"Valentines Day sucks." I mumbeled, flipping through the channels. I had thought this certain Valentine's Day would be different from all the lonley ones I had suffered through. But nope, my joy went buh bye.

Leaving me here, wallowing in self pity, trying to figure out what had happened in the past three months. Three months that went by as just a blur, but now that I looked at them I noticed that everything happened for a reason.

+FlashBack+ "See ya later Mr.H!" I called to my Choir director, leaving the now empty chorus room. As I walked down the halls, I turned a left and headed towards the gym. There was no doubt that my boyfriend, Dan, would be waiting there for me. Since the Columbia Chamber Choir I was apart of had rehersals every day this week, he would wait for me after his Basket Ball practice to bring me home.

Rehersals had actually ended about 15 minutes early today, so I decided to stop by and surprise him. As the gym came into view, I noticed there was no sound of balls dribbling. 'Thats Strange' I thought, 'Usually I can hear it by now'. But as I edged closer and closer, I could hear the faint sound of a female giggle and and the sound of Dan's laughter.

"Hey Kait!" A voice called behind me. I turned to find my best friend Justin Timberlake, also a memeber of the choir, running up to me.

"What are you doing here J?"

"Alyssa had cheerleading, she is meeting me here." He informed. 'So that was the giggle' I thought. Alyssa was Justin's girlfriend. She was like the All America High School student. Blond hair, blue eyes, tall and thin, head cheerleader, all that stuff. To bad she couldn't carry a tune if her life depended on it.

Me, I was more of an exotic female. Brown hair, green eyes, Tall and thin, couldn't cheer for the life of me, no matter how long I did Pop Warner. "Dan is meetin' me here too. Lets go."

He smiled and opened the gym door for me. I returned his smile and walked in. As I looked for Dan, I stopped dead. Justin ran right into me, but it still didn't break my concentration. Justin was about to apoligize, but then he saw what made me stop.

Dan and Alyssa, engaged in a passionate kiss by the bleachers. And it didn't look like they were going to end it anytime soon. Justin loudly cleared his throat and the two broke, realizing we were standing there.

"Kait! It isn't what it looks like!" Dan ran over to me. I just stood, frozen.

"Justin! You're.. uh.. practice is over early!" Alyssa made a failing attempt to break the silence.

Dan attempted to wrap his arm around me but I pushed him away. "Don't touch me."

"Come on babe, I told you.. it wasn't what it looked like."

"Oh really? Then what was it?" I noticed Justin was still in shock. I decided to get him out of there, so I took his arm. "I think I speak for the both of us when I say, we're through."

+End Flashback+

I guess that whole event was to tell me I could do better than Dan. But the question was- who? He was everything to me. And the whole thing was especially hard for Justin. Alyssa had been his girlfriend for about a year, an extremley long realtionship in our school's terms. I had only been with Dan for about 5 months, but it was still hard for me. They both tried to tell us that it was just a spur of the moment thing. But Justin and I knew better than that. So together we wept. Literally..

+Flashback+

"Oh gosh Justin! How could they do this to us?" I asked, wiping my eyes from the salty tears that were forming. We both were sitting in his car after the whole incident in the local McDonalds parking lot.

"I.. I don't know Kait." Justin ran hand through his curls for about the millionith time and rested his head on the steering wheel. I pulled my feet up to the seat and hugged my knees. Normally, Justin would make a joke and yell at me, saying I was ruinging the interior. But I knew we both had other things on our mind. "Kait?"

"Yeah J?"

"What am I gonna do?" He looked over at me, and I saw the tears finally fall. Not being afraid anymore, I let out a sob and enveloped me him in a comforting hug.

+End Flashback+

That lesson would be- Even the strongest people cry. In all my 17 years of knowing Justin, I had never onceseen him cry; unless he was physically hurt. But I knew though his pain waasn't visable, it was still there. It actually kind of scared me to see my big strong Best Friend with tear stained cheeks.

The next few lessons are the more important ones. Ones I should have realized before these events. they are just common knowledge. But me with my all mighty pride sunk low enough to do what Justin and I did next.

+FlashBack+

"Are you ready Justin?" I asked form the front seat of his car.

"Now more than ever." He sighed then exited the car then came around to open my door. Once I stepped out, he took my hand and we interwined fingers. I never expected the feeling that overcame me. I shook that feeling off and we walked into the Main entrance together. As we walked down towards my locker, Dan came into view. Now was the time to execute our plan. I squeezed Justin's hand as I saw Dan staring at us.

"Okay babe, I'll see you second period."

"Alright, bye Ju Ju." I stood on my toes to reach his tall height and he leaned down until our lips met. We held them there for a minute then both pulled away. As I looked up at him, he winked and walked away to his locker. Instantley, I saw Alyssa walk up to him. 'Sucess...'

"Hey Kait." I looked away from Justin to see Dan leaning against the locker beside mine.

"Oh, hey Dan." I opened my locker and tried to ignore the stare he was giving me.

All a part of our plan. After getting my books for the first few classes, I shut my locker.

"So, you and Justin... you're a couple?" "Yeah, he is really great." I smiled and leaned against my locker. As I began to walk away, Dan's hand lightly brushed my arm.

"Well, I don't think it will really matter now... but I'm sorry. From the bottom of my heart I truly am. I never meant to hurt you Kait. I don't know what happened to get us in that position, and trust me- I didn't want to be there. Not only am I losing a girlfriend.. I'm losing a best friend." He sighed and looked at the ground. "I still love you."

+End FlashBack+

The lesson here- Love is blind. You know that song by Eve? It goes- "Love is blind/ And it'll take over your mind/ What you think is love, is truly not/ you need to elevate and find." Well, that is what I didn't know there. But being me, I crumbeled. And so did Justin. We didn't expect results so quickly either. But, getting what we wanted, we went back to our exes.

And we thought it would all end here. But in the past 24 hours, I leanred much different. You know like in a fairy tale, it always ends in Happily Ever After? Well, heres a mini-lesson for you. Life isn't a fairy tale.

+FlashBack+

"Happy Valentine's Day Kait." Dan whispered. We were cuddeling on the couch of his house, watching a sappy romance on TV. As a present, he had given me the usaul teddy, chocalate, roses, and a nice tear drop necklace.

"Happy Valentine's Day to you too Dan." I smiled and we kissed. But after we got back together, his kisses began to feel different. I didn't feel the love for him I once did. It was like my senses were driving me another way. Towards Justin.

I tried to push away these feelings. I mean, Justin is my best friend! I couldn't feel like that towards him. But ever since our kiss, I had wanted to kiss him again, to feel his warm comforting lips against mine. But right now, all I could feel were Dan's lips.. and hands. "Dan, stop."

"No, don't stop. C'mon Kait." He continued to invade my space, something he'd been doing quite often lately. And every time I would push him away, he would just keep trying.

"Dan, I said no!" I pushed him back then stood up. "Do you know what no means? Cause it seems like everytime I tell you no.. you go right on and do it anyways."

He stood up as I buttoned the final button to my pea-coat. "I'm sorry Kait. I just got caught up in the moment."

"What moment? It seems that that is your excuse for everything now-a-days. And I am sick of it. I'm sick of you being sorry Dan. I hate to do this to you on a day like today, but we're through. And this time, there is no turning back." I un-hooked my necklace and threw that along with the teddy on the floor. And with that, I left his house out into the cold and bitter winter. It nipped at my fingers and toes as I aimlessley made my way towards Justin's house. I prayed that he wasn't busy with Alyssa at the moment, because I really couldn't keep it to myself anymore.

As Justin's house came into view, I saw him leaving, roses in hand, looking handsome and ready for a date. "Hey J."

"Kait! Hey! Aren't you supposed to be at Dan's now?"

"No, not anymore." I mumbeled. "Justin... I just have to tell you something."

"What is it?" He sat beside me on the hood of his car. I took a deep breath, and let it all out. "When we saw Dan and Alyssa kissing that day, I know we were both angry. But did you ever think that it was supposed to happen? I mean., I thought I wanted him back. And so I figured our plan would work. But it didn't work Justin. I wasn't supposed to fall in love with you."

He just sat there, and I grew nervous. So I decided to speak again. "I thought that when Dan and I got back together, everything was right again. But love is blind Justin. He just changed on me, and I realized he wasn't what I needed. I needed someone who was funny, kind, someone who knew everything about me, someone I loved. I realized that I needed you."

He began to speak. "Kait..I.."

Before he could say another word, I held up my hand to silence him. "Please don't say anything. I just wanted to get that out of my system. I don't want to ruin your evening. Enjoy your relationship, and Happy Valentines Day."

With that, I stood up and took off running towards my home.

+End FlashBack+

So here I sit, half an hour later, flipping through re-runs of those old Valentines Day specials. I'm such a loser, that I am already dressed in my Pajamas. The amazing thing is.. I haven't cried. I just, sat there and stared at the screen.

Ding Dong

The doorbell rang, breaking my trance. I groaned and got up, not really wanting to answer it. All I wanted to do was sit an wallow in self-pity. Was that so much to ask? It surprised me that I hadn't resorted to eating yet.

As I opened the door, I noticed that nobody was there. As I looked down, I noticed a beautiful, yet familiar, bouget of a dozen red roses sitting on the welcome mat. I leaned over to pick them up, and when I arose, there was another figure standing before me. His face was hidden by shadows before me. His face was hidden by shadows before me. His face was hidden by shadows so his features were not visable.

"Can.. I help you?"

The figure stepped out of the shadows and my eyes widened. Was I hallucinating? Was it all a mirage? Or he really standing there in front of me? "Justin?" "Wait." He held up his hand, to reveal a large bloody gash along his palm.

"Oh gosh Justin! Get in here!" I grabbed his other arm and yanked him inside of my house. Immediatley I sat him on the couch and wandered into the bathroom for the first-aid kit. I came back and found Justin holding his hand close to his shirt, wincing in pain. I quickly sat down and began to mend his wound.

"Justin, what the hell happened?" I rubbed the peroxide on the cut and he took in a painful breath. "Sorry."

"Thats alright." He exhaled then continued. "Is anyone home?"

"No, Kyle is with Hope, and Kimmy and my mom went to my Grandma's house. Why?"

"No reason." He shrugged. "Anyways, after you left I went over to Alyssa's house and kinda.. dumped here."

"You what?" I dropped his hand in shock. My heart was racing, and my head was telling it to stop. "Why?"

"Because.. I.. I love you?"

"What does that have to do with... What?"

"I dumped Alyssa because I realized I fell the same for you as you do for me." He looked at his newly bandaged hand and continued. "And she got really mad, threw some stuff at me. I tried to block a cup and hence the hand injury. But, I also slipped on some ice as I was getting out of the car. Just opened it more."

"Could you go back to the part about you loving me for a second please?"

Justin took an over exxagerated breath and placed his healthy on top of mine. "I've felt this way for a while Kait. I just tried to put the feeling away. I mean.. how can you love your best friend? But, when we kissed I fell even harder, even though it wasn't technically a real kiss. Ever since then I just wanted to.. to.."

"Wanted to what Justin?"

"To do this." I immediatley felt his lips against mine, something I had wanted for a long time. Our lips danced together slowly, a love we never felt before filling them. We pulled away, eyes still closed, savoring the feeling.

"Kait?"

"Hmm?"

"Happy Valentines Day."

"Happy Valentines Day Justin." We moved in closer until our lips met again. No we have our final lesson- Maybe Valentines Day doesn't suck after all....

******

Note From Kait- I wrote this for a challange my friends are doing. If you are an author and are up to the 'challange', check out Jessie's site or Jenni's site
Good Luck!