Joey had seemingly forgotten his vow to never host another party as long as he lived, something he’d declared after his house was trashed during his last shindig. Lance should have known the promise wouldn’t have stood for long. Joey was a people person, and when they were home he craved the company of others. If it meant his house being destroyed in the process, so be it, he could easily afford a cleaner.
Lance could understand the way Joey felt. It was strange being thrust into the limelight, being surrounded by people all the time, performing to thousands, and then the next minute they’d be back home, alone.
Being home for too long made them start craving the attention they sometimes despised while working, though. It was strange, but then again, so were their lives.
Lance swung his car into an empty space in the parking lot of Maddy’s apartment complex. He was running late so he jogged up the stairs, slowing down as he approached her door.
The door swung open seconds after he knocked. “Hi,” she greeted him. “I’ll just be a minute, come in.”
He walked in, closing the door behind him. His eyes followed her appreciatively as she walked across her living room, tightening her ponytail as she went. Her jeans hung low on her hips and her tan back was on show, only two thin strips of material holding the top on at her neck and lower back.
She walked back over to him, her jacket over her arm and a small bag in her hand. “Okay, I’m all set.” She looked up at him and noticed him…well, basically checking her out.
He cleared his throat, embarrassed to be caught in his moment of utter appreciation of the female species. “Um, yeah, let’s go.”
Lance led the way to his car, the pair enjoying a friendly conversation during the short drive to Joey’s.
Maddy was someone he truly enjoyed spending time with. She never expected anything from him, she took him how he was, and that was a good thing in his book.
They’d been out a few times on what people would class as a date. They’d shared a few enjoyable kisses at the end of the night, but that was as far as it went. She was there when he needed her, when he wanted to talk, or when he just wanted to hit the town. That may have sounded bad to some people, but at that point in his life a relationship was not even an option. She seemed to understand that. She didn’t make demands. They had fun together, and in not taking it further it spared the both of them inevitable heartache.
Joey’s house was already full by the time they arrived. Who knew where he’d met even half the people. Knowing Joey he’d probably only passed them on the street before giving them an invite.
People packed the living room, kitchen, stairs, and filtered out into the back garden. Even though Joey had declared upstairs off limits, it was almost inevitable that you could find at least a few up there.
Much to Maddy’s disappointment, Lance left her side soon after they arrived. She watched as he caught up with some friends, being drawn into conversation, before she headed outside.
She didn’t know a lot of the people there. She assumed that most of them were Joey’s friends or a part of the tour crew.
“Hey, you.”
She looked up from where she sat, staring out into the night, and smiled at the welcome visitor. “Hey, Justin.”
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, coming to sit down next to her.
She shrugged. “So how’s Britney?” she asked, effectively changing the subject.
He raised his eyebrows but decided not to question her. “She’s okay. She’s in LA, I haven’t seen her for a while.”
“It must be hard…not seeing her.”
He looked at her strangely. “I guess. Maddy,” he chuckled, “what’s up with you tonight?”
“I’m just being stupid.”
He was about to ask what she meant when they were interrupted.
“Maddy?”
They both turned to see Lance at the door. “I want you to come meet some people.”
The smile that lit her face told him all he needed to know. She turned to Justin and looked at him, silently asking him if it was okay. “Sure, go ahead.”
She stood up and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks Justin.” She gave him a small grin before she disappeared into the house with Lance.
Justin shook his head, confused more than ever as to what was happening between them two. He definitely couldn’t understand his friend. He had a gorgeous, intelligent woman right in front of his eyes but he didn’t seem to be doing anything about it. He was surprised Madeline hadn’t grown tired of him already.
He sat outside for a few minutes longer before he decided to head back into the house.
“What’s up James?” he asked, plopping down onto the couch.
Jamie awarded Justin with a look that could kill. “Nothing, Justine,” she smirked.
Justin rolled his eyes. “So where’s your boyfriend?”
She crossed her arms and nodded her head in the direction people were dancing. “Getting jiggy with that bimbo over there.”
Justin searched the people for JC. “Jamie,” he laughed, “that’s Chris’s little sister.”
“And? Doesn’t mean she’s not after my man,” she huffed. “What’s she doing here anyway?”
Justin chuckled in bewildered amusement. “She’s staying with Chris tonight, he’ll probably be taking her home soon. And believe it or not, not everyone thinks ‘your man’ is attractive. You have a severe jealousy problem, my dear.”
“I do not, I’m just protecting my investment.”
“Your investment?” he laughed.
“Yeah. I invested some of the best years of my life in that guy, I’m waiting for my pay out.”
“And what’s that?” he asked curiously. “A kid?”
“Try a big fat diamond, baby,” she grinned.
He shook his head. “It’s all about the material things.”
“You’re learning, kid.” They both knew she was joking. Jamie was far too proud to be with a man for his money. And they’d been together for far too long, and had been through far too much for anyone to believe that that was all their relationship was about.
Justin watched JC spin Taylor and smiled when he saw the young girl giggle. A couple dancing next to them caught his eye. “They look happy,” Justin commented.
Jamie managed to drag her eyes away from JC for long enough to see who Justin was talking about. “Pshh, you think?” she scoffed, as her eyes landed on Maddy and Lance.
“They’re not?” Justin asked, trying to gage her reaction for more insight into what was going on.
“Maybe if Lance pulled his head out of his ass they could be.”
Justin nodded. So Jamie had noticed the same thing.
“Excuse me, Justin. That kid has her legs wrapped around my boyfriend, I think I need to cut in.”
Justin shook his head. “Possessiveness, Jamie – not an attractive thing!”
The buses were all being loaded up and the place was packed with people trying to get everything in the right place. Family and friends were saying their goodbyes and a few tears were shed.
Madeline stood back from it all, not wanting to get in the way.
“Good morning.”
Maddy squinted in the sunlight, seeing Jamie approaching her. “You’re pretty cheerful for this time in the morning.”
“What can I say, I had a good night.”
“I thought you were having dinner with JC’s parents.”
Jamie shrugged. “We ditched ‘em early.”
Maddy smiled. “Are they here now?”
“Yeah, they’re saying goodbye. I hate all that stuff so I got out of there quick. I’ll never understand why their parents all fly down here just to say goodbye.”
“They wanna wish their babies good luck.”
“Yeah and wipe their mouths with a spitty tissue.”
Maddy scrunched her nose. “Gross, Jamie.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised, those guys are the biggest momma’s boys I’ve ever met. If only their mothers knew what they really got up to.” An evil grin overtook Jamie’s face.
“You wouldn’t…”
Jamie sighed. “You’re right, I wouldn’t. Not because I wanna save their behinds, of course. A lot of JC’s bad stuff…well, I guess it involves me…and yeah, I don’t want his mom thinking I’m a bad influence on her son. Not the best way to get in with the future mother-in-law. So are you all set?”
“I think so.”
“Well you better be ‘cause there ain’t no going back now. I do believe you’re on bus number four with moi. Aren’t you lucky.”
“I thought you’d be with JC.”
“Are you kidding? Even though most of the fans know about us, management is still all stuffy about it. It’s like if I’m not in sight then JC’ll at least look single. Out of sight, out of mind, so to say. Besides, why would I want to sleep on a bus with the guys? They’re noisy, they smell, they’re slobs, and they’d expect me to look after them like their mothers. No thank you!”
“Does JC know you feel that way?” Madeline chuckled.
“Maddy, I have JC well-trained, but get him around the other four and even I’m not that good, he turns into an immediate guy. Remember all this before you get involved with Lance.”
“Point taken.”
All joking aside, Jamie studied Madeline for a second, making sure she was okay. “What do you say we go check out our new home?”
“I just called…to say…I love you…I just called…to say how much I care,” Justin crooned.
“Hey Stevie, get your ass off my desk,” Madeline chuckled, pushing Justin’s butt off her pile of paperwork.
“Did you know he’s gonna be on our new CD?”
“I think you might have told me…oh…a thousand times maybe.”
“Ha ha.” He looked around the room. “Pretty cool set-up we’ve given you here, Maddy,” he commented. “Where else would you get a desk complete with it’s very own mirror, and don’t forget the excellent lighting?” he gestured to the light bulbs surrounding the mirror.
“Is that optimism or sarcasm I hear in your voice? I think I could do without the white spots running across my eyes right now.” Her makeshift office had been set up in one of the dressing rooms.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m making sure the local people you guys hire in each city have all the documentation they need to actually get in this place.”
“I never really thought about all that before - who would sort it out - I guess me and the guys live in our own little world a lot of the time. So how many people do we get in?”
“A fair few. You get extra people in catering, extra security, things like that. Most of the time local agencies provide us with people but someone still needs to get the details to them, tell them where they’ve got to be, what they’ve got to do.”
Justin looked at the pile of paperwork. “I’m starting to think I’ve got the easy job.”
Madeline chuckled. “Maybe not the easiest, but definitely the most enjoyable, I would’ve thought.” She glanced up at him. “You nervous about tonight?”
“First show of a new tour? Me? Nervous? Why would you think that?”
“So even superstars get attacks of nerves,” she laughed.
He pulled up a chair next to her. “Not nervous about performing, just whether we’re gonna be able to pull this off. This is the biggest tour to date and with all the stuff it includes, something is bound to go wrong. Rehearsals haven’t been the best these last couple of weeks, what with Joey hurting his leg, and we’ve been trying to finish off the album in between. I guess we’re not as prepared as we could’ve been.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Justin.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he sighed. “It’s one of those things where you’ve just gotta put everything that’s gone wrong behind you and you pull it off on the night. We’re gonna have to, we’ve got the world’s press watching our every move, ready to shoot us down.”
“And you guys are gonna show them what you’re made of, blow their socks off.”
“Thanks, Maddy,” Justin smiled.
“No problem. Now shouldn’t you be out there flirting with some MTV camera or something? Get out of here and let me work.”
The first opening act had hit the stage some time ago. Backstage was an organised chaos of crew workers, press, family and friends, and nervous popstars.
When she’d emerged from the pre-show briefing with the tour manager, Gary Wilson, she’d seen Chris pacing the halls, and he’d only given her a distracted wave when she’d said hello. That was a very different side she’d witnessed from Chris. Usually he was bouncing off the walls and she would’ve been lucky if he hadn’t tackled her on sight.
Justin had become unusually quiet, JC had seemingly disappeared after sound check, and she’d seen Joey talking quietly in the catering area with his family.
She headed down the hall
“Maddy.”
She stopped in her tracks and spun around to find Lance heading towards her, closely followed by his parents and sister.
“Hey,” she grinned. “You all set?”
“Thinks so. Thirty minutes to go,” he blew out a nervous breath.
Madeline looked over Lance’s shoulder and gave the patiently waiting group a small smile.
“Oh!” he realised. “You remember my parents right? And that’s my sister, Stacy.”
“My son talked you into going to his cousin Elaine’s wedding if I remember correctly,” Lance’s father recalled.
Lance rolled his eyes. “Jeez, dad, you make it sound like I was taking her for a date in the ghetto.”
“You know you didn’t want to go - heck I didn’t want to go, and she’s my niece – yet you had no qualms about dragging this poor innocent girl into…”
“Nice to see you again Madeline,” Lances mom interrupted the two men in life.
“You too, Mrs Bass.”
“Please, call me Diane.”
“Hey Maddy,” Stacy said.
“Hey Stacy, how are you?” She’d only talked to Stacy for a little while at Elaine’s reception but it was always good to see a familiar face amongst the tour chaos.
“Not bad, thought I’d take some time out to see the five goons.”
“Hey!” Lance protested.
“Shut it little brother,” Stacy grinned.
Madeline chuckled at the siblings. They might have both grown up but they obviously still loved to tease each other.
“Are you guys going out front now?” Madeline asked.
“Yeah,” Stacy nodded. “Gotta give them a chance to kick that stupid sack around.”
Stacy smiled suddenly and Lance immediately knew she was up to no good.
“And Lance was looking a little pale, we thought we better give him some privacy to throw up.”
Lance made a move towards her and she shrieked, running off down the hall. “Get back here Stace!”
Diane shook her head. “Where did I go wrong?”
Jim shook his head. “How old are they again?”
Madeline chuckled. “Me and my siblings are the same when we get together, I think we start regressing after the age of twenty.”
“I think you just might be right there, Madeline,” Diane agreed.
Stacey jogged up to the group, out of breath. “Let’s go.”
“I’m heading out there now, I’ll walk you to your seats.” The four of them began the short walk to the backstage entrance leading to the seating area.
Just as they reached the door there was a shout behind them. They turned and saw Lance, a woman following him trying to fix his hair. “Stacy! I’ll get you back.”
Stacy’s shoulders shook as she chuckled.
“Stacy, what did you do?” Jim asked.
“What? The boy is never too old to get a beat down by his big sister. Besides, I took his mind off the show didn’t I?” she grinned.
Maddy walked along the hall knocking on dressing room doors. “Two minutes, Justin.”
“Okay,” was the muffled response from within the room.
She got to the last door but it opened before she had a chance to knock. “Good timing.”
“You busy?” Lance asked. He was kited out in the first costume of the night, his head mic hanging around his neck.
“Kinda.”
“Thirty seconds?”
“Now what could you possibly do in 30 seconds?”
He looked left and right down the hall before grabbing her hand and pulling her into the room.
“What the…?”
Before she knew what was happening the door was closed and she was pressedd up against it. Almost immediately her lips were covered with Lance’s. It only lasted a couple of seconds before he pulled away. She didn’t know where to look.
“Uh yeah…just needed a little um…token of good luck,” he grinned.
Chapter 3
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