First off, quote of the millennium:

"You know..." Joey squinted, cocking his head and peering over at Jay as he positioned Chris' hips for the kick that he'd continually been offbeat on. "We probably couldn't let Wade get within ten feet of him - we'll never get anything done. Your younger self... he's.... kinda gay."

"He's what?" Justin froze mid swallow, his water bottle splashing over his chest.

"You know... he's kinda... like Lance..."

Lance's eyes widened, and his Adam's Apple bobbed. "I'm... I'm not..."

"Dude. Yeah. You kinda are."

Now, moving on...

This story features what the author describes as "timeshifting!Justin." The sixteen year-old version of Justin Timberlake suddenly appears from the 'N Sync tour bus bathroom, and all hell breaks loose. There is a lot of tension between past-tense and present-tense Justin, and Chris seems to get caught all up in the middle of everything as he finds himself taking a liking to past-tense Justin. Kudos to Silvia for this extremely innovative and just plain old awesome concept. I haven't seen much of this anywhere.

I can only find one fault in this story, and that is its "fattiness." I used this quality to describe a previous story I reviewed, and that is when the parts of the story that serve as "action" are spaced too far apart by filler. Now, the difference between Silvia's filler and Jherusalem's filler is that Silvia's actually serves a purpose, showing us the group's reaction to past-tense Justin and his reaction to 'N Sync's apparent ambisexuality as of late. Present-tense Justin appears particularly hostile towards his younger self, and that's a bit unsettling at parts, but I think that's what she was trying to acheive with this story. I won't lie and say that the relationship between 29 year-old Chris and 16 year-old Justin doesn't squick me a bit, but Silvia sort of makes that all right with the fact that this isn't just a 16 year-old, but the present-tense 20 year-old as well.

The dialogue in this story is hilarious, and Silvia also writes very strong and multi-dimensional supporting characters who could probably stand alone if she wanted them to. Her Lance had me laughing out loud with his pie charts and tele-conferences that "made him feel important."

I'd recommend this story to anyone who enjoys humor, angst, and just plain old good writing. It's hard to find people out there who can write such a lukewarm pairing this well, and from looking around Silvia's site a little bit more (which she shares with another writer, Alicia Malone), she's one author who's got this Chris/Justin thing in a fucking chokehold.

CABS grade: 9/10