5 days later
His name was called 4 times. He was stared at for a good 30 seconds. And it was only until a finger snapped in front of his face did Justin shake his head and look up at his companion.
JC rolled his eyes at his younger friend. "Dude, snap outta it."
"Huh, what?"
He rolled his eyes again, and scoffed. "I told you to work the faders for the 2nd chorus."
Justin shrugged and mumbled. "Oh, sorry."
Being fed up with Justin's slack work performance and distant and bad attitude, that he had been showing for the past two days, JC threw down his pencil and pushed back and bit on his chair. His arms crossed over his chest and he raised one eyebrow at Justin. "You've been saying that all day. This isn't like you."
Justin put his hands up in defense and his voice rose with every word he said. "Well I'm SORRY that I AM HAVING A BAD DAY! Am I NOT ALLOWED ONE FUCKING BAD DAY?"
JC took a claming breath and nodded towards the door. "Justin, why don't you go outside for a few minutes and cool off. This is work, not Justin's way all day."
The chair out from under Justin tipped over behind him when he jumped out of his seat and started screaming down at the man beside him. "DAMMIT JC. We aren't back in 1998. It isn't, lets boss lil Juju around. Ok? I don't need you telling me what to do."
With a shrug and a sarcastic gritted smile, JC mumbled out. "Well last time I checked I was your boss, so its my job to boss lil juju around. Ok?"
Justin stalked to the door and swung it open. Once he was in the hallway he turned around and narrowed his eyes. "Just..fuck off, Josh."
The door slammed shut behind him.
JC took in a deep breath and let it out chuckling. "Sorry you had to see that ladies. I told you he wasn't the huge sexy idol he use to be. Why don't you all rest your voices, get some water and we will come back and get this crackin in a few minutes. Knowing Mr. Timberlake he will get a conscious in 10 minutes and come back here with a pouty face saying 'sorry'."
The 3 girls in the recording booth laughed. They were a new singing group out of Orlando that focused more on the voices and not the sexy looks and dance moves. JC had been working with them a while, and Justin had too for a few weeks. And he had been a great producer, until 2 days ago.
Ever since work had started that week Justin seemed a little on edge, scatter brained, worried and uptight. He would jump at the slightest of touches and daze off into his own little dream world. JC didn't know what was going on with him, but he knew he needed to do something to change his bad attitude.
He slouched down in his chair and stuck his hand in his jeans pocket, retrieving his small cell phone. He flipped it open, searched his phone book for a certain number and then leaned back and put the phone to his ear, rocking in the comfortable chair he was relaxed in.
"Hello?"
The deep rumble of his friend's voice made JC grin. "Lance, my man. How's things shakin in the big O."
"Jace, dude. Where you been? Haven't heard from you in weeks."
He looked around his surroundings. He was now alone in the recording booth. The girls had left and Justin of course had stormed out. "I'm stuck up here in Memphis, doin some recording."
Lance didn't say anything for a while and then it seemed to dawn on him. "Oh yeah, Justin's helping you isn't he?"
"Yeah, he was."
"what do you mean, he was? He's not back in the slump, is he?" He asked carefully.
"No, no. Not really. He's in some slump. Not the Brit slump. But something. I was actually calling you about that. Can you give me Patty's cell number?"
"Um, yeah. Why?"
Josh chuckled a bit. "I need her to smack some sense into precious Timberlake."
"Yeah, she's actually at home today. So just call her at the house. You got that number right?"
"Oh yeah. Sorry to bother you man. You busy?"
"Hell yeah. And you know you aren't a bother, Josh. You need to call more often. We need to all get together and do something sometime."
"Oh yeah. That'd be sweet."
"Yeah, I heard from Joey the other day. And where the hell did Chris go?" He said with an animated voice.
"He's..somewhere. But I'll let you go Lance. I need to call your woman and get back to work. I know you do too."
"Yeah. Eh, do me a favor and tell my woman I'll be early coming home tonight."
JC scoffed, mockingly. "When did I become you page boy?"
"Dude, you'll never be my page boy. But you'll always be my bitch."
"Funny Lansten, funny." He deadpanned.
"Later man."
"See ya bro."
JC shook his head and smiled, before searching his phone book once again and finding Lance and Patty's home phone number.
"Hello?"
"PATTY!" JC screamed in a high voice.
"ahh, what? Who is this?"
He lowered his voice and tried not to laugh. "It's your lover baby."
"Ok, I'm calling the police."
JC let it go, and laughed heartily into the phone. "P baby, you gotta hang up the phone first, before you dial 911."
"Josh, you suck."
JC rolled his eyes and stated matter of factly. "Actually Justin does. Could you call him for me?"
"What he done this time?" She asked, as it seemed he got into trouble often.
"He's being a pain in the ass. Just smack some sense into him. Figure out what the hell his problem is."
"If this takes more than 5 minutes of my time I'm charging."
JC was willing to do whatever it was to get Justin out of his slum. "Whatever it takes."
"Ok, ok. Let me work my charms."
"Later P. good talking to ya. Oh and Lance said that he'd be home early."
"Ok. Later Jo...wait..WHAT?" She exclaimed, obviously confused.
JC smiled and cut her off before any explanation was given. "Toodles."
----
The shrill of the phone caught him off guard. He sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned against the cement part of the building right outside the door to the studio he was working in that day. He searched for his phone and flipped it open. He's voice was gruff as he stated angrily, "If this is my mom, call me later. IF this is JC, I don't wanna hear it. And if this is anyone else, I don't care."
Before he hung up, he heard. "Justin, I'm pregnant."
His eyes widened and he jumped away from the building and gasped. "WHAT?!?!"
"Kidding." A smug, female voice said.
"Patty, you..just..DAMN!" Justin's free hand curled into a fist. He didn't want to have to deal with her jokes right now.
After a while of neither of them talking, Patty sighed and bluntly asked, "What the fuck is up your ass?"
He was a taken back by her outburst. "Um, what?"
"I've been hearing that you've been a handful."
To him, she sounded like a disappointed principal, and he had been tattled one. "Jace..."
"Yup. And don't you get all pissy. If he is calling ME to get through to you, SOMETHING is wrong. So spill it."
He leaned against the outside of the building once again, but turned up his nose when someone came out to smoke a cigarette. He instead walked further out into the parking lot, looking down at his tennis shoes, and with out hand in his pocket. "You...you wouldn't understand Patty."
"Try me."
He laughed a bit. "Believe me. You've NEVER been in this situation. No one has."
"Tell me. I've heard about all your problems. I would feel like my purpose in life to hear you bitch was being taken from me if you didn't tell."
"Ok..It's..It's a long story."
"It's ok, I'm being paid for this anyway."
"You, WHAT?" He asked confused.
"Continue..."
He sighed. "Are you sitting down?"
-----
Late that night...
"Well I don't know what to tell you bud. I mean, something might have come up. Maybe her computer is broken. You never know these things Justin. Just chill."
Justin closed the door to his son's bedroom quietly, leaving a small crack in the doorway. He said in a whispered voice. "I cant Patty. I..I..lo.."
"You WHAT?" She exclaimed over the phone.
He walked into his own bedroom and fell back on his large bed. "I love her."
"How? Justin you..you don't even know if its her.."
"IT"S HER! I just KNOW IT!" He shouted at the ceiling.
He had told Patty that afternoon and she had thought he was crazy, but had brought him back into a state able to work. And about an hour before he had called her again and they had talked some more.
"Ok, ok. But she might have changed. You..you don't know these things. What if she doesn't love you back?"
"But she does. She said she had fallen for me."
"correction. She's fallen for RANDALL. Now, you know I'm giving you hell for that. That's just...corny."
He sighed and rolled over on his stomach on the bed, kicking his tennis shoes off by his feet and letting them fall to the carpeted floor. "Patty. She's...she's my last hope. She brought me out of this slump. Even BEFORE I knew it was her."
"are you sure, I mean Justin. I cant have you have your heart ripped apart like before. YOU cant deal with that."
"I know. But Patty. I feel it."
"You felt it with Britn-"
"This has NOTHING to do with her." He picked at his fingernails and began chewing on them.
"Don't do anything stupid."
He chuckled. "Yes momma."
"I'm serious Justin."
"Patricia. I know...I know what I'm doing." With a groan he stretched his body along the width of the bed. His feet hung off one side and his arms dangled off the other.
"You said the last two times she entered your life."
"And this time I'm not gonna screw up. I mean, think about it Patty. That's Weird. This RANDOM chick, thrown into my life 3 damn times. That's not just coincidence."
She sighed through the phone. "It's fate."
"Exactly." He smiled.
"Then ya gotta do what cha gotta do."
"So what do I do?"
"You wait. You chill. And you figure out, HOW you goin get this girl into your life. And I don't mean with a colon, end paragraph, smiley face. I mean with a real life conversation, face to face, REAL Justin."
"I know. I'm thinking." He let his fingers play on the black and tan pattern of his comforter.
"You got time. Just, don't try to take on too much at once."
"Thank you Patty." He smiled like he could see her.
"you're welcome hun...oh no...now I REALLY AM sounding like your mom."
"Yeah, ya are. Later girl. Thanks so much. Get back to the Bass man."
"He's snoring on the couch."
He deadpanned. "How romantic."
"But he looks so cute and peaceful and sexy and.." But she got cut off.
"Hey that's enough. I don't wanna hear it." Justin scrunched up his nose and resituated his position on the bed, so that he was sitting back on the pillows and against the headboard.
"Justin will you leave me alone and let me go play with my husband?"
He pretended to gag. "ewe...bad visions in my head."
"Bye Ju."
"Thanks Patty. Talk to ya later."
He threw the phone on the other side of the bed and looked over at the clock. It was almost 11 at night and he wasn't tired at all. He needed something to occupy his time, and the one thing he wanted to do he was also trying to avoid.
It wasn't healthy for him to be sitting at the computer waiting for her to come on. He was really afraid that something had happened to her. It had been 5 days since he had last heard from her, and he was very worried.
He figured if it came down to it he could go to every hospital in the Memphis area and go to the pediatric centers and hunt her down. Well that really didn't sound right in his brain. He wasn't a serial killer wanting to go get, her or a tiger going to get his prey. He just wanted her back again. She was all that he had.
His blue eyes locked on to the screen in front of him and he sighed, running a hand over his face. "What am I doing?" He had somehow made it to his computer, in the midst of all his thoughts.
The AOL screen was already connecting and when it connected he shut his eyes, not ready to face the harsh reality of an empty buddy list.
When his eyes opened his list was indeed empty. He shook his head and checked his email. Most of it was junk mail, little funny forwards from Chris, or emails from Patty or other people he knew.
He scanned down and was about to close his buddy list when his eyes widened immediately and he gasped. There was an email.
From her.
He read what was inside the email and he slowly relaxed back into his chair, and shook his head, whispering. "Oh, no..."
Subj: um hi
Date: 03/25/08 2:10:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Drliztn
To: LakeJ0321
Sorry I left without an explanation or even a goodbye. I had to go back home. I'm not really supposed to be here online, but I couldn't handle all these people I've never met telling me how sorry they were, so I snuck away and got on my sisters computer.
I guess you are still wondering what happened. Plain and simple my dad died. Heart Attack. I should be back by the end of this week.
Sorry again.
-Lizzie