Whirlpool
by Karen and LB
© 2002
It had been a while since they'd had more than a day off- -truly off, with no obligations, no whirlwind trips to Orlando or New York for family or business obligations. They'd also realized that it had been too long since they'd spent any downtime together. Just the five of them, with no family or friends or hangers-on. When Justin said he had a friend who had a vacation home at an easy distance that they could borrow, it was decided. They packed up the SUVs and drove to the middle of nowhere.
The stars are bright when they finally settle into the hottub out back, just five friends engaged in easy, familiar conversation. Until Joey decides to read the magazine.
"Ooo, look--five secrets of Justin Timberlake!" he squeals.
They all laugh, all except Justin. "There's more than five," Justin grumbles.
"Where'd you get that, anyway?" Chris asks.
"It was in the john," replies Joey. "Where else?"
"Figures."
"Hey, nice pin-up," Joey displays it to the group.
"Give me that." Justin tries to grab the magazine, but Joey holds it out of reach.
"Hey, you'll rip it. I wanna hang it up in my room." Joey turns the page. "Hey, a quiz--Who's Your Celebrity Match?"
"I already got mine, and I'm keepin' her," Justin declares.
"Maybe she's not The One for you. Let's let the quiz decide."
"Oh, yeah," Justin mutters. "I'm going to let my future mate be decided by a quiz in Bop."
"I'm sure it's very scientific," Joey replies. "Everyone in?" They all roll their eyes, but in the end, with a little more persuasion from Joey and a lot more eye rolling from everyone they agree. Joey hauls himself out of the hottub and gets paper and pens for everyone.
"Hey, Joe, grab me a Mike's--I have a feeling I'm gonna need it," Lance groans.
Joey returns with drinks, pens, and paper and settles back in. "Okay, first question: Your perfect date consists of (a) dinner and a movie, (b) a sunset walk on the beach, (c) a wild night of clubbing, (d) a poetry reading at the local coffeehouse. Poetry reading? Whatever."
Lance considers the question, then writes down his answer. He watches the faces of the others as they too write down their answers.
"Number 2. It's your honey's birthday," Joey intones. "Do you plan (a) a huge party with everyone you both have ever met, (b) an intimate gathering of really close friends, (c) a night out at a romantic restaurant, (d) you cook."
This one's easy. Lance loves doing birthdays for his friends, so he quickly scribbles his answer, again peeking to see how the other guys are reacting. At first, they all joke around, but by the last question each guy is so focused the only sound is the gurgling of the water.
"Okay, class, pencils down,"orders Joey. "Now, let's see how to score this thing."
"Man, you're really into this," Chris exclaims.
"This could decide your future, my friend."
"My future's not gonna be decided by some stupid quiz," Lance chimes in.
"We'll see about that, dude. Okay, let's have 'em. Give me your answers." They all run down the list, and Joey tallies them up. "We'll start with Justin."
"Hey, I know who MY celebrity crush is. And she's in LA right now."
"You think? Let's see . . . you scored a 27. Congratulations, Justin."
"See? I told you."
"Your perfect match is . . . Justin Timberlake."
"What? Let me see that!" Justin makes a grab for the magazine.
"Careful, you'll tear it!" Joey yells, but he's laughing along with the rest of the guys.
"Britney's gonna be jea-lous," Chris sings.
"Shut up," Justin grumbles. "Let's see who YOU end up with."
"Yeah, Chris. What's your score?" teases JC.
"32." Joey examines the magazine and suddenly roars with laughter. It's a moment before he can even speak, then he finally manages to gasp out, "Aaron Carter."
Lance almost falls in the water, he's laughing so hard.
Chris just blinks and stares from face to face. "What's so funny?" Then they all break out in fits of laughter again. "Hey, he's cute. A little young for me, but cute."
"That's sick, Chris, even for you," Lance gasps when he can finally breathe again.
"He'll be legal in like 10 years," comments Joey.
Chris barks, "Hey, let's see who YOU ended up with, Mr. Quiz- Show host."
"Hmmm, I got a 10. 10? Uh oh, I got Kid Rock. Now THERE'S a man." He begins undulating in the water, his gut bobbing against the current.
Lance can't take anymore. He's laughing so hard his stomach hurts.
JC practically submerges, but finally subsides into giggles. "Man, you're killing us here!"
"Wait, it gets even better. Want to hear your results, C?"
"Yeah. Who do I get to spend the rest of my life with?" JC chuckles.
"He's sitting across from you."
JC raises his eyes to meet Lance's surprised gaze. "Oh, um, gee . . . "
"Now THAT'S a perfect match," Justin declares.
Lance feels his face redden. "Who's mine?"
"Who do you think?" Joey says with a leer. "You're looking at him."
Lance looks across the hottub at JC and tries not to sink. "So where you taking me on our big date?" he asks, attempting to make light of the situation.
"Lance and JC sitting in the hottub . . . ," sings Justin.
"Giving each other a big ol' backrub . . . ," joins Chris.
"Um, gee, I don't know, Lance. But I know who WON'T be coming along," JC says, splashing both Justin and Chris.
"Hey!" Justin splashes back, and soon they're all engaged in a water fight.
"At least I won't be playing with MYSELF," Lance teases, sending a wave over to Justin.
"No, you'll be playing with JC!" Justin fires back, kicking his feet.
"Aren't you taking Bop magazine a tad bit seriously, Just?" JC asks, dunking Justin.
"Bop knows all!" Justin shouts when he emerges.
"I know I'm getting out of this hottub with all this splashing," decides Joey.
"Yeah," Chris agrees. "We should leave these two alone anyway."
_It's a good thing it's dark out_, JC thinks, as he feels himself redden.
"Yeah, I have a date with MYSELF tonight. But first, I think I'll call my REAL celebrity match," announces Justin, as he too climbs out of the tub. "But you guys stay. Enjoy. We won't bother you," he snickers, as he heads into the house.
Joey claps Lance on the shoulder. "Be good."
"But . . . wait . . . ," Lance says.
"No no, we wouldn't want to spoil the romance," Chris calls over his shoulder as he follows the others inside the house.
Lance chuckles nervously as the quiet night surrounds them.
"They can be so annoying," JC says conversationally. "So mature."
"Aw, they didn't mean anything by it." Yet Lance does wonder why it's just the two of them left in this hottub.
"Could be worse, I guess," JC says, picking up the discarded magazine. "We could have gotten lucky like Chris or Joey." He glances at the list of names "Or we could have been matched up with, um . . . oh, EW, Eminem!"
"Now THERE'S my man!" Lance exclaims, reaching for his neglected drink.
"Nah, you're too good for him," JC says, then looks down, suddenly very much fascinated with the magazine in front of him.
Lance takes a long gulp of his drink. He's just kidding around, he reminds himself. "So who's good enough for me?"
JC hesitates, then says, "According to Bop, me."
Lance throws his head back and laughs. "Are you?" Then he turns his fiery yellow-green eyes on his friend.
"I, um, I guess that's up to you."
Still thinking it's a game, Lance stretches his arms out over the edge of the small pool. "That depends. If I wasn't a celebrity, would you be so nice to me?"
"Ouch."
"Well, if someone's gonna be my match I have got to know if they really love me."
"So you think I only love you for your money and your fame?"
Lance shrugs. "What else would you love me for?" Okay, so this is starting to get a little weird. But now Lance is curious to see how far this will go.
"Oh, I don't know. You're kinda cute and stuff like that."
"Looks like Joey's not the only one reading those magazines. Cute and stuff?"
"I didn't get that out of a magazine."
Lance lifts his bottle to his mouth again but stops mid-sip. "You're kidding, right?"
"Do you want me to be?"
Suddenly, this doesn't feel like a game anymore. Lance removes his arms from the rim of the tub and sinks lower into the water, so only his head is visible. "I don't know," he mumbles into the bubbles around him.
"I, um, I think I need another drink. Want anything?"
Lance drains the last of his Mike's. "Yeah." He gestures with the bottle, glad JC made the move. It's hot enough in this tub, but now it's getting even hotter and Lance doesn't understand why.
JC climbs out of the tub and reaches for Lance's bottle. Their hands touch, and it sends a shiver up JC's spine that he blames on the cool air. As he walks to the refrigerator, he asks himself why the silly quiz is getting to him. And is distressed when the only answer that comes to him is that it confirmed what he's been trying to deny to himself for years--that he's attracted to his bandmate. He considers slipping away, not returning to the tub. But he carries the drinks back, more eagerly than he would like to admit.
Lance is anxious to drink more of the cold, tart liquid, and he smiles up at JC when his friend returns with the drinks. This time when he looks at JC, however, he sees something different. Something that's maybe always been there but that Lance hasn't wanted to see. He's sexy. He's sexy in those wet, clingy shorts and . . . WHAT am I thinking? Lance quickly pops the cap off his bottle and takes a swig. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." JC slips back into the warm, bubbling water. He leans his head back and looks up at the night sky, the stars. The view, the cool air, the water jetting around him, the drink all combine to give the night a strange, dreamlike quality. But nothing makes it feel stranger, more dreamlike than the boy sitting just feet away from him. The silence spins out until JC feels like neither of them will ever speak again. Almost. When he finally speaks, it's so quietly that he's not even sure Lance will be able to hear him over the churning water. "Lance . . . have you ever, um, thought of me that way?"
Lance almost knocks his drink into the tub. "What way?"
"You know. Look, it's hard enough to ask. Don't make me spell it out."
"You're not serious."
"I guess I have my answer."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to. It's okay. No big deal."
"Okay. I mean, it was just a silly quiz, right?"
"Yeah, sure." JC resumes his study of the stars.
"Hypothetically speaking, what if it's not?"
JC's head straightens up from its resting place. "Um, hypothetically speaking, I'd want to see if reality lived up to the quiz."
"How?"
"I--how come I'm answering all the hard questions?--I don't know, what do people do when they want to find out if someone could be . . . their match? Maybe spend time together? Go out on a date? See if the chemistry is there?"
"Are you saying you want to go out on a date with me? Hypothetically speaking, of course."
JC sends a gentle wave across the tub at Lance. "I'm not answering any more questions if you're not gonna answer any."
Lance splashes back. "So ask me something."
"I did. You didn't answer."
"About the date?"
"Are you doing this deliberately?"
"Doing what? Okay, so I lost track. Go on, ask me anything."
JC looks up at the sky again. "I asked you if you had ever thought of me . . . that way. And if you answer that with another damned question, I'm getting up and going in the house."
"Okay, okay. I'll answer." But he doesn't. Not for a few minutes, while he chews nervously on his nails. "Doesn- -oops, question. Well, I wouldn't be human if I didn't at least notice what you look like. And how you sound. And how . . . oh my goodness." But it's too late to take back.
"How . . . how what?"
"Nothing. Forget it. Maybe I should just . . . " Lance points to the house but doesn't move.
"I don't want to forget it and I don't think you do either."
He doesn't. He can't. He's frozen. In the middle of this 100 degree hottub Lance is paralyzed. How did this conversation turn from a big joke to something way more serious than a Bop quiz? "No."
"So if I, um, came over there, you wouldn't, like, drown me?"
No amount of booze could quench the dryness in Lance's throat right now. He just shakes his head.
JC picks up his drink and makes his way around the tub until he's sitting next to Lance. "What if I did this?" JC reaches under the water and takes Lance's hand.
Lance knows he should pull back, knows he should get away as fast as possible, but he doesn't. At first, he does flinch. This is not at all what he expected. But he LIKES it. Very much. Quietly, he asks, "JC, what are you doing?"
"Checking on that chemistry thing. Seems to be going pretty well to me." JC smiles and adds teasingly, "What did you think I was going to do when I came over here? Ravage you?"
"Maybe." Lance swallows. Hard. "Maybe that wouldn't suck."
"Gee, you really know how to play hard to get, don't you?" JC teases, squeezing Lance's hand. "And here I am being a gentleman."
"Is that what I'm doing? Sorry. I guess I . . . this is . . . oh my goodness."
"Lance. We're staying in this beautiful house, sitting in this great hottub. There's nothing for miles around but trees and stars. With the help of a silly quiz, we might be starting on something special. Relax, dude. Look at the stars with me."
"Okay. Stars." Lance turns his eyes up to the sky, but his heart is pounding wildly and it's not the heat from the hottub against his face. It's the proximity of his friend, his bandmate, his crush.
JC lets his head fall back again and he lets all the sensations he's experiencing take him--the pulsing water, the contrast of the cool air and the warm water, the beauty of the night, even the sharp scent of chlorine in the water. And the hand held firmly in his.
Lance tries to relax--normally a soak in a hottub practically puts him to sleep. But he can't. Not with JC just inches away. He turns his head toward his friend and watches. The stars reflecting off his blue-gray eyes. The slight breeze blowing back his long hair. And still, he doesn't let go of the hand.
JC resists for as long as he can, but finally turns his head to meet Lance's gaze. Smiling, he whispers, "What are you looking at?"
"The stars."
"They're up there," JC says with a nod in the general direction of the sky.
Lance shakes his head. "They're right here," he whispers, looking directly into JC's twinkling eyes.
"Oh. Oh! That's . . . wow."
Lance looks away, quickly, embarrassed.
"Sorry," he mumbles.
j"No, no. That was nice. I liked it. A lot."
"No, it was stupid. I shouldn't be saying stuff like that."
"We're sitting here holding hands, and you're worried about one little compliment?"
"Maybe we shouldn't be sitting here holding hands." But Lance still doesn't let go. JC's hand feels so good. Different from the way he's held it during shows.
"Maybe I should put my arm around you, instead." And, releasing Lance's hand, JC does just that.
It's not just Lance's heart that's pounding now. His head is swimming and his whole body is on fire. Lance is terrified to look at JC, terrified of what he'll see in those smoky eyes.
"Hey," JC says soothingly. "It's just me."
"I know. That's what scares me."
"I scare you?"
"This scares me. What we're doing."
"We don't HAVE to do anything, Lance. If you don't want to."
"Do you want to?"
"I...I think there could really BE something here. I'd like to see if there is. If you do."
"So you don't think the quiz was a joke?"
"The quiz was a joke, but how I feel isn't."
"How do you feel? Right now."
JC tilts his head until it's touching Lance's. "I feel . . . happy. Relieved that something that I've been denying for years is out there."
Lance can feel JC's hot breath on his face mixing with his own sweat, sending a chill up his spine. "For years? You mean, you've felt this way for years? About me?"
"Yeah. I just . . . I didn't think you'd be . . . I didn't want to mess things up."
Their heads still touching, their mouths inches apart, Lance says quietly, "Me neither."
"You too? Maybe that quiz wasn't so silly after all."
"It's crazy--it picked US."
"Doesn't sound crazy to me."
"How did it know? How do YOU know?"
"I don't know how IT knew. How I know is because I've never felt so right holding another person."
"What about Bobbie?"
"It never felt like this with Bobbie."
"You mean you feel like you're gonna throw up?"
"Where did THAT come from?"
Lance smiles for the first time since JC came to sit next to him. "Just that I can't exactly compete with that."
"Compete with what? Throwing up?"
"No, dork." Lance stops laughing. "Compete with Bobbie."
"Oh. That. There's really no competition there."
"I can't believe we're even talking about this."
"You know how long I've waited to talk about this?"
"Why didn't you?"
"I thought you'd run in the opposite direction."
"I'm not running now."
"You're not even treading water."
"You're holding me up."
"Keep it up and I'll dunk you."
"No, you couldn't."
"Try me."
"You won't. You're a wuss."
"You asked for it." In one quick move Lance is swept off his seat and dumped into the bubbling water.
Lance flails for purchase, but JC has pushed him to the center of the tub, which is deeper and in the middle of the churning water. He manages to grab JC's arm pulling him in.
JC grabs at Lance with both hands, so when they break the surface, they're practically wrapped around each other. As they regain their feet, JC leans in and kisses Lance, lightly but lingeringly.
Lance's arms are in the air when they emerge, and when JC kisses him he's so taken by surprise that he doesn't move. He can barely breathe--not because of the underwater tussle, but because the kiss is so magical he can't believe anything could feel this good. When they break, his eyes are wide and his voice catches in his throat, so all he can manage is, "Wow."
"Yeah. Wow," JC replies, smiling. "Still think the quiz was off- base?"
Lance shakes his head. "No way. It was right on."
"We're going to have to be very nice to Bop Magazine from now on."
Lance's smile fades. "Does this mean we have to double date with Joey and Kid Rock?"
"Not THAT nice."