Chapter Five
A few days later Karly sat on her hospital bed, dressed in her jeans and her shirt reading a magazine. She had just signed her release form, and was feeling a whole lot better. She didn't know where she was gonna go, but she had a feeling JC was gonna help her somehow. She talked individually to each of the guys. She found out how nice they all were.
Karly turned the page and looked at in shock. The guy's faces graced the page with the title 'Is This The End Of *NSYNC?' She skimmed over the interview.
'JC's in a group?' she asked herself. Living on the streets, Karly never got to read very much. She didn't keep up with the music scene or anything like that.
She placed the magazine on the bed and stood up. She walked over to the door and opened it and walked out.
"Karly. Where are you going?" JC asked, breaking away from the converstation he was having on the phone.
She didn't answer him, she only walked faster.
"I'll call you back," he said into the phone. He snapped his moblie phone shut and placed it into his back pocket. "Karly! Wait up." JC jogged to catch up to her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her around.
"What do you want?" Karly snapped, pulling her arm from his grasp. He frowned, not understanding what was going on. "What's wrong?"
"You're in a group. Which means you have money. I don't want your money," she answered.
"Yeah, I'm in a group... I just want to help. That can't be what's making you this upset," JC said.
"I don't..." she struggled, trying to find the right words.
JC finally understood. "You don't want to be thought of as a girl who's using me for my money."
Karly nodded her head, looking down sadly at the ground.
"But you didn't even know who I was in the first place. I know you're not using me," JC said, reaching his hand out to cup under her chin. He brought her face up and looked into her tear filled eyes. "I care about you Karly. I want to help you get back onto your feet. Please let me help you," he pleaded with her.
Karly saw the sincere look in his eyes. She trusted him. She smiled softly. "OK."
JC and Karly left the hospital surrounded by bodyguards. Lights went off, reporters shouted questions at JC asking 'Who is that girl?', 'Is she your girlfriend?', 'Why are you at the hospital?'
Once inside a SUV JC let out a sigh of relief. "Damn reporters," he muttered once the SUV left the curb. He took a glance as Karly who had visibily paled.
"Are you OK?" JC asked her, concerned.
"Fine."
"OK. Before I was on the phone to Justin's best friend Amanda... it's possible something may be brewing there. Anyways, I'm gonna drop you off at Abercrombie and Fitch, she's gonna be there. So you gals can go shopping to get you new clothes," JC explained, turning to look at her.
"My friend Jilly works there," Karly said as she fiddled nervously with her hands. "Then you'll have no problems using this." JC got out his wallet and took out a credit card.
"No. Like I said before I don't want your money," Karly tried to protest.
JC grabbed her hand and placed the credit card in it. "You said I can help you. So I'm helping you."
Karly bit her bottom lip before smiling softly, stuffing the card into the back of her jean pocket.
10 mintues later they were parked in front of a line stores.
A young woman about 5'1" with curly red shoulder length hair was jumping up and down and waving her arms.
JC laughed loudly. "That's Amanda. Don't worry, she's just naturally cheerful about anything and everything. She'll probably take you to a restaurant around lunch time. The guys and I have an interview in 20 mintues. I'll be back to pick you up around two o'clock."
"OK," Karly said, opening the door.
"Have fun," JC said with a smile on his face.
Amanda made her way over to the SUV. She came up behind Karly and looked at JC. "Don't worry, Jace. I'll take care of her."
"Thanks again, Amanda. Bye Karly," JC waved before closing the door and left. Karly turned around to look at Amanda.
Amanda smiled brightly. "I'm Amanda. It's really nice to meet you."
"Karly. Likewise." They shook hands.
"Where would you like to go first? Would you like a drink or something? Food? Or straight to the clothing stores."
Karly shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't worry me."
"OK. Let's go get you some clothes," Amanda said, grabbing her hand.
They spent a good hour and a half browsing through the store. Along the way they picked up jeans, t-shirts and skirts. Any piece of clothing you could think of Karly had it.
Karly picked out what she loved - a pair of gray sweats and a t-shirt with red writing 'Abererombie and Fitch' with a white hooded sweater with 'Vareity' written in blue.
Amanda and Karly walked up to the regsiter and placed all the clothes on the counter. Jilly was behind it talking on the phone, her back toward them.
"NO! I'm not gonna do that!" Jilly yelled into the phone. "BITE ME!" With that she slammed down the phone and took a breath. "Stupid manager person." She turned around.
"KARLY! Where have you been girl? I've been worried sick," Jilly asked walking around the counter and hugged her friend.
Karly hugged her back. "I was in the hospital for a bit," she answered.
"The hospital? What happened, are you OK?" Jilly inquired pulling away.
Karly nodded. "Jilly this is Amanda, Amanda, Jilly," she introduced the woman.
They shook hands.
"Karly, I'll be right back. I'll go get us a drink," Amanda said, before walking away.
Jilly walked back around the counter and looked at all the clothes. "WoW! How are you gettin' all these clothes?"
Karly reached into her back pocket and fished out the credit card JC gave her. "With this," she replied, sliding the card over to her.
Jilly looked at the card with wide eyes. "Joshua Scott Chasez?! Holy shit!" she almost screamed.
"Jilly, keep your voice down... I don't want people to know," Karly said in a whisper. Her heartbeat increased once girls started to walk over. "Did someone, like, say JC's name?" one of the girls asked, flipping her hair. Jilly almost laughed out loud at the way the girl sounded. "Yeah. He's like SO hot."
"Like, I wouldn't know that already. Like, where is he?" Another girl inquired.
Karly's face turned beet red as she tried to contain her laughter. "I, like, saw him walk into The Gap, like, like, like a few mintues ago. If you like, like hurry up you could catch him," Jilly said, almost laughing. The young girls ran out leaving Karly and Jilly laughing loudly.
Karly stopped laughing when the pain in her stomach came back. She placed her hand on her stomach and took a deep breath.
Jilly also stopped laughing to glance at her friend worriedly.
Before Jilly could ask if she was OK Karly spoke, "I'm fine. Just a little sore."
"How did you get this card?" Jilly asked her.
"He's the one that took me to the hospital. He wants to help me out. I really didn't want his help in the beginning, but he's really stubborn. I accepted his help after a bit. You know how I am about money. I hate feeling like a charity case. But if wants to help... I can't stop him."
Jilly smiled softly before she got busy scaning the items.
The total came up to over five hundred dollars. Jilly took the card and swiped it, doing what she had to do.
"Holy crap!" Karly yelled, her mouth wide.
Amanda came back with cans of Coca Cola. "What's up?" she asked placing three cans on the counter.
Karly pointed at the small screen that showed the price of everything.
Amanda looked at it. "Yeah. What's wrong with that?"
"That's a lot of money. I don't think I could pay JC back," she replied.
"You don't have to pay him back Karly. He's helping you out. He wants to do this. All he wants in return is you clothed and happy."
Karly sighed. She did need help, but she didn't want all the money JC seemed to want to offer her. She wanted to be independent. Do things her way, all the way. But it didn't seem to be working for her.
"Here," Amanda said, picking up a can and handing it to her.
Karly took it and opened it taking a long sip.
Once Jilly was done she put all the clothes into bags and handed the credit card back to Karly. Karly put the credit card back into her back pocket.
"Do you think we could leave these bags here for a few hours?" Amanda asked sipping at her own can of drink.
"Yeah, sure. I'll put them in the store room," Jilly answered. "Hey, is that drink for me?"
"Yep," Amanda replied.
"Thankyou! I've been dying for a drink forever!" Jilly said, opening her can. She took a few sips before going back to packing up Karly's clothes.
"Karly, where do you wanna go after this?" Amanda asked, pushing her glasses back on her nose.
"Lunch, maybe," Karly replied, taking another sip of the cold liquid.
"Sounds good. Do you wanna change into something more comfortable?"
Karly nodded looking back to the counter. "Jilly, could you leave out the sweats and the white t-shirt? I wanna get changed."
"Sure. You can get changed in the back room," Jilly answered picking out the clothes Karly wanted and handed them to her.
Karly smiled and walked around the back to get dressed into her new clothes.
Once she was dressed she walked back out to the counter and saw Jilly and Amanda chatting like old friends.
"Jilly's coming to lunch. That cool with you?" Amanda said. "Of course."
"Look at you! Ain't you cute in your new clothes!" Jilly said, taking Karly's hand and spinning her around.
"Let's go eat, eat, eat!" Amanda exclaimed grabbing both of the girls' arms and walked out of the store.
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