“Any big plans for tonight?” Justin asked as he parked his car in the driveway and shut off the engine.

Brenna shook her head. “No. Sleep probably. I’m so tired.”

“Yeah that interview was early this morning. I’d probably just sleep too but me and Matt are going to the Lakers game.”

Brenna yawned and got out of the car. “Oh, that’s tonight?”

“Yeah.” He checked his watch. “I still got some time before I have to leave though. I’m gonna get something to eat. Do you want anything?”

She followed him into the house. “I’m too tired to eat. I’m just gonna go upstairs.”

“Okay.”

She climbed the stairs and made her way to her room. The day had been nonstop since four thirty that morning and she was exhausted. She hadn’t been doing PA stuff all day but she had been with Kate, helping her with some things, and hadn’t had a moment to herself.

She changed into a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt and then shut off the lights and got into her bed. It had never felt so good to be laying in bed.

She had only been there for a few minutes when there was a knock on her door and then it cracked open.

“Bren?”

She opened her eyes and lifted her head to see Justin standing in her doorway, eating a slice of pizza. “Yeah?”

“Just so you know, I’m gonna be leaving in a bit. Not right away, but just in case you fall asleep and then I’m gone when you wake up.”

“Okay.”

“Kay.” He shut the door and she rolled over onto her side, facing the wall. She closed her eyes and sank further into her bed. She had just drifted into the pleasant state of being almost asleep when she felt her bed move. Through a hazy mind, she felt someone get into her bed and then spoon up behind her. Two arms went around her waist and a soft kiss was placed on her neck. She let out a sigh.

“Justin?” she murmured.

The arms around her immediately withdrew and the bed moved again. It was silent and she opened her eyes a crack.

“Justin?” she asked again.

“No, it’s not.”

Her eyes opened all the way and she rolled over onto her back to see Drew sitting there. “Oh. What’re you doing here?” she asked, trying to wake herself up.

“Why the hell did you think I was Justin?” he replied and she became aware that he didn’t seem happy.

“What?”

“Why did you think I was Justin?” he repeated. “Does he often get into bed with you?”

She rubbed her eyes. “No, I didn’t know you were here.”

He stood up. “Well now I kind of wish I wasn’t.”

She sat up. “Don’t be mad.”

“Why shouldn’t I be mad? I get into bed with you and kiss you and you call me some other guy’s name? What, were you expecting someone else?”

“No! I was half asleep, Drew. How was I supposed to know you were going to be here? How did you even get in?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Justin let me in on his way out. And you never answered my question.”

“I was half asleep,” she repeated. “I’m sorry. It didn’t mean anything.”

“You know, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to have your girlfriend being best friends with Justin Timberlake but I can deal with that. I can’t deal with you fantasizing about him while you sleep though.”

She was starting to get upset. “I wasn’t, Drew! I thought he was the only one here.”

Drew stared at her for a minute. “You know what’s also great? How I kissed your damn neck and you sure didn’t fight that considering you thought I was Justin.”

“Drew…”

“Look, sorry, Brenna, but I’m pissed off. If you’d rather have Justin just let me know and we can arrange that.”

She felt tears well up in her eyes and she shook her head, not trusting her voice. Things had gone so bad so fast and she didn’t know how to fix it.

“I didn’t know you were here,” she finally whispered.

“Shit, stop saying that! It’s really not helping anything!”

She winced as he yelled and brought up her knees, hugging her legs to her chest. She had never seen Drew like this and at that point, she was starting to get a little scared.

Justin ran up the stairs two at a time the next morning, deciding Brenna had slept long enough and it was time for them to go running. He knocked on her door and after waiting a minute and getting no answer, he opened her door softly. She was laying on her bed on her side, facing away from him. He smiled and went over to the bed. She didn’t move as he knelt down on the empty side of the bed and leaned back on his heals.

“Brenna.”

She moaned.

“Wake up.”

“Why?” she mumbled.

“Cause it’s like nine. And I wanna go for a run.” He pushed back the covers over her, thinking it would make her get up. He opened his mouth to tell her to get up but then shut it again when he looked down at her. She was wearing a pair of sweat shorts and a tank top and his eyebrows drew together as he looked at her skin. On her upper arm and on her thigh were dark bruises in a shape he couldn’t distinguish.

“What happened to your arm and leg?” he asked, staring at the bruises.

She lifted her head and looked down at her arm. She stared at it for a few long seconds before speaking. “I, uh, ran into a pole.”

He looked at her face. “A pole,” he repeated.

“Yeah.” She looked to the side.

He watched her face and didn’t say anything. It seemed like her answer didn’t seem to flow very easily. Almost like she had made it up on the spot. He bit his lip as he tried to think up the best way to ask her what he wanted to ask.

“Bren,” he finally said slowly. “Does Drew hit you?”

Her head whipped to face him. “No!” she said quickly.

He stared at he as she looked away again and he debated on what to say. “If someone’s hurting you, Bren, you can tell me.”

She turned to look at him again. “No one is, Justin. I wouldn’t let someone do that to me.”

“You let Jake Murphy do it,” he said before he could stop himself.

Her face instantly hardened. “Get out.”

“Bren…”

Her voice rose a few notches. “Get out, Justin!”

He quickly stood up and left her room, closing the door behind him. Rubbing his face, he slowly went downstairs to the kitchen and sat down on one of the bar stools. He knew he shouldn’t have said anything about Jake. It was still a sore subject for her. But she HAD let Jake abuse her and her story just didn’t seem to be all that believable. What else was he supposed to think?

“Hey.”

He looked up when he heard Kate’s voice and saw her standing in the doorway. “Hi.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I woke up Bren this morning and she had these bruises on her leg and arm and…” he trailed off when Kate began to laugh. “What?”

“Her right arm and leg?”

“Yeah,” he said slowly.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh but, oh my gosh, it was so funny. Yesterday when me and her were at the mall she was trying to figure out the text messaging on her cell and she walked right into one of those mirror pillars. She hit it so hard.” Kate laughed again. “She was limping for like an hour.”

He dropped his head into his hands. “Shit,” he sighed.

“What?”

“Well I asked her and she said she ran into a pole but like, seriously, who runs into a pole? And she seemed all nervous.”

Kate gave him a weird look. “What did you do, Justin?”

“I kind of asked if Drew, um, hit her.”

“You what?!”

“And she’s mad at me now.”

“You’re such an asshole, Justin!”

He looked up at her. “What, you’re mad too?”

“Drew’s one of my best friends, Justin! I can’t believe you’d think for a second that he’d hit her!”

“Kate, what else was I supposed to think?”

She gave him a dirty look. “I can’t talk to you right now,” she said, leaving the kitchen.

He dropped his head back into his hands.

Just Perfect.

Brenna shut he eyes as Justin left her room and tried to will the tears away. She couldn’t believe he had said that. She rubbed her hand over the bruise on her arm. She had thought Justin liked Drew. Why would he ever think Drew would hit her?

She sat up in bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. As she stared at her toes, a couple tears slipped won her cheeks. All of her emotions from the past two months had come to the surface and she was just upset. She was overwhelmed, she missed her mom and Lynn, and she was mad at Justin for saying what he had said.

She had been sitting there for about ten minutes when she heard a knock on her door. She was about to tell Justin to go away when she heard Kate’s voice.

“Brenna?”

She wiped her eyes. “Yeah?”

Her door opened and Kate came in. She shut it behind her. “Damn, Justin’s such an ass. I can’t believe he asked if Drew hit you.”

Brenna nodded. “I know.”

“He’s all upset downstairs.”

“Good,” she mumbled.

“Exactly. He needs to think before he opens his big mouth,” Kate scoffed and sat down on her bed. “Are you okay? You look like you were crying.”

Brenna rubbed her eyes. “I was,” she sighed. “What he said just pushed me over the edge. He’s such an idiot sometimes.”

“I know, Hun.” Kate was quiet for a minute. “Did Drew come over here yesterday? He said he was going to.”

A small humorless laugh escaped Brenna. “Yeah, he came over. And I screwed that up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was half asleep and he got into bed with me and I thought Justin was the only one in the house so I figured it had to be him and I called Drew Justin.”

Kate winced. “Ouch. Bad move.”

Brenna sighed and went back to looking at her toes. “I know. He was so mad.”

“Can you blame him? I’d be pissed too if I got into bed with Tyler and he called me some other girl’s name.”

Brenna rested her forehead on her knees. “I know. I felt so bad.”

“Did you guys make up?”

“Yeah, I guess. He still seemed kind of upset. I don’t know.”

“He’ll be fine. Drew can get moody sometimes. I’m sure he’s not that upset.”

Brenna turned her head to the side, resting her cheek on her knee. “Maybe.”

“Man, I still can’t get over that Justin thought Drew hit you.”

“I know.”

“Those are some pretty bad bruises.”

She lifted her head to see Kate smirking. “Don’t you dare laugh. My leg still hurts.”

Kate’s smile grew. “It was hilarious, Bren.” She checked her watch. “Shit, I gotta go. I was only meaning to stop by for a minute. I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Sure.”

Kate stood up. “Want me to tell Justin to leave you alone?”

“Yeah, if you could. I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Sure. Talk to you later.”

“Bye.” Brenna watched her friend leave and then sighed and straightened out her legs. She stayed in her room for a while and went over Justin’s schedule for the next day and went through a large contract, marking the spots where he had to sign.

By eleven o’clock, she decided to go shower and slowly got ready. She didn’t have anything to do that day but did kind of want to spend some time with Drew.

The door to Justin’s room was partly open as she walked by it but she ignored it and went downstairs. Justin was letting her use one of his cars for herself and within a couple minutes she was backing out of the driveway.

There were too many thoughts going through her head to be able to listen to music so she drove to Drew’s apartment complex in silence. When she reached it, she parked the car and went to the building. Inside the front doors, she buzzed up to Drew’s apartment.

“Hello?”

She recognized the voice as Drew’s roommate, Zack. “Hi, Zack. It’s Brenna.”

“Come on up.”

The buzzer sounded and she opened the door. She rode up the elevator to the sixth floor and then walked down the hallway. The apartment door was open a crack and she let herself in.

“Hey, Brenna,” Zack said as he came into the hallway. “How’re you?”

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“Great. Just on my way out actually. Drew’s in his room.”

She took off her shoes. “Okay. Thanks.” She went to the back of the apartment where Drew’s room was and knocked on the closed door. She heard a muffled ‘come in’ and opened the door.

“Hi.”

Drew looked up from his computer and smiled. “Hey. What’re you doing here?”

She shrugged and sat down in the middle of his bed. “Just thought I’d come over. Are you busy?”

“Just typing up a few emails.” He shut his laptop and turned around in his desk chair to face her. “You don’t have to do anything today?”

She silently shook her head.

“Are you okay? You’re really quiet.”

She played with the edge of her jeans. “I got into a fight with Justin.”

“About what?”

She didn’t want to mention that Justin had asked if Drew hit her. And she really didn’t want to mention Jake Murphy who Drew knew nothing about. “It was stupid. He was just being dumb.”

“Oh.” Drew got up and came over to sit on the bed as well. “So you haven’t had the best morning then.”

“Nope.”

He put his arms around her waist and pulled her up so she was sitting on her lap. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“Yeah. Me and Justin haven’t gotten into a fight since we were like ten.”

He tipped her chin up with his finger. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Friends get into fights all the time. Everything will work out.”

She nodded. “I guess.” She looked at him and smiled as he leaned his head down to kiss her. She wanted to forget about Justin and being with Drew would help her do that.

She wrapped her arms around him as she kissed him back. After a minute her neck was starting to hurt from turning it so she moved, facing Drew and straddling his legs. She sat back on his legs and looked at him.

“I’m so sorry about yesterday.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied, leaning forward to cover his lips wit his again. She raised her hands to his hair as she kissed him. His hands moved down her back to her butt and he pulled her tight against him. She sighed into his mouth and shifted on his lap a bit.

Drew leaned back, brining her down on top of him until he was laying on the bed. Their legs tangled together and his hands moved to her lower back where her shirt had been pushed up a bit. His fingers seared her skin and she moaned. He rolled them over so he was on top and moved his lips to her neck. He mumbled something but she missed it and instead closed her eyes. His hands had just moved to her stomach when something vibrated in between them. He jerked his head back from her neck and gave her a questioning look.

“My phone,” she said.

He laughed. “Okay, good. I was wondering what you had in your pocket.”

She giggled.

“You gonna get it?”

“I guess.” She pulled her cell phone from her front pocket and opened it. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Trace’s voice said. “Where are you?”

“Drew’s.”

“Oh.” She heard him repeat her answer to someone and then the muffled sound of a male voice. “Do you know when you’ll be back?” Trace asked her.

“I’m not sure. Why?”

“Just wondering. Justin didn’t know where you went.”

“That’s because I didn’t tell him.”

“Yeah…”

She looked over at Drew as he rubbed his hand over her stomach and she gave him a slight smile.

“Do you know if you’ll be home for supper?”

“I don’t know, Trace. Probably not. If I am I’ll just grab something myself.”

“Are you sure? Justin said he might get Thai food. He said it’s your favorite.”

She rolled her eyes. “It is. Don’t bother. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Okay.”

“I have to go, okay? I’ll see you later.”

“Alright. Bye.”

She ended the call and put her phone back in her pocket.

“What did he want?” Drew asked.

“See if I was home for supper.” She sighed and stretched out her legs. “I think he was calling for Justin.”

“Oh. So are you going back for supper?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you have anything to do today?”

“Not until like seven. I have a night class to teach.”

“So can I stay here for a while?”

He smiled. “As long as you want.”

Close to seven thirty Brenna arrived back at Justin’s house. When she went into the house it was pretty quiet and she went straight upstairs. The door to Justin’s room was open but she didn’t look in. She flipped on the lights in her room and set her things on her bed. Something on her dresser caught her eye and she looked over to see a vase of lilies sitting there. She went over to the flowers and fingered the petal on one.

“You like lilies, right?”

She looked over and saw Justin standing in her doorway. She nodded silently.

“Bren, I’m really sorry about this morning. I should’ve believed you and I shouldn’t have brought up Jake.”

“I’d never let Drew hit me. What went on between me and Jake was totally different.”

He looked uncomfortable. “Sorry, Bren, but how is that different?”

She looked back at the flowers. “It just is. Things are different now. I can stand up for myself. I’m not as weak as you think I am.”

“I don’t think you’re weak. I shouldn’t have said what I did and I’m sorry.”

She looked back over at him. “It’s okay,” she said finally.

“Were you at Drew’s all afternoon?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s some left over Thai food in the fridge if you want any.’

She rolled her eyes but a small smile came onto her lips. “You’re such a suck up.”

He smiled and shrugged. “So?”

She sighed and pulled off her jacket. “I guess I could eat something. Did you sign that contract I left in the kitchen?”

“You left a contract in the kitchen?”

She moved past him in the doorway and he followed her downstairs. “The one you have to have signed before your meeting tomorrow.”

“Damn, I forgot about that. Is it long?”

“Yeah. I read through it and it’s all good though.”

“Okay.”

She opened the fridge and pulled out some of the Thai food containers. “Is Trace here?”

“He’s studying for some midterm he has tomorrow.”

She put some of the food on a plate and then sat down at the table. Justin sat down beside her and started to go through the contract, signing his name where needed.

“Is there a lot tomorrow?”

“Only the meeting but it sounds like it’s going to go on for a while.”

“Okay. As long as we’re done by six.”

“What’s at six?”

“Oh, Kate set me up on a blind date with some girl for tomorrow night.”

“Who?”

“I don’t’ know. She said we’ve met before but I don’t remember her. It should be interesting.”

“Maybe she found someone good.”

He rolled his eyes and flipped a page on the contract. “Yeah, right.”

“Hey, she found Drew for me.”

“Yeah, well last time she set me up, the girl was a psycho.”

“Maybe this one will be better.”

He laughed a bit. “Doubtful.”