Three days had passed since Lance's birthday party, and Libby was enjoying relaxing on her scheduled day off from work. She’d spent the day slumped in front of the television watching a Friends marathon on one of the cable comedy channels. Unlike Libby, Clare was scheduled to work, and she was surprised to return later in the day to find her friend in exactly the same position as she’d been when she left.

"'That is so not the opposite of taking someone's underwear!'" Libby chorused along with the television as Clare walked into the living room and slung her bag onto the coffee table. Hearing the dialogue of one of her favourite episodes of the show, Clare loudly joined in with the actors on screen causing Libby to grin at her over the arm of the couch.

"'Hi, I'm Chandler, could I be wearing any more clothes?'" Clare chorused as she dropped her keys alongside her bag and slipped off her coat. "Lib, have you even moved at all today?”

Libby opened her mouth to speak at exactly the same time that the sound of a flushing toilet could be heard from the main bathroom. Libby met her friend's eyes and grinned sheepishly as Clare turned her head towards the bathroom and then back at Libby with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I got up to let him in,” Libby explained with a giggle.

"Who is ‘him’?” Clare asked and then rolled her eyes as Justin walked into the room. "Yeah, that was a stupid question," she muttered. "I should’ve guessed!”

"I'm proving to Curly that I can watch all the episodes of Friends in one day," Libby explained through a giant yawn as Justin returned to his seat on the couch beside her.

"Hiya, Gid', you gonna join us or what?" Justin asked as he casually placed his arm on the back of the couch and glanced over at Clare. Clare hesitated before answering, debating with herself whether or not she should leave them in peace. After all, they still had some work to do on repairing their friendship after that infamous night at the club.

"I brought the competition files home with me to run through,” Clare answered reluctantly as an explanation of why she shouldn't join them.

"I can help you later,” Libby offered without removing her eyes from the television. "Come on, don't be a spoil sport!”

~~~~~*~~~~~

JC reached up and knocked loudly on Alyson's front door. It was the fifth time that he'd been to her house in as many days, only Alyson had been out on every occasion. He hoped that this time she'd be home so that he could properly discuss with her the newspaper article. He still didn’t want to believe that she'd spoken to the papers, despite what everyone around him was saying, and he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

He waited a while before knocking again.

"Hang on, I'm comin'!" He heard a young, female voice shout from inside the house and he lowered his hand to his side and waited. The door opened and a breathless young woman stood before him.

"Hi!" She said, recognizing him instantly and breaking into a genuine smile. "You looking for Ally?"

The young woman was Alyson's younger sister, Rachel. She was a petite girl, with long black hair and dark brown eyes. She was only sixteen, but dressed and looked a lot older than her years.

"Yeah, is she here?” JC asked, immediately feeling uncomfortable as he glanced past Rachel into the hallway, looking for signs of Alyson.

He hadn’t anticipated Rachel being at the house, having forgotten that Alyson had mentioned the fact that her sister was staying with her whilst her parents were on vacation. For the first time he wished that Alyson wasn’t home so that he wouldn't have to have what could be a very embarrassing and personal conversation within earshot of her little sister.

"She’s in the shower,” Rachel explained, taking a step to the side and gesturing for him to come in with a wave of her hand. "You can come in and wait for her, if you like.”

"Okay,” JC replied as he followed Rachel into the apartment and along a corridor that led to an open plan kitchen–dining area. At once Rachel set about making him a drink.

"So how you been doin'?" JC asked in an attempt to break what he considered to be an uncomfortable silence. Rachel opened the door of the American style fridge–freezer and pulled out a frosted glass jug containing orange juice. She nudged the door closed with her hip and smiled at him.

"Pretty good. I'm gettin' good grades in school and I've been dating the same guy for almost a year, so yeah. Things are going well, thanks."

Rachel liked JC. She’d spent quite a bit of time in his company when he and Alyson had dated in the past, and he'd always made a special effort to be nice to her. She’d been sad when he and her sister had parted ways, especially as she’d loved seeing the look on her friend's faces when she'd told them that her sister was dating a member of *NSYNC.

Rachel poured the orange juice into two tall glasses before sliding one of them across the kitchen island towards him. Whilst she returned the jug back to the fridge, JC took a polite sip of his drink. Not too long after, Alyson appeared in the doorway.

"Josh! What a lovely surprise,” Alyson said as she entered the room; rubbing a hand towel through her long, wet hair. She walked straight over to him and kissed him on the cheek. Although it shouldn't have, her closeness made him feel uncomfortable, and he fought back the urge to take a step back and create some space between them. JC cleared his throat and glanced briefly at Rachel, who was leaning against a counter watching their exchange with interest.

"I wasn’t expecting to see you today,” Alyson continued, seemingly unaware of his discomfort.

"Err, yeah. I just thought I'd pop by," JC mumbled. "Actually, there was something I kinda needed to talk to you about."

If Alyson was surprised then she did a good job of hiding it.

"All right,” she answered, lowering the towel and fixing him with a curious look.

Sensing that the conversation was not intended for her ears, Rachel decided that it was best to leave the two of them alone. "I'll leave you to it," she said as she picked up her glass and made her way across the kitchen to offer JC brief hug. "It was nice to see you again, JC. Don’t be a stranger, okay?"

JC returned her hug half–heartedly, his eyes never leaving Alyson’s. He didn’t want to believe it but he thought that he could detect a hint of panic behind her dark eyes. Had he been wrong after all? Was she hiding something from him?

~~~~~*~~~~~

Once Justin had left to give the girls some time to work, Clare automatically began setting up the files that she had bought home with her across the living room floor. Libby, meanwhile, cleared away her Friends videos and turned on the CD player.

It was going to be a long night of sorting through the competition entries and the tedious job required as comfortable a work environment as possible. This meant that the girls had a very real need for background music. They'd both procrastinated long enough and now they were left with no option but to buckle down and get on with the job. However boring it might be.

So far, they were about a quarter of the way through reading the hundred or so applications that they'd received for the 'win a date' competition. Once they had sorted them into possible candidates, they had to choose from those applications the six winners, and the ten runners up who in turn would win tickets to see the group at the special live performance, which was to be featured on the Disney Channel later in the year.

With a sigh, Libby found a spare space on the carpet and stretched out her legs in front of her before picking up the first of many sheets of paper that were scattered around about her. She regarded the Polaroid photograph that was attached to the application and let out a huff.

"Anyone over the age of seventeen is out, right?” She asked as she glanced up at Clare, who was reading another of the entries.

"Agreed,” Clare said without looking up.

"How about people who look older than seventeen?” Libby asked as she squinted closer at the photograph.

"Lib,” Clare chided in a warning tone, "We need six winners. You can’t eliminate everyone.”

"Hmm... shame,” Libby mumbled as she placed the entry onto the 'reject' pile anyway and picked up another application.

"Of course, if they happened to be interested in Lance, Joey or Chris then I guess it would be okay.” Libby caught Clare's eye and giggled. Both girls had a mutual understanding that when it came to the fans with an interest in Justin or JC, then they could afford to be slightly more particular than they might otherwise be.

"Listen to this,” Libby said before reading aloud from the entry that she was holding. "I want a date with *NSYNC because I am in love with Justin, and if I don't meet him I'll just die!"

"In the 'bin' pile, me thinks."

During the next two hours the women managed to work their way down to twenty entries before Libby gave in to the pulsing ache in her legs and stood up. Immediately, the pain worsened, and she began to hop up and down on the spot as she tried to shake the pins and needles from her lower body.

"Man, this job can suck,” she complained as she grasped onto the back of the couch to help her get her balance.

"Mm–hmm," Clare said as she watched Libby's display of acrobatics with a smirk. "But then again, it's not all bad."

"Isn't it?” Libby asked as she turned to look at her friend.

"Well, we get to see Josh and Justin every day. That's gotta be an upside."

"Hmm, yeah, I guess. But I still think it'd be easier if we didn't have feelings for them,” Libby replied honestly. "I'm sure sooner or later I'm gonna slip up. I don't know how much longer I can pretend not to have feelings for him."

"Biting his head off all the time must get pretty tiresome,” Clare sniggered, thinking back to the many occasions that Libby had used her quick temper to cover her feelings for Justin. "I mean, I know that he’s annoying and all but how do you keep it up? Especially after the pair of you shared that kiss!”

"Hey! We promised never to talk about that again! Besides, it wasn’t that great..."

"What! You didn't shut up about it for weeks! Even when you were pretending to everyone else that it had never happened."

+ + +

It had been the same night that Justin had turned up unexpectedly at her door to watch a movie.

They’d both lingered in the doorway, having already said good-night several times, but neither of them had made any moves to bring the evening to a close. Libby had been searching her brain to think of something to say that wasn’t either stupid or pointless when Justin had taken a step towards her. He'd reached out an arm towards her—almost as though he were about to stroke her face—but his hand had frozen about a centimetre away.

Libby had stared up at him, startled but also exhilarated by the sudden change in mood as the atmosphere had crackled around them. She’d opened her mouth to speak—even though her mind had remained completely blank—but before she’d been able to form any words to say, Justin’s mouth had found hers and he’d kissed her so tentatively that Libby had hardly been sure that they'd touched at all.

Afterwards, Justin had at once started apologising and muttering that he’d ‘gotten carried away’, but suddenly having become overwhelmed with confidence, Libby had reached forward and grabbed the collar of Justin’s Tshirt, yanking him forward so that their lips met once again. The kiss had lasted longer this time, and somehow Libby had even managed to find herself tangled up in his arms, all before the phone began to ring, disturbing them both. Realising that the phone call could have been Clare calling to check up on her, Libby had left Justin at the door, assuming that he would still be there waiting for her when she returned.

He hadn’t been. Both himself and his car had long gone.

Justin’s awkwardness around her the next day had told Libby all that she’d needed to know, and since then she hadn’t discussed the kiss with anyone but Clare. However, it hadn't stopped her thinking about it.

+ + +

"When I think of JC with his ex it makes me feel like doing things I've only seen in horror movies," Clare grumbled as the *NSYNC debut album began its second turn on repeat.

'Oh baby I don't understand / Just why we can't be lovers / Things are getting out of hand / Tryin' too much but baby we can win / Let it go / If you want me girl let me know / I am down on my knees / I can't take it anymore.

It's tearin' up my heart when I'm with you / But when we are apart I feel it too / And no matter what I do / I feel the pain / With or without you...'

Clare and Libby shared a goofy grin as they listened to the words of the song and began to sing along—at first in mocking tones and then in outright karaoke style singing. They fell about with laughter a few words into the second verse.

"Do you think we'll ever get to tell them how we feel?" Libby asked Clare as she leaned against the back of the couch. Clare got to her feet and offered her friend a simple shrug.

"Who knows," Clare said. "Maybe in time they’ll work it out for themselves.” Libby sniggered at the thought. "Can you imagine sounding off at them one day and then ending it with an ‘I love you’?”

"Eurgh, that’d be awful," Libby said with a grimace. "Especially if it were in front of everybody."

"It'd be funny though."

"It would be amusing to see their faces," Libby agreed as she imagined how Justin would react if he discovered her true feelings for him. "I’d have to stop biting his head off," she added as an afterthought.

"Could you?” Clare asked only half seriously causing both women to break into giggles once more.

"You know what? I'm really not sure!"

~~~~~*~~~~~

"Working hard?” Justin called loudly as he entered the girl's apartment unannounced an hour or so later, closely followed by JC. Libby’s head snapped around at the familiar sound of Justin's voice and she shot Clare a warning glance, her cheeks flushing scarlet at the memory of what the men might have overhead had they arrived earlier.

"Doorbell!” Clare chided as both men entered the living with beaming grins on their faces. She shot Justin a withering glance which caused him to laugh and shrug an apology.

"It was open!” He explained in an innocent voice before turning to JC for backup. "Right?"

"Well, the deadbolt wasn't on...” JC clarified with a sheepish glance at Clare’s annoyed face. JC knew better than to try to pretend that they hadn't used the spare key to open the front door. Clare made a mental note to herself to hide where she kept the key.

"That is not the same thing as an invitation,” she continued to scold Justin as she glanced away from JC's face. Since the 'Alyson situation' she'd found it hard to maintain eye contact with him for more than a few seconds. She knew that she really had no reason to be upset with him, but she couldn't deny that it'd hurt her to discover that he'd been sleeping with someone else.

Libby quickly rushed across the room to turn off the stereo before the *NSYNC album began to play again. "What did you say you were doing here?” She asked Justin as she  shoved the album case under a nearby pile of magazines, hoping that her question would be enough to distract him from noticing what her hands were doing.

"We didn’t,” Justin replied as he playfully poked his tongue out at her.

"Actually—" JC continued as he glared over at his friend, "we figured that you wouldn’t have eaten so we brought over some food. We guessed that you’d be hungry.” He pulled a large, brown paper bag out from behind his back and flashed them both a triumphant grin. "Did we do well?"

"Yummy!” Libby exclaimed as she rushed over to peep into the bag before disappearing off into the kitchen in search of plates and cutlery.

"Let me guess, Lynn made you bring it over?” Clare said with a fond smile.

"You know my mom,” Justin replied as he followed Libby's departure with his eyes. "She always cooks for fifty thousand.”

"Do you need any help with that?” JC asked Clare as he pointed at the sheets of paper that littered most of the living room carpet. Despite appearances the women had nearly finished their work, and the piles of paperwork were actually meticulously organised.

"Thanks, but we’ve nearly finished. It’s just choosing the runners up now. You could help with that, if you like?”

"Sure,” JC said as he dropped to the floor and picked up one of the applications from the pile marked 'runners up'. Justin made his way over and made himself comfortable on the couch in the seat nearest to JC.

"It would be funny to see some of the reasons our fans want to meet us!” Justin said as he glanced up to meet Clare's eyes.

"Funny is not the word, believe me!” Libby told him as she re–entered the room, balancing four plates, glasses and sets of cutlery in both of her arms. She plonked it all down onto the coffee table in front of them and rolled her eyes at Justin. "Scary is the word you're looking for."

"Really?" He asked her as the smile slowly disappeared from his face.

"Oh, yeah."

~~~~~*~~~~~

Lance sat alone in the movie theatre wishing that he'd managed to convince at least one of his friends to accompany him. After finding out that there was nothing showing that anyone else in the group had wanted to see, he’d ended up going to the movies alone. Now as he sat in the darkened room slurping soda through a plastic straw, Lance wished that he had someone to talk to.

He hadn't worked up the courage to call Jenny. His courage had deserted him at the crucial moment. Had the cinema trip been a group outing, he'd have had no trouble inviting her along, but since it'd turned out that it would have just been the two of them he'd lost his nerve. He didn't want her thinking that he'd tricked her into a date.

As he sat brooding over the trailers, a familiar voice caught his attention, and Lance turned his head to find Jenny standing in the aisle beside his chair, a look of surprise on her face.

"Hi!" She said brightly. "What are you doing here all alone?" Immediately Lance felt his palms begin to sweat, and he ran his palms over the knees of his jeans to dry them. Her unexpected appearance had taken him by surprise and he felt himself clamming up with nerves.

"Err... well, no one else was really up for it and I really wanted to this movie, so..."

"You came alone?" Jenny asked, the skin around her eyes crinkling in amusement.

"Err... yeah," Lance replied awkwardly. For the first time he noticed that she was alone, too. "Are you here on your own?"

"Yeah. Like you my friends bailed. There's no accounting for taste, is there?" Jenny laughed good–naturedly and gave him a small shrug. Lance beamed. He couldn't fight his amusement at the irony of them turning up at the same showing of the same film.

"We could sit together, if you like?" Lance asked her hopefully as he gestured at the empty seat beside him.

"Yeah, thanks," Jenny said shyly. "I'd like that."

~~~~~*~~~~~

When the movie was over, Lance politely offered Jenny a ride back to campus in his black Toyota 4Runner. For once in her life, Jenny didn't feel any hesitation in accepting. Lance even held the passenger door open for her as they reached the car which made Jenny grin. His chivalrous behaviour and the way he was being so attentive to her made her stomach flutter with butterflies. The more time she spent with him, the more she liked him. Even without Libby's encouraging texts—of which she'd sent several—trying to sell her on him.

As Lance hopped into the driver's seat and turned on the ignition, he flicked the button on the in–car stereo filling the car with the sounds of the local radio station Magic 107.7 FM. Almost immediately, Britney Spears' newest track 'Baby One More Time' began to play.

"She's really talented, isn't she," Jenny said as she began to hum along to the music. Lance gave her a sideways look and smiled.

"Yeah, she's pretty great. We spent some time on tour with her a while back. She's a lot of fun."

"Oh, that's right. I forgot that you'd know her. Silly of me," Jenny said as she turned her eyes away from the road ahead to glance at him. "So, you went on tour with Britney? That must have been really fun!"

"Yeah," Lance said, grinning at the memory. "We had a blast. We'd get up to the dumbest things. One time we were playin' hacky before a show and Chris lost his balance, but instead of letting the hacky fall, he stretched out to catch it and fell backwards straight onto Britney. He pretty much crushed her. Needless to say she wasn't impressed!" As she pictured the scene that Lance painted in her head, Jenny began to laugh. "She handled it really well, fortunately. Not many girls could handle being around us twenty–four–seven whilst on tour. But Britney really fits in, you know?"

"One of the guys?" Jenny asked him with a raised eyebrow causing Lance to throw his head back and laugh.

"Something like that," he admitted with a twinkle in his eye.

"So what have you got planned for tomorrow?" Jenny asked him meekly, hoping that the question wasn't too pushy. She wanted him to know that she was interested in him, but as she was such a shy person, she struggled to make her intentions clear. She tried to use humour to lighten the atmosphere just in case it turned out that he wasn't interested in her in the way that she hoped. "Official *NSYNC business?"

Lance grinned. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. We've got interviews first thing in the morning. Then a meeting at the Compound to discuss the tour. After that, more dance rehearsals and then a meeting with our management to discuss a possible new album." Lance's answer threw Jenny completely off guard. All of that in one day? She wondered how he found time for anything other than *NSYNC. Would he have time for a relationship? Presuming that he liked someone enough to want to be in one...

Lance turned his head and met Jenny's eyes, noting the surprised expression on her face. "Sounds like a lot, huh?" He chuckled.

Jenny nodded. "Yeah, it does. When do you have time for—"

"A life of my own?" Lance interrupted, knowing where the conversation was heading. He'd learnt to anticipate the question over the years. He'd been asked it enough.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Don't worry, I make time for me, too. Which brings me to my next question... Would you like to do this again, sometime?"

Jenny blushed. She hadn't been anticipating that, but she was thrilled that he'd asked. "Err... yeah. I would," she said.

"Great. Then consider it a date."

~~~~~*~~~~~