Back To Stories
*Ring, Ring*
The phone rang and I just kept telling myself it was part of my dream. When it wouldn't stop I rolled over and looked at my clock on my night stand. It was 6:30 a.m., who could be calling at this hour? I hesitantly grabbed the receiver and laid my head back down on the pillow.
"Hello?" I said as I tried to clear my throat.
"Hey Jen."
"Lance, is that you?" I asked.
"Yea it's me. Were you asleep?" He asked. I thought about how stupid of a question was when it was quite obvious from the sound of my voice.
"No, of course not. I'm always up at this time on the weekend."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to wake you up."
"It's no problem, I needed a wake up call anyways. So what's up? Are you still in Europe or wherever you guys went? Is that why you're calling so early?"
"No, we're back in Orlando. I've been home about 15 minutes. I slept the whole trip so that's why I'm calling so early."
"Oh." I said simply.
"I figured since I'm back and it's been what, 2 months since we got together, that we could go to Disney and whatever and spend some time together."
"That sounds good. When do you wanna do that?"
"How about I swing by your house at 8 and we go out to breakfast first."
"Well.." I said giving the clock another glance "How about we make it 8:15 and give me a few extra minutes. You know how long it takes me to get ready. Is that ok?"
"Sure. I'll see you then."
"Ok, Bye."
"Jen?"
"Yea?"I replied
. "I've missed you."
"I've really missed you too. Bye Lance." I said as I hung up.
Ok, you're probably wondering about Lance and I. Well here's the lowdown. We grew up on the same street back in Mississippi and our parents were always getting together. As long as I can remember we've been together, not TOGETHER together but side by side together. See we're best friends and have been for a long long time, going all the way back to the diaper days. So how did we get from Mississippi to Florida you ask? Well Lance of course joined Justin, Joey, Chris, and JC in the group *NSync and they were all based out of Orlando. I still had high school to worry with when Lance went off so we stayed in contact throught phone calls and letters while we were apart. During my senior year I applied to a lot of colleges and one that had caught my eye was a University in Orlando. Florida is where I had always wanted to live since I was a little girl, I think I had a dream of being Cinderella and living in the disney castle, but of course we all have little fantasies and that's all they are, fantasies.
Well that day when I received my acceptance letter to the university of my dreams I was so thrilled. It was finally my dream coming true, minus that whole castle thing. I hung out around Mississippi till Mid-August and then moved on out to Orlando. So of course I thought, my best friend is out here I'm going to have a great time. Boy was I wrong. *NSync had to go over to Europe to win over that audience before coming back to the US. So I was stuck hanging out with my room mates, Shelly and Alexis Jean (known better as AJ) in Florida. But still Lance and I kept in touch, rarely though. I couldn't really get letters to him since he was always traveling but he called when he got a free moment every few weeks. That's basically how things went until late winter of my freshman year when I got a huge surprise.
¤ Flashback ¤
*Knock Knock*
"AJ" I yelled from our living room. "Your date is here."
"Thanks Jen." She said coming out of her room. "So what are you going to do tonight?"
"Oh I'll probably get a start on my Psychology paper and watch the Real World and then maybe go out and rent a sappy romance movie. You have a good time." I said as I picked up the phone and dialed my mom's number.
"I will" she said as she grabbed her purse from the counter.
"Hey mom."I said when she answered the phone.
"Oh hi Jen, I'm glad you called. How are you doing?"
"I'm ok I guess. Not much going on here tonight. How about you?"
"Actually Lance's parents are over for dinner. They said 'hi'."
"Oh thats nice. Tell them 'hi' back for me."
"Hey Jen." AJ yelled.
"Hey mom can you hold on a second?"
"Sure."
"What?" I asked.
"It's for you." She said opening the door further.
"Oh my god Lance." I screamed when I realized my mom was still on the phone
"Mom? HE'S HERE! I mean Lance is here. I have to call you back. Bye" I said as I quickly hung up and ran over to him giving him a huge hug.
"What are you doing here?" I asked as he held me in his embrace.
"We're fianlly back and I had to stop in and see you since it's been so long."
"I'm so glad you did. It's been too long." I realized we were still practically standing in the hallway. "Come in and sit down." I said shutting the door behind us. We sat down on the couch to talk.
"Well, I'm going to wait out in the lounge for my date so you two can have some time alone. I'll see you later Jen."
"Later Aj."
"Wow, I still can't believe you're here. Are you done over there now?" I asked as I just looked him over.
"Pretty much, we've got our fan base over there now and we'll go back now and then for promotional stuff and tours but we've gotta get the US now. We've just got so much to do. The first single over here is hitting radio stations all over within the next week and we've got the video starting in rotation soon too."
"Man look at you. Look how you've changed. Somebody got even more handsome. So you're gonna go off and be a big superstar now and forget about the little people like me aren't ya?" I joked.
"Forget about you? That'll never happen."
"Sure, that's what they all say. You'll go out on tour for months and be on tv all over and you won't be the same guy."I insisted.
"Think what you want but you just watch. You and me are going to still be tight, if not tighter."
"Ok, if you say so, we'll see."
¤ End Flashback ¤
Ok so here we are, almost 3 years later. I'll be the first to admit it. We've stayed close. And we've actually been able to do a lot still. Each tour they've done in the summer I've gotten to spend anywhere from a few days to a few weeks with Lance and the other four guys and It's been nothing but fun. So yea Lance won the bet but of course I'm not going to be the one to tell him that. Well as of now it's been a few months since I last saw the guys. They've had to do some work over in Europe yet again. Since they came back from Europe the first time it was really only a matter of weeks that I went without seeing Lance thanks to airplanes but with him being in Europe I can't just hop a flight so easily. So of course I was looking forward to spending the day with my best friend in the entire world.
At 8:15 am...
*knock knock*
"I'll be right there." I yelled as I took a quick glance in the mirror. I then ran over and unlocked the door and opened it quickly. A sudden rush came over and me and a huge smile was implanted on my face. "Hey." I said simply with a sigh.
He said nothing, instead we just gave each other a huge hug. "I'm so glad to see you." He finally said.
"Yea, you too. It's amazing how long a few months really is." I replied.
"Far too long." He said followed by a pause of silence. "So are you ready to go?"
"Yea" I said as I grabbed my purse and key. I shut and locked my door. "Let's hit it." I said as Lance grabbed my hand and we proceeded out of my condo (Aj and I moved off campus for our senior year and are still roomies)
10 minutes later we arrived at the diner where we were going to grab a bite to eat. After we were seated and had ordered we began catching up.
"So what have you been up to lately." He asked.
"Oh that's such a broad subject. I've been at school and working all the time. I went out to a few clubs with some friends from school and I've basically just been doing what I always do. But actually last week we had a few days off so I went home for awhile and relaxed."
"Yea I heard. My mom told me that you and your parents went out a few times with with her and my dad."
"Yup, we had a great time but it would've been better if you could've been there."
"I wish I could've been there. I miss those little things. I missed you a lot."
I paused for a second. "You know you've told me that a lot just today alone. Why'd you miss me so much. I mean we've been apart before."
He thought for a moment. "I always miss you. And I guess I've just been thinking a lot lately about things and what I miss and well...you know."
"Well I've missed you too. You know you can only go so long without seeing your best friend. And we've gone way too long. But you're here now and I'm gonna make sure we make the best out of this time."
"That's what I like to hear."
__________
Our day together was so much fun. We went to disney and universal and rode a lot of the rides and saw some of the shows and just made the most of every minute. After we had dinner we were walking up and down the streets and went into one of those photo places where they dress you up in different costumes to get a picture taken since we didn't have one of us together since about a year ago, plus it looked like fun.
After a few goofy shots we went in for a more serious picture for which they pulled down a starlit sky with the Disney castle in the backdrop. They then positioned us where they wanted us and the guy ran behind the camera and looked into the lens.
"No, no, no. This won't work. Can you two move a little closer together." The photographer said as he motioned his hands to sqeeze in together. After we moved in he took another glance in the lens. "We're almost there. A little closer." We adjusted ourselves again as he looked again. "Beautiful. Now Jen put your arms around him." So I did. "Good, and Lance you do the same." He did the same and then we looked at each other for a moment and laughed. "Great! Look at me and keep those smiles." He snapped the picture twice to make sure he got the shot "All right we got it." He smiled as he stepped away. We had to wait an hour for the photos to be done so we went out for an evening walk through the streets to see everything lit up. I had seen it all before but it was just a lot different when you're there with someone really special.
Once our hour wait was up(At around 9:30) we went back to the photo shop to pick up the pictures. The girl at the register handed Lance the package and he opened it.
"Well would you look at this. This is like the best picture we have of us together." He said as I looked .
"You know you're right. It's surprisingly really good."
"Oh and of course you know who is going to have to have one of these?" He said.
"Yea. Our mom's." I laughed for a second. "I wonder how many hundreds of pictures they have of us together."
"And of course most of them are ones we don't wanna see of ourselves."
"You got that right."
"Well listen we have to get going now."
"Alright" I said as we walked back down the street. We stopped once we reached a grassy area where no one really was at and we sat down.
"It's kinda chilly out tonight isn't it. Are you ok?" He asked.
"It's a little nippy but I don't think I'm gonna freeze to death." I said as I smiled at him.
"Well scoot on over here girl." He suggested. I scooted closer to him and wrapped my arms around him as he attempted to warm me up right as the fireworks started. They were one of the most beautiful sets I had ever seen. With all different colors, shapes, and styles of fireworks shining in the sky one by one.
After half an hour of fire and loud booming noises the show was finally over and people started to pour out of the park but we just sat there for awhile longer.
"Those were great fireworks, weren't they?" I said as I rested my head his shoulder and placed my hand on his lap.
"Yea." He replied. "And they're still going."he mumbled.
"What was that?" I said looking up for a moment.
"Nothing. Well I guess we should be going they're going to close the park soon."
"Good idea. We don't wanna get locked up here all night." I joked.
We made our way to the seemingly empty parking lot, got in his car, and drove off.
"Are you tired?" He questioned.
"Not yet. You know me, I can party all night long and still not be tired."
"Good well how about we swing by your place and you grab some clothes and whatever you need and we have an all night party at my house."
"Are you sure you can make it all night? You use to conk out around 2:30."
"Yea, yea, I can make it, don't you worry about me. So is that a yes or what?"
"Of course it's a yes. You think I'm gonna pass up spending more time with you." I said as he smiled and glanced over at me. "I already told you I'm not one to miss an opportunity to spend time with my best friend." I hadn't really noticed but when I said that the smile kinda went away.
When we arrived at my complex Lance pulled into a parking spot and I got out. The car engine never cut off, and Lance never got out. I walked back to the passengers side and opened the door.
"Well?" I said.
"I'm just going to wait for you. You won't be that long will you?" He replied.
"I don't know. For someone who wants me to come over so we can spend more time together you sure seem to wanna stay away all of a sudden. Wait here then." I said as I ran up to my condo.
"Hey Jen." AJ said when I walked through our living room.
"Hey, how's your night been?" I asked as I sat down on the couch.
"Well to make a long story short. Jeff and I went out in the afternoon then we had a fight and I came home around 6 and I was bawling my eyes out and then about 15 minutes ago he called and apologized and now I'm getting ready to go over to his house and then we're going to a club."
"Rough day."
"Yea, thank god it's almost over. So how about you. Where have you been all day?"
"You remember Lance right?"
"The guy you tell me about EVERY single day? And the guy you have hundreds of pictures of including the ones on the refrigerator, your nightstand and mirror."
I laughed. "Yea him, well he called this morning and we went to Disney and did all kinds of fun things then we watched the fireworks and he dropped me by here so I could get some of my things cause I'm gonna go over to his house for the night."
"Sounds fun. Where's he now?"
"Out in the car?"
"Why?" She said with the same puzzled expression I myself had had.
"Beats me he said he'd wait for me. So I guess I best be packing now."
"Yea, well have a good time and I'll see ya when you get back. I gotta go myself. Later." She said as she quickly scooted out the door.
I walked back to my room and got my gym bag out to stuff my clothes in. I ran around as quickly as I could and got all my clothes, makeup, hair stuff, and everything else in the bag. When I was done I looked at the phone and decided to call my parents really quick.
"Hey dad."
"Hi sweety. What are you up to?"
"OH not too much. Lance is back in town and he called me really early this morning and we hung out at Disney all day."
While I continued to talk to my dad and then to my mom, Lance decided to finally come out of the car and come up to my condo. He looked around and realized I was in the bedroom so he decided to simply look around. He walked through the kitchen and saw the picture of us on the refrigerator and then out in the living room where our old prom picture from 11th grade when we went together was. He decided to take a break and sit on the couch and wait for me. When he did he saw a scrapbook under several books on the coffee table and he picked it up and looked through it. Once again years and years of memories of the 2 of us from the time we were tots up till recently.
Five minutes later I emerged from the room with my bag over my left shoulder and the phone in my right hand and up to my ear.
"Mother, listen to me. I've gotta go Lance is waiting for me. And you have to go cause you and dad and Lance's parents have to go out too. OK?" My mom kept on talking and I put the bag down as I started to get agitated.
"Ok listen, tell Mr. And Mrs. Bass I said 'hello' I've gotta go. BYE!" I said as I hung up "I swear she never shuts up." I said as I walked down the short hallway and through the edge of the living room towards the front door, not even noticing Lance.
"You got that right." Lance said.
"AH!" I screamed. "Are you seriously trying to kill me?" I said.
"Now why would I do that. Are you finally ready?"
"Yea."
Fifteen minutes later we were at his house.
"Well go ahead and make yourself comfortable" he said not too long after we got through the door.
"Ok, well I'll be more comfortable when I change. I'll be back." I said as I ran upstairs to the bathroom to put on my dark blue silk pajamas and then promptly returned downstairs.
"So what do you wanna do?" He asked. "Watch tv, watch a movie..."
"How about we just talk. I'm sure we've got plenty to talk about." I suggested.
"What do you wanna talk about...tv...movies.."
I laughed, "Just stuff. Let's start with a little kind of a game."
"What, you wanna play twister or monopoly." He joked.
"No, all the time you're being interviewed and you're programed to give the same answers to the same questions. Now here we are, you and me, alone, you're going to tell me what you really have to say."
"Sounds good."
"Ok, what was the best part of your childhood?"
"Just being a normal kid and hanging out and playing with you in our yards."
"Awe. All right, what's the worst part of touring?"
"Not getting to spend time with you."
"Cause you miss me so much, like I miss you." I joked.
"What's the best part of touring."
"Well seeing all the cities and fans but the best part is when you come on tour with us."
"Sucking up to the interviewer is not going to get you brownie points Mr."
"It's worth a try isn't it?"
"I guess so. Ok next question."
"How about we switch and I ask you the questions."
"That's fine, I guess."
"Good. What's the craziest thing you ever done?"
"Well one of the craziest would be the time when you were out in California for some awards event and you called me that morning and I skipped a days worth of classes to fly out and go with you. And we were rushing around trying to get a dress. That was crazy, well for me at least. But I did it all for you and I'd do it again in a heartbeat" I said reaching over and giving him a hug.
"Next time I'll give you 24 hour notice. Alrighty, what is the description of your perfect man."
"Wow, my perfect man." I thought. "Well he'd definitely have to be my friend first because you can't build a relationship on nothing you have to have a friendship to base it out of. Then he'd be sweet, charming, not too tall, not too short, killer smile and gorgeous eyes, he'd have to be a good listener, good conversationalist, and just I don't know really."
"Yea sure you don't. Ok final question, it's a sensory question which means you have to relax, sit back, close your eyes and tell me the first thing that comes into your head once it's over."
"Oh wow, Lance has questions with special effects."
I sat back and relaxed and shut my eyes.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be. Fire away."
Lance moved in closer and I felt his warm lips touch mine. With no hesiation I let him continue, slowly his tongue made his way into my mouth and I was no longer going to sit back and relax I was going to get into this. I sat up slightly and draped my arms lightly over his shoulders as our tongues continued to intertwine. We eventually pulled apart.
"Well?" He asked.
"Well what?" I asked puzzled.
"You have to answer the question now. What was the first thing that poped into your head."
"A question poped into my head."
"What question."
"Why didn't it happen sooner." I said with a smile.
"I don't know." He simply replied.
"So what does all this mean?"
"I'm not exactly sure..."
"Well lets go back to my question, why didn't it happen sooner?"
"I don't know. I guess because we've been best friends for so long and everytime I think about us being more it all gets confusing because you remind me that we're best friends and I'm not really sure if you want us to ever be more than that. But it's hard to sit and think we're only friends when you're hugging me and we're holding each other tight sometimes."
"Oh my. I just figured it out. That's why you stayed in the car when we got to my house isn't it? Becuase before that I had said something about how I wouldn't miss the chance to spend time with my best-friend. And I did kinda emphasize best-friend. I'm so sorry I've been giving you mixed signals and confusing you."
"Yea, that's why I stayed."
"Listen to me. Just because I say that doesn't mean you're not more than that to me. You are like... I don't know, my everything. I just say it because I want you to know that you're tops in my life. Trust me I've thought about us being TOGETHER together since high school I guess, it's been a long time."
"Same here. So are we going to do something about it?"
"We have to. As long as we can vow to one another that if for some absolutely crazy reason we were to break up we're still best friends because I can't live without you."
"I think I can agree to that. It'll make us better friends."
"So this is it right? We're actually together now."
"Yes, officially together. So what do you want to do now?"
"How about we finish where we left off." I said as I moved in and we kissed again.
After we finished I sat back and looked at the clock it was only about 12:45 and I knew Lance's parents and mine would still be out.
"Lance, you realize we have to tell our parents."
"I know. I don't think they'll be too disappointed."
I laughed. "You're right. Well I know this sounds stupid but since our parents are still out I'm going to call my mom." I said as I grabbed my cell phone off of Lance's coffee table.
The phone rang and the answering machine came on, so after the beep I left my message.
"Hey guys it's me Jen. I'm just calling to say I'm sorry for hanging up on you mom but I had to go and you wouldn't shut up. Well I'm at Lance's now, say 'hi' Lance." "Hi" "And I just wanted to let you know that we're sending you and his parents something in the mail and we don't want any of you to call us until you get it in the mail, and remember we have caller ID and we won't answer until you get the mail. We're sending it priority mail so you'll have it really soon. I better go before the machine cuts me off. I love you guys. Bye"
Lance left a similar message on his parent's machine and we sat down and talked and watched some tv for awhile. We were both tired at around 2 a.m. So we decided it was time to get some sleep. When we went up to his room I stood there and looked at him for a second.
"Are you sure we should do this?" I said only joking of course.
"Think of it as the nap time we had when we were little and they stuck us in the same play pin."
"Interesting way of putting it" I joked as we got into the bed. And with a kiss goodnight went to bed.
The following morning after showering and getting ready for the day we sat down and got the pictures of us that were taken the previous night and got one for each of our parents. We each then wrote a little note to go with them that went something like this.
Dear Mom & Dad,
I'm sure by now you're wondering why we told you not to call until you received this mail. Well this picture was taken yesterday and you can add it to the many years of memories you have built up in the photo albums. Now I know you're still wondering why you aren't suppose to call until this is in your hands. Well yesterday we went out and were in Disney and had these pictures taken. Then we watched some fireworks and went home and sat and talked for awhile. With that talking came a kiss which then brought us to question our friendship. It didn't take us long to decide that we were more than best friends. So to make a long story short we're now TOGETHER and this picture can mark the beginning of a whole new photo album and part of our life.
Love, Jen & Lance
********************************************************************************************
This story was partially inspired by Soul Decision's song "Faded" the lyrics are as followed...
When I get you all alone
I'm gonna move in nice and close
Ain't nobody gonna interrupt my game
Ever since you've been hanging around
I've been trying to figure out
What I can say to you to get some play
Couldn't we do what we did last night again
Baby you and I'd be better than friends
Don't you think it's time we went a bit further?
Every night when we say goodbye
How can I help looking in your eyes?
Wondering why you and I haven't hit it
Can we get it on?
I'm kinda faded but I feel alright
Thinking about making my move tonight I
can't pretend that you're only my friend
When you're holding my body tight
'Cause I like the way you're making it move
I like the way you're making me wait
At the end of the night when I make up your mind
You'll be coming on home with me
Yeah you know you got it
And you know I want it
I can't wait to take you home (you know you got it and I)
I don't want to be rude at all
I just want to be where you go
Think what we could do alone
Couldn't we do what we did last night again?
Baby you and I'd be better than friends
Don't you think it's time we went a bit further
Every night when we say goodbye
How can I help looking in your eyes
Wondering why, you haven't hit it
Can we get it on?"