December 2000

Justin was lost. Not literally, he knew where he was. He was surrounded by obnoxious Christmas decorations as well as obnoxious shoppers that shoved past him without a care in the world. They had only one objective: get the best damn gift in the store before anyone else.  Justin loved Christmas but he hated the competitiveness of it. Christmas was a time of giving, not fighting. It was a time for leaving the store knowing you bought the best gift for that certain someone, not black eyes. It was almost as bad as Black Friday. Black Friday, however, he loved. He liked being the spectator, watching people going at it just to get good deals, which eventually didn’t end up worth it. But Christmas was no doubt the best; it put him in the best mood.

However, it wasn’t supposed to drive him crazy.

“I don’t know which one,” Justin muttered, his nose flattened against the glass it was pressed up against. “I like that one but she’ll probably like the lighter one.” He stood up straight and sighed. “Which one do you think she’d like, C?” Justin asked, turning to his friend.

JC shrugged. “The less expensive one, I guess?” It came out more as a question than a statement. “She doesn’t like expensive things.”

“I know, but she deserves something special. It’s Christmas after all,” Justin replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So you two are dating?” JC asked.

“No, we’re just hanging out,” Justin replied automatically. JC let out a frustrated groan as Justin smiled to himself.

He liked the idea of them dating, hell he’s known her for years, and even his mother thought they were dating by now. And he knew it would work out between them, they knew each other inside and out, but at the same time he was afraid that he’d only be seen as her friend. True, they did hang out a lot more than usual (which was significantly more seeing as they spent a large amount of their time together). They even held hands more than usual and it felt right to him. He wanted to take the next step, going from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, but he wasn’t so sure if she felt the same way, which was why he had dragged JC to the mall for his help to get her the “perfect” Christmas gift.

“Ok, what about this necklace?” Justin asked, pointing to another item under glass.

JC leaned over and looked through the glass. He was silent for a few seconds before scrunching up his nose. “I don’t it’s too…girly? I don’t know how to shop for girls, Just.”

“What about Heather?”

“She’s my sister, it’s easy to shop for her and I don’t have to worry about her hating what I get her ‘cause she usually exchanges it for something else,” JC replied.

Justin’s eyes widened. “Do you think that’ll happen to me?”

“No!” JC said quickly, mentally kicking himself. “That’s not what I meant. I mean Heather’s taste changes so much I usually get her the wrong thing. When it comes to jewelry she’ll keep it but if I get her a shirt she doesn’t like then she’ll send that back. I’d rather her have something she likes instead of pretending to like something I get her.” He then lowered his voice. “Besides, the things I usually get her are actually cheaper than she thinks so it’s not like I’m losing money.”

“You’re horrible,” Justin laughed.

“Hey, after that whole lawsuit thing I’m not taking any chances,” JC said in defense.

Justin sighed. “I don’t want to mess anything up,” he whispered.

“You really care about her, right?” JC asked, putting a hand on Justin’s shoulder. The young boy nodded. “Then don’t get her jewelry,” JC advised. “She’d want something…more personal. From your heart and something tells me that jewelry wouldn’t do that for her.”

“But what else can I do?” Justin asked, throwing his hands into the air.

“You’ve been around her all of your life and you don’t even know what to get her for Christmas?” JC asked incredulously.

“How the hell am I supposed…to…” Justin’s voice trailed off as a smile suddenly formed on his face. He then grabbed JC’s arms and shook him. “Jace, has anyone ever told you that you’re a genius?”

“Yes,” JC replied with a little laugh. “Why, what’d I say?”

“You just gave me a great idea! C’mon, we need to find a Michael’s!” Justin said excitedly.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

“Guys, is this really necessary?” Mack asked, waving her hands in front of her face to catch herself in case she fell over. Lance and Joey both were holding onto her elbows to make sure she wouldn’t fall over as they stepped through the doorway. They had blindfolded her as soon as they met up with her that morning at her dad’s house claiming they were “kidnapping” her, shoved her in a car, and drove off to an unknown destination.

“Yes, we don’t want you to ruin the surprise,” Joey replied his voice echoing. He waved in front of her face to make sure she couldn’t see.

“If it’s a surprise for me then how can I ruin it?” She questioned his logic.

“By asking questions now sssh!” Chris hissed. Then he backed up and moved his hands in a motion of helping someone back into a parking space as well as making beeping sounds. “Ok a little bit more. A little bit more. A few more baby steps.”

“Will you stop? I’m not a wide load,” Mack grumbled.

“Depends on where I’m standing,” Chris quipped.

“You’re lucky I’m blind folded.”

Chris stuck his tongue out at her. Lance chuckled and moved behind her, pinching the knot from the blindfold between his fingers. “Ok, are you ready?” He asked.

“Yeah, sure,” she replied without enthusiasm.

“Come on! You can be more excited than that,” Joey protested.

“Joe, you attacked me, blindfolded me, and shoved me in a car while I went out to get the newspaper. I don’t have much enthusiasm left,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Not even for when you see…” Lance tugged at the knot and pulled the bandana away with a flourish. “Your new house?” He finished and Chris and Joey spread their arms in a ‘ta-dah!’ motion, big over exaggerated smiles and all.

“This house is mine?” She asked, turning around on the spot and taking in every corner of the foyer. The three guys nodded. “Are you sure?” They nodded again. “How?”

“Simple, we paid for it,” Joey replied. “Merry Christmas!”

“This is mine?” She asked again, a smile blossoming on her face.

“Merry Christmas!” Joey repeated.

“Wow, she’s smiling like those creepy jack-o-lanterns,” Chris commented. “No thank you? No hug? C’mon, girl, we spent weeks hiding this from you. We deserve something!”

Mack’s mood suddenly switched. “How much did you pay for this place?” She asked, looking up the stairs that led to the second floor which had a balcony view. She could see a few doors which led to what she guessed were bedrooms. Straight ahead of her led to the kitchen, to the right was a sitting room and the left a dining room.

“it doesn’t matter,” Lance replied.

“And you guys furnished it?” She questioned.

“Yep!” Chris replied proudly. “We got everything down to the T of what you wanted in your ‘dream house’.”

“You guys shouldn’t have done this, I don’t know how to pay you back,” she commented.

“You deal with us 24/7, that’s enough payback for us,” Joey replied. “Now I want my hug and I’m not giving you a tour before I get it.”

She laughed and gave him a really big hug, squeezing him tight and saying thank you repeatedly and then went to hug Chris and Lance. “Wait, where are Jace and Justin?” She questioned.

“You’ll see ‘em later,” Joey replied with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He held out his arm and she took it with a little laugh. “Onto the grand tour! That’s the dining room,” he said while pointing to the room to the left of her. “For special occasions or whatever. The sitting room is to the right, for the parents. The kitchen is ahead.”

“Fully stocked with your favorite foods as well as lemonade, Kool-Aid, sparkling cider, PowerAde, and Strawberry-kiwi Propel,” Chris said as he flung the doors open. “And in the pantry as many bags of dried mangos you can eat.”

“The living room is complete with a large screen tv, a stereo system, and all of the video games you can play and all of the DVDs you can watch,” Lance said as he backed into the room which had a very modern and slightly futuristic that went along with the shiny appliances in the kitchen. “Two wrap around couches, and beautiful glass coffee table, and two recliners. And the best part is the view of your new pool and cabana,” he added, turning to the window. “Complete with a waterfall and accompanying hot tub.”

“Geeze, guys,” Mack muttered shaking her head. “You really went above and beyond. What am I going to do with all the space though? This house is huge and I’m tiny.”

“Trust me, we’ve noticed,” Chris joked, standing beside her and moving his hand from her head to his chest to measure her height. “And the answer to your solution is parties. Lots and lots of parties.”

“We haven’t even showed you the best part yet,” Joey said, spinning her around.

“My room?” Mack guessed.

“No, although your bed is a great one to jump on,” Chris replied. “No, we’re showing you the basement.”

“What’s so special about a basement?” Mack asked, following them to the door.

“You’ll see,” Joey said in a sing song voice. He covered her eyes and held onto her as they walked down the stairs. Once at the bottom Lance flicked on the lights and he moved his hand. “What do you think?” He asked, waving his hands around at the large dance studio.

“No way!” She cheered, jumping up and down in place. “My own dance studio? No way, no way, no way! This is so cool!” She turned to her friends with a big smile. “I love it! I love you guys! Thank you!”

“There’s one more thing,” Lance said and held out a picture frame.

She looked at it. “You got me a picture of a horse?”

“No, stupid, that’s your horse,” Chris replied. “It’s at the Orlando stables right now.

“Geeze, now my gifts for you guys are going to be so lame compared to this,” she grumbled. “I can never outdo you guys.”

“I don’t know why you even try anymore,” Joey laughed. “Speaking of which, we better get back to my place to finish everything before the party.”

“Aww. Can’t I stay a bit longer?” Mack begged.

“Sorry kiddo. And anyway, you’re not going to want to miss this party.”

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

“It’s about time you got here!” Joey commented once he walked into the kitchen and spotted JC and Justin. “We had to show her the house without you two. Where were you anyway?”

“Justin waited ‘till the last minute to get Mack her present…again,” JC replied.

“At least I didn’t forget this time!” Justin said defensively. “So where is she?”

“In the living room opening my gift I think,” Joey replied with a grin.

“JOEY!” Joey smiled at his name which could be heard over the many guests of the party. Then Mack stomped into the kitchen with a book clutched tightly in her hands.

“Yes m’dear?” he asked sweetly.

“Don’t dear me, Fatone! This is the weirdest thing you have ever gotten me!” She replied, throwing the book at him as Joey laugh. JC and Justin looked at the cover and then burst out laughing once they noticed that Joey had given her the Cookie Sutra, a gingerbread version of the Karma Sutra. “I think you burned my retinas with this book,” she grumbled.

“You actually read it? Oooh, girl!” Joey laughed.

“I didn’t read it, God!” She replied as her cheeks tinged red. “You’re asking for it. Just wait until your birthday.”

“Bring it on!” Joey said with a fake Italian accent.

“Hey Joey, I need to see you in the living room,” JC suddenly spoke up.

“Why?” Joey asked.

“You’re low on…firewood,” JC replied.

“We don’t use firewood in that fireplace, Jayster,” Joey said slowly, looking at his friend.

“Joe, that’s Jace’s obvious way of him trying not to be obvious of him wanting you to leave me and J here,” Mack replied elbowing him. “Jace, you gotta work on the lying.”

“Got it,” JC said with a nod, pushing Joey out of the room.

“So, what was with JC’s lame attempt at subtlety?” Mack asked with a small laugh.

“I just wanted to talk,” Justin replied.

“Because we don’t do that 24/7.”

“I’m being serious,” Justin whined.

“Ok, but it’s hard to take you seriously with all your whining.” Mack sat down on a bench at the breakfast nook and Justin sat across from her.

“Well, um, I wanted to apologize,” he started.

She looked at him blankly. “For what? You didn’t do anything.”

“For what I have done,” He divulged. “For making you do things for me and for taking advantage of you in some ways.”

“You’ve talked to the others,” she stated.

“No,” he denied. She squinted. “Ok, yeah. Well, they talked to me about it. If I was bothering you so much you should’ve said something.”

“You don’t bother me, Juppy.” He smiled at his childhood nickname. “Sure there are times I want to bash your head in because you want me to do something for you that you could easily do yourself but you make up for it. Like the time you took me to the aquarium on a day off or the time you spent hours of your time teaching me about basketball just so you had someone to watch the Lakers game with even though I still know jack shit.” He laughed. “You don’t have to apologize, I like helping you out. It’s what friends are for.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t been treating you like a friend and I want to make up for it somehow,” he replied.

“There’s no way you can.”

“There’s gotta be something I can do.”

“No, really, there’s nothing.”

He pouted. “Well, here’s your Christmas present. I was going to get you something on the expensive side but I thought you’d like this better,” he said, holding out a flat yet heavy wrapped gift.

She took it from him and started to rip through the wrapping paper as he waited anxiously. Once the paper was ripped away she noticed it was upside down and turned it the right way. She then chuckled at the many pictures that sat in the large picture frame. Pictures of the two of them were ordered in age progression starting from about seven to now, nineteen. “Awww, Jay I love it,” she gushed, looking at each picture, laughing the most at the one where they were both grinning at the camera with their two front teeth missing.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Yes. I’d rather have this than some jewelry or something,” she replied beaming. “I mean it’s the best present that I’ve ever gotten from my best friend.’

He let out a breath of relief. “About the friends thing, do you think, maybe we could—“

“Hey guys, hurry up! A Charlie Brown Christmas is on!” Chris said excitedly before rushing back into the living room which was filling with people to watch the show.

Mack replied, “Coming Chris.” She looked at the picture frame. “Do you think I can leave this here and not worry about anything happening to it?”

“Yeah,” Justin replied, standing and shoving his hands into his pockets.

“What were you saying?” She asked, standing as well.

“About what?” He asked, pausing in the doorway.

“About us being friends, you were saying something and then Chris interrupted,” she replied.

“Oh. It was nothing.” He tried to give her a convincing smile but he could tell that she saw right through it. “Really.”

“Hey you two, are you going to kiss or are you going to watch the show?” Chris yelled, gathering everyone’s attention and aiming it towards them.

“What are you talking about?” Mack demanded.

“Look up,” JC snickered.

Justin didn’t have to look up to now what Chris had just planted. Justin knew it was odd that Chris would randomly burst into the kitchen like that, Justin knew when a Charlie Brown Christmas was on, and he didn’t need Chris to remind him. However, Chris continued to grin like the Cheshire Cat in the corner of the room.

He could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he turned to look at his best friend. She sighed and shifted her weight from foot to foot as if trying to decide what to do, knowing very well that their friends wouldn’t let them off the hook. Justin let out the breath that he was holding, turned her face towards his, and placed a soft kiss on her lips as the rest of the party cheered and oohed. He finally pulled away after ten seconds and licked his bottom lip, staring at her intently.

“Wellll?” Lance’s voice broke the silence. “Are you two together now or what?”

“I can handle this,” Chris said jumping up. He stood in front of the two friends and clasped his hands in front of him. “Justin Randall Timberlake, do you take her to be your hopefully-not-temporary girlfriend?” He asked, motioning to Mack who looked like she wanted to kill Chris and laugh at him at the same time.

“Yeah,” Justin whispered, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

“And do you, Mackenzie Danielle Charlotte Desrosiers, who really needs to shorten her name, take him to be your hopefully-not-temporary boyfriend?” Chris asked, turning to Mack, who made a face at the attention.

“Of course,” She also whispered, grinning at Justin and squeezing his hand in return.

“Then I now pronounce you finally boyfriend and girlfriend,” Chris said while fake crying. “Merry Christmas everyone!”

“Merry Christmas!” The partiers replied as Justin pulled his newly-named girlfriend to him and gave her the kiss that he’s been waiting years to give.