Love Thru Chat: A Surprising Proposal,
Part II
By Billy Burrew
(Author's Note: I've gotten SO MANY
letters asking me what happened to Lance and Paul between the
end of the Love Thru Chat last chapter and the first epilogue.
Why was he broken, sad and recovering from substance abuse?
Well...this part of "A Surprising Proposal" should
hopefully answer all those questions. I had originally intended
this story to only be 2 parts...but as long as this chapter
is, it's now gonna be pushed to 3 parts.)
Bill stood absolutely immobile on the small
stool, his eyes cast downward, intensely focused on the man
who was rapidly shoving pins into his trousers from his crotch
to his ankles.
"Ok, sir. I'm just about done here."
The man said, looking up and noticing Bill's somewhat furrowed
brow and intense expression. "Um...I just wanted to say
again that I'm really sorry...I mean...I don't think I've ever
stuck anyone with one of the pins before, not once in the last
nine years I've been doing this."
Bill smiled a smile that didn't quite reach
his eyes, "Really? I'm the first, huh? Just lucky, I guess."
The young man's frown deepened as he got
up and headed off to get something from the back of the store.
Bill nodded and then looked up into the mirror
in time to see JC double over in laughter as he sat in one of
the comfortable chairs that sat a few feet behind the fitting
area of the expensive men's clothing store that JC had picked
for the tuxedos.
JC brushed a few laugh tears away from his
eyes and tried, unsuccessfully to sit up, managing only to burst
out laughing once more.
"Yeah....laugh it up there, chuckles."
"But...baby....heheheeeeeee" JC
wheezed, laughing so hard he was turning a near burgundy color,
"You should have seen your face....JESUS! That was the
funniest thing I've ever seen!"
Bill nodded and pointed to the mirrors. "I
did."
JC began to pound his hand down on the arm
of the chair. "You jumped nearly through the ceiling. Oh,
my God. I wish I'd have brought the digital camcorder. That
was priceless!"
"Yeah....ha ha" Bill smiled drolly.
"Yeah...that one was a real knee slapper....I better go
lace up my girdle so I don't crack a rib laughing."
JC stood up and walked up behind Bill and
put his arms around his thighs, since he was still on the stool.
"You're the best. You know that...grace
under pressure and all that."
Bill smiled. "Yeah. But that really
fuckin' hurt. I think he pierced the femoral artery with that
one...jeez. I'm surprised I didn't bleed to death."
JC smiled. "I almost thought you were
gonna punch him. You looked like you were about to pick him
up by his neck and shake the crap out of him."
Bill sighed. "I was just surprised....and
like I said...it hurt. C'mere. Let me stick you with one of
these and you can see..."
JC grinned lasciviously and patted out the
wrinkles he had made in the fabric as he spied the tailor making
his way back over to them. "I'll let you stick me later,
big boy."
Bill harumphed"I'll make sure to take
you up on that tonight."
The tailor returned and shook the pant legs
twice, making sure they fell correctly and looked as they were
supposed to, then he had Bill go into the changing room and
carefully take them off. When he emerged, Bill handed the pants
to the tailor, who apologized once more, and then showed them
out. As they drove home, Josh looked over at Bill and sighed,
then pulled the car off the side of the road.
"OK...what's the matter?" Josh
said, "You've been getting this heavy, kinda sour look
on your face for the past few weeks, and I wanna know why."
Bill looked over at his fiancee and took
a deep breath.
"I want to tell you something....it's
kind of well....it's really important. It concerns me, you,
Lance and Paul. But I don't want to have to tell this story
more than once. So...I need to get everyone together so I can
say it and be done with it."
JC's eyebrow arched. "OK. That was mucho
mysterioso. How do you propose getting those two in the same
house at the same time? Restrain them, ala Hannibal Lector style,
with the straight jackets and the masks? They'll start in on
each other like a pair of fighting roosters."
Bill nodded solemnly. "I don't care
if I have to knock Paul out and handcuff him...and the same
for Lance. This has to be said...It just has to!"
JC smiled and hugged Bill. "OK....You
call Lance. I'll give Paul a call. We can go pick them up in
separate cars so that they won't see the other's car and suspect
something."
Bill nodded. "That's good, C....that's
really good! I don't think I'd have thought of that."
JC smiled and pulled the car back onto the
road. "Tonight?"
Bill nodded. "If we can get them both
tonight, it works for me."
Several hours later, Lance Bass stood in
the kitchen of JC and Bill's house gulping the double whiskey
on the rocks that Bill had made for him after they arrived.
Lately, he had taken to drinking more, it seemed to help douse
the pain that he felt since he and Paul had broken up so badly,
so viciously, so tragically.
Lance's mind still stung from the words the
two had traded when they squared off nearly a year before in
Mississippi, putting a disasterous end to an attempt to clear
the air and reconcile the differences between them. Paul had
accused Lance of the worst sort of financial malfeasance as
his manager, and Lance had responded by storming out to his
car and bringing in a manila envelope filled with pictures of
Paul in bed with several different men. To say the party went
downhill from there would have been the understatement of the
century. After the fight, Lance had gotten so drunk that he
passed out on the back porch, while Paul stormed out of the
house and holed up in a local hotel, supposedly drinking the
entire contents of two mini-bars. Needless to say, neither one
was conscious when the police came to inform them of the tragic
death of their associate, Robert Stuart, the previous evening.
The police had concluded that he had apparently taken a long
walk, and somehow slipped and fell into a nest of water moccasins
in the swamp near Lance's house.
After the two of them attended to the funeral
services of their employee, Lance had hired a moving company
to pack and move his stuff out of Paul's house in North Carolina,
and in turn, had Paul's belongings moved out of Lance's house
in Mississippi.
Lance finished the whiskey in two gulps and
poured himself another. As he added an additional cube of ice,
he heard the front door open and JC's voice in the foyer. Lance
turned and felt the glass drop out of his hand as his eyes connected
with the unmistakable pair of sky blue eyes that belonged to
only one man, Paul Summerstorm.
"WHAT IS HE DOING HERE!" Paul demanded,
turning on one foot to face JC.
"Bill has something to tell all of us.
He only wants to say it once. I know you two don't get along...."
"DON'T GET ALONG!" Lance fumed.
"JC, when did you develop such an enormous gift for understatement?"
"Lance!" Bill snapped, walking
slowly up the steps from the basement, his eyes blazing. "Shut
yer cake hole...NOW!"
Paul cleared his throat to speak and Bill
turned and walked over to him, using his size to great advantage,
towering intimidatingly over the other man as he hissed. "You
too, Paul. Not one word! Got it!?!"
Paul nodded and walked over as Lance grabbed
two more glasses, pouring out shots of whiskey into each. He
picked his up and slid the other across the bar to Paul, who
looked down at it, then grabbed it and nodded to him.
Bill lead them over to the sofa area and
had them all sit down while he stood. For safety sake, JC sat
between them on the sofa.
"OK. I'm sure you're all wondering what
this is all about, right?"
Nods from each of the three sitting on the
sofa affirmed his question.
"I..." Bill began, then sighed
heavily, his face showing lines that normally would never grace
his face. "I have a secret that concerns all of us. It's
something that I had meant to tell you about sooner, but I knew
that I needed solid proof before I could bring it to you.
Lance's eyebrow raised and he leaned forward,
his bright green eyes softening as he looked as his former boyfriend.
"Bill. Whatever it is, you can tell us."
Bill nodded and then sat down on the floor
and pulled a mini tape recorder out from a small bag he had
brought up from the basement with him.
"A little over a year and a half ago,
I started to notice some really weird stuff going on with Paul's
scheduling and budgeting, Lance's accounting and some other
stuff. I didn't know how really fucked up it was, 'til I got
a friend of mine at the bank to release some records for me
and then I called in an independent accountant to verify what
was on those records."
Bill paused, for a second, taking a deep,
shaky breath.
"What I found was Lance had nothing
to do with that whole financial debacle that Paul was going
through. There was no financial malfeasance..."
"Wait a minute, Bill." Paul said
warily, "Both Robert and my accountant went over the books..."
"Let me finish, Paul...then I'll prove
what I'm saying." Bill replied, putting his hand up, stopping
Paul before he could get started.
"What took me so long to get this to
you was caused by the second part of what I found." Bill
reached into the bag and pulled out a large manila envelope.
He opened it and pulled out a large sheet of prints, arranged
in two rows.
"It took a bit of digging, and some
getting around of computer passwords, but I also found these.
Both of you should recognize these as a few of the prints that
were so incriminating to Paul. I want you to look at them again....this
time, looking at the un-doctored version on the right, and the
doctored version on the left. Paul...you never slept with any
of those guys."
Lance's eyes widened as he looked over the
prints. "What! But...the private detective...."
"was given these fake prints by a third
party for the sole purpose of breaking the two of you apart."
Bill finished for Lance.
Bill nodded to JC, who got up and put his
arm around him, pulling him into a hug.
Lance looked over at Paul and then bowed
his head as tears began to fall out of his eyes. "He didn't
cheat on me. I should have known." He whispered to himself.
Paul glanced over to Lance as he put his
head in his hands, "I should've known he wouldn't ever
screw me out of money from my performances. Jeez...all that
terrible shit I said to him....out of anger...and it was all
bogus."
Bill looked at JC and reached down into his
bag and pulled out some glossy photos of the two of them on
a beach.
"He got us too, babe." Bill continued.
"That same person sent the photos of us kissing on that
private beach to the newspapers. They then made it look like
I sent it from my office. He was behind us being outed two years
ago."
JC looked down at the photos and frowned.
"I never thought it was you. I knew someone was fucking
with us."
Bill nodded. "He had us all fooled,
Robert did."
Lance gasped and jumped up. "Robert!
He did this?!"
Bill nodded. "I began to think something
was off about him....don't ask me why. I just had this funny
feeling. So I kept track of his movements and began to pick
up this paper trail and put the pieces together."
"WHY!" Paul yelled, his frustration
and regret ringing clear in his voice. "Why'd he do this?!"
Bill sighed. "I can tell you that....but
you have to promise me you'll never let what you're about to
find out get out of this room."
JC, Lance and Paul nodded agreement. Bill
put his hand down into the bad and pulled out a mini-tape recorder
and hit play.
"What was it you wanted to discuss
in this rather....exotic locale, Mr. Michaels?" Robert
said, his voice unmistakable on the tape.
"Well...I kind of want to know why
you're fucking around with all of our lives, Robert." Bill
replied, his voice cool, yet stern.
"Pardon?" Robert asked.
"Don't play stupid with me, Robert.
Really. It might work with the others, but not with me. I've
gone over the bank records, I even got hold of the ones documenting
your private account. You were the one that embezzled that money
from Paul, not Lance...and if I'm not mistaken, those pictures
you got that investigator to mail to Lance of Paul in flagrante
delicto with all those guys were fakes....really good fakes,
I'll give you that...but fakes nonetheless. They were good enough
to fool Lance and Paul...but not good enough to get past someone
who did graphic design for nearly a decade." Bill said
calmly.
"So you figured it out, eh? I didn't
take you for the detective-type, Bill...you're so good at your
roles of mid-level management schmuck and star fucker that I'd
not have spotted you as someone with some common sense and cunning."
Bill inhaled. "Yeah, well, nevertheless,
I figured it all out, well...all except why. Why'd you do all
this?"
Robert snickered. "I knew you wouldn't
have seen the reason...you see, we're not that different you
and I. We're both good managers, and we both fell in love with
the people we manage. You with JC...and me with..."
"Lance?" Bill asked incredulously.
"God no!" Robert sneered, "That
washed up little sissy-merry, no thank you!"
Bill nodded. "Paul...it was Paul
all along. It makes sense now. You're gonna let Lance take the
fall for this financial thing and then be right there for Paul
to rebound on, is that it?"
Robert chuckled. "You bet! I'll be
fucking his brains out in next to no time."
"I don't think so, Robert."
Bill's voice spoke up loudly. "I just don't think I can
allow it."
Robert laughed. "Who's gonna stop
me? You? I'll break you in half and serve you up to the creatures
that live in this swamp."
Bill sniffed. "You're welcome to
take your best shot, you no-neck, pig-eyed sack of shit!"
<sounds of scuffling, fighting.>
"Nice! I didn't know that you had
fighting experience before....that will make this even more
fun." Robert said cockily.
"Bet I know two other things you
didn't know, Robert." Bill said, his breath heavy and labored.
"What's that?" Robert replied.
<swooshing sound followed by a sound
of a heavy impact and a large splash of water>
"That I've got a great roundhouse
kick...and that you've just fallen smack dab into a nest of
water moccasins."
"Aaaaghhhhh! Help! Help me! Ahhh!
Snakes....biting me...." Robert screamed. "Heeeeeellllllp....."
Robert's screams turned into gasps and
then he slowly sank beneath the water's dark surface.
"Nobody fucks with my family, or
my friends. Now play nice with the big mean snakes!"
Bill clicked off the tape and rewound it,
then looked up into the impossibly wide eyes of his friends.
"You fought... you let him die... Just
to protect us?" Lance said, as tears streamed down his
face. "You could have been killed!".
Bill nodded. "I was just lucky that
it was a nest of water moccasins he fell into.....I don't know
if I could have fought him much longer and won otherwise."
"He fucked up all of our lives, just
to get at me." Paul said, shaking his head and looking
at Lance, "Everything I had that mattered in my life is
gone...because of him."
Lance, who had been nodding while Paul spoke,
turned away and began to cry anew. "And I can't ever have
it back."
Bill jumped up and threw the mini-tape recorder
as hard as he could against the wall behind the two of them,
shattering it to little pieces and causing Paul to grab Lance
and pull him down, diving for cover.
"God, you two are so fucking stupid!
JESUS H.CHRIST ON THE CROSS!! It's not gone... You both can
still have each other...You just found out that all the shit
that went down between you two in the past was based on lies
and bullshit that Robert fed you. You were both played like
violins... E fight between you two was choreographed by Robert
so that you'd break up... Don't let him win! DON'T LET HIM WIN!
Leave this drama in the past, give each other a clean slate
and give it another try."
Paul and Lance looked at each other and shrugged
helplessly. Bill watched the two in disgust and shook his head.
"Get out! Both of you! I don't wanna
see either of you for a while. You're both too fucking stupid
to see what you've got right in front of you. You know that?
Just...just....just go!"
Bill stalked off into the kitchen and left
a speechless JC to call a pair of cabs for his friends and show
them out.".
"He's really upset, guys...I'm sorry,
but the cabs should be here in a few minutes." JC said,
closing the door after Paul and watching them wait in the driveway
as the cabs pulled up and took them back to their homes.
JC walked back into the kitchen and found
Bill slumped on the floor his head in his hands, crying. JC
squatted down beside him and kissed his cheek.
"Thank you, hon." JC said quietly,
pulling Bill into a tight embrace. "Have I told you today
how much I loved you?"
Bill sniffed and looked up into JC's eyes.
"For being a murderer?"
JC shook his head, "For risking your
life protecting me and Lance and Paul...and for telling us about
it all and trying to get them back together."
"So you don't hate me for this or want
to rethink the marriage?" Bill said, his voice nearly a
whisper.
"Are you kidding? Of course not! I'm
gonna marry a man that would move heaven and earth to protect
me. Not many men can say their fiancé would kill for
them...and really mean it."
Bill face cracked into a small smile as he
muttered. "Bastard got what he deserved."
JC nodded. "I'll agree with that. If
anything...it was too quick an end for him."
JC grabbed Bill's hand and pulled him up
into a quick embrace. "C'mon....let's go burn that tape
then go to bed. I believe you're supposed to stick me tonight,
if memory serves...and that's the stuff that my wet dreams are
made of."
The last big public event before the wedding
was the 2006 Grammy Awards. JC and Bill hadn't gone to the last
few, but the award committee had called all the guys of NSYNC
and let them know that they were up for a lifetime achievement
award. As the afternoon waned, JC became restless and took an
early shower so that he could start getting ready for the show.
"What are you wearing tonight, babe?"
Josh asked as he searched through his closet for something presentable.
"I was gonna wear that Armani pseudo-suit
thing you got for me." Bill said, pointing to it as it
lay on the bed. Beside it lay another outfit. "I picked
out an outfit for you as well...it's a little dressy...just
in case you have to go on the stage...I want everyone to see
that you're still a really fucking hot guy."
JC smiled. "I love it when you stroke
my ego."
Bill snorted, "That's not all you like
me to stroke, if I rightly recall."
JC laughed and threw a sock at Bill as he
bobbed his eyebrows at him.
"I can't believe the group is getting
a lifetime achievement award. This is so awesome!"
Bill shook his head, "I think it's well
deserved. You guys busted your asses...and you still do!"
JC grinned and kissed Bill lightly on the
lips. "Thanks babe! I'm glad you'll be there with me tonight."
Bill looked at the program and shook his
head. "Paul's scheduled to perform, I think. I wonder if
he and Lance will give it another go...or did I tell them all
that I did for nothing."
The ride to the show was silent, broken only
when JC snuggled deeper in Bill's embrace in the back of the
limousine, making soft, contented cooing noises and by the screams
of the fans as the limousine stopped and the two stepped out
onto the red carpet. Bill smiled widely as JC was mobbed by
both male and female fans alike, screaming over the engagement
rings they had picked. JC smiled as Bill was motioned aside
and asked for autographs by a group of gay teen boys who had
were carrying copies of his fan fiction that they had printed
from the Internet. As they came to the end of the red carpet
walk, JC grabbed Bill's hand and pulled him into a deep kiss,
sending the crowd into an uproar, and causing near blindness
to the people beside them as the paparazzi cameras went wild,
clicking off rolls and rolls of film of the kiss.
Joey and Chris smiled as the two walked
into the lobby and joined them. Moments later, all four heads
turned as a pale, sober and somber looking Lance walked through
the doors. Bill looked at the dull, hopeless look in Lance's
eyes and shook his head, taking JC's hand and leading him to
their seats. Bill sat down and picked up his program and read
it quietly as the rest of the people filled the enormous auditorium
and took their seats before the show started. Bill looked up
as Lance passed by him and sat down in the seat next to him.
"Hi." Lance said, looking down
at Bill as he slid into his seat.
"Hello Lance." Bill said, his eyes
settling on Lance's for a second, before returning to the program.
"Um...I wanted to say thanks again...for
all you did." Lance said quietly.
Bill looked up and shrugged. "I guess.
For all the good it did." Bill then peered back down into
the program and said, "Paul is set to sing two songs tonight,
one of them being a rendition of one of your songs."
Paul had really come a long way since 2000,
with 6 straight consecutive smash albums. He had all but eclipsed
every record set by Garth Brooks in the 1990's and was considered
one of the youngest legendary performers in music.
Bill looked over again at Lance and saw his
face soften at the mention of Paul's name, his eyes filling
with the haunting combination of love, pain, betrayal and loss
that bespoke volumes about everything that had happened between
them in the last five years. Bill's eyes filled with tears at
the sight and he turned his head, looking over to JC, who had
seen and heard the exchange between them and was ready to offer
comfort and kind words.
"Bill...this can't be a coincidence.
I know how much you worry about Lance...but I really think Paul
is gonna try something tonight...try to make everything right
between them."
Bill wiped his eyes quickly and nodded.
"I hope so."
JC smiled and leaned in and pecked Bill lightly
on the lips, "Hey...I am a real positive person. I just
have a good feeling about tonight.."
The program began like many of the others
that Bill had attended. It didn't veer much off that predictable
course until Paul was introduced to perform a single from his
upcoming album. It was at that point that Bill watched Paul
make the closest thing to magic that he'd ever seen.
Paul walked out onto the stage in a pair
of faded jeans, a tight white shirt and a black cowboy hat.
The shirt was tight enough that he could feel the fabric stretch
with his every breath, highlighting his tall frame and lean
muscularity.
"Hey y'all!" Paul grinned shyly,
tipping his hat, "Thanks for inviting me tonight."
Paul walked over to his guitar stand and
grabbed his guitar, pulling the strap over his shoulders and
picking up the pick.
"This new album of mine has been the
hardest one I've ever had to make. I wanted to put my all into
it, since it's going to be the last album that I ever put out."
The crowd gasped, and Bill nearly jumped
out of his seat as Lance gasped loud enough to make people turn
towards him in their seats, thinking that he'd been shot.
Paul let the collective gasp pass before
he continued. "I thought I'd let everyone know tonight
and let them know the reason why."
The crowd leaned forward in unison as Paul
took a deep breath.
"You see, when I first started out in
the music business, I had it made. I got to do one of the things
I love most, I got to perform, and then, on the very night that
I got signed, I met the love of my life...my manager Lance Bass
and I fell head over heels in love."
The crowd gasped again at Paul's admission,
then sighed as they saw Paul's expression soften. Bill looked
over at Lance and smiled as he saw his friend mesmorized by
the words of the man on the stage.
Paul continued, his voice soft, but holding
a tinge of bitterness to it. "I had it all made, the perfect
job, the perfect love. Then I was told that I had to keep my
relationship secret, out of the public eye, so as not to upset
the fans. I was told that if I wanted to make it anywhere, that
I had to lie to the fans, say I was single, or say that the
right girl hadn't come along yet. No one seemed to care that
I'd already found the one person I loved more than anything
in the world, just that it wasn't the right girl, but the right
boy I found. Everyone was so focused on making a buck off me,
that they didn't see how much having to hide who I really am
was hurting me. Then Lance was outed by the papers and his record
company, the company he had worked so hard with, turned their
back on him. He had no one to turn to, and I wasn't allowed
to be with him, to comfort him, so that people wouldn't suspect
me as being gay."
Paul stopped. "Then a little over a
year ago, one of our inner circle, someone that we both trusted
implicitly, took it upon themselves to make mischief...to split
us up and make us hate each other. That person produced phoney
photographic evidence that I had been cheating with other men,
as well as falsifying documents that made it seem that money
was being taken from me illegally."
"Not knowing it was all a lie, we said
and did some terrible things to each other, those kinds of hateful
things that angry people say and do intentionally and unconscionably
just to inflict pain on each other because they think it'll
make them feel better, or make them feel that they 'won the
fight'." Paul stopped and shook his head, "I found
out that there are no winners in those kinds of fights, only
losers. I lost the one thing that mattered more to me than anything
else in the world, the love I had. So I'm here tonight cause
I want to try to get him back."
Paul straightened up in his seat and strummed
on the guitar. "I'd also like to thank all of you in the
audience here and and home for letting me finally get that off
my chest. I wouldn't normally have brought up my personal business
to you, but I felt you might want to know why I've decided to
stop making music. I look at it like this, it's always seemed
to come down to a choice between my career in music and my relationship
with Lance. Until now, I've always have been putting my career
in front of my relationship. I think, if I'm going to have any
chance of getting back together and staying together with Lance,
that retiring from music is a small price to pay. Guys like
Lance come along once in a lifetime, and I don't want to miss
my chance. Thank you for understanding, ladies and gentlemen."
The crowd immediately came to their feet,
giving Paul a standing ovation. As the wave of applause died
away, Paul smiled, "Well..I better get to singing this
song before some network suit comes out here and tries to sing
it for me."
Laughter peppered the crowd as Paul and his
back up band struck up the chords to the song:
You can throw away my picture, empty out
my dresser drawer
Break up all the dishes, change the lock on the door
But you can't erase my memory, no matter how you try
It don't mean it's over, just because you said good-bye
I'm sorry that I hurt you, but you made me so mad
If I don't care about you, why do I feel so bad
We're almost out of sugar, and our matches got wet
But we ain't out of love yet
We ain't out of love yet let's not do
something hasty,baby,that we'll regret
Our lovin' cup ain't empty, there's still plenty left
And we ain't out of love yet
We might run out of gas and be left out
in the rain
Could run out of cigarettes or money again
A little out of touch or just plain out of our heads
But we ain't out of love yet
We ain't out of love yet
Lets not do something hasty, baby, that we'll regret
Our lovin' cup ain't empty there's still plenty left
And with just a little mending we can have a happy ending
Let's forgive and forget
We don't need a lawyer now we just need a rest
Then we can get back into doin' what we do best
Was Scarlett ever through with Rhett
You can't break up a perfect set
And we ain't out of love yet
The applause for Paul's rendition of "We
Ain't Out Of Love Yet" was overpowering, and Bill smiled
as he looked over at Lance, whose face was streaked with tears.
Paul disappeared behind a curtain as the
emcee, Drew Carey, stepped out and introduced the next two presenters,
Britney Spears and Nick Carter.
"In 1995, Chris Kirkpatrick got an idea
to start a group, he gathered together a group of four other
guys and together they would go on to be one of the biggest
pop music phenomena of the last twenty years. It is with great
pleasure and pride that we present this lifetime achievement
award to Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, JC Chasez, Lance Bass
and Justin Timberlake. Let's give it up for NSYNC!"
The crowd went wild as the guys got up, JC
grabbed Bill and pulled him up to kiss him on the lips, and
then the five of them went down to accept the award.
The crowd laughed as Justin led the guys
up to the stage, comically cutting up as they thanked all the
people who made the award possible. The guys grinned widely
as they saw Bill blush scarlet when JC thanked him, calling
him out as his fiancé and causing the crowd to roar approval.
Minutes after the guys exited off-stage, they quietly took their
seats. Bill patted JC's hand affectionately and whispered thanks
in his ear. As the program drew to a close and the final act
approached, Drew Carey smiled as he stepped out on stage and
prepped the audience.
"Ladies and gentlemen. Tonight has been
quite a night for the history books. In honoring the achievements
of a legendary pop group, we also found out that one of the
greatest country performers in history will very soon finish
his career as well. I feel honored to have been able to hear
what might be one of his last performances. So, here he is again,
singing his tribute to NSYNC, Mr. Paul Summerstorm."
The lights seemed to fade down, all save
two single lights. One lightly blue-hued spotlight on the center
of the stage, and a second, slightly diffuse one that pointed
down over Lance. Lance looked up at the spotlight just before
his attention was drawn to the stage as Paul appeared, dressed
in a white button down shirt, khaki pants and his ubiquitous
cowboy hat. The crowd gasped as he took the cowboy hat off and
tossed it down onto the floor beside the stool.
Paul looked up as he put his guitar on and
sighed. His fingers began to move with elegant precision as
they played the introduction to a familiar tune. Bill cocked
his head to one side as he tried to place where he had heard
the tune before.
He was my once in a lifetime
Happy ending come true
Oh, I guess I should have told him
But I thought he knew
He said I took him for granted
That’s the last thing I would do
Oh, I’ll never understand it
I thought he knew
I thought he knew my world revolved around
him
My love light burned for him alone
But he couldn’t see the flame
Only myself to blame
I should have known
I should have known
A heart full of words left unspoken
Now that we’re through
I'd sell my soul to have this silence broken
Oh, I thought he knew
I thought he knew
I thought he knew my world revolved around
him
My love light burned for him alone
But he couldn’t see the flame
Only myself to blame
I should have known
I should have known
He was my once in a lifetime
Happy ending come true
The crowd gasped loudly as Paul looked up,
his eyes wet with tears and his expression that of overwhelming,
incomprehensible sadness. Paul's strong voice cracked and wavered,
then broke off. The cameras silently recorded this public display
of anguish and heartbreak, broadcasting to a near record amount
of spellbound viewers all over the world. Paul brushed away
the tears from his eyes and began to sing the last few lines
of the song the way he felt they needed to be sung.
Oh, I guess I should have told him
But I thought he knew, ooh
I thought he knew, yeah
I thought you knew, ooh
Oh God, Lance I thought you knew.
Please, tell me you knew.
As Paul sang the last part of the song, Bill
looked over to where Lance had been sitting and saw that he
had gone, and was now walking down the aisle to the center steps
of the stage. His walk was slow and measured, it almost seemed
as if he were in a trance. As if Paul's singing had called to
him like a Pied Piper's flute. Lance reached the top of the
steps as Paul finished the last line of the song. Only then
did the cameras pick up a shot of Lance's face. His beautiful
green eyes were red and wet, his cheeks flush and blotchy from
crying. As the final chords of the song died away, Lance stopped
in front of the stool where Paul sat. Paul placed his guitar
in the stand and looked up, his eyes impossibly wide and shiny
as he gazed hopefully up at the man standing in front of him.
The audience held its breath as Paul held
his arms out and Lance fell into his embrace. The crowd rose
to its feet and the concert hall seemingly exploded in a tidal
wave of applause that seemed to go on forever. Paul stood up
and kissed Lance slowly and passionately, and then leaned over
and grabbed his cowboy hat off the ground and hung it gently
on the microphone stand. Paul looked up at the crowd and gave
them a single wave good-bye, then walked off the stage hand-in-hand
with his lover.
More To Come...
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