CHAPTER 2
Lazily opening his eyes Justin became aware of everything in stages. First he became aware of the pressure in his bladder, the nausea in his stomach, the dry cotton feeling in his mouth and the pounding in his brain.
Why do I never remember to drink water?
Second he was aware that he was not in his own bed, which was not a shock, he knew where he was. Ashton had parties like last nights all the time and it wasn’t unusual for most of the guests to simply sleep where ever and with whomever they passed out with.
Justin smiled when he remembered he had passed out with Lola, who was MIA at the moment. He slowly remembered the events of last night and everything he knew about Lola Dean… which wasn’t much. He remembered watching her on ‘Making Waves’ when he was about 13. It had been a favorite show of most of the girls on MMC, they would talk about all the time. Whenever he was at one of their houses they would insist on watching it.
He didn’t admit it back then but all those girls got him pretty hooked. It was right up there next to ‘Who’s The Boss?’ in his mind. But at the time he thought it was weird for a boy to watch a soap opera type show so he didn’t advertise it. But he rarely missed and episode, even when he wasn’t at one of the girls houses. He remembered the episode when Lola’s character Jordan had was in a surf competition and her mother showed up drunk, he remembered the episode when Jordan got her period while on the family yacht and her older brother swam to shore to buy her tampons, he remembered the episode when Jordan got dumped by the boy she was dating and she cried to the maid and even the one where the families summer house in St. Thomas burned down and everyone thought that Jordan had been in the fire, of course that had been a season finale and he had to wait the whole summer to find out that Jordan was not dead. The show wasn’t exactly realistic but it had been a major hit. Until it got cancelled after a respectable amount of seasons and all the stars faded into obscurity, bumped down to the C-List and lower. Each person from the show was unable to shake off the character they played in order to further pursue a career. He knew Lola fell into that category; she was C-List at best. In Hollywood she would forever be known as little Jordan Burke from ‘Making Waves’. She was being judged by her 12-year-old self, which wasn’t at all fair because no one wants to be judged by who they were at 12 years old.
Certainly not me Justin thought, ruefully, remembering himself in mouse ears. He made his way downstairs to survey the damage from the party last night and, once he got some coffee in him, help clean it up.
Ashton was in the kitchen attempting to clean up the mess in there before tackling the living room, sitting room and deck all of which were worse than the previous. It was late in the day so most of the stragglers at left, getting calls from there agents and dashing off to castings without so much as a “I’ll be back later to help clean.”
Justin stepped into the kitchen “Mornin’”
“Afternoon” Ashton laughed and pointed to the clock on the microwave- 12: 35.
Justin made a face, “Once I get some coffee I’ll help you out”
“Coffee’s no good for hangovers”
“Neither’s cleaning but I need one to do the other.” He said moving around the island to grab a large mug and pour himself a cup of the coffee Ashton had already made. “Where’s Danny… and Wilmer… and Lola?” Justin asked as he leaned against the counter.
“Danny’s still asleep that douche, Wilmer is at a photo shoot and Lolita went with Lindsay at the ass crack of dawn to some spa in Beverly Hills” Ashton informed him, then smiled slyly and raising his eyebrows, “I’m surprised you didn’t hear Lindsay wake her up”
Justin looked at him sourly, “If you got something to say man just say it,” he grumbled then half smiled to let Ashton know he was kidding. “We were talking bull shit and passed out. Nothing major.” He left out her last comment before drifting off to sleep, already chalking it up to be from the weed and liquor.
Ashton grabbed a monogrammed dishtowel from the draw next to Justin to clean up with.
“What the fuck is that?” Justin grabbed the dishtowel from his hands “Dude?”
“Demi” Ashton said as a form of explanation. And with that the subject of Lola was dropped.
:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:
“So that was a little surprising this morning” Lindsay turned her head towards Lola as they both lay down and waited for their respective masseur.
“Hmmm” Lola murmured in agreement “No biggie actually. I was chillin’ upstairs and he came in, high as a mother fucker”
“Like you weren’t” Lindsay interrupted laughing. The two masseurs walked back in and the conversation halted for a second before picking right back up.
“Didn’t say that. I was in a weird mood, that shit was strong.” Lola laughed then groaned when the masseur hit a spot of particular tension. “But yea so I we just talked a little bit and fell asleep.”
“That’s it” Lindsay sounded a bit disgusted and more than a little disappointed, ”How boring”
“I don’t know. I mean I would like to get to know him but I don’t want him to think that I just because of what knowing him would do for my career…”
“I don’t think he would think that” Lindsay interrupted but as soon as she said it she knew it was a lie. She knew how Hollywood worked and she knew that Lola knew too- maybe better. It was all about what can you do for me and latching onto coattails and all that petty shallow shit. She was guilty for it in her early years in Hollywood- hell who wasn’t. Personally she liked that Lola, no matter how shitty the outlook seemed to be of anyone casting her as anything but a surfer girl, didn’t want to latch onto Justin or herself or any other of either equally as famous and successful friends. That was one of the reasons Lindsay hung out with her in private as well as in public. Plus that fact that she was kind of magnetic, you couldn’t help but smile when she smiled or laugh when she laughed or get crazy hyper and do something nutty when she did.
“He would cause he’s so fucking perfect and he doesn’t need flawed little me in his life fucking it up” Lola sighed.
“Please” she scoffed “he… is… not…perfect” she stressed and scrunched up her nose.
“No no I mean like career wise. I thought about this last night, everyone in this business fails at the very least once. Actors make movies that flop, singers make albums that don’t sell and everyone gets caught with their proverbial pants down by the media and that brings them down a notch makes them more real. But seriously think about it… what has Justin Timberlake failed at? Nothing. Not anything when he was in-“ she paused, not wanting to outright let the masseurs know who they were gossiping about, you never can be to safe. “his band, not when he went out on a supposed limb and went solo, not when he went out on a another supposed limb and started acting… He’s perfect at what he does.”
“Ok so that doesn’t mean shit and you know it. It means he has good people backing him up. Good agents, managers, publicists, producers, directors, blah blah blah. It means he doesn’t make any impulsive moves in this business, he waits until the time is exactly right and bam he knocks you over with the smallest thing. And he has flaws… everyone does.”
“Yeah yeah buried deep down inside never to be seen. Anyway I still programmed my number into his phone for good measure.” Lola laughed then got serious, “Is that weird? A little stalkery maybe?”
“Justin’s into stalking… didn’t you see his video” Lindsay joked. If the masseurs didn’t know who they were talking about before they did now but both girls were almost certain they wouldn’t say anything. The particular spa had too many celebrity clients to go out and spill the beans to any gossip column about anything that went on here. They knew what would happen if a story ever ran that said, “Big celebrity A and ever bigger celebrity B were caught at the Beverly Hills Hotel Spa talking candidly about…” That would get out to every celebrity and everyone that worked for said celebrity and they would lose the type of business that made them so famous in the first place. “Kidding. Kidding. I’m sure he wouldn’t think that, he’s not that cocky, besides your friends with a bunch of his friends, they’d tell him otherwise if he did come to think asinine conclusion.”
“Well the ball’s in his court, if he calls he doesn’t see me as a leech and if he doesn’t call…” Lola’s voice kind of trailed off kind of sadly. She didn’t like the topic she had started to think about, it simply bummed her out too severely. So she did what she always did and changed the subject to one of more importance- what they were doing that night.
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