Jamie threw a pillow over her head and groaned. There was an obnoxious banging on her hotel room door, and she just wanted it to stop. She roll over, running into something rather hard and warm, and she opened her eyes just enough to see Justin sleeping heavily.
“Justin…” She whined, pushing his shoulder. “Justin!” The banging became more incessant and she really wanted to go back to sleep. The room was still dark and that meant that it was still too early for her to be up, and coherent.
“I know you’re in there boy! Get that scrawny ass out of bed now!” Jamie recognized Andy’s voice outside the door and she sighed.
“Justin!” Another sharp shove to the shoulder proved to be useless, so she rolled on top of him and covered his lips with her own. When she felt him start to respond she pulled away and watched as his eyed fluttered open.
“Good morning sunshine.” He smiled at her and she rolled away.
“Boy, don’t make me get hotel security!” Justin glanced at the door and let out a primal grunt.
“Oh…what’s got his panties in a bunch?”
“I don’t know…but he’s yours…go shut him up.” Jamie threw the pillow back over her head and tried to block out the rest of the world as best she could.
“Gee, thank for your love and support sweetie.”
“Any time, sugar cakes.” Justin rolled his eyes and walked to the door, opening it to find a steaming Andy, breathing fire.
“Whoa! What’s your problem?”
“My problem? My problem is a skinny ass white boy that should have been in a van to the venue a HALF HOUR AGO!” Justin’s eyes widened and he looked at the clock. It read 7:30 and at that moment he started to pray.
“Oh shit!” He threw the door shut in Andy’s face and ran frantically around the room, collecting his things.
“You better be out here in five minutes…you got that Justin? Five minutes or every curl on your head becomes straight….and I ain’t talkin’ hair products.”
Jamie sat up in bed and watched Justin jump back and fourth. He looked rather comical, his hair standing up in different directions, his sweatpants twisted sideways. She covered her smile when he looked at her.
“What’s so funny? I’m about to get turned into pop-star pure and all you can do is laugh?” Jamie crawled out of bed and over to a steaming Justin.
“Calm down…I’ll pack your clothes, go get dressed.” She kissed him and swatted his butt when he walked by.
Two minutes later Justin went flying out of the bathroom; he grabbed his bags and flew out the door, past Andy and to the elevator as fast as possible. Jamie stood in the doorway and smiled at Andy.
“Good morning Andy, I’m sorry he wasn’t up.”
“It’s not your fault sweetheart, Justin hasn’t quite got the concept of alarm clocks…he’d rather go the brutal route. The van in coming to pick you up in half an hour. It’ll take you to the venue where you can meet up with the guys. We’re leaving for California after that, so make sure you have everything…and get all Justin’s stuff too…the boy is very forgetful.” Jamie laughed and patted Andy’s arm.
“Sure thing….go easy on him, will you? I think he put himself through enough torture this morning.”
“Oh, don’t worry about Justin…he’ll be just fine.” He laughed, a deep rumble, and then continued toward the elevator where Justin was still waiting, impatiently.
“Andy…hey buddy! How’s life treating you?”
“Terrible…I got stuck with you.” Jamie laughed and closed the hotel room door behind her. She looked around the room at the mess Justin had created in his haste to get ready.
“That boy is a slob.”
There was a knock at the door and Jamie knew exactly who it was.
“I just saw your boyfriend get carried away down the hallway by some guy with a really big tattoo.” Jamie walked into the room, closely followed by Luke.
“I know, I got sick of him and had Andy take him away.” Luke’s eyes widened and then he started to laugh.
“I’m glad you’re not my girlfriend.” Jamie threw him a dirty look.
“Speaking of girlfriend, what’s your current situation? Anyone special in Luke’s love life?” Luke sighed and plopped down on the unmade bed and threw Jamie a sidelong glance before answering her question.
“The love life is loveless…I need a man James! JC wouldn’t happen to be gay, would he? Please don’t break my heart Jamie!” She laughed at him and started throwing her clothes into her suitcase.
“I’m sorry Luke that I don’t know. Honestly, I’ve never asked.” He humphed and threw himself back, covering his face with the pillow. Jamie finished putting away her clothes and she moved into the bathroom.
“Luke, I’d go for someone a little less high profile, I mean, JC Chasez of *NSYNC? Isn’t that a little ambitious?” He cleared his throat and removed the pillow from his face.
“Um…James? Who the hell are you dating? Some guy that happens to look EXACTLY like Justin, sings just like him, and even travels with the band? And you’re calling me ambitious.”
“OK, that came out wrong.” She came out of the bathroom, throwing the armful of things she had into a bag and zipping it up. “Even if JC was gay, he hasn’t come out so it would be a little hard for you two. It’s not as strange for Justin and me to be seen together. Is this making any sense?” He grumbled and got up off the bed.
“Yes, it does. I just don’t want to think about it like that. I mean, why can’t the world be more accepting?”
“I don’t know Luke…I don’t know. Come on; grab your stuff we need to meet the van. We’re heading out to California today.”
“James…if you mention this conversation to ANYONE, I swear to God I’ll tell Justin about that time you-” Jamie covered his mouth with her hand and stepped hard on his foot.
“If you even THINK about bringing that up, I’ll get REALLY creative with a spoon,” She glanced down at his pants before looking into his eyes, “If you know what I mean.” He swallowed hard and shook his head.
“I…ah…I get your drift.” He continued to follow her down the hallway and he was very glad that he was Jamie’s best friend and very rarely on her bad side.
A few hours later the buses pulled into the hotel parking lot. Everyone had an hour to get situated, eat a quick diner and then it was off to the venue for a sound check, wardrobe and make-up. Andy stopped Justin on his way off of the bus and pulled him aside.
“You have one hour, you hear me? If your white ass isn’t on this bus in exactly 60 minutes, you will be writing your Momma from the hospital…understand?” Jamie stepped up beside the two and placed her hand on Andy’s arm.
“I’ll keep tabs on his Andy…no worries.” She winked at him and pulled Justin along beside her.
“The day I stop worrying about Stick Boy is the day New Kids On the Block have a reunion.” Everyone around laughed and Justin rolled his eyes.
“James, I could have handled that situation myself.”
“Uh huh, sure honey, just keep telling yourself that.” She threw him a playful look and he was about to say something, but Lance interrupted.
“Meeting in the dining room in five, everyone has to be there.” He whisked passed them putting his cell phone back up to his ear.
“Does the boy ever stop?” Luke spoke for the first time.
“No, if it were possible, he’d attach the phone to his ear surgically.”
“That would look pretty funny.”
The group made their way into the meeting hall on the first floor of the hotel. There were people from every group there, and Grace was up front talking with some of the tour managers. Jamie, Justin and Luke all sat towards the door so they could make a quick escape as soon as the meeting was over. Both Justin and Jamie were exhausted and they wanted to make the most of their hour off.
“Hello everyone. Thank you for coming on such short notice, I promise that I’ll keep this short.” Grace looked around the group of people on front of her and continued her speech. “First off, I would like to say congratulations to everyone for making the first two shows incredible.” A light applause went around the room and Grace waited for them to quiet down.
“I called you all in here today…”
Luke watched as Grace spoke, and he couldn’t get over how familiar she looked. He couldn’t quite place her, and he knew that he had never met her before, but she looked exactly like someone he knew.
“Jamie, who is she? Do we know her at all?” He leaned over and whispered into his friend’s ear.
“I don’t think so Luke…I’ve never met her before anyway, but she is from Tennessee.” Luke stared at Grace for the rest of the meeting. This was bothering him.
The meeting was soon over and everyone rushed up to their rooms. Luke stayed behind for a bit, he wanted to talk to Grace, but she seemed busy.
Chris strolled over to Luke and put his arm around the man’s shoulder.
“What’s up Luke?”
“Chris…you know Grace right?”
“Yea, why? Got the hots for her?” He grinned evilly and Luke laughed.
“If you only knew.” Luke Laughed. “No, that’s not it. Who does she look like? I mean, she looks so familiar…” He trailed off, trying to rack his brain. Chris shot a strange glance in Luke’s direction and headed for the elevator.
“I don’t know man, she looks like Grace to me…” The doors closed in front of him and Luke stood there, still thinking.
A man walked around the corned and bumped into Luke, almost sending him to the ground.
“Whoa! Sorry man…” Luke grabbed the man’s arm to steady himself, and when he looked up, he got the chills.
“Sorry about that, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” He didn’t know what it was about this guy, but he gave Luke the creeps.
“No problem.” The elevator doors opened again and Luke bolted inside.
This had turned out to be one strange trip, and it was only the first full day. Between the freaky body guards that were always following Jamie, to Grace looking exactly like someone he couldn’t figure out, to this strange man that gave Luke the chills. If this was what the *NSYNC tour was going to be like, Luke thought that he wanted to head back to Tennessee.
Luke sat in the VIP box with Jamie, checking his watch every two minutes.
“Would you relax? What’s your problem anyway?” Jamie grabbed Luke’s wrist and took off his watch so he would stop watching it.
“I’m just anxious.” When he looked at his wrist and his watch wasn’t there, he started to tap his leg.
“You wouldn’t happen to be anxious because of a blue eyes pop star is about to go onstage, would you?” Luke’s eyes widened and a smiled grew on his face.
“I…no…uh…No! That’s not it at all…I’m…ah…worried about the…weather!” Jamie’s eyebrow raised in question and she started to laugh.
“Sure, you’re worried about the weather.” Luke gave her a dirty look.
“OK, so I’ve never seen JC perform before…I mean, you get to drool all over Justin.” Jamie laughed even harder and patted Luke’s leg.
“I’m glad you came out Luke…it just wouldn’t be the same without you.”
The lights lowered and Luke sat forward in his seat. As soon as the guys came out he sat extremely still for the whole show, never taking his eyes off of JC. Jamie wanted to pinch him a few times to see if he was alive, but she didn’t dare disturb him. She decided to save the torture for later.