He kissed her nose with a deviant smile. "Don't ask questions, you nosey brat!" His lips came down to cover hers before she could think of any smart remarks and he pushed at her lips until they opened wider so that he could have better access.

Kelsie felt the soft graze of the pesky curls that were always in his eyes brush against her forehead and her eyes closed on instinct, just reveling in the warmth that she felt whenever he kissed her. Her lips moved in synchronicity with him, keeping up at his pace and one of her arms raised above her head to rest on his shoulder, pulling him closer. She began to fade away into a dream world, one which was controlled soley by Justin and the power he had over her. She was drowning in the scent of his cologne, savoring each and every second of the feel of his body pressed up against her, and the sweetness of his lips was strong enough to make her toes curl.

Sensing the way her body was reacting to just a sweet little kiss, he decided to take it up a notch to see what she would do. His tongue gently touched the tip of her inside lip and then he ran it along the inside of her mouth, tickled the wall of it and ran it back to her lip. For a better effect, he ran his hands up her thighs, which as expected, sent a wave of tingles down her spine.

Kelsie's eyebrows raised at the spine-tingling sensation that hit her body and she felt her knees turn to jelly. If she hadn't been lying down, she would have hit the floor in less than a second.

Her eyes popped open when she felt him break away from her and prop himself up with his hands, looking down at her with a grin. She was staring up at him in frustration, angry that he had ended the kiss so abruptly. He chuckled at her expression. "You liked that, didn't you?"

Her arm fell back behind her head again, feeling the soft feather pillow brush against her fingers. She only continued to stare at Justin with a lustful look glazing her eyes over.

He kissed her forehead and brushed a piece of hair off of her shoulder, not missing at all the way she looked at him like she wanted to devour him. In fact, he ate it up. "I thought you would. Chloe used to make me do that everynight...she loved it. Every time I did it, she would sh--"

Kelsie's hand had latched onto the pillow that was laying behind her and pulled it up to slam into his face. He was too stunned to say or do anything and his arms buckled, causing him to drop down on the bed from the shock of it right after she managed to roll out from under him. She crossed her eyebrows and slammed the pillow once more on his back. "You totally just ruined the mood."

He shielded his head from her blows and rolled over to jump off the bed to face her. "What?!"

She whacked his stomach with the pillow and gave him a nasty look. "Don't give me that! You know what I'm talking about! You ruined the mood!"

He grabbed his own pillow to hide himself behind. "How?!"

Her mouth dropped and she gave him a hard push and he fell backwards onto the mattress. She yanked up the pillow above her head and started pelting him with continuous blows. "HOW? By mentioning HER, you idiot!! You don't talk about EX-GIRLFRIENDS, Justin. If that's not the most OBVIOUS LAW in the world of dating, then I don't know what is!!"

He winced and scampered off the bed before she could continue her hitting. "I'm sorry, Kelsie, it just slipped out! I didn't mean it, I swear...you know I can't stand her anymore!"

She glared at him in question.

"I swear! She's got nothing on you...and I mean that. NOTHING. I'm so sorry...it was an accident."

She stared at him curiously for a while but finally let a smile seep through the anger. She walked over, pretending that she was going to give him a hug, but only slammed him again with the pillow.

His eyes popped open. "What was THAT for? I told you I was sorry!"

She smirked and hit him again. "I know."

"Why do you keep hitting me!?"

She shrugged. "It's fun. Now stop your whining!"

He picked up his own pillow again and started hitting her. "Ohh, so if that's how you want to play!"

Kelsie ran around the bed so that they were separated by it and waited for him to attack. He jumped up on the bouncy mattress and stared down at her with a raised eyebrow. He held out his arms and waved her in like he was Mr. Tough Guy. "Come on, baby...BRING IT."

She jumped up on the bed with him and took a giant swing at him but he ducked and came right back at her, hitting her over the head with the soft pillow. She shrieked in laughter as they both started whacking each other so hard that feathers started to fly out all around them, circling around in the air.

The fact that they were ruining hotel pillows didn't stop them even in the slightest bit.

Both of them were laughing so hard they found it hard to catch their breaths, but they only continued to hit each other. Having a pillow fight was something that brought them both back to their childhoods when they remembered having the slumber parties with all their friends, staying up all night fighting with the nice feather pillows and then getting in trouble the next day for the mess of feathers on the floor. They were both true kids at heart and that is what made them get along so well. It's one of those things that just make people click. For Justin, Kelsie was someone that kept his feet on the ground and his head on his shoulders and for Kelsie, Justin was someone that gave her something to look forward to each day. He never failed to make her smile.

Soon, they were both reduced to pillow cases full of air. The laughter that echoed throughout the room combined with the squeaking that was heard from the jumping on the bed was most likely loud enough for the entire floor of the hotel to hear. Kelsie tried to catch her breath as Justin swung at her with a limp pillow case, but the giggles that had accumulated in her stomach were too great for her to handle and she fell back onto the bed, tears in her eyes. Justin fell back with her, holding his stomach and wiping the tears from his eyes.

"I haven't done that since I was, like, eleven!", he breathed out in fragments.

She nodded her head in agreement and picked up a handful of feathers under her, throwing them up in the air. "It looks like snow almost...", she said as the little white feathers flew all around them. He picked up a few handfuls and tossed them up with the rest that floated in the air. Watching as they swirled around in the air, kind of encircling them in a little bubble, his laughter died down and he turned his head to look at her.

She was staring up at the floating mass of feathers, a content smile on her lips, her hair wild all around her. She looked dangerously beautiful and it was then did he realize how incredibly lucky he was to have her. Justin reached a hand out to touch her cheek so she would look at him. Expectantly, she did and he pulled her cheek towards him while at the same time he picked up his own head and leaned over to kiss her.

The contact was nothing like what it had been before the pillow fight. It was better. It was soft, and unlike the others which had been filled with lust and desparation, it was instead gentle, loving, and grateful. It was perfect.

He slowly pulled back far enough that they could see each other and in a whisper, only one word was needed to express what he was feeling. "Thanks."

She smiled. "For what?"

He ran a finger down her nose and tapped the end of it. "Didn't I tell you to stop asking questions?" He smiled and got up to stuff the video tape in the VCR. "Ready to watch The Little Mermaid , Ariel?"

_________________________________________________________________________________

(July 1st - Cleveland, OH)

Kelsie was sitting around, thumbing through a magazine while Joey, Chris and Lance sat around next to her in the backroom of the bus playing N64 on the big system set up on the television set. They were coming back from a photoshoot that they had somehow managed to slip into their schedule and were now waiting for JC and Kat to get their butts on the bus so they could leave and head to the arena. JC had "just so suddenly" had to stay behind to take some personal shots and Kelsie had made Kat stay off the bus with him...not that she minded.

Now, they were only waiting for Justin. Who knows where the hell he was...

Kelsie flipped through the mag, occaisonly glancing up to see who was winning the video game, trying to find an article that caught her interest. As the pages flew by, a familiar face made her eyes widen and her skin crawl. She picked up the zine and stared at the Maybelline ad in anger. That face... that deceiving, manipulating, painfully perfect FACE. It stared up at her, the eyes dancing with deviance, the lips smirking in that stupid wear-free lipstick looking like she just won the most important battle of her life.

Kelsie shuddered loudly, causing the guys to look up at her with curious glances.

"You ok?", Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

She threw the magazine down and shook her head. "Yeah, just saw an excruciatingly UGLY person."

Lance resumed his game and nodded with a chuckle. "How nice..."

Before Kelsie could respond, the door suddenly burst open and Justin barged in wearing a huge grin. "HELLO everyone!" He leaned over and kissed Kelsie on the head.

Without looking away from the screen, Lance spoke with an amused voice. "You're missing a great game...Joey's actually losing."

Justin ignored him. "MEANWHILE, I bring more important news!!"

Kelsie found his tone of voice very amusing so she raised an eyebrow with an evil smirk. "What? Are you pregnant?", she laughed.

Justin turned to give her a look. "Very funny.", he shook his head. "Since I'm the one that took care of JC and Kat being off this bus and all..."

"Oh... yeah, man Ju, that must have taken a lot of strength since they hate being away from each other and all."

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up. Do you not want to discuss this party while they are AWAY from us or something?"

Kelsie smiled as he set into his business mode. This party was something that the two of them had thought of a few weeks ago and it was turning into a huge deal. It was gonna BE huge. "Guys, turn off the game and come listen to Justin give big speech about how we have to all pitch in to make this work."

Justin gave her another dirty look but she only grinned at him sweetly. The guys did as they were told and they turned around to face Justin.

He nodded. "Thank you." He cleared his throat and glared at Chris when he snickered. "ANYway, as we all know, JC and Katherine have the same birthday... August eighth. Now, what we have decided so far is basically that we will be holding a huge surprise birthday bash for the both of them. I was thinking we should do it at the end of July so it's not too far away but not too close to their birthday. Any ideas to where we could have it?"

Lance scratched his chin. "Well, I think we'll be on the east coast for the bulk of the end of July. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York..."

Kelsie leaned back against the cushion. "Aren't you doing four shows in the Garden? Let's have it while we're there...."

Joey nodded. "Yeah, because we have the Charity basketball game right after that. A lot of our friends will be in New York for that so it would be the perfect time..."

Justin licked his lips. "Good point. So the tentative date for now is roughly between the twenty-fifth to the twenty-ninth?"

Kelsie clapped her hands. "Guys, this is exciting! I want this to be HUGE for Kat... she's always wanted a surprise party..."

Chris laughed and pointed at Justin. "Oh, don't worry it will be huge. When he gets that look in his eyes, he means business."

Justin rolled his eyes and ignored him. "Should this be a private thing or a really big bash?"

"Private"

"Huge."

"Huge"

"Private"

All four voices were heard at the exact same time and the words came out in more of a jumble than anything that sounded articulate. Justin squinted as the group erupted into a fit of giggles. "Riight. Maybe next time you could make that a little bit more clear...because right now it looks like we're having a huge private hubbub thing..."

"What's this I hear about a huge private thing??", a voice was heard as the door came flying open just barely missing Justin's back. JC stood grinning in the doorway, Kat peeking over his shoulder.

Kelsie jumped up and shook her head slightly. "Oh... it's, we were just saying how... um, we were talking about the HBO special..."

"Yeah...it's gonna be huge...", Chris chirped with a big smile.

JC raised an eyebrow. "Ohhh, okay. Well, I'm gonna watch some TV is that okay?"

Justin grabbed Kelsie's hand and pulled her out the door, but she stopped long enough to grab her fallen magazine which had ideas for the party stuffed inside the pages. "That's fine, have fun, bye!"

Within seconds, the door had slammed unexpectantly behind them and they made their way to the front of the bus. "That was kinda close...", he mumbled.

She stretched out on the couch and put the magazine up to her face, burying herself behind it. "Yeah, I guess so...", she paused for a few minutes, reading through an article.

He made himself comfortable on the end of the couch by her feet, studying the paper sitting on his lap. He glanced up when he saw her watching him. "What?"

"Let me give you a quiz..."

He peeked at the cover of her magazine. "A quiz from YM? It's gonna be all gi--"

"Shut up and listen.", she ordered and smiled when he immediately shut up. "Okay...", she licked her lips. "Somehow you get paired up with the only hot guy in your chemistry class. During your lab assignment, you: a) get serious about science and restrict the conversation to Bunsen burners b)offer to help him put on his safety goggles or c) announce that its no coincedence that the two of you met in 'chemistry' class -- it must be fate!"

Justin put a finger to his mouth and thought intently. His voice was high-pitched and nasaly when he spoke, like Richard Simmons. "Well, I'd have to say...", he sucked on his lip. "I'd have to go with B, Kelsie." He shrugged. "But if he was really that hot, I might add in a little more than just helping with the goggles!", he laughed like a girl. "I'm just a little devil of a flirt!!"

Kelsie cracked up at the way he spoke and pushed on his shoulder with her foot. "You're a loser."

He chuckled and grabbed the magazine, the pages breezing by. "What kind of crap is in here anyway?"

He looked down at the page that had opened in front of him and a shiver went down his spine. He stared at the advertisement for a long time, until Kelsie had to wave her hands in front of his face. Only then did he shake himself out of it and look up at his girlfriend. "She's getting kind of popular, isn't she?"

Kelsie groaned. "Unfortunately."

"I've seen her in a lot of magazines lately..."

Kelsie hmphed. "Did she do Playboy yet?", she growled in spite.

Justin glared at her. "Hey now...", he frowned. "Be nice."

Kelsie stood up and looked at him strange. "There you go again..."

"What?!"

She spoke as calmly as she could, though she was obviously a little pissed off. "Justin, you are defending her."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

She put her hands on her hips. "You ARE. In the past month, I've heard COUNTLESS mentions of her. Justin, for Christ's sake, when you are kissing me I feel like I'm being compared to her. It's always 'she liked when I did this...did you like it as much as she did?'. I mean, I don't want to feel like the second hand man anymore!", she shook her head. "God...I thought you were long over her...but that's what I get when I have to compare with a big model..."

He put the magazine down next to him and stood up, looking down at her. He put one of his hands on her shoulder and his finger picked her chin up to make her look at him. She avoided his eyes for a minute until his soft voice echoed in her head. "Look at me."

Reluctantly, she raised her eyes to his incredible pools of blue. Those same compassionate eyes that searched for her and her only.

"Oh, Kelsie. If you knew how over her I was... I don't think I can stress enough the extent to the difference of how strong my feelings are for you compared with her... Every single day I take at least a few minutes to thank God for letting you walk into my life. Not just for showering me with a love that I never knew even existed, but for being the one to open my eyes to the kind of manipulation I was dealing with. It's very true that I was crazy in love with Chl...with her...so in love that I would never have even guessed that she would be doing something like that behind my back. If I hadn't met you, I never would have known. Furthermore, if I hadn't met you, I never would have known what real love feels like. I thank God for that....I thank Him for sending someone that would help me find myself as a person, someone that would teach me so much more than I ever could have bargained for. I'm sorry that I'm making you feel like you're being compared to her, because in all honesty, there's NO comparison to the two of you. You will NEVER be the second hand man. NEVER."

He kissed her softly on the forehead and wrapped his arms around her in a hug, hoping that she would do the same. It took a minute but soon he felt her arms wrap around his waist and squeeze him. He felt her head snuggle up against his chest, so he rested his chin on top of her head and rocked her back and forth, a smile coming to his lips. This must be what heaven was like.

Kelsie's eyes closed against his body, content in his arms, listening to his heart beat. Man, she hated when he gave those little speeches about his feelings. They never failed to make her crack. She rocked with him and felt his strong muscles under his shirt flexing when he tightened his arms around her. She breathed in his familiar scent with a sigh. She wondered if this was what heaven felt like...

A few minutes passed by, and finally Kelsie broke away from him and looked up at his face when she thought of something. "Hey, are we going to Maryland any time soon?"

He puffed out his lips in thought. "Umm, I don't know... hold on." He jogged back to the room, pounded on the door, and yelled in. "LANCE? ARE WE GOING TO MARYLAND?"

He got a mumble as a response, but he knew Lance well enough to know what he said. When he got back to Kelsie, she was sitting on the edge of the couch. "We're not going to Maryland...the closest to it is D.C. That's the ninth.", he lowered his eyebrows. "Why?"

She smiled slightly. "Have you ever gone crabbing before?"

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Crabbing? You mean for crabs?"

She gave him a look. "No, we're going CRABbing for FISH."

He snickered. "Ha... No, I never have. Never even heard of it..."

Kelsie's eyes popped out and she gaped at him in shock. "Ohh BOY! It's a damn good thing you met me then!"

He smirked. "I just got done telling you that!", he chuckled. "Can you teach me?"

"By the time I get done with you, you'll be a friggin' certified EXPERT!"

__________________________________________________________________________________

(July 9th, day before Washington, D.C. show)

Kelsie pulled the car into a parking space in the lot of a small bait and tackle shop right on the gorgeous Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The smell of salt water hit her nostrils and immediately brought her right back to her childhood summers here. It was nice and early in the morning, about six thirty, and the bay was already buzzing with activity. She opened her car door and glanced over at Justin, who was slumped in the seat and chuckled with a shake of her head. It was a miracle as to how she had gotten him up at five o'clock. "Ju, do you want to come or are you going to sit here and wait for me to get bait?"

He glanced up at her with a blank expression on his face.

"I'm only going to get some fish and we're going to go to a small, private place I know of so we don't get mauled by fans and photographers...", she smiled. "I'll be right back."

He watched as the door slammed behind her and she jogged over to the little shop and then he leaned his head back against the seat to wait for her to come back. They had arrived in Washington, D.C. about two days ago and as promised, Kelsie had driven him up to Maryland for a day of crabbing. She had mentioned that she had family up here and that she always used to come here during the summer, but that's really all that she had said. He closed his eyes and listened to the music coming out of the radio.

When the song was over, he heard the door open and saw Kelsie ducking her head in throwing a few white lines, a net, a bucket and a big brown paper bag that was drenched with the gross fishy smell in the back seat on the floor. Then she jumped in the drivers' seat and they were on their way to a new adventure for Justin.

When they were about half-way there, Justin finally looked up at Kelsie, who was smiling and humming along with the radio happily. "I never understood how you could ever be so ... ALIVE in the morning."

Kelsie grinned and glanced at him. "Oh my God, it speaks!", she chuckled. "I love the mornings. They're so beautiful and you can get so much done in the morning. I get up by seven thirty at the latest every day."

Justin gave her a strange look and shook his head. "Crazy."

She rolled her eyes.

A while later, Kelsie pulled into the driveway of a huge house. She shut off the ignition and got the things out of the back, bringing them around the side of the house, Justin following after her.

"Kels? Where are we?"

She turned around to look at him. "This is my aunt's house. My cousins grew up here and I was really close to them so every summer I usually came down here to stay with them. We went crabbing every single day...up until last summer we still did it. It's like a ritual...if we don't do it, summer's not complete. Anyway, they're away so I have the place to myself. The house is right on the Bay so we'll go right here...there's a dock out back. Come on."

He nodded and followed her back to the long dock that protruded out into the water and watched as she set down the bag, the lines and bucket, the net and herself. He sat down next to her and watched what she started doing.

"Okay, unravel the line so you can stick the point in the bait.", she pulled out a chopped up fish head and held it up to him.

His eyes literally popped out of his head and he jumped back. "Ew, gross, Kelsie! You're not seriously touching that!!"

"Oh, quit being a baby.", she grabbed his line and held it up for him to see. "Look, I'll do the first one for you." She stuck the tip of it through the bait and hooked the silver part in the clip, then did the same for her line. "Now, this is what you do. You're gonna toss the bait in the water and hold on tight to your line. All you gotta do after that is wait. Crabbing takes a lot of patience. If one jumps on the fish and starts nibbling at it, you'll feel a tugging on your line. Then, you pull it up and you've got a crab! Get me?"

He nodded. "I think so.", he shuddered when his eyes landed on the dead fish. "I still think that this is GROSS."

Kelsie laughed. "I'm going to go out and spread rumors that Justin Timberlake is scared of an itty bitty fish head. I can see the headlines now: Mr. Tough-- Justin Timberlake Freaks Out Over a Dead Fish.", she started cracking up until he pushed her shoulder playfully.

"Funny."

"I know, wasn't it?"

Justin shook his head with a roll of his eyes and tossed his fish in the water. "So now what? Just wait?"

Kelsie nodded. "Yep, just wait."

Silence encaptured the two of them while they sat on the dock watching the white lines flounder in the water. Nothing was heard except for the chirping of the birds, rippling of the water, and the steady breathing of the lovers. The newly risen sun beat down on the figures that dangled their feet over the side of the wood, providing them with a comfortable warmth.

Kelsie turned her head slightly so she could just see the dark silhouette of Justin's beautiful face against the sun. He was staring out at the water, his shoulders slumped in comfort and his feet rocking back and forth over the water, just barely missing it with his shoes, and his fingers gently played with the string he held. His body was not even half of a centimeter away from hers and she found warmth from his presence. A warmth that was ten times more powerful that what the sun could have ever provided her with. She wondered if she should say something, but finally decided that she cherished this moment too much to break the quiet with needless words.

Sometimes silence was the absolute best way to have a conversation with someone.

And it remained that way for another two or three minutes until Justin's head shot up and his voice burst out full of excitement. "Hey! I feel tugging!!"

Kelsie smiled. "Bring it up..."

He picked up the tip of the string and yanked it up, not realizing that he should have done it with more patience.

Kelsie jumped when water splashed up and hit her on the arm and she grabbed his forearm. "Ahh! No! No no no no! SLOW, Justin. Do it EXTREMELY SLOW! Now put it back in the water..."

He groaned and threw the nibbled-at fish head back into the opaque bay water. He watched her as she pulled up her string carefully, grabbed the net and captured a nice sized crab from behind, placing it in the bucket that was filled with bay water. She did it with such ease.

"Man, you do that so easy I don--", he stopped when he felt the line tugging again. "I think another one is on again..."

"Okay, well pull it slowly..."

Justin started taking the string up, doing the best he could to do it slowly. Kelsie shook her head and put her hands over his to guide him. "You're still too fast...he'll jump off. Like this..." She helped him pull up the string slowly, and finally let him alone with it while she turned around to reach for the net.

Justin's excited voice echoed in Kelsie's head, making her happy that she could teach him something new.

"Wow! Look, I see him!!"

Kelsie giggled with a smile. "Okay, now this is the tricky part. You've gotta put the net behind his back flippers so if he tries to jump off, he'll walk right into the net. Watch closely."

While she was talking, he had all of his attention on her and he didn't realize that he had been unconciously lifting the bait out of the water.

Kelsie made a face. "Ohh, Justin. You HAVE to keep your bait in the water!", she laughed. "Drop it back in."

Justin quickly looked back down to the end of the line and gasped in frustration. "Where'd he GO?"

Kelsie captured another crab off of her own line and looked back at him as she put it in the bucket. "He jumped off because he was taken out of water. It's okay, you'll get another one.", she said comfortingly with a smile.

He sighed and let his eaten fish drop back into the water.

It took him another two tries before he finally got the slow pace down and it took even longer for him to get the crab in the net, but after multiple tries and a whole new piece of bait, he had caught five decent sized crabs.

By then, it was mid-afternoon and the quantity of the hungry crabs had dwindled so they decided to pack it up. Plus, they were getting sunburned.

"I have a key to the house. My aunt said I can use it whenever I need it so I was thinking we could cook up the crabs we have now and have an early dinner then head back to D.C.", she said as she wrapped the lines around the metal clips on the end.

He nodded and stared into the bucket where they had seven crabs swimming around. They had thrown back a few that were females, since as Justin had learned, you don't keep the female crabs. It's an unwritten law of crabbing. "We did good. Thanks for teaching me this, it was awesome."

"You're welcome." She grabbed the net and paper bag that still contained a few left over pieces of bait. "Could you grab the bucket? Just be careful that you don't dangle your fingers over them... they can jump."

He picked up the bucket with one hand and put his other arm around her as they walked back to the house. "Hey Kels... you said earlier that you do this every summer. You're not doing it this year are you?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I'm on tour with you guys this year so it kinda leaves me with no time.", she shrugged. "But hey, summer is complete now because I went with you. And there was an added bonus this time because I was able to teach you something.", she paused. "If we go next year, maybe you could come with us..."

He smiled and leaned over to kiss the side of her head. "That'd be great. Then I could show off my mad crabbing skills!" He chuckled as they made their way into the house, ready for a nice meal and some aloe rub downs to soothe the sunburn.

_________________________________________________________________________________

(July 14th, Cincinnati, OH.)

Justin adjusted his shades and hat over his hair and kept his head down as he ducked into the local 7-11 for a quick drink and scan at the magazine section. Lonnie followed him in against his wishes but he figured it was for the best.

But if a huge security guard following you around wasn't the same as a huge blinking neon sign that screamed "NSYNC is here" then his name wasn't Justin. End of story.

He grabbed a tall bottle of water out of the cooler and slinked over to the magazine rack. His eyes passed over the set quickly until they stopped cold at the latest issue of MAXIM. He stared at it for a few minutes, his fingers aching to pick it up.

There she was, sitting out for everyone to see plain as day... HIS beautiful ex-girlfriend straddling a chair with her legs spread apart, resting her elbows on her knees and staring up at the readers with a teasing look in her eyes. Her hair was tousled, her tongue licking her upper lip, and her cleavage the dead center of the entire cover. She hadn't done Playboy, as Kelsie had said, but this wasn't too far from it.

Speaking of Kelsie, she would scalp and burn him alive if she ever knew he bought this, and he knew he shouldn't, but the curiousity of what just might be inside was killing him. And he never was one that could fight temptation very well...

Justin climbed the steps on the bus, that had taken a quick rest stop to re-fuel, holding the plastic bag close to his body. Lonnie watched him from behind with a curious look on his face. "What'd ya buy there, JuJu?"

"Water.", he said quickly and disappeared into the backroom, quiet not to wake Kelsie who was sleeping in his bunk.

He flipped open the magazine when he was propped up comfortably on the cushions in the isolated backroom. He felt a jolt as the bus began on it's trip again, en route to Ohio, but ignored it. In the past few weeks alone, he had seen Chloe on countless amounts of magazines and even on a few TV commercials. This, however, was the first big name magazine that he had seen she made the cover of. He thumbed open to the interview with her and began reading.

They talked with her about the usual stuff. How she got her start with modeling and her answer, which came as a surprise to Justin because he knew it was a lie, was something along the lines of that she had been doing it since she was twelve years old. She had only started it when she was seventeen.

He skimmed down to the bottom where the word "boyfriend" caught his eye.

MAXIM: Do you have a boyfriend right now?

Chloe Andrews: Not anymore.

MAXIM: There are rumors that you have been linked with Justin Timberlake of *NSYNC.

Chloe Andrews: Yeah, that's true. He just broke up with me. I was so in love with him but I was so blind to the manipulation that he surrounded me with. He treated me SO bad but I was too whipped to realize what he was doing. He left me for his choreographer...whom he TOLD me had more spotlight than I ever would and he needed to get himself out in the media or something cold like that. Do you know that for my birthday last year he gave me a diamond necklace? I was so excited....until I found out that it was a FAKE.

MAXIM: Wow...seems you have some hard feelings towards him...

Chloe Andrews: Ohh yeah. All his fans out there...they all think he's such a sweet guy. He's a using backstabber! So girls, think again before dreaming of being with him... he's SO not worth it. And if he's reading this, I hope you're happy that you've ruined my life...we could have had something so special Justin, but you had to be a prick and ruin it all. Just wait until your precious Kelsie finds out you're dating her all for a publicity stint and leaves you in the dust like you did to me...You'll be sorry.

By the time Justin had gotten down to that last line, he was seeing nothing but a blinding red. His entire head, he felt, was about to burst and explode off of his shoulders. He flung the magazine as hard as he could across the room and ripped open the door violently, slamming it behind him.

There was absolutely NO word to describe the kind of anger that he was feeling right about now. He was SEETHING with it and the worst part about it was that he was on a moving bus and couldn't go anywhere.

He was TRAPPED, blinded by a boiling hatred for that girl, his temper higher than it ever had been before in his life. The world had better watch out.