"What did you do last night?"

JC froze at Lance's words as he was in the process of sitting his bag down on the floor. An image flashed through his head of him on his couch, Rachel pressed against his side, her hand on his dick. His dick twitched at the picture in his head. He had to slam his thoughts closed before he could draw up more images and embarrass himself. "Oh, um... nothing."

"Nothing?" Lance raised an eyebrow at his friend. "You sat at home and did nothing?"

"Yeah," JC shrugged, trying to relax as much as possible to sell the lie. "Watched a couple reruns on TV. Played around on the piano for a little bit. Went to bed early."

"How fucking lame, C," Joey said as he came up to his friends.

"Your night probably wasn't any better than mine. Changing diapers and cleaning up spit up."

"Yeah," Joey grinned. He was certain Lance and JC could see the heart in his eyes as he thought about his daughter. "But she's a baby. Aside from that, all she does is eat and sleep. When she conked out it was mommy daddy time." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Thought Kelly was still on a no sex restriction."

"Oh she is. But I'm not." Joey grinned.

"She call up one of Chris's hookers to entertain you while she slept?" Lance grinned.

"Oh man! Who?" Chris asked. "Was it Lisa? No, I bet it was Tina. She has massive tits just like you like."

"Fuck off," Joey shoved Chris playfully. "Kelly gave me one of the best hand jobs I have ever received..." He groaned in memory. "Right there on the living room couch."

"Oh man!" Justin groaned. "Remind me never to sit on your couch again. Gross man."

"Don't worry," Joey grinned. "She didn't spill a drop." He wiggled his eyebrows. "That best hand job turned in to the world's best blow job. Jesus..."

That was JC's thought as well. Jesus. No offense to Kelly's talents, he was certain he received the better hand job the night before. Rachel's light touches. Tight strokes. He nearly stuck his knuckle in his mouth to bite around the groan that threatened to break free. If it had been any other kind of night, their activities would have moved from the couch and into his bedroom where he would have received a blow job and more.

But it hadn't been that kind of night. The night ended not long after the hand job. Rachel had been disappointed when he cleaned up with his shirt and pulled his shorts back on. He explained the need for recovery. That tonight he could teach her more. The way her eyes had brightened had made him want to drag her to his bedroom and continue. He resisted. He walked her to his door. She left with a soft kiss to his cheek and a small wave. When he closed the door, he banged his head against it a couple times wondering, not for the first time, what he was doing.

"Yo!" Joey slapped JC in the back of the head. "You're more spacy than usual."

"You zoned out yesterday and now today." Lance frowned. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." JC had to pull himself together. The last thing he needed was for one of them to pick on what was going on between him and Rachel. Lance would kill him. The others would tease him mercilessly that would make him wish for death. With all his might, he took Rachel - her inquisitive eyes, the soft smiles, the even softer touches and tossed them in a box. Which he then slammed shut and slapped on a ‘do not open' sign.

"Did you hook Rachel up with the right stripper?" Joey asked Chris, sending JC a weird glance when the man coughed.

"Nah, Rachel cancelled. Said she figure it out." Chris shrugged. "I don't know what she wanted... Oh well, I ended up going out and meeting up with these two fuckers. Since C here is a lazy fuck who wanted to spend the night at home by himself."

"Just because I didn't want to go out one night?" JC rolled his eyes. "I don't go out every night. Sometimes it's okay to stay home and have a little self care."

"Self care," Justin snorted. "Yeah man," he slapped JC on the back before snaking an arm around the man's neck in a choke hold that barely held any pressure. "We all know what that means."

"Seems like Joey wasn't the only one with things in hand." Lance grinned.

"There was no self care in my house." Joey grinned. "Trust me. Kelly had it under control."

"What's everyone doing tonight?" Justin asked. "There's that new place that just opened on Pine Street."

"I'm down."

"Isn't your sister in town?" Chris asked.

"Yeah?" Lance shrugged. "So?"

"You went out last night. Now you're going out tonight. Didn't she come to spend time with you?"

JC stared at Lance waiting for his answer. Rachel didn't come to see Lance. She came to see him. Warmth rushed through his body at the thought. Rachel had planned her trip to Orlando with him in mind. She wanted him to teach her how to have sex. The point of her whole trip was him teaching her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I should probably do something with her tonight." Lance frowned as he thought. His sister did come all the way to Orlando on her spring break to see him. The least he could do was stay in one night with her. "Maybe she'll come with us."

Justin shook his head. "Place is 21 and over."

"Then where you going tonight?" Chris teased. Justin was only twenty. Same age as Rachel.

"Right," Justin laughed. "You know they'll let me right in. 21 or not. I'm Justin Timberlake."

"When did you get a big head?" Chris wrapped his arm around Justin's neck in a chokehold similar to the one Justin had placed on JC earlier. With his locked in place, he tightened the hold making Justin bend at the waist.

"That's not all that's big," Justin countered and with a quick move was able to twist from Chris's hold.

"Yeah his ego is pretty big too."

JC grinned at Lance's words and slapped his hand in a high-five. He watched as Justin swept his leg and knocked Chris off his feet to the floor.

"Careful," Joey warned. "You could break his hip."

"I'll break your dick." Chris grunted as he grappled with Justin.

JC watched Justin and Chris wrestle on the floor of the rehearsal studio, while Joey moved around them, holding a fist to his mouth giving a play by play. Though he was watching his friends, his mind was on Lance beside him. He damned Chris for bringing up how Lance should spend time with his sister. He smiled smartly when he heard Chris yelp. ‘Serves him right,' he thought.

"You gonna check out that new place with Justin?" JC asked as both Chris and Justin both turned and pulled Joey into the foray.

Lance shrugged. "I don't know. I'll see what Rachel wants to do first. I do feel kind of bad. I went out last night and left her on her own. I asked her what she did this morning and said she caught a movie by herself. I should probably hang out with her tonight. I think she's having a problem about something."

"Oh?" JC tried to keep his voice even. Wanted to Lance to think he was truly interested in hearing about Rachel and did not have an ulterior motive. Which he didn't. Not really. Maybe only slightly.

"Yeah," Lance looked at JC. "It's weird to spend her spring break in Orlando. I know there were probably a helluva lot better offers. Cancun. Panama. Miami."

"Maybe she wanted to come and see you?" JC had to look away from Lance's eyes. One, they were too similar to Rachel's. Second, he was afraid Lance would see right through him.

Lance snorted. "I doubt it. "

"Why not?"

"Come on JC. Would Heather pass up a trip to Cancun to spend a week at your house?"

JC knew that answer. It was no. Heather loved him. He loved her. They had a great relationship. But she definitely would not pass up an opportunity such as Mexico to spend time with his ass.

"Exactly. Should we save him?" Lance nodded toward the scene in front of them. Justin was laid out on the ground. Chris had his legs trapped in some move he had probably seen in the WWF. Joey had his arms locked around him. Justin's head buried in his armpit. He didn't envy Justin at all. He had found his head buried in Joey's armpit many times. Knew exactly how bad it smelled.

"Nope." JC grinned.

*~*

"If you don't want to be here, we can leave."

Rachel looked across the table at her brother's face. His lips pressed in a thin line. His eyes, so much like her own, danced with irritation. She sighed and looked down at the table in front of them. "No Lance. I'm sorry."

Disappointed wasn't the right word when Lance announced after coming home from rehearsal they were hanging out. She'd been banking on him going out again. Banking on going over to JC's to continue their lesson. Images from the night before were never far from her mind throughout the day. Sitting on the couch in Lance's living room was enough to bring back the previous night. When she had laid with JC, his body over hers. His mouth providing lessons she desperately wanted.

"What's going on?" Lance sighed and relaxed in his chair. The restaurant was high scale in Orlando. One he frequented often. One he'd always take his parents to when they were in town. They offered a variety of wine, but wine was more of JC's refined taste. JC was able to pick the right brand. The right smoothness. Lance usually went with something a little stronger. Though currently he had a class of the special house wine.

"Nothing." Rachel looked back up at him.

"You can't fool me with those eyes." Lance chuckled softly and reached for the wine glass. "That wide-eyed doe-eyed look."

"I can't come and spend a week with you? We never get to see each other. You barely come home."

"I'm kind of busy here. And it's not like you're at home either."

"I'm home on breaks and during the summer. Weekends..."

Lance rolled his eyes. "So lame Rach."

"Why is that lame?"

"You're in college now."

"And?"

"You're supposed to be going out and doing things! Going places. Right now you're supposed to be where? Cancun? Panama. Getting drunk on the beach. Getting something tattooed. Calling me to bail you out of jail."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Like I would call you."

"Who you gonna call? Mom and Dad? Stacy?" Lance lifted an eyebrow.

"Fine, I would call you," Rachel grumbled, crossing her arms.

"So why didn't you go?" Lance leaned across the table when he heard Rachel mumble but didn't understand. "What?"

"I said," Rachel lifted her eyes to meet Lance's. "I wasn't invited."

Lance's eyes widened. "You weren't invited? What? Why?"

Rachel shrugged and played with the corner of her napkin on her lap. "I just wasn't."

They were interrupted when the waiter came back with their food. Rachel used the time ask for a refill on her sweet tea and for some steak sauce.

"You totally just offended him," Lance laughed as he placed his napkin back on his lap.

"What? Why?" Rachel asked pausing from cutting up her steak.

"You don't ruin a chef's creation by dousing it in steak sauce."

"Oh..." Rachel stared down at her steak - medium rare. The inside still a little pinkish. It looked perfect. "I didn't know..."

"You ain't in Mississippi anymore." Lance laughed.

"I hope I didn't embarrass you," Rachel said after the waiter placed the bottle of steak sauce on the table.

Lance laughed again as he took a bit of his own steak. "I don't care."

The siblings settled in to eat. Their conversations steered toward lighter topics. Family gossip. Gossip from people back home in Clinton. Lance spoke about their upcoming tour. Issues with the new album and how the tour was starting without the album being out. He also spoke on what was coming up with his production company.

The conversation was nice. Full of laughs as they told stories from childhood and Clinton. Laughs when Lance told some of the more r-rated stories from touring. Rachel thought she was home free that Lance would forget about college and spring break.

He didn't.

"So why weren't you invited to spring break?" Lance asked as he climbed into the driver's seat of the car after it was returned from valet.

"Lance..." Rachel sighed pulling her seat belt on. It clicked and she stared out the passenger window. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Lance sighed. He pulled away from the restaurant and out into the night time traffic. It was late. Close to nine. Back home in Mississippi dinner was never eaten this late. Now, for him, the night was just getting started. It wasn't odd to eat dinner at nine or even ten. He was more of a late nights kind of guy instead of an early morning one. Good nights were getting in at two-three in the morning. Sometimes four.

"Are you in trouble?" Lance asked.

Rachel laughed in surprise. "In trouble? You mean like pregnant?" She laughed again.

Lance blushed. "No, but since you brought it up..."

"I didn't get invited to go anywhere on spring break and you assume that I'm pregnant? What the actual fuck Lance?"

"Yeah, yeah," Lance mumbled turning on his blinker and changing lanes.

"No Lance." Rachel sighed after the car had fallen silent. "I'm not pregnant. I'm not in trouble. I just didn't want to go home and be subjected to mom's million questions. So I came here."

"I knew you didn't come to hang out with me."

"I did!" Rachel straightened in her seat. ‘Liar!' Her brain shouted at her. "I don't need you to plan an entire week of activities to entertain me. I'm okay with sitting home alone or going out by myself. You don't have to entertain me. I know you probably had something better planed tonight."

"Nah," Lance shook his head. He pressed on the gas and sped up as the speed limit changed as they got out of Orlando's city limits. "Justin wanted to hit up a new club that just opened."

"Sounds like fun. Whose all going?"

"Not you," Lance spared her a glance out of the corner of his eye. "It's 21 and up."

"They check Justin's ID?" Rachel questioned and looked at her brother. She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Of course not."

When they arrived back at Lance's, Rachel went to her room to change out of the outfit she had picked for dinner. A simple black dress. Long sleeve. Boat neck. To her knees. Highly conservative. A dress she'd wear to a funeral. She hadn't packed anything for a fancy restaurant. Had to go shopping when Lance told her the type of place they were eating. Had to fight through her disappointment all afternoon at the fact that she wouldn't be going to JC's.

Once she was changed into a pair of pajama pants and an oversized t-shirt and her face washed, she went back downstairs to the living room. Grabbing the remote she sunk down in the corner of the couch, tucking her feet beneath her. Flipping through the channels searching for something to watch but nothing caught her attention. She settled on Win Ben Stein's Money playing on the comedy channel.

This was not how she was picturing the night going. She didn't have many days left. Classes started on Monday. She was leaving Sunday morning to drive back to school. It was a ten hour road trip. Simple enough hitting 75 in Florida then catching the 10 over then 55 to Jackson. The drive was just long. Luckily she had a whole case full of CDs to keep her entertained and singing an entire concert to the steering wheel.

"It's still early if you want to go and do something," Lance said as he came into the living room. "Like this show." He stated as he sat down in the recliner. "I know of a few clubs we can go to. They are only 18 and older."

"Right. Like I wanna watch you get molested all night."

The siblings fell silent again as they settled in to watch the TV. Halfway through the next episode Lance's phone rang. Rachel turned the TV down while Lance answered his cell phone; a clunky silver Motorola with a green black light for the tiny screen. She didn't even pretend not to listen to his conversation. Justin she presumed, trying to get Lance to come out. Apparently the place was hoppin'.

"Go Lance," Rachel said as the credits rolled on the television. Her brother had become antsier after the phone call with Justin. "Seriously. Go out and meet the rest of the guys. I told you... you don't have to babysit me every night. We were together for most of the night. You took me to dinner. We chilled in front of the TV. You did your part."

"Are you sure?" Lance asked. He did feel bad about bailing on his sister but he was bored sitting at home. He wasn't tired yet. He didn't want a quiet night in. He wanted to go out and have a good time. In a few weeks it would be back in the grind on a new tour.

"I'm sure. Go."

It didn't take long before Lance was leaving with a laughing ‘don't wait up'. Rachel had to laugh. She grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels again searching for something to watch. Every channel seemed to be on commercial so she left it on the TVGuide channel hoping something would catch her eye to watch at the top of the hour. There was a longing inside her. A wish that she could have gotten changed and gone with Lance to whatever club that had just opened up. Her birthday was still a long ways away. Nine months before she turned twenty one and could frequent the clubs her brother did.

When nothing caught her eye on the TV, she turned it off, sending the screen into blackness. Pushing up from the couch she left the room and headed in to Lance's office. Sitting at his desk, she booted up his computer and waited. It was locked so she entered the password he had told her days before. Once she was on the internet she logged in to her AOL messenger and checked her e-mail. Forwards from some of her friends on campus. The ones that didn't make fun of her. Jokes. Spam. E-mail from her mother. Another from her cousin. Campus newsletter.

Rachel forwarded some of the funnier jokes on to her brother. A particularly dirty one to Chris. She knew he'd get a kick out of it. She responded to her mother and her cousin. She was in a chatroom mostly stalking conversation when a popup appeared in the lower right hand corner of the monitor. A notification that someone on her messenger list was now online. Rachel's eyes widened when she saw the name.

JC!

Minimizing the browser screen she stared at the messenger pop up. A lot of her friend's list was dark indicating they weren't currently online. A few were bold. JC's was one of them. She stared at his name wondering what he was doing online. Lance told her he was meeting everyone at the club. They were all there but him. It was one of the reasons she had told Lance to go. They had all been there. JC had been there. So it wasn't like she was missing anything happening. JC was out. Not waiting for her.

She wondered if she should send him a message. What would she say? Before she could even think of something to send, the computer ping and a window appeared. Her breath caught.

musiclvr76: Hey

He messaged her!

MissGurl81: Hey. Thought u were out w every1
musiclvr76: I was
musiclvr76: Lance sed u were home?

MissGurl81: Yeah. Went 2 dinner. He wanted 2 go out. I told him 2 go.
musiclvr76: R u busy?

Rachel's mouth parted in shock. It felt like electricity went through her body, zapping her nerve endings. Her heart beat faster doing double time.

MissGurl76: No.

musiclvr76: Wanna come over?

Warmth went through her gathering at her center just at the seemingly innocent question. She knew better. She knew the weight attached. What would happen.

MissGurl81: Yes.

She type the three letter response with trembling fingers. On a whim she typed out another response.

MissGurl81: I was looking fwd 2 2nite all day.

She held her breath waiting to see how he would respond.

musiclvr76: me 2.

Rachel squealed and clapped her hands together. "Oh my God!" She placed her elbows on the desk and covered her mouth with her hands. She stared at the conversation on the screen.

musiclvr76: see u in a few?
MissGurl81: brt

Rachel signed out of her messenger and powered the computer down. With a smile on her face she raced up the stairs to change.