Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 20:50:34 +0000
From: Jared
Subject: Boy Bands - On The Streets - Part 45

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)
Get Another Boyfriend (Kevin)
Whiplash (Kevin)
Blind Date (Lance)
My Surprise Romance (Lance)
Josh and Just (Duh!)
Lottery Winner (Joey)
Jamie's Romance (Justin)
Brian and Me (Brian)
Kevin and Dustin (Kevin) <- I just read this one, and I can't wait till the
next instalment, I can't wait to see what happens!
Justin's Dancer (Justin, sort of!)
Tales of a Real Dark Knight (Lance)
Good Life (Justin)
Under Management (Lance)
Brian and Chance (Brian)
That's it, I know there are more I read that I haven't mentioned, but I
can't remember them right now, sorry! I just want to say before this chapter
WAY TO GO USA! Beating Portugal in the playoffs of the World Cup! McBride's
goal was an absolute classic by the way, and I felt so sorry for your guy
who scored the own goal! Anyway, here's chapter 45...

On The Streets - Part 45

Last Time...

	"Thank you Kevin." I smiled at him, then reached over and turned off my
lamp again. A moment later, I felt him shifting behind me. I turned my head
slightly, and his was right there.

	"Hope you don't mind." He said, biting his bottom lip as I felt him spoon
against me from behind. He wrapped one arm over me, and one arm under my
neck. His bicep made a very comfortable support by the way.

	"Not at all." I grinned at him again, and he grinned back. We fell asleep
shortly afterwards, wrapped up together, and at peace with one another.

Now, on with the story...

>>>Kevin's Point of View<<<

	We had to arrange for the start of the cross-country publicity tour, and I
was starting to worry about Jared. I mean, he's said before that he doesn't
really like being alone. He's had so much of that in his life, I don't
really want him alone while I'm off running around the country. Maybe he
could come with me? That would mean giving up everything here, and stopping
the fitness instructor stuff. I know he has a lot of fun doing that, but
which would he rather do? Thursday morning, we went into work together, and
Jared was telling me this joke he'd heard from one of the clients he'd dealt
with yesterday, when the receptionist in the lobby called us over.

	"Mr. Healey?" Well, she called Jared over, but I had my arm over Jared's
shoulder, so I went with him.

	"Yes?" He asked her.

	"Umm, Mr. Healey, Jive have been receiving a number of calls from two
people called, umm...Adam and Seth. They're claiming to be relations of
yours, and they have been very persistent. We wanted to ask if they are your
brothers or whether we should continue screening the calls." I readjusted
the gym bag strap over my shoulder as Jared listened to what she had to say.
When she stopped, Jared had tensed up.

	"Umm, can you continue screening for now, just tell them I'm very busy or
something, I'm not sure, but thanks for telling me." Then he quickly walked
off towards the gym.

	"Jared?" I followed after him. He turned to look at me, and his eyes looked
slightly withdrawn, like when I'd found him after he went missing. "Jared,
what's wrong?"

	"Nothing." He replied. "Why would you think there was anything wrong?"

	"Don't do this Jared, please. I need you to talk, I know something's wrong.
You got all tense when you heard that those people had been trying to call
you, and then you just walked off."

	"Oh, sorry Kevin, I didn't mean to walk off without saying goodbye." He
leant over and tried to kiss me on the cheek, but I backed away.

	"No, Jared, I don't want you to say goodbye to me, I want you to tell me
what's wrong." He looked at me for a second, just staring into my eyes, and
I could see him get this far away expression in his eyes. Then they started
watering up, and he dropped his head to look at the floor. Suddenly his
whole body started shaking with sobs. I didn't know what to do, we were
standing in the middle of the hallway, and there were people around us, and
Jared was just standing there crying. People were starting to look at us a
bit funny, so I decided to get Jared out of there. I took him to the dance
studio as quickly as possible, and guided him in. I locked the door from the
inside, and also locked the changing room door, in case anyone came in from
there. "Jared, please, I don't care what it is. I really don't, just tell me
what is wrong!"

	"I can't!" Jared moaned out, his back slumped against the wall, and then he
slid down, and was sitting on the floor. I knelt in front of him, and rested
one hand on his knee.

	"Jared, please, just tell me what's wrong, I'll do anything for you, just
let me help you." Jared wiped his hands across his face, the tear marks
running across his whole cheeks. He shut his eyes and swallowed, then took a
deep breath.

	"I don't know if I can do this Kevin. I've gone so long without this, I
don't know if I can think about them now." He looked down at his hands, and
just sighed gently.

	"Jared, please, I don't know what else to say except that I'm here for you,
I don't want anything to hurt you, and if this is hurting you, then I need
to know what it is." I told him, I was getting desperate, how can I help
Jared if I don't know why he's crying? He sat back again and hit his head
against the wall, and just shook his head slightly.

	"I don't know how to bring this up again." He looked straight into my eyes,
and we were just staring into one another's eyes for a couple of minutes, I
stared at him for so long, I thought about how much I love him, and how much
I want to be with him. I hoped he saw in mine just how much I care, how much
I need him. "Yeah I do. Do you remember I told you how my parents threw me
out, and my older brother was there, and my parents were there, and they
told me to fuck off?" I nodded slightly, not sure what he was going to say.
"My eldest brother was Paul, and he was very homophobic. He spoke about how
much he'd like to kill gays all the time, I hated him so much." He paused
and looked down at his hands. "No, I didn't hate him. I felt sorry for him,
but I didn't hate him, I couldn't hate my own brother. Anyway, Adam and
Seth, they're my two other brothers." He stopped.

	"You have three brothers? Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked him, I
wasn't trying to interrogate him or anything, just find out.

	"You see? This is what I mean. You're already upset because I didn't tell
you, Kevin, I'm sorry ok? I just didn't want to... le me explain... I was
closest to Adam and Seth. The night I came out to my parents, Adam and Seth
weren't there, and I didn't want to see them. I was scared that if my
parents reacted like that, then Adam and Seth would too, and if I lost them,
well, I would've killed myself." He stopped talking, and he'd stopped
crying, and he just got this far away gaze, and stared at the parquet floor.

	"So, you still don't want to talk to them?" This was such a huge thing that
I didn't really process it, I just focused on what was going on.

	"I don't know, I still don't want to disappoint them."

	"I hate to be really logical Jared, but if they found you here, that means
they probably either saw you on TRL, or in Advocate, or in the newspapers,
which probably would've mentioned you were gay, so I think it's quite likely
that they know you're gay." Jared just looked up at me, and blinked. Then he
stood up.

	"Are you angry at me for not telling you? I mean about having two other
brothers?" Jared asked, his voice low.

	"I'm surprised, kinda upset that you didn't tell me, but I mean you had a
lot of issues to deal with Jared, and anyway, you don't know everything
about me, even if you watched all of my videos!" I smiled at him, and he
smiled back. "I guess this is just one of those times, we're probably gonna
get some of these, in the future I mean, when we find out things about one
another." He looked into my eyes, then took a step forward and kissed me.

	"I need a phone, and I need to go to reception to find out what number
they've got now." I looked at him in surprise.

	"You mean you're gonna call them now? Are you sure?" I asked him
sceptically.

	"Kevin, I need to do this, to find out if they still accept me, and
besides, if they're being persistent with how much they've been calling,
they must have some reason for wanting to get hold of me!" He said, and then
he started for the door.

	"Jared, hold on, you go to the reception, I'll find you a phone to use."

	"Thank you Kevin." He said with a smile, and then headed off to reception.
I headed in the opposite direction. Man, this was a hell of a morning! We'd
been talking for almost half an hour, and Jared's family had gained a couple
of members, we'd talked about trusting each other, and the fact that we're
not gonna know everything about one another. We only knew other for three
months before we moved in together, and we only met since now, just over
four and a half months ago! I walked up to Pete Richardson's office, and
knocked on the door. I explained how I needed to use the phone, and it was
kinda private, and he said I could use his office for an hour or so as he
had a meeting. I thanked him, and then headed towards reception for Jared, I
met him coming back towards me. He had a confused expression on his face.

	"What is it?" I asked. He handed me the piece of paper with a number on it.
"Yeah, it's a telephone number." I smiled cockily and passed it back. He
held it up and pointed at it.

	"Look at it more closely, now what do you notice about it?" He asked me.

	"It's an American number." He nodded.

	"There's no international code, they must be in this country. Did you find
a phone I could use?"

	"Yeah, yeah sure, Pete Richardson's office is free for an hour or so. Do
you...do you want me with you?" He sort of shuffled his feet, and looked
like he was thinking, then looked up at me. "I don't mind if you want to be
alone Jared, I understand this might get pretty emotional and everything."
He nodded.

	"Thank you Kevin, but I really need to do this by myself, if that's ok?" He
asked me. I could see he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but right now, I
was concentrating on Jared. He obviously didn't feel too good about not
telling me about his brothers, and now if I upset him again, I'd make him
feel even worse.

	"Of course." I hugged him. "I'll go to the dance studio, and well, when
you're done come along, I've got some work to do." I looked at him, trying
to make sure he was ok, he seemed it. "I love you Jared." I kissed him.

>>>Jared's Point of View<<<

	Kevin knew, and he accepted it. I was so happy. I was hoping this would
never have come up, but now it had, I was glad that it had. It meant I had
less secrets from Kevin, I wanted him to know everything, but then, I guess
no one can ever really know everything about you. I knocked on Pete's
office, and when there was no answer I tried the handle. Looking inside,
there was no one in there. He must have already left, so I walked in and sat
down beside the desk, and picked up the phone. As with all the phones in
this building, you had to press the star key to get an outside line, and
then I dialled the number on the piece of paper.

	The phone rang a couple of times, and then a woman's voice answered.
"Healey and Healey, how may I direct your call?" Ok...

	"Ermmm, hi, err, can I speak to Adam, or Seth please?"

	"The Mr. Healeys are in a meeting right now, may I ask who is calling
please?" The woman had that annoying voice you always get in TV commercials.

	"Yeah ok, err, my name is Jared Healey, Adam and Seth are my brothers,
they've been trying to..."

	"Oh Mr. Healey they've been expecting your call, please hold while I patch
you through." She interrupted me. Patched me through? But I thought they
were in a meeting. Just then I heard her voice again, it sounded like she
was talking to someone else.

	"Mr. Healey? Your brother is on the line." She said.

	"Really, Jared? Ok, patch him through to our office, we'll take it in
there." I could hear the excitement playing through Seth's voice, and I was
glad that he was excited. A few moments later, I heard his voice again.
"Jared?"

	"Hi." I said, suddenly not sure of myself.

	"Oh my God!" I suddenly heard Seth shout. "This is so cool!" I could
practically hear how excited he was, and see the tears in his eyes, his eyes
always watered when he got excited.

	"Jared?" Adam's voice.

	"Yeah?"

	"I can't believe this! We thought we'd never see you again."

	"Give me back the phone!" Seth shouted.

	"Just pick up your extension!" I heard some scuffling, and Seth came on the
line too.

	"Where have you been Jared? We looked for you for years." Adam said.

	"I had some pretty rough times guys."

	"But, you ran away, why'd you do that?" Seth said quietly.

	"Ran away? I didn't run away, Mum and Dad told me to leave, cos I'm gay.
Didn't they tell you." I asked, suddenly worried that they actually didn't
know.

	"We knew you were gay before you left, we just didn't confront you about
it. We don't care if you're gay Jared, we love you. But Mum and Dad didn't
tell us they threw you out! They just told us you left with all your stuff!"
Seth said.

	"Yeah, and we looked for you for like two and a half years, but we couldn't
find you, that's when we moved our practice over here, and set up shop here.
  Then, well, we saw you on TRL. We're in New York Jared, and we saw you on
the front of that gay magazine..." Adam started.

	"Yeah! Advocate! And we saw you in Men's Fitness, we both buy that
magazine. It was so weird when we opened it up, or just when we bought it!"
Seth filled in. "Jared, if you're in the US, why don't you come up here?
Adam and I have got a pretty big apartment, with a spare room, you could
stay with us for a while, we really want to see you, please?" He whined the
last bit.

	"Yeah Jared, please?" Adam added.

	"Why don't you guys come down here?" I asked.

	"We could do that! We could be down, umm, Adam?"

	"We can be down tomorrow evening Jared. We need an address and everything,
umm, and a phone number would be useful, besides that bitch on the Jive
front desk." Adam chuckled.

	"Hey! She's not a bitch, she's pretty nice actually." I filled him in.

	"Yeah, ok, I guess, it'll be good to see you again Jared." Adam said.

	"Yeah, I can't wait!" Seth added. I gave them my address, and my cell
number, and Kevin's and my home phone, and after a long drawn out goodbye,
we hung up. They both had fiancées who they wanted to bring down, and I told
them it was fine, after all, the house has like four spare bedrooms, so
unless all the guys suddenly want to stay over together, there's not gonna
be much of a problem! I sat at the desk for a minute, and held my head in my
hands. This was really too much, I couldn't process it all, I was going to
see my brothers again in about 30 hours, guys who I hadn't seen in about 4
years. My mind was reeling. I got up, realising I'd spent almost forty
minutes on the phone, and headed to the door. I went along to the dance
studio. I walked in, and Kevin was sitting cross-legged on the floor, with
papers spread out all around him. He looked up the moment I walked in, and
jumped up to his feet.

	"How'd it go? Did you talk to your brothers?" He asked with raised
eyebrows.

	"Yeah, yeah I did, umm, I hope you don't mind, but I invited them to come
visit, down here."

	"Of course I don't mind Jared, when are they coming down?"

	"Tomorrow."

	"That soon, wow, where are they?"

	"They're in New York. I wish I'd known before last weekend, I could've
visited them while we were up there. But apparently they've seen me a few
times, on TRL and umm, in Advocate, and that fitness magazine." Kevin nodded
slightly, then started clearing up the papers on the floor while he was
still talking.

	"So, do you want to do anything with them? Do we need to get anything in?"
I ignored the question for the moment.

	"What are those papers?" I asked. He sighed, then stopped and looked down.

	"They're the itinerary." He filled me in. "For the publicity tour."

	"When...when do you leave?" I asked.

	"Next Tuesday, I think, or early Wednesday." He looked downcast for a
moment. "I was gonna ask you about this, but then all this stuff happened
this morning. Jared, we're gonna be touring on and off for the next six
months at least. I wanted to ask you, you know how we were before, when you
were just our fitness instructor on tour with us, whether you wanted to go
back to that." He paused. "I know it's a big decision, and you don't have to
decide on anything right away, and I know you like doing this a lot, and
although it would be great if you came on tour with us, I don't mind if you
just want to stay here, and carry on working, we'll be able to see each
other pretty regularly anyway. We'll talk more about it later, if you want,
just think about it ok? What you want to do, I mean. I don't want to
pressure you or anything." I nodded slightly. Give up teaching, again? I
don't know, but being away from Kevin, for months? Could I do that. I had
too much to think about, so I decided to drop that, at least for the moment.
I nodded again, more firmly to Kevin, and he went back to cleaning up the
papers.

	"We have to get something for us to eat tomorrow." I said to him. "I mean,
for tomorrow dinner, with my brothers."

	"Ok, but, wouldn't you prefer to take them out to a restaurant?" Kevin
asked.

	"That would be nice, but we need to find somewhere that serves fish." I
said. "It's Friday tomorrow, I know I don't keep it, but those guys might
have followed the rules a bit more closely - we're supposed to eat fish only
on Fridays. No meat." Kevin nodded.

	"Well, I'm sure we can find a good seafood restaurant." I nodded.

	"Hey, shouldn't the guys be here by now? Aren't we supposed to have a
session?" I asked him.

	"I checked your schedule, and when I saw that you didn't have anyone else
till lunchtime, I phoned the guys and told them not to turn up till 11:30, I
hope that's ok." Kevin said. He'd picked up the papers, and was slipping
them into a file.

	"Yeah, that's great, thanks Kev." I reached over and kissed him. I don't
know why, but at that moment, he seemed so perfect. I just couldn't believe
that he was with me. He wanted to be with me, and he accepted that I'd lied
to him, and everything. I just wanted to hug him, and hold him close to me.
So I did. I grabbed him in a hug, and held him tight. We stayed like that
for some time, I could smell his scent, and I could taste him when I kissed
his neck. Next thing I knew, the door to the changing room was making funny
noises.

	"Ow! What the fuck?" I heard, and the door banged. I looked at the door,
then pulled away from Kevin.

	"Did you unlock the changing room door." He looked sheepish, then grinned
at me, and shook his head. I whined slightly, then walked over to the door,
and flipped the catch. Inside was AJ, looking at the door.

	"Did you do that deliberately?" He asked me. I shook my head, and smiled at
him. They all walked in, and started stretching. Kevin came over once he was
done, and whispered in my ear.

	"Do you want to tell them about your brothers?" He asked me, then looked me
straight in the eyes. I nodded. "Take your time, you don't have to if you
don't want to." Then he started jogging around the gym with the others.

	"Guys! Could you come in?" I sat down on the table. "There's something I
need to tell you..." And so I started telling them about how my brothers had
been calling and how they were coming down the next night.

***

	The rest of the day I took up with the lunchtime sessions, Janet Dakes'
session, and a 98 degrees session in the afternoon. After work, Kevin and I
went along to the mall cos there were a few things I had to get. I wanted to
look how they remembered me, so I picked up some hair dye. I was gonna dye
me hair back. Kevin seemed a little peeved, but he didn't really care too
much, as long as I promised to have it dyed blond again some other time. He
really liked it blond. I couldn't see it, but I guess it's just his taste.
We picked up a couple of little things, some extra food, as I was hoping the
guys would stay the weekend, and drinks, that sort of thing. Kevin only got
stopped about four or five times to sign autographs while we were in the
food market. Finally, we got home. After putting the food away, I went to do
my hair, and Kevin came to help as I'd never really done this on my own
before.

	"But I liked it how it was before!" Kevin whined, my hair was back to its
original dark brown, and Kevin didn't like it.

	"This is how it was before! The blond is the unnatural one!" I said back to
him with a smile on my face. Kevin just whimpered slightly.

	"Oh for God's sake, I've already told you I'd dye it back, and besides, I
just want my hair like this for when I meet my brothers. You'll see why
tomorrow, I said with a big grin on my face. That piqued his curiosity, and
he instantly started pestering me with questions.

	We had dinner together in front of the TV, and we showered together as
well. As we were lying in bed, we started talking about little things.

	"What time are they arriving tomorrow?" He asked me.

	"Umm, late afternoon, four thirty or five I think." I answered. "I've
already cleared my schedule except for one appointment from two to three, so
I can make it to the airport can't I? An hour and a half is enough isn't it,
to get from work to the airport?"

	"Yeah!" He giggled. "Unless every car in Orlando decides to go to the
airport at the same time! It only takes like 15 minutes to get to the
airport."

	"Cool." I sighed.

	"Are you ok? With all this, I mean? I know you've got a lot of stuff to
deal with, with your brothers and well, your job I guess. I don't want to
stress you too much."

	"No, it's fine Kevin, and I don't mind having a lot of things to deal with,
it's better than having nothing to do! I'm really looking forward to seeing
my brothers though, I haven't seen them in so long. I hope you forgive me
for not thinking about the tour just yet, it's just I'm looking forward to
this so much." I said, with a certain amount of glee in my voice, but also
apologetically. I was feeling pretty guilty for not thinking at all about
the tour and whether I wanted to join Kevin and the guys.

	"No, it's ok, absolutely. I want you to have a good time with your
brothers, and I hope I get to know them a bit too." He paused and looked at
me. "Why are you grinning like that?"

***

TBC...
End of Chapter 45

Well, I hope everyone liked this chapter, cos it's pretty obvious I said
something wrong in the last chapter! After the chapter before when I got
about 25 emails, I only got one for the last chapter! I hope people are
still reading, and enjoying my story. I'm guessing this chapter was a bit of
a surprise - bringing Jared's family up out of nowhere, but a lot of people
have been suggesting that I bring up something from Jared's past, so here
you go!