She felt so good.
Her skin was soft and smooth and warm. Her eyes were big and wide and beautiful. She was perfect in every way.
His hands slid down her shoulders and arms and then he held on to her elbows, pushing her a little bit off him. "Hey." He whispered.
She just stared at him.
She couldn't get over that it was him. It was really him.
The asshole.
She wanted to slap him. She wanted to beat his ass into the ground and make a huge scene to tell the entire world that Justin Timberlake was the biggest prick she knew.
And yet all she could do was stare at him, wide-eyed, mouth slightly dropped, arms hanging by her sides, and all she thought was, "god he looks good."
So her mind was filled with thoughts of lust and thoughts of how someone looked, but it was hard to think of what he had done to her when he was standing there, looking like that...looking at HER like that...
To hell with 3 years of pain.
"You ok?" His voice was still a whisper.
She nodded. "Fine."
"So, uh...you wanna dance, DMBluvr?"
And then there it was. The world stopped.
She could remember the way he would make her laugh out loud at the computer and how he made her feel special and smart and beautiful. She could count how many times he had helped her get through the rough times with her father. He always gave insight on it and tried to make it easier for her, not just cover it up with sappy words like Trevor always would. She could feel his hand in hers that first time when he held her hand going to the bus and she called him on it, she could feel him trying to steal the basketball from her and hear him cheering her on when she would make a good shot. And she could taste his lips and mouth on hers.
And she felt once again the confusion of getting online that next week and not getting an email or im. She felt the loneliness of waiting and waiting for an email and the anxiousness of hearing the door open sound of a buddy coming on her list and panicking until she saw it, and realized it wasn't him.
She felt the pain of realizing he had forgotten about her.
But the fact was he hadn't forgotten about her.
"Come on Liz, don't leave your CurlyJay hanging."
That was it for her.
She couldn't take it anymore.
"You left me hanging for 3 years, Justin."
He sighed and she knew he was about to say something else, but she didn't really give a damn right then.
She turned on her high heels, and stalked past Trevor and Patty that were talking up a storm and sped-walked outside. She walked as far as she could until she couldn't help it and she plopped down on a bench on the front of the restaurant overlooking the bay.
Her hands ran all over her face, trying to grasp what had just happened.
He had looked so lost in there, like a little puppy. Her CurlyJay looked so stupid just standing there.
She couldn't help but laugh.
She chuckled heartily into her hands, shaking her head.
But then the image of him standing there looking lost seemed not funny anymore.
Soon she found her self sobbing into her hands.
------
An hour or two later.
"Hey you..."
Liz's curled body snapped straight. She wiped her eyes and looked up, gulping at the shadowy figure coming towards her. "Hey...uhh."
The figure stepped into a patch of light from one of the windows of the restaurant and she noticed that smile. "Oh hey."
"How are you doing?"
Elizabeth sighed. "I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
She rested her bare feet back on the edge of the bench and shrugged, hugging her knees. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry."
They sat down beside of Liz and she immediately turned her head and looked the other way.
"You know there's a fine boy in there who is lookin might lonely. Has been since you ran out here."
She shot up and gasped. "Oh great. Trevor..."
A light chuckle filled the atmosphere. "No, I haven't seen him for about 45 minutes now. I don't know where he went. I'm not talking about Trevor, Liz."
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at the girl that had sat down beside her on the bench. "Why can't you people just leave me alone?"
"'You people?' What's that supposed to mean?"
"You Nsyncers." She cringed.
"Oh that's original.'
Liz sighed and looked at her straight in the eyes. "I'm serious Patty. I don't want him in my life. He decided he wanted out, I'm JUST now getting over that and here is comes crashing back into it again. He doesn't DESERVE for me to even look at him after what he put me through."
Patty's head tilted to the side. "I know that Elizabeth. But I can honestly say since lunchtime today that boy has been messed up. I've never seen Justin this freaked, except that time when he knew you were coming to the show and he didn't know what to do. Justin is a rather calm person. Today he was psycho boy."
After a few minutes of silence, Liz bit her lip and turned her eyes from the puddle of water she had been staring at to her fingernails. She cleared her throat and asked, "He's engaged?"
"Yah." Patty yawned.
"For how long?"
"About a month or two."
She couldn't help but frowning and she just had to ask, "When's the wedding?"
"June."
"Oh."
Patty's head turned and she smiled at the younger girl sitting beside her, looking like she had just found out her dog had died. "He said you looked breathtaking."
Liz's feet slid into her heels and she stood up and looked at her accusingly. "Why are you telling me this Patty?"
"Because..." Patty stopped and stared at her for a while. She was a lot different from the Liz she had met a few years ago. She sighed. "Because I know he still cares about you. Somehow in the past 7 hours Justin proved to me no matter how screwed up whatever it was he did to you, he still cares about you. He still wonders about you. And I think he's realized that ignoring you was his biggest mistake to date."
Liz crossed her arms over her stomach and her head shook as she spoke. "I'm sorry but I have a hard time believing that."
"Well he stood there for a good 3 minutes in the middle of the dance floor staring into space. Finally Britney rescued him and danced with him. But then he left her and frankly I don't know where he went."
She bit her lip and looked off to the side. "I need to go find him."
Patty's eyes widened and she stood up off the bench. "Really? I don't know where he went, but I'll help you find him. He's Justin Timberlake he can't go far. "
Liz rolled her eyes. "No, I'm talking about Trevor. I need to be reassured that I'm still loved by him. I'm sorry Patty; I don't have room for Justin in my life anymore. He lost his chance a long time ago." Liz began to walk off, but before she got too far she turned around and her shoulders slumped a bit. "It was nice seeing you again."
Patty nodded and waved. "You too, Liz. You too..."
--------
"Where the hell is he?" She muttered to herself. She had searched the whole party, but tried to be discrete when she saw a few Nsync members lurking around. She even saw Britney but she managed to go unnoticed in her search. She figured Trevor was probably looking for her
So she walked to the docks and found Trevor's small yatch. The light was on in the top cabin of the boat and she smiled. She knew him too well. Of course he would go there to look for her. She climbed up on the boat, careful not to trip on her heels.
She walked around to the door of the cabin and heard a voice. His deep voice. She loved his voice.
"Mmm, yeah...shh, you gotta be quiet."
And then she heard a not so deep voice. In fact a rather whiny, nasally, high voice. "Trev. No one will hear. We can get as LOUD as we want. Come on, let's rock this boat."
Elizabeth's world started to spin. Her world was doing a lot of that day and she didn't know how much more she could take. She didn't want to see what was going on in the small bedroom behind the cabin, but her legs were carrying her there anyway.
And with what she saw her world shattered into millions of pieces that could never be put together again.
"Trevor..."
Two heads shot up and looked towards the door.
A quick shift of material and the girl in the bed covered herself with the sheet and Trevor hopped up pulling his pants over his hips. "Listen Liz..it's not..."
"Just..." She paused and shook her head, laughing bitterly. "Just shut the fuck up Trevor."
He obliged with her and stood there watching as her eyes traveled between her and the girl in the bed.
Liz couldn't even think.
She wanted to tell me off, slap him, kill him and that little red head in the bed too.
But she didn't even have enough energy to move.
"Elizabeth...I..."
"No..." She whispered. "Have fun." Her eyes watered and tears fell from her eyes.
"Liz wait..."
But she was already gone. She shot out of there so fast, tripping over the railing of the boat, falling hard on the wooden, wet docks below her, but not letting that slow her down.
She picked herself up and half ran/ half limped away from the dock, the restaurant and everything that had once been her life. She ran all the way to the main street, flagging down a cab and sobbing out all of her anguish.
She was too deaf to hear Trevor pleading with her to come back. She was too lost to realize that she would have to go back to the hotel and get her stuff. And she was too blind to see the tall, lone figure watching her, staring at her as she ran through the parking lot and to the street.
She never knew he watched her get into the cab, and she never knew that he watch her, once again, leave him alone, for good.
When the cab drove off, Justin sighed, pushed himself off the random car he was leaning on and walked back into his life. A life of parties, a life of fame, a life of music, a life of Britney, and a life without Elizabeth.