Paige looked up from her cup suddenly, and at both of us with wide eyes.

"Let's shop!" She cried, making it sound like a battle-cry.

Lex perked up suddenly as well, "I could go for that..." She said, a smile coming to her pretty face as she pushed her coffee cup away from her.

I nodded, "Yeah, why the hell not?"

The three of us got up together and walked to Lex's car. Paige rode shot-gun and I sat in the back, flipping through a magazine. Paige put a CD in the player, (ANYTHING but Nsync.) and we headed off to the mall.

There were very few people in the mall...which we found strange. Thinking nothing of it, however, we went about finding new outfits for Paige and I. Partly because we were still in our clothes from the night before, and partly because I believe that Paige and Lex found shopping for clothes theraputic from what they had just been through.

Paige ended up choosing a form-fitting black V-neck shirt, and a pair of pants with one pocket.

I settled on a pair of loose-fitting khaki cargo-pants and a tight little white tank top.

Both of us desperately needed to get out of our club shoes as well, so we bought new ones. Paige purchased a pair of strappy black sandals, and I decided on a comfy pair of white Vans tennis-shoes.

I only allowed my mind to travel to Lance once the whole morning...We were in the music store, Lex and Paige were looking for new CD's, and I was looking through the poster rack.

Suddenly...there he was...those steely-green eyes staring holes into me. I could taste his sweet, alcohol-leaden breath...and feel those strong, yet gentle hands on my body. I caught my breath, feeling myself becoming aroused by simply looking at him, and turned the poster over.

"You ready to jam, girl?" Lex called out to me from the cash register.

I nodded, snapping myself back into reality, and followed the girls out of the store.

We walked through the mall for a while, looking in all the store windows. When we came to the arcade, Paige smiled, and led us all in.

The three of us piled into one of those tiny photo booths and mugged for the camera. While we were in there, we could hear someone becoming very irate with a game just outside the booth.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" The angry-guy yelled, "THAT TREE JUMPED IN FRONT OF ME!"

The three of us looked at each other strangely, and burst out laughing. Then, when our curiosity could wait no more, we filed out to see what was going on.

Lex was the first to catch glimpse of him. She turned to us, pulling us by the arms over into a discreet corner, she whispered, "Holy shit...I think that's Chris!"

I looked at her dumbly, "Lex...Think about that..." I said, "Why would Chris be in an arcade in the mall by himself?"

"He's not." Paige said simply, pointing to the opposite corner of the arcade. Sure enough, there stood a menacing looking black guy, his arms folded over his chest like some kind of secret-service agent.

"Come to think of it..." I said, suddenly drawing the connection between the empty mall, and the very upset Chris at the racing game just a few feet away, "There are significantly less people here than usual..."

"Duh!" Lex cried, "It's a Saturday, Liz...Why would there be this few people in the mall on a Saturday?"

"Okay..." I agreed, "You're right...but why the hell did they let us in then?"

Lex pondered this for a moment and then retorted, "Maybe because we don't look threatening?"

"This could be good..." Paige said quietly, thinking aloud, "This could be REAL good..."

"Uht Oh..." I said, looking at her worriedly, "What are you thinking?"

She grinned, and shook her head, making her long blonde hair shimmy. "Oh nothing," she said with mock-innocence.

"I know that look..." I said, smiling despite myself.

"So do I." Lex laughed, "and it never means anything good..."

"What do you say you get back and Joey for being such an asshole to you last night, Lex?" Paige said, looking at her with huge, smiling eyes.

Lex suddenly looked interested, "How?"

"FUCK!" Angry-Chris yelled at the game, "YOU ASSHOLES CAN'T DRIVE FOR SHIT!"

Suddenly the plan was clear...and the three of us looked at each other, grinning ear-to-ear.

The game was on...and the ball was in our court.

Paige and I watched from the shadows as Lex approached Chris. She adjusted her powder blue tank top so that just enough flesh was showing and walked up next to him.

"Hi..." Lex said quietly, not wanting to startle him.

Chris looked at her wild-eyed, "Will you kindly tell this game that I did NOT just lose???"

Lex laughed, and Paige and I fell into general hysterics in our corner, which was far enough away that he didn't notice us laughing at him.

In a very smooth move indeed, Lex reached into her purse and produced a quarter. She put it into the game and patted his shoulder, "Why don't you tell it yourself."

Chris beamed at her, seeing as how she just won his heart for all eternity, and proceeded to try and show off for her on the game.

When Paige and I were secure that Lex had made good with Chris. We decided to go off on our own, and see who we could find. I secretly hoped that I would run into Lance again...I didn't say anything about it to Paige, because I figured that in the light of her bad experience with JC, it would only rub it in...so I stayed quiet.

We decided that the best place for us to stand watch would be a place where two women wouldn't look conspicuous. We found our look-out point right at the center of the mall...Victoria's Secret.

We were looking through a rack of racy lace bras when Paige got approached by a guy with bleached blonde hair and a smile as slick as oil on water.

"Hi there..." He said, striking a casual pose, and giving her that smile, I looked at him queerly and went back to examining a green lace bra, delivering Paige a slight smirk. She looked back at me, rolling her eyes back in her head, and then looked over at Mr. Smooth.

"That's a nice bra..." He said, NOT looking at the bras on the rack mind you...

Paige groaned, and I chuckled under my breath. "Can I help you?" She asked him, not masking her annoyance.

"I'm Trace." He said, extending a hand, and giving that sickeningly-sweet smile again.

"Hmm...that's nice." She said, looking him square in the eye with a slight smirk, "I'm not interested."

He clasped his hands to his chest dramatically, "Oh...you're breaking my heart!" He cried, then his face changed as though he was about to tell us the secret of life itself, "I'm Justin Timberlake's best friend."

Paige looked disinterested, but nudged me in the side. I was already a step ahead of her.

"Are you really?" I asked, moving around in front of Paige so I was between her and the oil-slick.

He nodded, "Yeah...really...but I was talking to the blonde."

"Dick..." I muttered under my breath. Paige groaned and moved me aside.

"Trace, did you say it was?" She asked, batting her eyelashes just enough to get his attention.

He all of a sudden became a hard-on with a bad bleach-job..."Yeah baby girl..." He said lowly, "Trace."

She cringed at the pet-name he used for her and went on despite the fact that I'm sure she was about to vomit all over his Nikes.

"My girl here has a thing for your boy, Justin..." she said, walking her fingers along the top of the bra rack suggestively, "You think you could be a doll and tell her where she might find him?"

Trace smiled at the concept of getting me out of the way so that he could continue his attempt to pick up on "the blonde".

"Sure thing," He said, his eyes never leaving hers, even though he was addressing me, "He's over at the Sports store across the way..."

I giggled, and reached down to slap her five as she put her hand behind her back un-noticed. "Good luck getting rid of the idiot." I whispered in her ear.

"Yeah...yeah," she whispered back through clenched teeth, "Get out of here before I change my mind."

With a Cheshire cat grin, I turned on my heel and left the store...In search of my turn at bat.

After Chris had finally come to grips with the fact that he would never have a future as an Indy car driver, he and Lex headed off together in search of a place where he could buy her a drink.

They sat together in a booth at a 50's themed restaurant. Chris ordered two Strawberry Shakes, and declined Lex's offer to pay for herself.

"Forget it!" He laughed, "You just spent 4 bucks in quarters on me!"

They spent a good while just sitting there talking. Chris making her laugh, and keeping things light and airy. She felt instantly at ease with him, and he with her, or so it seemed.

After they finished their shakes, they walked out to center court of the mall, where there was a huge fountain. Chris immediately removed his shoes and socks and thrust his feet into the water...

Lex shrugged, and followed suit. Once again they fell deep into conversation, and ended up sitting there talking about nothing and everything all at once.

Lex couldn't help but be reminded of Joey, and how he had ended up treating her. She smiled to herself as she watched Chris talk animatedly, and sighed...this was certainly a change of pace from the night before.

Finally, after a while, Chris asked her to come back to the hotel with him. It took her by surprise at first...but she shook off her shock and agreed. He gave her a warm hug as they parted ways and she promised him that she would meet him back at the hotel.

There was almost a skip in her step as she made her way to her car. She pulled her cell-phone out of her bag and called Paige's cell-phone quickly.

"Hello?" Paige answered, it sounded like she was outside, which struck Lex as odd, but she didn't ask any questions.

"Hey babe..." Lex said, starting up the car, "Chris invited me back to the hotel."

"Gotcha!" Paige said happily, "Don't worry about me...I'm just fine."

"And Liz?" Lex asked, starting out of the parking lot.

"I think she's gone already...I'm not sure, though."

"Okay, I'll call you back later..." Lex said, starting down the street back toward the hotel, "Have fun!"

"You too, babe!" Paige said, hanging up on her end.

I knew my next move before I even spotted Justin. But when I saw him examining a display of sneakers, I knew EXACTLY what to do. I waited until he reached up to a high shelf to put a box back where it had been, and walked up behind him briskly, swallowing my nervousness.

"Excuse me, sir..." I said, tapping him on the shoulder, "Do you work here?"

He turned around suddenly, looking shocked that someone would ask him such a thing, his eyes landed on my cleavage, and travelled up to my face.

"No..." He said simply, flashing me that famous smile, "But damn...I wish I did now..."

"Oh my god..." I said, feigning surprise at who I was talking to, "You're...I'm..." I pretended to stammer over my words, pleased with my own performance, "I'm really sorry..."

He laughed and ran a hand casually through those trademark curls.

"Don't worry about it..." he said, that smile never leaving his handsome face. "Maybe I can help you anyway?"

It was cute...the look on his face was almost like a little boy's for a minute...I remembered something that I had heard once, and decided to use it to my advantage.

"Oh...well, umm..." I said, picking back up on my stammering act, "I was just looking for uh...a pair of shoes."

He grinned broadly, "Shoes I can most definately help you with." He said debonairely, then he extended one of those long-fingered hands, "I'm Justin."

"Liz..." I said, making myself blush. God...I was good...

He spent the next 20 minutes explaining the differences between about 12 different pairs of shoes. I pretended to be interested, only because I wanted to get in good with him. I couldn't believe the amazing feeling that ran through my body when I realized that I had JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE on his knees in front of me, tying a pair of 150 dollar shoes onto my feet.

I ended up buying them too, not because I needed them...but because my act would have looked like just that if I hadn't. He followed me out of the store, and we stood there just making small talk for a few minutes.

"You live here in LA?" He asked me, leaning back against the store window.

I nodded, "Yep..." I said, "I've lived here most of my life, actually."

He smiled broadly, "Maybe you'd be willing to show me around a little?" He asked.

Now I knew as well as the next person, that this guy didn't need ME to show him around LA...in fact, I was sure that he was just as familiar with the area, if not more so than I was...But what the hell? He was playing the game along with me quite nicely.

"Sure!" I said, "What would you like to see?"

He smiled, and leaned in close enough to me that I could feel his breath on my cheek, it sent chills down my spine and into my lower regions...almost making my knees buckle.

"Your place." He whispered.

I didn't have to fake myself blushing this time...and it was a full-body blush at that.

"Sounds good to me..." I said, giving him a wink. He chuckled.

"Oh hey...there's Lance!" He said, "You wanna meet him?"

Ohhhhhhh Shit! "Actually..." I said, thinking fast on my feet as I looked back over my shoulder to see Lance coming down the walkway toward us with a couple of other guys, "I have to make one more stop before I leave..."

He nodded. "Oh, okay..." He said, "Where should I meet you?"

"Meet me by the fountain in half an hour." I told him, "Promise you'll be there?"

He smiled, I could FEEL Lance getting closer and I wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there as fast as I could without being noticed.

Justin looked me up and down one more time and nodded, "Oh you can bet I'll be there, girl." He said, giving me a wink.

I smiled.

"Okay, I'll see you then!" I said, and with that made a hasty retreat to wherever the hell I would end up hiding for the next half hour.