“Just go and ask,” I encouraged myself as I paced back and forth in front of Drew’s hotel room. “Just say, ‘Since you’re such a great friend, would you mind if I started dating Justin again?’” I shook my head. That didn’t sound right.
“Lili?” Drew asked, opening her door.
“Drew!” I jumped. “Oh my God! You scared me.”
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I laughed nervously as I walked over to her.
“You’ve been pacing for the past twenty minutes. Are you feeling alright?”
“Yeah. Um, can I talk to you?” I asked, pushing her into the room.
“Sure. What’s up?”
“I really need you to do me a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“Well, it’s not really a favor, it’s more like a question.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“Before I ask, I just wanna say that if the answer is no, then I totally respect that. I won’t.”
“Just ask already.”
“Cause you really are my best friend.”
“Lili!”
“Okay, okay. Would it be okay if… Wait, let me rephrase that. Would you be okay if… That’s not it.”
“Hon, it’s really late. Could you possibly hurry up?”
“Would it be okay with you if I started seeing Justin again?” I asked quickly. She looked at me for a second before walking quietly over to the window. “I’m asking you because it’s really important to me to have your blessing. If not, then we won’t get back together.”
“You guys have only been separated for, like, three days.”
“I know.”
“You really do like him, don’t you, Lili?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“And he makes you happy?”
“I can honestly say that I’ve never been this crazy about someone,” I said, joining her at the window.
“You wanna hear something pretty funny? Cheesy, actually. Before this trip, I could close my eyes and see my future family. Justin, me, and two absolutely perfect little girls, who their father would call Princess.”
“Oh, Drew.”
“And I could see you and Lance coming over with your two adorable kids. One boy and one girl, of course.”
“Of course.”
“Yeah. The four of you would come over after church on Sundays for doughnuts and what not. The perfect life. I could finally see myself having the perfect life.”
“You’ll have it someday.”
“Maybe,” she shrugged as a tear rolled down her cheek. She turned away from the window and walked to her bed. “The point is, for some reason, I never saw you and Justin getting along. Never. So seeing you two act even civil towards each other at the gym kinda worried me. Then the basketball thing, and how he wanted to drive home with you, and all this stuff that I saw. It was all so strange, and to be honest, it scared me.”
“I…”
“Now, this is the funny part, I close my eyes, and I don’t see that anymore. Now I see the two of you together.”
“Well, I don’t think I’ll marry Justin…”
“I guess what I’m trying to say is go for it.”
“Seriously?”
“If he makes you that happy, there’s no reason the two of you shouldn’t be together, and I would be a bad friend if I stopped you.”
“Thank you so much, Drew.”
“Just promise me one thing.”
“Okay.”
“Be careful. You’re my best friend, and I still think pretty highly of Justin, so I would hate to see either of you be hurt because of the strains on the relationship from his job or anything. So just be careful.”
“I promise,” I said, hugging her.
“I know you’re dying to tell him, so go.”
“You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Go already.”
“I’m going.”
“Wait.”
“What?”
“You’re not going to see him like that are you?” I looked down at my cow pajamas and Taz slippers.
“Of course,” I shrugged. “This is what I was wearing when I met him.”
“I will never get you.”
“Good night, Drew.”
“Good night, Lili.”
I practically ran down the hall to Justin’s room, which is pretty difficult to do in big slippers. I was so happy that I had gotten Drew’s blessing. It was unbelievable. When I got there I reached up and knocked on his door. I knocked on the door again. “Justin?” There was no answer.
“Hello?” Of all the times he could have picked to not be in his room, this had to be the worst. I walked over to the next door. “Joey?”
“Yeah,” he asked, opening his door with a toothbrush in his mouth. “Why aren’t you in bed yet? It’s two o’clock.”
“I’m looking for Justin. Do you know where he is?”
“He’s not in his room?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Oh, sorry. Don’t know. But get some sleep. Tomorrow’s New Years Eve. Time to PARTY!” he said, dancing around in a circle.
“You are crazy,” I laughed.
“Why does everyone think that?”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. He might have gone for a walk. He does that when he needs to get away and think, or he might be at the pay phone in the lobby. Try there. Maybe his cell phone is charging.” It seemed like a long shot, but it was worth a try.
“Okay. Night.”
“Night.”
I ran down to the lobby, but no one was there. “Where the hell is he?”
I was about to go check the video games when somebody tapped me on my shoulder.
“Excuse me, miss. Do you know what time it is?”
I turned around to see a big security guard. “Um, it’s two.”
“Exactly. You should be in your room now.”
“I was just heading there. Um, by any chance have you seen Justin Timberlake?”
“Who?”
“He’s like six feet tall, curly hair, probably wearing light blue, member of ‘N Sync.”
“Haven’t seen anybody.”
“Oh.”
“You’re gonna go to your room now, right?”
“Yeah.” I turned around and walked to the elevator. “Are you sure you haven’t seen him?”
“No.”
“Okay.” I slowly walked back to my room, staring at Taz, thinking of what i should do with myself now. I was beginning to feel a little light-headed for everything, so I figured that I could take a long hot bath and hit the sac, rest up for New Years.
My plans changed when I opened my hotel room door. Inside was aglow with at least 20 white candles of all sizes. Scattered around the bases were fire and ice rose petals. And the best part was standing in the middle.
“I have been looking everywhere for you!”
“You have?” Justin asked genuinely surprised.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve been right here.”
“What is all this?”
“Surprise!”
“What happened to ‘come talk to me when you know what you want to do’?”
“I got tired of waiting.”
“A day? Impatient, aren’t we?”
“Yeah.” He paused. “Why were you looking for me?”
“Well,” I began as I sat down on my bed, “I went and talked to Drew.”
“Oh,” he sighed, sitting down next to me. “What did she say?”
“She told us to be careful.”
“To be careful? Wait, it’s okay with her?”
“Yup.”
“It is?”
“But she was right, Justin, about us being careful.”
“What did she mean by that?”
“She doesn’t want to see either of us get hurt.”
“Neither of us will.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Wait a minute. Does this mean that…” I leaned over and kissed him, cutting off his question and at the same time answering it.
“I’ve missed you,” he sighed.
“I’ve missed you more than you could possibly imagine,” I whispered, laying my head against his chest as he wrapped his arms around me. I closed my eyes happily and slowly fell asleep, knowing that nothing could go wrong now.
“Lili,” I whispered. She was still sleeping peacefully in my arms. Her hand was still holding mine, and she looked absolutely beautiful. “Lili,” I repeated, kissing her softly on the nose.
“Justin.” She opened her eyes slowly and smiled at me.
“Hey you.”
“Hi.”
“How’d you sleep?”
“Better than I have the past couple of nights.”
“I’m glad to hear that. We better get up before…” There was a knock at her door. “…people start to wonder.”
“I’ll get that.” She got up and walked across the room to the door. “Who is it?”
“JC.”
“Hi,” she said, opening the door.
“Hi. Have you seen Justin? He‘s not in his room.”
“I’m in here, JC,” I called, getting up. He came into the room and looked back and forth between the two of us, slightly confused. “What?” I asked.
“What’s going on here?”
“JC, man, you’re slow.”
“Are you two…”
“Yeah.”
“The world is back to normal,” he said, smiling. “It’s about time.”
“JC, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, this is great.”
“Well, I’m glad you think so,” Lili said as I slid my arms around her waist.
“Does Drew know?”
“Yup,” I said.
“Hey, Joey!” JC called into the hallway.
“Huh?”
“They’re back together.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’s Pretty Tony? He owes me twenty now.”
“You guys made a bet?” I asked JC.
“Some did. Your break up was a topic of conversation around the crew.”
“Oh God,” Lili mumbled.
“They talk about everything,” I said, stepping around in front of her, so I could see her face. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Oh, I’m not,” she smiled before kissing me on the cheek.
“Things are definitely as the should be.”
“JC.”
“Yeah?” I nodded towards the door. “Oh, okay. I’m leaving. Give Romeo and Juliet their privacy, as long as ya’ll don’t…” Lili turned and looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Bye.”
“It’s good to be back,” she sighed, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“You know,” I said, kissing those lips that I had missed so much, “this is a great way to start the New Year: a relationship that everyone’s okay with where it’s out in the open and with a awesome girl- perfect.”
“What more could a guy ask for?” she laughed.
I paused for a moment before letting a devilish grin escape my lips. “Laser tag.” -
“Happy New Years Eve!” Joey sang happily, running around the room, his tie around his head and drink in hand. It was only 11, and he was already smashed out of his mind.
“Hey, Chris.”
“Yup?” he said, turning away from this conversation with a girl I had never seen before.
“Where’s Lili?” I asked.
“Uh.” He looked around the huge room where we were having our crew party. “Over there talking to Lance.” He pointed me in the direction of a large group of tables.
“Thanks.” I made my way through the crowd of people to them.
“Hey, Justin,” Lance said.
“Hey. What’s up?”
“Nothing. I’ll see ya guys later,” he said, getting up.
“Bye!” I called after him. “Whatcha guys talking about?” I asked, taking his seat.
“Something that happened earlier in the trip.”
“What?”
“It’s a secret.”
“I have learned that secrets get you into nothing but trouble,” I stated matter of factly.
“What time is it?”
“Bout 11:05.”
“Would you mind if I went to lay down for awhile?”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m not feeling too hot.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to lie down.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked hopefully.
“Justin, this is your party. You can’t leave.”
“Okay. fine. Go lay down. I guess I’ll find somebody to talk to in this mass of people.”
“I promise I’ll be back by midnight,” she smiled, squeezing my hand.
“Promise?”
“Of course. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Lili.”
“Bye.”
“Ditched again?” Joey said, sitting down.
“She’s coming back,” I said, watching her exit through the door. I had errands that the guys wanted me to run before I came to the party, so I had just gotten there. I wasn’t expecting Lili to leave right away.
“Here, I brought you a Coke.”
“Thanks,” I said miserably, chugging it.
“You’re supposed to have fun on New Years.”
“I am.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll keep ‘em coming.” -
“I’ll never let go Jack, never let go,” I said, hugging Chris as we finished our Titanic impersonation. “Thank you. Thank you,” we laughed.
“Next, we will sing the Mouse Club song for ya’ll,” JC said into the mic as the three of us stumbled around the small stage.
“No!” I stopped him. “Everybody, I just heard that there are 30 seconds till the New Year. So, wait, now it’s like 24 seconds or something. Anywho, we may want to count. So turn you attention to the, um, the… JC, help me out here.”
“The TV.”
“Thank you.”
“Ten… nine…eight…seven…” I looked around the room for Lili, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. She promised that she would be back. I jumped off the stage clumsily to look around the crowd.
“Lance! Have you seen her?”
“Who?”
“Lili.”
“Nope.”
“HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!” Everyone around me began hugging and kissing and screaming. There was no way I was going to find her in this chaos.
“Justin!” I turned around to see Drew standing in front of me.
“Hey, have you seen…” Before I could finish, she leaned up and pressed her lips against mine. It completely caught me off guard, but the next thing I knew, I slid my hand behind her neck and kissed back.