Fanboy (boyxboy)

Second Chance

"What? This better not be a joke."

Martin's angry voice interrupted their rehearsal. He was all the way out in the hall but it was terrifyingly easy to hear him over the music.

"Let's just take a quick break," Jeff suggested. "I'll go-"

"Oh, holy shit," Monroe gasped, looking at his phone.

"Did something happen?" Brent asked. He looked as nervous as Adam felt.

"Oh shit, Brent!" Tyler smacked his hand over his mouth. He had his phone out too. "Guess what, bro."

"No way, no fucking way," Jimmy looked over Tyler's shoulder. "Maddox Bieber is gay?"

Adam was 99% sure the entire floor moved under them. He wasn't sure where to look. Monroe and Jeff both looked anxious, giving each other looks but not speaking. Brent's face went white but then he glared.

"That's not funny," Brent accused.

"He's not joking," Jeff shook his head, grabbing a remote and turning on the TV. "It broke the internet. Twitter, Facebook, everything is down. He just announced it on Ellen. Fuck!" Jeff threw the remote down.

"Why is everyone upset?" Zack whispered as the news channel replayed Maddox's announcement.

"Oh my god," Brent was still pale. "This is not happening. I can't. I wasn't ready. This. I."

"Okay, relax," Jimmy laughed. "You still haven't met him. What if he's a dick? Or has a tiny dick?"

"Adam was right," Brent shook his head, staring at the TV. All eyes in the room suddenly turned to Adam.

"I, um, I was just trying to make Brent feel better, I didn't know," Adam insisted. As if they didn't already know that? How would he have known?

"Wait, go back to Zack's question," Tyler looked at Jeff. "Why is everyone upset? Is it bad that Dax is gay?"

"No, not at all," Monroe insisted. "It's just that we're trying to get you guys some attention and this is all anyone will want to talk about for a while. It's bad timing but, you know, we just have to get over it."

"I am so not getting over this," Brent was still staring. "This is too crazy to be real."

"Brent, kid, you gotta pull it together," Jeff warned. "We have to get back to work. This will pass soon enough."

"Either that or Brent will pass out," Jimmy snorted.

"I'm fine, it's fine," Brent shook himself off and got to his feet. "Let's start over."

They went back to work and as shaky as Adam felt, he actually thought they did a better job than they'd been doing before they got the news. He couldn't wrap his head around it. How could Maddox Bieber be gay?

It wasn't that the idea was so impossible, just that Adam hadn't expected it at all. Why did it bother him so much? It wasn't supposed to make a difference, but it sure felt like knowing Dax was gay changed everything.

Adam couldn't get out of his head for the rest of the day, not even when they were in the car on the way home after work. He just kept going over everything in his mind. Before he'd moved to L.A. he'd never even met a gay person. Now he was living with a gay couple, his one and only friend, maybe even his best friend, was gay and the singer he'd always idolized was gay.

And then of course there was the conversation he'd had with Tyler at Brent's house before the Maddox Bieber concert. Was Tyler teasing? He had to have been teasing. But what if he was right and Adam really was gay? How did people even figure that out? Adam sighed.