Chapter 9: Something Stinks
 

I don’t think I can take this anymore. I’ve been locked up in this bus for I don’t know how long. I’m all alone with nothing to do. Well not really all alone. There are crew people here with me, but I don’t really get along with any of them. 
 

Oh—I’m on tour by the way; on my way to the first stop. Oh and I’m touring with Nsync.
 

That’s right, I said Nsync—you didn’t hear me wrong. Why am I touring with them? My management told me to. I was assured that it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. How they know this I’m not quite sure. Maybe they have the ability to see into the future and just never bothered to tell me about it. I’ll have to make some appearances with them, but I won’t have to really be around any of them when the cameras aren’t around. I’m gonna have a camera crew from MTV following me around to document my first tour. They’re on the bus with me and have been filming be doing nothing.
 

My mom is going to meet up with us at the halfway mark and she’ll be bringing Steve with her. Liz is meeting me on the first stop, but she won’t be there until after the show. Therefore, I’m all alone with these people I barely know. At least my band is here—not that I’m really that close with them yet. Joey offered to ride on my bus with me, but I assured him that I would be alright and that I had enough to keep me busy.
 

Our first stop on the tour is Sunrise, Florida in the Office Depot Center. We’ll be performing tomorrow tonight and I’m sort of an opening act for Nsync and touring partner. All I know is that I go first and I have about ten minutes less on stage then they do. At the end of the show I join the guys on stage for an encore of various songs. We’ve rehearsed it plenty of times, so everything should go off without a hitch. I’m starting off my part of the show with my best known and first single, Before He Cheats. From there I’ll go into a slower ballad that I just released last month called Wake Up Older. Then I’m gonna do some new stuff that no one, but people really close to me have heard. I’m using the tour as a sort of test audience for my new material. The songs on my first album came mostly from other songwriters because I didn’t have very much freedom through my first contract. I’m trying some of my won stuff for the next album. I’m working with Pharell again, who co-wrote both Before He Cheats and Wake Up Older. I’ve been told that Pharell is the ‘best in the business.’
 

“We’re here! Welcome to Sunrise, Florida.” I announce excitedly to the camera that’s pointed in my face. I can’t wait to get off this dang bus. I jump up from the couch/bench thing I’m seated on and rush towards the door. I readjust my sweatpants and smooth out my t-shirt on my way. As I reach for the door a hand on my shoulder stops me. I turn back to face my bodyguard—yep I have a whole team of security for this tour. Normally it’s just Dave and me, but my mom was worried that he wouldn’t be enough to protect me. Whatever.
 

“Not so fast Pickles.” Dave warns. ‘Pickles’ is the nickname he came up with after spending so much time with me. He claims that every time he sees me I’m eating pickles. I do love them and I do eat them a lot. It’s kind of cute and it’s nice to be close with someone enough that I have a nickname—even if he is paid to hang around me.
 

“Why not?” I whine unattractively, stomping my foot to the floor. “I can’t stay on this bus one second longer!”
 

“Well you’re going to have to,” He grins. “We have to secure the area before you get off.”
 

I huff at him in protest and roll my eyes at the camera. I catch sight of Joey flying off his bus. He throws himself on the ground and it looks like he’s kissing the pavements. I laugh at the sight. Chris comes out next with the rest of the guys following behind him. Chris joins Joey in his warship of the ground while the other guys file past them. I point out the window, turning back to Dave.
 

“How come they get to leave? Their security didn’t secure the area first!”
 

“I don’t care what their security did.” He answers sounding way too much like my mother. “You are staying right here until I come back for you.”
 

“Fine.” I huff at him again and return to my seat by the window where I stare longingly at Chris and Joey still goofing around just outside my bus. I knock on the window until I’m able to get their attention. They look up and over towards me with confused looks on their faces. It’s then that I remember that the widows are tinted and they can’t see me. I slump back down and lean my forehead against the cool glass of the window as I wait.
 

“Hey girl! What you still doin’ in here?”
 

“Joey!” I exclaim excitedly. I jump up and run to him, tossing my arms around his neck. “Hey Chris.”
 

“What are you still doin’ on the bus?” Chris asks as Joey releases me and he gives me a quick hug.
 

“I have to wait for security to ‘clear the area.” I quote with a roll of my eyes.
 

“Hello camera,” Joey smiles cheesily into the MTV camera.
 

“Hi MTV!” Chris grins as he and Joey begin posing.
 

“You guys are just a couple of hams.” I laugh.
 

“Alright,” Joey begins speaking into the camera with a secretive whisper, “We’re gonna bust Elli out of this joint. Chris, grab her!”
 

Chris quickly swipes me off my feet so that I’m hanging over his shoulder. I can’t stop laughing and incase you don’t know that’s really hard to do upside-down. We fly out f the bus, across the parking lot and past a very angry looking Dave into the hotel. Joey’s chanting the mission impossible theme song the whole time only making me laugh that much harder. Chris bolts towards the elevator, but he’s not fast enough. Dave cuts us off. At sight of his beyond angry face Chris puts me down, Joey stops humming, and I stop laughing. He glares at us and pulls us off to the side area of the hotel lobby where a group of chairs and a couch are located.
 

“Sit, now.” He booms and we do as told immediately without muttering even a single word of protest. We are in so much trouble. “Elli, I told you to stay on the bus until I came to get you—”
 

“I was going to. It was them that—” That’s all I can get out before Dave interrupts me again. I lower my accusatory finger that I had pointed at Chris and Joey and fold my hands in my lap again.
 

“I don’t care what these two knuckleheads did. From now on if I tell you to stay somewhere or not to do something, you don’t do it or you stay there. And I don’t care if I tell you to say on that bus for ten f**king hours longer than everyone else, you do it. My job is to protect you and I will do my job. Do I make myself clear?”
 

“Yes.” I mumble, crossing my arms over my chest. He’s sounding like an over protective mother again and I hate it when he swears. I glare at Chris and Joey when I hear them snickering from their seats next to me.
 

“And as for you two,” Dave cuts their little laugh-fest short. “If you ever pull a stunt like that again…well lets just say that you’ll have to deal with me and you don’t want to deal with me. Understand?”
 

They nod their heads as I stifle my laughter.
 

“I said do you understand?”
 

“Yes sir.” They reply simultaneously.   
 

“Good,” Dave grins—his ‘bad-ass’ side seeming to disappear instantly. “Now get up.”
 

We all stand at the same time.
 

“Grab your bags.”
 

Chris and Joey pick up their duffle bags. Mine is currently in the hands of my bodyguard Dave so I don’t make any moves. 
 

“Now follow me upstairs to your rooms and I don’t want to hear a word from any of you.”
 

The three of us follow behind Dave with our heads hung low in shame. He can really spread the guilt on thick can’t he? I’ve already gotten myself into trouble—or should I say Chris and Joey already got me into trouble—and it’s only the first day.
 

~*~*~*~*~
 

“Where the hell have you guys been?” JC asks impatiently glancing down at his watch as Chris and Joey finally decide to grace us with their presence. We’ve been waiting in the meeting room on our floor of the hotel for the past fifteen minutes. We were all supposed to get off the bus, take our bags to our assigned room and then meet in the conference room at the end of the hall. They couldn’t have been kissing the ground that long. And even though they’re constantly goofing off, they’re usually very punctual.
 

“We were with Elli,” Joey answers as they sit down.
 

“And her bodyguard Dave.” Chris snickers.
 

“What’s so funny about that?” I ask curiously.
 

“We got in trouble.”
 

“What did ya’ll do this time?” I shake my head, but can’t help but laugh. They lasted longer than I thought they would. 
 

“Nothing!” Joey exclaims, throwing his arms in the air dramatically. “We were just fooling around with Elli and Dave went all psycho on us.”
 

“He did.” Chris echoes with an affirming nod of his head.
 

“What did you do?” Lance adds in, speaking to them for the first time since they came traipsing in.
 

“We snatched her off her bus and ran her inside the hotel.” Chris explains nonchalantly making it sound as if the whole ordeal was really nothing. It sounds like it was nothing to me. Elli’s security guard must be a little ‘off’ or something. Maybe this is his first time working with a celebrity and he’s a little extreme.
 

“You and you,” Mike—our head bodyguard along with Tiny—breaks into our conversation as he busts into the room, pointing his thick finger at Chris and then at Joey. They both feign innocence, of course.
 

“What?” They question naively.
 

“I just got through talking with Dave.”
 

“He’s exaggerating.” Chris defends immediacy and Joey nods his head in concurrence with him. 
 

“Really?” Mike crosses his arms over his chest. “So you didn’t pull Elli off her bus before her security was able to secure the area?”
 

“Well yeah, but,” Joey starts ad Mike growls in frustration or maybe anger or maybe both. “We thought you had the whole securing the grounds thing under control.”
 

“We did—for ya’lls sorry behinds.” JC, Lance and I had found this whole situation quite comical until he made that crack at all of us. “There are different conditions that need to be met for different people. If Dave kept Elli on the bus, he did it for a reason. I don’t want to hear of something like this happening again. Got it?”
 

Mike lets his stern gaze fall upon each of us as if we all had something to do with those idiots. I shrug at him with a smirk, but he doesn’t break from security mode. Damn, I don’t see what the big deal was, really. I mean our guys had secured the area or they wouldn’t have let us off the bus. I thought maybe this Dave guy was just overprotective, but Mike seems to agree with him. Something smells funny here.
 

“Hey guys,” Johnny greets us all with a smile. Elli files in behind him with the infamous Dave behind her. He’s smaller then our guys. Elli looks comfortable in black sweat pants and one of our tour shirts. It’s cute that she’s wearing it.
 

“Now typically, this first meeting is just to welcome everyone back to the tour,” Johnny beings, taking his place at the head of the long wooden table. “However, it’s come to my attention that it’s necessary to go over the rules again.”
 

Everyone turns and looks at a very guilty looking Chris and Joey. I look up and Elli’s eyes catch mine. She smirks cutely at me and I smile back briefly before we both look away and back at Johnny. At least she doesn’t hate me enough that she can’t even look at me.
 

“First of all I would like to reiterate that you do as your security team tells you.” He grumbles, again looking directly at Joey and Chris before flicking his gaze over to Elli. She blushes under his gaze and lowers her head. “Some things that they tell you may sound extreme, but you need to trust that they’re only asking you to do whatever they asked for a reason and it’s only to protect you.”
 

“Will you stop looking at me!” Joey pretends to cry and we all burst into laughter—with the exception of Johnny and Dave. “I’m sorry okay, we’re both sorry.”
 

“Chill man,” Jace smiles through his laughter.
 

“Anyway,” Johnny continues with a roll of his eyes. “You all have the rest of the night free to do whatever.”
 

“Whoo-hoo!” We all echo back.
 

“However, just as all the other tours we’ve done together, you do have a curfew.”
 

“Awe man, come on!” Lance voices, surprising all of us at his objection. None of us want a curfew, but he’s the last one we though would object to it. I thought we were old enough now to omit the curfew rule. I guess not.
 

“You need to be in your assigned room by twelve o’clock because you have to be up by six for rehearsal.” He continues, choosing to ignore the groans omitted by all of us. “I don’t care what the hell you do once inside your rooms, but you will be in them and somewhat quiet. Also, there will be no room swapping without prior approval by me or by Elli’s mom.”
 

Elli’s mom is also her manager.
 

“No random women will be allowed into anyone’s room—oh, uh, or men,” Johnny adds looking over at Elli sheepishly. “The only people that are not part of the staff allowed in your rooms or on your bus are on this list.”
 

Johnny holds up what looks like a rather short list of people who have been pre-approved to come visit us over night.
 

“This list includes your families, and girlfriends or boyfriend. If you want someone to come stay with you that is not on this list you must get them approved by either myself or Elli’s mom. I’m not going to bother to go over the rest of the rules again because I sincerely think that you guys can handle that. And just because I didn’t go over them doesn’t meant that they don’t apply.”
 

“Why’s everybody looking at me?” Joey asks with a confused look on his face.
 

“You guys can all go now,” Johnny continues, again ignoring Joey’s comment. We all get and start moving toward the door when Johnny speaks again. “Justin and Elli, I need to see you two.”
 

Oh great, what’s this all about? I hope it’s nothing major. I’m sick of getting lectured to. I’m hungry and I’m tired and I just want to go back to my room and order me some room service and eat it in bed.
 

“What’s up Johnny?” I ask casually as Elli comes to stand silently by my side before the man.
 

“I just want to warn ya’ll about rumors that have been circulating about you two,” He begins. No again; the only picture they have of us is from three f**king years ago and you can’t even tell that Elli is the girl in the picture with me. “I’m just asking you to be careful when other people are around—even the crew members. Don’t completely avoid each other, but don’t stick to each other either. Okay?”
 

“Okay.” Elli nods robotically.
 

“Good,” Johnny smiles genuinely, finally coming out of boss mode. “Why don’t you two go get something to eat and then head to bed? You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

TBC....