Johnny let out a boisterous chuckle. "Calm your hormones, boy. That won't be for a few months."

"YEAH, BUT JANET JACKSON?? THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, MAN!"

"Oh Lord, why'd you have to tell him now? He's gonna be hyperactive for the next four months straight.", Lance sighed.

"Shut up PooFoo."

Lance rolled his eyes. Joey looked at Johnny with a perplexed expression. "So, what you're saying is that we are leaving in less than 3 weeks? And that we're not gonna get another vacation for a long time?"

"Yes, you retard, that's what he said!", Chris yelled at Joey. "Do you need him to spell it out too?"

"Shut up, man."

JC turned to his four best friends and smiled. "We did it, guys...we really did it."

(flashback)

"Olivia, come on, one drink is not gonna hurt you. Just have a little." Liv looked at her boyfriend and sighed. "Fine.", and took a sip, "But if I get wasted, I'm blaming it on you." Greg smiled. "You won't."

Twenty minutes later, Liv, Greg and the five other friends that were with them were completely loaded. They stumbled to the car and sped off down the street, zooming over the speed limit at seventy-five mph. Music blared out of the speakers and echoed throughout the streets, causing angry suburbians to wake up yelling.

"Liv, check this out...", Greg called to her from the back seats of the car. She turned around in the passanger seat to glance at what her beau was holding.

"Where in God's name did you get that??", she yelled at him, pointing to the shiny object in his hand.

Olivia shook the memories away from her mind, waking up in a cold sweat. She rubbed her eyes drearily. "Why can't I ever have a good dream?", she asked nobody. Picking up the small alarm clock on the night table next to her bed, she glanced at the time and yawned. It was ten o'clock in the morning. Slowly, she climbed out of her twisted bed sheets and sleepily wobbled to the bathroom.

When she got back to her room, after washing the sleep out of her face, she looked at the seashell on her bureau. Gently picking it up, she ran her fingers over the phone number. Justin's words rang in her head. "You just made number two...remember, we're leaving in a month...give me a call, maybe we could go grab a bite to eat or somethin'..."

"I wish I had the strength to, Justin.", Olivia answered her thoughts out loud. She carefully placed the shell back in its place on the table and hopped down the stairs for breakfast.

"Morning, dear!", her mother said cheerfully.

"Hi, mom! Why are you so cheerful this morning?"

"Well, Olivia, I have a surprise for you.", she said.

Liv walked over to the cabinent and reached in for the Frosted Flakes. "Really? What is it?"

"How would you like to go on a vacation for two weeks with me? Just the two of us."

Pouring the milk into her bowl, she smiled. "Sounds like fun! Where are we going?"

"On a cruise."

The spoon stopped mid-way to her mouth as she stared at her mother in disbelief. "NO WAY!"

Mrs. Jacobs nodded. "The ship leaves on Friday. Are you up for it?"

Olivia didn't even have to think twice. "I'll start packing today!"

(a week later)

Olivia relaxed on her lounge chair, sunglasses covering her closed eyes, admist the people strolling along the docks. Her mother lay next to her, reading the latest Nicholas Sparks novel. A smile replaced the usual expressionless look on her face, while she let the sun soak into her tanning skin.

"Olivia?"

Liv turned her head slightly to the side so she could see her mother. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad we got to spend some time together. I'm getting a little burnt out here, so I'm gonna head inside. Tonight maybe we could go see the band play in the ballroom."

"Okay. Thanks for taking me. I'm having a great time."

Mrs. Jacobs smiled and walked back inside. Olivia sighed and went back into her peaceful reverie, hoping not to get anymore interruptions. Her mind soon began to wander off, as she fell into a calming sleep.

Ten minutes later, a cold splash on her bare stomach startled her, waking her up in a hurry. Her eyes shot open and she whipped off her shades, looking up at the handsome teenager in front of her. He looked at her apologetically. "I'm sorry. My brother was being a moron and started chasing me with his watergun. I guess he has really bad aim..."

Olivia smiled. "It's okay."

He looked her over for a few seconds before deciding to introduce himself. "I'm Brian. It's nice to meet you.", he said, holding out a hand.

"Hi Brian. I'm Olivia.", she smiled warmly at him.

"Are you here by your--", he started to ask, but stopped when a strong force of water hit him in the back. He spun around to find a younger boy--maybe around eleven or twelve--standing in front of him, water pistol aiming for his face. "YOU IDIOT!! GET OUT OF HERE, JERRY!"

The boy looked at him angry. "Why? So you can talk to your new girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend! I intended on meeting new people on this trip to PURPOSELY get away from little brats like YOU! Now beat it!", Brian yelled frustrated at his younger brother.

Jerry huffed and stomped away enraged.

Brian shook the water off his back and turned back to his new acquaintance. "Sorry about that. Little brothers are pains in the butts."

"I wouldn't really know, but I'll take your word for it."

He sat down on the chair next to her and smiled. "Well, as I was saying before I was so RUDELY INTERRUPTED", he yelled back at Jerry, who was watching his older brother from around the corner. "are you here by yourself?"

Liv shook her head as she sized him up. He had sandy blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a very lean body. He looked like the type of guy you would always see on the beach flirting with all the women who were wearing skimpy bikinis and who always turned out to have an extremely big ego. There was something different about him though. She could see a certain best friend quality shining through those pools of blue...something that she hadn't seen in anyone, besides Justin, in a very long time. It was greatly comforting to see that content light. "No, I'm here with my mother. She wanted to take me on a vacation."

Brian grinned. "Sounds cool. I'm here with my family too.", he replied, "Hey, you wanna go check out the video arcade? They have some really fun games!", he suggested in that boyish excitement that young boys always got when they saw a new car or video game.

Olivia accepted, her confidence level inching to a higher level.

(two days later)

"Mom! Me and Brian are going to go to the movie theatre okay? Be back in a few hours!", Liv called to her mother from around the corner as she slipped into her tan sandals.

Mrs. Jacobs sighed. "Alright, dear...". The door slammed and she continued talking to herself, "So much for two weeks of quality time with my daughter..."

Olivia and Brian had become fast friends, and the two got along extremely well. From what he had told her, he was eighteen years old, lived in Orlando and his girlfriend's name was Bridget. When he told her that he lived in Orlando, she was thrilled, because right away she knew that they would be able to keep in touch a lot easier than if he had lived in, say, Louisiana.

"What movie did you want to see?", he asked her.

"I heard 'Armageddon' was good. Wanna see that one?"

"Yeah, okay. Sounds cool."

They had only met two days ago, but already Olivia could tell that the confidence in herself was getting stronger and she had to give some of that credit to Brian. He cheered her up when she felt out of place, and he made her laugh when she was sad. The only other person that had been able to do that since Sidney's death was Justin. He had been the first one to make her smile in a long time.

Sadly, the ship was getting ready to dock at the Orlando harbour in a few days. She didn't want this vacation to end, she was already having so much fun. It was definitely being counted as one of the highlights of her summer.

"Well here's my number. Call me okay?", Brian told her as the two were about to go their separate ways.

Liv nodded and took the piece of paper he was holding. "Count on it."

He gave her a hug and started to walk to his family's car. "Later Olivia!"

"Bye Brian!"

She smiled and ran to her car where her mom was waiting for her. On the ride home, she fell asleep and a cluster of thoughts were relived in her dreams.

"Olivia?...Well, I couldn't just leave you there...gimme a call, maybe we could go get somethin' to eat...", Justin's words echoed in her mind.

"Little brothers are pains in the butts...I'm Brian...yeah, I have a girlfriend, she's awesome...what about you?...", Brian's question rang in her ears.

"Liv, don't let Jeff take advantage of you, or you'll get hurt in the long run.", were Sidney's words of advice when she had first hooked up with Jeff Howard.

"I love you, Olivia....", Greg's powerful words were the loudest of all. They churned in her head like a thick batch of homemade butter, a mixture that was almost impossible for someone as petite as her to stir. His dangerous use of them was what had hurt her the most, though.

She was gently shaken awake by her mother when they had reached their house. "Liv...honey, wake up..."

Olivia stirred and slowly opened her eyes to see her mother's warm smile. "Hi, mom."

"Hi, sleepyhead. We're home."

"Okay.", she yawned and hopped out of the car.

(the following week, a few days before Justin is leaving for Europe)

Olivia picked up the seashell that gently rested on her night table and picked up the phone. She had been thinking a lot about Justin lately, even more so when she played her CD and heard his soft, beautiful voice fill her room with an angelic sound.

"You can do this, Liv...no sweat. Just call him up and say...", she searched for thoughts. "Say what? Oh God, what do I say?...Justin, this is Olivia...I just wanted to call you 'cause you told me to?" Liv groaned and slammed the phone back into the reciever, flopping onto her bed. She rubbed her face and told herself out loud, "Alright, what is so hard about calling him? He's just a normal guy...except that if you don't call him now, you'll never get a chance to because he's leaving in less than a MONTH for EUROPE!", she yelled at herself. Picking up the phone and taking a deep breath, she dialed the first three numbers but froze out of fright, before chickening out and hanging the phone up again. Olivia sighed and went downstairs.

Over the course of the week, she tried desparately to get enough courage to call Justin. Everytime she came close to it, she chickened out. Once, she even got as far as dialing the whole number and letting it ring one or two times before hanging up quickly. She called Brian instead and he helped her build her courage up.

"It's not that big a deal, Liv. Just pretend you're calling me."

"But you're not a famous popstar! What if he doesn't have time or doesn't even wanna talk to me? What if he forgot who I am?!"

"He's the one who asked you to call isn't he? Don't let his star status scare you. He's just like you and me. C'mon, babe, you can do it. I know you can."

Liv took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay...I'm gonna do it...I can do it. Thanks, Bri."

"No problem. Anytime.", he answered, "Now, go get this guy's attention."

"Alright. Talk to ya later!"

"Bye Olivia."

She slowly hung up the phone and let Justin's number circle her mind. She had looked at that damn seashell so many times, she could recite his phone number front to back, back to front...not to mention backwards in her sleep! It was eleven o'clock at night, so she decided she would call him in the morning.

(next afternoon, 12:45pm)

Olivia picked up her phone again, telling herself that this was it...no more dawdling. She pressed the glowing digits on her cordless and bit her lip as the monotone ringing echoed in her ear. It rang, and rang, and rang...maybe five, even six times. Before she knew it, a voice silenced the ringing....

"Hey, this is Justin, sorry I missed your call, but I'm in Europe right now doin' some promotional stuff. If you leave a message, I'll try my best to get back to ya! Stay *NSYNC everybody!"

"........BEEEEEEEP......."