The Untitled Series:
Into the Fire 
by Annie


The alarm clock buzzed annoyingly in his ear. He made an unintelligible noise and slammed on the buttons until it was quiet. He wasn't even sure which button he had whacked. He didn't want to wake up because waking up mean facing his current problem, which was a pretty big problem.

He was just about to drift back into the land of dreams when there was a loud pounding on his door. "Get up Lance! We have a long day!" came the voice from behind the door.

Lance mumbled something and got up. "Are you awake?" came the person on the other side of the door. "Yes, Chris, I'm awake. I'll be down in a few minutes," Lance said as he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. He pulled his boxers off and stepped into the warm water.

As he let the water wash over him, he couldn't help thinking about the current situation he had landed himself in.

Ever since they had met, Lance had been in love with JC, and he knew now that JC had felt the same way. And when they had told each other, Lance had been on cloud nine, he couldn't have been happier. And that night... well, it had been the best night of Lance's life. And then, when he and JC had told everyone they were together, everything had fallen apart.

Lance hadn't expected Justin to be in love with him. That had complicated everything, because whatever Lance did, someone would get hurt. Lance grabbed the bar of soap and started to wash himself off. Lance could handle breaking Justin's heart if it meant that they could stay friends. Lance remembered what Justin had told him the previous night.

"Look, Lance, I'm still in love with you, and that's not going to change, but I just want you to know that whatever you do, I'm not going to break our friendship. That's too important to me."

So that should've made Lance's decision easy, right? He and JC loved each other and Justin was willing to accept that. Yeah, it was easy accept for one thing. Lance sighed and grabbed the tiny bottle of hotel shampoo, and poured it into his hand.

Just one thing, that was it. That was what was holding Lance back from making his choice. It was a big thing, though.

Justin had admitted to falling for Lance, and after that, Lance had been thinking about the whole thing. And it was then that he had realized that it wasn't just JC he had feelings for.

Lance turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, quickly drying himself off.

"It's not like I'm in love with Justin or anything," Lance said to himself, speaking his thoughts out loud.

But the more Lance tried to tell himself he didn't feel for Justin in that way, the more that everything Justin did made Lance like him just a little bit more. And that didn't help, because now it wasn't just a matter of someone's feelings, it was an actual choice now.

"No! I do not like Justin like that," Lance told himself as he got dressed. Lance's thoughts, however, were saying just the opposite.

Lance let out another sigh and went back to the bathroom to brush his teeth and do his hair. After messing with his hair for about twenty minutes, Lance was finally satisfied, and he left his room and headed down to breakfast.

When he got there, he saw that everyone else was already seated and the only seat left was the one in-between Justin and JC. 'Great,' Lance thought as he sat down. Both Justin and JC gave him smiles.

"Wow, Lance is the last one here. That's a first," Joey said. Then he grinned. "I was the first one here today."

"Wow Joey, that's a first," Lance said with a grin. The other guys laughed and it took Joey a minute to process Lance's comeback. When he did, he pulled some of the crust off of his toast and threw it at Lance. Lance didn't think to duck in time, and when he did, he knew the crust would hit him. So when it was hovering an inch from his face, he was pretty surprised.

Lance looked over and saw that Justin had caught it right before it had hit him. "Thanks Justin," Lance said with a smile. "No problem," Justin said, throwing Joey's toast crust back at him and hitting him square in the face.

"Hey!" Joey said with a laugh. Then he looked over at Chris, who was sitting next to him. "How come you didn't save me from the toast of doom?"

"Because I'm not in love with you." All the playful banter left the table as soon as Chris' words were out of his mouth, and he wished he'd never said them. There was a tension filled silence, broken only when a waiter came up to the table and asked Lance for his order.

"Uh, I've got to go and handle some loose ends. You know, business stuff, so I think I'll just take a rain check on breakfast," Lance said, getting up. The waiter just walked away.

"But you didn't eat anything," Justin said, just as JC told him, "You need to eat something."

"I'll grab something out of the vending machines by the pool. I'll see you guys at the photo shoot, okay?" Lance said, getting up and leaving the large dining area of the hotel.

"I'm done here," Justin muttered as he got up and left. JC followed, thinking Justin was going to go after Lance.

"Nice one Chris," Joey commented, biting into what was left of his toast.

"Shut up, Joey."

 

After sitting in his hotel room for an hour, getting absolutely no work done, Lance left his room and headed to the dining area to get something to eat. He sat down at a table with two chairs and looked over the menu to see what there was to eat.

"Hey," came a voice off to the side of Lance. Lance looked over and saw Justin, with one hand on his right ear.

"Wanna sit down?" Lance asked. Justin sat down in the chair across from Lance, and Lance saw that he was trying to get his earring on. "So, is this you getting your daily bran flake?" Justin asked. "I eat food, Justin," Lance said, giving Justin a look. Justin just made a 'sure' face and kept working on his earring.

"You know, all my jewelry means something," Justin commented suddenly.

"Really, why don't you tell me?"

"Okay, the ring I wear on my right hand is the ring I was wearing the day the group got together. My cross is pretty obvious, right? And my earrings...okay, I just like 'em," Justin said with a smile.

"What about the ring on your left hand? What does that one mean?" Lance asked. Justin looked down at his hand and then up at Lance. "I wear this ring because I was wearing it the day I met you."

'No, no, don't say that! Don't say that Justin. Don't make me fall for you,' Lance thought. "What about you? Does any of your jewelry mean anything?" Justin asked, quickly trying to get the focus off what he had just said.

"Uh, my cross is probably the only symbolic piece of jewelry I own. Although if I had this necklace my grandfather used to have, I'd wear it."

"Why is that?" Justin asked, noticing how Lance's face took on a sudden sad look.

"Well, when I was little, my grandfather had this dog tag from when he was in the war. And he'd pull me up onto his lap and he'd rub the necklace and claim that it stored all of his war stories, and he would tell story after story, and I always thought that they really did come from his dog tag, because I was little. When he died, they buried it with him."

Justin didn't know what to say, so he just stayed silent.

"I still remember the number that was on the back of it. 1211435, that was the number. I remember it because if you count the numbers of the alphabet, starting with A as one, then those numbers spell out Lance. That's why I remember it."

The waiter arrived at the table and asked Justin and Lance what they wanted. Lance ordered a sandwich and Justin asked for a coke. She came back quickly and gave both of them what they had ordered.

They sat there in silence, before Justin got up. "I have to go. I'll see you at the photo shoot, okay?"

Lance smiled and nodded, watching as Justin left. 'He wears a ring for me? I don't need this... I don't need this,' Lance thought as he finished his sandwich and headed back to his hotel room.

 

"Where the hell is he? We were supposed to start twenty minutes ago!" JC exclaimed, watching the entrance, waiting for Justin to show up.

"I'm sure he's got a good reason," Joey said just as Justin walked in through the double doors.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to run an errand," Justin said as the photographer told the guys to get into a group and pose. Lance went in-between Justin and JC, just so they wouldn't make a big deal if Lance stood by only one of them. The photographer took picture after picture and as soon as he was satisfied, he let the guys go.

As soon as they got in their limo to take them back to the hotel, JC asked, "Where did you have to go, Justin?"

"I had to buy a new pair of shoes. My old ones are starting to get...well, old."

"Figures," JC muttered, and the guys rode the rest of the way in silence.

The guys got to the hotel and Joey and Chris decided to go swimming, and JC wanted to take a nap. Lance went back to his room to try and tackle the business papers he hadn't been able to take care of before.

After about ten minutes of working on the papers, there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," Lance said, and the door opened, revealing Justin.

"I lied, when I told JC that I went to get new shoes. I didn't, I went and got this. Don't open it until I'm gone," Justin said, handing Lance a small, silver box.

Lance looked at Justin, confused, but Justin just smiled. "See ya later, Lance."

Lance watched Justin leave and then he turned his attention to the tiny box. He lifted the lid and looked inside. He pulled out a silver chain and saw that there was a dog tag hooked to it. He turned the tag around and saw what was there, in engraved, red numbers: 1211435.

Lance looked up at the door Justin had exited out of and then back down at the necklace.

He couldn't deny it anymore. This was it, this had done it. And Lance knew that he had just jumped out of the frying pan...

...into the fire.