Christmas Day
Justin sat there, amused with his little brother that was raging through the presents like a tornado in an Oklahoma wheat field. He had been up for about 5 hours now. His mom, grandma and aunt were in the kitchen cooking away. He was stuck with his brother, his snoring grandpa, his step dad and his little cousin Anna who kept reminding EVERYONE she would be turning 11 in 3 days.
"Justin..."
"What Anna?" Justin smiled lazily at the girl with curly light brown hair in front of him.
"Momma, and Auntie Lynn told me you still have a present to open up." She giggled and plopped down next to him on the couch.
"Oh really?" Justin smiled over at his stepfather, who was pointing to a large red package in the corner of the room, behind the tree.
"I get it." Jon exclaimed, running over to the present, tripping on torn wrapping paper and empty box. He still had on his Mickey Mouse pjs and several bows stuck to him. The silver one, Justin had stuck to his hair a few minutes before, was now barely hanging on to his whispy blondish hair.
Justin grinned as Jon bent over and struggled to bring the box across the room and to his brother. "Here, I'll help ya." Paul said, walking over and picking up the box with ease.
Jon slightly pouted before running around, throwing paper in the air, screaming "WHAT ELSE SANTA BRING!?"
"Let's see what he got Justin." Anna smiled, looking at the box Paul had just laid on Justin's lap.
"Is he opening it?" Lynn popped her head in the doorway of the den and walking in the room, wiping her hands off with a cloth towel.
"Openit! openit!" Jon chanted, standing right in front of Justin, eager to see what it was "Santa" had brought him.
Justin smiled and ripped open the package. He looked down at the brown cardboard box that had the markings of "DELL computers" on the outside.
"What is this?" Justin looked up at his dad and over his shoulder at his mom who was leaning over the couch where he was sitting, looking at him.
"Well, I remember you telling me how you got tired having to ask Lance or JC for their laptops on tour. And I figured with you being gone all summer you might could use one of your own."
"Mom! Oh my gosh, this is so cool."
Paul shot Lynn a look that said 'when did he start liking computers?.' Lynn shrugged and looked at Justin who was going over all its features.
"Yeah, daddy said he might get me a computer for my birthday!!" Anna squealed.
As his name was sounded Justin's Uncle came through the front door. "Ok, so the only place open was the 7-11 off the freeway. I hope this will be ok." He held up the paper bag of egg cartons."
"I didn't know you could buy eggs at a gas station." Justin said thoughtfully.
"There's a lot you don't know about Justin. Like...how much hair dye to use. Man, boy...you gonna blind me." His uncle handed the bags to Lynn who in return went into the kitchen to make Justin's grandma's pecan pie and special holiday egg nog.
Justin shot his uncle a mock-angry look. "Yeah, you would know about hair dye wouldn't ya Uncle Mark. Or wait is that hair pluggs?"
"Ey, don't make jokes like that. I used to crack on MY uncle, God rest his soul, about that same issue. Karma has a funny way of getting you back. And with all those chemicals that you-"
"All right, all right. Boys, stop bickering. Lunch is ready." His Aunt Amy ruffled Justin unruly bleached curls.
"Come on, Jon..." Paul smiled as the young kid sprinted out of the room, the silver bow on his hair finally fluttering to the ground.
Justin turned to look at his grandpa, snoring, mouth open, head tilted back in the recliner. "Should we wake him?" Justin asked mischievously to his cousin.
"Yeah, COME ON GRANDPA!" Anna and Justin screamed together.
The older man stirred barely. "Huh? wha?"
Justin and Anna slapped hands and slid off the couch and walked into the kitchen side by side.
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That night...
DMBluvr81: GUESS WHAT?
CurlyJay23: No YOU guess what?
DMBluvr81: Ok ok, WHAT punk? But I swear my "guess what" is ten times better than yours. :P
CurlyJay23: Nah, that's not impossible. Guess what Santa brought me!!?
DMBluvr81: A brain?
CurlyJay23: Close...a laptop. It's Dell and its loaded and the internet works so much faster than the piece of crap PC we have.
DMBluvr81: Awesome. Still doesn't compare to what I got though.
CurlyJay23: What did you get?
DMBluvr81: Tom Cruise...
CurlyJay23: ...rolling eyes...
DMBluvr81: No, but really...I got a car.
CurlyJay23: REALLY? That is awesome! What kind?
DMBluvr81: A 95 gold Honda Accord. Ohh, I am SO excited. It has a CD player and a sunroof. It's SO cool. I thought my dad hated me. But he got it for me! YAY!!!!
CurlyJAy23: That's cool.
DMBluvr81: No, THATS AWESOME. That's a BIG improvement from my moms Taurus Station Wagon I had to BORROW if I ever wanted to drive. Now I have my OWN car and its cool! I'm sooooo happy.
CurlyJay23: And you said your dad wanted you to be a guy. He got you a girly car. Gold, accord...
DMBluvr81: It's not THAT girly. But dad actually does want me to be a guy. When I told him I had a date for New Years...well, lets be glad it was the holidays. If not, he would have literally locked me in a chair and only fed me bread and water until I admitted I hated boys.
CurlyJay23: You hate me....
DMBluvr81: True..but what does that have to do with anything?
CurlyJay23: Nothing just saying. So you got a big date for new years huh?
DMBluvr81: Oh yeah, his name is Jay and he likes basketball and he is stupid and...oh wait, way too much egg nog....um, no :) Yeah, its my next door neighbor. We've been friends for like...I don't know, forever?
CurlyJay23: So you got a little dawson/joey thing going on.
DMBluvr81: Dawson? As in Dawson's Creek? I saw the pilot episode and 15 minutes into it I turned to Emeril Live. That show sucks. And no, I mean. Nothing's coming out of our "date" he's cute. I'm dead sexy. But I mean, I've knew him when he was 5 and thought that picking your nose was a sport created by himself. I knew him in his "Debbie Gibson" phase...its not pretty.
CurlyJay23: I will admit that "out of the blue" is one heck of a song.
DMBluvr81: You wouldn't know what good music was if your life depended on it.
CurlyJay23: Honey, I know SO much more about music than you EVER will.
DMBluvr81: I seriously doubt that...you're a Janet/Stevie/Brian freak...no taste...at all..(Well besides Janet..and stevie sometimes)
CurlyJay23: Well dave matthews is overrated.
DMBluvr81: NAWWWW NUH UH!!! Have you SEEN him LIVE? I don't think so. DMB is the most original and unique and coolest band possible.
CurlyJay23: And Brian mcknight is soulful and passionate. Stevie is classic and funky and janet...well janet is hot...
DMBluvr81: Men...their minds are always in their pants.
CurlyJay23: Only when I'm talking to your sexy self.
DMBluvr81: I could be a wrinkly, gray-headed 4 foot 7, 81-year-old woman.
CurlyJay23: I like older woman (gags)
DMBluvr81: You would...you are an old perverted man yourself. Remember that you are like 63 or something?
CurlyJay23: You said 36
DMBluvr81: oh
CurlyJay23: You are loosing your cool and wit Lizzy.
DMBluvr81: It's the holidays. The happy cheerful spirit crap clouds my brain and makes me...giddy.
CurlyJay23: So you aren't always sarcastic and cynical. You might be an ok girl after all.
DMBluvr81: Don't get your hopes up.
CurlyJay23: I'm not.
DMBluvr81: good
DMBluvr81: So, uh...any big New years plans for you, Jay?
CurlyJay23: Yeah, there's a big party with our label.
DMBluvr81: What are YOU talking about? Label?
"Oh crap." Justin breathed, staring at his laptop. How was he going to explain that? He just typed it without thinking. He didn't know what to say to it. He looked at the clock that read around 8. With fast fingers he typed as quickly as he could, sent and signed off.
CurlyJay23: I gotta go. Family wants to sing Christmas carols. Bye Liz.
"Goodbye."
Justin stared back at the sign on screen. He had just screwed up. He hoped Liz wouldn't ask him about the "label" thing again. He didn't know how to explain that. Maybe he would just brush it off and agree with one of her comments about his "stupidity".
"Hey, how's the new computer?"
Justin turned around in his desk chair and looked at his uncle who was leaning against the doorframe. "It's cool. I really like it."
"Good, I picked it out for your mom."
"Oh really? Thanks man." Justin glanced back at the screen for some reason and then back to his uncle.
"We are getting ready to head on up the road."
Justin's eyebrows merged and he stood up out of his chair. "I thought you guys were leaving tomorrow."
"We are visiting my parents in Tallahassee and spending the night there."
"Oh ok." Justin walked over to his Uncle and headed down the steps to say bye to this aunt and cousin.
But all the while it kept playing in Justin's head how he had screwed up and blurted the word label to her. Maybe he was just paranoid, but he didn't want this girl figuring out who he was. She probably had no idea who Nsync was. She probably didn't even care. And just because he said label was no reason to get all worked up. But Justin had become enchanted by this girls wit and humor. He liked her. He liked talking with her. And everytime he got online now, he always chanted a small prayer for there to be an email from her, or for her name to show up on his buddy list.
He wouldn't admit to it, but he was becoming obsessed with this girl online.
A month before he would have laughed and made jokes if any of the guys he knew had become enthralled with a "screename." But he had. Justin Timberlake had become an AOL junkie in a matter of a few weeks.
It was unhealthy and completely out of character for him.
But you couldn't blame him. Now a days everywhere he went, EVERYONE knew who he was, what he was about and what he liked to do. Or at least they thought he did.
It was refreshing to him to be able to have a "conversation" with someone who didn't have a clue that his name was Justin Timberlake. And this girl seemed to be the one that wouldn't care if he was the bag boy at Win Dixie or Brad Pitt.
But then again, this was the internet. This girl could pretend to be anyone she wanted.
Like Justin was pretending he was a regular guy.