AN: Big thanks to Jess and Sam, ya'll keep me writing with your constant feedback. ******************* Nightmare of a Lifetime: Chapter Eight ********************** The second episode of “The Tour of a Lifetime: *NSYNC” garnered epic ratings after Nicole chose to insert her screaming match with Malcom as last minute footage. MTV was pleased by the ratings, not by the methods she used to get them. It was petty and spiteful but she was in a remarkably good mood the entire day, whistling under her breath. She even bought a new cell phone. Ozz Fest was still enforcing the ban on MTV’s camera crews. Frank still wasn’t returning her phone calls, and Kelly was in Europe doing promotion for her second album so the two best friends were operating in totally different time zones most of the time as the *NSYNC tour moved further and further towards the west coast. Perry was stranded in the middle of a boy band and finding it more amusing than she could have thought. Lance had almost adopted her and she still didn’t know what to think of that. Perry wasn’t used to having people watch out for her, not without wanting something in return. Some notable exceptions were the people in the Ozz Fest family but none of them were, well, as polite as Lance Bass. Nicole still stared at him like he’d grown two heads when he held doors open for her. Bill, predictably, found it amusing. JC, who was often reserved around new crew members and even more so around cameras, had been making an effort to be genial and almost chatty. Never mind that most of their conversations revolved around music and Depeche Mode, they still talked. Chris was still on her shit list for various reasons but she enjoyed his company. Nicole still had no idea what to think of Joey and Justin, inexplicably, hated her. She didn’t really care. Dan the bodyguard was one of her closest friends on tour. He kept her sane when the pop princes started to weird her out too much. Most days, as fun as they were, she felt like her life was a very eerie episode of the Twilight Zone. *************************************************************************************** “Please. Please, please, please…” Justin Timberlake glared at Nicole Perry as she lounged on the seats of his tour bus. He sat across the aisle from her, pen and lyrics in hand, and bemoaned the fact that he, the eternally lucky, had finally drawn the short straw. Her hair was newly dyed a dazzling shade of black so dark it had blue highlights. It looked damn good on her, even though he wished it didn’t. “Go away,” was his curt reply. She pouted from him, her round face upside down as she laid on her back and propped her feet up on the bus windows, crop pants riding up to reveal shapely tattooed calves. He counted to ten, twice. Justin knew she acted annoying to get under his skin. He disliked her for various reasons, even before he knew who she was, had been perfectly fine with the idea of finding her distasteful, but her trying to be obnoxious drove him even crazier. “Please, please, please, please…” Justin growled and threw his pen and paper down before savagely yanking his t-shirt off. He smirked when she blinked, caught off guard by his sudden partial nudity, but the surprise didn’t last long, much to his disappointment. “Wow, that’s quality work there!” He sighed as she rolled off the seats and sat next to him to examine the tattoos on his chest, back, and arms, happily chattering about the various tattoo artists and methods she recognized. It was enough to make him wish he was JC and deathly afraid of needles. Justin endured the conversation for a long minute before shrugging her hands away and stomping to the back of the bus as he pulled his shirt back on, moodily silent. Nicole watched his retreating backside for a minute before turning to Bill and the ever present camera. “And that, my friends, is how you piss off a Pop Star.” Bill snorted. “You live to get under his skin.” Perry winked. “Every girl has her hobbies. Annoying Justin Timberlake just happens to be mine." “You’re evil.” She laughed. “I try.” *************************************************************************************** She made her way to the back of the bus minus Bill an hour or so later after giving Justin time to cool off. Perry cracked open the door and peered in. Justin was reclined on a sofa, long body languid, and was watching a tape of something that sounded suspiciously familiar. He ignored her as she opened the door and slipped through. A glance at the television revealed that it was what she thought it was, a tape of the old American Music Awards from a couple of years ago, 2003 she thought. He was onstage with Sharon, presenting an award and kissing her damn dog. “Sharon really likes you, you know. More than just sucking up. She genuinely likes you.” Cold blue eyes darted to her face and studied it dispassionately. “Is there a point you’d like to make?” Nicole shrugged, the movement hard and quick. She studied her clasped hands for a long minute and spoke before she could stop herself. Before thinking too hard. “She going back to chemo in a few months, after she makes an official announcement.” The pop star before her stilled and went rigid. “Her cancer is in remission.” “It was. Its not anymore.” Justin Timberlake was before her in a flash, a living, breathing wall of muscle and warmth and hardness. He looked angry and Perry didn’t blame him. Nicole had been furious when she had found out too, before Malcom had come up with the hair-brained scheme of her hosting Tour of a Lifetime. She had raged and wept and hated the world and whatever higher power allowed someone as wonderful as unique as Sharon Osbourne to suffer such pain. “I don’t believe you. I haven’t heard anything about this…” “Because you’re not family. Sharon and Ozzy gave me the only childhood I’ve ever known. I love them like blood. I’m not lying, I wouldn’t, not about this.” He looked at her, truly looked, and noted the paleness of her face and the slight quivering of her chin. “Jesus…” Justin breathed and sank back onto the couch. Nicole perched next to him, knees drawn and tucked up under her chin. She looked oddly vulnerable, tattoos, piercings, and all. “Why… why did you tell me, me of all people?” Nicole studied her hands again, the black, chipped polish, the garishly large rings and didn’t look at the man beside her as she answered, voice soft, “Cause I had to tell someone and… Sharon has always said how much she hopes that whatever you do, career wise or otherwise, that you’re successful, even in if involves a ‘bloody boy band’. She and Kelly and Jack respect you; they might not appreciate the music you make, but they know who you are and that’s something in my book. “Even if I think you’re an asshole.” Justin choked back a laugh through his tears. “And here I thought you were madly in love with me.” Nicole cracked a small smile of her own. “And pigs might bloody well fly over the metaphorical rainbow.” *************************************************************************************** Justin still didn’t care for Nicole Perry much, but he had begun to understand her.