chapter 17 / chapter 19
"You will always be a part of me, I’m part of you indefinitely. Boy betcha, no, you can’t escape me . . . Ooh, darlin’, ‘cause you’ll always be my baby," blared the speakers at the dance club, called ‘The Roll’.
"I haven’t heard this song in a while," I yelled to Laura. The music was deafening, and I could barely hear over it. I wondered if she heard me, and I was about to repeat it to her, when she yelled back to me, "Yeah, I know!"
I took JC’s hand, and led him over to the bar. "What do you want to drink?" I asked.
"Just a vodka," he replied. I handed some money to the bartender, and faced JC. I smiled.
"Come here," I mouthed. I pulled him in between my legs, and wrapped my arms around him. "You are so hot," I told him, in his ear. I kissed his ear gently, and traced my finger along his neck. "You know what?" I asked.
He leaned in, and said, "What?"
"We haven’t had sex yet." I paused. JC pulled away, and looked at me, his face surprised, which caused me to smile. I turned around and grabbed the two drinks we had gotten. I got off my seat, and handed him the drink. "Cheers!" I swallowed the drink, and placed it back onto the bar. "I’m going to go dance."
I quickly walked my way onto the dance floor, and found Susie. She was dancing with Joey, and laughing. I smiled, and wondered if those two were gonna have a hook-up. My gaze went past her, to Justin. He was involved in a major lip-lock with a brunette. I grinned. Everyone was hooking up.
I looked behind me, to see Chris. Alone. Drinking. Well, not everyone was gonna get something, I reasoned. I didn’t see Lance or Laura. I strolled back to JC, and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Have you seen Lance or Laura?" I asked him. He shook his head no. I shrugged.
"You wanna dance?" JC asked me, turning around. I shook my head yes.
"Let me go to the bathroom, first, though," I told him.
"Girl, you always have to go to the bathroom first," he remarked. I shrugged, and walked over to where the bathrooms were, and tried to open the door, and found that it was locked. That was weird, because it was one of those bathrooms, where there were stalls inside. I knocked on the door, and put my ear to the wall.
I heard a moan, and I backed away. I looked back to the dance floor, and quickly scanned the room. I snickered, and ran back onto the floor, to get JC.
"JC!" I yelled. He turned around, and mouthed, ‘What?’. I motioned for him to come over to me. When he got to me, I said, "Go get Joey, Chris and Susie.. And Justin, if you can. You have to see this." I grinned evilly.
"Why?"
"Trust me, you’ll see. And meet me by the bathroom," I told him. I turned, and went back to the still locked rest rooms. There was a couple of girls waiting, and I decided to speak up. "I’m sorry," I said, "but the bathrooms are being fixed right now. You’ll have to go next door." They got an annoyed look on their faces, and left, grumbling.
I laughed. JC came a couple of seconds later, with everyone.
"So, what’s the big deal?" Chris asked.
"Put your ear on the door, and tell me . . . " I took a breath, trying to stop laughing. "Tell me what you hear."
Chris placed his ear on the door. He became wide-eyed. "Okay," he said. "I know what I just heard, but why should I care?"
"What’d you hear?" Justin asked, confused.
Chris laughed. "There’s two people having sex in there. But who cares? Let’s leave them alone."
"You do care. Look around. Who’s not here?" Chris scanned our little crowd. He burst out laughing.
"Oh my Lord," JC commented. A thud came from in the bathroom. We all looked at the door, to see it open. A disheveled Laura and Lance came out. (Laura, are you happy? You should be. Very happy.)
"Well, well, well . . . Look who decided to join us," Joey said. "Did you have . . . fun?"
Laura’s mouth dropped. "Oh yes." She took a deep breath. "Much more than any of you probably ever had."
We burst out laughing. I looked back at Justin. "Justin? Are you going to introduce us?"
He looked at the girl beside him. "Yeah. This is Amanda."
"Does she have a last name?" Chris asked him.
"If I’d known there was going to be a pop quiz, I would have studied harder. Why don’t you ask her. She’s not incapable of talking, you know," Justin remarked.
Amanda laughed. "My name’s Amanda Asher. I’m 18."
"Oooh, she’s robbin’ the cradle," Joey observed.
"Not hardly. I just turned 18 yesterday." She smiled.
"Well, my name’s Meredith," I told her, stepping forward. "This is Susie, and Laura."
"Cool. Who are you three going out with?" she wondered.
"JC, the sleeping wonder here, is mine. Laura and Lance are a thing, and Susie isn’t dating anyone. She’s single. She’s also the tour manager. And I, I’m the person who makes sure that they don’t look stupid in public." I grinned.
"That’s cool. And please, make sure they don’t look bad. There’s this magazine, where they all look like shit."
"Oh, yeah, thanks," Justin grumbled.
"So you’re a fan of us?" Lance asked.
Amanda nodded. "But I’m mostly Justin’s fan, anyway."
"Oh, she’s Justin’s fan!" JC laughed. "Goodie!" I poked him in his stomach.
"Stop acting like a kid," I commanded. "It’s immature, and . . . ugh. Let’s go dance." I grabbed his hand, and started off to the dance floor. "It was nice meeting you, Amanda."
"Yeah, same to you," She called after me.
I moved out of a couple’s way, and began swaying to the beat of the fast paced music. "I’ve got so much energy to waste!" I told JC. "I’m so hyper!"
He smiled down at me. "That’s good." The lights went down a little bit, and the DJ’s voice blared out.
"It’s time to slow it down for a little bit. Take a breather with a couple of slow songs," he announced.
"But I don’t want to slow dance!" I cried out, unhappily. The DJ put the new song on, and the song was unmistakable. My breath caught in my throat, and tears immediately welled up in my eyes. I glanced around, and saw my friends staring at me, to see what I’d do. I looked back up at JC. "Can we go sit down?" I asked.
He shook his head no. His hand came up to my face, and put his fingers over my eyes. My eyes closed. The music streamed into my head, and the tears I was trying to hold back, came forth. I opened my eyes again. "I can’t take this."
He leaned down. "It’s okay to cry," he told me, and gently kissed my eyelids. A sob escaped my throat. I pulled him close, and hugged him tightly.
"Don’t ever leave me," I said. As the song ended a few silent moments later, we pulled apart, and wiped the tears away. "I’m really glad, that I wore water-proof mascara."
JC laughed weakly. "You want to leave?" he asked me. I nodded my head. "Okay. Just stay right here." He left my arms, and went to go tell his friends that we were going back to the hotel.
***
I leaned into JC’s arms, and closed my eyes. He held onto me, as the taxi swerved around corners, on the way back to the hotel. The cab driver couldn’t drive for shit, and made me slightly nauseous and I clutched onto JC’s arm. The car stopped, and I got out, slowly as JC handed him the fare. I made my way into the hotel, and up to my room, JC behind me. I reached my door, and turned to kiss JC goodnight. I descended into my room, and started to close the door, but JC stopped it.
"What?" I asked.
He smiled softly, and leaned to me. "You know what?" he murmured into my ear. I grinned, and asked him what. "We haven’t had sex yet," he lightly answered. He came into my room, put a ‘Don’t Disturb’ sign on the handle, and closed the door behind him.
***
Laura let loose a loud burst of laughter, and stumbled to a stop in front of her and Susie’s room. She got out her key, and tried to open the door several times, before noticing the sign. "Oh, what’s this?" she asked herself.
She turned to ask Susie, and saw that she was alone, and remembered that Susie was with a guy that she’d met at the bar. She giggled again, and turned back, to leave to go stay with Lance, in his room.
