As they tightened the straps to hold him in, Lance wanted to make a joke, like Rockhound did in Armageddon but he was way too nervous.
"You're all set," the woman told him. "Good luck."
Lance nodded. He couldn't talk. His mouth was dry.
'I guess it's good thing that Dani and I never worked out,' he thought, surveying the shuttle and the other five people that were going up with him. 'And I guess it's a good thing we broke up or else I wouldn't be doing this.'
He forced himself to think of something else besides the guys.
"T minus 1 minute," came the voice over the radio.
Lance looked around and nodded at Tom, Izzy, Chad, Ivy, and Kim. These were the people he was probably going to spend the rest of his life with.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," said the voice.
"Blast off," whispered Lance. "Good bye Earth."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once they were in outer space, Lance allowed himself to think of the guys. It had all started only a few months after the new millennium, March 2001.
The change in the guys had been small at first. Justin and Joey started to brag a little bit more that they were the most popular of the five of them and put themselves above the other three. They were no longer the guys that Lance had known a year ago. Sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder how they got through the doors with their big heads. Then Chris had been come attention starved and brainwashed.
He started to believe that Joey and Justin were better than him. Once they had found out that Chris believed this, they told him that they were better.
Lance and JC tried to keep the three apart. At first, they would just put Chris in a hotel room at the end of the hall and Justin and Joey at the other end. That hadn't worked ant they had put them on separate floors. The management had noticed the tension between the guys and had talked to Lance and JC alone one day.
"What's going on?" Donna asked them.
After they had explained everything to Donna and Johnny, Lance had though they would try to help. Instead, they told them to keep acting happy in front of the cameras and stuff. It was no wonder that the Backstreet Boys had gotten rid of them. They didn't care about them as people, just as *NSYNC making money.
It had all ended in Kentucky.
The five of them had been together, alone. This was becoming very rare. They were reading threw the fan mail. Justin and Joey were showing off the gifts that they had received while Chris looked sadly at the small pile that was for him. To Lance, he looked like a little kid who had gotten exactly what he wanted for Christmas and then someone had taken it away, saying that it was too good for him and gave him a couple of playing cards. Not even the whole deck.
"Would you guys just shut up?!" said Lance. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Yeah!" said JC, standing up. "What has happened to you? You aren't who you used to be. You're treating your friends like dogshit and you don't care in the least. I've had enough of it and I'm not going to fake being happy just for the fans. I quit!"
"So do I," Lance told them. He stood up too.
"Me too," said Chris, in the small voice that had become his own in the past few months.
"Guys, guys. You can't just get up and leave," said Justin."
"Watch us," Lance snapped.
Justin moved to block the door.
"Move," Chris told him.
"What are you going to do? You little…"
Justin never finished his sentence. Chris punched him hard in the stomach and then the nose. Justin fell down and Chris walked out of the room with a stunned JC and Lance following him.
"You're going to regret this!" yelled Justin, standing in the doorway, with blood dripping from his nose. "You can expect a call from my lawyer and having to pay me a million dollars!"
The three friends, without even looking back or at each other, all three put their left hand in the air and stuck up the middle finger.
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Part 2
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