Two walls of blurs moved on each side of her, and Hazel Fairchild sighed, closed her eyes, and listened to the hum of the convertible’s engine as the car sped down a freeway in Florida. She was reminded of New Orleans, but only briefly, and she rested her head on the shoulder of the man who sat next to her, their bodies leaning into each other in the backseat of the expensive car. Lance held her hand, shielding it from the wind that whipped all around them, but she hardly felt the cold. Everything was always warm around him.
The moment was restrained from being truly peaceful due to the bickering coming from the front, which Hazel tried in vien to block out. It was the same bickering she had been hearing for over two weeks, ever since the night six people, three girls, three boys, had escaped from the hectic scene in the Richards Ballroom and driven into the night. They had used that exact same car, but, as Hazel glanced at the empty space next to her, this time two people were missing.
“Jesus Karen,” Justin said from the passenger seat, “Who the hell taught you how to drive?”
“Your Mom,” Karen muttered, her sunglasses staring straight at the road ahead of her. She never bothered to look at Justin whenever she was driving, claiming him to be “an unattractive distraction”.
“You want to try driving using just one lane?” Justin sarcastically suggested, his own sunglasses reflecting the map sitting in his lap. They had been trying for over an hour to reach the port where Karen’s father’s yacht was docked. Karen had forgotten the directions on the kitchen counter in her mansion. Justin had not been pleased. “Women,” Justin mumbled, to which Lance opened his mouth to agree, but stopped once Hazel’s elbow nudged into his stomach.
The two couples had spent the majority of the weeks together, occasionally joined by Chris, Dustin, and Meadow. ‘N Sync was currently at a stand still since the album, already finished, was just going through the packaging stages before its release. Jive executives were worried because the promotions for the record had been minimal, to say the least, since Joey had been a no show to most of the meetings and JC…well, he had been a no show the entire two weeks. But the group itself was hardly concerned with business; they knew the record was good. The remaining members and friends rested their worries on the internal issues still pending with the group and the real question that had been on everyone’s mind since the night of the engagement party, after Karen had dropped them off at the aqua apartments.
Where were JC and Sita?
“Have you heard from either of them?” Hazel asked the couple up front, seemingly out of the blue.
Karen lifted her head to look at her through the rearview mirror. She simply said, “Nope,” and then focused back on her driving and ignoring Justin.
“She’ll come back soon,” Lance said in Hazel’s ear, reassuringly squeezing her hand in the way that, no matter what, made her believe everything would be all right.
She squeezed back and said, “I miss her.”
“We all do.”
“I just wish I knew where they were and when they are coming home.”
~~
Karen Cooper hadn’t lied to Hazel entirely.
As she entered her room, just having dropped of Hazel and Lance after their day of yachting, she walked towards her desk and opened a side drawer producing a single post-it that she had discovered on her car the day after the engagement party and then a postcard, which had come in the mail four days later. On the post-it read, “Dearest Karen, running away again. Love Sita.” The post card, which had a picture of a beach that gave little clue as to where the location was of, was a little more detailed.
“Dearest Karen,
I hope I’m not worrying you, although knowing you, I’m sure you have your hands full with Justin. I think you know why I left and who I left with. Don’t know when we’re coming back. Be sure not to tell anyone you’ve heard from me, but don’t worry Hazel. I miss you both.
Love Sita.
PS. Take care of Kal.”
There was no return address.
Karen tried to remember what had happened at the engagement party. There had been a hurricane of movement and talking surrounding the six of them, especially Sita, but JC had her guarded, leading the pact by pulling her hand along and guiding her through the chaotic ballroom. She remembered J.J.’s pale face as he stood still and watched the girl in green walk away, then focusing his eyes on the ring that lay on the floor. It stayed there until a random guest had kicked it, sending it flying towards some unknown location. The last Karen had heard, Mrs. Richards was still looking for it.
Sita hadn’t looked at J.J. once. She was glancing around for her sister, checking each face she passed in hope of grabbing Kalika and forcing her to go with them. But Kal was gone. In the car, Sita sat in the back, her head turned to the window as if still looking for the lost face. JC’s hand had possesivly taken hold of her elbow but she didn’t face him for awhile, trying even then to resist him for her sister. Finally, she had sighed and laid her head on his shoulder; after two years, she had finally given in.
A knock broke Karen’s trance and she shoved the postcard and post-it into the desk just as the door opened and Justin appeared, carrying the drinks he had been getting. He walked to her, handing her the drink, and said, “You were looking at that postcard again, weren’t you?”
“I was not,” she stubbornly said.
He nodded, taking a sip from his glass and then placing it on the desk. “You’ve read it over fifty times. Do you think they’re coming back?”
“Yes,” she immediately replied, but then paused and added, “At least, I hope so.” She glanced over Justin, seeing his tired expression, the slight gray underneath his eyes. She put her drink down and tugged on his plain gray shirt, forcing him closer to her. “You think they’re not coming back?”
“I don’t know,” Justin admitted. “They probably want some time alone with each other. But,” he grinned, “JC’s bound to come back in two weeks.”
“Why in two weeks?”
“Because that’s when the album is going to be released. He can’t miss it. His ego won’t let him.”
Karen smiled, which seemed to catch Justin’s attention, and he held the hands that still held onto his shirt. His exhaustion, a secret hint to the worried thought he had invested on where JC and Sita were, seemed to overcome him for a second, and he sighed and rested his head against her forehead. It caught her off guard. He hardly ever showed weakness around her. “Hey slut?” he said.
She closed her own eyes, wondering why his display was making her feel weak. “What moron?”
“Have I ever told you that I love you?”
A physical shudder caressed her skin. “No,” she answered after a minute. “And I don’t think I’ve ever told you that I love you too.”
“No,” he said, and by his tone she could tell, without opening her eyes, that he was smiling. He held her tighter. “You never have told me that.”
“Maybe someday.”
He kissed her. “Yea, someday.”
~~
Joey never had been much of a drinker.
While Karen and Justin were busy molesting themselves, and Hazel and Lance were spending a quiet evening at their apartment, and JC and Sita were still missing in action, and the rest of Orlando was out, having a night on the town with friends, family, and lovers, Joey Fatone sat alone in a bar near downtown Orlando with a half empty glass of whisky sitting in front of him. The drink had been his companion for the past two weeks, as it was again that evening, and he sat in his slumped postion, his elbows resting on the bar, a hand digging into his hair while his red rimmed eyes watched the liquid slowly decrease as if by magic. The bar was deserted that evening, the only other two customers in the next room shooting pool while laughing loudly at nothing in particular. Joey wasn’t aware of them or the bartender that was cautiously eyeing him, judging by his melancholic expression that maybe Joey had had too much to drink, even though the bartender had only served him three glasses.
Joey wouldn’t have noticed an earthquake splitting the earth open and swallowing him whole. His life had turned into a giant, numb slump. He walked the streets as if he were scaling the bottom of the ocean, his movements slow and depressed, seeing the people and cars that passed by in slow motion. The phone in his home had been off the hook for days now; he rarely left his bed while the sun was out. It was like he had been a recovering alcoholic for the past two years and just when he thought he was finally cured from the drug, a relapse had slammed into him. Just looking at Sita again had been enough to drown him in the feelings he thought he had been free from; the knowledge that she loved JC, that after the countless hours he had spent pouring his soul out to him, JC had been in love with the same girl, and that they were together at that moment, made even his skin feel unbearable on him. He didn’t know what to do. They were together now. What could he do?
“Excuse me, sir.”
Joey lifted only his eyes to the bartender.
The bartender shifted uncomfortabley. “I think you’ve had enough to drink this evening. Why don’t you go home?” After Joey continued to stare at him, unmoving, the bartender nervously said, “I can call you a cab, if you’d like.”
“I’ll walk,” Joey mumbled, placing a twenty bill next to his glass and leaving the bar. The evening was warm, a typical Orlando night, but Joey put his hands in his coat pockets anyway, making sure not to brush against anyone or anything. It occurred to him that he should have a destination in mind, but he didn’t feel up to trying to focus on a place to go. Where could he go?
It was after twenty minutes of traveling in the same direction that a figure passed him on the street and then, from behind, called out to him. “Joey?”
He glanced back, and would have ignored whomever it was and continued walking, if that one glance hadn’t made him believe that it was Sita behind him. Just the thought jumpstarted his heart for a second, and he whirled around to get a better look at her. But he had been wrong. “Oh,” he said, trying not to sound too disappointed, although by the small smile the girl gave him, he knew she could tell. “Kalika, hi. How…are you?”
She wore a brown trench coat that consumed her. Her hair was down, her glasses off. With the bad lighting, there was an eerie resemblence between her sister and herself. She shrugged and said, “I’m well. Are you ok?”
“Yea,” he said, running a hand though his hair, which he could only assume to be a wild mess. His appearance hadn’t exactly been high on his list of priorities. “What are you doing out?”
“I just left a business meeting at my father’s office.”
“You don’t drive?”
“I wanted to walk for awhile. How about you?”
“The same. I walk a lot lately.”
She squinted her eyes. “You look tired, Joey. Are you getting enough rest?”
“Oh yea. Yea, I’m sleeping…great. I mean…as good as…considering everything…” He sighed. “Have you heard from either of them?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think anyone has.”
“It’s not like I care,” he said quickly, “They don’t ever have to come back as far as I’m concerned. I hope they’re happy together.”
“Me too,” she said quietly.
He looked at her, seeing her calm expression, wondering why her eyes didn’t look as sad as his, how come she stood so tall that day. “Aren’t you angry with them?” he asked. “Your own sister, my best friend…they just lied to us. I actually started to believe that JC was genuinely being a friend, but the whole time he was nice to me, it was just because he felt guilty. He’s heartless. And Sita…” He couldn’t finish. Instead, he leaned against the brick building next to them and sighed.
She let the silence speak for her for awhile and then softly said, “Joey.”
Looking at her again, he was met with soft green eyes that smiled at him, but now he could see the touch of sadness around the edges, creeping into her expression against her will. “Joey,” she repeated, “I was furious at first, especially when I found out they were missing. I thought, ‘How could she just leave? No apologies, not even a half-hearted goodbye. They just run off together without thinking of anyone else’. But then I realized…that I was being completely ridiculous.” She stepped forward. “For twenty-one years of her life, my sister has only cared about one thing: her family. Do you know that she cried when Lalita took her first step? She skipped her prom because that afternoon I had called her to tell her about the very first song I had ever created by myself, and she wanted to be the first to hear it. And…she left her family, her home, and the first person she had ever loved besides her family for two years just because I asked her to.”
“You asked her to go?” Joey said, astonished.
Kalika nodded. “I couldn’t stand losing one more person to her. But now I know…I’d lose a thousand JC’s just to have my sister come back. He never loved me, not like he loves her. You know JC. You’ve seen how he’s acted the past two years. You guys share an incredible career and, more importantly, an amazing friendship. Are you willing to throw all of that away just so you can tear apart two people who’ve found the real thing Joey? Because if you asked him too…if it really meant that much to you…he’d give her up.”
Joey swallowed. “He wouldn’t.”
“Yes, he would. Maybe he’d try not to, but Sita would make him, and you know that’s true.” Kalika watched Joey’s face grow distant and it was almost like she could see her words sinking into his skin, transforming his eyes, at first into a light, anxious brown and then to a deeper, more determined color. “When they do come back,” she said, breaking him out of his trance, his face much more sober than it had been a second ago. “I’m going to go up to Sita and just,” she grinned, “Give her the biggest hug and tell her how much I love her and missed her. I haven’t really hugged my sister in a long time.” Her eyes turned to him and she said, “What about you?”
It took some effort, but slowly a small smile spread across Joey’s face. “I’m going to shake his hand and tell him congratulations. The new record is outstanding.”
~~
Trey Remy threw the party for the new CD released by ‘N Sync at his mansion in Florida. It was a well-attended event, ranging from other musicians, movie stars, executives, and a few slivers of press who hearded around Meadow Quade and Dustin Wisner, the two most talked about producers in the music world. Meadow never left Dustin’s side, as usual, but just as the press assumed them to be just friends, Meadow would throw all perceptions off by holding onto Dustin’s hand for a couple of seconds, releasing it just as everyone’s suspicions were about to be confirmed that they were a real couple. Dustin allowed her to play her mind games, slightly distracted from the happiness of the evening by constantly checking the entrance to see the people arrive. He wasn’t the only one watching the door.
Justin and Karen were making another round through the room of people, checking each girl with long black hair and tall man with a head of brown hair. Their search was coming up short and five minutes to midnight, each were starting to worry.
“Where are they?” Karen whispered to him, noticing Justins’ confidence from his earlier prediction wavering slightly. “They’re not here slick.”
“He’s going to show,” Justin said, convincing both her and himself. “Trust me, he’s going to come. He has too.”
At exactly midnight, the doors to a Tower Records, just twenty minutes away from Trey Remy’s mansion, opened and a heard of people (mostly screaming girls) rushed inside, all scavaging for the freshly set up rack of ‘N Sync CD’s. It only took fifteen minutes for the display to be completely mangled, a few scraps of cardboard and a couple of CD’s thrown to the ground the only evidence that the exibet had ever existed. By half past midnight the crowd and decapitated, a few crying girls still left over, their eyes hungrily reading over the CD jacket for the fifth time that night, memorizing each word and impatiently bouncing around for their parents to pick them up and take them home, where they would stay up half the night listening to their new purchase.
In a separate isle in the record store, a ways away from where the mayhem had just occurred, a woman was laughing. The sound was irrisistable, like a warm current to the ears on a cold day, and a few customers looked in her direction, seeing a girl of unimaginable beauty, a face that matched the sound perfectly. She stood with a man wearing a sweatshirt, the hood pulled over his head. He faced her. Evidently, he was the cause of her laugh.
“How many left?” JC asked, consciously keeping his back to the crowd, although it would have been difficult to face anything but Sita. That had been one of his hardest challenges over the past two weeks.
With a smile, Sita crooked her neck to look at the remaining kids in the store. “Not many. Maybe a dozen or so. We could take ‘em.”
“Take ‘em, huh? Two weeks in Hollywood and already you’re talking like a hoodlum. What will your parents think about the strange guy that kidnapped you and then brought you back corrupt?”
“Darling, I was corrupted long before I met you.”
“Really?” he scratched his chin, “J.J. doesn’t strike me as every parents nightmare.”
She hit his arm. “J.J. couldn’t corrupt a politician if he wanted to. Oh! Two more just left. Come on.” Grabbing his hand, she led him to the disorted display. “Do you think it was wise to come back so soon?” she asked over her shoulder. “I’m not sure if enough time has passed for everyone to calm down.”
“Avoiding a problem wont make it go away,” he said. “You know you missed home, and I can’t stay away from my music or my friends. We’ve got to deal with them. We’re going to be together and everyone’s just going to have to accept us. I’m tired of doing everything their way. It’s time we got what we wanted. Sita,” they had stopped but he kept her hand, “What do you want?”
She looked straight at him. “I want you.”
He smiled and lifted her hand to kiss her palm. Then he knelt down to pick up one of the few remaining ‘N Sync CD’s that lay on the ground and flipped it over to read the small black lettering at the bottom, specifically one line, each letter like a sum of the years, months, days, and minutes that it took to reach that point and create the sentence:
Executive producer: JC Chasez
“So what next?”
He looked up to see Sita’s smiling face watching him and he thought that he had all that he had ever wanted. “I know we spent our last night here running away from a party, but I was thinking we could celebrate our return by going to another one. What do you say?”
“I’ll go on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Tomorrow you sit with me at a bus stop.”
He grinned and said, “Any particular bus stop in mind?”
She nodded. “I think I know of one…”