Riley Morgan didn't like change. She didn't like last minute additions. She didn't like people who just assumed she was interested in their agenda. She had her own.
Of course that didn't matter. She was just a lowly assignment reporter that had gotten away from the Channel 5 News station in Orlando, Florida to do a fluff piece on everyone's favorite local boy band, Nsync. She didn't even know if they could be called local anymore. Afterall, they were a bonafide national sensation after the record breaking sales of their second CD "No Strings Attached." She tried telling her boss this but he shook his head and she clenched her jaw, trying to keep herself steady as he barked out, "I make the assignments here, Miss Morgan. This isn't Michigan State Student TV! We aren't going to coddle you and hold your hand! Now get on that plane and I want this story by Friday morning. On my desk!"
They had arrived in New Orleans on Monday and now it was Tuesday. Riley was still stuck in the hotel room, making calls to all sorts of publicists, trying to get permission to interview the group or the manager, someone, anyone, so she could be finished with the stupid report by Friday. But no one was answering her calls. Everything was getting ignored. After another call went through to voicemail on Jive's publicity hotline, Riley threw her notebook across the small hotel room and groaned loudly.
"Dammit, this is not what I want to be doing with my life!" She announced to the ceiling.
Her cameraman, Charles Levine, Chaz for short, looked up from the TV. He had been lounging on the floor all day. He wasn't required to make phone calls. All he needed to do was film.
"Hey, look at the bright side," Chaz said, used to Riley's outbursts. "A free trip to New Orleans. Beat that!"
Riley moved to the window and looked out at the city below. It wasn't quite dusk yet but she could tell that it was getting later in the day. They were in the middle of the city and the sidewalks below were full of busy people, tourist, merchants and the like. They should be outside, she guessed, maybe interviewing random 12 year olds on the street, asking them how they felt about Nsync's latest comeback.
But it was too hot. Riley didn't feel like it. And she was interested in a different story anyway.
"What's going to happen to this city?" Riley asked, turning around and shaking her head. Chaz looked at her curiously. He had red hair and green eyes and frankly sometimes she was freaked out looking at him because he reminded her of a leprechaun . "A city entirely under sea level."
"What's going to happen to it?" Chaz shrugged. "Uh... people will live here and they will have Mardi Gras every year."
Riley rolled her eyes. "Did you notice... when we drove to the hotel? It's like... there's two New Orleans. There's downtown and all of this... and then everywhere else. And the rest of town is quite different. And you know... not everyone in New Orleans is living like a rockstar. The school district is one of the worst in the whole state."
Chaz gave her a funny look. "What does that have to do with our assignment, Riley?"
"I just..." she trailed off and sighed. "I think we should be focusing on something else down here. There's a different type of story. And we're just wasting time on this stupid boyband. There are plenty of things in life that are more important."
"I agree," Chaz said. "But we have to do what we were assigned, Riley. And we have a deadline. You can't get distracted."
Riley bit her lip and sat on the bed heavily. She was one year out of college, only 23 years old, and already she was feeling so jaded about this whole journalist thing. Maybe she should have joined Teach For America or something. Something more noble. Something that really made an impact on somebody's life. This job wasn't it. Chasing around a stupid boyband wasn't going to get her the Noble Award.
But Chaz was right. This story was what she was assigned. She worked for Channel 5 News. She had a job to do.
"Okay, I'm on it, Chaz," she promised. She picked up her cellphone once again and at the same moment it began to ring. She looked at the number. It was unfamiliar to her. Please be the publicist, she prayed before she answered the call.
"Riley Morgan, Channel 5 News," She said in a professional voice.
"Morgan!" A voice barked. She winced and covered the phone mouthing to Chaz, "It's Briggs."
Then she spoke into the phone. "Hi Mr. Briggs. You did say Friday , right? I'll get the story to you Friday ." She rolled her eyes at Chaz. Her boss Briggs would forget his head if it wasn't attached and he often blamed the reporters when he forgot their deadlines and screwed up the time slots for the news show.
"Are you watching MTV?" Briggs yelled.
"No," Riley said. "Why would I do that?"
"Turn it on!" Briggs shouted. Riley stared at the wall, miffed for a moment. Chaz was on his knees. getting up from his casual lounging position, looking at her expectantly. Riley shrugged and then covered the phone again and whispered, "Turn on MTV?"
Chaz scrambled for the remote. Riley pressed the phone to her ear again, cautiously.
"Are you watching?!" Briggs boomed.
"Yes, sir, yes." Riley chanted while Chaz frantically flipped channels, looking for MTV on the small hotel television. They had only been watching Starz and Bravo, so they had no idea what channel the teen-centric network was on. Finally, Chaz found it. MTV news front man Kurt Loder was looking at the camera, speaking in a serious voice.
"Yes, you do hear it first on MTV News." Kurt said smartly. "Just hours today we popped the big news on TRL... that Nsync member JC Chasez had popped the big question. Yes it's true. Say bye bye bye to your chances with JC, ladies. He is officially off the market. Engaged to his girlfriend Laura Marsden two weeks ago in Orlando at Santino's Italian Restaurant. We got the exclusive from one TRL audience member this afternoon."
The TV cut to a shot of a young teenager, standing in jeans and sparkly tank top with a blue wristband tied tightly across her wrist that said TRL.
"I mean, like, I can't believe everyone didn't know." the teenager said. "I don't keep up with those Nsync boys much. I mean, I'm sophisticated. I'm hardcore. I'm going to the show today because Good Charlotte is going to be on. Oh my god!" She grabbed some girl beside her and wriggled in happiness. "I LOOOOOOOVE GOOD CHARLOTTE!" There was slight cut after the outburst and the focus went back to the girl. "So like, I just mentioned it to some girl in like, the line because she was like, looking at the pictures in the hallway before we got to the studio and she was like, I love Nsync so much. JC's my favorite. And I was like, duh, JC's getting married. And she was like, shocked. She was like, no way. I was like, way, okay. I saw it with my own two eyes. Then all the people were like whoa and the producers wanted to talk to me and I got to be on camera and everything." the teenager snapped her gum at the camera. "It was pretty sweet."
Riley felt like inflicting bodily harm on herself after watching all of that, but the news report went on as she clutched the phone in horror.
"We immediately got on the phone with the owner's of Santino's Italian Restaurant," Kurt told the camera suavely . "This is what they had to say."
The news report cut to a picture of Santino's Italian Restaurant which looked nice and upscale, not overly posh or anything like that. There was a gravely old man's voice recorded from the other end of a phone line. "I guess a couple of weeks ago some guy came in here and proposed to a woman. It was very nice. Everyone clapped. Yes, he had hair like that young fellow you're talking about. I try to stay out of my customer's business as long as they are giving me business. But it was very nice. This is a quiet place with respectable people. We don't spread other people's news like that. So if you'd excuse me I'm going to get off the phone now."
"There you have it!" Kurt turned his head in a hip way when the camera cut back over to him. "Proof that JC Chasez is indeed engaged. We are still trying to reach JC and his group for further comment. As soon as we know, you'll know. Because..."
The screen cut to some stock footage of a leaden MTV graphic crashing down on the bottom of the TV screen and some generic voice over guy said "MTV NEWS. WE HEAR IT... FIRST."
Riley had never been so relieved to see a Jolly Ranchers commercial in her life.
"Okay, sir," Riley said. "We watched that."
"It's not true!" Briggs screamed. "They shouldn't hear it first! We hear it first! We're in Florida! Orlando!"
"Well, actually, sir," Riley started, not sure if Briggs actually remembered this. "Chaz and I are in New Orleans. On assignment."
"That's why you will get the exclusive. Not MTV!"
"What?" Riley looked at Chaz helplessly. Oh god, please no. She couldn't handle this. No, no. She didn't want to cover some boyband loser's wedding!
"We will get the exclusive. Channel 5 News from Orlando, Florida will get the exclusive!"
"Um, Mr. Briggs, we are not..." She looked at Chaz for any sort of help. Chaz stared back at her. She knew he could hear what Briggs was saying. The man was loud enough to be heard over three continents. "We are not national. We're just a local station. They will probably give the story to MTV so more people can watch it." Chaz nodded and gave her a thumbs up.
"NO!" Briggs roared. "You will not shut me down! You won't tell me how my news station is run! How unimportant it is! We will get this exclusive and then we can run it nationally. Everyone will be picking up on our feed. Everyone will be tuning in. You're the first one on the case, Morgan. You've got the advantage. You're already there-- Nsync is in New Orleans!--and you're a hometown girl. Now get on it! I hired you for a reason. Help me to remember why! Or it'll be your ass, Morgan."
Riley stiffened and took a deep breath. She couldn't believe this. She should just quit right now. Just hang up the phone and go. She could go anywhere. She had nothing tying her down.
Then again... this was her dream. This was what she wanted every since she was a kid. To be a journalist. Everyone had to start somewhere. Her start was at a crappy Orlando's crappy NBC local affiliate station. It was just a stepping stone towards more. Hey, maybe doing this stupid story would help her career.
If she got the exclusive.
"I'm on it, Sir," Riley said, hoping her voice didn't quiver as much as she thought it did.
Briggs hung up.
Riley clicked off. "Fucking A..."
"We're doing the Chasez marriage story, aren't we?" Chaz said knowingly.
"We've got to get the exclusive, Chaz," Riley said, turning to him, eyes wide with worry. "Or it's my job."
"Don't worry," Chaz got to his feet and walked to the closet. He pulled out his camera and handed her the microphone. She took it reluctantly as he heaved the boom mic over his shoulder.
"What are we going to do?" Riley asked. "We don't have a plan. We don't have any connections. They don't know us. We can't get in touch with the publicist. How are we going to get an exclusive? We don't even know where they are!"
"Well, that's what we gotta do, I guess," Chaz said. "We gotta find them." He was sympathetic, but ready to get the show on the road. Riley knew that it was time for to stop bitching and start getting this job done.
"Let's go," Riley said reluctantly. She opened the door and braced herself for whatever was next.
* * *
On the way inside the house, walking beside Laura, Justin began to feel his ankle tighten up a bit and it started to ache again. Kashia did say that stuff would be wearing off. He tried walking straight beside Laura and ignored the increasingly intense shooting pains running up his foot whenever he took a step.
"How do you like it here?" Laura said, conversationally, looking around the large mansion. They were looking for the guys. Laura had already tried calling JC's cell and Justin tried Lance, but nobody picked up. The house was so big, it was easy to lose someone.
"It's fine," Justin answered. "It's hot."
"I know, right?" Laura fanned herself. "Even with the air conditioning on, you can feel it. You'd think I'd be used to the heat."
"Yeah, you used to live here, right?" Justin asked, looking up at her. He thought about what the old man had said. She got a spell on him. He thought about what Kashia had said. Voodoo wasn't about putting spells on people. It wasn't inherently evil.
He wasn't sure who to believe.
"Yeah," Laura beamed at Justin. "Such great memories. It's so fun here. I lived her until I was about 15. Then I moved out your way... Florida."
"What kind of memories?" Justin asked. "I was just out today... exploring. I mean, up in the city, it's real cool and stuff. But other places, they seem so rundown. I don't know. Do you think that..."
"Oh no," Laura cut him off. "Where did you go? You shouldn't go to those places, Justin. They are unsafe. There's a lot of crime here. Stay up in the French Quarter area or the Garden District. You know those places. Stay out of the ghetto."
"Yeah, but," Justin said. "It seems like two-thirds of the city is... you know, poor. Or something. I never looked at it that way before. It's pretty unreal. So many people come here and spend money here. I don't get it."
Laura shrugged. "Beats me. I don't care. You couldn't pay me to go in those places Justin. They all need real jobs or something. Just stay away."
"Have you ever heard about this place?" Justin asked, the idea occurring to him suddenly. "This house we're staying in. The Pinsler Place. I heard stuff about it."
"Justin." Laura gave him a serious look. "These people are crazy. They believe in ghosts and voodoo and vampires for goodness sake. Not a lot of the people are very educated. So don't listen to them. There's nothing wrong with this house." Justin made a face at her back. And they said he was conceited. Come on. He couldn't stand Laura.
By the time they got to the kitchen, Justin couldn't hold off on his limp any longer. He knew they had found the guys because he could hear them from the hallway. He leaned against the doorway while Laura sauntered inside.
Joey, JC, Lance and Wade were standing in the middle of the kitchen at the kitchen island eating tacos. They smelled really good and Justin suddenly craved one like he had never craved a taco before. So he sucked it up and joined Laura quickly as she made her entrance.
"Laura," Lance said, shocked as he looked up from his taco. The other guys looked up to, trading glances.
"Justin!" JC exclaimed, putting down his food. "What happened to you?"
Justin glanced down at his bandaged knees. There was a big blood stain on one of the bandaids. He must have reopened the wound while he was strutting around, feeling no pain after that special jelly Kashia put on him. His shorts were also dirty and so was his shirt.
"Nothing," Justin said quickly. "I'm fine."
"Oh hi Laura!" Lance tried again, giving JC a strange look.
"Laura," JC looked over at his fiance. She grinned at him. "I was calling you."
"I know, baby," Laura walked over to JC and gave him a hug. "I was on the plane here." After a moment JC put his arms around her and Justin looked away. This was all so sickening. He had to find a way to get Laura out of JC's life quick so they could just focus on the group and on the tour. Laura knew more about New Orleans than she claimed.
"How are you doing?" Laura asked, putting her hands on JC's face.
"I'm okay," JC replied.
"Don't worry, this will all blow over. All your little fans are going to be so happy for us." She kissed JC and Justin grabbed a taco, unwrapping it with unnecessary force.
"Dude, what did happen to you?" Joey asked him.
"Aren't you drunk?" Justin countered.
"That was like two hours ago. I'm just tipsy now. You were gone for a long time."
"I was running," Justin said curtly. He couldn't stop watching Laura and JC. He couldn't believe she actually had the nerve to come up here.
"Uh..." Wade said, crumpling up his taco wrapper and hurriedly wiping his hands on a napkin. "Laura?" He stepped over to her. "My name is Wade. I'm one of the choreographers and the artistic director. Congratulations." He offered his hand. Laura shook it after a moment's hesitation. "We all heard. While we were practicing. It was on MTV news."
"Yeah, I know," Laura said. "It was lovely. They did a bigger piece about it later on... maybe a half hour ago."
"It was lovely?" Justin repeated under his breath in disbelief before he could stop himself. Lance shot him a "shut up" look.
"Can we talk about this, Laura?" JC asked. He glanced over at Justin and Justin felt a bit ashamed, worried that JC might have heard him ragging on his fiance. But the engagement wasn't real! Justin was going to help JC realize that.
"What's to talk about, baby?" Laura said. "You should be proud. I mean, we don't have to keep this a secret anymore. It's all on display now."
Laura carefully laid her left hand on the table. Justin remembered that ring from the driveway. It had a thick platinum band of connected hearts and the diamond was huge in a Look-At-Me-I'm-So-Rich-Way. He couldn't believe JC would buy her a ring like that, so gaudy and showy. That wasn't JC's style, no matter how much he loved the girl. Another reason to believe that Laura was messing with JC's mind.
"Where did you get that ring?" JC exclaimed, suddenly. The rest of the guys exchanged uncomfortable looks.
"Uh, JC, if you don't remember the ring," Joey said carefully. "Are you sure you weren't just wasted when you asked her?" Joey snorted. It was supposed to be a joke but Wade elbowed him in the chest, Lance glared, JC stared and Laura looked really annoyed. "What!"
"I remember when he told us," Lance said quickly. "He didn't give her a ring when he asked."
"That's right," Laura clarified. "But that can be remedied easily. I got this on loan from the jeweler at Jive. You guys know him. Just to see what it would look like. To get an idea of what we might want to get. What do you think?"
Justin thought JC looked like he was about to be sick and Justin felt so sorry for him. He had to get JC out of this unhealthy situation and quick. He would find Kashia again. He would make her tell him how to do some counter-voodoo or whatever he needed to do so JC could be free from this. But for now, he could tell JC didn't need everyone staring at him, so he decided to step in as a distraction.
"Ow," Justin said, leaning on his hurt ankle in order to feel the pain so he could make the whiny noise. Everyone looked up at him. "I hurt myself. Can you guys help to get to the trainer? Is Dr. Mike around?"
JC looked at Justin with concerned and then peered at his ankle. "Wow, J, it's really swollen. How did you walk in here on that? How are you going to get your shoes off?"
"I guess we'll figure it out," Justin said.
"I'll help you over there," JC said quickly. "I saw Dr. Mike upstairs when I was in my room."
"JC!" Laura said sharply.
Justin put his hand on JC's shoulder and squeezed gently. "It's okay. I'll be fine. Thanks." He looked hard into JC's eyes, trying to tell him that he wasn't mad anymore and he would help him get away from Laura. JC pressed his lips together like he understood.
"I guess we'll help," Lance said. He put his arm around Justin so Justin could lean on him.
"Yeah, upstairs right?" Wade said, taking Justin's other side. "Dr. Mike."
"Uh, I'll go with them." Joey gave a little salute to Laura. "Leave you guys alone. Maybe Dr. Mike will accidentally cut Justin's foot off. That would be fun."
"Watch it, Joey," Justin growled. Together, all four guys left the room.
JC watched Justin hobble away between Wade and Lance. Then he looked at Laura and shook his head.
"What are you doing?" He asked in the quiet kitchen. The tacos were long forgotten.
"What?" Laura snapped.
"What?" JC repeated. He grabbed her hand. "That's what."
"What, JC!" Laura pulled her hand away sharply.
"Come on..." JC said.
"Come on, what!" Laura threw her hands up in the air, frustrated. "You're moving like a snail on this one. If you wanna make it believable you better make things happen."
"We said we were going to take it one step at a time!" JC reminded her.
"One step at a time?" Laura scoffed. "Come on, JC. You didn't even have your foot off the ground. You were probably going to never ever tell them and that was the first step."
"So you had to go behind my back and tell the press?" JC stared at her in disbelief.
"No, that wasn't me. God, have more faith in me than that." Laura leaned against the kitchen island with her back to him. JC backed up and sat in a chair, resting his head on his hand quietly. "I didn't leak it but I'm glad it got leaked. Look, JC, you proposed to me in a freaking restaurant. Off the cuff! I'm surprised they didn't find out sooner. Too bad nobody knows that you tried to take it back a week later."
JC heaved a deep sigh. "Laura... please..."
"We're taking it one step at a time, right, JC? Let me remind you of all the steps."
JC swallowed, looked up at the ceiling, then looked at her. "This is what I get for trusting you with the truth?"
"What am I doing?" Laura turned around so JC wasn't looking at her back anymore. She leaned her chest over the table. "I'm going along, aren't I? I'm playing my part. This is a part of it. This ring. So make it count, JC. I'm doing this for you. I love you! I can't help it, but I do. I wish to God I didn't sometimes. It would make all of this different. Maybe it would be easier. I don't know."
"I love you too..." JC said quietly, looking at the tile on the kitchen floor. It was all so old. This house had existed lifetimes and lifetimes before JC was just a thought in his parents' minds.
"But it's not enough, love's not enough. Yeah yeah yeah. I know." Laura bit her lip for a moment, then shook herself out of it. "Seemed like a good idea... when I agreed to this. But JC if you aren't even going to look at me halfway decently, what's the point? Find a different way to keep your sanity. If you're not going to make this worth my while, why even bother JC. I'm doing this for you!"
"Okay, okay." JC got up and walked over to her. He put his hand on her cheek and looked at her. "Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just... so distracted. I didn't expect this to be such a big deal. Everyone's mad at me. They are acting like I made a huge, horrible, irreversible mistake. This isn't what I wanted. I wanted to do this on my own terms. On our own terms. And now it's just getting out of control. This whole thing is rolling away from me."
Laura put her arms around him tightly and JC buried his face in her shoulder and took a deep breath. She rubbed his back gently. It was all so confusing. He wanted this and he didn't want this. He wanted Laura and he knew that he would never have her, not in the right way. He wanted something else. He just wanted everything to be normal again. But what was normal? He thought he knew what normal was once but now he thought that he never did.
"We'll get it under control," Laura promised him. "Let's get a ring, okay. It doesn't have to be this one. We'll pick it out together. We've got to work through this together. Don't shut me out." Laura pulled back and cupped JC's face in her hands. He nodded, looking into her dark eyes.
"Okay, a ring. That's the first step." JC agreed.
"This is going to work," Laura promised. "For better, for worse. Through sickness and health. I'll keep your secret. Take it with me to the grave."
JC put his hands on her wrists. "I know."
"So from now on you've got to be more casual about this. Happier. Make sure they know this is your idea. I'm already catching shit for all of this. Did you see the way Justin was looking at me? Like I'm breaking up his family or something. That kid is a trip and I don't understand it all but... hey, I'm not here to judge. Just set him straight, okay? Tell him to quit acting so nasty around me. He never liked me and he has no reason to be so bratty. Get him to stop."
JC nodded numbly, even though this meant talking kind of harshly to Justin. He could handle it. "I'll tell him. Everything's going to be fine."
"It's going to be fine." Laura repeated firmly. "I'll talk to the people at Jive. We'll work this out in the most PR friendly way. Then we can go about setting a date. Soon, JC. We need to do this soon. For both of us."
"We're going to do this soon," JC affirmed. He kissed her and ran his fingers along the nape of her neck, thinking about how lovely and thick and dark her hair was. Her mouth was warm over his, comforting. It wasn't so bad, being with her. It wasn't bad at all. He could love her. He did. That's why when he asked, he thought he could go through with the whole marriage thing. But he found himself having doubts. Telling Laura the truth was probably the best thing. He hoped it was. It had to be.
"I'll be with you every step of the way," Laura murmured against his mouth. He let himself get swept in the heat, the touch, the comfort, the fantasy. Soon they moved out of the kitchen and headed up to his room. He had his arm around her and she was walking close to his side, hanging on to him for all he was worth.
He was doing the right thing. JC told himself that with every step to his bedroom. He was doing the right thing.
He opened the door to his room and let his mind wander during the moments that Laura stepped in the room, closed the door, sat on the bed and pulled off her shirt.
But his mind came back to the present when Laura reached for his hand.
This was his life now.
He got on the bed with Laura and kissed her again, aggressively. She hummed with pleasure.
He'd better get used to it.
Number of reviews: 18
Print:
Chapter or Story