~one~

"This vacation has been kind of boring, Mel. We haven't done much. Even Disneyland--"

"World."

"Even Disneyworld, the happiest place on earth, gets really tired the sixteenth time around," Renee said, sighing and banging her hand against her head for entertainment.

"Yeah, I know.....," Melissa let her sentence trail off. "Hey, y'know that new group, 'NSYNC?"

"Yeah?"

"I know one of the guys in it. Like, personally."

"You do not!" Renee protested.

"Don't you remember when I met that guy when his family was vacationing in Niagara Falls?"

"Vaguely."

"And then I saw him again when we were at Virginia Beach and his family was there, too? And I kept seeing him in various vacation spots?"

"Yeah, okay, I think I remember."

"He was on the Mickey Mouse Club. I pointed him out to you."

"He was on with that hot blonde-ish guy, right?"

"Yep."

"Oh, yeah, I remember you telling me about him. Don't they live here somewhere? I thought I read that in a mag somewhere."

Melissa suddenly turned to face Renee. "Oh my God. You're right! The last time JC wrote to me he said that they were moving into a house with one of the guys's mother. I think I have it in my purse somewhere actually." She continued driving and tossed her purse at Renee. "Here, you look for it. I kept it in the envelope, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Nope, 'cause it's right here. It's only like three months old," Renee produced the letter and began to read:

" ' Hey Mel, what's up? I actually have new news! Me & Chris & Justin & Justin's mom (pardon my grammar) are moving into a house down here in Orlando. I know you and your friends take trips down here all the time, so come & visit us sometime. It's this big light blue house on Palm Lake Drive. I'll give you the directions at the end of this, but you can't miss it. It's a huge house. We've got a basketball court & we got a new bus that's out there too.
Anyway, what's new with you? I haven't seen you in so long & I loved the pictures you sent me last time. Some of them I had to show the guys. But my favorite of all time will always be that prom picture with you & all your friends. I wish I coulda been there. Send me more. I sent you a few from our last photo session. Enjoy. Anyway, I gotta go. We're off to the studio, AGAIN! I love the studio. It's my drug of choice. Haha. Talk to ya later, hope to see you soon.
Love always, Joshua Scott. ' "

"What?!" Melissa exclaimed incredulously. "And you figure that how? Where the hell in that letter does it say that? And where the hell is Belmont? Right off Main, yeah that helps. Main is only to thousand and forty-freakin-six miles long."

"I really don't think it's that long," Renee interrupted.

"It sure looks like it."

"Well, just keep going. It's gotta be near to the water, 'cause the house is."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude, not to change the subject or anything but we have a really long vacation ahead of us. We still have a whole month to go!" Melissa shrieked as she tilted her head back and pumped her fists above her head out the sunroof of her purple Cavalier.

"Whoohoo!" Renee joined in. "This is the longest vacation I have ever been on! I can't believe my mom actually let me take two extra weeks off."

"Yeah, that was cool. It was a big surprise, too. I was gonna ask Dani to come with me again."

"Hey, Belmont's coming up," Renee exclaimed.

"I'm so excited!" Melissa squealed.

"Me too!" Renee agreed. "Oh, oh, there's Palm Lake."

"My God, Nay Nay, I'm gettin' nervous already!"

"I can't wait! Is that their bus?"

"How many other people do you think have that bus on this one little street?"

"Well, then, let's go!"

Melissa coasted the rest of the way down the street and into the driveway, where they could see the basketball court. She shut off the ignition, reached for the door handle, and froze.

"I can't do this," she stated as she stared blankly out the front window.

"You pull back the handle, push the door out, and get out of the car."

"Shut up, Renee. Oh shit, what if he doesn't even recognize me?"

"Mel, you sent him pictures probably about four months ago!"

"Yeah, I know," Melissa sat there for another minute, and then took a deep breath. "Ok, I'm going," she stepped out of the car, took another deep breath, and strolled purposely toward the door.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Melissa said to herself as she knocked on the door.

"Wait for me," Renee scrambled out of the car and ran up next to Melissa. Almost as soon as she got there, the door was opened.

"Hello?" said a tall guy with platinum blonde curls.

"Hi, um, I'm - we're - I'm looking for JC," Melissa stumbled over her words.

"Hey, you're the girl he has all those pictures of, right? He drags them out six hundred times a day! Melissa, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. You're...Justin?"

"You got it."

"This is Renee."

"Hey, Renee, what's up?"

"Hey Justin. Not much."

"Ok, well, here, let me go get JC for you. Come on in."

"Thanks."

Melissa and Renee stepped inside the house while Justin went off in search of JC. "Hey, JC! Where are you, man? You got company!" Justin turned back to the girls. "Hey, Renee, why don't I give you the tour?"

"Sure. See ya in a bit, Mel," Renee accepted Justin's arm and he led her to another room.

"Justin?" came a voice from yet another room. "Who is it?" JC Chasez stepped into the hallway. He started at Melissa for a few seconds before a shocked look of recognition came over his face. "Melissa?" he asked in a whisper.

Melissa gave no verbal answer, instead, smiling broadly, rushed into his arms.

"Oh my goodness, I haven't seen you in so long, like five years!" JC cried.

"I know, Josh, I know," Melissa said softly as they pulled apart and glanced into each other's eyes.

"My God, you're beautiful," JC breathed as he gingerly stroked her dark hair.

Melissa let out a nervous giggle. "You're not so bad yourself. How's stardom been for ya?"

"Pretty cool actually. You get to meet a lot of people. Speaking of which, have you met the guys yet?"

"Just Justin."

"And isn't he our greatest representative," JC cracked and rolled his eyes. "You'll love Chris. You're just like him in so many ways." JC took Melissa's hand and led her out to the backyard. "You know, you couldn't have come at a better time if you tried."

"Why's that?"

"We have like 5 weeks off...to do whatever we want...to do nothing, if we please."

"To live normal lives?"

"Exactly."

They stood on the dock. "There's Joe out there on the jet-ski...and I think that's Lance dozing under that umbrella...and there's Chris, practicing his swing," JC said, pointing. After a few minutes of JC and Melissa sitting with their feet in the water and talking, Joey zipped by to say hello, and Chris joined them. Later they were joined by a fresh Lance, followed by Justin and Renee. Lance took Renee out for a run on the jet-ski.

"Girls, come out for dinner with us," Chris suggested after they returned. "Get to know each other."

"Our treat," Joey elaborated.

"Okay," both girls replied.

At Kahunaville, a casual restaurant crammed with a jungle theme, the guys ribbed JC about Melissa's pictures.

"He pulls them out every chance he gets. He's worse than my grandmother after a new birth or wedding," Lance pointed out.

"God, I feel sorry for any of his future children," Chris jabbed.

" 'Now here's a picture of Melissa when she was a wee lit'le one'," Joey said in a fake English accent, pretending to be JC. " ' Every baby needs her embarrassing nudies...I wonder if she'll send me a recent nudie'."

Melissa spit her mango daquiri across the table at Chris as JC flushed bright crimson. "What?!" she cried.

Joey was laughing so hard he could hardly speak.

"That was terrible, Joe," Lance admonished.

"But so, so true," Joey spat out.

"No it ain't," JC said.

"Oh you want her, face it," Joe turned to Melissa, "JC wants you. He wishes for you to bear his children."

"Oh...my...God," JC dropped his head into his hands. Melissa calmly turned to look at him and stared until he looked up. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," she answered. They began to talk in low voices.

"Oh my God, the sweet nothings have started," Renee deadpanned.

"Next thing ya know, they're gonna stand up, push everything off the table and make mad, passionate, wet, slimy, loud love right in front of us," Chris gave everyone an interesting visual that caused Renee to drop her fork, which was poised in front of her mouth, loudly onto her plate, sit back in her chair, and announce loudly that she was full and wanted to leave. This made Lance laugh so hard he started to choke, and Chris began to pound him heavily on the back. The sight of this got Joey going again, and he laughed heartily along.

"Oh would you shut up," JC grumbled, which only made everyone laugh harder.

"You're all morons, all of you," he raised his voice a little higher. The laughter continued.

"SHUT UP!" JC screamed. The laughs ceased.

"Thank you," JC smiled sweetly. Everyone sat silently for awhile, then began talking to each other at high decibels. They caused such a ruckus that their waitress actually came over to ask them to keep it down.

"We should probably get going anyway," Melissa stated. "It's getting late."

They all piled into the two cars they came in: JC, Melissa, Renee & Justin in Melissa's car; Joey, Lance, & Chris in Joey's car. When they got back to the house, JC surprised Melissa with a heart-stopping kiss.

"Come over tomorrow, okay?" he asked, holding her car door for her.

"Count me in," Melissa said, still struggling to regain her composure.

"Okay, g'night."

" 'Night."

"Good night, JC."

" 'Night, Renee."

Melissa and Renee drove in silence until they got back to the house they were staying at. As Melissa cut the engine, she said, "We should've stayed the night."

"Okay, my dear and very confused friend. It's more than obvious you and JC have the hots for each other, and probably have for awhile, but aren't you forgetting something...or maybe, someone?" Renee asked.

"It's not like I'm doing anything wrong," Melissa countered.

"Yeah well...I want Justin."

"Yes, that much I could see."

"Oh shut up...that Lance guy is very intriguing, too."

Melissa shook her head at her friend, as they got into the house and to their rooms.

"I still say we should've stayed!" a call rang out in the dark after ten minutes of silence.

"Aw, man, guys. I should have asked her to spend the night here. Son of a...," JC groaned when the guys were chilling and watching TV.

"Yeah, and she would've asked Renee to stay too," Justin piped up.

Lance scowled and nudged Joey. "Didn't he notice that I didn't talk to him all during dinner?" he whispered.

"Actually, you asked him to pass the ketchup," Joey pointed out.

"Oh, you know what I mean. Why does he automatically assume they all like him? I barely got a chance to really talk to Renee; he's been dragging her around all day."

"Lansten, Lansten, Lansten. I know you don't really want to hear this, but it didn't look like she was being dragged to me."

"Yeah, whatever. I really wanted to talk to her some more. We had such a blast on the jet-ski."

"I know. I saw."

"It was great."

"Lansten, are you talking to yourself again?" JC interrupted. "I thought you were cutting back on that. Anyway, what should I do?"

"About what?"

"Weren't you listening? I asked what I should do about Melly. I really like her, and I want to start something with her, 'cause I know she'd be perfectly understanding of everything, and she'd be the perfect girlfriend, and she's what I've always wanted in a woman and everything I've ever needed, but I think she has a boyfriend, 'cause she's got this ring and it almost looks like an engagement ring, and I knew she had a boyfriend, but I'm sure she would've told me if she was engaged, but then again, I'm don't know, and she has this picture in her purse of her and some guy at a hockey game, the guy's in a hockey uniform, and I remember her telling me about a friend who plays on the team up there, but I don't really remember what it was, and I'm really confused and I don't know what to and I need help or advice or a good smack upside the head or something," JC gasped for breath after he explained his problem. "So help me," he pleaded.

"I opt for the good smack upside the head!" Joe jumped to his feet, poised to hit JC.

"Don't even think about it," JC said, unblinkingly. "Chris?" he looked to his best friend for advice. "I don't know what to tell ya, bro. I think this is one of them things that no one can tell you. Only you know what to do," Chris shrugged. "I'm going to bed."

"Me too," Justin and Joey said in sync.

"Me three," Lance rose to his feet.

"DAMNIT!" JC shouted. "You guys are absolutely no fucking help at all!" He jumped to his feet and stomped up to his room, leaving the rest of the guys dumbfounded.

"Wow. I have never heard JC swear any harsher than 'hell' since I've known him. He must be really frustrated," Justin commented.

"Our serious Romeo is in love. You can see it all over his face, especially when he speaks of her. Why do you think he busts out the pictures all the time?" Chris explained. "And today, with her actually here, he's been glowing like a christmas tree all day, and I personally think he should just come rigth out and tell her. She feels the exact same way, I can tell. It's all in the facial expressions, and the body language. Damn, I'm good. I knew I should've been a psychiatrist."

"Whatever, Chris. Psy-cho, maybe," Joey mocked him. "Go to bed."

" 'Lo?" she asked.

"Mel?"

"Yeah. Who's this?" she replied groggily.

"It's JC. Look, I have to tell to you something. It's super important."

"What could be so important that you have to tell me at," Melissa squinted at the clock, "six fifty-seven in the morning?"

"I really can't tell you over the phone. It's gotta be in person."

"Can it wait?"

"Well, it could, but Melissa, I've been up for hours thinking about whether or not I should even tell you this. I finally sprung the balls to say it, so the least you can do is hear it," JC said agressively.

"Well, don't jump down my throat. I hadn't planned on waking up for another few hours," Melissa told him. She noticed she was home alone and mused aloud, "Where the hell is Renee?"

"Oh she's out with Lance, and I think Joe's with them," JC heard and answered her.

"Oh."

"So are you coming here, or should I go over there?"

"Well, would you mind coming over here? I really don't feel like going out anywhere."

"No, that's no problem. I'll be right over. Give me like half an hour," JC said before hanging up.

Melissa reached out and opened the blinds. The seven o'clock sun shone through, causing Melissa to groan and fall back onto the bed, flinging an arm over her eyes.

"It's too early for me to talk about important stuff," she told herself, sitting up.

After running a brush through her dark wavy hair, she had a quick breakfast of six Oreos and a bottle of Watermelon Seagrams Wine Coolers. Returning to her room, she decided to throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and then went went back into the living room to put on the stereo. Hanson's Weird was the first song she put on. She stretched out on the couch and promptly fell asleep.

The next sound Melissa heard was the persistent ringing of the doorbell; she jumped right off the couch and ran to the door.

"I am so sorry!" she exclaimed when she opened the door. "I fell asleep. How long were you there?"

"Not long...I rang once, waited a minute, rang again, waited a minute, and then just leaned on it," JC stepped inside. "I'd only been doing that for like a second."

"Oh that's good," Melissa said. Speechless was just ending which meant she had only been asleep for a song and a half.

"You're a little messed up here," JC reached to smooth Melissa's hair out. His touch was so gentle it gave Melissa a shiver down her spine.

Stop that, she told herself.

"So what's up?" Melissa took a step back from JC and sat at the end of the couch, pulling her feet up in front of her.

"Um, well, I've wanted to say this for years, okay, well, maybe months, but it's been a thing that built up, and telling you in like a letter or something would have seemed like it came out of nowhere. It did come out of nowhere for me, but I didn't want to like scare you or anything. Although, it'll probably still scare you, but it's too late to take it back, 'cause it's out there now, and you can probably almost guess what it is, so I don't have much choice anymore."

Melissa arched an eyebrow. "Care to translate that to english, Josh?"

"Oh my god, why do you always do that at crucial moments?!"

"Do what?"

"Call me Josh."

"It's your name, isn't it? And what crucial moment?"

"You know I correlate my name with some level of intimacy, and you use it when I'm about to tell you that I love you," JC sighed and sat back.

"You what?" Melissa sputtered after a moment of stunned silence.

JC thought about what he said. I didn't want to say it yet, and I definitely didn't want to just blurt it out like that. "I said, I love you."

"And where did that come from?"

"I'm not sure, actually. It's something I just realized I feel. I never knew it til now."

"And you just expect me to do something about it?" Melissa suddenly cried, jumping to her feet.

"No!" JC defended himself. "All I wanted was for you to know what's going on in my head. My God, Melissa, what did you think? That I came here expecting something to happen?"

"No. Yes! NO! Damnit, I don't know!"

"Don't you trust me?" JC stood up, a horrified look of shock on his face. "I would never try to make you do something you didn't want to do! you should know that!"

"That's not what I meant!" Melissa suddenly understood what JC thought she meant. "I didn't - no, not like those kind of expectations. I can't believe you'd think I'd think you'd think like that."

"Well, I'd think that you'd think enough to think that I wouldn't think -wait, what am I saying?" JC paused to straighten out the 'thinks'.

Melissa cracked a smile. "You're such a dork."

"I know," JC smiled widely.

"Yeah," Melissa let her voice trail off. As it did, JC took a step toward her, cupped her chin and kissed her square on the lips.

Melissa gasped and jumped away. "What was that for?"

"Melly, I told you how I feel."

"Yeah, but...I don't think....this won't...can't...," Melissa shook her head. "I don't think I feel this way too, so this really won't work. It can't."

JC backed away. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to know what it felt like to kiss you," he turned. "I'll go now. It's obvious I made you uncomfortable."

"No!" Melissa leapt to her feet and grabbed his arm. "Don't go. Josh, look. First of all, you got a kiss in last night. Secondly, there's something here, I can feel it. But right now, none of that matters. I'm engaged, I'm in love with Michael."

"Then why are you here?" JC took a step toward her.

Melissa shrugged. "I'm on vacation. I come here every year." She took a step back.

"I meant here. Why did you come find me?" JC pressed on with another step.

"You're my best friend! I haven't seen you in years. You gave me directions to your house, and I was down here. I wanted to see you, of course I'd find you."

"Why did you want to see me?" JC had Melissa backed against a wall, where he ducked his head down to kiss her again.

"Josh, stop! Didn't you hear me?" Melissa pressed her hands against his chest and pushed him away -- hard.

JC stared at Melissa for a second. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I don't know...why I did that...oh God. What came over me? Oh Mel, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He put his hands over his face and peeked out at her. "Please. I'm so sorry."

"Josh," Melissa sighed. "It's okay. Just...don't do it again."

"Alright. I should go now though."

Melissa nodded silently and watched JC walk out the door. A second later she ran out after him.

"Josh!" she called just as he opened his car door.

"Yeah?" he turned around."

Melissa sighed. "Call me later, okay?"

JC smiled. "You got it."