Paradise By The Dashboard Lights

By: Jen

"Hey, that's NSYNC!" I pointed out excitedly. My date/manager sighed and took my arm, leading me toward the red carpet that was aligned with cameras and reporters.

"Only I would have my biggest money-making client be star struck at an awards show,” Raul scoffed. "Do you think you can stop drooling long enough to talk to the media, Alexia?"

"Hang on,” I held a finger up, letting my gaze slide over the figure of Justin Timberlake before I turned my attention back to Raul and the cameras. "Ok I'm ready."

"God help us if you meet them tonight,” he murmured just before a flash went off in our faces.

"Oh I will,” I said under my breath as I turned to the crowd.

"Alexia! Ladies and gentlemen, just arriving is.....just about the hottest thing in the modeling industry today, Alexia!" Kurt Loder shoved a microphone under my nose and motioned for the cameraman to start filming. I flashed a smile at the fans lined up outside of the ropes and waved, careful not to let the thin straps of my dress slip off.

"Hi Kurt,” I grinned, shaking the MTV reporter's hand. "Good to see you again."

"Always a pleasure......and that dress is magnificent! Who did it?" My manager elbowed me, giving the silent go-ahead to promote my new clothing line.

"Actually, Kurt, this is an Alexia," I replied, motioning downward to the shimmering blue dress. It was held up by spaghetti straps with a heart shape that dripped about halfway down my cleavage, then turned sheer down to my waist, where it met with a darker blue that clung to my form all the way down to the floor. At the side of the waist from the back, a silky blue shawl was attached to the dress and flowed behind me as I walked. I was very conscious that everyone in the world could see my stomach, but decided not to let it bother me as I rambled about the new clothing line.

"And I hear there might be a movie in the works for you as well,” Kurt was saying. I shrugged.

"You never know what could happen." My manager grinned, and squeezed my arm. I guess it was a good answer.

"And who is your date for this evening?" Kurt asked, turning a questioning eye to Raul.

"This is Raul Stone, my manager,” I laughed. "I couldn't get a date, so I had to drag him along."

"I don't believe that for a second,” Kurt chuckled. "Well thank you, Alexia. I believe you're presenting the award for Video of the Year, correct?"

"That's right, so everyone pray with me that I don't trip on my way to the podium." The camera's red light shut off with my smile, and Kurt thanked me again before moving on to Kid Rock, who was arriving behind me. Raul and I started walking down the red carpet again, waving to the fans as we did, and as I looked ahead, I caught Justin Timberlake watching me closely. I blushed when he didn't look away, but smiled and gave me a little wave. The heels that I was wearing were not strong enough to hold me while my knees were shaking like that, so I quickly looked away, only to be greeted by yet another reporter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome back to the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards!" David Arquette bellowed a couple of hours later. I squirmed in my seat, feeling myself getting a little edgy as the awards dragged on and on. The one thing I noticed was how much longer they were in person than they were on TV, and if there was one thing I was NOT, it was patient. David introduced Faith Hill, so I let my attention wander during her performance, seeing who was around me. I was sitting directly in front of Joey McIntyre, who was even more fidgety than I was if I could judge by how many times he kicked my chair. *NSYNC were sitting about two rows in front of me and to the right, so I had a perfect view of the back of their heads. Britney Spears was right behind them, and kept tapping Justin on the shoulder. I scowled, noting that her dress was way too pink for her complexion. Just as I was looking for her roots, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Miss Alexia?" a voice whispered. I turned to see a young man wearing a headset and carrying a clipboard.

"Yes?" I whispered back.

"It's time for you to go backstage to get ready for your presentation," he told me, waving toward the exit. I nodded and patted Raul on the hand before following the guy as he led me backstage. On the way, I passed so many familiar faces, I thought I was in some strange sitcom.

"Alexia, giiiiirl, you lookin FLY!" Will Smith complimented as I passed, leaning down to kiss my cheek.

"Not so bad yourself, Mr. Smith,” I smiled, then continued on to say hi to Rosie O'Donnell, who was one of my favorite people in the business.

"You know how much I hate you for wearing that dress, right?" was her greeting and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you kidding, Rosie? You look so good, I'll bet Tom will leave Nicole tonight the second he turns on his TV,” I teased her. She scowled at me, but laughed as I was led back to makeup. It wasn't even twenty minutes later that I found myself waiting in the wings on the arm of my buddy Will, listening for our cue.

"He's America's only rap star turned TV star turned movie star turned GOD.....she's the hottest thing since Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate.....please welcome Will Smith and Alexia....." A curtain opened and Will grinned down at me as we both walked onto the stage, smiling brightly even as the bright lights hit us. We walked up to the podium and waited as the applause died down before beginning our pre-arranged lines.

"The past year has been a real breakthrough in the video industry. Artists have incorporated special effects that could rival any Spielberg movie,” I started out, then looked at Will, who leaned over so the mic would be at his level.

"From dancing babies to talking toys to flying cars.....damn girl you are SHORT!" he added, earning a laugh from the crowd.

"Well you know what they say about short girls,” I quipped back, straightening my back. Will looked down at his pants, then looked back up with a wide eyed look, making the audience erupt in laughter.

"Easy access?" he asked, and I smacked him on the shoulder.

"No, Will, taller shoes."

"Ah, well you can feel free to hit me again ANYTIME, baby...” I stomped on the floor really loudly and Will yelped out in mock pain, grabbing his foot. I smiled sweetly and smiled into the camera as he hopped around behind me.

"The nominees for the Video of the Year are..........The Burn, Matchbox Twenty." Will recovered and moved back to the mic.

"Bitter Much, Eminem."

"Finally Yours, Christina Aguilera."

"No Strings Attached, *NSYNC." I couldn't help but smile as I read that one. My fingers unconsciously crossed under the podium as Will read the last one.

"Letters, Stroke 9." The cameras focused back on us as Will stopped me from opening the envelope.

"I just have to say that no matter who wins, I'm the real winner, cause LOOK who I get to be on stage with!" He engulfed me in a massive bear hug while everyone laughed in nervous anticipation. I picked the envelope back up.

"And the winner is....." I slowly lifted the flap, then broke into the biggest and most REAL smile of my career as we both shouted,

"NO STRINGS ATTACHED, *NSYNC!!!!" The crowd broke into a huge round of applause, and some people even stood up as I watched the guys from *NSYNC jump up and hug each other in excitement. The opening notes of No Strings Attached began as they made their way to the stage, each one shaking Will's hand, then giving me a kiss on the cheek. Justin's hand rested on my hip as he lightly pecked my cheek and I shivered, then realized that I had to step aside so they could accept the award. Finally, the music was playing and David was saying goodnight as we all waved to the cameras, the guys of *NSYNC clutching their new award tightly. The lights dimmed and we all turned to leave the stage in a big group, Chris walking in front of me. Ok sue me, so I knew their names. Something flew by me and tackled Chris, knocking me clear into the person next to me. I grabbed onto someone's arm so I wouldn't fall and tear the dress while I watched as Joey gave Chris a noogie, yelling,

"WE WON!!!!"

"You ok?" a voice chuckled and I looked up to see Justin looking down at where I was grasping his arm. Sure, if not being able to walk, talk, or FUNCTION was ok, then I was just peachy.

"Fine, thanks," I stammered, smoothing my dress down. "And congratulations, the video was fabulous."

"Fabulous?" he asked. "You make it sound like one of those houses that Robin Leech would talk about."

"Or a fine wine," I quipped back, glad that I could be completely normal around him. Most of the time when I was around celebrities, I felt the need to act more snobby than I really was, so it was a breath of fresh air being around guys that still acted like teenagers. Well, Justin was only 20, but I was sure that his mental capacity was far beyond that, seeing as how much he had seen in his life.

"Ah, nothing like a fine cabernet," he doted in a very bad English accent. We both laughed, then I shook my head.

"Seriously, I loved the video. That thing that you guys did with the lighting? It was AWESOME, totally gave a perfect vibe for the song." Justin raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'm surprised you saw it," he commented, running a hand over his tight braids.....as if they would ever actually move.

"Of course I saw it," I told him, confused. "I've had your CD since it came out, it's one of my favorites." There was that eyebrow again.

"Well, that is a nice surprise," he said before he was interrupted by an arm being draped over his shoulder.

"Man, can you believe this?" Lance said, shaking his blonde head. "We just won like THE award of the year...." He looked over at me and grinned. "And ALEXIA presented it to us, I must be in heaven."

"Seventh heaven?" I quipped, holding out my hand. "Good to meet you, Lance."

"Wow, you even know our names?" Justin asked. I laughed, waving at a few people as we passed them.

"Get over it, JUSTIN."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is one hell of an after party," Raul commented to me as we walked into the already-packed club. I nodded and looked around to take in the surroundings. I had never seen so many famous people in one place in my entire life. There were cameras everywhere with different crews from all of the different entertainment shows, talking to whoever they could get their claws on.

"The sharks are here," I mumbled, smiling at a passing cocktail server. He stopped and offered me a glass of champagne from his tray, which I gladly accepted.

"Don't drink too much," Raul warned me. "You know how you get." Did I ever. Alcohol and me did not mix very well.

"Don't worry," I assured him, taking a small sip while peering over the glass to do some more people watching. A crowd was forming in one of the corners of the club, and all of the camera crews had migrated to the crowd.

"I wonder what's going on over there," Raul mused, following my line of sight.

"It's *NSYNC," a voice replied from behind us. I turned to find Joey McIntyre smiling down at me, lifting his own glass of champagne in greeting.

"I should have guessed," I said, smiling brightly at him. It was hard not to smile in Joe's presence, the blue eyes could melt you in a heartbeat.

"Don't worry, Alexia, when they see you're here, they'll forget about them and come bother you," Joe told me.

"Doubtful, but I appreciate that, Mr. McIntyre."

"Whoa, my dad's here?" he joked, looking around. I laughed, noticing that Raul had found a cute guy to flirt with out of the corner of my eye.

"Well, if he is, I'm sure he'll have a good time, Joe," I said, emphasizing the "Joe".

"It's a great party." I loved his accent. "And it looks like you've been spotted." I turned to see Joey from NSYNC waving at me, the cameras turning to see what he was looking at.

"JOEY MCINTYRE!" Chris yelled, holding his arms out.

"Looks like you have too," I told Joe as we made our way through the crowd. He shrugged and took another drink of his champagne.

"Everyone loves me, what can I say?" he teased.

"Modesty is a beautiful thing..." I was interrupted by Joey Fatone's arm, which had draped itself over my shoulder.

"Well look who's here," he said a little too loudly. I untangled my long hair from his grasp and smiled at him.

"The party, obviously," I said, looking over at Justin. He gave me a half grin and winked, raising his eyebrow at his bandmate's shoulder.

"ALEXIA!" I turned to see a guy running toward me, a pass dangling from his neck. He was probably around 20, and was carrying a notepad and disposable camera, a huge grin spreading across his thin face.

"Yes?"

"Alexia, I love you, marry me," he exclaimed, waving the paper in my face. I took it and the pen.

"Sorry, it's um.....against my religion," I told him, signing the paper quickly. I noticed Justin out of the corner of my eye watching us in amusement.

"How about a dance then? Please?" The guy looked me up and down hungrily and I found myself squirming uncomfortably. He looked like a bear ready to pounce.

"Sorry, she promised me this dance," Justin told him, stepping in. "You can watch though." With that, he dragged me toward the dance floor, leaving the poor guy's jaw on the ground.

"Well that wasn't nice," I scolded as he pulled me against him.

"He would have groped you," he told me, as if it wasn't an obvious statement. "I thought I'd come to the rescue."

"Remind me to thank you later," I grinned, starting to move my body to the music. It was weird dancing with Justin, considering we didn't even know each other, but it sure beat the alternative.

"Thank me later," he murmured, looking down at me with a sexy half-grin. I could see why millions of girls all over the world swooned at the sight, he was pretty hot. I felt someone approach me from behind and turned my head to see Joey smile and wave before he sandwiched me in between him and Justin. I laughed out loud and tossed my head back, getting into it a lot more than I should have. I noticed people watching us, and the bright lights signaled that we were being filmed, but we must have all been served way too much alcohol because I really didn't care. I rubbed against Joey while putting both of my hands on Justin's neck, running my fingers through his curly hair.

"I never knew you were such a party girl, Alexia!" Joey yelled in my ear.

"Me either!" I yelled back as he pushed my long hair over my shoulder.

"Wow what color is that?" he asked. I shrugged.

"It's brown with golden highlights," I tried to describe.

"Well it smells good." During this conversation, Justin was watching us, and raised an eyebrow at me. I was starting to wish that Joey would stop hitting on me so I could concentrate harder on the guy in front of me.

"Alexia!!" The loud voice that could be heard across the room could be none other than my not-so-happy manager.

"Hi, Raul," I smiled as he grabbed my arm and yanked me away from the NSYNC sandwich I was in.

"What are you doing??" he hissed in my ear. "Don't you see that you're being filmed??"

"So?" I looked back at the dance floor to see Justin and Joey look at each other, grimace, then turn away to find someone else to dance with. I chuckled to myself.

"So, I think it's time to call it an evening," he told me. It wasn't a request.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, I found out why it was so bad to party that hard in front of the media. Raul had dropped off three different tabloids, all with Justin and I on the cover. Joey could barely be seen in the shadows, but he was there too. The focus was the way Justin and I were pressed together, my hands on the back of his neck, looking into each other's eyes. Even I had to admit that we looked pretty cozy, but it was just a dance. The tabloids ended up in the trash before they were even opened.

I was in the middle of my daily workout when my cell phone rang. I sighed and shut down the treadmill, picking up my sweat towel to wipe my face and neck.

"Hello?" I breathlessly answered.

"Hi, is this Alexia?" Oh there was no mistaking that voice. It had just been playing in my headphones only moments before.

"Yes, Justin, it's me." I couldn't help smiling.

"Wow, she even knows my voice. I think I'm gonna faint...." he mocked.

"Faint all you want, but first tell me why you're calling," I told him, unconsciously playing with my ponytail.

"Oh well, did you see the tabloids this morning?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think my manager left me a lovely care package on the front stoop. Nice picture." I took a gulp of water.

"I don't remember being that.....um......"

"Close?" I suggested, picking one of them up out of the trashcan. "We must have been pretty wasted."

"Either way, did you read the articles?" he wanted to know.

"I never do," I replied. "They're nothing but lies anyway."

"Yeah well....you don't know how true that is," Justin sighed.

"Uh oh..."

"Yeah, you'd better read it, Alexia. Supposedly we've been secretly dating for months now, and we're planning a secret wedding on a deserted desert island..."

"Where we're going to have the triplets that I'm pregnant with?" I joked, flipping through the Enquirer.

"No triplets, but it's pretty bad. Bad enough to where we should get someone that's respectable in the media to set it straight," he stated, firmly.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want them to think...." I stammered, not finishing the sentence. I didn't really mind if people thought that I was dating Justin. I knew that I wouldn't mind it at all.

"Exactly, we'll just let them know..." he trailed off too.

"That we just met, and it's silly to think we're anything..."

"But friends," he finished. "I'm glad you agree, Alexia, this whole tabloid thing just gets out of hand sometimes."

"Well of course I agree. It just happens so much that I've started to tune it out, ya know?" He agreed, and we spent the next ten minutes deciding how we were going to turn the rumors around in our favor. The more I talked to him, the more I realized that he was nothing like the guy I thought he was. Even though I had always thought Justin Timberlake was talented and.....well, gorgeous.....I had also seen him as one of those cocky rock star types, and nothing turned me off more than that kind of attitude. He was turning out to be a lot more real than I thought, and I couldn't decide if that was good or bad...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two months later

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You look like hell," I told Justin as I opened my front door. His hair was way too puffy, and he had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.

"So nice to see you too, Alexia," he grumbled, sarcastically. I smiled sweetly at him as he pushed his way past me and into the alcove. From outside, I saw a flash go off and my eyes widened considerably.

"Shit," I muttered, shutting the door behind him. He turned, a confused look on his tired face.

"What?" he asked, running a hand absently through his curls.

"You need a haircut, Jus," I commented, reaching up to ruffle his hair. He ducked out of the way, tossing his jacket on the stairs.

"That was worth a 'shit'?" he asked. I shook my head.

"No, I just saw a camera flash as you walked in," I told him. "So much for keeping our friendship quiet, huh?"

"Well, shit," he agreed, leading the way into my kitchen, then opening the fridge.

"Make yourself at home, Jus," I chuckled as he pulled out a beer and grabbed some Fritos off of the counter. He plopped himself into one of my kitchen chairs and started munching, grinning at me through a mouthful of chips. I couldn't help but grin back. Justin and I had gotten to be very close friends over the past couple of months, which was probably why he had called and asked to come over. He had been having some girl troubles, and needed a friend, so of course he thought of me. I loved that, having someone you could call whenever you needed them. I never thought it would be Justin Timberlake, but I took what I could get.

"Thanks," he crunched. "So they got another incriminating picture, huh?" I took the seat across from him and grabbed a peach from the fruit bowl.

"No," I said in a haughty tone. "It's only going to show you coming into my private home in broad daylight, looking like something the cat dragged in, that's not incriminating at ALL." Justin frowned.

"No need to be snooty," he scolded, swallowing his mouthful of chips, then taking a long drink of his Coors Light. "Why do you buy this shit anyway?" He motioned to the beer.

"It's my favorite beer, shithead, deal with it." I decided to get one for myself to prove my point. He just shook his head, taking another drink.

"It's a good thing we decided to be just friends, Alex," he commented. "I wouldn't put up with you for too long." I turned around to see his wide smile, and spontaneously tossed my bottle cap at his head. It caught in his hair and I busted up laughing while he reached up and frantically tried to find it.

"Needle in a haystack," I laughed, shaking my head as he kept searching through his massive amounts of hair.

"Shut up," he scowled, throwing the cap back at me once he found it. "Now can I talk or are you going to make fun of me the whole night?" I cocked my head to the side, putting a sympathetic expression on my face.

"No, you can talk, I'll....." A bright light flashed through the kitchen window and we both hurried over to peer out. Justin lifted the pane and yelled into the night,

"Leave us alone, you low lifes!" Another flash. This time I got in the act.

"If you don't get the hell off of my property, I'm going to go out front, find whatever van you drove here, disassemble it, then call your boss and tell them why you destroyed their million dollar vehicle.....THEN I'm calling the cops!" I yelled to the sound of scampering footsteps.

"Fucking cowards," Justin grumbled as I lowered the window, still looking for the camera culprit.

"When will they just leave us alone?" I sighed, looking to him for an answer. He just shrugged.

"When we are never seen together again," he told me. "Trust me, I know. You're friends with someone, and all of the sudden you end up married with children in some private villa off of the coast of Spain."

"Well, is that what you want?" I asked, silently hoping he'd say no. I had way too much fun with Justin not to see him anymore.

"Hell no, they aren't dictating to me who I can be friends with and who I can't," he stated firmly. "We'll just have to keep.....um....."

"Insisting we're just friends even though they keep producing new and even MORE incriminating photos?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We need to stop going dancing," he chuckled, referring to the last time we had been caught. It was about 3 weeks before that, and we had gone to a club to let some stress loose. Both of us had a little too much to drink, and the next morning, there was a picture in the tabloids quite similar to the one taken at the MTV Video Music Awards After Party, only without Joey. We didn’t go out alone again after that, with good reason. Wherever I went, whether it was to a show, or an appearance, everyone asked me about my relationship with Justin. The answer was always the same…

"We’re just friends!" People just didn’t trust me, I guess. It was amusing to watch NSYNC interviews as well. Last time, they were on Jay Leno and Jay just wouldn’t let up.

"So I hear you guys have been hanging out a lot with Alexia lately," Jay had commented, and a picture of me flashed on the screen, followed by a lot of ooooohs from the audience.

"She’s been a really good friend to us," Joey said with a smile. "We met her at the MTV Video Awards, and we’ve been hanging out since then, that’s all." The other guys nodded in agreement while Jay looked at a magazine that I was on the cover of.

"Now I don’t know about the rest of you……Paul, focus on this magazine," Jay said. "But if I had a chance with this….." The audience cheered again and I groaned from my seat at home.

"Really, it’s not like that," Lance defended.

"Well, I’m sure it’s not," Jay said, wiggling his eyebrows at the camera. "But Justin, I heard that you and her are getting close….." Justin and I had both groaned at once, even from across the country. This was ridiculous. Justin burped and brought me back to the present.

"Jus, not in my kitchen, please," I sighed. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You prefer the living room?" he asked, making me laugh.

"Yeah, just don’t set anything on fire……anyway, what do we do about this whole….thing?" He was studying my new Cosmo cover, which was laying on the kitchen table.

"Nice picture," he commented, letting out a low whistle. They had made my hair even lighter, sending it tumbling over both soulders. It reached down to my waist, and the grease they used made it look really shiny. Other than that, I had been wearing a pair of vinyl black pants. That was it, my hair covered everything else up. I snatched the magazine from his hands.

"Thanks," I grumbled, putting it facedown on the table. "Now focus, please. You wanted to talk to me about something?" Justin’s face went from joking to serious in two seconds flat, and he leaned forward in his chair with a sigh.

"It’s just Britney again," he said, looking at his hands. "She isn’t really getting the hint that I don’t want to be with her…"

"Do you NOT want to be with her?" I asked, knowing the entire story of their history. Justin had gotten drunk one night and confided in me, and it was a lot different than I had originally thought. They had, in fact, been together, and even though she was "great" as he claimed, he felt more obligated than anything to be friends with her. They had known each other for years, so it was just natural when they got together. Unfortunately for her, he found her annoying.

"I really don’t want to be anything to her," he grumbled, taking another drink. "But our families are so close, so…"

"So you feel like you have to?" I asked, shaking my head. "You shouldn’t feel like you have to do anything, Justin." The phone rang, and I let the machine pick it up. Justin and I both listened as another guy rambled on and on about why I should go out with him, and how much he’d rock my world.

"You’re going to have to change your number again," Justin commented. I shrugged and nodded.

"Looks like it. I have no idea how it keeps getting out, though," I told him, quickly pressing erase on the machine. "It would be so much easier if…" I couldn’t find the words to phrase what I was thinking.

"If what?" Justin asked.

"I have no idea, I just want the psychos to stop calling me and the media to leave us alone…..and while I’m doing my wish list, I wish Britney would stop causing you so many problems." We were both silent for a minute before Justin’s eyes lit up suddenly.

"Oh my God, Alex, I’ve got it!" he exclaimed, slamming both of his hands against the table and standing up.

"You’ve got what?" I asked, suspiciously.

"A way to fix our problems, of course." He was grinning and tapping his pointer finger against his chin, obviously trying to organize his thoughts.

"Right, how are we going to do THAT?" I threw my hands up in frustration. "Get married so they’ll all leave us alone?" I laughed at my own joke, but when I looked up, Justin was looking at me with complete seriousness in his eyes. "Justin…"

"Exactly," he stated, bending down so we would be eye to eye. "Alex, will you marry me?"

"HUH?" I exploded, looking at him as if he had just sprouted horns. Justin just laughed.

"Well, not REALLY," he told me, patting my hand. "But think about it, Al, if we told the world that we’re engaged…" I looked up, thinking about how much things would change.

"The media would get over it within a week," I whispered.

"Britney would leave me alone," he added.

"I would stop getting these random calls from the psychos of the world…" We both were silent once again, thinking about the possibilities. I broke into a smile and grabbed both of his hands, yanking us both to our feet. After giving him the biggest hug ever, I pulled away and smiled into his eyes.

"Why, yes, Mr. Timberlake," I said, mocking sweetness. "I would be delighted to marry you."

~~~~~~~~~~*~*~*~*~*~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I changed my mind," I told Justin three nights later as we were about to step out of a limo for the first time as an official "couple".

"You can’t do that," he informed me, peering out the window. "I already told the guys that we would be here together. They were pretty excited."

"I still don’t see why we didn’t tell them the truth," I muttered, absently straightening the skirt of my velvet dress. The dark red complimented the darkness of my hair, and the black bottom complimented the golden highlights. It was a lovely combination by Donna Karen.

"Two words……plausible deniability," Justin said, looking proud that he had used such big words.

"You’ve been watching too much Independence Day," I observed. He scowled at me, trying to hide a smile, as the door was opened. Neither of us moved at first, then he finally squeezed my hand and got out of the limo, turning around to smile down at me.

"Shall we, pumpkin?" he asked, holding out his hand. I had to laugh at the mock-loving expression on his face.

"We shall…..buttercup," I giggled, taking his hand and stepping onto the sidewalk. He had the cutest twinkle in his eye as we slowly made our way down the red carpet, smiling brightly at the flashing cameras. Movie premiers weren’t usually that big of a deal, but my palms were sweating with the nervous anticipation of what we were going to do.

"Justin! Alexia! May we get a word with you guys?" Lisa Hart shoved a microphone under my nose and I backed away out of habit.

"Sure, Lisa!" Justin smiled brightly and clasped my hand tightly in his, squeezing hard to let me know that this was it.

"So you guys are here to support Joshua Jackson, right?" It was a lame first question, but I knew she was just warming us up for the kill. I let my eyes wander around the crowd while Justin answered.

"Yes, actually…..for some reason, it seemed like Josh was on every show that we were when we released No Strings Attached, so we became friends with him in all of the green rooms," he laughed. "He’s really funny, so I asked Alexia to join me at the premier." Saying that, he put an arm around my shoulder.

"Really?" Lisa asked, turning to me. "So Alexia, you’re here with Justin as friends? You both have been claiming for months that you’re just friends, and of course everyone wants to know if things have changed."

"Actually, Lisa, they have," I told her, smiling adoringly at Justin. I felt his arm tense up as he choked back a laugh. "We finally decided to see in each other what the rest of the world saw in us."

"Aw honey, that’s a great way of putting it," Justin said, kissing my temple.

"Wow!" Lisa broke into a big smile, motioning to the camera man to make sure and get the shot. "The sparks are FLYING, here, you guys, I’m just melting!"

"Me too, but only because Alexia is so hot," Justin grinned. I playfully hit his arm, making sure to flash the "ring" that I was wearing. It was fake of course, but noone had to know that.

"Alexia, is that an engagement ring I see?" Lisa gasped. I looked down and blushed, using the best of my acting skills.

"Yeah, well….. " I mumbled, looking to Justin for help.

"It sure is," he told Lisa. "I proposed two nights ago, and we couldn’t be more happy." There, we had done it. I only hoped that Justin’s acting skills had improved since the few things he had done in the past.

"That is so great, you guys. And being able to express your feelings for each other to the world…."

"If there was a mountaintop close by, I’d shout it from there," Justin told her, stealing his arm around my waist to guide me away. We calmly said goodbye to the cameras and Lisa, and made our way down the red carpet. At the end, he stopped and turned to me, lifting my hand to his lips. "Brilliant performance, my dear," he murmured, covering the hand with his own.

"You too, darling," I whispered back, brushing a stray curl back into place. We looked like the perfect couple, standing there, just looking at each other. He reached over to touch my earring, playing with the lobe in the process.

"Hey," he said softly, looking back into my eyes. "Your earring really brings out the blue in your eyes, Alexia." I swallowed at the sincere tone in his voice.

"Thank you, Justin," I murmured, not able to tear my gaze away from his. His suit jacket matched his eyes too, but I was too choked up to point it out to him. He started to say something, but was interrupted by a pounding on his shoulder. We both looked up to see Joshua Jackson with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Well it’s about fucking time!" he laughed, slapping Justin on the back and shaking his hand, then leaning down to kiss my cheek. "Thanks for being here, you guys, and thanks for being here together! About time you wised up."

"Well he had to pay me quite a handsome sum, but I think we worked things out," I commented, getting a laugh out of Josh.

"I’ll see you guys inside," he said, shaking his head, then moving right past the cameras lined at the door to go inside. Justin placed my hand in the crook of his arm, and we headed inside, making sure to not look at each other. I didn’t want a moment like that to happen again, this was only a fake engagement, after all.

The movie was great. I had always liked Josh Jackson, so seeing him in a new movie had me rolling on the floor in laughter. I even saw Justin wipe away a tear, he was laughing so hard. On Justin’s other side was Lance with his date, Kendra. She wasn’t really watching the movie, she just appeared to be in awe. I smiled and shook my head, looking to where JC was sitting on my other side. His date had shoulder length blonde hair, and a huge smile. Her name was….Kristy I think. At any rate, it was good to see them with girls that weren’t in the biz. I know that wasn’t creating a great case for myself, but most of the girls that they had dated had been vengeful sluts, and that’s putting it nicely. These girls seemed really sweet. They’d better not fuck it up, I thought. The guys were great, but their lifestyles made them pretty clueless when it came to women. Just hearing Justin’s stories told me that.

"That chick is hot," Justin whispered in my ear. I raised my eyebrow and glanced at him. Even in the darkness of the theater, his eyes were sparkling in mischief.

"Which chick?" I whispered back. He leaned back and nodded over my shoulder at Joey.

"Uh, Justin….is there something you’re not telling me? Since when is Joey a chick?" I choked back a laugh. Joey looked over at us and made a silly face, making me laugh out loud.

"Shhhhhhh!" Practically ten people turned around to quiet us down.

"No, the chick WITH Joey," Justin hissed in my ear. I leaned back and looked again. She was a cute girl with dark hair, very exotic.

"Hey JC," I whispered, leaning toward him. He frowned, turning to me.

"I’m watching the movie here, Alexia," he scolded.

"Whatever, who’s the chick with Joey?" I asked him. Finally he smiled, shaking his head.

"Who’s asking, you or Justin?"

"Me, I was thinking of doing the swingers thing," I joked. "Just tell me!"

"Her name is Lesa, and they’re just friends, so you three are free to get as freaky deaky as you want," JC whispered. "Just make sure to take pictures."

"JC, what are you guys talking about?" Kristy asked, leaning forward. He snapped his head forward and mumbled,

"Nothin," still grinning brightly. She chuckled and shook her head at me, then we all turned back to the movie.

"So?" Justin whispered.

"Her name is Lesa, now shut up, Curly, I’m watching Josh Jackson, and he’s pretty damn hot." He mocked me softly, then turned to watch the movie. I saw Lance grin at me over Justin’s shoulder, then he and Kendra both shot me two thumbs up. I made a mental note to kick them both in the head when the movie got out.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

"A toast!" Lance announced later on at the premier’s after party. We all looked at him oddly, but raised our glasses anyway.

"To me!" Josh joked, lifting his.

"To you doing what?" Joey asked, leaning back in his chair and crossing his ankle across his knee.

"Actually," Lance said loudly. "I was going to say that we need to toast Alexia and Justin for finally realizing that they couldn’t keep their hands off each other." I blushed and wrinkled my nose at Lance.

"Denial is not just a river in Egypt, after all," Chris commented, grinning at his date, Crystal. She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to all of us, who clinked glasses and drank the wine. Justin’s eyes smiled at me over his glass and I could almost read his thoughts. They said,

"It’s working!" After the show, we had been bombarded by reporters and cameras, all wanting to know about the engagement. There were fans outside, and I have never received so many nasty looks in my life, but none of them approached Justin, and none of the guys approached me. The plan was perfectly in order, I can’t believe we hadn’t thought of it before.

"More wine, dear?" Justin interrupted my thoughts. I gave him a small smile, holding out my empty glass. It was zinfandel, and it was a good zinfandel, so I was happy to have more. Josh sure knew how to throw a party. Across the room, I caught the beautiful eye of Paul Walker, who was talking and laughing with Josh and a few other people that I vaguely recognized. I smiled and nodded at him before I felt an arm drape over my shoulder. I looked at it in annoyance.

"Hey, think you can chill with the fiancee stuff for a few minutes?" I whispered to Justin. "Paul Walker was checking me out!"

"Oooh, Paul Walker," he teased, flipping his hand femininely "He’s such a hottie."

"Yes, he is, now shoo!" I laughed. Justin pouted, then smiled again as Joey and Lesa approached.

"Hey, lovebirds!" Joey cried, engulfing us both in a hug. I was sure Paul had heard him. Damn.

"Hi, Joey," I said, wiggling out of his grasp. "How’s it going, buddy?"

"Pretty good actually," he answered, wiggling his eyebrows. "Lesa’s boring me, so I’m going to go hit on that girl over there." He pointed to a redhead with oval wire glasses on. She was talking to Paul Walker, so I was more than happy to encourage him, and so was Lesa, it appeared.

"Go for it, Joe," she yawned, planting herself next to Justin. He shot her a gorgeous half grin, then looked back at me sheepishly.

"You’re encouraging Joey to go after another girl?" he asked her. She shrugged, pulling a pack of gum out of her purse. She offered it to us, then shrugged when we shook our heads, popping a piece into her mouth.

"Why not? We’re just…..friends….." She put an emphasis on the word "friends".

"Just friends?" I inquired. "Sure about that?"

"With benefits," she clarified. "Nothing to get wet over." Justin almost choked on his wine at her bluntness. I liked this girl.

"Well Lesa, if you’ll entertain Justin here for me, I’m going to get another drink," I smiled, standing up. Paul was at the bar.

"No problem, Alexia," I heard her murmur as I walked away. A part of me shuttered, but quickly got over it as Paul turned his bright blue eyes on me as I approached.

"Alexia!" he exclaimed in that adorable valley accent. I shook his outstretched hand, amazed at how large his hands are. He must have really big…..gloves.

"Paul Walker, good to meet you," I smiled brightly.

"I’ve heard a lot about you," he told me, taking a drink of his frosty beer. "That’s all anyone talks about these days."

"Well unfortunately I’ve heard nothing about you since…..The Skulls I believe." He grinned, wiping a drop off of his strong jaw. He was the epitome of a pretty boy, he really was.

"I’ve been taking a break." As we talked, I looked across the room to see Lesa laughing, her hand on Justin’s arm. Did she or did she not realize he was engaged? Well…..at least everyone thought he was.

"So you guys are together, right?" Paul asked, nodding towards Justin.

"Who?" He had really great hair.

"Uh….Justin? The guy from that boy group?" He gave me a weird look.

"OH! Right, yeah….." I trailed off, not wanting to ruin my chances with Paul completely. I was in dire need of some booty, man. Or maybe I was drunk. Either way, he was looking really good.

"Well that’s too bad," Paul said, shaking his head. "I would definitely have hit on you." Before I could answer, Joey interrupted yet again.

"Alexia! Paul! Does everybody here know Martii?" We both turned impatient looks his way.

"Hi Martii," we said in sync. She noticed the looks we gave Joey and smied at us.

"Nice to meet you guys," she said, tugging on Joey’s arm. "And now we’re going to go."

"We are?" Joey asked as she dragged him away.

"Smart girl," Paul chuckled. I nodded and lowered my lashes, looking up at him slyly.

"So, you would have hit on me, huh?"

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

The phone was the worst invention ever, especially in the morning when you have a hangover. I groaned, removing Paul’s arm, which was thrown across my hip.

"Hello?" I growled into the phone.

"Good morning sunshine!" Justin chirped. "And how was your evening?" I sat up and moaned, raising a hand to my head.

"Fullfilling, how was yours?" I mumbled, turning my head slightly to watch Paul as he drooled on my pillow.

"Man, Alexia…..that girl Leesa is FLEXIBLE.."

"Justin, please, no details," I told him. I hoped I could get Paul out of there before he tried talking. That valley accent of his was starting to get on my nerves.

"Ok, sorry. I hope Joey’s not mad."

"He went home with that Martii girl," I told him. "JC and Kristy were all over each other before they even got to the car, Lance and Kendra wouldn’t stop STARING at each other, and Chris disappeaered at around one with that Crystal chick."

"Aren’t we the informed one?" he teased. "So how is Paul?"

"Asleep." I pulled the covers off of me and planted my feet on the floor. "I’m going to go make breakfast."

"Lunch," he corrected me.

"Whatever, am I seeing you today?" I almost tripped over Paul’s pants on my way to the closet.

"We’ll do dinner, baby," Justin laughed. "Take some aspirin."

"Thanks for the advice, oh wise one."

"Later!" I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed, scowling at Paul’s naked back before I tossed on a robe and made my way downstairs.

I was forming the Mickey Mouse ears on a pancake when Paul entered the kitchen, flatteringly scratching his crotch and head at the same time. Talk about feeling smothered…

"Morning, babycakes," he greeted me with a yawn, opening the refrigerator and helping himself to a swig of orange juice straight from the carton.

"Do you mind?" I wrinkled my nose. "I have to drink out of that too, ya know."

"Not at all," he replied, taking another drink before putting the orange juice away. I scowled and turned away from him, hoping that my Mickey pancake would somehow come alive and scare Paul so badly that he would run away screaming like a little girl. Mickey didn’t cooperate. In fact, I could have sworn the damn pancake smirked when Paul came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Alexia, I never knew you were so artistic," he teased about my breakfast.

"Well, I guess there’s a lot you don’t know about me," I told him, shrugging him off. He frowned in response, looking up as a loud knock sounded at my front door. I wiped my hands on a dish towel, then went to answer it, looking up to thank whichever deity that had decided to finally help me out of that situation.

"Special delivery," Justin said in a mock European accent, holding up a grocery bag.

"Boy, am I glad you’re here," I sighed, taking the bag from his hands to peer inside.

"Syrup, whipped cream, fruit toppings, and a dozen eggs to go with the Mickey-shaped pancakes that I’ll bet you’re making right now," Justin told me. "And thankfully, NO reporters!"

"How did you know I was making Mickey pancakes?" I asked, confused. "Curly, have you been peeping in my window again? Remember the restraining order….."

"No, Junior, I haven’t been peeping anywhere," he laughed, shaking his head. I pouted, hearing the old nickname sprout up. "Everytime you get drunk and bring a guy home, you make Mickey pancakes to escape from them…duh." I was about to shut the front door and tell him what he could do with my Mickey pancakes when a hand stopped me. My jaw dropped as Lesa stuck her head in.

"I think we brought every juice known to man," she commented, smiling at me brightly. "And grapefruit for the health conscious." I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat at the adoring way she looked at Justin, telling myself that I was just being cranky.

"Hey, guy!" Paul greeted, entering the kitchen, still clad in only his boxers.

"Hiya, Paul," Lesa purred, looking him up and down before turning her attention back to Justin. Justin didn’t even look at her, instead he was watching Paul with a scowl on his face. I saw the same look once when his fashion designer had held up a hideous red and white polka dotted suit that she wanted him to wear. It wasn’t pleasant.

"Hey," he finally muttered, moving right past Paul to unload the food into the kitchen. I shrugged and followed him, hoping that some big black void would open up and magically swallow the other two. No such luck.

"This is interesting," I mumbled, helping him take the items out of the grocery bags.

"Hey look," Justin said, smiling at me as he held up my pancake. It was charred black, thanks to my carelessness. "It’s Mickey’s friend, Malcolm Mouse ….. whasssuuuuuuupp???" He made the pancake dance around the counter.

"Funny," I commented, taking the thing from him and tossing it into the trash. "Hey, maybe I should have had you take a bite out of that thing. I saw this REALLY cute outfit at Donna Karen the other day….all I would need is your teeth marks, and ebay would blow up…" His answer was tossing a wet cloth at my head, but I ducked, so it hit Lesa right in the face as she opened the kitchen door to join us.

"Oops…" Justin was trying really hard not to laugh as Lesa gasped and desperately tried to rid her face of the wash cloth germs.

"You did it again," I finished for him, and neither of us could hold it back this time. We laughed so loud that we couldn’t even hear Lesa’s protests. Finally, when we calmed down, we looked up to find Lesa smiling at us and Paul frowning.

"I think it is so great that you guys are so open with each other," she sighed. "I was worried that this would get ugly, Alexia, but you have such a great attitude about Justin’s…..ways…." She ran her hand down Justin’s arm to emphasize her statement.

"Wait, I don’t get it," Paul scratched his head.

"There’s a shocker," Justin grumbled, not bothering to explain himself.

"What don’t you get, Paul?" I asked as if I were talking to a first-grader.

"You two ARE engaged, right?" He obviously cared that he had slept with a taken woman the night before. In all honesty, I think he got off on it. I exchanged a worried look with Justin, and we both nodded slowly. "And you’re both OK with all of this?" Paul was starting to look excited, and I opened my mouth to tell him how unlikely that orgy he was picturing actually was.

"We have a…special understanding," Justin explained before I could say anything.

"Yeah, it’s kind of complicated," I added, trying to to notice Lesa’s calculating smile.

"Wow!" Paul exclaimed. "That fucking rocks!"

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

"So did you give him the wrong phone number?" Justin asked me later that night as he peered into the mirror in his dressing room, fixing a few stray curls that were peeking out from under his bandana.

"Of course I did," I chuckled, absently bouncing a basketball against the floor. "Oops."

"You did it again," he finished, groaning at his reflection. "I swear this mop I call hair has a mind of its own." I sighed, standing up and tossing the ball onto the small couch the venue had provided him in the dressing room.

"Oh, let me, you big baby," I teased, moving behind him to take off the bandana. Curls popped out everywhere, and I could smell the shampoo he used. I refolded the navy blue bandana carefully and tucked it around his head, playing with the curls until they somewhat resembled order. "There," I announced, peering at his reflection as he checked the angles.

"Perfect," Justin commented.

"Well, I know, but do you like the hair?" I smiled at him. He smirked and nodded.

"It must be the Alexia touch." He caught my eye through the mirror and we smiled at each other fondly. I brushed one more curl aside, not removing my gaze from his as both of our smiles faded to out-and-out stares. My breath caught in my throat as Justin’s beautiful eyes bored into mine, and my lungs didn’t even attempt to start working again until a loud voice said,

"Aw, could you guys be any cuter?" We tore our eyes away to see Joey grinning at us from the doorway.

"Probably not," Justin replied, collecting himself, then standing up to straighten his elaborate costume.

"Well, you could be me," Joey smiled, pulling on a white glove.

"My son is a nut," Lynn Harless yelled in my ear about an hour later. The guys were in the middle of Space Cowboy, and he was getting a little too into the riding move at the end of the song. We were sitting in the first row on the right side, and Justin was pretty much riding his pony right in front of me and his mother. He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I couldn’t help but cover my eyes and laugh. Lynn just frowned and wagged a finger at him, jokingly. He shrugged, sending her a beautiful half grin, and moved into the next formation, wiggling his butt at us as he did. I heard about a thousand loud screams behind me and howled in laughter.

"Nut would be understating it," I yelled back, shaking my head. She nodded in agreement, but still screamed as loud as any girl did when the song ended. The energy the guys emitted from the stage was contagious, it got to all of us. There was a break while we all watched the screen and listened to ambulance sirens, then the guys all ran onto the stage in white coats, wheeling Justin on a table.

"Clear!" Chris yelled, pretending to try and revive Justin.

"I wouldn’t trust Chris to reheat a pizza, let alone revive an unconscious person," I commented to Lynn, who laughed her agreement.

"You should have seen me the first time I saw it," she told me. "I was ready to go up there and yell ‘MY SON, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, KIRKPATRICK!'"

"Supermom to the rescue," I teased as Justin sat straight up and looked at the audience in surprise.

"I…..was……hanginwiththefellas," he began, and we cheered for a song that had become one of my favorites. Justin really got into singing it, and since the lyrics were so fast, it was easy to see that he had to work very hard not to get out of breath. The doctor’s coats were too cute, making the whole song like a skit, especially when they all fell to the floor at the end to the sound of a beeping heart monitor going blank. Justin was on the other end of the stage from me, so I missed his overdramatic death, but I was well aware of why that side was screaming so loud. He usually fell to the ground completely spread-eagle. I did a quick survey of the room, waving at one of the bodyguards, then quickly facing forward as the girls around me gave me a strange look.

"Los Angeles, y’all are LOUD!" JC was saying, grinning as the audience belted out their approval. "Now guys….I’m thinkin that I wanna get a little closer."

"Closer, man?" Justin asked, putting on a fake confused expression. They all nodded and moved their chairs up a few feet, and continued the skit as Lynn and I mouthed along with the script, until finally the mid-section of the stage lifted up, turning so it could float over the audience. I loved to watch the fans for this part, especially since the guys liked to make faces at anyone they knew in the audience. I was wearing sunglasses and a hat, but one could never be too careful in a room full of 30,000 *NSYNC fans. I had managed to go unnoticed so far, but I was hoping that noone would see me at all. I liked this whole charade that Justin and I were pulling, but I was not willing to die for it. As they passed us, Justin tossed some of his water so it landed on Lynn and I and we both scowled at him, then laughed at each other. Justin noticed and grinned our way, his whole face lighting up with his smile.

He looked really good, actually. He was wearing a very tight sleeveless leather shirt with blue jeans that were made to look old, but were actually brand new. He topped it off with an orange dew rag, different than the bandana I had struggled onto his head earlier. All in all, I could see why there were girls crying and screaming and passing out all over the place. My so-called fiancee was definitely a hottie.

"Doesn’t he look cute?" Lynn asked me, snapping me back to the concert. I swallowed the lump in my throat. I hated lying to Justin’s mother, she was the sweetest woman in the world.

"He always looks cute," I grinned at her, once again grateful for the acting lessons.

"You were looking at him like he was a hot fudge sundae with all of the taste and none of the fat," she told me. I choked back a laugh. I would have to remember that one.

"I just like to see him with his hair done for a change," I replied, and we shared another proud laugh.

"I’m so glad he found you," she smiled brightly, patting me on the shoulder. I held back a silent groan of guilt. Justin and I should have thought about the little things before going ahead with this scam.

Digital Getdown was definitely one of my favorite songs to see them perform. With their glowing outfits and the powerful dance moves, it sent shivers down my spine and made everyone in the whole place get out of their seats and dance. In the middle of the song, four of the guys get onto these moving sidewalk-like things and get moved up and down the stage to the beat of the music while Justin stays in the front, getting down and rapping his sexiest part ever.

"Baby baby we can do all that we want….we’re getting nasty nasty, we’re gettin freaky deaky uhuh uh baby baby we can do more than just talk cause I can hear ya hear ya and I can see ya…see ya….uh…" It just went on and on, and watching him up there made me physically shake. I was close enough to see his eyes glowing in the lighting that was provided and at one point in the rap, he looked right at me, smiling as he spoke the words.

"Baby baby we can do all that we want, we’re getting nasty nasty…." My jaw dropped open as his eyes clouded over with something else, something that usually wasn’t there when he was performing. His hips moved a little harder in their movements, and his hands became a little more suggestive. I just stared, not even trying to pick my jaw up. I was mezmorized by his performance. I had never seen a man look so incredibly sexy in all of my life.

"I wish he wouldn’t do that!" Lynn scowled, breaking me out of my trance just in time to hear someone scream,

"That’s ALEXIA!" I turned abruptly to find a wall of girls all staring at me and pointing, a few of them jumping over the walls on the side, and struggling to get out of their rows to run my way.

"Oh my God," I whispered as they all started screaming, some in anger, and some in fascination. I saw the looks of jealousy on their faces, and I saw the deliberate way they moved. This was not a safe place to be in. I felt my hat being ripped off my head, and I heard Lynn shout,

"Get away from her!" More hands clawed at my shirt, and people were yelling in my ear, the hot breath of the fans becoming so overwhelming that I could barely think. The glasses were broken before I knew it, and all I could see was a wall of blurry people as my clausterphobia began to take over. Lynn yelled Justin’s name, and then I heard his voice booming over the entire arena.

"LEXI!!" It was the last thing I heard before the blur became a haze, and the haze became a black fog.

The unconsciousness was shortlived, for the next thing I knew, I was being carried against something very large and solid. I blinked and looked up sleepily.

"Todd?" I muttered to the large bodyguard. "What on earth…"

"Shut up, Alexia, if you pass out again, Curly is gonna try and beat me up," he teased, kicking open a door and placing me gently onto a plush blue couch.

"I would pay to see that," I murmured, lifting a shaky hand to my forehead. "It’d be like a kitten going after a bear."

"Thanks, I think," Todd shook his head, looking up as the door opened and Justin frantically rushed into the room, leaving a trail of sweat behind him.

"Lexi, oh my God, are you ok?" he breathed, racing to my side and grabbing my hand. I groaned.

"Justin, for the love of all that is holy, please give me some air," I sighed, lifting my head a bit as JC and Lance both entered with worried looks on their faces. The two girls from the night before, Kristy and Kendra, were right behind them. I held up my hand just as they all started speaking at once and motioned for them to be quiet.

"I’m fine," I told them. "My hat is dead, my sunglasses are mangled, and my hair is a mess, but I’m pretty much ok."

"Lex, you should have seen that mob," Lance commented, shaking his head. "You scared us to death!"

"Oh well I’m so sorry," I scowled at him. "I didn’t mean to be discovered and mobbed, I’ll try harder next time."

"Alexia, you know that’s not what he meant," JC said, softly, patting Kristy’s hand on his arm.

"I know, Joshua, but I just had a really tramatic experience here, can you guys just…finish your concert please?" They all frowned and crinkled their eyebrows before leaving the room. I knew I was being rude, and I really did appreciate their concern, but I was still shaking from the image of all of those girls rushing me, and I really just wanted to be alone.

"I’ll be right back," Justin whispered, leaning up to kiss my forehead, then ushering everyone out of the room and shutting off the light so I could be alone. I sighed and curled up on the couch, grabbing his robe off of the arm and hugging it to my chest. I was still pretty shaky, but breathing in Justin’s scent was helping to calm my nerves. The door opened once again and I looked up to see Justin’s outline in the doorway, the light coming in behind him.

"Justin, don’t you have an encore to do?" I asked as he stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. The room was once again drenched in darkness, but somehow I felt him moving closer to me.

"No," he said, simply and I felt the couch give under his weight as he sat down in front of my stomach. I felt his hand on my cheek, then my forehead. "You’re still shaky."

"It was pretty scary," I confessed, nuzzling my cheek against his the soft skin of his palm. "But I’m ok, really, you should go out there."

"Not for them," he scoffed, removing his hand and leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "You should have seen those girls, Lexi, they were….."

"Psycho," I finished for him. "I DID see them, rather close-up, actually."

"Yeah, well," he grumbled, and I saw his curls bob down as he put his head down. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness. "From the stage, it was…..it was horrible. You really scared me."

"Aw, Curly," I said softly, putting a hand on his arm. "Don’t worry about me, I’ll just have to be more careful, that’s all." He sighed.

"I don’t want you watching the concerts from the audience anymore," he told me. "It’s dangerous, I never even realized how much…..if anything had happened to you…"

"Hey," I murmured, pulling his arm and moving over so that he could lay down next to me. I wrapped an arm across his mid-section and cuddled up to his back. We both sighed at the contact, and he took my hand and pulled me while he rolled onto his back so that I was laying sideways with my head resting on his chest. I immediately felt better and closed my eyes, squeezing him tightly. "Don’t worry, I won’t be watching the shows from the audience anymore," I assured him with a chuckle, trying not to think about the musky smell of his shirt.

"Good. We’ll save you a great seat backstage…."

"Justin," I tried to say, but he rambled on.

"And that way, I can keep an eye on you when I do my costume changes….and I’ll have Todd watch you when I can’t…"

"Justin."

"And when the show is over…"

"JUSTIN!" I hit him on the chest and picked my head off of his chest to look him in the eye.

"What?" he lifted his head to look at me.

"You’re forgetting that this is your last show in LA, I won’t BE at anymore of them," I told him, softly, feeling a wave of regret wash over me. He was silent as he registered my words, and I felt his hand move to my hair, smoothing it back.

"Then you’ll just have to come with us," he whispered. "What would they think if you didn’t go on tour with your husband-to-be?"

"That I have to work?" I wanted to go with him, I really did, but I had obligations to tend to. I had friends here, I had a life, I had a house, a dog…

"No," he placed his hands under my arms and lifted me so that I was resting completely on top of him, my head right above his. "They’ll think that you want to be with me, that’s all. Please, Lexi…I don’t want to go without you."

"Justin, how many tours have you done without me? A million, I’m sure you’ll be fine," I told him, trying to ignore how his breath was brushing across my chin.

"No I won’t," he pouted, and I couldn’t resist bending down to give him a playful kiss on his chin.

"I’m glad to hear that you’ll miss me," I teased, breathing heavily as his hands started to wander over my back and into my hair. His fingers threaded in the mass of it and he gently pulled my head forward.

"God, Lexi, more than you know," he murmured, huskily, then before I knew it, our lips had touched softly, briefly. I pulled back a bit to look into his eyes, which were shining despite the darkness of the room. I placed my hand on his chest to feel that his heart was racing as much as mine was, and we both leaned towards each other at the same time, this time make the kiss less friendly, and more desperate, our lips moving against the other’s passionately. Justin’s hand stayed tangled in my hair, and the other one moved up and down my back, molding me tightly to him as he ravished my mouth with his, opening my lips for his tongue, which dipped into my mouth teasingly, making me groan and press myself even closer, running my hands across his shoulders and into his hair so he couldn’t move away. I was so lost in his kiss, drowning in the sensations that I was experiencing from my best friend. This was a side to him I didn’t know, and one that scared me more than the fans outside, more than the uncertainty of my career or my life. It was the single most exciting, most thrilling….and most terrifying moment of my life. I could tell that Justin felt the same way by the way his arms were shaking as they held me, and how his face twitched as he kissed me so tenderly and with so much passion. I heard a growl sound at the back of his throat when the door to the dressing room flew open.

"Oops, sorry, guys!" We jumped up to find Lance standing in the doorway, grinning sheepishly. "Don’t stop on my account, I was just checking on Alex…and I see she’s doing just fine."

"Yeah, I’m ok, thanks Lance," I said, shakily, trying to catch my breath and calm my poor heart down. I never understood why people put a hand on their chest as if that would slow their heart rate, but I did it anyway, my face blushing a bright red.

"It’s the Justin Effect," Lance told me, shaking his head. "Does it everytime."

"Yeah, he always makes me feel better," Joey said in a feminine voice, flipping his hand as he stepped into the room behind Lance. Justin and I avoided looking at each other, but I could tell that he was thinking the same thing I was. They were so nonchalant about catching us making out, and that was very weird for me, but then when I thought about it, I realized that it wasn’t a big deal to them. We were supposed to be engaged.

"So did you convince her?" JC asked, yawning as he joined the crowd in Justin’s dressing room.

"Convince me to do what?" I narrowed my eyes, nodding at Chris as he bounced in as well, giving me a sweaty hug, then grabbing an apple from the table.

"Have an orgy with all of us," Joey grinned, slapping Chris five. I wasn’t in the mood for any of their antics and focused my attention to JC.

"Convince me to do what?" I asked again. JC shrugged.

"To go on tour with us," he said, looking at Justin. "He was supposed to talk to you about it, we’d all love to have you…"

"Oh so that’s it, huh?" This time my attention was only on the blonde sitting next to me. "Was that your way to convince me?"

"Lexi, no, of course not, I was just…" Justin stammered, but I didn’t want to listen.

"Of course not. You just suddenly decided to…" I stopped talking and looked up to find all of *NSYNC watching me closely, as if I was about to snap. "I have to go."

"Lexi, wait…"

"Alex, where are you going?" I walked out the door to the chorus of the guys’ voices calling back to me, and somehow, I didn’t look back.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

I looked up at the MTI building and groaned. It was a very grey and gloomy day, and I was wearing the darkest sunglasses I had to hide my red, puffy eyes that only got that bad when one spent the entire night crying. I wasn’t in the mood for a meeting with George Hamilton, the president of Models and Talent Inc., but I really didn’t have a choice.

"Alexia, how’s it…..wow, you look like hell," the receptionist said as I walked inside. She even managed to lower her nail file for five seconds to look me over, then went back to it.

"Thanks, Stacie, I really appreciate that," I grumbled. "Is he in?"

"He’s waiting for you," she told me, waving a perfectly-manicured hand toward George’s office door. I nodded and adjusted my purse before making my way into his office.

"Alexia! So good to see you, doll!" George greeted me, standing up to plant a kiss on both of my cheeks. "I have seen you look better, but it’s still good to see you."

"Thanks, George, really. Now what did you want to see me about?" I sat down carefully on the chair across from his desk and crossed my legs quickly. He liked all of his models to be very proper and well-mannered, so I folded my hands in my lap as well.

"Well, Alexia, here’s the problem," he began, tapping his pen on the desk. "MTI is struggling. You’re all we’ve got right now, and thank the lord for you, or we’d be screwed." I smiled at his bluntness. "We need something big, something huge for summer, to get our name out there again, and it has got to have something to do with you. The problem is that marketing all has their heads up each other’s asses and won’t come up with anything, so I thought I’d toss a few ideas your way."

"Ok so I’ll be working all summer?" I verified.

"Definitely. Why, that’s not a problem, is it?" He looked worried.

"No, George, not at all…..it’s just that Justin…"

"Timberlake?" he interrupted. I nodded.

"Yeah, well him and the rest of *NSYNC kind of wanted me to go on tour with them this summer. I didn’t really want…"

"Oh my God!" George practically shouted, jumping out of his chair so fast that it shot back against the window with a bang. I started in surprise.

"What?"

"That’s IT, Alexia, you and that curly-headed fiancee of yours are genuises. I love you both….wow, this is great!" He pulled the chair back up to his desk and started taking furious notes.

"George, I don’t understand…"

"Doll baby, don’t worry your pretty little head about leaving your fiancee this summer, because you don’t have to. If things go the way I want, and they usually do, then you’re not only going to be on that tour, but you’ll be a part of it," he told me, still scribbling things on his yellow notepad.

"WHAT?"

"Picture it! A tour bus with your face painted on the side….autograph signings in every city…..a HUGE campaign with *NSYNC featuring Alexia! It’s going to be HUGE! Oh we’ll need a whole team of people for this….we’ll draw a male crowd, and lord knows they need that…"

"A BUS with my FACE on it??" I gasped, my eyes wide. "Are you SERIOUS?"

"As a heart attack, baby," he told me. "You can pick your own street team, I want four women to basically help control crowds, do set ups, and help out in general……that’s up to you. Now I’m going to call Johnny Wright, so scoot."

"But George…"

"Scoot! And while you’re at it, get yourself a facial! You’re going on tour with *NSYNC for crying out loud!"

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

"I’ll be right there!" I yelled, as if the person on the other end of the phone line could hear me. I had to pick my way through an entire mountain of clothes to answer the phone, which had already shouted its presence several times. I stumbled out of my closet, tripping over a pair of panty hose just as I heard,

"Meez Alexia, are you goeeng to ahnsur dee phone?"

"I’m trying, Esmerelda!" I called back before the click of the answering machine stopped me.

"Hey, you’ve reached me. If you don’t know who me is, chances are you’ve got the wrong number. Beep." I needed to change that greeting, it was slightly obnoxious.

"Um….Lexi?" My head snapped to attention, ignoring the hose that had gotten tangled in my sandal. The voice cleared his throat before continuing. "It’s me…" Just hearing Justin’s voice brought tears to my eyes. I had been avoiding him for weeks, and he sounded tortured. "Look, JC told me about the tour and….I dunno, I just wanted to talk to you…wondering why you didn’t tell me that you’re coming with us…" He paused and I strained to hear his soft breathing. "Anyway, we just got to Salt Lake, so call my cell, will ya? If not, I guess I’ll see you in Phoenix." Wow, he knew what date I was planning on joining the tour and everything. Of course, I had known that they were in Salt Lake that day, too. "I miss you, Lexi," was the last thing he said before hanging up, causing me to scowl and throw a slipper at it.

"Don’t be saying shit like that!" I yelled at the poor machine.

"Dat boy eez in loove wit you, Meez Alexia," Esmerelda commented, lifting a plant on my dresser to continue her dusting. My housekeeper had a nasty habit of eavesdropping, but she was very sweet and didn’t talk to reporters, so I didn’t mind.

"No, Melda, that boy just likes to have his ego fed," I told her, a flash of his face in the dark as it neared mine going across my mind. I blocked the image before it progressed any further.

"Vhatever you shey, Meez Alexia," she sang, giving the dresser one last dust before moving into the next room. I sighed and pushed myself to my feet, blowing my new, shorter hair out of my eyes.

George had spared no expense in giving me a new, healthy look. My hair was bright and full with golden highlights, falling a few inches below my shoulders in organized layers. My skin glowed from the beauty of a fake and bake tan, my nails were perfectly manicured (hands and toes), my eyebrows perfectly sculpted, and all excess body hair had been removed. All in all, I didn’t look at all like myself, and I felt completely fake.

Surveying the already-full suitcases on the bed, I crinkled my nose. Not a single article of clothing in the cases were for fun. There were no t-shirts, no sweatpants, no bathing suits that I could actually swim in, and certainly no fun accessories like baseball caps and plastic bracelets. My gaze fell on a small suitcase that I had shoved under the bed and I grinned, leaning over to yank it out and throw it on the bed with the others. If anything, I vowed that I would have some fun on this tour, even if it killed me.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

"Wow, Alex, this is amazing!" Lesa chirped, looking up at the newly-painted tour bus. I had invited her along on the trip as one of the Tag Team members, as George called them, hoping that we could be friends without the whole Justin thing getting in the way. After all, I couldn’t exactly blame her for falling victim to his charms, could I?

"It’s ok," I commented, frowning at the rather large picture of me on the side of the bus, complete with the Alexia logo. Oh, the teenyboppers were going to LOVE that. I would be lucky if the damn thing didn’t get egged. "I prefer solid colors."

"Our bus is solid purple," Kendra spoke, motioning to the other bus that was parked directly behind me. "I like it." I liked I, too, much better than that atrocity of a vehicle that I would be sleeping in over the next few months.

I had let the guys help me choose The Tag Team, so they all obviously spouted out the names of their new lovers. Joey was having a hard time choosing between Lesa, his best friend, and Martii, his new woman, but eventually Lesa smacked him over the head and threatened to disclose all secrets about him, so he relented and chose her. Lance named Kendra, JC named Kristy, Chris was still attached to Crystal, and Justin…well, I hadn’t spoken to Justin, so it didn’t matter anyway. I only needed four.

"Alex, I can’t thank you enough for giving us this opportunity," Kristy said, making a few notes on her clipboard, then taking a long drag from her cigarette. Kristy had been the most qualified out of the group, so she had been put in charge of the Tag Team, and was trying her damndest to get everything organized. She had already griped about the no smoking policy of the tour buses, but we had mentioned that she would be seeing JC in seven hours, so she was pretty much over it.

"Don’t thank me, thank the guys," I smiled, picking up the small suitcase so the drive wouldn’t load it in the bottom of the bus.

"Oh don’t worry, I’ll thank Chris all he wants," Crystal laughed as she dragged her suitcases over to the purple bus.

"With her tongue," Lesa told us, and we all shook our heads. I don’t think anyone needed that visual.

"Hey, that reminds me, did you call Jen?" Kristy asked Kendra, tossing her cigarette onto the sidewalk and stomping on it.

"Licking Chris reminds you of Jen?" Crystal asked with a laugh. Kristy grinned and shook her head.

"No, but Alex, you’d better keep an eye on Justin. Jen’s known to go for the….younger of the boy groups. And she’s very…"

"She has no shame," Kendra helped. "But she’ll be cool. And yes, Kritsy, I called her. I think she’s interviewing you, Alex. She works at a station in Phoenix, so…"

"Probably," I grumbled. "I have interviews like everyday."

"Well you’re in luck…..egg Jen on enough, and you won’t have to say a word, she’ll do all the talking for you," Kristy told me with a giggle. "We’ll have to go with you for moral support."

"You got it," I grinned, glad that they would be coming with me. I needed as much moral support as I could get on this trip.

A cell phone rang and we all dropped our cases at once, making a grab for our purses or pockets.

"Mine!" Kendra announced, holding the phone to her ear. "Stay the Same Central!" she answered, and Kristy and Crystal both busted in hysterical hoots of laughter.

"Jen’s pants," Kristy giggled, but Kendra motioned for her to be quiet

"Hey!" she swooned, and we all rolled our eyes.

"Lance," we said at once, then covered our mouths to stop the giggles as we pretended to fan ourselves.

"Yeah….oh, I can’t wait…..Are you serious?….Sure, um, hang on," Kendra was saying, then she looked at me weirdly and handed me the phone.

"He wants to talk to you," she told me with a shrug. I gave her a funny look, but took the phone anyway.

"Sup, Lancelot?" I teased, rolling my eyes at the girls.

"Not much lately," a voice that was too high to be Lance answered. I started coughing loudly, then cleared my throat.

"Justin! Um….hi…." The girls’ eyes all widened and they immediately dispersed to check on their bus.

"Hi, Alexia." He sounded calm, almost too calm. "I finally figured out that I’d have to be sneaky to get to talk to you, so….here I am."

"Pretty smart," I told him, changing ears and wiping my now sweaty palms on my pants.

"So you’re leaving soon, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, we’re packing the buses up now. We should be in Phoenix by lunchtime." I was surprised Justin was awake at all, let alone on the phone.

"What’s on your schedule today?" he wanted to know. I could tell that he was approaching this conversation very cautiously, as if I was going to hang up on him at any time.

"Well I have an interview at four, I think…" I tried to think back to the schedule that had been posted on the bus.

"That’s when we do sound check," he interrupted. "Have lunch with me, then?"

"Justin, I don’t…."

"Lexi, please, just talk to me. You can’t avoid me forever, you know that, don’t you?" he pleaded.

"I know," I whispered. It was true. We were going to be on this tour together, and it would be hell not talking to him. "Alright I’ll call you when I get in town, ok?"

"You promise?" he asked, sounding skeptical.

"I guess you’ll see, won’t you?" I tried to put a teasing tone to my voice, and it seemed to work.

"If I don’t, there will be hell to pay," he said, and I could hear him smiling. "It’s good to hear your voice, Lexi."

"Yours too," I answered honestly. It was a little too good to hear his voice. In all honesty, it was sending shivers in places I didn’t know that I had.

"Ok then I’ll see you in seven hours, I’m going back to bed," he laughed after a long moment of silence between us.

"Me too," I grinned. "I’ll see you later, Curly." I felt a tear come to my eye. It had been so long since I had realy smiled.

"You sure will, Junior."

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

A rather large bump jolted me awake, and I shot up in my bunk, hitting my head on the rather low ceiling.

"Ow," I grumbled, sleepily rubbing my poor head. "What in God’s green earth was that?" I pulled the curtain open to find Lesa with hand in the air as if she had just been about to open it herself.

"Morning, happy," she grinned, tugging on my ponytail as I swung my legs over the bunk and hopped onto the floor.

"Where are we?" I wanted to know, stomping into the bus’s main area to peer out the window. All I saw was the side of a purple bus pulling up beside us. "Well, there’s your bus." Not wanting to be left alone, I had asked someone to go with me, and Lesa readily volunteered, seeing as the other three knew each other fairly well since they had been spending so much time backstage together. Besides, we had a common bond and it came in the form of a 6-foot tall blonde with unruly curly hair and blue eyes. I think she was hoping to dig up some information while she spent time with me.

"I wonder where our driver went," Lesa wondered aloud, motioning to the bus’s open door.

"Lexi, you in here?" Kristy called, poking her head in the bus.

"No, Kris, I escaped out the back and am now hitching a ride home as we speak," I answered sarcastically.

"It’ll work better if you show a little leg," she yawned, coming up the bus steps to give us both a half-hearted wave.

"Are we in Blythe already?" I asked, plopping down on the couch to put on my shoes. We had been planning on stopping in Blythe, CA, the halfway point between LA and Phoenix.

"No," Kristy said, giving us a weird look. "Did you miss the bump that your bus caused that sent us all into this town?"

"Is that what that was?" I mumbled, absently rubbing the small lump on my head.

"What town?" Lesa wanted to know.

"It’s called Wickenburg, I think," Kristy informed us. "We’re just lucky we were passing it when this hole you call a tour bus decided to blow a tire."

"Figures," I muttered, standing up and stretching my arms over my head. "Someone probably got a load of my ugly mug and threw a knife at the tire."

"Or a road worker was so in awe of your 3-story picture that he dropped a bucket of nails all over the road," Lesa teased as we emerged from the bus to take a look at the damages.

"Let me guess," I said to Kendra as she leaned over the bus driver’s shoulder to check out the tire. "You and Lance got into a spat so you rigged my bus so you wouldn’t have to see him." Kristy scoffed.

"Like that would ever happen," she mused.

"Yep, it was all me." Kendra stood straight up and brushed off her jeans. Did this girl ever wear shorts?

"Figures," Kristy grumbled as we all peered over Al’s shoulder. He cranned his neck to look up at us and slowly shook his head.

"Girls, it’s gonna be a few hours, so maybe you should run along and grab some lunch, dessert…." He turned back to the tire and scowled. "Hell maybe a few drinks."

"I’ll go wake up Crystal," Kendra sighed, moving toward the purple bus.

"A few HOURS?" Kristy groaned, making another tick mark on her clipboard. "So much for that radio interview, Lexi." So much for lunch with Justin, I thought with a sigh.

"They’ll wait," I shrugged, turning to get back on the bus. "You guys go ahead, I’m going to make a phone call."

"Tell Justin hi," Lesa sang as I shut the bus doors. I frowned, wondering exactly what her intentions towards him were. She had obviously enjoyed her um…quality time wit him, but whether or not it was stopping there, I had no idea. It would be up to the curly wonder, I assumed.

Kicking off my shoes, I fell back onto the couch and propped my feet up, tucking my cell phone under my chin. Justin’s phone rang three times before it clicked, then I heard someone beatboxing into the phone.

"Yo, you’ve reached the voice mail of Justin Grandmasta Timbahlake…leave me a message, and if I don’t return your call, take a hint, Britney." I choked on my laugh as the beep sounded, then hung up the phone quickly, figuring that he was still asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(yes I am aware that switching POV in the middle of a story is a no-no, but I was getting bored with JUST the girls, so deal with it)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dude, will you wake your ass up?" Justin woke to someone violently shaking him and his hand shot out blindly, catching the side of Lance’s ear as he instinctively moved out of the way.

"Leave me alone," Justin grumbled, perfectly content with his dreams involving long flowing hair and soft lips… He rolled over and pulled the covers over his head, fighting to get the dream back. Lance frowned at the Ritz symbol on the blanket that was now in place of Justin’s head.

"Look, Sunshine, it’s 3 o’clock and your phone has been ringings all day," he said, tugging the blanket down again. "JC almost threw it out the window, it woke him up so many times." He moved to open the curtains. The bright Arizona sun broke its way into the room and shone right in Justin’s face, causing an animal-like growl to emerge from the back of the singer’s throat.

"Lance, if you don’t shut that goddamn curtain…" Justin threatened, finally sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"What?" Lance laughed. "You gonna beat me up? Sick Busta on me?" That finally got a smile out of his bandmate.

"Yeah, and this time, he can leave YOU a happy little do-do, only on your freakin head," Justin sighed, pulling his bare feet out of the twisted sheets and planting them on the floor. He yawned and rubbed his head, then scratched absently at his crotch through the dark sweatpants.

"Isn’t there some kind of a law against scratching yourself in front of your roommate?" Lance complained, rifling through his suitcase, which had yet to be unpacked.

"So don’t look," Justin replied, standing and stretching so far that the muscles in his abs and pectorals visibly moved beneath his flawlessly tanned skin. Lance looked down at his own stomach and patted it, sighing as Justin padded to the bathroom, now scratching an ass cheek.

"Why do you have so many fans again?" Lance commented, pulling a periwinkle polo out of his suitcase. He was answered with Justin’s middle finger sticking out of the bathroom door and he chuckled lightly, pulling the shirt over his head and picking up a comb and a rather large bottle of mousse from the dresser. Deciding against asking Justin to share mirror space, he flipped the light on the dresser on so he could use the mirror there. He had no wish to go on stage that evening with a black eye.

"Where’s my phone?" Justin called after a few minutes of pre-shower primping.

"I put it on the table by your bed." Lance was busy sculpting trendy spikes into his hair with the mousse as Justin walked out of the bathroom to grab his phone. Lance glanced toward the empty bathroom, then grinned just before he made a mad dash for it, comb and mousse in hand.

"Hey!" Justin yelled as Lance slammed the bathroom door. "You’re gonna pay for that, Poofu!"

"No, I won’t," came the muffled answer. "Not while I have control of your hair supplies….dude, what IS this glop??" Justin couldn’t help but smile and shake his head at Lance’s uncharacteristic antics.

"Ah, that’s probably my new herbal element seaweed and cucumber hair gel," Justin said, pucking up the phone and studying the face. He chuckled at the digusted noise that Lance made and pushed a button on the phone. He had five missed calls and no messages.

"So who called?" Lance asked, emerging from the bathroom in all of his spiky blonde glory.

"I don’t know, but they were out of area," Justin reported. "Probably Brit, Lexi won’t be here for another hour or so."

"No, Brit called earlier….Chris answered," Lance told him.

"Oh great. Remind me to thank him for answering my phone while I’m screening my calls," Justin grumbled, pulling a white wifebeater over his head.

"Well the damn thing wouldn’t stop ringing, so it was either let Joey and JC play raquetball with it, or let Chris answer it. I went with Chris, at least you’d be out a stalker rather than a cell phone, right?"

"Good point, but it still scares me that he was talking to her," Justin grumbled, sifting through his various shirts for one that would bring out his tan.

"So you’re seeing Lexi today, right?" Lance asked after Justin frowned at the fourth shirt.

"Yeah, we’re having lunch." Justin held up a baby blue button down top, then frowned when he saw how similar it was to Lance’s and put it back.

"Jus, I think you’re getting a zit…"

"WHAT?? WHERE?!" Justin raced for the mirror and peered at himself from every angle while Lance burst into laughter.

"Calm down, man, I was just kidding. It’s only Lexi, why are you so jumpy?" Lance wanted to know. Justin sighed and backed away from the mirror, looking at his feet.

"She’s mad at me, bro, I just want everything to be perfect," he explained, moving back to his rack of shirts.

"Well I hope you don’t botch this up," Lance agreed. "She’s good for you, man." Justin nodded in agreement, absently whistling "I’ll Be Good For You" while he searched.

"Yeah she is. And I’m good for her too, whether she realizes it or not." Even if it is as only a friend, he added silently.

"She does. You should see the way she looks at you, Ju, like she could just eat you up. It’s sickening," Lance laughed, sitting on the edge of the bed to wait. Justin raised an eyebrow and turned to face his friend.

"She does?" he asked incredulously. This he didn’t know. Lance nodded in confusion.

"Of course she does, you goof. She loves you, remember?"

"Right…" Justin let his voice trail off, losing himself in his own thoughts. "Lexi loves me…" And monkeys might fly out of my butt, he thought.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Are we there yet?” Lesa groaned, staring at the passing cacti on the seemingly neverending freeway. I shook my head and sighed.

“No, we’re not there yet, and I’m like five hours late for my lunch date with Justin,” I told her, immediately regretting talking about him.

“You know, Alexia, you can talk to me about him, it’s ok,” Lesa said, turning to look at me. “I mean, yeah, I’m attracted to the guy, that’s obvious…”

“Of course.”

“But you guys are engaged now, and I accept that. You’ve got good taste, what can I say?” she added with a smile. I smiled back gratefully.

“Thanks, Lesa, really. I was kind of worried about how you would take this whole thing….we’ve been having problems lately.” Boy was that the understatement of the year. Things hadn’t been the same with Justin and I since that kiss backstage, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they ever would be. We had to talk about it, I knew that, I just wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Well problems or not, that boy is madly in love with you,” Lesa chuckled with a flip of her hand. I raised my eyebrows.

“You think so, huh?” Oh if only she knew the truth.

“Oh yeah,” she snorted. “Even the one night we were together, he wouldn’t stop talking about you for like two seconds, it was actually getting on my nerves.”

“Are you serious?” For some reason, I found that hard to believe. Yeah, Justin and I were close, but why would he talk about me?

“Yup. Alexia this, Alexia that…..Alexia does this, Alexia likes that…he couldn’t be more smitten if he got hit by Cupid’s fucking arrow,” Lesa stated matter-of-factly. She didn’t sound bitter, but she wasn’t all that thrilled either. “I don’t even know what he was doing with me that night, Lexi. And I certainly don’t know what you were doing with Paul Walker, you looked like you were ready to bite my head off when you saw me the next morning.”

“Well, I wasn’t prepared for Justin to bring a girl over, ya know?” I tried to explain without giving too much away. “We have this understanding, but…”

“It’s not working,” she interrupted. “And it won’t work, not unless you guys are only with each other. Then maybe we all can get some peace and quiet.” My cell phone ringing interrupted her and she smiled down at it. “Gee, wonder who that is.” I swallowed, not having time to digest her words before I picked it up.

“Where the fuck are you?” Well, so much for hearing his soft voice whispering sweet nothings into my ear.

“Justin you always know how to make a girl feel wanted,” I shot back, rolling my eyes at Lesa. “I tried calling you like fifty times, so the question is where the FUCK were you?”

“Sleeping,” he replied. “Are you standing me up?”

“No, Curly…well, yes, but…”

“Lexi, you promised,” he whined. “This isn’t fair to me, this whole damn thing isn’t fair. You haven’t talked to me since that show, you’ve been avoiding me at all costs, and now…”

“Justin, will you please shut up and listen to me?” I was getting impatient.

“Why? So you can give me an excuse about why we should stop seeing each other? Not that you need one, it’s not like we were to begin with.” This wasn’t the Justin I knew. This Justin was hard and cold, not even wanting to hear what I had to say.

“You don’t understand…” I tried to say, but he cut me off.

“I sure do,” he said angrily. “I understand perfectly. I guess since you’ll be on the tour with us, you’ll have to see me, but don’t expect me to apologize.”

“I didn’t…”

“Sorry, Alexia, I just don’t want to hear it right now. I’ll see you around.” Before I could say another word, he had hung up the phone and I was left staring at the receiver in my shaky hand, trying to hold back the tears that had fought their way into my eyes. After a few moments, Lesa finally spoke up.

“Um, what was THAT all about?” she asked, softly. I just shook my head and stood up, stumbling my way back to my bunk.

“Wake me when we get there, will you?” was all I said.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Lexi, come on, we’re already late,” Kristy said, impatiently. I groaned and jumped out of the van that had taken us one of Phoenix’s local radio stations. We hadn’t even been in the city for 10 minutes before I was rushed off to do this interview, and the heat was already getting to me.

“OH MY GOD!”

“IT’S ALEXIA!”

“ALEXIA TAKE US INSIDE!” There were fans EVERYWHERE outside of the station. It was a complete madhouse. They were all screaming and reaching out for me as we rushed by them, and the only thing I could think of to explain it was that *NSYNC was inside. They had to be.

“Bitch,” a voice from the crowd sounded, and I turned surprised eyes onto a girl who was standing about a foot away from me with her arms crossed over her Justin t-shirt. I didn’t even have time to react before I was pushed through the glass doors and into an elevator.

“Did you hear that?” I hissed at Kristy, and she nodded, shrugging her shoulders.

“Teenies will be teenies,” she told me, nodding as we got out on the third floor and walked into the station’s lobby. We were immediately greeted by a confident man in his late 20s/early 30s. He was fairly short and sported a goatee, a trendy haircut, and a fake smile that he plastered on as we were introduced. In my experiences, I had found that most programming directors were the same way.

“Jennifer Jayde will be interviewing you,” he was saying as he escorted us into the studio. “She’s still in with *NSYNC right now, and it’s going really well, so we’re keeping them on for a bit longer. Just wait here and watch the interview until we’re ready for you, ok?” With that, he was gone, leaving us in a room with a glass-paned wall that overlooked the actual studio, where the guys of *NSYNC all sat with headphones on. Sitting behind the soundboard was a woman…a girl, really….in her mid 20s. She had on a baby blue tank top, black cargo shorts, and a the biggest smile I had ever seen. She must have been a little excited about interviewing the guys.

“Alriiiiight, Phoenix, welcome back! You’re listening to Jennifer Jayde on ZZP and for those of you who just crawled out from under your rock, I’m here with the guys of *NSYNC, and if the crowd outside is any indication of how popular you are…”

“Nah, they’re here for Alexia,” Chris said, grinning at me through the window and waving. All eyes turned to look and I blushed when I felt Justin turn as well. He was the only one who didn’t wave or smile, he only stared at me as if I wasn’t even there.

“Well then, I shan’t disappoint them because Alexia will be in here next, but for now…tell me about the tour. How is it going, what kinds of things should we expect to see at the show tonight?” Jennifer asked, smiling brightly at me.

“Well, we’re not giving anything away,” JC said, winking at Kristy through the glass. I heard her sigh and giggled as he went on to say, “But this show is the biggest thing we’ve ever done. The effects are incredible, and our crew is the most talented we’ve ever worked with. We’re very excited about it.” I almost yawned listening to the speech that I had heard so many times.

“I heard a rumor that you aren’t doing Bringin’ Da Noise,” she accused, wagging a finger at them. “What’s up with THAT?”

“Oh man, don’t even take me there,” Joey laughed.

“Joey wasn’t happy with that decision,” Chris added.

“It was a decision made by us and our team,” Lance said, always the sensible one. “There really is no excuse, it just isn’t in the show.”

“Well, I’ll tell you how I feel about that one off the air when I can use those words,” Jennifer teased, smiling right at Justin. I stared in shock when he smiled back at her, shrugging his shoulders.

“I don’t think you’ll be disappointed,” he said, looking right at her. He was doing this on purpose, he had to have been.

“Oh I don’t think that would be possible,” she laughed, finally turning back to the other guys in an attempt to remain professional. This had to be the Jen that Kristy, Kendra and Crystal had been talking about. She was practically glowing.

“I hope she doesn’t mess up her chair,” Kristy whispered to me and I chuckled to myself. “She’s holding up pretty well, though.”

“I would say so, she hasn’t fallen out of her chair yet,” I commented.

“Key word…yet,” Kristy told me, focusing her attention back to the interview.

“So just to let you all know, I don’t want to ask this question, but I am kind of obligated…..” Jennifer was saying.

“Uh oh,” Lance said right away, and the other guys all groaned.

“No, please don’t,” Chris begged.

“It’s not necessary…” JC tried to say.

“Girlfriends,” Jen stated with a smile.

“Aw man, she went there,” Chris shook his head. The other mumbled their agreements and Jen held up her hands.

“Hey, like I said, this is not my question, but it had to be asked. Feel free to give me a no comment.”

“No comment,” Justin stated right away, his gaze falling on me before he quickly looked away.

“So that whole threesome thing about Britney and Alexia isn’t true?” she teased, making all of the other guys laugh so hard that they almost fell out of their chairs. Justin barely cracked a smile, he just held her gaze captive and said clearly,

“No, it’s not. And if it was, I’m sorry I can’t remember it.”

“That would be some interesting video footage,” Joey commented, earning himself a smack on the arm from Lance. “What??”

“Public radio, Joe, public,” Lance reminded him.

“Well it would,” Joey defended, sending me a sheepish grin. I crinkled my nose and gave them all two thumbs down from my space in the soundproof room.

“So are you guys excited about having Alexia tour with you?” Jen asked, looking pointedly at Justin. He looked away and pretended to read one of the flyers on the wall while JC cleared his throat.

“Yeah, we’re very excited,” he said, looking at me with a sweet smile. “Alexia has been a good friend of all of ours for a while now, so it’ll be good to have a new face on tour…”

“Especially one like THAT,” Chris whooped, sticking his tongue out at me.

“Yeah, man, she’s hot!” Joey added, blowing me a kiss. I blew one back and laughed out loud, already feeling better about being on this tour.

“And it will definitely help to even out the testosterone level,” Lance pointed out. Jen laughed brightly and nodded at the producer, who was giving her the sign to wrap it up.

“Well guys, I can’t wait to see the show tonight,” she said into her microphone. “I’ve got some great seats too.”

“Oh did they hook you up?” Chris asked.

“No, man, I had to pay for them!” Jen complained with a smile. “Waited on line with all of those girls down there and everything, it was quite the experience.”

“Well we’ll have to look for you…you’re going to be the one wearing the shirt, right? The one with the sleeves?” Chris asked, the eternal smartass.

“Yup, that’ll be me,” she grinned. “I’ll be the one with the head, you’d better wave at me, man. I want to make everyone in the place jealous.” Like they weren’t already.

“I’ll look for you, Jen,” Justin said into his mic in a hushed tone, making all of the other guys raise their eyebrows and say,

“Oooh….”

“Looking forward to it,” she said back. I could almost see the drool. “So until then, I want to thank *NSYNC for joining me today, and stick around, cause I’ve got Alexia in the studio next…on ZZP……” She pressed a couple of buttons, then took off the headphones, chattering excitedly with the guys. I couldn’t hear a thing and it bothered me a lot more than I wanted to admit. I didn’t like the way she was learning toward Justin while she talked, touching his arm as if she had known him for years. The problem is that he was obviously loving every second.

“Don’t worry, Lexi,” Kristy told me. “That’s just Jen, she doesn’t mean any harm.”

“I’m not worried about her,” I told her honestly. “It’s Justin that I’m worried about.”

“He wouldn’t…”

“Yeah he would, Kristy,” I cut her off. “And to be honest, I don’t need to deal with that shit. Now excuse me, I have a radio interview to get through.”

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Hey you guys, are we staying to watch Alexia’s interview?” JC asked, draping his arm over Kristy’s shoulder. I was already getting myself settled in the studio, hoping to get through the interview as quickly as possible. They were all crowded in the same room I had been standing before, watching as Jen ran through the list of questions so I would be prepared. She seemed nice enough, but I couldn’t help the rush of jealousy that ran through me when she turned her head to smile and give Justin a little wave. I imitated her, and grinned when I saw the other guys cover up their mouths in laughter.

“I’m staying, but not to watch Alexia’s interview,” Justin stated simply, grateful for the glass that prevented me from hearing him.

“Don’t tell me…” JC groaned, sharing a worried glance with Kristy.

“The DJ, Jus?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow. Justin gave them all one of his famous half grins and nodded slyly.

“Oh yeah, did you see how she was looking at me?” He puffed his chest out, just like he always did when he was trying to act tough. Most of us could see right through his egotistical pretty boy act, but to anyone watching from the outside, he would seem like a complete jerk.

“No different than most other girls look at you, Hustin,” Kristy teased lightly. He scowled at her, then snuck a glance through the glass to where Jen and I were laughing softly.

“You know,” Joey said softly, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You don’t need to make her jealous, Just, it’ll just make it worse.”

“Make who jealous?” Justin laughed at his friend. “I’m just looking for a good time, Joe.”

“And hoping that Lexi sees what a great time you’re having, right?”

“Oh come on, give me a break,” Justin snapped. “It’s not like you’re the expert on women. The last date you had ended up in the sack with me!” Joey was taken aback by the biting comment, and his fists unconsciously curled at his side.

“You’re lucky I don’t make you taste my fist for that, Curly,” Joey snarled. “Since you’re not in the right frame of mind, I’ll forgive you, but you can bet I won’t be butting in again.”

“Good,” Justin stated.

“You don’t deserve her anyway,” Joey grumbled, leaving Justin to watch the interview by himself.

“What is WITH him, anyway?” Lance whispered to Joey as he walked away from Justin. Joey just shrugged.

“Who knows, man, but something weird is definitely going on.”

“Seriously, they sure don’t act like an engaged couple,” Lance observed, concentrating on Justin, who was watching Jen as she flipped through some notes.

“They probably never were,” JC came up behind them, speaking in a hushed tone so Justin wouldn’t hear.

“Huh?” Chris was now in the conversation as well, leaving Kristy to talk to the PD and Justin to watch the interview.

“Seriously, you guys, think about it….how fast they got together, how they acted around other people, how they acted around each OTHER….I really don’t think it’s true,” JC told them, nodding at Justin.

“Does that mean Alexia is up for grabs?” Joey asked excitedly, then yelped when Lance smacked him over the head.

“No, dude, he loves her,” Chris said, making his first intelligent observation of the day. “He just has no idea that he loves her. The boy is a moron.”

“I think Lexi would be the first to agree with you,” Joey sighed, shaking his head in regret. “This is going to be an interesting tour, you guys.” They all nodded in agreement, watching as Jen and I both got up and shook hands as the interview came to a close. We motioned for everyone to join us back in the studio as Jen set the computer to run on its own for a while.

“So did you guys enjoy the interview?” I asked as they all filed in. They looked at each other helplessly, then quickly recovered.

“Oh yeah, are you kidding?”

“It was great, Lexi!”

“Dude, that was the funniest thing I’ve EVER heard!” I frowned.

“Uh, Chris, I don’t remember saying anything funny,” I commented, putting my hands on my hips.

“Well, I was watching it, so ya know….looking at you makes me laugh,” he joked, dodging as my hand hit the air right where his head had been.

“Then you’ll really think this is funny,” I told him just before he saw the serious look on my face and started running to the other side of the soundboard, making sure to keep distance between us. I edged closer. “Come on, Chris, this will be almost painless.”

“I sing high enough, thank you,” he replied.

“Children, please,” Justin groaned loudly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Enough already.”

“Oh I’m sorry, Mr. Timberlake, we didn’t mean to get out of hand,” Chris said, winking at me.

“Yes, Master, we are sorry,” I added, making Justin frown even more.

“Guys, um, I hate to break up the party, but we all have to get to sound check at the venue, so….”

“Shit, we have to go set up the meet and greet, don’t we?” I asked Kristy, who nodded firmly.

“Ok, then let’s go,” JC announced, starting to file everyone out. “Jen, thank you for the interview, it was truly a pleasure.” Jen flushed as JC kissed her hand, soon followed by the rest of the guys.

“Do you realize how jealous those girls downstairs would be if they saw me now?” she commented with a grin.

“You don’t want them to, unless you have a death wish,” I muttered, and Justin and I actually made eye contract, remembering the night I was attacked, but looked away almost as quick as it happened.

“I don’t have a death wish, but seriously, you guys, thank you so much for doing this,” she said, reaching out to shake my hand as well. “It meant a lot to everyone at the station, and especially to me, so I really appreciate it.”

“It was no problem,” Justin said, inching closer to her. I hated how his voice got like an octave lower when he was trying to flirt with someone. He reached out to take her hand, kissing it like the others had done, but he didn’t release it right away. “You’ll be at the show, right, Jen?” Jen gaped at him, looking down at their hands, then back up at his face. A slow grin spread across her features at the teasing glint in his eyes and she nodded.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” she purred.

“Well you can’t miss the after party either,” he told her, reaching into his back pocket and slipping an All Access pass into her left pocket. Jen licked her lips and chucked him under the chin.

“Don’t worry about me, Cutie, I’ll be there,” she told him, pulling her hand away from his to escort us out of the studio. “The guards will help you guys to the van, I think there’s only one waiting to take you all to the venue, so you should be safe.”

“Thanks, Jen,” Kristy smiled, giving her old friend a hug. Jen shrugged.

“Anything for you, Kristles.”

“You mean, anything for NSYNC, don’t you?” Kristy laughed, not buying her shit for a second.

“Yeah, well that too,” Jen laughed, waving at us. “See you guys tonight!” After a chorus of goodbyes, we opened the door to the crowd of screaming girls and were swooped to the vans as if we were walking on air. Noone touched us, and I was grateful for that. The girl who had called me a bitch was probably still out there, and I was not in the mood to deal with her kind.

“So Kristy, you’re friends with Jen?” Justin asked as we pulled onto the freeway, heading for America West Arena.

“Yup,” she confirmed. “For like 3 years now.”

“She’s really nice,” JC cut in, as if to stop Justin from saying whatever it was he was going to say.

“She’s ok,” Kristy laughed. “Gotta love Jen.”

“She single?” We all turned to look at the smug grin on Justin’s face, and I felt my own features cloud over in disgust.

“Um…” Kristy swallowed, looking at me. I just shrugged, and focused my attention out the window. “Yeah, I think she is.” The van pulled to a stop in the back of the venue, and we all moved to get out.

“Good,” Justin continued. “Then I didn’t waste my booty pass.” He laughed out loud and held a hand up to Chris, but the older man looked at it, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Sorry, man, I’m not backing you up on this one,” he said, softly, patting my shoulder, then walking toward the back door without another word. A booty pass was what the guys called the All Access passes they gave out once a night to girls that they thought were cute, and had potential for the evening. The passes often went to waste, especially while the girls were there, but they still existed.

Needless to say, I was livid. I was more than livid, I was so upset and so angry that I couldn’t even think straight. It was so obvious that he was doing this on purpose that it was getting ridiculous.

“Justin, just stop,” JC told him, jumping out of the van with Joey, who just looked completely disgusted. Lance shook his head and moved to get out.

“Lansten, come on…” Justin started to say, but Lance held up his hand, looked at me, then jumped out. Kristy was already on her way inside, so I quickly composed myself and exited the van, ignoring Justin completely as he shut it behind me. I heard him make a noise like he was going to say something, so I turned around to face him, a fire blazing clearly in my eyes.

“You are a jerk,” I stated, taking him aback.

“What?” he asked, angrily. “I’M a jerk?” The van pulled away, leaving us in the back lot alone, and I just couldn’t take it anymore, I had to get something off of my chest.

“Yes!” I exploded, throwing my hands in the air. “You are a complete jerk, an asshole, a fucking MORON…”

“Alexia, I think you’d better…”

“SHUT UP!” I screamed, and he did, backing up slightly. “I’m going to say this, Justin, so don’t make me say it in front of our friends, or our fans, ok?” He nodded carefully, so I went on. “Now as I was saying, you are just about the meanest, rudest, most punk ass person I have EVER met, and I have never in my life misjudged someone the way I misjudged you. My God, Justin, I really thought I was falling for you for a while there!” I laughed bitterly at the confession. “Can you imagine that? Me falling for the curly boy wonder…”

“Wait a second, did you just…” Justin started to say, but I cut him off again.

“I told you to shut up. First, you yell at me over the phone without even LISTENING to anything I have to say….no, I take that back, FIRST you KISS me when I’m at my most vulnerable, then you pretend it didn’t even HAPPEN…”

“VULNERABLE?” he shot out. “You were there, too, Lexi, you didn’t exactly push me away…”

“And THEN you don’t speak to me for weeks, and THEN you yell at me for no reason, and NOW here you are flirting and hitting on other girls in front of me ON PURPOSE! It’s not like you’re just doing it, you’re doing it to spite me, and that’s just so fucking low….it’s pond scum low, it’s lower than…”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Justin answered angrily. At this point, we were practically nose-to-nose and everyone in the lot could hear us screaming at each other. “I kissed you because it seemed right at the time, and you were kissing back just as much….I didn’t talk to you because you were AVOIDING me, and then when I make an attempt to get what we had back, you cancelled it! I’m sorry, Lexi, but I’m not some dog you can just STRING along….”

“No strings attached, right?” I muttered, bitterly. He sneered at my poor attempt at a joke, then just sighed, running his hands through his hair.

“This is ridiculous, Lexi,” he finally said. “I can’t do this anymore, I can’t. We can’t even be in the same room anymore, what happened to us?” His wonderful eyes stared right into mine, and for the first time in weeks, I saw complete honesty and sincerity in their depths.

“I don’t know, Justin,” I sighed. “I wish I did, but I don’t. We should never have tricked everyone.” He nodded solemnly.

“I want my best friend back,” he whispered, running his hand along my arm. I vowed that I wouldn’t cry and pushed back the tears as I nodded in agreement.

“I do too,” I told him, honestly. “So let’s just stop fighting.”

“And we’re calling off this stupid farcity of an engagement,” he grinned. “It only caused problems anyway.” I swallowed, but still agreed.

“And no more in-the-moment kissing in your dressing room,” I added, trying not to remember it. He caught my eye and nodded, reaching out his hand.

“So truce?” he whispered. “I’ll agree to anything you say, Lexi, I just want you back in my life without….well without….”

“The bitterness,” I finished, shaking his hand firmly. His hands were way to soft to be male, yet so strong…

“Exactly. And now we’re free to see whoever we want, right?” he winked. I stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Yeah,” I finally said, swallowing back another tear. “I guess we are.” We both turned to start heading backstage, walking slowly to the door.

“So you gonna give Paul a call?” Justin teased, elbowing me lightly in the side.

“Paul who?” I joked back. “No way, he was only ok if he wasn’t speaking.”

“That’s what I say about most of my dates too,” he nodded, opening the door for me. As I moved to step through it, his arms suddenly circled around me, pulling me against him in a really tight hug. I instinctively wrapped my arms around his midsection and squeezed him back, breathing in the familiar scent that was Justin.

“I really did miss you,” he whispered, resting his cheek on the top of my hair. I squeezed him tighter.

“I missed you too,” I murmured back.

“Well thank fucking God,” a voice sounded and we broke apart to find Crystal giving us a sarcastic smile.

“Hi Crystal,” I laughed, patting Justin on the back before pulling away. “What are you doing?”

“Well, I was listening to Joey bitch about you two, but I see that things are….” She let her voice trail off, giving us a questioning look.

“Great,” Justin grinned. “Things are great, so you can tell Superdork to pipe down.”

“I heard that!” Joey yelled from the hallway. I chuckled and shook my head, heading for the dressing rooms area with Justin and Crystal in tow.

“Would you prefer Superloser?” Justin asked, wrapping an arm around Joey’s neck in a choke hold.

“No, I would prefer for Superbrillohead to get off of me before he gets a curly ass whoopin,” Joey laughed, struggling out of Justin’s hold. Justin shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, a smile on his face.

“You guys are crazy,” I commented, stopping at the door with my name on it. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make myself beautiful for the meet and greet.”

“Alexia, you’re just asking for me to hit on you, aren’t you?” Joey said with a wink. He was so cute when he was in a good mood, and him being in a good mood usually put ME in a good mood. It was contagious, that boy’s energy. Behind him, I could see a figure running towards Joey at top speed and I quickly moved out of the way just as Chris literally jumped on Joey’s back, yelling,

“INCOMING!” They both toppled to the ground in a heap of arms and legs, and we all just stared, trying not to laugh as Joey sputtered and tried to get Chris off of his back.

“Chris, will you please…”

“Shhh,” Chris warned, shoving Joey’s face back to the ground. “They’re coming for us.”

“Hoozkomngffuhuf,” Joey’s voice came from the ground.

“What?” Chris lifted his head by the hair, causing me to cringe in sympathy. Chris cracked me up sometimes, he was just way too random.

“Who’s coming for us?” Joey asked, breathing heavily. Chris shoved his head back down.

“Who?” he asked. “WHO?”

“Chris, just tell us who’s coming for you so I can go play basketball,” Justin sighed, obviously used to his friend’s antics. Chris frowned at Justin and slowly got off of Joey, rising to his feet in a crouching position, both arms out to his sides.

“Who?” he whispered, looking at me and wriggling his eyebrows. I giggled, trying hard not to encourage him, but not doing a very good job. “The voices didn’t say.” With that, he took off running down the hall, yelling for JC to save him. We saw JC come out of a room at the end of the hall and all yelled at once.

“JC LOOK….” We were too late. As soon as his head turned our way, he was tackled, yelping on his way to the floor. We shook our heads in sympathy, then watched in amusement as Kristy tried to wrestle Chris off of JC. She had him in a hold around his arm and neck, and was winning when we decided to let them have their fun.

“Chris, grow up,” I heard Kendra say. Justin, Crystal and I all laughed together as Chris stood up, defeated. His shoulders dropped and he walked back over to us with his head down.

“Aw,” Crystal sympathized, putting an arm around his shoulder. “It’s ok, baby, come on, I’ll make you feel better.” Noone could miss the wicked grin that spread over Chris’s face as he grabbed her hand and dragged her into his dressing room.

“I didn’t need to know that,” I commented to Justin, who shook his head firmly, his curls bouncing with the motion.

“Amen,” he confirmed, giving me a smile. “Ok, Lexi, I’ll see you after the show?”

“That you will,” I smiled back, opening the door to my dressing room. It felt so good to have him back, like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Now everything would be perfect.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Alexia, Alexia, sign this!!!”

“I love you, Alexia!”

“Have my babies!”

“Tell us about Justin!!” Needless to say, the meet and greet was getting a little out of control. We were set up right outside of my bus, which had a back that opened into a little tent area for me, then security was taking care of the seemingly endless line of people, ranging in age and gender. Kristy, Lesa, Kendra, and Crystal were in the tent with me, giving out the 8 by 10 glossy pictures for me to sign, then guiding the people away from the tent once they were finished. They also had keychains, t-shirts, and bumper stickers they were selling, which I thought was ridiculous. It’s not like I was making any music, or performing, I was just THERE. It was apparently enough for the *NSYNC fans, because they were crowded around the bus in hordes. My cell phone rang just as I was signing a picture for a cute little girl in cornrows, and I answered it, knowing I shouldn’t.

“Yes?” I said into the phone, thanking the girl with a smile and a wink. She grinned and ran off, waving the picture at a woman that was probably her mother.

“You still alive out there?” a deep voice asked, and I quickly looked around to make sure noone could hear him.

“Um, yes, I’m still here.” Lance was an idiot calling me while I was surrounded by a group of his fans. “Is there something you needed?” I smiled at the next boy who came up and took the picture out of his shaking hand. “What’s your name?” I asked him.

“Michael,” he whispered.

“Lance,” Lance said into my ear with a laugh.

“Not you,” I hissed into the phone. “Now what did you need?”

“Kendra turned her cell phone off, can I talk to her?” he asked. I smirked, shaking my head.

“You are a true loser,” I told him, holding out the phone so it was in front of Kendra’s nose.

“What?” she asked, handing the girl in front of her an Alexia bumper sticker.

“It’s for you,” I told her, handing it to her, then turning to the next person. It was way too hot in that tent.

“So are you and Justin really getting married?” the girl asked. She was about eighteen years old and was dressed like she was about to go to the nearest dance club and strip for money.

“I’m not sure, check back with me in ten years,” I replied, signing her picture without asking for her name, then handing it back to her.

“Hello? Ohhh….heey….” I heard Kendra say, and I exchanged a look with Kristy, both of us shaking our heads. She talked for a few more minutes, then handed me the phone again, motioning that I talk as she turned back to the merchandise.

“Yes, Spiky?” I asked, cradling the phone between my ear and my shoulder.

“Spiky? That’s a new one,” the voice teased.

“Ah wrong one, you’re Spunky,” I laughed. It was Justin.

“Just what I needed, a new nickname!” he exclaimed, mocking excitement. “So how is it going out there?”

“Just fine actually,” I replied, smiling at the next patron, who was obviously straining to hear the conversation taking place.

“Anyone ask about us yet?” he wanted to know.

“Yup, a few.” I was trying to keep my sentences as short as possible.

“Well, what did you say?” he asked.

“Nothing, I avoided it,” I told him, nodding at the next person.

“You know, we need to tell everyone about the decision we made,” he said. I sighed.

“Yeah, I know. We can do it after the show, ok?”

“Ok I’ll tell them that there’s a group meeting in my dressing room as soon as it’s over. You tell the girls?”

“Will do, Spunky,” I grinned, shrugging when Lesa shot me a weird look.

“Ok then, good luck out there.”

“You too.” I hung up the phone, plastering another fake smile on my face. It wouldn’t be much longer, then I could go into my dressing room and just be alone before the meeting. I needed the time to think.

By the time we had gotten rid of the crowd and packed up the table and tent, *NSYNC was already at the end of No Strings Attached, their opening number. The music echoed through the hallways as I trudged to my dressing room, fully intending to sleep through the rest of the show. I was beginning to learn how to tune out the screams of adolescent females, so it wasn’t long before I was dosing on the plush couch, leaving the decorative fruit basket untouched.

Somehow I was back on my bus, asleep in the bunk. I could tell it was nighttime, even though the curtains were drawn and I couldn’t see anything but the blackness of my cubicle. I heard a shuffle and turned my sleepy head towards the noise, a faint smell of The Woods cologne drifting its way into my nostrils. It was my favorite cologne.

“Who’s there?” I whispered, only to feel a hand cover my mouth softly. A whisper of a breath caressed my cheek just before the intruder spoke, so softly that I had to strain to hear him.

“Don’t talk, Lexi,” he whispered fervently. “It never works when we talk, just let me be with you tonight, please? No words, no regrets…” He kissed my eyelids softly, moving his lips down the bridge of my nose. I shivered under his touch, wanting it to go on and on, but somewhere in the back of my mind, knowing it couldn’t.

“Justin,” I whispered, but was silenced by the feeling of his lips pressing lightly against my own in a whisper of a kiss.

“Just feeling,” he murmured, his hands trailing down my sides. “That’s all, Lexi, just let me touch you…” His statement was punctuated by his palm stretching across my collar bone, pressing me back against the pillow. My own fingers traveled up his chest, stealing around his neck to pull him down against me, his body completely covering mine before he kissed me again, his lips moving sensuously against mine. When he finally pulled away, I groaned at the loss, only to sigh in approval when he traveled down my jawline to my neck, cherishing the skin there with his tongue and lips.

My fingers moved from the back of his neck to tangle in his curly hair, which was so much softer than it looked. I held him in place, moving my leg up his strong thighs to wrap it around him, instinctively keeping him right where he was. His fingers began to play with the bottom of my nightshirt, very slowly edging it up my thighs, and over my stomach, caressing each bit of skin that he passed on the way with his fingertips. He let out a growl and sat up a bit, moving the shirt over my head in one fluent motion before returning his mouth to my skin and his body to mine. His arousal pressed against my thigh, and I pressed against it, wanting more of him...needing more of him. It was like a physical craving that I never knew existed until this moment, and now that it was there, it would never go away, as long as we both lived and breathed.

“You taste so sweet,” he murmured against my skin, moving his head down to kiss the skin in between my breasts, his hand moving up from my waist to cup the left one softly, his thumb moving back and forth over the nipple. I clung to his back, practically tearing at his white tank top before pulling it over his head. My hands were restless on his chest and abs, feeling every inch of skin that I could before traveling down to his pants and untying the string that kept us apart.

“Hurry,” I panted, pulling the pants over his hips. “Please, Justin, I need this…” He stopped and pulled away, looking down at me in confusion.

“Alexia…” his voice was deep, more husky than I was used to. “Alexia?” He was shaking me, those large, beautiful hands on my shoulders, pressing me back even more.

“Justin,” I whispered, a soft moan emitting from my throat at his touch.

“Alexia!” The exclamation was so loud that it snapped me awake, and I blinked my eyes open, trying to focus on the blonde kneeling in front of me.

“Lance?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes of their sleepy haze. “Wh…what are you…”

“Justin’s in the middle of his battle,” Lance told me, a funny look on his face, like he was trying not to laugh. “I just wanted to make sure that you were ok, I didn’t see you up front with your Tag Team.”

“Like you would see anyone but Kendra anyway,” I accused, sitting up. He blushed, then shrugged, not denying it. “I’m fine, just resting.” Parts of that dream came rushing back into my head and I blushed profusely, finally causing Lance to laugh quietly.

“Do you ever call out my name in your sleep?” he teased.

“Nah, I’m too scared of Kendra…she’s a dancer, she’d kick my ass.” I replied.

“Is she ever!” Lance exclaimed. “Do you have any idea how FLEXIBLE dan…..” I was saved by JC sticking his head in, motioning for Lance.

“Dude, let’s go, he’s almost done….doing the Michael Jackson thing right now,” he said, and I noticed Kristy standing next to him, helping to adjust his jacket. I nodded at all of them, shooing them away as they ran out of the room in a whirlwind of excitement, just like they always were in the middle of a show. I wasn’t looking forward to our meeting after the show, the energy level was usually even higher than during the show itself, and they usually took it out on each other. I just hoped they wouldn’t hurt Justin too badly when we told them the news.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Chris, will you stop bouncing please?” I groaned, shooting a look at Justin that said that this was a bad, bad idea. Chris jumped off of the couch and landed with his ass on the cushion, putting his elbows on legs as if nothing had happened.

“Yes, Mommy,” he said, quietly, hanging his head.

“Don’t make me get out my ruler,” I warned, giving him a teasing grin. He opened his mouth to say something, but the dressing room door opened and Crystal walked in.

“You’re not touching my man with your dirty ruler,” she pouted, sitting promptly in his lap.

“Yeah, hers is much cleaner,” Chris said, excitedly. Justin and I both groaned, looking up as the others walked in, the guys wiping their necks and heads with white towels. Joey tried to hand his to Lesa, but she looked at him like he had just grown horns, and moved to sit next to Justin. Joey scowled and lifted the towel above his head, tossing it like a basketball towards my laundry hamper. It missed and landed right on Justin’s head, who was less than excited about the smelly towel going anywhere close to his precious afro. He tossed it neatly into the hamper, then wagged a finger at Joey.

“I’ll remember that,” he warned, jumping to his feet when JC’s towel hit him in the face. “You are asking for it, Chasez…” JC was laughing too hard to even care that Justin was slowly advancing towards him, his fists clenching at his sides.

“Your face!” he howled, clutching his sides, then Kristy, who had to grab a chair to stop them both from falling over.

“Um, babe?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. JC was still laughing, only now he was using her to dodge around while Justin tried to smack him. “Sugar?”

“Just hold still!” Justin hissed.

“JOSHUA SCOTT!” Kristy yelled, causing them both to stop in their tracks.

“Yeah?”

“You smell, could you please keep a safe distance until you shower?” she requested, making the rest of us laugh, but causing JC to stop.

“Ouch,” Justin chuckled, deciding against beating his friend up. “She tore you down, bro, I think my work here is done.” Pretty soon, everyone was talking at once about the show, especially a certain part where Lance had goofed on a dance step.

“I heard him loud and clear,” Joey was saying. “Digital digital getdown…..just what we need…..we can….SHIT!” Everyone busted up laughing as Lance’s face turned bright red.

“Hey those ramps are tricky,” he defended.

“Aw, where does it hurt?” Kendra mused, patting him on the shoulder and pouting with him. His face broke into a sly grin as he looked down at his lap.

“WELL…” he started to say, but I was ready to start our little meeting.

“OK! Guys, can we all please…”

“Kendra, does that offer apply to anyone who hurt themselves tonight?” Joey asked slyly, rubbing a butt cheek.

“No!” she spat, removing her hand from Lance’s shoulder.

“It’s ok, I wasn’t talking or anything,” I sighed, leaning back in my chair.

“You guys, really, let Lexi talk, ok? We have something to tell you,” Justin cut in, nodding his encouragement.

“Hey, is this a private party, or can anyone join?” We all looked up to see Jen poking her head in, a look of uncertainty on her face.

“Jen!” Justin exclaimed happily, motioning her into the room. She slowly opened the door and carefully entered, looking around nervously. “Come on in, of course you’re welcome. Actually, you should probably hear this too.” Yeah, I’ll bet he wanted her to hear that he was single. I was almost ready to call it all off.

“Hear what?” she asked, sitting on the floor in front of Justin.

“We haven’t heard yet,” Chris muttered, still not moving from his spot on the couch.

“Well if you all would shut your cake holes, I would tell you!” I sputtered impatiently. They all looked at me anxiously, and I realized that I had no idea what to tell them. “Ok…um….I really don’t know how to say this…” I stammered, looking to Justin for help. He sighed and ran a hand through his curls.

“Ok, here’s how it is,” he said, holding both of his hands up, his elbows resting on his knees. “Lexi and I aren’t engaged.”

“Oh man,” Joey said, putting his face in his hands.

“What happened??” Crystal wanted to know. Kendra and Kristy both shot me worried looks, but I didn’t miss the smile that fluttered briefly across Jen’s face.

“Nothing happened,” I told them. “We never WERE engaged.” The reactions across the board were pretty easy to predict, all except for JC’s. He just held a knowing smirk on his face, as if he had known all along what I was going to say.

“Well, are you going to tell us why?” he finally asked, breaking everyone else’s stunned silence. Justin shrugged, looking at his hands.

“I don’t even remember why,” he mumbled. “We were both having a hard time with the opposite sex….and everyone already thought we were together anyway…”

“So you decided to just tell everyone that you were to get people off your backs,” Lance clarified, running his fingers over his blonde hair, complete with blue tips. We both nodded solemnly.

“That’s pretty much the gist of it,” I said. “And we just couldn’t stop fighting, so today we decided that enough was enough, it was time to stop this stupid game and tell you guys the truth.”

“Well, I don’t see the big deal,” Lesa stated, grinning at me. “You must have had your reasons, I’m just glad that…” She stole a look at Justin and blushed profusely. “Well I’m glad everything’s ok.”

“Is it?” Joey asked, looking from Justin to me, then back to Justin. We both nodded quickly.

“Everything’s great, Joe. Right, Lexi?” His hands moved forward to rub Jen’s shoulders lightly. I swallowed.

“Yup,” I agreed. “Everything is just peachy.”

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Well shit,” Jen muttered, turning off her cell phone and turning to the rest of us. We all looked up at her through glazed, drunken eyes, not really caring what she was bitching about. Or maybe that was just me.

“What about shit?” Joey yawned, stretching his arms over his head and flopping his feet over Lesa’s knees. We were all sprawled all over Lance and JC’s hotel room, empty alcohol bottles lying all around us guiltily.

“Well my friend from Cali is visiting, right?” she said, flopping down on the lazyboy.

“Kris?” Kendra asked with a yawn, snuggling more comfortably against Lance, who she was leaning against as a makeshift pillow.

“Yeah. Well anyway, she’s here, dude.”

“Here?” Kristy asked, scowling at JC, who was already asleep on the floor. I could almost hear her thinking about how she wouldn’t be getting any.

“Yup, she just landed, and I gotta go pick her ass up,” Jen sighed, moving her feet so the chair moved from right to left in a half circle.

“What about the rest of her?” Kendra wanted to know, and Crystal groaned from her spot on the couch. Chris was on the floor playing with Busta, seeing how many times the poor dog would chase its own tail.

“Funny, bitch,” Jen giggled. I rubbed my temples, wishing I hadn’t taken that last swig out of the tequila bottle.

“You aren’t driving, are you?” Lance asked, frowning. Jen gave him a look that clearly said she wasn’t capable of it, then busted into giggles again.

“I don’t think she should even walk through the airport, let alone drive there,” I commented, raising an eyebrow in Justin’s direction. He caught my eye, then looked back at Jen, suddenly getting up and stretching.

“Well we shouldn’t keep your friend waiting,” he said, holding his hand out for Jen. She looked up at him questioningly, letting him help her up, only to fall back down again. Justin laughed and helped her again, wrapping an arm around her waist.

“Where are we going?” she slurred, looking at him through a barrier of dark hair.

“The airport,” he told her. “We’ll take one of the vans, I’ll go with you.”

“You sure?” she asked, and I looked away to make a face at Lesa, who giggled loudly. Joey’s gaze went from her to me back and forth until he made himself dizzy, then ended it by reaching out to tickle her sides.

“What are you laughing at?” he wanted to know. Lesa just shook her head and laughed harder, fighting him off.

“Stop it!” she yelped, hitting him on the arm. “Fatone, you are going to die if you don’t leave me alone…”

“OK, well we’re leaving!” Justin announced, his arm still around Jen’s waist. I searched the floor for any bottles that still had alcohol in them.

“Jen, no road head in the van!” Chris called, not once turning his attention away from Busta.

“That was a mental image I didn’t need,” Kendra commented, leaning her head back as Lance started to kiss the base of her neck. I looked away, not wanting to see the happy couples all around me.

“All of you need to bite me, k?” Jen said, smiling sweetly.

“None of that, either!” Joey called, holding Lesa’s arms over her head so he could continue his tickle torture.

“See you guys in a bit,” Justin laughed, shaking his head before they left. I picked a pillow off of the couch and heaved it at the door after they closed it, scowling.

“How do you really feel, Alex?” Kristy wanted to know, cocking her head to the side.

“I don’t,” I muttered, easing my way from the couch to the ground, then crawling to get to a bottle with a drop of whiskey in it.

“Oh now that’s sad,” I heard JC say as I picked it up, my elbows on the ground and my ass in the air, letting the last of the amber liquid drip onto my tongue.

“Go back to sleep,” I snapped, sucking the rest of it out, then turning to the next bottle.

“Now Lexi,” Joey was quickly beside me. “Is this really a good idea?” There was a vodka bottle with about half a shot left that was in my hand faster than he could come up with a pick up line.

“Who cares?” I replied, drinking that down too. “It feels good.”

“Bet that’s what Justin’s saying about now, too,” Chris laughed, then yelped when Crystal smacked him over the head.

“Wanna pipe down, please?” she asked, shaking her head. Chris pouted, rubbing his head.

“Yeah, you insensitive prick, PIPE DOWN,” I added, laughing needlessly.

“OK, let’s get you to bed,” Joey said, reaching down to help pick me off of the floor.

“Bed?” I grumbled. “Look, Dad, I’m perfectly capable…” My knees buckled and down I went, falling right into Joey’s arms.

“Of falling on your ass,” he replied, shaking his head. “Lesa, you gonna help me here?” Lesa nodded and moved to my other side, helping keep me up.

“Yeah, let’s get her back to her hotel room,” she said, waving at the others. “You guys don’t get into too much trouble.”

“We can’t do anything until you guys leave,” Lance muttered, his face still buried in Kendra’s neck. She physically shivered, and nodded her goodbyes, struggling to stand up so she could lead him into his bedroom. It was a fancy hotel suite, I’ll tell ya….very nice.

“They’re gonna have sex,” I whispered to Joey, who chuckled and started pulling me across the room. JC and Kristy were making out in the corner. “So are they.”

“Thanks for the play by play, Lexi,” Lesa shook her head, opening the door so Joey and I could get through. Crystal and Chris were in the hallway playing with Busta, and I just scrunched my nose at them.

“I don’t know about those two, but I hope they leave Busta out of it,” I whispered to Lesa, who couldn’t help her laughter this time. I looked at her in confusion, figuring that what I was saying made perfect sense as Joey dragged me into his room.

“Joey, if you wanted me in your bedroom, this was not the way to do it,” I giggled, letting my head fall forward a bit. He caught it and held my chin up, shaking his head.

“You’re going to be hating yourself tomorrow,” he told me, guiding me into the living room.

“I am n…” My head suddenly snapped up as I felt a somewhat familiar turn in my stomach. “Uh oh.” I looked at Joey sheepishly.

“Fuck,” Joey muttered, changing directions so we were heading for the bathroom. He had me on my knees in front of the toilet just on time for me to empty out not only the alcohol, but everything else I had eaten in the last 24 hours with it.

“Oh that’s special,” I heard Lesa say from my spot in the mouth of the porcelain God. Joey hushed her as my stomach lurched again, and I heaved and gasped, somewhere in the back of my mind wondering how I had gotten myself into this mess. When I was done with that round, I rested my cheek on the rim of the toilet and closed my eyes, sighing in frustration.

“She’ll be ok,” I heard Joey whisper just before everything got blurry, and the words started meshing together. I didn’t really care what they were saying anyway, I was in a hotel bathroom, bonding with the bathroom floor, and I didn’t appreciate the audience. I think I must have waved them away because the next thing I knew, I was alone in the bathroom, and I heard Joey and Lesa’s hushed voices coming from outside. Every now and then, one of them would check on me, only getting a grunt in return. I was afraid that if I moved, I would throw up more than was healthy for a human body.

At some point, the bathroom door opened again, and I thought about my black skirt that was riding halfway up my ass, which was sticking in the air, but didn’t have the energy to do anything about it.

“Joey, I’m fine, go away,” I mumbled, the movement causing my stomach to rebel again. I felt a hand caress my hair, sliding down my temples to move the stray strands back as I vomited. I clutched the toilet and let the tears stream down my cheeks as I began dry heaving, not having anything left to empty out.

“Oh Lexi, I’m sorry I wasn’t there to watch out for you,” a soft voice murmured in my ear. I finally stopped and wiped the tears out of my eyes, slowly turning my head to meet a pair of very worried blue eyes.

“Justin?” I whispered, not able to speak much louder than that for fear of getting sick again.

“It’s ok, honey, I’m here,” he soothed, running a hand up and down my back softly. “You’re going to be just fine.”

“Where’s Jen?” I rasped, coughing.

“She and her friend went back to her place,” he said, getting up to fill a glass of water for me. I crawled my way to the wall so I could lean against it.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” I accepted the water grudgingly, but took a careful sip.

“Joey called me, I wanted to be here with you,” Justin told me, moving to sit beside me. I looked at him in confusion, my drunk mind not even registering why he would rather be here watching me puke then with his latest fling.

“You don’t have to take care of me,” I mumbled, resting my head against his arm. His arm circled around my shoulders so I could lay against his chest, burying my face in the soft material. He smelled really good for someone who had been sweating and drinking all night.

“Don’t worry about it,” he whispered, kissing the top of my head. “It’s my job.” His arm tightened around me, and he laid his cheek against the top of my head. “You just get some rest.” I nodded absently and sighed, already feeling a hundred and fifty percent better.

“Thanks, Curly,” I whispered, my eyes already closed in half sleep. “I love you.” I didn’t realize what I had said, but Justin did, and I didn’t see it when he looked up in surprise, his eyes wide. I was already asleep, so he watched me as I breathed in and out, snuggled against his chest as only a best friend could. He felt a warm bubble rise in his chest, and he smiled against my hair.

“I love you, too, Lexibug.”

“Alright, what did you do to her?” Joey scowled as Justin emerged from the bathroom with me in his arms.

“Nothin, man, for a change, she did this to herself,” Justin said, softly, lying me down on one of the beds and kneeling to take off my shoes.

“Not touching on that one,” Joey chuckled, looking over to a sleeping Lesa, who was passed out in the lazy boy by the window.

“Poor girl was really trashed,” Justin commented, tucking my feet under the blanket. “She was saying all kinds of weird things.” Joey’s eyebrow went up in curiousity.

“Oh? Such as?” Justin just shook his head and laughed, pulling the covers up to tuck me in.

“Just random shit,” he replied, sitting carefully on the bed next to me. “She always gets emotional when she’s drunk, it cracks me up.” Joey shook his head and picked up a lone M&M lying on the dresser, trying to toss it into his mouth.

“So she started crying about the hungry children in the Middle East?” he mumbled, cursing when the candy bounced off of his teeth and landed behind the TV.

“No, but she was like….`I love you, Curly’….and shit, it was cute…” Justin stated carefully, trying to sound casual. Joey choked on the next M&M and sat up straight, staring at Justin like he had just sprouted a tail.

“She said WHAT?” he asked, incredulously, his eyes wide.

“It was no big deal, Joe, she was drunk,” Justin said defensively. Joey couldn’t help but laugh and he shook his head.

“Little boy, you need to learn something about women and alcohol,” he said, planting his feet on the floor and regarding Justin carefully. “Lexi probably said that because she meant it, but wouldn’t have said it sober.”

“Of course she meant it,” Justin sighed. “She loves me as a friend, Joe, that’s all she meant.”

“Is that what you think?” Joey asked. Justin looked down at me, sleeping peacefully, and nodded slowly.

“Yeah,” he finally said. “She didn’t mean anything by it, we’re just really happy to be friends again, that’s all.” Joey also watched me sleep, then shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, a plan already forming in his head about how to get us both to stop being so stubborn.

“Whatever you say, JuJu…”

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Alex, are you STILL hungover?” Kendra asked the next day as I grudgingly signed autographs for the Phoenix fans.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, handing some girl back her picture. “It wasn’t a good night.” I couldn’t remember the last time I had been that drunk.

“I heard you were puking all night,” she said, crinkling her nose in sympathy. Yeah, I thought. And I freaking told Justin Timberlake that I LOVE him.

“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty,” I replied, stretching out my fingers. I had no idea why I had said that. I didn’t love Justin. Well, I loved Justin like anyone would love their best friend, but I didn’t love him in the way I had meant it the night before. I just hoped that he took it for the friendly love that I was hoping for.

“It usually isn’t,” she agreed, looking as if she wanted to say more, but decided against it. The meet and greet ended quicker than the night before and as soon as the crowd ebbed, we once again packed everything up. Kristy was trying to lift a speaker when her cell phone rang.

“Shit,” she muttered, almost dropping the heavy thing. “Alex, will you get that?”

“Are you asking me to go into your pants?” I teased. Kristy glared at me as the phone rang again and I sighed, quickly diving into her pocket and pulling out the cell phone.

“Kristy’s pants, how may we serve you?” I answered with a giggle.

“Alexia, is that you?” an accented voice greeted.

“Raul?”

“The one and only, have you forgotten me already?” he asked. I grinned, giving Kristy a thumbs up.

“No, dear manager, I haven’t forgotten you, just wondering why you haven’t been breathing down my neck every five seconds.”

“Simple, I’ve moved on in the world. I have other clients to tend to, you know, dear,” he told me as if I was going to break down and cry.

“Thank God. Kristy is so much easier to deal with than you are…” I teased, holding up my pointer finger when Kristy held out her palm for the phone. Raul was still talking, something about me behaving myself and not showing any PDA in public.

“Ugh, here, he’s still talking,” I told her, handing her the phone without saying goodbye. He had a habit to drone on and on, and I just wanted to get inside.

“Alex!” I heard the second I stepped into the backstage hallway. I turned to see Steve Fatone racing towards me.

“Hi, Steve, what’s up?” I asked with a yawn. He reminded me so much of Joey, just a lot younger it seemed. Joey had a rare side of him that was mature, and I had yet to see that in his brother.

“The label wants you to introduce the guys from now on,” he pouted. Steve had been doing the MCing for the first part of the tour, so I didn’t want to step on his toes.

“No, that’s your job,” I told him, shaking my head. He sighed.

“I’m still introducing the openers, but they want YOU to introduce the guys. It’s cool, Alex, really….you’d better get out there, though, the stage is almost set up.” Great.

“Alright, thanks, Steve,” I muttered, changing directions and heading for the stage, where I was practically shoved out in front of the audience. The screams were deafening as I felt a bright spotlight shine down on me and I blinked to try and get a glimpse of the seemingly endless crowd.

“What’s up, Phoenix?” I said into the mic, grinning as they cheered and hooted back. “No way, I said WHAT’S UP PHOENIX???” I was beginning to see what the guys meant about the energy you can pick up just by being on stage. It was an amazing feeling. “Are y’all ready for…..*NSYNC…..?” Just saying the name made the decibel level go up three notches. I decided against using their individual names for fear of being attacked again, so this time I just milked it a little longer before thanking them all for coming, then saying, “And now ladies and gentlemen….what you’ve all been waiting for…..*NSYNC.” I exited the dark stage to the screams and screeches of the girls, looking up to see 5 pairs of shoes dangling from the ceiling. I giggled and quickly retreated to my dressing room for a nap. I passed the VIP lounge on my way there to see my Tag Team passed all over the couches, and I couldn’t resist pinching all of their cheeks before entering the room with my name on the door. On the table rested a vase full of white roses, which happened to be my favorite flower. I loved the mystery of the color white, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember ever telling anyone that. I took a deep breath of their scent, then leaned in to read the card.

“Hey Lexibug, I hope you’re feeling better. No partying for you tonight, girl. Maybe we can catch a movie, just us? See you after the show. Curly.”

Justin was too cute for his own good. A night alone with him sounded like a great idea and I took one of the roses out of the vase, smiling softly as I took it with me to lay down. Resting my head on a pillow, I fell asleep holding the rose to my chest.

A loud knocking on the door woke me up, and I sat up quickly, still clutching the rose.

“Ow,” I muttered as it pricked me, and I slowly rose to my feet, putting my poor finger in my mouth.

“Hi, Alex!” It was Jen on the other side of the door, standing with someone I had never seen before.

“Hey, Jen,” I mumbled, sleepily. “Come on in.”

“Did we wake you?” she asked, looking guilty. I didn’t like the girl because of how much Justin seemed to, but she really was sweet.

“Nah, it’s ok, I could use the company, really,” I told her, picking some clothes off of the dressing room chairs.

“Well, this is my friend Kris. She came down from Cali to see the show…Krisala, this is Alexia,” Jen told her. Kris scoffed and held her hand out to me.

“Jenna, I’m out of it, but not THAT out of it,” she said, smiling at me. “It’s nice to meet you, Alexia.”

“You too, Kris,” I chuckled, looking over at Jen, who was smelling my new roses.

“Wow, they’re beautiful,” she said, touching one lightly. “White roses are my favorite, dude.”

“Mine too,” I smiled. “I don’t know how Justin knew that…”

“Justin sent you these?” she asked quickly. Oops, I thought sarcastically. Did I say that outloud?

“Yeah, well I was pretty sick last night, so…”

“I heard,” she laughed. Word got around really quickly around here. “Justin got the phone call from Joey and left so quickly, I think OUR heads were spinning. He was pretty worried about you.” She seemed to be watching for my reaction, but I just shrugged.

“He just wanted to see me miserable,” I replied. “Hey you guys, we should head out there if we wanna catch the guys running off stage.”

“Give them a sweaty good job hug?” Kris commented, cocking her head to the side.

“Something like that.”

“I’m sorry, Lexi,” Justin groaned two hours later. We were at the hotel with our nachos and beer all laid out, the movies ordered, when Joey called and informed us that he would be joining.

“It’s ok,” I told him, sincerely. “I don’t mind Joey, he helped me a lot last night.”

“Good, but we’re still going to do this with just us one of these days.” He shot me that famous Timberlake grin before moving to answer the loud knock at the door.

“Look who I found outside,” Joey said, pushing his way inside. Behind him walked in Jen with her friend Kris, who stayed perched in the doorway.

“Um, I think I’m going to join the others,” Kris said, looking antsy. “They were playing games and stuff in one of the rooms.” We all nodded and said goodnight, letting the door shut carefully behind her.

“She wants Lance,” Jen told us with a giggle as she took a careful seat behind Justin on the bed. He leaned his head back so his curls brushed her knees and she smiled down at him.

“Well, she’s going to have to fight Kendra for him,” Joey commented, grabbing a beer from the small fridge. “So, guys, what are we watching?” He grinned purposefully at me and patted my knee before sitting down. I snuck a peak at Jen, who was rubbing Justin’s shoulders, his arms resting on her knees as he leaned back. It was getting really crowded in there.

“Alex?” Joey frowned at me. I shifted my eyes to him, not even moving my head, seeing as it would take more effort than he deserved at the moment. “What are we watching?”

“What Dreams May Come,” I replied softly, turning my attention back to the TV. “I heard it was really good.”

“Are you serious?” Jen asked with wide eyes. “With Robin Williams?”

“Something wrong?” Justin wanted to know, tilting his head back to look up at her. I could see his curls brush against her knee and scowled at them both, scooting myself back on the bed so I was leaning against the backboard.

“Um, no, not at all,” she said, patting him on the head, then scooting away. We watched as she got up and went into the bathroom, coming back out with two full boxes of tissues. She handed me one and nodded meaningfully, as if to say “trust me”.

“I take it you’ve seen the movie?” I wondered aloud, putting the box of tissues on the nightstand. I didn’t cry, and I wasn’t planning on doing it during some cheesy movie with Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding, Jr.

“I own it,” she told us, sitting back down, this time next to Justin on the floor so we could only see the tops of both of their heads over the bed.

“So what’s with the tissues?” Joey asked, scooting back to be next to me. He started to lean back, but before he could, I snagged the pillow and hugged it to my chest, still staring forward. The loud bump informed me that Joey had hit his head and I had to hold back the chuckle. “Thanks, Alex,” he muttered, rubbing his head and grabbing the pillow back from me.

“Basically,” Jen was saying. “This movie is one of the greatest movies ever, seriously. But…”

“Bad acting, huh?” Justin teased, draping his arm over the end of the bed so it rested behind her.

“No, the acting is incredible, but if you have a heart at all, you WILL cry,” she said with a shrug.

“That why you only gave Alexia tissues and not us?” Joey accused. Jen tilted her head to rest on Justin’s arm and looked back at both of us, grinning broadly.

“What can I say, I know some pretty heartless men…” she said, being interrupted by the music that signified the start of the movie. I chuckled at Jen’s comment, grabbing a pillow from the other bed so I could have something to hold onto while we watched. Joey noticed and immediately flopped his head into my lap the second I had put the pillow there, so I sighed and resigned myself to playing with his hair during the movie. I remember thinking that it was a lot softer than it looked, especially for someone who puts as much crap in his hair as Mr. Joey Fatone.

Not much happened during the movie with the exception of a lot of sniffling and some full fledged crying. At one point, even Joey reached back to grab one of the tissues out of my box, wiping his eyes with it. I smiled through my tears at the gesture and touched his cheek softly in a motion of comfort. Jen must have thrown a wadded up tissue at Justin because I looked up to see him lean over to pick it up, looking back at me in the process. His hand froze when he saw the intimate way Joey and I were sitting and in the shadows, I could see a frown cross his face. My hand fluttered away from Joey’s cheek as I held Justin’s gaze, but his face went to stone before he turned back around, sitting up straight and wrapping his arm around Jen’s shoulders. She sniffed and snuggled closer to him, burying her face in his shoulder. Even though the movie was really sad, and I kind of needed a shoulder myself, I couldn’t help but resent her for being that close to him.

The movie continued, and I found myself turning my attention back to Robin Williams and the beautiful story, pushing Justin to the back of my mind while I was whisked away into What Dreams May Come. As it drew to a close, the tissue box was almost empty and I looked down to see if there were any more only to see something that I never in my life wanted to see. Justin and Jen were kissing, rather heatedly, from their spot on the floor. Her fingers were tangled in the back of his hair, her body positioned so that they were pressed closely together. From my view on the bed, I could barely see what else was going on, but Justin’s hands were obviously roaming, and I saw one move up her back and across her neck to tangle itself in her hair as well. My chest constricted painfully, and I felt a sob catch in my throat, but luckily it was disguised by the close of the movie. Closing my eyes against the vision in front of me, I barely noticed when Joey yawned and turned over in my lap, stretching like a content cat.

“Wow,” he murmured, rolling over to face me. “That was a great movie, wasn’t it?” I took my blank stare from the now-fuzzy television screen to look at him. “Alex?”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “It was….great….”

“Hey, are you ok? I know it was sad, but it looks like it really got to you,” Joey commented, looking concerned. Either he hadn’t noticed Justin and Jen’s antics, or he was ignoring them.

“I’m fine,” I murmured, finally looking Joey in the eye. He was close to me, very close. An idea formed in my mind. “In fact, I’m more than fine, Joe.” His brow crinkled in confusion.

“I don’t understand.” I moved closer to him.

“Joey, kiss me,” I purred, taking his face in my hands. “Please?” The look of shock that crossed Joey’s face was soon replaced by one of understanding. His hand lifted to my cheek, his thumb caressing the skin.

“Ok, Alex,” he murmured, bringing his face close to mine. Just before our lips touched, his breath caressed my mouth as he whispered, “but you don’t need to do this to make Justin jealous, you know.” His mouth closed the gap between us, but hearing his statement, I quickly turned my face so that he ended up kissing my cheek. My eyes met Justin’s, which were wide in surprise as he looked at me over Jen’s head, where his chin was resting comfortably. The expression on his face was so torn, the emotions so confused, that I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I have to go,” I announced, suddenly, pushing Joey away.

“Alex, what are you…?” he started to say, but I stopped him with a simple look, jumping off of the bed and almost hurdling myself over the happy couple on the floor. I heard Justin’s voice behind me as I opened the hotel room’s door.

“Lexi, wait…” The sound of the door shutting echoed through the hallway and I checked to see if anyone was around before backing against the wall, breathing heavily as I sank to the ground, trying to overcome the sobs that threatened to take over my sanity. After a minute, the overwhelming urge to cry passed, and I was able to breathe normally once again. That’s when I realized that Justin had never even come after me. I wondered if the constant lump that had formed in my throat when I met the boy would ever go away.

“When you stop being friends with him, it’ll go away,” I muttered to myself, looking back at the closed door before making a quick decision. I pulled myself up, dusting off my pants before moving deliberately for my room. There would be a lot of phone calls to make in the morning.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Shit,” Justin muttered the second I closed the door. He jumped to his feet, fully intending to go after me, when Joey’s hand on his arm stopped him. “Fatone, you’d better let go of me,” Justin growled at his friend, not even noticing the sad look on Jen’s face as she got up and shut herself in the bathroom. Joey’s eyebrows crunched in a determined expression, not easing up his grip on Justin’s arm.

“Listen, Curly Spice, you need to hear me out before you go charging after that poor girl, confusing her even more than she’s already been confused, and leaving this other poor girl in here to pout after you. I’m sick and tired of cleaning up after you and your mistakes, Smooth, and it’s not going to happen this time.” Joey was firm in his statement, but soft enough to where Jen couldn’t hear him from the bathroom.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Justin grumbled, running a hand through his hair before shaking his arm loose.

“The hell you don’t,” Joey replied. “You and Alex can’t be in the same room together without this shit happening, and it’s starting to affect everyone, Justin. It’s not right.” His arms crossed over his chest as he spoke, almost as if to intimidate his friend. It didn’t work.

“Please, what shit?” Justin was getting angry and it reflected through the clear blue of his eyes. “We agreed that we were going to just be friends, it’s better that way…”

“For who?” Joey interrupted. “For her? Obviously not, she just stormed out of here like a bat out of hell. For you? Um, no, you didn’t see the LOOK on your face tonight when I almost kissed her…”

“That had nothing to do with…”

“AND it certainly isn’t good for the rest of us who have to watch the two of you as you fight over who will win the Most Stubborn award,” Joey kept right on talking, fully intending to have his say before Justin did. “And what about Jen, Justin? Alex probably hates the girl, the rest of the girls resent her, and you’re stringing her along as if you actually mean to HAVE something with her. That’s not fair, man, and it’s really not cool.”

“Oh like you know what cool even is, Fat One,” Justin snarled, emphasizing the last two words carefully. “Just stay out of it, this is none of your business.” His statement was said so forcefully that Joey had to recover before he could answer, and by the time he did, Justin had turned on his heels and was heading not for the front door, but for the bathroom.

“Jen!” he called, knocking loudly. When she didn’t answer right away, he knocked a little louder.

“I can hear you!” Joey heard her yell. “Geesh, Timberlake, hold your fucking horses!” At least she wasn’t putting up with his shit.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Justin said through the door, his voice lowering to a husky level. “I just want to get out of here, you almost done in there?” The door slowly opened and Jen emerged with slightly red eyes.

“Why are you telling me if you’re leaving?” she asked, stubbornly, avoiding his eyes. He smiled down at her and ran a finger down her cheek softly.

“Because I want you to go with me,” he whispered, taking her hand and kissing the palm. “Please?” Joey groaned outloud after hearing his friend’s lines, and quickly jumped to his feet.

“Just get out of here,” he snarled. “Jen, this one is up to you, but I’m sick of Mr. Smooth’s face at the moment, so please get him out of my sight.” Jen looked from Joey to Justin, her face a mixture of emotions as she came to a decision. Her fingers entwined with Justin’s as she pulled him towards the door.

“Justin, let’s go. We don’t want to bother Joey anymore,” she said, turning to shoot an apologetic look at Joey before exiting the room. Joey growled and threw a sneaker at the closed door. He paced the room for about ten minutes before he decided that he needed to get out of there, so he quickly exited into the hallway, almost knocking himself over as he hit the wall that was Lonnie’s chest.

“Lonnie!” he exclaimed. “I was just…um….”

“Just don’t go downstairs, Joe,” Lonnie told him in his deep timbre voice. “Other than that, I don’t give a shit, something’s in the air tonight anyway.”

“Like we ever get to smell the air anyway,” Joey grumbled before heading for Lesa’s room. “Thanks, man, I owe you one.”

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

By the time the sun was up the next morning, I was already halfway packed. The rest of the tour would be leaving Phoenix that day anyway, so I wanted to make sure to be out of there before anyone else. Unfortunately, we were all on the same floor, which made being sneaky all the more difficult. It would probably be easiest to just tell everyone that I was leaving to avoid a scene if they caught me sneaking out. I was debating the issue when the phone on my dresser rang, making me jump in surprise.

“Do you know what time it is?” I answered, scowling into the phone as if I had just woken up.

“Just about time for you to wake your ass up and join us all in Lance’s room for breakfast,” Kendra said cheerfully.

“Wow, you guys must have gotten sleep for a change,” I muttered, tossing a pair of shoes into my suitcase.

“Yeah, I had a headache,” she said with a laugh. “So come on, we got a ton of stuff from Chompies, it’s a great deli that Jen told me about…”

“I don’t know,” I interrupted, now wanting to hear a word about Jen. “I was just getting some packing done actually.”

“Already?” Kendra scoffed. “Please, we have hours. Now come on, I’ll save you a cinnamon raisin one.”

“Ok, ok, but Kendra?” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Is Justin there?”

“Justin?” There was a pause and I heard her cover up the phone to muffle everyone’s voices. “No, he’s not here,” she said when she came back. I sighed in….relief? Anger? Frustration? Who knew at this point?

“Hey, where’s Jen?” I heard Chris yell in the background, then a smacking sound followed Crystal’s,

“Shut up, Chris!”

“Seriously,” Kendra muttered before turning back to the phone. “So, Alex, we’ll see you soon?”

“We’ll see,” I told her just before I hung up the phone. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to see everyone one last time before I went home. In all honesty, I was really going to miss them all, but I just couldn’t handle being around Justin anymore. The fighting, the heartache, was becoming too much for me. Plus, Raul would kill me if I started to break out because of stress. That thought made me kind of smile as I walked out of the hotel room, my jaw dropping as the door shut behind me. Justin was leaving his room at the same time and our eyes locked. In the blue depths, I could see dread and fear brooding, and that’s the only reason I looked over his shoulder to see what was going on. The door shut quickly, but not before I saw Jen in his room as she made her way out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel. I squeezed my eyes shut against the image before opening them again to look directly at Justin, whose face had turned bright red. He started to say something, but I cut him off.

“So, did you fuck her?” I spat out, taking a step towards him. He held his hands up in defense.

“Lexi,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. Like he knew what emotion even WAS… “I can explain.”

“The hell you can.” I tried to sound mean, vicious even, but it didn’t work. The words came out choked. “So did you, Justin? Did you sleep with Jen?” His eyes darted away from mine to stare at the floor before he answered me, so softly I could barely hear him.

“Yeah, Lexi…I did.”

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even speak. I can’t remember ever feeling the kind of pain that I felt at that moment, watching Justin with his head bowed guiltily, scuffing his shoe against the carpet.

When I didn’t say anything, he kept going. “And you know what? You should be happy for me.”

“Happy?” I hissed. “Are you kidding?” He finally looked up, this time with a determined look on his face that told me he wouldn’t be falling to his knees to beg my forgiveness anytime in the near future.

“Yes, HAPPY,” he replied, holding up a hand when I tried to talk. “No, let me talk. Women, I swear I don’t understand any of you. First you want to be my friend, then you pretend to be more, then you act like it could be more, then you’re my friend again, and when I try to find someone else so I can maybe be happy, you’re upset about it! Damnit woman, make up your damn mind!” He was breathing heavily when he was done with his speech, his voice loud enough to wake everyone on the floor up.

“You know what, Justin?” I asked, looking away from him and focusing on a spot on the wall. “You’re right. I have no right to be upset.”

“Thank you.”

“We’re just friends after all, and I can’t stop you from fucking every whore you come across…”

“Lexi, Jen is NOT a whore…”

“AND,” I interrupted. “You can’t stop ME when I tell you that I’m leaving.” He gaped at me.

“You’re what?”

“Leaving, Justin. I can’t stay here anymore, with you and your goddamn mixed signals,” I told him. “It’s not fair.”

“Mixed signals? Did Joey loan you his crack pipe or something? Or did you inhale it while you were making out?” His eyes narrowed. “How can you leave after one city?!” His hands shot out to grab my shoulders.

“Watch me,” I hissed, shaking him off. “Goodbye, Justin.” I managed to keep my shoulders straight as I turned around and let myself back into my room, not giving in to the emotions raging through me until I was safely huddled into a human ball on the bed.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Where the hell is Alex?” Kristy mumbled through a mouthful of bagel. “Didn’t you call her like a half hour ago, K?” Kendra looked up from her task, which was feeding Lance a piece of toast.

“Huh?” she asked, obviously dazed.

“Alex….phone call….get your head out of Lance’s butt for a second, yo,” Kristy commented, grinning at her own joke.

“Dude, get out of my butt!” Kendra joked, shrugging Kristy’s comment aside.

“Sorry, had to be said.”

“Yeah, I called her. I don’t keep an Alexia radar on me, man, maybe a psycho fan got to her,” Kendra said just as the door opened. They all looked to see a disheveled Justin stalk through, his shoulders slumped.

“That’s definitely not her,” Lesa commented from her spot in Joey’s lap. They had been very cozy all morning, but had avoided all questions in regards to their status. It was starting to feel like we were all starring in some cheesy soap opera.

“Hey Bounce, have you seen Alexia?” JC asked, barely noticing how worn out his friend looked as he munched on his bagel and lox.

“She’s leaving,” Justin whispered. “In fact, I think she’s already gone.”

“Leaving?” Kris asked, incredulously. She had been having a great time with everyone, but had soon come to realize that Lance was way too hooked on Kendra for her taste. The only reason she was sticking around was to wait for Jen, she wasn’t enjoying watching Kendra and Lance together. Lance pouted at the toast that was being held right out of his reach. “Sorry, babe,” Kendra muttered, shoving the whole thing in his mouth, then hopping off of his lap to get the rest of the story.

“Why would she be leaving? Is she going to Albuquerque early?” Lesa asked, not missing the way Joey was frowning at Justin.

“What did you do, Justin?” he asked venomously. Justin looked up, barely able to meet Joey’s eyes. “Out with it, Curly, before I go find out for myself.” Joey was now sitting up straight, staring Justin directly in the eye.

“I slept with Jen,” Justin whispered, then looked up to see everyone’s shocked faces. “What?!” he shouted at them all. “I slept with Jen, ok? She’s a great girl and she makes ME feel great, and at least she doesn’t lead me in these endless CIRCLES…” He let his voice trail off, then shook his head. “Forget it, you guys wouldn’t understand.”

“I would,” Lesa said, softly, casting a meaningful look Joey’s way. “Come on, Justin.”

“Come on where?” he asked, confused.

“I’ll go with you to find Alexia,” she said, standing up.

“Well, Jen is still in my room and…”

“We’ll take care of Jen,” Kristy filled in, also standing up. “She’s our friend after all, and she’s not stupid by far. She knows how close you and Alexia are.” Kris and Kendra both nodded, standing with her.

“Count us in,” Kris said. “Now why is she leaving again?”

“She saw us,” Justin mumbled, looking down again.

“Say what?” Kendra asked, looking at Kristy.

“Alexia….she saw Jen this morning in my room….she was kind of…um…”

“Naked?” Lesa groaned, answered by the forlorn look on Justin’s face. “Well fuck.”

“She is not going to take that well,” Kendra guessed.

“Take what well?” Chris and Crystal had just joined the breakfast party, but they were barely in the room before Lesa was pushing Justin out.

“Jen being naked,” Kris answered.

“Jen was naked??” Chris asked, looking around. JC just shrugged, stating,

“Don’t look at me, man.”

“Yeah with Justin,” Kristy said. “And Alexia saw it and now she’s gone.”

“Gone where??” Crystal wanted to know.

“I don’t know, but Lesa and Justin went to find her.”

“Who?” Chris asked.

“Alexia!” Kristy sighed in frustration.

“Where?”

“We don’t know…”

“How?”

“In a car I would imagine.” Kristy almost smiled at this point.

“Why?”

“To stop her from leaving the tour.”

“Alexia’s leaving the tour???” Crystal squealed.

“WHAT?!” Chris exclaimed. Everyone shot him an evil look before they moved for the door, leaving JC and Lance to their food, Chris and Crystal to their confusion, and Joey to his seething anger.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Are you sure?” the bartender asked me. “It’s ten o’clock in the morning, Miss.”

“Then you shouldn’t be open this early,” I scowled. “Hit me.” He sighed and quickly poured another brandy, handing it to me with a frown. “You can add orange juice to it if it’ll make you feel better,” I told him, taking a sip of the sweet liquid.

“You just be careful,” he said, moving to the other end of the bar. I lifted my glass in his honor before taking another swallow, this one larger than the first.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” I turned to find Jen watching me carefully, keeping herself just out of arm’s reach. In case I want to hit her, I thought to myself with a laugh.

“Would that stop you?” I asked, bitterly, turning back around.

“I deserve that,” she sighed, taking the seat anyway. “But in my defense, Alexia, Justin is not taken.” I bit back the several comments that threatened to emerge, and only said,

“Yes, I know.”

“Well, he’s not taken. His heart is,” she commented casually, motioning to the bartender. “Amaretto and coke, please.”

“Wuss,” I mumbled, looking over at her to see that she was grinning at me sarcastically.

“In some things, yes,” she replied, smiling sweetly at the bartender when he gave her the drink. “But you are too.”

“Oh did you want to find out?” I asked menacingly, raising my eyebrow in her direction.

“No!” Jen held her hands up in defense. “Please, I’m five feet tall, I couldn’t beat up a cat.” I chuckled, thinking that was a pretty accurate statement.

“So how am I a wuss, please share?”

“You should just tell him,” she said with a shrug, facing forward and taking another drink.

“Tell who what?” I was getting sick of playing these guessing games with people.

“Justin…the real reason why you’re leaving.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I can tell you why I’m not leaving,” I grumbled. She looked at me questioningly.

“Why’s that?”

“Damn fans outside. I couldn’t even get to the damn door, they almost got my bag.” I patted the small travel bag lovingly. It had really helped me out on the trip so far, letting me change into t-shirts when I wanted, and play hand held video games when I got bored. I loved my little travel bag.

“God forbid,” Jen commented, looking at the bag with a chuckle. She dug into her purse, pulling out a cigarette before continuing. “But back to the reason I came to find you, Alex.”

“I wanted to be alone,” I told her, hoping she’d take the hint.

“Too bad,” she scoffed, taking a drag. “You need to hear me out.” I was about to punch the girl’s face in, I really was.

“I don’t need to do anything,” I growled at her. “Why don’t you go back to your little game of hide the clothing with Justin?” She started coughing, and I finally smiled, hoping she choked on the cigarette itself.

“I can’t justify what I did, Alex,” she said, her voice finally dropping to a sincere level. “I knew how you feel about him and I knew how he feels about you, and I did it anyway. I can’t justify that, and I’m sorry.”

“How I feel about him? Huh?” I was really getting this denial act down, I was almost proud of myself.

“Oh cut the bullshit,” she told me angrily. “Alex, you are so fucking lucky. You’ve got this great guy who’s so in love with you that he never thinks about anything else, and you love him BACK! Do you have any idea how often that happens?”

“You’re wrong, Jen,” I told her, looking down through the bottom of the now-empty glass.

“No, I’m not. It’s written all over both of your faces,” she said, threading her hands through her hair. “Would I be telling you to go after him if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do? Feeling the way I do about him, do you really think I would lie about this?”

“How do you feel about him?” I asked. She did have a point, she had no reason to lie. She shrugged and took another deep drag, not meeting my eye.

“It doesn’t matter,” she replied, looking at me. “He loves you.” I shook my head, but she stopped me from speaking. “You’re both just too stubborn to realize it.”

“JEN?? ALEX??” Female voices interrupted our talk and we both turned to find Kristy, Kendra and Kris all rushing into the bar with their jaws dragging behind them.

“Hi guys,” I murmured, turning around in the bar stool. Justin loved me? Since when?

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you, bitch,” Kris told Jen, wagging her finger. Jen just stared at it and blew smoke in her face, grinning.

“Here I am,” she replied.

“And Justin and Lesa are out looking for YOU, Alex,” Kendra told me. I put the glass down on the bar and frowned up at them.

“Me? Why?” I asked.

“Take a guess,” Jen replied, sliding off of her bar stool and tossing some bills onto the counter. “Kris, you ready?” Kris nodded enthusiastically at her friend. “K, then let’s get out of here. Ladies, lovely seeing you…” All 4 girls hugged tightly.

“We’ll call you before we leave town,” Kristy told her. Jen nodded, then looked over at me.

“Think about what I said, ok, Alex?” she said, softly. “I won’t be seeing him again, ever…don’t make me regret that decision.” With that, she turned around and left with Kris in tow, leaving me to stare at the floor, deep in thought.

“Well um….will you be back upstairs in a bit?” Kendra asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“I don’t know,” I murmured.

“Please, Alex, everyone’s worried about you…..especially a certain cutie with blonde hair…” Kristy said with a wink.

“Lance?” I chuckled.

“Yeah, him too. So what do you say?”

“I’ll come back upstairs to say goodbye at least, ok?” I told them. “I just need to be alone for a bit here.” They both sighed and nodded solemnly, turning around to leave the bar. Once again, I was alone, staring at the mirror across the bar. Finally, I looked down, noticing my empty glass. Just as I was motioning to the bartender to get me another drink, I heard a voice behind me.

“Come here often?” My head snapped up so that I was staring straight into the mirror and straight into Justin Timberlake’s eyes.

“What are you doing here?” I grumbled after a moment, grateful for the new drink so I could have something to focus my attention on.

“Looking for you,” he replied, helping himself to the seat Jen had just occupied. How incredibly ironic.

“I can’t imagine why,” I said, trying to sound tough. Unfortunately, Justin knew me about as well as anyone did, and he could see right through my act. I could tell by the frustrated sigh that emerged from his throat. He ran both hands through his hair, then turned his head so he was looking straight at my profile.

“Can’t you, Lexi?” he asked, softly. I felt the question all the way to my toes, and despite my tough façade, I couldn’t help meeting his eye.

“Not really,” I replied just as softly, quickly turning away. “You want to yell at me some more maybe? Tell me how stupid I’m being? That I have no right to be jealous?”

“I didn’t realize you were jealous,” he stated. I just shrugged. That was not something I cared to admit just hours after he had slept with someone else. “I was too, ya know,” he went on when he realized that I wasn’t going to say anything.

“You were what?” I asked.

“Jealous.” It was just a word, one word…but that one word meant more to me than any other word in the history of all words. It gave me a sense of power, a feeling of pride, and just a tiny bit of hope.

“Oh please,” I snorted. “What do you have to be jealous of?” I could feel him grinning.

“Well let’s see…Paul Walker for one,” he started.

“That bleached blonde airhead??” I asked, incredulously. “Are you serious?”

“Very,” he told me. “Especially when I saw you guys the next morning in your kitchen, and he was just in sweat pants. I wanted to take the food I brought, throw it in his face, and shove him out the door as hard as I could.”

“Well you had Lesa with you,” I argued.

“I brought her because I needed backup to stop me from kicking his ass, Lex,” Justin laughed. “We had decided that morning to just be friends.”

“I didn’t know that,” I murmured, thinking back to my talk with Lesa.

“There was just no….” He snapped his fingers, trying to think of the word he was looking for. “Spark!” he finally said, and our eyes met through the mirror. After a long moment of not breathing, I finally looked away and studied the glass again.

“Paul had about as much spark as a cantelope,” I commented with a chuckle.

“Anyway, so I was jealous of him,” Justin continued. “And the night we met, I was jealous of Joey McIntyre because he showed up with you.”

“Actually I ran into him at the club, we were just talking when you guys called us over,” I told him. Justin shrugged.

“I was still jealous. And don’t even get me started on Joey.”

“Joey…..Fatone??” I crinkled my nose, then thought back to the scene from the night before and sighed. “Well…maybe I was trying to make you jealous.”

“It worked,” he murmured. “I couldn’t that…image out of my head. You and him…together…” He physically shuttered.

“Nothing happened,” I sighed. “I….well I tried to kiss him…”

“You WHAT?!”

“BUT,” I interrupted, frowning at the intrusion. “I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t use him like that. He knew what I was trying to do.”

“And what was that?” Justin asked.

“Come on, Justin…” I had already said so much.

“Lexi, we need to have this talk, you know that as much as I do,” he said, sighing in frustration.

“I know…” I looked up at him. “He knew I was trying to make you jealous.”

“Ha! Well it worked,” Justin snorted.

“I saw you and Jen…you know…and I just lost it, Curly, I have no idea what came over me,” I admitted. His hand moved from where it rested on the bar to cover mine and I stared at it, studying the back of his hand with a carefulness that I didn’t spend on anything…and this was just his HAND.

“You know what Lance asked me the other day?” he finally asked, his voice soft. I shook my head, focusing on how his thumb was tracing circles along mine. “He said something like, ‘Wait, if you and Alex weren’t really engaged, what was that I saw in the dressing room that night she was attacked?’” My eyes filled with tears remembering the night.

“He’s very observant.”

“Yes.”

“So what did you tell him?” I wanted to know. Justin frowned, deep in thought.

“I told him that neither of us knew WHAT that was, and that we never even acknowledge it happened. He told me I was a fool.”

“Yeah, well, Lance is a pretty smart guy,” I replied, smiling softly. He grinned back and nudged my shoulder.

“I resemble that remark, Junior,” he teased, meeting my eyes again. I sniffed, ashamed at my emotional reaction to his use of my old nickname. “Hey,” he whispered. “Don’t cry.” His other hand lifted, his thumb gently wiping a tear off of my cheek. That only made it worse, and I shook my head, willing the tears to go away.

“I’m just sick of hurting, Justin,” I whispered. “And it seems that everytime I’m around you, all I do is hurt.” His eyes clouded over in pain at my statement.

“God, Lexi, don’t you know that the last thing on earth I would do is hurt you?” he asked, putting an arm around my shoulder and drawing me to him in a tight hug. I reciprocated, wrapping both arms around his back and squeezing him tightly, breathing in his beautiful scent. His hand found my hair, tangling itself in the strands as he held me to him, rocking gently. “Lexi,” he finally whispered in my ear. “Don’t you know how much I love you?”

My breath caught in my throat and I closed my eyes, trying to save the moment as if I could just put it on pause and never leave it. I felt his body tighten, his heart beating rapidly as he waited for my response. After composing myself, I finally lifted my face from his shoulder, wiping the tears that had spilled away.

“Could you….say that…..again?” I whispered, lifting a shaky hand to his face. He turned his head until his lips found my palm, kissing it softly, then he took my hand in his and held it against his chest, his other hand reaching out to touch the side of my face.

“I love you,” he said again, his eyes searching mine. A breath of air escaped from my lungs in a large whoosh.

“God, Justin, I love you too,” I told him, grinning like a madman through my tears. His whole face broke into a huge smile as we just stared at each other like idiots.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he finally said, shaking his head in laughter. “Lexi, we are so fucking stupid.”

“Yeah…complete morons,” I agreed, watching as his head moved closer to mine.

“Imbeciles,” he whispered, still inching closer.

“Complete losers.” Now he was merely centimeters away, I could feel his breath against my lips.

“Hey, speak for yourself,” he said with a smile just before he kissed me. You know those kisses in the movies with the soft music playing in the background and the sun setting behind them….the kisses that you usually watch and wrinkle your nose at? This was one of those kinds of kisses. I almost heard the soft music playing, I could almost see the fireworks. His fingers wrapped in my hair, his other arm moving around my waist to pull me as close as he could considering we were both sitting in barstools. Every movement he made was sensual, every touch of his lips or tongue sent shivers in places I didn’t know I had, every thought I had was Justin. Justin’s hands, Justin’s body, Justin’s mouth, Justin’s eyes…I was almost drowning in my own cheesiness, and I was loving every second of it. It was definitely a kiss for the record books.

Finally, the bartender coughed loudly and we jerked apart, grinning and blushing like idiots. He started laughing, shaking his head firmly.

“And people wonder why we’re open so early,” he commented. “Happens all the time…”

“Well if it keeps happening, something else is gonna happen right here on your bar, and well…” Justin commented, winking at me.

“Um,” I stammered, grabbing my purse. “I think we’re going to…”

“Get out of here,” the bartender winked. “I’d better not see either of you again today.”

“You won’t,” Justin said, hurriedly digging in his pants and tossing some bills on the counter. That was a pretty hefty tip. I tried to protest him paying, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the bar before I could. A few flashes went off as soon as we entered the lobby and we could see all of the fans through the glass walls, but neither of us paid them any mind as we weaved through all of the people, ignoring the cries of,

“Justin!!!!!”

“Alexia, OH MY GOD!” and of course the ever popular,

“EEEEEEEK!” Those people were the coolest ones. By the time we got to the elevators, we were both out of breath and laughing so hard, we were clutching our sides.

“Oh the tabloids tomorrow,” I chuckled, looking up to catch Justin’s twinkling eye.

“Fuck em,” he murmured, grabbing me and pulling me flush against his body. His head dipped, and I leaned up to meet his lips in a hungry kiss, gasping when the elevator dinged and he released me. “Just making sure it’s not a dream,” he whispered, putting his hand on my lower back to guide me out of the elevator and towards his room. My mind was racing. Did I really want to go to his room with him this soon after we discovered our feelings for each other? Would it ruin everything? I found that my hormones were far taking over my brain, because I really didn’t care. I wanted him, and that was all that seemed to matter.

Justin fumbled with his room key at first, but eventually got the door open, and he grinned back at me before entering, making me sigh outloud. We had just gotten the door closed when we fell into each other’s arms, not paying attention to anything around us, just touching each other to make sure we were real. It was dark in the room, but I could still invision his eyes shining, his mouth pursed, and I playfully pushed him so that he fell back on the bed, fully intending to join him, when about three loud screams stopped me.

“Justin?” I gasped, running to turn on the light. The sight before me was one to save in my memory bank to bring up at a later date. Kendra and Lance were in the bed, clutching sheets to their chins, both looking very dishevled, and very shocked to see us. Justin took one look at them, and started laughing so hard that no noise came out of him. He looked at me, shaking his head, then back at them, pointing. His body was shaking in laughter, and he finally just rolled off of the bed onto the floor, grabbing his sides.

“Oh….my…..God…..” I stammered, my eyes darting from Kendra and Lance back to Justin. They were both white as ghosts, and apparently VERY naked under those sheets.

“Um…” Kendra blushed, suddenly finding the blanket very interesting.

“Hi, guys,” Lance said, a grin forming on his face.

“HI?” Justin hooted from the floor. “I just SAT on you two while you were getting it ON, and all I get is a HI?” That broke the tension and sent us all off, laughing until we couldn’t anymore. Kendra and Lance were having a hard time keeping the sheet up around them.

“What do you want me to say?” Lance asked finally, looking at Kendra lovingly. “I’m sorry? Sorry, dude, I’m not!”

“You’d better not be!” Kendra pouted, playfully punching him on the shoulder.

“You know I’m not,” Lance whispered, huskily, and Kendra sighed outloud, leaning forward until their lips met in a very passionate kiss that spoke volumes about their unfullfilment of the evening. Justin and I shrugged at each other, waiting for the kiss to end, but when it didn’t, we both started coughing loudly.

“Guys, I am not quite into voyeurism, ok?” I commented, choking when they broke apart and smiled at me sheepishly.

“Hey wait a second,” Justin mused. “This is MY room, you two, what are you DOING here?”

“Um….well….” Lance stumbled, turning red again. “See, the girls got back and said that you and Alex were downstairs talking……wait a second, were you guys about to…..????”

“Nevermind that now, why are you in my room?” Justin asked, standing up and folding his arms across his chest.

“My roommate is JOEY, dude,” Lance explained. “And with all that’s been going on with him and Lesa…”

“Joey and LESA?” I asked, incredulously.

“Duh?” Kendra looked at me like I had been asleep for a month. “You must have missed all the drama.”

“Must have,” I mumbled, making a mental note to ask Lesa later.

“Anyway, so him and Lesa are using my room, and Kendra is sharing her room with Kristy and Crystal, so…”

“So my room was the only one that wasn’t being USED?” Justin groaned, shaking his head. “Geesh, did it have to be in MY ROOM?”

“It’s a hotel room, Bounce,” Lance reminded him. “And we do share, right?”

“Not when I’m using it,” Justin grinned. “Now out.” They both pouted, but Justin was firm, even pointing to the door to emphasize his statement.

“Ok, ok, geez,” Lance finally sighed, shrugging at his girlfriend. “Maybe I should just be celibate.”

“I don’t think so,” Kendra replied, struggling to put her clothes on under the sheet. Finally, she jumped up, and pulled Lance with her, who had luckily gotten into his boxers before he left the safety of the bed.

“But baby, where…?” he started to say, but she shut him up by putting her finger to his lips.

“The lobby has a bathroom, right?” she purred, and Justin and I looked at each other in surprise.

“Yeah…” Lance said, looking confused. Finally, the light came on in his head and his eyes lit up. “OH! Well shit…” He waved at us as Kendra dragged him out of the room, pulling on his shirt on their way out. We stared at the door long after it was closed, finally just shaking our heads at the entire scene that had just been played.

“Nothing will cease to amaze me after seeing THAT!” I commented.

“No kidding,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe Lancey Pants is so…”

“Freaky deaky?” I asked with a grin. Justin chuckled.

“I knew we had something in common,” he murmured, pulling me against him again, his lips moving to my neck. I sighed, leaning my head back and wrapping my arms around his neck.

“So you’re freaky deaky, huh?” I asked, moving my own mouth to his ear. He shivered.

“I guess you’ll have to find out, won’t you?” he rasped, softly laying me down on the bed. When he joined me, his weight on top of me was the most wonderful feeling I had ever felt, and I met his kiss head on, pulling him to me so he wouldn’t stop. He sucked on my bottom lip, lightly nipping it with his teeth while his hands moved under my shirt to caress my belly.

“Justin,” I sighed, impatiently pulling at his shirt. “You’re wearing too many clothes.” He leaned up on his elbows, releasing my lip so he could smile down at me.

“So are you,” he replied. I tugged the bottom of his shirt up and over his head, leaning up on my elbows.

“Well you’ll have to take care of that,” I told him, huskily, lifting my head to run my tongue around one of his nipples. My hands moved to caress his chest, rubbing the muscles there, while my mouth worshiped each nipple equally. The growl coming from the back of his throat told me that he liked it a little more than a lot.

“Ok, enough of that,” he finally rasped out, pushing me back to the bed. “I want this to last, Lexi.” He looked down at me, our eyes locking, and we just stared at each other in awe before he kissed me again, running his hands up and down my arms. My shirt came off before I could even realize his intentions, and he lowered his weight onto me so that our skin melded together. We both sighed at the sensation, just laying there holding each other for a moment, savoring it.

“This feels so good, Curly,” I sighed, running my hands through his hair and kissing his temple.

“Heaven, Junior, pure heaven,” he whispered, capturing my lips again. A loud knock at the door had us both groaning in disappointment.

“Maybe they’ll go away?” I tried, but whoever it was knocked again, this time more insistently.

“Wait right here, don’t move a muscle,” Justin ordered, pulling himself off of me, kissing my stomach on his way. I giggled and nodded, running my hands unconsciously over the area as he padded to the doorway, his beautiful frame outlined by the bathroom light. “This better be important,” he growled as he opened the door. I couldn’t see who it was from where I was lying, but I heard Justin’s gasp of surprise.

“Wh….what are you DOING here?” he asked loudly, obviously not happy with the visitor.

“Not happy to see me, JuJu?” the female voice sneered, and I heard the door being pushed open, the platform heels the girl was wearing thundering on the carpet as she pushed her way into the room. I was struggling to get my shirt turned to the right side when I saw her, and we both froze.

“Alexia,” she finally said, her voice catching. My eyes narrowed as I took in her attire, the short shorts, crop top, and choker.

“Britney,” I hissed. “What great timing.” She scoffed at me and turned to Justin, who was shrugging into a button-down denim shirt.

“Well Justin, if this is what you call a fake engagement, I can’t wait to see what a real one would be like,” she commented angrily, her eyes shooting daggers into both of us. It was my turn to be shocked, and Justin knew it. He met my eyes out of obligation, but looked like he wanted to crawl into the floor.

“Justin,” I said, my voice not revealing anything of what I was feeling. “You told HER the truth about the engagement??” He sighed, looking at Britney with a classic Justin scowl on his face.

“Yeah, Lexi, I did, but…”

“But what? It was supposed to be a secret, Justin….we didn’t even tell the guys, yet you tell…tell…”

“Tell what?” Britney wanted to know, crossing her arms over her chest. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, rolling my eyes before turning my attention back to Justin. He ignored the blonde and moved to kneel in front of me, taking both of my hands in his, leaning on my knees and I searched his eyes for some kind of answer.

“Lexi, please,” he begged. “Don’t let this ruin today, it was a long time ago and I’ll explain it to you, I will, but don’t let it ruin what we just found.” His voice lowered to a whisper. “I’m begging you.” I looked down at our entwined hands, then up at Britney, who was starting to look more than a little uncomfortable, then finally back at Justin. I couldn’t be mad at him, I just couldn’t.

“You should beg more often,” I told him, a smile slowly spreading across my face. Watching me, his face lit up, and he leaned in to give me a huge bear hug.

“I am way too lucky,” he said into my ear.

“You won’t get any arguments from me,” I giggled, looking at Britney over Justin’s shoulder. “Sorry, Brit.”

“No you’re not,” she replied, her bottom lip actually quivering. “I guess I just couldn’t measure up to the great Alexia, could I?” Justin pulled away from me, my hands slipping from his bare skin. He caught my eye and I nodded, knowing what he had to do.

“Brit, it’s not like that at all,” he murmured, reaching out a hand to her arm, squeezing it. “Alexia and I….well, it’s just…”

“You’re telling me as if I care, Justin,” she hissed.

“I’m sorry, I thought that you’d…”

“You thought? With something other than your dick?” She was getting angry, so I had to choke back a laugh.

“Now wait a second, that’s not fair,” Justin argued. I almost pointed out that he had been with another girl the night before, but decided against it when Britney groaned, throwing her hands into the air.

“You are SUCH an asshole, Justin Timberlake,” she shouted. “You don’t deserve me, you don’t deserve Alexia, you don’t deserve SHIT!” Her voice was getting louder and louder, and my eyes got wider with every word. She was starting to pace the room and finally grabbed a vase from the dresser and heaved it at a wall. Justin and I both cringed as it broke into a million pieces all over the floor, looking at each other helplessly.

“What the fuck…” We turned to see JC standing in the doorway, ducking as a shoe went flying at his head. “WHOA, man, she almost took my head off!”

“Don’t even get me started on YOU, Mr. ‘Sorry Britney, I just don’t like you that way.’,” she yelled at JC, searching for something else to throw. JC groaned and covered his face, shaking his head.

“You were the one who didn’t want me to tell anyone about that, Brit,” he reminded her, obviously trying not to laugh.

“All you fucking men are the same,” she shouted.

“What in God’s name is going on in here?” Lesa called, storming into the room dragging a sleepy-looking Joey behind her. She stopped in her tracks at the site of the broken vase. “Britney Spears? What are YOU doing here?”

“Oh great,” Joey moaned, moving to sit on the bed with me and Justin, but stopping before he could. “WHOA, you guys are like…NAKED!”

“Who’s naked?” Chris and Crystal were there too by that point, hearing all the commotion, and Kristy soon wandered in looking for JC.

“Damn we’re only missing the freakin Brady Bunch,” Justin muttered, grabbing his t-shirt off the floor and pulling it over his head.

“Alex, what is going on?” Kristy wanted to know, looking around the room in confusion. Britney, obviously upset that the attention was off of her, marched right up to Justin, and shoved him so hard that he toppled over the empty bed, doing a flip before landing on the floor.

“Holy shit!” Chris exclaimed, running to help Justin up as Britney turned on her heel and marched out of the room.

“At least she has her dignity,” I muttered, sarcastically as Justin emerged from the other side of the bed, his curls sticking out from all angles.

“Speaking of dignity,” Justin mumbled, reaching down to grab a sweatshirt from the floor and putting it over my almost-bare chest.

“Damn,” Joey pouted, and Lesa smacked him on the arm. “Hey! I’m allowed to look,” he defended.

“So wait, you guys are together??” I asked, incredulously, looking at Lesa with a raised eyebrow.

“As long as he stops being an oaf,” she chuckled, yelping as he tackled her.

“Yes, they’re together,” Kristy confirmed. “It’s about time everyone started to realize who wanted who.”

“Yeah, speaking of wanted, JC,” Justin spoke up. “Brit HIT on you?”

“Say what?” Kristy gasped, turning her attention to her boyfriend. He blushed, shrugging his shoulders at her.

“Um, yeah,” he said, uncomfortably running his hand over the back of his neck. “Just once.”

“Air Wonder hit on you??” Joey laughed, stopping when Justin shot him a glare. “Sorry, Bounce, it’s funny.”

“When was this?” Justin wanted to know. I was starting to wonder why he cared so much.

“The last show of hers that I went to,” JC mumbled. “Remember how I didn’t want to go the last time you went? Well…”

“You didn’t go because you were afraid she would hit on you again? Was I there??” Justin wouldn’t let up.

“You were um…sleeping…”

“JC, she hit on you??” Kristy asked.

“Don’t worry, Kristy, he told her no,” I said, patting the worried girl on the arm. She sighed and nodded, smiling when he put his arm around her, drawing her against him.

“Dude, I was with her for that show,” Justin muttered, shaking his head.

“Oh was that one of the nights you were together?” Joey wanted to know. Justin scowled at him, running a hand through his hair.

“Um, while we’re on the subject?” Chris interrupted everyone, clearing his throat loudly.

“Of what?” Crystal wanted to know.

“Britney hitting on everyone and their dogs,” he replied, making a face at Justin. “I shouldn’t be telling you guys this, but it seems appropriate…”

“Let me guess, she hit on you too?” I asked with a chuckle.

“No, Lance,” Chris said, matter-of-factly.

“What?!” we all said at once, jaws dropping all over the room.

“He was drunk when he told me, man!” Chris laughed. “But yeah, she totally hit on him, squeezed his ass while they were dancing or something.” That sent us all into a laughing fit.

“Dude,” was all Justin said. “I know how to pick em, man.”

“Hey!” I elbowed him. “Why are you so jealous, Curly?”

“I’m not jealous, I’m just amazed at her….abilities…” he answered, laughing when I pushed him onto the floor.

“Man, Ju, you’re not doing so good today, are you?” JC asked, peering over the side of the bed.

“Actually,” he said, pulling himself into a sitting position. “I’m doing great today.” He grinned up at me, and I melted. How was I ever going to be mad at this guy? “Just promise me you won’t hit on any of my bandmates,” he begged me. I shrugged, moving back to rest against JC’s legs.

“We’ll see,” I teased, laughing when Justin groaned and curled into a ball on the floor.

“You mean you guys finally…?” Crystal was the first to ask.

“Whoa, Alex, you’re naked!” Kristy gasped, making me pull the sweatshirt tighter to my chest.

“It’s about fucking time,” was all Joey had to say before the whole room burst into applause. Justin and I both laughed, and I leaned over the bed to help pull him back up.

“Lexi, seriously,” Justin said as he got settled again. “The only thing Britney hurt was my pride, but you…you could really hurt me, so please take it easy on me, ok?” The wounded look on his face made me tilt my head and reach out to touch his face.

“Oh you don’t worry about me, Curly,” I murmured. He put a hand over mine and leaned in, about to kiss me when the chorus of sighs stopped him. We both turned to see all of our friends watching us with silly, almost comical expressions on their faces.

“Now that was cute,” Lance commented from the door.

“Back from your lobby bathroom rendezvous?” I wanted to know as Lance and Kendra stepped over the tossed shoes to join us.

“We used the vans,” Kendra shrugged. “They were down in the garage, there were no fans…”

“I don’t want to know,” Kristy told her matter-of-factly.

“Wow everyone looks so….happy….” Lance commented, looking from me and Justin to Lesa and Joey to the other already-set couples. “Are you sure we’re in the right room?”

“Actually you’re not,” Justin spoke up, standing up. “All of you actually, WRONG room.”

“You’re kicking us OUT, JuJu?” Joey asked, innocently.

“Call me that one more time and I really will kick you,” Justin threatened, pulling people up off of the floor and bed and pushing them toward the door. “Now get out, get out, get out.” Despite everyone’s protests, Justin still had them out the door within five minutes and he shut it with a loud sigh, turning around slowly to face me. I was standing in front of him with a grin.

“You’re not going to kick me out too?” I asked, innocently. His arms stole around my waist, pulling me against his body.

“We’ll see how I feel in the morning,” he murmured, his lips already against the skin of my neck. I reached out to turn off the light, smiling as he pulled the sweatshirt out of my grasp.

“If I have my way, you won’t be able to move in the morning,” I informed him, grabbing his hand and leading him to the bed. He just growled, smiling against my mouth as we shared a passionate kiss.

The End

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