About an hour later, there was a knock at his door. JC was surprised when he opened it to find Jess standing there.
"What are you-" he started.
"Gonna let me come in?" she interrupted.
"Sure," he smiled and stepped back to allow her to enter.
Jess dropped her bags near the door and sat down on JC's bed. JC stepped around her bags and sat next to her.
"So, I was on my way to the car when Bryan stopped me and said Johnny needed to see me. Turns out one of that because of the Oprah publicity, people want to book me to model and give talks and stuff. The show hasn't even aired yet and people are calling Johnny. He's offered to manage me for now and he asked me to stay on tour so I can do signings with you guys and stuff. So, looks like I'm hanging around for a few more days."
"How do you feel about that?" Josh looked at her with concern evident in his eyes.
She smiled, "I'm fine, Josh. It'll be OK. I've kinda got writer's block right now anyway, so this will give me an opportunity to do some freelancing for the teen magazines. I'm sure I can sell an article about your Make a Wish visits if the two guests are interested. If not, I'll just make up some crap about you guys and send it to the Enquirer."
"You wouldn't dare!" he challenged.
"Wanna bet?" she grinned. "I'm a starving artist, gotta make me a living somehow!" Jess laughed as JC pushed her back and tickled her. She fought back, but he was taller and stronger. She finally cried "uncle" and they lay on the bed next to each other, trying to catch their breath.
"By the way, Josh, there are no rooms left here tonight. They gave my room away to someone on crew already, so you're stuck with me, Roomie."
"No way," he whined. "You steal the covers!"
"Fine," she pouted. "I'll go sleep with Justin or Lance. I'm sure one of them would be willing to share with me."
"Oh, no, you don't!" he laughed as he reached out to grab her wrist. "No way are you sleeping with either of those two, they are not the angels that they are portrayed to be in the media."
Someone rapped out "Shave and a Haircut" on the door. JC got up to answer it.
"Hey C, wanna watch a movie or something tonight?" Joey asked. "Oh, man! Do you have company? I'm sorry to interrupt! I'll talk to you in the morning," he winked and turned to leave.
"No, Joe! It's Jess. You're not interrupting anything." JC dragged Joey into the room.
"Hey, Joe! Where's Kelly?" Jess asked.
"I thought you left!"
"Yeah, well, that was the plan," Jess didn't bother to elaborate. "So where's Kelly?"
Joey shrugged, "She's on a date with Justin. He somehow got it in his head that we all need to date each other's girlfriends. Something about bonding or something, I don't really know. All I know is he promised me a date with you, Sugar." He grinned.
"Great, now Justin's pimping me out?" Jess shook her head. "That boy is not right."
"So," JC interrupted, "What movie do you two want to watch?"
"You guys pick. I'm so tired, I don't care what we watch. Just promise not to wake me up when I fall asleep."
JC looked at her. "Jess, exactly how much sleep did you get last night?"
"Um, none." She looked at the floor. "I was too wound up with everything that happened. I just couldn't sleep."
"Girl, you've got to start sleeping. You're starting to scare me."
"I'm fine, Josh," she replied in a tone that let him know the discussion was over.
Joey and JC chose a movie and all three decided to change into pyjamas. Joey went back to his room. JC and Jess took turns in the bathroom. She raided his duffle bag for a T-shirt and a pair of boxers as the pyjamas she had packed for her vacation were not conducive to co-ed sleepovers.
Joey came back with some popcorn and JC cracked open the bar fridge for some pop and bottled water. While they got the movie set up, Jess crawled to the middle of the bed and arranged the pillows around her. Joey got in on one side and after he got the movie started, Josh turned down the lights and got in on the other side. All three got comfortable and watched the previews together.
Jess really was tired. She tried to watch the movie for a few minutes but soon gave up and let her eyes drift closed. She rolled to her side, clutching her Chris bear to her chest. Her head lolled towards Joey's and she was fast asleep not ten minutes into the movie.
Jess enjoyed the best sleep she'd had in a long time. In fact, if she had not been rudely awakened by Justin and Chris jumping on the bed the next morning, she would have slept the entire day away.
When neither Joey nor JC answered their wake up calls in the morning, security got a little nervous. They were able to reach Kelly who assured them that Joey was not there but that he had left a note saying he was going to be in JC's room. JC's phone was off the hook. Lonnie got the pass key and opened JC's door. The sight before him made him laugh. Joey, Jess and JC were sleeping all curled up together. Jess was in the middle with her head on Joey's shoulder. He was leaning protectively towards her. JC was behind Jess with his head on her back, and an arm draped around her.
Lonnie enjoyed a chuckle and pulled out a camera to snap a couple of blackmail pictures. He heard Justin and Chris in the hallway, so he opened the door and beckoned to them.
"Hey, guys, do me a favour and wake up Joe and Jace." He gestured towards the room.
Justin turned to meet Chris's eye, and they both grinned and ran into the room. They both leaped onto the bed yelling, "Bonzai!"
All three occupants of the bed sat up and yelled. Justin spotted Jess first and wrapped her in his arms.
"Jessie, babe! I didn't know you were here. We didn't mean to scare you, just the other two." Justin paused and looked down at her. "Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing here?"
Jess glared at him. "Justin Randall Timberlake, I swear if you ever, ever wake me up like that again, your ass will be mine!"
"Ooh, do you promise baby?" he laughed.
Jess shoved him and broke contact with him. "Don't push me, Child."
"Yeah, don't push her, Justin," added Joey. "What's the deal with you guys waking us up anyway?" he grumbled.
"Dudes, we have a photo shoot in like half an hour."
"So why did you wake me up?" Jess asked. "I'm not working this morning." She flopped back down on the bed and tried to get comfortable.
JC leaned over her, "Hate to break it to you, Jess, but yeah, you are working this morning. Johnny dropped off some stuff for you last night after you fell asleep. It's some prep stuff he needs you to do for him."
Jess groaned and pulled the covers over her head. JC headed for the showers and the other guys slowly made their way out of the room. Chris lingered for a minute before closing the door. As much as he wanted to talk to Jess, he knew that now is not going to be the best time.
After JC finished getting dressed, he woke Jess up.
"Come on, Babe, wake up for me. I've got to get going, and Johnny had all these instructions I was supposed to give you."
Jess mumbled something unintelligible. She was stubborn, but Josh was more so. "Jess, I'm giving you two seconds, then I'm going to remove you forcibly from the bed and throw you in a cold shower. Do you hear me?"
"Yes," she replied, her voice all raspy from sleep. "Fine, I'm up."
Jess shook her head to clear it. She looked down at the pile of folders and information that Josh had given her. On top of it all sat a cell phone, a pager and her crew identification badge. She didn't mind the badge, she already had one, but the phone and pager were a little out of her league. She wasn't really the type of person who felt a need for people to be able to contact her 24/7. Oh well, now she was on tour and Johnny and the powers that be had to be able to find her. Since she was awake anyway, she decided to get her work done while the guys were busy so she could spend some time with them in the afternoon.
Her work didn't actually take long to finish, so a couple hours later Jess hit the local shopping mall with Kelly and Bryan in tow. The first part of her meeting with Johnny the night before had to do with the necessity of having security with her at all times. Johnny had heard about her walking around downtown Chicago and had nearly blown a gasket. He wasn't really angry with her, he just wanted her to see how dangerous it had been for her to be alone when she was subject to all this media.
The two girls had fun at the mall. Jess needed to buy some clothes that would be more suitable for touring and hanging out with the guys. Kelly was trying on a dress when Jess's cell phone rang-again. The guys must have been bored during their activities, because they kept calling her. Jess fielded two calls from JC, three from Lance, one from Joey (who wanted to talk to Kelly anyway) and two from Justin. They were really starting to annoy her, and then they stopped. A little while later, her phone rang again.
She let it fly this time. "Look! I told you fools to stop bugging me! I will be back at the hotel when I am ready and not a minute before."
"I'm sorry, then, I won't bother you," she heard the resignation in his voice.
"Wait! Chris?" Jess felt like digging a hole and closing herself into it.
"Yeah, it's me."
"I'm sorry. That little rant was meant for your four band mates, not for you. Can we just go back to the beginning of the call and start again?"
"Sure," she wasn't positive, but it sounded like he might be smiling.
"Hello?" she laughed.
"Hey, Jessie-bear, it's Chris. How are you doing?"
"Hi Chris! I'm so glad to hear from you. I'm having a great day, thanks for asking. How are your interviews and photo shoots going?"
"Actually, that was the reason I called you. We are heading back to the hotel now and I was hoping that you might be able to spare me a few minutes of your time."
Jess sighed. "Oh, Chris, I wish I could, but Kelly and I have made plans with a couple of the girls on the crew."
Chris ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, OK. You're still coming to the show, right?"
"You betcha! Actually, I'm going to be there for the meet and greet time with you and since Kelly's going home after the show, we're planning on being backstage tonight."
"OK, cool. Listen, come back to the dressing rooms and find me before the greet, OK?"
"Sure thing. We'll probably be back in an hour or so."
Author's Chapter Notes:
Two chapters in one night...will wonders never cease?
Chapter End Notes:
A
Story Tags: celebritysync jc chris
