Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 22:46:56 +0000 From: James Subject: Boy Bands - On The Streets - Season Two - Part Seven I don't know the Backstreet Boys, or N'Sync, nor is this story meant to imply anything about their sexuality, their private lives or their life choices. Please don't take any of this seriously, it is just a story, nothing more. Nothing in this story is real, it is the product of the author's imagination. That's enough disclaimers I think... Now some suggestions, seeing as everyone else seems to be doing it. My favourite stories are: Forever (Kevin) My New Life (Lance) JC's Hitchhiker (JC) Whiplash (Kevin) Blind Date (Lance) Josh and Just (Duh!) Jamie's Romance (Justin) Brian and Me (Brian) Kevin and Dustin (Kevin) Tales of a Real Dark Knight (Lance) Under Management (Lance) Brian and Chance (Brian) Thieves (Lance) Lance and Martin (Lance) Good Life (Justin) That's it, I know there are more I read that I haven't mentioned, but I can't remember them right now, sorry! Here is part seven of Season Two - I hope everyone enjoys it, and I hope that I get lots of emails - come on people! My email is at the top of the page! Give me a shout out if you like it or hate it...now here is part seven! On The Streets - Season Two - Part Seven >>>Tuesday morning, Kevin's point of view<<< I sat on the couch with Jared, we were still in our dressing gowns, and I was watching the news on TV. Two half-drunk cups of coffee sat on the table, and Jared sat at the other end of the couch, doing a crossword. They just finished a report about some murder in Georgia when Jared looked up. "Kevin?" "Yeah?" "Do American weddings normally have a best man?" I sort of felt my face droop - I hadn't even thought about it. I wondered why our wedding planner hadn't reminded us, but then I figured that she probably presumed we already had them. Oh shit. "Um...yeah, they do." "Shouldn't we have picked them by now?" "Yeah, we should've." I looked straight at Jared, and we both started laughing. Ok, we fucked up but hey, we had a lot on our minds! "So we should probably get that sorted out pretty soon?" "Yeah, oh crap, now who do I choose?" "Never mind you! I've got two identical brothers! How am I supposed to choose between them?" "Oh yeah, damn, but I've got all the guys and my brothers to choose between!" "Ok, this is going to be difficult." "No kidding." I replied. I looked around at everything, and tried to figure out how to do this - weren't people supposed to be able to single out one person who they could have as their best man? "We could pick someone else." Jared said quietly. "What?" "Well, we could pick someone who's just a friend, and explain to the people who are closer to us that we couldn't pick them cos we like them all too much." He had a point. If I picked any of the people I knew, then I know that some of the others would be hurt, they might understand and say it's ok, but they'd be hurt. "That's actually a good idea, why have you got any ideas for who we should ask?" "No! Don't look at me, I'm just sort of a general idea person, you can handle the specifics." I looked at Jared with a grin. Then I crawled over the couch so that I was with him. "So you're a general idea kinda person are you?" I said as I leant into him. "Uh huh." He muttered back as my lips got closer to his, we were both smiling broadly. "Well how about this?" I said as we moved closer still. "You come up with who we're gonna pick as best men, and then you'll get some." I grinned, and then stood up and walked into the kitchen. A moment later, the kitchen door opened. "But I don't know all your friends!" Jared whined. "Well... I don't know who to pick either, it was your smart idea, finish it off." "Who are you closest to, apart from the guys and your brothers?" I sat at the kitchen table, and started thinking. "Umm... well, I'm probably closest to Brian, but after him, I probably get along better with Kristin than anyone else, but it's best man, so I guess after her..." "So why can't you have Kristin?" "Cos she's a woman! You can't have a woman as best man!" "Best woman. Kevin, this isn't exactly a conventional wedding, why can't one of us have a female best man?" Jared asked. I thought about it, it was a good point, and Kristin was one of my best friends, so I guess she is the perfect candidate. "What about you?" I said to take the focus away from me while I thought about Kristin. "What about me?" "Well, if I've got Kristin, who have you got?" Jared leant against the draining board, and crossed his arms. "Umm... I don't know, I could ask... no, um, or what about? No. I don't know! I don't know that many people over here, maybe I should just pick one of my brothers." "Nope." I said to Jared with a grin, I had a plan forming. "What do you mean nope?" "I've got the perfect best man for you." "Who?" *** >>>Later that day, at the tailor's<<< "Yes! Look Brian, I'm sorry, but it's just the way it has to be, I don't want to hurt any of the guys, or either of my brothers! Hold on." I said to Brian down my cell phone. I handed my cell phone from one arm to the other as the fitter asked me to raise one arm and put down the other so he could take the measurements. "Look, think about it this way, if you were me who would you pick?" "Me." Brian said in a childish voice down the phone. "Brian, please, I did this to prevent arguments, or to stop people from getting hurt!" "Fine." Brian said grudgingly. "You could've picked me and said that you picked me to prevent arguments." "You know that wouldn't work." I told him. "Yeah, yeah." I could practically see him scuffling his feet. I had told all the guys now that I was asking Kristin to be my... what is it? Best Woman? Either way, she'd already accepted, though even she had had reservations about it, she wasn't sure if it wasn't wiser for me to invite somebody from the group, for appearance's sake as much as anything else. "I'll talk to you soon Brian ok?" I said finally, I was tired of arguing with all the guys, I just wanted to get home. "Kev?" Brian asked. "Yeah Brian." I said. "I understand why you're doing it, I'm sorry I was being such a jerk, I'll talk to the other guys and you'll see, everything will be fine." That brought a smile to my face. "Thanks Bri, talk to you soon." "Bye Kev." "Bye." And I hung up, I just had to speak to my brothers now. Jared stood up on the stool as they took the measurements from the inside of his leg. "Why can't we just wear the dinner jackets we wore to Janet's wedding?" he whined. "Don't you want new clothes for the wedding? Besides, we're not getting tuxedos." "Huh?" "We're getting more casual outfits, I'm sorry, but I really hate wearing those things, so we're just getting more casual stuff for our wedding." "Oh. So what do they look like." "These guys are making up a few different outfits and then we're coming in day after tomorrow to get the designs finalised." I told him. "Oh, cool." "Have you spoken to your brothers?" "Yeah, I just got off the phone with them." "Good, did they understand?" "Yeah, they were ok with it, though I think they only just realised that they were going to have difficulty working out who would be their best man when the time came. But I think they're going to pick each other, after all they're around each other all the time, and they see each other every day. They know each other better than I know either of them." Jared looked up at the ceiling, and then down again. "You ok?" Jared nodded. "Um...yeah, what have we got to do after this?" I looked at Jared, he was obviously upset, but I wasn't sure whether to push the subject. "We haven't got anything until tomorrow morning." Jared nodded. "Jared, do you want to talk about your brothers?" I asked, carefully, not wishing to intrude upon the subject. "Not here." Jared said, and they finished his fitting. *** "Do you want to talk now?" I asked as we walked in and sat down in the living room. I dumped my jacket over the chair at my desk and sat down next to Jared on the couch. "What about?" "Your brothers." "No, Kev, it's ok." "Come on Jared, I'm not blind, I could see you were troubled by the fact that you think they're gonna pick each other, and I can see that that would be upsetting, but do you want to talk about it?" "No! I just said that." "Jared! Don't start shouting, I'm just saying you seemed upset in the shop, and I thought you might want to talk about it." "There's nothing to talk about, they've had the last four years together, without me, they obviously know each other better, better than I ever knew either of them, they're still close... close to each other, and I'm not. Ok! For fuck's sake! It's upsetting me ok! We all used to be together, and now I never see them!" Jared shouted. "But Jared, you have that videophone thing, and they're gonna be down in a couple of days for the wedding." "Kevin, it's been weeks since I saw them, and I know you got that videophone thing, but I can't feel them down a telephone line. I can feel them Kevin, when they're near, I don't need to be able to see them, or hear them or anything to know they are near, and I can't feel them, I can never feel them. I thought I'd lost it while I was on the streets, but then they came back and I remembered what it was like, and now I can't get it out my head." Jared was crying. He fell forwards into my lap, and rested his head on my legs. "I miss them." "They'll be down soon, we'll sort it out Jared, we'll make it better." "How?" Jared said quietly. I sighed, I wasn't sure how. "Well, there are lots of ways." Jared looked up at me with a stern expression. "There aren't Kevin, I can't be with my brothers, and be with my friends down here, and you. Kevin, I have to choose between my brothers and you." I looked down at Jared, my mouth slightly open. Jared sighed, and sat up, then stood up. Just as he was walking past me towards the kitchen, he stopped. "Don't look so worried Kevin, I already chose you." He walked into the kitchen. How do I feel? Like shit. I liked it when Jared chose me over other things, he had lots of opportunities to leave me and go do other things, but now he was choosing me over having a family, or rather seeing a family, and I felt like shit. I was going to tell him that I hardly see my family, but then I remembered the triplet thing and how it was deeper than anything I had with my brothers. Then it hit me. "Jared?" I called as I stood up, I met him as he came out the kitchen. "How would you feel about me getting a bit more property?" "What?" "Well, I was just thinking, your brothers live in New York, so we could buy an apartment up there, and fly up whenever we wanted, and stay there. Whenever you weren't working, you could spend time up there, and if you really wanted to, you could go up for weekends, if you arranged your clients differently, you could fit it so that you always had three-day weekends, and go up there for a few days." Jared smiled. "That's a really nice idea Kev, but the truth is I don't think it'll help." He reached up and rubbed my cheek. "Thank you for the offer though." I frowned. "Jared, it would be us buying it, it's not a case of me buying the property for me and then allowing you up there. This would be a shared property, it would actually be yours, stop acting like everything we have here is mine, it's not - it's ours. And why wouldn't it work? You could end up spending about a third of a year in New York with your brothers." Jared looked down. "Kevin, I... I don't know them. I mean, how can I explain. I need time to catch up with them, at the moment I don't think I could even talk to them for more than a couple of days without losing what they were talking about, they've changed a lot Kev, and I just don't think it's a good idea, to just try and barge in. I'd have to move up there, to actually be with them again before I could really be family, and that's not gonna happen." Jared smiled with tight lips, before leaning and kissing me. "Thank you Kev, I mean it, just accept it ok?" "No! Damn it Jared! You were so scared of breaking up my family that you tried to avoid contact with them, and then you tried be over-polite to them, and then you were scared of being around them, and I told you that you would never break up my family, and now because you've chosen to be with me, I'm breaking up your family. Jared! Wait, what are you doing after the tour?" "Huh? What's that got to do with...?" "After the tour, that will finish in...sometime in August. What are you doing?" "Well, going back to work." "Why don't you take a leave of absence?" "Because...because I've only worked there a few months. Kevin, I know what you're thinking. But the only way I could get out of work is to quit." "Well, why don't you, I'm sure you could get another job doing the same thing, once you'd had time with your brothers." Jared looked at me helplessly. "Kevin, I quit a job once before and I didn't end up doing so good, I don't think it's a good idea for me to do it again." Jared walked past me into the living room. He turned around when I called to him. "But this time you have me. Trust in me Jared." I begged him. He turned around, and leant on the corner of the couch. "Kevin, I can't let you do this, you'd be supporting me for... it could be months." "Jared, once you marry me, you'll have money, you can support yourself remember? Just trust in me." Jared looked at me, and he sort of started to smile, but he stopped himself. "What about you?" "What about me?" "What will you do while I'm doing that?" "Well... the Backstreet Boys will probably take a break for a couple of months, and I've got nothing to do down here. If they start work on a new album, well, I won't have much to do with it, as I wrote most of this one, so... I could come with you?" I said to him. "You mean it don't you?" "Yeah I do." I said as I nodded my head. Jared took two steps and was right up next to me. "Can we do it?" "Of course." Jared wrapped his arms around me and held me close. "I love you Kevin." He said as he kissed me. "I love you too." I said as we pulled apart. *** "Thanks Kristin." I kissed her goodbye, and headed back into the kitchen after seeing her off. She had come over with me to talk to me about the wedding, my 'best man' was taking her duties very seriously. Jared's was going to be here any minute to talk to him. Just as I was walking into the kitchen, the doorbell rang. "Oh! That must be your 'best man'!" I said to Jared, who smiled and walked out to the front door. Opening it, I could see Brian standing there. "Oh, it's just Brian Kev." "Nice to see you too Jared. Hey Kev." Brian said as he walked in. "I need to go over a couple of things with you before you leave on your honeymoon so we can finish organising the tour while you're gone. I went with Brian into the living room. Just as we were going in, Jared was shutting the door, but before he could shut it, a foot slipped into the crack, and held it open. Jared re-opened the door, and looked out. "Britney!" Jared shouted, pulling her into a hug. Brian looked at me with a confused expression. "Jared's 'best man'." I explained to him. "I prefer best person actually Kevin." She said with a grin. "Yeah, yeah, trust you to be different." I sniggered as she came over and slapped me on the arm. She in turn pulled Jared into the kitchen. >>>Jared's Point of View<<< "I can't believe we're both having best women." I said to Britney with a snigger. "It is kinda... unusual, but I guess the whole wedding is a bit unusual. Have you and Kevin actually sorted out that whole, what's it called? Civil Union thing?" Britney asked me. What the hell was she talking about. I just looked blankly at her. "What?" "You know, the thing you have to go to Vermont, or Hawaii to get." Britney said. "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Come on, gay marriages have no legal status, unless you get a civil union, which you have to get in Vermont or Hawaii as they're the only states that allow it." I just shook my head, what the hell was she talking about. "You don't have them in Britain?" "No, in England we just had to send in for a license the same way as a straight couple would. It's no different - you get similar rights to straight couples, and everything. So in America, you don't get that?" "No. It's a civil union." "I'd have to ask Kevin if he's sorted it out, I didn't know about that." I started to stand up to go and talk to Kevin, but Britney pulled me back down. "Before you do that, I need you to give me some material for my speech." I groaned, and sat back down. After an hour and a half of talking about that, Britney turned serious. "I guess I'm supposed to say all this stuff to you that I think best men are supposed to say, so here goes. Marriage is a really big step, first of all, are you absolutely sure, cos if you're not, I know Kevin, he will move heaven and earth to make you happy, and he will postpone or cancel the wedding if that's what you want, so are you sure?" Britney asked, I nodded. "Things may seem... hard at first, if you're apart for a long period of time, or if you have stresses at the beginning of the marriage..." I could see she was thinking about her and Justin's relationship. "But I'm sure you guys have the strength to get through them." She paused. "I'm sure you guys can make this work." She smiled, and rubbed the back of my hand. "I'm gonna try my darnedest." I mumbled quietly. Britney sat there with a confused expression on my face. "What?" "Sorry, that just didn't sound like you." "What?" "Well, what you just said." "What - I'm gonna try my hardest?" "You didn't say that, you said you're gonna try your darnedest." Britney said. I thought back over what I said. Oh crap. I'm even talking like Kevin now. "Yeah, it's one of Kevin's phrases, I guess I must have picked it up without realising it." I sniggered. And Britney grinned. "It just sounds kinda funny without the Kentucky accent." Britney said. "Huh?" I thought I'd picked up my accent from Kevin, what other accent would I have? "Well, you haven't got Kevin's accent." "So what have I got?" I looked at her sceptically. I could've sworn my accent was just what I picked up from spending time with Kevin. "Well, you know how we don't speak with our accents, when we're doing interviews and stuff?" "Yeah." "Well that's what you sound like. You sound a bit like Kevin when he tones down his accent, it's still an American one, but it's more, well, general, it's like you've mixed together every accent, and got a touch of English in there." Britney smiled as she tried to analyse my accent. "Oh, right. Well I'm still gonna try to stop saying darnedest cos it just sounds weird." I grinned, then we carried on chatting for another three quarters of an hour or so. *** "So you already sorted it out?" I asked Kevin three hours later. "Yes, for the last time, yes!" Kevin answered. "I applied for the union, and got the reply back about three days ago, we're theoretically already, what's the word, united? No, well, as close to getting married as a gay couple can get." "Really?" Kevin nodded. Britney and Brian had left about ten minutes before. "So... you mean we missed our wedding night?" Kevin looked up and saw the grin on my face. "Well, if you class getting a piece of paper saying that we're in a civil union as a wedding then yeah we missed our wedding night, but I want our wedding night to be Saturday night, after we have our proper thing, you know, the ceremony." Kevin said, biting his bottom lip. "You know... we could have two wedding nights." I grinned at Kevin, and then jumped on top of him so my legs straddled his hips. "Even if it is only late afternoon." I grinned even wider. *** The following day was Thursday, and Kevin and I went in for another fitting. Our outfits for the wedding, were basically just shirts which hung loose rather than being tucked into the trousers and normal dress slacks. Kevin seemed happy with them. His shirt was a dark burgundy colour, and mine was dark blue. When they were buttoned up, the row of buttons disappeared, and I thought they looked really cool too. After that, we had to finalise some catering arrangements. "Mmmm, this is nice." Kevin said, as he brought something away from his mouth. "What is it?" I asked. "I think it's a Chinese roll." I went over, and started to pick one up, but instead Kevin just fed me the remainder of his. It was like a spring roll, but slightly thinner than normal, and crunchy. "Mmm!" I could hardly believe how good it tasted. Eventually we asked for the Chinese section to be expanded at the expense of the African style food. Yes, to cater to all the different people coming, we were having an international caterer deal with it. They'd even managed to work out what wasn't suitable for vegetarians, what people who were lactose intolerant couldn't eat.... Little signs also pointed out what contained nuts. It was a gorgeous spread, I could've stayed there all day sampling the food. "Come on Jared!" Kevin said as he tried to pull me out, he was laughing, and I was trying to get away, back to the tables of food. "We've got more stuff to do today!" "Like what?" I asked as I continued to try to get back to the food. "Well, like, um, oh yeah, we've got to get over to Lakeland, and make the final decision about the location for the reception." I sighed, and eventually let Kevin pull me along. We walked out with our arms around each other's waists. I was really starting to get into this whole wedding thing, and I loved that Kevin and I got to do it together. We drove over to Lakeland and saw two large halls, the first one we instantly said no to - it looked like a dilapidated gymnasium, and then we came to the other one. It looked... rustic. I don't know if I can explain what I looked like, but we agreed instantly that was the place. Inside it was like a lodge house or something, huge timber frames supported the wooden roof, and the walls seemed to be made out of logs, though I had a suspicion that it was fake. The tables were set up for a reception that Thursday night, and we could see that it was beautiful. Sarah, our wedding planner met us there, and made the final arrangements to book it for Saturday. I was beginning to appreciate the fact that Kevin had hired her. She'd also arranged for the press to be... restrained at least to some extent in exchange for professional wedding photos that we were having done, and for a couple of clips from the wedding video - it's funny I probably would've have forgotten to hire a photographer if I was planning this by myself, and as for a cameraman I didn't even know they filmed weddings! Back at home, Kevin and I were both tired, so we sat down to a simple meal of chicken and salad, and watched TV. We fell asleep on the couch. End of Season Two, Chapter Seven TBC... Ok, wedding train's gaining momentum, any chapter now... It would be nice to get A SINGLE EMAIL after this chapter, if no one is reading this, then there really is no point in carrying on, so let me know ok?