Mchapter26

Lance emerged from the bathroom minutes later, and Josh went in so he could change too. Lance went into Josh's bedroom and looked around. It was going to be his bedroom. He was moving in with Josh. 'Wow,' he thought, 'this is going to be great.'

Josh returned from the bathroom and wrapped his arms around Lance's waist from behind. They stood together in the middle of the room in silence until Josh spoke up. "Whatcha thinking about, Lance?" he asked curiously.

"About living here," Lance answered, sighing.

"Are you having second thoughts about it?" Josh questioned, praying that the answer was negative.

"No, of course not Josh," Lance replied, turning in Josh's arms. He kissed Josh slowly. "I can't wait to move in. I was just thinking about how wonderful it will be," he said, smiling.

Josh smiled back. "I can't wait either, baby."

"So," Lance started, not sure what else to say.

"Are you ready for bed? Or do you want to watch something?" he asked, motioning to the TV that was in front of the bed.

"Bed," Lance replied. "I'm really tired."

"Ok, come on then," Josh responded, leading Lance over to the bed. He noticed Lance hesitating a little and asked, "hey, are you sure you're ready?"

"Yeah," Lance assured him, "it's just a little awkward, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Josh said, pulling back the covers and climbing in. "Come're, Lance."

Lance obeyed, climbing in after Josh and pulling the covers up once they were settled. Josh turned so he was facing Lance and smiled to himself. Lance noticed Josh's happy smile and couldn't help but ask, "what are you so happy about, Josh?"

"You," Josh stated simply.

"Oh," Lance replied, his smile growing.

Josh reached up, running his fingers through Lance's hair. "So soft," he whispered.

Lance just smiled back at his boyfriend. He had thought that it would be awkward to sleep with Josh, but he was actually very comfortable and relaxed.

"Can I hold you?" Josh whispered shyly.

"Of course," Lance replied, giving Josh a sweet kiss on the lips before rolling over so his back was to Josh. He scooted backwards until he hit Josh's hard body. He sighed at the warmth he felt there. Josh put his arm around Lance, and they both feel into a deep sleep.

****

Leah decided to sleep over at Justin's so she wouldn't risk finding Josh and Lance 'together' at home. Justin seemed fine with it, although he may still have been a little nervous.

"Do you want to sleep in my bed with me? Or I could just sleep on the floor," Justin asked when they were discussing her sleeping over.

"With you is good, unless you'd be uncomfortable," Leah told him.

"No, I like sleeping with you. I sleep a lot better with you there," Justin admitted quietly.

"I do too, baby," Leah replied, smiling.

Justin's stomach growled, and they both giggled. "You hungry?" he asked.

"Yeah," she agreed, "really hungry, actually."

"We skipped dinner," Justin stated.

"Yeah," Leah replied. "Well, whatcha got that we could eat?"

"Um, I don't know. Let's go see. We could always order pizza or something. Mom left me some money for dinner since I'm poor," Justin told her.

"Cool," was all Leah said as they went into the kitchen.

They soon realized that there wasn't much to eat, so they decided to order pizza. While they waited, Justin put in a movie, and they watched it, cuddling closely.

When their pizza arrived, they dug in hungrily, not saying much since their mouths were full most of the time. Leah finally spoke when she was on her third piece. "Hey Justin?"

"Yeah?" he replied before taking another bite.

"Can I ask you something personal?" Leah asked.

"Since when do you ask if you can?" Justin teased, his eyes sparkling.

"Yeah, but this is a little different," Leah told him.

His eyes lost the sparkle and he looked away for a moment. "You want to know about the song, right? What those girls did to me?" he asked, his voice sounding awfully sad.

"Well, yeah. But, Justin, if you don't want to, or if it hurts too much, that's ok," Leah assured him. "Just tell me, and we can talk about something else."

"No, it's all right. I knew we'd have to talk about this sometime,� Justin replied, putting down his pizza.

�Why don�t we wait until we�re done eating,� Leah suggested.

�Ok,� Justin agreed, picking up his pizza again. They finished eating in silence and then cleaned up before going back into the living room. Justin sat down on the couch and Leah sat sideways next to him so she was facing him.

�So you know I moved here from Tennessee when I was ten,� Justin started, and Leah nodded. �I was the shy new kid at our school, and I didn�t have many friends. So one day when I was sitting in the cafeteria, this big group of girls came over and sat with me. They started talking to me, asking where I was from.�

�Stacey and here gang, right?� Leah asked, remembering seeing them always huddled around Justin.

�Yeah,� Justin confirmed. �They all flirted with me, and I didn�t really like it, but they were the only friends I had. So when Stacey asked me out in eighth grade, I said yes. I wanted people to like me, and dating her made that happen. All the jocks liked me since I was dating a cheerleader. It made me feel good to have friends. I didn�t realize how shallow they all were.�

�Justin-� Leah started, but he stopped her.

�Wait, let me finish,� he said. �So I was dating Stacey, and she was my first girlfriend. She was kind of, well, a slut, so she was already way more experienced than me, and we were only 14. She tried to pressure me into doing things that I didn�t want to do with her, so I tried to break up with her. But she threatened to tell everyone and told me I wouldn�t have any more friends. I knew she was right, so I let her do things to me.�

�Oh, Justin,� Leah said, taking his hand in hers.

�There was this one time, when she invited all �our� friends over. There were even a few people I didn�t know. She was acting kind of weird, and I wondered why, but I didn�t say anything. Later that night, they all surrounded me and tied me up. Stacey told me they all wanted a piece of me. She made fun of me when I started crying, telling them to stop. They touched me all over, Leah, and I hated it. And when one was done, another would step in. There were at least twenty of them. I felt like such a weak loser, being attacked and touched by all those girls. But there was nothing I could do,� Justin explained sadly.

�Justin, I�m so sorry. If I had known,� Leah replied, feeling so horrible that she hadn�t become friends with Justin, hadn�t tried.

�No, don�t apologize, Leah. It�s not your fault. And you�re helping me to trust again. Stacey just wanted me for my body. And so did all her friends. When I broke up with her, I had no friends, just like she�d told me. Then, random girls would come up to me in school and hit on me, try to get me to go over to their houses and fool around. That�s why I had such a hard time opening up to you. That�s why I get so damn nervous about anything sexual, and being alone with girls,� Justin told her.

�I hope you know, Justin, that I would�ve been there for you, been your friend if I hadn�t been so damn shy. I didn�t have many friends either, and Stacey hated me. I knew that if you were friends with her, she wouldn�t let me near you. So I stayed back and watched you. You looked happy most of the time, but sometimes I could see something in your eyes. It looked like anger, hurt. But I thought then that I was just seeing things,� Leah explained, pulling Justin closer to her.

�I wish our parents had introduced us a long time ago, Leah,� Justin said.

�Me too,� Leah replied, burying her face in his neck as they both cried silent tears. And it was healing for both of them.