Chris sunk onto his bed and buried his head in his pillow. "You ok?" I asked pulling out my suitcase and packing my things. "No." he mumbled. "What's wrong?" "Justin." "Oh, yeah." "I'm glad we're going home tomorrow. Maybe he'll cool down." "Maybe." I said rolling my eyes. He let out a deep breath. "He'll be fine in a few days." I said. "I hope so. I don't think I can put up with him acting like this." I walked into the bathroom and looked for anything I might have missed. When I walked back out Chris was asleep. I guess he's right. At least we'll be able to live normal lives again. Although normal isn't normal to us anymore.
"Well, this is it. It's all over." Joey said looking out the window of the cab as we pulled away from the hotel. Justin rolled his eyes and looked the other way. Just like him, always avoiding his problems. "We had a good run." Chris said smiling. "Oh yeah. I'm surprised we've been around this long." Joey said. "Please stop talking about this." Justin said. They were silent. Lance turned around from the front seat. "You can't avoid this forever, Justin." he said. Justin turned and looked out the window. I looked out the window and looked at the things whirling past us. We came to a stop in front of a Billboard with Kara Harper in a tight shirt. I smiled and wish she were a little more like Britney: wearing a little less. Joey pressed his face against the window and practically drooled. "My God she is sexy." Justin leaned over and looked out the window. "Well, she's no Britney." "Get over it Justin. She's so much more than that slut and you know it." Lance said. He was silent and leaned back to his seat. "Can we stop this at least until we get home?" Chris said.
I didn't realize how much I missed being home until I got there. The scent of my house overcame me as I opened the door and stepped inside. I looked around looking for Nikki because her car was parker outside. At least she can do something right. I smiled. Maybe she's in my room waiting for me. I climbed up the stairs and walked to my room. The door was closed and I opened it. My heart bottomed out when I saw Nikki with another man. She jumped up and pulled the sheets over her. "JC! This isn't what it looks like!" "You with another man in my bed? What could it be? Please, enlighten me." "JC, he - we - uh, we were waiting for you to get back and-" "No, I don't care. Get out of my house." "But-" "Get the fuck out! Now!!" She reached down to pick up her clothes. "I mean now." I threatened. "Can't I-" "No." She got up and pulled the man away with her. She closed the door behind me and I slid against the door to the floor. What a wonderful welcoming.
"JC! Wake up!" I opened my eyes to see Chris and Lance leaning over me. "What?" I asked. "Why are you sleeping on the couch? You have a bed you know." Lance said. "I don't want to sleep in my bed." "Why?" "I just don't." I said rolling over and looking at the back of my couch. "Well, you need to wake up. We're going out tonight." "Where?" "To Justin's. We're going to play some basketball and get drunk, remember?" Chris said. "Oh, yeah." I slowly sat up. "You ok?" Lance asked. "No." I said rubbing my hands over my face. "What happened?" "I got home last night to see Nikki in my own fucking bed with another man." They were silent. "Ok! Let's go." I said standing up and walking to the door. They looked up and stared at me, not moving. "Come on...." I said motioning to the door. "Are you sure you wanna go?" Chris asked. "Yes. Come on." "We don't have-" "No, we're going. Let's go." They walked over to me and we left.
"So, she was doing that in your own house?" Justin asked throwing the basketball into the air. "Yes. And then she tried to explain herself." I said taking a drink of my beer. "How was she going to do that?" Joey said. "The hell if I know. I didn't give her a chance to either." "Is it over between you to?" Justin asked. "What do you think?" "Did you tell her it was?" "Well, no. But I assume she knows." "You know what assuming does. It makes an ass out of-" "Yeah yeah, I know. But she'll have to have some nerve to ever talk to me again." "I can't believe she did that. She knew you were coming home." Lance said. I sighed and looked down. "Yeah." "Hey! It'll be ok. Now you have the opportunity to get someone better." Chris said patting my back. "And I'm so sure that's gonna happen." I said sarcastically. "Have a little more hope. You'll find someone." "I don't think I have that much hope left." He snorted. "Stop being so downhearted! Here, have another beer." he said handing me another one. "But I'm not done with my first one." "Who cares?!" I laughed. "Thanks."
"Maybe it isn't best to de driving in a drunken rage." I said as Justin got into the drivers seat. "Nah, that's when it's most fun. Trust me." "I don't think I can." He laughed and started the car. "Hey! You ready to go down?!" Joey yelled from the other car. "No! You're going down!" We pulled out of the driveway and sped away. "I hope you realize how stupid this is." I said quickly buckling my seat belt. "Yeah, but it's fun." I groaned and looked out the window. Trees and houses flew past us as the speedometer pointed higher. We got onto an empty freeway and got faster. "Hey! We're at 120! We're at 120!" Justin yelled hitting my arm. "Wooo!" he screamed pressing his foot even harder on the gas pedal. "Maybe we should slow down." I said holding on to the sides of the seat. "We're racing! Can't slow down!" I looked out the window and saw Joey's car at our side. "If you don't kill us you're going to get us arrested." I said. "Oh come on! Live a little!" "I can't live a little if you kill me." Joey looked over at me and laughed. I can only imagine how terrified I look. "Justin, could you slow down just a bit?" "Hell no!" We sped up and I squeezed my eyes shut. "I'm going to die. God, I'm sorry for all the shit I've done." I said tilting my head toward the ceiling. "Stop it, you're not gonna die." "Have you not noticed your reckless driving? It'd be a miracle if I didn't die!" He smiled. "We'll be fine. Besides, we're winning."
I stepped out of the car and knelt down on the ground. "Solid, not moving ground. How I love you so." I said. "You should have seen the look on your face!" Joey said laughing. "Completely terrified?" "Yeah!" "That's how I felt," I turned to face Justin. "You ever put me through that again and I'll kill you." "Not if I kill you first." he said smiling and walking away. Chris offered his hand to me. "Need a little help?" I took his hand and he pulled me up. "Thanks." "Next time we race, I want to be in a car with you." Joey said laughing harder. "There's no way in hell I'm going through that again." I said walking away.
I sat at Joey's kitchen table with all the guys waiting for Eric to call. "Does anyone realize how pathetic this looks?" Chris asked. "Yes. Let's not make it worse by talking about it." Justin said. I started bobbing my head up and down. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts... Deedley, deedley... There they are..... What?" Everyone was staring at me. "Are you drunk?" Chris asked. "No." "Are you high?" Joey asked. "No. Gee, can't I just sing every now and then?" They all looked away. The phone rang and Joey jumped for it. "Hello? Fatone residence... Shut up..... Uh huh........ Really?...... That's great! He really needs this.... The lead role? Are you serious?..... Wow.... Nobody else though?.. That's ok, we'll deal.... Thank you so much... He should be home some time tonight... Ok, bye." he hung up. We all stared at him waiting for him to speak. "Are you going to say anything?" Justin asked. He smiled. "I don't know, what will you give me?" "Your health in the state it's now in." Justin said. "Ok ok.... One of you got the lead role." "So we picked up from the conversation. Who?" Chris asked. His head slowly turned to face me. "Me?" I asked shocked. "Yeah. Congratulations." "None of us got anything though?" Justin asked. "No, sorry." "It's ok." Chris said smiling. "I'm really glad for you, JC!" Lance said patting me on the back. I smiled. "Lead?" "Mmm hmm." Joey said. I smiled more and stared ahead, too shocked to say anything else. "Oh, my boy's growing up." Chris said.
"JC!" I turned my head to see one of my fellow actors, Sara, walking over to me. "Yeah?" "Some of us are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate the last week of filming. Wanna go?" I smiled. "Do you even have to ask? I'd love to." "Great! Well, we're going as soon as we get out of here. Is that ok with you?" "Yep." "Ok then. I'll see you then." she said kissing my cheek and walking away. I smiled as someone tapped on my shoulder. "Yeah?" I asked not looking away from the disappearing Sara. "Wake up man. What's going on with you two?" I turned to see Chris. "Hey. What are you doing here?" "I came to see my best friend! I haven't seen you in forever." I smiled. "How are you?" "Oh no, I asked you a question. What's going on with you and Sara?" "How do you know her?" "You introduced us when I stopped by a month ago, remember?" "Oh yeah..... Nothing's going on." He raised his eyebrow skeptically. "There's not!" I said innocently. "Sure. She sure is friendly with you." I turned around and we started walking back to my dressing room. "Trust me Chris, if there was something going on I'd tell you. I wish there was." "Well then, since there's not, can I ask her out?" "No." He smiled. "Fine then."
"You seem a lot happier than you did when you started this." Chris told me as I got drinks out of the mini fridge in the corner of my dressing room. "I am. It takes my mind off the total failure of my former career." "It wasn't a total failure." he said as I handed him his drink." "Like hell it wasn't." I said sitting down. "Ok, so maybe it was, but that's in the past now. Why torture yourself thinking about it?" "True." "So tell me, what is going on with Sara?" I looked down and sighed. "I don't know. I really like her, but I'm too afraid to say anything to her." "It seems like she likes you." I smiled. "Does it?" "Yes. Have you two done anything?" "Well, we kissed, but it was a movie thing. So, I guess it didn't really count." "Sure it did! A kiss is a kiss. Did she say anything about it?" "Umm, no, but she acted kind of weird around me after." "That could only mean one thing: she realized how attracted she was to you and couldn't keep her passion under control when you were around, so she made herself scarce." "Or she realized that I liked her and didn't want to be around me." "No, I don't think so. It has to be my way." I smiled. "I hope so." "Don't worry about. She has the hots for you." I laughed. "So, what's going on tonight?" he asked. "I'm going out to dinner with some of the people here." "Sara?" "And other people, yes." He smiled. "Is that what she was talking to you about when I came?" "Yeah. She asked me to go." He threw his hands into the air. "See? She likes you!"
"You will call us, right? We're starting to get worried about you." Chris said as he was getting ready to leave. "Why?" "We never hear from you anymore!" "Oh come on, I talk to you all every now and then." "Yeah, sure you do." I smiled. "Ok ok, I'll call. Bye Chris." I said hugging him. "Bye. And good luck with dinner tonight." he said walking away. I smiled and turned around. "Hey JC! You ready to go?" Sara asked bouncing up to me. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" She smiled. "Umm, I kinda lied to you." "Is there no dinner?" "No there's dinner, but no one else is going with us." I smiled. "It's just going to be you and me?" "Yeah. I just thought that we haven't had a lot of time to talk lately and I wanted to be alone. You don't mind, do you?" "Uh, no. Not at all." "Great. You ready to go, then?" "Yeah." She took my hand and walked off with me.
"It's going to be weird going home." Sara said as we ate our dinner. "I know. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself." She smiled lightly and played with her fork. "Um, JC, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about." "What?" "Our kiss." "From the movie? What about it?" "It's been haunting me. I lay awake at night thinking of your lips touching mine with the slightest bit of pressure. The way you taste and feel. It's been driving me insane." My jaw dropped open and I stared at her. "Are you ok?" she asked. I blinked rapidly and looked down. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. It's just that I wasn't expecting you to say that." She smiled and took my hands in hers. "You're the sweetest man I've ever met. Through these past few months I've grown so close to you. And ever since that kiss I've hardly been able to look at you without feeling I'd just burst." My eyes widened as she kissed my hands. "I know there must be a bad side to you. Is there?" she asked. "Uh, I-I don't know what you mean." She smiled and ran her fingers over my hand. "Of course you do. You put off this sweet guy image, but I know there's a bad side to you. So please, can we get out of here so I can show you what I mean?" "I-I-I... Whoa, aren't we going a little fast? I mean, I've never really kissed you before." She leaned across the table and pressed her lips against mine. She forced my mouth open and her tongue slipped in. I felt my head start to spin. I haven't been kissed in so long. She stopped and leaned back in her chair. "So, can we get out of here?" I smiled lightly and stood up. "Ok, let's go."