May 13, 2000
Hello to all of you! My name is Harrison and this is my first story. I must say that all the great stories and writers in Nifty inspired me to write a story of my own. I have to mention: Kevin of "Two out of Five" and "J and JC"; VIHoa@aol.com of "After *NSYNC"; Wipeout211@yahoo.com of "Josh and Just" and Rick of "The One". But they are by no means all of the great writers in this archive. But enough babbling.
***Disclaimer: The author in no way claims to know the true sexuality of any member of *NSYNC (although he's thinkin' that JC's gay!) The story is purely fictional.
Chapter 1
It was almost seven-thirty when Justin Timberlake glanced in the mirror and ran down his mental checklist. 'Hair? Check. Clothes? Check. 'Tude?' He looked at himself in the mirror again and raised one eyebrow and flashed a come-hither look with his blue eyes. 'That's a definite check. Heh.'
He took one final look in the mirror, looking at himself up and down and exclaimed softly to himself, "Mackdaddy, yeah." Then, smiling at his frivolity, he thought, 'Talking to myself. Definitely have to get my head examined.' He ran down the stairs to the kitchen, where he found his mom, Lynn Harless talking with their neighbor from two doors down, Mrs. Margaret Lim.
"Hi Aunt Mags, bye Mom!" He exclaimed, while going round the kitchen table to kiss his mom and "aunt" on the cheek.
"Where you going in such a hurry, now?" Mrs. Harless asked him, an indulgent smile hovering around her mouth.
Justin almost grabbed the keys to his Benzinator but then remembered that JC was picking him up. Belatedly he realized his mom had said something, "Huh? Oh, just out with the guys. Y'know we hafta make the most of this month-long break." He smiled. "And then it's back to the daily grind."
"Okay, have fun!" Lynn Harless waved a single hand at her son. "But," She wiggled a finger at him, "Don't drink too much!"
"MOM!" He rolled his eyes in the direction of Mrs. Lim, who was watching them both with a look of amusement. Then she spoke.
"Well, just look at you JJ," At the sound of that hated nickname, which Justin abandoned years ago, he rolled his eyes at his mom and gave a look of puppy dog pleading at Mrs. Lim. She said, "Oh I'm sorry Justin, it just takes me aback how much you've changed. It's been years, you know. You used to be so small, and now look at you. Why I bet you're around six feet now, aren't you?"
"Well. . ." Justin looked abashed.
"My Tristan stopped growing at five seven. Poor boy. He gets it from my side of the family you know, Tristan's dad is so tall.." She developed a far-off expression on her still beautiful Asian face.
"Um, how is Tristan anyway, Aunt Mags?" Justin asked curiously.
"Oh, he's in college now, here in Orlando. Honestly, that boy," She looked mildly exasperated, "with his college friends. Boys showing up at any time and they spend hours locked up in his room, with me hearing all sorts of noises."
"Uh, that's," Justin started to interject, only to be interrupted by Mrs. Lim.
"And the girls, my gosh! Sometimes they don't even go through the front door! They just climb up the tree (you remember the tree don't you? Of course you do!) and they're even louder. Screams, moans, shrieks."
"I reeeeally gotta go," Justin tried to stem the flow of words, embarrassment turning his ears red but Mrs. Lim just kept on going.
Justin, desperate to escape, was looking at his mom in horror, pleading silently for her to do something, but she just looked at him with wide eyes.
"Honestly, it gets so loud sometimes I have to turn the TV up really loud. I will never understand you kids and your videogames!"
Justin's head swung towards her in shock, and then he noticed Mrs. Lim's almond shaped eyes gazing at him from above her glasses. He noted the sardonic cast to her face and suddenly realized she had been playing with him.
He laughed out loud and said, "Mrs. L, you are a nasty old woman!" He gave her a hug and said, "And I missed you." He then looked at his mom and said accusingly, "You knew!" His mom just shook with silent laughter.
Mrs. Lim ruffled his carefully styled hair and said, "Justin, dear, you were always so easy. I just couldn't resist. And if you missed me then you should have come over. You used to come over all the time. Ah, well." She made a shooing motion with her left hand and said, "Get along now, your friends must be waiting. And cut your hair!"
Justin opened the back door and just as he was stepping out said, "I don't know how Tristan lives with you!"
Mrs. Lim waved goodbye but her parting shot followed him out to the backyard, "Why do you think he locks his door and won't let me meet his friends?"
Justin was still laughing as he made his way to the road and crashed into a stooped figure heading the same direction he was. A rectangular shape, which might have been a book, flew into the bushes fronting the yard as the person he crashed into fell sprawling in front of him.
"Oh shit, man! M' sorry! It was," The rest of his apology trailed off into silence as he got a good look at whom he crashed into. His eyes took in the plaid long-sleeved shirt and the slightly too short pants held up by both suspenders and a belt. Red socks showed above scuffed tennis shoes. Finally he gazed silently at the handsome Asian face framed by greasy hair, whose coffee black eyes were overshadowed by glasses with a thick black frame apparently held together by tape and lenses thick as the bottom of coke bottles. Belatedly realizing he was staring, he held out his hand to help the person up. "Look, man, I'm real sorry."
"It's okay JJ, really."
The sound of that nickname, the one even his mother had stopped using years ago, made him blink and take a good look at the face in front of him.
"Tris...Tristan?" Justin said, "Izzat you?" Even in the dim light from the street his eyes appeared wide as saucers.
"Yup. It's me." Tristan replied, "The walking cliché. Didn't recognize me, huh?" He asked in a tone that Justin couldn't read.
"Well, we haven't seen each other in a while y'know." Justin began, slightly guilty, "And, uh , it's really dark and all, and...and...uh,"
Tristan interrupted, this time his tone tinged with mild amusement, "Relax J. It's a costume. I'm going to a frat party."
"Well," Justin said, this time with some annoyance, "It's real convincing."
"It's one of my many skills." Tristan stated pompously with a twinkle in his eye and a smile for Justin's tone of voice. Then he asked, "Where are you going? Lookin' pretty fly for a Wednesday night."
"Just out. No big." Justin replied, still caught little off balance by talking to someone he hadn't talked to in over seven years.
"Not drivin'? Car?" Tristan was somewhat surprised to slip back into the shorthand way of speaking he had developed with Justin so long ago. It felt so comfortable.
Justin shook his head and said, "Nah. Gettin' picked up. You?" Justin too slipped easily back into old way they spoke.
"Uh-huh. End o'the block." Tristan started looking around and spotted his book in some bushes. He picked it up and saw Justin looking at it with an eyebrow raised.
He held it up with some difficulty and remarked, "Props."
Justin eyed it askance and said, "Looks pretty heavy for a prop."
"Well," Tristan said pompously, "I strive for realism and,"
"What you got is over the top?" Justin interrupted slyly.
"You got it!" Tristan laughed along with Justin.
Justin started walking to the end of the block and Tristan fell easily into step beside him. Tristan caught Justin sneaking looks at him and raised his eyebrow inquiringly.
"It's just that, er... uh, " Justin trailed off, flushing red with embarrassment.
The eyebrow rose higher.
"Er, I remember you bein' taller." Justin, if possible, turned even redder.
Tristan let out a guffaw. "Well, it has been six years JJ... I mean Justin." He flashed Justin a look of apology for once again using the hated nickname. He continued, "And I totally blame my mom! Everyone on her side of the family is lucky to reach five-five. I'm pretty rare in the fact that I actually reached five-seven!"
Justin relaxed when he discovered that he hadn't offended Tristan and even managed to crack a smile.
They reached the curb in time to see an old Cadillac convertible pull up on the opposite side of the road. The driver was a slim figure clad in full football gear but without the helmet, revealing the fact that she was an extremely beautiful redhead. The person next to her was dressed in a skimpy but ill-fitting cheerleader's uniform and a blond wig. He was also unmistakably a very husky guy.
The faux cheerleader spotted Tristan and gave an earsplitting bellow (as evidenced by the sudden flinching of the driver) and waved to Tristan.
Tristan waved and called out, "Hey Bev, Tony! I'll be right there!"
Justin turned wondering eyes at Tristan, an unspoken question in the glance.
Tristan said with mild exasperation and a good deal of suppressed amusement, "What can I say? They suit each other. Both as strange as a couple of dancing fish." He chuckled softly.
Justin said, "Huh?"
"Sorry. Inside joke."
The man called Tony called out, "Why you keepin' us waiting dude? And where's your date? We told you bring a date!"
The redhead flinched again and hit her boyfriend in the stomach. Just as loudly she stated, "Shut up! You wanna wake the dead?!"
Tristan faced Justin, who was gazing at the couple with the fascination usually reserved for highway pileups. Justin turned to him and Tristan rolled his eyes at his friends and said, "I'm thinkin' of trading them in for a different model."
Justin cracked a smile and said "Who would take them?"
"Well, I guess this is goodnight..."
Justin interrupted with a gooey expression on his face, "And I had a WUNNERFUL time!" And then he clasped his hands in front of his face and batted his lashes.
"Idiot!" Tristan retorted and punched Justin lightly in the chest. Then he said, "You want I should wait with you for your ride..."
"Nah. Go on." Justin made his voice huskier, "I'm a big boy now." And then switching to a more normal tone, "And I think that's JC comin' up now."
He pointed up the street, where approaching headlights were rapidly making their way towards the two.
As Tristan was crossing he stopped briefly in the middle and called out to Justin, "It was great talkin' to you J!" Then he rapidly crossed the remaining distance and jumped into the back. The car sped quickly away but not before Justin heard the rather loud-voiced Tony start to tell Tristan some story about a locker room prank he pulled.
Justin waved to JC as he pulled up and got quickly inside.
Before JC got the car into gear he asked Justin, "Who was that?"
Justin said, "He's a..." And then he frowned, not sure what to say, then he smiled, "A friend, an old friend."
To be continued...
There it is. My first effort. Hope you all like it. Sorry it's so short but I wanted to see if nifty would accept it before I continued it. Any compliments, constructive criticism, please send to this email add: hamado23@hotmail.com But please! no hurtful comments. I have a fragile ego. grin