"Welcome to flight 723, on a non-stop course to Orlando, please make sure your seat belts are fastened securely and that all trays are in an upright position before take off. Now, if you look under you seat, you will see a yellow oxygen mask..."
I stopped listening to the flight attendant. It's not like I needed to hear the same speech again, I knew how it went. I'd memorized it the first time I got onto a plane. Flying is something I'll never like, ever.
"You know..." JC said, leaning over and whispering in my ear, "as soon as that seat belt sign goes off, I'm heading to the bathroom. Wanna come?" I looked at him and laughed, before saying, "Not if this plane's moving."
JC sighed. "Laaance! Come on, these things are safer than cars, you know."
"Is that really true, or are you just trying to entice me?"
He grinned. "Maybe both."
The plane lurched as it sped towards the runway, and I subconsciously grabbed JC's arm. "I hate flying," I said, shutting my eyes. I know, it was babyish, but hey, I got to grab onto JC, didn't I?
"Oh, my poor baby," JC said, patting my arm, which was holding his in a death grip.
Well, I was too busy freaking out over my overly developed fear of heights to actually respond to JC's comment, so I just held onto his arm until I was pretty sure the plane was at the slowest speed it would get to during the flight.
JC had set his jacket between us, and I snaked my hand under it, grabbing his hand in mine, out of the sight of anyone who looked as they walked by. He smiled at me and I turned to look out the window. As I was watching the mass of white, fluffy clouds, I thought about telling my parents about me. Then that made me think of the guys, and I knew that couldn’t be put off as easily as telling my parents could.
"Are we going to tell the guys about us?" I asked, turning to JC.
He subconsciously bit his bottom lip for a moment before saying, "I guess we tell them the truth."
I nodded, thinking how we could put the truth into... well, the truth.
"What should we say?" I asked him. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don’t know. I guess... just be straight forward with them. Justin already knows... well, at least about me being in love with you."
"I knew you two had some secret thing going on... you had that whole eye thing going on in the kitchen that one night right before we left for my parents house."
JC smiled. "Yeah, well now you know. And Justin will be more than thrilled for us. He was the one who told me I should tell you how I felt at your parents house."
I squeezed his hand tightly and said, "I’m glad you did."
"Me too." We were silent for a moment, before JC spoke up again. "I think Joey and Chris will be okay with it. I mean, Chris doesn’t act it most of the time, but he’s got a really mature side, being the oldest and everything. And Joey’ll probably take a ‘more women for me’ attitude about it."
I laughed softly at JC’s comment about Joey. He was most likely right.
Before either of us could say anything, two girls warily approached our seat, their plane tickets in their hands. "Hi," the first one said, "you’re Lance and JC from *NSync, aren’t you?" We nodded, and the second girl let out a little squeak. "Can...can we have your autograph?" the first one asked, voice shaking just a little bit. I loved fans.
JC signed both of their tickets, and then handed me the tickets and the pen they had given JC. I quickly signed them and handed the tickets and the pen back to the girls.
"Thank you so much!" the first girl gushed. It looked as though they were about to leave when the second girl finally spoke up. "I didn’t know you were left handed, Lance."
I grinned, JC’s hand still firmly grasping mine under the jacket. "I’m not."
*
Landing in a plane wasn’t nearly as bad as taking off, but my ears always seemed to pop worse as a plane was landing. That was the only bad part about landing.
"So, should we tell them now, or when we get home?" JC asked.
"They can’t make a scene in a public place, we should tell them here."
JC laughed. "They’re not going to make a scene, Lance. They’re going to be fine with this. Have faith in them."
Well, so far, everything had been going really great, and I just didn’t know when Fate was going to decide I needed another kick back down to the ground.
We walked down the little thing that connects the airport to the plane, and instead of following everyone else out into the gate, we turned right into the VIP entrance, and sure enough, the guys were there waiting for us. There were hugs all around, and suddenly I could feel my palms getting sweaty and butterflies rising in my stomach.
I shouldn’t have been nervous. I mean, these guys were my best friends, no matter what. At that moment, however, even that knowledge couldn’t ease the feeling in my stomach.
"So, what did you guys do in boring ol’ Mississippi?" Joey asked, and I smacked his arm playfully.
"Actually..." JC started, looking at me, and I knew that it had to be then. JC reached out slowly and grabbed my hand in his, and we both looked at our friends. ‘Please, please be okay with this,’ I pleaded silently.
Justin realized it first, naturally, and his face broke out into a huge grin. "Oh my God, you guys!" he exclaimed. "What does that mean? Are you two... you know... together?" Chris asked, indicating our linked hands. JC nodded, and tentively asked, "Are you guys okay with that?"
"Well, duh!" Justin exclaimed, and if I wasn’t so worried about Chris and Joey, I would’ve laughed out loud. The boy was just so... Justin sometimes.
"I guess... I mean, yeah, I think I am..." Chris said, running a hand through his hair. "I mean, it’s just... wow... you know?"
"It’s probably a lot to take in, we know, but we had to be honest with you guys," JC said. I looked over at Joey, who had his head down, looking at the ground.
"Joe?" I asked, and suddenly I had a horrible feeling in my gut. Joey looked up at us, and he had the biggest grin on his face.
"Sorry, I was just thinking that this means more chicks for me."
*
