“Dar-”

 

He started to say something but she couldn’t control herself and interrupted him, “Oh my god!  I can’t believe it’s you.” A huge smile erupted on her face and she gasped.  She couldn’t believe it was him.  It was Justin, the man of her dreams.  She’d followed him from the very beginning and finally, finally he was really before her.  He was real.  He was there. 

 

He seemed caught off guard.  She didn’t mean to scare him.  Hell, she was caught off guard too.  She didn’t expect to see him there. She was so excited that after all this time, they got to meet.  He licked his lips and she smiled.  Oh, he was even more beautiful in real life.  He was wearing what he normally did, jeans, and tight blue t-shirt with a Grizzlies logo on it and a knitted, black beanie over his head.  “It--it is…” He whispered.

 

She stuttered like an idiot and bit her lip.  He was really there.  “I…holy shit, I just...wow.”

 

“Tell me about it.” A little smile came to his face and he stepped closer to her.  She wondered what he was doing.  She wouldn’t expect him to do this.  Was he going to touch her?  Was he really going to touch her?  Her mind must have been working in overdrive.  He wouldn’t do that, not there.

 

She realized where she was.  No, this wasn’t a dream.  This was reality.  She was in the office delivering something.  Why on earth would he be here? She shook her head and smiled at him brightly as his smile widened and his eyes sparkled at her.  He was looking at her so genuinely happy.  “What are you doing here?”

 

“I…”

 

“Oh God! I sound like a retard!”  It registered that he was probably there for therapy and hit her hand against her forehead.  Here she was meeting Justin Timberlake in a freaking doctor’s office, and she was drooling at the mouth and bumbling like an idiot.  He was probably smiling at her so much because he was laughing at her.  She sighed and removed her hand from her forehead.  “I really liked your Celebrity tour. I went a couple months ago and it was so much fun.  I had to leave early because of my stupid sister called…” She realized she was rambling and stopped.  “But anyway.”

 

She watched his smile fall into a frown, and he took a back step.  His voice was still in a whisper when he asked, “Wh-what?”

 

She shook her head again and mentally cursed herself.  She was really acting like a moron.  This was not how she’d picture this meeting.  She thrust her hand out towards him.  She couldn’t believe she was about to shake hands with him. “Oh yeah!  I’m Darcy Height.”

 

“Darcy…”

 

Her hand dropped when she felt a grip on her shoulder.  She looked up to see her brother standing there with a curious gaze.  “Oh, hey Alden.”

 

“Hi Justin.  Sorry, I’m sure she attacked you.  She’s kinda a stalker.”

 

“I am not!” She watched him roll his eyes and direct his focus on the man in front of her.  Her eyes traveled back to Justin.  He was staring at her like he saw a ghost.  She wondered if everything was ok.  Did she say something wrong?  I mean, she didn’t think she was acting too crazy.  She took a deep breath; she was getting way too hyper and needed to calm down.

 

“Come on sis, this way.  Leave the poor guy alone.” She felt arms dragging her away and protested, trying to hit her brother by swinging her purse and carryout bag at him.  It didn’t work.  She looked back and Justin was still staring at her.  Oh, he looked so good.  She wanted to squeal.  She’d definitely have to be delivering her brothers lunch every damn day from here on out!  “Sorry man, I’ll make sure she doesn’t attack again.”

 

She landed her brother a nice swat in the arm, trying still to get free from his grasp. “I did not attack!  Bye Justin!  It’s great meeting you.”  She waved frantically, and the last thing she saw before a wooden door was slammed in her view was him staring after her, his mouth open slightly, his eyes glazed over and his arms dangling by his sides.

 

She plopped down in the chair across form her brother’s desk and sighed.  Her brother strode behind the desk, sat down and rolled forward to cock an eyebrow at her.  She couldn’t get it out of her mind.  She just met Justin Timberlake. 

 

“Darcella…”  She heard her brother drag out her name and she was snapped out of her happy memory. “…what the hell did you think you were doing?”

 

She realized her brother was upset with her.  It wasn’t her fault!  She didn’t see him there.  She didn’t know he was going to be there.  Hell, if she had she wouldn’t have stuttered like a freakin’ idiot.  “I bumped into him by accident!  I’m sorry.  I didn’t know he was here.”

 

She hated the look her older brother gave her.  He always did that whenever she did something a little off the wall.  “Don’t bother him ok?  He’s a patient.”

 

“Oooo really!”  So he was there for therapy.  It made her pout.  Poor Justin, it was probably because of his recent heartache she had read about in magazines.  She sighed, “I bet it’s because of Britney.  They just broke up.  I bet that bitch fucked with his head.”

 

Her brother laughed and pulled the plastic carryout bag over in front of him, across the large desk.  “I think you terrified him.  If I had known he was here, I wouldn’t have let your obsessed ass come and bring me my lunch.  What’d you get me?”

 

“Grilled Chicken Salad, one of those big ones from that place down by your place.” She watched him open up the plastic container and smile appreciatively.  She had done this several times before.  She loved how her brother didn’t care what she got him and often would just say “surprise me.”  They were close, very close and she was thrilled that he agreed to let her come live with him for the summer.  She would have been in hell back home.

 

“Place down by my place, eh?”

 

She narrowed her eyes at him and growled out, “Shut it.” She watched her brother eat for a moment, but her mind was back on what had just happened.  She was completely thrown off.  She hoped she’d meet him sometime in her life, in New York most likely, but she never imagined like that.  It was so strange.  He had acted very weird and very quiet.  She figured he was probably just shocked to see a fan in a doctor’s office.  She hoped he wouldn’t be freaked out and stop going there.  Then she might never see him again.  She didn’t even have her camera with her or a piece of paper and well, she was upset now.  She pouted and whined, “I didn’t even get his autograph.”

 

Her brother laughed with a mouth full of salad.  “Oh my god, Darcy.  Get over it!”

 

Her shoulders slumped and she sighed, “I just.  I’ve never met anyone famous.” Her brother stared at her hard.  She knew what he was thinking.  Of course she’s met famous people, but not Hollywood famous.  She rolled her eyes at him,   “Well never anyone that MATTERS!  Stupid Miss Emily had to ruin my chance last time.”

 

“You’re still mad at her for getting engaged?”

 

“YES!  We were gonna go to that club they were gonna be at.” 

 

She remembered that night very, very well.  She had flown out for the weekend to see her brother, and he had surprised her with tickets to an Nsync concert.  They had dressed themselves up, gone out to a great dinner beforehand, and gone to the concert.  Alden had claimed he knew someone who worked for a swanky club, and that all of Nsync were going to be there after the concert.  Since they had connections, they were gonna go.  But then her sister had to call her in the middle of the concert.  She hadn’t wanted to answer, but when she had paged her with “EMERGENCY” in the title, her and her brother had excused themselves. Outside the bathrooms, with “Tearin’ Up My Heart” faintly playing in the background amongst a continuous scream coming from the thousands of girls,  she had learned her sister had gotten engaged.  It wouldn’t have been that big of deal, but of course dear sister Emily made it into a huge thing all about her and ended up crying over the phone to Darcy that she couldn’t do this without her.  Darcy hadn’t know what “this” was, but after flying the next morning back home she discovered that “this” was nothing more than a hug and a “lets go shopping!”  Which after about an hour of shopping,  Emily ditched her to go eat lunch with a her new fiancée.

 

She didn’t know why, but her sister always treated her like shit and yet she always fell for every tear she dropped in Darcy’s path.  She was the baby of the family.  Normally the baby would get all the attention, but not in this family.  In this family, the baby got ignored and trampled on.  At times it upset her, mostly she was thankful to be able to slip underneath the radar.

 

“You just met Justin.  You should be happy.”

 

“I am.” She looked down at her nails.  She chuckled to herself; her mother would die if she saw them un-manicured. 

 

“You sure?”

 

She looked back up at Alden and his brown eyes were staring into hers intently.  “Yeah, why?”

 

He shrugged and stuffed some more food into his mouth.  “You’ve just been a little weird lately.”

 

“Ehh…Preston’s been bothering me.” She turned up her nose, using the same excuse she always used.  The boy, who ever he was at that time, was annoying her.  It was always that way.  She never seemed to meet anyone that really got it.  Every boy she ever met was too far up their own ass, too far concerned with how she looked on their arm, too far concerned with her family, too far not her type.  She wanted someone who meant something, who had their own thoughts, who was sensitive, down to earth, and funny in a regular, average way.  She wanted someone who wasn’t always perfect.  She was finding it so hard to meet someone with that criterion.

 

“He still out here visiting his Uncle?”

 

Preston was nice looking, sweet at times, and loaded.  He was perfect, and therefore she didn’t want him. “Unfortunately.”

 

“He’s a nice guy Dee.” Her brother said, using his nickname for her. 

 

She rolled her eyes after reaching across and snatching a piece of chicken.  “He’s a pretentious bastard is what he is.  He acts like an angel around you because you’re my brother and mom adores him, but he’s a complete asshole.”

 

“Then dump him.”

 

She wished it could be that simple.  She wished she could just say, “ya know what Preston, you suck, see ya.” But then he’d tell his parents, and his parents and her parents would have a fight and all hell would break loose.  That was another thing that sucked about all the men she dated, usually she met them through her mother.  She never met anyone on her own.  She had yet to find a boy at Columbia worth talking too.  They were either too stuck up, too taken, too fruity, or too far up in the clouds.  “Mom would have a heart attack.”

 

Her brother laughed loudly,   “Then dump him, please.”

 

“Alden!” She exclaimed disapprovingly. 

 

He put up his hands and sat back against his chair, rocking a bit. “Look, I don’t wanna get into this with you.”

 

She knew her brother and her parents, especially her mother, didn’t get along.  They had always been a little distant, but ever since three years ago, when Alden broke up with his girlfriend, there had been a war.  It was ugly, it was dirty, and it disgusted her, like all family feuds seemed to.  “They just don’t understand.  You shouldn’t hope she dies.”

 

“She kicked me out of the…”  He gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.  She knew her brother had a lot of anger built up at their parents but it had been so long since she had seen him this upset.  “…the damned house Darcy.”

 

She sighed.  That had been a bad, bad day.  It was the same day that she was leaving for college.  Columbia wasn’t that far from their house, and her parents weren’t even going to take her.  But still, it hurt her to no end that she hadn’t been able to say goodbye to anyone.  The car had been packed.  Ronald was waiting for her in the driveway and she had walked down the steps into the foyer.  She had looked over in the front room seeing her father shaking back a scotch, her mother sitting petitely on the couch with reddened eyes and a tissue in her hand.  Her brother had been sitting down in a chair with his face in his hands.  She had walked into the room and said, “I’m getting ready to go.”  But before she was even able to finish her father had coughed out, “Not now Darcella.”

 

With that, she had turned around and left.  Ronald drove her an hour and half into Manhattan, and she started school off on her own.  She was almost happy she was free of them, but it had hurt not being able to hug them goodbye.  Her brother called and apologized, of course, that evening and told her that he was going to be flying out to stay with a friend Los Angeles.  Two weeks later he had bought himself a house.  “I know she did.  But you’re almost thirty, you have your own practice.  I mean, you like it better out here anyway, don’t you?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You’re accepted here, aren’t you?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Then stop complaining.”  She laughed and reached over to steal another piece of chicken, getting a scoff in response.

 

It was quiet for a while and her brother worked on finishing his lunch.  She was glad he had moved away.  She missed him like crazy, but she wouldn’t trade her brother’s happiness for the world.  She could tell by his appearance that his life out on the west coast was much better.  He no longer looked tired and torn.  He looked handsome and happy.  Plus, it was nice having a place to escape to once in a while. 

 

He took a sip from a cup of water sitting on his desk and then cleared his throat.  He asked,   “Talked to dad?”

 

“Does anyone ever talk to dad?” She laughed.  She couldn’t remember the last time she talked to her father.  She thought hard.  Oh yeah, they went to lunch the last week in April, right before exams. 

 

“I guess not.  I figured mom would say something.”

 

She shrugged and pursed her lips.  “No, he was going for a business thing overseas for a while.  That’s the last thing I know.  He probably just wants to get away.  Mom and Em are sorta going nuts about the wedding.”

 

Alden chuckled and nodded his head.  “Ya know?  You’re right.  I’m glad I’m on the other side of the country and don’t have to mess with the wedding fiasco.”

 

He was right.  Her mother and sister were acting like her sisters marriage was the most important thing in the world, and Emily it probably was and rightfully so.  But she didn’t think they needed a Cinderella type ceremony.  In fact, it was her sister’s comment about wanting to have a dress just like Princess Diana that made Darcy pack her things and leave for the summer.  She didn’t want to be around that type of craziness. 

 

“Me too.  I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I go back to school.”

 

“You really should have gone somewhere out of the region.”

 

He was right again.  She knew she went to school too close to home, but she loved being in New York.  She loved being able to be completely lost in a place where no one gave a fuck about her, and yet she could still find her places where people knew her.  That way she wasn’t alone.  But it was a lonely city at times, especially now that she moved out of the dorms into her own place.  Still, it was a great city to live in.  “But you know I love New York.”

 

He laughed at her.  “You love it out here, too.  You adore San Francisco.  You love Denver.  Hell, you even love South Carolina.”

 

She gave him a bored look.  “We didn’t really go to South Carolina, Alden.  Hilton Head is kinda different than the rest of South Carolina, well, from what I’ve heard.”

 

“My point is you love it everywhere.”  They had traveled around a lot, and yes she loved a lot of places in the world, but New York was her home.  She had her own place in the Upper West side.  She had a couple friends.  She had her restaurants she religiously went to and her short cuts to get to them.  She was right by the park and had her little spot, her bench, right there in the northwest corner of the park.    She just felt right there.   

 

She flashed him a smile. “I hate Paris.”

 

“That’s because you’re weird.”  It was the truth.  She didn’t care for Paris and didn’t really understand why.  She loved all the other parts of France and enjoyed visiting London and Rome and the other big cities in Europe.  But for some reason Paris didn’t sit well with her.  Her brother on the other hand wanted to live there.

 

“And I really didn’t like Chicago all that much, or Miami.”

 

“Oh, I love Miami.”

 

She laughed at him as he smiled genuinely and bit his lip.  “You just like the Latin men in Speedos.”

 

“I can’t lie.”

 

She looked at the clock behind his desk and saw that it was 12:30.  She knew that Preston wanted to meet her by 1 to eat lunch.  She gagged at the thought.  “I guess I should go,” she sighed. “I’m supposed to call Presty poo…ugh...for lunch.”

 

“If you don’t wanna go, don’t.  Don’t do it just to please mother dearest.”

 

“Yeah, well we’ll see.” Her brother was right, like normal, but she had a feeling she would go anyway.  They’d probably go back to his Uncle’s house and end up making out, and he’d squeeze her boobs to hard and desperately try to get her to suck him off and she’d pray that someone would call him so they’d stop.  But no one would call, so she’d end up doing it and then go home and rinse her mouth out with Listerine and curl up on the couch watching TV waiting for her brother to get home.  She didn’t know why she would let him, or any boy for that matter, pressure her into doing things.  She just wished for once she could find a guy that liked her for her and not because all the bullshit that was tied to her. 

 

She got up to leave and turned around to wave at her brother.  “I’ll see ya tonight Alden.”

 

He nodded and said goodbye to her with a smile and she left his office.  The hallway was empty and she wondered where Justin went to. She figured he was in one of the other doctor’s offices or either had gone home.  She wondered how his life was.  Was it much different from hers?  Was it better?  She bet it was.  She almost wished she could sit down and talk to him about it, but she had missed her chance.  Alden had come to pull her away, and she was sure that poor Justin was too terrified and shocked to talk about anything. 

 

She wondered if she’d see him again.  She hoped so.  Perhaps sometime later in the week, when she was delivering lunch again.  She didn’t know why she was so concern with him right now.  Hell, he was Justin Timberlake.  He didn’t care about her.  He probably wouldn’t even give her a second thought, and he probably had a million and one girls at home waiting for him.  But still, she couldn’t help but think what if.  What if she saw him again?  She’d have to play it cool the next time. 

 

If there was a next time.

 

Next

 

Back