Chapter 17

The following morning (9:34 a.m.)

Justin laid in bed gazing up at the ceiling as thoughts wandered his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about last night and the horrible fight he got into with Beyonce. She was supposed to trust him with all her heart but instead, she behaved like he was some kind of psycho path. The whole situation was beginning to piss him off. And he was slowly regretting ever falling in love with her.

He finally stepped out of bed and made his way towards the bathroom. When he entered the room, he shut the door behind him. Moments later, Beyonce entered the room still wearing the silk gown from last night. She gazed around the room for a sign of Justin but he was nowhere in sight. She then ambled towards the walk-in closet a few feet away from her and entered it.

Justin stood underneath the warm water with his eyes shut. This was probably what he needed. A nice warm shower to soothe his mood. "Where is my skirt?" Beyonce mumbled, shuffling through her clothes hanging on the rack. "Damn. I think Brooke is washing it."

Justin later departed the bathroom, wrapping a towel around his waist. He immediately froze when he noticed Beyonce standing in the closet, going through some clothes. For some odd reason, he felt nervous. Maybe because he didn't know what type of mood she was in and the last thing he wanted to do was start another fight.

So he decided to keep to himself while getting dressed. He grabbed a pair of silk boxers from out of his drawer and slipped them on. While searching for one of his wife beaters, a loud noise startled him. He quickly looked over his shoulder to gaze at Beyonce who seemed to have dropped something. "Shit! God damnit." she kneeled down, fiddling with her jewelry case which was now into pieces. "Oh boy." she spoke with a sigh, finally gawking his direction. When she noticed he was in her presence, she immediately stood up -- flashing him a nervous look. When he realized her actions towards him, he decided not to say anything.

She watched as he grabbed a pair of jeans and a polo shirt from out of the closet. As she continued to look on, something was telling her to speak up and then another voice was telling her to do the opposite. For one, she had no idea where to start from. Especially after the way she behaved last night. "Going...somewhere?" she finally built up the courage to ask.

He took a seat on the bed as he begin to slip on a pair of socks. "Yeah." she looked away, biting her lip in thought. She had to think of something else to say because keeping quiet was only making her even more nervous. And she had no idea why.

"I um...I leave for my flight at twelve." she paused, slowly meeting his gaze. From the look in his eyes, she could tell he wasn't too pleased to hear about it.

He stared at her for a good minute as his eyes leisurely burned with a watery solution. From the distance between them, she had no idea of noticing this. "Um..." he began, finally peeling his eyes off her. "Okay." he spoke in a hoarse whisper. Words couldn't explain how bad he wanted to cry because for some reason, something was telling him the results weren't going to be good. "I'm gonna..." he stood to his feet. "...step out for a few. Just to clear my head." he grabbed his car keys from off the dresser, quickly leaving the room. She remained by the closet, lost and hurt. Because for one, she was choosing her career over him and she knew that was being plain selfish.

This guy really cared about her and he surely didn't want to lose her. But did she care? She wasn't even so sure. "Good morning Mister Timberlake." Brooke greeted.

"I don't think it's such a good morning." he replied on his way towards the front door. "I'll see you later." she watched him depart the house. Beyonce watched Justin hop in his car from their bedroom window located on the second floor.

She wanted to stop him, but again something was holding her back.

What if this was actually the last time she saw him? What if his dream was trying to tell him something?

She quickly grabbed the cordless phone and turned it on -- dialing a familiar number. Justin pulled up in front of a traffic light, unsuspectingly hearing his phone go off. He gazed at the device sitting in the phone compartment, instantly recognizing the number.

Should I answer it or should I not? His hand slowly reached out, picking up the wireless phone. He then flipped it open, placing it beside his ear. "Hello?" he answered.

"Hey." a familiar voice replied. "Um..." he pulled off when the light turned green. "I think we need to talk." he sat back, making himself comfortable.

"'Bout what?" there was a moment of silence between them.

"About that...weird dream." he rolled his eyes, feeling offended all of a sudden.

"I thought we discussed this last night. And besides, you already made up your mind."

"I know, I just..." she paused. "You expect me to believe some dream of yours?"

"Yes! I expect you to trust me." he heard her sigh in response.

"It's just...it's absurd. It's..." he shook his head.

"Look, if you called me to...make fun of my dreams then you're wasting your time." with that, she heard a click indicating that he had hung up. She stood there with this offended look on her face.

"He hung up..." she chewed down on her inner lip in anger. "Nobody hangs up on me."

Justin sat in front of another light, waiting for it to turn green when his phone had went off again. He glanced at the screen, recognizing the number. "Damn." he mumbed, flipping the phone open. "Yeah?"

"How dare you hang up on me! I call to talk to you and straighten this whole thing out and you..."

"You don't wanna straighten things out. That's the last thing you wanna do 'cause if you did, you wouldn't go on that damn plane!" he snapped. "I tried talking to you and begging you not to go and all you did was look at me like I was some kind of stranger. What the fuck do you take me for?! You think I will hurt you? You think I will actually do something to hurt you?" she could hear the cry in his voice. "I just wanna protect you and...I know it's impossible to prevent bad things from happening. But I believe you CAN prevent them at some points. And..."

"It's a dream!! A dream that didn't even involve me! You were dreaming about your ex because all you can think about is her. How do you expect me to feel? My fiancé is still in love with his dead girlfriend. Things can't get any worse than this." she cried.

He sat there, completely lost with words. He wasn't sure whether to take her words offensive or simply aggressive. He knew she cared about him and he knew she wanted him all to herself, but to say something like that just turned him off -- completely.

"I don't know what to say anymore. For some stupid reason, I'm having this feeling that no matter what I do to prove to you that all I want is you...you're just gonna find some kind of way to make it look like the opposite. You know, if I didn't care about you I wouldn't be trying so hard to get you not to go on that plane. And I don't care how stupid I may sound. I know how I feel and I know when something bad is going to happen. I can feel it in my bones. And if you don't wanna trust me then fine. You should've never agreed to marry me. I mean, I would be stupid to accept someone's hand in marriage if I didn't trust them." he pulled the phone away from his ear, slowly folding it shut.

She took a seat on the bed, sobbing faintly. For one, she knew this was a sign that they were on the verge of splitting up. Because she knew deep down that there was no relationship without trust.
_____________

12:10 p.m.

Beyonce entered the airport, strolling both her luggage towards the lobby area. "Miss Knowles, your purse." she quickly focused in on the driver who held her designer purse in his hand.

"Oh." she dropped her things, quickly approaching him. "Thank you so much." she accepted the item from him. "You sure you don't want a tip? You've been really nice to me and..." she dug in her purse. "That's the least I can do."

"I assure you, Miss Knowles...keep your money." he suggested. She met his gaze, immediately having flash backs of Justin. She didn't understand why she couldn't just stop for a second and listen to what he had to say. Was the interview that important? Especially to jeopardize her relationship with the best man she'd ever been with.

"Um, okay." she gradually turned, making her way back to her luggage. Wait a minute. Something was wrong. "Where's my luggage?" she twirled around, searching for her things. "Oh my god." this day couldn't get any worse.

"Looking for something?" she froze, hesitantly twirling around to meet up with a very familiar guy.

"Justin?" he stood there with her suitcases in his hands. "Um..."

Flight 68 now boards! Flight 68 now boards!

"That's my flight." she mumbled, feeling nervous all of a sudden. "Can I please have my luggage?" he nodded.

"Sure. If you can take them from me." she threw her hands up in aggravation.

"This is ridiculous. "Fine, Justin. You wanna make a fool outta yourself then go right ahead. But you're not gonna make a fool outta me." she turned, making her way towards the boarding line.

"You're right." a voice spoke behind her. "I'm willing to make a fool outta myself for you, because when it comes to you...nothing matters. Not even my job." she stopped, refusing to look his direction. "Please don't go. I don't know what...I'll do without you. I can't lose another love of my life. I just don't think I'll be able to handle it." she finally turned his direction with her head hung low. "Please. I mean, what do I have to do to make you stay? You want me to get down on my knees and beg?" she lifted her head to gaze at him. "Just tell me."

"Do you realize how important this interview is? I can't just cancel it because of some dream of yours."

"Well do you even realize how important you are to me? You and the baby. You think I wanna lose my family?" she shook her head pathetically.

"So this is what this is about? You're afraid of losing your baby? I mean, you're so hooked on becoming a father. You'll do anything, won't you?" he dropped her luggage, taking a few steps towards her.

"This is not just about the baby. 'Cause in that case, I would just let you go on that plane with no problem and just simply get another woman pregnant. I don't even understand why you're acting so stupid. I pour my heart out to you and this is what you do?" a few people watched on with their nosy eyes. "You make complete fun of me. You never had a man who loves you as much as I do and when you finally find that person who would give you the world, you're just willing to give it up that easy. And for what? Why are you so stuck on this 'don't trust men' faze? You will never be happy thinking the way that you do. Never! And I can guarantee you won't find a man like me. Not now and not ever." she shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay well it seems to me like you've made of your mind." he burned a hole into her, not wanting to let her go.

"I guess so." she turned, proceeding towards her destination.

"You have your ticket?" the lady at the entrance asked.

"Um, yeah." she pulled the ticket from out of her purse and handed it to her.

 "Wait." she felt a hand grab her, pulling her a few feet away from the entrance. "I won't let you go." he twirled her around to face him. "Not if you're carrying my baby." she broke from his embrace, quickly swinging her hand and slapping him across the face.

"Don't you ever gr..." he gripped her waist, yanking her towards him. He then invaded her lips with a deep kiss. She tried breaking free, but his grip on her waist tightened. She slowly begin to give in, her knees weakening from his touch.

Awww. She is so lucky.

She finally broke away, slowly meeting his gaze. This man had to be in love with her. Especially if he would come all out his way to protect her. No man had ever treated her this way. Most of them were just in it for one thing and one thing only.

"I can't lose you." he spoke faintly.

"I..." she gulped down, holding back the tears begging to pour. "I can't lose you either." a smile slowly formed across his lips.

"Okay. Well trust me on this. If you really love me, you'll take my word and...not go." she sniffled, holding her head down to conceal the tears in her eyes.

"All right." he bit his lip, brushing her cheek gently with the tip of his thumb.

"Come on." she held his hand, following him towards the exit. On their way outside, they could hear a few people whispering and talking about them. Some were good and some weren't. But who cared? The only thing that mattered was them and her deciding to stay.

The next day around nine that morning...

"Bee!! Baby?" Justin barged in the room with a newspaper in his hand. "Beyonce?" he sat beside her, shaking her gently.

"Mmm." she moaned, slowly fluttering her eyes open.

"You have to see this." he held up the paper for her. She forcefully sat up, rubbing her tired eyes soothingly.

"What's...what's wrong."

"See for yourself." he sat the newspaper on her lap. She slowly looked down, squinting her blurry eyes to see better.

"What is this?" she shut her eyes, fluttering them back open to see clearly. Her eyes leisurely zoomed in on the horrible big, bold lettering. All she could  focus on were the words, flight 68; and crash. For some reason, she couldn't get herself to form one word. It was like something had token over her. "Oh my god." she looked up to gaze at Justin who had a blank look on his face. He was shocked himself. Traumatized because his dream was actually telling him something. And not only that, if he didn't try so hard to stop her from going, she wouldn't have been there -- with him -- still alive.

"I'm so sorry." she broke down in tears. "I'm so sorry for not believing you." he embraced her in a warm hug.

"It's okay." he assured, skimming her back soothingly. "The only thing that matters is that you didn't go. I just wish I could've stopped everyone else but...they probably would've thought I was crazy...like you did." a soft chuckle escaped her lips.

"I'm sorry...really." he wiped the tears from her eyes.

"It's okay." she peered directly into his eyes, feeling blessed to have found him. Blessed and lucky. Because if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be here right now. Truthfully, she didn't know where she would have been.

The End

By Shona
Copyright, Publish 2006-2007
All Rights Reserved 2007