"What?" JC asked.
"There's reporters surrounding the room." Katie said.
"Great." Chris said.
"How do they find out about these things?" Lance asked. "We've all been in here, we haven't talked to anyone, the girls haven't talked to anyone, the people at the hospital wouldn't tell anyone, and basically anyone associated with us wouldn't go blabbing what hospital he was at."
"Those reporters will probably just make up their own stories, they don't care about the fact that Justin's lying in this hospital bed, not breathing on his own." JC said. "I mean, I don't mind if people know that he's hurt, because people are going to find out, and there's no reason for us to hide it. But they don't have to come to the hospital, they could have at least waited until we were out somewhere."
"Sometimes the press just gets a little out of hand." Joey said.
"Well, what should we do?" Jessica asked. "I mean, what do we do if they say anything to us? Do we ignore them or answer them?"
"That’s really up to you. But I would suggest that you just keep on walking." JC said. "Besides, they’re probably going to be more interested to get pictures of Justin and stuff when the door opens. So, just walk out and shut the door really fast."
"Alright. Bye for real this time." Jessica said.
The girls walked outside of the room and shut the door behind them. They were faced with crowds of reporters. There were even a couple of local news teams there that had their video cameras on.
"Excuse me ladies. Can we ask you a few questions?" A woman asked.
"Not if you’re going to record it on video camera." Katie said.
"Michael turn off the camera, then we can get some information from the girls." She said turning to her cameraman.
"Don’t bother, we’re not going to tell you anything." Jessica said. "Justin is in there on a hospital bed, and it seems like all you people care about is your damn headlines. Go ask the doctors what’s wrong with him or go ask someone else, but leave the guys alone, they’ve been through enough."
The girls started to walk in the opposite direction of the crowd.
"Excuse me, Miss." A reporter called after them. "Who are you girls and how did you get inside the room?"
Jessica turned back around to face them.
"Why don’t you just make it up, that’s what you do best…start rumors."
The girls walked toward the lobby.
"I can’t believe you just swore at reporters." Katie said laughing.
"Well, you know the guys aren’t going to say anything mean to them, they’re all too nice." Jessica said. "I’m just a nobody to all of these reporters, so what does it matter. I could care less what those people think of me."
"Well can’t you see the news articles in like Bop and Tiger Beat, Lance and Justin’s girlfriends spotted or Joey is dating a snotty girl." Katie said. "I wonder if they’ll really say anything like that."
"Who knows and who cares. So a bunch of reporters think I’m a snot and a half, that means nothing to me. I just hope they don’t bother the guys too much, you know? They shouldn’t have to deal with those people."
"Yeah, you’re right."
The girls were walking toward the lobby when Jessica spotted a familiar face.
"Oh my God, what is she doing here?" Jessica asked annoyed.
"Who is that?" Katie questioned.
"That's Courtney." Jessica said. "I forgot, you've never actually met her, have you?"
"I guess not. She's the one you were telling me about?" Katie asked.
"Yep."
Jessica had explained the whole Courtney situation to Katie after she had gotten out of the hospital. She told her that no matter what happened, she could never forgive Courtney for everything she's done.
"Now let's try to get out of her without her noticing." Jessica said.
"Jessica? Katie? Hi!" Courtney said approaching them. "Katie, I'm so glad to see you're out of the hospital!"
"Oh, save the shit for later." Jessica said annoyed.
"Now why would you say something like that?" Courtney asked.
"Drop the act, I told Katie what you tried to do when she was in the hospital, so now both of us hate you. No use trying to be friendly."
Jessica started walking away.
"Did you see all of the reporters?" Courtney asked.
"Yes. Now bye."
"Oh, you can thank me later!"
Jessica turned around to face her.
"What did you just say?" She asked.
"I said, you can thank me later."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You can thank me for the fact that you'll be in the news headlines." Courtney said cheerfully.
"You've got to be joking." Jessica said. "Please tell me that you didn't have anything to do with this."
"Oh, but I did! You know how my mom works here?" She asked. "Well, I found out the story…and well, I have my connections, so I got reporters! Isn't that great?"
Jessica turned to Katie.
"Did she just say what I think she said?"
"Yeah, she did." Katie answered.
"What the hell were you thinking Courtney?!" Jessica snapped. "Oh that's right, you don't think about things before you do them. I can't believe you!"
"What are you so bent out of shape about?"
"You have got to be the biggest ditz I've ever met! A self-centered, shallow, ditz!" Jessica shouted.
"What's her problem?" Courtney asked turning to Katie.
"You don't get it do you?" Katie asked. "The guys are in there, trying to cope with the fact that one of their best friends is in the hospital, then you have reporters come to question them? They don't want to be bothered, can't you understand that?"
"Of course she can't understand that!" Jessica answered. "All she wants is to meet NSync, she could care less about who she hurts in the process."
"I haven't hurt anyone." Courtney said defending herself.
"Bull shit." Jessica snapped. "You've hurt me…we used to be friends, and you lost all hope of us ever being close again. You've hurt the guys…now they wouldn't want to meet you if you were their only fan. And you've hurt Katie…she was nearly dying, and you tried to use her."
"Oh whatever." Courtney said. "I don't know who you're trying to fool, but the guys don't care about you. They only came to visit you so that it would look good with the press. You two are the airheads who actually believe that you've made friends. Ha! Now that's something to laugh about…NSync becoming friends with two little bitches…in your dreams girls."
"I don't even know why I'm wasting my breath talking to you." Jessica said as she turned to walk away.
"Courtney, I hope you're happy. You blew the chance at being friends with a really great person." Katie said. "And when it comes down to it, sure, you may get NSync's autograph…but that's where it ends."
Katie walked and joined Jessica.
"Are you ok?" She asked her.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Jessica answered. "I know I shouldn't lose my temper like that, but I can't help it when she's around. Anyone who ever hears me talking to her probably thinks I'm psychotic."
"But you're not." Katie answered.
"Well, I know that, and you know that…but how do I explain that to the 70-year-old man who was sitting in the lobby listening to me?" She questioned half laughing.
"Don’t worry about it. Anybody who's anybody knows you're not psychotic. All the people who know you understand what Courtney's done to you and to everyone close to you." Katie said. "My advice is, next time we see her we don't even acknowledge the fact that she's there. Or we hunt her down and toilet paper her house!" She laughed.
"Yeah, let's go for the second one!" Jessica joked.
They walked out the door of the hospital and saw several small crowds of girls standing around. They were all bundled up in jackets, hats, and gloves. Some of them even had "get well" signs.
"The guys are lucky, they have a lot of fans who care about them." Jessica said.
"Yeah." Katie agreed.
Without saying another word, the girls walked out to Katie's car.
