Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 07:26:55 +0000
From: N D <pytn18@hotmail.com>
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...

<<<<Ah yes, the drama continues. I figured that the boys had an easy enough
time for the first few chapters, time to get dirty. So here we are, one
month and 25 chapters later. I am grateful for the wonderful fans I have
and wouldn't trade them for the world. I never ever thought it would have
come this far. I'm just starting but as I've said before I leave in a few
days so the updates won't be so available but please continue to email me
and I will try my hardest to keep up the Nifty life. Pytn18@hotmail.com for
comments and suggestions. >>>>

---ND---