 Alissa had time to check her email in the morning before she left. She had several messages from Carrie, so she was glad that she did. One was just making sure that she got home alright, another was a forward, about "Joey da playa'" which had Alissa roaring with laughter. She knew it was something she wanted to save to share. The last message left Alissa a little confused.
Hey girl, Alissa quickly typed off a reply to her friend and shut off the computer. But all day, Carrie's message stayed in her mind. The day flew by and at around three Danielle came to talk to her. "What's with you today? I'm barely dragging myself through and you're so perky it's sickening. The weekend was definitely good to you." Alissa played with a strand of her hair and nodded. "It was good to get away, and to see Carrie. I had a lot of fun." Danielle looked at her slyly. "You sure it doesn't have something to do with a particular blonde." Alissa knew exactly who Danielle meant, but didn't want to give any insight too easily. "Justin? Oh, he's so adorable. But he's like my little brother. He's a cutie though." Alissa smiled at the exasperated look from Danielle. "You know that's not who I was talking about." Alissa arched her eyebrows, pretending to be surprised. "Oh?" "You aren't about to give me anything, are you?" Alissa shrugged. "Alright then. Have it your way. I do have other sources." Alissa laughed. "That's just dirty." "You bet your butt." Danielle turned to leave and then came back. "Oh, and big sister better watch out for the crush her little brother has." Alissa was surprised. She'd never even considered that. She thought about it for a few more minutes and decided Danielle had to be wrong. Justin couldn't possibly have a crush on her.
 Millennium was playing loudly on her stereo as Alissa checked her email that night. There were a ton of messages in her account, and she sang along to "I want it that way" as she shuffled through the first few, until she found one from Carrie.
�Liss, Alissa smiled and deleted the note and she was surprised to see who the next one was from.
ALISSA! "Silly boy, if you saw my bank account you wouldn't even suggest such things. I can't afford another trip like that." She pressed reply and sat thinking about what to say.
Justin, Alissa thought about what Danielle had said, and considered deleting the tag line of her signature but decided against it, and pressed send. The next message was from JC, mostly thanking her for being friends with Carrie. Alissa laughed reading it and sent back a reply that said if he hurt Carrie she'd kick his butt. She was pretty sure she didn't need to, but she thought she'd play the protective best friend. She flipped through the rest of the messages and was about to leave the computer when a deep voice came from the speakers. "Hey baby, you got mail." Alissa always enjoyed getting new mail, especially because it was Kevin's voice that announced when it arrived. Sometimes she sent herself mail just to hear him speak. She clicked on the new message and although it was short, a smile spread across her face.
Hi Alissa, Alissa re-read the message and sat back in her chair, thinking about what to say in reply. After ten minutes of singing along with her Millennium cd, and still not knowing what to say, she sat back at the keyboard and wrote the first words she thought of, pressing send as soon as she was finished. That night, just as Alissa was turning off the television after watching her favorite show, Law & Order, the phone started to ring. Figuring it was Carrie, she took her time answering it. It was ringing for the fourth time when she finally picked it up. "Yello." "Alissa?" She was stunned hearing the deep voice on the other end of the line. "Lance? I thought it was going to be Carrie, or I would have answered quicker." Suddenly, Alissa felt stupid. She didn't know what to say. She'd sent him her phone number on a whim, thinking it would be nicer to be able to talk to him than just email, but she hadn't expected him to call right away. "I, uh, just felt like talking to someone other than the guys. Are you busy?" Alissa felt better, hearing that he sounded as unsure as she felt. "Never too busy. How's it going?" Alissa didn't know if he'd called for anything specific, so she purposely tried to keep the conversation as casual as possible. "It's good. Touring is always hectic though." Alissa noted an almost sad tone in his voice. "How are you?" "Good, normal life is awfully dull though." She smiled hearing Lance laugh. "Can't handle the boring life without the horrible *NSync in it huh? What would your Backstreet Boys think?" Alissa clucked her tongue. "I'm sure life would be just as interesting with them in it, I just haven't met them. Yet." Somehow Alissa knew Lance was shaking his head and rolling his eyes at her. "Alissa, can't you just admit that we might be as cool as �your Boys'?" Alissa was torn: Should she stay loyal to her Boys or admit that Lance and the guys from *NSync now held a place for her too. She chose a version of both. "Lance, darlin', you have to know that I love you guys. You're all so real and very cool. But my Boys are, and always will be, my Boys. I just can't stop with them, even if . . ." Alissa stopped herself, realizing she was about to admit something that she wasn't ready to admit just yet. "If what?" "Nothing, just something I was thinking." There was an awkward silence, until Alissa asked more about the tour and managed to distract him from asking her anything else. They talked for over an hour before Alissa yawned and they decided that it was about time to hang up. The phone calls became something of a ritual between the pair. Alissa didn't mention to anyone how often, or even the fact that she talked to Lance, and she assumed Lance didn't either because no one said anything, until about a month after the first call. They'd already been talking for about a half an hour that night, when suddenly Alissa could tell that Lance wasn't on the other end of the line. She could hear mumbled speech, which she tried to listen to, but she couldn't make out anything specific. After a couple minutes, Lance returned. "Sorry, Justin had a . . . problem, I guess. He's kinda ticked that I was talking to you." Something in Alissa's mind clicked and she remembered what Danielle had told her after they'd gotten back from Boston. She made a quick decision to ask Lance about it. "Can I ask you something, about Justin?" Alissa waited for his confirmation before going on. "I don't want this to sound conceited, but Danielle said something once, and I have to know. Does Justin have a thing for me?" She could tell Lance was smiling by the tone of his voice when he answered. "I wondered if you noticed that. I think so, but he never said anything. Probably because he knew . . ." "What? That you were interested too? Sort of like, why inform the competition?" Alissa tried not to laugh. "Ya, I guess that's it." It suddenly hit Alissa that this was the first time either of them had actually talked about being interested in each other. Then she realized something else. "Oh gawd, all my teasing and calling him little brother had to kill him." She was genuinely upset about how she'd treated Justin and Lance chuckled. "Don't worry about it, he'll bounce back. I think he knew his chances anyway. Besides, he's still got Britney." Alissa laughed at that. "Gawd, it's nice to know that even for a brief moment, I was competition for the princess." Actually the reality of the statement was kind of flattering. Alissa might not think much of Britney, but, with or without implants, she was pretty. "Anyway, I only mentioned it because Justin's not too happy and you'll probably get an email from him about it." "Guess I should be glad he doesn't have my phone number right now. I consider myself warned."
Lance was right. When she checked her email in the morning there was a message from Justin complaining about how Lance got to call her. Alissa laughed reading it, because it was obvious how used to getting what he wanted Justin was. She wrote back quicky, telling him that if he asked nicely he might be able to get her phone number from Lance. In some warped way she wanted to make Lance pay for not telling her about Justin's crush. She thought this was the perfect solution; she knew Justin would pester Lance until he got what he wanted. She felt a little bad about siccing Justin on Lance unprepared, so she wrote a quick note to warn him. When she got home from work there were eight messages on her answering machine and she groaned, knowing who most of them had to be from. She rewound the tape and pressed the button. "Hey Alissa, why did you do this? He's been hounding me for over an hour. Make it stop!" Alissa giggled at the annoyance in Lance's voice, and moved on to the next message. "Okay, you're in for it now. He's putting your number in speed dial. Watch out. I may never be able to talk to you again, so goodbye." Alissa rolled her eyes, and laughed, speaking to herself. "Thanks for the dramatization. As if! He can't possibly be THAT bad." As she listened to the remaining six messages she understood why Lance had warned her. There was Justin complaining because she hadn't given him her phone number, Justin complaining about Lance, Justin singing, Justin complaining about her Boys, and Justin complaining that she wasn't home from work yet. Although she found it amusing, she wasn't sure if she could deal with it if Justin was always going to be like this. She was thankful to hear that the last call came in about two hours before, but her mood changed to concern as she listened. "�Liss, it's Justin again. Sorry about the other calls, I was just goofin' around, you know that right? Can I call you later? I need some advice, and I don't know, well I could ask a couple other people but I want your help." He left his cell number at the end of the message and Alissa wrote it down quickly before picking up the phone. "Hey Just, what's up? You sounded down." Alissa hoped she was reading how he sounded on her machine correctly. And when he spoke, she had no doubt that she had. "Hi �Liss." Alissa had never heard him so quiet. It was almost eerie. "Can I call you back in like five?" Alissa agreed and then waited for the phone to ring. She jumped when it did, and answered it on the first ring. "Alright, Justin, what's going on? You sound depressed." She could hear him sigh and assumed, correctly that he was going to explain. "Britney and I broke up." Alissa was almost relieved, she had expected something more serious. Although she could tell that to Justin this was more than important. She took a minute to think about what to say so that she wouldn't offend him. "Justin, hunny. Do you really want my opinion? You know how I feel about her." "But you've never met her." Alissa couldn't argue. She hadn't, nor did she want to. "She's important to me." Alissa knew that. She could tell by the look in his eye whenever she was mentioned. "Okay, Justin. What's going on ?" He mumbled something that Alissa couldn't hear, and then spoke up. "Something about us dating affecting our careers." Alissa rolled her eyes. Obviously if they weren't allowed to be seen together there were a lot of people who felt that way. "Her mom's been bugging her about it for a while." "You just didn't think she cared?" "Ya." It hurt Alissa to hear the normally hyper Justin so down; he really had become like a brother to her. "Just, the only advice I can give you is don't give up. If she's what you want, then don't just let it end. If she feels the same, it will all turn out. Otherwise it's better this way." She heard him sigh, and then heard noise in the background. "Thanks, �Liss. I, uh, I gotta go." "Welcome Justin. Be happy, and go put on a good show, boy wonder." She smiled at his embarrassed laugh when she called him what had become her nickname for him. "And let me know what happens." "I will �Liss. Bye."
Lance brought up Justin's call when he called that night. "So, you actually told Justin to try to get Britney back?" Alissa heard the skepticism in his voice. "Not exactly. I just told him if it was meant to be, it would be." She wondered as she said that if there was anything more than friendship meant to be with Lance. But because she was comfortable with her good friend, she wasn't about to ask. "I guess that's alright." "Besides he's happy with Brit. Even if we don't like her that much." "Actually, she's not that bad if you can get past the princess thing." Alissa couldn't believe that somehow. But then she would never have believed she'd get along so well with the guys from *NSync either. "Hopefully, I never have to be near her long enough for it to matter." Lance laughed at her. "Be nice." There was a momentary pause. "You know we're in California next week right?" Alissa wouldn't admit it, but she'd been counting the days, so yes, she knew. "Uh hmm. And surprise, surprise, Carrie's coming to visit." Carrie had called three weeks before to make arrangements with Alissa, as soon as she'd managed to get the whole week off. "JC mentioned that. A few hundred times." Alissa laughed, knowing that Lance heard as much about Carrie from JC, as she heard about JC from Carrie. "You guys have a couple days off while you're here, don't you?" "We have a day when we get there, and another one at the end of the week." Alissa smiled at his enthusiasm, and wondered if she was as transparent over the phone. "Got any plans?" She waited for him to answer, even though she had some idea what he was going to say. "Don't know yet. What about you?" Alissa smiled. That was her cue. "I'm meeting this cute blonde guy. Can't think of his name right now, but he's got a really sexy voice. And I haven't seen him for a while, so I'm looking forward to it." "Damn, I guess I'm too late." "You fool," Alissa laughed. "It's already arranged for Danielle and Carrie and me to hook up with you guys." "You mean your slave driver boss is letting you off?" Alissa laughed again. She'd said something similar to Chris when he'd told her that she wasn't expected to work while they were in town "You know, if I don't get some sleep and get my butt to work tomorrow, he might change his mind. I gotta go." She didn't really want to say goodbye, but it was easier knowing she'd see him in less than a week. "Night, Alissa." "Later, Lance."
  
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