How did we end up like this?, she wondered. She could feel his heart beating and his chest moving up and down steadily. She only remembered falling asleep that night on his shoulder, not on top of him!
She slowly removed his arms from her waist and slithered off of him. She realized she shouldn't have had to worry about waking him, Josh was one of the soundest sleepers she had ever known. She studied his sleeping face. When he was asleep, he looked peaceful. The small beginnings of a smile were evident at the curling edges of his lips, and Mikayla felt a smile tugging on her own face. Disgusted with herself for feeling like this when she had no idea how he felt, she rushed upstairs.
Taylor groaned, waking up from a fitful sleep. She clutched her head, feeling like there were hundreds of tiny men inside of it banging on the walls with hammers. The events of last night came back to her, how she had gotten her first drink because of Justin's behavior, and then gotten spitting drunk when she saw her friend's lavishing flirtatious affections on him.
"Feeling better?" Justin asked sarcastically from the doorway, leaning on it. He held a cup of coffee in one hand, a glass of water in the other.
"Yes." She muttered, not wanting him to know how miserable she was.
"Liar." He answered, walking towards her and handing her the glass of water. "here, it's the best remedy I know for hangovers." He offered.
"Thanks." She took the glass and took a small sip. She realized that she wasn't even in her own room. "What am I doing in your room?" She asked him.
"You were so wasted last night you couldn't make it to your own room," Justin told her, and she could sense that it was he was subtly accusing her. "So I just let you sleep in here."
"Oh," She answered weakly, "thanks, Justin. I mean, for taking me home and taking care of me."
"That's what friends are for." His blue eyes stared piercingly into her brown eyes, causing her to look away after a moment.
"Morning, guys," JC greeted everyone in the kitchen. He had just woken up moments ago, surprised but not shocked that he was now alone.
"Morning to you too." Joey answered, taking another bite of his scrambled eggs. "Mika left ya a plate on the counter."
"Yeah, for her special N Sync member," Chris teased. JC groaned. "We saw you two on the couch last night," Joey told him.
"Yeah, yeah. Where is she?"
"Oh, she left for work after she cooked us all breakfast. Said she had a couple of things to do." Lance told him, looking up from the newspaper he was reading. "You two were on the couch together?"
"Yeah!" Chris answered for him.
"Shut up!" JC said, shaking his head but taking a seat at the table. "Where's Justin and Taylor?"
"Well, Taylor should have a serious hangover this morning," Lance informed him, this time not looking up from the paper, "she got pretty wasted at the party we went to. And I think Justin's checking up on her."
"Oh." JC answered, looking down at his plate. Why had she left without waking him up or saying goodbye? He wondered how she had reacted when she had woken up, and wished for the first time that he wasn't such a sound sleeper. That way he would have been able to wake up when she did.
"Mika, relax. You don't have to work so hard," Danny scolded her. He studied Mika's face, which was carefully blank of any emotion. "what's wrong?"
"Nothing." She lied, biting her lip.
"You could never lie to your big bro," Danny reminded her. "C'mon spill it. Let's go into my office." He opened the door for her and shut it after he went in. "Did Josh do something?"
"No." She said, starting to cry. Danny's eyes widened and he wrapped his sister in a hug. "I think I'm in love with him again, Danny. I don’t think I ever stopped."
"Oh. Shh it's okay, Mika." He said, trying to comfort her, "why are you crying? Did he reject you when you told him?" When Mika pulled away after his last question, Danny knew the answer. "You didn't tell him yet, did you?"
"No."
"But why not, Mika? If you love him, and he didn't really even kiss Allison, what's standing in the way?" She turned around to look at him.
"I don’t know if I could tell him I love him, and then watch him leave me for six months at a time. I couldn't stand knowing that my boyfriend is out there, surrounded by millions of girls who are far prettier than I am and would love to take my place! I know I couldn't stand seeing him on t.v. and knowing that's the closest we'll ever be in our relationship. I don't even know if he loves me back!"
"That's a lot of risks you'd be taking, Mika," Danny agreed, "but the only way you'll ever know is if you try. If you don't try and tell him, you'll always be filled with questions. You'll always ask yourself what would have happened had you told him."
"I guess you're right, Danny."
"I'm always right," Danny insisted, causing her to laugh.
"Yeah, I might take your advice. But please, let me get back to my work," She pleaded, and he relented.
The buzzing sound of Lance's cell surprised everyone, including him. They were all still seated at the breakfast table.
"Hello?" Lance asked. His eyebrows furrowed while he was listening to the caller and JC knew immediately it wasn't good news. "Okay, we'll be there. Bye."
He glanced apologetically at the rest of the guys, who were waiting for an explanation. "it was Bill," Lance told them, talking about their agent. "He said he's sorry, but we've got to cut our vacation short. We have a set of appearances in New York and on the East coast."
"No." JC replied, still surprised and not pleased.
"It's true." Lance told him, "we've got to be on the next plane out to New York, which leaves in like three hours."
Mikayla drove home, taking her time to check out the scenery. She saw a couple walking on the sidewalk, hand in hand, and smiled wondering if that was how she and JC would turn out. She had decided to follow Danny's advice, agreeing that she would always be plagued with unanswerable questions if she didn't.
She pulled up into the driveway, courage streaming through her as she got out of her car and went inside the house. The first thing that hit her was how the house was strangely silent, which was unusual considering that Chris, Joey, and Justin were all under the same roof.
"Hello?" She called. Taylor appeared at the top of the stairs, her eyes bleary and sad. "Tay? What's wrong?"
"I woke up with a hangover," Taylor explained, coming down the stairs. "But they're gone, Mika. They just left on a plane to New York. Justin's gone." She gasped, starting to cry. She threw herself into Mika's arms, sobbing. Mikayla just stood there, shocked.
All of the guys looked miserable as they waited for the plane to come. "We didn't even get to say goodbye to Mika." Joey said out of nowhere. Everyone muttered their agreement, all except JC, who was slumped in his chair. Justin looked equally miserable, studying his hands through his sunglasses.
"Flight 404 to New York is now boarding at Gate 15," A voice announcer called from the intercom. They all got up and headed towards the gate.