It wasn't a long trip over to his house, but Lauren felt anxious for some reason about going over there. True it was the first time they had been alone in his house in months and the memory of that afternoon was still replaying in her head, but it just seemed like her mother or father were about to walk in and condemn them for being alone again. It was stupid and she was stupid for feeling that way but overall she had a really strange feeling about being alone with him again.
Maybe she just didn't trust herself around him anymore. She was VERY unsure of her hormones right then because he was looking too cute and too handsome for his own good. The charm he was laying out didn't help much either.
"Soooo…how is school going?"
She looked over the couch and watched him as he walked around it and handed her a bowl of chocolate ice cream. "It's going fine I guess. Same old, same old. I want to know what it's like to have the biggest selling album in the country right now."
He sat down with a smile and ate a spoonful of ice cream. "It's interesting to say the very least. Val, I never thought we would come close to setting any records, much less shatter them."
The excitement and the joy on his face were enough to make her smile for weeks. "You guys worked very hard to get that album out and all that hard work was rewarded."
His voice was dreamy and his eyes were wide and bright with amazement. "We have so many fans and it's more than I ever thought we would. Is this really us? I mean, was that really OUR album that hit that high? It's an album that I'm a part of and that I made come to life?"
She reached out to wipe a dab of ice cream off of his chin. "It's all you."
He ate another spoonful and shook his head. "I'm just blown away by it all. Our tour hasn't even been planned or choreographed yet and I know it's going to be the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever been a part of. By the way, are you going to take classes this summer or are you going to be our official groupie?"
"Do I get to wear one of those cute badge things that people beg for at every city?"
"I think I can rummage one up for you."
"I'm there. You can't imagine what people offer for that thing. I find it humorous to go outside of the venue just to use it as 'stupidity' bait. Did you know that I could have actually owned several small children if I just would have given that thing up? Hmm."
He watched her eat quietly and his eyes followed the path of the spoon up to her lips. "Uh…speaking of giving up, have you talked to Miranda since we got back?"
"Miranda is vacationing at 'Club-JC' for the next week or two I'm sure. I'll try to call her tomorrow but if JC answers with a groan…I'm not talking."
He laughed and put his empty bowl on the end table beside him. "This is going to completely kill the mood but I hope she found something on Tom. I'm REALLY hoping she has found something. We only have a week and a half before he's going to push that contract in your face."
Lauren choked on her ice cream when she realized that if Justin thought it was a week and a half from when the contract was to be signed, then it was really this coming Saturday that Tom would decide whether or not to allow them to go public with the relationship. She needed more time and she needed to somehow reason with him to stop this evil plan that he had going on.
She needed a miracle.
After making a mental note to get on the phone with Miranda to beg her to work harder on gaining information, she looked at him and smiled. "Justin, I don't want to talk about Tom right now. It has been really nice not having him anywhere around me and it's even better knowing that you're nowhere around him or the piece of trash he calls 'home' on a daily basis I'm sure."
"Oh you don't think that those two…Shai and Tom? No way. You think they have some kind of sex thing going on?"
She shuddered and put her bowl down in her lap. "I don't want to think about it and I refuse to give those thoughts any part of my life. Can we please change the subject?"
He shrugged lazily. "What do you suggest?"
"ANYTHING but Tom and Shai."
"Hmm…anything?"
She handed him her bowl and motioned to the table beside him. "Put that up for me please. I don't care what we talk about, but something other than those two."
After grabbing the bowl, he ran a finger along the inside of it, and held it up to her lips. She gave him a questioning look and kept her lips closed so long that he rolled his eyes and pushed with his fingertip. "Val…you're going to drop chocolate on my white couch if you don't open up."
"What are you…" Her lips opened enough for him to slide his finger between her teeth and his eyes sparkled when he finally managed to push inside.
Her eyes widened in shock and he gave her an evil grin as he turned his finger and felt her tongue against his skin. "Good huh?"
She gently bit down on his finger and his smile turned even more devilish. "Careful with the digits, Val."
Very slowly her teeth released his finger and he slid it out of her mouth. His eyes were locked on hers and she felt her heart start to race when he got that cloudy-eyed look that he was famous for. "Justin…this isn't really talking."
He shifted on the couch until he was closer to her and stared down at her lips while his finger trailed over them. Finally he spoke in a husky whisper. "You're right. How's this…I really want to kiss you right now."
"That's more of an…an action than a conversation."
"In all honesty, do you really care?"
Her arms slid around his neck as she shook her head slowly. "Not even a little bit. Hmm…no big brothers?"
His head inched closer to hers and he smiled brightly at her question. "No big brothers."
"No…no popstar best friends?"
"No JC's lurking about."
Her watched his lips get closer and closer until finally she closed her eyes and gently tilted her head to the side. "No interruptions at all?"
"I even took the phone off of the hook."
Her eyes popped open and she pushed against his shoulders. "You did what?"
He giggled when he saw her stunned face and then leaned in to whisper against her lips. "I'm just kidding. Shut up and stop being the interruption."
She leaned into him and sighed when she realized that he tasted like chocolate. Her joke to Miranda about chocolate flavored lipgloss had nothing on actually experiencing it. His lips were still cold from the ice cream he had eaten and the remaining flavor of sweetness caused her to lose control a lot faster than she normally would. Her hands moved to the back of his neck and she pulled him closer as his arms looped around her waist and pulled her up onto his lap.
She could feel his hands roaming up and down her back as she deepened the pressure and then he reached up to hold back her hair that had fallen forward to cover them. His lips broke their contact and he looked up at her while he fought to catch his breath. "What are we doing?"
She shook her head and leaned down to kiss him again. "We're not going to interrupt."
He breathed in deeply and raised his head up to get as close to her as he could as he tightened his hands in her hair and pulled her head down so that her lips were crushed against his. This was one that could get out of hand and he had to keep reminding himself that they needed to talk through some things before they took any steps that were irreversible. He would think about that later but right now he was enjoying the moment while he could.
Just then the doorbell rang. They both jumped and Justin froze with his lips against hers while Lauren squinted her eyes and almost started crying with frustration. "This cannot be happening."
He leaned his head back against the headrest and ran a hand through his hair. "Unbelievable."
She felt the high rise and fall of his chest as he tried to catch his breath, and she honestly thought she was going to cry. "I think somebody is trying to tell us something. It's almost eleven o'clock at night!"
He groaned and beat his head against the headrest a few times. "I'm going to kill whoever is at the door. Woah you don't think that Jayce came over here because you're out this late, do you?"
"The guy doesn't have radar and I don't have a curfew. It has to be someone you know well because they got through the security gates. One of the guys? Your mom?"
He patted her leg until she pulled her legs over and sat down on the couch beside him. "My mom wouldn't come here this late."
The doorbell rang again and she kissed his cheek before standing up and giggling. "I'll answer it."
"It's my house so I should answer it."
Lauren waved a hand at him and kept walking when she saw that he hadn't moved off of the couch. "Yeah but I'd be surprised if you could walk right now. Ooh I can see that blush from here. Hand me some shades!"
She was still laughing when she jerked the door open, but her smile and her laughter died the moment she saw Shai standing there. "You're not only stupid, you're lost."
Shai gave her a sarcastic smile and shook her head. "Very funny. No I'm not lost and I'm here to see Justin. This is his house, right?"
Lauren counted to ten and gripped the door tighter in her hands. "This is Justin's house but I think you got it confused with the Hot Cabana down on Fourth Street. I hear that the 'sell my body to the Jive pimp' room is a hot commodity these days. You're a very popular girl."
Shai rolled her eyes and tried to look over Lauren's shoulder into the house. "Is Justin here or are you house-sitting while he's out with a real woman?"
"You better watch what you say because you don't have Tom or security to hold me off this time. You wouldn't want to loose part of that weave you show off so proudly."
She heard footsteps behind her as Justin approached. "Val who is at the door at this hour and…what are you doing here Shai?"
Lauren watched as Shai quickly turned from superbitch into a flirting superstar. "Hey Justin! I hope you don't mind me stopping by at such a late hour but when I tried to call earlier nobody answered. I see that you're bored to death sitting here with HER so I guess I came at just the right time."
"How did you get past the security gate?"
She gave him a puzzled look and Lauren wondered how she was going to talk her way out of this one. "The gate…the gate was open. I just drove right through."
Neither one of them could remember watching the gate close behind them as they had pulled through so her story was one that wasn't arguable. That didn't stop Lauren for one second. "The gate was open huh? I bet you're used to a lot of strange cars and a lot of traffic going through OPEN GATES…huh Shai? Do you have a code that opens your gates or do you just leave it open 24/7?"
Justin knew she was getting riled up and he didn't want her to explode all over Shai right there in his doorway. "Val, remember that I have white carpet."
She laughed and looked Shai over. "Not only is she spineless but she's also heartless. There shouldn't be any blood to clean up, but there should be A LOT of hair."
Shai reached into her bag and pulled out a toothbrush and a bag that contained some clothes. "Justin I came by to bring these to you out of the goodness of my heart and you're going to stand there and let her insult me this way?"
"I think that this is probably a bad time."
Lauren laughed at his calm words. "In other words…get the hell out of here."
"Maybe you should have called first."
Lauren quickly turned to look at him in shock and couldn't believe that he had just said that. In fact, when she thought about it, she wondered why he was being very civil to Shai and why he wasn't slamming the door in her face like he should. They were being MORE than chummy to each other and seeing that fact made her angry. It made her angry because not only should he be trying to claw Shai's eyes out for even standing there to begin with, but he had just finished kissing her on the couch and he was standing there looking the girl over like he wanted to give her a turn on that same couch.
Mixed signals were flying all around her and THAT was what she was sick of the most.
She handed Justin the bag and the toothbrush. "Those are your shirts and this is your toothbrush. You left them in my room by mistake."
For the most part Lauren wasn't a jealous person. She usually didn't care enough to form jealousy and especially not for someone like Shai, but there was no denying that those were Justin's clothes in that bag, and that was indeed his toothbrush. She knew that because she had given it to him and had written his name on the bottom of it.
Justin's eyes were wide with uncertainty when he looked at Lauren. "There's a really good explanation for why she has my stuff."
For the first time, Lauren was feeling very uneasy about what had taken place when she had left last week. Shai was standing there at his house, the anger she was feeling about the circumstances around her was building, Justin was being nice to her, and she had brought him personal items that were supposedly left in her hotel room.
"Justin? Would you mind telling me what's going on here?"
Shai smiled and spoke up. "Not that it's any of your business but…"
Lauren held up her hand and interrupted. "Justin?"
"Val I…"
"…if you must know, Justin came into my room after you left and…"
"JUSTIN?"
He shook his head and threw the items down on the floor. "I was sharing a room with Lance and he was hogging the bathroom. She wasn't in her room when Johnny told me to go down there and get ready to go to the autograph signing. Not the megastore one that you were at but the one we had Friday. I didn't want to go down there but it was the only available place and so I was in and out in a second."
Shai flipped her hair back and shrugged. "You like to play it off as innocent but it's your conscience…not mine."
Lauren turned to look at the girl again and felt her control starting to crack. "If I were you, I would shut up. Justin?"
He ran a hand over his hair and sighed. "I just told you the entire story. I don't remember leaving my stuff in her room and I know I've brushed my teeth since then so I don't see how my toothbrush ended up in her things or in her room. It's not really possible."
She shouldn't question his intentions and she shouldn't be distrustful of him, but she also knew how Shai worked. Throw that in with the mixed attraction that Justin had for her and that caused her to wonder what really went on when she wasn't around. "I'm going to go watch TV or something. You solve this, Justin."
She had only taken a few steps when Shai's voice called out. "Oh and Tom said to remind you not to forget Saturday."
Lauren froze and a chill went up and down her body. She heard Justin's confused words and they echoed inside her head. "What is Saturday?"
She turned around and stared Shai down. "It's nothing. There's nothing going on Saturday…nothing at all."
Shai started giggling and she stopped abruptly to give Lauren an angry look. "Nothing but D-Day. Boom!"
The smile on her face, the gleam in her eyes, the arrogance radiating out of her, and the threat that she unwittingly threw out was Lauren's last straw. She slowly walked up to Shai and crossed her arms over her chest. "I've had about all I can take of you."
She looked down at her fingernails and shrugged. "Is that a threat?"
Justin didn't like Lauren's stance and he especially didn't appreciate Shai's attitude. "I think the best thing would be for you to leave, and Lauren you need to go sit down and cool off."
Shai winked at him and then turned to speak to Lauren in a childlike voice. "Yes you probably need to go sit down and take a nap so you won't get all hot and bothered. Just ask Justin…about being hot and bothered." She leaned in close to Lauren and whispered. "He's almost knee weakening when he's straight out of the shower. Don't you think?"
That was the final straw and in a blur of anger Lauren found herself on top of Shai on the cold tiles covering Justin's front walkway, fistfuls of hair in her hands, and Shai screaming for someone to help her. Justin stood in shock for a moment while he watched Lauren slam the girl down and start beating the hell out of her, but finally he snapped out of his daze and ran over to grab her around the waist and drag her off of the girl.
"Lauren…Lauren let her hair go. Let…her…go."
She held on tighter and kicked out with her legs as he pulled her away. "She's not talking trash anymore now is she? Are you going to run home to mommy and cry? Justin let me go!"
He fought to keep his arms around her and tried to pry her fingers open so that she would let go of Shai's hair. "Lauren…DAMMIT will you let go?"
"She's pulling my hair out! Get her off of me!"
Justin finally got her hair loose from Lauren's fingers and fell back onto the ground when she kept kicking and pulling out of his arms. He screamed at Shai to leave while he jerked Lauren up and slung her over his shoulder. "Stop kicking and calm down. Shai you need to get out of here NOW! I don't know how much longer I can hold her back and I've never seen her this angry before. GO!"
Lauren was too blinded by anger to stop struggling just because he told her to so she kicked and hit his back trying to get down. "Put me down! Put…me…down!"
He tightened his arms around her legs to stop her kicking but she was practically knocking the wind out of him the way she was beating against his back. When he couldn't take it anymore, he walked through the house, went out onto the patio, and tossed her into the pool. "Cool your ass off before you get out of there."
She came up to the surface screaming in shock from the coldness of the water. "How dare you throw me in here!"
"You need to cool that temper of yours."
"That only works in the movies, Justin. In fact, this is only succeeding in giving me a cold and making me even madder."
He shook his head and watched her walk around the side of the pool towards him. "Where are you going?"
She pointed a finger at him and continued walking towards the house. "Don't touch me."
When she started running past him to go back inside the house, he caught her around the waist and stopped her. "She's already gone."
She pulled at his hands and pushed against his chest but he held on tightly. "Get your hands OFF OF ME!"
He could feel her trembling with cold and anger, and it terrified him to see her this upset. It also shocked him because she had always been able to handle a lot. Shai showing up there hadn't been something he thought would set her off this badly, but she was almost frothing at the mouth. "Do you want me to call Jayce?"
She froze and turned her head to look at him. "Only if you want to piss me off even more."
"Is that possible? What is WRONG with you?"
This time when she pushed against him, he let go of her and she stood there wringing the water from her clothes and then pushed her hair out of her face. "What's wrong with me? How about I tell you that I'm tired again? Does that help you? I'm confused about everything that is going on around me, I'm confused about everything that is going on inside of me, I'm tired of all the MIXED SIGNALS or MISINTERPRETED SIGNALS that you are constantly throwing my way, I'm tired of feeling like the only one who wants more out of this friendship, I'm tired of being scared of losing that friendship just because I want to be true to myself here, I'm tired of being confused over feelings I never thought I'd have or have this strongly, I'm tired of always being the one who HAS TO EXPLAIN! And now…now I probably have a cold from being thrown into some frigid backyard pool and standing here wet in fifty-degree weather while you stare at me like I have two heads. What's the matter Justin? Did I shock you? Is your 'little Val' not as perfect as you thought she was?"
He cleared his throat and shrugged. "Your anger just now was certainly a surprise and…"
She laughed angrily and turned to walk away. "If you're still stuck on me being angry a few minutes ago then you're not listening to one word I'm saying here."
He followed her and grabbed her arm as she was walking through the kitchen. "Don't walk away from me this way. You're mad at Shai, you think that she and I were getting things on while you weren't around, and you're taking it out on me. I didn't touch that girl."
"I never said you did, but you touched me and you've yet to admit to me or YOURSELF that you touched more than my body. You touched a lot more than that."
His fingers rubbed against his forehead while he tried desperately to figure out what to do. "I don't know what you want me to do. I don't know what you want me to say."
She probably shouldn't take things out on him this way, she probably shouldn't push him this way because there was a huge likelihood that he wasn't going to open up and there was always the fear that he really didn't feel anything towards her more than friendship, but she was going with her heart this time. She wasn't about to back down and wonder for the rest of her life what this all meant to him.
"YES you do! Just be straight with me Justin. Just be open and honest with me and for goodness sakes…be honest with YOURSELF for once here!"
His stress level was through the roof already and her screaming at him to delve into parts of himself that he kept guarded made him angry. "Honest about what? Honest that I care about you? Since when is that a secret?"
She was probably going to hate herself for this later, but she was too fired up to care anymore. "Can you say…can you HONESTLY say that we're just 'playing house' here?"
"House?"
The lost look on his face caused her to groan in anger. "Kissing, cuddling, hugging, hand holding, touching, TONGUES for crying out loud. Do YOU know how mixed your signals are? Can you even comprehend what it's like to listen to you on the phone, kiss you, have you kiss me, the touches, the comments, the flirting, those cute little smiles of yours, the feelings, and THEN have you pull back or mention that this is all for show? Do you know what that does to my head? Do you know what that does to my insecurities? Do you know what that does to ME?"
He pulled her towards the staircase and continued pulling until she followed him upstairs. "You're soaking wet and you need to change clothes."
"No, what you're needing is a change of subject."
"I didn't say I was changing the subject."
"You didn't have to. You just went for it and changed it all on your own."
He threw her a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants before pushing her into his bathroom and closing the door. He could hear her changing and he jumped when her wet clothes slammed down against the counter. "Let me know if it doesn't fit."
A few seconds later the door opened and she gave him a dirty look on the way by. "As skinny as you are…it fits. It's scary that it fits, but it does."
He saw that the legs of the pants were bunched at her ankles and that made him smile. "You look cute."
She whipped around and threw her wet clothes at him but he jumped out of the way and they smacked against the wall behind him. "That's EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Do YOU even know you do this? Dammit Justin! For an intelligent guy, you can be pretty stupid."
"Oh give me a break. We've been saying things like that to one another for the longest time and it means nothing. That's who I am, and I'm not going to change that for you or for anyone else."
She grabbed a bandana that was on top of his dresser and tied her hair back. "Whatever."
He walked over to help her with the bandana but she pulled away. "Val, we knew that this was going to be hard on us. We knew that pretending to be together was going to cause us to get out of our comfort zones, it was going to test our friendship, and it was going to be harder than anything we've ever done in our lives. THIS is the biggest test of our friendship, Val. This right here and Tom or no Tom, it's a test that we have to get past. It will make us stronger in the end, but only if we allow it to."
She shrugged at his words. "If it doesn't destroy us first."
The anger and determination lacing her words scared him. "Haven't you figured out what Tom's plan REALLY is? Don't you think that he knew that you and I would feel rushed, we would feel strange about everything, we would fight not to lose our friendship, and something like that…something as strong as that distrust and that confusion is enough to tear us apart? Do you now get how his mind works and what his goal is here? If we weird each other out, if we question what we mean to each other, and if we pull apart…he's won. Now, what are you REALLY mad about here?"
He had some good points, but the fatherly tone of his last question caused her to sigh and look away before she had the chance to slap him. "Oh I'm not mad, Justin. Like I said, I'm sick…I'm sick of believing that something is going on here, and I'm sick of believing and waiting for you to be a big enough person to admit it."
"Woah…wait a minute I…"
She twisted the shirt in between her hands angrily. "DON'T act clueless because I know how clever that brain of yours is and I also know how smart you are. PLEASE don't insult my intelligence by playing dumb. Don't be the man here."
He looked scared and she hated seeing that look on his face because she knew that by pushing him this way she had caused it, but it was time that she started looking out for herself and going after HER dreams. Justin was definitely a part of those and he would have an even bigger role if he would just let go of the fears and inhibitions that he harbored inside of himself.
He cleared his throat and she waited anxiously for him to speak. "You're…you're tired, angry over Jayce and Shai, and you're taking it out on me because you know I'll forgive you."
She stood there and waited for him to finish, to say anything that she wanted to hear, but he remained silent as he stared at her. That was about all she could take out of him at that point. She wanted to scream at him and hit him until he finally broke down and was honest to everything going on around him. However, he wasn't one who would potentially endanger something like their friendship by shooting off his mouth without knowing all the information or all the outcomes his words might cause.
She walked out of the room and started down the staircase. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Justin. I want to go home now."
He followed and watched with pleading eyes as she grabbed her things. "Please don't walk out like this. Not when you're this angry."
"I'm not walking out on anything. You have to drive me home, remember? It's getting late and I have class tomorrow."
After she walked through the garage door, he rolled his eyes and grabbed his keys. "Yeah right…classes."
The ride back to her house was tense at best and it was extremely quiet. Justin looked over at her from time to time and she hadn't pulled away from the window since she had gotten in the car. He knew what she wanted to hear from him, he knew what he wanted to say, but he just couldn't get the words out no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't risk saying the wrong thing or hurting her because he was too stupid to know how to care for her the way she deserved to be.
After a while he took a deep breath and broke the silence. "It's going to be hard to explain to Jayce why you're all wet and in my clothes. We'll probably get another lecture."
She folded her arms over her chest. "Who cares what Jayce thinks?"
"Jayce cares what Jayce thinks and he has the power to smack it down."
She shrugged slightly and kept looking out the window. "At least you know where you stand with him."
"Val…"
"At least he's not scared of being blunt."
"Lauren…"
"At least he's not afraid of risking his masculinity by being honest with himself and…"
His fist slammed down on the steering wheel and he jerked the wheel to the side. The car came to a screeching halt on the side of the road and they both slammed back in the seats. "Ok THAT'S ENOUGH! Stop this!"
"Stop what? The car? Sorry sweetie but you already did that."
"I feel like I'm babysitting Jon here. Stop acting like a two year old who hasn't had her nap."
She whipped around and he could see the fire burning in her eyes. "Then stop acting like a frat boy PLAYA and live up to that honesty code you expect out of EVERYONE around you!"
He took several unsteady breaths as his hands rubbed up and down across the steering wheel. "I've never been this scared in my life. There…are you happy?"
"No Justin, I'm not. I'm not happy that we are at this point in our lives and in our friendship, and we can't be honest. We walk around and everyone oohs and ahs over our friendship. They dream about it, they wonder what it's like to be as close as we are, and they ASSUME that we have this completely honest relationship with one another. They assume that we can come to each other about anything and be up front about anything, but they're wrong. They're so wrong because when it comes to the tough stuff or the scary stuff…even the threatening stuff…we can't talk to each other any more than they can. That includes myself here."
His leg bounced up and down and he was extremely quiet for a few minutes while he thought about what she had just said. It was hard to hear, it was even harder to face, but he needed to. "I'm not…I'm not playing house here, Lauren."
She turned slowly to face him and her breathing picked up. "What?"
"I…I care about you. God, that sounded SO CHEESY! I um…I care a lot about you and it's so scary to feel this way because I won't risk our friendship. I won't risk it over a few feelings that are new and very easily misunderstood. I refuse to cheapen it, I refuse to explore it, and I refuse to allow it to come between us. That's what I'm so scared about. Can't you see that?"
"Justin it's not wrong to…"
"I like kissing you…I like it a lot. I like it so much that I would do it all the time if I could. I'm sorry for hurting you by saying that the only reason I stopped was because it was you I was kissing. That was true, but I didn't tell you the real reason why I said that. I stopped because it was you, and I stopped because you mean too much to me to just be a 'roll in the sheets' or any other variety of a one night stand. I stopped because I lost my head and I lost my heart so quickly, so violently, and so unexpectedly that it terrified me. At that moment when I kissed you and you responded, you were no longer 'little Val'…you were a grown woman in my arms that I wanted more than anything." He turned to look into her eyes. "At that moment…I wanted you more than I wanted to breathe."
"Oh my."
"This wasn't supposed to happen to us. This wasn't supposed to happen to ME."
She pulled her eyes away from his. "It has."
"Yeah but you're…you're Val and we weren't supposed to ever…kiss. I'm not supposed to like kissing you as much as I do. This was all a game, it was all a hoax, but what I feel when I touch you is about as real as it gets. WHY?"
She unclicked her seatbelt and crawled over to sit on his lap. Her fingers gently pushed his hair back and she ran a finger under the dark circles surrounding his confused eyes. He wouldn't look at her and she wanted him to more than anything. "Justin…look at me."
"I didn't touch Shai, I wouldn't touch Shai, and that's because…because all I can think about is you. When I see her I think of Tom and I think about why we're in this position to begin with. I hate them, I hate what they have forced us to do, but I also have to thank them for pushing me to see that you're more than just my best friend. You're a lot more than that."
"Look at me."
His eyes slowly and painfully moved up until he was looking at her. "What?"
"Are you scared of me?"
"No I'm…I'm scared of what you make me feel. I'm so scared of losing that and of…losing you."
His head lowered again but she put her hand under his chin and lifted it back up. "You're right, I'm not Val anymore. But you've fought and you've struggled to keep Lauren out long enough don't you think?"
His arms tightened around her waist and he leaned up to kiss her softly. "Lauren is the one I can't seem to forget…no matter how hard I try. How's that for honesty?"
She smiled against his lips and shrugged a shoulder playfully. "It'll do for now."
Shai slammed her car door and couldn't care less that she was making quite a noise as she made her way up the sidewalk and beat on Tom's door. She saw lights turning on upstairs as she rang the doorbell over and over, then she heard movement behind the door, and finally he was standing there in his pajamas with a shocked look on his face. "Do you know what time it is? Woah…what happened to you?"
She pushed him out of the way and walked inside still gripping her throbbing head. "That BITCH attacked me!"
Tom couldn't help but smile but he covered it with his hand and cleared his throat. "Lauren attacked you?"
"YES and I'm calling the police! She can't get away with that. Look! She ripped out clumps of my hair! I have a bald spot!"
He walked over and pulled her to sit down on the sofa. "You have several bald spots actually. Forget that I said that. I warned you about going over there and tangling with her when there's nobody around to hold her back. That's one hell of a she-cat and you had to know…"
"JUSTIN WAS THERE! Even he couldn't hold her back! She attacked me for no reason and I swear that I'm going to call the cops and have her ass arrested. She can't go around attacking people for no reason and…"
He put a hand over her mouth and lowered his voice. "You will NOT call the police and you will forget about this ever happening. Do you understand me?"
"She pulled out my hair! She slammed me down on the ground and she kicked me! You want me to forget this? Are you nuts?"
He pulled back to rub his chin and smile. "You finally got under her skin and when someone is that blindly angry…there's insecurity there. Don't you see what this means?"
"It means that she's a bitch."
"Push all that aside and LOOK at what you've discovered here. For someone like Lauren to lose all control that way and risk the consequences…it means that she's vulnerable, she's scared, she's angry because she can't control her world, and THAT is insecurity. She's running scared and that's exactly where we want her."
"She wasn't running. I was the one trying to run!"
He stood up and walked into his office before returning with a few papers in his hands. "Metaphorically speaking, my dear. She has three days to be in a relationship with Justin and I have the feeling that Justin isn't being as easy to nab as she thought he would be. If she's worried about you and what you might mean to him, then she's not exactly confident in what she has accomplished with him so far. Maybe I misjudged Justin and maybe he really ISN'T beyond using girls for his own pleasures. I like the sound of that…I like it a lot."
She sighed and whined when her head continued to hurt. "You don't make any sense."
"Lauren has until Saturday to make me happy with that relationship so I can make it public. THEN the fun will really begin."
"Are you happy with the relationship? I don't understand any of this. I thought you said that I could have Justin but if he goes public with Lauren then how is that me being with him? Oh God he looked so fine tonight and I just wanted to…"
He held up a paper and grinned even brighter. "Oh they're going to more than satisfy my idea of a relationship and yes I'm going to go public with them. Can't you just see the fans' reaction when they see that Justin not only has a girlfriend, but his best friend…the girl who he has denied SO MANY times when it comes to being anything other than a friend, is the girl on his arm? Can you fathom the shit that's going to hit the fan? The problems they will go through?"
She shrugged and looked at one of her broken nails. "It doesn't sound bad to me."
"Who will their hatred be directed at? It won't be the Justin they all love and adore."
She looked up and slowly smiled with excitement. "They'll hate Lauren."
"Now you're catching on. Speaking of catching on…there's one hell of a news flash about to hit the pop world and that's that the prince of pop has chosen a princess. He's chosen a princess that was so determined to be with him that she sold her soul to the devil."
Shai looked closely at the paper he was holding up and laughed when she saw the contract Lauren had signed. "You're terrible."
"That may be so, but I know exactly who should hear this breaking news first. Or should I say, I know exactly what guy deserves to hear it first. Oh yes…he's going to love every bit of this and I can't think of a nicer guy who deserves this more than…more than he does."