I sit in the upper lounge with Sam and JC, watching them laying down and it dawns on me. His hands are always on her stomach, she is eating much better (she won’t even eat more than a candy bar every few days) and the smell of alcohol makes her queasy. Those things all mean one thing because they acted the same when she found out last time and I jump out of my seat on the couch, pointing at them, feeling like Sherlock Holmes. I must’ve gasped really loud, according to the expression on everyone’s faces and I planned on just pulling them aside to ask. I text them and they look at each other, trading phones. “Surprised I added it all up?” I ask them.
She texts me back, a determined look on her face. ‘Who smacked you with the Einstein branch?’
What a bitch! ‘So you are!’
‘I will neither confirm nor deny anything.’
She usually reverses ‘confirm’ and ‘deny’, the latter coming first. ‘I know it, you normally put deny first,’ I reply with, smirking evilly.
JC drops his head onto the bottom of her ribs; Sam face palming herself and her phone drops on her face which makes me laugh. “Fuck off, Splat!” she screams, pointing at me and her other hand is holding onto her nose.
“You love me and now I know your secret. I should tell Nick.”
“You do and I will ensure the rest of the tour is hell for you,” she promises.
“All of six months?” I scoff.
“I promise you’ll not wanna talk to me for a couple weeks and then by the time you get over being so mad, you might be able to be involved just in time,” she retorts as she stands, hands on her hips and Justin’s face when he’d been done explaining the meaning of ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ for the making of the video for it.
Justin looks at her and groans. “Stop doing my faces!” he jokes.
“Justin, I know what they’re not telling us,” I tell him.
“Save your breath; JC told me when we got drunk after her Christmas Special.”
I smirk, waving him over to me. He slings an arm over my shoulder and we turn away from them, Sam smacking JC with a pillow. “You told him?” she growls.
“If I did, I don’t remember,” he replies. “Ass muncher.”
The last two words were meant for Justin. “She’s pregnant,” I whisper.
“Yup, about two months and they might postpone the rest of the tour until after she has it.”
“Says who?!” I scream.
“Says JC, he doesn’t want her getting injured while pregnant.”
“Touring is always risking an injury.”
“Yeah, and you know he gets when she is.”
“But, we also know how she gets.”
“She is the ‘the show must go on’ type.”
“Yeah, which is why Kailey is trying to squeeze more dates in closer than they were originally.”
“To finish this tour faster to have more time at home before the baby comes.”
“I say we tell her to postpone till next year or the one after.”
Justin’s worried for her. “Why postpone what for that long?” my brother demands.
“Just some plans,” Justin covers, looking guilty as fuck.
Nick walks away, flicking his wrist at us. “I already know the big secret Sam and JC have going on, they suck at making sure there aren’t any eavesdroppers.”
We all look at them. “I wanted to make sure nobody could hear us and you said not to. Now you see why?” JC observes, motioning to Nick and Sam sits on the bed, her laughter rings loud in our ears.
“Alright, fine,” she agrees to whatever JC’s whispering in her ear, her hands in a ‘wait’ position. She eyes each one of us. “What do you think it is? Aaron, you don’t count.”
I flop back onto the couch and fold my arms as I fall backwards. “Hmmph!”
“Oh, you’re such a baby,” she snidely remarks, her face scrunched up in annoyance. “Justin?”
“You’re pregnant.”
“Nick.”
“Looks about two months.”
“How the hell?” she and Justin shout.
“You’ve been turning your nose up to quite a few things you usually enjoy-“
“*Cough,Mary,cough*,” Justin remarks.
“And alcohol has made you want to puke every single time you smell even the smallest bit of it.”
“So? Maybe I don’t wanna do that now.”
“Or maybe you are two months pregnant, considering you’ve been doing it since the week after you dyed your hair to pay tribute to Jessica Rabbit.”
She storms out of the room, returning with an armful of ball pit balls and whipping them at Nick and Justin. Now I’m glad she had told me I don’t get to say anything, none of them are being whipped at me and watch the three of them having an all out ball pit ball war. I pull out my iPhone 11C and begin recording. “So, Bre, why are you so mad at Justin and Nick?”
“They figured it out.”
“Figured what out?”
“That I’m pregnant.”
“How pregnant?”
In the video, you can clearly see her popping up from behind the loveseat she’d pulled from the wall and is using as a barricade to protect herself to whip balls at the other two involved, JC’s in the background shaking his head. He begins crawling under the crossfire, Sam hitting him with balls and he curls into the fetal position. “Big mouth!”
“Sorry! I was drunk and told him you’re two months along!”
“You do fucking remember!”
“Only according to what Justin said.” He’s covering his head and Nick hits her with a green one, smirking.
“Bull’s eye!”
“You gon get it!” she yells back at Nick, whipping a yellow one and hitting him between the eyes as he celebrates his victory. “Mad, bro?” she retorts, ducking behind the loveseat again.
“You just hit me in the face!”
“Now it’s on!” Justin growls, whipping about 5 balls at her back to back.
I lean to the side and notice she has ¾ of a pack of the ball pit balls beside her, making it 375 total. She has on a long empire style shirt that she uses as a dress or a long night shirt, she uses the bottom of it as a way to hold a bunch of the balls and begins whipping them at the opposing ‘team’ mercilessly. She’s grunting and I sit back up, catching JC crawling toward my place on the couch. “Are you seriously taping this?”
“Yup, it’s going on my Twitter later.”
“Wait till she announces it.”
“No way. Either that or Facebook.”
“Facebook, it gives you the option of who can view it.”
“It’d be on my private page.”
“That’s fine.”
She’s in costume, pacing as she practices her scales and shakes her hands as she does this. It’s routine for her, something to help her practice and she keeps hitting that high E over C like it’s second nature for her now. She’s singing random parts of songs, aware that other than her backup dancers she’s alone on that stage for two songs during different parts of the show. She’s going to perform ‘Kiss Me At Midnight’ at the end of it. She turns to head for the stage, getting her DC shoes on and zips up her fuzzy sweater. JC grabs her and steals a kiss from her, allowing her to suck on his bottom lip. “Wish me luck.”
“Knock ‘em dead.”
“You bet I will cuz I’m feeling like rocking it hardcore,” she announces happily.
He allows her to get onto the stage and gets through her first song, dancing her ass off and making the audience cheer and sing with her.
She and JC are up on the stage, announcing that there’s exactly 15 seconds before the ball drops. “I can’t wait to begin another year with a kiss from you,” he tells everyone.
“Same here,” she replies, smiling at him. They start counting down and everyone shouts ‘Happy New Year’, the two of them sharing a kiss before he leaves the stage to allow her to tear it up with ‘Kiss Me At Midnight’.
She raises the mic to her mouth and smiles at the audience. She was smiling because of the second ever reunion is about to happen. “I know that everyone went haywire when they reunited in 2013 and now, I’m making it happen yet again. But, I’m not sure they’re all here yet, so I’m going to start without them and I bet they’ll join me soon enough.”
The crowd cheers and she hands off the mic to a stage hand. She turns to face away from the crowd, taking position and the whole group walk onto stage with hoods up to cover their heads. She looks at them and they all smile, the crowd murmuring about the appearance. Quicker than I could imagine, they begin dancing to the song and they harmonize so well. Sam is the first to turn around, each of the guys turning as she counts down.
Kiss me at midnight
(5...)
Chris turns around, singing with her.
hey yeah...
(4...)
Joey turns to face everyone, his voice blending with theirs.
oh...
(3, 2, 1!)
Justin, Lance and JC all turn one right after the other, immediately joining the other three on the stage in singing and dancing.
Kiss me at midnight
Dance until the morning light
Party into the New Year
All of my friends are here
And when the timing's right
Kiss me at midnight
Kiss...
I've been waiting for the special night
To be with you
The colors of Christmas are still shining bright
And I know what we're gonna do
Anticipating, music is playing
The magic is in the air
All through the season
You've been the reason
I have so much love to share
Kiss me at midnight
Dance until the morning light
Party into the New Year
All of my friends are here
And when the timing's right
Kiss me at midnight
Kiss...
Kiss me at midnight
Kiss...
We've been making promises in the dark
Our resolutions
As a brand new year is about to start
And we're together.
Celebrating, no more waiting
Our time has arrived
The beat in my heart
As the countdown starts
Just look into my eyes
Kiss me at midnight
Dance until the morning light
Party into the New Year
All of my friends are here
And when the timing's right
Kiss me at midnight
Baby, it's New Year's Eve
Time we can believe
In making wishes
Dreams come true
Just for me and you
[break]
Kiss me at midnight
Dance until the morning light
Party into the New Year
All of my friends are here
And when the timing's right
Kiss me at midnight
Kiss me at midnight
Dance until the morning light
Party into the New Year
All of my friends are here
And when the timing's right
Kiss me at midnight
[to fade]
Kiss me at midnight
Dance until the morning light
Party into the New Year
All of my friends....
She and JC hold onto each other and share a passionately kiss, the live audience and those watching this on television. Yes, we kept this whole thing planned and covertly executed for nearly 9 months when Johnny and Wade had proposed it, sure this might be the last time that the five of them will ever perform together again because of the agreement they had signed without her knowledge. He had gone to a meeting while she was still asleep in LA, before the tour venues had been finalized and Usher had even been on board with the idea. He and JC had agreed this would not only help her, but it would help her skyrocket to the top once more and when Usher had told her in Boston, she was so excited to have one of her favorite groups reunite while on stage with her and perform on something bigger than the VMAs.
