She got to the kitchen and saw him sitting at the table, reading the paper and eating some cereal.
“What are you doing up so early?” she asked him as she sat down next to him.
“I gotta call from my boss. He needs me to go to Boston for a couple of weeks. They’re having problems with the site they’re building on and they need me to check it out,” he explained as he put his bowl in the sink and put his newspaper away.
“You have to leave today? But you just got back two days ago!”
“I know, but I have to go. There’s no one else that can go, so it’s up to me. My plane leaves at 10 o’ clock, so I’d better go. See ya,” he said as he walked towards the door.
She followed closely behind him. He turned around and put his arms around her, barely hugging her. She closed her eyes, expecting a kiss, but all she got was a light peck on the cheek. He turned and walked out the door, leaving her to wonder what that was all about.
* * * * * * * *
A couple of days later, Justin could be found sitting on the bus, staring out the window at the trees that were quickly passing him by. He couldn’t get Ashleigh off his mind. Not that that was a bad thing because, before Ashleigh came back, all he could think about was Britney and all the problems they were having.
“Hey Bounce, what’s up?” Justin’s band mate, Chris Kirkpatrick asked, pulling Justin out of his trance.
“Huh? Oh, nothing. Just thinking,” Justin replied sullenly.
“Well, you shouldn’t do that. You might hurt yourself.” For once, Justin didn’t laugh as Chris’s fairly stupid joke. He didn’t even crack a smile. “You should be happy, we’re almost home!” Chris explained, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. The group had been doing album promotions on TV shows in New York for the past week.
“I know I should be happy, but I can’t help it. I’ve got some problems right now, and they’re really bugging me.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I need some advice.” Chris nodded his head, urging Justin to go on. “Well, I like this girl, but she’s already together with someone. And usually, I would just forget about her, but with Ashleigh, it’s different. I can’t just get over her.”
“Well, do you think she likes you?” Chris asked.
“Bobbi said she does.”
“Well, if she likes you, then maybe she’ll break up with this guy and go with you. If you just tell her how you feel.”
“It’s not that easy. You see she’s married to this guy, and they have a kid.”
Chris sighed deeply and closed his eyes. “J, here’s my advice. Don’t get involved with her. It’s too risky. You wouldn’t want to risk her marriage to satisfy you and what you think you want.”
“That’s exactly what JC told me!” Justin practically yelled as he fell back into his seat.
“What’s exactly what I told you?” JC asked as he walked up to see what the two were talking about.
“About Ashleigh, and how I shouldn’t risk her marriage just so I can get what I think I want.”
“That’s right, you shouldn’t,” JC reinforced.
“Who is this Ashleigh chick?” Chris asked.
“My friend. She’s sweet and funny and…hot!” Justin explained.
“Oh, she sounds like your type,” Chris joked.
“I know. We’re perfect for each other, but she’s got someone else!”
“I wanna meet her, I wanna meet her!” Chris yelled as he jumped up and down.
“Meet who?” Lance Bass and Joey Fatone, the other two band members asked as they walked to the front of the bus.
“And what’s all the yelling about?” a girl asked as she made her way to the front of the bus.
“Lindsey, go lay back down, baby,” Lance told his girlfriend, Lindsey Carter. They hadn’t been together six months, but Lance had insisted on her going everywhere with him. She sighed and walked back to the bunk she had been sleeping on. “Meet who?” he asked when he realized that no one had answered his question. “And what is all the yelling about?”
“Meet Justin’s hot friend,” Chris explained. “And Justin’s yelling about how he wants her so bad, but he can’t have her.”
“So, our little Justy has finally found someone he can’t have? This is probably really hard for you. You’ve never been in this situation before, have you Bounce?” Joey asked as he patted Justin’s head. Justin pulled Joey’s hand away and pushed him into the seats across from him. “Ooh, sensitive, aren’t we?”
“Shut up Joey!” Justin yelled.
“Why all the fuss over one girl?” Joey asked.
Chris slapped him in the back of the head. “Because she’s hot, I’ve already explained this to you.”
“Ouch, that hurt Chris,” Joey complained as he gently rubbed the back of his head.
“I wanna meet her, I wanna meet her!” Chris yelled, ignoring Joey. Joey soon joined in Chris’s incessant begging.
“No…no…no,” Justin would say every time either one of them would say he wanted to meet her.
“Why not, J? She’s so nice, and she would love them,” JC tried to reason.
“Oh, so JC can meet her, but we can’t?” Chris demanded, immediately stopping his jumping.
“Look what you did, C. Now they’re really gonna be mad if they don’t meet her.” JC shrugged his shoulders. “Guys, I don’t know if her…I don’t know if she’s home alone. I don’t want to intrude on her and her family.”
“So, call her!” they responded together.
“Ahh!” he screamed as he lightly hit his head on the window. “Fine, just go away!” He pulled out his phone and dialed Ashleigh’s number.
“Hello?” Ashleigh answered the phone.
“Hey Ashleigh. It’s Justin.”
“Oh, hi Justin. What’s up?”
“Nothing much.” Justin heard crying in the background. “What’s that?” Justin asked.
“Oh, it’s just Jessica. Her daddy just left for two weeks, and she’s kinda upset.”
“Oh, well I hope she’s ok. Hey, I was wondering if I could come over for a while. There are some people I want you to meet.”
“Umm, yeah I guess that’d be ok. When will you be here?”
“Well, we’re just outside of Orlando, so it’ll be about half an hour.”
“Oh, that’s fine.” Ashleigh told Justin how to get to her house, but quickly had to go in order to comfort Jessica, who was now crying harder.
Justin walked to the back of the bus and found the rest of the guys crowded around the TV in the back room. “Ok, we’re going. We’ll be there in half and hour. Are you happy now?”
“Yes,” they answered in unison. Justin rolled his eyes and found a spot on the couch to sit and watch Chris beat Joey at some racing game.
* * * * * * * *
“Yo Justin, we’re here,” James, the bus driver called 45 minutes later. Everyone was off the bus before Justin. When he made it off, everyone followed him to the front door. He knocked lightly on the door and was immediately greeted by Ashleigh.
“Hey Justin, come in.” Justin walked in, followed by JC, Chris, Lance, and Joey. “Who are all these people?”
“Ashleigh, these are my friends JC, who you already know, Chris, Joey, and Lance. Guys, this is Ashleigh.”
“Hi Ashleigh!” they said simultaneously.
At that moment, Jessica walked into the room, stopping in her tracks when she saw all these people in her house, surrounding her mother. “Mommy!” the girl yelled. Everyone turned to look at her. “Who are the people?” she asked, a little quieter this time.
“Jessi, these are some of Mommy’s friends. Guys, this is my daughter Jessica.”
Joey and Lance stood quiet for a moment. Everyone had seemed to skip over the little detail of Ashleigh’s daughter. They shrugged their shoulders and followed the guys over to the little girl.
“Hey Kiddo, I’m Chris,” he said as he picked her up.
As everyone passed her around, introducing themselves, JC made his way to the stairs, where Ashleigh had pictures covering the walls. He stared intently at a family portrait that was hanging near the bottom of the stairs.
“Yo Chris, get over here,” he called. Chris emerged from the crowd and walked to where JC was standing. “Does he look familiar to you, too?” JC asked, pointing to the man in the picture.
“Sure, it’s Jason. You remember, the guy that didn’t want to be in the group because he had more important stuff he wanted to do.”
“Oh yeah!”
“Wait a sec, Ashleigh’s married to Jason?!” Chris yelled as the realization hit.
Ashleigh spun around at the sound of her name. “How do you know Jason?” she asked curiously.
“Jason?!” Joey and Justin exclaimed.
“How do you know Jason?” Ashleigh asked, her volume a little louder this time.
“He was in the group when we were first getting together, but he quit because he said he had more important things he wanted to do. He said he had an obligation to his girlfriend,” Chris explained.
“An obligation? That’s what he referred to me as?” Ashleigh asked.
“As far as I can remember, yeah. He said he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant, and she was only 16, so he had to go back because she was going to be his responsibility.”
“That’s great. I always knew that’s what he thought of me,” Ashleigh mumbled.
“Umm, anyway, we’d better get going. Bobbi’s probably getting worried,” JC said suddenly.
“Yeah, we probably better leave,” the others agreed. They walked towards the door, Ashleigh following close behind.
“Ashleigh, would you mind if I stayed awhile?” Justin asked quietly when the others had made it out the door.
“That’d be fine,” Ashleigh answered, though very confused.
“Can we talk?” he asked once everyone was gone.
“Yeah. Jessi, would you mind going upstairs and playing in your room?” Ashleigh asked her daughter.
“Sure Mommy.” Jessica quickly left the room, leaving Justin and Ashleigh alone.
“What’d you wanna talk about?” Ashleigh asked when she heard Jessica’s door close.
“It’s probably none of my business, but what did you mean you always knew that’s what Jason thought of you?” He was sure he saw her eyes glaze over and a sad look appear on her face, but when he looked again, it was gone.
