"Weird."

She shrugged and jumped off the edge of the bunk, running her hands through the tangles in her hair, not thinking too much else about it. She supposed it was just that the wind had blown through an open window somewhere on the bus, which had caused the door to slam.

Meanwhile, the red-faced Justin had charged to the very front of the bus, needing to get off to cool himself down. He grabbed the back of his driver's seat and stared at him through the mirror. "STOP the bus." His voice was laced with violent animosity, like he was about to break someone in half.

"Justin, we just stopped a minute a--"

"STOP THE DAMN BUS RIGHT NOW!"

The drivers' frightened eyes looked up at Justin through the mirror quickly. "We're on the middle of the freeway, man, I can't stop right now."

Justin sucked air in through his teeth. "UNLESS...you want a broken BUS, man, I would advise finding SOMEWHERE to pull over because I am REALLY, REALLY not in the mood to argue. I NEED, do you hear that, NEED to get off of this bus."

At Justin's wrathful tone of voice, JC and Lance poked their heads around the corner to see what was going on before they actually decided if it was safe enough to approach him. JC was the first one to walk up behind him and touch his shoulder. "J? What're you screami--"

Justin jerked away from JC and turned around to glare at him. "Get me off this FREAKING bus!" He stormed into the minute bathroom and started banging the wall with his fist to try to release some energy. You could hear the angry yells of "bitch, bitch, bitch..." echo over and over through the walls.

JC and Lance looked at each other, each wondering the same thing. Was he talking about Kelsie? Almost at the exact same time, they shook their heads and said, "Naaah!"

The other guys joined them a few seconds later, wondering why the bathroom sounded like there were two bears wrestling inside of it.

The entire bus finally came to a halt a little later, and just as Kelsie made a little entrance where all the commotion was, the door to the bathroom flew open, just barely grazing Kelsie on the shoulder and Justin headed straight for the door of the bus, ignoring Kelsie, ignoring the guys, ignoring the driver, and not even caring that they were basically parked in the middle of a hugely populated pit stop where his antics were available for everyone's viewing pleasures.

Kelsie was shocked. She looked at the guys. "What's his problem?"

Chris chuckled. "We think he's PMSing."

Kelsie didn't laugh. Instead, she completely ignored Chris' attempted joke and jogged off the bus following the sound of the kicking of aluminum that she knew was Justin pounding his foot against the side of the bus. She glared at him with her hands on her hips. "What the hell is your problem, Justin?"

His eyes turned on her and her breath caught in her throat. She had never seen this look out of him before and in all honesty, it scared the crap out of her. The eyes that were normally a gorgeous, compassionate deep blue were now as black as a never-ending pit of death. They were glazed over in spite and his breathing was labored. She swallowed nervously and slowly made her way towards him, cautiously touching his chest. "Justin? What's wr--"

He pushed away from her and tightened his jaw. Couldn't she just understand that he didn't want to see anyone? That he didn't want to talk to anybody?

She was taken aback. "Justin!"

"Go away."

There goes the first bullet. "Excuse me?"

He swirled around on his heels and gave her a nasty look. "You heard me. Go AWAY. Leave me ALONE. I don't want to talk to you right now."

There went two, three, and four. It took a minute before she could find words. "I...what?", she started to get ticked off. "What the hell did I do to you?"

He towered over her and glared down. "JUST GO! WHAT PART OF GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?"

That was the last straw. Kelsie's eyebrows lowered in a violent glare. She pushed his shoulder angrily and fought not the urge to spit on him. "Don't EVER talk to me like that again!"

On her way in, she heard him mumble something that sounded a lot like "you're not good for anything anyway...", but she was too angry to pay attention.

She stormed back on the bus and punched the wall on her way back in fury. How dare he talk to her like that? What had she even done to him? She had been sleeping and minding her own business and suddenly he is screaming at her like she had killed his brother or something. He had better not expect her to say anything to him until he apologized.

She pushed her way past the guys, who all gave her questioning stares and made her way back into the again deserted room. It was just her and a turned over magazine on the floor.

She looked away from the magazine and plopped down on the couch in frustration. She blew out a long breath of air and closed her eyes. Immediately, Justin's face appeared in her mind. She hated fighting with him. Absolutely hated it. She didn't know what was bothering him, but maybe she had been too hard on him before. Maybe it had been all the little things that she had said or done subtly that had ticked him off and now he was just letting it all out. Like, maybe how she always got upset with him when he mentioned Chloe. Perhaps she was being a little irrational. It's only natural to mention ex's once in awhile, right? She thought maybe she should apologize. But for what? She didn't know what she had done so how could she apologize for anything?

She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. She needed to relax. Her eyes rested on the fallen magazine again. She didn't remember leaving it in here, but she guessed she had. She leaned over to grab it and yawned as she flipped it over to the cover.

If it's possible, she just about choked on her own breath and all thoughts of apologizing to Justin disappeared from her mind within miliseconds.

She was greeted by the sight of a skimpy bikini top with the cleavage hanging out for all of America to see, hot pants that were so short, she couldn't tell if they were underwear or shorts, and skin that was doused with baby-oil.

She thought back to when she had made the comment about Playboy and remembered Justin's response. "Hey now...be nice..." She let out a cackle. "Of courrrse."

Her gaze rested on the photo again and at once, when the realization hit, the anger began to take effect. It started in the lower portion of her stomach and she could feel it as it rose and rose and rose until it was about to burst through her skin. Why...WHY was their an issue of MAXIM magazine with Chloe freaking Andrews plastered on the cover in Justin Timberlake's bus. How could he have bought this? WHAT could have possessed him to buy this?

She was so mad at Justin right about now she thought that if she never saw him again, she'd be as happy as a little kid who just chased the ice cream man down and got his favorite treat. Furiously, she thumbed open the pages, not caring if she ripped a page or two, until she got to the other picture and question & answer session that was set up. The other picture was just as bad. This time she was laying prone on a velvet couch like a cheap street hooker, looking at the camera lustfully and sucking on a lollipop mercilessly. Kelsie's eyes skimmed through the article, her scowl getting uglier after each lie that she found. She glared as the words passed through her brain and her eyes stopped dead on one sentence...

"Just wait until your precious Kelsie finds out you're dating her all for a publicity stint....."

She stared at it for a long time, her scowl fading after awhile, trying to push aside the nagging feeling that maybe it was true. She thought back to only a few minutes ago when he had screamed at her...for nothing. She hadn't donee anything to him, yet he had flipped out on her. She remembered as she stomped back on the bus, the mumble that she thought had come out of his lips. The "you're not good for anything anyway" one. She added that in with this newfound quote from his ex, and also looked back to all the little references to Chloe's popularity. When he spoke it, it almost sounded like he was shocked that she had gotten so far...like she had said in the interview...

"...whom he told me had more spotlight than I ever would..."

All of the references, all of the sneaking around, all of the little fights, and now this magazine. It hit her so hard in the face, the magazine slipped from her fingers and crashed to the floor with a bang, and the expression on her face was as blank as a new sheet of paper. Had she been blind this whole time? Had he been USING her? It didn't make that much sense because of what had happened with Chloe, but right now, it seemed logical enough for her to believe it.

Kelsie didn't want to think about it, but it kept circling around in her mind, never ceasing. A tear slipped down her cheek and she put her hands over her face to drown out the muffled cries that escaped her. How could this be happening to her?

_____________________________________________________________________

The vast spread of dark sky stretched out over the world as the hands on the clock ticked on. The stars seemed to shine brighter than usual tonight and it seemed a new one would pop up every other minute. The sky was cluttered with those millions of burning balls of gas and while they looked brilliant up there, the amount of them represented a whole nother emotion...for underneath that same infinite universe was a building. And in that building there were a certain two people. A certain two people, whom at the time, had no idea that a part of them was fading away and dying, providing a logical reason why there seemed to be more stars out than usual. Because for every soul that dies, a new star is born.

Under any other circumstances, the night seemed to run smoothly and with almost perfection, like most of their shows did. The timing was right on everything, they were in key with all of their songs, they kept the crowd on their feet, and they danced with more energy than they ever had before. There were, however, only a few differences.

One, Kelsie was not there. She wasn't there on the side of the stage where she always was, rocking her head with her eyes closed, staring on at the guys with a proud and triumphant grin. She wasn't there with her encouraging thumbs ups, she wasn't there with her angry glares when someone messed up one of her moves, and she wasn't there gazing on at Justin with love in her eyes. The seat was cold and empty, looking as though no one had sat in it for fifty years.

The only other difference was the performance that Justin gave...it was better than any other he had ever done. He pumped up the fans with much enthusiasm, passion oozed from his voice as the words came out of his mouth smoothly, and his body moved like he never knew it could. The anger that raged inside of him was clearly not evident in the least amount of ways. Of course, it was almost a second nature for him to disregard anything and everything that had happened in precedence to the show so that all his concentration, all his focus could be set on putting on a performance that would blow his fans away. His job was to put on an incredible show with nothing but love for being on that stage. His job was to perform without showing any personal emotion. He thought he achieved that to perfection tonight.

The other guys had known well enough to not go near Justin unless they were on stage, since he had put on a completely different personality for the concert. They still didn't know what he was so angry at, for he hadn't said so much of a word to them since he had stormed off that bus. Kelsie hadn't said so much of a word to anyone either the whole day. Not even Kat. She had stayed locked in her hotel room ever since they had gotten off of the bus. They didn't know what was up, and as much as they hoped it wasn't, they figured it was some sort of relationship problem. Kelsie nor Justin had spoken to each other for the entire night, and that, had to be the strangest thing you would ever see out of the two of them. As much as the guys were completely bewildered, they knew to keep to their own business and that one of them would speak up eventually.

So, that's where they were now. Each of them to their own hotel rooms, with the exception of JC and Kat who shared a room, but not a bed; the bodyguards standing in position outside of the doors, and the two most connected people on the whole tour so incredibly distant from each other.

Kelsie lay sprawled on the wrinkled sheets of her bed and stared at the ceiling intently as mascara still stained her cheeks. As soon as the bus had come to a complete stop, she had grabbed her bag and the infamous magazine and darted into the hotel, up to her room before anyone even knew she was gone. And she hadn't come out since. So what if she missed their show? So what if she missed it and she hadn't ever missed one before? So what if she hadn't spoken to anyone since Justin had screamed at her? So what. The television blared out the latest video from Faith Hill, making her even more sad than she was before. Why did she have to keep being reminded of love? Love sucked...and everytime anyone expressed any positivitely towards in on the TV, she would throw something at it, watching as the stand shook from the force of the object. There was never any kind of fairy tale love...what a load of bull. She hated anyone who ever had the perfect guy, she despised any kind of sappy romance tales, and she looked with scorn on anything that had to do with finding that one true soul mate.

"None of it is true, it's all a freaking joke...stupid fairytale romances. There is no such thing as love.", she had spoken bitterly to herself as she had walked in her room.

While she didn't want to have to believe it, it was the only thing that her mind would allow her to think. She couldn't register the fact that Justin, the only person that she had ever actually felt that 'fairytale spark' with, could be using her. She was a choreographer, a famed one, yes, but a choreographer. How would that get him anywhere? If he really wanted the media attention and spotlight that was being presumed, why wasn't he with Britney Spears or someone of that caliber? That would cause a ruckus, if he was with Britney.

Kelsie grabbed her hair. "WHY am I thinking about this? He is YOUR boyfriend, Kelsie Lyn! NOT someone else's, but he is YOURS." She wiped at the tear that slipped down her cheek and pushed the pity for herself out of her mind. She couldn't let him get to her like this. She should be angry at him, not upset about him. She'd just have to talk to him or something...if she could will herself to do it. She thought about giving him the silent treatment, but that wouldn't really get her anywhere.

She groaned and rolled over on her bed. Time would only be able to tell.

Meanwhile, just inside the door one over from Kelsie, Justin paced around his room, trying to let off all the steam that had built up in his system during the concert. He was trying so hard to calm down off of this, but wherever he looked he saw that picture and whatever he tried to think of to get his mind off of it, he saw those lies. He didn't know how to stop them, he didn't know what to do to make them right, he didn't know how he could expose her real self to the public. He was just too angry to think straight.

He hadn't spoken to the guys all day, he hadn't even spoken to Kelsie all day. He noticed that she hadn't been at the show and it irked him to no end. Why hadn't she been there? He hadn't done anything to her that HE could think of to make her pissed off at him and yet she hadn't said anything to him. The only thing he had gotten out of her was death glares. She was weird like that sometimes though. Maybe she was just having those "girl problems" again.

He leaned his forehead against the wall and pounded it twice. This was getting him nowhere. He needed to forget it, he needed to slow down, get some sleep and deal with it another time. He couldn't let Chloe run his life, which is exactly what she wanted to do and right now he was letting her win.

She was winning and he couldn't do anything to stop it. She had known that he would buy that magazine, she had known that he would read the article, and she had known that he would be pissed off to no end. That is what she wanted.

He groaned and pulled off his shirt over his head, throwing it on the floor while he pushed open the door to the bathroom. He would just take a shower and go to sleep. He could deal with this whole thing tomorrow and maybe he would find out what Kelsie's problem was, too.

________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, the monotone buzzing of the alarm clock next to Justin's bed started to beep unmercilessly and a hand came out from under the twisted covers to slam down on the snooze button. The body tossed for a few minutes before rolling over until he fell off the bed. A painful moan escaped his lips as he rubbed his head and finally opened his eyes to stare up at the ceiling. He hated mornings.

It took a minute but he finally pulled himself up, rubbed his eyes, and trudged over to the bathroom. He could just sleep on the bus. With his eyes closed, he slowly yanked on a pair of jeans over his boxers, a clean orange tee shirt and grabbed a bandanna for his fro. He yawned while thinking that he had to get those cornrows back in.

Just a normal old day is what he was getting ready for, completely forgetting about the whole mess that occured yesterday. He had beaten her, through sleep, and that is what HE wanted. A knock on his door from Lonnie told him to hurry it up so he grabbed his bags and headed out the door.

"Are you talking yet?", his kind-hearted bodyguard asked him as they walked quickly towards the buses.

Justin raised an eyebrow at him with a strange look on his face. "When do I not talk?"

Lonnie stared at him, ready for Justin to start laughing because it was a joke, but Justin only continued to walk. "Um. Ha ha, funny."

Justin gave him a look and shook his head. "Okay, man."

Lonnie scratched his chin and boosted the travel bag higher onto his shoulder. "So why are you and Kelsie in a fight? Relationship problems?"

Justin threw his bag down on the floor of the bus once they had boarded and stretched his arms out. "What are you talking about? We're not in a fight...", he looked around the bus. "Where is she anyway? KELSIE?"

Lonnie stared at Justin for a minute but then rolled his eyes. "I'm not even going to ask.", he mumbled.

Justin walked towards the backroom, peeking in the bunks on his way. No one was in them. Where was she? The back was empty too. Up front, he heard footsteps and then he heard the driver page the other bus and the engine revved up. He made his way back to the front and looked around. There was JC, Chris, Joey, and Lance. Kat was even there, next to JC. No Kelsie.

He scratched his head as they looked at him cautiously. "Where's Kelsie?"

The bus pulled out of the parking lot behind the other ones and the guys looked at Justin with questioning looks. "She's...on the other bus."

Kat spoke up after a minute. "She didn't want to be near you. I don't know what's going on between you guys, but she is PISSED OFF."

Justin's eyebrows lowered and he quietly retreated to the back again without so much as a word. He racked his brain for some kind of memory as to what could have happened and it wasn't until he remembered the magazine article did he regain some sort of awareness. But how could she have gotten mad at him when HE was the one who read the magazine? It didn't make sense.

And then bit by bit, piece by piece, it started to come back to him. He had bought the magazine, read the article, gotten extremely extremely wound up from it, and screamed at Kelsie out of his spite for Chloe. He scrunched up his face and rubbed his hands over it. Oh, boy. He then remembered that she wasn't at the concert last night, just like she wasn't on their bus this morning. She was avoiding him.

Chloe had won out again.

______________________________________________________________________

Kelsie slinked as fast as she could through the masses of people that were crowded around in the small dance club. She didn't want to be here at all. She didn't want to be anywhere where Justin Timberlake was. In fact, she was ready to just pack up and leave their tour altogether. It had been only two days since she had last spoken to him and she wasn't ready to even look at him yet. In those two days, she had gotten even more angrier at him and more upset over the situation than she ever thought she would. In those past two days, she had found a picture. A little keepsake picture in a certain person's wallet. And that little picture was her last straw. Why he still had that picture of her in his wallet, she didn't know. Why he didn't have any pictures of herSELF in his wallet, she didn't know either. All she did know was that if she heard one more mention of Chloe Andrews or if she saw one more picture of her in Justin's possession, she was through.

She tried to duck past a small group of people but a hand reached out and grabbed her by the arm. She jerked in his grip but was not as strong as he. She turned and gave him a violent glare. "GET OFF OF ME."

Justin smiled a tad. At least she said something to him. He pulled her closer to him and tried to put his arms around her in a hug. She wasn't having it. She punched at his stomach until he let go of her and then she took off towards the door.

It had been two days and he had had enough. Rumors were beginning to spread around the Internet, around the news, around the world about him and Kelsie. Bad rumors. He couldn't go through them alone and he couldn't fight them off without Kelsie beside him. He needed her and right now, she was back to hating him. He ran after her at full speed, only concentrating on one thing and that was catching her so he could force her to talk to him. He saw her round the corner just in front of the door and he caught up to her right before she disappeared. He reached out and grabbed her arm again.

She jerked and jerked some more but he wouldn't let go this time. He couldn't let her go... "KELSIE, STOP IT.", he yanked her over to him and held her down. "LISTEN TO ME."

Her jaw was clenched and her eyes were closed. This wasn't going to be easy. He lowered his voice, not wanting to lose control of his temper and have an all out screaming fest. "Kelsie! I need you to talk to me, baby, please."

Her eyes opened just enough so that all he could see was tiny black slits. "Don't call me baby. I am NOT your baby."

"Kelsie, you're making this out to be a much bigger deal than it is!"

She jerked again. "Ohhh, Justin, you don't even know how big of a deal this is. You don't even KNOW why I'm so mad at you. You have NO idea and you don't even CARE because I'm just another media ploy to you."

"What are you TALKING about?", he lowered his eyebrows. "Kelsie you haven't said so much as a WORD to me since we were in Cincinnati so how am I supposed to know why you are mad at me?"

Kelsie yanked out of his grip and pushed him up against the wall. She poked him in the chest everytime she wanted to accentuate a word with her index finger, hoping she was giving him a good jab. "I'm talking about EVERYTHING that has gone down recently. I'm TALKING ABOUT EVERY LITTLE COMMENT, EVERY LITTLE ROLL OF THE EYES, AND ALL OF THE CLUES THAT I'VE TAKEN NOTICE TO. You can't fool me anymore, Justin. You can try but it won't work."

He looked around at the people that were staring at them and lowered his voice. "Will you keep it down?"

"NO JUSTIN I WON'T KEEP IT DOWN! IF YOU KNEW HOW ANGRY I WAS AT YOU RIGHT N--"

Justin grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her outside as camera flashes went off and he cursed himself for doing this right here and right now. A picture of him pulling her away by the arm would get incredibly blown out of proportion, but he didn't have time to worry about that. He pulled her outside, admist her kicking and screaming, until they were in the back of the club in a little alleyway. He grabbed her chin so she would look at him and he spoke harshly. "Kelsie I don't know what you are talking about. If this is about that stupid magazine...if that is what you are so mad at... you don't know WHAT you are talking about. If you read that article and you BELIEVED it, I wouldn't know what to say to you execpt that I thought you were smarter than that. Christ, Kelsie, how could you believe HER over ME?!", he touched her cheek, gentler this time. "I read that article and I was on the verge of killing someone. I was so mad at that bitch that I was dangerous. That's why I screamed at you. It wasn't PERSONAL."

She glared at him, not really listening to anything he said. "I don't know why I even let myself get involved with this. Actually I do know why...because I was freaking in LOVE with you. I LOVED YOU SO MUCH JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE. SO MUCH."

This time a tear fell down her cheek.

He winced as the past tense of 'love' hit his ears and he tried to put it out of his mind to concentrate on the main situation at hand. But he couldn't deny that it hurt like hell. He reached out to wipe away her tears but she only slapped his hand away and jabbed her finger in his chest again, continuing her sentences.

"But I don't think that is the case anymore. If you think you can treat me like this, like I'm some sort of TOOL for you to get some more damn SPOTLIGHT, you sure as HELL thought wrong. I'm more than that, Justin, I'm SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. And if YOU can't see me for that, then YOU ARE THE ONE THAT IS LOSING OUT."

He opened his mouth to speak but she kept going, her voice getting hoarser at every new word she screamed at him.

"I AM DONE WITH THIS. I AM FINISHED. BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU CAN'T GET OVER THAT STUPID SLUT EVEN AFTER EVERYTHING SHE'S DONE TO YOU. YOU KEEP LETTING HER WIN, JUSTIN."

She was crying now as she pulled away from him one last time. "DON'T think you can do this to me because I've HAD IT. I'M SO MUCH STRONGER THAN THIS AND I WON'T TAKE IT."

His eyes started to fog up because he knew how serious she was. "Kelsie, I love you. I LOVE you. I just need you to know that..."

For a second, he thought she might actually smile at him. But his eyes must have been playing tricks on him because if that was a smile, he didn't even WANT to see a scowl. "That's bullshit, Justin Timberlake. If you loved me, none of this would be happening right now because that OTHER PERSON WHOSE NAME MAKES ME SICK would be completely OUT of the picture!" She spun around abruptly and ran down the street to hail for a taxi cab.

Justin watched her as she disappeared and then slunk down to his feet on the ground, holding his head. Here he was, alone in the dark alley behind this nightclub, on the verge of breaking down again. Yet this time, there was no one to listen to him and to help him. This time he was truly alone. He had lost her...he had let go and now she was gone.

He couldn't hold back the tears anymore because he knew he couldn't make it without her. She was his only strength.

___________________________________________________________________

Papers all over the city had that ugly picture of the fight that had occured the night before of Justin and Kelsie printed in it with the big caption that read "Trouble In Paradise". There was no article, as nothing was known, just that huge picture with that huge caption. That was all that was needed to spread controversy over the globe though. And that is what Justin dreaded the most.

Upon seeing it, his heart sank as low as his feet and his eyes closed on impulse. He was about to go through this war alone and he was as weak as a soldier coming off the battlefield injured. He reached over and grabbed his wallet that was sitting next to him on a table and opened it up. Right in the front next to his drivers license was the most beautiful picture of Kelsie he had ever seen. He had changed wallets recently and this had been the very first thing to go in. Kat had told him earlier this morning that Kelsie had found his old wallet with his picture of Chloe in it which only led her to believe the lies even more. Thinking about it caused his heart to throb in pain so he just continued to stare at this picture until he was sure it was engraved in his heart, mind, and soul...detail for detail.

He leaned over for a piece of paper and pen when he felt a sudden burst of inspiration and as soon as the ball of it touched the blank sheet, the pen began to move swiftly over the paper. It moved like it had never done so before, laying out all his emotions plain as day in a poem that could not have been any more true to his heart if it tried. When he finished, he read it and a tear slipped off his cheek and onto the paper as he glanced once more at the picture of Kelsie.

He knew then that this love he felt for this woman was perfect. It was perfect because they were able to fight, it was perfect because they were able to laugh, and it was perfect because they were able to connect with each other on a level unknown by mankind. She may not have known it at this time because of the anger that still raged inside of her, but he knew it. He knew that there was no such thing as fairytale love, there was no such thing as relationships that are so perfect there are no fights at all, but that the only PERFECT love, the only PERFECT soulmate is the kind of love where both of the people involved are strong enough to have rifts along the way.

Justin knew that if they could get through this, they could conquer the world. He just had to make her see that the way he was seeing it right now. He looked down at his piece of writing again and a small smile came to his lips. This little piece of writing, he knew, would either make or break them. And he knew it in his heart, that NOTHING could break them.

_____________________________________________________________________

The hours of the day droned on and the time came when the guys needed to be at the meet and greet for their concert in Pittsburgh. They were sitting in their dressing room, chilling out before it started to get hectic. Justin had tried all day to talk to Kelsie, but she only ignored him flatly. He had tried so hard to get her to listen to him so he could read her the poem he wrote, but at everything, she wouldn't budge. He had asked Kat to try to talk her into coming to the show tonight and he prayed to his great Lord that she gave in and came. He just had to show her how sincere he was in his love for her. He didn't know how to make her believe him.

He was slouched in his seat, clicking the mouse of the laptop out of boredom. The pointer soared across the screen as his eyes followed the words on the webpage. Everywhere he looked, he saw himself. Everywhere he looked, he saw his girlfriend. And everywhere he looked, he saw his EX-girlfriend. His eyes closed for a second, hoping these rumors weren't as bad as he thought.

"I can't believe he's doing that to her! What a JERK! I met Kelsie back in San Antonio in June and she got me into the *NSYNC concert! She's so nice and she doesn't deserve the way he is treating her! Did you see the picture of him grabbing her? No girl should ever take that abuse! Well, it totally changed my views about Justin."

After each new word slapped him in the face, he felt as though his heart was being stabbed with a butcher knife. These were his FANS talking. His FANS...they HATED him. How could this have gone so far in such a short amount of time?

He scrolled down the page a little more to see other posts on the messageboard.

"I don't know, guys, maybe it's not true. Justin doesn't seem like he would do something like that on purpose. As for the picture, maybe they were just in a fight. All couples have fights. Just because Justin is a celebrity doesn't mean he's any different than any of us. I don't think you should believe any of this until it comes out of HIS mouth. Even if it is true, it shouldn't concern any of us. Let him live his life and make his own decisions."

Finally, a positive one. Well, kind of positive anyway. He clicked to the next one.

"Oh, right, like Justin Timberlake is going to come out to the public and say 'Hey world guess what? You know those rumors you heard about me dating Kelsie Meyers for publicity? I'll tell ya right now that they are all true! Yep, that's right folks, I'm a using bastard!' Get real, guys. If they're true, we'll never know because he's not gonna tell us. If it's true, he'll lie and cover it up. And yeah, maybe they were in a fight in the picture, but that still gives him no excuse to grab her like that. I saw it, she looked upset and he looked pissed off. You can't cover up something like that. Pictures don't lie."

He stared at the keyboard while his fingers rubbed his throbbing head. This was bad. He clicked out of the Internet and shut off the laptop, not being able to take any more of this. He rolled the chair away from the table and looked over at the other guys that were watching him carefully.

JC raised an eyebrow at Justin's greifstricken expression. "Everything okay?"

Justin shook his head slowly. "Nothing's okay. Everything I've ever worked for is ruined, everything I live for is shot to hell." He sighed and started to tell them the entire story since they were still pretty much left in the dark about what was going on, besides to what Kat had told them from Kelsie's side of it.

He told them about buying the magazine because he couldn't fight the temptation, he told them about what was written about him in the article and how Chloe was lying about everything, he told them about how he had screamed at Kelsie outside of the tour bus and why she was so mad at him. He told them about the verbal fight they had had outside of the night club the other night and he told them about the pictures that had been printed. He told them all about the rumors that were spreading so fast, about the posts on the messageboard, and how he had written the poem for Kelsie.

When he finished the whole thing, he felt a little better that he had gotten some of it off his chest and he hoped they would say something encouraging. He looked up to see four shocked faces.

JC scratched his chin. "Why didn't you tell us this before now?"

Justin leaned back in his chair. "I was too angry at Chloe and I was too angry at myself.", he clenched his jaw. "I don't know, I just...I didn't have the strength to. What should I do? Kelsie's not talking to me at ALL."

"Clear it up with the media is the first thing you do.", Lance spoke up.

"And then make up with Kelsie somehow.", Chris piped in.

"Get rid of Chloe for good.", said Joey.

Justin rolled his eyes. "Gee thanks guys."

Before anyone could say anything else, they got the call to report to the meet and greet room. As they stood up, Chris patted his young friend on the back. "Here's a good way to start." He winked and was gone out of the room.

A small smile came to Justin's lips when he realized what he could do to start cleaning up this mess.

__________________________________________________________________

"Kat, since when would you rather go shopping then going to see JC perform?", Kelsie raised an eyebrow as Kat merged onto the highway.

She shrugged. "You need to relax a little and I just thought you would like to go."

Kelsie smiled a little and continued to watch out the window until Kat's voice made her turn to look at her again.

"Hey Kels? I don't like how you and Justin aren't getting along lately."

Kelsie's voice was quiet. "You think I do?", she shook her head. "Kat, there is nothing I can do. He's not worth any of this. I've got to move on."

"You don't know what you're talking about. He loves you, can't you see that? Are you blind to that?"

"He doesn't love me. If he loved me, this wouldn't be happening. All I'm asking for is a little bit but he can't do that."

Kat looked at her in shock. "Kelsie, you're not LETTING him! He's miserable! If you'd let him talk to you, maybe you would get what you're asking for, whatever that is."

The car pulled into a parking lot that was excsessively crowded with cars. Kelsie looked around rapidly and her eyebrows started to lower. This was definitely not the mall. "Katherine. This is NOT funny."

Kat locked the doors, just in case, and smiled. "You wouldn't have come any other way and he really wanted you to be here."

She crossed her arms. "I'm not getting out of this car."

Kat rolled her eyes as she put the car in park. "Yes you damn well are. I didn't do this for nothing and I don't care if I have to drag you in there, but you're going in and you're going to watch the concert, and you're GOING to talk to him."

"I have nothing to say to him."

She pulled Kelsie out of the car and rolled her eyes. "Well, maybe he does. Come on."

After a while, Kelsie was sitting frustrated in the chair on the side of the stage, waiting for the show she'd seen so many times start. And it did.

It started like every other show and it proceeded to go on like every other show. Every once and a while, Justin would look over and smile at her. Her expression didn't change though. She just stared at him, her green eyes the most penetrating thing in that entire stadium. She didn't even flinch when he came out to do his beatboxing, and that was one of her favorite parts of the entire show.

Justin was watching the audience carefully before they sang "I Thought She Knew" and he signaled to the guys to wait a few minutes. He got up and walked to the foot of the stage, smiled at the girls in the front row, and held his hands up to stop the screaming. At once, silence made its presence known.

He glanced at Kelsie once more before clearing his throat. "This is the part of the show where we thank every single one of you for coming out, and that's definitely still coming, but tonight I want to clear something up that has been brought to my attention recently. Before we got out on stage tonight, I was surfing around on some messageboards to see what you guys had made out of some of the rumors that have started to circulate. If for some reason, you haven't heard them by now, basically what they are saying is that I am using the beautiful person that I am lucky enough to call my girlfriend, for a publicity tool.", he looked over at Kelsie who was now leaning on her knees, anxiously waiting for what he was going to say. "There are some of you out there that might think I am lying about this because I wouldn't admit it if it were true, but the only thing I can offer you right now is that it is the most horrible presumtion that anyone could ever have made because I am the LAST person you will meet that would ever USE someone for publicity, especially since that has happened to me a number of times. So all I can tell you to try to clear some of this mess up is that none of it is true and that I love Kelsie more than anything and I always will."

He looked over at her. "More than ANYTHING."

He saw her expression change in the SLIGHTEST way...in her eyes. They started to sparkle. He smiled at her but didn't get anything back. Her eyes were enough for him for now. "Thanks for listening to that, guys. Hope you're enjoying the show so far."

The crowd cheered, screamed, clapped, and was louder than any crowd ever was before which made Justin very happy. The fans would relay what he said to other people who would relay it to even more people and once he made a public statement, everything would hopefully clear up. From that point on, the show went smoothly and perfectly .

Things were looking up.

___________________________________________________________________

Justin was laying on his stomach in his hotel room bed, his heart feeling heavy. Kelsie had left before he could talk to her after the show so he didn't know what her feelings were about what he had said. He had hoped that she would have at least said something, but he had gotten nothing. Would things ever change?

He was so deep in his thoughts he didn't even hear the footsteps coming towards him until a voice made him nearly fall off the bed.

"Don't think just because you said that, I'm going to be all forgiving and run back into your arms."

His eyes shot up to see her standing in front of him with her hands hidden in her sleeves, and her socked feet crossed on top of her toes. He wanted to break down and hug her so bad, he just needed to feel her hold him. He got up and walked towards her until he was facing her straight on. He bit his lip and nodded slightly. He hesitated a little bit, but cautiously wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. He waited for her to put her arms around his waist, but they hung limply at her sides instead.

"Please, Kelsie. I'm not asking for much, but I just need you to hug me. I can't do this by myself anymore, I need YOU. You can ignore me all you want, but I'm still going to keep talking because I won't lose you. Not anymore."

She slowly raised her arms up to wrap around his waist and tightened them around him when he pulled her even closer. It felt so incredibly great to be in his arms again and for him it felt even ten times better. He felt like he could melt right into her and he felt like everything was fixed right now. But even he wasn't that stupid. He knew it would take a lot more than a simple hug.

Just when he thought everything was great again, she pulled away from him and backed up slowly. "I have to go...I...I really have to get some sleep..."

His eyes drooped and he felt his heart hit his stomach again, for the ten millionith time since everything went down. "W..what? Come on, stay and talk to me...we need to talk..."

"N..no, I have to go...I'm sorry, Justin."

He knew he couldn't force her so he nodded. "Okay...", an idea struck him and he raced over to his backpack. "Wait! I want you to read something, so take it and read it before you go to bed."

She waited until he handed her a soft white envelope and smiled slightly before she jogged out of the room as quickly as she could, because the pained expression on Justin's face was too much for her to handle.

He watched her leave and sighed, slinking back on his bed. He prayed that she would read that poem.

When Kelsie got into her room, she sat on the edge of her bed and carefully opened the sealed envelope. She hestitated a minute before she pulled out the paper. She took notice to the small little sections of the paper that were crinkled from water, stained from tears. She closed her eyes and swallowed, praying for the courage to read this, and then opened her eyes and let the words sink into her brain.

"I glance for a moment
embrace the everlasting beauty
that remains a kodak engrained in
my yearning heart
will you speak to me again
for your voice is the one i long for
it's like a symphony to my droned ears
and your eyes pierce like a dagger
and i find myself lost inside of them
i am falling away from myself
falling into you, falling faster
i am falling deeper and deeper in love with you
i can't hold back the tears any longer
every day it grows even stronger
and i can't stop my impulses that are calling
i need you right now more than ever
i hope you are falling into me now"

Kelsie was stunned to no words. She felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she realized that she had been wrong all along.

She had believed the enemy over the man she loved.

_______________________________________________________________________

*poem: "mystery of lost love" written by Abbey