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» CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE BOY IS MINE «

The next morning the doorbell rang bright and early, waking up the apartment. Laura stumbled to answer it, pushing Salem out of her way as he yowled at the door.

Outside, Nick stood, wearing a grin, blue jeans, and a blue and gray T-shirt, bearing a bag from the bagel shop down the street. "I brought breakfast!" he announced, stepping inside.

Alex, Ariana, and I acknowledged his presence with yawns. Laura closed the door behind him and looked at him warily. "Hello. Who are you?"

Nick laughed and stuck out his hand to her, shaking her own profusely. "I’m Nick, Jennifer’s friend. I was here last night, but they told me you were gone. You must be Lara."

"Laura." Laura corrected with a smile. "Pleased meet you, Nick. The kitchen’s this way." She and Nick walked into the large kitchen adjoined to the living room and began setting out the food, getting acquainted.

I stood up and grumbled my way over to the table in the corner. "What are you doing here so early, Nick?" I asked him, not at all minding he was there. "You only left, like, six hours ago."

Nick carried a large platter of assorted bagels, scones, and cream cheeses over to where I was sitting and sat it in the middle of the table. "I’m only here for a week, Jennie." he reminded me gently. "Then we gotta go back on tour. I wanna have as much together time as possible before we do." He took a seat beside me as Ariana and Alex came by to grab their share of the grub.

"Calm down, you little piggies. There’s plenty for all, no need to gorge." Laura chided, as she set a pitcher of orange juice and plastic cups beside the diminishing pile of food.

Nick grabbed a bagel and began slathering berry cream cheese on the inside. "I was thinking, though, that maybe, if you could and wanted to, that you—"

"Out with it, Nicky." I interrupted, smiling to show I was teasing.

"—You could come on tour with us for awhile." Nick finished, giving me a dirty look.

I glanced at my roommates, a bit shocked he asked me. "Uh, well, I don’t know, Nick, that’s a big thing. I’ve got my job, you know. And if I get this part in the play… I’ll have to think about it."

"That’s all right. I understand." Nick nodded, shaking his blonde hair, and closed the topic, though he looked a bit let down.

I bit roughly into a chocolate chip scone, thinking hard. The conversation steered back to a light-hearted babble, and I felt relieved I didn’t have to deal with the problem right away. I would’ve dropped everything in a heartbeat to go, but I had responsibilities now, and I had promised not run away from them. Besides, I didn’t think I could go on tour with them and not kill Chanel before the last concert date.

Which brought me to a bigger problem; Chanel. After our exchange the night before, the air between us was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. I could barely concentrate on anything anyone said all night until Chanel pleaded sick with a
headache and took a taxi back to the hotel.

Everytime I thought about what she had said to me, it made my blood start to boil and I began to see red. How could Nick stand to be with a witch like her? Obviously he was too caught up in love and her seemingly innocent lies to realize what she truly was. How could I ever find a way to break them apart? And if I did, would Nick even believe me? I needed help on a plan, so I resolved I would tell one of my friends what happened later on.

Shaking myself from my dismal thoughts, I returned to the breakfast. "What are you guys planning on doing today?" Laura was asking, directing a look at Nick and I.

"I don’t know." I said. "I don’t have anything planned, unless Nick had something in mind…"

"Not especially. I figured we’d just hang around. Maybe go somewhere like a park or museum, someplace quiet to talk." suggested Nick.

I stood up and carried my dirty dishes to the sink, rinsing them off. "I know a really cool art museum across town. They’ve got free Fridays, so we’re in luck." I said approvingly.

Nick nodded. "That sounds perfect."

"Just let me get dressed, and I’ll be ready to go." I said.

Nick nodded again and grabbed another scone, his third one, and bit into it. "Mmmm." I heard him say as I walked down the hall. "You guys have the best cookie-snack-type things in the world."

I changed into walking shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, then tucked my brown ponytail into a baseball cap. I half hopped-half walked back into the dining room, where the others were cleaning up the breakfast mess. I finally got my sneaker on, tied the
laces, and found my purse.

Nick turned to look at me, mouth poised to speak, and started to laugh. "Where in the world did you find that?" he asked, coming over to shove the front of my cap over my eyes.

"Hey!" I protested, fixing it. "Don’t you like my Backstreet Boy cap? I found it at this really cool souvenir shop. I figured no one would ever guess a Backstreet Boy would go walking with someone wearing a cap like this." I grinned impishly. "You know, I have another in my room, if you wanted to try it out."

Nick sneered and laughed. "When hell freezes over, sweetheart. I wouldn’t be caught dead in that. I might have to make you walk behind me."

I pouted, glancing at my reflection in the mirror. "But don’t you think that Nick guy looks so hot?" I gushed, pointing to the miniature picture of Nick from four years ago.

Nick pretended to lean over and examine it. "Nah, he’s kinda boring. Now that Howie, man, he’s got the looks."

Ariana grinned. "Personally, I think JC is the best looking Backstreet Boy."

We all stopped and stared at her. "Uh, Ana," I said, trying to keep a straight face. "JC is in *NSYNC, not the Backstreet Boys."

"I know that!" Ariana shot back, exasperated. "It was a joke. Can’t you people get a joke?"

Nobody spoke, except for a small snort that came out of Alex. Ariana rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I can tell when my humor isn’t appreciated. I will not tolerate this. I know the roaches in the kitchen will be perfectly happy to hear my jokes." She wandered away into the kitchen, giving Laura a beckoning finger. "Come, dearie! You can help me wash and dry as I test out my new stand-up act."

I opened the door and Nick stepped out, his nose stuck in the air as if he was disgusted at the sight of me. I paused and looked back at Alex, grinning slyly.

"Don’t wait up. I may have to take some time to find a good place to hide his body."

Nick examined a hanging piece of art work. "That is so stupid!" he finally exclaimed. People paused and turned to look at us.

I blushed and nudged him hard in the ribs. "You mind not saying that so loud? Watch out, you’re dripping."

Nick glanced down at the ice-cream cone in his hand and quickly licked up a drip before it hit the floor. "Well, it is stupid, Jenn." he pouted. "I mean, look at it. It’s just a black background with a white dot in the middle. How is that art? A five year old could do that."

"I guess…that dot is supposed to be…the uh, world, and, um, the rest is space and how insignificant we are compared to the rest of the galaxy." I improvised, frowning.

Nick snorted. "You’ll have to find a better reason than that. Why didn’t the guy just paint that then instead of a white dot? Let’s get out of the contemporary arts section. This place is stupid." Nick raised his voice slightly as he hustled me out of
the room, resting his free hand on my back.

I had to admit, he was right. Contemporary art was never and never would be my thing. "Don’t drip on me." I commanded, peering over my shoulder to find his cone dangerously close to my hair.

We headed into Medieval Arts and started from one corner. "I told the guys we’d meet up with them for dinner tonight, if you want to," Nick informed me. "We can invite Alex, Ariana, and Laura along too."

I groaned. "Oh, I’d love to, but I have to work tonight, my shift starts at seven." Then I brightened. "Hey, maybe we can have dinner there, then you all can stay after I start working and hang out. I could be your waitress, and there’s going to be karaoke
tonight. That always guarantees some fun, or at least a few laughs."

Nick laughed. "That sounds like fun. I’ll give the guys a call. Hold my cone for sec, Jennie." He handed me his melting cone and whipped out his cell-phone, punching in the speed-dial numbers. He connected with Brian as I kept a wary eye on the ice cream in my hand.

When the sides were becoming liquid, I held it up to Nick’s face. "Lick." I whispered.

He paused in talking and swung his tongue around the edge, smacking his lips together. I rolled my eyes and bent over to examine a statue on a pedestal.

"What? Oh, Jenn made me lick a cone." Nick was saying. "Huh? No, I’m not going to explain." He laughed wickedly. "Anyway, I’ll meet you later at the English Lamb. Buh-bye." He handed me the phone and took the cone back. "You should call Alex, tell her what’s going on." he advised me. "Brian said everyone is coming. AJ’s excited cuz he’s finally gonna be able to go the pub and actually stay longer than a few minutes. You put up quite a search."

I ignored his raised eyebrows and dialed my number, talked to Alex, and hung up. "All set." I said cheerfully. "We’ll meet them at five thirty, but I need to stop at home and change into my uniform. Maybe Cory will be there, then you can meet him!" I said excitedly.

Nick narrowed his eyes. "Cory?"

I nodded, not noticing his look. "Uh-huh. He’s an actor, too. I’ve worked with him a lot." I giggled. "If he’s not there, you can meet him tomorrow, if you come with me to see the audition. He’ll most likely be there to try out for the lead and get it, the brat."

"That’s great." Nick murmured, taking a savage bite from his waffle cone.

After our afternoon in the art museum, Nick and I spent the remaining hours of our time walking around a large park and talking. The best memory of that afternoon is when Nick started a water fight in the fountain with four little boys. He didn’t know what hit him. By the time he limped away, nursing his wounded pride, he was soaked from head to toe.

We got back to my apartment at five forty-five, and I scrambled around getting my uniform on while Nick dried his damp clothes in the dryer.

We set out at a brisk walk at five twenty-nine and reached the English Lamb seven minutes later. Our friends were already seated in a large round table in the middle of the floor, getting to know each other.

My stomach did flip-flops when I saw Chanel sitting there, looking so smug and cunning, pretending to playfully joke with my sister. She looked up when Nick let out a big hello, and caught my eye. Instantly it was like the heat had gone off in the room, and I felt cold all over. She stared at me with such an cool hate it was almost frightening.

From inside, I felt a little fire of anger burn up in me, melting her icy grip. I returned her glare, making sure she understood I meant business, then settled down to the task of greeting my friends.

"Did you have fun today, sweetie?" Chanel asked, standing up to plant a kiss on Nick’s lips. My heart clenched at the sight.

Nick looked at me, grinning slyly. "Yeah, the best time in years."

I gave him a warm smile back. "It was pretty fun."

Carrie, our waitress, made her way over to the table with a big grin on her face.

"Jennifer! Looks like you’ve been making some new friends." She winked at me, handing Nick and I two menus.

I smiled back. "Actually, they’re old friends, Care."

"I’ll let you two look over those for a minute." she said, referring to the menus. "I know what you’re gonna get, Jenn, but I thought I might give you a chance to get…something…different. Be back in a sec!" She bounced away, her small braids flying.

"When does karaoke start tonight?" Laura asked eagerly, rubbing her hands together.

"Six fifteen." I told her.

"And you’re not doing it." Alex declared, taking a sip of her iced tea.

Laura made a rude noise. "Excuse me, Alexandra? Did you just tell me I can’t do karaoke?"

Alex nodded firmly. "And that’s final."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because you can’t sing!" Alex cried. "Do you even remember the last time you ‘attempted’ to sing? Three parties of guests left because of your screeching. We got complaints because you wouldn’t give up the mic so someone else could get a turn. We had to get Danny to pull you off stage."

Laura pouted. "Well, I know I was a bit out of line—"

"A bit?" Alex asked, with a give-me-a-break look.

"—but that won’t happen again." Laura smiled sweetly. "I promise."

Alex opened her mouth to reply when AJ cut her off. "You can come up with me and together we can shake our groove thangs." he said, bumping Laura’s elbow.

Laura’s eyes lit up. "Really? Awesome!"

Alex put her head in her hands and moaned while everyone laughed at her. Carrie came back and took our orders, then we went over the topics of what songs were good for karaoke, while Alex and I pooled together our knowledge of what selection we had.

When it was six fifteen on the dot, Laura dragged a willing AJ to the stage wait in line for their turn. We sat and applauded through three OK acts, and one bad one, when they came on. Laura was grinning like a banshee, and AJ had turned on his stage charm, grinning seductively to the audience.

The music started up; it sounded old, like something from the eighties, and somehow familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Laura and AJ came together and held their mics side by side, resting their temples together.

Love, love is strange, yeah, yeah
Lot of people take it for a game
Once you get it you never wanna quit, no, no
After you’ve had it, you’re in an awful fix
Many people don’t understand, no, no
They think loving is money in the hand, yeah, yeah
Your sweet loving is better than a kiss

I was laughing so hard I could feel tears running down my cheeks. Laura and AJ pantomimed a kiss and danced around the stage. I recalled the song was ‘Love Is Strange’ from the movie Dirty Dancing.

AJ shook his butt to the music, causing an uproar from the female crowd. Laura pretended the was playing the guitar, bopping her head to the beat.

The dance rest ended and AJ held his mic up. "Sylvia?" he called.

Laura answered in a breathy voice. "Yes, Mickey?"

"How do you call your lover-boy?" AJ asked.

Laura grinned. "C’mere lover-boy!"

AJ frowned. "And if he doesn’t answer?"

Laura pretended to search the crowd, waving at our table. "Oh, lover-boy."

"And if he still doesn’t answer?"

Laura sashayed her hips. "I simply say, bay-bay ooh bay-bee. My sweet bay-bay…you’re the one." She and AJ went back to their original position and sang the last part together again, bumping hips together.

The song ended and I stood up along with most of the restaurant, applauding loudly. Laura shot Alex a smug look and Alex promptly rolled her eyes.

After the performance we ate and I had to get to work. I relieved Carrie over her duties and began to quickly wait on tables, stopping at my own whenever I had the chance. More of my friends went up to sing, some in solos or duets. The Backstreet
Boys agreed to do a song, and wowed the audience.

I walked back to the table and sat down, saying, "OK, I’m on break for now. Rita’s covering my tables."

Chanel leaned forward in her seat, giving us a smile. "I’m thinking of going up to contribute my singing abilities." she laughed. "Who wants to join me?"

Everyone made faces, grabbing their dry throats. Nick nudged my foot. "Why don’t you and Chanel do a song, Jenn." he said. "You say you sing, which is another talent I didn’t know you had. Go up there and wow me."

I wanted to refuse, to tell them I didn’t want to a song with Nick’s bitchy girlfriend, but the plead in Nick’s eyes over-ruled my objections. "I guess so," I replied, rising with Chanel. I led the way to the stage, around the side where Mac, nother worker, was handing out mics and programming the songs.

"Hello, ladies." he said, grinning at me.

Chanel ignored him, intently flipping through the songs. At last she stopped and looked at me, a slow smile spreading over face. "This is the song I want to sing." she declared.

I leaned over and saw the title. "The Boy Is Mine?" I read. Chanel gave a low chuckle. "No, no, the boy is mine. Come on."

I rolled my eyes. "Cheesy, Chanel, that was really cheesy." She took her mic and stepped up stage, leaving me to run after her like an idiot.

‘How fitting.’ I thought sarcastically, giving a grin to Nick’s thumbs up. "I’ll take Brandy’s solos, you take Monica’s." I ordered Chanel.

"But I was—" she started to protest.

"Shut up." I hissed through a clenched smile. "This is my stage." The music began, and the words appeared on a prompter in front of us.

You need to give it up
Had about enough
It’s not hard to see
The boy is mine
I’m sorry that you
Seemed to be confused
He belongs to me
The boy is mine

I walked to the front of the stage and let loose, getting in to the song. ‘Not like that takes much work…I’m living it already.’

I think it’s time we got this straight
Sit and talk it face to face
There is no way you could mistake
Him for your man—are you insane

Chanel stepped up beside me and shot me a dirty look. It was the words we wanted to tell each other, and in this way we could let off steam. Nick sat on, oblivious, not knowing who we were really singing about. Him.

See I know that you may be
Just a bit jealous of me
But you’re blind if you can’t see
That his love is all in me

I saw Alex giving me a face and a thumbs up, and that made me grin as I started up my verse.

You see I tried to hesitate
I didn’t wanna say what he told me
He said without me he couldn’t make
It through the day ain’t that a shame

Chanel actually had a decent voice, though it wasn’t anything amazing. Perhaps I was being a bit biased, but I thought I was doing a lot better in my role as Brandy.

Maybe you misunderstood
Cause I can’t see how he could
Wanna change something that’s so good
But my love is all it took

We joined together on the chorus, me taking the melody and Chanel taking the ad libs and the next verse.

You need to give it up
Had about enough
It’s not hard to see
The boy is mine
I’m sorry that you
Seemed to be confused
He belongs to me
The boy is mine

Must you do the things you do
Keep on acting like a fool
You need to know it’s me not you
And if you didn’t know it—girl it’s true

There was tension between us, and we kept exchanging dirty looks. I noticed the crowd was getting more hyped, probably thinking our persona was a act for the song.

I think that you should realize
I try to understand why
He is a part of my life
I know it’s killing you inside

Chanel belted out her next lines, blowing a kiss out to Nick, who laughed.

You say what you wanna say
What we have you can’t take
From the truth you can’t escape
I can tell the real from the fake

I was getting a bit pissed off, so I pushed in front of her and sang louder. I know, not the most mature thing to do, but this was war.

When will you get the picture
You’re the past, I’m the future
Get away it’s my time to shine
If you didn’t know the boy is mine

You need to give it up
Had about enough
It’s not hard to see
The boy is mine

I’m sorry that you
Seemed to be confused
He belongs to me
The boy is mine

Chanel turned to look straight at me when she sang, her eyes glittering with triumph.

You can’t destroy this love I’ve found
Your silly games I won’t allow
The boy is mine without a doubt
You might as well throw in the towel

I was filled with vengeance, and I gave her the same look.

What makes you think that he wants you
When I’m the one who brought him to
The special places in my heart
It was my love right from the start

You need to give it up
Had about enough
It’s not hard to see
The boy is mine

I’m sorry that you
Seemed to be confused
He belongs to me
The boy is mine
The boy is mine

Chanel walked closer to me, leaning her face near mine. "Not yours." she sang.

"But mine." I added.

"Not yours," She leaned closer.

"But mine." I raised my eyebrows.

"Not yours…"

"Bu-t mine…" I turned to the audience and gave them a smirk. Together, unwillingly, we sang the last chorus.

I’m sorry that you
Seemed to be confused
He belongs to me
The…boy…is…mine

We got a standing ovation similar to Laura’s and AJ’s and we bowed and smiled at each other for the sake of good face.

Nick was waiting at the steps when we came down. "That was wonderful!" he complimented us, putting his arms around our shoulders. "For a second there, I actually thought you two hated each other’s guts."

I forced a laugh. "Yep, we certainly had you fooled." ‘Oh, Nick,’ I thought. ‘If only you knew how much.’

¤ Chapter 16: The Cunning One ¤
REMEMBER to send feedback to the author, Stephanie