“…You drive me crazy, I just can’t sleep. I’m so excited, I’m in too deep, whooa crazy, but it feels all right! Baby thinking of ya keeps me up all night...”
“Jen jeez turn that OFF…ohhh...this is the LAST song I want to wake up to this morninnnnng…” Ashlee whined.
“Tell me, you’re so into me, that I’m the-“ and the music stopped as Jen rolled over, reached out and slammed her alarm.
“Great you guys…that’s going to be in my head all day…” Emily complained from the floor. Ashlee leaned over and saw Emily already up and getting dressed. She glanced up into Jen’s bed and saw that she had rolled over and snuggled deeper into her covers.
“JEN! Get up we have to get going, remember?” Ashlee said and threw her pillow at her. Jen groaned and threw her arms over her face. In the meantime Emily had finished getting dressed and was in the process of doing her makeup.
“Not a morning person are we?” she called out, glancing over her shoulder. Jen kicked her covers off and climbed out of her loft. She looked back up at Ashlee who was in bed and raised her eyebrows.
“Gonna get down slowpoke?” Jen questioned. She turned around and dug through her drawer for some clothes and put them on. Ashlee giggled and climbed out of her bed and turned on the lights. The three finished getting ready and double-checked all of their bags, making sure they had everything they needed.
“Where in Orlando are you heading?” Emily asked.
“Hmm, I think we are heading to Jive and RCA…right Jen?” Ashlee said, keeping things very vague.
“Yeah, that sounds right…Motown too,” she added. Emily glanced back and forth and had the feeling that something was just not right.
“You are going to at least three major recording companies and you don’t seem the LEAST bit excited...what’s really going on guys?” Emily asked, and put her hands on her hips. Jen looked at her and sighed heavily.
“I am so not a morning person. If you could see me in the car, you’d see that I would be going nuts, screaming and smiling and going insane. It takes me a little while after I get outta bed to actually get going,” Jen explained, hoping it would sound realistic. Emily eyed her and nodded, she could tell that Jen wasn’t exactly Miss cheerful in the morning.
“Let’s get going ok? Em we’ll call ya when we have free time to gossip about the guys…” Ashlee said, shifting gears. They all agreed and packed up the cars and locked up the room. They were walking through the hall when someone called out to them.
“Where you girls going so early? Wait, who is this red headed beautiful lady?”
Jen rolled her eyes and cursed under her breath. Ashlee closed her eyes tight and Emily noticed their reactions. They all turned around to see Kyle leaning against his door.
“Who is that?” Emily whispered to the girls, taking in his appearance.
“We’re heading to Orlando…” Emily said before Jen or Ashlee could get a word in. Kyle’s eyebrows raised almost to his hairline. Jen closed her eyes and took a deep breath and prayed for the strength.
“Orlando eh? Meeting up with some boys out there girls?” Kyle hinted, his eyes gleaming. Emily looked at him and was shocked that he knew.
“You know about them going to Orlando for the radio station?” she asked, totally in awe. Kyle looked between Ashlee and Jen, then towards Emily. He saw what was going on, and his smile grew larger and more evil if it could.
“Oh yeah…Jen and I go way back. Gonna see Justin Jen? You gonna dance for him again? Maybe a little basketball…” he trailed off, gauging Emily’s reaction.
“Oh Kyle you are too funny. Ha. We need to get going so we aren’t late. Bye,” Jen said and spun on her heel heading out of the building.
“Come on Em. Good bye Kyle,” Ashlee added and grabbed Emily and headed out to the car. The girls left and Kyle slipped back into his room and got dressed and ready for the day.
The girls got out to their cars and Emily was still confused. “So what was that all about?” she asked, looking at Jen curiously. Jen ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head.
“Don’t worry about it. He’s a smartass. We dated and he was the biggest jerk and he can’t get over the fact that I have moved on to someone else.”
“Like Justin?” Emily asked. Ashlee looked at her shocked and then towards Jen.
“Yeah I guess, in the figurative sense, ya know what I mean? He’s a pop star, people love the guy…so I get lost in the commotion to forget about Kyle. He was talking gibberish anyway. I told him some dreams I had about Justin and he just likes to throw it back in my face,” Jen said, blushing. Emily giggled and then looked at her with knowing eyes.
“I have dreams about him too, its ok…any girl with half a brain would, “ she said and winked. Jen smiled at her and then looked at her watch.
“We should get going. It was nice meeting you Emily, I hope to see you more! We’ll probably give you a call while we are out there ok?” Jen said and smiled.
“Sure, have a safe trip!” Emily replied and then turned to Ashlee. Jen climbed into her car and started it up.
“I’ll call, we’ll see what we can do out there…grab some tickets to a show or something ok? It was really nice of you to come and surprise me, you’ll have to come again and we’ll take you out, show ya how to party USF style,” Ashlee explained, hugging her friend.
“OK, sounds good. Get outta here and give my man a ‘wassup’ ok?” Emily answered, pulling away.
“Sure thang! Lata!” Ashlee yelled, hopping into Jen’s jeep. They shifted gears and pulled outta the parking lot, honking on their way. Emily waved and as soon as they were outta sight she jumped into her car and pulled away, talking on her cell phone animatedly.
The girls pulled into the driveway around 10:30, because they had stopped at the store to pick up some groceries. They grabbed the bags and Jen fiddled with her keys until she found the one she wanted. Ashlee watched as she placed the key into the lock.
“They gave you a key??” she asked, totally amazed. Jen nodded slyly and smiled.
“Yeah, I was down here last summer for about a month and they gave me a key because they were in and outta the studio so much, then they just told me to keep it,” she explained as they walked into the silent house. They strolled into the kitchen and were surprised to see Chris up and outta bed reading the paper while sipping coffee. He was in shorts and a T-shirt with his hair a little messy and his glasses perched on his face. He turned his head and looked at them then returned to the paper. After a second he snapped his head back and jumped right out of his chair.
“Jen! Ash! What are ya doing here? J said you wouldn’t be down till noon its only 10:30? You brought food too? You are dolls, I love ya!” he blurted out, grabbing some bags from Ashlee’s hands.
“Keep your voice down! Why are you up already CK? Is anyone else up?” Jen asked, looking up the stairs to see if anyone had woken up from Chris’ outburst.
“I slept till about 10 and then I just came down here and made some coffee, started reading the paper cuz you know we don’t get to do that very often...” he started to say. Jen nodded and pulled the groceries out of the bags, while Ashlee walked over and poured out two more cups of coffee.
“Everyone else is still sleeping, we were up kinda late last night, Justin was wired, JC is always hyper, which in turn made Lance hyper, and Joey had gone out to some club. All and all they didn’t get to sleep till real late,” he said and finished the story.
“Whaddya want to eat?” Ashlee asked, looking over at Jen and then back to Chris. He smiled and his eyes widened.
“You’re making us breakfast? You know they are gonna love you forever now.”
“They better already love me forever!” Jen joked, then glanced at Ashlee. “Well, Ash, why don’t you start making some eggs. I am going to go wake some boys up…” Jen trailed off and smiled evilly. Ashlee snickered and Chris shook his head.
“JC will kill you guys…” Chris said as he chuckled. “Lemme get the camera because this is going to be priceless!”
“Breakfast can wait. Ash, you come with us and you can get Joey outta bed. I’m getting curly and Jace outta there…this is going to be too much fun. OK…we need some cups…Chris turn on the cold water…some shaving cream…” Jen thought out loud as she started planning their attack. Ashlee watched on with sparkling mischievous eyes, she loved the way they played pranks on each other so much and how well they all got along.
“Why don’t ya just jump on ‘em?” Chris suggested. Jen glanced over at him, that was so unlike Chris to say. He caught the look she was giving him and added, “they will think I had something to do with it because last night I was talking about pranking them this morning…come on Jenko for me PLEASE…” he begged. Jen was contemplating what to do until he actually got down on his knees.
“Oh get UP Chris, we wont do that…this time. Besides, it’ll be more fun when you are up there sleeping…” Jen added, then giggled. He got up and ran to get the camera as the girls started to creep up the stairs.
“Joey is the second on the left…good luck, he’s not that bad to wake up. I’m sure he’ll love seeing your smiling face this morning,” Jen whispered back to Ashlee, who blushed. “Justin’s is the first on the right, that’s where I’ll be, and JC is across the hall from him…this is going to be GREAT,” she added, very excited.
“Just wait till that boy sees you this morning girl, his hormones will be raging right off the bat,” Ashlee teased as Jen turned a shade of pink. They finally got to the top with Chris right behind them. He looked at Jen and Ashlee and then smiled.
“I’ll go with Ash and leave the two lovebirds alone,” he said. Jen shoved him and rolled her eyes, and headed towards Justin’s room. She heard Ashlee and Chris giggling and then she heard Joey’s door as it creaked opened.
Jen slowly opened Justin’s door and walked into the cave-like conditions. He had clothes strewn all over the floor and on his desk. It looked like a tornado had hit. His closet door was open and there were clothes half off the hangers and he had a duffel bag open with clothes piling out of that too. Jen continued into the room and tripped over a shoe. She gained her balance and glanced down to see all different kinds of shoes all over, none with their pair. She shook her head and finally glanced at the bed. She smiled at the sight, it warmed her heart. The covers were all pulled up, but she could see a patch of curly hair peeking out, and she saw one of his hands way up on one of the pillows. She took a couple more steps towards the bed until she was next to it. She paused and listened for the rhythmic breathing, and once again looked over the bed, thinking about where her relationship with him is headed. She slowly pulled back the comforter and found what she was looking for. Justin was sprawled out on his stomach, sleeping in a wifebeater and a pair of mesh shorts. She covered her mouth with her hand and tried not to laugh at his child-like appearance. A wicked smile crossed her face as she slipped off her shoes and jumped into bed next to him, throwing her arms around his waist and started to tickle him. His eyes SHOT open and he jumped and yelled.
“Chris I swear to god you are so freakin dead it ain’t funny!” he yelled and turned his head towards who he assumed was Chris. His eyes went wide when he found it was Jen in his bed.
“Chris does this to you eh? That boy makes me wonder,” Jen replied, smiling widely.
“You little shit…Im going to kill you for waking me up from my beauty sleep girl,” he groaned, grabbing the comforter and pulling it back over the two of them.
“Yeah, you need all the beauty rest you can get. Now get your ass outta bed boy!” she yelled, throwing the covers back off of him.
“That’s IT!” he exclaimed and before she knew it he grabbed her and was tickling her to death.
“Oh my GOSH! JUUUUSTINNNN!” she shrieked, rolling and thrashing all over the bed.
“Eh? You like that dont’cha? Oh yes, you’ll know better to wake me up again!” he yelled and threw his leg over her, pinning her down while he climbed up on top of her to get better leverage.
“Yeah...I’ll know…to have…AMMO!” she answered smartly. His eyes widened and his hands stilled, he could not believe she had said that. Then he narrowed his eyes and got an evil smile on his face. He glanced at the clock quickly then snapped his head down to her.
“It’s 11 JJ, you got here early, I thought you weren’t coming till noon?” he asked, still on top of her, not even realizing it.
Jen’s laughter started to die down as she caught her breath. She sighed the after-laugh sigh and smiled up at him genuinely. “Well, we wanted to surprise you so, surprise.”
Justin smiled back at her and moved a strand of hair out of her face. His eyes took in her face, her tinted red cheeks from laughing, the sparkle of mischief in her eyes, and the way she was catching her breath. It was like he was noticing everything for the first time.
“I’m glad you are here,” he said, and smiled a crooked smile. Jen smiled back and then grabbed his shoulders and pulled him off of her. He was caught off guard and fell ungracefully onto the bed.
“Graceful Curly. How the hell do ya dance being so uncoordinated like that?” she teased, staring up at his Michael Jordan poster on the ceiling.
“Very funny. What do ya wanna do today?” he asked, turning onto his side so he could see her. She shrugged, her eyes still on the poster.
“I don’t know, just chill maybe? I don’t care, do you have anything to do today?” she asked back. He thought for a minute and propped his head onto his hand.
“We need to head into the studio for a few hours actually, we have a rehearsal for the tour, but that’s not until 3,” he answered, his free hand moving towards her arm, drawing lazy patterns on it. Jen smiled at his actions and turned her head to look at him. He was concentrating on his hand and didn’t notice she was looking at him. Jen turned onto her side and his eyes glanced up to her face.
“What, no kiss hello? Jeez Justy I’ve been your friend for how long now, ya kiss me everytime you see me and now you just lay there,” she started to say. Justin smiled and leaned his head down slowly towards her. Jen smiled back and slowly closed her eyes as his lips touched hers. He kissed her slowly and intentionally, taking his time. Jen smiled on his lips and brought her free hand up to his head and ran it through his curls. He pulled away and opened his eyes as she did.
“Better?” he asked with a half-smirk. Jen smiled and nodded, running her hand from his hair down to his shoulder and his arm.
“Much…” she replied, then looked over Justin’s shoulder. “hey guys..” she added, giggling. Justin rolled over to see Ashlee and the rest of the guys standing in the doorway watching them with broad smiles on their faces.
“Hello privacy people!” Justin said exasperated. JC rolled his eyes and looked at the two.
“Please, the door was open. Now get your complaining butt outta bed because the girls have been gracious enough to offer to make us breakfast,” JC said authoritatively. Jen jumped over Justin out of the bed and blushed as they all glanced at her knowingly. She glanced back at him and winked.
“Come on I make a mean bowl of cereal…” she coaxed. That was all it took Justin to jump outta bed. He grabbed her hand and pushed past everyone and flew down the stairs. Chris looked at the guys and Ashlee and shook his head.
“It’s going to be an interesting weekend…” he trailed off as the rest of them nodded and started down the stairs.
