Justin had his album. Joey had Rent. Lance had Russia. That was all the fans needed. No one cared what JC and Chris did. Which was fine with them. Chris was dealing with the fact that he now had a failed clothing business and JC had to come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t what the public wanted right now, musically anyways. He had burned the letter from Jive saying that they could only offer one solo record per boy band. So what Justin could get P. Diddy and Timbaland and Pharell. Fuck that, he had BT and they were on they were on the edge of what was gonna happen next in the music world. Who the hell was The Clipse anyways? Did they really listen to “Space Cowboy” or “Game Over”?

In the beginning, Lance was the only one who had something planned to do over the break. Justin couldn’t handle the fact that someone else would have the spotlight besides him, so he put in his bid for his album. Joey got Rent because Kelly was about to take him to court for more child support money. He figured the last thing he needed was publicity for not paying child support, but really wasn’t she already getting enough?

Once the other three guys had gone to their respective hiatus projects, Chris and JC were left to hang out with one another. At first it was kind of weird because JC was the solo guy and Chris was used to hanging out with Justin who was just as loud and hyper and rambunctious as he was. JC liked things quiet and not so loud. But too much quiet wasn’t cool and JC was about to drive himself crazy with the lack of human contact. So he called Chris.

“Hello?” Chris answered the phone

“Chris, are you as bored as I am?” JC asked.

“No. I’m beyond bored. I’m watching Food TV actually trying to go along with Rachel Ray and her 30-minute meals. Please Jace, save me.”

“I’ll stop to pick up some Thai, then I’m on my way. Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“Put down the spatula. And don’t burn down your house. I’ll be there in less than twenty.”

“Please, hurry.” Chris pleaded and hung up the phone.

JC was at Chris’ house in record time. He had called in the order and it was ready by the time he got there. JC hit all the green lights and sped most of the way there and thanked the police god that he didn’t get pulled over. He let himself in and found Chris attempting to clean up the mess he made. There were carrot parts and potato skins everywhere. He smelled steak but didn’t see anything except for that charcoaled brick that would resemble a steak.

“Ok Chris, I’m here put whatever it is down. Slowly back away from the stove.” JC ordered. Chris turned and almost broke out into a run and went to hug JC. Chris hugged him so tight that he made an “oof” sound. “Well, I’m glad to see you too Chris.”

“You don’t understand man. I thought I was going crazy. I mean it just looked so easy. Usually Justin’s here and we just make fun of the Rachel Ray girl, but I’ve always wondered if I could really make one of her meals.”

“Yes, well I am here now. You're knight with shining Styrofoam.”

They sat down on the couch and JC took control of the remote, making sure that there would be no Food TV. It was Monday night so JC insisted they watched 7^th Heaven. Chris made fun of him for a solid fifteen minutes, but once he got into it, Chris was a little teary eyed at the end of the show. After the show, they went to Sonic for ice cream. When they got back to the house Chris and JC settled down for nighttime reruns. They watched Leno, then Conan, then Last Call with Carson and the last part of The Late Late Show. Surprisingly, by the time the band was performing, Chris was softly snoring on JC’s shoulder. JC got up and wrote Chris a note saying that he would send his cleaning lady over in the morning and he’d come over tomorrow night and they could do it all over again.

And so it went. Chris never attempted to make anything Rachel Ray did again. Instead he and JC would go for take out. They would watch whatever show was on that JC wanted to see, go for some dessert, come back and watch late night television. Sometimes JC would stay the night on the couch with Chris and other times he would go home.

It’s not that Chris and JC didn’t know each other well. They knew as much as you could know about someone who you pretty much lived with 10 out of 12 months of the year. But JC didn’t know Chris as well as say, JC knew Joey and definitely not as well Chris knew Justin. But these nights brought them closer together. They would make up stupid getting to know you games. They would talk about what they would be doing if it weren’t for the break or if it there was no *NSYNC at all.          

One night they were watching Seinfeld and it was the one where Jerry was a friend with the girl and they wondered why they never had a fling. Jerry chalked it up to the fact that they never had an awkward pause. This causes them to have an awkward pause and the end up sleeping together.

“That’s such bullshit,” JC said at the commercial break.

“What is?” Chris asked.

“That whole awkward pause shit. Like we’ve all had awkward pauses. Remember when Lance first joined the group. We were already like brothers and we didn’t know anything about him. His whole first couple weeks here were an awkward pause. That never made me want to sleep with him.”

“Uh huh, I see. So what if we had an awkward pause. Would you sleep with me?”

“Well…”

And that was it. That was all Chris needed to make his move. He moved in for the kiss. JC was stunned a little. He thought it was just another one of Chris’ stunts. But when Chris moved to slip him some tongue, he thought what the hell and went with it. That night they had sex once on the couch, once in the hallway on the way to the bedroom, and once actually on the bed. That was one of the nights that JC spent the night.

***

When JC woke up the next morning, Chris wasn’t in the bed. He didn’t hear the shower going so he went to look for him downstairs. There was no sign of Chris. He went back upstairs and found a note on one of the nightstands.

C,

I had to run to Miami for the day.
I should be back by tonight.
I’ll call you,

Chris.

JC couldn’t remember Chris saying anything about going to Miami for any reason. He just about started to cry because Chris had to go all the way to Miami to avoid the morning after awkwardness. He figured if anyone would know what was going on, it would be Justin. So JC called him.

 “Talk to me dirty,” Justin answered.

“J.”

“C.”

“J.”

“C.”

“OK, Justin. Seriously. I need to talk to you.”

“Tell me all your problems, my friend.”

“Chris and I slept together last night.” JC could hear Justin choke and start coughing.

“Say what?”

“We slept together, you know had sex. The horizontal whatever. When two guys are caught up in the heat of the-”

“Yeah, I know what it means, C. Just. You and Chris? That’s too weird. That punk didn’t even call and tell me.”

“That would be kissing and telling. That’s your rule man.”

“I know, but still. Anyways. What’s up I know you didn’t just call to rub it in or whatever. Something’s wrong. I can tell. Tell Daddy J what happened.”

“He wasn’t here when I woke up.”

“Did he go and get breakfast? Aww how cute.”

“No, asshole. He’s not here. I went downstairs and when I came back up I saw a note from him saying that he had gone to Miami. Do you think I was that horrible that he had to go all the way to Miami to be sure to avoid me?”

“Calm down man. You’re not that bad. I’ve slept with you. Remember that? You’re pretty good. Let’s see, why would Chris go to Miami and leave you high and dry?” Justin was quiet for a full minute before and explanation came to mind. “OH! I know why. He’s thinking about buying a house there. I think maybe he had a meeting with a realtor or something.”

“Why do you think he didn’t tell me?”

“Cause he’s Chris man, he’s a spazz. Really, he’s almost as bad as you. Come to think of it. I’m not sure why you two never hooked up before.”

“Ok, well. Thanks I guess. Anyways. If he calls you, please don’t mention that I kinda freaked.”

“Sure thing my brother from another mother.”

“I swear, you're on crack. Talk to you later J.”

“Bye, C.”

JC hung up the phone and wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or angry, because hello! Why didn’t Chris tell him? JC could have helped him look for something. Didn’t Chris trust JC’s opinion? Maybe Justin was right. Maybe Chris just completely forgot. JC would be sure to bring it up when Chris came back later that night. JC mentally kicked himself in the ass for being such a girl.

Chris is usually good about calling when he says he will and JC was surprised when he didn’t call that night. Or the next night. JC was about to call the police when Chris showed up in his living room three days after they had slept together.

“Hey,” Chris said nonchalantly. JC had just returned from Publix, frozen dinners and ice cream in tote. “What did you get?”

“Don’t ‘hey what did you get’ me. I am so mad at you.”

“What? Why? What did I do?”

JC went to put the two plastic bags down on the counter in the kitchen, and Chris followed him. “Dude, don’t be dumb. Why the hell didn’t you call? I was so worried. I was this close to calling the cops.” JC held up his thumb and index finger about a millimeter apart to demonstrate. “I was really worried about you.”

“Jace, when did you turn into a girl? Calm down ok? I’m all right. I wore clean underwear the whole time in case something happened.” Chris moved closer to JC and licked his neck. “Come on. Don’t be mad. I thought of you the whole time I was there. I missed you. I know you missed my fine Kirkpatrick ass.”

JC let out a laugh and said, “Yeah, well you know. I couldn’t resist.”

They started making out and almost had sex on the kitchen table, but JC said no because he had to eat there. They made it all the way to the couch and couldn’t take the wait anymore. So they had sex right there on JC’s living room couch.

  “Are you still mad?” Chris asked when they were finished and had caught their breath. Chris was practically on top of JC. It was nice though; it was their own way of cuddling.

  “No. Just, next time tell me ok? I was more worried than anything.”      

“Scouts honor. Hey, can I tell you something?”

  “Shoot.”

Chris took a deep breath. “Well, it’s not so much just telling you something as it is a confession.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend or something do you?”

“No. Nothing like that. Shh and let me tell you. I thought about this a lot while I was gone. I’ve kinda had a little crush on you since the beginning of the year. Not like I hang pictures up of you on my wall or write Chris Chasez or anything. Just. I dunno. I know you're freaking out, but it freaks me out too because I’ve known you forever man. So. There. That’s my big confession.”

  “You’re such a goofball you know? Like why couldn’t you just tell me that? Am I that scary?”

“No I guess not.”

“So, tell me about this house you were looking for.”      

“Well, I think I found it. It’s pretty big. It’s in a gated community, it has a pool, four bedrooms, an office. Although I don’t know why I’d need one now that FuMan has gone under. Anyways, it’s close to where J. Lo has her house, so that’s kind of exciting.”

“Why only four bedrooms? Why not five like everybody else?” 

“I don’t know, I’m probably jumping the gun, but maybe we could share.”

“We could.” JC said with a smile.