmail.com>
Subject: Boybands. Mysteries Unspoken. Chapter 1

Hi people! Yeah, it's little old me again. Surprise I can write about *Nsync
as well? Let me tell you this story is ought to a dear friend of mine,
Angel. If it wasn't for her, it would have never made it all the way into
Nifty. I'm posting the first chapter as a bday present. Hope you like it
love.

I don't know *Nsync. I don't know their sexuality or who they love. This is
from the bottom of my imagination and came to the surface after *a lot* of
yelling from who's supposed to be an 'angel', if you know what I mean.

Feel free to tell me anything about the story, even though it's barely in
diapers. Write to:
jmfluder@hotmail.com

To the ones that keep up with me:
Karen, if it wasn't for you, the rest of the group would have send me to the
nut house a *long* time ago. Thanks for putting up with me and sentence
yourself to five more years of my insanity.
Angel, here is what you've been waiting for and I truly hope it was worth
the wait! Happy birthday!

Now with the story...

Mysteries Unspoken
By M. F. Luder

Chapter 1

*****

A soft knock woke up the sleeping form. Rubbing his eyes with the palms of
his hands, he tried to focus on his surroundings.

*Knock*

Leaving the comfort of his bed, he walked towards the door while running his
fingers through his blond hair. With a sigh, he placed his hand on the knob
and opened the door. "Yeah?" his voice husky from the sleep.

"Sorry to interrupt you Scoop, but I wanted to ask you about the schedule."
The older man said, realizing that he had probably awoken the bass singer.

Lance moved away from the door to let his friend inside, closing the door
behind him. "It's ok."

"You were sleeping?" JC questioned following his friend over the bed, where
they both sat.

"Yeah, taking nap. What did you want to know about the schedule?" He wanted
to resume his sleep, if anything the last thing he wanted was company.

"Umm. What do we have for tomorrow?"

Closing his eyes briefly in a reminiscing manner, the younger man answered.
"An interview at 11am here in the hotel, lunch. We don't have anything until
3pm when we leave for the venue. I thought I told you that this morning.?"

"Yeah, just wanted to make sure I got it right." He remember what he had
said earlier, but his wanting to look out for his friend had been
unbearable. Something was going on with his younger band member and he
wanted to help him.

"Sure." Lance stood up and made his way to the door, hoping to be followed.
"If you don't mind I'd like to resume my nap."

JC stood up and walked tot he door, but wasn't planing on leaving just yet.
"Lance, are things all right with you?"

The green eyed man sighed, he was getting tired of that question. "Yeah. I'm
just tired, that's all."

"Are you sure? You've been kinda distant lately and --"

"JC." Cut off the older man, his voice in a warning tone. "I'm fine."

"You don't seemed fine to me." The twenty four year old interjected. He had
notice Lance's slightly withdraw from the group, even thought he was sure he
had been the only one.

"I'm fine. Really. Now I *truly* wanna head back to sleep." He said as he
opened the door, insisting for his friend to leave.

With a sigh the blue eyed man walked through the door. This conversation was
not over. Turning around to look at Lance one last time, he said. "Just
remember that I'm here if you need to talk."

"Sure." He mumbled before closing the door.

Without another choice, JC walked to his room more troubled about his
younger friend than before - if that was even possible.

The twenty one year old leaned on the door, his back against the cold wood,
after he had closed it. He knew he had been pretty rude to the older man
when all he wanted was to help him, but help was the last thing he needed.

Slowly he walked back to the bed, laying down, he pulled the covers up his
chin. He still had a couple more hours left before he had to go out for
lunch with the rest of the guys. He was thinking about making some excuse to
skip it, but JC was already in his case, the rest of them bugging him about
the same thing was something he wasn't looking forward to. Closing his eyes,
he hoped sleep would come again.

*****

Entering his suite, JC left his key on the chest drawer. He moved to the bed
and laid down, focusing on the ceiling for a while. However he was
interrupted by the smiling face of his best friend and roommate.

"Where did ya go Josh?" the younger man asked as he, too, laid down on the
bed. Prompting on his elbow and resting his face in his palm, he focused on
his older friend.

The twenty four year old man turned around and did just as his band mate,
and soon were facing one another. "Just next door. Lance's. How was the
phone call?"

"Fine. Mom sends her love. Why Lance's?"

The dark haired man sighed. He knew he'd have to tell Justin, but he also
knew it was pointless. The rest of his band mates were either blind or
stupid. "Nothing. Don't worry."

"Oh, come on Josh! Tell me! I won't tell if you don't want me to." He knew
he was whining, but he sure didn't care. Josh had been too secretive lately
and he wanted to know why.

"You wouldn't understand."

"I'm not that blond!" Complied the younger man while reaching to slap the
older man in the shoulder.

JC had to chuckle. Typical Justin. "I'm not saying you're dump, it's just
that you don't seem to notice."

"Then enlighten me."

The older man sighed. He knew Justin wasn't gonna let this down, he could be
pretty stubborn when he wanted to. "Ok. But promise not to tell anyone, at
least not yet."

"Ok. Promised."

"Have you noticed how Lance seems a little off lately? Distant?" His voice
hesitantly, he didn't know if he was doing the best thing in telling Justin,
but he wanted to know if he just wasn't imagining things.

"Distant?" The blond man tried to think of the last couple of days as if to
notice anything out of the ordinary. "I don't know. You know he's always
quiet, that's his nature."

"I know, but besides that. He doesn't hang out with us so much. He always
goes off to be by himself."

"You know how busy he is with the schedules and everything. That on top of
the stuff of Freelance." He knew the green eyed man had always been the
quiet and shy one of the group, and had always related his isolation with
his work and management.

The twenty four year old sighed in defeat. Justin was just seeing what he
wanted to see. Or was it his case?

"Why do you think it is Josh?" he knew his older friend was worried about
the bass singer, and even though he didn't see anything out of the ordinary,
he wanted to help.

Sitting on the bed with a quick movement, he run his fingers through his
dark hair. "That's the point. I don't know." Standing up, he took a couple
of steps and turned around to see the blond man who was now laying on the
bed on his stomach. "I've asked him a couple of times, but it just seems as
if nothing is really going on and I'm making a big deal out of nothing or
he's closing me out. I'm going for the closing out choice."

"Maybe you *are* making something out of nothing?"

"I don't think so Just." Trying to convince his younger friend, he searched
for the last resource. "Do you remember when we met him?" he waited for the
nineteen year old to nod before continuing. "Do you remember his eyes? What
do you remember about them?"

The blond man tried his best to picture their meeting, and the eyes of their
last member. Looking at his friend, he answered hesitantly. "Shyness?"

"Right." JC approached the bed, kneeling by it so he was at the younger
man's eye level. "And what about when we started out?"

"Honesty. Happiness." He answered as he remember the stunning green eyes of
his older friend. Lance had been on a blood rush at the beginning of the
group. Even though he'd keep to himself, you could pretty much realize he
was jumping out of his skin.

"Yeah. Lance's eyes show you everything. If they ever said that you can know
a person by their eyes, they were never more right than on his case. But
what do you see now Curly?" he glanced right into Justin's baby blue eyes.
Such a lovely shade of blue.

Closing his eyes, Justin tried to remember earlier that morning and the look
on the bass singer's eyes. "Nothing. It was blank I guess."

"That's right. Nothing. Lance's eyes had never said nothing." JC added
finally coming to the conclusion of this analysis. "He's eyes are blank,
like he's shutting us out of him for some reason."

"You think he's hiding something just because he's got a blank expression?"
Justin asked a little confused. Sure, his gaze was blank, but it could be
ought to many reasons. Tiredness one of them.

"That's just the beginning of it. I don't know why he's acting like this,
but something is going on and he's keeping it from us." His voice turned
somber for a moment. It hurt him deeply knowing his younger friend was
suffering and he could do nothing about it. He couldn't help him unless he
come to him.

"Ok. Lets think that something is going on and that he is hiding it. Don't
you think he'd tell us if we needed to know?" If there was something he did
know about Lance was that he'd ask for help if he thought he needed it.

"That's the point. I don't think it involves the group or us for that
matter. Just him. But that's also the problem. I think that by keeping it
inside, he's hurting." The dark haired man sat on the bed by the blonde's
head as Justin too sat, indian style, in front to his friend.

"You've thought a lot about his, haven't you?"

JC let out a sighed of recognition. He'd been psychoanalyzing his younger
friend for some time now, his parental side kicking in. "Yeah, I'm just
worried. Sure, he's the one that keeps up with the schedule and none of us
could handle management as well as he does. But he's still a kid at heard.
He's just two years older than you Justin."

"I know. He does behaves like an old man from time to time, doesn't he?" he
sometimes couldn't understand how he could keep up with everything, but boy
did he do it! "What do you have in mind Josh?"

"I've asked him, but as I said, he just doesn't wanna talk about it. Besides
that I don't think there's anything else left for us to do. Just be there
for him and make sure he knows it."

The blond man nodded. "I'm sure he'll open up to us Josh."

JC looked at the baby blues of his younger friend and wished upon the
heavens that he was right. "I hope so Just. I hope so."

*****

I know nothing has happened yet, but it's only the beginning.

If ya have anything to tell me, then send me a post at: jmfluder@hotmail.com

Take care and investigate.

M. F. Luder