“Skeet, come on, we have more of a right to be here then they do, besides that, they don’t get
here for another hour.” Sugar stretched her feet out on the couch in the break room, taking
another sip of her Coke.
“Did you all forget, this is Nsync’s day to record, and I really don’t care to spend all afternoon
dodging Justin.” Skeeto grabbed her bag, and pushed past Misty, towards the door. Misty clung
to Skeeto’s shirt, causing Skeet to loose her balance, and fall down into Misty’s lap. Both girls
giggled, before Skeet pushed herself away from Misty.
“Skeet, maybe its time you talked to him, face to face.” Mellie yawned, taking another bite of her
cookie. “It would be good for the both of you.”
“No, I am not talking to him. Things are over between us, why make it worse.” Skeeto reached
the door, slowly turning the knob. “Its easier this way, I can deal with my pain, and before you
know it, I’ll be over him completely.” She flung the door open, making a point to prove to her
friends, that she no longer needed Justin in her life. She wasn’t watching where she was going,
the fact that she had her nose stuck in the air, blocked her vision, and she soon felt someone’s
hands rest on her waist. She stiffened up, and slowly lowered her eyes, to stare into the ocean of
blue that brought her so much comfort. She backed out of his grasp, automatically putting all of
her focus on the floor beneath her feet.
“Hi Skeeto.” His voice was so soothing, and so familiar that tears begin to build behind her
eyes.
“Hi Justin.” She managed to choke out.
An awkward silence followed, and they stood there, both staring at the floor for what seemed like
hours, before he spoke ever so softly.
“I missed you.”
For the longest time those were the words she longed to her him say, and she wanted so bad for
him to put his arms around her, to embrace her so she could forget all the pain and sorrow.
Instead she wiped the tears from her eyes, and pushed past him.
“Yeah, yeah, I missed you too Justin, but we’ll be back on tour together. Oh goodie, how much
fun could one young girl wish for.” The words stung as she said them, and she knew she had hurt
him, but she couldn’t bare to look in the face and tell him she loved him. She just didn’t have the
strength nor the guts. Justin stared after her dumbfounded to her strange behavior, but oddly
enough he knew where this was all going. He felt a sadness tug at him, but he urged it to go
away, before turning around, heading in the opposite direction.
Sugar stood in the door way of the break room, shaking her head slightly. How could Skeeto
have been so mean? Sugar had been so sure that all Skeeto needed was to see Justin again, to feel
his hands on hers, to hear his words spoken in her ear. Sugar shook her head again, as she
glanced down the hall after Justin as he disappeared around the corner.
Justin threw his bag onto the floor, and sat down next to it, placing his head in his hands, trying
desperately not to let the tears come. He heard JC and Joey enter the room, their laughter filling
the air, but coming to an abrupt stop when they saw their youngest friend huddled on the
floor.
“Justin man, what’s wrong?” JC kneeled by him, placing a hand on his back.
Justin looked up at his older friend, no longer being able to keep the tears from coming. “I ran
into Skeeto, and I told her that I had missed her. It was the only thing that came out, I wanted to
tell her so much more, but I couldn’t. She walked away, saying something mean, like she did in
the beginning. That’s not a good sign is it?” Justin’s eyes begged for an answer that JC knew he
couldn’t give.
“Justin, I don’t know what to tell you. Sugar has told me many times that something has been
bugging Skeeto, and who knows, she just might of buried her feelings. I can’t answer your
question, because I don’t know what to say.” JC stopped rambling, and looked down at the heart
broken boy.
“At least your honest with me.” Justin grabbed JC’s wrists, pulling himself up, wiping the tears
from his eyes, and preparing himself for the next few hours of hard core dancing.
“Skeet, you could have told him the truth.” Sugar knelt down next to Skeeto, trying to
understand what was going on inside her head.
“What good would the truth do, he’d only want to get back together.” She pushed the button on
the remote, flipping through the channels on the stereo.
“Yes, but at least he’d know that you still have feelings for him, all he knows now is that your
back where you started. You’re getting no where, and its not working for either for you.”
Skeeto set the remote down, and crawled on her bed, bringing her knees close to her chest. “I
was scared, plain and simple. I didn’t have the guts to tell him the truth, even though when he
told me he missed me, all I wanted to do was crawl back into his arms. Sugar, you don’t know
how bad I want him back, but I just can’t bring myself to let go.”
Sugar sat down next to her friend, and tried to think of something that would bring her comfort.
“Skeeto, why are you so afraid to tell him, you told me yourself that he was the only guy that
you’ve ever felt like you could trust.”
“I know, and he is, but I feel like I’ve lost his trust, because all I did through the whole tour was
blow him off. I don’t understand my actions, and I don’t think he will either. I’m afraid to tell
him.”
“Call him, talk to him. If not face to face, at least let him hear you say those words.” Sugar
picked up the phone, and begin to dial Justin’s number. Skeeto watched in horror as Sugar
placed the receiver to her ear, and listened to the ringing. Skeeto listened intently as Sugar asked
for Justin, and at the silence that ensued. Conversation followed, but Skeeto’s mind had
wandered, blocking out the happenings of the moment, that is until the phone was pushed next to
her ear, and she could hear Justin’s breathing.
“Skeeto?” His voice made her weak, and she felt the damn begin to quiver under the weight.
“I’m here.” The only words she could get out, and they didn’t even hold any meaning.
“What happened today?” He was so sincere, and she wanted to answer, but something inside her
refused her mouth to produce the right words.
“Nothing happened, like I said, I missed you too, but we’ll be back together again when the tour
starts.”
“Yeah I remember that part, but you don’t mean the words you say. What is wrong?”
Skeeto begin to sweat for she knew that he knew her all to well. He could read through her lie,
and she fought the urge to just hang up. “Justin, things happened, we are no longer close, maybe
its better if we just go out separate ways, as much as we can.”
He didn’t speak for a few minutes, and in that time the damn broke, and tears begin to flow down
her cheeks. “If you want it that way, but I don’t want to let go Sara, I won’t let you go, I’ll only
give you space. Remember when I told you I would work hard to keep on loving you, it was my
promise, and I’m not breaking it.”
She tried to fight the memories of that fateful night, the night when they both confessed their inner
most feelings for each other. The night he told her he would love her forever, the night the cried
in each others arms, the night she let him have her heart. “I remember, but things just got to
hard.”
“But working for the things that mean the most to us, is what makes them so wonderful. Don’t
give up on me, you said you wouldn’t.”
Skeeto searched her mind for the right words, the words that would make him give up, the words
that would make him leave her. “Justin, I just don’t have the strength. Things are too difficult,
please lets just leave things the way they are.”
He didn’t say anything, and she was afraid he had hung up, but his breathing grew louder. “Fine,
but always remember that I love you.” Skeeto heard the phone click, and she handed the receiver
back to Sugar, who only stared at her.
“Sara you didn’t even try.” Sugar stood, shaking her head at her young friend, trying to think of a
way to bring happiness back into her life.
