Saturday, March 18, 2000

"So, what you're saying is as of yesterday you are officially a member of the much admired celebrity crowd?"

Tightening her grip on her cell phone, as Mike ran over a speed bump, Melissa shrugged inwardly to herself before saying, "I guess you could say that. Although, I wouldn't really call myself a celebrity, seeing as no one really knows me-"

"Yet!" Sam cut in; before Melissa could continue, "No one really knows you yet. But give it some time, honey, and they soon will. Trust me! With that voice of yours, people will be filling in venues every where just to get a glimpse of the one and only, Melissa Alano."

Shaking her head in amusement, Melissa couldn't help but laugh at her friend's comment before saying, "Sounds nice. But I don't really know if I should believe those words, seeing as how you haven't even heard me sing yet."

"True.." Sam admitted to the younger woman; before pausing for just a second to come up with a reason as to why Melissa should believe her. "I haven't heard you sing yet. But I trust that fine ass man, you call your manager, and know that if he thinks your worth his time then you're defiantly worth the cheap seats that Ticketmaster usually sticks me with. End of story."

Having gotten used to Sam's slight crush on Lance, Melissa figured she really didn't want to hear any more of the older woman's comments about the blonde, so she just smirked at the previous statement before replying: "Dully noted." Causing Sam to thankfully switch topics.

"So anyway, where are you headed to now? And please don't say nowhere 'cause I can hear the cars in the background."

Pulling the phone away from her ear, Melissa looked at it in disbelief before quickly furrowing her eyebrows in confusion; inwardly wondering to herself when she had become such an open book to the older woman. "Right now, I'm on my way to the compound. Lance and I have a meeting with Mr. Wright and Mr. Warden, our PR person. They want to brief me on my schedule for the next couple of months. Hopefully by that time, I'll partially be done recording and have my first single out."

"Sounds interesting." Sam said, after a second; all the while trying unsuccessfully to hide the slight amusement in her voice, "I just hope with your upcoming schedule, you'll still have time for the little people such as myself so I wont have to come down to your big Hollywood job and slap some N'syncer for taking my friend away. I mean, think about the huge glitch it would cause my reputation."

Rolling her eyes while laughing at the statement, Melissa reassured her one-of-a-kind friend that she didn't think it'd ever be an easy task to forget her; before commenting that Mike and her were now pulling into the compound's driveway and she really needed to get off the phone.

"All right, so I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, I should be able to call you back sometime tonight. But if not, then I'll defiantly call you tomorrow morning, okay?"

Pausing for a short second, Sam replied with an, "Okie dokie," before telling Melissa that she'd punch her into her schedule--causing Melissa to reply with another roll of the eyes and a slight smirk; afterwards mumbling to herself, "You'd better."

Checking her watch, for what felt like the fifth time in the last eighteen minutes, Melissa sighed to herself as she realized it was going on ten-fourteen; exactly thirty minutes after the time that Lance and her had planned to meet outside of his manager's office.

Come on, come on. Where are you?

After ten more minutes of waiting for her manager, Melissa slightly sighed, once again, before opening her purse--digging out her cellphone--and hitting the first six digits of the seven numbers she'd quickly remembered after a day or two of having them.

You better pick up if you know what's good for you.

"Miss. Alano?

Quickly shutting her phone off, before the first ring even had a chance to finish, Melissa stood up; coming face to face with Johnny Wright.

"Mr. Wright! It's a pleasure to meet you again."

Nodding his head in response, the older man gestured towards his office door; asking Melissa without words to please come in.

"I'm sorry that Lance isn't here yet. He was supposed to meet with me a few minutes ago, but I guess he got stuck in traffic." Melissa said, as she swiftly made her way past Johnny and into the large, yet cluttered office, where another man, whom she guessed was Mr. Warden, was already seated; waiting for her.

"Actually Lance and the rest of the guys left a few minutes before you got here." Johnny said. Afterwards closing the door behind him; before making his way towards the other side of his desk--taking a seat across from Melissa and the other man as soon as he did so.

"Mr. Warden and I have already spoken to your manager and the rest of the guys about their and your schedule for the next couple of days and as we speak Lance is at home packing his week's worth of clothing."

Weeks worth of clothing?

Noticing the look of confusion on Melissa's face, Johnny opened his mouth to continue; realizing the younger woman, in front of him, wasn't as aware as he thought her to be. "Melissa..can I call you Melissa?"

Not really caring one way or the other, Melissa nodded her head in approval before raising an eyebrow in curiosity; silently telling Mr. Wright to continue with what he had been saying before he had stopped.

"As you might or might not have heard, the guy's second album, No strings attached, is coming out next week. Which means that their going to have to be flying in and out of New York and Los Angeles to promote it."

After slightly nodding her head, telling Mr. Wright she understood, Melissa realized the two men were waiting for her to say something so they'd know she was following along with them. "I was indeed aware of that, sir. And I'm assuming from this meeting, you want me to go with them, correct?"

"Correct." Mr. Warden said; speaking up for the first time since Melissa had entered the room. "Which is the reason I am here."

Not bothering to interrupt the older man, Melissa turned her head slightly--before raising an eyebrow in interest; now silently telling Mr. Warden to continue.

"Miss Alano, Mr. Wright has agreed with me on the fact that album release parties have sort of a number one spot in free publicity. So, what we've offered your manager, and what we're now offering you, is a chance to be introduced to the world Tuesday night at Nsync's album release party. What do you think?"

After widening her eye's in surprise at the information, Melissa found herself slightly biting her lower lip in hesitation. "When you say introduced, do you mean someone's going to be taping me performing or....?"

Before Mr. Warden could respond, Mr. Wright spoke up; shaking his head no before doing so, "Actually, that was the idea at first. But the guys came up with something else. They figured that during the red carpet interviews, one of them--your date for the evening--could mention to one of the reporters that not only were the guys celebrating their new album that night but they were also celebrating the signing of your contract with Freelance. Making it seem as more of a spontaneous introduction than a planned one."

Understanding exactly where the guys had been coming from, when making the previous statement, Melissa nodded quickly; agreeing to the idea.

That is, agreeing to the idea until a small thought popped into her head.

What if my date's JC?

"This party....I'd be going to it with Lance, right?"

Not knowing any better, the two older men shot each other knowing looks before Johnny replied, "Actually, he'll be going with one of his other protegees; leaving you with Justin, if that's okay."

Inwardly letting out a slight sigh of relief, knowing that at least with Justin as her date she wouldn't have to put up with any snide remarks, Melissa smiled slightly before saying, "That's fine with me. I just hope I don't accidentally end up embarrassing him or myself during the red carpet interview."

Giving the younger woman a reassuring grin, Mr. Warden winked at Melissa good-naturedly before replying:

"Miss. Alano, you don't have to worry about embarrassing Mr. Timberlake. Trust me! He can do that all on his own."

Sunday, March 19, 2000

Looking first from the airplane ticket, in her hand, to the display panel above her head, Melissa inwardly counted the number of rows she'd have to pass before ultimately finding her seat.

"3..4..5....and 6." She mumbled to herself; before unhooking her carry on bag from her shoulders and sliding her body all the way across the aisle; towards the window seat. "Four rows behind JC and his grumpy attitude. What more could I possibly ask for?"

Not even a second later, a voice replied "I don't know" causing Melissa--embarrassed at having being caught talking about someone--to slightly blush before looking up; noticing a smirking Chris sliding into the aisle seat beside her. "Maybe a large piano falling out of the sky and crashing him and his ego to oblivion? That's what I'd be asking for right about now."

While slightly laughing at the comment, Melissa couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief; realizing that Chris wasn't about to yell at her for her statement. "Sorry about that. He just gets to me sometime, you know?"

Shrugging, Chris placed his carryon bag underneath the seat in front of him, before turning back towards Melissa; hitting her with an understanding smile. "Don't worry. He gets to all of us. That's why he's sitting up there with Curly instead of back here with us. That way morning Justin and grumpy JC can just yell and argue with each other and leave us all back here the hell alone."

Not having anything to say to the comment--figuring the guys knew how to handle JC and Justin better than her anyway--Melissa slightly smirked before turning her head towards the nearest flight attendant; listening on as the slightly older woman started to give the passengers the usual safety cautions speech. Afterwards leaving Chris to turn towards Melissa; bringing up a topic that he'd yet to talk to her about.

"You don't have a dress for tomorrow night, do you?"

Shaking her head slightly, Melissa raised an amused eyebrow; wondering if the man beside her was volunteering to go shopping with her. "Not yet. Why?"

Noticing the look on the younger woman's face, Chris chuckled to himself; before stating that this wasn't going to be a cross-dressing kind of thing and that he was only asking because his girlfriend, who lived in New York, would be coming to the party with them, as well, but hadn't had a chance to pick out something to wear yet; even though she had a closet full of things she'd never worn before hanging up at both his and her house.

"So, you're asking me to go shopping with her?"

Not wanting it to seem like he was begging for her to do so, Chris shrugged nonchalantly before replying, "Yeah. If you want to that is. I just hope that you're not as bad as Justin is with the whole shopping thing and can have both her and yourself back at the hotel by the time the party starts."

Rolling her eyes slightly, while mentally marking Chris down as a typical male, Melissa agreed to go. "On one condition, that is."

As the plane jerked foreword, taking off the ground, Melissa watched as Chris quickly closed his eyes--seeming to be saying a small prayer--before opening his eyes back up; afterwards asking, "What's that?"

Realizing that the man beside her either had a fear of flying or a fear of heights, Melissa closed the window shade beside her before saying, "You tell me her name and something about her. Because I refuse to walk around all day, calling her Chris's girlfriend."

Chuckling, Chris sat back in his seat--forgetting about the slight nervousness he had felt a couple of seconds ago--and began telling Melissa how him and Dani, his girlfriend of four years, had met and almost instantly fell head over heels in love with one another.

Creating, what he'd like to think as, the most deliriously happy couple anyone had ever heard of.

"And that's when I knew she was the one."

After rolling his eyes as he listened to Chris, a few rows behind him, gossip to Melissa about his four year relationship with Dani, JC sighed to himself before saying, "Not even a week yet, and he's already telling her his business. It'll only be a matter of time before the Enquirer finds out."

Having had enough of his friend's bitterness towards everybody, Justin sat up in his seat; narrowing his eyes at the older man--before saying: "Jesus JC, you act as if she's got the black plague! Would it kill you to be nice to her for once?"

Not wanting to get into it with the younger male, JC slouched in his seat before replying, "No, but why should I be? We don't even know her."

"Correction, you and Lance don't even know her." Justin replied, rather loudly, causing Mike and one of their other bodyguards, Lonnie, to look over at him strangely. "And that's only because he spends all his time worrying about her, business wise, instead of getting to know her, personal wise. And you spend all your time with your head stuck up your ass. Which, I don't know about you, but to me is not a great way to get to know somebody else."

Not wanting to give the younger male the decency to know that he'd struck a chord in him, JC skipped over the comeback he had in store for the blonde and just replied with a rough, "Whatever", before quickly throwing a set of headphones over his head and glaring heatedly at the seat, in front of him.

An action, which Justin noted, he did for the rest of the flight.