JC squirted some spring water into his craving mouth and wiped off the sweat on his brow. "Yo guys, what time did Kelsie want us to pick her up?"

Lance paused in his drinking and looked over at JC. "I think around ten or so. That gives us enough time to get showers, eat and get ready..."

Justin stood by himself over in the corner, scooping up his sweaty tee shirt and his bag, arguing back and forth in his head why he agreed to go out with them tonight. He didn't really want to go...well, but then again, he kind of did...but he KNEW there was something that he was supposed to be doing tonight...just, what was it? Finally, it hit him why he had been so reluctant in the first place : Chloe. This was her night. He smacked his head and spun around to face his friends. "Guys... I totally forgot."

Chris laughed. "I know, dude, we were wondering why your hair was extra bouncy today. Don't ever forget the gel again, man."

Justin's eyebrows furrowed and he patted his head. "What's wrong with my fro?"

Lance chuckled and mumbled under his breath. "Everything."

Justin rolled his eyes with a laugh. "No, guys, I mean I totally forgot that I can't go out with you and Kelsie tonight... Sorry."

Joey looked at him curiously. "Okay, we get the point that you don't like Kelsie, but seriously man, just TRY to put up with her tonight. What can poss--"

Justin shook his head. "No, dude. I promised Chloe that tonight me and her were going to do something romantic together and I can't just tell her that I can't now because this other girl wants to hang out."

JC groaned silently. Not her again. "Sure you can. Just go, 'Chloe, I'm sorry, but my friends wanted to do something tonight that I forgot about'. I'm sure she'd understand."

Justin glared at JC. "It's not that easy! I haven't seen her in such a long time and now you guys are just all of a sudden wanting me to drop her and hang out with this chick that I don't even LIKE..."

JC rolled his eyes and thought to himself. Yes you do.

"...How would you feel if you were Chloe? The relationship I have with her is like...it's...it's perfect because the press doesn't really know about her and that gives us the privacy we need.."

Lance snapped. "Justin, what the hell does that have to do with what we're talking about? Who cares if the press doesn't know about her? They're going to find out eventually. You've just been VERY lucky that she can keep her trap shut most of the time."

Chris sighed. "Guys, let's not argue over this. Just let him be with her tonight, we'll just tell Kelsie that he wanted to be with his girlfriend."

Justin's eyes snapped up to look at Chris. "Don't tell her that." His voice was laced with urgency and concern.

JC smiled to himself but concealed it with a questioning look. "Don't tell her that you've got a girl? Why?"

Justin's eyes searched the room frantically, looking for something that could help him think of a good excuse. He shrugged nonchalantly in the end and tried to play it off. "Oh.. I just, I just don't think she really needs to know..."

"How come?"

Justin glared at JC. Why is he being so NOSY? "Because she doesn't need to know. Who knows if she'll go blab it out to the press that Justin Timberlake has a girlfriend. Then the media will eat Clo alive. Just don't tell her!"

Joey opened the door. "I'm leaving. This is stupid to sit here and argue about this. Later guys, you're picking me up at ten, right?"

JC nodded and waved him out. "I'm going too. Justin, it's your choice, but don't come crying back to us when Chloe goes and does something that puts you out."

Justin stood in shock at what JC said, watching as him and the rest of the guys filtered out of the room. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

After a few seconds of letting the comment register in his brain, he grabbed up his stuff and stormed out after his friends, hopped in his BMW that waited for him in the parking lot and just sat there for a good five minutes.

He turned on his stereo and let the music penetrate throughout the small car, the lyrics invading his head as mindless chatter until he actually stopped and listened to the words. They hit him so hard he instantly slammed his hand on the radio to change the station...

can't change this feeling I'm way out of touch
can't change this meaning it means too much
never been this lonely never felt so good
can't be the only one misunderstood

I remind myself of somebody else
feeling like I'm chasing
like I'm facing myself alone
I've got somebody else's thoughts in my head

I want some of my own

Justin hit the pedal and the car jumped to sixty miles per hour in less than a second. He drove aimlessly for a while, just thinking about everything that could find a way to slither into his head. The lyrics that he had just heard echoed over and over in his mind and he couldn't deny how close to home they hit. Sometimes he felt as though he were playing the part of two completely different people. One, Justin Timberlake: The Celebrity and two, Justin Timberlake: The Person. The worst part about having to be two different people was that he felt he was acting both of those personalities. He never felt like himself anymore. Maybe it was just that he was so accustomed to playing the part of Justin Timberlake: The Celebrity that he forgot who he was in life. He forgot how to be himself...

The realization of that fact hit him like a ton of bricks and his car glided down the street until he came to and noticed that he had passed his own house. "Oh, man, I've got to be losing my mind.", he said out loud to himself and pulled his car into the driveway.

About an hour later, Justin looked around the room in satisfaction. This was what he wanted. He had set up a beautiful picnic blanket on the floor, candles burning in the center and delicate china waiting to be filled with food for two people. Fresh off the oven sat a big pot of fettichine alfredo...Chloe's favorite food. Justin wasn't the best cook, but hey, he gave it his best shot. Soft music played in the background to set the mood. So maybe his plan was a little unoriginal, so what if everyone did the "romantic picnic" thing on their living room floor - it was still the classic in his book. He smiled to himself. Justin was the type of person who fell very hard when they fell in love when someone, and no matter how hard he tried to learn from his many heartbreaks, he never could master the skill of falling out of love with a person. And that usually led him down the road of tremendous heartache.

He walked over to pick up the phone to tell Chloe to come over but as soon as he put his hand on the receiver, it vibrated in his hand and screamed with anxiety. He crossed his eyebrows and checked the caller ID. Chloe Andrews. "Hey, that's weird." He picked it up and cradled it on his shoulder. "Hey sexy, what's up?"

"Justin? Hey.."

"I was just picking up the phone to call you to let you know that you have to come over now. Remember, I promised that tonight we would have a romantic night at my place."

"Yeah, I remember...but, um, Jus?"

He didn't like the tone in her voice, nor did he like the way she called him "Jus". She only did that when something was wrong. "What? What's wrong?"

"I um, kind of have this thing that I have to do...and I can't make it over to see you tonight."

His heart sank to the pit of his stomach. "What? Why? What do you have to do?"

"It's something for modeling...he wants to see me tonight to discuss some things for my next shoot.", she sighed. "Come on, Justin, you understand, right?"

"But Clo, I've already got everything all set up!", he pleaded with her. "And I miss you! I haven't seen you since like forever!"

"You just saw me a few days ago!"

Every word that left her mouth, his heart sank lower. It sounded almost as if she was making an excuse, like she didn't even WANT to see her. But of course, she wasn't making excuses. She was probably right. This thing she had to do was probably really important for her career. He couldn't hold her back from that. "Ok, but can you come over after you take care of what you need to do?"

"I'm going to be gone all night, though."

"I'll be up. I'll wait for you. Please?"

"Justin, truthfully, I don't think I'll get back until four in the morning and by then I'm going to be wanting to go to bed..."

"So? Sleep over here. Chloe, please...I need to see you..."

"Look, baby, I've gotta get going. I'm really, really sorry! We'll do this another time, I promise."

He couldn't believe she was doing this to him. He stumbled on his words until he got out his last protest. "But..I...I love you."

"Love you too, babe. Bye now, call me tomorrow."

Before he could say anything, before he could even gather any thoughts, he heard the click on the other end of the line. He stared at the phone in his hand for what seemed like an hour, and then with great reluctance, placed it back into the receiver. He looked back at the picnic table set up and his crestfallen eyes soon turned black in spite. How could she do this? He took a deep breath and told himself that it wouldn't do any good to let himself get angry about it. It wasn't worth it.

Checking his watch, he wondered if it was too late to tell the guys he wanted to go out with them. Ten. This was going to be cutting it close. He quickly picked up his phone again and dialed JC's number. It rang and rang and rang...

"Jesus Christ, someone PICK UP! PLEASE!", he yelled out loud to no one in particular.

A muffled laugh was heard on the other line along with some static before the line became clear and a female voice came through. "Hello?"

"JC? What the-- Who is this? Bobbi?"

Another laugh. "Who is this? Justin?"

"This isn't Bobbi, either. What the hell?"

"Justin, it's Kat. What are you doing? Why aren't you coming with us?"

"You guys already left? I was hoping I could come with you?"

The phone crackled a few times and another muffled laugh was heard faintly while it was being passed around. "Um, hello??" Before long, JC's voice finally made its way into the receiver.

"Yo, Justin? What happened with you-know-who? She put you out like I told you she would?"

"Shut up, JC. What club are you going to?"

"I don't know yet. We are off to get Kelsie....unless you get to her first."

With that, the phone clicked off and Justin was left staring at his phone...again. And again, as soon as he put it back into the charger, it rang. He crossed his eyebrows and picked it up slowly. "Um, hello?"

"Hey! Justin?"

His mind raced at her voice. Why is she calling me? "Uh, yeah? Hi..."

"It's Kelsie! Um, I heard that you weren't going out tonight with us."

"I wasn't...but, I want to now.", he glanced over at the candles still burning and his eyes darkened again in anger. Then, a thought struck him. "Hey...um, are you definitely going out with them?"

"Yeah."

"Well, do you want to ditch them and come over here for a while?" He couldn't believe he was doing this...but hey, he didn't want to waste the food...

Kelsie's mouth dropped open. Did he really just invite her over? Was she hearing things? She thought for a minute until she heard him echoing himself with hello. "Uh...sorry. You want me to come over?"

"Yeah."

"Oh...yeah, I guess. Is something wrong?" There had to be something wrong...he wouldn't want her to come over for any other reason.

"No. Just be over in a few minutes, okay? See ya."

Before she had a chance to answer, he had hung up. She raised her eyebrows. "Well, this should be interesting."

Justin stared at the clock on his wall until his vision started to blur. Was he losing his mind? Why in God's great name did he even THINK of the idea of inviting KELSIE to come over? This was the same Kelsie that he hated... the same Kelsie that had been stuck at his house before (a time that he didn't particularly enjoy)...the same Kelsie that he spent every single day with and the same Kelsie that he was becoming more and more relaxed with. He scowled at the thought. Relaxed with. He didn't like that word, but he couldn't stop it from expressing the truth. No matter how hard he tried not to, every new day that passed that he was with her, he felt more comfortable and more at ease with the idea of being friends with her. And that is what made him so mad.

"I'll just tell her that I made a mistake and that I forgot I had to feed my mom's dog tonight....", he convinced himself of a way to get rid of her before she even got there. "Sounds good to me."

The doorbell rang a second later and his eyes searched the room frantically in anxiety. He closed his eyes and swung the door open ready to give her his excuse.

"Uh, Justin?", Kelsie stood on his front step, her eyebrow raised in curiosity. "If you're imagining of finding someone else at your door besides me, I'm sorry to disappoint you. However, I don't have three heads so I'd appreciate it if you opened your eyes.", she laughed and waited until his eyelids slowly peeked open.

He stared at her without saying anything for awhile.

"Um, can I come in or did you invite me over for any other reason besides to stare at me on your front porch?"

He moved aside to let her in, still silent in his watchful eyes. His mind was racing, though, screaming different things at him. He didn't hear silence at all. This is just great. She looks beautiful and here I am trying to find a way to get her to leave? But she's not supposed to be here and she's not the one I'm supposed to be thinking looks beautiful. And she's not supposed to look this good. She's supposed to be sweaty and...and like she normally looks...not like this, not this pretty! This isn't GOING RIGHT!

He groaned in frustration at the many voices flowing through his head and ran his fingers through his hair. Just forget it.

Kelsie watched him through curious green eyes. He seemed like he was very uncomfortable -- but not in his physical presence...in his mind. His eyebrows were merged in deep thought and concentration and his eyes, although focused on her, seemed to be all over the place. "Justin? Are you okay?"

Her voice echoed throughout his head like a canon had just gone off. He shook his head to free himself of his trance and found a way to smile at her. "Yeah...yeah, I'm fine."

She ran her fingers through her long, brown hair and smiled. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Yep. Yep, I'm just fine.", he looked around and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So, what do you want to do?" So much for trying to get rid of her.

She shrugged and glanced around until she saw the picnic blanket on the floor. Her eyebrows raised. That can't be for me. "Were you expecting someone?"

"Huh?"

She pointed to the candles and dishes on the floor and smiled when his face turned beet red in embarrassment. Shit, need an excuse...now. "Umm, yeah...my mom was gonna come have dinner with me but she had to go somewhere at the last minute....."

Kelsie gave him a look, but only nodded. "I see."

He waited for her to question him further about why he would light candles and have such a romantic setup for his mother, but she never did. Instead she smiled at him. "I'll help you clean it up if you want and then if you haven't eaten, we can order a pizza..."

He started to agree, but stopped himself in mid-sentence. "Well...do you like fettichine alfredo? Why don't we just eat that? It's all made."

She grinned. "You cooked?"

He nodded proudly.

"Is it edible? You're not going to try to poison me, are you? Cause if you are, I might just settle for the pizza.", she laughed.

He tried to look offended, but it only ended with a chuckle. "Of course it's edible. It's just been sitting out for a while..."

They looked at each other for a few minutes and then burst out laughing. Kelsie grabbed the phone. "I'll call for the pie. Cheese, pepperoni? What are you up for?"

"Half cheese, half 'roni. Can you put it under your name?"

"Sure can."

While she ordered the pizza, he watched her back discreetly. She wasn't so bad after all, and even though he had already known that, he felt a little restless about how this night would go. She was the type of person that he could trust and open up to a lot easier than he would ever want to and that was the only thing that held him back from being himself around her. Okay, so that wasn't the ONLY thing... add in a little deep seeded attraction that grew stronger everyday, mix in a heavy amount of guilt because of that attraction and your result is a very bitter Justin.

His eyes traveled up and down the length of her body and he observed everything about her. She was wearing black pants and a tight, red one-strapped tank top. A silver bellychain snapped around her waist and matching silver hoop earrings hung from each ear. Her poise showed that she was a very strong-willed person and he had known that about her from the first day that he had met her, but it only made him realize now that if she wanted something out of him, she would get it no matter how hard he tried to prevent it. She wouldn't give up until she got what she wanted and that was one of the things that scared him about her.

She was a challenge waiting to be solved and Justin found himself wanting to figure her out more and more as each minute ticked by on the clock. He smiled to himself. This could prove to be a very fun night.

She turned around with a bright smile. "It'll be here in a few minutes." Immediately, she picked up on the mischievous sparkle in his eyes and the curl in his lips. "What are you smirkin' at, boy? And why aren't you cleaning up the silverware?"

His smirk broke into a full fledged grin and he shrugged. "I thought we'd eat our pizza in style. You cool with that?"

Kelsie only smiled.

Lyrics in first part copyright by Jason Wade [Lifehouse]. Song available on Napter: "Somebody Else's Song" by Lifehouse.