"So Justin, how does it feel to be nominated
for a Grammy outside of the group?" The interviewer looked at Justin with the
clueless smile that he'd already been faced with more than a dozen times that afternoon.
The promotion circuit was a necessary evil around Grammy time, especially since they were
starting on their new album the week after and wanted to help get the word out about that
as well.
"It feels great, I mean... yeah. It's always been a dream of mine, of all of us
really... to be nominated." Justin answered the question the same way he answered it
the first ten times it was asked, and the same way he'd answer it for the rest of the day.
Chris tapped his feet on the bottom rung of his chair and hummed softly under his breath.
Lance nudged his shoulder and shook his head slightly to get him to stop humming. Chris
looked up and frowned, then kicked at Lance's foot and crossed his eyes.
"I hear it." Lance barely whispered as he tapped his in-ear monitor and narrowed
his eyes at Chris. He unscrewed the cap to the water bottle in his hands and brought it to
his lips to take a sip.
"Waa, waa, waa." Chris whispered back as he sat back in his chair and stretched.
He'd toned out the rest of Justin's answer and missed the next question the interviewer
asked. JC cleared his throat to prepare to answer, then bent to get his own water bottle
by his feet.
As soon as he bent, Lance choked on the water in his mouth, Chris' jaw dropped into his
lap and Joey sprang into motion. Joey reached forward and grabbed the back of JC's shirt
to pull him upright. "Easy Jace."
"What? Hey I was just getting my water." JC laughed and raised his empty hands.
"Here." Joey took the water from Lance who was turning bright red as he
sputtered, and handed it to JC.
"Joe..."
"Drink that one." Joey smiled and pounded Lance on his back.
"Did you - " Lance started to ask Joey as Joey nodded quickly and pounded on
Lance's back again.
"Go... go ahead J-Jace." Chris stuttered and looked at Joey with wide eyes.
"Gee, thanks." JC rolled his eyes with an apologetic smile and answered the
question for him.
"I think we need a break." Joey smiled at the interviewer and stood up, pulling
Lance with him.
"Do what?" Justin looked back at them from his seat beside JC and frowned.
"Five minutes." Joey nodded. "Thanks." He raised his hand to the
startled interviewer and pushed Chris and Lance into the private room behind the curtain.
"Jace? Justin?" He called from out of sight.
"I... we'll be right back." JC stood and hiked his pants up, then he and Justin
went back to the room with the others.
Once they were all there Joey shut the door and turned on JC. "What the fuck?"
"What?" JC looked honestly bewildered as he looked from the startled face of
Chris to the still red and coughing face of Lance. "What?"
"Um." Joey reached over and tugged the hip of JC's jeans down an inch to expose
an inch of shimmery purple material. "That?"
"It's - " JC started to explain.
"A mother fucking thong." Chris said finally.
"Dude!" Justin pulled the back of JC's pants out to see for himself.
"Hey!" JC's hand whipped around to knock Justin away. "Knock it off."
"You're wearing a thong." Joey shook his head slowly.
"A fucking sparkly purple one." Chris' eyes remained twice as large as normal.
"A Victoria's Secret one." Lance added.
"A what?!" Joey, Chris and Justin exclaimed in unison.
"Hey, it's - " JC started to explain.
"Oh dude." Joey closed his eyes and put his hand on his forehead. "JC,
listen man, that's cool and all... but at an interview?"
"It's not like he could see it or anything." JC said, finally able to get a full
sentence out.
"It's a thong." Chris repeated, in case anyone missed it the first time.
Copyright (c) 2003, Amy Lynn