With a smile from ear to ear Anna pushed open the door of the locker room and took a sip of her Frappachino. She gave Arlen’s shoulder a small squeeze when she passed him in the hallway and went to check out her schedule for the day.

“Someone looks mighty pleased with herself,” he joked sliding onto the corner of the table and stealing the straw. He took a quick sip before Anna pulled it from his reach.

“I happened to have had a nice night. Not that it’s any of your business.”

Arlen huffed and stuck out his lip, “Annabelle.”

“Don’t whine at me Arlen!” She let out a laugh and used her free hand to smooth out the front of her new scrubs. “Pepper’s pregnant. Trace is being nice again. And Justin bought us ice cream. So of course I’m gunna be happy today.”

“The three of you all hang out,” the older man asked following her down the hallway.

“Yeah,” she called over her shoulder, “why wouldn’t we?”

Arlen shook his head at her. She was so naive it was funny. “How can one get into your pants when the other is there. Unless,” he trailed off tapping a stumpy finger to his lips.

“You kill me Arlen,” Anna proclaimed tossing the empty bottle into the garbage and giving her ponytail a quick tightening.

“Beach, beach, beach, beach, beach, beach, beach,” Kendall sang happily swinging her bag.

“And this is the environment where you met her? Didn’t she give any warning signs,” Zoe asked from her position next to Justin.

“Didn’t know, I swear,” Justin told her.

“Come on slow pokes,” Kendall cried turning around and noticing everyone was just making their way across the parking lot. She grabbed Anna by the arm and yanked her up the steps and onto the sand.

“Hot!” Anna cried throwing her sandals on the ground and slipping them back on.

“All the better to get in the water my dear,” Kendall laughed. The two ran down to the edge of the water and let the ocean cool their feet. After a few minutes they rejoined their friends who had already set up camp.

“You did that on purpose,” Trace accused, pointing at Kendall while putting the finishing touch on the large umbrella. “You didn’t want to help. And then pretended you couldn’t hear us. No lotion for you.”

“Ah shut it,” Kendall told him pulling her own towel and lotion from her bag. When she was done she grabbed Zoe and Tani by the elbow and drug them to the water’s edge. The three held hands and jumped into the incoming waves.

Justin and Trace shared their own bottle of lotion and watched the three roommates jump around in the water like five year olds. They had gotten over their little tiff with a lot of help from both of their mothers calling the other. But Justin still wasn’t sure why Trace had exploded and been so mad at him or so rude to Anna. True to his word, however, he had taken Trace on a mini-vacation. Even if it was just a few hours away and for a day.

Anna slipped out of her terry dress and folded it neatly next to her towel. She then reached for the lotion left behind by Kendall and started rubbing some on her shoulders. She didn’t notice Justin and Trace exchange looks of pure shock.

“Need any help,” Trace asked motioning to the lotion. He rubbed his hand over his chest to illustrate.

“No thanks,” Anna told him rubbing the remaining lotion on her face. “That should do for now.” She gave the knot of her bathing suit a cautionary tug.

“Oh.”

“Let’s go,” Justin exploded between the two. He caught Anna around the waist and Trace in a headlock and ran with them to join the other girls.

It was about two hours later and the girls decide to take a break from avoiding the waves and have a snack. Justin and Trace were out showing the local kids how to boogie board.

“Hey Anna,” Kendall asked popping a frozen grape into her mouth.

“Key Ken,” Anna answered.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were so hot?”

“I assumed you could feel the sun too?”

“No,” Kendall laughed, “hot, hot. You know. Bangable.”

“Oh wow,” Anna laughed nearly choking on her grape, “I must have forgotten.”

“Not everyone feels the need to flaunt themselves,” Tani replied.

Kendall tried not to let Tani’s dig get to her. “You’re just jealous because Justin’s been checking Anna out all day and not you.”

“What,” the two exclaimed together.

“I am not jealous.”

“He’s not checking me out.”

Zoe nodded from her seat in the shade, “Actually I think he was. Why do you think he keeps running into the water whenever you come over here?”

“It’s hot out,” Anna asked.

“No,” Kendall smiled, “I think he likes you. And your little green bikini. But most of all I think Lil Justin likes you too.”

“Would ya stop with the Justin likes Anna stuff,” she said shaking her head. “I’m not really the type of girl that meshes with a guy like Justin in anything more than a platonic way.”

Tani let out a laugh, “Zoe’s right. You are like a real therapist or something. But in all reality, Justin’s type is anything hot and with a vagina.”

“Ew, Tani!” Kendall cried holding her hands over her ears.

“Vagina, vagina, vagina,” Tani chanted leaning closer to Kendall with each word.

“Hey now, what kind of conversation is this,” Justin demanded plopping his wet self between Anna and Kendall.

Zoe looked up at Trace who was looking down at Justin with a scowl, obviously having stolen his seat. “Just talking about all the similarities we have with Trace.”

“That was low,” Justin smiled through a laugh, shaking his head. He grabbed a couple grapes from Anna’s hand. “Were you girls talking about me again?”

Zoe zonked him on the nose with one of her grapes, “Ego check Timberlake. We were talking about Anna.”

“And her bathing suit,” Kendall snuck in, “what are your thoughts?”

Nervously Anna bit her lip when he turned his attention to her bikini. She had no problems hanging out with him, but now that he was staring at her while she had minimal amounts of clothing she felt very self conscious. She was fairly certain her cheeks were bright red. “I guess we know Victoria’s Secret now.”

“Justin!” Anna smacked his shoulder.

“Why do you know what,” Tani questioned in shock.

He shrugged his shoulders, “Trace leaves the magazine in the bathroom. I need something to look at sometimes.”

“Ok, wow, we’re changing topics now,” Anna answered standing up and brushing stray pieces of sand off her legs. “Who wants to race me?”

Zoe took the brunette’s hand and as they walked down the beach they could hear Justin yelling behind them, “It’s a natural part of life. Don’t be so snooty Annabelle.”

“Puh-lease,” Kendall pleaded like a two year old into the mouth piece of her phone. Zoe, Tani, and Trace sat around the room listening in on the call over speakerphone. Anna was only in the next room but they were too lazy to walk across the hall. Justin had gotten held up in the lobby of the hotel signing autographs and taking pictures.

“Sorry Ken,” she heard Anna groan over the phone. “Just go on out without me.”

“But you’ll be bored,” Kendall whined again.

Zoe snactched the phone from the blonde’s hand, “Let her be Kendall. She’ll try to get some aloe and that alone will be an adventure.”

“I’m glad you are all laughing at my misfortunes,” Anna pouted.

“We’ll bring you some chicken fingers,” Tani offered.

“Done deal,” Anna laughed, “Go have some sex on the beach.”

Trace threw an arm around Tani and Kendall, “You heard the lady.”

“Ugh,” Tani said removing his arm, “Now I have to take another shower.”

Anna lay on the crisp, clean white sheets of her hotel bed and tried not to move. After Kendall called pleading for her to go out with everyone she had passed out from exhaustion. She cursed under her breath when she heard someone banging on the door. “No one’s home,” she called out, muffled by the pillow in her face.

The pounding stopped, “Oh. Well if no one’s there I guess I can take Anna’s aloe somewhere else then.”

Anna shot up. “Justin!?” She creaped to the door and opened it to find him in a tank top and basketball shorts holding an obscenely large bottle of green aloe. He smirked.

“Red’s a good color for you Annester. Although I prefer green. But-”

The door cut him off when the wind caught it and slammed shut. “Ha. Ha.” The two retreated to the interior of the room and Justin sprawled himself out on the bed laying the lotion against his left leg. “How bad does it hurt An?”

She gingerly touched her shoulder and watched the skin turn from red, to white at the touch, then back to a blinding red again. “What do you think?” She went to reach for the lotion and it was only then that she noticed his shoulders were a bit red too. “You’re a bit burnt too buddy.”

He shrugged, “When you’re this white it tends to happen. But, see, I knew better. I put on sunscreen. That’s why I’m only pink and you can be mistaken for the Kool-Aid man.”

“Well excuuuse me if I haven’t spent my life on the beach.”

“It’s really common knowledge Anna,” Justin smirked.

“Maybe to you. I grew up in Indiana. What the hell use do I have for a beach and beach-ly things,” Anna nearly shouted, “the closest I’ve been to a beach is the Indiana sand dunes.”

“You live in Florida,” Justin pointed out.

“Central Florida. I work 60 hours a week, I don’t have time to drive to the beach like you.”

“You made it this weekend, didn’t you?” He looked at her, challenging her to come up with another comeback.

“I bribed Arlen to cover for me.” She told him lightly placing her hand on her neck. She could already feel the heat stinging her neck.

“With what?”

“Pictures of you, naked.”

Justin’s hands slipped on the bottle of aloe he’d been holding and the green liquid shot out onto the comforter. “What!?

Anna laughed at his astonished face. “Zoe said she’d hook me up.”

“Anna-you can’t-how-but-No,” he stuttered.

She reached across the bed and grabbed the bottle from him and squirted aloe onto her hand. “Relax. It’s not like I was really going to,” she admitted, “you’re not his type anyway.”

A little offended Justin asked, “Why not?”

“He likes guys with some meat on them,” she laughed softly, “a little cushion if you will. But I‘m sure if you had a couple hamburgers or something he’d seriously consider you.”

“No thanks,” Justin answered scrunching his nose in disgust. “Arlen’s not my type anyway.”

Squiring another handful of aloe into her hand Anna asked, “Then what is your type?”

He had to clear his throat before he could begin. Anna had pulled up the bottom of her tank top to reveal a very defined and very red stomach. “Um, I like a girl that knows who she is, doesn’t put up with bullshit, and is hot.”

Hand on the lotion pump Anna laughed, “Yeah, I knew that. I’ve met some of your exes, remember? But I mean, really.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Really what?”

Anna gave his leg a little kick with her foot, “You’re such a guy. I like hot girls. Duh!”

“You do!? I never knew Anna.”

She playfully smacked her handful of aloe onto his forearm, “You know what I meant Justin.”

But he didn’t respond to her soft laughter. He was staring at the glob that was slowly starting to slide off his arm and onto his leg. “Did you just gloop me?”

“Gloop you? Uh, I put some lotion on your arm. Just a friendly reminder that you too were kissed by the sun today.”

Rubbing the lotion up his arm he countered, “Well if I was kissed I don’t wanna know what the sun did to you.”

“He raped me is what he did,” Anna teased.

The pair shared a couple minutes of laugher. Anna placed the aloe bottle on the nightstand and leaned across the bed supporting herself with her elbows. “You didn’t go out with everyone huh?”

“Nah,” he replied picking at the fabric of the comforter, “too tired.”

“Me too,” Anna replied. And to demonstrate her point she let out a long yawn. “Who knew laying down would make you so tired.”

“Maybe if you’d have let us teach you to surf-”

“Can’t you break bones doing that? Yeah. People have died in surfing accidents and they were professionals. No thank you. I’m happy with my nose and all my bones just the way they are.”

Slipping his arm under his head Justin let out an agreeable laugh, “I guess that makes sense. So if you won’t surf, what will you do?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. Anna’s response was the smack him in the stomach.

“Justin Timberlake! You look at your momma with those eyebrows?”

Trace held Kendall and Zoe under each of his arms while Tani trailed behind running her fingers along the wall. They had only gotten as far as the hotel bar and had spent a few hours on the pool deck reminiscing about the old days. Even though they had only been out for a short while the sun had defiantly made them more tired than they expected. Trudging to the elevators and down the hallway it seemed like they would never reach their rooms.

“Trace,” Kendall mumbled stopping in the middle of the hallway and looking down at him. “Will you be my cuddle buddy?”

He took a step forward forcing her to keep moving. “I thought that was Anna’s job. She’s your roomie tonight.”

Kendall shook her head wildly, “No! Justin’s Anna’s cuddle buddy tonight.” She snickered into her hands and flopped her head on Trace’s shoulder.

“Oh really,” he asked patting each of his pockets not remembering which one he put the key in.

“Yep!” He finally pulled the key from his back left pocket and slid it into the door. Holding it open he waited for the girls to make their way into the room.

“You have to be my cuddle buddy,” Kendall repeated once Tani and Zoe were in their room and the door was closed. With her best attempt at a pout Kendall pulled on his hand. Trace let out a deep sigh. His eyes wandered from the door across the hall to Kendall.

“One condition,” he replied slowly walking to the next door. “You have to tell me why Justin’s Anna’s cuddly buddy.”