At eleven o’clock in the morning Lexi’s makeup person, hair stylist, wardrobe assistant, and a few other random people were in her hotel room helping her prepare for her appearance and performance on TRL. While her hair was being done she did her vocal warm-ups, and by the time she was dressed and made up and rehearsed the choreography with her dancers it was 2 PM. They got into a Ford Expedition and made their way over to the MTV studios and made their way upstairs. While they were in the elevator, Lexi’s cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Baby. I guess I missed you,” JC’s tired voice said.
“Yeah, I’m at MTV now. Did you just wake up?” she asked as she was directed into a dressing room and sat down on the sofa.
“Yeah. I’m sorry I meant to see you before I left.”
“That’s ok. You’ll just have to make it up to me later.”
“Ya promise?” JC chuckled.
“Of course.”
“Well I’ll let you go prepare. I’ll see you later today.”
“Bye…Oh! By the way, when I tug on my ear that means I love you and I miss you.”
“Ok,” JC smiled. “I love you.”
“Love you, too. Bye.”
“Today we have the world premiere of Sisqo’s new video, and we’ll talk to him live on the phone about that. The battle goes on for the #1 slot between *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, and Lexi Morrow is live in the studio. I’m Carson Daly on Monday July 3rd, and this is Total Request Live…”
Lexi’s nerves got more and more tense as she sat in the greenroom watching the first few videos. Once they reached #4, Lexi was lead to the infamous TRL photo booth where she was shown taking her picture on the way to commercial break.
She was then lead down a hallway, and around the corner the TRL studio waited for her. She took a deep breath as she heard the countdown to being live on the air again.
“You’ve seen a lot of our next guest on the countdown over the past few months. Her video has been on and off the countdown, but has remained steady for the past four or five weeks. Her video for ‘Slight Obsession’ has become part of the TRL family…Let’s welcome Lexi Morrow to the show!” Carson said.
Lexi emerged from around the corner, and the audience went wild. She shook Carson’s hand and said, “Whoa! Hey, what’s up, guys?”
“It’s great to have you here, Lex. Is it ok if I call you Lex?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“Lemme just show you the kinds of signs we have out here,” Carson said directing her to the windows. “There’s a guy down here holding a sign that says I want to meet sexy Lexi…there’s another one that says Lexi, I have a Slight Obsession with you!…what do you think when you see stuff like that?”
“Umm…wow! It’s just so surreal to me. I mean a little over a year ago I’m in college and now I’m traveling across the country doing what I love. It’s great!”
“For those of you that don’t know, Lexi is currently on tour with *NSYNC.” The audience yelled in excitement. “Tell us a little about your experience with *NSYNC on the road.”
“It’s honestly nothing short of awesome. Since I’m an only child I was never used to being around people in close quarters all the time, but they’ve all become like brothers to me,” Lexi said as she tugged on her ear with her free hand.
“That’s great. Now I know that you and JC do a duet during the show. How are people reacting to you at the shows and also to your duet?”
“The audience reaction has been excellent. I was really expecting to almost be rejected because if you’re going to see *NSYNC the last thing you wanna deal with is some girl singing a few songs, but I was totally wrong.”
“Well, it definitely seems like you’re fitting in with no problem. Now we’re gonna take a couple phone calls. Hello, Sarah?”
“Yeah! Hi, Carson! Hi, Lexi!”
“Hey, Sarah!” Lexi said.
“Where are ya from, Sarah?” Carson asked.
“I’m from California.”
“Oh, cool. What part?”
“San Francisco.”
“Alright, cool. What’s your question for Lexi?”
“Ok, I was just wondering what your next single is gonna be.”
“Hmm,” Lexi thought for a second. “It’s really up in the air right now. We’re trying to decide whether it should be a ballad or a fast song, but we’re definitely going to decide soon so we can make a video for it.”
“Well, I saw you open for *NSYNC in San Diego, and I thought you were soooo awesome! I totally loved your duet with JC.”
“Oh, thank you so much! That means a lot.”
“Ok, thanks, Sarah.”
“Bye, Lexi! Bye, Carson!”
“Ok, we have time for one more call before we go to break. We have Ryan on the phone from Chicago. Hey, Ryan, you have a question for Lexi?”
“Yeah. Hey, Lexi.”
“Hi, Ryan. How are you?”
“I’m good. I just was wondering that since you did a song with JC you must have spent a lot of time together.”
“I guess you could say that…” Lexi said beginning to get nervous. “Recording a song takes some time, so we worked a lot in the studio.”
“Well I would think that all that time you guys spent together would form into something more. Is there anything more than just business between you guys?”
As Ryan was asking his question Lexi began to find his voice very familiar, but she maintained her composure and said, “No, we’re just friends. Like I said, they’re all like brothers to me…Ya know your voice sounds very familiar. Do I know you?”
“Why are you lying?” the caller said getting upset.
“Excuse me?”
Carson jumped in. “Ok, man. Thanks for calling.”
“Tell the truth…!” The caller was cut off before he could say anything else.
“Ok then…” Lexi said hiding her discomfort.
“I’m sorry about that. Psychos, please refrain from calling and harassing our guests!” Carson yelling into the camera. “We’re gonna go to commercial now, but ‘Slight Obsession’ is #3 today, so when we come back Lexi Morrow will be performing it live. Don’t move, we’ll be back with more TRL in a minute.”
Lexi’s dancers came out as the studio was set up for their performance. As they got in their positions Coley approached Lexi.
“Are you ok? That guy was definitely a couple fries short of a happy meal.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. He just…”
“He what, Lex?”
“He just sounded a lot like Matt.”
Coley was the only one of her dancers that she’d told about Matt and what happened. Coley’s reaction wasn’t at all unusual. “Omigawd! Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. I mean, who else could possibly know about you know what?”
“Thirty seconds!” the stage manager called. “Places!”
“We’ll talk later, Lexi.”