Chapter
16
Rokster93: Hey Jules! J
(AN: None of these screen names are real. I made them all up. Any similarities to anyone’s real screen name
are purely coincidental.)
I
grinned as Brian’s message popped up on my computer screen.
DocJBenton85: Hey
Bri! J
DocJBenton85: What’s up?
Rokster93: n/m
Rokster93: what about you?
DocJBenton85: same
Rokster93: how’s Josh?
I
grinned again when he mentioned Josh, my husband of four years.
DocJBenton85: He’s good.
How ‘bout Leigh?
Rokster93: She’s good too
DocJBenton85: and Hope?
Hope
was Brian’s five year old daughter.
Rokster93: She’s great J Just started
kindergarten last week.
DocJBenton85: Aw J
DocJBenton85: Does
she like it?
Rokster93: She’s lovin’ it J
DocJBenton85: That’s
good J
DocJBenton85: Ya
know, we’ve got to get together sometime.
I haven’t seen you guys in awhile, and we live a lot closer now so
maybe…
Josh
and I were now living in Lexington, Kentucky.
We were both doctors and were both working at St. Joseph’s hospital, a
place that held lots of memories from the horrible experience we had gone
through six years ago. We’ve both pretty
much gotten over that by now, although I still have nightmares about it
sometimes.
Rokster93: Yeah, actually, that’s what I’ve been
thinking. I want you guys to come down
here some weekend, sometime in the fall.
I was looking at my calendar, and Halloween is on a Friday. Maybe you guys could come down then and stay
the weekend.
DocJBenton85: That sounds great! J
Rokster93: So you think you can?
DocJBenton85: Yeah,
probably. We’ll have to get the days off
of work, but I’m sure that’ll be no big problem.
Rokster93: Yeah, that’s kind of why I was giving you some
notice ahead of time. I hope you can
come though. J
DocJBenton85: I’m
sure we’ll be able to. J
Rokster93: Awesome J Can’t wait.
DocJBenton85: Me neither J
And
I couldn’t. Ever since the tragedy, we’d
all gotten to be good friends, Josh and I, Brian and Leighanne, Kevin and
Kristin, AJ and Amanda, Howie, Nick, and Heidi and Sonny. It was hard for us all to get together,
since we all lived in different states, but at least we were all living in the
South now.
DocJBenton85: So, are you inviting the rest of the gang
too?
Rokster93: Yup. I
talked to Heidi earlier, and she said she and Sonny are coming for sure. I know Nick’s coming too for sure. Not sure about the others yet.
DocJBenton85: Great J
I
sighed, wishing it could be the end of October already. It was only the beginning of September
though. I had almost two months to
wait. But I decided that once we all got
together at Brian’s house, it would be worth the wait. How wrong I was.
***
“Here,
baby, let me get that,” Josh said, grabbing the bulging duffel bag out my
hands. He grunted, his eyes widening as
he held it. “Jeez, Julie, we’re only
staying for the weekend. What the heck
did you pack in here?”
I
giggled. “My stuff,” I replied,
shrugging. “And I’m not helpless, you
know. At this point, I’m fully capable
of carrying my own things.” I rolled my
eyes playfully at him.
He
just grinned. We had found out just three
months before that I was pregnant. I
hadn’t told Brian, Heidi, or anyone that would be at Brian’s house that
weekend. At first, I was just keeping it
a secret until I was sure that everything was going okay. But after Brian invited us to stay the weekend,
I had decided to keep the news until then so I could tell everyone at
once.
I
just hoped I would feel okay while we were there. I had been having bouts of morning sickness
off and on for over a month now, and it was not pleasant.
I
glanced down at my stomach, which was starting to grow bigger, and sighed. I wondered how long it would be until I had
to go shopping for maternity clothes.
As
Josh and I climbed into the car, I felt a bolt of excitement shoot through
me. Life seemed to be going perfectly
for us. We both had perfect jobs and
were now expecting our first daughter.
Plus, we were on our way to Atlanta, Georgia to see the group of people
we had a rare and special bond with, people that we didn’t get to see often,
but loved spending time with anyway. I
couldn’t wait.
***
As
Josh and I headed from Lexington to Atlanta, Heidi and Sonny were driving from
Blacksburg, Virginia to Atlanta.
“I
can’t wait to get to see everyone again,” Heidi said, smiling at Sonny. He grinned back.
“I
know, honey,” he said. “It’s been
awhile, huh?”
“Yeah,
it sure has. When was the last time we
were all together somewhere?” she wondered aloud.
“Wasn’t
it at Julie and Josh’s wedding?” Sonny asked.
“Yeah,
probably. Jeez, that was like three
years ago,” Heidi said.
“So
is everyone coming?” Sonny asked.
“No,
not everyone,” Heidi replied.
“Kev and Kris can’t make it, and neither can Howie. Oh yeah, and AJ’s wife, Amanda, is in Europe
or something doing promotion stuff for her new album, so she’s not coming
either, but AJ is. And then of course, Nick and his girlfriend, Sammy, are
coming.”
“So
it’ll just be Bri and Leigh, Julie and Josh, Nick and Sammy, AJ, and you and
I?” Sonny asked.
“Yup,”
Heidi said.
“That’s
pretty good,” he replied, smiling.
“I
can’t wait to see Hope too,” Heidi said.
“Gosh, I don’t think we’ve seen her in person since she was just a
toddler. She’s such a doll.” Heidi looked wistful as she though about
Brian and Leighanne’s little girl. Sonny
felt bad for her. He knew how much she
wanted children. They had been trying to
have kids for years now with no luck.
Heidi’s doctor had told her that because of the medications she took for
her epilepsy, she would most likely never be able to bear children. This had depressed Heidi beyond words. Sonny figured that some day they would adopt,
but he still felt bad, knowing how much Heidi had always wanted a daughter of
her own.
“Yeah,
Hope’s a cutie, alright,” Sonny agreed, smiling slightly. Heidi returned his smile and then turned her
attention to the scenery passing by, while Sonny drove.
***
“Aaah,
that was good. Nothing like good ole Mickey D’s,” AJ murmured, as he, Nick, and
Nick’s girlfriend, Sammy, walked out of a McDonald’s, which was located at a
rest stop right off the interstate. They
had just crossed the state border into Georgia and decided to stop for some
lunch.
“You
wanna drive?” Nick asked AJ.
“Sure,”
AJ replied. Nick tossed AJ the
keys. “Thanks,” AJ said, heading to the
driver’s side of Nick’s car. They had
decided to ride together to Georgia, rather than drive separately, each in
their own cars.
AJ
reached the car and climbed in. He
glanced up in the rear view mirror and saw Nick walking around to the passenger
side. He had almost completely recovered
from his fall that horrible night six years ago, but not quite. He had regained all of the use of his arms,
and he could walk without too much trouble, but he still walked with a slight limp. Still, he had made an incredible recovery,
surprising not just AJ and the rest of the guys, but his neurologist and
physical therapists as well. At one
point shortly after the accident… rephrase that, murder attempt, they had all
told Nick that he would never walk again.
But Nick had proved them wrong.
And AJ was proud of him.
He
was also glad that Nick had met Sammy.
He and Samantha Peter had been together for almost a year now, and they
were deeply in love. Sammy was much
different than Mandy Williford, or any of the other girlfriends that Nick had
had in the past. Sammy loved Nick for
who he was, not for his money, and she treated him well. She had a great personality and a great sense
of humor as well, not to mention she was beautiful, with light brown hair and
hazel eyes.
Nick
and Sammy finally climbed into the backseat, and they all buckled up. Then AJ started the car and pulled back onto
the interstate.
AJ
turned on the radio and was greeted by the sounds of “It’s Gonna Be Me” by ‘N
Sync. From the backseat, Nick shuddered,
remembering that it was that horrible group that had put him through all that
misery six years ago. As the horrible
memories of his long, painful recovery flooded back to him, AJ shut off the
radio, sensing Nick’s distress. If he
had only kept it on a minute later, he would have heard the news bulletin that
could have warned him ahead of time of the danger that lay ahead.
***
“Justin Timberlake, a member of the former 1990’s boyband,
‘N Sync, has still not been found. Timberlake
escaped from a mental asylum in Southern Mississippi almost two months
ago. He had been in the asylum since
2008, when he was declared mentally unstable after being tried for the murder
of Paul Davis and the attempted murders of Julie Lewis and Backstreet Boy Nick
Carter, plus for the kidnapping of Lewis, Heidi Jennings, and Backstreet Boy
Brian Littrell. Timberlake was found
missing from his cell on the night of September 4, 2014. To this date, he has not been spotted and
there are no leads on where he might be at this very moment…”
“Cops
are dumbasses, you know dat?” Justin asked, flipping off the radio. His companion grinned at him from the seat
next to him.
“You’re
just too smart for them, Justin,” she said, grinning.
“I
knows dat, baby,” Justin replied, gloating.
“Dose cops got shit fo’ brains.
Why, even Lance could foo’ dem.”
“Hey,
speaking of Lance, has he gotten out of jail yet?” she asked.
“Probably
has, unless he been tryin’ ta rape da otha’ jailbaits,” Justin said, chuckling.
“My
he has raging hormones, doesn’t he?” she asked, giggling.
“He
sure do,” Justin replied. “I mean, he
even tried ta rape ole B-Rok when we’s had ‘em locked in dat room.”
“Well,
don’t you worry, baby. This time, we’ll
get B-Rok and all of ‘em, and Lance and JC, and all the other guys won’t be
there to ruin it,” she said, her eyes gleaming.
“Dat’s
da spirit, ho,” Justin cried, grinning evilly.
“We’ll get ‘em back fo’ what dey did.
Hehehe. We’ll get ‘em back.” He threw back his head and laughed, growing
more and more excited as he came closer and closer to getting his revenge.
***
