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Writer: Tami
Story: Don't Fight It
Written for: Rachel!!!!
A Venus Fanfiction Crew Production
www.angelfire.com/music2/venuscrew
DO THE CREW!!!!
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"I see a fishie." Rachel said pointing up at the sky and squinting her eyes.

"A fish? Where? Let me see!" Lance asked in incredulous childlike behavior.
He glanced over at his best friend and smiled at her eager face. She was a
beautiful 19 year old woman, her shoulder length brown hair brought out her
beautiful baby brown eyes. He liked to call her that from time to time, brown
eyes. She was his brown eyed girl and everybody knew it. They were each
other's confidant's. They found solace and comfort in each other, they were
each other's best friends. They had been all their lives.

"Right there!" She said, jabbing at the sky impatiently.

"Oh! Okay, I see it now." He lied, letting her win. The first one to find the
most odd shape in the clouds won the game. He almost always let her win.

She jumped up and down in a victory dance. She was a slightly competitive
person as was Lance. It was always fun for her to rub her winning in his
face, she knew the limit though and never rubbed too far.

Lance jumped off the ground and ran to tackle her to the ground, she jumped
out of the way just before his hands reached her waist. Lance fell to the
ground with a thud and sat stunned for a few seconds.

"Ha Ha! You pansy! you can't even tackle a little girl like me!" She laughed
at him, pointing her finger. She was petite at five feet and four inches and
he could always wrestle her to the ground.

"Ow! My side, I think I hurt my side Rae Rae." He whimpered from the ground,
rolling onto his side. He had to bite the inside of his cheek, so she
wouldn't see his smile.

"I'm sorry Lance, are you okay? I'm sorry." She pleaded, rolling him over to
face her. His hands shot up and grabbed her sides, pulling him down to her.
He tickled her behind the neck and on her sides while she screamed.

"Mercy! Mercy! I give up, you win!" She cried, struggling against him. He let
go and rolled on top of her. He supported his weight with his hands as he
shook his head in amazement at her.

"Only you could make me stop torturing someone." He laughed, winking at her.
He knew she had a power over him, he just wasn't sure what the power was. He
would drop everything for her and one of his past girlfriends had broken up
with him, because of his close relationship with Rachel. That was his and the
guys' secret. Rachel never found out, he knew if she did that she would feel
horrible.

"Yeah, well so many fail at that power and so many succeed. I succeed. What
can I say? When you got it syou sgoyt hite." Her voice trailed off, muffled
behind his hand. She bit his hand gently as he yelled in pain pulling it away.

She went to say something to him when the light caught his eye. She saw the
most brilliant light in them and it was gone before she could put her finger
on it. But, it held brightness and wonder, something she'd never seen in his
eyes before. It amazed her. She reached her hand up to gently touch his eye,
hoping to catch that shine again.

He stared into her eyes, amazed at what he saw. He saw a light shining in
them, of complete and utter bliss. Of happiness, out of all of his
girlfriends, he'd never seen that look in any of their eyes. "She's not a
girlfriend though." He thought to himself, as she brought her hand up to his
eye. "She could be though." He brought his face closer to hers and let his
eyes drift close.

"Woah! Look at the time!" She rolled out from under him. She couldn't believe
what almost happened. Did her best friend almost kiss her? "I've got to go
out to dinner with Justin and then I have some errands to run..." She trailed
off in nervousness, shifting from one foot to the other.

He groaned and rolled over on his back, folding his hands under his head.
"Justin? You're going out to dinner with Justin? Justin Timberlake, Justin?"
He asked, trying to keep the jealousy out of his voice.

"Yeah, Justin. Justin Timerlake, Justin. Yeah, that Justin. Is that okay with
you?" She asked irritably. She didn't understand. He went from being playful
and sweet to jealous and annoying in a matter of seconds.

"Yeah, whatever. Do whatever you want." He shrugged, standing up from the
grass. He wasn't happy with it, but he wasn't going to admit to it either. He
knew she saw the unhappiness in his eyes though.

"Oh come on! Don't you dare look at me like that. You know that Justin and I
are not interested in each other. He's got his mirror and thousand's of girls
fawning over him and I've got, well, I've got better taste than that." She
joked, hoping to bring him out of his spur of the moment bad mood. He didn't
laugh or even smile. "If you don't want me to go, just say it."

"I don't want you to go. I want you to stay here with me." He said, looking
her in the eyes. She couldn't believe her ears. Her best friend just told her
to not go out with their mutual friend. Rachel was confused, Lance had never
acted like this before.

"I can't believe this. What's the matter with you?" She stepped forward
hesitantly. "Lance..."

He turned to her, waiting for her to continue. She surprised him by jumping
in his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his
neck. "Lancey Poo." She teased him in a sing song voice. "You know you're my
only best friend, I only love you, there is no room for another man in my
life. There, I groveled at your feet. I love you and only you. Now, I'm going
out to dinner with Justin and I'll be over afterwards. Try not to let that
chauvinistic male egotistical behavior get in the way of that." She hugged
him tightly before jumping back down to the ground.

"I'll try not too." He smirked at her.

"That's my boy." She jumped up again and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
She squeezed his hand before running through the gate to her car. The feel
and smell of his body clung to her skin and clothes. Her hand tingled where
his hand touched hers. She shook it, trying to get the tingles out. All these
feelings were swirling in her mind and she didn't know where the origin of
them were coming from. They scared her. If she admitted to these feelings,
then the friendship, the security would change.

"Do you want to go to the movies after dinner?" Justin asked her, as they
walked up to the restaurant. He held the door open for her and gestured for
her to go in.

"Thankyou." She smiled at him. "No, I don't think so. I promised Lance I
would go over to his house after dinner with you." She didn't want to upset
Lance, but she knew she might hurt Justin's feelings. He never really had the
chance to do normal things and going to the movies would be a normal thing
for him.

They walked to their table that Justin had reserved for them. The guys always
had to call ahead for reservations no matter where they went. The risk was
too high to stand in line and wait for an opening for a table. It could cause
a scene. It made her angry and wistful. They deserved to be free to do normal
things and it annoyed her and hurt her that they couldn't. They were normal
people, like everybody else and nobody ever treated them that way.

He smiled sadly down at the table. "Okay, maybe another time."

"Justin, what's wrong? I could tell you were upset about something when I met
you here. Do you wanna talk about it?" Rachel asked, she could tell in his
eyes that he was upset. The two were close in age, there was always an
understanding between them.

"I'm just so sick of being alone. Everybody has got somebody and I'm just
there. You've got Lance, Chris has got Erica, Joey has Sarah, JC has Diana.
And, who do I have? Nobody. With us leaving in the next couple of weeks for
the new tour, I want to come home to somebody." He stared off into space.

"What? Leaving in the next couple of weeks? What the hell are you talking
about?" Rachel demanded, the surprise evident in her voice. Lance hadn't
mentioned this to her.

Justin looked away from the wall to her. "Yeah, we're leaving in a few weeks.
For a long time, our schedules are going to be busy until 2001. But, can we
focus on me here?" He pleaded, touching his chest with his hands.

"Oh yeah. Sorry. Um..where were we? Oh, right! Yes, you do have someone.
You've got Leslie." She attempted to cheer him up. She hated seeing Justin
sad, but she knew how he felt. She had been without somebody in a long time
too.

"Oh, come on. Rachel, I do not have Leslie and you know it. She doesn't see
me as anything more than a friend." Justin's eyes grew dark, hinting that he
was upset.

"Okay, okay. Look, why don't we forget about what we have and what we don't
have tonight. Let's go to the movies after this. I'll go over Lance's
afterward. Let's have fun, we'll go see "Road Trip" and get ice cream. Okay?"
She smiled at him, she hated to see any of the guys upset. They were what
made her smile and laugh. When she was upset they could uplift her spirits
and make her giggle. They would go out of they're way to make her laugh.

"Yeah. We can do that. I just don't want Lance to get upset with me." Justin
glanced at the table, before looking into Rachel's eyes. "Hey Rae, why do you
love Lance so much?"

"I don't. I mean, I love Lance, but I don't love Lance." She quickly
corrected herself.

"No, I know that. I mean, why do you love Lance, like your best friend." He
reassured her.

"I don't know. He's just Lance. He's almost like a male version of me. He's
reserved when I am. When I'm hyper, he's hyper. He loves the same things I
do. He's the only person who I can sit around all day with. I can go over his
house and we won't say anything at all to eachother. We'll just watch tv, and
I'll leave with the best feeling. He never gets jealous and he's always happy
and proud of me. He was the first person to tell me that he was proud of me.
he's just Lance. He's my best friend. I love him." Rachel looked back at
Justin with an apologetic look.

"Please, don't think that I don't love you or care for you any less. Because
I do, I love all of you guys just the same..." Her voice trailed off, as
Justin reached across the table and put his hand over her mouth.

"After dinner, we'll go get ice cream. Then you are going over Lance's." He
smiled at her. "I understand and I'll survive. We're growing up Rae Rae. It's
scary. I can remember when we were 14 and we did our homework together
sometimes. It's so hard to believe that we're 19. I'm 19, but I feel like I'm
25. I've been through so much and yet I still have not found love." He smiled
sadly down at his food.

Rachel sighed. "Justin," She said softly, taking his hand. "We are growing
up, together. And, your princess is looking for you, she just hasn't found
you. I always say that about my Prince Charming. It makes me feel better."
She laughed, squeezing his hand.

"You really are crazy, you know that? You make sure you light into Lance's
ass for not telling you about the tour." Justin laughed with her.

Rachel ran up the walkway to Lance's house and walked into the house,
slamming the door on the way in. "Lance!" She yelled loudly for him.

"What? What is it?" He asked anxiously.

She stalked into the living room and threw her jacket on the couch. "You
wanna tell me what the hell is going on?!" She screamed at him.

"What are you talking about?" Lance asked, reaching for her. He didn't know
why she was upset.

She backed away. "Don't touch me. And, don't ask me what I'm talking about.
You know exactly what I'm talking about." Lance didn't answer her. "Okay,
fine. Here's a hint. You are leaving in a few weeks and your going to be busy
until 2001. How's that? Why did you not tell me?" She shouted.

"I didn't want to upset you." Lance said dejected, looking at the floor.

"So, you figured that you would wait to tell me until a few days before you
left? That's not fair Lance. I want to spend time with you and I wouldn't be
able to if you waited until then. Why did you do this?" She asked, sitting on
the couch.

"I'm sorry. Really, I am. I know how upset you get when I have to leave and I
wanted to stay away from that. I hate seeing you all depressed and upset." He
said, sitting on the couch beside her.

"I'm sorry I get upset and depressed. What do you want me to do? Throw you a
party? Ooh ooh! My best friend is going on tour and leaving me for almost a
year again!" She yelled sarcastically. "I hate this. I hate this because I
don't know what I am without you. I am who I am because of you." The tears
had started to gather in her eyes. She hated to have him see her cry, she
looked away.

Lance touched her face and turned her towards him. "Why don't you ever let me
see you cry? You don't always have to be strong for me Rae. I can be strong
for you too. And, I know how you feel. Because I feel the same way too. Your
not in this alone, so why can't you share the pain with me? It's a lot easier
when you're not the only one."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"I know, because I'm going to miss you too." He gathered her in his arms and
held her against his chest. She wrapped one arm around his back and the other
around his neck, letting her hand play with the soft hair at the base of his
head.

They only had a few weeks left together and they were going to make the best
of it, or so Rachel hoped.

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