Walking out of the doctor’s office hand in hand, Justin and Blair were laughing at some stupid joke he had just told. Blair hugged the yellow folder filled with more pictures from ultrasounds, photocopied information from books and basic information about classes to take and sign up for in the near future close to her chest as Justin dropped her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He leaned in towards her and kissed the top of her head. Blair’s eyes raised to look up at his face and she smiled.
The two of them didn’t notice a photographer sitting in his car focusing on the two of them. He captured the moment and smiled. He had a good shot, and he knew he had an exclusive. He’d captured a moment of Justin Timberlake, dressed in a pair of loose, worn in jeans, a green t-shirt and a trucker hat, with a new mystery woman. A pregnant mystery woman, who was dressed in a pair of gray sweats and an off-the-shoulder tee shirt. He’d taken a couple of shots; one as they came out of the office, one when they had been laughing, one when Justin had kissed her head and the last, when Blair had looked up lovingly at Justin. Justin had even opened the door of the car for this woman.
She was six months pregnant now and could feel the baby move and kick within her. Justin had told her earlier that month that the baby could now hear the outside world, so, of course, Justin had tried all kinds of things to get the baby to make some kind of reaction. He had tried different kinds of music on the stereo as well as his own voice. He liked to put his hand on her belly and feel for a kick. He hardly ever felt it and complained that the baby hated him, therefore she was refusing to kick for him. Blair would just laugh at him and tell him he was probably right. After all, Blair always felt the baby kick.
“To Lance’s?” Blair asked once they were safely in the car.
“Yes indeed,” Justin nodded with a smile, putting the car into gear.
“Good, I’m starving,” Blair said, taking out the CD Justin currently had in the player and replacing it with a Britney Spears CD. She waited no more than three seconds once the song started to hear a groan as Justin hit the eject button. She did that to him as often as she could get away with. She liked to see the face he made when her songs came on. Every single time she would laugh. After Justin removed Britney’s CD, she inserted John Mayer’s album, but turned the volume down so they would still be able to talk.
That day happened to be a day every one was free, so Lance had nominated his own home for the site of a barbeque. Usually, at barbeques like these, the guys would stand in front of the grill and/or near the basketball hoop while the women sat at a table in the sun drinking and gossiping. This was only the second barbeque/party Blair will have attended, but the first time was really fun. All of Justin’s friends were very inviting and friendly. Blair found refuge in spending time with other women who had been around a lot longer than she had and had become veterans to the guys’ array of ‘shit’, as they liked to call it. They all knew what it was like saying goodbye when they left for tour, they knew how to deal with late-night phone calls, broken promises and precious moments. If Blair ever had any questions about what to do when it came to Justin and the whole celebrity thing, she would have four other women (excluding his mother) to turn to for advice.
Upon arrival to Lance and Wendy’s home, Justin walked inside the house shouting a hello. Blair followed behind him, her hand in his. As they made their way towards the back of the house, they met up with Kelly, who was coming from the kitchen with two beer bottles in her hands. Justin gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and they exchanged hellos. Kelly smiled brightly at Blair and wrapped an arm around Blair, trying to give her a one armed hug because she didn’t want to touch the ice cold beer to Blair’s skin. The three of them wandered to where the party was.
Once they reached the back yard, Lance smiled and waved from the grill while Joey waved and shouted a hey at them before Chris tackled him right into the pool. Of course, the loud smack and huge splash made the women sitting at the table with an umbrella above it screech and laugh as well. JC stood up from his crouched position next to Anna, his girlfriend, and approached Justin and Blair. He stood between the two and rested his arms on their shoulders.
“Nice day, huh?” he asked, nodding over to the pool.
“Definitely,” Justin nodded.
“Hey, Blair, go on over with the ladies while I steal Justin away so we men can go grill,” JC nodded in the general direction of the round table surrounded by women with frozen drinks in their hands.
Blair smiled and nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll be back in a second,” Justin said, kissing her cheek. “What do you want to drink?”
Blair looked from Justin to the table then back to Justin. “Water?”
“Okay,” he smiled. “I’ll be right there,” he kissed her cheek again and went over to the large cooler filled with beverages.
Blair walked over to the table and was greeted with friendly smiles and a chorus of hellos. Anna pulled a chair over for Blair to sit in. Blair lowered herself slowly into the chair and watched as Kelly shouted at Joey to not touch her. He and Chris had gotten out of the pool and dripped water over to the table. Joey was threatening to hug Kelly. She told him to get away and handed him the two bottles of beer she had gone inside for. He kissed her cheek and headed over to the grill with Chris.
“I will never understand this,” Anna said, “Seriously, who has a barbeque in October?”
Anna was originally from Ohio, where all four seasons actually existed. She wasn’t complaining about year-round warm weather or the absence of snow, but where she came from, people just didn’t have backyard barbeques in October. Granted, the weather was still nice enough to have one, but there was no way she would dream of jumping into the pool. Despite the warmer weather, it wasn’t nearly as warm as summer had been.
“Lance just wanted to show off the new grill,” Wendy said, taking a sip of her daiquiri. “He doesn’t really know how to use it yet, but he wanted to show everyone how cool it was.”
“Justin said you had an ultrasound appointment today?” Caitlin, Chris’s girlfriend, asked from across the table.
Speak of the Devil. Justin had just arrived at the table with a bottle of water for Blair. He said hello to everyone as he gave it to her. He leaned down to kiss Blair one more time then stood back up and placed his hand on the back of her chair, crossed one foot over the other and stood there.
“Yeah,” Blair nodded, “They’re just normal, routine check-ups now. They’re not that fun anymore, but whatever.”
“Not that exciting, huh?” Anna asked, crossing her legs.
“They’re fine, I guess,” Blair said, shrugging. “We get to see the baby, so that’s cool, but we just go so often it seems like.”
“You go to all of them, J?” Wendy asked.
“No,” Blair laughed and rolled her eyes. “He always makes up excuses,” she teased.
“Hey!” Justin laughed. “I went today.”
“Yes you did,” Blair said, talking to him like he was a little boy.
“I might as well go back over there,” he pointed to his friends at standing at the grill, “because they don’t make fun of me.”
“Yes they do,” Kelly laughed, “Just not to your face.”
Justin made a face, as if he had been hurt by her comment, but ruined it when he smiled. He leaned down and kissed Blair’s forehead before saying, “Have fun,” and leaving them to talk and gossip, like usual.
Blair rested her hands on her belly as she listened to the other women engage in friendly conversation and gossip about their boyfriends. She laughed at the right moments and threw her two cents in every once in a while as well. She didn’t even know she had been rubbing her belly until someone said something about it. It was just a habit now. She had come to love it and found it so comforting to be able to sit and talk to the baby. She often thought about what it would be like when the baby actually arrived and she wouldn’t have it anymore. It would be a sad time, she thought.
“I want a baby,” Caitlin said, sighing.
“You already have one,” Anna joked.
Caitlin rolled her eyes and took a sip of her drink. “Don’t I know it…. Chris needs to mellow out before we can even think about having one.”
“It’s a girl right?” Wendy asked, and was answered by a nod of Blair’s head. “Do you ever feel her kick?” Wendy asked, leaning closer to Blair. She had pulled her red hair up in a messy ponytail and scooted her chair closer to Blair’s.
Blair smiled and removed her hands. “Oh, yeah,” she laughed. “She kicks a lot. Here, you can feel.”
Wendy reached her hand to Blair’s belly and waited for some movement. When she felt a little tap against her hand, she giggled in delight and commented on how cool it was. After seeing Wendy’s reaction, Anna, who was sitting on Blair’s other side, asked if she could try it. Pretty soon, they were all over by Blair’s chair feeling her stomach.
“That is so neat,” Wendy gushed. “Do you ever let Justin feel her kick?”
That was when Blair couldn’t help but laugh. “I try to get him to feel her kick because I know he’d love it, but she just won’t do it.”
All of the women laughed and reached their hands out again. “That is so funny!”
“He complains that she hates him and that’s the reason she won’t kick for him,” Blair said with a wave of her hand. “He could be right, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the reason. For the life of me, though, I can’t figure out why she won’t.”
“What are they doing?” Lance asked.
“Feeling the baby kick,” Justin said, admiring Blair. Her bright blue eyes sparkled in laughter. He loved her laugh.
“Oh, yeah,” Joey said. “I remember that, it’s so weird.”
“Have you felt it?” Chris asked Justin, looking over at the table again.
“Only a few times,” he shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. “She refuses.”
“Blair?” JC asked, looking at Justin. JC remembered staring at Anna the way Justin stared at Blair. He saw the love practically radiate off of his friend as he watched the woman he loved let the other women feel her stomach.
“No, stupid,” Justin laughed, taking his eyes off of Blair and focusing on JC. “The baby. She won’t kick when it’s my hand there.”
“She must hate you,” Lance joked.
“That’s what I say,” Justin said, shaking his head. “That’s the only explanation I can come up with.”
“She doesn’t hate you,” they heard Wendy shout from the table.
Lance rolled his eyes at his girlfriend. It wasn’t even three o’clock in the afternoon and she was already a little buzzed. Not that Wendy was a drunk or anything, she just couldn’t hold her liquor very well. Luckily, none of them were going anywhere for a while.
“She must have told them,” Chris said, as if there needed to be an explanation.
“You don’t say,” Justin said sarcastically.”
