Lexi’s alarm clock went off at 9 AM, and for some reason it was a lot louder than it usually was. She was terrified by the noise and sat up in bed yanked from her heavy sleep. She hit the snooze button without giving it a second thought and laid back down putting a pillow over her head to hide her eyes from the harsh, morning sun.
“Lexi…” JC said turning over to face her.
“What?” she grumbled through the pillow.
“Don’t you have rehearsal in an hour?” he said yawning.
“Just five more minutes, Mom…”
JC gently removed the pillow from her face. “Would an Alieve help?”
Lexi nodded. “Make it two.” He got out from under the covers only wearing his Calvin Klein boxer-briefs and returned with two Alieve and a paper cup of water from her bathroom. Lexi sat up in bed and swallowed the much needed painkillers. “Thanks.”
“You were pretty gone last night,” JC said reaching across the bed for his shirt. "But then again, you weren't acting any differently..."
“Shut up,” Lexi said playfully kicking him from under the covers. “I know I was pretty drunk. I don’t plan on doing that again for a while.” She paused and looked at JC. “I didn’t do anything totally embarrassing, did I?”
JC laughed and his blue eyes sparkled. “No. Nothing embarrassing, but you were definitely having a little trouble getting around.”
“Thank God I have you to help me upstairs and undress me,” Lexi said leaning over to kiss him.
“Hey, I do what I can,” he smiled.
“Well, I guess I should take a shower.” Lexi stood up slowly as the effect of the hangover began to hit her and the blood rushed from her head. However, once she was up for several seconds, she felt a little better.
While Lexi showered, JC put his jeans back on and made his way downstairs to what he thought would be the land of the living dead. Much to his surprise, most of them were gone. Coley and Lance were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, and Justin was still asleep on the sofa.
“Everyone gone?” JC said pouring himself a glass of orange juice.
“Yeah,” Coley responded. “Tristen’s getting dressed in the guestroom, Drew and Baxter went back to the hotel to change about and hour ago…”
“…and Joey and Chris left like fifteen minutes ago,” Lance finished.
“People are trying to sleep over here!” Justin barked from the couch.
“What?” Lance said raising his voice. “I couldn’t hear you!”
“Yo, man, shut up!”
JC, Coley, and Lance laughed. About half an hour later Tristen had already joined the rest of them downstairs. Lexi came downstairs wearing a light blue T-shirt tied at her waist and a pair of ADIDAS pants. She stood behind JC and rubbed his shoulders. “What time do you guys have rehearsal today?”
“Not until one,” Lance answered pouring himself another cup of coffee. “Hey, Lexi, you want a cup?”
“No thanks. I don’t drink coffee.”
“Then why do you have coffee and a coffee pot?”
“For guests. Anyway, we’ve gotta go to rehearsal, but I’ll leave my key so you guys can leave when you want.” She looked around the kitchen. “Has anyone seen my purse?”
“Yeah,” JC said standing up, “I saw it on the coffee table.” He walked into the living room and Lexi followed. She reached into her purse and took her house key off her key ring.
“Here,” she said handing him the key. “You can just drop it off by the dance studio on your way to the Compund. Since you have it…why don’t you go ahead and make a copy of it for yourself.”
“Awww, honey, you shouldn’t have.” JC leaned down and kissed Lexi.
“Ok, well we’ve gotta go. I’ll see you guys later.” Lexi, Coley, and Tristen went to leave, but when Lexi opened the front door, she was shocked to see a familiar, blonde, peppy girl standing there.
“Hi!”
“Hi…Shelli, right?”
“Yeah! You remembered!”
“Of course!” Lexi made sure she kept the door closed enough so Shelli didn’t see half of *NSYNC in her house. If she was excited to meet her she could only imagine how she’d react to them. “So what are you doing here?”
“Oh, I just wanted to apologize for almost hitting you with my car yesterday.” Tristen and Coley looked at Shelli like she was crazy.
“Oh, it’s ok. You didn’t kill me,” Lexi joked. Shelli laughed out loud. “Well I just wanted to give you this.” She handed her a fruit basket and a teddy bear.
“Oh, thanks…” Lexi said trying to hide her uncomfortable feelings. She put the stuff down just inside her door. JC was about to come over to the door, but Lexi held up her hand to stop him. “Well, thanks for the gift, Shelli, but I’m on my way to rehearsal. I’ll see ya around.”
“Ok. Bye!”
As Shelli got in her car and drove off she saw a guy sitting in the passenger seat. “That must be her boyfriend.” She thought to herself.
“She’s like so nice!” Shelli said to Matt once she got into the car.
“You don’t know that she’s nice, Shelli. She could be a bitch.”
“Shut up, Matt! I like her. What’s your deal? You’ve been talking like you know her or something.”
“I just know her type. That’s all. She lives in a nice place. Maybe I’ll think about moving in here.”
“Whatever.”