After the caffeine made its way out of Liz’s system, she was semi normal, which meant she was good as new! They were allowed to chill and hang out for a little bit before dress rehearsal in two hours. Everyone was in the back hallways of the stadium talking and fooling around. Erika was sitting at a nearby table doing homework. She wasn’t physically in school any more, but she still had a shit load of homework she had to do on the road for her new tutor. JC casually walked over and took the seat next to her.
“Hey sweetie.”
“Hi,” she didn’t want to raise her head cuz she knew her face was bright red. She had known him for months now and she still got butterflies in her stomach every time he spoke to her.
“What are you up to?”
“Nothin’, just doing this dumb ass homework.”
“So...I was wondering if after the concert, if your not too tired that is, if you want to hang with me and watch a movie.”
“Um, sorry to burst your bubble, but we live on a bus, not just you and me, but you, me, and seven other people.”
“Yea, well, it’s the thought that counts.” He threw her one of those heart-stopping smiles and got up to walk away. “So I’ll see you tonight.”
He walked towards where Rachel and Liz were playing seven degrees with Joey and Lance. Liz was the best at that game. She was able to connect the two most random people together like Kid Rock and Brad Pitt.
“Hey guys, can I play?”
“Sure but I don’t think you’ll be able to keep up with those two. Lance and me haven’t actually been playing, we’ve just been watching.”
“Then I’ll just watch.”
Liz and Rachel didn’t even notice JC’s presence until he came up behind Rachel. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.
While this was occurring, Erika ran to find Justin.
“Justin! Where are you!” They ran into each other as they were turning the corner. Erika was out of breath since she was running around.
“Justin...I...did you.... JC...”
“Did I what? Are you ok?”
She got her breath steady again and tried to make her sentences make sense this time. “Yea, I’m fine. It’s just, remember when I asked if you could maybe hook me and JC up?”
“Yea, how could I forget?”
“Well, I was wondering if you’ve said anything to him.”
“Yea.” Justin didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t even want to do this, but he just wanted to see her happy, even if it meant she wasn’t with him.
“Well...what did you say?”
“Well, like, the other day were watching some movie with Julia Roberts and someone was all like ‘dude, I love her smile‘, I’d end up saying something like ‘Hey, JC haven’t you ever noticed how beautiful Erika’s smile is?’ or something like that. Why do you want to know?”
“Because when I was doing my homework, JC came over to me and he kinda asked me on a date, well not really but, I dunno, I’m probably over analyzing it.”
The two walked back together side by side. She got back to her seat and began on her homework once again. Justin had the same tutor and the same assignment, so they were working together on it. When Erika heard laughing she looked up to see what was so funny. Her heart broke into a million pieces as she saw JC practically all over one of her best friends. He was placing soft gentle kisses all along her neck and tickling her sides. JC looked up and directly to Erika. He threw her that smile again and added a wink. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing. He leaned back down to give Rachel another kiss on her jaw line, never taking his eyes off of Erika, and walked away.
Erika couldn’t move, she sat there in shock as to what she just saw. That bastard. She thought to herself as Justin who also witnessed the whole thing held onto her hand under the table.
When JC was completely out of sight, Erika ran over to Liz and Rachel. “Rachel, you I love you but what the hell was that!”
“Erika, I was trying to get him off of me. It was really weird, I mean, like a few minutes ago he wasn’t really flirting with you but it seemed like he was showing interest.”
There was an awkward silence between the three.
A huge smile spread across Liz’s face, “I have an idea.”
“What are you thinking?”
She let out a bunch of giggles before she answered. “Their album went platinum right...”
(That night after the concert, on the bus)
“Oh my gosh! That was so amazing!” Christy, Rachel, Liz, and Erika were exhausted after their first show. They all wanted to go straight to bed. As Erika reached for her door handle, a hand placed on her shoulder startled her.
“Whoa, hey, it’s just me. You still up for that movie in the back room?” JC spoke without removing his hand.
“Um, yea, sure why not?”
They made their way to the back room and JC put in The Sixth Sense. “This is such an awesome movie; Bruce Willis is too cool.”
“Uh huh, I’ve never seen the whole movie though,” she thought for a moment, “oh my goodness, and I love that boy’s blonde hair.”
“Yea, I guess it’s a nice shade.” JC was confused as to why she would say something so random as that.
JC and Erika finished watching the movie and went to bed right after giving each other hugs good night.
******
Around 4’o clock in the morning, Erika, Rachel, and Liz woke up and met in the back room.
“You got the stuff, right?”
“Yea, I got it all right here.”
“Let the fun begin.”
They quietly made their way past everyone’s rooms and into JC’s room.
“Hehehe, this is what you get for screwing with us.”
“Turn him over, I can’t get the back.”
“Shhh, you’re being too loud.”
“It’s fine; he’s a deep sleeper.”
They snuck around the bus for about an hour and went back to bed once their evil deed of the week was complete.