"Joey, would you stop bouncing around so we can take the damn picture?" Marki frowned at her best friend, rolling her eyes.
"Everybody play nice!" Laurie teased, holding up her camera again. "Okay ... one ... two ... two and a half ..."
"Laur, you're killing me here ... take the picture," JC groaned.
"Say 'cheese'!" Laurie snapped the photo, sure to be a classic. Marki was perched on Colin's shoulders, Destiny was on Lance's shoulders, and in a fit of giggles, Joey had climbed onto JC's shoulders. As soon as the picture had been taken, JC leaned back against the Alice In Wonderland statue to allow Joey to get off of his aching shoulders.
"God, Joe ... what did you have for breakfast? Bricks?" JC rubbed his neck. "Man, that's gonna hurt tomorrow."
"Here, let me," Laurie started massaging the tender area gently, elicting soft moans from her boyfriend.
"I swear, if you stop that, I will have to kill you." JC smiled.
Joey jumped up and down impatiently, tugging on Marki's arm. "The zoo! I wanna go to the zoo!"
"God ... did you trade places with Chris today?" Marki asked him with irritation.
"Where is Chris anyway?" Joey wondered. "I thought he'd want to come with us for sure."
"I think he and Justin stayed behind at the hotel to pester Shannon and Michelle," JC answered as the group headed towards the petting zoo.
"Maybe he was afraid we were gonna go to the Empire State Building again," Lance laughed.
"Why? What happened there?" Colin asked, a smile coming to his face.
"Oh, it was classic," Lance explained. "The first time we came to New York as a group, like six years ago, we did all this tourist stuff like the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, everything. So we all go up to the top of the Empire State Building - except Chris is afraid of heights and he doesn't want any of us to know. And the wind was going like, eighty miles an hour. He was literally completely pinned with fright up against the wall of the building."
"He almost wet his pants," Joey laughed, remembering.
"Okay, he could not move, we'd be like 'Come on, it's okay' and he'd be like 'DON'T TOUCH ME!'" Lance laughed out loud. "It was nuts."
"I bet," Colin grinned.
********
The girls decided to take a break from sightseeing, stopping to have lunch and do some shopping while the guys continued to show Colin around New York. The three women grabbed lunch from a small deli in TriBeCa, sitting outside to enjoy the warm weather.
"I don't know how you guys do it," Destiny confessed, shaking her head.
"Do what?" Laurie wondered, exchanging a glance with Marki.
"Tour all the time, staying in hotels and stuff. I work at a hotel and I know it has to get frustrating." Destiny elaborated.
"Well, I'm only with Josh during the summer. I teach seventh grade in Orlando, so on my summer vacation I usually come out with the guys and see the US. It's not hard for me, I get to leave!" Laurie laughed.
"Really? That must be cool ..." Destiny pondered. "Do any of your students know about you and JC?"
"No ... it would be nuts if they did," Laurie giggled. "JC does think he's slick and comes by in disguise - one of these days they're going to see who he really is and then he'll be in trouble. The whole school will know in two minutes."
"I feel like the whole damn campus of UCF knows about Joey being my best friend," Marki sighed. "It might be because he likes to pick me up from class in his huge-assed pimp daddy ride, with the bass thumping." Destiny and Laurie laughed, and Marki shook her head. "It's not funny! Every girl in my Human Biology class has asked me if I can get her a date with the big dork! They don't care about me, just the fact that I'm best friends with Joey Fatone."
"I'm sure that's not true, Mar." Laurie said sympathetically.
"What are you studying?" Destiny tactfully changed the subject.
"Neonatology - I only have one year left," Marki grinned proudly. "Joey wants to help me pay for school, but so far, I've done it completely on my own. I don't want him to help me."
"You know he only wants to because he loves you," Laurie pointed out.
"And I'm so anxious to discuss this topic for the nine hundredth time," Marki shot her best friend a look.
"What issue?" Destiny looked puzzled.
Laurie rolled her eyes at Marki and turned to Destiny. "See ... Marki and Joey love each other, but they're both so damn stubborn, they don't see what's right in front of their faces. They should be a couple, and quit with the charades."
"Easy for you to say, Laur." Marki sighed.
"Have you guys ever tried dating?" Destiny wondered.
"Yeah ... lots of times. He just can't make up his mind ... or we start to get serious and he bails." Marki picked at her napkin.
"Does he know how you feel?" Destiny asked gently.
"I don't know ... can we please talk about something else? I'm so not in the mood to discuss this," Marki shook herself and smiled at Destiny. "So ... what's up with you and French Toast Boy?"
Destiny blushed and smiled giddily. "How do you know about that?"
"Girl, I've known them from day one," Marki grinned. "They tell me everything ... even stuff I don't wanna know." She shuddered and Destiny laughed.
"So you're the one I should tell about Chris and the fluffy pink bathrobe, right?" Destiny questioned slyly and Laurie almost spit out her Coke.
"What?" Laurie wiped the soda from her chin as Marki laughed hysterically. "When did this happen?"
"This morning," Destiny giggled.
"And why was Chris wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe?" Laurie wondered.
"It was Shannon's," Destiny explained. "See, last night Shannon and Chris went back to our apartment alone, but Shelle and I didn't know that. So we went out with Lance, Justin, and Colin for awhile, came back to the apartment and interrupted a ... private moment between the two of them."
"How private?" Marki's eyes glittered with mirth.
"They were kisssing," Destiny answered. "So this morning, Lance fixed me french toast and brought it to me in bed."
"Lance is such a sweetie," Laurie smiled.
"Yeah ..." Destiny blushed and continued. "So anyway, we kissed, and then Chris comes bursting into my bedroom wearing Shannon's robe ... to 'pay us back for last night'."
Marki chuckled and wiped her eyes. "What I wouldn't give for a picture of that."
"Imagine if that got out on the internet," Laurie giggled, sending the three women into hysterical laughter as they headed back to the hotel.
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