The scene outside the Times Square studio was the mass hysteria that Nick was used to. Or, the mass hysteria that he was used to seeing, in any case. He wasn’t sure that he would ever get used to the frenzy that seemed to surround the pop music world. Nick just tried his hardest to tune it all out. The driver pulled the van around the side of the building, away from all the people staring up at the large window a floor above their heads. The five men that made up Nsync exited the large white vehicle, and bounded into the building, with Leigh not two steps behind. They quickly and quietly piled into the elevator, and pushed the button labeled 2. All of the guys goofed off and the security teamed laughed right along with them. It seemed that nobody noticed that ‘Justin’ was being rather quiet.
Nick was never so nervous to get on stage before in his life. He had always had confidence in his talent, ever since he discovered he could sing and dance. But, it was terrifying to depend on someone else’s body in performance, even though he knew that Justin’s body was well equipped to handle it. Nick knew that it was because his body and mind just hadn’t connected, and he wasn’t sure if they ever would. He took 10 deep breaths and let them out as the guys all exited the elevator and were ushered into make up. He just had to get through this one performance.
Leigh pulled him aside before he walked into the make up room. "You are going to be wonderful sweetie." she quickly kissed his cheeck at the corner of his mouth and walked away.
Al flipped on the television in her room. Justin was sprawled out on her bed trying to keep himself calm. He was very anxious about meeting Nick this afternoon, but Justin kept his head as level as possible. He just had to keep busy, or else he would go crazy with worry.
“Whatcha watching?” Justin asked Al as she chose a channel and placed the remote on the ground.
Alicia turned and looked at Justin quizzically. “You’re kidding, right? Justin, Nick is on TRL today, remember?” There was a little more bite in her voice than she had intended, but she was still a little hurt from the incident on the plane.
Justin’s shock was written plainly on Nick’s face. “I know that Al, I just didn’t know it was on already is all.” Justin wasn’t sure exactly why Alicia was getting defensive, but before he had a chance to question her about it, she mumbled an apology and turned her attention back to MTV. Justin in turn faced the television as well, stealing glances of the beautiful brunette out of the corner of his eye from time to time. After a few videos and a couple of commercial breaks, Justin’s undivided attention was focused on Carson Daly.
“Woah, the crowd outside the studio is going wild. I guess that must mean it’s about that time. Our guests today are one of the hottest groups in music today, and the release of their highly anticipated second album is just around the corner. Here they are, singing the first buzz clip from No Strings Attached, Bye Bye Bye.” Carson’s voice faded and the lights came up partially on the five guys on the stage.
Justin inadvertently drew in a ragged breath as he heard his own voice sing the first line of the song. He watched Nick dance in the background while JC took the lead vocals, and was surprised at how well he was doing. He was right on time for every move and the look of concentration that he wore lent itself perfectly to the mood of the song and the choreography that went along with it.
Nick slid to the front of the group and began singing Justin’s solo. Just as he had done previously in LA, he added a little pelvic thrust, which made all of the girls in the audience squeal in delight. Justin laughed, letting out that breath he had taken in as the song started. And that quickly, it was over. Justin mentally cheered for Nick, a smile on his face. Al, on the other hand, was whooping for joy.
“Did you see that? Man, who knew Nickstar could dance like THAT?” she said, as TRL cut to another commercial.
Justin continued to chuckle. “He certainly worked the crowd, that’s for sure. Don’t think I could have done it better myself.”
There was another moment of silence, and just as Justin got up the courage to ask Al why she had tried to bite his head off before, but again, Carson’s voice captured their focus.
“I am Carson, back on Total Request Live, with my five very esteemed and screamed at guests, Nsync. Hey guys, how’s it going?”
“Hey Carson. We are doing pretty good.” Chris responded, shaking the host’s hand. The rest of the guys followed suit, nodding in agreement.
Carson smiled into the camera cheekily. “Oh my God! Justin Timberlake just touched my hand!”
Justin and Al looked at each other and burst out laughing. If Carson ONLY knew how wrong he was.
The rest of the interview was rather uneventful, until the very end. Carson turned to who he and the rest of the room assumed to be Justin, and asked, “Justin man, what’s up with you? Usually we have to pry the mic away from your mouth. You have that Nick Carter-esque silence thing going on.”
Nick’s eyes grew wide, and he tried to talk, but there wasn’t any sound coming out.
The other guys looked at him questioningly, and JC stepped in. “His throat has been bothering him, so he is trying to save his voice for the shows here.”
“Oh, I see.” Carson said. Nick smiled brightly and nodded. “Well, that’s it for us on TRL today. Hey Justin will you use your precious vocal chords to announce the number one video?”
Nick looked over at the cue card, and laughed. “Sure thing Carson. Here’s the Backstreet Boys with Show Me the Meaning, numero uno on TRL.” The camera faded into the video.
“He looked a little too happy about doing that,” Joey commented, leaning toward Lance and JC,
“He has been acting strange since Leigh got here. Chalk it up to puppy love,” Lance replied. They all watched as Justin bounded over to his girlfriend and hugged her tightly to him, the two laughing at some private joke.
Nick walked over to the rest of the group, his arm around Leigh’s shoulders in a brotherly type embrace, so the fans in the studio wouldn’t get the wrong idea. He glanced at his watch quickly and then spoke. “Guys, we don’t have anything for the rest of the day, right?”
Lance spoke up. “Nope, not a thing.”
Nick smiled, thanking God that nothing had come up last minute. “Well, I am going to take Leigh here out for a late lunch.”
Knowing this was part of the plan, Leigh whined playfully, “Jus, I want Chinese.”
“My kind of woman,” JC said smiling. “There is a great restaurant right around here that you could try.”
“Sounds good to me,” Leigh said. “Point us in the right direction.”
“I’ll do you one better,” their head security man, House, spoke up. “We will drop you off.”
Justin bounced his leg on the ground under the table, causing his water to slosh around in the glass.
“Thanks for that Justin, but I already showered once today,” Al said, wiping a few stray drops of water that had fallen onto her thigh.
“Sorry, nervous habit,” he replied, shrugging. But, as much as he wanted to, Justin couldn’t ignore the tone that Alicia continued to use with him throughout the day. He reached over and pulled one of her small hands into both of his, forcing her to look into his eyes. “What is with the attitude Al?”
“I—I don’t know what you are talking about,” she stammered.
“Ever since we got off the plane you have been giving me attitude and brushing me off. Why?”
Al watched as Justin looked deep into her soul, and she knew there was no way that she could lie to him and get away with it. Not when he was looking at her like that. “I…um…Justin, what is going to happen…oh gosh…when you…ya know…switch back?”
“What do you mean, Al?”
She breathed in with a large sigh, and back out again. “I mean…to us?”
And, suddenly it dawned on him. Justin just took for granted that Al would be part of his life from now on. But what about Leigh? His mind reeled. “I don’t know for sure Alicia.”
“I don’t want to lose you Justin.”
Before he had a chance to respond, the bell over the door sounded an arrival, and when they glanced at the door, the other half of their party was making their way inside.
“Guys, over here!” Al shouted, drawing their attention to the dimly lit booth toward the back of the restaurant.
Nick ran quickly to his lifelong best friend and embraced her tightly.
“My Nick, you’ve changed.” Al pulled him away at arms length, and pretended to study him. “Did you get a perm? No, that’s not it…got taller? Nope… Oh, you just got yourself a whole new body, I see.”
“You are such a smartass!”
“And where do you think I learned that, hmm?” They both laughed.
Nick continued laughing until he saw his body out of the corner of his eye, and he jumped slightly. Justin seemed to be in shock at seeing himself. It was all too real now.
Nick and Leigh slid into the other side of the booth, facing Justin and Alicia. Nick introduced the girls, because Justin was still staring at himself. After a minute, he spoke up. “It’s like looking in a mirror, only, not.”
Leigh laughed. “Why thank you John Travolta!”
All four of the teens laughed at her joke, and it broke the ice considerably. They munched on fried noodles and duck sauce, and made small talk until Justin cleared his throat, and pulled the medallion out of his jacket pocket. Nick followed suit with his.
“I think we need to figure out what these things say, and that will tell us what to do to get things back to normal,” Justin stated as the waitress came up to take their order. She was a pretty Chinese girl with straight dark hair and seemed to be in her late teens.
She seemed to recognize both of the pop stars immediately, but didn’t make a big deal about it. Instead, she laid the pad and pen she had in her hands on the table and motioned toward the charm. “Mind if I take a look?” she asked in impeccable English, with a slight hint of a New York accent.
“Go ahead…” Justin trailed off, reading her name tag, “Tiffany.”
Tiffany lifted the necklace out of his hands and studied the writing on the back carefully for a few minutes. The four seated held their breath in anticipation. “I can’t make it all out, and what I can doesn’t make much sense.”
Al rolled her eyes, “Not much about those things makes any sense.”
Nick and Justin tried not to laugh at her under the breath comment, and they glanced up at the waitress instead.
“Thanks a lot Tiffany, we appreciate you trying,” Nick said.
“Sorry I couldn’t help more. If it’s really important to find out what it means, I could take you to meet my grandma after you are done with your lunch,” she replied.
Justin, Nick, Al and Leigh all lept up and scrambled out of the booth. “Who’s hungry? Let’s go!” Justin exclaimed.
