Joey turned off the TV and walked over to the door. He carefully turned the knob, looking through the crack at the well dressed woman holding a notepad in one hand and a small recorder in the other.
"Hello, Mr. Fatone. I'm Cari Carlton from VH1."
He opened the door the rest of the way, leading her to a chair. "I'm sorry this place is such a mess. I didn't realize the interview was today. Lately, I've just been forgetful."
"That's ok, Mr. Fatone."
"Please, call me Joey. My friends call me Joey." He smiled and sat down in a worn armchair across from the reporter.
"Well, Mr. Fa... Joey, would you like to start? I'm sorry if I seem a bit nervous. This is actually one of my first jobs." She hesitantly smiled at the grinning man.
"Oh, I'll help you. After all, I've been through thousands of these things." He folded one leg underneath the other, attempting to provide a more comfortable atmosphere. "Would you like something to drink."
"Oh, I guess some water would be nice."
Joey walked over to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. "So, where would you like me to start?" He plopped back down, placing a bottle on the table near her as she flipped through pages of the tiny notepad. She looked up to the welcoming smile and began.
"Well, they want me to focus on the last few years and the four other members'... umm..."
"Deaths?"
She dropped the notepad, but picked it up and flipped on the recorder in one quick motion. "Yeah, deaths. Umm, can you say your name for the tape?"
"Sure, this is Joseph Anthony Fatone, Jr. It's 3:14 PM, on May 4th, 2005." Joey paused, as in thought. "It's Lance's birthday. He's twenty-six today. Time flies by, doesn't it?"
Cari stared at him for a few seconds before once again flipping through some papers. "It sure does." She scribbled something in the notepad and crossed her legs. Joey let out a chuckle as he watched her foot swinging in the air.
"They usually like me to go over how we started. Want a little summary?" He ran a hand over his hair, still smiling.
Cari wrote yet more, shaking and consistently tucking hair behind her ears. "Ok, that's be good. It's always good to start at the start."
He laughed to himself. "The beginning."
"Excuse me?"
"The saying is 'start at the beginning'. I'll start at either, though." Joey put a hand to his chin, deep in thought. "Disney World. It all started in Disney World. I worked there. Chris worked there. I knew JC. He knew Justin. Jason was the fifth. It's true, you know."
Cari frowned in confusion. "What's true?"
"Justin's mother thought up our name. It was the last letters from all of our names. Justin was the first N. He would always be the first N. Chris was the S. I was the Y. Jason was the second N. He wouldn't always be the second N, but I'm sure you already knew that. Then, there was JC. JC was the C. I don't know who was the apostrophe. I don't think we ever thought that up." He laughed a little before carrying on. "Well, Jason just wasn't interested enough, I guess. He wasn't willing to work as long and hard as it would take."
"Yes, we actually talked to Jason." Cari thumbed through the papers. "We were able to get a little from him. Not much, though."
"From who?" Joey's smile began to fade as Cari's expression transformed into pure confusion.
"Jason. We were just talking about him."
Joey rubbed his eyes and looked back toward her, his smile turning just as bright as ever. "There's my memory for you. Now, back to the story. Jason was gone and we needed a new bassist. That's when we got Lance. Sure, he couldn't dance, he was shy, and he had that accent, but Lou said he was an investment. I don't know if that's when it started... but I won't get ahead of the story. I actually sort of liked the accent. It was kind of warm - like peach cobbler or apple pie or something. Plus, he was determined. I guess that was part of his problem, too. That's getting ahead again. Warn me next time." Joey gave her another friendly chuckle.
"So, did all of you get along from the beginning?" Cari watched his facial expressions and wrote at the same time.
"Sure. I mean, we already all knew each other and Lance fit in great. All you had to do was smile and show him you were trustworthy and you couldn't shut the guy up. Then, we adjusted his name, and he was the second N. He would always be the second N."
Chapter 2