The next night JC found Dani staring off in space and quickly approached her,
“Hey Dani.” His voice snapped her back to reality and she turned an angry glare at him,
“Go away.”
“No, I want to talk to you. Why are you avoiding me?”
“Because I don’t want to be around you, get the picture.” She snapped,
“Why? Is this about that night at the club? I was-”
“I don’t want to talk to you! Can’t you take a hint?!”
“You don’t have a choice!”
“Oh, I don’t? Watch me!” She tried to move away but JC blocked her way and pushed her into a corner, “JC if you fucking know what’s good for you, you’ll move.” She warned dangerously but JC ignored it,
“Guess I don’t. Now tell me why you’re upset at me.”
“You know the world doesn’t revolve around your egotistical pop star ass.”
“Well if you’re not mad at me, then why are you avoiding me?”
“Just get out of my face!” She screamed at him but he wasn’t deterred,
“No, but nice way to get around the subject. Answer my question.” Dani closed her eyes,
“Please just leave me alone.” She pleaded more calmly,
“I can’t, don’t you understand?” He brought a hand up to her face and caressed it. She kept her eyes shut and moved away from his hand.
“Don’t.” She whispered,
“Damn it Dani! What did I do to you? What’s made you like this?”
“You don’t even know.” She shook her head,
“Obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Please tell me. Is this about that night in the club?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I’m okay with what happened, I was shocked that I could feel that way towards you but I like those feelings. Are you okay?” Dani looked up into his eyes. They were so caring and sweet. How could he have done something so vile, it just didn’t make sense.
JC saw the confusion in her eyes,
“Dani, are you okay?”
“No and I’m so confused.” JC went in to wipe away a stray tear and she moved away,
“Don’t touch me.” She whispered and he retracted his hand,
“Why? I don’t understand, please Dani.”
“You don’t understand? I don’t understand how someone who is supposed to be my friend could…” She drifted off unable to finish her sentence.
“I am your friend, maybe more if you let me.”
“You’re my brother’s best friend, I’m just his little sister.”
“Yeah, but along the way you became my friend, too.” JC scanned her eyes looking for a hint of what was going on in her head.
“I don’t even know you.”
“What do you mean that you don’t know me? We’ve known each other for thirteen years.” He moved closer and saw her wince so he backed up. She began to relax again and JC was perplexed by her behavior.
“I feel like I don’t know you anymore. I used to think that I did, but now, I don’t know.”
“Why? I’m still Chip, the same Chip I’ve always been, granted the situation and environment had changed but I’m still the same guy you met thirteen years ago. Why would you think that I’ve changed? At the beginning of this tour you thought I was the old Chip, except I had better hair.” He said half smiling but she didn’t smile,
“You were supposed to take care of me. You used me.”
“When did I use you? Dani be blunt and stop beating around the bush.”
“You saw how much I had been drinking that night.” She whispered not looking at him, “You were supposed to take me home and put me to bed, not take me to bed. You took advantage of me.” Dani’s last statement hung in the air as the reality of what she had just said sunk in.
“I took advantage of you?” He whispered in disbelief, “Do you remember anything from that night?”
“Just the club and the car ride home, but the next morning spoke for itself.” JC remembered how they were both naked and how that would look if anyone had come in.
“Dani, we didn’t do anything.”
“What? But we were…”
“Naked? Yeah but we didn’t sleep together.”
“No sex?”
“Nope.”
“But how did we…”
“End up naked?” She nodded, “That my dear was all you.” He half chuckled, “You mumbled something about it being too hot and instead of turning on the AC you decided that no clothes was better. I told you about the AC but you insisted and hey when a gorgeous woman is undressing me I’m not going to complain.” He smiled at her and she half upturned her lips,
“So what did we do?”
“Basically a really heavy make out session. I tried to stop you, but I’m not that strong.”
“But you told all of the guys about it. You bragged about it.” She said and his brow furled,
“I didn’t tell anyone about us. Trust me the guys have been trying to beat it out of me but I haven’t said a word. I wanted to talk to you about it first.”
"But they all were talking about what a night I had had..."
"Tony mentioned at breakfast about how you looked when you were just getting in and the other guys knew from seeing you, how much you had had to drink. That's what they were talking about, not us." He took a step closer, “I don’t just go home with girls, you know that and I wouldn’t even dream of hurting you. I’m so sorry that you went all that time thinking that. I think what happened between us happened, because we wanted it to happen. At least I did, you weren’t the closest warm body I could get my hands on. You were the only warm body I wanted to get my hands on but I just didn’t realize it to that night.” He paused a moment, “Jeez, that didn’t come out right. I don’t want you just for your body. I mean I do, but I like your mind too, I like everything about you. I like you.” He said and stared into her eyes. Dani couldn’t take it and closed her eyes. She felt JC move closer and felt his breath on her face.
“Jace?” She whispered,
“Yeah, Dani?” He breathed, wanting so badly to kiss her again,
“I need sometime to think” He pulled back suddenly,
“You do?” He asked and she opened her eyes again,
“Yeah, please.”
“Um, okay, yeah.” He took a step away, “Well I guess you know how I feel.” Dani nodded her head, “Okay I’ll just go. I’m glad we had this talk.”
“Yeah, me too.” She said not looking at him and staring out into space. JC leaned in and brushed a kiss over her forehead,
“See you later Dani baby.” He said and walked away from a stunned Dani.
What the hell had just happened? Twenty minutes ago she hated JC and now she definitely didn’t hate him but she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about him. It was like all of her feelings had been tossed up into the air and she didn’t know where they were going to land.
She quickly left the arena and after a quick call to Tony to let him know that she wasn’t going to be there for the sound check or the show, she went up onto the roof of the hotel. She leaned against the ledge and stared out at the city that was laid out there before her. The silence on the roof was backed by the distant hum of the city below.
She stood there for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing was making any sense to her. It was Chip, her brother’s best friend, he WAS practically her brother. Did she want to be with him? Things hadn’t gone so well with Dale and now Chip? Jesus, she needed to find some guys on her own and stop using her brother as a pimp.
She thought back to the club that night and remembered how much she wanted JC. That was just the alcohol talking right? Was JC just the closest warm body? They were already friends and she had a lot of fun hanging out with JC, she always had. But did she want more from him?
“Don’t jump!” Dani jumped five feet and turned around to see Justin walking her way.
“Justin Timberlake, that was NOT funny.”
“Yes, it was, you should have seen how high you jumped.” He said laughing. She punched him in the arm,
“Jerk.” She said and turned back to look out at the city. “What are you doing up here? Don’t you have a concert to do?”
“Yeah, I did, it’s done. I came up here to get some fresh air.”
“The concert’s over?” She looked at her watch, “Man, I guess I just lost track of the time.”
“What are you doing up here?” She turned back to him and shrugged her shoulders,
“Thinking.”
“About what?”
“Your sexy ass.” She teased
“I bet you were.” He replied with a chuckle and stood next to her, “So, really what were you thinking about?”
“Stuff.”
“Well that really narrowed it down. Care to be more specific?” She paused before answering,
“JC.”
“Ah, I see. What’s up with you two lately? You seem so angry at him.”
“Well I was because I thought that he did something that he really didn’t do.” She paused and looked at him, “What did JC tell you about me after that night at the club?”
“Which night, the last one we all went out together?”
“Yeah.”
“That you danced your heart out, got really wasted and stayed the night with one of the girl’s at the hotel. Well he assumed that you did, he really didn’t know. You could’ve been somewhere else.” He shrugged, “We’re you?”
“I don’t really remember that night.” She said quietly and stared out at the city. JC had been telling her the truth; he didn’t say anything about them or what they did. How her world had just been flipped upside down.
“Dani?”
“Huh?”
“I lost you for a minute. You were talking about JC and you never finished. What happened between you two?”
“Oh, well we just straightened things out, but now I’m really confused.”
“Okay, go on.”
“He, uh, told me that he liked me, as in more that a friend.” A smile crept across Justin’s face,
“And do you like him, as in more than a friend?”
“I think I do, we get along well enough and we’re friends…” Justin grabbed her shoulders,
“But do you want him as a boyfriend?” He asked her point blank.
“What if we don’t work out and we end up hating each other?”
“What if you end up marrying him?” Her eyes grew wide,
“Excuse me?!” Justin let go of her shoulders,
“Calm down, I’m just trying to get you to see that there’s more than one outcome to dating him and not every outcome is horrible.” Dani stared at Justin for a minute,
“How did you do that?”
“What?”
“I’ve been standing here for hours trying to decide what to do about this and in five minutes you helped me decide.”
“Well some people just have that magic touch.” He said rubbing his fingernails on his shirt.
“Yeah, where was that magic touch five hours ago.”
“In the shop for retuning.” He replied and she laughed,
“I’m ready to go in. Are you coming?”
“Yeah, it’s a little chilly up here. Are you going to go see JC?” He wiggled his eyebrows and she groaned,
“No, I’m gonna let this crazy idea set in over night and I’ll tell him tomorrow.”
“Okay,” He slung an arm over her shoulder, “You better not get cold feet.”
“I won’t.” She took a deep breath, “I can do this.”
“Trust me, it’s right with you two. Everyone else sees it.”
“They do?” They walked into their hallway,
“Yeah, everyone’s been saying it for weeks, well up till lately.”
“How come everyone else knew and didn’t tell me?”
“Well I for one was hoping that you would figure it out on your own, but apparently you needed a little help.”
“Please I’m so clueless when it comes to all this. I wish there was a manual I could buy or something.” Justin laughed,
“Don’t we all, don’t we all.” They reached her door,
“Well thanks for the roof time.”
“It wasn’t the first and probably won’t be the last Dani.”
“God, what am I going to do when we’re not under the same roof? I’ll be lost.”
“We can do it with cell phones.”
“I guess, but it’s just not the same if you’re not right there.”
“Baby, nothing’s the same without me, because I gots the flava.”
“Um, yeah, that’s it.” She laughed and Justin moved closer.
“You promise that you’re gonna tell him tomorrow? No cold chicken feet?”
“I promise I will tell him tomorrow. Thanks for helping me figure everything out.”
“Hey I just showed you what you really wanted, you made the choice.”
“But after you and I talked there was only one choice I could make, thank you.”
“Yep, that’s because I’m the master.”
“Okay, okay now that I’ve inflated your ego to where you can barely fit into this hallway, I think it’s time to say good night.” She hugged him and Justin pulled away but kept close, resting his forehead against hers,
“You have to tell him or I will.”
“Yes, I know, I will tell him, I promise.”
“Okay,” He smiled and kissed her cheek,
“Goodnight Dani baby.”
“Goodnight sweet cheeks.” She returned the kiss and winked as he walked down the hall with a wave. Dani shook her head with a laugh and went into her room.
JC gently closed his door with a sigh. He had heard Dani’s voice and was about to go see her when he head Justin’s voice. Why was Justin so intent on Dani telling him her decision? What was her decision? Did she want Justin? Everyone always thought that something had been going on between them, but now? What exactly did Justin show her on the roof? So many questions raced through his mind that his head began to swim. This was not going to be a good night.