ftch6

Chapter 6

"THIS SUCKS!" JC yelled at the top of his lungs. Mandi rolled her eyes at him from her place on the couch.
"Calm down. It�ll be okay."
Just as Mandi had predicted, the rehearsal dinner discrepancy was not the last of their wedding problems. The florist had run out of their kind of flowers. The caterers backed out. At least the church hadn�t ducked out on them.
"No, no it won�t be okay. It sucks!"
"Okay, it sucks. But� we can� you know, fix it."
JC looked over at her and smiled.
"How come I�m the one freaking out and you�re the one staying calm? That never happens."
"Because� I don�t know."
He sat down next to her.
"Is it really going to be okay?"
She nodded.
"It really is. We just have to make a few extra phone calls, that�s all. Plus, we still have the church, and that�s the most important thing."
"You�re right. You�re always right. Just a few extra phone calls. Yeah."
She smiled, stood up, and walked over to the phone book.
"Okay. First thing. Food."
JC stood up as well.
"Yeah, because Joey might not come if there�s no food."
Mandi grinned.
"Hell, I might not come!"
It took them almost half an hour, but they managed to find a decent caterer. Not as good as their original choice, but they took what they could get.
"Okay," Mandi said smiling. "That�s taken care of."
JC was surprised at how well she was handling this. Usually she flipped when anything went wrong with the wedding.
"Next order of business�"
He took the phone from her and set it down on the counter.
"Let�s take a break."
He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her close to him and kissed her softly. Mandi could literally feel her knees wobble, and she leaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. But, as luck would have it, the doorbell chose that moment to ring. JC pulled away in surprise.
"Dammit! That better not be Justin or I�m gonna kill him."
Mandi smiled.
"I�m sure you�ll be very intimidating with lipstick on your face," she said as she reached up and gently wiped his lips on her sleeve. He grinned at her and went to the door to find Justin standing there.
"I�m gonna kill you."
Justin raised his hands in defense.
"But I didn�t do anything. I swear!"
JC rolled his eyes.
"What do you want?"
Justin wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively.
"Why? Is this a bad time?"
He grabbed his sleeve and pulled him inside, shutting the door behind him.
"Yes. What do you want?!"
"I want to talk to Spicy."
"Yeah, well, she�s busy. Okay, bye bye!"
"Actually, she�s free at the moment. Hi Superstar," Mandi said, appearing beside JC, who sighed and threw his hands in the air.
"Are you guys conspiricizing against me or something? Is that even a word?"
Justin looked at Mandi.
"Can you turn him off? He�s gonna explode in a few minutes."
Mandi laughed and playfully slapped Justin on the back of the head.
"Dork. But really, what do you want?"
He pushed past them and walked into the living room, sitting down and making himself comfortable. JC rolled his eyes and followed Mandi in after Justin.
"Oh, please J. Come in. Have a seat. Make yourself at home."
Justin propped his feet up on the coffee table and gave JC a big grin.
"Don�t mind if I do, thanks."
JC looked at Mandi.
"Can I kill him, please?"
She smiled and sat down next to Justin.
"First I wanna know what he wants."
"I want girlfriend advice."
"Ooh� Britney giving you a hard time?" she grinned.
"You could say that� well, I mean, it�s not really her fault. We just never see each other. And it�s just starting to really get to me. And then when we do see each other, it�s not the same. It�s like� it�s really awkward. It�s not like she�s my girlfriend; it�s like she�s a fan or something."
Mandi sighed dramatically.
"Well J� as much as I hate to say this, because you know how much I adore Britney� I think you�d be better off without her."
He looked over to JC, who was leaning against the doorframe watching them.
"What do you think?"
"I think� that if it doesn�t feel right, then maybe you are better off without her."
Justin nodded, stood up, and wiped his hands on the front of his jeans.
"Thanks, guys."
And he was out the door and in his car, leaving JC and Mandi to finish what they�d started.
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Wedding day

JC was up at the crack of dawn that morning, and he slowly slid out of bed, careful not to disturb a sleeping Mandi. After digging around in his beside table for a pen and paper, he quickly scribbled a note and left it on her pillow before grabbing his keys and getting in his car.
"Mands-
You were still sleeping when I left for J�s. Besides, I�m not supposed to see you today, right? But just think, next time we see each other, you�ll be Mrs. Joshua Scott Chasez. I love you.
-Me"
Mandi smiled at the sweet note and sat up, slowly stretching her arms above her head.
"Oh my God� oh my God, I�m getting married today!"
She jumped out of bed too quickly and ended up falling flat on her face.
"Ow."

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4 hours to go

JC stood nervously on Justin�s front step, waiting for him to wake up and open the door. He pounded on it a few more times.
"Justin Randall! Open the damn door!"
Justin appeared then, glaring at him, wearing nothing but thin flannel pajama bottoms.
"What in the name of God do you want?"
JC pushed past him and walked inside.
"I�m getting married today. Today! Today is my wedding day!"
Justin rubbed his eyes.
"Oh yeah, that. Want some coffee?"
JC nodded and sat down at the kitchen table, trying desperately to stop his knee from bouncing up and down. Justin looked at him and laughed.
"Nervous?"
"Just a smidge."
He sat down after handing JC his coffee.
"Well, calm down. It�ll be fine."
"I know it will be fine, I�m just nervous. People are usually nervous before their wedding, right?!"
Justin couldn�t help but laugh at his panicked expression.
"Yeah. Don�t worry about it, man. You�re going to do fine, and everything will be perfect."
"What do you know? It�s not your wedding day. I bet everything is going to get screwed up and nothing will go right and Mandi will hate me and-"
"And you�ll find some way to blame it on me," Justin smiled. "Dude, you gotta relax. Seriously. Think of it like we think before concerts all the time. If you sit there thinking you�re gonna mess up, then you�re gonna mess up. You have to be confident. Don�t have any doubts. Forget your troubles, c�mon, get happy!"
JC laughed and shook his head.
"Yeah, I know. I just got the jitters, that�s all. I�ll be fine. I just need to relax, and I�ll be fine."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 � hours to go

Mandi opened the front door to find Whitney standing there with a big bouquet of flowers and grinned.
"Thank you so much! Come on in!"
Whitney smiled and stepped inside, giving Mandi a once over. She was still in her pajamas, her hair was half done, and one eye had makeup on while the other didn�t.
"What, do you like have 50 people working on you or something?"
Mandi laughed, a nervous laugh.
"No, just my friends are here."
"Yeah, well, you look like you�re being attacked from all sides!"
Mandi looked at her and grinned.
"They can do you to, if you want."
Whitney walked farther in and set down the flowers on the kitchen table.
"Really? That would be cool."
"Okay!"
Mandi grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the big bathroom where makeup and hair were being done. She introduced her friends to Whitney before pushing her down in a makeup chair.
"So how�s Lance?"
Lance�s mother had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and he had to fly home to Mississippi to be with her. JC was a little disappointed that he wouldn�t be at the wedding, but family came first.
"Oh, he�s doing pretty well. We haven�t talked yet today, though."
"But he�s doing good with everything? That�s great."
She sat down on a chair opposite Whitney and closed her eyes to allow her makeup to be finished.
"Oh yeah. He�s doing fine. So much better than I thought he would."
Mandi smiled.
"Sounds like Lance. Well, I�m really happy things are going good for you guys."
Whitney leaned forward and patted her hand.
"I�m even happier for you."
Mandi stood up suddenly.
"What time is it? How much time do we have?"
Whitney�s eyes flicked to her watch.
"It�s 12:30."
"How much time do we have?" she repeated.
"About an hour and a half."
"That�s it?!" Mandi sat back down and put a hand to her forehead. "Oh my God."
Whitney smiled comfortingly at her.
"Can you believe it? After all this waiting."
Mandi looked up and gave a half smile.
"No� no, I definitely cannot believe it."
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"I�m sweating! Oh my God! Is that sweat?" JC pointed to his forehead.
Justin leaned forward and looked closely.
"Yes, I believe it is."
"Oh no! I need another shower."
He dashed upstairs with Justin right on his heels, grabbing the back of his shirt and pulling him back down.
"No you do not. Now I�m gonna say this one more freakin� time. CALM DOWN!"
JC ran a hand through his hair.
"I�m sweaty, Justin. I smell. She�ll hate me!"
"You don�t smell. And she�s seen you sweaty before. She�s come to rehearsals with us how many times? C�mon man, you�re scaring me."
JC stared him down.
"Just let me take this shower."
"No! It�s my house and if you step inside that bathroom I will kick your ass out and I won�t be your best man." He pushed him down on the couch. "Just stay there!"
"Fine!" JC crossed his arms and pouted.
"Good. You better behave, or I�ll beat your ass down. Now, I am Justin Timberlake, International Man of� like, strength or something."
JC sighed and mumbled.
"I thought you were Justin Timberlake, my best friend."
"Well, yeah, that too."
Justin grinned and plopped down next to him on the couch.
"And as Justin Timberlake, your best friend, I will not be allowing you to, like, explode your head from stress."
JC looked over at him.
"J? Can we play� any video games?"
"You�re getting married today and you want to play video games? Ook, whatever man."
JC then concentrated on beating Justin at NBA2K.
"Haha, you gots no skills!"
Justin elbowed him.
"Shut up. I am Justin Timberlake, International Man of Nintendo."
JC laughed at him.
"Ha, I�m kicking ass!"
"You are not!"
"You want a rematch then?"
Justin gave him his very best evil grin.
"Yeah, and you�re going down."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 hour to go

Whitney was leaning forward with her chin in her hands, staring into space dreamily.
"Wow� it must be so wonderful."
Mandi was getting the last finishing touches put on her hair and makeup.
"It is� God, I can�t believe it�s really happening though."
Whitney stood up and examined herself in the mirror.
"I look really nice. Thanks, everyone."
Mandi stood up as well.
"I should probably go change."
"I thought you were going to do that there?"
"Oh� yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. I�m okay."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Whitney looked at her sparkling eyes and smiled.
"You�ll be so beautiful."
Mandi blushed.
"So will all of you."
"You�ll be the queen."
She shook her head.
"I�m not a queen."
"Of course you are. It�s your wedding day."
"Yeah, but� I don�t wanna be a queen or anything."
"Everyone dreams of being a queen, silly!" Whitney laughed.
Mandi shrugged.
"I never really did."
"You didn�t play house and� Barbies� and fake weddings?"
"I didn�t really have anyone to play with."
"Oh. Well, just think how much fun it�ll be when you have kids, to watch them play those games."
Mandi smiled and nodded.
"Yeah� when I have kids."
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45 minutes to go

JC downed a can of Sprite in two big gulps and wiped his mouth.
"I guess I should change."
"Yeah, me too."
Justin went into his bedroom and came out with JC�s tuxedo in hand.
"You can change in the bathroom."
JC walked out after about 15 minutes and stared at himself in the full-length mirror.
"Wow, I look� fat."
Justin walked out, fastening his bow tie, and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, shut up idiot. You are anything but fat."
"This tux is too big for me! I should�ve had it altered again!"
"It�s fine! You�re starting to sound like a girl. Let�s just get going."
"Justin�" JC sounded petrified. "I can�t move."
"What are you talking about?"
"My feet� they�re stuck to the ground."
"What did you do, step in super glue? Ha, that rhymed."
JC closed his eyes.
"I can�t go to the wedding. I can�t go."
Justin pulled him over to the couch and sat him down.
"It�s your wedding. Of course you can go."
"What if no one likes us anymore because I�m married?"
"Then� who gives a shit about them? Don�t tell me you�re not going to get married because of what a bunch of 12-year-olds might think."
"I just don�t want to� hurt you guys in any way."
Justin patted his back.
"You�re not hurting us� we�re happy for you. And who cares about us anyways? She is most important in your life, and we know that. Okay? Stop worrying. Everything�s gonna be fine, man."
JC sighed.
"Yeah, you�re right. Deep breaths. Can I just sit here for a little bit?"
"Yeah, but we have to go soon."
JC laid down on the couch and closed his eyes for a moment.
"Okay, that�s enough, let�s go!!!" Justin yelled at him.
"Will you drive me there?" JC asked, without opening his eyes.
"Uh, yeah, I�m going there too, genius."
He pulled JC up and walked out to the car, JC being careful not to get dirty. The ride was silent, but quick. JC jumped out as soon as the car was stopped and quickly ran inside.
"Wow. We really went all out."
Justin came up beside him.
"Yeah, you did. It�s really nice."
He looked at JC and gave him a big grin, trying to ease his nerves.
"Ready?"
JC took one last deep breath.
"As ready as I�ll ever be."

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15 minutes to go

Mandi was standing quietly in her dressing room, listening to the sounds of almost 200 people in the sanctuary. She ran a hand lightly over her stomach before a soft knock on the door startled her to the point that she almost fell over.
"Jesus, Chris! You scared the hell out of me!"
He grinned and walked over to her.
"Good. You look really nice."
She smiled.
"Thanks. You don�t look so bad yourself."
He looked her up and down.
"You know, if I was a younger man, I�d-"
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"You wanna walk me down the aisle or not?"
"Of course. I get to give you away. I feel important."
She laughed at him and rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, Chris."
He smiled and held out his arm to her.
"Ready?"
She linked her arm with his and took one last deep breath.
"As ready as I�ll ever be."