The distinct sound of humming could be heard through the narrow corridor of the bus. It was pretty loud, considering what they were about to do, and while it had been funny at first, it was really starting to irk Lance.

JC had been acting very strange as of late. When he had stumbled onto the bus that morning, looking like a zombie straight out of a 1970’s horror movie, he knew that something pretty serious must be going on. And after all, he and Chris had vowed to get to the bottom of this. So that’s what they were doing. It just required snatching the laptop bag and duffle bag that their friend was seemingly attached to. Although this was new territory to Lance, Chris had been at it for years. Of course, as a master prankster, the skill of snatching bags to fill with shaving cream, silly string and other various assortments of gunk was a must.

Chris shoved past the blonde and pulled open the curtain to JC’s bunk slightly. He had to be sure that the older man was indeed asleep. A slight snore from him indicated that was, in fact, asleep and Chris was ready to continue.

He motioned to Lance, Mission Impossible style and ducked into the bunk underneath the area where JC slept on. He grabbed the duffle and the laptop bag, thrusting the latter into his counterpart’s hand before he stood up, nearly smacking his head on the bunk above him.

“Let’s go,” he hissed in an exaggerated whisper. He did a quick about-face and in no time at all, he and Lance were safely in the back room of the bus, the door separating them from the outside world.

“Alright… well… let’s see what we’ve got to work with,” Chris exclaimed excitedly, slapping his hands together.

Lance rolled his eyes. “Please remember that whatever we look at, we need to make sure it’s put back NEATLY. We don’t want JC to know we’ve been going through his things. It’s an invasion of privacy and he’ll not be very happy.”

This time, it was Chris who rolled his eyes. “Must you be such a killjoy?”

“Just shut up and get to work.”

“Aye aye, sir!”

In almost no time at all, Chris had sifted through his friend’s duffle bag but found nothing of interest. Lance had since taken the computer out and gone through several different passwords before he stumbled upon the magic key to log on to his friend’s computer.

“You’d think, considering the millions of lyrics that he’s written, he’d be a little more creative about his choice of passwords.”

“What is it?”

Lance snickered once before answering. “Shazam.”

Chris’ eyes widened as he let out a snort. “Wow. Way to go JC. You’ve reached a whole new level of nerdiness,” he snickered, shaking his head at his friend.

“Isn’t this an invasion of my fourth amendment rights, or something?” came a snarled reply that startled both Lance and Chris.

Both men turned, wide eyed towards the doorway. They couldn’t believe it!

“Uh oh!” Chris exclaimed. “Buuuusted!”

“Damn right. Now who wants to explain why you’re snooping through my things?”

Although JC was a fairly private man, living in close quarters with four other men had broken him of that, for the most part. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, or perhaps it was the events that had taken place over the last couple of weeks, but JC was not feeling very generous at the moment. And given the fact that his friends had taken his things while he was sleeping… well, he was a little less than thrilled with them.

“We just—“

“You were just snooping. So cut the excuses and tell me the truth. WHY?”

Neither Chris nor Lance missed the anger behind his eyes, and they couldn’t quite figure out WHY he was so angry. Yes, they had looked in his things, but he hadn’t had a problem with things like that before. At least, not to this extent.

“We were worried about you,” Lance said bluntly.
“You can deny it until you’re blue in the face, but you’ve been different lately. To the point that you have us worried. Justin and Joey too. In fact, they’d be right here beside us if they weren’t on the other bus.”

JC was annoyed that they were turning this around on him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he spat.

“For someone who hates liars, you’re doing a hell of a job at it,” Lance shot back. “You haven’t been sleeping. You walk around here like a damned zombie. We wanted to know why. We want to know what’s wrong with you.”

JC opened his mouth to reply was cut off at the sound of his computer announcing a new email message. His eyes darted to the screen immediately and he shoved past the green eyed man to get to it. He clicked on the little icon, his fingers moving swiftly against the keys as he typed in his password.

He double clicked on the little icon and immediately a new screen popped open. His eyes skimmed the words and his face drained slightly of its color as he read the words:

My dearest Joshua:

    You’ve ignored me for far too long. The phone call last night should have been a wake up call that I mean business.

    I have been admiring you from afar for many years now. I’ve seen you in person several times, and you’ve snubbed me each and every time. Unfortunately for you, I am through playing nicey nice with you. 

   When I get ahold of you, I will make you pay for the embarrassment I’ve felt at your expense. When I am through with you, you will understand the true meaning of embarrassment and pain. 

      I’ll be seeing you soon.

The very last line of the email would forever be ingrained in his brain. “I’ll be seeing you soon,” he whispered to himself, completely forgetting that he was not alone in the room.

Lance and Chris noticed an immediate change in their friend’s demeanor from the time he had noticed he’d had an email. They had, of course being the nosey fiends that they were, huddled behind him to read over his shoulder.

“What the hell is that all about?” Chris questioned, causing JC to jump slightly. He turned, his face a delicate shade of red. They knew. It felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest. They knew. And he didn’t have to go through the painful, humiliating process of telling them that he had some cyber stalker who was crossing over into real life.


They knew.