*****

“What the hell, Chris? I mean it, what the hell?” JC was furious, and the words spilled from his mouth without any regard for the consequences. He didn’t care. “What were you thinking?”

“Fuck off, JC!” Chris spit back, just as angry. He paced in front of JC, fists clenched, eyes snapping. Justin stared miserably out the window, obviously wanting no part of this. Lance and Joey exchanged glances, and the expression on Lance’s face made JC even madder. He wasn’t wrong about this, and Lance could just go to hell.

JC was aware, somewhere under his anger, that this wasn’t important. The fact that he was reacting so strongly to Chris’s stupid joke was a function of exhaustion, and JC knew that. He didn’t care. He just wanted to yell at someone.

Wade popped his head in the room, took one look at Chris and JC, and backed out again. Good. JC didn’t know why they couldn’t have some privacy every once in a while. All these people, always hanging around, were part of the problem.

“JC-” Lance started. That’s as far as he got. JC turned on him in a flash of fury.

“Shut up, Lance. I wasn’t talking to you.” He kind of liked the way Lance’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened. Good. Let him be mad, too.

“Okay, you know what? We’re done here. There’s no reason for this to get all blown out of proportion.” Now even Joey was pissed. Perversely, that made JC feel better. If Joey was mad, that somehow validated JC’s anger. Except that it didn’t, of course, because Joey was mad at JC for being mad at Chris, and now JC’s head was starting to hurt on top of everything else.

They were all on their feet now, and for a minute, JC worried that someone was going to take a swing at him, but common sense prevailed and they all just filed out of the room instead, Joey shoving Chris ahead of him. Justin brought up the rear, and he didn’t even slam the door behind him.

And then JC just felt kind of stupid, and very, very thwarted, because it was really hard to be mad at everyone, and throw a world-class temper tantrum, when you were standing in the middle of a room, all by yourself, with no one to yell at.

Fuckers.

*****

JC pretended that he didn’t see Chris and Justin laughing together in the corner of the kitchen. He decided he could ignore them just as easily as they could ignore him, and he reached into the bowl on the counter for an apple. There weren’t any. He sighed and settled for an orange, taking it to the couch on the other side of the room. He silently ate his orange, fantasizing about depositing the sticky peels in Justin’s hair. He’d like to watch Justin struggle to get the rinds out of his stupid ‘fro. He could see that providing hours of entertainment. Okay, minutes maybe, but, still. It would be very satisfying, and it was extremely tempting, but. He was ignoring them, which meant he couldn’t engage them in any kind of interaction whatsoever.

The problem with ignoring people who had started ignoring you first was that they might not notice that you were ignoring them. It was very vexing, and it made JC shift impatiently on the couch. He may have even huffed to himself, loudly. He waited.

Nothing. Justin and Chris just kept talking and giggling to themselves, like a couple of six-year olds. Honestly, JC didn’t know where they got the energy for that. Rehearsals for the tour were quickly reaching the brutal stage, and the MTV cameras were becoming really annoying. Every damn time he turned around, there was a camera in his face, trying to capture his exhaustion and frustration.

Speaking of frustration, he probably wouldn’t be quite so on edge if he’d gotten laid recently. But, no, Lance was ignoring, him, too. It wasn’t fair, they all had a breaking point, and just because JC had reached his first didn’t mean that his four best friends in the entire world, not to mention his boyfriend, should stop speaking to him.

Or sleeping with him. The last time he and Lance had sex had been two whole days ago, slow, sweet, careful blow jobs, because that was the most they could muster the energy for, not to mention, every muscle in JC’s body was sore. But Lance had been very enthusiastic, and JC had been very appreciative, and all he wanted now was to taste Lance’s skin again, and to hear him gasp in that way he had that made JC ache with longing.

Joey and Lance came in then, and JC couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under Lance’s eyes, how pale he was. He usually looked good in yellow, but today his baggy t-shirt just made him appear washed-out in the artificial lights of the Compound’s kitchen. He didn’t even glance at JC, not once, not even a little peek. JC’s eyes kind of prickled at that, and he just wanted to go over and lean against Lance, and tell him he was sorry, but the rigid line of Lance’s back stopped him.

Joey did look at JC, a sympathetic smile in his eyes. JC smiled gratefully back at him, feeling pathetic and tired. Joey couldn’t stay mad at any of them for long, so it really didn’t count as any kind of cessation of hostilities that Joey smiled at him, but JC would take what he could get at this point.

Lunch was uncomfortable, because JC didn’t really enjoy being treated as if he was invisible. Chris and Justin seemed to be having a great time. Lance was quiet, only talking to Joey, Joey nodding solicitously back at him.

Then lunch was over, and they gathered back in the practice room to work on choreography. JC hoped that maybe by the time they were done, they would have forgotten all about being mad at him. Maybe they could all bond over being mad at Wade for being such a sadistic motherfucker. It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. They all knew better than to let something like this fester, so JC resolved to put it out of his mind for now and he started dancing.

*****

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