Prologue

(Friday, May 25, 2001)

JC and his girlfriend Bobbie’s two year anniversary was coming up in a couple days and the guys had been so busy with all of their promoting and traveling he hadn’t had the time to get her anything yet.  So he and the guys made a trip to the local mall plaza just off of Sunset Ave. to do some shopping in the few hours they had free that day.

Only once JC got there he couldn’t decide what to get Bobbie.  They’d been together for two years and he considered their relationship to be pretty serious.  He really cared about her, but he bought her stuff all the time.  She literally had almost everything so trying to find something now that would be special was hard for him.  And of coarse the guys were growing very impatient with his indecisiveness.

“How much longer are we gonna be here?” Chris, whined.

“Dude, I gotta find Bobbie’s gift.  It’s our anniversary in a couple days and I can’t decide what to get her.  Just chill.” JC said,  as he continued to walk along the array of shops in the outdoor plaza they were in.

“I agree with Chris.  It’s time to go.  We’ve been here forever!” Justin joined in.

“J, I never thought I’d EVER hear you say you were sick of shopping!” Lance laughed.

“Yeah, are you feeling alright man?” Joey questioned.

“Look, normally I love to shop, and ya’ll know that.  But for crying out loud we’ve been walking around this place for hours and C still hasn’t found what he’s looking for.  He hasn’t even bought one thing!  I’m ready to go.  Besides, we’ve got that radio interview in a couple hours.  And I’d really like to eat before we go!” Justin defended.

“FINE!” JC said, shaking his head in frustration.  “We’ll go.  I’ll just come back later by myself.  But since we’re here we might as well go to the food court and get something to eat.”

“I’ll second that.  I’m hungry too!” Joey said.

So all the guys agreed and proceeded to head on towards the food court area.  They were walking along talking.  Mostly Justin and Chris complaining about how they’d been there for at least two hours and JC hadn’t bought anything at all.

Lance of coarse made it a point to defend JC by pointing out just how much Justin and Chris had managed to buy in the time they WERE there, which of coarse started a bickering match amongst the five men.

They were all consumed in their petty argument.  “Bickering like a bunch of females!” Dre, one of their security guys said to another and they shared a chuckle.

“We heard that!” the five men said together, each giving Dre a dirty look.

“Hey what can I say?  The truth hurts?” he smirked back at that guys.

“Whatever!” Justin grumbled, continuing down the walkway that would lead them to the food court.

As they were nearing the food court, the guys were interrupted from their conversations by the sound of a woman’s screams.  “Stop him!  Somebody stop him!”

The guys looked up to see some guy running directly towards them not paying any attention to where he was running, as he was too busy looking back at the girl that was chasing him.  He ran right smack into JC, who’d been walking in front of the other guys trying to block out all of their bickering.  “Oaf” JC gasped at the impact, as both of the men fell to the ground.

Mike one of the bodyguards immediately grabbed a hold of the man that had run into JC and pulled him to his feet.  “Why don’t you watch where you’re going man?!”

“Don’t let him go!  Please don’t let him go!  He stole my purse!” the girl yelled as she approached the group of men.

“Dude, you ok?” Justin asked, as he helped JC to his feet.

“I’m fine!” he answered while dusting himself off.

“THANK YOU!” the girl said breathlessly as she ran up to the group that had managed to stop and restrain the man that had stolen her purse.  She then walked directly up to the guy struggling to get free from Mike’s grip, and punched him square in the gut.  “I’ll take that!” she said, grabbing her purse from his hands.

The guy’s knees buckled under the pain from the punch to his abdomen and began to fall to the ground.  Mike wasn’t about to hold him up so he let go of the guy’s shirt and watched rather amused, as the man collapsed.

“That must be some right hook you got there!” he laughed, looking to the girl that was now sorting through her purse to make sure all of her belongings were still inside.

“Huh?  Oh…yeah I guess!” she laughed, slightly still trying to catch her breath.

“Are you ok, Miss?” JC asked, looking the girl over.   He was the first to say anything.  All the other guys still stood in shock at the scene that had just unfolded before them.

She turned her attention to JC who was starring at her with a mixed expression of concern and amusement.  “Yes, I’m fine.  Just a lil’ out of breath I’ve been chasing him through this whole friggin’ mall.  Thanks for stopping him.  Everyone else just stood by and watched.  They didn‘t even bother to try to help.”

“I can’t believe you just walked up and punched him like that!” Justin said still starring at her in shock.

“Well, he deserved it.  He stole my friggin’ purse, and made me chase his sorry ass through this whole damn mall.  He’s lucky I’m so out of breath or I woulda done a whole hell of a lot more than just punch him!”

With that Chris burst into laughter.  The whole thing was just too much for him to handle.  He’d never seen anything like it before.  And to hear this girl ranting, well that was the last straw, he just couldn’t help it any longer.

“I’m glad you find this so amusing!” she said, giving Chris a rather annoyed look.

“NO!  Sorry, it’s not that.  It’s just I’ve never seen a girl just walk up and punch someone like that before.  Your purse being stolen isn’t funny.  I’m sorry I shouldn’t be laughing, but I really couldn’t help myself.” he said trying to calm himself.

“Ignore him!  He’s not right in the head.” Lance smiled warmly at her.

“If you say so.” she said, raising an eyebrow and glancing from Lance to Chris and back to Lance.

“You sure you’re ok?  He didn’t hurt you or anything did he?” JC asked.

“Dude, I think she can pretty much handle herself!” Justin chuckled, thinking of the blow she’d just delivered to the man still laying on the ground doubled over in front of them.

“Your friend's right.  I’m fine.  He just ran by and yanked my purse out of my hand.  No harm done to me.  Especially, since I got my purse back.  I just got paid and if he’d of gotten away then I’d be completely broke.  So thanks again for stopping him.” she said.

“Well, we didn’t really do anything.  He pretty much ran into us.” JC said.

“Actually, he ran into you, C.  So you’re the hero here!  Your hard, masculine body stopped him.” Joey laughed.

JC shot Joey a funny look as if to tell him to shut up.

The girl grinned at Joey and then at JC.  “Well, then I thank your body!” she smirked.

“I’m sure his body says your welcome!” Joey continued.

JC rolled his eyes at Joey’s comments and turned his attention back to the girl.  “He’s not right in the head either, so ignore him too!  My names JC and you're welcome!” he said extending his hand to her.

“Thanks JC.  And the name’s Abby.” she smiled, shaking his hand.

Justin cleared his throat to gain some of the attention.  “And I’m Justin.” h, gave her one of his award winning smiles and extended his hand.

“Nice to meet you, Justin.” she smiled.

“Well, hell since we’re doing introductions my name is Chris.” he said stepping forward and offering his hand.  “And this is Lance and that’s Joey!” he said, pointing to the other guys who then held out their hands to say hello.

“Oh and that’s Mike, Dre, Lonnie, Frank and Rob.” Chris continued pointing to each of their bodyguards who all gave her a little wave.

Abby waved back and said “Hi” to them, before glancing at her watch.  “Shit, I gotta go.  Thanks again for stopping him and it was nice to meet all of you.” she said as she began to rush off away from them.

“Wait!” Mike called out to her.  She turned to look at him.  “What do you want me to do with him?” he asked, pointing to the guy still laying on the ground.

“Let him go.  I don’t care.  I don’t have time to mess around with calling the cops or anything like that.  I got my purse back and everything’s still in it so that’s all I care about at this point.”

“You sure?  I mean he robbed you!” JC said, looking at her oddly.

“Yeah, I’m sure.  I got my purse back and a lil’ vindication.  So I’m good.  Thanks again!” Abby smiled and gave them a little wave before she turned and walked off leaving the five men and their security team standing there.

“You heard the lady.  Get out of here!” Mike said, nudging the guy with his foot to get up.

“Maybe you’ll think twice before robbing some other woman.  You never know when they’re gonna turn around and kick your ass!”  Chris chuckled as the guy scrambled to his feet and fled from the group of men.

The others laughed as they watched the guy run off down the hall.  The guy had to be totally embarrassed that he’d been punched breathless by a girl in front of a group of men.  They all individually hoped that it would teach him a lesson and he wouldn’t try that again any time soon, if ever.

Once, the guys all regained their composure they continued on their merry way to the food court, no longer bickering at each other about their shopping day.  It had been made worth it just to see the Abby chic punch the low life.
 
 
 
 

Chapter 1

(Saturday, May 26, 2001)

“I’m so glad we all decided to go out tonight!  I needed this!” Justin smiled as he and his friends made their way into the VIP section of the club they had just entered moments earlier.

“Yeah, I think we all did.” JC agreed, wrapping his arm once again around his girlfriend Bobbie’s waist as they reached the top of the stairs.

“I can never get enough of a party!” Joey joined in, bouncing around happily to the loud music that was playing through the club.

“So we’re all happy we’re here.  GREAT!  But let’s find a table already!” Chris complained as he made his way through the room to find a table large enough for their group.

They located a table off in the far corner and took their seats.  It was after 11:00PM, so the club was pretty busy already.  There were tons of people down on the lower level dancing and having a good time, as well as quite a few filling the VIP area.

The guys sat talking amongst themselves about all the stuff they’d done that week, and all the things they had scheduled to do over the weeks to follow.  They were just finishing up their third album and were making all of the promotional rounds before they were to head out on tour in a couple months.  So needless to say their lives had been rather hectic lately and finding any spare time for some plain old fun had been scarce.

“I swear!  Are we gonna get any service here or what?” Bobbie complained as they had been sitting there for a few minutes and a waitress had yet to come take their orders.

The other guys all shot JC a look.  They weren’t impressed with Bobbie’s attitude.  She was always so rude and impatient.  The place was obviously busy and they’d only been there for a couple minutes but yet she expected someone to be there the moment they sat down.  She expected more from the guys status than the guys expected themselves.

“I’ll go get our drinks, what do you want babe?” JC asked, trying to put a stop to the situation before it could go any further.  He knew his friends didn’t really care for Bobbie.  In fact there had been a chorus of groans when he had announced that she was going out with them that night.

“You know what I like baby.  Just get me my usual.” she smiled sweetly at him.

JC smiled back at her and then excused himself from the table followed by Joey.  They made their way over to the bar setup across the room from their table to get drinks for the group.

When they arrived, the bar was rather crowded so they had to stand around for a moment until a spot cleared out so they could get up to the bar to place their orders.

The female bartender at the other end of the bar caught Joey’s attention.  She looked oddly familiar to him, but since she was at the other end waiting on some other customers he couldn’t be sure of who she was or where he knew her from.  But she sure did look familiar to him.

The minute she started to make her way in their direction stepping past the male bartender, he recognized her.  It was the girl from the Mall the day before.  Joey turned to JC who was starring off at the crowd behind them not really paying attention.  “Hey C, look who it is!” he said, nudging him and then pointing towards her.  “It’s the girl from the mall.”

JC looked over to the girl Joey was pointing out.  “Well, what do you know?” he said.

“What’s her name?  Andy?  Candy?” Joey questioned aloud trying to remember the girls name.

“Abby.  Her name is Abby.” JC answered.

“Oh yeah, that’s right.  Abby!” Joey agreed.

Abby walked up to the guys and asked, “What’ll it be?” not even looking up at them.

“Well, Abby…..I’ll have three Bud Lights and a Coke or Pepsi.  Whatever you have.”  Joey said smiling at her.

At the mention of her name Abby looked up at the two men.  Her eyes narrowed for a moment trying to remember where she knew them from but it didn’t take long for recognition to hit.  “Well, if it’s not my heroes from the mall.” she smiled.

“Small world, huh.” JC smiled at her.

“Sure is.” she smiled back, grabbing Joey’s beers and soda, and then slid them over to him and then looked to JC.  “And what can I get you?”

“Um…I’ll take a Corona and a Tom Collins.” he smiled appreciatively at her.

“Comin’ up!” she said cheerily as she slid JC his beer and then went to make the Tom Collins he ordered.

“So you work here, huh?  We come here pretty often.  Are you new?  Never seen you here before.” JC questioned as she walked back up and handed him his mixed drink.

“Oh no.  I’ve worked here for well over a year now.  It’s just usually I work the bar down in the lower level.  We’re short staffed tonight, so they got me up here helping Kurt out.” she said, poiting back over her shoulder towards the other bartender.

“No wonder we’ve never seen you before then.  We’re always up here in VIP.” Joey said, not really thinking about how what he said sounded.

Abby shot him a funny look and just smirked.

Joey caught the look and immediately tried to rephrase what he said.  “I mean…we…I mean.  Dammit.  I didn’t mean for it to sound the way it came out.  I wasn’t trying to sound all stuck up or anything.” he blushed, feeling rather stupid at the moment.

“No worries.  I figured when I seen you guys at the mall you had to be somebody important, or else you wouldn’t of had all those big burly men with you!” she laughed.

“OH….cool!” Joey muttered, not really sure what else to say.

Abby just smiled at Joey.  “Well, it was nice seeing you guys again, but I gotta get back to work.  No time to chat.  Have a good evening.” she said, moving off to serve some other patrons at the bar.

“WAIT, Abby?” JC called after her.

“Huh?” she turned back to him.

“How much do we owe you for the drinks?” he asked.

“This rounds on me.  I owe you guys for yesterday!  Have fun!” she smiled before walking off.

JC and Joey watched her walk to the other end of the bar to wait on some other customers and then grabbed their drinks and headed back to their table.

“What took so damn long?  Do they not have anyone working here?” Bobbie asked as JC and Joey sat down handing everyone their drinks.

“They’re short staffed tonight, babe.” JC said, offering some form of an explanation.

“Well, maybe they should hire some more people so they wouldn’t have that problem.” Bobbie continued to complain.

“So……” Joey started, trying to change the subject.  He didn’t want to sit and listen to Bobbie’s mouth anymore than any of the other guys wanted to.  “Guess who me and C saw at the bar!  You’ll never guess!”

“Who?” Lance asked generally curious.

“Abby!” Joey grinned.

“Abby who?” Chris asked, rather confused.  He didn’t know any Abby.

“The girl from the mall yesterday.” JC answered.

“The chic with the purse?” Justin asked.

“Yeah.  She’s a bartender here.” Joey answered.  “She gave us our drinks free as a thank you for yesterday.”

“Well, if she gave them to you for free, why didn’t you try to get me a beer instead of a friggin’ soda?” Justin complained.

“J, man you know you’re not old enough to drink yet.  If we’d of got you a beer and you got busted not only would we be in trouble but so would she.  So drink your soda and be a good little boy!” JC teased.

Justin gave JC a dirty look and mumbled a few obscenities under his breath at him.  He hated being the youngest one and not being able to drink when he went out with his friends.  Not that it was all that important.  But he just hated the fact that he had to sit at the table with everyone else drinking and all he could get was a soda.

Bobbie was curious at the mention of this girl Abby.  JC hadn’t mentioned anything to her about a girl with a purse at the mall.  She immediately became jealous.  If he hadn’t mentioned her there was probably a reason.  She set her eyes on the bar to seek out who this “Abby” was.  But when her eyes fixed on the female bartender, she immediately relaxed.  She saw no threat there!  At least not a threat of the girl stealing her man from her.

Abby was a very plain Jane.  She was an average height, heavy set girl.  Not real big, but defiantly not skinny either.  She had long brown hair that was pulled up with a clip.  “No need to be worried about her.”  Bobbie thought relieved.
 

The group spent the rest of the evening talking amongst themselves and then dividing up to go mingle in the crowd and get some dancing in.  Lance, and Chris said hello to Abby when they made their way to the bar to get more drinks.  And then Justin later stopped by after exiting the dance floor to get a glass of water to quench the thirst he’d worked up.

As the club was closing up there were few people left in the VIP area.  The guys were waiting on the lower level of the club to clear out before they tried to leave.  The less people they had to fight to get out the better.  They had their security team with them.  But it just made it easier on everyone to do things this way rather than try to leave along with the large groups of people that were leaving below.

They were all sitting at their table waiting on Dre to come let them know when it was clear to leave when Justin noticed Abby clearing glasses and bottles off some nearby tables.

“Hey Abby.  Come here for a sec!” Justin hollered to her.

She looked up from what she was doing and glanced over at Justin as he motioned for her to come over.  So she sat down her bust tub and headed over to the table they were all sitting at.

“What’s up?” she asked.

“Aw, nothing just wanted to say hi again.” Justin smiled.

“You called me over here to say hi?” she questioned, somewhat annoyed.

“He’s just trying to butter you up!  He thinks if he gets on your good side you’ll give him a beer.” Joey chuckled.

“Oh, so that’s it.” she smiled at Justin.

“Hey you can’t blame a guy for trying.” Justin said shrugging.

“Well if you wanted a beer why didn’t you just ask?” she said back.

“Cause he’s not old enough to have a beer.” JC answered.

“Oh, so you’re not 21?” she asked unknowingly.

“You mean you don’t know how old he is?” Bobbie asked in disbelief.

Abby gave her an odd look.  “No.  Why would I know how old he is?”

“Do you even know who these guys are?  Come on don’t try to play that.” Bobbie snapped.

Abby was taken aback by Bobbie’s tone.  Who did this girl think she was talking to her like that?  How was she supposed to know how old the guys were?  “No, actually I don’t know who they are.  I mean sure they introduced themselves to me.  But we only met yesterday.  And obviously they’re someone important enough to be up here in VIP, but other than that.  NO.  I don’t know who they are!”  she snapped back with an equally bitchy tone.

“Is this girl for real?” Bobbie asked the group of guys, and then turned her attention back to Abby.  “They’re Nsync.  Only the hottest group out there these days.  How could you possibly NOT know who they are?  You obviously don’t get out very much!”

JC couldn’t believe the way Bobbie was talking to Abby.  She hadn’t done or said anything to her to deserve that sort of treatment.  She’d been nothing but nice and considerate to the guys.  He was rather comforted with the fact that she didn’t know who they were.  That meant they were somewhat normal in her eyes, which is what the guys liked more than anything.  They didn’t like to be introduced as Nsync.  That’s not who they were individually.  Yet, here was Bobbie doing that again.  Making a huge deal out of who they were and what their status was.

“Baby, that’s really not important.  And I’m sure Abby gets out plenty.  Not everyone listens to our music and knows who we are.” JC said, giving Abby an apologetic smile.

“Yeah, so shut it already!” Justin added.  He was sick of her mouth.  He’d had to listen to it all night.  And now she was making fools out of them by showing her ass to a complete stranger just because she didn’t know who they were.

Abby smirked at Justin’s remark.  He took the words right out of her mouth.  If she didn’t need her job so much she would have told the girl to shut it herself.  Although, she would have used a few more creative words to tell her.

“Justin, you still want that beer?” she smiled at him.

Justin’s eyes shot up.  “Huh?”

“I said you still want that beer?  One can’t hurt anything.  And I’m not gonna tell if you don’t tell.” she smiled.

“Sure!” he said, scrambling up from the table.

“Come on then.  I’ll get you whatever you want.” Abby said smiling at him and then sending Bobbie a cold glare before walking off towards the bar with Justin.

“You better watch your mouth Bobbie.  It’s gonna get you in some real trouble.  That girl punched a guy yesterday in the mall and knocked him off his feet.  You keep running your mouth like that and you might be her next victim.” Joey smirked before getting up and walking off towards the bar.

Lance and Chris started laughing at Joey’s comment and immediately got up to join their other two friends at the bar after Bobbie shot them death looks.

“Are you just gonna let them talk to me like that?” Bobbie demanded, starring at JC.

“Well, they do kind of have a point.  You were really rude to her for no reason.  And you know how we HATE to have our fame thrown out there like that.  You know that’s not what we’re about and the guys get REALLY annoyed with you when you do that all the time.”

“Whatever!” Bobbie retorted.

JC sighed and turned his attention to his four friends standing over at the bar talking and laughing with Abby.  At that moment he envied his friends.  He would have given anything to be over there with them laughing and having a good time rather than sitting there with Bobbie, while she was having yet another one of her little temper tantrums.  It was moments like this that made him really question their relationship.
 

About fifteen minutes later Dre informed the guys it was clear for them to leave.  So they all said goodbye to Abby and then headed out ahead of JC and Bobbie.  Their key purpose in life anymore seemed to be to avoid Bobbie at all cost.

JC bringing up the rear gave Abby another apologetic smile and a wave goodbye as he followed Bobbie and the guys down the stairs to leave.

Abby stood watching JC’s retreating back until he was no longer in view.  “What’s a nice guy like that, doing with a bitch like her?” she questioned aloud.

“What’s that?” Kurt asked, standing off to her right wiping down the counter of the bar.

Abby looked over to Kurt.  She hadn’t realized she’d said that out loud.  “Nothing.”
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter 2

( Monday, June 4th, 2001 )

“This is it.” Lonnie said from the front of the van the guys were riding in.

They all peered out the windows to look over the large warehouse that their photo shoot was to take place in that morning.

Yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, JC mumbled something about not wanting to have his picture taken that early in the morning.

Lonnie simply chuckled at the guys.  They were all like walking zombies.  Well, all of them but for Joey.  He was very wide awake and bouncing around the van like a small child on a sugar high.

“Damn, Joey calm down.  It’s too early for you to be so giddy!” Justin grumbled, followed by a chorus of “yeah’s”.

“You guys are a bunch of grouches!” Joey responded as he bounced out of his seat once the van came to a stop and flung the side door open jumping out into the early morning sunlight.  “It’s gonna be a beautiful day.” he said smiling back at the guys who all shot him a dirty look.  Joey just laughed at his friends and continued bouncing around as he waited on them to exit the van.

Chris climbed out of the van last and looked over at Joey.  “If I didn’t know better I’d think you were all giddy because your gonna get to see her again today.”

“Nah, that’s not it man.  I’m just in a good mood today.  You know the camera loves me!” Joey smiled.

“See her?  Her who?” JC asked yawning again.

“Abby.” Joey smiled.

“Abby?  From the mall and the club a couple weeks ago?” JC asked thoroughly confused.

“You mean Joe didn’t tell you?” Chris asked.

“Tell me what?” JC asked.

“Yeah, is Abby gonna be here or something?” Lance asked.

“Oh, yeah we seen her this weekend again when we went to the club Saturday night.” Justin said jumping into the conversation.

“No, Joe didn’t mention that.  She’s gonna be here?” JC said looking from Justin, to Joey, to Chris awaiting an answer.

“Yeah, she’s a Photography Major at UCLA.  Or at least she was.  She graduated last year and now she’s doing an internship with the studio that’s doing our photo shoot today.  So she’s supposed to be around here somewhere.”  Joey answered as the group made their way into the warehouse.

JC only nodded in response.  He was still half asleep and forming full sentences was just too much trouble that early in the morning.

“So you guys must have really talked to her Saturday night then?” Lance continued curious to find out what had happened.  He and JC had decided to stay in that evening.  They’d done a bunch of promotional stuff earlier that day and were too tired to go out.  But of coarse that didn’t stop the other three from going.

“It was so funny!” Chris began.  “J, here wanted so badly for her to be our bartender.  You know because he gets “special treatment” from her since that one night we were there.  So he went and talked to the manager and got him to send her upstairs to VIP to virtually wait on only us.”

“Justin.” JC and Lance chorused together in a non-approval tone.

“Hey, if Bobbie can throw our status around, why can’t I?  It was for the better of mankind.” he smirked.

“More like the better of Justin kind.” Joey chuckled.  “He was so plastered after like four beers that Abby, cut him off and then we had to sit and listen to him whine the rest of the evening.”

“I wasn’t plastered!  I told her I didn’t want anymore!” Justin defended.

“Sure, riiiight!” Joey smirked.

“We’ll, just have to ask Abby about that today when we see her wont we!” Chris added.

“Whatever!” Justin grumbled and walked off once they were inside.

“So are you like interested in her or something?” JC asked finally joining the conversation again.

“No way!” Joey shook his head.

“Why not?  She seemed nice.” Lance asked.

“Hello, where have you been for the last few years?  I’m with Kelly remember.  We just had a baby not too long ago!  What are you thinking?” Joey glared at his friends disappointedly.

“Well, it never stopped you before!” JC added with a smile.

“Dude, flirting and hooking up are two VERY different things!” Joey said.

“Kelly, was with us!” Chris added.

“Ah Ha, so the truth comes out!” Lance laughed.

“Even if Kelly wasn’t with us, it’s not like that.  Abby, isn’t my type.  She’s the kind of girl you just hang with.  She’s hilarious and has this attitude.  I just like listening to her talk.  She cracks me up!  You never know what‘s gonna come out of her mouth.” Joey defended.

“Oh so she’s a female version of you?” JC chuckled.

“If you wanna look at it that way, I guess you can.  She’s a fun girl.  I’m a fun guy.  So yeah I guess you could say she’s a female version of me.” Joey beamed.

“Man, you’re so full of yourself!” Lance laughed.  “Someone needs to deflate your head.  You’re turning into Justin!”

“I HEARD THAT!” Justin yelled walking back up.

Lance, only gave him a look as if to say ‘hey it’s the truth’.

“So why isn’t she your type then?  If she’s so great?” JC asked as the guys were ushered into a room full of clothing.

“She’s just not.  I don’t see her like that.  What’s the big deal?  It’s not like she’s the first girl to not be my type!” Joey, said defensively.  He didn’t see what the big deal was.   They acted like he came on to every female on the planet.  “Well, ok maybe I do come on to a lot of chics but it’s just playing around.” he thought.

“Whatever you say man.” JC chuckled now more awake.

“Hey Abby’s a cool girl.  I gotta agree with Joey!  She’s funny and spunky and doesn’t take anybodies shit.  She about got in a fight with some dude Saturday night.  She got all up in his face and everything.   Mike, had to pull her back, she was ready to tear ol’ boy a new asshole.” Justin said remembering the events of Saturday night.

“Why?  What happened?” Lance asked.

“She went to the bar to go get Chris and Joey another drink and on her way back the guy stopped her.  He was all bitching her out because she was waiting on us but not him.  Going on and on about who he was or something.  Some big time business guy from one of the major corporations around the area or something.  And he called her a bitch.  And she went off.  Sat the drinks down on the table nearest to her and got all up in the guys face.  Mike, got up because he seen the guy clenching his fists and he thought he was gonna hit her or something.  But Abby never backed down.  Not even for a second.  And you know she’s rather short.  The guy stood a good foot over her.  It was funny!  Mike, had to literally drag her away from the man.” Justin laughed.

“Sounds like we missed a lot Saturday night.” JC said looking through the racks of clothes.

“Yeah we had a good time.  But that’s what you and Lance get for being lazy asses!” Chris added with a smile.

JC shot him an un-amused look and continued looking through the racks of clothing.

“Well, regardless she’s cool.  She actually sat and talked to us a lot.  Her and Kelly really hit it off.  They seem to have a lot in common.  That’s how we found out she’d be here today.  Her and Kelly were talking about her internship, and when she said the name of the company Kelly was all like “That’s who’s doing your guy’s photo shoot on Monday.”  So that got us on a whole other topic.  And we just hung out the rest of the night talking and stuff when she wasn’t getting drinks and all that jazz for us.”

“So is she the one that’s gonna be doing the photo shoot?” Lance asked his business sense kicking in.

“I don’t think so.  She’s just helping out with lighting and reloading the cameras I believe is what she said.  This is a big account for the company and they look at her as an armature so they wont let her take part in the actual photographing portion.  She was rather annoyed by that.” Chris said.

“That sucks.  It would be nice to have someone we actually know behind the camera, rather than some stranger.” JC said taking a seat on one of the sofas that were located in the room.

“Yeah” the other’s agreed.

The guys conversation switched from Abby over to what else they had scheduled for the day after their photo shoot and they all made themselves comfy on the sofas waiting on further instructions as to what they were to do.
 

A couple hours later the guys were all dolled up in their wardrobe and makeup and getting ready for their photo shoot.  They made their way back out into the main room where the backdrops and all the lighting were setup.

Justin spotted Abby off to the side of the room loading film into a few cameras and decided since they hadn’t been given any directions on what to do other than to stand there he was gonna go talk to her.

“Yo Abbs!” he yelled as he made his way over to her.

Abby looked up and smiled at the friendly face headed her way.

“Abbs?” JC questioned Chris who was standing next to him.

“It’s Justin’s nickname for her.  It came about after that last beer we told you about earlier.” Chris chuckled.  “She’s his new best friend.  Can’t ya tell?” he, added pointing over to where Justin had pulled Abby up from her seat and wrapped her in a friendly bear hug.

“I see!” JC laughed.

“The boy’s like a dog or something.  Except all she had to do was give him a beer and now he’s her friend for life!” Joey laughed.
 

“So what are you doing?  They got you loading cameras!  That sucks!” Justin said letting Abby out of his hug.

“Yeah.  Tons of fun, huh!” Abby said sarcastically.

“Do you want me to say something.  You know I got pull.  I can prolly get them to let you take a few shots.” Justin offered.

“NO!  It’s fine, Justin.  I’m here to learn.  Not take the photos.  But thanks anyway.” she smiled.

“Well, if you change your mind just let me know!”  he smiled.

“I don’t think that’ll be happening.  But thanks.” Abby said as she went back to loading the remaining cameras.

“Ok…just thought I’d offer.” Justin said as he stood watching her load the cameras.
 

The other guys walked up to Justin and Abby and said hello.  They were just beginning to make small talk with her when they were called away to begin their photo shoot.

Abby stood off to the side watching the whole photo shoot.  Fulfilling her duties of switching the lighting and reloading the cameras when directed to.  She was rather amused with the guys antics.  They were anything but serious and when requested to be serious they would then fall into bouts of laughter just trying to hold a straight face.

She noticed Greg the photographer was growing somewhat annoyed with the guys.  He wanted serious shots.  But all he was getting were some rather candid shots.  But Abby loved it.  This was obviously the guys in their normal banter.  And she had always preferred natural shots over the fake stand this direction and smile ones.  You were just able to capture so much more with natural shots.  You could capture the persons personality and mood.  You could capture the actual person, rather than what the person was pretending to be.

“ABBY!” Greg yelled.

Startled from her thoughts, she looked over to Greg who gave her an angry expression.  “You wanna snap out of it and fix that lighting for me!  And reload those two cameras!  I’m not gonna bring you to anymore shoots with me if you can’t keep up.  This is no time to get all star struck!” he, snapped.

Abby looked at him in contempt.  She was about to let him have it but then decided to bite her tongue and do as he asked.  “Sure.  Sorry.” she, said making her way over to the lighting to change it up for Greg, and then grabbed the two cameras off the floor to reload them.

The guys just looked at each other.  It upset them a bit to hear this guy yell at her like she was nobody.  And to flat out try and embarrass her in front of the guys by saying what he had just ticked them off even more.  “Who does he think he is?” Joey said only loud enough for his friends to hear him.

“He’s a real ass!” Chris added.

“Let’s just get this over with guys.  The quicker the better.” Lance, said trying to be the voice of reason.

So they went back to the deed at hand once Greg let them know he was ready again.

Throughout the remaining portion of the photo shoot, Greg continued to yell at Abby over little things.  She didn’t have the lighting right and would make her move it to where it had already been set before.  It seemed to the guys that he was just giving her a hard time.

After they were finished the guys wasted no time getting away from the man.  It was all Chris could do to not say anything the whole time.  He was never one to sit back and watch people be treated like scum because they were on the lower end of the corporate level so to speak.  Just because Abby was an intern didn’t mean she deserved any less respect.  And this guy was showing her absolutely none.

JC picked up on the expression on her face.  She looked rather aggravated with Greg.  Ready to strangle him to be more exact.  But yet throughout the whole thing she bit her tongue and didn’t say a word to him, other than to mutter an ok, sure, or sorry to something he’d said to her.

He found her professionalism to be outstanding considering what she’d gone through that day.  And he knew from meeting her in the mall, and club.  And from what the guys had told him about her little confrontation that Saturday night that she wasn’t one to hold back.  Yet, she did.  And that showed great restraint in his view.
 

As the guys were making their way out to the van that had brought them that morning, they noticed Abby loading some equipment up in a van parked off to the side of the building.

Joey made his way over to her to check and make sure she was ok after the hell she had been put through.  “Hey, Abby you ok?” he asked as he walked up to her.

She looked up at Joey, still with a rather aggravated look on her face but then smiled when she seen him.  “Yeah I’m fine.  Greg, is just a major asshole.  Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.” she, said.

“He was more than an asshole!” Justin said as he and the other guys walked up.

“Yeah, well that’s life.  If I didn’t need this internship so bad I would have told his ass off.  But I do need it, so I didn’t.  Which just irks me even more.”

“Well, I thought you showed great restraint in there.  That says a lot about your professionalism.” JC smiled.

Abby looked up and met JC’s sincere blue eyes.  “Thanks.  That means a lot.” she smiled.

“Hey it’s the truth.  It’s obvious normally you probably just would have punched him.  But you didn’t.  So that’s good!” JC laughed joined by the rest.

“Now I would have paid money to see that.  So you let me know when your gonna do it.  And I’ll buy a ring side seat!” Justin laughed.

“He keeps that shit up and you’ll be getting a call sooner than you think.  It gets worse every time we go out on a shoot.  It’s like his soul mission in life is to embarrass me and piss me off.  He’s gonna get it one of these days.  And it’s coming fast I can feel it.” she said throwing a bag into the back of the van.

“Guys we gotta go!” Lonnie yelled from across the lot.

“Well, we gotta go.” Lance said.  “It was nice seeing you again Abby.”

“Yeah you too!” she smiled.

As the guys said their goodbyes and turned to walk away, Joey stopped and turned around walking backwards.  “Hey Abby, did Kelly call you yesterday?  Did she let you know that we‘re gonna come?”

“Yeah, I talked to her last night.  She said you’d be there.”

“Cool, just wanted to make sure.  I almost forgot!  I’ll see you Thursday then!”

“OK…see ya then!” she, waved as Joey climbed into the van and then the guys drove off.
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter 3

“Thursday?  What’s going on Thursday?” JC asked curiously.

“Oh Kelly wants to have some photographs of Brianna taken.  And when she found out that Abby was a photographer she asked her about it.  So we’re going over to Abby’s Thursday morning to have a look at her portfolio and maybe even go ahead and have the photos done that day.” Joey answered.

“Kelly, must really trust her if she’s willing to allow her to take pictures of Brianna.” JC said.

“Yeah, like I said they really hit it off.  Kelly, wants to give her the chance since she’s new at all this.  She also just really wants to see Abby’s portfolio.  Kelly, is a closet photography freak.”
 

(Thursday, June 7, 2001)

Joey and Kelly took Brianna to Abby’s house to see her portfolio.  After reviewing it Kelly was positive she wanted Abby to do the portraits of their baby girl, and since Abby didn’t have to be at the club until later that afternoon she went ahead and set everything up to take the photos.

What was supposed to be only photos of Brianna soon turned into a full fledge family shoot.  Abby, took solo shots of Brianna and then took shots of her with her mom and then her with her dad and then of them all together.

Abby fell in love with the baby girl.  She was so beautiful and the camera loved her as well.  She was the happiest baby, Abby had ever seen.  And so very photogenic.

After the shoot was over the adults sat around talking for a little while before Joey had to get back to the office for a meeting with the guys and Abby had to get to work.  So they all said their goodbyes and went their separate ways agreeing that Joey would stop by the next time he was in town which would be in a couple weeks to pick up the photographs.  They didn’t want to take the chance of mailing them and someone getting a hold of them and leaking them to the press.
 

( Saturday, June 16, 2001 )

“Hey C, can we make a quick stop on the way to the studio?  I promised Kelly I’d stop by Abby’s today and pick up the photos she took of us.  It’s not far out of the way.  She actually lives pretty close to you.” Joey asked as he and JC made their way out to JC’s car.

“Sure, we got time.  Does she know you’re coming?”

“I’ll call her now and let her know.  I talked to her yesterday she doesn’t have to be at work until later today so she should be home.” Joey said pulling his phone out of his pocket after climbing into JC’s car and then dialing Abby’s number.

JC started his car and put it in reverse and backed out of his driveway and into the road while listening to Joey’s side of the conversation.

“Hey girl what ya up to?…..Oh that sounds like fun……yeah I know that sucks…..well hey me and JC are on our way to the studio and I promised Kelly I’d stop and pick those photos up while I was in town.  Is it ok if we stop by now to get them?…….Maybe ten minutes, C doesn’t live to far from you……yeah we’re leaving his house now……ok…..ok….yeah we’ll be there in a few….ok…see ya in a few….yeah…..bye.”

“Got the all clear?” JC asked.

“Yup….let’s go!  I can’t wait to see how the photos turned out.  She showed us her portfolio while we were there that day.  She’s done some really great work.  She’s got a great eye.  Her photos are all so natural and candid.  So I’m excited to see how ours turned out.” Joey smiled.

“Well, tell me what way to go.” JC said.

Joey directed JC to Abby’s place.  He was right she only lived about ten minutes from JC which really wasn’t that far away.  It wouldn’t take that long to get there if it wasn’t for all the stupid traffic lights.  And of coarse the guys got stopped by nearly every one.

Once, they pulled up to her house, the guys jumped out and made their way up to her front door.  Joey, rang the doorbell and the guys stood patiently waiting on her to answer.  So they were somewhat surprised when a tall well built blonde man answered the door.

Both JC and Joey stood frozen for a moment.  JC thought for a moment they had the wrong house.  Maybe Joey had it mixed up with one of the other houses on the street.  They did all kind of look alike in a way.

Joey gave a quick look at the numbers on the house to make sure he had the right house before asking.  “Is Abby here?” he said somewhat hesitantly.

“Oh sure.  You must be Joey and JC.  She said you was coming by.  My name’s Mark.” he said extending his hand.

The guys said hello and shook his hand, and then Mark lead them into the house.  JC shot Joey a questioning look as if to ask who this guy was, but Joey only returned it with a shrug of the shoulders indicating he had no clue.

“Abby, sweetie your friends are here!” Mark hollered up the staircase and then turned to the two men.  “Just have a seat she’ll be down in a sec.” he, said before walking off into another room.

JC took a seat on the sofa and looked around to the room they were in.  It had large portraits on the wall of the ocean and several other scenic shots.  “Did Abby do those do you know?” he asked Joey nodding up to the portraits on the wall.

“Yeah, she did all these.” Joey said motioning around the room to all the various framed portraits on the walls.

“Wow, she is really good.  She could make some serious money with this stuff.” JC said eyeing all of the portraits on the walls.

“Yeah, I told her she didn’t need that stupid internship job.  That she should just start her own company and get right at it and start making some money.  She’s been taking pictures since she was a little girl.  She’s so passionate about it.  I’ve never seen someone’s eyes light up the way hers does when she talks about her work……”

Joey was interrupted from going any further into detail to tell JC about the things they’d talked about the day he and Kelly had been there when Abby came down the stairs.  “Sorry to keep you waiting.  I was on a call.” she, said entering the room.

“No problem.  We were just admiring your work.” JC smiled.

“Oh thanks.  You like it, huh?” she asked proudly.

“Yeah, it’s really good.  I agree with Joe.  You should defiantly skip the whole internship thing and start your own business.  You could make some serious money with prints like these.” JC said confidently.

“Well, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll defiantly have to consider it some more.  Especially, if they keep sending me out with Greg‘s punk ass!” she smiled at JC and then turned her attention to Joey.  “I really think you’re gonna love these photos.  They turned out so good.” she beamed pulling out all the photos she’d taken of  Joey, Kelly and Brianna.

Abby lead Joey and JC into the kitchen area so she could lay all the photos out on the table so he could see them all.  Joey was extremely pleased with the photographs.  They’d all turned out wonderfully.  The simplicity of the photographs was incredible.  But it was the simplicity of them that made them so wonderful.  They were so natural.  “These are great!  Kelly’s going to love them!” Joey beamed.

“Good, I’m glad!” Abby said as she gathered all of the photos back up and put them into a large envelope.  “The negatives are in here too.  So you don’t have to worry about any other prints being made off them.  Although, if it’s ok with you I did make extra copies for my portfolio of these two shots here.” she, said holding up her two favorite shots.

One was of Brianna alone, and the other was of Joey, Kelly, and Brianna together.  Both Joey and Kelly were starring at their daughter with looks of joy on their faces.

“That’s fine.  And I’m sure Kelly would be fine with it as well.” Joey said.

“Great, thanks.  I really appreciate it.  I just had to keep a photo of that angel of yours.  She’s the sweetest lil’ girl I’ve ever met.  And SO photogenic.  Any time you want her photos done, please let me know.  She’s just to sweet!  The camera loves her!”  Abby beamed whole heartedly.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you’ll be hearing from Kelly again to do more.  Especially, when she sees these!” Joey, said holding up the envelope in his hand.

“They were really good, photos!” JC added.  He’d been silent pretty much throughout the whole conversation.  He just stood back and looked over all of the photographs.  He too agreed they were all wonderfully shot.

So natural.  They weren’t your typical shots, like you’d get if you went into a studio like Sears or something like that.  These were just photos of the family together.  And all the love and emotion that showed through the photos was what was so captivating.

Abby smiled a thank you to JC and was about to say something when Mark walked into the room.  “I’m on my way out sweetie!  I’ll see you later tonight when you get home.  Don’t forget we got that thing tomorrow morning at Tommy’s house.” he, said as he walked over and kissed Abby on her check.

“Ok, I’ll see you later.  Have fun with the guys!” she winked.

“You know it!” he, laughed.  “Hey it was nice meeting you two.” he said to Joey and JC and then exited the room with a wave.

Joey looked over at Abby and raised an eyebrow.  “Sweetie, huh?” he smirked at her.

Abby rolled her eyes at Joey.  She knew exactly what he was implying with his little gesture.  But for some reason she didn’t feel the need to correct him at the moment.  She was standing in her kitchen with two fifths of Nsync.  Not only were they famous celebrities but they were extremely hot celebrities.  “Especially, JC!”  she thought.

She’d been attracted to him from the moment she’d met him in the mall several weeks back.  But she knew that no one like him or any of the other guys for that matter would ever look at her that way.  So it made her feel a little less self conscious for them to THINK she had a significant other.

Besides, not only was she NOT JC’s type.  But he also had a very pretty girlfriend.  She was a major bitch, but non the less she was very pretty.  And Abby knew beyond a reasonable doubt that she was no where near being in the same league as Bobbie.  So it was just easier to pretend her life was as perfect as theirs.

“You didn’t answer him!” JC pointed out when Abby didn’t respond to Joey’s antics.

“Well, what do you want me to say?” she asked.

“Well, is he your boyfriend?  I don’t see any rings on your finger so I’m assuming he’s not your husband.  Besides you’re way too young to be married.  So I’m guessing boyfriend.” JC said.

Abby glanced down at her hand.  He was very observant.  He must have put some thought into that.  But why would he even care?  Oh well what does it matter?  How was she gonna answer this question?  She didn’t want to lie.  But technically Mark was her friend and he was a boy, well a man.  “Yeah, he’s my boyfriend.” she finally answered.

“Why didn’t you mention him before?  Where was he that day me and Kelly were here?” Joey asked curiously.

“Oh he was out of town that week.  Mark, works for a major advertising company in LA so he’s out of town a lot on business.  And as for why I never mentioned him.  Well, I guess I just didn’t think it was all that important.” she said.

The three of them talked for a little while longer before Joey and JC had to leave to get over to the studio.  On their way out Joey stopped to invite her to a cookout Justin was having at his and Britney’s place the following Friday night.

“It’s like our last little bash thing before we have to head out on tour the following week.  Justin, wanted me to invite you.  I almost forgot.” Joey said as he stood in Abby’s doorway.

“Well, I usually have to work but I’ll see what I can do.  Maybe I can stop by for an hour or so.” she smiled.

“Cool.  Well, then we’ll see you there.  I’ll call you later to give you the address and all that stuff.  We really gotta get going.” Joey said making his way down the walkway to the driveway.

“OK.  Talk to you later.  Tell Kelly I said hello and please give Bri a kiss for me!” Abby called after him.

“Will do!” Joey yelled back.

“Nice seeing you again, Abby!  Take it easy.  Maybe I’ll see you at Justin’s next week.” JC called to her as he opened his car door.

“Yeah, nice seeing you too JC.  You guys have fun!  Bye!”  Abby waved before shutting her door and retreating into her house.
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter 4

( Friday, June 22, 2001 / Justin's Houe )

“Why are you dragging me here again?” Mark asked as Abby pulled him up the long driveway that led up to Justin’s house.

“Because, I told you.  They think you’re my boyfriend.  And I couldn’t come to something like this all by myself.” Abby sighed.

“Why did you tell them I was your boyfriend, again?” Mark smirked.

He was having way too much fun torturing Abby with all of this.  He knew very well why she’d done it.  He’d known Abby for many years.  And he knew how self conscious she was.  So he understood why when the guys had assumed he was her boyfriend, she didn’t correct them.  She wanted to fit in.  She wanted them to think she was capable of having a man.

Mark, hated the fact that Abby was so self conscious.  She was a pretty girl, but she let her whole body image cloud all thoughts of being pretty and wanted by the opposite sex.  So if he could help her out by pretending to be her boyfriend he would do it.  But of coarse he had to give her a hard time about it.  That was the fun in the whole thing for him.

“Just stop asking so many questions and play along.  Besides you owe me!  So just stuff a sock in it and go with the flow!” Abby said as they neared the house.

“No problem honey buns.” Mark smirked.

‘Don’t you dare call me….” Abby started to scold Mark when the front door flew open and Justin came walking out.

“Abbs, your here!  I’m so glad you could make it.” Justin said hugging her and then motioning for them to enter.

“Well, we can only stay for an hour or so.  I gotta work tonight.” Abby smiled.

“Well, at least you’re here.  That’s all that matters.” Justin said and then turned his attention to Mark.  “You must be Mark, I’m Justin.” he said extending his hand.

“Yes, I’m Mark.  Nice to meet you Justin.” he said shaking Justin’s hand.

“Well, follow me you two.  The party is out back.” Justin said leading them through the house and out to the backyard.

Shortly after Abby appeared in the backyard she was greeted by Chris, Joey and Lance who all came over to say hello.  Kelly was with Joey and Chris had his girlfriend Dani with him.  So everyone that hadn’t already met and been introduced was introduced.

Mark started playing up the boyfriend roll, by introducing himself as Abby’s boyfriend.  She was already regretting bringing him because he was having way too much fun with this little act, at her expense.  Calling her pet names.  Anything he could do to make her blush.  She was ready to strangle him.  And she knew he was doing it on purpose.

Abby noticed JC across the back lawn with Bobbie, so she didn’t bother to go say hello.  She couldn’t stand that girl. 

The days crept by slowly for Abby in New York.  She was all alone in a large city she knew nothing about, just sitting around waiting.  Waiting for word on weather her best friend was alive or dead.  Although, she  had a strong gut feeling it was the later of the two.  She‘d, had that feeling since she had found out about what happened.

What a way to be woken up.  Their hotel was several blocks away from the Towers, but with all of the madness that happened in the city that morning and all the sirens and everything that had been going off, there was no way she could have slept through it.  And then to wake up and turn on the TV in her room, to see the pictures of what was going on.

She had tried repeatedly to call Mark’s cell phone, to only get his voice mail.  She had even tried to down to where everything had happened to look around to see if she could see him anywhere.   And when she came up empty there she made a trip to all of the hospitals she had been told patients had been sent to.  And still nothing.

Then came the fateful day, several days later where she received a call from the local hospital saying they had recovered Mark’s body.  They had actually recovered it a couple days prior but had just gotten the DNA matching back to confirm it was him.  And when Abby, got that dreaded call her world began to crumble.
 

The guys were all back together again in Florida, at the WEG compound.  They’d had a meeting with Johnny about a special they wanted to do to raise money for the families of the people killed or hurt from the events on 9-11.

After a rather solemn meeting, the guys headed down to the wreck room to play some games and hang out.  They were trying to lift their spirits and take their minds off of all the different things, the five of them had been thinking about after their meeting.

Chris and Justin were battling it out at a video game, as Joey, Lance and JC sat aside amused, watching the two.   Their minds were finally starting to drift off to a better place, and have a few happy thoughts.  Smiling and laughing at Justin and Chris’ antics, when JC’s cell phone began to ring.

He was in the middle of a fit of laughter at how Chris, had just elbowed Justin to try to score some extra points on the game when he answered.  “H…Hello?” he stammered as he laughed.

“JC?” Abby’s soft, weak voice questioned from the other end of the line, and immediately JC stopped smiling and tensed up.

“Abby?  Is that you?” he asked and his question was met with a brief silence, and then the sounds of Abby’s sobs pouring through the phone.  “Abby, what’s wrong?  Are you ok?” he asked standing from the sofa, and he began to pace the room.

The video game was forgotten as both Justin and Chris looked up at JC to find out what was going on.  As did Lance and Joey.  They could all tell from the tone of JC’s voice and the questioning of if she was ok, that it was obvious she wasn’t ok.  Something was wrong.

“Abby, take a breath and tell me what’s wrong?  Where are you?” JC asked softly into the phone.  Hoping that his voice was as calming as he was trying to make it.

“It’s Mark…he…they….found him.” she finally managed to get out.

“Abby, is he….”

His question was cut off by another round of sobs, which answered the question he already knew.  And had known for days, although he had hoped he was wrong.

“Abby, do you need me to come up there?” he questioned.

“No” she replied weakly into the phone.  “I’m fine.  I’ll be ok.  It’s just hard for me to say.”

“You shouldn’t be in that big city by yourself right now.  I’m coming up there.”

“You don’t need to.  I’ll be back in a week or so.”

“What do you mean a week or so?  Why don’t you come back now?”

“I’ve got things to deal with, JC.  Mark’s, family could care less.  Someone’s got to take care of this.  I just wanted to call and let ya’ll know that they found him and that I won't be back for a while.” she sniffled into the phone.

“Abby, you should really let one of us come up there.  We can help.  You’ve got no  business dealing with all of this on your own.” JC told her.

“What’s going on, C?” Justin questioned.

JC held up a finger as if to tell him to hold on a minute and continued speaking to her.  “Seriously, Abby.  Let one of us come up there and help.”

“No need.  Some friends back home are going to help me, and Mahogany is going to meet me there in a couple days.  You guys have things to do of your own.  Don’t worry about me.” she told him.

“Yeah, like we’re not going to worry.  But if you don’t want us there then I’m not going to argue with you about it.  It’s your choice.  Just promise me that if you need something call one of us.  And please…” he paused thinking of how to word his next request.  “Call and let me know when the funeral and stuff will be.  I’d like to attend.”

“I will.” she responded softly.  JC could tell she was still crying by the shakiness of her voice.  “Well I better go.  I have a lot to do.  I’ll talk to you later.”

“OK.  Remember what I said though.  If you need anything give us a call ok.”

“Ok.  Bye, JC.”

“Bye.” he said softly into the phone before clicking it off and slipping into his pocket.  He turned around and found the four other guys staring at him.  Waiting for some kind of clue as to what was going on.

“So…..” Lance said.

“So, that was Abby.  They found Mark.” he said regretfully and the guys could all tell by the way that he said it that he hadn’t been found the way they had all been praying he would be.

“What’s she going to do?” Justin asked.

“I guess she’s going back home.  His family doesn’t seem to care and she’s going to take care of the services and stuff.”

“And she wouldn’t let any of us come up there to help her out?” Joey questioned.

“No.  She said some of their friends back home were going to help, and Mahogany was going to meet her there in a couple days.”

“Well, at least she’ll be with her family and friends back home.” Chris said solemnly.

“Yeah, but she’s still in New York right now.  And she’s all alone.  And I don’t know, I’m worried about her.  She sounded horrible.” JC conceded.

“Well, it’s understandable, C.  The girls best friend just died.  She’s going to be very upset.  I can’t imagine being in her shoes right now.  And to have that weight on her shoulders of having to deal with his funeral and everything else on top of it.  Being in the middle of all that madness up in New York right now.  That’s a lot to deal with.” Lance stated.

“Exactly the reason I’m worried.” JC sighed.
 

A couple weeks had gone by since JC and the guys had received the phone call from Abby stating that Mark had been found.  True to her word she had returned to Indiana to make all the funeral arrangements and memorial service plans.  She had contacted the guys to let them know when everything was going to be and they had all flown out to Indiana to pay their respects.

Granted none of them really knew Mark very well.  Chris and Lance had only met him that once at Justin’s cookout, but they felt they needed to be there to support their friend.

The guys were heartbroken when they had arrived and seen how completely distraught Abby truly was.  She had circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.  She had visibly lost weight from the stress of everything that was going on.  She was just a wreck.

Unfortunately, the guys couldn’t stay in town any longer than the one day for the services as they had to get back to California for some promotional stuff they were doing.  Abby had informed them it would probably be another week or so before she came back to California.  She just needed to spend time with her family and she still had other things that needed to be sorted out with Mark’s family before she could return.

The guys were starting to grow a bit antsy.  It had been almost two full weeks since they’d seen Abby last.  Joey had talked to her on the phone once, but he was the only one that had been able to reach her since they had left.  And he didn’t report a very good conversation, stating that she sounded completely lost and depressed.

Then one afternoon JC and Justin were hanging out at JC’s house when they got a call from Trace.  He called to tell them that he was pretty positive he had seen Abby at the grocery store down off of Sunset Ave., which puzzled the guys because she had never called any of them to let them know she was coming back, let alone that she was even back in town already.

They tried calling her house but all they got was the answering machine.  They tried calling her cell phone, and all they got was her voice mail.  So then Justin called Trace back to grill him on the girl he’d seen that he thought was Abby.

Trace had met her several times over the months that they had all known each other now.  They had first met at Justin’s cookout, but then again at Challenge for the Children in Las Vegas.  Surely, he had seen her enough times to know when he had seen her, but that didn’t explain why she wasn’t answering her phone.

Finally, Justin and JC decided to take a drive over to her house to inspect it and see if she was really back.  It really bothered them to think that she was back and hadn’t called them to let them know.  They were all really worried about her.  Especially, after seeing the state she was in at the funeral.

When they arrived they noticed a car parked in the driveway.  It was Abby’s, but all the other times they had driven by the house over the last week or so it had been in the garage.  Obviously, Trace was correct she was home.  So they exited JC’s car and proceeded on up to the front door, and rang the doorbell.

Several minutes passed and nobody answered the door, which only made them more concerned so they rang the doorbell again.  Still after a few minutes no one had answered so Justin began to repeatedly press the button over and over again.  Surely, that would annoy her enough and make her realize that whoever was at the door wasn’t leaving and she would hopefully come answer the door.

Finally after several repeated hits on the button they heard her voice from inside.  “I’m coming already jeez!”

Justin simply smirked at JC.  “Knew that would work.”  JC just smiled and shook his head.

The door flung open and Abby was about to start yelling at whoever the offender was when she realized it was JC and Justin.  “Hey guys.” she said.

JC’s heart sank even more if it was even possible.  She looked horrible.  Her hair was a mess, she still had the dark circles beneath her eyes, only now they were darker and she had lost even more weight.

“Took you long enough to answer the door.  I was bout to break it in.” Justin said pushing past her into the house.

Abby looked at JC confused.  “How did you know I was back?”

“Trace seen you at the grocery store.  He called Justin and told him.” he explained, as he too then pushed passed her and went on inside the house.

Abby stood in the doorway for a moment trying to regain her thoughts.  The last people she expected to see at her front door was JC and Justin.  She had purposefully not told anyone she was back yet because she was still trying to sort through things in her head.  She knew they were worried but she just needed the time to herself.

When she finally closed the door and turned to walk into the living room where both JC and Justin were seated on the sofa, Justin looked up at her.  “Were you even gonna call and tell us you were back?” he questioned.

“Eventually, yes.” she muttered.

“Why didn’t you let us know you were coming back ?” JC questioned.

“I just needed time to myself.” she said, taking a seat in the large chair to the left of the sofa.

“What were you doing?” JC asked, studying her appearance.

“I was down in the darkroom.  That’s what took me so long to answer the door.  I didn’t hear the bell at first.”

“What were you doing down there?” Justin asked.

“Developing some pictures I took in New York.” she said, looking down at her hands.

That was all she needed to say.  The guys knew it was a touchy subject and didn’t want to push her too much.  “Ok so now that we know you’re home you need to get out of this house and go somewhere with us.  You cannot stay held up in here forever.” Justin pointed out.

Abby looked at him incredulously.  “I can’t go anywhere.  Look at me.”

“So go take a shower and change.  We’ll wait.” Justin said stubbornly.  He wasn’t leaving that house without her in tow.

It was obvious she needed to get out and have a few laughs.  He didn’t care if she didn’t smile at all she just needed to get out and get her mind off of things, and if he could do anything about that to help, then he was gonna do whatever it took.

“Guys, I really don’t feel li….” she was cut off by JC.

“You don’t have a choice here.  Go shower and change.  You’re going with us.  Don’t make me drag you upstairs myself.  I’m sure Justin would help too!” JC said sternly.

“But…”

“No buts!  GO!” JC demanded pointing to the stairs.

Abby looked at the two who were staring her down with such determination.  She knew simply from the looks on their faces that there was no way in hell she was getting out of this one.  So rather than sit there and argue with them, which she really didn’t have the strength nor desire to do at the moment, she silently got up and headed upstairs to shower and change.
 
 
 
 

Chapter 12

An hour later the three were walking into Mel’s Diner on Sunset Ave.  They were seated in a both towards the back of the restaurant and sat quietly for the first few minutes while looking over their menus.

Seeing as JC frequented the restaurant he already knew what he wanted to eat, but Justin was being indecisive.  While Abby only looked at the menu for the sole purpose of pacifying the two men sitting in the booth with her.  She wasn’t hungry and had no intentions of actually eating.

“OK, so what are you eating?” Justin asked JC still trying to decide.

“What I always get.” he said as if Justin would know the answer.

Justin gave him a dirty look.  “Yeah, that helps.  What about you Abbs?  What you gettin’?”

“I’m not really hungry.  I’ll probably just get a cup of coffee or something.” she said, laying her menu down on the table.  Both JC and Justin looked up at her as if she were insane.

“You’re getting more than coffee.  It’s obvious that you haven’t been eating.  I can tell you’ve lost weight.  You need to eat to keep up your strength.” JC scolded her.

“I’ll second that.” Justin added with a nod.

“Oh please!  Like losing a few pounds is gonna kill me.  I could stand to lose a lot more.  So me not eating isn’t going to hurt a thing.  Stop acting stupid.” she rolled her eyes at them.

“Ok I’m about to be real blunt here, Abby!” JC forewarned.  “You are acting stupid!  Don’t get me wrong I know you’re hurting.  I cannot even begin to imagine the pain you’re going through right now.  But ya gotta snap out of this.  Moping around and not eating and slinking away from your friends isn’t going to bring Mark back no matter how much you want it to.  Hell, I wish it would.  I’d give anything right now to see the fire back in your eyes that was there before.  But you are my friend and I’m worried about you.  I can’t stand to see you like this.  You’re not yourself.  You’ve got to snap out of this.  You’re going to make yourself sick.  This just isn’t healthy!”

Abby just stared at him.  She didn’t know what to say to his remark.  She expected something like that out of Justin because he was always so blatantly blunt, but never in a million years did she expect JC of all people to call her on her behavior.  Not that she was doing it on purpose or for attention.  She was doing it out of self pity.  She just didn’t know how else to act at the moment.

“I’m sorry.” JC apologized seeing the look on her face.  “I didn’t mean to jump all down your throat about it or anything.  I just want you to know that we’re here if you need us.”

Justin looked between the two.  He wanted to offer some comforting words himself but at the moment he couldn’t find anything to say.  He too was surprised by JC’s sudden outspokenness.  JC was never one to confront people about things.  He had always pretty much left that up to the other guys, but here he was calling her out.  He was rather proud of JC at that moment.

“Yeah we’re here.” Justin finally managed, still a little shell shocked by JC.

“You guys I really appreciate your concern, but really I’ll be fine.  I just need some time.  So don’t worry about me.  You have enough to deal with at the moment.  So don’t concern yourselves with me.” she told them and then looked up at the waitress that had appeared at the table to take their order.

The guys ordered their food, but also ordered Abby a turkey club sandwich with fries.  They were determined to make her eat, even if they had to stuff the food down her throat at this point.  Once the waitress was gone, Justin picked up the conversation where it was left off.

“Ok, let’s get one thing clear right now!  We are NEVER too busy for our friends.  We could be in the middle of a show, and if you needed us we would be there.  Do you understand me?  So don’t sit there and tell us not to worry, cause it ain’t gonna happen!  We love ya, Abbs and we’re just trying to look out for you.  So push your pride aside and deal with it.”

Abby sat quietly for a moment.  She didn’t mean to be a bitch to the guys, but right now her emotions were running strong and she just didn’t feel like dealing with anyone.  But she had to admit that they were being very sweet to her.  This was an honest and true showing of how much they cared about her.  Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would become such close friends with these guys.

“I’m sorry guys.  It’s just I…” she was cut off by JC.

“Abby, there’s not need to explain.  We understand you’re going through a lot right now.  We just want you to know that we’re here and when or if you decide to talk about it you can come to us.  That’s all.” he paused.  “But you really do need to take better care of yourself.”

“C’s, right.  I know it’s hard and all, but you gotta look out for yourself Abbs.  I didn’t know Mark very well, but I knew him well enough to know that he cared about you very much and he wouldn’t be to pleased to see you the way you are.  So if you won't do it for yourself.  Or for us.  Do it for Mark.”

“I’ll try.” she said softly staring down at her hands.

“That’s all we ask.” JC responded.
 

Over the next couple of months JC and Justin took turns showing up at Abby’s house to drag her out with them.  Slowly but steadily she was making progress.  She was putting up less of a fight and was even starting to open up to them about things she had been holding inside.  And with each day that passed they were starting to see a little bit of that fire that had once burned in her eyes.

But even with her sarcasm and wit returning.  So also was showing a newer trait they had never seen.  She didn’t seem to care as much about things anymore.  They weren’t sure whether to like this new trait or to hate it as it had both it’s good and bad qualities.

It was good in the sense that she didn’t seem to be as overly concerned with what people thought of her anymore.  She had always had this front where she didn’t care and if you didn’t know her very well you would never know the difference.  But once you got to know her you could see that it was all just that.  An act.  But not so much anymore.  Anymore she just really didn’t care.  She had this anger and sadness in her that just gave her a new edge.  And that’s what the guys were concerned about.

She didn’t seem as friendly to strangers as she used to be.  She was slacking at her job.  She just really didn’t care.  She had this whole outlook on life where nothing mattered anymore.  And she was becoming careless.  Doing things they’d never seen or heard about her doing before.  She was partying a lot with some of Mark’s friends.  That really concerned them.  In the time they had known her, they had never known her to be the partying type.

Sure she had gone out with them a few times.  Had a couple drinks.  But now she was just like really over doing it.  JC was looking at the situation and seeing how his friends had felt when he was wallowing in self pity after his whole breakup with Bobbie.  And he didn’t like the feeling at all.

To top it off she was fighting Mark’s family.  Mark had left her his house in his will.  Actually, he had left all of his possessions to Abby in his will.  His house, which was completely paid for.  His car.  His life savings.  Everything.  And needless to say his family, even though they didn’t want anything to do with him while he was alive was fuming about the whole thing.

They were taking Abby to court, suing her for what they said should be theirs.  Abby was beyond livid about the whole situation.  She wanted to go back to Indiana and just strangle all of them.  They had never wanted anything to do with Mark before his death.  They had completely disowned him.  But as soon as they found out what he had really been worth, and that he had left it all to a girl that was just his friend they went into attack mode.

JC tried his best to be there for Abby to vent to.  He knew she was upset about it and angry.  He couldn’t count on both of his hands the times he'd had to physically restrain her after she had went off on one of her little tangents about his family and their nerve.  But he totally understood.  After everything he had heard about Mark’s family he, himself wanted to strangle them.  But it was more for what they were doing to Abby, than all the other stuff.

JC was becoming very attached to Abby.  Over the past couple of months they had been spending a lot of their free time together and their friendship had grown leaps and bounds.  She had been there for him in his time of need.  And he there for her during her time of need.  This forged an unspoken bond between the two and a friendship that not a lot of people could understand.

He was happy to have her in his life.  He had never had a female friend that he was as close to as he was Abby.  And even though he knew he could never replace Mark in her heart, he was glad that he could at least step up to the plate and be her new Best Friend.

Abby of coarse felt the same way too.  She had finally pushed aside all of those crushing feelings inside of her and settled with the fact that they were just going to be friends.  But after analyzing it a lot in her head she realized that was probably the best thing.  JC was a great guy and an even better friend.  She would never be able to thank him for all the things he had done for her.  And the way he had been profoundly supportive of her during her ordeal with losing Mark and her still ongoing battles with his family.  He definitely had a special place in her heart.
 

( Saturday December 1, 2001 )

Everyone was in California and gathered at JC’s house for a party of sorts.  They had all just gotten back into town after being away for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  And right before that the guys had filmed the Atlantis special.

Since none of them could be together for the Holiday JC had decided to have a get together for everyone so they could celebrate it a little late together.  All the girls had cooked up a huge dinner for everyone and then after they had ate they all spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out watching movies, playing games, and goofing off while consuming some alcoholic beverages.

Things were going great.  Everyone was having a good time.  That was until JC’s doorbell rang.  Abby had been on her way back from the restroom so she volunteered to answer the door since she was the closest.  That and because no one else seemed to even be making any efforts to move towards the door to answer it.

She walked to the door laughing lightly at something Chris had said, and swung the door open.  Her smile quickly faded when she saw Bobbie of all people standing there.

Bobbie had been wearing a sultry smile, until of course she seen that it was Abby answering the door.  “Where is JC?” she asked rudely.

Abby looked at her for a moment debating on how to answer that question.  Several visions of snatching the girl by her hair and tossing her around a bit also danced around in her head before she finally answered.  “He’s inside.”

“Well, I need to talk to him.” Bobbie sneered, pushing past Abby and walking into the house.  She walked down the hallway yelling JC’s name trying to locate him.

JC had been sitting in the living room playing against Justin on some video game when he heard his named being called.  It took him a moment, but he quickly realized whose voice was calling his name and he froze.

Bobbie came barreling into the room in a huff and everyone looked up at her.  “Why the hell is that GIRL answering your door?” she demanded before she realized that there was in fact other people in the room with JC.

Abby entered the room behind Bobbie, sporting a very annoyed expression.  “THAT GIRL, was answering the door because she was the closest.” she stated, and then made her way across the room to sit down next to Lance on one of the sofas.

Justin looked over at JC who still hadn’t said anything yet.  “I’ll pause the game while you handle this.”

JC looked at him and nodded before getting up to make his way over to where Bobbie was standing.  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“You don’t seem very happy to see me.” Bobbie glared at him as if she expected him to be jumping for joy at the mere sight of her.

“That might be because I’m not.” JC retorted.  “Again, I ask what are you doing here?”

“I came to see you obviously.  Wanted to see how your Holiday went.  I thought we could talk.” she said more quietly so no one could hear her.

“Talk about what?  I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

“I was thinking we could talk about us.  I realize things didn’t end on great terms and all, but I wanted to see if maybe we could” she paused looking around the room at all the eyes on her.  “Can we talk about this somewhere else?  I don’t exactly need the audience.”

“I’m entertaining guests and I don’t have time for this.  So say what you wanna say and then leave.” JC spat out angrily.

“FINE!” Bobbie huffed and then put on a sweet smile.  “I wanted to see if maybe we could give it another try.  I love you JC, and I know you love me.  We can make this work.  We just need to communicate better is all.”

“No.” he responded simply.

Bobbie eyed him carefully.  She couldn’t believe he had just said no to her.  He had never been able to refuse her anything before.  And here he was telling her no, he didn’t want to get back with her and give it another try.  “Why not?” she asked.

“Because I don’t want to waste anymore of my time on you.” he said again simply.  He didn’t want to get into it with her in front of everyone.  So he was trying to keep it as simple and calm as he could.

Of course Bobbie didn’t know the meaning of simple or calm.  She glared at him.  “Waste your time on me?  WASTE YOUR TIME ON ME?” she said, her voice growing louder and louder.  “I suppose you’d rather waste your time on that nasty fat bitch over there!” she growled, pointing towards Abby who was sitting quietly on the sofa.

JC looked over to where she was pointing and for the briefest moment he saw the flashes of hurt that passed through Abby’s eyes at Bobbie’s words.  He knew that her weight had always been a sensitive point for her.  And even though she had that whole new “I could care less” attitude he still knew it hurt her, even if she would never admit it.

He turned his attention back to Bobbie and stared at her menacingly.  “I think you need to leave!  NOW!”

“Why am I messing up your little love nest?” she asked sarcastically.

“In case you failed to notice Bobbie, there are other people here!  So unless you’re suggesting that we’re all having one big ass orgy then you need to shut the hell up.  We were having a perfectly good time until you had to show up and cause a scene.  So why don’t you get the hell out.” JC growled, he was losing his patience quickly.

This wasn’t going the way she planned, so Bobbie decided to take another approach.  Obviously being all demanding and bossy with him wasn’t working so she decided to turn on the charm.  “OK.  Just calm down a sec Josh.” she said as sweetly as possible, and JC cringed when she used his real name.

“I’m sorry I blew up.  I just wasn’t expecting to see her here.  And well I really want to talk to you about this.  Maybe we can go to your room and talk this out.” she smiled seductively at him while reaching out to suggestively touch his shoulder.

JC moved away from her touch.  “I don’t want to talk anything out with you.  I want you to leave.  It’s none of your business who I do or don’t have at my house.  Abby, is my friend and you’re no longer a part of my life.  So why don’t you just take this lil’ act of yours elsewhere.  It’s not wanted here.”

“I’m not leaving until we talk about this!” Bobbie said stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Abby'd had about enough of her.  She never did like the girl in the first place.  And now here she was, JC had told her repeatedly already to leave and she wasn’t budging.  Instead she chose to stand there and cause even more of a scene.

She got up and made her way across the room to where the two were standing.  She looked at JC.  “Ya know, I know it’s not my place and I’m sorry for butting in like this JC, but someone needs to.” she then turned her attention to Bobbie.  “I believe he told you to leave.  So why don’t you get your self absorbed ass a movin’ and get the hell out of here?”

“Are you going to let her talk to me like that, JC?” Bobbie demanded.

JC simply looked at her and shrugged before turning and walking back over to the sofa to set down.

“I cannot believe this!” Bobbie huffed.

“Believe it dear, now get the hell out.” Abby smirked.

“You can’t tell me what to do!  I’ll leave when I’m good and ready!” Bobbie yelled.

“Wrong answer!” Abby grinned and then grabbed Bobbie by her arm and started tugging her towards the door.

Justin and the other guys started laughing hysterically.  They couldn’t believe Abby was actually dragging Bobbie kicking and screaming out of the room.  “Maybe we should hire her as one of our bodyguards.” Justin managed through his laughter.

“Definitely!” Chris agreed.

Everyone’s laughter died however when they heard Abby screech from the hallway followed by her angry voice.  “YOU FUCKING BITCH!”  And then the loud sound of a fist meeting flesh.
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter 13

“OH SHIT!” Joey jumped up from his seat in the chair and raced off towards the hallway followed by everyone else.  JC following closely behind Joey.

When they entered the hallway they found Bobbie laying helplessly on the floor as Abby was straddled above her holding her shoulders, slamming her into the floor while yelling many, many obscenities at her.

Joey quickly grabbed Abby by the waist and began to tug at her to pull her away from Bobbie.  JC had to literally pry her fingers from Bobbie’s shoulders so that Joey could pull her away.

“Abbs, calm down!” Joey told her.

“That fucking bitch scratched me!” she yelled struggling to get free.

JC quickly helped Bobbie to her feet and got a good look at her face.  Abby had nailed her in her eye.  It was already swollen and red.  She was surely gonna have a black eye.  He couldn’t help but snicker a bit at the thought.  He was even a little disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to see Abby punch her.

“I’m glad to know you find her assaulting me funny, Josh!” Bobbie sneered.

“Actually, I do.  You asked for it.  If you would have left like I told you to then you wouldn’t of had this problem.” he retorted.

“You’re not going to do anything about this?  You’re ok with the fact that she hit me?” Bobbie questioned.  She was trying desperately to lay a guilt trip on him.  Anything to make him feel sorry for her and give in to her.

“Like I said you asked for it.  Now you better get going.  I’m not sure how long Joey can hold her back.” he smirked.

“Josh, I thought you loved me.” Bobbie pleaded.

“I did once.  But you’re not that person anymore, Bobbie.” he admitted honestly.

She grew angry at his words.  All of her attempts were failing and she was frustrated.  “Everything was fine between us until you met her!  It’s all her fault!” she yelled accusingly at Abby.  “YOU DID THIS TO US YOU WHORE!” she screamed at Abby.

That was all it took.  Abby suddenly got another burst of energy and yanked free from Joey’s clutches and lunged for the girl, but JC grabbed her just before she got a hold of her.  “WHORE?  WHORE?  Who are you calling a WHORE?  I’LL SHOW YOU A WHORE YOU NASTY ASS BITCH!” Abby yelled struggling to get free from JC so she could snatch Bobbie balled.

“Don’t blame our problems on Abby.  Things were falling apart long before I ever even met her.  You drove us apart, so don’t try to blame that on anyone else.“ JC growled.  He then looked down at Abby, who was still struggling in his arms to get free and then back up at Bobbie.  “You better go before I decide to turn her lose on you again.” he told Bobbie as he struggled to hold Abby back.  “Abby chill out.” he told her.

“FUCK THAT!  I’m gonna beat that bitch down!” Abby retorted still fighting him.

Lance stepped forward.  “You’ve been told several times to leave Bobbie.  So why don’t you get out of here.” he said ushering her to the door.  He couldn’t believe how crazy Abby was.  He knew if she got lose from JC she was literally going to beat the living crap out of Bobbie.  And he didn’t want to see her do anything that would get herself into a heap of trouble.  Not that it wouldn’t be entirely too great to see Bobbie get the snot beat out of her, but that wasn’t the answer.

“I’m not leaving!  I want to talk to JC!” she demanded.

Justin was fed up.  “This is how it’s done, Lance!” he said as he grabbed Bobbie by her arm and drug her to the door, opened it and then pushed her out.  “Enjoy the black eye!” he smirked at her and then slammed the door in her face.  He turned to the others that were standing in the hall, swiped his hands together as if ridding dirt or something and said.  “Now you see that’s how it’s done.  Although, I did really like Abby’s approach a lot better.”

“Don’t encourage her!” JC scolded him.
 

After getting Abby calmed down, and cleaning up the scratches on her upper arm from where Bobbie had clawed her they all resumed their festivities.  Abby was still rather shook up from the whole thing.  Or simmering would be a better word.  She was tense and angry and just wanted to go track the dumb bimbo down so she could pick up where she left off with her.

Her tenseness didn’t go unnoticed by JC.  He could tell she was still upset about the whole thing.  Hell, he couldn’t blame her really.  Bobbie had said some awful things to her and Abby had reacted.  He knew her well enough to know that it took her quite a while to cool down after something like that.  He also knew she was probably still going over everything in her head.

Justin seemed to notice the same thing and got up and headed off towards the kitchen.  He reappeared a few minutes later with a glass of Vodka in hand.  “Drink this and calm down.” he told her.

Abby smiled warmly at Justin before gulping the entire glass down in just a few swallows.  “Can I have another, please?” she asked.

Justin looked at her incredulously then shrugged.  “Sure why not.  I think I’ll have one too!”

As he was trotting off towards the kitchen JC yelled after him that he’d like one as well.  Justin reappeared again just a moment later this time with three glasses in hand.  He handed one to Abby, one to JC, and then sat down to drink his.  Although a lot slower than Abby did.  She again gulped her glass down.

A couple hours later Abby was pretty well lit.  All anger was forgotten as she was up dancing around to a song blaring on the stereo system with Chris.  They were laughing hysterically at the crazy moves they were coming up with.  While everyone else sat around watching the two and laughing right along with them.

JC and Justin were also pretty drunk at this point.  Abby had kept asking for more drinks and rather than sit there and watch her drink alone, they decided to drink right along with her.  The others had also had a few drinks, but nothing anywhere near what Abby, JC, and Justin had consumed.

Finally, a little after 1:00AM everyone started clearing out to head home.  Abby had attempted to leave saying she could drive herself home but Lance had taken her keys and then hidden them somewhere in JC’s kitchen.  He told her he would call her the following morning to let her know where they were.  And that JC had more than enough room for her to crash at his place.  After all he had three spare bedrooms.

JC agreed it wasn’t a problem and insisted that she stay, and at that point Abby was too giddy and slap happy from all of her drinks to argue the matter any further.  She joked around with Chris a little more before he finally left with everyone else and her and JC were left sitting in the living room alone.

They watched the Comedy Central channel for a little bit.  Cracking up at an old re-run of Saturday Night Live.  When that was over Abby stole the remote from JC and began flipping through the channels on the TV to see what else she could find.

JC grunted his disapproval when Abby settled on some sappy Lifetime movie.  “I don’t wanna watch this.  It’s a chic flick!” he told her.

“Too bad.  I’m in control of the remote now!” she smirked at him before returning her attention to the TV.

JC sat there pouting playfully for a moment hoping that she would give in and turn the channel.  But after several minutes of whining and pouting and she still hadn’t budged he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and acted as if he was about to walk into the kitchen for something and then quickly snatched the remote from Abby’s hand.  He immediately began switching the channel to try to find something different as he stumbled quickly away from her.  Abby jumped up from the sofa to chase after him to get the remote.  “Give it back!” she demanded.

“It’s my remote!” he retorted.

“But I was watching that movie!” she whined.

“I don’t wanna watch that crap!” he said moving around to the other side of the sofa.  They were drunkenly stumbling around in circles around the sofa.

Abby got a quick idea and before JC could react she had climbed over the sofa and had grabbed the remote back from him.  But she didn’t get far because JC grabbed her by her arm to keep her from fleeing.  “OW!” she hissed.

“Don’t play that.  I didn’t grab your arm that tight!” JC rolled his eyes thinking she was just trying to trick him.

“JC, you grabbed my sore arm!” she said, yanking her arm away from him and stumbling back over to the sofa.

“Oh shit!  I’m sorry I forgot about that.” he said, rushing over to her side.  “Let me see.” he said inspecting her arm.  “Dammit it’s bleeding again.  Hang on.” he said getting up and disappearing down the hallway.

Abby laughed as she watched him stumble out of the room and then back into the room almost tripping over his own feet.  “Walk much, JC?” she asked.

“You weren’t getting around much better, so shutup.” he told her as he sat back down beside her with some bandages and peroxide to clean her arm up again.

He worked quickly to clear away the blood that was seeping from the wounds and then cleaned them once again with the peroxide before placing a large bandage on her arm to cover the wounds.  “There!  Good as new.” he smiled proudly.

Abby looked down at her arm and started laughing.  “That’s some accomplishment JC.  You put a bandage on.  That doesn’t make it good as new.  It still hurts you idiot!  Why’d you have to grab my arm?”

“You were trying to steal my remote!” he defended.

“I had it first!” she argued.

“You did not, you took it from me!”

Abby thought for a minute.  Searching her brain for a comeback to that, because technically it was true she had taken it from him, but she couldn’t come up with anything better than.  “Whatever!”

JC started laughing at her.  “Whatever?  Good one, Abby!” he snorted.

“Shutup!  I’m still mad at you.  I had forgotten about my arm but now it’s throbbing again!  JERK!” she whined.

“Awwww….do you want me to kiss it and make it better?” he smirked.

“Shutup!” Abby grumbled and turned her attention back to the TV.

“Don’t ignore me.” JC protested switching sides so that he was now sitting to where she would have to look past him to see the TV.

“Would you leave me alone.  I’m TRYING to watch the TV here!”

“NO!  I’m having TOO MUCH fun pestering you.” he smiled.

Abby rolled her eyes and gave him a swift shove that sent JC toppling to the floor.  Abby looked down at his pitiful face and burst out laughing.  “You should’ve seen your face!” she continued to laugh smacking her leg in her amusement.

JC narrowed his eyes at her as she laughed at him.  “You think that’s so funny, huh?” he asked as he grabbed her hand and yanked her forward.  Abby flopped down from the sofa and landed directly on top of him.  Now JC was laughing.  “You shoulda seen YOUR face!” he started laughing harder.

Abby looked at him and shook her head.  She tried desperately not to laugh when JC looked up at her and coaxed her on.  “Come on you know you wanna laugh too.  I see the start of a smile.  You know you wanna!” he kept aging her on and before she knew it or could stop it, the corners of her mouth curled up into a smile and she started laughing with him.

They laughed even harder when Abby tried to get up, but because she was so drunk and laughing hysterically she couldn’t seem to find the balance or the strength to do much more than push the upper half of her body up with her arms to where she was hovering above JC.

She was giggling as she looked down at JC who was also chuckling at their predicament.  JC reached his hands up to push the hair that had fallen down into her face behind her ears.  He looked at her giggling face and he stopped laughing and just starred at her.

That only made Abby giggle that much more because he had such a serious look on his face.  “You look constipated.” she laughed but JC didn’t say anything.  Instead he leaned up and unexpectantly pressed his lips to hers.

Abby froze.  “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Shhhh” he whispered, leaning up again this time cupping her cheek in his palm to kiss her again.  His lips lingered for a moment before he slowly started to move his lips against hers trying to get some form of a response out of her.

But Abby was completely froze.  She didn’t know what the hell to do.  A part of her wanted to kiss him back.  But another part of her told her it wasn’t right.  But then there was that OTHER part of her that told her;  "This is what you’ve wanted for so long.  KISS HIM!”  but still she did nothing.

JC pulled back from her a little.  “Kiss me, Abby.” he whispered and then pressed his lips back to hers.

Abby hesitated for a moment before she could no longer fight the urge.  Hell, she probably would never get this chance again so she might as well take advantage of it while she could.  And so she did.  Her lips slowly began to move against his.  JC pulled her face closer to his to slowly deepen the kiss.

After a moment JC pulled back slightly.  He smiled up at her and then leaned back in to kiss her again only a little more aggressively this time.  Abby’s mind was whirling around in circles from his kisses.  She couldn’t believe he was kissing her.  It felt so good.  She never wanted it to stop.

Those feelings grew ten fold when she felt JC’s tongue tentatively slip into her mouth and brush against hers.  She lost all control at that point and titled her head to the side to allow him better access.  And JC took that access leaning up further in to her to kiss her stronger.  His hand slid around to the back of her head, intertwining his fingers through her long brown hair.  While his other hand slid around her waist and rested against her upper back.  He then slowly pulled her back down to rest on top of him as he squeezed her to him while continuing to kiss her.

The intensity of the kiss was growing by the second.  It was growing more desperate and hungry with each brush of their tongues.  With a swift move from JC he rolled them over so Abby was now laying on the floor and JC was laying on top of her as he continued to kiss her.

Abby was completely lost in the embrace.  One of her hands rested against his chest the other running up and down his back.  While JC slid his one hand back to cradle her check, and his other slowly slid up the side of her body.

They were both beginning to lose total control, but Abby froze when she felt JC’s hand on her right breast rubbing and caressing it.  When she froze JC froze and pulled back to look at her.  “What’s wrong?” he asked looking down at her stunned face.  Abby glanced down at his left hand that was still laying on her breast.  JC followed her eyes and looked down at his hand.  It was then that he realized what he was doing, but at the moment he didn’t care.  “Is that not ok?” he asked looking back up to meet her eyes.

Abby was stunned.  Did he just ask her if it was not ok to be touching her breast?  “Um…” She didn’t know what to say or do.  She wanted this so badly.  She wanted him to touch her like that.  She loved the feel of his lips on hers.  The feel of his body pressed into hers.  What’s a girl to do when in this position?  Here is the guy she had been crushing on forever, just knowing she would never have a chance in hell with him to have a moment like this, and in one split second there she was.  Having that moment she never thought she would have.

JC studied her face, looking deep into her eyes.  He leaned down and began to kiss her again.  “Abby, is this not ok?” he mumbled against her lips as he began to grind his lower body into hers.  “I want you so bad right now.” he said as he continued to grind against her and once again started to move his hand over her breast to caress it some more as he began to trail soft butterfly kisses down her jaw line, down her neck, then back up towards her ear where he eventually captured the bottom of her earlobe with his mouth and sucked gently on it.

Abby’s eyes rolled back in her head at the feeling of his warm mouth caressing her ear.  He was setting off a chain of explosions throughout her body.  She could feel as he grinded into her just how aroused he was and that set off even more explosions in her body.

When JC found his way back to her lips once again and he began to kiss her she lost all control.  There was NO WAY she could fight these feelings.  She didn’t care anymore.  Everything felt so right and he was making her body ache for him.  She couldn’t stop him now.  So she matched the intensity of his kiss.

Within moments they were kissing each other hard and deeply.  Pulling at each other trying to get closer but it was impossible.  They were as close as two people could possibly get at that point.

JC groaned when he felt Abby’s hand slip under the front hem of his shirt and slowly run up his stomach and over his chest and he kissed her harder.  His left hand slowly moved from caressing her breast to the bottom hem of her shirt where he slowly slid his hand under the material and up her soft stomach until he reached the under portion of her bra.  He slid his hand up over her full breast cupping it the best he could with his large hand and then began to massage and caress her breast.

Abby moaned deep from her throat when JC found her nipple through the lacy material and began to softly twist and pull at it, as it became hard and more erect.  Then he suddenly stopped and leaned up from her to try and stand up.

Abby looked up at him. “What are you doing?” she asked softly confused by his abrupt halt.

JC stood up and then reached his hand out to help her up.  “Come with me.” he said taking her hand and pulling her to her feet then leading her off down the hallway and up the stairs and down another hallway to his bedroom.

He pulled her into the room and into his arms and once again started kissing her again.  Kicking the door shut with his foot he slowly started backing them towards his bed.  When the back of Abby’s legs met the side of the bed JC continued to kiss her for a moment before slowly moving his hands down her sides to reach for her shirt to pull it off, but Abby stopped his hands.

He leaned back to look at her.  “What’s the matter?” he asked softly looking into her eyes.

“Can you turn the light off please?” she requested.

JC looked at her oddly for a moment.  “Why?”

“Cause I…can you just turn it off please?” she asked again.

“Abby don’t be like that.  I wanna see you.” he whispered softly as he began to kiss her neck.

“JC, please.  I don’t want you to see me like that.”

He smiled down at her.  “Abby do NOT be ashamed of your body.  You’re a beautiful woman.  There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”  She sighed and tensed up as he again went to pull her shirt off.  He looked down at her.  “OK.” he agreed and left her side quickly to flip the light off and quickly returned to her taking up where he left off.

He kissed up her neck and worked his way back over to her mouth and began to passionately kiss her.  He could tell she was tense about him undressing her so he worked to distract her with his mouth as he fumbled with the bottom of her shirt to pull it up.  He pulled back from kissing her long enough to pull the garment over her head and then quickly leaned back in to kiss her again.

There was something about her full lips that he could not get enough of.  He just wanted to ravish her lips, and so he did.

As the intensity of their kissing grew with each passing second JC continued to rid her of her clothing. He yanked his shirt off over his head and went back to kissing her.  When she seemed hesitant about undoing his pants he softly mumbled against her lips “go ahead” and continued to kiss her.

When she finally fumbled with his jeans and got them undone, she pushed slightly on them sending them to his ankles where JC quickly stepped out of them, slinging them to the side with his foot.

Her hands roamed his bare chest and then slid around to his bare back to roam it as well.  Abby couldn’t believe how hard his body was.  He looked so thin and lanky when wearing his clothing, but now that she was touching him freely she could see just how hard and well endowed he really was.

JC leaned her back on the bed and climbed in on top of her pressing his body into hers.  He continued to ravish her lips with his own.  He was in such a frenzy he didn’t know how much longer he could hold out.  He wanted her more than he had wanted any woman in a long time.  Bobbie included.

He kissed down her neck and over to her shoulder to her bra strap.  Slowly sliding it off of her shoulder with his finger.  Then repeated the same process on the other side.  He reached under her back to undo the clasp of her bra and slowly pulled the restrictive lacy material from her body.

He looked down at her for a moment in the lowly lit room, and then leaned in to kiss her again.  Then working his way down her neck, her shoulder, collarbone to her chest where he sought out her breast with his mouth.  Licking slowly around her nipple and then taking it all in with his warm mouth.  He gently bit and tugged at her nipple with his teeth as his other hand rubbed and caressed her other breast.

Abby arched her back to move closer to his mouth.  He was again setting off tons of explosions in her body.  Slipping her hands into his hair she tugged and pulled him closer to her body begging for more.

JC released her nipple to switch to the other one to give it the same treatment before slowly leaving a trail of soft wet kisses down her stomach to hem of her panties.  He nipped at the waist band with his teeth and then grasped them with his hands to slowly pull them down her waist and legs to her feet where he pulled them away and tossed them off to the side.

He began kissing his way back up her legs.  The closer he got to her intimate area he felt Abby tense up again.  “I can’t see anything Abby.” he told her between kisses as he continued his upward progress to her stomach and again back up her chest stopping again to suckle at her nipples briefly and then moving on back up to her neck and finally back to her lips.  He mumbled against them.  “But you sure taste sweet.”

Abby’s hands slid down his back to the waist band of his boxers.   She slid her hands under the material and slowly grazed her fingernails across his cheeks.  JC groaned and began to slowly grind into her, while kissing her deeply.  Abby pulled her hands free and began to tug at the waist band to slowly move them down over his hips.  JC lifted the lower half of his body without breaking from their kiss so she could push his boxers over his hips.  When she had gotten them down to where she could no longer reach them with her hands she brought one of her feet up to push them the rest of the way down and off.

When their bodies settled against each other both now completely nude they paused for a moment caught up in the sensations that were coursing through both of their bodies.  JC pulled her tighter to him and kissed her deeply before mumbling against her lips.  “God, I want you so bad.”

“Then have me.” she mumbled back between his kisses.

JC smiled against her lips and used his knee to spread her legs a little further apart to position himself for what was to come next.  He kissed down her neck while he slid one hand down the length of her body.  He slowly ran his hand down to her hot center.  In the excitement of seeing that she was completely wet and ready for him he captured her ear with his mouth and began to gently suck on her earlobe while running his fingers back and forth over her center before slipping two inside of her.

Abby moaned and arched her back at his touch.  She couldn’t help but revel in the feeling and thought that he was doing everything perfectly.  He wasn’t rushing it, he was taking his time.

After caressing her with his hand for a few moments he slowly pulled his fingers out and then began to rub the tip of his shaft against her center.  Abby moaned.  “You like that?” he panted into her ear.

“Mmmmm” was her only response.

JC smiled and positioned himself and began to push into her.  A slight gasp escaped her and he stopped momentarily to allow her body to get accustomed to his size.  He knew that Abby was no virgin, they’d had that discussion before.  But he could tell that it had been a while for her and he didn’t want to hurt her.

When the overwhelming sensations that her warm walls were creating in his body became to much and he could no longer restrain himself he pushed further into her.  Another gasp escaped Abby, so JC took her lips with his to kiss away and further discomfort.

He slowly began to move in and out of her.  It didn’t take long for him to find his rhythm.  He could tell that Abby was no longer in any kind of pain by the way her body was reacting to him.  They were moving as one entity together.  He continued to kiss her totally caught up in the emotions and feelings.  He couldn’t believe how incredible she felt against his body.

He picked up the pace and began to move faster and faster inside of her.  Abby arched her back and moaned as JC slid his arms under her shoulders to get a better grip of her.  He grunted against her lips and neck as he continued to kiss her.  When he felt her walls tightening around him he knew she was close, but he was close too.  Her moans picked up, her nails were biting at his shoulders as she clung to his body as he continued to grind into her.  JC sunk his head in her neck as he felt her body beginning to shake, he knew it wouldn’t be much longer.  For him either he was barely holding on by a thread as it was but refused to give up before she was fully satisfied.

Abby moaned into his ear.  “Faster JC” and he obliged picking up the pace.  The more she moaned and her walls contracted around his shaft the more excited he became.  He could feel the buildup inside of his body just waiting to be released.

Chapter 21

Abby froze at his words.  What the hell was wrong with him?  Was he intentionally TRYING to torture her?  Did he get some form of sick pleasure out of this?  “JC, you need to stop now!” she demanded, pushing against him again and this time he let go of her.

“Why?” he asked staring at her with a hurt expression.  “Am I not good enough for you?”

Abby stared at him incredulously.  “You need to go to bed!  You need to go sleep off this drunk stupor you’ve got going on, because it’s not flattering in the least.  I don’t appreciate these games you’re playing either.”

“What games?  I’m not playing games!”

“JC, just go to bed.  Please just go to bed.” she said heading off for the stairs to retreat to her room.  She could not deal with him when he was like that.  She wanted so badly to hear those things come out of his mouth.

She wanted to hear him say that he didn’t regret what had happened between them before.  That he had wanted it just as much as she had.  That he cared about her.  But not when he was drunk.  Not when he would wake up the next day and not remember saying any of it.  And not when he really didn’t mean it.

JC quickly followed her up the stairs and down the hall to her room.  When she tried to close the bedroom door he stuck his foot in the way to prevent her from closing it.  “Come on, Abby.  I swear I’m not playing games!” he called to her through the door.

“You’re drunk, JC!  GO TO BED!” she yelled back still pushing on the door trying to close it.

“But I wanna go to bed with you.  Come on.  Just one more time before you get all serious with this Jerome guy!” he said pleadingly.

Abby swung the door open.  “Are you COMPLETELY INSANE?” she yelled.

JC took that chance to rush forward and again grab her in his arms and began to kiss her.  “JC…you’ve….got…to…stop.” she mumbled between his kisses.

He pulled back and looked her in the eyes.  “Why do I have to stop?  We both want this.  You know it and I know it.” he said matter of factly.

“You’re drunk JC.  You don’t mean to be acting like this.  You’re just lonely or something and I’m the only one around so you’re doing WHATEVER it is you’re doing here.  You’re going to regret it in the morning.  So you need to stop now, before…” she trailed off.

“I need to stop before what?  Before you can‘t say no?” he asked continuing to star her in the eyes.

Abby stared back into his eyes.  “Yes.” she said softly.

“So then don’t say no.” he said, leaning in to kiss her again.

“JC…” she attempted to protest.

“Shhhh.  Just go with it.” he whispered.

Abby sighed as his lips continued to caress hers.  She knew it was wrong.  She knew she shouldn’t be giving in.  She knew he was drunk and what would happen in the morning when he once again came to his senses.  But damn it he was just so intoxicating.  His kisses were like a drug, and once he started kissing her she just could not get enough.

She slowly began to kiss him back, her arms sliding up and around his neck as JC tightened his grip around her waist.  Sliding one of his hands up to cradle her cheek.  He deepened the kiss, then slipping his tongue into her mouth to caress hers with his.  Abby moaned softly at the sensations that shot through her body.  Why did he have to have this affect on her?

JC slowly began to lead them towards her bed, as the kissing became more hungry and desperate.  It was like he couldn’t get enough of her.  When Abby’s legs hit the back of the bed, he stopped his forward motion and focused on kissing her deeper.  Gently sweeping the back of his hand back and forth across her cheek.

Abby’s hands wondered down his chest.  She loved the feeling of his hard chest beneath her finger tips.  She would never be able to get enough of that feeling.

JC pulled back from his hungry kiss and smiled at her, while giving her a little push that sent her toppling to the bed.  Then he crawled over her and leaned back in to kiss her again.

The next few minutes were spent kissing and caressing each other’s body before JC finally started to pull Abby’s clothes away as she did his.  No more thought was given to what would happen the following morning, by Abby as she was now completely lost in what he was doing to her body as he kissed his way back up stopping at her breasts to give them their proper attention.

She tightened her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer to her body.  JC smiled against her skin.  “You like that, huh?” he asked huskily as he continued to nibble and suck at her nipples.

Abby didn’t answer.  She was TOO caught up in the moment to utter a single sound, let alone any audible words.  JC kissed his way up from her breast to her neck and then up again to her mouth where he took her lips with his and ravished them passionately.

They were both now completely naked as he grinded his body against hers and she grinded back.  Then all of the sudden he flipped them so that Abby was on top.  Stunned Abby looked down at him questioningly.

“I want you to do it this time.” he whispered leaning up to kiss her.

Now that terrified her.  She had never been in THIS position before.  The few times she had been with someone before JC, she had always been on the OTHER end of things.  She was never on THIS end of things.

She pulled away from him slightly and hesitantly whispered to him.  “JC, I’ve never…” but he cut her off.

“I’ll show you.” he whispered back taking her hips with his hands and guiding them to where they should be.  He pushed her up into a sitting position which, made Abby very self conscious just sitting there on his lap, COMPLETELY exposed.  She crossed her arms over her chest to cover herself, but JC pulled her arms away.  “Don’t.” he told her leaning in to kiss her chest, his hands sliding to her hips once again.

He gripped at her hips momentarily while he attacked her breasts again with his mouth, then he slipped one hand down between her legs, telling her to lift up he took hold of his hard member to position it to where it needed to be, then told her to push back down.

Abby hesitated a moment before she did what he said.  She felt his hands grip tighter on her hips as her body took him into hers.  He leaned up to a sitting position himself to kiss her once again, as they sat perfectly still reveling in the feeling and sensation of their joined bodies.

As he leaned back onto the pillow he pulled her hands down to his chest.  “For support.” he whispered looking up at her, and then slid his hands back to her hips where he started to coax her movement with his.

At first Abby wasn’t so sure she liked being on top.  She felt too self conscious.  All she could think about was her exposed breast and how JC seemed to be staring at them hungrily.  But all those thoughts soon left her mind when she finally found her own rhythm and started to enjoy the power that she now had.  Power she had over HIM!

His hands were gripping into her hips, his head was tilted back in the pillow with his eyes closed and all she could do was star at the completely lost expression of enjoyment on his face.   She smiled at that and moved a little faster and pushed him a little deeper into her.

JC quickly sat up, and gripped her hips even tighter.  She stopped thinking she had done something to hurt him.  “Don’t stop.” he panted into her ear as he began to kiss her neck and down to her chest again.  His hand slid around to her bottom, gripping it and pulling her harder against him.  His mouth moved back up her chest, her neck to her mouth again where he hungrily attacked her lips.

Abby picked up the pace in the heat of the passion.  The sensations coursing through her body were unlike anything she had ever felt before.  The faster she went and the deeper she pushed the better it felt.  And JC was meeting her head on with just as much speed and stamina.

JC leaned back into the pillow, pulling Abby’s upper body with him so he could continue kissing her.  His hands planted firmly on her hips as he continued to hold onto her for strength.

Abby began to moan against his lips as he continued to ravish them.  He grunted when he felt her pace start to slow as her walls around him begin to tighten. “Keep moving, baby.” he coaxed her as he continued to move and guide her hips along with his.

Abby moved from his lips and buried her face in his neck as she tried to keep moving against the pleasure that was overtaking her body.  Her nails dug into his chest.  JC gripped her tighter as he himself was nearing his completion.  “God, Abby.  Keep moving.” he panted in her ear.

Abby pushed up off his chest, back to a sitting position and began to move faster and push harder against him and JC grunted.  His eyes rolling back in his head from the pleasure she was giving him. “God, Abby keep going.” he mumbled breathlessly.

The way he was talking to her empowered her.  She dug her nails into his chest and moved faster and harder against him until finally her body exploded against his.  JC felt her body tense against his and that was the final straw as his body too exploded.

They slowly continued to move against each other until all traces of the ecstasy were gone and Abby breathlessly collapsed against his chest.  JC wrapped his arms around her, pulling her snuggly against him.  “That was amazing.” he whispered into her hair.

“Yeah.” she sighed still completely out of breath.

“Come lay down with me.” he told her, gently leading her off of his body to lay beside him in the bed.  He pulled the sheets out from under their bodies to cover them.

Abby sighed when he pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her lovingly.  Her heart was filled with so much joy, yet so much sorrow at the same time because she knew that this was only a temporary moment.  Things would be SO different when they woke up.
 

The next morning Abby’s eyes fluttered open.  She was laying on her side and she glanced up at her alarm clock to see it was almost 11:00AM.  She sighed thinking back to what had happened the night before.  Her body still felt warm and complete from his touch.

She could feel him laying behind her with his arm slung over her hip.  She could feel his steady breathing.  He was still asleep.  Her heart broke.  She knew it would only be a short time before he woke up and began to freak out at what they had done.

She knew she should not have let things go as far as they did.  She knew that she should have stopped him instead of giving in.  She wasn’t drunk this time so she couldn’t use that as an excuse.  He would probably be upset with her.  Probably wonder why she allowed it to happen.

The more she thought about it, the more she began to panic.  Her heart began to race at thoughts of things he would say to her.  Those thoughts scared the hell out of her.  Thinking quickly she looked down at his hand and as gently as she could she removed it from her hip.  She glanced back over at him to make sure she had not disturbed his sleep and eased her way out of the bed, grabbing her close up off the floor and rushing into the bathroom.

She quickly and as quietly as possible showered, and dressed herself before tip toeing back through the bedroom towards the door.  She knew he had to leave that afternoon to head back to Florida to meet up with everyone so they could leave for the tour Monday morning.  She had to get out of the house.  There was no way she could be there when he woke up.

Glancing one last time back at him to make sure he was still asleep she eased out her bedroom door, and hurried through the house and out to her car where she hopped inside and drove off.
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter 22

JC laid there slowly opening his eyes when he heard the door quietly close behind her.  He had woke up the moment she had gotten out of the bed.  But instead of stopping her.  Instead of saying anything to her.  He laid there pretending to be asleep.

He turned over onto his back and stared at the ceiling.  He was so confused he didn’t know whether he was coming or going.  He kept insisting that Abby was only a friend to him.  He had insisted that this would NEVER happen again.  Yet, it had.

He thought back to the night before.  True he had been drunk, but he could remember everything clearly.  He could remember his forward advances, and her repeated declines until finally she had admitted that if he continued to persist she wouldn’t be able to say no.

He knew he was confusing the hell out of her.  Heck, he was confusing the hell out of himself.  But he knew he wasn’t ready for another relationship.  Bobbie was still in his heart, whether he wanted her to be or not.  But Abby was in his heart too.  How she was in his heart was becoming more and more of a mystery to him though.

He knew he cared about her.  Loved her even.  She was one of the sweetest, funniest, most caring people he had ever met.  She wasn’t like any of the girls he had ever been around before.  She was shy and very self conscious at times which made him want to protect her.  Yet, he had seen the stronger, harder side of Abby, which clearly showed she didn’t need anyone to protect her.

But the more he thought about that the more he wondered if perhaps she needed someone to protect her from him.   He felt horrible about what he was doing.  He cared about her so much.  She was a huge part of his life.  She was there when for some reason he couldn’t let any of his other friends be there.  And at that point in time they hadn’t really even been friends.  Yet, she was still there for him.

She listened to what he had to say without judging him.  She gave him the space and time he needed to get his feelings out without pushing him.  All she ever did was give. And here he was just taking and taking.  He didn’t feel like a very good friend at that moment.  But he didn’t know what to do.  He honestly couldn’t imagine his life without her in it.  She was far to important to him to throw away or to hurt anymore than she had already been hurt in the past.  But it seemed like at times he had no self control.

How could he go from just being friends with her one minute, to wanting her with every part of his being?  There was something there that drew him to her, and he couldn’t explain it.  But he didn’t want to hurt her.  But that’s exactly what he was doing in the long run.  His thoughts just weren’t making any sense.  Nor were his feelings.  And he DID NOT know what to do.

Throwing the sheets back on the bed, he got up and quickly threw his clothes on.  He walked down the hallways towards the living room hoping to find her down there.  He needed to talk to her about this.  Maybe she could help him make some sense of what was going on inside of his head.  She had always been able to help him with his thoughts before, why should this be any different?

When he didn’t see her in the living room he moved on to the kitchen, then the den, and looked everywhere else in the house she could possibly be only to come up empty handed.  He headed to the front door and looked out to find her car gone, and his heart sank.  “SHIT!” he grumbled as he raced back upstairs to his bedroom.

He quickly showered and dressed in clean clothes.  He made his way back downstairs to grab his car keys to head over to Justin’s house.  That’s the only place he could think she might have gone.

He drove down the twisty streets until he came to Justin’s house.  He pressed the buzzer at the gate and when Justin asked who it was and he told him Justin buzzed him in.  He speed up the driveway hoping to find her car, but his hopes were dashed when it wasn’t there.  He thought briefly about turning his car around and leaving, until Justin appeared in the doorway of his house looking out at him.  So he reluctantly parked the car and shut it off to make his way towards the door.

“What’s up?” Justin asked as JC walked past him to enter the house.

“Oh, nothing.  I just keep fucking up.” JC vented.

Justin studied him.  That was NOT what he expected to hear.  “What do you mean you keep fucking up?” he questioned.

“Abby.” JC said simply.

“Abby, what?  Is she ok?” Justin grew concerned and there was a frantic tone to his voice.

“I hope she is, but I really don’t know considering I have NO CLUE where she is at the moment.  I came here thinking perhaps she might be here but she’s not.  Has she been here?” JC looked up at him hopefully.

“No, she hasn’t been here.  I haven’t talked to her since yesterday.  Did she not come home last night?” Justin asked setting down beside JC on the sofa.

“She came home.” JC sighed.

“Ok, so then what’s wrong?  JC, you’re scaring me here.” Justin stared at him.

“I let it happen again.  I did it again!” he said.

Justin looked at him oddly.  “Did what again?”

“I slept with, Abby.” JC said flopping back into the sofa covering his face with his hands.

Justin didn’t say anything.  He got up and began pacing the room rubbing his hand over his stubble of hair.  JC looked up at him after a moment.  He was expecting more of a reaction out of Justin than that.  He could tell that Justin was upset about it by the way he was pacing, so he figured it wouldn’t be too long before he spoke up.

“Go ahead, J.  Tell me what an idiot I am.  Don’t hold back.  I agree with whatever you’re going to say anyways.” JC finally said when Justin still hadn’t said anything.

“You’re right.  You ARE an idiot!  I thought you said it was NEVER going to happen again.  Did you suddenly change your mind.  Did you suddenly feel like another roll in the sack was necessary?  What the HELL were you thinking?” Justin yelled.

Yup that was it.  Just as JC had suspected, Justin was REALLY gonna let him have it.  He was in big trouble now.  “I don’t know what I was thinking.  Everything was fine.  She left yesterday to go on her date.  The guy was really nice and all, but I just got really upset when she left.  I mean Justin, she was wearing this REALLY tight, short ass dress!  I’ve NEVER seen her dressed like that before!”

“And that made you jump in bed with her?” Justin glanced at him incredulously.

“NO!” JC whined.  “I don’t know what got into me.  After she left with him I started packing my stuff up.  And then I started feeling all sorry for myself because it was my last night in town for a few months and she would rather go off with some GUY than hang out with me.  I started drinking and the more I drank the more upset I got about the whole thing.  Then when she came home all smiling and happy, it just set me off.”

“What do you mean set you off?  Did you fight with her?” Justin stopped pacing and stared at him.

“Not really.” JC said looking towards the floor.

“Not REALLY?  What the HELL does that mean?” Justin glared at him stepping closer.

“Well, I questioned her about the date.  Gave her a hard time about it when she told me they went to the drive inn of all places, and she got pissed because of my attitude.  She said something about me lecturing her like her dad or something.  And I told her I was just trying to look out for her.  Then she said something about her being a grown woman and she could take care of herself if I hadn’t noticed.  And I just kind went from there.” he shrugged.

“Went from there?  What’s that mean?”

“I started flirting with her.  Hel,l I don’t’ know!  I said something about noticing she was a woman.  And I don’t know, she said something back to me about me being drunk and how I was acting and she actually laughed at me and the next thing I know I was kissing here.  She kept telling me to quit, that I was drunk.  To go to bed.  She told me I would regret the way I was acting in the morning like I did the last time or something and I told her I didn’t regret the last time.”

Justin’s eyes grew big.  “You told her that?”

“Yeah.  She got all upset said some other stuff and then headed up to her room.  I of course being the idiot I am followed her and finally got into her room and then started kissing her again.  She told me I needed to stop before she couldn’t tell me no, and so I told her not to say no and then kissed her again.  The next thing I know we’re going at it all hot and heavy.  And the rest well that’s between me and Abby.”

Justin stood staring at him.  “I cannot believe you did that.  You really have LOST YOUR FUCKING MIND!” he yelled.

JC slumped forward burring his face in his hands.  “I know.” he sighed.

“So what the hell are you doing here?  And where the hell is Abby?”

“I told you I don’t know where she is.  I came here looking for her.  I couldn’t think of anywhere else she would go.  She got up this morning and took off.  She thought I was still asleep.”

“You mean to tell me you were awake but you didn’t stop her?”

“I didn’t know what to say to her.  It was obvious by the way she was creeping around the room she was trying hard not to wake me.”

“What are you going to do now?” Justin asked.

“I guess I’m gonna go back to the house and wait on her to get home so we can talk about this.  I don’t know what I’m going to say yet, but I know we definitely need to talk about this.”

“What are you going to tell her?  That it’ll NEVER happen again?” Justin said sarcastically.

“I’d appreciate a little support here.” JC grumbled.

“Then start acting like the JC I know and maybe I’ll show you a little support.  I cannot support you fucking with her head the way you are.” Justin growled.

“I’m not doing it intentionally, J.  I would never intentionally hurt her.  She’s my friend and I care about her.  I don’t know what I’m doing ok.  I really just don’t know anymore!”

“Well, for both of your sakes I hope you figure it out soon.  Because I assure you JC, you’re my bro and all and I love ya, but I will not stand by and watch you mess with her head.  I’ll believe you for now when you say you’re not doing it on purpose, because I think I know you better than that.  But you’ve gotta fix this.  Either break down and admit you  have feelings for the girl that run deeper than friendship and do something about it, or back the fuck off!”

“That’s just it Justin!  I don’t feel anything more for her than friendship.  It’s like she’s there when I’m feeling low and she just has this presence around her that’s comforting.  I don’t know how to explain it.  Besides, I’m not ready to be in a serious relationship.”

“Then you need to stop this while you’re ahead.  Abby’s a vulnerable girl.  She comes across strong and everything, and I know she can be.  But emotionally she’s not used to this stuff.  You know as well as I do she hasn’t been in a lot of relationships.  She’s very self conscious.  And although I’m sure your lil’ endeavors are giving her a bit of a boost, they’re probably leaving her more confused in the end.  Don’t let her think you care about her like that when you really don’t.  It may not just be sex to her.  There may be more meaning behind it, which I’m hoping for your sake there isn’t because I’ll have to hurt you if you break the poor girls heart!”

“She’s never said anything about liking me like that.” JC defended.

“Have you ever stopped to ask her what her feelings are for you?  Do you honestly think she would just jump into bed with you like that?  I mean the first time granted she was drunk so that’s kinda iffy.  People sometimes do crazy things when they’re drunk.  But last night she had just gotten home.  She was sober and she slept with you.  Abby does NOT come off as that kind of girl.  I’m telling you there’s probably more there than you care to recognize.”

“How is it you seem to know so much about her?” JC asked defensively.  “She lives with me.  We’re better friends than you two are!”

“Listen to yourself, JC!  How do you know that?  Why does it even matter?  Me and Abby are friends.  In case you forgot I was friends with her before you took the time out of your busy Bobbie agonizing times to pay attention to her.  I observe her.  I see how she is.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure these things out.”

“Whatever.  I didn’t come here to argue with you about this stuff.  I came here looking for, Abby.  And since she’s not here I’m going to go back to MY house that I live in WITH Abby, and wait on her to get back so we can sort through this TOGETHER.” JC jumped up from the sofa and stormed towards the front door.

“Funny how you’re putting emphasis on the words that make it SOUND like you’re a couple!” Justin hollered after him and JC slammed the door.
 

JC sat at the house all day up until it was time for him to head to the airport.  No signs of Abby anywhere.  He tried calling her cell phone, but all calls were going directly to her voice mail.  He was growing increasingly worried about if she was ok.  It wasn’t like her to just run off like that and turn her phone off.  But then it wasn’t like they’d really been in a situation like that before.

He kept the driver waiting until they couldn’t possibly wait any longer.  Hoping she would show up to see him off, but she never did.  He reluctantly left the note he had written for her on the table by the door where she always laid her purse and keys, locked the house up and left with the driver silently hoping that he hadn’t completely ruined one of the best friendships he’d ever had.
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter 23

Abby retuned to the house later that night when she knew JC would be long gone.  She had spent the day wondering the city.  She’d hit the malls and shopped a bit, because shopping always seemed to make her feel a little better.  Then after that she hit the Santa Monica Pier.  She walked around there for a of couple hours, before heading down the road a bit to a different portion of the beach where she perched herself on one of the rocks to just sit and stare out over the water thinking.

She couldn’t really remember what she had thought about, as her whole thought process seemed to be completely screwed up.  Not much of anything was making any sense to her.

She had checked her voice mail on the way back to the house to find a good ten messages from JC.  He sounded really worried, not at all angry and upset like she had expected he would.  He was asking where she was at.  Begging her to come home, or to call him so he’d know she was ok.

There was also a couple messages from Justin trying to figure out where she was at.  He too sounded worried.  She surmised from his tone that JC had either called him looking for her, or had been to his house.  She also got the feeling from the way he was talking that he KNEW what had happened.  But then she had been wondering for a while if he knew more than he led on.  Some of the statements he would make at times and the way he would look at her and JC often made her wonder if he knew that she and JC had been together intimately.

Walking into the house she sat her purse and keys down on the table inside the door.  It was then that she noticed the envelope with her name written across the front of it in JC’s handwriting.  She picked it up and walked towards the kitchen to get something to drink before settling on the sofa in the living room.

She held the envelope in her hands staring at it for a while.  She was somewhat scared to open it and read it.  Not sure what she would find in the confines of the paper.

After staring at the envelope for a while longer she finally built up the courage to open it.  She tore through the sealed envelope and pulled out the folded paper.  She slowly unfolded it and began to read the words he had written.
 

Abby,

I’m sitting here waiting on you to return to the house.  You have no idea how worried I am about you.  When I got up this morning you were gone.  No note.  Nothing telling me where you went or why.  I guess I really don’t have to ask why after what happened last night.  I want you to know I’m just as confused as you are right now.  I know I promised you that it would never happen again, and I’m not entirely sure what happened last night.  Meaning I don’t know what I was thinking, because I DO remember everything.

We really need to talk about this.  I know that’s probably the last thing you want to hear right now and I can understand why.  But I really need to set things straight with you.  I don’t want to hurt you anymore than I already have.  And it hasn’t been intentionally.  I would NEVER intentionally hurt you, Abby.  I really do care a lot about you.  You’re a very dear friend to me and I never want to lose that!  I know I acted like an ass last night.  And I’m sincerely sorry.  I cannot apologize enough.  I only wish I could explain what I was thinking, but unfortunately I don’t even know that answer myself.  But as soon as I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know.

Anyway, I hope you’re not too mad at me.  And I REALLY hope that you don’t have intentions of never speaking to me again.  I’ll try to call you later tonight when I get to Florida.  Or tomorrow after we get on the road.  But we really need to talk about this sooner or later.  Again I’m sorry.

Love Your Friend,
 JC
 

A tear slowly rolled down Abby’s cheek.  It wasn’t exactly what she expected to read, but it was close.  Her heart was breaking all over again.  She wanted to strangle herself for allowing herself to fall for him so badly.  And even more so for allowing the previous nights events to happen.  She just knew she had to be the stupidest person on the face of the earth.  She just had to be.
 

( 3 months later )

Abby was sitting at the airport waiting on JC and Justin to arrive.  She’d been there for nearly twenty minutes waiting.  According to the screens their flight was arriving on time so she hopefully wouldn’t be waiting much longer.

Over the last few months things had pretty much gotten back to normal.  JC had called that night like he said he would and they had a long talk over the phone about what had happened.  It had been probably the most uncomfortable phone conversation Abby had ever had in her entire life.

Sitting there listening to JC apologize over and over again for his actions.  Explaining that he didn’t know why he did what he did.  Telling her that he cared about her, that he loved her.  But only as a friend, which only confused him more as to why he would do the things he had.

He had really surprised her by point blank asking her what her feelings were for him.  She really hesitated on that one.  Was she supposed to lie to him and agree that she only cared about him as a friend?  Or was she supposed to sit there and tell him that she was hopelessly in love with him, after he had just told her that he didn’t see her that way?

Finally, he had answered for her.  He knew everything he needed to know from the silence on the other end of the line.  He knew that she cared about him more than just as a friend.  That in itself only made him apologize more.  He told her that he was sorry he had fed into those emotions.  Sorry that he had mistakenly given her some form of hope by his actions.  Sorry for everything.  Even sorry for the fact that he didn’t reciprocate those feelings.

Abby had cried silently to herself at the sounds of those words, but she knew that there was nothing she could do about it.  Even though she would give anything in the world to make him feel the same way for her that she felt for him, she knew it wasn’t possible to make someone love you when they didn’t.  She would just have to live with the fact that he only loved her as a friend and at least be happy knowing that he did care enough about her to let her know that much.  And to be so concerned with her feelings.

Things had been awkward between them for a while after that particular phone call.  But still JC called her to check in and see how things were going with her and to let her know how things were going with the tour.  With time the awkwardness seemed to fade away and things seemingly got back to normal.  Although, Abby knew in her heart that they would never be completely normal again.  At least not for her.

Then one night a few days after they had been in LA for a their show there Justin had called Abby completely distraught.  He and Britney had broken up.  He had caught her cheating on him.  He wouldn’t tell her who he had caught her cheating on him with, but she heard later from JC that he had suspicions it was Wade.

That broke Abby’s heart.  Justin and Britney seemed so much in love.  She could not understand what would cause the girl to do a stupid thing like that.  Justin had always been nothing but good to her.  He loved her with every morsel of his being.  She just couldn’t understand how Britney could throw all of that away.  It just didn’t make sense.

It was amongst one of the many conversations Abby had with Justin after all of that had transpired that she learned that her suspicions were correct.  Justin had openly admitted to her that he knew about her and JC when she had finally gotten the courage to ask him about it.

It seemed to help that she now had someone to share her heartache with.  She couldn’t openly tell JC how much she was still hurting inside because he didn’t love her back the same way she loved him.  And Justin was always willing to listen and be supportive, as she was for him.  There never could be better medicine for people with broken hearts than to share it with someone who knew how they were feeling.

So there she sat.  Patiently waiting to see the guys again.  She had seen them briefly while they were in town for their show.  They’d sent her tickets to go.  Mahogany drove in from Vegas and they went together.  But the guys didn’t stay in town over night as they had some promotional things to do in San Diego, so after the show they had immediately left to head there.  This would be the first REAL amount of time she would be spending with JC since that night.  And she was unbelievably nervous.

Sure things had been fine for the last two months over the phone.  But that was over the phone.  Seeing him in person was a completely different story.  She only hoped that she could be true to the vow she had made to herself to only look at him as a friend and push all other thoughts out of her mind.  She knew it would be no simple task, but it was something she simply HAD to do.

She snapped out of her daze when she heard Justin’s voice calling her name and looked up to see both him and JC heading her way.  She smiled at them and stood to greet them.

Justin enveloped her in a huge hug, actually lifting her off of her feet and squeezing her to his chest.  There was comfort in his arms at that moment and she NEVER wanted him to let her go.  But of coarse he had to.  And once he had JC immediately swooped her up in a hug.  Not quite as crazily as Justin had, but it was a hug none the less.  She could feel his hesitancy behind it.  She knew in the back of his mind he was worried if she would read into it.

When JC finally released her from his embrace she smiled at the two.  “Did you guys have a good flight?”

“HELL NO!” Justin shook his head.

JC smirked.  “One word.  TURBULANCE!”

Abby laughed at that.  She had been privy to all too many stories about Justin’s fear of flying.  She couldn’t completely understand it considering that they did so much of it, but she did know that she had never really liked it either.  Especially, when there was a lot of turbulence.  “But you made it here all in one piece, so that’s a good thing.” she smiled warmly at Justin.

“Do I have to reinforce how much I HATE to fly?” he asked.

“No, Justin.  I think we all know by now!” JC laughed.

“Guys, we need to move here!” Lonnie called from a few feet behind them.  The guys were completely oblivious to the standing crowd of fans that were only a good fifty feet away from them being held back by small barricades and a short number of airport security staff.

“YES MASTER!” Justin sighed.  “Come on Abbs.” he said grabbing her by her arm and looping it with his.  “Let’s give these fans something to talk about.  Let’s let them think you’re the reason me and Brit broke up.” he joked and Abby simply shook her head as she walked along with him.

JC followed closely behind them watching the two interact together.  They had grown even closer over the last couple of months.  They’d always been close before that, but now they were even closer.  He knew Justin had been right that day at his house when he said that he and Abby had been friends longer than JC and Abby had been friends.  That had really bothered him.  And it still did.  Especially now when he watched the two intereact together.  They had this unspoken understanding between the two of them.  That in itself made him jealous.  That jealousy he would admit freely because it was his own fault that he didn’t have that with Abby.  If he had taken the time to get to know her sooner, and if he hadn’t mixed everything up with them.  Mixing friendship with things that weren’t supposed to be involved with friendship, he could very possibly have had that with her.

But that didn’t make her any less his friend.  And that didn’t make him care any less about her.  It only made him wish he could go back in time and correct a few things.  But the funny part to him was that he wasn’t so sure he wanted to change the two nights they had spent together.

If he could change anything he would go back and change the time that he had spent not getting to know her in the beginning when all the other guys were.  But he wasn’t so sure he’d change the nights they’d shared together.  And that confused him more than anything.
 
 
 
 

Chapter 24

( Early July 2002 )

It had been roughly two months since JC had returned back home from tour.  So far he had spent the beginning stages of his hiatus just doing normal things.  He had gone up to Chicago for a weekend to see his Mom and Dad.  He had even conned Abby into going with him, telling her that if he went without her his parents would skin him alive after hearing so much about the girl.

Abby had been reluctant to go.  It just felt weird to be going to meet his family.  She knew it shouldn’t feel weird.  Friends met their friend’s families all the time, but under their particular circumstances it was different.  But in the end she was happy that she had gone.  JC’s family was wonderful, just as she figured they would be.

His brother Tyler had cracked her up the way he had flirted with her.  She thought he was totally insane, but again that made her feel a little better about herself.  And it was even funnier for her to see the way JC would scold him for making little innuendos here and there to her.  The whole trip there was just a blast for her, and she and JC had come back more at ease with each other than they had been in a while.

JC had also started going out a bit more.  Partying a little more.  He was beginning to win himself quite a name as a party boy which somewhat concerned Abby, but who was she to say anything?  It also bothered her that he was dating around.  Although she tried REALLY hard not to let that show.

Justin had been gone a lot in the recent weeks off collaborating with different people on his solo album.  He had sat down with her and gone over some of the lyrics and things he had done so far.  It saddened Abby to read some of the lyrics.  They were so expressive as to what he was feeling inside after his breakup with Britney.  But she was glad that he was putting that pain to good use creatively.  She had no doubts whatsoever that his album would be anything other than amazing once it was finished.

Lance was off in Russia training to go to space.  At first she hadn’t believed him when he had announced his plans to do so.  But the more he talked about it, the more she realized how serious he was about the whole thing.  And then when he had actually LEFT for Russia, well his seriousness became completely apparent.  But she had to commend him for going after his dreams the way he was.  If anyone could do it, she was sure Lance would be the one to do so.

Joey was off in New York prepping for a Broadway Musical he was going to be staring in.  He had called her after finding out he had gotten the part and she couldn’t help but be anything other than excited for him.  She could remember all the times he had expressed is desire to do just that, so she was ecstatic that he was getting that opportunity and promised him she would be there opening night.

And Chris, well she wasn’t totally sure what exactly Chris was doing.  He was pretty much just bouncing all over the place.  One day he was here.  One day he was there.  He was simply enjoying his time off and traveling around the country and spending some long overdue time with his family.

She was still working at the club, although she had cut back on her hours quite a bit as she was getting more and more business with the whole photography thing.  She owed a lot of that to the guys as they were always putting in a good word for her here and there.  And of coarse Justin had already told her she was doing ALL of his photographs for his album and promotional stuff.  He would refuse to work with any other photographer, which she had told him was completely retarded.

Tonight the group was going out.  Their little group consisted of Abby, JC, Justin, Chris, Joey and Kelly.  Everyone was in town and they had all decided to get together to go out clubbing and have some fun.

Abby had the night off of work, and at first she hadn’t really loved the idea of spending her night off from a club, in another club.  But she was slowly warming up to the idea.  She hadn’t seen Joey, Kelly or Chris in a while.  And it had been a good two weeks since she had seen Justin.  Not to mention the fact that she had never really been OUT to a club with them.  She had always been the one WORKING at the club and serving them.  So this would definitely be a change of pace.

She was in her room getting ready.  She had spent a good hour just deciding what to wear.  Sure she had seen plenty of clubbing outfits, considering she worked at a club, but she didn’t have the body that those girls had and there was no way in hell she could pull some stuff like that off.  Not that she had anything like that in her wardrobe anyways.  But she finally settled on another dress that Mahogany had picked out for her when she had been visiting a few months back and they had gone shopping.

It was a sleeveless dark brown crochet dress, with a rusty colored under slip that stopped just above her knees.  It didn’t cling to her tightly but the way it did freely lay against her body was just right.  It actually accentuated her curves and she thought she looked pretty good in it if she did say so herself.

She was playing with her hair, lifting it up then letting it fall back down, only to lift it back up again TRYING to figure out what to do with it.  JC knocked on the door and waited for her to tell him it was ok to enter before he opened the door.  “Justin’s here and the others should be here soon.” he advised her walking into the room.

She was standing in front of her dresser mirror with her back to him, holding her long brown hair up in a bunch behind her head twisting it and looking at it in different positions.  He slowly walked up behind her.  Secretly admiring the dress she had chosen to wear.  She never failed to amaze him.  Just when he thought he had her figured out she would go and do something different like this.  She didn’t usually wear stuff like that, but then he surmised that it was kind of a special occasion.  They were all going out clubbing after all.

“That’s a nice dress.” he told her as he got closer.

“Thanks.” she smiled at him through the mirror still fiddling with her hair.  “It’s…” she started but he cut her off.

“Let me guess.  One that Mahogany picked out?”

Abby looked back at him in the mirror to see he was now standing right behind her.  She smiled and nodded her head.  “Yup.”

“Well, she definitely has good taste.  It’s really cute.” he said giving her another swift look over.

Abby noticed his eyes trail down her semi bare back and down her body.  She had to smirk at the appreciative look he unknowingly had on his face with that glance, but she quickly diverted her eyes back to her reflection in the mirror to look at her hair once again.

“So are you almost ready?” he asked looking back up at her face in the mirror.

“Almost.  Just trying to figure out what the hell to do with my hair.” she said twisting it a little more to the back of her head and then studying it.

JC slowly moved his hands up towards her hair and pulled her hands away.  “Leave it down.  I like it down.” he said running his fingers through her hair to straighten it out.

“Um…ok.” Abby smiled softly at him in the mirror.

JC looked at her reflection in the mirror.  He couldn’t help but notice how pretty she looked at that moment.  “You’re wearing a lil’ more makeup than you usually do.” he pointed out.

Her eyes were outlined in a smoky liner with pale brown shadow.  And her lips were a supple red color from the lipstick she was wearing.

“Yeah, I was going for the whole club look I guess.  Or at least I was trying.” she rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“Well, you look really pretty.  You should fix yourself up like this a little more often.” he said his hands resting on her shoulders as he continued to study her in the mirror.

Abby turned to face him.  His presence was beginning to unnerve her.  She couldn’t stand it when he looked at her that way.  With endearing eyes.  Although when she turned to face him she hadn’t expected him to remain where he was standing.  She had expected him to move back.  Or something.  But he didn’t.  He still stood exactly where had been.  Which was only a mere few inches away from her.

He looked down at her.  “You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” she said but neither of them moved.

JC just stood there and continued to stare at her and Abby didn’t know what to do.  The warmth from his body being so close to hers was setting off alarms inside her head, but her body was NOT listening to those alarms at all.

“We should probably go.” he said still staring deep into her eyes.

“Yeah.  We probably should.” she responded but still neither of them moved.

JC slowly reached his hand up to brush her hair back over her shoulder.  His fingers gently brushing against the bare skin of her shoulder.  “I told you I liked this dress right?” he questioned.

Abby smiled at that.  Was he in a total daze or something?  “Yeah, you told me.” she chuckled.

But he never lost the seriousness of his face.  “Cause I really do.” he reaffirmed slowly bringing his hand back up to her cheek.  “And I really do think you look beautiful tonight.” he said softly.

Abby’s breath caught in her throat when his soft hand made contact with her cheek.  She wasn’t sure what the heck had gotten into him.  Why he was acting the way he was?  She knew he hadn’t been drinking.  She couldn’t smell any alcohol on his breath.  But she was so caught up in his intense stare that she couldn’t seem to react any differently to it than to just stand there.

JC softly caressed her cheek completely oblivious to what he was doing as he stared into her eyes.  It was like it was the first time he had ever really noticed how pretty she really was.  He had always thought she was a pretty girl, but for some reason she was just amazingly beautiful to him at that moment.

His eyes trailed from her eyes to her full lips.  Memories of what it was like to kiss those lips suddenly filled his head and he unknowingly licked his lips at the memories.  Abby just continued to study his face as he continued to stare at her.  She couldn’t help but wonder what exactly was going through his head at that very moment.

JC looked back up to her eyes, and back down to her lips and then back to her eyes.  They were looking at him with such admiration.  Such yearning.  And at that moment he had never wanted to kiss anyone in his life as much as he wanted to kiss her.

Slowly he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.  Abby’s eyes fluttered shut at the pressure and electricity that tingled in her lips at the mere presence of his lips against hers.

JC slowly began to kiss her, still cradling her cheek with his hand, while rubbing his thumb back and forth across the smoothness of her skin.  His other hand slid down her arm to her waist pulling her closer to him.  Hesitantly, Abby’s arms snaked up his arms and around his neck in return.  Her fingers finding the curls at the base of his neck, as she gently twisted those curls around her fingers.

Moments passed and JC nor Abby had broken from the embrace.  Instead the kiss was growing stronger and deeper as JC had tentatively slipped his tongue into her mouth.    Passion building behind ever sweep of their tongues meshing together in the warmth of their mouths.

JC’s hand slipped from her waist to her back to pull her body closer to his, as his other hand slid to the back of her head also pulling her closer.  Abby was running her fingers through JC’s curls.  Pulling him closer to her.  They were pulling at each other’s bodies.  Desperately trying to get closer, but it wasn’t physically possible at that moment.

JC’s feet began a forward motion.  He wasn’t sure what direction he was going, all he knew was that they needed some kind of support.  His body was growing hot from her being so close to him and he needed some kind of support.  Any kind of support.

They came to a stop when Abby’s back hit the wall, just left of her closet.  JC continued to kiss her deeply, placing one hand on each side of her head as he leaned his body against hers.  Abby’s hands had found their way to his back, and were gliding freely up and down his back in a soothing motion he could not ignore.

His hands began to explore her body.  Touching her.  Caressing her curves as he slowly moved away from her mouth and began to kiss along her jaw line to the bottom of her ear, moving down to the column of her neck and over to her exposed collarbone.

Abby was completely lost in the moment.  She had missed his touch.  The way he could make her feel with smallest of touches was beyond anything she had ever known.  She began to think back to the times before when her body had been blessed enough to feel his soft sensual caresses.  And it was that thought that made her snap out of her euphoric trance.

She attempted to push him away slightly but his body didn’t budge, nor did his lips that were ravishing her neck at the moment.  “JC?” she said his name softly.

“Hmmm?” he mumbled against her skin and just the vibrations of his mouth against her neck alone was almost too much for her to handle.

“We need to stop.” she whispered.

He pulled away from her neck and looked up into her eyes. “Why?” he whispered leaning back in to kiss her fully on the lips once more.

Abby was momentarily unable to speak as he attacked her mouth with his.  Kissing her deeply and passionately.  So much wanting and desire behind his every action.  “ JC, you’re not drunk.” she muttered as he moved off again to go for her neck.

“I know.” he mumbled against her neck.

“What are we doing?” she asked breathlessly.

“I don’t know.”
 
 
 
 

Chapter 25

Abby didn’t know how to take his words, but she couldn’t hide the fact that she was just as lost as he was in the moment they were having.  Once again her body and heart won out over what her mind was telling her and she allowed herself to slip further and further into his dreamy touches and kisses.

JC’s hand found the bottom of her dress and began to hoist it upwards as he massaged her thigh.  Abby was losing all sense of reality.  She felt like she was falling and there was nothing to grab onto.  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head when she felt his fingers gently glide over the silky material that separated her hot center from his strong capable hands.  She moaned against his mouth when he again rubbed his fingers across her center, only this time with a little more pressure.

“God, Abby how do you do this to me?” he muttered against her lips.

“I’m not doing anything.” she muttered back.

And to prove his point JC rubbed himself against her now bare thigh as he had hoisted the bottom of her dress up and it was being held in place by their bodies that were pressed together.  Abby could feel his arousal.  He was hard as a rock and that only made her yearn more for him.

“Do you see what you do to me?  I don’t understand how you do it.  But you do.” he whispered into her neck as he kissed his way down to her shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” she whispered back into his hair.

JC looked up to her eyes.  “Don’t be sorry Abby.  Just let me make love to you.” he whispered breathlessly.

Abby stared into his eyes and she felt like crying.  She didn’t know what to make of what he was doing or saying at the moment.  All she knew was that it felt completely and totally right.  And she wanted him more at that moment than she ever had before.  And with a silent nod of her head, JC leaned back in to kiss her.

His hands returned to her hips to grasp the fabric of her panties and he began to push them down over her hips, as her hands sought out his belt and began to fumble with it to get it undone and then moved onto the button and zipper of the jeans he was wearing.

When her panties hit her ankles Abby stepped out of them.  She gave JC’s jeans one last shove sending them to his knees and then moved on to his boxer briefs pushing them down over his hips to meet with his jeans that were now located at his ankles.

JC didn’t waste any time rubbing his bare flesh against her bare flesh.  The electricity that shot through his body in that moment was overwhelming and he couldn’t wait any longer to be inside of her.  He needed her NOW.  Gripping her thighs tightly with his hands he hoisted her up in the air, wrapping her legs around his waist.

Abby was taken completely off guard by that action.  She thought for sure they were headed for the bed, but he was hungrily kissing her now and she knew that he had reached some point of no return.

Held to her tightly, using the wall to help support her body he slowly pressed his body into hers.  He moved his mouth from her mouth over to her ear as he reveled in the feeling of being inside of her.  She fit him like a glove.  He remembered it being good the times before, but he couldn’t remember her body feeling THIS good against his.  Not having alcohol in his system this time around seemed to have a big roll in that.

He pushed further into her, gripping tighter on her hips and she let out a soft gasp against his neck.  “Am I hurting you?” he questioned softly against her ear.

“No.” she answered just as softly.

He pulled out slightly, only to push back in again, Abby’s nails digging into his back through his shirt.  He continued this slow torturous process until he decided to pick up the pace a bit and began pumping in and out of her in a swift fluid motion.  He was working at such a fast pace he was nearly out of breath and Abby was moaning out in pleasure into his shoulder.

That simple sound alone was enough to drive him forward.  Faster and harder. Clinging her body to his as he sucked on her neck and gently bit into her shoulder to drown out his own cries of passion.

When Abby’s moans began to grow louder he quickly covered her mouth with his remembering that Justin was downstairs.  And quite possibly Chris, Joey and Kelly too.  He hated to drown out her cries of pleasure because it only excited him more, but he couldn’t take the chance of someone hearing them downstairs.

He kissed her hungrily and thoroughly as he continued to pump in and out of her body.  She turned away from his lips to bury her face in his neck as her body began to feel the throws of her orgasm.  JC felt her walls tightening around him.  He could feel the near explosion in his body that was following close behind hers.  She squeezed her thighs tighter around his body to pull him closer and deeper into her and JC groaned at the glorious feeling.  He attacked her earlobe with his mouth.  Gently biting and sucking on it as she moaned and sighed into his shoulder.  Every noise she made driving him forward.

He picked up his pace even faster and began to push deeper and harder into her at her cries.  She was becoming so tight around him he could tell she was close.  She threw her head back against the wall, but that little thump didn’t seem to faze her one bit as she dug her nails deeper and deeper into his back as her body was beginning it’s inevitable explosion.  “Oh God” she cried out.  “JC…” she said his name so hoarsely that, that alone only caused him to move faster and grip her tighter to him.

She grunted and moaned at what he was doing to her body, while he buried his face in her neck.  When her rapture finally exploded, JC once again had to cover her mouth with his to subdue her cries of pleasure.  Her cries along with the tightness her body had created around his body was all it took to throw him into the explosion of his completion as well.

He once again buried his face in her neck as he continued to pump in and out of her slowly through the final throws of his ecstasy. He grunted against her neck at the sensations of his explosion.  And she almost didn’t hear him whisper, “I think I love you.” into her shoulder.  But she did.

“What did you just say?” she asked pushing back on his chest slightly, as he still had her pinned against the wall.

JC looked up at her, shocked by his own word