~2 weeks later~
No one had heard from Justine at all, causing everyone to worry beyond belief. Justin was starting to look like crap, and wouldn�t eat or sleep. The guys and Brittany had tried everything to get him to be himself. Kristin finally suggested that they go to a movie.
"Are you guys ready yet? I thought they say girls take forever to get ready!" Kristin complained from her spot on the couch.
"Yeah, babe, we will be ready in one moment." Lance smiled warmly at his best friend.
"Thanks, Hun."
"Justin, Brittany, are you guys coming?" JC yelled up the stairway in his fatherly tone.
"I�ll go get them for you, Jace." Chris yelled jumping off of the counter that he was sitting on in the kitchen. "Chris, we said we wanted to get going! If you went up there, they'd take even longer!" Joey sat down next to Kristin, and slid his arm around her shoulders.
"Would not!" Chris, starting to pout like a two year old, crossed his arms over his chest.
"Lance, why don�t you go up there or something?" Kristin looked to Lance, who gave the "I don�t want to look."
"Please, Lance?" Kristin looked sadly up at him. "I really want to see this movie, and it only plays at this time."
"Fine, I�ll go." He threw his hands up in the air in frustration and slowly made his way to the stairs.
"Lance, hurry! I want to go now!" Kristin�s voice erupted causing him to run up the stairs at a much faster rate than before.
"Are you guys ready?" He looked in Brittany�s room, not finding her. "Hello? Justin? Brittany? Come on you guys, Kristin wants to leave and you guys are the only ones not ready." He continued to talk to himself as he made his way to Justin�s room, whose was right next to Brittany�s in the house. "Are you guys in here?" He slowly poked in his head through the door that was standing slightly open and pushed it the rest of the way, seeing the bathroom light on. "Are you guys ready? I have been looking for both of you." He walked in, finding Justin sitting on the sink with his feet dangling, and Brittany sitting in the bathtub. "What the hell are you two doing, and Brittany, why the hell are you in the bathtub?" Lance looked over at her noticing she was sleeping. "Justin, why is she sleeping in there?"
"Well, she was watching me get ready when I was like, finishing my hair and shaving and everything. I guess she got really bored because when I was done, she was sleeping. Then I was just sitting here, thinking." Justin rubbed his eyes, hiding the tears that he'd been shedding.
"Ok, well are you guys ready? I guess we should wake her up." Lance motioned toward the sleeping form. Justin was surprised that Lance hadn�t said anything about Justin's upset image. "I�ll be downstairs, can you get her?" Lance decided to give him a couple more minutes to collect himself before he had to face the rest of the guys.
"Yeah, go on. We�ll be down in a second." Justin smiled to his friend. After a few seconds, Lance turned and disappeared through the way he came. "Brittany, come on, wake up." Justin slowly nudged her.
"Five more minutes, mom." Brittany mumbled in a sleepy voice, turning away from Justin. He felt bad waking her she hadn�t gotten much sleep lately. Between the two of them, they were lucky if they got at least six hours of sleep.
"Brittany, we're going out for Kristin's birthday. If we don�t get downstairs, she's going to have our asses!"
"But I don�t want to go, I�m tired." Justin smiled at her. She was cute when she was tired and weak. It was nice to see that she wasn�t always as strong as she made herself out to be. Justin slowly bent down and picked her up from the bathtub, slowly making his way down the stairs.
"Justin, I don�t want to go." Came a quiet murmur from Brittany.
"Me either, I just wish things were different right now. But lets go and have some fun. I�m sure with Chris and Joey there, and Justine�I mean Kristin�it will be a lot of fun." He cursed himself for bringing her name into the conversation.
"J, I miss her. Britney isn�t coming today is she?"
"Um�yeah I think she said she was going to come."
"Who the hell told her she could come?" Brittany, immediately wide-awake, looked up at Justin. Justin�s look told her all as she quickly jumped down and ran the rest of the way.
"Kristin, why the hell did you invite the�oh! Britney... what a pleasant surprise! I am so glad to see you could come today, it just wouldn�t be the same without you." She panicked when she saw Britney standing next to Joey.
"Hi Brittany!" She said in her fake voice, causing Brittany to cringe.
"Good! We are ready to go now!" Kristin clapped her hands happily together.
"Come on Brittany, you can ride with me and Lance."
"Ok, fine. But Chris has to come with too... I need someone to keep me from killing myself of boredom with these two losers." Brittany grabbed Chris�s hand.
"Brittany, did I ever tell you that you are the coolest person I know?" Chris smiled at her.
"Of course, all the time! We are the best of friends. Come on, JC, you are coming with us too. We need someone to pick on in the back seat, and you are the lucky winner." She grabbed JC�s hand with her free one.
"Thanks you guys, I really love when you do this to me." JC played along.
"Justin, I am riding with you." Joey got a evil grin as he watched Brittany, Chris, Lance, JC, and Kristin walk out the door. He slowly turned to Britney. "I call ultimate shotgun! YESS! Front seat both ways! Score! Go Joey! Go Joey!" He did a little victory dance angering Britney even more.
"Justin, why can�t I sit in the front?" She slid her arm slowly through his.
"Sorry, hun. He called it." Britney scowled at Joey.
"Damn girl, if looks could kill! All I have to say is it just sucks to be you. Come on, Justin, I�m ready to sit in the front of that nice BMW of yours! Oh and Britney," he turned back to her, "I hear the backseat is really nice. It just majorly messes up your hair."
"What? My hair!" She panicked as Joey skipped out leaving her freaking out to Justin.
~Inside Lance�s car~
"How did I get stuck sitting here?" Brittany whined pounding on JC�s leg.
"Um�ow! That's my leg you know! It�s not my fault you got stuck in the middle." He smiled poking her side.
"Hehe, stop it Jace! Lance, will you speed up? You are driving like an old lady, let me drive." She quickly unbuckled her seat belt.
"Brittany, you are not driving! We want to live when we get there." Kristin said angrily.
"Fine, then pull over." Brittany stubbornly pushed past Chris, and jumped out the door as soon as the car rolled to a stop. "I would rather ride with a fake person than with a bitch." Brittany snapped back at Kristin. Everyone looked in shock not knowing why Brittany was freaking out as she slammed the door. "Lance, it�s my birthday, how come we never get to do what I want to do?"
"Kristin, honey, we are." Lance rubbed her arm.
"I don�t understand why she yelled at me like that. We are all going to get there are the same time." Kristin crossed her arms.
"Um�I don�t think we are." Everyone in the car watched as Brittany flew past them at probably nothing below 80 mph in Justin�s car.
"Holy crap!" JC laughed at Brittany.
"See! That�s why I don�t let her drive my car." Lance pointed.
"How come Justin does? I thought that he was protective of his car."
"Brittany is the only one allowed to drive it." Chris laughed. "Probably because they drive alike."
"But I thought that it was stick, I didn�t know she could drive stick." Kristin asked again more confused.
"Yeah I taught her that when we went out last year," JC laughed. "The reason she drives so fast is because above 45 mph you don�t have to shift anymore."
Lance slammed on the breaks. "Lance, what are you trying to do, kill us?"
"Really man I think my voice is an octave higher now." Chris pounded the back of the seat.
"If that�s possible." JC shoved Chris.
"What is Brittany doing? She just made a complete U turn for no reason. I guess we better follow them. Maybe something's wrong." Lance slowly turned the car around.
"Brittany was right, you do drive like an old lady. My God, Lance, floor it already! I wish I was in Justin�s car, at least they are having fun." Chris nodded and JC agreed.
"Hey, no back seat driving back there." Lance gave them an evil look in the rearview mirror. Lance continued to follow Brittany trying his best to keep up with her. "Doesn�t this girl believe in speed limits?" He laughed.
"It�s Brittany we're talking about. She's just like Justin, why not get there a little faster and go like 80 in a 30 mph zone?" JC smiled how their plan was working out.
Twenty minutes later, Kristin looked at the club in front of them in disbelief. "Jeez, Brittany could have at least waited a couple hours till after the movie." She opened her door following the rest of them inside, where Justin, Brittany, Britney, and Joey were already.
"Come on, Kristin. I�m sorry about this, I will take you to see the movie tomorrow." They opened the door and Brittany ran up to them.
"Happy birthday Kristin! Why go to the movies on your 21st birthday when you can do this?" She handed her a drink.
"Thanks Brittany, I don�t know what could make this day better." She looked at her sarcastically, pissed that she was going to miss her movie.
"I could maybe help." Came an all too familiar voice. Kristin�s head whipped around.
"Oh my gosh, Justine!" Kristin ran up to her, hugging her friend. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was told to meet here by Lance for your birthday. I am in town for a couple of days." Justine tried to make it sound like she was just visiting. But the truth was that she came home because she hated school, and her parents told her to come home for a little vacation. She missed everyone terribly. She looked around at all of their faces. They all looked so different to her even after 3 weeks of not seeing them.
"So are you ready to party, birthday girl?" Joey grabbed Kristin�s hand. Kristin smiled and followed Joey to the bar, where he put her up on it to do a birthday pole dance, coyote ugly style.
"I�m not to sure about this whole thing." Lance grabbed the drink JC had in his hand and chugged it. "That�s better." He smiled. "Come on, Justine, lets go find a spot to sit." Justine followed him, relieved that the rest of the group wasn�t following.
"Hey, Britney, that�s a great look for you- the wind blown look." Brittany sipped her strawberry daiquiri. Britney quickly dug through her purse looking for a mirror. Taking out her compact and opening it up, she looked in horror. "Britney, be careful you wouldn�t want to break the mirror."
Justin almost choked on his drink.
"Brittany I�I�don�t even know what to say to a person like you." Britney stated.
Brittany grabbed her heart as if it hurt her deeply. "Ouch, Britney, you must have put a lot of thought into that come-back." She laughed again before walking over to the table where JC was sitting.
"Justin!" Britney grabbed his hand. "Come on let�s dance." She gave him puppy dog eyes as he set down his drink so he could dance with her.
Justine watched from her position in the bench. No matter how much she told herself she didn�t care about Justin, she knew she did. She knew him too well, and he was going to talk to her tonight if it meant the end of him.
"Justine, are you listening to me?" Lance�s voice cut into her thoughts.
"Huh? Uh�yeah I�m listening."
"Sure you were, then answer my question." He smiled a evil smile knowing she had no clue what he had just been talking about.
"Yeah I like President Bush he is um�" Justine tried and tried again to remember what he had been talking about.
"Justine, I asked you how school was going." Lance noticed the crimson color of her blushing cheeks.
"It�s going good, Lance." She lied again trying to sound stable in her situation.