Chapter 4

"Someone needs to see you Miss, I really need you to come with me," the security guard said while he kept a strong grip on my arm.

"Look sir, I understand that the show is over I can leave on my own, there is no need for me to have to talk to someone and make my friend wait for me outside, this is totally unnecessary."

"It's no big deal...Miss...What is your name even?" he questioned.

"Marissa, and I'm not giving you my last name because you'll probably call the cops or something. I can't even believe this right now, way to ruin a really good night for me, I didn't even do anything wrong."

He stopped abruptly and took me over to the corner by a closed concession stand. I noticed that people milling around started to stare. I can only imagine what they were thinking when they saw a 5'4" 130lb girl pinned up against a wall by a 6'5" 300lb man. If I had been walking by it I probably would have called the cops or at least started screaming. Instead these people just kind of made a circle and watched. Inside I wanted to punch all of them in the face. I felt like I was back at my house when there was a car accident and all the neighbors would come out to watch but not really do anything about it. He got really close to my face and started speaking really softly and I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I was by no means deaf but I just got out of a venue filled with thousands of screaming girls, if he wanted me to hear what he was saying he was going to have to speak up to at least a little more then a whisper so I could hear him over the ringing in my ears.

"Could you just let go of me," I screamed. "Just let go and speak a little louder so that I can actually hear what you're saying, I promise I won't run or anything but you're starting to hurt me!" He let go of my arm when he realized that I wasn't going anywhere and backed away about a foot.

"Listen...Marissa," he said a little louder, but still only loud enough for me to hear, "you are not in trouble, you didn't do anything wrong, no one is going to hurt you, the cops are not coming for you. Someone wants to see you, I can't tell you who right now but everything is going to be okay I promise. If you just calm down and follow me, you might actually be happy about it, and I won't lose my job." He let out a big sigh like some big weight had just been lifted off of his shoulders. I was still confused but he kind of settled me down a little bit and I became quite curious to see who this "person" was. 

"Fine Mr. Security Guard Man..."

"ERIC, is my name."

"Okay, fine ERIC. I will follow you and you can take me to this mysterious person, but if I find anything is sketchy I will whip out the can of mace that I have in my bag use it and run."

I honestly don't know why I agreed to follow him. Everything about the situation I was in screamed "run, run right now and fast," but for some strange reason I believed the guy and started to follow him to the elevators. All the while wondering who the hell I would know here that wanted to see me. I had known a couple of people that worked at the venue, but if they wanted to see me there was no need to send a security guard to come and get me. I also knew that my cousin was in town, he was a comedian that just got off tour with Dane Cook; maybe it was him or Dane that wanted to see me. If I knew anything about my cousin he was always in it to scare the shit out of me, so it must have been him that was behind all of this.

"I'm a security guard," Eric interrupted my thought process, "my job is to protect people not hurt them, so if something 'sketchy' happens you won't need to whip out the mace," he said while rolling his eyes and pressing down button of the elevator.

"Who said I was going to whip out the mace on anyone but you?" I deadpanned. He let out a small chuckle as the elevator bell went off and the doors slid open. I hesitantly walked into the elevator in front of him before I realized what it exactly it was I was doing. It had been quite sometime since I'd actually been in an elevator, about 7 years to be exact. I suddenly felt a little claustrophobic, like the walls were closing in on me. The elevator started moving and it felt really unstable, in my head I knew for sure it was going to break, then I heard Eric,

"If you only knew," he whispered, not really meant for me to hear, but the ringing in my ears was slowly but surely going away and I did.

"LOOK," I was now screaming at the top of my lungs, " I don't DO elevators and right now I feel like I'm about to die, so if you could hold your fucking comments to yourself right now that would be fabulous. I don't know how you even got me in here, I haven't been in an elevator in years but you got me so confused and curious I just did what you said, and now I'm stuck in this elevator with you and I'm probably going to die in here with some dude I just met..."

"If you'd like to walk out of the elevator now, the doors have been open for at least a minute," he said in a now more concerned tone.

"Oh," I sighed, "Thanks."

He showed his All Access Pass to another Security Guard standing outside the elevator and whispered something to him in his ear. The other guy gave him a weird concerned look and then looked over at me. His eyes were darting from me to a room down the hall over and over again. I started getting really nervous and inside was beating myself up for actually following this guy.

"Look, if this is all some sort of scary plot ran by my cousin can we just stop now because I'm starting to get freaked out," I said shakily.

"Who's your cousin?" Eric questioned?

"Albert...we he's known as Al DelBene actually."

"Dude," Eric hit the other security guard in the arm, "that's that funny mother fucker that opened for Dane Cook, he's your cousin?" he looked over at me.

"Yeah, and if he's behind this I'm going to kill you all," I said.

"He's definitely not behind this," Eric responded, "just follow me, we're almost there." 

As we started walking down the long white brick hallway, and the other security guard called out, "Nice to meet you, I'm sure I'll see you again soon."

"Same here," I said questioning to myself why I'd see him again soon. We were backstage, and I only knew that because I had been there before when my cousin performed here. Craft Services was set up in the hallway, and boxes were being filled up with equipment from the show. I saw a couple of dancers as they went in and out of there dressing rooms, and I even saw Pink walking out to go to her tour bus. 

"Holy Shit, that's Pink," I said to Eric. He just looked at me and shook his head. We got down to the end of the hallway and there was only one door to the left of us. There was a crisp white piece of paper taped to the door and in large black lettering were the words "Justin Timberlake." Eric clearly took me the wrong way, I thought to myself. Then he knocked on the door three times.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" I whispered loudly.

"Knocking on the door so that someone will let us in dumbass," he said to me.

"This is Justin Timberlake's dressing room!"

"I know," he said "I'm his body guard, and I was told that if I didn't take you to him I'd be fired. Happy now? Did you really think I was going to kill you or something?"

I didn't say anything. I just stared at the door, praying no one would answer. I wasn't prepared to meet Justin, he was my idol, and I needed more time to think about what I would say to him. Why did he want to see me anyway? He doesn't even know me. Then I remembered how he had been staring at me. Every thought under the sun was running through my mind. I couldn't focus or come up with any logical reason as to why he would want to see me. Me, little old me. My mind was racing until I heard someone walking up to the door to open it, and then it just went completely blank. I looked up at Eric with utter fear written all over my face. He put his hand on my back and whispered, "It's okay, just calm down, he's a person just like you." I closed my eyes, and when I heard the door open I couldn't bring myself to open them until Eric pushed me inside.

"Just go in and sit on the couch over there, and calm down woman, I'm going to get J."

"Don't just leave me here!" I said sternly. Suddenly this man who 5 minutes ago was my worst enemy suddenly became my security blanket.

"He's a person just like you," he said again.

He's just like me, I kept telling myself over and over again as I sat alone in this massive dressing room. I looked around and there were clothes racks on the side of the room where we just entered. In front of me was a big screen TV with a table of half eaten food under it. To the left of me there were 4 dog bowls and two sleeping dogs. I could hear a shower running and music playing lightly in what I could only assume was the bathroom. I focused on my breathing, because if I didn't I probably would have had a heart attack.

"He's in the shower, he'll be right out," I heard Eric say what seemed like 5 hours later.

"Cool," I said, trying to calm myself down. "He's a person just like me."

"You might not want to say that out loud when he comes out here, he might think you're insane," Eric said with a chuckle.

"Funny," I managed to say.

"I'll come back and check on you, just stay calm."

"Thanks," I said sincerely because I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be breathing before Justin actually came out. I watched Eric walk out the same door we walked in earlier and just closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down. I don't know how long I was sitting like that but I was interrupted by a voice that I had heard so many times before.

"Hey," he said. I opened my eyes but couldn't look up at him.

"Hi," I said back.