It had been three days since Blair and Justin had seen each other.
Despite the fact she had fallen asleep at his house the night his family came by, they hadn’t talked. She had driven home the following morning without so much of a “good morning” and “have a nice day” from Justin. When Blair got home, she hopped in the shower to cool down and get clean, then she got dressed. She noticed she had messages on her answering machine. Only one sparked her interest. It was her best friend in the entire world, Emily, calling to see if she would like to go out for coffee and then a movie. Blair picked up the phone and called her friend. She told her she would love to join in on the fun.
When the pair went for coffee, Blair just got water. Emily wondered why her friend didn’t indulge in something they both loved. When they sat down at a small table, Emily set her cup down and looked at Blair expectedly.
“What?” Blair asked, unable to hide her smile. She knew what Emily was waiting for.
“What?” Emily mocked her. “What’s with you? I can’t figure it out. There’s something different about you.”
“Different?” Blair asked, sipping her water.
“Oh come on, B,” Emily said, laughing and leaning in closer. “Did you meet a guy?”
Only Emily. Blair shook her head with a smile. “It’s always about guys with you.”
“Blair, please tell me,” she pouted. “I know you have news. Spill.”
“Okay, Em, you’re right. I do have news,” she said, getting serious. She set her drink down on the table as Emily picked hers up. “I’m pregnant.” It didn’t come out as cheerful as she had hoped.
Emily’s jaw dropped as she set her drink back on the table. “No shit?” Blair just nodded. Emily closed her mouth and looked at Blair with a sad expression on her face. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” Blair shook her head reassuringly. “I’m fine, really.”
“I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, B, but,” Emily said, leaning in closer. “Do you know who the father is? I mean, the last time I talked to you, you didn’t have a boyfriend or anything.”
“No, I know,” Blair said. “Um, yeah. I do know who he is. I mean, no, we’re not dating, but we’re friends I guess. He’s a nice guy, you’d like him.”
“Who is he, what’s his name?” she asked, regaining her composure enough to enjoy her beverage again.
“You’re going to die when you hear this,” Blair smirked. “You have to swear on our friendship and your life that you will not tell a soul.”
“I swear,” Emily said. “Scouts honor.” She held up three fingers. Good thing they were both girl scouts when they were little, although not together….
“Justin Timberlake,” Blair whispered into Emily’s ear.
“WHAT?” Emily practically shouted.
“Shhhh!” Blair laughed. “You swore!”
“Him, Blair?” Emily asked, in shock once again. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Does it look like I’m kidding?”
“Oh my god!” Emily shook her head. “That is unbelievable. He’s a fox.”
“Yeah, with a huge ego,” Blair looked away from her friend. “He needs to work on his attitude.”
With all of this news, Emily didn’t want to talk about how much she hated her job, the fact that her mother was driving her crazy telling her to find a man and get married or about other gossip surrounding their friends. All Emily wanted to do was talk to her best friend about this gigantic change taking place in her life.
“So what’s the deal with you two then?” Emily asked Blair, taking a sip of her drink.
Blair shrugged and sunk into the cushiony chair she was sitting in. “I don’t know. Nothing… something. Things have gotten a little weird.”
“…And that means…?”
“Well, I had decided I didn’t want to start a romantic relationship with him and then we just started kissing last night and now we haven’t talked since then.”
Emily made a face, raising her eyebrows not really knowing that to say or do. She took a sip of her drink again and shrugged too. “Well, it only happened last night,” Emily reasoned. “Maybe he’ll come around.”
Justin held his cell phone in his hand, ready to push the send button, sending his call of Blair. He hadn’t talked to her since the episode with the press… and the kiss (or two). He didn’t really know what was going on. She hadn’t called him or stopped by, like she usually did. But then again, he hadn’t called her or anything, like he normally did. He didn’t know what to think about the situation. Sure, he liked her. He wouldn’t have slept with her if he didn’t like her at least a little bit. She seemed to be everything he could want. She was gorgeous, funny, silly, independent, honest, comfortable with who she is,… the list seemed to go on. And when he kissed her, he felt something. He liked the way his lips felt on hers and he like the way his hands knew her body.
Should he call her? He didn’t know. He didn’t know what he would say. Why did he feel he needed to call her? Honestly, she had made it without him for three months, what would make him think she wouldn’t be able to handle being without him for three days? He knew that if she needed anything, she wouldn’t hesitate to call. She knew his numbers and how to reach him at all times.
In fact, speaking of reaching him at all times, Blair even knew how to reach those close to him. She had been asked to pull out her own cell phone and add a large amount of numbers to her phonebook. She had exchanged phone numbers with the four other guys in *NSYNC, Justin’s mom and manager, as well as Justin’s best friend Trace, who had shown up later that night. If anything ever happened, where she couldn’t get a hold of Justin, she could call anyone of those numbers and hear back from him within minutes.
Just when Justin was going to hit the send button on his cell phone, the doorbell rang. He shut his phone and walked over to the door to answer it. He should have known. Standing at the door was Blair. She stood wearing a pair of white capri yoga pants and a blue and white striped tee shirt.
“I was gonna call you,” she said, her phone in hand.
“Me too,” Justin said, lifting his phone to show her.
“My car just kinda steered its way over here.”
“I’m glad it did.” Justin realized she was still standing outside and he was still in the entryway. “Do you want to come in?”
“Sure,” she said, stepping inside. She slid out of her flip-flops and set her purse and cell phone on the table. She crossed her hands behind her back and stood there silently in the awkwardness.
Justin cleared his throat and held out his arm, ushering towards the living room. “Hey, don’t be a stranger, come on.”
Blair wondered if the reason she felt so awkward was because she had convinced herself on the car-ride over that things would be awkward. She wondered if she had blown everything out of proportion and that the reason he didn’t call was because they had both been busy. She wondered if Justin was feeling just as awkward as she was.
“Um-”
“Hey-”
They both laughed at their timing. “Go ahead,” Justin said, plopping down on the couch.
Blair followed suit, sitting down on the couch with her legs crossed beneath her. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” Justin asked, as if he didn’t know.
“I mean,” she said, placing her hands in her lap again. “What’s going on? I haven’t seen or heard from you in three days. We kissed and I haven’t heard from you since. What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, Blair,” Justin shook his head, “You didn’t do anything wrong, are you kidding me? I’m sorry, but I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know how many times I thought about calling you… I guess I just always found a reason not to. I don’t know.” He just shrugged. Don’t look at me like that, he thought. Not with those blue eyes, not like that.
“Listen,” she said, feeling herself melting in spite of herself because of the way Justin was looking at her. “I was so hell bent on not starting anything with you because I wouldn’t know if it was real or it was just out of pity.” She closed her eyes, trying to keep her focus. She had to be able to form coherent sentences. “But then we kissed, and I was shocked when I thought I felt something.”
She felt something too?
“I…” she stumbled. She ran her fingers through her hair as she took a deep breath, forever avoiding his captivating blue eyes. She shook her head and tried again. “The thing is, I… I like you.” There. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? “But even though I like you, I don’t know how you feel about me.” Justin opened his mouth to say something, but Blair held up her hand to silence him. She wasn’t done. “Even if you felt the same way about me and you were thinking that you might want to be with me, I don’t think I could or would take you up on that offer.”
Although she was trying to avoid his eyes and face altogether, she saw his face question her words. “Like I said, I wouldn’t know if it was real. As far as I know, you’re on the rebound and I’m here because you don’t want to seem like an asshole.”
“You know that’s not why you’re here.”
“Do I?” Blair asked him, this time not even trying to avoid his eyes. “You asked me what the right thing to do was, Justin. I feel like I’m this huge inconvenience to you and you don’t really know what to make of me. I think that on some level you think that it might look better to people if we were dating.”
Truth be told, some of her words stung. They hit a little too close to home. She was right on with a few things. Coincidentally, that made him want her even more. She understood him. They hardly knew one another and yet, she still knew his thought process and intricacies that even his own friends didn’t know. He thought it unnerving that she felt every doubt he had in his head. Frankly, he didn’t know if he truly cared about her, like she had said, or if it really was just he was on the rebound from Angela. He didn’t know if he wanted to be with her because he genuinely liked her or if he thought it might look better. It was amazing to him that she could tell he was having those doubts as well.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” Justin told her.
“I don’t want you to have to walk on eggshells around me now, I just thought I needed to tell you how I felt. It’s important to me that we’re open with each other because we’re going to be in this for the long run,” she told him, scooting closer to him. “And I want to be comfortable around you because you’re gonna end up seeing me when I’m feeling fat and ugly.” Justin smiled at that, reassuring her inadvertently. “You’re gonna see me when I’m all sweaty and gross because I’m pushing a freaking kid out of a tiny place, and if I’m not feeling comfortable around you when that’s happening, I’m gonna be pissed.” She smiled at him and placed her hands on his. “We need to have a friendly relationship, Justin, because I want you to be around for a long time… and because when I don’t feel like getting up, I want someone to make me food when I say so.”
Justin laughed. Leave it to her to be sentimental and throw a joke in there at the last second. Justin wrapped his arms around her small frame. “I don’t care that you’re going to be fat,” he whispered.
Blair playfully slapped his arm and threw her head back in laughter. She told him to shut up, but she threw her arms around him again.
“Good thing that whole talk is over,” she said.
