“Chris, stop!” JC did his best to wrestle with the smaller man but his energy levels were still low since waking up in the hospital earlier that day. “Just let me get it!”
“Sit down, Chasez!” Chris tried not to add any extra force to JC’s left side as he struggled to keep the guy from standing up. “I’ll get you the damn water myself.”
JC finally gave up but not without punching Chris on the arm. He pushed the button on the remote that was supposed to notify his nurse that he needed a drink but he couldn’t wait long enough for her to finish up with another patient. The doctor specifically told JC to stay in bed and to not move around as much. He had no idea that Chris had made a stern to decision to make sure JC followed the rules.
“You want ice?” Chris didn’t face JC as he held the door open.
JC only nodded and he was left alone in his hospital room. The only sound was coming from the dialogue that the newscasters were holding. JC watched as he heard stories of liquor store robberies, poverty, starvation, and kidnappings. He laughed to himself thinking about how he was the one who brought his own negativity into his would be lavish life while other people around the world either encountered or were born with things that made their lives unfortunate.
He licked his lips, feeling that they were chapped. His tongue was parched and he wondered why Chris was taking so long. Leaning back into his pillow, he closed his eyes and thought about his current situation. His career was crap, he’d stabbed one of his best friends, and he’d messed up his health. Nothing was going well for him. He thought about Joey might’ve been doing.
Chris avoided every question JC threw at him about Joey. He either answered JC’s questions with another question of his or changed the subject altogether as if he didn’t hear JC ask anything. It bothered JC to no end but he eventually dropped it, thinking that Chris wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.
***
“Christopher!” Lance called out as he ran towards Chris, leaving Joey walking slowly behind him. “How’s Josh, is he okay?”
“He’s a pain in the ass.” Chris mumbled.
“That’s great, good to know he and I are both alive. Thanks for leaving me back there, buddy.” Joey patted Lance’s shoulder. Lance placed his hand on top of Joey’s and smiled at him apologetically.
The two men followed Chris through the winding hallways as he directed them to JC’s room. “Why were you all the way out here?” Lance asked.
“He needed water so I said I’d get it for him.”
“Isn’t there a vending machine in the lobby on his floor?” Lance raised an eyebrow, noticing the cold bottled water Chris was holding.
“Uh huh, just needed an excuse to be out of his face long enough. If it was Christmas, we’d be calling him Mr. Scrooge.” Chris replied, opening the bottled water and taking a sip for himself. “Ba-humbug.”
Joey took note of how Chris’ usual liveliness was lacking today. He assumed that watching JC took a lot out of Chris and he became concerned of just exactly how bad JC’s condition was. He figured that if he could tire out Chris, then JC must have been a lot crabbier than he used to be. All those years in tour buses with JC trying to simmer Chris down always ended up with Chris just as nuts as ever while JC knocked out on the couch, tired of trying to get Chris to shut up and stop moving. “You look like you got the wind knocked out of you, old man.” Joey joked.
Chris glared at him. “I’d punch you in the gut if only you didn’t have that stab wound.”
“Thanks for going along with my favor. If it weren’t for you, we probably would’ve found Josh a lot later.”
“Like you said, it was your favor.” Chris shrugged.
“Does Justin know about anything that’s been happening?” Lance interjected.
“Funny you should mention him.” Joey grinned.
Chris and Lance stopped walking to look at their friend who was smiling at the both of them. Chris’ brow furrowed. He knew that look. Lance groaned, knowing what was about to come next.
Chris opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Joey. “God, not another –.”
“Fellas, I’ve got a favor to ask you.” Joey exclaimed.
***
JC heard the door open and immediately sat up in bed. “How long does it take you to get a glass of –.” He stopped short of his words when he saw Joey walk through the door with a bottle of water.
He grabbed the bottle but forgot all about his thirst as he watched Joey navigate through the room, deciding on a place to sit. Joey had his hand where his wound was, JC noticed that he had a slight limp on the side where he was stabbed. It was probably his way of not exerting too much force while he walked. Joey got himself situated in the recliner until he was comfortable before turning to look at JC.
“What are you smiling about?” JC asked.
“Nothing. Just glad to be alive.” Joey retorted, still smiling.
JC let out a sigh and kicked himself mentally for talking to Joey that way. He was lucky Joey still even talked to him. “I.. I’m sorry, Joe. I really am. I don’t know what I would’ve done if something worse happened to you.” He apologized.
Joey gave him a thumbs up and let him know that everything was fine between them. He surprised himself with how forgiving he was being to a man that had stabbed him just a few days prior. If it would’ve been anyone else, he’d have them in jail the same day.
“How could you be so chipper?” JC raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t hate me for saying this but something tells me that your condition is worse. I’m sorry too, by the way. For being in your business when I shouldn’t have been.”
“Yeah, shit happens.”
“Don’t have to tell me, twice.” Joey pretended to be in pain and laughed when JC sat up to make sure that he was fine and that he wasn’t bleeding out again.
“Ass.” JC grunted. “Where’s Chris?”
“I asked him for a favor.”
“What, you hungry? You can eat that stuff; I wasn’t feeling up to it.” JC pointed at his untouched meal that nutrition services brought to his room. “Chris did his best to shove it down my throat but I won.”
“No thanks, I’ve had enough hospital food. Go easy on Chris, he’s just looking out for you.”
“I thought I was the one out of all of us who gave out lectures on being sensible people.” JC chuckled as he leaned back in his bed.
Joey liked to see his friend happy. It was something that felt new since the last few times he’s seen JC, he’d been extremely irritable. They watched TV for a while, neither saying anything to each other.
Joey’s eyes started to droop when he was startled by his ringtone. “Talk to me,” he answered.
“We’re coming up,” Lance said, “And we’ve got him.”
“Right, see you in a bit.” Joey hit end call and grinned as he put his phone away.
JC waited for Joey to explain why he was so happy and glared at him when he didn’t even bother to say anything. “Is that a woman I should be telling Kelly about?”
“No need. It’s an ugly woman.” Joey laughed.
JC was still confused. He’d thought that Joey had lost his mind with how much he was smiling to himself. He watched as Joey struggled to get up from the recliner.
“Damn chairs,” Joey grunted. “Josh, there’s someone just out side that I’d like you to meet.”
“You’re setting me up with an ugly woman? What, is this your way of getting back at me for stabbing you?”
“You’ve got nowhere to go so just promise me you’ll talk to her without getting all pissy.” Joey stepped out of the door before JC had a chance to answer.
He waited impatiently for Joey to come back with an ‘ugly woman’ but frowned when he saw someone who was definitely not Joey or Chris or Lance… or an ugly woman. JC looked in every direction but the man’s, hoping to avoid having to make eye contact.
“How you holding up, Josh?” Justin said while trying to keep a positive tone.
He hated seeing JC like this. Especially since he knew part of the reason why JC was here was because of his anger towards Justin’s decision to go solo. As much as he prayed for JC to get over it, it just wasn’t happening. He’d hopped in Chris’ car as soon as he found out about what’s been happening. He prayed that this plan they had would finally steer JC back in the right direction.
After JC didn’t respond, Justin walked haphazardly to the recliner, pulling the level to let his feet up. “Feels good to be off my feet.” He sighed.
“I wouldn’t know.” JC grunted.
Justin bit his lip, the small talk was no use. This was going to be harder than he thought. It was as if JC was set on keeping things miserable between them. He’d said sorry so many times before, he didn’t know what else JC wanted from him. “Talk to me, man. What’s happening with us?”
“You know damn well what’s happening. Did all the camera flashes erase your memory or are you that dense?” JC crossed his arms. He hated Joey, Chris, and Lance for bringing Justin to the hospital. He figured that they should have known that Justin was the last person he wanted to see. But here he was, lounging in the recliner next to his bed.
“Josh…”
“Unless you can go back in time and fix what you’ve done, you have no business talking to me.”
Justin gripped onto the arm rests of the recliner. He was quickly losing his patience. He didn’t want it to always be like this. JC was like a brother to him and he hated the tension between them. “You know what? I used to feel bad. I used to think that I was the reason why your life was crap. But I just realized that I have nothing to be sorry for. The rest of the guys were completely supportive and understanding, why can’t you? I’m enjoying my life and I love the way it is. Yeah, the split wasn’t planned but that’s life. You can’t always be planning things, Josh. And if you really wanted to continue with NSYNC, then you could’ve gone on without me. The four of you could’ve held your own. I was just one guy. I don’t know if you remember but it was also the guys’ decision to not continue. So you can’t be blaming all this shit on me. The guys are living great, happy lives. I didn’t tell you fuck your life up, you did that all on your own. So why should I sit here and be sorry for a guy who doesn’t even put our friendship first?”
“Exactly, friendship! You kicked us to the curb when you went solo. It’s like all those years of being together, like family, didn’t mean anything to you. You even rode out your drama with Britney to add the press of your album release. That’s pretty fucking selfish!” JC retorted. He sat up but was abruptly stopped by the sudden pain that was coming back in his left side.
“Fuck you, Chasez.”
“Fuck you too, Timberlake.”
***
“Well, that doesn’t sound good.” Chris pulled his ear away from the door. The three men were just outside, listening to the banter that was going on in the room.
Joey frowned, he had hoped that putting them in a room together would tear down whatever walls were built between Justin and JC. But hearing them yell at each other shot his hopes down from 100 to 10. “This has to work, I’m tired of this shit.”
“Those two are probably the most hardheaded out of all of us… you and Chris are on another level though.” Lance smirked before taking a sip of his coffee. “I don’t think sticking them in a room together would do any good. I bet it’ll just ignite the flame even more.”
Chris grimaced as he studied Joey rubbing his wound. “Dude, it’s gonna bleed if you keep playing with it.”
“The bandages are itchy.” Joey explained.
“Do you guys think we played a role in JC’s fuck ups? You know… since we didn’t continue with singing together.” Wrinkles had shown up on Chris’ forehead as he thought about the possibility of being responsible for how JC was acting. He still couldn’t believe that JC had stabbed Joey.
“We’re not responsible for anything. Josh made his own decisions that we were completely out of.” Lance snapped. “He’s not our puppet, we can’t control him.”
***
“We can’t keep doing this. When are you going to forgive me?” Justin asked softly. The back and forth banter he was having with JC was emotionally draining for him.
“Get out.” JC refused to listen to any more of Justin’s apologies and explanations.
Justin rubbed his face and let out a deep breath. He walked to the edge of JC’s bed and sat down, trying to get JC to look at him. “I remember when I got a call from management. They told me Chris was looking to start a band. I had the biggest grin on my face, I took the opportunity as soon as it was thrown at my face.”
JC looked at Justin and raised an eyebrow, not sure with where he was going with his comment. He just watched as Justin continued.
“I was so excited. All I could think about was getting rich and famous. I got all of that. But you know what made everything so valuable? It wasn’t the fame or the money.” He paused to look at JC but continued to speak when he didn’t say anything. “There was another part of the offer that management failed to include in their benefits spiel. And that was the fact that if I took that offer, I would be given four brothers. You guys made everything so fucking awesome. Chris and Joey were annoying but I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without them. To be honest, I should be thanking Chris for giving all of us the opportunity to sing around the world as a family. I won’t ever forget about NSYNC. It’s where I came from. That’s why I wanted you guys to perform with me at the VMA’s. I wouldn’t be who I am today without all of you.”
JC was speechless. Hearing Justin become so appreciative of the things he thought he took for granted was like a slap to the face. JC no longer knew what he was so angry about. The list of reasons in his head as to why Justin was a piece of shit vanished. He felt like an idiot for letting things spiral the way they did.
“I’m sorry about your career, man. But that doesn’t give you the right to fuck yourself over. You’ve got four brothers who worry about you. It probably doesn’t seem like it since we all have our own things going on, but we’re all here for each other. Don’t give up man, there’s still a ton of stuff out there you can do.”
For the first time in a long time, JC finally felt at ease. He couldn’t understand why that out of all the conversations he’s had with Justin about the topic, it was this one that gave him relief. He heard the sincerity in Justin’s voice as he explained his thoughts. It felt good to know that Justin still appreciated them as much as he said he did. It definitely lessened the pain and anger in JC’s heart.
“I’m sorry, Justin. I wasn’t ready to leave NSYNC, I had nothing planned for what would happen after. Everything went downhill for me. I couldn’t get any record deals, for some reason my fan-base wasn’t strong enough, I missed performing… I missed people enjoying the music I made for them. Then I saw you basking in success and the only way for me to feel better about it all was to blame you for everything. It was easier that way.” Tears dotted the corner of JC’s eyes. He’d felt like a heavy burden was lifted from his shoulders.
“I’ve got something I want to ask you and I really hope you at least think about it.” Justin checked JC’s face for any reason for him to not ask but after seeing JC nod, we ahead and spoke. “I was thinking of asking you to work with me on my next album… write some songs, produce them, even sing some with me. I know it’s probably not the type of solo career you want but I’m hoping it helps you get your foot in the door. But you gotta get back on your feet and cut the drinking and stabbing crap.”
JC couldn’t help but let a few tears fall. The man whom he had spited for the past few years was kind enough to offer him a chance at success again. He wasn’t sure that he would’ve done the same if he was in Justin’s position. “That sounds like fun.”
The two shook hands and was in the middle of patting each other in the back when the other three walked in and smiled at the sight.
“Thank God.”
“Whew!”
“Finally!”
The three men spoke. Justin and JC held out their arms to include Chris, Joey, and Lance in a group hug. It was like old times again. JC once again enjoyed the company of all his brothers. Not jealous of any of them. He felt tears dot his face as he hugged them tighter.
