"Okay, tell me why I have to do this again?" Lance asked, the hunted look back in his eyes.
Joey laughed. "Don't look like that, it's not that hard."
Lance threw his phone at him. "Then you do it!"
Joey tossed it back. "I have a girlfriend. In fact, you're the only one not attached to someone right now. That's why. And, you two seem to be really good friends." He smirked. "Besides, '98 Billboards or not, you have got to get over this shyness."
"Says who?" Lance demanded. He knew that Justin was smirking behind him, but refused to look at him.
Joey grinned brilliantly. "Me. And everyone else in this room."
"Which is Justin." An idea occurred to Lance, and he calmed down. "Fine, I'll do it." He put his phone away again. "Start the movie."
"What?" Justin demanded.
"I'll call her, but on my own time, and within three days," he added as Joey opened his mouth to protest. "I'll get Chris and JC, see if they want to join us." He got up and left the room.
"Did he just squirm out of that?" Joey asked Justin, staring after Lance.
"I don't think so." He sounded doubtful, but they couldn't pursue it when he returned, Chris and JC in tow. They settled down to watch the movie, but Joey and Justin kept shooting Lance weird looks. He finally got sick of them and left.
Lance was actually furious with his friends. He paced his room the next day, phone in hand, trying to figure out how to ask what they wanted to know. Probably all because of that stupid inside joke.... He grinned in spite of himself, remembering Marissa's startled exclamation. That had been priceless. He hadn't known she knew his full name. Not that it wasn't hard to find, but still....
He sat down on the bed, opened his address book, and dialed her number. The phone rang once, twice...
"Hello?"
"May I speak to Marissa?"
The voice was only vaguely familiar, and she scanned her brain to put a name to it. "Lance?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah! How'd you know?"
Marissa laughed. "It's me. You're the only person I know with that deep a voice, who's that polite. What's up?"
He paused, then got hit with inspiration. "We're curious. Did you know Chris has been chewing ice since he got back?"
"Tell him to stop it. It'll ruin his teeth."
"What?" It took him completely off guard.
"The combination of the hardness of the ice and the extreme difference in temperature can shatter his teeth." Then she paused. "Oh...."
"What?"
"I think I know why you told me he's chewing ice," she said as her face reddened. "I guess you didn't know my Dad was a dentist."
"No."
"Ah." She was silent. "Is it causing problems?"
"JC wants to kill him."
"JC isn't chewing ice?"
"Not around us." He shrugged. "But JC rarely gets phased about anything. Master Control, that's him. Chris, on the other hand, tells us how he's feeling." He sighed. "And he's driving us crazy."
"He'll probably keep doing it, as long as we're dating," she told him. "Sorry." She couldn't even tell him how long that would be.
"Why?"
She smiled and sat down. "I don't want this getting back to him, Lance, so you'll have to keep this quiet. If he's going to find out, he's going to find out from me." She chuckled slightly. "I made a promise to myself, and partially to my mom, that I would deserve that white dress at my wedding."
He was silent. "Oh. My mother would like you, I think."
"Thanks."
"So he hasn't said anything to you?"
"Not like that." She laughed. "I think he's waiting for me to say something. But I won't." She shrugged, a little bothered by it, but she didn't need to drop that on Lance; she could only imagine how uncomfortable he was with this. Which brought on another thought. "Hey, Lance, who put you up to this?"
"Joey," he answered promptly. "Justin would have started in on me if I hadn't said I'd do it." He laughed. "I think they wanted to be in on the conversation."
"I hate to do this to you, hon, but I really don't want that out among the five of you for now. And I know I can trust you. Speaking of secrets, I bet Justin hasn't quite bugging you about that 'obscene phone call' comment on the phone. Have you hit him yet?"
"No, but it's come close."
She laughed. "I can only guess that you either never have a secret to hide from him, or you're a masochist. Which is it?"
He chuckled. "I have plenty of secrets. This is the only one he knows about."
"From the way he's been hounding you, I'm not surprised!"
"Yeah, well...." He shrugged. "You live with it."
"No doubt. There are days I'm very glad I'm not one of you."
"There are days I wish I wasn't one of us, but they're few and far between, now. How was your day?"
"I've had better, but I've also had worse." She grinned. "I'm looking for a new job right now."
"Good. No more hate mail for us, right?"
She laughed. "As if I could write you hate mail... no, I take that back. If anyone says anything, Lance...."
"They won't, I promise. At least, not from me."
"I know. It's just.... I think Chris is paranoid or something."
He sighed. "Ask him about it."
It was her turn to sigh. "I did."
"What did he say?" he asked warily.
"That her name was Tamara, and that she had shown her true colors, whatever that means."
"Huh," he said shortly.
"What can you tell me about Tamara?"
His breath escaped in a long exhale. "You don't believe in making life easy, do you," he said slowly.
She chuckled. "If it were easy, it'd probably be boring." She swallowed, giving herself time to really think about what she wanted to know, and decided on a question that she hoped he'd feel a little more comfortable with. "Why didn't you like her?"
"What made you think I didn't like her?"
"Chris said none of you did."
"Did he?" He was quiet for a while. "I never had a reason to interact with her. I know Justin thought he was spending too much time with her, and I got the impression that he thought it was her fault, that she was pulling him away from us." He chuckled. "Sounds like a soap opera, doesn't it."
"What, you aren't living one?" Marissa teased.
"No!" he protested.
Marissa laughed. "Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much," she said in a bad fake English accent. "It would be called ‘Life and Times of a Pop Star' or something equally trite."
Lance groaned. "Oh, that was awful," he told her.
"The comment or the accent?"
"Both," he told her. "And the soap name, to be honest."
"Yeah, well... I haven't been able to do a good English accent since the eighties, and I'm not even sure how good it was then," she admitted. "Not to mention, I just don't do soaps."
"Huh." He paused a minute. "She seemed very possessive, and almost... too aware of her status, and of everyone else's, too. She was a little older than me. I think she was putting feelers out in our camp, and pulled Chris in. It could have been any of us, really."
"Really?" she asked.
"Well, no. JC wasn't interested, and Joey was too distracted by anything else in a skirt. He's definitely changed. Justin was a little too young, and I... didn't pick up the on bait, I guess." He chuckled. "Good thing."
"That's the truth. Speaking of bait, is Candy still with you guys?"
Lance chuckled. "Yes. She's threatening to quit, though, and go work for Kid Rock."
Marissa laughed. "Good match for her."
"Yeah. She says the assistant can do her job."
"You like working with her?"
"Him, and yes, I do."
She chuckled at the obvious relief in his voice. "Huh. Okay. Thanks, Lance. I'd better go. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Definitely," he said.
"But only on email, boyo, or ICQ. You don't need your phone bill any higher than it is."
He sighed. "Now I understand what Justin complains about."
"What?" she asked in mock indignation.
"He picks up the phone, mutters something about sky high, and gets on the computer.
"That's right. I hope you learn faster than he did."
"How long did it take him?"
"He still forgets sometimes. I arbitrarily hang up on him when he calls."
Lance laughed. "I'll try to avoid that."
"Good idea." Marissa checked the clock. "Oops. I'm going to be late. Tell Joey he should have called if he was so curious, and he missed his chance. Same to Justin. Have a great day, okay?"
"Believe me, I will," he said, hung up with a grin, and flopped down on the bed. He figured they'd ask if he called before they gathered for the....
"Hey, Lance, wake up!" He rolled his eyes up and looked at Joey, who stood by the bed, right where his head was.
"I'm awake."
"Did you call her?"
Lance laughed and got up. "She said you should have called if you were so curious, it's too late now, and I have been sworn - and threatened - to secrecy." He shrugged casually. "We going?"
Joey stared at him, motionless. Then he shook himself a little. "What did you tell her for?"
"The thing about this shyness is that she knew I'd never broach such a topic on my own." He was trying not to be smug, he was! "She wanted to know who put me up to it."
"And you told her?" he demanded, following Lance into the hallway.
"I don't lie to ladies," Lance said evenly.
"I'm not asking you to."
Lance laughed, and turned to face him. "So, what was I supposed to say?"
Joey stared at him. "She's the one that said she wasn't a Lady," he stammered.
"Who, Marissa?" Justin asked as he joined them, glancing from one to the other.
"Yes, Marissa, and after the benefit, I haven't believed that at all," Lance said.
"Why are you talking about Marissa?" Chris asked.
Lance shrugged. "I talked to her today." He turned away from Joey and Justin's horror-filled eyes, trying not to grin. Oh, they were going to get him for this, but he was enjoying it now.
"How's she doing?"
Lance lifted an eyebrow. "She had an okay day."
"She didn't hang up on you?" Justin asked.
He chuckled. "Only because I hadn't had the warning not to call."
"Okay, let's go," JC said, and began herding them down the hall. Lance gave a soft sigh, glad to have the attention of his friends off him for a little.
Dinner was late, which had become standard, and Lance was tired and frustrated. It had been a long day; besides what he'd found out from Marissa, he'd been left alone with Candy earlier, one of those unavoidable times, and it had tried his patience. He really wanted to curl up somewhere and sleep. He tried to keep to himself while they ate, and managed pretty well, knowing that Joey and Justin wouldn't ask any questions as long as Chris was around. Chris... He turned to find the older man just as he started in on the ice.
"Do you know what that does to your teeth?" Lance demanded, pale green eyes fixed on Chris. "It can shatter them. Instead of braces, you can have dentures."
Chris blinked, and spit the ice back into his glass. "Where did you hear that?" he demanded.
Lance flushed. "I called a dentist," he muttered, glad he'd thought to double check on what Marissa had said. He really didn't know where else he might have gotten that info, and she wanted it a secret. He certainly didn't want Chris to know the real reason he'd talked to her that afternoon.
"Who?"
He shrugged. "Someone local, um...." He rolled his eyes up in his head, trying to remember. "Oh. Samodi." Chris turned and grabbed for the phone book. "Oh, that's it." Lance stood up. "Good night." He left, probably with more force than he should have, and locked himself in his room. He stripped, crawled into the bed, ignoring the pounding on the door, and curled up as tight as he could. He slept almost immediately.
"Was Lance okay when you talked to him earlier?" Chris asked. Marissa yawned into the phone.
"Sorry. Yeah, I think so. Why?"
"He just stalked out of here like... I don't know." He shrugged.
Marissa laughed. "That tells me a lot! I didn't get to see him, and you woke me up. I'm not coherent."
"What did you talk about?"
"Why?"
"Curious." Her wary tone was not lost on him.
"How I hang up on Justin some times because he calls too much."
"Lance told me today that chewing ice could make my teeth shatter."
She smiled. "He's right, Chris. It's not a good habit to be in. My Dad warns me about that all the time. Why are you chewing ice?"
He was silent. "Frustrations," he said finally.
"What, you think I don't know?" she teased.
"Know what?"
"What it means when you're chewing ice?"
He laughed. "What are you going to do about it?"
"From Portland? Nothing."
"We'll be there in...." He stopped. "Oh, right, Scoop went to bed. Which is why I called you."
"That's why you called me?" she demanded in mock indignation. "That's the whole reason you called me? Because Lance went to bed? Gee, I feel loved!"
"No, that's not the only reason I called you!" he protested, laughing. "I called also because I like to hear your voice."
"You were just here," she protested. Three weeks ago, her thoughts supplied. No, I'm not keeping count.
"Yes, I was. And I'm glad. But now I'm here and I have to do something...."
"Chris, how high is your phone bill?"
He was quiet. "Not bad."
"Right," she scoffed.
"Don't even try to get me to stop calling you. Justin's just a friend. I'm a boyfriend.... So the distinction isn't clear," he added as she chuckled. "I'm your boyfriend. I'm allowed to call."
She paused, then nodded, even though he couldn't see her. "Okay, okay." She glanced at the clock and groaned. "Chris, it's midnight. I have to get up in six hours...."
He checked his watch. "You do. Sorry."
"I don't mind this time," she teased, then chuckled. "Who exactly am I kidding? I never mind, but I do have to keep my brain supplied with down time."
"What, no beauty sleep?" he teased.
"No, that's Justin's department. He's got to keep cute enough to keep you guys selling records."
"I'm not going to tell him that. He's got a big enough head as it is."
"Probably a good idea. Good night, Chris."
"Night." He hung up and looked at JC, who leaned against the wall, a serious look on his face. "What? And how long have you been here?"
"What was the comment about getting you to stop calling?"
Chris sat up warily. "Why?"
"Just tell me." JC's blue eyes glinted dangerously.
"All right." Chris' chin jutted stubbornly. "She asked me about my phone bill."
"Do you know why?"
Chris blinked and looked confused. "What?"
"Do you know why."
Chris crossed his arms. "You're going to tell me why."
"If you're interested."
"Go ahead."
JC relaxed a little, trying to find a way to explain his thoughts. "When you went ballistic on her, do you remember what you said?"
Chris nodded. "Sure. I accused her of...." It was like a light had gone on inside his head. "Of being friends with us... to get the perks, for lack of a better phrase."
JC nodded. "It's gonna come back and bite you, hard. Just remember that."
Chris shook his head. "I don't think so," he said. "She'll get over it."
JC sighed. "Just remember this, so I don't have to say 'I told you so', okay?" He pushed away from the wall. "We couldn't get Lance to budge. I'm going to bed."
"Good night," Chris said, chuckling softly under his breath. But JC's words bothered him, and it took him almost half an hour to get to sleep.
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