“He’s impossible!” Britney screamed as she slammed her cell phone on the kitchen table of her Kentwood, Louisiana home. Both her mother and her sister looked up at the kitchen door. Britney’s mother, Lynne, stood up from the couch with Jamie-Lynn on her heels.

“Oh, no, Honey.” Lynn said softly to her youngest daughter, “I think I should go talk to her first.”

Lynn walked slowly to the door, knocked softly before pushing the swinging door open. “Honey?”

“What?” Britney spat and glared at her mother.

“What’s wrong? You yelled.”

“It’s nothing.” She shook her head and gave a wave with her hand. “It’s just Justin’s being a jerk.”

“Britty, he’s still on tour, he’s under a lot of stress. You know that feeling.” Lynn reasoned, sitting down at the kitchen table with her daughter. “I’m sure he didn’t mean anything he said.”

“What is it with all of you?” Britney stood up as her bad attitude erupted again. “Why does everyone side with him? You don’t even know what he said to me!” Britney grabbed her phone from the table and stomped out of the kitchen and upstairs to her bedroom.

Britney slammed her door, expecting that now that she had probably just offended her mother, her family would leave her house and just leave her alone for just two seconds. She climbed up on her bed and leaned against the headboard that was behind many, many fluffy pillows. Britney sighed deeply and stared at the cell phone sitting on the bed in front of her, probably about a foot and a half away.

She grabbed the phone and dialed Justin’s ever-so familiar phone number from memory. She could’ve used the speed dial, but it just didn’t happen that way. She waited impatiently, glaring at the wall on the opposite side of the room and wiggling her toes in the air as the phone rang in her ear, taunting her.

“Yeah.” Justin’s voice announced. He probably didn’t even look at the caller ID when he answered because they were most likely doing something important.

Britney didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to sound angry or mean right away, even though she was upset.

“Hello?” Justin asked then took the phone away from his hear and looked at it. “Hello?”

“Justin-” Britney said.

“Oh God.” He sighed and shook his head. “I thought after you hung up on me we were done talking for today.”

“I was angry.” Britney said quietly. “I’d like to discuss this calmly and rationally.”

“Really?” Justin asked, “Calmly and rationally?”

“Are you going to mock me every time I try to say something?” Britney retorted, her southern accent really audible. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but lately you’ve just been a pain in my ass and it needs to stop.”

“You’re the one that changed, you messed up.” He shrugged.

“What the hell, Justin?” Britney asked, sliding off of the bed and starting to pace around her room. “You’re the one accusing me of cheating and messing up whatever relationship we had left. I don’t think you understand” Britney said slowly, pronouncing every syllable for emphasis, “that I’ve been telling the truth. It doesn’t make sense that you’re pointing fingers at me for cheating when I’m telling you that I would never do that, ever.”

“That’s funny, ‘cause, um, you did.” He replied angrily, sarcasm very evident.

She sighed heavily, “I don’t know what gave you that idea, but Justin, I love you. I would never, ever do that to you, to us. I-”

“You don’t know where I got that idea?” Justin asked, half serious. “That’s bullshit.”

“What’s bullshit?” Britney asked, leaning against the side of her bed. “How is that bullshit?”

“Don’t lie to me, Britney.” Justin told her, angry and annoyed.

“Justin” Britney said exasperatedly. “I’m not lying.” Britney didn’t know any other way of telling him. She no longer knew what to do. The only person she had ever loved didn’t believe a word she said and also thought she cheated on him. “Why would I lie to you? I love you.” She had never loved anyone as much as she loved Justin. She hadn’t loved anyone like she loved him.

“I don’t know.” Justin said seriously, shaking his head. He looked over at JC who had twirled his index finger in a circular motion to convey the idea that he needed to wrap the conversation up.

“What gave you the idea that I would cheat on you?” Britney asked desperately. “Why would I do that? If you think I would ever do that, we need to have a long, long talk.”

“Wade told me.” Justin said finally.

Britney’s jaw dropped. No way, she thought. He couldn’t have said anything. He swore. He promised her. It had been an accident. It meant nothing. It wasn’t even supposed to happen. “What did he say?” she asked cautiously.

Justin sighed. “I can’t talk right now.” That was the truth. The guys were getting anxious and annoyed with their delay in sound check as well as the fact that Justin really didn’t want to talk about one of his best friends and his girlfriend together. Well, not right there anyway. He knew that they’d have to talk about it eventually, but he was hoping that when they did talk about it he’d be alone.

“Justin.”

“Seriously.” he told her. “We’re in the middle of sound check.”

“We have to talk about this.”

“I know.” He nodded and held up one finger to his friends, indicating it would be just a second longer. “I’ll call you later.”

“Promise?” Britney asked quietly.

“Yeah.”

“I love you.” she tried.

“Bye.” and he hung up.

Britney was stumped. Wade promised her. Promise. That was a word that meant very little to a lot of people these days it seemed like. Just like Wade’s promise that he wouldn’t say anything about what happened between the two of them. Just like the promise ring Justin had given her. Just like her mother promised her she would leave her alone for just three days. Obviously, promises meant nothing anymore. Britney needed to stop trusting people.

It wasn’t like Justin hadn’t cheated on her before. She was sure he’d done it. Why was he making such a big deal out of one little fling. A fling that meant nothing. Wasn’t that what a fling was? A brief sexual or romantic relationship. What happened between her and Wade was brief, and although it was sexual, it meant nothing.

Justin had no right to be so rude and make her feel even worse than she already did. The whole situation already made her feel horrible, she didn’t need other people throwing it back in her face. She made one mistake, so what? Other people make mistakes every day. It was unfair that every time she made a mistake it was all over the press.

Things between Justin and Britney had been going down hill for a while now. Their love wasn’t new and exciting anymore. Romance was just another thing to do. It wasn’t like when they first started dating. Things now were just boring. Like when he came to visit or vice versa, they both were excited for probably the first two hours, but then it got boring. And when they slept in the same bed, Justin would usually just roll over so his back was to her instead of what they used to do, cuddle.

After a while, Britney’s phone rang again. She checked the caller ID just to make sure it was someone she actually wanted to talk to. Britney had gotten used to screening her calls. It was Justin. His familiar cell phone number that Britney knew probably better than anyone else’s phone number in the world. She felt excited at first; the butterflies that she felt when they first started dating and he’d call, the smile on her face, and the quickening pace of her heart rate. But that all went away as quickly as it came. She remembered the reason he was calling again, and it wasn’t because he wanted to talk to her after a long sound check or just because he loved her. He was calling about the fling with Wade. He was calling to hear her explanation.

“Hello?” Britney asked in her regular voice whenever she picked up the phone.

“Hey.” Justin just sounded depressed. She hated when he sounded like that. She’d usually try to make him feel better and lift his spirits, but somehow this phone call seemed different.

Britney’s heart broke in two. “J.” she said sadly. “I don’t know what to do.” she shook her head. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Why would you do this to me?” he asked. “And then lie about it?”

“It was nothing.” Britney said simply. “Justin, seriously. Nothing.”

“That’s not how Wade made it seem.”

“Wade’s a jerk.”

“What happened.”

Britney was quiet. She took a deep breath before starting. It didn’t matter how insignificant it was, it would all be bad to Justin. “We kissed.” she waited to hear if Justin would say anything. He didn’t. “I was rehearsing. It was really hot… and everyone else had left. It was late, I was tired, and we were dancing.”

Justin still said nothing.

“He got the music going again and he got really close. I was feeling the music and he was dancing with me, guiding me. And then… he… then he” she stopped. She couldn’t tell him. It was too hard, too painful.

“Britney?” Justin asked. He could hear soft little whimpers on the other end.

“It’s too hard, Justin.” Britney cried. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. Don’t you think this eats me up inside? Don’t you think I feel awful for even being there that night? If I would have just gone home instead of staying late that night to make sure I had the steps exactly right, it wouldn’t have happened. There wouldn’t be this… we wouldn’t even have to worry about this.”

“I’m sure you feel terrible” Justin said, trying to calm her down.

“It’s all my fault.”

Yes, it was all her fault. Justin hadn’t been the one making out with Wade in a hot dance studio, but he didn’t say that.

“What happened between you two?” Justin asked again. “I think I deserve to know. I mean, my girlfriend cheated on me. You. What happened.”

“Justin.” She pleaded, letting out a whimper. “Please.”

“Tell me.”

“Please.”

“What is it? What don’t you want me to know?”

“It’s just- Justin, come on.” Justin didn’t say anything. Fine, she thought. “We we dancing, and then he… he kinda kissed my neck. I told him to stop. He had asked me to sleep with him before, but I had always told him no. He’d tried to kiss me before too, but I never let him. And that time I was just really feeling the music and I could feel him behind me…. Then he kissed me again.”

“He’s asked you to sleep with him?” Justin asked, utterly shocked.

“Yeah.” Britney let out a sob as she nodded. “He just kept kissing me. So I turned around, but still let him kiss me, and by now we’d stopped dancing. His hands were roaming. But I didn’t stop him.” Britney let out another sob. “I’m so sorry.”

“How could you do this to me?” Justin asked.

“I didn’t mean to.” she sobbed. “It happened so fast.”

“I would never do this to you.” he told her defiantly. “You know that. I thought our love meant something to you. Now I see that I mean nothing.”

Britney stopped crying. “You’re lying.”

“What?”

“You have done that to me. You’ve just never told me. I found out.”

“What?” Justin was in complete and utter disbelief. How on earth could she know? He was so secretive about it, and the guys had sworn, they had promised, not to say anything.

“Oh, quit.” Britney spat. He tried to make her feel bad, tried to make her feel worse than she already did. The whole time, though, he had been hiding his little secret; he had cheated on her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Justin tried

“Don’t lie, darling.” she replied sarcastically, playing the same game Justin was. “I know your little secret. JC told me.”

Jerk. Justin thought. “It was an accident.”

“The first time?” Britney asked. “Or every other time afterwards?”

“Brit, come on.” Justin said quietly.

“You sat there and made me feel guilty for a few kisses. Kisses I didn’t even want! Well, guess what. We’re over. I should’ve done this a long time ago.”

“Come on, Brit. Don’t do this.”

“We had a relationship built on honesty and trust and since I don’t trust you because you went behind my back more than a few times. Tell me, how honest is that?”

“Brit, I love you. I was just… I needed to make sure you were it.”

“Guess what, J.” Britney paused. “I’m not it. You lost me, you just lost me. We’re over.”

“Oh, God.” Justin sighed. Why was she doing this to him?

“So, the next time you see me, take a good look because there’s no more us. Eat your heart out, baby.” Britney smiled because she had finally found her inner strength. Something inside of her had made her see that she didn’t need Justin to be happy, and she definitely didn’t deserve to date someone who had cheated on her repeatedly. She was a brand new woman.

“Brit, we can talk about it. Let me ex-”

“Bye, J.” and she hung up.