A week after the Littrells’ house-warming party the Black & Blue tour starts up again. I like to call them the Littrells as often as I can cos it makes them both blush and go goofy. Hugely entertaining I can tell ya.
Our first stop is back in Texas again. There’s a month left of the tour and I’m really looking forward to finally going home for good. I know I just had a month off but I couldn’t settle or anything, knowing that it was only temporary. I spent the last week at Nick’s place. I’ll go back and face up to living alone when this tour ends. Maybe turn Jade’s room into a dark room or something. That could work. Nick is still dropping hints for me to move in with him but so far I’m still resisting. It’s dumb but moving in together is kinda like the last bastion in our relationship. Once we do it - that’s it, I’m totally committed to this guy. Not that I’m not already but it kinda makes it official. And official scares me. But I guess after two weeks of living alone I’ll be begging Nick to marry me. I’m so going to miss Jade. We’ll still see each other all the time but it’s not the same as living together. Plus she’s a respectable married woman now!
I’m working with Jade today on a shoot with *NSync. They’re in Texas as well and she’s been hired to interview them. I’m being dragged along as photographer. I don’t mind too much cos the pay is ridiculously good – I guess top-class photographers must be thin on the ground in Texas.
“Ali, could you shoot the guys individually?” asks Jade as the five *NSyncers troop into the room.
“Sure. Who’s up first?” I ask.
“JADE!” Justin greets her enthusiastically and JC walks past her.
“Might as well get it over with,” JC mutters and stands in front of my camera.
“Gee, such enthusiasm,” I say sarcastically.
“Do you want me to smile?” he says in response.
“Why not?” I say and start taking pictures. Behind me, Jade is interviewing the other four guys I hear snippets of their conversation as I work.
“It really rocks seein’ you again,” Justin is saying.
“You too,” Jade giggles. “How have you been?”
“Great, really great,” he laughs. “After this interview, wanna do something?”
“Sure,” she agrees.
“Did Britney tell you what happened with us?”
“Uh huh. She wanted you to dump the friendship with that dancer, you refused so she dumped.”
“Yeah,” he mutters.
“Humpf,” JC clears his throat and I look at him.
“Sorry, did you say somethin'?”
“I was just askin’ if it’s true they got married,” he nods towards Jade.
“Jade and Justin?” I joke and then see how serious he looks. “Sorry. Yeah, they did.”
“Oh,” he says.
“Are you ok?”
“Sure, I’m just great,” he looks up at me again and puts on a smile.
“Cool,” I mutter and go back to shooting him. All of a sudden, I start to feel sick. My hands get sweaty and my stomach turns. I rush past Joey who has come up behind me.
“Ali? You ok?” Jade yells as I run past her and out into the bathroom. I throw up and rest my head against the cool tiles. “Ali?” Jade comes into the bathroom and I look at her. “You ok honey?” she asks as she starts to rub my back gently.
“I feel a bit better now,” I say, splashing my face with cold water. “It always passes by lunch.”
“It’s happened before?”
“Yeah, the last few days. Maybe I picked up a weird virus or something,” I say.
“Ali… You don’t think…” her voice trails off as I look at her.
“What?”
“That you might be… Pregnant?”
“No!” I say shocked.
“Just a thought.”
“No! I mean we always… And I… Fuck,” I realise I haven’t had a period for almost two months now.
“There’s a chemist on the corner,” Jade says standing up. “I’ll go get you a kit.”
“No, don’t.”
“Ali, you need to know. I’ll just give the guys some excuse and go. I won’t be long.”
She disappears before I can say another word. I stare at myself in the mirror. The very idea that I could be pregnant… God, it scares me to pieces. I don’t know how I feel but Jade’s right – I need to know. I wipe my face and walk back out into the room.
“You ok?” asks JC.
“Yeah, sorry. I musta eaten somethin’ dodgy,” I joke.
“Poor you,” he sympathises.
Jade is back within twenty minutes and hands me a brown paper bag.
“Hey Ali, the pharmacist said this would help the sickness.”
“Yeah? Thanks,” I smile and put the bag down.
“Go and take it,” she says firmly.
“But I need to finish these photos…”
“No, go take those pills,” says Lance. “I could do with a break anyways.”
“Thanks Lance,” Jade says and grabs my arm. She marches me into the bathroom and hands me the test kit. “Go on Ali.”
“God Jade,” I look at her.
“I know. Want me to stay?”
“Please.” I go into the toilet stall and do the business. “It says to wait three minutes.”
“Ok. How do you feel?”
“Nervous as fuck,” I say.
“I meant – do you FEEL pregnant?”
“No. God, I don’t know. I’ve never exactly been pregnant Jade!”
“Ok, calm down,” she mutters. Her phone rings and she grabs it, looking at the display.
“Who is it?”
“Brian,” she says.
“Hello?” I answer my phone.
“Hey baby,” says Brian softly.
“How are you?” I smile.
“I’m good. Just woke up and I missed you.”
“Did you forget I was interviewing *NSync?”
“No. I just missed you. How’s it going?”
“Good. I’m almost done with the interviewing and Ali just has to do the pictures.”
“Was JC ok with ya?”
“Fine, he didn’t say much,” I shrug.
“Cool. We have a radio interview at 3 and I wondered if we could meet for lunch?”
“Sure, that sounds good,” I glance at Ali. “Hang on,” I cover the mouthpiece. “Any change?”
“No,” she’s staring at the tester in her hand.
“Sorry, Ali wanted something. Shall I meet you back at the hotel?”
“Sure. I’ll be here.”
“Ok, bye honey.” I hang up and turn to Ali. She has suddenly gotten a lot paler. I look at the tester in her hand and see the thin line that says she is pregnant.
“Oh my God Jade…” she whispers.
“Wow,” I just don’t know what to say. “How do you feel?”
“I don’t know… I really have no idea.” She drops the tester in the bin and sighs heavily. “I better concentrate on finishing those pictures of *NSync.”
I follow her back into the main room and she starts taking pictures again. I watch her worriedly for a few minutes and then go back to my interviewing. I realise it’s JC’s turn and smile cautiously at him. I haven’t seen him since the VH1 party.
“Hey JC, how you doin’?”
“I’m good,” he responds. “A LOT better than last time I saw ya,” he adds awkwardly.
“Cool,” I grin and pull out the question sheet.
“Oh, congratulations by the way,” he says and I look up. “On the change of name.”
“Oh. Thanks.”