Chapter 23: Hell Freezes Over Part 1

January 16th 1997

The next two days were spent going over their set list with a fine tooth comb making sure they got their cues right and they put in every ounce of energy they had. Those two days were the longest two days ever, according to Justin, who couldn’t wait to get on the road and finally do what he wanted. The last few months were a blur to him but all he had to do now was concentrate on the task ahead of them: perform a good show night after night. He was so eager to leave that he, personally, wanted to wake up his very best friend in the world the only way he knew how.

They dropped by her house early that morning and he practically tore out of the car, banging his fists on the front door. Philippe opened the door, took one look at him, and pointed out of the foyer. Justin ran out of the room, down a small hall, up the flight of stairs, and into Mack’s room. He pushed open the door slowly to make sure he didn’t wake her up. He tiptoed across the room, quickly took off his shoes, and smiled. He suddenly jumped into the air and landed on her bed, jumping around, jostling her.

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” He chanted as he jumped around. He could feel her legs moving through the blanket, probably trying to trip him.

“Ow! My wrist!” She suddenly cried out.

Justin instantly stopped jumping. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean it.”

Mack grabbed the pillow that was under her head and hit him hard, causing him to fall to the floor with a thud. “Sucker,” she snickered, sitting up. “You didn’t even land on me.”

“That hurt,” he whined, rubbing his head.

“Suck it up you damn baby,” she muttered, tossing back her covers and getting off of her bed, her hands instantly flying up to her hair and fixing it. “I knew you were going to do that.”

“How?” Justin lifted his eyebrows.

“I heard your incessant banging you moron.”

“Stop calling me names and get dressed all ready,” he ordered, glancing at her t-shirt and lounge pants. “We gotta leave, chop chop!” He started clapping.

“Stop rushing me and stop clapping for fuck’s sake. I’m not a dog!” She growled.

Justin stopped clapping and watched her move around the room, pulling open drawers to find a t-shirt and then move to her closet to grab a pair of pants. “What’s gotten you so pissy?” He asked then he made a face. “Oh. Is it…um…did your ‘Aunt Flow’ come to visit?”

Mack paused what she was doing and looked at Justin. It scared her to know that the guys knew about what girls went through every month, it was something they should never know nor ever understand. The fact that he was comfortable talking about it freaked her out. Silently she shook her head and retreated to her bathroom.

Justin walked around the room as he heard water start to run. He looked at her floor noticing balled up pieces of paper along with clothes strewn everywhere. He smiled to himself. She amused him. One minute she wouldn’t mind a mess but the next second she’d harp at the guys about cleaning when they all knew she wanted to do it to just get it over with. Sometimes Lance and Chris helped, which confused him to the brink of insanity. Why they were being so helpful all of a sudden, at least. It was like they knew something he didn’t and that bugged him.

He picked up a balled up piece of paper and slowly started to open it. It wasn’t invading her privacy, technically, it was balled up and it was going to be moved to the trash soon anyway…Justin unfolded the piece of paper the entire way and read what was written on it.

Is it enough to love?

Is it enough to breathe?

Somebody rip my heart out

And leave me here to bleed

Is it enough to die?

Somebody save my life

I’d rather be anything than ordinary, please

Justin’s eyebrows crinkled together in confusion and concern. He looked up when he felt another presence in the room. He sighed with relief when he saw that it was just his mother. Lynn didn’t say anything; she just raised her eyebrows in a questioning way, a look that Justin has seen a lot as he grew up. Silently he held out the piece of paper and she looked it over, before looking back at him and he shrugged. She nodded and shoved the paper into her purse as the bathroom door opened.

“Hi, sweetie,” Lynn greeted Mack with a smile.

“Hi Lynn,” Mack replied, closing her bathroom door behind herself. Justin lifted his eyebrows and looked at Lynn who had the same look on her face. Since when did she address Lynn simply as that? “I think I have everything,” she said, breaking the silence and looking at her large suitcase which was sitting by the door.

“You aren’t going to bring that?” Justin asked, nodding to her blue acoustic guitar that was sitting in the corner of the room. Mack stared at it for a few seconds, as if in a trance, before crossing the room and grabbing it by the neck. Dropping to her knees, she pulled out its case and put it inside, closing the lid and safely securing it. “Do you need help?”

“You can get my suitcase. Thanks.” She smiled a bit and Justin smiled in return. He then, eagerly, grabbed the handle of the suitcase and tried to pull it but it didn’t budge. He tugged a few more times and then huffed.

“What the heck do you have in here? Shoes?”

“No, that’s you. I don’t own more than three pairs. You’re the one who practically busy out entire stores whenever you go shoe shopping.”

“Hey, there’s no need to rip on me this early in the morning.”

“Yet you’re as chipper as a wood one. Why’re you so perky any way? It’s too early for you to have eaten anything yet.” The two grabbed onto different ends of the suitcase and lifted it into the air, shuffling slowly to the door as Lynn followed them carrying her guitar case.

“Am I not allowed to be happy to see my best friend?” he asked.

“Not this perky. It’s starting to scare me.”

He shrugged a bit and yawned. “How’re you so wide awake anyway?”

“I don’t sleep,” she replied simply, letting go of her end of the suitcase so it fell against the floor. “Ok, Daddy, this is it,” she said, turning to him. He scooped her into his arms and hugged her tight. “Are you sure you’ll be fine running the shop without me?”

“Yes,” he laughed a bit. It sounded forced to Justin. “Go, travel Europe, live your dreams, have fun, meet a boy.” He put heavy emphasis on the last order.

Mack made a face. “Like that’ll happen.”

“You never know, sweetheart.”

“Whatever you say.” She waved her hand before squeezing him again. “I’ll call you once we land, ok?”

“Ok, I love you.”

“Je t’aime aussi.”Philippe kissed her forehead and let her go. Mack looked down when she felt tiny feet step on hers. “Oh, I don’t want to leave them behind,” she muttered, kneeling and scooping Oreo and Little J into her arms. “Can I take them with me?”

“I don’t know, sweetie,” Lynn replied. “It would be hard for them to live on a bus and I don’t think hotels allow pets.”

“Pleeeeeeease?” She begged.

Justin noticed the hint of desperation in her voice and joined in.”Yeah, Momma, please?”

Lynn sighed. “We’ll talk to Johnny along the way, ok? Grab their carriers and if they have to come back here–“

“I’ll pick them up,” Philippe finished. “Take care of my daughter,” he addressed softly to both Justin and Lynn.

“She’s in good hands,” Lynn told him, smiling.

His facial features relaxed and he smiled in return. He stood in the doorway as they slowly carried the suitcase out of the house and put it in the trunk of the van that was waiting to take her to the airport. Mack ran back up the steps and hugged him one more time, picked up Oreo and Little J, and got into the van. He waved until the van turned a corner and drove out of sight.

He sighed and rubbed his face with his palm. “Now both my girls left me.”

* * *

It seemed to be their luck that they got to the airport earlier than they needed to which meant they had to spend two hours trying to find things to do. Justin and Chris had disappeared ten minutes ago but they haven’t been gone long enough for the others to worry. Lance was reading and JC was asleep on top of their carry-ons

Joey stared hard at the pieces on the board in front of him. He rested his elbow on his knee and propped his chin on his palm. He used his free hand to drum his fingers on his other knee. Smiling, he grabbed the black piece, moved it forward a bit, and knocked the white knight off of the board. “Ha!” he cheered triumphantly.

“You can’t do that! That’s not a real move!” Mack pointed out.

“Oh, you actually wanted to play?” Joey asked in realization. “I thought that was just a façade so the others wouldn’t bother you.”

“Façade for…?” Mack looked down at her pawn and moved it before leaning backwards, putting her weight on her palms. “I usually have a reason for not wanting you guys to bother me. Aside from the normal reason of not wanting you to bother me.”

“What?” Joey asked in confusion.

She made a face. “Yeah, I didn’t really get it either,” she admitted before the two started laughing. “And for the façade thing, it’s just…hmmm…you guys don’t seem to want to accept when I say that I’m ok and there’s nothing bothering me yet you all pry and press on the subject that it gets on my nerves.”

“Well, it’s hard not to worry about you,” Joey admitted looking back down at the board. “And it’s not just ‘cause you’re the youngest and you’re a girl. With everything that’s happening to us we don’t want you to think that we’re leaving you out or we don’t want to spend time with you. ‘Cause we do. You do so much for us and we rarely get a chance to thank you.” He moved a piece.

She waved her hand. “It’s no big deal.”

“Yes it is,” Joey insisted. “Justin says you dream of being a professional choreographer or dancer of some sort. I mean, you have to put up with us ever day just to get one step closer to your dream job and you have to work for it.” He paused. “Not that we don’t,” he quickly added. “I mean…um…well…”

“I get it,” Mack interrupted him. “And I appreciate it.” She looked down, smiled, moved a piece, and said, “Checkmate.”

“What!?” Joey grabbed the board and held it at eye level. He closed one eye and widened the other as he stared hard at the pieces. The look on his face caused Mack to burst out laughing. Lance put down the book he was reading and leaned over Joey’s shoulder. “There’s no way!”

“No, she beat you,” Lance said, looking over the pieces. “Were you even trying, Joe?”

“Nah.” He put the board down, shaking his head. “After playing against JC I don’t try anymore.” Lance chuckled and returned his attention to his book only to drop it a couple of seconds later in reaction to Chris yelling in his ear.

“You’re too easy to scare,” Chris chuckled as he and Justin sat down on either side of him. Lance muttered something incoherent under his breath as Justin and Chris unwrapped candy bars and prepared to take a bite.

“Justin, where’d you get that?” Lynn asked, stopping them.

“Candy place,” Justin replied simply.

“Where’d you get the money?” She asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

“Well, Chris and I got bored so we decided to see if anyone would give us extra change if we sang some songs. We made five dollars in change so we bought this candy.” He beamed, obviously pleased with his idea.

“You should’ve let me film that,” Joey said as he grabbed his video camera and turned it on, holding it up to his eye.

“Yeah, give the security guards a reason to tackle you and hold you for questioning. That’lll be entertaining,” Mack said as she gathered the pieces of the game and put it back in the mini box that they came out of. “More fun than holding a contest to see how long it takes for JC’s drool to reach his ear.”

“Who’s winning?” Justin asked.

“Lance is so far.”

“I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that you’re watching drool slide down JC’s face – which is disgusting by the way – or the fact that you’re betting on it,” Chris muttered, looking at the wrapper of the chocolate bar in his hands and then snorted. “Serves two people? Yeah right, buddy!” He then shoved the rest of the candy bar into his mouth and started to chew. He chomped down only about three times before his eyes widened, he made a gagging sound, and coughed the moist chocolate on the floor while the others groaned.

“I guess the companies are right when they tell you the serving size,” Lance muttered.

“Shut up!” Chris snapped, rubbing the base of his neck.

“I’m not the one choking to death.”

“I’m going to sue.”

“For not listening to them?”

“For not warning me.”

“It says on the wrapper that it serves two.”

“For all I know it could mean serves two bites.”

“Do whatever, but I’m not paying for your funeral.”

“That’s ok, you can just write my obituary,” Chris said with a dismissal wave of his hand.

“Do you know how much those cost?”

“No, how much?”

“$650 for a paragraph.”

“What!? That’s ridiculous.”

“Yeah, so I’m not going to add a picture but I’ll put two words.”

“Oh yeah? What?”

Lance looked at him and smiled innocently. “Ignorant fool.”

Chris laughed sarcastically and flipped Lance off. “God, how much longer until we can go? I hate waiting around.”

“We all know that. I guess you missed your much needed nap, Old Man,” Justin mused.

“You’re all going to want to take a nap once you get there ‘cause you’re going to need as much energy as you can get for tomorrow,” Johnny commented as he sat down in a chair near them.

“They’re that busy?” Mack questioned.

Johnny nodded. “Very busy with promotion. As soon as they wake up tomorrow they’re going to a TV interview, then they have a radio interview, and then after that they have a radio interview as well as a photo shoot and a show that night.” He chuckled when he saw the shocked and amazed looks on their faces. “It’s the price you pay when you get popular. You guys were a hit over night, might as well ride on the success before it goes down, well, if it goes down.”

“Johnny, what am I going to do?” Mack asked quietly so the others couldn’t hear her. “Not that I don’t like hanging out with the guys all day. I just want to do something different for once.”

Johnny thought about it for a couple of seconds. “Well, the Backstreet Boys have a show for this festival during the day tomorrow. I have an extra ticket for it if you’d want to catch that. This way you can see them and see the guys perform and you’re not missing much.” He paused. “If you’re into the Backstreet Boys that is.”

Mack shrugged. “To be honest I’m not fully into them but it’s better than following the guys around all day.”

“Huh. I thought you’d be one of their fans. They’re the same as Nsync in many ways, they just have a few more ballads.”

“That’s the main reason why I’m not into them. I’m not a ballad person, no matter how heartfelt they are.”

Johnny laughed. “Just wait, Little Lady, soon you’re going to become one of their fans.” He shrugged. “Maybe even get a crush on one of them.”

“Ha! The day that happens is the day Hell freezes over.”

* * *

Mack flopped down on her hotel bed and let out a sigh before it switch to a cry of pain when Justin landed on top of her. “Justin! Get off!” She groaned, poking him in the side.

“What’d you say? I can’t hear you, I’m asleep,” he muttered.

“You don’t talk in your sleep!”

“Yes I do.” He then proceeded to let out a loud, fake snore.

“Je te déteste,” Mack muttered.

“No you don’t,” Justin said, rolling onto his stomach so he was looking right into her eyes.

Her eyebrows crinkled. “How did you know what I said? You don’t understand a lick of French.”

“I understood that. You’ve been spitting it at Trace and I since you could talk.” He smiled. “You’re not that hard to figure out.”

“Thanks for establishing that, now lâche-moi.” Justin stared at her. “Get off me.” She shoved him and he hit the floor with a thud.

“You’re so abusive,” he whined, rubbing his back.

She merely shrugged and smiled innocently. “Blame Trace, he’s the one who taught me to fight back.”

“Remind me to tell him that I hate him.”

“Hey Justin! Come quick,” Chris shouted as he burst into the room. “We’re dropping water balloons from the balcony.”

“So? C’s going to stop us in a few minutes anyway,” Justin said, shrugging.

“Not this time. He’s dead asleep in his room.”

“Oh, I am so there!”

Mack’s plams itched. She really wanted to join them in throwing water balloons but decided against it. The lsat thing she wanted as JC scolding her like he was her dad or something. Shaking her head a bit she went to go find Lynn who was in the bathroom brushing out her hair, saying something about how altitude messed it up. Mack wanted to call her out on it, asking how altitude could really do that but she chalked it u to being a Lynn thing so she didn’t say anything.

“Are you ok, sweetie?” Lynn asked once she noticed Mack leaning against the doorway to the bathroom.

“I’m bored,” she replied. “The guys are doing something stupid and JC’s sleeping.”

Lynn chuckled. “Why don’t you come with me to the store? I want to pick up some things before so we have some food to eat while on the tour bus so we don’t have to keep stopping at fast food places.”

“Sure.” She shrugged and backed out of the bathroom so Lynn could leave herself. She quickly scribbled a note and left it on the TV, sure that Justin would see it once he got back into their room. She grabbed her purse and the two went down the hall, into the elevator, down to the lobby and out to their rental car. “How the heck do they expect people to read these maps?” Mack mumbled as she turned the map upside down and sideways trying to figure out where they were.

“Well they expect people to know German,” Lynn pointed out.

“Not everyone in the freaking world knows German! Geeze! It’s not that hard to put stuff in English!” Lynn laughed as Mack continued to rant about how Germany was trying to get Americans lost on purpose instead of helping them when they finally made it to the store. Her rant somehow changed to something about Kaiser Rolls. “And do they have to be so damn hard? I practically broke a tooth on one of those.”

“Quiet down, you wouldn’t want to upset them,” Lynn finally laughed, shushing the girl almost automatically. Her hands were shoved in her pockets and her shoulders were slumped as she followed Lynn quietly, only speaking up to stop Lynn from buying something that one of the guys hated or disliked. “May I ask you something?” Lynn finally broke the silence.

“Sure, Lynn,” Mack replied in a distracted tone, reading a box of cereal.

“I wanted to talk to you about that. Why do you call me Lynn?” She questioned, looking at the young girl.

She replaced the box on the shelf and looked over at the woman. “That’s your name,” she replied simply.

“I know, but you don’t call me Lynn. You usually call me Momma Lynn. Why’d you stop?”

Mack shrugged but stated simply, “You’re not my Momma.”

Lynn suddenly stopped walking. It finally clicked. “That’s what this is about?” Mack stayed silent. “Why you’re been so quiet lately? Why you’ve had a shorter fuse than usual? It’s about your mother, isn’t it?” Mack shrugged. “Sweetie, come here.” She pulled Mack towards her and held her tight. Mack tensed at first, he could feel it, but she finally relaxed so much it was as if her body went limp. “I know what you’re going through his hard, especially since you’re older, but you have to know that your parents splitting up isn’t your fault nor were you the cause of it. They’re splitting up because of their own problems.”

“I know.” Her words were choked and slightly muffled. “It’s just…they think I couldn’t see this happening and they won’t say anything to me.” She pulled out of Lynn’s grasp and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I mean, I’ve always had this weird suspicion ever since I was younger that they were too perfect, you know?” Lynn nodded and rubbed her back in between her shoulder blades. She sniffed and hastily wiped the tears from her eyes and Lynn smiled a bit at her reaction. She never liked to let anyone see her cry, it made her feel vulnerable. “If I got tears in this thing…” she muttered, turning her attention to her cast.

Lynn chuckled and finished up the rest of the shopping and they went back to the hotel. Lynn raised an eyebrow when she saw Justin sitting cross legged on his bed, looking at her as soon as she came through the door, a sheepish smile was on his face.

“Oooh, what’d you do this time?” Mack asked eagerly, a grin spreading across her face.

“That’s for Justin to say to his mother,” JC replied, standing over him, arms crossed.

“No way am I leaving now.” Mack put down her bags and rubbed her hands together. “What’s his punishment this time?”

Lynn sighed. “JC…”

He nodded and lightly grabbed Mack’s upper arm. “Hey! I want to see what happens!” She protested, trying to wiggle out of JC’s grasp but he propelled her right out the door. “JC! Come on!” She whined.

“You have the weirdest sense of humor, you know that?” JC asked as he jabbed the down button with his thumb.

“But that’s just one of my many charms.” JC made a scoffing noise and let go of her arm as soon as they stepped into the elevator. He rocked back and forth on his feet, his hands in his pockets, whistling as he waited for the elevator to get to the bottom floor. “Where are you taking me?” She finally demanded.

JC stopped whistling and merely smiled. “You’ll see.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re kidnapping me!” She exclaimed pointing an accusing finger in his face.                        

He just laughed. “I’d go to greater lengths if I were kidnapping you. This is too easy.”