Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 28

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 35
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

My cell rang and I turned it off. I didn't care who it was. I'd spent all damn day with my band. They did not need me any longer. This was the first night I'd had to myself since I'd met Ben. If I wasn't with him, I was in the studio.

I curled up on the couch, comfortable in my sweatpants, and Bates laid down on my lap, purring. "I am going to stay in all night, Batesie boy," I told him, scratching his head. "Just me and my best boy."

He purred, leaning into my hand like he couldn't get enough of me. Such love, and I'd been ignoring him lately.

The house phone rang, interrupting our lovefest, and I glanced at caller ID. JC's apartment. Another booty call from Justin? Was he even still in town?

More likely, James was over there and wanted to have dinner. I wasn't ready to see them as a couple again. Not tonight.

Screw the phone. I was ignoring it.

"She's here!"

Damnit. I'd left the back door open for Chris this morning, hadn't I?

"Rachel!" Chris said, as he walked into my apartment. Bates was off my lap in a flash, running to hide in the bedroom. I needed an attack cat.

"I am ignoring the phone, Christopher," I said, but he just laughed.

"Can't ignore me."

Joey pulled me up off the couch, making me dance with him. "Let's go out tonight," he sang.

"He's been singing that for the last half hour," Chris said when Joey twirled me past him.

"It's from 'Rent', buttwad," Joey said. "I was in that show, remember?"

"Didn't the stripper sing that?"

Joey just kept singing. "We're gonna howl… out tonight."

I managed to pull myself out of Joey's grasp and looked at the two of them. "Enjoy. I'm spending the evening in."

"Justin! She's here!" a deep voice called, and now Lance joined us, closely followed by Justin.

"I kept calling you, babe," Justin said, and I lifted an eyebrow at him.

"I turned off my phone."

Chris snickered at that. "Ooh, snap."

"Look, guys," I said. "Thanks for the invite, but I've spent the entire day in the studio, and-"

"James is coming," Lance informed me.

James sucked.

"And I bet he didn't get much sleep last night," Justin had to add, leering at me. "I doubt the stockbroker kept you up all night."

"He's a lawyer. And none of your business."

He flashed me a cocky grin and I hated how my heart skipped a beat. I had Ben now. I was over my cocky pop star phase of my life. No more band boys.

"We'll have dinner first," Chris offered. "Drink lots of coffee and then go out."

"Really, I-"

Lance didn't even let me finish my sentence. "Let's see what you should wear."

"Let's find her something really hot," Chris said, leading the way to my bedroom. Should I be worried that he knew the way? What had he been doing while I was away all day?

"Are you sure you aren't the gay ones?" I asked when I found them in my bedroom, already pulling stuff out of my closet.

"Considering I really want you to wear this, yeah, I'm sure I'm not gay," Chris said, holding out a blue dress to me.

"That dress is too fancy for going out."

"What's it for, then?" Joey asked as I took it from Chris.

"A nice dinner. Maybe a show. I can't dance in this dress. We're going dancing, right?"

"Are you coming?" Lance said.

"Since I'm pretty sure you guys will just stand here in my apartment until I agree, yes. I'll go."

Joey and Chris high-fived. Was I really that much in demand?

I tried not to smile at that. It was nice to be wanted, and to have these guys begging me to come out with them.

"Is Kelly coming?" I asked Joey.

"Why do you think I want you to come so bad? She's decided I've had enough guy time, and she's on her way over. I want you to distract her."

"From what? You picking up other girls?"

"Would I do that to her?" he asked, looking affronted. "Okay, don't answer that. No, she gets bored when it's just us acting like assholes. You're a calming influence."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, looking at my bed, which was now covered in clothes. Justin was holding one of my favorite sparkly tops, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"What is it with you guys and sequins?" I asked him.

"You'll look hot in this. I bet the lawyer doesn't like you in sequins."

"He likes me in anything." I probably hadn't worn sequins on any of my dates with Ben. We didn't go to places that required sequins. Definitely not anywhere that required a silver sequined halter top.

"Fine," I said, taking the top from Justin. "I think the jeans that go with this are clean."

"It's not a dress?" Justin asked, and I snickered.

"You wish. Now, everyone out. I'll be ready in half an hour." Everyone but Justin left, grumbling about how half an hour was too long and girls took forever to get ready.

"What, curly?" I asked him, and he came over to me.

"Can I see that as a dress on you?" he asked, and I stepped away from him.

"No. Go get ready with your friends."

"Rache…" he said, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Come on, put that on and we'll have a party of our own here."

"Justin," I said, ducking away as he tried to kiss me. "I'm with Ben."

"So? He's out of town, isn't he?"

I moved out of his embrace. "I don't do that. I know everyone in my life thinks that Ben is boring, but I really like him. I'm not going to fuck that up."

Justin shrugged, turning away from me. "Whatever. I've got all night to convince you that I'm worth the risk."

An arrogant pop star who couldn't even kiss was definitely not worth risking losing Ben.

An arrogant pop star singing in my ear, dancing up against me after a few drinks? That was a different story.

He kissed my neck as the beat took over again, and I felt myself melt into him. "C'mon, baby," he said, leading me off the dance floor, and I followed him, hoping he was taking me somewhere quiet.

The hallway leading to the VIP section. Good enough. It was empty, for the moment, and he pushed me up against the wall, kissing me roughly.

He still couldn't kiss. Our mouths didn't line up or something, and he used too much tongue.

Ben could kiss. He might not make me lose my mind with passion, but he was a great kisser. I savored Justin's body against mine for one final second, then brought my arms up and pushed him away. "I can't do this, Justin," I said carefully.

"I think this is exactly what you wanted out on the dance floor," he said, leaning towards me again, and I ducked away from him.

"It was. But the dance floor isn't the real world. It doesn't last."

"It could," he said, leaning back against the wall and fixing me with his eyes. "Give me a chance. We are great together, Rachel. Not just the sex. We were friends before that. You know that's true. We could make this work."

"You don't want me, Justin."

"I have wanted you for months now. Why do you think Britney cheated on me? Because she thought I was cheating with you! And it's not like I could tell her I didn't want to."

I just arched an eyebrow at him. "Don't make Britney my fault. You might not have been sleeping with me on that tour, but you were getting all the groupies you wanted."

"That's nothing. Brit was used to that. But you-"

I held up a hand to stop him. "Just stop talking. You don't want me. You want me because it'll hurt her. You want me because you've had a crush on me for a while. You want me because the sex is good. But you don't want me. You barely know me."

"I do know you! You're smart and funny and sexy and you understand what it's like to be a pop star. We're perfect."

"Where did I grow up? Why does Christmas suck for me? What's my favorite color?"

"I don't know. Tell me."

I just shook my head. "No."

"Fine. A couple of dates. Think about how much that will drive Nick and Britney crazy."

"That just proves you don't know me. I don't want to hurt Nick. Maybe I did in those first couple of weeks after it was over, but he has enough issues about you. The last thing I want is to have him think you won me, too."

"He has issues about me?"

I rolled my eyes. "Please. You were the one gloating about the fact that your album did better than his. Think about he feels."

My stomach sank, thinking about that. It was one thing to have a fake date that probably everyone knew was fake. But when I saw Nick in March, if things worked out… I'd have to tell him I'd had sex with Justin, and that would kill him.

If things worked out. Or didn't work out. Having to tell Nick about Justin was another reason to hope that things didn't work out.

Justin sighed, leaning back against his wall. "You're a better person than I am. I don't really care how Britney feels."

I shrugged. "Justin, we won't work on a lot of levels. Let's just say it was nice and move on, okay?"

"It was really nice. I was telling JC how we might have broken his bed."

I laughed, kissing him lightly. "I'm sure he loved that."

"It was soon after that that he disappeared to go and find James, I think."

"Great, so it's my fault now?"

"You've gotta stop being so hard on JC. He really loves the guy."

"Not enough," I said. "I'm going home."

"No, stay," he said, grabbing my hand as I started to walk away. "I'll stop bothering you, I promise."

"Maybe one more drink."

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