Chapter thirty six
 

"You coming with us J?" Joey asked putting his belt on. He was sharing a room with Justin. He knew Pittsburgh had a nice party scene so he wanted to go out. Chris and Lance were also heading out to the waterfront to a club. The show wouldn't be until the next night so any chance they had to party was taken without hesitation.

"I don't think so, Joe."

"Why not man? Come on it's not like she's going to be there." Justin gave him a look of warning. Joey knew he shouldn't have mentioned her but it sort of slipped. All of the guys missed her a lot and Justin was just a reminder of her to them. "Sorry, it slipped. Seriously come out with us tonight. It will be fun. Remember last time we were here? We had fun didn't we?" once again Joey put his foot in his mouth. Last time they were here. She was there.

"I'll skip tonight. I'm waiting for some room service anyways." Justin said laying down and flipping the TV on.

"Alright man suit yourself. I'm out of here."

"Peace man." Justin simply said. He wasn't feeling too well at the moment. He tried switching room with everyone and no one would switch. He wondered if they knew it was there. The billboard. He had walked into his room only to find a view.

Flashback

"What the hell?" Justin asked dropping his bags on the floor. Joey walked in behind him.

"Wow," he said as he looked at the billboard directly across from the window. Justin turned and looked at him questionably. "Ahh, don't look at me I swear I had nothing to do with it."

"Close the damn blinds Joe." Justin said walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind him. He immediately hovered over the toilet. He got sick. He didn't understand how this girl, one girl, could make him feel that way. He wasn't sick because he was disgusted. He felt totally the opposite. When he saw the billboard outside the hotel he wanted to break down and cry. He missed her. He loved her. And so that's what his heart was telling him. But his mind would be telling him she's a cheater, and a liar. The two sequences of emotions mixed together made him physically sick.
 
 

"Doesn't she look beautiful?" Bobbie asked Jc. She was standing by their hotel window. Right next door to Justin.

"Bobbie? Can I ask you a question?" Jc asked from the bed.

"Yeah, what's up, Josh?"

"You did that didn't you?" Jc asked. He knew that billboard had Bobbie written all over it.

"What would make you think that, Jc?" she lied. She had received her monthly subscription of Vogue and was stunned when she saw the cover. She knew she had to do something. When she looked at her friends eyes in the picture she saw how sad she really was. She looked beautiful on the cover and no one could deny that. But Bobbie had grown close to Juliana and her eyes just didn't have the glow they had when she was with Justin. Bobbie made a few calls. Including Melinda to find out what room Justin would be staying in. She knew no one could literally talk about her in front of him. So she went with something he couldn't avoid. She paid a couple thousand dollars to have that billboard up there hoping it would work how she had planned. Apparently it was working. Justin had tried to switch room with everyone but had no luck. Melinda had squeduled all the rooms to face that side of the building. Bobbie was proud.

"Oh I don't know. The fact that all of our rooms face it. The fact that you got off the bus and went straight to look at it. I don't know. Because I know you maybe? Too well?"

"Ohh alright. I got that up there. So what? Your friend needs to grow up and get that stick out of his ass. I told you what Juliana told me. Something doesn't match up and it's killing me."

"Bobbie he's your friend too. You have to learn to take situations around us as personal and private B. Stop being a journalist around Justin. Please? For me?" Jc said putting his arms around her waist. He leaned down and kissed her.

"It's so hard with him. He's a big pain in the ass and.." she was stopped by Jc kissing her hard on the lips. He stopped and looked at her. "Alright deal." He grabbed her and sat her on the bed and he hovered his body over hers. Justin wasn't brought up the rest of the night.
 

....................Next door

     Justin looked at the food he ordered and covered it back up. Suddenly he wasn't hungry. He walked around the room with nothing to do. He was being a child. He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to open up those blind and torture himself. He sat at the table directly in front of the blind and put his head down. After a few minutes debating himself. He grabbed the cord and pulled it slightly so only a couple of the blinds opened. He shook his head. It wasn't going to bite him and yet he was so scared to open it. He finally opened it full view. There she was.

"You look beautiful Juls." he said to no one in particular. "Why did you do this to me. I loved you. I still love you." he put his head down and after a few minutes he fell asleep.
 

4am next morning

"You can stay in our room Lance." Joey said coming off the elevator. Chris had found his cousin at the club and he came to the hotel. Lance offered his bed to him.

"I was planning onto buddy." Lance said clearly a bit drunk. They both slightly stumbled down the hall to Joey and Justin's room. Joey opened the door and they walked in. They both stood at the door. Justin sat on the chair with his head down on the table in front of him. What surprised them more was the opened blinds. He had been looking at it. Lance smiled. It worked. Joey dug into his pocket and took out a fifty. He placed it in an already awaiting hand that belong to Lance. "Told you"

"Oh whatever. I'm going to bed."

"I'm not waking him up. I'm taking his bed." he climbed on Justin's bed and went to sleep almost instantaneously.
 

4pm Sound check the next day................

"Hey Pittsburgh. How are we feeling?" Chris asked cheerfully. Everyone screamed. Justin would smile every so often but his head was somewhere else. Justin headed up the small catwalk back to the stage and he heard someone call his name. It wasn't anything new, his name was always being called. But something about the small voice made him turn around.

     On the fifth row was a little girl smiling brightly at him. He immediately smiled back. She was so cute, he thought. He walked over to the little girl and knelt down so he would be closer to her.

"Well hello there cutie!" she gave him a big smile and reached up for him. He balanced himself and pulled her up onto him. "How are you Ashley?"

"I'm good. Is Ju-Ju here?" that question hit Justin hard.

"No, she's not sweetie. Isn't she here in Pittsburgh sweetie?" he asked curiously. Why didn't Ashley know where Juliana was? he asked himself.

"No. I thought she was with you." she said as Jc patted him on the shoulder.

"Hey there sweet stuff. I didn't know you were here." Jc said to the little girl in Justin's arms. The other screaming girls all wished they were the little girl. Who was now getting all five guys' attention.

"My mommy brought me." she pointed to her mom who stood by her daughters seat. The guys waved at her.

"Well that's why we gave you that huge thing around your neck." she looked down at her all access pass and giggled. "We have to go inside now. But tell your mom to bring you to that door over there okay?" Justin said putting her down and pointing to the door Lonnie stood by.

"Okay." she went to her mom and Justin saw her pointing to the door he had indicated. He was going to have a hard time dealing with all the questions he knew the little girl would ask.

"Well we hope you enjoy the show Pittsburgh. We'll see you later." Lance said before all five of them disappeared behind the mesh curtain.

....................Dressing room

     The guys sat around reading magazines and playing video games. Doing what they normally did before a show. Nothing. On Justin's lap sat Ashley. Her mom had gone home when Justin insisted Ashley should stay with them. He wanted to be around her. He didn't want to admit it but she was like therapy. She kept talking about Juliana and Justin wasn't bothered by it. Bobbie sat across the room pretending to read a magazine. Her ears never left the conversation Justin was having with Ashley.
 

"So you haven't seen her?" Justin asked shocked for effect.

"Nope. I miss her. She said she would come see me and she never did."

"Oh I'm sure she wants to see you. Maybe she's busy."

"Can you ask her to call my mommy. And then I can use the phone. I can't use the phone by myself." Justin laughed as she explain her situation as a five year old.

"I don't know if I will see her but I will try okay?" Justin couldn't really tell her no. So he made up something, meaning no, but the kid wouldn't know.

"How come? Don't you love Ju-Ju anymore?" Bobbie's eyes shot up when she heard the little girl ask that question. Justin froze. What was he supposed to say? change the subject. Yeah change the subject.

"Hey Ashley how about some ice cream?" Justin asked smiling at the little girl. Hopefully she would forget the fact that he didn't answer her question. She did. He got up and took her by her hand. They were about to walk out of the room when Bobbie spoke up.

"You know it's rude to brush off questions. Why don't you answer her? You know she'll ask again." she said mockingly. Justin looked at her with fire in his eyes. Bobbie was making his life impossible. Yet he was somewhat thankful. Why? He didn't know.

     He looked at her and pretended to brush something off his face with his middle finger. Ashley totally missed it. "We are going for ice-cream."

"Cute Justin. Cute." she said laughing at him. Of course he loved her. Bobbie just had to get him to say it out loud. Bobbie figured since Juliana wasn't in Pittsburgh she had to be in New York. Nsync was heading for New York in a couple of days for some press and autograph signing. She wondered if Juliana was there. Bobbie had called Vogue about the cover girl and they would not give her information about where she lived. She was having a hard time going through confidential to confidential phone calls. She was going to fix this whole mess. For her friends sake. Both of them.