He swung it open in a fury and ran smack into Chris who was standing with his fist ready to pound on the door. The force of their bodies slamming together sent them both toppling to the floor in a heap of mess. The pictures in Justin's hands went flying out of his grip and scattered all over a few feet down the hallway, right in front of Lonnie's feet.

He unfolded his arms and looked from the two guys on top of each other to the pictures scattered at his feet, back to the two guys. He snickered and bent down to pick up the photos. One look at them and he was in a full fledged laughing fit.

Chris looked up at Justin who was pressed on top of him and batted his eyelashes. "Oh, Justy, I never knew you felt this way!", he squealed in a high pitched voice.

Justin's eyes formed little slits. "Chris, I'm gonna kill you."

Chris yelped and reached for Lonnie. "Lonnie, HELP! He's making threats at me!!!"

The bodyguard tried to contain his laughter because of the pictures and after a moment, was somewhat capable to do so. "Chris, my job is to protect you from FANS.", he looked at Justin. "Have fun, Justin!"

Chris kicked and screamed as Justin took his time slapping him around playfully. He only stopped when he heard that beautiful sound hit his ears -- that simple, but beautiful laughter. His head whipped around when he heard her voice repeat the words forever captured in that one, little photograph.

"Chloe Andrews is a whore."

He watched her crack up with his bodyguard and bit his lip as she continued speaking. "It's about time he admitted that."

Justin jumped off of Chris and turned around to face her. She smiled at him. "I heard screaming so I decided to come outside and see what was going on. If someone would have warned me that there was going to be a raping going on, I definitely would have stayed inside..."

She turned around to go back to her room, but glanced over her shoulder and winked at Justin. "Cute pictures, J."

His face turned pink and he spun on his heels to glare at Chris, who had scrambled off the floor and was giving him an innocent look. "You took my bag on accident...um, there's pictures you shouldn't see in there...", he finished his thought in a question, "I warned you?"

Justin stared at him for a minute with a scowl. "You just totally humiliated me in front of Kelsie.", he paused. "And you know what, I want you to throw those pictures out right now."

Lonnie, who still held the photos, raised an eyebrow. "Ohh, no way. These pictures are going STRAIGHT to the photo album. Hilarious, I tell ya."

Chris nodded. "Come on, J...they're funny and you know it."

Justin pretended to laugh. "Oh, yeah, ha ha. Just hilarious." He turned to re-enter his room before looking back at Chris. "Oh, and don't ever refer to Chloe as a whore. She may be one, but that doesn't make it right."

He shut the door behind him and laughed. Chris' expression was priceless...he was so damn gullible. Justin snickered and climbed into his bed to get some sleep, a continual snicker leaving his lips over the pictures.

__________________________________________________________________________________

(rehearsal - six days before tour)

The group sat gathered around in a little side room, getting a quick bite to eat for breakfast before they started their all day practice run. They had been working their tails off for the past week, doing twenty hour rehearsals and getting maybe two to three hours of sleep a night. They had already done the full show a solid ten times and by the opening night on May ninth, they will have rehearsed it another ten times and then some.

So today they sat - looking completely dead - taking small bites of their bagels or pieces of buttered toast and gulps of their "energy-supplying" orange juice in a meeting room in the Lakeland Center. It was painfully quiet and if you dropped a piece of paper onto the floor it would have sounded like an atomic bomb hitting the room.

Not long after JC had managed to fit the rest of his orange juice into his mouth in one huge gulp, Kelsie burst into the room, breaking the silence, with a grin the size of the Grand Canyon plastered on her face. "GUYS! GUESS WHAT!?"

They slowly turned their heads to look at her, wondering how the hell she had so much energy and JC tried to swallow his juice before she finished her sentence, but she cut him off before it could slide down his throat.

"KAT'S COMING!!"

JC almost choked on his juice and fought to swallow it with one last gulp. It successfully went down into his system and he jumped out of his chair and grabbed Kelsie by the shoulders. "When?!"

"Today!! She has off today, tomorrow, and friday! But she has to go back on Monday and then your tour starts Tuesday...but she said she's gonna join up with us when we come back to Orlando!"

He grinned, the first grin of the day, and hugged Kelsie. He had been talking to Kat on the phone a lot recently, but she hadn't told him that she was going to come visit them. He felt a strange connection towards her, and though he was almost six years older than her, he still felt like he'd grown up with her. It was weird, but he didn't really care. He just knew that this had to be a sign or something. He smiled and went off into the dressing room with that glazed over look in his eyes and that silly grin on his face.

Joey stared after him in disbelief. "What is it with this tour? People are falling in love all over the place!"

Kelsie turned to look at him and smiled. "Weird, huh? I've never heard Kat so happy to come visit me before!"

Chris snickered. "Ha! That's because she doesn't want to see YOU, silly."

"Shut up, Chris!"

Kelsie sat down in JC's empty chair next to Justin and reached over to grab Justin's half eaten bagel.

He grabbed her hand before she could pick it up. "And what do you think you're doing?"

She looked at him, mock confusion written all over her face. "Eating your food." She gave him her best puppy dog look and pouted.

He slumped and covered his eyes. "Must not look!"

Kelsie pryed his fingers off of his eyes and grabbed his cheeks together to make him look at him. "You know you want to give it to me, Justin.", she smiled innocently.

His face reddened at the way she said the words, the double meaning ringing in his head. He pushed the plate at her and sighed. "Go ahead..."

She grinned happily and sat back in her chair, picking at the food.

Justin watched her discreetly, out of the corner of his eyes. It had been over a week and he still hadn't told her. He had definitely tried, numerous times actually, but there was always SOMETHING that either held him back or interrupted him. The guys were even getting impatient with him because in their eyes, 'it was so painstakingly obvious', that they just wanted to grab the two of them and lock them up in some deserted room. Justin struggled with his feelings most of the time, and he even felt that little sense of guilt that he was going to tell her he loved her before he even got his girlfriend out of the picture. Thinking about all this made him angry, and he knew he couldn't take it anymore. He pushed away from his chair and walked briskly out of the room. This he could not deal with.

Kelsie stopped chewing and watched in shock as the door slammed suddenly. She looked around, confused, at Joey, Lance, and Chris. "Did he really want the bagel or something?"

They shrugged in unison, all wondering what could have caused that reaction.

She merged her eyebrows and after another minute, shrugged. "Well, I'm going to go get ready for the rehearsal."

She left the table without another word.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Halfway through their rehearsal, a shadowed figure entered the building, standing off to the side, admiring the action taking place in front of her eyes in awe. She stood and watched for awhile, not wanting to interrupt.

You don't have to be afraid to fall in love

"NOW.", Kelsie's voice was heard above the music.

The guys were yanked up into the air by invisible strings as they flew forward in a jump to the front of the stage. The effect was awesome, but the timing was completely off.

"Stop.", Justin groaned as his feet hit the ground.v "Can we get the strings to actually GO in synchronicity, please?", Kelsie said impatiently into the megaphone to the man controlling the wires. "This is the tenth time we've tried this.", she sighed. "Okay, do it again."

They all pulled back to the back of the stage, from where they where landing from the ceiling. Kelsie's voice was heard again echoing throughout the place. "From the beginning."

They practiced taking off the strings, so there were 'no strings attached' and sang the words again.

You don't have to be afraid to fall in love

They did the leap, this time it all going perfectly in synch. Kelsie clapped her hands together in triumph. "YES!", she shouted. "PERFECT!" She smiled. "Okay, just do the whole song now and then Wade gets to boss you around."

As they wrapped up "No Strings Attached", the shadowed figure that had been watching from afar ran up behind Kelsie and grabbed her around the waist. She let out a yelp and turned around to see a five foot ten Kat grinning down at her. "KAAAT! Mah giiirl!" She grabbed her and embraced her in a long hug.

"Hey girl, I missed ya!"

"Me too! How's school?"

"Same old, same old...but it's actually better than normal, because that Chloe chick is out in California now, so I don't have to get sick to my stomach everyday when I pass her in the halls.", she smiled.

Kelsie's smile faded slightly at the name. "Justin still didn't break up with her...do you think he still has feelings for her even though she's cheating on him?"

Kat's jaw dropped. "HE DIDN'T?!?! AHH - WHERE IS HE!?"

Kelsie chuckled. "He's rehearsing...let him alone..."

Kat smiled. "No way, Kelsie, he can't still love her. He totally digs you, I KNOW it!"

Kelsie laughed. "Oh my gosh, you are using the word 'digs' now too. You've been talking to JC too much..."

"Speaking of the crystal eyed god, where is he? Tell them to hurry up and finish rehearsal!!"

Kelsie smiled and hugged her again. "Good to have you back, Monty."

_________________________________________________________________________________

(late - that night)

Justin knocked cautiously on the wooden door in front of him and impatiently waited for an answer. After many knocks, and then some, a very ravished looking JC swung the door open and glared at Justin. "What do you want?"

Justin raised his eyebrows at JC and tried to look past him into the room. "What are you doing in here?"

"Nothing, what do you want?"

"Do you know where Kelsie is? She's not in her room..."

"Nope, sorry.", he started to close the door, but Justin held it open with his foot. He snuck in a quick glance behind JC's shoulder and saw Kat sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the TV.

"Aha! Kat's in there...I knew you guys were up to something!"

"We're just, um...", he looked back at Kat. "We're watching a movie."

Justin rolled his eyes. "Like I'm gonna believe that.", he shouted past JC. "Kat! Kat, hey, do you know where Kelsie is??"

Kat's wild blonde hair flipped around when she turned her head. She smiled, her eyes sparkling. "Um, she might be upstairs."

"Upstairs? You don't mean on the roof, do you? Why would she be up there?"

"She likes to think up there...or that's what she told me anyway. If she's not there, I don't know where else she would be."

"Okay, thanks.", he almost let go of the door but then looked back at JC with a smirk. "Sorry for interrupting..."

JC grumbled something and slammed the door closed as soon as Justin's foot let go.

Justin jumped back in shock as the door slammed in his face. "Whew..." He shrugged and started on his way to the stairwell to lead upstairs, giving Lonnie an innocent smile as he passed him.

He tried to follow, but just as Justin got to the doorway, he turned around to glare at Lonnie. "DON'T even think about following me up here...there are NO fans up here, Lon, I swear. I'm just going to think for a little..."

He rolled his eyes and went back to his little position, wondering how the hell he got stuck with Justin in the first place.

Justin slowly creaked open the door and slipped outside into the cool night air. His eyes searched around everywhere for her, until he saw a hunched figure sitting on the ledge. His heart beat was out of control... she was putting herself in extreme danger by sitting there. What if she fell? Oh God, he couldn't even think about it. He crept up quietly behind her, not wanting to scare her and touched her shoulder.

She let out a shriek and almost lost balance. "OH MY GOD! JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!!!!"

He bit his lip in an apologetic manner. "Sorry."

She swung her legs over the edge and jumped down. "What the hell were you trying to do? Make me fall to my bloody death by scaring the CRAP out of me!??"

"Actually, I didn't want to scare you at all...you really scared me, I was really worried that you might fall and...and...well, you know what I mean.", he pointed to the brick. "Do you know how DANGEROUS that was?"

"Yes, DAD. I'm nineteen years old, I think I can tell between safety and danger."

Justin sighed and leaned against the ledge, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm sorry, Kelsie, I was just really worried...I...I don't know what I'd do without you..."

She leaned back against the ledge next to him, watching him closely. He wouldn't look at her. She smiled. "Really?"

He licked his lips and nodded. "Really.", he took a deep breath and pushed himself away from the wall. He walked over to the center of the roof and looked up at the sky. "Ya know what I've always wanted to do?"

"What's that?"

"Just lay out here underneath the stars all night."

Kelsie's heart beat started to quicken and she smiled at the man that was only a few feet away from her, staring up at the enormous sky in admiration. "Well...I say, let's do it."

His head whipped around to look at her to see if she was serious. "Are you serious?"

She grinned. "I'll go grab a few blankets."

Before he could protest, she was gone. And in those few minutes that she was downstairs, he thought heavily to himself. This would be the perfect opportunity to tell her. Under the starry sky, laying next to her. His breathing quickened and his heart started to pound. He always thought that he'd end up telling her somewhere that had absolutely no romantic content to it anywhere, but this...right here, oh, it was just perfect. The only question was: Could he do it?

He didn't have a chance to answer that question because Kelsie appeared next to him holding two huge blankets. "What are you thinking about?"

He jumped at her voice and looked down on her with a smile. "Nothing, really."

They spread out one of the blankets and tossed the other one aside in case they got cold -- which wasn't very likely, for more than one reason.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Justin turned his head on the blanket to look at her. Her head wasn't even an inch away from his, and her hair was spread out everywhere around her. She just stared up at the gorgeous night sky with a smile on her face. His voice was quiet when he finally spoke to break the silence. "Hey..."

She moved to get a good focus on him. "Mm?"

"You said you were nineteen...so when are you turning twenty?"

She smiled. "Not until February."

"So you just turned nineteen."

"Yep."

He turned back towards the sky and folded his hands across his chest. "I know what day you were born on."

"Is that so?"

"Mmmhmm.", he said with a smile.

"Please. Enlighten me."

"You were born on the fourteenth of February -- the lovliest day of the year -- Valentine's Day.", he said confidently, not really caring if he was right or wrong. Even if he was wrong, he knew that she should have been born on that day, anyhow.

"Nope...I wish. You're about a week off. The twentieth."

He shrugged slightly. "I suppose that I got the wrong impression than because you sure look like a Valentine's baby."

She blushed and looked back up at the sky. They were both quiet for awhile, not really knowing what to talk about. Justin moved his arms to rest behind his neck to give his head some support, but that didn't really help the fact that his head throbbed in anxiety. This was it...he was going to tell her right now.

"Kelsie?"

She smiled sweetly. "Yes, fro-fro?"

He grinned and took a breath. Then sighed. This was definitely NOT easy. "What's your favorite movie of ALL time?" He closed his eyes tightly in anger. Damnit! Your favorite movie? How does that sound like I love you? Timberlake, you stupid wussy!

Kelsie turned on her side to look at him, her eyes glowing in excitement. "Oh! It's definitely 'The Little Mermaid'!! I've always loved that since like, forever! And you won't believe this, I watched it so many times, my tape wore out and I haven't gotten a chance to buy a new one yet. It's so depressing, I haven't watched it in like, eight months!"

Justin chuckled softly, registering that important little fact of information in his brain. She was so excited talking about this old Disney movie, and, in his opinion, she couldn't have been any cuter if she tried.

"I swear, Ariel and Eric make the BEST couple because Eric is absolutely GORGEOUS and Ariel is SO beautiful. I wish I was half as pretty as her, but whatever. And you know what else? Her voice is so amazing...it's like --"

He laughed. "Kelsie, they're cartoon characters."

She succeeded in looking offended for a few minutes and then shrugged. "I'm still jealous."

"Eh..", he shrugged and stared at the stars in the sky which instantly reminded him of her eyes. "Ariel's got nothing on you."

Kelsie's face beamed at his words. She rolled back on her back and heard his words over and over in her mind. He sure had a way with words.

He tried to contain his huge smile as he watched a shooting star fall from the sky. He loved when he made her smile. He nudged her. "Hey...look, a shooting star! Make a wish!"

Kelsie watched it shoot across the sky and smiled to herself. She didn't have to make a wish because she was living her wish already right at this moment. "It's beautiful up there. Sometimes I wish I could just be a star up with the rest of them. They shine down on everyone and everything...it's like they're all-knowing. Don't you sometimes wish you could just fly up there and belong to get away from here?", she sighed.

His head slowly turned to watch her. "I'm actually quite content where I am right now..." With one hand, he reached over to touch her fingers until they finally intertwined with his.

At the contact, she sucked in a deep breath and looked at him with a smile. "Well...that's good."

He nodded slowly.

They layed there, just holding hands, and staring at the sky together for hours. It was extremely late and Kelsie felt her senses start to tire, but she wouldn't let herself fall asleep...not now... she couldn't...she'd never forgive herself...

Justin looked at her once more, tightening the grip he held on her soft hand. "Let's play a little game, Kelsie."

She smiled suspiciously. "What kind of game?"

"The favorites game...give me a favorite and I'll guess what it is. Then you do the same for me..."

She shrugged and rolled on her stomach, only releasing his hand for a split second before grabbing it again. "Okay, sounds easy enough."

"But there's only two rules before we start."

"Uh oh...", she grinned. "What would those be?"

He smirked devilishly and leaned in close to her face. "For every one you get right, I have to kiss you. And for every one I get right, you have to kiss me."

She felt her heart beat like there was no tomorrow and felt a blush cover her entire body from head to toe. She stammered a bit on her words until she fought out a response. "Chlo--"

"Screw her."

Kelsie grinned and shrugged. "Sounds good, then."

Justin ran his fingers through his hair and turned to lay on his side, making sure not to let go of her hand. "Okay...Kelsie.... give me a topic."

She bit her lip. "What is my favorite...um, shampoo?"

He smiled and pulled her close to him and buried his head in her hair. When she felt his curls brush against her cheek, she shuddered. "Kels, could you have asked anything easier? Jeez." He knew the scent of her hair like the back of his hand, but he took his time in playing with her hair to find out. "Your favorite shampoo is...Herbal Essences..."

She grinned. "You stupid loser!", she pushed his shoulder playfully. "You're not supposed to get hints by smelling my hair!"

He shrugged innocently. "I have a fetish, so sue me." He puckered out his lips jokingly and batted his eyelashes. "I'm waiiiiting. I think you owe me a kiss!"

She rolled her eyes and bent over to softly brush her lips against his in a little kiss. And while it was still really little, she still felt a shiver catapult down her spine.

"What!?", he groaned. "Kelsie, come on, I barely felt that!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you yourself said that that was an easy question. Soo, therefore you don't get much of a kiss. Guess a harder one and maybe you'll get what you want.."

He pouted. "What is my favorite color?"

She rolled her eyes. "Baby blue, duh. I read Teen Beat, too, ya know.", she said sarcastically.

"Shut up." He crawled up to her and covered her smirking mouth with his lips in a quick motion. He smiled sweetly. "Your turn."

She opened her eyes and saw his grinning face staring at her. She glared at him. "I hate you."

He smiled. "You sooo don't."

She rolled her eyes with a grunt. "Ok, Mr. Smartass. What is my favorite music group?", she said devilishly.

"Hmm...let's think about that one.", he pretended to think intensely. "*NSYNC, right? You know you love us, don't even lie."

She patted his shoulder in sympathy, with a little smile. "Sorry, babe...I actually am the Backstreet Boys' number one fan. But you guys are good, too, I suppose."

His jaw dropped to the ground. "Wha!? Y..you mean...I'm...", he gasped dramatically. "...WRONG?"

Kelsie nodded enthusiastically. "It's OKAY, Justin. Not everyone is as perfect as me.", she smiled.

He put a hand to his heart, pretending to be hurt. Then he smiled brightly. "Okay, change of rules. For everyone I get WRONG, you have to kiss me."

"HA!", she yelled triumphantly. "You wish! Go ahead with your next question, bud."

He frowned. "What's my favorite food?"

"You know what, I have all the advantages, because I already know everything about you...thanks to those stupid magazines!", she smiled. "Your favorite food, Justin, is cereal and pasta!"

He grinned and pulled her towards him and whispered in her ear. "I really love this game..." He licked his lips and pushed at her lips to get some good access. She smiled as his lips touched hers teasingly for awhile until she couldn't take it any longer and pulled at his shirt, tilting her head to give him some sort of signal. He caught it loud and clear.

This...was what she had wished for.

"Kelsie?", she felt a tugging at her shoulder. "Kelsie, Kelsie wake up!"

She stirred and opened her eyes to see Justin's anxious eyes staring back at her. "Get up, get up, we're SO late!!"

She moaned. "Huh? Justin?"

He smiled in his haste and pulled her up. "Girl, you've gotta get up! We really overslept and rehearsal started like, fifteen minutes ago!"

She rubbed her eyes and watched as he yanked up the blankets and rushed for the stairway. He turned around and saw that she wasn't moving at all, just standing there like she was in complete shock.

He ran back, grabbed her hand and started pulling her down the stairs.

She frowned as the realization hit her. It was only a dream...a DAMN dream.