Emma woke with a jolt the next morning. She sat up in bed and looked around wondering where the hell she was. When she saw JC she remembered and calmed down. Quietly she slipped out of the bed and tucked JC back in. After leaving him a note and kissing his cheek, she grabbed her shoes and quietly went into the hall. Emma held on to the doorknob and put on her shoes. Behind her Lance came out of his room to wake up the other guys. He saw Emma and was surprised, ‘Well that relationship moved rather quickly.’ He thought to himself.
Emma went back to her hotel room and showered. Looking around the room after she was dressed she said to herself,
“Oh boy this is going to be one big job of packing.” The night before she had taken a long time to get ready and just basically threw things where ever. But she needed to pack it and she got to it so that it would be done in time for her to hopefully have breakfast with JC. After a half an hour she was almost done. Some how she managed to get it all packed up in her suitcases. JC had never told her when they were leaving, well he never really got the chance to last night. After they got back to the hotel, Emma didn’t realize how tired she was and fell asleep when her head hit the pillow.
There was a knock at her door, Emma wondered who it was so she looked through the peep hole. A smile spread over her face when she saw JC on the other side of the door. Emma opened the door and let him in. As soon as the door closed he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her.
“Well good morning to you too.” Emma said playfully.
“Actually,” JC looked at his watch, “It’s good afternoon.”
“Well then good afternoon.” She smiled and kissed him again.
“You know, I definitely could get into this greeting thing.” He kissed her again and pulled her onto the couch with him. Emma’s back hit her purse and she felt the phone vibrating.
“Ahh!” She gasped jumping up from the couch.
“What?” JC asked.
“My phone it’s ringing.” She grabbed her phone out of her purse and looked at it. The phone stopped ringing when she picked it up. JC came up behind her and kissed her neck.
“Was it important?” he asked between kisses.
“I don’t know, the number was blocked. I guess if it was important they’ll call back later.” She placed the phone back into the purse and threw it onto another seat.
“Well then,” JC said turning her around to face him, “Where were we?” He leaned in for another kiss but Emma stopped him.
“Josh, I still have packing to do.” He groaned,
“How much more could you possibly have?” He hoped that it wasn’t that much.
“A little bit more but I’m almost done. By the way you never told me when the bus was leaving.” She walked toward the bedroom to get more stuff to pack.
“It’s leaving in an hour.”
“An hour? Thank God I got up when I did, I would have never been ready in time. Are you packed and ready to go yet?” She yelled from the bedroom. JC started to put her suitcases by the door.
“Yeah, most of my stuff was packed already so it didn’t take me that long. What time did you leave this morning? I don’t remember you leaving.” He yelled back, Emma walked out of the bedroom carrying a travel bag.
“I don’t know you were asleep when I left and I didn’t want to wake you.” JC stared at the mountain of suitcases and bags accumulating at the door.
“Is that it? Man you have a lot of stuff.”
“I only have four suitcases and a carry on, it’s not a lot. Why, how much do you have?”
“Two suitcases and a duffel bag. I’m gonna call down to the front desk to have them pick this up and bring it down to the bus okay?” Emma nodded.
“Hey Josh, I have to stop by the desk and have them return my car?”
“What car?”
“Well I didn’t very well walk to the concert last night.” She retorted and JC gave her a sarcastic face.
“I think we can handle it.”
“It won’t be a problem?” She asked. JC walked over to her and encircled her waist.
“I think we can manage. So if you’re all done packing…”, his eyes drifted to her neck and his lips soon followed. Emma giggled a little,
“I thought you were going to call room service to get my bags?”
“I was, I just got side tracked.” JC said smiling at Emma who melted. He leaned down, their lips met and Emma let him take her over. They moved over to the couch and JC softly lowered her down. Their kisses were mixed of short, sweet pecks and long passionate ones. He slid the strap of her tank top down and kissed her shoulder. Emma rubbed her hands up and down the back of JC’s body. ‘God’ she thought to herself, ‘What a body her has, what a hunk!’ She giggled out loud and JC looked at her,
“What’s so funny?” Emma just smiled and pulled him back down.
“Nothing.” She kissed him and JC forgot about her giggle. There was a knock at their door.
“Hey Emma? It’s Lance, is JC there?” Both of them groaned and sat up.
“It’s for you.” Emma said as she straightened up. Lance knocked again,
“Hey Emma! Are you there?!” JC jumped up and opened the door.
“Hey Lance, what’s up?” JC leaned against the doorframe and ran a hand through his hair.
“The bus came a bit early so we need to get our stuff down there now.”
“Alright, we’ll be down in a minute okay?”
“Kay,” Lance looked between Emma and JC and smiled, “see ya down there.” He looked around JC and waved at Emma. Emma smiled politely and waved back. JC closed the door after Lance left and turned toward Emma.
“Where’s your phone?” Emma pointed in the general direction. JC nodded and picked it up, he talked a few minutes and then put the phone back down.
“Okay room service will bring these down in a few minutes and they’re going to take care of your car too. So, you want to go down and get settled on the bus?”
“Sure, sounds great.” She hopped off the couch and picked up the bags that were going on the bus.
“Here let me carry those for you.”
“No that’s okay I've got them.”
“Well at least let me carry most of them, what kind of gentleman would I be if I let you carry those heavy bags?”
“A smart one.” She joked as she gave him the heavier of the two bags. They walked down to the bus hand in hand. JC stayed outside and was talked to one of the helpers who were loading the bus. Emma got on the bus, the rest of the boys were already on. Lance was in the front setting up a laptop at on one of the tables.
“Hey Emma, how’s it hanging?”
“Not too bad, how are you this afternoon?”
“Fine, I’d be better if I could get this laptop to work, the cables are just not working with me.” He said throwing the cables he was working with down on the table.
“Mind if I give it a shot?” She asked. Lance was at his wit’s end so he gladly got up and let her take a look.
“I don’t think you can do anything with it. I've been working with this thing all morning and nothing’s worked.” Emma put her bags down on an adjacent seat and then sat down at the laptop to see what was wrong.
“Let’s see here.” She flipped a few cables around and typed a few things on the keyboard and said,
“There you’re all set.” Lance stared at her,
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not.” Emma turned the laptop so that Lance could see it. He was amazed,
“How’d you, what did, huh.” He said scratching his head.
“You had a few cables in the wrong slot, it’s an easy mistake to make.” She said.
“Thank you, a lot.” He noticed her bags, “Oh here let me show you where you can put your stuff.” Lance took one more look at the laptop and then got up and went towards the back motioning Emma to follow. She picked up her stuff and moved toward the back of the bus.
“We have an extra bunk where you can sleep.” He said pointing to the last bunk in the sleeping section.
“Thank you, Lance.” Emma said as she headed for the bunk. A pair of strong arms grabbed her waist from behind and pulled her back. It was JC.
“You know you don’t have to sleep in that bunk.” He whispered in her ear. Emma smiled,
“So I guess it’s a storage bunk, huh?” she whispered back.
“Right, my bunk is that one over there.” JC pointed to the bunk directly across from the one Lance showed Emma. They put her stuff on her bunk and Emma began to unpack her stuff, JC pulled her out of the bunk.
“Why don’t you settle in later.” He said, “I’m hungry, are you?” he asked her.
“Oh starving.” Emma said rubbing her stomach. JC laughed,
“I figured, come on there’s food in the kitchen, if we’re lucky Joey and Chris haven’t devoured it all yet.” Emma followed JC to the kitchen. Joey and Chris were sitting at the table, Justin was rummaging through the fridge and Lance was eating a bowl of cereal walking back towards the laptop. Joey and Chris scooted over so that Emma and JC could sit at the table. JC remained standing and asked Emma,
“So what do you want for breakfast? We have cereal, eggs, toast, oatmeal, the usual stuff.”
“Ooo, I don’t know, how about scrambled eggs, toast, and maybe a banana?”
“Coming right up, Madame.” JC made a little bow and went towards the stove. Emma giggled.
“Holy shit C’s cooking. Are you sure that you want to eat what he’s making?” Joey teased.
“Hey now, I can handle scrambled eggs and toast.” JC shouted back as he pulled things from the fridge. Chris leaned in to Emma,
“If I were you, I would only trust eating the banana. Even he couldn’t screw that up.” Emma giggled,
“Well a relationship is based on trust, right? I guess I’m just going to have to trust that JC isn’t going to poison me.” She said and they all snickered.
“Thank you hon.” JC said from the kitchen,
“So,” Joey said sliding toward her and placing his arm around her, “We know practically nothing about you. Where are you from?”
“Do you mean originally or where my home is now?” Emma asked.
“Both of course, we want to know all about JC’s special lady.” Joey winked. Emma blushed a little at being called ‘JC’s special lady’.
“Well, I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and when I was three my family moved to Morocco. I lived in Morocco until I was twelve and then I moved to London, England with my uncle and then when I was sixteen I moved to Southern California, which is where I live now.”
“Wow,” Chris said with a mouth full of toast, he swallowed, “was your family in the army or something? You sure moved around a lot.”
“No, my family just changed a lot, that’s all.” She answered.
“Oh,” Joey said, “well do you have any brothers and sisters? My older brother, Steve is on tour with us.”
“I have a twin brother, Tommy and you’ve met my foster brother, Stuart.”
“Oh yeah, does he live in Atlanta?” Chris asked,
“Yeah, with his wife Gloria and my two godchildren, Kael and Connie, who you also met.”
“She was a sweetie.”
“I can’t thank you enough for making her birthday special. I swear she still hasn’t come down from that night.”
“It was our pleasure.” Joey smiled warmly at her,
“Wait, you said that Stuart was your foster brother. So you’re not related at all?” Chris asked,
“Not by blood, no.”
“Connie looks exactly like you though, that’s weird.”
“Well it helps that Gloria has the same coloring as me. I guess that’s why.” She shrugged and turned to Joey, “So Joey, is your brother visiting you while you’re on tour?” She asked.
“No, he’s actually on the tour with us, he announces.” Joey answered.
“Oh, really, that’s so neat. It’s so great that you are so close to your family that you can be on tour with them.” She turned to the other guys, “Are any of your other family members on tour, too? What are you’re families like? Are they on tour with us too?” Emma asked excitedly.
“Whoa, baby slow down,” JC said sitting down next to her and setting down two plates of eggs and toast for them. He kissed her on the forehead, “Breathe, you’ll wear yourself out.” Everyone laughed and Emma smiled shyly.
“Sorry, I just loved hearing about people’s families and how they grew up. To me it’s just really fascinating.”
“Well then, where should we start?” Joey asked.
“Well I know all about JC…”
Joey watched Emma as she talked. ‘God she’s so sexy.’ He thought to himself. He could sit there and watch her all day and as he glanced around the table he knew that the rest of them were thinking the same thing. Lance had come back from his laptop and was intently watching her. They were all enchanted by her smile, her eyes, her exotic voice, and the way she moved when she talked. Just watching her made him horny. He wanted her so bad it was almost hurting him. ‘God, I've just spent less that twenty-four hours with her. How the hell am I going to last the entire tour?’ He shook his head. ‘No, I can’t, she’s JC’s girl, that’s so wrong!’ Joey tried to get rid of the thoughts that he was having, but they kept coming back. ‘But maybe if she wasn’t JC’s girl…’
Emma spent the next day traveling with JC and the guys. She made plans with Kitty to meet them at the venue tomorrow.
"Hey can I take a seat?" she asked and Justin shrugged his shoulders,
"It's a free country isn't it?" He replied shortly.
"Well aren't you a tough cookie today?" She joked and Justin didn't smile or even look up at her. Emma sat down across from him, "Why don’t you like me?"
"I never said that."
"You didn't have too. I know you don't want me on this tour."
"You're here aren't you?"
"Please Justin, you are so easy to read. You haven’t stopped glaring at me since I showed up last night. I’m just wondering why you don't like me, I mean we used to get along."
“I don’t have to tell you my reasons.”
“Oh, so you do have a problem with me.”
“Yeah, so what if I do.”
“What’s wrong with me? Am I not pretty enough? Do I smell? Come on I can take it.” She joked but Justin wasn’t in the joking mood.
"I’m not that superficial. You wanna know why I have a problem with you?" He said looking up at her, "It’s because you're a gold digging, drama queen who just wants to hang out with us because we're celebrities. That's the last thing that JC needs." He shot back at her but the response he received from her was not the one he expected. Emma burst out laughing,
“You think I'm a gold digger?" She said laughing even harder,
"What?!" Justin exclaimed, but Emma didn't say anything she was laughing too hard. She just got up and went into her bunk to retrieve her lap top. Emma came back to the table and began typing, she was still giggling to herself to the annoyance of Justin. Finally she turned the lap top around so that Justin could see it.
"Have you ever heard of DeCour Fashions or the company EAD?” she asked and he nodded. Then it clicked,
“That’s you?” He asked amazed and she smiled,
“Well my parent’s, but now I’m the vice president. Justin, look, this is one of my Swiss bank accounts." Justin looked and his jaw dropped, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. He mentally counted all the digits. Emma went on, "Like I said, that's one of my Swiss bank accounts, the smallest one I have. I have at least four more and that doesn't include the accounts I have here in the states." Justin looked at her and cleared his throat,
"So, I guess you're not a gold digger." He said quietly but was still was unsure about her.
“Yeah and as for fame and fortune? I live very quietly. Do you really think I do this on a regular basis? The tabloids would be all over me. I’ve taken great measures not to be noticed by the outside world and it’s getting harder and harder because I’m hanging out with you guys. Plus when I first met Josh I had no idea who he was or any of you were for that matter. I like you guys because of you, I could care less what you guys do. I would be friends with you guys if you were plumbers or garbage men.” She joked and Justin didn't laugh. Emma eyed Justin silently, “I’m not trying to dick over Josh, I know I’ve screwed up and I’m trying ot fix that.”
“I don’t care.”
“Justin, come on, you have family right?”
“Yeah.” He said sarcastically,
“Okay, then you should understand where I’m coming from.”
“What the hell does your family have to do with you dicking over C?”
“Well if you would just listen to me, I would tell you.”
“Whatever.” He grumbled looking away.
“My parents died when I was younger.” She said quietly and Justin turned his attention back to her.
“Yeah?”
“All I had for a family was a couple of uncles who had their lives and my brothers. Basically it was just me and my brothers. Do you have brothers?”
“Yeah, so?”
“My bothers mean the world to me. They’re all the family that I have. So, when they need me, I’m there, it doesn’t matter what, when, who, where, anything, because they’re all I’ve got.”
“So, what’s that got to do with you dicking over C, TWICE.”
“Everything. The first time I left, my twin was in a severe car accident. The second time, he made me choose.”
“Choose?”
“He told me that if I went off with Josh, he would never talk to me again. I had to choose my family.” She shrugged, Justin was quiet for a few moments,
“Wow, I didn’t know he did that to you. Wait, if he made you choose, why are you here?” He asked with his defenses rising again,
“Because he changed his mind after talking to Josh.”
“Oh.”
“And my best friend, Kitty knocked some sense into him, literally.” She smiled and Justin chuckled,
“I see. I guess if I was in the same position I would have done the same thing. Thanks for telling me that. I really appreciate you being straight with me.”
“I just wanted everything to be cool with you. I mean you live here too and have a right to what goes on. I think it was really awesome that you would put Josh’s happiness over your own.”
“That’s what friends do right?”
“Yeah, it is. I’m glad he had people like you to look after him.”
“I’m glad he has someone like you in his life too.”
“Thank you, I’m the lucky one.” She shrugged and Justin smiled at the woman in front of him. He had been completely wrong about her and he was glad. But he was wondering one thing,
“Hey Emma, what happened to your parents?”
“Um, they were killed in a plane crash.”
“Wow, I’m sorry.”
“Shit happens.” She shrugged and looked out the window. Justin noticed her mood and changed the subject.
“Are we ever gonna meet your brothers?”
“Well you’ve already met Stuart.” She said brightening instantly,
“Along with your niece Connie.”
“Yeah, you did, and when you guys are playing in California, I’m sure meeting the other brother wouldn’t be hard.”
“Cool. So your one brother lives in Georgia and the other lives in California? Is it hard having your family live so far apart? I mean how do you see them?”
“It’s hard, but in reality they’re only a plane ride away. Mainly, Stuart and the family come out to California all the time to see me and Tommy, so it doesn’t seem that they’re that far away. Plus we take a lot of family vacations together.” She smiled,
“Hey J! You trying to steal my woman?” JC teased as he came up to them in the front of the bus.
“Couldn’t even if I wanted to, for some reason she’s hooked on your ass.” He said getting up and punching JC in the arm playfully.
“Hey.” He said and began to playfully box Justin. Emma just sat back and watched the two goof around, glad that she made the right decision.
“I totally forgot about all this craziness.” She muttered to JC and kissed his temple,
“How I wish I could, come on we have to get in for the interview.”
“You mean we have to go through all that?” She said pointing to all of the girls,
“That’s the beauty of having body guards.” JC said and pulled her up off the seat,
“Thank god for that.” She mentioned and followed JC off the bus. She walked hand in hand with JC into the building. The glares of the girls were pretty obvious. Emma never realized the hate that could arise from teenagers because she was with JC. It was a little freaky to her and her face must have shown it because JC pulled her a little closer,
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve never had so many girls glare hatefully at me.” She said quietly and he squeezed her side gently,
“Don’t worry about it, they’ll get over it, but if it really bothers you I can have security make them leave.”
“No, no, don’t do that. Then they’ll really hate me.” She joked, “Really I’m fine, it’s just a little weird that’s all.”
“Okay, hon.” He said kissing her.
They were all ushered into a room where the boys had to do the interview. Emma sat next to JC and he kept her hand in his lap intertwined with his. They waited for the interviewer and a tall man escorting two young girls walked in.
“Excuse me, these young ladies here are the Spanish ambassador’s daughters, they were wondering if they could meet you and possible get and autograph.” He said in a stiff strict voice showing the disdain of being there. Joey jumped up,
“Sure, come on over. Take up a seat, we’ve got some time.” The girl’s giggled to themselves as they made their way over to the table and sat down. They talked in Spanish to each other thinking that they wouldn’t understand them. Little did they know Emma did.
“I can’t believe that we’re getting to meet Nsync!” The one girl said to the other in Spanish,
“I know this is so exciting, I wonder who that girl is.” They stared at her and JC conveniently put his arm around Emma as he stretched back in his seat.
“Oh,” the second one said, “she’s with JC.” The jealousy was practically dripping from her voice.
“Um, hi, do they speak English?” Justin asked the tall man who was standing in back of the girls.
“Oh, we speak English.” The one girl interrupted, “I’m Magdalena and this is Anna.” She said pointing to her sister.
“Hi, we’re really honored to meet all of you. Magdalena and I are huge fans.” The girls and the guys chit chatted a bit. Emma sat back trying not to draw any attention. The girls kept on saying side comments to each other about her in Spanish, the guys didn’t even notice.
“JC could do so much better.” Anna said while the guys were singing to them.
“She’s not even that pretty, I thought he liked brunettes.”
“She might be, looks like a pretty bad dye job.”
“She looks like such a bitchy groupie.”
“Such a blonde bimbo. I wonder if she can count to twenty without using her toes.” The girls said and shot her dirty looks, Emma tried with all her might to ignore them. She couldn’t understand how the girls could hate her so much with out even knowing her. They were basing it solely on the fact that she was dating JC. The girls kept going,
“What was he thinking? Hopefully JC will come to his senses and dump that whore.”
“He’s only dating her because she puts out, just look at her.”
“She’s probably sleeping with all of the guys, she looks like that type.”
“She does, probably picked her up off the street last night, wonder which corner is her’s.” After that Emma couldn’t hold back,
“It’s the one right next to yours.” She shot back at the girls in perfect Spanish and the girls stared at her, “That’s right girls,” She continued in Spanish, “the slutty, blonde, bimbo knows Spanish. Oh yeah, to let you know, I can count to twenty without using my toes. Guess that’s what JC was thinking when he met me, because I know he would never go for petty little bitches like you.” She spat out and sat back in her chair crossing her arms with a smug smile on her face. The guys stared at the girls in shock and confusion. They couldn’t figure out what had just happened. The girls sat there for a moment in shock and looked down in their laps. Suddenly they got up mumbled good-bye and hustled out the door. Chris turned to Emma,
“What did you say to them?”
“Exactly what they needed to hear.” She replied, “Look, I’m sorry, but you weren’t hearing what they were saying about me. You would have kicked them out for what they said. They didn’t think that I understood them because they were talking in Spanish.”
“What are you talking about, what did they say?” JC said,
“Oh just stuff like that I was a stupid blonde bimbo and that I was sleeping with all of you guys. That you were only dating me because I put out, dumb petty stuff like that. So I kind of told them off.”
“Oh, Emma, I’m so sorry.” JC said,
“Don’t apologize you weren’t the one who said it. I just hoped that they learned their lesson.” Then something clicked in JC’s head,
“You speak Spanish, fluently?”
“Yeah, my nurse, Rosita, taught me when I was younger, she didn’t know English then so I had to learn so that I could understand her.”
“Geez, the only language I learned was French from a book.” Lance said,
“Ah, je n'ai pas su que vous avez parlé français. C'est Lance tellement fraîche.” Emma said excitedly and Lance put his hands up in surrender,
“Whoa, whoa, I said I took French, I really don’t remember anything from it.” He said and then he looked at Emma, “Wait a minute you speak French too?” he asked and she nodded her head,
“Ja ich. Nicht jeder?” She replied with a smile,
“What the hell language is that?” Joey asked amazed and she simply laughed,
“German.”
“How many languages do you speak?” JC asked and Emma shrugged her shoulders,
“I don’t know about forty I guess.”
“You’re a frickin walking translator!” Chris exclaimed and she laughed,
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Forty? How the hell did you manage that?” Lance asked her,
“My nurse was from Spain, my best friend was from Greece, and my foster brother was from France. They taught me and then I picked up the other ones along the way. It’s just something I’m good at.”
“You just get better and better.” JC mused and pulled her in for a little kiss.
“Well, I try.” She replied with a smile.