~2~

Honolulu, Hawaii

“Here’s to Troy Antunes, the best bass-hole around.”

“Nice one, Joe.”

Lance Bass lifted his shot glass of beer—Root Beer for those underage like himself—into the air, his deep “hear hear” mixing in with those of everyone around him before he tossed his head back, swallowing the carbonated drink in a single swallow. A spike of energy rushed through him, amping him up even more than his nerves of excitement already had him. “The last show of tour, T-Roy, how do you feel?” He set his glass down onto the table and wiped his mouth on the back of his arm.

“It’s been a blast, and I’m going to miss you guys,” Troy replied after he swallowed his mouthful of beer. His face scrunched up for a brief moment before he shook his head, letting out a breath of air. “This was fun, but my wife and my family needs me.” He reached out an arm and wrapped it around the African American man standing next to him. “It’s been great performing with my old man, but I gotta split.”

“That’s my boy,” Kevin said with a chuckle as he ruffled his son’s head. “Taking after his old man.” Troy rolled his eyes before pushing his dad away from him.

 “Emphasis on the old,” Troy replied and a loud “Ohhhh!” hit the air.

As his laughter faded, Lance looked around the concrete room as Justin Timberlake jogged in place, over at JC Chasez who started running through scales, at Chris Kirkpatrick who was miming through their dance steps, and then over at Joey Fatone who was talking to a girl who had managed to get the chance to come backstage to meet them.

He remembered when they first started out, they were so young, so naïve, and so excited about everything around them, they had no idea that they should be worried about the money they should be making. Not until it was almost too late, anyway. Now they were seventeen (Justin), nineteen (Lance), twenty (Joey), twenty-one (JC), and twenty-six (Chris). Even at those ages they were still young, naïve, and excited about things to come. Now they were losing one member of their family.

“Come on, ring!” Lance said, lifting his cell phone out of his pocket, practically screaming at it, much like he had the past few times he checked his phone.

“Relax, Lance,” Chris said as he stopped what he was doing before making his way over to his friend, dropping into the seat beside him. “I swear, that thing would shit a data brick if it actually had feelings.”

“You’re lovely as usual, Chris,” Lance said with a brief roll of his eyes before turning his head towards the oldest *NSYNC member. 

“Aren’t I, though?” Chris asked with a bright smile and Lance rolled his eyes a second time. Chris punched him on the shoulder and Lance tightened his grip on his phone as to not drop it. “So, you’ve been sitting over here waiting for your phone to ring for the past thirty minutes, when normally, you’re the first to get a hacky in.” A suggestive grin came across Chris’s face and he wiggled his eyebrows. “Waiting for a hot call or something?”

“Or something.” Lance briefly made a face when Chris punched him on the shoulder a second time before he started laughing. “I’m waiting for a call from my mom, that’s all,” Lance replied.

“You’re lying,” Chris said, still laughing. “Unless you’re even more Southern than I thought.” Lance made a clicking sound with his tongue but didn’t say anything. He had learned quickly the best way to get Chris to shut up was to not give him your attention, not matter what came out of his mouth. And a lot came out of his mouth. “I’m kidding. Unless it’s some kinky thing you’re into then…”

No. He definitely had to speak up now. Or let his fist do the talking. “Just stop talking,” Lance said in a monotone. “I am waiting for my mom to call, Chris, and my friend, Ace. I told her to call me back after Melanie left a voice message for her.”

“There we go,” Chris said, nodding his head. “Now was that so hard?”

He looked up as Joey walked over with a blushing blonde next to him. She was wearing a homemade *NSYNC t-shirt and really tight jeans. She adjusted her purse on her shoulder, knocking the large hoop earring that hung off her earlobe as she gave them a bright smile. She was a looker, and she was sure as hell Joey didn’t even have to give her half a glance before he was interested.

“Chris, Lance, this is Elizabeth,” Joey said, motioning towards the girl.

“Hi,” Lane said as he got to his feet, sliding his phone into his pocket. He slid his hand into hers and shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Very nice to meet you,” Chris said, jumping to his feet to offer Elizabeth his hand. Lance caught Joey’s eye and the two of them hid the smiles that tried to work its way onto their faces. “I’m Chris.”

“Hi,” Elizabeth said, shaking Chris’s hand before turning towards Lance. “So, you’re from Mississippi. So am I?” She said it as more of a question than a statement as if testing the waters of conversation to rope him in.

“Really?” Lance asked her, blinking in surprise. “Where from?”

“Biloxi,” Elizabeth replied, adjusting her purse a second time. “I’ve been to all of your shows there.” She lifted a hand to brush some of her hair behind her ear. “It’s so great to know that someone from Mississippi can go on and do something this amazing. You, uh, never really hear about people being from there.”

“I know what you mean,” Lance replied, giving her a polite smile. He watched as she messed with her hair a second time and let out a sigh through his nose.

She was flirting, that much was obvious to him. It was rare to have any girl that came back stage to not flirt with any of them. That was one of the top four reactions whenever fans got the chance to go back stage, it edged out screaming, crying, and fainting.

The two of them continued to talk about life in Mississippi, or rather she did more talking than he did. Nervous talking. At a couple of times during their—arguably one-sided—conversation, he just found himself nodding his head and adding an “Mhm”, “Uh-huh”, and “Yeah” every now and then to make it seem like he was still listening.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in talking about his life in Mississippi, he loved talking to anybody that would listen about how great Mississippi was, but it was obvious to him when people tried to talk to him about it just as a way to find an “in” with him. No one needed to try that hard. He was like an open book. Almost.

He wasn’t even sure when Joey and Chris had left the conversation, not that he could blame them, but suddenly, Elizabeth was rummaging around in her purse before pulling out an empty gum wrapper and a pen, quickly scribbling down on it.

“I’m really looking forward to your concert tonight,” Elizabeth said, holding the gum wrapper out towards her. “I’d…I don’t know…love to talk about it with you…maybe over ice cream one night?” She winked at him. “Give me a call.”

“Thanks,” Lance replied, taking the gum wrapper. He gave her a smile slowly nodding his head. Elizabeth gave him a small wave before waving at someone over his shoulder before making her way back out of the room. Joey pounced on him the second the edge of her skirt disappeared out the door.

“So are you going to call her?” Joey asked, rapidly raising and lowering his eyebrows as Lance turned to face him.

“I don’t know,” Lance replied with a sigh, patting his pocket, feeling the outline of his phone. “I don’t think I’m going to.”

He already had his mind made up. He wasn’t going to call her. Not that he didn’t think she didn’t have a lovely personality, and it wasn’t that he didn’t think she was good looking, but because he didn’t know if she liked him just because he was in *NSYNC. He loved meeting his fans, and it warmed his heart to know how his music changed their lives but it was always hard for any of them to know if the fans were being truthful to them and wanted to get to know them, or to get bragging rights about…whatever it was they could look to brag about.

“Why not? She’s hot!” Chris said as if that solved everything. For him and Joey, it might as well have been.

Lance did enjoy being around his friends, his brothers, but sometimes he wondered how much longer he could put up with their openness about the opposite sex. His mom had done her job well in teaching her how to be a gentleman. That’s not to say those two couldn’t put on the charm and sweep a girl off her feet.

 “You’re both from the same state so you have something to talk about. Match made in heaven, I’d say.”

“I’m with him,” Joey said, jerking his thumb in Chris’s direction who nodded enthusiastically.

“Just not interested,” Lance replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

Chris paused, a confused, yet playful expression on his face. “What are you gay? You like guys or something?” he asked.

Lance stared at Chris, eyes widening, jaw dropping slightly. His armpits flooded with sweat and a rush of heat suddenly washed over his body. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. “No!” he finally managed to get out. “Dude!”

“Just asking,” Chris said before he got to his feet, clapping Lance on the shoulder. “I’d jump on the chance to call her. Might’ve been a good time.”

“Yeah, if you want to take her to the McDonald’s Play Place, Pineapple-Head,” Lance quickly cracked and Joey let out a loud laugh, clapping his hands together. “She’s, like, waaay younger than you.”

“He sure told you, Old Man,” Joey said, punching Chris on the shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Chris said getting to his feet, giving Lance the finger. “Probably a good thing anyway, Ronald McDonald might be there.” He indicated Joey who’s hair was dyed a bright red. He stuck his tongue out at Joey. “I’m going to get C and Justin and start a hacky.”

“Don’t worry about him,” Joey said, his laughter subsiding as he crossed one leg over the other, crossing his arms over his chest. “There’s nothing wrong with people who are gay.”

“I’m not gay, Joey,” Lance said to him.

“I know, I’m just saying,” Joey replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He then uncrossed his arms and legs, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees. “So, are you waiting for a call from Firecracker?”

“Who’s Firecracker?” Lance asked, his nose wrinkling.

“Your friend…Anna, or something like that,” Joey replied, waving his hand in the air.

“Annaleigh?” Lance asked, moving to take Chris’s empty seat and Joey put a finger to his nose. Lance laughed lightly. “You nicknamed her Firecracker? I didn’t know that.” He then gave Joey a look. “And you saw her the last time we played a show in Mississippi, how’d you forget her name?”

“Do you know how many girls I see a night?” Joey asked, hiking an eyebrow, giving a toothy grin. Lance rolled his eyes, but nodded his head. A lot. They saw a lot of girls each night.

“And yet you always remember Kelly’s name,” Lance replied.

“That’s different,” Joey insisted, his voice cracking.

Lance rolled his eyes—he was doing that a lot—shaking his head. “So, why do you call her Firecracker?” he asked.

Joey shrugged again. “She’s the only person I know that can deal with Chris’s bullshit and barely bat an eyelash, not to mention she’s the only one who’ll actually talk back to JC when he tries to go all parental on her. Remember our showcase?” Lance bobbed his head from side to side, a hint of a smile coming to his face and Joey hit his knee.

 JC was making it a point to keep an eye on her throughout the night. She put a quick stop to that after starting that she knew how to take care of herself. Lance couldn’t deny that, he was always by her side whether they went running barefoot down the road to the lake, to the creek to go fishing, or to go off-road riding. She definitely knew how to take care of herself. Not that he could blame JC for doing what he did, Orlando was a whole new world.

“It was either that or Tinkerbell, her face gets so red. But, she’d just as soon punch me if I called her that.”

“That’s true,” Lance agreed. “But, if I remember correctly, she only got mad at you because you dropped her after insisting you could dip her when y’all were dancing.” Joey winced at the memory. If the music hadn’t been bouncing from wall to wall, Lance was sure they would’ve gotten a glimpse of just how angry a Southern girl could be.

“That wasn’t my finest moment,” Joey agreed, stroking at the stubble on his chin. “That’s not important. What’s important is that f she’s as good a bass player as you say she is, then she’ll have problem getting in the band.” A devilish grin then came to his face. “Besides, we could use a girl around here. Something new to look at.” Lance scoffed, his eyebrows shooting up as he looked over at his best friend. “What?”

“Kelly?” Lance asked and Joey briefly looked at the ceiling.

“She knows I look but I don’t act on anything,” Joey replied, twisting his mouth to the side. A serious look then crossed his face. “Besides, she’d kill me if I did. You and I both know that.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Lance agreed with a nod of his head.

He had met Kelly a handful of times and he could see that she and Joey were perfect together. It was pretty normal for them to break up and get back together. It normally occurred around the time of the start and end of their touring schedules. Not that it was too surprising; it was hard to keep up with friendships while they were on tour let alone relationships.

“I’m going to join them,” Joey said, angling his head in his friends’ direction.

“I’ll be there in a little bit,” Lance replied. Joey clapped him on the back before getting to his feet to join the circle JC, Justin, and Chris had made to join in on their game of hacky sack.

It had become a tradition for the five of them to get a good round of hacky in before a show; everyone had to touch the ball at least one. Some days they were good and got it done pretty quickly, and other days it took a while to get a groove going, making them late to starting a show. They never set foot on stage before getting a hacky in.

Maybe it calmed their nerves or gave them a sense of connection before taking the stage together, Lance wasn’t too sure. He used to think it determined how the show was going to turn out, but that was hard to guess. Either they were on their game or they weren’t, it was as simple as that.

Lance watched as his friends contorted their bodies to keep the small bean bag-like ball in the air without touching it with their hands. It was probably better off that he wasn’t joining at this time, he wasn’t the best when it came to playing a game of hacky sack. It was any wonder people considered him a good dancer. Most times he felt like he had two left feet.

Hell, if it wasn’t for his lack of dancing ability, *NSYNC probably wouldn’t be where they are now. When they had first been signed to a record label overseas, they wanted to drop him because of his less than stellar experience in dancing. His friends had stuck by him and fought hard to keep him in the group, staying hours after rehearsals to help him work up his dance moves as best as he could. He couldn’t ask for better friends.

They really did feel like a family to him, and not just JC, Justin, Chris, and Joey, but their manager Johnny, and their choreographers, and their stage crew, wardrobe, their live band, everybody had an important part to creating the amazing shows they put on, and Lance knew he wouldn’t be anywhere without them. So to lose a member of that family was a little hard to wrap his head around, but to potentially have an old friend join that family excited him.

Their manager, Johnny Wright, their A&R (which stands for Artist and Repertoire—whose job it was to scout for new talent) director, Melanie Rains, and Troy had all come to them about a week prior to explain the situation and that they were going to be holding a search for a new bass player. “Is everything ok?”, “It wasn’t us was it?”, and “Are you sure?” were the first questions out of their mouths.

“Everything’s fine, I just need to be with my family right now,” Troy had reassured them, giving them his usual half smile and a punch on the shoulder for added measure. Punching was his way to show affection, excitement, and happiness. It took a while to get used to, but then it came to be a normal routine. Troy had been there for every appearance basically since the beginning. “But, I wasn’t going to leave you all hanging, so I wanted to let you know in enough time for you to hold auditions.”

“We’re looking to have auditions at the first couple weeks of January,” Johnny had commented. He had reached up to tug on the brim of his cap, sending warning sirens blaring in Lance’s mind. He only really did that when he had news that the boys could consider bad or upsetting. “Unfortunately, that means you won’t have as much time at home before getting back to work, if any at all before really getting back to work. We’re going to be sending out a casting call of sorts to get interest in musicians around the states.”

“We also thought it’d be a good idea to personally invite a few people that you may know who play the bass to give them a shot to audition,” Melanie added, looking over the clipboard tucked into her arm. If she didn’t constantly have a stack of papers with her, she had her permanently pressed to her ear. “That way they wouldn’t really be jumping into something without having anyone there to show them the ropes or back them up. So—“ She removed the pen that sat behind her ear, clicked it against her cheek, and held it up to her clipboard, “Any names? I need numbers and addresses too as I’ll be making the calls early next week.”

As soon as he heard that Melanie had gone through the list of people to personally invite, he had sent out a call of his own…and now he was waiting for his friend to call him back.

Lance reached into his pocket for his phone and pulled it out of his pocket, staring down at the face plate. “Come on, ring,” he whispered. “Ring.” He jumped when a second later, his phone actually started to vibrate in his hands. He quickly flipped his phone open and then put it to his ear. “Hello?”

“Hey. I’m not interruptin’ anythin’, am I?” Lance smiled as his friend’s heavily accented voice filled his ear.

Over the time he spent traveling, his accent had all but disappeared from his voice. The boys used to tease him, and Justin for that matter, about how Southern they sounded, but now they’d really only hear it if he got mad enough, or with his “Is.” At one point, it had become a bit of a game for the boys to see if they could annoy him enough to get him to snap. But whenever he heard it, it made him feel like he was home and anyone and everyone was giving him the warmest welcome.

“Hi, Ace,” Lance replied, sitting up in his seat. “No, you weren’t. We still have to get a hacky in before we start.” Hearing a loud shout, he looked up to see a light swinging back and forth. “Which might be a bit more dangerous than usual. I was waiting for you and mom to call. So you heard the news? I left a message with mom to tell you just in case.” He then blinked and removed his phone from his ear, glancing at the time display. “Shouldn’t you be at work?”

“Knowing y’all, danger or trouble isn’t too far off, I just heard the voice mail, your mom called me, and I got off work early,” Annaleigh answered his questions in order. “Dare, Jazz, and I are headed to the fire tower. You’re on speaker by the way.”

“Hi, Lance.”

“Hey.”

“Hey, guys,” Lance said, his smile widening as he heard his friends’ voices. “Oh yeah, the New Year’s party at the fire tower. Hope y’all have fun.”

“Well, it won’t be the same without you harmonizing with Reba and Garth Brooks,” Annaleigh replied. Lance could practically see the teasing smile on her face.

“Never going to live that one down, huh?” he asked, laughing lightly.

He could hear Christmas music playing in the background and a hint of sadness hit his stomach. He loved being out on tour, sharing his music with his fans, but there was no place like being home for the holidays. He had about two weeks off to be home, but before he knew it he was back out on the road again.

 “So, is this audition thing real?” Jasmine asked, her voice coming in louder over the phone. “We were wonderin’ and tellin’ Ace she should at least give it a shot.”

“Yeah, Troy’s leaving after tonight for family reasons, so we’re holding auditions,” Lance said, running a hand over his face. “We’re asking people we know personally to audition as well as to hold auditions from people around the US so…”

“We’re tryin’ to get her to do it,” Darren called, his voice getting picked up over the phone.”But she doesn’t think now’s the right time.”

“I just don’t want to leave dad by himself, and I’d be gone for a long time, and I’d have to at least give two weeks notice for Alan and his family at the diner to find someone to replace me, and I have to figure out what I’ll do for school, and—“

“See if your dad wants to stay with my parents,” Lance offered, interrupting Annaleigh. “You know they’d be happy to have him, or to at least check up on him every now and then.”

“Nah, you know how my dad is about this kind of stuff,” Annaleigh said with a sigh. “He knows when to offer and accept help, but it’ll take a while for him to not be so proud.”

“Hmm, you mean like someone else I know?” Lance asked, feeling his eyebrows twitch. If there was anyone he knew that was proud, it was her; like father, like daughter in this regard. Not that he could blame either of them too much. They were just too used to doing things for themselves. They would both do everything they could before admitting that they needed or wanted anyone’s help. “It’s a once in a lifetime chance, Anna.”

“He called you, Anna, you know he’s serious,” Jasmine pointed out. Lance could hear Annaleigh’s huff on the line followed by a dull thunk and Jasmine’s screech of “Ow!”

“That’s what I was saying,” Darren said, ignoring his sister and friend to talk to Lance. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“And who was it that begged and begged and begged her parents to let them come to Orlando with me the first time?” Lance added.

“Now y’all are gaining up on me and that ain’t fair,” Annaleigh said with a hint of a whine to her tone.

“At least give it a shot,” Lance said, raking his fingers through his hair. “I wouldn’t have brought up your name if I didn’t think you could do it.”

He remembered being in that position just a few years before. He was excited to audition for *NSYNC, but at the same time he had doubts about how good of a singer he really was. Stuff like this didn’t happen to people in Mississippi and he never once thought that his vocal coach, Bob Westbrook, would be a connection into the entertainment industry. Nor did he think he’d be a connection into the music group that *NSYNC was.

When he auditioned, he originally thought, and hoped, it would just be an A Capella group because he knew his dancing wouldn’t be up to par, but Annaleigh had worked out a dance combination for him and practiced it with him over and over again until he thought it was the best he could get it. He was sure his singing had saved him. Only in this case, it was either you were a good bass player or you weren’t and Annaleigh had a lot she was laying on the line.

“I know you can do it, you’ve been playing for a while, now,” Lance said, moving his phone from one ear to the other. “And I’ll be there, too. I don’t know how our input will work out for people we know, but Johnny will make sure everyone has a fair shot.”

“I’ll think about it and talk ta my dad, too,” Annaleigh said with a sigh. “We just didn’t know if we were going to believe the message or not.”

“Melanie is a really no-nonsense kind of person with her job,” Lance replied, nodding his head. Even he had doubted the fact that someone like Justin Timberlake had been looking for him for his music act. Despite his doubts, Lance knew that he was born to perform and that traveling the world doing what he loved. “Actually, she can be a bit scary, but that’s just because she wants everyone to be successful.”

“Yeah.” Annaleigh let out another sigh. “Well, we’re going to let you go. We don’t want to delay the show any longer. Happy New Year and have a good show.”  Darren and Jasmine copied her sentiments.

“Thanks, guys,” Lance said with a smile. “Happy New Year to y’all, too and eat a s’more for me at the party. If Ace doesn’t eat all the chocolate anyway.”

“Ha. Ha. Bye, Lance.”

“Bye.

“Have a good show.”

“Bye,” Lance replied before hanging up his phone. He set it down on the chair and made his way over towards his band mates. They opened the circle and Lance quickly brought up his knee to hit the hacky sack that flew towards him, sending it back towards JC.

“Finally got a call from her?” Justin asked, his eyes on the hacky sack. His head bounced around as he watched the hacky sack go flying through the air, waiting for his turn. He ran his hands over his short curls. “We going to be seeing her? Is she going to audition?”

“She’s going to be thinking about it,” Lance said, clapping his hands together as he waited for his turn. “It’s not easy for her to just drop everything to audition right now. But, I hope this works out for her.”

“Hey, man, you know Johnny’s been seeing a lot of great talent out there,” JC said, scratching the side of his nose with his thumb. Lance nodded his head, shifting his gaze over to his friend.

Whenever JC talked, Lance listened. Everybody described him as being the most serious one in the group, and in a way, a father-figure to them. He made sure they were where they needed  to be at a specific time…despite him being the one that was always asleep the longest. It was his role in the group and one they needed; otherwise they’d be running around like a bunch of kids. Not that it wasn’t how they acted a lot of the time anyway.

JC paused to swing his arm forward, locking his elbow, knocking the hacky sack towards Joey’s chest. “I know you two are very close,” he continued, “but I don’t want you, either of you, to get your hopes up way too high thinking she’ll automatically get in, understand?”

“Yeah,” Lance replied. “I know. Thanks, C.”

“Anytime,” JC replied.

Joey kicked his foot up into the air, passing the hacky sack over to Lance, who accepted the pass with his knee, finishing the circle. Justin cheered, punching the air with his fists before quickly slapping his friends on the back. They had gotten a successful hacky in. Lance smiled, knowing they were going to have a good show and maybe this time the successful completion meant good things for his friend, too.

It would if he had anything to say about it.