I can't believe he had the audacity to wake me that early! I rolled back over until just now, close to 2 hours later. We have until 11 to get up and head for the arena to rehearse. Fatima is giving us a break because of how well we did last night. Nick comes in my room and I don't move because of how comfy this bed is, I also know he's going to cuddle me like he does every morning. "Morning, beautiful."
"Morning. Who were you just talking to?"
"Your brother," he says, kissing the back of my neck.
"Which one? The actual one, the almost one, the adopted one or the literal one, you have to be a bit more specific."
"JC. He pretty much figured us out."
"You denied it, right?" I ask, turning to face him.
"Yes, baby." He kisses my lips.
Nothing has felt so right, but so wrong at the same exact moment. Neither of us care that he's involved, we enjoy our time and hide it well.
May 11, 1999
"Nick, you should have told me sooner!" I growl at him as we stand in the hallway of our floor at one of New York's high end hotels.
"I just get so wrapped up in and with you that I forget she exists," he whispers, pulling me close. "Come with me and Brian."
"No, Caylei is here for you," I say, jabbing his chest with a finger & fighting my emotions.
"She doesn't know."
"She will figure it out, she's smart," I remind him, twisting away from his body and folding my arms over my body.
"Come on, please?" he almost begs.
"No! I'm going with Howie and AJ and it's final." I had to kind of snap at him, my voice proving I've made up my mind.
AJ tickles my side as he walks by and I loop my arm in his, walking away from Nick as she leaves the room. "Still love spider boy?" AJ questions, teasingly referring to Nick as spider boy, the braids do kind of look like a spider or two on his head.
"More than you know," I confess, resting my head on his bicep. We walk in silence to the van and climb in, I make sure to stay near AJ and Howie. I hear this song come on and I fall in love with its sound, 'I Caught Myself'. I figure it out from the chorus, but never find out who they are or what the artist's name is. I guess I'll just have to find out who the band is when and if free time exists.
~~~~~
"So, you've been doin him knowing?" AJ whispers to me.
"Yes. It feels right and wrong at the same time."
"I knew you two would be inseparable when you were introed to us four."
"He has my heart and it hurts so bad."
I see a work van for Disney pull up and I point at it. "Guys," I softly say. My cell rings and I answer it. "Hello?"
"Oshannie. Where are you?"
Shit, just who I didn't need to talk to. "Shopping with Howie and AJ." I give him the corner and he says he'll wait outside for us to leave the store after Disney gets out of our hair.
AJ picks the conversation up where we left it and just continue to whisper amongst ourselves as they set up as well as between shots. I see a leopard print cowboy hat and place it on my head, posing goofily. "Whatcha think?" I try and fail at a sexy pose, Howie laughing at my expense. "Fuck off," I tell him.
"I think it's cute. Sure, I'll get it for you." He smiles at me, immediately getting a smile back. "So, you'd go back to him?"
"Yes, he's my first for alot of things."
"We have the shop keeper's okay to film here," one of the guys from the Disney crew informs us, AJ snatching the hat off my head and grins before getting into the shot.
I stay behind the camera and silent every time they turn the fucking device on. "We're all set, Lynni," AJ tells me, bringing me back to reality. "We'll shoot us leaving this shop and then we can relax," he tells me.
I nod and they film it, packing up after. "You're not fine," I hear an all too well known voice whisper in my ear from behind me, calling my bluff.
I spin around to come face to face with my brother, fling my arms around him, making sure he has minimal time to look at my face. "Oshai!" I greet him, false happiness on my face and in my voice. "We need to talk."
"We will. Probably backstage."
"How many days off do you have?"
"A couple and don't stress it."
"I have a feeling something's about to happen and it's making me wish I were in Florida."
"Girl, you worry more than me. You're starting to get a wrinkle here," he says, placing his finger between my eyebrows.
I reach up and knock his baseball cap lower, covering his face. "Whatever. What's up with you?" I casually start our never ending conversation.
"Just started our 'No Strings' tour, had a few days and I thought I'd fly up here to surprise you."
"Real reason-make sure I'm not doing anything stupid or getting into anything that might get me in trouble of any kind."
"No, Lance said to make sure of those things," he says, a playful smirk on his face.
I jab him in the side with my elbow, trying to get him to take a step or two away from me. "Uh-huh, right, Joshie," I reply, knowing it annoys him when I call him that.
"Keep it up, Lynni. I got your number."
"Yeah, I know you do. You text and call far too much sometimes."
He laughs at my observation, throwing his arm around my shoulders. "You know what I mean!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't scare me. Piss me off, sure, but you aren't as scary as you believe yourself to be."
"Sure I am, Justin fears me."
"If that's what you think," I say, rolling my eyes and sighing.
~~~~~
I look into his blue eyes as we hide between two wardrobe crates, his arms blocking my path and he kisses me, making us both smirk. We know Caylei and JC won't find us, this is the last place they'd think of looking. A finger taps his shoulder and he wheels around to cover his heart with his hand, sighing with relief. "I thought you were someone else! Shit, AJ, warn a guy next time!"
"It's me or Caylei that would have found you, JC is a mean fucker if he found you two," he says, pointing to the door on the other side of one of the crates.
"How close are they?" he asks, sounding worried.
"A few feet down the hall, which why I'm not screaming at your dumb ass." I see AJ turn on me. "You need to smarten up too, shortie."
"Mmm-hmm," I answer, nodding before dropping my head to play with the hem of my shirt.
"Move quick."
I dart out from the corner and throw a shirt at Nick, smiling after. "You punk!" he shouts, tossing it back at me.
It lands on my head and I yank it off, yelling, "Hey!" I twist it, holding both ends and snap it as I near him, twisting it just to snap it repeatedly.
"Whoa! Hey! Not fair!"
"What are you doing to him?" a female voice asks, entering the room.
I look around Nick's toned body and see Caylei. "She was snapping me with the shirt," he defends, trying his best not to laugh.
Seeing him fail at it and hearing him crack up, welcomed me in joining him. "I tossed him a shirt he's supposed to get on and snapped it at him after he threw it back, Caylei."
She makes a face that states how much she believes. "There's a few minutes before you have to be on stage," she informs him.
"Ok, be out in a minute," he tells her, watching her walk away. "I'm sorry we have to hide it."
"We gotta do, what we gotta."
"Sorry." He gives me a quick kiss, rests his head on mine and looks in my eyes. I nod and he steps back. "See you for 'All I Have To Give' & 'Everybody'," he reminds me, winking.
I tried so hard to avoid Caylei all day that day, succeeding most of the time.
Back to today...
I straddle his lap and lean over to kiss him. I feel his arms snake around me and he scoots back so he's able to sit against the headboard, pulling me with him. I smirk at the motion, holding onto his shoulders. "How long have we been doing this?" he asks.
"What do mean?"
"Sam, you know what I mean," he reminds me, placing kisses on my neck. "This," he whispers.
"Um, since the VMAs last year," I think out loud.
"On and off for how long?"
"Almost a year, something like ten months."
"Really?"
"We both started with other people dating us and you're single," he says, grinning.
"Why does it matter?" I ask, beginning to get offended.
"I was just curious about how long we've been at this."
"Someone will catch on and expose us."
"I can deny it if Caylei thinks it may be true."
"I don't have anyone to answer to."
"You're the smarter one."
"Aha! I knew it!" I tease.
He holds my hips flush with him and presses himself against me, eliciting playful giggles to erupt from my throat. "Keep it up, girl."
I lean toward his ear. "I can and you know it," I whisper.
He gently bites the side of my neck, smiling. "Really though, has it been that long?"
When Nick is being serious, he can get agitating sometimes. I reach over to the nightstand and grab a single subject notebook out of its drawer, opening it in a way where he can't see what I've written. "Yes, it has," I respond after pretending to look at it.
"How many times have we done this? Sneaking off, I mean."
I falsely count the dates listed in front of me. "Thirty-nine, at the least," I tease.
He knocks me over onto my back, pinning me under him using his body weight and one hand cupped over one of my shoulders before snatching the notebook from me. "These are our tour dates," he announces, recognizing the dates and places within a few moments.
I break out in a roaring laughter, finding his surprise amusing. "I do have them written down in another notebook, though. Details, but none that would give away the fact that it's you."
"Can I see it?"
"Sh-," I start, realizing a fatal mistake I had made this morning. "Fuck! Oshai has it!"
"Can he read and understand all of it?"
"Not without Justin and James' help, it's encoded from the VMAs until last night," I remember how well coded it is.
"How much coding is there?"
"Some is Gaelic, some is op-top and some is both. A few are in plain English," I confess.
"How much is there to read?"
I poke the notebook he's holding. "Two or three of these."
He grinds against me and I giggle, blushing. "Even after all this time, you still blush?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at the idea.
I shrug, wrapping my legs around him and pull up toward him. "I think it's a modesty thing."
"You instigated it today."
"You did last night and yesterday morning."
He chuckles and kisses my lips, a knock surprising us enough to jump apart. We look at each other and smile. "What?!" he says, responding to the knock.
"It's almost ten, we've got to go!" Brian announces from the other side of the door. I hear him try the handle.
"Give them 15 minutes and they'll be out, man," AJ cooly defends us. "We don't really have to leave here until 11, B-Rok."
"I want to get there early and rehearse on our own before she gets there," he says, justifying his hurried pace this morning.
We both hurry up and change into our rehearsal clothes, knowing we'll have our costumes there and that we have to get on the bus for our next destination. "Love you," I whisper.
"Love you more," he says, replying to what I had said.
"Ready, Ickers?" I question, smiling.
"Yeah, let's get going before Brian gets antsy and Mr. Schedule gets upset."
We exit my room and I notice three eyebrows go up in curiousness, one of them unaffected by the two of us coming out of the same room. Take a guess as to who couldn't give a shit less about it, you probably wouldn't need more than one. I'll give you three. "What?" I say, feeling three sets of eyes from them on me. "We were planning what to do tonight on the bus."
AJ mouths 'screw' and I slap his arm as I loop my left one in Nick's other arm. "All set to go now?" Howie asks.
"Think so," Nick taunts him.
"Let's get then," Kevin says, shaking his head.
We head to the arena via bus, the other 4 members of the group not saying anything to me and Nick, but they watch us whisper back and forth and our reactions to what the other said. A few times his jaw had dropped and the last time AJ decided to be a smart ass. "Catching bugs now, Nick?"
He flips AJ off and I snigger about it. The conversation between the two of us will stay that way forever. "Leave them alone they're not hurting anyone whispering back and forth between each other," Kevin calls from the front, correcting AJ.
"That you know of," he mutters from the other side of the lounge.
"Shut up, Alexander," I growl, sure my blue eyes have flames flickering in them.
"Chill out, lawn gnome."
"Shut up then, Skunk."
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" he snaps, glaring at me.
I have a smug look on my face and have the balls to challenge him. "Bring it, Sk-"
"Call me that one more time, I swear it won't be pretty," he warns.
"unk."
His eye begins to twitch and he yanks me to the floor, pinning me under his body as he straddles my waist. He grabs his bottled water from beside us and dumps the entire bottle on my face, concentrated on my top lip. "Get off her!" Nick yells, shoving him backward by the shoulders.
I'm coughing up water and AJ's laughing his ass off. I finally get the last of it out of my throat as Brian comes into the lounge and sees the huge wet spot of water and my saliva on the rug. "What happened?"
I catch my breath just enough to explain. "I called him 'Skunk' and he pinned me down. He dumped the bottle of water on my face and I choked on it, there's your proof I spit it out," I say, motioning to the wet spot.
"C'mon, man! You're worse than Nick!"
"I hated that role!"
"So you take it out on her when she jokes with you? She does it just to get under your skin!" he points out, loud enough for Kevin to come see what the commotion is all about.
"Nick and AJ beating on each other again?" he asks, boredom evident in his voice.
"No," Brian replies, glaring at AJ and I, "AJ's terrorizing Jazz for calling him 'Skunk'," he informs Kevin as he appears beside him in the doorway.
"Sam, first off, stop instigating. Second, you should expect things like that to happen when you rile him or anyone up. AJ, you know she does it just to upset you and you have to learn to bypass that sort of thing." He put his hands on his hips, looking back and forth at the two of us. "What started it?"
"I dunno," I answer, hiding vital info from them.
"Her calling me 'Skunk'," AJ says, sticking to his story.
"Grow up and leave each other alone," Kevin commands us.
I nod and AJ huffs his disagreement, Howie announcing our arrival to the arena.
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