It had started off innocently enough. JC would just leave his things laying around in plain sight and sometimes, he ended up forgetting about them altogether. They had all grown used to sitting down on one of the couches in the back of the bus only to find JC�s lucky pen poking them in the thigh, or his sunglasses sandwiched between the cushions, or even his wallet, on occasion, nestled behind the throw pillows piled in disarray at the end of the sofa.

So, it wasn�t as if Justin had been rummaging through JC�s things, or anything. No, he had simply picked up one or two of them by mistake and packed them in his own duffel bag before realizing that they didn�t actually belong to him. By that time, JC had already forgotten he�d misplaced them, or stopped asking about their whereabouts, and Justin ended up keeping everything that wasn�t his, letting the miscellaneous items pad the bottom of his backpack or suitcase without ever really thinking about the possibility that JC might not just want them back, but need them too.

Sometimes, Justin felt a little like a sticky fingered kid in the checkout line at the grocery store, pocketing a Mars bar or a pack of gum. Only, the thing about candy was that you could eat it, thereby ridding yourself of the evidence; the same could not be said of Justin�s growing collection of JC. After a while, Justin became even more indiscriminate about the stuff he let himself take. On one of the rare occasions when he and Joey were able to sneak away for an afternoon spent at an outlet mall, he found a wholesale luggage store and bought an extra canvas bag with leather handles because it was getting to the point where he couldn�t zip his own carry-on anymore, not without sitting on it and playing tug�o�war.

He never really did anything with the junk he purloined from his band mate -and some of it was honest to goodness junk. Once, when he took a half finished bottle of Dr. Pepper that JC had left sitting all by its lonesome on the kitchen counter, Justin had no choice but to wonder, however briefly, if there was something wrong with him for wanting to drink out of the same bottle JC�s lips had touched. When he thought he could maybe taste a little of JC on the plastic, mingling with the soda in his mouth, Justin put the pop bottle in his bag.

Every so often, Justin thought perhaps JC was leaving his stuff around on purpose, or something. When the older man had come to Justin�s hotel room, with Lance in tow, to order a movie off the hotel�s pay per view, he left his sweatshirt jacket behind, half hidden beneath the corner of the armchair. It peaked out enough that Justin found it that night before he went to bed, and he folded it neatly, then laid it across the back of the desk chair before turning in. Halfway through the night, he slipped out of the covers, retrieved the soft gray cotton shirt, and went back to bed.....where slept soundly until the shrill ring of his wake-up call sounded at seven fifteen the next morning.

Justin continued to palm the bits left in JC�s wake, until one day, everything changed.

Chris and Joey were battling it out on the play station, cussing a blue streak at the characters they manipulated, while shoving their elbows into each other�s sides with grunts of pain and satisfaction. Lance sat at one end of the couch reading a book, and Justin was curled up on the opposite, trying to hear the movie he�d put in the VCR above the shouts that came from the two warriors nestled on the floor, controllers in hand. JC had been seated at the dining room table, working on his latest masterpiece before coming down the hallway, past the bunks, and into the back room to ask loudly,

�Has anyone seen my thesaurus?�

Gaming noises kept emanating from the second television and the movie continued to play on the tiny set that was situated on the shelf above the larger screen. Lance was the only one who stopped what he was doing, politely laying his paperback in his lap before saying,

�You�ve got a thesaurus?�

JC sighed and shifted on his feet in mild irritation. �Yeah, I got it in the last...hey, could you guys at least mute that thing while we�re talking here?�

Joey and Chris seemed not to hear him. So, JC did it for them.

�Hey!� came Chris�s outraged yelp. �Our game!�

�Pause it, dipwad. I wanna know if you guys have seen my-�

�Thesaurus, yeah, I heard you, man. And no, I haven�t,� Joey said. �Why do you have one of those, anyway?�

�Like, I�d love to see you write lyrics without one. There�s only so many times you can use words like, �forever� and �beautiful� and stuff, you know? Anyway, does it really matter?� JC exhaled forcefully, blowing up at his hair in frustration.

�Well,� Lance said slowly, �it doesn�t really look like any of us have seen it, Jace. I�m sorry, but we�ll keep an eye out, okay?�

�How about Justin?� Joey supplied helpfully, unpausing the game.

Justin, who�d remained silent until then, suddenly found both Lance�s and JC�s eyes on him. He didn�t really want to lie to his friend, but could see no other course of action he could take, not without mortally embarrassing himself. So, Justin shook his head mutely and glued his eyes to the small screen, where a mammoth ship was close to bobbing ass-end up in the water for the millionth time since they�d purchased the movie to take with them on the road.

�Okay, then,� JC said dejectedly before shuffling back down the hall.

A few minutes later, Justin couldn�t take it any more. The thought of his oldest friend sitting there in the kitchenette, agonizing over his spiral notebook, picking his brains for a synonym for forever, was really getting to him.

Justin rose, slipped out the door while pretty much escaping notice, and crept quietly to his bunk. Behind the privacy curtains, the canvas bag was sitting at the foot of his bed next to his backpack. It was funny, but Justin only vaguely remembered picking up the thick pocket sized volume and putting it inside his coat. The book had a forest green cover and the pages still smelled new, though its soft-bound spine was already amply creased. He wasn�t sure why he�d taken it, exactly, but then he usually didn�t. Only this time, he felt guilty about it and there seemed to be an odd weight pressing between his shoulder blades.

Wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans, Justin went to stand next to JC at the table. When those bright blue eyes looked up to meet his, Justin felt like he�d swallowed his tongue. He held out the book.

�Oh? You found it!� JC beamed at him.

�Um, yeah.�

�Great, that is so *great*, Justin. Thanks.�

Justin cleared his throat nervously. �No problem.�

�Like, where did you find it?� JC�s forehead was wrinkled up in a frown of curiosity and Justin shifted anxiously under his gaze. �Uh...I just...remembered. Where I�d seen it. It was, um. In the bathroom.� Wait...in the bathroom?! Justin wanted to pull his tongue out.

�The bathroom,� JC repeated disbelievingly. �Wow. I so don�t remember taking it in there. But thanks again, Just.� And then he smiled brightly.

Justin felt his lips part in an uneasy imitation of a grin. �Mmm,� he grunted dismissively, and went back to his spot on the couch, opposite Lance. Joey and Chris were still immersed in their game, and though Justin tried to get back into the movie, it just didn�t seem to work.

Not a fifteen minutes later, JC wandered into the room again.

�Still watching this thing go under?� he asked, flicking his wrist at the Titanic as it died a slow, painful death.

�Yeah,� Justin shrugged.

�Mind if I watch it with you?�

�Sure, go ahead.�

JC sat down on the couch between the two boys, closer to Justin than Lance. He took a swig from the plastic soda bottle in his right hand. It was Coke this time, mostly full.

�Here. You want?� JC offered, not taking his eyes off the TV.

Justin took the drink, raised it to his lips and drank. He thought maybe he could taste a little of JC on the rim.