I turned around and my eyes met with Lance’s. I felt my eyes start to water and soon tears were pouring down my face. I couldn’t speak I just stood there and cried until Lance grabbed me and wrapped his arms around me holding me close while my arms were by my side. My arms slowly wrapped around him as I began to cry even more. He let me go from his embrace and held my hand and led me upstairs to my room where we sat down on the bed.
“Jen, please stop crying. You know I hate to see you cry.”
“Well I don’t care what you like and what you don’t anymore.” I paused. “Besides if you don’t like to see me cry then why couldn’t you forgive me? Lance I am so extremely sorry for what happened.”
“I can forgive you it just hurt me you know I hear and see things then I see that hickey on your neck that wasn’t there the last time I looked. I love you. When I hear about you with another guy I get jealous and jealousy takes me over and I act like that but I would never, ever, not forgive you.”
“So you really do love me?”
“Of course I do. Why else would I tell Kristin to tell you I DO love you?”
“I don’t know.” I replied. “I love you and the things I said to Joey about me not caring about you , they were lies, the reason I ran out of here crying is because I care about you so much and I thought you hated me and that thought just tore me apart. Are we back to the way things use to be.”
“Yes, the way things use to be and the way things will always be.” he said followed by kissing me on the cheek. We continued to sit there and talk. Meanwhile downstairs the party was still underway. Kristin and Ben were talking with Alissa and Alana when Joey and Chris walked over to them.
“Hey Kristin.” Joey said.
“Hey you how’s it going? Hey Chris what’s up?”
“Good” they both replied.
“Oh Chris, Joey, I’d like to introduce you to 2 of our friends this is Alana and this is Alissa, Jen’s neighbor.”
“How do you do?” Chris said taking Alana’s hand and kissing it.
She giggled. “Nice to meet you too, I’m a big fan of you guys, I’m sorry I missed out on your performance at the school and at the dance.”
“Yeah me too.” Alissa commented.
“Thanks, well how would you like us to hook you 2 lovely ladies up with some front row seats and backstage passes for our concert in D.C. in August when we go on tour.” Joey asked.
“Like it? We’d love it.” Alana said in excitement.
“Great, I’ll call our manager tomorrow and tell him to set 4 aside.”
“Four?” Kristin asked.
“Yeah well don’t you and Ben want to come along too?”
“UH thanks dude but I’ll pass, I’m not much for girls jumping and screaming all around me, maybe we can all do something else together some other time, something a little safer.”
“Ok cool, so 3 then?” Joey asked.
“No only 2, I don’t really want to go.”
“Excuse me missy? You’re going to go and I’m not taking no for an answer. I need someone beautiful to sing to don’t I?” Joey insisted.
Kristin rolled her eyes. “Ok, ok I’ll go but only for you Joey.”
Chris and Alana went and sat down on the couch and were getting to know each other better. Alana was only 17, but despite the age difference the 2 had many things in common and plenty to talk about.
Joey and Kristin snuck off to the basement to talk where no one was around. He asked Kristin if she would do him the honor of being his girlfriend. Kristin gladly accepted and the two spent the rest of the evening down there kissing and snuggling next to each other.
Alissa and Ben were left together. The two had always felt akward around each other because they both were secretly in love with one another. Leaving them together was a smart move because from talking to Ben, Alissa came to find out that Ben had a secret crush on her. Once she found out she told him that she liked him.
Each of the three couples were sharing in a moment of bliss while everyone else was having a blast dancing like fools throughout the house. After a half an hour upstairs working everything out Lance and I came down the stairs hand and hand. Erica and Tiffany ran up to me with JC and Justin at their sides. They were asking me if I was ok and I was able to say that I was fine now. Justin and JC went off to get the girls some punch and Lance and myself followed along. Tiffany and Erica stood in the living room talking about me and Lance the whole time and how I over-reacted yesterday.
Joey and Chris had taken a break from Kristin and they were standing a good 15 feet from Tiffany in the living room when Scott ran up to them and started rambling on.
“Man, you know that Tiffany chick? Well man is she a good fuck, she laid me out good a few minutes ago.”
“That girl over there?” Chris asked.
“Yeah the one that’s got the brown hair and she hangs around that Justin dude.”
“You had sex with her?” Joey asked Scott who acted extremely drunk.
“Yeah dude, she was like all over me like white on rice. She’s definitely an expert.”
“OK let me make sure you’re talking about that Tiffany right there right?”
Tiffany heard her name and looked in Joey’s direction.
“Yeah dude her. That little whore.” Scott remarked.
“We know all about Tiffany she’s a major ass whore and a half.”
“No really, I told you a few weeks ago she was nothing but a slut.” Chris added.
Tiffany heard them call her a whore and ran in and pushed Joey against the wall knocking him to the floor then doing the same to Chris. Justin heard the loud noise and rushed in from the kitchen.
“What’s going on in here?” Justin yelled
“Tiffany is being a bitch.” Chris yelled.
“ No I’m not you fucking moron! I’m sick of you two calling me a whore!” she screamed.
“Well according to our dear friend Scott here you are a whore.”
“What does he know?” she continued to yell.
“Well you fucked him you tell us!” Joey shouted.
“SHE WHAT?” Justin bellowed.
“She took me upstairs to her room and ripped my clothes off and she was a great fuck.” Scott explained to an angry Justin.
“Tiffany, what the fuck is your problem? You really are a whore! Why do I continuously defend you from Joey and Chris when they call you a whore, they’re only telling the truth it seems.”
Tiffany slapped Justin across the face with all her might and Justin clutched his face in pain.
“Justin? you actually believe I would do something like that?”
“Why don’t you tell me what you would do you whore?”
Tiffany stood there shocked at him. She didn’t know what to do. Half of her wanted to break down and cry and the other half wanted to punch Justin to death. She decided to take the milder approach and simply walk away into the kitchen near me.
“Do you believe what Justin just said to me?” she asked me.
“No, how can he say that. I’m going to have to talk to him. I know for a fact you wouldn’t do that for two reasons. Number one you’re my best-friend and I know you wouldn’t do that and second of all I know Scott, Scott is a proud member of Alcoholics Anonymous and a profound liar. Do you know how many times the cops have come to school and arrested him for coming to school drunk? Too damn many to count.”
“Jen, you have to tell Justin that. He’ll believe you. Please go tell him now.” she pleaded. I walked up to Justin in the living room alone. Joey and Chris were back with Kristin and Alana.
“Justin, can I talk to you?” I asked.
“What for?” he asked in a pushy manner.
“Don’t get cocky with me Timberlake. We need to talk about Tiffany.”
“Sorry, I’m not in the mood to talk about whores.”
“Justin, let me get this through your thick head. Tiffany is not a whore, she’s my best-friend and let me tell you I know I wouldn’t be friends with that girl if she was a whore because I’ve got a reputation to maintain you know. But I’ll tell you about Scott. Scott is a proud member of AA ask him to show you his jail records, I bet you’d find he’s been arrested for being under the influence more than a dozen times. No one in our school believes a word out of that kid’s mouth. Don’t listen to him.”
“Wait you’re telling me he’s going around telling everyone he slept with my girlfriend and he’s a drunk. And I just blew up at Tiff over what that scum said? Oh man am I a jerk.”
“Yeah that you are Justin but we still love ya. Now go apologize like a good little boy.”
Justin went and apologized and I kicked Scott out. I wasn’t going to let him cause any more problems tonight. Two of my guests, Cherrie and Jon, had to go so I kindly escorted them out. “Bye Cherrie, Bye Jon, thanks for coming.” I yelled as the car pulled away. When I came back in Joey yelled “Time for a game” so I walked into the living room where everyone gathered in a circle.
“So what brilliant game are we going to play?” I asked Joey.
“Glad you asked, we’re playing the ever famous game of 7 minutes in heaven, and we’re going to start with our birthday girl.”
I walked up to Joey and whispered in his ear.
“Joey this is not a good idea, after what happened with me and Ben I don’t want to be stuck with any other guys.”
“Don’t worry I’ve got it covered you just pick a name out and I’ll read it, if it’s not Lance I’ll just say it is and everything is fine.”
“Ok, you better hope this works, I already saw the expression on his face when he heard we were playing this.”
“Just shut up and pick one.”
I reached my hand into the jar full of the guys names, pulled one out and handed it to Joey. Joey looked at it and showed it to me, it was Ben’s, I just smiled.
“Our next contestant on the Price is Right is Lance Bass come on down.” Joey joked. Everyone applauded as he grabbed my hand and led me to the closet. I looked back at Kristin and smiled, she knew what I was thinking, that she was right when she said things would be back to the way they use to be.
“Man I can’t believe Joey is making us play this game, this is something a bunch of 12 year olds play.” I complained, I never expected to be playing this on my 17th birthday.
“It’s not that bad.”
“Well it’s a pointless game, I can only think of one thing that has ever happened from this game that would make it seem interesting.”
“What?”
“Well that’s how my brother Jeremy met his soon to be wife Emily back when he was in 10th grade.”
“Wow what an odd way to meet and how old is your brother again?”
“He just turned 23”
“So your bro has been going out with her for almost 8 years? How come you don’t talk about your brother that much?”
“I don’t know, I mean I haven’t seen him in like 4 years since he moved out to go to college in California. Him and Emily had to go to the same college and he came home the first summer but that was it, he just stayed out there. It’s been hard cause when he was here he was like one of my best friends he did things other guys wouldn’t do for their sisters, like he’d take me with him to the movies when he went with his friend and he was just the coolest big brother. And he did one hell of a job teaching me about the birds and the bees.” I laughed thinking back to the day when I was 9 years old and he was watching me and we were watching a movie and I asked him what sex was and he went into a half an hour lecture on it. “But Jeremy left when I just started middle school so you know he never had the chance to be the kind of big brother who would tell me who to date and who not to, and as silly as that seems I feel kinda left out cause of that. But I talk to him about once every two weeks and we write letters now and then.”
“Well I’m kinda glad your brother isn’t here or I’m sure he would’ve told you not to date me.”
“That is so not true, I’ve told him all about you and he said you sounds like a great guy and he was so glad I found someone who makes me happy.”
“So you haven’t seen him in 4 years?”
“Nope, not even a recent picture. That’s why I am really looking forward to September. They’re having the wedding out there in California then and he asked me to the be there and be a bridesmaid and I told him there was no way on earth I could miss my brother getting married. Lance you really need to meet him someday.”
“What day is this on?”
“Umm I think it’s the 24th of September, I’m not sure though.”
“I think we’re off that week, how about I go out to California with you and that way I can finally meet your brother.”
“Oh thank you, thank you so much.” I said as I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“You know what come to think about it we’re still on tour then.” he replied. My smile quickly turned into a frown and I was ready to cry.
“I’m just kidding Jen, don’t go getting all upset.”
“Me upset, nah.” I joked as the door opened.
“Time’s up you guys. Did you two even kiss?” Kristin asked.
I gave Lance a quick kiss and left the closet. The game lasted around 45 minutes till everyone had been stuck in the closet at least once.
“So now what do we do?” I asked.
“Presents!” yelled Chris.
“None of you better have gotten me anything, I really don’t need anything else. Just spending my birthday with all of my best buddies is enough.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Presents!” Joey yelled.
“Ok fine, whatever.” for 30 minutes I sat there unwrapping all these gifts. Most of which were gift certificates to the mall and a ton of CD’s that I wanted like Jordan Knight.
Kristin handed me two packages from her one was tube shaped and the other was shaped like a square and it was obviously a CD. I opened the CD up first.
“Oh Kristin you got them! My weaknesses! BSB’s Millenium and the new Ricky Martin CD. How did you ever know I wanted these?” I laughed.
“Well gee let me think, probably cause I got tired of holding the bucket for you to drool in while you were looking at them in the music store. Open the other thing.”
“Ok, ok.” I said as I opened the long tubelike gift. It was a poster but I couldn’t figure out of what. “What the hell is it Kris?” I asked.
“Open it and find out.”
“Kristin, is this your idea of a joke, you know I never open these things without ripping them.”
She laughed, “Yeah I know, you’re such a retard.” she grabbed the poster from me and opened revealing the poster.
“OH my god Kristin you are so weird.” The poster turned out to be a giant poster of *Nsync.
“Yeah I know I shouldn’t have gotten it I mean I know how much you hate *NSync.”
“I know Kris, you need to use your head a little more dear. Why didn’t you get me a Backstreet Boys poster, they are so much hotter. You know about my wild fantasies I have about me and Nick right?” I said in a serious tone.
“Oh yeah, no wait which one? You told me 3 of them.”
“No, no, 1 was about Nick, 1 was about AJ and the other was about Taylor Hanson”
Everyone around us was silent just trying to figure out what was going on.
“Oh yeah! I remember now that Nick one was the really kinky one right?”
“Yup that’s it.”
“Ok, well I’ll wrap this poster back up and take it back tomorrow and get you that really sexy BSB poster, you know the one where they all are there with there shirts open?”
“Oh my god, you are the best thank you! That’s the best present ever!”
Justin, Lance, JC, Chris, and Joey all looked at me half in shock and the other half wondering what exactly was going on.
“Umm guys you do realize we’re joking right? I was only saying that cause I mean why do I need a poster of you guys? I mean I need a BSB poster I don’t need one of you 5 if you’re all right here, You know there ain’t nothin’ like the real thing baby.” I said kissing Lance.
“Aww you’re so sweet.” Joey commented.
“Thanks for the poster Kris, you’ve just gotta help me find the perfect spot for it later.”
“No problem.” she laughed.
After all the gifts had been opened everyone resumed spreading out among the house. Kristin and myself were the only two left in the living room. I took the new Backstreet Boy’s CD Kristin got me and put it in and turned it to the only song I knew on the album “I want it that way.” Kristin and I had claimed it as our song ever since the 2 of us along with 3 other girls in our school did this song at a lip singing competition our school had had not to long ago.
“Come on Jen, let’s do our number one more time.” she begged and then started to lip sing. I hesitated but after I looked around the room to make sure no one was watching I gave in and stood on the couch with her. We took the remote controls as our mics. I took Nick and AJ’s parts and she took the other 3 guy’s parts.
“Am I your fire? Your one desire? Yes I know it’s too late, but I want it that way.” I sang as Kristin and I danced around the room together when Ben walked into the room and started laughing.
“Man you girls are really strange.” he said.
“Ok yeah whatever, you’re just jealous cause you can’t dance as good as us.” I joked.
“Move over sister and I’ll show you dancing.” He said pushing Kristin our of the way and taking my hand. We danced around the room and I had to admit he was a great dancer.
“I’ll be right back.” Kristin yelled to me.
The song started over and Ben and I stopped dancing around the room and decided that plain old slow dancing was just fine so we moved closer to each other and I rested my head on his shoulder. The slow pace and my overall exhaustion got the best of me and I fell asleep dancing. When Ben finally realized I was asleep he led me over to the couch and covered me up and I slept awhile longer. They attempted many times to wake me up to say good-bye to everyone but I was to exhausted to move an inch, I didn’t even budge when the phone rang...
“Hello?” said Lance who answered the phone.
“Hello, may I speak with Mr. Hunter please?”
“He’s not here right now.”
“Well may I speak with Jennifer Hunter then please?”
“She is in a deep sleep so she can’t come to the phone right now.”
“Oh I see...”
“Can I take a message?”
“Who am I speaking with?”
“This is her boyfriend.”
“Ok, well I guess I can leave this message with you, just please notify Miss Hunter and Mr.Hunter as soon as she awakens. This is Madeline Michaels from the Kansas City Hospital, and there has been a accident.”
“An accident? With who? What happened?”
“There was a serious plane crash and I’m afraid to inform you that Mrs. Hunter was on that flight from Los Angeles.”
“Is she ok?”
“No sir, I’m afraid not, no one in the crash survived, I’m sorry, please pass this information along to Mr. Hunter and Jennifer. If either of them have any questions have them call me here and also so we can make arrangements.”
“Umm, ok I will, thank you.” Lance said hanging up the phone.
He didn’t know what to do, try to wake me up again, or what. He decided to let me rest and give himself some time to think of how to break the news to me. After a moment of thinking he ran upstairs to tell everyone what happened and to see if they could offer any suggestions on how to tell me. He went into all the rooms and gathered, JC, Justin, Erica, Tiffany, Chris, Joey, along with Alana, Kristin, Ben, and Alissa who hadn’t left for home yet.
“Oh my god, are you serious, this is impossible it can’t be true.” Tiffany said in an upset tone. “Jen is going to be so seriously devastated, she always said how her mom was always there for her through thick and thin and if anything ever happened she would die. Guys how are we going to tell her?”
“Well I’m not sure this isn’t an easy thing to deal with” Alissa said. “I lost my mom last year in a similar way and Jen had to break the news to me.” Alissa’s eyes started to swell with tears. “She came over to my house and sat me down on my bed and started giving me all these sayings for almost 10 minutes then she gave me a hug and told me what happened and I remember I went nuts, I was screaming and crying and throwing things everywhere, it was the worst day of my life. But Jen was there for me and we cried together and she helped me so much. So we need to break it to her gently then we all have to be there for her because she is really going to need us.”
The following morning I woke up on the couched and stretched and laid there some more, just simply relaxing with my eyes shut.
“Hey Jen are you up?” I heard Kristin say.
“Kris? Is that you? What are you still doing here?”
“We all need to talk to you Jen.” Alana said.
“Alana, you’re here too?” I opened my eyes and sat up and saw Ben and Alissa here too along with everyone else. “What do you need to talk to me about?” I asked.
“It’s about your mom Jen.” Lance said
“Is she here yet? I wanna see her so bad.” I said getting off the couch and looking around for her.
“Jen sit down, she’s not here yet it’s something else.”
“Oh...umm, what?” I asked.
“While you were asleep last night I got a phone call and they......they told...me that there was a plane crash and no one survived and ....Jen....your mom was on that plane on her way home.
I sat there staring at the white wall, I felt my tears ready to pour down my cheeks like waterfalls. “No, not my mom, stuff like that doesn’t happen to me it must have been another person with the last name Hunter. ” I insisted.
“Jen, it’s true, I’m sorry.” Alissa said hugging me. “You were there for me last year and now you’ve got all of us here for you, we’re going to help you get through this. You need to be as strong as you can.”
“No!!!!!” I screamed as I darted out of the house and got into my car where my keys were still in the ignition. I turned the volume up on my radio, my ears were filled with the powerful lyrics of “With you in Your Dreams” by Hanson. This song was not what I needed to hear at this time but I figured letting it play might just help me out. So I continued to drive off to somewhere where no one could find me.
“Where do you think she went?” Joey asked.
“I have no idea, let’s just all get in the van and go looking for her I’m sure she couldn’t have gotten too far.” Alana suggested. They drove off in search of me and looked everywhere turning the town upside down, but I was nowhere to be found.
“Damnit we’ve looked everywhere in this stupid town and haven’t found her anywhere, I don’t know where we’re suppose to go now.” Ben shouted.
“I know where she is, go to Blacknight creek about 5 miles east from here.” Kristin said
“Ok.” Ben agreed as he drove to the park.