Chapter 7

 

                “Mike!  Oh Mike!  I’ve missed you so much Mike,” Chris proclaimed as he threw himself on the burly man.

                Mike, was more or less unaffected.  He let Chris try to climb over him for a few seconds before he grabbed hold of both the shorter man’s arms and pried him off his body, setting him down on the ground.  Chris was not to be deterred and simply tried again.

                “Can you do something about him?”  Mike asked Meghan as he spotted her laughing at the pair a few feet away.

                “I’ve been doing something about him this entire break, I’m pretty sure it’s someone else’s turn,” she told him before heading off to see who else she could find.

                “Yeah but why mine,” she heard Mike mutter behind her.

                Meghan chuckled to herself as she entered the toy room, still picturing the look on Mike’s face as he realised that Meghan truly was going to leave him alone with the boy.  She let her backpack fall to the floor just a little way beyond the door, then headed for the couch where Lance had his head leaned back, eyes closed in semblance of pain.

                “Rough night Bass?” she asked him once she was close enough to scare the life out of him.

                “Jeez Meg, don’t do that.  You’ll give a guy a heart attack,” he smiled at her nonetheless, then took a quick look around the room.  “Where are your two shadows?”

                “Ah, well, the one is busy in the hallway trying to climb the mountain that is Mike, and the other won’t be here until later, she wanted to sleep in and since the concert’s in town, neither I nor Chris saw any reason why she had to spend all day with you boring people.”

                “Charmed I’m sure,” Lance interrupted at the insult.

                “But she’ll be here later and definitely on one of the busses by the time we pull out.”

                “Is she going to see the concert?” Lance asked, unable to keep his questions to himself though he was well aware that if he kept asking about Leslie, Meghan would quickly get suspicious of why exactly he was taking such a keen interest in her cousin.

                “I’m not sure.  She’s not really into crowd things yet, but she’s getting better and I’m sure she’d love to see you guys sing live at least once . . . ”  Meghan trailed off in thought, but would have been interrupted by Lance if she’d had anything else to say anyway.

                “She’s never seen us sing?  Are you serious?”  The look on Lance’s face left no doubt that he, at least, was being entirely serious.  Meghan was trying to think of some way to appease the anxiousness she wasn’t even sure how she’d cause, when the door to the toy room was flung open and a giggling mass of JC and Christalee crashed through the door.

                “Oh, hi!”  Christalee offered when she noticed the two sitting on the couch.  She disentangled her hand from JC’s, not without quite some effort due to the fact that he wasn’t cooperating with the separation at all, then made her way over to the couch to sit on Meghan’s right side - Lance already seated on her left. “How’s it going guys?”

                “Apparently not as well as you two,” Meghan chuckled as she watched their excited faces, “what are you guys all giggly about?”

                JC gently sat down on his girlfriend, refusing to sit anywhere that wasn’t in close proximity to her, and leaned his head back so it rested against her shoulder.  “We were watching Mike get attacked by Chris.”

                “Still?”  Meghan asked, surprised that Chris’ attention span hadn’t led him off to another diversion even if he did enjoy torturing the bodyguards every now and then.

                “Still,” Christalee giggled, “and I think Mike’s just about had it to.  There were veins throbbing on that man’s neck that haven’t even popped up on days where the boys try to escape without any security.”

                “Hey!”  JC turned to face her and defend himself, but was stopped by the door to the room being opened once again. Before he could say anything else, the four witnessed Chris being thrown, gently but still thrown, into the room.  He landed on his ass, looking up in surprise at his new position.

                “I better not see you for at least the next two hours Kirkpatrick,” Mike told him pointedly before leaving the room.

                Chris looked around for a few more seconds, with big bewildered eyes.  He then slowly got up and turned to face the crowd that was still watching him.

                “Who’s got a timer on their watch?”

 

                “So how was your vacation man?”  Justin asked as he plopped down on the couch next to Joey.

                There was absolutely no response from the man next to him.

                “Hello?  Joey?  Are you in there?”  Justin waved his hand in front of his friend’s face and when he still didn’t get a reaction, he gently knocked Joey on the head a few times.  Finally, the brown eyes came into focus and Joey recognised the man beside him.

                “Do you think Kelly was being distant?”

                “Huh?”  Justin answered, utterly confused.

                “Kelly, the mother of my child, you know?  Do you think she was being distant?”  Joey watched Justin, waiting for an answer.  The honesty in his eyes was the only thing keeping Justin from believing that his friend was joking with him.

                “Joey, I didn’t see Kelly during our vacation, you did.”

                “Yeah, but did she seem distant?” he asked again, intent on having an honest answer to his question.

                “I’m not sure,” Justin answered hesitantly, wondering what exactly had gotten into his band mate, “did she seem distant to you?”

                “Well, she was just quiet, and she just . . .  she was all shy or something.  She was distant.”  Joey quietly concluded to himself as he went over the evidence.

                “You okay man?”  Justin asked, putting a hand on Joey’s shoulder.  The contact seemed to break something in the older man, and he looked up as if just realising Justin was there for the first time that day.

                “Huh?  Oh, yeah, cool.  I was probably just tired and out of it.  I was probably being more distant than she was.  Yeah, that’s it.”  Joey convinced himself that he believed the theory, though he could tell from the look on Justin’s face that he wasn’t convincing anyone else.  There was something else in Justin’s look though, something that suggested that the youngest member of the band hadn’t had a perfect vacation either.  “How about you?  You and Sam have fun during your time off?”

                “Now Sam, she was definitely distant.  Like a few states distant,” Justin pouted, though he knew very well that Sam was trying to get rid of what, she thought, was his most annoying habit.

                “I thought you guys were spending the vacation together,” Joey answered, realising that Justin pouting couldn’t lead to anything good, or even productive.

                “So did I, but she hadn’t seen her family in forever and she probably won’t see them for a while more, so she went home to spend time with them.”

                “Why didn’t you go with them?”  Joey reasoned.

                “What is it with you people!  Is everyone trying to feed me to the lions or something.  Sam’s family hates me, is that so completely hard to understand?  I just don’t see why I have to go be hated during my vacation time.  I have enough of that shit from people who keep bashing our music, I don’t need it from my girlfriend’s family too.”

                “You know, Kelly’s family didn’t like me either at first.”

                “So what did you do?”  Justin asked with a more than sceptical look in his eyes.

                “Hung around, got to know them, let them get to know me.  Pretty much made them like me.”

                “Yeah, well, I’ve tried. They don’t like me, I’m moving on.”

                “You’re what?”  Justin heard softly behind him.

                “Moving on,” he repeated as he turned to see who had asked the question.  Joey turned his head at the same time, wondering who had been listening to their conversation.  Neither one of the boys expected to spot Sam standing a few feet behind them.

                “How nice of you to tell me,” she said before fleeing the room.

                “Shit.”

 

                Christalee looked behind her with a quizzical look as she quickly walked down the long hallway.  Still there.  She sped up a little and attempted to swing her arm forward with her body.  He wasn’t giving and was still following behind, trying to keep up with her pace.  She silently fumed, looking for any corner she could turn to jostle him.  Unfortunately, the hallway was straight with no exits in sight.  Having had enough, Christalee simply stopped where she was and let the person following behind her collide into her back.

                “Ouch,” JC protested as he rubbed where his chest had collided with her back with his free hand, the other one keeping its tight grip on Christalee’s hand.  “Why’d you stop?”

                “Why are you following me?” she countered, trying to gesture with her hands as she spoke, but finding that she couldn’t free her left one from his.

                “We’ve still got time before the show, so I’m hanging out with you,” JC shrugged as he moved his body closer to hers.  Christalee slightly backed away from him.

                “What are you doing?”

                “What?”  JC asked in an attempt to look as innocent as possible.

                “You have been following me around all day like a little lost puppy.  You stood beside me holding my hand the entire time Justin and I were talking about work.  You stayed right outside the door when I had to go to the washroom, Jace!  What’s up?”

                JC winced when he heard her use the nickname.  She was not pleased with him.  He was pretty sure that she was going to be a little put off by him playing the human shadow for the day, but he hadn’t thought it would get to the point where it became nickname worthy.  He took in a deep breath.

                “I’m making sure you don’t go anywhere.”  Christalee looked at him with exasperation.  He was what?

                “You’re what?”

                “Making sure you don’t go anywhere,” JC repeated and his free hand reached out for hers so he was holding both her hands, also giving him something to look at instead of her eyes, which he was sure would be just about burning through him at the moment.

                “Where am I going to go?” she asked, fully exasperated.  “I work here, my stuff is here, you’re here.  Where am I going?”

                “Away,” he whispered, his foot trying to dig a hole in the floor and his eyes shamefully down.

                “Hey,” she said as her hand reached down to bring his chin up until she could look into his eyes, “where away?  What’s wrong, Joshua?”

                He let out a little sigh of relief that she was back to using his full name, took a deep breath, then began his explanation.  “There’s just, this thing, in the paper.  Well, kind of the paper, right.  And your picture was there, with me, kind of putting us together.”

                Christalee waited for him to continue, but JC apparently thought he was done.  She prodded him for more.  “So, there’s a picture of you and me in the paper together.  And?”

                “Well, I know you don’t want that, and now this is it.  You’re almost public and there’s really little doubt that at the next interview or press conference or whatever, they’re going to ask about you, and I’m not going to lie Tee.  I can’t lie about us, and well, I know public’s the last thing you wanted-”

                She interrupted before his ramblings got out of hand.  This is what he was worried about.  She bit her bottom lip all too aware that the fear wasn’t completely unfounded.  When they had first started going out, in their make-up and break-up faze before the really big break-up and the really big make-up, one of their arguments had been about newspapers and fans and how Christalee absolutely did not want to go public with their relationship.  She had pointedly told JC that if anyone found out, there was a very good chance that she would back out of the relationship.  She felt guilty about saying it now, though that early in the relationship, she was completely serious.

                “I don’t want you to lie,” she told him softly.  There was nothing she wanted more than to reassure him at that moment that nothing between them could go wrong and that she would stay with him no matter what problems may arise, but she couldn’t.  A part of her was screaming that perhaps love wouldn’t be strong enough to conquer whatever challenges being in the spotlight would bring to them and Christalee couldn’t ignore it.  Most of all, she couldn’t lie to JC and promise him something she wasn’t sure would happen.

                “And I don’t want you to run away from me,” he countered, already holding on to her hand a little tighter at the simple mention of her leaving him.

                “I’m not going to run away.”

                “You have,” his voice pled with her and his body moved closer until only a breath could pass between them.

                “Well I won’t again.  I won’t run away.  I’ll talk to you this time Josh, I swear.”  Her eyes searched him, not for comfort or for acceptance, but for any hint of what she could do to comfort him now that she’d brought his trust in them to such a fickle level.

                “Promise.  We’re in this together.”  He tried to keep his voice steady, but she heard the tremble behind it that threatened to take over.

                “I promise, we are in this together.”  She leaned up to seal the promise with a kiss and the movement seemed to be enough for him as they separated.  Their foreheads touched as they leaned against one another for more than just physical support.  The movement was quickly interrupted though, when Justin came practically crashing between them.

                “Sorry, sorry,” he held onto Christalee’s arms, trying to steady her from the force of the collision, “I’m just... I’m sorry.”

                “Are you all right man?”  JC asked, as he too reached out to help Christalee stay upright though his eyes were trained on Justin.

                “Yeah, well no, um,” he searched for his words a few seconds before finding something to say, “have you guys seen Sam?”

                “No, why?  Is she late? Is she not here yet?”  Christalee asked, ready to be nervous for her friend.

                “No she’s here, I just didn’t know it until too late,” Justin replied.  He gave both his friends a lost look before moving away from them. “If you see her, tell her . . .  no, actually, just let me know where she is.  Thanks.”

                They watched as he walked away.

                “What do you think happened?”  Christalee asked, watching the obviously perplexed man move away from them.

                “Justin did something stupid,” JC answered nonchalantly.

                “And how do you know that?” Christalee asked, all too ready to defend her boss.

                “Because he usually does.”

                “Like you don’t?”  Christalee asked as she gave his arm a swat.  She ignored his hushed yelp of pain and walked away from him.

 

                Joey plopped down on the couch, only to have Justin’s head land on his shoulder.

                “Man, get off, you’re all sweaty,” he protested as he pushed Justin’s head away from him.

                “So are you,” Justin offered, trying to stop himself from falling on the floor of the bus.

                “Yeah, but I’m not hanging all over you.”  Both men looked at each other, neither truly mad, but both ready to let their festering anger at other situations blow any second.

                “There was something weird about that show,” JC interrupted the staring contest by sitting on the couch, a move he could only make by walking between the two men.

                Justin and Joey stopped staring at each other, and directed their gazes instead to JC.  He was right.  There had been something off about the show and they had all felt it.  The fact also did nothing but feed the tensions they already felt.

                “Yeah, I don’t think anyone but us noticed, but . . . ”  Lance left the words hanging, but everyone understood.  The show had been great, there was no question about that.  All of them had been in step practically the whole show, they didn’t miss a note and the crowd had been loud and playful.  Still, there was something off.

                “I think all our minds were somewhere else, and that’s just not cool,” Joey said as he straightened up on the couch.

                “Maybe we’re just having trouble coming back from this vacation,” Chris suggested.

                “Well, I sucked ‘cause Sam’s mad at me,” Justin admitted from his spot.  The other four nodded, all too aware that when Justin was truly upset about something, he could either go on stage and have one of the most passionate shows of his life, or simply go through the motions without even realising where he was.

                “I think all our minds were elsewhere,” JC offered, “we’ll just, have to get it fixed by the next show.  Cool?”

                “Cool,” they all agreed.

                “Hey, what is this thing doing here?”  Justin asked as he walked in to the small kitchenette and noticed what was resting on the table.

                “What’s that Justin?”  Chris called from the back of the bus where he was setting up the game consol to pass the hours ahead of them.

                “This . . .  Wait,” Justin interrupted himself as he noticed something, “why are we all in the same bus?  Don’t we have two busses now?”

                “Ours broke down, some thingy in it is completely shot.  I didn’t understand a word of it,”  Joey answered as he took the joy stick Chris handed him.

                “Hm, ya’ll broke a bus huh?” he teased before going on with what he’d previously been saying, “Now, what is this doing here?”

                In his hand, he held up what looked like the latest edition of the Enquirer.  JC snatched it from his hand as he passed by.

                “It’s mine,” he said, moving to the kitchen to get himself something to drink.

                “Why?  You want to find out who gave birth to the latest alien baby?”  Lance asked from his spot on the couch next to Joey.

                “No,” JC answered once he’d popped back into the room, water bottle in hand.

                “So, why do you have it?”  Justin prodded, always so interested in other people’s business when he didn’t want to think of his own.

                “There’s an article about Tee in here.”

                “No shit?  Let’s see.” Justin pried the magazine from JC’s hands and scanned the pages until he found what he was looking for.  He didn’t have to search very long, a large picture of JC and Christalee holding hands accompanying the article catching his attention.  When he reached it, he started reading out loud so everyone in the bus could hear.

                “JC Chasez went home this week while the band was on vacation, but he did not go home alone.  The Nsync member was accompanied by Christalee Taylor.  It is doubtful that Miss Taylor was only a one night stand since the couple didn’t stay in Orlando, but visited Chasez’s family back home.  Miss Taylor recently quit her previous employment and has since been seen tagging along with the Nsync tour.  Is she now an officially paid groupie or is she more than the latest flavour of the week?  Only Chasez can tell, and so far he isn’t speaking.  This isn’t the first time the pair has been seen together, but it’s been a long stretch since their last encounter.  Either the couple has reconciled, or simply both needed to get some.  We’re sure the whole matter will be cleared up when Nsync will show up to the premier of the new Heath Ledger movie The Boys Only Club where the band has two songs on the soundtrack.  All eyes will be on who JC’s date is, or isn’t.”

                “Officially paid groupie? What bullshit,” Chris said from his spot on the floor.  His eyes might have been following the game on the screen, but he had heard every word Justin said and didn’t appreciate it at all.  Joey from his seat on the couch, looked even less impressed.

                “How do you think she’s going to take it, Jace?”

                “Not good,” JC answered truthfully as he once again took the magazine from Justin’s hands, this time finding absolutely no resistance.  “That’s why I want to get to her first.  I don’t want her to read this without me around to calm her down.  Who knows how she’ll react?”

                “I’ll talk to the press if you want Jace.  I’ll explain to them that I hired Chrissy and that the fact that she’s your girlfriend had absolutely nothing to do with the matter.  She’s way more than qualified and no one can deny that,” Justin offered over his shoulder as he tried to make room for himself on the couch.

                “No.  Don’t do that.  Nobody do anything.  I just . . . ”  He paused and passed a hand through his hair as he tried to find his words.  “I just want to be the one to tell her.  I don’t want her to find out otherwise.”

                “She’s on a bus for the next five hours at least, how’s she going to find out?”  Joey offered from his spot on the couch.

 

                “Oh my God!”

                “What’s up Lee?” Meghan asked from her spot at the kitchen table where she was trying to see how Chris could sneak in a trip to his sister’s birthday party without having hell to pay from Johnny.

                “That’s me!” she exclaimed, pointing to the computer screen before her.

                “What’s you?”  Sam asked from her spot across the table from Meghan.  She usually didn’t travel in this bus, but she still didn’t feel like she’d caught up with her girls since they had come back from their vacation so she’d made an exception for the night.

                “This, this . . .  this piece of trash.  It’s me!”   This time, her cries got both girls to drop what they were doing and look at what Christalee was talking about.

                “Honey, you shouldn’t put the words trash and me so close together.  Work on that self-esteem so that . . .  that’s you!”  Meghan called as she finally saw what was on the computer monitor.

                “Yeah that’s me.  That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Christalee all but screamed back to her friend.

                “What is that?”  Sam asked as she stared at the screen.

                “It’s a page from the latest Enquirer.  My friend scanned it for me and e-mailed it so that I would have some kind of heads up.” Christalee couldn’t take her eyes off the screen though she was sure whatever facial expressions her friends were wearing would be more than entertaining at the moment.

                “Do you think JC knows?” Meghan asked only to be nudged in the ribs by Sam.

                “Yeah, he probably does by now.”

                “Then why hasn’t he told you yet?”  Meghan continued, once again receiving a blow from Sam.

                “He’ll want to tell me face to face.”  Christalee’s voice came out emotionless and almost robotic.

                “Wouldn’t it have been nice of your friend to let him do that?”  Sam asked as she sat across from Christalee, lowering the laptop screen so she could see her friend more clearly.

                “Nope, that’s what she’s letting me get ready for.  The inevitable JC confrontation.”

                “What are you going to do?”  Meghan asked as she sat next to Christalee.  “You’re not going to run again are you?”

                “I’m going to have to see what JC says about this before I can answer that,” she offered.  A sigh left her lips and she would have given just about anything at that moment for the conversation to focus on something other than her.  She slid her eyes over to Sam.  “Meanwhile, what’s going on with you and Justin?”

                “Uh, don’t even go there,” Sam said as she lifted herself from the seat and moved toward the back of the bus.  She sat next to Leslie who had been leafing through the Cosmo magazine she’d picked up at the last stop.  “You must think we’re all crazy.”

                “I can give you the name of my shrink if you want,” Leslie offered with a smile.

                “I’ll keep that in mind.”

                “Hey man, we’re here,” Justin told JC, shaking his shoulder lightly. 

                “Huh?” JC hadn’t slept on the way over - something that had surprised his four band mates - but had simply sat staring out the window, watching as the road rolled by.  Justin knew that he was deep in thought about what exactly would happen between him and Christalee now that they were practically public - they all knew in fact without even having to ask - but still, he couldn’t stop his next question from coming.

                “Hey wait.”  His hand held JC back, lightly applying pressure to his chest.  JC looked dazed but not really fazed at the restraint.  He probably wasn’t in a hurry to have Christalee possibly end their relationship.  “Do you, um . . .  well, do you think Sam will ever forgive me?”

                “No,”  JC answered automatically.  Justin looked crushed at the idea before he heard his friend give out a little chuckle.  “She misunderstood, there’s nothing really to forgive.  Sure, you’re an ass when it comes to her family,” he held his hand up to interrupt Justin before the boy could get out his inevitable defence, “even if they don’t like you, you’re still an ass about it.  But anyway, once you get this cleared up and you actually make an effort for her family to like you, then I don’t think she’ll have anything to complain about.  Maybe then you’ll stop screwing up.”

                “Yeah, that’s sweet, thanks.”  JC went to move away with a shrug, but Justin held him back once again.  “How do you think Chrissy’s going to like all this?”

                “She’s not,” JC answered truthfully, “but it’s happened and I’m sick and tired of lying so I’m not going to do it anymore.  I hope, actually, I think we’re at the point in our relationship where she can understand that and go with it, but I don’t know.  Even if she wants to, I don’t know if she can take it.  She really hates the press.”

                “So do we man, but we live it,”  Justin offered in encouragement.  JC didn’t answer but simply shrugged again and slid a pair of sunglasses over his weary eyes before finally moving around Justin.  “Well, good luck with it.”

 

                “Hey, that thing’s probably heavier than you are!”  Lance said as he grabbed the suitcase Leslie was attempting to carry, from her.

                “Is that a compliment or an insult?” she asked, laughing as he himself had a hard time lifting the baggage.

                “Um, the first one, I think.  I won’t get in any trouble if I say the first one, right?”  She nodded her head in agreement.  “Then definitely the first one.”

                “I’m here,” she told him, pointing to the room to her door.

                “Cool.  So where’s your partner in crime?”  Lance asked as he left the luggage, barely in the room.

                “Um, do you mean Chris or Meghan?” she asked with her back toward him as she perused the room.  Lance was thankful she wasn’t looking at him so she couldn’t see the look of disappointment that took over his face when he heard her talk about Chris like they were the best of friends.

 

                She changed the channel. She changed the channel again.  She turned the television off.  She threw the remote against the mattress of the queen-sized bed.  She bounced nervously.  She tried not to look at the clock, but it was inevitable.  Christalee felt like an anxious wife waiting for her husband to come home.

                 She’d done a lot of thinking about the article since she’d seen it on her computer screen.  Thinking about what this meant for her.  Thinking about what this meant for JC.  Thinking about what this meant for their relationship.  She knew that JC would walk through the door full of arguments defending why she should stay and how they should react to the article, but she’d already made up her mind, and nothing was going to change it.  Now all she had to do was wait for JC to get to the room.

                “Hey, baby.  How’s it going?”  JC asked as he walked through the door, weighed down by the suitcases he was dragging behind him.

                “Good, you?”  Christalee couldn’t help but notice that JC was averting her eyes and for some reason, that reassured her.  There was no way he would ever lie about anything to her, he couldn’t even keep a slight secret from her.

                “Good.  How was your day?  Did you have fun with the girls?  You all happy?”  She bit back the chuckle that was growing in her throat, noticing how obvious he was being.  Fleetingly, she wondered if he would try to keep the news hidden if she hinted that she was in a bad mood.  She shook the idea from her head however, all too ready to get this over with.

                “Baby, just tell me whatever it is.”  She could hear his sigh of fear from across the room as he braced himself for whatever reaction she would have.

                “Well, there was this little article in the Enquirer today,” he started, sounding like he’d memorized whatever he was about to say.

                “I know, I saw it,” Christalee interrupted him, wanting things to move along a little quicker so she could simply tell him the decision she’d come to then move on.

                “You did?  And you’re still here?  Well, that’s good I guess.”  He passed a nervous hand through his hair as he tried to decide where to take the conversation now that she’d thrown him this curve.  “So, what are you thinking?”

                “What are you thinking?” she asked, suddenly unsure of what she’d decided.

                “I don’t want to lie,” he admitted to her, “I don’t want to hide and I don’t want to pretend.  I just . . .  I don’t want you to leave.”

                “I know,” she said again.  She’d expected this much from him.  He, and all the other guys for that matter, were passed the point in their careers where they would lie simply to please the public.  They’d moved on from that and they could finally be themselves.  She had been well aware of that before she’d made her decision.

                “What do you think?” he echoed her earlier question, then chewed on his bottom lip as he awaited her answer.

                “I think you’re right,” she simply said.  She could see the shock in his eyes and understood that even though he wanted her to elaborate, his lungs weren’t working so well at the moment.  “I don’t want to lie or hide or pretend or leave you.  We have to go public now.  I’m not sure I was ready for that, but the choice was kind of taken away from us.  So let’s do this, ‘cause I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere for a while.”

                “You mean . . .  for real, are you?  Well, are you sure?”  JC stammered, hoping his inability to speak wouldn’t change her mind.

                “Yes, I’m sure.  Let’s go public,” she whispered before pressing her lips quickly against his.

                “Let’s go public,” he repeated.  There was nothing quick about the kiss he gave her to seal the decision.

 

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