“What?” Chris asked.
“There’s... oh my,” I mumbled again. “I need to go do something...” I then quickly walked to the table where JC, Joey, and Justin were seated. “Hey, where did Kelly and Lance go? I saw him carry her out.”
“Back to the hotel,” JC answered.
“They what?!” I asked. “You did just say back to the hotel...”
“Yeah, why?” JC asked absently. I sank down into a chair.
“No... that’s not what is going on. They aren’t going to do anything... well, they might, but I highly doubt it,” Justin interjected. “Joey pushed her down...”
“I didn’t push her!” Joey exclaimed.
“Okay, Joey tripped her and she hurt her ankle pretty bad. It was turning a pretty purple color when they left,” Justin explained.
“I didn’t trip her!” Joey insisted. “She just fell, all right?”
“Joey, you don’t have to cover up the truth with us,” Chris joked.
“I didn’t trip her or push her!” Joey insisted, sitting down again.
“Okay, we’ll take your word for it,” Justin said, his voice telling everyone the opposite.
“Listen, the girl hit a barbed wire fence and totaled her car... I think she can fall without my help,” Joey said, pointing out the way he saw the situation.
The six of us around the table got quiet and let that sink it. “You have a really good point there,” JC said thoughtfully.
“Thank you. I’m glad you see it my way,” Joey said.
I tried to turn the conversation back to Kelly. “Well, is Kelly okay?”
“We don’t know. Briley, don’t worry about her. Lance will take good care of her,” Justin told me. Suddenly, he jumped up. “Joey and Chris! You two ever seen the view from that balcony out there?” Justin pointed.
“Justin, are you feeling okay?” I questioned.
“I’m great! So, you guys seen it?”
“Yeah,” Chris slowly answered.
“Oh... well.... Joey! Check out that girl over there! Chris, you would like her too!”
“Justin, I don’t see any girl,” Joey said, confused.
“You don’t? Hmmm.... then, can I talk to you two outside?”
“I don’t think so,” Joey said, sipping a soda.
“I think so! Come now!” Justin commanded, dragging Joey and Chris away, leaving me alone with JC.
I wondered why Justin was acting so strange, but then, shrugged the thought aside. ‘I’m alone with JC, I need to make the most of it,’ I thought. Then, I spoke. “Hi.”
JC gave me a weird look, but answered. “Hi.”
“How’s it going?”
“I’m pretty bored right now.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Briley, it’s not your fault.”
“I know, but...”
“Don’t worry about it,” JC interrupted. We sat in silence for the next ten minutes while Justin, Chris, and Joey returned.
“What’s going on?” Justin asked, sitting down.
“Well, you see that girl over there?” JC pointed to a red-head in a short skirt. “I think I’m ready to make my move on her.”
My head snapped up and my mouth dropped open. “I think I need some fresh air,” I mumbled, jumping up and running out of the room. I stood on a small dock overlooking a lake when I heard footsteps behind me.
“Briley?” Justin quietly asked.
I quickly wiped my tears away so he wouldn’t see that I had been crying. “Yeah?” I sniffled.
“Listen, um... I can’t stand this. I know how much you like JC.”
“How’d you know?”
“Lance told me.”
“Kelly must have told him.” My head was spinning and things felt out of control. “Why would Kelly tell you guys that? I don’t get it.”
“You two are best friends. Kelly just wants you as happy as she is. It’s understandable... I mean, if I was a girl, I’d like him.”
I started laughing. “I didn’t really want to know that...” Justin shrugged. “Now that you know- yeah, I really liked him.”
“Liked?” Justin asked.
“Yeah, liked. There is no way he would like me now. First, I didn’t bring him his order back in December, I’ve done countless stupid things since then, and just now, I had the opportunity to impress him, but I blew it. He won’t give me another look now. I’m sure of it.”
“Listen Briley, your trying too hard. Just be yourself.”
“I’m trying.”
“You aren’t hearing me. You need to be the real you around JC. Be the person you are right now with him. I know beyond a doubt that JC would fall for you if he got to know you.... the real you.”
“How can you be so sure?” I questioned.
“Because, I know my man, and you are perfect for him.”
“Thanks Justin,” I said as I hugged him.
“No problem.”
“By the way, sorry you got stuck baby-sitting me right now.”
“You can’t baby-sit your friends.”
I smiled. “Hey Justin? I’m leaving. Just thought I’d let you know.” Justin and I both turned around to find JC standing behind us.
“What happened?” JC just gave Justin this look that said, ‘Do we have to discuss this now?’
“Well, I went over to talk to that girl, and apparently, she knows who we are. Well, according to her, I’m a stuck-up snob because of my job who isn’t worth her time. I think that sums everything up,” JC explained.
“I’m not ready to leave yet, but Briley mentioned being tired, so would you mind taking her back to the hotel?” Justin asked, looking at me. To help play the situation up, I yawned.
JC was quiet for a second, then he smiled a little. “Yeah, sure.”
The three of us walked into the main club. JC and I left, while Justin sat down with Joey and Chris. JC and I went to get in his jeep. He unlocked the door, then hesitated, but a second later, opened the door for me and waited until I got in so he could close the door. He walked to the other side and got in.
“Briley... I’ve been treating you unfairly. My entire concept of you was based on just a few events. If you don’t mind, I want to give this friendship a chance. Do you care?” JC said all of this in a rush.
“No, I don’t mind. I’d like to get to know you,” I answered. There was an awkward silence. “So, you like jazz music, right?”
“Yeah, it’s cool. What about you? What types of music do you like?”
I laughed. “That’s hard to answer. I like so much stuff... jazz, swing, rock, ska, pop, country... I listen to a large variety.”
“That’s cool. Helps you to be a well rounded person.”
We continued talking until we got to the hotel. We found out that we have alot in common. JC pulled up into a parking space. “I had a good time getting to know you as a person... beyond what websites say,” I said.
He laughed. “A lot of stuff on the internet isn’t true.”
“I know, but every once in a while, you’ll find something that is true.”
“Not very often!” The two of us laughed.
“Well, good night,” I said, putting my hand on the door handle.
“Briley?”
“Yeah?” I turned back to him.
“You must not go out with gentlemen alot,” JC said, matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean?” I was sort of shocked.
“Well, a real man walks a lady to her door.” He then got out of the jeep. I turned slightly so that he wouldn’t see me smile to myself. He opened the door of the jeep and I got out. JC and I were silent as he walked me to the hotel room.
All too soon for me, we arrived at the room. “Well, thank you JC.”
“No problem. If you can, put in a good word for me with Lance.”
“Huh?” I asked, confused.
“Lance has been teaching me southern hospitality and how to be a real gentlemen.”
I smiled. “He’s a good teacher.” JC just shrugged and blushed.
I slowly smiled. “Go Briley!” She turned a slight shade of red.
“Your embarrassing me,” She said. The phone rang then, scaring the both of us. I reached over and picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Hi Kelly. It’s JC. Can I talk to Briley?”
“Yeah, sure,” I covered the mouthpiece as I gave Briley the phone. “It’s JC,” I whispered.
Her eyes lit up and she grabbed the phone. “Hello?” She was quiet for a minute. Then, she said, “How about the night we were going to the beach? After we get home?” She listened and said, “Great.” A second later, “Bye.” She handed me the phone. As soon as she heard the click of me hanging it up, Briley squealed.
“So?” I excitedly asked.
“He asked me out on a date!” Both of us screamed.
“What’s going on?” Alex moaned, sitting up.
“JC just asked me out on a date!” Briley yelled.
“Huh?” Alex mumbled.
“Just trust us on this one,” Briley yelled excitedly.
“Okay,” came the sleepy reply. Alex rolled over and went back to sleep.
I looked at the clock and saw how late it was getting. “I’m going to sleep,” I announced to Briley.
“All right. Good night.” Briley walked into the other room.
First thing the next morning, the phone rang. I blindly grabbed for the receiver. I picked it up but as I brought it to my ear, it slipped out of my hand and landed on my head.
“OWWW!!!” I cried out. Then, I put the receiver to my ear after finding it. “Hello?” I groaned.
“Kelly?” Justin said.
“Yeah?”
“Did you fall on something?”
“No. I dropped the phone on my head!”
Justin began to laugh. I heard four voices asking what happened. He was laughing but managed to say, “Kelly...d-d-dropped the phone...” He was laughing again harder. “On her head!” Four other male voices chimed in on the laughing.
“Stop laughing! It hurt!” I exclaimed. Justin laughed even more. I sat up. “I’m so glad I have the ability to amuse you with my pain.” All five continued to laugh. I stood up and put weight on my hurt ankle. “Wa-hoo!” I yelled.
“What?” Justin asked, after he stopped laughing.
“I can walk!”
“Great!” Then, I heard him say, “Hey guys! She can walk!” I heard a cheer go up.
“May I ask why you called?” I suddenly asked.
“Just to let you know we were leaving to pick you three up,” Justin answered.
“Okay, see ya soon!”
“Bye!” We hung up. I woke Briley and Alex up. That was an experience! Soon, the three of us were dressed. Briley wore shorts and a sleeveless purple shirt. Alex was wearing a pair of shorts that were over-alls and a baby blue shirt. I had on blue jean shorts and a black and white Adidas jersey. As we sat waiting for Lance, Justin, JC, Joey, and Chris to arrive, we sat around talking.
“So Alex... what happened last night?” I asked.
“Don’t even get me started on that!” Alex exclaimed.
All of a sudden, Briley jumped up and opened the door. There the five of them stood, and Justin had his hand up to knock on the door. “How did you do that?” He asked her. Briley shrugged.
“ESP?” She suggested. The five of them came into the room. Justin walked over and slipped his arm around Alex. Lance sat down next to me and lightly kissed me. JC just stood awkwardly across from Briley. The room grew quiet.
“So Alex, are you going to tell us this story?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“What story?” Justin asked.
“About last night,” Alex sighed.
“Actually, Jon doesn’t surprise me anymore. Nothing you mentioned before is new... except for the ear...” Justin explained.
“Come to think of it, living with Tyler is exactly your experience last night. Why don’t you just skip to where he wanted to be like Justin?” I suggested.
“Is that all right with you all?” Alex asked.
“Yeah.” Briley, Joey, JC, Chris, Lance, and Justin answered.
“Okay, so I was in the bathroom cleaning peanut butter out of my hair...”
“Jon?!” I yelled, running down the stairs. No answer. “Jon?” I rounded a corner and ran into the crying five year old. “Jon?” I knelt down next to him. “What’s wrong?”
“Uhhh!” He wailed.
“What happened?”
“Uhhhh...I.... uhhhh!!!! Fdjojinajdkasjl.... Justin!”
“You want Justin?” He shook his head. “Slow down and try again.”
“I.... uh.... I .... uh.... uh.... alfkdkasjfdjustin!”
“One more time.”
“I wanted to be like Justin!” He wailed.
“What did you do?” I asked. He kept crying. I then noticed his hand over his ear. “Does your ear hurt?” Jon nodded. “Will you move your hand so I can see?”
“No!” He continued to cry.
I gently set my hand on his shoulder. “Please?”
“No!” He cried out again, jerking away from me.
“Will you tell me what you did?”
“I wanted to be like Justin!” was Jon’s answer.
‘Hmmm...’ I thought. ‘What about Justin would make Jon hold his ear?’ My eyes wandered to a family portrait on the wall and my gaze landed on the small gold hoop in Justin’s ear. “Oh no!” I said out loud. “Jon, did you try to pierce your own ear?” He kept crying, but he nodded. “Come on buddy, let’s go make it better.” I scooped Jon up into my arms and carried him to the bathroom, where I sat him on the edge of the bathtub. “Can I see your ear now?”
Jon slowly took his hand down. The skin was broken and it was bleeding a little, but nothing compared to what I expected. “I’m sorry Alex. I just wanted to be like Justin,” he whimpered.
“It’s okay,” I told him. I put a little bit of medicine on his ear along with a small band-aid.
“Is that better?” I asked him. He shook his head. “What do you want me to do?”
“Can I have some ice cream?”
“Yeah, come on.” Jon stood up and took my hand. Once in the kitchen, I fixed him a small bowl of chocolate ice cream with sprinkles.
“Will you watch a movie with me?” Jon asked as we walked to the living room and he sat on the couch.
“Sure. What do you want to watch?”
“I want to watch ‘Hercules.’” Jon answered.
“Okay.” I put it in the VCR. Jon finished his ice cream, walked across the room and crawled into my lap.
“Alex?” He asked.
“Yeah?”
“I love you.” Then, he fell asleep. Two hours later when Lynn and Paul got home, that was how they found us.
“Give me a break! One sweet thing all night!” Alex exclaimed.
“One day when I have kids they’ll be like... well, at least the last part where he was sweet,” I said.
“Well, who are you planning on having these kids with?” Justin asked.
I didn’t answer right away, but I noticed all the others looked at Lance. “Why?” I finally asked.
“Well, it depends. You see, if you have them with Lance, they’ll be terrors because the two of you are so well-mannered, calm, and laid back. However, if you had them with someone like Chris, they would be angels,” Justin explained.
“Thank you Dr. Freud,” I told Justin. “That’s something to look forward to,” I continued sarcastically.
“Hey! Thanks alot!” Lance exclaimed.
“You know I was kidding,” I said with a smile and kiss.
“I know. Your too sweet to be really mean,” Lance said with another kiss.
“Ewww!!!” The rest of the group yelled together. I just stuck my tongue out at them.
“Nuh-uh Kelly, you save that for Lance,” Joey said.
“Yeah Joey! You know it!” Alex exclaimed. “They can’t keep their lips off of each other!”
“As if!” I yelled. “We can too!”
“Give me a break!” Chris called out from across the room. Then, he paused. “Wait a second... you two have kiss like...”
“Okay, Chris, let’s not go there, okay?” Lance said, blushing.
“Aww, come on Lance... give us a little inside info on you two,” Justin joked.
“Nope,” Lance said.
“Dude, come on!” Justin pressed.
“Don’t do it Lance.. .it’s peer pressure!” I said quietly. This made the group laugh. After the eight of us quit laughing, I stood up and stomped my foot. “When is the fun gonna start?” I whined.
“Right now,” Joey said as he jumped up and picked me up, slinging me over his shoulder. He proceeded to walk out the door, the others following.
“Hey Lance! Aren’t you supposed to be rescuing me now? This is a classic D.I.D. moment!” I hollered.
“D.I.D.?” I heard Lance say.
“Damsel In Distress,” I answered.
“Oh... yeah...” Lance said. Then, he broke through the group, stopping in front of Joey and I, singing the Mighty Mouse theme. “Here I come to save the day!” He put one hand up in a stop type of way. “Stop evil doer! Hand over the girl, and no one gets hurt!”
“Sure. And what will you do about it if I don’t, Shorty?” Joey asked, standing up straighter to make himself tower over Lance even more.
“I’ll... I’ll...” Lance was at a loss for a comeback.
“Bite his ankle?” Justin suggested.
“I’m not that short!” Lance cried out indignantly.
I was now aware that Lance was not going to think of something to get Joey to put me down. “Joey!” I whined.
“Okay, Lance, you can have her. She’s whining,” Joey said, literally handing me over to Lance.
“Good. Seeing the world from that angle just wasn’t a pleasant experience,” I said.
“Why do you say that?” Briley asked.
“The only thing I could see was Joey’s butt,” I explained.
“What? You don’t like it?” Joey asked, twisting around so he could see his own backside.
“Joey, don’t take offense to this, but I wanted down, didn’t I?” I put my arms around Lance as he carried me onto the bus. We all found places to sit down. As their tour bus began the short trip to Disney MGM Studios, I asked, “Can you guys answer a question for me?”
“Yeah,” They all said together.
“Will you be singing ‘Sailing’ tonight?”
“Probably, yeah,” Lance answered.
“All right, that’s so not fair!” I exclaimed.
“What isn’t?” JC asked.
“You all will sing ‘Sailing’ in Orlando, but not St. Louis? That’s not fair! That’s the only song I really wanted to hear! I wanted to help make an ocean of people dangit!” I said.
“Will it help if we dedicate it to you tonight?” JC asked.
I pouted. “Maybe.” Lance kissed my cheek. “Getting closer.” He then kissed me on the lips. “Alright, that’ll work.”
“Geez Lance... what will you have to give her if we forget to mention it?” Justin asked with a sly smile.
A thoughtful expression came over Lance’s face. “You can forget it!” I exclaimed, laughing.
It wasn’t long after that before we arrived at the park. As soon as the bus stopped, Lance, Justin, JC, Joey, and Chris were whisked away to their first duties that day held.
