5: Fireworks
Is Justin cheating on Scarlett?
Quiet as it’s kept, superstars Justin Timberlake and Scarlett Johansson have been dating for several years now, and if you ask the right person, they’re even set to be married sooner than later. But video has surfaced of Justin hanging out with another woman this past Friday night, and he shares more with her than just a cigarette break. They are seen laughing and talking for several minutes outside Lucky Strike in Hollywood before embracing and then parting ways.
The mystery lady wouldn’t speak to our videographer, but separate sources say that she is Zooey Levin, sister of the ultra-fab girlfriend of Kanye West, Emile Levin. We’re not sure what this means for Justin’s impending nuptials, but watch the video and decide for yourself: Is Justin cheating on Scarlett?
Zooey had made the dire mistake of setting up a Google alert for any news-like items containing Emile’s name, as she found much amusement in most of the things bloggers had to say about her. She wished she had kept count of how many times the phrases, “absolutely fabulous” or “trying too hard” had been used to describe her sister. But the more recognizable Em became, the more Zooey realized she didn’t want to know what other people thought. Comments went from comical to downright vicious and she meant to edit her Google settings long before that morning.
But alas, she hadn’t yet gotten around to it, and so when she scrolled through her alerts, imagine her surprise when she glossed over a Justin Timberlake headline in relation to an ‘Emile Levin’ search.
“What the hell?” she said out loud to her empty kitchen. She quickly read through the story, mortified to find that the blurb was actually about her. “What the hell?!”
She only stared blankly at her glossy computer screen, scared to click on the linked video and see firsthand what the implications of a homewrecker looked like. Shocked and annoyed, she didn’t know what to do but call her sister.
“What?” Emile answered, though she shouldn’t have, as she had clearly been preoccupied with a deep slumber.
“Em, I’m on Google,” she whined, sounding every bit the baby sister that she was.
And coming off like the perpetually-agitated big sister, Emile barked back, “What?”
“I came up in a Google alert with you.”
“Bitch, do you know what time it is?”
Zooey glanced at the top of her computer screen and frowned. “It’s almost eleven thirty.”
“Oh.” With a loud sigh, Emile sat up in her bed in order to listen to her sibling. “Okay, what are you buggin’ about?”
“Goddamnit, Em. Okay,” she exhaled. “You know how we went out with Justin on Friday?”
“That was Friday? I thought that was weeks ago.”
“Not you and me ‘we!’”
“You went out with him again?”
“I told you I did!”
“Look, hooker, you know he’s getting married,” she reminded her, as if that weren’t part of the dilemma in the first place.
“No shit,” she rolled her eyes.
“You should’ve had your ass at a Temple Israel on Friday.”
As neither one of them had practiced Judaism for over a decade, Zooey easily glossed over Emile’s comment. “So anyway,” she went on, “we went bowling with a whole group, everything ended on a good note, and then my dumb ass asked him to go outside with me for a smoke.”
“Okay…”
“So we’re talking and doing a little of the tipsy flirt, I think, but still all harmless… and then we say good night.”
“Okay…”
“Then, like not more than a minute after he leaves, this cameraman appears out of the blue and starts talking to me.”
“And what did you say to him?”
“I didn’t say anything! I totally ignored him.”
“So… what’s the problem exactly?”
“Well, like I said, I woke up this morning, and the first thing I see is the video of us with a headline asking if Justin is cheating on his fiancée.”
Emile, in her groggy state of mind, tried to piece all of this useless information together and came to an irritating conclusion. “Is that why you’re calling me? Because of some fucking blogs?”
“Well what am I supposed to do?”
“Why do you need to do anything?” she asked as if the answer were obvious. “Did you kiss?”
“No,” she shook her head as if her sister were in front of her. “We just hugged.”
“You slutacious little harlot,” Emile joked, still wanting to strangle her sister for waking her up. “Seriously, Zo, this is a non-problem. Someone like Justin is more than used to bullshit like this. What did I tell you about caring so much?”
“That I’ll only get myself hurt,” she flatly repeated her sister’s words of wisdom from back when their parents were divorcing.
“That’s right. Now. Go revel in the fact that you’re about to be famous, little sister.”
Just when Zooey had resolved that she’d overreacted, she was back in a flit. “What?!”
“Well yeah, people are already deciding, at this very moment, that you two are fucking each other, so… prepare yourself!”
“Em, what--.”
“I gotta run, babe. Call me if you need to.”
And with that, Emile’s end of the line went silent, leaving Zooey to fend for herself. To put thoughts of her “affair” out of her head, she went on to read about Em and how she had been spotted in New York City rocking a neon multicolored, skin-tight dress, “looking brighter than a pack of tropical punch Capri Suns.” Knowing her sister, that sounded just about right and she couldn’t help but laugh. And maybe that was all she could do in her own situation as well. Laugh it off. She certainly hadn’t done anything wrong, so what else was there to do?
____________________
Meanwhile, at the other side of the country, Justin was engaged in things completely unrelated, oblivious to the rumor mill that had been started. Justin was certainly no stranger to speculation, but it had been years since anyone bothered to insinuate that he was cheating on his girlfriend. It seemed they got bored with the prospect, seeing how it always panned out to be nothing. That was precisely why he was mildly surprised when he got a text from Zooey warning him that they’d been “outed.”
A bit nervous at the thought, he locked himself in the front bathroom of his apartment and replied to her announcement: Lol, what do you mean?
Well it seems that after our outing on Friday night, people on the internet have decided that we’re in the midst of a torrid affair…
By ‘people on the internet’ please tell me you’re referring to the voices in your head
Lmao I wish
Are you serious right now?
Yes. I stumbled upon the stories this morning.
Plural?
Well it’s really just the same story in several different places, but still… embarrassing lol.
And suddenly, Justin found himself in a panic. A litany of thoughts ran through his overactive imagination, all of which concluded with Scarlett finding out, canceling the wedding, and leaving him to stew in his own misery. How had a harmless night out with a group of friends turned into a sordid affair? Fucking Hollywood, he thought.
Annoyed, he halted their textual conversation to call his cohort. “What the hell?” he greeted her once she picked up.
“I know,” she chuckled back, feeling a bit guilty for no reason at all. “I was shocked.”
Justin wasn’t quite shocked, because he knew the nature of his business, but he was a bit blindsided. He had done so much flying by the seat of his pants with Zooey, he let a little bit too much of his guard down. “I should’ve known better.”
“There’s no way we could’ve predicted this,” she offered diplomatically.
“No, I could’ve. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Well we did have a few drinks.”
“I mean all along,” he came to realize, slightly irritated by the notion. “I’ve been acting recklessly, hanging out with you and your crew, knowing that I shouldn’t have.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Zooey.” He said her name as if she were a child that needed reprimanding. “I’m getting married in two weeks. How do you think that looks?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t think about it at all, I guess.”
And that statement more than annoyed him, because she was too smart to not have had the thought cross her mind at least once. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Well, I mean, I thought about it, but I never really let myself come to a conclusion.”
“Uh huh.”
“I know it doesn’t necessarily look good, Justin, but we’ve done nothing wrong. Have we?”
I could tell it wasn’t love, I just thought you fucked with me
Who could’ve predicted Lucky Strike would have you stuck with me
“I dunno,” he exhaled, exasperated. When she was in his presence, none of the things he knew made sense anymore. Nothing was absolute, nothing was succinct, he just found himself questioning everything. Even Zooey’s genuineness. “I just feel like I’ve been set up or something.”
Zooey felt a drop in the pit of her stomach, absolutely saddened by the idea that he would think anything like that. She had done nothing but show him everything. She hadn’t lied to him, put up any pretenses, if anything, she was too honest with him, and there he was, blaming her for it. “What?”
What happened between us that night, it always seems to trouble me
“I didn’t mean it the way it came out,” he tried to take it back, hearing the disdain in her voice. “I just… I dunno.”
“What, you think I brought you outside with the intent of having us caught on camera? Really?”
“I don’t think that.”
“Then what do you think?”
“I don’t know what I think, honestly.”
She chuckled, but in a way that clearly said she was put off, and then sighed. “Wow.”
Now all of a sudden these gossip rags wanna cover me
And you makin’ it seem like it happened that way because of me
“I didn’t mean to offend you, I’m just say--.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s actually better this way,” she snipped. “Nothing worse than being in a one-sided relationship. Hey, by the way, is Scarlett there? Are you paying attention to her this week?”
He balked at her insinuation, looking at his phone as if it had just spat on him. “You know what? Fuck you, you brought this to me.”
“I was trying to give you a head’s up, not criminalize myself!”
“Just in time to be too late, of course.”
“You’re an arrogant bastard,” she sputtered angrily. “I have done nothing but be completely honest with you, I don’t know where the fuck you get off acting like I have any reason to deceive you. If anything, you’re the liar between us.”
“What the hell have I lied to you about?”
“I don’t know whether you’ve lied to me, really, but I’m betting you’re not a hundred percent honest with your future wife about your whereabouts. Which, if you haven’t figured it out, is a lot more troubling than anything you may or may not have told me.”
“How would you have any clue what I am with my future wife?”
“Does she know who I am?”
“Who are you?” he retorted coldly.
“Wowwwww,” Zooey replied exaggeratedly, attempting to hide the fact that his little quip really stung like a bitch. “Okay.”
“I mean really, who are you? Why would you be important to her?”
“All right, Justin, I get it. I am nobody and nothing to you.”
There was smoke in the air before, that was me clearin’ it
That couldn’t be further from the truth. He was frustrated and nervous, but he wasn’t trying to hurt her here. “Stop.” He sighed heavily, wishing he had never started this. “I take that back.”
“You can’t just take it back, you fuckin’ said it. If that’s how you feel, own that shit.”
“It’s not.”
“Fuck you, it is.”
For Justin, it was hard for him to allow new people into his life, knowing that they may want any number of things from him. He wasn’t used to being so open to strangers, so welcoming and at ease with someone he didn’t know prior to “making it big.” Having one of the most recognizable names and faces on the planet didn’t allow him many freedoms, and it was only natural for him to be guarded… jaded, even. So why was it that when Zooey appeared, all of that flew out of the window? It fucked with his head, to say the least, and all he could think, for just a moment too long, was that his carelessness had come to bite him in the ass. He was wrong.
“I’m sorry,” he proclaimed after a long silence “ one he stubbornly refused to fill. “I don’t know what I’m saying.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You’ve never said anything you wished you could take back?”
“No.”
“Bullshit.”
“I say what I feel and think before I speak.”
“Well sorry for not doing things exactly the way you do.”
“Apology not accepted,” she rebutted, frustrated with their whole exchange. As trusting as Zooey was, she didn’t want to understand why it was so hard for him to reciprocate. “I guess we should just end this here.” She was surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth, because she thought for sure he would be the one to say it first. “…While we’re still nobody to one another.”
“Zooey, I don’t wanna just end it. I’m trying to apologize here.”
“It’s too late.”
“It was like three minutes ago!”
“You hurt my feelings. I don’t do that to people and I expect the same respect, so fuck you.” It took a lot for her to get angry. She was an excessively open person that didn’t hold onto much of anything, but when she did get mad, it was hard for her to shake.
All in all, I learned a lesson from it though
You never see it coming, you just get to see it go
“Zooey.”
“Bye, Justin.”
And then she was gone, leaving him with a bizarre combination of detachment and interest, pride and scorn. He knew he shouldn’t have said what he said, and he didn’t even know why he reacted the way he did. Maybe he was subconsciously trying to do what he hadn’t been able to “ let her go. After all, he was getting married, and a new female friend didn’t really fit into that equation. But none of those thoughts really mattered when it boiled down to it. He wanted her in his life, no matter how it looked to the rest of the world.
Escaping the bathroom, he filed back into the kitchen with a frown on his face. “Fuck,” he whispered to himself.
“Who was that?” Scarlett entered the room breezily, seeing him drop his phone to the kitchen counter.
Dazed, he looked up at his girlfriend, unsure of how to answer that without lying. “Nobody,” he decided to say.
“You were yelling at nobody?” she chuckled.
“What?”
“You just yelled to somebody, ‘That was three minutes ago!’” she reminded him. “Are you waiting on a car or something?”
Thankful that she had given him an out, he took it. “Oh. Yeah. I was thinking…”
“That’s always dangerous,” she smirked, oblivious to the thoughts running rampant in his mind.
“Let’s go get our marriage license today.”
“What?” She almost choked on the raspberry she had stuffed in her mouth, surprised by his suggestion.
“I’m not busy today. Are you?”
She only shook her head, confused by his sudden need. “But we’re not getting married in New York, it won’t count for anything.”
“Really?”
“I’m pretty sure, yeah,” she sighed, disappointed. “It was a nice thought, though.”
He watched in defeat as she moved further into the kitchen, beginning to stow away their clean breakfast dishes. She was going to be the perfect wife, he thought. “Hey.”
She paused to look at him, as she always did when he spoke.
“What if…” he took her delicate hand into his, gazing at the two-carat diamond he’d placed on her finger just a few months before. “What if we got married in New York?”
“We’re getting married in Mexico,” she reminded him, pursing her lips in amusement. “What are you talking about?”
“I know we’re having a wedding there, but what if we got married here first. Just the two of us.”
“Are you serious?” She watched him nod confidently and her smile grew tenfold. “No bullshit?”
“I’m for real, Tess. We can apply for our license right now,” he maintained, pulling all the details together as he spoke. “And then twenty-four hours later, we can get married.”
“But it’s Sunday. None of the license bureaus will be open.”
“Okay, well we can start online and then be married in forty-eight hours.”
“Like Beyonce and Jay-Z?” she giggled.
“Something like that.”
Ecstatic at the thought, Scarlett could only nod as she held back her tears, falling further in love with her fiancé as the seconds passed. She nodded excitedly.
I should’ve looked up in the sky at first
Now I can see it in her eyes
If only she knew what had prompted his sudden burst of spontaneity.
Fireworks
Lyrics: "Fireworks" - Drake feat. Alicia Keys (Thank Me Later)
Author's Chapter Notes:
I just wanted to give you guys a big ass THANK YOU for all the feedback you've given me. It keeps me so motivated and smiley lol. I'm slowly but surely replying to everyone, work is a bitch and I'm swamped, so bear with me! In the meantime, I don't even know what to say but thank you, thank you, thank you. You're far too kind. ILU guysss. - Ash
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