Chapter 13 – Siberia (Part Two)

Adeline could immediately see that Melissa was feeling nervous, the moment that she noticed Justin and JC in the room. When Joey and Chris finally arrived, she noticed it even more.

“You want to meet them?” she finally asked, watching her friend shift nervously as the rest of the guests settled in and started greeting each other. Most of their friends were acquainted with each other already because most of them had met each other at least once or twice; Melissa was the only one in the room who hadn't met the majority of these people, and being a fan of the group, she knew she had to be dying to get close to the boys.

“Oh, I don't know,” Melissa said, shaking her head slightly. Lance was one thing; being in the same room with three of the others was another – especially since they were already standing beside Chris, chatting away.

“Oh, come on,” Addy said, grabbing her arm. “You'll be fine. They're NSYNC now, but by the end of the night you'll know them well enough to realize that they're disgusting boys who burp and fart and make sex jokes like all the other pigs out there.”

Melissa found herself being forcefully dragged by the arm towards the corner of the room where the other men were, and within feet of them, Addy announced their arrival despite the conversation that was already taking place without them.

“Guys, I want you to meet Melissa, our neighbor,” she said, and all the boys' eyes fell on Melissa. “She's a huge fan.”

Melissa noticed that the first person her eyes fell on was Chris, who stood uncomfortably next to Joey.

“Hi Melissa,” JC said, holding his hand out to shake hers.

“Nice to meet you,” Justin said with a smile, grabbing her hand once JC let go.

“You know who they all are, of course,” Addy said. “And you've met Lance and Chris many times before.”

She glanced over at Chris once more, both of them looking away from each other quickly.

“Bella senorita,” Joey said, smiling when he grabbed Melissa's hand and bent down to give it a kiss.

“Oh for Heaven's sake, Joey,” Lance said. “Your wife is ten feet away.”

“I'm just saying hello and being friendly,” he said. He gave a friendly smile to Melissa. “It's nice to meet you.”

Melissa felt herself blush. “Nice to meet you too.”

“I'm going to get a drink,” Chris said, suddenly feeling more uncomfortable in the conversation. “I'll catch up with all of you later.”

“What the hell is his problem?” Justin asked when Chris walked away.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The party went smoothly for the first couple of hours, and Adeline started out feeling relaxed, putting her problems out of her mind for the night so she could convince everybody that nothing was wrong.

It was after all the guys had decided to raise their glasses and each make a toast to Adeline and Lance that everything started to go wrong. Joey's toast was wrought with uncomfortable sexual references that made everyone in the room laugh nervously; on the other hand, Chris's toast right after was quiet and tame, which cued to her that something was wrong right away.

Justin had already done a little too much celebrating and was way past tipsy and well on his way to drunk by the time he yanked the mic out of JC's hand right before he was about to give his toast. He was starting to slur his words and as she thought his nonsensical toast was about to wind down, that was when he started the music.

By the time she walked away to find a place at the appetizer table, he was singing karaoke to his own “Sexyback” and making up his own choreography as he went along, while Joey followed along with him and Lance and JC stood back laughing uncontrollably, slightly drunk themselves.

“They're beyond wasted,” Stephanie said as she walked up to Adeline at the table, standing next to her. “Why aren't you recording this to use for blackmail? Or at least to post it on YouTube.”

“I guess at least they're having fun,” Addy said, trying to nibble on appetizers to settle her stomach.

“Has it ever occurred to you that every party you two throw, someone gets so drunk that they could legally be declared 100-proof?”

“I'm going to stop serving alcohol at our parties,” Addy said.

“But then we wouldn't have any good stories to tell at Thanksgiving,” Stephanie said with a whine.

Addy chuckled. “At least JC is distracted – for now.”

“What do you mean?”

“For two whole hours, he's been attached to my hip,” Addy said. “Wherever I am, he's sure to pop up within minutes. He's followed me to every single room I've gone into, butted into every conversation I've tried to have – it's starting to creep me out.”

“He's drunk,” Stephanie responded. “He's a fool, but I'm sure it's harmless.”

“I don't know. Just gives me a weird feeling.”

Stephanie paused. “You don't think he could be the...do you?”

“He's the only one following me around like a lost puppy,” Addy responded.

“Yeah, but...JC?” Stephanie looked over at JC, who was still laughing at the spectacle that Justin was making of himself. During the time she'd worked for Lance she had only met him once or twice, but he had always been friendly and gentlemanly. “JC is like, the last person I'd expect to be a stalker. Or a killer.”

Stephanie was surprised when Adeline grabbed her by the arm, pulling her through the living room and down the hall the whole way, before they ended up in the bedroom, Adeline closing the door behind her.

“Addy, are you high?” Stephanie shrieked.

“I have something that I have to tell you,” Adeline said. “And when I tell you, you can't tell anyone – not Joey, not JC, not Joanna...especially not Lance. Do you understand?”

“Addy, what the hell is going on with you?”

“I went to the doctor today, Steph.”

“Yeah,” Stephanie said, nodding. “And? What, Addy?”

“Stephanie, I'm--”

As she was about to say the word that had been caught in her throat all night, she heard a knock on the door frame and looked over to see JC peeking in the room, smiling at them.

“What's up, ladies?” he asked.

“JC,” Adeline said. “What a surprise. Have you met Stephanie? She was telling me what a huge Girl Radical fan she is. Why don't you two talk about it? I have to go check on the hors d'oeuvres table.”

Adeline walked out of the room, leaving a stunned Stephanie behind her, and gently pushed JC into the room. She was almost away before she was stopped by Stephanie's hand on her arm.

“What are you doing?” she whispered harshly.

“You have to distract him, keep him away from me the rest of the night.”

“JC?” she asked, turning her head. “You're going to leave me alone with a possible stalker and murderer? What if he's the killer?”

“Then it sounds like you've got a big problem,” Adeline said before she opened the door and pushed an unsuspecting Stephanie through it, closing it quickly before she walked off down the hall.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Need any help with that?”

Melissa averted her eyes from the table and looked up to see Chris standing next to her.

“Haven't you helped enough this week?” she asked harshly.

“I deserved that,” he said. “Will you at least let me apologize?”

“Chris,” she said with a sigh, her tone surprisingly soft. “You can apologize all you want. I'm not looking for an apology from you. In fact, I'm not looking for anything from you – not anymore.”

“Mel, listen to me,” he said.

“No, Chris,” she interrupted. “It's okay. I get the message. You're not interested in me. That's fine. Our date went bad, and the other night...you're right. It's best if we don't make things worse by having sex when we know we're not interested in each other.”

“Mel, that's not--”

“Wait, you two had sex?”

Lance and Justin had walked up behind Mel as Chris started protesting. Lance leaned on the edge of the table and smirked at Mel.

“No, we didn't have sex,” she said to him.

“But something happened,” Justin said, popping appetizers in his mouth.

“Guys, this is kind of an A and B conversation here,” Chris said.

“We seeeeee that,” Justin slurred, giggling at his own joke.

“Can we talk in private?” Chris asked, looking at Mel.

“No, Chris,” she said. “There's nothing more to talk about. What happened, happened. We stopped it, thank goodness, before we made a huge mistake.”

As she started to walk away, he reached his hand out to grab her arm.

“Wait--”

“Let go of me, Chris,” she said, pulling her arm.

He lightly struggled with her for a few seconds before she ripped her arm away from his grip. He was taken by surprise when she turned to him with a scowl on her face and suddenly, he felt the ice cold drink in her hand thrown on his face.

He was sputtering and trying to recover from shock as she walked away from them angrily. Lance and Justin broke into smiles and couldn't stop themselves from sounding out a chorus of taunts, looking between her walking away and Chris standing in surprise.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Lance said, laughing.

“Nothing,” Chris said, trying to wipe the burning alcohol from his eyes. “Things got a little crazy last night. We almost had sex. I was trying to be the good guy; trying to make her feel like she wasn't a one-night-stand.”

“So,” Lance said, still chuckling. “Let me get this straight. You have this woman – who previously hated you with the fire of ten thousand burning suns – in a position to have sex with you, and you turn her down to make her feel good?”

“Didja flunk sex ed, buddy?” Justin slurred, throwing his arm over Chris's shoulder.

“Let's go get you cleaned up, and Justin and I will explain – very slowly – the concept of foreplay,” Lance said, hooking his arm through Chris's and leading him to the bathroom.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adeline stood in the middle of the room and breathed a sigh. For the last hour, she had been running between guests to make herself somewhat present at her own party, all the while trying to avoid JC and making sure Stephanie was doing her job keeping him occupied and away from her. Most recently, she'd had to keep an extremely drunk Justin from arguing with the other guys and find Chris a new shirt that wasn't soaked in alcohol.

She was taken by surprise when Melissa walked up next to her.

“Here you go, sweetie,” she said, handing her a glass full of an orange, fizzy liquid.

“Oh, I'll go grab some water,” Adeline said, shaking her head. “I'm not in the mood for a lot of liquor tonight.”

“It's non-alcoholic,” Melissa said. “It's some ginger ale with grenadine and a cherry – a Shirley Temple. Not a drop of alcohol in it; try it.”

Adeline sighed and took a drink. The drink was cool and refreshing, the ginger ale fizzy and the grenadine adding enough fruit flavor.

“Oh man,” Adeline said, savoring the taste.

“Good, right?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Adeline mumbled, taking another drink.

After Adeline had satisfied her thirst, Melissa leaned in to her. “How far along are you?” she whispered.

Adeline's eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“You've been sick to your stomach for weeks and exhausted. You went to the doctor today and coincidentally, you've been turning down alcohol all night. The way this party is going, you'd be running straight for the hooch if there wasn't one good reason that you couldn't.”

“How the hell do you do that?” Adeline asked. “Nobody knows but me.”

“I'm a woman,” Melissa said with a shrug.

“Stephanie's a woman,” Adeline said. “She doesn't suspect anything yet.”

“That's because Stephanie's been too busy hogtying JC,” Melissa responded with a smile. “Stephanie hasn't had time to breathe, let alone figure you out.”

“Mel, this is the party from hell,” Adeline said. She started walking toward the kitchen, and Melissa followed a few steps after her. “All the boys are drunk or half-drunk – including Lance. Stephanie is too busy playing bodyguard to have any fun. Everybody's acting funny, and I don't know whether it's the alcohol or my imagination. And these shoes...”

“They're killing you,” Melissa said with a nod. “Honey, sit down for a minute, take a load off.”

Adeline sat down in the kitchen chair, while Melissa sat down next to her. Adeline slipped off her black high heels, and Melissa grabbed her feet, putting them in her own lap.

“How long have you known?” she asked, rubbing hard circles into her friends feet.

“I found out this afternoon,” Adeline responded.

“Is there a reason you haven't told Lance yet?”

“Because I've made such a mess of things.”

“What have you made a mess of?”

“I've lied to him from the beginning,” Adeline said. “He thinks we'll never be able to have children.”

“Isn't that what you thought?”

“No, Mel – he thinks I can't get pregnant. I never told him the truth – I didn't want to get pregnant.”

Melissa stopped rubbing.

“But I...” She stopped periodically, obviously stunned. “I thought that...the doctors told you you'd never be able to have children?”

“They said I may never be able to carry a child,” Adeline said. “A living, breathing child.”

“Oh my God,” Melissa said as her hands reached to cover her mouth.

“I never told him the truth because if he knew...” She stopped to sigh. “He doesn't know what it feels like. He doesn't know the pain of losing a child. He loves April as much as he can; he feels it as much as he can – but it will never be the same for him. He doesn't know how much it hurts, so for him, it's still worth trying.”

“And he wants to try?”

“He's wanted to try since Los Angeles.”

“Oh, Addy...”

Both women went silent for a moment.

“How are you going to tell him?” Melissa finally asked.

That was the question she had been contemplating all night, between trying to fix party disasters and mingling with their beloved friends. She had tried to gather the courage to tell him several times during the party, when he would join her before moving onto a new guest or crowd. Every time she tried, the same thing happened – the word caught in her throat and she couldn't bring herself to say it.

She couldn't tell him, and she couldn't hide it – she had only one choice that she saw.

“Easy,” Adeline responded. “I'm not.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She didn't get a chance to start packing her bag until the last guest left the apartment. She didn't bother waiting until it looked like JC and Justin were getting ready to grab a cab; they were so drunk that she figured those two would get halfway to the door and pass out anyway. It became so quiet in the apartment that she assumed Lance had passed out on the couch as well, when a half-drunk yell made its way through the apartment.

“Addy!”

She ignored it at first, but after throwing a few more clothes into her suitcase, she knew she couldn't avoid going into the living room for long.

“Addy!”

She walked into the room mid-yell, to find Justin passed out face-down on the couch and JC squeezed in next to him, his head leaned onto the arm rest. Lance was the only one awake, relaxed into the chair with an arm thrown over his head and a leg out, his tie loosened and the top buttons of his white shirt undone.

“There you are,” he drawled as he saw her walk into the room.

“Lance, you're drunk,” she said flatly.

“Maybe a little,” he said with a smile. “Come here.”

As she had grabbed what she needed and was about to walk back to the bedroom, he stretched to grab her arm as she walked behind him.

In a single move, he stood up from the chair and wrapping one hand around the back of her neck and the other over her hip barely touching her butt, he had her gently pinned up against the wall.

“Everybody's finally gone,” he said.

She started talking, but it only came out as a mumble when he put his lips on hers.

“Jace and Justin,” she managed when he released her.

“Sleeping like babies,” he said. “They won't hear a thing.”

Despite her better judgment that told her it probably wasn't right, she let him lead her to the bedroom, managing to undo two more buttons on his shirt on the way. He kicked the door closed before leading her all the way over to the bed, where she fell on her back with him on top of her.

She was working another button on his shirt when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the suitcase, open and nearly full, that they had laid down next to on the bed.

“Addy,” he said between her placing kisses on the corner of his mouth, “what's this suitcase doing here?”

She opened her eyes to look up at him, and he saw the mood in her eyes change. She used her hand on his chest to gently push him off, using a finger to wipe some of her smeared lipstick off his face.

“Lance, we need to talk.”

He lifted himself to a standing position, looking at her with worry.

“I'm moving back to my old apartment,” she said.

“You're what?” he exclaimed.

“For a little while,” she said. “Not permanently. I need some time to think about things before we get married. I need to clear my head.”

As she feared, she felt tears starting to come.

“It would be a good time for you to think about things, too,” she said. “We need to get our heads together before we can think about getting married. We owe it to ourselves to have some space.”

“I don't need space,” he said. “This is my space. You're my space.”

“I need space,” she said, standing up and moving over to the side of the bed, throwing the last of her things into her suitcase and zipping it.

“Wh—where is this coming from Adeline?” he stuttered, his voice raised an octave. “Two hours ago you were fine. Ten seconds ago you were all over me – now you're leaving me?”

“I'm not leaving you, Lance,” she said. She lifted the suitcase to a standing position on the floor. “I'm not breaking up with you, I still want to get married, I...you have to understand that I'm telling you I need to think about some things. A few weeks, that's it.”

“Weeks?”

As she grabbed the handle of the suitcase and was preparing to walk out of the room, he stopped her by grabbing her arm.

“Why?” he asked as he pulled her to him, begging her with his eyes. “Why are you doing this to me? What happened? We were happy, weren't we?”

It was then that he saw the tears in her eyes, that finally started to crawl down her cheeks.

“It's not you,” she whispered.

“I love you, Addy,” he said.

“And I still love you,” she said. “But I need time away from you.”

He released the grip from her arm, which allowed her to slip away from him. As she grabbed the suitcase and made the slow walk through the bedroom and hallway to the front door, he followed her, trying to make sense of the whole situation.

She stopped short of the door and set her suitcase back down to the floor, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him close to her.

“If you want to talk about it, you can call,” she whispered, softly kissing him on the lips even though he didn't reciprocate. “I love you, and I'm sorry.”

When he didn't respond to her, she pulled away and opened the door, giving him a final look before she walked out of his life – yet again.