*Practically shouting

"I can't believe you helped him find me here!" Liz roared into the phone, pacing up and down across her living room floor.

"I was just trying to do what I thought what was the best thing for you!"

"And you thought telling him to break into my house and force me to confront him was best for me? What kind of best friend does that Emma?"

JC had left the apartment a half hour ago, and Liz had finally gotten some control over her tears long enough to make a phone call.

"He came to me begging for forgiveness! Didn't you see the genuine look of love for you in his eyes Lizzie? Or did you just slap him and tell him to get out of your life without giving him a chance?"

"Hey, so you're saying what he did to me is right? And because I don't want him back it makes me the fucking bad guy here?"

"It's making you the fucking ridiculous one here because not only are you not forgiving him without hearing him out, but you're putting yourself through hell because you know that you still love him as much as he loves you!" Emma fired back.

"Whether or not I still love him does not give either of the right to just team up and plot ways of getting me to take him back you know!" 

"Liz you know what, I don't think that was JC did to you was right, but he's trying to make things right with you and you're denying your emotions right in front of him!"

"I'm not denying anything in front of him!" Liz practically shouted in exasperation.

"So you're telling me that you feel nothing for that man? After everything, after all this time, you're going to let this one mistake tear you two apart? You're going to let everything wash straight down the drain?"

Liz didn't respond.

Emma sighed. "Fine Liz, whatever. It's your fucking love life, I'm just the bystander here that was trying to protect you but you obviously don't need me to. I'll leave this between you and JC, but I'm done with your indecisiveness when the fucking answer is right in front of you, and you know it!"

"The answer isn't the answer I want it to be," Liz muttered.

"Yea, maybe so but guess what, it is what it is and the answer is that you want JC back. You hate what he did to you, you hate what he's putting you through but did you ever stop to think that this is killing him just as much as it's killing you?"

"I did, when I saw it in his eyes." Liz admitted softly. "I didn't before."

"Yea well, it's hurting him that he can't get through to you."

A sniffle was Emma got.

"Liz, stop the shit you're doing to yourself and tell him how you really feel. Do it before you lose him, because yea, he loves you, but do you really think that he's going to wait around for something that he thinks isn't going to happen?"

"Why are you telling me this? You think I don't already know it!?" Liz asked, her voice loud.

"Fine, Ms. Know-it-All, do what you want." Her friend stated simply. "I just wanted to help, but you don't want my advice. You know, I was the one who warned him that you'd be a little harsh but even though I get that you're upset, don't take out your fucking anger over JC on me. If you really want to talk, then call me some other time. I've got plans tonight."

"Emma, I don't-"

She didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence before she heard the conversation cut off. Her best friend had hung up on her. Her face was tear-stained and she was exhausted. The guy she still deeply loved but broke her heart had just showed up asking for her forgiveness and she pushed him away. She fucking hated the job she had accepted ‘cause the control-freak of a bride changed her mind every twenty minutes after a decision was confirmed and got mad whenever something didn't go her way.

Liz wanted nothing at this point but to pack her bags and go back to her life in Orlando where she was happy. Where she could talk to her best friend without fighting, where she didn't have to fake a smile to get through the day, where she could just call her boyfriend when she needed a hug and he'd do whatever he could just to get to her.

She buried her face in her hands, her body shaking as she felt the tears come fast and furious. She knew Emma was right at an extent. Liz still loved JC, but she kept pushing him away.

Lifting her head out of her hands and wiping the tears, she looked around the room and let her eyes linger on the stack of papers she had dropped near the door. She then looked back to a picture of her and Emma she had kept on the table where she wore the necklace JC gave her and then again back to the papers. She got up immediately, walking into her room and pulling her suitcase out from underneath her bed in one swift motion and slamming it down onto the mattress. Looking out her window at the New York night sky, she shook her head, misery clouding her mind.

"Fuck this," she muttered.

***

"Jace?" Lance called out, knocking on the hotel room door that JC, Chris and Justin shared. "Chris is ordering room service. You want anything?"

The door flew open, JC standing there in a pair of loose grey pants and a white t-shirt. "Sure," he replied. "What're we doing tonight anyways?"

"There's a Laker gamer on," Justin grinned, walking past them. "And we got a big ole fifty inch plasma with HD staring us in the face in the living room."

Walking into the large living room set up, JC took a sat next to Joey on the large semi-circled couch while Chris walked back in placing the room service menu back on to the entertainment system.

"What'd you order?" Joey asked.

"Please tell me you got something we could afford when we're leaving," Lance spoke up.

"Who cares?" Joey chuckled. "Johnny's paying anyways."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Mac and cheese with sodas and chicken fingers. Boy next door food."

"More like food for kindergarteners!" Justin exclaimed.

"I'll tell 'em to include some club subs and pizza," Lance sighed, picking up the phone.

The other members nodded.

"And what ‘boy next door' has hair like yours?" JC laughed, eyeing Chris' dreads.

"Shut up," Chris retorted. "At least I haven't been wearing the same size pants since I was sixteen!"

"Okay, okay." Joey said, holding up a hand to stop the two friends from their talking. "What'd we doing tonight, really? Because I ain't staying in no hotel room on our last night here in New York city to watch a basketball game with the four of you. How about Broadway or something..."

"You do know that the point of this trip was for business right ad not pleasure, right?" JC asked with a light laugh. "It wasn't a vacation."

"Yea, well, you mixed business with pleasure when you went to see Liz tonight!"

JC sighed, running a hand through his hair. "That was anything but pleasure," he muttered as he sank deeper down into the cushions.

"Oh God," Chris spoke, stifling a laugh. "You went down on your knees, begged for forgiveness and she told you to get out didn't she?"

JC shot him a glare. "No, I didn't so that."

"Then what'd you do?" Justin asked, muting the TV. "Doesn't she still love you?"

JC shrugged. "I don't know, she said she'd ‘let me know', whatever the fuck that means..."

"So are you single or what?" Joey asked, hitting his knee.

JC screwed up his face. "Hell no! Unless she tells me that she truly still doesn't love me, then I'll leave her alone. Until then, my relationship status is ‘complicated'." He kept rambling. "I mean, if she were to call me right now and-"

"Would you settle for a text message?" Justin cut him off, looking at the screen of JC's phone in his hand.

"What!? She texted me?" JC asked, excitement on his face as he sat up.

"Well, no..." the blonde haired teen frowned. "Allison did."

"Huh?"

Justin nodded, the same confused look on his face.

"Let me see that," Chris said, grabbing the phone out of Justin's grip. The other members, especially JC, watched him intently as he briefly scanned the screen of the phone.

"What'd she say?" JC asked.

He cleared his throat. "JC," he read, his eyes focused on the small screen in front of him. "I need to talk to you A.S.A.P. It's important. I know you're in New York so call me when you get back. Love, Allie."

The other guys raised their eyebrows at the ‘Love, Allie' part but JC felt an instant pang of anger slam into him.

"What the hell does she want?" he muttered, leaning back against the cushions behind him. "Doesn't she know how much damage she's caused? How much damage has been done to my life because of her!?"

"Are you going to call her?" Lance asked.

"I don't see why I should..." JC frowned.

"She said it's important C," Justin pointed out.

"So what?"

"Sooo, it probably has something to do with you."

"And I repeat, so what?" JC asked again. "Since when did her issues become my problems?"

"It became your problem when you got into bed with her all those weeks ago!" Chris snapped.

JC looked at him, shocked.

"Sorry..." the elder member mumbled. "I just want to know what she has to say to you."

"Give me the phone," JC mumbled, standing up.

Chris handed over the cell, watching as JC grabbed it out of his hand and eye the screen.

"I'll be back in a while." He told them, walking out of the living room to go to his bedroom. "Don't come into the room."

"But we want to hear what she has to say too," Chris whined.

JC ignored his friends and shut the door, dialing the number of the phone the text had been sent from.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he sighed, listening to ring after ring. He was about to hang up when she answered.

"Hello?"

"Why'd you text me Allison?" he growled into the phone.

"JC... I thought you'd call."

He rolled his eyes.

"I thought you're still in New York."

"I am," he said. "But what did you want that was so important you just had to tell me to call you."

"I told you to call me when you got back sweetheart." She said with a smile.

"Allison, cut. the. crap. Just tell me so I can hang up on you and get back to my life!"

He heard a soft giggle on the other line. "Jace, I should really talk to you in person. I don't want to have this conversation over a phone call..."

"Oh is that right? Well I don't want to have this conversation at all Allison!" he sighed. "Just tell me what you have to say, now preferably."

"I'm warning you JC, I really don't want to tell you over a phone call."

"Allison just fucking say it!" he practically screamed into the receiver.

There was silence on the other end and then he heard her take a breath.

"You want to know JC?" she snapped. "You want to know so bad huh? You want to know soo bad what I have to say?"

He was fuming by now. "Just say it dammit!"

"I'm pregnant JC!" she screamed at him through the phone. "You fucking knocked me up and that's the way you want to fucking talk to me!?"

JC felt all the blood rush to his head, though he was standing, and he felt his legs turn to jello.

"I... Uh... We... I..." he was at loss for words.

"Got nothing to tell me now huh Mr. Big Shot Popstar?" she said crossly.

He couldn't respond. He felt all the nerves in his body numb and he wasn't even sure if she was speaking a language he understood at that point. Everything seemed to go through one ear, and back out the other. The only thing that stuck was that one sentence.

"Call me when you get over yourself JC," she snapped. "Get your ass back in Orlando and I'll see when you grow a fucking pair and learn to talk to me right. I'm going to be in your life for a little while longer JC, so get your act together and call me tomorrow. Goodbye!"

The line cut off, but JC still stood in the same position with his hand dropping to his side. Feeling  the room begin spin, he felt the phone fall from his grasp and his vision went black.

The guys, who had been listening intently to what JC was saying stood outside the door, but had unfortunately not been close enough to hear what Allison had initially texted JC to tell him.

The silence that now surrounded them was deafening. That is, until they heard a loud thud come from the inside.

Chris knocked on the door, opening it to a crack. "Jace?" he called out.

Collapsed, JC lay on the carpeted floor of the hotel room, unconscious.

"Jace!" Justin yelled out, pushing the door all the way open.

While Chris, Joey and Justin tried pulling JC back up to the bed, slapping his cheeks gently and yelling at him to wake up, Lance noticed the phone on the ground that was lighting up signaling an incoming call.

Picking it up, he read the name that lit up.

‘Liz'