| Natalie ran both hands over her face, tucked away the lose ends of her ponytail behind her ears, and then quickly brought her hands back onto the steering wheel before losing control. A red light brought her to an impatient stop, and her eyes narrowed in on the fingers that were so clamped on the wheel that her knuckles were white, and the nervousness that was bringing the tips to an unstoppable tapping. She tightened her fingertips around the wheel, bringing her knuckles to an even brighter white. Seeing the mainly empty highway ahead of her, Natalie gave a forced and awkward laugh, and lightened her grip. She tucked away a lock of hair behind her ear and reached for the radio knob, flicking it on. The bright digital numbers blinded her for a moment, the only light she had seen while inside the car, besides the headlights. She flicked it around, going from station to station, before finally settling on the only one not on commercial break. "And at a surprising number two today is �N Sync�s �Pop�," the DJ announced. Natalie wasn�t even listening, as she was trying to figure out how to start off the chorus to her song. "...Mm, part of you that's, um, hovering... Okay, no. Part of you that's coming over me..." she hummed to herself. "And surprise, surprise, guess who�s going to be on their up-coming �Pop-Odyssey� concert right here in Seattle? None other than little Justin Timberlake�s leading lady, Britney Spears." A teenage listener had just joined the DJ, squealing. "Oh my God," she said, near tears and hyperventilating, "You so totally have to give me tickets! I have to go, you don�t even understand! I love �N Sync and Britney Spears so much, it�s not even funny! And I love Michelle Branch! She� Oh my God. She is so cool. She is like the second coolest girl on the planet next to Britney Spears. I need tickets. I need tickets!" The DJ hung up on the girl, and Natalie snorted; she had started listening in frustration. "So," he said, through the air waves, "I think, in honor of �N Sync takin� a pit stop in town, all my old school honeys are gonna call up and tell me what you think their best song from the first CD and �No Strings Attached�. And then, for all of you girlies, who have already bought the new �Celebrity� CD, which just came out yesterday by the way and personally I think is their best one, y�all call up and tell me their best new song." Natalie kept it on the station, just for pure amusement. She really had no concern for five grown men who sing and dance for pre-pubescent girls or for a young little girl her age that pranced around stage wearing next to nothing. But then, when you think about it, they really were amusing. It was like� the circus. Natalie laughed at her thoughts and listened harder, turning the volume up. "If only Anna were here," she sighed, a smile creeping at her mouth, remembering Anna�s pure hatred for what the media so eloquently titled �pop�. "It�s so fake. They say it�s dance music, that crap, when it doesn�t even have a beat! For God�s sake, how are you supposed to dance to something without a beat? And that little Britney Spears� I could just wring her little neck. Skipping around in that annoying Catholic school girl uniform, saying she was just trying to find an outfit that�s �dance-able�. Dance-able my ass. She gives us Catholic school girls and dancers a sucky and ho-ish name�" She laughed again, and turned up the radio even louder. The DJ had finally tallied up the votes and from the �Celebrity� CD came a tie: �The Two of Us� and �Up Against the Wall�. Natalie nearly swerved off the road in hysterical laughter at the title of the song. "�Up Against the Wall�?" she giggled. "How horny were their writers when that was being written?" Listening to it, she concluded that it actually wasn�t that bad, though still as horny as she originally thought, and even decided that Anna would find it a real "dance-able pop song". The DJ began to play the other song �The Two of Us�, and she calmed down from her fits of giggling. "Girl, when we started, baby we were friends But that's not how this fairy tale is gonna end See I was thinking and it clicked on day That no one else has ever made me feel this way Next time I saw you girl I knew I had to try To tell you everything that I was feeling deep inside And listen good �cuz what I say is from my heart So if you're ready You see I toss and turn when I'm alone And I just can't wait �til you get home Waiting for your call �cuz tonight we gonna do it all Girl, it's just the two of us �Cuz I'm thinkin' 'bout you day and night And I just can't get you off my mind When you get a minute, baby, I was thinking We could hook up It's just the two of us, the two of us �Cuz in a room full of people, you�re the only one around And nothing in this world could ever bring us down Baby I'll be there, telling you I care, t his I swear Girl it's just the two of us, the two of us..." "Jesus Christ," Natalie groaned, loudly. "How corny is that? Shit, that is some shit." She giggled. She was about to open her mouth again but the last verse caught her ear. It just gets better with each day Baby, someday I always wanted to tell you But I was so afraid "The Two of Us" ��N Sync Natalie sighed, a content smile on her face. How cute. How adorable. How true (sometimes). How sweet. How... "Gross," she said aloud. This caused her to begin laughing all over again. She didn�t understand what all this nervousness did to her. She always got weird and moody when something important came up, like she just didn�t know how to handle it. It was kind of annoying. Natalie closed her eyes and laid her head down on the steering wheel, in between laughs and tears. She wasn�t quite sure what that was exactly but, she was doing it. The weird little mood mix was causing her to jerk the wheel back and forth, but she didn�t care. Whatever emotional thing was pouring out of her at the moment was actually pretty relaxing. She lifted her head up and saw a bright light appear right in front of her eyes. And then, she was out. |