Two weeks later
(February 09, 2005)
"I can't believe that happened." Bella laughed.
"Hey, it's not funny. How dare you laugh at my expense." Chris whined.
"If you were me, you'd be laughing right now too." Bella giggled.
"Oh, I suppose you're right." Chris sighed dramatically. "But enough about me, how's the play going? Opening night is this weekend right?"
"Yeah, I'm a little nervous."
"I don't blame you, after all, you are the main character and everyones counting on you."
"Thanks for that vote of confidence Christopher." Bella rolled her eyes at him.
"No problem. So have you decided if you want to go out with me yet next time I'm up there?" Chris asked.
"I don't know, Chris. You're a little weird for me." Bella teased.
"Hey, I'm wounded." Chris placed a hand over his heart, forgetting that she couldn't see him through the phone.
"You'll live."
Bella turned to see Keira walk through the door and waved at her.
"Listen, I've got to go, Keira just got home. I'll talk to you later alright?"
"Aw, I see how it is. I thought you cared about me." Chris pouted.
"That's what you get for doing your own thinking." Bella snickered.
"Hey, thats not nice."
"Never said it was supposed to be, but I better get going. Talk to you later."
"OK, beautiful, I'll see you later." Chris answered then hung up quickly before she could say anything.
"Chris, you know I don't like you calling me that." Bella blushed, then realized he'd hung up. "Little weasel."
"That's a nice blush you're sportin Bella, from anyone I know?" Keira teased.
"What are you talking about?" Bella said ignoring the teasing.
"Oh come on Bella, ever since that night at the restaurant, you've pratically been glued to Chris. The last day they were here you were inseperable, and now you talk on the phone almost every day, sometimes more than once." Keira nudged her friend.
"What can I say, he's a fun guy. Besides, you know I can't date anyone." Bella sighed.
"And who said you couldn't?" Keira scowled.
"People like me don't have real relationships, there are certain standards I'm expected to keep when it comes to guys."
"Since when did you do things by the book, and since were you back home living under those rules." Keira chided gently.
"I suppose you're right, but that doesn't mean I see Chris any other way than a friend. I barely know him."
"Whatever you say. Did I tell you that, Stewart called this morning?"
"Nope, but I talked to him at rehearsal earlier, so no biggie." Bella shrugged.
"I'm so tired of school. I wish it was graduation already." Keira sighed laying her head back against the couch.
"I know what you mean." Bella agreed.
"Just shoot me." Keira moaned.
"I need a best friend, sorry." Bella shook her head.
"Some friend you are."
"I try."
"Josh will be in town tomorrow doing promotions. I wanna see him somethin fierce, but his schedule is really tight." Keira sighed.
"Why don't you tag along?" Bella asked.
"I don't want to bother him." Keira shrugged her shoulders.
"Is he going to be on TRL?"
"Yeah."
"Well, let's go down to Times Square and get in then." Bella suggested.
"And how are we going to get in? It's not like they have any tickets available." Keira looked at her friend with interest.
"Well we'll just have to get them to let us in. You know, come up with some kind of clever way to get in. They always save places for people they bring up from the crowd." Bella explained, an idea staring to form in her head.
"You have a plan don't you?" Keira asked.
"Is he going to be alone, or are any of the other guys going to be there with him?" Bella questioned.
"As far as I know, he's going to be alone."
"This is my idea..."
Bella explained her idea to Keira, who in return loved the idea and couldn't wait for the following day so they could follow through. It better be good, they were doing something they hadn't done all semester, they were cutting class.
"Damn, I've gotta get to work." Bella said checking her watch.
"Bummer." Keira sympathized.
"Oh well, gotta pay the bills." Bella answered standing up.
"True that."
Bella got changed as fast as she could, she was going to be late. She was rarely late, but her boss hated it when his employees were late. When she got there, he really laid it into her.
Thankfully tonight she worked the bar, rather than being a waitress. It was slow starting out as it was only seven o'clock, but by about ten, she started getting swamped. Her boss yelling at her was the highlight of her night compared to what else went down. Everyone seemed to bitch about their drinks being wrong, or they didn't like the music being played, or they tried to get a peice of ass from her.
Bella had had it up to her head when one guy pushed the limit. She'd just gotten back from the bathroom and was walking back to the bar when he grabbed her butt with all he was worth and whistled loudly. It wasn't all that uncommon, but with the night she'd been having she flipped, she turned around and got in his face, "I am not a peice of meat that you can grope just because you FEEL like it. Please refrain from treating me like one.
"Oh, the cat has claws." the guy laughed with his friends.
Bella did everything she could to ignore him, but him and his friends just kept egging her on. She'd had enough, she grabbed one of the beer taps and sprayed it all over him. "Get out of here."
The bouncer saw what had happened and escorted the man and his friends out and Bella's boss came over to see what happened.
"Everything okay Bel?" he asked concerned.
"I'm fine." she nodded and focused on all the customers who were still waiting for a drink.
"Alright, if you need any help with anything, please let me know." he said before walking away.
Thankfully that was the climax of the night, everything pretty much just wore out after that. By the time she was off at midnight, she was dead on her feet. For the first time in a long time, she was glad she was skipping class the next morning. If not, she'd have to get up in a mere 5 hours.
~*~
Next day TRL Studios
"Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome our first guest today, JC Chasez." Carson Daly introduced his guest.
"Thank you," JC said coming out to stand in front of the camera with Carson.
"So how you doin today?" Carson asked.
"Good, thanks. It's kinda cold out there though." JC said referring to the February temperatures.
"I feel ya man." Carson agreed. "So did you get a load of all the fans out there?"
JC looked out the window and nodded, "A lot of them out there today."
"Why don't you go ahead and find two lucky people to come up here to the heat." Carson told him.
JC scanned the crowd below as they tried to get his attention so he'd bring them up.
"Check those two out." Carson said pointing to two girls who were jumping up and down. They had no coats on, and they had Nsync and all they're names written all over their arms. On their signs were messages that couldn't be ignored.
The taller of the two girls held a sign that said, "Chris come out and play" and the other girls sign read, "All Day Long I Dream About Justin".
JC squinted to see their faces and thought they looked familiar, "Bring them up."
"All right, they're on their way. We'll have to get them on air and talk to them about their ridiculous getup." Carson said. "But enough of that, how is touring going without all the guys?"
"It's good. It's a little nerve-wracking because when you're with a group, theres always someone to fall back on if you make a mistake, but when you're alone you're on your own. There is no one there to back you up if you make a mistake. At the same time, I can be more creative, because I only have to please myself. So it has its ups and its downs."
While the interview continued on, Bella and Keira made their way upstairs.
"This is so exciting." Keira gushed.
"If you say so." Bella said nervously. If they made it on air, her face may be recognized.
"Oh come on Bella, for once, live a little." Keira nudged her friend.
Bella realized she was right. Their hardwork and freezing paid off. They were on their way to TRL Studios after they were picked out of a crowd.
They heard the crowd screaming as Carson announced them. Keira led the way out onto the floor and went to stand on the other side of JC.
"Let me just say you guys are insane. Did you not get the memo that it's cold out there?" Carson laughed.
"We're up here aren't we." Keira winked.
"Do you have anything to say to these diehards JC?" Carson opened the floor up to him.
"Keira, you're nuts. I can't believe you were out there without a coat on. You too Bella, you're both nuts." JC said shaking his head with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Wait a minute, you know these girls?" Carson looked between the three of them.
"Keira has been my best friend for as long as I can remember, and Bella here is her roommate." JC explained.
"Wow, small world." Carson nodded. "So what's with the signs?"
"It was Bella's idea." Keira smiled at her friend.
"So it's up to you Bella, give us the 411 on the signs."
"Well, I just wanted to make an impact. We knew that it would just be JC here today, and we knew we had to be noticed, so thats why we used the other guys." Bella explained the best she could.
"Why did you pick Chris?" Carson asked.
"I just recently met him and he's a really fun person so it was natural for me to choose him."
"And Keira, why did you choose Justin?"
"No reason other than it wasn't JC or Chris." Keira shrugged.
"All right, we have to go to commercial. When we come back, we'll hear more from JC and we also have a surprise guest we'll be bringing out.
During commercial, Carson talked to the audience while JC talked to Keira. Bella felt out of her element big time, she just stood close to Keira and listened to her conversation with JC.
"So what are you doing here?" JC asked Keira.
"I wanted to see you while you were here, and this was the only way I could think of because I knew you'd be busy." Keira shrugged.
"You could have come along." JC said
"That's what I told her." Bella chimed in.
"I thought I'd be in the way." Keira answered.
"You'll never be in the way Keira. But I'm glad you did come today, because I got to see you." JC smiled tenderly.
Keira opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when Carson came back and told them they would be on air in five seconds.
"Welcome back to TRL, if you're just joining us we have JC Chasez with us as well as two people we pulled from the crowd who just so happen to be friends with Mr. Chasez here. I'd like to bring out the surprise guest, so without further adieu, come on out."
Bella's jaw dropped when she saw Chris come out and stop next to her. He smiled at her and put his hand on her jaw to lift it up, he winked then turned his attention to Carson.
"Welcome to the show Chris." Carson said shaking his hand.
"Thanks man. Good to be here." Chris nodded.
"So what do you think of our friends here." Carson said pointing to Keira and Bella.
Chris looked them up and down and took in their clothes and signs. "Very sexy." he responded.
"Do you want to come out and play?" Carson chuckled.
"Sure, I like to play." Chris wiggled his eyesbrows suggestively.
"We're not even going to go there. So what do you think of JC's solo act?"
"I support him. He's doing really good, as is Justin." Chris replied.
"Thanks, I'd like to stay and talk more, but we need to get to the next video and we're running out of time. But before we go, we're going to give you guys a night on the town on us. We're arranging for the four of you to have dinner at Alasse, then take in a broadway show." Carson said handing JC an envelope explaining everything.
"Thanks man." JC said shaking his hand.
"Ladies it was nice meeting you, and have fun tonight." Carson said shaking both of their hands.
"Thanks." Keira replied.
"Thank you," Bella said bowing her head in thanks.
"I like your accent by the way." Carson said before moving on to Chris. "As always man, it's been real."
"Same here." Chris said shaking his hand.
The four of them went back stage, Keira and Bella waited while JC and Chris handed in their mics before returning to them.
"So, you ladies up for a night on the town?" JC said offering his elbow to Keira.
"I am." Keira said taking his elbow.
"And you m'lady?" Chris said holding his hand out.
Bella shyly put her hand on his and blushed when he bent over and softly kissed the back of her hand.
"Should be fun." she said breathlessly.
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