--Two Weeks Later--
Lois pushed as hard as she could, but it was useless. No matter how hard she pushed, the huge lump wasn't moving. It was like a corpse, lying sprawled on the bed, preventing her from moving more than a few inches as she pushed in an attempt to free herself.
"Justin!" she screamed, shoving him hard. "Get the fuck off me!"
"Wow, that's the first time a girls ever said that to me." he smirked as he called over his shoulder. "I always wondered what that would sound like."
"Well, you're going to find out what something feels like, too." she scowled beneath him.
"What what feels like?"
"My foot up your ass if you don't get the fuck off me!" she screamed as she pushed his back.
Justin only laughed in response to her threat.
Lois had been enjoying her first restful sleep in weeks, when she was rudely awoken by Justin jumping on her bed. As she came awake, she immediately threatened him, stating that if he didn't get out of her room, she was going to get up and shave his ass bald.
When he didn't leave, she started to get up. Before she had gotten very far, he grabbed her and pinned her to the bed before laying on top of her, his back to her chest. That way, she couldn't bite his nose like she did the last time he did this.
Her arms were pinned to her sides under the blanket that surrounded her, as Justin happily hummed above her.
"Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener. That is what Id truly like to be-e-e! Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer wiener, everyone would be in love with me!" he sang happily. "Oh, wait, everyone is already in love me with. My bad." he teased as he looked over his shoulder an a very unamused Lois. "Right, Lolo."
Much to his surprise, Lois' face was not what he expected. He fully expected her to be red with anger, her face scrunched in the little ball it usually formed when she got angry or whenever Justin pissed her off.
Instead, her look was somber. A sly smile pressed to her lips as she looked up at him.
"Justin, if you don't get off of me, I'm going to tell Lauren what that box under your bed contains." she stated plainly.
Justins eyes went wide. "How did you know about the box?"
"I have my ways. Remember, I am Lois. And I am great." she shrugged, or at least tried to under his weight.
After pondering for a short moment, and studying the look on Lois' face only to realize that she really wasn't kidding, Justin rolled off of her and onto the bed at her side.
"You're no fun." he pouted. "And don't you dare tell anyone about that box!"
"We'll see what I do." she sighed as she freed her arms by placing them above the covers.
Justin laid his head down on the pillow under him, snuggling into the bed. Lois rolled on her side to face him, almost laughing at his pouting expression.
Over the last two weeks, she had been spending more time with Justin than she used to. In part because of the bet, and the fact that he was 'her ref' as he liked to put it. But also in part because Joey, who she used to spend almost all her free time with, was usually busy. And the part that made the situation worse for Lois, was that Joey was usually busy with Rae.
She knew that he wouldn't be able to hang out with her as much if they did go through with this little wager, but she didn't consider practically losing him all together. She had seen him three times in the last two weeks, and only spoken to him twice on the phone. Even when the guys were on tour and she stayed at home, the longest they had ever gone without talking to each other had been four days. Now, it was going on five, and she hadn't spoken to him.
Justin and Lauren had noticed Lois' mood get more and more depressed since Joey became more actively interested in Rae. And the more Joey went out with Rae, the more Lois went out with Brian. It was as if she was trying to replace Joey and the time they spent together with time with Brian, or even Justin since he was usually around anyway.
Joeys relationship with Rae had been progressing very nicely. They spent quite a bit of time together. Went out at least three or more times a week, and Joey had said more than once that he was really starting to like her.
The subject of dropping the bet hadn't been brought up yet, however. They had agreed that if any real feelings began to occur during the course of the bet, that it would be dropped so not to interfere with an actual possibility of a relationship with the other person.
The bet hadn't been dropped, and in Lois' eyes, that was a good thing. Because if Joey suggested dropping it, then that would mean that she would have to face the concerns and fears she had been having lately.
Fears that she was losing the most important person in her life.
She had been spending much more time with Brian. She really enjoyed his company, and they had a lot of fun together.
Over the last few weeks, they had been out almost every other day, whether to dinner or just sit at home talking or watching a movie. It hadn't escaped Lois' attention that everything she seemed to be doing with Brian were the things she used to do with Joey.
Joey had progressed romantically with Rae, whereas Lois and Brian still hadn't even kissed. Their relationship bordered more on friendship than romance, and Lois didn't seem to mind that as much as she thought she would.
It wasn't that she wasn't attracted to Brian. Quite the opposite. But like she had noticed before, she didn't have that feeling. The feeling that if she kissed him, her whole life would change. Thankfully, he hadn't pushed the topic of moving things to a romantic state with her, and seemed just as content as she was with being friends.
But it hadn't escaped her mind that this was supposed to be a bet. She was supposed to be moving things along on a romantic level with this man, and she hadn't even kissed him yet.
But every time she thought about kissing Brian, her thoughts seemed to drift to Joey. Every time, she dismissed it as wondering about his progress on his side of the bet. There was no other explanation for it. At least not in her mind.
Lauren, on the other hand, did not agree. She knew Lois better than anyone else, maybe even better than Lois knew herself, and it didn't escape Lauren that Lois was looking at this bet differently than she should be. She wasn't looking at it on the level of how she could win. She was looking at it from the aspect of what Joey was doing, and how it seemed like she was losing him.
Lauren knew better than to try and force Lois to see something when she wasn't ready to admit to it. She had learn that early on.
When they were kids, Lauren knew that Lois had a crush on a boy named Nick Jenkins. Lois, however, said she hated Nick, and wished he would eat dirt. Every time Lauren pushed at Lois on the subject, Lois would just get more and more determined to prove Lauren wrong.
In the end, it resulted in Lauren and Lois getting in a fight, and Lois making Nick eat dirt and getting grounded for two weeks.
From that moment on, Lauren didn't push Lois on subjects like this. She knew that she would realize things on her own time, and just hoped it wasn't too late.
Justin yawned from his place beside Lois, not bothering to move his hand from beneath his head to cover his mouth.
"Ugh, Justin," Lois complained, covering her nose. "Dont blow your hot mouth air at me!"
"You're just jealous cause you don't look as good as me in the morning." he stated.
The two lay in silence for a while, watching each other without saying a word.
It was Justin who broke the silence, in a less than flattering way.
"JUSTIN!" Lois yelled, pulling the covers over her head to escape the smell that was surely about to engulf the room. "Dont you ever fucking fart in my room again, you stinky bastard!"
"Like I always say, I'm a man of many talents." Justins voice could be heard outside the protective confines of the blanket.
Justin pulled at the blankets, trying to get underneath, but Lois wasn't about to let him let another bomb loose, and fought back. Pushing as hard as she could, she shoved him right off the edge of the bed, causing him to fall on the floor with a loud thud.
"Lois, you are so mean to me!" he pouted, his curly hair sticky up from the edge of the bed. "Lauren never shoved me out of bed when I fart."
"Yeah, but for some reason that stupid girl loves you." Lois came back, pulling her head back out from under the blanket. "I just tolerate you."
Justins head popped up from the edge of the bed, and he rested his chin on the mattress. "You luff me." he grinned.
Lois could only smile at his innocent face. If she didn't know any better, she wouldn't believe he was the same guy who just let the A-Bomb of all farts loose in her room.
Sighing, Justin began to pick at the fluff on the blanket. "So, you talked to Joey lately?"
Lois dropped back onto the bed. "Nope." she said flatly. This wasn't exactly a topic she wanted to discuss. The last thing she wanted to think about was Joey.
"You know," Justin spoke up again. "Lauren thinks that you're jealous cause Joey is spending so much time with Rae."
Lois peeked at him from the corner of her eye. "I know."
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Are you?" he asked, his eyes still focused on the little thread between his fingers.
Lois sighed. Was she? Or wasn't she? That was a stupid fucking question.
Of course she was. But why she was, was a completely different topic all together.
"And you know what else?" Justin said again. "Lauren thinks its because you like Joey."
"What?" Lois gawked at him. "Of course I like Joey. He's my best friend."
"No, she means you l-i-k-e Joey." he corrected.
Lois could only stare at him. How could Lauren really think that? She had been the only person to ever back her up whenever she would have to explain to people that she and Joey were just friends. And now here Lauren was siding with them? Traitor.
"Mmmhmm" Justin muttered.
"What?" Lois asked, rolling on her side to look at him curiously.
"You didn't answer." he shrugged.
"So?"
"So, that answered the question for me." he stated.
Lois laughed. "J, you've been watching too much Murder, She Wrote."
"I have not!" he whined. "I just know that if someone doesn't answer a question in less than five seconds, then its usually because they are trying to think up a good lie."
Again, Lois didn't answer.
"See." he smiled proudly.
"Oh, fuck off." she said, rolling on her other side to face her back to him.
This wasn't about to stop Justin, as he hopped back up onto the bed and crawled over her to lay in front of her again.
"Ugh," Lois rolled her eyes. "Where's Lauren? She's better at baby sitting you than I am"
"She's at some thing at the school. They want her to be a TA next year, so she had to go in and go over some crap." he explained.
Lois stuck her lips out in thought.
"Whatcha thinkin'?" Justin asked, his voice annoyingly high pitched.
"I was just wondering if you're head would fit in the microwave." she stated.
"It does." he nodded. "Me and Chris already tried that."
Lois only stared at him.
"You know," he said. "I think it would be kinda cool if you and Joey got together."
"Ugh, Justin, please not you too." she whined. "Its bad enough Lauren had turned over to the dark side, please not you."
"What? I'm just saying that I think it would be cool. I mean, you guys are practically dating already. Or at least, you were." Lois' stomach dropped a little at that last comment, before Justin continued. " I mean, you guys went out all the time together. Talked constantly. Were practically inseparable. All you needed was the romantic crap, and you'd be a couple."
Lois only sighed in response.
"So do you?" Justin asked, his voice soft.
"Do I what?"
"Like Joey?"
Lois honestly didn't know what to say to that. If someone had asked her this a few weeks ago, she would have said no immediately. Now, after weeks of restless nights, constant thinking and analyzing, and wondering what he was doing with someone else when he should be with her, she wasn't so sure how to answer the question she had answered a million times before.
"Honestly," she whispered. "I don't know."
"Well, Lauren said that if anything is going to make you know how you really feel about him, it would be this." Justin explained.
"Why is that?"
"Because, she said it sometimes takes something bad to force something good." he smiled. "She thinks this bet is a bad idea, but also thinks it may make you both realize just how much you mean to each other, and how you are better off together than with anyone else."
Lois smiled at him.
The last few weeks she had spent her days and her nights were plagued with how she was feeling and what she was thinking. No matter how hard she thought, she couldn't seem to put together a sentence in her head to make sense of the thoughts raging around her.
And here, at nine thirty in the morning, her explanation was worded perfectly by the person she least expected.
Justin.
Before she had a chance to say anything, the phone rang out behind Justin. Jumping up, he grabbed the receiver and place it to his ear.
"Gooooooood Morning!" he sang happily. "You have reached the Justin Timberlake hot line. If you would like to discuss how amazing you think Justin is, press one. If you would like to leave a message for Justin, please wait for the beep. Beep." There was a silence on the other end of the line, so Justin continued. "If you would like to talk to Lois, please hold." Smiling into the phone, Justin began to hum what was surely supposed to be elevator music into the phone.
Laughing, Lois reached up and grabbed the phone from him. Smacking him on the head for good measure, she placed the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hey," a familiar voice called through. "I take it Lauren is out for the morning and you were stuck baby sitting the brat?"
"Yeah," she smiled. "I already got the official Justin Timberlake wake up call."
"His morning fart?"
"You got it." she laughed. "What's up, Joey? Long time no talk."
"Yeah, I know." he said. "I'm sorry, Ive been really busy."
Lois only nodded in response, as if he could actually see her through the phone.
"Listen, do you think we could get together today?" Joey asked, his voice strange.
"Sure, what's up?" she asked, noticing the tone of his voice.
"Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you about something."
Lois didn't like the way he said that, and her stomach immediately began to churn.
"About what?" she asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer.
A short silence, which seemed like an eternity filled the line, before Joeys voice called back through.
"I wanted to talk to you about the bet."
