Friday, July 28
4:30 AM
Vivian tried her best to rub the sleep from her eyes as she waited in the lobby with JC, Lance, Joey, and Chris. They were waiting for Justin’s lazy ass once again and she was really at her wit’s end waiting for him. She grumbled mostly to herself as she continued to check her watch and answer her cell phone, which was ringing off the hook from people at NBC Studios and Jive Records. Thankfully, Melinda hadn’t decided to phone her yet but Vivian was willing to wager the woman was still sleeping in her bed. Smart lady.
“Where the hell is he?” Vivian muttered to JC and he merely shrugged his shoulders in indifference.
“I’ll go back upstairs and check,” Lance offered but before she had a chance to respond, the elevator doors dinged open and Justin walked out, looking somewhat refreshed, his head of curls still damp from his shower.
“What the hell, Justin?” Vivian snapped, “I swear you don’t realize how important this show is today. You do realize people were lining up in front of the damn stage last night before your concert?”
“Vivian, calm down, we have half an hour to go like, five blocks. We’ll be fine,” Justin reassured her as he hoisted his duffle bag on his shoulders. Vivian rolled her eyes and turned on her heels, walking for the service exit so they could avoid the fans.
“Whatever, just come on,” she snapped quickly. She was not in the mood to deal with tardiness or any sort of deficiency with today. Her head was still reeling from the day before and she knew it was going to take quite some time for her to get over the latest encounter with her mother.
They were able to get to the NBC Studio with very little trouble, as Justin had pointed out earlier that morning. She chose to not apologize for her rudeness. Instead she flipped open her phone and started to call various producers on the show to announce their arrival before she called Jive and left a message on Johnny’s phone to calm their jittery nerves about the show.
She allowed the guys to follow one of the assistants who looked more than a little star struck at the sight of the band. It was always a comforting feeling to take a backseat as the guys’ assistant and she was grateful that someone else was leading them through the never-ending mazes of the backstage area. She was about to say something to one of the assistants on the Today Show when her voice was cut off by the abrupt voice of Tupac on her cell phone.
Sighing loudly, she flipped the phone open and saw, to her sinking heart, that it was her mother.
“Hello?” she said hoarsely, her throat suddenly feeling very tight.
“Vivian…” her mother said in a tone that meant business.
“Sorry,” she said quickly, “Hello this is Vivian L. Aldridge speaking, how can I help you?”
“Hello Miss Aldridge, this is your mother. Your father and I request your appearance at our home at noon today to discuss a few things,” Carolyn said simply. Vivian nodded even though she knew her mother couldn’t see her.
“While I’d love to come talk to you, mother, I can’t. I have to make sure my clients get to a very important conference before noon and I can’t leave them for a second,” she stated simply. She heard her mother huff in the phone and she knew the remainder of the conversation wasn’t going to go very well.
“Vivian Louise, you do realize that you never come home to visit and we’d like to talk to you without those impressionable young men around.” Vivian felt her temper start to boil over at her mother’s words but she quickly took a few breaths and told her mother that she would try to make it to the penthouse for noon. Hanging up the phone, she entered the green room where the guys were busy taking advantage of a full breakfast spread.
Vivian walked over towards the breakfast bar and looked at the coffee, her eyes scanning the various contents. Looking up at the girl who was standing by the coffee she motioned to the coffee.
“Do you have anything stronger than this?” she asked growing rather annoyed at the girl who was busy gawking at Justin and JC eating their cereal.
“Um…yes, we have champagne but we only distribute that past eleven…”
“Go get some,” Vivian snapped and the girl rushed out of the room, never tearing her eyes away from Justin or JC. Honestly…she didn’t know what the big deal was about the guys, they were just a group of perverted, goofy individuals who just happened to be plastered on every single teenaged girl’s wall throughout the world. There was really nothing special about them aside from their ability to dance to anything and their incredible harmonies. But she knew it was their realism that kept them so appealing to the public eye. They acted like actual human beings and not machines to the industry.
“Who was on the phone that got you all worked up?” Joey asked her as the girl returned with a few glasses of champagne. Vivian grabbed one of the flutes and drank from it heavily, shivering as the cold contents slid into her stomach.
“One guess,” Vivian said darkly and Joey patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.
“You know, you should take tonight off and go see a show or something. I know we have our show tonight and everything, but you really should go somewhere and get your mind off of things,” Joey suggested with a small smile.
“I wish it were that simple. I’m so busy keeping you guys in check I don’t think I’d be able to have two hours to myself,” she added with a dark laugh. Joey gave her a half hug and smiled warmly at her.
“Well, you should definitely think about it. I know how you love those Broadway shows!”
“Thanks Joey, but I actually have to go back to my parents’ house. My mother wanted to speak with me one on one apparently,” Vivian stated as the rest of the guys turned towards her, listening to her statement.
“You’re going back there?” Justin asked in disbelief from his position on the couch, “After all she said to you?” Vivian merely nodded and drained the rest of her champagne. Justin gave her a knowing look and she shrugged as she grabbed another flute and began to drink it, the bubbles causing her stomach to float.
“What is that?” JC asked looking at her drink with a cautious eye.
“Champagne, can’t a girl have a little bubbly to start her day?” Vivian retorted as she took another sip, “You guys have to go be debriefed by the division director. I’m sure this girl will show you where you need to go,” she added towards one of the gophers for the studio. She looked up in shock and cleared her throat, allowing the guys to follow her out of the green room. Vivian drained the rest of her drink and wiped the excess liquid off of her lips, sighing heavily.
It was going to be a long day.
*Challenge for the Children Conference*
12:00 PM
“Now you all know to talk about the charity event and keep it away from your personal lives, correct?” Vivian asked from the backstage area of the Waldorf Astoria’s ballroom. Five heads nodded as one and Vivian smiled brightly. “Great. Just talk about the celebrities that are going to be there, talk about the events, all that good stuff. I’ll meet you at the Garden in time for your sound check and we’ll have a killer last show. Are you sure you’re going to be okay here without me?” Vivian asked and the rest of the guys gave a collective sigh.
“Vivian, you’re already late, you should go,” Chris pointed out but Vivian waved his comment away with a hand.
“She can wait, I need to do my job.”
“We know what to do and if anything happens, we’ll call you. We promise,” Lance vowed and Vivian nodded her head once more.
“Good. After that Today Show chaos I’m sure this is going to be a walk in the park. Good luck you guys, have fun, and be yourself!” she exclaimed before she hugged them all and rushed out of the ballroom, leaving the five men standing in the bustling backstage area, completely lost.
“I don’t know what to do now,” JC said sheepishly, “I’m so used to Vivian barking out orders and stuff.”
“No kidding. I guess we just chill for a little bit before someone tells us where we need to go,” Chris commented as he plopped down on a couch that had been set up in the makeshift green room.
“She looks like she’s ready to crash,” Lance commented, “Vivian’s been going nonstop since we got to New York and that whole fiasco with her mother didn’t help anything at all.”
“Seriously. She’s going to be inconsolable after she meets with her mom today,” Justin stated as he pulled out his cell phone and began to scan through his missed calls for the day.
“Maybe her mother wants to apologize to her or something,” Joey pointed out hopefully but Justin shook his head.
“No, she wouldn’t apologize. Something tells me Carolyn would rather drop dead than sincerely apologize.” A few of the guys nodded in agreement and they let the subject of Vivian and her mother fall as they began to discuss the show and what they would do once they got back on the road. Their call time came soon enough and the five lined up to start their conference, wondering when Vivian would return.
*Madison Square Garden*
10:30 PM
“That show was amazing, why can’t we go back out there?” Chris exalted as the group danced their way into the Toy Room a few minutes after their grand exit from the stage.
“Because we already did the encore,” JC breathed heavily as he wiped the sweat away from his face. Chris grumbled mostly to himself as he grabbed a water bottle and dumped it over his head. The water cascaded down his face and he shook his head like a wet dog, droplets of water flying everywhere.
“Jesus, Chris would you not do that?” Justin whined as he entered the Toy Room, Britney hot on his heels. His bad mood had started when one of the reporters at the Conference had demanded a statement from him about Britney and it worsened when Vivian had failed to show up for their sound check. He and the rest of the guys had tried in vain to call her phone but it went straight to voicemail. She hadn’t turned up during the entire show and no one in their camp knew about her whereabouts.
And now Britney was getting on his case about the conference fiasco and she wanted him to skip the after party for their successful week in New York so they could go to some other restaurant and club that was expecting her to make an appearance.
“But baby, I promised them I would be there,” Britney complained and Justin felt the fatigue and worry about Vivian began to overflow in his body.
“Well I have to go to my own after party. You understand that, right? You know, the after party for the band I’m in…”
“But I promised! Can’t you come for a little bit?” she cooed as she grabbed the folds of his sweat soaked top. She made a face and quickly let go, wiping her hands on her designer jeans.
“No, Pinky, I have a commitment to the group and we have to be there. Jive is throwing this party for us and I’m not about to turn my back on them to go to some stupid restaurant.”
“Stupid? Babe, it got five stars! If you’re worried about people bothering us I can beef up security!”
“Brit would you just shut the hell up for five seconds? Jesus Christ I feel like I’m talking to some Teeny-Bopper.”
“Is that how you feel about me? You think I’m just some immature Teeny-Bopper?” Britney said, puffing out her chest and looking at him with fiery brown eyes.
“Uh oh…that’s our cue,” Joey mumbled as he and the rest of the guys started to exit the room, leaving Justin to fend for himself.
Some friends
“Look I’m just really stressed out right now Britney. I just want to go to the after party, schmooze with some of the big wigs and then go back to the hotel. I don’t want to party like crazy tonight, we have a game tomorrow and I want to be well rested…”
“You never pass up a time to party! Ever since Melinda’s new assistant came along you’ve been going home earlier and not going out as much. What is the deal?”
“Can we leave Vivian out of this?” Justin asked exasperated and clearly frustrated that his girlfriend would bring up Vivian at a time like this, “She has nothing to do with the matter at hand “ I’m not going to the restaurant. You’re more than welcome to come to the after party. You are a Jive artist after all and you should be there too.”
“You are such a hassle sometimes, Justin. I don’t know what to do with you,” Britney glowered as she crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him, “So you aren’t coming tonight?”
“No. I’m making an appearance at the after party and then I’m going back to the hotel…”
“I think we should take a break,” Britney said suddenly as she turned around to look at him.
“Excuse me?”
“I think we should take a break,” she repeated clearly, “You obviously don’t want to spend any time with me and apparently your job comes first. And I’m going back out to LA tomorrow morning to work on my tour and work on some movie deals and commercials…” she began before she started to fire off all the different things she had to do once she reached the west coast, “And you’re busy with your own tour and I’m sure you guys are going to release a follow up album soon, I think we should just take a break.”
“You’re insinuating a break because I don’t want to go to a god damn restaurant with you? B, where’s the fairness in that?” Justin yelled throwing his hands up in the air with exasperation.
“Please, Justin, don’t make this any harder for me. When you’re ready to start paying more attention to me you know where to contact me,” she said softly before she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him soundly on the mouth. She turned around and left the room, leaving Justin standing in the middle of the room, completely and utterly confused.
“Did you see Britney storm out of the T Room?” JC commented with the rest of the guys as they milled around the backstage area of the venue, “She did not look happy.”
The group had managed to get a hold of their clothes for the after party, celebrating the completion of four shows in New York, and had since changed into them. All they were doing was waiting for Justin to emerge from the Toy Room so they could get to the club and celebrate with friends, colleagues, and family.
“I swear if Justin blows us off to go somewhere with her, I’ll have a few choice words to say…” Chris mumbled but his words were cut off as Justin walked towards the group, looking severely peeved.
“Let’s get to this party,” he said hollowly as he walked past the group and towards the waiting limousine. JC exchanged a confused look with the rest of the group before they filed in after him, knowing it was best to not question Justin until he was ready to talk.
JC sat next to Justin who was busy fiddling around with the small cooler that was stored in the vehicle. He watched as he excavated a bottle of champagne, popping the cork and pouring the amber liquid into a champagne flute. He knocked back the liquid like it was water and quickly refilled the glass, a hungry look alight in his blue eyes.
“Take it easy man, what’s up?” JC said in hushed tones as Justin took a slower sip of the liquid.
“Shut up, C…I don’t want to talk about it,” Justin snapped and he quickly fell silent. The car pulled forward and out of the venue, taking the group on their way to the club, the rest of the guys hoping that Justin’s mood with lift soon before something catastrophic happened.
* Ritz Carlton Hotel*
12:45 AM
“Oh ho, shit!” Justin giggled to himself as he stumbled down the twelfth floor corridor of the hotel. He leaned against the wall to support his wry frame, fumbling around in his pockets so he could find his key card to let him into his own room.
He had spent the past few hours at the after party, doing whatever he could to take his mind off of Britney. He had taken to drinking early on in the evening and he was now taking delight in a slight drunken state of mind, knowing, but not caring, that he was going to have a minor hangover in the morning.
Nevertheless, he had left the party early, knowing that the guys would return to the hotel in another hour or so. Justin had grown tired of the endless partying and decided to head back to the hotel early instead. He was glad he had because now the effects of his buzz were starting to wear off and soon he would revel in his own self-pity about Britney and the stress his life was causing him.
After a few tries, he managed to swipe his key card into his door and he pushed the door open, walking clumsily inside. He giggled profusely and turned on the lights, screaming loudly as the room was illuminated.
A figure was hunched over his mini bar, collecting the small bottles of liquor that had been stocked there before his visit to the hotel. When the figure heard his scream, it turned its head to the side, looking straight at him. He let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall, the beginning drunkenness frightened out of him.
“Jesus Christ, Vivian. You scared the shit out of me! I thought you were some stalker. What are you doing?” he said his voice still slurring his words together. He watched as she stupidly got to her feet, her hair hanging down past her shoulders in a ratty mess. Her glasses were crookedly hanging on her nose and he could see black circles under her eyes from her running mascara.
“I ran out of booze in my room so I raided yours. I still have your key card from the other, other, other night!” she said as she began to fall back down to the ground, the tiny bottles in her hands clinking together dangerously.
“You drank all the stuff in your room? Vivian that’s like…a shitload of alcohol!”
“Thank you Poindexter, I know,” she slurred again with a small giggle as she unscrewed the small top to a bottle of Vodka and downed its contents in a single gulp. She made a face and coughed a bit, her shoulders heaving up and down from the force of her coughs.
He sighed heavily, she was horribly drunk and he had never seen her this…uninhibited before. Justin walked forward and kneeled in front of her, taking the new bottle of alcohol away from her opened mouth. She voiced her protests but he quickly capped the bottle and put it to the side.
“You look like shit,” she observed before she sneezed.
“You look worse,” he stated simply.
“Fuck you,” she snarled, “I don’t need you to tell me what I look like. I have a mother to criticize me every single damn second of the day, I don’t need you on my case too,” she exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air.
“Is this about the meeting with your mother?” Justin questioned and she shrugged in indifference.
“So what if it is, I’m through with her and my father. I’m done with that fucking family. No more, you hear me? NO MORE!” she yelled as she slumped against the counter her eyes brimming with tears.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” Justin said his sudden buzz quickly diminishing. Vivian threw him a scathing look as she pulled her arm out of his grasp.
“I don’t need to get cleaned up! I’m fine,” she protested as she gently rubbed the portion of her arm that he had held onto. “Where are you going?” she questioned as Justin got to his feet and walked into the bathroom. The sound of running water was the only noise in the room and Justin soon returned with a wet washcloth.
“Hold still, you look like a damn raccoon,” Justin stated with a small giggle as he gently removed Vivian’s glasses and began to rub the black make up off of her face. She held still for a moment, watching him with glazed eyes as the water removed the black mixture from her visage.
“Why are you back so early?” she questioned as she made another wild grab for the alcohol that was resting beside Justin. He quickly swiped it out of the way and she gave him a one finger salute as she waited for his response.
“Didn’t feel like partying,” he stated simply and Vivian scoffed before she laughed bitterly.
“Justin Fucking Timberlake, not wanting to party? That’s a new one by me. Alert the media!” she howled and Justin felt his temper finally come to a breaking point.
“Britney asked for a break if you really want to know, so stop giving me shit.” His statement sobered her up for a moment and she looked at him with shocked brown eyes.
“That sucks,” was all she said and Justin rolled his eyes. He watched as she reached behind her and pulled out a miniature bottle of Jack Daniels. Quietly, she closed the distance between them by offering him the bottle. Looking at it skeptically, he took it in his hands and unscrewed the plastic top. He looked at the dark brown liquid and gave it a reluctant look. Did he dare?
He knew that if he decided to drink it there would be no turning back. He had already started to drown his sorrows in drink earlier that night and it seemed that Vivian had already gotten a head start. The older, more responsible part of him told him to close the bottle and get Vivian back to her room so she could sleep off what was going to be an enormous hangover. But a bigger part, a larger part, told him to drink it. What was he going to hurt? Vivian wanted company and the last thing Justin wanted to do was talk about what Britney had said and done. No sense in destroying what could be a night of drunken antics that they wouldn’t even remember in the morning. And it didn’t help that Vivian was still staring at him as if she were expecting a Christmas miracle. He sighed heavily before he threw his head back, the alcohol burning a track down his throat.
“Woo hoo! Party!” Vivian exalted as she clumsily got to her feet and started to perform some sort of odd dance. Justin laughed and grabbed another one of the bottles he had taken away from Vivian and unscrewed the top. He laughed loudly as he passed another to Vivian who was now in the process of spinning around in circles, her hair fanning out behind her. She tried to catch the bottle, but dropped it, giggling like mad as she bent down to pick it up. Throwing his head back, Justin drowned the contents of his own bottle ready to leave everything behind.
*1:45 AM *
Her head was swimming and the world was spinning. Vivian couldn’t tell which way was up and which way was down. All she could think about was bringing the son of a bitch down.
She pressed her body flat against the wall in the bathroom, a wet towel firmly gripped in her right hand. She had managed to sloppily tie her hair back with a band and her glasses were long forgotten in the bathroom. She was still wearing her pajama bottoms from earlier that day and her short tank top that was quickly riding up her abdomen. Not that she cared; she was too drunk to even notice.
“I’m going to get you!” a voice rang out through the dark room. In this game, all the lights were off.
“Not a chance in hell Wonder Boy!” Vivian shouted back as she made her move away from the wall. Later she would wonder why they had chosen to run around his mid sized hotel room like small children, smacking each other senseless with wet towels and pretending they were at war but for now, all she cared about was her mission:
Search and smack.
Silently she crept through the hotel room, making sure she stayed quiet during her trek. They had been at this game for almost half an hour and it didn’t show signs of stopping. Their bottles of alcohol had long since been consumed and were strewn all over the room, each one as empty as the next. Their smart, subconscious minds told them they would be feeling this the next morning but those words of reason were currently lost in a storm of incoherent words and thoughts that managed to poison the two peoples’ minds.
Vivian shuffled her way through the space between the coffee table and the couch that was in Justin’s living area. Her bewildered mind told her that Justin was somewhere on the other side of the room but her mind was completely shot and therefore she didn’t see him watching her by the mini bar.
“Aiyee!”
“Holy Shit!” Vivian yelled as a towel smacked her clear across the chest. She yelled out in surprise as Justin’s six-foot frame leaped over the coffee table and straight into her, sending the pair flying into the couch. The force of their two bodies colliding with the sofa forced it to fall backwards, the two giggling figures falling back with it. The backside of the couch crashed to the ground with a dull thud as Vivian and Justin rolled off the divan and onto the ground laughing insanely, their wet towels long forgotten.
It was a very compromising situation to be in, really. Vivian was flat on her back; Justin positioned right over her small body, his arms pinning her own to her side. Their wild laughter subsided for a moment as they took a moment to catch their breaths. She looked into his deep blue eyes noticing they were just as glazed over and hollow as hers. The tell tale sign that someone wanted to forget their troubles in drink. It was strange that he was close enough to her that she could smell the different kinds of alcohol on his breath. It was even stranger when he brought his face closer to hers, their noses touching only slightly.
It bewildered her to the point of insanity when he whispered her name; his words slurred so much she could barely make it out due to the intense roaring that was coming to a cacophonous crescendo in her ears. And she thought her entire being would burst into a million pieces when his lips collided with hers, the burning that passed through her a completely different feeling than the warmth the alcohol had managed to devote to her.
She was putty in his arms as he pulled them both up into a sitting position, his hands instinctively traveling around her bare waist. Vivian was willing to comply as her arms went around his shoulders, her fingers automatically wrapping around his curls. He moaned her name and she was quick to answer with his own before he deepened his kiss, their bodies melding together. And that was the last thing Vivian remembered before she went spiraling down, down, down into an oblivious abyss, dragging Justin along with her.
