They were somewhere over Tennessee, high in the air, clouds blocking their view of the ground, clear blue sky stretched out before them. They were on a flight to Detroit that would connect them over to La Guardia where they would then drive the rest of the way to the house.
That morning had been chaotic to say the least, JC was late even though he had already been packed. As usual it took Chris three times of calling him and then a glass of ice cold water to drag him out of bed. Joey was up and his jovial self despite the earliness. Justin was grumpy until he had his scheduled two bowls of cereal and Lance�s ear was glued to his cell phone the minute he woke up until Joey threatened to flush it down the toilet.
Now here they were, thirty thousand miles in the air on the way to their much anticipated vacation. JC was reclined in his seat, an itchy airplane blanket thrown haphazardly over his lanky body; his head perched against the window, soft snores escaping his mouth every once in awhile. Chris and Lance sat in the same aisle as him, both taping softly at their laptops. Chris was surfing the net, looking up different haunted sites, downloading any and every helpful hint it would take to find the ghosts he planned on looking for. Lance was working on some spreadsheet for yet another one of his many projects. Joey and Justin were seated in front of them, battling each other on their connected Game Boy advances. It was some racing game and by the sounds of it, Justin was losing. Badly. And he wasn�t taking it very well. Joey was proudly boasting how he was kicking Justin�s ass, only adding more fuel to Justin�s anger and frustration.
Lance sighed and took his glasses off, rubbing his eyes wearily. He shut his laptop down and leaned back in his seat, shifting to find a more comfortable position. He opened his left eye slightly and looked at Chris. He leaned over and whispered as to not wake up his friend�s slumber, �Hey, Chris, whatcha doin�?�
�Surfin� the net, trying to find a list of how to know if a place is haunted or not,� Chris replied.
Lance sighed and rolled his eyes. �You cannot be serious about this ghost hunting shit.�
�It�s not shit and yes, I�m serious.�
Lance just rolled his eyes and decided to be quiet rather than argue with Chris. When Chris became infatuated with something, he believed strongly in it and would argue until he either convinced the other person he was right and they shut up or they were just too tired of arguing with him and they shut up anyways. Either way, Chris always won verbal arguments.
~*~
�Fuck, Joe! Quit doin� that!� screeched Justin.
Joey chuckled and pressed his thumb faster on the �A� button and made his car swerve sideways, pushing Justin�s car into the side of the bridge they were racing on.
�Joey!!� whined Justin. �Stoppit!�
�Nuh uh, man,� replied Joey, giggling. He made his car do it again causing Justin to growl with frustration. �It�s no fun without having you whine like a baby.�
Justin pouted and mumbled, �I�m not a baby.�
Joey shook his head and looked at Justin out of the corner of his eye, spotting the pout set upon the younger man�s full lips. �Then why are you pouting, Curly? Can�t stand to come to terms that you SUCK!�
The next thing Justin knew, Joey�s car side swiped him and caused him to run into an oncoming semi. His little blue card burst into flames and the words �Game Over� flashed across his screen. He cried out and elbowed Joey roughly. �You fucker! You made me lose!�
Joey went to reply when a stewardess came over and tapped Justin lightly on the shoulder. He turned with a wide grin plastered across his face, expecting a fan only to see an upset stewardess glaring at him. His grin quickly fell from his face when he saw her glaring at him. �Um, hi, is something wrong?�
�Of course something�s wrong,� she replied curtly. �You�ve been extremely loud for the past few minutes, disturbing a number of passengers. I know who you are so please don�t expect me to treat you any differently than anyone else so I�m warning you now, keep your voice down and try to keep the obscenities to a minimum.�
Justin grinned sheepishly. �I�m real sorry, Miss�uh�� he peered closer at her nametag �Miss Angela, I didn�t realize how loud I was. I�ll quiet down.�
�Well, you better because you don�t want me to come back up here and quiet you down myself,� she replied coolly before walking off.
�Oooooooo, she got you there, Curly,� teased Joey.
�Fu- shut up, Joe,� replied Justin.
Joey snickered and shook his head. �You excited about the trip?�
Justin cracked his hands and went through the start up process of a new round of racing. He shrugged. �I dunno, man. I mean, it�s weird that we�re going to New England for a vacation. You�d think we�d go somewhere tropical or�exciting.�
�This is Chris we�re talking about, Jup. He�s weird and crazy and it�s only natural that he�d choose somewhere wild and totally unexpected like this,� explained Joey.
They sat in silence, with the exception of Justin�s soft outbursts, playing their game. When Justin lost for the fourth time in a row he promptly turned the game device off, unhooked it from Joey�s, and stuffed it into his backpack. He crossed his arms and scowled. Joey just laughed and changed the game to something else and began playing by himself.
Justin pouted and brooded for a few minutes before he got bored. He unbuckled his seatbelt and turned around and knelt in his seat. He rested his head on the top of the seat and whispered, �Chris, whatcha doin?�
�Reaserchin�, came the soft reply.
�Damn, I wanted to borrow your laptop.�
�You can use mine,� piped in Lance.
�Really?�
�Yeah, just don�t fuck with any of my business stuff and you can use it,� replied Lance. He leaned down and pulled the laptop out of his shoulder satchel and handed it over.
�Don�t worry, Lansten. I wont show anyone your porn,� snickered Justin as he turned around and sat back down in his seat.
Lance kicked the back of Justin�s seat and growled, �Fucker.�
JC jumped at the noise, flinging the blanket off, and his head cracked with the bottom of the overhead baggage storage in his haste to get up. He grabbed his head in pain and grumbled, �Ow, dammit.� He rubbed the sore spot on his head gingerly. �Fuck, that hurt.�
Chris giggled and looked over at JC. �You okay?�
�Yeah, just, my head. Ow.�
~*~
An hour later they landed in the Detroit International Airport. They all gathered their stuff and trudged off of the plane. JC had a headache from his mishap and was extremely grumpy. Chris was oddly quiet with his research and never once tried to prank any of the guys while on the plane. Lance was his usual quiet self, either reading a book or just listening to his headphones. Justin was bored out of his mind and whining about when they�d get there while Joey was his regular happy go lucky self, flirting with the stewardess who had yelled at Justin earlier in the flight.
As they all walked into the terminal, they pulled their hats low over their eyes and slipped on sunglasses even though it was close to sunset. Somehow Chris had talked management into letting them go on this little adventure without bodyguards so they were on their own to make sure rabid teenage fans didn�t maul them.
�Christ, I hate flying,� grumbled Lance, as they walked through the terminal to the gate for their connecting flight. �It�s so boring.�
�Tell me about it,� agreed Justin.
JC hugged his pillow tighter to himself and grunted. His head hurt, his neck hurt from the odd position he had slept in, and he wasn�t in the mood to talk.
Joey rubbed his hands together vigorously and grinned. �I don�t what y�all are grumbling for. I had a great flight.�
�That�s cause that chick who yelled at me was flirting with you,� grumbled Justin.
�Yeah, she was pretty hot,� he said grinning from ear to ear. �I got her number too.�
�Well, whoopee doo,� commented Justin, twirling his finger in the air, mocking enthusiasm.
�You�re just jealous,� snickered Joey.
�I am not!�
�Guys, don�t even start. My head hurts and I don�t want to hear y�all bantering back and forth,� said JC. �Just let it go already, sheesh.�
Joey clapped his hand against JC�s shoulder, making him wince in pain. �Don�t worry, Sleepy. You�ll get your beauty rest when we get to Chris� house of horrors.�
JC shrugged Joey�s arm off and rubbed the back of his head. �Dude, head, ow. No touchie.�
�Chris,� whined Justin.
Chris mocked Justin�s whining and grinned. Justin pouted and Chris rolled his eyes. �What is it, Curly?�
�How much longer till we get there?�
�Well, seeing as how we�re not even on the plane yet, a little while.� Justin groaned. �Don�t worry, it�s only an hour and a half more from here and then it�s about an hour drive from the airport.�
�Chris!! That�s too fucking long.�
�Deal with it,� replied Chris simply.
The rest of the guys chuckled and promptly sat down in the waiting area by their gate. By the time their flight was called it was generously filled with people. Seeing as how it was the middle of the day during the week and it wasn�t summer time, there weren�t too many passengers who weren�t business men or women so the chance of them getting caught was slim to none.
The flight to LaGuardia was a smooth one. All of the guys caught a nap here and there and by the time they reached the car rental desk, they were groggy with sleep. JC was wide awake since he had taken the long nap on the first flight and offered to drive and none of the others argued. After loading their luggage into the back of the blood red SUV, they all climbed in and puttered out of the parking lot. Within ten minutes, everyone was sound asleep. Lance, Justin, and Chris were softly snoring in the backseat while Joey slept soundly in the passenger seat next to JC.
JC grabbed the sheet of paper that held the directions that Chris has printed off of Map Quest. It was late at night and he was the only driver on the freeway along with a few semi�s here and there. It only took them forty-five minutes to get to the street the house lay on, Ocean Drive.
108, 110, ah, here we are, 112. JC stopped in front of the house and stared. It was the exact same house he had seen days before on the television, only it looked a bit weathered from years of storms and not being taken care of as much as it would be if it were permanently occupied.
Chris had said that it was a rental house now. It had been up for sale for ten years before someone bought it and turned it into a tourist trap, only it wasn�t as successful as the owner hoped it would be. Now it was under new management and was rented out to anyone who wanted to stay in the famous Amityville Horror House. Not many people stayed because they didn�t want to stay in a house that was rumored to have been haunted. Others who actually did were curious. Just like Chris, they wanted to see if the rumors were true, only nothing ever happened and they left disappointed.
When JC�s eyes roamed up to the two windows that resembled eyes, a shiver wracked his body. A feeling of uneasiness settled in his skin and his blood turned cold. Chalking it up to the stories Chris had been telling them, JC shrugged the feeling off and pulled into the driveway.
�Guys, we�re there.� He turned around in his seat and shook his head. Lance was slumped in the middle of the seat and Chris and Justin were snuggled up next to him. All three of their mouths were slightly open, little lines of drool going down their chins.
JC smacked Joey lightly on the shoulder, rousing him from his sleep. He turned in his seat and reached over and shook Lance. �WAKE UP!�
Lance, Chris, and Justin jumped, yelling and knocking into one another. Joey, still half asleep, burst out laughing. JC dissolved into giggles in the front seat.
Chris kicked the back of JC�s seat. �You fucker!! Jesus Christ, give an old man a heart attack, will ya.�
JC giggled for a little bit before pointing to the house. �We�re there.�
Chris immediately forgot about being mad and clambered out of the car in his haste to see the house. The rest of the guys followed suit, eager to see what had Chris so excited for the past few days. They all stood in front of the house, staring up at it, taking in what would be their home for the next week. Chris looked as if he were about to burst with excitement, while the rest of the guys looked like they had been through hell and back.
After a few more minutes of staring, Joey broke the silence. �I don�t know about you guys but I�m exhausted so why don�t we go and get settled in.�
Justin nodded numbly and yawned. He quickly scampered over to the SUV and grabbed his bags. The other guys followed suit and grabbed their bags before climbing onto the porch and huddling around the door. Chris pulled out the key and unlocked the door, only when he pushed to go in, it stuck.
�Don�t play, man,� whined Justin.
�I ain�t!� cried Chris. �The door�s stuck. It won�t open, man.�
Joey pushed through and said, �Let me do it, old man.�
Chris reluctantly stepped aside and let Joey take over. Joey made a big scene of cracking his knuckles and pushing the sleeves of his sweatshirt up. He turned the key, jiggled the handle, pulled then pushed. The door opened with ease, revealing the inside of the illustrious house.