"I gotta feelin'...that tonight's gonna be a good night..."

"So, tell me again why we're not including this one on the CD, J?" JC's voice filtered through my headphones.

"It's not a song that's supposed to be on there. This one's just...personal." I responded, looking once again at my phone that had sat idle on the stool next to me since I'd sent the text to Madison over an hour ago.

"Aren't they all personal?" JC questioned in confusion.

I shook my head at him. "Yeah, but...this one's different."

He folded his arms across his chest and stared me down. "I'm telling you, J. You could totally lead with this as your single."

"No."

"You're being stubborn."

"I'm holding to a promise." I retorted, crossing my own arms over my chest and meeting his eyes.

"I get that this is a song for Madison...I do, but..."

"Look, Jayce...I appreciate the boost of ego for you thinking that this would make a good single-however, my mind is set on it. The only person's ears that need to hear this song besides you, are Madison's. It's hers. I'm already sharing enough of she and I's relationship with the entire planet...I want to keep just this one thing."

A smile tugged at his lips. "Ok."

"Ok?"

"Yeah, ok."

"That's it? You're giving up just like that?" I questioned frustratedly.

"Mhmm. I just wanted you to admit it."

"Admit what?" I asked, taking a seat on the stool and looking through my text messages again.

"That you wrote it for Madison. She mentioned a long time ago that you had written her a song right before things went to shit between you two."

"Really?" I lifted an eyebrow at that, now listening intently to what he had to say. "Yeah. She said it was incredible and she wondered how she ever let you walk away from something that you were so talented at-that you were born to do."

I snorted. "She didn't let me. She fought me tooth and nail over it at first...somewhere along the lines, she gave up."

"Because you became a dick." He said pointedly.

"But..." I began to protest, but at JC's look I quickly realized how right he was and sat back on the stool with a pout, admitting defeat. "I'm right." He said with a smirk that I quickly returned with a flip of my middle finger.

"You know I am or you wouldn't have shut up like that. There are only so many times you can hit your head against a brick wall before you realize that it's the thing that's giving you a headache."

I rolled my eyes. "Lemme guess, I'm the headache, right?"

JC laughed. "Sometimes my own personal one. Actually...between you and Madison lately I'm beginning to think you're teaming up against me. You're like this constant pain in my--"

"Ok! I get it!" I said interrupting his rant.

"Only joking. But seriously, do you want my thoughts on this or not?"

"Uhh..."

"You're getting them, regardless." He began. "I'm not sure how good of an idea this is to give to Madison."

"I never said I was giving it to her. But for arguments sake, why do you say that?"

"You've grown so much since that day I saw you at your house after you two had talked again. You're well on your way to moving on. She's moved on. I feel like it's taking steps in the wrong direction. Besides, what makes you think she'd want this?"

I shrugged. "I don't know for sure. But I promised her I'd put this on a CD for her a long time ago. I'm just staying true to it." I said honestly.

"Well, I can't fault you for that. Just promise me that you'll think twice about actually giving it to her. Don't do it unless she asks."

"I won't."

"I'm serious." He warned. "She doesn't need that kind of confusion right now. Her head is already a mess."

I sat up a little straighter. "What do you mean?"

"...forget I said it." He said quickly, backtracking over his previous statement.

"No...why is her head a mess?"

"She's just trying to figure some things out...work and stuff." He covered.

Her figuring stuff out with work was standard for her...it was the "and stuff" that had me concerned.

"Don't worry about it, Justin. She's fine." He answered my thoughts.

I furrowed my brow, my head working over a thousand different reasons for her to be confused about something. The only thing I kept coming back to was that these same reasons were the very thing that had caused her to send me that text message.

I pulled at my lips with one hand while my fingers worked to find the text she'd sent the night before.

"She texted me last night." I said quietly, and saw JC's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline at my admission.

"Seriously?" he asked, face twisted into a look of disbelief that I'm sure mirrored how mine had been last night.

"Yeah."

"What'd it say?"

Growing tired of talking through Plexiglas, I took the headphones off my ears and walked out to where JC was sitting at the soundboard. I showed him the text and watched as his facial expression changed from disbelief to confusion.

"She must have been drunk." He reasoned.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. It just seems like weird timing for her to send me something like that." I countered.

"I suppose. What'd you say back?"

I shrugged, setting the phone down, ignoring the feeling of disappointment that she hadn't texted me back.

"Nothing. I didn't know what to say."

"That's probably good." He said thoughtfully.

"Probably."

Silence fell around us as we both took in the conversation that we'd just had.

"Anyway...did you want to take a final listen to make sure you like it?" he asked, adjusting a few dials on the board.

"Sure. It doesn't have to be perfect. I just wanted to have a hard copy somewhere."

He played it back to me, hearing it again making me feel the exact same way I had when I'd first played it for her.  I didn't think it was a feeling I'd ever get rid of, no matter how things ended up between us.

"Sounds good. Burn it."

"You got it."

I yawned widely, stretching my arms up above my head. "You ready to call it a night?"

He nodded. "For sure."

As we walked back towards the room, I thought over the last time that I'd stayed in the same room with JC. It was when I was doing my first solo tour and was feeling weird without the other guys around. I'd complained about it one too many times to him and the next thing I knew, he showed up where I was staying and we went out for a night on the town with a few of the girls I'd picked up during Meet & Greet at the show that night.

Too exhausted to do much else besides change into pajamas, I crawled into bed and got comfortable.

Behind closed eyelids, I could tell when JC had hit the lights, the covers of the other bed being pulled back seconds later.

"Jayce?" I called out quietly.

"Yeah?"

"She knows I'm sorry right?" I asked tentatively.

"Yeah."

"You think she could ever love me again?"

I heard the covers rustle as he turned over to face me and I strained my eyes to see him in the dark.

I saw a shoulder move up and down in a shrug. "Honest?"

"Always."

"I don't think she ever stopped."

I breathed out a sigh of relief.

"So-what does that even--" I began.

"J-go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning."

"But..."

"Night, J."

"Hmph. Fine. Night, Jayce. Thanks for the help today."

"Mhmm..." he mumbled out, and I knew that sleep wasn't far off for him.

My eyes were heavy and I yawned again; sleep wasn't too far off for me, either.

*

"So, Wednesday night, I was thinking of maybe hitting Church Street downtown and seeing if Joey and Chris were available." JC threw out the next morning while we were eating breakfast.

I nodded my approval as I shoved another spoonful of cereal into my mouth. "Great idea." I told him through the mouthful of milk and Cheerios, a dribble of milk escaping out the side of my mouth.

"Got a hole in your mouth?" JC laughed, throwing a napkin my way.

"Shut up. Church Streets good. They still do those crazy drink specials?" I asked.

"Yep. And you know Chris never passes up good drink specials."

"So true. So Chris; party like a rockstar even when he's not one anymore." I joked.

"Glad you're in. I'll hit them both up later on."

"So where's the superstar?" I heard Johnny's voice bellow from the hallway.

"JC's in here." I called back, receiving a swift kick under the table from JC.

"There you are!" Johnny said, appearing in the archway of the kitchen, a bright smile on his face. Both JC and I scooted our chairs back from the table to greet him, getting wrapped up in giant bear hugs.

"It's been too long, boys." Johnny said, his grin never wavering..

"Yeah it has." JC responded, taking a seat in his chair again.

"We ready to get down to business?"

"Yes'sir. Got my masters all ready for you to take a listen to." I told him proudly, now more excited than nervous about getting him on board with putting out a new album. The look on his face and his attitude spoke volumes about how he felt about all of this.

"Well, I've cleared my schedule for the week for you so...let's make you an album!" he said enthusiastically.

"You haven't even heard my stuff yet." I said with a laugh.

He shot JC a look across the table and when I looked at JC, he ducked his head. "JC might have sent me over a rough cut of the two songs you laid down a few weeks ago. That was all I really needed to hear to be on board." He answered with a smile.

"You little..." I said, punching JC's arm.

"DUDE!" he yelped, rubbing at the spot. "I was only trying to help out."

"So, you knew when I called you what I was calling you about?"

Johnny nodded. "Yep. Known for a couple weeks. I was just waiting for you to be ready to come to me about it."

"Well, here I am." I stated with a smile.

"I'm excited to get started." He admitted.

"That makes two of us."

JC cleared his throat. "Make that three."

"Let's head on down to the studio then. Go grab your stuff and I'll see you two down there."

We both acknowledged him with a nod, taking our plates and putting them in the dishwasher.

*

Four hours later found us in Johhny's office, crunching numbers to figure out how much money I was going to have to front to get this thing started if I didn't have a label backing me. While it wasn't something that wasn't feasible, the numbers we came up with if I had a label backing me were much better.

I traced the pen over the numbers of what it'd cost if I did it myself, feeling my wallet tighten in my pocket.

"Well, while you may be ok with putting up all this money, I'm not ok with it. I'd really like to approach Jive and see what they say." Johnny said, eyes trained on the spreadsheet in front of him.

"I agree with Johnny here, dude. Distribution with Jive would be much easier than doing it yourself. Without the label, you won't get as wide of distribution as you're looking for."

"I know that. I just...I don't know how Jive is going to take this." I told them, uneasily.

"Leave those assholes to me. We'll figure something out." Johnny said confidently.

"And if they say no?" I asked, brow furrowing in thought.

Johnny continued, "then we move on to someone else. Capitol, Sony, Universal...any of them would probably jump at the chance to sign you."

"Not Universal. Madi's label is owned by them...too close." I protested. I saw Johnny nod out of the corner of my eye and he crossed out Universal on the list he had in front of him.

"Alright, just no Universal. I'm tired of this business stuff. Why don't we continue tomorrow? My schedule is clear for the first time in..."

"Forever..." JC interjected with a laugh.

"Probably. Why don't we just...relax? Have a few drinks by the pool, grab dinner at Roy's or something with Melinda and the old crew." Johnny offered up.

JC's and my eyebrows rose in suspicion. It seemed like a big trap to both of us. A big, fat ploy to corner us into his "you should get the band back together" talk. But I couldn't turn down dinner at Roy's...the place had such good food.

"Sounds great, Johnny."

*

As we suspected, Johnny, as well as Melinda and the rest of the WEG crew, took us to dinner and triple teamed us with the *NSYNC reunion speech. There were only so many ways you could say to a person that it wasn't going to happen.

At least not anytime soon.

Did we all want to get back together and do a little something, sometime? Sure. But nothing in the immediate future. I had a solo career to get started again.

The following day consisted of Johnny making phone calls to get a buzz going about me getting ready to put out another album, and to get a few radio stations on board who would play the single when we decided on what it would be. And while he did that, JC and I were in the studio laying down the versions of the songs that would go on the CD.

By the end of the day, my throat was raw and I was ready to collapse into bed.

Wednesday was more of the same. The local Top 40 radio station wanted an interview with me when I was ready for the single to go to radio and I promised them that they'd be the first. Since Orlando had been my "hometown" once upon a time.

At lunchtime, we finalized the plans with Chris and Joey to hit up the clubs downtown, JC and I more than ready for a break. Neither of us had worked this intensely in quite some time.

I came back to the room to grab my phone and noticed a CD jewel case lying on my bed. Scrawled on the front was the name of the song I'd written for Madison. JC had finally finished cleaning it up for me.

I looked through my text messages...sighing once again at seeing nothing new from Madison. She hadn't responded to my text and I couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Maybe she had taken back the text she sent me over the weekend and thought better of being in contact with me.

In truth, if that was the case, she was being smart. The only way we were ever going to move on was if we steered clear of one another.

But on the other hand...how did I know that we were supposed to move on from each other? What if we really were meant for each other and were supposed to give things another try?

Distracted during my afternoon recording sessions, JC and I called it an early day and got some sun before we needed to get ready to meet Chris and Joey.

I definitely needed tonight that was for sure. Booze, best friends, and lots of intoxicated women who would be more than willing to take my mind off of things.

Not that losing myself in a random girl would help things when I woke up in the morning but...the idea had some merit right now.

*

"A toast!" Joey yelled out, raising his plastic cup in the air. "To Justin and his new ventures."

"Cheers." We all said, smashing our cups together, splashes of the cold liquids raining down on us from being so clumsy, and maybe slightly drunk. Or more than slightly. Judging from the slur of JC's words, he was more than slightly.

We were having a blast. It'd been entirely too long since I'd seen Chris and Joey. I made a mental note to make this kind of outing a habit with us. No matter where we were in the states. It just needed to happen.

I excused myself to go and get us another round, stumbling awkwardly through the packed crowd at Chillers towards the bar. Dollar drinks all night long...it was genius. And it was also getting us all in trouble. We were sure to have hangovers from hell tomorrow.

We'd started off fairly slow, having a beer at dinner...but then Joey suggested Big Belly's new nickel beer night and we'd gone that way and downed too many pitchers of cheap beer. Now we were downstairs below Big Belly at Chillers...a way too small for the size of the crowd bar that had dollar drinks all night and frozen drinks that had so much alcohol that we knew none of us would be leaving sober.

"So you got the talk?" Joey yelled out over the music, taking two of the shooters from the plastic cup that I was holding.

JC laughed loudly, grabbing the shot out of Joey's hand and downing it. "Dude, totally cornered us with the whole WEG crew. It was totally unfair."

"I hear it all the time when I go over there for Nigels stuff." Chris added in with a roll of his eyes, swallowing back a large gulp of the frozen drink in his hand.

"I'd be up for it." I muttered, smothering the words as I tilted my head back with the Red-Headed Slut shooter pressed to my lips. I didn't even have to be looking at them to know the stares I was receiving.

"Seriously?" Joey asked, disbelieving.

I shrugged. "Why not? It's been long enough. It doesn't have to be right away."

"Please tell me you haven't told Johnny you've been playing around with this. Otherwise he'll tell you to forget the solo gig and make us all come back to work." JC groaned, making the rest of us laugh.

"It's just a thought I've been toying with. Nothing has to be figured out anytime soon." I defended.

"Well...yeah. This is too serious of a talk for drinking. And I see a blonde in the corner that has my name all over her." Chris said, leaving us immediately after with a wave over his shoulder.

"And then there were three..."

"Sorry to interrupt but...is there any way I could get a picture with you guys? I was your biggest fan back in the day, JC." A tall brunette interrupted, pushing her way between Joey and me to nab JC's attention.

"And, if you want..." she said, slinking up next to him and leaning into him, "...we could recreate that ‘Some Girls' video." She finished with a wink.

My jaw hit the floor and I felt Joey elbow me in the side, both waiting for what JC's response was going to be.

He gave her a smile that was sure to get her panties, if she was even wearing any under the tight skirt she had on, in a twist.

"I'm not sure you could handle it, sweetheart." He purred into her ear, and it took everything in me not to start laughing.

She pouted. "I thought you liked that kind of thing." She put some space between she and JC and crossed her arms over her chest, making her cleavage even more noticeable.

"I did. When I wasn't married." He finished off.

That seemed to shut her up and she mumbled out an awkward apology. "Could I still get a picture with you all?" she asked, this time a little bit more reserved.

"Absolutely." I told her, giving her my best Timberlake smile. She handed me her camera since I had the longest arms of us all and I snapped the picture of the four of us.

When she wrote down her number on the damp napkin that was around her drink and shoved it into my hand before she strutted away from us and back to her friends, I knew that the Timberlake charm hadn't gone anywhere.

"Still got it." I said with a wink at Joey and JC who responded with a laugh.

"DUDES!!!" Chris yelled from the other side of the bar, "COME JOIN!" He held up a full bottle of Tequila in one hand and plastic cups in the other.

With a chorus of groans in...three part harmony...we made our way to where he was, chatting up a group of girls and getting them all as drunk as he was. No wonder his reputation around Orlando was that he threw the best parties. I'd have to make sure to let him know the next time I was in town that way he could throw one.

2am rolled around too quickly, and the four of us stumbled out the front doors of Chillers, laughing too loudly and talking over each other about the events of the night. Comparing the amount of girls' numbers we'd gotten, we were all surprised when it was Chris who won out. We all joked that the reason for that was because he was still single and living in Orlando, and it was well known around town that Chris threw some kick ass parties.

Driving was definitely out of the question so we hailed a cab, throwing enough cash at the driver to be ok with carting our drunk asses all over the city of Orlando.

The cab ride was equally as raucous, Chris turned around in the front passenger seat, yelling at us in the backseat like we couldn't hear him. I turned to look out the window, watching the lights of downtown pass by as I listened to the meaningless conversations being had by my best friends.

I felt good. I felt alive. Most importantly, I felt like my old self again.

An hour or so later, the cab deposited JC and I in front of Johnny's place. We tiptoed inside, feeling like we were young again and having to sneak back inside because we'd come in way past curfew. I knocked into a plant, JC smacked into a wall and both of us couldn't contain our drunken giggles.

Finally making it back to our room, we closed the door and spoke in our normal voices. "Damn dude, I've got the munchies. We should have gotten pizza or something before we left downtown." JC said, rubbing at his stomach.

"Shit. Now that you mention it, I'm hungry too. What are the chances that Johnny has any junk food in this place?"

"We could venture out to the kitchen, I suppose."

I nodded in agreement. So after changing into pajamas, we tiptoed cautiously across the house to rummage in the kitchen. We managed to procure a few bags of chips and some ice cream, and grabbed a couple of bottles of water, hoping to head off any hangovers we might have in the morning.

After finishing off the food, we both laid in our beds, moaning about being full.

"I have the spins." I said with a laugh.

"Fuck...I do too." JC replied, laughing with me, his high pitched giggle making me laugh harder.

"Tomorrow's going to be a bitch."

"But so worth it."

"Definitely. I really needed a night like tonight." I told him, rolling over to reach to turn off the light.

"You seem really good, J."

"I feel really good."

"Good."

"Good." I replied, erupting into a fit of laughs all over again.

"What's so funny?" JC asked.

"I can't believe how much the room spins when I close my eyes. It's been forever since I've had the spins. What the hell do you do to get rid of them?"

"I don't even know. All I know is that the longer I keep my eyes closed, the worse it gets. Jesus...this is not any fun. I'm going to kill Chris for that Tequila when we see him tomorrow."

"Me too. We'll have a leprechaun ass kicking party tomorrow."

"Damn leprechaun."

"Seriously..."

*

I woke up the next morning feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. By a huge, long, 18-wheeler semi. And my body felt like I'd gone a hundred rounds with a pro-wrestler. How was it possible to be this sore from a night of drinking? What the hell had we all done?  

I hadn't had a hangover like this in forever. And now I remembered why I stopped drinking to the point of being completely shit-faced. I didn't want to do anything. The idea of staying curled up in bed all day long sounded wonderful. But I knew that with Johnny around there would be none of that.

My mouth was dry...and tasted faintly like I had licked the bottom of a toilet bowl. Gross.

JC groaned from under the covers that were thrown over his head. "Am I dead?" he asked quietly.

"No. But I wish to God I was right now." I answered.

"I say we fake sick."

I snorted. "Don't you remember how sympathetic Johnny used to be when we'd go out and get shitty like this while we were on tour?"

"Like, not at all, right?"

"Exactly."

"Well, screw that. We're grown ass men. We can have a sick day if we want."

I was almost about to answer when there was a loud banging on the door that had both JC and I diving under our pillows to shield our ears.

"Whoever that is...is going to die a slow, painful, death." JC growled out.

"Ugh."

The pounding noise continued until I called out for whoever it was to stop.

"Damn...you can quit now, Johnny. We'll meet you downstairs for breakfast in a few." Johnny's deep laugh boomed from the other side of the door. "Good morning, boys."

"Yeah...awesome morning." JC called back sarcastically.

Moving much slower than normal, we made our way to the kitchen, accepting the plates full of breakfast food eagerly. The chips and ice cream we'd eaten the night before had definitely not been enough to tide us over.

"Have a good night last night, guys?" Johnny said loudly as he came into the kitchen. JC and I both winced at the harshness of his voice, wishing that he'd realize how hung-over we both were and tone it down.

"Mhmm." We both mumbled out, eyes staring down at the plate of food in front of us. JC's head was propped up in his hand as he pushed his eggs around on his plate.

"Good. It's too nice to be inside, why don't we go eat out in the backyard?" he suggested as he walked to the table, plate in hand full of food.

JC and I shared knowing glances. Johnny did know how hung-over we were. And he didn't care. He never did. He knew that the last place we'd want to be was outside in the heat and the bright sunlight-the man likes torture.

"We think we'll stay here." JC finally spoke up.

"Took advantage of the specials on Church Street, huh?" Johnny asked with a laugh and we returned the question with a head nod.

"How'd you know?" I grabbed a piece of bacon from JC's plate and shoved it into my mouth before he could protest.

"You boys caused a stir." Johnny said, producing a copy of the Orlando Sentinel from his back pocket and throwing it on the table.

JC quickly grabbed it up, examining the headlines from the entertainment section.

"No shit?!?!" He exclaimed, reading it over.

Is *NSYNC, In Synch Again?, read the headline. Both JC and I chuckled, growing wide-eyed when we saw the pictures posted underneath. One was a picture of the four of us walking down the middle of Church Street, heads thrown back in laughter and me doubled over at the waist from whatever Chris had said. The other was of us in the middle of a group of girls, dancing around with drinks raised in the air, clearly enjoying ourselves.

"Something you boys need to tell me?" Johnny asked, peering at us over the rim of his coffee mug.

We both swallowed thickly, knowing exactly what this question was leading towards.

"No, Johnny." We replied simultaneously.

"Then can I ask what the hell you were thinking? Going out in such a big group like that? Especially in your hometown?"

I suppressed a laugh, suddenly feeling like I was 16 years old all over again and getting reprimanded for sneaking into one of the downtown clubs with all the guys.

"Honestly, it didn't cross our minds. Most people don't pay us all that much attention. Besides, the hopes for a reunion have died down."

"They might have died down before...but now you've all opened up a can of worms. I have half a mind to call Joey and Chris in here and--"

"J-man. Chill out. Nobody is going to pay any attention to that story." JC said calmly, tossing the paper to the side.

Johnny chuckled. "Tell that to the massive amounts of at replies Melinda and I have gotten on twitter since the story was printed asking about a reunion. And to the radio station that Chris frequently drops in on. I got a call from the morning show at about 7am wondering why Chris hadn't mentioned anything to them the last time he was in. You boys..." he trailed off, shaking his head and walking away. "Numbers are in my office on my desk. You're on damage control today. Do yourself a favor and tell Chris and Joey to get their butts over here too to help out."

"Lance is going to feel left out." I mumbled, pushing around the eggs left on my plate.

"Oh...he can get in on this. Call him up and tell him to take to Twitter. Though you're going to have to explain yourselves." He called out over his shoulder.

"That man has incredible hearing." JC said with a laugh, pushing his plate away from him. "I guess we're off the hook for the album today, though. Let's grab those numbers and go sit poolside and get some sun. We could use it."

Agreeing with him, I picked up my plate and put it in the sink and followed him through the house to Johnny's office. "So, where do we start? Twitter?" JC asked, grabbing the small stack of paper from Johnny' desk.

"Seems the quickest way to get word out to the most people."

"Well hey, at least we get some kind of a break." JC said thoughtfully.

"Yeah...I'm not sure I'd be any good in the studio today, anyway."

"Tomorrow then. And then after that...back to LA."

I almost groaned. I wasn't ready to go back to LA. I was enjoying being away from it too much.

"Right. LA. Maybe I should just buy a place here. I like it here. It's nice. And quiet."

"And then you'd have what? Five houses?" JC asked with a laugh.

"Four." I countered. "So...who gets to call Lance and tell him the news?"

"Definitely you. Besides, you're the one who had the crazy idea last night. Maybe you need to break it to him and see what he says."

"Ugh. I did bring that up, huh? Me and my drunk ass." I said with a laugh, recalling the conversation last night about getting together for a reunion.

"Hey, I already told you a while ago that I'd be on board if everyone else was and if we had some legit stuff to release."

"I know. I guess we should let Lance in on it then." I grabbed my phone from my pocket and dialed his number. "Here goes nothing."