After that Justin pretty much kept me in his eye-line, well metaphorically. He was always checking up on me, making sure I hadn’t done something crazy. He was concerned, I knew that much and it comforted me because no one else in my life had cared for me that much.

We were driving over to rehearsals one morning when the subject of Jay and Cameron, our estranged lovers was brought up again. We hadn’t really crossed the path of Jay and I hadn’t really seen Cameron around, so I decided to ask him.

"So where’s Cameron been lately?" I asked as a sort of joke as he switched lanes of the freeway. He shrugged, and kept his eyes on the road, not answering me. "Justin? Hello?

"She’s been real busy," he muttered under his breath and I noticed a dark cloud form over his eyes, a cloud I hadn’t seen in a long time.

"Yeah? Doing what?" I asked ignoring the obvious sings to drop the conversation before we hit a rough patch. He sighed and shrugged again, still not looking at me.

"Stuff you know?" he answered and flipped the radio on, but I switched it off again.

"Justin, can you at least talk to me civilly? What stuff?" I asked and that was the first time he looked at me, even if it was for a moment.

"Just stuff, Sheesh can we drop it Tiff please?" he asked, his voice getting bitter.

"Fine okay," I grumbled and looked out the window, "I just thought that since you have such an insight into my love life at least you can give me some insight into yours."

"Well I didn’t ask you to divulge all your secrets to the world," he replied sarcastically and I shot him a look.

"No Justin, you fucking pushed and pushed until I gave you everything you wanted to know," I snapped, with tears threatening to fall again after so long of not, "I didn’t voluntarily give up my life okay?"

"Well I asked if you wanted to talk about it and you did," he replied and looked at me as he turned a corner and then swung into the parking lot.

"That’s exactly right, you asked me okay and I happily obliged," I retorted and unbuckled my seatbelt as the car came to a stop, "I just hoped that you would share something with me, you’ve been so fucking closed off lately, only wanting to hear my troubles."

"Tiff wait," he said as I began to get out of the car, he grabbed my wrist gently, "I didn’t mean to be such an ass. It’s just that I thought you had enough problems and didn’t need mine to burden you as well." I smiled softly at him and let out a sigh before sitting back in the seat.

"It wouldn’t be a burden Justin," I replied and looked over to him, "I just want to be on the same page as you okay?"

"Okay," he nodded and smiled at me, "So what do you want to know?"

"Where’s Cam been these few weeks?" I asked looking at him, his smile faltered slightly before answering.

"She left me Tiff," he finally said after a while, "She left me for someone else." And in that moment I instantly understood where he’d been coming from all these weeks.

I remember rehearsals after that, Marty kept yelling at Justin and me because both our forms were off. But it didn’t really seem to matter to either one of us because we understood each other more now and I was glad. He got me and I got him.

Soon after he confessed that him and Cameron were no longer together we began to get real tight, I mean we went everywhere together. It was as if we were afraid to let each other go in case we lost that part of our friendship again, and I could say for myself I was truly afraid it might happen.

But it didn’t happen that way, in fact it happened in just the opposite way. We fell apart because we spent too much time together, things were getting out of hand, and I of course had been the first one to snap, and Justin had taken everything in stride. He tried not to get angry, but it failed miserably.

"Wait, wait. So who was trippin’ on whom again?" Trace asked with a laugh. We were all chilling in Justin’s house, drinking beer and just basically hanging out with some music and talking about something I really don’t remember.

"J tripped on Mandy," Marty laughed, and everyone joined in.

"No, he was trippin’ on Tiff," someone else laughed and the whole room burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"I didn’t trip on nobody," Justin said and took a swig of his beer, he cast only a half glance at me. Not worrying that I was getting annoyed with the turn of events in the conversation.

"Oh please dude," Trace laughed and I cut-in.

"He didn’t ‘trip’ on me," I said, putting quotation marks around the word trip, wondering in what context they were using it in.

"Yeah he did. Even a blind mouse could see that he did. What with the way he laid his hands all over you at rehearsals the other day and shit," Marty hollered and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Oh please, that was just us doing what we had to for the video," I replied, "You know that as well as I do." I grabbed my drink from the table beside me and took a sip.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that girl," Trace chuckled and nodded at Justin for approval. Justin laughed and shook his head.

"Well it’s the truth," I snapped and slouched back into the couch, damn men could really piss me off sometimes. "Besides I don’t see Justin in that way."

"Then how do you see me Tiff?" Justin asked sitting up, getting aroused by the comment. He raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head.

"As a friend who I’ve bonded with over the past few weeks," I replied calmly, taking another sip of my drink. "Nothing more."

"Really?" he asked with a lopsided grin, and I nodded.

"Yes really," I said and looked at him evenly, "And I’m serious Justin."

"Whatever you say," he sighed and flopped back on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest, looking all smug.

"Why you looking all smug?" I asked and leaned forward, "It’s not like you won the lottery or some shit."

"Why not?" he asked and glared at me, "I just proved a point here."

"And what would that be?" I asked him sarcastically, "That you’re an ass who thinks he deserves everything he lays his eyes on?" As soon as the words slipped I regretted them, and wanted to take them back. I knew Justin would just spit fire back at me.

"No, that you like me more than just a friend," Justin answered with a smile, and I realised the whole room had gone silent for a while now.

"That’s what you’re smoked up head keeps telling you," I snapped back and finished off my drink. Now he glared at me, his eyes glazed over with some sort of anger.

"You know I gave up that shit a long time ago Tiff," he whispered harshly. I gulped and looked away, standing up slowly.

"I don’t know…" I began but he cut me off.

"Yeah you do," he hissed and glared at me. For a moment no one said anything, before he spoke. "I want you…"

"Yeah I know," I replied and managed to move my feet towards the door, "I’m already out."