“Alana? I’m home!” I got up from unpacking my box of pictures and things from back home when I heard my roommate’s chipper voice float into my room.

“Hey Zoe, I’m up here putting some finishing touches on my room.” I heard her stompingup the stairs when I turned down the music that I had playing. I sat up on my knees and glanced over at the door just as I saw her fire engine red hair coming in the doorway.

“Do you need anything else? Is everything all set?” I wiped the sweat that had started to form on my forehead and stood up with a struggle from kneeling for so long.

“I’m fine, thanks. This is the last of it actually.”

“I was thinking we could go out to eat tonight to celebrate the new living situation, what do you say?”

“I don’t know, I’m kinda beat and I have to work tomorrow.” She stuck out her lower lip and looked at me with her striking green eyes.

“Oh come on you’ve been unpacking for two weeks already. I have to work too but you don’t see me wanting to stay in. It’ll be quick, we can grab something fast to eat. We’ll be back here before 10:30, I promise.”

“Fine.”

Moving out of Justin’s house was definitely hard, we weren’t on good terms and it’s not like I had many friends in Los Angeles to turn to; my only confidant was Trace and although he agreed with me he needed to remain neutral because Justin is a pansy when it comes to people being loyal to him.

It was weird getting used to having to act a certain way because of my new living situation; although the two of us quickly became close it still wasn’t the same as being able to crawl into bed with Justin when I couldn’t sleep or if I woke up and had stuff on my mind to talk about. I didn’t really talk to Justin at all; I knew he was happy with Jessica from what I heard from Rachael and Trace so I just chose to stay away from anything that involved him.

Work didn’t help my mood at all; I hated the fact that I didn’t have a classroom of my own. The kids I dealt with daily were extremely snobby, but I guess that’s the price you pay for a $15,000 dollar a year pay increase at a private school (when I actually started teaching that is).

“We’re back and if you just tuned in, I’m sitting here with Justin Timberlake ladies, and he’s here to clear up some rumors and answer some of your questions. But before we get to that, Mr. JT brought us a new single, isn’t that right?”

“That’s correct man.” I looked over at Zoe who seemed unfazed by the voices on the radio as she drove towards downtown Hollywood.

“You just got off of a very long tour, how is it that you have a new single already?”

“I’ve been in the studio non stop since I got off tour and this is the first song that I’ve really felt something for so I went and talked to the big wigs at my label and we decided to just put it out there.”

“So does this mean there’s going to be a new album soon?” Justin laughed before he answered the DJ’s question.

“There won’t be anything out within the next couple months, but in a year or so I’m pretty sure that you’ll be hearing another album.”

“So tell me about this song…”

“What do you want to know?”

“I heard it earlier today before you got here and seriously man, it’s a lot different from the material on FutureSex/LoveSounds. Where’d you get inspiration from?” At that point I was silently praying that they weren’t talking about the song I thought they were.

“Everybody has that one girl they wanna go to bed with, and as a performer that’s not always the easiest thing to do with the person you love since they’re so far away…”

“So is this song about anyone in particular?” God damn, there goes that laugh again. Stop it!

“I knew you’d ask me that, but yeah they know who they are.”

“Can we know who they are? And will there be a video for the single?”

“As long as they know who they are that’s all that matters. But as far as a video goes, who knows; I do have something in mind though. We’ll all just have to wait and see how things turn out.”

“After this next song we’ll get to the phone lines and take some phone calls. But for now, here it is for the first time, “Bed” by Justin Timberlake…”

I was hoping that Zoe didn’t notice my hand that was reaching for the power button on her stereo but she did and she smacked my hand away, claiming that she wanted to hear what his ‘sexy ass’ was singing about. She had no clue that Justin and I were friends, and if she did she didn’t show it.

“Oh my gosh that man is a fucking genius.” She gushed while listening to the song Justin wrote for me while I sat there speechless; I couldn’t believe he would even release that.

“Yeah…”

“Come on, tell me you like Justin Timberlake. How could you not? He’s so fucking fine Alana, and I bet he’s great in bed; anyone who gets a piece of that is the luckiest bitch in the world. I envy Britney, Cameron, and Jessica.” Little did she know, anyone who got a piece of that isn’t that lucky; we just get fucked over (no pun intended) when it all falls down.

“He’s alright, if you like the cocky arrogant type.”

“You are all types of crazy girl. Where the hell did I find you?” I couldn’t respond before the song went off and I heard a female’s voice filter through the speakers.

“Hi Justin! My name is Cara, and I’m from LA.”

“Hey Cara, how are you tonight? What you got for me?”

“I’m really good, thanks. Anyways, I’ve seen you or your friend Trace around town with that girl Alana, and I’ve read all of the tabloids and what not and I don’t understand how you can deal with all the speculation. How is it possible for you to hear all these things yet stay so grounded?”

“You know, it’s really not that hard if you just ignore it. As juvenile as this sounds I really do follow the whole ‘in one ear and out the other’ saying when it comes to what people print about me and my friends.”

“Good for you. Thanks Justin!” He thanked her for calling in before they took another call from another annoying ass sounding fan, but I was able the change the station the second I heard her mention the ‘friend Justin was rumored to be with’.

With my luck, grabbing something ‘quick’ to eat ended up with Zoe and I eating at a burger joint, and running into Rachael and Trace. Out of all the places in LA to grab something to eat, my roommate managed to pick the one that had two of the people I was clearly avoiding contact with.

“Oh my gosh! Where the hell have you been?” Rachael pulled me into a huge hug and wouldn’t let me go.

“I’ve been busy Rach.”

“Bitch you could have at least called someone! The two idiots haven’t really said much about your where abouts, I was beginning to think that you moved back home or something and forgot about me.” I smiled sheepishly at her when I was embraced in a tight hug by Trace.

“That’d never happen; it’s just that me and your cousin haven’t been on the best terms. I’ll leave it at that for now.”

“He’s an asshole, Trace told me everything. Don’t worry about it.” I heard Zoe clear her throat from behind me and realized that I hadn’t introduced them.

“Rachael, Trace this is Zoe my new roommate. Zoe these are two of my very good friends Rachael and…”

“Trace Ayala, I know he’s that designer for William Rast. You didn’t tell me you knew him.” She was staring at Trace in awe, like he was her savior or something.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal.” We quickly said goodbye to them because they had to get back to the radio station where Justin was currently at.

“So if you know Trace, that means you know Justin right?” I didn’t really respond right away because I didn’t know what to say to her. I didn’t want to talk about Justin because just the thought of him made me want to throw myself off of a cliff for making such stupid decisions with him.

“Yes, I know Justin but I really don’t want to talk about it, please.” I turned my head away from looking out of the window just as she was nodding sincerely. I could tell that this was going to be a long night back at the house and I just wasn’t ready to explain things to her.

“Can you do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“If I tell you where to go can you drop me off somewhere?” She looked at me with confused eyes before agreeing. Within ten minutes she was pulling out of Trace’s driveway and I was using the key that he gave me to let myself in to get some sleep. I knew that he would be out all night with Justin because of the late radio interview that I had witnessed; it was part of their ‘guy ritual’ and that was the only place I could think of to get some peace and quiet and still be comfortable.

Late that night I was lying in Trace’s bed, still alone, sleeping when my phone rang. I tried to hard to ignore it, but after the fifth time the person called I got fed up and answered.

“What?”

“Alana, it’s Isaac.” I sat straight up in bed, immediately knowing that something wasn’t right; it was way too late on the East Coast for him to be up considering he had work in the morning.

“What’s going on?” I heard a muffled beeping noise in the background and strained to hear what was going on. After what seemed like a five minute pause Isaac spoke.

“Dad’s been in a really bad accident and they’re not sure if he’s going to make it.” My breath caught in my throat and I felt like the world stopped spinning. I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t speak; I couldn’t think straight. My dad dying was not what I needed, especially not then.