"So have you told her yet?" Justin asked coming into the quiet room.

"No," JC shook his head. "Thank you, though, for telling Britney," he added throwing a pillow at Justin.

"What? She wanted to know where I was cause she called and I didn’t answer. If I had made something up she would’ve thought I was cheating on her or something," Justin replied.

"Less chance of her running her mouth with that," JC mumbled.

"Have you told Julia yet?" Joey questioned coming into the room.

"No."

"And hey, Joey told Kelly," Justin said.

"Excuse me? I did not!"

"Did so! I was sitting there when you called and told her!"

"Didn’t either," Joey denied.

"Lance, didn’t he tell Kelly?" Justin said when Lance entered the room.

"Yah."

"No I haven’t told her," JC informed Chris when he walked into the room.

"Can I tell her then?"

"No."

"How about me?" Justin asked.

"You can’t either," JC snapped. "Or Joey or Lance," he added when Joey opened his mouth.

"How about Britney or Kelly?" Justin inquired.

"No!"

"I know! Kelly can tell Alyson and she call tell Julia!" Joey suggested.

"No! No one is telling Julia," JC yelled.

"You’re no fun," Justin exclaimed, throwing himself across a couch.

"So sorry," JC replied, rolling his eyes.

=

"I’m telling you, Julia, he said it!" Britney exclaimed. "I was standing right there!"

"Yah right."

"He did! Joey told me," Kelly agreed.

"Whatever."

"Dude, ask JC!" Britney said. "Eminem walked up to him and told him he needed to get his act together and let you know how he feels before he kicks his ass for being stupid!"

"So see, you’re the only person who doesn’t see what’s there," Kelly said.

"No Josh and I are the only ones who understand there isn’t anything there," Julia shook her head. "Excuse me?" she asked when Britney mumbled something.

"Hmm? Oh nothing," Britney answered quickly, earning herself an elbow from Kelly. "Ow!" she exclaimed elbowing her back.

"What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing," Kelly said. "Brit’s just being weird. So are you excited about starting tomorrow?"

"Don’t change the subject," Julia replied.

"Seriously, I didn’t say anything," Britney answered.

"Brit, you may think you’re a good liar, but you’re not. So just tell me," Julia demanded.

"There isn’t anything to tell. If there were we’d tell you," Kelly said.

"How do you know what she didn’t say?"

"She’s just giving you shit about the whole thing and you’ve both already told us all to cut it out," Kelly fibbed.

"Whatever," Julia rolled her eyes.

=

"Julia, hey it’s me. Guess you aren’t there. Just wanted to call and tell you I won’t be home next week after all. Jive wants us to go do some stuff in Europe. Not sure how long we’ll be gone, but hopefully not too long. I’ll call again later. Tell Micah I love him. Bye," JC’s voice floated out of Julia’s answering machine.

"Daddy’s not coming home yet?" Micah pouted looking at Julia.

"Guess not baby, I’m sorry," Julia apologized.

"Not your fault."

"You know he’ll be home as soon as he can, right?"

"Yah, I know," Micah nodded. "Is Aunt Kelly and Bri coming over tonight?

"Yes they are, baby, for dinner," Julia answered.

"Good."

"How about you feel me in on preschool while I make dinner?" Julia suggested.

"Okay."

"That was really good, Julia," Kelly said, helping Julia clean up from dinner.

"Thanks," Julia smiled. "It’s great having time to actually cook, ya know?"

"Yah," Kelly nodded. "Lets set up a night for you two to come over and I’ll cook dinner."

"That’d be great. You got all Mama Fatone’s recipes, didn’t you?"

"And she even taught me how to cook them," Kelly nodded. "She’s afraid Joey and Bri will starve to death."

"Oh she isn’t either! She’s been waiting as long as I’ve known her to have a daughter-in-law to teach how to cook."

"That’s why she used to teach you to cook when you’d go over there, I remember," Kelly said.

"No she taught me how to cook because she was afraid with all my mom’s weird diets I’d starve. She always knew you and Joey would end up together."

"She didn’t either!"

"Did so. She used to tell me not to worry when Joey and I broke up because my certain someone was already around. She was wrong about that though."

"Who’d she say, JC?"

Julia laughed and shook her head. "No she was talking about Steve. She figured I could make him a gentleman."

"Steve?" Kelly laughed. "You’d be better off with Eminem then Steve."

"So how’s the new job going?" Kelly asked after they’d stopped laughing.

"Pretty good, I guess. I haven’t done much more then watch so far," Julia answered. "But I think I’ll enjoy it a lot."

"That’s good."

"Plus I getta spend more time with Micah. There’s childcare where I can take him in the mornings and I also can take him to school and get off in time to pick him up."

"JC’s gonna do that when he’s here, isn’t he?"

"Yah he is."

"You miss him?"

"Sure, he’s my best friend."

"Is that the only reason?"

"Don’t start that again. We’re just friends."

"You could be more."

We’d have to have feelings for each other for that to happen."

"How do you know he doesn’t?"

"Josh would’ve told me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!! Why wouldn’t he?"

"You seem pretty adamant that you don’t feel any more then friendship. Maybe he doesn’t want to say anything."

"Josh isn’t like that. He’d tell someone just to get it out and pretty much anyone he would tell i.e. the guys would tell me or Justin or Joey would tell Brit or you and you two have big mouths."

"Do not! We haven’t told you yet!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Shit," Kelly groaned.

"What do you mean you haven’t told me yet?!"

"Joey’s gonna kill me then JC’s gonna kill Joey for telling me," Kelly muttered.

"Stop talking to yourself, Kel, and tell me what you mean!" Julia exclaimed.

"You can’t tell JC or anyone else I told you, okay?"

"I won’t, just tell me!"

"JC woke the guys up in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago and they sat up talking for hours."

"About what?"

"He loves you, Ju," Kelly answered. "He told the guys. He really loves you and wants to be with you but he doesn’t think you feel the same way so he doesn’t want to say anything."

"He told them he loves me?"

"I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have told you," Kelly apologized noticing the look on Julia’s face.

"No, it’s all right," Julia shook her head. "I mean sure I wish he would’ve told me so we could’ve talked about it, but it’s good that I know because now I’ll understand what he’s thinking."

"You gonna be all right?"

"Of course I am. This isn’t the first time my best friend has been in love with me," Julia answered.

=

"How can I help you, Julia?" asked Jackie Young when Julia came into her office.

"This is going to sound strange but do you know of any CD’s besides Britney Spears’ Oops CD that has her song ‘Don’t Let Me be the Last to Know’ on it?"

"Let me think... I’m pretty sure it’s on one of those Now CD’s. Any reason why you’re wanting to know?"

"I’ve got a friend who likes that song but isn’t into the whole pop scene and doesn’t like want people to see them with a Britney Spears CD," Julia explained. "So I told them I’d see if I could find any other CDs it might be on."

"Well I’m pretty sure it’s on one of those CD’s, she usually is."

"Thank you," Julia smiled before excusing herself from the office. "Angie, I was just about to come find you," she said to the blonde she found standing outside her office.

"Hi, Julia," she smiled. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you have the address for *NSYNC overseas by any chance? I need to send some paperwork to JC and for the life of me I can’t remember where I put the address."

"Sure, I’ve got it in my office, if you’ll follow me," Angie nodded. "I’ve got a fax number too, if you’d rather do that."

"Normally I would but these are legal documents that have to be signed on the originals."

"Oh, about your son?"

"Yah, acknowledging JC’s his father and all. Figure I should get them done before he gets back so that if something should happen when he’s with Micah. I’m such a ditz for not getting them done before now, I swear."

"I know how these things go. My daughter went through this a couple of months ago with her ex-boyfriend," Angie said. "Well here’s the address."

"Thank you," Julia smiled.

Next