***
Lance kicked angrily at a rock. "You know, you're not supposed to leave without security," Dre said.
"I don't care," he muttered. "I just want to be left alone."
"I can't let you do that. One fan sees you and you'll be torn apart, and then I'll get fired, and that would make my day just plain suck. Sorry."
"I'm sure you are," Lance replied, stopping so Dre could catch up. "Course I am. I was planning on spending the day with your little white butt anyway, so why not start out early?"
"You weren't planning to, you were told to," Lance pointed out. "There's a difference."
"Details, details," Dre shrugged. "It's all the same to me."
"Right. Hey, is that Lou?" Dre peered at the person getting out of their car in the hotel parking lot. "Looks like it."
"Wonder what he's doing here?" Lance mused. "Looks like he's coming this way."
"Lou! What are you doing here?"
"What, I can't check up on my boys?" Lou asked, waiting for them to walk over to him.
"You didn't say you were coming, I was just wondering," Lance said.
"Scheduling stuff," Lou said simply.
"You didn't schedule anything for Christmas, did you?" Lance joked. "Because..." he trailed off as they got into the elevator.
"Well, no, but..."
***
"Joey, spill it!" Chris persisted. The food had since arrived and they were all eating it. "JC's right. Lance has never forgotten to order breakfast in all the time we've been doing this."
"It was breakfast. It's not a big deal."
"Yeah, but the look he gave you was," Justin began, but he was cut off by yelling in the hallway.
"DAMMIT, LOU! The day after? Give me a break!"
"Do you find it necessary to argue with everything I say?"
"I don't argue with everything you say," Lance said, his voice rising. "But when you schedule flights a day after, and I don't know how the hell you managed that, by the way, and then a show two days after..."
"Do you want to lose fans? You need to keep yourselves in the spotlight."
"Bullshit, Lou." The guys exchanged glances as the voices got closer. "The fans won't mind if we don't give a show two freaking days after Christmas. This is just too much."
"Two days?" Justin mouthed to the other guys. He collapsed into a chair.
"Too much of what?"
"Can't you just cancel the damn thing?"
"You'll have two weeks off before it."
"That doesn't make a difference, Lou! The holidays don't just STOP at Christmas. There's New Year's too."
"New Year's isn't as important as Christmas. I call the shots here, Lance. And I say you perform on the 27th. Would you like to oppose me on that some more?"
"You're so full of shit, you know that?"
"Thank you."
"No seriously. Do you have like, a heart of stone or something? Or are you really that dictatorial just for kicks? Damn."
"Well I'm glad you think so highly of me."
"Oh, yes, would you like me to salute? There you go, Heir Pearlman."
"You little..."
"Leave me the hell alone." Lance stormed into his room and slammed the door. "Oh, you guys are still here?"
"Lance, what were you and Lou talking about?"
"He just..." Lance was cut off by the phone in his room ringing. "What?" he asked, answering the phone. "What do you want?" He paused. "I can answer the phone however the hell I want to. Unless you want to control that, too, sir," he said sarcastically. "No, I'm just not having a particularly good day. No, I don't want to share it with you. Was there a purpose to this call, or are you just trying to piss me off?" He sighed. "No, they all went to Siberia. Yeah. One way tickets...YES, they're here, Lou." His eyes widened. "What, now you want me to tell them? What the hell did you come here for then? Yeah. Course. Uh huh. Buh-Bye."
"What's going on with you today, Lance?" Justin asked quietly.
Lance looked up from the phone. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you don't order breakfast, you leave, we hear you come back and you're having a shouting match with Lou, and he calls and you two yell at each other some more."
"Nothing's going on with me," Lance said. "It's just that Lou added another show."
"And?"
"You didn't hear?" Lance asked, looking incredulously at Joey. He walked into the bathroom, leaving the door open.
"It's two days after Christmas. The 27th. And we have to be back at Orlando on the 26th." He open up a cabinet.
"We have to do it?"
"You heard me arguing, didn't you? And of course I was the one to argue, so I'm the one that's going to get the next lecture."
"That sucks."
Lance glared at Joey. "Yeah. It's time for the interview, let's go." He spiked his hair with gel before grabbing his jacket and waiting at the door.
"Aren't you going to eat anything?" JC asked.
"No." He held the door open for the other guys and followed behind Joey.
"What is WITH you today?"
Lance looked at Joey in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me. You wanna know? Maybe it's because someone whom I thought was my best friend is holding my biggest secret over my head. But maybe that's just me."
"LANCE! JOEY! COME ON!"
Lance shut the door with a final glare at Joey. It was filled with sadness, and it had anger in it as well. "Being an angel doesn't mean I can't have a horrible day once in a while," he said, jogging to catch up with the others.