That night, all 11 people were seated around the large kitchen table. Justin and Shai were almost ignoring everyone else, lost in their own world. Lance and Krysti were trying to keep Symone from paying too much attention to Justin. Chris and Terri were giving each other secret smiles, planning their announcement, and Joey was staring at Anna as she ignored him. Everyone was else was either oblivious to what was going on around them, or wondering what someone else was thinking.
As Shai nibbled on Justin’s ear, again, Symone had enough. She turned away from what Lance was saying, grabbed a container of gravy and flung the contents at Justin’s head. He jumped up from his chair, the brown gravy mixing with his auburn curls and running down his face. Shai let out a screech as blobs of gravy stained his white shirt.
“What the fuck Symone!” Justin yelled, his eyes shooting lightening. “What the hell was that for!?!” He was getting madder by the second.
Symone, close to tears ran from the table, Justin following her close. Lance started to go after them, but Emmi grabbed his arm.
“Let them be. From what I can tell they need to work things out. You stay too, Shai,” she said as the blond was moving towards the door. She turned and sulked back to her seat.
Justin caught up with Symone in the front yard, grabbed her arm and made her face him.
“What is going through your head right now? Why are you doing this to me?!” He tried, unsuccessfully not to yell right in her face. Symone wretched her arm from his grasp, and tried to get away again. “Oh no you don’t! You’re not running away from me this time, not till you hear me out!”
Symone rubbed her arm and stared at the ground, but didn’t move, so he spoke.
“When you came into the dressing room that night, you never, ever gave me the chance to explain. You never let me tell my side, you just reacted and left, as usual. You have a habit of doing that, so a lot of people see you as a selfish brat. Even I thought that. It took a lot of time and a lot of Terri to make me see otherwise. You have no idea how mad I was at you, madder probably then you were at me. I hate being judged without a chance to explain, and you just....” he sighed. “You broke my heart into a thousand pieces, and took them all with you when you ran out. I haven’t forgiven you for that. I don’t know if I even can. And I’ve been trying to be nice and act civil to you ever since you got here, and trust me, throwing gravy sure as hell ain’t they way to be nice back.”
By now both Symone and Justin were in tears.
She looked up at him, her chin trembling, and choked out her words. “Look, I can not stand to see another girl all over you. I hate to break it to you, but yours wasn’t the only broken heart. Ever since that day, you’ve had mine tucked into your pocket without even realizing it. I know now that I was rash and should have listened, but I was scared I’d lose you, so I had to end it first. How do you think I felt? I can’t compete with all those beautiful girls! I worried about us, right from the start. It better this way, in any case. No commitment, no worries, no hurt. I think coming here was a bad idea. I can hardly look at you anymore...it’s not your fault, it’s me. It just...we can’t be together and that hurts. I’m sorry.” Symone walked back to the house, and this time Justin let her go.
In fact, he didn’t go into the house at all that night. Shortly after Symone went back inside, he saw Shai storm from the house and speed off. He didn’t stop her, in fact he didn’t want to. Everything he had said, and Symone had said, really hit him. He didn’t think he could love her again. Then, again, he wasn’t quite sure he ever stopped.
When Symone came back, puffy eyed everyone grew silent. They had been talking about what was going on, well, except for Shai. She was sitting, pouting in a corner. Symone gave everyone a small smile, as she sat down.
"I’m really sorry for making a scene like that, everyone. I’ll clean up whatever mess I made.” She offered.
“No need.” Anna waved her hand. “Great thing about this place is that no matter what spills where, all you need are a few paper towels.” She gave Symone a big smile.
“Yeah, well, you should pay for my shirt to be cleaned.” Shai said, snidely. “You’ll be lucky if it comes out at all.” Symone turned white.
“Look, Shai, no one cares about your shirt. I mean, it’s not really much of a shirt at all, more like a bra with extra fabric. Why don’t you just leave?” Emmi said, ominously. Shai left in a huff, and Symone smiled at Emmi.
“Thanks. I really don’t like her.” Emmi squeezed her hand.
“No one does.”
“Except Justin.” Symone muttered to herself. She turned her attention to her now cold food, as the others picked back up on conversation. Suddenly, Chris stood up and tapped his glass for attention.
“I have an announcement to make.” He said, once he had gotten everyone’s attention. He looked at Terri, who blushed. He grabbed her hand and pulled it to his lips for a short kiss. “We have an announcement to make, actually. By Thanksgiving, there will be two new members to the N Sync family.” He paused and enjoyed the perplexed looks on the faces of the surrounding peoples. Finally, JC asked.
“Who?”
Chris held Terri’s hand, and looked at her. “Our twins.” Within moments, the room was filled with happy screams, hugs and congratulations.
Justin watched the happy scene from outside. He had overheard Terri and Chris talking about the twins earlier that day, and was happy for the both of them. Chris and Terri were the two most in love people he had ever met, and this was just going to cap it all off for them. He just wished his own life could have such a happy ending.
