Jc watched as Justin paced the dressing room floor, muttering to himself and tugging absentmindedly on the patches of his sleeveless vest costumes while adjusting his head scarf. He looked like he was torn between happiness and frustration.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Jc offered as his friend continued the length of the carpet. "They're worth a lot more than that..." Justin said stopping in mid-pace. JC looked at him confusedly.
"What's bothering you? If you don't tell anyone, we won't know if we can help you..." he trailed off looking hopelessly at his friend. Justin sighed. "If you only knew, if you only knew..."

Jc frowned. He knew teenage life was hard, especially when being a famous one at that, But there was no need for all this philosophical crap. "Is it about losing at hackey-sack?" JC smirked. Justin glared at him, and he quickly sobered up. "Look Justin, tell me what's up before you run a hole into the carpet" Justin smiled weakly. "I'll be fine." Jc looked at him skeptically. He knew better though, and the topic alone.

Just then, a NSA stagehand poked his head in the door. "You're on in five." he said holding up 5 fingers.
Joey, Chris and Lance walked in, having just changed into their 'puppet' costumes. "We'd better get out there "Lance reminded his bandmates. They nodded in agreement, and filed out the door.

After the show Justin climbed grudgingly on to the bus and threw himself in a bunk. This was going to be a long bus ride. He flipped on his back and starred at the ceiling, and saw his reflection fuzzily. He looked grim and weak. This wasn't how he was supposed to look. He was supposed to be strong, not some kind of wuss who cried over a broken heart. The public could choose to pretend he was some lonesome little famous kid or a normal teenager. It was their choice, because they knew nothing about what went on behind closed doors. He sighed, he knew he was letting his mind wander, but he didn't to think about what was going to happen once he got to that hotel.

Double Tree Hotel. That was where they had met each other. He remembered it like it was yesterday. It was the day he met his match; his other half.

He heard a scraping of a key card from outside his door and decided to go investigate. Whatever it was sounding like it was ramming up against the door now. He got up and crept cautiously to his door, afraid if it was some kind of deranged fan visiting him at-he looked at the clock-1:00 in the morning. He yanked the door open and to his surprise, there was a teenage-ish girl around his age.
The only thing between her and the floor, however was Justin. Caught off guard by her loss of balance he fell to the ground with her, knocking the wind out of him. They landed in a heap of tangled body parts with a loud thump. They both lain there for a moment in shock and embarrassment. Finally the girl picked her self off the floor and offered her hand out to Justin to help him up too.
He accepted and pulled himself up right, picking lent off his Brand new Abercrombie& fitch shirt.

He looked at her. She had dark brown hair that was half way down her back, expressive brown eyes, was dressed in boot-cut jeans with block heeled boots on, and a leather jacket. She cleared her throat and brushed her jeans off nervously as she felt him studying her. "I'm really sorry. I thought this was my room and I..."She shook her head "Ugh! I feel so stupid! I really didn't mean to disturb you..."
Justin sighed. "It's all right you didn't bother me really I couldn't sleep anyway. Um... is it OK if I ask you why you're trying to get to your room at 1 in the morning?"
She smiled. "That is kinda peculiar I guess. Well if you must know, I just moved to DC yesterday and my apartment is full of boxes and stuff so I have to crash it here. I just came from there, my friend and I were trying to clear it out I guess."

"You have your own apartment?!" He said slightly shocked. She looked around 17. "Well yeah-I'm 19 and I attend College but I didn't want a dorm." They stood there for a few more seconds in silence. It was Justin's turn to clear his throat. "Well I'm Justin." She looked at him expectantly and he finished his sentence in a rush "-Justin. That's my name... Yup Justin" He looked down at his shoes and rocked back and forth on his heels, realizing how stupid he must've sounded. "Well my name is Ariella Jacobs, but my friends call me Arry for short." She said extending her hand for him to shake it.
" So are you just visiting DC on vacation or something?" She asked. Justin swallowed. It had been going great until now. She hadn't recognized him, but he reasoned with himself. Not everyone was an Nsync fan. "I'm here for business" Arry looked surprised. "What do you do? You look college bound" Justin grinned.
"I'll take that as a complement. I'm touring right now." Arry looked confused. "Touring?" Justin breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm a part of a quintet called 'Nsync' we're touring the nation right now. But we'll be in DC for the next week or so performing shows, and some promotional work." She nodded slowly. "I've heard your songs before-don't you sing 'I drive myself crazy?' I'm not sure. I'm into Limp Biskit and Matchbox 20 and things like that. More substance if you ask me. No offense. But I like your songs. You've got skill for on thing"
Justin blushed. He knew this was a real complement and not just some fan sucking up. She seemed so...so confident and open with her thoughts. Not opinionated or cocky though. He smiled. "I like you, you're cool." She smirked "You're not so bad your self"

That had been the start of something special. The next day he had seen her again and they had talked some more, but he had to go somewhere, so he gave her his cell phone number, and he had helped her situate her apartment. That was the first time they had ever kissed. Justin looked up at the ceiling of his bunk again and smiled a little as he recalled her lips on his.

"Where do you want this Arry?" Justin asked holding up a porcelain vase he had just pulled out of a box. "Put it on the cocktail table"She yelled from acroos the room. Justin set the vase carefully on to her glss coctail table in the middle of the living room and proceeded to the book case where she was attpempting to get something heavy out of a box. "what d'ya need mah dahlin'?" he said in his best southern drawl. she straghtened up. "I need to get this heavy-ass stereo out of the box."

"Let me help you" Justin said bending down to get a good grip on the stereo. Arry took a big step back as Justin attempted to get it out the box. But no matter how much he grunted and shoved, he couldn't get it out. He looked up sweaty and breathless at Arry who was leaning against a wall watching him. "a little help here?" he asked her.

"Why? you looked like you were coming along pretty well" She said walking over and bending down over the box. "On the count of three ok?" Justin asked as he grabbed the bottom of the stereo.

"Right." Arry said "One...Two...Three!" She heaved the stereo up but half way her head smacked HARD against Justin's. "Dammit!"She yelled. Justin caught off gaurd and he dropped his side of the stereo...on her fingers.

"Dammit,dammit dammit!" She said snatching her fingers from underneath the box. Justin walked over to her. "what's wrong Arry?" She looked at him. "What's wrong? Your head is hard as a friggin' brick and you droped a 50lb piece of a electronic equipment on my hand!" she said lifting up her swollen fingers.

"Shhhhhh. Be quiet my child. Hush." He said taking her smaller hand in his. "what are you doing?" She asked puzzled. Justin ignored her and brought her fingers up to his lips and kissed them. "all better" He said quietly dropping her hand. She stared at him. He was sending her mixed signals. She thought that they were just friends. After all, they had only known each other for 4 days.
He looked at her. She looked even more beatiful with the vulnerable expression she was wearing right now. "Justin..." she started. He leaned in and placed his lips over hers. his kiss was soft and gentle, but demanding. she tilted her head back some to give him more control. He used his tongue to part her lips open slightly, teasing her. She surprised him by taking control at that point. She ran her toung in his mouth kissing him yearningly, but relaxed when she felt herself getting hype. She let him take over again. He ran his fingers through the side of her hair as her hands moved to the small of his back. He lifted his head and lessened the pressure, moving his hands down the length of her hair to rest on her back and broke away from the kiss, resting his head on her shoulder.

"You are special Ariella Jacobs...To special to let go." He said pulling away from her to look her in the eye."But I'm leaving tomorrow." He saw a glint of determination in her eyes. "we can make this work. We will make this work."

Justin was pulled from his thoughts as the bus pulled up to the hotel with a jerky stop. He sat up and climbed out of his bunk. He dreaded what was going to happen, but he had to do it.He wasn't about to show his weakness to the very person who caused it. He was out to make her pay.

Chapter 4

Chapter Directory