“C’mon, its not gonna kill you, it would be fun! Rachel, what about you? Do to want to come with me?” Erika begged her other friend.
“No, you go on with out us and call us on the cell phone by 5; the concert should be over by then”.
The three friends made their plans and went their separate ways. Erika made her way through fair to get to where the Nsync concert was held. The group was in JC’s home state of Maryland, and was giving a charity concert at a local fair. She got there early enough to get front row. The light dimmed, the stage lights came on, and the announcer introduced the group. The group sang their hearts out, and it was obvious to everyone how deeply their passion for music was. They performed songs from their debut album and from their more recent album, “No Strings Attached”. A few times Justin glanced over to where Erika was, but she thought nothing of it. “Whatever, it’s not like I’m ever gonna meet the boy”, she thought to herself. While the guys sat on the stools on stage and performed “Sailing”, she completely zoned out and went to her own little world. She closed her eyes and all she could hear was the beautiful music that they were singing and none of the screaming fans around her.
The concert ended and she made her way through to the lemon-aid stand. She paid her money and grabbed the large drink out of the vendor’s hand and turned to walk away. As she turned she slammed right into a tall young man, spilling the drink all over his baby blue shirt.
“Oh my God! I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to.” She stumbled out as she tried to wipe off the lemons stuck to his shirt.
“Trust me it’s ok, I have another shirt I can change into.” Erika recognized the voice and slowly looked up to see him in the face.
“Justin?” She said it barely above a whisper.
“Yes, I’m Justin; it’s nice to meet you.”
“Damn it! Of course I get the luck to spill a drink all over Justin Timberlake and ruin his shirt.” She didn’t realize she had said this out loud until she heard Justin laughing under his breath.
“Shhh. Don’t make a big deal of it. Believe me, I’ll be fine, but thank you for caring. Here let me buy you another drink, it doesn’t look like you have much left in that cup of yours.”
Erika smiled and looked down at the empty plastic cup she was holding. Justin bought her another drink and handed it to her.
“Thank you, it was really sweet of you”
“Hey, I recognize you.”
“You do?”
“Yea, you were at the concert earlier. I smiled at you a few times cuz you seemed to be so into the music and couldn’t give a crap about us.” Erika blushed at his comment before she said any thing.
“Oh, well, you see I love you guys, but I’m not like those crazy teenybopper fans. Don’t get me wrong, I think all of you guys are attractive, but the thing that gets me is the music.”
There was a moment of silence but Justin spoke up.
“You seem like a really nice girl. I mean you don’t seem like one of the obsessed crazed fans. If you don’t have any thing to do, do you want to meet the other guys?”
“Sure, I’d love to but I don’t want to take up too much of your time, I mean you guys probably have some important place to be.”
“Oh no, it’s ok, we’re off for a month so it’s cool.” With that said Justin led the way to the stage once again where the rest of the group was still back stage just hanging out. Justin opened the door with Erika at his side and the guys all turn to look at them.
“Guys, this is Erika, Erika this is JC, Chris, Lance, and Joey.”
“Hi”, she said very timidly.
“Erika spilled lemon-aid all over me earlier and she seemed really nice so I offered to introduce the group to her.”
Chris stood up and walked over to where she was standing. He put his arm around her shoulders and looked down at her while he talked to Justin.
“This little girl spilled lemon-aid all over you?” He paused when he noticed she was looking down at the floor blushing. “I like her already!”
They all sat down and began to talk. They talked for several hours about nothing in particular. Over a short amount of time the group became friends.
“Do you want to come over to JC’s house with us to hang out for a little while? We were just gonna watch a few movies and talk.”
“Sure, I’d love to, but I came along with some friends and...” She trailed off mid sentence and just sat there in silence.
“Well, they can come along too, I mean, that would be pretty rude if you just left them. Are you ok Erika?”
“Crap! What time is it? I was supposed to call my friends at 5.”
“Um...its about 6:30.” JC answered her in a way that seemed he was afraid of her reaction to that.
“I am so dead. Can I use one of your phones please?” Justin pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Thanks. C’mon Rachel I’m sorry, now pick up the phone. Hi.... I know I was supposed to call but I got side tracked...I met these really nice guys...uh huh...They invited me to go to their house...I know...you guys can come too.... But.... I’m sorry...fine...ten minutes.... Bye.”
All of the guys just sat there amused by what they had just seen. She was so desperate to get her to understand why she was late. It was very funny to them.
“So what happened?” Joey finally said to break the tension.
“Oh, ya, my friends are kinda pissed at me. I have to meet them at the cotton candy machine in ten minutes. I know we just meet, but do you guys think you can do me a little favor?”
All the guys nodded their heads.
“Can one of you come with me so they don’t think I’ve gone completely crazy?”
Justin stood up grabbed her hand and walked out of the room.
******
(Ten minutes later at the cotton candy stand)
“It’s about time, you flamer!” Rachel said in a jokingly sarcastic tone.
“I told you I was sorry. I met this guy and he introduced me to his friends’ and...” Erika was cut off when Liz interrupted her.
“ I don’t care how cute this guy is Erika; we need to get home.”
At that moment Justin walked up behind Erika, gave her a little hug and reached out his hand, “Hi, I’m Justin.”
“Ooooo, and I’m supposed to believe this is the REAL Justin Timberlake? Nice look alike Erika. But that wig is just so fake.” Liz walked forward and reached for Justin’s curls.
“Ahhh! Girl, what are you doing?! That’s my HAIR!” Liz finally let go and stepped back.
“Oh my God, you really are Justin. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. But you did deserve that ego boy.”
“It burns momma it burns!” Justin said rubbing his scalp, which he could feel, was burning. “Ego boy?”
“Uh huh, I mean what kind of a freak would date Britney the bimbo Spears?” “I didn’t ....” He was interrupted when Rachel hit his arm and Erika but her hand over his mouth.
“I guarantee you if you finish that sentence, we won’t leave here for another 3 hours cuz she’s gonna fight that statement.”
“Damn Liz, you just had to do that. Like I was saying. I ran into Justin and....(Justin just began to laugh at that)...I met the rest of the group and we became, well, kind of friends. And like I said over the phone, they invited us to go to their house tonight to hang out for a while and chill.”
“Of course!” Liz and Rachel both said at the same time.
“Justin, I need to call my mom and see if it’s ok that I can come. I’m such a baby.” Erika giggled when she finished talking.
“Awwwww. You came with your mom? That’s sooooo cute. I’m just kidding. I’m such a momma’s boy.”
They walked while Erika dialed her mom at home.
“Hey mommy. You know that group I was telling you about? Yes that’s right, Nsync. Well I met them and there really nice guys and they invited me to go hang out with them tonight, is that all right? Um...hold on, lemme see.”
Erika put her hand over the speaker so her mom wouldn’t be able to hear what she was saying.
“Uh...Justin...my mom thinks I’m going crazy so do you think you could talk to her and tell her you really are Justin and what exactly is gonna happen? I mean, you don’t have to. I know this completely ridiculous.”
“Dude, it’s cool, I know what’s it’s like, I have a mom too, remember?” He took the phone from her and began to speak with her mother. “Hello? Mrs. Wheaton? .... Yes this is Justin Timberlake.... We were planning on all coming over to JC’s house to relax and watch a few movies...hahahaha...yes ma’am...it was nice speaking to you too...good night.”
He turned off the phone and placed it in his back pocket of his jeans. Erika stood there in amazement at how smoothly that had just went and that her mom actually gave her permission to hang out with five of the most sought out guys out there today.
“What did she say to you?” She asked still in shock.
“Your mom is so cool. She just wanted to know exactly what were planning on doing. She also said we should also all keep ourselves ‘under control’, that’s why I was laughing. She also said that when we were ready, that one of us should drive you home.”
Justin and Erika walked to meet the rest of the guys along with Liz and Rachel in the parking lot to split up and meet at JC’s house. Erika rode with Justin and JC while Liz and Rachel followed them in their car. The entire ride Erika had to put up with Justin complaining the whole time about how unfair life is because JC wouldn’t let him drive the car.
“I am 17 you know I do have a license. I can drive, and will any of you let me? Nooooo.” Erika started laughing but wasn’t doing a very good job at hiding it. “You think this is funny, don’t you?” She was still laughing but was shaking her head no just to humor the boy.
A few minutes later they all arrived at JC’s house. It was the biggest thing she has ever seen.
“Gees... you think you got a big enough house?” She said in amazement as she was still staring at the house in front of her.
“You can come in you know, it wont bite, I swear. It’s a nice house, I know. I got it big cuz the guys are always over and they each have their rooms. And since were all staying here for a month, it works out.”
They all went inside and made themselves comfortable eating pizza and watching movies.
“So... how old are you again Erika?”
“I’m 15, but ill be sixteen in a few weeks. I’m the baby of the group. All of my friends are already 17 so I always end up getting rides from them. ” They continued to have all sorts of conversations that night and everyone was having a good time.
“Oh wow, it is getting pretty late. Do you think one of you can drive me home please?”
“Sure, I’ll drive you home.” JC suggested as he was already making his way towards the door.
The drive home was pretty much silent because JC was concentrating on the road and Erika was staring out the window watching all the scenery pass by. The only talking that took place were the directions she was giving him to get to her house. They finally arrived at her house and JC walked her to her door.
“Thank you JC, you know, you didn’t have to walk me to my door.”
“I know I was just being polite, but if you don’t want that then I’ll just leave.”
“I had a lot of fun today, thank you.”
“We all had a great time.” He was already turned around walking back to his car. “We’ll see you again soon Erika.”
With that JC got in his car and drove off. Erika opened her door and walked up to her room to go to bed.
As she lay in her bed, all she could think about was what had happened that day. He bumped into hot guy. Met the group of Nsync. Became friends with them. And hung out with them. She still couldn’t believe all of this was happening to her.