*¤*

After about an hour of talking to Belle after the date, Casey decided she should get home. Belle offered Casey to stay, but Casey declined. Casey drove home, and stepped inside. She dropped her keys on the small table by the door, and hung her purse up on the small hooks that hung on the wall. She kicked her shoes off and set the close together in a straight like with two other pairs of shoes. She walked further into the house, and flicked the kitchen light on. She looked at the answering machine to see the light was blinking. She never usually checked the messages, but tonight it was different. It was sort of calling to her. Before she checked the machine, she went through the call log for the caller ID. She saw that his mother called, he called, and JC called. She had to get those messages. She hit the play button and listened.

She heard a message from his mom, and then waited for the second one. There were actually only two messages. That meant only one thing. JC left a message. “Hey, J. It’s Jace, uh I was just calling because I just wanted to see if you actually went with Britney. I guess you did. Man, Justin, that’s stupid. That’ll really mess you up later. Even though you were up all night we’re still meeting at nine tomorrow. You got lucky with coming in at ten this morning. Bye.”

Casey sighed in relief. He hadn’t said anything about their date. That was what she was paranoid about. She ran up the stairs and changed her clothes. She got dressed in a pair of gray sweat pants and a white tank top with a black sports bra on under. She couldn’t keep a smile off of her face. It was permanently there. Until about midnight, she just walked aimlessly around the large, modern looking house. She remembered that Justin wasn’t coming home, and she didn’t need to wait up for him. She went to their bedroom and fell asleep. Justin did come home around four in the morning, just like he had said. Casey didn’t even hear him. She was out. Completely. He climbed into bed next to her and turned the opposite way. He didn’t even touch her.

That morning, Casey got in the shower before Justin did, and then quickly got dressed in a pair of jeans, and a red tank top that crossed in the back. She stood in front of the full length mirror and looked at herself. Justin woke up to see her smoothing down the sides of her shirt. She was making sure it didn’t make her look ‘fat’. “Morning.” He said huskily.

“Hi.” She said in a chipper sort of way.

She left the bedroom, and headed downstairs. She pulled some bread out of the pantry, and stuck it in the toaster. She got herself a glass of orange juice, and turned the TV on. Her toast popped up, and she spread peanut butter on it. She sat down at the table, ate her toast, and watched a little bit of news. She heard the water run, and she decided that she could probably leave. She put her shoes on, and put her glass in the dishwasher. She grabbed a post-it note, and scribbled a message on to it. She grabbed her keys and purse, and was out the door.

Justin~

***

That day, at the coffee shop, Casey gave JC his coffee, continued to tell everyone about the date the night before, and managed to find the sheet of paper that held that very important piece of information. Casey’s mother called, along with Justin, who just told her that he saw her note, and that he’d be home around nine. Casey told Belle that she’d most likely be staying at her house that night. Belle was so glad that Casey was finally leaving her ex-boyfriend’s house, and gave Casey a big hug. The rest of the day dragged on very slowly, and she couldn’t wait to do what she had been wanting to do for a while.

When nine o’clock came around, Justin came home fifteen minutes late. She didn’t hold it to him, because he did, after all, say around nine. “Sorry.” Justin muttered as he walked in the door.

“Its ok.” She called from the kitchen. “I’m in here. Come here.” Justin walked slowly into the kitchen and plunked down onto the chair. “Bad day?”

“yeah, just a bit.” He said, putting his head on his hands on the table. “It was really long.”

“Yeah, well this could make the day even worse.” He obviously hadn’t really looked around the house. A lot of the pictures were missing; true, most of them that were in the living room were of her family, but they were still missing, all the same. He’d really notice something was gone when he would go upstairs. All of her make up would be gone, her hair dryer, her clothes, more pictures, her shampoo, her conditioner, everything. Everything that had belonged to her would be gone. Luckily she had moved all of her boxes out to her car. She moved to the table, and didn’t look directly into his eyes. “Justin, its been… a little strange between us. I’m not saying that all of it was bad, but some parts were really scary. I’ve finally realized that I don’t have to deal with it, and I think that I need to be away from it. I can’t keep putting up with lies.”

“So you’re trying to break up with me?” He asked, averting his eyes from the ‘goddess-like’ creature before him.

“Yeah.” She said softly.

“But I thought we were ok….”

“J, nothing ever made us ok. You’re a pop star, yeah. I could handle that. What made us ok would’ve been when we first started dating. Then you seemed to get more comfortable and started to hurt me. That took everything that made us ok away, and it would never come back. We passed ok a long time ago.”

“Casey, I love you.”

“And Justin, I love you too. Just not as much as I did. I sort of fell out of love with you.” She said. “I know it sounds really cliché, but its true. So, I’m sorry.”

“Well, you’re right. You made my day worse.”

“I’m sorry.” She said. They didn’t say anything for a while, she just looked at him looking at his shoes under the table. “Justin?”

“Hmmm?”

“I’m gonna go. I packed up all my stuff this afternoon.”

“Mmmhmmm.”

“Bye.”

Justin didn’t say anything. He didn’t even grumble or anything. She kissed the top of his head, and picked up her purse and keys. She left the house, but couldn’t get rid of the wonderful feeling inside of her. She couldn’t stop smiling. She drove to Belle’s house, and walked right in when she got there.

Casey couldn’t hold it in any longer. She decided she had to tell Belle everything.

“Belle” Casey said when they were sitting on the couch. “I have to tell you something, and you’re going to be angry at first, but I promise, I am sorry.” Belle’s smile faded, but nodded for her to continue. “Ok, so I just now broke up with him.”

“What?”

“I know. I lied to you. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell you, and I’m not even supposed to be telling you this now, but I have to because you’re my best friend. If you swear to God that you will never tell Anyone what I’m about to tell you, I’ll tell you everything.”

“I swear.” She said. “I may be mad at you, but I will never tell.”

“Ok, well I was nervous about you dating JC because I was dating his best friend.”

“You….” she choked out. “You were dating one of the guys in *NSYNC, and you Never told me?!”

“Yes…. Yes I was, but you have to understand that Justin was dating Britney, and there was no way that they could break it off. It was just for a publicity stunt, but everyone close to them really thinks that they are dating. In real life, though, he was dating me, and he always assured me that I was his girlfriend, and Britney was just a distraction, but then it got bad. What I told you about the situations between us is true. All of them were true, but what Justin and I had was a little bit out of the ordinary.”

“Oh my god.”

“I know. I know it’s a lot to take in, but you have to believe me. I couldn’t’ tell anyone I was dating him, because if it got out, then I would be stalked by magazines, and little fans trying to kill me! And the management didn’t want to see Justin and Britney “break up”.”

“So does JC know that you were dating Justin?”

“No. No one knows about me. Basically, the only thing that could ruin everything is JC. If I do start dating him, and he does want me to be a secret, which I’m actually hoping won’t happen because I don’t want to be a secret again. Because if I do start dating him for real, and he introduces me to the rest of them, I could be in a lot of trouble. It could screw me over.”

“Wow.”

“I know.” Casey sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Its ok… that’s just a big shock. Wow.”

*¤*

Over the next few days, JC didn’t really come to the coffee shop. He came in for coffee one out of the three days that had passed. Even when he did stop by, he just got his coffee, and left. He didn’t make conversation with Casey, or Belle for that matter. Casey felt more at ease knowing that Belle understood what was going on in her life and that she had forgiven her for lying. Casey felt so much better know that she could talk to Belle about anything, and not having to hide anything.

The next day, JC came into the coffee shop and ordered his coffee. “Hey Case?” He asked with her back to him. She was getting his coffee.

“Yeah?”

“Uh, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Yeah, sure.” She handed him his coffee, and walked out from behind the counter. “What’s up?” She asked.

“Casey, I like you.” He said simply. “And I want you to know that I’ll never treat you the way your boyfriend does.” She was about to protest, but he put his hand up to silence her. “I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and I’ve thought of everything. I know that it will be hard because of all of the press, and people, but I still wanna try.”

“Yeah, I knew this would happen.” She sat down at the table, and sighed. “Um… I did finally break up with him, just in case you were wondering, but I don’t know if I should….”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not sure if it’s a good idea.”

“Are you afraid of all of the publicity?”

“No. I just don’t know.” They were quiet for a minute, then Casey stood up.

“So that’s all I get? An I don’t know?”

“For now, yeah.” She said. “I’m sorry.”

“Ok.” He said, and stood up too. “I’ll see you later. Oh, can I, uh, have one of your phone numbers or something?”

“Oh yeah!” She said, and scampered off to the counter. She grabbed a napkin, and a pen and scribbled her phone number down. “Sorry.” She said with a smile.

“I’ll call you I guess.”

“Ok.”

JC walked out of the Bean. Casey stood there staring at the door for another few seconds before going to the back room to talk to Belle. “Hey Belle?” Casey asked. “JC was just here. He wants to know if we’re dating and if he can tell people.”

“What did you say?” She asked distractedly.

“I told him I didn’t know.” She said. “I really like him and stuff, but I don’t want to be the girl who is known as the whore who banged all five.”

“Oh that’s a good one.” Belle laughed. She had stopped what she was doing.

“I’m serious, Belle.”

“I know, and you wouldn’t be know as the whore who banged all five….” she started laughing. “Because you dated Justin, and now JC. That’s only two.”

“Thanks.” She said sarcastically. “But honestly, what should I do? I wanna date him…. I just don’t want stuff about me flying around.”

“You have to choose. No one can do it for you….” Casey sighed. “But, if you’re asking what I would do, I would go for JC and screw all of the things about me.”

“Thank you.” Casey smiled. “That’s all I wanted.”

“Oh, well that’s all you had to say.”

“Do you know his cell phone number?”

“Right off the top of my head? Yes.”

Casey smiled and dialed the number after Belle had told her. She waited for him to pick up the phone so she could hear his charming voice. “Hello?”

“Hi this is Casey.”

“Oh, Hi!”

“Yeah, as soon as you left I went to talk to Belle and I came up with an answer.”

“Great,” he said.

“Um…. I am willing to give us a try, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll be very good at it, and be calm around your friends.”

“That’s ok.”

*¤*

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