Situating her things beside her, Natalie sat back into the comfort of the padded stadium seat. She couldn't even believe she was here, but Laura had talked her into coming to sound check to keep her company. Considering she had nothing to do in the first place, she figured it would at least keep her amused.
Laura hopped over to where Natalie was sitting, her legs crossed daintily and her eyes glued to the stage where the guys would soon be standing, practicing for their show that would take place in mere hours.
"Natalieeeeeeee."
Her head turned abruptly and she smiled at Laura. "Hey."
"Looky! Here comes Superman!"
Natalie watched as Jc ran onto the stage like an idiot, which caused her to laugh. The first laugh she'd had all day. At least someone had the ability to make her smile.
Next came Lance, looking cool and collected as he tried to adjust his head set. Natalie had to smile at how Lance always seemed to have everything under control.
Chris came next, jogging onto the stage, and then falling onto his butt. Jc turned and laughed at him, and Lance rolled his eyes, chuckling softly.
The next thing Natalie saw made her heart jump to her throat, and tears to fill her eyes.
Justin strutted out onto the stage, placing a black head set over his now bald head. He'd shaved his head. He'd cut off his curls. She couldn't believe her eyes.
She blinked, hoping that maybe, for some reason, she'd seen wrong, but she cringed whenever she opened her eyes and still saw the same thing. Right then and there, she felt her heart shred into peices, and she stood from her seat, running past the stage and out the door as fast as her tennis shoed feet could carry her.
Justin watched her run and suddenly felt guilty. What the hell had he done to this poor woman?
He tore his headset off and leaped off the stage and raced out the doorway before anybody could stop him. He watched Natalie turn a corner and hurried to catch up with her, but when he turned the same corner, he found that she was now gone.
Laura walked past him, glaring angrily at him, before she disappeared into Lance's dressing room where Wade would be meeting her after sound check. Her ears perked up when she heard quiet crying coming from the other side of the room and she turned to find Natalie sitting on the floor, her head back against the wall. Her eyes were closed, but that didn't stop tears from flowing down her cheek.
"Natalie?"
She sniffled and wiped away a few tears with her hand. "I hope Lance won't be mad at me, but his room was the first one I saw and I needed to get away from Justin."
Bending down to sit beside Natalie, Laura put a comforting arm around her friend and squeezed. "I'm sure he won't mind."
"I just don't understand, Laura. Does Justin really hate me that much? I mean, his curls were his TRADEMARK. He threw that all away, cut them off, just so he wouldn't have to see me?"
"Natalie, you know Justin. He's got an ego the size of the continent of Africa, and you know how his pride is always getting in the way. He's trying to prove a point, I think. A very idiotic, stupid, point, but a point none the less."
"He hates me, Laura. He HATES me, and I don't even know why."
She sympathized for Natalie and the way she was feeling. Justin had definately gone out of his way to make her feel awful. "I overheard everything that happened yesterday, and I heard the ignorant things he said to you, but you know how his temper is... Well, at least Wade tells me he can get quite the temper when he's upset and he does and says things he normally wouldn't do."
Natalie took a deep breath. "I just wish I knew how I could fix everything. I wish I could take it all back."
Laura hugged Natalie tightly before standing up. "Why don't you go back to the hotel and get some rest, okay? You're not going to want to watch the concert tonight anyways. Just, for a couple hours, try to forget about Justin and sleep, okay?"
Natalie stood up from her spot on the floor and sighed. "I'll try, but I guarentee it won't work."
"Go on, now." Laura pushed at Natalie's back and smiled. "I'll come wake you up after the concert and see how you're doing."
Natalie nodded thankfully and made a quick exit from the room. She began walking down the hallway toward the front of the building where she could quickly leave.
Her mind travelled back to how she felt when she'd seen Justin's hair. She STILL didn't believe it. She just didn't understand why Justin would do something like that. Even if they WERE fighting, they didn't necessarily have to TALK whenever she was doing his hair and makeup.
Her shoulders slumped and she continued forward. Nothing was making sense anymore. For a moment, she thought her life had been perfect, and then suddenly, the dream went away and everything became a horrible reality.
"Natalie!"
Her head lifted when she heard that familiar voice call her name, but she couldn't get her hopes up.
Justin quickly jogged up to her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Natalie, we need to talk." He managed to get out, his words coming quick due to lack of breath.
She shrugged his hand away and shook her head. "No, Justin, I don't think we do. Actions speak louder than words, and I heard your message loud and clear."
"Natalie--"
"Justin, just don't. Not now."
A scowl replaced the serious look that had been on his face only moments ago and he rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever."
As he walked away, Justin debated whether or not to run back to Natalie, pull her in his arms and tell her he was sorry, but he knew she needed time, just as he needed time to figure out how to fix everything.
Natalie watched as he stormed away and she allowed herself to sigh loudly, before walking the length of the rest of the hall and exiting the building. If Justin didn't want her, he needed to tell her. Her heart couldn't afford to be played with. Not again.
Laura strode out of the bathroom, a towel hugging tightly at her hips. She struggled to tie her dark blue bikini top, and groaned loudly when her towel fell off.
"Sexy."
Her eyes lifted to look at Wade who was lying on the bed, already dressed to go swimming.
"Get off your ass and help me out here."
He jumped off the bed, smirking as he moved behind her and took the strings from her hands, tying them quickly. "There ya go, my lady."
Laura's eyebrows rose in question. "My lady?"
He shrugged, leaning down to pick up her towel so that he could re-fasten it around her waist. He made the mistake of allowing his fingers to brush against her soft stomach and he moaned softly.
Laura looked up at him and was suprised at the look of... well, pleasure on his face. Her eyes moved to where his hand was still on her stomach, and she felt her muscles tighten when his fingers began moving against her stomach in circular motions.
"Wade..."
"Shh..." He instructed her, before kneeling down in front of her so that he could get a better veiw of what she'd always been hiding from him. "This is so beautiful..." He practically whispered, allowing a small smile to cross his face when he saw what a beautiful contrast his white, manly hands had against her dark, tanned stomach.
"Um, Wade..."
He snapped out of his trance when she moved away from him and he quickly got to his feet. "I don't know why you hide that. You have an... amazing body, Laura. I am somewhat relieved that you don't share it with other people though." He winked slyly at her and grinned. "I'll keep your secret though."
She tugged at the towel and tightened it around her waist. "Um, are you ready to go swim yet, or do you want an encore?"
He smiled timidly, taking her hand in his and lifted it to his mouth to place a gentle kiss on her fingertip. "Let's go before they close the pool."
Laura had felt uneasy and embarassed for a moment, but Wade's easy going attitude made everything disappear and she tightened her fingers around his and exited behind him, closing the door behind her.
They walked down the few flights of stairs, before they reached the pool room, where Wade peered in the clear door to check for people. He smiled when he found that it was empty and guided Laura behind him, before shutting it.
Laura let her towel drop to the ground and she grinned evily. "Last one to the pool is a rotten egg."
She took off toward the pool, but not quick enough, because Wade soon came darting past her and plunged into the pool, a large gust of water coming up to hit Laura in the face.
Once Wade surfaced, he laughed devilishly when he saw Laura standing at the edge of the pool, her jaw clenched tightly. "That was really mean, Wade."
He shrugged, lifting his hand to pull some of his wet, mangled hair out of his face. "Hey, you're the one that's a rotten egg, not me!"
She stood there for a moment looking at him with amused eyes. He dove underwater and she took that time to quietly make her entrance into the pool by the ladder.
Wade emerged from the pool, causing a loud splash. Laura screamed when she saw the water towering down on her and then she was suddenly soaked.
"You stupid jerk!" She screamed, wading through the water to get to him.
He grinned mischeviously, backing away from her as she continued struggling to get to him. "You'll never catch me, Laura. You know I'm way too quick for you."
Her hands disappeared under the water and then she pushed a bunch of water before withdrawing her hands quickly so that Wade would get splashed.
"You little snot."
Laura smiled innocently. "Hey, it's your fault! If you'd stop calling me names and picking on me, maybe I'd be nice."
Wade felt his back hit the wall of the swimming pool and he smiled, stretching his long arms toward her. "Awww, come here, Princess."
A tiny smile spred across Laura's face before she rid of it and began walking toward Wade. Once she reached him, she smiled, lifting her eyebrow in an almost seductive manor. "It's about time you're nice to me."
"Hey, I'm a cool guy."
She nodded her head, slightly splashing her hands in the water. "Yeah, you are a real nice guy."
He swallowed, although his throat was completely dry. Just the way Laura was looking at him made him wonder what her next move would be.
Finally, she was right in front of him and she smiled, before splashing as much water as she possibly could at him. "Take that!!!!"
She went to run away, but Wade caught her from around the waist. "Ah, ah, ah my dear sweet Laura. You're not getting away that easy!"
Squirming, she managed to elbow him in the side and heard him grimace with pain. She turned around and smiled that amazingly innocent, angelic smile at him. "You're so cute when you're in pain."
"That hurt, Laura!" His lips fixated into a pout. "Kiss it and make it better."
"Would that make you happy?"
He nodded his head vigorously. "Yes."
Her eyebrows rose as she kneeled onto one of her knees in the pool and allowed her lips to close over the red peice of skin on his side. Her tongue poked out and she licked at it slowly, before she kissed it again. Wade's groans turned into moans and he sighed heavily when she stood back up to meet him. "Did you like that?"
"You are such a tease."
She shrugged. "Not if I intended to do this." Without any sign of warning, she placed her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him down to meet her eager lips.
Wade felt everything inside him just explode. Laura was finally starting to respond to him in intimate ways. SHE was kissing him and he felt like a child who'd just recieved a new toy.
Not exactly sure how far she wanted to take this kiss, Laura opened her lips over Wade's and hoped that he would do his manly duties by taking control of the kiss.
Wade noticed how hesitant she was being when she'd try to change the pace of the kiss, so after wrapping his hands around her waist, tightly and securely, he opened his lips wide over hers and decided to take the kiss to the next level.
His tongue tentively touched hers and he hoped for some kind of reaction in Laura. He knew he was testing the waters by taking the next step in their intimacy, but he continued with what he was doing. His hands began running through her wet hair, and he shuddered when he felt her dig her nails into his back, and her tongue slowly enter his mouth.
"WELL, HELLO LAURA AND WADE!"
The two pulled away quickly and Wade quickly glared up at Justin who stood grinning in the doorway. "Well, hello to you too, Justin! NIce of you to drop by for a dip NOW!"
Pulling the towel from around his neck, he threw it aside and smiled. "Oh, the pleasure is all mine, or wait, maybe it's all yours from the looks of it."
Rolling his eyes, Wade smiled to himself. Yeah, Justin had ruined a very intimate moment he was having to Laura, where she was actually OPENING UP to him, but he was going to get revenge. Wade all of a sudden felt the need to run a practice tomorrow. Ah, yes, practice was going to be FUN tomorrow. At least for him it was.
Justin's long legs barely carried him into his hotel room and onto his bed. He was absolutely exaughsted from all the swimming he'd done while he was down at the pool. After he'd arrived, Laura and Wade came up with some lame excuse that a movie was on tv they didn't want to miss and disappeared soon after, which gave Justin free reign over the pool. After doing a lot of major thinking, he decided to do laps until he felt his body couldn't take it anymore.
God, he'd screwed up. He'd been so harsh and so short with Natalie and then...... LORD, he'd cut his curls off just so he wouldn't have to see much of Natalie. He couldn't even imagine what she was going through.
He needed to fix this. He just cared for her way too much to have her thinking he hated her. Actually, that was so far off, in his opinion. He had very strong feelings for Natalie. He didn't know if it was love or what, but he definately felt SOMETHING for her. He needed to tell her.
Jumping up from his bed, he scurried across the floor and out of his door. He was suprised to find Lonnie standing outside his door and he smiled at him.
"Hey dude."
The tall, large black man rose his eyebrows at Justin. "Hey. What are you doing awake so late?"
"I was just thinking about things and I really need to talk to Natalie."
"Oh, um, she came out here and told me if you wanted to talk to her, which she said was very doubtful, to tell you she wasn't here."
Justin itched his newly shaven head and licked his lips curiously. "Did she say where she was going?"
Lonnie shrugged. "Um, I think she was going to the roof or something. She said she needed some cool air and really needed to think about some things."
"Did she say what?"
"She actually mentioned something about leaving the tour which completely blew me away because I thought you two were, well, yeah..."
Justin hit himself in the forehead. "Oh geez. I'm so DAMN stupid. I don't know how I sleep at night knowing what a complete asshole I am."
"Never stopped you before."
Justin rose a completely unamused eyebrow at him. "So, you think she's on the roof?"
"Last I knew, yeah, but she could have left while I was taking my short nap."
Nodding his head in appreciation, Justin waved back at Lonnie as he jogged toward the doorway that led to the roof. Luckily, his sore legs didn't have to climb any stairs, due to them having rooms on the top floor.
He smiled in relief when he saw Natalie sitting alone on the empty blacktop, a large quilted blanket wrapped comfortably around her. He almost turned around, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness but when he heard the sound of what he thought to be a sob, he decided to approach her afterall.
"Natalie."
Natalie turned quickly and was suprised to find Justin standing there, a serious look on his face. She quickly wiped away at a few tears that were on her face. She'd been thinking about a lot of things, including a life without Justin. She'd only known him for a short amount of time, but in that little bit of time, he'd somehow wormed his way into her heart.
"Did you come to make the final arrangements for my departure from the tour?" She asked, her shoulders lowering sadly.
"No."
His quiet short answer worried her. "Is something the matter?"
He sighed loudly before walking over to sit beside her on the ground. "Yes."
She looked into his dark blue eyes and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What's the matter? Did something happen to one of the guys? Oh god, your family?"
He shook his head in disagreement. "No, nothing like that."
She licked her lips, waiting for him to tell her what was bothering him. "Well, what?"
Instead of taking a second to gather his thoughts, he went right into what he'd been thinking all day. "God, Natalie, I'm so sorry. I can't even believe how unfair I was to you. I took advantage of you being my girlfriend and never even thought about the fact that you have a job to do and you also have a time limit. If I could take it back, I'd be there five minutes early."
"Justin, it wasn't even the fact that you were late that hurt me so much. It was the fact that you took for granted that I ALWAYS make sure I have extra time for you which is why I always request having you last and when the schedule gets messed up once, you just stroll in here late like you didn't do anything. Justin, you know I like to be orderly and...."
"I'm sorry, Natalie. I'm really really sorry, and after the things I said to you, I'm hoping you'll be able to find it in your heart to forgive me. I wanna be with you more than anything."
Natalie smiled when he said those words. "I wanna be with you, too, Justin."
His eyebrows rose and he smiled a bit. "Is there room in that blanket for me? It's kind of chilly out here."
Natalie contemplated whether or not to be nice, but she grinned and opened up the blanket and allowed him to crawl in beside her. She immediately cuddled against him and adapted to the warmth his body created.
"I still can't believe you shaved your head."
"At least now we'll have a lot more time to do.." He coughed loudly. "Other things."
"You're still a jerk and you're not getting off that easy."
"What can I do to make you forget it all."
She turned to look at him and shrugged. "You could kiss me."
Justin's lips immediately met with hers and he smiled against them. He was glad that this whole stupid thing was over and done with. Mostly, he was glad to have his Natalie back. Wade emerged from the bathroom, feeling clean and revived. After they'd gotten back to the room, Wade had claimed the shower first and Laura had gone down to use Chris' shower.
He couldn't even explain his disappointment. There couldn't have been a worse time for Justin to walk in and ruin what he and Laura were sharing. But.... He sighed. What they had shared was something he'd never forget.
Gladly, he walked over to the bed where Laura was sitting, freshly showered. She was reading a book and he sat down beside her, trying to peak over her shoulder to see what it was.
"Yes?" She asked when she felt his chin hit her shoulder.
"Whatcha reading?"
She shrugged. "Natalie let me borrow this romance novel to occupy myself during practices. It's so cute."
"Is that one of those trashy, raunchy, disgusting ones?"
Laura threw her head back, laughing. "Wade, do you honestly think I would be reading it if it was?"
He lifted his eyebrows as if asking if she were for real. "Laura... I know you better than that. If it was one of those, though, you'd probably be laughing non-stop."
She nodded in agreement and began giggling. "There was some really gushy love stuff, though. I enjoy that kind of stuff, though. I think it's cheesy as hell, but it's also so adorable."
"Do you want me to be mushy with you?" He asked her, half joking.
Playing along, Laura grinned. "Well, it would be nice for you to be sensitive and romantic sometimes. Girls like that. I know I do."
"Okay..." He lifted his hand to scratch his chin in question. "I like it when girls are romantic and sensitive, too."
She put a bookmark in her book and placed it on the table beside the large, king sized bed. "I can be both of those things."
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "We'll have to try that sometime."
She laughed out loud and pulled him down so that he was laying beside her. Moving her body so that she was on her side, she placed her arm across Wade's stomach and sighed deeply. "I liked that today."
Wade's eyes widened when she said that, and he breathed in sharply. "Um... You liked what?"
Her finger began sliding up and down his arm. "Kissing you. It felt... nice."
Suprised at her boldness, Wade rolled onto his side to face her. "I liked kissing you, too. Too bad Justin had to interrupt it, though."
She rolled back onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah... So, um, what did you wanna do tonight? I think we should plan on going to bed early because I'm really tired and you look tired too."
"I could actually go for a nap right now." Wade admitted, yawning tiredly.
"Yeah, that sounds good."
Wade nudged at her side. "Roll over, Laura."
She turned toward him and smiled when he wrapped his arms around her. Her eyelids fluttered closed sleepily. "I love you, Wade."
His hands moved up and down on her back and he smiled. "I love you too, Lo."
"Do you think you'll wanna kiss me like that again?" She asked suddenly, her eyes opening.
"Of course I'll want to kiss you like that again. If I could, I'd kiss you all the time."
Laura smiled, moving forward to softly kiss his lips. "Thank you for waiting for me, Wade. I know it was probably hard putting up with my bad attitude and all, but I'm glad that you found it in you to forgive me and give me a chance."
Wade rested his head against the top of Laura's head and he smiled. "I never had any doubts in you. I knew you'd come around eventually." Wade's words never faltered and he smiled at Laura.
"Thank you, Wade; for believing in me."
"I've always believed in you, Laura. And I always will."
Her eyes slowly closed and she felt herself willingly fall into a deep sleep, happily awaiting the days ahead.