Tension in the house had risen to an ultimate high after my confrontation with Trace in the kitchen. Justin barely spoke to me which made watching him and Jessica interact even worse; Trace spoke to me, but he kept our conversations very short and never brought up Justin and I; of course Jessica didn’t mutter more words than she had to and her banshee friends didn’t speak to me, but that was expected of them. The only person in the house who was treating me normally was Rachael, who had finally gotten rid of her 24 hour bug that she had and decided that we needed to catch up on everything.

We had dropped Trace and Justin off at the slopes and made our way into town to do some shopping, it’s what us girls do best right, when we stopped off at a coffee shop to grab something to warm us up a little bit.

“Can I ask you something Alana?” Rachael took a sip of her coffee and looked at me.

“Shoot.” I snatched off my gloves to grip my hot chocolate and crossed my right Ugg over my left one under the table.

“What’s going on with you Justin and Trace? And be honest with me, we’ve known each other too long for you to keep things from me, I won’t say anything I promise. Everything’s just been really weird these past two days.” Other than Noel, Rachael has been one of my closest girl friends in the past couple years; being close with Justin created an unbreakable bond between her and I as well.

“You want the truth?”

“The whole truth and nothing but the truth.” I looked up and was met with her version of Justin’s Timberlake grin. I swear, she should have stayed in law school instead of going on the road with Justin; he was a bad influence on her and she had a lot of potential.

“Things have been going on between your cousin and I that shouldn’t be happening. Everything is just messed up now; Trace is mad at me for letting Justin use me I guess. And it’s just been awkward for Justin and me because we…well…” I didn’t know how to tell her that Justin and I did the deed without feeling ashamed about it.

“Say no more. Wow Alana, how long has this been going on for?”

“It started out innocent back in November and changed to not so innocent the night I got here.” She gasped and looked at me wide-eyed.

“You mean with his girlfriend right upstairs? Oh wow, smooth move Justin.” I started to notice people staring at the two of us which was starting to get uncomfortable. I guess Rachael started to notice it too because she gulped down her coffee and nodded her head towards the door.

When we got back to the house everyone was sitting around with the fireplace lit and a movie on the TV; apparently Jessica picked up Justin and Trace at the lodge earlier than expected because Justin fell and sprained his ankle. Rachael and I put our bags in our rooms and then joined them, both of us sitting on the floor. When it was over Trace switched the TV over so that we could see if anything was worth watching on regular TV and started to flip through channels when it landed on Access Hollywood.

“Pop’s reigning prince has been spotted in Aspen over the holidays with girlfriend Jessica Biel and business partner Trace Ayala along with a few other friends. Residents around town have also reported seeing Justin’s friend, Alana Gagliardi, the niece of his manager Johnny Wright, and rumored mistress, around town being friendly with Ayala and Justin’s cousin. You may remember her from back during Thanksgiving when pictures from Club 152 in their hometown of Memphis Tennessee surfaced of the two getting a little too close on the dance floor. It’s been rumored that more than just dancing has gone on between the friends for many years. Could she be the start of the end of Justin and Jessica? Could she be in Aspen 'coincidentally' to ruin the holiday vacation between the new couple? We’ll have more on the story later in the show. But for now back to the latest news on Britney Spears and her attempted comeback onto the mus…”

"Idiots. You aren't even from Memphis." Thanks Trace.

Justin grabbed the remote from Trace and changed the channel to the food network and glanced over at me. Even with the movie on the room wasn’t quiet before, it was eerily silent after we caught Billy Bush’s monologue about our ‘lovely’ vacation. You could definitely hear every crackle of the logs in the fireplace off to the right of us and I could feel everyone's eyes burning a whole into the back of my head; it was starting to make me sick to my stomach.

“I’m going to for a walk.” I couldn’t stand the feeling of all their eyes on me anymore so I opted to just leave the house until I knew everyone was going to be sleeping. I went over to the front door and threw on my AE down jacket, Uggs, hat, and gloves and made my way towards the end of the driveway. I had just barely reached the edge of the driveway when I heard footsteps crunching in the snow nearby, which scared the shit out me to be honest.

“Damn, you in a rush or something LaLa? Wait up!” Something about his voice made me stop dead in my tracks and smile, even through everything that was going on.

“I needed to get out of that house. I think I’m going home early.”

“For what?”

“I could be spending time with my brothers who I haven’t seen in 18 months but instead I'm here, having a horrible time.” We started walking down the street, not knowing where we were going really.

“I’m sorry that you’re having a bad time…”

“It’s not that I’m having a bad time, I didn't mean it like that. Things just got out of hand. You know?”

“I don’t regret it La. You may, but I don't.”

“Yeah, your presence in the morning made that clear. And the tons of conversations we’ve had since then.”

“Trace practically beat my ass about it. I didn’t know how to react around you; I wasn’t sure if you were mad or something.” He grabbed my hand as we walked in the direction of a cliff.

“You didn’t have to ignore me all together, you know? You didn't have to leave me alone in the morning.”

“I couldn't have just stayed though, and you know that. I don’t think this makes things any easier, but I liked it. A lot.” I honestly can admit the smirk that came across my face came out accidentally, but I know he saw it.

“Don’t you think you should be back up at the house with your girlfriend? Wouldn’t want her finding out about what happened right?”

“She doesn’t have a clue, unless you told her.”

“Never. I told you I don’t want to be responsible for killing a celebrity.”

“Besides, it was only once. Not like we’re going to make a habit of it.”

“Right, we gotta get smart again okay? No more of this bullshit that’s been going on. I want my JuJu back.”

“He never went anywhere.”

“Sure he didn’t.” It was getting freezing so we made our way back up to the house where everyone was starting to break off to bed. Justin kissed my cheek goodnight and headed towards the stairs when I broke away towards the back of the house to my room. I stopped short of my doorway when I heard him whisper my name.

“Hm?”

“For one night only, right?” As much as I didn’t want that to be the case, it had to be.

“Exactly.” Right.