“Sophie!”

“Blondie!”

“Oh my God, it’s Sophie! Can I have your autograph? Pleeease!?”

I laughed as I entered the studio on Justin’s arm. I smiled at all four of the guys, as they came up one by one to hug me.

“So, Blondie what’s up?” Joey asked.

“Nothing much...I have a boyfriend. I’ve had him for 2 years.... unlike someone here,” I started, and stuck out my tongue at him.

“Hey! I took offense, I mean, I try!” he joked. We laughed. I always had loved Joey’s sweet sense of humor.

“Okay, guys, let’s get to work. Hi Sophie, it’s good to see you. How are you?” Their ultra-sweet manager Johnny asked me.

“I’m fine. This is the little rascal you need to keep an eye on.” I said pointing me out to Justin, “He is wearing me out!” I said.

“Whoooo! Gooo Sophie!” JC exclaimed.

“Not in that way! We played softball like everyday!” I exclaimed. “Jerk.” I sullenly said, and then cracked up. All the guys along with me, except for Justin.

“Come on guys, let’s do this.” He complained.

“Why? So you can spend more time with your girlfriend?” JC teased.

“Exactly, airhead!” he joked. I sighed, relieved. So Justin wasn’t mad about our earlier...disagreement.

            I never liked fighting with Justin—and we never did. Except for a few places when Justin was kind of “seeing” a fan while he was “dating” me. I remember, that when me and Justin got together, and only the group and Johnny and some of the crew knew about us, and we were inseperable, where they called us JustinandSophie or SophieandJustin and not different words. I remember everyone said we were “the perfect couple”. I had sworn to myself that I would  never cheat on Justin, lie to him, or fight with him. Well, he pretty much broke all of those with the “Sweet Kandi” episode. And I mean, Kandi. What kinda name is that?

            Even now, whenever I see anyone that even, vaguely looks like Kandi I get the chills. I’ve only met the girl personally once. I could tell why Justin liked her, but I had everything she did. And in the end, Justin realized that. It wasn’t like he would ever meet Kandi again. Maybe we would’ve made good friends. Who knows? The time I met her—which was brief— she was pretty sweet. But then again, when I met her, she didn’t know I was Justin’s actual girlfriend. Too bad we started on bad terms.....

            “Soph?” Justin shook my head lightly.

“Huh?” I murmered dreamily.

“Hey, Sweetie. Get up, time for a lunch break!” He exclaimed. I yawned.

“Oh, okay. Lemme get...uh, fixed up in the ‘room.” I said. He nodded and rested his head on the pillow at the back of the couch. He yawned. I laughed and headed into the girls’ room.

I headed over to the sink and took out my eyeliner, brush, lip gloss and other small “girl” stuff. I started to apply my lip gloss when a voice behind me smirked.

“Getting dressy-dressy for lover-boy?” She asked. I mentally groaned. Not this girl again. She had to be worse than Kandi—by a lot.

“Get over it, Britney,” I said sweetly. “We all know why Justin chose me over you. You have nothing that I don’t have. Plus, I’ve got way more than you.” I stated. Well, at least I tried! I coaxed myself.

“Yeah. Right. Then, why aren’t you up there in Jive? Recording a hit album? At 15? Whoops, you’re already 4 years too old to when I’ve already started,” She stated evilly. “Right. You’re a virgin, huh? Well, I know I don’t go personal, but for you, I’ll make an exception. I’m not. And neither is Justy...” She said.

“You ass!” I shouted, and lunged at her. She lunged right back. I picked up my eyeliner and quickly un-capped it and shoved it in her nose.

“Ugh—“ She yelled. Out voices were muffled, because we were head-locking each other.

“You little son of a gun!” I shouted. “Whoops, I mean daughter. Thought you were a boy, my bad,” I said sarcastically. I yanked her hair and got some blond hair on my palm. She jerked her hand into my stomach. I winced, and hit her square in the eye. She was ready to lung, but someone came in, so we quickly stopped. I retrieved all my stuff and pulled on my tank top to take out the wrinkles.

            “Oh. My. God.” Justin gaped at me. “What the hell happened in that bathroom?” He quiered.

“Nothing.” I insisted.

“Don’t lie Sophie Lynn Jones!” He scolded.

“Okay, so I had a litle fight. I’m fine, really.” I said.

“No way, two black eyes, some cuts on your forehead, babe, you are not okay. Let’s go,” he said, picking me up so I was cradled against him like a baby. He took me to the studio where JC, Lance, Chris, Joey, and Johnny sat at a table.

“Hey, J, we’ve been looking for—” Joey started. As soon as Justin put me down, Joey ran over to me. “What happened!?” He shouted.

“Shh. Joey! I’m fine. Just a little fight.” I stated simply.

“Who?” He said, half knowing the answer.

“Look next door, punk.” Everyone turned to see the clear window that seperated them from Britney’s recording studio where she was wincing and muttering something.

“Ooh. Well, she’s only got one black eye. She gotcha huh?” Chris asked.

“Yeah, I guess. But she’s got blood down her arms. I don’t. “ I pointed out.

Lance asked me, “What did she do?” Go figure Lance would ask that.

“Truthfully, I was mad about the mall thing, and,” Justin groaned, “and, I sorta uh, attacked her after she made this incredibly rude comment on Justin and his...bed-life, if you must know. There were some words, blah blah blah—” I finished. Everyone gasped. I laughed.

“Relax,” Then I winced.

“Here, let’s go to the nurse, okay?” Justin said softly. I nodded and smiled.

“What...did Britney say exactly about my um, bed-life...?” Justin asked uncomfortably. I looked at him out of the corner of my deep purple eye. His eyes looked a bit…guilty. When Britney and Justin had been going out and I was just a fan, I always thought they were madly in love—which they were at the time—and I knew that they had…. but when I started to date Justin I never really thought about it before.

“Oh, you know. Stuff. About her virginity… and yours.” I said calmly.

He turned a shade of reddish-pinkish.

“Oh. Okay…um…how’s Darcy?” He asked me uncomfortably, referring to my 14-year-old “little sister, buddy” at the school that I helped out at.

“She’s fine. Why the sudden interest?” I asked.

“Nothing…” he said.

“Here we are. Justin, you can go back now.” I assured him.

“Are you sure?” He asked. I nodded. “Okay…see you,” he leaned in for a kiss; then stopped and turned around and walked down the corridor.