He walked over to it and pressed a button.
"You have... one... new message."
Tim's eyes lit up as he realized he was about to throw himself deeper into her personal life. He leaned in closer.
"Hi, Gracie... it's me. I know you said that you wanted to break up... JC told me everything. Gracie... I'm sorry but I just can't get you off my mind. Please call me back and tell me that you'll reconsider. Justin's not angry anymore so we'll have nothing to worry about."
Tim thought about the message. Obviously, Gracie had men in her life. There was the guy who left the message, plus the two men that were mentioned. He bit his lip in thought. If he wanted Gracie, he was going to have to rid her of these men.
Without a second thought, he pressed delete.
Gracie sat at the picture window in her old room. The sun was just rising. She had spent most of the night staring out at the stars and thinking about Chris.
By the time morning had arrived, she had been so tired, that all her thoughts had blended together into one big, blurry problem. Not only could she not focus on anything... but she didn't feel too great either. She blamed it on the fact that she hadn't slept.
Slowly, Gracie crawled from the window and to her childhood bed. She was far too tired to bother to get under the covers. However, she didn't fall asleep the second her head hit the pillow. It was like the feeling a person gets when they're so tired and confused, that they couldn't possibly begin to sleep... even if they wanted to.
She wanted to call Chris SO badly that her heart ached even more because she knew that it would be impossible.
When she was almost asleep, a knock on her door woke her up. Her mind, still halfway in dreamland, thought that it might be Chris on the other side of the door.
"Gracie... breakfast is ready."
Of course it wasn't.
"I'm still sleeping, mom," she mumbled.
It wasn't until twelve thirty when Gracie finally opened her sleepy eyes again. Her stomach felt unsettled, yet she was extremely hungry. It didn't take a genius to know that something was wrong.
Chris sat in a booth in the kitchen area of the bus. It was Monday and they were on their way to Washington DC. The sun was finally up above the trees; beautiful orange and red colors filling the sky.
The side of his face was pressed against the window as he stared blankly. He was embarrassed to say it, but he had been up all night waiting for Gracie to call him back. The phone sat on the countertop, sliding back and forth slightly every time the bus turned.
It was driving him insane.
The funny thing was, no matter how much he hated starting at the phone, he couldn't stop looking at it. Just knowing that it could ring any minute was enough inspiration.
Before he knew it, JC was sliding into the booth across from himself. JC picked up the phone.
"Put it down," Chris mumbled against the glass.
JC set down the phone, narrowing his eyes at Chris in confusion. "What's with you?" He reached over and grabbed a blueberry muffin, taking a bite.
"I'm waiting for Gracie to call me back."
JC froze. Did he hear correctly? Did Chris say that he was waiting for Gracie to call him back? Call him back as in he had to have called her first?
He swallowed. "You... you..." he stuttered. "You called her? WHY?"
In his bunk, Justin was straining to hear their conversation. He heard JC's long silence and knew that he was hiding something. When he heard the tone of JC's voice, he didn't have any doubts.
Chris moved away from the window and looked at JC. "What? Is it against the RULES to call my girlfriend?"
JC stood up, desperate to get escape Chris' questions. "She's not your girlfriend anymore," he said defensively. "You two broke up. Remember?"
The next morning, Justin sat down on his hotel bed and ran his fingers over the buttons on his cell phone. He remembered her number, but wasn't sure if he should call.
"This call could mean happiness for Chris..." he mumbled to himself. "All you have to do is find out if JC's been lying or not. That's it."
He punched in her number and waiting. It was Monday morning... maybe she would be in school. He knew that it wouldn't really be right to call her, but this was an emergency.
Gracie sat in her living room after she got back from her doctor's appointment. She didn't FEEL any different... yet the fact of the matter was that she WAS different.
When her phone rang, she jumped, wondering who it could be.
"Hello?" she said quietly into the phone.
"Hi, Gracie... it's Justin. We have a BIG problem."
Gracie looked down at the papers and brochures that rested on her lap. "No kidding..."
Justin was confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Look, Justin... I don't know what your problem is, but it couldn't possibly be as complex as the one I'm about to tell you."
Justin almost chuckled. "Yeah right... Gracie, someone LIED to you... or at least I think he did."
"Now... what are YOU talking about?"
"Gracie, what did JC say to you when he came to visit you?"
She was silent for a moment. "Let's not talk about that. I'm trying not to think about it."
"Seriously... it's really important that you tell me what he said, because I know what he said to Chris..."
"What did he say to Chris?"
"What did he say to you?"
Gracie was getting fed up. "He said that Chris wanted to break up with me! Okay!?"
Justin grinned the grin he had been wanting to grin for a long time. "I KNEW it!" he exclaimed. "This is all a whole bunch of crap concocted by the all honest JC."
"What?"
"Grace, he said the exact same thing to Chris... that you wanted to break up with him," he explained.
It was Gracie's turn to be silent. Tears quickly came to her eyes, but she wiped them away just as quickly. "Wh... why would JC do something so cruel?"
"Who knows... Maybe he felt like he was trying to fix the group or something. I can't imagine the guilt he's going through right now." He paused. "If we didn't have a concert tomorrow night, I'd beat the shit out of the little, lying, back-stabbing bastard."
"Justin... what about YOUR conscience?"
Justin froze. "What do you mean?"
"Don't you remember when you tricked me into sleeping with you?"
"Gracie, that's done and over with..." he said, brushing off the memory... a memory that was clouded over by pain.
"Justin," Gracie whispered into the phone in a choked up voice. "It's not over... it's what my problem is about."
Either Justin was confused or he didn't want to face the truth. Either way, he remained silent.
"I'm pregnant," Gracie said. "And I'm not sure who the baby's father is."
Justin felt like a pile of bricks had just been dumped over his head. He ached everywhere and all of a sudden, his heart felt heavy. Just when he had gotten back on the right track with Chris, something just HAD to happen to screw everything up again.
"Justin? Are you there?"
Justin gulped. He grabbed his pillow and hugged it tightly with his free arm as tears welled up in his eyes. "Yeah," he got out. "Now what?"
"What do we do about Chris? There's gotta be a way to fix this."
Justin gulped. As much as it hurt to give up a child that might be his own, he knew that he'd do it for Chris. "Tell him it's his... pray that if it's not, then the baby will look like you."
"Justin, if this baby is yours... he'll know. Besides, we wouldn't just be lying to Chris, we'd be lying to the baby too."
"Chris'll be a better dad than me anyway," Justin pointed out. "He loves you, you love him... this baby deserves to be his."
"But what if it's not? Justin, we didn't use a condom."
Justin felt like kicking something. What a major screw-up he was! "What about when you were with Chris?"
"Look... let's just keep our fingers crossed..."
"You did, didn't you," he said, more of a statement than a question. "Chances are... that this baby is MINE and... and..." he threw the pillow angrily across the room. "Everything is RUINED!"
"Justin! Calm down! Maybe if we explain everything to him, he won't be so mad. I mean... you weren't exactly in your right mind when you tricked me into believing that you were Chris. How can he be mad?
"Because you're having a child that isn't his-"
"We don't know that for sure..."
"We might as well face it, Gracie. I mean, this is the way it is: you slept with Chris... condom. You slept with me... NO condom. Do the math."
Gracie got up and walked around her living room. "Stop! Do you think I like this situation any more than YOU do?"
"I'm the one who'll be losing my best friend," Justin countered. "AGAIN!"
"Hey! What about me? I'll be losing the one person I love more than anything else in this world! Everything is always about YOU, Justin... isn't it!?"
"No! This isn't only about me. This is about Chris too, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone hurt him again."
He said the words with such certainty that Gracie thought she could almost read his thoughts. "What are you saying, Justin. That you want me to stay away from Chris? Forever?"
"No..." Justin admitted. "I didn't mean that. You know I can't ask you to do that. This baby deserves a father. We just have to be careful of our next move. That's all."
"Okay," she agreed.
"I can't lose him," Justin put in.
"Me neither."
After Justin had gotten off the phone with Gracie, he decided to find JC. Figuring that he was taking a quick nap in his room, he walked in that direction. Luckily, Lance let him in. He went straight over to JC's bed and looked down at him. How could he sleep so peacefully?
Not caring if Lance watched, he grabbed JC's collar, shaking him until his eyes opened and then dropping him back to his pillows. "I know what you did," he hissed in JC's face. "You can stop pretending."
Lance took a few steps forward, preparing to pull Justin away if he got too violent.
"Next time," Justin continued, watching for a reaction in JC's blue eyes. "Next time you decide to pull something so cruel and cowardly, cover all your bases first."
"Justin..." JC started to explain, "it was my only option... Don't you understand that I had to save the group?"
"Yeah, well next time you feel the urge to SAVE THE GROUP... don't mess with Chris... 'cause you'll have to deal with ME."
JC scooted up against the headboard, trying to get as far away from Justin's glares as possible. "What is it that you want me to do?" he asked, glancing over at Lance for moral support.
Justin climbed up on his bed, looking direction into JC's terrified eyes and grabbing his collar once again. "I want you to find Chris and tell him EVERYTHING. Make him understand why you did it. And try HARD... because the more upset he is, the more I'm going to make your life a living hell."
JC nodded. He knew that someone would figure it out eventually... but why did it have to be psychotic-angry-at-the-drop-of-a-hat-Justin?
"Got it?" Justin asked, just to make sure he understood everything clearly.
JC nodded again.
"Good... now hurry up and get ready. I'll be out in the hall."
Once Justin was out of sight, JC's eyes connected with Lance's and they both stared at each other in shock.
"If I would have known he'd yell at you like that," Lance said, breaking the silence. "I wouldn't have let him in."
Chris was sitting outside of the hotel, just staring at the scenery and waiting for Justin to find him for sound check. He had just put his feet up on the chair, when JC's red face appeared.
Chris' eyes widened, wondering what was up when he saw an angry Justin pushing JC forward. "What's going on?" Chris asked.
"JC," Justin spat out, "has something he wants to talk to you about."
Chris looked up at JC as they both sat down opposite from him.
JC grabbed the arms of his chair nervously, refusing to look either Chris or Justin in the eyes.
"Um..." JC started. "I told you something that wasn't exactly true..."
Chris looked from JC to Justin and back again. "WHAT is this all about?" he demanded.
"Tell him," Justin coached.
"I lied to you." He still wouldn't look up from the concrete floor. "I told you something that I made up."
Chris knew what he was talking about, but he felt that he had to be absolutely sure. "What?"
"Just listen first," JC asked, finally looking up into Chris' eyes. "When you and Justin were going after each other, I felt compelled to solve things. First, I had to find out who was causing the problem... then I had to get rid of her."
Chris stood up so quickly, that his chair clattered to the ground. "I can't believe this!"
Justin got up, lifted Chris' chair back in an upright position and pushed his friend back down. He turned around and glared at JC. "Nice choice of words," he said sarcastically. "Try harder!" He sat back down.
"Okay!" JC relented. "I thought that our group was going to fall apart, Chris... and I KNEW how strong your friendship with Justin was before she came between you two. I felt like it was my responsibility to do something."
"Don't you get it, JC?" Chris said, trying his hardest to hold his tears in. "It WASN'T your responsibility. It's not even your BUSINESS!"
"It BECAME my business when you two were affecting the entire well-being of the group."
Justin stood between them, facing JC. "Just tell him you're sorry."
"Justin!" Chris shouted from behind him. "Stop. Why should he apologize if he's not sorry?"
Justin turned to face Chris. "He's sorry... trust me."
"No, I'm not! If you two would have never found out, we ALL would have been better off."
Justin turned back. "You mean YOU would have been better off."
Chris stood up and pushed Justin aside, looking angrily at JC. "What's WRONG with you?"
"Have you gone insane?" Justin chimed in.
"I swear," JC whispered, not daring to get up. "I did this for you. I'm not insane, there isn't anything wrong with me. Chris, Justin... I'm sorry that I hurt you, but I'm NOT sorry that I did it. My reasons are more valid than ever. I'd do it again."
Frustrated with JC's attitude, Justin ran his fingers through his curls. "What did I tell you about not upsetting him?!"
"He's going to be upset no matter WHAT I say to him."
Chris took a step in front of Justin. "Stop talking like I'm not here... and JC, you need to see a psychiatrist." He turned and walked towards the hotel entrance. "Or something..."
Justin shoved his finger into JC's face. "I'm not done with you yet," and he hurried off after Chris.
Chris stormed into his hotel room and slammed the door behind him. He took out his cell phone, dallied the airport's number and put the phone to his ear.
Justin wasn't far behind. He jammed his key card into the lock and scanned it through. When he threw the door open, he saw his best friend. Chris' back was facing him and he overheard the phone conversation.
"You're going to see Gracie?" Justin queried the second Chris hung up. "Chris, we have interviews all tomorrow! You can't leave."
"Watch me." He threw a few things into his backpack and tossed it by the door. "I'm leaving right after the concert tonight."
Justin didn't feel like arguing. "Okay," he gave in.
Chris stopped moving around the room and looked at his best friend. "Don't worry, Justin. This is all going to work out. I just have a feeling," he said, seeing the worry in Justin's eyes.
Justin stared back. He thought of the life growing inside of Gracie and his stomach turned. HE was the reason that Chris might be wrong. He wanted to tell Chris EVERYTHING, but what if the baby really WAS Chris'? Why should he fix something that wasn't broken? "I hope you're right," he said softly. "Honest to God, Chris, I hope you're right."
Chris took a few steps closer to Justin. "Is something wrong?" he asked in a worried tone. "You look like something's bothering you."
"Nothing that wasn't before," he answered quickly. "I mean... I just want you to be happy, Chris. You know I didn't mean all the things I did and said while we were fighting... right?"
"I know," Chris said, still wondering if there was anything else on Justin's mind. "I forgave you, Justin... and you forgave me, right? It's all in the past."
"Right..." Justin replied, averting his eyes away from Chris'. "In the past..."
Chapter 4
Identities
Chris {Fiction}
Justin {Fiction}
My Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
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