February 7, 2000

You know when you meet someone and it just changes everything? That was Justin. The  first few days were like floating on a cloud, they breezed by without either of us noticing. Justin stayed at my apartment all weekend. We left only once to go to a quiet diner for a late dinner, and ordered in for every other meal. I liked being a hermit, and Justin seemed to like it even more. 

It was Monday morning when I woke up to an empty bed. My heart stopped beating for a second as I looked around the room. It was stupid of me to think this could last forever. I realized I didn’t know much about him, especially not the important things like his phone number. But, I couldn’t believe he’d actually sneak out in the middle of the night while I was still sleeping.

It was too early for me to think, so I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep. 

I woke when the front door opened and Justin walked in, tossing my keeps on the table before taking off his baseball hat. “Morning, you’re finally awake.”

“Morning,” I answered groggily, stretching my arms over my head and falling back to the bed, “I thought you snuck out and left me.”

“Now, why would I do that?” he asked with a smile as he held up a cardboard holder with four cups in it, “Just went to get coffee. You’re all out of coffee.”

I didn’t respond , instead I pulled the covers over my chin, suddenly feeling self conscious. I should have taken the time he was gone to shower, or at least brush my teeth. 

“I stole your car,” he continued. 

“Don’t do that,” I smiled, “Did you bring it back?”

“Yup, not a scratch,” he answered proudly. 

I nodded my head and curled up under the covers, “How did you even know it was mine?”

He looked down and chuckled, “I just, ya’know, I tried the Toyotas.”

I giggled, imagining him trying to get into all the Toyotas in the parking lot. 

“Do you want your coffee over there?”

“That’s a lot of coffee.”

“I didn’t know what you’d want. You’re such a heavy sleeper!” he sat next to me on the bed, “Regular, latte, cappuccino, or mocha?”

“Oh, I’ll take a latte please. Thanks,” I managed to sit up as he handed it to me, “Is it before 10 o’clock?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, “It’s 6:30”

“6:30? What is wrong with you? I don’t function before ten.”

“That’s what the coffee is for.”

“There’s not enough coffee in the world,” I took a sip then placed the cup next to my bed. “Do you always get up this early?” he nodded his head, “How come I haven’t woken up before?”

“You had coffee,” he smiled, “I didn’t have to go get some.”

“If you need coffee to wake up, you should just go back to sleep,” I fell back on the bed and looked up at him, “Come back to bed,” I whined.

Justin chuckled as he pushed his shoes off and pulled his legs on the bed, “I’m not tired.”

“How are you not tired? We got like four hours of sleep.”

“That’s pretty good for me, actually.”

I gave him a look as I felt my eye lids getting heavy, “I really can’t function, I’m sorry.”

“Then go back to sleep.”

“I don’t want you to leave. I’ve got quite the conundrum here.”

“God, you’re so fucking adorable,” Justin placed his coffee on the bedside table and laid down. He pulled me to his chest and said, “Go to sleep, sleepy head. I’m not going anywhere.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up again I felt so much better. My anxiety of Justin leaving was gone as I looked to see him sleeping next to me.  I

“Are you awake for good, now?” he asked, without opening his eyes. 

“Yes,”  I laughed, “I thought you fell asleep.”

“Nah,” he chuckled, opening his eyes and pulling me on top of him, “You sleep more than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. You’re like a koala.”

“I am not! I sleep a normal amount of time. You’re the weirdo, you sleep like a deer.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Deer sleep like three hours a day. You slept for four.”

Justin shrugged and kissed my forehead, “I need to get some clean clothes. I mean, I want to stay here and hang with you but I need new clothes. I also need to hear you play. Where do you usually play?”

“There’s practice rooms at school— but they’re small and cramped and sometimes smelly.”

“Let’s go to my house then. I have a piano. It’s almost never smelly.”

“I love that idea,” I sat up, “Is it a good piano?”

“Yeah, it’s alright,” he chuckled, “In tune, what else do you need?”

“Sounds perfect,” I smiled, “Let’s go.”

As we walked through the campus to Justin’s Lexus he nervously pulled his hat down. I giggled and wrapped my arm around his waist. 

“What are you giggling at?”

“You’re just like, so paranoid.”

He chuckled, “It’s not paranoia, it’s caution. I’m not making it up. Jeez Mac, you really have no idea.”

“Maybe it’s mostly being cautious but I think there might be a little paranoia thrown in there, maybe just a little.”

“Alright, whatever you say,” he smiled as he opened the passenger side door to his black Lexus sports coupe. 

I smiled as I got in, and waited for him to walk around to the other side before I spoke again, “Do you think, maybe, if you didn’t drive such a flashy car you wouldn’t bring as much attention to yourself?”

He coughed back a laugh, “You are a piece of work. I’ll have you know this is not a flashy car.”

“Oh, ok,” I chuckled, “I’m just saying most people under twenty do not own Lexus sports cars.”

“That’s a complete lie. Do you even know how many sports cars there are in that SAE parking lot?”

I laughed as he grabbed onto my hand, “You don’t want to me like them.”

“I’m not like them,” he paused, “well shit, now I don’t know if I want you to see my house.”

He drove up the hills and stopped at a gate so big we couldn’t seen anything behind it. Justin smiled nervously as he entered a code and the gate opened like the Jurassic Park gate. He slowly drove up the long driveway and waited patiently for my reaction. I was surprised by the way he was looking at me, like he was really nervous, almost ashamed of his house. It didn’t make any sense. We were parked in front of this huge house and he looked at me nervously for some kind of approval. 

“Not too bad,” I answered, shrugging my shoulders. 

He chuckled and tossed his baseball cap into the backseat. 

Once Justin opened the front door I froze in the doorway, looking at the beautiful grand  piano staring back at me. The sun was shining through the window, bouncing off it’s beautiful, shiny, white frame. 

I heard a chuckle and broke from my daze, “Come on in,” Justin answered, tossing his keys on a table by the door. 

“I’m… in love.”

“That’s really sweet, but it’s kinda weird. I mean, we really just met.”

I missed his joke completely and walked in a trance to the piano. “Can I—“

“Sit,” he pulled the bench out for me, “Let me hear the master.”

“I should wash my hands first.”

“Oh my god Mac, sit.”

I did as I was told, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes before reaching my hands towards the keys. Before I touched them I looked to the right corner of the keyboard, “Why does it say John Lennon?”

Justin smiled, “It was just… his piano,” he answered as if it wasn’t a big deal. As if it’s completely normal to own a piano that used to belong to the greatest song writer in the history of the world. 

“What?” I shouted as I stood up and wandered away “What is wrong with you? I need to wash my hands. How is that not like a selling point? How do you not even mention that? Where is the bathroom?”

“I thought you’d freak out, obviously I underestimated you. First door on the left.”

I scrubbed my hands and took a deep breath before walking back into the living room where Justin was sitting on the bench. 

“You good?”

“I’m—“ I tried to gather my thoughts, “Justin, why—how do you have John Lennon’s piano?”

He tapped the bench and I slowly sat down next to him. “I know it’s not something you don’t necessarily believe but, as I’ve said, I’m kind of a big deal.” I gave him a look and he laughed, “I bought it Mac. It was on auction and I was the highest bidder. Please play me a song.”

“I feel like I shouldn’t touch it though.”

“John Lennon would want you to touch it. He wouldn’t want it to sit here and collect dust.”

“Is that his real signature?”

“I sure hope so, otherwise that was a huge waste of money,” he smiled, “Mackenzie, will you please play for me?”

“I just feel like this should be in a museum or something.”

“OK, this piano was one of John Lennon’s pianos. He had many pianos, let’s be honest. He had many homes. So really, it’s just a piano.”

“OK, fine,” I reached my hands towards the keys again, “I should probably play Imagine, right?”

“Yeah, sure. Play Imagine,” he didn’t sound too excited about my song choice, but I closed my eyes and played it anyway. Justin sang as I played the chords, and when I hit the last chord I kept my eyes closed. 

“You alright?”

I nodded my head before slowly opening my eyes, “That was like, one of those out of body experiences.”

Justin laughed so hard his whole body shook, but just for a second, “Are you one of those hippie kids?”

“No!” I playfully bumped into him, “I just played John Lennon on John Lennon’s piano. How are you not impressed by this?”

He watched me carefully and smiled, “I’m just messing with you. I bought the damn piano, didn’t I? Of course I’m impressed.”

I let out a sigh and played around on the piano. Of course he’s impressed. “You have a really nice voice.”

“Thank you. You sound surprised.”

I chuckled, stopped playing, and looked over at him, “Don’t take this the wrong way Justin Timberlake, but I don’t know much about your music.”

“I know.”

“So I didn’t necessarily know if you’d have a good voice. There are plenty of people who sing as a profession that have horrible voices.”

“Like?”

“Cher. Jim Morrison.”

“Jim Morrison?”

“Not a very good singer, his voice wasn’t very good. He’s a legend, but his singing was just not… as great.”

“OK,” he chuckled, “That guy from Smash Mouth.”

“Yeah! You’re getting it.”

Justin smiled, “Can you please play a real song? Something I can’t play. Impress me.”

“Impress you. Hmm,” I started to play around, deciding on what song to play, “OK, I guess I can impress you with some Chopin. You’re going to have to move though, I need the whole piano.”

He quickly jumped up, already looking impressed. 

“You probably know this one, but it’s Chopin’s Scherzo Number 2. They say it’s written in B flat major, but really it’s mostly in D flat major. And A major.”

“You talk so much.”

“Shhh,” I answered with a giggle before closing my eyes and beginning the movement. 

As I played the final chord I opened my eyes. 

Justin sat down next to me, “OK,” he answered softly, “I’m impressed.”

I laughed and rested my head on his shoulder, “We should stay here.”

“Nah.”

“But you have this amazing piano.”

“If we stay here you’re just going to play the piano all night and ignore me.” 

I smiled. 

“It’s true,” he chuckled.

“It is true,” I agreed, “What can you play?”

“I can play Hey Jude,” he began playing, “and Stand by Me. Ya know, the classics”

“The classics, huh?” I laughed, “How about Beethoven? 

“Nah, how about Sinatra?” he began playing and singing Fly Me to the Moon.

“I like that one,” although, I’m sure it has nothing to do with how sexy he looks and sounds singing it. 

“But you like the classical music better?”

“It’s just that these pop songs are so boring. For the piano,” I laughed at the look he gave me, “Classical music stands on it’s own and carries the melody. Pop music relies so heavily on lyrics.”

Justin shrugged and placed his arm around my waist, “Is that so bad?”

“No, it’s just different. I like classical music better because it’s more challenging for the piano. You like popular music because you don’t just play the piano, you write the lyrics.”

As I turned away from the piano to face Justin he kissed me, “God I love  it when you talk music to me.”

I giggled and he grabbed onto my hand, “Come upstairs with me.”

“I suppose I should see the rest of your house.”

“Yeah, sure. The rest of my house.”

It was hard for me to understand why Justin would ever prefer to spend so much time in my tiny studio apartment on the far side of the UCLA campus when he could stay in his huge house. Of course, looking back I realized how obvious it was that he was looking for an escape from his completely abnormal life. 

I was that escape for him, at least that’s how it started.