Chapter 2: A Boy band??
“Let’s get this meeting started.” Mr. Stevens announced as he entered the board room and resumed his place at the head of the table. The group quickly quieted. The meeting was spent going over what everyone was working on and upcoming events in the news. “Your new assignments are posted on the door.”
As soon as the boss was out of sight everyone rushed to the door to see what their new story would be on. By the time Elaine got to the list most people had dispersed and headed back to their desks or to lunch. She scanned the list for her name, running her finger down the side before stopping and the moving across to the other side. Her brow creased and she double checked that her name and assignment matched.
“Something wrong Ms. Jacobs?”
Elaine turned quickly at the sound of her boss’s voice. “No sir I just…uh…NSYNC?”
He smiled widely at her and leaned against the door frame. “There’re very popular right now.”
“I know that but””
“Are you not happy with you’re assignment Ms. Jacobs?” He patronized. “If you aren’t happy I could always give you’re assignment to someone else and you could do another blurb for me?”
“No.” She stuttered nervously over her words. “It’s just that I thought I was going to be doing more meaningful work about important issues.”
“Isn’t our entertainment news important?” She nodded. “You’ll be meeting with the group Thursday for lunch so make sure you’re up-to-date with their music and history.”
“Yes sir.” She said thru clenched teeth and headed out for lunch.
~*~*~
“Nsync? You are so lucky.” Emma gushed as they made their way through the mall. Elaine glared at her. “What? They’re cute!”
“I don’t care if they’re cute or not,” Elaine sighed. “I don’t want to do a celebrity piece. No one cares about that stuff.”
“I’ll read it.”
“Thanks.” She mumbled as she followed Emma into Victoria Secret. “I have to do some research on them today. I think I’ll go buy one of their CD’s.”
“That’ll be good.” Emma held up a silk, lavender negligee. “Michael would love this.”
“Don’t Em. Do you not remember me calling you last night crying about what a jerk he was?”
“Yes.” She said shoving the garment into Elaine’s arms. “And I think it’s about time you gave it to him.”
“What?”
“What are you so afraid of Lane? I mean sure it hurts at first but it only gets better the more you do it.”
“I can’t believe you said that.”
“You love him don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And you trust him right?”
“Right.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Elaine smoothed the satiny fabric between her fingers as she pondered her friend’s question. What was her problem? She did love him, he was her first love, and they had been together for almost two years. Was she just scared of losing her ‘innocence’ or was there something more to it?
~*~*~*~
“You don’t look any different.” Emma greeted as she brushed past Elaine.
“Should I?” She asked closing the door and following her to the couch.
“Um, I believe you lost your virginity last night.” Emma replied with a ‘duh’ look on her face. Elaine shifted uncomfortably. “What’s wrong? Was he really small?”
“Emma!”
“What?” She asked innocently.
“I didn’t go through with it okay?”
“What happened?”
FLASHBACK
“Hey, where are you?” Elaine asked into the phone as she rushed around her apartment.
“I’m about to pull into the parking lot outside your building.”
“Okay, see you soon.” She said, her voice cracking in nervousness and then hung up. She rushed into the bedroom and quickly lit the candles that were scattered around the room and tossed a few more rose petals on the bed. When she heard the door open she did a quick check in the mirror before going out to meet him.
“Man am I exhausted.” Mike plopped down on the couch and flipped on the television. Elaine cleared her throat and smoothed her hands down the sides of her negligee. She made a few more noises to get his attention. “Hey, babe?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you grab me a beer?”
With a grunt she did as he asked and grabbed a Bud Light out of fridge. Bringing it back to him she sat down on his lap and, as seductively as she could, handed him the beer. She began kissing up and down his neck.
“Babe, can you stop that?” Elaine stopped her movements and pulled back to look at him incredulously. “I’m trying to watch this.”
Did he not notice her attire? Was he intentionally trying to make her feel badly about herself? Elaine immediately jumped off his lap muttering a quiet apology. She felt like an idiot, an undesirable idiot. “Hey,” He called following her into her bedroom where he found her covering herself with a robe and the set up she had worked so hard on. “What is all this?” He laughed.
“Nothing.” She mumbled bowing her head in embarrassment.
“Where you planning on getting f**ked tonight?”
“I wanted tonight be special.” Elaine whispered through her tears.
“What did you read this in one of your girly romance books?” He chuckled. “The rose petals and candles and”” Mike reached for her and opened her robe. “Sexy lingerie.”
“Just forget it okay Mike. It was stupid.” She said making her way around the room to blow out all the candles. She looked back at him as he began to undo his belt. “What are you doing?”
“You finally want to f**k and you think I’m gonna pass this up?”
“You are so crude!” She yelled throwing his belt back at him. “Get out!”
END OF FLASHBACK
“What an ass!”
“He was half drunk when he got to my place.”
“That doesn’t make the way he acted right.” Emma soothed.
“Can we just talk about something else please?”
“Sure. So share the info you have on your boy band with me. I’ll help you figure out what else you might need.”
Elaine smiled at her friend. Emma was trying her best to act as if she did care about the fact that she was going to meet with Nsync but Elaine new better; Emma was a closet fan. “Who should we start with?”
“JC!” She said a little too fast.
“Well,” Elaine began opening her notepad. “His full name is””
“Joshua Scott Chasez” Emma interrupted. Elaine raised an eyebrow at her friend’s eagerness to answer. “I think that’s his name anyway. I heard it on one of those entertainment shows.”
“Sure you did.” Elaine smiled. “He was born on August 8, 1976 in Washington D.C. He was part of the Mickey Mouse Club along with Justin Timberlake who got JC to join Nsync….”
After ordering and consuming a large pepperoni and pineapple pizza Elaine had covered all of the information she had obtained about each member of the group.
“Sounds like you have enough information to me.”
“Yeah, I also bought their first and most recent CDs and a movie that Justin Timberlake starred in.”
“Model Behavior?” Emma asked.
“Have you seen it?”
“No, but heard about it….on one of those…”
“Entertainment shows?” Elaine chuckled.
“Yeah.” She laughed. “Let’s watch it.” She said jumping off the couch and popping the movie into the VCR.
The movie was a laugh, and not because it was a well written comedy. “Emma? Will you…dance with me?”
Both girls burst into giggles at Elaine’s imitation of the character played by Justin Timberlake, Jason Sharpe. “How about when they were looking at the stars, *ahem*, they may be rocks but their not stupid.”
“Oh man.” Elaine sighed wiping the tears from her eyes. “I really hope that the writing was just terrible and not that Mr. Timberlake is really that bad of an actor.”
“Me too.”
~*~*~
“The boys should be in shortly.”
“Thank you.” Elaine replied to the older woman who ushered her into what appeared to be a playroom for the boys of Nsync. Game controllers seemed to be everywhere along with nerf balls, scooters and CDs. How old were these guys again?
She stopped her exploration around the room when she heard voices approaching.
“Shut the f**k up man!” The one Elaine recognized as Justin Timberlake laughed.
Chris jumped on the younger man’s back at that comment knocking them both on the ground and in the process taking Lance and Joey with them. The four men were too busy laughing and yelling profanities to notice the amused woman standing on the opposite side of the room.
“Uh”guys.” JC called out when he finally noticed Elaine. “Guys!” They stopped mid punch to look up him. “We have company.” He said motioning with his head to Elaine.
In unison they all looked over at her before scrabbling to their feet. “Hello, I’m Elaine Jacobs.” She introduced taking a few steps towards them and holding out her hand to JC first, who appeared to be the only sane one of the group. “I’m here with Life Touch Magazine to do a piece on you guys.”
“Oh right.” JC responded shaking her offered hand. “We totally forgot about that.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled warmly.
Joey stepped forward taking her attention away from JC and over to him. “Baby are you an angel because I swear you came from heaven?” He flirted kissing her hand.
She looked down at her hand and then back up to the rest of guys with a questioning look on her face. “Thank you?”
“I’m Joey Fatone, the good looking one.” He introduced causing the others to burst in to hysterics.
“Why don’t we go ahead and get this over with?” Was Elaine’s response to that. She took a seat on the couch on the opposite side of the room and got all of her things out.
Justin looked at his band mates incredulously and mouthed ‘get this over with’? They shrugged and found their seats. “Not a fan huh?”
Elaine looked up and around the circle trying to figure out who spoke to her. Justin raised his hand, signaling that he was the one who had asked the question. “What makes you say that?”
“You just seem in a hurry to get this over with.” Justin replied. “You did say let’s just get this over with.”
JC shook his head at Justin’s behavior. Sometimes that boy was too straightforward.
“I said let’s get started.” Elaine corrected him with a tight lipped smile hoping that he would just drop the subject.
“Noooo.” He said. “I know what I heard.” She looked up at him with an annoyed glare.
“Well, I just have”you know”places to go, people to see. And as far as being a fan, I think you will agree that the majority of your fans are teenagers.”
“How old are you?” Justin asked angrily.
“With all do respect Mr. Timberlake, I’m here to ask the questions not answer them.”
“Ohhhh man, she got you.” Chris snickered.
“Can we get started now?” She asked looked directly at Justin. He childishly crossed his arms over his chest and began to pout. If Elaine hadn’t been so angry she would have laughed at his cute antics.
Two hours later the interview was drawing to a close and Elaine was packing up her things. Justin who was still angry with how Elaine conducted herself stormed out of the room claiming that he had a phone call he had to take.
“So what are we going to do to celebrate Jay’s birthday?” Lance asked.
JC turned to Joey. “I thought I told you to fill him in.”
Joey smiled sheepishly and quickly changed the subject. “I can’t believe our baby is going to eighteen. He’s growing up so fast.” Joey and Chris dramatically hugged one another and pretend to cry.
“Man, you suck.” JC laughed. “We’re throwing him a surprise party at Jace’s house. Tomorrow night at seven.”
“Got it.”
“I’m gonna head out guys.” Elaine interrupted. “Thank you for your time and I’ll be sure to have the article faxed to your management before we publish it so that you can go over it make sure I didn’t twist anything you said.” She teased.
Joey threw his arm over her shoulder. “We trust you darling.” She rolled her eyes at his playful antics. These guys were insane and so much fun. She had never laughed so much in her life as she did during her two hours with them.
“We should have Lainey come to Jay’s party seeing how well they got along today.” Chris laughed as he foolishly skipped around the room.
“You really should come.” JC suggested seriously.
“I don’t think he’d like that very much.” Elaine said trying to sneak her way to the door.
“Just think about it.” Lance added. “You could get some more stuff to put in your article and some pictures and stuff.”
“Pwease come.” Joey pleaded getting down on his knees and grabbing on to her legs desperately. “All the other kids are going.”
“I’ll think about it.” She laughed.
“That’s all we’re asking.”
TBC....(Please leave feedback! Thanks!)
Number of reviews: 45
Print:
Chapter or Story