Page 7 of Ken
FOUR
Well,thathad certainly been interesting.
Being trapped in an elevator should be scary, Ken supposed, though he hadn’t actually found it that bad. At the very least, it should be tedious, but it hadn’t been that, either. Not with Justin there.
How had Justin escaped his notice until now? How had he never seen anything but a moderately cool guy? Oh, he had known that Justin was talented. The songs that he’d written for the band, especially the ones for Darien, and then Lance and Jamie, had been beautiful, but Ken had never reallyseenJustin.
Well, he had seen him in that elevator, and what he had seen had actually sort of shaken him. In ten minutes, Ken had felt more different emotions than he was used to feeling in a whole day. There had been curiosity, and then anger, bright and hot but at least familiar. And then, following on the heels of that anger, there had been desire, the almost overwhelming urge to grab Justin and kiss him and demand that he take those cruel words back.
Which was more than a little bit confusing. But then, it had been so long since Ken had really felt anything, and probably, in some deep, dark corner of his psyche where he didn’t like to look too much, he was getting desperate. What would it be like, he couldn’t help but wonder, to be the object of Justin’s intense gaze? To feel those arms lock around him?
Not that he was ever going to know. Anger was safer, and Ken decided he would focus on that. It wasn’t really that difficult, anyway. Justin thought he knew so much about Ken’s love life, just like Ken’s mother. Justin thought he was an idiot for wanting to go after Aaron, but why did it have to be as hopeless as all that?
It didn’t. There was no reason for Ken to give up before he’d even tried, right? Right. So he walked away from the elevator, now several hours later than he was supposed to be, and down the hallway toward Lester’s office.
Justin was behind him, he supposed. Not that he cared. It was just that the man was a bit of an enigma to him. So quiet, but then suddenly so blunt, to the point of rudeness. Well, Ken, at least, knew when something was none of his business, and he pushed Justin out of his mind as he tapped quickly on the door before pushing it open.
The way the desk was set up, it partially faced out the window, toward the water, on a bit of an angle. Lester’s back wasn’t quite to them, but the way he was sitting, his profile was to the door, and the screen of his computer was partially facing Ken when he walked in.
Ken barely looked, but when Justin joined him, and he couldn’t even help but sneak a little look over at the infuriating man, he saw a deeply thoughtful look on Justin’s face. Lester, apparently surprised by their arrival, quickly slammed the lid of his laptop shut and then turned around in his office chair to face them.
“Nice of you to show up. Finally,” Lester’s tone was snarky, and Ken winced because he knew that he did deserve it. He was really very late.
“Where are the rest of the guys?” Ken asked, though, of course, he mostly meant that he wanted to know where Aaron was. Not that he would say that, not to this man, who had been pissed off enough when Lance and Jamie had hooked up very publicly. Lester had wanted to control what the public saw of their relationships, to orchestrate it, but he had pretty much given up on that, as far as Ken could tell. The Lost Boys hadn’t been interested in putting up with that for long.
Which was almost too bad, otherwise, he could have potentially asked for Lester to put him into a relationship with Aaron. But this probably wasn’t the time to ask, not when Lester was so mad, and chances were good Aaron would flat out refuse anyway.
“Downstairs practicing. Because they showed up several hours ago, when they were supposed to,” Lester informed them. Ken could almost swear he saw venom dripping from Lester’s lips, but again, it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it.
“Okay, man, why did you call us here?” Justin interrupted, and Ken smirked a little bit. Justin was much closer to Lester’s age and seemed to see him more as an equal than Ken would dare to.
“I got some bad news,” Lester informed them, still glaring at both of them. Maybe he would move on from how late they were and get to the point, but he clearly still wasn’t happy about it. “The Lost Boys are well on their way to being bankrupt.”
Ken blinked, his brow furrowing as he tried to figure that one out. Even with a few seconds of thought, though, it still didn’t make any sense at all.
“I don’t get it. Our sales are high, our songs are some of the most played on radios and everywhere,” Ken protested. “We sell out every venue you put us in. How could we be losing money?”
Justin didn’t say anything. He had lapsed into a thick silence, one that Ken didn’t even know how to start to penetrate. So Ken looked at Lester again, arching an eyebrow.
“Because we’re spending more than we’re making,” Lester told them bluntly. “Advertising, that’s a big one, and we can’t get rid of that. Wardrobes, lighting, it all adds up.” Lester shrugged and then turned malevolent eyes on Justin, who was, for some reason, looking at the closed screen of Lester’s laptop. “Plus this son of a bitch isn’t exactly cheap.”
The comment was sharp, as pointed as a knife, and Ken glanced over at Justin, who just looked at Lester with a calm face. But that calm seemed to be a little strained when Ken looked closer. It looked like Justin was only just holding on to it, and with how Lester was acting, that wasn’t much of a surprise.
“You have something you’d like to say to me?” Justin asked, with more bravery, more courage, than Ken suspected he could find himself. At least unless he was in the grip of his temper, and then, he wouldn’t be nearly as restrained as Justin was. It was sort of admirable, really.
“Yeah. You charge too much, you’re late all the time, and half the time I can’t reach you when I need to,” Lester returned, apparently not particularly impressed by Justin’s nerve. “I think it’s probably best if we go our separate ways. We can find another songwriter, one who will charge a lot less.”
Ken couldn’t be sure of exactly what he was feeling. All he really knew was that this wasn’t fair. Something inside of him protested that injustice, no matter how weird things had gotten between himself and Justin recently.
“His songs kick ass,” Ken defended, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared Lester down. “Come on, you know he’s worth every penny that we spend on him. No second rate songwriter can take his place.”
Until he’d spoken, Ken hadn’t really known how protective he was of the other man. By the look Justin was giving him, he hadn’t expected anything of the sort, but Ken found himself completely in the dark about whether he approved or not.
“The band has a big enough name. We don’t need him anymore,” Lester said, and there was something strange in his eyes. Something that Ken didn’t understand. It seemed almost like the guy had some sort of personal stake in this, but then, why would he?
Lester was slimy, and really, it was enough of a reason for him to ditch Justin, just because he wanted to make some more money. After all, in Lester’s mind, surely Justin had already served his purpose?
“He hasn’t done his other two songs,” Ken said, flailing around, grasping desperately onto anything that he thought might bear his weight like a drowning man. “My song, and Aaron’s. They’ll make a ton of money, his other two did.”
