*Justin*

Stalling. I know she was stalling. From what, I didn't know, but I was sure of this: if she was stalling to tell me she didn't want to be with me, it was because she didn't want to hurt me; if she was stalling to tell me that she did want to be with me, it was because she wasn't sure of how to take the life she was going to have with the life she was so sure she'd have if I hadn't come along. Change wasn't something she liked, and it was something that took a lot of time.

I told her I'd wait forever, I was intending on keeping that promise ... but I was impatient and I needed to know just how long forever was going to be. She knew how serious I was about her. In fact, it was so serious it could be an obsession of sorts. I thought about her constantly; there wasn't a time where I didn't think that I should be with her instead of at rehearsal or even now, overseas without her there to experience it with me. I thought of her daily, even hourly (more so, by the minute), wondering what she was doing, if she was okay, what she was thinking of. I was so sickly in love it was horrible and she was the only thing that could make me or break me at this point.

My mom always said that if something was meant to happen, regardless of when or where, or even at the worst time, it will. I could be on my death bed and she'd finally admit that she wanted to be with me and I would feel complete. I was that set on her.

Now, even though I still felt that way, I was getting sick of the little game I felt like she was playing. She may not realize she's doing it, but she's got my heart on a string and she's toying with the string, playing with fire. It wasn't her that would get burned, it would only be me, and I'd be left to pick up the pieces yet again.

Maybe I was wrong in chasing after her. Obviously, her running shoes were made for this kind of thing. She ran, and when I finally caught up to her, winded and finally happy that I had her within my reach, she'd sprint. I don't do sprinting. I don't do running. I'm sick of running. I'm sick of chasing. I'm sick of being the cat in this stupid cat and mouse game and I know she can tell I'm growing more and more irritated at our situation as the days progressed. I could see she knew just by the way she looked at me. She saw my frustration, she saw my loss of hope.

But did she do anything about it? No.

I told her I was going to kiss her. She let me. Does that prove anything to me at this point? No. Just that she likes when I kiss her.

Okay, that may prove one thing.

But really, that got me nowhere. I thought maybe, just maybe, if I kissed her with my all, showed her what I was and who I was, she'd understand and not fight it anymore. But obviously, she still is.

I'm growing to hate this.

If I ever, ever get out of this with her, she will never be able to make decisions in this relationship. She obviously can't figure out if she wants love and happiness or loneliness and depression. Gee, Alex, I'll take 'things I should have chosen when I could have' for 1000.

I opened the door to my hotel room, shoving the hotel key in my pocket and held my cell phone in my hand, rolling it in my palms. I was stressed, annoyed and highly agitated.

I needed a joint.

"Hey, J, you ready?"

I looked over at Lonnie, nodding my head. "Where's Alisan?"

"Next floor down. Told her we'd meet her in the lobby."

"All right," I said, sighing deeply and placing my sunglasses on my face, wanting to hide my suddenly tired eyes and crows feet that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere within the last few months. "Let's just get this damn day over."

"You all right?"

I looked over at Lonnie, following him into the elevator and nodding. "I'm all right. Just, long day."

"You seemed to have been having a good day with Miss Aly," he noted, a slight teasing and knowing smirk on his face. "She promise you something that you just want the day over with?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes as he laughed, crossing his arms that were bigger than my entire body across his chest and leaning against the wall of the elevator as I stood beside him, staring at my feet. "Too bad that wasn't it," I mumbled. "Girl can't make her mind up if her life depended on it."

"You seem to have a problem with letting go, J."

I turned my head, looking at him curiously. "How so? I've laid my heart out on the line and she still won't take it."

"I seem to remember a woman named 'Katie' in the mix, too."

I groaned, dropping my head. "What's she have to do with it?"

"You are sleeping with her," he said simply. "Does put a damper on some decisions."

"I can't just ... drop her."

"You can't just gain a woman either."

"Yeah, I know," I said softly. "But what if San refuses? What if I drop Katie, thinking that Alisan wants to be with me but it ends up all blowing up in my face? What if I'm left all alone because of some stupid mistake? Some ... stupid woman?"

"She's not stupid, and some mistakes are meant to happen."

"Blah, blah, blah," I mumbled, rolling my eyes again. "This stupid 'whatever is meant to happen will happen' shit is going to drive me insane."

"It's true, Timberlake," Lonnie said, nodding as he clapped a hand on my shoulder. "This is the first time I've seen you as love sick as you are, though. The girl must be something for you to be so hung up on her."

"She is something," I sighed, the doors opening as my eyes widened, taking in the vision in front of me. "If you can't see that now, then I won't ever understand you, Lon."

Girl, you're turning me on
You're such a fine lady

Lonnie whistled lowly from behind me, patting my shoulder in approval. Alisan turned just then, her eyes meeting mine from about twenty feet away as a slow smile stretched across her beautiful face. She wore a tiered skirt in a deep red with a white tank top, her hair wavy and not as wild as usual. If I hadn't of seen her this morning, I would never have known it was her ... though her hair would have given her away soon enough. "Hey," I said softly, all my irritation washing away with the smile she gave me as Lonnie and I approached her. I smelled her perfume as soon as I stepped into her, walking in synch (ha, ha) with her feet and glancing down, seeing the faint hints of shimmer on her collarbone and at the tops of her breasts. Seriously, she must have recently discovered push-ups, because they looked ... well, amazing.

I'm a man, I am going to look. In fact, I could see that it was a nude colored bra with clear straps. She was definitely shopping at Victoria's Secret.

And sugar, more and more
You're driving me crazy

Maybe I was on the right track.

Or maybe it was just leftovers from Lucas. Blech.

I shuddered, she looking over at me with a confused look on her face. "What was that for?"

"Aftertaste from my mouthwash," I said quickly, trying not to look too bad of a liar.

Who the hell am I kidding? It was just a piece of clothing that I could easily remove and disregard it's meaning quickly if I had the chance.

'Cause you're just what I want
And I'm just what you need
Oh, it's on
I'm gonna make you my baby
Sweet darling, all I can see
Is you and me

She walked ahead of me as we made it outside, fans that had camped out in front of the hotel screaming my name. I turned my head, half-ass signing an autograph and attempting to keep my eyes in my head and mouth inside my mouth as I watched her hold the skirt to her ass, naked legs stretching for miles in red heeled sandals, the top of her leg peeking out as she bent to sit. It left little to the imagination, and with mine, it was running wild and rampant at the moment. Lonnie ushered me to the car, leaning in as he reached for the door and whispering, "wipe your mouth, Timberlake."

I laughed, reaching up and casually brushing my hand over my mouth as if I was scratching below my nose, sitting down next to her as she spoke on her phone to whomever seemed to be on the other end. She was looking out the window on her side, giving me all access to stare at her legs up to her mid-thigh. What I wouldn't do to have her legs around my waist and -

"Yeah, J's here. You wanna say hi? Yeah, hold on." She thrust the phone out to me as I tried to make myself look busy with the hem of my shirt, accepting the phone and looking at her quizzically. "It's JC," she whispered as I pulled the phone to my ear, forcing cheerfulness out of my mouth as I tried to keep my mind out of the gutter, trying so desperately to keep the hard-on I knew I'd get if I kept staring at her legs at bay. "Hey, C," I greeted, his voice bringing a smile to my face. I missed this guy.

"Hey, Justin," he said cheerfully. "How's it going? Tour going well? Fans treating you good? Alisan?"

I laughed at how he snuck in what he had and couldn't help but grin. "Tour is good, fans are good, the rest is ... mediocre?"

"Ouch," JC said, clicking his tongue. "That sucks man. I'm sorry."

"What about you?" I asked, wanting to stop talking about it and bring the attention to him, "how's life for you?"

"Album's finally done. We're in the process of finalizing it. Finally," he laughed. "And I met a really sweet girl the other day. Total opposite of what I usually go for, but I really like her."

"Really? That's great man," I said sincerely. At least one of us was getting the love. "What's her name?"

"Brooke. She's brunette with deep blue eyes. She's really short," he laughed. "Well, not really short, but her nickname is 'Midge' from her brother, since she took offence to 'Midget'. She's really curvy, totally different than the skinny-asses I usually date, too."

I laughed, unable to see JC with someone built like her, since he usually went for women built like him: skinny and nothing to them. "How old is she?"

He grew silent and I could help but laugh. "Please don't tell me she's like, 40."

"No," he laughed. "She's ... younger than you."

"Oh. So what ... 24? 23?"

"21."

I busted out laughing, JC growing offensive on the other side. "No, no, it's not that. You just said it like she'd be either with a walker or needing a hand to walk. You acted like it was something wrong. She's years over 'of age' and years behind 'over the hill', so you're okay, man."

He laughed. "You'll have to meet her when you get home. Hopefully, I can introduce Alisan as your girlfriend ..."

"Jace, c'mon," I groaned. "It isn't for me to decide anyway."

"What is?" Alisan looked over, interested. "What isn't for you to decide?"

I held up my finger, silencing her as I went back to JC. "I'll call you later on tomorrow, okay? We're getting close to the venue and I need to do vocal warm-ups."

"Please do the neener one for me," JC laughed. "Please, do it! I wanna hear you sound like a duck again!"

"Bye, Jace," I laughed, hanging up the phone as I handed it to Alisan. "He wanted me to do the duck sounding vocal warm-up again."

She laughed. "Well, you do sound like a duck. A dying duck."

I shook my head as we approached the parking garage behind the venue, anxious for them to park so I could get out and stretch (and not be so close to Alisan). When we did stop, I didn't wait for Lonnie, pushing open the door and jumping out, looking over at Alisan as she stretched her arms above her head, showing hints of her belly as I turned away, cursing myself as I tried to think of disturbing things. This woman was going to kill me by the end of the night.

My love is insane; pleasure and pain
It's part of life, so live it up baby
Now if you're scared of love
Don't, don't be afraid
'Cause girl I'm scared, too
But I gotta have you
I'm gonna love you day and night
Yes, I'll treat you right

"You'll just have to go down the hall and walk all the way to the end and make a left. Your dressing room is on the right. Guest passes will be sitting on the table. If you need extras, let me know."

I looked over at the man talking to Cleo, she holding her clipboard and nodding as she listened. Glad she was paying attention, my mind was in left field yet again.

"I'm going to go down the hall with Cleo," Alisan said as she tugged on my upper arm. "Sing your ass off for me, okay? And sing my songs the best," she grinned, kissing my cheek. "Good luck, babe."

"Thanks," I said, giving her a smile and watching her walk away with Cleo, the two women talking happily amongst themselves. Her songs. 'Another Song' and 'Summer Love'. Great choices, Alisan. Really.

I cleared my throat as I turned on my heel, following Lonnie down towards the venue, the faint clicks of Alisan's heeled sandals echoing in my ears as we walked further away from each other. I had said time and time again that I was letting it all fall into her hands with her decision, but damnit, I was going to aid her in her decision quicker if I could.

And that was when I got the greatest idea.

I just wanna be with you
Girl, that's all I want to do
I just wanna be, be with you
Girl, that's all I want to do

You and me ...