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Date Posted: 23:37:49 11/03/02 Sun
Author: Z
Subject: *Untitled* SMALL part of Ch. 3

Chapter 3:
January 17, 2003

Justin pulled onto the highway and checked the time. He had only 20 minutes to cut through the traffic if he wanted to make it to rehearsals on time.

"Shit, shit, shit," Justin mumbled under his breath. He turned his head around to see if he could pass the annoyingly slow car in front of him. Just as he was about to turn the wheel, a car came up from behind, forcing him to remain behind the slow driver. "Great!" Justin slapped his hands on the wheel and fell back onto his seat with a sigh.

So far the day had sucked and it wasn't even 10 in the morning yet. The piece on "Justin's women" on Extra could have been over looked the night before as well as the early morning lecture from his mom about being careful, but when the local radio station started discussing his technique in bed, Justin had almost lost it. It might have been humorous, but after hearing the topic, or related ones, incessantly for the past month, Justin failed to laugh anymore.

It was embarrassing to have your sex life discussed so much. Life was better when everyone thought he was still a virgin. Now whenever Justin met anyone, he wondered if they were thinking about the latest story they'd heard. Justin didn't even want to think about whom had listened to this morning's bit. It was starting to get hard to face people he knew.

Justin's thoughts turned to the past week of dance rehearsals. Thankfully, they had kept him busy so he couldn't get into much trouble. No Hollywood parties, no Hollywood girls, no Hollywood gossip. Overall that seemed like a safe plan for Justin to follow.

For the millionth time that month, Justin tried to evaluate his relationships. He couldn't understand what it was about him that made superficially wonderful girls flock to him, only to have the façade disappear a little while into the relationship when they got bored and ended up cheating on him. As much as Justin tried to be casual about his relationships, it was getting harder and harder to bounce back from the dust after he invested so much of himself.

Each of his relationships had meant something to him, especially with Britney. The two of them had shared so many big steps together that Justin was sure that she would be the one for him. He believed that so much that he closed his eyes to the reality. In his mind, Britney had to be the one because she had to be the only one who understood him. She knew what it felt like to deal with fan and paparazzi. The desperation to be understood left Justin blind to the incongruities between him and Britney. No matter how much Justin tried to convince himself, the fact remained; him and Britney came from different backgrounds. Thought they had ended up in the same places, the two had taken different routes.

After the end of that relationship, Justin wasn't sure what to do with himself. Whatever he knew about love had gone out the door. Slowly he began indulging himself in small, not completely meaningless flings. With his subsequent relationships, Justin worried less about creating the perfect relationships and more on enjoying the moment. Even then, he stayed with one woman at a time. Of course that hadn't been hard because women came up to him. Not just any women, gorgeous, sophisticated women. Justin discovered that he not only liked confident women, but that they were also his weakness. Despite all his experiences, Justin came to the conclusion that he liked being a boyfriend and a good boyfriend at that. He enjoyed thinking up surprises and romantic gifts to give. The whole casual dating around thing wasn't for him; he wanted a relationship to be in.

Justin was forced back into the present when the car in front of him hit its breaks. Quickly, Justin's foot stomped on the break as well, making him stop just inches behind the car. In his rearview mirror, Justin saw the car behind him break closely as well. Craning his neck to see ahead, Justin could barely make out flashing police car lights. The sounds of an ambulance siren assured Justin that an accident had transgressed up head. Sighing with frustration, Justin let out a string of expletives that would make a sailor blush.

Scanning the cars around him to make sure he wouldn't be pulled over, Justin pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and randomly called one of the guy's cell phones. It was a minute to 10 and undoubtedly the others would be wondering as to his whereabouts.

"Where ARE you?" Chris answered on the first ring.

"Stuck in fucking traffic." Justin replied grimly.

"On the highway?"

"No on my driveway, yes of course." Justin knew he was taking out his frustrations on Chris, but he didn't care.

"Hey, don't take your shit out on me, serves you right for sleeping in. Hold on." Justin waited as he heard fumbling from the other line. "Okay, yeah I'll ask. Okay, they wanna know where exactly you are."

"Like 4 miles before exit 5, I think."

"Right before exit 5," Chris conveyed to the rest of the group.

"Crap, he's like a good 20 miles from the exit. With traffic he could be there another hour," JC surmised.

"But Marc's going to be here in like half an hour."

"Exit 5 is 441, right?" Hannah said, speaking up as she pictured a map of Orlando in her head.

"Yeah, I think so, why? J, hold on."

"I'm holding," Justin said with a sigh. It's not like he had much choice just as long as he didn't get another citation or ticket for driving and talking on the cell phone.

"Okay tell him to take the next exit and go north," Hannah told Chris authoritatively.

"Okay, Justin? Hannah says take the next exit and go north, then what?" Chris turned back to Hannah and waited for further directions.

"Then make a right on 27th and go east on it. Left onto south Division Avenue and then…"

"Hold on, hold on, " Chris said, struggling to remember Hannah's words. "Actually, here, tell him yourself." Chris thrust the phone into Hannah's hands and she looked at Chris as though he was speaking in a different tongue. She looked down at the cell phone in her hands. Faint sounds of Justin's voice filtered into Hannah's conscious and she hastily put the phone up to her ear.

"Hey," Hannah said softly.

"Okay good, so now where do I go? I just got onto 441."

"Um turn right on W. Michigan."

"Wait, what happened to 27th?" Justin sounded flabbergasted and Hannah smiled to herself. She distinctly remembered how he hated being late and how he always ended up being late anyway.

"27th IS W. Michigan, so chill. I'll get you here in 30 minutes." It seemed so normal to be talking to Justin on the phone. She had spent hours of her first two years as a teenager listening to that very southern drawl.

"Okay, I see 27th, what's next?"

"Make a right and then make a left on south Division Avenue." Hannah continued to give the rest of the directions to Justin. Hannah tried to hang up the phone a few times, but Justin insisted that she remain on the phone with him through all the turns so he didn't miss any streets. While Hannah waited for Justin to get to the next intersection, Justin talked about various topics. Hannah made sure to keep her guard up so that she didn't slip again.

Justin smiled as he pulled into the studio parking lot. True to her word, Hannah had gotten him there in half an hour. He had it found it amusing to make Hannah talk to him on the phone during the trip. He could sense her reluctance, but to his surprise it didn't seem to stem from shyness or even from being intimidated by him. That's the first thing Justin had noticed and appreciated; Hannah hadn't given any heed to their celebrity status. From what Marc had told them, it didn't seem like Hannah had had much exposure to big artists, or any artists for that matter, so it would be a natural reaction for her to be star struck, but she showed no signs.

Locking the car behind him, Justin galloped to the studio and reached inside at exactly 10:32. He looked around and saw that Marc hadn't arrived yet.

"Hey, look who finally decided to show up," Joey said upon spotting Justin.

"Ha, bite me," Justin said with squinted eyes. "Hannah! Thank you so much! If it weren't for you, I might still be stuck in traffic."

"Sure, no problem, now Marc should be here any minute." Justin noticed the quick change of subject from Hannah and he dropped his thank yous. Before shifting gears completely, Justin couldn't help stopping and wondering his sudden interest in observing Hannah's behaviors.

"Good morning, my sweets!" Marc said, boisterously entering the room. All eyes turned to him and JC and Chris rushed over to help him. "Thank you boys, you're too nice. Hannah, darling, how has it been?" Marc asked as he gave Hannah a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. Hannah returned the greeting and smiled.

"Absolutely wonderful! I thought this job was supposed to be a challenge!"

"That's why you're the person for the job! Now lets see your creations."

"They're talking about us as if we're not here," Chris said loudly to Joey.

"I know. Hey Chris, maybe we're invisible!"

"All right! I'm gonna go to the girl's locker room then!"

"Okay, okay, Chris, come back from 8th grade for a minute so I can win the bet," Hannah said with feigned boredom.

Hannah's comment took Justin back to a long forgotten memory.


"Come on, Justin, the coast is clear," Trace said quietly as he peeked around the corner.

"I don't know, what if we get caught?"

"Stop being such a worry wort, come on! This might be you're only chance to see Jessica changing."

"I don't know…"

Justin shook his head and tried to figure out what had just transpired. He saw Chris saying something to Marc and it was quite obvious that he had spaced out for a minute. A smile came to his face as he thought about the crazy antics of him and his friend, Trace, back in Tennessee. It seemed like a whole other life to him now.

"Oh yeah, Marc, you're the judge and you have to be fair," Chris said, wagging his finger at Marc.

"Please, when am I not. But enough chit chat, dance for me!" Marc clapped his hands and everyone jumped into action. Justin shook the clouded memories from his head and turned his attention to dancing.

Hannah felt a wave of nervousness wash over her as the guys took their positions. She looked to Justin for the cue to begin and pressed play when he nodded. Quietly, she walked over to Marc and took on the roll of an anxious parent. Hannah was less worried about the bet and more focused on living up to Marc's expectations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, sorry, but that's it for now, I'm working on as we speak so hopefully more should be up soon...if you want to you can always let me know what you think about what I have so far....

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