"I want to go public," I announced the next morning walking into the meeting we were having to talk about the release of Celebrity and the summer tour we were doing with the Bakcstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Hanson, and the Moffatts.

"Public about what?" Chris yawned, lifting his head off the back of the couch.

"How can you be so awake? It’s eight in the morning!" Joey exclaimed.

"About me and Josh," I replied sitting down.

"What?" Johnny asked looking up from the papers he was going through.

"I want to tell people about Josh and my relationship," I said speaking slowly.

"I heard you, Justin, but why?"

"Because I love him and I’m sick of this!"

"Shouldn’t you talk to JC about this?" Lance asked.

"We’ve already talked about it and he said to run it by you guys," I replied.

"Maybe I should’ve said I’d run it by them," Josh said walking into the office, sitting down next to me. "Would you guys have a problem with us going public?"

"Of course not!" Joey and Chris exclaimed.

"I don’t see any problems with you two going public," Lance said.

"Johnny?"

"It’s not up to me, guys," he replied. "I don’t have a problem with it but are you ready to deal with everything that’s going to come from going public?"

"We’ll get through it together," I replied.

"You can count on us too," the other three said.

"Thanks guys," Josh smiled at them.

"All right so when do you want to it?" Johnny asked.

"Like yesterday?"

"Your next appearance is on Rosie in two weeks, when you’re singing ‘Open’ with Justice," Johnny said looking over our schedule. "That soon enough?"

"It’ll do," Josh nodded.

"All right I’ll have someone call and make sure they know you’re going to need talking time," he said. "So you’ll probably end up just doing ‘Open’ and not ‘Pop’ too."

"All right," we nodded.

"This also means more appearances," he said. "Everyone and their brother’s going to want to know about this."

"As long as I can let the world know who I love, I don’t care," I shrugged.

==

"Lance, lemme talk to Benda," I said, after having watched him talk to her for almost an hour.

"Oh your brother’s just being inpatient," Lance replied smirking at me.

"Lance," I whined. "Josh, make Lance stop being mean to me," I pouted when he came into the room, while Lance continued to ignore me.

"What’s he being mean about?" Josh asked.

"He won’t let me talk to Justice!" I exclaimed.

"Let them talk, you can talk to her later."

"But I wanna tell her about Rosie!!"

"You’ll get to tell her," Josh said. "Right now let Lance talk to his girlfriend."

"But I wanna talk to my sister!"

"So how’s Kansas, Randi?" Lance asked, loudly. "Tell me every little thing you’ve done, a minute by minute account."

"You’re mean and I hate you," I glared at him.

"Yah basically, just messin with Justin," he laughed. "Well I would but he hates me now so I dunno, should I? Yah I didn’t think so either."

"IT’S IMPORTANT JUSTICE!!" I yelled in the direction of the phone.

"That was my ear," Lance groaned, tossing the phone at me.

"Serves you right," I replied. "Justice!!"

"What, Justie?" she asked.

"JOSH AND I ARE GOING PUBLIC!!" I exclaimed.

"You are?? Awesome!! WHEN??" she exclaimed.

"Two weeks on Rosie!"

"Ahh!! That’s wonderful!! Why am I just now hearing about this??"

"Cause we just decided yesterday and you and your mean boyfriend, who I still hate, wouldn’t let me talk to you!"

"Well shit if I’d know it was important, I wouldn’t have been tellin Lance about the new polish I bought."

"You two talked for an hour about finger nail polish? You’re mean too," I exclaimed.

"How come you don’t hate her?" Lance asked.

"Because she’s not stupid like you," I replied.

====

"Ohmigod, I’m so scared," I whispered as we rode in the limo on our way to the studio.

"We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to," Josh reminded me, rubbing my back.

"I want to, I’m just so nervous," I said, laying my head on his shoulder. "I don’t want to be the reason that you know we loose all our fans."

"We aren’t going to loose all our fans," Josh said hugging me, "and the ones we do loose aren’t real fans anyway. We don’t need fans like that."

"But what if-"

"No what ifs," he cut me off. "Everything is going to be fine. Think about how many people we could be helping, all those boys and girls that are afraid to be open about their sexuality."

"You think we’d be helping?" I asked, looking him in the eyes, liking the idea that we would be.

"We might."

"I hope so. I like the idea of being able to help others," I smiled. "How are you so calm about this? I’m over here freaking out and your like as calm as can be."

"I’m almost twenty-five years old, Jus, I’m sick of pretending to be with people I’m not really with," he shrugged.

"I’m still so nervous, ya know?"

"I’m nervous too, but if you’re ready for this, so am I."

"I’m ready for this," I said when the limo stopped in front of the studio. "Here goes nothing."

"Five? I’ve got a bet going with Brit he’ll propose to her for like fifty, you’re gettin gypped, Chris," I heard Justice say when Josh and I got to the green room.

"So glad you all believe in us SO much," I said pouting when we walked in.

"This is a big thing, Justie, I wouldn’t fault you if you backed down," Justice answered. "But if he does propose to Brit, JC, I give you permission to beat him into submission."

"Thank you, Justice," he grinned.

"Who needs an enemy when you have a sister like her?" I said shaking my head.

"No offense to Brit or anything but I do not want her as my sister-in-law. I’ve grown to like JC."

"Justice is being nice, should we be scared?" Josh asked.

"No. I’m just nervous cause I know that they’re gonna ask about the article in People and I’m still not sure I wanna talk about it..."

"How about Lance goes out there in the middle of it and proposes to her? Then they won’t ask about it," Chris suggested. "Or not..." he said, cringing under the glares they gave him.

"Better idea, why doesn’t Chris ask to Dani to go back out with him," Justice replied. "That’ll not only get the pressure off me, but make me happy as well!"

"Justice, they’re ready for you," Renee said before Chris had a chance to reply.

"All right. I will see you all in a bit to sing," she said hugging each of us.

"Good luck," we said before she left.

"How are you two holding up?" Lance asked when the show went to it’s first commercial break.

"Okay," Josh said.

"Nervous but I’m ready," I answered. "It’s good to have you all around for support."

"I’d be upset if you didn’t do it when we were around," Chris informed us.

"Seriously," Joey and Lance agreed.

"Thanks guys," I smiled.

"They’re ready for you, guys."