Awakened from yet another nightmare, Christi reluctantly turned over to her right to see what time it was. It was seven in the morning, too early to be up after a party like the one last night. Waking up at the crack of dawn had been something that she had become accustomed to over the past couple of years. The only difference was that she was no longer gasping for air nor was she sweating. All thanks to the prescription that Dr. Collins gave her which had finally started to kick in a month ago. Although the intensity of the illness lessened, she still struggled with the nightmares. She knew what she had to do but she had been so busy over the past couple of months, taking care of Kaci, that she hadn't had time to go to counseling.
Knowing how pointless it was to attempt to go back to sleep, she decided to get up. She checked on Kaci in the crib near her bed and then freshened up in the bathroom. As she was brushing her teeth, she felt and heard her stomach growl which she took that as a cue to get her routine morning ice cream and some breakfast.
Making her way around Justin's house, she took in all the bodies sprawled out everywhere, wishing that she could have just one full night of sleep as well. Because of Christi's insistence that everyone hand over his or her set of car keys, Justin ended up having a huge sleepover. Jessi and JC's party had not ended until four in the morning, and according to Christi, Jessi and the guys of NSYNC everyone was either too tired or drunk to drive home.
It might have taken awhile but she finally made her way into the kitchen, where she found that there was no ice cream or food. She knew that if she wanted her body to function fully that day, she would need her daily dose of ice cream. So, she grabbed her keys off the counter and attempted to make her way back over the bodies all over the living room floor. Trying not to step on the pile that consisted of Jessi and JC, Christi tripped over NSYNC's Chris or as she liked to refer to him as Kirkpatrick and collapsed on top of him, causing him to wake. After watching him grumble for a little bit, she finally apologized but told him to think of the bright side of being awake. He would get to go shopping with her.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shopping at HEB wasn't a normal thing for Chris Kirkpatrick, but for some reason he felt that he'd try it. According to Justin, shopping with Christi is unlike anything anyone could experience. Plus, he did have his own reasons for wanting to get her alone. He went to get an extra shopping cart when something caught his eye in the magazine section. A tabloid. He grabbed it and searched for Christi, who he found looking over the different flavors of ice cream in the frozen section.
"What kind do you want?"
"What do they have?"
"There's the regular vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. They also have Rocky Road, Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!"
"We can get the Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!"
Christi pulled out two cartons of Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! and put them in the cart.
"What are you doing?"
Christi couldn't help but roll her eyes at the all too familiar conversation, "You said you wanted Cookies! Cookies! Cookies!"
"We don't need two."
"One for you and one for me."
"Fine. The more the merrier."
"Chris K Dot, I like the way you think."
"What happened to calling me Kirkpatrick?"
"When my brother and I were in kindergarten, there was another Chris in our class so the teacher label all of their work as ‘Chris F.’ or ‘Chris B.’ And whenever anyone asked my brother what was his name, he would say ‘Chris F Dot’ So, I am officially naming you ‘Chris K Dot.’"
"Cool, but I have a random question for you."
"Ask away."
"Do you know Lana?"
"That was random but no."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive, why? Who is she?"
Chris handed her the tabloid he found in the magazine section. Turning the pages to the story, Christi took the cart from Chris and pushed her way over to the breakfast aisle. As she continued to read, Christi didn't thinking about all the stuff she began throwing into the cart.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He may not have been hung over, but he most definitely was still worn out when he woke up the next morning to the smell of some southern food being made. A mouth-watering smell that he didn't mind waking up to, even at ten in the morning after the late night he had.
Looking around his living room, Justin noticed that he wasn't the only one that was just waking up because of the aroma of food floating around. Jessi was stretching from her position on the floor next to JC as Joey was adjusting his eyes to the sunlight coming in from the curtains. The only ones that weren't getting up were Lance and JC who were dead to the world in a deep slumber. Justin felt as if he would be in that state if it weren't for that scent in the air that was making his stomach grumble.
Reluctantly, Justin stood up from his position and stretched his legs. After stretching, he made his way to his kitchen, where he heard chattering going on. Justin had to blink his eyes a couple of times to believe what he was seeing. Christi was slaving over a hot stove flipping pancakes while Chris was eating ice cream from a bowl. They seemed to be wide-awake and apparently laughing at a part of their conversation, which Justin obviously missed.
"Please tell me you did not give into this whole ice cream thing?"
Chris and Christi looked over at where Justin stood, leaning in the kitchen doorway.
Christi challenged him, "So, what if he did?"
"You'll see." Walking around the island to see what she had cooked already, "I thought you didn't cook?"
"It was never a question of whether I could or couldn't cook. I just don't do it."
Justin popped a piece of cooked bacon into his mouth, "Why not? This is good."
"Because it takes too much work."
"What made you decide to do it this morning? Aren't you tired after last night?"
Christi shrugged, "I couldn't sleep, and I had nothing else to do with everyone else being asleep."
"Nightmare?"
Christ nodded her head, and Justin hopped up on the counter before turning to Chris, "And why are you up so early?"
Being his dramatic self, Chris answered, "I cushioned Christi's fall. Apparently, climbing over bodies isn't such an easy task after all. To make up for landing on me, she asked me to join her for some ice cream, which we had to go buy because you didn't have any. And let me tell ya, she just might be worst at shopping than you. We went in for ice cream and came out with the whole breakfast aisle. Not that I'm complaining."
Christi chimed in, "You better not be."
Eyeing Justin as she cooked another piece of bacon and a couple of eggs, Christi pointed to the island behind her, "Your plate's over there."
"Hey, Justin?"
"Yeah?"
"How come you didn't mention Lana to me?"
Jessi and Joey chose the perfect time to enter the kitchen. "Who's Lana?"
Just about everyone except Jessi, Christi, and Chris froze.
The first to recover and the closest to the topic, Joey inquired, "How do you know about her?"
"Kirkpatrick and I went shopping for ice cream and I picked these up." Christi pulled out two tabloid magazines from a grocery bag and threw in it on the island next to where Justin sat for everyone to see.
Jessi picked up the magazines and began flipping pages for the different cover stories. As she read on and on about this Lana chick, she blurted out obscene comments in the true Jessi way. Justin dropped his fork in his plate as he observed Jessi read everything that JC and him had been trying to hide ever since they knew the press was starting to pick up the story. His eyes moved from Jessi to Christi in attempt to gauge her reaction. Justin noticed how unusually quiet Christi was as she tried to concentrate on the pancake on the stove and could tell that she was upset. He wasn't sure what she was more upset with, being compared to Lana or not finding out from him.
"Bullshit?!"
Jessi outburst not only brought him out of his thoughts but also woke JC and Lance up.
Stifling a yawn, JC asked, "Baby?"
Jessi walked over to where JC was still standing in the doorway and flashed the tabloids at him,
"Don't baby me. What is this?"
JC saw the front pages and wanted to run.
NSYNCERS SWAP GIRLFRIEND
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Everything Justin and himself had been working on to keep Christi out of the media was gone. And just like they predicted, Jessi was furious, but he didn't know what Christi was. She hadn't spoken nor showed any reaction to the magazines when he walked in. All he could hear and see was Jessi ranting about something in one the cover stories.
JC shushed her, "Do you really want to know what's going on, or do you want to yell at me all day?"
Jessi turned, took at seat at the kitchen table, and glared at JC, "Both."
Christi turned off the stove and quietly sat down next to Jessi.
JC almost laughed because they looked like some woman version of Jay and Silent Bob. Laughing would be digging him into a deeper hole. So, he decided to start from the beginning.
"First of all, some of it is true but not all of it. Obviously, Christi didn't swap between Justin and me. And she isn't Lana's twin or anything like Lana. Christi is the exact opposite actually. Lana is all about her reputation.
"Back when I used to be on MMC, she used to hang around Marci while I was on the set a lot and we became close. So close that we started dating. We had an off and on relationship for years. And at the time No Strings Attached was taking off, she resurfaced after having left me when MMC was cancelled and basically, came on the tour with me. However, I didn't know she had other reasons for being on tour. Reason being that she was struggling with the modeling industry.
"She thought that being seen with me would get her career jumpstarted. However, I wasn't enough for her because whenever the guys and I were busy with sound check, meet n' greets, interviews, etc; Lana was networking any crew, especially male members, she thought could get her a connection in the business.
"Until Marci called her on it one day, and Lana leaked everything but threatened Marci to keep quiet. Marci went along with her game but set her up. Marci never was the type to sit by and be threatened so she told Lana that one of the dancers had a modeling agent friend that would be at our show that night. And of course, Lana jumped at the chance. But, what she wasn't expecting was the camera that Marci had set up in the room. Needless to say, I saw the tape, confronted her about, and sent her packing. That was the last we've heard about Lana. Until now that is."
Christi spoke, "How did she threaten Marci?"
Justin answered from his spot at the island, "They were never really friends. Lana and Marci went to school together, and she would follow Marci around like a little pet or something. She was just using her to get access to the MMC set. And, this thing with JC just blew everything up. Lana started going on about how Marci makes everyone worships the ground she walks on and how she's tried for years to live up to her standards but she was never good enough for her. She continued on and on about how she learned how she could make Marci life a living hell and still get away with it."
Christi's eyes met Jessi's eyes. And the guys could tell that a whole conversation was going on between the two girls but couldn't help feeling a little weary of the silent discussion. To say the least, Christi and Jessi were scary whenever they teamed up like they were now. And for the first time in six months, Justin and JC were out of the loop.
Justin spoke up, "Would you say something, already? You're starting to scare me."
Jessi nodded at Christi and Christi asked again but with a little more edge, "How come you didn't mention Lana to me before?"
"We were handling it and didn't feel that it needed to be mentioned."
Jessi couldn't help but scoff.
"Well obviously, you couldn't handle it. But who do you mean by ‘we'?"
"JC, Chris, Lance, Joey, JC's family, and my mom."
"So, ya'll were basically playing keep away from Jessi and me? Well, except for my new buddy K Dot."
"K Dot?"
"Don't worry about that. Just answer my question."
"Yes and no."
JC, Chris, Justin, and Joey turned their head to Jessi when they heard another scoff come out of her mouth. They could tell that she wanted to explode on them but was trying not to because she knew Christi needed to talk.
"It's a yes or no question, Justin. It's not that complicated."
Justin sighed, "Yes."
"Did you not learn anything from the fight Jessi and I had not too long ago? Obviously not."
SILENCE.
Joey chimed in, "The statement's suppose to be made Friday, if that helps."
"Whatever. I'm going to go make flight arrangements."
Christi grabbed the cordless phone off the kitchen charger, left the room, and plopped down on the living room couch.
"Why do you need to make arrangements? You already have them for Thursday."
Christi looked up to find Justin, towering over her and waiting for answers, "Because I don't want to stay here with my so-called friends, who like to keep things from me, anymore."
And with that said, Christi marched up the stairs and into the guestroom she was staying in.
Number of reviews: 101
Print:
Chapter or Story