Chapter Seven


The next day they were flying back to the tour and the boys were bouncing around the plane. All of them except for Justin. Dani flopped down next to him,

“Hey, you’re behaving, what’s wrong?” She teased and he turned a sad smile towards her,

“Nothing I can fix.” He sighed and she placed her hand over his,

“You want to talk about it? I’ve got a pretty good ear for things.” She smiled reassuringly,

“Well it kind of has to do with you.” He sighed and her brow furrowed,

“Me? What did I do? You’re not upset about me leaving practice, are you?”

“No, no it has nothing to do with that, all though it was weird how you just ran out. We were all kind of worried and C was a complete head case.”

“I know I talked to him when I got back. He was waiting outside my door and we had it out. But what I want to know about is what’s bothering you now.” She said gently and he took a deep breath,

“Remember when you kept answering my phone the other night?”

“Yeah, I was closer and you were being lazy, but no one was ever there.”

“Someone was there, each time.”

“Why didn’t they say something?”

“Because Britney didn’t want to. She assumed that I was cheating on her with you.”

“You’re kidding me. We were just hanging out!” Dani exclaimed,

“I know and I told her that, but she wouldn’t believe me and now she’s all pissed off at me. Nothing I say with appease her, I don’t think anything will right now.”

“That’s really shitty, Justin. Come on, she doesn’t trust you? With me of all people!”

“Nope, she wouldn’t believe a fucking word I said. And it’s not like I can fly out there to see her and make things right and she won’t come and see me because she’s all pissed off. It’s all messed up!”

“I’m sorry I caused problems for you honey.”

“Oh it’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Neither did you.” She said softly, “Do you want me to call her? To set things straight?”

“No, it’ll probably make things worse, knowing her.”

“Does she love you?”

“I think so, yeah I really do.”

“Then she’ll come to over this. Maybe she had a long day and was tired. And maybe all she wanted to do was talk to you and every time she got me. That’s a little frustrating if you ask me and it probably set her off, you know?”

“That’s probably what happened.” He sighed,

“See? You’ll call her when you get off the plane and work things out. If you really love each other, things just fall into place, you know?”

“I really hope so, Dani, I don’t want to lose her.”

“You won’t, this is totally not enough to leave you on. Everything will work out, you’ll see.”

“Thank God you have faith.”

“I just know certain things.” She shrugged and rubbed his head affectionately, “Plus you’re a pretty good catch and giving you up would be dumb. You can quote me on that.” She winked and he smiled a small smile, “That’s what I like to see.”

“Thanks Dani.”

“Anytime Shorty.”


They landed and made it to their hotel where Tony was waiting for them.

“Hey, how was New York?” He asked as he followed her into her room and she shrugged,

“It was New York.” She dropped her bags on her bed and turned, “I followed the guys around and went shopping, not that exciting.” She said and opened her bag, searching around in it,

“I heard you gave JC a scare.” She looked up,

“He CALLED you?”

“Well actually I called him and he told me how you ran out of practice and disappeared.”

“I went shopping! My God the last time I checked this was AMERICA! Why do you two feel the incessant need to treat me like a five year old!” She said throwing down the shirt she had in her hand down, “OH NO, Dani’s not with one of the guys! All hell is going to break lose because one of you two can’t see me! My God! I already have two parents I don’t need two more!” She exclaimed and sat down heavily on the bed. Tony simply crossed his arms and stood in front of her,

“He was worried because you ran out of practice like a scared rabbit. Then he couldn’t reach you to make sure that you were okay. Neither could the other guys and they were all worried as well.”

“I had a little panic attack, no biggie. I just needed to get out of the room. I was feeling claustrophobic.” She shrugged,

“A little panic attack? You don’t just get little panic attacks.”

“It was nothing and I was fine like an hour later. I promised Chip that I would tell someone where I was going more often and he promised to not freak out as much. Okay? Everything was worked out.” She stood up and started going through her bag once more. She pulled out a shirt, “Why is Shorty’s shirt in here?” She said more to herself than to Tony. He raised an eyebrow at her,

“You have Justin’s clothes in your bag? Why is that? Is there something you left out about your weekend away?” He smirked and she rolled her eyes at her brother,

“Trust me, nothing happened. That’s the last thing that poor boy needs right now. He has enough problems when he just hangs out with me.”

“Problems?”

“Brit thinks that he’s cheating on her with me. Please, Shorty’s not even my type. I have to go return this to him.”

“Alright, stop by later and we’ll have dinner, kay?”

“Yeah, that’s cool.” She said walking out of her room. She quickly walked down to Justin’s room and knocked. He opened the door while he was on the phone. He held up his hand and motioned her to wait a minute,

“Okay, honey I will…yeah I love you too, goodnight…bye.” He said and hung up the phone. “Hey!” He said obviously in a good mood, “What’s up?” He said letting her into the room,

“Nothing, just returning things.” She said holding up his shirt, “Was that Britney?”

“Yep, that was.” He nodded and took the shirt, “Thanks for bringing it back, I didn’t even realize I was missing it.”

“No problem. I didn’t know I had it either. So I take it things are better with Britney?”

“Yeah, you were totally right about the whole situation. She said that she had a bad day and just wanted to talk to me.” He shrugged, “We apologized and she said that she was sorry about accusing you like that.”

“No problem, I’ve done the same thing.” She shrugged, “It’s a mistake. I’m glad you two worked everything out.”

“Yeah me too.” He smiled at the thought of his girlfriend and Dani looked at him,

“You’re so cute when you’re in love, Shorty.”

“Well hey, she makes me happy.”

“That’s good, that’s the way it should be.”

“You’re really good at this relationship thing, you should have a column or something.” Dani burst out laughing,

“Maybe other people’s relationships, not mine and definitely not the guys side of the relationships. I’m only sort of good at the girls side, because, well I’m a girl and I’ve been there.”

“Well you can be my relationship guru anytime.”

“Okay.” She laughed.

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Chapter Six
Chapter Eight