It was like any other school day, I'd meet justin infront of the water fountain to meet up for lunch, but henever came. It was weird because I would've known if he was sick because his mom would tell my mom if he was,you know how mom's are. So, I make my way to the cafeteria and get my food and try to find a seat, but there was one left, thank god it was right next to Trace, another friend of mine and Justin.

Trace, was like a little brother to me, always making fun of me, making jokes, playing pranks and just being annoying. But he's a good friend I guess.

I sat with Trace and I asked him if he knew why Justin wasn't at school, he said no. So after school we rode our bikes to his house. There was a truck in front of his house and his mom was putting stuff in it. Trace and I looked at each other confuesed and went on to see what was going on.

We stopped and went towards the house, Justin's mom turned to see us smiling "Hey kids"

I love Lynn, she's always been a second mother to me. I could always go to her if I wanted to talk and her cooking was always delicous, which she never denyed me when I stayed for dinner, I'd always had a spot at the table. My mom would always say I should be adopted by the Timberlakes because I'd spend most of my time at their house , that they treat me like part of the family anyway.

Me and Trace smiled, "Hey Mrs. Harless, we just came to see why Justin wasn't at school today, is he sick?" I asked.

She looked at me sudden sadness in her face, "He didn't tell you?"

"Tell us what?" Trace asked confuesed.

"He got a spot on the Mickey Mouse club"

"Really, that's great" I said happily.

"Yes it is, Justin's so excitied, I wonder why he didn't tell you"

"Yeah, I wonder why?"

"Well, you can ask him, he's inside"

Trace and I headed inside, there were boxes staked up in the living room.

we headed to his room,where he was laying in his bed playing with a ball.

Trace knocked on the door, "Hey Justin"

Justin got up and smiled, "Hey guys, come in"

We went in and sat in the couch Justin had.

It was silent for a minute.

"So...um your mom told us you got in MMC" I said trying to break the silence.

"Yeah" he sighed.

"How come you didn't tell us?" Trace asked.

He didn't look at us, instead he looked out the window, "I..I don't know, I guess I was scared to tell you"

Trace and I looked at each other.

"Why would you be scared? We're happy for you Justin" I said cheerfully.

He turned his head to look at us.

"Do you know what this means?"

"That you get to do what you've always wanted" I said smiling.

"No, I won't get to see you guys as much, I'm moving to florida" Justin snapped.

"What?" I gasped.

I guess I never thought about that,him moving away and we're not going to see him as much.

"Im..moving" he said hesitantly.

"I guess I never told you guys because, I was afraid you would be mad at me"

I looked at him with a small smile,"Why would we be mad?"

"I dunno because I'm leaving you guys"

"Justin we're not mad,we know how much you want to do this"

For the last couple of months Justin and his mom had been back in fourth from auditions. It was werid not having him around as much.I guess it was practice for what was to come.

"She's right, we're your friends Justin we know you want this"

Justin looked at us, "So your not mad?"

I giggled, "No, were not mad, but were upset you didn't tell us sooner"

He frowned, "I'm sorry, I should've told you,will you guys forgive me"

I looked at Trace, "Should we forgive him?"

"He looks guilty enough"

"You know what, we'll sleep on it and tell you tommorrow, come on Trace" I said walking towards the door.

"Okay, see ya dude"

Justin sat there stunned as he watched us leave, "But--"

We started laughing and came back to see Justin now mad at our joke.

"Of course we forgive you" I said laughing.

"That wasn't funny" he grumbled

"Oh come on, it was a little funny" Trace laughed.

"You guys are the worst"

I sat next to him and put my hand on his shoulder, "Awww come on Justin were just havin fun. Remember were your friends and we'll be there where ever you need us, thick and thin, good and bad"

I nudged him, he smiled.

He looked up and stared at me and Trace,we smiled.

"Thanks guys, this means alot"

"Don't mention it, just promise me one thing" Trace said.

"What's that?" Justin asked.

"When you get famous, don't forget me okay"

He laughed "I won't"

"Hey what about me, I'm as much a friend as he is" I said defensively.

Justin laughed. I loved it when he laughed because it would automatically make me laugh it was that contagious.

"I won't ever forget you Jenny" he smiled.

Those words I will always stay with me as long as I lived.

As time went by Justin was havin a great time on the Mickey mouse Club. Making friends and even meetingthis girl he told me he liked named Britney.

Sometimes Justin would invite me and Trace to come down to florida and visit. And everytime we went it was like he never left. We'd go to Disneyland and ride the rides, until we puked, which usually Justin was the one that did that.

Anyway, we would hang out with the cast, they were all so cool. I finally met Britney, she was nice, sweet girl, really she was and I knew why Justin liked her she was really likeable. I also met Christina, she was so small, but she had a hell of voice, it suprised me that a voice that big could come out of something so small, but I knew one day she'd make it big. Then there was Josh or"JC" as they called him, he was a cool guy, Justin would say he was like a big brother to him, watching out for him giving him advice, stuff like that.

He seemed so happy there, like he finally found where he belonged. But after 2 years MMC was no more and I knew this devistated Justin. My mom got the call about the news from Justin's mom, she said she was sadden bt the whole thing and Justin was so upset that he hadn't come out of his room, only to come out to what he needed and back again. And when I tried callied him, his mom said he didn't feel like talking to anyone, but she'd try to get him to talk to me. But all I could hear was Justin telling her to "Go away" and that he didn't want to be bothered anymore.

"JUSTIN RANDALL TIMBERLAKE" I heard her yell. "YOU GET OUT OF THIS ROOM AND TALK TO YOUR FRIEND!!!"

I heard a groan, which I knew was from Justin, I've never heard him like this before. Justin was a happy kid, he'd always see the positive side of things. So I knew he was taking it pretty hard.

Next thing I knew I heard a grumbled "Hello?" that I was suprised by the sound of the voice.

"Hey Justin, um it's Jenny" I tried to sound cheerful, but I knew it wasn't going to work.

"Yeah I know, what do you want?" he said rudely.

I was stunned at his rude remark, "Look Justin I know your upset, but you don't have to be a jerk to me or your mom"

There was silence on the other end I was wondering if he was still there, "Justin?"

"Are you done yelling at me now?" he spouted.

"Justin I wasn't yelling at you, I'm worried about you and I know you can get through this,there are other oppertunities out there"

"Look I got the same speech from my mom I don't need it from you too"

"I'm just worried about you and I know how you feel about this"

I heard him scoff,"You have no idea how I feel, so stop pretending you do!!!" he was yelling at me,I was so taken back by his reaction that I couldn't say anything.

He didn't hear me for a moment and sighed,"I'm sorry okay...I'm just sorry" he hung up the phone and as I heard the dial tone, I started to cry.

I spent the rest of the night crying, wondering why the person I thought was my friend was acting this way towards me. I thought he could talk to me if something was bothering him, just like he does when I'm upset. I was afraid I was losing him.

After that happend, I didn't hear from him for a month. Until my mom told me Justin was comming back home in a week. How was I suppose to deal with this, he was comming back and now I'd have to face him after what happend.

 Well Justin's back and now my mom decided to have a welcome home party for him. Ugh why does she do this to me, this won't help with my avoiding Justin.

"Do we really have to throw him a party?" I complained as she was washing the dishes.

She turned her head to look at me, "Jennifer Ann Montgumery, why are being rude?, Justin is your friend and you should be happy he's comming back home"  

"He was" I muttered and apparently she heard me.

"What do you mean he was your friend?" she asked.

I sighed, "I don't want to talk about it okay"

She gave me the look, you know the "I'm not buying it" face.

"Fine, we had a fight okay you happy now!!!" I shouted.

"Awww sweetie,why didn't you come to me" She said as she gave me a frown.

"I dont--I don't know" I hesitated as I looked at the floor, I knew if I looked at her I'd start crying.

She lifted my chin to meet her eyes and as I predicted, tears ran down my face, I know I'm a baby crying to her mommy, but the truth was it felt good to cry after all that.

"Awww come here" she hugged me tight as I sobbed uncontrollably.

"How could he treat me like that, I'm his best friend" I babbled.

"Shhh..I know, its okay" she said.

I lifted my head to see her, "It's not okay mom, Justin hates me!!"

"He doesn't hate you, he was probably just upset and taking it out on you"

"But you didn't hear the way he talked to me, he said that I should stop pretending like I know how he feels because I do. I know hes upset and scared of losing his dream"

I was quiet for a moment, "I'm scared I'm losing him, mom" and once again tears started to fall.

"Your not gonna lose him honey, he's your best friend. Just talk to him"

How was I suppose to talk to him, he doesn't want to talk to me and now I have to see him at this stupid party.

After my little outburst that afternoon my mom was trying to act like nothing happend and sent me to my room to get ready for the party. Needless to say I was kinda dredding the party, a part of me was excited to see Justin, crazy I know.

I finnished getting ready I went down stairs and watched my mother run back and fourth like she was a chicken with no head, if you saw her you'd swear she'd lost hers. I tried to go passed her unnoticed, but as always she caught me, I swear that woman has eyes in the back of her head.

"Jenny" she called out.

"Yes" I sighed.

"Good, your here, I need you to help me set up"

I groaned, "But you were the one who wanted to do this party, can't you do it!!!"

She looked me, "Don't be smart with me young lady, now go"

"Fine" I grumbled.

When I finnished, the doorbell rang with our first guest, then they kept coming in. As the house fill up, people would come up to me complementing me on how pretty I was and asking me if I was happy to see Justin again, of course my mom taught me manners I wanted to be a good hostess and say yes because if people knew that I wanted to say,"No I'm not happy to see the big jerk, he can rot for all I care"  I wouldn't be a good hostess now would I.

So as guest were coming in I was still dredding to see Justin and holding my breath as the doorbell rang. He wasn't here yet and almost everyone was there. Maybe he wasn't coming, maybe he didn't want to be at this party as much as I did. The doorbell rang interrupting my thought and I heard shreiks of excitement at the door, which meant only one thing he was here.

I tried to hide before my mom saw me and once again I got caught. I need to work on being more stealther than I am or at least try to.

"Jennifer, come greet our guest" she said as she smiled at Justin's mom.

I sighed, This would've happend anyway I might as well get over with.

I made my way towards them smiling,"Hi, Mrs. Harless, Mr. Harless, its nice to see you again. Hi Justin." I smiled at him, but he seemed weary.

I swear I could be an actress if I wanted to at this point. I was convicing myself for a minute.

"Well look at you, don't you look beautiful. You've grown up so much since the last time I saw you" Justins mom complinmented.

 "Thank you" I smiled

"Justin, doesn't she look beautiful"

I could see Justin was uncomfortable and so was I.

"Yeah she does"

I bushed, wait why am I blushing, hes a jerk remember, who made you cry until you felt you cried youself out. Be strong don't give in.

"Thanks, you big jerk" I thought.

"Why don't we leave these two alone so they can catch up" My mom announced and giving me a wink before leaving. Ahhh why did I tell her.

As soon as my mom left I turned away and headed towards the kitchen and to my dismay Justin followed me.

"Jenny, stop I need to talk to you" he called out and i kept going.

"Please we really need to talk" he grabbed my shoulder and I whipped myself around in anger.

'What Justin?, what do we need to talk about? I think you said what you needed to say to me on the phone" I partly shouted as Justin eyes widened.

"But I didn't mean--" he tried to explain, but I cut him off, "You didn't mean it, you hurt me Justin" Uh oh I felt tears coming again, I can't let him see me cry, I have to be strong, BE STRONG JENNY.

"I know and I'm sorry, I really am" he sighed.

I bit my lower lip to stop from crying as he tried to continue, "I just--I just, I dunno felt mad about what happened and I know I was a jerk to you and everybody that talk to me"

I rolled my eyes, "No kidding" I thought.

"I do feel bad that I yelled at you and I feel like the biggest jerk ever and I don't deserve to be your friend. After you were trying to be one to me, so I understand if you dont want to be my friend anymore" he waited for me to say something,but I was quiet.

"So I guess I'll see you around" he walked away slowly really saddened.

Great the guilt trip, why does he do this?

I sighed "Justin wait" I shouted and he turned around.

I went to him, "Look I was really upset and mad you talked to me like that but I thought we were friends and we talked to each other when something was bothering us, and I felt like I was losing you"

"But--" I stopped him again, "The thing is I can't be mad at you, if it means losing you as a friend, so I forgive you Justin"

A smile crept to my face, which made him smile.

"I really am sorry"

"I know, but lets not talk about this anymore okay"

"Okay"

So what if I gave in, he was my best friend I can't be mad at him.

"Lets go raid the food before they get the good stuff" I smiled.

"Last one there has to smelll Trace's socks"

I made a face, "Your so on"

"One, two, THREE" I counted and we sped off.

I won and Justin was a sore loser as always, I was glad to have my best friend back, not that I didn't mind having Trace to hang around with, but he wasn't Justin.

Everything was good between us. Justin just came back from Nashville where he  was recording songs with JC. We were now 15 and in highschool, which for me meant listening to Justin and Trace talk about which girl was the hottest and which had the biggest boobs, ass, lips and other shallow features guys were interested in. I don't know why I stayed and listened to that, but sometimes they'd want my input on it.

"What do you think Jenny?" Justin asked.

I sighed, "I still think you guys are shallow for judging a girl by her looks"

I could see Trace roll his eyes, "We are not judging them, we're admiring their features" he smiled at Justin who gave him a nod of approval.

I rolled my eyes, "You guys have no shame, I don't even know why I hang with you guys"

"Because you wouldn't know what to do without us" Justin said as he gave me a smile.

"I think I can live without watching you guys drooling over girls like they were a piece of meat" I laughed.

"We do not" Trace said defensively.

We heard the phone ring, "JUSTIN PHONE" Justins mom called.

As Trace tried to explain to me why guys "admire" girls like that, we didn't even notice he was gone.

A few minutes later Justin came back in the room with a big smile on his face.

"What was  it?"I asked.

"Chris called"

"Wow, what did he say?" I know I'm nosy, but hey I wanted to know why he was smiling so big, it had to be big news.

"He called me to tell me that he was looking for guys to form a group. So he asked me if I wanted to join"

"So what'd you say? Trace asked.

"I told him I think about it" Justin sighed.

"So what do you think?" I asked.

"I don't know yet"

"Justin this is great, this might be your big break" I smiled at him.

"You really think so?" he asked.

"Yeah, I really do"

"Come on man, do it, its always been your dream, follow it" Trace encouraged, okay maybe I was wrong about him, he can be not so selfish. "Think of all the girls you could get, they love a singer" who was I kiddng its Trace, I just shook my head.

"Come on Justin, at least try, it won't hurt if you try" I told him.

"You guys really want me to do this?" he asked, we nodded.

"Okay I'll do it, thanks guys this means alot"

"Don't metion it, we know how much this would mean to you" Trace told him with a smile.

"We will support you all the way,even when you forget about us" I laughed.

"Awww how could I forget you guys, you will both be in my life, even when I'm selling millions of albums and winning grammies" he smirked.

"You are so cockey Justin Timberlake, hopefully you won't get a big head or I will slap you silly"

"I won't I promise" he chuckled.

"Dude,imagine all the girls we'd get" Trace said as he looked off daydreaming.

I chuckled, "What makes you think you'll be getting the girls?"

"Girls love a wingman and Justin is gonna hook me up"

"Okay if you say so Trace" I giggled and let them talk about the girls they were gonna get.

I seriously I need some grilfriends to hang out with.

Justin got in touch with Chris and told him he'd do it, they just needed 3 more people to fill in the other spots. So he called JC and asked him and he said yes.

They were all set when they found a guy named Joey and Lance, which they had to find at last minute because the guy they had bailed out on them.

So since almost all the guys were in orlando already, they decided they'd start out there singing around, seeing if they could get signed.

It was the day before Justin left for Orlando and I was helping him pack and as much as I hated to pack, I decided to sacrafice myself and help him, even if it killed me.

"Thanks for helping me" Justin said smiling.

"No problem, glad to help"

"God, I hate this" he sighed looking at the piles of stuff he had.

"You and me both" I muttered.

"You can take this side and I'll take this one, okay" I instructed him.

He did as I told him and we started to clear everything up.

"Jeez, Timberlake how many shoes does one guy need?" I said as packed pairs of shoes in one suitcase.

"Hey a guy can never have too many good sneakers"

I laughed, "Seriously your bringing a whole stores worth in here"

He rolled his eyes at me, "Please like you girls can never have enough clothes"

"Hey we have to look nice and who's ever gonna only look down at you feet?" I giggled.

"Guys do, the figure out what a guy is by his shoes"

I laughed, "That's lame, they can figure out how a guy is by his SHOES" I started to laugh harder when I finished that sentence.

I was on the floor laughing when Justin threw a pillow at me, "HEY!!!"

He started to laugh, "Oh you think that's funny huh?" I said as he was still laughing.

"Halarious, you should seen your face" he giggled.

"Well lets see how you like it" I said as I threw pillow at him.

The look on his face made me laugh harder and he grabbed the pillow I threw, he went towards me with a grin and I started to run.

"OH NO YOU DON'T" he shouted as he chased me around the room.

I grabbed a pillow that was on the floor to protect myself.

I ran into the hallway as chased me, I managed to slip in one of the rooms, without him noticing, talk about being stealth.

"Jenny?" he called out in the empty hallway, i tried to stiffle my giggles.

He reached the room I was in, I was on the side of the door way, "Jenny you in here?"

I went towards him from behind, ready to attack him and I whacked him with the pillow,apparently pretty hard 'cause he fell on the floor.

I felt so bad, I guess I don't know my own strength.

"Oh god Justin, I'm so sorry are you okay?" I asked concerned.

All he did was smile and suddenly hit me with his pillow, that little jerk tricked me.

He started to laugh, "Jenny you are so gullible"

"You little jerk, you tricked me!!"

"Yeah I know and you gotta stop being so gullible" he laughed.

"I am not"

"Yes you are,remember the time Trace told you that there were ghost in your room because he felt someone pass by him and you freaked out that you slept in your sister's room for a week" he chuckled.

I remember that week, I was so scared to go in my room, that in slept in my sister Candice's room. Yeah I forgot to mention I had a sister, must've slipped my mind. How could I not mention her, she is the biggest pain in my ass, I know what your thinking "Aren't all brothers and sisters like that?" Oh not like Candice, she is the most annoying person ever. She's a princess,wants all the attention
to her and the biggest drama queen ever lived, that's part of the reason I spend so much time at Justin's house. She was 4 years older and I hated that.

Okay enough about Candice, this is about me for once.

Justin and Trace loved to play pranks on me because they thought of me as an "easy target" and maybe I was but one day I will have revenge.

I just rolled my eyes.

He laughed, "That was pretty funny"

"I'm so not gonna miss you" I teased.

"Awww you hurt my feelings" he frowned like he was about to cry.

I gigglgled, "You are such a dork"

"Come on say it 'I'm gonna miss you Justin'"

"No" I turned my head to look away.

"Come say it, I know you want to"

"Nuh-uh, you can't make me" I pouted.

"Oh I know I can" he grinned.

He started tickling me, he knew I was ticklish and I hated when people tickled me.

"JUSTIN STOP" I giggled.

"No not until you say it!!!"

I was giggling so hard my stomach hurt and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"SAY IT!!"

"FINE i'M GONNA MISS YOU JUSTIN" I shouted as I giggled.

He stopped ticking me, "See was that so hard"

I giggled, he was inches away from my face as he smiled, I never really noticed how beautiful his blue eyes were before.I felt like I could get lost in them.

"Justin?" I found myself saying as he drew his face closer to mine, he didn't say anything.

I could feel his breath, our lips were brushing.

Before we made contact we heard someone.

"Hey Jus--Uh was I inturpting something?" Trace said with an eyebrow raised.

Justin and I froze and Justin quickly got up.

"Uh no, we were just--" he said embarassed, blushing.

I finally I got up, "I--I should go" I stuttered embarrassed to even look at Justin or Trace.

"Jenny, wait" he said as I walked out the door.

I walked passed Lynn, who was in the kitchen.

"Jenny aren't you staying for dinner?" she asked.

"Um yeah, I just need to go home" I said still dazed at what happened or was going to happen.

"Are you okay dear, you seem flustered" she said concerned.

I tried to compose myself, "Yeah, I'm fine, I just need to go home, I'll be back"

"Are you sure?"

I smiled, "Yeah, I'm fine"

"Alright, then I'll set you a place" she smiled.

"Thanks" I said and left out the door.

On the whole walk home I kept replaying the whole thing in my head. The way his eyes looked, his lips brushing mine, his smile, even the way he looked at megave me shivers. What was I doing, this was Justin, my best friend, the guy who seen me at my worst, who use to say I had cooties, who knew all my secrets, he was my friend and nothing more. But why am I feeling he could be more than that, I couldn't like him, it would just be weird because it was Justin.

Chapter 5

God,im an idiot, what was I thinking? the look on her face when it was happening, she probably won't want to talk to me. But in that moment she was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. After so many years of being her best friend why am I feeling this way?, I couldn't like her, she was like a sister to me. It'd be too weird, we can only  be friends, it's better that way.

Trace was looking at me for an explaination.

"What?" I said as if I didn't know what he wanted.

"What do you mean, What, Dude what the hell was going on?"

"Nothing" I said calmly as I headed to my room, Trace followed me.

"It didn't look like nothing, what's going on?

I sighed "Nothing's going on Trace okay!!!"

"Woah calm down man, I just want to know what's going on" he was quiet for a minute, ""Wait do you like her?" Trace asked, raising an eyebrow.

I looked at him like he was crazy, "No, can we not talk about this" I sighed, hoping he'd just let it go.

"Fine, we won't talk about it"  Trace said.

"Thank you" I said as we walked to the kitchen, there was a note that said my mom was at the gorcery store.

"Do you aleast think she's hot?" he asked.

God I swear I was using all my power to calm down, before I wanted to punch him.

"Dude no, that's just weird, this is Jenny were talking about!!!" I said as I pulled out juice from the refridgerator and slamming the door.

"Well haven't you noticed her lately, she's not the same old Jenny anymore"

He was right, ever since we started Highschool she was diffrent, but in a good way. Like over the summer she'd become a whole new Jenny and all the guys started to notice her.

"Really? I haven't noticed" I said nochalantly, sipping my juice.

"Well it did seem like you did back there in the room" he grinned.

I groaned, "Trace will you just drop it, please, Jenny and I are friends, that's it!!!"

"Okay fine, if you say thats all, I believe you man" Trace said.

"Thanks man"

"So, you excited?" Trace said changing the subject, thank god.

"Yeah, I'm psyched, I can't wait!!" I said happily and then I saw Traces face.

"Trace you okay?" I ask.

He sighs, "Yeah"

"Listen man just because I'm moving doesn't mean we aren't gonna be friends anymore. You will always be my best friend no matter what happens" I said smiling.

"Yeah always" Trace says smiling.

"Just look out for Jenny for me" I say.

Trace chuckles,"Why because you loooove her" he teases and I punch him in the arm.

"I don't like her I told you already!!!"

"Ow fine,but you didn't have to punch me" Trace said rubbing his arm.

I grinned, 'Hey it's the only way you'd learn"

We both laughed.

"I gonna miss you man" Trace said smiling.

"Me too man, me too"
 

It was time for last dinner at home, I'm gonna miss my Grandma Sadie's cooking. Nobody cooked like her, she is definetly a devil in the kitchen. If I married a girl I'd want her to be as good as her, every guy loves a girl who can cook. So tonight dinner was all my favorite foods from fried chicken, ribs, mash potatoes, sweet corn, greens and biscuts. Then there was dessert my favorite part,her peach cobbler, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, hell any pie she made was delicous,just talking about them makes my mouth water. I know once I'm gone home will be the thing I miss the most.

I was in my room getting ready, fixing my hair, it just didn't look right to me.I tried to fix it every other way, but I was getting frustrated and when the door bell rang I gave up. I went downstairs and saw Jenny came, I sighed a sigh of relief, "Good she doesn't hate me" I thought. I came down the stairs and she gave me smile.

"Hey Justin"

"Hey, you came"

She giggles, "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"Because I was an idiot" I think. "No its nothing, I'm just glad you came" I smile.

The doorbell rang again, I opened the door and saw Trace holding a box,"Hey man"

"Hey Trace, uh what's with the box?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I decided to bring you a fairwell present, your gonna love it"

"Oooh I love presents" I said as I grab the present from his hands.

I open the the present, I see it's a basketball,just what I needed.

"You can take it with you to Orlando, so you can shoot some hoops and practice, so you won't get rusty" he smiles.

"Wow thanks man, I needed one and I am not gonna get rusty"

He chuckles,"Yeah, we'll see about that"

I chuck him the ball, "Right, I always beat you, even on an off day" I laugh

"You'll see when you see me the next time I will beat you!!" he warns.

I grin, "Why next time, when we can do it now"

He looks uneasy I could tell "Okay your on!!"

"God why do you guys have to be so competitive" Jenny says annoyed.

"It's all in fun, right Trace" I turn to Trace.

"Yeah it's all in fun. When I win" he mutters.

"Come on, lets play" I say grabbing the ball from his hands.

"Where are you kids going?, dinners almost ready" My mom says as she stands with her arms crossed.

"Me and Trace were gonna try out my new baseket ball"

"You can go out after dinner, now go wash up" she demanded.

"Fine" I grumbled heading upstairs.

When I went downstairs again, everyone was in the livingroom waiting.

"Finally, we can eat!!!, what were you doing up there?" Trace asked

"Nothing, lets go eat" I said as I head in the dinningroom.

Everyone was around the table eating and remenicing on the times we had, it was really great, but made me sad iI was leaving my entire life behind.

Everyone was done with dinner and now my favorite part dessert, my grandma made my favorite peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream yum.

"Okay bring out the clobbler" I demand as I rub my hands together.

"Ugh your not full, because I'm stuffed already" Jenny said rubbing her stomach.

"No way, theres always room for my grandmas cobbler" I said as I grabbed my fork.

"Alright, here you can cut the first piece Justin" My grandma says as she sets the cobbler in front of me and my mouth starts to water.

I cut the biggest piece, leaving barely half of it left, hey it was my last time eating a home cooked meal I had to take advantage of it.

"You gonna eat all that?" Jenny asked with her eyebrow riased.

"Yeah, you know I love cobbler" I said as I took my first bite, which was delocious by the way.

"As much as you love Jenny" I hear Trace chuckle.

I kick him in the shin and grin.

"Ow" he yelps, they all look at him.

"Are you okay Trace?" My mom asked concerned.

He looks at me angry and then answered my mom "Yeah, it's just my stomach, I'll be okay"

I chuckle, shaking my head.

"What's so funny?" Jenny asked.

"Nothing" I say innocently as I take another bite of cobbler, did I metiion it's delicious!!!

"Wan' 'ome?" I ask as I chew my piece.

"Maybe later" she giggles.

It was quiet for a bit and I find myself saying,"Jenny I...."

Before I can finish, Trace calls me, "Come on Justin,lets play!!!"

I sigh, "Okay, I'm coming" I look at Jenny,"I'll be right back, I need to talk to you"

She looks at me a bit nervous,"Okay" she said and I head out the door.

Great, he wants to talk, what am I gonna do?!!! what if he does like me? What do I say? God I don't know what to do!!!

I sat there thinking about what I was going to say to Justin. When I was stopped by Justins cousin Rachel.

 "You hoo Jenny, you here?"

I snapped out of it, "Huh yeah, I'm here"

She giggled, "Your out of it, what's wrong?"

I loved Rachel, she was like the sister I always wanted. She wasn't like Candice, she actually listened to me.I love to hang out with her.

"Oh nothing, just thinking" I said with a sigh.

"About what?" 

As much as I trusted her I couldn't tell her that her cousin might like me. I'd never hear the end of it.

"Just how it'll be without Justin around here, I'm gonna miss him"

"Yeah, me too, but you know he wants to follow his dream and I'm glad he is"

"I guess your right but it won't be the same" I sighed.

I really am going to miss him, I'm so use to him being there, when ever I had a problem I'd go and talk to him or if I needed guy advice he was always there. Now
he's going to be following his dream and leaving the life he had behind. And that was okay for me because I knew it made hom happy.

"Well, you'll still have me and Trace"

I looked at her, "Okay you'll have me,I will be here if you need me" Rachel smiled.

"Thanks Rach, you're the best" I smiled.

"Well there is one thing good coming out of this" I said.

"What?"

"We won't have to deal with them both" We both laughed.

"So true, boys can be so obnixious and dumb sometimes, I don't know how you handle hanging out with them" Rachel said giggling.

"I don't know, I guess I'm use to it,but it does get annoying sometimes, but they are mt best friends" I said.

Then we hear laughing coming from the front door, "Dude, what did I tell you, I so whooped your butt" Justin said.

"Yeah what ever dude it was just one game" Trace said annoyed.

"Yeah one game,that ended 3-10" Justin laughed.

"What ever, you'll see when you see me next time I will beat you"

"You wanna bet on it" Justin said.

"Yeah"

"Your on, lets shake on it" Justin said extending his hand.

Trace shook his hand, "Okay, Loser has to wear a dress with make up and the shoes"

"WHAT?, DUDE NO WAY!!!" Justin shouted outrage.

"Hey a bets a bet, unless your too chicken to do it" Trace grinned.

"NO, lets do it"

Trace chuckled, "Alright its a bet,that I'm gonna win!!!"

"We'll see"

they headed toward the living room.

"Hey guys" Justin said as he sat down.

"Hey, who won" I asked and Justins smile got bigger.

"Me" he said as he looked at Trace who looked at him in anger.

"You'll see I will beat you and win that bet!!!" Trace spouted.

"What bet?" Rachel asked.

"I bet Trace he could beat me in basketball"

Me and Rachel giggled.

"What's so funny?" Trace demanded.

We tried to stop giggling.

"Well...I mean are you sure you want to do that?" I asked as I tried not to giggle more.

"Yeah why not, I can beat him" Trace said assuringly.

"I'm sure you could Trace, if Justin had a broken arm" I laughed.

We all bust out laughing, Trace was getting irritatted.

"Y'all are the worst" he said as he stomped off out the door.

"Trace wait, we were just joking come back" Justin begged.

Trace did come back with an angry look, "Look this is serious , I don't know why you guys think its funny"

"We won't laugh promise" I said.

"What are the consecquences?" Rachel asked.

 Trace looked at Justin who was chuckling. "Loser has to wear a dress , complete with shoes and make up"

Rachel and I laughed, we both knew Justin wasn't going to lose.

"You said you weren't going to laugh" Trace whined.

I tried to stop, "I'm sorry, it's just that is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard" I started to laugh again.

"Hey a bets a bet, you have make it interesting" Trace said as he grinned at Justin.

"Yeah may the best man win" Justin chuckled. 

"See things like this prove my point" Rachel giggled.

"What point?" Justin asked.

"That boys can be obnixious and dumb and she's right" I giggled.

"Hey that's not true,its not like you girls trying to be friends with girls you don't like now thats dumb" Trace spouted.

"No that's being smart, like they say keep tour friends close and your enemies closer. It's not you guys who just fight because the gave you a look now thats dumb" Rachel told him.

Here we go again, Rachel and Trace are like cats and dogs when talking about the oppisite sex,there was no way out of it now. Of course I was always on Rachel's side and Justin was on Trace's, not only for moral support, but to make sure Trace doesn't get any broken bones. Because let's face it compared to Rachel he as...well shorter and could be easily hurt. One thing me and Justin agreed in his whole thing was it was so fuckin funny to watch, I know that's horrible but if you saw it you'd laugh too.

As this was going on Justin didn't seem to be paying attention and looking at me.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

I stood still for a moment and realized he wanted an answer, "Uh yeah, sure"

Rachel and Trace were so into there argument that thet didn't even notice we were gone.

We headed out to the backyard and sat on the swings.

she swayed a little looking down at the ground.

He held the swing still automatically making me look at him,"I have something for you"

I had butterflies in my stomach now, watching him reaching for something in his pocket.

He hands me a small box, my hands are shaking as I hold the box.

"Jenny you okay?" he asked looking at me concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I say as I open the small box containing a charm bracelet, blowing me away.

He does like me, oh my god I can't believe it. I mean do friends really give you jewlery like this, especially a guy who is a friend?

"Do you like it?" he asked as he saw my expression.

"Justin its beautiful"

"The lady at the store said you can add more charms if you wanted, didn't have enough money to buy more charms but one is a good start"

"Justin you didn't have to do this" I say with a frown.

"But I wanted to, I saw it and I knew I had to give it to you to remember me by"

"Wow, thank you, I love it" I said as I looked at the bracelet.

It was really sweet, but does it mean he really likes me. After all these years was this really happening. Does Justin consider me as more than friend? and if he does what happens next, hes leaving tomorrow for Orlando, I don't know if it'll work out. He'll be focusing on his career and be on the road all the time and I'll be stuck here, I just can't do that.

He was quiet for a minute "I also wanted to talk about, what happened this afternoon"

Oh god here it goes.

I sat straight trying to act cool,"Oh" I say camly.

"Look I know it freaked you out a little" he said.

A little, how about alot. He stops for a moment, butterflies are in my stomach again, I'm waiting for the words to come out of his mouth.

"I guess...I mean I didn't know what I was doing"

What? was he saying us almost kissing was a mistake. I was sort of mad at this point, what did he not think I wasn't good enough for him?!!guys can be so fuckin complicated, first he tries to kiss me, then gives me this thoughtful gift and leads me into thinking he did have feelings for me and now he's saying the whole situation is a MISTAKE!!! I seriously want to get up and fucking leave. but I decide its better to stay.

"I get it Justin it was just in the moment, you didn't know what you were doing" I said.

"Exactly" he sighed, "I'm glad you understand" he smiled.

Of course I had to understand, what other choice did I have, I couldn't just say "No I don't understand Justin why are you fucking with my head" It was his last night I didn't want it to end bad.

All I could do was look at him a smile, anyway it was his last night here and this whole thing will be forgotten.

"So I'm sorry if this weirded you out. I didn't mean for it to make you feel like there was something more, ya know between us" He said sincerely.

I sighed, only Justin could not make me mad at him for long, "It's okay,I get it we're friends thats all"

I swear Justin has this power over me, that I can't seem to understand and it bothered the hell out of me. Now that this whole thing was settled could we be friends again?

We were quiet for a while until I had had enough with the akward silence, "So you excited for Orlando?"

He chuckles, "Yeah I am, but I kinda don't want to leave, I mean this is my home, where I grew up, its all I've known. My family, friends, the general store, going fishing down at the river with Trace"

I giggle, "Trace getting mad because you caught a bigger fish than he does"

He laughs, "Yeah, I really gonna miss that"

"Who's gonna help Trace when he gets himself in trouble, because you know I sure as hell I'm not gonna save his ass"

He laughed, "Well then he's screwed"

"Then who am I going to go to when I need someone to talk to"

"Well you can always call me or go to Rach or--" I stopped him before he said it, "Don't say Trace, I know he won't be helpful"

Justin laughed, "Seriously, what do you have against him, hes not that bad, most of the time, just give the guy a chance"

"Justin this is Trace we're talking about, he's not as understanding as you are"

He laughed, "Yeah you right, but you know I'll only be a phone call away, if you need to talk"

I smile, "I know, but don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I know your going to do big things Justin Timberlake, I just know it"

He looks at me and giggles, It was the cutest thing I have to admit. Now I kinda saw why girls at were all over him, he was pretty good looking, very charming, funny snd had an amazing smile and those eyes...what the hell am I doing? Do I really think Justin is cute? No I can't, I just can't. He's like my brother and I bet he thinks as me as his sister, it would be wrong on so many levels.

"Thanks" He was quiet for a moment before he spoke, "So uh did you think it would've worked?"

I look at him, my eyes widen, "What? us?"

"Yeah, if it was diffrent between us" he says rubbing his neck, that's what he usually does when he's nervous or embarrassed.

"Um  I dunno, I mean with everything thats going on, it'd be kinda difficult, ya know"

"Yeah I guess, but I know you have a little crush on me I'm cool with that" he winks at me.

I sit there my mouth opened and shove him a bit and giggle, "You are so cockey, I hope you don't get too big headed"

"Oh you think I have a big head huh?"

"Yeah I do" I tease.

"Take that back" he warns.

"No"

"Take it back or I'm--I'm..."

"Your gonna what?"

He gets up and then lifts me up over his shoulder, "Put me down!!! Justin its not funny"

"I think it is" he chuckles.

"JUSTIN PUT ME DOWN!!!"

"No, not until you take it back"

I look behind me to see we're getting closer to the lake, "JUSTIN RANDALL TIMBERLAKE I SWEAR IF YOU PUT ME IN THAT WATER YOUR DEAD!!!"

He chuckles, "Take it back and your free"

"No"

"Okay in you go"

Before he could do anything he hears his name.

Justin mom appears, "There you are, your grandma and grandpa wanna say goodbye to you" I sigh of relief.

"Okay be right there"

She chuckles to herself and leaves back into the house.

"Your lucky my mom saved you, but next time..." he trails off as he realizes there might not be a next time for awhile.

He sighs, I roll my eyes trying to change the mood "I know I know"

He laughs, I'm going to miss that laugh so much.

He heads to the door, "Hey Justin" I say as he reaches the door and turns to me "Yeah?"

"This place won't be the same without you"

"Thanks, I think I won't be without it too" he smiles and heads inside.

I sigh looking out at the lake reminiscing on mermories of us as kids out here in the hot summer playing in the water, having barbeques, not having as care in the world.Now life as I know it is changing around me and I don't want it to. I want everything to stay the way it was, but nobody said it was easy.

"JENNY!!" someone shouts and I turn to see Justin waiting. "Are you coming to see me beat Trace or what?"

I hear Trace's "Hey" and giggle, "Yeah, I'm coming"

At least for now everything is the way it should be.

I look back at the lake one more time.

"Jenny come on!!! you definetly don't want to miss this" I hear Justin say.

"Yeah you definetly don't wanna miss when I beat him" Trace says.

I roll my eyes.

at least somethings never change.

I head torwards the driveway to see Justin taunting the ball at Trace, "You want this? huh you want this"

"Someone call it" Trace says struggling.

I roll my eyes, "I'll do it. Gimme the ball" I say and Justin passes it to me.

I go in the middle, both guys are on opposite sides ready to jump looking at each other grinning.

"Ready to lose Timberlake" Trace smirks.

Justin chuckles, "Not a chance"

I release the ball in the air and both Trace and Justin jump as I duck away and sit with Rachel to watch them.

10 minutes into the game Justin was leading 4-0 and Trace looked out of breath already trying to keep up.

"Your lookin a little tired there" Justin chuckles as he dribbles the ball gruarding it from him.

"Nah I'm just gettin' warmed up" he smirks.

Justin dribbles the ball up to the hoop and shoots missing it. Trace picks it up and shoots and makes it in.

After 15 minutes the score was 8-9 Justin was leading again,

I don't know why boys have to be so competitative, I mean what's the point. So what if one persons better, big whoop, it just turns into who's thebiggest jerk, I will never understand men.

Anyway back to the game,seems like Trace was really picking up in the game or Justin was loosing his. Trace shot another basket as Justin was slowing down, I've never seen him lose a game as long as I known him.

It was 9-9 now, it was anybody's game now surprisingly. Trace has the ball and moves left and fakes right and and swifts passed Justin, who is stunned but what just happend. He tries to catch up to him and as Trace shoots he jumps to block it, but it's too late, the ball went in.

I look at Rachel who is suprised at what happend as I am. Trace finally beat him.

"Did you see that!!!" Trace says looking at us pointing to the hoop.

"Yeah Trace we did, that was great" Rachel says still suprised.

"So who's the man now?" Trace asks Justin.

"You are" Justin says lowly.

"What did I tell you? I told you I was going beat you!!!" he says excitedly.

Justin grins as his friend is celebrating and I realize maybe he lost on purpose. He wanted Trace to win this game because it was the last time he and his friend would be together for awhile.

I smile at him and head towards him, "What?" he laughs.

"You let him win"  I say grinning.

"What? no, he just got lucky thats all"

I rolled my eyes, "Riiight"

"You know I could've totally beat him" he smirks.

I laugh, Yeah sure, but you're a really good friend Justin" I smile.

"Thanks you too, I really am gonna miss you"

"Me too"

We all head in and have ice cream sundaes together one last time. I

I wish it could stay like this forever.

Well today's the day, I'm finally off to Orlando to meet the guys. Man I'm so nervous, but excited although I'm up at 5 am packing the last of my stuff, even when my flight doesn't leave until 1. My mom is running back and fourth like a maniac yelling at me for no reason, she's as nervous as I am I swear.

When I was packing up my stuff, I found an old photo album and sat down to look at it. It's funny how looking at a picture can bring back so many memories and tell stories.

"Justin, what are you doing?" my mom asks. "What are you looking at?" she laughs as she comes closer and sees what I was looking at.

"AWWW is that you and Trace in the school play" she coos putting a hand to her chest.

"Yeah" I laugh.

She sits next to me and looks at the album and we look at it together.

"We've had quite a life here, haven't we" she laughs.

"Yeah, we have"

"Justin are you sure you want to leave all this? I mean I'm sure we can call--" I cut her off before she finished, "Momma I'm sure"

She looks at me teary eyes and smiles, "If thats what you want"

"Awww momma don't cry, we can still come back and I promise you when the group gets big I'll buy you a new house to say thank you for everything you did for me"

She sniffed, "Aww baby, you don't have to do that, I'm just happy your following your dream"

"Thanks momma, I love you"

"I love you too, baby boy" We hugged and she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Alright enough of that" she got up and tapped my knee "Let's keep going"

I laughed and put a way the album in the box.

A couple hours later we packed up the car and headed to the airport, theres no turning back now!!

Trace, Jenny, my grandparents and my step-dad all came along to say goodbye and wish me luck. My dad wasn't going with us because of his job, so he'll meet up with  that weekend to help settle in. We arrived at the airport without saying a word, even Trace was quiet.

Me and momma go and check ourselves in and all I can think about was how much I was gonna miss everything, maybe this was a bad idea. Would it even be worth going if it turns out we don't get signed, I know I sound so negetive about this but I can't have my hopes up to much, just in case things don't turn out good. I'm not saying were gonna fail or anything, I'm just kind of preparing myself for what may happen, you know what I mean?

Were all checked in, there no turning back now, now I'm excited and nervous. This is it, this trip could make me or break me. I'll either be a member of a famous group selling millions of records, singing in front of millions of people every night and have them scream my name and know who I am (I know I'm getting ahead of myself, but hey it could happen) or back to being justin the good old southern boy from Tennessee with big dreams to make big but still not there yet.

Flight 130 to Orlando is now boarding all passengers please report to gate 2, again flight 130 to Orlando is now boarding all passengers please report to gate 2. Enjoy your flight and thank you for flying with us.

"Alright that's us" Momma says.

The pit of my stomach just turned, its sinking in. This is really gonna happen!!!

"Justin you okay?" Trace asks.

"Huh, uh yeah"

"Are you sure, you look like you gonna be sick" Jenny tells me.

"No I'm fine, just nervous"

"Come on Justin we have to go!!!" momma yells.

I snap back into reality and grab my backpack.

We head towards the terminal and stop to say our goodbyes. This is harder than I thought.

I see my dad smiling with tears in his eyes, "Well, I guess this is it huh buddy?"

"Yeah" I chuckle trying not to cry.

"Come're" he extends his arms and I go torwards him and hug him tight. "Remember no matter what, do your best and all that hard work will pay off"

"I will dad I promise"

"I Love you"

"Love you too dad"

I go to Trace, he's looking at the floor.

"So uh I guess this is it" I say.

"Yeah, I guess" he say still looking at the floor.

"You know you can come visit me anytime you want and you can call me if you need to talk"

"Yeah I know. I'm gonna miss you man" he hugs me tight.

"Me too man, me too" I pat his back.

We let go and I look at him and smile, "And I know I have to keep the end of the deal, so next time you see me I'll do it"

He laughs, "You better, Justine"

I grab his head and give him a nuggy, "Okay, okay stop"

We both laugh.

"See you bro" he hugs me one more time.

I go over to Jenny who already has tears streaming down her face and she hugs me tight.

"I'm gonna miss you so much"

"Me too"

I let go of her and cup my hands around her face to let her face me.

"Listen to me, no matter what happens I'll always be there for you, I promise"

She nods and smiles.

I wipe away the tears from her face and look at her straight in the eyes and smile, "You can call me anytime you want and I'll get on a plane and come back, anytime you need me"

"Justin don't make promises you can't keep"

"But I will keep it, I'll always make time for you no matter what"

"We need all passengers aboard now" A flight attendant said.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

She put her hand on my shoulder and I opened my eyes.

She smiled, "Bye Justin" she whispered.

I nod and smile.

"Come on Justin" momma says

We head into the terminal and look back one more time as they wave at us and we wave back. This is it, no turning back now.

"Ready?" momma asks.

"Yeah" I sighed and gave her a small smile.

She smiles and holds me at her side.

Orlando here we come!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Well there he goes, finally to live his dream, I mean I'm happy for him...wait no ecstatic he decided to take a chance on his dream, but part of wants him back here and let it be like it use to, I know it's selfish of me but I'm just gonna miss him ya know.

I look down at the bracelet he gave me the night before and sigh.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn my head. As funny as it sounds I was hoping it was Justin, but when I turned my head I frowned to see it was Mr. Harless.

"Are you okay sweetheart?" he asked concerned seeing my face.

I tried to hold back tears, but some escaped me.

He hugged me, "It's okay, we're all gonna miss him too"

I lift my head trying to calm down, "I'm sorry" I hiccuped.

He chuckles, "Don't be sorry, I know exactly how you feel" he smiles.

I feel a bit better and smile back.

"How about we get out of here and get some ice cream, my treat" he winks.

I nod and he turns to face everyone that came, "Anyone up for ice cream?"

Trace lifts his head from sulking and jumps up, "Ice cream?"

I shake my head and laugh, Trace is so easy to please.

"Yes Trace" Mr Harless nods.

"Alright lets go!!!" he says excitedly.

Justin's been gone for less than 5 minutes and Trace is acting like his best friend didn't even leave for god knows how long.

We all head to local ice cream palor. I order my usual, a bananna split my favorite.

I sit next to Trace who's eatting a fudge sundae and he's eating it like he hasn't eaten one in years.

I eat only the chocolate and strawberry because I hate pinapple. Justin always ate that part when ever we came here.

I sigh as memories come back to me and I feel like I'm gonna cry again.

"Are you okay?" Trace asks before I could even start to cry, thank god.

"Huh yeah why?"

"You're spacing out and you barely finished your sundae"

"Oh uh I don't want anymore, you want it?" I ask and slide it to him.

"Sure, man how can you not like pinapple its so good"

"I just don't...Trace how are you not upset about this?"

"Upset about what?" he says still eating.

"Justin Trace, how are you not upset that he left?"

"Oh, yeah I was but then I realized what was the point, he'd want us to be happy not upset that he left. I mean I'm sad that he's gone but I'm happy he's living his dream. I know he's wanted this for a long time and he'd want us to be happy and move on with our lives. It's not like he hasn't done this before and it's not like he's gone for good, he's just far away, nothing a phone call or letter can't fix"

Oh my god, Trace said something meaningful and I can't believe I'm saying this...but he's right. Justin would want us to be happy and go on with our lives.

I look at him suprised and he looks at me, "What?"

"Trace, your right"

He finishes the ice cream and puts the last spoon full in his mouth, "I know, plus Justin said he'd fly us out to visit him sometimes, so it won't be bad"

"You know, I guess it won't be so bad, being just you and me" I smile.

He laughs, "Who said I gonna hang around you, I got a reputation to hold"

"Ha, you have a reputation I didn't know that"

"I do and if people see me hanging out with you, it'll ruin it"

Please if it weren't for Justin he wouldnt even have a reputation. He was very popular a very well known around school and he would hang out with everybody. Everyone knew who he was, that's how cool he was.

"Whatever Trace"

He laughs, "Well I guess I can hang out with you, since Justin thinks your great to hang out with. I guess your good for me too"

I roll my eyes, "Oh wow thanks Trace"

"Hey what can I say I'm a very kind person"

"Your such an asshole" I spout.

And we both laugh.

Justins POV:

It's been almost a year since I've been home and man do I miss it, but we finally get a few days off before we leave for Germany. Thank god too because we've been doing performaces like crazy and now it's gonna get crazier if this trip turns out good.

Jenny flew in for the weekend to hang out since I had a break. Trace couldn't come because he had to go to his aunts wedding, but I'm happy Jenny came.

We sat outside by the pool to talk.

"So how's everything going?"

"It's good, it's good"

"Busy huh?"

"Yeah pretty much" I sigh

"Still lookin to get signed?"

"Actually no we just got signed a few days ago"

"Oh my god Justin that's awesome!!"

"Yeah, I wanted to tell you the news first"

"Wow, thats great how do you feel?"

"Feels pretty great, but there something else"

"Oh what is it?"
 
"We're heading to Germany to see we can start there first, Johnny says European markets are a good way to start"

"Wow, Justin...Germany thats big"

"I know were so excited"

There was a pause and I feel my heart sink, I know she's not liking it.

"Germany is so far" Her face is suddenly filled with suprise.

"I know, but Johnny says it's good to start somewhere new"

"But Germany Justin, that's really somewhere new" She doesn't look at me when she says it.

I knew it'd be like this when I told her, but what can I do we'd already made all the arrangements and stuff to leave. I can't bail out now, after working my ass off for the past year. Plus she and Trace told me to go for this and I don't even want to think about Trace when I tell him.

"Jenny look at me" she still had her head looking at the water. "Jenny, please look at me" I say camly.

She turns her head slowly but never meeting my gaze. I lift her chin with my hand and she bits her lip trying to hold back tears.

"Hey, hey listen to me, I know it's far but I need to do this, you of all people know I do. You were the one who told me to follow my dream and I am. Why aren't you happy for me?"

She smiles, "I am really happy, more than you know"
   
"Then what's wrong?"

"I-I don't know, I mean this is a whole other country we're talking about"

"I know, but I have to go, you understand right?

She nods. 

"You know just because I'm far away doesn't mean we're not close because we are no matter what happens" I lift her wrist showing the bracelet I got her. "I'm always with you" I smile.

Her eyes slowly look up at me, "It's not the same" she whispered.

"I know it's not, but you have to trust me on this, please" I say as I lift her chin to face me. "Please" I whisper again.

She smiles, "Okay, but you have to promise me something"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Don't hold back and show everyone what you can do"

I chuckle, "I can do that, thank you"

"No problem, superstar" she giggles.

I groan, "Don't do that"

"Do what?"

"Call me superstar"

"Why?" she laughed.

"I'm not one"

"Okay, fine I won't call you superstar"

"Thank you" I sigh.

"Yet" she mutters and I hear her.

"Your asking for it" I say as I get up and she starts running as I chase her.

She screams and I finally catch her for behind from the waist and lift her up and she kicks and screams.

"JUSTIN, PUT ME DOWN" she shouts.

I just laugh as she tries to wiggle from my hold as we near the pool.

"LET ME GO!!" she demands.

"Okay" I let her go and she went right in the pool. What? she said let her go and I did.

I stand there laughing as I watch her come back up.

"Arrrgggh, you are so gonna get it" she say as she wipes her hair out of her face.

"You said let go, so I did" I smirk as her face turns red,

"Your dead" she says as gets out and chases me.

I run and I look behind me and I lose her and see her on the ground.

I rush to her and I see she tripped over on one of the chairs.

"Jenny, are you okay? I'm sorry I didn't mean to--" She pushes me into the pool before I can finish. That little bitch tricked me!!

When I came up I see her on the ground laughing.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" I shout as I see her laughing. "I thought you were hurt" I say angry.

"It doesnt feel good being tricked does it?" she grins

She has me there, guess shes getting back at me from that time I tricked her and hit her with the pillow. Not bad I must say, she learned well.

"No it doesn't and good work, never thought you had it in you" I grin.

"I learned from the best" she giggles and I laugh.

"Help?" I ask extending my hand out.

She grabs my hand and I pull her in with me, hey she wants to play this game, I'll play after all I am the master.

"What the fuck Justin?"

I chuckle, "Hey if you wanted to play this game I could too. after all I am master" I grin.

She laughs, "Master of what?...dorks"

"You did not just call me a dork" I say as she giggles.

"Yeah I said it, what are you gonna do about it?" she taunts.

I get closer to her until she hits the wall, my face inches away from hers, my breathing hitches, butterflies are in my stomach as I inch closer.

"Geraaanimmmooo" I hear as I jump and a big splash hit us followed by 3 other guys jump in.

"What the fuck?" I shout angerly.

"What? we just wanted to cool off" Chris says and I hear Jenny giggle.

"Yeah, what's with you Mr. Cranky pants? mad we inturupted your date?" Joey questions as he looks at Jenny.

"We weren't on date" we both say at the same time.

They guys laughed and Jenny blushed.

"I'm gonna head inside" she says.

I look at her, "You don't have to go, theyre just kidding"

Ahe smiles, "I have to go anyway I have to call my mom, you know how she is if I don't"

"Alright, tell her I said hi"

She chuckles, "Okay I will"

"I'm sorry about them" I say as I look at them.

She laughed, "Nah it's fine, go hang out with them" she smiles.

I smile and nod and she goes inside as I come back to whoops and hollars and I flick them off as they laugh.

Do I really have to hang out with them? This is gonna be a looong trip.

So Justin just called my from Germany telling how crazy it's been. He and the other guys have been there for a couple months and their first single was released. He seems so happy over there, he was telling me how girls go crazy for them and camp out outside of their hotel just to see if they could get a glipse of one of them. Now that's just crazy, I'd be freaked out if i where them, but Justin says its cool and they appreciate all the support and they enjoy to see their fans and meet them.

"Seriously I have to send you some sort of protection or something, it sounds scary" I laugh.

He chuckles, "No, it's fine we have security and stuff, we haven't had that bad of a time with fans"

"Yet, your just starting out wait till up grade to stalkers, then you know you've made it" I giggle.

He laughs, "Huh is that how it is? you have stalkers and your big?"

"Pretty much, it shows the dedication of what a fan can do for an artist they love. Well okay it's creepy but as long as the don't do anything crazy, your good. But there are some crazy one in the bunch so watch out"

"Thanks for the heads up" he laughs

"Hey anything to help out"

"So..hows everything with you?" he asks.

I sigh "Well I have this asshole of a teacher, he's my English teacher Mr. Matthews. He's seriously out to get me" I tell him.

I hear Justin chuckle, "Oh come on, your probably overeacting"

"Maybe, but I know he is"

He laughs, "Man I miss being home"

"we miss you too, Trace is stating to get on my nerves" I laugh.

"Jonny said we might be able to come home soon for a break" he tells me.

A smile curls from my lips, "That's great Justin, I can't wait"

There were voices in the background, "Come on Justin we gotta go" it sounded like JC.

"Alright I'm coming, hold up" I hear him say.

"Fine but if your late I'm not covering your ass" JC tells him.

"Okay, whatever" Justin dismises him and I hear a door close. "Sorry about that" he apologizes yo me.

"Its okay, I gotta go anyway. It was nice talking to you, I miss it"

"Me too but remember I'm coming home soon, so I can catch up on everything going on"

"Okay, bye Justin"

"Bye Jenny"

I hear a click and I sigh.

I really do miss him, its been weird without him here. Everybody has been asking how he is and tell me how cool it is to be friends with a famous. I tell them he's not famous, he's just Justin to me but one day soon he will be.

---------------------------------------------------------------

So its been over a year since we got to Germany and it's been amazing. Everything here is so amazing and the people have responded to us pretty well, So well we've had to have security to escort us everywhere. Sometimes it gets crazy withfans trying to literaly rip your clothes and grab you anywhere they can and I mean everywhere, just ask Lance he'll tell you. We truly love our fans but it really does get out of hand. Like this one time we were headed out of our hotel to go to a venue and before we know it theres a car following us,
but we do appriciate it.

Now we finally have our record out and is sold almost a million here, its just insane. Just two years ago we were just a groupof guys trying to get noticed playong anywhere we could, clubs, weddings, birthday parties, you name it. Now we've sold our first record ,have some amazing fans and we are so blessed to have this happen.

Now our goal is to get all that over to the States and we're good, god I hope we do.

*2001*

Well all of our hard work paid off, now we have our third album and its all thanks to our fans. Not to metion pop music has exploded, with th Backstreet Boys, Chistina Aguilara, yeah the same little Chistina from MMC, wasn't so suprised there and there's also this girl named Britney Sprears, yeah that same britney  I knew since I was 12 has gotten a name for herself too.

As *NSYNC made a breakthough in music so did our fame, I mean I don't mean to brag but we became the biggest overnight sensation in years. Selling millions of copies world wide and thousands in the first week of realese. Not to metion the touring, press, photoshoots, interviews we have to do takes most of our time, which yeah is really hard for us to find time to do anything normal but we love what we do and work hard for it.

There is also a downfall on their fame which consist of the tabloids on your ass watching every single move you make, stories being made up about you that have you family and friends calling you asking if its true. Lie after lie being said or written about me or my friends and I just think the people who write this have nothing better to do with their own lives and don't get me started on the papparazzi or as I like to say "Stalkarazzi" following every move I make. I can't even get out of my own damn house without them there.

Not to metion my person life get thrown out in the public eye, people asking you who your dating who you slept with. It gets really annoying, especially when two celebrities get together all hell break loose.

And how do I know this?

Well since we started touring the first time me and Britney reconnected and well we started going out.

It's been nice being with her again, we haven't seen each other since MMC ended and when I found out we were touring together I was excited and nervous. I knew seeeing her again would ignite my feelings for her again and when we saw each other the first day it was kinda like we never lost touch, you know what I mean?

We both have busy shedules with touring and all that but we find time to see each other, but it's getting kind of difficult to spend at least a day together but when we do it's magical. I really love this girl, so much that I think she might be the future Mrs. Timberlake.

So anyway the guys and I released our thrid album in July and it was our biggest release yet and not to metion it's already gone 5x platnium, it's still so surreal. To think a couple of years ago we were just a group of guys trying to become the next big thing and now look at us. Winning Grammy's, being know around the world by fans who come out to see our shows every night,it's a mind blowing experince. I wake up everyday and I can't believe this my job, what I've always wanted to do since I was 3 and now it's a reality.

We're on tour now and its been long time since we had a day off,but luckily both Trace and Jenny are coming to meet us in Flordia this week ,so that should be fun. I can't tell how much I've missed them, of course I call them and they come out to see me, when they can. Jenny's in her last year of college at UCLA, she getting a degree in photagraphy and art and Trace went to a commuity college back home, but he never finished. He only lasted a semester, what does that tell you.

I can't wait to see them, it'll be just like old times.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So here we are at an airport waiting to be picked up to go meet Justin at the hotel. Trace is being his whiney self like always asking if I seen the guy that was suppose to show up for us, I swear he's worse than a child.

I can't wait to see Justin again it's been a while since I seen him, actually since Christmas, he suprised all of us by coming back home for a change. As always he spoiled us with gifts and presents. He gave Trace a playstation and they spent the whole day playing video games and fighting over who cheated, like they say boys will be boys.

As for me I got this purse that I merely metioned to him on the phone one day and was so suprised he remembered. I also got a charm for my bracelet, the one he gave me before leaving Florida years ago. I've never taken it off really, I love it and with each year it's prettier and prettier than before.

When Justin came home,he wasn't Justin Timberlake, just Justin, my best friend. The fame didn't matter when he was here everyone treated him like a normal person. It was nice for him to get away from the crazyness of Hollywood and just be normal, for a while anyway.

Okay well he didn't escape it completely, we couldn't go to the grocery store, which Justin had to wear a hoodie, sunglasses and a cap, just to be safe nobody recognized him. But on the magazine racks his face was plastered on almost every one, with some story about him cheating on Britney or vice versa. We found it funny how these magazines made up this bullshit stories, when we both knew the truth.

Speaking of Britney, I've had the chance to meet her a couple times, when I'd come to shows. She was so nice and sweet and really laid back. She and Justin are so cute together.

We finally find the guy and he takes us to the hotel were there is literaly a line of screaming girls outside waiting. I swear when we pulled up they started screaming their heads off, I don't know how the guys can handle this because my ears were ringing so bad when we got out of the car, I thought I was going to go deaf.

As we enter the lobby the door closes and the sound is muffled and we see Lonnie waiting at the front desk.

Lonnie was one of the sucurity gaurds that was mainly for Justin, see each guy gets one, so when they go off by themselves they are secured where ever they go. I love Lonnie he's great, we have fun with him and other than being Justin's body gaurd he's ours too. So when we come along and something goes wrong Lonnie's there for us, he's like a big brother. Not to metion funny as hell, he cracks me up everytime he tells a joke and he likes to play pranks too.

Like this one time I decided to play a prank on Justin and I told Lonnie. He said he'd help me, not only because I was his favorite (Shhh..don't tell Justin I said that) but because he wanted to get Justin back for pranking him all the time, apparently he was the king of pranks. So he helped me and we actually got him and suprisingly Justin took it in good spirits.

We head toward Lonnie as he smiles at us, "Hey, there's my girl"

I smile "Hey there big guy"  I hug him.  "How are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good" he nods. "and look at you all grown up now since the last time I seen you"

I giggle.

"You know I'm gonna have to watch out for them boys going after you"

I roll my eyes, "Lonnie"

He chuckles.

"What am I invisable"

we turn to Trace standing there his arms out in outrage.

"Oh sorry" he laughs "hey shorty, what's up man?"

They do the man handshake that guys do and Trace laughs.

"Nothing much man, just chillin and don't call me shorty"

Lonnie chuckles, "Sorry"

"So where's my boy anyway?" Trace asks.

"Upstairs, he's waiting for you. I'll take you up" Lonnie says as he nods to the consiarege and waves the bell hop to come with our stuff.

We go on the elevator and go up to the top floor, I gotta say being friends with a celebrity is pretty cool when you get to enjoy the perks.

Lonnie knocks on the door, "J, can I come in?"

"Yeah" he shouts.

We enter the room to see him on the phone pacing back and fourth.

To my suprise he looks diffrent, but I can't seem to point it out right away.

He doesnt turn to us and puts up a finger to wait a minute.

"Johnny you promised we'd have a day off...I don't care if it just came up, we've been working our asses off for months the least you could do is give us a fucking break...well you should've thought of that when they asked you" he sighs.

He turns toward us, oh my god he cut his hair thats what diffrent. 

I'd never in my life would've thought he'd cut his hair. That was his trade mark and now his golden curly locks are gone and replaced by a clean buzz cut. Funny how a hair cut can change your apperance, he looks older and it totally suits him.

He puts his two fingers on the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes, "Alright, alright, fine,but tomorrow we get a break...you better, okay I gotta go, bye" he shuts his phone and looks at us with a smile "Hey"

"Hi, was this a bad time?" I ask.

His face seemed more relaxed, "Nah, just had to deal with business, but I'm done" he smiles.

He gives me a hug," sorry I couldn't be there to pick you guys up"

I smile, "It's okay, we get you were busy and if you did you'd get mobbed by crazy girls, I mean I know your use to that shit but we're not" I laugh.

He chuckles,  "That's true"

"Hey I wouldn't mind that" Trace says.

I laugh, "Of course you wouldn't that would be the only time any girl would be around you" I tell him.

"Fuck you" he spouts. "J, see what I have to deal with" turning to him.

Justin laughs, "Yeah and she also has to deal with you, so it's even"

Trace rolls his eyes, "What ever dude" he laughs and gives him a hug.

"How was your guys' flight?" Justin asks sitting down on the couch.

"It was okay, even with Mr. Whine-all-time over here"

Trace snaps his head at me "I don't whine, it was just an uncomfortable flight" he say as a matter of factly.

I roll my eyes, "Right"

Justin laughs, "Man I miss you guys"

"We miss you too" I say with a smile. "So  how's everything with you?"

He chuckles, "The usual, non stop fun" he says sarcastically  rolling his eyes.

Me and Trace laugh, "Johnny working you hard huh?" I asks, even though I knew the answer.

He  laughs, "When is he not and its's not just him it's the label too. Ever since we released the album they've been up our asses about promoting and touring,it gets so frustrating sometimes" he sighs and  rubs his hand over his face.

He does look exsuated. His eyes have dark circles under them and his face seems paler.

"Not to metion Johnny just called  me to tell me we have to do this event tonight and I know we had plans, I'm sorry" he lets out a breath and leans back on the couch covering his face with his hands.

"Well thats okay, we're kinda tired anyway, we'll just hang out here"

Trace looks at me suprised, "We are? but I wanted--"

I nudge him in the ribs, "Ow" I look at him and he gets the hint, "Oh uh yeah we're tired, we can hang out later" he said the last part sadly.

"I really am sorry, I promise tomorrow we'll hang out" he gives us a small smile.

"That's fine, well I better go I'm kinda tired, have a good show J" I say and give him a hug.

I really am tired the time diffrences really get me, I don't know how Justin does it all the time.

"Alright, it's good seeing you Jenny and I'm sorry" he frowns.

I giggle, "Justin it's fine, we'll hang out tomorrow" I smile.

"Okay, bye" he says.

I head towards the door and turn my head, "Trace you comin?"

"Nah I'm gonna stay here for a bit" he tells me.

"Okay, night" I tell them.

I go to my room where my stuff is already there and change into my pajamas. Thinking about how Justin had change in the past months, he really grew up. He seems more secure and confident about himself, not the boy who looked at his feet and barely said a word.

I get into bed and as I hit the pillow I fall asleep, man I hate jetlag.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We just came back from the event and I'm so beat I could go to sleep for a month. I'm so glad we have a day off tomorrow.

"Man did you see that girl, she totally wanted you, she was hot too" JC says

"She was and did you see her friend, she was checkin you out since we got there" Joey tells him

"God you guys are perves" I tell them

"Oh come on J, you can't tell me the wasn't any fine girls there" JC says.

"Okay fine there were, happy now" I spout.

"Woah, calm down man, I was just asking what you thought" JC says innocently

I sigh, "Sorry man didn't mean to do that, it's just..been a long day"

Joey laughs, "I think it's been longer than that" he grins.

"Shut up Joe, it's not that, I've been stressed"

He puts a hand on my shoulder, "You know I know a way to help with that" he grins looking over at JC who chuckles. "So as yor friend I'd advise you to get laid as soon as possible"

I roll my eyes and enter my key card in and unlock the door, "Night guys"

I shut the door and hear them laughing as they go down the hallway.

I put on my pajamas and head to bed, but for some reason I can't get to sleep. All the things going through my mind right now. One in particular that I've been thinking about for a while.

You probably wanna know right?

well I've been thinking about taking a break from the group. Now before you all freak out, I'm not saying I wanna leave the group, I just think we need a little break from each other. I mean I love the guys with all my heart, I consider them my brothers, but I think we need some space. We've been together for about 6 years with non stop tours and recording albums, there was barely time for a moment alone. And I think its getting to the point where we butt heads a lot especially making this record. Each person wants to do something else and the other doesn't agree, so it was like pulling teeth to get a song done. Its not definetly what it use to be.

I laid in bed thinking for a while looking at the ceilling when I hear steps. I get curious and go out to see who it is.

I open the door to see Jenny walking around.

"Hey" I say.

She jumps and turns my direction, "Shit Justin you scared me"

I chuckle, "Sorry, what are you doing?"

"Trace is snoring up a storm and I can't sleep, I guess thats what I get for sleeping at 7 at night" she laughs. "What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep"

"Oh"

"Hey you wanna come in and hang out? we can order some ice cream"

"Ice cream? at 3 o' clock in the morning?"

"Yeah why not, I've been wanting some, what do ya say?"

"Sure, you know I never turn down ice cream" she laughs.

I laugh.

She comes in and sits on the couch and turns to me as I closed the door, "So how was the event?"

I sigh, "It was good I guess" I tell her as I sit next to her.

"Thats good"

I look at her and smile "So hows everything with you? school going good?"

"Schools great, have some courses that are hard but thats about it and I'm so glad I'm almost done"

"I bet you are, hows your family?"

"Good, mom and dad say hi by the way"

"Oh they did, well when you see them tell I said hi and hope to see them soon"

"Will do, they miss you like crazy especially my mom, she always asks me if I heard from you. I swear she asks about you, than me" she laughs.

I grin, "Well I was her favorite after all"

She scoffs and rolls her eyes, "Whatever Timberlake"

I laugh and she laughs too.

Man I've really missed this.

"I'm gonna call for the ice cream, bananna split?"

"Um..you know what can I get mint choclate chip"

"Sure" I say kinda suprised.

As long as I known her she's always ordered a bananna split sundae.

I order them and we wait for them to arrive.

"So when did you start hating bannana splits huh?" I say with an eyebrow raised.

She giggles, "I don't hate it, I just wanted to try a diffrent kind"
 
"Oh, ok, whatever bannana split hater" I say turning away frome her in mock hurt.

She laughs, "God your such a dork"

I laugh, "Hey I'm not the one who's wearing pajamas with cows on them"

"For your information these are comfy and warm so your opinion does not matter thank you very much"

"Oh well forgive me for my opinion" I say as I put my hand on my chest.

"Asshole" she spouts.

I laugh and she chuckles.

There was a knock at the door.

"Oh our ice cream, I'll get it" I say as I get up and open the door.

I open the door to see a smiling waiter with the room service cart wheeling it in.

"Here you are sir" he says as he takes them and puts them on the coffee table.

"Thank you" I say and give him a smile.

"It's no problem, enjoy your ice cream" he says as he backs up with the cart and I open the door for him before I give him a tip.

He takes the tip and nods curtly, "Thank you, sir"

"Your welcome" I give him a smile and he's on his way.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

This ice cream is sooooo good, I just had to eat it right now.

Justin sits next to me and chuckles, "Good?"

"Very" I say with a mouthful trying to swallow it. "So hows everything with you?" I ask as he digs his spoon in.

"Mmmm..good I guess" he tells me swallowing his ice cream. "Theres definetly no dull moments" he laughs.

I laugh "I bet and what about Brit, how things going with you two?" I say as I take another spoonful.

"Were really good, considering the cerconstanseces"

"Ah I see, well I kinda know what's going on" I nod my head in understanding.

"You do how?"

"Well for one your face is plastered on every magazine out there and two my friends keep talking about you, which is driving me insane by the way"

He frowns,"I'm sorry"

I laugh, "Justin why are you sorry? I was teasing you" I laugh "I know it's part of this whole thing, I'm okay with it. Especially the perks" I grin

He laughs shaking his head and taking another spoonful to his mouth.

"So what about you got a guy or should I say guys in your life?" I grin.

I smack his arm, "Shut up, theres no one, I've just been too busy with school and stuff" I say as I look at my ice cream poke it. "Haven't found the right guy yet"

He put an arm around me and frowns, "It's okay you'll find someone, hopefully soon so they can deal with you, so I don't have to" He chuckles.

I look at him stunned, "Shut up, I'm not as bad as Trace you have to admit"

I chuckle, "True, but still you need a man, you've been pretty bitchy lately"

"How do you know?"

"I just know"

I roll my eyes.

Damit I hate that he knows me well. It's kinda scary that even when he's far away he knows how I feel, not that I say that I"m bitchy, but I have been stressed with school and work I just don't have time for a boyfriend right now. I really admire Justin for being able to balance his career and his love life all at once, something I can barely do.

"Maybe I can set you up with some"

"Um no thank you"

"Oh come on, I know a few guys who are intrested"

"Like who?" I ask with an eyebrow raised.

"Chris, thinks your cute"

I laugh, "Really? yeah no. I like Chris but not he's my type"

"Okay, what about--"

I put my hand up to stop him, "Justin, stop" I giggle. "Thank you, but I think I can do this by myself"

"You sure, 'cause I know a couple guys that--"

I put my hand on his shoulder, "J it's okay, I'm way too busy right now and you know I'm very picky on the type of guys I date"

"Thats true" he laughs.

"Thank you anyway" I smile.

"No problem, anytime, but you seriously got to get a man or even maybe get laid because--"

I look at him and grab the pillow and hit him with it.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop" he begs putting his hands up to block the pillow.

"Good" I say as I put the pillow down.

"God woman when did you become so violent" he said rubbing his head, which barely had any hair left.

"I don't know, I guess LA changed me" I laugh.

"I'll say"

"I'm not the only one whose changed" I say as I point to his head swallowing some ice cream.

"Oh uh yeah.. I decided I needed a new look. I don't know if I like it yet"

I smile, "I like it. It suits you well"  

I can see him blush and duck his head down and poke at his ice cream, "Thanks" he says looking at me.

We just sit and talk for a while. I miss these kind of moments where it's just us hanging out laughing, just like old times.

Justin's POV: 

I wake up a little disoriented, I don't even remember when I fell asleep. I see the empty ice cream bowls on the table. I rub my eyes and then turn to see Jenny curled up next to me on the couch.

She must've fallen asleep here.

I nudge her softly to wake her up, "Jenny wake up" I whisper.

She mumbles and turns, "No mom I don't wanna go to school"

I chuckle, "Jenny it's me Justin wake up"

"Justin?" she says sleeplily opening her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

I laugh, "This is my room remember, we fell asleep on the on the couch"

"Oh" she yawns, "What time is it?"

I look at my watch "eight-thirty you better go before they think you've gone missing" I laugh.

She giggles "Yeah your right"

She gets up, "Last night was fun"

I smile, "Yeah it was"

"Just like old times"

"Yeah" I chuckle.

I open the door for her and smile, "I'll see you later then"

"Alright see ya" she says and heads out.

I close the door and can't help but smile.

That was probably the greatest nights I've had in a long time. No work, no Johnny barking orders, no fans and definetly no four other guys messing around with me. It was great.

I head back to my bed and slip under the covers.

"J wake up man"

I open my eyes to see Trace right next to my bed.

How the hell did he get in I thought I locked it.

"Fuck Trace, how did you get in?" I mumble as I rub my eyes.

"I got an extra key from the front desk,I've been knocking for the past half hour and you wouldn't answer. So I got worried and told the guy at the front desk to give me a key" he tells me as he shows me the key.

Trace seriously doesn't understand privacy and space, but what can I say he's my best friend.

"What time is it?" I yawn as I sit up and strech.

"Ten, lets go to the beach it's great day and theres a lot of hot girls in bikini's begging for someone to put lotion on them" he grins.

I laugh and shake my head, "You go ahead, I'll stay here" I say as I lay back down.

"Oh come on, I came here to hang out with you, not to see you sleep. Now come on, put your bathing suit on and lets go, everybody's down there already"

"Everybody?" I question.

"Yeah, all the guys, their girlfriends and Jenny, why?"

"No reason"

"Okay whatever, come on,get your shit and lets go"

Trace leaves me to change and my phone rings.

"Hello?" I answer.

"Hey baby it's me" Britney says.

Man it been so long since I seen her. 3 months and 4 days to be exact, 3 fuckin' months and 4 fuckin days of nothing but phone calls and e-mails back and fourth. Sometimes we can't even reach each other because of time diffrences so it's mostly e-mails saying how much we miss each other and how we wish we were there with one another.

I mean e-mails are great and phone calls are good too, but they don't do justice. I'd rather be there in person and talk , inract with her, being able to hold her, touch her, kiss her, but I know thats not gonna happen anytime soon so I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it.

"Hey babe, how are you?"

She sighs.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm just tired I had to do interviews and I just finished a show, I'm so drained right now"

"Mmm..I know what you mean , its been the same here"

"I wish I could be there with you, where are you anyway?"

"In florida, we actually got the day off today" I chuckle. "Trace and Jenny flew in yesterday so we're gonna hang today"

"Thats nice"

"Justin come the fuck on, lets go" I hear Trace shout.

"Hold on, I'm coming" I shout back.I turn my head back to the reciever, "Sorry"

"It's fine, was that Trace?"

I laugh, "Who else wold it be"

She giggles.

"I'd better go before he knocks the door down, I'll call you soon okay"

"Okay, say hi to everybody for me and have fun"

"Alright I will, Love you Brit"

"Love you too J"

I hang up the phone and get my sunglasses and towel and open the door to see Trace lying on the couch.

"Lets go" I say.

He sits up "Finally I thought I was gonna have to drag you out of there"

He stands up and I roll my eyes at him.

We head out to see Lonnie waiting in the hallway.

"Ready?" Lonnie asks.

I nod, "Yeah, lets go"

We head out to the back of the hotel to the car waiting for us.

And why in the back you ask?

Well I can give you over a hundred reasons that are waiting out in front, so yeah the back is way better right now.

We get in the car and I decide to take a nap, god I'm so tired. Istill don't know how I got my ass out've bed.

Oh right because of Trace. Remind me to kill him before he leaves.

"J, man wake up. Were here"

"Huh?" I mumble as I open my eyes to see that we stopped.

"Were here come on"

I get out of the car to see the guys messing around.

We head closer to where they are.

"Well look who finally decided to join us" JC says turning his head in my direction.

"I Had no choice" looking at Trace.

"Had to drag his ass out've bed" Trace tells them and they all laugh.

I put on my sunglasses and sit in one of the chairs.

I look out at the ocean, where Chris and Lance are playing in the water with some of the girls.

I see Jenny's out there laughing trying to run from Chris whose chasing her.

I almost didn't recognize her. There's definetly something diffrent about her, I haven't seen her since last December when I came home for Christmas, it's funny how a in a couple of months a person can change.

"Nice view huh?" Joey says sending me out of my thoughts.

"Uh yeah it is"

"She is a looker"

I turn my head, "What are you talking about?"

"Come on J, I saw you looking at her, don't be embarassed about it" he laughs.

I look at him like he was crazy, "I wasn't and anyway she's my best friend, she's practically like my sister"

"Did you think about that this morning?" he grins.

"Joe what are you talking about?"

"I saw what happend this morning, glad you took my advice after all" he grins.

Oh god he's not saying I had sex with her is he?

"Joey I seriously don't know what you talking about"

"J I saw her leaving your room this morning, you don't have to explain anything to I get it" he said grining.

I sighed and lent my head against the chair, closing my eyes.

He is insane to think that there was anything going on with me and her. Like I told him before she's like my sister, it'd just be to weird and anyway I'm with Britney and I'm happy.

"Joey please, it wasn't what you think. We had ice cream and talked that's it"

"Ice cream huh? is that what your calling it? well I'd love to have some ice cream right now" he smirked.

I shake my head.

"Oh come J you can't tell me you don't find her attractive at least a little bit"

"If you don't find who attractive?" A voice said.
 
Joey and i turn our heads to see Jenny wringing out her hair.

"Uh.." I say.

Okay so I choked, I don't know what's wrong with me.

"A girl that he met at the party yesterday" Joey say abrubtly seeing that I choked.

I can't tell you how much I love Joe for saving my ass.

"Yeah that's it"

"Oh was she cute?" she asks sitting next to me.

"Yeah I guess she was"

"I'm I gonna have to talk to Brit about you looking at othe girls" she giggles.

I chuckle, "No, no she came up to me and asked me to dance with her, so I did and the next thing I knew she pulls me to the wall and starts whispering some dirty ass shit in my ear" I laugh. "The girl was fuckin crazy, that I told her to meet me in the bathroom in like 10 minutes and I just left her" I laugh harder and she starts to laugh too.

I'm good.

"Wow, good work, but I bet that girl must've been pissed"

"Eh she was pretty drunk, she probably didn't notice and grabbed some random guy thinking it was me. That poor bastard" I chuckle and shake my head.

She laughs.

Thank you god she believed me.

Before I know it Chris comes by with the water gun and sprays her.

She shrieks putting up her hands to shield her face, "CHRIS STOP" she screams.

"What are you gonna do about it?" he says mockingly.

"Oh thats it" she gets up quick and Chris runs as she chases him.

"Bravo J, that was very convincing. You had me fooled there for a second there too"

"Shut up Joey" I mutter.

"Hey it's not my fault you like her" he chuckles.

"Whatever man" I say as I lean against my chair and close my eyes.

"I know you want some of that ice cream, don't deny it" he grins.

"Your a pervert and stop saying ice cream" I spout.

He just laughs, "Hey you called it that not me"

"Listen to me Fatone, for the last fuckin time, I didn't have sex with her" I said the last part a little louder than I meant too and everyone turned their head towards me.

I chuckle nervously and duck my head lower.

"Smooth J,real smooth" Joey tells me and I glare at him.

That night we all decide to go out, its been nice to hang out with everybody again.

I'm in my room with all of the other guys girlfriends getting ready for the night.

"So Jenny, Joey told me, you and Justin had some fun last night" Joey's girlfriend Kelly tells me.

"Yeah we hung out, it was fun" I tell her as I apply blush on my cheeks.

"So your not worried Britney finds out?"

I turn to her, "Finds out about what?" I ask her confused.

"You guys hanging out last night"

"No why, me and Justin do it all the time"

"Theres been more times?" she asks suprised.

I didn't get what she was going at, but then it hit me...

"Oh no, no, no it's not what you think" I giggle. "We're just friends, that's all"

"Not from what Joey told me"

"What did Joey tell you?" I ask with an eyebrow raised.

"Well that it looked like you were sneaking around"

"No, see I couldn't sleep and Justin saw me and since he couldn't sleep, he asked me if I wanted to hang out for a bit. Somehow we both fell asleep and Justin wakes me up and tells me I should go before someone thinks I'm missing"

"so you two just hung out as friends then"

"Yeah"

"Oh" she's quiet for a moment, "So you guys, never you know--hooked up or anything"

I turned away from the mirror and I look at her with widen eyes, "What? no"

"Hey I was just assuming you did, since you two are so close"

"We're close but it was never like that and anyway he's with Britney and he;s happy"

"Well form what I'm hearing, it hasn't been sunshine and lollipops for those two lately"

"What are you taking about?"

"Oh come on, you should know about them, they've been fighting lately"

I can't believe Justin didn't metion that. We're best friends, we share and talk about everything. I wonder why he didn't trust me to talk about something like this. Well I can uderstand it was because he didn't want talk about his lovelife with me.

"I didn't know"

"Oh, girl" she say as she gets closer to me. "Apparently Britney already's talkin about weddings and kids. Justin on the other hand just wants to focus on music and his career and told Britney that she was going to fast and needed to slow down. Then she thinks it's because he's seeing other girls on the road and cheating on her. Can you believe that?"

"No, I can't. I know Justin and he'd never cheat"

"You should tell that to her" she laughs.

There was a silence.

"Tell me, do you think he's hot?"

"Who Justin?"

"No JC" she says sarcastically. "Yes Justin"

"Well he's like my brother, so no"

She rolled her eyes, "Come on Jen, you can't deny the guy is easy on he eyes. Hell if I wasn't with Joey I'd go with him. I mean have you seen the guy lately, he looks amazing, those arms and that tight ass I just wanna gr--"

I put up a hand to stop her, "Okay, okay Kel, just stop it"

"What is it turing you on?" she grinned.

'No it's weirden me out. God your just like Joey, you guys are both twisted. You guys are perfect for each other" I laugh.

She giggles,"I've met my match"

We both laugh and finish getting ready.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Shit where are the girls, we said 10 and it's 10:40" JC says pacing back and fourth.

"Man you how girls are they spend hours to get ready. You gotta tell them 10 hours in advance to get ready" Justin laughs.

"That's true" Jc laughs.
 
The girls finally arrived down, thank god.

"Finally, what took y'all so long?"

"Well sorry that we actually wanted to look good to go out" Jenny say sarcastically.

I roll my eyes, "Well good thing you came down, C was getting anxious and wanted to leave without y'all"

All the girls turned to glare at him and I can't help but chuckle.

"Hey, I didn't say that. He's lying" JC exclaimed.

The girls rolled their eyes.

Wow, I have to say Jenny looks amazing tonight, she looks good in those jeans shes wearing...woah wait what am I thinking? I have a girlfriend and Jenny's like my sister I can't think shes hot. I'm definetly hangin around Joey too much.

"Alright everybody's here, lets go" Joey says.

We all get into diffrent SUV's I'm stuck with Trace, Chris and Lance.

"J, why you so quiet man?" Trace asks.

"Oh, nothin' just thinkin?"

"Britney?"

I nod, "And some other stuff"

"It'll all be okay, just talk to her"

"Yeah, I should, thanks man"

"Man, did you see Jenny?" Chris asked Lance.

"Yeah, she looked amazing.

"No she looked amazingly hot"

"I'm gonna ask her to dance with me"

"Not if I ask her first. I wonder if she has a boyfriend?"

I hear them disscussing over this and I can't help but laugh. They really think she'd go out with one of them, they are definitely not her type.

"Will you guys stop" I snapped.

The both stopped talking and looked at me, "Geez, calm down J. What's up with you?"

"Nothing, its just you two talking about her like that bothers me"

"What do you like her or something?" Chris asks.

"No, I don't like her, she's my best friend and I'm just looking out for her from perverts like you two"

Chris gasps, "Justin how can you think of us that way, I thought we were friends. Altough you have to admit shes lookin pretty damn fine tonight"

I glare at him.

"God I'm just messin with you man. We'll stop, promise . Right Lance" he says turning to him.

"Yeah"

"Good"

"we'll just ke sure he's not around to dance with her" Chris whispers.

"What was that?" I ask.

"Nothing" Chris says abrutly.

We finally get to the the club. Thank god 'cuz I need a drink.

Chapter 13

On the way to the club I thought about what Kelly told me about Britney snd Justin having problems. I still can't believe he didn't talk to me about it. I can't tell you how many time I've told him about my guy problems and he sat there and listened. He's given me great advice too, I'm sure I can help him with whatever's going on. Then again he might've told Trace about it, I'll just ask him.

Ever since we got her Justins been acting diffrently. He just doesn't seem like the same person I knew. He looks so drained and it worries me.

We go right up front and as soon as the bouncer looks at our group he lets us through.

I have to say I love these perks.

Right as we get in we find a table and get drinks.

"To the tour!" JC boast.

We all lift up our glasses.

"And to all the crazy groupies to come" Joey laughs.

The guys hollar.

"Joesph" Kelly hisses and smacks his chest.

"Ow--babe I'm kidding. You know your the only one for me" he hugs her.

"Your lucky your cute" she laughs.

After about a while everyones having a good time dancing and drinking some more than others.

From where I'm sitting I can see Justin at the bar. he's been there most of the night and I'm worried. I really should go talk to him.

"Care to dance?" I hear someone say.

I turn my head to see Lance and smile, "Of course"

He extends his arm and I take his hand and we go out to the dance floor.

We start dancing and I can't help but look over at Justin who was now looking at me. He seemed angry for some reason. I just don't know why.

--------------------------------------------------

I'm standing at the bar and look out on the dance floor to see Jenny and lance dancing. As I see them I can't help but feel jealous, why the hell am I feeling jealous and of Lance of all people..god I need another drink.

I ask the guy for another drink.

He passes the drink to me, "Thanks" I say and I chug it.

"You know you should slow down on those" he tells me.

What the hell? what gives the guy the right to tell me what I should do?

"Look I'm paying you to serve me drinks, so I think it's better if you kept quiet and keep them coming. Got it?"

He just nods.

"J, there you are. I've been looking all over for you. Why aren't you out dancing, there are some fine ass women here " Trace tells me.

"Nah I'm not in the mood" I tell him and take another gulp.

"J, you've been acting weird all night, what's wrong?"

Everything.

"I just have a lot going on. I need to just let loose, ya know?"

"Oh I gettcha, well what your drinking is not gonna help you. Man your a southern boy, you don't need a whimpy drink like this. Why don't have a little fun with my friend Jack Daniels" he grins.

I shrug.

"Bartender, two Jack Daniels" he says putting two fingers up. "and keep them coming"

I can see the guy shaking his head.

He has no right to act like that. He doesn't know me and definetly not what I'm going through, so he sould keep his opinions to himself.

"Two Jacks" he says putting down the glasses infront of us.

Trace takes his and raises it, "To life being a bitch"  

"You can say that again" I muttered.

We chug our glasses and it burns down my throat. I know it's not good for my voice,but it's just for tonight.

-----------------------------------------------------------

It's about 1 am and the guys have an early day, so they want to head back. Thing is Justin is no where in sight and I can't find Trace.

"I'm gonna go find Justin" I tell JC as they made their way out.

"Okay, we'll wait for you out in the car

I get Lonnie snd Rob to help me find him.

"Justin!" I shout as I move through the crowd. I can't see a thing, even with the stobe lights it's hard to see.

I finally get to a corner and see Trace and Justin dancing with some girls. I sigh of relief. "Rob, Lonnie I found them" I shout.

"There you guys are. Come on lets go. They are wait for us outside"

"We don't want to go, we're gonna stay here" Trace says.

He slurring and his eyes are glossy and Justin's the same.

"Yeah, what are you their mother?" the blonde girl laughs.

This is not good. Justin got to perform tonight and he can't do it hung over. All this must point to Trace.

"No but she acts like it" Justin says an all of them start to laugh.

I can feel my cheeks burning and I clech my fist at my sides, "Justin we have to go you got an early day, you can't be doing this" I shout.

He scoffs, "Work, work, work, it's all I do. I've been busting my ass for so long and I can't have a day off" he shouts. "I'm tired of people tell me what to do every hour of every damn day" he tells me and I could smell the alcohol on him, he definetly drank heavily.

"Justin stop, your drunk. lets just get you outta here" I say.

"No I'm not leaving, come on Trace" he says as he walks past me.

Trace stumbles behind him and they head toward the crowd.

I lower my head and sigh.

God he's even more stubbron when he's drunk.

I turn around to see Lonnie and Rob block him.

Thank god.

"J, come on lets get you back" Lonnie tells him.

"Come on Lon, let me get through"

"I'm afraid I can't do that Justin"

"Says who? Lonnie I thought you were my boy" he says laughing a bit.

"I am Justin" he sighs.
 
"Let me get the fuck through then" he shouts.

"No, you coming with me" before Justin knows it Lonnie lifts him over his shoulder.

"Put me down Lonnie!!" Justin shouts.

He doesn't say anything and starts walking.

Trace starts laughing.

"You too shorty" Rob tells him.

"But--" he sees Robs face and starts walking.

I go behind them and hear a chorus of "Justin call me" as we leave toward the back way.

"Thank you" I whisper to Lonnie.

"Anytime baby girl" he smiles.

"I can fire you for this" Justin slurrs as we keep walking.

Lonnie's face doesn't change at all, he knows what he's saying is all drunk talk, but I can't help but feel bad for him. He's been with Justin for so long, he treats Justin like his own son and this is how Justin treats him in return.

We head out to the cars and everybody's outside waiting.

"Holy shit, what happend?" JC asks.

"Justin just had a few too many drinks, but he's fine"

"Ceeee" Justin sings.

"Oh yeah he's drunk alright" JC chuckles.

"I'm not drunk" Justin protest. "Put me down Lonnie"

Lonnie, tired of his whining puts him down.

"See I'm--I'm fine" Justin say as he stumbles foward but luckily Lonnie was there to catch him.

"I'm gonna put him in the car" Lonnie says as he puts Justin's arm over his shoulder.

"What's up with him?" Joey asks.

"I don't know, he's been acting weird all night" Chris says.

"Yeah, I know. I'm kinda worried about him. He's not the same person he use to be. It's like I don't even know him anymore" I frown.

"Well your his best friend you should talk to him" JC smiles.

"Yeah I should, thanks JC" I smile.

"Anytime, we should get going before the media finds out"

I get into the car with Lonnie and Justin and realize Trace wasn't in here.

I hear gaging and I see it's Trace with his head in a trash can.

"We're gonna meet you at the hotel" Rob tells Lonnie. 'We don't wanna risk anything with pukey over here"

" 'Ight man good luck" Lonnie chuckles.

We head to the hotel and go through the back.

This is gonna be a looong day.

We head up to Justin's room and in the elevator all you could smell was Jack Daniels. My head was head was spinning by the time we got up to his room.

Justin kept mumbling things all the way up to his room, that I couldn't really understand. He must be having a rough time If he drank so much, I really need to talk to him, but he needs to be sober first.

"Hey Jenny?" he slurrs.

I sigh, "Yeah?"

"Did you know people say I'm the next prince of pop"

"Yeah Justin I know"

"The prince of fucking pop" he laughs. "Can you believe that?" he hicupps. "Like I'm gonna be the next Michael" he scoffs.

We finally get to his room and I open the door and let Lonnie in as I follow behind.

Justin still rambling on and on as Lonnie sets him on his bed.

"Get a good night sleep 'ight J"

"Lonnie you leavin me?" he frowns.

"Yeah, but I'll see you later on"

"I"m sorry I said I was gonna fire you, I didn't mean it" Justin saya with a bit hurt in his voice. "I know I've been acting like an asshole lately" he frowns again.

Lonnie chuckles and a small smile forms on his lips, "S'right man I know. Your my boy remember"

"Yeah, we're boys" he says with a lazy smie on his face.

Lonnie heads out to the door way.

"Thanks for helpin me out with him" I smile.

"It's no big deal, it's my job to look out for him" he looks back to where Justin is and sighs, "He's like a son to me. I'd do anything for the kid" he chuckles.

I smile, "I bet he'd do the same"

All of the sudden we hear gaging coming from the bathroom.

I sigh.

"If you want I can stay" Lonnie suggest.

"Nah I got it, you gotta work later you need sleep. I'll take care of him" I smile.

"You sure?"

I nod.

"Okay but if you need me, call my cell"

"Thanks, night Lon"

"Night baby girl"

I close the door and sigh as I hear Justin gaging again.

This gonna be a long night.

------------------------------------------------------------

I wake up with my head throbbing. God I feel like I just took on a truck head on.

I groan and put my hand on my forhead as the sun hurts my eyes.

What happend last night? how did I even get here?

I look to my side to see Jenny sleeping.

Oh shit, how did that happend? We couldn't of,no that would stupid of me to do that. Not that I'm saying that having sex with Jenny would be stupid, I'm just saying she's my best friend and that would fuck up everything we have and then there's Britney...fuck.

My head starts spinning as I think and then I feel Jenny move, I look at her with widen eyes.

She moves to the other side her eyes still closed.

I need to go clear my head.

I grab my clothes and take a quick shower.

God I stink of booze its making my head hurt.

I step in the shower and think about last night and remember that Trace suggested we drink, which I'll have to beat him for later. I'm feeling kinda mad I don't remember anything beyond that point. Would she think there was something more between us, did she enjoy it?, did I? god this is fuck up!!

I get out of the shower and change, I checked in the bed room to see if Jenny was still sleep and to my relief she was.

I head out the door, closing it quietly.

I walk down the hallway to the elevator and push the button down to the next 23 floor.

As the elevator goes down I lean back against the wall closing my eyes.

How the hell did I let this happen? I slept with my  best friend when I have a girlfriend, sure it's been kind of rough lately but I'd never would've thought to cheat on Brit. I love her with all my heart, but I will admit having Jenny here I felt tempted. I mean the way she looked last night, she looked so fine, that I feel mad at myself for not bring able to remember any of the sex.

This is some mess up shit.

I hear a ding and walk out to see a group of girls whispering and giggling as they see me. I don't even pay attetion to them, I'm to mad at myself right now and on a mission to kill Trace.

I head down to his room.

I stop at his door and bang on it.

"Trace, open up!" I shout.

Nothing.

I bang on it again, "TRACE OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR OR I WILL KICK IT DOWN!"

I hear a grumble, "Hold the fuck on"

I wait a bit and start banging on the door again.

Trace finally opens it, his hair is sticking up and his eyes are squinty, "Jesus, Justin do you know what fucking time it is" he grumbles.

"it's 8 o'clock" I say as I move past him.

"Yeah it's too early for you to be banging on my door" he puts his hand on his head.

"are we feeling hung over?" I say sacastically.

"Yes and can you stop yelling" he says as he lays on the couch.

"Oh sorry, I DIDN'T REALIZE I WAS YELLING" I say loudly as he groans.

Payback is a bitch.

"Shit J, what's your problem?"

"You wanna know what my problem is?, I;ll tell you what it is. I feel like shit and I don't remember half of the stuff that happend last night!"

"Well you did drink hard last night"

"Yeah, with you. When you knew well I have a show tonight and have to do interviews" I shout. "andIhaveJennyinmybedsleeping,andnoweverythingsfuckedup" I say in one breath.

"Woah, woah wait, back it up. Did you just say you slept with Jenny?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

I sighed and put my head in my hands, "Yes, maybe, I don't really know"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean I don't remember anything, not getting to my room, how she got there or the sex, nothing"

"At all? dude then you were plastered" he laughs.

"I'm glad you find this funny"

"Sorry, it's just it kinda is. I always thought you two would hook up, but whoda ever thought you wouldn't remember it"he laughs harder now.

This is not helping me.

"Thanks Trace your a big help" I say sarcastically rolling my eyes.

"Glad to be of service" he chuckles.

"Smartass" I mutter.

He sits down as I sit ther nervously running my hand over my face.

"J, calm down man your feakin me out"

"How do you think I feel Trace?, I cheated on my girlfriend with my best friend!!"

"Look man, you should probably go talk to Jenny about this and tell her that you drunk and it was a mistake and if I were you I wouldn't tell Brit about your little ran'de'vu with Jenny last night"

"You want me to lie to her?" I ask in disbelief.

"Not lie, just don't tell her"

Oh like thats any  better, I'll have it in my consious for the rest on my life.

"Your seriously no help at all"

"Hey if you wanna live you'll take my advice. It's you funeral man" he shrugs.

He has a point .

I have to talk to Jenny right now.

I just get up and go out the door.

"Yeah nice talking to you too" Trace shouts behind me.

I go to my room still thinking what I'm going to say to her. My hands are shaking as I put my key card in.

Get yourself together Justin you can do this. Just tell her that you didn't know what you were doing and that you don't wanna hurt their friendship and just be friends.

but what if she'll hate me?

I hear the door unlock and peek my head in slowly. It's quiet, could she be sleeping?

I go in and close the door behind me.

I look in the living room, she's not there, I look in the bedroom where she was and she's not there either, the bed sheets were still messed up where we slept. She must've left.

Shit, I need to find her!!

Then there was a knock on the door.

Maybe that's her.

I go over to open the door, my hand on the door knovb as I took a deep breath and then opened the door.

"Suprise!"

I freeze as I see Britney infront of me.

Oh this is just great, this is gods way of punishing me.

She hugs me as I stand there still frozen.

She realeses her hold on me, "Are you suprised?" she asks excitedly.

More than you know.

I snap out of my shock, "Y-yeah, when did you get here?"

"Couple minutes ago"

"But I thought you were in Germany?"

"I was but after you called me yesterday I really wanted to see you, an 1l hour flight and here I am" she smiles. "I missed you so much Stinky" she pouted and brought her lips to mine.

Oh god.

She pulls away from me and looks at me and frowns, "Baby you okay?"

Other than I feel like an asshole...

"Yeah, yeah" I nod my head. "I'm just suprised to see you that's all" I chuckle.

She smiles and my heart sinks..What did I do?

"Are you tired?" I ask her as we sit on the couch.

"No, I'm okay I took a nap on the plane. I should be asking you the same thing" she says poking my chest.

I chuckle, "No I'm good"

"Justin you don't look okay, you look so pale, are you sick?"

"No I'm fine, just a little hungover. We all went out last night and you know how it is when I'm with Trace" I laugh

She frowns, "Babe you really shouldn't drink so much, especially when you have to do a show the next day"

"I know I shouldn't and believe me I'm paying for it today"

More ways than one.

"Awww poor baby" she pouts. "well good thing I came, I can take care of you and make you feel better" she grins and kisses me.

At first it was soft and slow and then she starts kissing me hungrily. I know what she wants and I want it too, but in the back of my mind a voice is screaming "Cheater, she loves you and look how you treat her" Guilt sinks in and I feel sick to my stomach.

I pull away.

"Justin what's wrong?" she asks me with hurt in her eyes.

"I--I don't feel good, excuse me" I run to my bathroom and shut the door behind me.

I stand infront of the sink, looking at myself in the mirror.

How could I do this to her? I love this girl ever since I set my eyes on her and I do something to fuck it up. I never wanted to be that sort of man, not like him...I've told myself I've never do that to any girl. I've learned it from watching it first hand when my dad did it to my mom and swore to god if I ever treated a woman that way, I'd never forgive myself.

I need to tell her the truth.

Theres a knock at the door that makes me jump an whip my head towards it.

"Justin are you okay in there?" Briney asks concerned.

"Y-yeah, just give me a minute" I yell back.

I splash some water on my face and look at myself one more time.

I have to do this.

I go out to the living room and see Briney waiting.

I gulp.

 Come on Justin you can do this, the worst thing that could happen is that she hates you for the rest of your life. Oh god...

"Baby are you sure your okay? maybe you should lie down"

"No, no I'm fine..brit, I need to tell you something.."

"Sure what is it baby?" she says turning to me and looking at me with those eyes that I could never resist.

Focus Justin, focus!!

"Justin whats wrong?"

I snap out of my daze,"I just wanted to tell you I'm glad your here"

Damn it.

She smiles, "I"m glad I'm here too. I love you J"

"Love you too B"

She kisses me and snuggles up with me as I put an arm around her.

God I'm such a pussy.

"So where's Jenny?" she asks breaking the silence and my eyes widen.

"I dunno, in her room I guess, why?"

"No reason" she shrugs. "I just wanted to see her, it's been a while since we hung out"

"You'll see her later"

She doesn't say anything else and we just sit there in each others arms.

After a while Britney yawns and I tell her to go rest for a bit. This will be the perfect time to find Jenny.

As soon as I decide to head out theres a knock on my door.

I open it to see Trace, "So did you talk to her"

"Shhh..no not yet" I whisper.

"Oh is she still here?" he says pointing down.

"No, she left when I came back"

"Then why are we whispering?"

I sigh and lower my head as I close my eyes, "Britney's here"

"WHAT?" Trace shouts.

I cover his mouth with my hand, "Will you shut the fuck up" I uncover his mouth. "Come on" I say as I open the door to go out.

We head out to the hallway and close the door behind me.

"Oh my god, dude that's fucked up man" he says laughing. "Your so screwed"

"Thanks" I say bitterly.

"I'm sorry I just think it's kinda funny that you'd do something like this, I'd never seen you as the cheating type  and then almost getting caught"

"Will you shut the fuck up man, it's not funny"

"It's like she knew, I swear girls have that kinda radar sense for that shit" he laughs.

"You are so fuckin useless" I say shaking my head.

"Hey I already gave you advice! Not my fault your screwed. What are you gonna do anyway?"

"I'm gonna go find Jenny and talk to her"

As soon as I finished my sentence Trace stops and I look at him cofused.

I turn my head to the direction he was looking to and see Jenny walking toward us.

Oh shit.

"Hey guys" she calls out.

Trace nudges me, making me realize I'd frozen.

"Hey" I say a bit nervous.

She reaches us, "Where are you guys going?"

"Oh we're just going around" I say shuffling my feet. "What are you doing?"

"I was just going to see you"

I hear Trace chuckle and elbow him in the ribs.

He fliches and looks at me.

"You know what I'm gonna look at the dinning room to see if they have breakfast. I'll see you guys later" he pats my shoulder and starts to walk away laughing to himself and shaking his head.

I sigh and close my eyes.

"Justin are you okay?"

I open my eyes to see Jenny looking at me concerned.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine..Listen Jenny I need to talk to you about last night"

"Uh yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that too"
 
I'll go first...Jenny what happend last night--"

"J!!" A voice calls out and I turn to see it was Britney.

"Brit, what are you doing up? I thought you were tired"

--------------------------------------------------------------

I stand there suprised, I would've never expected Britney to be here if what Kelly said was true.

"Well I woke up and saw you weren't there, so I wanted to see where you were" she pouts.

Justin sighs, "Brit, Trace came by and wanted to go out for breakfast. I didn't want to wake you"

"Well I tguess we can go together now" she smiles and puts her arm around his waist.

He smiles back, "Yeah I guess we can"

I just stand there akwardly watching them.

"Oh hi Jenny" Britney tells me.

I smile, "Hey Brit, I didn't know you were coming"

"It was kinda a last minute trip. I thought I'd suprise him. You were suprised right baby?" she asks looking up at him.

"Sure was" he nods.

"Well I'm glad your here, it's been awhile since I seen you"

"Yeah I know we have to catch up"

Justin turns to me, "You wanna come to breakfast with us"

"Nah, you guys go. You need your time alone, we'll talk later" I tell him with a small smile.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure"

"Okay I'll see you later then"

"Yeah see ya" I turn to Britney, "It was nice seeing you again"

"You too Jenny"

I leave them and go to my room. could what Kelly said be true? I mean they looked as happy as always maybe even more.

------------------------------------------

I watch as Jenny leaves with a slight frown on my face. I really need to clear things up. It doesn't help that Britney's here either.

"J?"

I shake my head out of my daze and turn to her, "Hmmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah"

"You've been acting a little funny today, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I told you I was fine" I growl.

"Justin, are you mad at me or something? because it seems like you are"

"God Britney can you stop it! I said I was fine. Why do you always have to nag me all the time" I said putting up my arms in frustration.

"I don't"

"Yes you do, I can't even go out without telling you what I'm doing. It feels like I'm on short leash like a dog. The guys even notice and make fun of me for it"

"Do you really feel that way?"

I really do. I love her but sometimes she can be a bit much. I need my space, instead of her on me almost every day.

Is it bad that I don't feel bad about cheating on her as much as I did?

I mean Britney and Jenny are two diffrent people. Britney is a little more high matinace then Jenny. While Jenny is more relaxed and goes with the flow. That's the way Britney used to be before this whole thing started and I miss that, she's definetly changed throught out this superstardom thing.

I'm going to hell for this.

But I always loved her since the day we met. Hell everyone on MMC knew we'd end up together, before we actually did get together.

"Yes" I sighed as I lower my head not meeting her gaze.

She puts her hand on my cheek, making me lift my head to see her.  I stare at her deep brown eyes, one of the things I loved about her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was acting that way. It's just that, I miss you. I didn't mean to be pushy"

I sigh and lowered my head on top of her hair kissing it, "I know you do and I'm sorry I yelled at you"

"It's okay I know you must be having a rough morning"

"Yeah, but your here now" I smile. "Lets go get something to eat"

"Okay" she smiles. "I love you"

"Love you too" I give her a quick peck on the lips before we head down to the dinning room.

Trace is right, I'm screwed.

After breakfast with Brit we headed upstairs to talk and catch up.

By the time we know it it was time to head to soundcheck.

We all went out the crowd of fans and paparazzi trying to make our way toward the SUV's parked outside and head in.

15 minutes later we made it to the arena and set our stuff up.

"Well I guess I'll see you later, okay" I tell Brit and give her a kiss.

"Okay" she smiles.

I give her one last kiss on the forehead and head up the stairs. As soon as I got up there the guys whooped and whistled, making kissing noises. I swear besides Lance these guys all act immature for their age, especially Chris, no strach that, its mostly Chris.

-----------------------------------------------------

I watch Britney and Justin from the side of the stage and they seemed to be their lovey dovey selves they've always have.

I swear just watching them makes me sick at how much PDA they do. It's kinda like back in highschool, you'll have the perfect couple that you love to hate. I mean I'm happy for them but sometimes it's a bit much.

"You okay?" A voice says and I jump out of my thoughts, seing Trace standing beside me.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing you seemed to space out there a bit"

"I was just thinking" I sigh.

He looks over out to the side, "Ah, I see. She definetly suprised us all"

"I mean I was a bit suprised, but I should've expected it" I turn to him, "Do you know whats going on with Justin?"

"Why?"

"He's been acting weird. Do you know whats going on?"

Suddenly he  looks at the floor, "Not that I know of"

"Trace you do know, don't lie to me"

"I swear I don't know!!"

I narrow my eyes at him, "Well then I'm just gonna have to ask him directly then" I say as I look back and wath the guys practice bye bye bye.

----------------------------------------

After sound check we head backstage to chill before the show.

When I get to the dressing room I see Jenny and Britney sitting on the couch talking and laughing.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

Before I can walk closer, I get pull by the arm and taking out in the hallway.

"What the fuck?" I exclaim.

It was Trace who pulled me.

"Will you shut up" he whispers.

"Okay, but you did you have to do that?"

"Because we have a problem"

"What?"

"It's Jenny she asked me why were you acting weird"

"She did? she should know why, she was there too"

"That's not all when you guys were practicing she was looking at Brit, like she was mad"

"Fuck" I say as I put my hands on my face. "What am I gonna do?"

"I don't know man, but you have to something fast before a girl fight breaks out" He looks up and then looks at me, "No wait don't talk to her yet, let them fight"

"Trace, will you shut the fuck up, this is not funny"

"Oh come on, it'll cheer you up too"

"God your such a perve" I say shaking my head.

"Oh like you aren't. Just imagine, they start fighting, pulling hair, ripping clothes. swearing and getting all over each other"

My mind starts to drift.

He could be right that would be hot...no what the fuck, I need to do the right thing and talk to her.

"No, I have to do the right thing and talk to her"

"Okay, whatever you say, but I still think you should let them fight"

"Shut up!" I say as I shove him.

Well here goes nothin...

I head in the room before taking a deep breath.

Just relax.

I enter the room and they both see me.

Oh god..

"Hey babe" Britney says.

"Hey, what are you girls doing?"

"Nothing, just catching up"

Jenny smiles.

"That's cool" I say as I sit across from them.

"You know I was just telling Jenny we should all go out together and hang out one of these days" Britney says.

"Yeah we should" I agree.

If you guys are not at each others throats before then.

"Stinky you okay?" Britney asks.

"huh? Yeah, I'm fine"
----------------------------------------------------------

Britney turns to me, "He has been such a space cadet today" she giggles.

"More than usual? definetly" I laugh. "Hey J?"

"What?"

"See what I mean" I giggle. "But he did have a rough night last night"
---------------------------------------------

My eyes grew wide when she said that.

She laughs, "Justin are you sure your okay, you look like you just saw a ghost"

Something even worse..my funeral.

I suddenly get up and go toward the bathroom.

My breathing grows rapid.

How cold I do this? I've never been so mad at myself..I fucked up.

My anger built up and I punched the wall. It hurt but I was too angry to care.

There was suddenly a knock at the door, that made me jump.

"Justin, are you okay in there?" Briney says softly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be out in a sec" I call out.

I finally feel my hand throbbing.

"Fuck" I hissed.

"Okay, the guys are waiting for you to go out on stage"

"I said I'll be out in a minute Brit" I growl.

Okay I know that was a bit much, but with the pain I was feeling thats how it came out.

"Fine, whatever Justin"

"Brit--" I say before it turns silent.

I sigh and slap the wall with my good hand and let out a grunt.

How could let this happen? This has got to the shittest thing I could do to anyone.

I turn on  cold water and run thru my throbbing hand. Sighing deeply before looking at the mirror.

The person I see infront of me isn't me at all. My face is paler, with dark circles under my eyes, like I haven't slept in years. I look so  worn out, how did I let this happen to me?

At only 20 I've accomplished so much so early, it feels like I've been in this business for 20 years. Working my ass off since I was 11 and I still feel like I haven't enjoyed life the way I'm suppose to, graduating highschool, going to college, hanging with my friends and partying and just being normal.

I'm not saying I don't love what I do because this has been a dream of mine since I was 9, but sometimes I think about what if it would be like if I wasn't doing what I am now. Life seems easier if I wasn't doing this, but this is what I chose to do and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I shut the water off, my hand seemed better and I went out and joined everybody else in a circle for our group prayer. After we finished and everyone else left so we could do our hacky sack ritural, Lance raised an eyebrow at me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine why?"

"Your acting weird today"

"Jesus, why does everyone keep telling me that?!"

"Woah J, calm down. Are you sure your okay? You wanna talk about it" Joey asks.

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose, "I'm sorry, I'm fine, just a little hung over still I guess"

"Well suck it up you big baby, you should've have thought about that before you started drinking more" Chris told me. "Your still an amature, you'll learn to handle a night of drinking with the big boys soon, kid" he says as he puts an arm around me in a headlock.

I glared at him and he just chuckles.

"Can we just do this and get on with the show" I say.

They chuckle and nod.

I swear they still think I'm the same 15 year old kid I was when I started this group. It annoys me when they tease me about being younger than them.

We go around in a circle and kick the hacky sack around. It has to go around one time. We started this since our first show in Germany, which turned out to great and it became a ritual to do before every show. Now your probably think after all these years we'd have it down pat, oh no theres always someone (Lance) to mess it up at least once, but its fun to do it so we don't mind it.

We finish and than put our hands in and then shout "hoorah" before breaking the circle and head out to the stage where the millions of screaming people finally come into earshot and my adrineline kicks in as I hear our name being chanted over and over.

I love the feeling, just the adriniline the rush of it all. No time to think of anything else and focus on the music.

As soon as the door opens up and the sound of screams fills my ears I'm ready to go.

If only some things in life worked that way.
 

***************************
"Tampa, thank y'all for comin out tonight" I said running across the stage up toward the stairs as the roars from the crowd filled the room. "We love y'all" I said waving at the crowd. The band was still playing and at the top of the stairs we all stopped and sang a chorus of "Bye, Bye, Bye" before the pyrotechnics popped out with a boom and the crowd screamed louder. The curtain went down and we all rushed out toward backstage, the assistants handing us towels as we went down the stairs.

We all enter the room.

I sit down, wiping the sweat with the towel and sigh.

"Yo Joe give me some water, will ya"

He nods and takes out two bottles and throws one to me.

"Thanks man" I say smiling at him before taking a huge gulp.

"Damn was that a show or what?" Chris says bouncing in to the room with the usual hyperness he has.

For being the oldest, Chris has the energy of a 12 year old. You'd think from dancing and running around on stage for two hours he'd be dead tired, but it seems to give him more energy. Is there an off switch on him?

"Hell yeah, it was" Joey agrees.

"And there were some fine ladies out there too" JC grins.

Chris laughs, "Don't you have a girl already? She'd kick your ass if she heard you talking like that"

"Man, I broke up with Bobbie weeks ago. I'm a free man now, I can do what ever I please" he smiles.

"About damn time, I was seriously thinking you'd lost your manhood, you were so whipped" I say laughing.

"Fuck you man" he retorted.

"J's right you were" Joey says chuckling.  "but we're proud of you finally getting rid of the the ice princess" he laughs and we all laugh with him.

JC starts to laugh with us.

I like moments like these, we were like brothers and I wouldn't have it any other way.

"So J, how are you and Brit doing? heard she suprised you this morning" Lance says.

"Yeah she definetly did, but we're good" I smile.

"You know what they say, girls have a special sense for somethings. Maybe she sensed something going on" Joey smirks.

"Shut the fuck up Joey!" I spat as I threw a pillow at him.

The guys chuckled.

"Hey!" he exclaims ducking his head. "Don't be mad because you know I'm right"

I'm afriad to say it but he might be right.

Silence grew as we hear laughter in the hallway and Britney and Jenny walk into the door smiling and giggling.

I could help but feel sick to my stomach again.

"Hey guys!" Brit smiles.

A chorus of heys filled the room .

"You did awesome tonight as usual" she says.

"I hate to brag, but we totally did" JC grins.

We all laugh.

Soon enough everyone was talking and having diffrent conversations

Before I know it Britney was on my lap smiling at me, "Hi"

"Hey" I smile as I put my arm around her waist. "Where were you? I thought you would be back here waiting for me" I pout.

She giggles, "Sorry, I was going to head right over but, me and Jen got to talking and we walked around"

"Oh thats cool, I get it. You had fun then?"

"Totally, but now I just wanna be with you" she says softly and leans in to kiss me.

"Mmmm..me too" I say as we break and open my eyes to see Jenny looking at us.

I suddenly freeze and she goes back to her conversation with Joey.

I'm so screwed.

"J, are you okay?" Briney asks concerned.

I snap out of my daze and look at her and smile, "Yeah, just tired is all"

"Oh, you poor baby" she frowns. "You do look exhuasted, you wanna go back to the hotel and relax?"

"Yeah, lets go" I say as I grab her hand and lead her to the door. "We're heading back, see ya guys" I say behind me.

We said our goodbyes and headed out the door.

"Bow-chicka-wow-wow" Chris sings.

"I heard that" I call out.

I could hear the loud laughter in the hallway and just shake my head.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm friends with them.

After we hung out for a bit, the guys wanted to go out to a new club that just opened. They invited me, but I was still tired from the night before.

I headed out to the hotel.

I was still thinking about how justin had been acting all day. He seemed uncomfortable and uneasy. Especially when Brit was around, like this tension or something.

I hear a ding.

Should I go see him? I feel like I did something to make him upset. Was it because I yelled at him last night?

I press the door closed and pushed the 35 floor where he was staying at.

I just wanna make sure everything okay between us.

There was a ding and the doors open.

I head out to the end of the hallway to Justins door.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

I waited for a bit, but there was no answer. What am I doing here?, he was probably still with Brit.

I turn atound to go back, until I hear the door open, "Jenny?" he says confused.

I turned around, "Hey J"

"What are you doing here? I thought you'd be out with the guys"

"They invited me, but I'm still tired. I just came by to see if your okay and say goodnight. Sorry if I bothered you, good night" I say as I turn back.

"Jenny wait" he calls out.

I stop and turn around, "Yeah?"

"Come in"

"Oh no I don't want to bother you and Brit, I'll just go"

He laughs, "You won't be bothering anything, Brit just left. Come in" he said nodding toward the door.

I stand there for a second, he seemed better now, but I know something is bothering him.

"You comin?"

"Yeah" I say as I head back.

I get in as Justin closes the door behind me.

"So where'd Brit go?"

He sighed, "Back to Germany, her manager called freaking out" he laughs. "She really didn't tell anyone she was coming here. So she had to go back" he sighed leaning against the couch.

"Are you upset?" I asked concerned.

"Yeah, a little" he shrugged. "but I know she has priorities that she has to do weather she wants to or not. I mean I get that because I know exactly how that is" he explained.

Ever since I was a kid I wondered what it would be like living like a celebrity. Buy mansions, fancy cars, all the parties and having all the money you've always dreamt of having, it seems perfect, but now seeing Justin go through it all it's not as glamorus as it seems.

He didn't just become a celebrity over night, he had to work for it. Countless hours of time spent in the studio and not to metion touring and going over to a place where you don't know the language, it was hard for all of them.

But now it's different, he a part of a very succussful group, won tons of awards, sold millions of albums, won the hearts of millions of people and traveling to places prople dream about going to. Like I said before anything he does or says is being played out to the world.

"it's part of being in this business, as fuck up as it is, it has to be done" he sighed. "I'm sorry, this isn't really fun for you to hear me whine about this, I'll stop"

I gave him a smile, "J, it's fine. Whine all you want I'm all ears"

He chuckles, "Nah, I think I'm good. So did you have fun tonight?"

" I really thought the show was okay, I guess" I shrugged.

"Bitch" he says and i start to giggle.

"Duh of course I had fun, I love to see you guy perform. I even took some shots of you guys up there" I smile.

I never leave with out my camera, I take it everywhere I go. Never know when a picture perfect moment pops up.

"How does that not suprise me" he rolls his eyes. "There isn't a damn moment that you need to not take pictures" he laughs.

"Hey not all the time!! They say you always need to capture the moment, I wanna do that" I say so matter a factly.

He chuckles, "Yeah like the time I did that one jump shot, and I had to do it again so you could get your camera"

I laugh, "And you spent all afternoon trying to do it "

"I swear I was going to give up, I was so pissed. The damn ball just wouldn't go in" he laughs.

"Until you did it again after over 50 tries"

"Yeah and you didn't have film in your camera, so you couldn't take it"

"I swear I had some in there"

"Yeah, uh huh, suuure you did" he says sarcastically.

I laugh and then looked at him, "Why didn't you give up? I mean, you were frustrated, so why didn't you just leave?"

He looked down picking at a thread on the cushion, "I dunno, i guess I want to help you. I know how much taking pictures of things that intrest you mean to you, so I just stayed" he shrugged. "Plus I wanted to make sure you had a picture so I could send it to some scouts in the NBA as proof and show everyone I did it"

I grabbed the pillow beside me and whack it at him, "Shut up, Why are your so cockey?"

"Hey!" he say putting his hands up to shield himself. "I'm not cockey, I can't help that shot was awesome" he laughs.

I shake my head at him.

This was the Justin I know.

We were silent for a moment.

"So about last night--"

----------------------------------------

I turn to her.

Oh god here it goes.

My heart starts racing and I feel neaseous again.

"Look Jenny, I'm sorry last night I just didn't mean things to happen that way..I wasn't myself--"

"I'll say" she scoffs.

"Jenny I can totally understand if your upset with me and you feel uncomfortable"

She giggles.

She's giggling? was it because it was bad? oh god...

"You know I was a bit suprise by it but it's not like I haven't seen it before"

Wait what?! Did she just say she's seen "it" before?

My mouth goes dry.

"W-what? you've seen it before?"

"Of couse I have" she laughs. "Many times actually"

My eyes grew wide as my mind processed that she has actually seen me naked before. Okay maybe it has happen before with me knowing, but that was when we were younger. But now hearing that she seen me more than once, suprised me.

I would've never thought she had feelings for me other than just being a friend. I mean when we were younger I did have a crush on her, but that was when it was too late and I had to go to Orlando and changed everything. I wasn't even sure she felt the same way and then I saw Brit again and we started going out. She seemed happy for us, but now it made me think maybe she was jealous of Brit this whole time.

Could she be?

"Jenny I--"

"Justin it's okay, don't apologize. Just promise me you won't do it again" she laughs.

Okay now I'm confused.

"I know I'm your friend and all, but I am never clean after you again. Atleast warn me the next time you decide to throw up all over my shoes" she laughs harder.

So let me get this straight...She stayed here because I got sick? this whole time I thought I slept with her I only threw up on her shoes?!!

Well fuck me!! I got worked up for no fucking reason..I'm such a fucking dumbass!!

I cleched my fist as anger built up. Only to remind me that my left hand still hurt from when I punched the wall earlier. Which made me even madder.

"Fuck I hissed as I took it in my other hand and rubbed it.

"What's wrong, are you okay?" she asked concerned.

"It's--it's just my hand" I stuttered.

Before I know it she takes my hand and studies it.

"J, what happend?

I didn't look at her, "I hurt it on stage, but I'm okay, really" I assured her looking up at her.

"Oh no, it looks swollen. We should take you to the hospital make sure you didn't break anything" she tells me.

"NO!" I shouted nearly jumping out of my seat. She looked at me suprised. "I'm okay--really" I said softly.

"Justin I know your afriad of hospitals but you gotta go"

Okay so maybe I am afriad to go to a hospital, I mean who isn't. It's just a place with sick people and blood and people don't always make it. It's so depressing and terrible. But that's not the only reason why. If I go the media will find out and then turn into this whole big huge thing. Even worse my momma finding out and I just don't want that.

"I'm fine, I swear"

She sighs, "Justin Randall Timberlake, you are the most stubbron man I have ever gotten to know" she shakes her head. "Can I at least take a look at it" she asks innocently.

Shit I hate when she does that to me.

I sigh, "Fine"

She takes my hand and gently feels it.

"Does it hurt when I do that?"

"A little"

She does it again wit a little more pressure, "Now?"

"It stings, but thats it"

I watch her as she looks at my hand concentrating.

"Move your fingers for me,please"

I did as she said and it hurt, but not like I'm in pain.

"How did that feel?"

"I hurts but not a lot"

She smiles at me, "Okay thats good news and you didnt break anything, your lucky"

I smiled, "Guess I have to be more careful next time huh?"

"Yep, now lets get you some ice for that hand and some ice cream" she smiles.

"Oooh I get ice cream too"

"Well I meant ice cream for me, but I guess you can have some too" she shrugs.

I glare at her, "Bitch" I mummble.

She stares at me and then she breaks into a smile and giggles and I join her.

Never a dull moment when we're together.

I ordered up the ice and our ice cream. Before I know it there was a knock on the door, I just love how fast the service is here, id love to live here permanently if I could.

"Thank you" I say as he sets them down.

"Your wecome" he smiles.

I smile back and give him a tip.

"Enjoy" he says before leaving and I close the door and sigh.

I go back and sit with Justin as he scarfs down his ice cream.

"Good?" I giggle.

Mmm-hmmm" he nods with a mouthful of ice cream. He swallows it and chuckles.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing" he says shaking his head looking down at his bowl.

"No what?"

"It's just..you got a little drool on your chin there" he says pointing his spoon at me.

"I do not" I say sub concisously touching it.

"Well you should by the way you were loking at that guy a few minutes ago" he laughs.

I scoff and roll my eyes, "I was not drooling"

"Uh huh whatever you say, but you had the 'look' I totally saw it" he chuckles.

I look at him, "What look? I don't have a look"

"Yeah you do"

"I have no idea what your talking about"

He chuckles, "Yes you do. I have seen it many times, you smile, bat your eyes and have that stare" he stares out trying to show me what he was talking about. "and then you sigh and bite your lip"

Okay maybe I thought the guy was cute, but I definetly don't do what Justin is saying. He's totally over exaggerating.

I raise an eyebrow, "Are you like studying me or something?"

He ducks his head and chuckles and then looks at me, "No, it's just things I notice and those things are noticable" he laughs.

"Name one time I've done that?"

"Okay, I'd be glad too" he says sitting up. "Back when we were kids you use to like Ryan"

"What? I did not"

He was talking about Ryan from MMC. Now he's an actor, he is talented and I'm sure his career will go off soon. Last time I saw him, he was auditioning for a movie.

He laughs, "Oh yeah you did. I remember when you first saw him you couldnt even talk to him because you had that same reaction" he laughs

I roll my eyes, "Okay I might've liked him, but I wasn't drooling over him" I tell him.

"What ever you say baby girl, but I know what I saw" he chuckles.

I just glare at him.

We sat silently eating for a few minutes. I can't take the silence, I have to ask why he was acting diffrently, I'm really worried about him, I just wanna know whats onhis mind.

"Justin?"

"Hmmm?" he hums.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. The swellings going down. Why?" he laughs.

"No thats not what I meant...I mean I've noticed you've been acting diffrently. Is everything okay? Is it you and Brit?"

--------------------------------------------------------

I look at her and shake my head, "No, no we're fine. But why do you ask?"

"I don't know" she say looking down at the melted ice cream at the bottom of her bowl. "It's just you seem tense and out of it. I've never seen you drink that much in a while"

I knew this was coming.

I look at her, "It's just I have a lot of stuff on my mind right now thats all"

"Like what?"

"Just stuff with the group" I sigh.

"Is everything okay with you guys?"

I nod, "Oh yeah, definetly. We're great.." I trailed off.

"Justin?"

I realized I drifted off in thought. "Sorry I just--what would you say if I said I wanted to take a break from the group?" I turn to look at her and her eyebrows went up in suprise.

She sat there quietly for a moment.

"I knew I shouldn't have told you" I sighed. I'll understand if you hate me"

She finally blinked, "No, I don't hate you. I'm just suprised by it, how long have you thought about this?"

I sighed again, "A few months"
-----------------------------------------------

Wow this was definetly a thought. As much as I thought Justin loved being in a group, he probably needs his space.

I probably shouldn't be suprised by this but I am.

"Wow" I breathed. "have you told any of the guys about this?"

"No, your actually one of the first people I've told" he laughs a little and then looks at me serious. "I'm scared to tell them actually"

"Are you sure about this?"

"Well kinda, I keep going back and fourth with it. I mean with this last album it was diffrent, it's not like it use to be" he sighed.

"Different how?"

"Well when we were doing this album everyone wanted to go in a different direction, like if I wanted to change a beat , JC would say it was okay and leave it like it was. We could barely agree on anything and it just created tension and we would fight constantly, it just isn't the same anymore" he lowered his head and looked at his lap. "I just think we need some time apart for a while and do our own thing, you know?"

I got what he was saying. 6 years of being together non stop can make anybody crazy. He has every right to feel this way.

"But you guys are still going to be together right?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, definetly. It's just I think we need a break. Plus all the other guys have stuff they wanna do, so it's the right thing to do right now"

"So what are you going to do?"

"Well I've been writing stuff for awhile and I've been in touch with some producers, but I don't know"

I smiled, "Wait, you wanna do a record?" he nodded. "Oh my go J, that's great!!"

"So you like the idea of me doing a record?" he sounded suprised.

"Like it. I love it, Justin you should do it!"

"You think? I mean, you don't think it's a bad idea? I mean considering I'm knownn as a guy in a boyband?"

"Justin I know you'll do great" I smiled, "Hell I've been waiting for this to happen"

He sat up straighter looking at me, "You have?"

I giggled, "Yeah, I always thought you'd go off and do something without the group one day"

"Really?"

"Of course. J you've always outshined the rest of the group when it came to your solos. Not that the other guys aren't as talented, but you've always had the stronger voice"

"Your just saying that"

"No, I'm being serious and I bet you any money other people think that too. So if you wanna do this record go for it"

He sighs, "It's just..I don't know if the other guys will look at it the same as you do. What if they think I'm betraying them and giving up on the group"

"Justin, they're your friends, if your upfront with them, im sure they'll understand. It's not like your doing it without them knowing, just sit them down and tell them this is what you wanna do" I smiled.

He gave me a small smile still unsure.

"Look you said yourself that you guys want to go in diffrent directions" I turn my body to face him completely.

-----------------------------------------------

"Yeah I said that and--"

"Well I bet the other guys probably wanna do other things too" I turned my body more towards her giving her my full attetion. "Like JC probably wants to write and produce some more and I bet Joey wants to more movies" I nod. "And Chris wants to work on his clothing line, Lance wants to do that astronuat training he's been talking about" I laugh and she laughs with me probably thinking the same thing I was.

I mean imagining a shy and quiet guy like Lance having a big dream like becoming an astronuat is funny because he wasn't usually the guy to take big risks, he'd rather play it safe and when he told us he got accepted to this Astronuat program we all thought he was kidding and laughed.

Now he seems to be serious about it and has been takng classes during breaks.

"And you..well you wanna do a record. Just think about it for a bit and if you still wanna go for it than do it" she smiles and gives me a light aqueeze on the hand.

I look at our hands and then look back at her and smile, "Thanks that means a lot"

"Hey no problem, you know I'm always there if you need me"

I smiled.

I sighed as I ducked my head down, slumping my shoulders

Well that wasn't so bad. I'm glad I told her first, it made it good to know at least someone was excited for me. Now I just have to face the others, I know it won't be easy, but at least they'll know.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn my head to see Jenny giving me a small smile, "It'll will all be okay"

I give her a smile.

I hope shes right.

"Even if it doesn't work out for you and you fail miserablly, I'll still be your friend"
 
"Thanks for the vote of confidence" I snorted.                    

She laughs,"That's what I'm here for. But really, all kidding aside you'll do great, I just know it" she smiles.

"I hope your right"

"I'm always right, you should know that by know" she grins.

I roll my eyes at her.

She laughs and I join her.

Hopefully it'll go smoothly just like this, but I highly doubt it. I hope by he end of all this I still have my 4 best friends behind me.

Wish me luck...

Well the time I hate the most is here, going back home. Back to our boring uneventful lives, well for me it will be filled with books and and exams, I hate this!

I really am going to miss hanging out with the guys, they're like my family. I like to say when Justin joined this group he wasn't the only one who gained 4 new people in his life, but so did I. 4 people I call my big brothers and now as were standing in the lobby saying our goodbyes, I go down the line of my big brothers and hug them trying not to cry.

Joey was the first one. He extended his arms out and took me in one of his trade mark big bear hugs, "Arrrggh" he groaned as he hugged me tight rocking us both. "I'm not letting go, you can't leave"

I giggled, "I don't want to, but I got to. I still have school"

He releases me and looks strait at me, "Fuck school! You can become our offical photographer and come on the road with us"

I laughed.

As much as that offer sounds great, I can't. My parents would kill me if I suddenly decided to drop out of school with only a few months before graduating.

"I'd love to Joe, but my parents would disown me if I dropped out, you know how it is"

He chuckles, "Your right" he lowers his head a bit. "it was worth a shot" he hugged me again. "Be good and take care of yourself okay kid"

I nod, looking down, trying not to cry.

"Come're" he hugged me again. "You'll do just fine, I know you will"

"Thanks Joey" I sniffled.

"Jeeze Fatone, don't suffocate the poor girl"

He glared at him.

I patted his arm and smiled to let him know it was okay.

I hugged Chris.

Now you smell better" he sighed.

I giggled. "

Hey!" I hear Joey exclaim.

"I'm just saying, she'd probably rather smell a rain forest than a salami sandwhich" he explains. "Right?" he asks turning to me.

"Well I--"

I get cut off my Joey, "You know what I'm getting tired of your little fat jokes" he spits

I gulped.

This was exactly what Justin was talking about, the tension between them. I thought I'd never see them like this.

They get closer to each other. "I'm getting tired of you period" Chris said pointing a finger at his chest.

"Oh yeah what are you gonna do about it, huh shorty?"

"Oh thats it..." Chris says as he pulled up his sleeves.

"Bring it on" Joey taunts.

Their inches away from each other as I stand there with widen eyes. Before I know it they start laughing.

I stand there confused.

What the fuck just happend here? First the want to beat each other and now they're laughing like they just heard the funniest joke ever.

Both guys stop laughing and look at me. "You okay?" Chris asks.

I shake my head,"Yeah I'm fine" "You sure? You look a little pale" "I'm fine, I promise" I assure them.

I go to Lance who gives me a smile and a hug, "Have a safe flight and I hope to see you again soon"

 "Oh definetly and anytime your in town call and we can do something" I smile.

"Will do, take care"

"You too Lance" I hug him again.

"Alright, alright, that's enough. It's my turn" JC says as he extends his arms and I go to him. I hug him. "It's always good to see you" he smiles.

"You too" I say as I pull away from the hug.

"You'll come see us again right?"

"You know it and you behave okay" I say pointing a finger at him.

He chuckles and gives me a boyish smile,"When have I not"

"Mmmhmm" I hum, giving him a 'yeah right' face. "It's hard to believe now. The whole week I saw you with all those girls throwing themselves at you and you seemed like you didn't mind it at all"

He laughs, "Does that make you jealous?" he say with an eyebrow raised.

I smack him on the arm, "No, I'm just saying I don't think Bobbie would appreciate you looking at other girls"

He chuckles, "Well she can think all she wants 'cause I'm done with her"

I look at him suprised, "Wow that's some news, when did it happen?"

"A few days ago"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. It was for the best, I guess" he sighed looking down. His head raises up, "But life goes on. I'm ready to be single and have fun for a while"

"Good for you" I smile. "It was about time"

He laughs, "Thats what I keep hearing"

I give him a smypathtic smile, "She wasn't the friendliest person, I'm sorry"

"I know. I guess it took me a while to see that"

"You were in love, I totally get it, but its good that you let go. I'm proud of you Chasez"

He smiles, "Well now that I'm single and your single maybe we could..." he trails off.

"Not a chance Chasez, sorry"

His shoulders slump and his head lowers.

"It's not that I don't like you because I do. But it's more like a brother"

"That's just what every guy wants to hear" he grumbles. "Look JC, if I didn't know you as long as I do. I'd garentee you I'd go out with you if you'd ask me too" I giggle.

"Really?"

I smile, "Definetly, I always thought you were the better looking one in the group"

He chuckles, his cheeks turning pink.

"just don't tell the other guys I said that" I whisper, keeping it between us.

He turns even redder looking up, "Not even a little bit of a chance?" he asked shrugging.

I shake my head giggling, "Bye, Jace" I say kissing his cheek. He smiles. "Don't say I never gave you anything" I winked at him.

He chuckles, "Damn, you are such a tease"

I just giggle and leave him.

I head toward Justin who was talking to Trace. When I reach them, they were laughing.

"What's so funny?" I ask them.

They look at me still smiling and almost busting out laughing again.

"Nothing, just guy stuff" Justin says.

I hate when they do that to me. Like I don't know what they talk about. It's either about a girl, her assets or their conquest from the night before.

"Whatever" I roll my eyes.

It got quiet for a moment.

"Well I'm gonna, go and make sure our stuff is packed up" he says pinting his thumb toward the door

"Alright man, I'll see you soon" Justin pulls him in embracing trace and patting his back.

"Yeah, see ya man" he smiles. He turns to me, "I'll call out when we're ready to go"

I nod, "Okay" He heads towards the door and we watch him go.

------------------------------------------------------

I turn back to Jenny, who looks deep in thought.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah" she shakes her head. "I'm fine. I just don't wanna go home" she chuckled.

I laughed, "Awww are you gonna miss me that much?"

"No, I just know once I get back it's back to my boring life" she sighs.

"Well, good to know you care" I say sarcastically roling my eyes.

 She laughs, "I am going to miss you, thats obvious" she rolls her eyes. "I was having so much fun, I don't wanna go"

I laugh, "Your lifes not that boring"

"Says the the popstar" she mutters.

I look at her.

"Hey, you don't have books and exams to do waiting for you when you get back" she grumbles.

I laugh, "Stop being a baby, your almost done"

he sighs, "I know but I--"

"Will you stop" I laugh. "You are going to study and do all those exams. I wanna see you get your degree, you got me?" I look at her.

"Wait your coming?" she says suprised.

I laugh, "Of course, I am. did you think I wasn't coming?"

"No, it's just that its going to be long and boring and probably hot. I know you probably rather be doing something important than sitting in a crowd for three hours" she tells me. She snorts "Hell I don't even wanna be there"

"I'm not going to miss the biggest day of your life.I coming weather you want me to or not"

"It's not that I don't want you to be there, but what if someone finds out your there and--"

I put a hand up to stop her, "Jenny nothing is going to stop me from watching my best friend from graduating college after all that hard work you put in" he laughs, "I'm kinda jealous you get to go through it, that should be me going up there and getting that diploma" -

---------------------------------------

I look at him. He might've been joking, but I know he feels like he misses being a regular guy. Doing things like going to college and hanging out with friends, instead of being on the road and working. But I know he wouldn't want it any other way. This is what he wanted to do, to entertain people and he's accomplished way more than he ever thought he would. I'm so proud him, especially what he's decided to do now.

"You and I both know that's not what you want. You are an entertainer and that's what your going to keep doing no matter what happens" I put a hand on his shoulder. "promise me you will" I say as I look at him straight in the eyes.

He looks at me with some anxiety in his eyes, "I will" he says in a whisper. I

know he's scared and nervous and I admit I am too. I know if he tries, he'll succeed.

"Thank you I say as I hug him. "You'll be okay, just rememer what we talked about" I release myself from the hug and smile.

"Thanks" he give me a small smile.

"Anytime"

"Jenny, we gotta go" I hear Trace call out.

 "Okay, I'm coming" I call back. I look back at Justin and sigh, "Well I guess this is it"

"Yep" he nods.

"Back to reality" I sigh.

He chuckles, "Come on you big baby your gonna miss you flight" he pushes me towards the door.

Looking back at him, I pouted and he laughs shaking his head, "Bye Jenny"

  I giggle, "Bye J" I say and then head towards the door. I look back and weave good bye once more before heading out the door.

I'm really going to miss them.

I watch as the car turns the curb and drives off to the left disappearing in traffic.I sighed.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and jumped a bit.

"It's going to be okay man" JC says.

How the fuck does he know? The only one I told so far was Jenny, could she have told him?

"What are you talking about?" I say as I look at him confused.

"Oh come on J we knew it was going to happen sometime, you don't have to hide it anymore"

"I was going to tell you guys.."

"Please, you didn't have to tell us anything"

"Your not mad?" I asked suprised.

"Mad, why would I be mad? I 'm happy for you and Jenny"

What? did he just say he thinks me and Jenny are together?

"Uh..what makes you say that?

Well Joey said he saw her sneaking out of your room the other day, we were assuming, you know, things were going on with you two"

I sighed, "God, how many times do I have to say that we are just friends before anyone believes it"

"So why did Brit leave?"

"Because she had to go back to Germany, why? what'd you think happend?" I look at him suspiciously.

"I don't know" he says as he rubs the back of his neck clearly embarrassed. "That she found out about the other night" 

"What? Oh my god Jace, your as bad as Joey with this kinda shit" I say and walk away from him.

"Wait a second..." he says and I stop turning to him.

"What?"

"You just said you were going to tell us something, if it wasn't what I thought it was than what was the real reason?"

Shit.

"Uh..um well that I..kinda hurt my hand last night"

"J, why didn't you tell us? Are you okay? We should get you checked out"

"No, no I'm fine now. I put some ice on it and I'm good"

"Are you sure?" he asks again with the look of a concerned parent.

JC has always been the dad of the group, even before all of this on MMC he always looked out for me and the other younger cast members. But sometimes it can be a pain in the ass because he thinks he just control everything I do because I'm younger than the rest of them. I'm an adult now I can take care of myself god damn it!

"Jace, I said I was fine okay" I spat.

His head went back a bit in surprise, "Woah dude chill out" he says putting his hands infront of him. "what the hell is going on with you lately?"

I sigh, "S-sorry I guess I'm just stressed"

He puts his hand on my shoulder and brings into an embrace, "It's alright, I get it. Guess were all a little stressed right now"

Times like this make me appreciate having other people in the same position as me.

Which made me wonder...If I decide to go on my own, it will just be me, no one else. I won't have 4 other people to fall back on if I make a mistake or say the wrong thing. All the attention will be on me so I have to battle things in this industry and fend for myself...Am I really ready for that?

"J, you know if you need to talk we're all here for you" we then hear groaning.

"I saw it first..."

"But it was my dollar, so it's mine..."

"Like hell it's not..."

We turn to see Chris and Joey on the floor wrestling for a candy bar.

"Okay make that me and Lance. Those two probably won't help you much" JC laughs.

I laugh.

"Look over there, it's Shaq" Chris yells.

Joey whips his head, "Where?"

Chris makes a run for it and starts laughing like a maniac.

"You little hobbit..." Joey growls and get up charging toward him.

If there's one thing you need to know about Joey is you don't ever and I mean ever mess with his food. If you do, well I wish you the best.

Chris stops and takes a bite from the bar, "Mmmm...'his is 'o goo'" talking while chewing.

Joey growls and Chris shrieks when he come close to him, making him run faster.

Me and JC shake our heads and start to laugh.

As much as annoying this was to handle on a daily basis these guys were my brothers and I am so glad of all the times we had together.

"Alright guys cut it out" Johnny announces.

The two guys freeze and look at him, "But he started it" they say at the same time pointing at one another.

"I don't care who started it, just stop and head out to the car so we can go to sound check"

They both nodded and lowered their heads heading out to the car, nudging each other.

"Come on kid lets go" he says rubbing my head.

"Hey, watch it. You know I hate when you do that"

"What rub your head?"

 "No when you call me a kid. I'm not a kid anymore. For christ sakes I'm almost fucking 20"

He puts his hands on both my shoulders, "Alright your right, your right, I'm sorry. You aren't a kid anymore and I understand that"

"Thanks JC" I smile at him.

"No problem man, I gotta say I'm proud of you. You've really come a long way since we started this whole crazy journey"

"Jace don't start with the sentimental shit" I laugh.

He chuckles.

"Thanks, I'm glad your here with me on crazy journey, couldn't do this without you, big brother"

I seriously couldn't be able to do this without him. The time i knew he was going to be in this group I knew I had to do it too. We've always had great chemistry when it came to writing and singing and having him here felt like I had something close to family, not to say the other guys aren't my brothers it's just with JC we were already like brothers before this, it's great that we go to do this together.

He looks at me, I can see his eyes are teary.

He smiles and chukles, "Come on kid lets go"

We both laugh and head out to the cars waiting for us.

Yep just another day in the world of *Nsync.

I watch as the car turns the curb and drives off to the left disappearing in traffic.I sighed.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and jumped a bit.

"It's going to be okay man" JC says.

How the fuck does he know? The only one I told so far was Jenny, could she have told him?

"What are you talking about?" I say as I look at him confused.

"Oh come on J we knew it was going to happen sometime, you don't have to hide it anymore"

"I was going to tell you guys.."

"Please, you didn't have to tell us anything"

"Your not mad?" I asked suprised.

"Mad, why would I be mad? I 'm happy for you and Jenny"

What? did he just say he thinks me and Jenny are together?

"Uh..what makes you say that?

Well Joey said he saw her sneaking out of your room the other day, we were assuming, you know, things were going on with you two"

I sighed, "God, how many times do I have to say that we are just friends before anyone believes it"

"So why did Brit leave?"

"Because she had to go back to Germany, why? what'd you think happend?" I look at him suspiciously.

"I don't know" he says as he rubs the back of his neck clearly embarrassed. "That she found out about the other night" 

"What? Oh my god Jace, your as bad as Joey with this kinda shit" I say and walk away from him.

"Wait a second..." he says and I stop turning to him.

"What?"

"You just said you were going to tell us something, if it wasn't what I thought it was than what was the real reason?"

Shit.

"Uh..um well that I..kinda hurt my hand last night"

"J, why didn't you tell us? Are you okay? We should get you checked out"

"No, no I'm fine now. I put some ice on it and I'm good"

"Are you sure?" he asks again with the look of a concerned parent.

JC has always been the dad of the group, even before all of this on MMC he always looked out for me and the other younger cast members. But sometimes it can be a pain in the ass because he thinks he just control everything I do because I'm younger than the rest of them. I'm an adult now I can take care of myself god damn it!

"Jace, I said I was fine okay" I spat.

His head went back a bit in surprise, "Woah dude chill out" he says putting his hands infront of him. "what the hell is going on with you lately?"

I sigh, "S-sorry I guess I'm just stressed"

He puts his hand on my shoulder and brings into an embrace, "It's alright, I get it. Guess were all a little stressed right now"

Times like this make me appreciate having other people in the same position as me.

Which made me wonder...If I decide to go on my own, it will just be me, no one else. I won't have 4 other people to fall back on if I make a mistake or say the wrong thing. All the attention will be on me so I have to battle things in this industry and fend for myself...Am I really ready for that?

"J, you know if you need to talk we're all here for you" we then hear groaning.

"I saw it first..."

"But it was my dollar, so it's mine..."

"Like hell it's not..."

We turn to see Chris and Joey on the floor wrestling for a candy bar.

"Okay make that me and Lance. Those two probably won't help you much" JC laughs.

I laugh.

"Look over there, it's Shaq" Chris yells.

Joey whips his head, "Where?"

Chris makes a run for it and starts laughing like a maniac.

"You little hobbit..." Joey growls and get up charging toward him.

If there;s one thing you need to know about Joey is you don't EVER and I mean Ever mess with his food. If you do, well I wish you the best.

Chris stops and takes a bite from the bar, "Mmmm...'his is 'o goo'" talking while chewing.

Joey growls and Chris shrieks when he come close to him, making him run faster.

Me and JC shake our heads and start to laugh.

As much as annoying this was to handle on a daily basis these guys were my brothers and I am so glad of all the times we had together.

"Alright guys cut it out" Johnny announces.

The two guys freeze and look at him, "But he started it" they say at the same time pointing at one another.

"I don't care who started it, just stop and head out to the car so we can go to sound check"

They both nodded and lowered their heads heading out to the car, nudging each other.

"Come on kid lets go" he says rubbing my head.

"Hey, watch it. You know I hate when you do that"

"What rub your head?"

"No when you call me a kid. I'm not a kid anymore. For christ sakes I'm almost fucking 20"

He puts his hands on both my shoulders, "Alright your right, your right, I'm sorry. You aren't a kid anymore and I understand that"

"Thanks JC" I smile at him.

"No problem man, I gotta say I'm proud of you. You've really come a long way since we started this whole crazy journey"

"Jace don't start with the sentimental shit" I laugh.

He chuckles.

"Thanks, I'm glad your here with me on crazy journey, couldn't do this without you, big brother"

I seriously couldn't be able to do this without him. The time i knew he was going to be in this group I knew I had to do it too. We've always had great chemistry when it came to writing and singing and having him here felt like I had something close to family, not to say the other guys aren't my brothers it's just with JC we were already like brothers before this, it's great that we go to do this together.

He looks at me, I can see his eyes are teary.

He smiles and chukles, "Come on kid lets go"

We both laugh and head out to the cars waiting for us.

Yep just another day in the world of *Nsync.

A few months later...

Well I'm finally a graduate, thank god! Those last few months were the longest ever!

As I expected Justin wasn't there, but he did call me before I got to the ceremony. He told me he sent me a gift and that it should be there by the time I'm done with the ceremony. Justin knows I hate surprises, I hate them becuase I hate not knowing whats going and people hiding things from me. But of course Justin being Justin he likes to surprise me just to annoy me.

Well it was Trace..yep he sent Trace as like a stand in for him.

"Trace what are you doing here?"

"Justin sent me, didn't he tell you?"

"No, all he told me was he had a gift for me"

"Well girl, here I am"

I rolled my eyes, "Your such an asshole"

"What? how am I an asshole?"

"You just are now I have to go line up, I'll see you later" I brush past him.

After 3 hours in the sun, The ceremony was done and I was so ready to go party and have a drink.

My mom threw me a graduation party, I was so suprised. I was expecting to go out and have a nice dinner with family and some close friends. But she decorated the backyard and set up tables and chairs with a big banner that said "Congratulations on your gradation Jenifer, we are proud of you" I seriously didn't know what to say that I teared up.

"Mom thank you, but you didn't have to do all this" I said wiping away tears.

"Why not you deserve it after all that hard work. we should celebrate and we're all proud of you" she sniffed.

I hug her again< "Thank you"

"Well I shouldn't be thanked for all of this, I had some help from Justin too"

I should have known he had some part in this, he's such a sneaky bastard.

 "I'll have to thank him later then" I smile.

About an hour later my backyard was filled with people. Momma Lynn and Paul came too, I was so glad they made it out.

"We're so proud of you" Lynn says as she hugs me.

"Thank you, I'm glad your guys made it out here"

"You know we wouldn't miss this for anything" she smiles.

I smile.

I my mind I only wished Justin was here too, but I know it's not his fault.

"You know he'd be here of he could sweetie" Lynn says.

"I know" I assured her.

As the night went on I was having a pretty good time.

I was talking to some of my friends when I feel a tap on my  shoulder. I turned my head to see Trace holding his phone.

"It's Justin, he wants to talk to you"

I take the phone and put the phone on my ear, "Hello?"

"Hey, hows the party going?"

I couldn't really hear him with all the noise so I covered an ear, "What?..hold on I can't hesr you" I say loudly.

I go up the steps and into the house closing the sliding door.

"I'm sorry what did you say?"

He laughs, "I asked how the party was but by the sound of it its going pretty good"

I giggle, "Yeah, I guess it is" I sighed, "I just kinda wish you were here"

"I know, I really wish I was there too, but you how things are"

I sighed, "I know"

"So did you enjoy your suprise?"

"The party, yeah I love it, but you seriously didn't need too do that" I rolled my eyes.

"But I wanted too.."

The door bell rings.

"Hold on J, someones at the door" I say as I walk over to open the door.

I turn the knob and pull it to reveal Justin standing infront of me.

" surprise!!" he says.

"Justin oh my god, but I thought you were..."

"Ahhhh I got you didn't I. You should see your face" he says laughing and pointing at me.

I rolled my eyes and then smiled oping my arms to hug him.

"I'm glad you here"

"I told you I'd be here. I would have been here earlier if my flight didn't delayed"

"Well I still glad your here" I smile.

"So where's the party at?"

"In the back. Everyones here"

"They should be I invited half of them"

"Oh yeah thanks for that" I smack him in the arm.

"Ow, calm down girl. I was just trying to do something nice for you"

"You know I hate surprises you jerk"

"Oh come on your enjoying it"

I tried to act mad at him but I couldn't help but smile, "Yeah I am. Thank you"

"Your welcome. You deserve it. I'm so proud of you" he hugs me again.

"Come on lets go party" I say and we head out.

Everyone was so happy to see Justin when we came out. They all crowed him once he got down.

After a few hours and a ton of drinks later everyone went home.

Jenny sure enjoyed herself though, she was pretty drunk by the end of of the night.

"Alright, party animal, lets go to bed"

"Noooo, I don-" she hiccupped "I don wanna go to bed" she whined.

"Trace help me with her" I tell him.

He takes her arm and puts over his shoulder. "Shit your heavy"

"Trace, Traceeeeey, Trace" she sang. She giggled, "Has anyone told you how short you are? Your like really short" she laughed.

I saw the look on his face and stopped him from saying anything.

We finally got up to the house and got her to her room. We tried to getly put her down on the bed but she just flopped and almost fell.

She just laughed.

"I'm gonna have to stay with her. She'll probably feel like shit later"

"Alright man. I'll see you later" he says and leaves the room.

I look over the bed and see Jenny sprawled out on the bed.

She groaned, "Did everyone leave?"

"Yeah a while ago" I chuckled.

She pouts, "Awwww I didn't want them to leave. I wanted to keep partying"

"Well you'll probably rethink that later on"

"I'm so appy, I'm finally fucking done with school"

"Oh I know you are. I can smell it on you too"

"I sm-smell?" she puts a hand to her mouth. "Oh yeah I reek. How come your not drunk?"

I laugh, "Because last time I did, it was hell the next day"

I've really never seen her this drunk before. It's pretty funny.

"Alright Courtney Love time to go to bed" I say as I try to pull off the sheets for her to get in.

She giggles, "Your so funny J. You always make me laugh. Why are you so funny?"

I chuckle, "My mom says it's because I have a big nose"

She lifts herself up lazily and frowns, "That's not true...you know she doesn't deserve you"

I look at her cnfuesed, "Who? My mom?"

"No silly" she giggles. "Britney. She totally doesn't deserve you"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, she totally takes advantage of you and you let her. Your not the same anymore" she frowns.

"That's not true"

"Yes it is J. Ever since you started dating her your a different person now and with you being a celebrity and everything it totally changed you"

I frowned.

I can't believe im hearing this, I don't think I've changed that much at all.

"Jenny, I'm still the same person"

"No, your not Justin! Your not Justin Timberlake the guy who use to play basketball in his driveway and goes fishing down the lake, the one who ate the pinapple part of my banna split. You Justin Timberlake the popstar who is a part of the of the most famous boyband in the entire world, dating that bitch and going to all these parties. I barely see you anymore, I miss having my best friend" her lip starts to quiver and tears rim her eyes.

 look at her.

"You hate now don't you" she sobbed.

I automatically take her in my arms and rub her back soothing her. "I'd never hate you, Jenny" I said softly. "It's good that you told me how you felt. You one of my best friends, no matter what"

She pulls away looking at me with puffy eyes sniffling, "J, I really am sorry"

"I know you are and it's okay don't worry about it"  I hug her again.

"Oh no..." she suddenly says pushing me away and makes a bee line to the bathroom.

I sat there just listening to her gag.

Had I really changed that much?

"Ugh" I sat up in my bed feeling my head throb.

What the fuck happend last night? I looked around and saw my floor was covered with my clothes and I quickly lifted my covers to see I was only in my bra and panties.

Oh god what happend to me?

The door opens a little and I gasped.

I then see Justin with a cup in his hand.

No....

"Oh hey your up" he says cheerfuly. "How you feeling?"

"Like I wanna die and can you please not yell" I groan as I covered my ears.

He laughs, "I know that feeling. Here.." he hands me the cup.

I look at it and sniff it, it smelled horrible.

"Ew, what is this?" making a face.

"Ah a Timberlake family cure for a hang over. It works like a charm I promise"

I take a sip and choke coughing, "It tastes like shit"

"I know, just close your nose and drink it. You win't taste it that way"

I pinch my nose and drink it in one chug.

"See not that bad, right?"

As I swallowed the last of it the after taste was even worse.

I held my mouth and ran to the bathroom.

"Careful I just cleaned that" Justin says.

I finally finished throwing up of whatever was left and flushed it down.

"You stayed here?" I asked suprised.

"Yeah, I wanted to make sure you were okay"

"Oh..Did you..." I trailed off pointing down and up.

"Oh um yeah you kinda had it all over you and well you didn't move much so I had to"

I blushed, "Oh okay. good"

"What did you think happend?" he laughed and then stopped. "Ooooh" he blushed a bit.

"Well um, I appricate you helping me and all but I'm still...y'know" pointing out I was still in my underwear and bra.

"Oh right, right. I'll leave you to that then" he says and opens the door to leave me to get dressed.

I got in the shower, brushed my teeth and got dressed.

I got out of the room and smelled something cooking.

I go to the kitchen to see Justin over the stove.

" I can't belive what I'm seeing your cooking"

He chuckles, "Smartass,come sit and eat"

"You made me breakfast? I gotta get drunk more often"

"Oooh nooo you don't. You are the worst drunk ever"

"Ha really? because I remember a certain someone who threw up like Linda Blair all over his hotel room and my shoes, karma's a bitch isn't it"

He chuckles, "Especially when she's drunk"

I smack him in the arm, "Shut up" I start eating.

"So last night was fun huh?" he says sitting across from me.

"Yeah, but I'm never going to drink again. How bad was I? I didn't embarrass myself did I?"

"Not bad, You were pretty drunk after people already left. But you did tease Trace about being short" he laughs.

I giggle.

"You also like to talk a lot more than usual"

"Oh god did I say something stupid?"

"No but you are very honest"

"Shit, you don't hate me do you?"

"Nah, some of it was true. I just didn't know you felt that way"

My eyes grew wide.

Oh god, if it's what I'm thinking...No no no

"Justin--"

He puts up a hand to stop me, "Look Jenny, I totally uderstand why you feel that way. I'm glad you told me" he smiles.

Oh god..

"I feel bad for not seeing it myself. Maybe your right I did change, I want it to be the same way it was, before this whole thing happened" he smiles.

I sigh, "Justin I know it won't change. I guess I was being selfish. Your living your dream and I accept that, I back you up 100 % on everything you do. I just sometimes miss having you around, but I remind myself of how proud I am to see you succeed" I smile. "I don't want you to feel bad, I was drunk I didn't know what I was doing"

He laughs, "Oh you were, the truth does come out when alcohols involved. You kinda told me what you thought of Britney"

"Oh god" I groaned. "Justin I'm sorry"

He chuckles, "It's okay, it was the truth. I won't tell her" he winks.

"I'm never drinking again" I groan.

"They all say the same thing" he laughs.

"Thank you for taking care of me. You really are the best" I smile before taking a sip of my coffee.

"I know" he says and laughs. "Your welcome, you know I wouldn't leave you like that, but if you ever get drunk like that again your on your own missy. I've never seen that much upchuck come out a person so petite"

I giggle, "They say big thing come in small packages"

"I'll say" he says and takes a sip of his coffee.

"How long are you here for?"

"Well I have to get back and join the guys in Dallas tomorrow morning, so I'm all yours today" he smiles.

"Great. So what do you wanna do today?"

"Hmmm...I don't know. What do you suggest?"

"Well I am dying to go do some shopping"

"We could do that" he smiled."I was just thinking of checking out that new shoe place on Robertson"

I laughed, "Of course you would. Don't you have enough shoes in your huge shoe closet already?"

"A guy can't have enough sneakers. Plus the new Air Jordan's just came out and I've been wanting a pair"

I rolled my eyes,

"Well let me get in shower and we'll go okay?"

"Yeah sure" I nodded.

He grabbed his duffle bag and headed toward the bathroom.

I sighed sipping my juice and smiling as I hear him singing quietly to himself.

It's great to have him back.

After spending a beautiful sunny day shopping we head to lunch.

"God I'm starving" I say as I look at my plate that was set infront of me.

"Me too" he says giving the waiter a small smile.

"If you need anything else, please don't hesita to ask. Enoy your meal" ]the waiter says.

"Thank you" I say smiling.

He leaves and it's quiet as we focus on eating.

"This food is so good, I need to come here more" Justin says before taking another piece of food in his mouth,

"I know right? This is like my favorite place to eat" I say smiling. "You know if you lived here, you could come anytime you want"

"Are you saying I should move out here?"

"Yeah, I mean I know you love Orlando and all, but here you can start fresh, start your solo career"

"You have a point, I'll think about it"

"Have you even told them yet?"

"No" he sighs.

"Justin, you need to tell them sooner or later"

"I know, I know. I just can't, they're my brothers. What if they hate me for leaving them? Especially JC..."

"Look Justin all you have to do is tell them that you decided to do something else. Like you said you guys want to do different things and if they are like your brothers they have to respect your descion and support you no matter what"

"Your right" he says lowly.

"If you want I can come with you when you tell them. For moral support"

"Really? That'd be great. Thank you Jenny" he smiles.

"Hey what are friends for. I know you can do this Justin, I believe in you and I know for a fact you'll do great things"

"Stop it your making me blush" he says in a girl voice.

I laugh, "Your a dork, you just ruined my moment"

"Okay I'll stop go on.."

"No, you ruined it. It's gone now"

"Aw damn" he laughs. He's quiet and his face turns serious, 'You really think I'm doing the right thing Jen?"

"Of course I do, It won't hurt to try"

"Yeah your right" He's quiet for a moment."Come with me to Dallas"

"You want me to come with you when you leave?"

"Yeah"

"Are you sure your ready?"

"Yeah I think I am. I mean I hope  I am, I'm not gonna lie scared outta my fucking mind" he laughs a bit. "but I need to do this. I wanna do this"

"Well then I'm right behind you, it's not like I have a job yet anyway. I'll just look for one when I get back. I deserve a break"

"Okay then it's settled then" he smiles. He laughs, "Wow, I can't believe I'm doing this"

"I can. Does Britney know your doing this?"

"I mentioned it to her"

"What does she think about it?"

"I really don't know. She had to go after I told her over the phone" he frowns.

"Well, I bet she'd say something like 'Oh Stinky that's great news! I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner" I said in my best Britney impression.

He started to laugh, his face turning red.

"Or something along those lines"

He points at me still laughing, "That was good"

"Thank you, I do a good JC too" I smile and then we both start to laugh.

He were laughing so hard everyone was starting to look at us,

We finished and headed back to the car, but not before getting stopped by some fans asking for Justins autograph. I love to see moments like this. You never know what might happen.

"Thank you Justin" One girl says.

"No problem, you guys have a good day" he smiles and starts walking and weaves back before getting inthe car.

I hear the girls sherik in delight before I get in.

I chuckle and shake my head.

"I still get a kick out of the reactions you get when girls like them see you" I giggle.

He laughs, "me too"


The next morning I woke up early to get my stuff packed to leave for Dallas.

I look at the suitcase and study it trying to figure out what else I would need.

"J, you think this enough?"

Justin looks at the packed suitcase and back at me, "Jesus, your only going for a few days not months"

"Shut up" I say smacking his chest. "I wanna be prepared"

"Seems like you are. You packed your whole damn house" he chuckles.

"Ass" I  mutter.

"Come on, we gotta go" walking out.

We got to the airport with cameras flashing and people hounding us as we make it inside.

After an hour of going through customes and check out points we finally made it on the plane


Attention ladies and gentlemen we will be landing in Dallas in ten minutes. Please put trays in the up right position and make sure you do not leave any belongings behind. Thank you and hope you fly with us soon.

I look over at Justin who is looking out the window.

"J, you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so"

"Hey" I say softly and touch his hand and give it a light squeeze. "It's going to be okay, don't worry about it"

He turns his head to me and smiles.


After we land Lonnie was waiting at the end of the terminal.

His smile grew wide when he saw me, "Well this is a superise! How are you? Heard you graduated"

"Hey Lon, I'm great and yeah I did"

"I'm proud of you. So what, are you coming on tour with us now?"

"Nah, I just wanted to come along for a few days and hang out, practice taking shots"

"Do you ever not have that camera with you?"

I roll my eyes, "No, you know I don't"

"Well make sure you take my good side then"

I laugh, "Okay I promise"

"Good" he chuckles. "Now lets go, your going to be late"

We finally make it to the venue where the guys are doing soundcheck and  we head backstage to the dressing rooms,

"Look who's back and brought back an munckin with him" Joey says smiling.

"Ha ha very cute Fatone" I say smiling sarcastically.

"You know you love me" he says hugging me. "How are you kid?"

"Great. I'm finally ready to start my life" I smile.

"Have to say, I'm proud of you for graduating. I would've have gone but J said no" he frowns.

"Shut up, Joe. I never said that" Justin spats.

"Well I would of loved for all of you to have come"

"So what do we owe this visit  lovely to?" JC smiles.

I looked over to Justin quickly and he just gave me a small smile"Oh you know, I just missed you guys and asked Justin if I could come with"

"Bullshit, you just didn't want to go looking for a job now that you don't have school" Chris yells pointing at me.

"Not true, I'm just taking a few days off and then heading back to start the job search, so meh" I stick out my tongue at him and he makes a face at me.

"Yeah, yeah excuses, excuses" he waves a hand.

"Well we're always happy to have you here" Lance smiles hugging me.

"Thank you Lance, that's very nice of you to say"  I smile at him and I see Chris mocking me rolling his eyes.

After a while the guys head off to rehersal and I sit with their Choregrpher Wade watching them.

Wade has been with the guys for a while, not only was he a choragrapher, he alsi writes music. He actually helped Justin write "Pop" and a few other tracks on the "Celebrity" album.

I like Wade, he's pretty cool.

I take out my camera and start taking some shots.

"Your a photographer?"

"Yeah, kinda. Not like professional or anything, yet. I just got my degree in photography and art"

He nods, "Thats pretty cool. Y'know, I know some people who could use a photographer at their studio.  If your interested of course"

"Are you serious? I mean yes, yes I'm totally interested"

Oh my god, I'll actually be working in a studio, with professionals!! This is the greatest day ever!!

I guess my excitement got to me and before I knew it I hugged Wade.


As we were practicing I see in the coner of my eye, Jenny and Wade were hugging.

"Dude, why the hell did you stop?" JC says.

"Sorry I got distracted. Won't happen again"

"Geez J, don't start slackin off, thinking it's an easy way out. If you want out just tell us" Joey says.

I suddenly feel my body go numb.

I suddenly hear both him and Chris laugh.

"Alright guys cut it out take five" JC says.

I sit on one of the set steps and put my head in my hands.

"J, are you sure your okay? You've been acting strange lately, Is something going on? You know yo can talk to about anything" he says.

I look at him.

I can feel a pang of hurt in my chest.

I can't tell him the truth. It hurts too much, that I would be breaking a bond that has been a huge part of my life and the greatest by far. Especially telling JC, he is the biggest part of my life, he was the brother I always wanted.if I told him and he hates me, I don't know what I'll do.

"Nothing I just--I have a lot of stuff going on and seeing everyone the other day..."

"Makes you think what could have been?" he finishes.

"Exactly"

"Man I've been there many times" he chuckles. "But you gotta keep in mind that what happens in your life happens for a reason, no matter what it is. And all of this..." he extends his arm to point out everything around us. "Is what you were destined for Justin. Your one of the most talented guys I know and I would've been shame if you didn't join us and let people see what a great singer you are. Honestly I probably wouldnt have considered doing this if you weren't going to" he chuckles.

I laugh a bit too.

"Thanks JC, seriously for everything you've done for me. I don't think I would done this without you. Even if you are a pain in my ass sometimes" I smile.  

He frowns, "Me? A pain in your ass? Haha. After years of dealing with your whiney butt, your probably the biggest one in the whole group my friend. You are the baby after all" he says pinching mt cheek.

I swat it away, "Fuck you!"

"Awww is justy mad now?"

"Your just bitter because I'm younger and dance way better than you, old man"

"Oh you didn't just go there"

"Yeah, I did what are you gonna do about it old man, huh?" I taunted.

"Oh thats it.." he says and  lunges forward at me and I quickly run for it.

I quickly pull away, "Oh..um sorry" I blush.

He laughs, "S'okay, guess you just got excited there huh?"

I giggle, "Yeah. I've been kinda dreading going looking for a job, with me being out of school now, I need a job as soon as possible and one that I'll actually like"

He chuckles, "I remember those days"

"Thank you Wade"

"Your totally welcome. I'm glad to help" he smiles.   

"You really don't have to do that though" I frown.

"Oh come on, your Justin's best friend and your practically part of the *Nsync family, of course I would help"

We then hear yelling and laughing and turn to see JC chasing Justin around the stage.

We both shake our heads.

They are worse than 5 year olds. You leave them for 5 minutes unattended and everything gets out of control.

"YO GUYS WHAT THE HELL? I THOUGHT WE WERE SUPPOSE TO BE PRACTICING NOT FUCKING AROUND" Wade yells as he heads toward the stage.

"He started it" JC said pointing at Justin who was trying so hard not to laugh hard.

"I don't care who started it now lets get back to practing!" The other guys regroup.

"Alright from the top, 1,2,3" The music starts again and they dance.

I giggle watching as I see Justin sticking out his tongue as he passed JC when he didn't notice.

Oh these boys I swear...