Chapter Two
(Tuesday, December 7, 1999)
He doesn’t give you the kind of attention
That a girl like you needs
‘Cause he always looks around
His eyes wander ‘round
He doesn’t see you like I see
Take it from—
“Uh… Justin? Hang on a minute.”
The sound of his band mate’s voice caught him slightly off guard as his gaze moved from the music in his hand to the layer of glass sitting between him and the sound booth at which his friend sat.
“What was wrong with it that time?” He asked, somewhat exasperated.
“You’re still not hitting that last line right, man.”
“Ugh,” he groaned, dropping his head forward as he ran a hand through his curly locks. “Can’t we take a break, C? We’ve been at this for forty billion hours now.”
“Well, if I could just get you to concentrate, we’d be done already,” came the clipped response.
The curly-headed youth’s face turned a delicate shade of red at his friend’s accusation that he was not concentrating. “I’m trying to concentrate but you’re interrupting me every three seconds. It’s frustrating!”
Heaving a sigh, the brunette at the board lowered his head to his hands and a rubbed a hand over his tired face. “You’re right,” he responded with a nod. “We all need a break,” he said, sitting back in the chair, his hands resting on his thighs.
Not needing to be told twice, Justin quickly removed the oversized headphones from his ears and left them resting against the music stand before he exited the sound booth. He was grateful for the break, though he knew it wouldn’t be for long. They never got long breaks when it came to JC. He was the slave driver of the crew, though they wouldn’t have him any other way.
Having already returned his full attention to the sound board, JC began fiddling with the knobs, playing the music back to make necessary adjustments. Justin paused for a brief moment and contemplated what to say to his friend, though Chris immediately caught his attention shook his head. He motioned to the door with his eyes and as Justin passed, he murmured quietly under his breath, so that JC would not hear. “Go take a break, kid. I’ll talk to him.”
He hesitated slightly, glancing back at JC once more, though he nodded and offered Chris a smile and headed out of the room, following the same path that Joey and Lance had taken just moments before.
Once he was alone, Chris made his way over to JC and took a seat in the empty chair beside him. He was silent for a minute, trying to decide the best way to approach JC. “What’s going on, man?”
“I need to get this done, Chris,” he responded, his eyes never leaving the knobs and buttons in front of him.
“Right,” he said with a nod. “I understand that C. But what’s up with you being all crazy about it?”
“It’s got to be perfect.”
He forced himself not to roll his eyes at that. “Right,” he said again. “I understand that. But you’re more crazy than usual. We’re ahead of schedule as it is. Why are you pushing so much?”
Sitting back in the chair, JC turned to his friend, giving him his full attention as he addressed the question. “Aren’t you anxious to get the record finished?”
“Yeah, of course,” Chris said with a bob of his head. “But what’s the rush man? That’s all I’m asking.”
“There is no rush,” he responded. “I’m just… These last couple of months have been stressful, to say the least. You know? We didn’t know if we were going to even get to record again and I just… I feel like if the record’s done, they’re not going to take it away from us.”
Chris’s features immediately softened at the younger man’s words. “They’re not going to take it away from us, C.”
“I know,” he said. “I mean, I know it, but I can’t… I just can’t grasp it. We almost had everything stripped away from us, Chris. Everything we’ve worked so hard for. And I just…it may not make sense to you, or to Justin… but in my head, this makes sense, okay?”
“Hey,” Chris said, holding his hands up defensively. “I’m not on your case, man,” he assured him. “But everyone can see that you’re stressing out here and it’s stressing us out.”
“You know I don’t mean to.”
“I know,” he conceded with a nod. “But you’ve got to ease up. We’re already way ahead of schedule,” he reminded him once more. “It’s not going to kill you to relax a little bit. Especially when it comes to Justin. He’s as much of a perfectionist as you are and it really gets him down when you ride him like you have been today.”
With a nod, JC forced a smile and ran a hand through his brown hair. “You’re right,” he said with a nod. “I’ll try to take it easy,” he promised. “Try being the operative word, of course.”
Laughing, Chris clapped his friend on the back good-naturedly before pushing himself to his feet. “That’s all I ask man,” he said. “Now I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty much starving. You wanna go grab a bite?”
Glancing back at the sound board, a million and one things ran through JC’s head. He had so many things he wanted to adjust before they got started again, but a glance in Chris’s direction told him that it wasn’t an option. “Alright,” he said with a nod. “I’ll leave this for later.”
“Phew! For a minute there, I was afraid I was going to have to kick your ass!”
~*~
“Alright,” JC said, clapping his hands together. “This time, I’d like for the three of you to head in the booth,” he said. “I want to at least get a solid start on your parts before our day is over.”
Collective groans could be heard from Chris, Joey and Lance as they pushed themselves off of the comfortable couch in the corner of the room before heading to the soundproof booth. “It’s been nice knowin’ ya man!” Chris called out playfully to Justin. “If I don’t make it out of here alive, tell my momma I’m sorry for the time I decided to play Tarzan in the Christmas tree!”
Rolling his eyes at Chris’s theatrics, JC pointed to the booth. “Sometime today, Christopher. I’m sure the others would appreciate getting out of here at a decent time, something we might accomplish if you drop the dramatic act.”
Whimpering playfully, Chris withered under JC’s intense stare. “Sheesh,” he said with a shake of his head. “What happened to taking it easy?”
“You said to take it easy on Justin, if I recall correctly. Never once did you mention taking it easy on you.”
“@#%$,” Chris said. “Of all the days you decided to actually listen to what I have to say, today just has to be the day, huh?”
“Absolutely. Now get in that booth and shut up until I tell you to sing.”
Saluting his friend as he would a drill sergeant, Chris headed into the booth and reached for a pair of headphones before giving JC a quick thumbs up to indicate that he was ready.
Rolling his eyes, JC turned his attention to Justin and offered him a half-hearted smile. “Hey… I just wanted to apologize for acting like I did earlier, J. You’re doing a great job with the song, and I’m sorry for riding you like I have been.”
Offering his friend a bright smile, Justin shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not a big deal,” he assured him.
“Justin, I mean it,” he said. “I know you like to try and shrug off criticism, but I also know it does bother you. So this is me, admitting I was an ass, and apologizing. I know it’s embarrassing to be in that booth to have someone pick at every little thing you’re doing, and I know it’s even worse when it’s me. So I’m sorry.”
A delicate blush had crept onto the youth’s cheeks at his friend’s apology. “You don’t have to—“
“Justin, just shut up and accept the apology,” JC responded good naturedly, offering his younger friend a toothy grin. Unable to resist, Justin’s face also slid into a smile as he bobbed his head.
“Apology expected. Thanks, Jace.”
“No problem, kiddo.”
“Hey,” Chris called, poking his head out of the sound booth. “Are y’all done kissing and making up? Because we have been waiting ever-so-patiently and we’re getting tired of hanging around in this big box! It’s lonely! And Joey smells like onions!”
“I do not!” Joey called, scowling at his older friend. “That’s your breath.”
JC couldn’t help himself as he rolled his eyes. “You guys act like y’all are two. You think we can get back to recording now?”
“Back to recording?” Chris asked incredulously. “We’ve been waiting, did I mention ever-so-patiently, and you were out here running your yap!”
“Christopher,” JC responded, clearly bored with his friend’s antics.
“Psh,” he said, holding up a hand. “Don’t go there. Callin’ me by my full name,” he said. “Who do you think you are? My momma?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Because I would have put you up for adoption long ago.”
“I’m offended!”
“No you’re not. Can we get to work now please?” He asked. “I mean, unless you guys want to stay late tonight.”
“Fine, fine,” Chris grumbled, turning his attention to Joey. “Freakin’ SLAVE driver over here,” he said with a shake of his head. As he turned to go back into the booth, another sound caught his attention. However, instead of it being the sound of his band mate’s voice, it was the sound of the studio door opening, accompanied by a quiet gasp.
All heads turned in the direction of the sound. Standing in the door way was a very lost, and very embarrassed looking young woman. Her eyes were wide, her mouth opening and closing as she attempted to form a sentence.
“I’m so sorry. I’m… I’ve never been here before and I… I’m lost!” She blurted out, a delicate blush creeping onto her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to interrupt and I’m…” She trailed off, clearly embarrassed at barging in on the recording session.
“You’re not interrupting anything,” JC assured her with a kind smile. “We haven’t gotten started yet.”
Though she appreciated his reassuring words, she couldn’t help the way the reddish tint on her cheeks darkened. “I um… I’m sorry.”
“I think we just established there’s nothing to be sorry for,” Chris responded, his head poking out of the booth, accompanied this time by Joey and Lance as well.
Rolling his eyes at Chris’s words, JC pushed himself up from the chair and advanced on the girl, who looked slightly taken aback by Chris’s comment. “Don’t mind Chris,” he said with a shake of his head. “We don’t usually let him around other people,” he said. “So you said you were lost?”
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “I need to find studio two?”
“Ah,” he responded. “It’s an easy mistake to make. Studio two is on the next floor down,” he said. “You go down, and then it’s the… Actually, I can walk you down there if you’d like.”
Glancing up at him, she offered him a shaky smile. “I would really appreciate that, actually. I’m running so late, and I’d be afraid I’d get lost again.”
“It won’t be a problem,” he told her, giving her a toothy grin before turning his attention to his band mates. “I’m going to walk her down to studio two.”
“I’ll come too!” Justin chimed in, pushing himself to his feet.
“Me too!”
“Me three!”
“Well,” Chris said, pouting. “I’m not going to hang around here by myself. So I guess that means I’m coming along to.”
“Well there you go then,” JC said with a smile. “You’ve got yourself not one, but five escorts. Shall we?” He asked. “Oh, I’m JC by the way.”
“Uh… Michelle,” she responded. “I mean, I’m Michelle. You’re obviously not. I am. And I’m also rambling,” she said, closing her eyes as she mentally kicked herself for sounding so stupid.
“Did you say your name is Michelle?” Chris asked playfully.
Elbowing his older friend, JC offered Michelle a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Michelle. That goofball back there is Chris, the curly haired on is Justin. The Mississippian here is Lance, and the one in the back is Joey.”
“It’s nice to meet you… er… all of you,” she said.
“So Michelle,” Justin said, as they made their way out of the studio. “What brings you here?”
“Well isn’t it obvious?” Lance asked, always the voice of reason. “She’s looking for recording studio so it’s a pretty safe guess that she’s here to record. You must be the new girl Johnny was talking about?”
“Johnny? You mean Mr. Wright?”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure Mr. Wright is his father,” Chris responded.
“Uh…” she stumbled over her words, unsure of how to respond. “I mean… yeah, I’m… the new girl, I guess.”
“Well, he’s been singing your praises the last couple of days,” Lance said with a gentle smile. “It’s a pleasure to finally put a face to the name.”
The rest of the (rather short) journey was filled with idle chit-chat as the five young men tried to elicit information from Michelle, but it was obvious to them that she was fairly shy. Once they had reached Studio Two, they escorted her inside, with the intention of explaining her tardiness. However, once Johnny saw who she was with, he shook his head and threw his hands up in the air.
“I should have guessed that she’d run into you when she was late.”
“Hey!” Chris said. “We resent that! She was lost! And now, is found.”
Rolling his eyes, Johnny turned his attention to Michelle. “I hope they haven’t scarred you for life. Please tell me they haven’t run you away.”
“No,” she assured him with a nervous laugh. “They were nothing but gentlemen.”
“These guys? Hah. Good one. Have you been introduced yet?”
“Yep,” Lance assured him with a nod.
“Good, because I’m sure you’ll be seeing one another around here over the next couple of weeks.”
“Well,” JC said. “If you need anything, at least you know a friendly face. Well, five friendly faces, I guess. Please, if you see us around, don’t hesitate to speak,” he said kindly.
“Thank you,” she said with a slight smile in his direction. “I appreciate it. I’m sure with my sense of direction that we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other.”
Laughing lightly, JC shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “You’ll get the hang of it,” he assured her. “But we should go and let you get to work. Johnny man, if you get done here early enough, I’d like to go over something with you.”
“Sure thing,” Johnny said with a nod. “We won’t be too long today. We’re just getting Michelle acquainted with the studio,” he explained. “I’ll come find you guys when we’re done. What studio are you in?”
“Four.”
“I’ll see you in a bit then,” he said as a way of dismissing them. Not needing to be told twice, the five young men filed out of the room.
“Well,” Johnny said with a laugh as he turned to Michelle. “How does it feel to have your first star encounter? Or rather, your first five star encounters?”
Confusion filled Michelle’s features. “I’m sorry?”
He laughed. “You don’t recognize them?”
Shaking her head, another delicate blush crept onto her cheeks. “Should I have?”
“They’re pretty popular now here in the states. I thought you would have recognized them, especially being as young as you are.”
“I don’t really watch much TV. Who are they?”
“*NSYNC. You haven’t heard of them?”
Recognition dawned on her face, her eyes wide. “That was THEM?”
“In the flesh.”
“Oh my goodness! They must think I’m a big dope for not even recognizing them! I was just so caught up in getting lost, it didn’t even register!”
“Ah, so you HAVE heard of them!”
“Of course! Oh my gosh. I can’t believe how dumb I am!”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, honey. It was probably a relief to them that you weren’t crying all over yourself over them. It’s a nice change.”
“You don’t think they were offended, do you?”
“Nah,” he said with a grin. “Not those guys. Of course, if you’re worried, you could always ask for an autograph the next time you see them. That’s always good for their egos.”
~*~
Gathering the last of his belongings, JC shook his head as Chris and Joey continued chatting with one another. Things had definitely not gone the way they had planned during their recording session, and seeing that everyone had lost interest, JC had quickly called an end to it. There was no point in being there when everyone clearly had other things they’d rather be doing.
“We still on for Thursday afternoon?” Justin asked, referring to the recording session they had planned for later in the week.
“I don’t know, Justin,” JC said with a shrug. “I’ll give you a call and let you know.”
With a nod of his head, Justin offered JC a smile. “Just let me know. You know I’ll be up for it.”
“I know J,” he responded. “I appreciate it. I’ll let you know though,” he said. “I’m heading out guys,” he called. “I need to go catch Johnny and let him know we’ll chat another time.”
With a chorus of goodbyes, JC tugged on his jacket and headed out of the studio. He was humming an unknown melody as he caught the elevator down to the appropriate floor. However, when the doors opened, he was pleasantly surprised to come face to face with the young lady he’d met earlier in the day. “Fancy seeing you here,” he greeted with a grin. “You lost again?”
Laughing lightly, she shook her head. “No, not this time. I think I know where I’m going.”
“Well that’s good,” he responded. “Maybe you can help me out then. Is Johnny still in the studio?”
“He actually had to take a call,” she told him.
“Ah well. I’ll just catch him later.”
“Are you guys done already?”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I can’t keep Chris and Joey in the studio long. Especially now, because we’re way ahead of schedule, and they see no point in being there.”
With a nod, the two lapsed into silence once more until she spoke. “Oh! I hope you uh… you guys didn’t think I was being rude earlier with the whole… not recognizing you thing.”
Cocking an eyebrow, he tossed a glance in her direction as a throaty laugh escaped him. “Rude? Uh no… I didn’t think you were being rude. I mean, after all, I didn’t recognize you either.”
A deep shade of red crept up her neck and onto her cheeks, though she could see the grin on his face. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean it like that.”
This time, another laugh escaped him, though it was full of humor. “I know that,” he said, as the doors to the elevator opened up. He gestured to her, allowing her to go first as he stepped out behind her. “I was only messing with you,” he said. “I couldn’t resist. It’s just that it was such a random, off the wall comment.”
“I tend to make those a lot,” she said sheepishly.
“Ah well,” he said with a toothy grin. “That just means you’ll fit in well with our group.”
Once the two made their way out of the building, they went their separate ways, JC heading to his vehicle while Michelle made her way to hers.
She mentally kicked herself for her ignorant comment. “What were you thinking?” She mumbled to herself. “Jesus, Michelle. Way to go at making a fool of yourself.” She shook her head as she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Well,” she thought, “today was definitely interesting, to say the least. Even though you did make an ass out of yourself.”
Thinking back, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Better to make an ass out of yourself while you’re still a nobody instead of when you’re a somebody,” she decided, and feeling much better, she turned the radio up to sing along to a Christmas song that was playing.
~*~
“So? How’d it go?”
Glancing up at her brother as she stepped into the house, Michelle offered him a smile. “It went pretty well actually. Of course, we didn’t do much. He just showed me my way around the studio. Of course, he did this AFTER I’d already completely embarrassed myself!” Shaking her head, she launched into the entire story before she sank down onto the couch, giggling at her silliness. “Can you freaking believe that?”
“Well, considering it’s you, yeah I can,” Michael responded, tossing his sister a cheeky grin as he plopped down onto the couch next to her.
Rolling her eyes, Michelle elbowed her brother in the stomach. “Hey, you know what would be really great?”
“Ugh,” he grumbled. “After you just abused me? I don’t particularly care.”
“C’mon Mikey…” she pouted.
Heaving a weary sigh, he gave her his attention. “What would be really great?”
“If you’d go fix me a sandwich. I’m really hungry.”
“Your legs ain’t broken,” he pointed out. “God gave them to you for a reason, so use ‘em.”
“Mikey,” she whimpered. “Pretty please? For me? Your favorite sister?”
“You’re my only sister,” he pointed out.
“Well, that’s irrelevant. Please?”
“Only if you promise to get me Christina Aguilera’s number once you’re all famous.”
“Michael, I hate to break it to ya bud, but you don’t stand a chance.”
“Do you want that sandwich or not?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then you need to seriously re-evaluate your answer.”
“I’m really starving though.”
“Then you had better do some quick backtracking then, huh?”
“Ugh. Forget it,” she said with a pout as she pushed herself to her feet. “I’ll get it myself.”
“You fixing peanut butter and jelly?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Michael’s lips slid into a sly grin. “Since you’re already up, why don’t you go ahead and fix me one too?”
Grabbing a pillow from the chair, she didn’t bother giving an audible response as she tossed the pillow in his direction, hitting him in the face. “Eat that, loser.”
Number of reviews: 1
Print:
Chapter or Story