Chapter 3
Justin quietly entered the house, not sure if Ashley was awake yet. After the blow up in the studio, he had gone out driving around for about an hour. He needed to cool down becuase he knew that he would be the one to tell Ashley, not some executive.
He walked into the kitchen when he heard a voice.
"Yea....ok...sure. No, no I understand. Yes sir, yes, I understand....no...no, that's alright. Thank you." Justin watched as Ashley sat down in the chair at the kitchen table and let out a defeated sigh. He saw red at the thought that someone would call and tell her before he could have the chance. He walked into the room and sat down next to her, causing Ashley too look up at him and offer a weak smile.
"Hey babe...I didn't know you were home." Her greeting was dull and saddened by the news she had just recieved. "Justin I just got a call from..."
"I told them to let me tell you. I'm sorry baby, I didn't know that they were going to do this."
"Justin, what are you talking about?" She starred at him with a confused look on her features.
"The dancing..." Now he was getting confused.
"You knew? You knew and didn't tell me?" She was starting to get upset. "How did you find out?"
"Johnny told me at the meeting tonight, that's what it was about."
"You had a meeting about the Dance Hall closing?" Now she was really confused.
"The Dance Hall....Ash no, our meeting was....Oh God." He moaned as realization hit him. "Ash who was that on the phone?"
"Mr. Benson from the Dance hall. They're closing it because there isn't enough money to keep it going. They have to close it after this last week." She explained and Justin became more upset.
"Oh Ash...I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
"Then what were you talking about? I'm so lost right now." She searched his eyes for a clue but found nothing.
"Ash, the meeting I had with Johnny today was about a new policy that Jive created. No longer can employees of Jive date the artists. They said something about it causing problems. So...." Ashley cut him off.
"So I just lost the two most important jobs to me, in one night. Well this is just wonderful." She placed her head on the table and let out a defeated sigh. Life sucked right now.
Justin looked at her, and then around the room. He noticed for the first time the plates and glasses on the table, the food set out that had long since gotten cold, and the bottle of wine she had set out. The simplicity of it was apparent, but the thought that she had made him dinner, and waited for him just to get news that she was now out two jobs, was heartbreaking. He snapped out of his daze when he heard a soft whimper come from her.
Justin got up and moved to her, taking her in his arms. She cried into his shoulder and he kissed the side of her head.
"It's alright Baby, we'll work something out."
"Justin, I'm sorry. I just-"
"No don't speak. Come on, let's eat, what did you make?" He led her over to the stove and saw dishes of pasta set out.
They reheated the food and sat down to a quiet meal. Justin tried his best to keep the conversation away from anything that would bring the mood lower than it already was. Ashley had been through a lot and he was going to do his best to help her get through.
~*~
Justin shifted in his uncomfortable position. He tired to sit up but there was something on his body. He opened his eyes and saw Ashley lying, her head on his chest. They had fallen asleep on the couch after talking about plans for New York. Ashley was trying to keep herself together. She was realy broken apart about the Dance Hall closing. The kids at the hall were her life. She had devoted 6 years to them, and to have it all end was unbelieveable. Justin sat there thinking. There was something he could do, and the more he thought about it, the more excited he got. He was about to wake Ashley and tell her, but he thought better of it when he saw the peacful look that was now on her face. He dicided that he would wait. He now had the perfect Christmas present.
_____________________________________________________________________
Ashley, Justin and Britney hid behind four massive body guards as the exited the plane. Word had leaked out that Britney was shooting her video, and there were atleast a hundred people waiting outside the terminal, and many more outside the airport. The line of dancers, and others filed outside and into charter vans that would take them to the hotel. Ashley, Justin, Britney and Brit's assistant Felicia all jumped into one van and talked about the events of the next week as the headed towards their destination.
"Ok, so Britney you have the first 2 shots today, that's the dancing, and then the beauty shots in the dancing outfit and soundstage. Then you'll need to go to the photo shoot for you're album, and then rehersal for that charity concert you're doing. After that, you need to come back to the studio to do the night shots for the video." Felicia listed off everything that Britney had to do, and Britney looked overwhelmed, but she took it well.
"Alrighty. So, I'll finish up at the video shoot around 12, and then the photo shoot is at 1, so I can eat in between, and then I'll head to rehersal. I'll just find out what I need to do, so I can get back for the night shots." She tried her best to make it sound easy, but both Ashley and Justin were thankful it wasn't them.
When they reached the studio everyone went in for wardrobe and make up. Justin waited outside and talked with the director and different people.
Ashley walked through the door to the trailer and someone shoved a hanger with some clothes on it, into her hands.
"What's this?" She said, looking over the small pieces of material.
"Your outfit. Please hurry, we need to get you into make-up as soon as possible." Ashley shrugged and went into a room to change.
She took the very skimpy pair of shorts, and put them on. They were jean material with ragged holes every where, and they had splotches of color in different palces. The top was a dark gray bikini top that Ashley swore she could see through. Over that went a mesh top that covered one shoulder and went down across the bikini top. That stopped underneath her chest, so her stomach was bare. She looked in the mirror and wondered if Britney had more or less material to her outfit.
Ashley took a deep breath and stepped out of the room. Almost imedietly someone was at her fixing the outfit. Ripping of some of the material to make it shorter, and reveal more. Ashley was about to ask what exactly was the look they wanted but someone sat her down into a chair and began to do her hair.
They straightened her naturally curly hair and twisted it up on top of her head. Wispies floated around her face, and they added extentions that were balck and red to her hair. Then to top it all off they sprayed a massive amount of glitter to make her head shine. She coughed as the fumes from the spray surrounded her, and she soon felt more hands pulling her out of the chair. Someone was now spreading glitter all over her body, and adding little tattoos here and there. After they were finished she was instructed to go outside and wait with everyone else.
Ashley stepped out of the trailer and started walking towards the different dancers when she heard someone whistle at her. She whipped her head around to see Justin leaning up against the side of the trailer, grinning at her.
"Don't say a word..." She hissed, walking towards him.
"You look sexy. I like that no clothes, sparkly look." He quipped. He pushed off the side of the trailer and closed the distance between them. He placed his hands on her bare waist and gave her a quick kiss. Ashley giggled.
"What?" He asked, as she continued to laugh.
"Oh, nothing, nothing. So, have you seen Britney? I want to know if she's got more clothes than I do." Justin smiled at the remark and looked down. Ashley felt him play with her bellybutton ring.
"No matter what she wears she wont look as good as you do."
"Ok, that was corny." She smiled when he looked up at her. Ashley heard someone call out that everyone needed to go inside, so she gave Justin a quick kiss. "I have to go, but I'll see you later. Are you going to watch the shoot?" She asked as they started to walk towards the doors.
"Yea, I'll stay. I have nothing to do here in New York. I just wanted to be able to spend the time with you."
"OK babe, I'll see you later." Justin watched as she jogged towards the doors and dissapeared into the darkness. He felt someone walk up next to him and he turned to see Mitch, Britney's boyfriend. Mitch was tall and dark. He had deep brown eyes. Britney had met him at one of her video shoots, because he was working with the director. Mitch was big into film.
"Hey man. What's up?" Justin asked.
"Not much. Just here with Brit. I haven't had much time to see her lately, but I worked it so that I'm the assistant director of the shoot. What are you doing here?"
"I'm here with Ashley."
"Ashley who?" Mitch and Justin talked as they walked inside. Justin bllinked a few times to adjust to the darkness of the room.
"Ashley Richardson. She's a dancer with Britney. She actually choreographed the dance with Wade, she works with him."
"Ohh, that blond chick with the really nice..." He stopped when he saw the death stare that Justin was giving him. He cleared his throat. "Um..I think that I just heard someone call me, I'll talk to you later....Oh and Justin, nice sparkly lip gloss." He then ran off towards the direction of the director.
Justin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and saw the glitter come off. He smirked, leave it to Ashley to not tell him.
~*~
Ashley walked onto the massive set, and felt as if she had walked into the jungle. It was dark and there were trees and plants everywhere. There was an area cleared out that looked as if it were for dancing, and she did a mental picture to see if everyone could fit and dance together. She saw Wade with the dancers and walked over to them. He was explaining about the routine and what they needed to do, and fixing any last problems.
"OK, we get a run through now, so let's do this fast and make it good people!" He turned to Ashley "are you ready?"
"Yea, where's Brit?"
"Over there, they're finishing up on her outfit." Ashley looked over and saw Britney in a bright green scarf top that wrapped around her chest. and sparkly bluish colored shorts. There were multi colored scarves coming off her shorts and she had bodt tattoos also. Ashley made her way to the dance floor and they did their run through. Everything went good and the director said he was happy with it, and that the shot would turn out great.
They ended up doing the shot about 5 times, to get different angles, and to make sure that it looked good. By the time they were finished everyone was ready to go home. Britney stayed behind and did the beauty shots, and was then quickly escorted to her trailer to change, then whicked off to the photo shoot.
Ashley took her time in changing, to make sure she got all the make-up and glitter off. She left her hair up and decided to shower in the hotel. She put on her regular clothes, and then rode in a van with Justin back to their hotel.Justin sat on the bed and talked to Ashley while she took a shower. She'd left the door open so they could hear eachother.
"So what do you want to do?"
"Let's go out to eat. I've never really been to see the sites in New York city, so let's find a nice restaurant, and have some time together." She said as she washed out all the glitter in her hair. This was about the 4th wash, and it still didn't feel all that clean.
"Alright Jules. I know a great place, I'll call and make reservations." Justin got up and made the call to a classy italian restaurant that he liked to visit.
~*~
Ashley and Justin had a great dinner and talked about anything. Both enjoyed the time to catch up with eachother. It had been a while since they had been able to go out with each other. Most of the time they were at home becuase they both got back so late. But this trip was deffinitely worth it.
They laughed as they walked hand in hand through a park. The stars sparkled as if they knew the happiness the couple felt. The city was busy with people rushing out in the cool winter weather. Christmas shoppers rushed to get presents and decorations lit the sky. The mood was perfect and nothing was going to spoil the night.
Chapter 4
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