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"Marie, I'm going out to the compound," JC called up the stairs. A second later, a brunette and a blond appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Compound?" Marie asked, coming down the stairs.
"It's a house Jive rents out for us. It has a lake and rehearsal space that we use. I have a meeting till five. Did you and Kat have any plans?" He glanced up at her as he pulled on his coat.
"I was thinking of going grocery shopping and getting some real food in the house."
"Okay. I'm taking the Eclipse so you can have the Jeep. The keys are in that basket in the hall."
"Okay. What time does your meeting end?"
"Supposedly at five, but I won't be home until six, six-thirty with traffic and the drive."
"Okay. Be careful."
"Don't worry about me. I'll see you guys later." JC opened the door and was gone.
"No bodygaurd for us," Marie said, throwing a smile at Kat. Her sister smiled an evil grin back. The front door opened again and JC stuck his head in the house.
"Remember to take Lonnie with you guys. His number's on the board in the kitchen," he said. The door shut again.
"Damn," Marie stated. "So close yet so far."
"Come on. This won't be so bad. Will you help me memorize these terms when we get back?"
"No problem. Come on. Let's call Lonnie and see if Lonnie would like to accompany us on a shopping excursion." Marie went for the phone.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Look who decided to join us. You're only, uh, an hour late, JC," Chris said, glancing at his watch. JC slumped his long body in a chair.
"Sorry, guys. It's been a long morning," he replied.
"You must have been shaking the bed pretty hard to forget your ass had to pick Kat up at the airport this morning," Justin told him.
"Go, JC!" Joey exclaimed. JC rolled his eyes.
"Get your head out of you ass, Justin. Caitlyn showed up this morning."
"I thought you told her not to come for two weeks?" Lance said.
"Yeah, me too. She's on some trip that Marie is gonna 'steal me' or something."
"She just showed up?" Chris asked.
"Yeah and Marie walked in."
"You two weren't doing anything, were you?" Justin demanded. "It'd be a bad morning for me too."
"We weren't doing anything, but it still caught Marie off guard."
"But she knew about Caitlyn, right? So it wasn't that big of a surprise?" Joey replied.
"Uh, I kinda forgot."
"You FORGOT to tell Marie that you had a girlfriend?" Lance stated. "You must be in the doghouse for that one."
"You can't imagine the tension between us now. AND Kat's here till Sunday. It's not gonna be fun to have Marie mad at me AND Kat ready to rip my head off."
"It's your fault for the situation," Justin said.
"At least Caitlyn went home. That'll make things a little easier."
"Once you get past Marie ready to kill you, I'm SURE things will be okay," Chris said in mock seriousness. Him and the others laughed.
"I'm glad you're finding this situation funny," JC told them.
"It's not that. It's just that this thing just gets more drama every day. It's like living in a damn soap opera," Joey told him. "Why don't you just dump Caitlyn and go for Marie? You and Marie make more sense than you and Caitlyn."
"Why did I have a feeling one of you guys were going to bring that up?" JC asked. "Look: I'm with Caitlyn and Marie just kinda happened. In a year, Marie and I'll be nothing while Caitlyn will still be here. I have to make a phone call. I'll be right back." He got up and walked out of the living room.
"Thirty says Caitlyn's gone by Christmas," Justin said. Joey went for Valentine's while Chris went for the end of January.
"You guys are messed up," Lance told them. The three turned their eyes toward the blond. "She'll be gone by New Year's." They laughed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Thanks for coming along on such short notice, Lonnie," Marie told the man as the three walked down the aisles of the supermarket.
"That's what I'm here for," Lonnie replied.
"A large black man isn't a SURE indication that something fishy's going on," Kat said. Marie glared at her. "What? You know you were thinking the same thing, but you didn't have the balls to say it."
"I didn't want to be RUDE."
"It's okay, Marie. I've been guarding JC since he was nineteen. I've heard that phrase at least a million times." Marie smiled at him, but reached up and hit Kat over the back of her head. Lonnie laughed. A cell phone went off.
"It's me," Lonnie said. Marie turned to the shelf and grabbed a box of Macaroni and Cheese. "Lonnie here. Hey. YES, she's with me. Of course I'm sure. I'm looking at her right now. Don't you have a meeting? Then why aren't you in it? No, I'm not lying. She's wearing the same thing she was when you left this morning. Jeans and a red shirt. Brand? Hold on." He turned to Marie. "JC's trying to make a positive ID of you. What brand is your shirt?" She turned toward him. "It's a red shirt by Abercrombie and Fitch. Shirt, sweater, WHATEVER. I'm not going to tell you what kind of SHOES she's wearing. She and Kat are with me and nothing's gone wrong. Can I go now? Okay. Her shoes are Adidas, okay? Good-BYE, JC." Lonnie hung up the phone.
"Not liking the third degree?" Marie asked.
"No WONDER the two of you are at each other's throats. I'm ready to strangle him."
"Be my guest," Kat interjected. Marie shot her a look. "What? You know I have the maturity of a five-year-old. This shouldn't be a surprise to you."
"Come on. I only need to get eggs and milk and we're done," Marie told the two. They moved down the aisle.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
JC opened the front door as a blare of Christina Aguleria filtered out. He closed the door behind him and headed toward the commotion going on in the kitchen. He smiled at the picture that greeted him.
Marie was bent over a kettle, stirring whatever she was cooking. Her hair was thrown up in a loose French twist and a few locks had fallen to frame her face. Her clothes were covered by a white apron. She spooned up some of the contents and blew on it to cool the red sauce. She tasted it, closed her eyes, and furrowed her forehead as if she was in deep thought. Nodding once, she put a lid on the kettle and moved over to the pot next to it. She grabbed a fork that was on the countertop and reached into the pot. She pulled up a few pieces of rigatoni and peered at them cautiously. She blew on them and then tasted them. Marie nodded again and turned off the burner. She picked up the pot and took it to the awaiting colander in the sink.
"What's she making?" a voice asked him. JC jumped and turned around. Kat stood there, a leather folder open in her hands. She was looking down at it and shuffling through what looked like 8x10 photographs.
"I...uh...um," he stuttered. Was she going to bring up the fact that he had been blatantly staring at Marie?
"It's a simple question, JC. She was talking about either pasta or chicken for dinner. Which one is it?" Kat finally looked up at him, closing the notebook. She had a perfectly innocent look on her face.
"Pasta, I think. I'm gonna go upstairs and take a shower. We had to run through some things today." He walked past her.
"Thanks for taking five seconds to find out what she was cooking, JC. I mean, you were staring at her for ten minutes after all." JC shook his head as he walked up the stairs.
"JC's back," Kat said, walking into the kitchen.
"Okay." Marie looked up at her. "Oh, God. What did you say to him this time?"
"Nothing."
"I don't believe you. What'd you tell him?"
"I simply asked him what we were having for dinner and he told me pasta."
"You're not telling me the whole story."
"Okay. Maybe I pointed out the fact that the least he should know is what we're having for dinner since he was staring at you for the past ten minutes."
"Katharine!"
"What?!"
"I'm going to give you a muzzle, I swear. Please, please, PLEASE watch what you say around him."
"Why?"
"Kat, it there's conflict between the two of you, I'm gonna feel like I have to side. I'd side with you, but I don't want to. I want this to work between him and I. I want to be his friend. I want to laugh with him and have inside jokes with him like everyone else does. I can't do that if you two are at odds."
"Marie, he's been treating you like a third wheel all along. He didn't tell you he has a girlfriend. What else is he not going to let you in on? His schedule so when he's gone you have no idea where he is and you worry that something's happened to him?"
"I don't want to fight with you. We've never fought before and I don't need our first fight to be over like this. I'M the big sister here and I'm telling you as your big sister to stop worrying about me. This whole thing will be fine once JC and I find a common ground."
"I'm not going to apologize to him."
"I'm not asking you to. I just want the chance to get to know him. Please, Kat. This is all going to be over in a year and I'd rather this be a year I enjoy than one I hate."
"Okay, I'll be nice."
"Thank you." Marie turned and put the pan of buttered French bread in the oven.
JC stood silent in his place just outside the kitchen. He was hidden by the wall and had heard pretty much the entire argument. He leaned against the wall. No one said this was going to be easy, he reminded himself.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kat yawned as she rubbed her eyes. Sitting up, she sniffed at the air and smiled. She made Mom's pancake breakfast, she thought and hopped out of bed. She bounded out down the stairs, but suddenly stopped shirt. Oh, this is too good to miss. Turning around, she hurried back up the stairs and grabbed Marie's camera. She returned to her perch and carefully focused in. With a small click! the moment was sealed forever. She smiled and tiptoed back upstairs.
"Do you have any plans for today?" JC asked the woman sitting across from him.
"I have that meeting with Johnny from eight to nine and then I kinda wanted to go exploring around Orlando." There was a rustling sound as their newspapers went to the next page.
"Do you know how to get to Johnny's?"
"I have directions and a map. I'll be fine."
"You were going to take Kat with you to the compound?"
"Yeah. She talked to Justin yesterday and I think he's taking us on a tour or something," Marie replied, sipping her coffee. "What about you?"
"I have a couple phone calls today, but other than that I'm just gonna relax."
I should ask if he wants to come with us, Marie thought. "Do you want to come with us on the tour?"
"Sure." Realizing he jumped at the prospect too easily, he tried to cover up his slip. "I mean, you're going to need someone to hold you when you're exposed to Justin's driving."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"God, don't let me die like this. Please," Kat pleaded, covering her eyes. In the backseat of the Mercedes, Marie was clinging onto JC and had her head buried in his chest. Screw the fact that she was still pissed at him, Justin could killed her and this car had no chicken shit bars to hold onto.
"I'm wanna see you out that door. Baby, bye, bye, bye," Justin sang.
"Isn't it a little arrogant to be singing your own songs?" Kat asked.
"It's not my fault it was on the radio at the exact moment we were driving around. Oh, look. There's the turn off to my mom's. You guys gotta meet my mom." Justin jerked the wheel to the right, sending the occupants in the same direction.
"Justin Timberlake, you kill me and I'm coming back and haunting your ass," Kat screamed as the force pressed her against the window.
"I didn't know a car could actually drive on two wheels," Marie commented, settling back into the seat after the turn was over. "Besides, isn't your mother going to be upset that she didn't receive any notice of us stopping by?"
"Are you kidding me? My mom lives to entertain. That and she's been wanting to meet you."
"She's not mad or anything, is she?"
"Nah. Mom thought it was a little funny that the most responsible one of us got into trouble." Kat tittered in the front seat.
“Kat…” Marie warned.
“Sorry.”
“Here we are,” Justin announced, swinging the car into the driveway. As it settled back on four wheels, Marie and JC sighed with relief.
“Remind me to tell the MVD not to reissue your license,” JC said, stepping out of the car.
“Hey, man. I have a California driver’s license.”
“A license to kill, you mean?” Marie said. JC burst out laughing at the crushed look on Justin’s face.
“That was a good one,” Kat replied.
“Not funny,” Justin told her and opened the front door to the house. “Mom! I had people follow me home again. I think it’s my fan club.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kat told him as a blond woman turned the corner.
“Your fan club, huh?” she asked. “Are they aware they’ve been inducted?”
“No, but everyone loves me.”
“And then he woke up,” Kat mumbled, causing JC and Marie to laugh.
“What did you say?”
“I was just commenting on what a lovely house this is.”
“Thank you,” Justin’s mother said.
“Marie, Kat, this is my mom, Lynn Harless. Mom, this is Marie and her sister Kat,” Justin introduced.
“Nice to meet you. Especially you, Marie. It’s nice to meet the girl that has the nation in an uproar.”
“I didn’t mean to. Really.” The two laughed.
“Are you staying a while or did you just stop in to say hi?” Mrs. Harless asked.
“I think we better go,” Justin said. “If we stay too long, you’re going to whip of the photo albums.”
“Aw, I wanna see you naked baby butt,” Kat objected. Justin grabbed her arm and started pulling her out the door.
“It was nice to meet you,” Marie told Justin’s mother. Justin caught her by the arm and pulled her with him.
“Bye, Lynn,” JC told the woman.
“Bye, JC,” she laughed. “I like her. She’s nice.” He smiled back.
“I’m beginning to think that myself,” he replied. “I’ll see you later.” He turned and followed the three.