Matt sat down in the chair across from us and set a couple of large blue index cards in his lap. "Are you two ready?" he asked us. We nodded and the director pointed to Matt. Over my right shoulder, Matt read from the prompter. "Her debut album 'Me and My Piano' has sold over nine million copies thus far. The first artist signed to the Backstreet Boys label, KBNHA; she has surpassed any hopes and expectations the media had of her. And now she is the recipient of MTV's coveted New Artist Award. She is Krystal Harris and like her shocking rise to stardom she made a startling display at last night's Video Music Awards. Welcome Krystal."
"Good morning," Krystal said.
"And who have you brought with you this morning?"
Krystal smiled. "My girlfriend, Becca." Oh God, the G-word again.
I grinned nervously, knowing in my heart what was coming. "So Becca, how did you and Krystal meet?" he asked me.
Oh why did he have to ask me this? Deep breath. Now answer the man. "Um, well, I actually met her at a show about a year and a half ago, but she doesn't remember me then. I met her in a coffee shop though."
"Yeah I was crying over the loss of my boyfriend and she just talked to me like a human being," Krystal added.
"Because you are one," I said, looking over at her.
"And how long have you two been together?"
Krystal answered this one, noticing my shaking hands. "About six months now. But we've just recently decided to come out in the open about this." She reached over and grabbed my hand again to keep me from shaking.
Aren't you scared about making this type of announcement so early in your career? I mean, what about the media and the label and the fans?" Matt folded his hands over the edge of the arms of the chair.
Krystal glanced at me and then said very slowly, "I am scared. I'm scared for myself and for Becca. Not so much what the label or the management's gonna say. They've known about it from the beginning. They actually advised me to go ahead and come clean with it. But the fans I'm a little worried about. I mean, if they really do support me, they'll stand by me. But the media, no offense, can blow things out of proportion."
Matt smiled and that seemed to ease my pain a bit. "None taken Krystal. Becca, are you afraid?"
"Terrified," I replied. "I mean, up until now, no one knew who I was. But after last night, there's nothing I can do now. I can't exactly take it back."
"No you can't. Let's talk about last night. Did you have any idea that you were going to win, Krystal?"
"Not a clue," she said. "I had nothing prepared and really, I think that's why everything happened the way it did last night."
"You two walked down the red carpet together, which in itself was very bold. And then you kissed, not once, but twice during the show."
I sighed. "The first one was my fault. In that moment, I wasn't thinking who was around us, that there were cameras on us or anything. It was pure overwhelming joy about the award. But the second one, well. I had seen the Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie kiss and afterward thought 'Here's one for the "best of" reel.'" I laughed slightly.
"What about the gay community? Any idea on how this is going to impact them?" Matt asked.
Krystal sighed. "Well, I'm not really coming out and saying 'Hey, I'm gay.' I think we're more saying that we're young and we're willing to experiment, try new things. I think we're more making a statement to young people who are maybe afraid that what they're feeling is wrong."
"Now you were raised in a very Christian household, Krystal. Trained gospel singer, believing in God. You've made that very clear. How has the church reacted to your relationship?"
Krystal got this weird look on her face. Like she was terrified to think of what was going to be said by the church. I knew they didn't know. "Well, being that they didn't know until now, they haven't, yet. I don't know what to expect. I mean, this is the first our parents are hearing of it too. I think we were both scared of the reaction."
I spoke up. "I think we're both terrified of what's going to be said now. More of 'Why didn't you come to us?' type of thing. I think though it should be okay. The Harris's know me as Krystal's friend and my parents know Krystal as a friend. I think they're going to be surprised, to say the least, about this relationship. We just weren't ready to tell them. We told the Backstreet Boys and the people we were going to be around on a regular basis, but being we're both living away from home, we never really saw the need to burden our parents with the knowledge. We've all met before and we all get along. I just hope this doesn't cause more problems than it's worth."
"So what's next on the horizon?"
Krystal squeezed my hand and replied, "Well, there's the Billboards coming up and the Grammy's. I'm not nominated, but I think I'm going with the Backstreet Boys and more than likely, Becca's gonna be there." She looked over at me again.
I smiled at her and then looked at Matt. "Well, I dunno about that. I mean, with MTV, you can pretty much get away with stuff like that, but the Grammy's? Now that's a different story. I guess it'll just depend on how the press takes this story."
Krystal then added, "Plus I've got the album coming out next month."
"'Piano Girl,' right?" Matt asked.
"Yeah," Krystal said, grinning. "Becca actually gave me the title."
I giggled as Matt stared at me. "See, I've always compared her to Elton John and Billy Joel. I've even managed to convince her to play 'Piano Man' for me on occasion. So I call her my Piano Girl. She just liked it."
"The album comes out..." Matt prompted, not knowing the exact date.
"October twenty-second," Krystal filled in. "I can't wait."
"And neither can we. We look forward to seeing you in the future and wish you a lot of luck."
"Thank you," Krystal replied.
"Well, thank you both." Matt then looked over my right shoulder again and read from the prompter, "Coming up next, TV chef Ermeril with a few cooking lessons, right here on the Today Show." When we were clear, Matt leaned over and thanked us again.
