It was nearly four in the morning when Joey got back to the room. He wasn’t drunk. He had just had a very, very good time at the party. There had been a huge party down in the Smoking Room that had Joey consuming many alcholic beverages in his six hour stay.

        He wasn’t tired, either, but he knew that if he didn’t get any sleep, Lance would kick his butt later for staying out all night before having some rest. So here he was, banging on the door with his fist. He had forgotten his key in the room when he had left earlier.

        It didn’t sound like Lance was in there. But he hit the door again just in case.

        There was a few rustling sounds, then Joey heard footsteps inside the room. A few seconds later, the door opened and Lance stood there, his hair sticking up on top of his head, his eyes barely open.

        “Hey there, man.” Joey grinned at the look of his young friend. But Lance wasn’t smiling. Joey tried not to laugh at the sight in front of him.

        “You do know what time it is, right?” Lance rubbed his chin, opening one eye completely to make sure he didn’t trip on anything. Joey still had left his clothes lying all over the floor.

        Usual Joey style, Lance thought.

        “Yeah. Sorry didn’t mean to wake you.”

        Lance pushed him inside since Joey was making no move to do it himself. “You’ll be waking people up and getting them mad at us,” he told Joey, who sat on the edge of his bed and was still grinning. “What the hell are you looking at?”

        “Kinda reminds me of that time that you and that girl were in that hotel room together and you got lots of people mad at you,” Joey said. “You know,” he smirked, “because of all that loud noise.”

        Lance pointed his finger at Joey. “Don’t start, man.”

        “Hey, I wasn’t the one that fucked her. That was you.” Joey smirked again and laid back on the bed, laughing.

        “Shut up.” Lance looked very serious. His mood had changed since Hannah had left a few hours ago.

        “By the way, I saw Janine in the Smoking Room,” Joey told him. “She looked pretty pissed off. Did you guys have a fight?”

        “More like a disagreement.”

        “About what?”

        “She wants us to get back together,” Lance said.

        “But you don’t.” Joey looked relieved.

        “Of course not. Not after what she put me through.” He got back under the covers then rested his head on one of the soft white pillows. “She hasn’t changed. She’s still the same manipulative bitch she always was.”

        Joey looked concerned. “I sure hope you’re serious this time. We don’t want you getting back involved with her. Not when we have a nice looking future in front of us. Did you know that we’re going to be one of the first boy bands ever? Man, we’re going to be making history.”

        Lance didn’t even want to think about the future. He just wanted to concentrate on right here on this ship, right now. He didn’t want the day to come where he would be saying goodbye to Hannah.

        But the day was coming too damn fast, Lance thought.

        “You’re off in another world, man,” Joey laughed. “What you thinking about?”

        Lance shrugged. “Nothing.”

        “Don’t give me that. You’ve been spaced out for days. And you’re never around. Where have you been hiding?”

        “Just around.” Lance rested his hands behind his head. “You know, checking out the ship.”

        Joey looked over at him thoughtfully. He knew Lance well enough to know that he was lying straight through his teeth. Joey had known him how long? It seemed like forever now.

        “Right, right.” Joey tapped his fingers against the bed spread, chuckling to himself.

        “What? You guys are the ones that wanted me to stop moping around about Janine and get on with my life. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

        “With who?” Joey inquired. Yes, this was getting interesting.

        “Nobody,” Lance said. But there was a hint of a smile plastered on his face. But Joey had since turned off all the lights, so there was no way of Joey knowing about his face expressions.

        Joey didn’t believe that for a second. But whoever the “mystery woman” that Lance had been spotted with several times over the past few days, Joey was convinced that she had somehow gotten through Lance’s wall.

        Before getting on this ship, Lance spent all his time cooped up in his studio apartment working on songs. He would often sleep with women, but he never brought them to his apartment. Lance somehow thought that that would mean letting whoever it was into his life, into his heart.

        And he didn’t want that. But now it seemed like that the time was changing. Was he ready to give up his heart again? Joey wasn’t so sure about that, but he was sure he and the other guys weren’t just seeing things when they’d noticed a severe change in their friend. A good change.

        But how was he going to figure out who she was? He couldn’t just ask straight out, because Lance would simply say that there was no mystery woman and that Joey was crazy, and he was just seeing things. He would say that he’s still the same Lance that first boarded this ship.

        But Joey wasn’t the only one that knew that there was a change. But getting Lance to admit to anything of the sort would be extremely hard.

        “You want to go down to the gymnasium with me tomorrow?” Joey asked him.

        He already had plans with Hannah, but Lance knew that lately he’d been pushing Joey, his best friend, to the side and it wasn’t fair.

        “Sure.”

        “Cool.” Now that he wasn’t so dizzy, Joey walked into the bathroom to change.

        Lance sighed out of relief and closed his eyes.

        I’m not in love with her, he told himself. I’m not.

        But he could still feel his heart racing after lying so close to her.

*****
April 13, 1912

        She was walking on the Boat Deck with Lisa pushing Johnny in his buggy when she had heard the words come out of Lisa’s mouth.

        “You and JC kissed?” Unsure if she heard right, Hannah repeated the words. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”

        “Believe it, cause it’s true.” Johnny started to cry so Lisa stopped and picked him up, rubbing his back in a soft caress.

        “When?” Hannah asked.

        It shouldn’t have been a big surprise that JC had finally kissed Lisa. For the last two days, the two of them had been seen everywhere together. It was bound to happen sooner or later. But Hannah had been so involved with finding her mother’s ring and Lance that she hadn’t really noticed.

        “Last night.”

        Lisa didn’t look the least bit happy about the whole situation. It was easy to understand after what Lisa had been through with her husband. She was afraid that the kiss meant nothing to JC, that he too would just walk away from her.

        She was sure that when they docked in New York in three days that she would mean nothing to him. He would be able to walk away without looking back, or even thinking about her.

        But Hannah thought differently. She knew that JC cared for Lisa very deeply. And he cared for Johnny, too. The two had become very attached.

        “We were taking a walk with Johnny. JC wanted to push him, so I let him. Which I shouldn’t have done.”

        “Why not?” Hannah asked.

        “Haven’t you noticed how attached Johnny has become to JC? But JC’s just trying to be nice. I don’t know if he feels bad for us. But even if he does, I know he doesn’t hang around just to help us. I know he really cares about us.”

        “Then what’s the problem?”

        “The problem is that Johnny’s become too attached,” Lisa sighed. “He’s smiling whenever JC is around, and he likes to suck on JC’s finger.”

        Johnny loved to suck on her finger, too, but Hannah couldn’t remember ever seeing him smile. It was a good thing, but when they arrived in New York and JC did just leave, Johnny could be emotionally scared. Not to mention Lisa.

        “What did he say after you guys kissed?” Hannah asked.

        Lisa shrugged her shoulders. “We didn’t say much after. He just walked us back down to our room. I put Johnny to bed and JC was still there. He went in there and sang him to sleep.”

        That had really effected her. With her ear against the door, she had listened JC singing to her son. His voice was absolutely beautiful, and Lisa had felt the tears slipping down her cheeks when she realized what her feelings were towards this man. This man that had been brought into her life and touched her heart.

        And when she realized that he would never love her like that, Lisa had decided to put a stop to this before it went any farther.

        “I told him just before he left that it would be a good idea if he didn’t come around anymore,” Lisa told Hannah. Hannah looked genuinely surprised and a little shocked.

        “Why?”

        “Because if he keeps coming around, it’s only going to hurt Johnny! I can’t do that to my son. Not again.” Lisa sobbed into Hannah’s sweater. “I can’t let anybody hurt him. I promised him I wouldn’t after George left.”

        “So JC agreed and told you he wouldn’t come around anymore?” Hannah wasn’t so sure that keeping them apart was the best thing Lisa could do. What if she couldn’t stay away from him?

        “Not exactly.”

        “What did he say?”

        Lisa took Johnny’s bottle out of the bag that Hannah had over her shoulder and fed him.

        “He said that he cared about us, that he wanted us to be friends,” she said. “But what about Johnny? He needs a father figure. What if he gets too attached to JC?”

        Right now, she needed Hannah’s advice. Though they had only known each other a very short time, Lisa felt extremely close to her. They had been in the same room for three straight days, and they often talked about everything. They knew each other’s life stories, and they had connected from the day they met.

        Lisa knew it was destiny that brought her on this ship. She was meant to meet Hannah, who had become her closest friend. She knew that JC had been brought into her life for a reason. She just wasn’t sure what the reason was yet.

        “If you’re really worried about this, you should be talking to JC not me,” Hannah said. But she really wanted to help Lisa in any way she could, but the truth was the only person that could help Lisa out with this problem was JC. They would have to really discuss what’s going to happen before Johnny really gets affected.

        Lisa sighed. “I know, I just don’t know what to say. You know?”

        “This isn’t just about Johnny, is it? You’re worried how you’d feel if you really start to have feelings for JC.” Hannah could tell that Lisa obviously had strong feelings for him because every time his name had been mentioned in the last five minutes of their conversation that Lisa’s eyes would cloud and darken.

        “I’m afraid I already do,” Lisa murmured.

        “You already do?”

        Lisa nodded, but she didn’t look very happy about it. And she wasn’t. She felt miserable and she was very, very scared. She just wasn’t ready to get involved again, though she was sure he didn’t want to, either. But she could no longer deny her true feelings. But it was hard because of what George had put her through.

        Could she really trust her heart again?

        The next words that came out of Lisa’s mouth even surprised her. “I think I’m in love with him.”

       

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