+++sixteen+++

(Later that day)

(New York City)

Maddie lay snuggled in the oversized comforters in the hotel bed. She'd gotten a call from Wendy earlier saying that she and Carson were going out to dinner 'and stuff'. Madison was trying very hard not to think about what the 'and stuff' might entail. Romero had stopped by to check on her. She hadn't felt like talking so he only stayed a little while, for which she was grateful. Romero saw way too much. She wasn't sure how she felt about the kiss and she didn't want Romero telling her before she could figure it out for herself. The only other person she'd seen was the bellhop who'd delivered her dinner. It really hadn't helped that the guy turned out to have curly brown hair. He didn't look a thing like Justin but the hair was enough.

She absentmindedly flipped through the channels. Her finger stilled on the remote when Katie Wagner's familiar visage filled the screen. She turned the volume up and sat up to listen to her friend's report.

"Hi, this is Katie Wagner with the latest in music news. Teen heartthrob Justin Timberlake of *NSYNC sent quite a shock wave out to the population of teenaged girls in America when he revealed on Total Request Live of his crush on newcomer Madison Morse. Here's footage of the guys with Carson Daly at the MTV Studios earlier today."

The bottom half of the screen was filled with the scrolling channel information; the top half was filled with six very familiar faces.

"OK, so speaking of taking your breath away, here we have a picture of you, do we have that picture, can we get it up on the monitor?"

"Of who?" Justin, clad in an orange t-shirt and khaki pants, his hair covered by a tan paisley bandana, asked.

"Of you. This-ah, here we go."

Maddie watched, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, as the picture of her and Justin from the after party appeared on the TV screen.

"OK, so correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that you looking like you just got bit by the love bug?" Carson teased.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I may have a tiny crush on her."

Maddie's jaw dropped at this. It was one thing for Justin's friends to know; it was another thing entirely for the world to know. And thus far, Maddie had managed to avoid having to acknowledge that she knew how Justin felt about her. Now she would have to discuss it with everyone she met.

Katie's smiling face appeared on the screen again. "Hmm, I wonder what Miss Maddie will do now that she knows that one of America's most sought after bachelors is attracted to her. One thing I do now is that there are thousands of girls who wish they were in her place."

Cut to Carson staring into the camera, sarcastic grin in place: "There are, like, a million girls in America right now who are probably extremely pissed at Madison Morse right now."

"For the TV Guide Channel, I'm Katie Wagner and this is the Music News."

Almost immediately after the last word had left Katie's mouth, the phone rang. Maddie scrambled to answer it, already knowing who was at the other end of the line.

"I'm coming down." Maddie put the receiver back into the cradle and sat back.

'So that's what he meant.'

(A week later)

(Houston, TX)

Maddie and Wendy pulled into the driveway of Wendy's split level house.

"Be right back." Wendy dashed into the house to get a change of clothes. The girls had spent the morning with some friends that Maddie hadn't seen in a long time. It had been weird at first. It was almost as if they thought that Maddie was a different person and should be treated differently. Until she opened her mouth and they saw that Maddie was still the same sarcastic bitch she had always been. Both girls had thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and were going to Maddie's house to get ready for a night out on the town.

Maddie absently fiddled through the channels as she waited. 'As if that girl doesn't have enough clothes at my house,' she thought. Her hand on the radio dial stilled as the familiar opening beats of 'It's Gonna Be Me' sang through her speakers. She paused for a moment to listen. Really listen, not just jam along to the music like she normally did.

'You might been hurt, babe
That ain't no lie
You seen em all come and go'

Her heart swelled in her chest as she thought of how true-to-life that was for her. Well, if not for her, at least for all the grown-ups and parental figures she'd ever had.

'I remember you told me
That it made you believe in
No man, no cry
Maybe that's why'

Justin's voice rang out loud and clear to her. It was disconcerting for Madison to realize that she could tell Justin's voice apart from his band mates. She wasn't a big *NSYNC fan. She knew the songs, yeah, but before she met them, she wouldn't have been able to tell who was who if her life depended on it. She was completely hooked on their latest CD, though this was the first time she had consciously recognized any one voice as belonging to any one guy. Except for Lance. She could always pinpoint Lance's voice.

'Every little thing I do
Never seems enough for you
You don't want to lose it again
But I'm not like them
Baby when you finally
Get to love somebody
Guess what?
It's gonna be m-"

Abruptly she snapped the radio off. She didn't want to hear Justin singing about it being him or anything else. Part of her wanted to kick his ass for all the trouble he put them through with his admission on TRL; the bigger part of her wanted to pat him on the back for having the courage to say what he felt, damn the consequences.

Since then, Romero and Maddie had had about three conference calls, seven emails and four faxes about how to 'deal with the situation' as Daniel put it. Already, the news had become fodder for jokes from Jay Leno, David Letterman, Howard Stern and a host of others. The *NSYNC fans were pissed. Strike that-the Justin fans were pissed. The buzz on the Internet was that these girls were wondering exactly who the hell Madison Morse was and why Justin liked her.

Ironically enough, Maddie found herself on the same side as Justin. Both argued for the right to freely speak their minds regardless of what the fans or anyone else would have to say about it. As Justin so eloquently put it, 'The fans have been living my life for too long. It's time for ME to live for me.'

Maddie never flat out said that Justin's feelings were not reciprocated and she had the feeling that all the bigwigs just assumed that they were. She hadn't had an interview since the incident so no one had heard her side of it. She had a feeling they were all going to be shocked when she said what she had to say. On the one hand, she had to be true to herself and her heart and despite the kiss, despite her attraction to him, she just didn't like him THAT WAY. Or so she thought. Her feelings on this issue fluctuated on an almost daily basis. But the predominant feeling was that she did not want to become romantically involved with anyone, much less Justin. On the other, she had seen a lot into his character through the conversations they'd had with Daniel and his PR team and he seemed to be a really good guy and she didn't want to hurt his feelings. Jive had given her a prepared statement to say. Romero had turned his head as Maddie 'accidentally' ripped it in half. All she had to do was figure out a way to say that she doesn't like him without making him look the ass. 'Riiiiggghhhttt.'

Maddie smiled as her best friend came bounding out of the house, garment bag I hand. Ever since her date with Carson Daly, Wendy had been full of energy. He'd called her twice in the week since they'd been back in Texas and Wendy was in heaven. She climbed in the car and Maddie put it into reverse and pulled out of the driveway.

Forty-five minutes and a trip to McDonald's later, Maddie parked her car in front of her house.

"Whose car is that?" Wendy asked, pointing at the black Navigator that was also parked in front of Madison's house.

"No telling," Maddie said, grabbing her purse from behind her seat. The two girls chatted about this and that as they made their way into the house.

Maddie opened the door and stopped in her tracks. Wendy nearly bumped into her. "What the hell?" She looked over Maddie's shoulder to see what had made her stop so abruptly.

Maddie stepped to the side to give Wendy an unobstructed view. They stood in the doorway, eyes taking in the scene.

"Well, this is special," Maddie turned to her head to look at Wendy.

"Yeah, really," Wendy replied back, both girls totally ignoring the people in front of them.

"How many girls can actually say that this happened to them?"

"Um, probably less than I could count on one hand?"

"I know, huh? It's like one of those games you play where you put a quarter in and try to grab the stuffed animal."

"Yeah. How many people manage to bag one of em? One in fifty? One in a hundred?"

"No, I'd say the odds are higher than that. It's like when you-"

"What the hell are y'all talking about?" Joey interrupted, laughing.

The two girls turned to face their audience. "Oh, we're just discussing the odds of finding *NSYNC chilling in your living room with your family," Wendy said drolly.

"They're pretty high," Maddie added.

"Ignore them, it's a Wendy-Maddie thing," Ron said, walking over to the girls. He grabbed each one of them by the hand and pulled them into the house. "Y'all are letting all the cool air out," he said as he closed the door.

"What are y'all doing here?" Maddie asked the group assembled before her.

Justin, Heather, Chris and a big, burly black man that Maddie assumed must be a bodyguard took up the couch against the far wall. Lance, Nicole, Travis and Mike occupied the other. Jake, Maddie's other brother, Joey and another bodyguard sat in the loveseat.

Maddie counted in her head. "Who's missing?"

"JC took Jen out to lunch," Heather said, undisguised jealousy in her voice.

"What?" Chris entreated. "You wanna go out to lunch?"

"No." Heather crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from her boyfriend.

Chris sighed and sat back in his seat. He began to beat the back of his head against the wall behind the couch: …thump…thump…thump…

"What are y'all doing here?" Wendy asked and took a seat on the floor.

…thump…thump…thump…

"Passing through to Louisiana so we decided to stop by," Joey grinned.

…thump…thump…thump…

"OK, that's random." Maddie looked at Chris…thump…thump…thump…then at Wendy and launched into a 'Friday' imitation: "What I'm trippin on is: how you gone sell bud…and you smokin' it?"

Flawlessly, Wendy stepped into the role. "I don't know…das my only problem."

Chris stopped hitting his head against the wall to look at them. "What are y'all talking about?"

Maddie turned to him. "Are you high or something?"

"Cause something gotta be wrong for you to be hitting your head like that," Wendy finished.

"You have to excuse these two. They've seen too many movies together," Paul said.

"So y'all are here for how long?" Wendy asked, ignoring Paul.

"Well, we don't have to be in Baton Rouge until tomorrow night, so who knows."

"I told them they could stay here," Ron informed his daughter.

"Stay here for what?" Maddie asked.

Ron laughed. "For the night. Johnny was going to book a hotel and I told them they could stay here."

Maddie didn't say anything. She just stared at her father. Ron began to get a little apprehensive. He knew his daughter and her silence was an ominous portent. He realized too late that he should have OK'd it with her before making the offer. He had seen TRL and what Justin had said and he'd listened to his daughter moan to Wendy about how unfair it was that she was inevitably going to be painted the bad guy when word got around that she didn't feel the same way he did. He looked to Wendy for help.

"Maddie, come upstairs with me," Wendy stood and pulled on her friend's arm.

"Why?"

"Just cause."

"I'm not going til you tell me why," Maddie said as she allowed herself to be pulled upright.

"Cause she has a feeling that you're fixing to say something that you shouldn't and we'd all like to avoid that at all costs," Jake answered for her in total honesty.

"Oh. OK." Maddie turned and walked over to the staircase. "Mmm, nope, I'm OK now." She turned back around and resumed her seat.

"You sure?"

"Mmhmm."

"You didn't have any plans for tonight, did you?" Paul asked.

"Actually, we did. We were gonna go to Metropolis."

"With who?" Travis asked.

"Kim, Michelle, Nicole, John, George, Sam, a bunch of people," Wendy answered.

"So invite them here instead," Ron suggested.

"Are you guys cool with that?" Nicole asked, looking at Joey.

"Who, us? Yeah, it's whatever, it's your house."

"Well, OK then," Maddie said softly, sort of stunned by this turn of events. She had managed to avoid speaking to Justin thus far. She didn't think she'd fare as well at a party where she'd have to be the polite hostess and introduce them to her friends. She sighed to herself. 'This is going to be an interesting night.'

Justin sat on the sofa next to Heather and tried desperately not to stare. He'd never, in his life, seen anything as beautiful as Maddie when she had been standing in the doorway, the sunlight spilling over her shoulder, lighting up her face. She was wearing a red V-necked shirt (the V wasn't that deep but it was deep enough) with some short khaki shorts. As she talked with Wendy, she turned to face her and he could see that her shirt was actually a halter: it tied once around the neck, once across her upper back and once across her lower back, exposing a lot of smooth, creamy skin. He realized that she was braless and his eyes immediately fell to her breasts.

It took a long moment for Justin to become consciously aware of where he was looking; the tightening in his loins is what clued him in. He jerked his gaze away. It fell on the wall across from him, which was littered with pictures of the Morse family.

'Not again. Oh God, please, not again,' he silently prayed. Dimly, he heard Maddie and Wendy quote from 'Friday' and smiled the half-smile that all the girls loved as images of the Chris Tucker-Ice Cube movie filled his head. He almost sighed out loud in relief as he felt his 'problem' go away. He watched the banter between the two girls. They reminded of the way he acted with his friends, especially Chris: the inside jokes, the knowing looks, the being able to understand exactly what was said even though not a word was spoken. He watched and felt disheartened at Madison's reaction to the news that they would be staying the night.

'Is she upset because we're staying or because I'm staying?' he wondered. He thought they were past all that. They had become closer during all the conferencing about 'the incident'. She'd gone to bat for him more than once, agreeing when he said that he was going to tell the truth to anyone who asked him about the situation. Maddie had pointed out that 'basically, it's not any different from him saying he has a crush on Halle Berre or Tyra Banks. Come on, there's going to come a point when the fans realize that these guys can't live on music alone. And even though they're more like brothers than friends, that's not enough.'

In a different conversation, Jeremy had tried to reason that if the fans knew about the girlfriends, it would lead them to thinking about the guys having sex. Maddie had jumped all over it before Justin had a chance to even open his mouth. 'Have you been on the Internet lately? The fans already know about the girlfriends and they have the pictures to prove it. Oh, and God forbid one of them proves that he's human and actually gets laid! My Lord, I swear, if you could, you'd neuter them.'

Justin smiled to himself, remembering Jeremy sputtering over the phone. He looked at Maddie, sitting Indian-style on the floor, absently picking at the fluff in the carpet. 'Why is she so upset?' he asked himself again. He had a sudden epiphany: 'I'm getting to her. If she truly didn't like me, she would just ignore the fact that I'm even here. It might bother her for a second, but she'd get over it. That's how she is. I'm getting to her and she don't like it.'

The smile that spread across his face was big and bright enough to be seen from miles away. Lance caught it and leaned forward to ask, "What are you smiling at?"

Justin became the center of everyone's attention even as Madison became the center of his. Not taking his eyes away from hers, he replied, "I'll tell you later," and, impossibly, his smile got even wider.

Maddie looked at Justin who was looking at her like the cat who just swallowed a canary. The muscles in her throat convulsed as she swallowed, trying to coat her suddenly dry mouth. 'Uh oh'.

(MEANWHILE)

JC and Jen had just finished lunching at a small Mexican restaurant called Garcia's. They were lingering over dessert, sharing kisses as well as the chocolate on chocolate over chocolate cake in front of them. JC was whispering into Jen's ear all the naughty things he'd like to do to her when a voice shattered the tranquil air.

"Jen? Jennifer Jayde?"

Startled, Jen and JC looked up and came face to face with a blast from the past.

"Kristy?"

"JC?" The woman was visibly shaken.

"Wow, haven't seen in you so long," JC stood to embrace her then thought better of it. He stood there awkwardly as the blonde looked back and forth between the couple.

"S-so, how've you been?" Jen asked the woman who had once been her friend.

"Good. Got a new job now." Her green eyes continued to move between JC and Jen.

'She better stop that or she'll get dizzy,' Jen thought dazedly. 'What happened to us?' she silently asked. 'And you can't say it's because of me and JC. You cut yourself off from us way before we ever got together.'

Jen heard JC making polite conversation with his ex-girlfriend and knew that she should say something. But she couldn't. For once she, Jennifer Jayde, radio personality extraordinaire, was speechless. So many emotions swirled through her. Anger that Kristy had walked away from a two-year friendship without even bothering to say goodbye. Guilt about dating her friend's ex, even though Kristy had been long gone by then. More anger that she felt guilty about her feelings for JC. Confused as to why Kristy left in the first place. A small part of her was even afraid. She hadn't paid much attention when JC and Kristy were going out. She had been too caught up in her relationship with Justin and trying to force feelings that just weren't there. 'God, what if JC wants her back?' she thought irrationally. Her eyes cut to them standing next to each other. JC was fidgety, unable to keep still. Jen knew that this was a clear sign that he was agitated and wanted to be anyplace other than where he was. She focused her attention on what Kristy was saying.

"Yeah, maybe that means we'll work together sometime. I have to go, this is a business lunch. But I thought I saw Jen and had to come over and check." Her voice trailed off as she looked down at Jen. Jen unconsciously shuddered; the eyes that had once looked upon her with friendship and warmth were now hauntingly blank. "Well, it was good seeing you again," Kristy said faintly and without conviction. She looked once more from JC to Jen, back to JC and then back to Jen again, turned on her heel and walked to her table on the other side of the restaurant.

Ten minutes later, the check was paid and the silent couple was sitting in the backseat of the rented SUV. JC draped his arm over Jen's shoulders.

"Baby, you OK?" Concern made his voice deeper than normal.

Jen's body responded, cuddling closer to him, even while her mind was miles away.

"Jen?" JC said, peering down at her.

"Huh?" she looked up at him.

He placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "You OK?"

"Yeah…yeah. It was just," she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "weird. Like I didn't even know her."

JC said nothing; he pulled her closer to him and nuzzled her temple with his lips.

They were silent for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I felt guilty." Jen's hushed confession brought JC's blue eyes to meet her darker blue ones.

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, I just felt like she…I don't know, it was just weird. Like she was…I don't know, I mean she's your ex and we were friends once and then there's you and me and I feel bad because there IS a you and me and that pisses me off because there's no reason I should be ashamed of our relationship and she just seemed like she wasn't as together as she wanted us to think that she was and-"

"Jen," JC interrupted with a wry smile. "Calm down, baby. It's OK. Even though she has that new job, I sincerely doubt that we'll run into her again."

Jen sat up to look at her boyfriend in surprise. "What new job?"

JC grinned at her. "You weren't listening, were you?"

"Well, excuse me for having the shit shocked outta me when my nice romantic lunch with my honey is interrupted by someone I never thought I would see again."

JC's grin got wider. He loved Jen's bluntness. "She's the new executive assistant to Dean Waters."

"The Dean Waters?"

"Yup."

"As in Dean Waters, Inc.?"

"Yup."

"The advertising company Jive uses?"

"Yup."

Jen paused for a second. "And you're not worried about this?"

"Nope."

"But JC-"

Jen's hand was lying on his knee. He placed his own hand over hers and interlocked their fingers. "Baby, come on. You go back to school in two days. Let's not talk about her."

He leaned over and pressed a soft yet potent kiss to the side of her neck. He gently bit her skin, then soothed the injured spot with his tongue. Jen sighed and cupped JC's chin in her hand to direct his mouth to hers. The kiss was very wet. Mouths wide open, tongues dueling; it was as if they were trying to devour each other.

Jen sighed gently into JC's mouth. She loved the way he kissed. He took his time, realized that kisses were meant to be savored, not seen as an interlude to something else. There were times when JC was too content with just kissing for Jen's liking and she had to take matters into her own hands. JC worked his hand under her shirt to caress the soft skin of her lower back. She felt heat suffuse her skin at his tender touch and, almost without realizing it, she moaned.

"Uh…hate to interrupt but you're fogging up the back window and I think if you two go any further, we'll get a ticket for indecency in a moving vehicle or something like that."

Startled, Jen and JC broke apart. They had forgotten where they were. They looked at Bounce, sitting in the driver's seat, and then at each other.

All three burst into laughter.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wendy hung up the phone. "OK, Kim is cool with chilling over here. Of course, she had to bitch and moan first. And she has more people with her now."

"Well, damn, let's just have a party," Maddie said sarcastically.

Even as she said it, her eyes met Wendy's. They both paused and then dove for their purses.

After digging around for a minute, Maddie asked, "How much ya got?"

"Forty-two bucks," Wendy replied, holding a fistful of cash.

"I got thirty-six, but I can get more at the ATM."

"What are y'all talking about?" Lance asked, looking up from the game of Scrabble he was waging with Nicole, Mike and Chris. The game had been very animated and very loud and the dictionary had to be opened more than once as first Chris, then Mike, began to spell out nonsensical words trying to get more points.

"Beer run," Wendy said absently, rummaging through the bottom of her purse for more money.

Chris, who had been lying on his stomach as he contemplated his lettered tiles, sat up and regarded the girls quizzically. "OK, now, I'm a pretty illogical guy. I say stuff that doesn't make sense all the time, right, Lance?"

The deep-voiced singer nodded. "Yup."

Chris turned back to the girls. "So, I'm irrational, right? Don't think they way normal people do. But even I can't follow you now."

Maddie paused in the hunt for her ATM card to scowl at him. "What?"

"What?" Chris parroted. "You were talking about how this one girl is bringing extra people over and then all of a sudden, you get Mad Cow disease or something and go looking through your purses like crazy."

Mike turned to his twin and mouthed, 'Mad Cow disease?' Nicole just shrugged. When she spoke the tone of her voice clearly indicated that she thought they all were idiots. "It was gonna be a little get-together but now it's a party and they're looking for money for alcohol. Mystery solved."

"Thank you, Inspector Gadget," Wendy muttered under her breath as she counted the money she and Maddie had amassed.

"Actually, Inspector Gadget never really solved any cases, it was all Penny and that dog. What's the dog's name, Lance?"

Lance made a face at his friend. "I don't know, how am I s'posed to know that?"

"It's Brain," Mike supplied.

"Yeah, Brain. You guys can't get liquor anyway."

"Why?" Maddie and Wendy asked in unison.

"See! We're contagious! This 'in synch' thing is spreading everywhere!" Chris chortled.

Maddie shook her head, as if to clear it, and asked, "Why can't we get liquor?"

"Cause you're not even legal yet," Chris said as if the answer was obvious.

"Oh. I thought you meant y'all couldn't have alcohol or…whatever. My dad or Paul will pick it up for us. They'll buy it, they just won't pay for it."

"Your dad lets you drink?" Lance asked.

"Well, he figures I'm going to do it anyway, might as well be when he can watch and make sure that I'm OK."

"Yeah, he lets us give parties all the time. His one rule is that if you drink, you have to stay the night," Wendy added.

"Why?" Chris asked, fascinated.

"No drinking and driving."

"Oh. Wow, your dad is really cool."

"God, please don't tell him that. He already thinks he's the bomb, as it is," Nicole moaned.

"We'll pay for the alcohol," Lance offered.

"Nah," Wendy brushed him off with a wave of her hand.

"No, it's the least we can do since y'all are giving us a place to stay tonight," Chris said.

"Yeah really," Lance agreed. "I get SO tired of living out of hotels."

"So we're paying," Chris said with an air of finality. He turned to Joey, who had walked into the room just in time to hear Chris' last comment. "Right, Joe?"

"Yeah, sure." Joey set the can of Coke he'd been drinking out of on the endtable and reached for his wallet. "How much you need?"

"Gotta love him," Lance said with a smirk.

"What?" Joey asked with a small smile.

"You don't even know what we need the cash for and already you got your wallet out."

Joey shrugged. "What, it's only money."

"Beep, beep, who's got the keys to the Jeep?" Chris asked.

"I think Mike has em," Joey said.

"No, he gave em to Justin to go get that game," Mike corrected him as he packed the Scrabble game away.

"He's the only person I know who travels with all his video games," Lance said to Joey.

"Those aren't his, they're mine," Chris said over his shoulder, on his way to the kitchen to get the keys from Justin.

"Figures."

He came back two minutes later, Justin in tow. "What do y'all want us to get?"

"Who all's going?" Maddie countered.

"Just me and Justin, why?"

"First of all, you don't know your way around and second of all, we're going with you," Wendy replied, slipping her feet into her flip flops.

"First of all, there's a Spec's or Bert Wheeler's on every corner and second of all, OK."

"Shotgun!" Wendy yelled as she followed Chris out the door.

Justin smiled. This gave him the perfect opportunity to find out if Maddie was really as impervious to him as she wanted him to think she was. Locked in the backseat of a moving car, she'd have nowhere to run.

Justin's plan was thwarted before he even got a chance to put it into action.

"Why don't I drive?" Maddie said, dangling the keys to her RAV-4 as she stepped out into the sunshine.

"Cool," Chris said and ran over to the black car.

Justin was disappointed but not disappointed enough to not be able to appreciate the view Maddie was giving him as she walked in front of him. Her butt winked with every step she took. The muscles in her calves contracted and relaxed in a smooth, sinewy motion. Justin wasn't one for checking out girls' butts, but this was no ordinary girl.

"Take a picture, why don't you?"

Justin just smiled and lifted his shoulders in a shrug as Chris and Maddie turned to look at Wendy in confusion.

"What?" Maddie asked.

"Just get in the car," Wendy grinned.

A few minutes later, as Maddie pulled onto the freeway, Chris, sitting behind the driver's seat, put his hands on either side of Maddie's headrest and leaned to the side so he could talk to her. "What was your deal with Britney? You're showing skin. And it's very nice skin, too." He stroked her shoulder.

"You're blocking my view," she said then answered his question. "I could care less what the girl wears…except for that last outfit, that was just tacky." She trailed off as she turned on her blinker, checked over her shoulder and switched lanes.

"So…what's the deal?" Justin asked.

"It's WHERE she wears those outfits to that bothers me. There are plenty of opportunities for her to run around bucky naked but she chooses the most high profile, media frenzied events to wear them to. So basically, there's millions of impressionable young girls seeing Britney all slutted out and thinking that it's OK to dress like that. And a lot of these girls have very lax parents and they end up wearing clothes that are too grown for them. A lot of moms think it's cute to see their kid all dolled up like that. And they let these girls buy whatever they want and they go out and buy and outfit just like Britney's and that makes that girl a target. It's OK for a grown woman to wear some of this stuff because a woman is more capable of taking care of herself. But little girls who dress older than their age are easy targets, not just for sexual predators but for the boys they see every day in class."

"Wow."

The entire car was silent save for the quiet hum of the tires on the road as two of the occupants contemplated what was just said.

"I never thought about it that way," Justin said quietly.

"Yeah," Chris agreed. "I just thought she was a ho!"

They all laughed, breaking the tension of the past few moments. Wendy reached out and turned the radio on and then turned it up when she recognized Mark Hoppus's voice surging through the speakers. Both girls were big Blink 182 fans and began to sing along.

'I took my time
I hurried up
The choice was mine
I didn't think enough
I'm too depressed to go on
You'll be sorry when I'm gone'

A few minutes later, Maddie pulled into the parking lot of Bert Wheeler's and killed the engine.

"Do you have any idea of what you want to get?" Justin said as he and Wendy rounded the car; he stopped directly in front of Maddie.

She smiled at him, causing his heart to jump in his chest. "Yeah. We don't drink that much but our friends are alcoholics so we know some stuff."

"They're not alcoholics, they just like to have a good time," Wendy said, surreptitiously watching Justin watch Maddie. He seemed to be a pretty cool guy and, even knowing Maddie's background as well as she did, Wendy was having trouble understanding why Maddie was so dead set against getting involved with him.

"Y'all don't drink much, huh?" Chris scratched his chin as they made their way across the lot to the store. "So that means you're not as tolerant and will get trashed quicker and then we can have our wicked way with you." He wiggled his eyebrows at the girls.

"You want Heather to go to jail?" Maddie asked, pausing to smile at Justin as he held the door open for all of them.

"No. Why would she go to jail?"

"Whoa!" Wendy exclaimed as she walked through the door. She turned around to smile at Justin as he held the door for Chris. "Gentlemen, I forgot what you guys looked like."

"Ok, Liv, thanks," Maddie grinned.

"Why would my girlfriend go to jail?" Chris asked again, louder, causing the store clerk to look over at them.

"For killing you for having your wicked way with us," Wendy finished.

"OK, that was entirely too weird," Justin stopped in the middle of the Rum aisle.

"What was?" Wendy asked, inspecting the bottles on the shelves.

"That was a very random thing Maddie said and you just picked up where she left off like it was no big thing."

"Yeah, we share a brain, it's a curse," Maddie muttered absently, frowning at the display in front of her.

Wendy grabbed a bottle of Meyer's Original Dark Rum in one hand and a bottle of Malibu Rum in the other hand and turned to the guys. "So how much we spending?"

"Well, I got a hundred off the guys and I got a couple hundred," Justin said, reaching behind him to make sure that he had his wallet.

"And I got about one-fifty," Chris said and took the bottle of Meyer's from Wendy and inspected the label.

"You think we're gonna spend four hundred and fifty dollars? On alcohol?" Maddie had a skeptical look on her face.

"No," Justin said. "We'll spend more. I meant that I got a hundred from each guy so we got about seven hundred dollars."

"We can't spend all that on-"

Chris held his hand up and cut Maddie off mid-sentence. "Ladies, please. This is an *NSYNC party. The goal at an *NSYNC party is for everyone present to get rip-roaring butt-munching drunk. We got the space, we got the cash. What's da prob?"

"OK, I've never been drunk, but if it involves munching someone's butt, I'm gonna have to say 'no thanks'," Maddie observed dryly.

In the end, it took them three trips from the store to the car, each carrying a box, each box containing at least four bottles of alcohol. Justin and Chris ended up having to carry boxes on their laps. Conversation on the trip back was very animated and all four actively participated.

They pulled up to the house and Justin fairly leaped from the car. He'd told a joke and made them all laugh. Not that he cared much about Chris laughing. Or, when you get down to it, did he care that much about Wendy. But he'd made Maddie smile and that meant the world to him.

They were still laughing when they went into the house. Paul, Mike, JC and Jen were sitting in the living room watching television.

"Here," Maddie tossed her car keys to JC, "we went and got it, y'all get to unload it."

"Fair enough," Paul said. He and the other guys stood and went out to bring all the groceries in.

"Wussup, girl?" Chris said as he flopped down on the couch beside Jen.

"Not much, man."

"You enjoy your lunch?" Justin asked.

Jen paused as he watched Madison and Wendy walk upstairs. When he brought his attention back to her, she smiled knowingly and answered his question. "We had a great time…until dessert."

"Until dessert?" Justin sat on the other side of her. "I'd think that with you and JC, dessert woulda been the best part," he grinned at her.

"Yeah really," Chris seconded, slouched down in his seat so that his head rested on the back of the couch, eyes closed.

"Well, guess who we saw today?" Jen asked.

"Mmm…Patrick Swayze?" Chris guessed.

"What?" Justin leaned around Jen to peer at his friend.

"She said guess."

"And seeing Patrick Swayze would be bad how?" Jen asked sarcastically. "No, we saw Kristy."

Chris sat up and looked at Jen incredulously. "Kristy? Kristy Murray?"

Jen nodded her head. "Yup."

"Man."

"What's she been up to?" Justin wanted to know.

"Oh, get this," Jen said, her voice changing octave. "She's Dean Water's new assistant!"

"Our Dean Waters? For real?" Chris asked stupidly.

"No, for fake, asswipe," Justin said sarcastically.

"Dude, don't get your panties in a twist," Chris said, reclining in his seat again.

"Damn, did you leave any alcohol in the store?" Mike asked as he came through the door carrying two boxes, on balanced on top of the other.

"Nope."

"Not really."

Chris and Justin spoke at the same time.

Chpt 17
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