Torn Hearts 8 by Destiny Chris knocked and JC hung back. Joey pulled the door open and JC gasped at the disheveled appearance standing before him. The once gentle and playful brown eyes his friend owned were now dull and bloodshot. A dirty white tee shirt hung loosely on his body and sweats dangled off hips that seemed much smaller. “What the FUCK do you two want?” Joey barked. Chris snarled and shoved his way inside the unkempt house. “We’re having a little talk Joe. A little talk about N Sync and us and why you’re being such a fucking prick.” JC trailed in, pausing to pick up an empty whiskey bottle. “Joey, what are you doing man?” He waved the bottle at his friend -- a man he realized he barely knew  anymore. “Why’re you doing this to yourself? To us?” Joey’s eyes narrowed and he scratched his stomach absently. “Me? Why am I doing this? Jesus, C, they got you too? Come on.” He moved out of the foyer and into the kitchen where he prepared another drink. Chris and JC followed him closely, exchanging determined glances. They knew that things had progressed to a dangerous level for three of them -- for three brothers who were now struggling with life. “This could be our demise you understand.” Joey said simply. He moved out of the kitchen to the game room where he toyed with a bright red billiards ball. “N Sync. Friendship. All of it.” JC wanted to jump across the table, rip the alcoholic drink from Joey’s hand and hurl it across the room. He ached to sober Joey up and push him into a time where the five of them were blood -- a time when there was simply nothing they wouldn’t do for one another. Times had changed, JC thought, as he snorted bitterly. And for the worse. “What’s that mean?” Chris wanted to know. “I mean it, Joe. What the FUCK does that mean? Demise.” His brown eyes were nearly black as he stared intently at Joey. “Talk because I’m sick of this shit. I’m sick as hell over this whole thing. I’m not going to take it. I started this group, goddammit, and I’ll be damned if you’re gonna take it down.” “So like you,” Joey sniffed as he sipped his drink thoughtfully. “This ain’t about you Chris. It’s got fuck all to do with you. It doesn’t concern FuMan or your precious girlfriend. It doesn’t concern anything other than the fact N Sync could be gone.” He paused dramatically. “You’ll live.” JC watched as Chris lurched himself across the room. He barely made it to Joey before Chris, snatching his shirt between his fingers and tugging him backward. “Chris, no,” he warned. But when Joey laughed -- things changed. “Alright, Joey. We gave you the chance, man. We gave you one moment in time to explain your objection to Lance and Justin being together. One chance that’s gone. We’ll have a group meeting now and decide your fate.”  JC choked up as the last of his words exited his mouth. Finality. It didn’t seem possible to even consider removing one of them. But Joey left little choice. Chris was stunned as well. He pulled away from JC with wide eyes, yanking his tee shirt down. “C, man, what? You can’t...” “Fuck if I can’t,” JC spat heatedly. He glanced at Joey, who had an unreadable expression on -- a distant and numb face that was unfamiliar. This man was not the Joey he’d come to love -- to count on. Joey looked away. Chris dropped his shoulders. JC lifted his chin. “Tomorrow morning. Chris and I will go see Lance and Justin and discuss your future. Until then, think about it, Joe.” JC crossed the room in one long stride. He wanted Joey to see the pain hidden behind his gaze. He begged silently that Joey would sense how badly this was killing him -- how speaking such words cut like a knife. And once the decision was made in the morning, it would be irreversible. JC thought he saw a flicker of that old Joey emerge for an instant. But then the ice returned -- and Joey took a long sip of his drink. “Fine. I’ll call my lawyer.” Joey wobbled around and stormed out to the deck. JC and Chris stared after him at a loss for words. This was insanity. “I have to give this one more try,” Chris said softly. “One more, JC. I can’t leave this.” JC shrugged, sure that no matter what was said, Joey was closing himself off from them all. He stormed from the house, deciding it would be better to wait in the car while Chris gave it a go. Chris watched JC go, and knew that it was not something easily said for him. Nor was it easy to continue on with Joey. But, Jesus, the group gone? For what? Chris couldn’t comprehend Joey giving this up on account of Justin and Lance loving each other. This was *not* the Joey he’d loved all these years. So when he let himself follow Joey to the deck, his heart slammed against his ribs. He honestly didn’t know what the fuck to say, what to do. Only that so much was riding on the walls Joey had set up for himself. “What do you want?” Joey growled, spinning around to face Chris. “I just want to know what’s going on, man.” Chris dared inch closer, to stare into the eyes of a despondent man -- friend.  “You love Lance and Justin, like brothers, Joe. I’ve been there. I’ve fucking seen you comfort them when they’re upset, or try everything to make them laugh when they’re sad.” He rocked back on his heels, squinting into the sun that blasted into his eyes as he watched Joey’s face soften a bit. “Jesus, remember when we were in Europe? Remember that night Justin and Lance both had their moms leave for home? And they were so happy at first, jumping around like lunatics?” Chris stared at Joey as he nodded, obviously recalling the exact moment. “Remember what happened after the show that night? When we went back to the hotel and Justin curled in a little ball on the bed, and Lance was all teary eyed trying not to cry because he was homesick? Do you remember coming to me and JC as we were getting ready to go out?” Joey rubbed his hand over his beard and sighed, letting himself take another drink. Chris gulped, needing to drive the memory home. “You remember how you begged us, pleaded with us not to go out? To stay in with them? To unify as a group and how JC and I complained because we wanted to go out and relax? Do you fucking remember what you told us that night Joey?” He watched with anxious eyes as Joey slammed the rest of his drink, scrunching his face as the liquid burned it’s way downward. The silence seemed to edge on forever. “I said that if you and JC didn’t have enough compassion and understanding of what they were going though,  that this group was never gonna make it.” Chris reached out to touch Joey’s shoulder. “To stand united, right? That is was just going to be the five of us against the world. That no one was going to be able to comprehend our lives like we all could.” Chris sighed into the words as he let himself transport back to that time, when they were so bonded, so strong. “I did say that, yes,” Joey said, shrugging Chris’ hand from his body. “I said that when we were a brotherhood that didn’t lie, or cover shit up. Now! Now it’s tainted. It’s no fucking good, Chris.” He threw his glass over the deck railing, and the shatter echoed through the air. “They hid this. They put our careers in jeopardy by fucking each other. By loving each other.” Joey’s fists clenched in anger, and Chris stepped back, unsure where Joey would take this verbal explosion. “What if they break up, Chris? Hmm? What if they decide that they don’t really want this, or what if the media finds out? What if fans know? We’re all going down my man. All fucking five of us. Not just them!” Chris was at a loss for words, taking in Joey’s trepidation and honest fear. Questions they all had, panic's he was sure Justin and Lance had dealt with while keeping their relationship quiet since the VMA’s. “We all feel like that, Joe. Shit! Even they felt scared but we gotta stick by them, protect each other.” Chris growled because he could not get this across to him. It was like running head first into a steel wall. “Jesus! God! Joey! These are our little brothers man. Our fucking blood! How can you turn your back on them? How can you put them under this stress? HOW?” Joey shook his head and gritted his teeth, his eyes taking on that solid glower again. “Get out, man. Just fucking go.” And Chris did, because he no longer trusted himself to control his temper and not slam Joey into the wall. “Fine,” he grumbled. “Fine.” He stormed from the house and caught JC’s hopeful glance. It broke his heart to shake his head at JC, to let him know that he’d failed with Joey. And he’d been so sure that the one pure memory would jostle him from the hateful funk he was in. “Well?” JC asked hopefully. Chris shook his head in disgust, jerking the car door open and sliding in. “How can he turn his back on them?” JC slid behind the wheel, quite aware that Chris was in no shape to drive. “I have no idea, man. None.” <<< MENU   >>>