Chapter 5
Justin paced back and forth in the hallway backstage. The rest of the guys were standing together in a circle for their prayer. But it wasn’t the same without Justin there with them. Lance looked up and down the hall at Justin, and then closed his eyes and bowed his head as JC began the prayer.
During the show, Justin was losing focus and concentration. He knew the dance moves better than any one else, like the back of his hand. His harmonies were off and he was not at one with the group.
After the show, JC caught Justin by the sleeve of his shirt. Justin stopped and saw the upset in JC’s eyes.
"Justin, what the hell is wrong with you? You really need to get fucking… Isabel and Elise out of your head and focus on what you are responsible for as a member of this group! Justin, you fucked everything up!"
JC didn’t know this yet, but Justin was about ready to explode.
"I’m sorry, JC! I did the best I could under the circumstances I’m under! I didn’t mean to fuck the show up! I didn’t, now just leave me the hell alone!"
In shock, JC stepped aside and Justin ran off. Justin had almost started crying he was so angry.
Lance came up to JC as he was walking towards the bus that would take them back to the hotel.
"What the fuck is Justin’s deal?" Lance asked, slightly angry. JC’s answer was pushed aside and he replayed what Lance just said.
"Did you just say fuck, Lance?"
Lance made JC’s question feel more rhetorical by not giving him an answer. Chris came up to Lance and JC.
"Look, oh hey Chris. You guys, just lay off Justin for the rest of the night. I mean it. Don’t talk to him unless he talks you. He’s sorry for messing up our gig, but he tried his best."
"Isabel and Elise, isn’t it?"
JC nodded.
"Isabel’s here and she knows about Elise. Apparently they met, too."
Lance and Chris had looks of worry on their faces.
"Ok. End of discussion." JC said to the both of them as they piled onto the bus.
Justin was the first one off the bus, wanting to shrug off the feeling of 4 sets of eyes on him the whole ride to the hotel. He went straight into the hotel, not looking up at any of the familiar faces of fans standing outside the hotel. He got into the elevator and it seemed like it took forever, but he arrived on their floor.
He slipped the card in the door, waiting for a green light but all he got was red. He was getting frustrated when he did it again and he got the green. He opened the door and stepped inside a silent room. He was unaware that Isabel was sleeping.
Justin’s entrance caused Isabel to awaken, but she didn’t get up or move. Just listened.
"Your so dumb, J. Isabel’s never gonna give you any now. I might as well live the rest of my life jacking off… way to go."
Isabel wanted to burst into laughter so bad, she had to cover her mouth.
"And your inlove with her… why did you go screw Elise?" Isabel listened, and there was a long silence. "You love Elise, too… that’s why you screwed her."
Isabel turned onto her back under the covers. Justin had been removing his shirt and Isabel scared the shit out of him. He threw his shirt onto the floor.
"Damn, Isabel! You scared the shit out of me!" He yelled, trying to catch his breath. Isabel laughed.
"Sorry."
"Where the hell were you, I thought you’d come to the show. I mean, that’s the whole reason you came to New York right?"
"Yeah, gosh, Justin. I’m sorry but I wasn’t feeling too good. See, finding out that your husband of 2 years has been cheating on you is not so easy to deal with. So I stayed home."
"Thanks a lot."
"Thank YOU a lot. For fucking someone else behind my back!"
"Don’t you see how sorry I am? What the hell!"
Justin left the room and went into the bathroom. He jumped onto the counter and closed his eyes, slowly regaining his composure. He opened his eyes and wiped the tears brimming his eyes.
"Justin, just tell me why you did it." Isabel said, standing sleepily in the doorway, bra and underwear the only thing on her body. He looked her up and down as casually as possible, feeling he had the right since she was his wife.
"Why you lookin’? You ain’t getting’ none of this!" Isabel snapped. Justin set his stare on her eyes.
"Isabel, I’m unimaginably sorry for what I did to hurt you. I love you so much, it’s crazy."
"I love you, too, Justin. How am I supposed to trust you again?"
Justin opened his mouth to respond, but the room phone rang. Isabel went to get it, Justin not far behind.
Justin came into the room and Isabel was sitting on the edge of the bed with a smile on her face.
"Roland, baby, do you wanna talk to Daddy? Ok, let me get him." She said. She looked up and handed the phone to Justin. He wouldn’t take it.
"Give me a kiss, first." He said.
"No." Isabel venomously denied him.
"Just one, just a peck, come on." He continued.
"No." She said. Justin pounced on her, kissing her neck and her jawline. She couldn’t lie, the feeling was very enjoyable. But then she thought about Elise and couldn’t help but speak. She covered the phone so Roland couldn’t hear.
"Is this how you kiss Elise, too?"
Justin sprung off Isabel and sat next to her, grabbing the phone.
"Hey #1, what’s up buddy? Yes, Daddy is doing good. It’s kinda’ late for you to be on the phone, isn’t it? Oh is Grandma. I see. Well…. Yes, I promise. I promise me and mommy are gonna come home together this weekend."
Isabel looked away from Justin, knowing it was unlikely that Justin would keep that promise.
The next morning, Justin woke up and felt Isabel’s body next to his. He was so happy that she was his wife, and it hurt him deeply to think about what a piece of shit husband he was now. He turned to face her and kissed her forehead. She didn’t stir, just breathed in and out softly. He got up and went to start a shower. He had everything in the bathroom, his towel, his toothbrush, his shampoo, but he forgot one thing.
"Aftershave, that’s right." He said, coming out of the steamy bathroom and going silently to his gym bag and digging around until he found his can of Aftershave. He looked at Isabel, still sleeping and smiled. Then he got up off one knee and headed back to the bathroom. As he passed the door, he remembered to put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ Sign on the outside door handle. He opened the door and slipped the sign on the handle. But Elise caught his attention. She was walking up to him, and walked faster when she saw him standing at his door.
"Justin," She said. Justin silenced her.
"Isabel’s sleeping," He told her in a whisper. "What are you doing here?"
"I’m surprised your up."
"Yeah, me too. Back to my original question. What are you doing here?"
Elise felt Justin pull her by her arm into the room. Justin took great care in closing the door, trying to make as little noise as possible. The sound of the running shower covered up most sounds, though.
Justin took Elise by her waist and backed her up against the wall next to the bathroom. They kissed for a couple minutes, and then Justin pulled her again into the bathroom.
In the shower, the cool tile wall felt relaxing against Justin’s warm back. Elise kissed him passionately, and her hands rubbed his chest. She felt the ripples in Justin’s abs. Justin kissed her neck, nipping at her skin every once in a while.
"Stop teasing me, Justin." She said. Justin looked at her with a puzzled face.
"What?"
"You’re teasing me." She said, her hand brushing his manhood. Justin leaned his head back against the wall. Then he turned them around so he was in front of her. He entered her with a rough, quick thrust. Just the way she liked it.
"Justin!" She cried out, not able to keep quiet even though she knew she had to. Justin covered her mouth with his.
*~
Justin wrapped a towel around his body and stepped out of the bathroom. Isabel was awake, and apparently in desperate need to take a pee.
"God, J. You’ve been in there for… hours." She said, looking at his nearly perfect upper-torso.
"I know you ain’t tryin’ to look." Justin said, passing her with a deceptive grin.
It had been so long, Isabel didn’t know if he was serious or joking.
Later that morning, Justin found some quiet time in his hotel room. He was writing some song lyrics that had came to him, along with a melody. Thankfully, he had brought along his tape recorder. He picked it up and pressed record. He sang the little bit of song and was getting more ideas as he went along when Johnny’s yelling in the hallway caught his attention. He set his recorder down and got up from his chair. He threw his pencil on the table and went to find out what Johnny wanted.
"Justin! Get your ass out here right now, I need a word with you!"
Justin knew Johnny was pissed about the HBO thing. He said a silent prayer and walked out of his room. In the process of speed-walking down the hall, he passed Isabel.
"Where are you going?" She asked. He continued right on by her but told her it was something about Johnny. She stopped walking, slowly regaining her pace. After Justin disappeared, she came to her room. She got her key out, and the clicking sound of a door next to her turned out to be JC coming out of his hotel room. He saw Isabel and he knew what was about to happen.
"Oh, good. Follow me, we need to talk."
JC followed her into Justin’s room. He stopped but she continued farther inside, so he followed.
"This is about Roland, isn’t it?" JC said, beginning the conversation. Isabel turned to him, hands on her hips.
"Yes, it is."
"Well good. You know, Justin’s gonna find out eventually. I mean, we can’t keep it a secret much longer."
"We have to, Josh. Justin can’t ever find out about it. Not ever."
"That’s not gonna happen, I’m telling you, ‘Bel." JC warned. "And I can’t believe you think it’s ok to flip out over Justin getting it on with Elise when your hiding the fact that Roland isn’t really his! And it’s not like you can say anything about his cheating…. You cheated on his ass first. With me, none the less!"
"That was a mistake."
"Yes it was. But Roland is the best thing that ever happened to me. Do you know how much it hurts that I can’t be a part of Roland’s life? Do you know what it feels like to hear Roland calling Justin daddy when I’M his father? You should have told him as soon as we found out."
"JC, I know your hurt-"
"Did you know that on Roll’s birth certificate it says father: Justin Randall Timberlake? It SHOULD say father: Joshua Scott Chasez! It should, and it doesn’t!"
"I know!" Isabel sobbed, sitting down in the same chair Justin had been sitting in minutes earlier. She didn’t even notice Justin’s recorder. Even if she did, she wouldn’t have thought it to be on.
"This is a huge mess, Josh. I’m sorry."
"I’m sorry, too. For ever getting involved with you, Isabel."
JC stormed out of the room and Isabel was left crying uncontrollably.
*~
Justin returned to his room, finding it empty. He was about to turn on the TV but he remembered what he was doing earlier. He came over to the table and picked up his tape recorder, finding it had recorded all the way through to the end of the tape.
"Better rewind this bad boy…" Justin said, pressing the rewind button and sitting down in the chair. He could’ve sworn he smelled Isabel’s perfume. He shrugged it off and it was about then that JC and Lance walked in.
"Hey, guys. You wanna hear this new song idea?"
Lance and JC sat down on the bed.
"Yeah, play it, bro." JC said, excitedly.
Lance’s cell rang, and he answered it. He started talking immediately and whispered to the guys something about ‘business’. He left the room, leaving JC and Justin to themselves.
"Ok, here it is." Justin said, pressing play. JC had stood up and walked closer to J so he could hear. The song was beautiful, JC had a facial expression that showed he was pleased. "Oh, Johnny was screamin’ for me so I hadda’ run out. Guess I left it on."
Justin was about to stop the tape, assuming there was nothing to listen to. But then he heard Isabel’s voice, getting closer as she spoke. He scrunched his eyebrows together and then JC’s voice picked up as well.
"This is about Roland, isn’t it?"
Justin’s eyes grew wide. He looked up wearily at JC, as if not sure what was going on. He chewed his nails, not knowing how bad it was about to get. But JC knew, and he was terrified. But there was no way he could stop it now. Justin was going to hear everything that he and Isabel discussed. The secret was about to become known.
"Well good. You know, Justin’s gonna find out eventually. I mean, we can’t keep it a secret much longer."
"We have to, Josh. Justin can’t ever find out about it. Not ever."
Even after hearing this, Justin still didn’t quite understand.
"And I can’t believe you think it’s ok to flip out over Justin getting it on with Elise when your hiding the fact that Roland isn’t really his! And it’s not like you can say anything about his cheating…. You cheated on his ass first. With me, none the less!"
Justin laughed that being the only thing he could do. He took his nail out of his mouth and looked at JC.
"This was a joke, right, bro?"
JC couldn’t pull his head up to look at Justin.
"…C? Quit playin’…"
After a few seconds, reality set in and Justin realized what was going on.
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