Jen was rifling around in the dorm room, trying to pick out something to wear to the show. Normally she just went in a casual outfit consisting of a shirt and shorts depending on where she was seeing them, but she hadn’t seen them in awhile and she wanted to dress up a bit more. Ashlee was nowhere to be found, and that settled her nerves somewhat. She was glad she didn’t have to put up with her condescending looks and bullshit at the moment, because her mind was other places. Out of sight, out of mind.
She looked up into the mirror and patted down her wayward curls. They were just all over the place, sticking up in every direction.
”That’s what happens when you end up sleeping and rubbing your head on your best friend’s chest all night long,” she announced to her reflection.
Jen paused a moment as she thought about waking up earlier that morning, replaying the scene in her head.
Her eyes had fluttered and she sighed into her warm comfortable pillow. Once she had opened her eyes and noticed her pillow was slightly moving up and down, she smiled wide. Her hand had roamed his stomach and chest, tracing patterns on it. A few seconds later she felt his hand slowly rubbing up and down her back.
”Good morning,” he whispered into her hair, kissing the top of her head gently.
”Morning,” she whispered back, patting his stomach and then rolling off of him and onto her back.
He stretched his long limbs slowly and she watched his shirt rise up and expose his stomach. Her eyes gravitated to it and thoughts started running in her head a mile a minute. “Sleep well?”
Jen snapped back into reality and nodded, smiling. “I sure did, did you know you are a very comfy pillow?”
He chuckled quietly and brushed the hair out of her face. “Did you know you are very nice to snuggle with?”
”I’ve heard that from a few people before,” Jen answered, her eyes staring into his. Shock registered on his face and Jen could taste the victory in peaking his curiosity and watched as the protective look began to cover his face.
”Excuse me? How many people missy? You should not be-“
Jen placed her hand over his mouth gently to silence him. “I’m yanking your chain Stin. Now, I should probably get back to the dorm…”
She shook herself out of her memory and yanked on her hair for a few seconds more. Unsatisfied with the turnout, she dove into her drawer and pulled out a bandana, folding it in half and placing it on her head tying it tight to try to look half-way normal. She looked at herself one more time and nodded towards the mirror.
”Ghetto fabulous. Now onto some clothes.”
Justin glanced at his watch and then towards the front doors of the restaurant. He had talked Mike into getting out to the restaurant with him, but asked him to stay back in the shadows because of something he just had to do.
”Justin I don’t like this. Why can’t you tell me what you have planned here?” he asked from the passenger seat.
Justin shook his head ‘no’ and watched the door. “I’m sorry man, trust me on this one ok? This will be well worth it, I promise.”
Mike sighed and gave up on convincing Justin to tell him anything, he knew firsthand how the boy worked. Justin saw what he was looking for and turned to Mike and nodded.
”It’s time. Ready?”
Justin walked into Hard Rock and looked around cautiously. This was a big risk he was taking; there were millions of people here that could recognize him and Mike could only hold off so many people. Another thing was that people could see whom he was with and that was something he would not allow to happen. He looked back one more time at Mike and nodded, then faced forward and made a beeline for the table his ‘friend’ was at.
Once he reached the table, the person looked up and just stared for a few minutes, almost like they could not believe what was going on.
”Hi Justin.”
”Hello Ashlee.”
Jen had finally picked out an outfit after struggling with it for a good twenty minutes. She hadn’t done it alone; she walked across the hall and pulled CJ away from her studying to help her pick something out. CJ had questioned for what, and Jen sort of skipped around the question. CJ had let it go because Jen looked happy and it was the first time since the whole Ashlee ordeal. Whatever it was that was making her happy, CJ was happy.
”Thank you thank you thank you. I was kind of spazzing out about this, for no reason at all. I’m a bit wound up…” Jen trailed off.
CJ nodded and smiled. “You need to come help me figure out what I’m wearing to this show tonight, I need your fashion advice before you bail on outta here!”
”You know I will help ya, trust me on that one k?”
”Ok. I just can’t believe you scored tickets this close to the show…and the FRONT ROW tickets on top of it…”
”Well don’t worry about it. I know you guys couldn’t get tickets because it sold out so fast, so this is one of my thank you’s to you for letting me crash in your room.”
”It wasn’t a problem Jen. We like ya!”
”Well, you will have fun tonight…who knows, you might get to meet them huh?” Jen said, starting to grab her shower things. CJ rolled her eyes and sighed.
”Doubt it, but sitting in the front row, Joey will definitely notice me!”
”Joey notices everyone,” Jen answered unconsciously, then widened her eyes when she realized what she had said.
CJ raised an eyebrow in question and then just laughed. “That’s true, but I like it. He’s hammy.”
”Amongst other things,” Jen added and giggled. “Thanks again for helping me. Have fun tonight!”
CJ took that as her cue to leave, and she reached for the door. “Thanks Jen, you have fun tonight at the concert too,” she winked and smiled bright and left Jen stunned in her room.
”Man, I must be losing my touch or else I’m just freakin’ transparent or something. How the hell…?” she muttered as she quickly changed into her towel and made her way to the bathroom.
Justin slid into the booth and pulled his sunglasses off and stared at Ashlee. She was looking back at him and her eyes registered a mix of nervousness and fascination.
”What…what’s this all about Justin?” Ashlee asked, her voice wavering.
Justin leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Well, we are in town and I wanted to see you and talk to you. It’s been a few months ya know.”
”Yeah, it has. You look good Justin,” she added in quickly, smiling.
”So do you,” he said, his eyes wandering down her body a bit.
The waitress came to the table and looked at the two and smiled. “Are you ready to order?” Justin looked over at Ashlee and she nodded, so he did the same. They placed their orders and once the waitress left, they continued talking.
”So finals are here aren’t they?” he asked, knowing full well Jen was in finals hell.
”Yeah, it shouldn’t be too bad though,” she answered, getting more and more comfortable with the fact that Justin had sought her out and made a big deal out of having lunch with HER.
”Well, we might as well get to the reason I called you and wanted to meet with you so quickly,” he said, leaning in close to her.
Ashlee’s heart began beating extremely fast. She was so intrigued by him and was mystified at the secret meeting, but excited to say the least.
”I have something for you.”
”A present? Justin are you serious?” she squealed.
He smiled widely and winked at her, sending chills down her spine. “Oh yeah, I hope you like it baby.”
She giggled and leaned closer, impatiently. Justin reached into his pocket and pulled out something in a leather case. She stared at it in wonder, not having a clue what he was doing. He opened the case and pulled out some sort of machine, and she stared at it a bit confused. He just smiled at her and pressed play.
”I know Ashlee put you up to dating me.”
“You…you do?”
”Yeah…but that night…”
“Jen…it was all Ashlee’s idea. I don’t want it to sound like I’m pushing everything onto her, but it was her idea to have me try to sleep with you. She even paid me off to do it, telling me I would get more money after it was actually…done. I didn’t want to go through with it, but she said you really liked me and well…”
“Well what? Kyle you have to tell me, you cant just say something like that and expect me to be OK with it.”
”OK well I really did like you. I figured you would go with it, from what she had told me about you. She’s a smooth talker, made everything sound like it was no big deal. How did you find out about this?”
Justin hit stop and looked up at Ashlee’s face. She was ghost white and he couldn’t help but smile evilly. Ashlee looked up at him with her mouth dropped in shock.
”Surprised? Jen had a little talk with Kyle; the girl always wanted to get into that cop/F.B.I sting operation stuff…I remember when she would always make me play that when we were younger…ahh, but I digress…” he trailed off.
”Where…what…I mean…”
”Cat got your tongue? Good. See, if you decide to open that ugly little mouth of yours to anyone about me and the guys, Jen, JIVE, anyone…this tape goes out to the police and to every major paper I know—trust me, that’s a lot,” he said menacingly.
The waitress made her way back to the table with the food and Justin leaned away from Ashlee as the woman placed his food in front of him. He nodded his thanks to her and she left the table, leaving the two alone once again. He took a bite of his sandwich and glanced at Ashlee, who was pale and looked almost sickly.
”What, you aren’t hungry? Tsk Tsk Ash, not eating is very unhealthy. You look a little pale, drink some water.”
She glanced up at him, still in shock.
He put his sandwich down and popped a fry in his mouth, looking around the restaurant for Mike. Once he met his gaze, he nodded and Mike stood up, making his way towards the table slowly. Justin turned back to Ashlee and finished his fry before speaking.
”Don’t mess with me or my friends Ashlee, you never win. Hope you had fun with this little charade.”
Mike reached the table and Justin slid on his sunglasses. Ashlee watched him make his way out of the booth and stand up in front of the table. He pocketed the tape player and smiled brightly as he and Mike turned to walk away. He stopped abruptly and looked back at Ashlee.
”By the way, thanks for lunch.”
Mike and Justin walked out of the restaurant with Justin feeling like a weight had just been lifted off his shoulders.
”Mission one complete Mike,” he said as they climbed back into the van and drove back to the hotel.
Jen was putting the final touches on her makeup when someone knocked on the door.
”Come IN!” she yelled, reaching for her lip gloss. The door opened a bit and a familiar voice rang throughout the room.
”You better be decent in here Babydoll because I’m coming in!”
JC slipped into the room and closed the door behind him quickly. Jen turned around and her eyes widened. JC was dressed in disguise and she tried not to laugh at his blonde wig and humongous pants.
”Um…is that JC under there or a wannabe Nick Carter?”
JC rolled his eyes at her and pulled the wig off his head. “Stupid thing is really itchy. I did trip on these pants on the way to the elevator in front of these two girls, good for the ego when they full out LAUGH at you,” he said, pulling on the legs of his pants.
”Those pants look like those green ones you wore for the Disney Special Jace…how did you not trip on them then hmm?” she replied, making her way over to him and hugging him tightly. He laughed and hugged her back, then pulled away and held her arms out to the sides and looked at her. She was wearing a pair of khaki fitted pants and a yellow v-neck baby t-shirt. She had a pair of yellow shades hanging from her shirt and her hair was curled and bouncing around freely.
”Wow J you look awesome, all the guys downstairs are gonna be jealous of me when I walk out there with ya.”
Jen rolled her eyes and blushed. “Whatever. I just don’t look like a scrub like I normally do.”
”Whatever Jen. We wont get into this because I know I don’t win with you. Wait till Curlyman sees ya though, whew!”
Jen blushed and pushed his shoulder. “Lets GO already. Gimme that ugly wig, I refuse to let you wear it, just slip on your shades and we move fast k?”
”Sounds like a plan to me!” JC said as Jen locked up the door and grabbed his hand, making their way back downstairs and out to the car.
While JC was picking up Jen, Justin had sped the guys up on what happened at the restaurant, and they all breathed a sigh of relief when they found out it went well.
”So that was Jen’s idea??” Chris asked smiling proudly.
”Yeah, she just came up with it out of the blue and taped their conversation…” Justin answered nodding.
”So it should be smooth sailing for you two now right?” Lance asked.
”We’ll see, I mean I see it in her eyes, you know? She’s holding back, and I hate it when she does that. I feel so…helpless.”
Joey patted his friend on the back. ”She’ll come around Curly. She just has to. Do you have anything planned out? Tell me you do J…if not, I just got an amazing idea…”
