Around 3:00 a.m., the door to room 448 opened and a slender body slid out from behind it. His fingers latched together with the resident of the room as her smaller frame came out into the hallway along with his.
He turned around to face his female companion and smiled tenderly at her. She reached up behind him and pulled at his neck as her hands felt the small patch of hair that was at its base.
He allowed himself to be lowered to her level and accepted the warm embrace she gave him. She leaned closer and whispered in his ear. “Thank you for everything.” She said as she looked up at him and smiled brightly.
He returned the smile to her. “You’re more than welcomed. And thank you for last night too. It meant more to me than I can say.” He finished and gently kissed her forehead.
She giggled softly before touching him lightly on the stomach with the palm of her hand and stepping back into the room.
He continued to keep the smile on his face as his head lowered and he let out a sigh and a chuckle at the same time. His body turned to go down the hall and back to his room when suddenly, he saw from a few doors away, a young woman trying desperately to get her key card in the lock of her room without being noticed.
She was mumbling something incoherent as he slowly approached her. He figured she saw him and his friend exchanging a hug and he knew she was probably freaking out about it.
“Ahem, do you need some help?” He asked as her eyes remained on the task she was working on.
“No thank you.” She replied sharply as she finally got the key in right and saw the small green light signal the unlocking of the door. She reached for the knob but her hand was stopped short from obtaining the handle when his fingers pulled hers away.
“We need to talk.” He said as he tried to turn her around by tugging on her hand.
She wasn’t going to allow him to do that. “Justin, let go. There’s nothing that needs to be said.” She snapped as she pulled her hand free of his and went back to getting her door unlocked.
“Ebby, we do need to talk and you know it.” Justin said as he reached for her again but she stepped out of his way.
She spun around to glare at him after the green light came back on and she pulled the handle down and heard the click of the door open. “Justin, I don’t want to talk to you about anything at this moment. It’s three in the morning. I’ve been up trying to convince myself that what I told you earlier about not wanting you to be friends with Britney was wrong of me. But as I finally told myself that whatever you have with her is okay, I see you walking out of her room and hugging and kissing her. Now, what the hell am I suppose to think about that?” She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him an angry look.
He felt his temperature rise when he heard her speak to him like that. “I don’t care what you think you saw. The reason I was with Britney is none of your business. I have tried to tell you that we are just friends but you don’t want to listen. So I guess we don’t have anything to talk about after all.” He said as he turned and stormed down the hall towards his room. When he reached it, he slid his own key card in and as the green light came on, he opened the door. He was walking inside but something made him look back towards Liz.
She stood there with her own door halfway open and just stared at his retreated form with pain in her eyes. He could see in her face that she was hurting and a part of him wanted to return to her and take her in his arms to make everything okay.
He hadn’t told her that he had only stayed this late with Britney because she had talked to him for most of the night about the problems she was dealing with, then asked what was wrong with him. He had confessed to her that he had feelings for Liz and wanted to know what he should do. He had also explained that Liz didn’t want he and Britney to be ‘together’ any longer.
She tried to tell him that any girl would be jealous or upset over what they had because their relationship was complicated enough for the two of them, let alone for someone on the outside. Maybe they did rely on one another too much but Justin stopped her right there.
Britney had been the only one that knew him inside and out. She accepted him for who he was and understood what he was going through. His other friends had stood by him through it all, too, but they weren’t in the business with the popularity that he had. Britney knew what he was going through and the two leaned on one another for what they needed most: an honest relationship with no strings. Neither had the time for anything serious and they accepted that.
They would turn to one another when they needed someone to keep a secret, when they needed a shoulder to cry on, when they needed the advice of the opposite sex, and when they needed to feel loved.
Britney was that for Justin and if Liz couldn’t understand it, then he had no other choice but to walk away.
He looked at her breaking figure and could only sadly shake his head as it lowered to the ground while the rest of his body hesitantly followed his feet inside the room.
Liz watched him leave and almost fell over right there. She had lost him because of her unwillingness to understand and accept Britney as a part of his world. She just didn’t want to be second best to her. She wanted every bit of Justin but wouldn’t have him because his heart belonged to Britney. It always had and always would.
Liz slid her tired body inside her room and lay down on her bed. She pulled the covers up to her chin and tried to muffle her cries with the extra pillow that lay beside her and hoped she wouldn’t wake Mandy. She had only a few hours until the group had to be up, out of the hotel, and onto their next destination.
She prayed for the strength to go on with the tour and having to see Britney’s face everyday and knowing that she had lost a wonderful person to her.
“Lizzy, girl you need to wake up or we’ll be late.” Nikki said to a sleeping Liz. The group was now in Maryland for their next show and Liz had been asleep on the bus.
She crashed the instant the group boarded and had slept the whole way there. The girls worried about her because Mandy told them that she hadn’t returned to their room until after three in the morning and had cried herself to sleep.
They found out from Trace that Justin had ran after Liz earlier in the night and assumed they had spent the evening together. They thought the two must have hit it off because Justin never returned himself to his room. JC had called to see where he was but no one knew.
Little did everyone know exactly what had gone on between them nor would they. Liz wasn’t about to talk to any of them about Justin. She would be too embarrassed because he had turned her down after she pleaded with him to stay.
She also felt awful for telling Justin to leave what he had with Britney. But worrying about that now was useless. He was gone - literally.
The guys had boarded a plane early in the morning while Liz and the girls were loading their own bus. The guys had a show to do that night so they had to return to Texas by the afternoon.
Liz sighed heavily as she drug her mentally worn out body down the hall of the bus and up front where her friends were waiting.
“Elizabeth, are you okay?” Lynn asked as she saw Liz approach the group.
Nikki came up behind Liz but as she put her arms around her shoulders to lean on, Liz’s body nearly fell over. Lynn stood quickly and reached out for Liz to sit down.
“What is going on with you?” She asked out of concern for her employee and friend.
Liz sat in the booth where the others were, put her head down on the table with a thud and mumbled to the wood below.
“What did you say?” Mandy asked as she shook Liz’s arm when she took a seat beside her.
Liz slowly raised her head and rubbed her eyes before speaking to the group. “I’m sorry. I think I’ve got a cold or something. That’s all, really.” She said, hoping they would all believe her lie.
The girls looked her up and down and knew she wasn’t telling them the whole truth but Lynn didn’t know about her being so upset last night that she cried herself to sleep. They didn’t want to say anything since the reason for Liz being upset had to do with Justin. They would let Liz tell Lynn if she felt like it.
“Well, I think Shey and I can handle today if you just want to sleep in your room.” Lynn said to Liz as she brought a hand up to her forehead to check for a fever.
Sure enough, Liz did feel warm so Lynn leaned over and gave her a motherly embrace.
The girls watched as Liz’s face changed from tired and hurt to safe and loved. They knew that the two of them were close and Liz leaned on Lynn to be the type of mother figure she needed in her life.
Liz slid her arms around Lynn and hugged her tight. She needed the feel of someone who cared more than she could admit. A lone tear escaped her eye and was making it’s way down her cheek when the bus suddenly stopped.
The others tried to play it off like they didn’t see the tear and when Liz pulled away from Lynn, she quickly wiped it off. She slowly stood and got her balance before walking off the bus with the girls.
They passed Britney’s bus and Liz glanced at it for merely a second before taking off and running inside the hotel. She went straight into the bathroom in the lobby and tried to calm herself down. Freaking out in front of everyone was NOT the thing to do.
She splashed some water on her face, adjusted her outfit and returned to the waiting girls in the lobby. She got strange looks from the group but just shook it off and told them that she had to pee really bad!
They didn’t seem to believe her but when Lynn came up to them, she ushered the group away to their floor to put their stuff up and get ready to leave for the venue in a little while.
Liz opened the door to her room, placed her bag on one of the beds and fell on top of it. Danay strolled in behind her and merely watched as she exhaled all the air out of her lungs and snuggled into the cheap comforter below her.
Danay shook her head at the site. She placed her bag down on the floor, said a quick goodbye to Liz and headed out to find the others. She would leave Liz alone for awhile.
After the door was shut, Liz sprung up from the bed. She was indeed tired but had something else to do before she could rest. On the ride to Maryland, so many things had been going through her mind as she laid there in one of the bunks and she wanted to talk to someone but the girls and Lynn were too close on this one.
She would be far to embarrassed to tell them about Justin but knew of someone that would be able to give her an outside’s opinion on the situation.
She stood and reached for the phone. She knew the girls and Lynn would leave her alone today so she would be able to go see the one person who might be able to help her.
“LIZZY!” A voice yelled through the crowd.
Liz made her way passed the people who had gathered to view the shark tank. A diver was swimming with the sharks and entertaining the crowd by feeding them fish bait.
Liz glanced to the tank and shook her head when she realized that her old roommate did that same thing on a daily basis.
“Hey Molly, how are you?” She asked as she drew nearer to her friend.
Two wet arms encircled Liz and she pulled them away after a second. She stepped back and smiled to Molly.
“I’m great and you look…like crap! What happened to you?” She asked, noticing the dark circles under Liz’s eyes, the pale complexion, and the hurt written all over her face. She had tried to disguise it with a smile but it didn’t work.
Liz shrugged her shoulders, tired of beating around the bush and making up stories to hide what was really going on inside. “Molly, I need to talk.” She said as Molly took the towel that she was drying off with and slung it over her arm, then grabbed Liz’s hand and led her over to a table near the concession area of the aquarium.
“Okay, now spill it.” Molly said as the two sat down on the wrought iron chairs.
“Hey, why are you soaking wet?” Liz asked before she was going to talk to Molly about Justin.
Molly took the towel and wiped the water still visible off her brow. “Oh, I just got out of the tank before Jeff went in. I’ve been working with the big guys in there but I asked Jeff to feed them after I got your call, so again, what’s up?”
Liz smiled hesitantly at her only other friend besides the girls and Lynn. She realized right then that she really was alone. She had turned down every opportunity to make friends in the past due to her determined and sometimes stubborn outlook on life and what she HAD to do and not what she WANTED to do.
She mentally cursed herself for being that way. Molly had always seemed to be the free spirit, something Liz never could grasp but desperately wanted more than anything right now. She wanted to live life as it came and not worry about whether or not she brought down the CEO of a company or beat a man out of a job, like her mother had always told her to do.
She wanted to be young and enjoy the wonders that this world held and wanted someone by her side. That person was Justin but she had lost him and didn’t know what to do from here on out.
She put her hands up to the sides of her forehead and rubbed her temples. A slight groan came from her mouth as she lifted her eyes to meet Molly’s before explaining the situation. “I have guy problems.”
Molly’s eyes lit up with that statement. “What? You and some guy? Well it’s about damn time someone noticed how hot you are. Who’s the lucky guy?” She wiggled excitedly in her seat.
Liz looked questionably at her. “Um Mol, I never knew you thought I was ‘hot’.”
Molly started laughing after she realized what she had just said. “Oh, I’m sorry about that, I’ve been working with Jeff and Dave for too long. All they talk about are girls so I guess they’ve rubbed off on me.”
Liz’s face softened and she let out a small laugh of her own. That was the first time in awhile that Liz had actually laughed and it felt good. She felt a little better and she hadn’t even spoken to Molly about why she there.
She coughed a few times to settle herself then picked back up on Justin. “Well, his name isn’t what’s important, it’s the other girl in his life that is.” She said as Molly stopped laughing as well.
“WHAT? Some guy is cheating on you?”
Liz shook her head, realizing that she had to explain the whole situation to Molly. “Mol, no, he can’t be cheating on me if we’re not together anyway. Look, I think I need to tell you what’s going on so just sit back and listen.”
Molly nodded and made herself more comfortable. She smiled and waved to a few children who recognized her as the girl in the shark tank from earlier. She returned her attention to Liz and heard as she explained the situation with Justin - though never mentioning who he really was.
Molly was a great girl but Liz just wasn’t ready to tell her about acting like an idiot in front of an international superstar.
Molly heard her tell her story and sat there until she finished. She leaned up and placed both elbows on the table before wrinkling her brow at her friend. “Lizzy are you ready to hear what I think?”
Liz nodded her head and sat back against the cool iron frame of the chair.
“Well, it sounds like you’re scared to death to be with this guy. You think that if you give him your heart that he’ll run with it straight to his girl friend. But you said that they were friends, only hooking up because they were lonely. Well, what do you think he’d do if he had you? Would he still run to her? Is that what you’re afraid of, who he’ll turn to? His friend of ten years or you, someone he’s just met?”
Liz listened to the questions that Molly was asking and those were the same ones she had been asking herself all night. “Yeah, I guess I am afraid he’ll run to her and not me. I mean, she’s always been there for him and they’re friends but I just don’t understand how anyone could just be friends with him. He is just so wonderful and…well, so beautiful.”
Molly eyed her carefully. She could see the spark coming back into her eyes as she spoke about her mystery man. “Lizzy, you have it so bad for him, it’s not even funny, but I think you need to figure out what it is that really bothers you. Is it this other girl or are you just using that as an excuse so you don’t have to take a chance on him?”
Liz sat up straight and placed both hands on the table in front of her. She wrung her fingers together to keep herself focused on something other than what Molly was talking about.
It was true that she was jealous of what Britney and Justin had but she really was scared to let herself go and take the chance with him. She had shown a part of herself to him last night that she didn’t know she had but when he turned and walked to Britney, she was crushed. She didn’t know if she could do that again.
“Mol, I’m scared that he’ll reject me again like he did last night. He ran right to her when she called. I just can’t compete with what they have but I don’t think I can go on without him either.” She said as she buried her head in her hands.
Molly reached across the table and touched her head. “Then you have a lot to think about. He’s worth it, that much you’ve told me but are you willing to put your feelings out on the line again to see what he’ll do? Think about that.”
Liz looked up at her friend and knew she was right. She would have so much to think about but right now, she needed to get back to the hotel. She hadn’t felt good but would have been able to work. She had lied to everyone earlier just so she wouldn’t have to deal with all of them saying something about her and Justin but she had to get back now. She had a job to do and had to mentally prepare herself for that job - and facing Britney for another two weeks.
The two girls talked a few minutes longer and Liz was even introduced to Molly’s friends that she worked with before they parted and Liz went back to the hotel. She had to clear her mind and get back to work for her own sanity. Thinking about Justin was useless at that moment since she wouldn’t see him again until the girls went back on tour with the guys in a month.