CHAPTER 5
I didn’t want it anyway, she kept telling herself. But here she was in sweats and a t-shirt, lounging on her couch watching the Daily Show and gorging herself on popcorn. Her Maltese poodle, Holly was curled up at her feet and every now and then would look up at her owner with sad eyes. Lola was depressed about the way the audition had gone. Not cry-all-the-time, drink-the-pain-away, slit-your-wrists depressed just watch-a-chick-flick, buy-something-expensive-and-unnecessary, eat-something-unhealthy depressed. Tomorrow she would be over the whole thing but right now she was feeling sorry for herself.
She had talked to Ashton earlier and he had told her about the party he was having that night and also told her she was more than welcome to stop by. Then when Nicole had called and said that she was going to be going to Ashton’s Lola briefly thought about stopping by. Then quickly dismissed the idea, she wasn’t up for being social and she really was content to veg on the couch with Orville Redenbacher. There was also the fact that Justin would most likely be at Ashton’s and she didn’t need or want the bad vibes she was sure she would pick up from him if she went to the party. She had all her own bad vibes, thank you very much.
:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:
Navigating the roads in the lower part of the Hollywood Hills was not something Justin was familiar with. The people he associated himself with lived high up in the Hills. It was a status thing he supposed, much like a totem pole. The more successful you were the higher up in the Hollywood Hills you lived, more secluded from the commoners. But after his conversation with Lindsay the thought of Lola believing that he thought of her as less than himself was plaguing him and he decided he just had to remedy it.
Justin knew exactly where Lola lived; he had known where she lived even before knowing her. That was one of the great things about the Hollywood Hills; everyone knew where everyone lived, regardless of whether or not they knew them personally.
Her house was not huge. Not by Hollywood standards but it was decent. In any other city it would more than likely be the nicest house around but in LA it was mediocre. His own Spanish style monstrosity of a house looked a bit frivolous in comparison, seeing as him and Lola both lived alone. But even despite the size, she had most likely paid quite a bit for the house. He wondered where the money came from if she hadn’t worked in years.
The house was quite approachable. There were no security guards or gates surrounding the property, unlike his own house. He pulled up the circular driveway and parked in front of the door. There was a small intercom next to the door and he knew it was better to page Lola through that than knock on the door. Knocking would prove to be fruitless because if she were upstairs in a house like this she would never hear him.
“Can I help you?” Lola’s voice crackled over the intercom. He hadn’t realized the call button was so sensitive and that his light hesitant touch would set it off.
“Hey Lola, it’s Justin… uh Justin Timberlake”
Lola was shocked to say the least. Justin Timberlake was the last person she expected to be at her door. “Hold on” she said into the intercom. She then ran into the bathroom to attempt to do something with her appearance, slipping a little on the hardwood floors as she went. She splashed cold water on her face, pinched her cheeks and smeared on some Rosebud Salve before deciding she had made him wait long enough and ran to get the door.
“Hey” she said, slightly out of breath from all the rushing.
“Hey, can I come in?” Justin motioned into the house.
“Oh yeah” Lola giggled nervously “Of course” she stepped out of the way and opened the door farther. She shut the door and turned to him, “Well this is quite a surprise, what brings you by?”
“Uh well” Justin scratched the back of his neck, something he did subconsciously when he was nervous. “I was at Ashton’s and you didn’t show up” Lola was walking into the living, motioning for him to follow and have a seat, “Then… ummm… I was talking to Lindsay and she… well she said some stuff and I came over here to…” Yup nervousness had taken over and he was unable to get a sentence out and voice his thoughts. To make matters worse Lola was just staring at him, not saying anything or showing any sign of listening to what he was babbling about in the slightest. Taking a deep breath and a moment to collect his thoughts he blurted out, “I wanted you to know I was in New York”
“Huh” Lola looked at him confused, it was not what she had expected him to say.
“I’ve been in New York for the past few days” He scratched his neck again, “that’s why I didn’t call you.”
“Oh” She looked uncomfortable with where the conversation was going but now that he had found his voice and gathered his thoughts he was going to spit out what he had come to say.
“I was going to call you but then I thought that you wouldn’t want to hear from me if I was 3,000 miles away then I was rudely informed by my cousin that I‘m dumbass when it comes to this kind of stuff and then I was informed that I am an asshole by Lindsay tonight.” Justin trailed off, caught up in his thoughts, “though I do think that was a little much but I guess she was looking out for you but I’m sorry and I should have called you.”
“K” Lola said simply and turned back to the TV, offering him the bowl of popcorn as she did so.
Justin wasn’t prepared for her to say ok and be fine with it. He was preparing himself to talk this out like he had to do in every other relationship he had been in. Britney had always wanted to talk about there problems and Alyssa just wanted to talk about everything but he was quickly learning that Lola wasn’t like everyone else.
“So what did you do in New York?” Lola asked.
“Well I thought I just had to call into Z100 and be interviewed that way but apparently I missed the part where my manager said I was doing an in studio interview.”
“Do you have a new single coming out?”
“New single followed by a new album”
Lola smiled her big toothy smile “Well it’s about time.” She smacked him in the arm and giggled.
“What about you? Anything on the horizon?”
And Lola was back to feeling uncomfortable. None of her other friends ever asked her about her work, because she didn’t have any coming in and it was a sore subject. “Umm I thought I might but no” she said quietly. “It was for some dumb teen movie, so no biggie.”
Foot in mouth again Timberlake
They sat in silence while watching Steve Colbert’s report the fake news. Every now and then the silence would be broken when one of them laughed but for the most part they stayed silent. The silence was comfortable, which was surprising considering they were new friends and vaguely interested in the other one. When Steve Colbert was over Lola flipped through the stations before deciding on ESPN where the Dodgers were playing the Yankees.
As the announcer all but yelled that Jeter had been walked to first Justin’s mind wandered away from the game and back to the one place his mind had wandered to a lot over the past few days- Lola. Her signals the night he met her were so obvious but now she didn’t seem as interested, she was acting distant and unresponsive. The chances that he would make it out of the dugout were looking slimmer and slimmer.
The silence as well as Justin’s thoughts was broken when his cell phone rang, Ashton’s name appearing on the screen.
“Hey” Justin answered the phone.
“Where are you?” Ashton questioned. Justin could hear the music from the party in the background.
“At Lola’s”
“Huh,” Ashton mostly likely couldn’t hear him because of the background noise on his end. “Come back and bring whoever your with too. It’s a party! WooHoo!” Justin closed the phone, ending the call and put the phone back in his pocket.
“Was that Kutch?” Lola asked. Lola asked while she grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl on her lap.
“Yeah he wanted me to go back to the party and bring you with me” Justin leaned over and grabbed a handful of popcorn. “I don’t really want to go but if you want to I will.”
Lola smiled widely and Justin didn’t really know why she was smiling, but it was directed at him so he smiled back and slipped his arm around her shoulders. She didn’t shrug it off or even flinch she simply snuggled a little closer to him and turned her attention back to the game.
He was out of the dugout and back in the game.
Story Tags: Be the first to add a tag to this story
