"Come on," Nick said as he put his hand on Justin's back gently ushering Justin past the kitchen and through a door that lead into the dining room. "Have a seat."

Justin whole body shivered when he felt Nick's hand on his back. Taking a seat next to Nick Justin asked, "So, where's Brian?"

Nick took in a deep breath as he got comfortable in his seat. "Um, he had to go to choir practice and won't be home till later." He looked at his mom who was in the kitchen balancing dishes in her hands. "You need any help mom?"

Jane shook her head. "No honey everything's done," Jane said as she walked into the dining room and placed the dishes in front of them.

"Hmm," Justin said as he got a whiff of the dishes. "Something sure smells good."

Jane smiled. "Thank you," she said as she walked back into the kitchen and brought out cans of soda and glasses. "Is Sprite and Coke alright?"

"Just fine mom," Nick said taking the glass and can of Sprite from his mom while Justin took a glass and a can of coke.

"Thanks. What are we having?" Justin questioned.

"Well look for yourself," Jane responded as she removed the lids from the dishes causing for all the steam to come out.

"Awesome," Nick said with a big smile on his face. "Haven't had these since I went camping with the boy scouts." Nick chuckled.

"You were in the boy scouts?" Justin questioned. "For some reason I'm not as shocked as I should be."

Nick pouted. "What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Justin said as he watched Jane put together a sloppyjoe sandwich. He felt his stomach grumble and blushed when Nick and Jane looked at him. "I'm hungry and this looks absolutely delicious."

Jane chuckled as she placed the sandwich on Justin's plate and did the same for Nick before making one for herself and settling down. "So Justin," Jane said as a few minutes passed by. "How do you like Xavier and New York City so far?"

Justin swallowed before he answered Jane. "At first Xavier was a bit tough but now," Justin said giving Nick a quick glance before looking over at Jane. "It's getting better. As for New York City, I haven't had much of a chance to go sight-seeing or anything like that."

"Oh, Nick, you should take Justin to Rockefellar Center or to Central Park for ice skating or something," Jane said looking at Nick. "Show him around and whatnot. You and Brian."

"Definitely," Nick said beaming. "You'll love New York City in winter time, it's awesome." He took another bite of his sandwich as a bit of the sloppyjoe fell onto his plate. "You know except for the cold weather and all."

Justin laughed. "Sure, I would love that."

"What are you and your parents doing next weekend, Justin?" Jane questioned.

Justin put on a thoughtful look on his face. "Nothing, as far as I know. I think my dad's gotta work during the day. He gets off work at around six or seven but other than that, nothing. Why?"

"Well, we got tickets to go see The Phantom of The Opera and we have about three extra ones," Jane said. "Just wondering if by chance you all would like to join us."

"Yah, that would be cool. Brian's coming too," Nick said as he took another bite of his sandwich and washed down with his soda.

"I think I'll call my mom right now and let her know that way we can find out if my dad can get the day off or at least get off from work early," Justin said as he took his cell phone out and called his mom.

Jane nodded and she noticed the rainbow colored threads on Justin's wrist. She raised her eyebrow and looked at Nick with question marks practically floating around her head.

Nick looked from Justin over to his mom who was looking at him with a confused expression on her face. He watched as her eyes darted to Justin's wrist and back to him again. Nick nodded his head understanding just what his mom was asking him before shrugging his shoulders.

Jane smiled. She didn't have a problem with homosexuality and Justin seemed to be a really well mannered, disciplined young man. And she was happy that she had raised her kids to be open minded about these things.

Nick smiled, happy to see that his mom didn't have a problem with it and he knew that his dad wouldn't since one of his dad's co-workers and a good friend was also gay.

Both Nick and Jane continued to eat their sandwiches as Justin talked on the phone with his mother, that was until Justin cleared his throat and handed the phone over to Jane.

"My mom wants to talk to you," Justin said with a smile.

Jane nodded her head and took the cell phone from Justin before conversing with his mother.

This time both teens finished their sandwiches and their sodas and waited patiently for Jane to finish the call. They didn't have to wait long. A few seconds later Jane handed the phone back to Justin with a smile on her face. "We will be picking you all up around 7:30 P.M. The show doesn't start until 8:00 and it's not that far away, so we'll have enough time to get there and get seated. Plus, we'll also be going out to Olive Garden after the show."

Justin looked at Nick and then at Jane. "Really?" He asked with wide eyes and excitement dripping from his voice.

Nick chuckled along with his mom. "Yes, sweety. Your mom said that your father would be home around five that day and they would have enough time to get ready for the show."

"Cool," Justin exclaimed, excited now.

"You wanna go play rok?" Nick questioned as he got up and picked up the empty plates in front of his mom, Justin, and himself before heading into the kitchen and placing them in the sink.

"What's rok?" Justin questioned wrinkling his forehead.

Jane chuckled. "Rok is another name for a basketball," she answered rolling her eyes. "Personally, I think it's really dumb. I mean, how could you bounce a rock? Come on seriously?"

Justin laughed. He watched as Nick finished washing the dishes and walked over to his mom, putting his arms around her and kissing her on the cheek. "Don't go there mom, not again." Jane laughed even more. She had already had this conversation with Brian and Nick, quiet a few times.

"Okay, okay," Jane said before shooing the teens away. "You two go play some ROK!"

Justin and Nick laughed as they walked back out into the entry hall way before Nick stopped at the closet to pick up his basket ball. "Come on, let's go get our game on," Nick said opening the door and heading out into the hallway.

"You're mom's great," Justin said joining Nick at the elevator.

Nick smiled. "That, she is."

A few minutes later they got out of the elevator on the first floor. Instead of turning to the left, where they would be at the sitting area with the security guard, they turned to their right and walked down to the end of the hall where two big burgundy colored doors were. Opening the doors they both walked into an empty basket ball court.

Justin whistled as he looked around. "Nice."

"You've been saying that a lot, today," Nick said as he passed the ball to Justin.

Catching the ball Justin said, "I can't help it. This is a nice building." Justin passed the ball back to Nick.

"First to twenty-one wins?" Nick questioned as he got under the net while Justin stood at the shooting line.

Justin nodded his head and as Nick passed the ball to him he took off dribbling it to score the point but he found it rather difficult with Nick being such a good blocker. He did a fake left but Nick caught on that. He did a half turn to maybe try and cut Nick off but Nick was a step ahead of him. He turned around so that his back was facing Nick but with the way Nick's arms were by his sides, waving, he knew he didn't have a chance. Sighing he decided to just run away from Nick and score that way. And he wasn't surprised that as the ball was soaring towards the net that Nick caught the ball mid air and made the shot.

Justin stood there glaring at Nick for a few seconds before giving up on the pseudo-act. "That was totally awesome," Justin said as he walked over to Nick with a big smile on his face.

Nick wrinkled his nose and handed the ball to Justin. "It was okay, I guess. You should play Brian. Now, HE is good. Hence his nick name, B-Rok. B for Brian and Rok for basketball."

"Ohh," Justin said as he passed the ball to Nick who took off dribbling the ball faking left's and right's and then finally shooting the ball over Justin's head... and scoring. Justin frowned. "Dude..." he whined.

Nick laughed. "What?"

Justin stuck his tongue out at Nick. "Okay, I'm getting in my game zone now." Justin took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to get his body to relax and his mind to concentrate.

Nick watched Justin with an amused expression on his face but didn't say anything. As soon as Justin was done getting in the 'zone' he passed the ball to Justin and watched as Justin dribbled the ball and going as far as getting really close to the net to make a jump shot. Damn, Nick said before shaking himself out of the daze and quickly jumping up and stopping the ball.

They continued to play ball for the next half hour or so, the game, surprisingly, tied. 16-16. Of course that was because Nick let Justin win those rounds, but shhh, Nick didn't want Justin to know that part. Catching their breaths Justin and Nick walked over to the bleachers and sat down.

"Be right back," Nick said as he jogged over to a room that was all the way at the other end of the court before returning with a two bottles of Poland Spring. "Here you go," Nick said handing Justin a bottle.

"Thanks," Justin said before opening it and downing half of the bottle. "A dollar right?" He questioned between breaths.

Nick shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

They sat in silence for a few minutes trying to catch their breaths and relax a bit.

"Thanks," Justin said quietly.

"For what? For the water? Don't worry about it, I already said that," Nick said looking over at Justin.

"No, well, yes that but also for asking me to hang out with you today. I'm having fun," Justin responded rather shyly and blushed.

"Why wouldn't I? I mean, your a really cool guy, Justin," Nick said nudging Justin's shoulder with his own, smiling. After a few more seconds he asked, "About what we were talking about last time..." Nick trailed off.

"Yeah," Justin said as he ran his hand through his hair. "That..."

"Um, you wanna talk about it or you wanna just play ball and do that some other time, or something?" Nick said feeling shy all of a sudden.

Justin looked at Nick. "We can talk about it now, I'm fine either way," Justin said shrugging his shoulders and when Nick silently looked at him, Justin continued. "Well, okay. Um, well... I was thirteen when I finally figured out that I was more attracted to boys than I was to girls, heck I liked boys than I did girls. So, one night I asked my mom what she thought about homosexuality and what her take on it was. She said she didn't have a problem with it because in God's eyes everyone was equal and that we all are, no matter what, are his children, ya know? That and who was she to judge or hate someone when those people are loved by God? After she told me that I told her that I've been attracted to boys for quiet some time and I asked her if her opinion on homosexuality changed. She just smiled at me, as if she knew, ya know, and then she hugged me and kissed me on my forehead and was all like...'Justin, sweetheart. I love you no matter what. You are my son and I'm your mother. We're in this together and I'm going to support you all the way.' Then I asked her what would my dad say, my real biological father, because at that time he and my mom were still married. To make things short, she didn't say anything and I knew that I should keep this from my dad but down the long run my dad kinda figured out what was going on and started having fights with my mom, all because of me. Well, needless to say, my parents got a divorce three years ago and my mom started dating Paul and just before this summer they got married. And here I am."

Nick listened quietly as Justin told him what happened and his heart went out to him. Without thinking about it he placed the basketball between his feet and threw an arm around Justin, pulling his close. "Well, from what I can tell you're happy now with this arrangement with your mom and dad, uh, step-dad," Nick corrected, "I can tell that they love you, no matter what, right?"

Justin sighed when he felt Nick's arm on his shoulder. The scent of Nick hitting his senses and he couldn't help but melt into the touch. "Yeah, and you're right. I AM happy. Paul is like a totally awesome father I couldn't have asked for anyone better. He liked me from the start and we get along great. How about your parents, are they cool with the idea of homosexuality?"