I froze, and as much as I hate to admit it, my heart jumped into my throat. “Hey Justin,” I mumbled, trying to find my voice.
“Hey, you okay?” He questioned. “Your voice sounds funny.”
“Umm, yeah, hold on a sec.” I covered up the phone and coughed a couple of times. when I finally felt confident that my voice was in working order, I got back on and said, “Okay, I’m back now. Yikes! Hold on, I forgot something!” I realized then that I had left my cd on and ‘I Drive Myself Crazy’ was blaring into the phone. I quickly turned it down and returned to the phone. “Okay, this time I’m back for real.”
He chuckled and replied, “You like that song? It’s pretty cool.”
“Umm, yeah, I guess.” My cheeks were blazing now, and I fell silent.
“Is this a bad time?” He asked.
“No, no, I’m sorry. I was just thinking,” I mumbled quickly.
“That’s a first. I mean, you, think?” I could tell he was grinning. That was just the push I needed to start a conversation.
“Oh boy, you better be glad I’m not where you are!” He laughed. “Speaking of which, where are you? I mean, surely your not at Kelly’s because I don’t hear anyone in the background, and... Wait... what are you doing with my number? I mean, why’d you call?”
“Oh, um...” For a change, Justin got quiet. Then, he replied. “Oh yeah, um, I just got a calling card, and I wanted to see if it worked or not.”
I laughed and decided to let him get away with it. “So, you never said where you are.”
“Oh, I’m at the hotel.”
“And everyone else?”
“They’re down at the gift shop. I mean, I don’t know why they went, it’s not like we need any of that stuff. People throw it at us all the time on stage.”
“Yeah, it sounds pretty cool.” There was an uncomfortable silence and he started to ask what was wrong. “Well...” I cut him off. “I guess I owe you an explanation.” There was still silence, and I guessed he was nodding his head. “You see, I’ve always... this is gonna sound really stupid, but I’ve always wanted to like, um... be a part of a group, ya know? Just me and some of my friends, singing and having the time of our lives. And you’ve got that. Man, I wish I did too. Sometimes I just think to myself how great it’d be. And I’ve even written a few songs for it. Just in case I’d ever get the chance. And I remember thinking if only I could get in touch with one of those famous groups, like the Backstreet Boys, or ‘N Sync, then maybe I’d have a chance. And well, I did. I did talk to you guys. And, I dunno, it’s stupid, nevermind...”
“Whoa, wait a minute!” He declared. “That’s not stupid. If I thought it was stupid, I wouldn’t be in ‘N Sync. And I wouldn’t be talking to you.” He had to be grinning again.
“Okay, okay, you’re killing me, I don’t think I’d survive without you,” I said sarcastically with a smile.
“That’s better. Now your starting to sound like a normal girl.”
“Hey now, whoever gave you the idea I was normal?” We laughed for a moment, then, I heard a door open and someone run into the room.
“Oh, this is great...” Justin grumbled.
“Hmm?”
“Well, someone let Chris buy chocolate, which in turn makes him hyper, which in turn makes him bounce off the walls all night. And I’m his roommate.”
“Poor baby,” I laughed. “Hey, lemme talk to Chris for a second.”
“Hello!” Chris practically yelled into the phone.
“Hey Chris!” I yelled back, equally loud. “How’s it going? Sugar makes you hyper too? Man, don’t you just hate it when your friends won’t let you have any?!”
“Yeah yeah yeah!”
I burst out laughing, then, I heard Justin’s voice on the line again. “Okay, that was longer than a second...” I cracked up again. “What? What’s so funny?”
Between gasps for breath, I managed to squeak out, “A little possessive are we?”
“Hey, it’s my calling card we’re using here, I might as well be the one to use it.”
“Hmm, a calling card. I need to buy another one of those sometime soon.” Suddenly, some more voices filled the room, and I thought I heard something that sounded like Chris being landed on top of and all the guys hollering and shouting. “Umm, Justin? What’s going on?”
“Some of the guys just came in here. I don’t know what they are doing. Looks like they bought some toy handcuffs or something while they were in the gift shop. Okay, this is interesting.”
“What? What are they doing?” My curiosity had gotten the best of me.
“Oh, they’ve simply tackled Chris, pulled his arms behind his back and handcuffed ‘em there.”
“Interesting is right.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Hmm?”
“Be right back. It looks like they are coming after me.”
With that, I heard a clunking sound like the phone being tossed aside, and Justin hollering and Chris screaming, “Get ‘em Justin!”
Then, someone picked up the phone and said, “Hello? This is JC. I am sorry, but Justin has been captured and tied up for not coming with us to the gift shop. He is currently unavailable. And I am speaking to...?”
“Hey JC. It’s Alex. How’s it going?” I grinned at the thought of Justin being tied up.
“Oh, hi Alex. Alex as in Kelly’s friend?”
“Umm, no. Alex as in Alexander the Great.” I paused. “Of course it’s me silly!”
“Ha ha. So, why’d you call? How’d you get the hotel number?”
“I didn’t call. Justin did.” JC was quiet, then, he must have turned and looked at Justin, because the noise in the background had softened.
“So, Justin... you called Alex, huh?”
Uh-oh... I thought to myself. Maybe I said something I shouldn’t have. Oops.
“Yeah, I did. Whatcha gonna do about it, huh?”
“Well,” JC began. “If you hadn’t gotten all bad about it, I would have left it at that. But seeing as your gonna be all bad about it and get an attitude... Guys, tape his mouth shut!”
“Wait!” I cried out.
“Hold it!” JC shouted. “What did you want to say?”
“Well, if you tape his mouth shut, he’s not going to be able to use his voice, and then it’ll be... not used for awhile. Then, when you give a concert, his voice’ll sound funny.”
“Oh. True. Justin, you better be glad you have a girl that’ll save your butt when you get it in trouble!” He laughed. “Hey, wanna talk to Joey?”
“Umm...”
“Hey!”
“Hi Joey.”
“What’s going on? Having fun?”
I snickered to myself as I remembered something Kelly had told me about Joey and his thoughts on his own music. “Oh, not much,” I answered. “Just listening to some music.” I then cranked up the volume on my cd player as ‘N Sync burst into song with ‘Tearin’ Up My Heart.’
“AHHH!!” Joey screamed. The phone made another clunking sound, and I heard another voice. “Okay, what did you do to- oh.” Lance said into the phone as he heard the music. I just laughed and turned it off.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked happily.
“Not much,” He answered quietly. “Just watching Justin trying to squirm out of those ropes and Chris wriggle around on the floor while Joey sits on him.”
“Hmm, interesting.”
“Uh-huh... so, you live where?”
“Texas.”
“Really? Cool. Hey, do you have any horses?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “Five to be exact.” Five made me think of a song. Of course I started singing. “Baby, when the lights, go out...”
“What?!” Was Lance’s startled reply.
“You know? ‘When The Lights Go Out’ by 5ive?”
“Oh... so, about the horses. You’ve gotta be kidding! They are so cool!”
I made a funny sound, something like a fake laugh.
“No, really, they are! I ride whenever I get the chance. Do you?”
“Well, I ride, but I don’t think I like it as much as you do. I dunno... it’s just that after doing it for five or six years, it gets kinda old. Not to say that I don’t like my horse anymore. He’s cool... really smart.” There was a sudden crashing noise and I heard Justin holler in pain. “What on earth...?” I mumbled just as Chris screeched, “You can never take my freedom!” in his best Mel Gibson voice. By this time, I had dropped to the floor, I was laughing so hard.
Then, JC got back on the phone. “It seems Chris has been released by his pal Joey and as he made a dash for the door, I tackled him, and he fell on Justin who was in the process of wriggling out of his ropes. Any words of advice?”
“Umm... let them go before you put anyone else in pain?”
“Hmm... I suppose I’ll do what you say.” He then hollered at the rest of the group. “Okay, release the prisoners!” I was gasping for air between laughing fits again. Suddenly, I heard some muffled arguing and Justin was back on the phone.
“Tied up in your work?” I couldn’t help but ask him.
He just kinda laughed. “Yeah, whatever, I guess.” He paused. “Well, that was... fun,” he sarcastically continued.
I nodded. “So, Chris fell on you?”
“Yeah, and that hair adds about thirty pounds! It was like having a bag of cement dropped on you!”
I heard Chris muttering, “Gee, thanks Justin.”
I laughed, then looked at the clock. “Umm, Justin? Can I call you back another time? I kinda need to go... I mean, it is 11:20 and I don’t think my mom would be too happy if I woke her up.”
“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye... later Justin.”
“Bye,” he mumbled and I heard the click of the phone.
