The phone buzzed against the kitchen counter top where it had been left and lit up with a singular message: “You fucking idiot!”

JC sighed audibly when he read the text his friend had sent him. The five laugh/crying emojis followed by the exclamation were meant to soften the impact but JC still rolled his eyes just as hard.

He debated ignoring the text, like he normally did when his friends got on his case about…..well, most things, but since this was about the 12th text he had received in the past hour on the subject, he was feeling defensive and pissed off and decided to goad this fight.

“Yep, I fucked up. Thanks for pointing that out,” JC shot back and put the phone down again, closing his eyes and waiting for the inevitable reply.

By no surprise, the phone came back to life again within seconds. “Oh calm down, it’s not that big a deal,” the text stated. Before JC could respond, another response came through, “Lots of people fell for it.”

Another sigh escaped JC’s mouth as he typed back. “Yeah I saw. Good news is I’m not important enough to make any lists of celebrities who made the same mistake.”

This time instead of a reply, JC’s phone rang. “Hi Lance,” he answered after a beat.

“Ok, what’s wrong?” Lance asked quickly.

“What’s wrong is I fell for some internet hoax and now I feel like an idiot, as you so clearly pointed out that I am,” JC responded heatedly.

“No, that’s not what I mean and you know it,” Lance pressed him.

“Excuse me?”

“What is wrong with you? I mean, what’s going on? Why are you upset?”

“I just told you.”

Now it was Lance’s time to sigh, “You’re doing it again. You only do it when something is wrong.”

“Doing what?” JC scoffed.

“Lurking.”

The word hung between them for several moments.

“I was not,” JC retorted.

“C, don’t give me that shit,” Lance countered. “You never go on social media unless you need an ego boost. So tell me, what is going on?”

JC opened his mouth to tell his friend he was wrong but he knew it was useless. Lance knew him too well. “They went with another producer,” JC admitted defeatedly as he walked into his living room to lay on the couch.

“Damn,” Lance practically whispered. “Did they give you a reason why at least?”

“Yeah, said they weren’t really feeling my aged boyband sound,” JC relayed, closing his eyes and throwing his forearm across his face, as if that would block out the world further.

“JC, I’m so sorry. They obviously have no idea what they are talking about.”

“Yeah, obviously,” JC shot back sarcastically.

“I’m serious. People know how good you are. It’s going to reflect worse on them, trust me.” JC was silent so Lance tentatively continued. “So….hence the social media binge?”

“Yeah,” JC confirmed. “It was a few days ago so….yeah.”

“So, that’s how you saw the post today?”

“Yeah,” JC breathed.

“Did you actually, you know, look at it before you posted it? Cuz it’s pretty obvious…..”

“Look, if you just called to give me shit, I’m really not in the mood,” JC snapped, sitting up and moving to end the call.

“No no no, JC, no,” Lance shouted, having been on the receiving end of an angry Chasez before. “I’m done, I swear, ok?” JC let out a long breath as Lance continued. “If you’re going to actually use it, I wish you’d actually let the fans know you are there. They get worried about you.”

“Oh, I know,” JC stated, letting a small chuckle out. “People think I’m a lonely hermit.”

“Well…….” Lance attempted a joke but could practically feel the nasty look he was getting through the phone. “The world is different now, JC. When you used to sneak around on message boards, no one expected you there. But you can’t just lurk around Instagram, it’s not cool.”

“Actually, I can,” JC responded defensively. “People post all kinds of shit on the internet now. If they didn’t want it seen, they wouldn’t put it out there.”

“No, JC. I agree with you there. What I’m trying to say is let people know you are there.”

“You know I don’t like interacting. I tried it while promoting Girl Radical and I was terrible at it.”

“You weren’t terrible,” Lance tried to reassure him. “You were promoting a project and you wanted to create buzz. Totally get it. You just have a tough time when you get out of context comments.”

“Why would anyone respond to me saying I’m going on Access Hollywood with “please choke me until I cum”??!?!?!” JC practically shouted, still remembering that particular response from years ago.

“Because people love the anonymity of the internet,” Lance said warmly. “They like being shocking just to see what you do. And in that case, you do the right thing by not engaging. But, JC, seriously, just put something out there every once in a while. It’s really not that hard.”

“It just seems weird to me. You guys use it as promotion and that totally makes sense but I….don’t have anything to promote,” JC said quietly.

“I don’t always use it for promo,” Lance tried to reassure him. “I post pictures of the pups, I retweet causes I’m passionate about. No one is asking you to provide every detail of your life. Just let people know you aren’t dead.”

“I just don’t get it,” JC continued. “The last random thing I posted was some carrots and nearly 2000 people liked it. Why does anyone care about some fucking carrots?”

“Why did you post the carrots?” Lance questioned, the volume in his voice raising a bit in frustration. “People don’t care what you post. They care about you. And that’s what you want. You want to know people still care. That’s why you lurk around and read all the nice things people say about you, all the photos they post and talk about how good you look, how well you sing, all that shit. You’re feeling down and you want the ego boost. I really do get it but if you actually posted anything, it would come right to you, you wouldn’t have to work so hard.”

“Well, I posted something and everyone is giving me shit so sorry if I’m not gonna follow your advice on this one.”

“That’s because you posted something stupid. Post about broccoli next time, see how that goes,” Lance laughed. JC apparently did not find the joke as funny as Lance was once again greeted with silence. “You know, eventually someone is going to figure you out,” Lance continued.

“What do you mean?”

“Someone is going to realize that while you are “never on social media”, you somehow knew to post this thing on the exact same day that other people did. It’s a bit convenient, if you ask me.”

JC was silent once again. “I’ll just say Eric told me to post it,” he finally said.

“Eric didn’t post it,” Lance said with a smile.

“Fuck,” JC muttered. Had he lost his advantage? He liked watching from afar, liked reading what people thought about him without them knowing. He was a self professed voyeur; that he’d freely admitted, even in interviews. People of course associated that with sex but it applied to everything. He liked to sit and watch and observe. And social media gave him the perfect window into other people’s thoughts and lives that they freely provided.

“JC,” Lance called his name through the phone, interrupting his thoughts. “Who cares, ok? It’s honestly not that big a deal. Just, please, do me a favor. Stop playing Internet Peeping Tom and post something! Well, not some internet hoax,” Lance laughed but continued. “I was half way serious about the broccoli. Seriously, respond to a post. Like a tweet. I don’t care. But I’m tired of people asking me if you are ok at my meet and greets.”

JC couldn’t help but laugh as well after Lance’s last remark. “Ok, I’ll at least think about it,” JC acquiesced. 

“From you, I’ll take it,” Lance said back. “I really am sorry to hear about the producing gig. They’ll realize it’s their loss and fuck em if they can’t see the amazing reputation you’ve built up. You deserve better than that and I know you’ll find it. You know Michael and I are here if you need anything.”

“I know, thank you,” JC responded and honestly meant it.

“Don’t get lost down the internet worm hole. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Later,” JC said and disconnected the call. JC sat and stared at the phone in his hand for some time, considering what Lance had said. Would it be the worst thing to try and engage with fans? When he met them in real life, everyone was always so nice. What made the internet so different?

JC popped open his Twitter app, not even attempting to salvage Instagram today, and went to his mention notifications. He had 42 since last time he looked earlier today. The newest referenced his Instagram flub so he quickly scrolled past those. There were a few in languages he couldn’t read, another couple referencing him and his fellow bandmates in conjunction with Lance’s Clear the Lists campaign, 3 saying they missed him, and one asking him to cut his hair.

Finally, one caught his eye and caused a smile to cross his face:

“The days go by and things get better” Thanks for the continuing reminder @JCChasez I needed it today.

JC looked at the user name and handle: Corinne Thompson @corinnebaileynay. JC chuckled and clicked to look at her home page. Her profile pic was a microphone and her banner pic a bunch of flowers. That didn’t really tell him much so he continued to look at her past couple tweets. 

She seemed to only tweet every couple of days and about random odds and ends. From what JC could tell this Corinne liked Grey’s Anatomy, was unsure whether to watch the newest season of American Horror Story, and really didn’t like her job. He clicked over to her recent likes and saw a few baseball references, something about some book he’d never heard of and support of an *Nsync reunion.

“Okay, so she was definitely a fan,” JC thought to himself, almost like he needed to confirm it. He went back to the original tweet he was mentioned in and stared at it. It was sweet and always meant a lot to know someone connected with his music. 

“Fuck it, what could it hurt?” JC questioned out loud as he hit the little heart under the text.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corinne shook her head and pushed her chair away from her computer screen. She was starting to go cross eyed staring at the endless spreadsheet of asset dollars and insurance premiums she was tasked with organizing for her client. It was time for a break. She logged off the system and let her co-worker know she’d be back in a few.

It was a relatively nice day out so Corinne headed outside for some fresh air to power her through the last two hours of her day. She found a picnic table under a shaded tree and pulled out her cell phone and she sat down. One text from her friend confirming dinner plans for that evening. A quick “Cool, see you at 7,” took care of that. She pulled up Yahoo to see if she had missed any major news stories since lunch and luckily the world was still in tact. Her email also proved uneventful as only a “Here’s what’s trending on Etsy” message greeted her.

She popped open Twitter and let her feed load. Latest viral video. Celebrity giving a “first look” at their newest photo shoot. A poll from a podcast she listened to that she quickly answered. Nothing really of note. She saw she had 2 notifications clicked over to that screen. 

The first was a cute gif of the “hang in there” kitty in response to an ancedote she posted about work from one of her college friends and the second was a like to her tweet of some JC lyrics from…..

“That can’t be right,” Corinne said to the phone as she pulled it closer to her face to examine what it said. There, next to the heart symbol was the all too familiar picture of a man holding a phone over his mouth with an exaggerated smile and gold tooth projecting from it. Below JC Chasez liked your Tweet.

Corinne breathed long and deep. “Ok, don’t freak out. It’s probably not JC. It’s some imposter account that copied his picture to look like it’s him.” Another deep breath commenced before Corrine clicked the picture to take her directly to the profile.

An audible gasp escaped her lips as she was taken to the familiar page. The one that hadn’t been updated since Coachella, with the purple screen up top because it had not banner pic and the follow button clearly marked yes. “Fuuuuuuuuck,” she exhaled. She looked around, practically looking to see if someone was punking her. She flipped over to his Likes feed. “Jesus, he hasn’t liked anything in 4 years! This makes no sense,” she thought to herself.

Corinne closed the app and put the phone on the picnic table and breathed into her hands. “Holy shit, JC saw my tweet…..and acknowledged my existence,” she said softly, still trying to believe what she had seen. JC saw the tweet. Maybe he hit the button by mistake but he saw the tweet. What else did he see?

Quickly, Corinne reopened the app and went to her profile page and scrolled down. It had been a few days since she tweeted anything *Nsync related and it hadn’t been too thirsty. She scrolled down more and…..oh, ok, there was one about wanting to tug on his curls. “Shit,” she cursed at herself and went to delete the tweet.

But what if it was too late? What if he had already seen it? What if had seen all the things she had written? She doubled checked and he wasn’t following her so that gave her some odd comfort. But he had seen this tweet. “Oh God, what if he actually used social media but didn’t post anything?” she thought, growing wide eyed.

“No,” she shook the thought off, “no way JC would do that.” She picked up her phone and headed back into the office, trying to convince herself of her statement. But the doubt and excitement of it kept creeping in. “But he could…...oh yes, he could.”