Olivia had been through a lot in the last two months -- but she had kept her promise to herself to hold her chin up. She had returned to school a week after Sidney's death and told Jeff Howard straight up what she thought about him. He pretty much stayed away from her, keeping his mouth shut, after that. She even managed to gain a little respect, making a new friend-Serenity- just before the school year closed. The senior class graduated in the beginning portion of June, so Olivia was now on her own for the summer--not to mention she was out of school for good, until she decided she was ready for the college life. Even though she was on the road to mental recovery, she was still very unstable and far from ever opening up to anyone.

Meanwhile, for the *NSYNC guys, things were happening fast. Their song, "Tearin' Up My Heart", was climbing the Billboard Chart faster and faster every week and before they knew it, they were doing appearances all over New York City, and even for the Disney Channel. Disney's concert sparked the soon to be phenomenon *NSYNC was. The guys were on a short break for now, relaxing at home in Orlando. In the last week of August, they were planning on jetting overseas for a few appearances and interviews.

"Mom, I'm going to the beach, I'll see ya later tonight!", Justin called to his mother as he dashed out the front door. He jumped into his car and sped off to the local beach. "Finally... some time to myself. The weather is perfect, too--dude, this couldn't get any better!", he said out loud to himself with a huge grin on his lips. He flicked on the radio and bounced his head while singing loudly to the fast-paced Blink -182 song that was blasting through the speakers.

"Yooo...check this out! Ohh man, this place is tight!", Justin said to himself as he put his chair in the sand. He plopped down in it, and threw his shades over his eyes, digging his feet into the pebbles of sand. Half an hour later, he was sleeping peacefully, his head against the back of his chair, a baseball cap hiding his mound of curls. Spread out around the tiny chair were a bottle of sunscreen, a wrinkled towel and his white t-shirt, which was dusted with sand. Girls would occasionally walk by, not noticing that it was a famous popstar, and whistle at his sleeping form.

Suddenly, he jolted up when he felt a freezing sensation all over his bare chest. It was sun tan lotion. "WHAT THE --?", he yelled, jumping out of his chair. He looked up at the shocked girl in front of him.

"Oh my God...I am soooooo sorry!!! I didn't--I didn't see the bottle there...oh my God, I am so embarrassed!", she apologized, her face turning beet red. She had accidentally stepped on the opened bottle, causing it to spurt out all over his face and body.

He took his sunglasses off and started to rub the lotion into his pale skin. "It's..it's alright. I guess I needed to reapply anyway." He laughed at her flustered expression. "Really...it's ok." He looked her over before continuing. "Hey...don't I know you?"

She blushed, "I...I don't know."

He looked at her again curiously and began to run his towel down his muscular arms. "Are you sure? That's weird, I could have sworn I've seen you before....wait a second, I know where I've seen you!! Olivia??"

Olivia bit her lip and looked at the sand. She remembered who he was but she was too shy to say anything.

"Isn't that your name? Olivia Jaycans or something?"

Liv inhaled sharply at the mistaken last name. Harry Jaycans was the man who had crashed into Sidney. "No."

Justin crossed his eyebrows, confused. "Hm, that's strange. Oh, well, it's okay about the sun tan lotion.", he said as he sat back down in his chair and picked up a book.

"It's Olivia Jacobs."

His head shot up immediately.

"And I do remember you...you're the angel that took me the hospital after my best friend died."

He blushed at the compliment. "Well, you know, I couldn't just leave you there. If I did, and you had gotten in your car to get to the hospital yourself, there might have been another accident. I couldn't let that happen, now could I?"

She gave a small smile, but continued to stare at the sand.

"You aren't very talkative are you? Well, of course you're not...I barely even got your name in the first place!"

"I...I, well I don't know what to say or anything...except thank you."

"Well, you can start off by telling me something about you! Do you wanna go for a walk?"

Olivia shrugged.

Justin jumped up and grabbed her hand. "C'mon, it won't hurt you. And I promise, I won't bite.", he smiled.

She let him lead her down to the water where the waves were crashing peacefully against the shore, but pulled her hand out of his grip, still very shy and unable to trust anyone. She noticed that he was extremely confident and sure about himself, not to mention that he was acting unbelieveably nice to someone that he didn't even know. She had to admire him for that and she wished she could just drop everything and tell him how grateful she was, but her heart just wouldn't let her.

Justin looked her over, thinking to himself that she was a very pretty young woman, but her inner shyness shaded out her outer beauty. She was wearing a light purple Delia*s bikini and her hair was tied back in a loose ponytail falling down her back. In the past two months, her light brown hair had grown to mid-back length and was layered at the tips. He felt a need to help her open up and push that shyness away. He only wished he knew where to start.

"So, are you from around here?"

Olivia nodded. "Orlando. Are you?"

"Yeah. It's great here, isn't it?"

"I guess."

"How old are you about? Seventeen, eighteen?"

"Seventeen."

"Cool. That's what I thought when I first saw you. Remember, it was in that coffeehouse? I'm seventeen too, but I'll be eighteen in January. Finally, legal.", he laughed.

Liv smiled.

"Hey, why don't you ask me something? I'll tell ya anything you want to know."

"Um...I don't really know what to ask."

His hopes began to sink. "Come on Olivia. It's not that hard. You can ask me anything, because I'd really like it if we got to know each other a little. What do you say?"

"Well...I guess so. Um, so how's your group going?"

Justin smiled. "See that wasn't so hard was it? We're doing great!! Actually, we just did a show for Disney that just aired. I don't know if you saw it or not...but it really started to put us in action. We're getting so big so fast, you know? It's worse overseas, though. That's where we really started out. We have people waiting by our hotels and running after our limos. Its crazy, man. But you gotta love it."

"Sounds like fun. I just got your CD, it's really good. And I have to say, your songs have helped me through a lot."

Justin grinned ear to ear. That was the most she had ever talked to him. "I'm extremely glad to hear that. That's one of the main reasons we do what we do- we love seeing what the people think and it makes us feel really special when fans tell us that we inspired or helped them in some way, you know?"

She nodded. "Um...could I just ask you one thing?"

"Sure! That's what I'm trying to get you to do!!", he laughed.

"Um, I was just wondering...why are you so interested in my life? I mean, I've gotten your car wet and squirted suntan lotion all over you and you're just like, being so nice to me. Why?"

Justin chuckled. "You also hit me with a door.", he said recalling the day in the coffeehouse.

Olivia blushed.

"Just teasing.", he smiled. "I like making friends. I try to make a new one everyday, and with you, I mean, we've had maybe, what is it now? Three encounters? It seems only right that we at least talk to each other. You could always use one more friend right?"

"I don't have any friends, really."

His sunglasses dropped to his nose. "Not one?"

"Well...Serenity. But I just met her."

Justin smiled and put his arm around her. "Well you just made number two!"

Olivia and Justin were sitting on his spread out beach towel playing a card game called Bull. Justin smacked down a Jack and an idea popped into his head. Without warning, he stared down Olivia until she looked at him.

"What?"

He smiled, held up his Jack card, and started to shiver, saying, "Promise me....you'll survive...that you won't....give up hope. Promise me now Rose....", in a funny impression of Jack Dawson from "Titanic".

Olivia couldn't help but burst out laughing at his weak attempt to imitate the "Titanic" star. Justin smiled...he had made her laugh. He noticed she looked extremely attractive right then. The bright summer sun was shining brilliantly on her hair and it made her crystal eyes sparkle. "You're really pretty when you laugh."

Olivia stopped laughing and looked at him weird. "What?"

"Um, I said...you're turn. Whenever you're ready."

Liv smiled shyly. She knew he was trying to cover up his slip. She was also thinking the same thing about him though. Justin was a really fun guy to be around and she was really enjoying spending the day with him. She also really didn't mind the fact that they were at the beach and he wasn't wearing a shirt. Wait till she told Serenity about this!

Suddenly, as Justin was getting ready to put down a card, a muffled ring came from his baseball cap that was lying on the sand. He quickly reached in to find his cell phone which was in the body of his hat along with his car keys.

"Hello?"

"Justin, man, can you come over to the studio for a second?", a familiar voice sounded in Justin's ear.

"What? Come on man, it's my day off!", he complained.

Chris kept persuading. "Dude, I know it's your day off, but Johnny's gonna blow any minute. He needs to talk to us about something. Come on, it'll take like an hour."

"God, Chris. You and Johnny owe me big. I can't believe this. Gimme like, fifteen minutes."

"Thanks man.", Chris sighed, relieved and clicked his phone off.

Justin slowly pressed the 'off' button on his cellular and turned to Olivia who was playing with her hands, picking on the light purple nailpolish which coated her fingernails. "Liv... can I call you Liv?"

She nodded.

"They need me at the studio for somethin'.", he rolled his eyes. "I'm really sorry, I really wanted to stay here."

"Oh...it's okay."

"Well, um, did you want to do something with me another time? Maybe we could go grab a bite to eat or somethin'?"

She looked away from his eyes nervously. "I-I don't think so."

His heart sank. "Well, if you ever reconsider...here's my number, all ya gotta do is gimme a call okay?", he said while scribbling a number onto a scallop seashell with a Sharpie marker. "But remember, we're leaving in a month."

Olivia took the shell from his outstretched hand and smiled. "Okay."

"Great. Well I've got to run, it was great finally getting to meet you-meet you...if you know what I mean.", he laughed. Justin grabbed all his stuff, shook Liv's hand, and started to walk towards the car, but quickly turned back. "Oh, and Liv?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me...that you'll survive!! Promise me now, Rose!", he joked, a mischeivous smirk on his lips.

Olivia couldn't help but to laugh. "I promise Jack. Bye."

He waved and started to jog towards the exit of the beach.

Olivia watched him very closely from behind. He had an unbelievably healthy figure, extremely impressive for a seventeen year old. She watched the muscles in his legs move as his feet jogged against the sand and slowly her eyes raised up to his hair, which was covered by a backwards Nike hat. She looked down at the seashell and sighed.

(twenty minutes later, at the studio)

"He said he'd be here in fifteen minutes, where is he?", Johnny Wright, *NSYNC's manager asked Chris.

"Don't worry, he'll be here.", Chris answered and silently added, "I hope."

A few seconds later, the door to the studio opened and in walked Justin, sandy, wet and grinning like a cat. "Hi guys, sorry I'm late." He threw his keys on the table and put his sunglasses on his head, over the black hat. "Did I miss anything?"

"Where were you?", JC asked.

"I was at the beach, having some fun on my day off...unlike some people who are sitting here worrying about who knows what!", he remarked, emphasizing the words 'day off' and 'some people'. "Guess who I ran into?"

JC rolled his eyes. "Who? Janet Jackson?"

"Ohhh man, do I ever wish!!", he laughed. "Nah, it was Olivia Jacobs, that girl who's friend was in that accident a few months ago, remember?"

JC nodded. "So, you guys actually talked?"

"Yeah, she's really nice and everything, but I don't know...she's just really really shy and unsure of herself, you know?"

Johnny interrupted their conversation. "Guys, you can finish your chick chat later okay? I have some big news that I have to discuss with you."

Joey piped up at the second 'big news' was mentioned. "And what would that big news be?"

"Well, it seems that you guys are shooting up faster than expected after this Disney concert thing and you're break is going to be cut short. Everything is getting pushed up. You're going to Europe the second week in August, and then you'll come home and start a promotional tour which is gonna take you everywhere in the United States. That's gonna last you about a good two to three months. When that's over, you'll be touring with none other than Ms. Janet Jackson herself. Savor your last few free weeks because ya ain't gonna get many days off after this month. It's gonna be a rollercoaster ride, so hold on tight."

All five of them were stunned. Not only was this cutting their vacation short, it was adding to the overwhelming pressure that was building up on each one of their backs. As if they were all thinking the same thing, each one turned to look at another in shock to let it all sink in.