Chapter
7
Lydia walked through the door expecting to see Jeni, Klare, and the guys,
but what she found was an empty ally-way. “Mike, did you pick the wrong door?
Where are they all?”
“This isn’t a game show so I know that I have the right door. I have
no idea how to answer your last question. Let me go ask Jake,” Mike said while
walking over to another big bodyguard.
After watching them talk for about five minutes and seeing the expression
on Mike’s face she decided she’d go over and find out what was going on.
When she approached she could hear Jake giving Mike directions. “Turn left at
the second light and go straight for two blocks. You’ll be able to see the
sign when you turn the corner, but there’s really no need for you to rush. We
have Rob, Joe, Al, Bubba, and Max with them. They will be totally protected
until we get there. Remember, Mike, Justin’s just a boy and he does crazy
things sometimes. Go easy on him ok?” Jake explained.
“Mike, what happened? Is there something wrong?” Lydia asked a slight
worry coming into her body.
“They left!! That stupid kid!! Justin Timberlake is a dead man!!!”
“Mike calm down. They are going to be ok, right? Why did they leave?”
“Justin suggested that they go get some food and bring it back here so
you guys could just hang out in the room and talk. That was 20 minutes ago. Your
friends are in JC’s room waiting for them to get back, so you can go up there
and wait. I have to go get them and bring them back here. I don’t know why
those guys listen to him! They are older and should be able to make their own
decisions,” Mike said finally calming down.
“What room is JC’s? I’ll go up there and wait,” Lydia said, all
the worry finally out of her body.
“Room 152 on the top floor. Do you think you can handle that? I’ll
have Jake take you there because he has the key,” Mike informed her with a
reassuring smile.
Lydia and Jake walked toward the elevator and waited patiently for the
gold colored doors to open. As they slowly slid open, Lydia turned around to
see if Mike had already left. He waved to her and turned to walk out the door.
She stepped onto the elevator and once again peered out the doors before they
slowly and smoothly closed. She was feeling confident about her shyness at the
moment, but what would happen when the guys entered the room she wasn’t sure
about.
“Justin, I think we should leave now. We’ve had our food for, like,
EVER. Shouldn’t we get back to the hotel? Jeni and Klare are there waiting,
and I’m sure that Lydia is there by now,” Lance said while looking at his
watch.
“Lance, chill! We’ll go back I n a few minutes, let me kick Joey’s
butt at air hockey first,” Justin said. They had gone to the arcade after they
picked up the Chinese food they had ordered while waiting for Lydia to arrive.
When Klare had told them that Lydia was running late they decided to order
dinner in and get to know the girls better. They wanted to get out for a while
so they decided they’d go get the food while the girls waited for Lydia to
show up. On their way to get the food at the new Chinese place Justin saw an
arcade and convinced the rest of the guys to play a few games. That was a half
hour ago.
JC was about to tell Justin the game was over when he noticed a
not-so-happy Mike walk in. “Ummm… J, it’s time to go.”
“JC, I told you. As soon as I show Joey I can kick his butt at air
hockey we can leave,” Justin said not even noticing that Mike was walking up
behind him.
“Well, hello there little Mr. I’ll-do-as-I-damn-well-please, are you
ready to leave? Lydia is at the hotel with the girls, and at the moment, I’m
not very happy with you Justin,” Mikes voice rising with every word, “What
did you think you were doing? Leaving the hotel with out me! I am assigned to
you! ME! If anything happens to you I am the one to blame. Next time think
before you do something like this!”
“Mike, I get the point! I messed up, but will you PLEASE stop yelling
at me in public? GEEZE!!!!!!” Justin said, looking around at all the people
who were now realizing he was there.
“Yeah Mike. This could hurt our reputation,” Joey said, “Let’s
just leave.”
“Go get in the car. Where are your bodyguards?”
“They are over there at the table,” JC pointed.
Mike looked at the table and called for them to leave. Mike’s face was
red and his anger was now very visible to everyone who looked at him. All 5 guys
jumped into the limo that was waiting outside, while the five bodyguards got in
the SUV behind it. They were going to follow the limo to the hotel and meet up
with Mike for, what Mike called, a “special meeting”.
When the guys were in the limo and were finally on their way back to the
hotel Mike spoke, “I’m sorry for yelling at you like you are two Justin, but
you had no reason to go out there and get the food. You could have had Jake,
heck, even ME do it for you. You also should have called me or told me that you
were going to leave, instead you told Jake. You know Jake’s memory sucks. He
doesn’t tell anyone anything until it’s too late!”
“Mike, I really am sorry. I just wanted to be normal, and I got kinda
bored waiting for Lydia. So we went out and had fun. Is that a crime?”
“J, that’s not cool. We told Jeni and Klare that we would be back as
soon as possible. I admit that I am at fault too, I was the one who actually
stopped at the arcade,” JC admitted.
“It’s over. Can’t we just forget it happened???? PLEASE!!! Let’s
just have fun tonight. If we all promise not to leave without asking you will
you leave us alone?” Lance asked.
“I’ll drop is as soon as you all promise,” Mike gave in.
“I promise,” Joey said.
“I promise, too,” JC said.
“Me too,” Chris admitted.
“OK. Sounds great!” Lance said enthusiastically. Everyone then looked
at Justin. It was his time to promise, and his would be the hardest one to keep.
He was still all boy, and liked to go against the rules.
“FINE! I promise! Are you happy Mike?” Justin said.
“Very,” Mike said with a satisfied grin on his face.
Chapter
8
Lydia, Jeni, and Klare sat on JC’s bed waiting for the guys to arrive. Lydia
had just finished informing them why she had been late and now they were talking
about what they were going to wear to the concert. Jeni and Klare had brought
outfits to change into, but Lydia didn’t know they were going to be changing
so she hadn’t brought
anything. She
didn’t really want to change anyway. She had considered bringing nicer clothes
to change into but figured it’d be nothing compared to what Jeni and Klare
were going to be wearing so she decided not to. Jeni was describing her outfit
to Lydia when they heard the guys’ voices in hall. Lydia thought it’d be a
good idea for her to open the door for them to give them a good second
impression, so she stood up and headed toward the door. Her hand was on the
doorknob when all of a sudden it flew open and hit her in the head, knocking her
to the ground. She grabbed her head and moaned in pain as she tired to make the
room stop spinning. When she finally got the guts, she opened her eyes to see
who had, once again, caused her to look like a fool. What she saw caused her to
want to crawl under a rock and die. Justin was standing over her with a puzzled
look on his face. She couldn’t see an apologetic look and that caused anger to
rise in her. How can he stand
there and look at me like that? It was HIS fault, he should at least apologize!
Lydia slowly stood up, without any help from Justin or her friends, and
looked at him with disgust written all over her face. She had a knot on her
forehead the size of Oreo cookie, and her nose was starting to bruise. “One
word for you Justin: APOLOGY!” Lydia practically yelled at him. Justin stood
where he had for the past five minutes looking at her.
“Lydia? I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were in front of the door,”
he apologized once recognition hit.
Lydia couldn’t tell if he was sincere or not but decided to forgive him
because he had a point. He couldn’t have seen her through the door. Besides,
she didn’t want to cause another problem like she had the first time she had
met the guys. “Justin, it’s ok. I forgive you. Now, if you all will excuse
me, I have to go get some ice for my face,” Lydia replied while hurrying out
of the room and down the hall.
“Justin! That was great. She drove six hours to hang out with us, and
you give her a concussion,” JC scolded.
“It’s not my fault her fat butt was in the way!” Just retaliated.
“Oh no you DIDN’T just call Lydia fat, Justin,” Klare and Jeni
defended their friend.
“Justin, that was low man,” all the guys agreed.
“Fine, take her side for all I care. I get in trouble by Mike for being
normal, and now I’m getting insulted for saying the one thing everyone thinks
but is afraid to say!” Justin’s anger grew with each word.
Lydia walked around the corner just in time to hear his comment. “What
is it all of you want to say to me but are afraid to say?” Lydia asked,
puzzlement in her voice.
Justin turned around and looked her straight in the eyes and said,
“Lydia, YOU ARE FAT.” She looked at him, shocked at his words. Tears
streamed to her eyes faster than they had ever done before. She looked at
everyone in the room with blurry vision and turned on her heal and walked away.
She ran down the hall and turned the corner to get to the elevator she
had come up on, tears still falling freely down her face. When she got to the
elevator doors, the whole effect of his harsh words finally hit her. She hunched
over, holding her stomach, as she fell to the ground sobbing. “How could I
have actually thought I loved him?!? Damn it Lydia, you actually let yourself
feel this for him!” she choked out between sobs. She knew she had to get to
her car so no one saw her like that, but she didn’t think she had the strength
to at that moment. She didn’t think she would ever be able to, even if she
wanted to, get up and face the nasty world that was going on around her. I
want out. I Need out. I don’t want to be here anymore. I’m tired of falling
in love just to get my heart smashed by a conceited guy who uses me to get what
he wants. Why do I even try to survive this cut-throat world? No one cares about
me. I’ve been out here for about 20 minutes and no one has come after me yet.
I guess I was only here to satisfy their guilt. They thought that if they
invited me and made me feel better about the situation that happened last night
that I’d feel better about myself. That’s gotta be why they invited me
because no one seemed too upset about what Justin said. Her
thoughts caused her to sob even more. She didn’t understand why God was
putting her in these situations. Why the, world all of a sudden, was going
against her and was actually helping her friends.
Her thoughts were
interrupted when she heard footsteps coming down the hall she had run from about
20 minutes ago. “Yeah, they come looking for me twenty minutes later!” she
mumbled under her breath.
She decided she wanted to get out of sight before the person coming saw
her. She pushed the button to the elevator praying it’d get there soon. She
could now hear the mumbling voice of the person the footsteps belonged to. She
knew that she wouldn’t be able to catch the elevator before the person saw
her, and she could only imagine how awful she looked, so she hurriedly looked
for a hiding place. For the first time she had really noticed what the room she
was standing in looked like. It was painted a baby yellow color and had flowered
border at the top. It looked to be more than an elevator room, it was more of a
lobby area. It had tables and couches. It was rather big also. Lydia decided she
was going to hide behind the sawdust colored sofa. It was close enough for her
to get there fast and far enough away that the person wouldn’t be able to hear
her. She quickly walked to the sofa and crawled behind it. She could see her
surroundings by looking in between the space of the floor and the bottom of the
sofa.
When the shoes of the person were finally in site a sudden fear rose in
her body. She could tell it was one of the guys because she could see up to
waist high, and her friends didn’t wear jeans like this guy did. He also had a
bodyguard with him, but she couldn’t tell which one it was. The guy was
wearing Adidas shoes with three baby blue stripes on the sides. His bodyguards
voice sounded familiar but she couldn’t decide which one it was. They all
seemed to sound alike in her opinion but this one had it’s own familiarity to
it. The guy on the other hand, she knew instantly. She had heard his voice many
times since the group had first formed. Hearing his smooth voice made her want
to crawl out of her hiding space and jump into his arms and tell him all her
fears. No one had ever had that affect on her before, except Bryce. She didn’t
want to have a boyfriend yet, right that minute she needed a friend more than
anything.
The two men slowly made their way to the couch she was hiding behind, but
they didn’t see her. Once they were seated she heard his voice, “I don’t
know what I’m going to do. She’s gone, I really wanted to get to know her.
It’s my fault that she’s gone too. I should have stopped what happened, but
there was no way. There was to much anger built up and it wasn’t stoppable.”
“It’s not your fault J, it’s not. You can’t blame her for wanting
to get out of this place, now can you? You saw how hurt she was,” the
bodyguard replied.
“I know Jake. I just wish, once again, that I could have been able to
befriend her. From what I can tell, she doesn’t have a very high self esteem,
and that episode didn’t help any.”
With sympathy in his voice, Jake said, “I don’t know if you would
have been able to save her self esteem. I think that someone, I’m not sure who
would, but someone helped her lose that.”
“I want to find her Jake, I want to help her. I, in no way, have
feeling for her other than friendship so you can wipe that suspicious look off
your face. She needs someone, and Klare and Jeni are too damn star struck with
us to see that!”
“Ok, I get the point. I’ll tell Mike that we’re going to go out for
a while, you sit here while I’m gone. Don’t leave!”
“I won’t. Thank you for doing this though. I was always a softy for
these type of people. I should probably be a psychiatrist!” he laughed. Jake
stood up and started to walk away. Lydia could hear his footsteps start to fade
away as he got further down the hall.
“God, please let Lydia be safe. Let her realize that she has a friend
in me, that I’m willing to look past her figure and get to know her. Please.
Amen,” the man sitting on the couch said.
Slowly tears slid down her face. He
cares about me. He really honestly cares. Why am I hiding from him, of all
people? He wants to find me, to be one of my friends. Maybe my only true friend.
I need one of those. She
unconsciously sniffed her nose to clear it. Her thoughts brought tears of joy to
her eyes. She finally had a friend. A REAL friend. She needed to sniff her nose
again but remembered he was sitting on the couch. She was lucky that he hadn’t
heard the first one, that puzzled her how he hadn’t heard it, but she was
happy he hadn’t.
It had been five minutes since Jake had left and she couldn’t hear his
returning footsteps yet. She decided that it was time to come out and tell him
that she was there. She softly said his name, “JC.” He didn’t respond, so
she decided to say it a little louder, and prayed that she wasn’t making a
mistake. “Josh Chasez, are you there??”
“Who the heck is that??” his voice rang out, “No one calls me
Josh!”
“I’m umm…,” Lydia started.
“I don’t know an ‘Ummmm,” JC replied.
“Josh, it’s me, Lydia.”
“Lydia? Lydia Jankins?” JC asked while standing up and beginning to
look around the room.
“Yeah, that would be the one,” she replied as she started crawling
out of her hiding space.
He turned around and helped her up. “I thought you left,” he said.
“I was on my way, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I sat there
crying for about 20 minutes, then I heard you coming so I hid,” she confessed.
“Lydia, listen. Justin was having a bad day, I don’t think he meant
anything he said. He wouldn’t intentionally hurt you, or anyone for that
matter. Come back to the room with me. We can hang out. I’m interested to get
to know you,” he said sincerely.
“Josh, thanks. I’m glad we can hang out for at least a little while.
You have a show to do tonight remember?”
“I remember, but friends always come first. One thing though.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t call me ‘Josh’.”
“Sorry ‘bout that. I won’t.”
“Ok, let’s go.”
Lydia and JC linked arms and started walking down the hall toward the
room she had run from earlier. They were halfway down the hall when Jake stepped
into the hall. “J, I thought I told you not to leave!”
“I didn’t leave, she came to me,” he said with a smile.
“I’m afraid it’s true. I was there the whole time,” Lydia
admitted.
“Lydia, you are one crazy girl,” Jake laughed.
“Thanks Jake,” she replied with a sarcastic tone. For the first time
in a long time, she felt someone really cared about her, and she had heard it
with her own ears.
They came to the door and JC put his hand on the knob. “Are you
ready?” JC asked before he opened the door.
“I’m not sure I can do this. I have made a fool of myself every time
I see you guys. I don’t want to do it again,” doubt noticeable in her voice.
“Lydia, alone you are as helpless as a blind kitten, but with friends,
anything is accomplishable. We’re in this together. Got that?”
“Yeah, I got it. Let’s go,” Lydia said. Lydia, full of confidence,
and JC, full of hope, opened the door and stepped in to see all the faces
staring back at them. Third
time’s a charm right??
Chapter
9
“Look what I found,” JC stated as he looked down at Lydia. He reached
for her hand and gave it a little squeeze for reassurance.
“Oh my gosh Lydia! Where’d you go?” Klare said standing up and
walking toward her friend.
“I was… never mind. I’m here now,” Lydia replied with a smile on
her face. She had decided on the way back to the room that she was going to talk
to Justin about her feelings and find out what was going on with him. She was
kind of nervous about what she would say and how he would react but she knew she
had to do it. “Well guys, what do you wanna do?”
“We were thinking that we teach the guys our game,” Jeni stated, a
sly smile creeping across her lips.
“What game would that be,” Joey asked getting excited about what the
game could include.
“The game is called ‘Spill Your Guts’. It’s a game that Lydia
made up at my birthday party last year. It’s basically Truth or Dare but
without the dares,” Jeni explained.
“You guys game?” Klare asked with a challenging grin.
“Oh HECK yeah,” all the guys cheered in unison.
Lydia looked over at Justin to see if he was going to play. She had the
best question to ask him and she couldn’t wait for it to be his turn. Everyone
sat down on the beds and formed a slight circle. All the girls had mischievous
looks on their faces and that caused Chris to become very anxious. He was
nervous about what these girls would ask him. After all, these girls had played
this game before. He was sure they had some pretty good questions up their
sleeves.
“Ok, who goes first?” Lance asked.
“I’ll go,” JC said, “but does everyone have to answer or just the
person you ask?”
“Hmm… why don’t we make it everyone. I’m anxious to know the
answers to some of these questions.” Jeni replied.
“O-ok,” JC stuttered. “Ummm… let me see. Have you ever had a
crush on any of us, and if you have…who?”
Lydia answered first. “To be honest, I have. Up until today anyways. I
always thought I was going to marry Justin. I’m going to stop now though, this
could get VERY open and I don’t want it to now.”
“Really? You liked me?” Justin asked puzzlement in his voice.
“Like I said, I’m not going to talk about this now. Maybe we’ll
talk later.”
“OK! Moving onto…JENI,” Joey yelled.
“ME? Why not Klare?!” she asked, shocked Joey had volunteered her.
“You’re going to have to answer anyways. Why not now?”
“FINE. I have had a crush on one of you,” she admitted.
“WHO??” Joey and Chris practically yelled.
“You guys don’t wanna know,” Klare warned them while smiling at
Jeni. She knew who it was, and she could only imagine the look of disappointment
on Joey’s and Chris’ faces when they found out.
“Yeah we do. Tell us,” they begged.
“Fine, I used to have a crush on… JC,” Jeni announced.
“WHAT???” Joey yelled, “He’s all bone!”
“No he’s not. Look at the man… he’s gorgeous!!” Jeni and Klare
announced together, both blushing bright red. Lydia looked to her right to see
JC in complete shock. She couldn’t help but smile at him. She leaned over
closer to whisper in his ear. “Don’t you know you have many female fans?”
He turned to look at her and their faces were dangerously close. Lydia
pulled back quickly and felt her face become warm. That
was close Lyd. You heard him say he didn’t like you like that. Besides you
don’t want a boy friend at the moment, right?
Her thoughts were interrupted by his low voice by her ear with his warm breath
hitting the skin on her neck. “I knew I had fans, I just didn’t know I was
gorgeous,” he said with a smirk.
“You
are so full of yourself,” she said playfully.
Is she flirting with
JC? Dang, I hope he doesn’t fall for her. She’s an awesome chick.
I wanna know her better. I’ll just tell J to back off. That’ll work,
right? Lance thought to himself.
His thoughts were pushed away from JC and Lydia when he noticed that Lydia was
now whispering something into JC’s ear and he got big eyes. What’s
she saying? I would kill to have Chris’ hearing at this moment. He can hear
EVERYTHING. I’ll ask him. Lance
leaned to his right to ask Chris if he heard what Lydia said, but before he
could get any words out Lydia was standing up and walking towards him. He was
about to move over for her to sit down when she walked by him and went to where
Justin was sitting. She sat in the chair next to him and watched him read his
magazine for a minute and said something to him. Lance had forgotten about the
game but decided this would be a great time to see if they were still going to
play it. It would give him a chance to really find something out about Lydia,
maybe even stall her from leaving the room with Justin. “Guys, sorry bout
this, but are we still going to play ‘Spill Your Guts’? It looks like we are
kinda just sitting here talking about nothing.”
Joey looked at him with a sad face, “Go ahead Lance, play by yourself.
I’m going to sit here and cry because Jeni doesn’t like me!”
“Joey, you’re such a baby,” Jeni said with a chuckle.
“I am not!” he pouted. Seconds later he was laying on the bed
laughing at his own stupidity.
“Look what I have to live with!” JC laughed while pointing to Chris
who was on his way to tackle Joey. Lance decided that since Lydia was across the
room sitting with Justin, and Jeni and Klare were watching Joey and Chris
wrestle each other it would be a good time to ask JC what was going on with
Lydia. He causally walked toward JC, who was sitting on the bed, and sat down
next to him.
“What do you want to know Lance?” JC asked before Lance could say
anything.
“What do you mean?” he retaliated.
“You always walk like that when you wanna know something. What is
it?”
“What’s up with Lydia? I mean, Justin embarrasses her and insults
her, yet she’s sitting there with him. And he’s STILL ignoring her!!”
“Dude, you know how she said that she once had a crush on him? Well,
from what I’ve heard from Jeni and Klare, it was more of an obsession. You
know how some girls are. They don’t give up very easily. They want to have
that feeling of love, even when that love comes at costs.”
“All she wants is to feel is love? What about her parents? Don’t they
love her?”
“I don’t know. I just know that her self-esteem has been slammed
before by some one, who, I don’t know, but it has been. Remember, Lance, I
just met her. I know as much about her as you do. I would like to know more
though. I want to help her.”
“Do you have feelings for her?” Lance finally asked while looking
over at her and Justin.
“Nope, I just wanna be her friend. I think that’s all she really
NEEDS at the moment,” JC replied, eying Lance suspiciously, “You like her
don’t you Poofoo?”
“What? No. She’s just…cool. That’s all.”
“Sure,” was all he said as he followed Lance’s gaze toward Justin
and Lydia.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lydia
decided it was time she confronted Justin after all he’d put her through. She
had been sitting there for ten minutes watching him read his new Sports
Illustrated magazine and was about to go crazy with all the thoughts running
through her head. It’s now or
never girl. Just clear your throat, ask him to take a walk, and tell him what
you wanna say. It’s not that hard! You can do it. You have to for yourself and
to show him that he can’t get you down.
She gave her self her pep talk. She slowly removed her elbows that had been
propping her head up off the table and placed her hands in her lap. When that
movement didn’t get his attention she cleared her throat. He still showed no
signs of acknowledgment so she decided she’d get his attention verbally.
“Justin,” she said in a low voice. When he didn’t answer she
repeated, “Justin.”
“What Lydia?” he asked in a voice she had never heard. It sounded
like she had just pulled him out of his deep thought, but then again, he WAS a
man reading Sports Illustrated.
“I know your reading and all, but can I talk to you?” she said in a
meek voice.
“Sure, I’m not busy at the moment. I just have a show to do in 2 ½
hours!” he replied in a cold, sarcastic voice. Lydia didn’t know why he had
a problem with her, but she wanted to find out. From what she had read on fan
sites he was supposed to be a very nice guy. These
teenyboppers know NOTHING about the real Justin Timberlake. I’m actually
thinking about posting this little event in that message board I always go to.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Justin’s chair slide
backwards from the table.
“Where are you going?” Lydia asked, her voice full of fear that she
had lost her chance to find out what was wrong with this man.
“Didn’t you wanna talk? Let’s go now so it can be over with,” he
said beginning to pull her chair back.
“You’re going to talk to me?” Lydia asked, now smiling.
“Yeah, I don’t want you to think I’m a total prick. Besides, I
don’t need the rest of the guys on my back for ignoring you.”
Justin, by the time I’m done
talking to you, you’ll LOVE me. I’m not going to let you judge me by my
cover, and I’m going to give you a second chance. Don’t blow it please, were
her thoughts as she crossed the room with Justin by her side and the eyes of JC,
Lance, and the rest of the group following them to the door. They stepped into
the hallway and Lydia started her conversation.
Chapter
10
“Justin, I want to know why you have a problem with me,” Lydia began as a
sudden burst of courage sprang up in her.
“Lydia, I have no problem with you,” Justin replied.
“That’s bull! I KNOW you have a problem with me because you treat me
like crap. You didn’t even give me a chance. You looked at me like one of your
fans. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m a cool person to be around? You
don’t seem to mind Jeni and Klare, and THEY ARE FANS! Why am I different?”
“Lydia, have you looked in the mirror?”
Oh my gosh! It’s because I’m
fat! That’s why, duh! She
thought to herself. “Well, Justin, I have looked in the mirror, this morning
in fact. Have YOU?” she challenged, trying to keep her cool but slowly
starting to fail.
“Yes I did. What I saw was a celebrity, a very hott celebrity.”
“WHAT? Was JC standing behind you or something?”
“No, he wasn’t standing behind me. It was ME in the mirror.”
“Justin,
you are so different from what I thought you’d be. When I first heard about
you and Nsync I always thought I wanted to date you, hell, even marry you. Now I
don’t even know if I want to be your friend. I’ve tried my hardest to be
nice to you, to somehow show you there’s more to me than just my 184lb
exterior. You just won’t look past that. Not everyone is as thin as Christina
and Britney, Justin. You need to learn to accept that. All the other guys have,
why won’t you just give me a chance to prove myself to you?” She was now
worked up and wanted to tell Justin about all the crap she’d been through and
hope that somehow that’d bring out the human in him. That’s all she wanted
at that moment. She didn’t really think she even wanted to date him anymore.
All she wanted was a chance to prove to him that she’d be a great friend to
him. Celebrity or not, he needed to learn that not everyone is tall, thin, with
perfect completion and pretty hair, he needed to learn about her.
Justin had been looking at the ground throughout her whole lecture. Some
of it had sunken in and it did affect him. He had noticed that the other guys
had accepted her for her; they even wanted to get to know her. He thought back
to all the run-ins with her, and his heart started to change. He remembered last
night and how he had been so worried about her when she had run away and how she
seemed so helpless while she cried into his shoulder after they had finally
caught up with her. His mind then went to just a few hours ago when he had said
those nasty things to her. She looked hurt, really hurt. Justin,
man, you’re the reason she was crying earlier. YOU caused her to hurt. How did
you’re ego get so big? Why did you let it get to you and affect the way you
treat other people. You never EVER would have done that if you were in high
school, and…normal. Normal.
Justin could hardly ever remember being normal. He remembered his morals. No
hitting girls, don’t have sex before marriage, you should say prayers before
going to bed, following those had never been a problem. Now he was doing
something worse than hitting a girl, he was destroying her self-esteem. He
remembered Jeni telling him about Bryce and what he had done to her. That
couldn’t have helped her at all. Now he was the cause of this. This wasn’t
him, this wasn’t the real
Justin Timberlake. Where he’d gone, he wasn’t sure. What he knew was that he
wanted to find him again. He now didn’t have those cold feelings toward Lydia
when he saw her. When he looked at her, he saw a woman who was hoping for a
chance to help him, even help herself.
Justin looked up to find that Lydia had walked to the wall across from
him. She had sat down, leaning against it, and was now looking for any facial
expression that would help her find out what he was thinking. When she noticed
he finally looked up, she had to question.
“Justin,”
she asked in a small voice, “did anything I said get through to you?”
He could hear the hope in her voice. “Lydia, it got through. I know I
haven’t given you a fair chance to show me what you are like. In fact, you
helped me realize that I’ve lost the real Justin that you were talking about
earlier, the one that cared about everyone’s feelings. Help me find him, and
I’ll treat you like every other fan.”
“Justin, I’m sorry you lost yourself in all this fame that you now
have, but I don’t think you heard me right. I don’t want you to treat me
like one of your fans. I want to be your friend. I know that when you leave New
York tomorrow that Jeni, Klare, and I won’t ever hear from you again, well
personally anyway. I don’t want that. You have a show tonight, in about an
hour and half, in fact. That’s not enough time for you or I to get what we
want.”
“And what exactly do you
want Lydia?” Justin replied, having a semi-angry voice.
“Justin, will you calm down? All I want is your friendship. I want to
be one of those people you know you can count on. The kind everyone wishes they
had,” she replied to his question. When she looked up into his eyes she no
longer saw the cold, hard look he used to give her. She saw a hopeful look. Come
on Justin. We can help each other. I know we can help each other!!!
“Lydia, you know this isn’t going to be easy, with me on the tour and
you in school, right?”
“I know that, but friendships aren’t easy. We got through a
conversation without me crying and you screaming at me, so I know we’re making
progress,” she stated as
a smile danced across her lips.
“You’re right. This is a good thing. Let’s go. I need to get the
guys to go down to the venue to get ready for the show.”
“Have you already done sound check, or are you going to be running
really late?”
“No, we shouldn’t be late. We did sound check at noon. So everything
is good.”
“That’s good,” Lydia stood up and started walking toward the hotel
door but stopped when she heard Justin’s voice.
“Lydia, I’m really, truly sorry for everything I’ve put you
through.”
She turned around and gave him a smile, “Justin. It’s ok,” she
assured him. Then grabbed his hand and walked into the hotel room to tell the
guys that everything was going to be ok between Justin and her. Just as she
opened the door Jeni and Klare ran up to her with big, bright smiles on their
faces. Lydia’s nerves became very alert. She knew something good had happened,
or was about to, and she hoped it included all three of them and Nsync, for her
sake and Justin’s.