“I’m bored,” Michelle whined after a couple of
hours. “Entertain me.”
“You always say
that,” Laurie sighed. “Remind again how
old you are and why you can’t entertain yourself?”
Michelle stuck her tongue out at Laurie and kicked
at the air. “Let’s at least go down to
the casino or something… even if we have to take Dre with us. Then we can go out to dinner with the guys
when they get back… if we’re still allowed.”
Laurie laughed.
“We have to eat, I’m sure we won’t be denied food.”
“Yeah, I guess.
I’m going down to the casino anyway, are you coming?”
“I might as well, just to make sure you stay out of
trouble.” Laurie giggled.
“Don’t remind me,” Michelle groaned. “I’m not exactly looking forward to the
‘talk’ Chris is going to have with me when he gets back.”
“Me either,” Laurie paused. “But I don’t know if it’s just JC I’ll have
to deal with or JC and Lance.” She
sighed. “I didn’t get in much trouble
last time, all I can do is hope for the same thing to happen this time.”
“Fine, then we’ll try this again in about three
years and you can tell me how much trouble you get into with JC.”
Laurie was thoughtful for a moment. “You really think JC and I will be together
that long?”
“Longer,” Michelle said. “You two are so in love it’s disgusting. Seriously.
I really doubt anything else will come between you.”
Laurie grinned.
“So are we hitting the casino or not?”
Laurie and Michelle grabbed their purses and
keycards and made their way to the door of the hotel room. They opened it hesitantly and sure enough,
Dre was standing in the doorway staring down at them.
“Going somewhere?” He asked with one eyebrow
arched.
“We want to go down to the casino,” Laurie told
him. “And even though we don’t like you
very much right now, we know that you have to come with us.”
“If I buy you some chips or coins to gamble with,
will you like me again?”
Laurie and Michelle exchanged a glance. “Sure!”
(A couple of hours later)
“I can’t believe this,” Laurie exclaimed. “I’m up almost five hundred dollars. Do you think I should try to bribe JC into
not being mad at me?”
“I don’t think that will work.” Michelle said.
Laurie looked at her with concern.
“Are you all right? You look kind of pale.”
“No, I actually feel a little queasy… I think maybe
I should go back to my room and lie down.”
Dre overheard the conversation and radioed for one
of the other guards to come downstairs and take Michelle up to her room.
“Maybe I should go too…” Laurie said thoughtfully.
“No, you stay down here and keep playing.” Michelle
told her. “The way you’re going, I
wouldn’t be surprised if you won the jackpot.”
“But if you’re not feeling well…”
“I’ll be fine, I think I just had a little too much
sun today. Or this is the onset of
morning sickness… I should start feeling better once I’m upstairs again.”
“Will you be at dinner?”
“It depends on how I feel, but if I don’t see you
at dinner, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I hope you feel better soon… are you sure you just
don’t feel sick because you’re worried about the confrontation with Chris?”
Michelle managed a weak laugh. “Chris and I have been through this enough
that it’s not a big deal anymore.
Besides, hopefully he’s had time to cool down and it won’t be as bad as
it would have been.”
“All right, well I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye Laur.” Michelle said and was guided upstairs
by Eric who had come down to get her so that Dre could stay with Laurie.
Once Michelle was in her room, she changed into a
long FuMan Skeeto shirt that fell almost to her knees ran cold water over a
cloth and climbed into bed. She pulled
the covers over her body and placed the cloth across her eyes. The nauseous feeling was beginning to go
away, but a headache had already started to form.
She hadn’t been asleep long when the sound of the
door awakened her and she took the now warm cloth of her eyes while she turned
her head in the direction of the door.
Chris turned on the lamp beside the bed and she winced in the
brightness. He regarded her with a
startled expression on his face.
“Hey.” He greeted and pulled the shirt he was
wearing over his head before he reached for a clean one.
“Hi.” Michelle said weakly.
“I didn’t expect you to be here, I would have
figured you’d be out with your partner in crime somewhere.” He said sarcastically.
“I was. We
were down in the casino for a while, but I wasn’t feeling well after a couple
of hours so I came upstairs to lay down.”
Concern flashed across his features and he sat down
on the bed to look at her more closely.
“Are you all right?”
“I’ll be fine, I think I did too much today.”
Chris snorted.
“And who’s fault would that be?”
“Can we please not get into this right now?” She
asked. “It could also be the beginning
of morning sickness.”
“That’s fine, we don’t have to discuss it now, but
you’re still not off the hook.” He told her.
“Do you want me to stay here with you and order room service?”
“No, you go ahead and have dinner with the others,
I just want to sleep.”
“Are you sure?” He asked. “I don’t mind…”
“Chris really, don’t change your plans just because
I’m not feeling well. I’m not going to
go anywhere except for dreamland.”
“All right.” He agreed reluctantly. He finished changing and placed a hand on
her abdomen and kissed her cheek. “I’ll
see you in a while.”
“Ok,” she murmured sleepily and closed her
eyes. Chris turned the light off and
left the room to meet the others for dinner.
**********
“I was wondering where you were.” Lance kissed
Laurie’s cheek and startled her. “JC is
looking for you.” He told her in a quiet
voice.
“Go back and tell him that you couldn’t find me,”
she laughed quietly.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea.” He
placed a hand on the small of her back and started leading her toward the
elevators with Dre following behind them.
“He’s still pretty pissed off.”
“Lance, I don’t want him to be mad at me.”
“Well you should of thought of that before you took
off this afternoon. He probably
wouldn’t be as mad if you weren’t pregnant, but you are and that’s a big deal.”
“But you guys go out without protection all the
time.”
“The fans also like us a lot more than they like
the girlfriends,” he winked at her.
“Speaking of girlfriends, where’s Hannah?” Laurie
said, hoping to change the subject.
“She’s out shopping with Stacy.” Laurie opened her
mouth to protest and Lance continued.
“And they took someone with them.”
“Oh.”
Just before they reached the elevator, they were
stopped by a few fans that wanted to take pictures of the two of them together.
“I’m sorry, we don’t…” Lance started to say, but
was interrupted by Laurie.
“Pictures?
Sure, you can take some pictures, take as many as you want.” She told
them and heard Dre snicker behind her.
“You’re stalling,” Lance whispered and smiled for
the camera.
“You bet’cha.” Laurie replied and laughed.
Lance started to get impatient after ten minutes
had passed and had Dre take care of the fans so that he could take Laurie
upstairs to see JC. He opened the door
to her room for her and guided her in.
He knew JC was waiting inside for her.
“Have fun,” he said loudly so JC could hear him and
closed the door. He waited outside the
door for a minute so he could make sure that she wasn’t going to leave before
JC knew she was there, then he continued on to his own room.
“I’m surprised Lance managed to find you so
quickly.” JC said sarcastically and turned on the lamp beside him, startling
Laurie. JC motioned to the chair across
from him. “Sit down.”
“Lance
said JC was still pissed off, but I didn’t think he would still be this pissed off.” Laurie thought to herself
and sat down.
JC started walking toward her like he was hunting
her. He circled her chair a few times
before he finally stopped in front of her with his arms folded across his
chest.
“This has to stop,” he told her quietly, but firmly.
“Especially now that you’re pregnant. I
don’t mind if you go out, but you have to
take someone with you. We’ve been
through too much to have something happen to you now that we’re just beginning
to build a life together.” He touched her very slightly rounded abdomen. “To build our life together.”
“But nothing has happened yet…” Laurie began to say
and JC interrupted her.
“Then why risk it?” He asked. “I know you haven’t been around us as long
as the other girls have, so you haven’t seen what the fans can be like at their
worst – even though for the most part they’re pretty good – but it’s something
we need to be very careful about.”
“Josh, I know how to take care of myself, I’m not a
child.”
“No, you’re not.” He agreed. “But you are carrying my child. Even
though everyone outside our circle thinks its Lance’s if they believe that
you’re pregnant. There is no doubt
whatsoever in my mind that you can take care of yourself. But what if you’re suddenly surrounded like
you were today? And the fans aren’t
just looking for autographs and pictures?”
“I really don’t think something like that would
happen.” Laurie shook her head.
He got down on his knees in front of chair and
placed one hand gently on each of her legs and looked up at her. “But it could.
Anything can happen whether you’re famous or not. And because you’re Lance’s ‘girlfriend’,
you’re famous by default.” He paused. “If you won’t at least take care of yourself
by protecting yourself, take care of our child and protect our child and
promise me that you will take
someone other than Michelle with you
if you feel the need to go shopping or whatever.”
Laurie saw the concern in his eyes and cradled his
face in her hands. “I promise.”
“All right.” He kissed her temple and helped her out
of the chair. “Let’s go downstairs for
dinner.”
**********
“You killed her, didn’t you?” Joey joked when Chris
sat down at the table by himself. Chris
waited until JC and Laurie were within earshot before he responded.
“No, Michelle actually isn’t feeling well.” Chris
told them with a glance in Laurie’s direction.
“Too much time in the sun, I daresay.”
“Chris, don’t start.” JC warned. “Everything is
fine on this end.” JC waited for Laurie to sit down beside Lance before he sat
down on the other side of her. He
directed his next question at Hannah and Stacy. “So what did you two do today?”
“We shopped,” Stacy told him smugly. “And we’re not in trouble because we took
someone with us.”
Justin nudged Stacy and shook his head. He didn’t want any more trouble stirred up
than was necessary.
The rest of the meal consisted of the guys telling
the girls about their day and how great it was that they were going to sing
with Tim McGraw. Dessert was just being
served when JC’s cell phone rang and he excused himself from the table. He was far enough away that he wouldn’t
disturb the group, but he was close enough that Laurie caught bits and pieces
of his conversation.
“…yes I will.
When? … I can do that… I’ll make the necessary reservations… plane and hotel…
I’ll pay for the room… well…” JC laughed.
“I’ll see you in a few days.” He walked back to the table and sat
down. “Sorry about that. It looks like I’m going to have to fly out
of town for a few days when we leave here.”
His eyes were sparkling with a genuine happiness.
“Are you going home early for Thanksgiving?” Hannah
asked.
JC shook his head.
“No, hopefully I’ll be back before then. There’s something I need to take care of.”
Hannah lowered her voice so that her next question
wasn’t overheard by any of the surrounding tables. “Ooo, is it a romantic getaway?”
“Umm… no…”
“You should totally make it into one!” Stacy
interjected.
JC suddenly looked nervous and cast a glance at
Laurie. He didn’t want to tell her
where he was going. He shook his
head. “I don’t think that would be a
good idea.”
Laurie suddenly lost her appetite and avoided
looking at anyone. She didn’t know what
JC was planning, but he was being evasive about it and she had the feeling that
even if she asked him directly, he would lie about it or not tell her at
all. She placed her fork on her plate
and pushed it away.
“Are you all right?” JC asked her quietly. “Do you want Lance to take you upstairs?”
“I’m fine.” Laurie forced a smile. “I’m just… full.” She took her napkin off her lap and placed it on the table. “I am kind of tired though… I think I will
go upstairs and get ready for bed.”
They all said goodnight to her and Lance watched
her walk away as Tiny accompanied her upstairs. Her sudden change in demeanor worried him.
**********
Thoughts were racing through Laurie’s head as she
unlocked her door and started to change her clothes.
“I’m
overreacting,” she thought as she brushed her teeth. “I
just heard him on the phone wrong… maybe he was talking to one of his family
members…” She breathed a small sigh of relief. “That must be it. With Thanksgiving coming up next week, he
was making arrangements to see more of his family.”
“Maybe
he’s producing something for someone.
That’s entirely possible. I’m
definitely overreacting… there’s a reasonable explanation for this.”
Satisfied with
where her train of thought had ended up, Laurie crawled between the crisp hotel
sheets and fell asleep.