“Hey, what’s going on out here?” Maddy approached the group of dancers crowding the hallway, an exasperated look on her face. The show was fast approaching and they should have been in make-up.
One of the girls looked up tiredly from where she sat cross-legged and slumped against the wall. “Justin’s in there.”
“And?” That shouldn’t have posed a problem for them; it was just make-up after all. In fact, she’d witnessed the boys and their dancers goofing around in hair and make-up many a time, much to the irritation of their stylists.
“He’s in there with Britney,” another of the girls explained. “And if you’d like to try and get past that,” she said, motioning towards the door, “then be my guest.”
Maddy sized up the heavyset man—not one of *NSYNC’s security, she noted—perched outside the closed door. She sighed; just what she needed.
She climbed over the girls’ legs until she stood face to chest with the huge man. Looking up, she forced a smile. “Hi.”
The man simply nodded.
“Yeah…” She sighed. “Listen, we need to get this show on the road, and that means me getting these girls in this room and all prettied up. So unless you’re a dab hand with a blusher brush, I’d appreciate it if you could let us through.”
Without a word, he stepped aside.
“Thank you.”
Maddy tapped her knuckles against the wooden door until a voice inside shouted for her to come in. She pushed the door open with her shoulder and poked her head in.
“Hey, Maddy,” Justin greeted her as he swung from side to side on the make-up chair. Britney sat in front of him, perched on the counter, looking to the doorway as well.
“Hi, Justin. Hey,” she smiled at Britney and the make-up artist in the back of the room. The stylists and bodyguards had a policy of ‘I see nothing, I hear nothing’. Just as well, the things they probably knew about the guys. “Listen I’m sorry to interrupt but we’ve got to get this lot,” she motioned out into the hall, “through here in the next thirty minutes.” The first opening act was already halfway through their set. As Gary Wilson’s assistant it was her job to make sure all the artists were ready to hit the stage at the right time. Gary took care of the rest of the crew and technical problems. Her job should have been the easier of the two, but she’d discovered celebrities had a tendency to wander and never be where they were supposed to be. Add that to the fact that everyone wanted an extra minute with them, it was always a battle to keep things on schedule.
Justin tipped back dangerously on his chair to look out into the hallway. “You better send them in, it looks like they need all the help they can get.”
“Watch it, Timberlake,” the first of the dancers to file into the room warned.
Justin grinned. “Or what?”
Maddy chuckled. “Wardrobe, Justin,” she told him before he could start another tirade.
“Okay, okay,” he grumbled. “Hey, Maddy,” Justin called as she was about to leave the room.
“Yeah?”
He gave her a lopsided grin. “Sorry for holding things up, time ran away from me and I didn’t realise they were out there.”
She shook her head. How could anyone be angry with that. “No problem…this time,” she smiled. “Next time…now that’s a different story.”
“Why, what are you going to do to me?” he asked with laughing eyes.
“You’ll never know, because you’re going to be the first one ready every night, aren’t you, Justin.”
“You’re making me want to push my luck just to find out,” he smirked.
“Just you get yourself ready and maybe I’ll get to see this show everyone’s raving about for once.”
She left the room on that note to check on the others, hoping they were well on their way to being ready.
Britney followed Justin out into the hallway. “She looks familiar.”
“Who, Maddy?” Justin looked over his shoulder and saw her taking over the role of wardrobe and helping Joey straighten out his pants, at the same time talking to one of the backstage hands. Typical, Justin thought with a chuckle. Joey always managed to play the helpless fool to get the girls running around after him. “She used to be an intern at Jive. You’ve probably bumped into her a few times.”
“Maybe. You seem to get on well with her.”
He lifted his shoulders in a shrugging motion. “We all do. She’s friends with Jamie too so we’ve known her for a while.”
“Wait, is she the girl Lance was talking about taking home with him when we were in Vegas a few months ago? And Jamie was drilling him on his intentions?” she chuckled, it suddenly dawning on her.
Justin sighed. “Yeah…she’s the one.”
“I thought I recognised the name,” she nodded happily. “So what, are they dating now?” Britney continued.
“I don’t know, Brit, does it matter?” he retorted in a not altogether pleasant tone.
She looked at him, taken aback by his sudden outburst. “Sor-ry, just trying to make conversation.”
He went to run his fingers through his hair, frustrated with himself, then remembered his curls were gone. Good thing too, he thought, the hair stylist would have flipped if he’d ruined a creation of hers. “No—no, I’m sorry. Don’t pay any attention to me.” He turned and curled his fingers over her shoulder. “Are you going out front tonight, or do you wanna hang back here? There’s a monitor in the Quiet Room if you want to go in there.”
She tugged at the laminate around her neck. “I’m gonna go out front; I haven’t seen the show this time around. I think I’ll experience the surround sound of tens of thousands of your adoring fans.”
“Okay.” He brushed a kiss against her temple and squeezed her shoulder affectionately. “I need to get ready before I discover this wrath of Maddy’s ,” he grinned. He tweaked her nose. “Later.”
He watched her from the doorway of his dressing room until she met up with her guard at the end of the hall. Once inside, he closed the door and pressed his forehead up against it. What was getting into him? He was flying off the handle at the stupidest things. Britney’s surprise visit should have been a wonderful thing, but he had a feeling it was going to be nothing but trouble.
She was a part of this tour. She saw everything that went on behind the scenes, but it still amazed her how spectacular the end product was. The atmosphere was always electric, and it was almost impossible to take your eyes off the stage once the show started for fear you’d miss something.
She watched each of the guys sing and dance their hearts out. They’d all made their way over to the side of the stage at some point during the show, their eyes searching for family and friends. She laughed when Lance winked at her as she sat next to his family who’d flown in for the third time in as many weeks, his parents beaming with pride and his sister covering her eyes and mumbling as he performed particularly suggestive moves.
During a costume change, her eyes swept across the VIP area looking for familiar faces. She spotted Britney sitting a few rows down to her left. Maddy watched her with interest, wondering how she compared this tour with her own. Apparently Maddy wasn’t the only one who had noticed Britney, but Britney’s eyes were trained on the stage waiting for *NSYNC’s reappearance and she seemed unaware of the pointing and stares. Perhaps she was just used to it, being the superstar she was and the girlfriend of another.
Her guard—Rob, she’d been informed—hadn’t moved from her side all night. Maddy couldn’t imagine what it felt like. *NSYNC had nowhere near that sort of protection, not even Justin, and would have protested profusely against it had it even been suggested. They valued what little freedom they had left.
Justin drew her attention a fair bit—it was inevitable, he was a natural performer. Others may have needed a few tweaks to the dance moves or given a few pointers on how to work the crowd, but as soon as you put Justin up on that stage he was a different person. If the truth be known he was a born show-off. But that made for an amazing and sometimes quite amusing performance.
All too soon she had to go backstage to supervise getting everyone onto the buses. On the way out she bumped into Britney.
“Good show, huh?” Britney said as she slipped into step with her.
“Yes it was. I’ve only seen it a couple of times and never the whole way through. I usually get stuck backstage with one problem or another.”
“Are you coming out with the rest of us tonight? You’re welcome to come along.”
”Thanks for the offer but I think I’ll give it a miss tonight. Usually at least one of them will be out at night and I’ve been persuaded to go along way too many times,” she chuckled. “I just can’t keep the pace.”
“Well the offer’s there. It was nice meeting you, Maddy.”
“You too.”
Britney disappeared out of one of the exits as Maddy gathered together fresh towels for the group. “Well that was weird,” she murmured.
Justin sighed despairingly. She was at it again. From the moment they’d left the stadium Jamie’s eyes had been trained on him, and with a glance towards the back of the club he saw nothing had changed. She’d cocked an eyebrow in silent question at Britney’s appearance by his side when they’d arrived. For once the rumour mill hadn’t worked its sordid web to Jamie’s curious ears that night, which was surprising, because she made it her business to know every step the five men of *NSYNC took. Justin often thought she liked to dig that little bit further with him, maybe because of the nose poking he’d had in her own relationship. JC called it brotherly protection. He liked to think of it as downright interference.
Earlier in the day, things had been going great. His girlfriend was in town, things were back to normal with Maddy now he’d gotten over his stupid reaction to Jamie’s talk. Of course he wasn’t interested in Maddy. Just because she was attractive, and under different circumstances there could have been more between them, didn’t mean he wanted them to be anything other than good friends then and there.
His perfect day had gone downhill. Fast.
Now he couldn’t look Britney in the eye, and so he’d been avoiding her the whole night. A stupid, male thing to do. He’d just dropped her off at their table and spent the next couple of hours talking to anyone and everyone who happened to want to talk to him. That meant everyone from the celebrities who’d followed them over from the show, to the barman wanting an autograph for his girlfriend.
He’d indulged them all. Anything to rid him temporarily of the guilt he now felt around Britney.
“When did Britney get here?”
Justin jumped as Jamie jabbed him in the ribs. “Ouch, what was that for?” He rubbed his side. “This afternoon, why?”
“I didn’t get to see the show today because someone,” she glared at him, “caused a media stir when he let slip a solo project was on the cards. So I missed Britney arriving, but more importantly, I missed JC perform.”
“Oh come on, Jamie, how many times have you seen us perform? Hundreds. And I’m sure you get to see JC perform on a regular basis.” Justin pulled a face. “I can’t believe I just said that, the images are haunting me now.”
“Thin ice, boy; you’re walking on it. Now explain why your girlfriend has repeatedly asked me if anything was wrong with you for the past hour. You told me the other day that you were happy with Britney, that everything we’d discussed was the result of lack of sleep, missing Britney and what was it? Cabin fever?” she snorted.
“Not now, Jamie. It’s your fault I can’t look Britney in the eye as it is.”
“Whatever makes it easier for you to deal.”
“I need a drink,” Justin muttered.
Maddy flipped the light on her way out of the bathroom. She was just about to crawl back into bed when she heard voices outside her room. Carefully, she cracked open the door and peered out into the hallway. She frowned at what she saw—Lonnie trying to usher a clearly angry Justin into his room, just a few doors down from hers on the opposite side of the hall.
Maddy gasped, a hand flying to her chest as a body appeared between the crack. “Lance, you frightened me half to death!”
Maddy opened the door wide enough for Lance to slip through and then closed the door.
“What’s happening out there with Justin and Lonnie?”
“Young love hit a rock.”
Maddy lifted an eyebrow. “English?”
Lance sighed. “Short or long version?”
“It’s two thirty in the morning,” Maddy pointed out. And just in case he hadn’t understood, she confirmed, “Short.”
“J and Brit had a bust up. He’d been ignoring her or something, spent the whole night talking to everybody but her, and she wasn’t happy about it.”
Maddy could see her point; Britney had flown in all the way from who knows where to see him. “So then what happened?”
“She decided to leave before they started arguing. Justin had been drinking, followed her and decided to start pick a fight anyway. Security wanted to keep us all together, therefore cutting mine and Joey’s night short.”
“And why’s Justin mad at Lonnie?”
“Oh, Britney decided she was staying in her cousin’s room—she came with her or something—but Justin was all for continuing their ‘discussion’. Lonnie vetoed that idea and marched him back to his room.”
Maddy nodded. “Jamie will be thankful for that. Clearing up a public slanging match between those two with the press is the last thing she’ll want to start her day with. Will they be okay?”
“Nothing a little cooling off and a good night’s sleep won’t cure.”
“And that’s where you’re heading I assume.”
“Where?”
“To bed, Lance,” she chuckled.
“Well…you see I’m not that tired.”
“Well I am,” she smirked.
“Oh come on, Maddy. You know you want to have a slumber party with your good friend, Lance.”
Good friend? That was a good way of putting it.
“My Mom never let boys come to my slumber parties.”
“Well it’s a good thing I can keep a secret, then,” he grinned, before making his way towards the bed.
“I’m tired,” she said, putting forth a pathetic argument. It was hard to argue against something you actually wanted.
He gave her a lopsided grin that made her insides melt. “Then sleep.”
She opened her mouth, ready to respond but quickly closed it. What the hell, she resigned to having a cute pillow for the night. “That’s my side.”
Lance arched an eyebrow, his eyes twinkling. “We have sides already?”
“Shush, you.”
Lance lifted his arm as she crawled into the bed. He reached for the remote and flicked the television on. He turned the sound down low as she fidgeted on the bed beside him, burrowing down underneath the covers. “Comfortable?” he grinned when she finally stopped, her head on the pillow next to him, resting slightly against his waist.
“Mmm.”
He reached down and gently played with her hair as she drifted into dreamland, only half paying attention to the movie. Soon the pair of them were asleep.
Chapter 8
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