This is my first story. It contains gay romance and is a work of FICTION. This is not to imply the sexuality of any member of 'NSYNC, even if I wished it otherwise. You know the drill. Comments, Suggestion, Concerns, please e-mail me at Faradhi269@aol.com. FLAMES will be IGNORED
I looked around the extensive grounds, trying to find the gate. It was a beautiful day in Pittsburgh, the sky was lightly overcast, but it was nice and cool, and everyone was waiting to catch a glimpse of the huge stars. What am I doing here? I thought to myself. Joey isn't even going to remember me. But still, I tried to catch a glimpse of where 'NSYNC might be inside their backstage area. Sure enough, there was Justin, playing basketball with the others, except for Joey. He was pretty good, actually, and he seemed to really enjoy showing off for the fans. What the hell... I figured, so I grabbed my black Nike bag and tossed it over the four-foot high wooden fence surrounding the grounds. Then I quickly hopped the fence myself, hoping that I could get down to the guys before I got caught by security. I grabbed my bag and bolted down the hill, right for the impromptu basketball court.
But one of the girls who had been next to me outside saw what I was doing and started to cry out, which of course drew everyone's attention to me. I looked behind me when I heard the crowd's noise and decided that I might want to put on a little speed. I almost flew downhill. My black hat fell off and my blond hair flew behind me. I looked back and smiled at the crowd being firmly held back by security guards, until I came to a sudden and painful stop by bouncing off the chest of a 7 ft. tall, 400-lb. black man. "Hey, you can't be in here," was all he said as he bodily picked me up and began to escort me off the premises.
"Let me go! I need to talk to the guys!" I yelled at him, squirming and kicking. I tried to calm down and reason with him, but he just held me up by my shirt and kept walking. I knew that I couldn't blow my only shot at a new life, so I slugged him in the jaw. He dropped me and stared at me in surprise. I had hit him as hard as I could, and he just stared at me! Oh shit! I quickly dove between his legs and kicked his right knee out from under him, just barely rolling out of the way.
I tried to get to the courts again, but three other men, smaller this time, got in my way and stopped me from moving. My eyes blurred, "Please," I begged, "let me get down there. It's my only chance. PLEASE!!!" But they only held on tighter. I felt my last hopes dashed and I just started to sob. I lashed out at the guards, but couldn't even see where I was swinging. Suddenly, I was free and all three lay on the ground moaning. Never one to miss an opportunity, I dropped everything and sprinted as fast as I could towards Justin, who had stopped playing and was watching the spectacle. Strangely, when he saw me coming, his eyes narrowed, and he told the security to let me through. I couldn't believe my luck! I finally reached the bottom of the hill and fell, panting at Justin's feet.
"Are you OK?" he asked me while he helped me up. When his hand touched mine, I felt a jolt of electricity pass through me. "I mean, you really look pretty bad...no offense," he added hastily. Then he smiled at me. His smile seemed to bring the sun out from behind the clouds. I couldn't help but smile back, even with everything that had happened recently.
"What can I do for you?" he pressed. "I know you didn't go through all that for nothing."
I smiled, "Thanks, Justin," I paused, "can I call you Justin?"
"Sure," he answered.
"I really, really appreciate your help, but I need to see Joey. Do you know where he is?" I asked nervously. I hadn't seen Joey anywhere yet.
"Yep," he answered easily. "He's still on the bus. Let me show you."
I couldn't stop from crying at how nice he was. "T-thanks," I sobbed. Thanks to Justin, my life would be starting all over again. If only Joey remembers me...
CHAPTER 2
Justin and I joked around on the five-minute walk to the bus, and by the time we got there, we were chatting like old friends. I don't know what we talked about, but it didn't matter.
"You know, you look familiar," he told me. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"
I knew I had to answer this carefully. "Nope, I don't think so, but I've seen YOU an awful lot." I joked. He laughed and led me into the bus. I was amazed at what I saw. "This thing is AWESOME!" I exclaimed, looking at the tables and beds in the front of the bus. "This thing has to be soo comfy," I added when I saw the couches.
"It's alright," Justin said modestly. "It's actually pretty boring being on this thing so long between shows. Our schedule has been really hectic."
"Yeah, I know. Where's Joey, though? I thought you said he was in here." Justin's face seemed to drop ever so slightly when I said this, and he only pointed to the back and softly said, "He's back there with Lance, working on the plans for next week."
Feeling really nervous, I knocked on the door and heard Joey's voice say "come in." I opened the door and got two stares, one with shocking green eyes and another with dancing brown ones. "Who are you?" both of them shouted at the same time.
Justin ran in and said, "Joey, this is Ryan. He said he needed to talk with you so I brought him." At the sound of my name, Joey leaned forward and looked at me very hard. "Lance," he mumbled, "will you give us a couple of minutes?"
"No problem," Lance replied, giving Justin a hard look. "You, come with me." And with that, they firmly shut the door behind them.
I took a deep breath. "Look, Mr. Fatone, I'm sorry, but I really needed your help. I don't know if you remember me, but you seemed to like me and you're the only person I know of who can help me out." I said in a rush.
Joey looked at me strangely and only said "uh-huh." His mouth was frowning, accented by his goatee and bright red hair. "Do I know you?" he asked.
"I'm Ryan from MTV's 'Say What? Kareoke.' I know it's hard to remember, but I sang Drive Myself Crazy' and I Want It That Way' for the show. I just hoped you'd remember me. But do you remember the phone call that you got when you were giving me my score..."
He held up his hand and looked at me again. My blond hair was coming over my eyes, but he was concentrating on my clothes. I looked down at a pair of black Dockers and a black muscle shirt showing my darkly tanned arms and shoulders. "Yeah, I remember, but you don't really look like Ryan."
I dropped my mouth in shock. Not look like me? "But I'm me" I protested.
"Prove it," he ordered. "Then maybe we can talk."
"How am I supposed to prove it to you?" I asked, nearly breaking down again. "If you don't believe I am who I am, nothing can prove I am who I am to you." I started to cry again.
He got off the couch and put a hand on my shoulder, calming me down. "Just sing something. I'll recognize his voice, his vivacity," he said with a smile. He lifted my face and gave me a big, goofy grin. And somehow, my crying stopped. I had hope again. So I took a couple of breaths to calm down and started singing a song that had been stuck in my head for the past couple of months.
"There's a grief that can't be spoken... there's a pain goes on and on... empty chairs at empty tables... now my friends are dead and gone... here they talked of revolution... here it was they lit the flame... here they sang about tomorrow, and tomorrow never came..."
All of my feelings of sorrow and anger for the past three months had started to well up inside me and my eyes watered with unwanted memories as I sang with all my heart.
"From the table, in the corner... they could see a world reborn... and they rose with voices ringing... and I can hear them now... the very words that they had sung... became their last communion... on the lonely barricade... at dawn..."
Joey say back, trying to place my voice with what he remembered me sounding like when he last saw me. His face softened as he realized that I was who I said I was because he was certain that the Ryan he knew would never sing a song like the one I was singing. He recognized the emotion in my voice, and the tears began to well up in his eyes. But I never noticed this. I was too emotionally bound up in my song.
"Oh my friends, my friends forgive me... that I live and you are gone... there's a grief that can't be spoken... there's a pain goes on and on... phantom faces at the window... phantom shadows on the floor... empty chairs at empty tables... where my friends will meet no more... oh my friends, my friends don't ask me... what your sacrifice was for... empty chairs at empty tables... where my friends... will sing... no more..."
Joey shook his head and said "You sound like Ryan, but he wouldn't sing a song like that. It's hard to tell if you're telling the truth." Abruptly, the door to the back room opened and Justin came through, crying very hard.
"Joey, it's him. It has to be him," he managed through sobs. "I don't know what may have happened, but it's him."
"Curly, how do you know. Yeah, it sounds like him, but it doesn't, too," Joey argued. "How can you tell?"
"Remember the phone call that I made during the show?" Justin asked. "I wanted to tell you I saw the show and that this new kid was really great, remember?"
Joey looked confused. "Yeah, so?"
"Believe me, Joey, I'll never forget anything about him." I looked sharply at Justin when he said this, and his cute face flushed a little. But Joey seemed to understand. His seriousness gave way to the goofy, hyper Joey that I had seen before.
"Sorry about being so suspicious," he apologized, blushing slightly. He gave a little giggle. "I guess you had me scared."
I tried not to laugh, but the strange face Joey made broke my resolve and I chuckled. "Now, Ryan," pointedly using my name, "what's up?"
I grew very serious. This was the spot that I'd come to Pittsburgh for. I couldn't let this go to waste. "W-well, I really didn't know what else to do. I mean, we seemed to get along after the show, you know, but I don't know why I thought coming here would do me any good." He nodded as I rambled on. "I need a job like security or backstage work or something. I'm not worried about the money, just the opportunity to hang out with you guys and try to make some new friends. You were really cool and joking around with you was a lot of fun, and I was hoping that I could get something like that back." He smiled at that, a grin that was infectious and I had to try not to laugh again. "I'm not a psycho fan or anything," I said hurriedly, "I'm just alone..." I trailed off and tears came into my eyes again. I tried to hold them back. "I can handle security work if you'd let me, but please don't send me away. I'll even pay my way if I have to." And with that, I opened my gym bag and pulled out a stack of bills larger than my wrist.
They both stared at the stack of money and Justin's jaw almost hit the floor. I giggled at how comical they looked. Justin said "put that away, you won't need it, will he, Joey?" looking very hard at Joey.
"Why are you asking ME?" Joey asked quickly. "I don't decide things like this!"
"But he came to you!!" Justin countered. His face was starting to get red, and I was afraid that he was going to explode.
"Calm down, Justin," I grabbed his nice, strong shoulders and unconsciously began to massage them. "Don't worry. I understand." He moaned softly and a feeling of bliss went through me as I saw the look of pleasure on his face.
Lance, coming to finish his conversation with Joey gave me a strange look and an even stranger smile. I shyly smiled back, uncertain of what was going on. "Let me go get Chris and JC," he told Joey, "then we can decide this together." He looked at Justin and I again and he smiled. "Coming Joey?"
"Uh, sure," he replied, confused. As he got up to leave, Lance shot him a serious you'd-better-tell-me-what's-going-on stare and the two of them stepped outside.
Neither Justin nor I noticed that they had left. He was too busy moaning from his massage and I was too engrossed in his beautiful body that was at my very touch. Each second shot another jolt through me and his ecstasy cut into me. I concentrated everything on his body and even felt some of my own problems fade into the background...
The minute they stepped outside, Lance whirled on Joey. "You had better tell me what the hell's going on here, Joey! We don't even know who this guy is!"
"I do!" Joey interrupted Lance. "He's a friend."
"A FRIEND?" Lance nearly screamed, he was so pissed. "How in God's name do you know that he's a friend? How do you know he's not a crazed fan or something?"
"Jeez, Lance, calm down," Joey said smoothly. "I'll tell you how I know so much about him, ok? Just shut up- he'll hear you!"
"Fine," Lance huffed, "start talking." And then he grabbed a seat on the couch.
"Well," Joey began, "I met him a couple of months ago when I was judging MTV's 'Say What? Kareoke' show..."
That's the end of part one. I hope that you've really enjoyed it. Part two will be following shortly. Sorry that it's so short. I'll try for longer next time.