He watched the clocked as it click over to 2:00 am. They had been held hostage and forced to sit in silence on the floor for 4? 5? Hours now� He didn�t even really know. He had to hold back a laugh at that concept. Of course he didn�t know, why would he? He was to busy being worried for his and his friends lives to worry what time it was� what was he suppose to do� again he had to swallow a sarcastic laugh as the image entered his mind. �Oh my God! Huge mean looking men with lots of weapons have just forced their way into our house and are planning on holding us hostage! Quick what�s the time?!��
Joey looked over to the men and noticed that one of them was looking at him, and he seemed kind of angry� Almost as if he could tell what Joey was thinking. �Geez� I hope I didn�t say that out loud�� he thought to himself �Nah they would have said Shut up or hit me by now if I had.�
Joey had long given up trying to strain and hear what these men were saying. He had had minimal luck in hearing them anyway, and what little words or phrases he had heard he certainly didn�t like the way they sounded. He had however been able to hear names being used other than his or the other guys, unfortunately since the men had never technically introduced themselves as to what they could be called and the fact that they never seemed to be directing anything specifically to one person, Joey couldn�t really be sure which name belonged to which man. So he was forced to continue identifying the men by their features or personalities. First there was the obvious leader of the group. He did most of the talking to him and the guys; the other five just sort of ignored them. As for the rest, the was only one who was wearing glasses, another who had a tattoo visible on the lower half of his left arm, another had green eyes, much like that of Lance�s but Joey was almost certain they were contact lenses, another man for some reason seemed to be missing most of his front teeth, Joey might have found that slightly amusing if it were under any other circumstances but right now it just seemed to make the man that more scary, and finally was obviously smaller than the rest but just a built and strong.
Joey sighed to himself at the apparent hopelessness of the whole situation. Even if they were able to over power one or all of these men physically they could never go against the seemingly endless supply of guns and weapons these men had in their possession. �You think they were robbing Fort Knox or something.� Joey thought to himself.
He shifted himself so he was facing away from the men and was now turned towards his friends. The fact of the matter is that even though he was afraid, his butt was numb and he was getting rather bored. But then again sitting on the cold floor for 4 hours not allowed to talk could do that to anyone.
Joey looked up to his friends trying to assess their appearance. First he looked towards where Lance and Chris sat close to each other. They had been brought back after their phone call some time ago, and by the looks on their faces something had happened and it wasn�t good. Lance�s eyes had been wide open with fear being the very prominent emotion in them. His face had been drained of all colour, with the exception of the visible tearstains that had been running down his face. He had been shaking so hard that Joey could see it and he was clutching protectively at his stomach like it was hurting him. Now Lance had seemed to get some of the colour back in his face and the shaking had seemed to stop, but he was still clutching at his stomach and was obviously scared. Chris when he had come back had looked pretty much the same way Lance had. Now he was staring into space lost in his own little world of thoughts. Joey wished he knew what had happened so he could help them, but it was impossible without being caught talking and risking their lives. With another sigh Joey looked over towards where JC and Justin were sitting. JC had managed to get Justin to lie down an hour early, so he was now lying down with his head in JC�s lap. Justin had managed to curl himself into the smallest ball he could get his body to contort to. Joey looked a little closer at Justin�s face and could tell that the young man had fallen asleep. While Joey was happy that Justin had managed to get to sleep, part of him was just a little jealous he couldn�t do the same. They were all tired but Joey was worried of what might happen while he was sleeping and what he would wake up to� if he would wake up� Joey looked at JC, who was leaning against the front of the couch looking down at Justin�s sleeping form. He was running his hand across Justin�s forehead and through his hair as if to further comfort and reassure the sleeping man. But as if he felt Joey�s stare he lifted his head up and made eye contact. JC gave Joey a weak smile which Joey readily returned, even though neither had any real reason to smile� A soft whimpering noise was heard from Justin causing JC to quickly turn his attention back to him.
Joey looked back towards the clock� 2:30am� �Damn time is going by way to slowly�� in an attempt to keep himself awake he started searching around the room for anything that might help them out of this mess. He hadn�t looked around before, but he was unsure any of the other guys had, but in any event it wouldn�t hurt for him to do it anyway�
He started off looking around the far areas of the room, there was most likely no chance they could get to anything he might find, but it would be could to know just in case they did. However with the exception of maybe the baseball bat by the door, Joey couldn�t see anything. He started to look around at the things that were closer to them, and just when it appeared to look hopeless, he saw it� A cell phone!
It was just on the table a few feet away from him. He couldn�t help but wonder how the men hadn�t seen it� better yet how they didn�t think of it or see it� Since all the guys had similar phones he couldn�t tell whose phone it was until he got it in his hands and looked at the directory, but right now it didn�t matter. If only he could get to it and then get the opportunity to use it� It wasn�t that far away� he would only have to move a little bit to get to it, it was just a matter if he would get caught or not� but he had to try it.
He looked over where the men had been standing and saw that only three were in the room right now and they had their back to them. �Perfect� taking a deep breath Joey shifted so that he was on his knees and looked over to his friends finding three shocked and confused faces looking at him. He motioned towards the table, and watched as they looked over at it. All of the sudden the confusion in the faced turned to small smiles as they spotted what he was going after. They nodded their heads and look over at the men, as did Joey. Noticing nothing had changed he started to slowly and quietly move towards the cell phone reaching it in only a few movements. He carefully picked it up, but as soon as he did he heard noises from the other room, signifying that the other men were returning. Joey quickly slid the phone in his pocket and moved back to his original spot settling down just as the men entered the room eyeing their captives.
When they kept moving, Joey let out a sigh of relief that he didn�t get caught; now he had to get a chance to use it. Taking another deep breath he raised his hand like in kinder garden unsure of what else to do and waited till one of the men saw him, he didn�t have to wait long.
�What do you want?� one of the men growled at him
�Do you think I could go use the bathroom?�
Silence
�Alright, but if you�re not back in 10 minutes we will hurt one of your friends.�
Joey gulped in an attempt to clear the lump in his throat but quickly nodded and stood up heading towards the washroom winking at his friends. He was relieve that one of the men wouldn�t be following them� �They really aren�t very bright� Joey chuckled to himself.
Once he was in the bathroom with the door securely locked he pulled the phone out of his pocket searching through the directory for the number he wanted. �Lance.� Joy smiled to himself �I should have known. That boy just can�t be without his cell phone or computer. I�ll have to remember to thank him for that once we are out of this mess.� He found the number and quickly dialed it waiting for the person to pick up.
�Hello?�
�Johnny! Thank God!�
�Joey?�
�Yeah it�s me�
�Oh my god are you ok? How are you calling me?�
�I managed to get Lance�s cell phone and they let me go to the washroom. I only have like 8 minutes before I have to go back so we have to be quick.�
Joey proceeded to fill Johnny in on everything he knew and answer his questions, including the ones Chris couldn�t have answered earlier. Looking at his watch he saw he had only 2 minutes left to get back.�
�Johnny I have to go, hopefully we will be able to get in touch again.�
�Ok Joe. We are working on getting you guys out of there so you guys don�t try anything stupid.�
Turning off the phone Joey looked around the washroom for a place he could hide it. He quickly concealed in amongst the towels in the closet and quickly headed back to the living room.
�Cutting it a little close aren�t we?� the leader said looking at Joey �Check to make sure he didn�t go and grab anything he can use.� One of the men stepped forward to search Joey and was satisfied when he found nothing.
�He�s got nothing on him boss.�
�Ok, you sit back down with your friends.�
Joey did as he was told looking at the three faces that were again showing confusion as to what Joey did with the cell phone and if he got hold of anyone. He gave his friends a small thumbs up concealing it from the view of the men and then mouthed the words �towels� to tell them were the phone was in case any of them got the opportunity to use it. Settling back into silence, Joey couldn�t help but hope that this would now be all over very soon�