CHAPTER 2
JC worked his way up the stairs to his hotel room. He had been gone over an hour. He knew the guys were going to start on him the minute he got to the door. Sure enough. When he opened the door, Justin and Joey greeted him with a stern look.
“What took you so long?” Joey asked. JC was trying not to crack a smile, but the guys noticed anyway.
“Alright. Who was she?” Justin asked with a grin as he slammed the door behind him. “I want details.”
“Too bad cause you’re not getting any.”
“Oh, come on man.” Justin urged. “You can’t leave us in the dark. You have to tell us something.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything”, JC replied. He loved torturing the guys. The anxious look on their faces was just too funny.
But Justin and Joey persisted. Their curiosity was getting the best of them. “Dude, we’ll leave you alone if you just tell us her name”.
JC figured this would shut them up. “Her name was Ali.”
“And?”
“You didn’t say you wanted anything else.”
“Oh come on!” the guys said in unison.
"Well, for starters, she didn’t go ballistic and ask me if I was the guy from NSYNC.” Justin and Joey were stunned. “We just had a regular conversation. She told me she was going to the concert with her friend. I just played along and told her that I got front row and was going with a bunch of friends too, so she said she’d look for me.”
“Do you think she knew you who you were?” Joey asked.
“Oh, definitely. When I came up to her, her eyes got huge and she turned stark white. It was like she wanted to go nuts but she managed to keep her cool”.
“Whoa. That’s pretty crazy.” Justin laughed and patted JC on the back. “You go JC. Big Daddy got his swerve on!”
“So you think you’ll find her tonight?” Lance asked as he strolled in on the conversation.
“It’s possible”, said JC. “She was wearing a jersey like mine. She’s got third row seats too, so she shouldn’t be too hard to find”.
“Now for the important question”, said Joey, an evil grin spreading on his face. “Was she cute?”
“Is that all you think about?” he replied, trying to be cool. But then he felt his face turn bright red. He was never the type to tell the guys about his female encounters, but this time he couldn’t resist. “She was adorable. She was really nice too. We just had a normal conversation and she didn’t once ask me about being in the group. You know that almost never happens.”
“Don’t we”, said Lance. Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of Chris yelling, “I sliced it!”
“What’s he doing?” Joey asked.
“Messing with the Playstation”, said Justin.
JC rolled his eyes and turned to Lance. “You may recognize her friend. She says that her friend went to middle school with you back in Clinton.”
Lance looked puzzled. “If it was back in middle school, I may or may not. How old is this girl? Did you catch her friend’s name?”
“Twenty and no, but you can ask her yourself when they come backstage. She said she got some backstage passes too.”
The guys looked at JC. “Alright!” Then they started taunting him. “Go JC! Go JC!”
JC shook his head. “You guys need help. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a nap”.
“Sweet dreams,” Justin said with a laugh as JC flopped himself onto the couch. The guys joined in the humor as they dodged pillows being tossed in their faces.
Ali pulled up into the driveway. She managed not to get herself killed on the way home, especially since she couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. She saw Rose’s car. She must be home for lunch. Perfect timing.
She got in and found Rose eating a sandwich. She waited for Rose to swallow whatever she was chewing before she started telling her about her encounter.
“Hey girl, what’s up?” Rose asked. Then she saw Ali’s face. “Ok, who is he?”
Ali laid out on the couch. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you”.
Rose wasn’t going for that answer. She got up from the table. “Girl, don’t make me have to beat it out of you,” she said playfully.
Ali sat up and looked Rose straight in the eye. “You first have to promise me that, when I tell you this, you won’t ask me if I have food poisoning or if I OD’ed on the coffee. Ok?”
“Oh boy. This sounds good. You got it. I won’t say anything”.
“I saw JC. The guy from NSYNC…”
“WHAT?!”
“Wait. It gets better. He was by himself and he came over and we actually had a normal conversation. I didn’t even ask him if he was in NSYNC and he just played along. He just said that he was going with a bunch of friends and they got front row. I told him where we were going to be sitting and that I’d look for him.”
“And he just played along the whole time?” Rose asked. She was trying to make sense of it all. “Are you sure it was him?”
“Oh yeah. It was him. He even made a comment on my shirt, saying that he had one just like it. He drove by me when I was walking out and said something about my car. He had a Jeep just like I thought. If it wasn’t him it was his clone. But I swear on my grave it was him.”
“And you didn’t lose it?” Rose started laughing. “You didn’t start clawing at him and going ‘JC! Take me now!’”
Ali responded by smacking Rose upside the head. “No. You may be surprised to know that I behaved myself”. Rose tried to hold in her laughter but one escaped. “Even though I almost exploded after he kissed my hand good bye”.
Rose’s eyes widened. “Ohhh. You go girl. Looks like we’ll have something to look forward to after all. Did you say anything about me?”
“Yeah. I told him that you knew Lance in middle school and how I had to beg you to go with me to this. He figured you were a Backstreet Boys fan and I was trying to convert you”.
“Why’d you go and mention them?”
“Oh chill. He didn’t say anything. He was the one who said I was trying to convert you”.
“Oh jeez.” They both laughed.
Rose checked her watch. “I need to get back to work. Go take a cold shower or something. I don’t want you bouncing off the walls when we go tonight”.
“Too late”. Ali replied.
* * * * *