More Than Friends
by: ukbootyliciousbaybee
Cameron Daniels glanced over at where her boyfriend stood talking with the woman he had described to whoever would listen as his ideal woman, as she looked he touched her arm and turned to walk away.
“Come on Cam,” said Michelle, one of her band mates, “we’ve gotta go get ready, we are on stage in 30 minutes.”
Cameron nodded, “okay, I just want to speak to AJ first. I’ll meet you in the dressing room.” She made her way over to where AJ was standing at the bar and wrapped her arms around him from behind, “hi gorgeous,” she said in his ear.
AJ removed her arms from around his waist and turned around to face her, “shouldn’t you be getting ready for your performance?” he asked.
Cameron looked hurt, “yes,” she told him, “but I thought I’d come and say hi to my boyfriend first. Aren’t you pleased to see me?” She took a sip of his drink and pulled a face, “I thought you said you wasn’t going to drink tonight?”
“I changed my mind, “ he told her, “have you got a problem with that?”
Cameron ignored the question, “Was that Amber Carson I saw you talking with?” she asked casually.
“Yeah,” AJ said, “Why?”
“No reason,” Cameron said, “Why are you being so nasty? Is everything ok?”
AJ sighed and turned back to the bar, “Look, can we discuss this later? You have to be on stage soon.”
Cameron grabbed his arm and turned him back to face her, “what are you saying AJ? Is everything ok with us?”
AJ glanced around, they were starting to attract interested looks from people standing near them. “Let’s discuss this later,” he told her, “Now’s not the time or place.”
“I don’t want to discuss it later,” Cameron practically shouted, “You’re standing here telling me out of the blue that everything’s not ok with us, and now you don’t want to discuss it? What the hell is going on?”
“OK,” AJ shouted back, pulling his arm out of her hold, “You want to know what’s going on? Yes, you’re right, I don’t want to be with you anymore, it’s no fun, you’re always nagging me about where I’m going, who I’m talking to, what I’m drinking, and I’m fed up with it and you.” He turned back around to the bar and signalled for the barman to get him another drink. Cameron stood staring at him speechless for a long moment, then burst into tears and ran down the stairs towards the backstage area.
JC and Amber had watched the drama unfold from the sofas opposite the bar, now JC turned to her and shook his head in wonder, “I have to hand it to you, “ he said, “you are good.”
Amber looked puzzled, “what are you on about JC?”
JC gestured in AJ’s direction, “you talk to the guy for 5 minutes and he’s breaking up with his girlfriend!”
Now it was Amber’s turn to shake her head, “Oh no, I’m not getting the blame for that, I don’t even know him, I spoke to him for 5 minutes if that, it’s not my fault they are having problems.”
JC looked into her eyes for a long moment, then sat back and took a swig of his drink, “You can’t fool me Amber Marie Carson, I’ve known you too long, you’ve got that look in your eyes.”
Amber tried to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about, “What look?” she asked innocently.
“That look that tells me that you’re interested to find out more about Mr Backstreet Boys over there.”
“I don’t have a clue what you’re on about,” Amber told him, “ok, we talked, and he’s a nice guy, but I’m definitely not interested in him.”
JC took her hand, “for your sake I hope you mean that, I don’t want to see you getting hurt.”
He squeezed her hand, “Be careful, ok?”
Amber smiled and touched his cheek with her free hand, “Don’t worry babes, I’m a big girl, I can look after myself.”
AJ woke up the next morning with a hangover from hell and a vague feeling that something bad had happened the night before. He sat up gingerly and then groaned as the memories came flooding back. He’d been dating Cameron for six months and they’d been getting on great, sometimes her nagging and questioning got on his nerves but he’d never actually contemplated breaking things off with her. It had been the combination of alcohol and meeting Amber Carson that had resulted in the public scene between them last night. He sighed and reached for the phone, time for damage control, he dialled the familiar number then paused with his finger over the ‘call’ button, maybe he shouldn’t be so hasty in getting back together with Cam, after all, he and Amber had seemed to hit it off last night, maybe he should wait and see if things could be developed between them. He placed the phone back on it’s stand and smiled to himself, yep, that sounded like a very good plan to him, after his head stopped pounding he’d call around a few people and see if he could find out where she was staying while she was in Orlando.
Amber woke up to the sound of the telephone ringing insistently; she waited a second for JC to answer it and when he didn’t, reached for the extension on her nightstand.
“Hello?”
“Girl, I hope that Bobbi knows that you’re staying with JC, otherwise you are in big trouble!” Justin said at the other end of the line.
Amber pushed her hair out of her face and yawned, “What the hell are you talking about Justin?” she asked.
“The pictures in the papers,” Justin said, “You haven’t seen them?”
“No,” Amber told him, “I was asleep until you called, now start from the beginning, what pictures in what papers.”
“The pictures of you and JC at the club opening,” Justin said, “In all of the trash press you two going into the club are front page news, but that’s not all, one newspaper also has a very nice picture of the two of you looking very cosy in the VIP bar.”
“What?,” Amber exclaimed.
“Yep,” Justin said, “but hey, if JC has told Bobbi you’re staying there, then it should be ok, right?”
“Right,” Amber echoed, “And he did tell me he’d told her I was visiting and she was alright with it.”
Justin laughed and quickly tried to cover it up as a cough, “and you believe him?”
“Why shouldn’t I?” Amber asked then groaned as she remembered JC changing the subject every time she bought up the subject of Bobbi being ok with her staying there, “J, are you thinking what I am?”
“I’m thinking you need to wake JC up and have a little chat with him,” Justin said.
“Yeah me too,” Amber said, “if you don’t hear from me again, it’s probably because Bobbi’s hired a hitman for me!”
Justin laughed, “call me with all the gory details, I’ll be thinking of ya.”
Amber padded down the corridor and open the front door, the building concierge stood there, his arms full of that day’s newspapers. Amber reached for them and gave him a 20 dollar tip, “Thanks Bob,” she said. She closed the door and made her way back down the corridor towards JC’s room, flicking through the papers as she went. ‘Damn, damn, damn’, she muttered to herself, Justin had been right, every trashy tabloid carried a picture of her and JC arriving at the club and all of them were suggesting they were an item in the stories that went along with the pictures.
She flung open the door to JC’s room, he was sprawled diagonally acrossed the bed wearing just a pair of Calvin Klein boxers, fast asleep. Amber walked into the room and dumped the newspapers onto his stomach.
“What the hell…..” JC exclaimed coming instantly awake, “what’s going on?”
“You better hope for your sake that Bobbi really does know I’m here,” Amber said. She picked up the newspaper at the top of the pile and held the front page in front of his face.
JC’s face dropped, “Jeez,” he said.
“Yeah that was pretty much my reaction,” Amber said sitting down on the edge of the king-size bed. “She does know I’m here right? You didn’t lie about that?”
JC pushed the papers off of his stomach and sat up, “Umm, well,” he avoided looking at Amber, “I was going to mention it, but there just never seem to be a good time.”
Amber groaned and put her head in her hands, “God JC, you must have known she was gonna find out sooner or later.”
“How the hell did I know we were gonna be front page news?” JC exclaimed flinging one of the newspapers across the room. “It was a local club opening, I didn’t think it was gonna make the national newspapers. What am I gonna do?”
“Well she hasn’t called yet so maybe she hasn’t seen them yet,” Amber said, “Call her and say I turned up unexpectedly for a visit or something. But this is your mess JC, you got us into it, so you better think of something to get us out of it.”
Amber dumped coffee in the coffee maker and tried not to listen to the yelling going on in the next room. JC had been on the phone to Bobbi for 15 minutes and so far it did not sound good. Suddenly there was a loud crash and a few minutes later JC walked into the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar.
“Arrggh,” he exclaimed, “that woman makes me so mad.”
Amber poured him a cup of coffee and placed in front of him, she’d tried being mad at him but she never had been able to, she stood behind him and began massaging his shoulders, “This is probably a stupid question, but I’m assuming it didn’t go well?”
“That’s an understatement,” JC said, “She’s convinced we are having an affair and did not want to listen to a word I had to say otherwise.”
“Maybe I should talk to her,” Amber said.
JC grimaced, “The expression red rag to a bull springs to mind.”
“Yeah maybe you’re right,” Amber said, “ok, let’s give her a chance to calm down and think rationally about this then try again later.” She finished her shoulder massage and sat down across from him.
JC took a sip of his coffee and shook his head, “When it comes to you she can’t be rational.”
“Well we’re just gonna have to convince her, aren’t we?” Amber said, “and I think we should start with me leaving here.”
“What!” JC exclaimed, “no way. I haven’t seen you in like a year, I wanna spend time with you.”
“I know,” Amber said, “and I love hanging out with you, but me being here is hardly helping your case with Bobbi, is it?”
JC sighed and nodded, “You’re probably right, but why can’t she just listen to me? She knows better than to believe what they print in those trash newspapers.”
“Of course she does,” Amber said, “but she’s always had a thing about me and you hanging out together, and you not telling her about me being here didn’t help either!” She put her hand over his, “You two have been together a long time, you’ll be ok.”
She stood up, “now come and help me pack, I’ve got a lot of stuff you know!” JC laughed and followed her down the hallway, “I noticed,” he said.
JC sat on the bright yellow sofa in the corner of the guest room and watched Amber packing her things, “so,” he said, “are you going to go back to Justin’s place?”
Amber shook her head, “Not yet, I’m kinda liking Orlando right now, so I’m gonna check into the best hotel in town and chill.”
JC laughed, “chill, huh?” he said disbelievingly.
“You sound like you don’t believe me,” Amber said trying to act hurt, really she had no doubt in her mind that JC knew the real reason for her wanting to stick around Orlando for awhile, he knew her too well.
“I’m thinking the real reason you want to stick around starts with A and ends in J,” he smirked.
Amber bit her lip and tried to hide her smile, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, looking away and pretending to be busy folding a skirt.
“Yeah, yeah,” JC said getting up, he walked over and grabbed her around the waist, he started tickling her in the place he knew she was the most ticklish. Amber shrieked and grabbed a pillow off the bed and hit him over the head with it.
“Oh ok, so it’s like that is it?” JC said, he grabbed his own pillow and took up a defensive stance, “give me your best shot!”