“Good Lord, how much stuff did you bring?” Keeley exclaimed as she opened the door for her friend and led her into the kitchen. Keeley helped the blonde set all her things down and watched as she collapsed into a chair. Keeley joined her at the table and then waited for an answer.
“You said you wanted help planning your wedding, so here I am!” Monica replied cheerfully, too cheerfully. Keeley looked her friend over. Monica had tried to cover them up, but there were dark circles showing through the concealer under her eyes. “Why are you staring at me like I have two heads or something?” Monica asked as she grimaced and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“Are you ok?” Keeley asked as her forehead creased with concern.
“I’m fine,” she told her and tried to fake a smile. The brunette frowned, she knew that she was being lied to.
“Don’t lie to me, what’s wrong?” Monica sighed and looked like she was about to cry.
“I miss Lance,” she almost whispered as her lip slightly quivered.
“What do you mean you miss Lance? What happened?”
“Two days ago Ashleigh’s mom called and told us that Ashleigh was in the hospital. You know the cold she had? It wasn’t just a cold, she has pneumonia.”
“Oh no! That is awful.” Monica slightly nodded.
“Yeah, but the worse part is that Mrs. Reynolds blames Lance for Ashleigh getting sick. He flew out there yesterday to check on her. He was really upset and spent most of the night before he left pacing around the house. I took him to the airport and then came back home and sulked. I can’t believe that she would blame this on him, and seeing him that upset really hurts. I decided I had to get out of the house today to get my mind off everything.”
“Are you sure you are up to this?”
“Keeley, the busier I am the less time I have to think about the whole situation. Besides you need to get your wedding planned sooner or later, why not now?” Monica asked as she smiled at her friend.
“As much stuff as you brought over here, I think now is a great time!” she laughed. “What is all this stuff?” Keeley asked as she sifted through the stack of books in front of her.
“Books of invitations, napkins, color swatches, bridal books, a little of everything! Where do you want to begin?”
“Wow! I guess I never really thought about all that had to be planned! Why don’t we start at the beginning. Let’s talk colors,” Keeley said with a nod.
“Colors for what?” Justin asked as he walked into the kitchen and placed his basketball in the corner. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out the container of orange juice and took a big swig right from it.
Keeley gave him a frown before answering, “Our wedding colors!”
“Oh cool,” he said. He wiped a drop of juice from his chin and replaced the container in the fridge before he walked to the table and glanced over her shoulder at the books piled up.
“I was thinking lavender and periwinkle,” Keeley told Monica.
“Oh nah, we have to have baby blue!” Justin said as he looked at his fiancé.
“Justin, I don’t want two light colors. Besides why do you care about the colors?”
“Are you kidding me?” He asked in amazement. “Awe babe please?” He begged as he threw his arms around her shoulders to hug her from behind.
“Eew let go of me you’re all sweaty and nasty! You smell too!” She exclaimed as she tried to wiggle out of his grasp.
“Not until you agree to baby blue!”
“NO! I’m the girl and this is my wedding! I get to choose the colors and I don’t want baby blue! I would think you’d be so sick of that color by now! Every single magazine tries to put you in it!” She exclaimed as she crossed her arms.
“It’s my wedding too,” he said as he stuck his face around her shoulder to look at her. He stuck out his bottom lip and gave her his best sad puppy expression.
“Babe, you know that never works!” She said as she tried to look stern. A moment later when he began batting his eyelashes she broke into a giggle. “Ok, I’ll make you a deal. You let me choose our wedding colors and I’ll let you choose what I wear on our wedding night.” She raised her eyebrows and waited for a response.
Justin appeared deep in thought for a moment before an evil grin broke out on his face. “I can choose anything?”
“Anything.”
“Ok, you’ve got a deal!” He exclaimed as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I’m going to go take a shower. Have fun ladies.”
Keeley rolled her eyes at her friend. “Ok, so now that that is taken care of, what’s next?”
“Well, why don’t we set a date and figure out where you’d like to have it,” Monica exclaimed as she pulled out her planner. “Well, we need to set the date at least a few months from now so you can have everything come together. So the earliest you’d want to do it is December.”
“Ok. Well how about mid January? Then it will be after the holidays and everyone should be around,” Keeley asked as she looked for her friend’s approval.
“That sounds good,” Monica said as she nodded her head. “So, do you know where you’d like to have it?”
“I want it outside in a garden,” she answered right away. “With Florida weather and all that should be fine too. It’s usually in the low 70’s which would be perfect wedding weather.”
“Definitely. Do you have any place in particular in mind?” Monica asked as she jotted some notes down on a tablet of paper.
“There’s a couple places I’d like to check out with Justin before we decide that,” Keeley said. The two went through the books and Keeley made decisions as they went. Every once and awhile Justin would come in and voice his opinion for awhile. Before long he would get bored and leave again.
“Whew,” Keeley sighed after they had been going through the books and planning for several hours. “I can’t think anymore! It hurts!” she laughed. Monica glanced down at her watch for the first time since she got there.
“Wow, I have no idea so much time had passed! I should get going,” she told the brunette.
“You want to stay for dinner?” Keeley asked as she got up and walked into the kitchen.
“I don’t think so. I don’t want to be an inconvenience,” she replied shaking her head.
“Don’t be silly! I don’t want you to have to go home and eat by yourself!”
“By yourself? Where’s Lance?” Justin asked as he walked back into the kitchen. Monica told him the story of how Ashleigh was in the hospital and the phone call that caused Lance to fly out to Mississippi. Meanwhile Keeley began to prepare the supper.
Ashleigh sat on the edge of her bed and watched Lance pace back and forth across the floor of her small hospital room. Ashleigh’s doctor had run more tests earlier that morning on Ashleigh. If the results came back negative, the doctor told her should would be free to go home. Ashleigh was patiently waiting for the answer, but Lance wasn’t taking the waiting period as well.
“Lance, if you don’t sit down you are going to wear a hole in the floor!” Ashleigh exclaimed. He was about to drive her crazy with his pacing, though she was really glad that he was there. He had stayed and kept her company all the previous day while she was in the hospital. He went home to sleep, shower, and change clothes, but he was back bright and early the next morning. She was also thankful for him, because he had snuck her real food in. It was sad the things they were trying to pass off as food in the hospital.
Lance turned and gave her a questioning look. “You can’t tell me you aren’t anxious to hear whether you get to go home or not!”
“Yes I am anxious to find out, but I see no point in wasting the energy I have pacing! Now sit down before I get up and beat you!”
“I’d like to see you try,” the blonde answered rolling his eyes before taking a seat. A few minutes later the doctor came in and gave her a clean bill of health.
“Woo hoo!” she exclaimed. “Um…I mean…uh…thanks Dr. Clayton,” she said in a normal voice after she received a very questioning look from her doctor. Her face turned crimson with embarrassment. Lance slumped down in his chair and covered his mouth as he tried his best not to laugh. The doctor soon left and Ashleigh and Lance gathered all her stuff.
“I’ll go take your stuff to the car and bring it around to the entrance.”
“Fine I don’t know why I have to wait on a stupid wheelchair anyway, it’s not like I broke my legs!” Ashleigh replied.
“Just behave until you get to the car, and try not to bite the nurse’s head off!” he begged of her before walking out of the room, passing the nurse on the way out.
“You know, I can walk. There is no need to wheel me out,” Ashleigh informed the nurse when she walked into the room.
“Ashleigh, you know good and well this is hospital policy,” the nurse replied as she wheeled her down the hall towards the exit.
Soon she was in Lance’s mom’s car and they were heading back to Ashleigh’s house. She gazed out the window at the Mississippi scenery race past her. It’s amazing how a stay in the hospital helped her see everything with new eyes. The buildings and landscape that she would have ignored before seemed new and exciting to her.
“Thanks for volunteering to bring me home,” she spoke after a couple minutes. She knew that the tension was still thick between her mom and Lance. When Lance had said he would bring her home today Katherine had protested. Finally after much begging and pleading she gave in.
“You’re welcome, Ash.” A silence fell over the car and Lance fell deep in thought. He was determined to talk to her about her Religion, or lack thereof, before he went home. He thought now was the perfect time since she couldn’t get away from him. “Hey Ashleigh?”
“Hey Lance,” she laughed, a smile on her face.
“Have you had a chance to think anymore about trying to pray at all?”
“Not again,” she sighed before turning and glaring at him. “You aren’t going to give up on this are you?”
“No! Especially not after you end up in the hospital. I mean come on! You had a cold one-minute and the next thing you know you are in the hospital with pneumonia. Don’t you see how fragile your life is? That isn’t something to play with.”
“Lance, just drop it already. I already told you how stupid I think the whole idea is. I don’t believe in it, I don’t want to believe in it. I don’t know why you are so damned worried about whether I am saved or not.”
“Because I am worried about you. I am worried for your well being. I want to know that I’ll see you again after I die. I just think that being close to God might help you through all this a lot right now.”
“How could that help? What difference would being close to God make?” She asked as she stared out the window at the scenery flying by in a blur.
“How could it not! Having faith would be comforting and knowing where you are going after this life is important Ashleigh! You’re a good person but that’s not enough. There’s only two places to go, Heaven or Hell, and I don’t think you’d like the latter option. It’s really your choice.” Lance threw a sideways glance at his friend. Her brow was furrowed and she appeared to be deep in thought. He decided that was enough for the time being. He decided not to push the issue any more, at least for a little while.
“OK, this is the last place I want to be,” Keeley told Monica as she hiked her backpack higher up on her shoulder.
“I know what you mean,” Monica replied as she rolled her eyes skyward. Both girls were quickly making their way from the parking lot to the campus of their university. The new semester was starting and it was time once again to start new classes, something neither of them was looking forward to. After all they’d been through school was just the last thing on their minds and with the guys going on tour soon they didn’t want to be stuck at home. They wanted to get to travel with the guys.
As they neared the buildings and the crowds of people, both young women noticed their classmates whispering in hushed voices as they passed by.
“What’s up with that?” Keeley asked as she nodded her head toward a group of girls whose eyes were shooting daggers at them.
“No, clue, just ignore them,” Monica said as she linked her arm with her friends and picked up the pace. As they walked up to the corner of the building their class was in a reporter popped out in front of them and shoved a microphone in their face.
“Monica, Keeley how does it feel going back to school after your whole kidnapping ordeal?” The reporter stared intently into their eyes waiting for their answer she would get on tape.
The two girls stepped back in shock. They weren’t expecting someone to jump out at them, least of all a reporter.
‘So that’s why everyone is staring,’ Keeley realized. ‘They all probably saw us on the news.’ She looked at the reporter and opened her mouth replying, “No comment.” She knew that if she said anything the guys would have to worry about it with their publicist. Besides, they all just wanted to move on, the whole thing was getting old.
She reached over and grabbed Monica’s arm and pulled her away. Monica was still staring at the reporter with wide eyes. When they reached the heavy wooden doors they slipped inside. Only when they were safely seated in their first class did they finally speak.
“You know what,” Keeley said as she looked at the blond and raised her eyebrows. “I know why those girls were glaring and whispering about us.”
“Really?” Monica asked with surprise. “Why?”
“Because they’re jealous! They probably saw us on the news and found out who we were dating! Your wedding was all over the news and updates of the kidnapping were on the news for like a week! They just wish they had a piece of what we have!” She gave her friend an evil grin and turned to face the professor when he addressed the class.
Monica stifled a giggle as she too grabbed her pen and began to furiously take notes.
As both girls attempted to leave campus later that afternoon they were both exhausted. Not only had they been attacked by another reporter earlier that day, several of the students had grilled them about what had happened and their relationship with Nsync. They got reactions that ranged from rolling eyes and comments like, “you’re kidding right? I thought only little girls liked those guys,” to girls totally freaking out, “Oh my gosh can you get me backstage passes!” One girl even had the audacity to ask Keeley to hook her up with Justin. After a few choice words from Keeley the girl walked off with a very unhappy look on her face. The other common response was jealousy, pure and simple. People want what they can’t have, and they resent those who have it. Both girls had endured glares and whispers all day. A few girls had not so accidentally bumped them out of line in the food court.
“You know,” Keeley said as she put her car in reverse to leave the school parking lot, “I’m beginning to think taking some time off is not such a bad idea.”
“Finally you’ve seen the light!” Monica exclaimed as she threw her arms in the air with a laugh. “But good luck trying to talk Lance into letting me.”
“You don’t need his permission you know.” Keeley said. She reached into the glove compartment and grabbed her sunglasses and slip them up on the bridge of her nose.
“Oh I know, I just don’t want to hear about it from him,” Monica replied.
“Why don’t we talk to Justin about it when we get home. We can ask him to talk to Lance.”
Monica turned and gave her friend a grateful smile. “Thanks!”
“No problem,” Keeley replied as she leaned forward and turned up the volume to Eve and Gwen Stefani’s “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.”
A couple minutes later they pulled into Keeley’s driveway. They grabbed their backpacks and headed to the front door. Once unlocked, Keeley walked into the foyer and threw her bag on the floor by the door and called, “J, we’re home!”
A moment later Justin emerged from the kitchen. “So, how was your first day of school ladies?” He asked as he walked up and kissed Keeley.
When she pulled back she rolled her eyes and said “Oh boy, don’t get me started!”
“What happened? He asked with concern.
“Talk about a nightmare!” She replied as she walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa. She tucked her legs underneath her to make room for Justin as he sat next to her. “Well, we got accosted by reporters and students all day asking about what happened and about you guys. I thought it was illegal for the reporters to come on campus like that.”
“It probably is, but like that is going to stop them,” He replied. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Well, I think I might take this semester off. Maybe look into transferring to a private school or something. I just don’t want to deal with it.” She replied as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Just thinking about it was giving her a headache.
“That’s probably a good idea. What about you?” Justin said turning to Monica who had sat in the chair across from them.
“I want to take a break too. The only problem is telling Lance, he’s always worried about my schooling and me. Wanna talk to him for me?” She asked hopefully.
“Sure, I’ll talk to him.”
“Thanks! Oh my gosh guess what else happened today! Some girl asked Keeley to hook you up with her!” Monica exclaimed with a laugh. “You should have seen the look on Keeley’s face! Better yet you should have seen the look on the girl’s face when Keeley was through talking to her!”
“Hmm, was she cute? Did you get her number?” Justin asked innocently. Keeley reached out and hit him in the chest. “You know I love you!” He exclaimed as he reached over and wrapped his arms around his fiancé.
Lance arrived home late that night. He missed Monica and he felt a little uncomfortable around Ashleigh’s mom. It wasn’t quite as bad as it had been, but she still was a little cold towards him. He decided to fly home a day early and surprise Monica.
He walked as quietly as he could into their bedroom. He gazed down at his wife who was sleeping peacefully. Her face was slightly aglow from the blue moonlight that poured through the window. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. She smiled slightly at his touch and sighed. He smiled and walked into the bathroom.
After he’d brushed his teeth he stripped down to his boxers and carefully slid into bed and wrapped his arms around Monica. She moaned slightly and snuggled in closer to the warmth of his chest. Feeling more content than he had in days he drifted to sleep.
The next morning Lance woke up to bright sunlight on his eyelids. He rolled over and reached his arm out to Monica’s side of the bed and brushed at the empty sheets. His eyes fluttered open and he scanned the room in search of her. When he realized the room was empty he rolled himself out of bed and wandered down the hall. He emerged in the kitchen and smiled at the sight of Monica sitting at the table sipping a cup of coffee.
She looked up when she felt his presence and smiled. She got up and walked over to him. “Hey babe, I didn’t think you were going to be home until tonight.”
“Yeah, I decided to come home a day early, I missed you!” He replied as he pulled her into a hug.
“Awe, I missed you too. More than you know. Is everything OK with Ashleigh now?”
“Things are better. The doctor released her from the hospital so she’s home now. She’s still weak but she’s happy to be home. Well, besides the fact that her mom is being more protective than ever,” he added. “Mrs. Reynolds is still not too happy with me. I hope she’ll get over it some day. She made me feel completely guilty whenever I was near her. Needless to say, I tried to spend as much time as possible avoiding her.”
“I’m sorry Lance. I’m sure she’ll get over it once Ash is feeling better. She’s just worried about her daughter,” Monica told him.
“She’s not the only one,” he said as his eyes darkened. “I talked to her some more about God. She’s too damn thick headed!”
“Lance, if someone started pressuring you that God wasn’t real would you just readily accept what they were saying?” She stepped back and raised her eyebrows.
“No,” he responded quietly.
“Well, that’s how Ashleigh feels. You need to give her a little time to process all the information. She’s a logical girl, she just needs time to think everything through,” she said as she grabbed his hands and gave them a gentle squeeze.
“That’s what I’m worried about, how do we know if she has a lot of time to think everything through. You’d think her getting pneumonia so easily would show her how weak and fragile she is,” he said with pain in his green eyes.
“I know,” Monica said as she hugged her husband. “I know.”
“Hey man, it’s good to see ya!” Justin called as Lance entered his living room.
“Hey J, it’s good to be home,” Lance chuckled. A moment later Monica emerged through the front door. She was lugging some more of her wedding books and it looked like she was about to drop them.
“Some help boys?” She cried in exasperation as one slipped from her grip and clattered to the floor.
“Sorry Mon!” Justin exclaimed as he rushed to her along with Lance. The two men took the books from her arms and carried them to the kitchen table.
“Oh hey you guys, I didn’t hear you come in,” Keeley exclaimed from the kitchen. She grabbed a towel and dried her hands as she walked over to give her friends a hug. “More books! Jeez girl, you should become a wedding planner!”
“That’s not a bad idea!” Monica replied. “I love doing this. I wonder if wedding planners need a degree?” She thought outloud.
Lance turned and gave her a strange look. “Oh yeah, how’d school go you two? I totally forgot you started.”
Monica swallowed before answering. “Well, it didn’t go too well. I’m actually thinking of taking some time off or transferring.” She could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t happy about this news. She quickly added, “Keeley’s decided she’s taking the semester off. Besides, if I’m not in school I’ll be able to go on tour with you.”
“Monica, going on tour is no reason to drop out of school!” He crossed his arms across his chest. Education was very important to him. Even though they were set for life as far as money was concerned it was still important to him that Monica get her degree.
“I’m not dropping out of school! I just want to take some time off. You have no idea what school is like after our ordeal. There were reporters everywhere! And when they weren’t accosting us the other students were bugging us for information! How are we supposed to concentrate on our studies in that environment?!”
Justin, seeing the stress on Monica’s face and the anger on Lance’s decided to intervene. “Lance, can you help me outside?” He motioned towards the back door. Reluctantly Lance followed his friend outside.
Monica looked up at Keeley with relief. “Remind me to thank Justin later. I owe him!”
“Alright, but you know he’ll do something to unredeem himself soon enough!” Keeley smiled at her friend and chuckled.
She walked over and took a seat next to Monica at the table. They began their never-ending task of planning the wedding. It seemed that January 16 was fast approaching and it was becoming clear that they had much to do.
“So, what are you up to tomorrow?” Monica asked from the table. Lance was in the kitchen cooking them dinner. He insisted he wanted to fix her something special that night. He felt bad for giving her such a hard time about her school. Justin had talked to him when they were outside and it helped him understand where the girls were coming from.
“Tomorrow morning we are rehearsing from about 8:00 to 12:00 and then we have a break until 1:30. Then more rehearsing until whenever Wade is satisfied. We have to catch up on some lost time. He was not happy about my trip to Mississippi,” he replied as he stirred the pasta sauce.
“How many more rehearsals do you have until the tour opens?” She asked as she sipped her iced tea.
“Well, we have about three more weeks of rehearsals. They are going to be everyday, morning to night.”
“Wow,” was all she could reply. It amazed her how hard the guys worked to put together the tour. She knew that Lance would be exhausted after their practices.
That evening they enjoyed Lance’s home-cooked meal. They both realized that this was going to be one of the few nights they’d have to spend together before all of Lance’s time would be occupied by rehearsals and the last bit of recording they needed to do.
The cuddled together on the sofa and watched one of Monica’s favorite movies, “Save the Last Dance.”
As the credits began to roll down the screen Lance glanced down at his wife who was sound asleep in his arms. She shifted and carefully withdrew his arms from around her, trying his hardest not to wake her. When he was finally free from the couch he looked down at her, pleased that he’d managed not to wake her.
“Hey Ash!” Lance said happily when he heard her familiar voice answer the phone. “Long time no see!” He said as he chuckled. It had been less than 24 hours since he’d seen her.
“Hey bud, what’s up?” She replied with a smile. She picked up the base of the phone and pulled it over to her bed. She flopped back on her bed and twisted the cord between her fingers.
“Not much, I just wanted to tell you that my flight was fine.”
“Oh good. I wasn’t worried. I figured Monica would call me freaking out by now if you hadn’t showed up.” She grinned a grin that he couldn’t see through the phone.
He laughed when he realized what she said was completely true. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. I slept most of the day and besides being totally starved when I woke up, I felt like I had a lot more energy.”
“Good, maybe now your mom won't hate me,” he wished outloud.
“Lance, she doesn’t hate you! Besides, I had a chat with her this afternoon. I think she’s starting to realize that I make my own decisions for myself. She knows you’ve always been my responsible friend, 'Mr. Ashleigh don’t do that, you’ll get in trouble'!” She laughed as she thought back to the countless times she’d heard those words come out of his mouth. At the time it’d been really annoying, but looking back she knew that he’d saved her from a lot of trouble and mishaps.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I tried to play your conscious when we were younger,” he replied.
“Forget about it, you saved me from several scrapes. My mom loved you for it too!”
A comfortable silence fell between the two. Lance broke it when he spoke up. “So Ash, have you thought about what we talked about on the ride back from the hospital? The one about God?”
She didn’t respond for a minute. She finally replied. “Yes I’ve thought about it a lot and I’ve come to a decision.”