\/\/\/\/
JC entered his hotel room once again to it empty except for Elyse on the bed.
"Where did everybody go?"
"Joey's in the bathroom, changing, he's was going to in here, but I forbid it. Everyone else went to their own rooms, but I don't know where Courtney is."
"Well see, I didn't really want to tell you this but..."
"But what?" He searched his mind for a good lie.
"She left."
"What? What do mean she left?" She shouted.
"Shh, do you want Joey to hear, he'll be really upset."
"Why did she leave without saying anything?" She glanced across the room. "Her stuff is still here too."
"I caught her in the hall by the elevator and I asked where she was going and she said she was leaving, I tried to stop her, honest I did."
"Well that's that, I guess. Courtney's stubborn, you can't force her to do anything she doesn't truly want to do." Joey walked out of the bathroom.
"Hey, why the sad faces?"
"Joey," Elyse started. "Courtney..."
"Went to stay at a different hotel."
"What?" Joey asked. Elyse looked at JC like he was crazy.
"She said she would come back tomorrow to get her stuff and then would leave."
"You're kidding me."
"Look don't worry about it, you can try to convince her tomorrow morning about coming with us."
"Guess you're right, um...I'm going to just take a walk around the hotel, I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Ok." Joey closed the door behind him.
"Why did you do that? Now he's going to be thinking he'll see her tomorrow when he won't, what were you thinking?"
"I'll think of something, all right, besides, she was already going to leave, what's the deal that she left now?" JC said, even though he had so far suceeded at pleasing his friend.
"You just don't understand." She sighed. "So, when are we leaving?"
"I don't know, sometime early so we can get there early."
"Where's there?"
"Pennsylvania."
"Well I was thinking, you told me that you guys didn't have a concert tomorrow night, right?"
"Right."
"So maybe you and I can go out to dinner, just the two of us and then enjoy a romantic walk all by ourselves."
"I can't."
"But you said you weren't doing anything..."
"Yeah but we want to get there early so we can have rehearsals all day long."
"I don't understand why you guys need to rehearse, you get enough practice doing all these shows. But that's all day what about the night?"
"Well, see, by that time I'll probably be worn out, just like the rest of the guys, so I'll probably go to bed and rest."
"Oh."
"Trust me, we wouldn't be alone either, because there would probably be fans, I'd love to take you out but..."
"We've only been going out for a few days and I already feel shafted."
"Shafted?"
"Yeah, I mean did you hear all those people at the concert tonight, telling me to go wait in the dressing room just in case fans saw me. What does that sound like to you?"
"It sounds like you're taking this way out of hand. You know I have a busy schedule and I can't always spend time with you."
"So what is this, am I wasting my time here? Because my car is parked right outside, I could leave right now, go home to Boston and I bet no one would give it a second glance."
"Elyse, you know I want this, but like you said, we've only been going out a few days."
"A few days," Her voice was much softer. "and here it's seemed like weeks, we act like we've been together for a year or something. Are we rushing this?"
"I don't know."
"I wouldn't know because I've never been in a real relationship before. I've gone on dates, and I've hung out with friends, but I've never had a real boyfriend before."
"And you won't if you don't try. That's what you do in relationships, you try." She was silent. "I know that you probably feel forgotten, that's why it's so hard to have a girlfriend while I'm doing this, and it'll probably only get worse. You may not get to come next time and you may not be able to be out in public with me, but we've got to try. I've always learned to never give up. I won't leave your side when you need me, and I mean truly need me not if you just want to make out." She smiled at his effort to cheer her up.
"Do you love me?"
"What?" He paused, looking at her. "Elyse, I don't know, love isn't something you can figure out in a few days. I don't really know you. The stuff I know comes to what kind of lipstick you wear." Her smile got bigger.
"Then we'll find time to talk, and hold back until we know each other better."
"Ok, so you're not mad at me?"
"No I'm not, are you?"
"Never."
"All right let's go to bed."
"Ok." JC grabbed a pillow and blanket and went over to the couch.
"You're sleeping over there?"
"We're holding back right?"
"Right." She sighed and got under the covers. "Should we wait for Joey before we turn the lights out?"
"No, I'm tired, turn them out now."
"Ok." She reached out and flipped the lamp off, and both of them fell into a dreamful sleep.
\/\/\/\/
Courtney opened her eyes and realized she was still in the bathroom of the bus. Pulling herself away from the wall, she felt her bones crack in pain. She had a stiff everything. She turned the knob, seeing it was still locked.
"Dang it!" She whispered. It was then she noticed that the bus was moving. Her mouth dropped and her eyes widened. She banged on the door as hard as she could, yelling. The door was finally opened and she walked out, seeing Elyse and the guys staring up at her. She looked at Lance, who had opened the door and then over at JC. "You!" She walked towards him. "You!" It was the only word she could seem to get out of her mouth.
"Courtney? You're still here?" Joey questioned.
"Yes I'm still here, and it's his fault." She pointed to JC.
"Hey, don't get mad at me, I was just helping Joey out."
"By locking me in that stupid bathroom, that bathroom that I had to sleep in?"
"Yeah, plus I got back at you for spending my fifty dollars on muffins."
"You have all the money you could ever need, why would fifty dollars make a difference?"
"They were three dollar muffins!" He shouted.
"Turn this bus around, I am going back to Boston."
"It's a little too late for that." Justin informed her.
"Why?"
"Because we're in Pennsylvania." Chris finished.
"Ugh!" She groaned. "Does that mean I'm stuck with you guys?"
"Yes, yes it does." Joey said, smiling.
"Oh JC, I will so get you back for this. You just wait and see." Courtney glared at him and sat down.
"Really? You gonna buy me more muffins?"
"Oh it will be so much worse, believe me." She paused. "Can I borrow someone's phone?"
"Yeah here." Lance handed her his.
"Thanks." She flipped it open and dialed a familar number.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked her in curiousity.
"Nothing, I just remembered something...hi, Kendra?" Courtney laughed at something she had said. "I just wanted to let you know that you can pick up your car...where? Oh in New York." She hung up and smiled a mile wide.
"Courtney, I can't believe you just did that." Elyse looked at her in shock. "Kendra is one of your friends."
"What else am I supposed to do?" She gave the phone back to Lance. "Oh but how is she going to drive it back, I have her keys?" She looked around the room, they all shrugged and then laughed at her stupidness.
\/\/\/\/
Two Weeks Later: Cleveland, OH: Hotel Room
"Hello?" Chris answered the ringing hotel phone.
"Is Courtney there?"
"Uh yeah sure." Chris motioned Courtney over, confused. "It's for you."
"Hello?"
"Hi." She didn't sound too happy.
"Rachel, hey, oh I was meaning to call you. It seems as though I'm stuck here on tour with Nsync."
"Where have you been? I called everyone you know, the only person that told me anything was Kendra which wasn't much."
"On tour with Nsync, haven't you been listening?"
"You just...do you know how long it took me to find you, I need you."
"You need me? Is something wrong?"
"Yes, why else would I be this mad?"
"Sorry, what happened?"
"I quit school."
"You what!?" Courtney screamed. Chris looked at her. "Rachel, how could you do that? Do Mom and Jerry know?"
"Well I haven't officially quit, I just haven't gone for a couple weeks."
"Why? Didn't someone notice?"
"I don't know why no one noticed, I guess I'm not important to anyone."
"Why? Why did you quit?"
"It just got too hard."
"How did that happen? You go to an arts school, everything's easy there."
"Well sorry, Miss over run-of-the-mill, straight A, perfect student, but I must be pretty dumb then. How else could I have gotten here, did our Dad secretly pay me in. Am I just another brat like Elyse?"
"All right, calm down and Elyse is not a brat, she's changed."
"I don't need that crap now."
"Look you need to go back to school, OK?"
"I can't go back now, I can't face everyone, especially not my teachers."
"You have to, I'm not giving you any other choice."
"You're not Mom!"
"I don't care, I'm your sister, go back."
"I'm not going back."
"Don't you care about your career, you'll be ruining it."
"Your little boyfriend, Joey never went to college, he turned out fine."
"He's not my boyfriend and think about it. He'll just be a loser after Nsync is over. There's something else isn't there? It can't just be because it's too hard, there's something else."
"No there isn't."
"Yes there is, what is it?" She didn't get an response. "Answer me Rachel." She got a dial tone. She brought the phone away from her ear and hung up.
"What was that about?" Chris asked.
"Nothing." She shook her head.
"OK, there's nothing on TV."
"Nothing?"
"Well, there's this crappy auction show."
"Oh, I had one of those back home, let's watch it."
'We got Nintendo 64 here, with, looks like no hook ups.'
"No hook ups? Who would buy that?"
"Number 0138 would." Chris observed the auction screen.
"Oh look at that shirt."
"Which one."
"The tie dyed one. Get it for me Chris."
"You're joking right, that thing is probably used."
"Of course I'm joking, but you got to get me something."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, like that porcelain egg."
"Porcelain egg?" He gave her a look.
"Never mind." The person on TV held up a new item. "Oh I want that one Chris!"
"Which one?"
"That brush." The person on TV took the brush out of it's holder. "Ew, wait don't get that the guy just pulled it out of the cat's butt." Chris laughed.
"Oh look, Jumanji on DVD!"
"Bed spreads." Courtney said, uninterested.
"Another one."
"And another."
"And another."
"Bed spreads are boring."
"Yeah, but they'll probably be done soon."
Forty-five minutes later
'We have this nice burgundy bed spread, with matching sheets.'
Chris and Courtney had fallen asleep next to each other, her head on his shoulder.
\/\/\/\/
In the next room
"So..." Elyse looked around the hotel room and then back at JC.
"Ummm..." JC did the same, trying to find conversation.
"This getting to know each other thing isn't turning out so good is it?"
"Not really." She smiled.
"I remember once when I tried to do this, I had been going out with this guy for about a week, you know, nothing serious and decides that he's not the type of guy to skip introductions. He said, 'Let's start over, I'm Raul Bennix'."
"What so funny about that?" He noticed her laughing.
"There's more, he then said, 'people think my name is unusual, hardly anyone has it', then I said, 'I know someone besides you.' and then he said," She paused to laugh. "he said, 'Really? What's his name?'" She continued to laugh and JC went right along with her.
"Is that the closest you've been to a serious relationship?"
"Probably, except for this guy in college, his name was Brad, and he was really sweet or at least I thought he was, next thing I know, he's doing Sherri Palmer, the rag drag slutty type."
"Isn't that what you are?" She playfully hit him on the arm. "Only kidding, only kidding."
"You better be."
"Oh really, what would you do if I wasn't? I'd like to see."
"Hey at least I'm not a reject from Mickey Mouse Takes a Holiday."
"Yes, you're a reject in general." She grabbed her pillow and hit him continously. He put his arms up in defense. She stopped. "Just so you know, they never made a Mickey Mouse Takes a Holiday."
"Shut up." She resumed her hitting. He reached his hand out and retrieved a pillow and did the same to her. It went on for about five minutes until their pillow fight was interruped by the phone. JC leaned over.
"Hello." A voice screamed in his ear.
"Oh my! I'm talking to JC! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"
"Give me the phone you little skank." Another one said, grabbing the phone. "Umm, hi." She began.
"How did you get their hotel phone numbers?!" The annoying voice screamed again.
"Can I talk to Elyse? Tell her it's Rachel."
"Sure." He replied handing it to her, "it's Rachel." She took it.
"Hey."
"Kristen, get off of me! JC isn't on the phone anymore." Elyse heard her yell in the background. "Sorry about that. Umm, there's something I want to tell you and I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Courtney..."
\/\/\/\/
"Why not?" Elyse begged to Nsync's manager, Johnny Wright.
"We've had too much of that, I'm not letting anyone else on. Did the guys put you up to this?"
"They don't even know I'm talking to you, please, just let her."
"No, I'm not going to take this. I already have two girls on tour with them, why three?"
"Because she's going through a tough time, I'm the only one that can help her."
"Why?"
"Because I understand."
"Then maybe you should leave."
"You are such a jerk." Elyse started to leave. "Everyone that works for Nsync is."
"Fine!"
"What?"
"Fine, she can come as long as that's it. No one else, if you or anyone else even brings up the topic, you're all gone!"
"Gotcha. Thanks!" She ran out of the room and into Courtney and Chris'. "Courtney, guess what!"
"What?" She and Chris looked up from the TV.
"Rachel is coming on tour with us."
"That can't be true." Courtney stood up.
"I already talked to Johnny, it took a lot of convincing but he said yes."
"No, I mean because she's in school, she can't come."
"She dropped out."
"No, she didn't I told her to go back."
"Well, I told her she didn't have to." Chris knew where this was leading.
"I'll be right back." He left the room with no intention of coming back.
"You have no right, you don't know her, you don't know what's best for her."
"Well you don't know what she's going through."
"I don't?" She asked with an attitude. "I don't." She repeated.
"I'm not suppose to tell you this, but she lost all her friends, no one will ever look at her the same."
"Why?"
"Because they all think she's a slut. She went over to this guy's place, they kissed, that's it. He spreads a rumor that they had sex. Now every guy is saying it, and others who haven't are wanting to experience it."
"Why didn't she just me that?"
"I don't know, all I know is that I understand how she feels, when I was in highschool, I had the same rumor running around about me. Even though mine was much worse, her's is still bad."
"But for you it's not bad, you act like that, I'm sure you've done it plenty of times."
"That's impossible."
"Anything's possible."
"I'm a virgin, Courtney."
"You?"
"Yes."
"Now that's impossible."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, a person like you? A virgin? It can't be."
"My dad still thinks of me as his little girl, what would he think if he knew I was having sex, so I don't. He gets me all this stuff because he's afraid that I'll stop relying on him, and that I'll forget him." Elyse sat down. "He doesn't think I can do it on my own. When I was eleven years old, I was in this spelling bee and first prize was twenty-five dollars and a trophy. It was up against me and this one other kid. He payed the other kid to lose on purpose so I would win, he didn't believe in me." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I accepted it then, not thinking it was a big deal. But through the rest of my life, I never got a job, I never did chores, I didn't earn anything I have. My dad bought everything I wanted. Eventually I turned into this selfish, manipulating brat. I had dreams too, ya know. I had dreams of being valedictorian of my class, of getting great things put on my resume, of having good references. But that never happened and it's all my fault for letting him do that!"
Courtney looked over at her friend with sympathy.
"Elyse, I had no idea. It's not ever the child's falut, the parent raises them that way, it's not your fault, it's your dad's."
"Maybe you're right, maybe Rachel shouldn't of quit."
"Yeah, but I don't care, it's her choice." Elyse nodded. "So we cool?"
"Yeah." They embraced each other in a hug.
