Smiling gently, he set her down on the bed, then brushed a strand of hair out of her
eyes. Justin had been long gone, off to find the femme fatal that he affectionately referred to as
his “girl”. Looking down at her, Lonnie found himself questioning the young romeo. No, she
wasn’t a supermodel, nor was she a beauty queen, but there just was something about Lexi that
made him smile. Everything about her was genuine- her smile, the compliments she gave, and
the promises that she made. Unfortunately, however, only a few select people were able to see
this within her, others wrote her off as being worthless, and shy. And then, there Justin was with
a completely dreadful yet breathtakingly beautiful woman on his arm, blinded by her cruel
mannerisms, leaving Liexi in the dust.
In all of the years that Lonnie had been on the *NSYNC staff, he felt the insatiable urge
to whack Justin upside the head with something hard to try to knock him to his senses. After all,
even Justin deserved something more than Amber, who loved Justin’s money and his celebrity
stature, but nothing more. She was a shell of a person in every way, looking for the fame in life,
and not the love Justin could give her. He deserved Lexi, who Lonnie always had suspected felt
more for Justin than just friendship. She could love him like he needed to be loved. She could
understand who he was, and where he came from, and see him for way more than “Justin
Timberlake: Teen Heartthrob”. She knew his many sides, the charming ladies’ man who could
make any woman week at the knees, the complete goob whose jokes tended to get old, and the
serious and determined man who would stop at nothing to reach a state of perfection. And
somehow, through it all, she still loved him, and referred to him as her best friend.
In the beggining, when the band was being shaped to fit the molds that had been set for
them by management, Justin was warned never to reveal that he had a girl for a best friend.
Lonnie had always held suspision that it was because management simply didn’t approve of
Lexi. True, she was very intellegent, and very caring for others, but she didn’t fit the role they
would have liked her to. Maybe if she were prettier.. or she was more outgoing.. or she just
wasn’t Lexi Anderson, management wouldn’t have had a problem with it. So, Justin always
informed the media that his best friend was a guy, named Trace. True, Trace and Justin were
close, but the two didn’t share the friendship that Justin and Lexi did. It depressed Lonnie to
even think that someone would tell Justin that Lexi wasn’t to be spoken about, and Justin had
gone along with it. Even after a change in management, he never mentioned Lexi. Upon
questioning from his bandmates, he claimed that it was already too late, and was afraid of media
speculation that could have arisen.
As Lonnie whispered goodnight to her, the door to the hotel suite creaked open, and a
figure stepped in the room. Once the large bodyguard saw him, he rolled his eyes and
whispered, “Can’t you let this girl get any sleep? You knucklehead.. You can say hi to her and
interrogate her about her life in the past months tomorrow. You’re getting as pushy as the other
four, man.”
The man shook his head, “Oh no. I’ve waited way too long to see her, Lonnie. Give me
five minutes and I’ll let her get some beauty sleep.”
Shaking his head slowly, “They say I’m supposed to be your bodyguard. They pay me to
do it, yet here I stand trying to protect Lex from you. Five minutes, *NSYNC boy. Five
minutes.”
