You can call me selfish
But all I want is your love
And you can call me hopeless baby
Because I’m hopelessly in love
You can call me un-perfect
But who’s perfect
Tell me what do I gotta do
To prove that I’m the only one for you
So what’s wrong with being selfish
                 ---"Selfish"- NSYNC
 

“What are you reading?”

No response.

“It must be interesting…”

Still nothing. 

JC coughed briefly into his fist. 

Aliesa flipped a page. 

The silence ensued between the two of them. 

His existence continued to be ignored completely. 

     When he started tapping his knee up and down restlessly against the airplane seat she hardly flinched.  She remained aloof, seemingly engrossed in the magazine in front of her.  To her he was invisible.  She’d been paying attention to anything and everyone but him.  In fact, she hadn’t spoken to him since yesterday’s announcement that she was accompanying him to Europe. 
     He shouldn’t have been at all surprised at the cold shoulder she was giving him.  It wasn’t as if he expected her to be elated that they were going to be spending a lot of time together.  He knew she was upset by the turn of events.  He was.  A month!  It was a long time to spend with a person you couldn’t stand.  But in the end they were both professionals.  They both were mature enough to deal with the situation at hand.  So as JC sat there ignored by his so-called wife, all he could think about was how her silent treatment was just plain ridiculous. She could at least try to make the situation less painful for the both of them.  He was making an effort, which was more than she was giving.  Personally, he was sick of the dramatics that comprised this part of Aliesa Montaine’s personality.  He’d been a victim of it for too long.  Could one person be so self-involved?

“We didn’t do anything the other night.”

Aliesa slammed the magazine shut.

JC inwardly cheered, satisfied that he finally had elicited a response from her.  Noting the mix of confusion and anger in her eyes he proceeded to continue.  “So if that’s the reason you’ve been giving me the colder than usual ice queen act you can drop it.  You weren’t taken advantage of in your drunken state.

She glared.  “Are you really this insensitive or do you just save it all for me?” 

He shrugged.  “Hey no need to get vicious.  I’m only stating the obvious here…”

     Aliesa bit her tongue to prevent herself from causing a scene.  She wanted to yell.  No.  She wanted to scream.  Loud.  Oh so very very loud.  Taking a deep breath, and silently counting to ten, Aliesa did the safest thing for her sanity.  She flipped her magazine back open.  The only think to do to control her raging temper was to ignore JC.
     And back to square one.  JC lightly tapped the tray in front of him lightly.  This was getting stupid.  He was being IGNORED for God’s sake.  He let the silence sink in for a brief moment.  “You know…” he began not being able to contain himself any longer.  Aliesa didn’t acknowledge.  He paused frustrated and shook his head as she flipped another page.  “Never mind,” he huffed turning away from her.  No this really was stupid.  He changed his mind.  They needed to talk.  “I really think…”

“Can I offer you a drink sir? Mam?”

Just what they needed…an interruption.  JC turned towards the aisle and smiled warmly at the flight attendant who had asked the question.  This could be a good thing.  He couldn’t be ignored with a third party present.  He motioned at Aliesa.  “Ali-Honey?  You want something?” JC asked as he put a hand over her magazine to gain her attention. 

“No DARLING.  I’m fine,”  Aliesa replied, gritting her teeth, as she brushed his hand away. 

“Are you sure?  You should drink something.” JC argued with her, a condescending tone in his voice.  Without waiting for a response from her, he turned to the waiting flight attendant.  “She’ll have a Diet Pepsi.  It’s her favorite,” he stated.   “Right sweetie?” he added, betting on his instincts that she wouldn’t attempt to deny it and cause a scene in public.  The attendant looked towards Aliesa for confirmation.  After a momentary hesitation Aliesa’s face lit up with the same fake expression that JC held.  Donning on an air of warmth for the benefit of their act she nodded agreeing to JC’s request. 

     JC knew that she was pissed off at him.  Oh yes.  She was mad.  He could tell.  There definitely would be an impending blow up.  And just a brief moment later, as predicted, Aliesa showed her annoyance.  As soon as the attendant turned away to prepare the beverage she jabbed JC in the side with her elbow.  Hard.  He yelped in pain.  Aliesa elated that she had gotten her payback placed a worried expression on her face when the attendant turned back towards them.

“Oh pumpkin are you okay?  Do you need something?” Aliesa cooed, wide-eyed and innocent, patting JC’s chest as she reached over and grabbed the soda held out for her.  “Thanks.”

“I’m fine,” JC managed to cough out smiling reassuringly. 

Aliesa took a sip from her cup and smiled.  “Are you sure baby?”

“Positive,” JC answered gripping his side. 

The attendant gave them a nod and moved on.  Aliesa waited making sure that the coast was clear before dropping the drink half-hazardly on JC’s tray.  As soon as her hands were free, she promptly went back to her magazine and her attempts at ignoring the presence of her “husband”.

JC pushed down the magazine.  “Did you have to hit me so hard?” 

“You deserved it,” Aliesa muttered as she lifted the pages eye level.

JC rolled his eyes. 

“Can you take your hand off my magazine?” Aliesa hissed shoving his offending hand roughly away from her. 

“Will you just talk for a minute?” JC countered.

Aliesa thought for a moment.  “Let me see...NO,” she answered as she turned back to the magazine.

“Ali…”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Ali…Ali…Ali…”

“Fine!” Aliesa cried out as she took the magazine and stuffed it into the seat pocket in front of her before facing her nemesis.  “What do you want to talk about?  Hmmm?  What could be so important SWEETIE?”

“Well DUMPLING I think that the next month is important to us don’t you?  Or maybe like most things you just don’t care about what’s going on unless it revolves around your conveniences?” JC retorted to her sarcasm.

The words set in but caused no reaction.  Aliesa stared numbly at him.  The only admittance that she had heard him at all was the sporadic blink or two of her eyelids.  Her lips pursed.  She remained silent giving him a once over before she reached in the seat pocket and retrieved her magazine.  She flipped it open defiantly.  JC could have thrown something.  Instead, flabbergasted he did the only thing he could do.  He snatched the offending pages and put it behind him.

“Hey I was reading that!” 

“We have to talk.”

“Why?  We don’t need to discuss anything.  I’ve already planned how I’m handling our next couple of weeks together.  I’m ignoring you,” Aliesa countered as she reached over him to take back her reading.

“Aliesa look.  Don’t you think this is ridiculous?” JC asked as he moved the magazine to and fro away from Aliesa’s grasp.

“Well if you just handed it over it wouldn’t be!” Aliesa protested.

“I think it would be better for the both of us if we tried to get along…for real,” JC said softly.

Aliesa stopped her attempts of retrieving and looked at him incredulously.

“I’m serious.”

At the statement Aliesa placed a hand over her mouth and laughed, hard.  She clutched her stomach as tears dropped from her eyes.  “Oh that was good…” she mused as she wiped them away.  JC’s expression remained stoic.  Aliesa immediately stopped laughing.  “Oh GOD you’re not kidding are you?”

“It would make things easier.”

“No.  I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“We don’t get along JC.  We just don’t.  It’s that simple.”

“We got along last night.”

“We were drunk last night.”

“So?”

“So it’s different okay.  Drunk is the only way we’ve ever gotten along!” Aliesa countered as she successfully got back her magazine.  She opened it to a page and pointed at a picture of them.  “See this?” she said as she lifted it up for JC to see.  “This is us.  This is us getting along.  It’s in here.  And newsflash loverboy it’s not real.”

JC lifted the magazine from her fingers.  “But it could be easier.” 

“But you’re always an ass.”

“And you’re always a cold hearted bitch so we’re even.”

Aliesa clamped her mouth shut. 

“All we have to do is try to be nice to each other.  That’s it.”

“Well you’d have to learn some manners first in order for that to work. And personally I don’t think that’s possible,” Aliesa challenged.

“It’s not that difficult.”

“If you haven’t noticed our brief attempts of civility since Las Vegas JC IT IS.”

“Think about it.  We have to spend a month together.”

“Really?  A whole month!” Aliesa gasped pretending to go into shock.  “You’re kidding!”

JC threw his hands up in the air.  “Hey at least I’m trying here!”

“How GALLANT of you.”

JC dropped the magazine back in her lap.  “Here.”

“Is this supposed to make me agree with you?”

“I’m just being nice okay.  I can be nice you know.”

“Right,” Aliesa nodded.  She eyed the magazine and JC absently.  She inwardly cringed when her conscience got the better of her.  She tucked the magazine in her bag and looked him straight in the eye.  “I’m not as much of a spoiled brat as you think I am.  I know what’s riding on this whole thing.”  She rummaged through her belongings, grabbed a ponytail holder and tied her hair back.  “I’ll keep up our lovefest, but I swear to god if you mess with me I’ll mess with you.  Got it?  Now give me your hand.”

JC gave her an odd look.  Aliesa cocked her head sideways slightly referring to the glances they were getting.  They hadn’t been arguing that loud but people had noticed something.  A small frown played on his lips as Aliesa leaned in and lightly played with his fingers. 

How much longer before people noticed that things weren’t all that they seemed?

Chapter 9
Story Index
Back To Main
Stories Menu
Send Feedback