It was hot in New Orleans. Way too hot. Hotter than Justin was used to. Hot enough to make him sweat inside of the air-conditioned house and the moisture trickled down his hairline every once in a while until he swiped the back of his hand across his face, impaitently. He didn't know where this heat was coming from. This oppressive heat. This cloying heat. It was suffocating. He had to remind himself to breath at times. He took deep breaths, in and out. He closed his mouth and focused on drawing the air through his nose. Then he opened his mouth and let his air out like a puff of smoke. It relaxed him. It was all he could do right now. But it didn't make him feel much better. New Orleans was extremely hot.

Justin could feel the heat pulsating against the glass of the large picture windows that surrounded the huge living room they were in. The sunshine danced in rainbow colors, as the thick glass acting as a prism, across the cream colored carpet that covered the floor in a thick and comforting way. Justin knew this because his feet here bare and he was laying back on on a plush couch. It was white and black, sort of dramatic, in an ordinary artsy way. He was glad Lance was sitting on the other side, far away from him. He didn't want to be close to anybody right now. It was too hot. The downside was that Lance was hogging the air conditioning, leaning over the side of the couch to put his face directly in the path of the cold air, churning out of the machine as hard and as fast as it could. Justin could hear the AC unit groan and rattle with the effort. Everything had been full blast while they were in New Orleans. Nobody could get away with doing something halfway. But Lance's big head deflected most of the cold air from the AC and Justin tugged on his white beater, pulling it away from his sticky chest, feeling hotter and hotter.

He didn't say anything to Lance.

They had probably been in the room for an hour. Justin didn't know. He just remembered JC being pulled out of rehersal and then they were told to wait inside of the house, in the entertainment room. Just wait there. Chris and Joey had left to find food, lunch of some type. He wasn't sure what the plan really was. There was a clock on the wall and a clock in the TiVo but even when Justin glanced over at the numbers, they didn't mean much to him. He felt like he was suspended in time, in a very hot room, in a very strange place, practically alone. Nothing, no sound, no company. Lance didn't count, not now. There was only one person Justin wanted to see but he wasn't there.

The room was the good part of the bottom floor of the west wing of a huge manision they were staying in while they rehearsed for the PopOdyssey tour in New Orleans. It was a beautiful place, right on the ocean. They all got their own rooms, plenty of privacy. New Orleans was very chill and they didn't get hounded by the paparazzi or the fans very much. They just did their thing, fiddling with the stage, the steps, the choreography. The tour was so big that everything kept getting pushed back, the CD release date was pushed back. Still they kept working at the whole thing harder and harder and now, here he was, sitting on a couch in the entertainment room in the house, just waiting. This waiting didn't seem right. He shouldn't have to wait. He shouldn't have to wait to hear from his own best friend.

"I'm so hot," Lance moaned. Justin didn't want to hear it. He leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling. All the rooms in the house had very high ceilings and there was a sky light from this one. He could see the pale blue smooth sky. It reflected the ocean, which was just down the beach. The sand just beyond the house led to the shore like they were living in a magical oasis.

"I just want to hear what he has to say," Lance was still talking. Justin clenched his jaw. He grinded his teeth. He didn't feel that angry but he wanted to. "This is probably not what he expected. He didn't want everyone to find out like that."

Every muscle in Justin's body tensed. He felt like he could walk through a wall right now and emerge on the other side, unharmed. The Incredible Hulk, that could be his new identity.

"Justin." Now Lance was stage-whispering. "Are you asleep?"

Justin slowly looked over at Lance, taking his gaze down from the ceiling. He was pretty sure that his eyes had been open the whole time and he didn't know why Lance would ask such an idiotic question.

"No?" Justin snapped.

"Don't take it out on me," Lance said, blandly.

"I just want to know what's going on." Justin stood up, unable to sit there, just sweating and pretending. He started to pace the room. At least he was moving and sweating now. Lance patted the air conditioning lovingly.

"I think it's overheating. We should take it down a notch." Lance clicked the air conditioner from high to medium. Justin ran both hands over his hair. He just had to know. He had to hear it from him.

The door opened.

Justin's heart jumped into his throat. He felt gagged. He couldn't help it.

"What's up, bitches?" Chris called. He came in with Joey. They were carrying a big red cooler between them and they dropped it in the middle of the floor, between the TV, the video game/stereo equipment and the couches and chairs on the other side.

"We come baring gifts," Joey said. He grinned. Justin looked past Joey and Chris but nobody else was there. Justin groaned loudly, feeling frustrated in a way he had never felt before.

"We brought chocolate for the ovulating one," Chris said, holding out a Cadbury chocolate bar.

Joey snickered. "And we didn't forget the tampons!" He added.

Justin sneered at Chris' hand and walked away from all of them. Screw them. He was waiting for JC. He leaned against the hot window and looked out, towards the beach, over to the gently lapping ocean, waves small and fragile like it was impossible for your whole world to change in a moment.

"The boy is heartbroken," Chris called. Justin knew he just wanted to get a rise out of him. Well, he wasn't going to give Chris the satisfaction. He kept his back turned to them in a sideways lean against the window. He could hear cans opening, popping and fizzing behind him. He smelled beer and he wanted one but he wasn't about to go back over there.

"How long have you been here?" Joey asked Lance. Lance rifled through the cooler and all the ice until he came up with a bottle of Fuji Water. He uncapped the square, awkward bottle gratefully.

"I guess an hour. I didn't know it would be so long. I thought we would talk right away."

"He's in there with Johnny," Joey said. "Ever since we left to get this stuff. And we took our sweet time."

"No, we didn't take our sweet time," Chris clarified. "Everyone else did. I've never been in such a lazy city."

"Then you should fit right in!" Joey teased. Chris made fake laughing noises and glared. They both drank their beer and Joey was eating a tube of cookie dough while Chris had a bag of kettle-style potato chips. It was time to start getting in shape for the tour, but since the date kept getting pushed back, things were lax right now. Besides, who knew, maybe after the JC news there wouldn't even be a tour.

There was silence in the room after a while, save for the sounds of eating and drinking. Lance reached into the cooler delicately and found a candy bar. It had been quite the shopping trip for Joey and Chris. Justin sunk down to the floor eventually and sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, looking down at the expensive carpet. More time slipped by. Joey tossed a beer can in the trash and popped open another one. Chris traded in his chips for a sandwich. Joey belched loudly all of a sudden and at the same time the air conditioner made a loud, jarring grinding noise and then the familiar whir stopped. There was no more cool air. The air conditioner had broke.

"Dammit!" Chris exclaimed. "Look what you did, Joey."

Joey patted his chest. "Excuse me."

The room was sweltering in what felt like seconds. Lance tried to turn on the TV but it wasn't working. They tried a couple of other appliances, the stereo, the Xbox. Everything stayed still and black.

"The power's out," Joey finally declared. "It's the damn heat."

"Oh no..." Lance groaned. He tossed back the rest of his water, sadly.

"Have a beer, it'll cool you off." Chris demanded. Lance shook his head. He didn't believe in drinking in the middle of the day. "You, too." Chris extended his invitation. "Justin. Cool you off and you obviously need to relax."

Justin clasped his hands together in front of him. He didn't say anything. He just sat there and he could feel the sweat running down his back, pooling in the small of his back, a small pond of worry.

"Fine, be like that." Chris said.

"Can heat make the power go out?" Joey asked, pushing the power button on the remote for the TV over and over again. He tried a light switch on the wall. "Can it really do that?"

"Yeah, it can harm the transformer or something," Lance said, matter-of-factly.

"Transformer? Like a dude that turns into a machine or whatever. That cartoon still exists? And it affects the power?" Joey looked at Lance incredulously . Lance rolled his eyes and threw his water bottle at Joey. He laughed when Joey dug his hands into the cooler and then threw ice back at him. Chris grabbed a handful of ice and dumped it down Joey's back.

"It's on!" Joey shouted, pushing a bunch of ice in Chris's face. Chris pelted him with ice best he could. Lance laughed and hopped over, gathering up a bunch of ice and then dumping it on both Chris and Joey's head. The ice fight continued without abandon, chunks of ice melting rapidly all over the room. A stray ice cube bounced off of Justin's shoulder.

"Cut it out!" Justin called, but he was ignored. He buried his face in his knees and just felt himself growing hotter and hotter, like he was a nuclear bomb and he might explode from the inside out.

Then the door opened and the ice stopped flying and Justin looked up and placed his hand in a wet spot and sweat slid into his eye and his eyes stung and he hoped it was because of the salty irritation and not because JC was standing at the front of the room, holding his hands out like everything was normal, smiling like he actually had a happy announcement.

"So," JC said, bringing his hands together. He shrugged, still smiling. "I guess you know. I asked Laura to marry me. And she said yes. I'm getting married."

The room was quiet for a moment. Justin was glaring and he knew JC could see and they all could see but nobody commented on it. Joey rose from his position on the floor.

"Have a beer, man," Joey said, walking to JC and handing it to him. He patted JC on the back.

"Congratulations," Lance chirped.

Chris popped open his fourth beer of the half hour. "To the man of the hour. Joshua Chasez."

"Thank you," JC said, holding the beer and smiling and not doing much else. There was silence again. Tension. Nobody was going to say anything. Justin realized this. No, he knew all along. They were all going to pretend like it hadn't happened like it did. They were just going to sweep it under the rug. His betrayal . JC's. They were going to ignore it. No. Not Justin. He had something to say.

"Yeah, we already knew." Justin said, sharply, struggling to his feet against the heat that seemed to be pressing against him harder and harder as all the cool air remaining from the air conditioning evaporated. "We all heard it. From MTV news."

JC's eyes may have changed for just a moment but then he was still standing there, holding the beer with that same stupid smile, like this was normal, like he could ever be forgiven.

"I don't know how it leaked," JC said. "I'm sorry you guys had to find out that way."

"Well, why didn't you tell us first--"

"Uh, I think he should ask the girl to marry him before he asks us," Chris interrupted.

"-- you didn't even talk about it. We had a right to know. You didn't even ask!"

"It's his life," Joey pointed out. JC just stood there. Everyone was in shorts and tank tops. They had been practicing with Wade when Johnny got the call, when MTV news broke the story, when management asked JC into the backroom and told them to wait in the entertainment room. Justin's nostrils flared and he felt like biting something-- hard.

"You should have talked about it with us!" Justin went on. "You never even mentioned it. You've just... it's been four months. Or five... I don't know when you started counting. Not long! Did you ever stop to think, JC? Do you ever?"

"Stop it, Justin," Lance said quietly. But he wasn't going to stop.

"Why are you doing this to us?" Justin asked passionately. He was yelling, probably, but his voice sounded muffled and small in his own ears. "What are you thinking? What will this do to the group? To everyone... to our fans? What do you... and why? Why? Why! Is she pregnant? Did you give her a disease?"

"Justin!" Lance said sharply.

"Is she blackmailing you? Are you crazy? Do you need to be committed to a mental hospital? Tell me, JC, why. We all want to know. Why are you marrying this woman? You barely know her! Why are you marrying her, right now?!"

Nobody told him to shut up then. Justin knew they wouldn't. They wanted to know too. JC let his smile slip a bit. He carefully wiped the condensation off his rapidly warming beer.

"I just needed to. It came to me. I asked her." JC paused. "I know that's not a good answer. I honestly don't know why. But it's right for me right now. I know that. And we can make this work. It won't affect us that much. We're still the same group."

"No, we're not." Justin said. He couldn't help it. He let all the disgust he was feeling show on his face. He gave JC the nastiest look he had ever given anyone in his life. He just couldn't believe it. JC, of all people, doing this to them. Ruining their group. Everything they worked so hard to create. Justin would never do that. He would never let the other guys down like that. Not for his own stupid, selfish reasons. "We're not the same now. We'll never be the same. This could destroy our group, JC. And if it does," Justin headed towards the front of the room, sweating profusely, sweating through his shirt in the front and the back. Sweat was dripping off his nose and even pooled in his ears. He stood in JC's face. They looked at each other. Their blue eyes reflected each other. Justin leaned in closer and whispered. He hissed at JC, spat the words. "I'll never forgive you."

Justin marched out of the door and slammed the door. JC winced. He stroked the beer can softly with his thumb and then closed his eyes wearily.

"Don't worry about, Justin, man." Joey said. "You know how he is."

"It's so hot," JC said. He finally opened the beer and took a swig.

"Nothing will change," Lance said in a reassuring, confident voice. They were all standing in a semi-circle, sort of facing each other. JC sucked noisily on his beer.

"Damn, I'm melting." Chris wiped his forehead.

"Things won't change," Lance said again. But as soon as the words left his mouth and he looked around at his bandmates, standing together, sweating in the sweltering room, he knew that they already had.