“Aren’t you...Justin Timberlake?” Mary asked, making sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
“Yeah. My mom manages Innosense and I’m here to visit her. I thought this was her room, but I guess not. I’m really sorry I bothered you,” he said sweetly.
Mary almost fainted. She couldn’t believe how nice he was. “It’s ok.”
“Do you know which room she’s in?”
“Well, I actually didn’t know she was on the tour. But...I saw Veronica going into room 517. You could knock on her door and ask.”
“Thanks. Maybe I’ll see ya around,” he said politely.
“Yeah...maybe,” she smiled as he turned and walked down the hotel hall.
Mary shut the door and came back to the bed. She had an ear-to-ear grin on her face and her eyes were sparkling. “Gosh Mary you should see yourself! Who was that?” I asked.
“You will never believe it! Oh my gosh Lindsey! JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, THE Justin Timberlake just knocked on MY door!!” she was practically jumping up and down.
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat. “OUR door.”
“Oh yeah...whatever. Anyway!! OH MY GOSH!!”
“Maybe you’ll get to hang out with him. You’ve only dreamed of it for like...ever!”
“I know. He’s even hotter in person!” she gushed.
“I am, aren’t I?” Brian said walking into our room.
Mary looked terrified. She had completely forgotten about Brian. “Of course you are Brian,” I spoke for her and she just nodded her head.
He sat down on the bed next to her and they started talking so I went into Nick and Aaron’s room. Nick was laying on the bed talking on the phone and Aaron was working on Math work his tutor gave him. I looked at Nick with sad eyes before sitting down next to Aaron. “Wanna play Nintendo?” I asked.
“Can’t. I have to finish this by tomorrow.”
I sighed, “Ok.” I left him to finish his work. I went back into me and Mary’s room. Brian had left and she was watching TV. “Mary I’m bored. Lets go swimming.”
“Me too, lets go.” We threw on our suits and headed to the pool.
We were the only ones there so we had the pool and hot tub to ourselves. Mary was sitting at the edge of the pool reading a book when someone (not me) jumped in the water and drenched her. She was about to open her mouth and yell at me, until she looked up and saw who was in the pool. There was Justin, standing in the pool, laughing at her. Her angry face turned into a smile.
“Hi!”
“Hey!” he smiled back.
“Who’s that?” she asked pointing to a little kid taking off his shirt.
“This is my little brother, Jonathan.”
“Hi,” he said shyly.
“Hi.”
“And who’s this?” he asked, looking at me.
“This would be my friend, Lindsey.”
“Hi...aren’t you Nick’s girlfriend?” When I just stared at the ground, he said, “It’s ok to tell me. Everyone already knows.”
Mary stared at him and shook her head, signaling for him to drop the subject. “Nevermind.”
I walked over to Justin’s brother and started talking to him. “So how old are you?”
“Four,” he held up all fingers on one hand except his thumb.
Justin and Mary sat in the hot tub. “So, why are you on this tour? Are you a rising pop star?” he joked.
“No,” she laughed. “I’m visiting...Brian.”
“Your boyfriend?”
“Yeah. How long are you staying?” she asked changing the subject.
“’Bout a week I think.”
“Are you really dating Britney Spears?” she asked suddenly.
“Here we go again,” he sighed. “No, I’m not. I know people don’t believe us when we say this-mostly because Britney always sounds so fake-but she’s just a friend of the group. I dated her once about 4 years ago but that was only for like 2 weeks.”
“Oh. Well, I believe ya.”
~*~*~THE NEXT MORNING~*~*~
Nikki and Aaron were in Aaron and Nick’s room playing Nintendo. Justin, Mary, and Brian were talking in another room and AJ, Kevin, and Howie had gone out for lunch so that left me and Nick alone in me and Mary’s room. There was a long, akward silence.
“So....when do you..leave?” Nick asked.
“Umm, about 2 weeks I think. I was gonna leave in December but I changed my mind.”
“Oh.”
There was another long silence until I said, “Nick, what’s gonna happen?”
“With what?”
“Us!”
“Us? There is no ‘us’, remember?”
“You mean not even as friends?”
“I don’t think so. It would be too hard.”
“Oh, ok.” I put my head down. Even though I was really mad at him for what he was doing to me, I was still going to miss him terribly. I already missed hugging him and kissing him.
~*~*~THAT NIGHT~*~*~
Brian and Mary were talking before the show, when her cell phone rang.
“Hello?” she answered cheerfully. Brian watched her expressions as he listened to her end of the conversation. “Hi mom!” *Pause* “Ok, go ahead.” A few seconds later, her smile completely faded. She closed her eyes and was silent for a minute. Finally she spoke, “Yeah, I’m still here. No, I’m fine....really. Ok, I love you too. Yeah, bye.” Mary hung up her phone and stared blankly at Brian.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“My aunt..commited suicide,” she said emotionlessly.
“What?”
“She killed herself. She left a note that said something about missing my dad.”
“I’m so sorry,” Brian moved towards her to give her a hug, but she backed away.
“Please don’t.” She saw the hurt look on his face, “I’m sorry. Just..not now.”
“Brian! Time to go on!” AJ yelled.
“You gonna be ok?” he asked Mary.
“Sure, I’ll be fine.”
“Ok, I’ll talk to you after the show.”
“Ok, bye.”
Mary hung her head as she walked to my dressing room. She couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t crying. She was really upset because she was so close to her aunt.
Just as she sat down on the couch, tears filled her eyes. The realization that she was gone forever had finally sunk in. About 5 minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Mary didn’t hear it so she didn’t move.
“Hello?...Mary?” Justin called out as he stepped in the room.
Mary’s head shot up. “There you are! I was looking everywhere for you. Why weren’t you answering?” He saw the redness and puffiness in her eyes and asked, “Is everything ok?” He sat down next to her on the couch and put his arm over her shoulder. She didn’t pull away from him like she did to Brian.
“No, I’m not,” she replied calmly. “My aunt committed suicide.”
“That’s awful!”
“Tell me about it.”
“Were you close?”
“Yes! I was closer to her than I was to my parents. Why do these things always happen to me? First my dad, now this. If this keeps up, Brian will be gone by Christmas.”
“Mary, we both know that isn’t true.”
“Well you never know. He better be careful.”
“Don’t talk like that!”
She thought for a minute, “You’re right, sorry.”
“Does this mean you’re going home?”
“No, I probably won’t. Going back won’t help anything.”
“Oh.”
Mary looked up at the ceiling and stared at it for about 20 minutes. Justin knew she was thinking, so he didn’t say a word to her. A while later, Nick opened the door and saw the two of them sitting silently.
“Sorry...I was looking for-”
“Lindsey?” Mary perked up a bit.
“Uh, no..Aaron.”
“Oh, he’s not here.”
“Ok thanks,” he turned around and walked out.
“Why did you get so excited when you thought he was looking for Lindsey?” Justin asked Mary.
“I thought he was FINALLY ready to apologize.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”
“How do YOU know what’s going on?”
“Come on! Everyone’s talking about it. How Nick’s acting like a jerk and all.”
“Oh.”
The door opened and Brian walked in. “Hey guys.”
“Hi.”
“Justin, can I talk to Mary?”
“Sure, see ya,” Justin got up and exited the room.
“What’s up?” she asked, still a little dazed from thinking.
“Do you wanna talk?”
“No. I already talked to Justin.”
“Oh,” he said a little hurt. “Ok then.”