Chris stalked down the hall towards his hotel room, so mad he was nearly trembling. He heard a shout from one of the other doors and paused to pound on it, knowing he'd never get his own door open at this rate. He had a hard time with the stupid key cards when he was in a good mood.
"What?" someone called.
"Let me in!" he demanded, struggling not to throttle whoever opened the door. It wasn't his fault. The door opened, seemingly of its own accord, and he walked in, shedding his coat. JC and Lance were on the bed; Joey let the door close and leaned on it.
"What happened?" JC asked, and opened the floodgates.
In the connecting room, Justin could hear the tirade, and sighed. It was happening more often. Chris is furious, he typed into ICQ.
Oh. Bad? Marissa responded.
Yeah. He's yelling at the others just to keep from killing someone.
LOL! I know exactly how he feels. Hey, you guys are in Denver, right?
He had to think about that one. Yeah. Why?
Got an idea. Don't go, gotta make a phone call.
And with that, she disconnected. Justin leaned back, half listening to what Chris was going on about. It was really bad, this time. A faint knocking distracted him, then a cheerful "Uh-Oh!" from his computer alerted him that Marissa was back online.
You'll have to arrange the details, boyo, but if you all want to go AWOL, my mother's home and will give you a home-cooked meal. Her number's 303-555-1132, don't forget to dial the 303, and she'll give you directions. Please try not to embarrass me in front of my mother.
Thanks, he typed back. I'm off. He disconnected and slipped out the door, down the hall to where the bodyguards were staying. Matt opened at his knock. "Yes?"
"Hi. Busy?" Justin asked.
Matt looked at him warily, then opened the door wider and beckoned him in. "Why do I think I'm going to regret this?" the bodyguard asked as the door closed behind him.
When Justin got back to his room, Chris had wound down. "I'm sorry, guys," he said, sounding exhausted. "I didn't know it was going to be like this."
Justin cautiously pushed open the connecting door, grimacing slightly. Chris looked worse than he sounded. "Hey. I'm going AWOL, who wants to go? And if anyone says no, I know where you sleep."
Chris straightened with an obvious effort. "We can't just take off, Justin. Do you know how much trouble...."
Justin shrugged. "I don't care. You don't care, and why should you? They haven't made it worth your time." He gestured negligently in the direction of the manager's rooms, then walked over to where Chris' jacket lay on the floor and tossed it at him. Chris fumbled to catch it. "Come on; we've got an hour to get there, and it'll take some time just to get out."
"Justin," Chris started.
"Just nothing," Justin said. "Let's go."
Lance was halfway to the door. "Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise. Come on, we're all expected."
"A good surprise?" Joey asked, following Lance.
"Should be," Justin said, pushing JC to his feet. He eyed Chris, and decided to leave him alone. He might be taller, but Chris was bigger, if only marginally. "It's already been planned, Chris. Just come on."
With a sigh, Chris followed him out the door.
The drive was uneventful, even quiet. JC watched Justin, who had leaned up against the side of the hotel van, and wondered what had brought on this sudden outing. And who the kid could possibly know in Denver! They pulled up in front of a good sized, red brick house, and Justin pushed everyone out. He walked around the front walk to the door.
Ringing the doorbell brought sharp yapping, then an older woman opened the wooden inner door. "Hello?" she said.
"Hi," Justin said, smiling charmingly. "I'm Justin. We talked earlier?"
She smiled and pushed the screen door open. "Come in! Did everyone come?"
"Yes," Justin said. "We had some dissension in the ranks, but everyone came."
Joey stepped in and a smile covered his face at the smells that wafted from the kitchen. "I'm Joey," he introduced himself. She shook his hand, then something hit his knees. Looking down, he smiled at the small, dark gray scruffy looking little dog that had its front paws on his legs and barked up at him. He knelt down to pet the dog, and it skittered out of his way, going to accost Lance's knees.
"Likkers," the woman said as Joey stood again, and she picked up the dog, which squirmed in her arms.
"Actually, I'm Lance," Lance told her, and she smiled. "That's JC, and Chris is in the back, scowling. He's had a really bad day."
"So my daughter told me," she said gently. "I'm Tina, this is Likkers. Come on in." She led them up the stairs to the large living room. "It's almost ready, make yourselves comfortable."
Joey's eyes lit up, and Justin smothered a giggle. "What can we do to help?" he asked.
"I was setting the table when you got here," she said.
"We have to keep Joe out of the kitchen," JC said suggestively, nudging his friend.
"No, we don't," Joey protested. Tina set the dog down, and she darted over to Chris, who ignored her.
"If you'll set the table?" Tina asked, handing Joey the plates and pointing to the dining room. He sighed dramatically, then grinned and followed her direction.
Everyone was pulled into helping; JC volunteered himself and Chris to make the salad, cheerfully ignoring the glare the older man shot him. He noticed, however, that once Chris started cutting things, his shoulders loosened considerably.
"Who is this?" Chris asked, less animosity in his voice than there had been earlier that day.
JC shrugged. "You know, I don't care. She's nice, she's allowed body guards and strange men to invade her house, it smells better than anything I've smelled since we left Orlando, and there are no screaming people. Do me a favor, Chris." He waited until Chris looked at him, weary and wary at the same time.
"What?" Chris asked.
"Trust Justin for once. He wouldn't have done this if it weren't safe."
Chris just looked at him, then turned his attention back to the tomato. JC nudged him after a short pause. "I mean it," he said softly. Chris nodded but didn't look at him.
Dinner was a rousing success; by the time it was over everyone was in a much better mood. Joey gave a contented sigh and leaned back. "That was delicious. Thank you."
"All right," Lance said, who'd obviously been dying to ask all afternoon, "how does Justin know you?"
Justin grinned. "Guys, this is Marissa's mom," he informed them.
JC laughed. "Right now, Joey, I'm really glad you took that lady to lunch!"
Joey nodded. "So am I."
Tina smiled. "Now, you'll have to tell me who you are. As a group, I mean. She told me she didn't want to confuse me."
"‘N Sync," Chris said. The incomprehension in her eyes made him smile. "It's not important."
"How did you meet Marissa?" she asked. All eyes turned to Joey.
"I asked if I could sit at her table at this club in Portland," Joey said. "She took pity on me and let me sit down."
"And went to lunch with him," Chris added, grinning.
Joey waved him to silence. "We aren't there yet! She got asked to dance, and these guys showed up." He pointed to Justin, Lance, and JC. "Then I asked her to lunch."
"What did she say?"
"That nothing would happen because I was too young."
"You should have seen his face!" JC laughed. "His jaw bounced off the floor. Justin and Lance nearly spit soda all over her." He chuckled. "And she sat there, all smug and pleased with herself."
Tina laughed. "That sounds like her. But why did you react like that?"
Justin laughed. "I just turned 19, and you would not guess how often I was told that I was too young for something, most often by Joey." He glared at his friend. "It was a nice pay back."
"So I asked her how she knew, and she told me something I already knew: that I was younger than Chris," Joey went on, grinning unashamed at Justin.
"At which point Chris arrived," JC said.
Chris smiled. "And informed her Joey was six years younger than me. I scared her into him. She almost wound up in his lap."
"Almost," Joey agreed, grinning.
"Then Chris scared her off," Justin added.
"How?" Tina asked.
"I asked her how old she was. She said that was her cue to leave." He shrugged, smiling slightly.
"He and JC looked utterly baffled," Joey said.
"Justin," a low voice said from the kitchen, "time's almost up." Matt stood in the doorway, a look of regret on his face.
"Do we have time to help clean up?" Chris asked, standing and gathering his plate.
"If you hurry."
"That's okay, I can take care of it all," Tina protested as the other four stood as well.
"I'll man the dishwasher," Joey said. "We have time." He smiled at Tina as he took her plate.
"Come supervise or you'll never find anything," Justin suggested. She gave up and followed them into the kitchen.
The kitchen was cleaned in no time, and they all gave Tina a hug as they left. They piled back into the van. "Hope you guys have everything you'll need; we're half way there," Matt said from the driver's seat.
"Close enough," JC muttered as they pulled out of the driveway.
The phone rang later that night; Marissa grabbed it up. "Hello?" she asked.
"You're a saint," Justin told her. "Your mother's nice, and she cooks great!"
"I'm glad. She gave a good report on you guys, too. She said that you mentioned resistance?"
"Yeah. I had to talk Chris into going. He got better, and I'm sure it was your mother that helped." He chuckled. "He's sleeping now. I can't thank you enough."
"Well, Chris and Lance cheered me up a couple weeks ago; call us even. Besides, you did everything, all I did was warn my mother and give you the number."
"We appreciate it." He sighed. "Especially getting Chris calmed down. JC said he started cutting tomatoes and suddenly the tension was about halved."
"She had him cutting tomatoes?" Marissa asked, incredulous.
"Yeah! He and JC did the salad, I got the beans going, Joey set the table and Lance got the drinks. It was a really homey feel to it. It helped a lot."
"I'm glad to hear that. You guys are under a lot of stress, I guess?"
Justin sighed. "It keeps getting worse. I think Chris is starting to regret putting the group together."
Marissa grinned. "Oh, he'll get over that; you guys can't just stop. He probably couldn't if he wanted to."
Justin chuckled. "Probably not."
"Okay, boyo, no more phone calls. Email me. Got it?"
Justin laughed. "Yes, Ma'am."
She laughed again. "Thanks for letting me know how it went. I'll talk to you later."
"Really?" There was a sea of hope in that word. Marissa laughed.
"On email," she emphasized. "Or ICQ. Your phone bill has got to be sky high."
He shrugged. "So?"
"So, make it only mountain high and stop calling me."
He laughed. "All right, all right. I'm going to bed now."
"Me, too. Night."
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