The girls had spent the majority of the next week wit the guys. Come Christmas, the group split to be with their families. The day after Christmas the nine of them all gathered back at Justin’s. Shelley and Justin spent all the time they had together. JC and Kristina became closer and closer. Audrey decided that she would go to Hawaii, but not because of sympathy and guilt, because she wasn’t afraid anymore. She had learned to trust Chris over the last couple of months. Julie and Lance still kept their distance from each other. As hard as Lance tried to get some trust, Julie would always back down.
“Aud, so have ya made up your mind?” Kristina said. The two were in JC’s room talking and getting Audrey’s things all packed.
“Yeah. I’m not afraid,” She said. “I trust Chris.”
“That’s good. I’m glad. We should be getting back to the others.”
The two walked back downstairs. Lance was in the den thinking about what he heard the week before. He didn’t know that Audrey had changed her mind.
“What do I do? Should I tell him? Should I keep quiet? What do I do?” Lance was pacing back and forth talking to himself. Julie caught him and saw that he was troubled.
“Lance? Are you okay?” She asked.
“Huh?” He said a bit startles. “Um…yeah, I’m fine. No I’m not…. Um…yes. Yes I’m fine.”
She gave him a questioning look. Before she could ask anything else, Lance started venting. “Okay, okay Jewels. I heard something I wasn’t suppose to and I’m not sure if I should tell the person it involves with or just keep my mouth shut or…”
“What Lance, slow down. You didn’t hear plans of murder did you?” She joked.
“Julie! I’m serious!” he snapped.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know what to do.” He said softly.
“Well it would help if I knew what it was you heard.”
Lance sighed and slowly began to speak. “Audrey’s going to Hawaii.”
“Um…Lance I know.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. She’s going out of sympathy and guilt and I don’t know whether to tell Chris or not. It would crush him.” Lance said becoming highly stressed.
The room was quiet at first but soon the silence left when Julie began laughing. Lance looked up from his seat with a confused look on his face. “Julie, there’s nothing to laugh about.”
“I’m sorry Lance. You must not know then.” She said sitting next to him.
“Know what?”
“Audrey changed her mine. She told us earlier.” Julie said watching Lance’s expressions. “She also explained to Chris, who completely understood.”
Lance’s jaw dropped. He began laughing the same way Julie had earlier. “Someone could have informed me or something, thanks a lot Julie.” He said sarcastically.
“You’re welcome,” she said smiling.
Lance leaned forward and took Julie in his arms and gave her a big hug. She was slightly taken by this but soon enjoyed it. She rubbed his back and whispered into his ear. “It’s sweet of you to worry about Chris like that.”
“Well he’s my friend,” he said letting go of Julie. “Kind of like if we were friends, I’d…” His voice trailed off as soon as he realized what he was saying. “Bad example.”
“Lance?” She said.
“Nevermind, I got to go.” Lance said walking away.
“Go? Go where? Frolic in the woods? Lance wait.” He stopped and faced her. “Hun, what makes you think we aren’t friends.” She asked.
“Well that one day at the mall…” He said cautiously not knowing how Julie would react.
“Lance, that was then, this…” She said taking a hold of his hands. “…This is now. Do you honestly thing I’d be wasting my time with you if I didn’t already forgive you.”
Her comment brought a smile to Lance’s face. “I see your point.” He said, his hands still entwined with Julie’s. “Thanks for being here for me.”
“No problem. I’ll always be here for you now.” She leaned towards him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Finally, it’s settled. Lance, we can start over. She thought to herself with a smile. The two walked back out of the den to the others in the living room.
Shelley and Justin had left to spend the rest of the day together. “Justin’s pretty serious about Shelley isn’t he?” Chris said.
“What do you mean?” Audrey said coming back from the room. She sat next to Chris who held her close.
“They haven’t been together for that long and they are acting as if they’ve been together for a year or that Justin’s not coming back.”
“Well I don’t think they’re that serious,” Kristina said. It sounded as if she was jealous but she knew inside she wasn’t.
“We shouldn’t butt in, let them do what they want.” Julie said.
Everyone agreed. Hours passed by quickly and soon enough nine o’ clock rolled by. Justin and Shelley arrived back at the house a little while before. The room seemed to become extremely quiet. “We better be heading to bed so we can get breakfast all together.” Joey said.
“Good night guys,” Audrey said. “We girls are heading up now.”
“Night.” The guys said.
**The Next Morning**
The girls all fell asleep in Kristina’s room talking. They all awoke to the sounds of laughter and the wonderful smell of food. “Hey chicks, let’s go downstairs.” The four of them all proceeded down the stairs still in their tees, sweats and pajama’s.
“The girls are up!” JC said peeking through the swinging door. The door swung open on JC and he went straight to the floor.
“Oh my…” Kristina said grabbing JC’s hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yep, I’m fine. Go back outside with the others.” He instructed.
“Yes Sir.” Kristina said saluting JC.
After a few more minutes, the food was ready. The guys had prepared the table and called in for the girls. “Wow, this looks awesome.” Shelley said amazed at the guys’ efforts.
“Thank you. We were up since six this morning.” Justin said.
“The food looks yummy.” Julie said sitting herself next to Lance.
“I sure hope it taste as good as you say.” Audrey said cracking a smile.
“Very funny Aud, really, you’re humor isn’t need just yet.” Chris said patting her head and sitting next to her. JC found himself across from Kristina, who was sitting next to Shelley and Justin. Joey was at the head of the table, leaving the other end open. Thirty minutes into the breakfast, Kristina and Shelley found themselves getting into a heavy conversation.
“Are you serious?” Shelley said.
“Yes, totally.” Kristina said.
“When?”
“I’m not sure. I’m guessing that one time some people from school saw JC and me together at the park and told him about it. Remember that call I got last night, the one that shook me up a little?”
“Yeah why?”
“That was Cory.”
“Why would he be calling you? He’s the one who broke up with you.”
“Yeah I know. He wanted to know if JC and I are a couple. I told him that we weren’t.”
“Why doesn’t he just leave you alone? No, take that back, I think he’s trying to get back with you.” Shelley said. “Ya know, since JC is from NSYNC, he might be a tad bit jealous.
“I don’t know. ”
Everyone at the table stopped eating and looked over at the two. “Shel, Kris, what are you two talking about that you can’t tell any of us about?” Audrey asked.
“Remember Cory?”
“Vaguely, why?”
“Yeah well, we’re guessing that he’s trying to get back with me.” She said staring at JC to see his reaction, which wasn’t too good.
“He wants to get back with you? Isn’t he the boyfriend who broke up with you because of your ‘popularity status’?” Audrey said trying to remember him.
“Yep that’s him. That was before I actually did become one of the “popular” ones. A rumor got out that he was a chauvinist and since I was the “victim,” I got pretty popular and people began to recognize me. But he wasn’t always like that. Anyway, now I’m guessing since people saw JC and me a couple weeks ago, they are assuming we’re a couple. ” Kristina said, seeming as if it weren’t a big deal.
“Kris, do you still like him? I mean he wasn’t that bad of a boyfriend at some points of your relationship.” Julie said.
“Yeah you’re right, he wasn’t,” She said.
“He just had his moments.” Audrey pointed out. “Just like Justin has his ego moments.”
“Hey!” He said offended. “I’m the ‘great one’, so remember that.”
“Oh please, there goes his ego again.” Lance said.
“But his ego is so cute.” Shelley said defending Justin.
“Thanks babe,” He said kissing her.
“Welcome.”
“So Kris what are you going to do?” Shelley asked.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if I have feelings for him still. It was one of those break ups that happened but you really didn’t want it to happen, ya know?”
“Yeah, I can relate,” Shelley and Audrey said. Everyone resumed to eating his or her breakfast.
JC sat quietly still eating his food. Kristina looked up and saw his expressionless face. “JC will you help me clean some of this up?”
“Yeah, sure.” He said picking up the cleared plates and following Kristina. He set the dishes in the sink and turned around to face her.
“What’s up?”
“I just want to know how you feel about all of this. Ya know, the whole Cory thing.” She said.
“Kris, I don’t think much of it right now. Besides we’re not going out so it shouldn’t matter what I think, right?”
That wasn’t exactly the answer Kristina was looking for. “Yes, I know we aren’t going out but I still wanted your opinion.” She said angrily. She stormed out of the room and sat back down. JC knew he acted poorly. He didn’t know what to do anymore. His feelings for Kristina were growing everyday and the fact that she might still like another guy was killing him. He walked back outside and sat back down.
Breakfast soon ended just as quickly as it started. Everyone was moving rather slowly as if to slow down time. At about 11:30, the vans had pulled up to Justin’s driveway to pick them all up. Half an hour later, the bags were all packed. Each of the guys’ families had arrived earlier and said their good-byes and left. All nine people piled into the two vans and were off to the airport. Once at the airport, the luggage was checked in and the group was sent to a private room to avoid the hassles of fans and to also say good-bye without interruptions. The flight was at 2:30 and the time to leave was nearing. Audrey and the girls were all huddled in the corner.
“Hey, I’m only going to be gone for two weeks. I’ll be back a couple days after you three go are back at school. I called each of your parents and they said it was okay for you two to stay at my apartment till I get back. There’s enough food for the three of you to last three weeks. Don’t have too much fun without me. I expect the house to be spotless when I get home.”
“Yes mom.” The three said together.
Kristina was taking this pretty hard. She hasn’t been away from Audrey for more than a weekend since the court ordeal. Tears began forming and streaming down her cheek.
“Kris, baby, don’t cry. I know we haven’t been apart for so long, but we have to start sometime. Beside when you go off to college we won’t see each other every day. Don’t worry.” Audrey said wiping away her tears motherly.
“I know. I just want you to be careful and come back soon.” She said.
“I will.” They four got into a big group hug and each soon found a tear rolling down their cheek. They let go of each other and joined the guys.
“Chris you take care of her.” Kristina said.
“I will Kris, don’t worry.” He said.
“Come back soon, have fun over there, but not too much fun.” Shelley said to Justin.
“Have a great concert too. Make some girls faint.” Julie said causing everyone to let out a good laugh.
Everyone but JC was laughing. He was regretting the way he answered Kristina at breakfast. Kristina saw him sulking in the corner and walked over to him.
“Hey you, anything you want to talk about?”
“Kristina…” He started. She was a little shocked that he actually used her whole name. That usually meant that something bad would happen next.
“Yeah JC?”
“I’m sorry about the way I acted back at Justin’s house…” He stopped again. Everyone in the room was looking at the two. “I shouldn’t have said what I did and again I’m sorry. It’s your life and I just got scared. Waiting two months is enough and now I’m hearing that another guy is coming into you life. I don’t think I can compete.”
Everyone was shocked at this side of JC they’ve never seen before. He really cared about Kristina and it was killing him inside. Kristina didn’t know how to react to this. She was silent for a moment before speaking again. “JC, I…” At that same moment Chris asked everyone to leave for the other room.
Once they all left, she began to speak again. “JC, I didn’t know any of this. Why didn’t you tell me? You use to always talk to me about these things. Yes it’s my life and you are a big part of it. Right now is just a confusing time and I don’t know how to react to any of it. I care about you so much and I know you know that. Cory meant so much to me though and the thought of us getting back together, well, the thought isn’t too bad.”
JC was silent yet again. He felt Kristina drifting further and further away. “Kristina, do what you want. I’ll be fine.”
He proceeded to get up when Kristina stopped him. She looked into his eyes and kissed him. She pulled away to see his eyes closed. He opened them and looked into her eyes. He suddenly got the feeling that she wouldn’t give up on him that easily. He kissed her again. Kristina knew in she liked JC but still the feelings for Cory were there and wouldn’t go away, but right when JC went in for another kiss, she knew automatically that she would choose him. She just wanted to wait to really know what she felt. JC stood up to get the others back into the room. Once they came in, Julie grabbed Kristina and pulled her into a corner.
“Kris, what was that all about?”
“Huh? What?”
“That whole thing with JC before we left you two alone.”
“Oh…Um…He was scared that’s all.”
“Scared? Scared of what?”
“Scared of losing me to Cory I guess.” She said looking up at JC who was back to himself.
“Oh…I get it. That’s so sweet I could cry.” Julie said. “But I’m not going to.”
“Ha. Very funny Jewels.” She said sarcastically. “I care about JC, a lot, and I know now that I want to be with him.”
“And what made you change your mind.”
Kristina just smiled thinking about everytime JC and her had kissed. JC looked over at Kristina and smiled also. She caught him looking at her and just stared over towards his direction, ignoring Julie. She snapped back into reality when Julie slapped her arm.
“Huh, what?”
“What changed your mind?”
“He did. But without words. You know what I mean?” She said with a smirk on her face.
“Ah. Gotcha.” Julie said walking back to the others.
The nine all talked about their plans in Hawaii and what the three girls would do without the guys. It was time for the guys and Audrey to board the plane.
“Flight 22 leaving for Honolulu, Hawaii is boarding now.” The p.a. said.
Everyone looked at one another. One by one each person left the room. JC, Kristina, Chris, and Audrey all walked out side by side. Lance, Julie, and Joey walked out after them. Justin and Shelley were the last ones to leave the room hand in hand.
“I’m going to miss you all.” Julie said. The six of them all had a big hug. Joey and Lance left and boarded the plane.
“Bring her back in one piece Chris.” Kristina said.
“I know, I know, I will.” He said boarding the plane.
“Have fun, Aud.” She said.
“I will babe, don’t worry.” Audrey said heading after Chris. She looked back to see Kristina almost in tears. She kept walking and disappeared into the walkway.
“Justin, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Shelley said running her hands in Justin’s hair. The two were seated in front of the walkway to the plane.
“I’ll be back in no time.” He said kissing her hands. He got up and walked with Shelley to the walkway. He walked towards the plane and looked back throwing a small wrapped box to Shelley. She caught it and stuck it in her jacket pocket.
JC was the last one to board. “Last call for Flight 22.”
Tears had already fallen from Kristina’s face. “Kris, I want you to go in the den and look under my pillow. I left something for you.”
“Ok. Don’t have too much fun. Come back single.” She joked.
“I will, if you will stay single.” He said with the same smirk Kristina had on her face earlier.
“Oh, don’t worry.” Kristina said. She stood up and kissed his cheek. He moved his head and kissed her on the lips before walking after Justin. Kristina stood there stunned.
Kristina, Shelley, and Julie walked over to the window and watched as their plane took off. They walked back to the van and headed for Audrey’s apartment. They popped in the Home for Christmas c.d. and sang during the ride home. They reached the apartment and unloaded their luggage. They watched as the van pulled away and soon walked to the apartment. Kristina opened the door and on the kitchen table were keys for Justin’s house. They each took one and went straight to their rooms and closed the doors behind them. The phone rang; Kristina got out of her room to answer it but the answering machine got it first.
“Kristina. It’s Cory. We need to talk, now. Call me.”
To Be Contiued…