Of all the people Justin had allowed to really know him, to get inside of Justin Timberlake of NSYNC to see Justin the person, he hadn�t ever thought these two would be the ones who destroyed him as a person. Sure he could continue being Justin Timberlake, but the person underneath the mask was shattered with little hope of being put back together. In a normal world, discovering the man he was in love with was with someone else would be a horrible blow, but not this destructive. Of course, in a normal world his lover wouldn�t be Lance and the other person wouldn�t be Joey.
After the tears and the alcohol and the screaming, Justin was left with the realization he didn�t want to ever give someone this much control over him again. Justin didn�t want to ever let anyone else in as deep as Lance had gotten. He didn�t want to ever trust a friend as much as he trusted Joey. He simply didn�t want to let anyone else in because another blow like this would blow apart everything. Another blow like this and the mask would be destroyed along with the heart it was covering.
Once these realizations came, other�s followed. Realizations of how close others were and silent plans were quickly designed and implemented to correct this. It was surprisingly easy to stop returning the calls and answering the door. It was even easier when he left in the middle of the night and disappeared until the night before they were to meet at the compound to discuss the future of NSYNC. Walking into the compound to the anger of his band mates and manager was also surprisingly easy. He had long since cut off any avenue to his emotions so the words flowed passed him. The Justin they all knew was dead, destroyed by the sight of his life�s mate with one of his brothers. The Justin left was the mask the world always saw. He could flirt and smile and laugh and sing, but nothing again would reach his eyes. The heart he had given so freely and completely was burned out for any use except for the pumping of blood.