Rachel walked into the dining area the next morning and glanced over at Lance. He looked the other way and smirked at the wall. She sighed, knowing that it was not going to be easy to repair his or her hurt feelings.
"Let's load 'em up!" Chucky yelled to the rest of the security team.
The guys and Rachel stood up, they had to drive to the concert venue. It was an afternoon concert and after that the night was theirs. Rachel sat next to Lance in the car. "Are we gonna talk about last night?"
She whispered into his ear. "Nope."
Lance slipped on his headphones and bobbed his head to the music. Rachel gave him a dirty look and ripped the headphones off his ears. "Ow! My lobes! What's your damage?" Lance yelled at her. The others tried to pretend not to listen, but they were well aware of what was going on.
"Oh please! Garth Brooks is not that up tempo, so stop acting like an idiot and jamming to the slow music!" She slammed the headphones against his chest and turned to look out the window.
Lance stared at her back, sullenly. "You're being a really big jerk, ya know that?"
Rachel whipped around to face him. "Oh please, test me today. I am begging you to test me." Lance gulped at the fury he saw in her eyes and he quietly slipped the headphones back on. "Thankyou!" She snapped.
Justin quietly hit her high five on her comebacks. "Well done." Chris whispered to her.
Rachel nodded her head at the guys and waited for the car ride to end. Rachel was sitting in the lounge area when Lance walked in. "What?! What? Jesus, is it asshole day or what!?" Lance balked at her curse word.
"Jeez. You know, you're becoming a real bad girl this tour."
"Oh shut up!"
"Can we talk about last night? I'm ready now." Rachel nodded her head at him to continue. "When you and Justin left last night without telling anyone, I was very worried and upset. Then, when I came back to the hotel room and saw him in my bed with you; that infuriated me even more. I couldn't believe you would do that. I always sleep with you and now one of my best friend's is taking my place." Lance sat down on the couch next to her.
"Oh please. You are so jealous, it's not even funny! I saw you dancing with that girl and you looked pretty happy to me!"
"I'm jealous? Did you hear the jealousy in your words right now? That's why you left. You couldn't stand the sight of me with another girl!" Lance shot back.
"I didn't think you would even miss me very much. You didn't even ask me to dance once! I danced with JC almost the entire time."
"How could you think that I wouldn't miss you? Why do you think I was so upset when you left? Because I missed you! I'm sorry that I didn't ask you to dance, I don't know why I did that."
"We told Joey that we
were leaving. I told somebody. I wouldn't just leave like that,
it would worry everybody." Rachel paused to think. "I
guess that's why you guys didn't know we left. We told Joey, I
forget he never relays messages.
"I didn't want to be left alone in that hotel room, so I had
Justin stay with me. We didn't mean to fall asleep but we did.
And, I'm not sorry either and I'm not going to apologize for
anything!" Rachel stopped to take a breath of air.
"I just..." Lance trailed off. "There are so many emotions running through me and I'm so confused! I don't want to lose you, I don't want to let you go. I want to love you so much and yet, I'm so scared. I want to be with you but I'm scared. I can't stand seeing you with Justin, I get so jealous. Yet, when I'm with another girl it's okay. I understand how you felt last night at that club. I felt the same way when I saw you with Justin last night. I hate the way I'm feeling. I can't excuse it and I can't give you an explanation. I can't even apologize!"
Rachel wiped away a tear. "Justin was there for me last night. He's always there for me when nobody else is. Even you, sometimes you're not there. He is. Justin will always be my closest friend after you and I'm not going to stop that. Just because you are jealous, I'm not going to end a special bond and friendship like that."
"I'm not asking you to!" Lance cried. "I never said that. I'm trying to justify my feelings here!"
"I don't understand why we always have to fight. Maybe, it's a sign or something." Rachel thought out loud.
"Sign? For what? We're friends Rachel and that's all we're going to be. There's nothing wrong with fighting."
Rachel didn't know if he meant the words that he said, or if they just came out the wrong way. Rachel wasn't going to show that she was upset though. She just wanted to move on from this. "Yes, of course. Let's just move on from this situation, okay?"
"Yeah. Definitely, just on one condition. We dance together, tonight!" Lance said, referring to the dance club they were going to later that night. Rachel leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Lance's neck. She closed her eyes and prayed to God, to give her enough strength to get through this.
