Back at the house, Alison sat on the couch watching as Andrea moved around decorating every square inch she could find in Christmas stuff. Alison offered to help but her friend said that she wanted to do it herself, that she needed to be distracted. She wanted to ask her what it was that she needed a distraction from but kept her mouth shut.
"Hey, be useful and untie this tinsel." Andrea threw a large clump of tinsel at the girl and it draped across her shoulders like a sparkly boa.
"I asked if you wanted my help and you said no."
"Yeah, well, I can't do that and make sure the turkey doesn't burn."
"Why're you making it now anyway? Christmas isn't until Wednesday and it's only Monday!"
"Don't question my work ethics!" Andrea muttered going into the kitchen. Alison's head shot up when the doorbell rang and the other girl stuck her head in the doorway. "You expecting anyone?" She questioned.
Alison shook her head. "Our parents are supposed to be here tomorrow," she replied.
"Go check on that, will ya?" Andrea went back into the kitchen and Alison flinched when she heard the sound of pots and pans clattering as well as a few choice swear words.
She laughed a bit and went to the door. She pulled it open and was immediately dragged into a bone-crushing hug. "What're you guys doing here?" She asked, trying not to wince in pain from Chris' hug. "I thought..."
"Oh my, God, you had a thought?!" he mocked shock and pulled wide eyes.
"Dear, Christopher, of course she had a thought. She is after all smarter than you," Joey ribbed him, smiling.
"Oh this from a guy who can't form a thought without it relating to Superman. You're a big kid, Joe."
"Oh yeah who was it that ate 5 pixie stix and ran around the airport, hmm?"
"We both did that - "
"No, that was you. I was holding the camera -"
"And so goes another argument of the NSYNC-ers," Lance announced. "And he's supposed to be the oldest," he then whispered, chuckling.
To be honest, Alison thought these play-fights were amusing and sometimes cute. But sometimes someone would stray from the original question. She went to open her mouth but JC cut her off.
"Enough, children!!" At Chris' protest he spoke again. "Ah! I think the young lady here asked you gentleman a question. And to answer you, hon: we heard you were up here and figured we'd drop by for a visit."
"What about tour?" She was still confused by their appearance and why was there only four guys? She knew they had break coming up but didn't know where as they hadn't talked in awhile. 'Who's fault was that?' Ali asked herself, somewhat saddened with how Justin was acting.
"We still have that show to do at the end of the month. But for this week we're all yours," Lance smiled. They were now back in the living room.
"Oh well, where's --" She was once again cut off, this time by Andrea.
"Guys!" the other girl exclaimed as if she didn't know before that they'd be there. It had to look like a spontaneous thing and not a setup. Andrea did a double-take, noticing a certain boy was missing. As a puzzled expression crossed her face, JC interrupted.
"Uh, Andrea, can I help you with dinner?" he asked already dragging her from the room.
"Since when does JC cook?" Alison asked confused.
"Oh you know him," Joey covered. "He's probably just excited to see her. You know Daddy C can't stay away from our favorite choreographer."
"Yeah," the others joined in. They knew what question would come next and looked at each other; each guy trying to figure out what to say. Their flawless plan of getting Alison and Justin together was falling apart.
"Well...where's Curly?" she asked quietly.
Lance wrapped an arm around her, knowing the sad expression too well. She loved all five members equally but this was a time of year all of them were supposed to be together. "He just... Well, he couldn't come up this time," he cringed knowing that'd hurt their girl more.
Weren't they traveling together wherever they went? They were a group after all. "He's probably just with his folks," she tried to reason, not sure who she was trying to convince more. The three men shared a skeptical look.
'Bounce better make that shoot quick,' Joey thought. Apparently Alison hadn't known some of the boys' folks were going to show either....
------
"What's going on? Where's J?" Andrea whispered yelled at JC.
"Calm down!" he ordered so he could explain. "Now listen. We were all ready to board the plane when Johnny showed up out of no where and said Baby J had a last-minute shoot to do for his ABC movie."
"What?!"
"Shhh keep your voice down!" JC admonished; busying himself with cookware so no one would overhear.
"The plan doesn't work like that, Joshua. The plan was for you guys to show up, surprise Alison, and her and Justin would get together!"
"I know, I know."
"Didn't Johnny know the plan?" she continued to rant.
"Yes, he knows. Justin doesn't; but Johnny promised he would be here in a day or so. Just in time for Christmas."
"Yeah, hopefully it's not too late for him and Ali..." They peaked around the corner seeing the other NSYNC-ers trying to distract the bummed out girl. If Justin had been mopey, then Alison was just as bad. They needed to fix their quickly-going-south plan. "Ok, ok, let me think," Andrea said as she started to pace and rapidly tapped her chin. She stopped briefly to rush to the oven when a timer dinged. JC watched in amazement as she slid out the large turkey pan and dropped it onto the island before wrapping it in foil, then she returned to her pacing. She suddenly snapped causing him to jump. "I got it!" Her eyes were dancing as she grinned.
"Got what?" he asked.
"An idea to help her get her mind off of him while we wait for him to get here," she replied. Then her grin faltered. "But I don't think you'll go for it."
"I'm listening," he said as he leaned against the refrigerator.
"Well, what gets them off of a topic faster than a show or an awards night?" She asked slowly.
"Rumors," JC replied instantly. "Why?" he slowed.
"Well, what if we gave them a rumor to talk about?"
He squinted. "What kind of rumor? Something that goes to the press?"
"No! Gosh, Sleepy, I'm not that stupid," she replied, rolling her eyes.
"You're not stupid at all," he corrected. Then to cover his compliment, "What's your idea?"
"Well..." she said slowly, suddenly turning away from him. "What if...I don't know...you and I...pretended...to date?" she turned around and looked at him.
JC heard her but didn't know how to react. 'Pretend to date?' he thought sadly. 'I guess she doens't feel the same way about me. It's better than nothing but I don't want to live a lie and get my hopes up for it to come crashing down.' "Uhhh, are you sure this is a good idea?" He asked hesitantly although he knew he would jump at the chance to date her whether or not it was fake.
"Do you want to have to come up with a lame excuse every time she asks why he's not here?" She demanded, lifting an eyebrow.
"No," he sighed.
"Then turn on the charm, babe."
------
Alison stared hard at the Scrabble board in front of her before looking at the tiles. She was trying to aim for the triple word score and she knew that Chris was aiming for it as well. She grinned and put the word down. "A-B-A-N-D-O-N. Abandon! ha! in your face!" she cheered as she pointed at him who was looking at her in shock.
"No! No way! That cannot fit!' Chris said as he leaned over the board to take a closer look at it.
"It's right, Old Man. And that, Lance, is for...47 points! Ha ha."
"Don't hold your breath girl," Chris muttered as he looked at his letters on his board.
Alison smiled a sleepy smile and stretched, tilting her head back to look out the window. Snow was falling against the black back drop. Nothing had been stepped on, it was fresh clean snow. She smiled to herself. Justin would've loved seeing it, they probably would have taken a walk through the woods and then he would've said something about how he liked the way her red cheeks stood out against her pale skin. Her smile got a little bit bigger as she thought about it.
"You dreaming about J again?" Andrea whispered in a teasing tone.
"Shut up," the shorter girl whispered back smiling a bit and shaking her head. Andrea really wasn't one to talk. Either Alison was imagining it or she and JC had gotten much closer than when she last saw them together a few months ago. But they said nothing was going on...
"Is that the only word you could get?" Lance laughed at Chris' word: 'dog'.
"Shut up and go," the oldest boy snarled.
"I'm getting tired," Andrea said suddenly. She then looked pointedly at Alison and cleared her throat.
She jumped. "Oh yeah, me too."
"No way girl! You can't quit when you're winning!" Chris snapped.
"It's not like you're going to beat me anyway," she teased while the others 'ooh'ed.
"I had to move into your room to make sure everyone had enough space for the time being," Andrea mediated as she pushed open the door to Alison's room.
"That's ok," she said as she immediately went into the bathroom. "Did you hear about Jus?" she called over the sound of her electronic toothbrush.
"Yeah, it's a shame that he had to get called away at the last minute." Her reflection appeared in the mirror. "He'd be here if he could," she played along. It wasn't like they didn't want to tell the girl he had a photoshoot, they just didn't want to make it seem unimportant. After all, he would be there if he could have skipped the job. But then he'd get in trouble. Andrea just hoped for her friends' sakes that he wouldn't be delayed anymore.
"Easy for you to say," she retorted as she looked at her friend through the mirror. "Your man is here."
The dancer faltered. "Excuse me?"
The blond just spat out the toothpaste foam and smiled innocently.
"What? I didn't say anything." She crawled into bed. "But I will say you and JC have seemed a lot closer lately....," in a suspicious tone.
"Really? Didn't notice. Maybe I'm taking your advice and liking him finally. He said he liked me earlier," she lied. Though deep down she did kind of want to be with the young singer/dancer. Maybe this game wouldn't end on a rumor. 'If only he felt the same'.
"Oh my God, he did?!" Alison squealed. "So why aren't you in his room?" she pried.
"Whoa, whoa. We ain't that far yet. Now shutup." Andrea looked at the clock. "It's nearly midnight and we have alot to do tomorrow for Christmas Eve."
Alison's face dropped and she rolled over. "Yeah, Christmas..." Not that she didn't enjoy being with the other guys or her friend; she loved it actually - she just really missed Justin and wanted to spend their anniversary together. She wanted all of their family together. The young girl pulled open her phone under the blankets and looked at the pictures of her boy the last time she saw him...
-----------------------------------
AN: i know Model Behavior was originally shot in Canada but I didn't think of that by the time we started writing. and now it's too late lol. so, as it says in the beginning, Justin stayed behind in LA to do the spread, ok?
Justin smiled brightly into the camera; wearing a green wool jacket, light greet t-shirt underneath a red shirt, and jeans. Maggie Lawson sat next to him on the bench; leaning against his shoulder as they held hands. They were at the last-minute shoot for their TV Movie Model Behavior.
"Ok, that's a call on that section. Go change and come back here, then we'll do the next part," the photographer told the young stars. They didn't have an official photoshoot for this movie; what was being done now was pictures for BOP magazine.
"And then we'll be able to leave? I have a plane to catch," Justin asked.
The cameraman nodded.
"Don't worry, I have plans with my family too so I'd like to get this done," Maggie chimed in also.
Justin agreed before going to change. He came back out five minutes later in a red shirt under his new grey suit. The make-up artist did a little touch up and he smiled his thanks. Checking the mirror about his massive curls. For this shoot they were kept short and styled, instead of his normal fly-away look.
"Man, you change fast!" Maggie complemented, smiling.
"Haha, yeah. Quick-changes during shows will do that. It's good practice he joked.
After a few snaps they asked the teens to move slightly so they could change sets. Justin went to grab his water bottle from his bag while Maggie visited with her puppy that her manager brought. While searching his duffel, the young man came across something totally different. A strip of pictures. The irony to a similar scene from the movie was brief as it was replaced with the face in the photos.
It was taken at a local summer carnival last year when *NSYNC stopped in that fateful town of Adams, Massachusetts (an: i randomly picked a place) for a concert. Wearing disguises of hats and sunglasses, Alison had taken the group to the fairgrounds; where she proceeded to drag Justin into the photobooth. His favorite? The one where his arms wrapped around her shoulders, her own around his waist, and they both smiled hugely.
Justin's smile faded with the memory as he was filled with a sense of sadness and longing. Oh, how he wanted to be with her and his family this Christmas. He understood that he had work to do but right now he just couldn't put his heart into it. He was torn and for that, felt very bad.
"Aw that's cute. You look like you're having fun," his co-star beamed when he finally noticed her next to him. "That a friend?"
"Wha? Oh, yeah, uh...ahh, look I'd hate to do this but..." he trailed off.
Maggie smiled softly and looked to where the photographer was setting the shot. "Yeah, go ahead, Justin. I'll work it out and we'll set something up after the holidays."
"I don't want to get you in trouble." Though he knew the blame would rest on his shoulders once Johnny found out.
"No worries. Oh and I won't tell them where you're going," she winked. As an up and coming teen star, she understood the need for as much privacy as possible. And for these special holidays all anyone wanted was to be with loved ones and family.
"Thanks, hun, you're a lifesaver." After a quick change, hug and grabbing his bag, Justin was out of the studio like a shot.
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You're up early." Lance said to JC as he walked into the kitchen.
"Didn't sleep much last night." he said quietly. Truth be told, he hadn't. He'd been up all night thinking about her. She was driving him literally out of his mind. Even though they were only pretending to go out, it looked and felt like she meant it.
"Earth to JC. You still here?" Lance asked.
JC chuckled. "Yeah, man. Sorry."
The blond smiled at his friend. "Andrea got your head up in the clouds?"
He could feel his cheeks reddening. He needed to change the subject. "Do you know when J is supposed to get here?" JC asked.
"I dunno. I think his plane landed already."
JC shook his head. "Naw, he would have called or something."
Sitting down at the coffee table, he ran his fingers through his hair. Letting out a sigh, he then could feel arms gently wrapping around him from behind.
"Hey you." she said, dropping a gentle kiss on his forehead.
"Um. I'm gonna see go see what Alison and Joey are doing." Lance said. JC completely forgot he was there.
"Good morning." he said.
"What's with the dorky smile?" Andrea asked.
The smile quickly vanished. "Nothing."
Once Lance left the room, her arms left his body. That's right; this was all an act he thought. Suddenly he couldn't stop feeling disappointed. He had to tell her how he felt. But something was off. Andrea was usually chatty and loud-mouthed, but she was oddly quiet. "Honey, what's wrong?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"Don't call me that, Josh. You can drop the act, no one is in here."
He looked at her, puzzled. The sternness in her voice surprised him. It hurt him. Maybe his thoughts had been misleading him. Maybe she didn't feel the same. This was killing him.
He had to at least say something!
"What if I don't want to?" he asked, softly. "What if what I'm doing and saying isn't an act? What if I do feel those things for you, Andrea? What would you say then?"
"I-I don't know."
"Have you just been messing with me this ENTIRE time?!" he cried.
"This whole thing was pretend Joshua." she said.
He couldn't believe this. He could not believe what he was hearing. "I thought you liked me." I thought you had feelings for me!"
Andrea remained silent. "I don't know JC," she muttered.
"Don't know what? Don't know if you like me? If after all this, all the games, you could possibly feel this for real?!"
JC paced the room. He usually didn't raise his voice like this in front of a girl, but she was driving him crazy right now. He was sick of it. Simply sick of being tugged back and forth. He knew their careers presented a challenge and he didn't want to be hurt like before but now - now he was willing to fight for what he wanted.
"Jace this was all -" she started to repeat.
"No! Don't say this was all an act. 'Cause we both know it's far beyond that. Now either admit you feel the same or tell me straight out that you don't. Otherwise, I don't know what the h*** else you want me to do; but I will not sit back and let you lead me on anymore. You know damn well what I feel so the ball's in your court, baby."
It was at that that Andrea shot up and stood right in front of him. "I don't need this from you, JC. I come in here trying to figure out what's going on in my own head and you go off on me?! Why?"
"I think you know exactly what's going on here, honey. You just don't want to admit it to me or yourself. But that's ok; you know why?" JC's anger was understandably coming out but she still looked at him quizzically. " 'Cause I've waited all these years to finally have some inkling of a chance with you and when I think you're ready to try this for real, you pull right back and hurt me again. Well, I'm done, I'm out of this game. If you ever decide you're ready to stop playing these damn games then you know where to find me. But I'm not going to forgive you that easily, if I ever forgive you that is."
And with that the young singer stormed out.
Author's Chapter Notes:
idk why this story took me nearly a year to do. usually nsync only takes me a month. but anyway here it is. i know its not my best but i hope you enjoy.
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