~~~~~*~~~~~

"Movie night!" Lisa shouted loudly from her room in the hopes that the others would hear and she wouldn't have to leave her comfortable spot on the bed to go to round them all up.

As the group had reserved the entire hotel floor for security reasons, they’d all agreed to leave their doors open so that they could come and go into each other’s rooms as they pleased. It meant organising a movie night was much easier than having to play Chinese whispers between rooms.

"What's the movie?" Libby shouted back from the room she was sharing with Clare. She wanted to hear the movie choice before she decided whether to join Lisa or stay in her room. Late in the evening was one of the worst times for her—headache wise—and she wasn’t sure whether or not she should just call it quits on today and have an early night.

Clare, who was sitting cross–legged on her bed typing away at her laptop computer, seemed so absorbed in her work that she hadn’t reacted to Lisa’s suggestion at all. Now that she’d resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t be able to book a flight home any time soon—not without finding several hundred dollars first—she’d decided to bite the bullet and contact her prospective new employers to apologise for her absence and try to reschedule her interviews. 

Clare wasn’t expecting any of them to be understanding or willing to agree to her request, but she felt that she had to do the right thing and at least try. The only peace of mind she had was knowing that while she was on tour her food and accommodation would all be paid for, and that she was six months ahead in her rental payments for her apartment back home. As long as she found herself a job within a few weeks of returning from tour her and Libby should be okay.

Chris and Joey may have felt that they’d won her over, but they’d only won the battle and not the war. Although it had unsettled her to discover that they had an accomplice in Lisa. Since their discussion that morning Lisa’s words had been running through her mind constantly, and although she hated to admit it she could feel her resolve weakening.

Maybe if she listened to whatever it was that JC had to say then they’d all get off her back. She doubted that it would change anything—as JC had seemed so convinced that it would—but at least it would mean she wouldn’t be the bad guy anymore.

"’She's All That’, or ‘Armageddon’?" Lisa shouted back loudly, and Libby turned to Clare to gauge her reaction to the question. Clare’s head didn’t lift from the laptop screen.

“Clare?” Libby said after a moment of waiting for Clare to acknowledge her.

"Hmm?" Clare replied distractedly as her fingers flew nimbly over the keyboard keys.

"The movie,” Libby explained. “Are you coming?"

Clare let the question hang in the air as she finished typing the last few words of her email. She just had to finish the last sentence and then she could press send.

"Clare!" Libby snapped at her, reaching across to pull on her Clare’s arm to drag her away from the computer. "Come on, we're having a movie night next door."

"Just one sec…" Clare said as she slipped her arm out of Libby's grasp and resumed her typing at a million miles an hour. Libby watched for a moment and then let out a frustrated huff.

“Fine,” she said as she turned on her heels and headed out of the room to join Sara and Lisa next door. “Just don’t forget that no one loves a workaholic!” she called over her shoulder.

Having overheard her, Chris chuckled from where he sat on the floor, his arms wrapped tightly around Jamie as she sat between his legs. “I do!” he said loudly causing Jamie to glance over her shoulder to scowl at him. Chris immediately burst out laughing at the sour expression on her face. "What? What did I say?"

Justin appeared in the doorway not long after and leaned casually against the doorframe as his group of friends made themselves comfortable in various locations around the room. “What’s the movie?” he asked through a stifled yawn.

He and JC were still in the middle of their incomplete game of NFL Extreme, and Justin wasn’t sure whether he’d rather watch a movie or continue playing. After all this was the last free night he had to beat JC before the group’s opening night of the tour. Although the men had been enjoying hanging out with their friends and girlfriends, they were excited to get back to doing what they loved best—performing.

"Armageddon, I think," Jamie replied as she glanced between her friend's faces to gauge their reactions. There was a general reply of agreement, and so Lisa removed the VHS cassette from its case and inserted it into the slot on the TV.

"Armageddon?" Justin groaned dramatically as he made his way over to where Libby was sprawled across Sara's bed. Everyone else was seated on the floor around the television, most of them leaning their backs against the bedframes for support—especially Chris, who was already complaining about how uncomfortable he was.

When Libby saw Justin approach she shuffled over to make space for him on the bed beside her and grinned.

"Armageddon's so boring," Justin complained as he lay back against Sara's pillows and pulled Libby over to him with one arm so that she was lying at his side, her head resting against his chest.

"It's not boring," Libby corrected him with a frown. "It's romantic." She reached up and planted a kiss on his brow.

Both Joey and Justin gave out snorts of amusement, to which Joey received a pointed look from Lisa which silenced him straight away.

"What's so romantic about the earth being struck by an asteroid?" Justin asked as the opening credits began to roll.

"What’s so romantic about a runaway bus?" Libby said with a smirk. She hadn't forgotten their movie night several months back when they'd watched his favourite film, Speed, and she knew that he hadn't either. Justin gave her a cocky grin before pulling her tighter to his chest.

"It’s not supposed to be romantic,” he said. “It’s an action movie, but the leading lady happens to be hot.”

"So is Liv Tyler," Chris said, having overheard their conversation. He glanced over his shoulder at Justin, his brown furrowing in thought. He could’ve sworn they’d seen Armageddon together one time at the cinema. “You've seen her in this, 'avent you?"

Justin dismissed him with a shrug of his shoulders before turning back to Libby, who had suddenly gone quiet. She was pretending not to be jealous but failing miserably. Seeing the look on her face, Justin grinned and leaned in close, tickling her cheek with his nose.

"Somethin' wrong?" he asked in a whisper as the movie began to play. He was trying his best not to laugh at the pouty expression on her face, but it wasn’t easy. Libby was trying so hard not to act jealous that it was hilarious. He knew her a lot better than she gave him credit for.  

"No," Libby replied shortly, keeping her eyes on the screen and avoiding looking at him at all costs. The minute she caught his eye she knew that she was going to laugh, and she really didn’t want to do that.

"Oh, you just looked pissed off, that's all," Justin chuckled.

“No.” Libby accidentally caught sight of his smirk in her peripheral vision and found herself unable to fight the grin that started at the corner of her lips and quickly spread across her whole mouth. Seeing her smile, Justin burst out laughing and was promptly shushed by everyone else in the room.

“Ah, it’s okay, Baldie,” he said in a whisper as Libby turned to meet his eyes, shaking her head at the way he was finding her jealously so amusing. “You’re pretty hot too.”

At the mention of the word ‘Baldie’ Libby let out a gasp of indignation and reached out to punch him hard on the shoulder. Justin quickly raised his free arm in defence, trying to block the inevitable second blow as he burst out into noisy laughter at Libby’s expense.

“Shhh!” Lisa hissed at him.

"Too soon?" Justin asked through snorts of laughter as he trapped Libby’s balled up fist in his palm.

"Way too soon!" Libby said, before settling back down and placing her head back on his chest. She didn’t have the energy to punish him any further, but next time he used the term ‘Baldie’ she’d let him have it.

For forty minutes there was relative silence in the room as the group settled down to watch the movie. Not too long after, Clare appeared in the doorway. She’d finished her emails and had decided to join the group for the remainder of the evening—even though she’d missed out on a large part of the movie.

Lance had switched off the overhead lights in the room and so it took a few minutes for Clare’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. She quickly spotted a free space on Lisa's bed where she could watch the film without blocking anyone's view. Carefully making her way over to the bed, Clare kept her eyes fixed on the floor so that she didn't step on anyone's outstretched hands or trip over any legs.

As she reached her destination, Clare slipped off her trainers and climbed onto the bed at exactly the same moment that JC had had the idea to do the same.

He’d been eyeing the spot for a while as he'd been struggling to get comfortable on the carpeted floor, and had decided to cut his losses and find somewhere softer to continue watching the movie from. Sara's bed had seemed the perfect place.

"Get off!" Clare shouted as he accidentally placed his hand on her knee as he tried to right himself. Clare glowered as her cheeks flushed an angry red.

"Shhh!" Chris hissed sharply as he glanced over his shoulder at the pair. He smirked when he realised what had happened. No doubt it had been an accident, but he couldn’t help but smirk at the expressions on JC and Clare’s faces. No matter how much they tried to avoid each other, fate kept throwing them together.

"I’m sorry!" JC said bashfully as he quickly removed his hand from Clare’s knee and climbed to a seated position. A snigger made its way out of his mouth, and before long he was grinning at Clare, hoping that she, too, would see the funny side.

She didn’t.

JC’s face hardened and he frowned. “Don’t look at me like that,” he snapped. “It was an accident.” He was fed up with the snooty, sneering scowl on her face and wondered where his happy, easy–go–lucky friend had gone. Was she still in there somewhere? Behind the scowls and the pouts and all the eye–rolling?

“Yeah, right!” Clare said, the sarcasm dripping off her tongue. She didn’t believe him in the slightest. "Are you going to move?" She looked pointedly at the space on the carpet beside Chris and Jamie, hoping that would be enough of a hint to get him to move.

Instead JC began to make himself comfortable on the bed, ignoring the scowling expression on her face. No, he wasn’t going to move. He had just as much right to be there as Clare, and since she hadn’t been behaving like a lady, he wasn’t going to treat her like one. Equal rights, and all that.

“No, I’m not,” he said simply as he laid on his stomach, supporting his head in his hands, his elbows pressing into the bedcover. Once he was still he realised that he’d actually chosen one of the most uncomfortable positions to be in, but he was not going to move now. He glanced over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised in a question as he waited to see how she would respond.

Clare narrowed her eyes and considered her next move.

Part of her wanted to use brute force and push him off the end of the bed—hopefully breaking a few bones in the process—but she knew that was immature, not to mention improbable. At the same time, the thought of being so close to him had its appeal too. But no, she wasn’t going to think about that. She couldn’t think about that…

As much as she needed to—wanted to—hate him with all of her strength, Clare realised that being around him again had weakened her resolve. She’d found herself listening out for his voice in a crowd, paying particular attention when he spoke or laughed. Her eyes seemed to instinctively look for him in a room, and much to her disgust her stomach once again somersaulted when he looked into her eyes.

It made her angry that her body was being such a traitor to her emotions—not to mention her hormones—and she wished that she could magic away her feelings; for no other reason than to save herself the pain that she would inevitably feel if she allowed her heart to rule her head once again.

He was after all still engaged and expecting a baby with another woman. Although Clare had noticed that since their arrival in the UK, he hadn't once called or even mentioned the dreaded Alyson. Even she found that a little weird. Unless he was trying to be discreet and not mention his fiancé when he was around her, which was… thoughtful of him.

"I think you should move," Clare said childishly after finding herself unable to think of anything better to say. She was trying not to react to the playful challenge in his dark blue eyes.

"What's wrong?" Libby asked sleepily. She could no longer ignore whatever was happening across the room, and although she almost didn’t want to know, she knew that someone had to ask.

Clare glanced over at Libby to see her peering through the darkness at her. Her eyes were half shut as she relaxed against Justin’s chest. And although he didn’t look especially comfortable, Clare could see by the contented smile on Justin’s face that he'd rather tolerate an aching body than have Libby anywhere other than in his arms.

"Shazam here won't move,” Clare explained with a hiss, “so much for being a gentleman." Clare narrowed her eyes at JC but found him grinning up at her, a chuckle rumbling away in his chest.

Irritated by his obvious amusement, Clare’s frown deepened. “Move!” she ordered him, and for a moment considered reaching across to thump him on the back. At the last minute she realised that physical contact would be a step too far for her. If she couldn't get him to move with her voice then she'd return to her and Libby's room.

“Shazam?” Libby repeated, “You haven’t called him that in a while.” She shared a look with Justin and they both started laughing. “If he won’t hurt then just hurt him,” Libby said as she turned back to the TV screen. “Just do it quietly; some of us are trying to watch a movie.”

Clare turned back to JC and noticed the familiar, flirtatious expression on his face. She felt her stomach sink at the memory of all the times in the past that she’d enjoyed the playful banter that had come so naturally between them.

How different things might have been if only he hadn't left with Alyson that fateful night at the club. But Clare could torture herself until the end of time with 'what if's' and 'but's' and it still wouldn't change the outcome. He wasn't hers to banter with, he wasn't hers to flirt with, and he certainly wasn't hers to fall in love with.

Climbing back off the bed, Clare picked up her trainers in one hand and made her way silently out of the room. She drew the door closed behind her as quietly as possible.

As she entered her bedroom, Clare felt an overwhelming feeling of self-pity engulf her and tears pricked at her eyes as she thought of her friends next door. They all seemed to have found a way into each other's hearts whilst she was still alone and as unhappy as ever. Would she ever find what they had?

Dropping her shoes onto the floor, Clare stood still as she tried to stop her tears from falling. She hated feeling sorry for herself and knew that she should try to pull herself together but she just couldn't.

She was tired.

Tired of crying. Tired of pretending. Tired of hurting.

"I thought you wanted to see the movie?" A voice asked from the doorway and Clare fought the urge to let out a bitter laugh.

He'd followed her.

Of course he'd followed her.

"I changed my mind," she replied shortly, keeping her back turned to him until she could compose her face and blink away the tears that had formed in her eyes. There was a silence for a minute and Clare began to wonder if perhaps he’d taken the hint and left her alone, but then she heard him let out a deep sigh and she willed herself to somehow find a way to get through the next five minutes without crying.

"Clare..."

"What?"

"How long are you going to keep this up?"

Clare bit down hard on her bottom lip to control the sob that she could feel bubbling away inside her chest. It seemed to do the trick, and when she spoke her voice was controlled. "Keep what up?"

JC took a few steps towards her, and Clare willed him not to touch her. She knew that if he did then she would lose it completely. So far she'd managed to keep him at a safe distance, but she didn't know what she would do if that distance was breached. She didn’t want to have to find out.

"This game you got goin' on. I know you're angry with me and I kinda understand that, but we both know that this is no way to treat each other."

"What game?" she asked, pretending she hadn’t heard the rest.

JC gave out another sigh and Clare risked a glance over her shoulder at him before finally turning to face him properly. He answered her question, ticking off his reply like a list on his fingers.

"You won't talk to me, you won't listen to me, you won't sit with me and when we're alone you won't even look at me."

"I'm looking at you now," she replied with a shrug. "What's your point?"

JC froze, his mouth hanging open slightly at the petulant tone in her voice. "My point," he repeated through gritted teeth, "is that you are doing your very best to act as though I am invisible, and quite frankly I'm sick of it. Clare, I know I hurt you, but how are we ever to move forward from this if you won't let me explain?"

"Oh. My. God!" Clare shouted as she heard him say—for the thousandth time—the very words she hoped never to hear again in her life. "What can you possibly have to explain that could ever make what you did any better?" she spat at him.

"If you listen then maybe you would find out," JC challenged, his voice rising in response to her anger.

Clare shook her head angrily and refused to be persuaded. "You broke my heart," she yelled at him, folding her arms across her chest to stop them from shaking so hard. "There is nothing you can do or say to un-break it. Whatever you think you need to tell me won't change anything, so stop wasting your time."

"Wasting my time?" JC challenged, his hands balling up into fists at his side. "I'm trying to fight for us here, Clare. Something that actually meant something to me? I'd like to think that you'd be prepared to do the same thing, but you seem perfectly happy to just throw it all away at the first chance!"

"The first chance? You're engaged! You're having a baby! There is no point in us even having this conversation!" she shouted at the top of her voice. "You told me that it was over. Do you remember that? It is so inappropriate you even having this discussion with me! How can you not see that?"

Catching her eye in the doorway, Chris discreetly peered his head around the doorframe. He’d been volunteered by the others—to his displeasure—to go and break up the row between JC and Clare as things had gotten so loud that the group of friends had been concerned that soon someone would be sent up from the front desk to see what was going on.

The last thing *NSYNC needed was for their squeaky-clean reputation to be tarnished by rumours of late-night arguments in their hotel rooms.

"Hey, guys. You really need to cool it off," Chris warned in a disarming voice. "It's getting pretty loud and you'll get us in trouble."

Clare turned from Chris to JC and pointed at the open doorway. "Feel free to leave. I'm done."

"Yeah, well I'm not done," JC replied as he allowed Chris to escort him out of Clare's bedroom. "I'm going to get you to listen, Clare. No matter how long it takes."

"Try holding your breath," she shouted back as he disappeared from view.

~~~~~*~~~~~

'It seems you wanna give me / Oh, a lifetime of security / Down on your dying knees / I watch you beg, I watch you plead / But your words come much too late / My love for you has turned to hate / 'Cause you've taken too much time / To show me that you're mine

When I drop you boy you’ll need another toy / One that won’t stand up for herself / When I knock you down you’ll need another town / Where somebody’s gonna talk to you / You just let me wait now it's too late / For your delayed devotion'

~~~~~*~~~~~