Chapter Four
“Miss Rachael, can we do the Justin dance?”
“Please, Miss Rachael? Pretty please?”
“Pretty please with cherries on top?”
“You see? His plan is already working! The brainwashing has begun.”
“Shut up, Maria.”
“Please, Miss Rachael? Please?”
Rachael sighed and rolled her eyes slightly at the 10 girls who surrounded her. “I don’t know, loves, I think I’m going to have to go with Maria on this one. He is an evil, evil man. And besides, we’ve not even done any across the floor work.”
“Please!” all the girls, excluding Maria, chorused in almost complete unison.
“No, I don’t think so. To the corner, girlies. We’ll do Justin next week.” The minute it came out of her mouth, she wished she hadn’t said it. She really needed to start thinking about how things sounded before she said them. The few girls who understood the unintended innuendo snickered quietly but didn’t say anything.
“My sister said that you were Justin’s girlfriend,” a girl named Allie piped up unexpectedly. “Is that true?”
Rachael frowned as all of her students stared at her intently. “No it isn’t,” she replied. “To the corner,” she added, pointing. None of them budged.
“But you do know him, don’t you?” Allie’s friend, Clara, questioned.
Rachael nodded. “Yes, we grew up together. Now will you please go to the corner?”
“My sister said you kissed him. There were pictures,” Allie volunteered matter-of-factly.
“To the corner,” Rachael repeated for the third time, beginning to get annoyed. This was certainly not something she wanted to discuss with her 8-10 year old jazz class. All the girls burst into an excited chatter at her lack of a suitable response to the question.
“Did you really kiss Justin Timberlake?”
“Oh my God, you are so lucky!”
“Are you going to date him?”
“Do you love him?”
“Okay, okay!” Rachael yelled above all the noise. “I’ll make you a deal. I will let you do the Justin dance at least once every class for the rest of the year, if you promise not to ask my anymore questions about my relationship with him.” The girls looked at her skeptically.
“I’m not sure that sounds like a fair exchange,” Clara replied.
***
“And then finally I convinced them to shut up and leave me alone by telling them I’d make them dance to the B-52’s “Love Shack” at the recital if they didn’t,” Rachael recounted to Brian as she unlocked the passenger side of her car for him.
“Why didn’t you just lie and say ‘no, I didn’t kiss him. Go do some pirouettes,” Brian questioned as Rachael slid into the driver’s seat and started the car.
She sighed. “Because I’m just a bad liar. They’d never have believed me.”
“So…then you could have just said, ‘None of your business, you little shits. Now fuck off and go do some pirouettes.”
Rachael rolled her eyes. “I can’t say ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ to little kids, Brino. And what’s with the pirouettes?”
“Kids in jazz classes are always particularly bad at pirouettes.”
“Uh huh. So how are things at Barnes and Noble?” Since Brian was the manager of the Barnes and Noble in the same mall Rachael’s studio was, they often carpooled to and from work together.
“Things are fine. Nothing exciting, except that today this guy cussed me out. That hasn’t happened in at least two days, so it was a nice change.”
“Hold that thought,” his friend replied as her cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hey, Rach, it’s me,” Laura’s voice greeted her. “Where are you and what are you doing?”
“I am in the car with your idiot boyfriend.”
“Hey! I can hear you!” Brian protested.
“Oh. Say hello to my idiot boyfriend for me, will you?”
“Laura says ‘hello,’ idiot boyfriend.”
“Hello,” he replied begrudgingly.
“So what’s up, Laur?” Rachael asked.
“Well, I am standing in the hall outside our apartment. You’re coming home, no?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, well…there is a man in our apartment at the moment and I think you’ll be happy to see him. I mean, you just saw him a few days ago, and I don’t think you were expecting to see him again, but you want to see him, don’t you?”
“What? I don’t know. Who? What are you talking about?”
“Lance is here,” Laura hissed.
“Why? I thought he went home!” Rachael exclaimed. She’d seen Lance a few days earlier as he’d been in town to see some other friends, but she hadn’t spoken to him since and had figured he was back on the other side of the country.
“He said he ended up staying longer than he’d expected and he just thought he’d drop in to see you one last time. I think someone has a crush on you,” Laura added in a singsong voice.
“Oh, shut up,” Rachael grumbled, trying to suppress the feeling of butterflies fluttering around her stomach.
Laura cackled. “Well, anyway, I just thought I’d give you a heads up so you didn’t walk in the door and fall over a chair in shock or something.”
“Thank you, you’re so kind,” her friend replied sarcastically.
“I know I am. You know he’s the perfect man, don’t you, Rach? I mean, he really is.”
“So why don’t you date him?”
“Can’t. I’ve got the idiot boyfriend, so I have to force you to date him so at least one of us has the perfect man.”
“No one is perfect.”
“But you love him despite his flaws, right? Right?”
“Oh, leave me alone. I’ll be home in a minute.”
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye.”
***
“See you later, Marty!” Justin called to his choreographer as he headed out the studio door.
“Bye, Justin. Great job today!”
“Thanks, man.” He waved and stepped out into the southern California sunshine. A car pulled up and he did a double take as he saw the person getting out of it.
“Justin! Hey! Long time, no see,” the smiling blonde greeted him as she stepped up onto the sidewalk outside the dance studio.
“Hey, Brit!” he replied, returning her smile and giving her an awkward hug. It had been a while since the two had seen each other. They weren’t on bad terms by any means, but they rarely spoke to each other since the break up.
“I’ve been meaning to call you since I heard you got out of the hospital, but I’ve just been really busy. I’m really sorry.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Justin replied with a wave of his hand. “I completely understand.”
Britney nodded, studying his face intently. “So how’ve you been?”
“I’ve been…okay. Good, I guess. I don’t know.” He laughed awkwardly. “Just started working again, we’re getting ready for the tour. I’m glad to be back.”
“Yeah, I bet! And how are things with Rachael? Did she ever accept that fabulous apology you made on national television?”
“Um…kind of. I mean, we’re friends again and yeah…it’s good. We’re good.”
“Good, I’m glad. Um, listen, I’ve got to get to rehearsal, but you and I should get together and catch up sometime.”
“Yeah, definitely. I’ll call you, okay?”
“Yeah, that would be great.” She reached up and gave him a hug. “I’ll talk to you later, J.”
“Bye, Brit.” He gave her a slight wave and watched her walk into the studio before getting into his car.
***
“Lancey! This is a surprise!” Rachael exclaimed, walking into her apartment and embracing her friend.
“Yeah, I know. I hope you don’t mind my dropping in like this. I know it was unexpected…”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Rachael replied with a smile.
“Of course she doesn’t mind,” Laura added with a grin.
Rachael rolled her eyes slightly and looked at Lance. “So what brings you back here anyway? Couldn’t get enough of our home cookin’?”
“And of course by ‘home cooking’ you mean ‘canned fruit and macaroni and cheese,’” Brian piped up helpfully.
Rachael nodded. “Basically, yeah.”
Lance laughed. “Actually, I’m flying out tonight and I just wanted to stop by and say hello one more time before I left.”
“Aw, that’s sweet! Isn’t that sweet?” Laura asked Brian.
“Mind-numbingly sweet,” her boyfriend replied sarcastically, sitting down on the couch and gesturing for her to do the same.
Lance glanced at his watch. “Well, I really should probably get going. I’m sorry, I know I just got here…”
“Oh, it’s cool, don’t worry about it. I’ll walk you out to your car,” Rachael suggested. Lance just nodded in response and said his good-byes to Laura and Brian before they headed out the door.
They walked out of the building in silence. The kind of silence that Rachael normally only had with Justin, where there is no awkwardness, just silence and comfort. She’d noticed that many things with Lance had become much like they were with Justin.
“So when am I going to see you again, Mr. Bass?” Rachael asked with a smile when they arrived at the parking lot.
“I’m not sure. Maybe in a few weeks,” he replied with a shrug.
She nodded. “Oh, I guess that isn’t too horrible. You better call me though. I need a non-San Francisco State resident to complain to every now and then and you’re one of my best candidates.”
“What about Justin?”
Rachael shrugged and shifted her gaze from his eyes to the ground. “Yeah, him too.” She hadn’t talked to Lance about Justin’s current strange behavior, though she didn’t know why. He was usually one of the first people she went to for advice concerning Justin.
Lance nodded. “Well, I’ve gotta go. I’ll call you when I get home.”
“Okay, good,” Rachael replied, giving him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll talk to you later, Lancey.”
He smiled. “Bye, Rach.”
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