Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 00:17:36 EDT
From: SinginJunkie8484@aol.com
Subject: Zany Romance Chapter One

Disclaimer:  Are any of the members of *NSYNC gay or bisexual?  Beats the
hell out of me, so basically what I am saying is my little story isn't real,
its fiction, and I have no idea about the sexual preferences of the members
of *NSYNC.

Notes/Dedication:  Thanks to everyone that read Good Times,Better Times, but
after the second chapter I just couldn't get into the mode of writing that
story, so I decided to start off fresh with this one.  I work at a Zany
Brainy, but I don't think there is one in Orlando.  It's a toy store for
those of you who don't know. I'll dedicate this story to basically all of my
friends, you know who you are, and yes I'll name a few to please the masses:
Dani (YOU ROCK!), Sarah (Here ya go, hun,another story), John (my privates
are fine), and all my friends in my Latin class(You guys are the best group
of people I have in one class.  Thanks for the memories.)

******************************************

So here I am.  I have finally found the time to sit down at my computer, and
write a story about my life. I'm not going to be one of those people where I
start my life at the beginning, and say what my first word was, when I
learned to walk, and when I found out about sex.  I find that awfully boring,
and I know that people don't want to hear it.  We will skip to the good part,
which would be when I was 22 years old, and working at my SUCKY
(understatement of the century) job at Zany Brainy in Orlando, Florida.  You
cannot know what it is like to work in retail, trying to help 8-year-old
girls find toys.  Let me tell you that I wanted to kill myself each and every
time I walked into those doors.  Needless to say I quit my job right after I
found the love of my life. That is where I will start my story off; the day
that I met my lover, my boyfriend, my life.

I had just started work at 12 that day, and I would be working until 10 that
night.  Life's a bitch, aint it?  Anyway, I was assigned to Cash/Wrap.
Basically that means I have to greet customers, take their money, and wrap
presents when necessary.  It was during the summer, August 27th to be exact,
and the only presents I would wrap were birthday.  That doesn't really have
any purpose in the story though.  I also have to wear a purple apron with the
Zany Brainy logo on it, and a nametag with my name:  Bryan Brookshire, on it.
 I should actually tell you something about myself.  I stand tall at 6'0; I
weigh a healthy 185lbs, with little fat, its all muscle, I have baby blue
eyes, and dirty blonde hair I usually brush back.  Getting a visual picture
yet?  Probably not, but I can't help that right now.  Back to work.  I was
standing at the front,ringing people up, and sometimes conversing with the
other person working with me, Annette.  That girl really got on my nerves at
times, but at other times she was interesting.  We had the same taste in
music, so basically our conversations revolved around that topic.

I'm glad that I could talk to someone else that liked pop music though.  I
couldn't really find many people that did,and most of my friends liked rap
and hip-hop. And actually at the moment my little story starts, we were
talking about *NSYNC and a concert I had gone to.

"Didn't ya just love it when they were humping air?"  She asked me with that
high and whiny voice of hers.  It irritated me most of the time.  "I just
love it when they did that.  Oh my god, I almost touched Justin's hand.  I
would have freaked and probably fainted if I had."  She sounded like a Jewish
grandmother, and I know for a fact that she isn't Jewish.

"I wasn't really paying attention to their dancing," I said, but in reality
that was a total lie.  The truth of the matter was, I kept checking out their
bodies whenever I could, and being so close to the stage, it was easy.  "I
was trying to hear the music over the mass of screaming teeny bopper girls.
Girls, which I have to help every day to find a toy.  They even talk to each
other when I am trying to help them, and they always either talk about *NSYNC
or BSB being so hot or which they would want to go out with.  It kinda makes
me sick."

"Well, you only think that way cause you're a guy," she said picking
something out of her teeth, while I was ringing up a customer. "Guys can't
think other guys are cute. That would just totally be weird."

"Um, its called Homosexuals, dear," I said trying not to look annoyed with
her.  The fact of the matter was, I was gay, but I wasn't about to make a
scene in a store I worked at.  "You should look that word up in a dictionary,
and find out what it means. In the meantime, wrap this person's gift, and
don't say anything that might upset other people."  I said flatly, and
handed her the stuffed animal.

She walked away,obviously annoyed that I got upset at her comment.  It was
the only thing I could do, other than shout at her to be considerate of
people, and understand that people aren't like the people that live in her
fantasy world.  As she was talking to the customer while wrapping his gift, I
swear she talks constantly to anyone and everyone, a man with a hat and
sunglasses walked it.  I didn't really think anything of it, but when he
didn't take off his sunglasses, I became a little suspicious.  He walked over
to me, while looking around at the other people in the store.  He seemed
nervous about something, but I left it at that when he asked me aquestion.

"Um, excuse me," he said with a slight New York accent.  I guessed he was
probably originally from Brooklyn.  "I just need help finding a present for a
little girl."

"Sure, what age?" I asked smiling slightly at him.  He looked kinda cute to
me, and I was always nice to the cute ones.

"She's three months old.  I don't really know what to get her though.  I'm
kinda new at this whole parenting thing," he said and slightly laughed.  Just
then, Annette looked over at him, and her jaw dropped.  I looked from him to
her and then back to him.  He was looking at her a little shocked, like she
had found out a personal secret of his, and she was threatening to tell
everyone.  At that moment, I realized who he was.  Standing in front of me
was none other than Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr. of *NSYNC.  Now I can see why
Annette looked as though she was about to pee her pants.

I grabbed her before she could grab onto him, and put her in front of a
register.  "This nice woman needs help, Annette.  You help her while I help
this nice man,"before she could protest, I took Joey's hand and ran back to
Bright Start,which is the baby section of the store. "Sorry about that, but I
didn't want her to scream out your name in a store full of 12 year old girls."

"Thanks," he said,he took off his glasses, and I could tell he was relieved
with my course of action.

"No one will find us in this section though," I said trying to reassure him,
because he kept looking around.  "This is all baby stuff, so you mainly find
parents walking around trying to find the right gift for their toddler."

He smiled at me, and for the first time, I actually realized that I found him
really attractive.  I normally would look at Lance or JC.  Those two are
seriously hot, but there is something about Joey that is intriguing, I guess
you could say.

"So, what peeks your interests?" I asked holding my hands out, showing him
the whole section.  "I know we don't have a lot, but people seem to like us.
 I don't know why though.  I would never buy anything from here in my entire
life.  Except for legos, but that's a different story." I said laughing a
little bit.

He laughed too.  I really liked his laugh it made me smile.  "I like legos
too.  But I don't think my daughter would like them just yet.  I don't know.
 I'm just looking for a gift to get her so that she will remember me ya know?
 It's like a home coming present.  Something like that, since we aren't on
tour anymore. Speaking of which, I know you know who I am, how come you're
not freaking out?  I know most guys don't follow our music, but you did
recognize me."

"I actually do like your music," I said picking up a little stuffed toy and
showing it to him.  He took it, and looked at it while I kept talking.  "I
like pop music in general,and you guys sing pop.  Oh who am I kidding, you
guys rock.  I would have to say you're my favorite group out there. No one
can compare to you."  I said smiling a little sheepishly.

He smiled at me again.  "I think that is really cool.  Not many men would
have to guts to actually come out and say that...so, who is your favorite group
member?" he asked me still looking at the stuffed toy. I was guessing that he
felt a little awkward asking me that question.

"Hmm...that is really tough to answer," I said placing a hand on my chin,
starting to scratch it.  "I always thought that JC and Lance were hot, but
you are just cool to me. Justin has got Britney, Chris is too weird for me,
Lance and JC are just lust filled fantasies, and you are well you, for lack
of a better comment.  You seem down to earth and whatnot." He looked up at me
halfway through my speech, and turned red.

"So you're...umm..." I don't know what it was, but he couldn't bring himself
to say it.

"Gay?" I asked him.  He nodded.  "Yes, and I don't actually tell many
people,but I just figured I would take a chance." I said straightening a few
things on a shelf.

"Well I think I'm going to purchase this," he said holding up the stuffed
toy I picked out for him.

"All right then,lets go back up to cash/wrap, I'll get Annette to go clean
something, and you can get out of here safely," with that, we walked back up
to the front.  I told Annette to go clean the storage room,and she walked off
with her head down. I rang up Joey's item, he paid with a credit card, I gave
him the receipt to sign, he signed it, I gave him back his card, put the item
in a bag,handed it to him, and wished him a good day. He said the same to me,
thanked me for my help, and walked out the door.  I was about to place the
signed credit card receipt in the drawer, when I saw digits written on it.
It was a phone number.  I had Joey Fatone's phone number on a piece of paper
that I was hold in my hand.  Oh so many possibilities were running through my
head at that moment.  `What to do? What to do?' I thought.

TO BE CONTINUED!

***********************************

So what did you think of my second attempt at a story on here? Was it good,
bad, mediocre? E-mail me, and tell me: singinjunkie8484@aol.com.  I'll get
the next chapter out as soon as possible.