JC
stormed out of the bunk area and into the kitchenette and grabbed a bottle of
water out of the refrigerator, slamming the door. Lance watched with raised eyebrows as JC drained the water and
threw the empty bottle across the room.
Lance looked slightly amused.
“Having
problems Jace?”
JC
just glared at him and ran both hands through his hair, making it look even
worse. Every time he opened his mouth
to speak, his anger took over and he closed it again. He finally flopped onto the couch beside Lance.
“Am
I a bad person?”
“No,”
replied Lance taken aback. “Why?”
“Am
I being punished?”
“No. What’s with these questions?”
“If I’m not a bad person
and I’m not being punished, then what did I do to deserve to be married to
someone like Alexandria?” JC moaned and buried his face into his hands.
“Would
you rather be married to someone like Laurie?” Lance asked slyly.
JC
cracked a bit of a smile. “Shut
up.” The smile quickly faded. “Seriously Lance, what am I going to do? What on earth possessed me to marry her?”
“Do
you want my honest opinion or do you want me to say what you want to hear?”
“Lance…
I need your honest opinion. Because I don’t know how much longer I can
go on like this… dealing with her.”
“Jace…
I don’t know if you realized it, but ever since I’ve known you, you’ve always
been in a relationship of some kind.
You were with Melanie for two years when you were in the Mickey Mouse
Club. Then you joined the group, broke
up with Melanie and met Laurie overseas.
When we came back here, you stayed alone for a year while you tried to
get in touch with Laurie again. You met
Carolyn and you were with her for almost a year before you met Alexandria.”
“What
do you do, keep tabs on all the women I go out?”
“C,
come on. Don’t you recognize a pattern
here? You’ve always had someone to care
for you. You’re a very needy person and
you want to be in a relationship at all times… so I think instead of being
alone, you chose to marry Alexandria.
Do you understand what I’m saying?”
JC
pushed his hands through his hair and stood up. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Jace…
if you do decide that Alexandria isn’t what you want…”
JC
glared at him.
“I’m
just saying that if you do end up deciding that… maybe you should take some
time out for yourself before getting extra involved with Laurie. Take some time out to be by yourself and
figure out who you are.”
“Lance…
I’m already extra involved with Laurie.”
He said quietly and returned to his bunk.
JC
flopped down on his bunk and reached for his cell phone and began to dial
Laurie’s number. He sat back and waited
for the call to connect when he remembered that Craig was home and he couldn’t
call her in case he answered. He placed
his phone in front of him and sighed.
“Damn.”
**********
Laurie
slept straight through the night and didn’t wake until the next morning when
the first rays of sunlight streamed across her face. She stretched languidly and savored the warmth that was coursing
through her veins. She groaned inwardly
when she realized that Craig was sleeping next to her and had snuggled into her
side.
She
rolled her eyes and threw back the covers gently so that she didn’t wake Craig
up. She stretched again and headed into
the bathroom to take her shower. Her
thoughts were on JC the entire time she was getting ready for work. Just as she grabbed her keys, Craig came
downstairs dressed in his robe and was scratching his head.
“Oh, that’s attractive,” Laurie thought
and rolled her eyes.
“Hey honey,” Craig
approached her and kissed her cheek.
“First night back, did you sleep well?”
“Mmm,” she replied
absentmindedly as she pretended to dig for something in her purse.
“Good. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t
be here when you get home. I have to
fly to New York for a few days. I
should be home by Friday and we can spend the whole weekend together.”
“Fine.”
“You’re mad.”
“Craig, I don’t get
mad. I’m used to you leaving all the
time.” She paused. “But fine, you’ll be home this weekend. Great.
Now I have to go or I’ll be late for work.”
“I love you Laurie,” he
said softly.
Laurie just shook her
head sadly and walked out the door.
When she arrived at the office, she quickly checked her messages and
saved the important ones to deal with later.
She kicked off her shoes and glanced at her watch. Nine o’clock, which meant it was noon in
Toronto. She reached for her phone and
dialed JC’s number, hoping he was already awake. She breathed a sigh of relief when he answered on the first ring.
“Hey babe,” JC said.
“Hey,” Laurie couldn’t
help but smile. “How are you?”
“Better than I was last
night, that’s for sure. I almost called
you, but then I remembered that Craig was home.”
“You could have just said
that you were calling from work, I doubt Craig would have questioned it. But it’s probably a good thing that you
didn’t call because as soon as I got home, I had a long bath and promptly fell
asleep.”
“Oh, did someone wear you
out?” JC asked mischievously.
“I think so,” Laurie
murmured. “I just can’t seem to
remember who it was though.” She teased.
“If you were her, I’d
spend all night reminding you,” JC told her in a low sultry voice.
Laurie inhaled sharply as
she all too easily envisioned JC’s hands roaming over her body. “Josh…” she said softly.
“That’s what you get for
teasing me,” he chuckled. Lance walked
by and nudged JC, winking at him before he joined Justin and Joey
backstage. “Umm, Laur… I need to tell
you something.”
Laurie felt her stomach
drop. “What is it?”
“You were right. Lance knew there was something going on
between us. He cornered me yesterday
after he made Joey trade buses.”
“Oh.”
“But I think it’s a good
thing sweetie. He said he supports us
and I know we can trust him. Besides,
now that someone other than us knows, it feels more real.”
“Yeah, it does.” She
suddenly smiled. “So who do I get to
tell?”
“I didn’t tell Lance, he
figured it out,” JC laughed. Then he
sighed. “Hun, I have to go, the guys
are telling me that lunch was just put out.
And if I don’t get something to eat before Joey does…”
Laurie laughed. “Yeah I know. And I suppose I should get some work done…”
“Ok… I love you.”
“I love you too, Josh.”
Laurie was smiling when
she hung up the phone.
**********
Alexandria
smiled to herself as she walked through the crowded hallways backstage at the
SkyDome. She stopped to lean against a
wall and took a long drag of her cigarette.
As she exhaled, Tiny stepped around the corner and took the cigarette
from between her fingers, and extinguished it immediately. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she turned
to look at him.
“What
do you think you’re doing?” She demanded.
“I
don’t care if you’re married to JC or not, you’re not allowed to smoke in
here. The designated smoking areas are
outside.” Tiny growled.
“I
can smoke back here if I want,” she huffed and lit another cigarette, which
Tiny promptly took from her again.
“What the hell?”
“Listen
you stupid bitch, there’s pyro back here and it’s against the law to smoke back
here. So if you want to smoke, go
outside.” Tiny paused. “What the hell
are you doing here anyway? C said he
wasn’t seeing you again until he went home.”
“He
doesn’t know I’m here,” she smirked and headed in the direction of the Toy
Room.
**********
“So
who was that you were talking to Jace?” Lance sent a sly grin in his direction
and JC proceeded to glare at him.
“Anyone we know?”
“It’s
none of…” JC’s voice trailed off as the door to the room opened and Tiny
entered. “Hey man, it’s about time you
joined us.”
“Thanks,”
Tiny sat down with the others. “Umm…
your woman is here.”
JC
shot a look at Lance and Lance shrugged.
“What
do you mean my woman’s here?”
“That
thing you married.”
JC’s
eyes grew wide and he shot another look at Lance. “W-Where is she?”
“When
I saw her, she was heading in the direction of the Toy Room,” Tiny replied with
his mouth full of food. JC sighed and
pushed his plate away.
“I
wasn’t hungry anyway. I had better go
greet her or I’ll have hell to pay later.”
JC
reluctantly stood up and pushed his chair in before heading to the door. He let it close softly behind him and nearly
jumped out of his skin when he realized that Alexandria was standing in front
of him. She ran her hands up his chest
and slid them around the back of his neck.
“Hey
baby,” she purred. “I was just looking
for you.”
“I might as well make nice,” JC thought
and kissed her. “This is a surprise.”
“Well,
you were so mad last night, I thought I would fly up here so that we can talk,”
she suggested and pulled him in the direction of the Toy Room.
JC
felt tension enter his body when Alexandria mentioned their argument the night
before. Since talking to Laurie, all
the anger had drained out of his body and he had temporarily forgotten that it
was something that still needed to be dealt with. His attention, however, was suddenly drawn to the location of
Alexandria’s hands.
“Dria.”
JC removed her hands from his crotch.
“What are you doing?”
“I
want to apologize for last night,” she murmured huskily and pushed JC down onto
the sofa. She knelt down in front of
him and her hands began working on undoing his pants. “I don’t like it when we fight.”
“Dria…
Dria come on stop, I don’t have time for this right now.” JC’s breath hitched
when he felt her mouth slide down his length and he mentally cursed his body
for responding when he didn’t want it to.
“Just pretend it’s Laurie,” he
thought. “Just pretend it’s Laurie.”
JC watched through half
closed eyes as his wife stopped what she was doing and walked over to the door
to make sure it was locked. She walked
back to the sofa and straddled JC’s lap.
“Oh
JC…” she moaned.
**********
Lonnie
walked into the room where the guys were eating lunch and did a mental head
count. His brow furrowed when he
realized that one of their number was missing.
“Where’s
C?”
“Toy
Room,” Tiny responded with his mouth full.
“The spawn of Satan showed up.”
Chris
and Joey immediately started to laugh and high-fived each other while the
entire team of security snickered.
“You
know,” Justin said thoughtfully. “C
would be so much better off with someone else… someone like Laurie.”
Hearing
Justin, Lance began to choke on his sandwich and received a few thumps on the
back from Joey.
“You
ok man?” Chris asked once Lance had sufficiently recovered. “What was that about?”
“Just
umm… went down the wrong way,” Lance replied and took a long drink of his
milk. Lance was staring at Justin and
wondering if he knew anything.
“What
would make you say something like that J?” Joey asked. “That JC would be better off with someone
like Laurie?”
“I
dunno,” Justin shrugged. “They were
together in Europe, it just makes sense that they would find their way back to
each other. It’s no big secret that
Jace isn’t happy being married to Alexandria.”
“But
what if Laurie is happy being married to what’s his face?” Joey countered.
“Oh
yeah, I keep forgetting that she’s married.
Anyway, change of subject – Chris, where’s your woman today?”
“She
drove up to visit her mom and her sister, she said she might be back before
soundcheck, but I doubt it. She
promised that she would be back for the concert though, because we’re going to
Club London after.” Chris replied.
“Hey,
isn’t that where you guys met?” Lance asked.
“Yeah,”
Chris grinned.
“I
guess you don’t want us tagging along, huh?” Joey asked.
“I
can’t stop you, it’s a free country.”
“I’m
sure Justin wants to go because he’s legal here,” Joey laughed and Justin threw
a piece of bread at him. “Hey, how much
longer before soundcheck?”
“About
an hour,” Lance replied. “Why?”
“I
think I’m going to go and catch a quick nap in the Quiet Room.”
“I’m
going to go play some basketball… you up for it Chris?” Justin challenged.
“You’re
on!”
Lance
just laughed and shook his head as the guys left the room one by one. He took out his palm pilot and jotted down a
few ideas for FreeLance that he needed to deal with later. As an afterthought, he added a side note to
talk to JC later if he didn’t come to him first. He had a very bad feeling that Alexandria was up to no good.