WILDFIRE
By Aysia Anderson (a.k.a. Nikki)

Chapter Eleven: Weeping Willow


Camille looked stunning as she walked out of the makeup trailer, her last stop on the train of playing dress up, and stepped down onto the cement. Her hair was curled into loose ringlets that tumbled all around her and her makeup was very dark and dramatic due to the fact that most of the shots would be filmed during sunset and early evening. The jewelry that she wore included a silver armlet, anklet, and slave bracelet, along with a pair of hanging silver earrings.

Her dress itself was a mix of deep burgundy and periwinkle. It was in the style of an 1970's halter top, the material coming down around her neck to support her breasts, before splitting off to cross behind her back and back around her waist where the same type of material served as the tattered and windswept bottom. She looked like a glamorous Bond girl that had been lost at sea.

Justin sat idly in a chair inside of a different trailer while the crew's hairstylist groomed his facial hair giving him the mustache and goatee look that he had sported in videos like Rock Your Body. The fade that he had been wearing was refreshed and the cut in the front reapplied. His only jewelry consisted of a simple chain and cross necklace, platinum Rolex, and his signature stud earrings. His wardrobe was merely a thin, loose-fitting white shirt over a black wife beater and over expensive blue jeans. He dug not having to go glam because if he heard another metro sexual crack he'd scream.

Trace sat quietly at his side filming a home video on his camcorder of all of the events going down for Camille's video. MTV & BET had wanted to film a behind the scenes documentary but her people had declined the offer. The anticipation for the video was steadily building everyday and the secrecy around it made the demand even stronger. No one knew what to expect. The other videos that Camille had released were highly innovative, concepts from her own mind, so the fans were at the edge of their seats waiting for the latest installment.

"Alright, we're done." the stylist announced proudly and Justin moved slightly in his seat to catch a glimpse of his re-worked frame in the mirror. He nodded, satisfied, and began to stand up from his chair.

"You're filming everything?" he asked his friend as he trumped down the few stairs to exit the trailer and found that Trace was following him with camera in hand.

"I figured that while you and Camille are separated you could watch this video and remember how much you mean to each other." the other man explained his reasoning as they both headed toward the set. "When she misses you she can see the two of you together onscreen and when you're horny in the middle of the night you can masturbate while watching yourself make out with her."

"I knew you had to throw something grimy in there at the end."

"You know it, brother." Trace laughed to himself and panned away from his friend with the camera catching Camille standing with the director, Hype Williams, on film. "You're girl is fucking gorgeous, J."

Justin cast his attention into the direction that Trace was now facing and took in the image of the young woman who had captured his heart. She was speaking animatedly, gesturing with her hands, as she explained something to Hype whom was completely swept up in her words. Justin was sure that she was filling him in on more details of her concept and couldn't help but to admire her for it. She possessed a lot more control over her career than most performers that had been in the business for years. She had walked into the arena knowing what she wanted and how to execute it. Most of the time he didn't believe that she actually needed Johnny to manage her because she had so much under control.

The second that the conversation between Camille and Hype ended Justin and Trace made their way over to her. At the time one of the crew members was trying to chat her up but as far as the two men were concerned it was no longer relevant. If she wasn't talking business then she could be interrupted without any consequences.

"Smile for the camera, mama." Trace walked around her to capture her face where she smiled shyly and tried to turn away. "How cute is she?"

"Stop it!" she held her hand in front of her face completely embarrassed and laughed when she felt Justin's arms go around her. "What are the two of you doing?"

"Trace here decided to make us a home video for the road. I'm not going to tell you the specifics that he told me," Justin rolled his eyes at his friend, "but his heart is in the right place."

"Trace, you're going to sell this on EBAY aren't you?" Camille asked him though she was staring up into Justin's eyes as he stared back into hers with his arms encircling her waist.

"Damn straight." he adjusted the rim of his baseball hat before trying out the zoom in feature on his digital camcorder. "Will you two pretend that I'm not here and suck face already? The fans are not going to buy a tape of you just staring at each other like you want to eat each other when you're not going to act on it."

"You'd be surprised." Justin cracked as Camille's attention diverted to his best friend. She waved goodbye to him before separating herself from her boyfriend and starting off to see if the crew was ready to begin filming.

"So I take it that I can't interest the two of you in doing a series of soft porn videos for the website?"

"You don't have a website, fuck head."

"You don't know what I have." Trace couldn't suppress his laughter. "You and Cam could be making way more money than you're
making now if you'd both be willing to take your clothes off, roll around on a bed, and moan out some sick shit."

Justin's mouth hung slightly agape. "You really need a hobby."

"Hey, Justin, we're going to start rolling tape! We need you!" the assistant director called from the distance.

Justin made his way over to the camera crew and was filled in on what was being shot as Trace stood by. A few minutes later he was standing with Camille against the ocean and the sunset with her back against his chest and her left arm lifted up so that her hand was cupping the back of his neck. After a number of lighting tests their images locked in warm embraces and engaged in steamy kisses were captured over and over again from different angles on film. By the end of shooting days later they were sure that they had kissed more in that first day then they had during their entire relationship up to that point.

////

"The filming of Camille's video was very hectic because there was a deadline that had to be met and most if not all of the shots had to be done at sunset or sunrise. So when they came back from the Bahamas they were really drained." Lynn informed Gary and the camera crew. "It was all very last minute. Justin had to get home and finish packing to head out to England for his promo tour and then a week later Camille would be flying out to begin filming her movie. In between and during all of this they would be doing interviews and guest appearances. It was the first time that they'd really have to exist apart since they had met…"

////

Justin sat in the back seat of the black Suburban staring out of the window and sucking on a sour apple sucker while Camille slept fitfully at his side. The video shoot in the Bahamas had taken a lot out of her with them both toping out at about eight hours of sleep over the course of the three day filming period. When they weren't being filmed by the camera crew they were being filmed by his best friend, Trace Ayala, for a home video that he was whipping up for the both of them. Any free moment that they had come across was only free for the first second of it's discovery.

Camille sat up slowly, waking from her catnap, with a crook in her neck. Justin turned to her seeing her painful _expression and moved to massage her neck with his right hand. It only took a moment for her to relax into him and lay her head down in his lap to go back to sleep. Once she was out he slid his hand over her bare arm to keep her warm in the air-conditioned SUV and returned to his daydreaming outside of the window.

"Tough shoot?" Lonnie, his bodyguard, questioned from the front passengers seat as Camille's bodyguard, Eddie, was driving.

"Nah, it was straight. It was just a lot of long hours." Justin answered.

Lonnie nodded, looking over the side of his seat at the sleeping young woman lying in Justin's lap. He hadn't really had that much time to get to know Camille but he liked her so far. She didn't seem like she had ulterior motives toward his employer and she wasn't as clingy or whiney as some of the other girls that he had allowed into his world. Camille seemed genuine to him and he figured the transition of friend to lover was beneficial.

"You leave tomorrow afternoon for England?"

"Yeah," Justin removed the sucker from his mouth and analyzed how much more he had to go, spinning the stick around between his index finger and thumb. "Back to the same old routine."

"It's what you love, kid. You were made to do this."

"Most definitely. It's just going to be a lot of distance between Camille and I and I've kind of gotten used to seeing her almost everyday or at least once a week."

Lonnie adjusted the bottom hem of his shirt, "It's not the first time you've had to do the long distance thing with a woman."

"I'll be taking care of her while you're overseas." Eddie finally spoke up as he hadn't been a part of the conversation and was the only one awake in the car that wasn't participating.

"I'm not worried about her safety `cause I know she's in good hands. I just want to see her, you know?" Justin explained himself, letting down the ashtray and dropping the sucker stick within it before re-closing it.

"So then why don't you take time off, go with her to film her movie, and then do your thing afterwards? Do like a trade-off system. When you work she doesn't and when she works you don't." Lonnie offered up what sounded like an easy solution to the problem.

"I can't just not promote this album. If they hadn't already leaked the first single to the radio stations then maybe I could ask Johnny and the execs over at JIVE to just sit on it for a while and put it on hold but it's too late for that now." He sighed heavily. "I would never ask Camille to postpone doing her first movie either. She scored the kind of role that thousands of actresses would die for in her first shot. She's supposed to be doing this."

The remainder of the car ride was blanketed in silence. Once the Suburban was unloaded at Justin's home Camille climbed out of the back to say goodbye to him half-heartedly. He could tell that she was still tired as she drug herself over to him and kissed him goodbye while Lonnie removed the last bag and dropped it just inside of the door of the house.

"Will I see you later tonight before you leave?" she yawned out tiredly.

"I have a lot of packing to do and I have to wash all of the clothes that I took with me to the Bahamas but I'll try to get over there as soon as I can to see you, okay?" Justin pushed one of his bags inside with his foot and shoved his hands into his pockets. "You want to just stay here with me tonight and I'll take you home in the morning before I leave?"

"I don't know." Camille shrugged, looking away from him.

"Baby, I'd really like it if you just stayed here and went with me to the airport so I could say goodbye to you."

"I'm not good with goodbyes."

"Obviously." Justin cocked his head to the side, catching her eyes finally. "Just stay, okay? Anytime you want to leave I'll let you have the keys to one of my cars and you can just go."

Camille's face crinkled as if she were about to cry when she heard Eddie announcing that they were about to leave. She honestly did not want to stay there with him. If she stayed then she would have to acknowledge the fact that he was leaving. If she went home at least she could lie to herself and say that she could just come and see him tomorrow.

"Camille, are you coming, honey?" Eddie called again, he and Lonnie sitting in the car ready to roll out. They were officially off duty and were ready to go to a local bar to party it up after dropping her off at home.

"Baby, what do you want to do?" Justin asked and then sighed heavily as she walked to the car leaving him alone standing on his front steps. Without another word he made his way into the house before hearing the honking of the horn. He looked back over his shoulder as Camille came back toward him with her purse in hand and walked passed him into the house.

"Eddie says goodbye and Lonnie says he'll see you at the airport tomorrow." she reported as he closed the door and she made her way upstairs to his bedroom.

Justin looked at all of his bags on the floor and thought about all of the washing that was going to have to happen before the next day came. He loathed washing clothes. Wearily he started up the stairs on his way to his room to catch up with his girlfriend.

"The video looks like it will come out really well, mom." she spoke into her cell phone, sitting at the foot of his bed as he entered the room and went to the closet to pull out the rest of his suitcases. "I watched the playbacks with Hype and they look very stylish…I don't know about that because I didn't watch the scenes where we kissed. I didn't want to. No, I'm not mad at him I just didn't…mom, they're going to give me a copy of the final cut before it's aired."

Justin was quiet as he unzipped the larger of his suitcases and opened his top drawer to begin loading it with clothes. He had watched the scenes of he and Camille kissing on the playback even though she hadn't. He thought they were amazing. She looked beautiful and they looked beautiful together standing against the backdrop of the ocean and the setting sun. He favored the scenes where the sun was rising but they all were wonderful in his book.

"Mom can I just call you back later and talk to you? No, I'm really stressed out right now and all I want to do is sleep but I have to help Justin pack for England." Camille attempted to rush her mother off of the phone not in the mood at all to answer a million and one questions about work. "No, I don't have to but I want to, okay? Mom?"

Justin stopped packing hearing the crack in her voice. Camille was holding her head down with her hand covering her face. Frozen, he didn't make a move until he saw the lonely tear drop slide over the side of her chin and drop down onto her pants. Cautiously he stood up from his squatting position near the dresser and made his way over to her taking the phone from her hand and lifting it up to his ear.

"Linda? Yeah, it's Justin. Can Camille call you back a little bit later on? Yeah, everything is fine but she doesn't feel too well right now so I'm going to set her up in one of the guest bedrooms while I pack." he pulled together a story quickly. "You want me to call you when I'm finished to tell you how she is? Okay, I'll do that sweetheart. Yeah, love you too, Linda. Bye." He turned off the phone and handed it back to his girlfriend.

Camille dried her eyes quickly, setting the phone down on the bed, and stood up before him. "What do you need me to help you pack?"

"I don't need you help me pack anything. I've got it under control so why don't you just talk to me for a second?"

"About what?"

"About us and this whole thing about England and your movie that you're about to do. If you don't want me to go then I won't go."

Camille couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Why would you…? No, I want you to go! Am I not allowed to miss you?"

"You're allowed that, Camille, but don't miss me before I'm gone. Shit, I want to have a fucking tantrum in the middle of Johnny's office, tell him that I'll quit if he doesn't synchronize our schedules, but I can't do it. Even if he would stun the world and give in to the pleas it wouldn't be beneficial right now because it would be distracting. You don't want me over your shoulder every time you do a scene measuring how close you are to some guy, do you?"

"Justin, you'd be telling me to kiss the guy with more feeling or telling him about the spot that drives me crazy so the scene would go to the next level." she glared at him trying desperately not to laugh at her own joke because she always thought her jokes were funny and appropriately timed.

Justin's lip quivered trying to suppress his own smile before he pushed it away and glared back at her. "Do you have a point? No, you don't so shut up!"

"You want to laugh right now."

"No, I don't."

"Yes you do and if you don't you just might explode. You better just let it out."

"I'm trying to make a point right now, if you don't mind?" he put his hands on his hips in a fashion of his mother's and Camille fell out laughing instantaneously, falling back onto the bed. "You are the sickest individual on the face of the planet."

"How can you stand yourself? You are so funny without even trying!" she mocked him, putting her hands on her hips and doing a little jig while laying on her back in the middle of the bed.

"I've just concluded that I'm never ever going to have sex with you." Justin walked away and continued his packing.

"Aw, now why do you say that?" Camille propped herself up on her elbows and watched him operate.

"Let's say that I have an off day or something and things don't go right or aren't to your expectations…"

"You have off days?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

"See, there you go again!" he shouted, "That's it, you will never see my penis!"

"That's fine. It just means that your penis will never get any action `cause you're stuck with me for life, man."

"Not at the rate you're going tonight." Justin put his left hand on his hip, snapped his fingers, and gave her serious neck sway before cat-walking to the master bathroom RuPaul-style. Camille was in hysterics again as she jumped up from the bed and followed after him. "What do you want?"

"What are you doing?" she stood in the doorway leaning against it's frame.

"I was planning on getting into the shower and relaxing for a while before I started washing clothes. Why? Do you want to join me or something?"

"No, what makes you think that?"

"Just a thought." Justin shrugged and then pulled his shirt over his head dropping it to the floor. "Or you could just keep standing there watching too. It's your world."

"Ha," Camille fluffed out her hair and turned on her heels to return to his bedroom. "I'm going to go finish packing your bags for you. Ciao."

"Whatever you say, mama." he grinned as she closed the door behind herself and then continued stripping before getting into the glass enclosed shower.

/*/*/

By the time that the plane had touched down in L.A. Justin had wanted to bend down and kiss the ground. He wasted no time in phoning Lonnie to make sure that he would be at the airport waiting for him and when he stepped out of the terminal he was glad that he had done so. About fifty photographers and journalist stood waiting on his arrival snapping photo after photo and shouting out questions that he really didn't want to answer.

Lonnie appeared out of nowhere parting through the middle of the mob with another bodyguard named Dre. The two of them together formed a unbreakable wall around the young star and forced their way out of the chaos. Quickly the three of them made their way to retrieve his luggage before rushing out to the SUV parked in the front of the airport. With the media on their heels they threw everything in and jumped inside before speeding off onto the highway losing the cameras in traffic.

"Haven't heard from you in a while, player, we got a little bit worried." Dre chuckled from the driver's seat and peered up into the rearview mirror to see his friend's _expression.

"I've been a little out of it lately with all that's been going on. I didn't expect to be back in California any time soon." Justin replied and took a deep breath to calm his racing nerves.

"Is she talking to you now?" Lonnie inquired, adjusting the radio dial.

"Yes and no. She didn't hang up on me when I called her and she's letting me come by to see Nicole so that's a start, right?"

"Sounds like it to me, brother."

"Yo," Dre spoke up, "I'm not afraid to ask you this so what in the hell were you thinking when you fucked up the way that you did?"

Justin leaned forward in his seat and put his hand over his forehead. "I don't even know, man. I wasn't thinking and I was drunk. None of it is a legitimate excuse but that's all I can really give you right now as far as explanations go."

"Camille's a good woman, JT."

"I know she is."

"If she lets you back in it could be really hard to get things back to the way that they used to be." the older man commented.

"I'll be happy just as long as we're back together. I don't care if she wants to argue, fuss, and fight all day everyday. I'll shut up and let her say whatever is on her mind and heart as long as I can be with her."

Lonnie looked back at Justin and laughed. "That's sad man!"

"Let the truth be told! Hallelujah!" Dre chimed in.

Justin couldn't help but to laugh himself. He did sound pretty pitiful but sadly enough he was being completely honest. "Yo, can we stop off at the nearest toy store? I have to get my baby girl a doll. I promised her."

"No problem, man."

"Thanks," Justin paused hearing his cell phone ring in his jacket. Quickly he reached inside, flipped it open, and brought it up to his ear. "Talk to me."

"Yo, dirty! I hear you back in L.A." Nelly's enthusiastic voice poured through the phone instantly lightening the mood of the SUV. "What's poppin'?

"Trying to run out here and go see my girl and make sure everything is alright with us. She's letting me come by and see my daughter and, I don't know, maybe we can talk or something without all the drama."

"Not to be crushing your nuts here, partner, but you brought that drama on yourself. Cam's a real laid back and chill lady but you did some questionable shit behind her back."

"So you're going to start in on me too?"

"Hey, I'm just coming at you real from the standpoint of a friend. I'll stand behind you whatever you do because you're my dog but you know you did her dirty. Only thing I can say positive is that if she does take you back there could be some amazing makeup sex in the future."

"You've been hanging out with Trace, haven't you?" Justin shook his head sadly.

"We chat on occasion." Nelly laughed. "Anyway, give me a holler when you get things sorted out and we'll go kick it or something. Maybe Nastassia and I will come over and it'll be the four of us like old times."

"That'd be nice." he agreed. "I'll call you, man. One."

/*/*/

"How long was I in there?" Justin paused in his tracks out of the master bathroom in his towel as his eyes took in the organization of all of his packed belongings. He could tell that the things that he had thrown aimlessly into the first suitcase had been reorganized and the things that he was too careless to sort out and leave behind had been sorted out for him. It was amazing.

Camille smiled at his question, zipping up the last bag, and stood up to her feet stretching. She had been squatting down and sitting on her legs for far too long trying to get his things together. Socks, underwear, t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, sweatpants, jeans, cologne, extra toothbrush and toothpaste…everything that he could possibly need was stored away perfectly for easy access. She knew that once he was on the road all of her hard labor would be massacred but she liked to think that she had done this all for a reason.

"You are amazing." Justin commented, adjusting his towel around his bare waist and smiling at her from across the room. "Did you make dinner and wash the clothes and polish all of the floors in the process, Molly Maid?"

"If that's what you think will happen we can never live together." she finished stretching and then leaned back against the dresser wearily. "Are you hungry, though? I'll make you something if you are."

"No, I'm not hungry. Stop trying to do it all because you know damn well that if I wasn't leaving tomorrow you wouldn't be doing all of this."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

"Aren't you the same guy that demands grilled cheese sandwiches as a greeting at my front door and won't even kiss me until the order has been filled?"

"Oh, come on!" Justin scoffed and walked across the room to stand in front of her. "That only happened one time!"

"Three times." Camille held up her fingers as if to back up her story. "I do things for you all the time and you do things for me all the time so let's not go starting another argument when all you really want to do is kiss me."

"Who said I wanted to kiss you?"

"Justin, you have this tendency of picking childish fights in order to get lip action when in reality all you really have to do is come up to me and kiss me. We're not kids anymore." she said pointedly. "You don't even have to ask at this point because we're way passed the getting to know you stage."

"Are you done?"

"Yes, pretty much."

"Good," he leaned forward to kiss her but then stopped. "I can't kiss you like this."

"Like what?" Camille's eyes shifted from his lips to his eyes as their faces were only a mere inch apart.

"Either I have to get dressed or you have to get naked because you in clothes and me in a towel is weirding me out."

"That's because you're special." she cracked. "Get dressed."

"Fine," Justin moved in to kiss her again but this time made contact.

Slowly his hands slid down her sides and to the bottom hem of her shirt before tugging it up and under her armpits, pausing their kissing as she lifted her arms to his astonishment, and then pulled it up and over her head tossing it across the room. He stared into her eyes then, unsure of how far she would really go with it, before starting to kiss her again. He knew that at any second she would tell him to stop, leave her alone, and go take a cold shower.

Camille had no idea what she was doing or why she was letting things go as far as they were going. She didn't want to think that it was just because he was leaving the next day and that she wasn't going to see him for months. She wanted to believe that as he one-by-one unbuttoned the silver buttons on her jeans that she was letting this happen for a much deeper reason. As his lips separated from her own and traveled the length of her neck, between the slope of her bra covered breasts and down the middle of her stomach, she stopped even caring. When his hands slid around her body and eased her jeans down her legs and lifted her delicate toes out of them her rational mind stopped functioning for the first time in her life.

Kissing his way back up her body Justin attacked her lips once again. His hands cupped the sides of her face and he could feel her fingers lightly wrap around his forearms. This was a new plateau for them both granted it wasn't the first time that Justin himself had been intimate with a woman. It was the first time that he had been intimate with this one. Suddenly he felt as if his nerves were shot. The fear of messing up her first time hit him like a semi and reluctantly he ended their steamy make out session.

"What's wrong?" Camille whispered, standing on her tiptoes to plant delicate kisses along his jaw line.

"Nothing." he looked over her head unwilling to make eye contact.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious and figuring that physically she was a disappointment Camille nodded slowly, eyes cast to the floor, and stepped away from him to retrieve her shirt and jeans from the floor. Justin closed his eyes hating himself for ending things there but knowing that he was doing the right thing for her. He watched her shimmy back into her jeans in the reflection of the mirror but said nothing.

"Can I get those car keys now?" she asked as calmly as she could while pulling her shirt the right side out.

Silently Justin walked up behind her removing the shirt from her hands and rest his chin on her shoulder while wrapping both his and her arms around her small body. "Camille, I don't want to hurt you."

"Physically or emotionally?"

"Both. We can do this later at another time when we're both completely sure about things. Besides, don't you want to wait until you get married? Isn't that what you told me?"

"That could have been me. I don't quite remember right now." she shrugged spitefully.

Justin pressed his lips to the side of her neck. "Stay with me tonight? I'll do whatever you want me to do outside of…introducing you to the anaconda." he cracked and fell out laughing when she pushed him away.

"Go do your laundry and put some clothes on. You make me sick."

"I know." he kissed her lips quickly before setting out on his way to follow orders.

////

"I've always hated saying goodbye to my son." Lynn dabbed her watering eyes with a Kleenex and smiled, a bit embarrassed by her own emotions. "It's hard sometimes with his career because the family doesn't get to see him as often as we would like. He's just so busy and it's not as bad when he's touring here in the States because we can take a quick flight out to where he is or vice versa but England is different. He's much further away and it's just very stressful."

"Do you need a moment, Mrs. Harless?"

"Oh, no. I'm fine." she assured Gary whom was very much concerned. "Paul, Trace and I all went with Justin to the airport to send him off early afternoon to England. He had a really long flight ahead of him. He was happy to be going because performing is in his bones but we could tell how sad he was that Camille didn't come to say goodbye to him. I understood her reasoning but it was still hard to accept. Justin told me later that she sent him a text message when he was on the plane and a picture of them together as an attachment. She didn't want to watch him get on the plane but she wanted him to know that she was there with him."

////

"Camille?" Nastassia squinted at her friend after opening the door in her pajamas. "What time is it?" she checked her own watch that read that it was seven AM. "What's the matter?"

"I couldn't say goodbye to him." Camille struggled to breathe through her tears as Nastassia reached out for her and drew her into her arms comfortingly.

"Oh, girl, you're going to see him again. Don't cry." Nastassia rocked back and forth in the doorway with her distraught friend. "You didn't go to the airport with him?"

"I left before he got up. I just…I just couldn't be there, you know? I couldn't do that."

"I know. I know." she assured her. "Everything will be fine. You're going to start working on your movie next week and start working on your new album. Justin will be performing and before you know it the time will fly by and you'll both be back together, C. I promise you that everything will be just fine. You just have to be strong for him."

Can he be strong for her as well?

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1