Justin’s phone was ringing, waking him up out of a peaceful sleep. He reached over and grabbed it, mumbling a groggy hello.
“Did I wake you? Get the hell up,” Tony chuckled into the phone. Justin glanced at the clock 10:30. That meant it was 7:30 in LA. What the hell was Tony doing up already.
“Why the hell are you already awake. And more importantly, why are you calling me so early?”
“I have to be in the studio in an hour, and I’m calling you because I came up with a great plan overnight. And, you know, being my best friend and all, I just had to share it with you.” Ok, so he was playing the best friend card. Two could play at this game.
“If you were really my best friend, you would have waited until later in the damn day to call me. Now, since I’m already awake and curious what’s got you using your phone at 7:30, what’s this great plan?”
“You should come to LA for our twenty-first birthdays. We could have a big joint party. We’ll do it on your birthday since if falls on a Saturday and if we did it on mine, you wouldn’t quite be able to get in yet. Or, at least not be able to get trashed. And you’d have the following week to spend here before your classes start again.”
“You want me to come out to LA to spend my twenty-first birthday at some bar or club you’re planning on renting where the only person I know is you?”
“Well, yeah,” Tony replied as if it was the easiest thing in the world to understand. “Come on, J. It’ll be a blast. Besides, we haven’t seen each other in over a year. And I have a show that following week so you could come to that.” Justin sighed. Tony was right. It had been a long time since they’d seen each other. In the two and a half years since Tony had moved out to LA, they’d seen each other exactly twice. That first summer, Justin had gone out there for a week and then the following Christmas Tony had come home for the holidays. They hadn’t seen each other since and another Christmas had just passed.
Tony had made quite the name for himself out in LA. He already had an album out independently and was currently working on his second album. And he had quite a good sized following throughout LA and the surrounding areas. He played a few shows a month at clubs around the area and was happy with what he was doing. Justin had yet to see him play live.
“Ok, I’ll come. But you better not leave me to fend for myself all night,” he warned. Tony laughed.
“Please. I know you, Timberlake. You seem to keep forgetting that fact. You’ve never been afraid to just jump into a group of people you don’t know and introduce yourself. Even if I never showed up, you’d have a blast. Besides, you can finally meet JC.” Tony said. Justin could hear the grin in his voice and rolled his eyes into the phone.
JC was a friend of Tony’s. He had met him early on and JC had helped Tony produce his first album. The way Tony told it, he had no idea why JC even agreed to help him out. Apparently JC was this big shot songwriter and producer that worked with some of the top names in the industry. Tony was clueless why he had taken his time to help Tony when Tony was practically a nobody. He also threw in, simply for Justin’s benefit, the fact that he had an amazing voice and girls practically threw themselves at him. But, he had told Justin, JC was gay. It had become Tony’s mission in life to set them up, it seemed.
“Tony, how many times have I told you to stop trying to set me up with this guy? First of all, I’m doing just fine on my own in that department. And second, and probably most important, he lives in LA. I live all the way on the opposite side of the country. Long distance relationships are one thing when you’re together and one person moves away. It’s completely another when I’ve never even met this guy to begin with.”
“Justin, you two would be perfect together. Seriously. Just wait and see. You’ll meet him and then I’ll simply say I told you so.” Justin rolled his eyes again.
“Whatever. Listen, I’ll get everything worked out and call you later with the details.” They said their goodbyes and hung up. Justin rolled over and buried his head under his pillow. As great of a friend as Tony was, when he got an idea stuck in his head, it was there for good. Or until he realized it wasn’t such a good idea. If this kept up, Justin knew it was going to be a very long week.
*****
Tony walked into the studio to see JC already sitting at the soundboard, messing with the playback on one of the songs they had worked on yesterday.
“Hey. How long you been here?” Tony asked, glancing at his watch quickly. He was right on time, but it seemed JC had already been here for a while.
“I got here at about 7:30. I was up and ready so I just decided to come down. By the way, I think I got that song we were having problems with yesterday worked out.” Tony smiled slightly. For as passionate as he was about music, JC was ten times more passionate. He lived, ate, slept, and breathed music. And he was so good at what he did. He could take any song, make the simplest of changes, find something so small that no one else would catch it, and change it up to make a good song extraordinary. Tony still wasn’t sure why JC had taken him under his wing in the first place, but he was extremely greatful for it and for everything JC had taught him in the past two years.
JC pressed a few buttons on the soundboard in front of him and the song he had been talking about filled the room. Tony listened intently and immediately picked out the difference between yesterday and today, after JC had tweaked it. It sounded much better. Tony hadn’t heard anything missing yesterday, but JC had and had been intent on fixing it. Now, Tony could definitely hear the difference.
“Sounds great,” Tony said, once it was over. JC just smiled slightly. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“It’s just something in me. I can’t explain it. It’s just there.”
“Well I’m really glad that it is. And for the fact that you’ve been so helpful to me. I’d be nowhere near as far as I am without you. Although I’m still not sure why you did it.”
“You have serious potential. I saw it the first time I heard you perform. You have that special something that makes great musicians. And I liked your attitude about the music. It made my decision to help you an easy one to make.” JC said, shrugging. Tony just smiled and thanked him.
“Oh, listen, before I forget, I’m throwing myself a birthday party. It’s gonna be January 31st. I’m not exactly sure where yet, but I’ll let you know. You’re invited of course. You only turn twenty-one once so I figured why not make it a blowout. And Justin’s coming in. It’s for his birthday too.” He raised his eyebrows slightly in suggestion. JC groaned.
“You’re not still stuck on that are you? I mean, seriously dude, we don’t even live in the same state, let alone city.”
“You know, that’s just what he told me this morning. So I’ll tell you the same thing I told him. You two would be perfect for each other.” JC shook his head, dismissing the thought, before he turned back to the soundboard. Tony just grinned to himself. He knew the two of them would be great together. And they would completely complement each other on every aspect of their lives. What he needed was a plan.