Part Nine
you're
early... Oh... Hi, Victoria." She blushed, a little embarrassed. "...I
thought you were JC. We're going to go out to dinner in a little while..."
Victoria smiled at her. "That's okay."
There was an awkward silence.
"Listen, Cameron," Victoria started, "Joey and I are on good terms now... I
forgave him... but, I realized that... I guess I was kinda holding a grudge
against you and I haven't really given you a chance..."
"It's okay. I mean, I understand where you were coming from." Cameron
interrupted.
"I really want us to be friends, Cameron. I just wanted to let you know that
I'm sorry."
"Yeah, me, too." Cameron paused for a moment. "Hey, do you and Joey want to
come to dinner with JC and I? It'll be fun! A double date."
"Sure. That would be fun." Victoria said happily.
"Well, I guess we'll be leaving pretty soon..."
"Okay, well, I'll go tell Joey and we'll meet you back here."
"Sounds great!" Cameron smiled again.
Victoria headed for Joey's room. JC passed her as he was headed towards
Cameron's room. He was somewhat concerned because, as far as he knew,
Victoria and Cameron weren't speaking.
He walked into the room without knocking. "Is everything okay?" He asked,
expecting Cameron to be upset.
Cameron looked at him with a puzzling expression. "Sure. Why?"
"Victoria was in here...."
"Yeah....?"
JC was puzzled, too. "You're not really her favorite person because of the
Joey thing..."
She groaned. "Why does everyone keep calling it 'the Joey thing'? It's
driving me crazy! It's over. Victoria just came over to tell me that her and
Joey patched things up and that she wants us to be friends..."
"Oh..." JC spoke slowly. "Well, that's great! I'm glad you guys could work
things out." He grabbed Cameron's hands and smiled at her. "So, are you
ready to go eat?"
"Yes. Once Joey and Victoria get over here."
"Joey and Victoria?" JC asked, confused.
"Mmhmm. I invited them to go to dinner with us."
"You did?" He frowned.
"I thought it would be fun. Like a double date... and it'll give me a chance
to get to know Victoria better."
JC lowered his voice, getting a little upset. "I thought we were gonna go by
ourselves..."
"We were, but Victoria came over and I thought it would be a good idea..."
JC slowly let go of Cameron's hands. His eyes frowned at her.
"JC... I'm gonna be here for a while. We'll have plenty of time to go places
by ourselves..."
JC looked into her eyes. "You're in love with Joey, aren't you?"
"What?" Cameron had to laugh.
He folded his arms. "You're in love with Joey and you invited him and his
girlfriend to go out with us tonight so you can keep an eye on them, didn't
you?"
Now Cameron began to get angry. "JC, that's absurd!"
"Are you using me to make him jealous or something, Cameron?"
"JC, listen to yourself! You're being absolutely ridiculous! I am sooo NOT
in love with Joey!"
"Then why did you have to invite them?"
"Haven't we been over this?" Cameron yelled. "Joey's my best friend and
becoming friends with Victoria, who's important to him, is important to me!"
They heard a knock on the door.
Cameron tried to calm herself down. "That's them..."
They stood in the room, silent.
"Cam, it's just that... we NEVER get to spend any time together, just the
two of us. Joey's ALWAYS there."
"I know, JC... I promise we'll spend some non-Joey time together while I'm
here."
JC's eyes softened and his frown turned into a smile. "Well, if becoming
friends with someone who's important to Joey is important to you, then it's
important to me..." JC paused, trying to comprehend what he had just said.
"Did that make any sense?"
They laughed. JC kissed Cameron lightly on her cheek.
"Thank you." Cameron mouthed the words to him.
JC nodded as he opened the door.
"Hey!" Joey smiled at the two of them. "What took you so long?"
which was, of
course, JC's idea. Cameron and Victoria had a chance to talk some, but
Cameron made sure to pay enough attention to JC, too. She was finding it
difficult to convince him that she was over Joey.
After dinner, JC walked Cameron back to her hotel room.
"I'm sorry for acting like an idiot and accusing you of being in love with
Joey."
Cameron gazed into JC's beautiful blue eyes. "You're forgiven."
He smiled at her, returning the gaze. "Well... I'll see you in the morning
then."
He gently kissed her on the forehead and walked slowly toward his room.
~
The next morning Lance woke everyone up at seven o'clock and had them all
meet in the hallway. Everyone grumbled and complained as they went out to
meet him.
"Alright." Lance started. "I figured, since we're all on good terms right
now, we should go over our schedule."
They all nodded in agreement.
"Well then," Lance continued, "today we have a show in Tampa and we'll just
drive back here afterwards because it's not that far away."
He scanned their faces. "Are you with me so far?"
They all replied. "Yeah."
Lance spoke again. "On Sunday we have a free day..." Lance waited while the
others cheered. "...and on Monday we're doing Leno, so what I thought we
would do is leave the girls here..."
Joey, JC, and Chris groaned.
"...Well, we're gonna fly back to Orlando the next day, so I figured that we
could just have the girls stay here in the hotel so we don't have to mess
with everyone's luggage... Besides, we'll be pretty busy, so it's not like
we'll be able to spend much time with the girls, anyway."
After arguing with Lance for awhile, they all agreed to the idea.
"Alright, then everyone go get ready because we're leaving in an hour."
They all walked back to their rooms to get ready.
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