When Brenna walked into the Harless house the next afternoon and found Justin in the living room, his first words weren’t the typical “hello”. Instead, she was greeted with, “Oh, good. Can you refill my hot water bottle?”

She stared at him for a minute as he held up a water bottle from where he sat on the couch.

“Please, Bren?”

“Okay…” she said slowly, taking it from him and starting towards the kitchen.

His voice stopped her. “Oh, and Brenna?”

She turned around. “Yeah?”

“Could you grab me a bottle of juice from the fridge too? And another box of Kleenex?”

Her eyes started to narrow.

“Oh, and I think Mom left a bottle of Tylenol on the kitchen counter. Could you grab that while you’re in there?”

Her hand rose to rest on her hip. “Have you just been waiting for someone to come and do all this for you?”

“No…”

“You just happen to have a list of things that need to be done?”

He began to smile. “Please, Bren?”

She sighed and turned on her heel, heading towards the kitchen. She fulfilled every one of Justin’s requests and balanced everything in her arms as she went back to the living room.

“Thanks,” he said as she dumped everything onto the table in front of him. “Oh, could you pass me that pillow before you sit?”

“You are way too spoiled,” she mumbled as she retrieved the pillow that laid on the floor near the TV.

“I’m sick though.”

“Spoiled.”

“I got some new movies. Wanna watch one?”

She tossed the pillow to him. “What movies?”

“Choices are The Exorcist, Seven, or House on Haunted Hill.”

“Wow,” she said sarcastically. “Great choices.”

He smiled. “So…”

“Seven.”

“Cool. Could you stick it in?”

Sighing, she got up and went over to where he had all the movies stacked. Her eyes roamed over them before she withdrew one and stuck it in the DVD player.

“Hey, this isn’t Seven,” he said as the menu appeared.

“No, this is When Harry Met Sally.”

“But I don’t wanna watch this.”

Her lips curved up slightly. “Then get up and switch it.”

“You suck,” he grumbled, leaning back against the couch and starting the movie.

“And you’re like the epitome of lazy,” she replied, sinking down into the far side of the couch. She pulled a blanket overtop of her as she got lost in the movie. About halfway through, the sound of quiet snoring distracted her and she turned her head to see that Justin was asleep. He had stretched out on the couch at the beginning of the movie and now the sole of his foot was pressed against the side of her leg.

Now distracted, Brenna’s thoughts drifted away from the movie and toward Justin. He had only been back for a week but it felt like much longer. So much time and so many things had passed since they were best friends but somehow their childhood history didn’t make it seem that different. The day before when she had spent the afternoon with him in his room, she had really felt like they had never been apart and had always been best friends. It was a good feeling but also a bittersweet one because she knew once he got over the mono, he would leave again and there was no guarantee that they would stay friends after that.

Near the end of the movie, Lynn entered the house and Brenna slowly stood up from the couch, careful not to disturb Justin.

“Hey, Brenna,” Lynn said as Brenna joined her in the front hallway.

“Hi.”

“How long has Justin been asleep?”

“About an hour.”

Lynn went into the living room and over to Justin, placing her palm on his forehead. She pulled a blanket over him and then rejoined Brenna.

“He was feeling pretty bad this morning before I left. He had a high fever again. It feels like it’s gone down a bit.”

Brenna followed her into the kitchen. “How long does it take to get over mono?”

“I think it depends on how much resting a person gets. I believe the doctor told Justin not to expect anything less than a month. He has a doctor’s appointment next week though so we’ll see how he’s doing.” She set her things on the counter and pulled out a magazine from one of the bags. “I found this garbage today while I was out.”

Brenna took the magazine from her and on the top of the front page saw a picture of an attractive blonde with the caption ‘I gave Justin Timberlake Mono’.

“It’s just a stupid tabloid but it still bothers me,” Lynn said. “And I know Justin will be upset by it.”

“How would anyone even know he has mono?” Brenna asked, setting the magazine on the counter.

“The press knows about everything. You can’t keep much a secret when you’re famous. Justin’s publicist already called this morning to warn me about the article. I still wanted to see it for myself.”

“Do they pay people for these stories or would she have just voluntarily gone to the magazine?”

“Oh, they pay them. But some people just like to be in the spotlight for their fifteen minutes. It’s sad, really.”

“Yeah.”

Lynn opened the fridge. “I’m still trying to figure out what I’ll make for supper.”

“I’m not staying for supper. Mom said this morning that she’ll be home by six.”

“Okay. Well, Justin probably won’t eat much so maybe I’ll just heat up some leftovers. That’s easy enough.” She shut the fridge. “You know, last night Justin said that you had told him that you eventually want to move to a bigger city.”

“Yeah, I mentioned something about that.”

“Is this a new thing? You’ve never mentioned it to me before.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of new I guess. I don’t know. I guess lately I’ve been thinking that maybe I need a change in scenery. I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never been anywhere but to Colorado once. But I would have to save up a lot of money if I wanted to ever do that.”

“Where do you want to move to?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere different.”

“Change is always good.”

“Yeah. This change might just take a really long time to happen.”

One Week Later…

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

Brenna frowned a bit at the voice coming over the telephone line. “Justin?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you had my number.”

“Come on. I had your number memorized since I was ten.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Do you have anything to do today?”

“No, no really.”

“Cool. Wanna come over?”

“You’re up for someone over there? Yesterday you sounded like you were dying.”

“Felt like it too. No, I’m better now kinda. I’m just really, really bored.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“So you’ll come over?”

“Yeah. Give me a bit though. I still have to shower.”

“How long will you be?”

“Like half an hour maybe.”

“Cool. I’ll be waiting.”

Twenty minutes later, Brenna was leaving her house and locking the door behind her. She took the short route to Justin’s house, cutting through the woods.

The past week had been one of the best she’d had in a while. She had spent a lot of time hanging out with Justin. It was like their friendship had picked up where it had ended when they were kids and she loved it. Justin made her laugh and he cheered her up. The uneasiness she had developed around him had vanished and she truly enjoyed every minute she spent with him.

Justin answered the door a minute after she rang the doorbell and her eyebrows rose a bit when she took in his jeans and t-shirt.

“What happened to your sweats? I though you lived in those.”

He shrugged and stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind him.

“Are we going somewhere?”

“I wanna go for a walk or something. I need to get out of the house.”

“Where are we going?”

“I dunno. What about the pond?”

“Sure.” She walked down the front steps, Justin close behind her.

“Damn, it’s so nice out here.”

“How are you up to going out? Yesterday you seriously looked like death had warmed over you.”

“Yeah, I dunno why I felt so bad yesterday. This morning I felt a lot better though. Mom told me to stay home and sleep today but there’s no way I can.”

“Oh great. So I’m an accomplice to your escape then.”

“Yeah. And you’re getting all the blame if she gets mad.”

“Perfect.”

“Hey, you’re wearing a skirt. That’s new.”

She looked down at her knee length jean skirt. “How is that new?”

“Because you like never wear skirts. At least not when we were kids. I think I’ve seen you in skirt maybe twice.”

She shrugged. “Well that was then and this is now. Things change.”

“So what’s changed?”

“What?”

“What’s changed in your life since I left?”

She glanced over at him briefly and then back in front of her. “Lots of things.”

“Your dad.”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry. If you don’t like talking about it that’s cool.”

“I don’t care.”

“Okay.” He only paused for a second. “What kind of cancer did he have?”

She was a little surprised he would ask but didn’t see a reason to not answer. “Liver and Lung.”

“Did he smoke?”

“No. He had liver cancer and it spread to his lungs.”

“Oh. How long ago did he die?”

“It’ll be four years in August.”

“So when you were eighteen.”

“Yeah. Right after I graduated he started to get really bad. Before that you couldn’t really tell he was sick.”

“Yeah. How’s your mom been after all that?”

“She’s alright. She works a lot now. Mostly just because someone needs to pay for things.”

“Yeah. Man, that’s a lot to go through when you’re eighteen.”

“I’m sure it would be a lot to go through at any age.”

“Well, yeah, but that’s like right after you’ve graduated and you’re eighteen and you probably just want to go out and have fun. That would suck.”

“Mm hmm.”

“So after he died what did you do? I mean, you wouldn’t have just gone out and gotten a job, right?”

“I just kind of hung out at home for a couple months. In October, I went to live with my aunt and uncle in Memphis. I stayed there for a few months and helped out at my uncles construction business.”

“You worked construction?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s hot.”

She laughed a bit. “That’s hot?”

“A girl working construction or like working on cars or something is hot. Come on, Bren. That’s just a known fact.”

“Uh huh.” She shook her head as they reached the clearing in the forest where the pond was.

“I swear this was like the hangout when we were kids. Remember how we’d all come here after school? I think pretty much every kid was here some days.”

“Yeah. Every once in a while there’ll be some kids out here. But now there’s that community pool so most just go there.”

“Well that’s no fun. You should swim in a pond or lake. Not some pool.”

“Oh, this coming from you. When’s the last time you swam in natural water and not some pool.”

“Hey, it’s not easy to find lakes in LA that aren’t full of shit. I’m all about swimming in a place like this.”

“Yeah, you’re just Mr. Outdoors.”

“Whatever. I’ll go for a swim right now then.”

“No way. Lynn will kill me. You’ll probably get hypothermia or something on top of your mono.”

“Yeah, the water’s so cold,” he said sarcastically.

“Ugh. Must you always be so sarcastic?”

“Because you never are?”

“Oh, shut up.” She went over to a grassy patch of ground near the pond and sat down. Justin plopped own beside her a second later. She crossed her legs in front of her.

“Maybe I don’t wear skirts a lot because it’s impossible to sit comfortably in one.”

“Yep. And you don’t want anyone oogling your goods.”

She gave him a look. “Crude.”

“Oh, that’s not crude. You should hear me and Trace talk. Now that can be crude.”

“Yeah, somehow I think I’ll pass.”

He smirked and stretched his arms above his head. “Shit, my muscles are sore. Want to give me a massage?”

“I don’t give good massages.”

“Come on. Please?”

“Seriously, Justin. I’m not good at massages.”

“Pu-lease?”

She rolled her eyes and quickly moved behind him, beginning to knead his shoulders. He pulled forward after a couple seconds.

“Ow. Ow! Okay, you give horrible massages. Did you have to destroy my back to prove your point?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, perfect.”

“Mm hmm.” She moved back to her previous spot and laid back to stare up at the sky. “It’s really cloudy today.”

“Remember how we used to look at the clouds and make shapes out of them?”

“Who doesn’t do that?”

“Yep.”

She smiled as she stared up at the clouds. “That one’s like some kind of animal. I can’t think of it though.”

“Beaver?”

“No.”

“Skunk?”

“No.”

“Porcupine?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

He laid back too. “Yup.”

“Good call.”

“Yup.”