Because Of Love
“Love pt. 2”
“Because of Love”
Because of love I know you better…because of love
we are together…because of love you have my heart…because of love we’ll never
part…
When I first met you I knew that my life would
never be the same…and I knew that you felt it too…I’ll never feel alone again
boy ‘cause your love makes me feel so secure…you got me singin…
“Jenn?”
“Michelle, I’m at work.”
“No shit, Jenn, I figured that when I dialed your
work number.”
“You know I’m not supposed to get too many personal
calls!”
“This is important. I just met the man I’m gonna
marry!”
“You mean the same guy you met last week and said
the same thing about?”
“No. It’s real this time.”
“Michelle…”
“Jenn, don’t sigh at me like that. This one’s different. This one’s IT.”
“Okay…okay…I’ll meet you for lunch.”
Michelle smiled at Jenn across the table in the
small café. “He’s amazing, Jenn.
Totally amazing.”
“Where did you meet him?”
“Um…the grocery store over on Stone Drive.”
“That dump?
Michelle, the COCKROACHES won’t even shop there.”
“I know…but I was thirsty and I also needed milk. I
was over that way and stopped. And there he was…buying Captain Crunch.” Michelle looked into thin air, her eyes
glazed over.
“Love in the cereal aisle,” Jenn murmured and
rolled her eyes. “Love at first sight?”
“I hope so…it was for me. He looked at me, and he just SMILED, Jenn. Smiled at me. I mean, he smiles that smile to a million
people every day, and this time he smiled it at ME. And then Lance walked up and…”
“Whoa. Back that thang up.” Jenn slapped her hand on the table. “Lance
who?”
“Lance Bass.
He was all like, “C’mon, Chris, dude, we need to roll. Do you REALLY need cereal to go to this
thing?” And Chris was like…”
“WAIT, I said.”
Jenn’s eyes were huge. “Chris
who?”
“Kirkpatrick,” Michelle said calmly, as if she met
members of NSYNC every time she went grocery shopping.
“You’re telling me that two members of NSYNC, who
are only in town to do that charity thing, were at the supermarket?”
“No…actually…I think I heard Joey’s voice, too.”
“You saw Lance at the damn supermarket and didn’t
call me?”
“You were at work. You’re not supposed to get a lot
of personal calls,” Michelle recited obediently. She smiled at the look on Jenn’s
face.
“I don’t FUCKING believe this.” Jenn stared at her best friend. “Did you at
least get his number or something?”
“No. I didn’t even talk to him,” Michelle admitted.
“But this old lady was at the register, and they were walking up behind me, and
I told her to give him my card.”
“Michelle, she probably kept it or something!”
“Jenn, she probably doesn’t even know who they
are! I couldn’t just walk up and give
him my number!”
“You could have given Lance MY number, wench!” Jenn
said almost angrily. Michelle laughed
and dug into her salad.
“All I know is that my life is NEVER gonna be the
same again. The way he smiled at me, so friendly, more then just an NSYNC
smile, you know? NO man will ever live
up to that.”
“So now you’re in love with a man you’ve never
really met, and you’re gonna ignore all other men because of one smile?”
“If Lance smiled at you like that, wouldn’t you
feel the same way?”
Jenn thought for a moment. “Okay. Fine. But that’s
different.” Michelle laughed.
“Okay, so I’ll call you tonight…I should be home
around seven,” Jenn said to Michelle as they walked out of the café. “We really
need to call the airline for those tickets.”
“Las Vegas will be there no matter WHEN we get our
tickets, Jenn,” Michelle said.
“I want them NOW. I want them in my hand. I want to
know that this vacation is really gonna happen.”
“Jenn, I…” Michelle was interrupted by her
cellphone. “Hold that thought.” She
answered it. “Hello?”
“Is this…um…Michelle?” A low voice asked.
“Um…yes. Who is this?” Michelle didn’t recognize the voice.
“Hold on.” She heard the phone being handed off.
“Hello?” She said again, a bit annoyed.
“Um, Michelle?
Hi. Um…a lady at the supermarket
gave me your number. My name is Chris.”
“Oh my God,” Michelle whispered, sitting down on a
nearby bench.
“Are you okay?”
Jenn asked. Michelle waved her
away.
“Look, I’m sorry. Um…Lance got your card and made
me call you and...hell…this is so weird. I saw you and…I’m sorry. This is so
juvenile. Dammit, Lance, go away and
quit bugging me!” Chris yelled.
Michelle giggled. “Um…anyway…I
wanted to talk to you more, but we’re so damn busy today.”
“Yeah, I guess so.
You have that charity thing and all tonight,” Michelle replied, and Jenn
let loose with a shriek.
“What was that?”
“My friend. She didn’t take her medication yet
today,” Michelle said, glaring at Jenn, who was jumping around with a hand over
her mouth. Chris chuckled.
“Yeah…people say that about me all the time. Do you
have tickets to the charity ball?”
“No…we couldn’t get them,” Michelle said. “You guys are just too in demand.”
“Yeah, that’s us,” Chris said, his voice thick with
disappointment.
“But we got tickets to all the stuff in Vegas so
it’s cool,” Michelle went on, trying to keep her voice calm.
“You’ll be in Vegas?”
“Sure will. From Thursday to Sunday.”
“Hey…where are you staying?”
“The MGM.
Isn’t that where you are staying?”
Chris paused. “Actually…it’s all a fake to keep
fans from finding us. We’re…” Michelle
heard a scuffle. “Sorry…Lance just
slapped his hand over my mouth and I had to stab him with my fork. We’re gonna be at the Bellagio. How about you come over before the
basketball game?”
“Come over…to your hotel?” Michelle’s voice faltered.
“Sure. It’d
be cool. Totally public, I won’t maul you, you won’t maul me. Bring your loud
medicated friend along, too.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” Michelle said, laughing.
“Better hide Lance, though. He’s not
safe if she’s there.”
“Got it.
Gimme your name…I’ll get it on our security list.”
Michelle gave her name and Jenn’s name. “This is great, Chris. I’m really looking
forward to it.”
“Me, too. It’s nice talking to a fan who didn’t
scream in my ear. Hey…we really gotta
roll. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
“Yeah…a few weeks. Thank you for calling me,
Chris.”
“Thanks for leaving your card. Bye.”
Michelle hung up and stared at the phone. Jenn grabbed her arm. “Was that Chris
Kirkpatrick?”
“Yeah…but it was Lance who called me,” Michelle
couldn’t help but say. Jenn began to hop around again. “Chris wants us to hook up with them in Vegas
before the game. They’re staying at the Bellagio, but no one is supposed to
know that.”
“Hook up…with NSYNC? Oh my good Lord.” Jenn hugged herself. She looked at Michelle.
“You’re very calm.”
“I had to be. I couldn’t freak out. Not on the phone. Not with him.” She stood up. “I need to get going. You go back to work and I’ll talk to you
tonight.” She headed down the sidewalk,
hardly noticing her feet on the ground.
Because of love I know you better…because of love
we are together…because of love you have my heart…because of love we’ll never
part…
I don’t care what people say, you’re the one that
brings me so much joy…when I look at your smiling eyes my heart wants to
dance…there’s only you on my mind and I never want to leave your side…it feels
so right let’s stay together, I’ll never feel alone again boy…’cause your love
makes me feel so secure…
“Michelle, look at all these people!” Jenn gasped in a whisper as they entered the
Bellagio Hotel. “So much for keeping their presence a secret!”
“Jenn, we heard online that they might be here. Nothing is a secret for long when it comes
to NSYNC,” Michelle pointed out. She strode up to the front desk. “If my name
was on the security list to get onto NSYNC’s floor, who would I talk to?”
The weary clerk rolled his eyes. “IF you were on that list,
you would talk to him.” He pointed to a
tall thin man standing in a corner of the lobby. “Good luck, though.”
“Thank you,” Michelle said politely, refraining from
mouthing off the way she REALLY wanted to. She tugged at Jenn’s sleeve. “Come
on, Jenn. Lance is upstairs.”
“Lance, yeah, right,” Jenn mumbled, still not believing
they’d ever get upstairs.
Michelle smiled at the man with the clipboard. “Hi
there. Chris Kirkpatrick put our names
on this list.”
“Oh really?” The man
arched an eyebrow. “And those names would be?”
Michelle rattled them off, punctuating it with another sweet smile. The eyebrows raised further. “Oh…yes…here you are.” He marked his paper,
then handed them each a keycard. “Down
the hall and through those doors. There are elevators down there. Sixteenth floor. He’s in room sixteen twenty.”
“Thank you!”
Michelle grabbed the keycards in one hand and Jenn with the other. “Do NOT scream,” she ordered. Jenn glared at her as they calmly walked
down the hallway. “And do NOT ask him
where Lance is.”
“I wouldn’t DARE,” Jenn snapped, then grinned. “Yeah, I
would.”
They impatiently rode the elevator up, and took deep breaths
before stepping onto the secure floor. The hallway was pandemonium. They caught sight of Joey going after JC
with a pillow, and Justin almost ran them down as he talked on his cellphone on
his way down to the soda machine.
Michelle stopped in front of room sixteen twenty. “Here we go,” she
said. She knocked. The door swung open and she was face to face
with Chris Kirkpatrick.
“Hey,” he said happily. “They called and told me you were
coming up. Cool.” He moved aside. “Come on in. You must be Jenn…hi, Jenn.”
Chris smiled at Jenn, who found her brains enough to say hello in
return. “Hey, Lance…Michelle and Jenn are here.”
Jenn’s eyes swept across the messy room to where Lance was
sitting on the sofa in front of his laptop. He closed the machine and smiled
politely. “Hi there, Michelle and Jenn.”
“Hi,” Michelle said, nudging Jenn.
“Yeah…hi…” Jenn said faintly. Lance moved to the end of the sofa so Jenn and Michelle could sit
down.
“Did you have a hard time getting up here?” Chris asked
Michelle.
“No…not really. They didn’t want to believe we were really
on the list, but you got us on there. Thanks so much.” Michelle slapped Jenn
discreetly so she would talk to Lance.
“So…have you been to the casinos a lot?” Jenn asked Lance,
desperately thinking of something to say.
Lance replied, and they soon were involved in an actual conversation.
“This week has been crazy,” Chris said, smiling at
Michelle. “This is like the first
normal time we’ve had. I’m so glad you
could come up here.”
“Me too,” Michelle said softly.
“You realize this is crazy,” Jenn said to Michelle as they
went back down in the elevator an hour later.
“This can never work.”
“Why not?” Michelle said dreamily, clutching the piece of
paper with Chris’ cellphone number and email address on it. “He said he’ll call.”
“He’ll never be in one place.”
“The tour will soon be over.”
“He’ll be busy recording.”
“He said he’ll come visit.”
“Michelle…”
“Jenn, knock it off.
Did you see the way he looked at me?
All those people, coming and going, and he acted like I was the only
person in the room. It was all freaky…but with Chris there, it was like nothing
could go wrong.” Michelle sighed as
they returned their keycards. “It was
wonderful.”
“Excuse me.” Another
man tapped Michelle on the shoulder. “I was supposed to give you this.” He handed her a red rose. “From Mr. Kirkpatrick up on sixteen.”
“Thank you,” she sighed, inhaling its sweet scent. “See, Jenn?”
THREE WEEKS LATER
“So, did she call him?”
Michelle asked Chris as they chatted on the phone.
“I’m not sure. He doesn’t talk much about his private life,
though he DID have a shiteating grin on his face when he got off his bus
yesterday,” Chris told her.
“I haven’t heard anything from Jenn…I still think she things
that email was fake,” she replied. “If nothing else, I think they could be
friends.”
“Long distance relationships can be hard,” Chris said
slowly. “You can meet up here and
there, but it’s not the same.”
“I know…” Michelle said, thinking back to the three times
Chris had flown her out to where they had been performing. “But those times are
worth it.”
“I think so, too,” Chris said, sighing as he got more
comfortable. “So…tell me what’s going on.
Did you get your hair cut like you said? I need to know, you know, so I
don’t go picking up the wrong woman at the airport next week.”
“You’re a jerk!” Michelle
said, but she laughed as she snuggled down in her bed, enjoying the sound of
Chris’ voice in her ear.
It’s cause of love we’ve shared great memories…the
way you make me feel…It’s cause of love I feel so high…I don’t need nobody
else…because of love…
The End
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