"So, how's the tour going?" Brooklyn asks Justin. Carlos and Jonathan had fallen asleep by now, and Brooklyn and Justin are in the living room.

"It's a lot of fun."

"You don't sound too excited about it."

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's a lot of fun!" Justin exclaims. Brooklyn rolls her eyes, giggling a little. "No, seriously, it's great! We're doing bigger arenas and more fans!" Justin exclaims. Brooklyn cocks an eyebrow, and smiles slyly.

"You're doing more fans, Justin?" Justin's jaw drops.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I know. I'm just teasing." She says. "So, you're going to be spending a whole weekend with me? I'm flattered, Justin!"

"You should be. Some girls would kill to be in your position."

"Yeah, I know. Because I'm your bestest friend in the whole wide world besides Trace who's a guy."

"No, because I'm Justin Timberlake, and you get to spend as much time with me as you want."

"Okay, calm your ego, J-Boy. And that's not all true. I can't spend as much time as I want with you. With you and your career I don't spend a lot of time with you at all."

"True, but still." There is silence for a minute. "I heard you got a job."

"Who, um, who told you?"

"My mom told me." Justin says with a smile. "What's your job?"

"Well, I'm a waitress right now at a local restaurant." Brooklyn says vaguely.

"Oh...pays good money? I mean, if not, you can be my groupie." He jokes.

"Yeah, Justin. My salary is good enough. Thanks for offering. My dream is to become one of your groupies, and get paid for it too!" Brooklyn exclaims, sarcastically. Justin laughs and lays his head on her lap. "How's the tour going? I mean, besides your fans and the fact it's really good."

"It's great. I think it's one of our best tours actually."

"If it's so great, why'd you take off?"

"Because we weren't doing anything. We didn't have any concerts scheduled for some reason. So, I decided to come home and check on my girl."

"Aw, that's so nice of you to come and check on me."

"Not you, my mom." Justin jokes. Brooklyn gives him a very dirty look. "Okay, okay. You too. You know I was just playin'." Brooklyn gives him a satisfying smile.

"Good."

"So, what's been up with you?"

"Nothing compared to your grand tour." Justin smiles widely. Silence fills the room. All of a sudden, Justin starts to laugh. Brooklyn looks down at him questioningly. "What's so funny?" She asks.

"Do you remember the day we met?"

"Oh yeah! Justin you were an ass."

"I was not!"

"You were so mean to me!" Brooklyn exclaims.

It was Brooklyn's first day in preschool. She was sitting by herself, in the sandbox, playing with the sand. "Move!" A voice over her suddenly exclaims. Brooklyn looks up, but the sun is in her eyes. She squints and can make out some curly hair and the shape of a young boy. She moves over a little so he'd have room to play in the sand also. The young boy makes spaces for himself.

"Justin, play nice!" The teacher calls out. He scowls at her. Brooklyn reaches for the shovel and pail in the sand.

"No! Mine!" He yells, snatching the pail and shovel away from her. Brooklyn pokes her lip out, and reaches for another small shovel. "Mine!" Justin yells, grabbing the shovel. This time, Brooklyn refused to let go.

"No!" She yells, pulling on the shovel also.

"Justin! Brooklyn!" The teacher calls. The two children ignore her.

"Mine!" Brooklyn yells. Justin continues to pull. After a few minutes, Justin lets go, and sends Brooklyn flying into the sand.

"You were so mean." Brooklyn says.

"Hey! That's not all that happened anyway." Justin says.

"Yes it was. You were an ass, point blank."

"We did become friends later did we not?"

"Yes we did." Brooklyn says, and yawns. Justin sits up, and he and Brooklyn switch positions. They sit there in silence for a little while.

"Hey Brooke, do you- -" Justin starts, but is interrupted by the soft, slow, and content breathing of Brooklyn who is fast asleep. He looks down at his childhood friend and smiles warmly. Justin slowly slides himself from under her, picks her up, and carries her up to her room. He lays her onto the bed, and walks out returning shortly with another blanket. He covers her with it, and kisses her forehead softly. "Goodnight Brooke."

The next morning, Brooklyn woke up to the feeling of someone bouncing on the bed. "Carlos, stop it." She says.

"But I'm hungry!" He exclaims.

"Go tell Aunt Lynn to get you something."

"She's not here." That's when Brooklyn remembered that Lynn wouldn't be back until Monday. She sat up and threw her feet over the side of the bed.

"What do you want to eat?" Brooklyn asks drowsily.

"I don't know." Brooklyn runs a hand through her hair and stands up.

"You have until we reach the kitchen to decide or you won't be eating anything." She says as she sort of staggers down the hallway.

Just before they reach the kitchen, Carlos says, "I want pancakes, eggs, bacon, and orange juice." His sister groans.

"Okay." She looks through the cabinets and the refrigerator, but is only successful in finding the eggs and the orange juice. "Can you choose a substitute for the pancakes?"

"I really want the pancakes though."

"Okay, okay. The things I do for you. Go get dressed. You're coming with me to the store." Brooklyn says. Carlos runs to his room, and starts going through his drawers for something to wear while Brooklyn makes her way back to her room. Within the next thirty minutes they were off to the store.

An Hour Later...

Brooklyn unlocks the door with the spare key that Lynn had given to her. As soon as she pushes the door open, she is met with Justin hard stare. "Um, did...did I do something?" She asks.

"Where were you?" He asks.

"I was at the store." Carlos walks into the house from behind her.

"You didn't tell anyone where you were?"

"Justin, not to be mean or anything, but who was there to tell?" She was getting a little angry with him for putting her on the spot like this.

"You could've left a note or something!"

"Justin, who are you? My father?"

"No, because unlike him, I wouldn't walk out on you." Justin says coldly.

"This conversation is over Justin." Brooklyn says, walking around him with the grocery bags in her hands.

"Brooklyn you know I didn't mean it like that." Justin says, walking quickly into the kitchen.

"There wasn't any other way to put it, Justin. He walked out on me. You said it like it was." Brooklyn slams the box of pancakes onto the counter along with some apple juice.

"Brooke, I'm really sorry. You know I am." Justin says, grabbing her shoulders, and turning her around towards him. Brooklyn's eyes don't meet his. Instead, they are aimed towards the tiled floor. Although Justin was capable of bringing her to the top of her happy meter, he also had the power to bring her down. When he did, she knew he hadn't done it on purpose, and he always apologized if he knew that he'd made her upset.

"I know you're sorry, and I accept it. What's been said has been said. No hard feelings." Brooklyn says, still looking down at the floor. She slides out of his grasp and grabs the apple juice on her way to the refrigerator.

"No, no, no, Brooke. I'm not letting it go like that. I'm really sorry for acting the way I did. I..." Brooklyn turns at the softness of his voice, awaiting the rest of his sentence. "I was just scared." He says as his shoulder droop and his head lowers. Brooklyn slowly closes the refrigerator, attentively listening to Justin. "I thought that maybe, um, you have second thoughts about staying here." Justin says, tripping over his words quite a bit. "I know you left Ms. Ross' place out of the blue, so I thought that- -"

"Justin." Brooklyn says, making her way towards him with a small smile. "I'm not leaving." She says, surprising Justin by wrapping her arms around him. "I'm sorry if I did scare you. That wasn't my intention. You know that." Justin hugs her to his body tightly.

"I know." He says into her hair.

"Now..."Brooklyn says, pulling away from him and grabbing him by the shoulders. "Enough with this mushy stuff. I gotta cook breakfast."

"You can cook?!" Justin exclaims.

"Well, you know, I learned a few things from my mom." Brooklyn says grabbing the spatula and tossing it into the air. She reaches her hand out to catch it, but it lands on the floor with clang. Justin starts laughing while she hurriedly picks it up with a small giggle. "Like I said, I learned a few things."

"Are you staying for dinner tonight?" Eleven year old Brooklyn asks.

"Yeah, my mom and dad went out." Justin says, flipping the channels. They were hanging out at Brooklyn's house. Her mom is in her room and her dad was on some kind of business trip.

"Oh. My mom said that I could cook tonight." Brooklyn says excitedly.

"Can you?" Justin asks, still not looking at her.

"I don't know. This is my first time." Justin quickly looks over at her.

"Your mom is going to be in there with you, right?" Brooklyn punches his shoulder lightly. "What? I'm serious."

"No, she told me how to fry the chicken silly. Trust me."

"I'm getting your mom." Justin says, starting to stand up, but Brooklyn quickly pulls him down.

"No! If she can't let me do it on my own the first time, then she'll never will!" Brooklyn exclaims. "Besides, all I have to do is watch it."

"And what happened to the chicken? You burnt it. It didn't just burn, Brooke. The chicken was lit up with fire. Please do not light my kitchen up." Justin pleads.

"Justin, it's just dinner that I can't cook very well, okay?"

"And God knows it's not chicken." Justin says, and she punches him in the arm.

"Not funny."

"No, it wasn't funny. I said you couldn't cook it, and you almost burned the house down. I didn't help that your smoke alarm was busted."

"Justin get out." Brooklyn says playfully.

"It's my kitchen!" He exclaims.

"Bye Justin." Brooklyn says, pushing him out. "Go see what Jonathan and Carlos are doing." He sticks his nose up in the air.