She didn’t know what to do at first. Then she quickly pulled away. “What are you doing?” She said angrily and stood up. “What’s wrong?” Justin asked. Sarah just seethed. “I cannot believe you. You used me as a piece of meat, bet on me with Nick, and didn’t even bother to apologize and you just come over here and kiss me and expect me to just forgive you? What planet are you living on?” Justin stood up. “Listen to me, and listen to me now.” “NO! Why should I huh? After how you humiliated me? Hell no, you are not even half the man Isaac or Joey is! Joey was the one who deserved to kiss me and you never will.” Justin looked like he had been slapped in the face. “What? You kissed Joey.” Immediately her face reddened. “Yes, yes I did.” She said shakily waiting for the wrath of Justin. Justin sank back in the couch and didn’t say anything. She was waiting for yelling or screaming but didn’t receive either. Justin didn’t say anything. “I knew something was going on, I hoped there wasn’t, but I knew in the back of my mind there was.” He looked at her. “Sarah, I made the bet out of anger and hate towards him. I never meant to hurt you. He was so smug and I don’t know. Sarah, at first it really was a bet I was trying to win but after awhile I fell for you. I fell for you hard. I still like you and I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I’m sorry doesn’t really do any justice. I used you. I made you seem like some prize to be won.” Justin stood up, looked at her and left the room. She just sat there. She put the mask back over her face afraid of her heart doing the same thing it did earlier. Mercedes came into the room. “Sarah, what were you two talking about? Are you ok?” She nodded and removed the mask from her face “I’m fine. We were just talking about nothing.” “Then why did Justin look like he was either going to cry or probably beat someone up.” “Excuse me?” “He was looking for someone, it looked like he’s pissed and he’s going to punch someone.” Sarah jumped up, “oh no.” Sarah jumped up and walked out of the room looking for Justin. She started jogging and slammed right into Chris. “Sorry Chris.” And she took off again but Chris grabbed her arm. “Don’t run, you don’t want to wear yourself out.” She stopped and he had a point. “Ok, sorry, thanks Chris.” She gave him a quick hug and face paced walked. Chris wondered what she was up to running so fast anyway and decided to follow right behind her. Sarah picked up the pace a little again oblivious of Chris following her. Sarah kept taking different hallways until she heard what she was looking for. “Look Justin, give it up. She deserves better than you.” “I’m aware of that and I apologized for everything. What in the hell Joey, you are in your twenties!” “Yes, and she almost too, she can make her own decisions! She is a big girl Justin.” “That’s true, but she picked you?” Joey looked at him as though he was losing it. “Excuse me? Are you saying you are better than I am?” Justin just raised his eyebrows. “Draw your own conclusion genius.” “I can’t believe how low you are Justin. Over some girl?” “Ok, fine, dump her.” “We’re not even going out!” “Then don’t start!” “You can’t tell me what to do!” “I’m not telling you, I’m demanding you too.” Joey just started laughing in Justin’s face. “Oh give me a break!” This flared Justin’s anger and swung the first punch. Sarah burst in watching Joey fall back into one of the couches in the room. “STOP IT!” Sarah screamed Chris picked up the pace and came into the room. Joey lunged for Justin and grabbed him squarely by the shoulders and slammed him against one of the walls. Chris leapt into action and grabbed Joey and loosened his grip on Justin. “Joey, knock this off, you know you are stronger than him and could easily take him down. Just leave him alone and let him blow off steam.” Justin’s anger rose and he turned to Chris and narrowed his eyes. “What? Are you calling me a wimp?” Chris sighed, “no, Justin, knock this off it’s just stupid.” “No, are you saying that I’m not strong or big enough to take Joey?” Justin leapt towards Joey again when Chris backed off. “NO!” And Sarah ran to Justin and grabbed him. Justin stopped and Sarah put her hands on his chest to stop him. She looked in his eyes, “why are you doing this Justin? You are not proving anything to anyone.” Justin calmed down and she backed away. He just walked out of the room but Sarah grabbed him. “Wait a second, come back in here.” He sat him down on the couch. Joey and Chris stayed standing. “Look, I’m going to say this now alright. I don’t want either of you. This is absolutely stupid. What are you fighting for? You do not impress me. In fact it’s a major turn off. Look, Justin, Joey I like you guys as friends but nothing any more. I’m still trying to deal with looking at the TV and not wanting to cry when I see Isaac. I still love him but I’m very much aware we are not getting back together. And I don’t want to get involved with any of you right now. I just keep getting myself in trouble and hurting myself when I do.” She said all in one breath trying to keep from losing her sanity. All of them were speechless. Sarah spoke up again. “I’m sorry if I ruined today or did anything to ruin your friendship. I’m really sorry. After this I’m sure you are going to want to stay far away from me.” Sarah burst into tears, “I’m sorry! I am so unbelievably cursed!” She ran from the room. She heard steps behind her and she picked up the pace. She ran outside through a metal garage door and saw girls standing there screaming hoping to get some of their favorite members to come out. Not realizing you can’t hear them from the inside. She was going to run she didn’t know where she just wanted to run. She saw one of the tour busses. The screaming increased, she knew it was one of the guys but she didn’t care whom. She just wanted to take shelter alone by herself and mope. She never made it, he grabbed her and the girls’ shrieks became louder. She whirled around and stood face to face with Chris. “Please stop crying.” She looked at him, “why? I’m freaking venting right now.” Her took her hand and ran with her to the bus she was going too. Girl’s snapped pictures and screamed his name. He looked over and waved quickly and kept jogging with Sarah. Sarah was behind him running. They hopped into the bus and he shut the door. This was their tour bus, she could tell by their clothes lying all over the place, especially a couple pair of boxers. She sat down on a couch behind the table. She dropped her head in her crossed arms on the table. “Why am I so unbelievably cursed huh? WHY? First health problems, then in love, and now in friendships!” Chris pulled up a chair across from her. “I think you are slightly exaggerating.” “What?” “Well, not to sound self centered but millions of people out there would love to be in your position. To be loved, and be in love with these guys. There are people more badly off than you are. Look at where you are right now. Your health problems are over, you can choose the guy you want or don’t want, and look at how many friends you have.” She looked up at him and just stared. “I hate others being right.” He grinned but she kept her stony glare. “Come on, lighten up! This is going to be an exciting concert!” She lifted an eyebrow. “Look, can you keep a secret?” “Yes, why?” Chris got up and made sure no one was around. “JC is going to propose to Cassandra during the concert in front of everybody.” Sarah’s mouth hung open in a big O “are you serious?” “Dead serious.” Chris said looking at her back. “Oh my gosh! That’s wonderful!” Chris sucked in, “not really, you know what this is going to do? Cause a major backlash.” “Well, at least he’s being honest with all those fans out there.” She said shrugging. Chris looked at her and shook his head, “he’s breaching contract.” “How?” We’re not even allowed to say whether or not we have girlfriends. This is MAJORLY breaking the rules.” “Oh well.” “You aren’t going to smile anytime soon are you?” “Make me.” Chris grinned, “is that a dare?” “Yeah.” She said without any emotion. Chris turned around and pulled out a pair of red silk boxers, “I’ll be right back.” And he jumped up and Sarah waited wondering what he was up too. A couple of minutes later he emerged out of the back wearing nothing but the boxers. “You think the fans would like a picture of this?” “You aren’t?” “It is rather hot out. Don’t you think?” “Chris, don’t embarrass yourself.” “I don’t know, I really need a tan. If you smile and forgive them I won’t go out.” “Go ahead and embarrass yourself.” “Oh no, I’m going out holding you.” “You wouldn’t?” “Test me.” She plastered a fake smile on her face. “Ok, you win, see I’m smiling and I forgive them.” “You don’t mean it.” “Of course I do.” “No you don’t.” Sarah stood up in front of him, “yes, I do.” He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, “for the love of God! Don’t please Chris.” He put her down, “I’m just kidding. Like I’d go out t here in front of 12 year olds like this. I think I could be sued for something like that.” He walked back to the bedroom and put his clothes back on. “Thank God!” She shouted after him. “I know! I wouldn’t want them to go blind!” Sarah started laughing. He came out and she hugged him. “Thanks, I needed this.” He hugged her back and they walked outside. The screaming picked up again. Chris waved as they walked back into the Palace. She walked in after Chris and she headed up to the stage because she heard some music playing. She assumed they were practicing for the show. Chris led the way. All of her friends were standing in the front row chairs dancing as they were singing. Cassandra was just sitting smiling. They started “I Drive Myself Crazy.” Sarah walked over to her friends. Lance walked over and pulled Kendall up on the stage. She looked at her friends while climbing up and stuck her tongue out licking her lips and grinning like a fool. Sarah rolled her eyes and the others laughed. Lance took Chris’s part in the beginning. Kendall started laughing and blushing really badly. They all started wooing for their friend. Justin bent down and started singing to Laura and Gina. Both of them faked fainting and Justin started laughing. JC then started singing to Cassandra. In the back Justin and Joey looked at each other during singing. They apologized to each other without saying anything at all. Sarah was relieved and enjoyed them singing.
Hanson finished off the song and knew that they wanted this on the CD. They stopped and still trying to add some more lyrics to the end they watched TV. “Oh gee, live at the Nsync concert!” Ike said sarcastically. They grinned and noticed a figure collapsing. “Hey, who’s that? Has she been to one of our concerts?” They looked at the screen and recognized Sarah being picked up by JC. “Oh my . . .” Ike jumped up, “we have to go, now!” “Ok, Isaac, brother dear. Incase you haven’t noticed we are punished and if you leave that means we are going to get in deeper trouble.” Zac said, and Taylor got up. “If we are going to be in trouble regardless let’s all go.” “Ok, but should we tell them where we are going to be going too?” Taylor picked up the phone and left a message with the front desk. “Hello, this is Hanson. Would you please leave a message for our parents and management that we had to attend to some business because a friend of ours is sick? We are going to hold on to our beepers and we will be back as soon as we can. So if they have to reach us we will have them on us. Thank you.” Taylor hung up the phone and grabbed his black windbreaker. Ike grabbed his license “let’s take the van because it will be faster.” Ike grabbed an extra key and they ran out of the room. They hopped in the car realizing it would take an hour or so to get there. They had been there before but were thankful for the map in the van.
It was two hours after they had left and the concert started in an hour. “You are such a moron Taylor. You can’t even read a map!” “Oh excuse me? I’m the moron I said ‘Ike, turn right.’ Then we turn left and your reaction? ‘Oh well, I’m sure they merge sometime.’” “Taylor, roads usually do, but you have to direct me in the right direction.” “OH BOTH OF YOU! BITE IT!” Zac shouted in the back. Ike and Taylor turned around, “shut up Zac.” Zac just stuck his tongue out at his brothers and figured he was at least going to try and take a nap while dumb and dumber try to figure out where they were. “You know, this is NOT good.” Ike said. “No shit Sherlock.” Taylor said trying to find a sign that gave any indication of where they were. “Tay, Tay, Tay, it’s rude to swear.” “Oh eat it Isaac, if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be in this mess. If you had pulled over, turned around, we’d be at the Palace right now.” “Gee Taylor, thank you for that wonderful insight you have been pointing out for the last 20 minutes!” Zac shook his head in back. He was ready to kill someone, and he didn’t know which brother he wanted to do away with first.
The lights went out and the screaming rose. Sarah was still sitting in her chair tired. She had wanted to sleep, badly. She reasoned after this they were going straight to the hotel, and sleeping. There was a huge cloud of mist and some fireworks popping out and Nsync came on. The only reason she was staying awake was to watch the events that were going to unfold in front of her.
“Ok, now that we turned around awhile back we should be getting back to the hotel soon.” Taylor said relieved. “I hope you are right about this. I don’t think taking that road was a good idea and nothing has changed and we’ve been driving for about 2 hours.” “Ike, trust me.” Ike sighed, his brother was sleeping in the back and had been ever since their big fight. “Hey look Isaac! I told you it was ok! There’s a sign, let’s see where we are.” They looked up and saw the big letters of the sign all right. “WELCOME TO OHIO”
