God
was that the phone I heard distantly in my dream?
It kept ringing and ringing, slowly but surely pulling me out of my warm
thoughts of Lance.
“What?”
I answered.
“Jesus
JC, it’s nearing noon, get up!” Justin
screamed down the phone.
“No,
I like my bed,” I moaned and turned over, burying my face in the pillows.
“Man,
I’ve been on a plane since 4:30 this morning, I don’t feel sorry for you at
all.”
“Sucks
being the popular one, doesn’t it?” I laughed.
The rest of us could pull off a flight at any time of the day – then
again the rest of us didn’t have the unmistakable Britney Spears with us
either.
“Yeah,
yeah, shut up what time are we meeting at Lance’s tonight?” he asked.
Oh
God, it’s Saturday. I hate how when we’re not really working I lose track of
time.
“Trin’s
flight leaves around one, he said any time after that,” I wiped the sleep from
my eyes and sighed.
“Cool.
So how’s the girl problems?” Justin asked.
I
thought for a second, not really registering what he said.
Girl. Lance. Oh yeah.
“Well
we’ve seen each other a few times this week.
Nothing important, just hanging out.”
“Ah,
so you’re taking my advice, huh?” I could feel his grin through the phone.
“Yes
Jup, thank you. Got any more?”
There
was silence for a moment.
“I
think you should make references and see if she picks up on it,” he simply
replied.
References,
like what? Flirting?
“Oh,
I dunno Jup…”
“Trust
me, you’re a smooth guy, you can pull it off.”
“Well…”
I hesitated.
“Do
it! I gotta jet, my phone’s
cutting out, I’ll see you later today. Later,”
and he hung up.
I
threw the phone down on the nightstand and sighed.
“Right
Justin, I’ll just hit on him and that will change his mind.
Of course, SURE THAT’LL WORK! Is
he insane?”
Maybe
it’s me that’s insane, I’m the crazy one with some stupid crush on my best
friend, who’s not only getting married, but a man!
UGH! UGH! UGH!
And to make things worse, I knew it was more than a crush, I was slowly
falling in love with him.
I
pulled the pillows over my head and screamed.
That
Night
It
was nice just having the five of us there together.
Trin was in Georgia, Britney with some friends, and Kelly was watching
Brianna. We always tried to find time for just the five of us because
we all knew it was not only important for our career, but for our friendships.
Usually, on the days when we’re recording there are so many other
people around, it never feels like we have time together.
So, this…this was nice.
“Joey’s
such a cheapskate,” Justin threw a pillow at him.
“I can’t believe you buy the cheap beer – like you’re on welfare
or something.”
“I
was in a hurry, I didn’t want to get spotted, especially buying beer, so I
just grabbed whatever,” he protested and tossed the pillow back at Justin,
nearly spilling his beer.
We
all laughed.
“You
buy the cheap hookers too Joe, tell ‘em about the two for one Monday deal,”
Chris snorted.
“Man,
what is this, pick on Joey night?” he pouted, “at least I get some.”
“I
never said I didn’t,” Chris looked at me, causing a chain reaction of looks
from around the room.
“Why
y’all lookin’ at me?” my voice was one octave higher.
“We
all know you’re sexually frustrated,” Joey commented.
“I
am not!” I retorted.
Lance
looked at me and smirked, why’d he do that for?
Those were the things that made me ‘sexually frustrated.’
“You
are the sex phene of this group and it’s been a long time since you’ve
gotten any, don’t you dare lie to me Josh,” Joey replied as he got up and
headed down the hall to the bathroom.
All
eyes were still on me.
“What!?”
I asked and laughed.
“Nothing,
nothing,” Justin laughed.
“Eh,
leave him alone guys, it’s been a while for me too,” Lance looked at me as
he sipped on his beer. Why did I pay attention to the way his lips formed around the
neck of the bottle?
“Whatever
Bass, you sleep next to a beautiful woman every night – I’m not buying
it,” Chris replied.
“Just
‘cause you sleep next to someone doesn’t mean you have sex with them,”
Lance answered back with a shrug.
Justin
and Chris look at each other and started laughing.
“Uh
you guys are horrible. Besides, she wants to stop until the wedding.
Pretend like we waited until marriage or something like that,” he
replied.
Justin’s
eyes lit up.
“Oh
man, THAT SUCKS!” he yelled.
“No,
I don’t think she’s doing much of that either,” Chris blurted.
I
watched Lance’s face flush as Chris and Justin laughed.
“Hey
I didn’t say all this was okay with me, she made the decision without me,”
Lance sighed.
“Aww,
poor Lance,” Chris wiped away a fake tear, “it’ll be okay though, at least
you’re still getting more than C,” he looked at me.
“Bite
me Kirkpatrick,” I set down my beer and got up.
“You’d
like it WAY too much JC!” he yelled back as I headed down the hall to the
bathroom.
I
sighed as I came upon the shut door.
I
never understood why Lance stayed in an apartment when he was here.
He had houses in places I didn’t know existed on a map, but he had a
two-bedroom apartment in Orlando. Go
figure.
“Joey,
hurry up,” I called from the other side of the door.
I hated beer, it went right through my small body far too quickly.
“Yeah,
yeah,” he dryly answered back.
I
leaned up against where the doorframe and wall met, folded my arms and sighed.
It
was several minutes later when I heard Joey flush, but he hadn’t come out.
“Is
there a line now? Shouldn’t let
Joey go ahead of us,” Lance laughed as he headed down the hall towards me.
“You
know Joey,” I laughed and then looked at him with a goofy grin.
He stood across from me and leaned up against the wall.
There
was a brief moment of silence as I shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.
“Kind
of like déjà vu,” he blurted.
My
head shot up and my eyes locked on his instantly.
“Wh-what
do you mean?” I carefully replied.
“Last
time we were both standing in a doorway together was the night we won the
lawsuit,” he replied.
A
wave of fear and relief came over me at once.
Was he mad? Was he okay with
it…God that couldn’t be it…
“You,
you mean you remember that?” My
face had to be ghost white.
“Yeah
of course,” he stupidly replied like what he was talking about was no big
deal. No, no big deal, it’d only
kept me up nights and occupied my fantasies for only three little years now…
“Oh…uh…and
you’re okay with that?” I
asked.
Suddenly
the door flew open and Joey came out.
“WHEW!
Do not go in there! Though
Lance, the knob on the faucet came off again,” Joey fanned the air around him
as he walked past us.
“Thanks
Joe, I’ll go fix it right now,” Lance laughed as Joey made his way down the
hall and turned the corner.
We
looked at each other again.
He
took a few steps closer to me until he was only a matter of two inches, if that,
from me.
He
then put one hand above my head and suddenly pushed his hips into mine.
“More
okay than an engaged man should be,” he whispered.
It
was then he grinded into me slightly with a smirk and then went into the
bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
There
I stood, completely stunned and rendered speechless as I stared at the white
door. My body was shaking from head
to toe, electricity running through my veins and my hormones going wild.
Oh.
My. God.
Two
Nights Later
“So
she made a pass at you?” Justin asked down the phone.
“You
could say that,” I flicked through the television channels at warp speed.
“What do I do now Ju?”
“I
think you should talk to her about it,” he replied.
“What
if I was imagining it?” I hate how your mind plays tricks on you and
remembering what really happened becomes difficult and vague.
“Well,
did she say anything to you the rest of the night?” he asked.
“Nothing
abnormal, we just exchanged a lot of weird looks…” I replied.
“Talk
to her!” he demanded.
“You
don’t really think I should just leave it?” I asked.
“No,
get off the phone with me and call her!” he answered.
“Okay,
okay, thanks Just.”
“No
prob, later.”
I
stared at the phone in my hands for the longest time and then finally got up the
nerve.
I
shook my leg nervously as the phone rang.
“Hey
Jayce,” he answered.
“Hey,
uh, what’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing,
is something wrong?”
“Actually
I was wondering if you were busy?”
“Nope,
just doing FreeLance paperwork, why?”
“Is
Trin still in Georgia?”
“Yeah,
for a few more days, why?” he curiously asked.
“Can
we talk?” I played with the buttons on the remote nervously.
“Yeah,
sure, come on over,” he simply replied.
Come
over, I was thinking the phone would be better…less…nerve wracking…
“Oh, okay, I’ll be there in a few,” I answered.
“Okay,
see yah.”
I
hung up the phone and ran upstairs to change and put on cologne.