A Simple Touch
Parking along the side of the building, I self-consciously walked in through the door. I almost expected to see a crowd of girls hanging around, so I was surprised to see that the dinner was more than half empty. It was mostly taken up by *N Sync and their entourage.
Justin was the first to see me, I discovered that when I heard him calling me from across the dinner.
"Yo! Avery, wassup?"
"Hey Justin, not much. I'm just hungry!" I joked.
"Well, then pull up a seat and chow down!" Chris said pushing out an extra chair with his foot.
I said thank you as I took another seat across from him. I knew better than accept something Chris is giving you. You'll never know what else you'll get with it!
Soon we had all ordered, I wasn't in the mood to eat so I just got a hamburger and fries with a chocolate shake. I won't even try to remember what all they had, I just know it was a lot.
Our conversation was all over the place, from touring, to family and friends, to food, but the weirdest topic had to do with Joey.
Someone, somehow, got Joey started on stealing ducks. So of course he made this whole joke about how he smuggles ducks across the border, so then Lance jumped in with 'so that's why you bunks smells so bad' which made me choke on my fries. But no, it couldn't just end simply, they all decided that they smuggled animals. Chris had parrots because they said the whole pirate persona fit him, Lance had turtles because…well…he just did, Justin had sheep because I said they were curly like his hair, and JC had ferrets because they're both tall (or long in the ferrets case) and skinny.
I didn't get off that easy either, they said that since I was there, I must have been part of the smuggling ring as well. I smuggled monkeys. I don't know how I wound up with monkeys, I just did. Not that I mind, they're cute.
Thankfully the entire conversation wasn't that weird, I spent a lot of time talking to JC and Lance. Lance was as nice as I had pictured him, and JC was a perfect sweetheart. My heart probably skipped a beat or two, but mostly he just puts you at ease.
The hour passed way to quickly, and I was getting ready to leave when Lance caught up with me.
"Avery! Hey, do you have to get home now? Me and the guys thought that maybe you could come with us to the airport, you know, to see us off? I mean, if you can't that's fine but…" he just left the sentence trailing.
"Well, I did tell my mom two, but I'm sure she'd understand. If you guys really don't mind me coming." Like they'd be asking if they didn't want me to come.
The drive to the airport was short, and the wait for them to board seemed even shorter. As empty as the dinner was, the airport was that full. Everyone was there! I recognized some girls from school, I'd probably be hearing rumors about myself soon.
As we walked through the airport, we got about half way there when JC's hand brushed mine. We both looked each other for a moment, and then he took hold of my hand and kept walking. Didn't say a thing, just intertwined his fingers with my own and walked.
I looked at him in surprise, but he wasn't looking. But the fans were. Cameras were snapping all around us, I thought I was going to go blind.
When we reached the terminal, the various members of *N Sync branched out and began signing
autographs. A few girls came over to me, asked my name, how did I know them, was I dating JC, all those good questions. I answered everything except for how we had met, I didn't think they'd believe me.
After that died down a lil bit, it was time for them to board the plane. JC got permission for me to walk onto the plane with them since they were among the last to board.
I wouldn't call it a tearful goodbye, but it was emotional. I hugged each of them one by one, and they all had something sweet to say.
Justin made me laugh when he said it was about time JC hooked up with a cute dame. I just tousled his hair and told him he was getting his 'dames' mixed up, I was far from hooked up with JC. He just gave me his lopsided grin and told me that I'd know better than him.
After Chris hugged me, he told me to take care, with a sister like Mya, I never knew what I was going to be getting myself into. He also told me to make sure to give them a call next time they were going to be in town so they could fix me up with some tickets.
Joey gave me this huge bearhug, made it a little bit hard to hug back, but I did anyway. I don't know why, but I remember thinking that his shirt was really soft. He told me that the next time they were here, I'd have to make sure Callista wasn't doing anything so he could finally meet her.
When I hugged Lance I got my answer as to if he heard me or not after the concert when we hugged then. As I was getting ready to let go, I heard him very softly say 'No, it should be me saying thank you.' I didn't know what he meant, but when I asked all I got was a smile.
JC was last, we were kinda hanging out in the walkway since everyone else had gone in. You know the awkward feeling you get sometimes, when you know what you want to do, you just can't seem to do it? Well, that's how I felt.
Neither of us said anything for a while, then he just started laughing. When I looked at him, he told me that he was laughing because he felt like a fool.
"I mean, I can perform in front of tens of thousands, but I can't even find the words in front of one." Were his exact words.
I didn't know what to say, so I just gave him a hug instead. He smelled good, clean, but also like his cologne. I think it might have been Stetson, but I could be wrong. I just stood there, not quite on my tip toes, but close, with my arms wrapped around his neck. I could feel his breath running across my shoulder, it was warm and moist, and it tickled a little bit.
We must have stayed just like that for a few minutes, because right as I lifted my head from his shoulder, they were announcing that it was the last chance to board.
"Oh, darn plane, they couldn't of waited five more minutes." JC laughed as he slowly let go. "But before you go, I have something for you. So you won't forget."
What I wasn't supposed to forget, I wasn't quite sure. But I wasn't going to argue, so I asked him what it was.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box and an envelope.
I opened the envelope first, it was a small card. The front was a painting of the beach, I'm guessing Florida. I flipped it open to find his handwriting taking up about half the space.
Hey girl,
I guess this is goodbye for now, but goodbye's sound so long. How about…catch ya later? That means we'll meet again. I like that. Well, here's a little something until then. Hope you like it, I didn't have a lot of time to get anything.
Love ~ Jc
ps- I still don't know your last name :P
Smiling as I looked up, I said 'Jadian' as a carefully opened the box.
Inside I found a bunch of tissue paper. Pushing that to the side, I saw something silverish on the bottom.
Reaching in, I pulled out a small silverish ring. As I rolled in around in my palm I saw something etched on the inside.
Looking closer I saw my name on one side, the day we first met, and his name on the other side. As I just stood there in awe, he explained that it was plantium gold, so that's why it looked silver.
I tried it on my fingers, and finally settled on wearing it on the middle finger of my right hand.
The stewardess came out and told JC he had to get in his seat, so I gave him another quick hug and started to say goodbye before I remembered he said no goodbyes.
He beat me to it though, he gave me one last squeeze and said they'd be back soon, maybe after the tour they'd work there way back to the area.
I said that I'd love that. Then before he could do anything, I lifted myself up onto my toes and gave him a soft kiss across the cheek. It was soft, he had to of shaved that morning.
He gave me a surprised look before just smiling. He said c-ya one more time before he lightly squeezed my hand and started towards his seat.
I stood there watching until he was gone, and after that I sat there and waiting for the plane to take off. I watched it until I couldn't see it anymore. I knew my mom would be wondering where I was, but it didn't seem all that important at the moment.
Finally, I gave one last look out the window and stood up. It was about time to head home. I couldn't dwell on something that wasn't there. Besides, they'd be back. They promised.
As I drove home, I played with the ring at every stoplight I hit. I wasn't going to be taking it off anytime soon, so I may as well get used to it.
Once I got home and put their cd on, an amazing though hit me. I thought about it as I laid down for a nap. It was only around four, but I was tired.
This whole thing had started over a week ago, with a simple act. And that one act led to another…until that one, simple, touch.
Epilogue
I settled back into a normal routine very quickly. I heard more rumors than I could count about myself, and my character. I think I ranked right up there with Britney Spears for a while.
After the whole incident, me and Mya kept our distance for a while, but we eventually started to get along better than we had.
I found myself hanging out with more guys after that, and it wasn't long until I found myself with a great boyfriend. His name was Jimmy. Well, it was actually James, just like Lance. But we all called him Jimmy.
Even my mom started to date a little bit. That was weird at first.
I kept in touch with the guys over the phone a lil bit, but mostly e-mail. The told me how there shows went, and I kept them up to date about Cat, Toni, Callista, and Mya, along with myself.
Basically everything was going great. Jimmy found out he had to move, but even that didn't put too much of a damper on me. We'd keep in touch.
But I was counting the days till they'd be back. I never took the ring off, 'cept a few times in the pool. Not even while I had been dating Jimmy. But he understood. He could see the meaning of one simple touch.
I See The Light!
The Rest Of Da Stories
Main Page
Email: kai_yuria@hotmail.com
