Part 21

 

 

Vegas July 28^th

 

“Okay, that one is hot,” Becca exclaimed as she pointed towards an NBA player on the court during the skills event at CFTC.

 

“If you say so,” Alex said, looking at Becca pointedly.

 

Becca somehow kept forgetting that Alex was playing a guy in public.

 

Becca saw the look and grinned sheepishly. “Oh yeah, right. That’s not your thing. How about that blonde girl, Willa something or other? More your type right?”

 

Alex snorted and turned her attention back to the challenge.

 

“My God, that man is delicious,” Becca said a few minutes later. Alex rolled her eyes but followed the direction of her friends gaze and saw that she was watching Justin. He was in the process of stripping down to show the wife beater underneath his shirt.

 

It was kind of funny how everyone thought Justin was hot she just couldn’t see it. Okay he was attractive but he didn’t have those piercing blue eyes or sweet smile that JC did. Besides, she’d seen first hand how much of an ass he could be.

 

She eyed Becca before commenting. “You know he has a girlfriend right?”

 

Becca stuck her tongue out. “I can still look and look I will.” She watched as he was dunked in a water tank and the water glistened over his body. She blinked a couple of times before turning back to Alex. “So, what do you want to do after this?”

 

“We could order some food at the hotel and chill there until the party tonight.”

 

Becca nodded. “I have an idea about what we can do in the meantime.”

 

“Umm, what?” Alex asked nervously after seeing the impish gleam in Becca’s eyes.

 

Becca grinned. “You’ll see,” she said, before turning back to the games.

…

 

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” Alex said as she watched Becca from her position on the bed in the hotel room.

 

“Come on, Al. Who’s going to see us?” Becca was busy removing makeup from her bag and setting it up on the dresser.

 

Becca had gotten it into her head that it would be fun to make it a girly afternoon. This would include pedicures, facials, makeup and trying on their new clothes.

 

Alex watched her warily.

 

“Oh stop looking at me like that. You know you want to do this,” Becca admonished.

 

Alex heaved a sigh before shrugging. Becca was of course completely right. Alex was having a hard time thinking of excuses not to do it. Besides, it wasn’t as if they were going to leave the hotel room.

 

“Okay let’s remove these first.” Becca removed Alex’s glasses and passed a jar of cream to her. “Slather that on your face and then we’ll do our nails.”

 

A half an hour later, their toenails were painted and dry and Becca was working on Alex’s makeup. She was in the middle of doing Alex’s eye makeup when there was a knock on the door.

 

Alex’s eyes widened in alarm. Who could that be? she mouthed to Becca. Becca shook her head and mouthed back, I don’t know. Becca hushed her and walked over to the door. “Who is it?” she asked.

 

“Room Service.” Came the muted voice at the other side of the door.

 

Becca shot a relieved glance over her shoulder at Alex but Alex still moved to the other side of the room so that the waiter couldn’t see her when Becca opened the door. She knew there was little chance that he would know who she was but she couldn’t risk it.

 

Becca was already speaking as she opened the door. “I’ll just take—“ she stopped abruptly when she saw that Justin and Joey were the ones on the other side of the door, not a waiter.

 

Joey grinned at her. “Hey Becca. Alex around?” He peeked over her shoulder to look into the room.

 

Alex closed her eyes when she heard Joey’s voice. Oh wonderful. She pressed her hands against the closet door behind her and slowly tried to slide it open.

 

“Ah…no.” Becca tried to block the opening a little more with her body. “S—He just stepped out.”

Justin gave her an amused look. “Could we have this conversation inside the room? We like to be out of open hallways as quickly as possible.”

Becca blushed. “Oh, oh sorry. Umm. The thing is…” She looked at them nervously. She didn’t have much choice she had to let them in or they would think something was up. She just hoped Alex had heard them and slipped under the bed or something. “Umm, okay.” She stepped back and both men stepped inside the room.

She closed the door and quickly stepped in front of them, carefully looking around the corner to see if Alex was hidden. She was and Becca turned back to the guys with a heavy sigh of relief.

 

Justin was looking at her strangely and she felt her cheeks get redder. He must think I’m the biggest freak, she thought as they walked further into the room.

 

“So yeah. Umm what were you saying?” she asked, surreptitiously glancing around the room trying to figure out where Alex had hidden. There weren’t that many places. She was either underneath the bed or inside the closet.

 

“Alex. Do you know when he’ll be back? A few of us are going out for dinner in a little bit before we go to the club,” Joey stated.

 

“Oh, not long maybe a half an hour. I’d come back then—or I could have him call you when he gets in.”

 

Joey nodded. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go with that. And the invitation includes you of course.”

Becca smiled her thanks and tried to move them back towards the door. “Okay great. Thanks. I’ll tell him when he gets back.”

 

Justin, who had remained silent for the entire conversation, finally opened his mouth and Becca wished he hadn’t. “Did he go to the store?”

Becca blinked. “Uh, yes. He had to pick up some things.”

 

“Why’d he leave his wallet?”

 

Becca looked at the spot he was pointing to and saw with dread that Alex’s bag and wallet were haphazardly laying on the coffee table. Shit, she thought. Anyone who knew Alex knew she rarely forgot things. She was always mocking Becca for forgetting her keys or bus pass. Perhaps these guys didn’t know her very well. She could only hope.

 

Alex had been listening to the whole exchange and groaned inwardly when Justin spoke up. Admittedly, after she’d calmed herself down at almost being discovered, she’d been listening to the exchange with continued amusement. She wondered how Becca would lie her way out of this one.

 

Joey frowned. “Alex never forgets things. Weird.”

Becca swallowed nervously. Okay, so maybe they did know her well. “Oh wow. That is weird. He’s going to be pissed when he realizes he doesn’t have it.” She attempted a cheery laugh and hoped they didn’t see through it.

 

Justin gave her a probing glance and Becca could tell that he knew she was hiding something. He didn’t comment on it though. With a lazy shrug, he turned towards the door. Joey followed him and before they left the room, he reminded her to let Alex know about the plans for the evening.

 

When Becca closed the door firmly behind her, she slumped against it exhausted by that brief exchange and the lies she had spewed. She wondered how Alex did it every day.

 

Speaking of Alex…”They’re gone,” she called.

 

Alex slid open the closet door and as soon as she saw her friend leaning against the room door wearily, she burst out into laughter. “That bad, huh?”

 

Becca pushed herself away from the door and frowned. “How do you do it every day?”

 

Alex shrugged. “It was hard at first but now…now it’s like second nature.” She quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, we better clear away this stuff.”

Becca nodded and they both set to cleaning up the place.

…

 

Dinner went by without a hitch. Alex spent most of the time goofing around with Becca and JC and Becca spent a lot of time trading glances with Justin. This annoyed Alex quite a bit. Justin was really good at playing the charmer and the flirt and since Britney was sitting right beside him at the table, she didn’t want him involving her best friend in his mind games. She’d have to talk to him about it later.

 

And later was now, Alex decided as she sat in the VIP lounge of the club. Becca was below on the dance floor dancing with Joey. Alex chuckled as they pretended to freak dance. The guys as usual had scattered around the club Chris and Lance were taking shots and Justin was just coming back after playing DJ for a few minutes with Jermaine Dupri. She frowned when she found JC. He was having a conversation with one of the skanky girls that had been hanging around the whole day.

 

She hated these girls. Dressed as whorishly as possible, flirting with bodyguards, bouncers, and roadies, anyone that might be able to introduce them to the guys. The guys laughed at them and called them star fuckers behind their backs but that didn’t stop them from taking what the girls offered.

 

It had appalled her at first. She’d never seen this kind of thing before. There had been girls at school that threw themselves at the popular boys but this was on a completely different level. If these girls made a career of it, it would be called stalking. What had been more shocking had been the guys’ reaction to it. They didn’t blink an eye when a girl flashed them. She’d seen all of them except JC, he’d been dating Vella at the time, accept a sexual act or two from them.

 

It had tarnished her image of them a little at first but now she was the one barely blinking when Lance took the hand of some token girl and headed down the dark hallway to the bathroom. That was just how things were. Maybe she wouldn’t have been quite as okay with it had it been JC leading the girl to the bathroom. In fact, she knew she wouldn’t and that was probably the reason that she felt physically ill when the girl he was talking to slid her hand up his thigh.

 

She abruptly turned away and went over to Justin who was watching the dance floor. Britney had disappeared outside after getting a call on her cell phone and he was completely alone.

 

“Hey man,” she said, taking a seat beside him.

 

He inclined his head and smiled. “S’up?”

 

Alex wasn’t sure how to start the conversation. He was in a good mood and she had a feeling he wouldn’t be when she finished talking to him. “Okay, don’t take this the wrong way but it’d be really good if you didn’t flirt with my friend. You have a girlfriend, man.”

 

Justin raised both brows before laughing. “Are you serious? I smiled at her a couple of times that’s not flirting.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “That’s all it is to you but you don’t seem to get that it’s not the fact you’re smiling, it’s how you’re smiling.”

 

Justin sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Whatever, man. I won’t mess with your girl don’t worry about it.”

 

“What? Becca is–is not my girl,” she sputtered. “I know it’s difficult for you to understand the concept of the platonic relationship with a member of the opposite sex but you’ll have to try. Just don’t lead her on, okay? You want to hook up with some random chick to piss Brit off fine—But leave my friend out of it.”

Justin glared at her. “What the fuck is up your ass?”

 

Alex wasn’t sure. All of a sudden she was angry but the words weren’t really directed at him at all. She was angry with JC. Angry that he was going to pick up or let himself be picked up by someone who didn’t even care about him. Not like she did.

 

She took a deep breath and exhaled, turning her attention back to Justin. “Look, this wasn’t how I meant to do this. I just, I know you don’t do the charming thing on purpose. It’s part of who you are and I understand that. I’m just asking that you be careful of who you’re directing it to. Sorry, I bit your head off.”

 

Justin looked at her seriously before nodding. “It’s cool, man. Like I said, I won’t mess with her.”

 

“Thanks,” she said and stood up. “I think I’m going to head out. It’s been a long day.”

 

“Tell Lonnie or Mike and they’ll bring you back.”

She nodded and turned away. She was walking towards the stairs that lead to the dance floor when JC called over to her.

 

She looked back at him over her shoulder and saw that he was alone now. She brushed away the feeling of relief and walked over to him. “Hey.”

He grinned and pointed to the seat beside him. “Sit. I feel like I haven’t seen you all night.”

 

“I’m surprised you noticed. That blond you were talking to seemed to take up all your time.” The jealous sounding remark came out before she could stop herself.

 

He was surprised at the statement. “Her? She was cool actually. She really knows her music.”

 

“That’s nice,” she said dispassionately.

 

“Yeah…uh, you okay?”

 

“Fine,” she faked a grin. “So anyway, I was just about to head out.”

”Oh, okay—actually I think I’ll head out with you.”

She shrugged. “Sure.”

 

They both got up and went separate ways, JC to get Mike to drive them back to the hotel and Alex to let everyone on the dance floor know that they were leaving. Becca wasn’t quite ready to leave yet and Lance promised to bring her back whenever she was ready to go.

 

She met back up with JC and they walked outside. Fans were lined up outside and JC gave a couple autographs before he dashed into the car with Alex close behind.

 

Alex slouched down onto the leather seat and closed her eyes.

 

“Tired?” She looked up and saw JC looking at her.

 

“A little, yeah,” she said.

 

“Too tired for popcorn and a movie?”

 

Alex looked at his smiling face and whatever anger she had been feeling at him slowly disappeared. “I’ll never be too tired for popcorn and a movie.”

 

“Meet me in my room at…” he glanced at his watch. “One thirty.”

 

She smiled. “It’s a date.” Her face suddenly flushed with colour. “I mean, not a date. You know—I didn’t mean it like…”

 

JC chuckled. “I get it, Al. I know what you meant.”

 

Alex gave him a lopsided grin and as she turned to look out the window, she let it slip off her face. The problem was that he didn’t. He didn’t get it at all.

 

 

 

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