Joey was perched on the edge of an oversized sofa as he watched Justin record his vocals for I’ll Be Back For More, one of the songs they’d be performing in just seven days. The studio Lou had booked for them was privately owned, so the room they were in was small. It didn’t help that Lou and Robin had joined them and the studio engineer, making them feel cramped.

There was an empty lounge across the hall, but none of them wanted to wait in there while the others recorded their vocals. Being in the studio itself was exciting, and they looked forward to it being a large part of their careers if the demo succeeded.

However, there wasn’t much to do while they waited, especially since Lou was there. The five of them felt awkward having him around since they’d had objections about recording these tracks yesterday. Needless to say, time creeped by.

The only exception was when the waiting was over and each of them stepped into the recording booth to sing. Singing always seemed to provide them with euphoria no matter what the circumstances. But it never lasted long. Joey had finished his part nearly a half an hour ago and already was impatient with waiting again.

Justin had his eyes closed as he sung the last note, and Joey knew he was enjoying every second of it. They were getting a little taste of what the future could be and they wanted more. It was just another thing to push them to do well for the demo so they could get signed.

“Alright. That’s perfect. Thanks, Justin,” the sound engineer said, pressing a button so Justin could hear him inside in the booth.

Justin smiled and lifted the headphones off his head, replacing them on the stool he’d been sitting on just seconds ago. He pushed open the glass door and stepped back into the room. Robin smiled as she moved aside so he could join the rest of them sitting on the couch, but before he could, Lou put a hand on his shoulder.

“Good job, son,” Lou said.

“Thanks,” Justin replied. Lou nodded, removing his hand, and Justin finished walking over to the couch. When he saw there were no seats left he whined, “Can’t one of you guys scooch over?”

“Where would you like us to go, Justin?” Chris asked. For it being an oversized sofa, the three of them took up the cushions, leaving Joey to rest on the arm.

“Then get up so I can sit,” Justin said.

Chris rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to switch with you.”

“JC, you’re up,” Robin said, interrupting them.

Justin smiled smugly as he waited for JC to rise to his feet. Once JC was clear of the couch, Justin went to sit down in the vacant seat. But Joey slid off the arm and landed next to Lance before Justin had a chance to take JC’s spot. Joey grinned as Justin huffed and crossed his arms.

“Sit on the arm, J. It’s not that bad,” Joey said.

“What do you know,” Justin mumbled, but hung off the arm like Joey had.

Joey and Chris exchanged grins before they focused their attention on JC, who’d just put the headphones over his ears. Once the sound engineer was certain that JC was ready, he cued the music. A couple seconds passed before JC’s voice blended with the instrumental track.

A minute later, JC’s voice faded out with the last note. He smiled softly and nodded when the sound engineer asked him to do it again from the top. It was something they all had to do whether or not their first take had gone well so there would be a couple versions for the engineer to work with.

The music started again and was quickly followed by JC’s voice. It went as smoothly as it had the first time. Joey wasn’t surprised by that because while Justin was sickeningly good at almost everything, JC had one of the best singing voices he had ever heard.

So he was surprised when Lou grabbed the microphone before the sound engineer could and told JC to do it over. Joey hadn’t heard anything wrong with either of JC’s takes, but he supposed it couldn’t hurt to have another one. Once again the music was cued, and JC sang his part all the way through.

“Try it again,” Lou instructed. “You were a little flat.”

The four of them looked at each other in disbelief. They hadn’t heard anything different than the first two takes. JC had already started singing though, so they weren’t able to protest. A couple minutes later the song ended, and again Lou wasn’t happy.

“Try to put more emotion in it this time,” Lou said. JC just nodded and readjusted the headphones.

Joey and Chris exchanged wary glances. JC always sang with so much emotion, which made Lou’s reason for making him to do it again a bullshit excuse. For whatever reason Lou seemed determined to give JC a hard time, and Joey felt anger rise in him. And a glance at Chris showed that he was feeling the same.

“Lou—” Chris started to object, but Lou cut him off.

“He needs to get this right,” Lou said. He turned his attention back to JC and nodded at him. JC cleared his throat before the music started to play and put even more emotion than he normally did into a song, trying to appease Lou.

“One more time. Your voice cracked on that high note,” Lou said.

“Actually, it’s time for lunch,” Robin said, stepping in. “We can pick this up afterwards if we need to, but I think we have enough to work with.”

Lou just nodded. “OK. I’m going to make some calls, but I’ll be back to check in later.”

The door closed behind Lou, and Joey watched as JC’s shoulders sagged slightly as he took off the headphones and left the booth. He accepted the bottle of water that Robin offered him and gave a weak smile of thanks. It didn’t take long for him to drain it, showing just how raw his throat probably felt.

“Why don’t you boys go across the hall and eat your lunch? I’m sure Lynn probably left something for you in there,” Robin said.

Justin slid off the arm of the couch and led the way out of the room. JC slowly followed and threw the now empty water bottle in the trash can on the way out the door. The five of them walked into the lounge where there were a couple warm paper bags of fast food.

It wasn’t surprising that Lynn brought lunch for them because she always made sure that they ate. Normally they got to eat at the house, but their schedule today didn’t permit that. And there was no way she would pass up the opportunity to provide lunch, especially since she always lectured them about how important it was to eat because they worked so hard.

They all crowded around the table to grab their food before they dispersed. Joey and Lance sat on the couch near the table, while Justin stretched out on the loveseat across the room. So that left Chris and JC sitting at the table.

The quiet sounds of eating filled the room, but it didn’t last long. Chris looked up from his burger at JC and asked, “Why won’t you stand up for yourself?”

Joey glanced up from his food to look across the room at Chris and JC. He’d figured that Chris would say something to JC about what’d happened in the recording booth sooner or later. They all wondered why JC hadn’t tried to tell Lou that he didn’t need to record any more takes.

“What are you talking about?” JC replied, not meeting Chris’s gaze and trying to sound nonchalant.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Chris said. “You let Lou tell you to sing your part over and over again even though you knew it was fine.”

“Well, it has to be better than fine. It has to be perfect,” JC replied.

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Even at the cost of your voice?”

“My voice is fine,” JC said, firmly.

“Only because Robin finally said something since you weren’t going to,” Chris replied.

“I was doing my job,” JC said.

“Your job was done before Lou even started demanding that you do it over. He didn’t do that to the rest of us, and you want to sit here and tell me that he was in the right?”

“He probably heard something that the rest of us didn’t,” JC said.

Chris rolled his eyes. “That’s bullshit, and you know it!” There was a slight pause before he continued, “I shouldn’t be surprised though. This isn’t the first time you went along with whatever he wanted.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I know you’re not OK with us lip syncing,” Chris said.

“How?” JC demanded, his voice rising slightly. “How do you know that’s not how I feel?”

“Because I know you, and I know when you’re lying. And it has to stop because every time you don’t argue with him, you’re letting him have more and more control over us,” Chris said.

Joey exchanged uneasy glances with Lance and Justin. He’d been prepared to let Chris and JC work through it themselves, but it was starting to escalate. And it was more than unsettling to see them argue because there hadn’t been any real disagreement in the group. Until now anyway.

“Guys, maybe we should just take a second to breathe and talk about this,” Joey suggested, trying to grab their attention.

“How dare you put that on me! You don’t even really know me, so how the hell could you know I was lying?” JC yelled, ignoring Joey. “I actually gave an opinion. If you’re so concerned about Lou controlling us, then why don’t you get on Lance or Justin’s case? They didn’t even say anything one way or the other.”

“They don’t suck up to Lou any chance they get!” Chris shot back.

JC’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me for not wanting to piss off the guy who’s financing our entire career right now.”

“I think it’s more than that. I think you’re willing to do anything to please Lou,” Chris said.

Abruptly, JC stood up from the table, causing the chair to teeter. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” JC shouted, his face pinched and his voice rough.

Joey watched as JC stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him, leaving his half eaten lunch on the table. The air was tense as Chris stiffly reached for his burger to finish his lunch. Something probably should have been said, but Joey didn’t know what.

All he knew was that he didn’t blame JC for storming out like he had. What Chris had said to him had been uncalled for, but Joey couldn’t tell Chris that. At least not yet. He’d have to wait until Chris cooled down because he wouldn’t listen otherwise.

But what he could do was check on JC. So Joey stood up and threw his garbage away before walking out of the room. He stood in the hall for a moment, wondering where JC would’ve gone. The place wasn’t that big so he couldn’t have gone far.

That was when Joey remembered that there had been a conference room to the left when they’d first walked in the front door. It seemed as good a place as any for JC to be since no one else was there. So Joey walked to the next room down and opened the closed door slowly.

His heart stopped momentarily when he saw JC sitting in a leather chair, his head bowed and his shoulders shaking with sobs. For a moment Joey thought about just turning around and leaving JC be. He hadn’t given any indication that he’d heard Joey come in and probably wanted to be alone. But Joey quickly dismissed that thought, knowing he couldn’t leave JC when he was so upset.

Joey softly closed the door behind him and stepped forward asking, “Are you OK?”

JC’s breath hitched as he wiped at his eyes. “Yeah,” he said, trying to offer Joey a watery smile and failing. “I’m fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Joey asked.

“No,” JC said softly, shaking his head.

Joey nodded, having expected JC to decline his offer. But he wasn’t going to leave JC just yet. He was going to stay until JC had himself under control and was ready to face the others. So he pulled out a chair and sat next to JC.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. JC’s shoulders had finally stopped shaking, but tears were still falling from his eyes. He heaved a shaky sigh before he raised his head slightly, glancing at Joey out of the corner of his eye.

“He just doesn’t understand,” JC about whispered.

Joey couldn’t argue with that because that much had been obvious just by the argument between JC and Chris. But there wasn’t anything he could say to JC to make it better either. All Joey could do was be there for him in case he wanted to talk.

Without a word, Joey scooted his chair closer to JC and threw an arm around JC’s shoulders. He squeezed JC’s arm slightly, and JC sagged a little in the chair, letting his head rest on Joey’s shoulder as he wiped at his tears.

That night the five of them walked into the local arcade just before nine thirty. It’d been Chris’s idea because they hadn’t gotten a chance to go out the night before. And after hearing Justin’s concerns about being left behind when the rest of them went out, Chris felt like they should spend some time together.

The arcade was pretty large and was nearly empty, which was a bonus. They hated going when it was so crowded that they couldn’t have their pick of games. Not that it was much of a problem lately considering they didn’t even get out of rehearsal until at least eight.

So they split up and gravitated towards the games that served as a favorite. Nearly ten minutes passed as they all played and spent the small amount of money that Lou had given them earlier that week. Chris sighed in frustration as he turned away from Frogger and noticed that Lance was playing Pac-Man next to him.

“You know, you can make him go faster,” Justin said, leaning over Lance’s shoulder.

“Yeah, but I want to keep control so it’ll be easier to clear the level,” Lance replied.

“It makes it more challenging though,” Justin objected and took control of the joystick. Lance tried to push his hand away while keeping his attention focused on the game. A few seconds later, a low tone sounded, signaling that Lance lost.

Lance sighed and turned to look at Justin. “It also makes it challenging when someone won’t let go of the joystick.”

Chris watched the exchange with a grin, glad that Lance was finally starting to feel comfortable around them. Or at least with Justin. He hadn’t really had a chance to bond with Lance like Justin had, and Chris decided that maybe it was time.

“Hey, Lance?” Chris waited until Lance faced him before he asked, “You wanna play air hockey with me?”

Lance shrugged and nodded. “Sure. Why not?”

“Why not me?” Justin asked, pouting slightly.

“Because you whine like a baby when you lose,” Chris said. He looked up at Lance from where he was kneeling to insert the quarters, ignoring Justin’s cry of protest. “What do you say we make it interesting?”

“What do you mean?” Lance asked, standing at one end and grabbing one of the mallets.

“We bet a couple of bucks for the winner to claim,” Chris said.

“All I have is a dollar,” Lance replied.

“That’s OK. You can bet that and I’ll still bet two,” Chris told him, placing two stacks of quarters on the edge of the table. Lance stared at him for a second before he put his dollar by Chris’s.

Without a word, Chris pushed in the money and the table instantly turned on, causing the puck to start gliding across the table. Out of the corner of his eye, Chris noticed that the other guys had come over to watch. He glanced up and smirked when he saw that Lance was staring at the puck with a look of concentration on his face.

“You know, this isn’t a game of concentration. You just have to feel it,” Chris said.

Lance barely glanced up at him as he asked, “Are you feeling it?”

“Please,” Chris said, waving his left hand in a dismissive manner as his right moved the mallet to the right, sending the red disc back to Lance. “I could do this in my sleep.”

“Then maybe you should wake up,” Lance returned with a smirk as a clink sounded. Chris looked down and saw the disc sitting in his goal. He was surprised at Lance’s cockiness, but enjoyed seeing it. Already this was going well, and they’d only just started.

“I see you’re already resorting to cheating. Can’t say I’m surprised,” Chris said, putting the puck back on the table and hitting it towards Lance’s goal.

“I’ve never cheated,” Lance objected.

“Go ahead and deny it, but I know what happened with Go Fish. Justin told me all about it,” Chris said, winking at Justin, who laughed and shook his head.

Lance’s hand slipped at that, opening the goal for the disc to slide into. He frowned, and Chris just grinned at him. With a clink, the puck was placed back on the table and the game resumed.

“At least I don’t have to talk to distract my opponent from how much I suck,” Lance said, glancing at Chris knowingly.

“You’re talking just as much as me,” Chris pointed out. 

Lance managed to get another goal just then and smirked at Chris. “I’m actually winning though.”

“Oh yeah?” Chris challenged and connected the mallet with the puck. It started to float across the table only to stop in the middle as the game shut off. “Aw, man.”

Joey laughed and clasped Lance on the back. “Nice one, Lance. You knocked Chris down a peg and got two dollars out of it.”

“Whatever. I let him win,” Chris said, trying to sound like he meant it, but he couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. He’d been surprised that Lance had sparred with him verbally, but was pleased. It was a good icebreaker, and Chris had no doubt that Lance would continue to open up with all of them.

“C’mon, Joe. Let’s play pool,” Chris suggested, reaching into his pocket for the dollar they’d need only to come up empty. He looked over at Lance. “Can I have a dollar back?”

The guys laughed as Lance made a show of sighing before handing over the money. Chris accepted the four quarters with a smile and motioned for Joey to follow him back to the pool tables. He racked the balls while Joey grabbed cue sticks for them and rubbed chalk onto his own.

“You break,” Chris instructed as he picked up the blue chalk.

Joey lined up the cue ball and forcefully struck it, sending it right into the other balls and spreading them across the table. The number two ball landed in the corner pocket, making him solid and Chris stripes. Once Joey’s turn was over, Chris stepped up to the table and lined up his first shot.

It went in easily, and he moved around the table to set up his next shot. Chris rolled his shoulders slightly, trying to loosen some of the muscles before he bent over the table. The cue ball was already in motion when Joey suddenly said, “Maybe you should apologize to JC.”

Chris sighed heavily. He had missed his shot, but it was more because of what Joey said. It was something he’d expected earlier, especially since Joey had been the one to go after JC. But when Joey hadn’t said anything, Chris had started to think that maybe he’d just let it go. The last thing he wanted was to get into this with Joey, but it didn’t look like he had a choice.

“Why?” Chris asked, straightening and leaning against the side of the table. “We just had a fight. It’s not like I hit him or anything.”

Joey frowned. “Is that the only thing you apologize for? Hitting people?” There was a slight pause before Joey said, “What you said to him…”

“Hasn’t changed,” Chris finished. “And I stand by what I said.”

“So you have nothing to apologize for?” Joey asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Chris sighed again and met Joey’s gaze. “Look, I know what you’re getting at. I’ll admit I didn’t have a lot of tact with what I said, but that doesn’t change how I feel. And JC knows that, so there’s no point in bringing it up again.”

Joey raised an eyebrow. “Does he?”

“Yeah,” Chris said simply.

“Then tell me why he hasn’t said two words to you all day. Or tried to beg out of coming when you mentioned going out,” Joey countered, staring at him expectantly.

“I don’t know. He probably wanted to work on a song or something,” Chris said.

“Or he was trying to avoid you,” Joey replied.

Joey was right. There was no denying it, and Chris had figured that he’d bring that up. He hadn’t failed to notice how JC went out of his way to keep his distance from him. It hadn’t really bothered him though because he assumed JC had just needed some time to cool off. They had both gotten pretty pissed at lunch.

But Joey was concerned and was expecting Chris to fix this. Something that Chris didn’t think needed fixing. It’d been bound to happen sooner or later because they spent so much time together. And that’s what he was attributing it to, so he didn’t see the sense in apologizing for differing in opinion on something.

“What do you want from me, Joey?” Chris asked.

“I want you to smooth things out with JC.” Chris started to protest and Joey continued, “Whether you think it’s necessary or not, you said some pretty harsh things.”

“So, what? You want me to sugarcoat it for him every time we have a disagreement?”

“No, I just…He was so…” Joey shook his head. “There are better ways to get your opinion across, you know?”

Chris opened his mouth to reply, but quickly closed it when he saw JC approach.

“Sorry to interrupt,” JC said, glancing at Chris before looking at Joey. “Justin sent me over here to ask if you have another dollar. He’s got a new game addiction to feed.”

“Yeah, I have some change,” Joey said, but ignored JC’s outstretched hand. “I’ll take it to him.”

JC withdrew his hand and shoved both of his hands into his pockets. He watched as Joey headed over to the other side of the arcade. After a few more seconds of standing there awkwardly, he started to turn to leave. Chris almost let him go, but knew Joey expected him to settle things with JC.

“JC, wait,” Chris said, reaching out to grab JC’s bicep. He felt the muscles tense slightly and dropped his hand. JC must still really be upset about what he’d said at lunch. “I’m sorry I was so harsh with you earlier, but I meant what I said.”

JC nodded in understanding, but still didn’t meet his eyes. “I know. It’s not a big deal.”

Chris stood there for a second, trying to decide if JC was sincere or not. He sounded like he was OK, but he hadn’t really made eye contact with him yet. And he shifted back and forth on his feet, obviously uncomfortable. Chris could hear Joey in his head and recognized that he couldn’t leave things awkward between him and JC.

“So why are you so afraid of Lou?” Chris asked, trying to really have this conversation with JC. As much as he wanted to fix things for the group harmony, he wanted to know what really happened that afternoon too. What was really going on in JC’s head.

JC’s head snapped up and his gaze was fiery as he firmly said, “I’m not.”

Chris was a little taken aback from the fierceness in JC’s gaze, but asked, “Then why won’t you stand up to him?”

“About the lip syncing or the recording?”

“Both,” Chris said simply.

“I guess it’s just…we can do what we want when we get signed. We can sing live and not worry about the consequences. But right now, it has to be perfect,” JC explained.

“Nothing’s perfect,” Chris said.

“Well, this has to be,” JC insisted.

Chris frowned. “Why? Because Lou said so?”

“He’s the one making all this happen for us, trying to get us a record deal. If he wants it perfect, then that’s how it should be,” JC said.

“What if he wants us to…do a naked photo shoot? Would you go along with that just because ‘that’s what he wants’?” Chris asked, wanting to get through to JC that it was OK to say no to Lou. That even though this man was financing their future right now, he didn’t get a say in everything.

“No,” JC said.

Chris leaned forward slightly. “So tell me how that’s different than what happened this morning.”

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m OK with lip syncing?” JC asked.

“No because I know you’re not. And before you start on your whole ‘you don’t know me’ crap, you’ve made it perfectly clear in the few weeks I’ve known you that a real musician doesn’t lip sync. So are we not real musicians?”

“Of course we are,” JC said.

“Then why didn’t you say something during rehearsal yesterday? It seemed like I was trying to cause trouble because I was the only arguing with Lou. If you’d said something, we might’ve been able to talk him out of it,” Chris replied.

JC sighed. “We’re not going to have to deal with this forever. When we get signed, we can tell Lou how we feel and take more control.”

“Why can’t we do that now?”

Chris stared expectantly at JC, wanting him to answer the question. He was trying to understand why JC wouldn’t say anything against Lou’s ideas, but it was difficult. It was hard for him to comprehend it because sticking up for himself had been part of growing up.

But JC wasn’t offering up an answer. Chris was about to push the issue some more when Justin came running over with Joey resignedly following him. Immediately the kid attached himself to JC’s side and started to pull on his arm.

“C’mon, C. I want you to play Galaxia with me,” Justin said. “I need you to get me up to level ten.”

JC let out a small, forced laugh. “Alright. Let’s go.”

Justin and JC walked to another part of the arcade. As soon as they were out of earshot, Joey turned to Chris and asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Chris denied.

“You made things worse,” Joey said.

Chris crossed his arms. “How? I was talking to JC, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, but you saw how fast he jumped at the opportunity to leave. He was uncomfortable,” Joey said.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I tried, but he’s like impossible to understand. It’s like he’s schizo or something,” Chris replied.

Joey laughed. “Some would say the same about you.”

“Well, this schizo’s about to kick your ass in pool,” Chris said, picking up Joey’s cue stick and handing it to him. Joey accepted it and their game continued as if there had been no interruption.