“Believe it baby,” Justin said leaning forward to kiss Madelyn. They pulled away from each other and Madelyn walked over to Joey, Chris, Lance and JC to give them hugs.
When she went to hug Chris he backed away, “Whoa there Madelyn, I’m not gonna let you touch me. You’re lethal!”
“Come here!” Madelyn demanded in a motherly tone as she hugged him.
“So what happened to the shows in Boston?” Abbey asked.
“They were double booked so we moved ours to the end of the tour. Therefore we have extra days off with you guys,” Lance explained.
“So now,” Joey said with a mouthful of food, “You two get to feed and wait on us every moment of our days off!”
“Oh really?” Abbey and Madelyn questioned him laughing under their breath.
“That’ll be the day Joey!” JC joked.
“Exactly, that’ll be the day!” Madelyn said.
“Doesn’t hurt to try,” Joey informed Justin and Lance as they nodded back to him.
“We all don’t have to cram in our little kitchen to eat, so here’s some plates and you can go eat in the main room on the couch,” Abbey told everyone.
“Ok, Mom,” Chris joked.
“Shut up and take your plate Christopher!” Abbey told him.
“Yes, mother,” he mocked in a childish tone grabbing the plate quickly.
“I’m gonna knock you one in a second!” Abbey joked.
“Child abuse, child abuse!” Chris chuckled. Abbey folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes. “I love teasing you girl! It’s just so easy and fun!” Chris told Abbey.
JC walked over to Abbey with a bottle of Gatorade, “I feel your pain,” JC told her as he handed her the bottle.
Abbey looked up at JC and took the bottle from him. “Thanks,” she said as he winked back at her. She smiled at him and grabbed two plates and some napkins for the both of them. He then pulled open the swinging door for Abbey and let her through first as he followed. Everyone else had already left the kitchen and were sitting on the couch and floor.
The only seats left were next to each other on the love seat. It was almost as if they were left open especially for JC and Abbey to sit close. Abbey sat down first, then JC and he took the plates from her and set the food out on them.
JC began to eat and Abbey at first sat and watched him eat then she began to eat. They were sitting so close to each other that their elbows bumped a few times. Of course JC and Abbey both apologized relentlessly to each other every time.
After everyone was finished eating they talked about what they’ve been up to since they last saw each other. JC relaxed with his arms on the back of the couch as he listened and talked. Abbey was huddled up next to him with her legs under her and her toes tucked into the crack of the couch, which made her lean closer to JC.
Sometimes Abbey would lean her head on JC’s shoulder while listening to everyone talk. When he would talk and her head was on him, she could hear his voice resonate inside his chest. The sound of his voice gave her the butterflies. Abbey was always cold so she would try to snuggle closer to JC and he would wrap his arm around her side and try to keep her closer to him.
Madelyn and Justin were sitting on the floor across from JC and Abbey. Madelyn had seen how happy Abbey looked to be around JC. She was glad that Abbey had found someone else besides Nick, but it made Madelyn more happy that it was JC. She knew that with JC she would not have to worry about Abbey.
“Look at them,” Madelyn whispered in Justin’s ear, “They’re so happy together. They were meant to be.”
“They’re a match made in a heaven that finally found each other,” Justin whispered back.
Madelyn and Abbey left their apartment to go running. While they were gone, the guys stayed at the apartment and relaxed. They took advantage of any time they got to relax, so most of the time while the girls were gone they all did something separate. Something they hadn’t done in a long time.
JC had remembered Abbey mentioning she had borrowed her brother’s special fiftieth anniversary book, The Hobbit. So he found it on her bookshelf and looked through all the extra drawings in it. While JC was reading in Abbey’s room, Justin was cuddled up on Madelyn’s bed in the room down the hall. He had fallen asleep like a baby and Joey and Lance could see him from the main room through the door so they were making fun of him.
After a few laughs at Justin, Lance and Joey turned on the TV and surfed through the channels. They ended up on TNN to watch Dukes of Hazard, Lance’s favorite TV show when he was younger. Lance had to keep shushing Joey from munching on his chips and Chris from causing so much racket in the corner of the room.
Chris was fumbling through the girls’ collection of videotapes and DVD’s. He set aside a few to watch when Lance was finished watching Dukes of Hazard. “Five more minutes until it’s over,” Chris announced to Lance and Joey.
The five minutes had passed slowly, in Chris’s opinion, but he finally got his turn with the TV. He stuck in one of the girls’ Tae-Bo workout videos and made room in front of the TV to workout with it. Joey and Lance still sat on the couch watching Chris get prepared and pumped up for the video.
“Hey JC, come in here, you need to see this,” Joey yelled down the hallway.
JC set down the book on Abbey’s bed and walked into the main room to find Chris warming up with the video. He then sat down next to Joey and Lance and they laughed as Chris tried to do everything like the video.
Unfortunately Chris wasn’t coordinated with the video so he made a fool of himself. “Good thing Wade doesn’t choreograph our dance moves like Tae-Bo, huh Chris?” Joey joked. The guys were laughing so loud at Chris it woke Justin and he joined them in the main room to watch Chris.
A few minutes later
Abbey and Madelyn were coming up to their door with groceries when they heard the guys laughing. They walked in the apartment and saw Chris jumping around trying to keep up with the leg exercise. Immediately Abbey and Madelyn set down their bags on the chair and joined in watching Chris.
As Chris finished the end of the twenty minute workout tape, he tripped on the coffee table and fell backwards. Everyone including Chris laughed and Abbey and Justin stood up clapping.
“Thank you, Thank you! I’ll be here all week!” Chris said getting up from the floor.
“Alright then, I’m gonna go take a shower,” Abbey told everyone while walking towards the bathroom.
“I’ll put away the groceries,” Madelyn told Abbey.
Justin jumped up, “I’ll help you Maddie.” He followed Madelyn into the kitchen with the bags from Target. Madelyn began to take out things from inside the bags. Justin was taking things out of another bag when he came across a bag of socks. “What the heck is this?” Justin asked with a puzzled look on his face.
Madelyn looked up to see Justin giving a bag of socks strange looks. “Those are Abbey’s. She picked up some while we bought food. They go in the second drawer from the top in her tall dresser,” Madelyn told him laughing under her breath at him.
“Ok,” Justin said leaving the kitchen holding the bag of socks away from him like it was dirty rag. He got to Abbey’s room and went to the first dresser he saw without thinking. When he opened the drawer he didn’t see any other pairs of socks, but a piece of paper caught his eye. When he glanced past it, the words “I’ll love you always, Nick” stood out and Justin quickly grabbed the letter, folded it and shoved it in his pocket.
He threw the socks in the right dresser and hurried back to the kitchen. When Justin got back in the kitchen he didn’t say anything. Madelyn wondered what was wrong because it was unlike him to not talk.
“Justy, is something wrong? Did something happen in Abbey’s room?” she questioned him. Justin hesitated and Madelyn spoke again. “If anything is wrong you can tell me.”
“I found this,” he said pulling the letter out of his back pocket.
“What’s this?”
“I found it in Abbey’s dresser drawer. It’s from Nick,” he explained. “I opened the wrong dresser not even thinking and I found that laying on the top of a jacket.”
Madelyn opened the letter, “Abbey never showed me this. She just said she threw it away.” She then began to read the letter.
Abbey,
I love you. I want to be with you forever, and I will try my hardest to be with you. I’ve never loved someone so much. In fact I have never loved anyone but you. All I want is for you to love me. To have a love for someone is great, but to have that someone love you back is a lifetime wish come true. I know I hurt you before and I will do anything to make that up to you. We had such a great relationship before and I want that back. I want all the good times we had together and the laughs, I want to see you smile. I want to be able to hug you and feel you next to me, to hold your hand, to kiss your lips. To be with you. I love you Abbey. Please, just consider talking to me I will explain myself to you. I just can’t hold this in any longer than I have.
I will love you always,
Nick
“I can’t believe that asshole! What is his problem?” Madelyn said loudly.
Justin shushed her, “Don’t let anyone hear. Especially JC.”
Just then JC walked in the kitchen. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Madelyn and Justin simultaneously spoke.
“Alright, whatever you say. I’m gonna grab this water then,” JC said as he slowly took a bottle of water from the counter starring at Justin and Madelyn as he left the kitchen.
“Where should I start?” Madelyn sighed then began to explain to Justin what happened with Nick and Abbey.
Ten minutes later
Justin had run to put back the letter in Abbey’s drawer because he heard the shower turn off. When he ran in Abbey’s room, he didn’t see JC reading on Abbey’s bed until he turned around closing the drawer with his butt. “Hi! Bye!” Justin said quickly exiting the room faster than he came in.
JC shook his head at Justin and went back to reading. He didn’t hear the shower turn off so he didn’t think to leave Abbey’s room until she got out of the shower. While reading he heard footsteps coming into the room. JC didn’t look up from the book but he immediately assumed it was Justin again. “What are you doing?” he snapped.
Abbey jumped when she heard someone behind her talking, “I didn’t see you in here JC.”
JC immediately looked up, “Abbey! I thought you were Justin! I’m so sorry!”
“It’s alright,” Abbey said as JC began to stand up. “No, you don’t have to get up, I change in my closet anyways.”
“OK. Hey this is a cool edition of The Hobbit. Where’d you find it?”
“It’s my brother’s. He got it from a friend while he was in Frisco. And he gave it to me to read,” Abbey explained from inside the closet.
“I need a copy of this. Hint, hint,” JC joked.
“Put it on your birthday list!” Abbey said stepping out of the closet. She walked over to her bed sat down facing JC and took the towel off her head.
“And what do you want for your birthday?” JC asked watching Abbey dry her hair with the towel.
“A mansion in Hawaii!” Abbey joked. “No, I don’t want anything material, there’s nothing I need. Maybe just friends coming over to hang out and catch up.”
“Kind of like tonight. A way of keeping the close friendship. Or just keeping tabs on everyone.”
“No, just making sure you guys remember those two silly girls you met at the club one mysterious night. Keepin’ ya real baby!”
JC laughed at Abbey, “Oh my Gosh! Sometimes you scare me! But really, you’ve got to want something.”
“All I want is to have a good night with people I enjoy being on my birthday.”
“Are you sure you enjoy being around us?” JC asked sarcastically.
“Uh, I’m not sure I enjoy your presence, but Chris is lots of fun!” Abbey laughed. “I’m kidding! You should have seen the look on your face!” she paused to stop from laughing and to breathe. “I enjoy being with you..”
Both sat starring at each other. “And the rest of the guys,” JC finished her sentence.
“Yes.. of course.”
JC scooted closer to Abbey. “Just one night with the pleasure of company of someone like me?”
Abbey leaned closer to JC, “Someone like you.”
JC leaned the rest of the way towards Abbey and before kissing her he said softly, “Put it on your birthday list.” Then he kissed her softly.
Later that night in the kitchen
Abbey and Madelyn were beginning to cook dinner. Madelyn thought all night about how and when to say something to Abbey about Nick’s letter. She didn’t want to ruin her good mood but she needed to tell Abbey that Justin knows.
“Abbey,” Madelyn called.
“Yes Maddie?” Abbey responded while stirring food into boiling water.
“I think that you should tell JC about the whole Nick situation. Plus Justin knows. I told him. Don’t get mad, I only told him because he found the letter from Nick in your drawer. A nd how come you didn’t show me the letter?”
“I just figured it wasn’t important and I wasn’t going to save it. I was gonna throw it away. Wait, how did Justin find it? Was he snooping in my room?”
“No, he was putting away the socks you bought and he opened the wrong drawer. He said the words, “I’ll love you always” and Nick’s name caught his eye and he knew it must have been something pretty important.”
“That still doesn’t give him the right to take a personal letter and read it.”
“Whatever. You just need to tell JC before he finds out by mistake like Justin did. Or at least hide the letter better from now on. But I think that you should tell him instead of trying to hide this.”
"I'll take care of it right now. Be back in a second." Abbey walked out of the kitchen and into her room. She opened her drawer and folded the letter from Nick neatly. She stuck the folded letter inside the pocket of JC's jean jacket that she knew would be a safe place until she had more time to hide the letter in a safer place.
Abbey walked back to the kitchen and as she passed through the main room the guys all shut up. Everyone except JC was sitting there.
I wonder where JC went. Abbey thought, then she spoke, “What are you guys up to?”
They all responded like little kids causing trouble, “Nothing!”
Abbey finished her path to the kitchen waiting for them to speak again so she could hear what they were talking about. She pushed open the swinging door and as soon as she could get past the door she quickly turned back towards the door, stopped it from swinging in an obvious way and set her ear to the door.
“I can’t hear them. Be quiet Maddie!” Abbey said. “Come on now this is something important! They gave me the guilty child look.” She heard people snickering behind her. She turned around and found JC and Madelyn and Abbey’s cousin, Shane, all laughing louder at her.
“Shaner!” Abbey excitedly said.
“Don’t call me that! I’m sixteen, not seven!” Shane said.
“Nope, your name will always and forever be Shaner! What are you doing here?” Abbey asked giving her cousin a hug.
“I’m here with a friend to visit her family. And no, she’s just a friend.”
“Damn! Are you working on her family though? It’s a sure way in!” Abbey advised him. “Believe me, buddy.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Shane responded.
“Well, JC here got my phone call from your cell cause you were busy doing something, so he offered to come and get me and take me back to Stephanie’s house.”
“Stephanie? Kindergarten Stephanie? Oooh! Following up aren’t we? How cute! Crayon box partners hook up!”
“Shut up! We don’t share crayons!” Shane defended himself.
“Relax, I’m just playing with you. Are you staying for dinner? I’m attempting Grama’s famous Sunday noodles and chicken with mashed potatoes,” Abbey suggested.
“Wish I could but I gotta get back. Maybe next time. I just stopped in to say I was in town and around for a few days. I’ll call you to hang out later this week,” Shane informed Abbey.
“Ok! It was good to see you. I’ll talk to you later!” Abbey said giving Shane another hug. Shane nodded back to her and he walked out of the kitchen with JC.
Abbey began to help Madelyn fix dinner again. “I can’t believe Shane is in town!” Abbey told Madelyn. “It’s so great to see that punk again!”
“It’s also great to see JC and him bonding. It was funny, Shane was telling JC things about you when you guys were younger,” Madelyn said.
“Aww! How fun!” Abbey gawked. “I just hope he didn’t tell JC the famous burping story.”
“Cha-ching, I think we have a winner!” Madelyn laughed. “Oh but he did! They mentioned something about it and I knew right away what they were talking about,” Madelyn explained. “I guess JC took your advice.. he’s bonding with the family.”
Abbey sighed, “Yeah, I noticed, since Shane didn’t ask for me to take him back to Steph’s. I figured I might as well let it be that way.. I can’t stop him from trying. And let me tell you, it’s working.”
A half an hour later
Abbey and Madelyn had just finished cooking dinner when the phone rang. Abbey answered it. “Hello?”
“Hey Abbey! It’s me JC.”
“Hey, where are you?”
“Stuck in traffic. There was a huge five-car accident and it’s blocking a bunch streets. The cops are detouring the traffic around the city. And I’m about ten cars behind of the accident, so it’s gonna take me forever to get out of here.”
“Jeez! Do you know how to get to the apartment from the other side of the city?”
“No, I just need the street connecting on the south side of yours and think I should be able to find it.”
“No, I think I know where to tell you were to go. You got a paper or can you remember it?”
“No, I have a piece of paper.” JC paused. “Ok, I’m ready.”
Abbey told JC the directions around the outside of the city and how to get back into the center of it from the south side to get to her apartment. “You got that all?”
“Yeah, if I get completely lost I will call you to help me out.”
“Ok, I will see you when you get back. It should only take about ten minutes to get to my apartment once you get out of that mess, plus another five or ten for the mess, so we’ll wait for you to get back to eat.”
“Ok, thanks. Love you, sweetie,” JC said hanging up the phone
Abbey hung up the phone and stood with her elbows on the counter and her head in her hands. Madelyn just watched her fade into a daydream. A few minutes later Abbey was still in the same position. “Earth to Abbey,” Madelyn said snapping her fingers in front of Abbey’s face.
“Huh?” Abbey said jumping.
“What’s happening? Is JC coming to dinner or not?” Madelyn asked.
“He is, he just got caught in traffic so I told him a quicker way around. And I told him that we would wait for him to get back.”
“Ok, well we better stall the hungry boys out there. They say they are dying of hunger,” Madelyn told her.
“They can wait. They are big boys. I just would really like it if we all could be here for dinner together.”
“I know. I’ll throw some crackers in at the beasts,” Madelyn said as both laughed at her remark.
One hour later
“Can’t we eat? Please! JC will never come back!” Chris pleaded.
“I’ll call him and then we can find out where he is and then you guys can eat, ok?” Abbey told everyone as she walked into her room. She sat on her bed and hit the speed dial for JC’s cell phone. Come on, pick up, pick up the phone. Abbey hung up and tried again. No answer.
Abbey put on her shoes and grabbed JC’s jacket out of the drawer. She had forgotten that she put the note in the jacket so she didn’t even think about getting a different one to put on. She went into the main room. “Go ahead and eat guys. Maddie I’m taking your car. I’ll be back and I got my cell,” Abbey said leaving the apartment taking Madelyn’s keys out of the key bowl on the table by the door.
“Wait, where are you going?” Madelyn said running after her into the hallway.
“I’m going to find JC. He’s not answering his phone. I need to find him. Call me if you hear from him.”
“Same here,” Madelyn said as she watched the elevator doors close in front of Abbey. “God I hope nothing bad happened to him,” she said to herself.
