Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at writing, and I do not claim to be any good at it. I would appreciate all feed back with praise, comments, suggestions, just about everything except deliberately malicious criticism. I am also required to let you the reader know that this is a purely fictious work concocted within my over active imagination. I do not, nor have I ever, known any of the members of N*SYNC or any other celebrity I may mention in the future, nor do I know of their sexual preferences. And of course as always for our minors who are not of legal age within your area (18/21) emergency exits are located at the top right hand corner of your screen in the little box marked 'x'. Enjoy!
"It's no surprise, I've been watching you lately, I want to make it with you..." I quietly sang to myself as I packed my luggage. It was a bit ironic that I always sang to myself softly, especially since I had always had the stereo on full volume when I was home alone.
I hated packing, but my new job called for copious amounts of it. This new translating job was a dream come true for a language major like me, but for one reason or another I somewhat regretted signing up to spend 8 months touring Europe with some international company or something translating for them. The experience I'm sure would be great. Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece all the countries I drool over every time I am at my travel agent's place, I would see them all in the next 8 months.
I was excited about going, but I was also sure I would be homesick beyond all reason. However through all of my debating and questioning, I always had the prospect of meeting my new boss, and that was sure to be a thrill. I had talked to him several times on the phone, but he refused to tell me who he was, claiming it was a surprise. It was all the more frustrating because he has one of those voices that you know you've heard before and you know who it belongs too, you just can't make the connection.
I was deep in thought when the feeling of two arms crawling across my stomach. and some one leaning close to my back in a hug startled me back into reality. "Hey sweetie," My sister Capri said.
"Hey hun, why are you here, I thought you were with mom and what's his name in Wildwood this weekend."
"I was, but the asshole fucked things up so I went down to the bus depot and came home."
"Does mom know?"
"Of course, The asshole doesn't. I told her not to tell him."
"You know she will," I said with a sigh.
"I know."
My mother was a fantastic woman. She was the sweetest, kindest, most caring, understanding, just all around coolest mom ever. When I was in high school and working at a small little pharmacy chain she would cook diner for the entire staff just to make sure we were all well fed. She had one fault, her husband, whom I reluctantly and seldomly call `dad'. He was a bastard, plain and simple. He was the one who told my brother he was worthless up until the day he died. Me and Capri still think the cancer was my father's fault for smoking when he was small and before the two of us were born. He was the one who told Capri point blank that he didn't want her, that she was an accident, and therefore he didn't love her. And me? He threw me out of the house when I brought my first boy friend home and renounced ever having a middle child. I died at birth he tells people.
"So you leave today."
"So I do." I walked over to the stereo opting to shut it off rather than turning it down. Capri had made herself room on the bed and was lying down when I turned around. I knelt in front of the bed and looked into her eyes, her beautiful green eyes that she inherited from our mother. I have brown, from my father, and Blaise had blue. We're not really too sure where those came from, but they're gone now anyway. I had always been jealous of my siblings. You might call it middle child syndrome, I call it having valid reason. Blaise got his personality from my father's side of the family, and his looks from my mother's, I was the complete opposite, and Capri was an interesting blend of about equal proportions.
"Stop looking at me."
"Sorry."
My father's family had a more dry humor, double entendres, puns, etc. My mother's side had wild party boys and girls, crazy try everything once types. I was built like a farmer, just like my father's family, broad shoulders, narrow hips, strong arms, the whole deal. Blaise had been lithe, not unfit, not overly muscled. And again Capri had perfect proportions and her personality was the best of both worlds.
"You're still looking at me."
"Sorry"
"Liar"
Our parents were both Italian immigrants. You wouldn't know it from our names, Blaise, Kai, and Capri not exactly being as ethnic as say Francesca or Giovanni, but we grew up in a very Italian house, good food and second language included. I guess that's where I picked up not only my love but my talent for languages. Italian was the first I learned, French the one I really loved to speak, Chinese the funniest to hear me speak, and Spanish the easiest for me to learn, mastering it in just over a week. I knew 9 or 10 languages. I would try to count them but, I'm not a math person and numbers confuse me. No in all seriousness, I just never really did. Sometimes I forget I know a language because I don't use it very often and I never really figured out if I should count dialects as a whole different language or the same as its mother tongue, so I never really counted.
"Damn it Kai!" Capri wailed as she rolled over so I couldn't look at her any more.
"I'm sorry, I was staring..."
"At my beautiful green eyes that you wish you had inherited, I know. You do it at least once every time you see me."
I relented, not having a real answer for her. It was true. I did look at them often. Jealousy was a brown eyed monster in my case. I just sat on the bed and hugged her and she let herself be hugged. She sighed quietly. Me and Capri had grown very close ever since Blaise passed away, and I think of everyone I would miss her the most.
I watched the minutes pass speedily along on my clock sitting happily on my dresser, and reluctantly pulled away. I had to leave in an hour or so or else I would miss my plane to New York, where I would finally meet my new boss and be whisked away by then to London for 2 weeks of vacation before I need to actually start my job. This new boss of mine made it a point to reiterate several times how essential he believes a strong bond between all of his employees is, so we're having some `bonding' time, which is fine with especially since it's in London.
Capri helped me pack in silence. We were both depressed at the fact that in less than an hour now I would be halfway across this fair city of ours on my way to catch a plane to go to another airport that really is in driving distance, but my boss would rather I enjoy the comforts of their personal jet.
Eventually Capri broke the silence and we spent a good 20 minutes or so joking around and poking fun at one another. I was totally unprepared, emotionally at least, for a chauffer to knock on my door and tell me he was ready to steal me away and send me to Europe.
"Bye," Capri sniffled from behind me. I turned to see the famous Hollywood single tear streak down her cheek.
"I'll call you," I said as I scooped her into a giant hug.
"Be safe," she said almost inaudibly as I walked out the door and turned to wave. I turned just in time, I hated letting my family see me cry. I ducked into the very oversized limo, and I relaxed into the soft leather seats. The limo was beautifully furnished. Leather seats with burl wood accents thingies, a full mini bar, it had everything short of a bubble bath and a bowling alley. My eyes were scanning for anything interesting and out of the ordinary, when the dividing window slid down.
"I'm sorry to bother you sir, but I must inform you that you will no longer be flying. I am responsible for driving you the entire length to New York City where you will be left at La Guardia instead of JFK."
"No prob Jeeves," I said joking, my chauffer obviously getting it chuckling a little.
"I have also been instructed to inform you," He began the window starting to roll up, "that we will be picking up a certain employer of yours," he spit out just as the window closed entirely. My boss? In this car? The entire ride? I didn't know at all how to react to this situation. I had never met him before and now our first encounter was going to be set in the beginning of a porn movie.
The window had flown up and I had no idea at all how in the name of God to get the damn thing down again and my chauffer ignored me every time I tapped on the glass, so I spent the next 30 minutes or so very anxiously looking up and down every inch of the back seat of this gorgeous mode of transportation. I thought to myself how it really was a shame that I couldn't ride around in one of these for the rest of my life.
I had just begun to slouch in the seat and start relaxing when the car slowed down, gradually at first, then slowly halting. I felt a shiver run under my skin across my spine and I knew for a fact I was close to breaking out in a cold sweat. The sweat however was cut off by laughter as the door was pulled open by the chauffer, whose name I still didn't know, and a young man stepped into the back seat.
"Hi!" He enthusiastically said, "I'm Joe! It's great to finally meet you Kai!" He seemed nice enough, but one could never be sure. I put into practice the old adage never judge a book by its cover, even if the cover was cheeky and well presented.
"Hello," I quietly responded. If my skin tone were a few shades lighter, I know I would have been blushing furiously, but my dark tanned skin hardly let any sign of a blush into my face. I was however near mortified when the realization hit me that my new boss was none other and than an international pop star name Joe something or other from some group.
I wasn't so much embarrassed by his fame, but more by the fact that I knew exactly the group he was in, I could picture the other 4 and I could here their songs, I just couldn't remember their name or anything about them.
So there we were, he had a genuine smile plastered on his face, I had one on out of sheer nervousness and embarrassment. I would have given just about anything to be out of this situation. "So tell me about yourself," he said suddenly pulling me back into reality.
"Well, what would you like to know?"
He thought for a moment, "Just general stuff, how old you are, about your family, if you have girlfriend or what, what you're majoring in college. You know typical friend type stuff. I want to be more than a boss, see I figure if we have to spend the next 8 months together at some point you're going to need a bud and it may as well be one of your bosses right?"
"I guess those are valid points. Well, if you really want to be my friend you'll understand why I don't much about my past when you finally earn enough of my trust and have to sit through the whole thing." His expression didn't change he just shrugged and nodded as if saying `hey it's up to you man'. "Lets see. I'm 20, I'm study languages at Fairfield University, I have a sister named Capri who is 18. My mother's name is Elda, she's a very cool , very special person. I guess that's about it. I'm not seeing anyone at the moment."
"No dad?" he asked arching an eyebrow.
"He's an integral part of my past that I'm going to keep hidden for just a bit longer."
"Works for me," he said.
"Well now it's your turn, what are you guys really like?"
"Well, I'm a partier type I guess. I'm off the walls but I hold strong loyalties. Chris is a bit eccentric but he's a good friend. Josh tends to internalize everything and overanalyze any situation, so he may seem up tight but he's really a cool guy once he has time to adjust. Justin is...well Justin! He parties hard but has a depth of soul that is actually really astounding for someone of his age. And we all joke about Lance being the group psychiatrist. He's really sensitive to others and he genuinely cares about everything that is bothering us."
"Wow," I said suddenly becoming very interested in my shoes, "seems like you guys have a very well rounded group."
"Yeah. I figure you've probably read all the tabloids and such about our families and such so that's why I didn't mention anything about them. But no worries you will meet them and they are as great as we make them out to be."
"Of course," I said trying hard to mask the fact that I had no idea what any of their families were like because I wasn't a fan of theirs. I notice Joe giving me a strange look. "What?"
He looked at me for another minute, and then a smile slowly spread across his face, almost sort of deviously. "I finally figured it out," he said.
"Figured what out?"
"You've been hiding something this entire trip and I couldn't figure out what the hell it was, until just now." I was actually interested to hear what it was he had come up with. "You've been way to quiet this entire time, you were hardly phased when I walked in, you're not asking a bunch of question like just about everyone else in the world does. You know nothing about us do you?" My eyes widened. I hadn't planned on him being this perceptive. "You don't know anything about us!" He said with excitement as he laughed a hearty laugh. "Why didn't you just say so?"
"Well, I was embarrassed. I mean I know vaguely who you are, I'm just not a fan or anything." Shit what had I just said.
Again, being the perceptive demon he was, he just laughed and commented that not everyone had to be. In a weird way, he made me feel very uncomfortable and at the same time very accepted and welcomed.
It was around that time that I really started to relax and allow myself to be absorbed into and enjoy the conversation. We were swapping stories about wild nights out partying when my always on cell phone interrupted our chatting.
"Hello?" I said picking up the phone, only to be met by my sisters incomprehensible screams with words jammed in.
"Capri!" I said very loudly, "Get a fu---ng grip!"
"Kai, Justin Randall Timberlake just called ME! Why didn't you tell me you were working for only the best musical group ever!" she managed to breath out before she started screaming again.
"Capri!" I said again hoping she would for at least 2 or 3 minutes calm herself, "Why did he call, I mean what did he want?"
"I don't know a bunch of personal shit. Christ Kai who the hell cares you're working for the five hottest men alive!"
"Capri!"
"I...hear you...static..." was all I got before the line was disconnected. "Well," I said looking at Joey with a semi frown, "It seems your band mate..."
"Wait," he said, leaning forward and cupping his face in his hands, "It was Justin and he was meddling somehow. What did he do now?"
I was shocked that he so accurately knew, and the resounding silence tipped him off, I'm assuming. "He's like a perpetual child on Christmas morning, he can't wait for a thing, so he schemes to find out everything he can. I'm surprised he didn't try hiring a private eye or someone to scope you out months ago."
"So that's who's been following me..."
"WHAT!"
"Kidding," I said with a chuckle and a smile, "just kidding."
"Seriously did he..."
"Do anything? No. Contact me? No. Worry you unnecessarily just because he called my yuppie little sister? Yes."
"I don't know how I could have ever made it up to you if he had done something like that. It would have been terrible."
"But at least interesting," I said right before the door was swung open by the driver.
"Sirs, we have arrived."
"Great!" Joey yelled confidently bounding out of the limo, "You can finally meet the rest of the guys. I know at least one of them is anxiously awaiting this."
"Yeah," I said in a nervous daze. "Finally meet everyone." I followed Joe out of the car and followed closely behind him as he quickly weaved and darted in and out between people. Outside I was anxious to meet the rest of my bosses, inside I was a wreck from the possibilities of them not liking me, or worse. It was a very bad situation to be in, and yet somehow it seems that for not only the first time in my life, but for what seemed to be the one of the many, I was again thrown into something that I was completely and utterly not ready for, by any means. Of course it was too late now, all I could really do was smile, say hello, nod, and offer my hand to these 4 new strangers who I was about to start working for.
Joe led me to a small private waiting room in the airport, where upon entering 4 quite handsome young men stood and basically ran to where we were standing.
"Finally!" Justin sighed in an exasperated voice as he grabbed my hand and shook vigorously.
"Nice to meet you," said a quite calm JC.
"Howdy pardner!" Chris said, walking up to me with his legs bowed out as if he had just ridden a horse here to meet me.
And lastly a very shy seeming Lance walked up, took my hand, put his head down, and said a meager "Hello"
We had arrived mere minutes before our flight was called, so there wasn't much getting to know each other while waiting, it would again be put off until we were on the plane on our way to London. Finally making it through the terminal and into the super ultra private V.I.P. first class section, as I named it in my head, I took my seat, which was not next to Joey but rather next to Lance. I was somewhat disappointed because I knew for a fact I would have felt much more comfortable had I been sitting next to someone who I at least knew a little. But again in one of the wonderful situations I am known to find myself in, I was sitting next to a complete stranger, a shy complete stranger, who was also my boss.
The entire group made little bits of small talk as we awaited take off. It was mostly questions asked about me, what I liked, what I did, who I was in general, all the unimportant superficial stuff that I hated dealing with. However the mood changed severely when the plane began taxiing. I watched both Josh and Joey take a caplet or two, I assumed it was Dramamine or something. Chris turned in his seat, put on his headphones and basically fell asleep on contact with his head rest, and Justin closed his eyes and started praying. I looked at lance with a smirk wondering what his flying quirk would be.
"I don't have one," he answered as if reading my mind.
"Excuse me?"
"I don't do anything weird when we fly. Justin prays, Chris sleeps, and Joey and Josh knock themselves out. I like flying. It relaxes me."
"Wait. Justin prays the entire flight?"
"No," he said with a chuckle, "he'll pray for the first 10 or 20 minutes then he'll eventually fall asleep too."
"So what do you do? Don't you get bored out of your mind with your only friends in the cabin in comatose?"
"Not at all, I relish the time to think things out. I hardly ever get time alone, even just time away from these four loveable but stressful lugs."
"I see," I breathed out nodding.
"So..."
"So."
"Alright I'm just going to be perfectly honest here, and mind you I don't expect you to tell me what it is, but I know you're hiding something. I've been around people way too long to not be able to realize when someone is trying to pull the wool over my eyes, so stop trying because you won't succeed."
I just looked at him with wide eyes after he made that little speech. Maybe he wasn't the shy little lamb I had envisioned him to be. "Wow," he said with a small chuckle, "That sounded a lot more menacing than I had meant it to sound. I just meant that at some point you will be comfortable enough with us to tell us what it is that you're hiding."
I didn't need to say anything after that. He apologized again and I nodded my acceptance of his apology. We both sat there, quiet, uncomfortably quiet. I knew he didn't mean to hurt me or scare me, so why was it so difficult to make conversation with him. Oh that's right he knows I'm hiding something. But even if I am that's none of his business right?
I was again lost in my own thoughts so I didn't notice him pull out a deck of cards and begin shuffling compulsively. When I did notice it though I just couldn't ignore it, mostly because I did the exact same thing.
As he gazed off into another direction, I put my hand in front of but not touching his so when the cards hissed out of his hand they landed in mine instead of his other one. A Confused Lance looked over to see me shuffling the cards in the same manner, "Pick your poison."
He smirked and we spent much of the rest of the flight playing Black Jack, followed by my Italian version that was a lot more interesting, at least in my opinion. We had several laughs throughout the game and as hard as it was for myself to admit it, I realized that I was a lot more comfortable with Lance whom I had known for a lot less time and who didn't make such an organized effort as Joey did. Well I suppose it was only hard to admit because I felt guilty, almost as if I should be able to trust Joey more.
Either way, his company kept me amused for the entire flight to London, all 6 hours of it. Joey woke up about an hour before we were supposed to land and without hesitation joined in the game. He was a bit miffed that Lance and I had already begun gambling when he woke and decided to join, especially since he `didn't want to be responsible for bankrupting me'.
"So how do you play this game?" Joey asked with yawn.
"You just do, the rules are so easy you can't even put them into words," said Lance as he threw a dollar into the pot from losing his hand.
Joey watched us play about 5 rounds when he decided that he had basically figured it out, and he was loosing money just about as well as Lance was after only about half as much time.
I was $140 and 2 friends richer by the time we were told that the plane was about to start making it's final descent. JC hadn't left his seat so he was already buckled in and still vaguely knocked out for out landing. Chris and Justin were woken for the event about to take place. And there we were, the 5 employers, the 1 employee, waiting to land in another continent and spend 2 weeks of `bonding' time.
"So why London?" I asked Joey as we exited the plane and hurried through the airport, "Why not somewhere, where I could be useful?"
"Because we figured we could get to know you better somewhere away from where you are comfortable and in a place that doesn't require you to right away speak in tongues so to speak."
"I see."
"Yeah, so anyway, hope you like the city, it's a beautiful place."
"I' did the last time I was here." I said with a smirk. We were soon in a limo on our way to some fancy pants hotel that I was only semi looking forward to staying in. Call me uncouth but I still had a special place in my heart for motel 6. The hotel was in fact a very high class, fancy, top of the line place to stay. It was also very beautiful for the fact that it was very modern as opposed to grand and classic as I had expected. I recognized the part of town as being close to where my great aunt and uncle lived, so I made it a priority to find some time to myself at some point and go visit them. I hadn't seen them since I was in 5th grade.
I somehow wasn't surprised when I found out that an entire floor of the massive hotel had been reserved for the group and their entourage, which now included among other people me. Their body guards whom I had not met yet were apparently staying on the same floor, as were a few other people I was bound to run into at some point.
I was shown to my gorgeous sweet which was right in between Lance's and JC's. Again I felt a pang of self-consciousness arise as I realized that JC's room opened right up into mine, meaning he could come in whenever he wanted if he pleased. I wasn't particularly scared of him; I was just intimidated a bit by his very calm demeanor as well as the fact that I still knew nothing about him.
I was still thinking about the connecting door and how that might lead to some miserable problems if I wasn't on top of everything at every minute making sure that these people got the right impression of me when I heard the door open just enough for JC to yell in, "Are you decent man? I'm coming in."
"Yeah, come on in," I said looking at him as he walked in and smiled at me.
"So do you like your room Kai?"
"Yeah JC I love it,"
"Please," he interrupted, "Call me Josh. All my friends do, and I make it a point to keep my employees as close as friends. After all someone who'll be working in such a close proximity with us for such an extended time should be regarded highly."
I blushed a bit at his words. Me? With such an important role? That's ridiculous! I thought to myself.
"So anyway," he said sitting down in one of the arm chairs, "I hear you managed to pocket some money from Lance and Joe?"
I couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah a little."
"You really shouldn't, they're much too easy targets."
"Hey money is money if you want to be my pigeon feel free to let me pluck and roast you."
"Oooh," he said raising an eye brow, "We got ourselves a feisty one this time," he finished with a chuckle.
"I'm not the sweet innocent little thing you expect me to be, sorry to burst your bubble. I'm just a little,"
"Shy around new people," he finished for me, "Me too. But I think you'll fit right in. and soon enough we'll all be really close buds."
"I sure hope so. I mean that we'll be comfortable enough to joke with each other and everything."
"I know," he said getting out of the chair, "Don't worry though, by the end of the night, you'll be part of the family. I can tell." He winked and walked back into his room.
What the hell was that wink? I thought to myself as I started unpacking my things in this place that I would for the next 2 weeks call home. Lance popped in briefly to see if I was alright and comfortable and to tell me that some of the less hearty were suffering from jet lag so tonight there were no plans, I was however invited to his room for dinner later and movies if I was up to it. I thought I may as well go I have nothing better to do, however I decided to take the less than desperate approach and didn't give him a definite answer.
It took me a while to search the entire room, especially considering it was much much larger than a lot of apartments I had been in back home. I was delighted to find a stereo and quickly pulled out my collection of possibly the most obscure music in the world. I deiced I might not take up Lance's offer as I slid off my shirt and pants and crawled under the covers of the bed. I laid for a while listening to the sad intro that was quite frequently found on my mix CDs. I was singing along quietly to drive myself crazy looking forward to the songs to come.
Just as quickly as the songs changed I had hurtled out of bed and was dancing along with my obscure techno remixes, this particular one a techno tango remix of the Tetris theme. "Play some Tetris Mother Fuckers!" I sang along as the cocaine inspired music began to pour out of the stereo system. I couldn't help but turn up the volume as I began to dance more energetically around the room in nothing but my boxers, yellow smiley face ones by the way, in case you were interested.
I was just as enthusiastic about La Cucaracha when it came on next. "Porque no tienes, porque la faulta," I screamed along with the blaring music, "Marijuana que fumar!" I had just finished the first chorus when I heard hysterical laughter coming from the connecting door. Suddenly very embarrassed that both Josh and Lance had been watching I ran for the bathroom, my singing had never been a strong point for me. I heard the laughter following as they walked closer to the door. "You can come out Kai," Lance's voice said.
"Yeah," added Josh, "We were only laughing because not 20 minutes ago we were all talking about how quiet and subdued you seemed."
"You obviously haven't known me for very long," I said as I opened the door and walked out, still in only my boxers, in front of the two men. Josh started laughing again and immediately complimented me on my boxers. Lance however I had noticed take a look at me from head to toe, then he took another glance, almost as if he were checking me out. I put the thought aside though, he was supposedly the sheltered sweet Christian one, he probably wasn't used to half naked men standing in front of him.
"It's still not too late for movies," Josh said, "That is, if you're done dancing."
We both laughed and I walked over and pulled on my tee shirt, "I'm ready." They both looked at me with a quizzical look. "What?" Neither said anything they just glanced down. "Oh come on, every one knows a movie is much better once you take your pants off," I smirked as I walked into Josh's room where the movie previews were just ending.
"You're right this is better," I heard Josh say as he sat down next to me, without pants on.
TBC. Questions, comments, concerns? weeg_wrote_something@hotmail.com