The sun was starting to stream through the window when Jess woke up. She immediately knew she was not alone, and she took a moment to gather her thoughts. She didn't think she was hung over. Her brain was too clear for that. She quickly patted her body, checking to see if she was clothed. Thankfully, she was. She felt the body beside her stir and decided it might be a good idea to find out who was with her. She slowly opened one eye, and saw Chris's face a couple of inches from her own.
"Good morning, Sunshine," he smiled.
She jumped. OK, so at least she wasn't waking up with a stranger, but that didn't explain why they were sharing a bed.
"Jess? Are you OK?"
"Um, yeah," she stalled. "Uh, Chris, why are we...why are we, um together?"
Chris leaned up on one elbow and grinned down at her. "Don't worry, nothing happened. I planned on sleeping in the other bed," he motioned with his head to the bed where JC was sleeping soundly, "But when JC and I came up here, you were having a bad dream. You asked me to stay with you, so I did. Don't worry, I'm on top of the sheets," he smiled.
She shook her head and smiled at him. "Oh Chris, you're just too funny some days." She sat up and stretched, "I know you are a gentleman. I trust you."
"Good," he said. "Hey, wanna have some fun with JC? I'm thinking shaving cream in his hand. What do you think?"
Jess thought about it for a minute. "Surely we can come up with something more diabolical than shaving cream if we put our heads together."
The two of them were talking in conspiratorial tones and enjoying a good laugh over some of the ideas they had come up with until JC startled them. "Hey you two, those sound like some good pranks. Why don't you let me know how they work?" He asked. The next thing Chris and Jess knew, JC launched himself into the air and landed with a thud on the bed in between them. From there, all plans went out the window and it was every man and woman for themselves as an all out tickle war took place.
The tickle fight didn't last long, and when it was done, all three of them flopped down on the bed. Jess was flat on her stomach between the two guys.
"Hey, Jace, you hungry?" Chris asked.
JC thought about it. "Hmm...Now that you mention it, I could really go for a-"
"SANDWICH!" JC and Chris both yelled they squished Jess between them.
"Hey! No fair!" Jess could barely be heard. "You'd better get off me, I have to pee!"
JC and Chris quickly moved aside and Jess jumped out of the bed and ran for the bathroom. The two men didn't notice that Jess only went far enough to retrieve her camera.
CLICK!
"Ha, ha! Can't wait to post that one on the boards! JC and Chris in bed together. What a story that will make!" She laughed and then quickly turned on her heel and ran.
JC and Chris were fast, so Jess sprinted out the door and down the hall. She heard Joey and Lance talking downstairs and made a run for them.
"Joey!" she exclaimed as she launched herself into his arms. "So good to see you. How are you today?"
"Umph!" Joey grunted as Jess slammed into him. "Oh no, Girl, I'm not protecting you from those two."
"Come on, Joe, photographic evidence of them in the same bed in their underwear. I'll let you split the blackmail money." She flashed her best smile at him.
Joey pretended to think about it and looked at JC and Chris.
"Hey!" JC said, "It's not like we slept that way. We were only together cause Jess got out of bed."
Lance laughed, "Jace, you're not making this sound any better, although it does sound interesting. Got any pictures of the three of you in bed?"
Chris put his arm around Jess as if he was going to hug her, then he pulled her head under his arm and gave her a nuggie. She couldn't get free, so she reached behind him and gave his shorts a hard tug upwards. "Wedgie!" Chris jumped and let her go.
"What do you say, shall we call a truce?" he asked her as he pulled his underwear out of his backside.
"If I have to," she groaned and rolled her eyes. "You know I was totally winning this one."
"Sure you were. You just keep thinking that," he patted her head condescendingly.
"So, Jess, I'll bet there's a great an explanation for the fact that you are wearing the same clothes as last night, huh?" Lance asked with a twinkle in his eye.
"Sorry, Lancie, gotta wait until you're older." She patted his cheek.
Lance wrapped his arms around Jess's waist and was about to throw her over his shoulder when Justin entered. He looked at them, shook his head, and mumbled, "I don't even want to know."
"Aw, it's nothing, Justin. Jess didn't want to give Lance details about how she spent the night with Chris," JC threw the comment out there. She shot him an evil look.
"Not just Chris," Jess smirked. "You were there too!"
"OK, now I definitely don't want to know."
Lance put Jess down and went with Joey and Justin to the kitchen. The other three went upstairs to get dressed.
When Chris came out of the bathroom (fully dressed this time), Jess was sitting on the bed, combing through her wet hair and reading something on her laptop.
"Hey," Chris said, "Can I help?"
"With the combing or the reading?" She asked.
"Either? Both? You know I love long hair. Whatcha reading?"
"Sure, you can help if you want," she handed him the comb. "I'm just taking a look at my notes for the press conference. I want to make sure I say it all and say it the right way."
"Makes sense," he said as he pulled the comb gently through her thick hair. "Let me read over your shoulder."
JC looked in from the doorway to see Chris sitting on the bed beside Jess, combing her hair and resting his chin on her shoulder. Hadn't Chris said he was going to move slow? "Hey you two, are you coming down?"
"Yeah," Chris got up and headed for the door.
"Yeah, Josh, be right there," Jess replied woodenly as she typed on her keyboard. "Just got to fix a couple things here."
JC stopped Chris. He motioned towards Jess and smiled, "Jess, Donnie Wahlberg is downstairs asking about you!"
She looked up. "What?"
JC burst out laughing. "Sorry, couldn't resist. I knew you weren't hearing me. Come on down, have some breakfast, and we'll all help you with your notes."
Chris chuckled as he went downstairs.
"Very funny, Joshua. Look, I'm almost finished, really." She turned back to her work.
JC came over and knelt in front of her on the floor. He closed the laptop. "Jess, I know you better than that. Leave it for a few minutes."
"Josh! I was almost done!" She met his eyes. "OK, so maybe you're right. I'm stalling. I'm not ready for this. I can't do it." She looked away and tried to hide the errant tear that was making an appearance.
"Jess, look at me." Josh held her face in one hand and wiped the tear away with the other. "Jess, you know that I love you, right?"
She nodded.
"And you know that I won't let you go through this by yourself, right?"
She nodded again.
"I'll be by your side for this whole press conference. You are not going to be alone. We will all be there with you. I know you can do it. The guys know you can do it. If we didn't think so, we wouldn't have asked you to be a part of this. You're going to be great!"
Jess tried to stop the tears that were now following the first one. "Josh, you don't get it. I'll be there, standing in front of those people, and they won't be listening to what I say. They're going to be looking at me, finding fault with everything. They'll be picking apart what I wear and how I look and what size I am, and everything I say will be irrelevant. It's going to be like high school all over again. I'm going to be the awkward wallflower, and it will just prove them all right."
"Oh, honey!" JC drew her to him and held her while she cried. He sat there rubbing her back, trying to think of some way to comfort her. He was at a loss. In his head was a running commentary of responses to give her, none of which was quite right. Jess had a rough time in high school; she felt like a fish out of water. There had been a guy who picked on her mercilessly and made her daily life torture.
"Jess, you've come a long way since high school. You've gotten such a self confidence. Don't let these people push you back there." He didn't know what else to say, so he just held her tighter.
Joey wandered into the room. "Hey, what's up?"
JC looked up at him. "We're having second thoughts about the press conference."
"Oh. I see." Joey squatted beside Jess and put his hand on her arm. "Hey, Bella." She looked up, sniffling. "Don't do this to yourself. You don't have to come to the press conference if you don't want to. It's totally your call. None of us expected all this to happen, and it's pretty overwhelming. We're in the public eye and find it difficult, so I can only imagine how much more difficult it is for you."
She smiled at Joey, through her tears. "Thanks, Joe." She took a deep breath. "I think though that this is something I need to do. You're both right. It's going to be really hard, but I can do it, especially with the two of you there with me."
Joey pulled her to her feet and wrapped her in a hug. JC got up and hugged her from behind. "Hey, how come I keep getting sandwiched between two members of NSYNC?" she mumbled.
"Just a lucky girl, I guess," JC giggled.
The three of them made their way downstairs and joined in the mayhem in the kitchen. Food was flying around the room fast as the guys cooked and passed out the plates. Jess received a plate that was laden down with eggs, bacon, pancakes and toast. A glass of orange juice and a coffee appeared in front of her as if by magic. She looked down at the plate, knowing she could never eat it all.
"Come on, Jess, you need to have a good breakfast so that you can get through the day!" Justin chimed at her.
"A good breakfast, sure, but this is more like an NSYNC size breakfast. Here, one of you eat it," she passed her plate to her left. "I'll find something a little less artery-clogging if you don't mind."
Joey gladly took her plate, and Jess got up to find a banana and the peanut butter.
"What on earth are you making?" Justin asked.
"Peanut butter and banana sandwich. Why?"
"No reason," he replied, curling his lip.
"Look, twerp, it's got protein, potassium, and all sorts of good things, and besides that, I like it, so lay off!"
"You're welcome to it."
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Huh!" he responded, "And they say I'm immature!"
Joey intervened before Jess and Justin started to fight. They didn't have time for that today. After all of them had finished breakfast, they talked about their plans for the press conference. Lance and Chris did the dishes while JC wiped off the stove and counter. Joey read through Jess's notes and offered a few suggestions. Before they knew it, they were ready.
"Hey, guys, this may seem like a silly question, but what the heck do I wear for this thing?"
All five men laughed.
"No need to worry, Jess. That's why we have wardrobe consultants and people who do our hair and make-up." Justin replied. "You're coming with us to the office, and they'll have everything ready for you."
"Or," Chris said, "You could wear a FuMan Skeeto shirt."
"Um, how do I say this?" Jess paused. "No!"
Chris pretended to be hurt, but he was laughing along with the group.
An hour or so later, they were at the record company's main office. Jess was separated from the guys and taken to get her wardrobe, hair and make-up done. The guys checked on her periodically.
When she was ready, she walked down the hall to their meeting room. She stopped before she opened the door to straighten out her skirt and make sure everything was in place. When she opened the door, all five men stopped what they were doing.
"Wowee! Who is this babe?" Justin asked. The other men were silent.
Jess smiled and did a spin for them. "Well?"
JC stood up and held his arms open to her. "You look awesome," he said as she stepped into his hug.
They went over the last few things and checked the time. Before they went to the press conference, their security team showed up.
"Hey, Miss C!" Bryan called. "How are you doing today?"
"Hi, Bryan, I'm fine. Thanks for everything last night."
"Missy?" Justin asked. "Missy? That's a perfect name for her! That's what I'm calling you from now on."
"Great!" Jess muttered. "Just what I need, another nickname. Guess I'll just call you Mr. T."
Justin smiled and said in his best Mr. T voice, "I pity the fool!" Jess and the others just rolled their eyes.
"Ok," Lance said, getting down to business. "Jess, you're going to be right in the middle of us. JC will be on one side and Joey on your other. Don't answer anything you don't want to. We'll help you out if you get stuck."
The next thing Jess knew, they were sitting at a table in front of a lot of people with cameras and notepads. She gulped a couple of times, trying to keep her breathing steady and not to panic. Joey squeezed her hand and poured her a glass of water. She took the glass and tried to tune out some of the many voices she was hearing.
"As we have stated before," JC said, "We are very disappointed with the reaction that some people have had to our casting Jess Crosby as my girlfriend in our video. We feel that women shouldn't be judged by the size of clothing they wear and that real beauty is more than skin deep."
"What size is she?" a reporter hollered.
"I don't believe that is any of your business," answered Joey.
"How much does she weigh?"
"Who did she sleep with to get the part?"
Jess felt JC's grip tighten in repressed anger at that question. She squeezed his hand gently to reassure him that she was fine.
Lance took over. "Please hold all questions until the end. We would like everyone to know that we are disappointed in how our supposed fans have treated Ms Crosby. She has been subjected to crank phone calls, harassment and threats of violence. We would like to ask our fans that they stop this behaviour. Jess is one of our best friends, and it hurts us to see people hurting her in this manner."
Lance looked over at Jess. "Would you like to add anything?"
Jess nodded. "Yes. Thank you, Lance." She looked down at the notes in front of her. Josh squeezed her hand and Joey put his hand on her other shoulder. "I would just like to ask that this be taken as an opportunity for those in the media to really stop and think about the negative body image that they are promoting to young women. There is nothing wrong with my size. I am within the normal range for my height and bone structure. I am healthy. You have been fuelling the discussion that has been carried on in the chat rooms, but have you stopped to think about the negative impact this may have on younger women? If as a normal sized woman I am being depicted as being ‘fat', ‘overweight', ‘nasty' or any of the other terms that have been flying around, what about other normal girls? I have been subjected to ridicule and shame due to my body for most of my life. Well, my body shape, weight, height or any other characteristics are not me. They are parts of me, but not the whole. I am a woman, and I am proud of what I have accomplished and of who I am. Rather than slam NSC for their choice in the video, I think they should be praised as being forward thinking and inclusive. Thank you."
Jess was ready to bolt and hide off stage. She didn't get the chance. Cameras flashed and questions were shouted at her. She was overwhelmed and sinking fast. JC stood and took her with him. They met up with Bryan at the end of the stage and the two men shielded her from view between them. The rest of the guys continued the press conference after some order was restored. They answered as many questions as they could, and then ended the session.
When they were finished, they found JC sitting on a couch with Jess curled into him, asleep.
"Hey guys, she was spent. How did the rest of it go?"
"It was good," Joey answered. "I think some of them actually listened to her and tried to understand her point of view."
"Good," JC replied. "She was great, wasn't she?" He asked with obvious pride.
"Awesome," agreed Chris. "What do you say we get out of here?"
Author's Chapter Notes:
I have no idea how a real press conference would work, so please just remember this is fictional. ;)
Story Tags: celebritysync jc chris
