Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:16:49 -0400
From: Nate <jesseandnate@gmail.com>
Subject: Jesse and Nate Chapter 5

This story is a work of fiction. I do not claim to know Jesse McCartney
(although I wish I did ;-D), nor do I know about his sexual preference
(ditto). This story will contain some sexual content, and is about a
relationship between two men. If this offends you, then I suggest you use
that handy close button on your window. If it's illegal for you to be
reading this, well then you shouldn't be here either, but you probably know
that already :P.

I also wanted to tell you about another story that I forgot to mention in
the first chapter.  This was the first real story I've ever read on nifty,
and it's really good. It's called Josh- and-Just, in the boy bands section
of the celebrity section. Something to read during the periods in between
my installments ;).

Also, once again, I'd like to thank Kyle for proofreading and critiquing
the chapters.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesse and Nate Chapter 5

The next morning I woke up with Jesse still asleep in my arms. I couldn't
take my eyes off of him, he looked so cute just lying there like that. All
I could think about was how unbelievable lucky I was that he asked me of
all people for directions. I shifted slightly, causing him to stir and look
up at me.

"Good morning," I whispered.

"`Morning," he mumbled back. After a couple of seconds he continued, "See,
toldja it'd be nice sleeping next to each other," and he snuggled closer
into my arms and looked up at me.

"Yup, definitely is." We just stared into each other's eyes, smiling
slightly, not talking.

"I love looking into your eyes," I told him after about a minute. "They're
that perfect green, it's like looking deep into the Caribbean Sea or
something."

He smiled at me and replied, "Same to you, except with your eyes' shade its
like looking into a forest or something, I just can't stop looking at
them." Just then my alarm went off, making us both cringe.

I sighed and said, "Well it looks like you're going to have to, we still
gotta shower and eat some breakfast," leaning over him to turn off the
alarm.

I heard him sniff from under me and say "Mmmm, you smell so yummy. You sure
you wanna take a shower?"

"Yeah," I replied, looking down at him, "I think it'd be a good idea. You
might think my dried up sweat smells good, but I think most people would
tend to disagree with you.  Plus, I can't imagine the state of my hair
right now."

He glanced up and said with a laugh, "Yeah, you got a point, it's like a
jungle up there."

"And you're one to talk. It looks like you were driving at 100 miles an
hour in a convertible for the night," I replied with a grin.

"Hmmm, well mayyybe someone shouldn't have put their hands through it so
much last night," he retorted, smirking.

Just thinking of the previous night made me smile. "Oh yeah, well, I guess
you got a point there."

"Yup, I always do."

"Yeah, like I've said, you really are a modest guy."

"Mmmhmm," he replied, and kissed me full on the lips.

"Ewww, sorry Flash, but morning breath is not an attractive scent on you."

"I was about to say the same thing to you," he responded with a grin.

"Okay, well how about you go use the bathroom first, shower, do your stuff,
and then I'll go in."

"You sure you don't wanna join me?" There was a devious look on his face.

"Oh, don't tempt me. You have no idea how much I'd like to, but this
building is notorious for not having enough hot water. I try to not take
too long, especially in the morning, so that I don't waste it, and I have a
feeling that if I go in there with you we won't come out all day."

"Yeah, yeah, you always gotta do the right thing, don'cha."

"Ah, the costs of dating someone going into medicine. We have that whole
`...and do no harm' thing going from early on."

"Which's one of the things I like about you," he said and gave me a kiss on
the nose.

After holding him for another minute, I sat up and said, "Ok, get going,
mister."

"Yes, Daddy," he replied in a childish voice and got up.

"Hey, I didn't know you were into kinky talk," I said, making him laugh as
he walked out of the room and into the bathroom. `Seriously nice ass,' I
thought for like the millionth time as I stared at him walking away. It
looked even better through just the cotton of his boxer shorts. "Oh, and
you could use my razor, it should be on the counter there."

"Thanks," he called through the bathroom door.

While he was in the bathroom, I decided to tidy up the apartment a bit,
putting stuff away in the kitchen and washing the dishes. When I went out
to the main area, I looked around, still not believing that I lucked out
with getting the place five months earlier. It had a nice sized living room
and dining area on the left side when you walk in, a pretty big kitchen (by
Manhattan standards anyway) on the right side, and the hallway leading to
the bedroom and bathroom, all (except the bathroom) with hardwood
floors. Also, the price I was paying was dirt cheap considering the
location (even studio apartments in the city can be two thousand dollars or
more a month, so to get a decently sized, nice one bedroom for what I was
paying.let's just say a lot of my friends would've been pretty jealous had
I told them). I again thanked my lucky stars and got to work.

After about twenty minutes, when I was finishing up the dishes, I heard a
voice behind me say, "Now this is a sight to see."

I turned around and saw Jesse smiling at me with a towel around his waist
and wet hair.  "I could say the same about you."

"Well, there's just something sexy about seeing a half naked guy doing
housework," he said, making me chuckle. I was still just wearing my pajama
bottoms.

"Well, I'm gonna go take a shower and stuff. How `bout you look through my
closet for something to wear for today? I think we'd be about the same
size, although my pants may be a bit long on you," and I went up to him and
made myself as tall as possible so I could look over his head, making him
chuckle.

"Okay, cool, thanks."

"No prob. Oh, and lemme put a pot of coffee on," I said as I set up the
coffee maker. "It should be ready in about ten or fifteen minutes. Mugs are
over here," and I pointed to a cabinet, "sugar and Splenda over there," and
pointed to a space on the counter, "and milk's in the fridge," which I
gestured to with a backwards thumb.

"Awesome, thanks."

"Your welcome," I replied, gently rubbing his shoulder as I walked by him
on my way to the bathroom.

I showered, shaved, and brushed my teeth, and walked out of the bathroom
about twenty minutes later with a towel around my waist. "Hey, that's like
my favorite outfit," I said, looking over the clothes he put on.

"Oh, sorry, I just really liked them so I tried `em on. Should I take
something else?"

"No, no, not at all. It looks good on you," making him grin a little
sheepishly at me. I heard a knock at the door, and said, "That's probably
the newspaper, could you get it for me? The guy knocks and then leaves it
in front of the door."

"Sure, no problem," he replied, and I heard him walk over to it and open
it. I didn't hear it close though, and then I heard a little talking.

"Hey Jesse, who's out there?" I asked, walking to the door, still with just
a towel around my waist and drying my hair off with a smaller one. Once I
got there, I froze, because I saw Jesse standing opposite Kyle and Kirsten,
all of whom had shocked looks on their faces. "Oh, um, hey Kyle, hey
Kirsten."

"Hey," they replied back very bashfully, which kinda surprised me,
especially with Kirsten, since she's practically never embarrassed by
anything. They looked from his wet hair, to my clothes that he was wearing,
to me in the towel, and their expressions just became more and more
blank. It was actually pretty funny. Kyle said, "Um, we thought we'd come
by and have some breakfast with you," holding up a bag, "but it's ok, we
could come back later."

After looking at Jesse for half a sec to make sure he'd be okay with it, I
said, "No, no, it's totally fine. Kyle and Kirsten, this is Jesse
McCartney, Jesse, this is Kyle Mathews and Kirsten Robinson, my two best
friends.

"Nice to meet you," they all said to each other and shook hands.

"There was a major accident on the highway back to his house last night, so
Jesse stayed here," I quickly explained.

"Oh," Kyle replied. They were all still just standing around in the doorway
looking at anything but each other.

"Now, I'm not quite sure how it works in California, Jesse, but here in the
city we usually invite friends in when they come to the door," I joked,
trying to break the ice.

"Nah, in Cali we usually just stand by the door all day. It's a good
protection from earthquakes," he replied as he moved aside to allow Kyle
and Kirsten through the door, making us all laugh, even if it was a little
nervously.

"So guys, what'd you bring me?" I asked, referring to the bag that Kyle was
holding.

Finally Kirsten recovered enough to start to come back to proper form. She
put a hand on her hip, saying, "And here I thought that my sexy body would
be good enough for you."

"Not when I'm starved," I answered as I went through the bag after Kyle put
on the counter. They got the standard New York breakfast stuff: hot bagels,
cream cheese, and a bunch of pastries. Fortunately, Kyle always brings
extra of everything, `for just in case,' as he says, so there was plenty
for the four of us. I was about to take out a bagel to make for Jesse when
Kyle asked,

"You do know you're still just wearing a towel, right, Nate?"

"Oh, yeah," I replied, looking down. "I should probably change into some
clothes. You guys make yourselves comfortable and talk amongst yourselves
about anything besides me while I'm gone," I told them as I walked to my
room, knowing full well that they'd be embarrassing me as soon as I shut
the door. "And coffee's just finished brewing," which made Kirsten grin and
run over to the pot. She loves coffee about just as much as I do.

By the time I came out, they were all eating bagels and cracking up. I took
the bagel that Jesse pointed out that he made for me (just the way I like
it - toasted plain bagel with not too much cream cheese) and sat next to
him on the couch armrest in the living room and listened to what they were
talking about

"...and then, he had to go to the school nurse and explain what exactly he
was doing going after a bird's nest in the first place!" Kirsten said as
she finished the story of me being attacked by a pelican.

"No way that happened," Jesse exclaimed in disbelief, looking up at me.

"Yup, and I got the scar to prove it," I replied, pulling down my shirt to
reveal an inch- long white line on my shoulder. "I did get the eggs,
though."

"Whoa...why'd you do it?"

"Hey, a dare's a dare," I replied. "You should have thought about the
consequences before putting me up to it," I continued, looking at Kirsten
with a stern look on my face.

"Hey, I didn't put a gun up to your head."

"That's only because you were too young to have one. I do seem to remember
a threat to be put in a headlock, though," which made Jesse laugh even
more.

"Oh yeah. Well you still didn't have to do it. You could have taken me."

"First off, like I said, dare's a dare," I replied. "Secondly, I wasn't
about to get into a fight with a girl."

"Always the gentleman."

"He really is," Jesse said, as he pointed his face up at me, giving me a
kiss.

"Awwwww," Kyle and Kirsten said together, making both of us grin sheepishly
at them.

"You two are so cute together," Kyle said. "And it's only been like a
week."

"I know," Kirsten replied, "imagine how they're gonna be in a few
months. We're gonna have to walk around with barf bags or something,"
making Jesse and me chuckle.

"Thanks, but we're not THAT bad," I said a little bashfully. "And Kyle,
speaking of cute..."

"Oh no," Kyle interjected.

"...when's your class with Brian meeting?"

Kyle sighed and said, "In about two hours. Do you guys really have to make
such a big deal out of this?"

"Sure we do," Jesse answered with a grin, making Kyle stare at him in
astonishment.

"Wait, even you know about Brian?"

"Sure, Nate told me all about it. I think you should for sure go after
him."

"Great, just what I need," Kyle said. "An international pop star knowing
about my crush," and he gave an enormous fake sigh, making us all laugh.

"Well, if you want, I could go over to him and ask him for you. Fame does
come in handy sometimes."

"Nah, that's ok," Kyle replied with a grin, "I should probably handle it
myself. It might come off a little too show-offish if I have Jesse
McCartney asking guys out for me."

"Well, I guess that's true, but if you ever wanna take me up on that offer,
just lemme know," he said with a wink.

"Thanks, I will," Kyle responded with a laugh.

"So Jesse, you're not in school right now, right?" Kirsten asked.

"Well, I graduated high school last June, now I'm focussing on my music and
acting, but I'm gonna go to college eventually. I want to be able to give
it the right amount of attention, and I don't think I'd be able to do that
right now."

"That's cool. It's good that you know what you want, and also that you know
that you gotta be serious about school also. That's something that a lot of
people that already graduated from college don't even know," Kyle said.

"Thanks," Jesse replied, flushing slightly.

"No prob," Kyle responded. "So, is there anything you wanna know about us?"

"Ummm...well actually, Nate's already told me so much about you guys that I
feel like I already know you."

"Aww, Natey!!" Kirsten exclaimed, "You really do like us!"

"Well, like I said the other day, it'd be too much work to go around
looking for someone else to make fun of." They, of course, stuck out their
tongues at me, making Jesse laugh.

"You guys are too much," he said.

"Well you heard him, guys. Time to leave!" I told Kyle and Kirsten.

"What? No, no, that's not what I meant, and you know it!" Jesse exclaimed.

"It's ok, you don't have to be nice. If you want `em to leave, they'll
leave."

He just rolled his eyes at me, and said to Kyle and Kirsten, "Trust me, I
don't want you to leave."

"Oh, don't worry, we never take Nate seriously," Kyle said, laughing,
"unless of course he's serious. We still laugh at him, but we take what
he's saying into consideration."

"You see what I gotta put up with?" I said, throwing my hands up.

"Yup, and you're lucky, too. Most people don't have such good friends that
click so well."

"Yeah," I said, smiling at him, "I know, I really am lucky," and I reached
over to give them a hug.

"Awww," they exclaimed, hugging me back, then "Oooof," when I squeezed them
realllly tight, again making Jesse laugh again in his very cute way. We
continued talking for another hour or so about the premiere and just random
things, like similar interests, cool people Jesse's met, and of course more
embarrassing stories from my past, as well as from the last week with
Jesse.

"Well, guys," Kyle said, "I should be going. I got a few things I gotta do
before my class meets,"

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, "but it was great meeting you, Jesse."

"Definitely," he replied. "We for sure have to hang out again soon."

"Obviously," Kyle answered, giving me a wink.

"I should also be going," Kirsten said. "There're some big sales happening
at some of my fave stores, so I should get there before they run out of all
the good stuff."

"Like you don't have enough clothes to begin with," I said.

"C'mon, you of all people should know that you could never have
enough. Have you seen his closet, Jesse?"

"I have," Jesse told them, "and trust me, Nate, you're not one to talk!"

"Okay, okay, I admit, I do have a lot of clothes, but I do wear all...well,
most of them!  But go ahead, Kirsten, go and add to your already impressive
wardrobe."

"Thank you for your permission. And it was also great to meet you Jesse,
and not just cuz you're Nate's new guy, but also cuz you're a celebrity!"
she winked at him.

"Thanks," he chuckled, "you too. But not cuz you're a celebrity, because,
well, you're not. Not yet, anyways, but judging on your looks and your
personality, it won't be long," he told her with a wink.

"Nate, I really like this guy. Hold on to him!" Flattery works for Kirsten.

"Well, we're just gonna have to! Now shoo, before those clothes are gone!
Plus you gotta make sure that Kyle makes himself look all pretty for
Brian."

"Yeah, like I need advice from her," Kyle retorted. "I got more style in my
little finger than her entire body!"

"Hmm...good point," I said.

"Hey!" Kirsten exclaimed, then after waiting a moment or two, she looked
down at her shoes and said dejectedly, "Okay, fine, fair enough," making
all of us chuckle.

"Ok, see you later, guys!" I said.

"Great meeting you, can't wait to hang out again!" Jesse said. "Let's just
make sure we actually plan it next time, so as it won't be all awkward and
stuff."

"Yup, definitely," Kirsten said. "Although it was funny to see you squirm
like that."

"Not nearly as funny as seeing your shocked expressions at seeing me in
Nate's clothes and Nate coming in with just a towel on," he countered.

"Yeah, the looks on your faces were priceless!" I put in. "I just wish I
had a camera!"

"Okay, you got us," Kyle said. "But just watch out, cuz we could get you
back anytime," and then they gave each of us a hug goodbye. After he hugged
Jesse, Kyle exclaimed "Oh my God, I just hugged Jesse McCartney!!!" in a
really excited teenage girl voice.

"Oh no, not you too!" Jesse said in mock exasperation, making us all laugh.

"Okay, see you guys later," I told them, "and good luck with Brian, Kyle,
lemme know how it goes."

"Yup, good luck!" Jesse put in.

"Thanks, and I will, see you later! Oh yeah, and b'bye Curls," they told me
with a smirk, using the old nickname they used to have for me, and they
left with me rolling my eyes at their retreating backs.

"Curls?" Jesse asked me after they left.

"Yeah, cuz of the hair," I told him, "they used to do it just to poke fun
at me, but now it's become a nickname they use for me every so often,
especially when it gets pretty long and curly like it is now."

"That's cool. I like that, actually. Almost as much as Pack," he said with
a grin. "I really like your friends, Nate, they're really cool. They seem
like a blast to be around."

"Thanks, they really are. I love `em to death, I probably wouldn't be able
to function if I didn't have them around."

"Awww."

"Shut up," I said, blushing.

"Make me," he replied with a mischievous look.

"Ohh, you'd like that, wouldn't you."

"Mmhmm," he said, and pulled me into a kiss.

"Mmmm, I love your lips."

"Same here, I dunno what you do to `em, but keep it up, it definitely works
for you." I smiled at him, and we continued to make out.

We started getting heated, and dropped down onto the couch, never letting
our lips leave each other. I gently pushed my tongue past his lips, rubbing
his tongue with mine, making him moan into my mouth. His hands started to
stroke my back, and I ran my hands through his still-damp hair. After going
at it for a couple of minutes, we heard a buzzing sound coming from the
coffee table, which turned out to be Jesse's phone vibrating. We separated,
Jesse with a disappointed look on his face.

"Sorry, Nate, I should probably get this."

I sighed slightly, but said "No problem." He answered the phone, which
turned out to be his mom. Apparently it wasn't a very happy call; she
didn't seem to like the fact that Jesse didn't let her know where she was
staying. She was so upset I was able to hear her voice from where I was
sitting. I tried to turn away a little to so that Jesse wouldn't get
embarrassed, but I could already see red start to creep up his neck to his
ears and face. I heard a few of his responses, like "I'm really sorry, Mom,
I totally forgot, it won't happen again" and, "I stayed at, um, a friend's
place," followed by a pause, and "Yeah, the guy I told you about." She
didn't seem to like his answers.

After he hung up the phone, he looked at me a bit shyly and mumbled "Sorry
about that."

"Awww, sweetness, come here." I pulled him up to me and gave him a
hug. "It's totally ok, I shoulda reminded you to call your mom to tell her
where you were staying. And besides, it just shows your mom cares about
you, if she didn't she probably wouldn't have called at all."

"Yeah, that's true. I just wish sometimes she'd gimme a little more space,
ya know?"

"Yeah, I hear that."

"Yeah. I guess it's cuz I'm away so much and she thinks I've grown up too
fast, so she, like, wants to mother me a bit more than normal when I'm
home."

"Well that's sweet."

"Yeah, I guess. Like, I love her and we get along great and all, she can
just be a bit overbearing at times, ya know?"

I laughed, "And what good mother isn't?"

"Yeah, good point," he said, chuckling.

"Does she know about you, by the way?"

He looked up at me. "You mean, me being bi?" I nodded.

"Nope, I'm only out to a few of my friends, like Michael and Katie. Other
than them two and a few others, no one really knows. How about you?"

"Yup, I'm out. It was pretty hard when I did it, but I'm glad we got
everything out in the open. I'm lucky my parents are so understanding; they
were a bit shocked at first, but they came around after a little while,
although my dad took a bit longer than my mom to become totally ok. We're
much closer now. Same with my siblings, we really talk with each other and
stuff now, which we didn't necessarily do before hand. It kinda helped us
all open up to each other."

"Wow, Nate, that's awesome, it really is. You're lucky to have such an
accepting family."

"Yeah, I know, it's not necessarily the case with a lot of gay and bi
teens.

"How'd your friends take it?"

"Well, most of them were pretty much ok with it. The rest...well if they
didn't want to accept me for me, then who needs `em, ya know?"

"Yup, definitely true."

"Why, are you thinking of coming out to your family and friends?"

"I'm not sure. I don't really know how everyone'd take it, or even if I'm
ready for it yet."

"Well, you really shouldn't do it until you're ready, although I'm not sure
you could ever be totally ready for that. But you gotta wait until the time
feels right, you know?"

"Yup, that's true," he sighed.

The entire time we were having this conversation, we were still hugging and
looking at each other, with me occasionally gently stroking his cheek or
lightly putting my hand through his hair. I gave him a slightly tight
squeeze, and kissed him on the nose, and then rubbed our noses together.

We decided to hang out a little more and read the paper. I settled on the
couch and he leaned back into my arms, and we got to reading. He was
stroking my arms as I was reading, which, albeit a little distracting, was
really nice, and sent shivers up my body.  After a few minutes I heard him
start to hum what I recognized as a song of his, and then eventually he
started murmuring the words. "Because you live and breathe, because you
make me believe in myself when nobody else can help. Because you live,
curls, my world has twice as many stars in the sky."

"I see you changed the words a little bit," I said, and he looked up at me
with a start and started to blush slightly.

"Oh, man, was I singing out loud? Sorry, I do that sometimes.

"It's ok, I liked it, not that you need me to tell you, but you gotta
beautiful voice. Plus that change in words was nice, too," I said with a
wink.

He gave me a shy grin, "Yeah, ever since you told me about the nickname
that's been running through my head."

"Awww," I said, and gave him a slow kiss. After we separated he picked up
my wrist and looked at my watch.

"Oh, man, Nate, I gotta get going. My mom has a buncha stuff she wants to
do with me today, so I should get back."

"Aww, okay. You want me to call a car service for you, or you just want to
flag a cab?"

"I'll just flag a cab," he replied.

"Okay, let's go get your stuff and then I'll walk you down."

"Okay, great, thanks."

"No prob," and we went to gather his clothes from the previous night and
put them into a bag, and a hanger for the sports jacket. We walked
downstairs, and got outside, where I stuck my hand out for a
cab. Surprisingly, it only took two tries before we got one, which is
pretty good for New York. I gave Jesse a hug, and whispered "Now don't be a
stranger, ok?"

He smiled at me, "Yeah, we should for sure do this again."

"Oh you'd like that wouldn't you," I replied with a naughty look.

"Ohhhh yeah," he grinned at me. "Oh, by the way, lemme know how things go
with Kyle and Brian."

"Will do." The taxi driver honked his horn impatiently (New York taxi
drivers, what can ya do), so I told him I'd call him later, said goodbye,
and then he was off.

					* * *

I was in the middle of reading up on psychology later that afternoon when
Kyle called me. "Hello?" I said.

"I LOVE YOU!!!!" I heard him yell. "As a friend, of course."

"I take it that it went well with Brian, then?" I chuckled.

"Yup, better than well. It went awesome!"

"Excellent! Gimme details, my man."

"Well, during the lecture, we happened to be sitting next to each other,
and he was making some funny comments to me about things that the guy was
saying, who was actually pretty boring, despite his being all prominent and
all. We talked afterwards, first about the lecturer, then about class, and
eventually we got to talking about just general stuff, like our likes and
dislikes and stuff like that. He kept on lightly patting my shoulder and
touching my arm, and we were casually flirting, so I figured what the hell,
and I just asked him out to drinks."

"Nice, I knew you had it in ya!" I said.

"Yupp. And, even better, he said `Hells yeah!' We went out to Shades of
Green, had some drinks and food, and we were making great
conversation. Turns out that he wanted to ask me out for just about as long
as I wanted to ask him, he was just too nervous to do it."

"See, toldja you're hot."

"Yeah, yeah. I still think he's after my sense of style."

"Whatever, man. What happened next?"

"Normal first date stuff, with casual flirting and rubbing each other's
shoulders. We got up and danced a bit, then left. He even walked me over to
my dorm, and gave me a kiss good night! And he's got such soft lips, it's
really amazing. Anyway, he's gonna call me later so we could make plans to
go out again."

"Awesome, I'm really happy for you!"

"Thanks. I really mean that. If it wasn't for you, I doubt I woulda gone
for it."

"Well it's my pleasure. Besides, you did the hard work, you just needed
someone to light a fire under your ass."

"Oooo, you think he's gonna do that anytime soon?" he said, making me crack
up.

"That's between you and him, man."

"Yeah yeah. Well, thanks again, Nate. I seriously owe you one."

"No problem, Kyle. Just keep givin me regular updates and we're even," I
replied with a smirk.

"Of course, of course. Don't I always?"

"Yup. Just keep it up."

"Will do, and same for you. By the way, that reminds me, diiiid anything
happen last night?"

"Well, if you must know..."

"And I must."

"Well then, yes, something did happen." I normally don't like to kiss and
tell, but with Kyle, anything goes.

"Ooooo, what?"

"Jesse gave me a bj," I told him, slightly bashfully.

"Yeah, go Nate!!!!" he screamed. "Doin' it up celebrity style!"

Kyle always had the best responses, I was cracking up. "Thanks, Ky."

"No prob. Was it good?"

"Well let's just say his mouth and throat definitely have more than just a
talent for singing," I told him, making him crack up.

"Nice. Well anyways, I wanted to let you know, also, that we really had fun
today, we really liked Jesse!"

"And he really liked you, too. We definitely have to hang out again
soon. Maybe we'll do something with his friends also, so they're not left
out."

"Okay, that'd be cool. Ok, Nate, I gotta go, Brian's calling me now. Talk
to you later!"

"Ok, no prob, bbye!" and we hung up, and I immediately called up Jesse to
give him the good news, which he was of course genuinely happy about.

					* * *

A couple of hours later, my brother called me up. "Hey Jon, what's up?"

"Not too much, Nate."

"Well, it's been a while, why haven't you been calling?"

"You know, last time I checked, your phone also had a call button."

"Yeah, yeah, but we all know I'm too important to dial people."

"Hmm...true, I guess it is my fault then," he replied sarcastically.

"And it's about time you admit it."

"Tell me about it. Well, since I finally have your precious attention, what
are you up to tonight?"

"Ummm." I thought. "Notta," I told him. Jesse was busy with his family
tonight, Kyle was of course with Brian, and Kirsten had work.

"So how about you have dinner and catch up with your favorite older
brother?"

"You mean my only older brother?"

"Well that would make me your favorite as well."

"But only by default."

"Well let's not split hairs."

"Okay, so where you wanna eat?"

"I dunno, how about somewhere near you?"

"Okay, how about Summers? I haven't been there in a while."

"Sure, that place is pretty good."

"Yup. Hey, you wanna invite Mandy and Jake as well?"

"Okay, sure, lets make a reunion out of it."

"C'mon, it hasn't been THAT long since we've hung out."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm just ridin' you a little."

"Always good to know my big brother cares about my feelings," I told him,
dripping in sarcasm.

"You should feel lucky you have a big brother at all. I don't got one, you
know."

"As you constantly remind me."

"Just making sure you don't forget. I'll call up Jake and Mandy, and we'll
meet there at...how's eight o'clock sound?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay, cool, see you then!"

"Yup yup," and we hung up. I was actually pretty excited, because it's true
we haven't seen each other in a while. We used to make sure to all hang out
at least once a week, but then as we got older and our lives got busier, it
became less and less frequent. We still talked as often as we can (which
nowadays wasn't even that much), but it's still not as good as actually
being together. I finished up some more of my studying and did some bills,
and then got ready to go.

I, of course, was the first one there. For some reason my family thinks
that leaving to go somewhere at the last possible moment is something to be
admired. After about ten minutes of waiting at the table, Jake finally
showed up.

"Hey, Cakers," I said, using my nickname for him, "took ya long enough,"
and I stood up and gave him a small hug.

"Yeah, well, the subway trains were running slowly as usual, buttface."
Jake always had the cleverest nicknames for me.

"And, as usual, you didn't plan for that."

"Nope."

I sighed. "Well, at least you got here before the other two, and they live
in the city!"  Just then Mandy and Jon walked in. "It's about time, guys. I
was just telling Jake that HE got here before you, and he still lives in
Queens!" I stood up and gave Jon a hug.

"Well you know how much we like to keep you waiting, Natey," Mandy said,
giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "And Natey," she continued,
looking me up and down, "you're getting to be too thin. You oughta be
eating more."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks, Mands. I know that you have that whole maternal
instinct and all, but you don't gotta do use it on me. Trust me, I'm not
anorexic, I'm just healthy and do a lot of exercising. It's not as if I'm
skin-and-bones, I've got plenty of muscle on me."

"Suuure, Natey," she said.

"And do you still have to call me Natey, I'm twenty-freakin-two!"

"But to me you'll always be that little kid who believed that ice cream was
poisonous only to him." When we were little kids, our mom would take us out
to ice cream once a week, and for months and months Mandy had me believing
that ice cream was poisonous to me and that she had to eat mine to protect
me, so I gladly gave her my ice cream and she gave me back the cone to
eat. I never said I was the smartest of kids, but what four- year-old
wouldn't believe their big sister?

"Yeah, yeah. I still haven't fully forgiven you for that, by the way."

"It's still funny as hell," Jon said.

"Eh, whatever," I said, but we were all laughing. We ordered, and then
started talking about various things happening in our lives, like Jon's new
job at a congressman's New York office (which was apparently pretty
interesting with all the proposals he was working on), Mandy's grad school
(for interior design), and which college Jake decided to go to (also NYU,
which I was pretty happy about). I made sure that I went last, after we
already had our food, so that we wouldn't have a repeat performance of the
constant interruptions that happened when I told Kyle and Kirsten about
Jesse.

"So, Nate, what's going on in your life?" Mandy asked.

I took a breath. Even though we're close, it could still be a little
difficult telling my siblings about my personal life. "Well, I met
someone," I said as casually as I could.

Immediately Mandy said, "Really, guy or girl?" which made all three of them
chuckle.  They like to tease that I could have a choice of either one.

I rolled my eyes. "Guy."

"What's his name?"

"Wellll...." I trailed off.

"C'mon, Nate," Jake said, "we're not gonna track him down and stalk him or
anything, unless of course he does anything to hurt you in any way. Then
we're gonna bring it WWE style." Jake likes to be protective of all of us
even though he's the youngest, but it's still cool of him.

"Thanks, not that that's ever gonna be necessary. So, his name's.Jesse
McCartney," I said quietly.

Jon didn't seem fazed at all and Jake looked as if they recognized the name
from somewhere (Jesse's not exactly there type of music), but Mandy looked
like her eyes were gonna pop out of her head. "You mean..." she said
loudly.

"Shhh, keep your voice down," I interrupted her.

"Sorry," she said a little more quietly. "You mean THE Jesse McCartney, the
singer/actor Jesse McCartney?" she asked.

"That'd be the one," I said.

"Ohh, I knew I recognized his name from somewhere," Jake told me.

"This is just a little to much to handle," Mandy said. I knew she'd be
excited about this.

"Hold on a minute, who's Jesse McCartney?" Jon asked.

"He's-this-singer-and-actor-that's-popular-with-the-younger-crowd-now-and-he's-really-
cute-and-really-talented-and-really-cool-and-just-really-really-awesome!"
Mandy said in one breath. I was starting to laugh at her cuz of how excited
she was getting.

"Okay, cool, Nate," Jon said, "how'd you meet?" So I told them the story,
and by the end of it Mandy was practically swooning.

"Awww, Nate, that's so romantic! Why doesn't stuff like that ever happen to
me?"

"Maybe because you get too overexcited to let them happen?" I replied, and
she stuck her tongue out at me.

"Well, Nate, that's really awesome. But you do know that we're gonna have
to meet him and grill him, right?" Jon said.

"Definitely," Jake agreed.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine, just promise me you'll go easy on him. I
really like him!"

"Well, we'll see what we can do, but once the floodgates are lifted, there
might be no stopping the flow," Jon told me.

"Well you'd better, otherwise you'll never meet him and we'll live out our
lives out in California or something."

"Oh, like you'd ever leave the city," Mandy said.

"To get away from these characters?" I said, gesturing to Jon and Jake. "I
just might," but I was grinning and totally giving myself away. We
continued talking about various things happening with our lives and with
various members of our extended family.

Eventually, I said, "Well guys, I gotta go. I got a test in a couple of
days that I gotta study for, plus a paper due pretty soon that I gotta get
started on."

"Okay, Nate, we'll see you later," Jon said.

"Yup, take care of yourself, buttface," Jake said.

"And you'd better let us meet Jesse soon! I can't wait to tell my friends
that my little brother is dating Jesse McCartney!!!" Mandy squealed.

That made me freeze. "No! That cannot happen, no breathing a word about
this to anyone," I told them with a very serious look on my face. "If word
gets out that Jesse's dating a guy, it could mean hell for his career, and
there is no way I'm going to let that happen. Okay?" I looked at each of
them for a second.

"Okay," they all said.

"Thanks, guys, I appreciate it. Oh, and don't tell Mom and Dad yet either,
I'll tell em when I'm ready to."

"'K, Natey," Mandy said, again making me roll my eyes. "See you later!"

"Yup, bbye!" And I walked out of the restaurant.

					* * *

When I saw Jesse a couple of days later he was looking really
excited. "What's up?" I asked over our cups of coffee that we were drinking
at a Starbucks.

"What, I didn't tell you? I've got a concert tomorrow night!"

"Really? I had no idea, that's awesome!"

"Yup, we decided to do it a few weeks ago. I always get really excited
before a concert, it's a real thrill."

"Very cool."

"Yup, for sure. Hey, you wanna come? I could get you pretty good seats and
backstage passes and everything!" He really was hyper. I couldn't help
smiling at him.

"Really? That'd be awesome!"

"Yupp." He seemed really happy that I was coming. "I'll have the stuff sent
over to you later today, ok?"

"Sure, sounds good!"

"Awesome. Michael and Katie are coming also, so you could sit with them."

"That'd be great, it's about time we hung out again!"

"I know! I guess that's what happens when you combine four people with
pretty busy schedules."

"Yeah, definitely." We talked about general stuff for the rest of the time,
and then we decided to go up to my place to `hang out' a little bit.

As soon as we closed the door we couldn't keep our hands off each other,
and we started making out pretty heatedly. We lay back onto the sofa, and
Jesse started running his hands through my hair (which I still neglected to
get cut), and I started rubbing mine into his strong back and firm
butt. Eventually I felt his tongue press gently against my lips, and I
parted them, allowing his tongue to roam my mouth and gently rub against
mine.

After a few minutes, Jesse murmured, "Mmm, this is awesome."

"Mmhmm," I mumbled into his mouth in agreement.

He pulled back and looked at me. "See, if I only came out, then we wouldn't
always have to come up here just so we could kiss or even just to hold
hands. It'd be so much easier."  He's mentioned this before.

"Yeah, but imagine what it'll do to your career. A huge part of your fan
base are girls who're `in love' with you. They may not be so into the fact
that you like guys, not to mention that you're actually dating one."

"So? Screw `em."

"But then you'd be screwing your career as well, and I won't let you do
that, even if it'd mean we'd be able to be more public with our
relationship."

He sighed. "Why do you always have to be the smart one?"

"Well someone's gotta, and it's pretty obvious that you're not gonna take
that role, blondie," I said with a smirk, making him lightly punch me in
the shoulder.

"Hey, I've got some brains. I just choose to think with my feelings
instead."

"Which is one of the things I really like about you," I said giving him a
kiss. We started kissing again, getting pretty heated, and basically forgot
the little argument ever happened, even though we both knew it'd come up
again.

				* * *

Jesse had to go to the concert pretty early the next day in order to warm
up and make sure that everything was okay, so that gave me time to make
some preparations for after the concert. I wanted to make a nice romantic
evening when we got back to my place, assuming Jesse was up for it. After
everything was set up, I got ready and went to meet Katie and Michael
around two hours before the concert so we could go hang out with Jesse
before hand.

"Hey, Nate!!" Katie exclaimed when I met her outside my building. "It's
been way too long since we've seen each other. All we've had to go by is
all the wonderful things Jesse's told us about you." This, of course, made
me blush.

"Yeah, I know! I guess we've all just been a bit busy," I replied. We gave
each other quick hugs, and then flagged down a cab.

"So, what've you guys been up to," I asked once we were all settled in.

"Not too much, just school and studying, all day, every day." Michael
replied. They were going to Columbia University.

"Yeah, I hear that. I can't wait until I graduate this June," I replied.

"Lucky," Kate said, "we've still got three and a half years in front of
us."

"Well, it's not as if I just started this year. I've already gone through
my share of college."

"Yeah, well, I guess you gotta point," Michael said.

"Yup, I always do," I replied, smiling.

"Man, you're almost as arrogant as Jesse!" Michael exclaimed.

"And now we know why you're so good together," Katie said, making me
chuckle.

"We're not arrogant, we just know that we're better than everyone
else. There's a difference," I told them, making us all laugh. "But nah, we
just have the same typa sense of humor."

"Yeah, and that's definitely a good thing to have when you're dating
someone," Katie said.

"Definitely," Michael agreed.

"So, I know that you both are Economics majors, right?" I said, and they
nodded their heads. "So do you know what you wanna go into with that?"

"Well, I'm thinking actuary," Michael said.

"Isn't that basically an accountant on steroids," I asked.

He laughed, "Yeah, in simple terms, I guess."

"So, how about you?" I asked Katie.

"I wanna be the next Alan Greenspan, basically," she replied. "Only cute
and female."

"Well you got the cute and female part down," I told her, making her laugh.

"Thanks, I guess the hard part's done then."

"For sure."

We started talking about general stuff in our lives, like our families
(Katie has 5 sisters and no brothers - the poor father, and Michael has a
brother and a sister), school (hard but enjoyable), and of course
Jesse. Apparently he was a bit of a klutz as a kid and kept on bumping into
things and knocking them over. One time, in `All My Children', he had to
redo a scene five times just because he kept knocking over a certain
vase. It was made out of plastic so it didn't break, but they eventually
had to write in a maid coming in to take out the vase so he wouldn't bump
into it anymore. Kate was at the set at the time, and she told the story so
well that I would have been rolling on the floor if the cab were any
bigger.

After a few more minutes we got to the club that Jesse was performing
in. Even though we got there two hours early, there was still a huge line
of extremely excited looking girls (and some guys), plus a bunch of not so
excited looking guys (and girls).

There was a pretty intimidating looking bouncer outside, but after we gave
our names to him and he confirmed we were on the VIP list (it just feels
good to be called a VIP), he made some small talk, pounded fists with each
of us, and let us right in with a smile. Just goes to show appearances can
be pretty deceiving. We went inside and looked the place over. It wasn't
too big; it couldn't hold more than 400 people, but still big enough to
make a good concert and it was a pretty cool looking place.

Jesse was standing on the stage looking around, apparently getting his feel
for it and the room. We got his attention, and he waved to us, jumped off
the stage, and walked over to us. "Hey guys, thanks for coming!"

"No prob, thanks for inviting us," I replied before the other two had a
chance to respond.

"Yeah, always a pleasure to be going to one of your concerts," Michael
said.

"Ditto," Katie agreed.

"I just realized," I said to Michael and Katie, "you guys must've gone to a
ton of these things."

"Yup," Jesse said before they could say anything, "they try to make it to
at least one of my concerts whenever I'm in or around New York, and
occasionally they'd go to one of the cities on my tour. I don't get how
they're not sick of me already."

"Oh, we are," Katie said, "we're just such good friends we wait to puke
when you're not around," making us all laugh.

"Thanks for letting me know, I'll try not to be so sappy tonight if it's so
hard on you."

"Oh, that would be great, thanks," Michael said dryly, and we all chuckled.

Just then a hassled looking woman came up to us and, totally ignoring me,
Katie and Michael, looked at Jesse and said, "Jesse, why aren't in the room
yet? We still have to clear with the band what order the songs are going to
be in, any changes you wanna make, any songs that you want to be done with
just the acoustic, which song you're going to be calling up one of the
girls from the audience for, and you still gotta do hair and make-up."
Before Jesse could even introduce us she was already off yelling at someone
else.

 Jesse sighed. "Well, guys," he said to us, "the job beckons. Feel free to
look around, and there's some food in the back that you could feel free to
help yourselves to. And you could come back to the room I'm using for my
dressing and hair/make-up room, it's through that door and down the hall,
on the left side," he said, pointing to a door to the right of the
stage. "Just wait a half hour or so while we deal with all the technical
issues," and he rolled his eyes in the direction of the woman who came
over, who was now practically ripping the head off of a third person. He
walked off towards the door, and us three stood around and watched everyone
there set up everything. We got some stuff to eat, and then later on hung
out with Jesse in his room, which wasn't anything fancy; just a make up
chair and some mirrors. There were some folding chairs also, which Katie
and Michael sat in, but I decided to sit on the arm of Jesse's chair, and
he put his arm around me.

"So, do you still get nervous before concerts?" I asked Jesse.

"Well," he said, "since this's the first concert you're at, I'm a bit more
nervous than I normally would be," he said, looking at me with a shy smile,
making me grin at him.

"Aww, don't be, just pretend I'm not there."

"Yeah, like that'll happen."

"Well you'll never know until you try," I said.

"Sure, I guess."

"So, do you normally get nervous before concerts now?" I asked, emphasizing
the word `normally'.

"Well, a little," he said with a chuckle. "But it's mostly excitement by
now. There's a huge rush from going out there to a huge crowd of screaming
fans."

"If you say so. I'd probably be terrified to do anything like that."

"Seriously?" Michael said. "I'd think someone that's as friendly as you
wouldn't mind doing stuff in public."

"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed. "You'd have to drag me out kicking and
screaming before I'd do something like that."

"It's true. He's not really into doing stuff in front of a big crowd. But
it's okay, I just think it makes him cuter," Jesse said while rubbing my
stomach.

"Yeah, but we wouldn't wanna do that. I doubt these people can take much
more of my cuteness," I said, gesturing to Michael and Katie. Katie gave us
a warming smile, while Michael stuck his finger into his mouth like he was
gonna be sick. The sheer contrast of the two of them made me crack
up. That, of course, made Katie turn around and, after seeing what he was
doing, give Michael a light punch in the shoulder.

"Sometimes I don't know how I put up with you," Katie said.

"Well, it must be because you're just the best girlfriend ever, and how
I'll never know how I landed you," Michael replied. "Just on your looks
alone I'm grateful, but when you add in the personality.all's I have to say
is wow."

"Ohhh.why do you have to be so damn charming," she said, and gave him a
quick kiss.

"Well, I had to develop some way to get out of these sticky situations,
didn't I," and he gave me a wink.

"So how'd you guys meet," I asked.

"Michael kicked a soccer ball at my gut," Katie answered.

"We were six," Michael said with a laugh, in response to my puzzled look.

"Ohhh, okay. Cuz otherwise, I doubt that'd qualify as a good way to land a
girl," I said, making them chuckle.

"Yeah, seriously," Michael said. "I keep on trying to convince her it was
Jesse, but it hasn't worked."

"Well being that I was facing you when you did it, I don't think it's a
very good lie."

"Whatever, you know I'm not exactly the best of liars. But that's good in a
relationship," Michael said to her, and then went back to me. "But yeah,
we've been friends since, and we started going out in like ninth grade."

"That's cool. So you've been going out for a while, then," I said.

"Yup. Our five year anniversary's actually coming up in a couple of weeks,"
Katie told me.

Michael looked up in what was obviously staged panic. "What?!? It is?
Uh-oh, um, anything you want to do for that?"

Katie again lightly punched him in the shoulder. "Shut up, I know you got
something planned," she said, and continued, "you'd better anyway," as she
turned back to us.

"You guys are great," I said with a laugh, making them smile at me. Just
then someone knocked on the door, and I had about half a second to get off
of Jesse's chair before the door burst open and a bunch of people came in
with make up bags and hair stuff, plus a ton of water and a large bowl.

"Sorry guys," one of them said to us, "but we gotta make Jesse look good
for the concert."

"Like there's any improvement on perfection," Jesse said with a grin. I of
course wanted to basically say the same thing, but held my tongue, knowing
it might not be such a good idea for me to be affectionate at all with
Jesse in front of these people. They just chuckled and started setting up
their stuff. "Okay guys, I guess I'll see you later. After the show you
could just come back here," Jesse said to us. We wished him luck, and went
to find our seats, which were center stage, four rows back.

The place was already three-quarters full, and there was still about a
half-hour before the show was scheduled to start. There was an air of
excitement in the air coming from all the girls there. It was in their
squeals of high-pitched chatter and in their constant glancing at
everything being done around the stage. Their excitement was contagious,
and I was already charged from being there.

We sat around, talking and looking around, taking everything in, until the
lights dimmed, and the stage went completely dark. Suddenly, we heard a
burst of sound from the band, and the stage erupted in lights, and Jesse
ran out, and began the opening lines to "Get Your Shine On," making all the
girls in the audience scream and sing along.

I couldn't believe how animated he was on stage. He's normally such a
chilled guy; I guess it was a bit of a shock to see him run and jump around
the stage, getting the entire audience fired up. He also sounded great, The
crowd, as well as I, started dancing to the beat and really got into the
music, or at least what you could hear over the hundreds of girls screaming
their heads off whenever he made a gesture in their general direction.

After that song was done he started talking to the audience a little,
shouting "WHAT'S UP NEW YORK?" getting a big response from the crowd. "So I
wasn't supposed to do a concert tonight, but as you probably know, I'm
working on my next album," getting another "WHOOOO" from the crowd, making
Jesse laugh. "So a few weeks ago I decided that I could use a little
inspiration, and I knew you guys were the perfect ones to turn to. Am I
right?" and then there was the loudest amount of noise yet. I practically
had to cover up my ears from all the yelling, which I was of course joining
in. Just then, Jesse looked straight at me and gave me a wink. I heard a
girl behind me gasp; she probably thought that he was winking at her. I
laughed, and winked back at him. Then he shouted, "MAKE SOME
NOOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIISE!!!!!" making everybody scream, and then he launched
into "She's No You".

He kept doing song after song; I couldn't believe his stamina. I could see
that he was sweating like crazy, but it didn't seem to slow him down. In
fact, he only got more and more energetic as the show went on. His voice
was really sweet for the slow songs, like "Stupid Things," and "Take Your
Sweet Time." Throughout the show he kept on glancing at me and giving me
winks and smiles, and my stomach filled with butterflies every time he did,
but he never looked at me for more than a second. I couldn't stop smiling
the entire time. Even when his voice was so soft and slow during the
ballads, making tears come to my eyes, I still had a little grin on. In
between each song he talked to the audience a little, saying something
either about how the song came about, about something the song reminded him
of, or about New York in general and how much he loved it (that always got
the biggest response from all the fans).

He called up a 12-year-old girl named Clara to the stage to sing a song to,
something he told me he does for every concert. She looked like she didn't
know if she should start crying or laughing, but she made it up to the
chair that was put on the stage for her. Jesse took her hand and started
singing "Why Is Love So Hard To Find," and Clara looked more and more like
she was gonna decide to cry, but she managed to keep her composure and grin
and wave to her friends. After the song was over, Jesse gave her a hug and
a kiss on the cheek, and she ran back to her screaming friends and joined
in, yelling at the top of her lungs, and finally breaking down and crying,
but with a huge smile on her face, and she grabbed her friends' cameras so
she could see the pictures.

Finally, Jesse got to the last song. The band went offstage, leaving just
the guitarist sitting on a stool with his acoustic guitar. There weren't
even any backup singers; it was just Jesse and the guitarist.  Jesse sat
down on a stool that was placed on the stage, closed his eyes, and the
guitarist started playing the opening notes to "Because You Live," but a
bit slower than I remember from his CD. It sounded great with just the
acoustic. Then Jesse took a breath and started singing, also slower than on
the CD.

"Staring out at the rain with a heavy heart It's the end of the world in my
mind Then your voice pulls me back like a wake up call I've been looking
for the answer Somewhere I couldn't see that it was right there But now I
know what I didn't know"

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he looked straight at me

"Because you live and breathe Because you make me believe in myself when
nobody else can help Because you live, Curls My world has twice as many
stars in the sky."

My eyes bugged out and my mouth dropped when I heard him use my
nickname. I'm sure most people didn't notice the change, but I couldn't
believe he did it. Tears started forming in my eyes. He didn't take his
eyes off me, and I didn't take mine of him. I'm sure every girl within 10
spots of me was sure that he was looking straight at them, but that just
helped to make sure that people didn't link the two of us.

"It's alright, I survived, I'm alive again Cuz of you, I made it through
every storm What is life, what's the use if you're killed inside I'm so
glad I found an angel Someone Who was there when all my hopes fell I wanna
fly, looking in your eyes

"Because you live and breathe Because you make me believe in myself when
nobody else can help Because you live, Curls My world has twice as many
stars in the sky Because you live, I live"

I saw his eyes begin to shine with tears, but he just blinked them away and
still kept his eyes locked on me.

"Because you live there's a reason why I carry on when I lose the fight I
want to give what you've given me always

"Because you live and breathe Because you make me believe in myself when
nobody else can help Because you live, Curls My world has twice as many
stars in the sky

"Because you live and breathe Because you make me believe in myself when
nobody else can help Because you live, Curls My world has everything I need
to survive"

He stretched his hand straight at me, and sang the last verse of the
song. "Because you live, I live, I live."

The entire place erupted in noise, easily the loudest cheer of the
night. He kept looking into my eyes for another second, then looked around
at the audience as if he forgot they were there. "Thanks," he shouted to
them. "You guys were awesome, have a great night!"  and he ran off the
stage. Michael and Katie were looking at me, smiling.

"That was awesome," I said, trying to avoid the reason they had grins
locked on their faces.

"Yeah, it was definitely one of his better concerts," Michael said.

"Yeah, for sure." Katie agreed. "And I think I know why," she continued,
winking at me.

I blushed, but didn't say anything. I couldn't even think of anything, I
was still a bit blown away by how that song made me feel. We followed
everyone down the row towards the aisle, but instead of heading towards the
back once we got there, we turned toward the stage and headed backstage
with our passes. We went to Jesse's dressing room, knocked, and went
in. After a quick glance around to make sure there was no one else in the
room, I flew into Jesse's arms, covering him with tender kisses. We kept
kissing for about thirty or so more seconds, and then we heard Michael
clear his throat. I guess we forgot they were there.

"Sorry, guys," Jesse told them. I still ignored them a little though. Not
on purpose, I was just too focused on Jesse.

"Jesse, that was just awesome," I said. "I'm just speechless, I can't
believe how great that was."

"Thanks," he said sheepishly.

"And, just.wow, I can't believe you used `Curls.' I'm just...speechless!"

"Yeah, well, you've been so great to me these past two weeks. I guess I
just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you and everything, and
how much I've gotten to care about you. I know it hasn't been that long,
but it's just been really, really great, I can't even imagine how life was
before I met you."

"Awww," I said, and gave him a hug and lifted him up slightly, bringing his
face close to mine. "I feel the same way," and gave him a kiss.

"AWWW" Katie said, bringing us back to reality. "This is so great, isn't it
great, Michael." I looked up to see them looking at us with huge smiles and
their arms around each other's shoulders.

"Yup, I'm really happy for you guys."

I decided that we should put off our own little celebration, and sat down
in Jesse's chair, pulled him down to my lap, and turned to Michael and
Katie so we could discuss the concert.

"That was seriously one of your best concerts that we've been to, Jesse, if
not the best," Katie said.

"Thanks," he replied. "I think you had a little something to do with that,"
he continued, elbowing me slightly in the ribs.

"Oh really, now," I said.

"Yup. But also the fans out there were great, I really feed off them for
the amount of strength I show onstage, and tonight they were great."

"Yeah, if my near-deafness right now is an adequate measure, then I'd say
this was definitely a good night."

"Yeah," he said, laughing.

"So what you have planned now?" Jesse asked Katie and Michael.

Katie spoke before Michael had a chance to answer. "We were planning on
getting a little dinner for two and then back to our place."

"We were?" Michael asked.

"Yes," she said and gave him a look.

"Ohhhh," he answered, finally realizing what she was getting at. "Yeah,
we're doing that." I found their little dynamic very funny, but I was
grateful that they were giving Jesse and me the night to ourselves.

"What do you have planned?" Michael asked.

I answered before Jesse could say a word. "Oh, it's gonna be a surprise."

"Oh really now," Jesse said, turning towards me.

"Yupp," I answered with a sly look.

We continued chatting for a bit, and then we decided to head out. A few
people came over to talk to Jesse about various plans for the CD and
publicity things, and then we got outside, where there was a huge crowd of
people waiting for Jesse to get his autograph and take pictures. Michael,
Katie, and I waited off to the side while he went over to just about every
one of the people there, and there must have been like a hundred, so it
took a while, but I was glad he did it. It just showed what a great guy he
is.

When he finally got done, the four of us headed out, and got two separate
taxies, and parted for the night. Jesse and I headed to my apartment. I
held his hand below the view of the driver, and occasionally rubbed his
thigh, looking forward to the rest of the night.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Well guys, sorry about the long wait. I've really been trying to get the
chapters out quicker, but I guess life just gets in the way. I was thinking
of starting to put out smaller chapters, with less time in between each
one. Not as much would happen in them, but they'd be out sooner. Let me
know what you think about that.

Also, I want to hear what you guys think of the story. Your feedback really
helps me out, and motivates me to write more. I love hearing what you guys
think, so keep it up!  As always, you can reach me at
JesseandNate@Gmail.com or on AIM at the screenname JesseandNate. Thanks for
reading!