Summer ’98 -- Late June
It had been a while since they had seen each other. Sure, almost every time he returned home she managed to come by to say hi, but this was the first time in about two and a half years that he would be home for more than a quick weekend or a busy holiday. He’d be home for two entire months, give or take a few weekends flying back to Orlando. And then he’d be gone again, for a long, long time.
But she didn’t mind. She was proud of him and happy that she got to see him at least a little bit. They had grown up together, known each other since she was a tiny girl in pigtails. Her cousin was his best friend and their families were close, real close. Over the years he had become almost like her brother.
Almost.
There was always something between them, something a little more or a little less than a sibling-like friendship. When they first met they teased each other endlessly. He often made her cry and she’d often make him mad and upset, stomping off with a pout on his face and a yelled “I don’t wanna play anymore!” A few years later they were sneaking around together, getting into trouble, catching frogs in the creek behind her house and debating whether to build a fort or convince her dad to build them a tree house. They had turned into allies and had made everyone else miserable, her parents, his parents, his brother, her cousin—anyone that came in their path.
By the time they were in middle school he had moved to Florida but they had remained close, and though time had passed and they were now teenagers, on the brink of adulthood, they never lost their bond; even when he had been thrust into a life much different than hers and had grown up quickly, fast, faster than her.
He had lived more than she believed she ever would, but he was still her Justin.
And he wasn’t the only one around. No, there was another Timberlake by her side, always, always by her side. Justin was only one of two best friends.
The other was James. And James was always a constant in her life.
Despite the fact that she claimed the distance from the Justin and the different lifestyle wouldn’t change a thing, things did change, not for the good or the bad, but every time Justin returned he’d be a little different, she’d be a little different.
But with James it was always, always the same. Nothing had changed since they were children.
She enjoyed the company of the Timberlakes, especially since she was an only child and the distance of merely three houses on the road, with a bit of land and wood in between, kept them close.
As she sat there with the two young men, she yawned. It was a hot, quiet summer day, with thick air and looming thunderstorms. She lazily glanced at the clock above the TV they were watching and realized that she needed to get home before her mom yelled at her for being late for supper.
“Did James tell you about tonight?”
She turned her head slowly over to the guy beside her, sitting a few feet down on the couch, his legs spread wide, lounging in baggy jeans and a UNC basketball jersey. Justin had newly bleached hair that was covered by a matching light blue baseball hat backwards on his head and a good tan that looked nice on his skin. The Florida weather had treated him well, but she was a little curious to the strange style he had been wearing ever since he had returned home.
She glanced back over to the other young man sitting sideways in the love seat that was positioned perpendicular to the couch she was on. He had on a shirt and flimsy basketball shorts, his feet were bare and hung off one arm of the loveseat and his back was against the other arm. His lanky frame looked cramped on the small couch, but she could tell he was relaxed and comfortable in that position.
“No. What’s going on tonight?”
She looked back at Justin. She use to have trouble telling him and James apart, but now despite their identical features, the style, the hair and the attitudes had completely changed to the point where it was almost hard to tell that they were identical twins.
“We’re having a party.”
She raised an eyebrow at the blue-eyed boy staring at her, “You are?”
“Paul and momma are going somewhere for the evening and said they’d be back tomorrow. So, of course; I’m home, so…par-tay!” He winked at her and she laughed and turned her head to Justin’s brother.
He had his head craned around, looking at her and pointed his finger at Justin. “This is all his idea.”
“Of course it is.” She laughed.
Justin sighed and rolled his eyes, “It’s gonna be fun, Katie! You should bring Ryan.”
She widened her eyes and curled her legs up under her, sticking her cold bare feet in between two of the cushions. “Hmm, don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
James groaned and stretched his arms over his head, saying, “Justin, I told you.”
“Told me what?”
Katie sighed and yawned, she was tired of this conversation and even though it had been a few weeks since it had happened, people still seemed interested. “Ryan and I broke up.”
“Oh….” It was quiet for a moment, all three of them staring at the TV. Suddenly she felt the couch shift and Justin was leaning closer to her, his eyebrows bunched, staring at her. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“I did.” Justin pulled back and looked over at his brother who was speaking to him. “Remember last week you asked me on the phone how Katie was and I told you, but then you said you had to go or something…”
“Oh, I must have not heard you.” He sighed and she looked up at him and he had his face twisted into a sympathetic grin, “I’m sorry, Kate.”
“It’s really ok.” She shrugged and laughed. No one called her Kate. No one but him. She couldn’t remember when or why he started calling her that, but he did and it was always when he was serious. “Everyone’s treating me like I’m all fragile and going to break down. I mean, he’s going off to college in about a month and going to spend the summer with his dad in New Hampshire so….yeah, that’s not gonna work. It was only a year anyway, not like we had been together since the beginning of time.”
“He was kind of a prick anyway.”
She smacked him against his arm with the back of her hand and yelled his nickname, “Riddy!”
A few years ago he had handed her their first CD from overseas and she had listened to it and laughed. She knew she hurt his feelings a little bit, but he got over it and soon had accepted her many nicknames all based off the title of one of the songs “Riddle.” Riddy, Rids, Riddy McRids, it all just depended on the day and the mood.
But she hardly ever called him Justin anymore and he honestly didn’t mind the nickname. She had a nickname for almost everyone else and he knew he’d feel left out if he wasn’t included.
Despite her mock-anger over his dislike for her ex, inside part of her was slightly thankful for the comment. She wouldn’t admit that it was a crush because he was her Justin, but lately, the past two years or so, something had been different about him. She tried not to dwell on it or over-think it.
But she couldn’t deny that every once in a while he’d comment on something, or touch her shoulder, or smile at her and her stomach would dip in excitement.
“What!” Justin laughed loudly. “He was!” He yelled back at her, rubbing the spot she smacked. “All he ever did was talk about making this touchdown or throwing that pass or something.”
She laughed, rolling her eyes, “Well he liked football.”
“So are you coming tonight?” He asked, swiftly changing the subject. He was good at that. He did it often, whether he was bored with a conversation, annoyed with it, or just something else was a priority in his mind.
Clearly he wanted her at the party and she wasn’t going to turn down a good time with her friends.
She shrugged. “Sure.”
He grinned at her and wiggled his eyebrows, “You gonna skinny dip, too?”
She stared at him, moved her head to glance at his brother who was shaking his head and rolling his eyes and then back at Justin, “Am I what?”
“We’re all going skinny dipping.”
“He is…” Once again James was pointing to Justin. He pointed back at himself and said, “I’m not.”
“Are you serious?” She asked with a hushed tone.
“Of course.” His blue eyes were excited and his smile was wide. “It’s awesome.”
“You’ve done it before?” She gasped. He always amazed her, especially the past few years. There was something about being a teenager and being curious about things you’ve been told not to do that was ever-present, but Justin seemed to have no curiosity because he’d already done all those curious things. Every time he came back from being away he’d tell her something new, and he’d always slightly shock her. Sometimes it made her feel nervous, but most of the time she was intrigued.
A deep chuckle came from the loveseat and she looked over to see James cracking his knuckles. “You forget Katie, he’s a big star now. He does all sorts of crazy mess.”
“Shut up,” Justin said to his brother in a harsh tone and then looked to Katie, softening his eyes, smiling just slightly, coaxing her in the best way he knew how. He could almost always get her to do anything. “Come on, it’s so much fun.”
“I don’t know.”
She started to pout and he leaned in and lightly tapped the outside of her bare thigh with the back of his hand, “Don’t do that, don’t play that game. You know you want to. I can tell. You use to always do crazy shit with me! Come on!”
“Yeah but this is different.”
“How is it different?” She stuck her chin out at him in a disbelieving gesture and widened her eyes. He just rolled his own, “Come on, like a lot of people are going to do it.”
“Like who?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Trace…”
Her and James both started laughing and she said, “Um ew, that’s my cousin!”
“Rachel might come out.” Justin shrugged and then James added, “Um ew, that’s our cousin.”
Justin ignored his brother and kept looking at Katie, smiling slightly at her. “And Kim, and Anna, I think Nikki is coming and maybe Linds.”
“Oh…” She nodded slowly. “So it’ll be you, Trace and a bunch of girls.”
He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re thinking too much about this.”
“I just don’t know, Rid…”
Justin leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs and looked over at his brother, “James…help me out here.” James didn’t move and Justin moved his gaze to Katie who was now staring at the TV. “How about James goes, too?”
“Whoa, I didn’t sign up for this,” his brother retorted.
Justin smiled because he knew that was the ticket, and he watched as Katie uncurled her legs from under her and looked over at his brother, pleading. He knew from the moment he mentioned it that she wanted to go, that she was curious. But she was a little scared and Justin was determined to get her out there, get her crazy and having fun like the rest of them.
“Please Jamie James. Come on, if you go I won’t feel so weird because all those other girls are kind of…”
She abruptly stopped talking, and Justin’s smile dropped and he asked, “Kind of what?”
Katie sighed and turned to eye him cautiously. “I just…have you kept in touch with them? I mean they’re not really part of my crowd.”
“I thought you didn’t have a crowd. I thought you were in everyone’s crowd.”
James laughed a little, “She means to say they’re sluts, Justin.”
“I didn’t say that James!” She immediately defended himself.
Justin just shrugged. He wouldn’t call the girls sluts and he hadn’t kept in touch with them as much as other people in town, but they were there and seemed like they wanted to come over and have a good time, and he wasn’t about to stop some pretty girls coming over for a party, especially if they wanted to skinny dip. But really, truly, he wanted her there, he wanted his Kate there.
“Whatever, it’s gonna be great. You’ll have a great time.” Suddenly he was standing up, fishing down in his pocket and pulling out some car keys. “I’m gonna go, though. Trace wants me to come over.”
“Tell buzz I said hi.” She smiled up at him and raised her hand and he lightly smacked it with his own, holding it there for a moment before letting it go. James nodded at him, yawning.
“See y’all later.” She watched him walk away, out of the den and to the front of the house. When the door slammed she turned back around.
She could feel James staring at her. “Look, you don’t have to go skinny dipping.”
“I think it’ll be fun.”
“Katherine…” He sighed and moved to sit upright on the loveseat. “You know he’s changed a lot.”
She bit her lip. Part of her agreed. But there was a part of her that still saw her Justin inside him. “He has?”
“I mean he’s still Justin, but he lives a different lifestyle than we do now. He’s like a big thing. He’s been to Germany and he’s got an ego now,” James laughed and rolled his eyes. “More than before.
She winked at him and smirked. “Oh you’re so cute. Are you jealous?”
James didn’t find it funny and she felt bad for making the joke, lately he had been sensitive about his brother’s success and was getting very annoyed with people comparing them.
James had always been the more serious one of the two of them ,and he was always the one picking up the mess they’d leave behind, getting them out of trouble, making up excuses for them, even taking the blame on several occasions. But as James grew older, he was getting more and more tired of the games. And he was getting a little sick of being The Brother of Justin Timberlake.
“No I’m not jealous. He’s always been able to convince you to do shit and yeah most of the time it’s harmless and it’s fun and he can convince me, too half the time, but…this is….” He sighed and licked his lips nervously, “Well you just don’t have to do something if you don’t want to. You have never had any resistance when it comes to him, anyway.”
She could feel herself blush a little at his comment. She had resistance, she thought. He had never put her in harm’s way and she didn’t see what the big deal was. “Maybe I want to. I think you’re just scared.”
The conversation died for about thirty seconds and they both stared at the TV until finally he said, “At least I’ll only have one thing to try to hide from everyone…you’ve got three.”
She turned to him and if he were closer she’d have pushed him. “Eww James, you’re gross.”
His chuckle was full and deep but she didn’t smile and she didn’t laugh. Suddenly she couldn’t get the idea that she’d be naked in front of everyone that night. And that Justin would be naked, too. The excitement she felt when he was here and convincing her to do it was gone, and now she was a little nervous and quite scared.
But she couldn’t let James see that.
He stood up off the loveseat and whistled, saying, “pups, come here pups.” Two small dogs started clattering from the kitchen into the den. She looked up at him and he was stretching again, “Wanna walk the dogs with me?”
“Yeah.” She nodded and stood up following him towards the front door. “I gotta go home anyway, so you can walk me to my house.”
She was quiet as he reached into the closet by the front door and pulled out two leashes. He hooked up each dog by their collar easily and when he looked up at her from kneeling on the floor, he smiled. “We’ll have a good time tonight.”
She forced a smile and nodded. She hoped so and she really hoped that she wouldn’t do something to cross a line that she’d not be able to step back from. She had never been naked in front of other people before, not even her girlfriends, at least not completely naked.
And she had never been naked in front of a guy before. She bit her lip as she started to worry.
Justin was able to convince her to do this so easily, to get naked with him….and other people. She wasn’t quite sure if he was going to try to convince her to do anything else.
And she wasn’t quite sure if her restraint would stand up to him.
As much as she tried to deny it, James was right. He had changed.
Story Notes:
This story came about from a picture one of my friends manipulated. She put two Justins in one shot and it got me and another friend thinking, what if Justin had a brother? A twin? The second part of this story started to form itself to the point where it was completely outlined and started to be written. And while writing it I discovered that a backstory, a pre-quel would be so helpful and so much fun to write.
Thus, "Another Song (All Over Again)" emerged. I've had a blast working/writing on this story and I hope you enjoy reading it at least as half as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
Author's Chapter Notes:
part 1: ANOTHER SONG
Story Tags: Be the first to add a tag to this story
