Chapter 13

After dropping Alex off at her apartment, Maria headed for her loft. Sarah hadn’t said a word to her, so they rode in silence. Maria turned on the radio and Sarah turned it off.

"Have you slept with him?" Sarah asked. Maria turned quickly to look at her.

"That’s none of your business," she said. Sarah nodded.

"So you have, huh? Gee, that was quick," she said. Maria sighed.

"I’m not gonna discuss Jacob with you if you’re going to act like this, so just drop it," she said. Sarah turned toward the window and didn’t say anything else.

Jacob was in the group’s studio, trying hard to concentrate, but having little luck. Maria had breezed in and out of his life in a matter of months. He didn’t want it to, but it bothered him. He wanted to see her. He wanted to hear her talk. He…wanted her. But she was gone and Jacob had no idea when or if she’d be back. Jacob rubbed his eyes. He had to forget her. He just had to think about the band and the album and the performances that were coming up. Jacob could do that…he knew he could.

"Man, this sucks," Erik groaned, as he sat on a stool in the kitchen. A soda sat in front of him, but he wasn’t thirsty. He wanted Alex, but she wasn’t there.

"It’ll get easier," Dan remarked.

"No, it won’t, Dan. I miss Alex already," Erik said, putting his head down on the countertop.

"Think about the album. We need to concentrate on that right now," Dan told him. Erik nodded, his head still down. He knew that. He just wished that Alex were there.

"Do you smell flowers?" Maria asked as she made her way to the loft, Sarah right behind her. Sarah didn’t answer, so Maria kept walking. She got to the door and took out her keys.

"Emily’s here. Just knock," Sarah said, irritably. Maria unlocked the door and opened it herself. What she saw made her stop and shake her head. There were flowers…lots and lots of flowers seemingly everywhere in the loft.

"What the hell?" Maria asked as she walked into the loft.

"Geoff’s sorry, I think," Emily said, walking over to Maria and Sarah. Maria looked at her.

"Emily? My God, you’ve grown up!" she exclaimed as she hugged the younger girl.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay here. I really appreciate it," Emily said when Maria had released her. Maria smiled.

"It’s no problem, really. I don’t mind and I appreciate you watching the place while I was gone," Maria told her. She then began looking around. "Where’s my baby?" She located Heathcliff chewing on the leaves to one of the flower arrangements. Maria went over and picked him up. "You look so much bigger!" Maria said as she kissed him. Heathcliff wanted to chew some more flowers, so he struggled to get down. "It’s good to see you, too." Heathcliff scurried away. "Well, girls, it looks like we’ve got a flower shop. Let’s put them out onto the patio for now and I’ll throw them off of it tomorrow."

"They’re really pretty. And they were probably expensive, too. How can you just throw them out?" Sarah asked.

"This is just a lame-ass attempt by Geoff to get me to forgive him. It’s not gonna work. I want nothing to do with him," Maria said.

"Oh, because you have Jacob now. I forgot that you’re all of a sudden madly in love with him. Who will it be next week?" Sarah asked. Maria glared at her. Sarah glared right back before stalking to her room and slamming the door. Maria closed her eyes and sighed.

"I must’ve been on something when I invited her to come live with me," she muttered. Emily just stood there. She didn’t want to get in the middle of Maria and Sarah’s problems. "So, Emily, it’s good to see you."

"You, too. Here, let me help," Emily offered as she picked up Maria’s things and they maneuvered through the flowers to get to Maria’s bedroom.

"What a mess. And I don’t mean the loft," Maria said with a laugh. "Aren’t you dying to know what’s going on?" Emily shrugged.

"It’s none of my business," she said. Maria smiled.

"Smart girl. Believe me, staying out of other people’s shit is a good thing. I’ll give you the short version then: I hooked up with Jacob Underwood, who’s in O-Town, and Sarah, who has a crush on him, is pissed."

"I see how that’s a problem. Sarah talked about him a lot when she got here. That does sound pretty bad," Emily said. Maria sat down on the bed.

"It just happened. He’s just…incredible. I sure as hell didn’t expect anything to happen, but it did. When Geoff did what he did, I knew that it was over with him, so, I don’t know, I just went for it and Jacob responded to my advances. I knew that he was attracted to me, but I never expected anything to happen like it did. I probably won’t see him for a long time anyway, so I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Are you hungry?" Emily smiled.

"Sure," she said and together, they went to look for something to eat.

Sarah had to do something. She loved her sister, but she was sick of Maria always being the talented one, the beautiful one, the responsible one, while Sarah was the bratty younger sister. It would be hard to do anything, though, since Sarah was now living in Maria’s loft. If she pissed Maria off, Maria would send her back to Connecticut. Geoff. Sarah could use Geoff. Sarah had to help Geoff get Maria back. It helped that Maria wouldn’t see Jacob much anymore. Maybe during that time, Sarah and Geoff could come up with a plan. Sarah smiled. She’d have to apologize to Maria, so that her sister wouldn’t suspect anything. ‘This will give me a chance to work on my acting skills,’ Sarah thought. Taking a deep breath, Sarah mentally prepared what she was going to say.

Maria and Emily sat on the couch eating popcorn, talking and watching television. Heathcliff was sleeping in the middle of them. There was a knock at the door. Maria ran to answer it.

"Hi, stranger," Kathleen said as she hugged Maria.

"How’s it going?" Maria asked. Kathleen shrugged and entered the loft.

"It hasn’t been as interesting as the tour. I want details…now," she ordered. Maria smiled as she led Kathleen into the living room. Emily smiled at Kathleen.

"Hey, Kathleen," she said.

"Hi, Em." Kathleen then walked over to the patio doors. "My God. Kevin told me that Geoff had gotten you flowers, but he didn’t say that he got you so many flowers," she remarked, looking out onto the patio. Maria laughed.

"Want some? They’re kinda pretty and I don’t want them," she said, sitting back down on the couch. Kathleen walked over and sat in a big, black, leather recliner that was next to the couch.

"Sure. I love flowers. You’re not gonna forgive him, though, right?" she asked. Maria shook her head.

"No, I’m not. I don’t want to be with him anymore," she said.

Sarah had left her room and stood in the hallway listening where no one could see her. ‘She belongs with Geoff, not Jacob. I have to make her realize that,’ she thought.

"And what about this band member that I hear you kissed and who beat the crap out of Geoff?" Kathleen asked. Maria smiled.

"It’s Jacob, the one with the dreads that we were, like, making fun of," she said and shook her head. "He’s so not like we thought. I mean I’ll admit, he annoyed the hell out of me when I first met him, but I got to know him and we hit it off."

"I’ll say. You kissed him first?" Kathleen asked.

"I see you want details. Yes, I kissed him first. It was a game…at first, but it turned out that we ended up kissing again and he said that it meant nothing and we could only be friends, but it didn’t work out that way. We wanted each other too much," Maria said. Kathleen’s eyes widened in astonishment.

"’Want’ as in ‘want want,’" she asked. Maria nodded.

"When?" Kathleen then asked. Emily shook her head, but she was smiling.

"You’re nosy, aren’t you?" she asked. Kathleen nodded.

"You bet your ass, I’m nosy. Maria never keeps anything from me, and she’s not going to now," she said.

"It’s okay, Emily. I do always tell Kathleen everything. Last night, if you must know," Maria told Kathleen.

"Wow. I mean, wow. I never thought…" Kathleen said.

"I know. Believe me, it was not planned." Maria sighed, thinking about last night. It seemed so long ago now. She yawned. Kathleen laughed.

"Well, I guess he tired you out, so I’ll stop interrogating you. I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll get together," Kathleen told her as she made her way to the door.

"Okay. Goodnight," Maria said. After Kathleen had left, Sarah walked out of her ‘hiding’ place. Maria turned to look at her.

"Look, before you say anything, Maria, I just want you to know that I really do appreciate your letting me stay here with you. I was just hurt because I really like Jacob. But, I should’ve known that he wouldn’t go for someone like me. I’m glad he likes you and I hope that it works out," Sarah told her. Maria didn’t believe her.

"That’s quite a turnaround from before. Why don’t I think that you’re being sincere?" she asked. Sarah looked at the floor.

"I know that you have every right to be suspicious, but it’s the truth," she said. Maria nodded. She still didn’t believe her, but she was too tired to argue or question her any further right now.

"Great. Good. I’m glad that you’re acting maturely about this. Now, get some sleep. I’m turning in, too. Goodnight," Maria said and headed for her bedroom. Sarah watched her go. Emily turned off the TV and followed Sarah to their room. She had heard what Sarah had said to Maria and didn’t believe her either. Sarah was up to something.

The next day, the five members of O-Town woke up at around noon, much to the dismay of their managers. The Mikes had arrived around ten o’clock to have a meeting, but it wasn’t until one o’clock that everyone had finally assembled around the large table in the sitting room.

"It’s about time. We let you guys sleep in today, but that’s it. Don’t get used to it because it’s time to work again," Mike M. told them, sternly.

"Yeah, that whole half a day off was a great vacation," Erik mumbled.

"You get no vacations. There’s a lot of work to do and we have some things to tell you, so listen up," Mike said. Erik shut up and slumped down in his seat as Mike continued. "Now, we have some PA’s scheduled for September, including a concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom on the eleventh that will be taped for a live video and DVD that are due out at the end of October," he said.

"Our first live concert video, how cool is that?" Ashley asked, smiling.

"Very cool," Mike C. said. "But wait, there’s more." Mike M. smiled.

"You’ve also been invited to join Britney Spears on her tour," he said. Trevor almost fell out of his chair. He was a huge Britney fan and couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

"Come again?" he asked.

"Britney wants you on her tour," Mike M. repeated. Trevor shook his head.

"I’ve died and gone to Britney heaven," he said with a huge smile. The guys laughed, except for Jacob who then spoke up.

"Why would we want to open for someone after headlining two tours by ourselves?" he asked. The guys all looked at each other. ‘Here we go,’ Erik thought as Jacob continued, "I mean, we go from doing an hour and a half long set to doing, what? A half hour set singing to a track?" Mike M. shook his head.

"You’ll get a fifty minute set without a track. I made sure to tell them that you would have a band and do it live with no track," he explained.

"Will there be any other acts?" Jacob asked.

"No, just you guys and Britney," Mike M. answered.

"So, we’ll be more like ‘special guests’ then?" Jacob then asked. Trevor sighed. Why the hell did Jacob always have to argue? It drove him nuts.

"Yes. Besides, it’ll give you guys a chance to perform in front of fifteen thousand more people than you usually would at this stage in your careers and it will also gain you new fans. It may look like a step back right now, but you’ll be performing in arenas in front of fans that may not know about you yet. It’s too good an opportunity to pass up," Mike M. said. Jacob nodded as he thought about it.

"I think we should do it," Trevor said.

"Of course you do. Like you would say no," Dan told him, laughing.

"It’s gonna be the biggest tour of the fall," Mike C. added.

"Well, should I call back Britney’s people and confirm it?" Mike M. asked. Everyone looked at Jacob.

Jacob sighed, "Man, I just want to play," he said. If being someone’s ‘opening act’ was helpful for the group, then he couldn’t see the logic in not going for it. It was set. O-Town would be performing on the Britney Spears tour.

That business done, Mike M. looked at Mike C., who smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. "The next order of business is about Making The Band. You know how MTV was interested in a third season?" The guys nodded. "Well, they’ve decided to order fifteen episodes with the option of seven more," he told them. Jacob tried very hard not to show his displeasure by this news.

"It won’t be like the last time, will it?" Dan asked. The show had been edited so badly that the ‘storylines’ hadn’t made any sense and it had been just a huge mess that the guys hadn’t been happy about.

"No, you will get editing rights and will be able to view each episode before it airs, so you’ll know exactly what will be shown and how it will be shown. The main focus that we want to be shown will be the writing and recording of the second album," Mike M. said. Jacob nodded. The show had been an integral part of O-Town’s success and if the recording process and the music aspect was the main focus of the show, then Jacob was all for it.

"I’m not looking forward to having a microphone, like, taped to me everyday again," Ashley said.

"I thought our ratings sucked," Jacob said.

"MTV’s viewers are more of your fan base. I don’t know why it wasn’t on there to begin with," Mike C. said.

"When will filming start?" Erik asked. Mike M. flipped through a thick binder.

"The middle of October. The Britney tour starts on October 31^st," he said.

"Happy Halloween," Trevor said, with a smile.

"He’s already drooling!" Dan laughed.

"What? She’s fine, okay? Extremely fine, extremely hot and extremely fine," Trevor said, still smiling.

"So, the cameras will be filming us during the tour?" Jacob asked. The Mikes nodded. Jacob sighed. When they were sure that he wasn’t going to say anything else, the Mikes stood up.

"Okay, you have rehearsals for the Britney tour starting soon, as well as practices for the PA’s coming up. Ed is expecting you today at three o’clock. You’ll practice, but mostly we have to come up with a rehearsal schedule," Mike M. told them. "Do whatever until then." He then left the room followed by Mike C.

"I can’t believe we’re going on tour with Britney Spears," Trevor said, failing to hide his excitement. Jacob got up and headed for the studio. On top of everything else, they had their second album to write for. Avoiding the dreaded ‘sophomore slump’ was currently on Jacob’s mind. If they wanted Clive Davis to choose the songs that they wrote, they had to get going and come up with some good material to submit to him. Jacob shook his head. It appeared as if they wouldn’t be getting any kind of a break for a very long time.

Maria was in the lab, getting her things in order and preparing to develop a roll of O-Town’s black and white photos when Kyle came in. A woman was with him. She was tall and thin. She had very long legs and short, stylishly cut black hair. She also had dark, spooky-looking eyes and wore a lot of make-up.

"Maria Carpenter, I’d like for you to meet Jocelyn Richards. Jocelyn helped me out while you were away," Kyle said to Maria.

"Oh, then the mess that was here was yours?" Maria asked. She had found trays unwashed and left in the sink, empty film containers in the darkroom and overdeveloped negatives thrown on the floor and table.

"Sorry," Jocelyn said, not sounding sorry at all. Kyle shook his head.

"Maria, may I see you?" he asked. Maria put the beaker of solution down and followed Kyle out of the lab to his office, where he shut the door as she sat down. Kyle went behind his desk and also sat down.

"I want Jocelyn to continue working here, which means that she’ll be your co-worker. Can you handle that, or will you give both her and me a hard time?" he asked.

"I can tell already that her work habits suck. The place was a mess. I’m very particular about my work place and I can’t stand things being left the way that they were," Maria told him.

"Can’t you talk to her about it instead of jumping all over her the second you meet her?" Maria sighed.

"I don’t get along well with others sticking their noses in my personal workspace, Kyle. That lab has been mine for a long time now and I don’t want to share," she said.

"Well you’re going to have to because I want her working here and we don’t have another lab," Kyle told her. Maria clenched her fists.

"I go away for a while and you replace me?"

"No, I’m not replacing you, Maria. You are the best photographer that I’ve seen in a long time and I don’t want you to go, but I have to face reality…you’ll be moving on and I’ll need an assistant, that’s all."

"Moving on? Where the hell am I going?" she asked, frowning.

"I don’t mean now, but in the future. You’re too talented to stay as my intern or my assistant for much longer. I’m not saying that Jocelyn is permanent right now. I want to see how the O-Town cover comes out. I’m sure it will be a high seller, though. You might be moving up in the business faster than you think," Kyle said. "I just want Jocelyn to watch you and get to know the routine. She’s already very good, so she won’t bother you too much." Maria sat back in the chair.

"Great," she said, sarcastically. Kyle smiled.

"You’ll be fine." He stood up. "Now, go get those pictures developed. Oh, and Susan wants to see the individuals that you’ll be using." Maria nodded and stood up. She left the office. ‘I’m back one day and the stress is already starting,’ she thought. Instead of going back to the lab, she went to find Alex.

Alex was at a table in the ‘home ec room’ as Maria had dubbed it. She was going through books of material. The room looked like a tornado had hit it.

"Don’t you ever clean this shit up?" Maria asked. Alex looked up and smiled.

"No. I like some disorganization, just as long as it’s not good clothes thrown anywhere," she said, thinking of Erik. "Erik always did that. He knew that it bugged me, so I think that he did it on purpose."

"Yeah, well, it’s a mess," Maria said, trying not to think about Jacob. It was hard, though. He had been in her dreams all night…and they hadn’t been unpleasant dreams at all. "Have you heard anything from your family?" Maria asked, sitting on the table.

"Yeah. I had a couple of messages, but I chickened out and didn’t return the calls. Carlos wants to see me. Maria, I’m so nervous about seeing him again. It’s been so long and he probably hates me," she said, sadly.

"You won’t know that unless you see him and if you don’t see him, you’ll go crazy wondering what’s going on," Maria told her.

"I know that you’re right, but it’s still a difficult situation," Alex told her. Maria nodded. "Have you heard from Jacob?" Maria shook her head. "I haven’t heard from Erik, either. I guess they’re busy…or sleeping." Maria smiled.

part 2

"You’re probably right," she said. "Okay, enough wasting time. I have to go work. I’ll see you later."

"Bye," Alex said as Maria left the room. She continued to look at the books of material, but her mind was on her family…and Erik.