Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 14:06:57 -0800 (PST) From: Clive Subject: First Impression 3 Comments:- Hey there ppl... sorry for the time that this part has taken to come out but I have been taking those blasted Microsoft Exams... anywaz I hope you like this chapter, oohh and there are a lot of great new stories out there at the moment so make sure to check them out... and hi to my best friend out there :) you know who you are and I promised not to mention you ever again remember... LoL. Finally once again I would appreciate any comments (good or bad) to: bigc79_uk@yahoo.com Thanks and hope you enjoy the story :) Disclaimer:- This story is fiction and does not imply anything about the group * Nsync or any other person involved in full or in part. If you are under the legal age to read such material in your area please leave immediately. The author takes no responsibility for anyone's actions based upon this work of fiction. Previously:- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Josh don't worry... I am more pissed with the hotel than with you and meeting all of you has made up far more than any apology can..." as Michael finished off he couldn't contain the laughter any longer. This was meet by 5 people watching on in almost horror and bewilderment as they watched this Michael change from a almost shy person into an uncontrollable laughing machine... "Mind sharing what's so funny?" Lance asked Michael. "It's just that before I came over here I told my friends that I was going on a trip to discover myself and to introduce some British fame over here and now... now I have, and at the same time met people even more famous than my humble little self it just feels weird that is all." Michael forced out in-between fits of laughter... "What do you mean you were going to introduce us to British fame?" Lance questioned again... 'he did say he wasn't as famous as us... but maybe he is famous back home...' Justin pondered now completely confused with everything that had happened. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First Impression Chapter Three: Emotional Moments By Clive Michael and five members of Nsync spent the rest of the afternoon talking and discussing this and that, briefly brushing the topic of who, where and what had led all of them to this room at this point in their lives. It was noticeable though that Michael kept attempting to circumvent the questions when they were posed to him. The whole afternoon Michael caught both Josh and Justin taking quick glimpses at him... every time Josh looked on at Michael he felt indescribably safe and warm, but every time Justin looked on at him he felt perplexed and confused. Michael had been able to read people pretty well in the past but Justin confused him. He didn't know what to look for, he had seen the defenceless and needy man earlier in his room but Michael made a mental note that he decided that it wasn't a side of Justin that was normally let out to play. Soon the room fell quiet one by one the guys started to shift in their respective seats until Michael broke the deafening silence... "How long are you guys performing here then... I mean I guess that was you over at the Arena last night... I saw the show, or at least the light show from my hotel window... pretty cool" as Michael continued on, JC hung on every word and just shook his head in confirmation to Michaels question. "Yep that was us alright," Justin interjected and then paused almost as if thinking to himself what to say next, "we got 3 more nights and then we are off back on the road, kinda sucks when we don't get to even stay at home when we are back here but 'management' want us here bright and early every morning so I guess it is easiest this way." An obvious annoyance could be heard in Justin's tone especially when talking about 'management'. Again Michael made a mental note about Justin's dislike for authority (or so it seemed) whilst at the same time listening to Chris explain there schedule. "Erm Mike... can I call you that?" Joey questioned from across the room. "Sure you can if you want, it isn't my name and I don't know if I will answer to it but you try it out if you want" Michael fired back in Joey's direction with a smirk on his face to which the rest of the room, (except Joey) began a low lull of laughter. "Ok Mikey," Joey began only to be cut short by Michael stare and voiced disapproval of the appended 'y' to the end of his name. "sorry Mike..." Joey again began and looked around for any disapproval from any one before continuing, "right, ok. Mike, how long you here for then? and what you doing over the next few days?" As Joey finished this line of questioning the rest of the group turned towards Michael and looked on awaiting his reply. Michael's gaze shifted upwards as he rolled his eyes, questioning himself at the same time. "To be honest my friend, I don't have anything planned... I just thought I would take a look around your wonderful country for a bit. As for how long am I here... I guess at the moment indefinitely" as Michael slowed down the sentence thinking to himself how long he would actually be here his eyes fell back towards the group staring at him. The odd person looked on as if taking in what he had said and some looked on and shaking their heads as if accepting Michaels explanation but not Joey... he in turn retorted back at Michael what the others must have surely been thinking. "Hang on you are thinking long term right, and you are staying in suite designed for 6 people for lets say a couple of months... heck lets say the suite cost... what $7,500 a night, and you are staying for 60 days that's like $450,000" Justin just gauped looking on at Joey partly in amazement about what he had said and partly because he couldn't believe that Joey could work that sort of thing out in his head on the spur of the moment. "Suppose...." was all Michael said looking dead pan back at the group. "Suppose, shit man that's almost half a mill on just living, Christ you could buy a small pad around here for that sort of cash. Any waz how you paying for it." Chris spoke up from the edge of his seat now. "I guess I could buy something but I don't know the area and this is just easier... and all I have to do to pay is hand over the wonderful invention that is 'AU' (gold) card" at that thought Michael's face turned into a grin as wide as any that JC had ever seen. "Crap man you must be loaded, how old did you say you were?" It was JC's turn to question the younger man this time. "21 in a couple of weeks" was all Michael gave, no date nothing except his soon to be age. And at that the group decided that the interrogation had ended for the day and began to discuss what they were up to for the rest of the afternoon. JC reminded the others that they were scheduled to be at the arena at 16:00 and it was nearing 14:30 so whatever they were going to do would need to be quick and local. This just gained a load of moans from the other four who seemed to not be very "happy" about performing. JC looked over to Michael and then asked him to wait a second whilst he others had a small talk, to which Michael agreed and said that he had a few things to do in his room and when the others were ready they could head over to his rooms. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michael opened his suite door and walked slowly over toward the sofa situated in the middle of the room. Looking around the room his eyes fell upon his brief case buy the side of the bar and he moved over to retrieved the Laptop unit in his bag. He also took out his G-Sat WAP phone from his case and set up the infrared port to work with his laptop. Michael set his computer down and opened up the unit and looked over the keyboard... slowly and deliberately he typed in a set of characters on the keyboard and the laptop came alive... Ever since Michael had remembered he had been able to understand computers and they seemed to be simplistic to him... He slowly looked over the mails in his inbox that he had picked up on the flight over. Glancing over the 40 odd mails Michael began to type replies and was deep in concentration so much so even when there was a rapture at his door he didn't break his concentration. "Mike... Open the door before we bust it down" came a holler from behind the thick wooden door, and when I say thick I mean thick. In fact Joey must have shouted pretty loud for it to even be heard barely audible inside the room. But Michael did hear and it was the roughness of it that brought him out of his train of thought and back to the current situation. Standing and moving effortlessly (not like earlier) Michael made his way over to the hall door and as he opened the door was greeted by 5 beaming faces acting all angelic, and just this caused Michael to become suspicious of the group if nothing else they looked "shifty". But he brushed this off laughing to himself lightly and then proceeded to invite them all into his room(s). "Damn you got a bigger room than we do and there are 5 of us!" Lance stated whilst taking prime position on the sofa which Michael had just vacated only moments before. "Shit bro this is a fucking hot piece of kit you got hooked up" Chris began to look over the unit sitting on the table in front of Lance but as he turned the screen towards himself the machine seemingly powered down and once again there was no activity on it. "Fuck... I think I just shut you laptop down Mike" Chris said tentatively and now avoiding eye contact with Michael... but instead of getting the ear full that he was expecting he received nothing... just silence. Michael didn't feel like telling Chris or the others about the fact that the unit 'safe' powers itself down when anyone but himself uses it, so he kept shut and decided on changing the subject. It was then that Michael looked over to JC only to find him 'staring' not of into space exactly but more as if in thought but at the same time in the general direction of where Michael was sitting. "Penny for your thoughts" Michael directed in JC's direction but again no the room fell silent. "Josh... snap out of it man" Justin nearly screamed across the room from where he was sitting. Still no response... "Hey Mike you got any ice in here?" Joey questioned raising one eyebrow. "Think so check over there at the bar" was all Michael said clearly as he was confused firstly why JC seemed to have had blanked out of it and secondly why Joey would need ice... then it hit him as Joey brought a handful of ice back to where JC was sitting. "Ooh you are not going to put that on him... Are you?" was all Michael could blurt out as Joey dumped the contents that was in his hands down JC's back. Moments later a gasp could be heard emanating from JC's throat causing the whole room to burst into fits of hysterics that is all except Michael and of course JC. "Guys that isn't funny... you could send him into frigging shock by doing stupid shit like that" Michael's tone sounded pissed, and to be honest Justin couldn't understand why Michael was taking this so personally after all they had done it loads of times to Josh when he zones out like that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **Flashback** Michael sat at university finishing of his final year project... he knew that this project was going to blow the socks off anything anybody had ever programmed before, and if he didn't get a First he was going to have to mess up pretty bad in his finals. As he sat there working away on his computer his phone started to ring... once, twice but on the third the answering machine picked up the call... "You've got through to me, it's you money but my time so talk to me." pause... pause... "Mr.Dean, I am contacting you from Castle-Fort Solicitors... we have some information regarding a relative of yours who recently passed away. I do not wish to discuss this over the phone so I would appreciate it if you could contact the office and arrange a date to meet with us. The number is 0181 287 400" Michael had over heard the message but just sat dumbfounded looking off into space... he was dragged screaming back to reality at once as frozen ice hit his back, sending him into a frenzy and then causing his to spasm. The last thing that he remembered was hearing the sound of laugher and he zoned out again but this time he was engulfed in total darkness. Michael woke up but this time the lights were bright and his body felt heavy and his throat was dry. Looking up Michael took in his surrounding and found that the he wasn't in his flat anymore but now seemed to be sitting in St.Lukes hospital or one that looked like it. As Michael rose from his slumber like state a person whom he presumed was a doctor came into to the room and after looking over the charts proceeded to explain to Michael that he had suffered a sever case of shock. It was brought on by what the man suggested was a combination of trauma and miss-timing. **End Flashback** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Mike you alright?" came a worried voice but just like JC had earlier Michael had 'zoned out' and was unable to distinguish who had posed the question. Josh stood up and gave the rest of the guys a stair that made the others cringe but JC's eyes were moved back over to Michael's position and again whilst moving towards Michael JC asked if he was alright. This time there was a slight nod as Michael acknowledged the others presence and started to come back to normality (if you can call it that). "Are you alright Mike?" again it was JC who set the question and as he finished it he knelt in front of Michael and placed his left hand on the nearest knee in front of him. "I... I just had a memory that is all, I should explain." at that Michael inhaled deeply before looking up at the others in the group. "About 3 months back I was finishing off my degree at uni when I received some bad news... I don't want to go into what it was about but lets just say it wasn't what I needed to hear at the time." Michael looked over at the guys and could see confusion as to why he had reacted in the manner that he had only moments ago and why was this all relevant. "You see just like Josh here did, I 'zoned out' and my flat mates thought it would be a riot to shake me out of it doing the same thing Joey did to Josh. Needless to say I did come out of it but was then put out at the same time. I had a sever shock to my system and was unconscious for near 2 days because of a stupid prank, and the fact that I had someone close to me pass away." As Michael said the last thought a tear ran down his cheek and all the room sat silent, Joey, Chris, Lance and Justin all looking down at the ground in shame whilst JC simply knelt and looked on wishing he could easy Michael's pain and vent all his problems with a single moment of love. The room sat silent for the third time since they had entered but this time there was an air of uneasiness with four or the six persons looking away in shame whilst the other two looked on at the others. Again it was Michael who felt the need to break the silence and decided to apologise to the others for his reaction and he shouldn't have brought up his problems on them... after all he didn't really know then, even thought he did feel a connection with at least two of them. "Look Joey," Michael began but not in a hard tone that he had been using since the prank but this time in a softer low tone, "I am sorry for my behaviour back there, it was uncalled for and I shouldn't have seemed so hostile towards you." Joey looked over at Michael and a small smile began to form on his face, "No Mike, I... we are the ones who should apologise for being such asses. We didn't think what consequences could arise from a stupid joke like that. And I know that I speak on behalf of the others by saying I am truly sorry to hear about your loss." Michael's eyes drew in quizzically and then he realised that he had even with all he efforts let slip about the loss of that someone that he was fond of. "I know that we all feel sorry for our behaviour and I am sure that I speak for the others also when I ask you to come and be our VIP at our concert tonight. And I know Josh there wants you to come." Justin said this with total and utter composure but the rest of the guys just burst into laughter at what Justin had said. JC shot that same look in Justin's direction but only receive the finger and then looked back to wards Michael who by now had shed his sad and low face in place for a small but definate smile and glimmer in his eye. "I would be delighted to accept your invitation" Michael returned Justin's proposed suggestion but never broke eye contact with Josh. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally Contact info :) You can reach me by mail: bigc79_uk@yahoo.com ICQ me: #56762367 Visit my webpage: http://www.geocities.com/author_clive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~