"Sounds like trouble," JC said from where he sat, lounging on the couch, remote in hand.
"Wonderful," Jenny muttered from the arm chair next to the couch.
Justin stormed into the room and JC continued to stare at the TV.
"Hey, Baby," Jenny blew Justin a kiss. She found it was easier to act normal until the beating - it was less severe that way.
"JC, huh?" Justin yelled. "You go behind my back with JC?"
"No! I haven't gone behind your back with anyone!" Jenny pulled the paper out of Justin's hand.
"Oh, no," Jenny said. "No!"
"What?" JC asked.
Jenny threw him the newspaper. Actually, the tabloid, but still.
JC looked at the cover and his heart nearly stopped beating. It was a picture of him and Jenny. He had a wide smile on his face and was holding onto his pants as if pulling them up. Jenny sat on the bed in just his t-shirt, stretching her legs out, smiling up at him.
"Oh, no," JC muttered, flipping it open. There was another picture of them in a cab, her head on his shoulder, his hand in her hair. And another of them entering the MTV Studios, earlier that day, but in different outfits, as if another day.
"You bet oh no," Justin snapped.
"Hey, Justin!" JC began. "It's a tabloid, it's not true!"
"Right," Justin said cynically, flipping to the front page. "Explain that."
"She needed something to sleep in so I gave that to her, because she was afraid to go back to your room because she might have gotten beaten again!" JC said, expertly switching the blame off of him.
Justin looked at Jenny. "Is he telling the truth?" Justin asked warily.
"Yeah," Jenny nodded.
Justin looked indecisive and Jenny was just standing there. "I believe you," Justin said, reaching out and taking hold of Jenny. "I love you."
"Good," Jenny replied, tilting her face up for a kiss.
"TV?" JC said, reminding them that they were in front of the TV. They walked back until Justin hit a chair and fell into it, pulling Jenny with him.
JC couldn't take it anymore, so he snapped off the TV, went up to his room, and got ready to go out to a club. He didn't think he'd need to do any saving of Jenny tonight.
"I'm going out," JC called to them on his way out.
They were still in the chair, and didn't even look at him, simply waved good-bye.
"Justin..." Jenny trailed off.
"What?" He said.
The sound of his voice was muffled by her neck, but she still knew what he was saying. "Justin, I don't know if..." Jenny shut her mouth.
"You don't know what?" Justin finally pulled his head back from her neck and looked at her.
Jenny hadn't known if she loved Justin or JC. Scary thing was, she didn't know how JC felt about her. Oh, sure, there had been their slightly off-base conversation about her getting dressed before he did something, but that meant nothing.
Staring into Justin's beautiful blue eyes, though, she knew who she loved at that very moment. "Nothing, Justin," Jenny, who was sitting on Justin's lap, facing him, leaned down and lay her head on his shoulder. "Nothing at all, everything's perfect."
"Jenny..." Justin broke the silence a few moments later.
"Yeah?" She asked.
"I just wanted to say..." Justin trailed off.
"Say...?" Jenny prompted.
"I'm sorry," Justin whispered, choking. "And..."
Jenny sat up straight and saw that Justin had a tear sliding down his cheek. She leaned forward and kissed it.
"I..." Justin looked down.
"You what?" Jenny asked, placing a hand on either side of Justin's face.
"I love you," Justin said, staring into Jenny's deep green eyes. "But I can't stop myself."
"It's ok, baby, right now everything's perfect. And that's all I'm worried about. Right now," Jenny said, taking Justin's hand and pulling him up.
"What am I doing?" Justin asked.
Jenny put a CD on the stereo and went back to Justin, "Dance with me."
"Of course," Justin whispered, gathering her into his arms.
Jenny felt loved when she was in Justin's arms, but that wasn't the only thing she wanted to feel. She wanted to feel loved, safe, protected, and like she was the only woman in the world.
She tried to shove aside the painful reminders that she didn't feel like that in Justin's arms, the memories of Justin coming back from the bars with perfume clinging to him, lipstick smeared across his chin, anger raging.
She shuddered at even the thought, and Justin held her tighter. She just wanted those memories to go away. She wanted to feel like everything was perfect again.
And she was going to make it that way. When the song ended, Jenny grabbed Justin's hand and together they went upstairs to their bedroom.