"What happened?" My mom asked at exactly the same time as Briley said, "What's the deal?"
"Well," I started to say, then, I lowered my voice. "It was Lance who wanted me to come backstage. I got back there and he said he wanted to talk to me. Right before he said anything, Chris and JC came over. I mentioned that it probably wasn't the best time, so I asked if he wanted to go out to eat with us after the concert. And Chris says, 'Just him? We eat too!' Then, JC smacked him. So, I said that if they could find another car, they were welcome to go. And that was when they had to go because of the meet and greet. But, I did get these..." I handed JC's pass to Briley and the other to my mom. "And Lance said he would see us backstage after the concert."
"Oh wow! I can't believe we are taking 'N Sync out to eat!" Briley said excitedly.
"Hey Briley? Look at the back of your pass."
She flipped it over, her mouth dropped open, and her eyes got huge when she read the words on the pass. It said, 'Artist Pass/ JC Chasez/ *N Sync '98-'99 World Tour.' She whispered, "This is JC's pass?"
"Yeah," I said, holding my pass so she could read it.
"That's Lance's pass?" She asked.
"Yeah," I replied, laughing at her expression.
"Wow!" She said.
Just then, this girl in the fourth row leaned up and said, "Hey! Do you have backstage passes?"
I glanced at Briley and I nodded. Then I said, "I'm begging you- don't tell anyone!"
"How did you get them?" The girl asked.
"Well, I guess you could say we're friends with the group," I answered.
"Cool!" The girl screeched. "When you see them next, tell them that Britney loves Justin!"
"Okay," Briley slowly said.
Thank goodness, the lights went down and a dj from 107.7 came onstage and announced Britney Spears. We danced and had a good time during her set, but we were ready for 'N Sync. Britney finished by singing her new single, then, she ran offstage. Finally, the time had come.
Five figures in black robes walked onstage. They took the robes off and they had on white space suit things that glowed under a black light that came on. For a few minutes, they danced like this, then they took these off and each of them was wearing an oriental style suit, each in a different color. After a couple of songs, they ran off and changed into jeans and red St. Louis Cardinals jerseys with McGwire written on the back. Each time one of them came out, they would introduce themselves and say a little something. When JC came out, Briley took a stuffed bear named Ishmael and threw it to him on stage with a note asking him to take a picture of himself with the bear, sign the picture, and send the bear and picture back to her. He leaned over and picked it up before Lance headed out to the stage. He began the speaking live introduction to "God Must Have Spent..." During the first verse, Lance looked down and spotted us in the third row. He smiled, waved, and moved his lips enough to say, 'Hey Kelly.'
This would have been fine, but all these girls around me began to say, "Who's Kelly?" "Why does Kelly deserve to have Lance say hi to her?" "Where is the little witch?" After this, at various parts of the concert, other members would come to the right side of the stage, smile, wave, and say hi to us.
The concert had to end sometime, which we really didn't want it to. So, me, my mom, and Briley headed to the backstage area. At the door, a security guard stopped us.
"Where do you think your going?" He asked, stepping in front of us.
"Backstage," I answered logically.
"No your not," he said. "Fan passes can only be used before the concert."
"Well, we know them," I told the guard.
"Prove it," he said.
"How can we prove it if you won't move and let us backstage?" I asked, raising my voice.
"That's your problem," he answered, carefully watching us.
I turned to Briley. "How can we prove it?"
She was quiet for a second, then she said, "The passes!"
"Briley, he doesn't care."
"No, the names!"
"Oh!" I said, turning back to the guard. I held out the back of the pass. "See? Artist pass for Lance Bass! And she has one for JC Chasez! This should prove it!"
His mouth dropped. "I'm sorry! Go on back." He moved out of our way.
"Thank you," I said, walking backstage, Briley and my mom in tow.
Once back there, we stopped, at a loss for where they were. We were discussing where to look when someone ran by yelling. Twenty-five feet in front of us, he stopped and ran back. It was Chris.
"Kelly! Are we going? Are we? Are we?" Chris asked in one breath.
"That depends. Do you have another car?" I asked.
"Yup. Are we going?"
"Yes, Chris, all of you can go," My mom said.
"Oh thank you!" Chris said, hugging her. Then to me he said, "I'll go get Lance!" He ran off.
The three of us looked at each other amazed, then started laughing. We had tears rolling down our cheeks and we were holding our stomachs from laughing so hard. Between fits of laughter, Briley managed to say, "What the heck is he on?"
"Sugar!" A voice behind me said. Lance stepped between Briley and me. "We're not supposed to let him have any, but somehow, he got ahold of some chocolate." He shrugged. "At least I'm not the sorry one who has to share a room with him!"
We laughed some more at this, and then, my mom asked, "So, where do you all want to go?"
Lance answered, "Well, you three would know better than us. I mean, your from this general area."
"Okay, how hungry are you?" My mom asked.
"Well," Lance started to say, but he was interrupted by Joey, Chris, JC, and Justin, each giving four different responses.
"Starving!"
"Need food!"
"I'm going to wither away to nothing if I don't eat soon!"
"Famished!"
"Okay then," She said. "How much time do you have?"
"Not much," JC said, grinning. "We have to leave Saturday morning."
I slapped my forehead and said to Briley, "That was a Hager joke."
"No kidding," she said. By Hager joke, we were referring to our History teacher from school who always told really bad and stupid jokes.
"In that case," My mom said, ignoring us, "have you guys ever been to an Outback Steakhouse?" They all nodded their heads. "Do you want to go anyway?"
"Yeah, sure," Joey answered for the group.
"We can go get our car and bring it to where your bus is," my mom said.
"That's fine. That's where our rental car is," JC told us.
"Okay, come on, Kelly, Briley," she said.
Briley and I looked at each other and the expressions on our faces said the same thing- 'We ain't going out there at night, just the three of us!' The guys must have noticed because they looked at us and grinned.
Lance jumped in and said, "I'll walk with them." He nudged Justin.
"Yeah... yeah... I'll go too," Justin said.
"Okay, we'll see you all when you get back," JC said. So, the five of us ventured out the door. Justin and Lance made us walk in the middle of them, though. We walked the two blocks to our car, and when we arrived, Briley claimed the front seat. She said it was because I got to sit in the front the entire time, but I knew it was so I could sit by Lance. Not that I was disappointed with sitting between him and Justin.
Mom drove through the streets, eventually ending up behind the theatre, but not before she got us lost in the streets of St. Louis. When we arrived, she rolled down the window as JC approached. "We'll just follow you there, okay?" JC suggested.
"Sure," She said.
We were finally on our way to getting food. We all sang along with the radio, but that was put on hold by a sharp turn into the restaurant parking lot. As a result of this turn, Lance and I both yelled.
"OWWWWW!!!!"
"Sorry," My mom said apologetically.
"What happened?" asked Briley.
Lance said, "I just got squished by almost three hundred pounds!" I was slightly confused by this, but then I realized that me and Justin put together would be almost three hundred pounds, if not over that.
"One of Justin's elbows just landed in my stomach! I think it hurt my uterus!" Everyone laughed at me. "It's not funny! Timberlake, if I can't have kids as a result of this, it'll be your fault!" Everyone laughed at me again. "Oh, so it's funny when I'm in pain?" I couldn't resist smacking Briley in the back of the head when she nodded.
"Sorry," Justin said. "But, you can blame Kristie! It was her fault! She is the one driving who caused me to do it!"
"Thanks a lot mom!" I said exasperated. Briley turned and looked at me, her eyes as wide as saucers. I then realized my mistake.
"Yeah, thanks a... did you just say..." Lance started to say.
"MOM???!!!" He and Justin said together.
"Oops..." I said quietly.
"Whoa! Your mom is hot!" Justin said.
"Justin!" I yelled.
"I thought she was like, 24 or something! Definitely not old enough to be someone's mom!" Lance told me.
"Well, thanks to the both of you," she said as we got out of the car.
"Hey Kristie! Where did you learn how to drive?" JC asked jokingly. "We could barely keep up, especially when you made that sharp turn into the parking lot!"
"Yeah JC! Get onto her for that! That made Justin hurt my uterus!" I said.
"I don't even want to know," Joey said, walking past us into the restaurant.
The rest of us walked in and told the host that we have eight people. "We're kinda full, so is two booths okay?"
"That's fine," my mom said.
He led us to two booths, putting four sets of silverware at each one. I slid into a booth and JC sat next to me. Lance sat on the other side across from me, while Chris sat next to him. I was the only one who noticed, but Briley started to sit down next to Lance, and when Chris did, she gave him a death look. If looks could kill, he'd be more than six feet under. So, she ended up in the other booth next to Justin and across from my mom and Joey.
After the waiter took our orders, I stretched out my left leg, because my back hurt. I rested it against what I thought was the pole of the table, but then, a strange though occurred to me. I leaned back enough to notice it was actually Lance's leg mine was against. "Sorry," I said, moving my leg.
"It's okay," he said.
When Chris and JC heard this, they looked at each other, at us, then under the table. "Okay, so those of us without raging hormones are in the dark..." Chris said.
"Leave them alone," JC said to Chris, grinning mischievously.
"JC? Do me a favor," I said.
"Sure."
"Don't take this the wrong way."
"What?"
"Shut up."
"Okay," he said.
We were saved by the food then, because the waiter brought more than enough to keep us quiet. About forty-five minutes later, Lance and I were the only two finished. He gave JC the money for his, and we went outside to my car to talk.
I turned the car on and switched the radio to a soft rock station. "So," I said.
"So..."
"Hey, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked him.
"Oh yeah. I don't want you to think I'm weird or that I hook up with girls everywhere we go, because basically, that's really far from the truth," Lance said.
"Okay," I slowly replied.
"And normally, I don't think of fans as anything more than that really... fans..."
"Okay," I said again.
"You see, the thing is..."
"Lance, just say it."
"Okay... I want to be your friend... No... what I mean is well, not friends... but more," Lance finished, his face bright red.
"Wow... I don't know what to say." Lance looked out the side window. "I guess what I could say is..." I paused. "Would it work?"
Lance turned and looked at me. "We'll make it work. I promise."
No sooner had he said the words his door opened. Briley and Justin were there, laughing at some joke that had been told. We got out of the car and ended up in the same places that we had on the way. My mom, Briley, and Justin talked animatedly. Neither Lance nor I said anything until I ran my fingers through my hair and he saw my ring.
Lance grabbed my wrist and held my hand up so he could see the ring. "What's your ring say?" He asked, holding my hand close to his face so he could see it.
"True Love Waits," I answered.
"Is that the thing where you make the commitment not to have sex until you get married?" he asked.
"Yeah," I answered.
"Cool." He dropped my wrist, but not my hand. I didn't want to think of it like this, but the first thing that went through my head was... 'I can't believe I'm holding hands with a member of 'N Sync!' Then, I forced the thought out of my head. He wasn't a member of 'N Sync, at least, not to me. He was a friend... and a boyfriend.
We ended up at the theatre entirely too soon. Lance went into the bus and came back with a couple of pieces of paper and a pen. "Here," Lance said, handing them to me. "Write your address, phone number, stuff like that." I did and handed him the pen. He wrote the same information and handed me the paper. My mouth dropped open. "What?" He asked, laughing.
"Well, I thought four things about me was alot... but you have home address and phone number, e-mail address, birthday, cell phone number, and beeper..."
He laughed again. "I just make sure that people can always get ahold of me if they really need to." I handed him my paper. "1981... so your 17?"
"Yup."
"It's good to finally know how old you are..."
"Hey, I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but could I get a picture with you guys?" I asked.
"Sure! We love to do this!"
"But, it's a friend thing... not a fan thing," I told him.
"No problem. Hey guys! Come here! And Kristie!" Lance yelled. The six of them walked over. "We're going to get our picture taken with Kelly, okay?"
"Sure!" The all said together. I handed my mom the camera and they stood behind me.
Right before she took the picture, I said, "Okay, hang on... let me in here!" I pushed my way between Justin and Lance. "Alright, take it now."
She took the picture and then said, "Kelly, we need to go. Your dad is going to go crazy with your brother if we don't go soon."
"Yeah, I know." I turned and gave Joey, JC, Chris, and Justin hugs goodbye. When they went to hug Briley and my mom, I turned to Lance. "Well, I guess I'll see you eventually..."
He smiled. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Great," I said, hugging him.
The two groups then separated and we got in the car. We talked about the concert until we got on the highway, then Briley asked the one question I was hoping I wouldn't have to answer. "So Kelly... what's up with you and Lance?"
