Chapter 20
The eight of them arrived at the club, with the boy's five bodyguards. It was a cool night for July and they had all worn jackets and were walking towards the club when a cold breeze came whistling through the parking lot. The girls all shivered and clung to the guys.
Lauren grasped Lance's hand tightly as they entered the club. Lance slipped his arm around her and paused at the door. 'This looks familiar' he thought to himself. Looking around the club he realized that it looked just like the one in his dreams. Shaking the thought out of his mind, Lance pulled Lauren into his arms and kissed her. Heading to a table in the corner they took their jackets off and everyone went to dance. About an hour later they had all finally gathered back at the table and were sitting around talking, laughing, and drinking. They had all gotten their favorite drinks thanks to JC, Chris, and Joey. Chrissy was drinking her favorite champagne and sitting close to Justin, Carla had been drinking her Strawberry Daiquiri and taking small sips from Chris' beer, the rest of the guys had their own beers, and Lauren, sat on Lance's lap drinking a strong screw driver. They sat there for a while just relaxing trying to forget about what had been said that day.
Lauren stood and started to turn away from the table. She felt Lance grab her hand and stand up beside her. Reassuring him that she was only going to the bathroom to fix her makeup and that she would be right back, he sat back down and Lauren left the laughing table.
A few feet from the bathroom Lauren heard a familiar voice and stopped right where she was. She scanned the crowd around her as she looked for the face that matched the voice. 'They aren't here!' she told herself. She continued to look around and the dream from earlier came flooding back into her mind. In the dream she had left the group at the table and then ran into 'them' on the dance floor. She noticed that this club seemed almost identical to the one in her dream, and started to look for the face that matched the voice around her harder. She had not moved from where she stopped but she knew that she could quickly run to the bathroom if she found them.
Lauren shivered as she realized her dream was becoming real. Everything was just like the dream, right down to what she was wearing. She tried to search for the voice she heard, as her heart began to pound in her chest and throat. Swallowing hard she heard the voice again. 'Oh my God' she thought as she finally caught sight of the four men standing 25 feet from her. Quickly she turned and ran into the bathroom and the first stall. She locked the door and fell against the wall shaking. "This isn't happening," she said quietly. She sat against the wall trying to figure out her mind. The dream was very similar to this but there was no way that the same thing could happen. 'It doesn't matter if the dream is coming true. I still have to get the 8 of us out of here, and not let any of the guys know why. 'Come on pull yourself together.' She thought scolding herself. 'You can do this. Just go out walk right pass them without looking at them, tell Lance you are tired and need to go to sleep, and then they will be willing to leave.' She realized her plan might work and stood up. Lauren walked out of the stall and to the bathroom mirror. She could see the fear in her own eyes and knew that Lance or Justin would see it too. She did her best to cover it up with the best fake smile she had, and once she convinced herself that it might work she walked out of the bathroom.
Lauren walked out of the bathroom and stopped. She hid in the dark cover made by the hallway and looked to find the guys from earlier. She immediately saw them and started to look from face to face trying not to remember. Looking at the first man, she recognized him as Jeremy, the youngest of the three brothers. They had never really gotten along and seemed to disagree on everything in the world. Looking at his medium build and height she shivered as she remembered the times they had argued only to have the argument ended by one of the other boys. They definitely did not like each other and could careless what happened to each other. She knew that the only time he was actually a violent person was when he was drinking, but by looking at the half full glass in his hand she figured he had been drinking. Lauren's gaze went to the next man, Sam. He was her sister's husband. He was taller then the other brothers, but also bigger in all ways. His muscular build had always made those around him fear him. His temper was the worst of all the boys and could blow up at anything for no reason. Lauren thought of the times she had heard him arguing with her sisters, and he always ended up winning because her sister feared him. Taking her eyes to the next man Lauren smiled, Matthew. One of the boy's best friends, but could have been their brother. He never really scared her. He just had an intimidating factor about him that made her listen to him. Matthew never liked it when Lauren would party with her friends, and he seemed to be the only one that would not let her drink at their parties. He was definitely very protective of her until the divorce and then he just became and ass hole to her. Her sister had dated him for a while after the divorce, but it turned out that was all part of their plan to have a way of knowing what they were doing. Shaking her head in disgust she moved onto the last guy. She saw Jake, he was the middle boy and the smallest of all of them. Jake was the one that Lauren was closest to. They would always talk and giggle together. He would protect her from anything in the world and she remembered how he was the one she felt safe with. They would always hug and give each other kisses on the cheek, and just be really close friends. But that all ended when her sister divorced Sam. The normally caring, loving Jake turned into a mean, spite for Jake. Lauren had made many attempts at just being friends with him, but that all ended when the prank calls started and the threatening letters started to arrive. She remembered one letter in particular, it was from Jake to her sister but in it he stated that he would do anything to get her sister to come back to the family and knowing how close they were that he would even figure out a way to get to Lauren if he had to. Lauren knew that he would still be upset about everything that happened and could try to get to her if he saw her. Lauren felt her heart start to pound as she thought of having to walk back across the dance floor to the other side of the room where the table was. She was afraid to walk along but there was nothing she could do now.
Lauren jumped as she felt an arm slide around her shoulder. Automatically her left arm shoot back and hit the person hard in the stomach. She heard the person gasp and let go of her shoulder. Looking down to see whom it was she saw the blonde curly hair and said, "SHIT! Oh Justin sorry!"
"Hmm, hold!" is all her could mumble between breaths.
"I am so sorry Justin! You scared me," Lauren said bending down to where Justin had doubled over. As he started to breathe more normally he stood up to look at her.
"Damn girl! Next time remind me not to get near you and those lethal elbows. But I had been saying your name for like five minutes and you never heard me. What were you concentrating so hard on?"
"Oh, nothing! You know me I was just off in my own little world!" Lauren said flashing the fake smile she had practiced and trying to make her words believable.
"Well, let's get back to the table. Lance was worried when you didn't come back after a few minutes and I told him I would find you." Justin said.
"Okay, don't want to keep my baby waiting!" Lauren said still smiling and she took Justin's arm in hers feeling a little safer having him there to walk with. She kept her eyes glued on the four men as she walked back across the dance floor. Reaching the table she smiled widely and tried to make her eyes glimmer. "Hey baby!" she said giving Lance a quick kiss and hug and then sitting on his lap. "Do you think we could leave early? I am really tired and have a headache!"
"But Lauren we just got here about two hours ago. Are you sure you want to leave?" Looking into her eyes he tried to read her expression, but she was not revealing anything to him. Her eyes did look tired and he asked "Is something wrong? You like to go dancing a heck of a lot more then I do, and if you are wanting to leave then something must be up."
"No…nothing is wrong! I am just tired from all the crying and stuff. I just need to go to sleep and not wake up till morning. Please Lance!" Lauren begged.
Lance looked at the rest of the group and said "Hey guys let's cut this night short. I think we have all had enough adventure for the night. Let's go get some sleep."
"Okay, we need to find Chris and Joey though." JC said. He had watched Lauren and Lance talk and he also knew something was up but couldn't figure it out. Of all them Lauren liked to go out and party and have a good time the most. She was always the last one ready to leave at night. He shook his head and stood up putting his jacket on.
"Well, let's split up. Then it should take less time to find them. And we can get out of here quickly." Lauren said, as she stood up and pulled Lance off his chair.
"Sounds good to me. Let's do it boys against girls…first one to the limo wins. We'll go look for the Chris, Carla should have some ideas as to where he is, and you boys go look for the Stallion. We'll meet back at the limo in like 5 minutes with or with out Chris and Joey." Chrissy said as she kissed Justin goodbye.
"Hey wait. Take a body guard with you!" Lance said.
"Nah, it's just five minutes and there are three of us what could happen?" Carla said. With that the three girls were out in the middle of the dance club looking for Chris. "He might be at the bar!" Carla said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back at the table ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Guys, do you think we should have let them go by themselves?" Lance asked.
"You wanna be the one to stop any of them?" Justin joked then they went to find Joey.
It wasn't long until they found him hitting on a pretty blonde. They told him that it was time to go, and after a few grumbles he said goodbye and they went out to the limo.
"Well, I wonder if the girls found Chris yet?" Lance said slightly worried about them being alone in the club. He wished he had insisted on going with them or sending one of the guards. But he couldn't make them doing what they did not want to do.
"Who knows." Justin said. When they reached the limo they didn't see the girls and started to worry a little more. A few minutes later they saw Chris walking towards them.
"Hey Chris! Where's the girls?" Lance asked, becoming more worried with each passing minute. It had been 10 minutes now and they had agreed on meeting in five minutes.
"I have no clue. I came out to get a different shirt, some girl split her drink on this one when I went to get a drink." Chris answered "WAIT aren't they with you?"
"No they went to look for you, we're leaving." Justin said now starting to become worried himself.
"I'm sure they will be right here. We'll give them another five minutes. They probably are still wondering around looking for Chris. You know how those girls can't stand to lose. They'll give up in a few minutes and come here just like we planed." JC said giving everyone a calm looking face, while his heart pounded in his chest, trying to convince himself as much as everyone else that everything was okay. They all stood around the outside of the limo and looked quietly to the entrance of the club.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile back inside the club ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"He's probably found the guys and they are all at the limo" Chrissy said looking at her watch
"It's been over five minutes. Come one let's go to there."
"Okay" Carla agreed.
"Yeah, let's get out of here. NOW!" Lauren said looking around, as she had been the whole time. She had been pretty successful at seeing where Jake, Sam, Matthew and Jeremy where, until a minute ago when she had lost sight of them. Her hands shook as she looked around, she had been able to cover the fear on her face by smiling and trying to be cheerful. After not finding Chris she became worried and had been trying to get them to go out to the car for a while now. But Carla did not want to give up. "Come on girls let's go."
They started to walk towards the entrance and exit of the club. They were half way there when Lauren felt someone grab her left arm and pull her back. Stumbling she yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?" as she turned.
Chapter 21
