| Chapter Twenty Five |
| "Hey." She hadn't seen of them all day, and now they were all standing in her doorway, ten minutes before lunch. "How about lunch?" Chris took a seat, the other's doing the same, except Justin who climbed on the desk. "I'm busy." She decided to play hard to get, they needed to learn to give her more notice. "Busy?" This was all too new to JC, first she was leaving town without telling him, and now she had made plans for lunch. "Brianne, don't you love us?" Justin leaned toward her, getting a glimpse of what she was typing on the computer. "Yeah, of course." She swatted at Justin, making him retreat to a chair. "What are you working on?" He took the practical approach. "Tour dates, venues, interviews, stuff like that." "So pretty much a schedule?" Joey clarified. "Yeah, pretty much. Not the official one, but what you will have time for and such." She looked back to her work for a second, then back to them. "Oh yeah, lunch is fine, you just need to learn to give me more notice." "Ha ha, very funny, we thought you had gotten new friends and didn't love us anymore." Chris whined, crawling onto the desk where Justin had been. "I wish I had." She saved the program, then stretched as best she could in the chair, ready to join them for lunch. "No you don't." He countered, then climbed from the desk to wait at the door. "You're right." She made her way to JC, standing before his day dreaming figure for a second, waiting for him to stand and join her. "Josh?" "Oh, I'm sorry." He stood, looked around, then become aware he wasn't in the least bit sure what they were doing, last he had heard she was busy for lunch. "What are we doing?" "Going to lunch." She tugged at his shirt, telling him to come with her. "You're coming with us?" He glanced from person to person, each giving him odd looks. "Yeah, I was playing when I said I was busy. Do you feel okay?" She put a hand to the back of his head as they walked to the elevator. "I heard you're going to your parent's tonight." Justin pushed the elevator button. JC had confided in him the night before she was leaving and hadn't told him until then. "Yeah, would you like to come for dinner?" She looked to all the guys, each one thinking over her question as they entered the elevator. "Can't make it, Friday's my date night." Joey chimed, and Lance and Chris quickly declined the invitation also, only Justin and JC agreeing to go. "Okay, I planned to leave right after work." She informed, pulling her cell phone from her purse to call her parent's to tell them of the new guests that would be joining them. "Hi Momma, we are going to have two more people for dinner, okay? Josh and Justin, yeah, of course, I'm leaving right after work, I'm not sure, yeah, you're horrible, I will, love you too, bye bye." By the time the conversation was over, she was seated with her lunch. "What'd she say?" Justin peered over at her, thankful she hadn't pulled the reason he was upset last night from him yet. "She wants to know if you'd like to stay the weekend." "I'd love to, waited on all weekend baby." Justin did a short happy dance in his chair, that consisted mostly of swiveling his hips and throwing his arms in the air. "I'm not sure if I can, let me check a few things." JC observed Justin for a few more seconds then turned back to his food. "Don't feel obligated, it's just an invitation." She put a hand on his, while Justin threw him an uncertain look. "How are we doing this? Seperate cars?" Justin sat with JC and Brianne in her office, work had finished a little over ten minutes before. "I don't care, what about you Josh?" Brianne sat at her desk, not sure what was going on in JC's head, or Justin's for that matter. She needed to talk to both of them, Justin about the night before, and JC about his behavior that day. All day he had been unusually quiet, not saying more than three words at a time, when she did see him. "I'll take my car, I'm still not sure if I can stay all weekend." His head hung slightly, not sure what was wrong with him. "I'll ride with you." Justin said excitedly, a little too excited for her taste. "Ok, go home and pack, we'll all meet at Justin's in, an hour?" She looked down at her watch, desperate to know what JC had planned for the weekend. "Fine with me." They both replied, already standing. "Ok, I'm going to stop by the store for snacks and such for the drive, any prefrences?" "I want Gatorade." Justin left them alone, ready to start his weekend. "How about you?" Already gathering her things and headed toward the elevator, she stopped by JC. "I'll get my own, don't worry about it." He stood, depositing a kiss on her cheek. "I'll see you in an hour." Then he left for the studio without a reason, leaving Brianne no choice but to ride down the elevator by herself. She giggled as she thought about the fact that she hadn't ridden the elevator alone since her first day to the best of her recollection. An hour and a half later she had pulled both men from Justin's house and to the cars, Justin protesting he wasn't yet ready. She had finally given him two minutes to grab whatever he needed and meet her in the car. JC had still been acting unusually quiet and it was eating at her. "Are we finally ready?" She sighed at Justin as he climbed into the car, a number of things in his hand, including a book of CDs, some sort of cards, and a few other things she couldn't clearly see. "Yeah, we are." He slid a CD into the player, trying to keep her from asking her about the night before, he had brought along all kinds of things to distract her. And it worked, for ten minutes, as soon as she hit the highway, she turned down the music. "We have an hour to talk about last night." She informed, letting him start on his own. "Bri, please, don't make me tell you." He pleaded, turning to glance at JC's car behind them. "Justin, you worried me, can you at least tell me what the nature of the problem was?" She blew a kiss to JC as he pulled up beside them on Justin's side. "No, I can't, I'm sorry, but I just can't." He looked over at JC, throwing him an angry glance, causing JC to immediately slow down and duck behind them. "Fine, leave me out in the blue." She tried to lighten Justin's sour mood, then turned the music back up. |
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