"...Mmm-hmmm...you sure?...aw, how sweet...but you're positive?...but
we'll just annoy you!...NO, I'm not trying to pick a fight, buddy...yeah,
yeah, yeah...hey, I thought you said you had to go!...no, I'm not trying
to kick you off...fine then, just be like that...stoppit!...ha, ha, HA....okay...now
SHOO...no, I just don't want you to be late...you are just too touchy...'scuse
me?!...I am not!...am NOT!...AM NOT!...oh, so NOW you gotta go, eh?...mmm-hmmm...TOLDJA...oh,
don't you give me that...mmm-hmm....funny...okay...see ya...bye, bye." I
got off the phone with Kevin. He had told me some good news during our conversation.
I ran into the kitchen, where everyone was having breakfast. There were eight
sluggish forms in the room (including the three dogs). "Guess what!?" I yelled.
They weren't fully awake. "HELLO?!"
"What?" Jenny looked up from her cereal.
"GUESS!"
"Martians landed on our roof?" Hannah mumbled.
"NO!"
"The earth will collide with the sun and we have twenty-four hrs
to live?" Julie asked.
"YOU GUYS!"
"Ooh, ooh, I know! *N SYNC DIED!" Cathy burst out laughing.
"HEY!" Hannah protested.
"You guys are so impossible..."
"So you gonna tell us or what?" Chin asked.
"Okay, fine...you know how the guys gotta leave for the European
leg of their world tour at the end of this month, right?" I said. They nodded.
"Well...they get like almost two weeks off before they leave. They're gonna
spend part of it with their families...and...dun dun DUN...part of it with
us!" I grinned.
Well...it was May. The guys had kept us posted on their activities
as they got ready for their tour...at least one of them called every day,
or vice versa. On the 18th, we had planned to get MILLENNIUM, but they had
informed us not to do so. We protested, but they would hear nothing of it--they
told us to be patient. *N Sync's summer tour was coming up, and Lance was
keeping Hannah updated with his schedule as well. The guys had fixed it so
that he would be able to come visit us with them in the end of May. Howie
supposedly was having a rocky relationship with Joanne--he told Cathy everything--originally,
she was supposed to come visit too, but plans were changed. It seemed that
Julie and Nick were getting to be better friends every day. Same went with
Hannah and Lance. But the subject of the friends' previous relationships
with each other never came up...and all four were afraid to mention anything.
~*~*~*(at the airport about a week or so later)*~*~*~
"Wait, what's the flight number again!?" Hannah screeched.
"Don't worry, I think that's that gate..." Julie pointed out.
"D4!? It's supposed to be B14!" Chin screamed.
"NO, it's E24!" Jenny yelled back. We were a sight to see: six girls
running around the airport. All the guys, including Lance, were supposed
to arrive at SOME gate in 15 minutes. We finally found it, and collapsed
in the waiting area. Soon we heard the flight arrival call and we scrambled
to get up and look presentable (hey, it was 5 AM in the morning, and we had
slept in).
"Where are they??" I asked.
"I don't' see them," Jenny observed.
"Are you SURE it's not B4, or something??" Cathy asked.
"I'm SURE!" Julie replied.
"Missing something?" we heard a voice from behind us. The six of
us turned. "Or should I say, missing somethingS?" Howie grinned.
"HI!!!!!" we all screamed and hugged them.
"I CAN'T believe you would do something like
, Howie!" Cathy punched him lightly. Brian poked Jenny in the side
and Kevin did the same to me. We shot up a few feet in the air and screeched,
and then tackled them. Chin and AJ were bantering about something. Julie
and Nick exchanged a warm hug, as did Hannah and Lance.
We had rented one of those huge vans that fits 12 people and squeezed
everyone in, luggage and all (don't ask us how we did it). Four bodyguards
had tagged along and followed us in a car. Cathy drove, and Howie was in
front in the passenger's seat. In the 1st row, Chin was complaining about
being squished between AJ and Brian. Kevin let her know that it wasn't dandy
in the second row between Jenny and me. We had all subconsciously made sure
that Hannah, Lance, Nick, and Julie sat in the back row. On the trip
home, the guys were bubbling over about their plans for the tour. They sounded
so excited; it was funny. We triumphantly informed them that we had
been voting for their video on TRL every single day. They attempted to seem
impressed. Nick was chewing gum and blowing bubbles. At one point, Julie
turned to talk to him and when he turned, it popped on her nose. She grimaced
at the sticky substance and we all yelled at Nick. He took his sweet time
and spent the rest of the ride carefully cleaning Julie's face of all the
gum. Hannah and Lance fell asleep...leaning on each other.
When we got home, the dogs practically killed them. Kezia knocked
over Howie AND AJ in one blow. Darwin was jumping up and down near Kevin,
Nick, and Lance. Roky of course made a beeline to Brian.
"You've gotten big, Roky!!" Brian laughed as he attempted to pick
up the excited puppy who licked him all over his face.
"Oh, by the way..." AJ realized something and nudged Kevin.
"What? OH oh yeah..." Kevin bent down and opened up one of his bags.
"Thought you girls might like these..." he said, producing 6 brand new copies
of MILLENNIUM from his bag.
"NO WAY!!!!!" Julie, Chin, and I screamed.
"Yes, way," Howie grinned.
"Do you know HOW LONG I have had to put up with their whining about
not getting the MILLENNIUM CD like everyone else!? About not getting to see
all your Thank You's and new pictures!? About not getting to hear all
your friggin new songs!?" Cathy pointed a finger at the guys in mock anger.
"It was worth the wait!" I giggled, hugging the CD.
"Hey what happened to the shrink wrap or whatever?" Hannah asked,
suspiciously eyeing her CD.
"What?" I asked confused.
"You know the annoying plastic that around the CD?" Jenny said.
"Well," AJ piped in, "If you open them, you'll seeeee," he grinned.
We opened the CDs.
"We printed our names ever-so-neatly for y'all," Brian laughed as
we saw the messy, but famous, signatures.
"Awwww," Jenny cooed.
"Hey, um, where are you guys gonna sleep? The game room is kinda
fulla junk right now, so, um, the old sleeping arrangements will have to
be changed..." Hannah stated. Kevin, Lance, and Howie opted to share the
downstairs guestroom, while Nick, AJ, and Brian called the upstairs one.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired...it's way too early
in the morning to be conscious, for me at least, and I wanna go listen to
this...so I'm gonna go to my room now..." I mumbled and stumbled up the stairs.
"Yeah..." Jenny yawned and stretched, "Sorry guys, but I'm gonna
get some sleep too...."
"What? You're leaving us? But we just GOT here!" Nick whined.
"You should know your way around the house...the kitchen's that way,
the TV's that way, and your room's upstairs...make yourself at home," Julie
grinned, patted Nick on the back, and followed us up the stairs.
The few days we had with the guys went by quickly. I guess it IS
true..."time flies when you're having fun". We swore we'd get dozens
of new photo albums to fit the hundreds of pictures we took with them. During
the week, we made them watch TRL every single day, no matter how much they
protested. We loved pointing out the video editor's mistakes, and asking
the guys exactly WHAT was going through their heads when they did the free-for-all
dance moves. AJ usually tried to run out of the room, but Chin wouldn't let
him. Nick and Brian covered their heads with pillows as not to watch the
screen, but Julie and Jenny pried the pillows away and forced them to watch.
Lance seemed to have fun making fun of the guys along with us. We went horseback
riding a few times. Lance and Hannah seemed to enjoy that the most. Nick
was always opting to have a Nintendo tournament when we were bored (which
was rare). If he didn't win, he's just say he was easy on us. At one time,
Brian and Kevin pinned him and made him swear he did not let us win.
We got the guys to sing for us a cappella a few times, even adding Lance
in, but it took a lot of convincing from us and a lot of whining on their
part. In my opinion, I was dragged to the beach. I attempted to stay on dry
land and make a nice sandcastle, but I was soon dunked in the ocean's salty
water by a certain Mr. Richardson. Howie and AJ spent half the time attempting
to show that they knew how to ride boogie-boards like surfboards...it didn't
work.
Soon, though, the inevitable happened...it was their last night with
us. Chin had made us rent and watch The Faculty. I for one hate horror movies,
so I kept trying to make excuses for leaving the room. But they made Kevin
hold me down after I returned from leaving the room for about the umpteenth
time...meanies. Julie was squirming in disgust, exclaiming she couldn't stand
watching things getting shoved into people's eyes. I teased her because I
didn't get disgusted, I just got scared from time to time. Hannah was watching
with a queasy look on her face. Chin, on the other hand, as well as most
of the guys, had the what's-the-big-deal?-look on their faces. Anyway, that
night, we decided to head to bed early, right after the movie. We actually
had to convince the guys by reminding them about their early flight in the
morning. A chorus of goodnights was heard around the house (including
Lance, Kevin, and Howie yelling theirs from the bottom floor), and soon,
all was silent and dark.
Julie shifted in her bed. She couldn't get to sleep. Moonlight had
filtered into the room through the blinds on the window and had placed itself
across Cathy's face. Julie sighed. Cathy was asleep. Julie figured she was
the only one left awake in the house. She got up and walked out of the room,
not sure where she wanted to go. She was a bit warm, so she decided to head
down the hall and stand outside on the balcony.
Hannah sighed for the billionth time. When Chin moved, Hannah hoped
she was awake, but she was only turning over in her sleep. Hannah sat
up and stretched. She stared dumbly into the darkness. She thought she heard
someone walking past their room door. She got up, feeling she had nothing
better to do, and poked her head outside. She saw who she thought was Julie
opening the door to the balcony. Hannah was curious, so she followed her.
Julie left the door opened and leaned out on the railing of the balcony.
She watched the pool shimmer in the moonlight.
"Don't fall off now, we don't wanna take an unexpected dip in the
pool," Hannah whispered a laugh as she came outside, closing the door behind
her. Julie turned.
"Couldn't sleep either?" she smiled. Hannah nodded.
Nick shot up. He was in a cold sweat. He had that dream again. That
horrible dream. He had never even told Brian about it...
...He cringed. That's the part he always woke up at. Nick shivered.
It meant something, he knew it. He looked around the room. AJ and Brian seemed
to be in a peaceful slumber. He didn't want to wake them. He decided he needed
something to drink, so he stumbled out of the room and downstairs to the
kitchen.
"...I don't know what to do," they heard Julie.
"YOU don't know what to do?" Hannah asked.
"Sorry...I guess you don't either."
"You've got that right."
"But thing is...this whole time I felt that Nick's friendship was
enough, you know? At first, it seemed like he wanted 'us' back right away,
but he saw how I was wary, and turned into a pure friend. Now he's showed
no further wanting of anything more, and I was completely fine with that...But
now..."
"At least it was like that for you. I've wanted something more since
this 'friendship' with Lance started. I mean, I was the person that pushed
him away. I thought it was for his own good...I didn't expect that it'd take
a toll on me. So when we tried to be friends again, I wanted to have it back
to what is used to be, but he never showed any signs, and still doesn't..."
"Just listen to us!" Julie tried to laugh.
"Yeah, two confused souls or something," Hannah replied. "I guess
we're in the same boat, eh, buddy?"
"Yup, you and me, pal," Julie smiled.
"And me..."
"Me too..."
They heard two voices from the patio. Julie and Hannah looked at
each other, then stuck their heads over the balcony. They saw Nick and Lance
looking up at them.
"How long have you two been down there?" Julie asked.
"Long enough..." Nick replied.
There was a silence.
"We need to talk," all four of them said at once. The two girls
tried not to laugh while the guys looked down at their feet to hide their
smirks. They silently agreed to meet at the stairs.
"So where to talk?" Julie asked when the four of them met. Julie
agreed to go to Nick's room, and Hannah agreed to go to Lance's.
"Hey, AJ! Bri!" Nick loudly whispered.
"Go away, mommy..." AJ turned over.
"AJ AND BRIAN," Nick whispered even louder.
"WHAT!?" Brian sat up and whispered back.
"Don't take this the wrong way...but get out." Nick pointed to the
door. Brian was about to shoot back a remark, but he noticed Julie standing
there, and nodded in understanding.
"Yo, Age, man, c'mon, we gotta go." Brian groggily hit AJ in the
head with his pillow before getting up.
"Lemme alone!" AJ protested.
"AJ!" Brian hit him again. AJ opened and eye and saw Julie, Nick,
and Brian staring at him.
"OKAY...I'm up and out..." he grumbled and followed Brian out of
the room. "Dude, where are WE supposed to sleep now, man?" he grunted in
the hallway.
"Kev, D, PLEASE, wake up!" Lance almost yelled.
"Huh?" Kevin sleepily sat up. So did Howie.
"Can you two leave the room...please?" Lance asked. Howie rubbed
his eyes and blinked, trying to bring the dark scene into focus. He saw Hannah
standing by Lance, waiting for Kevin and him to leave.
"C'mon, Kev," Howie tugged at Kevin's arm before getting up.
"Where are we going...?" Kevin asked, following him out of the room
like a zombie.
"I dunno, upstairs?"
The four half-asleep guys met upstairs in the hallway.
"From what I hear, Hannah's not using her bed, so I shall..." AJ
yawned and left for Hannah and Chin's room.
"And I'm gonna go use Julie's..." Howie stated, leaving for Julie
and Cathy's room. Kevin and Brian looked at each other. The only room choices
left were the junk-filled game room, the family room couches, or the
room that Jenny and I occupied. They opted for the latter, and stumbled
in the direction of our room. They stood in our doorway and squinted, attempting
to find a place to sleep. They noticed that we were both sleeping on only
one side of our beds, with our backs to them. They looked at each other;
they both had the same idea.
"You think we should?"
"Why not?"
"They'd kill us."
"No they wouldn't."
They shrugged and approached our beds. Brian got into Jenny's and
Kev got into mine. They got in carefully, hoping we wouldn't notice. They
lay down so they were facing our back, sure to keep about at least a half
a foot of space between us and them. When we didn't seem to stir, they gave
a sigh of relief. They closed their eyes.
"Nite,
cos."
"Nite, Bri."
Still sleeping, I turned over and put out my arm, in order to hug
my pillow. But my arms went around an unsuspecting Kevin's head and neck.
He made an OOF sound and I woke up. I screamed when I saw a figure in my
bed but he clamped his hand over my mouth and put a finger to his lips to
motion "shh". I nodded when I realized it was him. Jenny must have heard
the beginning of my scream, because she woke up too, and shrieked when she
saw a male body lying next to her. He got freaked and fell off the bed with
a THUD. I sat up to look at the scene.
"Oops...sorry, Brian...didn't know it was you..." Jenny mumbled.
"Well now my butt hurts..." Brian pretended to whimper.
"It's Sarah's fault I woke up, isn't it Sarah?" Jenny looked at me.
"Oh don't give me that...Ask HIM!" I shrugged and pointed at Kevin.
"Look... the 'couples' are finally talking, and we were kicked out
of our rooms. D used Julie's bed and AJ used Hannah's, the game room is full
of junk like you warned us, and we didn't like the idea of the family room
couches..." Kevin tried to explain.
"You guys, there is no way I'm going to sleep now," I mentioned.
"Let's just go downstairs and watch some TV or something," Jenny
suggested. We followed her out of the room. AJ, Chin, Cathy, and Howie met
us outside. Howie had tripped over something in Cathy's room, almost destroyed
her lamp, and woke her up. AJ had run into Chin's door and banged it open,
knocking over her chair onto her bed, waking her up too. They decided to
join us downstairs.
~*~*~*(In Lance's room)*~*~*~
"Hannah, why didn't you tell me before?" Lance asked as they stood
standing.
"Because I thought it would ruin what we had."
"But--"
"You didn't seem to want anything more...so who was I, the person
who broke it off in the first place, to be one to push it?... It didn't matter
that I couldn't help the fact that my strong liking for you turned to LOVE
of all things!" She paused, realizing what she had just said. She regained
her composure and continued. "...But I was determined not to bother you cuz
I thought you wanted to keep the, the friendship...I always mess everything
up...I'm so stupid..." Hannah cried and sat on the bed.
"Oh, Hannah..." Lance sighed and pulled her into a warm hug.
"I'm sorry...so sorry," she cried into his shoulder.
"You know what? Through all of this, I finally figured out the meaning
to our song, 'Tearing Up My Heart,'" Lance tried to laugh. He successfully
made Hannah laugh too. "You're so pretty when you laugh Hannah," he smiled
as he pulled her out of the hug, placing his hands on her shoulders, so he
could look into her eyes. He remembered his dream. He knew its meaning.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered again.
"Don't be. This was just a little glitch--"
"LITTLE?"
"Yes little...compared to all the happiness..."
"It's the happiness that was there that is LITTLE, compared to all
this."
"Not if you look at what is...can...and will be," Lance stated, then
kissed her. "Hannah," he said, breaking away, "Remember what I once told
you? There is nobody...but you...for me."
"Lance, I messed it up. Even if I love you, you don't love me. And
you shouldn't for that matter. You deserve better, much better...I'll just
get in the way......I'm so afraid..." she tried to look away from his eyes,
but couldn't.
"But don't you see Hannah? I do, " he smiled, "...I love you too."
~*~*~*(In Nick's Room)*~*~*~
"Nick...oh, why did you have to hear that?" Julie went and sat down
in the middle of the guest bed, cross-legged.
"I don't know...I'm sorry...but we were out there...and we just heard
you two talking..." He went and mimicked her sitting style, but faced her.
There was silence for awhile. Julie looked at her feet. "But is it true?"
Nick broke the silence.
"Hmm?"
"You like me?"
"Nick...yes, of course I do. I have this whole time, okay? I just
thought at first you didn't need me because I got you worried all the time...and
then when we became 'just friends', and after awhile, you acted like just
a friend...not showing anything of wanting something more - "
"Because I thought you didn't."
"That's what I thought too...But not anymore..." Julie sighed, still
looking at her crossed feet. Nick put a finger under her chin and lifted
her head so he could look into her eyes.
"Remember how at the airport, when I asked you to be my girlfriend?"
he asked. Julie nodded and weakly smiled. "Well I still feel the same way..."
"So do I," she replied.
"The thing is..." he seemed to realize something. Nick was remembering
his dream. He knew its meaning.
"What?" Julie got worried.
"I just lied," he stated, taking her hands in his.
"W-what?!" Julie could barely whisper.
"Julie, I DON'T feel the same way...I just realized that I don't
like you..." he sighed. It's now or never he thought. Before she could
answer, he leaned forward and kissed her. He pulled away to rest his forehead
and nose on her forehead and nose. Julie looked confused. "...Because now,
Julie..." he paused and took a deep breath. "...I love you." Julie bit her
lip and smiled as a single tear rolled down her cheek. He moved his hand
so he could brush it away with his thumb.
"I love you too, Nick."
Downstairs, we had given up on watching TV. AJ had switched on our
CD player in the living room. The CD that happened to be playing was the
Boys' first European album. We were all dancing like idiots--we felt like
we had nothing better to do. The dogs had come in and seemed to get hyper
when they saw the rest of us dancing. AJ was trying to twirl Chin around,
Cathy and Howie were trying to chase the dogs, Brian was tickling Jenny,
and Kevin tried to dip me.
Hannah and Lance emerged unnoticed from their room, and stood by
the stairs as spectators...they were standing in hugging/slow dance position,
with Hannah's arms around Lance's neck, her head resting on his chest, and
his arms around her waist, his head resting on her head. Nick and Julie came
down, stopped on the last few stairs, and watched as well, thought we didn't
notice them either. Nick, from behind, had his arms around Julie's waist,
with his chin resting on her head, Julie held his arms in hers and rested
her head back on his chest. The previous track finished, and switched to
the next one...Nobody But You.