| We put Taylor's bag back in the trunk and started back to the hotel. I could only sit in the seat next to him and hold his hand. We drove in silence the whole way. I had let Taylor drive, as I was still feeling kind of shaky. He pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and parked the car. Before I could get out he was holding my door open for me. "I could get spoiled you know," I teased him. He grinned back and shrugged his shoulders. He closed the door behind me and caught my hand. He stood facing me and held me with his gaze. "Jessie," he slowly began, "I love you. I will miss you so much. I don't know how it happened so fast but it did. I don't know how I am gonna get through the next couple of weeks." I put my finger to his lips."Shh..no more, not now. You will make me cry and I don't want to go up there and spoil Lacey's day. I love you too." I hugged him and then pulled him toward the hotel doors. When we arrived upstairs everyone was ready to go. Lacey looked so excited to be getting out, I thought she'd burst. "Lacey, we are gonna have a blast today," I told her. "I will keep you so busy you won't even know they're gone." I grinned. "Awesome!" she exclaimed, "what are we gonna do first?" I giggled. "You nut! We are gonna say goodbye to these guys and then we'll hit the town." We said goodbye to the guys and watched them pile into the car that would take thm to the magazine's offices. As we watched them pull away, Lacey sighed. "I am so glad that I don't have to go to that office and see that screaming crowd. Sometimes I can't handle it." I looked at her stunned. "But Lacey, you guys have been together a long time. Surely you knew..?" I asked lamely. She sighed again. "Jess, I knew the three of them BEFORE all this..we grew up together. I always knew they would do well but I never expected to fall in love with Issac." |
| I continued to stare at her, puzzled. "Lacey, how did you know that you did? Fall in love with Issac, I mean.." I asked. "I had known them so long," She began as we were getting into my car, "I was sure we would always be only friends, what with them working to get a record deal and stuff. Then they got the deal, and they were gone all the time. We were just hanging out one night while they were home taking a break, when Ike just turned to me and kissed me. Out of the blue. But I knew it when he kissed me. I had just been trying to avoid it, because I didn't think it would work. But being with him far outweighs the things I don't like." She beamed at me. "I am just glad I'm not stuck in that hotel room. I don't like wandering around strange cities alone. Thanks Jess." I smiled back. "Sure thing! Let's go get my stuff picked out okay?" We chatted while we drove to the sport shop where i had planned to order my things. We looked through EVERYTHING, the entire store plus the store catalogs. "Jess..I didn't realize you had so much to choose from, wow!" "I know, Lace..I am at a loss...which do you think?" I asked her. "Ooh Jessie!" she exclaimed and held up an outfit, "THIS is the ONE!" she cried. I had to admit, she was right. It was a matched set, the top was a cropped tank, with spaghetti straps, but it had a good support bra built in. It looked like it would end just at the middle of my ribcage. The bottoms were low-rise, cropped leg bike shorts. The whole outfit was black, with a white double stripe at the outside seams. I had black socks and high tops to go with them. |
| This outfit suited my personality perfectly. "I do believe we found it." I stated with a huge smile. She giggled. "Taylor will die when he sees you and your bellybutton ring in this." "Oh my god Lacey, you are insane! Cripe! It's just a workout outfit, I have to do some stuff to it first.." I had to giggle along with her. Her enthusiasm was contagious. "What are you gonna do to it?" she asked confused. "It's perfect already." "Well, I need to have someone cover the black areas with sequins so that it stands out in front of the camera, for one, then I have to keep an eye on my weight, once it's fitted because it can't slip off of me while I'm tumbling and stuff, judges mark down for that kind of stuff." I explained. "It can't budge during my entire routine." "Wow," she breathed,"sequins and all...he's SOOOO GONNA DIE" and she giggled hysterically. "Lacey!" I had to yell, shocked. "What the hell is so funny?" I asked her. "Oh my god Jessie! I have known Taylor almost his entire life, and I have NEVER seen him act so crazy over a girl, before. He's already in love with you, I can tell." she said with a knowing grin. "And don't think I don't know why we had elevator trouble yesterday," she wagged her finger at me. I was dumbfounded. She giggled again, "next time just hurry up." "Oh god Lacey.." I started and then blushed. She put her arm around my shoulder. "Jessie, I'm glad you two found each other. I get a new friend out of the deal!" I had to smile. "Good, Lacey. I don't have too many girlfriends," told her, "Not many females can understand one who carries a toolbox and spends an entire day in the gym." "Come on you nutbar, let's get something to eat. I'm hungry." I told her. She rolled her eyes, "We better go then." We went to the store counter and ordered the outfit she had picked out. We grabbed a quick snack and then found the alterations shop I used when getting a costume ready. The lady who ran it never gave me any trouble for wanting all the fancy stuff added. We took care of that, then just wandered around town talking and window shopping. Lacey looked at her watch. "Oh my gosh, Jess. It's almost lunchtime.Ike said we should meet them at that little place just up the street from the hotel, ok? |
| "Okay, let's go then." I said and we headed back to where I had parked my car. We were just getting into the car when a voice from behind me startled me. I jumped and spun around. "I don't get you ,Jessie." It was Eric. "Where the hell is your head? You have a competition to get ready for and you're still out goofing off with people you don't even know.." he was shaking his head and looked angry. "Hello, Eric," I began sarcastically, "It's nice to see you too." "Dammit Jessie! Don't be a smart ass.." he started to say, but I interrupted him. "And this is my FRIEND, Lacey Stevenson.." I continued. "Hello.." Lacey said nervously. I reached in the car and squeezed her h "I am enjoying my day OFF thanks. How's your day?" I waited with my hand on my hip. "You just better be in the gym tomorrow, ready to work" he grumbled. "Focus, dammit! Or you don't have a chance.." "Bye Eric!" I sang out as he walked away. Lacey was staring at me as I got in the car. "What?" I asked. "Jessie, you've probably known him a long time but..." she hesitated. "What, Lace?" I urged her to continue. "He scares me.." she finally manged to get out. "For goodness sake why?" "I dunno, but I know he's jealous of Tay, you should have heard the way he talked to Zac...when he realized you didn't spend the night at home.." she hurriedly added. "Oh Lacey he can't possibly be...he's just acting weird "cause it's close to showtime that's all. He's got a one track mind..that's why I hired him. Don't worry." I said, trying to be comforting. "If you say so Jess. But we better go, we'll be late for lunch. Can't have that now can we?" We both laughed and I started the car and drove off. |
| When we arrived at the restaurant near the hotel, the guys were already there and waiting. Taylor and Isaac stood to hold our chairs for us, but Zac was too busy devouring his lunch to bother with that. I had to smile, he was too funny. Ike kissed Lacey on the cheek and asked,"Did ya have fun babe?" "Yup! Loads." she giggled again and launched into a description of every shop we had been in that morning. We all grinned at each other and let her go on for a few minutes, then Taylor turned to me with a mischevious grin. "Hey, Jess...I thought you'd be STARVING..," he said . "So I ordered for you." I stuck my tongue out at him and grinned back. "It's a good thing, I was thinking of stealing Zac's" I said and looked sideways at Zac to see if he even heard me. "WHAT?!" he said in mock-dismay. "No way.." he laughed. "As much as I'd LOVE to watch you and Zac scrap over a meal, you don't have to, 'cause here's yours now, Jess." Taylor laughed. We sat and ate a talked about what they would be doing when they left. They had a LOT of appearances to do and I marveled at the little amount of time that they had to do them all. "God!" I exclaimed."And I thought I was busy.." I let the sentence trail off, because my mind couldn't help but return to the fact that he was soon going to be miles and miles away. Suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore. I sat there, idly pushing food around on my plate, listening to the rest of them talk when I felt Taylor's hand in mine underneath the table. I squeezed back and dropped the fork I was holding in my other hand. I looked up into Taylor's face and had to blink back tears. "Excuse me a sec.." I whispered, and stood up. I dropped my napkin on the table and made a bee-line for the ladies room. |