Gliding her brown leather sandals against the light cream colored carpet, Jersey made sure not to have the buckles on her sandals ring like bells, letting him know that she was in sight. Arriving in a regular wardrobe, she wore a green sweater that brought out her eyes with tight blue jeans just as if she was going down to McDonalds in her college to pick up some food. Her long, dark brown, wavy hair hung right above her elbows, tossing from side to side as she edged closer to the kitchen door. Her black rimmed glasses sank down her nose, pushing them up as she began to hear the murmur of Chris beginning to sing to the light music playing. The high voice stuck out, making it barely manageable for Jersey to hold in a laugh.
In front of her, she spotted a bouquet of a dozen roses settled on a coffee table. Wanting to be able to go over and deepen her face within the smell, she smiled to herself from the sincerity of Chris and continued making her way to the kitchen. With the translucent white curtains, Jersey could see through to the balcony where a small table was set up and a light in the corner that sparkled over the table. That's so like him she thought to herself. Reaching the door, she looked through the blinds to see his back facing her, knowing it was the perfect moment to enter. With Chris still humming to the music, Jersey let herself in and placed her hands over his eyes.
" Guess who?" Jersey announced, trying to deepen her voice in disguise.
" Damn it JC, I told you I wasn't interested!" Chris let out with a fake tone of anger, turning around to see his beautiful girlfriend. " Oh, it's just you," he faced back to his regular position and continued cutting the bread into small pieces. Putting her hand into a fist, she lightly stroke the top of his head, hitting it with her knuckles and a laugh. Wrapping her arms around his waist, Jersey rested her head against his shoulder blade and closed her eyes. Feeling one of his warm hands touch hers, he began to walk with the basket of bread and with her on his heels, he lead her outside to the balcony where the dinner was already set.
" Happy three-month anniversary," he whispered behind himself as Jersey reached her neck out for a kiss.
"Pleeaasse??" Justin whined, getting down on the soft carpet, bowing in front of his friend. Justin did his best to put on his best puppy dog face by sticking out his lower lip, and made his eyes look sorrowful. As soon as the his lower lip started quivering, Joey couldn't take it anymore. He laughed, turned on his heel and made his way into the kitchen. Justin gently slammed his hand on the floor, murmuring some words under his breath, before scampering after Joey.
As soon as he reached the kitchen, he saw Joey sitting down in front of the small TV, just about to hit the power button on the remote. Sneaking behind Joey, Justin snatched the remote from his hands before he could turn it on. Joey went to grab it back, but Justin being the basketball star he was, quickly threw it into the other room where Lance and JC were looking through some fan mail. When Justin called "Watch Out!" all four men turned their heads to watch the remote sail through the air as if it was flying, just barely missing JC's head by a centimeter. Everyone winced at the sound that was created when the remote hit the corner of the table, finally landing on the floor. A silence fell over the room, that was almost as if someone had died. Finally, Justin let out another plea, before he burst.
"For the last time Justin! I said no!!!" Joey protested. The two bickered back and forth before Lance took a stand and joined in the conversation. Lance set down the letter he was reading and pushed off the couch. The floor beneath him creaked as he walked into the kitchen. JC turned, with a smile on his face, ready to see what Lance had to say to them.
"Alright, alright. I can't take it anymore!!! What is the problem here?" Lance interfered, interrupting the sounds of two brothers fighting. Even though they really weren't brothers, it happened all the time and someone always had to take the initiative to stop it. Justin stopped yelling at Joey and turned towards Lance and started explaining. Listening carefully to everything Justin said, he quickly learned that one of Justin's old friends from Tennessee was in town and wanted to meet Joey. Well, not exactly "meet" him, but go on a date. Joey was fighting this, explaining how he didn't feel like going out tonight, especially not on a blind date. He didn't know where to take her and especially didn't want to get into anything big so soon after his recent break up. After Joey and Justin had both got out what they wanted to say, Lance thought for a moment, then let out his words of wisdom.
"Okay, here's what I think. Joey you should just go out this one night. Just because you're going on one date, doesn't mean that any relationship has to develop from it. But since you don't feel like going out tonight, I say you have Justin make all the plans for you, since he's the one that wants this so bad. That way all you have to do is enjoy a nice dinner and then come home. Voilá! Problem solved. Thank you very much." Lance imitated Elvis, proud of his work, and ambled back to his seat on the couch.
The sea of stars sailed throughout the dark blue ocean of skies with light waves of clouds barely noticeable to the naked eye. The stars that stretched low looked as if the hung light lights on a Christmas tree, making enough light for Chris and Jersey to see each other's smiles. It has been days since the two of them have been able to take a night off and spend it with each other. All they have had lately was the sound of each others voice that put then to sleep at night, not even a photograph to slide a finger across so you could feel the warmth of their body when they weren't there. Trust was built high on their hearts for the relationship to last.
Chris has been away on tour for the past three weeks, while Jersey is stuck at the University of Central Florida in her senior year. Taking a couple years off of school, Jersey worked various amounts of jobs to raise the money for herself to complete her education.
Serving the spaghetti onto Jersey's plate with large tongs, the noodles slithered out into a large cluster. Sprinkling the Parmesan cheese on through the grinder, Jersey looked up to see Chris with a look of seriousness written all over. It wasn't the man who she saw on the television screen or who the world saw, but it was her Chris, the man that she is falling in love with.
Through her thoughts, she also came bearing good news for the evening. She thought it would be pleasant news, but Jersey wasn't positive on what Chris would think when it was spoken. It's been months since she had last talked to her mother even though they had formed such a tight relationship. The telephone was always right next to her with the number kept in her mind, but Jersey could never lift the finger to push the buttons. She felt that she didn't have anything that she could give her back in return for everything that her mother has done for her in her life. When the time was right to give her mother a call, she wanted her mom to be surprised, like she did something with her life. That time expanded from days, into weeks, into months and now Jersey thinks she knows what that surprise could be.Watching Chris as he cut his knife through the thin noodles dressed in sauce, she wondered if what she was thinking was being spread over her face.
" Aren't you hungry? I don't think my cooking is that bad," Chris announced as soon as he saw that she wasn't eating.
Taken away from her concentration, Jersey shook her head from side to side quietly, stating breathlessly that it wasn't his cooking that took her from not eating. Lifting her dinner fork up, mindlessly she scrape her fork on the plate and began to twirl the noodles around. " Chris, I want to talk about our future," Jersey blurted out, ogling continuously at her plate. Listening to the metal of the fork being dropped onto the plate, her eyes wondered up to see brown ones looking back at her. " You know my-," she began reciting but her sentence was cut up by Chris's interruption.
" We are going to be touring again."
Jersey lifted her body weight from off the table as her eyes grew deep with a gape. She couldn't believe what she hearing, they just finished one less than a week ago. " But you can't..." Jersey's voice drifted off.
While Joey went up to take a shower, Justin phoned his friend, explaining what was going to happen tonight. He planned for Joey to pick her up at seven, just giving her an hour and a half to get ready. For some reason, as much as Justin wanted his friend to be happy, he couldn't shake the feeling of guilt he had inside. He knew that Joey really didn't want to go tonight, but he was being a good sport about it. He didn't want to see his friend get hurt, though he trusted Joey to be a gentlemen. He just didn't know what was going to happen when she figured out Joey didn't want a relationship.
Pushing the thoughts deep into the back of his brain, Justin scanned the phone book for the number of a restaurant. Not knowing what type of restaurant to pick, Justin closed his eyes and flipped the pages. When he opened them, his feelings of confusion was gone because he had landed on nice Chinese restaurant. Justin could remember vaguely they had gone there before, recalling that it was a semi-fancy restaurant. Following his finger down the page, Justin held the phone in his right hand, dialing the numbers with his thumb. After he had made the reservations, he returned to the phone book to find the number of a carriage company. As soon as Justin started dialing the numbers, he shut off the phone, remembering that Joey could never do that. None of them could ever ride, out in the open through the city. It was the death sentence, for any celebrity. Justin only wished he could have a normal night for his friend.
When Joey finally came downstairs, he was dressed in khaki pants and a button up shirt, his hair gelled back. Justin quickly gave Joey the address of the hotel his friend was staying at and directions to the restaurant. Grabbing his keys off the table, Joey took off in his Acura, hoping to have some fun this evening.