Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 07:26:55 +0000 From: N D Subject: nick and ashley-chapter 25 DISCLAIMER: I don't know O-town or the Backstreet Boys or N'Sync and am not implying anything. This is just fantasy and if homosexual content offends you or is illegal for you to read, please leave. I am not affiliated with them, J records, Jive records, MTV, ABC or anything. The only thing I have remotely in common with these boys is that Ashley Parker Angel and I were born on the exact same day-August 1, 1981. FIRST THINGS FIRST: As I was brainstorming ways to spice up Nifty in the boy band chat room with "The Regulars" I came up with a great idea and I'd like to run it by you and see what you guys think. I am proposing that we set up a panel of authors (online of course) and set it up like a normal chat would be with a celebrity or sports figure. This includes people submitting questions and someone picking out good ones and posting them. The author then responds to each of the questions. This is just like a celebrity would have a chat room but I suggest we do it with authors and readers. This will give some readers a great chance to meet authors and ask them about their writings and influences and such. Email me what you guys think about it. I want to get a lot of support otherwise I'll can the idea. http://jcv.5u.com/all/worldofslash/ --Jayson Vascardi's website that features my story and many other slash fiction stories. Go check it out. Pytn18@hotmail.com for suggestions and comments Nick and Ashley-Chapter Twenty-Five Lance Bass sat down on the same couch in the studio that he had just woke up from a few hours ago. 'How am I always on this couch?' Lance thought to himself. This couch was like a second home to him as he did most of his paperwork and writing on the couch due to the fact that it had a nice window with a view for inspiration and distractions. It was true what they said about him being a hard worker. He knows being famous didn't come without a price but he knew what needed to be done to accomplish it. The other guys called him "Scoop" because he always handled most of the things that no one else wanted to. Lance had also gained many contacts from doing this, as he knew one day the singing would be over and it would be time to find something else to do. He knew that he was a good producer and knew that someday it would come in handy. Lance was distracted from his paperwork as the other 4 members of N'Sync walked in the room carrying bags from Wendy's. "Hey Scoop, we tried to get a hold of you but you weren't around but we got you the Chicken Caesar Pita and a Frosty." Justin said as he handed Lance the yellow bag. "Ahh, my favorite." Lance said as he opened up the sandwich and started eating. "After this long I finally got it right, woo hoo!" Joey screamed out. Everyone had a good laugh at just how many times Joey has messed up people's orders on food. Chris picked up the newspaper from underneath his arm and sat down and started to read it. "Holy shit guys, look at this." Chris said as he held up the paper and Lance almost spit his food out of his mouth as he saw the cover page. In large letters read "BSB/O-Town Romance Rumors Rekindled" "It got out already?" Lance asked then realized he shouldn't have. "Already?" JC asked him "Uh yeah I heard about this already once before." Lance said as he tried to cover himself. "This isn't even the Enquirer or anything, this is the Orlando paper. I'm glad it's not us for once. Wow, page 2 has pictures. Holy shit, Carter and that Ashley kid, Dan Miller and Devon Sawa, and McLean with that Jacob guy." Chris said. Lance began to sweat. He thought he would have more time to do this but he had to move in now. "How do you think all of this happened?" Justin asked after remaining quiet for the whole time since he knew about Nick and Ashley already. Lance put his head down and started to speak. "Ashley's ex-girlfriend teamed up with Lou Pearlman who was looking for a way to get back at them and took pictures of them. I didn't think they would go this far but apparently they have." Lance said as he looked back up at his friends who were just staring at him, Justin biting on his lower lip. "How do you know this Lance?" JC asked. "Because Trevor of O-town is my boyfriend." Lance said. This came as a shock to everyone including Justin. Lance had kept it a secret up until now. "Lance, that's fine you know we're cool with you being gay. We always have been. Why do you look so sad?" JC responded. "Because I'm about to ask you guys to do something that I know will cause an argument." Lance started. "They asked us to come out and speak in favor of them." He finished. "Aww come on now Lance, no offense to your boyfriend or anything but you know how we feel about O-town. Despite the fact that they're direct competition, they're like a build a band and that's something N'Sync has always fought against." Joey said as he stepped up from the couch. "They were Joey, but since then they've made a name for themselves and this tour with BSB is really showing people that they're for real." Lance fired back. "I don't know man. Why would we wanna get involved in this?" Chris asked. "Because Lou doesn't know about me and Trevor but if he finds out then this will come back to haunt us, unless we speak against Lou right now." Lance said "What are we supposed to say that will prove this wrong?" JC asked as he held up the paper. "We might have as much power as anyone in this business right now. We own record sales records by ridiculous totals. People will listen to us if we said the world was flat. All we have to do is hold one press conference saying that we back them up." Lance said. "I don't know man. I just don't know. I think we should just mind our own business." Joey said. Lance looked over at Justin who had remained quiet the entire time. Justin saw the pleading in his eyes. He knew that if we stayed out of it then Lance would have to be extra careful with his relationships and that was asking too much. He would never want his life with Britney restricted and would never want a friend to go through it either. "I'm with you Scoop." Justin said out loud so everyone could hear him but never took his eyes off Lance's. "Justin, you're usually the most outspoken one about how you haven't liked how O-town became famous." JC said. "I know, but Nick Carter has always been a good friend of ours and the Backstreet Boys have never provided anything but a good opponent for us. In a time of need we're gonna leave them out to dry? Sorry guys that's not my style. Besides I've seen Carter with his boy, I got nothing wrong with it." Justin said. JC looked down, then looked back at the paper then up at Lance again. "What time do you want the press conference to be?" JC asked with a sigh. All five members of O-town along with AJ and Nick sat in Ashley's hotel room arguing, yelling and just generally having a nasty discussion about the whole ordeal. "I can't believe this is fucking happening." Jacob screamed out. "Calm down Jake." AJ said. "No, this bitch has done nothing but cause problems from the first day and this fat fuck Lou is gonna get it." Jacob said in anger. He went over to the door and punched it. It was then opened by Brian who cracked it open just a bit to see if it was ok to come in. "Yeah come on in Bri, Jacob's just letting out some aggression." AJ said to his bandmate. "I just wanted to tell you to turn on the news." Brian said. "I've seen enough of that bullshit already today." Jacob said. "You haven't seen this yet." Brian said as he flicked the switch on to the hotel TV. It showed Alicia Keys standing at a podium about to address a crowd of reporters. "Hey y'all I just wanted to publicly state that I know all 10 members of these groups personally and I am here to say that these pictures were doctored and there is no way that these nasty rumors are true." Alicia said into her microphone "Alicia, is it true that you have been sent out here by Clive Davis simply because you are also under J records in order to throw reporters off about these rumors?" A reporter shot out. "Yeah I figured you jerks would say something like that so I called on a friend who also knows the boys and has nothing to do with my label." Alicia said as she pointed towards the door and watched as Britney Spears walked into the room and gave Alicia a hug and headed to the microphone. Now this was a woman with power in this business. She was arguable the best act around right now. She was surrounded by good press. She stepped up to the podium and addressed the crowd as her golden brown hair fell over her shoulders and accentuated her amazing body. "I know for a fact that these photos are doctored and these rumors are not true. Lou Pearlman has tried to screw over everyone that has ever worked for him. He's been fired by the hottest three boy bands on the market along with Alicia here. These rumors are ridiculous and they need to stop. The media needs to take a step back from our lives and let us live a normal life. Our fans don't hound us the way you do and they are the ones that we would gladly take time out of our day for." Britney said as they cut the press conference back to the news studio. "As you can see many artists are coming to the defense of these two bands and...wait a second...yes we have word that another musical act is now about to have a press conference regarding this. Let's take you out there now." The anchor said as they switched to a room where all five members of N'Sync sat at a long table. "We as a group have called this press conference today to address the nasty rumors pertaining to our musical friends of Backstreet Boys and O-town." Justin said into his microphone. "We originally had Lou Pearlman as a manager and I will not lie when I tell you that at first he treats you like a father and then after he gets tired of you he will sell his own children for an extra dollar. The man is not well in the head and to go and do something like this and doctor photos like these is absolutely ridiculous. We are here to speak in favor of our friends and to stop with these rumors and stay out of these poor people's lives." Justin said as hands flew up but they all ignored them and walked out after each saying their opinion. Even Joey talked about how the media needs to back off at times. Ashley shut off the TV after it was over and the newscasters were talking about how the photos could have easily been doctored. Things looked like they were going to go their way and they could thank their friends for it. "How much of this did you have to do with Brian?" Ashley asked him. "I don't know who got N'Sync but I got Alicia and Britney. They were both more then happy to help." Brian said. Ashley walked over to him and stopped for a second then embraced him. Brian was taken back by this at first, as Ashley had never showed much affection for him. They were both awkward around each other a lot of times because of how close Nick and Brian are. Ashley was showing how much he appreciated Brian's deed now and Brian returned the hug as if he was hugging a little brother, which is what he considered Nick so he might as well do the same with his boyfriend. "Thank you" Ashley whispered into his ear. "Anything for my friends." Brian said. "I only got Alicia and Britney though. What do you think gave N'Sync the idea for this?" He asked. "That would be me." Trevor said as he shyly raised his hand. "No shit Trev. I didn't know you knew N'Sync." Dan said from across the room. "I met Lance a couple of weeks ago at a bar in Orlando." Trevor said not sure if this was a good time to tell them or not. "And he did this for us? That's great man." Dan said. Jacob nudged him and gave him a look. "C'mon Trev tell them. You know you're gonna have to eventually." Jacob said "Alright I guess now is a good a time as ever." Trevor started as he took a deep breath and addressed the crowd. "Lance is my boyfriend." "Aww shit Trev. That's awesome man." Ashley said as he hugged him. "Yeah yeah, my coming out wasn't as dramatic as you guys since I'm the 4th one of us. The only straight one even has a girlfriend. What would our fans think?" Trevor said dramatically as he fell on the bed with his hand on his head mocking a theatrical actor. Ashley slept a little easier that night. Well, he was sleeping easier that is until the phone rang. He jumped up from Nick's arms and wondered what the hell woke him up. Then he heard the phone ring again and he knew what it was. He fumbled over as Nick began to groan and picked it up. "Whoever this is it better be damn important..." Ashley started but was cut off. "Meet me downstairs in the lobby...now." Someone said very sternly into the phone and then hung up. Ashley's heart started to beat a little faster. Nick rustled next to him. "Mmm, who was it baby?" Nick asked as he moaned out half-asleep. "It was Danny, he wants me to bring him some cough medicine. I'll be right back." Ashley said as he put on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt with his Adidas sandals. He hated to lie to Nick but he didn't want him getting worried about something that shouldn't be blown out of proportion yet. He faked like he was grabbing something out of his bag and then walked out of his room towards the elevator. It pinged when it reached the bottom floor and his heart began to race a little faster. He wondered who this angry voice was. He peered over towards the sofas and saw the back of someone's head and knew who it was. How he thought it could be anyone else was beyond him. He walked over to the couch and sat down facing the other person. "Shellie, what are you doing here? Haven't you caused enough trouble for the day?" Ashley asked with a scowl. "How did you win on this one Ashley? How do you always win?" Shellie said as if she were about to cry. "Cut the bullshit Shellie, you tried to end my career. What the fuck is the matter with you?" Ashley asked sternly. "I just wanted you back Ashley." Shellie said as she put her head in her hands crying. "I'm with Nick now. Why can't you get it through your skull that I'm never gonna be with you again and you need to leave me and my boyfriend alone." Ashley said sternly not too loud as not to start something in the lobby. He got up and began to walk away. Shellie pulled her head out of her hands with a smile instead of tears. Her face was completely dry. "Thank you very much Ash, you just gave yourself to me, whether you like it or not." Shellie said as he turned back around and saw her pull a tape recorder out of her pocket. "I'm never gonna give up Ash." She said as she ran out the door. Ashley almost started to run after her then decided that it was time to stop this childish bullshit and let her go. 'She had pictures of us making out, I'm sure a tape isn't gonna change much.' Ashley thought to himself all the way back up to his room. He got back in bed and stared at the ceiling. Nick felt him come back and cuddled up to him. Ashley put his arm around him and tried to get some sleep. This of course wasn't happening though- the events of Shellie trying to purposely mess up his life still fresh in his head. TO BE CONTINUED... <<<>>> ---ND---