Four hours later, everyone was starting to leave, to go to the after parties that were being held. The photographer was still doing last minute pictures. Lance and I, along with three other couples were still dancing on the dance floor. We were grooving away to Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child. Eventually, the other three couples left, leaving Lance and I the only ones left. All who were left was Lance and myself, the DJ, the photographer and the bartender. The double doors soon burst open and in came Joey, Chris, JC and Justin dressed up in suits. I nearly died when I saw what colour they were. They were exactly like Lance’s but Joey’s was bright green, JC was in a bright red, Chris was in bright orange and Justin was wearing bright blue. All five guys were wearing bright colours.
“Oh my god!” I said. Lance turned and saw the guys walking over to us.
“Have no fear, the party is here!” Joey yelled out. The guys walked over and I hugged each one of them.
“Photo time!” Justin said, dragging me over to the photographer.
“Hey guys.” The photographer said.
“Hey Dave.” All the guys said.
“Wait, you know him?” I asked the guys.
“Yeah, he’s *NSYNC photographer!” Chris said.
“What?!” I asked dumbfound.
“Yeah.” Lance said. “I pulled a few strings with your school and they let me have our photographer. Cause with my status, I didn’t want a photographer who would take off with the pics and sell them to magazines. The school let me.”
“Oh and before you ask, the DJ over there,” Justin said, pointing to the DJ, “that’s Ruben and over at the bar is Paul.”
“So practically, the whole prom was organised by you guys?”
“Yep.” JC said.
“Okay, guys, let’s get some photos done. Okay, Rachael, you stand in the middle here, Chris on your left, Lance on your right. JC go behind Lance, Justin go behind Chris and Joey behind Rachael. And stand on this while you’re at it so we can see you.” Dave said, handing Joey a small wooden box.
“Gee, thanks.” Joey said, grabbing the box.
“Yeah, yeah.” Dave said towards Joey’s remark. We got into the formation. “Okay, now Joey stretch out your arms and place your hands on the outside shoulders of JC and Justin. JC put your right hand on Lance’s right shoulder, Justin same, but opposite. Lance, put your left arm around Rachael’s waist and Chris, put your right arm around her waist. Great. Hold it.” He took a few pictures of us in that pose.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I wanna be next to Rachael now!” Joey complained. “Justin’s been next to her for ten pictures already!”
“What! You’ve been next to her eight times already Joe, I’ve been next to her six times!” Chris complained.
“I have not been next to her for ten!” Justin said, starting to fight back.
“You are all wrong. I’m next to her now.” JC said, walking up to me. Joey then pulled JC back and started to walk to me. Soon enough the other two were in the fight. They were pulling each other back in a playful way so it didn’t bother me that they were fighting over me. I stood there with Lance and watched them fight over who was going to be beside me.
I looked at Dave and nodded. I pulled Lance closer to me and wrapped my arms around his waist and he did the same, Flash. They guys looked up at me and saw that I was next Lance. I looked at them and poked my tongue out at them, Flash. The next few shots were candid cause it was just the guys and I mucking around. Some were set. They were mostly the guys trying to fight for my affection. After the photo session, we headed back to the dance floor and danced to whatever came over the speakers. We had a few drinks from the bar and for all that time, Dave took photos of us. It was the best night I ever had. The last time I looked at the clock it was 1:30am and that was when we were dancing. We eventually ran out of dancing ideas at about 3:30am and decided to head up stairs to the guys’ rooms. We all went to Lance’s room and sat down on the couch.
“Drink anyone?” Lance asked as he stood at the fridge with the door open.
“Strawberry bacardi please.” I said. I was out of my dress and my shoes and was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a baggy shirt. I had prepared a bag with some clothes in it, knowing that I would be getting out of my dress at and after party if I went. The guys had changed into basically the same that I was in. A pair of sweat pants and a shirt.
“Beer.” Joey said.
“Bourbon and coke.” JC said.
“Beer.” Chris said.
“Rum and coke.” Justin said.
Lance pulled out what everyone asked for and a bourbon and coke for himself and walked over to everyone, giving them the drinks they wanted. He then sat beside me on the three-seater couch. JC was on the armchair, and Chris in the other, Justin and Joey shared the two-seater couch opposite to where Lance and I were. We sat there, talked and the guys shared stories about what happens on tour.
At 5:00am, the curtains were shut and we were on our fifth or fourth drink for the morning.
“What do you wanna do know?” I asked, once the room fell silent.
“Anyone sleepy?” Justin asked. We all looked at each other and shook our heads no. We were to excited over something to go to sleep.
“Okay, how about strip poker?” Joey asked.
“Trust you to think of that, but since nothing else to do. I’m in!” I said, looking at the guys.
“I’m in.” Justin said.
“Yep.” JC said.
“Why not.” Lance said.
“Gotta keep myself occupied by doing something.” Chris finally said.
Joey reached into the draw that was under the table and pulled out a pack of cards. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Getting off the couch and sitting around the coffee table in the middle of the floor.
“It’ll be fun.” JC said.
“But it’s different if you don’t know the people you are playing with. I’ve like known Lance for a week and the rest of you for like half a day and you expect me to play.”
They all looked at each other and then back to me. “Yep.” They all said. I just rolled my eyes and Joey dealt the cards out.
It was the end of the first round, and all that were in was Justin and myself. The guys formatted the rules, that everyone else but the winner had to take an article of clothing off. So far, Lance had his watch off, Chris and JC had a shoe off and Joey had one of his rings off.
“You gonna show Timberflake?” I asked Justin.
“Yeah.” He showed his cards and I saw that he had a straight with the cards 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. “You can’t beat that, so get that article off!” Justin said, sounding really proud of his accomplishment.
I showed my cards and said, “Eat it and weep it! A royal flush!” I said. The other guys cracked up laughing when they saw Justin’s expression drop. Justin came around and removed his JRT necklace.
After the tenth round, Chris was out and down to his boxers; Joey was still in with one sock, three earings and his pants still on. JC was down to his pants and Justin still had his pants, one sock and one shoe still on. Lance was sitting there with his pants and shirt on, while I was sitting there, in my boxers and singlet top I had on underneath my previous clothes and still with one sock and two earings left and the necklace that Lance gave me in the limo. I had already used up my other two earings, because I have two holes in each ear.
“How much clothing do you have on woman?” Joey asked me.
“It’s not my fault that I was cold before.
Thirteenth round, JC, Justin and Lance were out and it was down to Joey and myself. Joey was laying there in his boxers, and one sock, while I was laying there, now in my singlet top and boxers. We had moved the game from the table to the floor and we were both lying on our stomachs. JC and Chris were back in the chairs while Justin was sitting with his back against the chair and Lance was lying near where Joey and I were playing.
“If Joey looses this round Rachael wins, but if Rachael looses, she has to remove her top, cause I know she’s wearing a bra under that thing so she could still be in it.” JC said, watching Joey and myself arrange out cards.
“And what makes you think that I’m gonna remove my top?” I questioned him.
“Well you have to be like the rest of us. We are down as far as we can go, and so should you. Why should you be any different?” JC fought back. The guys still hadn’t changed into more clothes, but just sitting or lying in their underwear.
“I can’t believe this, I’m playing strip poker with a bunch of guys.” I said quietly as I put down three cards and picked up another three cards.
“Show.” Joey said. I placed my cards down, but all I had was a pair of nine’s. Joey snickered and placed his cards down and all he had was a pair of ten’s. I dropped my head as I heard Joey scream out in victory. “Shed that top Rachael.”
“You guys owe me big time for this.” I said. I removed my top and layed back down. Joey was already shuffling the cards with a big smile on his face. “Shut up Joey. I’m not enjoying this. I’m probably scaring you all.”
“Nope.” Was all I heard from every mouth in the room.
“I’m so glad I’m drunk.” I said. I wouldn’t have taken off my shirt other wise.
It was now the time to tell whom the overall winner was. I peered over my cards at Joey.
“Show your cards Joe.” JC said.
Joey carefully placed his cards down and I saw that he had two pairs. A pair of five’s and a pair of queen’s.
“Show your cards, baby G.” Joey said.
I placed down the card that didn’t belong with the other four. It was a two. I then placed a pair of five’s and kept the other pair in my hands.
“Stop it and show!” Joey said, sounding frustrated.
I placed the other cards down to reveal a pair of king’s. “I WIN!” I shouted getting up and jumping around. “I can’t believe it! I beat all of *NSYNC at strip poker! Eat it and weep it boys!”
Joey’s head hit the ground and he screamed “I got beaten by a girl!” Into the carpet.
Lance had gotten a drink for everyone and handed them out. “A toast to the winner of our game!” We all raised our bottles and took a big sip.
We slowly gathered our things and put them back on. We sat down on the couches where we previously were before the game. Within a few minutes, Chris was fast asleep; Joey, JC and Justin were having a conversation between themselves while Lance and I were also having our own conversation.
“Thanks for coming with me tonight. It meant a lot to me that you went out of your way to come down here to Australia.” I said quietly to Lance.
“Hey,” he said, “it was my pleasure. I had so much fun with you tonight.”
“Really?” I asked him, resting my head on that arm of the couch.
“Yeah. Deep down inside, I was hoping to have a fun night, but there was always this thing that it was going to turn out to be a flop. You’d invite me and all night I’d stay at the table or get mobbed by every girl.”
“The reason why you didn’t get mobbed was because hardly anyone knows who *NSYNC is in my year level.” I turned my head and rested it on his chest. Justin and Joey were now fast asleep. JC was finishing his bourbon and coke.
“Except for that one girl, Vanessa I think it was, she knew who I was.”
“Yeah, well, went I went to the bathroom, she cornered me and all of these questions came out of her mouth. But they were mostly about how I got to link arms with Justin. But sorry, you didn’t come up much in her question explosion.” We both laughed. “I seriously thought that she was going to break into a million pieces and produce a million young girls, screaming for you all. Just like the brooms in Fantasia.”
“I could just imagine it.”
I gave a yawn, pulled my legs up onto the couch and put them underneath my body. “What’s the time?” I asked Lance with my eyes closed.
He glanced to the clock on the wall and saw that it read 6:55am. “Five to seven.” He replied.
“Okay.” I softly said and closed my eyes, listening to Lance talk to JC. Soon, I was in a deep peaceful sleep.
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