Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 16:47:12 +0000
From: Angel1313@att.net
Subject: Devotion ch.17

Devotion
Chapter Seventeen:
Dating Disaster

Disclaimer: Oh my gosh!! I'm so excited!! I just got an e-mail from
Liliana, and she said that she's going to continue "My Heart is in Your
Hands" soon! If you haven't read it, go read it now, and then bug Lili so
she'll continue it right away! Oh, wait, I have to do a disclaimer here,
too...Um,  I don't know anything about *NSYNC. Well, not anything worth
writing about. That's why I have to write them like this ^_^ I hope you
like this chapter, and if you do, feel free to drop me a line to tell me!
I'd appreciate it! -Angel1313 ^_^

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Seventeen:
Dating Disaster

	Pulling on a snugly-fitting black sweater that belonged to his best
friend, Justin made his way over to Lance and Joey's room. His knock was
almost immediately answered by Lance, who pulled open the door.
	"Hey, Just, glad you finally made it here," the Mississippian
smiled at the younger man.
	"Ha, ha. It only took me like two minutes," Justin replied, rolling
his eyes.
	"I'm just kidding, Curly. C'mon in." Lance stepped back from the
doorway to let the nineteen year-old in.
	"So," Justin said, looking around. "Who's your guest? All I see are
Chris and Joey, and *that's* noting special."
	"Hey!" the two other members of *NSYNC protested, both laughing.
	"Actually, she's in the bathroom right now," Lance explained.
	Justin walked over to where Chris and Joey were seated on the
couch. Plopping down next to Joey, he turned the New Yorker and asked,
"Hey, how'd you an' Lance get cleaned up so quick? It's only been like
thirty minutes since we've been here and I know that neither of you can
take less then twenty minutes in the shower!"
	Lance, hearing from where he was standing in the kitchen, began to
blush. He quickly pretended to be messing with the dishes in the sink,
hoping to avoid the question.
	"Well," Joey began, but just then the bathroom door opened.
	/Thank god!/ Lance thought with relief.
	"The little rose shaped soaps in there are so cute!" a female voice
came drifting into the room. "If you don't use them, take them and give
them to me."
	Justin jumped up and as soon as the young woman stepped into view,
he grabbed her and pulled her into a bear hug. "Briteny!" he
exclaimed. "Great to see you! What are you doing here?"
	The eighteen-year old laughed. "Good to see you, too. I'm in town
for a little thing called the Video Music Awards, remember?"
	Setting her down, the youngest member of *NSYNC laughed, too. "Oh,
yeah. Forgot about that." Pausing to look over his friend, who was wearing
a tight, cropped, dark green sweater that showed off her naval ring, and
denim capris, he smiled and said, "You look great!"
	Britney smiled back and replied, "So do you."
	Cutting their greetings short, Chris suddenly piped up. "Say Just,"
he inquired. "Where's JC?"
	"Yeah," Briteny added. "I'd like to see how he's doing."
	"Still in the shower," Justin answered Chris. "I told him to come
over here when he was done, though."
	"Did he look like he was anywhere near being done?" Lance asked
from across the room.
	Without thinking about what answering that question would imply,
Justin responded, "Not really; he didn't have any soap in his hair or
anything like that. And he was only at the second chorus of `Promise.'"
	Everyone laughed. "Wow, you really study him when he's in the
shower, don't you?" Joey joked.
	Justin blushed. "No, I just-" he began, but Lance cut him off.
	"Well, I'm sure that you and Brit have a lot to talk about. We've
all been interrogating her since she got here, so I'm sure she'll be glad
to talk to someone new!" Turning back to the sink, the second youngest
member of *NSYNC continued. "Besides, I think we're just going to watch a
movie and hit the sack early, so you two will probably want out of here."
	The only female in the room smiled. "Thanks, Lance." Turning to
Justin she said, "Well do you want to head out dinner or something?"
	Justin smiled. "I'd like that."
	Britney said her good-byes to the other three members of *NSYNC,
promising to stop by and visit them again tomorrow, before grabbing her
purse and heading to the door where Justin was waiting.
	"Oh, and guys," Justin called to the three men in front of the
TV. "Would you tell Josh that I'll be back by eleven? I'm too exhausted to
stay out much later, and I don't want him to worry if he decides to go to
bed early."
	"No problem, Curly," Lance called back.
	With that, Justin and Britney headed out the door.

	"Ah, I needed that," JC said as he stepped out of the bathroom, a
towel draped loosely around his waist. Walking over to the dresser that he
and Justin were sharing, a slip of paper caught the brunette's eye.
	As he came closer, JC saw that it was a note taped to the large
mirror that hung above the chest of drawers.
	"`Josh'," the twenty-four year-old read aloud. "`I'm over at Lance
and Joey's and I took your black sweater. (The really soft acrylic one that
I love but you never let me borrow because you think I'm going to stretch
it.) Don't worry, I've been working on my figure. Later, Justin.'"
	Smiling, JC took the note off of the mirror. "He's so cute
sometimes," the brunette commented to no one in particular, before taking
the note and placing it in a pocket deep inside the messenger bag he used
to carry around personal things.
	Going back over to the dresser, JC picked out a pair of loose
drawstring pants and one of Justin's sweatshirts. After putting on his
boxers and a muscle tee-shirt, JC pulled on the comfortable clothing. After
glancing at himself in the mirror, the twenty-four year-old headed over to
Lance and Joey's, completely forgetting to grab his key.

	JC knocked softly on the door in front of him. There was no
answer. "C'mon," he muttered. "I can hear you in there, open up!" Deciding
that he was going to have to be a little less polite, JC began to bang on
the door loudly.
	"WHAT?!" Joey exclaimed, opening the door. Seeing JC, the New
Yorker immediately calmed down. "Sorry about that, Jace. We're watching a
movie," he explained as he let the older man inside.
	"It's no problem, Joey," JC answered. After looking around the room
for a moment, he asked, "Say, where's Justin? He told me that he'd be over
here."
	Joey smiled. "He's off on a date with Briteny."
	JC froze. Trying not to let his pain show outwardly, the
twenty-four year-old asked, "What do you mean? When was Briteny here?"
	"A little bit ago. She came to see us because she's in town for the
VMAs, too, and when she saw Darren earlier, he told her where we were
staying, and she came to me and Lance's place `cause the rooms are under
Scoop's name," Joey informed his bandmate.
	"So, she and Justin just up and left to go on a date? And he didn't
even bother to tell me? Is that why he took my sweater? So he could look
nice for Briteny?" JC fumed, rapidly firing questions at Joey. "I can't
believe him!"
	"Jace, Jace," the twenty-three year-old tried to soothe his
friend. "Calm down! They just wanted to catch up and Lance, Chris an' I
were going to watch a movie, so they decided to go somewhere where they
could talk."
	"They could talk in our room," JC growled, still taking his
frustration out on his unfortunate bandmate.
	"Well, I guess they wanted to be alone," the New Yorker offered
unhelpfully.
	"Well, whatever. I don't care," JC spat, turning away from the
other man.
	"Joey, are you going to watch this or what?" Chris yelled from
where he was sitting in front of the couch. "You're missing all the
action!" Suddenly, he noticed the other man. "Oh, hey, JC, didn't see you
there at first. You gonna join us?"
	"No, I'm going to go back to my room," the brunette replied curtly.
	"Hey," Lance interjected. "There's no reason you should be speaking
to Chris like that. He didn't do anything wrong."
	JC closed his eyes and took in a deep, shuttering breath. "I know,
I'm sorry I snapped at you Chris. I'm just not going to be very good
company for a while, so I think it'd be best if I just went and laid down."
	JC was turning to leave, but was stopped by Joey. "Oh, and Jace,"
he began. "Justin said to tell you that he wouldn't be out late- eleven at
the latest. And he said that you shouldn't worry about him if you were
planning on going to bed early."
	"How would he get in?" JC asked the New Yorker.
	"Huh? Doesn't he have a key?" Joey asked back.
	"No, Lance and I have the-" JC stopped as he realized that he had
no pockets, and therefore, no key. "Say, Lance," he said, turning to the
younger man. "Could I have your key? I'll bring it back, but I left mine in
the room, and-"
	"Sure, no problem, Jace," Lance responded, getting up to grab the
key off of his night stand. "Here."
	"Thanks," JC replied, taking the key from his bandmate's
hand. "I'll be right back," he added, walking out the door.
	Within moments he returned with two keys. After he gave Lance his
copy, the twenty-four year-old bid everyone goodnight before heading back
over to the room he shared with Justin.
	"Great," JC muttered to himself as he got settled on his bed. "Now
I have to wait for Justin to get back from his stupid little date with
Britney."
	It was going to be a long night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, there it is! Odd, I know, but I wanted to start fresh for Britney and
Justin's "date" (yeah right =P) I hope you liked it! Oh, and I'd like to
say a quick "thank you" to everyone who's written to me. You know I love
it!