I can’t believe it, JC almost hit her over something Justin said! She told me not to tell anyone and I haven’t, but I know she’s hurting emotionally and mentally. She’s asleep on my couch, having cried herself to the point of passing out. I take the last sip of my strawberry breeze juice and put the glass in the sink, standing in front of her. I sit on the edge of the small table, watching her sleep fitfully and feel my heart break for her and JC. He’s been so afraid to lose her since he’s had her, something he’s told me and I’m the only one who’s known. She’s been afraid of not only losing him, but the past repeating itself with him. It almost did tonight. Tyler called me, begging me to pick her up so she can get back on track and I did because they’re both my friends. I don’t want this relationship to go down the drain like every other one he’s had since Bobbie, Sam being the best he’s come across in a long time.
I stand up and pick her up, ascending the steps to put her into the guest room. I lay her on the bed and she whimpers in her sleep, her phone playing Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. I damn well know that it’s JC, so I answer it in the hall. "Hello?"
"Lance," he sighs, "is she up?"
"No, she cried herself to sleep about an hour ago and I just put her in my guest room." I walk down to the back hall down stairs.
"Oh. Have her call me in the morning."
"If she decides to is up to her."
"That’s fine," he dejectedly agrees. "Thanks."
I head back down the hall to my living room minutes after hanging up with JC and slipping her phone onto the desk in the back office, a knock calling my attention at that second. It’s more frantic and angry the second time. I approach the door and look through the peephole to see the last person any of us wanting to know there. I open the door. "Hey."
"She better be okay or you’ll have a death and disappearance to explain," he softly barks at me, looking over my shoulder. "Where is she?"
"Asleep and safe in one of my guest rooms," I inform him, motioning for him to come in out of the rain.
"What fucking happened, Lance?" he asks, his blue eyes on fire.
"Let’s go onto the back patio. Do you want a drink?" I ask, leading him to the kitchen.
"Uhhh, could I get some juice?" he grumbles.
"Sure, I’ll meet you on the patio," I agree, grabbing a glass while he heads out the back. I put my hands on the counter and drop my head, a sigh escaping my body. "How do you always get yourself in so much trouble, JC?" I mutter to myself, grabbing the juice container and filling the glass for Sam’s cousin.
I put the remaining juice away and grab his glass, heading out to talk to him. He’s leaning over the railing, looking out over the yard and I note that his head is down. He lifts his head upon hearing the French doors shut behind me. "Explain why AJ saw the beginning of a bruise when you ran into him at the store?"
He means the one on her right forearm, it’s in the shape of JC’s hand. "Justin said that when she was conducting the auditions for the guy she leaves in the video for Animal for JC, she was kissing Ryan Gosling and is cheating on JC. He drank quite a bit and the kind of liquor he’s not supposed to, he reeked of Captain, Goldschlaugger, and mint when I got there. He was about to cry as Tyler was tearing him a new one, knowing he fucked up and saying something about Christina giving him a week to fix it."
"So you’re telling me that Justin started it and Christina and Tyler are mad at him, both making him fix this?" he echoes back, changing some words.
"Yes. She was so scared that I got a call from Christina with Tyler three wayed in, telling me that Tyler should check on it and if I get a call from him that I’m to immediately get her, that she’d be here for at least the night."
"I know why Christina won’t tolerate it, but why not Tyler?"
"Roy and Karen raised them not to even raise a hand to a woman for any reason at all, even if she beats on them."
He nods and takes a sip of the red juice, absorbing the information. "She moved over 1500 miles down one coast from her mom and then across the damn country, excited every time she performs in Lowell, Boston, Worcester and Fitchburg because her mom shows up. She always has the Fitchburg one on a Saturday or Sunday, it ensures her mom and some other family members she cares for will be there. She gets the final head count the morning of for VIP and backstage passes."
"It’s the same way with us and she’s a serious momma’s girl," I admit.
"I know she is and it’s a rarity to come across one."
"Yeah. Can you give him a week before you do anything? Please, Nick?" I request.
"I guess, but you know Aaron won’t care and it won’t matter how he found out because it’s not from me."
