"Damn it, Lala!" Lois yelled as she banged her fists into the door, an unpleasant scowl across her face. "Get the fuck out of there!"
"Piss off, Lolo! You shouldn't have taken so damn long on the phone with Kayla!" her defiant cousin called through the firmly closed bathroom door.
Lois huffed loudly before giving the door one last kick for good measure, and turning to sit on the couch.
Lois had agreed to go out with Joey, Justin and Lauren that night. It wasn't like she had anything better to do. To be perfectly honest, she hadn't been doing much of anything lately. Since Joey and the guys had gone back into the studio to record, her social calendar had been reduced to watching Will and Grace, Friends, and the NBA playoffs. The highlight of her night for the last two weeks had been when the cute pizza delivery guy would come knocking at her door. She was pretty sure he was scared of her now, ever since the night she asked him if he came as one of the pizza toppings.
Nicki had asked her repeatedly over the last week when Lois was going to go out on an actual date. Granted Lois hadn't been on a date in what seemed like years, but she honestly had no desire. Why would she want to be thrust into an awkward, uncomfortable meeting with someone who she probably wasn't going to like, only to have that horribly traumatic goodnight kiss moment undoubtedly turn into a disaster?
If she could just go out and have fun with a guy, then come home, shake hands and say 'thanks for the good time', then she would love to date. But in her experience, the men always wanted to move in and have her take care of them. What did she look like? A daycare center?
This is why she loved her relationship with Joey and the guys. There were no strings attached in their friendships. They were always there for each other, to hang out, to listen when she had a bad day, and were the closest thing to a family she had in Orlando.
Why mess with a good thing? She was happy where she was, and in her opinion, there was no point in adding another person to the mix.
Besides, it wasn't exactly easy to date when you had the members of NSync as friends. Other than the fact that the guys were extremely protective and occasionally more critical of the men she dated than she was, how do you tell a man that your best friend is Joey Fatone? Your cousin is dating Justin Timberlake, and you helped decorate Chris Kirkpatricks home?
It was hard for the guys to introduce new people into their lives, and since Lois was already a part of that life, it was hard for her to introduce people into it as well. Just as they had to be careful, so did she.
She had had a man or two begin to move a little too fast once they discovered who she was friends with. They viewed her as a ticket to the A-list, and she wasn't about to have any of that. She wasn't a social charity.
She was looking forward to going out with everyone tonight. It really had been too long since she had been out of the house, other than going to work, the gym, or the studio to pick up the guys. She needed a night to be a normal woman her age.
The door to the bathroom opened, and Lauren stepped out with a stern look. Her hair was wrapped up in a towel on her head, steam from her recent shower mixing with the cool air of the room. Wrapping her robe tighter around herself, Lauren scowled at Lois.
"There, you boyle on my ass! Use the bathroom!" she said as she walked across the plush carpet towards her room.
"Why thank you, my little dust pan." Lois grinned as she watched Lauren enter her room.
Lois didn't move. Joey and Justin would be there in about two hours to pick them up, but she didn't feel like getting dressed up yet. She was too comfortable in her sweat pants and oversized t-shirt.
Peaking her head back out of her room, Lauren gave her cousin a questioning look. "Why aren't you in the bathroom yet? You were banging on that door and screaming like a banshee a moment ago, now you're just sittin' there?"
Lois shrugged. "I forgot why I wanted to go in there."
Lauren rolled her eyes before disappearing back into her room. A few seconds later she emerged in a t-shirt and pajama pants.
"What? You're not getting ready yet either?" Lois asked as Lauren sat on the couch beside her, reaching forward to pick the remote up from the coffee table in front of them and begin flipping through channels on the TV.
"We've got a couple hours. Ive already showered, and it wont take me that long to get ready. Remember, I'm the low maintenance one. You're the diva." Lauren teased, not bothering to look at her cousin.
"Bite me, Lala." Lois said, pinching Laurens arm.
"No, that's Joey job." Lauren grinned, her eyes still on the program on the television.
Lois' jaw dropped, but she quickly regained her composure to give Lauren a look of annoyance.
"Oh close your mouth." Lauren said, "I was only kidding."
"Why did I let you move in here with me, again?" Lois asked seriously.
"Because you love me. And because you didn't want that guy you were dating back then to try and move in."
Lois nodded. "Okay, yeah. But still, you're a pain in my ass."
"Well, your a boyle on mine."
"Then our asses are in pretty rough shape then, huh?"
"Mine is just fine," Lauren said, finally turning to look at Lois. "Justin says its cute."
"Justin also tried to kick his own ass one night when Chris suggested that it couldn't be done, and ended up spraining a toe." Lois challenged. "He isn't exactly the best person to be taking seriously."
"Hey! Joey isn't exactly perfect! Remember when he got himself locked in the bus bathroom?"
Lois laughed a the memory. "Yeah, I do. But we're not talking about Joey."
The two women sat on the couch, staring each other down for a long while before Lauren spoke up. "What were we talking about again? How the hell do our conversations end up the way they do?"
Lois shrugged. "I don't know. We were talking about getting ready to go out tonight, and ended up talking about Justins ass kicking and Joeys inability to open a door."
Just then, the phone rang through the apartment, screeching annoyingly.
Giving it an unhappy look, as if the phone would actually take offense to the gesture, Lois looked at the caller ID. Justin. Smiling to herself, she picked up the receiver. "Hello, you have reached the Justin Timberlake Sucks Hotline. If you would like to talk about how much cuter Nick Carter is than Justin, press one. If you would like to place a bet on when Justins hair will take over New York, press two. If you would like....."
"If you would like Justin to come over there and kick Lois' ass, press three!" Justins annoyed voice interrupted Lois in her fun.
Pulling the receiver from her ear, Lois pressed the number three on her phone.
"There, I chose three. Com'on and try and kick his ass, Timberlake. You couldn't even kick your own!"
"Hey! I proved ya'll wrong about that one already! Dont make me have to do it again!" he warned.
Rolling her eyes, Lois smiled. "What do you want Justin?"
"You guys ready yet?" he asked.
"Um, no." Lois answered, her forehead scrunching. "You aren't supposed to be picking us up for another couple hours."
"Oh yeah, well, we changed our minds. We're on our way over now. We're bringing over a pizza, too. Sorry, no pizza delivery guy tormenting for you tonight, Lolo." Justin said.
"Dont call me Lolo!" she warned.
"Lolo! Lolo, Lolo, Lolo, Lolo!"
"I hate you."
"Love you too, Lolo." Justin smiled into the phone. "See you in five minutes."
Just as Lois was about to protest, the phone clicked off, signally that he had hung up.
Giving the phone another dirty look, Lois hung up.
"What?" Lauren asked as she picked at a string on her pants.
"They are on their way over now. They're bringing pizza."
"But we already ate." Lauren reminded.
"Yeah I know, but Justin didn't exactly give me a chance to explain that little tidbit of information." Lois commented.
Groaning, Lauren pushed herself up from the couch and headed for her room. "Well, I'm at least going to try and dry my hair before they get here. You better take a shower."
"You saying I smell bad?" Lois asked, her arms crossing over her chest.
"No. Well, yes. No offense, hon, but you've got a little Peppe Le Pew thing going on here."
"I was at the gym!"
Lauren simply shrugged in response and retreated to her room.
Sighing loudly, Lois stood and stretched her arms over her head.
Walking into the bathroom, she had a quick shower and decided to try and get something done with her hair before Justin and Joey arrived. Lord knows it would be hard enough trying to put her makeup on with them there, she may as well do her hair now. Last time they went out, Justin somehow spilled her perfume, got blue eye shadow on is nose, and lipstick on his arm. And he was only in the bathroom for a few minutes to pee. No one quite understood how one man could be such an accident looking for a place to happen.
Tightening her robe around herself, Lois stepped up to the bathroom mirror, whipping away the condensation with her hand.
Placing her wide variety of hair products on the counter, she proceeded to dry her hair.
A moment later, the bathroom door opened, and Joey bounced happily in.
"Joey!" Lois shrieked. "What the hell are you doing?"
"What?" he asked, shrugging as if he didn't understand the problem.
"You don't just go barging into people bathrooms!"
"You do it all the time!" he pointed.
"But I am Lois." she replied plainly.
Rolling his eyes at her, Joey hopped up to sit on the edge of the counter. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Perfecting my gymnastics skills. Maybe next year Ill make the Olympic team." she replied sarcastically. "What the shit does it look like I'm doing?"
"Geez, man cant even ask a question." Joey mumbled to himself.
Scrunching gel into her wet hair, Lois dried it slightly, leaving it with a wavy texture.
Upon completely her hair, she turned to Joey. "Can I have a little privacy, please?"
"Why?" he asked. "You gotta fart?"
"Ugh!" she groaned, pushing on his arm while he laughed at his own humor. "I have to change, now get out!"
"What? You can change with me in here."
"I can, but I'm not. So go."
Joey laughed again, and allowed himself to be pushed out of the bathroom while Lois threw her t-shirt and sweat pants back on.
Emerging from the bathroom, Lois laughed at Justin who was trying to figure out how to get the TV to stop speaking in Spanish.
"How the hell do you stop this?" he whined as he continued to push random buttons.
"How did you get it like that in the first place?" Lois asked as she headed towards the kitchen to grab a slice of pizza.
"I don't know!" he complained. "I was just trying to turn up the volume, and all of a sudden its like this!"
Grabbing the remote from Justin's fumbling hands, Lauren pushed a series of buttons to return the dialogue to the desired language.
Smiling up at her, Justin sighed. "My hero."
Patting his head, she grinned. "My moron."
Justin faked hurt, before pulled Lauren over the back of the couch and tackling her.
"Justin, don't! Dont! Piss off! You're going to make me pee! Dont make me pee!" Lauren gasped between laughs.
"Oh now that's romantic." Joey teased as he sat in a recliner across from the spectacle Lauren and Justin were displaying.
"That's me." Justin grinned as he kissed the end of Laurens nose. "Mr Romantic."
"Hey Mr Romantic," Lois called as she looked down at him from her place standing behind the couch. "Your flys down again."
Justins eyes turned quickly to his zipper, before looking back at Lois annoyed. "Is not!"
Shrugging Lois sat on the floor at Joeys feet. "Hey, and girl can dream."
Finishing their dinner, the girls returned to their rooms to get ready for their night out.
Emerging thirty minutes later, they laughed at Justin, who had fallen asleep on the couch.
"Oh, yeah, Mr. Excitement. Thats my man, ladies, go on and be envious of me, I know you wanna." Lauren spoke to an imaginary audience.
Sneaking up to the couch, Lois looked at Justins sleeping form.
He looked to peaceful, she almost felt hesitant to wake him.
Almost.
Leaning over him, she waited a moment, before screaming at the top of her lungs.
"OH MY GOD! JUSTIN GET UP! QUICK, QUICK, QUICK!!!"
Justins body flew into an upright position, as his frantic eyes darted around the room confused. "MY ZIPPERS NOT DOWN!" he yelled.
The room erupted in laughter, as Justin tried to get a grasp on where he was.
"A little paranoid about your zipper now, J?" Lois laughed.
Looking over to her, Justin gave her an unimpressed stare. "Sleep with one eye open, Lawson. You're gonna pay."
"Oh Justin, please remind me later to be scared. I might forget and I wouldn't want to miss that." she grinned.
Giving her another stern look, Justin stood from the couch.
"Com'on, lets go before I am forced to lay a smack down on this thorn in my backside." he said as he turned towards the door.
Grinning, everyone gathered their coats and followed Justins lead.
Heading down the hall towards the elevator, Joey wrapped an arm around Lois' shoulders. "Ready for a night of fun?"
Grinning back up at him, Lois laughed. "With you, I'm always ready."
