On the other side of the door, Lance bite his lip to keep from laughing. He knew that she thought she was going to be late, but Lance had set all the clocks ahead to make it go along with his plan. After he looked around the room, he noticed that everything was set.
He removed the chair that he had blocking the door, and opened it suddenly, causing her fist to come into contact with his chest. He looked surprised and didn't speak for a moment. Stephanie's eyes also held surprise. "Lance..ohmigosh I'm so sorry..baby...I didn't know that you were going to open that door so fast..I ..I would never do something like that to you."
He held his hand up to silence her, before letting his eyes meet hers. "It's ok, I'm fine..it just surprised me."
"Good, now that you're ok, I need to get going," she said, turning to look at the clock. "OHMIGOSH...I have ten minutes to be there..this is going to make a great first impression.."
Lance chuckled softly and handed her a phone. "Dial information really fast for me."
She looked at him like he was crazy. "Lance, hun, I need to go. You can dial you're own number."
He punched in the number and held it up to her ear. He laughed at the look on her face when she realized what he had done. She punched his shoulder lightly, finally giving in and letting out a small laugh. "Smooth, Lance..real smooth."
"What can I say?"
"You can start by telling me why you did this."
He grabbed her hand, and led her down the hall, coming to stop infront of the steps. Laying there were two red roses, and a note. "Read it," he whispered in her ear.
She shivered from the tingles that she had running up and down her spine, and she slowly wiped the tears away that fell gently down her face. "Lance..that..that's so sweet baby."
He kissed her full lips softly, before leading her to another place. The next place that they came to stop at, held another rose with yet another card. "Read the first message again before you read this one... and after you do, meet me in the kitchen."
She looked confused, but didn't question him. He walked away from her, as she read the message outloud. "You've already got the part of owning my heart, always know that when your tears fall, and things dont go as planned, I'll be around to help you when your down. Love always, Lance," she read, as she picked up the next card. She opened it carefully and laughed at was written next. "Yes, I know..this isn't corny or sweet..but that first card did me out. Now go to the kitchen, this was just to by me some time to get everything ready."
She laid the roses together, and walked towards the kitchen, already smelling food. Her stomach growled as she walked through the entrance way.Her eyes looked around, and settled on Lance, who was sitting at the table. She walked over to him, and kissed him quickly on the lips, before sitting down. "Lance, you dont know how sweet this is. I really appreciate it. You've managed to calm my nerves some." She put a little on her plate, afraid to eat to much, considering how nervous she was right now.
"You're special to me, and you don't have to worry about getting that job..you've already got it in the bag. You're perfect for it."
She smiled. "I hope you're right." They ate basically in silence, as she tried to take Lance's words into heart. She needed this job, but she wouldn't be totally disappointed if she didn't get it. She had Lance's heart, and that's all that she needed to survive.
Thinking of Jc made her depressed. She had tried to call him earlier, but his cell phone was turned off and there had been no answer at his house. She needed to hear his voice. Her thoughts were interrupted as Justin walked out of the bathroom. Her eyes looked over what he was wearing, and she turned away so he wouldn't see her smile.
He had on a pair of khaki cargo shorts, a white wife beater, and a green button up shirt, which was left open. His hair was tamed, and she could smell him from where she was sitting on the bed. "Took you long enough," she said simply as she rose from the bed.
He stuck his tongue out at her, and checked himself one last time. She sighed at how long he was taking, knowing that he was doing it just to piss her off. "Justin, you look fine. You're not going to impress anyone...unless you're not serious about Denise."
He turned to look at her. "I'm very serious about Denise..don't you even go there. I just want to look good, is that a crime?"
"Yes, you look fine and you know it. Now lets go before it gets extremely crowded. I'd like to have one night where I don't have to hear the screams of thousands of teeny boppers because they see Justin Timberlake. I'd also like to go ONE night without having to answer questions about you guys, or why I'm with you."
He placed his hand over her mouth. "Let's go..like you said, we're just wasting time."
She bite down on his hand lightly, and he immediately jerked it back. "What was that for?"
She smiled sweetly up at him. "Don't ever cut me off when I'm speaking," she said, slamming the door before he could walk out. He just chuckled and followed after her.
They walked into the ballroom, to see people already dancing to the music, and some were already eating. "Do you want to dance?" Justin asked, as they moved across the floor. Whitney shurgged her shoulders, and they made their way to the floor. Justin bent down to whisper in her ear. "I'm going to do Jc a favor..no other guys get to dance with you."
Her foot stomped down on his, and he immediately winced. "You will not tell me who and who I can't dance with. Jc knows where my heart is, and he'd encourage me to have fun."
He sighed. "Whitney, lose the attitude. You know that I was just joking around with you."
"You make me wonder sometimes , Justin..you bring on this attitude...there are times when I want to just strangle the hell out of you, but I know that I'd break a lot of girls' heart just because they Justin is gone."
"You know how to increase an ego..has Jc ever told you that?"
She snickered."Jc..ego? Those two words don't go together. It's only you and Joey with the ego problems. Joey thinks he's God's gift to women, and you think you're God's gift to teenies."
His eyes narrowed. "You are so not funny."
"I happen to think that was good. You have to admit..part of it was true."
"Yeah the part about Joey..but the part about me..nope you're so wrong there."
She smiled evily at him, before turning to leave him on the dance floor. "No, the other part was right...you just won't admit it."
He watched her walk away before smiling. He was about to follow her, before a averge height blond stopped him. "Hey there sweetie," she purred, in a sticky sweet voice. "You wanna dance with me?" she said, not waiting on his answer. Having no choice but to dance with her, he allowed her to bump up against him. It had been so long since he had been like this..just dancing with any girl that asked him.
A part of him missed it. He knew what he should do, which was to walk away from the girl, and go find Whitney. But, what he wanted to do was have a good time. Besides, hadn't Denise been the one to push him away? She was the one making him do this, right? That was his reason for staying out there....he could live with what he was doing, and what she didn't know wouldnt hurt her.
He chuckled a little more as he unlocked his car doors. "You're welcome. That movie was just hella hilarious...wait..where did that come from?"
Denise laughed some more. "I think you've been hanging around Justin too long." The only funny thing was though, that when she said his name, she didn't go into the depressed state that she had been in for the past few days. She was too hyper right now to worry about him.
"I think you just might be right. What do you want to do now? I've got to much energy flowing through my veins for me to just go home and sit around. Do you wanna go ..umm...I don't know play putt-putt?"
"I haven't played that in a long time. That sounds like fun."
They drove to the nearest putt-putt place, getting stares from the few people that were there. One brave girl approached the two. "Jc...did you and Whitney break up?"
He shook his head. "No, she just had something to do, and this is my friend Denise."
The girl smiled kindly at her, and turned back to him. "I'm sorry to bother you. I was just curious," she said, as she bounced away.
"Does it get old answering questins about your personal life?"
He sighed. "Yeah..I mean the press assumes what it wants to and so do the fans. It's like anything that you say doesn't matter. They believe what they want to believe. I also hate it when they critize something that I do..or even worse something Whitney does. They don't realize how important she is to me."
"Yeah, that must really be hard. That's one good thing about them not knowing about mine and Justin's relationship," she said, as she hit the ball. It was a hole in one. "Oh, JC..I kinda forgot to mention that I'm a very good putt-putt player."
He laughed. "It's on..I can kick your ass at this sport."
She laughed as he got ready to putt. "Bring it on."
She tried to push her way through the crowd, trying her hardest to get a glimpse of those famous curls. She didn't make it very far before she was pulled against a body. "Very funny, Justin," she said, trying to get away.
"This is pretty funny, but I'm not Justin," a voice whispered in her ear. She turned around to see a guy that looked to be in his late twenties that had blond hair and green eyes. She was stunned at the depth of them. They seemed to captivate her, but Jc soon popped into her head, and she took advantage of his loose grip on her. "I'm sorry, but I have a boyfriend."
He held his hands away. "I'm sorry."
She continued to look through the crowd, and she finally that a circle had surrounded a couple that was now dancing. Her curiosity got the best of her, and she pushed her way to see what was going on. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Justin dancing extremely close to a tall blond. He seemed to be enjoying himself, and the girl looked to be having a good time herself. Right now, it looked like he was a single guy looking to get some action.
She wouldn't let him go back to his old ways. She hadn't been the one to change him, and that was one thing that she thanked Denise for. She had settled him down so much, and a burden had been lifted off her chest. She pushed forward and got to Justin, grabbing his arm and turning him around. His glare was sharp, and she took a step back from the anger that was in his eyes. "What do YOU want?"
"Justin..I think its time to go. You're drunk, and you don't need to be doing this. You have Denise."
"Awww you're so cute when you're worried," he said, coming closer to her. "But, I don't need you to worry. I'm having fun..now go dance and let your cares go. You'll thank me in the end."
When he turned back around and started dancing again, she sighed. She wasn't giving up. She walked towards him again, and grabbed his arm again. "Justin..I'm warning you. I'll hurt your ass if you don't come on."
The girl that he had been dancing with turned around to look at her sharply. "He's having a good time..now go away."
"Look right now shut the hell up and go find some of guy, you bimbo," Whitney said, her anger getting the best of her. The crowd started with "oohs". She turned back to Justin. "LET'S GO."
He must have been drunker than she thought, because he just started laughing. "Geez, Whitney..lighten up, go have a beer and LET LOOSE."
He pushed her away from him, sending her flying into the crowd. Someone put their arms around her to steady herself, and she sighed. She had to do something. That's when she got an idea. She pushed herself through the crowd, and stepped to where she would be able to hear. She dialed the number to Denise's cell phone, hoping that she got an answer.
"Thank, God Denise. Can I talk to Jc really fast its very important."
Denise immediately held over the phone. There was fright in Whitney's voice, and she had never heard her sound the way that she did now.
"This is Jc."
"Jc, thank God. What's wrong with your phone? Ok, its not important right now. Justin..Justin's drunk as hell right now..dancing with some blond, and he's just got an attitude that's down right evil. I can't get him out of here, and I'm to my limit. What should I do?"
"Just calm down," he said, walking away from Denise. "How drunk is he?"
"I'd say way over his limit. He can barely walk right and his speech was starting to become slurred."
Jc sighed. "I can't believe that boy. Whitney, you have to get him out of there. How long does it take to get to Hawaii?"
"Jc, don't worry about it..if I can get him out of here everything will be ok."
"But, Whitney..if you can't ..he could do something that he would regret, and I'm not going to let him do that. It not only hurts him, but it hurts you."
"Jc..I love you. I'm going to go and get him out of here..oh God, they're cheering again."
"I'll see you soon," he said, hanging up and immediately dialed the number to his friend, Ray. "Ray, I need a favor..can I borrow your jet?"