Chapter 7        

“Daydream, don’t break my reverie

Until I find that he

Is daydreaming just like me.”

                        -Ella Fitzgerald, “Day Dream”

 

 

            Lance opened the door to find a pallid Lillian standing in the doorway, with her clothes and laptop in clutched in her arms.

            “Come on in, sweetheart,” he said, taking the items from her grasp.

            “Thanks, Lance,” she whispered tiredly.

            Chris was sitting on his bed, reading over the filler notes he wanted to include in their new album. He glanced up at Lillian when she entered the room. He immediately noticed that something was wrong.

            “What’s up, Lily?” he inquired.

            She smiled weakly at him. “It’s nothing big. I just left my room because Elaine and Justin are going to want to be alone tonight.” Seeing Lance’s questioning eyes, she explained further. “I woke up a few minutes ago and they were making out in the hallway. And they didn’t look really happy to see me open the door. So I figured I should just leave.”

            Lance put a comforting arm around her. “Homeless tonight, huh?”

            She nodded, and he said, “Don’t worry. You can stay with us. You can have my bed.”

            “Or mine,” Chris piped up.

            She refused, replying, “Thanks, guys, for everything. But you need your rest for tomorrow, not me. I’ll just take the couch. I’m small enough, anyway.”

            “Okay,” Lance acquiesced, but only because he could see that she didn’t feel like arguing tonight. “I got to go use the bathroom, so feel free to grab some pillows and blankets from the beds.”

            “Yeah, I’ll be right back,” Chris added. “I have to go change.”

            She murmured, “Okay,” already situating herself on the couch. It was surprisingly soft. There was no one around, so she opened her laptop to finish her abandoned email to Karen from before.

           

            So as I was saying (typing?), the concert was disrupted. I felt so badly for everyone. I think this accident really freaked them out. Especially a certain blonde singer. And speaking of him, I can’t get my mind off of him! He just invades my thoughts constantly. It’s still amazing that I actually talk to him on a daily basis. No one back at MIT would believe this. I don’t even believe it half the time. It’s like I should pinch myself every few seconds, just to make sure I’m really awake.

            He’s turned out to be even more incredible than I thought he would be. Looking at a poster of him is one thing; standing face to face with him is a whole other story. His beautiful face, his beautiful eyes, his beautiful voice. I know you’re probably laughing it up right now, but if you were here, you’d be completely in lust too. And I don’t know, maybe it’s more than lust.

 

            She heard the bathroom door open, so she quickly finished her email.

 

            I have to go now, keep in touch.

                                                                                    ~Lillian

 

            She lowered the laptop’s lid just as Lance and Chris returned to the room.

            “Good night Lance, good night Chris,” she said.

            “’Night, Lily,” they replied as Lance turned off the lamp near his bed, drowning the room in darkness.

 

*                       *                       *                       *                       *          

 

            “Argh! I need some hair gel! Where is my stupid gel?!” Justin growled drowsily, looking through his bags. JC was sleeping peacefully on his bed, and Justin didn’t want to wake him up to ask if he had any gel. I know, I’ll check with Lance. He’s so picky about his hair.

            He stumbled out of his room with his eyes still narrowed from sleep and headed to the room across the hall. He nodded to one of the bodyguards patrolling the hall and opened the unlocked door. I guess someone forgot to lock it last night.

            Entering the room, he went straight for the bathroom, but finding no gel he left to search through Lance’s bags. He approached the small table that held the luggage, but was distracted halfway to his destination. I must still be sleeping. After rubbing his eyes carefully and looked again. Nope, not sleeping.

            It was Lillian. Sleeping on the couch. That’s . . . odd. To say the least. Why would she be sleeping in here? Suddenly he remembered the night before. When he and Elaine had been making out in front of her room. And when Lillian had left the room in a hurry, carrying her clothes. Oh. Well I guess it makes sense.

            Justin forgot the initial reason he had come into the room, and instead moved towards the small figure nestled into the cushions of the couch. She looked to be deep in her slumber, not even waking up when she tossed around impatiently, searching for a more comfortable position.

            Why didn’t Lance or Chris give her their bed? he wondered. She furrowed her brow all of a sudden and turned her face so that it faced away from the couch. Maybe she’s having a nightmare. Not even giving it a second thought, he crouched down next to her sleeping form and carefully put one of his calloused hands on her cheek. Almost immediately, her expression relaxed and her whole body seemed to grow less tense.

            Unknown to him, his face broke into a gentle smile at her reaction. Lillian sure is cute when she sleeps. Wait a minute, what the hell am I thinking? The smile dropped from his face and he took his hand away from her smooth cheek, then backed away from the couch. Taking a swift glance at his sleeping friends and reassured that they hadn’t seen him, he promptly exited the room.

 

*                       *                       *                       *                       *

           

            “Did you sleep alright, Lilypad?” Joey asked. Chris had filled him in on what happened last night before Justin had come back to the table with his cereal. Lillian was sitting with them around one of the smaller round tables in a quiet corner of the hotel’s immense banquet room.

            She nodded and smiled at him, even though everyone could see the light bruises under her eyes. She didn’t want to tell them that her sleep had been plagued by repeated images of Justin and Elaine getting very physical with each other. She had woken up several times through the duration of the night, but by the time dawn broke through the curtains, she was so exhausted that she slept right through her nightmares.

            It was strange, but in the middle of one of the more disturbing dreams she had suddenly felt calm and warm. She didn’t think overmuch about it; dreams were weird things.

            Justin dropped into his seat across from Lillian, his hair disarrayed. He had managed to steal the whole pitcher of milk from the buffet table and was now pouring it in his Apple Jacks-filled bowl.

            “Hey, J,” Lance greeted cheerfully.

            His friend looked up and mumbled a “’Morning’” through the food in his mouth.

            All the guys immediately jerked their glances up to stare at Justin.

            “Oh-“ Joey began.

            “-my-“ Chris followed.

            “-God,” JC finished.

            Lillian looked at them, thoroughly confused. “What? What happened?” she asked.

            Lance gestured towards Justin, who had resumed shoveling cereal into his mouth. “Did you see that? He actually said something.”

            Lillian continued to regard him blankly.

            “Justin never says anything coherent before his breakfast. Didn’t you ever read any teenybopper magazines? That was always his ‘fun fact.’”

            “Oh,” she replied. “Actually, no, I never did read those magazines. I didn’t have much money to spend on stuff like that.”

            “Well, now you know that you have just witnessed something that happens every . . . oh, once in a blue moon. A blue moon in a leap year,” Joey commented seriously.

            Lillian began to laugh, before she realized that he wasn’t joking.

            “Guys, come on!” Justin exclaimed. “I can hear you. I’m sitting right next to you.”

            He got up, already done with his food, and burped loudly. “Sorry, Lillian,” he apologized, not the least bit embarrassed.

            “Hey, don’t we get an apology?” asked JC, pretending to be offended.

            “Hell no!” Justin laughed as he stole a piece of bacon from JC’s plate and left the banquet room.

            As soon as he had cleared the doorway, he hurried to his room, trying to smooth down his curls with his hands. Gotta get some gel!

            He yanked open the door to Lance’s room and went straight for the bags still on the table. However, he was distracted once again when he accidentally tripped on something on the ground. He immediately looked down and saw a black cord stretched across the floor reaching a nearby wall outlet. His eyes traced the cord in the other direction to settle on a thin laptop with its lid not quite shut. He recognized it as belonging to Lillian.

            Can’t the batteries be wasted this way? He went over to close it all the way, before a little voice prompted him to wreak some havoc. She won’t know if I just peek around a little bit. I won’t put a virus on it or anything, just look around. Get a glance at the kind of person she is.

            Convinced that it wouldn’t hurt anyone, he opened the laptop completely. He saw that there was an email on the screen, not yet sent. He suddenly felt too intrusive, and began to close the lid, only to spot the words “certain blonde singer” in the message. Certain blonde singer?

His curiosity aroused, he abandoned his conscience and read the whole email with growing interest. When he finished, he left the laptop the way he had found it and sat back to think about what he had just read.

So Lillian has a crush on Lance. Why?! I mean, not that Lance is bad or anything . . . but wouldn’t it make more sense if she liked me? I wouldn’t have thought that she would be so comfortable around her crush. Someone like her would act more shyly, like the way she is around me. Am I lacking in some way? he wondered incredulously, with a hint of jealousy.

Then he shook his head, as if trying to dislodge his thoughts. He felt annoyed at himself for thinking what he did.

Forget it, J. Just get the hair gel and go.

            He went to Lance’s bag, finally retrieved what he had originally come for, and disappeared out the door, still shaking his head.

 

 

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