Hi everyone...
After reading some awesome stuff on Nifty, and after some cheerleading from Gabriella (check out her 'My Surprise Romance' story!), I decided to write a story of my own. I hope everyone likes it -- I'm a bit nervous--so if people could please e-mail me at bwicub@hotmail.com--I'd really appreciate it. I love e-mail!!!
Now the sex will be coming in further chapters, remember, all good things come to those who wait! GRIN
DISCLAIMER: This is a fictional story that came right out of my own mind. I have no knowledge if any member of N Sync are gay or whatever. That being said, please enjoy the story and remember-- write me!!!
********* The Lottery Winner -Chapter 1
--PROLOGUE--
**TV Announcer: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Big Game drawing. Tonight's drawing is for a new lottery record of an estimated $290 million jackpot. Tonight's winning numbers are: 2 , 7 , 8 , 11 , 18 , 21 and tonight's bonus ball is 50. Tonight's winner will receive $290 million annuity or $165 million cash option. **
I looked down at my ticket, and my hand began trembling. Mumbling the numbers to myself, I double-checked what I saw in front of me... OH MY GOD!! I MATCHED ALL NUMBERS! I reached for my phone and dialed a number from memory.
"Mom, are you sitting down?"
Elsewhere, a group of friends is sitting down to dinner. The banter between them would let anyone listening know that they're obviously close...one of them sits back and makes a melodramatic sigh. "Oh man!! I will be so glad when the break is here. I want some down time to head home and relax!"
--CHAPTER ONE-
My life has become so weird. I signed the final paperwork at the Lottery Office and received my check. I'd decided to go for the lump payment and received my check for $165 million. I promptly got a financial advisor, and he advised I put about half aside for Uncle Sam...but I didn't want to just invest the rest like he suggested. I took a weekend and tried figuring out if there was anything I wanted different in my life. I paid off what bills I had, paid off my car, and bought my mom a new jeep. But I loved my apartment in Baltimore, so I didn't want to spend money on a house. I actually was pretty content with my situation. The one thing I did do was quit my job. I loved my boss and all, but I didn't want to have to worry about doing the whole "rat-race" thing for awhile.
Then it hit me...do something charitable! But what??? I didn't want to just write a check...that seems so cliche. Maybe I could combine my love of music with being charitable; rent the venue and pay to get the artist then have the ticket cost all go to charity. Yeah, that's it! But who could I try and get? I then remembered the NSync concert a month ago...I was upset because I couldn't go. That's it! I'm going to see if I can get NSync to do the concert!
Grabbing my "No Strings Attached" CD, I began working the phone to try and set something up.
Three weeks (and dozens of phone calls later) I felt the plane start to descend into the Orlando airport. It had taken several days of talking to JIVE records representatives before they finally got the message that I wasn't kidding about my idea. They finally set me up to meet with Johnny Wright, who manages the band. I was walking out of the gangway at the airport when I saw someone holding a sign that said "Mister Wright", I didn't think anyone was meeting me at the airport...but just to be on the safe-side I went up to the young man and struck up a conversation.
"Hi. Which Mister Wright are you waiting for? It's a pretty common name."
He looked me up and down, and then he started talking in a really snide voice. "I was sent by my boss, Johnny Wright, to pick up a VIP. All he told me was to meet Mister Wright at this gangway."
Starting to giggle, I stuck out my hand. "Guess you found him. Hi, I'm Dale Wright and it's a pleasure to meet you."
As soon as I said it, he began stammering an apology. I just laughed and told him not to worry about it. Grabbing my gym bag, which was sitting next to me, he told me to follow him. Walking out of the airport terminal, I followed him to the limo stand. As he opened the back door, I let out a low whistle. Apparently I really had gone up to a new level when I'd won the money. This was to be my first limo ride. The limo ride was smooth...I actually felt myself nodding off as the radio played softly in the background. I noted that it was the new Britney Spears song "Lucky". I came awake with a slight start when the car came to a stop in front of an office building.
The driver opened the door, and I stepped out to the bright Orlando sun. The driver closed the door and told me that my appointment was up on the 9th floor, and he'd be waiting for me to take me to the hotel at the close of the meeting. Walking into the building, I started humming softly to myself.
After exiting the elevator at the 9th floor, I was met by a young blond lady. "Mister Wright? Hi, I'm Lisa. Please follow me to Johnny's office." She turned and walked off at a brisk pace with hardly a backward glance. We entered a posh office suite, and she held a door open for me. After I walked through she closed it softly. Sitting behind the oak desk was an older black man, who I recognized from MTV as Johnny Wright; I was shocked though to see 5 young men sitting against the window, none of them were smiling.
"Mister Wright?"
I turned back to the desk, and noticed Johnny had stood up and was extending his hand. I automatically reached up and shook it. Sitting down, I placed my gym bag on the floor next to my chair. I then got down to business. "Mister Wright, thank you for seeing me about this matter."
"Well Dale, I will admit...I almost didn't. Your phone calls to my office were thought to be pranks. After I did some checking and found out that you were indeed a large lottery winner I decided to have you come down to meet with you in person. I asked the guys to meet with you as well since this is a team effort here. I hope that's not a problem."
Looking at the 5 men sitting by the window, I noticed that they were all still glaring at me. I opened my mouth finally though, when I realized that I'd probably better start talking. "Well, uh, thank you for meeting with me sir. As I told your assistant on the phone, I want to arrange a concert for charity. I'm willing to pony up the money for the venue as well as the fee for the band, that way the only thing that the ticket price goes to is charity. If I swing a large enough venue we could conceivably raise well over a million dollars for charity."
"Why do you want to do this???"
Looking over, I saw that Lance had shifted in his seat. I knew that it was Lance speaking because I'd heard enough interviews with the group. The other guys all looked at Lance, then at me.
"Excuse me Lance? Do you mean my reason for wanting to arrange a charity concert or for coming to you and your group?"
His eyes flattened slightly and he almost hissed at me. "Both"
"Fair enough question Lance. I hope you don't mind if I direct the answer to everyone." He blushed slightly, and I realized how cute he really was up close. " Okay, the first question was what is my motivation for arranging a charity concert. Well, to put it simply...I want to give something back to society.
I was fortunate enough to win a very large amount of money, but I don't really have many things I want. I paid my bills, bought my mom and her girlfriend a new car, and invested some. I want to do something charitable but I don't want to just write a check. I want to do something that everyone will enjoy, something that will benefit on a large scale. To answer your second question, what better thing than a concert by one of the world's most popular music groups? A group that has the power to do so much good."
Realizing that I'd gotten on my soapbox, I focused on the faces of the 6 men in the office. The look on their faces was pretty classic! Finally Joey broke the silence, "Your mom and her girlfriend???"
"Yes Joey, my mom is a lesbian. Her and her partner Debbie have been together for a little over 14 years."
Looking back at Johnny, I saw a thoughtful expression on his face. He turned and looked at the five members of Nsync..."Well guys, what do you think? I think it could be good P/R for us. Granted you'd have to lose a day of the break, but the publicity could do great things for the numbers." He then looked at me "Which and how many charities did you have in mind? I think the guys would probably want to choose at least one."
"Well Johnny, if I can call you that, the first charity I thought of is one called Youth Guardian Services. They're a group that helps at-risk GLBT teens to keep them from committing suicide or living homeless on the street." Seeing the look of confusion on his face, I clarified. "Sorry about that, I shorten terms sometimes. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender."
Johnny's face lit up showing he understood what I meant. I looked over and saw several of the guys looking at me with rather odd looks on their faces.
As the 6 of them began talking amongst themselves, I stood up suddenly. It was almost comical how they all stopped talking like a plug had been pulled. "Guys, could we please continue this tomorrow?? I'm tired. My butt has been travelling since 6am this morning and I got almost no sleep last night. Can you guys recommend a good hotel?"
Joey smiled as he started talking, "Wait...you came down here and you didn't have a room reserved? Man don't you know where you are??? This is the home of the Magic Kingdom. You almost never find an open room on the weekends. We have free rooms on the floor that the Plaza set aside for us. Come on, we'll let these guys get some business details out of the way. Think you can stay awake another 20 minutes?"
Joey led me out of the office, talking up a storm. After the cold stares I was getting from the group earlier, I wasn't sure what to make of him being so friendly. Maybe this is just how he is. Riding down the elevator, he was be- bopping along to the music playing. As the doors opened, he bounded out and raced outside. He smiled when he saw the limo and promptly ran around my driver and jumped in. As the driver got ready to rip him out of the limo I showed up and told him it was okay. As I got in and the driver closed the door, Joey yelled out the name of the hotel.
He began peppering me with all kinds of questions about who and what I was. He thought it was incredible that my mom was an out lesbian. He then asked me 'the question'... "Hey Dale, what about you? Are you gay too?"
Smiling, I nodded. I watched his eyes get big, then he looked away suddenly. He got very quiet and stared out the window.
"What's wrong Joey? Cat got your tongue? Hope this doesn't impact our budding friendship."
His head came back around, and that gorgeous smile was back. "Nah, of course it doesn't. Just not used to people being so open. So tell me more about yourself."
For the rest of the ride to the hotel, I told him all the boring details of my life. After we pulled up in back of the Plaza and got out, Joey told the driver to go ahead and take the night off. As he led me inside to the registration area, he continued chatting at me about himself and his life since joining the group. We walked up to the desk and he promptly went into flirt mode. The girl behind the counter didn't stand a chance. She was giggling inside of five seconds, and giggled the entire time she was typing up the info in the computer. She took my drivers license and credit card.
As we walked to the elevators, Joey filled me in on how the security worked at the hotel. He kept up the monologue all the way up, and finally stopped when the doors opened on the floor of our rooms. I looked around and whistled. He looked at me in surprise so I clarified. "I'm more of a Hilton or Sheraton kind of guy...this place is swank!"
Joey began laughing at that. "Guess we're just jaded. To the guys and I this place is just another hotel. It's not home." He sounded so sad when he said that I had to do something. I felt my right hand reach up and give his shoulder an affectionate squeeze. He looked at my hand then at me with an arched eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something when I interrupted him.
"Hey, there it is!" I opened the door and walked in. Very impressive room!
I tossed my bag onto the couch, and went to sprawl on the bed. I almost forgot Joey until he cleared his throat.
"Just so you know, your room connects to mine through this door. The guys were planning on going to eat dinner around 8 or so. Would you like to go? It'll give the others a chance to talk to you some too." The look on his face was so adorable I just couldn't say no.
"Sure, could be fun. Let's see, it's about 5 now? Can you come get me around 7:30? That'll give me a chance to take a disco-nap then hop in the shower."
He broke into a smile. "Disco-nap??? Hey, what's Disco?"
I threw a pillow at him and told him to leave me alone to nap. I called the desk and set a wakeup call for 7pm...30 minutes should be more than enough time to get ready. I fell asleep very fast. Came to briefly when I heard voices in the hall, one of them was very heated. As I fell off again, I hoped that it wasn't about me. I hate it when people talk about me.
The phone ringing jarred me out of my dream. I answered it and heard the lady downstairs thanking me for staying at the Plaza. I forced myself to get out of bed and walked into the bathroom. I stripped off my boxerbriefs and looked at myself in the mirror. I'm not an adonis by any means...but I don't look half bad. Turning on the shower, I got in and began cleaning the day's grime off. I'm one of those shower singers, so I automatically went into song mode.
"Looking back on the memory of The dance we shared 'neath the stars alone For a moment all the world was right How could I have known that you'd ever say goodbye And now I'm glad I didn't know The way it all would end the way it all would go Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain But I'd of had to miss the dance Holding you I held everything For a moment wasn't I a king But if I'd only known how the king would fall Hey who's to say you know I might have chanced it all And now I'm glad I didn't know The way it all would end the way it all would go Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain But I'd of had to miss the dance Yes my life is better left to chance I could have missed the pain but I'd of had to miss the dance. " (1)
"Not half bad if I say so myself. Now let's see if I can get through Love, Me without losing it..."
"I read a note my grandma wrote back in nineteen twenty-three. Grandpa kept it in his coat, and he showed it once to me. He said, "Boy, you might not understand, but a long, long time ago, Grandma's daddy didn't like me none, but I loved your Grandma so." We had this crazy plan to meet and run away together. Get married in the first town we came to, and live forever. But nailed to the tree where we were supposed to meet, instead Of her, I found this letter, and this is what it said: If you get there before I do, don't give up on me. I'll meet you when my chores are through;I don't know how long I'll be. But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see. And between now and then, till I see you again,I'll be loving you. Love, me. I read those words just hours before my Grandma passed away, In the doorway of a church where me and Grandpa stopped to pray. I know I'd never seen him cry in all my fifteen years; But as he said these words to her, his eyes filled up with tears." (2)
That was as far as I got...tears filled my eyes and my voice broke. I spent the next few minutes crying my eyes out (what can I say...I'm an emotional guy.)
I turned off the shower and got out. After drying myself off I wrapped a towel around me and pulled open the half-closed bathroom door. I was shocked when I saw Joey and Lance sitting on my couch!
"Hey Dale, you sound good when you sing." Joey was all smiles when he paid me the compliment.
Lance looked up at me and also grinned, "Hey, you did 'The Dance' pretty good. Love that song!"
Blushing furiously, I stammered a reply. "Gee thanks guys. Um, not that I don't enjoy an audience...but what the hell are you doing in my room?" I walked over to my bag and began pulling out clothes for the night. I looked over and saw Lance was blushing about 3 shades of red, while Joey suddenly began looking everywhere but directly at me. Grinning, I took my clothes and went back into the bathroom, closing the door slightly so I could still talk. "So, what's the plan for tonight?"
"Well, we have reservations at a great Mexican restaurant at 8...then probably go out and hit a few clubs. Johnny told us to make a good impression, so we can't get too out of hand." Lance broke out in a grin as he said that. I let out a laugh as I opened the bathroom door and walked out.
"Okay guys, let's roll. Oh and by the way...dinner is on me."
Copyrights: (1) "The Dance" - Garth Brooks
(2) "Love, Me" - Collin Raye