
chapter four
“One, two, three, four! One, two…You know what? Let’s try it again,” Patricia sighed. It was eight o’clock on a Tuesday night and what was she doing? She was working.
“Ugh!” Chris plopped on the floor. “I wish we could just speed up time or something and still get the same benefits.”
“No doubt. I mean, I’ve never been so bored while trying to learn a dance!” Lance agreed.
“Hey, you know the saying. The only way to kill time is to work it to death!” Aurora chimed, trying her best to cheer the room’s thirteen occupants up.
“Justin, never ever tell that girl anything like that ever again,” Joey said to his friend.
“I can’t help it! She gets bored too easily, what else was I supposed to say last night?” replied Justin.
Lisa sighed. “Let’s take a break. We all definitely deserve one.”
J.C. sprawled on the floor. He was exhausted.
“Hey dudes and dudettes! Coffee for everybody!” Katelyn called out.
J.C. watched the dancers and the rest of the ‘N Sync members jog over to Lance’s girlfriend.
“I got what everybody wanted! Just look for your name on the cup!” Katelyn passed out some of the coffee cups to the others.
J.C. lifted his head. He could’ve sworn he heard somebody call his name.
“J.C.! Honey!” There it was again. “Aw, poor baby, you look exhausted!”
“Amy!” J.C. sprung up from the floor. “You’re back!”
J.C. pulled his girlfriend into his arms as fast as he could. The whole room seemed to disappear when she hugged him back. Her touch gave him a whole new energy.
“Who needs coffee when they’ve got Amy?” J.C. thought joyously to him self.
“Miss me?” asked Amy, knowing what the answer would be.
“You bet I did! Nearly died!” J.C. answered, hugging her tighter.
“Really? You should’ve called me more often if you felt like that! I’d be in a pretty ratty mood if I came home from a horrible, boring business trip to find my that one and only had died of a broken heart.”
“I didn’t wanna bug you. I thought maybe phoning you about six or seven times a day was good enough for you!” J.C. pulled back to look into her beautiful steel-blue eyes.
“Jace…oh, hey Amy! How was the trip?” Joey trotted up to his friend.
“It was alright,” Amy said with a smile. “It definitely could’ve been better, though.”
“Oh, yeah. But, I guess it was a business trip, it’s expected that those are supposed to be boring, right?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Anyway, Jace, your coffee is getting cold, and Amy, we’re glad to have you back!” Joey shot them both a smile before running back to the rest of the group.
It was Thursday evening. Aurora was playing the piano in Justin’s living room when he came home, slamming the door as he stalked into the house.
“Hi Justin,” Aurora greeted quieter than usual, wondering why he seemed so angry.
“Don’t you ever live at Mom’s?” Justin grumbled as he walked by the living room to the kitchen.
Aurora just sat there. Was this really Justin?
“Do you?” Aurora retorted. “You never visit Mom any more!”
“I don’t have the time,” Justin explained with irritation as he brought a bottle of painkillers down from one of the cupboards.
Aurora watched him down two pills with a big glass of water.
“Headache?” she asked.
“It’d probably go away if you’d stop talking,” Justin spoke harshly as he massaged his temples.
He left the sink and dug through his liquor cabinet. He brought out a bottle of vodka and set it down on the countertop as he went into another part of the cabinet to find a shot glass.
“This isn’t gonna help it.” Aurora gave the bottle of liquid a little tap on its lid. “You aren’t supposed to take any kind of painkillers with alcohol, anyway.”
“That’s nice.” Justin set the glass down with a little ‘plunk’. He twisted off the cap and poured him self a shot glass-full of the liquor, downing it within moments. “It’s ten o’clock. You should get to bed.”
“I don’t want to wake up to my brother being dead in his kitchen. Put that crap away.”
“Make me,” Justin responded calmly.
Tears stung Aurora’s eyes. Justin had never been like this to her before, and it hurt. It really, really hurt.
“Fine. Drink yourself dead!” Aurora spat, then ran up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door so loudly that it echoed throughout the large mansion.
Justin sighed as he poured him self another shot. He finished it quickly. He filled the glass again and watched the stairs, as though waiting for Aurora to come back down and lecture him again, maybe smack him upside the head. That’s what he felt like doing right now, smacking him self upside the head. What kind of brother was he?
“’It’d probably go away if you stopped talking,’” Justin mimicked him self in a disgusted manner.
He drank his last shot and put the liquor away in the cabinet. He sat there for a long, long time. Not moving, not thinking, feeling nothing.
Aurora crept out of her bed at nearly four o’clock in the morning. She opened her door a small crack and watched Justin finally retreat to his room, closing it and carefully locking it behind him self.
Aurora shook her head in disappointment. This was nothing at all like her beloved brother. She was really starting to worry. These tour preparations were taking so much out of him, and it had only been a few days since he and the guys had been put under the big pressure. She hoped that it would be over soon, for everyone’s sake.
She lay back down in her bed, staring at the ceiling. She wondered how long Justin would be like this. She hoped it was only going to be for a short while. She could hardly stand him in the evenings now. She couldn’t imagine what it’d be like around him if he got any worse.
“Maybe I should stay at Mom’s for a while, just until the tour gets going and he’s a little less stressed,” Aurora suggested to her self.
Her response was silence. She turned over under her covers to face the wall. What was wrong with Justin?