*Hour One*
Vivian was getting rather fed up with Chris’ antics. She had been waiting in his dressing room for almost ten minutes and he still hadn’t returned from his car. She, unlike the crew and the band members themselves, wasn’t allowed the privilege of sleep that night as she had to finalize interviews for the in venue press junkets, plus make sure all of the *NSYNC fans’ information was squared away in order for the Meet N’ Greet that would take place a few hours before show time. And she was already exhausted from trying to avoid Justin for three days as well as evade any questions that the rest of the band tried to ask her. And if you added on the fact that it was already one in the morning it was easy to see why the girl was ready to crash and burn. Which was why she almost took Chris’ head off when he opened the door.
“It’s about time, I was wondering if your ADD took over…” she was about to continue her jovial banter but she stopped short when she realized someone taller and much younger than Chris had been shoved into the room, the door slamming shut behind him.
“Oh God,” Vivian muttered to herself as she blinked hard several times, hoping that she was just hallucinating due to fatigue. But unfortunately, Justin was standing there, in the flesh looking just as bewildered and upset as she was.
At least they had something in common.
“Oh no…no, no, no,” Justin started before he turned around quickly and started jiggling the doorknob. Vivian watched the closed door with an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach. She was trapped in a small room with a monster.
“I’m going to fucking kill them for this!” Justin yelled as he pounded on the door, a piece of paper falling from the inside of his shirt.
“You dropped something,” Vivian pointed out and he threw her a nasty look before he bent down and picked up the paper.
“Just what I thought,” he said aloud as he read through the note, “They’re locking us in here until we can start to be friends. Right, I’d rather screw Nick Carter than give you the time of day,” Justin replied nastily.
“Well at least Nick Carter has better manners than you,” Vivian shot back from her position in Chris’ chair and he gave her another look that made her blood boil before he crumpled the letter and threw it in the rubbish bin by the locked door.
“What did I do to deserve being stuck in a room with the Ice Queen?” Justin asked looking up towards the ceiling. Vivian shook her head and scoffed in his direction before she continued to look for dirt under her fingernails.
“I guess God hates you,” Vivian shot back sarcastically before Justin leaned against the wall opposite of her, firing off a rude gesture in her direction. She rolled her eyes; that was really mature.
“Guess he must,” he replied before the room was bathed in silence.
*Hour Two*
He was going insane that was all there was to it. Justin Timberlake was slowly losing his mind and he wasn’t going to stop until there was nothing left but a hollow shell of what he used to be. He had tried in vain for the past hour to call anyone on his phone that would help him escape from the makeshift hell he had found himself in, but he found, to his chagrin, his phone had no service in Chris’ dressing room.
Sucks to be him Justin thought to himself, Sucks even more to be me.
Vivian had remained silent well into the night, finding her outfit and hair more interesting company than him. Not that he could blame her; Justin didn’t want to have a conversation with someone who probably had the social graces of a teaspoon.
But he knew that if there were to be any talking that night, he would have to make the first move. After all, he did owe her an apology for destroying her things but she had to apologize for being a stand offish, stuck up little bitch towards him, and that had been going on since the day they met!
The slight beeping of his wristwatch drew him away from his thoughts. He saw that it was two o’clock and he breathed loudly, letting his head rest against the back of the wall. He had a six AM call and he was almost certain that he and Vivian would be staying in Chris’ dressing room until someone came to check on them in four hours.
The sound of rustling papers reached his ears and he looked up to see Vivian searching through her purse, pulling out a large file and several highlighters and pens. He was astounded that she was actually thinking of doing work at a time like this. Justin knew she was running on four hours of sleep from the night before and now she was more than likely going to pull an all nighter in Chris’ straight back and uncomfortable chair. He didn’t even consider the fact that she would have to face the power hungry press and even more demanding fans over the course of the day. Not only would she have to do that but also once the show was over, she’d be releasing press statements to various magazines, websites, radio stations, and all sorts of various media outlets. The girl was a machine when it came to her work and Justin could respect that.
But that didn’t give her the excuse to be so unfriendly towards him.
She’s stubborn, just like me. And its never a good thing when you put two stubborn people together “ nothing ever gets done. Justin thought to himself as he watched her read through various different reports, the sound of a highlighter being uncapped the only noise heard through the deafening silence.
Justin was just about to break the silence by asking her what she was doing when his stomach beat him to it. It omitted a low, growling noise that filled the entire room. Vivian stopped what she was doing to look up at him, her eyes shining with silent laughter through her square framed glasses. He could feel himself blushing and he quickly looked down before patting his stomach, hoping that some sort of movement would make his stomach behave and stop growling. No such luck. His stomach growled again, this time a squelching sound joining the melee.
“Heads up.”
Her voice sounded foreign, as if he were hearing it for the first time. In a way he almost was because her tone didn’t have a hint of arrogance nor was it forced. It almost sounded like she was trying to be nice.
Of course he was thinking too much about the tone of her tone that he didn’t realize she had thrown something in his direction. A rectangular object hit him square in the head before landing in his lap. Looking down, he saw it was a Powerbar and he looked back up at her, eyes filled with gratitude.
“Aren’t you hungry? Looks like you need some brain food,” he stated as he held the bar out in her direction. She shook her head and looked back down at her paper.
“I’m not hungry. I always keep some kind of food in my bag in case of emergencies,” she stated, “Be prepared.”
“Thanks,” he said simply before he unwrapped the food. He jammed half of it in his mouth and chewed greedily, glad that something was finally getting into his system.
“Not a problem. We can’t have Boy Wonder fainting onstage due to starvation can we?” Vivian stated, her snotty tone of voice evident in her speech before she looked back to her work.
Justin stared at her defiantly and took another bite of his food knowing it was impossible for her to change.
*Hour Three*
Vivian was so tired she could barely see straight. She was reading the same page on VH1 over and over again and her highlighter was resting uncapped in her lap, the blue neon ink dripping onto her light grey skirt. But she could hardly care about appearance right now. She was now going on twenty-one hours without sleep and she could hardly keep her eyes open but she didn’t dare nod off. While she knew Justin wasn’t going to try anything funny, she didn’t trust him completely. After all, this was the guy who practically destroyed her belongings all for the sake of a prank.
Sure she had helped him out with his hunger needs, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get any work done with his stomach performing the 1812 Overture. Sighing loudly, she repositioned herself in Chris’ chair wondering how much longer she would have to sit in it. Judging by the clock on her phone, it was almost four o’clock and she would be two hours away from blessed freedom. A very large part of her wanted to make sure she and Justin left worse enemies than they came in because that would teach Joey, Chris, Lance, and JC not to mess with Vivian and place her in situations against her will. But another part, a very small part of her, wanted to come out of this night with Justin as friends.
Now she really was delirious from lack of sleep.
Clearing her throat, Vivian picked up her highlighter and forced herself to clear her mind. She was going to get this work done, get out of here, and find the nearest coffee house so she could sustain herself for another four hours.
But her work was interrupted by a disgruntled groan and the sound of someone getting to their feet. Looking out of the corner of her eye in Justin’s direction she saw that he had stood up and was now pacing the room, his eyes never leaving her dormant figure.
Vivian chose to ignore it for a little bit but after ten minutes of his incessant staring and pacing she began to get annoyed. Finally after a few more elapsed minutes of Justin’s never ending pacing and huffing, she rested her work in her lap and looked up at him, removing her glasses so she could look at him.
“What?”
“Why do you have to be so god damned perfect all the time?” he snarled and Vivian raised an eyebrow of surprise in his direction. Out of all the things that came out of his mouth she most definitely wasn’t expecting that. She was hoping of something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry for the prank,’ or ‘Can we start over?’ but nothing of the sort was tumbling out of his mouth.
“I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me, Vivian. Why do you feel the need to be perfect every single day?”
“If you think my life is perfect then you’re sorely mistaken,” she stated simply. She had to keep her emotions under control this time, she had lost control once and she wasn’t going to do it again.
“Sure as hell seems like it is. You have everything done on time, you’re always dressed to the nines, anything that goes wrong is because of some outside force, and you never get upset over anything. Chris spills coffee all over your reports? No problem, you have an extra copy in your office. Joey manages to slip up and mention something about Kelly in an interview? He was talking about his first girlfriend from the seventh grade! Are you some kind of fucking superhero in disguise? Or are you a robot and you can’t compute human emotions? What is the…”
“Maybe its because I don’t know how to be anything else!” she roared as she catapulted from her seat, the papers she had been working on for hours scattering to the floor. Justin jumped back at her outburst and she advanced on him, her face inches from his own.
“You have no idea what its like to be me, so don’t you dare stand there and pass judgment as if you were better. You’re no better than me and you know it,” she hissed her eyes brimming over with tears. She turned away quickly and stalked to the other end of the room, trying her best to keep the tears at bay. She was not going to cry in front of him and she would be damned if she’d let a single tear fall.
“Why do you hate me so much?” he asked a few minutes later once she had gained her composure.
“I don’t hate you,” Vivian said quietly, her back still facing him, “there are only a few select people I hate and you aren’t one of them. Don’t ask me who they are because I won’t tell you,” she added hastily knowing that he would probably start nosing around her business and no one was allowed to do that.
“Then why all the animosity?”
“I thought you didn’t like me,” Vivian said dejectedly as she turned around to face him, “I mean you didn’t really want to come meet me the day Melinda hired me…you were a rude and arrogant little prick and I don’t like people who fit that mold,” she stated simply.
“Well I categorized you into the role of snobby bitch because you didn’t shake my hand when I finally did come over to meet you,” Justin retorted and Vivian rolled her eyes.
“Your hands were sweaty, you idiot. I wasn’t about to shake hands with someone who had perspiration all over their hand from playing some stupid videogame,” she snapped, “I have a thing against germs,” she added sheepishly.
“Oh,” was all he said before he walked towards the wall he had been sitting against and leaned against it, watching her intently.
“And then you blew up at me over the whole MTV fiasco when you knew it wasn’t my fault and that only increased my dislike for you. The final straw was when you and Chris went through my things and you destroyed something of great value to me.”
“Well Chris was there too and you don’t hate him for it,” Justin pointed out.
“Chris apologized which is something you have yet to do,” she snapped, “and I already told you, I don’t hate, its too strong a word.”
“But you said you hated me when I ruined your list thing,” he stated and Vivian sighed, her shoulders sagging.
“Believe me, I regret what I said and I apologize for saying such terrible things to you. I just didn’t believe that someone would have the audacity to go through my things and take something that didn’t belong to them and destroy it…”
“I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to upset you. It was just a harmless prank gone wrong and I blame my wanting to get a reaction out of you for altering with your list,” he added and Vivian nodded, feeling slightly better now that they had gotten their apologies off of their chests.
“Can we start over?” she asked and he looked up at her clearly puzzled. Vivian merely shook her head and walked over towards him, her hand reaching out towards him.
“My name is Vivian Aldridge, I’m the Assistant Public Relations Coordinator for *NSYNC,” she stated clearly and calmly while she waited for Justin’s response.
He reached out and took her hand shaking it firmly while looking her in the eye. He could see the determination and need to perform in her eyes and there was a certain fire in her brown orbs that sent a small shiver up his spine as they continued to shake hands.
“Justin Timberlake, one-fifth of *NSYNC, a pleasure to meet you,” he added before he finally let go of her hand.
“So,” Vivian said once their new introductions were taken care of, “tell me a bit about yourself.”
*Hour Six*
Joey stumbled down the corridor, wiping the sleep from his eyes. For once in his life he wished he had Chris’ never ending stamina and energy, but he had drawn the short straw and had been practically forced to skip breakfast and make his way down to the venue in order to let Justin and Vivian out of Chris’ room.
Or what, he assumed, would be left of them.
He had to admit that he had his doubts about this whole plan. He knew Justin was always forgiving towards people he knew well, but ask him to apologize to someone he already didn’t like and it was like asking a white supremacist to hug a person of a different color. And it was safe to say that Justin had a strong dislike, if not hatred, towards Vivian.
Joey sighed and ran a hand through his thick hair. He hoped they had somehow managed not to waste all their energy yelling at each other the entire night seeing as both of them had a long day ahead of them. Hopefully Justin would feel up to entertaining thousands of adolescents that night instead of taking his anger out on his band mates.
He neared the door and took a deep breath, hoping he wasn’t going to walk in on a massacre. That was the last thing they needed “ the headlines to read: “Boyband Star Brutally Murders Assistant Public Relations Agent: Multi-Million Dollar Tour Cancelled.”
He could see it now.
“Well,” he muttered to himself as he put the key in the hole, unlocking the door quietly, “here goes nothing.”
“Oh. My. God. I cannot believe you! What put that stupid notion into your head?”
“I don’t know maybe because I’m always right?”
Joey felt his stomach sink to his feet as he heard the raise voices soar through the air. It seemed that their plan hadn’t worked “ Justin and Vivian were still at each other’s throats. And they were probably tired as all hell.
But Joey did a double take when he heard Vivian’s melodious laugh fill the room.
“You’re always right huh? Excuse me for bursting your bubble, Boy Wonder, but MTV and VH1 are owned by Viacom. They’re the same company,” Vivian explained and Joey heard Justin scoff in disbelief. Poking his head inside the room, Joey surveyed the scene and was absolutely surprised at what he found.
Justin and Vivian were sitting on the floor in the middle of Chris’ dressing room, both of them going through an impressive stack of papers, the pair armed to the teeth with highlighters, pens, and filling folders.
“I’ve been in this business longer than you have, I think I know a thing or two about the histories of the two networks that put us out into the homes of millions,” Justin stated with a smug grin before Vivian shoved a piece of paper under his nose.
“Read it and weep, Boy Wonder,” Vivian stated with a satisfied look plastered onto her face. Joey watched, a smile tugging on his mouth as Justin took the paper and read it silently, Vivian watching him with a look of triumph on her face.
After a few more minutes, Justin shoved the picture back towards Vivian and stuck his tongue out at her, “Damn you.”
“Don’t quite your day job,” she chided with a giggle before Joey cleared his throat. The two looked up towards him and he was surprised when he saw both of them give him an ear splitting grin.
What the hell happened last night?
“Wondering when you’d show up Joey,” Justin explained, “It’s 6:05, you’re late,” he added as Justin slowly got to his feet and walked towards the door, clapping his brother on the shoulder.
He watched in astonishment as Vivian got up and gathered her things, walking out of the room and immediately getting on her cell phone, making various calls to clients and making sure meetings were on schedule. Slowly, Joey pulled the two-way radio out of his pocket and brought it up to his mouth.
“Mission accomplished.”
