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Lasting Impression
Chapter 12
Written By: J
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"Hey Chris. What are you doing?"
"Nothing, just reading," he said looking up from his magazine. He cocked his
head to the right looking straight at Jayla and grabbed his cheap $10
glasses that he bought in Los Angeles years ago. Chris slipped them on. "I
thought your eyes were brown."
"They are. Why are you looking at me funny?" He gestured to the window so
that she could see her reflection and noticed her mismatched eyes. "I guess
I forgot to put in the other contact."
"So why bother with them anyway?"
Jayla shrugged and looked away. 'Busted!' It might as well be now to come
clean because pretending to be Melia was hard enough. She dropped the
southern accent. "Here's the deal. I'm really a friend of .. Lance's.. and I
thought it would be better that I use an alias to earn this job based solely
on my credentials. It had to squash any ideas that he might have provided
for those representatives at Jive providing that he said anything. I never
dreamed that I'd get the job but here I am. I'm basically screwing with his
head."

Chris stared at her with confusion written on his face. Someone had finally
stumped him. 'Was she serious?!' She got up and walked away to leave him
with his thoughts. Jayla returned back to her normal self with dark hair and
blue green eyes.

He almost choked on his gum when he saw her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Now, who are you?"
"Jayla Mackenzie. No relation to the Bud Light dog, Spud Mackenzie."
"I hope not. I'll have to put you on a leash like Busta."
"That's a comforting thought. I like scenic walks, thank you."
"I'll keep that in mind. Wait, you said your name was-"
"Yes, and just to clear things up. A. Lance and I are just friends and B. I
only told Joey things because I know that's how his mind works. Lance
forewarned me a long time ago."
"He is more than a handful. Not a lot of people can handle his 'weirdness.'
So now, what happens?"
"I wanna keep this under wraps so consider yourself special. I plan on
having fun with Justin and JC but that will come a little later. Not a word
to Lance, Joey, or Steve!"
"Are you kidding? I'm sitting on a gold mine, here! And I can't tell the
Testosterone twins so we can tease Lance?"

She sighed deeply averting her gaze to the shiny surface of the table. This
was going to be harder than she thought and looked up at him. "Would you
honestly trust Joey and Steve with one of your secrets?"
"Okay, point taken. That's not fair that you get to have all the fun."
"They would blow this thing wide open. I never said that you couldn't play
either. We will have fun with Justin and JC later though. Deal?"
"Deal."

Two weeks later...

The tour led them to their home state of Florida performing four concerts
that week. During those concerts, Jayla did two cameos. She wasn't quite
sure if Lance was taking notice though.

"Hey Mel, wait up!" Lance called jogging to her after the second concert at
Tampa's Ice Palace. His energy was completely drained. She turned around to
see Lance's figure coming towards her and slowed her pace so that he caught
up with her.
'Keep your cool, Jay.' "You did a great job out there, Lance."
"Thanks. I was wondering if you could help me with something," he said
wiping the perspiration off his forehead with a towel.
"Sure, what is it?" Jayla asked making her way out of the venue to get to
the bus.
"While you were taking pictures, did you happen to see a girl with curly
black hair wearing a orange tank top?"

Jayla shifted uncomfortably as she walked tugging on her blue long sleeved
Abercrombie shirt that hid the orange tank top. She paused as if she was
trying to remember anything. "Um, I don't think so. Why do you ask?"
"No reason," he said sullenly with the hopeful glimmer in his eyes fading.
"Are you sure? She may have been there and I just didn't see her."
"Yeah, it's nothing. I think my mind is just playing tricks on me. Bright
lights, loud music, and screaming girls are a doing a number on me."
"Tell me about it. I'm still recovering from it," she commented as she
rubbed her temples in an attempt to stop the recurring screaming that
flooded her head.
"A little overwhelming, eh?" His green eyes watched her closely waiting for
her response.
"To say the least. Justin needs to stop doing those pelvic thrusts cause I
swear almost every girl died in there."

Lance chuckled to himself remembering the girls' back Europe. They were
practically hyperventilating at the sight of the "Curly Wonder" known as
Justin. "He's got all the right moves."
"Yeah, well he's going to make me go deaf."
"Point taken." He sighed in relief as a cool breeze chilled his feverish
temperature after performing for two hours. "Would you mind if I walked you
to your bus?"
"No, not at all. I'll have to write in my diary that an *N Syncer escorted
me to a bus. Imagine the girls that would kill to be me," Jayla said with a
smile in a giddy tone.
"Yeah, well I'm not all that great." The light of moon spilled over the soft
features of his face.

Two large black and cream with intricate red swirls and designed buses came
into view. They started heading towards the one on the right side and
stopped at the door. James waved at the sight of the two as he slumped
against his seat in front of the bus.

"Hey Lance, tell Leon that he owes me $5," James said referring to the bus
driver of his bus.
"I'll do that," he said cracking a smile.

After an awkward moment of silence and an exchange of smiles, Chris came
bounding out from the venue. He had a mischievous grin displayed on his face
when he saw the pair. 'This is going to be fun.'

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" Chris asked raising his eyebrows at Jayla
and then looking over at Lance.
"I was just walking Mel to the bus." Jayla shot him a cool stare. There was
something brewing in that head of his.
"Mind if I borrow her? I need her to help me with something," he said
turning towards Lance avoiding her expressions.
"Nah, she's all yours. I better get going anyway. It was nice talking, Mel.
We'll have to do it again sometime. Night," Lance called over his shoulder
heading for his bus.
"Thanks, Lance. Goodnight," Jayla piped. "Chris, what was so important that
you had to 'borrow' me? Don't get innocent on me. I see that weird look in
your eyes," she told him taking two steps at a time to get into the bus
flopping down on the leather seats.
"Back rub? So what did you talk about with lover boy?" He said inquisitively
following her lead. Jayla shook her head in annoyance. It was going to be a
long night.

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