The next morning Dani saw a sad JC writing in a book and she went over to him.
“Chip?” She said gently placing a hand on his shoulder. She felt him sigh and look up at her,
“What Dani?” He asked annoyed,
“I just wanted to see if you were okay. You looked a little upset, that’s all.” She said and he slapped his book closed and glared at her,
“What? Am I supposed to pour my heart out to you and everything will be okay?”
“No. I was just asking.” She said a bit hurt at his angry words.
“Yeah, well take your psycho degree and go away. Why the hell would I tell you anything? You’re just Tony’s little annoying sister.” He said standing up and stalking out of the room. Dani sank down to the table JC had been sitting at. What the hell was all that about?
A hand was placed on her shoulder and squeezed it gently,
“He’s in a mood. Just ignore him.” Justin said as he took a bite out of the apple he was holding.
“I was just being concerned.” She said and Justin plopped down next to her.
“And he was being a moody dick. Welcome to the world of JC.”
“You put up with this? Why don’t I remember him being like this?”
“Because he didn’t become a tortured song writer till after the Mickey Mouse Club.” He smirked and Dani groaned,
“Tortured? Yeah, look at this life, it’s really torturous. Whiney, pampered bitch sounds more like it.” She retorted making Justin laugh.
“Yeah, well, it gets kind of lonely on the road, if you know what I mean.”
“So what you’re telling me is that he needs to get laid?” Justin grinned,
“Something like that, you interested in the job?” He asked and she snorted,
“Yeah, okay, Justin. The man just bit my head off for asking him a simple question. Please, let me jump right into bed with him! My God, shorty, those teenies have messed with your head!” She exclaimed and he burst out laughing even more.
“Hey you’re the one who asked.”
“Remind me to never do that.”
“You’re on, but your face is always priceless.”
“That’s the real reason I was brought on this tour, Justin. To entertain you.” She stood up, “I need to find Tony. Catch you later.” She said and walked out of the room.
She had avoided JC all day not wanting to feel his wrath, plus she was still pretty pissed at him. Never had he treated her as ‘Tony’s little sister’ till earlier today. When she had a chance she planned on telling him where he could shove his little pop star ego trip because he had no right to treat people like that.
She bounced along silently to her music as she flipped on her back and closed her eyes. The outside world was completely oblivious to her and she loved it.
He smiled a little as he watched her and remembered how she used to do this when she was younger. He didn’t even know why she had furniture besides dressers growing up because she was always on her floor doing everything.
JC sighed again and sat down on the floor next to her. He waited for her to acknowledge that he was there.
Dani felt someone sit down next to her and opened her eyes slightly and saw JC sitting there. She knew why he was there and decided to make him wait for her to acknowledge him.
A good five minutes passed when she felt a nudge to her leg. She opened her eyes half way and rolled them at him before closing them again.
“Dani.” JC said and she flipped him off while she listened to another song. JC sighed, this was going nowhere fast. He knew she could hear him over the music. “Dani, I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to snap at you this morning. I hope you realize that it wasn’t meant towards you.”
Finally Dani turned off her player and slipped off her headphones.
“And when was I supposed to realize that? When you yelled at me and called me ‘Tony’s annoying little sister’? I was only trying to help and you bit my head off. It was completely rude of you and I KNOW your parents taught you better than to act like that.” She scolded him and he hung his head,
“I know, I was just in a bad mood.”
“And that gives you the right to take it out on unsuspecting people who are just concerned for your well being?”
“No, it’s not. That’s why I’m apologizing now. I know it’s wrong. I just get into moods sometimes and most people know just to stay away.” He shrugged,
“You didn’t used to be like that. I think being famous has spoiled you.” She said and stared at the ceiling. “I never thought that would happen.” She finished quietly, the disappointment very clear in her voice. JC flipped over onto his stomach,
“I’m really not like that. I don’t think I am, spoiled I mean.”
“Question, would you even be apologizing right now if you didn’t think I was pissed at you?” JC was quiet for a moment just staring at her. Dani looked at him, “I thought not. You bite people’s heads off and they let you get away with it. Justin told me, ‘Welcome to the world of JC’, but if that’s the way you’re gonna be, I’m really not going to stay long.” She sighed, “I understand you can’t be in a good mood all the time, but from what Justin said it sounds like it happens a lot and always taking it out on people is NOT okay, even if they do let you get away with it. Oh and to let you know, if you ever do that to me or anyone else again, I WILL smack you upside the head and give you a piece of my mind.” She finished and JC was silent for a few minutes,
“Thanks Dani.”
“For what? Keeping your egotistical pop star ass in check?” She smiled up at him,
“Yeah, I guess I needed a swift kick in the pants.”
“I am more than willing to give it.” She winked,
“I know.” He laughed,
“And that goes for the other four stooges, too. You can relay that to them.”
“I will Dani, I will. So are we okay now?”
“You’re worried about Tony’s little annoying sister, cute.” She teased and he groaned,
“I’m sorry, you’re my friend too.” He nudged her lightly with his arm. “I kind of like having you around.”
“Really?” She asked skeptically,
“It’s like being home, without being home. I don’t get to have my sister around much and you kind of fill that void.” He shrugged,
“I’ll be sure to tell Heather.” She said and rolled her eyes at JC, “So I guess I’m here to relieve your homesickness, keep your egos in check, entertain Justin, and clean up after Tony. Man I really don’t get paid enough for this job.”
“Wait a minute, entertain Justin?” He asked, intrigued, “In what way?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and she groaned,
“I swear you all have sex on the brain.”
“Well, we are guys. So how are we entertaining Justin?”
“By having sex with you.” She retorted and thoroughly enjoyed JC’s shocked face.
“Excuse me?”
“Long story, but he’s decided that you need to get laid and offered me the job.” She laughed at herself.
“And what did you say to the offer?” He asked suggestively and she turned on her side, caressing his back lightly,
“What do you think I said?” She purred and JC smiled as he flipped on his side moving closer to her,
“I don’t know,” he breathed, “tell me…” Dani moved closer to him and stared intently into his eyes. She licked her lips,
“I said…” She trailed off as her hand worked its way up his chest,
“Yes?” He whispered expectantly and Dani shoved him hard,
“No fucking way!” She exclaimed playfully and burst into laughter.
“Hey you.” He went to grab her and she moved over him, easily pinning him to the floor,
“You wanted me!” She taunted and JC was smug,
“You’re the one who pinned me to the floor.” He grinned and she smiled at him,
“You want my hot bo-o-od.” She teased, “I’m gonna tell everyone that you want to freak me!” She laughed even more,
“Hey,” JC said laughing along, “if a woman’s on top of me and offering, I’m not going to turn her down.” He said and started tickling her,
“Hey now, stop!” She said tickling him back. They were soon in a wrestling match when the door flung open.
“Well, well, what’s going on here?” Chris asked with the biggest grin on his face. The couple looked up at him from their spots on the floor. Dani brushed hair out of her face,
“JC admitted that he’s desperately in love with me and wants my fine ass.” She said and JC pulled her back down to him,
“Shut up, I’ll be hearing about that for months, besides you’re the one who was pinning me to the floor, trying to have your wicked way with me.”
“Oh I so was not!” She exclaimed and Justin walked into the room with Joey,
“Hey Dani, you know I was just kidding about sleeping with C right?” He teased,
“I know,” Joey added, “I mean I’m sure I need a lay worse than he does.”
“You boys are so disturbing, sometimes it really scares me. Besides if I was to ‘lay’ any of you, as you all so nicely say, it would be Lance. He’s got some respect.”
“I’m getting laid by Dani? Sweet!” Lance said as he walked into the room. “First they had french toast for breakfast and now Dani’s offering sex, this day just can’t get any better.” He smirked and sat down in the room, pulling out his planner, “When can I pencil you in? Unless you wanna do it now.” He said and everyone began cracking up. Dani got up from the floor,
“Lance Bass, if your mother ever heard you!” She exclaimed breaking down in laughter as well.
“My mother’s not here, now is she?” He said and Dani covered her eyes,
“Why do I put myself through this torture?” She asked playfully,
“Because you can’t help but love us.” Justin shrugged.
“Oh, sorry didn’t know any one was in here. I just forgot something.” JC’s voice floated into her world and she looked up at him standing in the doorway,
“Oh, hey Chip, it’s okay.” JC came more into the room,
“Dani? That you?”
“Yeah.” She said fully turning on the bench of the piano,
“What are you doing in here?” He asked as he walked over to her and she shrugged,
“Needed some alone time in my brain.”
“Oh, I can leave.”
“No,” she said moving over on the bench and patting the empty space, “come sit, I don’t mind the company.” JC sat down next to her.
“How long have you been here?” He asked as his one hand drifted over a few keys,
“Got me, since a little after you all left, why?”
“That was three hours ago.” He said, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I just like to play and let my mind wander sometimes.” She shrugged and let her hands go to the piano again.
“I understand, I do the same thing.”
“I think it was something that I picked up from you.” She teased and he let out a chuckle,
“Maybe, so are you enjoying yourself so far?”
“So far I am, it’s been really great.”
“I heard that you beat Justin in basketball.”
“Nah, he let me win. He was probably pooped from all the dancing he did that day.” She laughed,
“Justin doesn’t let ANYONE win in ANYTHING, trust me he’s merciless.”
“I guess.” She played a few notes and then turned to JC, “Chip?”
“Yeah, Dani?”
“You don’t have to tell me, but this morning when you snapped at me, something was wrong and I was just wondering...” JC paused for a moment,
“It’s kind of complicated and has to do with Tyler.”
“Oh.”
“I was just frustrated because my hands are tied and I can’t do anything about it.”
“Why are your hands tied?”
“Okay, Ty just seems to be going down the tubes lately and nothing I say can change things. He won’t listen to me and all I want to do is help.”
“It hurts to get rejected by family.”
“He always tells me to butt out and I’ve been where he is and he just won’t take my advice. He thinks I’m being overbearing and overprotected.”
“It’s frustrating but some people need to fall. All you can do is be there for him when he does and help pick him up.” She said and he sighed,
“You’re right and I hate that.”
“What that I’m right?”
“No that I have to let him fall.” He sighed again,
“It’s hard, but knowing Ty, in the end he’ll thank you.”
“You think?”
“Being the youngest is hard. You have so many people protecting you and helping you that you wonder if you can do anything by yourself. So, I’m guessing that Ty wants to prove this to himself.” She looked at JC, “This has to do with a girl doesn’t it?” JC looked at her,
“Yeah.”
“Let me guess, he’s really wrapped up in this girl that is just using him or that you feel is using him and he is just letting the world go to shit because he thinks he’s in love.”
“Have you been ease dropping in on my conversations with him?”
“No, I just know you and I see a lot of you in Tyler. You used to do the same thing, giving away your heart too fast, easily trusting people.” She shrugged,
“Not very much anymore.” He said quietly,
“I know.”
“You do?”
“I had a conversation with Justin.” She saw the look in JC’s eyes, “Oh, it wasn’t anything detailed. He just mentioned that you hadn’t had a girlfriend since your last breakup and before then it took a while for you to date her.”
“Yeah, I guess there’s only so many times your heart can get trampled.”
“That is so true, it’s okay to hold back as long as you don’t give up.”
“As long as people don’t give up on you.”
“The ones that are worth it, won’t. They’re the ones that see that you’re worth it and stick around.” She smiled and he smiled back,
“It’s just hard to find those people, especially in this business. And the kicker is that you want to have a relationship, but even if you do find that person that is worth it, you have to deal with the life style. I mean I’m barely home, how the hell am I supposed to start relationship when I’m not in one city for longer than a week?”
“It’s just not your time, but it will come, when you least expect it to. You’ll be sitting there one day and poof! It’ll magically appear to you or rather she will.”
“You sure sound confident.”
“Well, you’re a great guy, with a really good heart and a good head on your shoulders. You deserve to be happy with someone and you will.” She smiled and JC smiled back, “Plus I remembered what Mama said.”
“What?”
“You can’t hurry love, no, you just have to wait. She said love don’t come easy, it’s a game of give and take.” She teased and he laughed,
“Did she also say that you just have to give it time, no matter how long it takes?” He said finishing the chorus of the old Supremes song.
“Yeah, something like that.” She laughed and then wrapped her arms around his arm as she looked up at him, “You’re gonna be okay, Chip and I think I’m gonna be okay too.” JC playfully tapped her nose with his finger,
“You’ll definitely be okay Dani. You’re too great not to find someone. I’m surprised that no one’s snatched you up yet.”
“Yeah well guys today aren’t really looking for a opinionated girl who’s pushy.”
“Well they’re fools.” Dani leaned against JC letting go of his arm, which he placed around her shoulders,
“Plus I’m really not one to be ‘snatched up’ as you put it or maybe I’m not ready.” She shrugged,
“You don’t want to get married? Or have kids?”
“Not yet, but maybe some day. I’ve just got too much of the world that I haven’t seen to settle down right now.”
“But if the right guy came along?”
“If he was the right guy, he’d think the same way.” She said and JC smiled,
“That’s very true.” Dani moved over and poked his stomach playfully,
“What about you Mr. Chasez, are you ready to settle down and have kids?”
“Not yet, but soon I guess. I’m really not getting any younger, but then I couldn’t have kids in this kind of lifestyle.”
“Joey does it.” She pointed out,
“Joey’s different, he’s got Kelley and a family that basically travels with him. They’re all willing to go with him.”
“You don’t think you’ll find someone like that?”
“I seriously don’t know. That would definitely help. I mean I want to see my kids grow up and be a part of their lives.”
“You wanna be that parent that would do anything for their kids, like move thousands of miles from home to give their child a chance at something great?”
“Yeah, definitely.” He smiled at her knowing exactly who she was talking about.
“God my parents were so crazy to move with Tony.” She laughed,
“If I remember correctly, they only moved because you were upset that Tony was going to Florida and you weren’t.”
“You’d be upset too if you found out that your brother got to live in Florida while you had to live in Michigan.” She scrunched up her nose,
“Too cold?”
“Hell yeah, I’d take sunny and warm over snowy and cold any day.”
“Yeah I would too, thought I do miss the snow, sometimes.”
“I miss it for like a day and get over it when I realize that I don’t have to shovel it.”
“Very true.” He looked at her for a moment, “You were upset that Tony was going away though.”
“Okay maybe a little. He was my partner in crime. I mean if he left then I would get all the blame. I tried to get my parents to have another kid but they just weren’t going for it, so I decided that I was going to Florida too. And we adopted you when we got there.”
“I know, I think I spent more time at your house than you did.”
“I can vouch for that when Tony decided to give you my room.”
“But I didn’t take it.”
“You were pretty close though.”
“Tell me about it.” He laughed,
“I knew you were there to stay when they started setting a place at the dinner table for you…on a regular basis.”
“Yeah I really liked your parents.”
“Oh, but your dad made the best sundaes that I have ever eaten in my life and your mom’s broccoli casserole? To die for. We both had really cool parents.”
“Yeah they were way cool.”
“Guess that makes us really lucky to have them as great examples. I mean we turned out all right, I think.” She smirked, “I think the jury’s still out on me.” She laughed at herself and JC hugged her to his side,
“Naw Dani you turned out pretty good…for a girl I mean.” He said playfully and ruffling her hair,
“Thanks Chip.” She sat there for a moment with a smile on her face, “You know what? This feels really good.”
“What does?” Dani pointed to both of them,
“Us, you know we haven’t really been around each other in like six years and we just fall back into that old relationship that we used to have. It’s nice to have that so soon.” She cocked her head to the side, “Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Yeah I do Dani. It’s nice to have someone around who’s new, but old and you trust a lot.”
“Exactly.” She said and hugged his middle, “I missed my other brother.” JC hugged her back,
“I missed my other sister.” He whispered back to her and then she giggled, “What?”
“This is so mushy for us.” She said and he laughed too,
“Yeah it is.”
They spent the next couple of hours hanging out in the studio and remembering the old days. They played around on the piano, rehashing all the funny stories of their childhood till they were in tears on the floor. They made it back to the hotel late that night still laughing at some of their old stories.
“Man, remember when you thought I was asleep and you thought it would be cool to put shaving cream on my face?!” Dani laughed as they walked down the hall with their arms wrapped around each other,
“Oh yeah and then you smeared me with it and sprayed the whole can on me! I think I smelled like that stuff for weeks!” He laughed, “Oh wait and then there was the whole stink bomb incident!”
“Holy shit yeah! My mom was sooo pissed at you guys.”
“US? It was you and your dad that planted it!”
“I know but you guys got blamed for it!” She laughed,
“Man that makes so much more sense now.” He said wiping tears from his eyes,
“Hey where are you guys coming from?” Lance said as he and Justin walked down the hall towards them,
“We were just hanging out at the practice studio.” Dani shrugged,
“The practice studio? Why there?” Justin asked,
“Got me, I just found Dani there earlier and we ended up hanging out.” JC explained,
“And now it’s late and I’m beat. So I’m gonna call it a night.” Dani said breaking away from the group and waving to all of them, “Night y’all.”
“Night Dani.” They all waved back. Justin and Lance turned to JC after she had gone into her room,
“Hanging out with Dani all night, huh?” Justin teased and JC rolled his eyes,
“I can’t hang out with Dani? She’s my friend too. Just because I’m friends with her brother doesn’t mean that I can’t hang out with her too.” JC defended,
“Whoa, boy. We were just teasing you.” Justin said and JC retracted,
“I just don’t see what the big deal is. You hang out with her probably more than I do.” He teased Justin,
“That’s because she’s makes for a good game of basketball. That and she’s hot.” He shrugged and JC smirked,
“You have a girlfriend, you realize that.” Lance said,
“Not like I’m macking it with her like JC is.”
“I’m NOT macking it with her, she’s like my sister!” JC exclaimed,
“Yep, okay JC.” Lance said with a slight smile.
“I can’t handle you two tonight, I’m going to bed.” He said shaking his head and walking down the hall to his room.