I'm Not Losing You
"Awwww yeah!" Said Justin.
A Story of Dedication to Those I Love
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"Hey! You got the same one as me!" Exclaimed Jackie, flipping mine over to make sure his name wasn't on it. I laughed a little bit.
"Yes Jackie, I do. We have the same birthstone, remember? My birthday is March 3."
"Oh yeah! That's right!" He said in response. "Duh!" He laughed. I smiled in return. He was so funny sometimes.
"Hey, are we going to use this last half of the roll or not?" Interjected Samantha, completely out of left field. I told her that it was fine.
"Go ahead. How many are left?" I asked.
"Umm...12." She replied, already making her way over to Jackie. "Jackie! Picture time!"
"Jackie, picture!" Said Lucas, imitating Sam in a high pitched voice. She punched his arm and gave him a look. He just laughed. Sam and Jackie stood together and smiled and I took a picture of the two of them. And before I could squeeze in to get mine done, she jumped to Lucas.
"So are you going to be cool and take one with me or should I just forget you?" she asked. He looked at her with this weird look and said,
"Well I don't know..." and started to walk away.
"Hey! Get over here!" Sam said, grabbing his arm and pulling him back for a picture. I took one for her and she moved on to Justin. Nothing special, just your typical Justin picture. Sam took my camera from me after I was through taking that picture.
"Now you. Go take yours." She said, commanding me more or less.
"Whoa. Getting a little pushy now aren't we?" Jackie joked as I grabbed him first. We both laughed, and he put his arm around my shoulder. "Wait, you're not wearing YOUR necklace!" He said to me. I got mine out quickly and put it on, just to match them. Jackie put his arm back around my shoulder and held up his necklace just as we were taking the picture. We both smiled and the flash went off...blinding us both. I got to Lucas next. He's my big brother. He gave me a big hug again before we took the picture.
"You're just so awesome." He laughed. "I love this!" He said, looking down at his own necklace. He looked at me again and smiled, outstretching his left arm to take a picture with me. I put my arm around his back and he put his hand on my right shoulder. We looked up at the camera, and smiled as the flash left one more light box in my vision. After our picture, I looked up at Justin, and he looked me dead in the eye.
"Ok, MY turn..." He said as he was walking towards me. I walked to him as well, meeting him halfway. We got together for a picture, and he wrapped one arm around me, resting his hand on my right shoulder as the other two did, and put the other one on my left arm. I put my right hand on his hand, and smiled. He smiled as well and waited for the flash. After the picture was taken, Samantha looked up.
"Oh no. I KNOW you can make it cuter than that! Come on! Take another one!" Justin and I both looked at each other, and shrugged.
"Ok...here we go." He said with this look on his face and a smile. We got together again, and stood side by side again. I wondered how this was any "cuter" than the last one, when at the last second he moved. Just before she took the picture, Justin moved from my left side to behind me. He put his arms around my neck and shoulders, leaning over my shoulder and planting a big kiss on my cheek. I smiled even bigger than before and put my hands on his arms. Just before the flash, he looked up at the camera, still kissing my cheek. It totally took me by surprise. After the picture, I turned around to him.
"What was that?" I laughed.
"What? You don't like that? I thought I was being cute!"
"No! I love it!" I laughed more. "I was just surprised!"
"Good." He said with a smile.
"Oh oh oh, I see how it is. JUSTIN can take one like that but not us, right?" Jackie said to me.
"You want one? Then get over here!" I said back to him. I walked towards him a little bit, and stood next to him, on his left side. He put his arms around my shoulders and planted a big kiss on my right cheek. He's so cute. I put my arms around him too and let Sam take that picture.
"Ha!" He said. "I got one too." He smiled and pointed at Justin. I thought to myself how weird they were. Weird yet lovable. That's the Vi3 I knew.
"Lucas, are you going to take one or no?" Sam asked, waiting for him to say that he was going to sit this one out. Without saying a word, he walked over to me with this smirk on his face as if he was up to something. He stood next to me as if he was going to take a regular picture again. But at the last second, he scared me half to death by lifting me off the ground and planting one on my cheek like the other two did. I must have had a smile a mile wide from being so surprised by that. He put me down after the flash went off.
"See, I got all of you beat." He said, confidently. We all laughed and shook our heads.
"How many are left now?" I asked Sam, curious to know how many pictures were actually going to turn out.
"There are 3 left. At least I think that's what this means..." she said. I took the camera from her, and looked.
"Yeah, 3 left."
"Well then I want a group picture! That and a kiss picture with my Jackie!" She said, somewhat shyly, as if you could tell she was trying to be all cute about it so he wouldn't say no.
"Sure thing sweetheart." He said to her, and she got her request. A simple kiss picture. She pulled the other two in to take a group picture. She put herself between Jackie and Lucas, with Justin on the other end of Jackie. Similar to what she had done before. They all stood together and smiled. After theirs, they stayed put so I could take one. I wasn't planning on it originally because I had taken one before, but since they were still standing there, I decided to go ahead. It was somewhat funny, to see all four of us wearing the same necklace in one picture, but very cool all at the same time. After she took that picture, there was one picture left to take. I told her to just kill it on whatever she wanted to, since she had taken most of the pictures in the first place anyway. I never saw her take that last picture...
For the next few minutes before they left, we just kind of chilled with them. We chatted and were just messing around with each other, cracking jokes, making fun of each other...the way we used to back in the old days, before the fame. Before all of the screams became deafening and walking from a building to their car became a security issue. It was just the six of us, Justin, Lucas, Jackie, Erik, Samantha and I; having a blast. God how I miss those days. At one point, Justin had set his jacket down next to me. I was cold, so I reached over slowly, without him noticing, and just put it on myself. It was a warm jacket. A Levi's denim one. Nice and warm...comfortable...and smelled like "Le Male." And that in itself was a bonus. It took him a minute to notice, but Lucas was looking over in my direction and just laughing. Almost like when he saw the "Lancer" shirt after the Park Bar show back in October of 2002. Just flat out cracking up. Reacting to Lucas' laughter, I got up slowly and started to walk in another direction away from Justin, still wearing his coat. Before I got very far, Justin turned to me.
"Hey! Where do you think YOU'RE going with my coat?!" He grabbed onto me, pulling me back so he could get his jacket back. I squirmed a little bit, laughing at the whole situation as he attempted to tackle me to the ground to get the jacket back. I struggled with him, both of us laughing so hard we really didn't accomplish much of anything. I eventually gave up, and took off his jacket.
"Well now I'm cold!" I laughed, and stuck my tongue out at him. He gave me another hug, laughing at me.
"You're so crazy." He commented.
"Well guys, are you about ready to get going?" Asked Erik. About an hour had passed since Randy had taken us back here. It didn't feel like nearly that much time. It had only felt like a few minutes. But isn't that typical when you're spending time with someone who just makes you have so much fun? I think so.
"Well if you guys are going to go, I guess we'll get going too." I said to them, getting ready to go.
"Alright guys. We'll see you later then!" Erik said. We turned to walk the other way when Randy, who was still hanging around, said that it might be easier for all of us to go out the back door because there were still tons of girls hanging around outside the door he had let us in. So we turned around as the guys waited by the door for us to walk out with them. They opened the door to the cold outside, and sure enough, there was almost no one outside waiting. Probably because there were two security guards keeping the area clear. We walked with them to the Denali; I was arm in arm between Justin and Lucas, while Sam walked arm in arm with Jackie. The second they stepped out the door, even though there was no one near the car, you could hear the screams. There were still girls hanging around as close as security would let them get. They were watching the car, hoping to get one last glimpse of Vi3 before they left. The guys waved to them, as the girls gave us nasty looks. We heard some of them yell out "Who are those bitches? I KNOW they don't have girlfriends!" They had some pretty rude things to say to us, and the guys just gave them looks like "Hey, they're friends!" We finally got to the car, and we gave them long hugs goodbye. Hugs that lasted years and a few seasons. The best smelling hugs I've ever had from them because I wanted to remember something special for today. I gave Lucas a hug first, and he lifted me up again, just to be funny. I laughed and said how great it was to see him again today.
"Aww hun it was great to see you too, as always Mya. We'll see you soon alright?" He replied. I nodded and gave him a kiss on the cheek and said goodbye. I got to Jackie next, and said the same thing.
"Jackie it was great to see you as always, I'll see you soon!" I said. He hugged me and gave me a little kiss before saying,
"Of course Mya. See you later hun." He moved towards the Denali afterwards and the last one left was Justin.
"Justin!" I said, making my way towards him.
"Mya!" He said, doing the same thing. I gave him a big hug goodbye. He was still warm, despite the freezing temperatures outside, and the fact that I could see my breath clearly. I touched my freezing lips to his cheek, leaving a mark of lipstick on his face, which I quickly went to wipe away. Hmm, let's count how many times I have done that before.
"Bye hun." I giggled to him, trying to get that lipstick off his face. "I'll see you soon. January 4, if not before, alright?"
"Of course! Of course! Did you guys get good seats for the show?" He asked.
"Of COURSE we did! Do me and my crew EVER have bad seats?"
He giggled, "I guess that¡¦s a stupid question then, huh?" I looked at him and smiled.
"Yeah we got awesome seats. Let's just say, look for us because you'll be able to spot us VERY easily." He smiled and got the hint. Me, Sam, Rachel and Mardy (the usual crew) had gotten 2nd row seats, and boy were we excited! I said goodbye to Justin one more time, and he got into the front seat of the Denali. He shut the door behind him, as did Lucas and Jackie, and we said goodbye to Erik through his window, and we stepped back to let him back out. We started to head around the building, making our way to the front, where my car was parked. I turned my head over my shoulder as we walked so I could watch them pull away. I smiled at them one last time, and Lucas saw me looking back, so he gave me a wave. I waved back, and they drove off.
We walked back to my car, got inside and turned the heat up on full blast. My hands were feeling like they were going to fall off. I wanted to bury them in my jacket, but my jacket was covering the rest of me now. I put my hands in front of the vents, let the air warm up, and heat my frozen skin. In the middle of heating my hands, my phone rang. (Yes, I FINALLY got around to getting a phone of my own.) I struggled to answer it because of how cold my hands were.
"Hello?" I answered. It was Rachel.
"How was it?!" She asked. "Since I couldn't be there for obvious reasons..." Rachel was out of town for the week, and was rather disappointed that she had to miss this.
"It was so much fun! I wish you could have been here!"
"How did our husband look?" She asked with a giggle.
I laughed and responded with, "He made us Lancers proud."
"Woo hoo! You took a lot of pictures, right?"
"Of course. I'm going to go get them done now as a matter of fact."
"Alrighty, well I'm going to let you go, when I come back I want to see these pictures!"
"Of course. I'll have them waiting for you all to come back."
"Bye, see you in a few days."
"Bye!" And I hung up the phone. I decided to wait until she got back to tell her about the extra time that we got. It will be easier.
Finally, my car was warm enough that I could drive it. I backed out of my parking space and told Samantha that I needed to check my work schedule, so we were making a small detour to my work. Not like it was that far... So the two of us took a short drive to the parking lot of Stratford, parked the car and went in through Carson's, just like we always do. In the middle of the down escalator, I said,
"Hey, do you just want to get the pictures done now? Since I have money and we have time."
"Yeah, I don't see why not." Sam said. Then she giggled.
"What?" I was confused.
"Nothing...I'm just thinking about how I hope that last picture turned out." Then she giggled more. I think she's up to something, but I'm not quite sure what. Because as I said, I have no idea what she took the last picture of.
"WHAT DID YOU TAKE A PICTURE OF? And if you say Jackie's ass..." I figured that's what she did. Because she's weird like that. I refuse to let her take my pictures most of the time because of that fact.
"Nothing...you'll see when we get them back. That is, if it turned out!" What she had brewing in her strange little mind was beyond me. We stepped into the mall, and walked the 20 feet to where I work, Charlotte Russe. I strolled into the store, and headed for the back while Sam just browsed around. My manager, Lisa, was in the back as I was going to get my schedule.
"Hey Melissa. How was the thing you went to?" She asked.
"Oh it was so fun. I haven't seen them in a long time, so it was great to see them again."
"That's good. Who did you say it was?"
"Vi3. Their album, "...So Tight" came out last year...the new one just came out last Tuesday."
"Oh ok. I know now." She said. She never was too up on her popular culture. "Wait...doesn't one of them live around here? Or at least someone's mother?"
"Yes, Justin's family. Why?"
"Because I was on lunch yesterday, and I thought I heard someone saying that their son was doing an autograph signing at Tower Records today...and I remember hearing her say Vi3. So was that his mom?"
"More than likely." I said. "It could have very well been Justin's mom. She's so cool. I love his mom." I finished. Lisa giggled and said that I was weird. I smiled. "Well I guess I'm going to go. I just wanted my schedule, now I'm going to go get these pictures developed." I turned to walk out of the curtained off area as she said goodbye.
"Hey, you ready to go?" Sam was waiting for me right outside the curtain.
"Yeah, let's go. I want to see these pictures." I responded.
"When do you work next?" She asked.
"Saturday, why?"
"No reason. Just curious...but hey, I want to get some food before we go. I'm starving!" After she said that, I noticed that my stomach was also quite empty and was starting to make funny noises.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Do you just want to get it here?"
"Yeah, because we're here, why leave?"
