Early in the morning, a bump that the bus hit caused Laura to wake up and fall off the couch out of Wade's arms. She yawned and stretched before looking around the bus. Justin was now gone and in his bunk and Natalie now had a blanket and pillow on the couch. Now she wasn't going to be able to prove to JC that she was winning. She wanted to show JC that they fell asleep, but now he was never going to believe her. Laura then looked back at Wade who was still sleeping with the arm that was around her now hanging over the couch.
She reached over and pulled the blanket they had and put it back over him. Uneasily her hand moved to his face and she brushed his hair back out of his face and smiled warmly. Sure he got on her nerves, and the same with her to him, but she still loved him in a weird kind of way. They were both still convinced that a relationship was still completely impossible because they knew each other too well, but what if one of their feeling started to change.
Laura knew that their friendship was as deep a friendship could get. She was starting to look at him differently, but she didn't know what it was, nor did she want to know. It could ruin everything or just make everything perfect between them. Right at that moment, she couldn't care less because she was still with him either way, but what the future held for them was the part that she didn't want to face.
Was it true? Bestfriends make great lovers. She didn't believe, and she wasn't going to. But the more and more she saw Wade, the more she saw his new sides of maturing and growing up even more. He didn't even look like the same dorky kid that he did when he was younger. True they were still very young, but it's amazing how quickly they all grow up. Always thinking about things got Laura in trouble, and she wanted to stop the thinking and just move on.
She looked away for a moment and looked around the bus. These guys really were normal. They were sleeping, trying to get enough rest to give them energy for the rest of the day. Even though she got frustrated the night before, she really did have fun when everybody started joking around. Just hopefully their fans understood the real people of Nsync.
Laura was interrupted from her thoughts when she heard some movement on the couch next to her. She looked over and saw that Wade was now looking at her. "Oh, well, good morning."
Wade smiled and reached over to brush some of Laura's hair out of the way. "How long have you been sitting there?"
Laura looked over at the clock and shrugged with a little smile. "I don't know, half an hour at least."
"You could have pushed me over."
"You were sleeping so peacefully, besides, I was wide awake."
Wade scooted forward and wrapped his arms around Laura's waist and pulled her up on the couch. "There, all better."
She turned around to look at him and just continued to stare. He looked right back up at her and smiled slightly. Eventually Laura shook her head and smiled after patting his shoulder. "I'm going to go up front and sit up there and see how close we are."
Wade looked down and spoke softly. "Are all of us still going shopping today?"
"Yah, I'm pretty sure."
"Alrighty."
Laura stood up and walked away, but Wade's eyes continued along with her walking away almost like his vision was glued to her only. It was weird, almost like a first time feeling. The small stare down they had was different than any game. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, but he didn't have time to think about it now, and he had no reason to read into anything.
With the final thought, he jumped up and walked up to the front to sit with Laura for the rest of the ride.
Natalie was soon awaken by the sound of a muffled yelp. She jumped up and looked around to see that she was the only person in the back of the bus. "Oh my gosh, what was that."
Her heart kept beating until she saw Justin stagger into the room and on the couch opposite of her. "Ow, it hurts."
Natalie stood up and yawned before walking over to see what the baby's issue was now. "What's wrong? Were you the yelp that I heard."
Justin looked up and smiled brightly. "Yes, that was me."
"You jerk, you woke me up, I was having a good dream to. I was in a room with clouds and shades of blue and then the best part. In the middle was Hayden Christensen, standing there smiling and--"
Justin sighed loudly, clearing his voice. "Enough said, seriously."
"I can't help it, he's amazingly hot, anyways, what's wrong?"
Justin continued to rub his foot when Natalie sat down beside him. "I kinda got a splinter."
Natalie gave him a concerned look. "And how did you get a splinter in here?"
Justin pouted a lip with a shrug and looked down. "I'm not sure.."
Natalie's head moved up and down slowly. "Right, let me see your foot and stop being a little baby. It probably isn't even a splinter."
Justin moved his leg over towards Natalie to show him. "It is too a splinter, I know one when I see it."
"Sure you do.."
Natalie took his foot and examined it slowly. It was weird for her to be doing this. She felt like a mother, and a mother of a pop star of all things. She didn't understand why she was doing it, but she was just trying to be kind. "There isn’t a splinter there."
Justin whipped his foot back and looked at it. "Yes there is, I can feel it."
Natalie shook her head, and leaned back on the couch with a smirk on her face. "If there's a splinter, then show me, because I can't find it."
Justin looked around and shrugged. "You took it out?"
"Nice try."
Justin grasped his foot and yelped. "IT STILL HURTS!"
Natalie shook her head. "Give me your other foot."
Justin lifted up the other leg and plopped it on her lap. To her surprise, there was a chunk of wood in his foot. Now how he was feeling pain in the other foot, she didn't know. How he got the splinter in the first place? That was something that she wouldn't want to know because there was know way he could get a splinter in his foot from a tour bus. Everything was put together nicely, and it wasn't like he was walking barefooted on a deck.
Natalie shook her head and grasped the chunk and ripped it out. When a little bit of blood oozed, she immediately took care of it with some things she found in her purse that was conveniently sitting right beside her. When she was done she put his leg down and patted it. "There you go, all better."
"Wow. thanks."
"Now Justin, explain, how you got the splinter. I would love to know, because there's no way you could have gotten on that. For what I can think of, there's no way. Also, how were you feeling pain in one foot and not the other, especially the foot where there WASN'T a splinter. That really fascinates me."
Justin shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure, but thanks." He leaned over and hugged her briefly. "We're almost there, I'm pretty sure."
"No problem, are we all going shopping?"
"Yah, that's a definite."
Within seconds JC came stumbling in the room. "What's going on back here?"
Natalie shook her head. "Nothing, Justin was just being a baby, so I fixed his boo-boo. It's amazing how some people you would think are tough can be the biggest babies on earth, but we should not go there. We wouldn't want to diss the baby pop star over there, right, Mr. Teen Pop?"
Justin shook his head. "You have no idea."
JC turned around and grabbed Lance's arm, since Lance was standing there listening. "Look Natalie, Lance has a cut, can you help him?"
Natalie stood up to go over and look. "Where?"
JC briefly scratched Lance's arm so it looked like some type of injury. "Um right there."
Lance whipped his arm back and rubbed it. "Why did you scratch me? That hurt. Geez, I think I should leave now, all you do is hurt me. I may not be the baby, but you don't have to be so mean to me."
Natalie raised an eyebrow at JC. "You scare me, that's all I can say."
JC shrugged and left the room. "What can I say, I'm brilliant."
JC walked to the front part of the bus where Laura and Wade were sitting and he grinned at Laura. "You're a loser."
Laura rolled her eyes and smiled up at JC. "Then how come I heard Natalie and Justin talking and it sounded like Natalie was TAKING CARE OF Justin. Tell me JC tell me how I could be a loser. I would love to know, sit down and tell me about it."
JC smiled and shrugged. "If you insist, I'll sit down."
JC walked over and sat right in between Laura and Wade. Wade looked over at JC to acknowledge that he was there. "Hello there."
"Hey Wade."
Laura rolled her eyes and stood up to go sit back down by Wade. "Save me."
Wade lowered the newspaper and raised one eyebrow. "You expect me to do that? Hah. Yah right girl, dream on, he can do whatever he wants to you, I’m just going to sit here."
Laura gawked back at Wade . "Are you serious? You would let him do anything to your bestest friend in the whole wide world, I'm ashamed."
JC shook his head. "Don't worry."
"Uh huh, yah, I'll stay here REAL calm."
JC ignored Laura and looked back over at Wade. "Are you done with the newspaper?"
Wade folded it up and handed it to JC. "Sure, I don't need to read it anyways."
Laura yawned and laid her head on Wade's lap. "Wake me up when we get here, it's just best if I sleep through whatever JC is going to do."
Wade smiled and put an arm around Laura, allowing her to go to sleep.
Within minutes Justin and Natalie walked out still talking and they sat down on the other couch. "I love Sleeping Beauty though, that movie was a classic."
Justin half smiled and shrugged. "I don't know, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a lot better."
"I don't think so."
"We'll just settle on Beauty and the Beast."
Natalie smiled and nodded with approval. "Yah, we can just settle with that, but what about Lady and the Tramp?"
"It wasn't THAT great of a movie."
Natalie looked over at Justin and shook her head. "I'll give you a run for your money on that one."
Laura and Natalie walked out of a cd store to see all of the guys over at a store with video games out on the front for people to play to try to get them to buy them. Natalie smiled at Justin's little hat and sunglasses and extremely baggy clothes to cover him up. JC didn't do much of anything except a coat with a hood and all of the other guys had little things like that while Wade was standing there completely normal.
Natalie and Laura walked over to them and Laura tapped on Wade's shoulder. "Having fun?"
Wade kept looking at the screen until he felt another tap and turned around to see Laura standing there. "Oh, yah, great fun."
"Why don't we go walk around?"
Wade shrugged and grabbed her hand. Then he looked back over at the guys. "Come on, they want to go somewhere else."
Everyone booed and walked along. JC nudged Lance and pointed to Natalie. "Go walk and talk with her, she looks lonely."
Lance shook his head. "No she doesn't, Justin is there."
JC looked back over, and sure he was there. Justin was now talking to Natalie walking along and most likely flirting if JC knew him as well as he thought. "Oh, damn."
Laura and Wade walked along and a shiver went up Laura's body and she felt Wade's warm hand cover hers as they walked along. He never did anything like that before. Sometimes he'd put his arm around her shoulder and walk around, but this was different. Maybe she was reading into it, but it felt good to be holding his hand, it was comforting.
Laura looked over at Natalie and pointed towards a Victoria's Secret and Natalie nodded. Laura looked back at Wade and smiled. "Um, we're going to go into another store, is that ok?"
Wade smiled down at her and nodded. "Go for it, where are you going?"
"Um, over there." Laura pointed to the store.
Wade grinned. "I'm coming."
Laura shook her head violently. "No you aren't."
Wade pouted a lip and sighed. "Please?"
Laura shook her head once again. "No."
Laura started to walk away, but Wade wouldn't let go of her hand. Eventually she looked back at him. "Wade, I'm going to go in there, and I'll be back."
"Don't leave."
"Are you on drugs or something?"
Wade shook his head. "No, I just want you here, that's why all of us came, right, to spend time together, so let's go in the store."
Chris overheard them and jumped up. "Yes, let's ALL go into Victoria's Secret."
Laura rolled her eyes. "No Chris." Joey walked over and put an arm around Natalie who was standing by Laura and Wade with Chris. "You going in there with Laura dearest?"
Natalie looked around before nodding her head. "Yes, and you guys aren't coming."
JC and Justin stood back as Lance walked up to the rest of them. "They are extremely weird, it's just Victoria's Secret."
Justin nodded his head and looked inside to see what all was there. "I don't know, that store is so... dumb...."
JC agreed silently and continued to watch Laura and Natalie struggle to leave. "Yah, they should be able to go in by themselves..."
Justin sighed deeply. "Yah, they should..."
"Let's go."
"Alright."
Justin and JC walked over to Natalie and Laura and grabbed their arms, pulling them into Victoria's Secret with Wade still attached to Laura's arm. "Whoa, what's going on here?"
JC smiled. "There, you're in the store."
Natalie shook her head. "With you three guys in here, yah, you're right, we're in the store."
Laura rolled her eyes and started to leave the store, but JC grabbed her arm. "Stay."
"No, we'll just come back later."
Justin dropped his arms and walked to the front of the store again. "Let's just go, if they WANT to shop in that store alone, then let them, it's private stuff anyways. Jeez, you guys are perves."
Laura smiled with Natalie at the guys as they left. "Thanks, you'd understand."
The guys left and stood right by the entrance where there was just enough room where Natalie and Laura wouldn't be able to see them from where they were standing. Justin looked at JC and Wade and grinned. "If they only knew."
Wade shook his head. "You know this is sick, she's my bestfriend, why am I doing this?"
JC smiled. "Because its the right thing to do."
Wade shook his head once more. "No, I don't think that's right...it's just.." He looked inside to see Laura looking at new bras in the store with Natalie. "Well, I don't know..."
"Just stay."
"JC if your bestfriend was standing in that store shopping for stuff, would you watch her?"
"Well, depending on what she looked like, if she was hot, hell yes."
"Well, I'm going to leave, if I want to see what she got, I'll look later at the hotel."
JC shrugged his shoulders and watched Wade walk away. "Suit yourself man. You're really missing out here. Sucks to be you now, hah."
Justin grinned. "Oh, boy he's a loser..."
JC nodded his head. "OH YES." JC paused and then looked up at Justin. "You know, maybe we should just forget about it."
Justin's eyes widened. "Are you serious? That's stupid!"
"Yah, I mean, come on." JC suddenly remembered the bet so he tried to get Justin away from there. The more he saw of Natalie, the quicker JC would lose the bet. "Let's just go."
Justin pouted his lip and looked in at the girls who were carrying a few things around with them as they looked around. "Fine... I'll see them later."
The guys left from their spot and went over to go see what the other guys were doing, while inside the store Natalie and Laura were looking around at more things. Laura sighed and let her shoulders slump. "I think I'm done maybe."
Natalie nodded her head. "I didn't want to get too much anyways."
"I only wanted like 6 things so, yah."
"What's up with Wade?"
Laura shrugged slowly and gave a confused look to Natalie. "What do you mean?"
"Like how he wouldn't let go of your arm earlier? That's different, holding your hand? I've never seen him do that. True, I haven't been around that much, but he hasn't done those things at all since I've been here until now."
"I don't know what you mean. Maybe he's just in a friendly mood, he's been like that before."
Natalie shook her head. "I don't believe that."
Laura grabbed one more thing and then put her things on the counter to check out. "Seriously nothing is happening. But what about you and Justin?"
"What are YOU talking about?"
The lady at the checkout smiled. "How are you girls doing?"
Laura smiled back at her. "We're doing great."
"Guy problems? I couldn't help but overhear. Sorry."
"That's alright, just a little misunderstanding."
Laura looked back at Natalie and smiled before she would continue to whisper. "You should talk to him, or something. I think he likes you."
"JC said that Lance liked me, what's going on here?"
Laura turned back to give the checkout lady some money and shrugged when she got back to Natalie. "Nothing that I know of, but with JC you never know. He's ALWAYS planning something."
"Oh."
Laura took her bag and stood there, waiting for Natalie to get her stuff payed for and when that was all done they walked out of the store after shoving the bags from the store in a different bag to make the guys think they didn't get anything.
When Natalie spotted Joey and Chris, they walked over figuring the rest of the guys would be there.
Joey smiled down at Natalie and Laura and noticed that there were no bags from the store they were previously in. "Didn't you get anything?"
Laura shook her head violently and grabbed Natalie's arm. "Nope, ok, let's go find the other guys."
Joey shook his head and looked at Chris. "They got stuff."
"Oh yes they did. Hey, do you know what happened to my candy bar?"
Laura and Natalie walked over to Lance. "Hey Lance, where is everyone?"
Lance shrugged and smiled at Natalie before replying to Laura. "Um, some are over there." He pointed. "And some over here."
"Alright, round them up."
"Alright Princess Laura."
Lance and everyone walked towards the entrance of the mall to leave while Justin and Natalie dragged behind because they got something to drink so they just walked together.
"So, what did you by in the underwear store?"
Natalie shook her head. "I didn't get anything."
"Yes you did."
"No I didn't."
Justin shook his head, knowing she was lying. "Just show me."
"Why do you want to see?"
Justin felt caught. He didn't like her like her as in love type, but that's what it would seem like. "Um, because I like underwear, it's a fun thing, don't you think?"
"Sure."
"Just show me."
Natalie shook her head. "NO JUSTIN!"
Justin grabbed Natalie's waste and lifted her up and started walking away. "Come on, show me."
Natalie squealed throughout the mall. "PUT ME DOWN!!!!"
"Show me what you got."
"NO!"
Justin started tickling her sides until she wiggled out of his arms. "THAT tickled!"
Justin grinned down at Natalie who was trying to get away. "Just show me."
"If I show you will you leave me alone?"
"Yes."
Natalie nodded her head. "Fine, I'll show you on the bus, if you give me a ride to the bus so I don't have to walk anymore..."
Justin shook his head and rolled his eyes as Natalie jumped on his back and he carried her out. "You better hope you show me what you got."
Natalie crossed her fingers and smiled. "Oh, I will..."