Justin looked up from the word 'Private' scrawled across the front of JC's notebook and he let out a laugh. "You're telling me that after he lied to you, you can actually look at his journal, open it up and NOT read it? Oh, come on, Chris, I can't even do THAT!"
Chris sniffed, frowning at Justin. "What? You don't think I could do it?"
Justin, still laughing, answered, "No!"
Chris looked at him with a stern stare for a moment or two and then cracked a smile. "Fine! We'll read ONE page. We'll get our letters from there and then we'll figure out a way to get the notebook back into his room."
"Sounds good. Just one thing..."
"What's that?"
"We have to do this REALLY quickly. What if he gets out of the elevator soon? I say that we take one of the pages, return the notebook and THEN look at the handwriting."
Chris put on a smirk. "Yeah, just let me get my Xerox machine out of my suitcase."
Justin chuckled. "Funny, but what I meant when I said TAKE was that we rip a page out. He'll never miss it."
"Hello?! We're talking about JC here. JC never misses anything."
"He doesn't have TIME to notice!" Justin pointed out. "Just rip out a page, put it somewhere safe and then we can work on getting his notebook back.
"Fine!" and Chris did just that, stuffing the page into the drawer in between their beds.
"Okay," Justin started. "Here's the plan. We go down into the lobby, tell them that we lost our key and they give us a new one. Simple as that."
"One problem, genius... we don't know what name he's under."
"Well, when they see that it's us, they'll have to give us the key. Who's gonna say no to MY charm, anyway?"
Chris laughed. "Your charm? Whatever, pretty boy."
"You know it's true. Come on. Everyone's busy at trying to get JC out of the elevator. They won't even care."
They put on their hats, an attempt to try and hide their faces and then went out the door. Since the elevators were, well, BUSY... they ran down the stairs.
There was a huge, crystal chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, illuminating the entire area even though it was still light out side. The cream colored curtains were pulled shut for effect. Only a few travelers were lounging around the lobby, waiting for their rides to bring them to the airport.
Justin and Chris approached the desk. Justin placed his hands on the smooth, cream colored countertop and grinned his famous grin at the lady behind the computer. "Hi there..." He said, leaning in closer.
The lady, or Mindy, as her name tag read, smiled back, focusing on his lip and wondering what had happened. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, actually. You see, our friend locked his room key inside his room and we can't get in to get the things that he needs for tonight. I was wondering... if, well... if maybe you could get us a spare." He locked his blue eyes with her green ones and gave her a hopeful, puppy dog look. "It would really help us out a lot, miss."
Behind him, Chris gave his foot a small kick. To him, it sounded like Justin were giving out a little too much information.
Justin ignored Chris and continued to look at Mindy. "I'm a big tipper," he added.
Chris elbowed him.
"Ouch... I mean..." he trailed off, looking down at his hands.
"Um," Mindy mumbled, looking confused. "What's your friend's name?" She put her fingers over the keyboard and got ready to type.
"That's just the thing... we don't exactly KNOW what name he's under."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't understand..." she looked at him and waited for him to explain.
Justin leaned in even closer and looked around before he spoke. "You see," he said in a hushed voice "He's... well, he's a member from Nsync and he doesn't register under his own name. If he did that, then people would know where he was, and then there'd be cameras and craziness here..." he rolled his eyes.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, finally realizing what he was talking about. "I'm really sorry, sir, but I'm not allowed to give out that kind of information."
Justin's face turned red. "But I'm JUSTIN!"
She looked back at him, narrowing her eyes. "And..."
"Justin TIMBERLAKE!"
"Your point...?"
"Look," Justin said in an irritated voice. "JC is stuck in the elevator and I need to get something from his room."
"Well, I guess I could call and get authorization..."
Chris' eyes widened. "Who're you calling?" he interrupted, knowing that there was NO way JC could find out that they had to get into his room for whatever reason.
"You said he was caught in the elevator? I heard about that a while ago. I have a direct like to the telephone right here." She was about to reach for the phone, when both Justin and Chris gasped.
"Never mind!" they said in unison.
Mindy looked at them as if they had a few screws loose, but she shrugged it off. "Okay."
"Thanks for all your help," Chris said, putting on a fake smile. When they were out of earshot, he took a swing at Justin, hitting him the arm. "You idiot! Now they know we want the key!"
"Well, what else was I supposed to say?"
Chris was silent for a moment. "Ugh! Never mind. Now what?"
"How hard could it be to pick a lock?"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Chris changed his voice to sound more like Justin. "Hey, Chris, we're only on the twelfth floor... why don't you CLIMB up and go through the WINDOW?"
Justin laughed as they entered the stairwell. "Don't worry. We'll figure something out."
"I think you should know something..." JC panted as he sunk to the bottom corner of the elevator. "I'm claustrophobic."
"Don't worry," the older girl assured him as she sat down next to him. "We'll be out soon."
"No offense or anything," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder and pushing a little. "but I need my space.
"I totally understand," she replied, moving a couple feet away from him. The smaller girl sat down beside her.
"When are we getting out? I'm hungry."
JC was rubbing his temples and staring at the number three on the control panel. The longer her stared at it, the bigger it seemed. "I swear to God," he said out loud. "That wall is getting closer!"
"It's not. Trust me," the older girl assured him. "It's all in your head. Just close your eyes."
"Besides," the younger girl added. "If this elevator goes anywhere, it'll be going DOWN."
"THAT makes me feel better..."
Just as they were rounding the tenth floor, Chris spoke up. "Are we REALLY going to pick the lock? Someone might SEE us, Justin."
"No, they won't. Trust me."
"Ha!"
"What's so funny about trusting me?"
"That's not what's funny. It's just that you don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure, I do." Justin opened the door the to the twelfth floor and they walked into the hall. "When I was little I used to pick the lock to my mom's bedroom and then I'd go in and unwrap my Christmas presents early. I'm a pro at re-wrapping presents, you know. All you have to do is be VERY careful with the tape."
"Thanks for the tip, but I don't think your mom's bedroom door is going to have the same lock as a hotel room."
"You never know..." Justin mumbled as they entered their hotel room.
"And what do you propose we USE to pick the lock?" J
ustin dug through his backpack, pulling out small things from the bottom. He threw a paper clip, a safety pin and his keys onto his bed. He reached in one last time and tossed a few old pieces of candy next to his keys.
"Ugh..." Chris commented. "I don't wanna know what else you have in there."
"Good." Justin threw himself on the bed, snatched up the paper clip and bent it into a straight wire. "This might work..."
Chris picked up the notebook and hugged it to his chest. "This isn't going to work."
"You never know..."
"You've already said that. Come on. Let's get this over with before I change my mind."
"Change your mind to what? Do we have any other options?"
He thought about it. "Never mind. Let's just do it."
Together, they walked out of the room and toward JC's. Justin stopped in front of the door, Chris standing right behind him and he carefully looked both ways to make sure that they were alone. "Chris," he said, "it's your job to tell me when someone is coming. Okay?"
"Okay! Just hurry up!"
Justin bit his lip as he bent down so he was eye level with the lock. "Uh oh... we have a problem."
"What's that?"
"When I thought that I'd just pick the lock... I forgot that these doors are opened with a code. You know... when you scan your card through? This is impossible!"
"Are you SURE?" Chris bent down next to Justin and peered at the lock.
"HEY!" a loud, thundering voice echoed down the hall.
Chris and Justin jumped, their eyes widening as they looked to where the voice was coming from. There, standing with his hands on his hips was an angry police officer.
Justin shoved the paper clip in his pocket.
"What are you two doing?" the police officer asked as he walked towards them.
"Um..." Chris mumbled, his face bright red. "We're locked out."
The officer studied their faces. If they hadn't looked so guilty, he probably would have believed them. "I can see that," he said once he was standing in front of them. "The question is... who's room is this?"
"Our friend's," Justin answered. "He, um, left his notebook in our room and we wanted to put it back." It wasn't a complete lie. "He's stuck in the elevator."
The officer smiled. "I thought I recognized you two..."
Chris nodded, shyly smiling back at him. "Officer, the truth is... we have JC's notebook and we're not supposed to have it." Justin elbowed him, but he continued anyway. "We were just trying to get it back into his room before he noticed that it was missing. The problem is, that he has the key with him."
"Chris!" Justin hissed, kicking his friend's foot.
"Stolen property?"
"It's a notebook!" Justin pointed out. "We didn't even read it!"
The officer smiled. "Don't worry. You're not in trouble. I can understand your situation, I think. Why don't I go down to the lobby and get the key for you?"
Justin's eyes widened. "WOULD you?"
Chris clutched the notebook tighter. "Really?"
He nodded, wrote down the room number on his little notepad and turned around. "Sure. I have nothing else to do until they get that elevator open anyway."
"Thanks."
"Thank you!"
Justin and Chris looked at each other until the police officer had turned his back. They had never been so scared and relieved all in the same moment.
"Oh, shit!" Justin said under his breath. "I forgot to call Gracie."
He name rang through Chris' mind and suddenly he felt sick. For a fleeting moment, he had forgotten about everything that had happened between Justin and Gracie, but in one second, it all came rushing back to him and overloaded his senses. Realistically, he had no idea what his life would be like now that they were in the aftermath.
Chris watched Justin pull out his cell phone. Seriously... what could he do to make that burning pain inside his heart go away? As Justin punched her number, he realized that he had lost a connection with not only Gracie, but Justin also. In a weird way, he HAD lost something with his best friend. Sure, there was still trust there, but it had faded a little and it made Chris think more about Justin's words. What if he told a lie? What if he went behind his back again? It hurt to think that now that the actions were over with, their emotional state could be crumbling down like the aftershocks of an earthquake.
"Gracie?" Justin's voice ran out, breaking up Chris' thoughts and bringing his mind back to the hotel hallway. "Everything is okay now. I talked to Chris."
"No, it's not!" Chris suddenly exclaimed. "Justin, you never asked me how I felt about any of this!"
Justin looked at Chris with panic. "I'll call you back later," he said into the phone and then flipped it shut. "Chris, I thought we were moving on."
"We're TRYING to move on!" He turned away from Justin still gripping the notebook as tears filled his eyes. "I can't believe you told Gracie that I was okay with all of this. I'm trying to forgot, but it's HARD and it takes more than two hours. Believe me."
"I'm sorry... I just thought that-"
"No," Chris interrupted. "Your problem is that you DIDN'T think. If you would have thought about it, you would have realized that keeping such a huge thing from your best friend can't be forgotten in only two hours."
"Okay. I get it. After we get that notebook back into JC's room, we'll talk. Okay?"
Chris finally turned around. "Okay."
Inside the elevator, it was quiet. JC and the girls were busy thinking their own thoughts about the situation. JC had his eyes closed tight because every time he looked around, the room started to spin. He couldn't believe that it had happened to him... he had to be the world's most unlucky man.
"Are you SURE you're okay?"
He opened his eyes to see two pairs of blue eyes watching him. "I'm okay," he lied. "I was just thinking about something." Sure, he'd said that he was thinking about something, but the truth was that he was trying to FORGET about everything.
JC had people around him all the time; all of them wanting his attention, some even shouting I love yous in his direction.
He felt fake. He felt like his life was a lie and he didn't think he deserved to live.
'What do you mean, you don't deserve to live? People care about you. People like you. You're a likable person, JC.'
'Maybe,' he thought. 'but nobody loves me.' He sighed, putting his face in his hands and slumping lower to the tan carpet. The happy JC that everyone was so used to seeing didn't exist... and the worst thing was that his conscience didn't argue with him that time.
The police officer walked towards them, smiling and holding up the key card. "See what you can do when you're a police officer?" he told them once he was standing in front of them.
Chris and Justin tried to smile at him, but the truth was, they had lost sight of the fun in their little adventure. "Thanks," they both muttered as the officer slid the card through the scanner.
'This is almost too easy,' Justin thought to himself as they followed the officer into the room. He slipped the notebook back under JC's pillow and they left.
After the officer had gone back to the elevator site, Justin and Chris just stood there in silence.
"I don't know what to do," Chris said, the first to speak as Justin took a step forward.
"Let's go back to our room."
Chris stepped lightly on the carpet. He didn't know how he was going to get past it, but he was really going to try. "This is moving too fast," he told Justin as they walked into their room. "I need more time."
"Time?" Justin echoed as he leaned back against his pillows and stared at anything that wasn't Chris. "Time for what?"
Chris still stood by the door, watching Justin's face. "I need time to forget. I can forgive you, Justin, you're my best friend, but I can't forget it all just like that. It takes time."
"How long?" he wondered, making his voice sound like he didn't really care.
"Stop that and look at me!" Chris demanded. "I want to talk to you and it doesn't help when you sit there and pretend not to listen to me, Justin. It hurts when you act like this isn't important."
Justin finally looked at him. "You seem to be forgetting that you're not the only one who's hurting here," he said, sounding strong.
"Listen to me, Justin," Chris said, walking over and pushing Justin's legs out of the way so he could sit down. "I haven't forgotten, I just wish you'd pull your head out of your ass and quit pretending that you're not hurt. How am I supposed to know how you feel when you keep pushing your feelings so deep inside that none of us can tell? It's not right."
"Yeah," Justin choked out. "And making fun of me is HELPING."
"I'm not making fun of you. Sorry if it sounded that way." Chris took a deep breath and then continued, "All I want you to know is that I didn't like it when you called Gracie and told her that everything is fine when it ISN'T."
"Can you blame me if I want it to be?"
"No! I cant... but, Justin, think before you do things."
Justin sniffed, hurt. "I DO!"
Chapter 4
Identities
Chris {Fiction}
Justin {Fiction}
My Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email me: irishgirl982@yahoo.com