JC arranged for a car to pick up Allyson and Liz to bring them to the party. It was Allyson’s birthday after all, and JC didn’t want she or Liz worrying about having to drive home.
Text me when you get here, he typed out to Allyson a few minutes before the car was due to pick them up.
You got it.
Allyson put on a pair of black linen shorts that showed off her strong-yet-lean legs with a light pink Abercrombie & Fitch polo. JC said it was a casual thing, so she dressed appropriately for the hot night. It was getting close to 7 p.m., and it was still 80 degrees outside.
Liz wore her light brown paisley print rayon wrap skirt and a plain white tank top.
“Showing a little leg tonight, huh?” Liz teased Allyson.
“Might as well,” she said, sticking her right leg out to the side and running her hand along her outside thigh sarcastically.
Liz just laughed. “Come on, the driver should be here any minute.”
About that time, the doorbell rang and a middle-aged mustachioed man in a tuxedo and a driver’s cap stood on Liz’s porch.
“Ma’am, ma’am,” he said, tipping his cap to both women in the doorway. “I’m here to take you ladies to Mr. Chasez’s tonight.”
“Yes!” they both yelped together.
“So who all do you think will be there?” Allyson asked.
“I know Jimmy will be there, but that’s it,” Liz said with a shrug.
“I can’t wait until someone asks me how I spent my birthday,” Allyson said. “No one will believe me.”
“They don’t have to because it’s happening. Happy 30th birthday, Allie!” Liz said, reaching across the limo to hug her friend.
There were a few cars in the driveway when they arrived, but not an overwhelming amount.
Here, she texted JC as the limo came to a stop.
As they were stepping out of their VIP ride, JC was in the doorway, ready to escort Liz and the woman of the hour into the party.
JC led the women to where the rest of *NSYNC was standing in a circle.
“Surprise!” JC said as Allyson’s face turned to shock, as did Liz’s.
“H-h-hi,” Allyson stammered, sticking out her hand to shake Justin, Chris, Joey and Lance’s hand. “Wow! I can’t believe I’m here, in JC’s house, meeting y’all.”
“We’ve heard a lot about you,” Lance said.
“All good things,” Justin added quickly.
“Yeah. Congratulations on graduating!” Chris said.
“JC found himself a smart one here,” Joey laughed, elbowing JC’s arm.
JC rolled his eyes a little and said, “I think what they all mean to say is happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday!” the other four men said in unison.
“Thank you,” Allyson said, laughing as she felt her cheeks turn a deeper shade of red. “Oh, and this is my friend Liz. The reason I came out here to begin with was to visit her. We went to school together.”
Liz shook each of their hands also. “It is so great to meet you guys!”
As the party hit its height at about 8:30, JC paused the music playing throughout the main floor’s rooms and held his beer in the air to do a toast in front of the dozen or so people gathered in the living room.
“Thank you guys for being here tonight. This was just a little spur-of-the-moment party for my girl, Allie. Happy birthday, honey, and I hope whatever your birthday wish is comes true!”
Right on cue, a couple people rolled out a cart holding a large two-layered cake with “Happy birthday, Allie” scrawled in icing across the top. The vanilla and mocha cake was decorated with small white and pink roses with green stems winding their way around the top.
Allyson raised her glass of wine to JC and nodded, mouthing “thank you” in his direction.
As Allyson blew out the candle on her piece of cake, she wrapped her arm around JC’s. This was beyond anything she could imagine.
“I can’t believe you did this,” she said.
“I told you, you only turn 30 once. We’re going to do it right.”
Throughout the night, JC and Allyson made the rounds, while Liz spent most of the night chatting with the *NSYNC guys.
As the couple returned to their group, they entered in the middle of a discussion about bus pets.
“Oh it’s gotta be this one! Busta was cute, but dang he stunk! Our bus always smelled like animals,” Lance said as he pointed to Chris.
“Are you kidding? What about your ferret?” Chris interrupted quickly. “Dirk. That thing was way worse than Busta.”
“Yeah, he did have a stench to him, didn’t he?” Lance nodded his head with a chuckle.
“Yeah, uh uh. Don’t blame Busta.”
JC joined the circle next to Justin. “Thank you for never having a pet on our bus.”
“Dude, great party!” Justin turned to him.
“How have you enjoyed it? It is for your birthday, after all,” Lance asked, turning the attention toward Allyson.
“This has been a birthday beyond my wildest imagination,” she said, grinning back.
As 10:30 rolled around, the party was coming to its end.
“Hey, guys, I know it’s starting to clear out, but y’all know you can stay as long as you want,” JC said to his brothers.
“Cool,” Joey said, taking a seat on his sofa and propping his feet up on the natural wood coffee table.
“What, do you want a beer too?” Chris joked with him.
“Sure, if you’re offering.”
“No,” Chris laughed as he sat down next to him.
“Fine! Ya jerk,” Joey said smiling through a side-eye at Chris.
While JC was playing host and replenishing the drink offerings, Allyson was coming back from the half-bath downstairs, which was at the end of a narrow hallway that also led to the laundry room.
As she was walking out, suddenly two people were rushing toward her in the opposite direction. They were going so quickly that she couldn’t even register who they were, but they tried to squeeze three-wide in a hallway that barely accommodated two people at once, pushing Allyson into the wall by accident.
“Oh I’m sorry,” the taller of the two men said quickly in a blur before taking off again at a near-sprint.
“It’s fine,” Allyson smiled back. Something about the way he pushed her against the wall brought memories of the other day to her mind, thinking about being trapped under Paul. She sunk into a squat against the wall as a single tear escaped her eye.
Why is this happening? she asked herself. I’m in a hallway in JC’s house, not in a car with a friend-turned-stranger. Someone just bumped into me. I’m not trapped. And JC got me away from Paul before anything could happen.
She stayed in a crouch as she wiped her eyes and tried to compose herself, hoping her face didn’t look red and puffy.
As she stood up, JC came around the corner on his way to get more ice from the second freezer.
He could tell just by looking at her that something wasn’t right.
“Hey,” he said, stopping in front of her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m fine,” she said, her voice not quite quivering but not strong either.
“Allie, don’t lie to me. What happened? This is your birthday party. You’re supposed to be having the best time out of everyone.”
“I just started thinking about the other day,” she said, looking down at her feet before rolling her eyes with a chuckle. “I know, it’s stupid to still think about it.”
“No, no,” JC said, holding onto her shoulders, bending down to catch her downcast gaze and bring her eyes back up to him. “It’s not stupid at all.”
“Nothing even happened, but getting pushed up against the damn wall by accident makes me do this,” she said, bending her arms up to then extend them out again beside her.
“Hey, hey, don’t say nothing happened. Just because it wasn’t worse than what it was does not mean nothing happened.”
“OK,” she said in a dismissive tone.
“Look at me. Allie, look at me. I’m serious,” he said, as she brought her eyes back up to his. “You went through something I can’t understand, but I’m here to listen if you want and love you through it.”
She smiled up at him, whispering, “Thank you.”
“Do you want to go back out there or do you want me to chase everyone out?”
“Let’s go back out,” she said. “Who all’s still here?”
“I think mainly just Liz and the guys.”
She nodded.
“Hold on,” JC said, taking a napkin to dab some tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. “There,” he smiled.
“Thank you,” she smiled back, kissing him on the cheek as she took his open hand.
JC was right. The only people left were JC’s four bandmates, Jimmy and Liz.
“We chased everyone off, hope that’s OK,” Chris joked from the couch.
“Fine by me,” Allyson laughed.
Jimmy approached JC and Allyson. “Hey, I’m going to head out too. I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye though.”
“Thanks, man. Appreciate you.”
“Yeah, likewise,” he shook JC’s hand. “Happy birthday, Allyson.”
“Thank you, Jimmy,” she hugged one of her new friends.
