"Geez, Justin, don't have a heart attack," JC as he grimaced and handed the
drink back to Chris. "What the hell is that, that's some nasty shit."
"Tequila sunrise, man. Only there's no sunrise in it."
Justin
ignored Chris and concentrated on whining to JC. "AND not only does she have
Jeff and Drew from 98 Degrees after her, Joey just told me that she used to go
out with--"
"Justin, hi!"
Justin cringed and closed his eyes. He
recognized that saccharine-sweet voice. He slowly turned to face the girl who
the world thought was so sweet and innocent, the girl he referred to as 'the
psycho stalker bitch.' "Hi Veronica," he said dully with zero warmth or
enthusiasm in his tone.
"My God, it's been so long since I've seen you.
Gimme a hug!"
Justin involuntarily took a step back as the short red
head stepped forward. There was no way in hell she was gonna get her claws on
him again.
"Justin!" Chris shouted. "You gotta come see this!"
"What?" Justin asked, more grateful to his friend than words could say.
"Um…" Chris looked around, trying to find something, anything, to point
out to him. "Um…I just wanted you to see…" His voice trailed off as he racked
his brain. "To see this!" He reached out and poured the contents of his drink on
Joey, directly over his crotch.
Jaws drop as they all watched the liquid
seep into Joey's yellow pants. Joey's face was a study in emotions. Shock,
anger, laughter, and amazement were all battling for control. Eventually anger
won out. "What the hell did you do that for? You better run, boy, cause I'm
gonna kick your ass!"
"Whoa boy!" Johnny caught him by the arm as he
lunged at Chris. "Not in public, children."
"Look what he did to me!"
Johnny looked at the wet spot on Joey's pants, at Chris and then back at
Joey. "What did he do, make you piss your pants?"
Justin and JC erupted
in laughter.
"No," Joey said through his teeth, "he purposely poured his
drink on me." He stalked off to find a bathroom.
"Chris, why'd you do
that?" Johnny admonished the man who nearly always acted as if he was ten and
not the thirty that he was pushing.
"Well…" He looked around to check to
see if she was still hanging around. When he saw that she was gone, he
continued, "the psycho stalker bitch was gonna hug Justin and I think it would
have caused quite a scene if he would have slung her across the room by her
hair, which is what it looked like he was gonna do."
Johnny turned his
attention to Justin. "Veronica is here?"
"Yeah." Justin scowled.
"Johnny Wright, how are you?" Romero's accented voice cut through the
tension surrounding the four men like a knife. "Oh, my goodness, and you got the
boys here, too."
"Romero, how's it going?" JC asked and thumped the
smaller man on his back.
"Ay, it's a madhouse in here. I been looking
for Miss Madison for forever."
"Yeah, you and Justin both," Chris
muttered under his breath.
"What's that?" Romero asked.
"Oh, I
said, the hostess sucks."
"I didn't know there was a hostess for this
thing."
"You look tired, man," Justin commented.
"Well," Romero
sighed, "it was fun for the first hour, you know? But I'm just too old for all
of this. I can't be staying up all late like this, I gotta get my beauty sleep.
Besides, William is waiting up for me! I'll have more fun with him than I'm
having here."
"That's bordering on more than we need to know, man,"
Johnny laughed at his colleague.
"Bye, y'all. Don't be a stranger, k?"
And with that, he was gone.
Chris jumped when he felt something
vibrating in his pocket. He pulled his cell phone out and answered it.
"Hello…Hey girl, what's up…See, how you gone be calling my phone and asking for
him? Why not just call his phone...Oh, no, you can't talk to him now. You called
ME!"
"Who is it?" Justin asked him.
"Jen. What?" he said into
the phone. "No, we're just tripping on Justin cause he just found out that
Maddie ain't quite the saint he pictured her to be. She has," he gasped
exaggeratedly, "an ex-boyfriend!"
JC went to take the phone from him.
"Give me that!"
"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" He turned his back to avoid JC's
attempts to grab the phone. "Whose phone is this? Whose bill is she charging up
calling from Arizona? Mmhmm, that's what I thought. Back up offa me, bitch! No,
I didn't just call your man a bitch…But Jen--…Jen--…Jennifer! Damn, girl, hold
on." He passed the phone to JC. "You need to put a leash on her."
"Hey!"
JC frowned at him. His voice and demeanor totally changed as he placed the phone
to his ear. "Hey baby." He walked off in search of quiet and privacy.
"He is so whipped," Chris sighed at the retreating figure.
"Hello! I thought we were talking about me here," Justin whined.
"Dammit, I need a drink."
"Oh, no you don't," Johnny grabbed him by the
collar of his shirt as he attempted to head towards the bar.
"Aw, c'mon,
Johnny, man."
"Yeah, Johnny, man, it's not every day Brillo Head here
sees the girl of his dreams kissing on Br--"
"They weren't kissing!"
Justin was almost shouting.
"All right, all right, little man, chill."
Chris decided to stop teasing the poor guy when he saw how genuinely upset he
was. "OK, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to figure out what the
girl has against you, help her to get over it, get her to fall madly in love
with you and then fuck her brains out--"
"Chris!" Justin hissed through
his teeth.
"What?" Chris shrugged. "You don't want to fuck her?"
"Geez, not when you put it like that."
"OK, let me rephrase that
then: your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out why she
doesn't like you (Justin frowned at this. He knew that Maddie acted coolly
towards him, he just never put it in such graphic terms before), fix it, get her
to fall for you and then make mad, passionate, hot, sweaty love to her, how's
that?"
Justin frowned, having trouble following Chris' leaps and turns
of logic. "Whatever."
"Ok, gentlemen, we are now on a mission: Get
Maddie!"