JC scanned the room surveying the party. His eyes quickly fell on Krista. Her straight dark red hair flowed around her shoulders every time she moved. She was laughing and having a good time with her band mates. Suddenly their eyes met, she had the most amazing deep, bright green eyes. Krista smiled at him and he simply nodded back before he was swept up into another picture.
Krista couldn’t believe that JC was just staring at her from across the room of a crowded party. She was in 7th heaven. Dan took her hand and made her stand,
“Krissie come dance with me.”
“Okay.” She said and let him lead her to the dance floor. It was a slower song so they were able to talk while they danced.
“It’s been an amazing night.” Dan said,
“I know, I can’t believe that we won. We won Dan! This has to be the best night of my life!”
“This year’s been amazing, thanks mostly to you, Kris.”
“What are you talking about? I just play the drums.” She shrugged,
“You wrote every number one song we’ve had. Plus if you hadn’t joined the group, we never would have gotten this far.”
“But without you three, we wouldn’t have a group. So we wouldn’t have made it without each other. It was a group effort.”
“I still say that you are the most important piece. Well to me you are.” He sighed,
“Dan, don’t.” She said looking away,
“I know, I know. I just wanted to let you know that’s all. Take it how ever you want.” He said and the song ended, “Thanks for the dance, Krista.” Dan walked away leaving her in the middle of the dance floor alone in her thoughts. Krista slowly moved back to their table thinking about Dan. They were over so long ago, why did he insist on bringing it up now? She had been having a great time up till then. Leave it to Dan to ruin a perfect evening.
Krista sat down at the table grateful that no one was there. She pulled out her journal and began to write in it.
“This is the last thing I expected the sexiest woman drummer this side of the universe to be doing at a party.” JC’s voice floated into her head and she looked up into his intense blue eyes,
“Well this isn’t really my scene.”
“Me neither, can I sit?”
“Sure.” She smiled slightly and nodded to the chair next to her. JC eased into the seat and glanced at her journal.
“So what are you doing?”
“Writing.” She replied,
“What are you writing, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Our next number one hit.” She joked and he laughed,
“What’s it called?”
“Men are assholes.” She teased and JC winced playfully,
“Ouch, in whose honor.” He asked,
“Ex-boyfriends everywhere.” She said writing a few more notes,
“Ah, I see.” He glanced around the table, “So, you left your kid home for this part of the night?” Krista looked at JC, puzzled,
“My kid?” And then it clicked, “Oh Emma!” She exclaimed making JC laugh,
“You win an award and you forget you have a kid. I thought I was bad.”
“Emma’s not my kid, she’s my goddaughter. I promised my sister that I would baby-sit on her 5th year wedding anniversary. Of course I made that promise two years ago when I was still living with my folks.”
“Oh, so that’s what you meant when you said that you never break a promise.”
“Uh huh, in fact I have to go check on her in a bit.”
“You’re leaving?” He asked disappointedly,
“No, I was going to check in by phone.”
“Oh, well that’s good.” He smiled warmly at her, “So this new song you were writing, what’s it about?” He said turning to her book,
“An ex boyfriend who won’t let go of the past.”
“Does this ex boyfriend have a name?” He inquired,
“Promise you won’t tell the tabloids?”
“Cross my heart.” He said making the motion over his own heart and she leaned in close,
“Dan Houghton.” She said softly and JC leaned in closer too,
“I guess that means all the tabloids are wrong, huh?” He said and Krista smiled as she sat up straight again,
“When are they ever right? We haven’t dated in like a year or so, but the press drags out every look, every time we hold hands, every time we dance. They just won’t let it go and neither will he. I swear if I read that we’re engaged or secretly married one more time I’m gonna scream.” She said and he laughed,
“So, Krista-”
“Please call me Krissie.” She interrupted,
“Krista’s not your real name?”
“Krissie wasn’t cool enough so I was renamed Krista.” She rolled her eyes,
“I totally understand, call me Josh.”
“Okay, I like that way better.”
“Me, too.”
“Maybe after Nsync, you can produce under Josh Chasez.”
“Nobody would know who I was.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“Yeah, so I have a question.”
“I have an answer.” She smiled,
“Do you have a favorite Nsync member or do you just like all of us as a group? He asked and Krista turned pink,
“You would have to ask that question, of course I have a favorite, every true Nsync fan does.”
“Well?”
“You.” She said and a smile crept across her face, “So who won the bet?” She asked and this time JC blushed a little,
“I did, but I won’t tell, most of the guys picked Joey and Justin.” Krista wrinkled her nose,
“Why Justin?”
“He’s everyone’s favorite. Didn’t you know?”
“Well I’m not everyone.”
“No, you’re not.” He said and then looked down at her journal, “Interesting book.” Krista flipped it close and caressed the cover, it was covered in a satin, emerald green material that matched her eyes and embossed with gold cords that intertwined in a border.
“It’s my favorite journal, the only ones I like to write in. I’m never more creative then when I write in these.” She flipped it back open and ran through the pages that were filled with her hand writing.” There were only a few blank pages left.
“You’re almost full.”
“I know, I’ve been meaning to get a new one but their hand made by one store in my home town and I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to get there. It frightens me because then I won’t have an outlet.”
“An outlet?”
“For all the things going on in my head. It’s where most of our songs come from. They were all created in these little books.”
“You mean you were actually serious about writing songs? I thought you were just kidding.”
“I wrote 3/4th of the songs on our last album and everyone of our number one hits.”
“And here I just thought that you played the drums.”
“I have many hidden talents.” She said playfully and he smiled,
“Really? I just might have to find them all out.”
“In one night? You’re ambitious.” Krista was almost freaking, JC from Nsync was hitting on her! It was too much.
“Yeah, well ambition’s my middle name.” He said and she raised an eyebrow at him,
“I thought your middle name was Scott.” She joked and he laughed,
“What does this new song sound like?”
“No music yet just the words.”
“Can I read?” He asked and Krista nodded handing him the book. He silently read them and chuckled a little, “I like it, very interesting. I can hear the music now.” JC went on to sing some of the medley.
“Mmm…I like it. I wanna hear more.” She said and they began to work on the new song together with JC making up the medley and Krista writing the words. They actually made a great team.
“Hey man, let’s go to another party.” James came up next,
“Yeah, we’ve got to make the rounds.”
“Okay, I’ll go get Krista.” Dan said happy to get Krista as far away from JC as possible. He walked over to the two; they were deep in a conversation over Krista’s journal. “Krista?” He asked and she looked up at him,
“Yes, Dan?”
“Paul, James and me are switching parties. So we got to go.”
“Well I’m kinda in the middle of something. Can it wait a while?”
“The guys are pretty antsy, they wanna leave now, so come on.”
“Dan, you guys go on without me. You don’t need me to hold your hand.” She meant that in more ways than one, “I’ll catch up with you guys when I’m done here.”
“I can give you a lift.” JC added,
“See, I’ll be fine.” She finished,
“Krissie, come on you know it’s not cool when we don’t go out as a group.” Krista got up from her seat,
“Dan, come here please.” She said taking him away from JC, “I am not a three year old and I can take care of myself. I told you that I will catch up with you later.” She whispered forcefully,
“But Kris.”
“No, you guys wanna go, go. I’m staying, I’m sure the guys won’t have a problem with it.” She said crossing her arms.
“You don’t know what you’re doing. God, he’s just a prima donna asshole who’s gonna take advantage of you! You’re just one of his conquests, you mean nothing to him and once he gets what he wants he’ll never talk to you again! You are acting like a groupie!” Dan exclaimed and Krista glared at him and got very close to him,
“Then I’m a groupie, so be it. Thanks for having such a high opinion of me, Dan. I didn’t think I was a whore in your book.”
“Krissie I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah, well that’s not what it sounded like. I think you need to leave, Dan. I’ll see you later.” She turned to walk away and Dan grabbed her arm,
“Krissie.” Krista looked at him and he dropped her arm,
“Goodnight Dan.” She said walking away and went back to the table where JC was talking to Lance. They both looked up when she sat down,
“Is everything okay?” JC asked and she smiled,
“Can you still give me a ride?” Krista took a mental note of the sexual connotation of that question,
“Yeah sure.”
“Then everything’s fine.” She took a deep breath, “Hi Lance.”
“Hey, Krista, JC was just showing me the new song, it sounds great.”
“Thanks, it was mostly Josh’s music that made it work.”
“Modest as well as sexy.” JC joked and she blushed,
“I could kill MTV for making you say that. I’m gonna be hearing about that for years.”
“Didn’t you know JC ad libbed?” Lance said,
“What? You’re kidding, that was so not cool.” She said laughing and thought, ‘JC thought I was sexy!’
“What? I was only telling the truth.” He shrugged,
“Don’t tell my boys, they’ll never let me hear the end of it.”
“Okay, the secret’s safe between you and the five of us.” JC said,
“Oh god, I should just call the tabloids now.” She said throwing her hands up in the air making both of the guys laugh. Lance got up from the table,
“Well I see some people I need to say hi to, so I will see you two later.”
“Bye Lance.” Krista said and JC simply waved. After he left JC turned to her,
“Well about that song.” He said,
“We’re almost finished with it.”
“Let’s get to it, shall we?”
“Okay.” She replied and they sat there until the song was finished. It took longer than she expected, but then she didn’t expect to have such a good time talking to JC. Especially music, it was a passion that both of them shared. After they had talked for a while Krista looked at her watch,
“Oh, I should get home! I totally forgot to check on Emma! It’s too late to check now, she’s most definitely sleeping.”
“Do you want me to take you home?”
“I really should, I’ve got a busy schedule tomorrow. If the guys aren’t home them I’ll have to go and search for them.”
“Like a mother hen, cute.”
“That’s the second time tonight that I’ve been called that.”
“Well it fits.” They got up and JC led her to his escorted vehicle. It was a quiet ride home with Krista sitting across from him. Once they parked behind her hotel she paused before getting out,
“Thanks for the ride home. I really appreciate everything tonight.” She said, gently reaching out touching his knee.
“No problem, I had a lot of fun doing it.”
“Goodnight Josh.”
“Goodnight Krissie.” He said and Krista paused once again as if to say more but she didn’t and left the car quickly running into the hotel.