When Alissa woke up, she was momentarily disoriented until she remembered the night before. She knew Joey had left shortly after her and Carrie's singing debut, and the rest of them had decided to watch a movie, although she couldn't remember which one.

She lifted her head to look around the room, and realized that her pillow, was in fact, Lance. Justin was half-curled, and half-hanging off the foot end of the bed. JC and Carrie were leaning on each other on the other bed.

Alissa started to get up, when she heard Lance groan and then stretch. She shushed him when he started to talk, motioning to the three still sleeping, and then motioned to the balcony.

She opened the door as quietly as possible and shivered when she stepped into the chill Boston air. "Shit! I forgot how cold it is in Boston."

"You need a sweatshirt or something?" Alissa laughed that he seemed to be offering to get her one.

"No, it's okay. I just need to get used to it. Strange how you can grow up somewhere and forget totally what the weather's like when you move." It wasn't really funny, Alissa just didn't know what to talk about.

"You grew up here?" Alissa nodded, thinking of all the time she'd spent in the city.

"Yup, you'd never believe how proud I was to live in the same city as New Kids on the Block." Lance laughed as Alissa remembered how she and Carrie had tried to track them down so many times. It was quiet for a few minutes while Alissa reminisced, and then Lance interrupted.

"You didn't move to California for the job at FuMan Skeeto, did you?"

"Oh gawd, no! I've been out there for a few years. Went to college out there after my parents split up." Lance nodded indicating that he was listening to her, but Alissa wasn't really paying attention to him. "I wanted . . . I needed to get as far away as possible. Only reason to be here was Carrie, and she's been trying to move to Cali herself, but the opportunity is never right." Alissa stared off the balcony at a building a short distance away.

"You've been friends a long time." It was more a statement than a question, and Alissa finally turned her attention to Lance.

"Seems like forever. My family moved next to hers just before she was born. I was almost a year old."

"Wow."

"Ya." From where he was sitting, Lance glanced in the balcony window.

"She gets along great with JC." Alissa had noticed that too, but answered hesitantly.

"Seems to."

"And you don't like it." Alissa looked up, wondering how Lance could read her so easily.

"It's not that I don't like them getting along. I just don't want to see her, or him, get hurt. It might just be her thrill of meeting you guys, y'know?" Lance seemed to be thinking and Alissa looked away.

"Sounds like you're more worried about him than her." Alissa shrugged. "What happened with you and JC?" She shrugged. "You don't have to tell me."

"No, it's okay, there's not really anything to tell. He fell and I didn't."

"And you feel bad about that?" Alissa nodded.

"I shouldn't, I know. Obviously it wasn't that big a deal." Lance smiled at her, trying to make her feel better.

"JC has this serious soft side. But he heals pretty quick." Lance started to say something else and stopped. Alissa stared over the balcony again, waiting. She heard him sigh and start to say her name when the balcony door slid open.

"Morning," Justin mumbled, then "Damn, it's cold out here." Alissa smiled.

"Hey little brother." Lance raised his eyebrows at the way Alissa greeted Justin.

"Alissa," Justin whined, "that has to stop." She grinned at him.

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?" He appeared stunned by the sudden revelation.

"Do not!" Alissa looked at Lance, telling him with her eyes to keep quiet.

"Oh ya. Real interesting stuff." Alissa almost laughed at the horrified expression on Justin's face and the smirk on Lance's.

"No way!" He motioned to Lance. "They'd have told me before now." He seemed to think. "Stuff like what?"

"Oh, all sorts of stuff. Kept going on and on about some chick, let's see, what was her name?" Alissa laughed as his eyes widened and he blushed slightly. She laughed. "Psych!" Justin's mouth dropped open.

"That was harsh, �Liss." Alissa shrugged and got up to go back inside, still smiling. "I'm gonna get you back."

"I'm waiting on it, little man," she said quickly and ducked in the door before he could catch her.

JC and Carrie were talking as she slipped in the door. "Hello." Carrie looked as if she could use a few more hours sleep, and glared at Alissa's chipper mood.

"You are WAY too cheerful. What did you take?" Alissa blew on her hands to warm them as Lance and Justin came in the door.

"It's the cold Boston air, Care. You oughtta try it."

"I breathe the stuff every day, give me warmth." She snuggled deeper into the covers, and Lance turned to JC.

"Hey, JC, man. We got sound check and stuff."

"Oh, shit." Justin nodded at JC's appraisal of the situation. It was clear none of them were happy with the idea. JC got off the bed and the trio walked to the door.

"We'll see you later, right?" Lance had turned back into he room and Justin whacked him on the shoulder.

"They came here to see us, dummy. Stupid question." Then he turned to wave at Alissa, "Later."

Alissa waited for the sound of the door latching, before jumping on Carrie's bed. "Okay, give it up." Carrie mumbled something through the covers. "COME ON! Get up and spill it." Carrie threw the covers back.

"I could say the same to you."

"Huh?"

"You and Lance. Or Justin? Which one is it?" Alissa laughed so hard she nearly peed.

"You've got to be kidding me! Me and JUSTIN?! I just got through telling him that he's my little brother, Care." Carried eyed her friend noticing the omission of Lance.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Lance."

"Oh.." Alissa shrugged. "He's cool."

"Anything else?"

"No, not really. Now, your turn." Carrie tried to cover her head with the blanket. "TELL!" Carrie groaned.

"Fine, JC is really cool, and it's really freaking me out, because even when Lance is around I'm paying more attention to him. Even though I never even looked at JC before."

"You mean, you're freaked out because once you met them you didn't choose your favorite?" Carrie nodded slightly. "You goof! Just because he wasn't your fave, geez. I didn't even like these guys before." Carrie laughed, knowing how silly it all was.

"At least I can honestly say, he is definitely my favorite now." Alissa laughed and pulled the covers back over her friends face.

The girls caught up on some of the sleep they'd missed that night and then got dressed to go to the concert that night. They'd arranged to meet Danielle and the three of them would go together.

When they took their seats, Alissa and Carrie were delighted to be sitting in the front row.

"Geez, girl, this is so much better than our general admission last time. No fights with bitchy twelve year olds." Alissa laughed at Carrie, remember the teeny who'd told her to �fuck off' the last time the girls had seen *NSync in concert.

"So much better!" They hadn't arrived early enough for the opening acts, so they had a very short wait until the guys took the stage.

Alissa was sure by the time the concert was over that she would be deaf in her left ear. Carrie had screamed and grabbed her arm to yell �ohmigawd' every time JC came near them. Which, unfortunately for Alissa's hearing he did a lot.

The guys all spent a lot of their time singing to the girl's area of the crowd. Much more than they should have in Alissa's opinion. All except Joey who seemed to have found the object of his flirtation at the other end of the stage.

Danielle turned to Alissa after one song in particular. "Hey, what's up with that?" Alissa shook her head, not understanding.

"What?"

"Lance, he's actually playing the crowd. Most particularly one person in the crowd." Alissa shrugged.

"Didn't notice." Carrie screamed and Danielle covered her ears, letting Alissa off the hook for the moment.

Truthfully she had noticed and she was happy to have his attention. But she didn't want anybody else to know that. Word traveled much to fast among the group and Alissa wasn't willing to admit anything to anybody.

Carrie was bouncing off the walls, almost literally, when they were allowed backstage to leave with the guys. Alissa had been trying to bring her down for five minutes while they waited.

"Ohmigawd, �Liss. How can you not be excited about this? I mean, we're backstage, where everything happens." Carrie took Alissa by the shoulders. "Come on, this is SO cool." Alissa pried Carrie's hands off her arms and looked her friend in the eye.

"Talk to me when we're backstage at a Backstreet concert." Carrie looked stunned.

"How can you even SAY that name, when we're here and you know them, and . . ."

"Care, give it up already."

"Ladies, ready to go?" JC draped his arm over Carrie's shoulder and motioned down a hallway. Lance was following him and Alissa smiled. Chris and Danielle, Justin and Joey were going to be following in the next van.

"Let's go avoid the masses." They'd already been warned that to leave with the guys meant ducking into a van as quickly as possible in order to avoid the rush of fans.

Even with the warning Alissa wasn't prepared for the crush of young faces waiting in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite guy. She heard the chants and squeals as nothing more than a thunderous roar and was suddenly glad that she and Carrie had never gone to such lengths to meet their groups.

She had just calmed down from the first crush of getting into the van, when they pulled up outside the hotel's back entrance. She and Carrie exchanged looks, clearly expressing how much they didn't want to do it again. Both of them had quickly developed huge amounts of sympathy for the guys having to do this every day.

JC took off first, pulling Carrie behind him and Lance looked at Alissa. "You gotta get out sometime." Alissa sighed.

"Do I? It's big enough I could just live here." Lance laughed a little and grabbed her hand.

"Come on."

Carrie and JC had gone straight into the elevator and were gone before Lance and Alissa got there. Alissa looked at Lance while he watched the elevator. Neither of them spoke until the elevator arrived. When the door closed, Lance turned to Alissa.

"We leave early tomorrow, so I wanted to say goodbye now." Alissa smiled to herself thinking of something she and Carrie had always said.

"Don't say goodbye, say later." Lance looked at her oddly. "Don't blame me if it doesn't make sense, Carrie made it up." Lance laughed.

"That explains it. She's. . . odd."

"Yup, and that's why I keep her around."

Lance glanced up at the elevator numbers and then back at her. "It was really nice seeing you again, Alissa." Alissa nodded, sensing he had something more he wanted to say, but when he didn't, she spoke.

"It's kind of weird to me. I really missed you guys even though I only knew you for a few days." Lance's turn to nod and he hesitated as the elevator doors opened.

"I, we, missed you too." He corrected himself so quickly that Alissa wondered if she had imagined it.

"You don't have to miss me, y'know. You know where I am, and I have a phone. And email." They had walked down the hall and stopped in front of her door.

"That's right." Each one of them was lost in their own thoughts for a second. "Goodnight, Alissa."

"Later, Lance." She saw him smile as he turned to walk to his room, and Alissa opened the door and slipped inside.

Alissa fell asleep before Carrie returned to the room, but she woke up again as Carrie and JC attempted to sneak in without disturbing her. She watched them creep across the room to Carrie's laptop. Carrie giggled, as she typed something quickly and they kissed quickly before JC left.

"You two would be horrible spies. Nobody ever tell you that you have to be quiet to sneak someplace?" Carrie froze at the sound of her voice, not realizing that Alissa was awake.

"Sorry, �Liss. I just wanted to put JC's email in my computer before I lost it." Alissa sat up and grinned smugly.

"Email, huh?" Carrie looked at her.

"Ya." Alissa hummed for a second and then sang.

"Digital, digital get down." Carrie threw something at her.

"Eew." Alissa feigned innocence.

"Hey don't blame me. He wrote the song."

"That's just . . . ew!" Alissa saw Carrie fake a shiver.

"Obviously he's thought about it, girl. You might want to warm up to the idea." She loved that Carrie was so easy to tease now.

"I don't care if he is JC Chasez of *NSYNC. NO WAY, NO HOW!"

She shivered again, as Alissa mumbled, "Whatever, " then covered her head as something flew in her direction.

Carrie drove Alissa and Danielle to the airport the next afternoon and promised Alissa that she would visit soon. Alissa teased that Carrie would have to make sure JC was in the area first, then she'd be on the first plane. Carrie smiled and rolled her eyes but didn't confirm or deny anything.

When she got home, Alissa unlocked her apartment and was greeted by silence. After the activity and noise of the weekend, she thought that she'd welcome the quiet of being home alone. Normally that would be the case. But something was missing.

She tried arguing with her Millennium poster, but even that didn't help. She just couldn't do it. When she opened her closet door to put away some clothes a rolled tube fell out at her. Carefully she picked it up and smiled as she unrolled it.

She went to her desk drawer to get tape and carefully attached the poster to the wall, feeling a little less alone. Turning to the Millennium poster she spoke.

"AJ, Brian, Kevin, Nick and Howie. I'd like to introduce you to your new neighbors, Chris, Justin, JC, Lance and Joey." She giggled at herself and how ludicrous it seemed that those two posters hung looking at each other in her hallway. Then she stopped. "Ohmigawd! I just put up an *NSync poster in my house. What is HAPPENING to me?" She freaked out standing in the hallway between the two posters, working out some of the energy that she had from the trip home.

As she calmed down, she glanced at her wristwatch and was stunned to realize how late it was. Since she did have to work tomorrow she headed to bed. Laying down, she found herself staring sleepless at the walls, and the darkened window. She tried humming lullabies to herself and counting sheep with no success.

Finally, feeling like a child, she got up and searched her closet. Finding what she was looking for, she dragged a worn white teddy bear with light green eyes back to her bed and was soon fast asleep.

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