Chapter Three
We turned into the parking lot and I watched as Justin put on his hat and glasses to go inside. "Ready Freddy?" He smiled over at me.
"Okie dokie with me Arkachockie." I grinned back at him as we proceeded to head inside the local Super Wal-Mart.
"I need like;" Justin looked at the grocery list he brought with him. In all my life, he was the only man, man enough to make a grocery list that I've seen. "I need everything. Let’s just purchase the whole store and have it airlifted to my backyard?" Justin joked as he looked back at me as we entered the cool air-conditioned place.
"You have the money to do it." I replied as I grabbed a buggy and started to push it.
Justin grabbed my wrist and swung me around to face him. "I might have the money, Liz. But I damn well don't flaunt it for everyone to see. Yeah I bought my mom a house and I bought a house, so what? I deserve that. So does she.”
"Sorry." I apologized. I sighed as I shook my head. "I don't know what's wrong with me today Justin, I'm irritable." I confessed as we proceeded to the food isle. "So, what do we need?"
"Like everything?" Justin said as he looked around. "Cereal, milk, snack food, meal food, everything." He named off as he looked back down at me.
I shook my head and smiled at him. "You just eat too much."
"I do not!" He turned to me with an agitated look as he placed his hands on his hips.
I smiled evilly at him. "Of course not, that little sack of so called 'fat' on your sides is just extra meat your packing to keep warm in our cold, cold months."
Justin smiled down at me and chuckled softly. "You are too cute for words sometimes, Liz. Just too cute."
I smiled back up at him and leaned my head to the side as I placed my hands on my hips. My hair swayed down in front of my eyes and I felt his hand on my cheek, slowly moving it away. "Justin..."
"Shh." He placed his thumb on my lips and smiled at me as he leaned in close. His mouth came only millimeters away from my ear. "Sometimes you can be so... so..."
"So, what?" I asked softly as I tried to stare into his blue eyes, but the sunglasses were blocking the view.
"So..." He furrowed his eyebrows together and smiled mischievously. "Stubborn."
"Bite it Timbersnake." I said as I glared at him. "Bite it."
"C'mere and I will." He challenged.
My eyes widened as my eyebrows shot upward at his bluntness. It was never usually like this with us. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me, missy." He stood there in front of me only inches away and I could smell his cologne and aftershave. He had grown up so much in the last seven years that I could hardly recognize the person standing in front of me.
"I might have to get my ears checked out." I smiled at him. When we were kids in Tennessee he was always the shy one, having to warm up to people before completely being able to talk to them, let alone trust them. And now he here was Mr. Big Shot. Mr. Top Gun. Mr. 'Tell me how high and I'll jump for you' guy. I shook my head at the mere thought of how much he had changed.
"You know Justin;" I began as I started to walk on and grabbed some red and green grapes. "You've changed."
He looked at me curiously and shook his head as he tried to comprehend what I was saying. "How have I changed? I'm still the same person I've always been."
I had to laugh at that. "You're not the same. The Justin I used to know wore flannel shirts and blue jeans half the time. And now you're wearing..." I looked him up and down. "Nike sneakers Gap shits and Tommy jeans."
"So what? My wardrobe has changed." He replied as he grabbed some crackers and cheese. "Snack food."
"Not just your wardrobe." I said shaking my head. I grabbed some onions and a bag of lettuce. "You personality has changed some too. You’re not... you're not..."
"Normal?" Justin said as he looked at me. I froze as I stood there looking into those black sunglasses he had on and frowned.
"Yeah. But not just because of you popularity status in the music business either Justin. It has to do with how you've changed over the last seven years, although you being in N SYNC has a lot to do with that."
He sighed as we walked on to the cereal isle. He grabbed some Applejacks and some Cinnamon Life. "I know. But thankfully I have you to bring me down from my ego trips. Oh fierce one." He smiled over at me.
"I'm serious Justin."
"So am I." He replied as we continued to walk around. "We need some pizza."
"You need pizza like you need a hole in the head." I replied sarcastically. I grabbed some frozen TV dinners from the freezer and placed them in the buggy.
"Healthy Choice?" He questioned me with a bland look on his face.
"Yes." I replied as I placed my hands on my hips. "And don't argue."
He threw his hands up in defeat and smiled down at me evilly. "Okay, you get the Healthy Choice and I get the sinful chocolate cake."
I laughed as I remembered what my earlier comment was. "The Healthy Choice is for me Justin. Not for you. You don't need this." I replied as I picked one of the frozen dinners up. "You're not fat. You skinny as a toothpick."
"So are you." He pointed out. "Going on one of your famous diets again?" He questioned me.
"If you must know, yes." I replied as I placed the dinner back into the cart.
"Ya don't need it Liz. You got a great body."
I froze and looked up at him. "You've been checking me out, haven't you?" I smiled evilly at him.
"No!" He stated firmly as he shook his head.
I continued to grin at him as I walked closer to him. I pinned him against a shelf and smiled evilly up at him. "You have so. So you like what you see, stud muffin?"
He smiled back down at me. "Always." He whispered.
"Then why don't you..." I licked my lips and moved away quickly. "Get moving." I laughed at his humorous expression.
"As always, you are such a tease."
I smiled and grabbed my hair tie from my wrist and did my hair into a ponytail. "Aren't I?" I asked as I batted my eye lashes at him. He shook his head and we proceeded to do some serious shopping.
Days went on and I felt something completely different come over me when I was meeting Justin to film him, or just to hang out like the old days. He's known me for so long, and vice verse with me. I can't imagine not having him in my life. He means everything to me. He's not only my past and present, but he'll always be in my future. further evaluation, Liz. He'll definitely be there if you HAVE him I shook my head as I tried desperately to watch the TV in front of me. I turned to look at Justin and smiled as his eyes were intently watching the movie playing in front of us.
He laid on the floor beside me on his stomach with his hands propping his head up. He turned slowly towards me and gave me a curious look. "What?"
"Wh...Nothing." I shook my head as I grabbed a handful of the popcorn. "You're yummy."
"What?"
"I said the popcorn is good, yummy." I smiled at him.
"Mmmhmm"
“WHAT are you DOING?" I yelled at myself as I closed my eyes. This was something not totally new, but spending more time with Justin was definitely bringing it out more and more. "Justin?"
"Oh I love this part." He sat there watching the 'Little Mermaid' closely. I sighed and watched him sing out of the corner of my eye. "Sha la la la la la. My oh my. Look like the boy too shy. Ain't gonna kiss the girl..."
"Justin?"
"Sha la la la la la. Don't be scared. You got the mood prepared. Go on and kiss the girl..." He turned and smiled at me. "I think I'll do just that." Before I had a chance to say anything his head leaned down slowly and his lips softly grazed mine. "You had a chocolate milkshake today, where's mine?" He smiled evilly at me.
"I.. uh... I umm..."
He smiled at me again and pushed a stray hair away from my cheek before it tickled me. "I actually made her speechless."
"I'm not... um... yeah"
He laughed and shook his head. "What did you want?"
"Why did you kiss me?"
"I wanted to." He looked back at the TV and then I saw his eyes land back on me again. "Besides, Sebastian told me too."
"Justin, I think he was telling Eric to kiss Ariel." I licked my lips self consciously and I could taste the butter form the popcorn. How they got there, was from Justin's lips touching mine. "Just, what are we doing?"
He turned at me and looked at me strangely. "Watching a movie."
"You're such a smart-ass." I got up off the floor and stood by the window and looked out at the front yard and the security gate.
"That's me. What's wrong, Lulu?"
"Nothing."
"Don't lie." I felt his hand on my shoulder and I closed my eyes as I took a whiff of his cologne. Did he have to smell so damn good?
"I'm losing my heart to you."
"What was that?"
"I said I'm going to hurt you real soon." I covered up my slip.
"Yeah, uh huh."
"What?" I quickly turned around and knocked into his chest. My eyes slowly raised up from his muscular chest to his scrubby chin, to his delicious lips and over his broad nose to finally land on his blue orbs. "Sorry."
He grabbed both my arms and looked into my eyes. "Something's different about you."
"Nothing’s different." I shook my head as I tried to turn away from him, but he held onto me tightly.
"Something is different, I just can't.... Put my finger on it." His brows fused together in concentration and his index finger softly grazed my lips.
"Don't." I pleaded softly as I looked into his eyes.
"I'm just trying to figure out what's different."
"This isn’t supposed to happen."
He looked at me strangely and then smiled. "Then what is?"
I was speechless for a moment trying to sort through all the thoughts ranging in my head. "I don't know."
"I have a confession." He let go of my arms and walked over to the couch and sat down softly.
I sighed and closed my eyes. "What's that?"
"I'm starting to look at you differently, Liz. I don't know if it's because of the extra time we're spending together or what... but we're different."
"We're grown up." I said softly as I walked over and sat beside him.
"Does that mean we have to change our relationship with each other?"
"No." I shook my head. "Not if you don't want to.... That is."
"But," He sighed and ran his hands over his face in misery. He looked up with me with such seriousness in his voice and penetrating through his eyes. "What if I do?"
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