FirstSight2

"now lance, honey, i don't want you to get your hopes up. i have serious
doubts about this whole operation." lance's mom had talked like this during
the entire flight to orlando, and lance was tired of hearing it. she was so
closed minded sometimes.

"mom, i know. we're just checking it out. mostly i just want to meet
justin, anyway." as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them.

"you just want to what?" his mother asked him, eyebrow raised almost to her hairline. "we're flying all the way to florida for you to meet some boy? who's justin?" she more or less spat out his name and lance tried not to
cringe visably.

"no, mom, we're going to check out the group. justin is the boy i talked to
on the phone, and he seems cool, that's all."

"you'd better not be pulling some stunt here, young man."

"i'm not, mom. honest." lance turned away from his mother and looked out the window as the cars and trees and houses of orlando began to grow
underneath them as they neared the ground. with one hand he nervously
smoothed down his short blond hair then closed his eyes as the plane touched down in orlando.

"here we are, honey," lance's mom told him, as if he didn't know. "now,
don't get your hopes up..."

lance squeezed his eyes shut to keep from rolling them direspectfully at his
mother. "i won't, mom," he said for the hundreth time. "i won't."

***

in the terminal near the gate, justin was pacing. joey, chris, and jc were
looking over some music that they were going to test record with lance, to
see if he fit vocally, but justin was too nervous to go over the sheets with
his friends. adding lance had really been his idea, and he felt responsible
for whether or not the boy worked out. besides all that, justin was nervous
to meet the boy he'd talked to on the phone, the one with the sweet southern accent and the deepish voice that gave him butterflies in his stomach. his old coach had described lance to justin: "blond hair, green eyes, pretty average, a very easy-going guy," but justin needed to see him for himself. he kept pacing as the passengers began to disembark.

it was jc who looked up from the music and realized that justin wasn't paying any attention to the people deplaning. he saw a young, blond boy standing with his mother, looking cautiously around. "hey j," he nudged justin, "think that's lance?"

justin finally looked up... and stopped dead in his tracks. at that moment
lance's green eyes locked with justin's baby blues and the world stopped
turning. he could hear lance's voice on the phone, sweet and southern and
welcoming, and he knew those eyes were his. and he knew that lance would be a part of their new group. and he knew that all he wanted in life was lance. in that one instant, justin knew he was in love.

"that him, j?" jc asked, nudging justin again.

"yeah," justin whispered back without taking his eyes off of lance.

"you sure?" jc looked over at the somewhat frumpy-looking young man and his mom and raised an eyebrow at justin. "you sure?"

"positive." that was all justin needed to say. he was positive. it was
lance. and he was in love.

"well, then go introduce yourself, curly."

justin blinked, then smiled, "yeah, i should do that." he sauntered over to
lance and his mom and said, as calmly and nonchalantly as he could manage, "you must be lance and mrs. bass." he stuck out his hand, first to lance's mother, as he'd been taught, then to lance. "i'm justin timberlake." justin was sure lance held his hand a fraction of a second longer than he would've if he wasn't madly in love with him, and thus justin knew that his love at first sight was being returned. he grinned, and when lance returned his smile, he suddenly felt warm all over in the air-conditioned airport.

"yes, i'm lance," lance said, his voice so deep and southern and better than
it had been on the phone that it made justin's knees knock. "i'm very
pleased to meet you, justin." justin kept smiling, and as his eyes met
lance's again, he swore he saw lance blush.

but the boys could hold no further discourse because mrs. bass had a million questions for justin and he wanted to introduce the other guys to their potential new bandmate. justin walked the pair over to joey, chris, and jc, all the while trying to answer and keep up with lance's mom's barrage of questions. by the time they got to justin's friends, lance was laughing. "mom, let the boy be," he said, grinning at justin, who looked quite overwhelmed. "we'll learn everything in time." justin gave lance a thankful glance. you're welcome, lance mouthed, dropping another grin. justin knew that was a grin he could get used to.

"mrs. bass, lance, these are the other guys, joey, chris, and jc. guys, this
is lance, and his mom, mrs. bass."

"please, call me diane," mrs. bass said as joey kissed her hand.

"ok, mrs. bass," jc chimed in, as if on cue. that drew a laugh from lance's
mom, and justin gave lance a wink. if convincing lance's mom was all they
had to do to get lance in the group, they were well on their way.

***

the six of them left the airport in jc's and chris's cars and went straight
to justin's house where lance and his mom would be staying for their
three-day visit. lynn harless, justin's mom, greeted the six of them at the
door. "hi honey," she said to justin. "hi boys," she called brightly to
joey, chris, and jc, and then she said, "you must be lance! welcome! and
mrs. bass, welcome to you, too!"

"please, call me diane," mrs. bass said, taking lynn's proffered hand, and
once again, jc said, "ok, mrs. bass!" they all laughed, and lynn laughed
right along with them. "i see you've met my boys. i hope they haven't given you any trouble. come in, come in! diane, you can call me lynn, though all the guys just call me mom."

lynn herded everyone into the kitchen and sent justin back out to grab the
rest of the basses' belongings. when justin returned, he asked his mom where he should put everything. "let's have mrs-- diane," she smiled at her guest, "stay in the guest room on this floor, and lance, why don't you stay with justin in his room? i'm sorry we don't have another room, but that will let the boys get to know each other better. justin, you can sleep on an air mattress on your floor, and lance can have your bed."

lance in my bed? justin thought, and my mom suggested it. beautiful.
"sounds good, mom," he said out loud, then, "can we go to the studio now?" he couldn't wait to hear lance sing.

"as soon as we get our guests settled."

"c'mon, lance," justin said, pulling the boy by the arm, "let's go get
settled!"

lynn laughed as her son and his friends trooped up the stairs to justin's
room. she lead diane down to her guest room and the two moms laughed
together about how boys would be boys.

upstairs, justin helped lance with his stuff while chris, joey, and jc played
super nintendo. "ever been to florida before?" justin asked lance after
they'd gotten his bags piled safely away from the tv. joey was trying to
wrastle the controller away from jc who kept hitting the pause button at
inopportune moments in joey's game.

lance stiffled a giggle, which justin found incredibly sexy. "no," lance
sighed with a smile, "never before."

"it's great here," justin told him emphatically. "you're going to love it.
and the group, too, it's awesome. these turkeys here can really sing."

"who you calling a turkey, cream puff?" jc asked.

"and, as you can see, they're really fun guys," justin explained while
smacking jc with a pillow from his bed.

lance laughed again, igniting justin once more. "i can see that." then
lance paused as justin's eyes caught his again. for justin, the world once
again ceased to spin. i wonder if he can feel it, justin wondered. i wonder
if... then lance winked. i'm home free. tonight, baby, tonight tonight
tonight. justin's eyes danced in anticipation. lance's seemed to do the
same.

"hey guys, are we going to the studio or what?" lynn called from downstairs.

"coming, mom!" came the chorus from all five boys upstairs. this brought
choruses of riotus laughter from all of them.

lance thought, i could get used to this in a hurry. throwing another quick
smile at justin, he followed jc out of justin's room and down the stairs.