My eyelids slowly opened as the morning sun streamed into the room. I rose my arms above me to stretch when they hit a hard headboard that I didn’t remember. Curiously I sat up and looked around the unfamiliar room to see Alex lying in a bed next to mine.
“Alex?” I whispered.
“Huh?”
“Where are we?”
“Justin’s room.”
“Why?”
“Cause it was raining really hard last night, and nobody wanted to disturb you. Actually, Lance wouldn’t let us...”
“I was sleeping?”
“Hun, you were knocked out cold.”
I slid back down into my bed as my head began to pound. I vaguely remembered Justin giving me medicine after we went golfing. After that fatigue took over my body. Everything was pretty much a blur.
“If this is Justin’s room, where is he?”
“Oh, he slept in Chris’s room last night. That boy really needed help. I can’t believe you dared him not to move his arms.”
“I did? I think I remember that.”
“Yup. It was driving him crazy by the time we finished the game.”
“I think I’m dying,” I sighed, pushing myself deeper into the covers.
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Elizabeth!” a yell came from the door followed by pounding.
Alex slid out of her bed and made her way over to where the noise was coming from. “Chris?” She opened up the door, and he rushed in with his hands at his sides.
“Where is she?”
I crawled deeper into bed and pulled the blankets over my head. He didn’t look very happy this morning.
“Uh, she’s still sleeping, Chris. You know she’s sick. Do you really want to wake her up?”
“Damn straight I want to wake her up.” I could hear him walk over to my bed, and suddenly I felt his weight standing next to me.
I lowered my covers to expose my eyes. “Morning, Chris.”
“Don’t you Morning Chris me. Do you have any idea what I’ve gone through because of your stupid dare?”
“No.”
“Well, let me tell you. I haven’t been able to do anything by myself. Thank God Justin stayed in my room last night. He had to help me brush my teeth, change my clothes, my cereal spilled all over me. And to top it off I missed a call from Dani this morning because I couldn’t pick up the damn phone!”
“I’m sorry you missed her call, but, uh, who’s Dani?”
“Dani,” Justin said, strolling through the open door with a grin on his face, “is Chris’s new girlfriend.”
“Dude, I wouldn’t call her my girlfriend exactly.”
“She’s your girlfriend,” he stated simply. “Now leave Elizabeth alone before I tell Lance you woke her up.”
Chris climbed down from my bed and glared at me from the door. “I’ll finish this dare if it’s the last thing I do, but believe me when I say that payback’s a bitch.” He stalked out into the hallway.
Justin walked over to his bag laughing at his friend. “It really has been a funny morning,” he said, pulling Alex into a hug. “How has yours been, Red?”
“Pretty good. Liz woke me up, but that’s forgivable.”
“And how is Miss Elizabeth feeling this morning?” he asked as he walked over to his overflowing suitcase. He pulled out a pair of jeans and a gray T-shirt before walking into the bathroom.
“I’m okay, I guess.”
“You want some more medicine?”
“Yeah right. Whatever you gave me yesterday completely knocked me out.” I snuggled in against the pillows and sighed. “I don’t even remember daring Chris to keep his hands at his sides.”
“You don’t?” he said, he head appearing from the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. “Does that mean you don’t remember Lance’s dare?”
“Nope.”
“Check out your clothes.” I looked down expecting to see JC’s Hard Rock Cafe shirt. In its place was a large gray sweatshirt and a pair of plaid pajama pants. “You guys had to switch clothes in the bathroom. It’s too bad that you don’t remember it. I know something happened, but I don’t know what. Ya’ll didn’t kiss, but something happened.”
I felt my cheeks redden as Justin nonchalantly spoke of Lance and me. I tried to remember what it was that he was talking about. The medicine’s daze clouded most of my memory but something stood out.
“You know, you’re really good at taking care of me when I’m down. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me so far,” I said, looking up at him.
He smiled at me before leaning over to lightly kiss my forehead. “You make it so easy to take care of you. It’s all I’ve been finding myself wanting to do. Now come on, you need to rest.”
A smile broke across my face as I remember how it felt to have his lips against my skin, even if only for a second.
“Oh, she remembers it now,” Alex laughed. “She remembers. So J-dawg, what are you boys doing today?”
“We have a meeting this morning cause security is flying in for the day. We have to go to MTV today around 2:45 so we can do TRL. Do you guys wanna come? It’s always fun times over at MTV.”
“That sounds like fun,” Alex answered.
“I think I’m just gonna go back to the hotel and sleep the day away. I feel pretty lousy.”
Alex came over and placed her hand on my forehead. “It still feels like you have a little bit of a fever. I’ll stay with you today.”
“No, go. I’m a big girl, and I can take care of myself.” I slowly pushed myself up, and the pain in my head swelled. “Oh God. I think I may take you up on that medicine offer, Justin.”
“No problem. I’ve got plenty.”
“Yeah Tre, I’ll be fine now.”
The large black man looked at me skeptically. “You sure, boss?”
“Yeah, just take the van back to the hotel. I don’t know how long I’ll be, so I’ll take a cab back.” I climbed out of the car and grabbed the small Styrofoam bowl from the front seat.
“What is it about her?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen you act like this, Lance.”
I paused thoughtfully for a moment. “I don’t know. She’s...”
“Special?”
“Definitely special, that would be a good way to describe her. I’ll check you later, okay?”
I strolled into the hotel lobby and pressed the six floor button on the elevator. When I reached room 614, I took out Alex’s borrowed key card and opened the door slowly.
“Hello?” I called, quietly closing the door behind me. Inside Elizabeth was sleeping peacefully underneath her blankets. Her right leg was exposed, wrapped around the blankets. I laughed lightly at the familiar sleeping position and smiled at the sleeping girl. I couldn’t bring myself to wake her.
I set my backpack down on the floor and sat on Alex’s bed. I looked around the small room at various things lying around. There were a few large CD cases on the dresser next to an opened bag of Oreo cookies. Next to me on the night stand was a faded Teen Study Bible and what seemed to be a love story on top of it. My curiosity got the better of me as I picked it up. At First Sight was its title, and it seemed like a cheesy romance novel. I leaned back against the pillow and opened up to the first page.
Suddenly the phone rang loudly. I put the book back down, and picked the noisy machine up quickly. “Hello, Elizabeth and Alex’s room.”
“Hello?” a deep male voice said on the other line.
“Hi.”
“Who is this?”
“This is Lance. And who would this be?”
“Scott, Elizabeth’s boyfriend.”
I felt my heart slow down dangerously as I heard him say this. Elizabeth’s boyfriend? Scott as in her supposed ex that broke up with her? Things weren’t adding up how they were supposed to.
“Boyfriend?”
“That’s right. I know I didn’t stutter.” The voice paused for a moment. “Did you say your name was Lance? Aren’t you one of those ‘NSYNC fags?”
“Fags?” I choked out. This was the guy she was going out with? You’ve got to be kidding me.
“Yeah, you’re that sissy ass guy she liked. I thought your date was awhile ago.”
“It was.”
“Why the hell are you in Liz’s hotel room?”
“That would be none of your business.”
“Like hell it’s not. She’s my girlfriend, and you’re in her room.”
“Dude, she’s not your girlfriend,” I said, attempting to keep my temper down. “You two broke up.”
“What are you trying to do? Get with her?”
“Should it really matter to you?”
“Yes. Why don’t you just turn your pop star eyes away from her and go after the next slut that throws herself at your feet.”
“You’re the one who makes out with slutty blonds the day after your break up with your girlfriend.”
“We’re still together, so just back off.”
“Listen, she has made it perfectly clear that you and her were no longer going out. I mean, you haven’t even talked since your fight.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“She told me,” I sighed, burying my head in my hands. This was getting overly frustrating.
“Would you just put her on the phone?”
“No. She’s sleeping.”
“Then wake her up.”
“No, she has a cold, and she’s sleeping.”
“Is Alex there with her?”
“Alex’s out with Justin right now.”
“Justin? I’m sure Nate is gonna love that.”
“Who’s Nate?”
“No one.”
“Do you want to leave a message?”
“Tell her that her boyfriend called.”
“Damn it, Scott. You aren’t her boyfriend.”
“And you are?”
“Well...” I wasn’t exactly sure what the two off us were. With the way things were progressing, there was no telling what we would become. And there was no denying on my part that that was the direction I wanted to head in. “I don’t know. But believe me when I say there is definitely something there.”
“Like your five day relationship can really compare with a year, let alone the seven I’ve known her. Get real. Five days isn’t jack shit. It would be months before she even lets ya do anything like kiss her.”
“Months?”
“Yeah, months. She’s always been somewhat prude in that aspect.”
“I really don’t think you should be talking about her like that.”
“You can’t do anything about it.”
“You really don’t deserve her.”
“And you do?”
“Probably not. But at least I’m not some bastard who doesn’t know how to treat a lady.”
“Better a bastard like me than an albino like you.”
“You really pulled out the big guns on that one.” I slammed the phone down angrily. “Loser,” I mumbled.
“Lance?” a quiet voice came from behind me. I turned around quickly to see Elizabeth sitting up in her bed. She lazily rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Her ponytail was falling out, leaving stray pieces of hair lying on the shoulders of her Weezer T-shirt. Her skin was flushed with fever, her green eyes were glassy and staring quietly at me.
“Hey, sweetie,” I smiled, sitting down on the edge. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
“No. Who was on the phone?”
“Uh, that was just a wrong number,” I lied before even realizing the words had left my mouth. My brain justified it by telling me not to upset her when she was ill.
“Okay,” she sighed, sinking back into her pillow. “How long have you been here?”
“About fifteen minutes,” I said, checking my watch. “I didn’t want to wake you about though. You looked peaceful.”
“Eh,” she mumbled.
“I brought you some tomato soup. I was gonna get chicken noodle, but then I remembered that you didn’t eat chicken, so I figured this was a suitable replacement.”
“That is so sweet. Thank you, Lance.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah. I haven’t eaten anything today except crackers.”
I reached over to the nightstand where I had left the bowl and reached into my bag to grab the plastic spoon before handing it to her. “How are you feeling?”
“A little better I guess. Justin gave me some more of that stuff. It really knocks me out, but it does work.”
“That’s the stuff he takes if he even thinks about getting sick. It’s not something he can afford to do.”
“It definitely works.”
“You should have listened to us when we told you to get out of the rain.”
“You sound like my mother,” she laughed, taking the lid off carefully. “I love the rain. I’ve never been able to resist the urge to play in a storm.”
“You sound like a five year old.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she giggled, raising a spoon full of soup to her lips. She smiled as she liked her lips. “God, that’s really good.”
“Yeah, you know, I made it myself.”
She looked at me skeptically before raising the lid. “Since when do you work at Schafer’s Deli?”
“It’s a recent development. I decided to give up singing and become a chef.”
“Can you even cook?”
I raised my hands in mock disbelief. “Darlin’ you haven’t lived till you’ve had my barbeque. It’s to die for.”
“You gonna barbeque some carrots for me or something?”
“It could be arranged,” I laughed, placing my hand lightly on hers.
“Well Chef Lance, have you tried this masterpiece you’ve created?” She dipped the spoon into the deep red liquid and carefully began to lift it to me.
“I can’t say that I have.” I carefully covered the spoon with my mouth. “Damn, I’m good.”
“Wait a second,” she smiled. “You have a piece of parsley right here.” She touched my lips lightly. There was a unfamiliar tingle where her fingers came in contact with my skin.
“Here?” I asked quietly as I reached up, taking her hand me mine. She nodded as I pulled her closer to me.