PART TWO



    Two weeks later Nikki held her head over the toilet in the bathroom. She rid her body of whatever it didn’t want and then stood up and rinsed mouth with water. “Please God, no,” she mumbled. Nikki walked out of the bathroom and headed into the kitchen to look at the calendar. She put her finger on one day and then cursed, “damnit. This cannot be happening. Not now.” She sat down at the table and put her head in her hands. “What am I going to do?” she said to herself. She sat there and thought about all of the outcomes, and what choices she had. She could think of about three. One she couldn’t do, one she didn’t want to do, and the other ... she had to do.

    “Justin!” Joey yelled from the end of the hallway at the hotel.
    Justin stuck his head around the corner and yelled, “What?!”
    “Come here!”
    “Ugh, what now?” he mumbled to himself on the way down the hall. “What?” he asked when he got right in front of Joey.
    “I don’t have any socks!”
    “What do you mean you don’t have any socks?”
    “I only brought four pairs.”
    “So go wash a pair!”
    “But J, can’t I just use a pair of yours? Otherwise I gotta go all the way on the other side of the hotel. I’ll give ‘em back.”
    “Joey, I don’t want them back,” he said and then headed towards his room.
    “Does that mean I can have a pair?” Joey said excitedly as he followed Justin to his room.
    “Yes Joe, you can have a pair. But next time you are bringing your lazy ass to the laundry room.”
    “Yes sir,” Joey said back.
    “Here,” Justin said as he handed Joey a fresh pair of socks, right out of the package.
    “Thanks bro!” Joey said and then trotted back down the hall to his room.

    Meanwhile JC sat in his room on the computer. He was on the screen name that he and Lance often shared, and he was talking to his brother Tyler.

Spaztaztic7679: Hey Bro!
TyNcognitoJ: Hey C what’s happenin’
Spaztaztic7679: Not a whole lot. We are on a little break right now. We gotta go do the whole TRL thing in a few minutes.
TyNcognitoJ: cool, cool.
TyNcognitoJ: So, you still seeing that hot little chic Nikki?
Spaztaztic7679: Yeah, we’re still pluggin along. I haven’t talked to her in a couple days though. I need to call her tonight.
Spaztaztic7679: What about you and your girl?
TyNcognitoJ: Eh, we’re doing alright.
TyNcognitoJ: She got a little mad at me the other day though cuz I was talking to some other chic at the club.
TyNcognitoJ: But she got over it.
TyNcognitoJ: She’s knows that I am not cheating on her or anything.
Spaztaztic7679: Yeah, well that’s good. Hey sorry bro but I gotta jet outta here. Lance is yellin. I’ll talk to ya later k?
TyNcognitoJ: Alright, later.
Spaztaztic7679: Later

    JC signed off of AIM and closed his laptop. He slowly crawled out of the bed and went next door to Lance’s room. “Dude, what’s going on?” he asked.
    “Nothing why?”
    “Cuz it sounded like you were being murdered in here.”
    “Oh, Chris came in here and attacked me. I bought this stuff at Spencers and slipped it into his drink, so now his mouth is bright blue.”
    “No way! That is classic! Where is he at?”
    “In the room trying to brush all that stuff out.”
    “Lance you are evil!”
    “Did you see what he did to me?!”
    “No, what?” JC asked.
    Lance held up his hands and shoved them in JC’s face. His fingernails were painted with orange sparkle nail polish. JC couldn’t help but bust out laughing. “So not funny. This sparkle shit doesn’t come off very easy either!”
    “Y’all are terrible!”
    “Lance I am so gonna hurt you!” Chris came in yelling. JC looked at him to see what exactly Lance had done to him, and it wasn’t hard to notice. “Lance, it is not coming off!”
    “Well neither is this damn nail polish. I don’t just carry nail polish remover around ya know.”
    “Yeah, but you carry mouth dye!”
    “I was gonna use it on Justy, but you got me first!”
    “Ugh! how do I go on TRL like this?”
    “Don’t talk!”
    “Funny Lance!” Chris yelled.
    “And all you have to do is keep your hands in your pockets,” JC laughed.
    “Not funny JC!” Lance yelled back.
    “Oh lighten up! You two will live. Justin, Joey and I will cover for ya! We’ll try to keep attention off of ya!”
    “You better,” they both said at the same time.
    From outside the room they heard a yell. “Guys come on, we gotta go!” With that they all got up and headed for the door. JC in the front and Lance and Chris hitting each other behind JC.

    “And our guests today ... NSYNC!” Carson exclaimed and then the crowd cheered as NSYNC paraded out onto the main floor. “Hey guys,” Carson said as he stuck out his hand to shake each of their hands.
    Lance just nodded and tried not to make it too obvious that he was the only one who didn’t shake his hand back. “How’s is goin’ Carson,” Lance said.
    “Pretty good,” he said back. “So y’all are only here for a couple of the top ten spots, but we want to take a couple calls. Is that alright?”
    “Shoot,” Joey said.
    “Melanie, you there?” Carson asked over the speaker.
    A short second later a screeching voice came on and yelled, “Oh my God I love you guys so much!”
    “We love you to,” Justin said back and they all smiled. “What can we answer for ya today?” he continued.
    “Okay, when you guys are like on the road and stuff... do you ever just get tired of being near each other, or someone does something and it really just makes you mad?”
    JC chuckled and said, “actually we all get along really well. We’re like brothers. Of course we disagree on some stuff, but all in all we’re pretty understanding and we bend around to please the others.”
    “We can goof off though and totally mess around with each other and not get really upset about it,” Lance added.
    “Like this morning,” JC started.
    “Nah, nothing happened this morning,” Lance said as he tried to cover it up.
    Carson laughed and said, “so I have the feeling that something went down this morning. Care to share?”
    “I’d love to,” JC belted out and walked out of reach of Chris and Lance. “I heard Lance yellin this morning so I went in to see what happened, and well to make a short story even shorter ... Justin, grab Lance’s hand,” JC said.
    “Huh?” Justin said as he looked at him all confused.
    Lance pulled his hands out of his pocket and said, “no bother!”
    Carson immediately started to laugh when he saw Lance’s nails. “What the heck happened?”
    Chris for a second had totally forgotten about his blue stained mouth and jumped in, “I got a hold of him last night when he was asleep. He sleeps like a log!”
    Carson gasped when he saw Chris’s mouth. “Looks like he got you back. That or you just forgot to brush this morning after eating lots of blue icing.”
    Everyone laughed and Chris started to blush. “Yeah he did,” Chris said back and then closed his mouth tight. Justin and Joey were practically on the floor laughing. They had no idea that any of that had happened. It was totally an amusing site.
    “Well, it’s time to move to our number five video,” Carson managed to say between laughs. The next video played and then they cut to a commercial.

    Later that night Nikki was sitting on her couch going through her photo albums. She had a lot of pictures of her and JC, and a lot of the other guys and her as well. They had all become really close and it all started because of Lance. She felt that she owed him big time for introducing her to JC. They had been so happy together this past year together and Nikki was afraid about what was going to happen now.
    Nikki was looking at a picture of her and all the other guys when they were in California together, but her concentration was broke by the sound of the phone. She got up and walked over to the kitchen table where she had put the cordless phone.
    “Hello,” she said.
    “Hey sweetie,” JC said back. Nikki’s heart raced. “How are you?” he asked.
    “I’m alright,” she said back.
    “Are you alright hun? I’m sorry that I haven’t called in a few days, we’ve been swamped!”
    “It’s alright, and yeah I’m fine.” It was obvious in her tone that she wasn’t fine.
    JC knew that something was wrong, but he was in no position to try to talk to her about it. All the guys were around and he didn’t want to embarrass her by bringing anything up with all the guys around. “Alright, if you’re sure.”
    “I’m fine,” was all she said.
    “Did you catch TRL today? It was a trip?”
    “No, I’m sorry, I missed it. I’ll call up Kelli and see if she taped it. She tapes everything.”
    “Alright, well sweetie I gotta go. I’ll be home tomorrow night.”
    “Okay, I’ll see you soon,” she said.
    “I love you,” he said.
    “Ditto that,” she said back and almost burst into tears. She hung up the phone before JC heard the change in her pattern of breathing.
    JC looked at the phone as it beeped. “Everything cool?” Lance asked.
    JC didn’t want to have the guys worrying about it too so he just said, “yeah, things are fine.” JC bit his lip and wondered what was wrong with Nikki.

    The next day came all too soon for Nikki. She knew what she had to do, and it wasn’t something she was looking forward to. All of the photo albums still sat on the coffee table in the second living room. She walked into the larger living room and paced back and forth. She found herself constantly peering out the window watching for JC to come home. After about ten minutes of pacing, she went back into the other room and picked up all the photo albums. She was going to go put them back up, but she was interrupted by the shutting of the front door.
    “Nikki, I’m home,” that all too familiar voice yelled. JC walked in and saw all the photo albums in her hands. “Sweetie what are you doing?” he asked as he walked closer to her.
    She stuttered for her words, but finally said, “I... I was just looking through them.”
    “Oh,” he said. “Well you don’t have to put them away. I’d love to look at them with you,” he said as he grabbed one from her hands and then sat on the couch. He patted the spot next to him and said, “here sit with me.” She sat down and JC leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips and then said, “I missed you.”
    She looked deep within his eyes and said, “I missed you too.”
    “Nikki is everything okay?” he asked.
    “Uh huh,” she said back quietly.
    JC looked at her and knew that something was wrong, but he knew that when she was ready, she would talk about it. He opened up one of the books and flipped through the pictures. He has something to say about every one. Then he got to one that tore Nikki up. “Ah look, the first time I saw your smiling face,” he said as he looked at a picture of Lance and Nikki, and then one of JC and Nikki. They were taken at JC’s 20th birthday bash, when he first met Nikki.
    Tears filled Nikki’s eyes and she said, “that was a great day huh?”
    “The best,” he said without looking up. A couple seconds later he raised his head so that his eyes met hers. “Baby, what’s the matter?” he asked as he put his arm around her.
    She stood up and said ‘be strong Nikki’ to herself. “I’m so sorry,” she said and then ran upstairs to her room. She failed. She couldn’t look him in the eyes and say what she had to say to him. She ran to her bed and shoved her head into the pillow and sobbed.

    JC walked into the room and saw his girlfriend with her head buried within the pillow. He walked over to her and on the bed and put his hand on her back. “Sweetie, what’s wrong.”
    “I’m so sorry,” she said. Her voice was muffled and JC barely understood her.
    “What Nikki? What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?”
    She lifted her head and said, “I’m sorry,” then put her head back in the pillow.
    “Baby, you didn’t do anything wrong. What are you talking about?” He tapped her back and said, “Nikki talk to me.”
    “I’m... I’m... I...” Nikki lost her nerve again. She knew that she had to do it. She didn’t have a choice anymore. She loved JC, but this was how it had to be. “JC,” she said as tears fell down her face. “I cheated on you.”
    JC’s mouth dropped open. “Nikki for real, what’s wrong?”
    “I told you!” she yelled. “I cheated on you,” she cried. “I am sorry, but I did it.”
    “What do you mean you cheated on me?” he said as he stood up and anger took over.
    “Just what I said JC. I cheated on you.”
    “When?” he said angrily.
    “Does it matter JC? I did it!”
    “I can’t believe you Nikki! How could you do this? I thought you loved me!”
    “JC, I do,” she cried and sat up in her bed. “I.... it’s not.... I’m sorry,” she said. She wanted to say more, but she couldn’t think of how to say it.
    “It’s over Nikki. I trusted you. I could have slept with a thousand girls and you would have never known, but I DIDN’T!” Nikki just cried, didn’t say a word. She couldn’t say a word. JC looked at her and tears filled his eyes. He reached in his pocket and took out the small box. Nikki’s mind reverted back to the day he left. He promised he would bring her back something.
    “JC,” she started to say.
    He threw the box at her and said, “keep the damn thing. I couldn’t stand to look at it now,” and then he walked out. He went down stairs, picked up his bag, and walked out the door with tears of pain and anger dripping down his flush colored face.
    Nikki opened the box and saw a simple silver band lined with two diamonds. There was a small piece of paper inside the box and is said -

~My Dearest Nichole,
        I’ll love you now and forever. Keep this promise ring until I can one day give you more.
            ~My Love,
                Joshua

    Nikki slipped on the ring, held her hand to her face, and let her tears fall over her fingers. “I’m so sorry,” she said once again. She had already made her choice, but she was afraid to live with it.



Part Three