Justin smiled when he saw the handwritten message on a piece of paper on the counter from his mom letting him know that she was out for a bit and that Trace had called. He hadn’t talked to his best friend for a few days and was anxious to find out when he was coming down to Tennessee.

Grabbing a glass of juice and the cordless phone, Justin sat down at the kitchen table and dialed Trace’s number.

“Hello.”

“Hey, man. How’s it going?”

“Good. How bout you? Still sick?”

“Yeah. It’s a little better but I still don’t feel great.”

“Seems like every time I call you’re sleeping.”

“Yeah, well every time I call you, you’re out.”

“I guess. Man, you missed a wild party last night.”

“Who’s party?”

“Matt,” Trace said, naming one of their friends. “It was crazy, J. Everyone was hammered by ten. You would have loved it.”

“How many people were there?”

“Forty, fifty. Oh man, you know Kara, right? That dancer friend of Matt’s?”

“Yeah.”

“She brought like five of her friends and they were all smoking Grade A hot.”

“Nice. You hook up?”

Trace laughed. “Passed out before I could.”

“Typical.”

“Yeah, yeah. So what’ve you been up to?”

“Same stuff as last week. Mainly sleeping and TV and hanging out with Bren. You?”

“Just living.” Trace paused for a moment. “Actually, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“What?”

“I got a letter in the mail from that university I applied to.”

Justin frowned. “You applied to university?”

“Man, I told you that. It was like two months ago. For that broadcasting program. The two year thing?”

It sounded vaguely familiar but Trace said a lot of things and sometimes it all just didn’t register in Justin’s head. “I dunno. What was the letter for?”

“I got accepted for September. But before that I gotta take some courses for marks. In June through August.”

“Oh. Well that’s cool, I guess.” A thought came to him. “That’s gonna make you really busy then, won’t it? Cause I’ll need you during the day. Is it like night classes or something?”

“No, that’s the problem. It’s during the day.”

“But…how can you do both then?”

“That’s just it. I can’t do both. Justin, I can’t…I’m not gonna be able to be your PA anymore.”

Justin was silent for a minute. “You’re joking, right?”

“No.”

The reality of Trace’s words fell into place. “Trace, man, you can’t do this to me. You’ve always been my PA! Look, do you want more money? Cause I’ll raise your salary.”

“J, it’s not about money. It’s about me trying something new.”

“No, you can’t just spring this on me, Trace! Where the hell did this university thing come from? You can’t just leave me high and dry!”

“I’m sorry, man. I can still do some PA stuff during the summer cause I’ll be doing those classes in LA. But the university’s in San Francisco.”

Justin got up and began to pace the kitchen. “Shit, Trace. What the hell are you doing to me? Seriously, man. This isn’t cool!”

Trace was silent. “It’s just something I really want to do, Justin. You’ll be able to find another PA. I bet Johnny can find you one in-”

“I don’t give a shit what Johnny can do!” Justin exploded, not believing what he was hearing from his friend. “I don’t want some new moron who I don’t know. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me, Trace!”

“Justin…”

“Shit, man. I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up the phone before Trace could reply and ran his hands through his hair. “Son of a bitch,” he mumbled. Trace not being his personal assistant anymore was about the last thing he wanted to hear. Trace had been his unofficial PA since they were both eighteen and his official PA ever since he had gone solo.

Pushing a chair out of his way, he went upstairs to his room, pissed off at his friend. He grabbed his MP3 player and put in his headphones as he laid on his bed, glaring up at the ceiling.

He was tired, but refused to let himself fall asleep. He didn’t want to sleep and be able to forget what Trace had done to him. He wanted to stay awake and stay pissed off.

His mind turned into an angry jumble of thoughts as he listened to song after song. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he saw his door open and from the corner of his eye saw his mother come into the room. He pulled the headphones form his ears but made no move to say anything or even look away from the ceiling.

“Trace called a few minutes ago, Hun.”

“I don’t want to talk to that asshole,” he mumbled.

“He told me about going to university in September. And also that you were upset about it.”

He gritted his teeth together. “I don’t believe he’s doing this to me.”

“That’s not fair, Justin. You shouldn’t be upset at him for wanting a new direction.”

“But what can it possibly offer him? He won’t make as much money or meet the people that he gets to now. He’s being an idiot!”

“I doubt this is about money, Hun. It’s about Trace wanting to do something new and something he’s passionate about.”

“And now I’ve got to find a damn new PA!” he continued, ignoring Lynn’s words. “Do you know how frustrating it is to find someone good? Trace is such an ass for doing this!”

Lynn was silent for a minute. “I know you’re angry, Justin, but I think that you’re hurting more. Trace is your best friend and you’re going to have to do a lot of things without him now and that’s going to be hard. But you can’t let yourself be angry and hurt your friendship. Finding a new PA isn’t that difficult. Don’t ruin your friendship with Trace over it.”

He swallowed and kept looking at the ceiling as she left the room, closing the door behind her. He didn’t move until he felt the hot wetness of a tear slip from his eye and travel down his temple before disappearing into his hair. With one hand, he angrily wiped his skin dry. It was a lot easier to be mad than sad and now he was feeling both. Trace basically lived at his house and they spent basically everyday together. How was he going to deal with not having him around all the time? Trace had always been a constant in Justin’s life and now he was leaving.

As time went on, Justin was able to let his anger fade away and as that happened, he was able to beginning to feel stupid for what he had said to his best friend. He was an ass to even suggest to Trace that he shouldn’t do what he wanted to do in life.

With a sigh, he turned onto his side and closed his eyes. He only meant to lay there for a minute but he instead fell into a light sleep and didn’t wake up for an hour. When he did wake up, he rolled out of bed and went downstairs to get the phone. He dialed Trace’s cell phone number and leaned against the counter as he listened to it ring.

“Hello.”

“Hey.”

“Hey. Are you still mad?”

“No. I’m sorry, Trace. I was being a real ass.”

“Don’t worry about it. I did kinda spring it on you. I wanted to wait until I was down there but I figured I should tell you sooner than later.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I just can’t believe that you’re not gonna be my PA anymore. That sucks.”

“I know. You’ll have to get a newbie. Good luck trying to find someone to put up with your moods.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m not that bad.”

“You’re like a girl. A bitchy, PMSing girl.”

Justin laughed a bit. “Shut up, faggot.”

“Oh ouch. Hit me where it hurts.”

He smirked and went over to the fridge to grab the carton of milk. “So you’re gonna be a school nerd then,” he said, pouring milk into a glass.

“Hey, knock it all you want. You’re gonna be wishing you were me when you see all the hot chicks at that campus.”

“There’s plenty of hot chicks in LA.”

“Yeah, but at this place the main ingredient in them isn’t plastic.”

“Like you’ve ever complained.”

Trace laughed. “Yeah, well.”

“So when are you coming down here?”

“Week and a half I think.”

“When do you start classes?”

“Halfway through June.”

“Oh.”

“So you’re really okay with me not being your PA?”

“Things gotta change at some point, I guess. It’ll be okay. I’ll get Johnny to find me a new one.”

“With your luck you’ll probably et some hot ex Playmate or something. You’ll never miss me.”

Justin smiled. “I doubt it, man,” he replied, meaning it for both of Trace’s statements.