Chapter Forty-Nine
(August 2, 2001)
“It looks like they might be canceling tonight’s
concert altogether,” Lance announced as he walked into the Toy Room backstage
in Miami. “Johnny doesn’t think the
rain is going to let up anytime soon.” He cast a sly glance at Chris. “Hurricane Michelle is really doing a number on us… she made us late starting
in Tampa… most of the fans were gone by the time we went on stage.”
Chris groaned.
“Not you too, Lance. I thought I
had enough of the hurricane jokes from Joey.”
“I’m surprise you’re not making them,” Justin
snickered.
“He has been,” JC didn’t look up from what he
writing. “But he’s entitled to make
jokes because he loves her.”
“Thanks C,” Chris said and stuck his tongue out at
Lance, Joey and Justin.
Joey started bouncing a tennis ball off the
wall. “So how long do we have to hang
around here before they let us know what’s going on?”
“Don’t know,” Lance shrugged. “We have to hurry up and wait.”
JC suddenly crumpled up the piece of paper he was
writing on and stormed into the Quiet Room.
The rest of them were quiet for a minute before Justin spoke up.
“We’ve gotta do something to cheer him up,” he said
quietly.
“We could bake him some cookies?” Joey suggested.
“And how are we supposed to do that?” Lance asked.
“We have kitchenettes in our suites… we’ll just go
out and buy the stuff we need. I can
call my mom and get her chocolate chip cookie recipe.”
“Mmm,” Chris drooled. “Mama Fatone’s chocolate chip cookies…”
Joey snorted.
“Yeah, like we’re going to be able to make them as well as she does.”
“I’m sure that between the four of us they’ll turn
out fine. We need…” Lance’s voice
trailed off as Johnny walked into the room.
“You guys are free to go,” Johnny sighed. “Because of the storm there’s been a lot of
damage to the stage and the equipment.
There’s no way we can get it fixed in time, even if it wasn’t raining.”
“Yes!” Joey jumped into the air and high-fived
Justin. “Time to go shopping!”
**********
“Justin, put the M&M’s™ back.” Lance
sighed. “That’s not part of the
recipe.”
“Are you kidding?” Justin threw several bags of
them into the shopping cart. “We can
make a batch of cookies with these instead of the chocolate chips!”
Lance just shook his head. “What else do we need Joey? I want to get Justin out of here before he
fills the cart with everything he sees.”
He looked around. “I don’t even
know where Chris went.”
“We lost him a few aisles back,” Joey said. “He saw a lady with a newborn and went to
talk to her.”
Lance and Justin did a double take.
“What!” Justin exclaimed. “Why would he do that?”
“Who knows why Chris does anything he does?” Joey
examined the different kinds of flour.
“Sometimes I worry about him.”
“Sometimes?” Lance laughed just as Chris rounded
the corner of the aisle they were in.
“Sorry.” Chris apologized and didn’t offer an
explanation. “Are we all set?”
“We just
need to find some cookie trays and we can go.”
Lance glared at Justin as he threw a few more things into the cart. “And we’re never bringing Justin with us
again.”
“Got everything on the list Joe?” Chris asked.
“Everything but the trays.” Joey looked into the
cart. “And of course we have
extra. Jeez Justin, are you throwing a
party tonight that we don’t know about?”
“Of course not,” he pouted. “I’m just stocking up
in case we’re stuck inside the hotel for a long period of time.”
“That’s what room
service is for!” Chris smacked his arm.
**********
“We have to be quiet,” Lance whispered. “JC can’t come out and see us with all this
stuff.”
“He might smell the cookies baking.” Joey
suggested. “You know what his nose is
like.”
“Yeah,” Chris laughed. “We’ll probably have sexual chocolate in here looking for some
too.”
They all exchanged a worried look.
“Maybe we ought to make more than one batch?”
Justin suggested. “That way we can use
some of the stuff I picked up.”
“This is gonna be fun.” Chris rubbed his hands
together. “And hopefully they’ll
actually taste like cookies when we’re done.”
“And as long as you and Justin stay out of the
cookie batter.” Lance grinned when their mouths fell open. “You’ve been warned.”
“But that’s the best part!” Justin exclaimed.
“And we’re making these cookies to cheer JC up, not
for your benefit.” Joey scowled. “I
don’t know why we’re even letting you two help.”
“Because it was my
idea in the first place.” Justin shoved Joey.
“If you guys don’t knock it off, JC is going to
hear you and then the surprise will be ruined and then I’ll make the damn
cookies by myself.” Lance growled. “Got
it?”
Joey, Justin and Chris grumbled, but agreed. The four of them entered Lance’s suite and
dropped the grocery bags on the floor in the kitchen. Joey looked at his mom’s instructions which were posted on the
refrigerator and turned the oven on to the appropriate temperature while Chris
started rooting through the cupboards for bowls and any utensil that they might
need.
Justin and Lance started unpacking the bags and
separating the ingredients for the cookies and the extras that Justin had
bought. Chris grinned as he pulled out
the bottle of Red Bull and the bottle of vodka that he had added to the
collection.
“You’re not drinking that while we’re baking, are
you?” Lance asked warily.
“I might.” Chris shrugged.
“Keep Chris away from the oven,” Lance leaned over
and whispered to Joey. “Chris, I want
you to measure out the flour, Justin, you can do the sugar and Joey, you can do
the cold ingredients like the butter, eggs and stuff.”
“What are you going to do?” Chris asked
suspiciously.
“I’m going to grease the cookie sheets, unless you care
to do that?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Nope, that’s all yours.” Chris told him and picked
up the small bag of flour. He eyed the
bag of flour and glanced over at Justin out of the corner of his eye.
“Are you sure this is going to cheer JC up?” Joey
asked. “I mean, I think having Laurie
back would cheer him up more… right?”
“Well that’s just not possible, so we’re doing this
for him. He won’t even go out with us
to get drunk.” Justin ripped open the
sugar and measured it just as a handful of flour hit the side of his face. He looked over at Chris and glared at
him. “The hell, Chris?”
“What? I’m
innocent.” Chris started to whistle.
“Innocent my ass, Kirkpatrick.” Justin growled and
grabbed an egg without Chris seeing him.
“How come no one ever believes me when I say that?”
Joey and Lance burst into laughter and went back to
what they were doing. Justin launched
his attack and the egg missed Chris by a foot.
It hit the back of Lance’s head.
Chris and Justin’s mouths dropped open.
Lance slowly turned around to face them.
“Who… threw… that?” He asked through clenched
teeth.
Chris and Justin each pointed to the other. “He
did.”
Lance closed his eyes and counted to ten. “Get out of the kitchen.”
Justin bit his lower lip. “But Lance…”
“Leave.”
“Not fair,” Justin kicked at the tiles on the
floor. “It was my idea and I don’t even
get to help.”
“That’s because you threw an egg at Lance!” Chris
exclaimed as they were leaving the kitchenette.
“I was aiming for you!” Justin shot back and walked
into the bathroom to clean up. Chris
followed him.
“It doesn’t really matter, ok? Let Joey and Lance do all the women’s work.”
Chris shouted the last part.
“Keep it up Kirkpatrick and you’ll be doing the
dishes!” Joey called back.
“Maybe I’ll just shut up now,” Chris muttered and
flopped onto the sofa.
(Fifteen minutes later)
“Mmm,” Justin stuck his nose up in the air. “Do you smell that?”
“It smells like the first batch is done.” Chris got
off the sofa and walked into the kitchen.
The first batch of cookies were baked to a warm golden brown and his
mouth started to water. He reached out
to grab one and Joey smacked his hand.
“Not for you.”
There was a knock on the door and the four of them
shared a grin.
“I wonder who that could be?” Justin bounced to the
door and opened it. JC was standing
there with four of their bodyguards standing behind him. Justin grinned. “I’m sorry, we don’t want
any.”
“Is that smell coming from here?” JC asked and
started making his way into the suite.
“What smell?” Justin asked innocently.
“Brat.” JC pushed him to the side and walked into
the kitchenette. His eyes widened. “You guys baked cookies? From scratch?”
“For you,” Joey told him proudly. “We thought it would cheer you up a
little. It’s my mom’s recipe.”
JC’s eyes widened even more and he licked his
lips. “Mama Fatone’s recipe? Mmm…” He picked up a cookie that was cooling
on the counter and bit into it. “Oh
DAMN… that’s fantastic…”
“Can I have one now?” Chris whimpered.
Lance placed the cookies onto a plate and passed
them around the room, making sure everyone got at least one cookie.
“There’s more in the oven,” Joey told them and
wiped his hands on a towel.
“You guys…” JC said as he polished off his fourth
cookie. “I can’t thank you enough for
this, I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” they all said in unison.
“We just want you to be happy.” Justin told
him. “We love you and we hate seeing
you this miserable.”
“I’d be miserable too if I was married to
Alexandria,” Joey muttered under his breath and checked on the cookies in the
oven.
“No one has ever done anything like this for me
before,” JC continued. “This is great…”
He looked over Joey’s shoulder into the oven.
“Can I have some more?”