I Lie Awake

Chapter 9: Selfish

Two weeks later, they still hadn't found anyone new to manage them. On Friday morning, they were all getting ready for the day. Lance walked up to Chris to ask him something, "Hey Chris, do you think you can drive me to the store later? Before rehearsals of course." Chris looked up from the book he was reading while laying on the couch, "Why do you need to go to the store?"

Lance looked around to check that no one was listening to their conversation. JC and Justin were eating breakfast while talking. "I want to get JC something." He said quietly. "Oh, okay then." Chris said as he went back to his book.

A while later, Chris and Lance left the house to go to the store. When they arrived, Lance went into the miscellaneous aisle of the store. "What are you looking for, again?" Chris asked Lance as he followed him. "I'm not sure, just something nice." He replied as he looked through the shelves. After a while of looking Lance finally said, "This is it." They walked over to the cashier to pay and went back home, in time for rehearsals.

The nightmares kept happening every night at around 3:30 a.m. Now, JC woke up around that time every night to comfort Lance from his nightmares. He didn't mind though, he just wanted to be there for his friend. That night after rehearsals, they all went home to sleep early, they were all so tired. Joey had already gone back to his parent's house. Again, at 3 a.m. Lance woke up from a nightmare. JC had been up for 5 minutes before he heard Lance start to stir and wake up. He got up from his bed and walked over to Lance's side. He kneeled down next to him and ran a hand through his blond hair. Lance's eyes fluttered open as he sighed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hey." JC said softly with a small, comforting smile. Lance turned to face him, "Hi." Then JC's smile turned into a frown, "You were having the nightmares again, right?" Lance nodded. "I'm sorry for waking you up every night. You should be sleeping. I feel so selfish." Lance looked down. "Don't worry about it, Lance." JC started, "Look at me," he put his hand on Lance's cheek and moved his face so that he was facing him, "it's not your fault that this is happening. Don't blame it on yourself." A tear escaped Lance's eye, he did think it was his fault, for being this way, he didn't want to, but he couldn't change. It was his fear of being discovered what brought these nightmares, so he did blame himself. He nodded as he wiped the tears forming in his eyes. "Come on, scoot over." JC said as he stood up and sat next to Lance on his bed. "You know I will always be here for you. Right until the end." JC looked at Lance as he put his arm around his shoulders. After a minute of silence JC asked, "Are you better?" Lance nodded. "Okay, that's good." JC smiled as he removed his arm from Lance's shoulders and stood up. "We should get to sleep." He said as Lance laid back down. JC pulled the covers over him and ruffled his hair. "Goodnight." He said as he got in his own bed. "Night." Lance replied as he closed his eyes. JC waited until Lance was sleeping until he dozed off.

Two hours later Lance woke up from another nightmare. He sat up, breathing heavily. He had never had two nightmares in a row. This one had been worse than the others he normally had. He saw JC shift in his sleep out of the corner of his eye, he then saw him sit up slowly. "Lance? What happened?" He asked as he looked his way. "Another nightmare?" JC asked, a concerned look on his face. Lance nodded, "It was worse than the other ones." JC stood up from his bed and walked over to give him a hug. "I'm sorry to hear that. It's gonna be okay." He said as he rubbed his shoulder. JC pulled away a little bit as he said, "I take it that you're not gonna sleep after this." Lance looked down and nodded, "Yeah." "I'll stay with you this time, try to sleep. I'll be right here until you do." He said as he moved towards the headboard of the bed, moving Lance next to him, never letting go of his hold on him. Lance started getting sleepy, he laid his head down on JC. JC watched as Lance's green eyes closed slowly. He ran his hands through Lance's blond hair as he watched his younger friend fall asleep peacefully. He hummed a lullaby for Lance to fall asleep. He didn't notice that this was making him sleepy too though, and soon, he too, fell asleep, never returning to his own bed.

******** \[^v^]/ ********

They guys didn't rehearse on Saturdays now, so they could wake up as late as they wanted. What they didn't know is that they would have an unexpected visit early that morning...

The clock marked 8:00 a.m. sharp. The house was completely quiet, everyone was sleeping. Suddenly there was banging on the front door. After a while, it stopped. Then, a louder bang. "I have news!" The voice of the literal death on two legs, Lou Pearlman, was heard throughout the house. The door to Lance and JC's room was slammed open. They both woke up from the loud sound. At that moment a lot of questions ran through Lance's mind. Why is Lou Pearlman here? It's Saturday, he has nothing to shout at us for, so why is he here? And, more importantly, why is JC in my bed? What happened yesterday? Wow he looks so pretty and- Lance was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard JC mutter, "Ah shit, here we go again." He looked at Lou Pearlman who just looked at them with a disgusted and confused look on his face. "What the hell is happening here?!" He asked loudly. At this point, Chris and Justin were already at the door, also confused at what was happening, and questioning both why Lou was here and why JC and Lance were sitting next to each other in one bed. Chris looked at Lance with a smirk and raised his eyebrows. Lance gave him a look that told Chris to shut up. "Well, will anyone explain what the hell is going on here?" Lou was losing his patience. "Will you explain why you're suddenly here, and how you even got in?" Chris countered. "Well, to answer your first question, I am here to tell you that I got you a gig. To answer the second question, I got in because the door was unlocked." Lou said with an eye roll. "We got a gig?" Justin said, excitement in his voice. "Yes, and you boys need to practice a lot for it, you can't make me look bad." Lou said sternly. "I'll leave you now, I have a business to run." He said as he left the house. Chris and Justin followed him to the door. When he got out, Chris locked the door. He looked at Justin with a questioning look on his face as he asked, "Wait, he said that the door was unlocked when he got in. Do you know why that happened, Justin?" "Uhhhhh." Justin looked away. "You didn't lock the door last night when I asked you to!" Chris accused him. "Oh my god Justin, we could have gotten robbed!" Chris was being over dramatic over the situation. "I'm sorry, Chris. It will never happen again." "Yeah, it won't happen again because I'm not gonna leave you with the task of locking the house ever again." Chris scoffed playfully.

Meanwhile, JC and Lance were still in their room. "Lance, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I didn't mean to fall asleep on your bed, I swear. I was going to go back to my bed but then I started feeling sleepy and-" "JC, stop." Lance cut him off, "It's okay, I know it was an accident, don't worry about it. You were probably as tired as I felt. You don't have to apologize." Lance stood up slowly and walked to his dresser, he got a small stuffed animal out. He walked back to JC. "I got this for you." he said as he gave his present to him. JC smiled. "Thank you, Lance. I love it." JC looked up at him. "I didn't get you anything though." "You already did." Lance smiled. "I did?" JC asked, surprised. "You were there for me when I needed it the most, that is very meaningful to me." Lance said, a small blush creeping up on his cheeks. JC stood up and hugged him. "I'm glad that you're my friend." He said, and he really meant it.