Their eyes locked onto the brunette as she made her way towards the stage. Recognizing her as the girl who never said much, wouldn't join in and sing, and who wouldn't even move a muscle-unless it was to write in her journal.

As she stepped onto the stage, the owner of the bar stepped up to the microphone to introduce her. "Ladies and Gentleman, please give a warm welcome for Miss. Melissa Alano."

As he stepped off the stage, the audience clapped polietly and even moreso as Melissa walked towards the back of it.

"Do you mind if I use this?" She asked the bulky piano player, who gave her a skeptical look in return, before moving out of the way; letting the petite woman in front of him do what she wanted.

After taking a seat on the piano bench, Melissa gave the crowd what she thought was her brave smile, "I know everyone in here is used to a cover song, but this is one I wrote myself. And..well, I hope you like it."

Ooooooh, Ooooooh, Oooooooh

 

What would you do if you came home and I packed up my clothes and left you took my love and left you all alone

Baby lately you've been treating me so mean and cold
That's not the way...not the way love goes

Tell me where's the love and tenderness,
where or where did it go
Don't you think that I won't leave you
I'll pack my love and go

Tell me what would you do if I stopped loving you
What would you say if I just walked away
I really gotta tell you baby, last night it crossed my mind

While closing her eyes to the crowd, Melissa pictured the relationship she had just gotten out of, the things that had taken place in it, and the reasons why she had written this song.

 

If you think that just because I love you I will stay and you can treat me anyway that you want to...
'Cause last night when you were fighting me I was thinking: How much better things used to be

 

Tell me where's the love and tenderness, where or where did it go
Don't you think that I won't leave you
I'll pack my love and go....

What would you do if I stopped loving you
What would you say if I just walked away
I really gotta tell you baby, last night it crossed my mind

Baby, lately you've been treating me so mean and so cold
We argue more than we've been making love baby, yeah, yeah
I don't wanna be taken for granted anymore
Last night had better be the last or I'm out that door

As she hit her high note, she didn't hear the gasps that followed it. Or feel the energy in the room rise a little. But she could feel her tears as they slowly came down her face.

 

What would you do if I stopped loving you
What would you say if I just walked away
I really gotta tell you baby,
last night it crossed my mind

 

As she finished the last note of the song, and opened her eyes, a tearful Melissa beamed with pride as the crowd roared with applause. "Thank you, thank you so much."

Standing up, she began to make her way off the stage, still thanking people as they complimented her on her performance. It was the first time in a while that she had sang in front of a live audience and to say she was wowed by the crowds response would be an understatement.

Just as she was thinking this, a voice from behind startled her out of her thoughts: "Miss, I just have to say you were wonderful up there."

Turning around, she was surprised to be greeted by an elderly couple, "My wife and I have been coming here for years and we haven't ever heard anyone sing as well as you." The elderly man added; grinning just as bright as his wife was.

"Well, I'm glad you liked it." Melissa said, wearing a full-on blush at the moment; not used to so many compliments directed her way.

"We more than liked it, we loved it."

"Yes, It's a wonder why you aren't off somewhere singing professionally. You could really make it with the right type of guidance."

At the words singing professionally Melissa's face seemed to take on new meaning of beaming, but when the elderly man said type of guidance, her expression had been plummeted a few notches.

"Ma'am, are you all right?"

It took Melissa a few seconds to come back from her moment of self-pity, but when she did a fake smile was placed on her face, "I'm fine, could you just excuse me for a second?"

"We didn't upset you, did we?" The elderly woman asked, a little confused by Melissa's sudden change in demeanor.

"Of course not, I just need to..... use the ladies room." She lied, inwardly praying that they believed her.

The elderly woman took a moment to look over Melissa's features to see if she was lying or not, but seemed to be satisfied after a second, "Of course. I'm sorry that we held you up. We look forward to hearing you perform again someday, hopefully talking to you again as well?"

The woman's genuine smile made Melissa feel bad about lying before, but she didn't feel their was any way to trudge up the truth now, "I hope to talk to you some other time as well. Now, if you'll excuse me."

With that being her final words, Melissa turned around and walked over to the ladies room.

Not needing to use the bathroom, but feeling a good hard cry was in order

---

Unlike everyone else on his side of the room, he didn't go up to the mysterious brunette and compliment her on her singing ability. Hell, having judged her by looks alone, he figured she wasn't one to take compliments very well, and that she also wasn't one for a lot of attention. And, even though he was who he was, he wasn't one to give someone something they didn't want.

He couldn't help but watch her as she briefly talked to an elderly couple before heading into the ladies room. To say she was beautiful would be an understatement. He thought she was all out adorable. But as soon as the thought came, he shook it out of his head; knowing if he wanted to succeed in his plan, he'd have to remain professional. Well, for the beginning anyways.

The phone in his pocket began to ring, knocking him out of his thoughts, and after quickly opening his jacket and flipping it on, he put it up to his ear, "James here."

"Scoop! Hey, what's up? Where are you?"

While sighing slightly, he couldn't help but smile. He hadn't even been out of the state more than 48 hours, and already the national guard was calling to check in, "Nothings up J, just business as usual."

The groan on the other end told him that he was probably in for a lecture when he came back home, "Lance, buddy boy. You're in the city of lo-ove, and you're working? Do we need a doctor?"

Chuckling, Lance rolled his eyes, "Curly, you've been hanging out with Joey too much. And I'm not really working per say, I'm just checking out this new girl."

"Ooh la la, what does she look-never mind, I have been hanging out with Joey too much lately. Have to stop that."

Not being able to help chuckling at his close friend's joke, Lance smiled, "She's pretty, but that's not the point, the point is-"

The man on the other end interrupted, before he could even get it out, "I know, I know, don't tell me. The point is that you think this girl could be the next Shania Twain or Faith Hill, and you want to have a piece of the pie by becoming her manager. Am I right or am I right?"

Lance wasn't even shocked at this, his friend could always read him. "You're right. You know me very well, my man. But actually, I was thinking that she could be someone else besides those two. Maybe the next Britney Spears or Christina Aguilieria."

The silence on the other line suggested that his friend was in shock over his words, and the question that followed afterwards just confirmed it, "You want to do pop musicians now, are you serious?"

"Yes, Yes, I'm serious," Lance answered without hesitation, figuring if he analyzed his decision he'd probably back out of it.

Unfortunately, his friend on the other line could see right through him even over the phone. Knowing exactly what he was doing.

"Scoop, why don't you go back to the hotel, and think this over. And if you still feel the same in the morning, well..then the group and I will help you from there."

Sighing, Lance nodded. He knew his friend was right. They both were sometimes the Kings of jumping head first into something before analyzing it, and this time it could affect someone else's life as much as his. So there was no need to rush.

"Lance, you there?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, he nodded even though the other guy couldn't see him, "Yeah, how about I call you tomorrow with my decision."

"All right, that's all I ask, talk to you later, Scoop."

Muttering his good-byes before disconnecting, Lance leaned back in his chair, studying the door to the ladies room carefully. Realizing he had a lot of thinking to do.

*****
Authors Notes:

The song written here is called "What would you do...", and it's by Debelah Morgan.

CHAPTER ONE

 

****

*Clang*

The sound of her keys hitting the wooden floor, and the sharp intake of air that followed afterwards, caused the two, who were half-naked at the moment, to spring apart from one another, startled.

"Melissa," they both exclaimed simultaneously as Melissa, too shocked to speak, stood under the threshold of the door, looking from her fiancee to her best friend, who she had just caught in bed together. "we can explain."

"Hey green eyes, table seven!"

Melissa was knocked out of her flashback as she realized, not only, was her boss, Mr. Murphy, yelling at her, but her coworker, Sam, was trying to tell her that table seven was ready to order.

"Sorry!"

Moving quickly, she sped-walked towards her section of the dining-room hall, only stopping to pick up her notebook pad and pen as well. "Hello, I'm Melissa, and I'll be your server today."

The three men, who had been busy eying a group of ladies at another table, looked up at Melissa, and one by one started to grin. "Well, hello Melissa, my name's Tony, and whatever you're serving, I'd like a double." The oldest guy, who was also the closest to her, stated, before giving her a once-over, and licking his lips; an action which caused his friends to laugh at, amused.

Blushing at the statement, Melissa opened her mouth to continue on with what she had to say, but before she could do so another voice spoke up, interrupting her "Then I guess you'd like a double order of pea soup...."

Melissa turned around to see Sam glaring down at the guys with a fake smile on her face. "And the rest of your friends would like some wine to go with that corny ass cheese line."

Tony blushed as his friends began to laugh hysterically. "Umm.."

Rolling her eyes, Sam continued on, smiling sweetly nonetheless. "Close your mouth, boy. You'll catch flies."

With that being said, Melissa watched in awe as Sam pivoted on her heels, making her way back towards the kitchen; before turning back towards, the still embarrassed, Tony and his, still laughing friends; telling them their order would be ready shortly.

---

Groaning as the alarm clock beside him beeped, Lance quickly hit the machine, turning the annoying thing off.

Sinking further down in his sweat covered sheets, he briefly wondered why he had even set the contraption the night before; knowing full-well he had nothing planned that day.

Must still be on Nsync time.

Just as the thought left his head, and he prepared himself to go back to sleep, the voice from last night entered his mind; answering the silent question that hadn't been asked. "Right..I remember. So I could find that girl."

With a slight smirk on his face, Lance sit up on his bed, yawning as he wordlessly ran a hand through his unkept hair, "Somebody needs a haircut."

Sighing as he removed his hand from his hair, he noticed the sunlight, from outdoors, leaking through the window. He figured he could only imagine what part of town the mysterious woman lived in and would probably have to get his bodyguard to go with him in search of the brunette.

That, unfortunately, probably going to be easier said than done.

****

After taking a quick shower, the enthusiasm that Lance had held the night before, while planning the approach he would use when meeting the mysterious singer, caused him to be slightly jumpy as he knocked on his bodyguard's door.

"I knew I should've went back to sleep." He said, to himself, sighing as he realized it was only nine forty-five, and Mike might not be awake yet.

Fortunately for him though, his thoughts seemed to be wrong as the door in front of him opened, revealing a more than awake bodyguard.

"Bass, what the hell are you doing up?" Mike, Lance and Chris's larger than life-six-foot four-bodyguard asked. Afterwards, moving sideways to give Lance a little bit more room to squeeze through. "Isn't it a rule somewhere that when you guys are on vacation, you can't and mustn't be moved from whomever's bed you're sleeping in. No matter what the circumstance is."

"First of all," Lance began, walking towards the middle of the room; waiting until Mike had shut the door from any hallway passerby's before continuing, "that rule only applies to JC and Justin. And second of all, the line about whomever's bed you're sleeping in... that one is in the handbook under Joey Fatone not James Lansten Bass. Thank-you-very-much!"

"Oh, you're right. I must be losing my mind at the young age of thirty." Mike retorted, jokingly, before making his way over to Lance; taking a seat on the chair next to his unmade bed, "So, what's up? What can I do you for?"

Lance shrugged, as he absentmindedly moved his eyes around the room; searching for something to throw in anger if Mike wouldn't grant him his wish, "Nothing really, I just need a favor."

"What kind of favor?" Mike asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity at the younger male's worried expression, "And if it has anything to do with money, no can do. I'm not getting paid enough for handouts."

Lance wanted to throw out that Mike wasn't getting paid anything, but he bit back the comeback; deciding that in getting what he wanted, he'd have to be honest. "I want to go out."

"Well then, why didn't you just say so. Let me just grab my-"

"Alone. I want...no, I NEED to go out alone." Lance interrupted; causing the older man to look at him like he had just said 'he wanted to strip down naked, and do the holy dance'.

"Are you out of your mind?" Mike asked, taking his hands away from the night stand, where his wallet laid, "You know I can't do that. I don't even know why you'd....wait, does this have anything to do with that girl we heard sing last night...Melissa?"

"Melissa?" Lance asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion "That's her name?"

"YES, that's her...never mind, just never mind." Mike said, letting out a frustrated sigh, before closing his eyes; running a hand over his forehead, angrily, "Just..just tell me why you think you need to go out alone, and please spare me the bull shit about it being easier for you to go out alone than with a big black strong man. I've heard enough stories from Justin."

Dammit. Lance said, inwardly; frowning to himself. That remark having been the only line he had thought up that morning.

Sighing, he realized there was no way of getting out of the bodyguard thing.

Unless...

"How would you feel about wearing makeup?"

---

Sighing as she plopped down at one of the empty tables in her section, Melissa could hardly believe it was finally 'break time'.

"I want to go to bed."

"Ah-ah-ah, there's no sleeping on Murphy's clock. He'd yell at you faster than you could say 'just resting my eyes, sir'."

Laughing slightly at the remark, Melissa opened her eyes, from their slightly closed state, and watched silently as Sam hopped in the booth across from her.

"So, what's shaken, newbie? How ya like your first day on the job?"

Shrugging slightly, Melissa let out the yawn that had been threatening to come out of her ever since she had arrived at the coffeehouse 5 hours ago. "Excuse me....It's okay, a little bit different from my old job at the Pancake House, but it has it's pluses."

"Yeah, if by pluses you mean free bagels." Sam joked, causing Melissa to laugh, once again. That is, almost causing her to laugh once again, if not for the large yawn that took a hold of Melissa shortly beforehand, "So, what's the deal with you? You look like a well enough kid, what are you doing in a dump like this?"

Blinking back the tears, that were caused by the yawning, Melissa shrugged once again; this time because of the fact she was feeling slightly uncomfortable with the line of questioning her coworker was heading towards. "The same thing you're doing here; making an honest living."

After chuckling at Melissa's words, Sam brought her hands up in front of her face as if to say I surrender, "Whoa there, didn't mean to step on private property. I got to hand it to ya, though, most people would've just let me sit here digging through their trash."

Furrowing her eyebrows at the statement, Melissa looked at the woman confused, but then realized that the older woman must've meant that if she hadn't stopped her, Sam would've continued to ask questions. "Well, I'm not like most people."

"That you aren't, kid. That you aren't."

Before Melissa could ask Sam what she meant by those words, her attention was diverted as she eyed the flirtatious man from before, out of the corner of her eye, making his way towards their table.

 

"Uh-oh."

"Huh?.....Tony! You're early." Sam said, getting out of the booth Melissa and her were sitting in, and throwing her arms around the man's neck; embracing him with as much strength as she could, and confusing Melissa with as much power as she could.

"You two know each other?" Melissa asked, after a second; watching the two grown adults in front of her giggle and flirt with one another as if no one was around.

"Of course we know each other, silly. Hell, we've been married for the past six years." Sam retorted, smiling proudly as she showed off the diamond wedding band, that Melissa hadn't noticed until now.

"But before...?" Melissa began; remembering how Sam had treated her husband, in question, as if he was a no good bum she had just met off the street.

"You'll have to excuse my wife," Tony chimed in, with a voice that sounded eerily different from the one he had used earlier when pretending to hit on her, "She sometimes likes to pull me in and play pranks on the new waitresses. This one, not being as bad as the usual stuff she has me do, if you don't mind me saying."

"Hey! It's not like you don't have any fun, buck-o." Sam said, getting an 'I can't disagree' shrug in return from her husband, and an 'I can't believe this' stare from Melissa. "Sorry if I upset you. I have, what they call, a sick sense of humor."

Melissa shook her head as if to say 'it's okay', but couldn't help but, inwardly, agree with Sam. The woman did have one sick sense of humor. Melissa had never met ANYONE who had thought having their husband hit on a stranger was funny. Comical at that.

"So, you ready to go, Bonnie?" Tony asked, his voice snapping Melissa out of her thoughts.

"Whenever you are, Clyde." Sam answered, mischievously winking at her husband, before turning her attention back towards Melissa, "You care to join us for some high-fashion bank robbing, Lyss?"

While shaking her head no, Melissa couldn't help but smile slightly at the couple's pet names for one another. Figuring from what she had seen so far, the names fit them to a T. "That's okay, I'd prefer my breaks to be bullet proof free, but thanks for asking."

"Don't mention it, party pooper," Sam remarked, before fully turning away from Melissa, and hitting her husband with a coy grin, "Whadda ya say we hit the road, Jack?"

"After you, my little love shack." Tony chimed in, never missing a beat.

And with that being said, Melissa watched as the couple made their way out of the small restaurant; both singing off-key to the 80's hit song 'Love Shack' while, gracefully, ignoring the patrons who looked at them in disbelief.

"A match made in laughter..that's what they are."

---

Glancing up at the overhead clock on the wall, Melissa sighed as she blew away the loose strand of hair that threatened to fall out of it's hair clip and into her eye.

'One more hour to go.. just one more hour.'

"Would you like cream or sugar with that, sir?"

"Uh...I'll take cream."

Nodding while writing the order down, Melissa turned her body towards the other occupant of the booth; never looking up from her pad of paper as she did so, "And you, what would you like, ma'am?"

"That's SIR, not ma'am." A deep voice boomed, causing Melissa to look up in surprise and bite her inner cheek in disbelief as she noticed the person, dressed in, what looked to be, a 'Sunday's best' dress, was indeed a man, and not what she had assumed; a woman.

"Oh..I-I 'm sorry. Excuse me, sir." She said, trying hard not to laugh at the poor makeup job the man had, "What can I get you..sir?"

The man grumbled at her amused expression, but quickly rambled off his order; telling her he'd like two bagels: one with butter, the other with cream cheese, and a black coffee; no sugar or cream.

"I'll be right back with your order.....sir."

Turning around, quickly, Melissa couldn't get away fast enough before she nearly collapsed in laughter.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, spying on the man in drag, silently from her spot behind the kitchen walls, "Wait till I see Sam."

****

"Did you see the way she looked at me? The girl nearly broke her ankle trying to get away from here so she could laugh in private. I can hear her now, probably calling her little girlfriends, telling them about the 'freak' she just saw."

Rolling his eyes, Lance adverted his eyes from the direction where the waitress had just walked in towards the man, who sit across from him, now complaining about his panty-hoes. "Take it easy, Mike. You don't look that bad...I mean, besides the bad makeup job, you could possibly pass for Rupaul..in heat."

Mockingly laughing at the man's joke, Mike threw the balled up napkin he was holding, at Lance's head, hitting him in the forehead, "Yuck it up, solider, cuz as soon as you tell this girl who you are, and why you had me search the whole God damn tri state area of New Orleans, we're going back to the hotel, and I'm taking this dress off and kicking your ass."

Chuckling at his bodyguard's discomfort, Lance turned his attention back towards the counter area of the small restaurant; waiting for 'Melissa' to come back with his coffee.

'All right Bass, you came this far, just remember to use your head, go with the plan, and charm the pants off your soon to be first pop star client.'

"Here's your coffee, and....here's your bagel's." Melissa said, causing Lance to jump, startled, since he had been caught up in his pep-talk when the, what looked to be, younger woman, had made her way towards their table. "Are you all right, sir?"

"Yeah, I was just..." Lance began, but quickly realized that all common thought was gone as he made eye contact with the girl; losing himself in her dark green eyes, "wondering if you wanted to go to Orlando with me."

***

was wondering if you wanted to go to Orlando with me

Snapping back into reality, Lance winced as he realized what he'd just said, and then winced again as he realized, not only was Mike looking at him disbelievingly, but so was the waitress; his, hopefully, future protege.

"Excuse me?"

"I..I didn't mean to say that," Lance said, adverting his eyes from the girl's green ones, before moving them towards the table; mentally trying to shake the cobwebs out of his head, "Dammit, I had this all planned out."

Watching as the confused man in front of her stumbled over his words, Melissa couldn't help but smile amused; something that she hadn't done much of recently, "Well, when you figure it all out, how about you give me a hint, k?"

As the man absentmindedly nodded, while meeting her eyes; hitting her with a sheepish grin, Melissa couldn't help but think he had beautiful green eyes.

Ones which were a lighter hue than those of her best friend's.

Or better yet, her EX best friend.

Wincing, inwardly, at the thought, Melissa excused herself from the two men, who were now looking at one another confused; before making her way back over to the front counter; preparing to get her thoughts in order.

"You were wondering if she wanted to go to Orlando with you?" Mike started, as soon as the waitress left the table, "Boy, are you out of your mind? I mean, I thought you were when you asked me if you could go searching this area alone, and then I figured you must be when you talked me into wearing this churched out outfit. But NOW, I know you are if you think we're going to take some girl that you didn't even know the name of this morning, and bring her back to Orlando with us. Uh-uh, no way, Jose. Not on Mikey's clock. Johnny wouldn't kill you for it, but I know for sure he wouldn't have a problem knocking me off, thank-you-very-much."

While ignoring his bodyguard's rant, Lance pushed his coffee aside and put his elbows on the table; sinking his face down into his hands, "I didn't mean to say that, Mike. I just opened my mouth, and it was the first thing to shoot out of me."

"No!" Mike disagreed, taking the cream that Melissa had placed in front of Lance, and putting it into his own cup of coffee, "That wasn't the first thing to shoot out of ya. I'll tell you what was though: your hormones. You saw a pretty girl, and all common sense went flying out the window. Admit it, you lost yourself in your attraction; your fucked up attraction."

Taking his hands away from his face, Lance looked at his bodyguard, disagreeingly. He wanted to argue that his 'hormones', as Mike had called them, hadn't been the reason why he had blanked out for a second, and that they also hadn't been the reason why he had lost all 'common sense', as Mike had stated.

But as he thought about...in all actuality, that had been exactly the case.

"You're right," Lance said, sighing, after a second, "You're absolutely right. But now...what do I do?"

"You do what you came here to do," Mike said, taking a sip of his now slightly cooled off coffee, "You introduce yourself, tell her that you saw her little performance last night, and then ask her if she's ever thought about singing professionally. Plain and simple, just like that."

"Just like that," Lance repeated to himself. Inwardly grasping Mike's words of encouragement, before looking back up from the table to his bodyguard's made up face, "Ya know, if I wasn't completely heterosexual, I'd kiss you right now."

Halting his movements, of picking up his coffee mug, Mike hit Lance with a glare that quickly turned into a mischief grin, "And if I wasn't to be such a lady right now, I'd kick your ass for that statement."

---

Watching as the dark liquid, in front of her, quickly trickled into the ceramic mug she was holding, Melissa half-listened to her boss as he finished giving her his review of today's work.

"Despite the couple of times I caught you drifting off, and the couple of times I caught you yawning while writing down an order, I'd have to say I was truly impressed by the communication and job skills you showed with our customers today."

Turning her head, slightly, Melissa briefly smiled at the man's words, even though part of her wasn't sure whether they should be labeled as a 'compliment' or better yet a 'diss'.

"So, all in all I'd have to say starting tomorrow you'll be switched from 'temporary' waitress to 'full time' waitress; working the seven to four shift."

Genuinely smiling at the fact that she had gotten the job, Melissa began thanking the man, who didn't seem like he minded compliments at all.

"Thank you, sir. You have my word that I wont let you down."

"Well, don't mention it, Miss. Alano. Just know that it's not your word that I want, but your hard paid time, and everything else will fall into place."

Melissa nodded at Mr.Murphy's words, even though she really didn't know what he had meant by 'and everything else will fall into place'.

But as she opened her mouth to ask him, just that, she realized he had already walked off; leaving her with a questioning look on her face, and an almost filled to the top cup of Coffee in her hand.

---

"You know if you want to get out of here early, I'll cover for you."

After slightly jumping at the voice, Melissa looked up from the clock on the wall to Sam--who looked to be fighting back the amused smile that threatened to grace her face.

"Thanks for asking, but that's okay." Melissa said, moving her eyes back towards the clock-which told her that she had a half-n-hour to go, before settling them on the two customers that she had at the moment; the guy with the green eyes and his drag queen friend. "I'm really just waiting for those two to finish their coffee."

Following Melissa's gaze, Sam locked her eyes on the two, in question, and practically lit up at seeing who it was, "Well, if I had a camera right now, this would defiantly be my money shot."

Nodding her head at the older woman's words, Melissa had to agree. Seeing a built muscular man in drag was worth a thousands words..or better yet, a thousand pictures, "I could just see the photo on the Internet, under the title: 'Black man goes drag'."

Sam laughed at Melissa's choice of words, but then quickly added onto the joke; causing herself to laugh even harder, "Or better yet, under the title: Singer Bass finds love in someone who just happens to SPEAK bass."

Furrowing her eyebrows at the comment, Melissa turned her eyes from the two men to look at her coworker, who practically had tears coming out of her eyes, "Huh?"

Looking at Melissa to see if she was joking or not, Sam rolled her eyes before sobering up, quickly; realizing the younger woman was indeed not kidding, "Honey, I know you aren't telling me you're twenty-one years old and don't know who the hell Lance Bass is?"

While continuing to be confused, Melissa nodded at the statement, "Actually, I'm twenty, but that's besides the point. Why should I know who Lance Base is?"

"BASS, dear, BASS." Sam corrected, a little louder than Melissa would've liked; causing mostly every one in the cafe to look at them confused.

Everyone, including Melissa's two customers.

****

"Well, what do you think that was about?" Mike asked, after a second, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lance noted the rhetorical question, but ignored it nonetheless. He could only fathom what Melissa was thinking as, he guessed, her coworker was tuning her into who they were....or better yet who HE was.

"Well, I guess this would be easier if she knew who I was." He mumbled, matter-of-factly; even though the initial plan he had come up with involved him introducing himself to her as James Lance Bass: Manager of upcoming professional singers rather than as James Lance Bass: Pop Star Extrodinare.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." A voice said, knocking Lance out of his thoughts. Turning his attention from the-now empty coffee counter, he realized Melissa was standing in front of him, holding his bill-and wearing an unmasked look of uncertainty on her face. "Here's your check."

"Thanks," Lance said, not bothering to take his eyes away from her as he took it from her hands, "Is something wrong?"

Watching as she blinked a couple of times, Lance figured she had just realized she was staring at him, "Sorry, my uh-coworker over there just seems to think that you're this singer..um, Lance I think, his name is."

Smiling at her words, and then at the slight blush that had taken over Melissa's face as she had been caught staring, Lance couldn't help but grow a little more confidant in his demeanor, "That's because I am...and that over there, dressed in drag, is my bodyguard, Mike."

Ignoring the glare that Mike threw him over the word 'that', Lance smiled to himself as he watched the older man try to give the two some privacy without being TOO suspicious.

A feat which was easier said than done, Lance assumed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am, but you'll have to excuse me. I think I need to head to the little boy's room....y'know, and powder my nose."

After faking a slight chuckle, Melissa watched as Mike stood up from the booth and made his way past her--before turning her attention back towards Lance; furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she realized she had a million questions running through her mind at the moment. One of them happening to be: If he's such a pop star, why is he wasting his time in a place like this, with a bodyguard who just happens to look like Rupaul in heat.

Choosing her word's carefully, she addressed the question by using the exact same words Sam had used on her earlier, "If you don't mind me asking..what brings you to a dump like this?"

Watching him chuckle, she was shocked as he pointed a finger towards her, before vaguely stating...

"You."

Me?'

Gesturing towards the booth across from him, Melissa watched as Lance's facial expression changed from amused to slightly business like. "Please."

After furrowing her eyebrows once more, before realizing he was asking her to sit with him, Melissa looked over her shoulder-towards the kitchen entrance; making sure her boss or Sam wasn't watching before she sat down.

"All right, but just for a second, I have to get back to work." She lied, knowing as soon as him and his bodyguard left, she could go as well. "So, what did you mean by you. Why'd you come here because of me?"

Leaning in, Lance briefly nodded-mentally telling her he wouldn't hold her too long, before inwardly smiling; enjoying the fact that Melissa had taken his hint and was acting in a business like persona; as he was.

"As you know, I'm a professional singer in the group Nsync." He began, waiting for her to nod before continuing on, "But as we speak, I'm also the owner of a small known company called Freelance Entertainment-which I'm sure you've never heard of."

Briefly smiling before nodding, Melissa silently told him that he was indeed correct with his assumption; causing Lance to slightly chuckle, "Well, to summarize things for you, Freelance is a company that promotes up and coming musicians."

"Like Jive, which you work for?" Melissa inquired, causing Lance to briefly nod before smiling; all the while slightly wondering what Melissa's coworker had told her before.

"Something like that. Except for the fact that whereas Jive promotes all types of genres of music, Freelance mostly promotes only country singers....that is until now. That is until I heard you."

Noticing the way Lance was giving her a pointed stare as he spoke the last part, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion; wondering what in the world he was talking about. "Not to sound rude, but what do you mean that is until I heard you?"

"Just what I said: That is until I heard you." Lance said, vaguely once again, before giving her a look that made her think he was choosing his next words carefully. But not carefully enough as he quickly shocked the hell out of her with his next statement. "I saw you last night at the blues club--and believe me when I tell you that ever since then I can't get your voice out of my head--which leads me to question if you'd ever consider letting me manage you...as a professional singer?"

As a professional singer.

It felt like an eternity before Melissa could barely move or speak, but after she got over the shock that had engulfed her, she quickly did an action which she could tell surprised the man in front of her. She stood up and cast an icy glare down at him.

"Sam put you up to this, didn't she?"

Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion at her, Lance quickly wondered to himself what had just happened there.

"What?"

"Don't what me!" Melissa said, raising her voice a little; an action which he thought would've been uncharacteristic for the small petite woman in front of him..given usual circumstances, "She somehow found out about my performance last night, and hired you to pretend to be some big shot celebrity, who just HAPPENED to own his own record company, and who also just HAPPENED to be looking for someone with my type of skills to help his company out. Didn't she?"

Shaking his head, Lance stood up from the table, with his hands in front of his face as if to say I surrender, "Whoa, wait a minute. Calm down, there. I'm not really sure what you're talking about, but I can promise you that no one hired me, and that I AM actually a big shot celebrity as you called me, and DO own my own record company. Just not one as big as I'd like it to be."

Waiting for some sort of sign that the woman in front of him believed him, Lance was quickly disappointed as Melissa's glare turned into a pointed stare and her scowl changed into a slightly evil looking smirk.

"Then PROVE it."

"Prove it?"

Melissa nodded at the words, before taking a step closer to Lance; an action which caused him to question whether he was dealing with a stable woman here, or if he needed Mike's help more than ever now. "Yeah, PROVE it. I mean, don't you celebrities carry gold member cards. Y'know the ones you can flash where ever you go so you'll be escorted into V.I.P areas-rather than having to socialize with good ole normal people."

Even though Lance noted the sarcasm in her words, he couldn't help but feel slightly offended by them as well. "Fine, if you want proof.." He began-angrily searching through his Jean pants pockets for his wallet, "Here! Take it."

Pulling out his wallet, he took out the single item that he knew was in one of the secret sections, and presented it to Melissa; waiting for her to respond to the action.

An action he knew could've landed himself on Ebay.

"This is..." Melissa began, angrily looking over the picture he gave her; ready to nearly explode at him once more. Or better yet, he guessed, she would've nearly exploded at him once more, had he not pointed out the bottom line of the photo to her; which had 'Jive Entertainment' written on it in small print, "not made up."

Nodding, Lance smiled smugly as he watched Melissa's hardened glare slip off her face. And as she gave him the picture-that had been taken of him and his four semi brothers after they signed with Jive Records, he opened his mouth to continue on with what he'd been saying-before she went a little psycho on him.

Unfortunately, before he could do so, he was interrupted as she turned around; running away from him. Almost knocking down the coworker-she had been speaking to beforehand.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again," Mike's familiar voice boomed from beside him, causing Lance to jump slightly, "Ya'll boyz make the worst first impressions."

---

"Stupid..Stupid..Stupid." Melissa mumbled to herself as she paced the restroom floor; carelessly raking her hands through her disheveled hair while doing so. "I'm SUCH an idiot."

"That you are." A voice called out, causing her to slightly jump; before she turned around-laying eyes on a not so amused Sam. "Do you know how long it's going to take me to get this coffee stain out of this shirt?"

Briefly halting her movements, Melissa cringed as she noticed the brown stain that graced the front of Sam's white work shirt. But as she opened her mouth to apologize, she realized even her guilt-over bumping into her coworker-still wasn't enough to decrease the embarrassment she felt within. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going...I just-I just made the biggest fool out of myself."

Rolling her eyes at the younger woman's exclaim, Sam made her way towards Melissa-who was standing in front of the sink; and gracefully began cleaning the stain on the shirt, using luke warm water, "Honey, I'm sure whatever it is is not THAT big of a deal. And if it makes you feel any better, I don't have anywhere to be for a couple of minutes, so why don't you tell me what's got your panties all in a bunch."

Backing up, so that her back was flat against the wall, Melissa eyed Sam closely-remembering what had happened the last time she trusted a coworker.

'I lost my fiancee.'

Shaking her head from the thought, Melissa inwardly shrugged; knowing that she was single right now, and judging by the earlier events in the day, there was no way Sam would EVER cheat on her husband.

At that, after sighing, she decided to start from the beginning, "Well, it's always been my dream to sing...professional wise. So, last night, I went to the house of blues-where they were having open mic night, and sang a poem I wrote a couple of weeks ago."

Nodding, Sam looked up from her shirt, and blinked a couple of times; silently telling Melissa to go on.

"Well, unknown to me at the time, Lance was there as well. And...I-I'm guessing he liked what he saw cause he offered me a spot on his record label."

"At Jive?" Sam asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought.

Shaking her head, Melissa denied the words, "No. At his record label, Freelance."

At those words, Melissa watched as her coworker's facial expression went from confused-to shocked to excited-and than back to confused again, "So, why the long face? Shouldn't you be jumping for joy right now?"

Sliding down the wall, Melissa waited until her butt touched the floor before letting out the sigh she hadn't known she'd been holding. "You'd think so. But I screwed up."

Forgetting about her shirt, Sam turned her body towards the younger girl, whose hair was blocking her face at the moment as she buried it into her hands, "What'd you do?"

Sighing once again, Melissa rolled her eyes-at the situation-before looking up into Sam's questioning stare; hitting her with one of her own-hers being one of guilt though, "I thought you were playing one of your pranks, and...well, yelled at him. Called him a fake, and basically told him off in front of everyone. Probably even Mr. Murphy."

Looking down at her hands, Melissa waited for Sam to yell at her. Or call her stupid. Or better yet, tell her that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life by blowing what could've been her big shot to fame. But she was surprised when she heard the older woman's laughter-a deep cackle sort've laughter.

"You didn't!" Sam said, barely getting her words out before she was balled up into fits of laughter. "Are you serious?"

Confused, Melissa shot a glare at the woman, "It's not funny. Not only did I embarrass myself in front of a restaurant full of people, but I also embarrassed myself in front of someone who was actually willing to take a chance on me. I feel stupid."

"That's because you are." Sam said; causing Melissa to, not only roll her eyes and sigh, but also to agree. Realizing it was stupid of her to just jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts. And also stupid of her to blow up at the UN-expecting singer when all he really was trying to do was help.

"I know."

Sensing the sudden mood change, Sam quickly halted her giggling, before tying her-now dripping wet-shirt into a knot at the bottom, and making her way over to the wall facing the sinks. Sliding herself down as well, she waited until she was seated right next to Melissa before hitting the brunette with an open smile. One that was not of humor-but of apology. "Melissa, I know you and I don't know each other that well, and you probably wont get me as soon as you do. But believe me when I say this: I wasn't laughing at you."

Waiting until Melissa turned to her-with a questioning stare-Sam continued. "When I said you were stupid, I meant that you were stupid for running away after you got embarrassed. I mean, from what I briefly saw-before you basically clotheslined me-it seemed to me that even though you gave him a good chewing out, Lance still was considering you as one of his upcoming singers. Not one of his stable ones, but as one nonetheless."

Smiling softly at the words, Melissa mentally agreed with Sam. But as the realization that she had still blown her chance at her dream-fully hit her-the smile soon was replaced by a frown; causing Sam to instantly know what she was thinking.

"And you know...we haven't been in this hellhole that long. He still could be out there as we speak; waiting for his future client to get back."

While raising a hopeful eyebrow--that caused Sam to, once again, know what she was thinking--Melissa asked, "You think so?"

After shrugging slightly, the older woman gave her the only answer she could:

"You never know unless you get your ass out there."

***

As Sam and Melissa stepped out of the Ladies room, almost simultaneously their hopeful smiles seemed to drop; causing each one of them to end up with a dejected look on their face-ones slightly grimmer than the other.

"Maybe he went to the bathroom, or....maybe he stepped outside. You know, I heard somewhere that too much intake of one smell clogs up a singer's vocal cords."

Looking around the small restaurant once again, Melissa shook her head, smiling slightly at Sam's attempt, "I don't think so, Sam. But thanks anyway."

Smiling softly, Sam opened her mouth to say something else, but at the last minute she closed it. Realizing she didn't know exactly what to say.

It wasn't two seconds later though that she opened it once again. This time, fortunately for Melissa, switching subjects.

"Well, it looks like you've made it through your first day at the dump, kid. I have to say I'm proud of ya."

"Thanks," Melissa said, smiling slightly as she untied her apron; placing it in Sam's waiting hands after doing so, "Now I can go home and thank God I don't have to ever see another cup of coffee again...that is, until tomorrow anyway."

Laughing, Sam nodded, before turning away; placing the apron on the counter behind her, "Well, if that doesn't hold you, and you find yourself getting a little bored tonight..you have my number. Use it. Tony and I are always willing to kidnap youthful people. Especially good looking ones who manage to put up with us, or better yet me, for more than five minutes at a time."

After blushing slightly, Melissa couldn't help but find it quite odd that she was actually considering doing just that; calling Sam to hang out. She knew her rule of jumping into things before thinking, and she also knew her rule of trusting people too quickly...especially people who just happened to be coworkers.

"Well, I got to go. See ya later, Lyss." Sam said, interrupting Melissa's thoughts.

"Yeah, bye Sam." Melissa said, silently watching as the older woman walked back towards the kitchen; before turning towards the table-where her last two customers had sit-picking up the tip that they had left her before they'd left.

'Ten dollars over the asking charge. Pop star tips pretty good.'

 

Silently slipping the money into her Jean pocket, Melissa turned around; preparing to go, but quickly stopped as something on the table caught her eye...something that Lance, or Mike even, had left for her.

A business card.

***

After tossing from one side of the bed to the other-before turning right back around towards his original position, Lance struggled to fight himself into a comfortable position. "Dammit, it wasn't my fault."

It had been like this for almost six hours-ever since he had come back to the hotel after seeing Melissa. And now, after realizing he had just screamed out loud to no one in particular, he sit up on his bed; fully giving up on the idea of ever being able to sleep for the night. At least, for now anyways.

Turning on the bedside lamp, he quickly brought his glasses to his face, and then the remote to his hands; turning on the TV in front of him in hopes of finding something interesting enough to keep him entertained.

"Boring...Boring...Too deep...Not deep enough...Scary looking people...Seen it...Hated it." Sighing, Lance flipped the channels absentmindedly until it landed on a decent program. MTV. "Perfect."

Setting the remote control down beside him, Lance pulled the comforter on the bed closer to him; trying to make himself a little more comfortable...that is, trying to make himself a little more comfortable until he focused on what was really on the TV screen.

"What the hell is that?"

Singing on national television, was England's very own Robbie Williams-the man Lance had once looked up to for a brief time when him and the rest of N'sync were just starting out.

Wincing at what he saw, Lance remembered while Robbie was not so gracefully switching over from a group deal to a solo project, Lance had gone to a couple of the man's concerts in Europe, and nothing that Robbie had done in any of those arenas could've prepared him for what the man was doing now: stripping out of his body.

"This is just...gross."

Watching for a few more minutes until the graphic parts of the video-or better yet the graphic parts of Robbie's body-got to be too much, Lance turned the TV off. Figuring he'd rather have a night of tossing and turning, any day, than a night filled with nightmares about human flesh being ripped off.

Gross.

***

After what felt like forever, Lance's eyes started to feel heavy; telling him he was about to fall asleep.

"Finally." He mumbled; putting the menu-he'd been reading out of sheer boredom-down, before turning off the lamp beside him. "Now to get some sleep."

It seemed like just as soon as the word's came out of his mouth, his cellphone began to ring; sending him into a fit of mild cursing. "God dammit...not literally."

Sighing, he quickly searched around for his phone in the dark; figuring that it was either his Mom or one of the guys calling to check up on him. "H'lo?" He mumbled, sleep evident in his voice. But as he got no response, he cleared his throat; trying once again. "Hello?"

Once more, he got no answer, and was preparing to hang up the phone; figuring some fan had got his number, and had become shell-shocked as soon as he answered it. But just as he was about to hit 'end' a voice that he figured he'd never forget spoke up, causing him to sit up; sleep momentarily forgotten.

"Melissa?"

Their was a brief pause on the phone, before she spoke up again, "Yeah..it's me. I-uh-hope I'm not calling you too late."

Hearing a slight sigh of relief over the phone, Melissa could feel her heart stop beating so fast; a sign that she hoped meant she'd done the right thing by calling him.

"No, I jus-how'd you get this number?"

Melissa's stomach dropped at the question. Realizing that maybe she had heard wrong, and that his sigh of relief had really been one of anger. She could only guess that that meant the business card he'd left with his number on it-the one she'd thought he left for her, was really left by accident. That is, she assumed that was the case until he quickly answered his own question; causing her to calm down slightly. "Nevermind, Mike must've left it for you....I'm glad you called."

"Really?" She asked. Nervousness fully evident in her voice. "I-uh-thought you might not want to talk to me. You know, after what happened earlier."

"Part of me didn't..." Lance stated truthfully, after a second; causing Melissa's embarassement-over the ordeal-to come back in full force. "But that's just because I'm not used to being told off in public. By a woman no less."

Melissa knew she should've stopped herself from saying her next comment, but her lips-which sometimes had a mind of their own-just didn't want to work with her at the moment, "Yeah, I kind've figured with all the screaming of praise you get from your fans, it would be hard to talk to a woman who wasn't drooling all over your body."

Even though Lance's bit of laughter-that was silently telling her he wasn't mad at the comment-was heard through the phone, Melissa still couldn't stop herself from wishing the floor would just open up and shut her up.

"I don't know whether to get angry with you over that one, or thank you for the compliment. But I have to admit you're going to fit right in with all those, quote-unquote, big shot celebrities."

Slightly surprised at the fact, Melissa couldn't help but smile genuinely for a second. But the smile was soon gone as the question that had been in her mind-ever since she had left work earlier that day-slipped back into her thoughts, "Before we talk about if I should be joining the 'celebrity' world or not, I just have to know something."

Even though Lance wanted to scold Melissa, and tell her that with her sort've voice there would be no question as to whether or not she was going to be joining the music business-BUT a question as to why she hadn't joined already-he didn't. Instead, raising an eyebrow, even though he knew she couldn't see him, he questioned her about what was on her mind. "Ask away."

"How'd you find me? I mean...how'd you know where I was?"

At the question, his expression changed from questioning to slight smugness, "Well, I wish I could say it was because of me having my ways. But really, truth be known, Mike and I just went back to the 'house of blues', and a waiter there said he didn't know you personally, but had occasionally seen you coming from 'The Pancake House'. And-to make a long story short, after a bit of intimidating-what he's known for doing to people, Mike quickly found out you had just recently quit working there, and were now hanging out at a coffee shop called 'PJ's'. Where I found you."

Their was a brief pause as Melissa took in the information; Lance figuring she was surprised that he had gone to such great lengths just to find her.

But as soon as she spoke again, Lance realized that wasn't the case, as her voice didn't change from questioning to surprised-as he would've assumed, but went from questioning to even more questioning; causing him to feel slightly worried, "Who..who told you at 'The Pancake House' where I worked?"

"Your old manager, from what I gathered." Lance answered, while shrugging inwardly, "Why? Is there something going on that I should know of? I mean, not to scare you or anything, but by hanging out with me, and letting me be your manager, your life is going to get a little crazy. A lot of people are going to want to know who you are, where you're from, and anything else they can get their hands on. So, it's better if you get everything out now before I bring you into this situation."

There was another slight pause-this one being longer than before. But after a couple more seconds, Melissa finally spoke up again; calming Lance's fears. "There's nothing in my past. I just....."

"You just what?" Lance inquired, figuring that he was in the 'safe', but wondering if there was more to her past than Melissa was letting on.

"I just....want to know where I sign."

---

Sunday, March 12, 2000 (Three days later)

Staring out the window, Melissa couldn't help but clutch her journal in her hands. It had been like this for the past two years-her taking the book wherever she went. She had always used it to try and get all her feelings and thoughts down; most of the time using the book to determine whether or not she was making the right decisions or not.

But now as she sat on a plane, heading towards Orlando with two people she barely even knew-a moment where she should've been writing until her heart felt content-she suddenly didn't feel like writing at all. Or better yet, she suddenly didn't feel like wanting to write at all.

"Having second thoughts?"

Jumping slightly, Melissa turned foreword facing Mike; one of the three people who had sort've pushed her to make her dreams come true. "Is it that obvious?"

Mike flashed her a warm smile-well, as warm as a man twice the size of her could be-before shaking his head; telling her 'no'.

"Not by first glance anyway. I just know that look. I've seen it on a lot of people in this business; myself included."

Raising an eyebrow at this, Melissa silently urged him to go on. Hoping that whatever the outcome of his story was-would help her nerves calm down a little.

"Don't look so surprised, I never wanted to be a bodyguard. Hell, up until three years ago I never dreamed of being anything other than a police officer."

Surprised by this, Melissa couldn't help but want to make a joke about it; even though her nerves were kicking in full force.

"I know what you're thinking, and yes, I have had a lot of donuts in my life, thank-you-very-much." Mike said, matter-factly, before she could even open her mouth; causing Melissa to blush slightly. "Anyway, Johnny, sleepyhead over there's manager, was an old friend of mine from college. And one day out of the blue, he just showed up at the station; approaching me about this N'sync gig."

Pausing briefly, as if remembering that day, he continued. "Well, anyway, after taking me out for lunch, and feeding me some ole b.s story about me being the only strong black honest man he knew. I guess, he figured I wouldn't have a problem with saying yes to his offer, and that I would, without even thinking about, just up and leave my life behind. Girlfriend and job included."

Realizing slightly how close to home Mike's story was hitting, Melissa nodded-mentally telling him she understood-before speaking up again; asking him two meaningful questions, "So, what did you do? I mean, what gave you the push to take John-I mean, Mr. Wright's offer."

Smiling slightly at her slip-up, Mike shrugged lightly at the question, "I'm not really sure whether it was the fact that I knew I was in a dead end relationship. Or whether it was the fact that I knew by me staying in the police force, I'd continue pushing papers while the other-more fit-workers got to do the whole hero thing. But I do know, that I remember sitting beside my mama's grave, thinking to myself if I didn't take a chance and didn't try something new, well..let's just say I'd have more to regret than I'd have if I went."

Pausing briefly, Melissa hesitantly asked her next question, "Do you regret...I mean, do you think that if your mama was still here, she'd be pleased with you? I mean, after quitting your job and going after something you didn't know, at the time, was a sure thing or not."

Noting the way she asked the question, Mike couldn't help but inwardly sigh. Realizing she was another outcome of a child having to grow up too soon.

Choosing his next words carefully, knowing that whatever he said in the next two seconds could possibly either help Melissa along the way or make her feel as if she was making the biggest mistake of her life; Mike answered openly and honestly. "I think that on some level she wouldn't be too pleased with it, but that's just because while she was here on earth, she didn't like the fact that I was a cop; saying it was one of the deadliest professions known to man. But, on the other hand, I know she wouldn't have tried to stop me. Not surprisingly of course, giving me her approval-had she been there when I was approached with the job offer."

Making sure he had Melissa's full attention, he began breaking it down for her. In hopes that it'd make her think a little; choosing what she thought was right for her in this situation.

"The reason why I know this isn't because that's just who she was, but because what some people don't seem to understand about parents-moms sometimes more than dads-is that they only want what's best for their children. Meaning, they only want them to reach for their dreams; not anybody else's. And to be frank about it....I think if your mama was here, she would've wanted the same for you."

Waiting for Melissa's gasp at his declaration, to end, he continued on; slightly surprising her even more, "I think she really would've wanted you to go for your dreams. I think she even told you she wanted you to go for them. And if your dream's really are meant for you to be sitting across from me right now, on your way to Orlando, ready to sign a record deal, then there's no doubt in my mind that she wouldn't have given you the opportunity and her approval of doing so. Hell, I'm sure if you weren't on this plane, I think she would've been damn pissed at you if you hadn't done so."

"How-How do you know that?"

Pausing to wipe the tear, that Melissa hadn't even known was running down her face, Mike shrugged; wanting to leave the girl with a little insight before he stepped back; shutting up for the rest of the plane ride, "That's easy...I don't. The only person who does is her. And that's only because you haven't asked yet."

After a second of sniffling back the tears that Mike's words had caused her, Melissa nodded silently-sending him a mental thank you-before doing what she hadn't done in a long time; taking the book in her hands and opening it to a fresh page. Knowing exactly what to write.

Dear Momma....I did it.

4 o'clock PM (Orlando, FL)

It seemed like Melissa had just closed her eyes when Lance began shaking her awake; telling her that their plane had just landed.

"Are you seri-" She began, but was cut off as a deep yawn took a hold of her, "Excuse me..how long have I been out?"

Shrugging, Lance moved his eyes from the commotion that was going on beside him, to glance back at Melissa; smiling as he watched her try to pat her unkept hair down, "Not sure. I just remember waking up fifteen minutes ago-to find you drooling all over my shirt."

"Whatever, I do not dro-" Melissa began-but almost immediately afterwards-ended up closing her mouth; realizing Lance was smiling at her smugly, while pointing to a spot on his shoulder. A spot which, no thanks to her drool, of course-was now slightly bluer than the rest of his sweatshirt. "Oops."

Chuckling softly, Lance shook his head-before picking the carry on bag he had brought with him-up off the floor; placing it on his lap. "Don't mention it...in the next couple of weeks, I'm sure you'll get your share of drool, and other more disturbing body fluids-thrown at you from the rest of the guys."

Cringing at the thought, Melissa placed her journal-that she had fallen asleep holding onto-in her own carry on bag, before she turned to Lance; raising an eyebrow in wonderment, "Is it really that bad?"

Slightly chuckling, before standing up; seeing that Mike was giving them the go ahead to step off the plane, Lance waited until Melissa had picked up her bag-and was standing in front of him-before answering her question.

"You have no idea."

It wasn't until they had stepped off the plane, gotten their luggage, and were now seated in the back of Mike's-too tinted for his own good-Ford explorer, before Melissa commented on Lance's previous statement. "Should I be scared?"

Turning his head, from where he was staring out the window; watching as they were exiting the airport parking lot. Lance raised an eyebrow at the girl beside him, "Should you be scared of what?"

Rolling her eyes, at her vagueness rather than at his question, Melissa pointed a finger towards Lance, "You. Mike. The guys. I mean...you really haven't told me much about them. Or yourself for that matter. And, not to sound rude, but I sort've feel like I'm walking into this with my eyes closed."

At the realization that Melissa really didn't know anything about the rest of the guys, or himself-personal wise, Lance felt like answering: That's because you are. Instead, after biting his lower lip slightly, Lance turned his body so he was focusing all his attention on her, "Well, what do you want to know?"

Sighing, Melissa shrugged, "Anything. Everything. I don't know...just something. Maybe like their names for starters."

Chuckling at her statement, Lance nodded at her request, before opening his mouth; beginning to fill her in on who the other four guys of N'sync were, how they had all met, and anything else that he figured she'd want to know before meeting them. And even something's that he figured she probably hadn't wanted to know at all.

Which probably had disgusted her by knowing so.

"So, where are we now?"

By the time Lance had finished slightly singing the praises of his friends, they had already reached their destination, and Mike was waiting for them to get out of his truck.

"Right now...." Lance began, pausing briefly to open the door beside him. Afterwards waiting for Melissa to step out on his side, before closing the door to the truck; telling Mike they'd see him back there in an hour, "we're at the WEG compound. One of Jive's studios."

As soon as the comment slipped passed his lips, he couldn't help but chuckle as he noticed the surprised look evident on Melissa's face.

Knowing what she was thinking, Lance gave her a reassuring look before making his way up the stairs, towards the studio doors. "Don't worry, we're not here for you to sing. Atleast...not today, anyway."

Nodding, slightly relieved, as she caught up with Lance, who was quickly making his way pass the studio entrance. Melissa threw him a questioning stare; which he in return raised an eyebrow at, "So, what are we doing here?"

Not bothering to answer right away, Lance paused to smile and wave at the familiar people he knew in the lobby-before continuing down the hallway. Melissa, all the while, inwardly wondering if any of them got paid a little extra for working weekends.

"We're actually here for you to meet the guys. Considering, Justin's plane touched down a little over two hours ago, they should all be around here somewhere."

"Are they mentally stable?" Melissa asked, as they walked around a corner.

"Somewhat. Well....atleast JC and I-"

Stopping as he realized Melissa wasn't standing beside him anymore. Lance turned around-noticing her a few steps behind him; standing in front of a closed door-looking through it's two way window. "Melissa?"

Receiving no response in return, Lance sighed before making his way back down the hallway; wondering what had Melissa so spell bound. "What are you staring a-"

Cutting himself off, Lance chuckled as he saw what had muted Melissa. Or rather yet, who had muted Melissa.

"I don't believe them."

Turning away, from watching the mentally confusing display in front of her, Melissa raised an eyebrow at her manager. "You know them?"

Of course he knows them

It was a stupid question, really. One that Melissa was waiting for Lance to roll his eyes at. But instead, he did her one better by nodding before smiling and chuckling, once again. "Oh yeah. Let the introductions begin."

"Wait a minute, those are..?"

That was the only thing she could get out before Lance opened the door, in front of them, and they were both greeted by surprised greetings.

"LANSTEN!"

It had taken her a few seconds, but after absentmindedly putting her hands to her ears-making sure they were still there-Melissa was finally able to focus in on what was going on around her.

"Lance! Buddy! We missed you!"

Watching as her manager was picked up into a bear hug, and then put back down-only to be lifted right back up again by another older man. Melissa couldn't help but smile; amused.

"Chris. Put. Me. Down."

After the slight rough request, Melissa watched as Chris quickly spun Lance around a couple of times, before finally doing as he was asked. Afterwards, while watching Lance regain his footing, she figured he was about to yell at the older man. But was slightly surprised when instead of hearing angry remarks coming from his mouth, she heard Lance's deep laughter-his deep bass-filled laughter.

"Thanks Chris, you really know how to listen." Lance joked, causing the man to shrug.

"Well, I never said my ears were the best part of me." Chris retorted smugly, grinning until another voice filled the room. This one being southern, Melissa assumed.

"That's because their not. It's your height."

Turning her head slightly, Melissa watched as a younger looking male stood up from his spot-leaning against the wall across from her-before making his way towards the group of men; giving Lance a slight hug. One that she noted wasn't as big as the others-but just as long.

"Good to see you, Scoop."

"You too, J." Lance responsed-and even though it was a short greeting, Melissa suspected by her manager's grin that the curly haired man in front of her, J-as he was called-was the closest of the group to Lance.

Watching for a few minutes as the four men in front of her began to catch up, Melissa silently wondered if Lance had forgotten she was there. Well, that is, she was wondering if he had forgotten she was there. That is until the man-that she hadn't caught a name of-spoke up; confirming her suspicions.

"Scoop, you forgetting about someone?"

Furrowing his eyebrows slightly at the question, Lance followed Joey's gaze until his line of vision landed on Melissa.

Realizing he had almost forgotten about her, he mentally sent her a silent apology as they locked eyes with one another; one that she returned with a reassuring, yet hesitant, shrug.

"Sorry about that," He said, apologizing once again-this time out loud.

Taking a few steps foreword, until he was right in front of Melissa; Lance placed his hand on the small of her back. Slightly pushing her further into the room. "Guys, I'd like you to meet FreeLance's new popstar, Melissa Alano. Melissa, I'd like you to meet Justin, Chris, and Joey. Three-fifths of Nsync."

Nervously smiling as each one of them shook her hand, vigorously. Melissa couldn't help but think back to the conversation in the car-where Lance had animatedly talked about each one of his friends; causing her to feel like she had somewhat already knew each one of the guys in front of her. Well, in a small sort've way.

There was Justin, better known to Lance as J: who was somewhat like the star of the group. Not just because of the fact that he was the baby, but because of his blonde hair, blue eyes, and his I'm-too-good-at-everything-I do, but-don't-like-to-talk-about-it personality.

Then there was Chris: The supposed grandpa of the group. He was the oldest member of *N'sync-beating out the second oldest by six years; but also the youngest at heart of the group. Making pulling pranks and telling corny jokes his top two priorities.

And second to last, there was Joey: who Lance defined as the Italian Romeo of the group. He was raised in Brooklyn, and had the whole accent and look down; but under that, Melissa was assured he had a big heart.

Which left the last N'sync-er, besides Lance, who seemed to be missing in action at the moment. A fact that no one, up until that point, had spoken up about. "Um, isn't there another one of you guys?"

At Melissa's question, Lance, for the first time, realized that there was, indeed, one person missing from the group. One person who he hadn't gotten a chance to speak with while in New Orleans, "Yeah, there is. I thought you guys said you'd all meet us here at five. Where's JC?"

One by one, each of the three men, in front of him, looked at each other wordlessly-trying to persuade one of the other two to deliver the, what Lance assumed to be, bad news. A fact that Lance, who didn't like secrets, wasn't very happy about. "Guys, what's going on?"

Fortunately for the three of them, or better yet UNfortuantly for the five of them, before any of them had a chance to open their mouths and respond, the door behind Melissa opened, and the missing person walked in.

Quickly setting his sights on the brunette in front of him.

Noticing that everyone's eyes were on her-or better yet, noticing that everyone's eyes were on the person behind her. Melissa turned around, only to be met by a slightly darkened glare. One coming from a man who looked to be strangely three sizes too small for his own clothing-height not included, of course.

"Jace! We were just talking about you."

Thankful that Lance had spoken up, and the unfamiliar man had moved his eyes from her, Melissa inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

One that she soon realized was let out too soon.

"Good to see I've been missed." JC responded, before turning his eyes back towards Melissa, "Is this the little song bird I've heard you've signed?"

After pausing briefly, noting the sarcasm in his voice. Melissa could feel-rather than see-Lance nod from behind. And as he spoke up, telling JC that that's exactly who Melissa was, Melissa could hear the slight confusion in his voice. Mentally telling her that the man, glaring down at her at the moment, was usually not like this.

Thank God

"So, can you play?"

Realizing he was, now, talking to her, rather than just staring at her, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "Play what?"

"The Ukulele." JC retorted sarcastically, rolling his eyes in emphasis, "What do you think? The Piano! Geez! Lance, you sure know how to pick them."

"JC!"

Melissa didn't even have to turn around to know that the four men, behind her, were throwing their own glares at JC; each one of them having voiced their opinions of the man as they screamed out his name.

"Dude, that was totally uncalled for."

Not wanting there to be a fight because of her, Melissa turned slightly so she was sort've in a refereeing position. Then, as if to say it's okay, she put up a hand in front of Lance. Shaking her head as she silenced everyone from saying anything. "It's all right."

"No, it's-"Lance began, but Melissa, knowing what he was going to say, cut him off before he could do so.

"Lance, you said so yourself: by having you as my manager, I'm going to have to prove to a lot of people that I can actually sing."

"Yeah, but-" Lance began, only to be immediately cut off-once again.

"But you shouldn't have to prove anything to us. If Lance says you're good, then we already know it's true."

Turning towards Justin, the person who had stated the last comment, Melissa couldn't help but silently pat herself on the back; seeing that she had been right about the connection between him and her manager.

"I might not know you that well, Justin, but I know that's not true." Melissa said, causing him to open his mouth in protest. But shortly afterwards-ending up having to shut it just as quickly; not wanting to interrupt her as she went on, "Even though you believe Lance is telling the truth, and never would admit other wise-out loud. You guys still want to hear me sing. If not to shut your friend up, than to please that little part of you that thinks there could be a small chance Lance might've jumped the gun a little on this one."

Opening his mouth, only to shut it, once again; telling Melissa that she was indeed correct. Justin nodded his head, before flashing Lance an apologetic smile. One which was followed by similar smiles from Chris and Joey.

Watching as Lance nodded his head in a That's OK, Melissa turned towards JC, who didn't seem to be fazed at all by her speech.

Shooting him a mock-looking grin, she met his glare head on, before telling him to lead the way.

A comment which she got out of him a: With pleasure, smirk.

---

Absentmindedly watching as Melissa silently tinkered with the piano keys in front of her-after beforehand telling them it was her way of warming up-Lance couldn't help but inwardly curse out the man standing beside him. Wondering just who in the hell he thought he was.

"You know, scoop, if you have anything to say to me, you could say it now. Preferably out loud."

Before Lance got a chance to retort that anything he had to say at the moment, JC probably wouldn't want to hear-Melissa cut in; switching the subject.

For the moment, anyways.

"So, what do you guys want to hear? Something original or....."

Before any of the guys could speak up, JC piped up; making sure everyone remembered it was his idea to get her to do this in the first place, "There's no telling what you'd make us listen to-if given the chance, so how about a cover song."

"JC, man that's enough!"

"Hey, I'm just speaking the truth." He responded, flashing Justin and the rest of the guys a mock looking innocent grin. "It'll be easier for us to judge her on."

Sighing at JC's comment, knowing his argument was correct. Melissa met Lance's slightly angry glare; mentally telling him that it was okay; even though every part of her knew it wasn't.

"All right, well...this is a song my Mom used to sing to me before-"

"Please no sympathy stories."

"JC!" Lance said, threateningly, before turning around to face Melissa. He didn't bother to say anymore, but everyone else in the room, including Melissa, figured it was more than enough to get his point across-as JC quickly shut up.

Alright...here goes nothing.

There's a hero if you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid Of what you are There's an answer If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away....

As Melissa began the chorus of Mariah Carey's 'Hero, Lance couldn't help but grin outwardly; noticing that his and each one of his friend's expressions had gone from angry to surprised in two seconds flat.

Hell, if Lance hadn't thought he was imagining things, he could've sworn he'd even seen an impressed smile flash across JC's face-one which had unfortunately left JC's features as soon as he'd caught Lance grinning at him.

It's a long road When you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to ho-

"That's enough."

Closing her mouth around the next word, Melissa looked up, slightly stunned. Even though most of the guys-including Lance-had impressed smiles written across their faces, JC was still looking at her with an icy glare; one which made her want to quote the famous line: If looks could kill...

"So, um what did you think?" She asked, after a second-noticing that no one was giving her an evaluation. Well, no one was giving her an out loud evaluation, anyway.

"I think.." JC began-in a harsh tone; one which was cut off as Chris began clapping.

A contagious style of clapping which Joey immediately got into-followed by Justin, and than surprisingly by Lance, as well.

"You were awesome, kid...."

"Ya kicked MAJOR tush." Joey chimed in.

"One of the best female performances I've ever seen."

Blushing slightly, Melissa couldn't help but smile genuinely at the compliments. But her grin, soon, faltered as she noticed JC making his way out of the room, from the corner of her eye.

---

Monday, March 13, 2000

The night before, after being reassured that JC's behavior towards her wasn't a reflection on her part at all-considering he'd been acting the same way towards everyone else before Melissa and Lance had even bothered to show up. Melissa had spent the majority of the evening getting to know the other guys of N'sync better-sans Lance, of course, who she figured was always in business mode. He had to make a couple of brief phone calls to his manager-ones, unfortunately, regarding her career.

After saying good-bye to the guys, and leaving the compound around ten, Lance had filled her in on the phone conversations, and explained that starting the next day, while Lance and the rest of N'sync would be preparing for the release of their upcoming album, she'd be preparing for her slight interview, on Friday, with FreeLance's recording producers. A fact that she wasn't too pleased about, but reluctantly had to agree on.

Afterwards, on the way to the hotel-she'd be staying in until they could find a suitable enough apartment for her, Lance and Melissa had continued discussing their schedules and how'd they'd interact with one another through the week; making it a little after one in the morning before they finally called it a night.

That fact causing Melissa to grimace; knowing she'd have to be up by eight thirty the next morning, and that fact causing her to groan when her cellphone decided to go off an hour before her wake up call planned to.

"H'lo?"

"Is that any way to greet your mother?"

My mother?

Without bothering to open her eyes, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Afterwards, briefly taking in what the female on the other line said, before popping her eyes wide open; causing her body to snap up in response.

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused."

Forgetting the shock she had felt at the woman's previous words, Melissa smiled genuinely as she heard the familiar cackle on the other line; telling her who it was without her even having to ask.

"Sam, do you have any idea what time it is?"

There was a brief pause before the older woman spoke up again; telling Melissa she knew exactly what time it was, "It's six forty-five in the morning. Twenty minutes before your usual work time, and almost eleven hours after you were supposed to call me last night. So, as I see it, you deserved this phone call cuz you have a lot of explaining to do, don't-you-think?"

Slightly amused by the words, Melissa couldn't help but let out the laughter she had-everytime Sam was around, "Aren't you supposed to be..oh, I don't know, working?"

There was a sigh on the other end, before Sam answered the question, "Yeah, but that's the beauty of having your boss call at five a.m-telling you he wont be coming in for the day. You get to slack off, take early lunches, and let the new girl handle all the work-while you sit on your butt all day; and gossip on the phone with your girlfriends."

Once again, laughing slightly; knowing that's exactly what Sam would be doing for the rest of the day, Melissa couldn't help but furrow her eyebrows in questioning; wondering if girlfriends was what her and Sam were to each other at the moment.

"So, stop procrastinating, already, and tell me about the marvelous lifestyle you're living now. There's got to be like, what, musicians and fine caviar everywhere, right?"

Looking around her small hotel room, Melissa couldn't help but snicker slightly. If this was any resemblance to what a celeberity-lifestyle looked like, than she and almost everyone she knew, unknowingly, had been a celebrity all their lives. "Well, not exactly. There's really not a lot to tell. I mean, my plane got in around four yesterday, and Lance and I mostly hung out at the compound with the rest of the guys last night-and...that's about it."

"That's about it?" Sam retorted, after a couple of seconds, her tone completely laced with disbelief, "You hung out with the guys from N'sync last night, and it was nothing major? Honey, you have to spill. I want details, dammit."

Laughing amused, yet, afterwards, rolling her eyes; not knowing what the big deal was, Melissa began to tell Sam the *details* of what happened the night before. Only stopping when Sam interrupted her to ask questions.

"So, you're telling me that after he basically ripped you a new one, you told him off by impressing the hell outta him?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Melissa nodded; even though she knew Sam couldn't see her, "I guess you could say that. But I don't really know if I impressed him, persay, I just think I sort've made him angrier. He walked out after my performance."

Their was a brief pause, before Sam's cackling laughter took over the line, once again, "Honey, not only did you impress the A-hole, but you also pissed him off by showing him that you do have what it takes to make it in the business. Hell, I would've been pissed off my damn self if you had embarrassed me in front of all my friends, including the one and only Mr-yummy-in-my-tummy-Lance Bass. But, that's not the point. The point is: don't worry about it. I mean, it's his problem, not yours."

Ignoring what Sam had said about her manager, Melissa analyzed the other words the older woman had said. He's pissed at me because I proved him wrong...now it makes sense.

"You're right!"

"I know I'm right...about what though?"

Laughing, slightly, Melissa stood up from her spot on the bed; working out the kinks in her legs, "You're right about his attitude towards me. I mean, just because I showed him that I AM good enough, he's pissed off at me-and I shouldn't let that phase me. I mean, it's not 'my' problem, and he's the one who needs to get over himself. Not me."

"There you go! NOW that's the spirit!" Sam said, causing Melissa to laugh; wondering if her friend was ever in one of the high school pep squads.

After a few more minutes of chatting with Sam about her weekly schedule, and when she'd have time to call Sam back in the following week; Melissa glanced towards the bedroom clock; noticing they had been on the phone for almost an hour, "Well, I hate to cut this short, Sam, but I have to be at the compound in an hour, so-"

"No, don't make excuses, it's okay. You have no time for the small people. I understand." Sam interrupted; trying her hardest to make her voice sound like she was about to cry, but her attempt ended up giving away as her cackling laughter took effect, "Just call me when you have a chance, all right?"

Shaking her head at her friend's silliness, Melissa silently agreed, "All right, will do. Have fun sitting on your lazy butt all day, and I'll call you, hopefully, tonight."

"All right. Bye-bye now."

Waiting for the click on the other end, Melissa smiled; feeling that with Sam's words of encouragement, and her Mom looking out for her from above, she really could do it on her own; make her dreams come true,

"Are you serious?"

It was going on nine o'clock when Lance and Melissa, followed by the ever present Mike, stepped into the lyric room of the WEG compound; the one room where upcoming Jive and FreeLance artists frequently went to in hopes of finding a song that would make it into their upcoming unreleased albums--and the one room that Mike briefly noted Lance and the rest of the guys visited regularly--when they had no idea what the hell they were doing--something he said, that was more than ninety percent of the time.

"This is...."

"Amazing?" Lance offered, pushing Mike aside, before making his way in behind Melissa; all the while, absentmindedly paying more attention to the excitement on his client's face, than the growing stacks of paper that were laid out before them.

"That's not even the word." Melissa said, as she made her way further into the room, stepping carefully in between boxes filled with, not only, sheet music, but also boxes covered with descriptions of what kinds of lyrics laid inside; most of them being either lovey dovey types or anguishy break up sorts. "This is unbelievable. I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Smiling at her statement, Lance adverted his eyes from in Melissa's direction, and quickly sweeped them around the room; silently telling himself the same thing. He really didn't know where to begin either.

"The first single...it should be fresh and new, something the public hasn't seen before. But at the same time, it should be you...but judging by what I know so far, I'm not exactly sure what you is."

Taking her eyes away from the loads of boxes on the floor, Melissa met Lance's eyes, and couldn't help but laugh a little at the look of confusion that was placed on his face--a look which she couldn't help but find strangely enough appealing. "Well, I can say for starters I'm not trying to be an artist who sings about fighting over a man or letting people bring me down. I don't really want to go that route."

"Understandable." Lance said, nodding as he moved his eyes away from the box labeled Doing me wrong, and moved them onto the next box in front of him; one which interestingly enough read Fed up female music. "Do you have anything against male bashing?"

Shooting Lance an amused look, before arching an eyebrow in response, Melissa shook her head slightly, "I don't want to be labeled as a feminist, but then again I don't want to be labeled as a push over either. So, I'm guessing: No."

Once again, Lance nodded his head in understanding, before pushing the box in front of him, with his foot; kicking it towards Melissa's legs. Afterwards, silently asking her to take a look inside and see if their was anything in there she liked or hopefully loved.

~*~

After about forty minutes of reading through sheet after sheet of pissed off music, Melissa stopped abruptly as she found what she hoped she was looking for. "I think I found something."

Surprised by the words, Lance looked up from his spot on the floor, across from her, and stretched a hand out to Melissa; silently asking her if he could see the paper.

Handing it to him, Melissa bit her lower lip slightly. The song she had picked was called, Take the rain away, and it was more than straight up her alley. It being about a girl who was tired of fighting with her boyfriend and tired of having to deal with the bad stuff in their relationship; just wanting one night away from it all where it could be just him, her, and nothing else. A song which she really hoped Lance would approve for her to use.

"So, what do you think?" Melissa asked, nervously, after watching first excitement, than bemusement, flash across Lance's face, "Think I could make it work?"

The slight chuckle that came out of Lance made her furrow her eyebrows in confusion, and at seeing this, Lance immediately stopped laughing. "Do I think you could make it work is not the question. I know you could make it work. It's just..this song. It sort of holds meaning to our group..or rather to someone particular in our group."

Raising an eyebrow in interest, Melissa opened her mouth to ask who that said person was. But as the door to the lyric room opened and Justin, Chris, and Joey came in--followed by the ever sullen JC--she quickly shut her mouth; figuring this probably wasn't an appropriate time to ask and if the guys really wanted her to know, they'd eventually tell her, sooner or later.

"Ahh, their you are. We've been looking for you two every where." Justin exclaimed, before plopping his tail down on the floor next to Lance. Afterwards rolling his eyes as he met JC's. "Well, some of us have...the rest of us have just been too busy complaining."

"Fu-"

Knowing what the younger man was about to say, Chris cut him off, "That's okay. Been there, done that, got a picture. Any of you want to see it?"

While the rest of the group, sans her, Lance and JC, uneasily chuckled at the words, Melissa began placing the stacks of lyrics, she'd already read, back into their boxes.

"So, you two find anything yet?" Joey asked while carefully taking a seat beside Melissa; causing her to look towards Lance before answering, "Sort of. I'm just waiting for Lance's opinion on it."

Noticing that Melissa's eyes were now resting on the pink sheet of paper in her manager's hands, Chris smirked slightly to himself before quickly bending down and grabbing the lyrics from his friend's grasp.

"Hey!" Lance exclaimed, but unfortunately enough the older man was too quick and was already on the other side of the room before Lance even had a chance to protest. "Give it back, Chris!"

"No can do, Bass, I've already started to read." Chris said; afterwards making his point clearer by reading the words, on the paper, out loud. "I'm tired of waiting for things to change. I've exhausted all the patience I've had.."

As if he knew what was going to happen, before it even happened, Lance covered his ears and just as soon as he did, Justin screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Widening her eyes in surprise, Melissa watched as the younger male stood up quickly from the floor and practically ripped the paper away from Chris once he was in front of the older man.

"It's not even twenty-four hours yet, and you're already creating tension around here. That's gotta be something to write home about." Preferring not to acknowledge JC's malicious words, Melissa adverted her eyes from the two men, who were now being joined by Joey, and instead chose to focus her attention on Lance; who was still seated across from her, but now, at the moment, was shaking his head slightly. "Let me guess, the songs about Justin?"

Before Lance could even open his mouth to confirm her suspicions, Justin made his way back towards them; glaring at his friend as he gestured towards the paper. "You showed her this?"

Displaying an I surrender pose, Lance shook his head once again. "She found it herself. It was in the box marked Fed up Female Music."

Clenching his hands into a fist, Justin mumbled a couple of curse words underneath his breath. Afterwards, while looking at Melissa, who at the moment was staring at him and Lance confused, he sighed; realizing he was going to have to risk his pride once again in order to make someone else happy. "Fine. You can do the song."

Adverting her eyes from Lance's shocked expression, Melissa raised both eyebrows at Justin, before asking if he was sure.

Nodding, Justin said that he was indeed sure, before moving his eyes back down to the paper in his hands, and sighing once again. Afterwards narrowing his eyes slightly at Lance as he handed the pink sheet of lyrics back to his friend. "I want part of this single, and I don't care what it is. It could be coming up with choreography for it or it could be making up a beat for it. I just want a part in it. You understand?"

Nodding his head, Lance agreed to Justin's terms before turning towards Melissa and smiling slightly, "Looks like we've found ourselves a winner."

Returning his smile, Melissa thanked Justin once again, with her eyes, before inwardly saying to herself, What a way to end the day.

---

Tuesday, March 14, 2000

If someone had come up to Melissa a month ago and told her that she'd soon find herself recording the first single off her upcoming album, in a studio, that had once been used by Michael Bolton, she would've looked at them like they were crazy. But that was exactly what she was doing today.

After having a quick breakfast with Mike and a couple of the guys, Melissa had been practically hurried out of the hotel by Lance, and had gotten to the compound just in time to meet Giloh Morgan; the man who would be producing: Take the rain away.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Morgan."

"None of that. The name's Giloh. And the pleasures all mine, m'dear." The older man replied, before swiveling his chair back around; facing the music board in front of him.

"So, have you started tinkering with any ideas for the song yet, or should we come back later?"

Watching as Giloh rolled his eyes, before saying "Ha, ha, very funny" to her manager, Melissa could tell the two had an interesting relationship with one another. One that wasn't as interesting as Mike's and Lance's relationship, but interesting, nonetheless. "You know me better than that, Bass. For you and the lovely lady, I came in extra early and made up a hot little beat which is kind've old school meets new school; with a lot of piano and drum tones thrown in for good measure."

"Sounds great. How about a sneak peek?" Lance asked, causing Giloh to respond with, "Your wish is my command" before flipping a switch on the board; causing piano notes to fill the room.

Hmm, not too fast, but not too slow. I like it. I hope this guy produces all my songs.

"I think you've struck gold again." Lance admitted to Giloh, before turning towards Melissa; throwing a questioning eyebrow her way, "What do you think?"

Silently humming a few bars of the song to herself, Melissa nodded her head in approval, "I think it's good. I'd like to try it out."

Grinning in satisfaction, Giloh stopped the song and flipped another button on the board; rewinding the track back to it's very beginning. "Well, there's no time like the present, so why don't you hop into the booth and we can get started, okay?"

Not having known they'd be jumping straight into this once she'd got there, Melissa met Lance's eye and gave him a slightly nervous smile.

"Don't worry. You'll blow his socks off."

Nodding, Melissa hesitantly made her way past the two men and into the room in front of them; one which was only filled with a single microphone, a stand, where the lyrics she'd be singing, were placed on, and a pair of headphones. A singer's dream.

"She's never been in a studio before, has she?"

Watching as Melissa carefully situated the headphones on her head, Lance inwardly had to rake his brain; wondering to himself if she'd told him she'd ever had. "I'm not sure...I don't think so."

Nodding mutely, Giloh pressed a button on the board; causing his voice to echo into the room that Melissa was in. "Ready when you are."

Not prepared for what was about to come from the small girl's mouth, Giloh flipped the music back on as Melissa gave him the thumbs up signal.

I'm tired of waiting for things to change, yeah, uh-huh
I've exhausted all the patience I have, yeah, uh-huh
So baby when you come home tonight, let's pretend everything's all right
Baby come and take the rain away

Baby, take the rain away
make it come again some other day
Let's pretend everything's OK
Baby....take the rain away

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh, baby, take the rain away

Just for tonight, let's leave our problems behind, yea uh-huh
Let's lose ourselves in passion for one night
So baby when you come home tonight, let's pretend everything's all right
Baby, come and take the rain away

Baby take the rain away
make it come again some other day
Let's pretend everything's OK
Baby take the rain away

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh, baby, take the rain away

Kiss the rain drops on my face
Only you can take me from this place
On a cloud let's ride away
We can disagree another day

Not bothering to wait until the chorus was over, Giloh cut off the music and stared through the two way mirror, at Melissa, as she bit her lip, noticeably, in worry.

"Did I sound bad?"

Absentmindedly pushing the talk button on his board, Giloh said, "No, you sounded good, surprisingly good. You impressed the hell outta me."

Interesting.

"And now, I'm going to record it and I want you to do, what you just did, once more. But this time in a more confidant tone, no nervousness applied."

Nodding her head, Melissa met Lance's eye in the mirror and smiled slightly; causing him to wink in approval.

"All right, here we go." Turning up the music, Giloh cued Melissa when to start, this time. And as soon as she did, just like that, she was music to his ears once again. "Perfect."

"You think so?" Lance asked, causing Giloh to glare at him for a second before nodding his response, "Then why are you looking at me like my dog just peed on your furniture?"

Chuckling, Giloh waited until Melissa had started on the chorus to the song before narrowing his eyes at Lance once again, and replying: "Maybe because you found her before I did."

 

Wednesday, March 15, 2000

Situating herself in the passenger seat of Mike's Ford Explorer, Melissa sighed in content as the sudden cool breeze from the air conditioner blew onto her neck. "You know, whoever thought up the idea of dual air control, they knew exactly what they were doing."

Chuckling at the statement, Mike waited until he had fully pulled out of the hotel's parking lot, before raising an eyebrow at the younger woman's physically exhausted demeanor. "Don't take this the wrong way, but did you go out with the guys last night?"

Opening one eye, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before responding: "No, why?"

"Because, as of right now, you look like you could even give Joey a run for his money in the Worst looking hangover category."

While closing her eyes once again, Melissa didn't even bother trying to stifle her chuckles, "Thanks, I think. But I'm not suffering from any alcohol induced trauma. Lance called and woke me up at six o'clock this morning to inform me that Justin and one of their choreographers had spent yesterday afternoon coming up with a dance routine for me. And Lance wanted me to make sure that I brought at least two water bottles with me so I wouldn't get dehydrated during the day."

Rolling his eyes dramatically, Mike replied, "That boy needs a life," causing Melissa to slightly smile in agreement, before yawning out her tiredness. "There's probably going to be some small traffic up ahead, which will put us a couple minutes behind schedule. Why don't you go back to sleep and I'll wake you up when we get there."

Too tired to even open her eyes, Melissa flashed Mike a lazy grin; silently telling him that she appreciated what he was letting her do, "Remind me later to worship the ground you walk on."

Chuckling, Mike pulled out onto the highway before saying, "No need for that, just don't tell any of the guys I let you take a nap. I'd never hear the end of it from Chris."

After laughing slightly, Melissa drifted further back into her seat; making herself more comfortable before almost instantly letting the cool air and the feel of the smooth road underneath her lull her back to sleep.

~*~

By the time Mike pulled into the driveway of the compound, Melissa looked and felt a little bit more alive than she did before.

"Lucky him. JC isn't here yet."

Furrowing her eyebrows at the words, Melissa stared at Mike in disbelief. She could see JC picking on her and the rest of the guys--knowing that the older man would be able to handle his own if push came to shove--but it surprised her that he'd want to get into it with Mike; someone who not only was paid to guard the guy's bodies but also, from the looks of things, could snap each one of those said bodies without even breaking a sweat.

Sounds strange to me.

"So, are you going to keep staring at me or are we going to head in now?"

Realizing that she was indeed gawking at Mike, Melissa slightly blushed her apologizes before opening the passenger side door of his truck and stepping out onto the gray gravel.

This place is really beautiful. She thought to herself as she made her way towards the front door; afterwards inwardly wondering to herself why she hadn't noticed the outdoor decorations the other two times she'd been there before.

"These new?"

Opening the door for her, Mike turned his head slightly to see what Melissa was looking at and raised an eyebrow in interest when he noticed that she was pointing towards the flower bed by the door. "I'm not really sure. Johnny's assistant usually comes in on the weekends and does a few small things around the place. I'm surprised you noticed though, no one else usually does."

Melissa made her way through the entrance, and waited for Mike to catch up to her, before replying, "It's always the small things I notice. Their always the things that truly count in life."

Staring at the younger woman in front of him, mutely, as they made their way down the hall--towards the room that Lance had told them to meet Justin and Wade in--Mike couldn't help but think to himself that soon enough the little lady in front of him would be making as big of an impression on the world as she had made on him and the rest of the guys; JC's stubborn self included.

Mike just prayed that once it happened, Melissa would be able to handle it all.

Hopefully without a huge ego intact.

Opening the door to Studio Room B, Melissa had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing as she witnessed Justin involved in a dance-off with another male, who she'd never seen before.

"You like that, huh, Wade? I bet they never taught you that move in Australia."

"Keep talking fro boy, 'cause soon that's all you'll be able to do. I have moves you've never even seen before."

Watching as the two men competed in an all out dance war, Melissa couldn't help but think to herself that they were two of the best dancer's she'd ever seen. She just hoped that the choreography moves they made up for her weren't as hard as the back breaking labor they seemed to be doing now.

"Boys!" Mike exclaimed, underneath his breath, before clearing his throat loudly; causing both men to look up from their movements; slightly flustered.

"Mike! Melissa!" Justin exclaimed, after a second; smiling sheepishly, while doing so, to show that he was slightly embarrassed for having being caught. "We were just-"

"Goofing off. We know." Mike interrupted, causing Justin and the other man to roll their eyes playfully. "I just hope you two know that I'm coming back and beating both your white asses down if this girl can't out dance Lance by tomorrow morning."

Watching as the other two men chuckled at Mike's words, before agreeing that no one could be worse than Lance, Melissa couldn't help but wonder if her manager was that bad of a dancer.

He doesn't look like he'd be a bad one..but then again, you can't really tell by looking.

"Melissa?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Melissa blushed slightly as she noticed Mike had already left the room and Justin and Wade were now staring at her confused. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

Smiling to show that it was okay, Justin quickly introduced Melissa to Wade before giving a summary of what they'd be doing for the next two days.

"We're going to first show you, with the music, what the dance steps look like and then afterwards you can tell us whether or not you like what we came up with. If not, we can come up with something different..."

"But if you do...like them, that is.." Wade continued, "we'll then show you step by step how to do it. It's pretty simple foot work and it shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to learn the whole thing. But since we're given two days to work on the routine, you should be more than ready by Friday. Sounds like a plan?"

Liking the sound of what they were saying, Melissa nodded her head, before replying, "Yeah, that defiantly sounds like a plan to me. I'm ready whenever you are."

"Right on!" Justin exclaimed, before clapping his hands together and showing Melissa where she could sit to watch them. "Like outback boy over there said, this is going to be a piece of cake, so don't worry."

Smiling slightly, Melissa told Justin she wasn't worried. And for the first time in a while..she really wasn't.

~*~

In Melissa's opinion, to say that the dance steps Wade and Justin had taught her were easy, would be an understatement. To be honest, they were down right a breeze. But their was still just one small problem with her performance, personality wise.

"You're not showing enough attitude."

Watching as Wade once again shut off the CD player beside him, Melissa sighed. This was the third time, in less than an hour, that he had said that to her and she still hadn't made any progress. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"You don't have to apologize." Wade said, before slightly smiling to show her that this wasn't something she needed to get upset over, "I just want you to focus on the lyrics to the song and pretend like you're doing this in front of someone who you can't stand, who you're absolutely fed up with and who you just wish would let you do your thing, your way. Understand?"

Nodding her head, Melissa got back into her starting pose and, just as Wade had said, she concentrated on the words she was singing as she repeated the moves she'd been doing all day; afterwards feeling like she had gotten a little bit better.

"Much better..but I have an idea." Justin said, with a slight smile on his face before getting up from his seat--beside Wade--and making his way towards the studio exit.

"Where's he going?"

Shrugging, Wade stood up from off the floor, grabbing his and her water bottle while doing so, and stretched a little before handing Melissa her bottle, "Knowing him, he's probably going to go looking for the devil himself."

Melissa laughed at the comment but didn't find herself laughing a few minutes later as Justin made his way back into the room with JC in tow.

What's he doing here?

Feeling JC's hard eyes on her, Melissa could only bite her lower lip as she heard Justin say to the older man, "We just need a third opinion."

No, we really don't.

Noticing the looks on Melissa and JC's faces, Wade realized what Justin was doing. "Don't worry, he's not here to judge you. Just remember what I told you to do, okay?"

Meeting Wade's eyes, Melissa quickly figured out what the two dancers were up to and immediately smiled inwardly to herself before handing Wade back her water bottle and telling the guys she was ready whenever they were.

"Thank God."

Ignoring the remark, Melissa got back into her starting position and waited for her cue to sound before lifting her head up, meeting JC's cold eyes, and beginning to sing:

I'm tired of waiting for things to change...

---

Friday, March 17, 2000

It seemed like all Melissa had to do, when she started to feel a little nervous, was imagine JC standing in front of her and it was like almost instantly she possessed a bitch-like attitude; which made her performance in front of the two founding members of Jive absolutely amazing.

"Wow."

"I do believe I second your opinion, Mr. Wright." Barry Weiss, the head CEO of Jive Records said, before turning his head back towards the slightly younger male; pretending as if neither Melissa nor Lance was still in the room. "Miss. Alano's performance, a minute ago, was truly breath taking and I can't think of one good reason why she shouldn't be leaving here as an officially signed artist of Freelance."

"Me either." Johnny said, before turning his head back around; focusing his attention more on his client than on the singer in question. "All right, Bass, you've got yourself a signed popstar."

Before Melissa even knew what was happening, a strong set of arms wrapped around her waist and she was practically lifted off the floor. "See! I told you you could do it."

Giggling slightly, Melissa hugged Lance back, then after a second she let go; blushing slightly when she realized the two older men were now looking at them with a curious look in their eyes. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Mr. Weiss said, before clasping his hands in front of him, "But before you go off to celebrate, I was wondering if you could grant an old man one small wish."

Knowing by the way she felt at the moment, if the older man, in front of her, was to ask her to jump up and down, she'd ask him how high, Melissa nodded her head quickly; silently telling him his wish was her command.

"I've heard so many wonderful things said about you and your song writing skills, from your manager and the rest of the guys from N'sync, that I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind playing an original song for me on the piano over there."

Knowing that Mr. Weiss's request hadn't been something he mentioned to Melissa beforehand, Lance opened his mouth to tell the older man that they weren't exactly prepared for the wish, but was slightly surprised when Melissa spoke up; telling Mr. Weiss differently.

"That'll be no problem sir, do you have any preferences as to what kind of song you'd like for me to play?"

Feeling as if this was now just between Mr. Weiss and Melissa, Lance sat back down in the chair he had been seated in before.

"Anything that you have written will be just fine, m'dear."

After Melissa replied, "Okay", Lance watched her as she made her way towards the piano--which sat up against the wall in the back of the room--warming up her fingers as soon as she sat down.

"Whenever you're ready, Miss Alano." Mr. Weiss replied; silently telling both Lance and Melissa that even though Melissa had gotten Record Deal approval, she still was being judged.

Unfortunately

"This is a song I wrote a couple of years ago when my mother passed away. So, I hope you like it."

Not having known that particular piece of information, Lance bit his lip slightly; wondering what else he didn't know about the brunette in front of him. And what else he wanted to know.

All I got to do is thank of you and that keeps me from feeling blue. I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind and I'm so glad you're mine.

Saturday, March 18, 2000

"So, what you're saying is as of yesterday you are officially a member of the much admired celebrity crowd?"

Tightening her grip on her cell phone, as Mike ran over a speed bump, Melissa shrugged inwardly to herself before saying, "I guess you could say that. Although, I wouldn't really call myself a celebrity, seeing as no one really knows me-"

"Yet!" Sam cut in; before Melissa could continue, "No one really knows you yet. But give it some time, honey, and they soon will. Trust me! With that voice of yours, people will be filling in venues every where just to get a glimpse of the one and only, Melissa Alano."

Shaking her head in amusement, Melissa couldn't help but laugh at her friend's comment before saying, "Sounds nice. But I don't really know if I should believe those words, seeing as how you haven't even heard me sing yet."

"True.." Sam admitted to the younger woman; before pausing for just a second to come up with a reason as to why Melissa should believe her. "I haven't heard you sing yet. But I trust that fine ass man, you call your manager, and know that if he thinks your worth his time then you're defiantly worth the cheap seats that Ticketmaster usually sticks me with. End of story."

Having gotten used to Sam's slight crush on Lance, Melissa figured she really didn't want to hear any more of the older woman's comments about the blonde, so she just smirked at the previous statement before replying: "Dully noted." Causing Sam to thankfully switch topics.

"So anyway, where are you headed to now? And please don't say nowhere 'cause I can hear the cars in the background."

Pulling the phone away from her ear, Melissa looked at it in disbelief before quickly furrowing her eyebrows in confusion; inwardly wondering to herself when she had become such an open book to the older woman. "Right now, I'm on my way to the compound. Lance and I have a meeting with Mr. Wright and Mr. Warden, our PR person. They want to brief me on my schedule for the next couple of months. Hopefully by that time, I'll partially be done recording and have my first single out."

"Sounds interesting." Sam said, after a second; all the while trying unsuccessfully to hide the slight amusement in her voice, "I just hope with your upcoming schedule, you'll still have time for the little people such as myself so I wont have to come down to your big Hollywood job and slap some N'syncer for taking my friend away. I mean, think about the huge glitch it would cause my reputation."

Rolling her eyes while laughing at the statement, Melissa reassured her one-of-a-kind friend that she didn't think it'd ever be an easy task to forget her; before commenting that Mike and her were now pulling into the compound's driveway and she really needed to get off the phone.

"All right, so I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, I should be able to call you back sometime tonight. But if not, then I'll defiantly call you tomorrow morning, okay?"

Pausing for a short second, Sam replied with an, "Okie dokie," before telling Melissa that she'd punch her into her schedule--causing Melissa to reply with another roll of the eyes and a slight smirk; afterwards mumbling to herself, "You'd better."

~*~

Checking her watch, for what felt like the fifth time in the last eighteen minutes, Melissa sighed to herself as she realized it was going on ten-fourteen; exactly thirty minutes after the time that Lance and her had planned to meet outside of his manager's office.

Come on, come on. Where are you?

After ten more minutes of waiting for her manager, Melissa slightly sighed, once again, before opening her purse--digging out her cellphone--and hitting the first six digits of the seven numbers she'd quickly remembered after a day or two of having them.

You better pick up if you know what's good for you.

"Miss. Alano?

Quickly shutting her phone off, before the first ring even had a chance to finish, Melissa stood up; coming face to face with Johnny Wright.

"Mr. Wright! It's a pleasure to meet you again."

Nodding his head in response, the older man gestured towards his office door; asking Melissa without words to please come in.

"I'm sorry that Lance isn't here yet. He was supposed to meet with me a few minutes ago, but I guess he got stuck in traffic." Melissa said, as she swiftly made her way past Johnny and into the large, yet cluttered office, where another man, whom she guessed was Mr. Warden, was already seated; waiting for her.

"Actually Lance and the rest of the guys left a few minutes before you got here." Johnny said. Afterwards closing the door behind him; before making his way towards the other side of his desk--taking a seat across from Melissa and the other man as soon as he did so.

"Mr. Warden and I have already spoken to your manager and the rest of the guys about their and your schedule for the next couple of days and as we speak Lance is at home packing his week's worth of clothing."

Weeks worth of clothing?

Noticing the look of confusion on Melissa's face, Johnny opened his mouth to continue; realizing the younger woman, in front of him, wasn't as aware as he thought her to be. "Melissa..can I call you Melissa?"

Not really caring one way or the other, Melissa nodded her head in approval before raising an eyebrow in curiosity; silently telling Mr. Wright to continue with what he had been saying before he had stopped.

"As you might or might not have heard, the guy's second album, No strings attached, is coming out next week. Which means that their going to have to be flying in and out of New York and Los Angeles to promote it."

After slightly nodding her head, telling Mr. Wright she understood, Melissa realized the two men were waiting for her to say something so they'd know she was following along with them. "I was indeed aware of that, sir. And I'm assuming from this meeting, you want me to go with them, correct?"

"Correct." Mr. Warden said; speaking up for the first time since Melissa had entered the room. "Which is the reason I am here."

Not bothering to interrupt the older man, Melissa turned her head slightly--before raising an eyebrow in interest; now silently telling Mr. Warden to continue.

"Miss Alano, Mr. Wright has agreed with me on the fact that album release parties have sort of a number one spot in free publicity. So, what we've offered your manager, and what we're now offering you, is a chance to be introduced to the world Tuesday night at Nsync's album release party. What do you think?"

After widening her eye's in surprise at the information, Melissa found herself slightly biting her lower lip in hesitation. "When you say introduced, do you mean someone's going to be taping me performing or....?"

Before Mr. Warden could respond, Mr. Wright spoke up; shaking his head no before doing so, "Actually, that was the idea at first. But the guys came up with something else. They figured that during the red carpet interviews, one of them--your date for the evening--could mention to one of the reporters that not only were the guys celebrating their new album that night but they were also celebrating the signing of your contract with Freelance. Making it seem as more of a spontaneous introduction than a planned one."

Understanding exactly where the guys had been coming from, when making the previous statement, Melissa nodded quickly; agreeing to the idea.

That is, agreeing to the idea until a small thought popped into her head.

What if my date's JC?

"This party....I'd be going to it with Lance, right?"

Not knowing any better, the two older men shot each other knowing looks before Johnny replied, "Actually, he'll be going with one of his other protegees; leaving you with Justin, if that's okay."

Inwardly letting out a slight sigh of relief, knowing that at least with Justin as her date she wouldn't have to put up with any snide remarks, Melissa smiled slightly before saying, "That's fine with me. I just hope I don't accidentally end up embarrassing him or myself during the red carpet interview."

Giving the younger woman a reassuring grin, Mr. Warden winked at Melissa good-naturedly before replying:

"Miss. Alano, you don't have to worry about embarrassing Mr. Timberlake. Trust me! He can do that all on his own."

---

Sunday, March 19, 2000

Looking first from the airplane ticket, in her hand, to the display panel above her head, Melissa inwardly counted the number of rows she'd have to pass before ultimately finding her seat.

"3..4..5....and 6." She mumbled to herself; before unhooking her carry on bag from her shoulders and sliding her body all the way across the aisle; towards the window seat. "Four rows behind JC and his grumpy attitude. What more could I possibly ask for?"

Not even a second later, a voice replied "I don't know" causing Melissa--embarrassed at having being caught talking about someone--to slightly blush before looking up; noticing a smirking Chris sliding into the aisle seat beside her. "Maybe a large piano falling out of the sky and crashing him and his ego to oblivion? That's what I'd be asking for right about now."

While slightly laughing at the comment, Melissa couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief; realizing that Chris wasn't about to yell at her for her statement. "Sorry about that. He just gets to me sometime, you know?"

Shrugging, Chris placed his carryon bag underneath the seat in front of him, before turning back towards Melissa; hitting her with an understanding smile. "Don't worry. He gets to all of us. That's why he's sitting up there with Curly instead of back here with us. That way morning Justin and grumpy JC can just yell and argue with each other and leave us all back here the hell alone."

Not having anything to say to the comment--figuring the guys knew how to handle JC and Justin better than her anyway--Melissa slightly smirked before turning her head towards the nearest flight attendant; listening on as the slightly older woman started to give the passengers the usual safety cautions speech. Afterwards leaving Chris to turn towards Melissa; bringing up a topic that he'd yet to talk to her about.

"You don't have a dress for tomorrow night, do you?"

Shaking her head slightly, Melissa raised an amused eyebrow; wondering if the man beside her was volunteering to go shopping with her. "Not yet. Why?"

Noticing the look on the younger woman's face, Chris chuckled to himself; before stating that this wasn't going to be a cross-dressing kind of thing and that he was only asking because his girlfriend, who lived in New York, would be coming to the party with them, as well, but hadn't had a chance to pick out something to wear yet; even though she had a closet full of things she'd never worn before hanging up at both his and her house.

"So, you're asking me to go shopping with her?"

Not wanting it to seem like he was begging for her to do so, Chris shrugged nonchalantly before replying, "Yeah. If you want to that is. I just hope that you're not as bad as Justin is with the whole shopping thing and can have both her and yourself back at the hotel by the time the party starts."

Rolling her eyes slightly, while mentally marking Chris down as a typical male, Melissa agreed to go. "On one condition, that is."

As the plane jerked foreword, taking off the ground, Melissa watched as Chris quickly closed his eyes--seeming to be saying a small prayer--before opening his eyes back up; afterwards asking, "What's that?"

Realizing that the man beside her either had a fear of flying or a fear of heights, Melissa closed the window shade beside her before saying, "You tell me her name and something about her. Because I refuse to walk around all day, calling her Chris's girlfriend."

Chuckling, Chris sat back in his seat--forgetting about the slight nervousness he had felt a couple of seconds ago--and began telling Melissa how him and Dani, his girlfriend of four years, had met and almost instantly fell head over heels in love with one another.

Creating, what he'd like to think as, the most deliriously happy couple anyone had ever heard of.

~*~

"And that's when I knew she was the one."

After rolling his eyes as he listened to Chris, a few rows behind him, gossip to Melissa about his four year relationship with Dani, JC sighed to himself before saying, "Not even a week yet, and he's already telling her his business. It'll only be a matter of time before the Enquirer finds out."

Having had enough of his friend's bitterness towards everybody, Justin sat up in his seat; narrowing his eyes at the older man--before saying: "Jesus JC, you act as if she's got the black plague! Would it kill you to be nice to her for once?"

Not wanting to get into it with the younger male, JC slouched in his seat before replying, "No, but why should I be? We don't even know her."

"Correction, you and Lance don't even know her." Justin replied, rather loudly, causing Mike and one of their other bodyguards, Lonnie, to look over at him strangely. "And that's only because he spends all his time worrying about her, business wise, instead of getting to know her, personal wise. And you spend all your time with your head stuck up your ass. Which, I don't know about you, but to me is not a great way to get to know somebody else."

Not wanting to give the younger male the decency to know that he'd struck a chord in him, JC skipped over the comeback he had in store for the blonde and just replied with a rough, "Whatever", before quickly throwing a set of headphones over his head and glaring heatedly at the seat, in front of him.

An action, which Justin noted, he did for the rest of the flight.

Monday, March 20, 2000

Staring unnoticed at the people in front of her, as they lazily walked around the hotel lobby--probably looking for something to do--Melissa couldn't help but make up situations in her head; which soon turned into intriguing reasons for those said people to be there in New York at this particular moment.

That guy.. She thought to herself, as she took in a slightly overweight male who at the moment was wearing a black three piece business suit, probably works for the Mafia and is here looking for some guy Big Tony hired a hit out on.

Watching as the man stopped pacing in front of her, and looked towards the elevator, which a slightly younger male was stepping out of at the moment, Melissa raised both eyebrows in surprise as the two men quickly closed the distance between one another--meeting in the middle of the hallway--in a short yet sweet embrace.

Or maybe not.

Wanting to give the two men their privacy, Melissa adverted her eyes towards a group of women who were now walking into the hotel; whispering amongst themselves as they saw the two men--Melissa had just been staring at--going at it.

Homophobics.

After spending a couple of minutes rolling her eyes at the close minded women in front of her, Melissa felt a set of eyes watching her and turned her head slightly; her gaze landing on two women as she did so.

What the..?

Not bothering to stand up as the two women, who were both decked out in a matching hat and glasses set, made their way across the room--towards the bench where she was seated on--Melissa wondered to herself for a brief second if these were two of the groupies the guys had informed her N'sync had. But immediately that thought was dismissed as the taller woman arched an eyebrow up in curiosity before asking, "Melissa?"

Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, Melissa stood up so that she was eye level to the shorter woman, before replying, "Dani?" Causing the blonde to widen her smile in relief.

"In the flesh! It's nice to finally meet you. Chris has told me so much about you."

After inwardly wondering to herself what some of those things might be, Melissa smiled slightly at the older woman before saying, "He's told me a lot about you as well."

As Dani blushed slightly at the comment, Melissa adverted her eyes towards the other woman, who was standing next to the blonde, wearing a slightly amused grin on her face. "I'm Melissa, and you are..?"

Before the woman could reply, Dani spoke up; making it known to the other women that, as of right now, she was the group's spokesperson. "This is Kelly. Joey's girlfriend."

Having thought Joey to be single after witnessing him, yesterday on the plane, pocketing their slightly attractive flight attendant's number, Melissa had to force her eyes not to widen as she smiled at the woman in front of her. "It's nice to meet you."

"You as well."

Checking her watch, Dani commented that it was now ten thirty--seven hours before they'd have to be back at the hotel to meet up with Meredith--so they probably should get a move on now if they wanted to make it back on time.

A statement which caused Melissa to wonder what she had just gotten herself into.

I'm going to have to hurt Chris.

~*~

As luck would have it, as soon as the three women began to shop, Dani started to calm down a little; revealing to Melissa that she was just as nervous about the night's events as the guys were.

"This is just such a big deal for them. You know, they worked so hard to make it happen."

Knowing exactly what Dani meant, Melissa nodded slightly in agreement before saying, "I understand. But judging on what I've seen and heard of them so far, I don't really think any of the guys have anything to be worried about. I mean, their regular day personalities alone could at least win them an Oscar...or maybe even a day in the nut house. I wish we all could be so lucky."

After slightly laughing and agreeing wholeheartedly with Melissa, the three made their way towards the food court; figuring that since it was now two-thirty and the party didn't start until around seven, they might as well grab a quick bite to eat.

"You know, I just noticed you haven't spilled much dirt to us." Kelly remarked, a couple minutes after the three had bought their meals and taken a seat at a small table in the middle of the court. "That's so unlike the women in the guy's lives."

While taking a small sip of her coke, Melissa shrugged her shoulders at the statement. She'd only known the guys for about a week now and there really wasn't much to tell. Well, at least not a lot that the other two women probably didn't already know about the guys themselves."What do you want to know?"

Shrugging, Kelly took a bite of the sub she'd bought, before replying, "Mmm, how about what you think of them, individually? I mean, we already know you think their nuts-"

"Who doesn't!"

Not bothering to even acknowledge Dani's interruption, Kelly smirked a little before continuing, "But besides that, what do you think about the clowns we sometimes hate to call our friends?"

After thinking about it for a second, Melissa shrugged once again. She really didn't have a clue as to what she thought of them.

"I don't know....at first, I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, before I met the guys I pretty much thought they were probably all going to be some ego maniacs. But their pretty much all down to earth."

Knowing exactly what the younger woman meant, Dani and Kelly both nodded their heads before Kelly spoke up once again, asking a question which made Melissa, who had unfortunately been taking a sip of her drink, to literally almost choke on the liquid. "Any one of them, besides our boyfriends, you'd ever think about fucking?"

"Excuse me?"

As the two women in front of her began to laugh comically, Melissa grabbed a spare napkin off the table; coughing the sticky substance out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry, she shouldn't have said that." Dani began, while unsuccessfully trying to stifle her giggles, "It's just that after hanging out with the guys for so long, Kelly and I have somewhat of a sick sense of humor. One which will probably soon rub off on you as well."

That's if Sam's sense of humor doesn't before then. Melissa thought to herself; all the while slightly smiling at the inner mention of her friend.

Well, that is, Melissa was smiling at the inner mention of her friend. That is, until she noticed Kelly and Dani were still looking at her with wondering eyebrows.

"Even though it was a joke, you two still want to know, don't you?"

At the simultaneous nod, Melissa sighed slightly; having thought so. "Well, to be honest, I haven't really thought about any of the guys, relationship wise. I mean, I'm not looking for a boyfriend at the moment. But I guess if I had to measure each one of them up romantically speaking, your boyfriends not included for obvious reasons, I think I'd have to say no on each account."

Not believing for one-second that the girl in front of her, could be around five good looking men, two of them who were relatively single at the moment, and not even have a small crush on one of them, caused Dani to raise an eyebrow in disbelief. "Care to explain?"

Figuring what the heck, Melissa nodded, okay, before saying: "Well, first of all, you have Justin. He's a great guy, personality and looks wise. But when you really think about it..could you date someone who was prettier than you?"

Cracking up at the comment, Kelly and Dani agreed that Melissa was right about that one. Then after a second, Kelly asked about Lance.

After biting her lip slightly, Melissa thought about it for a second before replying, "I don't think I can really answer that one. I mean, besides the business side of Lance, I don't really know that much about him."

Shooting a knowing look at the woman seated next to her, Dani replied, "And JC?" Causing Melissa to noticeably stiffen up.

"Now that one..I don't even want to think about. JC and I don't even get along friendship wise, so theirs no telling what would happen if we got together relationship wise."

Raising an eyebrow at this information, Dani replied, "That's surprising. JC usually is the one most girls find attractive."

Before she even knew what she was doing, Melissa rolled her eyes and mumbled, I don't see why. Causing Kelly to reply with, "Most people don't. But the thing is, for as long as any of us have known him, JC has always had this whole older brother protection thing with the guys; which only grew more intense during the huge Pearlman situation."

Agreeing with the statement, Dani nodded slightly before opening her mouth; summing up the words her friend had just spoken. "In other words, when JC meets new people, who he knows little to nothing about, and suspects that they could be a threat to the shield he's provided for the guys, he puts up a wall; kind of blocking out anyone and everything beyond it until he realizes that the person he's blocking out really isn't trying to hurt any of the guys in anyway."

Now, agreeing with Dani, Kelly opened her mouth; wrapping up the whole topic. "It's sort of his job in the group. He did it to me and he probably would've done it to Dani, had she not been there from the beginning. So, my advice to you is to try and not take it too personally, okay?"

Feeling more at ease than before, Melissa nodded her head in agreement, before commenting that she thought she had just learned more about the five guys in the last four hours than in the entire week she'd spent with them. Causing the two women in front of her to laugh.

"Well, I don't know about ya'll two. But I'm stuffed." Dani commented, a second later; causing Melissa and Kelly both to nod their heads in agreement. "You ready to go?"

Waiting until after Kelly gave her answer, Melissa nodded hers as well. Afterwards replying, "I just want to stop by the record store first. I mean, I feel kind of odd going to an album release party for a group that I've never even heard sing before."

Stopping the small clean up job she was doing, Dani raised an eyebrow in disbelief before asking if the younger woman was kidding or not. Which Melissa replied "No, I'm not." to. "That is, unless you count the two demos Justin played for me the night we met."

After sharing identical looks of disbelief with one another, Kelly and Dani both stood up quickly. Afterwards, throwing their trays away, then shaking their heads absentmindedly at Melissa as they grabbed the younger woman by her arms; telling her that she defiantly needed to stop by the record store..or at least turn on the damn radio once in a while.

A statement which surprisingly enough caused Melissa to laugh.

---

Two and a half hours after the girls had arrived back at the hotel, listened to every single song on N'sync's debut album--Everything I own twice, because Melissa just couldn't believe that was really her manager singing the bass solo part of the song--the women were finally made up and ready to go to the party.

"So, in your honest opinions, what do you guys think?" Melissa asked no one in particular as she took a hesitant step out of the bathroom and shyly began showing off her satin green dress, which was, interestingly enough, almost identical to her unique eye color.

Turning her head away from the general direction of the mirror, Dani's eye's practically widened as she took in the younger woman from head to toe. "Damn girl! Justin's jaw is going to literally hit the floor when he sees you."

While blushing, Melissa made her way towards the mirror, that the other girls were standing in front of, and looked at her reflection in wonder; not wanting to admit to herself just yet that she looked good enough to be seen with the likes of Justin Timberlake. "You think so?"

"You know it." Meredith, Lance's date for the night, said; before hitting the older woman with a genuine smile. "Lanston is going to have to drag the poor boy away from you."

Feeling slightly evil at the moment, Kelly smiled to herself before saying, "That is if Mr. Bass can drag his own self away."

As the two other women in the room began to laugh, Melissa blushed slightly; not knowing what to say to that comment. Fortunately enough, for her, before anyone else had time to make another hidden comment about the guy's reactions, a knock was heard at the door.

"Ten minutes after the scheduled pick up time. The guys never change."

Becoming slightly nervous at the comment, Melissa, not wanting to be seen just yet, stood behind the other two women; watching as Dani opened the door for Justin, Chris, Joey, and Lance.

"Whoa Momma!" Chris remarked, quite loudly; afterwards turning his girlfriend around so he could marvel the satin blue dress she was wearing at the moment, "Are you sure you want to go out tonight?"

Not even bothering to falter at her boyfriend's comment, Dani replied, "Yes! And you should be, too. Because if all I'm going to be doing tonight is sitting around this hotel, watching you sleep, then you're defiantly going to have to pay me back the three hundred and some dollars that I withdrawled for this stupid dress."

"Hey, as long as I get to see you naked by the end of the night, anything works for me."

While everyone else groaned and chuckled at the comment, Melissa quickly slipped on the earrings that Meredith had let her borrow; getting the attention of Justin while doing so. "Damn Alano, you clean up nicely."

Blushing at the compliment, Melissa turned around; quickly taking in Justin's dark blue attire, before telling him that he looked nice as well. Causing Joey to call out, "You two just going to compliment each other's outfits all day or are we going to get going soon?"

Jealous.

After rolling their eyes simultaneously at the comment, Justin waited until everyone else had started out the door before holding out his arm for Melissa; immediately afterwards saying: "After you, Madame."

"Why, thank you, Monsieur." Melissa replied; afterwards slightly smirking at her fake accent, before swiftly making her way out of the room and into an elevator with the three other couples.

Watching as the doors closed in front of them, Melissa finally realized why the group of guys looked sort of strange. "Where's JC?"

At the mention of their group mates name, each one of the guys stiffened up noticeably; proving to Melissa that JC's attitude had struck once again.

"His date is staying at another hotel, so he left a half-n-hour ago to go get her. He should be back with the Limo now."

Nodding her head, Melissa couldn't help but wonder to herself what had JC done this time to cause such an ill response from the four men in the elevator. But as she remembered everything he had been snidely saying to her within the last few days, she suddenly found herself not really caring.

It serves him right.

After snapping out of her thoughts as the elevator came to a complete stop, Melissa waited for Justin before exiting the closed-in mobile; the other three couples already ahead of her.

"How much do you wanna bet we get the car with JC?"

Knowing that the situation was most likely to happen and that it'd be better if Justin and her didn't have any angry like expressions on their faces when it did, Melissa joked that she wasn't a betting woman but figured if she was going to use Justin's money then she'd have to bet a million dollars. Causing Justin to slightly laugh before saying, "Knowing with our luck, we'd probably win."

After nodding in agreement, Melissa smiled Thank you at Mike as he held the door open for the couples and then watched in bemusement as Joey and Chris quickly took their dates by the hand and lead them to the second Limo; leaving everyone else to take the first one--which unsurprisingly enough held JC and his date for the night. A woman that Melissa couldn't help but study closely; wondering to herself where'd she seen the blonde before.

"Joshua!" Adverting her eyes from the woman in front of her, Melissa watched as Meredith wrapped her arms halfway around JC; getting a slight hug in return from him--only after Lance and Justin narrowed their eyes coldly at the older man. "It's so good to see you."

Smiling slightly, JC replied with an even, "You as well, Mere." Then afterwards signaled the end of the conversation by turning his head to look out the window beside his date.

Asshole

After a few minutes on the road, JC's date, Christina, asked a question, which Melissa didn't realize was pointed towards her until Justin slightly elbowed her in the waist; causing her to look up from the window in surprise.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. What did you say?"

After smiling, as if to say it was okay, the woman in front of her repeated her previous question. "I was just wondering if you and I had met before. You look strangely familiar."

Smiling slightly, Melissa nodded, afterwards replying, "I'm not sure, but you look familiar as well. It's as if I've seen your face somewhere before."

Before the other woman could reply to the statement, JC remarked, "That could be because her face is all over the billboards, Genius." Causing Justin and Lance to yell his name out in anger while Christina and Meredith just looked at their friend in disbelief; never having seen him act so rude before.

"You know your acting like a real prick, man."

Turning his eyes away from Melissa, JC rolled his eyes at Justin before saying, "Well, it takes one to know one."

A statement which would've started up a whole different argument had the Limo not come to a complete stop; signaling to the group that they had now arrived at their destination.

"Finally!"

As if pretending the man in front of them hadn't spoken, Lance and Justin began to put on their public smiles; ones which seemed contagious to Melissa until Justin's bodyguard, Lonnie, opened the car door--causing everyone to get their first look at the hundreds of people surrounding the red carpet.

Oh God.

Feeling a slight push from behind, Melissa snapped out of her thoughts. Then afterwards, absentmindedly stepped out of the car; hearing the sounds of flashing bulbs going off as she did so. There's so many people here.

While waiting for the others to get out of their Limo, Melissa scanned the large crowd of paparazzi; noting for the first time that she'd never seen anything like this before. And hopefully never would again.

"You might want to try and smile. It's supposed to help take the pressure of cameras away from you."

Raising an eyebrow at the advice, Melissa slightly smiled before asking Justin if it helped him. A second later getting the reply, "Not in the slightest."

After a few minutes of standing there, trying not to let the bright light's of everyone's camera blind them, Melissa and Justin finally got the okay to start walking.

Unfortunately though, a second later, they were stopped. "Justin! We're with Access Hollywood. Can we get a few words with you?"

Seeing the look of hope on the older man's face, Melissa knew that Justin would say yes.

"Sure, I have nowhere else to be for a while."

Watching as the man laughed, slightly in relief, Melissa figured he'd probably want a one-on-one interview and made a move to head over to where Dani and Kelly were standing; waiting for their boyfriends to finish their interviews. Unfortunately though, before Melissa could get very far, a large hand on her wrist caused her to stop and look up; locking eyes with her date.

"It's that time, sweetheart."

Furrowing her eyebrows, Melissa opened her mouth to protest. But before the words could get out, Justin moved his hand lower on her arm; interlocking their hands together. A reassuring move which made Melissa's slight nervousness go away..if only for a second.

"This is Billy Bush reporting from the No Strings Attached: Album release party. And here standing with me, is one of the most talented guys on the face of this planet." The interviewer commented, into the camera, before turning around; hitting both Justin and Melissa with a slightly off centered smile; "Justin, it's been almost three months since we, at Access Hollywood, last talked to you. How have you been?"

"I've been good. Can't really complain and yourself?"

Smirking as the older man slightly frowned at Justin's brief statement, Melissa wondered to herself if this was how all of the guy's interviews were going to go. Knowing them, she figured probably.

"Anyway, enough about tonight's events..." Billy said, snapping Melissa out of her thoughts as his eyes landed on her, "I'm sure the world wants to know whose this beautiful woman on your arm?"

Feeling Justin slightly squeeze her hand, the butterflies in Melissa's stomach settled down a little.

"This is Melissa Alano. She's an upcoming singer, who just signed with Lance's company a few days ago."

"Oh, really." Billy said, while raising both eyebrows in interest; realizing that he just got exclusive information before anyone else did. "So when should we expect to see you on the country charts?"

Before Melissa could respond, Justin cut in, stating that they wouldn't. "She's actually a pop singer."

Covering his surprise with a slightly goofy-looking grin, Billy turned towards Justin, sarcastically saying, "I'm sure Britney loves that." A comment, which Melissa could tell by Justin's face, he wasn't really surprised about.

"I guess so. You'll have to ask her next time you see her."

Knowing by the slight look of mischief on his face, the man in front of her was about to respond to Justin's comment with a smart ass remark, Melissa squeezed the hand in hers before commenting, "I think their about to open the doors. Lonnie's signaling for us to hurry up."

Turning his head, Justin looked towards where his bodyguard was standing; at the moment with his eyes on the crowd beside them. Then moving his gaze back towards Melissa, he stared at her confused; then after a minute, giving her a Thank you smile as he realized what she was doing. "Well, I guess that wraps up this interview."

Realizing he couldn't stop the two from entering the building--knowing if he tried he'd either look like an asshole or be ejected from the carpet--the interviewer nodded his head slightly; afterwards telling both Justin and Melissa that he'd hope to talk to them more in the future.

"Not if I can help it." Justin said, under his breath, after Melissa and him turned away from the man and began to make their way towards the next interviewer in line. Oh boy.

Knowing that the previous conversation could possibly ruin the rest of her date's evening, Melissa shrugged slightly before looking up at Justin's stiff posture and replying, "Well, just think about it this way. You have, what looks like, four more interviews to go. So with the way I see it, by the time we get into the party, I'm sure you'll have enough anger within you to write your guys entire next album."

Furrowing his eyebrows at the comment, Justin took in what Melissa had just said; after a second chuckling to himself before replying, "I think I can honestly say, you're going to fit right in with the rest of us."

A comment which made Melissa smile while thinking, You never know, but I sort of hope so.

~*~

Exactly one hour after arriving at the party, Justin had Melissa laughing and dancing more than she ever had before; which, at the moment, was probably the reason why she was now seated at the almost empty bar table, yawning her lungs out. "I am utterly exhausted. I don't know how the guys can still be out there dancing."

Not even a second after she had made the comment, a familiar voice from behind caused Melissa to look up, smiling.

"I've been trying to figure that one out myself. Sometimes, I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd think they ran on pure sugar alone."

Clearing her purse, which she'd also borrowed from Meredith, from the stool beside her, Melissa silently asked the woman in front of her to take a seat; smiling slightly, once again, as Christina did so.

"Out of curiosity, how long have you known the guys?" Melissa asked after a second of silence; figuring that even though the woman, beside her, had come to the party with JC, that didn't necessarily mean she had to have the same personality traits as him. Did it?

As Christina furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, Melissa could tell the woman was counting back. "Mm, I've known Chris, Joey, and Lance for about three years now. But I met JC and Justin when I was around fourteen; we were all on the Mickey Mouse Club together."

Like a light switch had gone off in her head, Melissa widened her eyes at this comment. That's why she looks so familiar!

"Okay, you might think I'm a little bit strange for asking you this, but did you happen to live in Pittsburgh before you joined the Mickey Mouse club?"

While staring at Melissa as if she'd suddenly grown two heads, Christina replied, "For a couple of years. Why? Are you also from there?"

After frowning at the words, Melissa mentally reminded herself that they were kids then so it shouldn't be a shock that the woman didn't remember her. "Yeah, for a couple of years I did. Even though, you probably don't remember me, I was your neighbor."

Slightly opening her mouth in disbelief, Christina narrowed her eyes pointedly; trying to see if the woman in front of her was telling the truth or not. "Your name is.....Alano?"

She remembers

Smiling slightly, Melissa nodded, before saying: "Melissa Alano."

"Shit." Christina said, after a couple of seconds; a wide grin all of a sudden widening her face, "Talk about a small world. I used to spend Thanksgiving day at your house."

Laughing slightly at the words, Melissa couldn't help but nod before thinking: Those were the days...before back-stabbing friends and cheating boyfriends.

"I can't believe it." Christina said, snapping Melissa out of her thoughts, "I haven't talked to you in years and you still remember me?"

After nodding, Melissa shrugged, "Well, you were kind of hard to forget. I mean, one day you and I were playing concert in your backyard and the next you were gone off to Orlando to play with the big boys."

While continuing to get over the surprise that she was actually sitting there talking to someone very close to her from the past, Christina could only nod at Melissa's words.

After a second, stopping as a slightly annoyed Lance approached them.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt you two. But do you guys happen to have any idea as to where JC has run off to?"

While shaking their heads no, Christina and Melissa both gave one another somebody's in trouble looks, before turning their attention back towards Lance; who at the moment looked like a person in need of a drink. A stiff one.

"Shit!" Lance exclaimed; afterwards apologizing to the two ladies in front of him.

While telling her manager that it was okay, Melissa couldn't help but inwardly curse JC out; something that seemed to be happening all the time now. "What happened?"

After running a hand through his spiky hair, Lance sighed. "We were at the table, in the middle of an interview, when his ex-girlfriend, Bobbie, walked in. Her boss in hand."

Wincing at the comment, Melissa didn't even have to guess as to how that felt. She'd been there before, only with one major difference. We weren't broken up.

"Do you want us to go look for him?"

That comment had came from her mouth and as Lance looked at her in surprise, she couldn't blame him. Her words had surprised her damn self. Where'd that come from?

Smiling slightly, Lance nodded, before saying he'd like that.

A statement which Melissa couldn't help but smirk at; knowing if Sam was there, she'd wonder what else he'd like.

~*~

"JC?"

Peeking her head inside another doorway's entrance, Melissa couldn't help but sigh in frustration at seeing no signs of the cold-hearted man. Where in God's name are you?

Looking down the hallway, Melissa noted to herself that she had one more room to check in, before her part of the missing person search was over. If you don't want four angry singers after you, I'd suggest that you be in there, Mr. Chasez.

Making her way towards the last room, Melissa got ready to walk back the other way. But fortunately enough she didn't have to. She'd found him.

"JC-" As the older man looked up, from his position at a lone piano bench, with a tear streaked expression on his face, Melissa couldn't help but cut off the rest of her statement.

"Melissa." He replied after a second, his voice confusingly enough void of any of the hatred he'd used when speaking to her before. "You can come in."

After widening her eyes in surprise, Melissa wondered to herself if since JC was acting somewhat nice to her, she should call for help. But after realizing how silly that sounded, the thought was quickly erased from her head and she found herself hesitantly making her way towards where he was seated--sitting down as soon as she got to him.

As a minute passed and they were still seated silently, next to one another, listening to each other breathe, Melissa couldn't help but think, sarcastically to herself: Well, this is nice.

After another couple of seconds, the tense silence got to be too much for Melissa, and before she could stop herself, she heard herself ask, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Without even bothering to look up at the words, JC shook his head. Then after a second, he opened his mouth to speak; much to both his and Melissa's surprise. "Will you..play something for me?"

Absentmindedly widening her eyes in disbelief, Melissa studied the man beside her for a second before saying, "Uhh, sure. Do you have any request?"

As soon as she asked the question, Melissa was surprised to see an amused smirk come across the older man's face. "Anything but Mariah."

If not given the circumstances, Melissa figured she would've laughed at the statement. But instead of doing just that, she instead nodded her head slightly before starting to play the first song that came to her mind. A second too late, realizing just what that said song was. Oh shit.

Unfortunately though, before she could move onto a different song, JC started to sing beside her.

My shattered dreams and broken heart...are mending on the shelf
I saw you holding hands, standing close, to someone else
Now I sit, all alone, wishing all my feeling was gone
I gave my best to you, nothing for me to do
But have one last cry

One last cry
Before I leave it all behind
I've gotta put you out of my mind, this time
Stop living a lie
I guess I'm down to my last cry

I was here, you were there
Guess we never could agree
While the sun shines on you, I need some love to rain on me
Still, I sit all alone, wishing all my feelings were gone
Gotta get over you, nothing for me to do
But have one last cry

One last cry
Before I leave it all behind
I've gotta put you out of my mind, this time
Stop living a lie

I know I gotta be strong...
'Cuz around me, life goes on and on and on, and on..

Knowing that in some sort of strange way, JC needed her to, Melissa continued to play even when the older man's emotions stopped him from continuing to sing for a couple of seconds.

I'm gonna dry my eyes
Right after I finish my one last cry

One last cry
Before I leave it all behind
I've gotta put you out of my mind, for the very last time
Been living a lie
I guess I'm down...I guess I'm down...I guess I'm down...to my last cry

As the end of the song came, Melissa finished the rest of the piano notes. Then immediately afterwards took her hands off the keys; not knowing what else to do now. Wow

Stealing a look at the man beside her, Melissa wasn't that surprised to find his eyes clenched tightly together; proving to her that the older man didn't want her to see the pain or the tears that laid beneath his closed eyelids.

"J-"

Before she could continue, the door to the room opened once again, and Lance stepped inside; furrowing his eyebrows in confusion as he noticed the two in front of him. "Am I interrupting something?"

Adverting her eyes from Lance's confused stare, Melissa silently watched as JC stood up from the bench; not bothering to say anything to either Lance or her as he made his way past the both of them and out into the hallway.

After a second, Melissa sighed slightly; wondering to herself what had just happened and why she, for some reason, found herself wanting to give JC a comforting hug because of it. She was truly confused.

"You okay?"

Looking up, Melissa noticed that Lance was now standing in front of the piano, shooting her a worried gaze, and the first thought that came to her head at seeing this was:

Yeah, but shouldn't you be asking JC the same thing?

**

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 (Eight AM)

With the guys being stuck in interviews all day, and their plane not leaving until around Seven o'clock that night, Melissa planned to spend the entire day cooped up in her hotel room; sleeping her slight worries away.

Unfortunately though, that small plan of hers was cut short as her cell-phone went off; stirring her away from her deep and peaceful slumber--just four hours after the group, from last night, had made it back to their hotel rooms.

"For the love of God, wont they please just let me sleep!" Melissa mumbled to herself; afterwards reaching her hand out and grabbing her cell phone off the bedroom stand. "Hello?"

"Melissa?"

After furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at the voice--which at the moment, she did not recognize--Melissa cleared her throat slightly before saying, "This is her. Who may I ask is calling?"

"Look at you sounding all formal. It's Christina!"

Opening her eyes at this statement, Melissa laughed slightly to herself before saying, "My momma taught me well. Anyway, what's going on? Aren't you supposed to be almost halfway across the State line by now?"

As soon as the question left Melissa's mouth, Christina sighed. During the few brief conversations they had held the night before, she had told the slightly older woman that she was off last night--but starting the next day she'd be back on tour. Which was true, except for one small matter. "Yeah, I am. But the problem is a member of one of the groups, who is opening up for me, got a case of pneumonia last night. Which now means that we're one group short and if I don't find somebody else to fill in the spot by the end of this week, I'll have to postpone most of the dates until a later time."

"Ouch!"

While feeling bad for the younger woman, Melissa wondered to herself how big of a backlash would occur if Christina had to postpone a few gigs. I'm sure it wouldn't be that much. Her fans will understand.

"So, why are you calling me? I mean, it's no problem that you are. But usually when I give someone my phone number they pretty much wait a week for it to settle in their pockets before picking up the phone to dial my number."

Laughing slightly, Christina replied, "I was thinking about doing just that, but that was before this morning when an idea came into my head."

"What kind of idea?" Melissa asked, absentmindedly sitting up on her bed; figuring by the way Christina's voice had taken on a slight mischief tone, she wouldn't be getting back to sleep anytime soon.

"Nothing big, really." Christina began; after a second causing Melissa to practically choke on her tongue when she continued, "Just an offer for you to come out on tour with me."

"Are you serious?" Widening her eyes in disbelief at the female's statement, Melissa had to remind herself to calm down; knowing that it was mostly her lack of sleep that was causing her to act this way. "I mean, don't take this the wrong way....but what you're offering me is career suicide. I barely even have two songs recorded yet, let alone been signed long enough to go on a tour as big as yours. It just isn't right."

"I know." Christina said, barely missing a beat, "You're fresh meat to the industry. But if you think about it, so am I. I mean, sure I've been in the spotlight for a while now but this is my first time headlining a tour and if I blow this in any way, can you imagine what that'll look like to the press? I'll be back in Pittsburgh singing for the Pirates before you can even say the word high note."

Realizing now that Christina wasn't just being overly dramatic, and that the situation she was speaking about could indeed happen, caused Melissa to sigh in frustration before saying, "I don't know. This is just too much, too soon, you know?"

Hearing a slight movement from the other line, Melissa could tell the younger woman was nodding in agreement, so she wasn't that surprised when Christina’s next words were: "Well, one thing I've learned in the last couple of years is that, in the entertainment business, things tend to move fast at all times. One day you're at the top of the game and the next you barely even have enough money to afford a tank of gas. It’s a pretty Shady world to live in, but your going to have to learn how to deal with it to make it into this game."

After pausing to let the words sink in, Melissa sighed to herself once more before saying, "Okay, fine. I'll do it...as a favor to you, but this is only if Lance and my PR representative think it's a good idea. I mean, I personally don't know how this is going to work. I wasn't lying to you when I said I barely even have two songs recorded yet."

"Well, first of all: if push comes to shove and you still don't have a song by Saturday night, you can always borrow one of the three songs on my album that I don't perform much. And, second of all, believe me when I say that you don't even have to worry your pretty little head on whether Lance will let you go out on tour with me or not. 'Cause girl, you wouldn't even believe how many favors that man owes me right now."

Not really knowing if she wanted to know why her manager owed the younger woman the supposed favors, Melissa just slightly smiled before saying, "I'll take your word for it." Causing Christina to laugh slightly before hanging up; replying beforehand that she or Lance would get back to the older woman, before the end of the day, on what their slight agreement had come to.

~*~

A&J Recording Studio (Four Hours Later)

Note to self: When Christina says that she's going to get something done...believe her.

It had only been two hours after Melissa had hung up with Christina when Lance had called; reporting back to her that he thought it'd be a great experience for her to join the younger woman out on tour while, to Melissa's surprise, recording and promoting her debut album at the same time.

An experience that Melissa knew would cause her more stress than anything. But wouldn't allow that small fact to stop her from accepting the deal once more--afterwards practically beaming at the pure knowledge that she'd soon be doing her life goal; which was to sing on stage in front of thousands of people.

My mom's last wish.

"Melissa?"

Snapping out of her thoughts as the familiar voice called her name, Melissa blushed slightly before looking up; automatically locking eyes with Wade as she did so. "Sorry. I spaced out there for a second, what were you saying?"

After smiling, as if to say it was okay, Wade turned his attention back to the large situation at hand. "Christina's tour manager has decided that instead of you starting the tour on Monday, he wants you in North Carolina to open up for Christina on Saturday; meaning we're only going to have three days, instead of five, to work with you on the dance moves."

Even though Melissa knew that it had only taken her less than a day to learn all the moves to Take the rain away, she realized that three days still wouldn't be enough time for her to learn all the words to one song and dance steps to two others. "How am I supposed to juggle that and record Think of you at the same time?"

Figuring she would ask that question sooner or later, Wade smiled slightly before saying: "It's going to take a little work but Giloh and I have come to an agreement that, starting tomorrow, you are to meet with him first thing in the morning, so you aren't out of breath while recording, and then after an hour or two you'll meet with me so we can perfect your dance routines."

After taking in her schedule for the next couple of days, Melissa nodded slightly before saying, "Okay. But what about the third song? I mean, when am I going to learn it..or better yet, when am I going to actually see it?"

While trying hard to conceal the slight amusement he felt at watching the petite woman in front of him unravel a little, Wade bent down and picked up the two objects that sat on the floor next to him; afterwards turning on his personal CD player with the first one and figuring out which songs he and Melissa were to choose from with the latter.

"That's what today is for. Since we're on short time, and Christina is more than willing to go with the idea, we--Giloh and I--figured that instead of having you learn and record a completely new song, we'll just go with one from Christina's CD; making it a little bit easier on you by only asking you to learn the steps and words of the song and not the entire recording track."

Not liking the idea that the two men had made the decision without first asking her what she thought, caused Melissa to slightly frown, but after realizing that she wouldn't have to take more time away from the small amount that they'd been given to prepare, caused Melissa to nod her head slightly, as if to say "Okay."

"All right. Well, if there's no further questions, what do you say we put on our thinking caps and get started?" Wade said, causing Melissa to roll her eyes playfully, before moving closer to him and the CD player; wanting to not only make sure that she got a real feel for the songs that Wade was about to turn on. But also wanting to get a closer inspection as to how much Christina's vocal talent had changed since the last time she'd heard her sing when they were around fourteen. "Okay. The first one's called Obvious."

Not bothering to respond, Melissa nodded slightly before moving her eyes down to the bare floor in front of them; concentrating solely on the soft words and slow melody which were now coming out of the speakers.

Can you hear it in my voice...was it something I let slip...does the whole world know...isn't it obvious..?

After just hearing the first verse, Melissa shook her head; causing Wade to stop the song and ask "Not your speed?"

Shaking her head, as if to say that wasn't it, Melissa replied, "It was a good song, but I don't really think it's me, you know?"

Understanding exactly what she meant, Wade switched to a different track; afterwards saying, "This one's: Love will find a way."

It didn't.

No one ever said that love was gonna be easy...gotta take the ups and downs, the in-betweens. If you take this-

Not even bothering to allow the song to make it towards the chorus, Melissa replied, "I don't think so", causing Wade to once again press stop; afterwards asking her what was wrong with that track.

If only he knew.

"It's just..I don't know." Melissa replied, knowing that she didn't want to come off as a whining bitch but also didn't necessarily want to lay all her garbage, as Sam called it, out on the ground for Wade to pick up. "I've always been taught to practice what you preach. So, I can't see myself singing about staying in a dying relationship, that was probably doomed from the beginning, when I know that is something that I'd never do. It's just not my style."

While staring at the woman in front of him in awe, Wade inwardly wondered to himself if the reason for the brunette feeling this way was because of a past relationship which had gone wrong. But knowing that it wasn't any of his business, he--instead of asking her why she felt this way--flipped to the next track; hoping to get a more positive reaction from Melissa on this song than the previous two. "Here's the final one. I hope you like it."

Me too. Melissa thought to herself, before crossing her fingers together; praying that this would be the one.

It was.

When I think of how life used to be..always walking in the shadows. Then I look at what you've given me...I feel like dancing on my tip toes.

It's perfect.

I must say, every day I wait and realize your by my side. I know, I'm truly..blessed for everything you've given me. Blessed for all the tenderness you showed. Do my best with every breath that's in me. Blessed to make sure you never go.

After waiting until the next verse was over to turn off the song, Wade raised a hopeful eyebrow at Melissa; hoping that her silence meant that she liked the song. "Well...?"

Not bothering to hesitate for a second, Melissa exclaimed that she loved it. All the while, preferring not to admit to the man in front of her that whereas parts of the song reminded her of her mother and of the fact that the older and much wiser woman was somewhere in heaven looking down on her, the other parts of the song caused her to think of Lance; and how he had found her in the nick of time. Just like an answered prayer.

It's so perfect. Melissa thought to herself, once again, as she found herself already coming up with little twists in her head to put into the song. "Just what I was looking for."

While watching as the woman in front of him practically glowed, Wade couldn't help but let out a small grin of his own. "I somehow had a feeling it would be."

Knowing that he was lying, but figuring it'd be impolite if she called him on it, Melissa just rolled her eyes playfully before saying, "Right. If you say so, Wade."

---

Friday, March 24, 2000 (Three days later in Orlando)

If someone was to say that after spending the majority of the last two days recording and cleaning up dance routines in the studio, Melissa would be happy to finally be going out on tour, everyone around her would have to tell them that they were telling everyone else an understatement. Because, at the precise moment, Melissa was ecstatic...to say the very least.

I just hope I didn't forget to pack something.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Lance--who had taken it upon himself to drive Melissa to Jive's second compound, which was where her tour bus was parked waiting for them at the moment--raised a questioning eyebrow before asking, "You sure you have everything you need? Or do you want me to stop somewhere so you can pick up a couple more things?"

Adverting her eyes from the window beside her, Melissa quickly rattled off everything which she remembered packing the night before. Afterwards shaking her head; inwardly telling her manager that his offer wouldn't be necessary.

"Thanks for the offer, but that's okay. I think I got everything I need...but if not, Dani and Kelly went out shopping the other day and bought me back a bag of stuff that they thought every woman should have. So, I guess if I don't have myself covered in some areas, then they do...even though I'm not really sure I want to know which areas they think I need to be covered in, if you know what I mean."

Knowing exactly what Melissa meant, and how far Dani and Kelly would go to make the younger woman blush, caused Lance to chuckle to himself before saying, "Don't worry, I don't think I'd want to know either."

After several more minutes of small conversation--which was as usual--surrounded mostly around the guy's and Melissa's schedule for the next couple of months, Melissa and Lance finally arrived at the West Wing compound; creating a slight sense of disbelief for the younger woman.

"I never thought the day would come when I'd finally be doing what I always wanted to do." Melissa commented, in awe, as soon as she took a step out of Lance's Four runner; causing the older man to turn around and look at her over the top of the car--a slight remembrance grin on his face. "Was this how you felt the first time you started touring?"

While unloading Melissa's bags from the truck, Lance couldn't help but relive the first day that him and the guys had began touring Europe in his mind. "If your asking if I was in awe that day? Then the answer is: Yes. I mean, as a group, the guys and I were in total disbelief at what was going on; having already came to the conclusion a month before then, that maybe our time would never come. But, for me, besides that feeling, I was, excuse my language, scared shitless."

After laughing slightly at the words, Melissa took one of the four bags, that Lance was holding and joined him in step towards where her bus was located halfway across the parking lot.

"To be frank, I thought I was going to wake up stiff as a board with nervousness but actually I'm feeling pretty good right about now. Just a little excited, ya know?"

Knowing exactly what she meant, Lance nodded; afterwards replying: "It's because, as you said before, this is what you've always wanted. And in most people's opinion, there’s absolutely no reason to be nervous once you get it."

After smiling in agreement, Melissa let a small wave of silence pass between her and Lance as they finished the last couple of steps which would put them right in front of her tour bus.

Opening the front door for Melissa, Lance waited until she had one foot inside before saying. "Well, here's your home for the next couple of months, I hope you like it."

Which he knew she would.

Oh my god. While making her way further onto the bus, Melissa's feelings were a mix between shock and surprise as she noticed the rainbow theme that Lance had picked out for her. "How'd you know Rainbows were my favorite shape?"

After placing the two bags of Melissa's that he was holding, on the floor, Lance shrugged; afterwards replying sheepishly: "I didn't. I just knew from a few of your remarks that you were a huge fan of Mariah Carey's and figured what better way to bring you slightly closer to your idol than to fill your tour bus with little rainbows. I know, it's kind of cheesy, but hey, I guess I'm a cheesy kind of guy."

Feelings tears start to well up in her eyes as she looked around the front area of the bus, caused Melissa to push all professionalism aside and wrap her arms around Lance's neck; after a second feeling his arms wrap around her waist--creating a somewhat tight embrace.

"It's not cheesy at all, Lance. It's really beautiful." Melissa said; after a second pulling away from her manager so he could see the honesty which laid in her eyes. "No one's ever done something this thoughtful for me before. Thank you."

After wrapping her arms around him once more--showing him as well as she could how much the simple gesture had meant to her--Melissa couldn't help but stiffen up as she felt a set of eyes staring at her from behind.

What the..?

Turning around, she couldn't keep the blush off her face as she noticed for the first time Chris, Joey, Justin, and JC standing by the back entrance of the bus; shooting her and Lance looks of amusement.

"We aren't interrupting anything are we?"

Trying to hide his own embarrassment, Lance rolled his eyes at Justin; while inwardly telling the guys to knock it off, if not for his sake, then for Melissa's. "For your information, no, you guys weren't interrupting anything. Melissa was just thanking me for the job we did on her bus."

"Don't you mean the job you-" Chris began, but was cut off as Justin slapped the older man on the back of the head; causing him to punch his friend squarely on the shoulder, afterwards screaming: "Shit Curly, what was that for?"

"Your big mouth." Justin replied, while rolling his eyes; afterwards nodding his head in your welcome at the thank you look Lance was throwing at him. "So, you finally ready to rock-n-roll, Melissa?"

Having slightly calmed down from the emotional roller coaster that Lance had put her through when stepping onto the bus, Melissa just politely nodded before replying: "As ready as I'll ever be."

After nodding his head and saying that they understood exactly what she was going through, Lance looked down at his watch to discover that it was going on Eleven o'clock. "Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the guys and I are going to have to get going if we want to make it back to the compound before twelve."

While nodding her head as if to say she understood, Melissa fidgeted slightly; wondering to herself how this slight goodbye was going to go.

Fortunately enough for her, she didn't have to wonder for long as Justin wrapped his arms around her; afterwards mockingly pretending to cry.

"I can't believe you're really leaving us. You were the best date I ever had!"

After slightly smirking in amusement at this comment, Melissa found herself being pulled up off her feet as Justin picked her up by the waist; to her surprise, looking to be having a nervous breakdown, while doing so. "But now you'll be gone! Gone! Baby girl, you'll be gone!"

"Hey! That sounds like a song." Chris yelled, and after almost immediately stopping his movements at the comment, Justin carefully dropped Melissa back down on the ground; afterwards rolling his eyes at Chris, Joey, and Lance as they laughed at him for his actions. "Assholes."

"But you love us assholes, don't you Curly, don't you?" Chris mocked half teasingly, while throwing an arm around the younger male; afterwards getting an elbow in the stomach for all his troubles. "Fine, be that way then!"

While laughing at the playful banter that quickly ensued between the two men in front of her, Melissa couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be how it was when she joined them on their first half of their tour.

Knowing them...probably.

"Anyway..." Chris said, after he placed an arm around Justin's neck; putting the younger man in a loose headlock, "Justin and I probably wont remember to call you for a couple of weeks, so if you need either one of us just call Dani and she'll make sure to fire a match under our asses to get us dialing, got it?"

Knowing how true that statement was, Melissa laughed slightly before nodding slowly; telling Chris that she indeed had gotten it. Afterwards, not bothering to keep the smile off her face, as she watched the two men continue to bicker as they made their way outside of her bus. Their like Frick-n-Frack.

"Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you.." Joey began; snapping Melissa out of her thoughts as he stepped in front of her, "But now that my ride has left me here, you're going to have to take me on the road with you; for more pleasure than business of course."

Having not expected the blunt man in front of her to say that, Melissa couldn't help but feel her cheeks growing crimson red at the moment. I can't believe he just said that.

Noticing Melissa's slight discomfort, Lance rolled his eyes dramatically before yelling "Joey!" Causing the older man to chuckle slightly before saying, "I'm just playing." Afterwards kissing the brunette on the cheek, and telling her not to do anything he would do, before exiting the bus; absentmindedly following the path which Chris and Justin had just taken.

"He meant don't do anything he wouldn't do right?" Melissa asked as soon as the red haired man had taken a step off the bus. Causing Lance to laugh slightly before shaking his head no; telling the woman, in front of him, that Joey had meant just what he'd said. Don't do anything he would do.

"Well.." Lance continued, a slight second after looking at JC, who was also still left on the bus, "I want you to call me tomorrow as soon as you get to the Carolina's, but if you need to talk to me before then I'm probably going to head back home after our rehearsals, so you can just call me there or on my cell, okay?"

Figuring that this would probably be the last time, for a while, that she saw her manager again, Melissa nodded slightly; telling Lance, without words, that she now was feeling somewhat nervous.

"Hey, don't be like that." Lance said, afterwards grabbing Melissa's right hand in his; causing her slight butterflies to ease up a little, "You're going to have fun and do fine out there, I promise."

Even though she wasn't really sure she believed those words, Melissa smiled slightly before nodding reluctantly; afterwards feeling a small part of herself go downcast as Lance squeezed her hand one last time before making his way outside the bus; absentmindedly leaving her alone with JC as he did so.

Oh boy.

While watching him stare at the floor, in front of them, as if he'd rather be anywhere but there at the moment, Melissa inwardly wondered to herself if she should say something; if, at least, to get the slight tension in the room to go away.

Interestingly enough, before she could even think of something to say to the older male, JC opened his mouth; surprising her greatly as he said: "I wasn't going to come. I figured that you probably didn't want to see or speak to me at all; given the few times we've spoken to one another recently. But I just wanted, no..I just needed to see you and say thank you."

Not expecting that to be the words that were going to come out of his mouth, Melissa, instead of saying your welcome, just stared at the man in front of her; willing him to go on with her eyes.

"The other night, I needed someone--anyone really--to just sit with me and keep me company. And I'm sure Lance or one of the other guys probably just told you to find me. But instead of doing just that, you did as I asked and kept me company at one of my most vulnerable moments; all the while leaving it alone when I didn’t want you to probe for details. For that, I thank you."

Still speechless, Melissa watched absentmindedly as JC began walking past her; at the very last second stopping just an inch away to give her a small peck on the cheek--one which caused her eyes to widen in slight disbelief.

Oh my god.

After willing herself to stare at the wall in front of her until after he left, Melissa brought a hesitant hand up to the spot, where JC's lips had just been. Afterwards wondering to herself why it was that when she had looked at him, she saw a small part of herself looking back at her. And also why she suddenly found herself wanting to help the not so cold hearted man mend his apparently broken heart.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

~*~

Four PM

After five hours of sitting on the bus, balancing her time between writing in her journal and wondering what the guys were doing back in Orlando, Melissa found herself starting to get a little restless.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Picking up her cell phone, off the back room table, Melissa quickly dialed a familiar New Orleans number; afterwards smiling slightly when a female's voice was heard on the other end just after the second ring.

"Well, hello stranger, it's so nice to hear from you once again. How is that unfriendly pop world you're living in?"

Having known she'd be greeted with a sarcastic comment, after having not called the woman since before she left to go to New York--at the beginning of the week--caused Melissa to sigh before saying, "It's been like hell on earth without hearing your voice. You forgive me?"

After a second, Sam sighed loudly, aftewards saying that she did--even though Melissa had given her a very weak apology.

"My bad."

Knowing, even over the phone, that something was bothering her friend, Sam asked, "So, what's up? You sound like you've got something big on your mind besides the fact that you haven't called me in exactly one week."

Rolling her eyes at the slight humor, Melissa smirked slightly before saying that she did but didn't really know where to begin. Which caused Sam to shoot back with: "The beginning would be the easiest place to start, I'd think."

After laughing sarcastically at this, Melissa made herself more comfortable on the leather couch--which the driver confessed that Lance had insisted on getting in Red because he heard it was her favorite color--before opening her mouth and spilling to her friend her entire week's events; starting from her meeting with Johnny and Mr. Warden and ending with the conversation the two women were having at that very moment. A tale which had lasted exactly one hour, seeing as how Sam--as usual--kept continuing to interrupt.

"So, what do you think?" Melissa asked, only after one brief pause, "Should I try and stick my nose in JC's business or should I just butt the hell out of it?"

After another few seconds of silence, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows before asking if Sam was there. Afterwards rolling her eyes when Sam responded back with: "I'm still here, I'm just trying to get over the fact that the JC Chasez kissed you. I mean, do you have any idea how many women would probably like to be in your shoes right now? Hell, even though, from what I've heard, he can be a real moody asshole, I still wouldn't mind playing a little tonsil hockey with the ex Mickey Mouser, myself....you don't by any chance have his number, do you?"

Rolling her eyes once again, Melissa sighed slightly before saying, "No, I don't have his number. And your missing the point-"

"Well, when a fine man kisses you, there shouldn't be any other point." Sam interrupted, causing Melissa to have to literally count to ten before asking if Sam could please be serious for once; which caused the other woman to respond with: "Okay! Fine, I will....damn, can't anyone take a joke these days?"

Knowing that the comment had been just that, a joke, to the older woman, Melissa apologized for snapping at Sam; afterwards admitting to herself and the other woman that she was just confused and didn't know what to think of JC's strange behavior towards her or the other guys.

"Well, from what you've told me so far, there's not much to think about. I mean, JC is pretty much suffering from a bad breakup which left him, interestingly enough, jilted into two pieces. And you can stop me if I'm wrong here, but you seem to be going through a recent breakup, also, which left you jilted into two pieces, as well."

At the pause, Melissa kept quiet; inwardly telling Sam that she was right on track.

"Anyway, like I said before I could be wrong about this, but it looks to me that where as, following this breakup, you've pretty much thrown yourself into your career, JC has had so many issues and stress placed on him all at once that all he can do is throw himself into his anger; at the moment getting some sort of sick pleasure by seeing other people more upset then he is. You understand?"

"Yeah, I do." Melissa replied, without the least bit of hesitancy; taking from this conversation things that she hadn't even known she'd been doing. "But can you explain to me why he thanked me earlier?"

"Well, that honey, is the easy part." Sam said, with out so much as a pause. "During the party, you caught him at one of his weakest moments and instead of you trying to baby him or get into his business, like some of the other girls that he seems to hang out with, you instead just flat out asked him if he wanted to talk about it; taking the hint to not pressure him when he told you that he didn't."

Seeing more clearly than she had before, Melissa asked Sam one last question, "If all I had to do was ask him what was wrong to make him become a little nicer to me, then why is it that he seems to be just more aloof to the other guys. I would've thought they'd be the first ones wanting to know what was wrong."

As an air of silence took over the phone, Melissa could tell Sam was trying to put the answer to the question in words that she’d understand.

"All right, fair warning, this might make the other guys sound sort of messed up. But honestly their really not. So, with that being said, the answer to your question is: once you deal with people twenty four/seven, on a regular day basis, one funky mood can start to turn into the next; meaning that some people will possibly stop asking their friends what’s wrong with them over and over again because they figure what’s the point? The other person will probably be in a bad mood for another couple of weeks and then just bounce back to their happy go lucky selves just like they've done so many numerous times before. Understand?"

Finally fully understanding the situation, Melissa couldn’t help but think to herself: So that’s why instead of asking the both of us what was wrong, Lance only asked me; figuring that pissed JC was just being pissed JC. Nothing new about that.

"Wow, you know I never really thought about it like that. Are you sure you didn’t major in Psychology back in college?"

“Please child, if I would’ve majored in that do you think I’d actually still be working in a dump like PJ’s, serving cold coffee to hostile people who don’t even believe in giving you the right amount of tip?”

Seeing her point, Melissa opened her mouth to tell the older woman that she understood what she was saying. But stopped when her phone made a slight buzzing sound; telling Melissa that her battery was about to die out if she didn’t put it on it’s charger soon.

“Well, I hate to cut this conversation short but it looks like my phone’s about to kill it’s self. So, can I call you later?”

After a slight pause, Sam sarcastically asked if Melissa thought she could remember to do so this time; causing Melissa to roll her eyes before apologizing once again. Afterwards telling the accepting female to tell her husband that she said Hi.

A statement which Sam was about to reply with, “Only if you tell your manager I want to lick him." But unfortunately was cut off by Melissa’s phone going dead.

“OOPS.”

***

Saturday, March 25, 2000 (Ten AM)

"Hey! Give that back, Jorge!"

Without even bothering to open her eyes, Melissa--who was still half asleep, at the moment--furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before inwardly asking herself: Who the hell is Jorge?

"Can't do, amigo! Chrissy says she needs her lucky hat in her arms by yesterday."

"Don't you mean: Chrissy says she needs my lucky hat in her arms by yesterday?"

"Same difference."

While rolling her eyes at the playful banter, Melissa realized the male's voices where growing lower; which meant that they were thankfully enough walking away from her hearing range. Thank God.

After waiting for a few seconds, until she couldn't hear anything but the sound of her own breathing, Melissa slid herself further underneath the covers; planning to go back to sleep.

Well, that is, she was planning to go back to sleep, until a thought hit her.

If their are people talking outside, then that must mean....the bus has stopped.

Sitting up quickly at this realization, Melissa winced as her head bumped into the roof of her sleeping bunk. "Dammit."

Sliding out of the small compartment, Melissa made a mental note to herself to sleep on the top bunk from now on; figuring that she'd rather take the chance of falling off the bed during the middle of the night than have to feel the pain of a knot on her forehead each and every single morning after she woke up. Hopefully I'll get to sleep in a real bed soon.

With that thought in mind, Melissa quickly made up her bed, before taking out an--easy to move in--pair of clothes, which Lance had insisted she wear on the first day of tour. Then afterwards--realizing that once she stepped off the bus she might not get the chance to do it again any time soon--she treated herself to a long hot shower; as usual feeling more alive once she stepped out of it than when she stepped in.

Now to go find Christina.

While making her way towards the front of the vehicle, Melissa made sure she had everything she needed before stepping off the bus; accidentally hitting someone with the door as soon as she did so.

"Oh my God!" Melissa quickly exclaimed, after she pulled the door back slightly and noticed a muscular African American man, with his hand on his nose, behind it. "I am so sorry."

While rubbing his nose slightly, the older man held up a hand in front of Melissa's mouth; telling her without words that it was okay. "No need for apologies. You must be Melissa."

Even though she still felt embarrassed for hitting the man in the nose with her door, Melissa couldn't help but furrow her eyebrows in confusion as she politely shook the hand that the older man was offering her. "That is correct, and you are?"

After raising a slow eyebrow, the man sighed slightly before saying, "I'm guessing Lance didn't tell you......I'm Ryan, your new bodyguard."

My new...bodyguard? While looking at the man in front of her with disbelief, Melissa couldn't help but absentmindedly scold herself for not picking up on the fact that the older man was a bodyguard--seeing as though he was somewhat the splitting image of Mike. But do I really need my own Mike?

With that thought in mind, Melissa paused for a second--trying to choose her next words carefully--before saying, "No offense, but is this really necessary? I mean, no one even knows who I am yet, so why do I need a bodyguard?"

As soon as the words had came out of her mouth, Melissa had a feeling those hadn't been the words Ryan wanted to hear. And as he continued to stare down at her after a full second, she immediately knew they hadn't been the words he had wanted to hear.

"Miss Alano, you'll have to excuse me for being frank, but you are one of the most talked about people in entertainment news this week. Your face has already been on: Access Hollywood, MTV news, E. Entertainment, and did I mention Fox! Live? Your quick thinking and little saving routine, at the boy's album release party, has got you being one of Nsync's fans top female artist of the year. And, if you haven't noticed all ready, while this is all going down, the public and media still haven't even heard you sing yet!"

"So, now while keeping that all in mind, can you please ask me once again why I think it is necessary for you to have me as your bodyguard?"

Stunned speechless, Melissa couldn't do anything but blush crimson red before opening her mouth and then quickly shutting it right afterwards. What has Lance got me into?

Realizing by the look on the younger woman's face, that Melissa was now too scared to say anything, caused Ryan to shoot her a friendly smile before saying: "Now that we've got that all out of the way, would you like to go inside and see what's going on? Your schedule says that your sound check wont be for another two hours, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt anything for you to watch everyone else's before it's time to go on."

After thinking about it for a second and coming to the conclusion that she really didn't want to go against her bodyguard once more today, Melissa nodded absentmindedly to herself, before saying "Okay." Quickly afterwards following the slightly larger man towards the stage.

Wow.

If Melissa had been stunned speechless after being told off by Ryan, then once she entered the Charlotte Coliseum, she figured she'd been stunned....well, speechless.

The scene in front of her was like nothing she had ever imagined.

Technicians were moving from one side of the arena to the other side of the arena; putting last minute touches on things she couldn't even describe. And very flexible dancers were all over the stage; putting to good use the moves they had all learned in, what she figured, was gymnastics.

This is unbelievable. While continuing down the rows of aisles with Ryan--surprisingly enough--not by her side, Melissa couldn't help but think in awe, Am I really supposed to be here?

Interestingly enough, that thought was soon erased from her mind as a familiar voice was soon heard screaming: "Hey Melissa! It's about time you woke up, sleepyhead."

While blushing slightly at the attention she got from the comment, Melissa looked further up on the stage to find Christina in the middle of the dancers, grinning down at her proudly.

I see some things haven't changed. She still loves being the center of attention.

With that thought in mind, Melissa continued making her way down the aisle--preparing to situate herself in the front row--so she could watch the rest of Christina's sound check. But oddly enough before she could even make it there, Christina called out to her: "Hey, why don't you come on up here, so I can introduce you to some of my dancers."

Seeing as though Christina was supposed to be having a sound check at the moment, Melissa opened her mouth to say, I don't think that's such a good idea. But after noticing the reassuring look her friend was giving her at the moment and feeling Ryan's comforting hand on her shoulder--giving her a slight go ahead push from behind--Melissa could only sigh slightly to herself before making her way down the rest of the aisle and up the stairs to where Christina and her dancers were standing.

"It's about time you got here." Christina joked, playfully, before turning her attention back towards her dancers; and pointing each and every one of them out for Melissa. "Guys, I'd like to introduce you to, Melissa, one of my old friends, and newest opening acts....Melissa, I'd like for you to meet some of my back up dancers: This is Shawnette, Alexis, Xan, and last but not least, my boyfriend Jorge."

After shaking hands with the people who offered theirs to her--and telling each and every last one of them that it was nice to meet them--Melissa lifted her hand for Jorge to shake, but was slightly taken aback, when instead of him shaking it, he turned her hand over; placing his lips gently on the top of her knuckles.

"Believe me, the pleasures all mine."

While blushing slightly, Melissa could only smile. Then afterwards take her hand back from Jorge and nod slightly as Christina practically squealed, "Aint he a keeper?"

Yes, and a fresh one at that.

As Christina continued to gush over her boyfriend, Melissa couldn't help but move her eyes towards the band behind her and then towards the row of seats in front of her. I still can't believe this is real.

After a few more seconds of moving her eyes around the arena, Melissa turned back towards Christina--who was now studying her with a knowing expression on her face, "When we were kids and used to perform in front of our stuffed animals, did you ever think that one day you'd actually be standing up here; performing in front of crowds of people?"

Knowing exactly where Melissa was coming from, caused Christina to not even have to think about it for a second before quickly replying: "Honestly...no. I mean, I knew I'd be somewhere singing, probably overseas near my dad. But it never really hit me that I would be nineteen years old, going state to state, singing for millions of people, while headlining my very own first tour. The thought never even crossed my mind."

"But for you, it's a different story." After raising an eyebrow in confusion at her friend's last statement, Melissa began encouraging Christina--with her eyes--to go on. "Girl, you know you got it! Even when we were kids, you had it. The songs we'd sing, if they weren't on the radio, they were songs you made up in your head. From beats to lyrics, you did it all. And just from being in this business for a little while, I can honestly tell you that that is something a lot of people can't do. You were and still are a natural."

After taking in what Christina was saying and blushing slightly at the last comment, Melissa couldn't help but say: "You haven't even heard me sing in over six years. So, how can you say I still have it?"

Knowing that Melissa was right, and that she didn't know if the woman in front of her still had it or not, caused Christina to raise both eyebrows--in a slightly challenging position--before telling Jorge to pass her a mic.

"That one?" Jorge asked, pointing a finger towards a small microphone which was sitting by itself on top of a black piano stand.

Not seeing any other microphone lying around caused Christina to roll her eyes before saying, "Yes, that mic, stupid ass."

An endearment which caused Jorge to--interestingly enough--reply back with an, "I love you too," before throwing the microphone Christina's way.

"All right, you've got my attention." Christina replied, after catching the microphone in her right hand, and turning towards Melissa; handing the brunette the lone object. "Now, let me hear you."

After staring at Christina's smug, yet reassuring grin, for a couple of seconds and inwardly scolding herself for opening her big mouth, Melissa nodded slowly before bringing the microphone up to her lips, and letting out in a cappella version:

You and I must make a pact, we must bring salvation back......where there is love, I'll be there. I'll reach out my hand to you, I'll have faith in all you do.....just call my name...and I'll be there.

As Melissa got into the song, that she knew like the back of her hand, she unknowingly began proving to Christina and everyone else in the auditorium that, not only did she still have it, but she also knew what to do with it.

---

(Seven PM)

"Curtains in ten."

Looking up from where she was seated, at her dressing room table, Melissa couldn't help but give Ryan her best deer caught in headlights impression, before replying in a slightly nervous tone of voice: "That soon?"

"I do believe so."

After a second of watching the woman in front of him, nervously rake her fingers through her slightly done up hair, Ryan smiled reassuringly before saying. "If you just relax, I promise you, it'll be over before you even know it."

A statement which caused Melissa to wait until her bodyguard had left her dressing room--closing the door behind him--before mumbling, "That's what I'm afraid of."

After a few more seconds of studying herself in the mirror, Melissa closed her eyes tightly and said a short prayer of strength. Then after opening her eyes, Melissa slowly stood up, pulling at the church robe--that was over her clothes--self consciously, before looking up at the ceiling; whispering: "This ones for you, Mom."

~*~

While making her way out of the dressing room, Melissa couldn't help but bite her lip slowly while fighting back the nauseous feeling she was suddenly getting.

I can do this..I can do this. She inwardly repeated to herself, as she placed one foot in front of the other.

But as soon as Melissa reached the hallway--which would lead her to the stage--and heard the growing sounds of cheers coming from the crowd outside, she couldn't help but think to herself: I can't do this..theirs no way I can do this.

After closing her eyes tightly--something she was used to doing when she began to feel herself growing very nervous--Melissa willed herself to keep going. And after a second of slight prayer, she opened her eyes and continued down the hallway; accidentally bumping into someone just as she turned the corner to head out on stage.

Lucky me, twice in one day!

"Oh my god, I am-" Before Melissa could even get out her next words, she couldn't help but stop speaking and begin slowly smiling as she saw who it was that she had bumped into. "Lance! What are you doing here?"

While chuckling slightly at the surprised look on the brunette's face, Lance replied, in a knowing tone of voice, "Did you really think we'd get you this far and not be there on your first night out?"

Having indeed thought that, caused Melissa to blush slightly before shooting her manager a questioning stare. Whose we?

Unfortunately though, just as Melissa was about to ask the question outloud, a stage manager walked by telling her that she had exactly five minutes before she was slated to go on.

Thanks for the reminder.

Feeling a whole set of butterflies quickly take over her stomach, Melissa couldn't help but close her eyes tightly.

And after noticing this and the fact that she was starting to grow pale, Lance quickly brought a hand up to Melissa's face; bringing her line of vision back towards him. "Hey, it's going to be okay. You're going to do fine out there, all right?"

After staring into Lance's reassuring eyes, Melissa nodded slightly before telling herself that it was just her nerves playing tricks on her and that she would do just as her manager had said.

"You'll still be here after it's over, right?"

Without even bothering to hide it, Lance couldn't help but smile slightly at the question before replying in a neutral tone of voice: "Yeah, I'll be watching from the V.I.P area, but I'll be in your dressing room as soon as your performance is over, okay?"

While nodding slightly, Melissa inwardly wrestled with the idea, of hugging her manager, before mentally telling herself: Oh, what the heck and throwing her arms around Lance's neck. "You don't know how much you being here means to me. Thank you."

After a few seconds of returning the hug, Lance replied, "Theirs no need to thank me." Before pulling back slightly, and kissing Melissa on her cheek; causing a small blush to take over the petite woman's face.

"Miss. Alano..we need you on stage."

Nodding slightly, Melissa waited until the stage manager had walked away once again before turning back to her manager and saying, "I guess this is it."

While nodding as well, Lance replied, "Yeah it is...so how about you go out there and break a leg or two."

A statement which caused Melissa to laugh slightly before turning away from the older man and beginning to make her way towards the small group of dancers.

The small group of dancers who were waiting for her.

~*~

Here goes nothing.

Approaching the center of the dark stage, Melissa couldn't help but bite her lower lip as she felt her nerves starting to kick back in.

While looking out on to the floor of the auditorium, at the thousands of people who were waiting for her to do or say something, she couldn't help but bite her lip harder and then almost close her eyes in panic as her hands started to sweat and her heart began to beat faster. Please mom, help me out here.

After a brief second of waiting, Melissa felt a small push from behind and instantly knew that her mom was there with her, in spirit. Thanks, Mom.

Turning her head slightly, Melissa locked eyes with Kevin, the pianist, who she had just met a few short hours ago, and gave him a slight hand signal; one which told him that she was now ready to go.

After a brief pause, Kevin quickly began to play and Melissa--whose nerves were slowly fading away--began to sing; all the while inwardly telling her mother that, not only was this one for her, but they all were for her.

All I gotta do is think of you and that keeps me from a feelin' blue
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine...

oh baby, baby, baby

Before I open my eyes, you're already on my mind
And when I think of you, thoughts of you keep away the blues, oh

As the house lights went up, and she got a good look at some of the people's faces in the crowd, Melissa couldn't help but smile slightly as she realized they were all cheering her on.

All I gotta do is think of you and that keeps me from a feelin' blue
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine.

All I gotta do is think of you, I hope you be thinking of me too
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine.

I dream of you at night, I can't sleep unless you're on my mind
I never ever get the blues, because of the love I get from you
all I want to do..

All I gotta do is think of you and that keeps me from a feelin' blue
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine.

All I gotta do is think of you, I hope you be thinking of me too
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine.

I'm so glad you're mine, I'm so glad you're mine
I'm so glad you're mine, I'm so glad you're mine
I'm so glad you're mine..

All I gotta do...

All I gotta do is think of you and that keeps me from a feelin' blue
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine.

All I gotta do is think of you, I hope you be thinking of me too
I think about you all the time, you really blow my mind, and I'm so glad you're mine.

As the music to Think of you began to die down, Melissa couldn't help but laugh slightly to herself as she heard some people in the crowd continue to sing the chorus. They must really like the song.

Without even bothering to wait for Kevin to get off stage, Melissa began her practiced greeting to the crowd, "Helloooo North Carolina, how is everyone doing out there tonight?"

While listening to the--mostly female--pitched screams, Melissa couldn't help but thank God that she had remembered to put on the set of ear plugs that came with her pair of ear monitors. If their like this now, I can only imagine how they are going to be when Christina gets out here.

"I'm glad to hear that....but before I can continue on with the show, I have to be honest with you guys and tell you that tonight is my very first time performing in an arena this packed. But because I knew that each and every one of you out there was going to help make this a good experience for me, I figured I might as well make this a rather interesting experience for you."

With that being said, Melissa took off the church robe she was wearing; exposing to the crowd her wardrobe which consisted of a pair of black stretch pants and a matching black T-shirt with the words, Don't get mad...get even written on it.

"You guys liked that, didn't you?" Melissa joked, causing a few chuckles to be heard from out in the audience, "All right. Well, enough of me talking. The next song I'm going to perform for you guys sort of goes with this shirt, because it's about a girl who just wants her man.... to take the rain away."

After getting in the same position that her three back up dancers were in, Melissa waited for the music--that she now knew beat by beat--to begin, before starting to perform the dance moves that Wade and Justin had taught her to do; noticing after a few seconds, that whereas before she was relying on her anger, with JC, to get her through the movements, she was now relying on the strength of her mother to do so.

And she could tell the crowd wasn't noticing any difference; as they were singing right along with her on the chorus after the third time around.

~*~

"Whew...is it hot in here or is it just me?" Melissa slightly joked as she finished up Take the Rain Away, and put herself in the position for Blessed. "I don't know about all of you out there, but I really had a good time being out here on stage talking and singing with all of you. So, with that in mind, if you guys could just bare with me for a couple more minutes, I'd like to perform for you one more song; which--even though I'm going to put my own twist on it--solely belongs to Miss. Aguilera."

Melissa's question before of what the crowd would sound like when Christina came out was soon answered as, just from the mention of Christina's name, the group of people in front of her began to yell and scream louder than she had ever heard before. Damn!

"All right...hit it boys."

~*~

As Blessed slowly began to dye down, Melissa smiled once more at the crowd before saying, "Well that's it! That's my last song for the night. Thank you for welcoming me to your town and thank you for being such a wonderful audience. Goodnight."

With that being said, Melissa made a slight waving gesture to the audience before running off the stage and practically floating down the hall.

I can't believe I just did that.

After smiling shyly at her bodyguard and the few technicians who were standing by the doorway of her dressing room--giving the younger woman a small ovation--Melissa couldn't help but blush slightly as Ryan, first, took her ear plugs and body monitor off of her before saying, "You did good, kid."

"Thank you."

Waiting until after every one had started getting back to what they were doing--before she had interrupted them--Melissa continued making her way towards her dressing room; frowning slightly when instead of finding Lance waiting for her inside, she instead found someone else.

"JC?"

"JC..."

After his name had left her mouth, the two continued to stare at one another for what felt like hours but really was only a few brief seconds.

What's he doing here?

Feeling more than confused at the moment, Melissa opened her mouth to ask her thought outloud, but was quickly cut off as JC began speaking at the same time.

"Mel-" "JC-"

After slightly laughing at the small incident, JC extended his hand out in front of him a little; mentally telling Melissa that she should go first.

If that's the way you want it. Melissa inwardly thought to herself, before quickly asking: "What are you doing here?"

Having known that she was probably going to ask him that question, caused JC to first clear his throat slightly--and look down at the floor between the two of them--before mentally trying to think of where he should start.

Probably from the beginning, dumbass.

"I...I wanted to apologize to you. I've been acting like a complete ass these last couple of weeks. And not only has it been very unprofessional of me, business wise, but it's also been very rude of me, personal wise. You didn't deserve any of that.....so I'm sorry."

Not wanting the slightly older male in front of her to see how shocked his apology had made her caused Melissa to quickly nod her head in understanding, before saying in a somewhat nonchalant tone of voice: "Apology accepted."

Even though he was somewhat surprised that she had accepted his apology so quickly, JC couldn't help but let out a huge sigh of relief before absentmindedly shoving his hands into his front side pockets. "Well, I guess I'd better be--"

"Tell me what's wrong!"

The words had slipped out of her mouth before Melissa could even stop them; surprising her and JC as well.

If I didn't make him mad before, then I defiently did now.

After a second of staring at one another in slight shock, JC let out a small chuckle before saying: "Theirs nothing wrong. I'm fine."

Even though she really didn't know the older man that well and he really didn't owe her any type of explanation, the fact that JC was now lying to her caused Melissa to roll her eyes in annoyance before softly replying, in a somewhat determined voice: "Anything that is said here, never leaves this room. You have my word."

After waiting a couple of seconds for any sign that JC would tell her what was going on, Melissa sighed slightly and began to open her mouth to say forget it. But interestingly enough before she could do so, JC began talking.

"A few weeks ago, before the guys and I went on vacation, I suspected my ex-girlfriend's boss was trying to put the moves on her. And after confronting her about it a couple of times, she got fed up with my accusations and said that I was just being an overprotective jealous boyfriend...which, as you could probably guess, started a huge fight between the two of us that lasted for weeks and ended up with us both walking out on one another during each argument."

After nodding her head in understanding, Melissa stayed completely silent as she watched JC get his words together.

"Well, uh, anyway I guess it was the day before we all came back from vacation when I dropped by her office unannounced--wanting to surprise her for lunch--but unfortunately was the one being surprised when I walked in on her boss trying to kiss her and her trying to pull away--immediately afterwards, telling him that she had a boyfriend, and that that was the last time she was going to tell him that; informing me that I had been right about my suspicions all along."

From the tone in his voice and the snide comments that he had been making towards everyone since she'd met him, Melissa could tell this story didn't conclude with a happy ending. "So, what happened?"

Without bothering to move his eyes away from the carpet floor, in front of them, JC shrugged slightly before saying: "She came over later that night acting like nothing had happened and I just snapped. I told her what I had seen in her office and asked her how the hell could she just look me in the eye and act like nothing was going on when her boss was pretty much sexually harassing her all along. And after taking in what I was saying and figuring out that there was no point in lying about it, she told me that the only reason she didn't tell me the truth before was because my insecurities had gotten to be so bad that I started stalking her..which obviously led to another fight."

Damn!

"So, I'm guessing after that you two broke up?"

After nodding his head in agreement, JC replied: "She said she couldn't deal with the fact that I didn't trust her anymore. And I told her that I couldn't deal with the fact that she was willing to keep dealing with his shit just because she was afraid of the repercussions of turning him in. She had no backbone."

Sounds like it.

Even though she knew she should just take what he was offering her, Melissa couldn't help but ask after a second: "So, what's changed since then?" Causing JC to smirk slightly before saying: "Everything."

"That night at the party before you came to find me, I had seen him kiss her and she hadn't pulled away, which I at first thought meant it was definetly over between us. But then when I got back to my hotel room that night, she was in there crying....and I don't know. We just had a moment together. She told me that it had gotten worse once we'd broken up and that her boss had practically threatened to fire her if she didn't atleast pretend to be his girlfriend and sleep with him."

Pervert.

"After that she told me she hadn't slept with him but had made him think that she would if he'd take her to our party as a date. She said she was hoping that she could atleast sneak away from him, for a second, and talk to me about it. But when she didn't get a chance to, she feigned sick and asked to be dropped back off at her hotel. Interestingly enough not making it there, because while in the limo, he tried to put the moves on her and Bobbie ended up punching him in the nose; losing her job but gaining the pleasure of seeing him literally in tears because of a broken nose."

"Good for her!" Melissa cheered, before she could stop herself; causing JC to chuckle a little in agreement. "So, I'm guessing by this new change in attitude that you two are back together?"

With a slight smile still on his face, JC replied: "No. Soon, but not right now. First, we just want to take things slowly and try to start over. You know, get rid of all of the insecurities and lack of communication we have with one another."

Feeling as if that was a good idea, Melissa smiled slightly before commenting that she hoped it worked out for them; inwardly adding to herself, afterwards, that if not for their sake then for hers.

Like the guys, I can only take so much of pissed off JC before I want to kill him myself.

With that thought in mind, Melissa smirked slightly to herself, before deciding that whereas she didn't mind talking to JC about his problems, she still wanted to talk to her manager about the performance she'd just done--and ask him if it was always going to be just as big of an emotional high as it was for her that night.

"So, where's Lance? He was supposed to meet me in here after the show."

After smiling slightly at the subject change, JC replied: "I told him that I wanted to talk to you in private for a minute or two, so him and Justin are out there by the V.I.P area, baby-sitting Joey and Chris, while signing autographs for miscellaneous fans...we should probably go out there and rescue them."

After slightly smirking in agreement, Melissa grabbed the towel--that Ryan had no doubt left for her--off her dressing room stand and quickly began wiping the small beads of sweat--that had came across her face during her performance--off of her forehead. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Smirking slightly, JC led Melissa out of her dressing room and then after almost a second of comfortable silence between the two, JC replied: "You know if I didn't say it before, I think Lance really knew what he was doing when he signed you. You impressed the hell out of me tonight."

Without even bothering to conceal her surprise and slight embarrassment at that comment, Melissa blushed slightly before replying weakly:

"Thanks...I'm glad you liked it."

---

April 7, 2000 (Los Angeles, CA)

Two weeks after her first performance, Melissa finally found herself starting to get the hang of juggling her tour schedule and recording her upcoming debut album at the same time--when FreeLance and Jive Records decided to throw one more curve-ball at her:

Photo shoots.

"So, when you get to the studio, Roy will probably be out front waiting for you. But if not then his secretary most definetly will be and she'll take you and Christina to where they've set up everything at....And, just so you know, I've already asked him how many photos he thinks he'll need of you and he said that because you're only scheduled to have eleven songs on your CD, he'll take about twenty of you: putting one of them on the front, one of them on the back, and then a couple of them on the inside of your CD's booklet cover. The rest will probably just be added to your website or be given to you, if you want them, that is."

After nodding her head in understanding, even though Lance couldn't see her, Melissa playfully stuck her tongue out at Christina who was crossing her eyes at her in amusement.

"Anyway, I guess since that about covers everything I needed to discuss with you today, I should let you go. But, before I do so, even though this might make me sound slightly repetitive, I still want to say that I am really sorry for not being able to come out there and help you out today. It's just with the tour coming up next month, it's becoming harder and harder to even think, let alone, try to fly out of Orlando every now and then to see how things are going with you. You know what I mean?"

Having heard the same thing from Chris and Justin, who had called the night before to wish her luck on her first photo shoot, Melissa moved her attention towards the window beside her, afterwards saying: "Yeah, I know what you mean...but it's really okay, Lance. I mean....you've done so much for me already: you put up with me when I literally screamed at you like a lunatic. You helped me make my dream of singing on stage, in front of a real audience, come true. And you even helped me through it when I had stage fright a couple of weeks ago. Compared to all of those things, this photo shoot is probably nothing but a breeze..and something that I wouldn't even do if Christina wasn't sitting here making me go."

After slightly laughing at her last comment and taking in what the younger woman was saying, Lance finally replied: "All right..I understand and promise never to apologize for my schedule ever again."

"Thank you." Melissa replied, afterwards letting Lance hear her mock sigh of relief. "Now, if you'll excuse me I think that's the studio up ahead, so I'm going to have to let you go."

While laughing once again, Lance replied: "All right, I can take a hint." Before saying his good-byes and hanging up with the petite brunette.

"You know, I wonder sometimes whose suppose to calm the other one down..me or him?"

After slightly laughing at the comment, Christina replied: "He's just trying to make sure he doesn't fail you as a manager and as a friend. I think it's sweet."

While placing her cellphone back into her purse, Melissa shrugged nonchalantly before replying: "I guess I'd think so to, if I was like you, and got to see another side of Lance, that wasn't so business like."

Even though she knew exactly what Melissa was talking about, Christina couldn't help but slyly smirk in amusement before letting out a comment, which caused Melissa to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

"Well, like the quote says..you better be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing.." Christina retorted, innocently, before turning her attention back towards the window beside her; after a second mumbling: "Just an observation."

~*~

(A half-n-hour later)

"All right..the lighting is set, the green screen is up, and now the only thing I need to know is if that's the outfit you want to wear. If not, then my assistant and I would be more than willing to try and find you something else to put on."

Without even bothering to go back in the dressing room and look in the full screen mirror which Mr. Zipstein had made her model in front of a couple of minutes ago, Melissa politely began to decline. "I don't think that'll be necessary. I like this outfit. I think it suits me."

After taking another look at the bright red sweater and blue jean attire that the petite woman in front of him was wearing, Roy couldn't help but begin slightly nodding his head in agreement. Figuring by his earlier conversation with the woman and the few snippets of conversation that he'd heard between her and her friend, Christina, that the outfit she was wearing at the moment fitted her personality to a T.

It screams that even though she's a good looking girl, she still is down to earth and is very easy to talk to....kids are going to be eating up this CD left and right.

With that thought in mind, Roy quickly clapped his hands, getting the attention of the few people who were standing around him. And then after a second, he smiled slightly before replying that he thought it was time for the show to begin.

"Hmm, and I thought it had already started." Melissa quietly mumbled to herself, causing Christina who was standing beside her to giggle slightly.

"Aww, don't worry, this will be a piece of cake if you just go up there and pretend that your anywhere else but here."

"Gee, thanks." Melissa replied sarcastically, before making her way towards the green screen that Roy had sit up for her; all the while ignoring the small giggles that were coming out of Christina's mouth.

I'm going to get both her and Lance for this.

"All right, I want the first couple of photos of you to be kind of laid back. So, Melissa, if you could just take a seat on the floor in front of the green screen we can begin."

Figuring that those orders were simple enough, Melissa quickly got into the position that Mr. Zipstein had asked her to and then smiled slightly as the older man began taking the photos. This could be fun.

"Okay, lovely, now pout your lips seductively while inwardly saying cheese."

Or maybe not.

~*~

After posing in front of the camera for almost two and a half hours, Melissa couldn't help but sigh with relief when Roy finally called it a wrap.

Thank God!

"Melissa, you were great! I'd love to work with you again anyday....now, go get changed and meet me back here in ten minutes. I should have your pictures ready for you by then."

With that being said, Melissa watched as the photographer quickly walked away; nonchalantly shouting over his shoulder for someone to turn on the radio while he did so.

"Either I'm getting old or that man really needs to switch to decaf."

After slightly laughing at the comment, Melissa turned away from Roy's quickly fading away figure and hit Christina, who had said the comment, with an amused smirk. "Judging by the fact that I'm a few months older than you and don't consider myself to be old I definetly am going to have to say that it's the latter and that he also needs to lay off on the Xanax, if you know what I mean."

"Touche." Christina replied in amusement, before beginning to follow the petite woman towards her dressing room; interestingly enough stopping just as she got a few feet in front of it. "Melissa..."

With one hand on the sheet that separated the dressing room area from the rest of the room, Melissa turned her attention back towards Christina; who was staring at her with an amused smirk on her face. "What?"

After rolling her eyes at the older woman's obliviousness, Christina gently tugged on the brunette's ears causing Melissa to first look at the other woman in confusion before suddenly growing surprised.

"Oh my god...."

Kiss the rain drops on my face, only you can take me from this place
On a cloud let's ride away, we can disagree another day...

"Their playing your song.."

"On the radio." Melissa added, after a second; causing Christina to practically squeal before throwing her arms around the smaller woman.

"Oh my god, you did it, girl! You got yourself on the radio."

Too stunned to even move, Melissa could only let the other woman hug her as she listened in shock to the radio station's version of Take the rain away and then to the radio DJ's brief words afterwards.

"This is Jo-Jo Wright from 102.7's KIIS-FM and that was Melissa Alano with Take the rain away. Now, I usually don't like to express my opinion on some of these pop-artists that try and pretend to be singers. But if any of you guys out there saw Miss. Alano on Access Hollywood a couple of weeks ago. Or got the chance to see her perform last night at the Universal Amphitheater, then you guys will know what I mean when I say that that she-devil of a woman is on fire. I'm telling you, her debut single hit airwaves last night and it's been blowing up our request line for almost twenty-four hours. So, Melissa if you're still in Los Angeles and are listening out there, we at 102.7 would like to congratulate you for actually being a pretty kick ass singer. Rock on with your bad self."

I can't wait to call Sam and Lance.

April 22, 2000 (Phoenix, Arizona)

"So, did I tell you where Tony's taking me tomorrow night?"

Without bothering to open her eyes, Melissa sunk further down on the couch and replied: "No, but I get the feeling that you're about to."

"You know me too well!" Sam replied, with a hint of amusement in her voice. "But anyway, back to my gloating......tomorrow night while you're singing and dancing in front of millions of people, Tony and yours truly will be sweating it up at The Bombay club."

The Bombay club?

Before Melissa could even ask what that was, Sam quickly replied: "And for those of us who haven't been in New Orleans for almost two months now: The Bombay club is a new hot spot that just opened up down the street from PJ's. It's supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Live entertainment. Free drinks. And did I mention...a different DJ every night."

After frowning slightly at the fact that someone had finally opened up a new club in New Orleans, just when she had gotten out of the small town, Melissa replied: "So, why am I just hearing about this now? I mean, I would've thought you'd have already scooped out the place and given me a full run down on it the first night it opened."

"Damn, you make me sound like such a gossip hound!" Sam replied, in a mock annoyed tone. But then after a second she added: "But you're right. I probably would've done just that....had I not just heard about the place yesterday from a girl at work."

Without bothering to hold it in, Melissa slightly giggled at her friend's comment. But then had to immediately control herself as a beep sounded over the phone; telling her someone was on the other line.

"Hold on."

Removing the phone from her ear, Melissa took a quick look at the caller ID screen and sighed slightly when she saw that it was Lance on the other line.

Business beats pleasure.

With that being her last thought, Melissa quickly brought the phone back to her ear and replied: "Sam, I got to go...it's Lance. Can I call you back later?"

Without so much as a pause, Sam quickly replied: "All right..but try and call me back tomorrow. I'm going to go find Tony and try to start my wifely duties early this evening."

After jokingly wincing at the comment, Melissa retorted: "Thanks for the image." Causing Sam to cackle slightly before replying: "You know you liked it."

A comment which caused Melissa to respond back with a slightly amused: "Whatever" before saying her good-byes and clicking over to the next line: "Hello...Lance?"

"Hey, you're there. I was just about to leave you a voice mail."

"But instead you get to talk to me in person...lucky you." Melissa retorted jokingly, causing Lance to slightly chuckle on the other end. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing really. I was just calling to see how everything was going out there with you."

After sitting up on the couch that had quickly became her favorite resting spot, Melissa waited until she had stretched a little before saying: "Everything's going as good as it possibly could get. We had a little setback earlier today when my microphone went out and the music to Blessed kept skipping. But besides that..their hasn't been anything that I really couldn't handle."

"That's good." Lance replied, with a slight hint of mischief in his voice. "But now I'm not too sure if my news for you is good news or bad news."

News?

While furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, Melissa replied: "Well, how about you tell me what it is and then I'll help you decide if it's good or bad."

After chuckling slightly, Lance replied: "Fair enough....the news is that I just got off the phone with Giloh and he says that you and him have been working so hard on your album that he thinks that after tomorrow you'll have completed your very first CD two weeks ahead of schedule."

Barely able to contain her surprise, Melissa had to take a deep breath before saying: "What-what does that mean?"

Knowing that Melissa was just as excited as he was caused Lance to chuckle slightly before saying: "It means that in two weeks you'll be switching from the My reflection tour to our No Strings attached tour. And it also means that in a few weeks you'll be shooting your very first video."

My very first.....video?

Without even meaning to, Melissa let out a high pitched scream that caused Lance to outwardly cringe and her bodyguard Ryan to practically race onto the bus.

"Melissa...what's wrong?"

After slightly blushing in embarrassment, Melissa calmly replied: "My CD will be finished tomorrow. I'm switching tours in two weeks."

A comment which caused Ryan to dramatically roll his eyes in amusement before uttering a sarcastic Congratulations.

"Melissa..you still there?"

Without even bothering to watch as Ryan made his way back outside her bus, Melissa replied: "Yeah..sorry. Now, what were you saying before I blew out your ear drum?"

After chuckling slightly, Lance replied: "I was saying that even though your album may be finished tomorrow, the time your album comes out will defiently depend on what Mr. Weiss thinks about it and also how soon you can complete your thank-you's."

Thank-you's?

Even though she really wasn't sure what Thank-you's Lance was talking about, Melissa quickly replied: "Oh..well, I just hope Mr. Weiss likes what he hears. Giloh and I have been really working hard on it these last couple of weeks."

Without even bothering to pause for a second, Lance responded back with: "I know..but hey, don't worry about it. Johnny and I have listened to almost every track on your CD so far. And not only do we love it. But we also know what Mr. Weiss likes and are almost one hundred percent positive that he's going to love what's on that album as well.....I promise you that."

After sighing slightly and replying back with: "I guess you're right." Melissa couldn't help but think to herself:

But that's easy enough for you to say..you already have two albums out.

~*~

A half-n-hour after getting off the phone with Lance, Melissa found herself en route to Christina's bus; journal in hand.

"Are you sure that Christina's in there?"

Without even bothering to think about it, Ryan replied: "I'm not saying that she is, but she should be. Her soundcheck ended about fifteen minutes ago. But for all I know, her and that little miniature Romeo of hers, could be out painting the town red by now."

After slightly laughing at the comment, Melissa directed a look of amusement her bodyguards way: "Do I detect a small hint of jealousy coming from your direction?"

"Ha! That'll be the day." Ryan sarcastically quipped, before stepping in front of Christina's bus and opening the door for the petite brunette. "I'll just wait out here for you."

"Oh, I just bet you will." Melissa jokingly replied, before throwing an I'm just kidding look over her shoulder and entering the slightly large vehicle. "Christina?"

"Back here!"

After following the sound of the woman's voice towards the back of the bus, Melissa couldn't help but grow slightly red as she walked up on Christina laid out on the back-seat of her bus--with her boyfriend Jorge literally underneath her. "Umm, should I come back at another time?"

Without even bothering to pay attention to her boyfriend's protest, Christina quickly stood up and replied: "No, you're fine. Jorge was just about to leave anyway."

"I was?" Jorge asked, with a slight hint of confusion in his voice. And after rolling her eyes at the older man's question, Christina replied: "Yes, you were. 'Cause I'm in no mood to put up with any whining tonight just because you got yelled at for being late for a fitting."

A comment which caused Jorge to quickly get off the couch and practically run off the bus; throwing over his shoulder that he'd see both ladies later, before the show.

"Do I even want to know?" Melissa asked, after taking a seat in the spot that Jorge had just got up from.

"No." Christina replied, with a slight hint of amusement in her voice. "But since I know you're curious, I'll tell you anyway.....a couple of weeks ago, after one of our soundchecks, Jorge and I were watching a movie. And I had asked him if he was positive that he didn't have to be anywhere. But of course, being a man and all, Jorgie was like: No...no..I don't have to be anywhere. I have everything under control. And do you know that not even a half-n-hour after the show that night, he was back on my bus complaining about how Alexis and Xan got mad at him for not showing up on time for their weekly fitting."

After slightly laughing at the information, Melissa asked: "So, what did you do?" Causing Christina to raise an eyebrow in amusement before saying: "I did what any normal woman would do....I withheld sex from him for a whole week."

While playfully rolling her eyes at Christina's comment, Melissa couldn't help but think to herself: I have to introduce her and Sam to one another. They'd probably sit down and compare notes for hours.

With that being her last thought, Melissa waited until she and the other woman had calmed down a little before looking down at the journal in her hands; bringing Christina's attention to it, as well.

"So, what's up? You having trouble writing a new song?"

Without even bothering to answer the question outloud, Melissa slightly shook her head no and replied: "Actually, I just got off the phone with Lance and he said that Giloh thinks my CD will be done tomorrow afternoon--"

"That's great!" Christina cut in, with a smile on her face. But then after noticing that Melissa was only wearing a small grin, she quickly added: "So, what's with the long face? I thought you'd be relived that all this trying to balance three things at once business was over."

Without even thinking about it, Melissa replied: "I am....it's just that Lance told me that the time my album would be coming out mostly depends on how fast I can finish my thank-you's. But the problem is, is that I don't even know what thank-you's he's talking about."

"Oh..well, why didn't you just say so." Christina replied, before standing up from the other end of the couch and taking a Whitney Houston CD out of her book-bag--afterwards handing the CD's booklet to the petite brunette. "Making the thank-you's is the easiest yet hardest part when coming out with an album."

After furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, Melissa took the booklet from the blonde and quickly flipped through it until she got to what she was looking for:

The thank-you's.

"So, all I have to do is thank these people?" Melissa asked, skimming through the list of names Whitney had mentioned. And after smiling slightly at the look of confusion on her friend's face, Christina replied: "No, that's just the people who she thanked.....basically when making a thank-you page, all you're really doing is thanking your family, your friends, and all the people who helped you write the album."

"Oh...well, that sounds easy enough." Melissa replied, closing the booklet in her hands. An action which caused Christina to nod her head slowly in agreement before taking the lone object back from her friend and replying: "It is..but that's until you start writing it. I mean, when I came out with my first CD, I wanted to thank everybody who played a part in helping me get a record deal--even the miscellaneous guy who held the door open for me when I walked into RCA that first day."

"Then why didn't you?"

After smiling once again at the obvious innocence in Melissa, Christina replied: "Because whoever came up with the idea of having booklets come with your CD, figured pictures were worth a thousand words; therefore giving everybody who made an album a small space limit to write their thank-you's in."

"Oh." Melissa replied, looking down at the journal in her hands. "I guess that means I should rethink thanking our fourth grade teacher then, huh?"

After slightly laughing at Melissa's comment, Christina replied: "Pretty much...but hey, if you need any help, just ask me. I'm sure I can think of a few people who wouldn't mind being listed in your thank-you's."

While ignoring the look of amusement on Christina's face, Melissa playfully rolled her eyes and replied: "Gee thanks."

A comment which caused Christina to cheerfully respond back with: "Don't mention it."

---

May 5, 2000 (New York, NY)

Since it was my last night on tour with her and her dancers, Christina decided to do something extra special for me last night and take us all out to a strip club.....god help us all if their were any reporters there posing as dancers.

"So, are you nervous?"

Without even bothering to turn her attention away from the journal in her hands, Melissa sarcastically replied: "No, but if you ask me that one more time I might get that way." Causing Lance to become slightly taken aback--until he noticed the younger woman was slightly smirking at him.

"Cute...very!"

"I thought so." Melissa replied--afterwards waiting until she had shut the book in her hands before turning her attention back towards her manager and replying: "You know Lance, you're going to have to calm down. I mean...this is just a small TV talk show, which I'm sure you've been on numerous times, so theirs really no reason for you or me to be nervous about it, right?"

What the..?

Even though Lance was more than confused at the moment, he quickly began to open his mouth to say: Exactly! But before he could do so, the realization of what Melissa had just said and the memory of who had said those exact same words to him a few years ago, caused the younger man to turn towards Mike; who was seated next to Melissa's bodyguard, with an innocent expression on his face. "All right..what did you do to her?"

Without even bothering to hide the small grin that was creeping across his face, Mike slowly replied: "I didn't do anything to her that I didn't do to you or the rest of the guys when you first started appearing on talk shows."

Oh my god.

After widening his eyes in disbelief, Lance replied: "You gave her Vodka?"

A question which caused Mike to smirk at him slightly before replying: "No. Ryan said she was up until three o'clock this morning worried about getting stage fright. So, I simply took it upon myself to slip a muscle relaxer into her water bottle..and within one hour, she is now sitting quietly beside you, worry free."

"I can't believe this!"

Turning his attention away from the two bodyguards, Lance shot Melissa a look of worry. But then as he noticed the slight trembling of her lower lip and the look of amusement in the brunette's green eyes, he couldn't help but immediately glare at the three in front of him. "I hate you all."

After letting out the laugh that she had desperately been trying to hold in, Melissa playfully bumped shoulders with her sulking manager and then quickly afterwards replied: "Aww, we were just messing with you, Lance. You know I had to get you back somehow for making me spend two hours with the famous Roy Zipstein. And this is the only way Mike knew how to do so without using Krazy glue or children's play-doh."

After smirking slightly at the comment and telling Melissa that their were no hard feelings between the two of them, Lance jokingly told his bodyguard that he was spending too much time with Chris. A comment which Mike would've probably agreed with; had one of the stage manager's who worked on the Rosie O'donnell show not come in; requesting Melissa's presence at the end of the stage.

"Well, here goes nothing." The suddenly shy brunette replied, afterwards slipping her journal back into her book-bag and handing it to her manager to hold. "Can you watch this for me?"

"Sure." Lance quickly replied, before taking the bag from Melissa's hand and hitting her with a small reassuring wink. "Just go out there and break a leg and it'll be here untouched when you get back."

"Thanks." Melissa replied, with a slight smile on her face, before turning around and making her way outside of the green room's door; the slightly blushing stage-manager following quickly behind in tow.

"Women!"

Without even bothering to ask Ryan what he meant by that comment, Lance turned his attention towards the television screen in the middle of the room; which was thankfully enough showing the three men what was going on outside the small room.

"Welcome back! Our next guest has been all over the Entertainment headlines for the last couple of months. Her debut single Take the rain away just hit stands a few weeks ago; selling more then two hundred copies the first day it came out, I might add. And by being friends with five of the hottest guys in America, she is the envy of every teenage girl in the world....ladies and gentleman, please put your hands together for Miss. Melissa Alano."

"Great intro!"

"I couldn't have said it better myself."

After rolling his eyes and slightly glaring at the playful commentary that the two bodyguards were starting, Lance turned his attention back towards the TV screen; which was showing Melissa being greeted by Rosie.

"Aren't you just the cutest little thing...? Now, sit down while I glare at you." Rosie playfully commented, causing Melissa to noticeably begin blushing slightly while sitting down in the red suede seat next to the talk show host. "I'm just kidding..but seriously, we need to get you a plate of food."

"Subtle..but straight to the point."

"That's why I like her."

After glaring once again at the amused bodyguards, Lance gave both men a quit it look; causing both Mike and Ryan to roll their eyes at the younger male before putting their hands up in surrender.

"Thank you!"

"Now, you just finished touring with Christina Aguilera. How was it working with the Genie in a bottle?"

After thinking about it for a second, Melissa replied: "It was defiently an interesting experience. That was my very first time being on tour and my first time ever really spending more than a couple of hours with Christina since we were twelve. So, I guess you could say it was really a huge learning experience for me."

With a look of confusion on her face, Rosie slowly replied: "You two knew each other back then?" A question which caused Melissa to nod her head in agreement before replying: "Yeah. Before she joined the Mickey Mouse club, we lived next door to one another for about five years."

"Really..? I did not know that."

Neither did I. Lance quietly thought to himself, before turning his attention back towards the screen; inwardly reminding himself that their were still a lot of things that he didn't know about the brunette in front of him. Unfortunately.

"So, next week is the beginning of your tour with the guys from Nsync. And after interviewing them yesterday for about ten minutes, the only real question I want to ask you about them is: which ones your favorite?"

"Bad question, this one's an obvious."

"Yep, it's the person who helped her start her career."

Without even bothering to glare at the two men seated across from him, Lance kept his eyes glued to the television screen in front of him.

"I really never thought about it..I mean, to be honest, I've only spent a total of two weeks with the guys and that's really not enough time to establish a favorite. But I guess if I have to choose now, I'd have to say my favorite out of the five is my manager Lance."

"Even I could've told her that."

Having had more than enough of the playful commentary, Lance turned around to angrily scold the two bodyguards. But interestingly enough, before he could do so, he had to immediately stop himself as he realized that it wasn't one of the bodyguards who had said that last comment...but a female.

A female who he noticed was a close friend of his, once he turned around.

"Britney..? What are you doing here?"

After waiting until she had closed the distance between her and Lance and given the older male a small hug, Britney replied: "You mean here in New York or here standing in front of you?" A question which caused Lance to shrug slightly before replying: "Both."

"Well, to make a long story short....Bryan called me last night and was complaining about how much he missed me. So, being the good sister that we all know I am, I decided to catch a red eye from L.A and take a cab all the way to his townhouse in Manhattan. Only to then find out that my lovely brother had to work today and wont be home until around seven. So, after practically yelling and furiously hanging up on the blockhead, I called Justin who told me that you were going to be in town until tomorrow and if I wanted to catch you now I would have to come down here where your protege was taping Rosie....so, I did and here I am."

Way to tell a short story.

After smirking slightly at his last thought, Lance slowly replied: "Well, I'm glad you're here..it'll give me a chance to properly introduce you to Melissa." A comment which caused Britney to reply: "Finally." And then afterwards cast a look towards the television screen; which was now showing that Rosie had gone to a quick commercial and would be back in a couple of seconds. "I've been wanting to meet this girl ever since Justin and her went to your album release party together."

"So have about five hundred other women." Ryan mumbled jokingly, causing Lance to raise a questioning eyebrow at him--but not get to ask what the older man meant by that comment as Rosie came back from commercial; ready to introduce Melissa for the second time.

"Welcome back...if you're just tuning in, you've missed fifty minutes of the best television money can buy--and will never be able to forgive yourself again. But if you've been sticking around for the entire show, you're in for a real treat because here performing her brand new hit single, "Take the Rain away" is the lovely Miss. Melissa Alano."

After practically screaming: "She's singing my song!" Britney quickly took a seat in the chair that Lance had once occupied and continued to stare at the television screen in front of her until Melissa had finished singing her debut single and was on her way back towards the green room.

This should be interesting. Lance inwardly thought to himself as Melissa stepped through the green room's doorframe and Britney quickly stood up; ready to be introduced to the petite brunette.

Unfortunately though, before that could even happen, Melissa--who hadn't yet noticed the blonde behind her manager--hesitantly asked: "So, what did you guys think?"

A question which caused her to slightly blush in embarrassment when Lance immediately replied: "You were great!"

"Thanks..I was kind of nervous but Miss. O'donnell is really nice."

"And really easy to talk to." Britney chimed in, causing Melissa to quickly turn her attention towards the blonde and blush slightly once again.

They could've atleast told me someone else was in here.

Taking the small silence that began after Britney's comment as a sign to jump in, Lance quickly introduced the two females to one another; causing Melissa to quickly shake the other woman's hand before replying: "It's a pleasure to meet you."

A comment which caused Britney to quickly respond back with: "Believe me when I say that the pleasure's all mine......you were really amazing out there and did an excellent job. I don't think I've ever sung that song better myself."

Even though Melissa was somewhat flattered by the comment, she couldn't help but furrow her eyebrows in confusion at the latter part of it; an action which--when seeing--caused Britney to quickly turn a pointed glare on Lance. "You guys didn't tell her, did you?"

Oops.

Without even bothering to lie to the woman in front of him, Lance reluctantly shook his head no, causing Melissa to stare at him in confusion while Britney rolled her eyes in amusement. "We-or better yet-I was going to...but I figured Justin might not of wanted me to after the lecture he gave me when finding out that was the song she wanted to do."

"Figures!" Britney sarcastically mumbled, before turning her attention back to the confused Melissa and saying. "You're probably confused as hell right now, aren't you?"

Without even bothering to lie about it, Melissa quickly nodded her head in agreement. An action which caused Britney to smile at her slightly before saying: "Well, if you and Lance don't have anywhere to be for a couple of hours, I wouldn't mind taking you guys out to lunch and explaining to you what secrets the guys have been keeping from you for the last couple of months--my treat."

This could be interesting.

With that thought in mind, Melissa quickly adverted her gaze towards Lance; silently telling him that she wanted to go but knew that the decision was really up to him.

"Well, I have a semi-lunch meeting in a half-n-hour so I can't go." Lance began, after staring down at his watch for a couple of seconds. "But as long as Melissa takes Ryan with her and makes it to the TRL studio by four, then she's free to do whatever she wants."

Not really wanting to go to lunch with a friend of Lance's without the older man being present caused Melissa to hesitantly reply: "Are you sure?"

A question which caused Lance to quickly nod his head in reassurance--while Britney chimed in that neither he or Melissa should worry--because if the two females got into any trouble while they were out they could just blame it on Melissa's manager.

A comment which caused Lance to inwardly think to himself:

What did I just get myself into?

(Ugly Guses-3pm)

"So, let me get this straight....you wrote the song about Justin?"

After nodding her head slightly and wiping a dab of Cajun mustard off her bottom lip, Britney replied: "Yep...every last word of it. From: I'm tired of waiting for things to change to we can disagree another day. It was all me and all about him and his I-can't-go-out-with-you-tonight-because-I'm-too-busy-writing-a-new-song-for-the-next-album ways."

While slightly laughing at the other woman's last comment, Melissa hesitantly replied: "I hope you don't mind me asking you this: but if you wrote it, why didn't you just come out with the song yourself?"

After staring at Melissa in confusion for a second, Britney realized the older woman didn't know as much as she assumed she had. So, after hesitantly looking around their small table for any noticeable signs of eavesdroppers, Britney leaned in slightly and quickly asked: "Can I trust you enough to keep a secret?"

A question which caused the other woman to furrow her eyebrows in confusion before slightly nodding her head, as if to say: "Yes, you can."

"All right..." Britney began, with a slight hint of hesitancy in her voice. "I thought you had already figured it out by now, but...Justin and I have been secretly dating on and off for about two years now. And when I say secretly, I mean no one outside of our family and close circle of friends knows about it."

Wow.

Even though she somewhat had an idea that Justin and Britney might've been dating from what the woman in front of her had just told her about the song, Melissa couldn't help but widen her eyes in surprise at the fact that the blonde had just said her and Justin had been secretly dating on and off for two years now; figuring that was a long time to be keeping any relationship a secret.

After pausing for a second, Britney slowly replied: "That's pretty much the reason why I couldn't release the song as my own. I mean...you saw how that reporter from Access Hollywood practically jumped all over Justin when he was introducing you at the album release party....Now, if you just times his intensity by a hundred, you'll probably get what would've happened to me if I had put Take the rain away on my CD. It would've given the media and our fans something else about us to pick a part and speculate on."

"I see..."

Even though Melissa knew she shouldn't put her two cents in where it didn't belong, she couldn't help but add: "Not to sound rude or anything, but if reporters and your fans are already speculating about it, why don't you just admit to dating Justin and save yourself and him from having to lie more about it in the future? I mean..in my personal opinion, there's really no point in having a relationship if all you ever do is lie about it all the time."

After a few seconds of slowly nodding her head while taking in what the petite brunette in front of her was saying, Britney replied: "That's what Justin always says to me..but I don't know. I mean...I've seen friends of mine who are also in this business hook up and then break up right after the media learns about them. And I just don't want to take the risk of losing J over a few measly comments in the tabloids. He's my best friend...and I really don't know what I'd do without him."

After nodding her head in understanding, Melissa figured she should probably change the subject now. But not before she quickly added: "I understand what you mean....I guess I just live by that whole philosophy that the only true people who can really break up a relationship are the two people in that said relationship."

A comment which caused Britney to outwardly agree with her--even though she knew now that she'd have a lot to think about later.

Unfortunately.

~*~

(An hour and a half later)

"Miss. Alano....you're on in two."

After nodding her head as if to say okay, Melissa waited until the female stage manager had left the room before letting a look of nervousness flash across her face; a look which the younger woman sitting next to her couldn't help but slightly smirk at.

"Hey..relax. There's no reason to be nervous. You're going to do great out there."

"Thanks." Melissa quickly replied, before standing up and making her way towards the greenroom's exit; all the while inwardly thinking to herself: If you say so.

After walking down the two hallways which would lead to the on-stage entrance, Melissa couldn't help but quietly mumble to herself: "Okay Alano, you did this once today..so theirs really no reason why you can't do it again," as she got the go ahead cue from the quickly approaching stage manager and reluctantly cut through the tall paper curtains.

It's like the guy's album release party all over again. Melissa inwardly thought to herself as she eyed the mostly female audience who were practically screaming at her in disbelief as she made her way towards the dark haired man on stage. I will never get used to this.

"Okay, kiddies...it's her first time on the show, so if you don't want to scare her away, calm down, all right?" Carson playfully scolded the audience, before turning his attention back towards the petite brunette in front of him. "Sorry about that..how are you doing?"

While continuing to blush over the crowd's reaction to her, Melissa replied: "I'm doing good...how about you?"

"Couldn't be better." Carson replied, with a slight grin on his face. "But since we only have a few minutes, why don't we just go ahead and jump into this interview, okay?"

Even though she was starting to feel butterflies growing in her stomach, Melissa couldn't help but quickly nod her head in agreement.

"All right....before we went live, I got to view an early taping of the Rosie O'donell show which you just did this afternoon. And I couldn't help but notice you saying that you and Christina Aguilera, who you just finished touring with, lived next door to one another before she joined the Mickey Mouse club. Now, I was just wondering if she had any influence on getting you your record deal or introducing you to your manager Lance Bass, from Nsync?"

As some of the girls from the audience cheered for her manager, Melissa couldn't help but slightly smile in amusement before saying: "Not really...her and I kind of grew apart after she moved to Orlando. And it wasn't until a few days after I landed my record deal that we reunited at the guy's album release party."

"Now, when you say that you two grew apart, do you mean you two began to have two totally different lives or that she just became a big time celebrity and couldn't deal with the little people like you anymore?"

What the...?

After slightly furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at the comment, Melissa realized the older man was just joking. Sarcasm...cute.

"It's more of the former than the latter really." Melissa replied, after a second. "I mean, we started off calling each other almost every day. But then after a year, I was preparing to start high school and she was about to start her second season on the Mickey Mouse Club and we just didn't have time to talk anymore...so, we just grew apart."

"I understand.." Carson quickly replied, after nodding his head in agreement. "But now, onto a different topic, I saw you backstage earlier when you were making your way towards the green room and I couldn't help but notice that another ex-Mickey Mouser was tagging along with you. Would you mind if I brought her out here for a second?"

Even though she knew that this was supposed to be an interview on her and that she really had only been asked two questions, Melissa couldn't help but think to herself, This might take some of the pressure off of me, before quickly replying: "If she doesn't have a problem coming out here, then neither do I."

A comment which caused Carson to slightly laugh before saying: "All right then..with that being said, could you guys please welcome our next guest to the stage..Miss. Britney Spears."

If Melissa had thought the audience in front of her had practically screamed in disbelief when she came through the curtain, then she now knew that the audience's scream was defiently of disbelief as the crowd started up once again as Britney came through the curtain.

Now, I really wish I would've bought my ear plugs along with me.

"It's good to see you again." Carson cheerfully replied as Britney stepped on the stage; interestingly enough next to Melissa instead of on the other side of the host. "We actually just saw you a couple of weeks ago when you came by to drop off your latest video Oops, I did it again so I really don't have any questions for you except for the standard: How have you been and what brings you back to Time-square? ones."

After slightly laughing at the comment, Britney replied: "Well, to answer your first question...I'm doing really good. My CD, which I'm hoping you guys all go out and buy, drops in two weeks so I'm very excited....and to answer your second question, the reason why I'm here today is because I was in town visiting my brother Bryan and heard through the grapevine that Melissa was in town, so I wanted to come by and meet her."

"Right on!" Carson replied, after a second. "Now, I kind of wanted you to come out here because I was looking at the Billboard charts the other day and it says that Melissa's Take the rain away has already beaten your Oops...I did it again single by one notch. I was wondering your opinion on it and the song."

After the question had left Carson's lips, Melissa had to keep herself from rolling her eyes as the thought that interviewers really did love to start controversy entered her mind.

"You know, I really don't look at the charts that much because to me: good music is simply good music." Britney began, before slightly pausing to get her thoughts together. "But in my honest opinion, even though I think that Oops..I did it again is a good song. I know that Take the rain away is an even better one...that's why I didn't have a problem with Melissa wanting to sing it...after I wrote it."

As the people in the crowd began widely murmuring about the information, Melissa couldn't help but give Britney a small reassuring smile; knowing that what the blonde just did was a very hard thing for her to do. And also knowing that if what Britney said at lunch was true, it was also something that would cause a lot of speculations in the papers about Justin and the eighteen year old pop-star.

"Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to get into that right now. But before I announce today's number one video, I'd like to show you guys a clip from this weekend's Nsync special that was taped yesterday but will be aired tomorrow at noon and then ask one of you a question about it...if that's okay with the both of you?"

"That's fine by me." Britney quickly replied, even though Melissa could tell she was somewhat nervous about the video clip.

"And you, Melissa?"

Figuring that she really didn't have anything to lose, Melissa slightly shrugged before replying: "That's fine by me as well."

"All right..then here it goes." Carson replied, before the TV monitor behind him switched from a blue screen to a screen showing the guy's and another MTV host who Melissa didn't recognize at all.

"While Joey tries to save his doll from Thalia, I'm going to move onto another topic....this week will be the start of your guys second tour: No strings attached. And you will be bringing Lance's protegee, Melissa Alano, out with you on the road. Now for the many of us who haven't gotten a chance to meet the talented singer, could each one of you four men sum up Miss. Alano in one or two words. Starting with you Justin."

"Aww man, why I gotta go first." Justin playfully yelled; afterwards laughing so the audience would know he was just teasing. "Umm, one word? I guess I'd have to speak for all of us when I say she's sweet. She's such a sweetheart."

After watching all the other men agree with that comment, Dave moved onto the next man. "And you, Chris?"

"Fresh Meat. That's all I gotta say." Chris replied, while rubbing his hands together forcefully; an action which caused the audience to slightly laugh and Dave to stare at him in slight confusion.

"Okay, I, for one am not going to ask...but uhh..JC?"

"A friend..she's someone that I could see and have seen push all things aside to comfort others even when they didn't deserve it."

Knowing that in JC's own way, he was once again taking full responsibility for the reasons why her and him hadn't gotten along so well when they had first met caused Melissa to inwardly think to herself: I'm sure you're a true friend as well, JC.

"And last, but not least, what about you Lance...? What are one or two words that you'd use to describe your protegee, Melissa?"

With all eyes on him, Lance couldn't help but bite his lower lip slightly.

He had been going to say Melissa was a good friend. But since JC had just said that, he figured he'd just say the first thing that came to his mind when picturing Melissa in his head; which was a mistake he realized when as soon as he said the next words, he began blushing big time.

"She's beautiful."

As the monitor froze and the crowd in front of her started growing louder, Melissa couldn't help but find herself blushing along side Lance.

"Well, not to embarrass you or anything. But is there anything that you'd like to say in regard to those compliments..your managers in particular?"

Finding that their really was nothing she could say to explain the confusion that was on her mind right now, Melissa began to say just that. But fortunately enough before she could do so, Britney butted in saying: "Carson, even you have to admit she's a hottie. I mean, look at her..I'd date her."

As the crowd grew more hysterical than before and the conversation was redirected onto the topic of Britney's sexuality, Melissa found herself giving the blonde a grateful look before her eyes absentmindedly moved towards the TV screen; where Lance's crimson red face was still being shown.

Does he really think I'm beautiful?

---

(Saturday, May 6, 2000)

After staying on the phone with Sam until two o'clock in the morning and then being woken by a grumpy Ryan four hours later, Melissa was more than ready to go back to sleep as soon as her head hit the back of her airplane seat. But unfortunately because of the fact that Lance's words from yesterday kept ringing in her head, the brunette knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep anytime soon.

A fact that the man beside her noticed.

"Something wrong?"

Turning away from the window that she was absentmindedly staring out of, Melissa couldn't help but slightly blush at the look of concern that was written on her manager's face: "No....I was just thinking."

After waiting a second for her to continue, Lance quickly asked: "Do you want to talk about it?" A question which caused Melissa to somewhat tense up--since she had mostly been thinking about him--but then calm down a little when she realized he didn't know what was going through her mind right now.

And he doesn't need to know.

With that being her last thought, Melissa replied: "It's nothing really...I was just going over my list of thank-you's and was wondering if I might've missed somebody."

Taking that little white lie as the truth, Lance jokingly replied: "Well, if you want, I can go over it for you--see if you might have forgotten to mention someone mildly important...like me, for instance."

After slightly laughing, while jokingly replying: "Never", Melissa reached inside her book-bag and pulled out her journal; which held the list of thank-you's that she had completed the night before. "Here you go..but fair warning, it might sound a little bit cheesy in some parts."

"Hey! Like I said before..." Lance began, while taking the journal away from Melissa's hands, "I'm a cheesy kind of guy."

With that being said, Lance playfully chuckled at his comment before bringing his attention down to the book in his hands; reading the half of a page Melissa had written.

Their are so many of you out there who I'd like to thank right now, but because of the small space limit I'm getting on this, their are only a few of you who I'll get to write about.....so sorry! :(

Anyway, first and foremost, I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus for giving me the strength to move on when the real world threw so many difficult loops my way. Without you, I know I am nothing.

Second, I'd like to thank Justin, Chris, Joey, Lance, and JC who have taught me so much in just a short amount of time. All of you, and I do mean ALL of you, are truly a blessing in disguise.

Third, I'd like to thank my four closest friends: Sam (Bonnie), Tony (Clyde), Christina (Chrissy) and Mike (the worlds greatest bodyguard...next to mine. You know, I love you Ryan) You four have kept me physically and emotionally grounded the entire time I've been recording. And I hope that, however long my singing career is, you will continue to keep me levelheaded.

Fourth, I'd like to do a small collab. thank you and thank all of my fans and all of Nsync's fans who bought this album. Hopefully you guys enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Fifth, I'd like to not only thank all of the wonderful people who helped me to put this CD together, but also Giloh Morgan. You are an amazing person and I look foreword to working with you more in the future.

And finally, last but not least, I'd like to thank my biggest supporter. The one woman whose been there for me through thick and thin and even though she's gone onto a better place will always be forever in my heart: My mother. I love you always.

Melissa~

After inwardly rereading the last paragraph back to himself, Lance slowly handed the notebook back to his protege: "It's good..I don't think you need to change one thing about it."

While slightly smiling in relief, Melissa closed the journal in her hands and put it back in her book-bag. "Thanks..now, I just have to show it to Giloh and I'll be all set, right?"

Without bothering to outwardly respond to the question, Lance silently nodded his head--as if to say yes--before waiting a minute to change the subject. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

After thinking about it for a second and figuring that she really didn't have anything to hide, Melissa nonchalantly shrugged before replying: "Ask away."

"Do you mind telling me about your mother?"

My mother...?

While furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at the question, Melissa responded back with: "You want to know about my mom?"

A question which Lance had to think about for a second before hesitantly responding back with: "Yeah..I mean, that is if you don't have a problem talking about her.....I just have been noticing lately that--whereas the guys have started building a relationship with you--you and I still haven't gotten the chance to really talk about anything other than business. And I was sort of hoping that if I asked you about your mom, it maybe would change our relationship into something more in the lines of friends then just manager and protege...if that makes any sense at all."

After taking in what Lance was saying and smiling slightly at the last comment, Melissa hesitantly replied: "It makes a lot of sense....but what do you want to know? I mean, there are a lot of things I could tell you about her."

While shrugging slightly, Lance absentmindedly sat back in his seat a little before nonchalantly replying: "Anything you want to tell me is fine. Where was she born? Is she originally from Philadelphia? What kind of woman was she..? It's up to you."

After nodding her head as if to say okay, Melissa thought about it for a second before saying: "I don't really know what to say, so I guess I should just start from the beginning...."

"My mom was born and raised in New Orleans. She grew up as an only child in a pretty old-fashioned Latin family. When she was seventeen, she began dating someone outside of her race and became pregnant with me. After about three days of giving her the silent treatment, my grandparents and my mom's boyfriend told her that she'd either have to get an abortion or cut off all ties with them; thinking that she'd quickly go with the termination. But instead, she told them that she couldn't kill a human being and packed up all her stuff and moved to Philadelphia--where I was born."

After pausing for just a second to gather Lance's reaction, Melissa continued talking; seeing as the older man looked to be interested in knowing more. "A couple of days after my sixteenth birthday, my mom came home from a routine doctor's appointment saying that it was time for a change and that she thought it'd be kind of fun if we moved to Massachusetts. To anyone else, that would've probably raised a few eyebrows but my mom was always the kind of person who thought of an idea and just ran with it--so I didn't bother asking her why all of a sudden she wanted to sell our house and move away. I just went along for the ride."

After pausing for another second, Melissa continued the rest of the story; as if remembering it like it was yesterday. "A few months after we moved to Massachusetts and into a slightly small apartment, I began noticing little things about my mom. She wasn't eating as much as she usually did, she was becoming slightly pale, and even though she was taking--what she said were vitamins at the time--she couldn't even make it to seven o'clock before becoming too tired to even move. That behavior pretty much kept going on for a few weeks until I finally got my hands on one of her pill bottles and read that it wasn't Vitamin E but A.B.V.D; a drug that doctor's give patients who have been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease."

"Damn."

After looking down at her hands and slightly smirking at Lance's reaction, Melissa slowly started to make her way to the end of the story. "I wasn't really sure how to approach my mom with what I had found out. But fortunately enough, I didn't have to.....that night at dinner she told me that she had something important to tell me and I told her that she didn't have to because I already knew."

"After that, it was like an unspoken rule that we never talked about it again--we'd just pretend like it didn't exist. That kept her and I going for two years straight--right up until the week before I graduated high-school when she died at thirty-six."

While studying the petite brunette next to him for a second, Lance couldn't help but become completely in awe of her. I can't believe she had to deal with so much at such a young age...she's probably mentally stronger than anyone I know or have ever met.

With that being his last thought, Lance cleared his throat slightly before saying: "So, after you graduated high-school, what did you do then? I mean..is that when you moved to New Orleans and started working there?"

"Yeah..." Melissa responded, after a second; this time her voice completely void of any emotion. "Me and a somewhat close friend of mine--who kept me company once in a while--moved to New Orleans after we graduated Greenfield and....the rest of it you pretty much already know."

Taking the brunette's hasty comment as a sign that she wanted to end the conversation, Lance quickly began to change the subject.

But not before inwardly thinking to himself that their was more to the story than Melissa let on.

I just have to figure out how much more.

(Four PM)

After arriving at the Gulfport-Biloxi International airport and sharing a short, yet sweet, good-bye with Lance--who would be staying at his parent's house in Clinton for the duration of their stay in Mississippi--Melissa and Ryan made their way to the Broadwater Beach Resort; where they and the rest of the guys from Nsync would be staying for the weekend.

I just hope I can still recognize them all when I see them.

With that thought in mind, Melissa quickly inserted her key card into the hotel door in front of her and after closing the door to her room, she couldn't help but practically jump at the sight in front of her. There lying on her queen sized hotel bed was none other than: Joey, Chris, Justin, and JC--all looking like they each practically owned the place.

And all of them probably thinking that they do, as well.

As if reading her thoughts, JC jokingly called out: "Well, look who finally took the time to show up!"

"Yeah, we thought you might've gotten off at the wrong airport...we were just about to send out the search guards to go looking for you." Justin playfully continued; causing Melissa to slightly laugh while putting her bags down on the ground in front of her.

"Well, now that I'm finally here, I guess you guys can get back to whatever it was that you were doing beforehand, while I happily sleep off my jet-lag." Melissa tiredly commented; causing Chris to quickly respond back with: "Ah-ah-ah, nice try...but sorry, no car. Besides, JC already tried that one on us earlier and I'm going to tell you the same thing that we told him.....get your skinny ass up, cause we're grubbing at Lance's tonight!"

Even though the thought of food did cause her stomach to slightly growl a little, the idea of having to leave her hotel room--with the freshly made bed in it--caused Melissa to quickly protest the guy's offer. "Guys, I'm really not in the mood to go out tonight. I've been up since six o'clock this morning and in the air since eight. I really need to get some sleep."

Without even bothering to listen to her argument, Joey quickly stood up from his seat on the bed next to Chris and casually draped an arm around Melissa's shoulder while replying: "That might be true, Princess, but you're still going to have to go with us....since Lance's twenty-first birthday falls on the same day that we finish rehearsing for our tour, his parent's set up this whole early surprise birthday barbecue for him and it just wouldn't look right without you being there in attendance."

"Yeah..and if I have to miss out on a few Z's, then you defiently do as well." JC jokingly continued; causing Melissa to slightly smirk while rolling her eyes at the notion that she was actually going to have to do what the four guys in front of her said.

I wonder if this is how the rest of the tour with them is going to be....I defiently hope not.

With that thought in mind, Melissa waited until a long sigh had slipped out of her mouth before telling the four men that if they left her room for a few minutes so she could atleast freshen up a little, she'd be happy to meet them downstairs in fifteen minutes.

"I knew you'd see things our way." Joey jokingly remarked, before playfully giving the younger female a kiss on the cheek and then quickly making his way out of the room; immediately followed behind by Chris and JC.

Uh-Oh.

After waiting until JC had closed the door behind him, Melissa turned her attention back towards the last person left in the room; the one who she--interestingly enough--hadn't heard from since appearing on TRL the day before, with the famous Miss. Britney Spears.

I just hope he's not still mad at me for sticking my nose in where it didn't belong....I was just trying to help.

As if reading her thoughts, Justin let out a small chuckle before saying: "You can quit biting your lip now, I'm not going to yell at you."

After forcing out a fake laugh and replying that she never thought he was going to, Melissa nonchalantly replied: "So...what's going on? I haven't heard from you in a couple of days."

Without bothering to hold back the grin on his face, Justin cheerfully replied: "That's because for the last twenty-four hours I've been constantly on the phone with Britney trying to work out a date for us, when we can finally go public with our relationship...all thanks to you."

Thanks to me?

Seeing the look of confusion on her face, Justin continued with: "I don't know exactly what it was that you said to her, but Britney told me that you made her see that her love for me wasn't something that needed to be hidden from the world and that she just needed to come clean once and for all...if not for the sake of our relationship than for her sanity, alone."

Even though Melissa didn't feel like she should be given credit for something that probably was right in front of Britney all along, she couldn't help but respond back with: "You don't have to thank me for anything. I'm just glad you two finally realize that you don't have to hide your true feelings from the world anymore...it's not as bad of a place as most people think it is."

After chuckling slightly at the comment, Justin playfully replied If you say so before giving Melissa a quick peck on the cheek and then making his way outside of her room; calling over his shoulder as an afterthought: "I'll see you downstairs in ten minutes."

"Not if I see you first!"

~*~

(The Bass's-7pm)

After spending a couple minutes freshening up and then another couple minutes watching the guys fight over who got to drive and who got to ride shotgun--with JC winning the drivers seat and Chris winning the passenger seat--Melissa fortunately was allowed to spend the three hour drive to Lance's parents house asleep on Justin's shoulder.

Now I see why so many girls pick him as their favorite....he's the most comfortable, next to Lance.

"Princess, we're here, it's time to wake you."

Without even bothering to acknowledge Joey's pet name for her, Melissa slowly lifted her head up off of Justin's shoulder and then opened her eyes. Almost immediately afterwards, she couldn't help but widen them as she noticed the groups of people sitting outside of the guy's rented Ford explorer.

Are they sure we're not at another album release party?

As if reading her thoughts, JC let out a small chuckle before saying: "Welcome to just a regular day in the Bass neighborhood."

"You'd swear all these people lived here." Justin sarcastically commented, before letting out a slow sigh and opening the door to his right; letting Melissa out after him. "It's always like this when we come...their like the Mississippi welcome committee-"

"Except they don't bring gift baskets...they bring food; which I'm going to eat plenty of!" Joey cheerfully interrupted, while getting out of his side of the truck.

With that being the last comment made, the group of five began to casually make their way up the Bass's driveway--smiling slightly whenever they were acknowledged, but never stopping until they finally reached their main goal, which was Lance.

"Whew, I'm glad you guys could make it...I thought I'd have to be stuck here by myself, answering questions about that little singing group I'm in for the rest of the night."

Without even bothering to take his eyes away from the direction in which the kitchen was located in, Joey absentmindedly replied: "You know we'd never leave you hanging, Lanston. We're just glad to be here celebrating your birthday with you."

Knowing what his friend was up to caused Lance to shake his head in amusement, before sarcastically replying: "Thanks Joseph, that means a lot to me....now, if you don't mind, how about go grabbing yourself some food. It's out back."

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Chris quickly commented before dragging the other salivating man towards the back of the house where the grill was set up at; immediately being followed behind by JC and Justin who both outwardly agreed that their assignment for the night was to make sure that the other two--not only--stayed out of trouble but also out of Lance's homemade birthday cake.

"All right, I'll catch up with you guys later on to see how that ones going." Lance jokingly threw out, before turning his attention towards Melissa for the first time since the guys had arrived. "You want me to go with you to get a plate?"

I thought you'd never ask. Melissa opened her mouth to say, but unfortunately before she could do so, the two were interestingly enough interrupted by a third party.

"There you are, Lance, I've been looking all over for you...whose this?"

After quickly adverting her eyes away from Lance's direction, Melissa was surprised to be met by a woman with the same unique eye color as the man in front of her.

This has got to be his older sister.

"Mom, this is Melissa Alano--the girl I was telling you about....Melissa, this is my mom, Diane Bass."

This is his mom?

While trying to hide her surprise at the fact that the young-looking woman standing in front of her was Lance's mother, Melissa nervously replied: "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Bass."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Melissa. But please, call me Diane....all the boys do. It makes me feel younger."

After playfully rolling his eyes at his mom's joke, Lance cleared his throat slightly before replying: "You were looking for me....?"

"I was...? Oh yeah!" After quickly remembering what she had came to see her son about, Diane's smile immediately dropped off her face. "I just got off the phone with Meredith and she said that her flight's been canceled and the next one doesn't get here until tomorrow evening at six; which means that she wont make it in time for tomorrow morning's festivities."

Festivities..?

Noticing the look of confusion on Melissa's face, Lance quickly replied: "It's sort of a tradition that every time the guys and I are in town, Meredith flies back home to join us for church Sunday morning.."

"But unfortunately, due to circumstances that are out of our control, two of the main pilots that have the general route down here from Texas--where Meredith currently lives--caught the flu bug and can't fly a plane for atleast another twenty-four hours, doctors orders." Diane continued for her son, causing Melissa to inwardly respond back with: Wow, I'm glad I'm not them.

"I just feel really bad for Pastor Greenfield." Diane continued, interrupting Melissa's thoughts, "He had wanted to do something special for you and the rest of the guys--since you have contributed so much in the last couple of years--so he asked Meredith to come up with a gospel hymn and sing it tomorrow morning at the seven forty-five service. But I guess we'll have to wait until next time to hear it."

"I guess so." Lance responded back in a somewhat downcast voice; one which caused Melissa to--without even thinking about it--speak up with: "I can do it."

Not knowing exactly what the brunette beside him was talking about caused Lance to furrow his eyebrows in confusion while responding back with: "Do what?" A question which Melissa couldn't help but roll her eyes at.

"I can sing the song that she came up with...I mean, I can't promise that it'll sound just as good as it would if she sang it. But if it's all right with her and the rest of you, I'd be more than willing to step in for her since she wont be there....that is, if it's okay with everyone, including your pastor."

After taking a minute to see if Melissa was serious or not, Lance turned his attention back towards his mother; who was wearing the same surprised expression on her face, as her son was. "Do you happen to have a copy of the words and music?"

Without bothering to outwardly respond to the question, Diane slightly nodded her head, as if to say yes, and then afterwards responded back with: "Just let me borrow her for a couple of hours and I promise that she'll know every word of it by tomorrow morning."

After turning his attention back towards the woman beside him, Lance couldn't help but stare at her in slight awe for a second before asking: "Are you sure you want do this?"

A question which Melissa quickly responded back with:

"As sure as the day I was born!"

---

First Baptist Church (The next morning)

After spending practically the entire night before trying to perfect the words to "Alright", Melissa found herself feeling somewhat groggy the next morning.

Atleast I have another hour and a half to go before I have to get up there and sing.

Unfortunately for her, the guys had something slightly different for her in mind.

"Hey! There you are, Princess....we've been looking around for you everywhere."

While looking up from the lyric sheet that she had been going over for the last twelve hours, Melissa couldn't help but slightly smile at JC and Joey; who were heading towards her, wearing the most unusual churchgoing outfits that she'd ever seen.

Someone really needs to remind them to turn a light on when they get dressed in the morning.

After snapping herself out of her thoughts, Melissa nonchalantly replied: "I've just been back here trying to memorize these lines...why, what's up?"

"Nothing really." JC quickly replied, "Pastor Greenfield just sent us to tell you that he bumped your solo up from the end of the service to the beginning, so you'll need to make your way out there in a couple of minutes."

As if someone had just told her that her clothes were on fire, Melissa quickly stood up from the table that she was sitting near; sending all the papers on top of it towards the ground. "Are you serious? I'm not ready yet...I haven't even had time to come up with an introduction to the song yet."

Without even bothering to think about it, Joey quickly picked up the papers that Melissa had dropped. Then, after getting up, he interestingly enough tried to calm her down by replying: "Don't worry about all of that. I'm sure the pastor has you covered...you just need to calm down, relax, and try not to look as nervous as a hooker in..nevermind."

After slightly chuckling at his friend's words, JC turned his attention back towards Melissa; who, by the looks of things, was just as nervous as a hooker in church..maybe even more so. "Hey, don't worry..you'll be fine. You've performed in front of crowds bigger and scarier than this one numerous times."

Even though she knew both JC and Joey were right, Melissa couldn't help but find herself growing slightly more nervous. "I know that I've done this loads of time. I just really want to go out there and make Lance proud of me...he's done so much for me in a short amount of time that I just want to somehow thank him in anyway that I possibly can. Know what I mean?"

After nodding his head, as if to say that he knew exactly what Melissa meant, JC outwardly replied: "You don't need to worry about that, Melissa. Lance is already proud of you and so are the rest of us...you just need to go out there and sing till your little heart is content and that will be all the thanks that either one of us guys needs...okay?"

Without even bothering to hold back the smile that was quickly appearing across her face, Melissa sarcastically responded back with: "Okay...if you say so, JC."

A comment which caused the older man to slightly chuckle before jokingly responding back with:

"And I do!"

~*~

After spending almost ten minutes listening to one of his mother's friends go on and on about her daughter--who was right around his age and who just happened to be single at the moment--Lance couldn't help but inwardly jump with joy when he noticed JC and Joey joining the rest of the guys, from the corner of his eye.

"I'm sorry..." Lance quickly interrupted the older woman, before she could continue singing her daughter's praises: "But I see some people over there that I recognize and I just want to say a quick hi to them before the service starts."

While immediately buying the excuse, the elderly lady quickly apologized for keeping Lance so long. And then afterwards, she promised that she'd be by Lance's mother house later that night so he could meet her daughter...Bertha.

"I can't wait!" Lance cheerfully lied, before turning around; making his way back towards his group of friends--who were now joined by his mother, as well. "Mom, if you love me as much as you say you do...promise me that you will not answer the door or the phone when Mrs. Stewart calls later, asking about me and her daughter, Bertha. Got it?"

After slightly laughing at the comment and scooting over so that her son could sit between her and Joey, Diane replied: "I'll see what I can do...but only if you tell me how Melissa is? I haven't gotten a chance to talk to her this morning, have you?"

Without bothering to outwardly reply to the question, Lance shook his head, as if to say no, and then turned his attention towards Joey--who he knew had seen the younger woman, in question. "How's Melissa? She's not nervous, is she?"

"I'd say: more nervous than a hooker in church." Joey opened his mouth to reply, but before he could get his words out, the elbow in his stomach--thrown by JC--caused him to stop.

"She had a little bit of stage fright earlier, but I think she's okay now. We got her to calm down."

"That's good." Lance outwardly replied, even though he knew their was probably more to the story than JC was letting on. Unfortunately though, before he could even ask, the sight of Pastor Greenfield standing at the front of the church, with a microphone in hand, caused him to stop.

"Good morning everyone...to start things off, I would like to say that today's sermon will be dealing with the topic of "Faith". And that we will be centering our words around the book of Proverbs, chapter eight, verses thirty-two through thirty-six."

"But before I begin to deliver you the word, I have a special treat for you....we have someone here all the way from Philadelphia, who some of you--young members--might know and who some of you--around my age--probably don't know. She will be singing a hymn written by one of our very own members, who unfortunately couldn't be here with us today, Meredith Edwards."

"Now, with that being said, please give a warm welcome for Miss. Melissa Alano."

While holding back his grin, Lance couldn't help but playfully roll his eyes at the four men beside him who couldn't help but clap loudly.

They're acting like they've never been inside a church before and I'm acting like I've never even heard Melissa sing before...we're a great audience.

After snapping himself out of his thoughts, Lance turned his attention back to the front of the church where Melissa was now standing--in front of the choir--taking in the few people in front of her.

You can do it...just relax.

As if reading his thoughts, Melissa turned her head a little to the left--meeting Lance's gaze. And then after a second, she smiled slightly--to show him that she was okay--before turning her attention towards the piano player behind her; inwardly telling him she was ready.

Here goes nothing....

Oooh, Ooooh
I used to feel so sad, sad and lonely too
Cause I never had someone who loves me like you do
I don't worry anymore with him by my side
Ever since the day we met, his love has changed my life

Open up and let him in
He will be your one true friend
He will make...he will make everything alright

"If I didn't tell you before, I think Melissa is really a wonderful girl...you two are both very lucky to have one another in each other's lives."

Waiting until Melissa had begun the chorus to the song that she was singing, Lance turned his attention towards his mother who looked to be getting a little weepy-eyed next to him: "Mom, I think you've had one too many cups of coffee this morning, because you're starting to act like we're getting married."

Without bothering to answer her son, Diane turned her attention back towards Melissa. And, the confused, Lance was just about to do the same. That is, until Joey nudged him in his stomach.

"Man, I wish I could get a gorgeous female like Princess to serenade me in front of a crowd, like this...you are one lucky man, Bass."

She's not singing to me, she's singing for us, Lance opened his mouth to say, but another elbow in the stomach--this one coming from his mother's side--caused him to turn his attention back towards Melissa; whose eyes were interestingly enough locked on him.

He will love you too, if you let him in (if you let him in)
It doesn't matter who you are, he don't care where you been, ooh

He just wants to be your friend, his touch will ease your pain
Once you let him in, you will never be the same

Open up and let him
He will be your one true friend
He will make everything alright

As Melissa playfully winked at him, before turning her attention back towards the other side of the church, Lance couldn't help but analyze Joey's words in his head: She can't be doing this for me...she just wanted to help since Meredith's not here.

Right...?

May 8, 2000 (Mississippi Coast Coliseum)

"Chris, stay on beat...Joey, get serious...Justin, stop looking at yourself in the mirror.....come on guys, five more minutes and I'll let you take a break."

"That's what you said five minutes ago, outback boy."

"Well, this time I mean it. But keep on talking Curly and it'll be another five minutes on top of that..now move it, Alfredo head!"

After taking a second to quietly laugh at Wade and Justin's as usual sarcastic banter, Melissa turned her attention away from the stage in front of her--where the guys were in the process of having their first of many sound-checks before their tour opened tomorrow--and tried to focus on her journal that was in front of her.

This one's too long...this one's too short...this one doesn't even make any sense. Shit, I'm never going to be ready by the time my sound check starts tomorrow.

"I should have just stayed on Christina's tour..."

"But then where would that leave us?"

Not realizing that break had been called caused Melissa to have to conceal her scream as the now laughing JC took a seat beside her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I thought you heard me coming up."

Having been too lost in her own world to hear anything besides the thoughts that were swimming around in her head caused Melissa to shake her head slightly, as if to say no she hadn't, before turning back towards her journal that was in her hands and replying: "I've just been sitting here trying to come up with a third song to perform while out on your guy's tour...it was so much easier while on Christina's 'cause then I could just use one of her songs, but now that that option is gone, I'm left with a total blank here."

Knowing that neither Wade nor Justin would have any time to make up a dance routine for one of Melissa's songs, and that Melissa wouldn't have time to learn it even if they did caused JC to first nod his head in understanding before replying, as if it was the most logical answer in the world: "Why don't you just use one of our songs?"

A question which caused Melissa to first roll her eyes in amusement before replying: "Right, because I can just see myself dry humping the stage to Digital Get down...I don't think so, but thanks for the offer, anyway."

After laughing slightly at the image in his head of Melissa doing just that, JC took a second to think of a solution to Melissa's problem, and then after a minute of contemplating an idea, he offered a suggestion. "What about a duet...?"

A duet....?

"With one of you guys?" Melissa asked, in confusion, causing JC to now roll his eyes in amusement, before sarcastically replying: "No, with one of our bodyguards. I heard Lonnie can do a pretty good impression of Barry White when persuaded--of course I'm talking about one of us, silly."

Without even bothering to hold back the laugh that threatened to come out of her mouth, Melissa replied: "Okay, so what song did you have in mind?"

~*~

"I wonder what their talking about?"

Turning away from the Teen people magazine he was flipping through, Justin followed his group-mate's line of vision towards the chairs in front of the stage, where Melissa and JC were seated looking to be in deep conversation. "Knowing C, he's probably boring Melissa again with one of his many stories about growing up in Maryland as an adopted child."

As Melissa's laughter was heard through-out the arena, Lance counter-replied: "I didn't think those stories were that funny...something tells me that their not talking about that."

Detecting a hint of jealousy in the older man's voice caused Justin to let a small smile take over his face as he jokingly replied: "Well, I'll be damned, Lansten...I didn't think you had it in you."

Now turning his gaze away from the two in front of them, Lance raised an eyebrow at Justin's comment. "What are you talking about?"

Not buying the innocent act, Justin replied smugly: "Don't play dumb, Bass, you know what I'm talking about. You've got a thing for Melissa."

"It all makes sense now: the constant wondering what she's doing when she's not around us, the always making sure she's never out of sight when she is around us, the way you always get that corny smile on your face every time she comes around...you have the hots for her."

Without even bothering to hide his roll of the eyes, a now slightly blushing Lance replied: "I do not..all the things you just said add up to me trying to be a good manager and friend to her. That's it: nothing more, nothing less."

Right, whatever you say...Justin commented to himself, before deciding to throw out the biggest hint that had shown him before that Lance had a thing for his protege. "Okay, so if you don't like her, as you say, what was up with you last week during our MTV taping when you said, and I quote, she's beautiful."

Noticing that Lance's usual pale cheeks were now becoming more redder by the second caused Justin to inwardly smile to himself; knowing that he had the older man right where he wanted him.

A fact which Lance knew as well.

"Okay, I admit it, I have a small crush on her. Happy now?" Lance threw out, before turning his attention back towards where Melissa and JC were still seated, now sharing Melissa's head phones--him with one ear plug in, and her with the other. "But look at her. It's hard not too. She's cute, funny, smart, sweet and has an amazing personality...but that's all it is, just a crush. As her manager, I can't pursue anything with her. It'd be unethical."

Knowing that Lance was trying his hardest, in Melissa's case, to do things the right way caused Justin to again follow his best friend's gaze towards where the older woman was seated and let out a small sigh before replying: "I hear you, Scoop. But I don't know, if it was me and I felt that strongly about someone, I don't know if I could just charge it to the game so easily as you could. I mean, look at me and Britney, we both knew from day one that it'd be wrong to get involved with one another, especially because everyone around us kept saying that it wouldn't work out--especially with her being on one side of the world, while I was on the other. But now look at us, we've been together for almost three years now and we're about to go public, and who knows what will happen after that. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and let things work themselves out on their own. You feel me?"

After taking a second to let Justin's words sink in, Lance nodded his head as if to say I understand, and then after hearing Wade say that break was over, he replied: "I'll think about it."

A comment which Justin couldn't help but smile at, while replying:

"That's all I ask."

---

The next day

"Miss. Alano, you're on in five."

"You've got to be kidding me...I haven't even finished putting my makeup on yet."

While watching on as Melissa tried to quickly apply mascara to her eyes while also brushing her hair at the same time, Lance couldn't help but silently laugh to himself; already knowing if he didn't stop the nervous girl soon she was definitely going to have a makeup malfunction.

"Here, let me help you before you end up poking both your eyes out."

Taking the brush from her hand, Lance began to brush Melissa's hair down her back, and then after a minute, he stopped; saying he was finished.

"Thanks." Melissa replied, while blushing slightly at the fact that Lance had to do the task for her, "I'm sorry I'm so nervous. You'd figure I'd be used to this by now, huh?"

Without even bothering to hold back his slight chuckle, Lance replied: "Don't worry...between me and you, Justin still throws up before every performance. You're not as bad as he is."

Seeing the woman in front of him slightly laugh at this comment caused Lance to mentally pat himself on the back for this small lie.

"Well, I guess I better get going...thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it." Lance replied, while watching Melissa take a second to make sure that she had everything she needed, before making her way towards the door to her dressing room.

Here's a better chance than any...

"Wait! I almost forgot..."

Waiting until after Melissa had turned around, with one hand on the door knob, Lance hesitantly continued with: "I heard a couple of the other guys saying they were going to go out tonight, and I was wondering if you didn't plan on going, if you wanted to watch a couple of movies with me in my room--you know, so we can work on this whole friendship versus manager/protege thing we got going on here."

After slightly laughing at the last part of that sentence, Melissa took a second to think about it before replying that she'd love to. "I'll probably be all sweaty and funky from the show, but if you let me take a shower first, then I'll be happy to join you after wards."

Yes!

While containing his excitement at the fact that she had agreed to hang out with him later that night, Lance wished Melissa good luck on her performance and told her that he'd see her later on.

"Not if I see you first." Melissa joked, before continuing on with what she'd been doing before Lance called her name, and exiting the room; leaving Lance alone in her dressing room to finally voice the one word he had said in his head before.

"Yes!"

~*~

(Later that night)

"Okay, I've got popcorn, movies, candy and drinks...now, why do I keep feeling like I'm missing something?"

Just as the last word exited his mouth, Lance was reminded about what he was missing as a knock was heard at the door.

That's right...I'm missing the guest of honor.

With one last look around his room, to make sure that everything was in its place, Lance opened the door to his hotel room and had to fight the urge to let a huge smile grace his face when seeing Melissa on the other side of the door.

"Hey, you made it."

"Yeah, sorry I'm late." Melissa responded, while stepping into the room and waiting for Lance to close the door before continuing with: "My friend Sam called just as I was about to get in the shower and I couldn't get her off the phone without telling her how tonight went."

Remembering Sam as the waitress who used to work with Melissa at the diner they had met at caused Lance to nod his head in understanding, while replying: "Well, I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of ordering us up some junk food, and I didn't know what kind of movie you wanted to watch so I had Mike rent us a bunch of different ones from the nearest blockbuster. We've got romance, horror, drama, comedy, dramedy and something called bromance."

While taking a second to laugh at the last word, Melissa replied that she had enough dramedy in her life: "So, how about a comedy?"

"What women want, it is then." Lance replied, before making a move to put the movie in the DVD player just as Melissa took a seat on the bed and started to make herself comfortable using his pillows.

"I can tell by the amounts of candy you got us that Wade is going to kill me tomorrow during rehearsel so if I don't see you after that, thanks in advance."

After taking a seat on the bed beside Melissa, Lance let a small chuckle slide out of his mouth while jokingly replying: "Don't mention it" and then after wards making himself comfortable as well while hitting play on the remote control. "I hope you like the movie. I haven't seen it before."

"Me either." Melissa replied, while opening a box of M&M's and offering some to Lance before pouring a couple of them into her own hand. "I guess it's a first time for the both of us then, huh?"

Before Lance could reply that she was right, his conversation with Justin from earlier came flooding back to him causing Lance to mentally tell himself:

You're definitely right..this is a first time for everything...