"You ready?" Josh asked, wrapping his arms around my shoulders when we pulled up in front of his parents house.

"Yah," I nodded, getting out of the car, grabbing my bags.

"Josh, sweetheart, how good to see you," Karen Chasez exclaimed, hugging Josh when she open the door. "You too, Justin," she added pulling me into a hug.

"It’s good to see you too, Mrs. Chasez," I replied.

"Dear, you’ve been with my son for two years and I’ve known you since you were twelve, when are you going to start calling me Karen?" she answered. "Come in," she continued, stepping aside so we could enter the house. "Your father isn’t home from work yet, Josh, but he should be soon and Heather and Tyler are in the living room."

"All right, Mom," Josh replied.

"You two go get settled and we’ve talk to you when you come back downstairs," she said.

"All right," Josh nodded, leading me upstairs. "You’ll have to excuse my room, Mom had it decorated so that it looks like it did before I left for MMC," he explained.

"Oh, Josh, dear, I set up the spare room for you two, the one next to your room that we could never figure out what to do with," Karen called. "I figure you two would be more comfortable in there, than in your room."

"I guess she means this room," Josh said after telling his mother okay, stopping in front of a door that was partly open.

"This is nice," I commented looking at the room that was nicely decorated, going wonderfully with what I’d seen of the house so far. "Your mother has good taste."

"Yah," he nodded. "How about I show you around the house, we’ll unpack later?"

"All right, sounds good," I nodded.

"Will that room do for you?" Karen asked when we reached the living room.

"Yah, it’s great," Josh nodded.

"I’m glad," she smiled. "I just didn’t think your room would fit you two comfortable."

"She wants y’all to feel like you’ve got a room to call yours," Heather said. "So you’ll visit more."

"Shush, Heather!" Karen blushed.

"That’s sweet of you, Mom," Josh smiled.

"You’ve got a very nice house," I said after we’d talked for a while.

"Thank you, Justin," she smiled. "We just finally got everything decorated, because it took Roy and I forever to decide on something."

"Well you did a wonderful job," I said. "It’s got that homey feeling about it."

"Well thank you," she smiled. "How’s your mother? I haven’t talked to her in a while."

"She’s doing good. Pretty much just working on her management company and spending time with Paul."

"Well that’s good."

==

"Tonight went well," Josh said later when we were in the spare bedroom.

"Yah it really did," I nodded.

"I really wanna thank you for agreeing to come," he said.

"Why wouldn’t I agree?"

"Well we’ve never really spent time with just my family and I dunno I just figured you were scared to be around them."

"It’s not that I’m scared to be around them, just you’re right we’ve never done it just you, me, and your family, so it was nice to be able to do that," I answered. "I want to be as comfortable spending time with your family as you seem to be with mine."

"I want that too," he replied.

Our week at the Chasez house passed quickly and Karen made us promise to do it again when we weren’t so busy with touring and could stay for longer. Our week in Orlando went just as quickly and it was time to go back on tour.

==

The second leg of our tours went quickly. Everyone on the tour spent as much time with the others as they could because we knew that when tour ended it could be a very long time before we got to spend time together. The Backstreet Boys started to be a bit more friendly during this last part of the tour, which made it a bit more fun because there wasn’t all the tension. When the tours finally ended everyone went back to their homes for short breaks before they went onto the next thing.

For Justice and me it was recording. Lance and Joey had their two week break before they went off to Toronto to film ‘On the Line’ while Chris and Josh headed to LA. Josh was doing some recording for Britney’s new album and Chris was working on FuMan Skeeto. With our boyfriends gone, Justice and I spent the extra week we had off together, moping.

"I miss Lance," Justice sighed.

"I miss Josh," I pouted.

"You two are a sad site. They just left yesterday," Mama laughed.

"And I miss him," we moaned.

"Are you going to pout until they come back?"

"Probably."

"Go pout at Belinda’s then."

"No. It’s too close to Lance’s," Justice pouted.

"Those two aren’t gonna be allowed to leave you two at the same time anymore if I have to watch you pout. Because when one of you is happy you can always make the other happy."

"It’ll get easier when we go into the studio cause we’ll be busy," I replied. "I still miss Josh though."

"And I still miss Lance."

"You two are depressing! Josh will be back soon, Justin, and you’ll get to see Lance soon, Belinda," Mama said.

"I wanna see him now!!"

"I give up. You two are hopeless," she exclaimed stalking out of the room.

"You won’t leave me, will you, Benda?" I sighed.

"Only if you don’t leave me."

"Deal," I said laying my head on her shoulder.

"Even if JC moved into his house in LA and asked you to come with him?"

"I’d say not without Benda D and Lance."

"Lance?"

"You wouldn’t want to leave him you’d both have to be able to come," I explained.

"You’re so good, Justie."

"If nothing else you could move in with Britney probably."

"Only if you and JC will keep the blinds drawn," she joked.

"You and Brit would be lined up to see it."

"Eww, Justie!! You’re my brother! I have no doubt Brit would watch ya but me, never," she said making a face. "Now JC and someone else on the other hand..."

"You nasty, Benda! Josh wouldn’t be with someone else anyway."

We slipped into a peaceful silence watching some afternoon movie on Lifetime.

"I miss Josh/Lance."

"Don’t start that again!" Mama yelled from the kitchen. "Are you staying for dinner, Belinda?"

"Sure, thank you, Lynn."

"Not a problem."

"You gonna stay here tonight or go back to your house?" I asked.

"I’ll probably go back to mine. I’ve got tons of stuff I need to do."

"All right. You’re more than welcome to stay, though."

"Thanks. You’re always welcome at my house too, you know."

"I know," I nodded.

==

"Hello?" I said answering my cell phone.

"I miss you," came Josh’s reply.

"I miss you too," I answered. "When are you coming home?"

"Just another week then I’ll be back," he promised.

"That’s too long," I pouted.

"I know but just think, when I get back I’ll be helping you with your solo album," he reminded me.

"Yah," I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. "How come you aren’t doing a solo album?" I asked him after a bit.

"I dunno, truthfully," he answered. "I thought about it but I think I’d rather wait until after we do another album with the group, ya know?"

"I guess that makes sense."

"Besides with you, Justice, and Britney releasing albums who has a chance in the charts?"

"Please you know you’d just as well if not better than us three in the charts if you did a solo album," I exclaimed.

"I wish."

"You would!" I declared.

"We’ll find out when I do one," he answered.

"You’ll do good," I replied. "Even if I have to buy a million of them," I joked.

"Stocking stuffers," he laughed.