“Something came up and I had to stay home today.”
“What?” I was getting nervous. Mom rarely stayed home from work. You could say she was a workaholic, so whatever made her stay home had to be important.
“Well we have some guests.”
“Who?”
“Why don’t you go look for yourself, but be quiet. They’re upstairs sleeping in you and your brother’s rooms.”
“Mom, you let someone sleep in my bed!”
“I don’t think you’ll mind. Just go look.”
I went up to my room and quietly opened the door and looked in. I almost screamed when I saw who was sleeping in my bed and on my floor. I quietly shut the door and looked in my brother’s room. There was the other three. I ran downstairs and pulled my mom outside. I screamed.
“Sophie, you’re going to wake them up. They’ve had a long day and need to sleep.”
“Mom, how long have they been here?”
“Since about 8:00 this morning.” It was 5:00 now.
“Why are they here?”
“Their car broke down and I saw them sitting by the side of the road and recognized them. I couldn’t just let them sit there; they would have been mobbed by girls trying to pick them up. I picked they up and drove them back here. Then I couldn’t leave five guys alone in my house so I stayed home from work.”
“Mom, they’re NSYNC they wouldn’t have stolen anything.”
“Honey, I don’t care who they are. I was not going to leave five guys alone in my house.”
“Whatever Mom.”
“So how did your test go?”
We went over and sat on the swing. “I feel like a complete idiot now. I’ve never felt this stupid.”
“Sophie, you’re smart and you know it. I’m sure you did really good on your test.”
Just then a thought entered my mind. “Mom, they probably think I’m obsessed or something.”
“Honey, why would they think that?”
“Mom, think about my room.” I have pictures of NSYNC hung all over my room.
“Oh, yeah they might.” She started laughing.
“Mom, it’s not funny.”
“Honey, it’ll all be fine. Now back to this test.”
“Mom, I think I failed it. Well you can’t actually fail the ACTs but you can do really bad and I think I did about as bad as anyone could.”
“Honey, I’m sure that’s not true.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt but I was wondering if I could use your phone.”
Not even thinking I said, “Yeah sure. It’s on the desk next to the computer in the living room.” Mom sat there staring at me. Then it clicked. I put my head in my hands. “Which on was it? Who was I rude to?”
“I think it was JC, but I don’t know them as well as you so I’m not sure.”
“I’m going to go apologize. I’ll be back.” I walked into the house. I looked for JC in the living room but he wasn’t there. I figured he was done with his phone call because the phone was there. I went up to my room to see if he was there. He was and Justin was awake. I knocked lightly and went in. Both guys looked up at me. “I just want to say I’m sorry about how rude I was out there. I’m not usually like that I’m just having a bad day. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s ok. We all have bad days. So what is your name?” JC said.
“Sophie. I just wanted to say that. I’ll just leave you two alone now.”
“No stay. I take it this is your room,” Justin said.
“Yup.” I said looking around my room with pride. I was proud of my room because I had done it all myself. I painted and fixed everything in it.
“Love the purple walls,” Justin joked.
“Hey, you better be quiet. I did all this myself and am very proud of it.”
“I was joking.”
“Well it wasn’t funny.”
JC jumped in when he saw me getting angry. “I see that you’re a fan.”
I turned about 10 different shades of red. “You could say that.”
“So who’s your favorite?” Justin asked.
“I can’t tell you that.” It is JC.
“By the looks of the amount of pictures, I would have to say it’s JC here,” Justin said.
“If you really want to know I don’t have a favorite. I like you all equally.”
“Yeah, sure,” Justin said under his breath.
“What was that?” I asked him.
“Nothing.”
“Well now if you two will excuse me I have to go.”
“Bye. It was nice to meet you,” JC said.
“Same here. Bye.” I said and left.
“JC, I think she has a crush on you.
“No she doesn’t. You heard her. She said she likes us all equally.”
“JC, look at how many pics she has of you compared to the rest of us.” It was true I did have more pics of JC than any of the other guys.
“Justin, you are blowing this way out of proportion.”
“Ok, whatever.”
I went downstairs and found mom watching TV in the living room. I sat down and watched with her. About 30 minutes later all the guys came down. I got introduced to the other guys. They were all nice to me especially Justin. We talked till we heard a horn honk outside. JC got up and looked.
“Well we’ve got to go. Our bus is here. Thank you Mrs. Saintjohn for all your kindness,” he said.
“You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.”
All the guys said good bye then they left; little did they know I would be seeing them in a couple of weeks. They were having a concert in a town near me and I had won tickets and backstage passes.
Two weeks later me and my friend, Brooke, were on our way to the NSYNC concert. We could hardly contain ourselves. I told her about what had happened two weeks earlier. She didn’t believe me.
“Fine, when we go backstage tonight just ask them. I’m telling the truth.”
“Come on, Sophie, you expect me to believe that you had JC Chasez sleeping in your bed.”
“Brooke I did. I swear.”
“I guess we’ll find out tonight won’t we?”
“Yeah, we’ll find out I was telling the truth.”
“Whatever, just drive faster. I can’t wait till we get there.”
When we got to the concert hall, there were little teenyboppers everywhere.
“God, I feel old here,” I said. We were both 17.
“I know. Isn’t this pathetic? Most of these girls here can’t even cross the street without their parents.” I started laughing. “What it’s true.”
“I know, but it was just funny the way you said it.”
“Sophie, you are so weird.”
“I know but that’s what you love about me.”
“You’re right.”
We had to wait in line forever but we finally got to our seats, front row center. We sat through the first two acts who were Blaque and Tatiana Ali. Finally NSYNC came one. Brooke and I screamed really loud and jumped around singing. Then they guys did GMHSALMTOY. Have way through the song I caught JC staring at me. I guess he stil remembers me, I thought to myself. We enjoyed the rest of the concert immensely. When it was over we were really excited to be going backstage. When we got back there all we saw were girls. We didn’t see the guys anywhere. After we had been there about 10 minutes I heard someone calling my name. I turned around. It was Chris.
“Hey, Chris!”
“Hey, Sophie. What are you doing here?”
“I won tickets and backstage passes. This is my friend Brooke.”
“Nice to meet you Brooke. The guys will be excited to see you.”
“They will, will they?”
“Yeah you made a big impression on us.”
“Chris shut up. I’m sure they barely remember me.”
“Whatever. I have to go mingle. Come find me before you guys leave ok?”
“Ok we will.” Chris walked away. “See told you I met them.”
“Ok, I believe you now. What was this about them being excited to see you?”
“Nothing. Let’s go find the other guys.” Just as I turned around I knocked into someone who was standing behind me. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to run into you.” I looked up and it was Justin.
“Sophie? What are you doing here?”
“I said I was a fan. How could I miss a show that was only 2 hours away from me? By the way this is my friend Brooke.”
“Hi, Brooke. So how have you been?”
“I’m good. How about yourself?”
“Pretty good. Let’s go find JC. He’s around here somewhere.”
We followed Justin around the room until we found JC. “JC, look who showed up?”
“Hi, Sophie. I saw her when we were onstage.”
“I saw you looking at me. This is my friend Brooke.”
“Hi, Brooke. Well I wasn’t positive it was you so I didn’t say anything.”
“Brooke, why don’t you come with me and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the guys,” Justin said.
“Ok, sounds good.” They walked away.
“I think that was planned,” I said.
“Yup, I’m pretty sure it was.”
“So, how have you been?”
“Pretty good. How have you been?”
“Good. Keeping busy with work.”
“Where do you work?”
“I’m a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) at a nursing home.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah it works for me.”
“Sophie, I want you to know you’re a great girl but nothing will ever happen between us.”
I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I finally found my voice and said, “Well I never expected anything but friendship. Sorry to hurt your ego.” Then I walked away. I found Brooke. “Are you ready to go?” I was almost in tears.
“Sophie what’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you later. I just need to get out of here.”
“Ok. Let me find Chris then we’ll go.” She walked away and came back about 5 minutes later. I told her the whole story in the car on the way home. “Sophie, don’t let him get to you. He’s just being a jerk. He’s not worth it.”
“I know but the truth is I just wanted to be friends with him. He seemed like a nice guy and I thought we could be good friends but I guess not.” We sat in silence the whole way home.
To Be Continued..