Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 19:55:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Billy Burrew <billy_burrew@yahoo.com>
Subject: A-RED-ROSE-ON-A-SNOW-DAY

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. It does not reflect at all on
the sexual orientation of the members of NSYNC or that of Carson Daily,
where it's really a cloudy issue. Please relax, get a nice cup of warm tea
or hot chocolate and get ready to suspend your disbelief! Enjoy the story
for what it is...a story!


A Red Rose On A Snow Day
by Billy Burrew


Mark's trip up to Big Bear Lake to see MTV film the Snowed In Event had
been an amazing stroke of luck. He had been scheduled to work when his boss
called him and asked if he would mind dropping his shift as they were over
budget for salary for the week. Mark agreed and quickly called the resort
near where the event was happening and was surprised to find that there was
still a room or two available. Mark used his credit card and reserved the
room for two days, and then packed his car and got underway. The drive
wasn't too bad, he had made it to the hotel in just under 3 hours. Mark
went inside and checked in, then took his luggage up to his room. As he sat
in his room, Mark decided to shower and change then go down to the hotel
bar and see if they were still serving dinner.

As the elevator door opened on the ground floor, Mark was slammed back into
the back of the elevator by five guys who quickly backed in and immediately
closed the doors. The elevator had begun to move up when Mark coughed,
causing the guys to turn around and face him.

"Oh...God!", the smaller blond said as he turned, "We're so sorry....we
didn't see you in here and we needed to escape from that crowd. It was
getting out-of-hand!"

Mark's eye lit up as he immediately placed the face of the young man in
front of him.

"No problem Lance....I understand.", Mark said with a grin.

"Dude! You know us?", JC asked, "Are you a fan?"

"Yeah. I think you guys sing really well!!", Mark said, "I came up here to
see the SNOWED IN event and was hoping to catch your performance."

"Coolness!", Chris said with a smile, "You got more than that, you got to
meet us."

Mark chuckled, "Yeah...I know of about 30 girls that would gladly give up
several non-vital parts of their bodies to be standing where I am standing
right now."

The guys chuckled and nodded.

"You don't happen to know if the restaurant is still open, do you?", Mark
asked as his stomach growled loudly.

"We were gonna try to find that out ourselves...but we saw the mob coming
and decided to head back to our rooms.", Joey said sourly. "I guess its
room service."

"Well...If you wanted to order a pizza or Chinese, I could go pick it up
for you guys and bring it to your rooms. I think I saw some take out menus
on the nighttable in my room.", Mark said. "No reason to settle for hotel
food just cause you can't get take out from the lobby for fear of being
mobbed."

"Oh man...a pizza would be so awesome now!", Justin said and Joey nodded.

"How about this....", JC said with a smile, "you pick up our stuff from the
lobby and we'll buy your food and we'll all eat in my room together. OK?"

Mark nodded, "Sure. No problem."

The doors opened and Mark followed the guys to JC's room as JC looked
around and grabbed the take out menu's that had been placed on his night
table. After a few minutes, JC decided on Chinese, whereas Lance, Justin,
Chris and Joey had all gone in for four different pizzas. They looked at
Mark who grinned and decided to join JC as he ordered beef fried rice and
an order of fried wontons. JC smiled and high-fived him and Mark called
both places and placed the orders. Mark and the guys all sat around and
chatted pleasantly for the next twenty minutes until the front desk rang
them to tell them that there was carry-out drivers in the lobby. Mark
smiled and jumped up, walking out of the room and heading for the
elevator. The elevator opened and Mark walked off into a sea of girls who
were being quickly dispersed by the hotel staff. Mark walked up to the
front desk and asked about the carry out drivers, the concierge pointed to
the corner of the lobby where two men waited. Mark approached the men and
pulled out his wallet, quickly paying for the bills and grabbing the bags
of warm food.

A few minutes later, Mark knocked on JC's door. JC opened the door and
smiled and let Mark in. As Mark put down the bags, JC pulled out his wallet
and smiled, "How much do I owe ya?"

Mark shook his head and grinned, "Don't worry about it, I took care of it."

"No man...I said I'd buy dinner...how much was it?", JC insisted.

Mark shook his head, "Like I said, I got it. Don't worry about it. K?"

JC put his wallet away and smiled as he grabbed the bag of Chinese food and
passed Mark his fried rice and wontons.

"Can we at least give you a CD in exchange for dinner?", Lance asked.

Mark nodded, "Sure...if you want to....you don't have to pay me
back....dinner was on me, OK??"

Lance smiled and grabbed a CD from the stack that was on the nightstand and
handed it to Mark.

"Oh Cool...Bye Bye Bye....I don't have a decent copy of this song.", Mark
smiled.

JC laughed, "Its off our new album, we haven't released it yet. The only
people getting this CD have been the ones at the concert we did on New
Year's and here tomorrow."

Mark smiled, "OH....Wow! That makes it even cooler!"

Mark opened the case and looked at the CD. "Oh cool. There's a little
sticker of Joey inside here. That's neat!"

Lance chuckled, "These are the CD's that we are giving out for the "win a
dream date with NSYNC" contest. They each have one of five pictures inside
them and the winners will be the ones whose picture gets drawn. Hang onto
that when you come tomorrow, you could win a date with us. HEHEHE!"

Mark smiled, "I can think of worse men I've dated."

Mark smiled as JC and Joey and Chris began to cough and choke on their food
after hearing Mark's response.

"Wow...you're gay?!?", Justin said with a smile, "I couldn't tell...you
don't look it at all!"

Mark threw his head back and began to laugh, "What are gay people supposed
to look like exactly....what's the give-away?"

Lance smiled and looked at Justin who had begun to blush as he stammered,
"Uh....no...I mean....you don't act like....uh.....oh DAMN....forget
it...forget I said that, OK??"

Mark laughed again and then took a bite of his food.

"We never get a chance to meet and talk with any of our gay fans", JC
smiled.

Mark finished chewing and swallowed, "That's too bad, they're almost as
loyal and rabid as your straight fans, tho they are much less likely to cry
and try to grab at you if they see you. Take me for example, my eyes are
dry, I am sensibly talking at a decent level and I have no intention of
trying to tear your clothes off. Us gay folk are just normal fans who
really like the way you do your job and think that you're pretty awesome."

Mark smiled as the guys nodded and took bites of their food, and then he
decided to have a little fun with them.

"Not that I wouldn't tear your clothes off if you were really into that and
asked me to.", Mark added non-chalantly and took a bite of a wonton and
waited for their reaction.

Chris, Lance and JC got it first and began to choke on their food, grabbing
their sodas and gulping them, Justin, unfortunately was not that lucky as
he heaved forward and spit the contents of his mouth back into his
plate. Joey just chuckled as he chewed.

"Mark...dude....that was SO wrong....I almost choked!", JC said as he
looked up from his food.

"Sorry....I couldn't resist.", Mark said with a smile. "I am sure that NONE
of you are gay like me...I was just teasing you."

"So Mark...", Joey smiled, "Where's your man?"

"I am single", Mark said, "I just came out to my parents and the town where
I live is not too keen on gay people, so I guess that dating is out of the
question until I move or go to college somewhere more accepting."

"Oh. That sucks!", Justin said with a frown, "I don't understand why people
make such a big deal out of it."

"Because they think I am sick....or depraved, they would like to think that
rather than being a normal straight kid like you, that I CHOSE to be
gay. They think I would CHOOSE to separate myself from the rest of the guys
my age and open myself up for ridicule and who knows what all else from
them and people like them.", Mark said bitterly. "I don't know of anyone in
their right mind would make a choice like that. I didn't choose
anything....being gay is just the way I am."

Mark looked up at the guys who were all staring at him, their expressions
ranging from sad to dumbfounded. Mark shrugged his shoulders and continued
to eat his dinner.

"I don't think anyone here thinks like that at all Mark", Lance said
quietly and squeezed Mark's shoulder. The guys nodded and murmured their
agreement.

"So when do you guys have to perform tomorrow?", Mark asked.

"We have to be ready to go tomorrow at 7 am. The event opens at 9 am.",
Lance said with a frown.

"Well...I better let you all get some sleep. It's really late.", Mark said
as he finished off the last spoonful of his fried rice and then tossed the
container into the trash. "It's been really nice meeting you all. I guess
I'll see you again tomorrow at the event."

Mark shook everyone's hand and headed to the door, "Goodnite guys."

Mark made it to the elevator and was getting on when he heard a call to
hold the door.

Mark pushed the door open button and waited. A second later, JC walked into
the elevator and smiled.

"I thought you liked to sleep.", Mark said with a smile.

"I do. I just felt that maybe you wanted to talk or something. You kinda
left in a hurry. Are you OK?", JC said.

"I guess I am OK. I just wanted to go cause my being gay seemed to be
making you all uncomfortable, despite my attempts at levity.", Mark
replied.

Mark and JC got off the elevator on Mark's floor and Mark opened the door
and let JC into the room. JC walked over and sat down on the bed and looked
up at Mark, who was grabbing his pajamas out of his suitcase. Mark smiled
and modestly walked into the bathroom and changed into his pajamas, then
came back out and sat down on the bed opposite JC.

"So you said you told your folks.", JC said after a minute, "How'd they
take it?"

Mark sighed and shook his head, "I have my own studio apartment now, and a
job to support myself...they didn't take it too well at all....I haven't
heard from them since."

"Aww.....", JC said sadly as he saw Mark's eyes fill up with tears.
"Mark...I am so sorry....that really sucks....your own parents!"

Mark nodded, "They always told me never to lie...but when I told them the
truth rather than lie to them about myself, they tossed me out. I was just
lucky to have had some money stored away, so I got an apartment in the next
town and a job as a waiter. I've been doing OK for myself."

JC shook his head and the two guys continued to talk for a while longer. A
while later, Mark looked up and smiled as he noticed JC had fallen fast
asleep. Setting the alarm for 6 am, Mark pulled the blanket across JC and
then fell asleep on the other side of the large bed.

Mark roused only slightly when the alarm went off the first time. He
reached over and slapped it off, the lay in bed dozing soundly, enjoying
the warmth of the body that lay spooned against him in the bed. A few
minutes after he shut off the alarm he heard a sigh, then the body next to
his got out of the bed and went into the bathroom. A minute later, he felt
the return of the warmth beside him as a hand brushed over his face,
pulling away the long dark hair that had covered his eyes and
forehead. Next he felt the pressure of a pair of lips kissing his forehead
lightly and then brushing over his lips. Then, again, the warm body got out
of bed and left the room.

When the alarm went off the second time, Mark opened his eyes, amazingly
awake after so little sleep, and walked to the bathroom, using the
facilities and then taking a long hot shower. Mark toweled himself off and
then got dressed. As he went to pull on his pants he noticed a note beside
the bed.



Mark-

I hope I see you again today. It was nice sitting and chatting with you
last night. I hope my falling asleep in your room didn't put you out or
anything.

-Josh



Mark smiled, remembering how nice it was to sit and talk with someone about
his feelings and have them listen so intently. He grabbed the CD that the
guys had given him the previous night and made his way to the lobby to see
if the hotel was still serving breakfast.

As he ate, Mark looked outside the window and smiled as he saw a sea of
girls waiting in line for the "dream date contest". As Mark began to eat
his breakfast, his eye was caught by a small fragile looking girl sitting
with her parents at a table near to him. Her eyes were stained with tears
as she kept glancing nervously out the window.

"All I am saying, Kimi, is that those boys are really popular and I am sure
they're gonna be really busy today. I know its your dream to meet them, but
you have to stay inside here. Your health wouldn't be able to stand a day
out in the cold outside.", the mother said to the small girl, causing more
tears to come to her eyes and her head to droop a little.

"I just want to see them, that's all. Before I have to go back to the
hospital and get back on chemo.", the little girl said sadly. Mark's
cheerfulness evaporated as he heard the last few words the girl spoke. He
shook his head slightly and finished his omelette. Mark drank an extra cup
of coffee and then paid his check and headed outside to the sea of
femininity.

As Mark navigated his way through the crowd, he noticed a small group of
girls huddled together screaming and jumping up and down. As he made his
way over to them, he smiled as he saw them all holding copies of the same
CD the guys had given him last night. As he approached, a familiar looking
face walked over to him and said, "Hi there. Are you here for the dream
date contest?"

Mark smiled as he recognized Carson Daily and held up his CD and nodded.

Carson smiled and shook his head, "Wow...a guy wanting to go on a dream
date with NSYNC, that's a novel concept. Well...just go ahead and join the
rest of the girls and the next round will start in a few minutes."

Mark nodded and walked over to the crowd of girls who stopped screaming and
looked at him funny, then shrugged and began to jump and scream again.

A few minutes later, Carson stood at the stage and explained that the next
round consisted of the winners being the lucky 10 whose CD had the picture
of the NSYNC'er that he would pick out of the fishbowl. Mark smiled as
Carson reached his hand in and picked out a piece of paper.

"Joey!", Carson yelled out, "those with the Joey sticker stand up."

Mark smiled and stood up as the girls around him gasped. Carson's smile got
even bigger as he saw the young man stand up and walk to the front with the
rest of the winners.

Joey looked over to the group of winners and began to laugh hysterically as
he saw Mark standing there with the nine other winners.

"Guys...Look!!", Joey laughed and Justin, Chris, Lance looked over and
gasped.

"Its MARK!", Lance said and laughed as he saw JC fall out of his seat as he
turned to look.

"Oh my God! The CD single!", JC said under his breath.

Mark and the other nine winners were pulled up on the stage by the stage
personnel, who looked at Mark and then the other winners and smiled and
shook their heads. Carson came back and explained that they would be split
into two teams of five and that they would compete in a dance competition
with each other. Mark and his group were given a few minutes to stand and
choreograph a 30 second dance routine. As they worked through it, Mark
smiled and grabbed a very pretty girl with long dark hair and then
explained the idea he had for it. She smiled and agreed then convinced the
rest of the girls to go along with it.

They were the second group to go out and dance so they watched as the first
group did their number, then left the stage. Their intro music began and
the ran onto the stage, quickly getting into formation. The music for
tearing up my heart began and they began their routine and just at the end,
the dark haired girl stepped in front of Mark who picked her up in a
cheerleading pose together as the three girls in front fell to their knees
and pointed into the crowd. The crowd went wild at their routine and Mark
let the dark haired girl down after the music had stopped. Carson asked the
guys what they thought and they all nodded as JC gushed out how awesome
their routine was. Carson walked over and announced that their team was the
hands down winner.

Carson smiled, "OK...The time for teamwork is over, the next round is every
woman...er and man...sorry, for themself."

Mark and Carson grinned and blushed as the girls in the audience and the
guys of NSYNC laughed at Carson's second terrible gaff of the day. He had
been recovering nicely from slipping up and calling the guys NSTINK...but
it seemed to not be his day.

Mark and the guys sat on the stools that were brought out for the next
round and Carson introduced Danielle Fischelle, who was to ask them
questions for the round.

"What kind of food would JC be most likely to take you out to eat? Mexican,
Italian, or Sushi?"

Mark wrote down Sushi as did the rest of the girls. JC smiled slightly at
Mark as he turned over his sign, the answer was sushi. Everyone got a
sticker. The next question was about Lance. "What music would Lance listen
to to get romantic? Boyz II Men, Marvin Gaye, or D'Angelo?" Mark thought
for a second and wrote down Marvin Gaye, thinking that this was as good a
choice as any. Lance smiled as he watched Mark turn over his card, him
being the only one to choose Marvin Gaye. Lance smiled and turned over his
card, the answer was Marvin Gaye. Mark was the only one with a sticker. The
next question was from Chris and it was kinda silly.

"What would be the worst thing to happen on a date with Chris? Name Drop,
Fart, or Burp?"

Mark shook his head and wrote down Name Drop, thinking that was the least
crude of the answers. Chris rolled his eyes slightly as he surveyed all the
answers, one had written down fart, which was Chris' answer. It was a two
way tie now. The next question was about Justin.

"What is the first thing Justin looks at on a girl? Butt, Eyes, or Lips?"

Mark again had no idea, so he wrote down butt for the humor value and was
joined by all but one of the girls who wrote down eyes. Justin smiled and
shook his head and laughed and explained that the lips were the first thing
he checked out. The score was still a tie. The last question was about Joey

"What kind of Roses would Joey send you on your first date? Red White or
Pink?"

Mark smiled, knowing the answer immediately....Red roses meant love, and
white roses were the ones that meant friendship, so he wrote down white
roses. Joey's face broke into a smile as he saw that Mark was the only one
who had answered white, almost everyone else had answered red and one girl
had said pink. Joey shook his head and turned over his card and revealed
that white was the answer, because red roses mean love and white roses
would be more appropriate for the friendship of a first date . JC smiled at
Mark as both Mark and the other girl moved onto to the final round.

The final round consisted of matching up the names of the guys with their
baby pictures. Mark smiled inside as he realized he had seen the Rosie
O'Donnell show with all the same pictures on it. As Carson and Danielle
pulled off the covering and exposed the pictures, Mark immediately put each
one's face with a name. Carson gave them a second and told them to
start. Mark grabbed all the tags and matched them up with all five guys and
stopped with about 5 seconds to spare. As the buzzer sounded, Carson went
over the girls answers first, and she got 3 out of 5 correct. Mark grinned
as Carson came over and revealed that all his answers were correct.

"Way to go Mark! You are the biggest NSYNC fan here today....you won the
dream date with NSYNC!.", Carson said as he put his arm around Mark's
shoulders.

Mark's face went blank as he thought back to breakfast and that girl from
the morning. He sighed and frowned slightly, torn between pursuing a
fantasy and doing what he knew, inside his heart, was the right thing to
do.

Finally, Mark took the microphone and spoke into it. "As much as I'd like
to say that I am the biggest fan of NSYNC, I can honestly say that there is
one bigger than me...but her health wouldn't permit her to come outside and
play today. There is a girl named Kimi in the lodge over there, she has
leukemia and had come here this weekend hoping to just to catch a glimpse
of these guys before she goes back to her hospital for some new rounds of
chemotherapy. I know I'll see NSYNC again, and go to their concert this
summer, but she may not be able to, she may not live to see that time. So,
I am gonna transfer my dream date with NSYNC to Kimi."

The crowd stood shocked, dead silent, until JC and the guys began to
applaud. Carson smiled down at Mark and nodded his head, "That's fine. It
looks like Kimi is gonna have the night of her life tonight when she spends
it with the five guys of NSYNC."

The camera pulled back from beside Carson and they gave him the "off the
air" signal. Carson turned to Mark and smiled, "That was an amazing thing
you did there. A gay guy going on a date with NSYNC would have been hot
news, but that pales in comparison with the kindness that you just showed
that little girl."

Mark smiled as the guys came up to him and Carson. "Hey Mark", JC said
quietly.

"Hi Josh.", Mark said quietly, "I hope you're all not too put out by me
passing that date off like that."

The guys surrounded Mark and gave him a group hug, squeezing him tightly,
"That was the coolest, most selfless thing we've ever seen anyone do."

Mark smiled and then told the MTV guys that Kimi would be sitting in the
lodge there looking out the window. He gave a description of her to them
and they went off to find her and set everything up. As Mark turned to
leave, he looked over to the guys who were getting ready for their date and
he waved goodbye. JC looked up at him and waved back mouthing something to
him that he didn't quite catch. Mark nodded and then walked back to the
hotel and fell asleep.

Mark awoke that night around 8 pm and yawned and then headed off to the
bathroom for another shower and a change of clothes. As he finished
dressing, he heard a knock on his door and he walked over to see who it
could be. Mark pulls the door open and his eyes fill with tears as he sees
JC standing before him smiling and holding a single red rose.


The End


Email any comments to: billy_burrew@yahoo.com