Laurie made her way
upstairs as quickly as she could without drawing attention to herself. She
willed her tears not to fall until she reached her room; she didn’t want to run
the risk of running into someone while she was crying. She hated crying in
front of other people. She unlocked the door to her room and slipped inside
just in time.
“Oh my God,” she moaned
as she collapsed onto her bed. “How could I have been so stupid? I can’t
believe...” she sobbed. “The night after... the day of... why is she here?” She
yelled.
There was suddenly a
knock on her door and one of the guards asked if she was all right.
“I’m fine,” she told him
through the closed door and he retreated. She took a deep breath and tried to
compose herself. “I can’t let Alexandria see that I’m upset...” She flopped
back down on her bed and covered her face with her hands.
“Why me? What the hell am
I being punished for?”
There was another knock
on her door and Laurie seriously contemplated not answering it. When the knocking
became more persistent, she took a deep breath and prayed that it wasn’t JC on
the other side. She crossed the room and opened the door and was almost
relieved to see that it was just Michelle.
“Cool, I finally found
you,” she grinned and then noticed that Laurie’s eyes looked a little swollen.
“Hey, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I think my
allergies are acting up. Do you want to come in?”
“No, I was just on my
third lap around the hotel to find you. Is your cell phone on?” “It should be,”
Laurie walked over to her purse and removed it. “Oh, the battery is dead...”
“That could be why you
weren’t answering it,” Michelle laughed. “I wanted to know what your plans are
for tonight, because as far as I know, we’re all going to go see a movie.”
“I don’t know if I really
feel like going out...” her voice trailed off.
“Well you don’t have much
say in the matter. You’re not staying in your hotel room all day.”
“Michelle, I really
don’t...”
“Do I have to get Joey to
come and pick you up and carry you out to the car? Because you know he will,”
she threatened.
“All right,” Laurie
laughed in spite of herself. “What time are we leaving?”
“Haven’t decided yet,”
Michelle shrugged.
“JC doesn’t know if he
wants to go or not, I need to touch base with him later.”
“Somehow I doubt he’ll
want to go,” Laurie muttered under her breath.
“Huh?”
Laurie sighed.
“Alexandria showed up about half an hour ago and he was eating lunch with her
when I saw them.” Michelle’s face darkened at the mention of Alexandria’s name.
Laurie noticed and made a comment. “Does anyone aside from JC like the woman?”
“Somehow I doubt it...
and I think JC has his moments too.”
“Why did he marry her?”
“Honestly? I think he
didn’t want to be alone. I don’t know how his mind works, but that’s what strikes
me as being the most likely possibility.”
“Wouldn’t he have been
better off on his own instead of being so miserable? It could have given him a
chance to really get to know himself.”
“You’re probably right,”
Michelle agreed. “However, JC doesn’t like to be alone. It’s almost like he
feels the need to have someone in his life, no matter how miserable it makes
him. But Alexandria is incredibly wrong for him. I can’t stand her, it’s like
when she’s with him and there are fans around, she’s got this smug look on her
face that I just want to slap off.”
“How is she with the
fans?” Laurie asked. She wanted to get as much information as possible.
“It’s hard to say. If
she’s in a really good mood, she might actually be nice to them. But for the
most part, she’s nasty to the older fans, especially the ones she might see as
a threat. She’s usually pretty good with the younger ones.”
“And that doesn’t bother
him? Or does he even realize it?”
“Oh no, he realizes it,
because we’ve all noticed and mentioned it to him. The guys and I would much
rather see him with someone else, but unfortunately with Alexandria around that
just isn’t possible.”
Laurie bit her bottom lip
to fight back a laugh. If she only knew.
**********
(After that evening's concert)
Chris and Michelle were
just leaving their room to gather the others for the movies and they ran into
Lance in the hallway, dressed to the nines.
“Wow, Scoop is lookin’
hot. Did ya get all dolled up for us?” Chris grinned.
“Nope,” Lance adjusted
the button on the cuff of his shirt. “I’ve got a date tonight.”
“What? You do? With who?
Where did you meet her?” Lance laughed.
“It’s actually with
Isabella.”
“Isabella? Our Isabella?
Our stylist Isabella? When did...” Michelle placed her hand over Chris’ mouth
to silence him and smiled at Lance.
“Have a good time,
Lance.”
“Thanks Shelle,” he
laughed at the astonished look on Chris’ face and walked toward the elevators.
Michelle removed her hand
from her boyfriend’s mouth.
“What was that for?” He
asked indignantly.
“It was to keep you from
harassing that poor guy. I already knew he was going out with Isabella.”
His mouth dropped open.
“You did?”
“Of course I did, Lance
told me earlier today before you guys hit the stage. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s not a big deal, I’m
just a little surprised, that’s all.” Chris suddenly smirked.
“What?”
Before Chris could
answer, a pair of arms wrapped around Michelle’s waist and she found herself
hanging over Joey’s shoulder. She shrieked and started to squirm.
“Joey, put me down!
You’re supposed to do this to Laurie if we can’t get her out of her room!”
“Don’t worry,” Joey
laughed. “She’ll get hers.”
“Chris, do something
dammit!”
“Ok,” he said and slid
his hands under the back of her shirt to undo her bra.
“Kirkpatrick, don’t you
DARE.”
Joey had begun to laugh
hard enough that he was beginning to have problems keeping his balance and he
crashed to the floor, with Michelle landing on top of him. Chris immediately
threw himself on top of them.
“Cool!” Justin exclaimed
as he came out of his room. “Party pile!”
“No, Justin don’t...”
Joey said a minute too late.
Justin jumped on top of
them and began to tickle Chris.
“Aww f...” Joey’s curse
was cut off by Lonnie coming down the hall.
“Guys, get off. My leg is starting to hurt.”
“Shit, sorry Joe,” Justin
jumped off and helped the three of them up. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I think so.” He
lifted his pant leg to see if there was any extra damage. “It looks all right,
it will just hurt like a bitch for a while.”
“Ok. Sorry man,” Justin
looked around. “Are we the only ones going?”
“We just need to get
Laurie out of her room,” Michelle said. “And if she doesn’t readily agree, you
know what to do Justin.”
“Yep,” he laughed evilly
and rubbed his hands together.
**********
Laurie had spent the last
half an hour sitting on her bed and listening to JC and Alexandria argue. She
had tried to not listen at first, but as their voices got louder, it became
harder to ignore. She went into the bathroom and had her shower, hoping that
when she reemerged, the arguing would have stopped. It had gotten worse.
She tied her hair back
and as she was getting dressed, she heard the voices of the other guys in the
hall and knew that they would be expecting her to join them soon. Laurie
thought back to the ride back to the hotel after the concert, she rode with
Michelle and Michelle had told her that JC had been looking for her earlier.
***Flashback***
“You’re
pretty popular,” Michelle laughed as they headed in the direction of the
hotel.”
“What
do you mean?”
“I
spent the morning looking for you and JC spent the afternoon looking for you.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you were avoiding everyone.”
***End
Flashback***
Laurie sighed deeply. So
JC had been looking for her, even though Alexandria was there. What was that
supposed to mean? Did he still want to be with her? She heard the voices in the
hall coming closer and knew that she would have to get off the bed soon and go
out.
As she pushed herself
into a standing position, she glanced over at the door connecting her room with
JC’s and walked over to make sure it was locked. Satisfied that it was, she
took a deep breath, grabbed her purse and her keycard and joined the others.
Laurie opened the door to her room just as Justin raised his hand to knock on
it. He grinned when she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“We were just coming to
get you,” Justin told her.
“That’s obvious,” she
said and closed her door. She cast a quick glance at JC’s door and realized
that they were still arguing.
“How long has that been
going on?” Joey asked, nodding his head in that direction.
“Since they got married,”
Chris snickered and Michelle elbowed him.
“Probably since they got
back from the venue, so it’s been a while.”
“If you want some sleep
tonight, you’re more than welcome to sleep in my room.” Joey flashed a wicked
grin at Laurie. Laurie laughed.
“Thanks Joey, but I
should be ok.” She didn’t particularly want to talk about JC and Alexandria, so
she changed the subject. “What movie are we going to see?”
“Haven’t decided yet,
we’ll do that when we get there. We have the theater to ourselves anyway, so
it’s not a big deal.” Justin shrugged.
“I’m never going to get
used to this,” Laurie shook her head.
**********
When they arrived at the
theater, they all decided that they wanted to see Moulin Rouge, so they made
their way to the snack area to buy drinks and popcorn, in addition to the candy
that Justin and Joey were buying. Laurie ordered herself an iced tea, bypassing
the candy. The five of them walked into the theater where the movie was playing
and took their seats.
Chris and Michelle sat in
the very last row, while Joey, Justin and Laurie sat a few rows in front of
them. While the trailers were playing, Chris put his arm around Michelle’s shoulders
and nuzzled the spot behind her ear.
“You smell good,” he
murmured and kissed her neck lightly. “What perfume are you wearing?”
“Whatever was on the
dresser right before we left, I just grabbed it.”
“I like it,” he said and
turned the majority of his attention back to the previews.
After a few minutes of
intently watching the screen, Chris reached into the tub of popcorn, grabbed a
handful and nonchalantly threw it at Justin. Before Justin had time to turn
around and glare at them, Chris made sure that the popcorn was on the floor and
that his lips were on Michelle’s.
Justin narrowed his eyes
suspiciously and turned back to face the screen. Chris snickered and grabbed
another handful of popcorn, this time aiming it at Joey. Joey was a little faster
in turning around to glare at him. Chris laughed and ducked as Joey threw a
handful of Gummi Bears back at him, hitting Michelle instead.
“Hey!” She exclaimed.
“How did I get into the middle of this?”
“Sorry Shelle,” Joey
laughed and turned back to face the screen just as the movie began.
They were quiet for
almost an hour, before Chris began to get restless again and climbed over the
rows in front of them with the tub of popcorn in hand. He sat down behind
Justin and dumped the entire contents over his head before ducking behind his
chair so he wasn’t seen.
When Justin turned around
and saw Michelle sitting by herself, her eyes fixed on the screen; he furrowed
his brow in confusion and turned back. Just as Chris stood up to return to his
seat, Justin heard him and whipped around to face him. Justin smiled at him.
“Uh oh,” Chris said and
took off up the aisle to get back to his seat before Justin could do too much
damage.
Justin tore out of his
seat and followed Chris, while Laurie sighed and brushed popcorn off her
shoulder and out of her lap, as a result of Chris’ stunt. She turned back to
look at Michelle.
“How can you be watching
the movie with Chris climbing over the seats and harassing us?” She asked.
“I’ve learned to ignore
him,” she laughed and scooted out of the way as Chris tried to climb over her
legs to avoid Justin’s wrath.
“Maybe I’ll come up and
join you guys.” Michelle flopped into the seat beside Joey and they all laughed
as Justin kept chasing Chris up and down the aisles.
After five minutes or so,
Justin gave up and returned to his seat beside Laurie, while Chris sat down
beside Michelle.
**********
“God Alexandria, will you
just DROP it. She works for Chris and Michelle, there’s nothing going on
between us. End of story.”
“If there’s nothing going
on between you, then why were you eating lunch with her? Is that something you
do with all FuMan Skeeto employees?”
“Dria, just shut up.” JC
snapped and stalked into the bathroom, with his wife trailing on his heels.
“If there’s nothing going
on, then why are you getting so defensive?” She asked smugly.
JC threw a glare in her
direction and began to brush his teeth with more pressure than he would have
liked. He realized that no matter what he said, there was no way he was going to
win this argument. He rinsed out his mouth and walked back to the bedroom and
climbed into bed.
“What’s the matter?” She
asked as she crawled into bed next to him. “Am I right? Is that why you’re not
answering me?”
JC turned onto his side
so that his back was facing her and replied, “I’m not answering because it’s
not worth answering. You’re going to think what you want to think, no matter
what I say.” He paused and chose his next words carefully. “I’m sorry if you
feel that you can’t trust me Dria.”
“JC baby, it’s not that I
don’t trust you, I do. I just hate the thought of sharing you with other
women.” She tried to placate him by kissing his neck and running her fingers
lightly down his unclothed arm.
“And where did you get
the idea that you had to share me with anyone? Last time I checked I was
married to you.” He said, his back still to her.
“JC, will you please turn
around and look at me?”
“Dria, I’m tired,” JC
said wearily. “Can we talk about this in the morning?”
“But I want to be with
you,” she breathed seductively into his ear and then began to nibble lightly on
his earlobe.
“I’m not in the mood
tonight Alexandria, the show wore me out.”
“Fine,” she huffed and
snapped the light off. “Goodnight.” She snapped.
“Night Dria,” JC yawned
and thought, “Thank God.”