In The Long Run

"You totally looked like you were going to hurl!" Justin proclaimed.

"Did not!" Lance retorted. "I was fine."

Cackling, Justin said, "You were not."

They bounded into the kitchen, elbowing each other. JC was behind them, shaking his head. They stopped short when they saw Chris. He was bent over the stove, frying something in a skillet.

"What the hell are you doing?" Justin asked.

"What’s it look like, dorkwad? Cooking," Chris replied.

"Duh." Justin rolled his eyes. "Since when?"

Chris shrugged. "Your mom’s not here. Somebody’s got to do it."

"Is this why you didn’t want to go with us?" said JC.

"Maybe."

"Or maybe he didn’t want to go on the really, really, really tall rides," Justin snickered.

"Shut up or you get no food," Chris said, pointing his spatula at Justin.

"Yeah," Lance huffed, "Leave Chris alone."

"Oh, you’re just mad ‘cause I saw you turning green," said Justin.

"Was NOT!" Lance bellowed.

"Will you two can it?" Chris said. Turning to JC, he asked, "They been like this all day?"

"Pretty much," JC said.

"Better you than me, man," Chris replied.

"Nuh-uh, dude, you missed a great carnival. They had that Alps ride that spins real fast and then goes backwards, and they had bumper cars and a huge Ferris wheel. The Alps thing is where Lance almost hurled," Justin said. Everyone looked at Lance, but he just glared at Justin and said nothing. "Then we went over to the sideshow, and there was this guy with a ten-foot long beard!"

"Oh, yeah, I bet that was real," Chris chuckled.

"Looked pretty real to me, dude," said JC.

"How could you have a ten-foot beard?" Chris asked, "Does he, like, roll it up when he walks?"

"I dunno, prob’ly," Justin shrugged. "So then we went over to the games and Lance won this big ol’ stuffed animal."

"Oh yeah? How’d you do that?" Chris asked.

"At one of those games where you use a squirt gun and shoot water in the clown’s mouth. I got the balloon filled up the fastest," Lance said proudly.

"Yeah, and you also got the wettest ass when I shot you with my gun," Justin crowed. Lance just rolled his eyes as JC and Chris laughed. "You really shoulda come with us, Chris."

"Nah, I was having fun here. Besides, I thought JC needed the sun more than I did." Chris met JC’s eyes as he stood behind the two younger boys. Chris knew JC would have rather spent the afternoon sleeping, but someone had to drive Lance and Justin to the carnival. Lynn had gone home to Tennessee for a couple of days, and Lance wasn’t allowed to drive without an adult yet. (And Diane had been very clear that no member of NSync counted as an adult for this purpose.) They had a rare weekend off, and the two boys had really wanted to see the carnival while it was in town. There was a sort of unspoken understanding among the three older guys that, as much as they all sacrificed for the group, it was Justin and Lance who were giving up the most. Accordingly, when they actually had the opportunity to act like the teenagers they were, JC and Chris helped out any way they could.

"So what’re you cooking? Smells good," Justin said.

"Grilled chicken chalupas."

"Chicken what-a’s?"

"Chalupas. Mexican food. My mom used to make them and they’re easy. You just fry up some tortillas and wrap some chicken strips in them."

"Sounds good to me. I’m starving," Justin said.

"Yeah, well, I only made sixteen tortillas, so you only get four, understand? I’m making rice, too."

"Damn, Chris, you went all out," JC laughed.

"Yeah, no shit," Justin said, "All you need now is an apron and – " He stopped as he peeked into a bowl on the dining room table. "Oh my God. Are those chocolate chip cookies? Dude – "

Chris grabbed him by the collar and looked right into his eyes. "I felt like cooking. So what? One more word out of you and your dinner will be whatever you can scrape off the floor of your bedroom." JC and Lance cracked up, as Chris released Justin and turned back to the stove. "And besides," he added, "They’re not just chocolate chip cookies. They’re Toll House cookies. Get it right."

Straightening his shirt, Justin said, "I’m going to go wash up," and sulked off toward his room.

"It’s a good thing that kid can sing," Chris sighed.

"I heard that!" echoed from the hallway.

Chris’s chalupas were delicious, they decided unanimously. Chris took a bow as Justin finished off his sixth one, since, naturally, JC could only eat two. Lance stood and cleared his plate, turning back to grab the others.

"Who wants to shoot some hoops?" Justin asked, pushing his chair back with a loud scrape.

"Don’t you want some cookies?" Chris asked.

"Later. I’m all full of chicken right now. Gotta go work it off. C’mon, Lance, let me kick your ass for a while."

"It’s my night to do the dishes," Lance said.

"I’ll get them," Chris offered, "Go play."

Lance looked at him darkly, and Chris realized Lance was using his chore as an excuse. But it was too late. Justin was already dragging Lance out the back door.

"Oops," Chris said, chuckling as he gathered the rest of the plates on the counter by the sink.

"What’s with the domesticated thing today?" JC asked.

"I told you, I just felt like cooking."

"Yeah, but now dishes? Voluntarily?"

Chris turned and looked at him. JC was much more observant than people usually realized, and Chris had a hard time hiding things from him. Joey didn’t pay much attention to things, and Lance and Justin were still young enough that subtext generally escaped them. But JC could read people, and right now his blue eyes were piercing through Chris. Turning back to the sink, Chris began to run the water and sighed. "I just… I want them to be kids, you know?"

"They are," JC said, crossing to stand next to Chris so he didn’t have to yell over the noise of the faucet, "They’re fine. They’re happy."

"Are they?"

Nodding slowly, JC said, "Yeah. I think they are. Really."

"I don’t know," said Chris, "We spend so much time rehearsing and taking lessons, and they don’t even get to go to school."

"But they knew that. They signed up for this. It’s a means to an end."

"What if the end is just an end? What if this all goes nowhere?"

"Are you worried about them or about you?"

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Chris said, his defensiveness instinctive.

"Just that… I mean, if this all goes nowhere, Lance will go to college and Justin will find some kind of career in music, that’s pretty certain. And in the meantime, nothing is being wasted. But I know you wish you could send more money to your mom – "

"Leave my mom out of this, C."

"I’m just saying, you and Joey and me, we could be working fulltime somewhere."

"I’ve been working since I was fourteen. I’d rather give that up than see them give up their childhoods like I – " Chris caught himself. "What I mean is that they should enjoy being kids, and not have to work so hard. That’s all."

"OK," JC said, letting the matter drop. But Chris knew what "OK" really meant. Damn JC and his perceptiveness.

Joey’s arrival was a welcome distraction. "Hey," he hollered from the front door, "Somebody come and help me with these."

JC went out to meet him, and they both walked into the kitchen laden down with casserole dishes. "Damn Joe, what’s all that?" Chris asked.

"What do you think? My mom knows Lynn’s not here. Pasta and more pasta."

"Cool," Chris said, "Because I’m out of recipes." JC laughed and smacked Chris with the towel he was now using to dry the dishes. Chris smiled over at him in return. "So how was home, Joe?"

"Usual. Lots of food, lots of questions," Joey answered. Affecting a high-pitched voice, he mocked his mother, "’How come you never come home? You only live across town. Are you eating well enough? Do you have enough money?’ You’d think she never saw me. I’m there like once a week."

"Tell her Lou said you can’t go over there any more often than that, because you’ll get fat," Chris said.

"Oh, yeah, that’d go over big," Joey snickered.

Just then, Lance skidded into the kitchen, breathless. "Oh, hey Joe," he panted.

"Hey Lance. What’s up? Justin chasing you around again?"

"No, no, we were chasing this dog. There’s this puppy…" he paused, still trying to catch his wind, "This puppy came into the yard and it doesn’t have a collar or anything and we didn’t want it to wander into the street. But it took off, doing laps around the backyard. C’mon, you guys should come and see."

Curious, the three older guys followed Lance back out onto the patio. Justin was kneeling down on the concrete, trying to keep a squirming cocker spaniel puppy from escaping his grasp. "Easy, easy girl," he was crooning, trying to calm the dog.

"Wow, she’s beautiful," JC said.

"Yeah, that’s no stray," Chris added, "That’s somebody’s pet."

"Well, they’re stupid then, ‘cause she’s got no collar or nothing," Justin pointed out.

"She’s just a baby," JC said, squatting down to pet her. The dog shrank back against Justin’s lap when they all surrounded her. Her eyes looked too big for her head, and she looked frightened.

"So what should we do?" Lance said, looking to Chris for guidance.

"I guess we should take her to the shelter," Joey replied.

"No way, man, have you seen those places?" Chris said, "Let’s see if we can find her owner first. She might not be far from home."

Lance scooped her up into his arms, and they set off on a walk around their development. When they didn’t see anyone frantically searching for a dog, they split up and began ringing doorbells. No one recognized the puppy. It was after dark when they finally headed home.

"Now what?" Justin said.

"Well, let’s just put her in the backyard for right now. If we shut the gate, she can’t go anywhere."

"Uh, Chris, there’s that hole where you ran the lawnmower – " Lance began.

"Shut up. OK. Maybe we’ll have to tie her to the fence, then."

"Why don’t we just bring her inside?" Justin asked.

"Because your mother will have a cow if the dog makes a mess, that’s why. I doubt she’s housebroken," Chris pointed out. Everyone stopped and thought for a moment. The dog, meanwhile, had fallen asleep in Lance’s arms, snoring softly.

"I think we should just bring her in," JC said, finally. "We can keep an eye on her so she can’t get into too much trouble. In the morning, we’ll put up flyers or something."

"Yeah, that’s a good idea, C," Joey said.

"OK," Chris said, "But we need to watch her."

So they brought the puppy inside and found some blankets for her to sleep on. She slept peacefully while the boys played videogames and ate Toll House cookies. Eventually, everyone but Justin headed to bed. He had volunteered to take the first shift of watching the dog. While he was alone, he found some paper and markers and started making signs that proclaimed "FOUND DOG".

When the dog woke up, Justin took her outside to do her thing, which, amazingly, she did right away and then trotted back to the patio. He laughed as he let her back into the house. Dogs learned so quickly where "home" was, even if it was just temporary. She drank from the bowl of water he set out for her, but then she started whining at him. It took him a moment to realize she must be hungry. He’d never been allowed to have a dog, though, and he had no idea what to feed her. He pondered it for a minute, then thought to himself that Lance would surely know. He would have read it in a book somewhere.

Justin made his way down the hall to the room he and Lance shared, the dog trotting right at his heels. "Hey, Lance," Justin said, shaking the older boy’s shoulder.

"What? It’s not my turn yet, is it?"

"No."

"Then go away."

"No. I need to know what I should feed her. I think she’s hungry."

"Oh. Um, feed her whatever, as long as it’s not chocolate. Did we eat all the chicken?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then look in that stuff Joey brought home. There’s probably some meat in there."

"OK. Thanks."

Justin did, indeed, find some leftovers that the dog greatly enjoyed. After she ate, he took her back outside and then woke Chris up for the next shift.

The next morning, they hung the signs Justin made all over the neighborhood, at the grocery store and the dry cleaners. Then they waited. In the meantime, the dog had to go to rehearsal with them, where she behaved surprisingly well. Their choreographer wasn’t thrilled about it, but he got over it.

On the fifth day, still no one had come forward to claim the adorable puppy, and Chris knew that the guys were starting to get attached. While Lance and Justin were working with their tutor, Chris gathered up Joey and JC for a discussion about what to do.

"We can’t keep her," Chris said.

"No," JC agreed.

"The shelter here isn’t that bad, Chris," Joey said.

Chris sighed. "She’s just really not a shelter dog, Joe. She’s too perfect. She might even be a purebred. And what if no one adopts her?"

"Well, the only other thing we can do is find her a home, then," said JC.

"How?" Joey asked.

JC shrugged, "I dunno. We could ask around, maybe put an ad in the paper."

"Yeah. That’s what we’re gonna have to do, I guess," Chris said.

"Sounds like a plan," Joey said, "But we’re gonna have to do it quick. Lynn comes home day after tomorrow."

"Shit. That’s right," said Chris. "She is really not going to want this dog around. You guys know more people around here than I do. Do you know anyone who might want her?" Both men shook their heads. "OK. Then we’d better call the newspaper."

After dinner, they filled Justin and Lance in on the plan. Both boys balked at the idea of sending the puppy to a stranger. "What if they’re mean to her?" Justin said.

"What if they just want to breed her or something?" Lance added.

"I don’t see what choice we have, guys. It’s either that, or take her to the shelter," Chris said.

"I wish we could just keep her," Justin pouted.

"Well, you know we can’t," Chris replied.

"I might be able to talk my mom into it."

"You probably could. But is that really fair to your mom? She’s already got to take care of all five of us, and we’re never here, so she’d have to take care of the dog, too," Chris said.

"We’re here lots," Lance said.

"No, we’re not," JC interjected. "Between classes and rehearsals and jobs, we’re always coming and going. We’d never be able to take good enough care of her."

"This sucks," Justin concluded.

Two days later, Lynn came home earlier than the guys had expected her. Needless to say, she was a bit surprised to find a cocker spaniel penned into her kitchen. Joey was the first to get home from work that day, and he had plenty of explaining to do.

When the others came home, Lynn collected them all around the dining room table. "OK. What’s the story with the dog, guys?"

They all answered at once, drowning each other out, until Lynn finally said, "Wait. One at a time. Chris?"

Chris explained what had happened, embellishing the idea that they had "rescued" the dog, of course, from a certain horrible fate. The others added bits and pieces. When Lynn had heard the whole story, she asked, "So now what? Are we keeping her?"

"We want to," Justin piped up, as the others glared at him. Glancing around, he backed down. "But we know we can’t. So we’re trying to find her a good home. But no one has called."

"I’m surprised. Usually people jump all over puppies like her," Lynn commented.

"Yeah, I don’t know what the deal is," JC said.

"Well, there is one other possibility," said Lynn.

"What’s that?" Chris asked.

"Lance, your mom mentioned that your dad was thinking about getting a dog to keep him company when she is out here. Do you think they might want this dog?"

Lance’s eyes were wide. "Really? I didn’t know they were even considering it. I could call her."

"You should try that. Can’t hurt. Then you’d know the dog was in good hands, too," she said, ruffling Justin’s curls as he reflexively reached up to fix them. "She really is a sweet puppy."

"Let me go call," Lance said, bolting out of his chair to find the phone.

Lynn chuckled as she asked, "Does she even have a name?"

The boys shook their heads. "I don’t think we wanted to name her if we weren’t keeping her," Joey said.

"True," Lynn agreed.

Lance wasn’t gone for very long before he raced back into the room, phone in hand. "My mom says they’ll take her!" A general cheer went up from the table, as he held up his hand. "But there’s just one thing. She can’t get down here for about another two weeks. So… " His voice trailed off as he looked at Lynn.

"So… she needs to stay here until then. That’s fine, as long as you guys keep an eye on her and keep working on her housetraining," Lynn said.

Lance whooped, and put the phone back to his ear. "Did you hear that, Mom? Is that OK, then?" He paused while Diane answered him. Then a grin split his face from ear to ear. "Thanks, Mama. I’m so glad we don’t have to give her to a stranger. Uh-huh. Yeah. OK. I love you, too. Bye now." He hung up the phone and said, "This is so cool. Thanks so much, Miss Harless!"

"Yeah, thanks Mom," Justin beamed, standing up to kiss his mother on the cheek. From the kitchen, the puppy yipped happily, as if she knew her fate had finally been decided.

"OK. Now she needs a name," Lynn said.

"Alexis," said JC, as if he’d been thinking about this for days.

"That’s cool," Lance said.

"Alexis is not a dog name," Chris sneered, "It’s, like, way too delicate or something."

"She’s not a Rottweiler, Chris," Justin pointed out.

"And she is a bit of a prima donna," Lance laughed.

"Eh, Chris is right," Joey interjected, "That’s not a good name for a dog. Besides, dogs don’t recognize that many syllables in their names. They need nice short names with, like, vowels."

"Since when are you a dog expert?" Justin challenged.

"Who knew what to do when she ate that plant?" Joey countered.

"When she what?" Lynn said.

"Um, never mind, Miss Harless," Joey said, "I was just using an example."

JC tried to restore harmony. "OK, so not Alexis. What about a shorter version? How ‘bout just Lexi?"

"That’s better," Joey said, "She’ll know that easier."

"Lexi." Justin tested it out to see how it rolled off his tongue. "Yeah, I like that."

"Me too," said Lance. "Chris?"

"Yeah, OK. That’s kind of cool."

"Alright," Lance said, "Lexi it is. C’mon, Lexi, girl, let’s go outside for a while." He lifted the puppy over the gate keeping her in the kitchen, her butt waggling excitedly. JC jumped up and opened the back door for them, following Lance outside. The others soon joined them. Chris hung back for just a second, though.

"Thanks, Miss Harless. It really means a lot to all of us," he said.

"I know it does. And you’re welcome. It’s just a couple of weeks, so it’s no big deal. I wish we could keep her permanently, but – "

"But we can’t. We understand that."

"Yeah. Thanks for cooking for the boys, by the way. I figured I was going to come home to a stack of empty pizza boxes."

Chris blushed. "Eh. It was nothing fancy."

"That’s not the point. You made sure they had good food to eat," Lynn said, "And that’s the important thing. You guys all take care of one another, and that’s what’s going to make the difference in the long run."

"Yeah, I think you’re right," Chris said, smiling. He glanced out the door and laughed. "Hey, I think they threw Lexi in the pool again. I’m gonna go out and join them."

"OK, sweetie, have fun."

"We are, Miss Harless," Chris said, with more conviction than he’d felt in a while. "We are."

Feedback

Fanfiction

Home