Page 8 of Ken
Why wouldn’t Justin say anything? When Ken stole a little look at the older man, he saw that he looked strangely pale, and Ken could almost swear that he was shaking. He looked terrified, but why? He was a huge deal, and even Ken knew that Justin could go anywhere and have another job in ten seconds.
“… Maybe,” Lester allowed, and Ken surreptitiously nudged Justin, trying to will him to say something. But he remained silent, and Ken growled softly. What was Justin’s deal? Did he care about keeping this job or not? Ken was getting some mixed signals on that.
“Fine.” Lester turned to Justin, his eyes slightly narrowed as he looked appraisingly at him. The dude almost had dollar signs in his eyes, and it would almost be funny if the situation wasn’t so desperate. “You write me a hit song, and we’ll talk. Until then, you can consider yourself on probation.”
Still, Justin didn’t say anything. His lips, so full and generous usually, were set in a tight, hard line, and he gave Lester an incredibly intense look that Ken flat out didn’t understand, and then abruptly turned and left the room.
With a confused look back at Lester, who had this strange, tense, strained look on his own face, Ken followed Justin out. Now would be a good time for him to go join his friends, to get to the practice that he should be doing even now, but he couldn’t quite make himself when he saw how Justin was leaning against a wall, head down.
There was something about him that Ken found himself unable to look away from, now that his attention had been brought to it. Some sort of suffering, or so it seemed to him. But what did he know? No one had ever accused him of being the most observant person in the world.
“Hey, what’s up?” Ken asked, bouncing awkwardly on the heels of his feet, his eyes fixed on Justin. There was that shock when Justin raised his gaze, and his eyes locked with Ken, but Ken didn’t look away. Then again, he never quite seemed to be able to do so.
“I don’t know. That was weird.” Justin’s voice was a bit shaky and quiet, and Ken had to lean in, closer to him, to even hear him. Even so, he shook his head, confused by the comment.
“What was weird? We all knew Lester was a dick before now, that’s not exactly news,” Ken pointed out, but Justin shook his head.
“I don’t know. Didn’t you think it was weird how he slammed his computer shut when we walked in?”
Ken frowned, thinking back. Now that he considered it, yes, that had happened, though he’d brushed it off at the time as not important. Which it really probably wasn’t, he mused and then spoke those musings.
“Nah. He was probably just looking at porn or something. No big deal,” Ken decided, and the faintest trace of a smile rewarded him as it drifted across Justin’s handsome face.
“Ew,” Justin commented, and Ken laughed and nodded in agreement. The mental image, if one thought about it too much, was actually fairly nauseating. But the way that he and Justin kept looking at each other, that was just a little bit too good, really.
Slowly, Ken found himself moving forward until he was maybe just a hair closer to Justin than he probably really should be, at least if he were being smart about it. But since when had he been known for being smart?
Justin watched him, head tilted slightly to the side, and Ken couldn’t help but wonder what lurked behind those mysterious eyes. He didn’t really mean to shift even closer, but he found himself doing it, anyway, drawn to Justin in a way he couldn’t quite explain.
“I gotta go,” Justin abruptly said, breaking the spell, which was probably just as well. Ken, caught thoroughly off guard, stepped back, then watched as Justin walked away. What was going on with him, anyway? These weird feelings that he was having?
Why did he keep wanting to grab Justin and kiss him senseless?
“See you later,” Ken called after him, and Justin raised his hand without looking back and disappeared around a corner. Ken smirked when he noticed where Justin was going. He had avoided the elevator completely, heading for the stairs, instead, which Ken couldn’t exactly blame him for. Ken wasn’t exactly excited about the idea of going into an elevator right now, either.
Squaring his shoulders, Ken watched until Justin was gone and then shook his head to try to clear it. Something weird was going on with him. Call it spring fever. It was as good a term as any.
Well, he knew who he really wanted, and that was Aaron. Aaron just made way more sense than Justin did, at least for Ken. He had to admit though, if only very very quietly and only to himself, that whoever did manage to hook up with Justin would be pretty lucky.
Slowly, much more slowly than was usual for him, Ken headed to the stairs, pushing open the door that Justin had disappeared through just a short time ago. He headed down the stairs, his feet knowing where to take him, thankfully, because his brain was hundreds of miles away.
Even seeing Aaron couldn’t bring him back to himself. It wasn’t that his bandmate was any less beautiful, because he wasn’t, and he was even out of breath and shimmering with sweat, which ought to have been quite distracting.
But his mind kept drifting off, and even when his friends were chattering at each other, Ken barely paid attention. The only time he perked up was when he heard Lance and Jamie talking about how strange it was that Lester wanted to get rid of their songwriter, and how it didn’t make any sense.
Ken wasn’t sure that he could say anything without saying it far too emphatically, so he kept his mouth, for once, firmly shut. Lance looked at him curiously, but no one else even seemed to notice, which Ken figured was for the best.
He just had to get this weird thing out of his system. That was all, and it should be no big deal. He hadn’t been thinking about Justin this much yesterday, and he wouldn’t be tomorrow, probably. It was just one of those weird things. A crush, momentary at most, not anything to get all stressed out about.
Of course, it was today right now, and he was thinking about Justin, and he had never been all that good at restraining his impulses. As soon as there was a moment where Ken could duck away, he found himself with his phone in hand, tapping out a text message that he probably really shouldn’t have been sending at all.
