“Um, do you see that blue shelf thing next to the Harry Potter books? Look on the side of it… No, the other side… see the rest of them? Right there.”

Laurel replaced the book and bounced around in her red plush chair. “Does Tyler work today? Or did he have a date with Kenny? How is Tyler? Are him and Kenny dating?” She was too wired to sit still, and it was driving her mother crazy. Malinda Gracie pushed her glasses on top of her head. It wouldn’t be her fault if her employees didn’t have accurate paychecks this week. She pushed the timesheets away.

“Are you hungry?” she asked her daughter.

“Yes.” The bouncing stopped.

“Then here,” Malinda withdrew fifteen dollars from her pocket. “Run over to Burger King. I want a medium number eight. You get whatever you want. Don’t talk to nobody on your way back, or else we’ll never get to eat.”

“Alright, be right back,” Laurel chirped as she took the money and dashed out the door, leaving Malinda to look over the timesheets in peace.

She was in the middle of calculating the new kid’s weekly pay, trying to remember how many of his hours were spent training, when she heard the familiar jingle of the bell above the door. Barely glancing up, she saw two young men, one dirty blonde and the other with hair of a light brown, wandering the aisles, perusing the books there. It was odd to see younger men in the store alone, but then again, maybe they were looking for Tyler.

“Can I help you gentlemen with anything?” she called out.

“No thanks,” replied the blonde one in a surprisingly deep voice. “We’re just looking around.”

The door chimed again, cutting off a response from Malinda. Laurel had returned with their lunch. “Here Momma,” she handed her a bag, a cup, and her change. “I even remembered to ask for no mayo and no tomatoes.”

“Mm-mm, thanks honey,” Malinda pulled her chicken club sandwich out of the bag. “What did you get?”

“A junior whopper and fries,” Laurel said around a bite.

A loud guffaw rang out through the store, followed by the brown-haired man hooting, “Look at your hair!”

Both Gracies turned to see, expecting him to be laughing at his friend, and instead saw him pointing at the display on a barrel of posters. Laurel knew that they were Nsync posters, which prompted her to look a little more closely at the men laughing at it.

She gasped, “Momma!”

“Yes, dear?” she had returned to adding numbers with one hand, while holding her sandwich in the other.

“Do you know who that is?” Laurel hissed.

“”Who is it?”

“That’s Lance and JC!”

“Who?”

“Lance and JC. As in, Lance and JC from Nsync.”

“What? No it’s not,” Malinda peered over her glasses. They did look familiar.

“Momma, that is so them, I know it,” the younger girl slid out of her chair and, after trailing them up and down two aisles, slowly approached the two superstars, her mother quietly protesting the whole time. “Excuse me,” she began, “but are you who I think you are?”

“Well, I guess that depends on who you think we are,” the one she believed to be Lance arched an eyebrow.

“Well, are you only in town for this weekend?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll be performing in a concert tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“So then you’re either members of Smashmouth or Nsync. My vote is Nsync.”

“Well then, you’re very smart. I’m Lance.”

“Duh.”

JC laughed, he liked this kid. She had what his mother would call spunk. No fear, no hesitation, just grab life by the balls and pull.

“Laurel, would you leave them be?” a slightly exasperated, slightly amused voice rang out. “How would you like to be followed all over a store by a nosey little girl?”

“Well that’s what they get for coming to our store!” Laurel hollered back.

JC laughed again as he went to the end of the aisle to see the woman who was obviously the girl’s mother. “It’s okay, we don’t mind,” he said as he finally saw her and made eye contact. Jesus Christ she’s gorgeous. He blinked a few times. “Just as long as fifty more people don’t suddenly show up. I’m JC by the way,” he smiled warmly.

“So I heard. I’m Malinda,” she grinned back. “Well don’t say I didn’t warn you. When she starts to drive you crazy, just run and don’t look back.”

“I’ll remember that,” he turned back to Laurel and Lance.

“Momma says I talk too much, especially about things I shouldn’t talk about at my age.”

Lance appreciated the humor in the situation. “I see. And how old are you, Laurel?”

“I’m eleven and one quarter.”

“One quarter, huh? Well I’m twenty-three and one twelfth,” Lance informed her.

“I’m twenty-five.”

“That’s year younger than my mom,” Laurel told JC, then plunged right into a narrative on how she couldn’t wait to get out of fifth grade.

I’m a year younger? Malinda’s twenty-six? Oh my God, she was fifteen? JC turned away to hide the shock he knew was registering on his face. He couldn’t help but think of what that could mean. Was Laurel a punishment for a young girl’s mistake? Was she a reminder of some evil a young girl had to face? Why do I want to know so bad?

“My mom has no life,” Laurel responded when Lance asked about the bookstore. “Even when she doesn’t have to be here she works here almost everyday, she works at a bar, and she just never does anything else.”

“Doesn’t she go out with friends?” JC was curious.

“Well, there’s Aunt Gina, and Rhett, and Mary and Tyler, but they don’t go out a lot. Momma works too much. I’m worried about her sanity,” Laurel sighed dramatically. “But, she did make sure she was free tomorrow. We can’t wait till the concert. We’ve been to them all. I fell asleep at the first one though. It was getting too late, and I was laying on a blanket, and I just… I was out.”

“You fell asleep?” Lance was shocked.

“I was only eight years old. It was late, I was tired, so, I slept.”

“But still, you fell asleep?”

“Oh be quiet,” she brushed Lance off like an old friend.

“She got you,” JC said, checking his watch. “And we gotta get moving. We have to meet up with the others and find someplace to eat.”

“Then I suggest the Anchor Bar,” a fourth voice broke in as Malinda had come to check on her daughter. “Home of the quote-unquote Buffalo Wing. And don’t ever call it that. They’re just wings.”

“Yes ma’am. Anchor Bar. Where is that?”

“It’s near the corner of Main and High Street. There’s a Wendy’s right next door. Where are you meeting the other guys?”

“In front of the baseball stadium.”

“Oh, okay, that’s Washington, just go one block over, that’ll be Main, and turn right. It’s a couple blocks up, or something. You guys are really wandering the city today. We’re nowhere near the field.”

“Yeah, we’ve never gotten a chance to before. We were always confined to the hotel. Last year, we went to the art festival, but this year we’re on our own for the whole day. Oh, and we’re going out tonight, can you recommend any clubs or anything?”

Malinda snickered, “You’ve come to the right place. Where are you guys staying?”

“The Hyatt. The one right there by the Arena.”

“Then you’re right by all the action. You want the Franklin, Pearl, and Chippewa block. Lots of bars and clubs. There’s SoHo, Red Room, Queen City Lounge, Utopia.”

“Okay, we’ll have to remember that. Anchor Bar. Franklin, Chippewa, Pearl. Okay. Oh, before we go, I have to get one of those posters. We look absolutely ridiculous. How much are they?” JC asked as Malinda held the rolled up picture out to him.

She shook her head, “Take it.”

“How can you run a successful establishment if you give every celebrity who walks in that door a free poster of themselves?”

“You claim not to really be celebrities, remember?” one perfectly arched eyebrow accentuated the question.

For a moment, JC was stunned. Her liked her. He liked her a lot. And he saw where Laurel got the balls of steel. His prolonged silence prompted unsuccessfully stifled giggles from Laurel and Lance.

“Now who got who?” Lance chuckled.

JC shook his head, “Okay, so you won’t let me pay for the poster, will you two join us for lunch?”

“Already ate.”

“Just as company?”

“We couldn’t. That’s you guys, and I don’t want to impose.”

“Are you sure?’

“Positive.”

“Well then,” JC reached into his pocket and pulled out some lint, a button, and two backstage passes, “will you at least accept these?”

“Yeah, I think that button matches the one I lost on a sweater at home.”

“I meant the passes.”

Malinda carefully considered what he was offering her and looked up for support. Laurel was nodding so hard it looked like her head might pop off, and Lance was looking at her with a twinkle in his eye, as if he knew something she didn’t. “Um, sure,” she eventually choked out. “Thank you.”

“Great. Be at the Arena early though, like six-ish. If there’s a line, skip it; go right up to anyone who looks like security. If they’re doing their job right, they’ll be everywhere. Just tell them your name, show them these, and follow them. See you tomorrow. Bye Laurel,” he smiled brightly at them, heading toward the door.

“Goodbye ladies,” Lance drawled, following after him.

“G’bye!” the Gracie girls chorused.

“Momma!” Laurel stared at her mother’s hand. “You better call Aunt Gina and tell her we’re not riding with her and she should meet us there!”

“Since when do you just dole out backstage passes in the middle of a store? Are you sure about this?” Joe Fatone, Jr. asked his best friend once the other guys had gone off to look around the Anchor Bar, examining all the memorabilia of Buffalo History that adorned the walls.

“I dunno man. There’s just something about her.”

“There was something about Bobbie too, remember?”

“Don’t start. She was fine until she turned into Yoko Ono.”

“Well, watch out though. She could be after what you can give her.”

“I don’t think so. Laurel said she works her ass off. I mean, she’s sacrificed so much of her life to make sure they were always okay. Her store was gorgeous, they were both well dressed. She seems pretty successful to have been strapped with such a responsibility so young.”

“I guess so. If you think she’ll make you happy, man,” Joe trailed off. “This fatherhood thing is still weird to me, and that’s my own kid. I’m not sure how I would be able to take on someone else’s,” he insinuated.

“Dude, I didn’t propose to her! I just invited her backstage. Yeah, hopefully we can start something, but damn. Don’t be marrying me off yet.”

“Well, I can’t wait to meet her.”

“And I can’t wait to see her again.”

Laurel eyed her mother warily the following evening. “Um, Momma? You are going to the concert, with me, right?”

“Of course I am, sweetheart.”

“Then why are you getting so dressed up?”

“I’m not that dressed up,” Malinda walked from her bedroom to the bathroom, Laurel hot on her trail. The younger one was wearing an Nsync T-shirt and flared jeans with stars up the leg. Her mother had chosen dark gray boot-cut pants that were a little on the tighter side, and a tight black baby tee that she and Gina had made during one of their crazy girls nights. It boasted the Nsync logo in diamond studs, thanks to the Bedazzler that Gina had pulled out of her attic. To go along with this 80’s concert look, Malinda had let all off her curly hair down, so it had this wild sex goddess look.

“Momma, you look like you’re going to your night job.”

Malinda almost froze in her tracks before she realized Laurel was referring to the bartendress uniform she left the house in almost every night. “Well, that’s because I don’t want to look like an old lady. This is what those other squirrelly young girls wear, isn’t it? I mean, I should be allowed to dress nice still, it’s my right as a woman to lie about my age. And I just wanted to…” she trailed off when she saw Laurel wasn’t buying it. “Okay, so maybe this is a little much. I should probably change back into my jeans, huh? And ditch the shirt?”

“You like JC, don’t you?’

“What makes you say that?” Malinda swatted at her daughter.

“I can just tell. Keep that outfit on, it looks good.”

“Yes, Donatella Versace. You ready?”

“Yes!” Laurel jumped up and down.

“Well, then, JC, I mean, Nsync awaits us. Let’s go!” The two trekked out of their second level apartment and out to Malinda’s first big gift to herself, her black Oldsmobile Bravada. After Laurel slid her CD into the player, off they went.

“So if you think I like JC,” Malinda asked at a red light, “do you also think he likes me?”

“Why do you think he gave us these?” Laurel held up her backstage pass as she answered in a ‘duh’ voice.

“Because he felt sorry for us,” Malinda retorted cynically.

“Oh Momma, you’re so silly. JC’s not like that.”

“Oh, you and JC go way back, huh?”

“No, it’s just that it’s so obvious. He didn’t have to give us these. He wanted to. He needed an excuse to see you again, that’s all.”

Malinda shook her head sadly, “Oh, baby, if only men were that simple.”