Chapter 13

She woke up and was afraid to open her eyes. She knew the instant she woke up she had a hangover. And the instant she woke up, she remembered everything she had said, done, and felt the night before. She had totally acted like a slut.

But when she thought back, she thought she was acting without any walls, without any defenses. She was drunk, but she was doing what she wanted.

She squinted open her eyes and thanked God no lights were on. Her head started to throb. She closed her eyes again and moved to stretch.

She heard his groan and almost wanted to groan herself. What the hell had she done last night? She rolled over on her side away from him and curled up.

“You up?”

She mumbled an “unfortunately” at him. She felt his body curl up to hers and spoon her.

She started to smile.

Why the fuck am I smiling? She felt horrible. His breath tickled her earlobe as he whispered, “want me to go get you some Advil?”

“Sure.” Moments later, she was still laying there with her eyes closed, when she felt the weight of the bed shift. She rolled over and squinted her eyes at him. She made out a grin and two hands: One offering drugs and the other offering something to wash it down.

“Thanks.”

She set up a little so she could drink down the Advil with water and then placed the glass on the counter, praying she hadn’t drank enough to make her throw up. She leaned back down and closed her eyes. “You’re welcome. How bad is it?”

She opened her eyes a little bit and saw him sitting on the bed looking down at her sincerely. He looked way too good for him to just have woken up. She bet she looked horrible. “Bad, but not horrible. At least I remember everything. I did kiss you before we went to bed didn’t I?”

He looked down and smiled at the mattress. She smiled back, that meant he liked it. “Y- yeah…”

She thought back on the night and then groaned at her memory. She sighed, “And I did smack my ass at some point?”

“Yes, he he he.”

Her eyes were now adjusted to the dim light enough that she could keep them open for longer amounts of time. She liked how he was biting his lip, crawling more on the bed to find a comfortable place to lie. “Sorry about both of those.”

He winked at her. Normally she would smack him for being so damn cheesy at whatever time it was in the morning, but the way his arms had bent behind his head had raised his shirt and she could see a bit of his abs and a fine line of hair that led below. So she was a little distracted. “Don’t be.”

She rolled over on her side and looked up at him. She wanted to ask but was afraid of the answer she would get. Finally her need to know if she was remembering correctly beat out her fear and she squeaked out, “A- and you did say you liked me?”

“Mmmhmmm.” She felt hands pull on her until she found herself curled up to his body, which was warm and solid against her. It didn’t take her long to find the right place to rest her head and the perfect place to let her hand sit. He felt good. She felt good with him. She felt protected and almost cherished. Wanted. Something she had never really felt from another person before.

No one had ever wanted her around much, or at least that’s what she had experienced; and if they did want her around they sure as hell didn’t show it to her. Now she was here with one of THE most wanted men in America, with his arm around her, and his hand running up and down her arm, holding her like she meant something. For once, she meant something.

She sighed and asked, “So what now?”

His voice was still gravely from the nights rest. “What do you mean?”

She propped her head up with her hand, her elbow bent beside his head. “What do we do now?”

He moaned a little and then in a sleepy voice with a smiled, said, “Go back to sleep.”

She hit as his chest and sighed frustrated, “No I wanna talk this out. I’m fuckin’ tired of being dragged around and shit. Are we dating now or something?”

“I don’t know. What do you call it?” He shrugged.

She sighed again and scooted down so she could bend her arms over his upper half and rest her chin on her knuckles, looking up at him. She looked off to the side like she was thinking. “Well in high school there were stages. First you were talking, which meant exactly that. You talked, you got to know each other, maybe went out on 1 or 2 dates. Dating came next, that was lots of consecutive dates, kissing of course. Next was going out, dates, make out sessions, possible sex.”

“Well lets go out so we can fuck.” He tried to be as serious as possible but no more than 2 seconds after he said it his resolve broke and a bright smile and a quiet chuckle emitted.

She pursed her lips and gave him a bored look. “Why do you do that?”

He shook his head and yawned. “I don’t know. I probably should stop.”

“Yeah.”

It was a quiet a while and she could tell he was doing some major thinking. He took a deep breath and let it out saying, “Well we got the kissin’ thing down.”

“So I guess you need to take me out.”

His eyes moved to hers and he half-smiled. “Where do you wanna go out?”

Her chin started to hurt from moving against her knuckles so she put her hands on his shoulders and laid her cheek on the center of his chest. It was one of the first times she had ever been close to a guy. Yeah she had had sex before and been picked up, in the literal sense, by almost every guy that worked on the tour, with her being so small and all, but this was the first time she had really been in an intimate setting, a romantic position. She didn’t really know what to make of it all. “I don’t know. I’m not into fancy restaurants.”

“Or dance clubs.”

At least he knew her well. “Hell no.”

“Picnics?”

She’d like to see herself with a big basket, eating sandwiches on a blanket with Justin. She almost started to laugh. “Cheesy.”

“Movies?”

She felt his hand on her back and when he started to scratch it a little she knew this was something she could get use to. “There aren’t any out I wanna see.”

“We could always rent Crossroads.”

Her eyes opened and she pinched his shoulder. “We could always cut your testicles off.”

“You’re obsessed with testicles and cutting.”

She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. “It’s a hobby.”

His voice deadpanned, “I’m scared.”

“You should be.”

It was quiet for a while and she listened to him breathe and his heart beat, surprised at how content she was in that moment. Minutes later his voice, and the fact that she could feel his chest vibrate when he spoke startled her. “Hmmm…how about….I got it!”

“What?”

“Cant tell.”

She looked up at him and pouted, enjoying how he started smiling at her with a gleam in his eyes. “TELLLLLL.”

“No.”

“Fine I don’t wanna go anyway.” She rolled off him and moved herself all the way on her side almost falling off the edge of the bed.

He didn’t even pay attention to her antics and said, “I get the day off tomorrow. Wanna do it then?”

She kept up the pissed-off attitude, hoping that he’d touch her or kiss her or something and try and win her back over, even though she really wasn’t mad. “Ask me properly Mister Timberlake!”

She heard him scoot over and felt him turn her on her back so she was looking up at him as he leaned over her. “Kristen, darling, goddess…”

She interrupted him and gave him a bored look. “Cut the crap.”

He smiled and laughed a little nervously before he looked away, bit his lip and asked, “…will you go out on a date with me tomorrow?”

“I guess.”

He looked back at her and rolled his eyes. “Don’t you even try and play it off.”

He stared at her and she narrowed her eyes back at him. Finally she asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“What do you mean?”

“You do realize we are complete opposites.”

He smiled and tickled her sides, making her squirm away. “Don’t make me sing that Paula Abdul song.”

She turned up her nose but couldn’t fight the smile that emerged on her face. “As long as its not that “gone” shit.”

His smile disappeared and he rolled away from her and got out of bed. He put on a dramatic display making her giggle. His hands waved about and he put on a serious face. “We are not going out now. I retract my offer.”

She smiled at him as he walked towards the bathroom. “Good. I really didn’t wanna go anyway.”

He went in the bathroom and came back with her clothes she had left on the floor and threw them at her. “Fine.”

She laughed and started putting on her clothes from the night before after he shut the bathroom door. She liked this play fighting they had, and she liked him paying attention to her and holding her, and asking her out on a date. She thought hard about what it was he could have planned for her and a million possibilities crossed her mind but they either seemed too un-Justin or too un-Kristen.

It was after she had changed and he had reemerged and sprawled out on the bed, watching espn with her head on his chest, when she looked at the TV and then back at him and asked, “It doesn’t have anything to do with sports does it.”

He smiled, “why?”

“Because I don’t know much about sports.”

A piece of hair fell forward and after she tired to blow it out of the way he reached up and tucked it behind her ear for her, “Do you ever watch any?”

A blush of red came over her face. She didn’t believe she was about to tell him about her hidden sports addiction, “Promise you wont tell…”

He licked his lips and she thought about kissing him. A half smile appeared on his face. “Maybe.”

She had seen him spend a hour and half playing with one of the putting practice toys they had, so figured he might not pick on her too much. She duck her head in his chest and her voice came out muffled. “I have a crush on Tiger Woods.”

“OH MY GOD I DO TOO!” His loud excited voice made the hairs on her neck stand up and when she looked up at him he was staring at her with wide eyes and a bright smile, looking like she had just told a 8 year old she was best friends with Mickey mouse.

She looked at him hard, realizing he had just said he had a crush on Tiger Woods. “um….”

When she burst out laughing a pinkness came to his cheeks and in a soft voice he said, “I was kidding.”

She nodded and gave him a sarcastic believing look. “Right.”

“No really, I wanna be him. I LOVE golf.”

She nodded and leaned her head back on his chest. “I like watching golf. It’s sorta relaxing….it’s not putt putt is it?” She asked thinking that might be the date.

“No, but it can be.”

She looked up at him with a smile, “That’ll be date number two.”

His eyebrows raised and he tucked that same stubborn piece of hair behind her ear again. “Oh so there’s already number two eh?”

She narrowed her eyes a little and turned her head back on his chest. “We’ll see.”

His voice was one of disgust, “Ugh, you’re so annoying.” But he didn’t push her away. Instead he sighed and wrapped his arms around her, resituating her closer to him. She hadn’t realized until after spending that morning with him how much she really enjoyed this dating thing, or whatever it was they were doing.

She liked having someone there to pay attention to her. She liked having someone to hold her and to hold on to. And she liked just having someone around.

She started smiling and tried to stop but couldn’t find a way to do so. She was happy. And for the first time in a long long time she had something to look forward to.

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He had wanted to kiss her so bad. It would have the most perfect opportunity but he didn’t know if she wanted him to or not. He could have done it without her protesting, well until after it had happened, but she couldn’t have stopped him from kissing her, again.

They had gotten through the last day fairly normal. She had left his room the morning before around 12 to go shower and change and then he didn’t see her again until that evening when she was sprawled on the couch, watching Chris play the Tiger Woods video game they had. When he came in he noticed her smile for him and then watched as she buried her face in the couch, obviously trying not to let Chris realize she was flirting with Justin. Somehow he managed to get Chris out of the room and walked over to Kristen on the couch and asked her to move a little so he could sit down. When she had started to move away he pulled her so her head was resting on her lap. He played the game while she was lying quietly against him. They made a few comments about Tiger Woods and golf and she asked him some more about their date, but mostly it was quiet.

He kept thinking about her head lying in his lap and prayed to god that the slight arousal he had after being physically close to someone the past two nights wouldn’t go noticed.

They had gone on and he’d done the show and when he had got on the bus James had told him that Kristen had rode back to the hotel with Rick because she wasn’t feeling well. He had gone to check on her when he got back, but he met Marie and her boyfriend coming out of the room and Marie said that Kristen was fast asleep. He didn’t want to bother her so he disappointedly went back to his room and watched TV until he fell asleep himself.

She had shown up at his door at 11 that morning. She had a smile on her face and didn’t look like she was sick so he was thankful. He knew she felt fine when she started bugging him like a 5 year old about what he had in store for her. But he had other plans. They got out of the hotel and into one of their SUV’s and as soon as they got there and started to pull away he looked at her, wiggled his eyebrows and showed her a long piece of narrow cloth. She had immediately gave him a crazy look but he somehow convinced her to let him blindfold her. He watched the smile on her face grow as he tied it and asked her if it was too tight.

It was then when he wanted to kiss her. He thought about it for several minutes and even after he decided not to, he thought about sliding over in the backseat and just going for it.

But his nerves took over. It had been a long time since he had been nervous on a date, it had been a long time since he had been on a date period. So he just sat on his side and watched her as she sat there, arms crossed, clearly trying to give him one of her mock “pissed-off” moods so he’d give in and tell her.

About 25 minutes later they arrived at their destination. He knew she was getting restless. Her head was leaning against the glass and her mouth was a little slack. He had to wonder if she had fallen asleep, but when the car stopped she looked over at him and said “are we there!?” as giddy as a kid going to grandmas.

“Yeah, hold on though.”

He got out of the car and walked over to her side, giving Mike a chipper look. Mike just shrugged. He got to her side of the car and helped her out and when he got her where he wanted he leaned down and whispered in her ear “surprise” before undoing the blindfold and staring at her, waiting for her reaction.

Her eyes adjusted to the sunlight at first and then he watched a blank look come over her features. A smile started to form and he swore he saw her eyes water. He didn’t want her to cry, but the smile over took any doubt he had.

“T-the zoo?”

He bit his lip and watched her. “Do you like it?”

Her head shook and laughed quietly, “You don’t understand. The zoo is like my favorite place ever in the whole entire world. When I was little I wanted to work here. Me and Daddy use to come here all the time.”

He felt the air rush out of his lungs. He didn’t mean to bring up past shit. “I-I’m sorry.”

She turned to him and hugged him, tightly. The gesture was unexpected and it took a while for it to register that he should put his arms around her. He smiled and then narrowed his eyes when he saw Mike giving him a curious look. She pulled away and looked up at him, “No no no, it’s perfect. Come on!”