Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 12:06:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jason Calme <jasoncalme@yahoo.com>
Subject: Boy Bands - All The Ways I Love You - Chapter 38

All the Ways I Love You

This story is about male/male relationships and contains
graphic descriptions of sex.

You should not read this story if it is in any way illegal
due to your age or residence.

This is a work of pure fiction. It mixes fictional characters
and events with real people. However any real person
mentioned in this work is purely an actor playing a part.
This story in no way is meant to imply anything about the
sexuality, personality, or behavior of the actual person.

Thanks to the many readers who have responded to this story.

Copyright 2003 Jason Calme. This story is the sole property
of its author and may not be copied in whole or in part or
posted on any website without the permission of the author.

Questions and commentary can be sent to
"JasonCalme@yahoo.com".


Chapter 38


"You're getting pretty good at this!" Justin laughed. He was
standing watching the golf ball I'd just hit sail through the air in a
relatively straight line. "Going to have to take you out on the course
soon."

"Have to practice my mini-golf first," I said.

"Uh huh," he nodded.

"I still feel like I'm fifty when I'm on a golf course."

"You age well," he said.

Justin had been doing much better the last few weeks. It had
been three months since the 'incident,' as we sometimes cryptically
referred to it. He'd been in some intensive therapy sessions and
we'd been to some couple sessions, which had really been a way
for us to argue whether we should continue as a couple.

I had assumed Justin would want to get out. It seemed to me to
be the logical solution. He'd wanted to die because he thought he
couldn't do music anymore, so wouldn't breaking up mean he'd be
able to put that part of his life back together?

He argued that instead of being a gay, unemployed musician,
he'd be a lonely, gay, unemployed musician.

So we'd stayed together.

And we'd had some meetings with his Mother and Johnny his
Manager, where we'd hashed out what Justin wanted to do and
how we were going to deal with it. For the moment it had been
decided that Justin was going to ignore any questions about
sexuality, and about me, and both of us were simply going to say
we were friends. We weren't going to answer any other questions.

More importantly, we weren't going to hide the fact that Justin
was spending a lot of time in New York, and we weren't going to go
out of our way to hide the fact we did things together. We were
just going to get on with our lives and see what happened.

Justin and Johnny then met with the record company and told
them what Justin was planning to do, it was non-negotiable, and
Justin never wanted to talk about his sexuality with them again. If
they had a problem, now was the time to bale. After some bickering
and an attempt to renegotiate the contract, the record company
decided to stick with him, at least for one more album, if he decided
to do one.

And Justin had started adjusting his life to what he wanted it to
be. He was concentrating on song writing, collaborating with
people, and thinking about doing some producing. He was still doing
some promotion work for the last album, but he'd done no
interviews except shows where no serious questioning took place.
He'd also done some interviews with fellow N*Sync members which
he felt comfortable with, and he could hide in the background if he
felt like it.

I had become very attuned to his moods, always worrying if there
were any sudden changes. I had also read a few books about
suicide that had done nothing to alleviate my concerns. My Mother
told me to stop fussing, but I couldn't help but feel that she was
often checking on Justin too.

Lynn and I had come to an understanding too. We weren't great
friends, but she put up with me - well that's the best word I can put
to it. A mother putting up with her child's best friend because she
knew there was nothing she could do to stop us from being
together. She visited often, and though he still talked to her most
every day she would sometimes call me to see how I thought Justin
was doing.

She and I never directly talked about the incident, but my Mom
said she had told her how she knew I had saved Justin's life. And it
turned out my Mom and his Mom were able to get along quite well,
so I knew that Mom was telling Lynn anything important about
Justin too. We weren't one big happy family, but we'd come to an
understanding, and I felt things might improve over time.

Everything was going well I thought. And he we were having a
nice time at the driving range, and I was even getting pretty goog.

Then he went and casually mentioned that he was going to be on
Howard Stern tomorrow. I fell about laughing. I thought it was a
joke.

"What?" he said looking at me with a confused expression on his
face.

"You going on Howard Stern! That's good!"

"I'm serious," he said.

"Uh...okay. Who arranged this?"

"I did," he said quietly.

"You did?"

"Yeah...they contacted my publicist and I said 'Yes.'"

"Okay..." I replied evenly. I didn't like the sound of this. Was
Justin going from literal suicide to figurative? "Have you talked to
anyone else about this?" I asked.

"Uh...yeah...I told Johnny, and I talked about it in session. I told
Mom too."

"So you only tell me now?"

"Sorry," he looked down, "I just thought you'd talk me out of it."

"No one else did?"

"Ah...yeah everyone actually." He paused for a second and then
smirked. "You're Mother was okay with it," he added brightly.

"You told my Mother?"

"Yeah. Mentioned it to her the other day. Said I was still thinking
about it...which I was."

I stood there for a moment trying to think it through. I couldn't
figure out what he was up to and I wasn't sure what I was
supposed to do. Talk him out of it or offer support? Get upset, or be
indifferent?

"So should I talk you out of it?" I finally asked.

"No," he grinned, lining up and swinging at the ball.

"Okay," I said. I wasn't going to argue with him about it. This was
his business after all.

Justin watched the ball land and then turned back to face me, his
face serious. "You want to come?" he said, holding my eyes for a
second before nervously looking down to line up another ball. I
watched as he took his time to get ready, finally taking a swing at
it. He sliced it badly and cursed a little.

"Hold your hand on the way?" I asked, not sure what he wanted.

"Come down for the interview," still looking out where the ball
had gone.

"Why would I want to do that?"

He turned back to face me, turning the club over and absently
fingering the end of the club. "You're invited."

"Yeah? Now why do you think they'd invite me down to an
interview you were doing?"

"Who knows!" he said sheepishly flashing me a huge grin.

"I should have known something was up!" I said. I was already
resigned to how this was going to turn out. I'd once gotten a call
from Rob saying that Howard Stern's people had called and wanted
to know if I was interested in going in for an interview. I'd said no
immediately. I knew they had no interest in me. I was a barely
known author. My claim to fame was appearing in a photo in the
newspaper.

Justin came over and sat down beside me.

"I'm going to talk about the Foundation," he said. He'd spent
more time working on his foundation and I'd gotten a bit involved. It
promoted teaching music in schools, something I thought was
worthwhile, even if I was barely musical myself.

"Yeah, sure," I said, unconvinced. "What are you really up to?"

"I don't know. I wanted to clear a few things up. I'm not really
sure what I'm going to say. I guess it'll depend on how things go."

"If you want to do something like this, can't you think of a more
friendly place? Go on Letterman, or Barbara Walters or MTV even."

"They didn't seem right," he said frowning.

"I'd try NPR. That'd be a good place."

Justin frowned. "I only want to do this once. I just want to clear
up some of the rumors. That's all."

I sat there staring at Justin. He wanted me to say something but
I didn't know what.

"Well, I'll support you," I said finally. "I'm not sure I agree with
what you are doing, but you have my blessing to do it."

"Is it okay if I talk about you? About us if I decide to?"

"Uh...well just as long as they don't start referring to me as Ethan
Timberlake I'm okay with it."

"Okay," he laughed and then he hopped up and went back to
hitting the balls.



We arrived down at the studio at 7:30. I didn't know about
Justin, but I was nervous. I hadn't wanted to come. I was going to
stay at home and listen on the radio, but Justin insisted I come
down. After some thought it occurred to me that I might be even
more nervous waiting at home.

"You can wait in the room so I'll know you're just down the hall,"
he kept saying.

Sterns people were positively giddy when they realized that
Justin had brought me with him. They wanted me to go in with him
and I kept saying no. Justin said nothing. He just watched with a
grin on his face as they were begging and pleading with me. I just
kept saying no.

So I stayed in the room they provided to Justin for getting ready,
while he went out for the interview. I kept the door closed as they
had people with cameras roaming around and I didn't want to be
photographed. Justin's publicist and the security guy we'd brought
with us sat in the room with me. The publicist was nervous and she
kept trying to be bright and sunny, which didn't help me at all. We
were all on edge. Even the security guy.


"So Justin Timberlake is here in the studio. Hello Justin," came
Howard's voice over the speaker.

"Hi there," said Justin. I could detect a hint of nervousness in his
voice.

"So you're here, you're out promoting your album. How's that
doing?"

"Pretty good," Justin said.

And that's how it started. Rather slowly and anti-climactic. They
talked about the album a bit. How it was different from the last.
Then they talked about Justin's Foundation and Justin gave it a big
plug.

Then there was a pause and I had a premonition. It was nothing
good.

"So there's been a lot of stuff about you ,and we just wanted to
clear up a few things," Howard said suddenly and my stomach
lurched.

"Yeah?" said Justin, suspicion clearly in his voice.

"Okay. So you were in hospital a few months back, and there
have been all kinds of rumors about what happened."

"Well, most of those rumors weren't true," he said.

"They weren't?"

"No. The sex change one for example," Justin said and he
laughed.

"Yeah, but what really..." Howard continued.

"...I just...I guess I just want to apologize to all my fans and the
people who heard about this on the news and were worried. I
really appreciate all their thoughts and well wishes."

"Okay Justin, that's good but what happened?"

"You can tell us!" someone piped up.

"Did you O'D or didn't you?" said Howard.

"I don't really want to get into the details, it was just a stupid
mistake and I'm okay now."

"Coke? Heroin? Boy, you seem like such a clean-cut kid. What
were you doing?" Howard persisted.

"It wasn't nearly as exciting as that."

"So you did OD! Come on, you can tell us."

"It was probably Viagra!" someone chirped in the background.

"It was sleeping pills," Justin said in an earnest voice, and there
was a moment of awkward silence.

"You O'Ded on sleeping pills?" Howard repeated with a laugh in
his voice. "What else were you taking?"

"Nothing. I just decided to swallow a bottle of pills. It was dumb.
It seemed like the answer at the time."

"That's...you must of been pretty sick," said Howard.

"Well, I think I'm better now. But I was sick then, yeah. I don't
want anyone's pity or anything. I just...well if anyone listening feels
like they might want to take their life they should call...there are
places that can help you, and...well it's not the answer."

"Just ask Curt Cobain" said Robin.

"So you're not going to try it again?" Howard asked.

"I don't think so...I hope not..."

"But so how do you know. Are you in therapy? You taking any
drugs?"

"Uh...in therapy...no drugs."

"Well this should provide lots of new material for your next album.
It should be a really happy number," Howard joked. The interview
seemed to have become a bit surreal and I couldn't tell whether
Howard was joking or being serious.

"I don't really know...I think I'm still working through it. I write
about it a bit, but not at the moment with the intention of doing
anything."

There was another pause.

"So what were you thinking?!" Howard finally asked.

"I was kind of lost...I...I don't really know whether talking about
this is going to help anyone else...I don't really want to talk about
it."

"Okay," said Howard. "Can I ask you about other things?"

"You can ask. I may not answer," Justin answered mischievously.

"You've been linked with someone. You know who I'm going to
ask you about?"

"Uh...I can guess."

"So you want to talk about that?"

"Uhh..." Justin began. I held my breath. "Britney and I are still
good friends. We just grew apart and it was hard, but I think we're
both better and we're both happy now so I'm relieved about that."

"Well I wasn't going to ask about Britney," said Howard.

"That's old news," Robin laughed.

"I know," said Justin, and he laughed too, finally sounding
relaxed.

"So there's this guy," Howard began. "His name is Ethan
something..."

"Thompson! Ethan Thompson!" Robin laughed.

"Yeah," said Howard, "So you were pictured together in the
paper..."

"Do you know how many people I'm photographed with?
Probably hundreds!" Justin laughed. "The fact that there's pictures
of us walking down the street, I mean...if they get a picture of you
and me together does that mean we're dating?"

"No, but..."

"Well that's a bit...a bit of what it's like for me. It seems like every
time I'm seen out with someone, rumors start."

"But you were holding hands!" Robin interjected.

"Not many straight guys hold hands walking down the street,"
said Howard.

"You wouldn't hold my hand?" Justin teased.

"No!"

"I would!" said Robin.

"Well, we weren't walking down the street hand in hand," Justin
pointed out. "We'd actually stopped at a street corner."

"So you're saying you're just friends then?" asked Howard.

There was a pause, a long pause, and then Justin said, "I don't
want to talk about my personal life."

"Cause he's here with you today."

"Yes...so's my publicist," Justin countered. "And we're not dating if
you're going to ask."

"So you're just friends?" Robin asked.

"Of course. I don't normally show up somewhere with people I
don't know."

"Why won't he come down here then?" Howard asked.

"I don't think he likes you Howard," Justin said, and I could
picture the huge smile on his face as he said it.

"Likes me? You know me. I'm a nice guy," Howard said. "Why
don't you go and bring him down here?"

"He said 'no'," Justin said.

"Well then I'll go down there."

"I don't think that will work."

"I'll go get him," said Robin.

"I know. Why don't you go down and get him while we take a
break," said Howard. "Then we can talk some more. You tell him I'll
be nice to him."

"I'll try. Don't think it'll do any good though," said Justin.



I was uncomfortable sitting in the studio next to Justin. I was
trying to look like I was just a friend of Justin's. That I was a
straight friend of Justin's.

Am I sitting 'straight?' I wondered. Did I look gay? Why did I come
down with him? Why did I agree to come in?

"So joining us is Ethan uhhh...Thompson," Howard began," a
friend of Justin Timberlake's and an author.

"Can I just point out I was an author before I was a friend of
Justin's," I butted in, deciding that the best defense was a good
offence.

"You tell him!" Justin cheered me on.

"Are you sensitive about that?" Howard asked.

"I just wanted to make sure you were accurate."

"So you're a writer?" he went on.

"Yes, I write for magazines and have published three
books...available in all fine book stores."

Howard stared at me and I couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"How did you two meet?" he asked.

"He wrote a script..." Justin said.

"That they never made..." I added.

"That wasn't your fault."

"I didn't say it..." I tried to finish.

"They're like a married couple," interjected Robin and the others
laughed and I held my tongue and blushed.

"So Ethan you've been pictured with Justin in the paper," Howard
began again.

"Yeah, but I didn't think those pictures did me justice."

"I hate pictures," said Justin.

"They didn't capture my good side," I added.

"You have a good side?" chortled Justin.

"Laugh it up nose boy," I joked and Justin flashed me a frown
that let me know he'd get me for that later.

"So Ethan," said Howard, trying to regain control, "you're gay?"

"Don't spread it around," I said quietly. "They'll kick me out of the
Republican Party."

"And the Army Reserves," joked Justin.

"It says so on your website," said Howard.

"Yeah...well you make it sound like that's all I am. I really don't try
to portray myself as a...you know...gay writer. I'm a writer who
happens to be gay."

"And you two live together?" said Howard.

"We're roommates," said Justin and I glanced over at him. I
hadn't expected him to confirm that.

"Roommates?" said Howard suspiciously, almost laughing.

"When I'm in New York I stay at Ethan's place sometimes, yeah,"
said Justin, "I have a house in LA. It's just I'm here recording and I
needed a place to stay."

I nodded. Okay, this almost sounded plausible. Justin did have a
plan.

"So you're friends?" said Howard.

I just sat there. Not because I didn't want to answer the
question, but because I felt I was saying too much already. This
was Justin's interview. Better for me to keep my trap shut as much
as possible I kept telling myself, though my nerves were making me
want to talk.

"Yeah. Of course!" said Justin, rolling his eyes.

"And that's all?" asked Howard.

I looked at Justin and he looked at me and he kind of shrugged
innocently.

"Yeah, we're good friends," he said, floundering a little.

"Friends with benefits?" someone said, though I wasn't sure
who.

Justin blushed a little and then looked serious.

"No," he said, "we're not friends with benefits. Absolutely not.
And I really don't want to talk about other people," and he glanced
over at me and smiled nervously.

But Howard wasn't going to let go.

"So you're telling us you're living with this cute gay guy and you
two aren't goin' at it?"

I felt myself blush now.

"Well I don't like the way you put that," Justin began, "but you
now, I don't think I could do friends with benefits. I couldn't have
sex with a friend casually like that. I just couldn't do it."

"So Justin, who are you dating right now?" said Howard.

Justin frowned. "I don't want to talk about my personal life."

"Come on! You can tell me! Are you getting it regular?" Howard
asked, and the others snickered. It felt so demeaning sitting here
answering these questions.

Justin looked angry and I think he was going to get up and go.

"Just answer me this, are you in a relationship with anyone at the
moment?" Howard asked.

Justin grinned. "Yes," he said quietly.

"Ohh!" said Robin.

"Are you going to tell us who that is?" Howard asked.

"No," said Justin, tensing up even more. I glanced over at Howard
and I could tell he was noticing that Justin was on the verge of
leaving.

"Okay, okay," said Howard, "obviously you don't want to answer
that. How about we take a couple of calls?"

Oh great! I thought. If there's anything worse than Howard it's
his inane callers.

"Yeah Howard!" came this voice out of the speakers, "if I was
roommates with a gay guy, I'd let him blow me. Gay guys are
supposed to give the best head."

Some of the others laughed and even I thought the guy sounded
like a dumb jerk, which made it funny.

"That's a myth," I said, "barbers give the best head."

"So how about that?" said Howard, "Do gay guys give the best
head."

"Is sex all you want to talk about?" Justin asked. "Cause I really
can't be bothered."

"What's the matter with sex? What do you have against sex?"
said Howard.

"Nothing, as long as it's between two people that love one
another," said Justin. "I just don't think it's anyone's business who
I'm in love with or..." and he went quiet.

"But people are interested."

"Sure they are. Doesn't mean I'm going to tell them," Justin said.

"Well Ethan..." Howard began.

"I don't think I've ever had a blow job from a straight guy, so I
can't compare," I said.

"Are you dating anyone right now?"

"No," I said.

"So you're single and looking?"

"I didn't say that," I said, glancing at Justin, who was staring
impassively and I was really wishing he hadn't done this.

"Well then what?"

"I don't want to talk about my personal life either. I'm not even
sure why I'm here other than because of that article in the paper. I
mean, would you have called me up and asked me to come down
here if it wasn't because I was linked with Justin?"

"No, but you're here, so you get some free publicity," Howard
said smugly, and now I wanted to hit him.

"Well that was my mistake," I said, and I went to get up, but
Justin grabbed my arm and hauled me back to my seat and gave me
a look that said 'stay with me.' I shrugged and sat back down.

Howard shrugged and put on another caller.

"Howard," came another voice, "there's a...the author picture on
his...that guy's book...was taken by Justin. How'd that happen?"

I leaned over to Justin, "I'm 'that guy'?" I said to him quietly,
though on the recording I listened to later you could just hear me
say it.

"What about that?" asked Howard.

Justin and I looked at each other, not sure who he was asking.
Justin pointed at himself, "You asking me?"

"Both of you," said Howard.

"Yeah, I took the picture," said Justin, shrugging.

"I just liked the picture," I said, noticing that Howard had the
book and was looking at the picture.

"That's a nice picture," said Howard, "you look
really...happy...there," he added making the word happy sound
suggestive.

"So who's the book dedicated to?" asked Howard.

"A friend," I said.

"Is it Justin?" Howard said.

"I'm not telling who it is," I said.

"You two are no fun," said Robin.

"We're a lot of fun!" said Justin.

"Particularly at parties!" I joked.

"So Justin, you once described your perfect girl for a
magazine...I've got it somewhere," Howard said, searching around
his desk.

Justin rolled his eyes.

Howard pulled a piece of paper and started reading from it. It
was pretty dumb really and I wonder if Justin had really said these
things or whether it had been done as a joke.

"Is this still accurate?" he asked.

"Yeah," Justin shrugged noncommittally.

"What about you Ethan?"

"I'm not sure I could describe a perfect girl," I said. "I'm sure
they're out there, I'm just not looking for them."

"Could you describe your perfect man?" he asked.

"No," I said, "I don't think it works that way. I think there may be
certain attributes that initially attract you to someone, and that gets
you through the first couple of dates, but it's hundreds of little
things, kind of how you fit together, that there's no way of really
listing because it's different for different people."

"Yeah," said Justin nodding, "I agree."

"You know Justin," Howard said, "I can see how you want to
protect your privacy, but you know people are going to be following
you around always wondering who you're with."

Justin shrugged. "Sure. It's always gonna be like that. Even if I
tell them what they say they want to hear - and I mean the press -
then it's going to be 'are they still together?' and 'are they fighting?'
and 'are they seeing other people?,' so it's never going to go away
whatever I say. So why should I say anything?"

"So you're saying that you and Ethan are not involved. That
you're straight and looking for the perfect girl?" asked Howard.

"I'm not saying anything," Justin said, staring back and smiling
like a satisfied cat.

"So you don't care what people think about you?"

"Of course I care what people think about me. Whether they like
my music. I hope they like my music...I guess I hope they think I'm a
nice person. But I don't really want them to think about who I'm
sleeping with. Do you want people to think about who you're going
to bed with?"

"So Ethan, you're a writer who's gay. You're up front about that."

"I'm not sure I'd use the words up front," I said and grinned at
Justin.

"How do you feel about people who are gay, but pretend to be
straight?"

"How do I feel about that? In what way?"

"Well do you think that's honest?" asked Howard.

"Are you asking, do I think that if you're gay that you have to go
around telling everyone you are? Because, no I don't think that. I
don't think you have to say anything about your sexuality."

"What about lying about it though? Saying you're straight when
you aren't?"

"I think if someone's going to be rude enough to ask those
questions, then they disserve any answer they get."

"So you think it's okay to lie?" Robin interjected.

"I can't criticize anyone who's gay from wanting to hide that in
any number of ways for any number of reasons. It's perfectly
understandable."

"Okay...so you'd never out someone you knew was gay?"
Howard smirked at me.

"Oh never...no...I...There's maybe just one exception to that."

"Which is?"

"If someone was gay, but was attacking or putting down gays
then that's...the hypocrisy of that would tic me off. But I still don't
think I could ever out someone."

"Okay, so Justin," Howard said, pausing dramatically. "Are you
straight?"

Justin gave Howard a confident smile. "I'm not going to answer
that."

"Are you gay?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

"Are you bi?" asked Robin.

Justin glanced over at Robin, and then looked back at Howard. He
didn't say anything. He just sat there slowly rocking back and forth.
The studio seemed suddenly very quiet. I realized I was holding my
breath. I felt like nudging him.

"Are you bisexual?" Howard repeated.

Justin grinned again, and then said quietly, "I don't think it's
anyone's business."

I breathed out. I hope no one heard that. Shit, he took a long
time to answer that. That was too much. Everyone must have
caught that.

"Okay," said Howard slowly, but he was looking at the picture on
the book again. "So where was the picture taken?" Howard said, as
though changing the subject.

I looked over at Justin.

"In a park," I said.

"It was taken in Washington D.C." said Justin.

"You were down there together?" said Howard.

"Yeah," said Justin.

Howard stared for a moment.

"So what were you two doing in Washington D.C.?"

We glanced at each other.

"I was visiting my cousin and Justin was in town and so we hung
out a bit," I said. "Is it against the law for friends to hang out?" I
asked.

"Depends what kind of friends they are!" Howard joked. I felt like
saying something about sodomy no longer being against the law
but realized that was just falling into his trap.

"What do you think of homosexuals?" Howard asked Justin.

"I like them," I said.

"Justin?"

"I think, as long as you're not hurting someone, what you do in
the privacy of your own home is your own business."

"So you don't think it's wrong?" Howard continued.

"No," said Justin. "You know, this kind of...we're just going round
in circles."

"That's 'cause you're avoiding answering the question," said
Howard.

"What question?"

"What's your relationship with Ethan?"

"I told you! We're friends...We're good friends..."

"And?"

"And I'm comfortable with that...with who I am...and it's taken a
while for me...the last few months...to get to the point where I can
honestly say I don't care what anyone thinks about me...but I'm not
gonna talk about my life...about us...about our life together. If you
want to talk about music, or about N*SYNC or about stuff that's
fine. But otherwise we can just go."

There was silence for a moment or two. I was holding my breath.
I thought we were going to walk out. I didn't know if it was the
right thing to do, creating a big scene, but it looked like we were
going to do it. I could tell by the expression on Justin's face that he
was serious. He'd had enough and he was going to go.

"So," Howard began, "tell us about the N*SYNC album that you're
working on?"

And so for the next twenty minutes they talked about other
things.



We were pretty quiet when we left. The PR person and security
guy rode back in the taxi with us, so it was only once we got in the
house that we really had a chance to talk alone.

As we got in the door I leaned over to Justin.

"You realize that you practically confirmed that we have a
relationship?" I asked quietly.

He looked up with this odd smile and nodded at me.

"Did you mean to do that?" I asked.

He looked thoughtful, and then shrugged. "Something like that,
maybe. You okay?"

"I guess," I said. "I don't think it's gonna make it any easier for
you though."

He shrugged.

"Well, at least I'll just tell 'em to fuck off now when they ask," he
said, and he grinned.

"Huh!" I said. Well it was his business and I didn't think it was
wise to dwell on it just now. I decided to change the subject, and
when I saw the shy glance and the pursed lips I knew he needed
some bucking up.

"Why do I love you so much when you're such a jackass?" I
joked.

"That's cause I'm so loveable!" he said, and I knew he needed
me to confirm it.

"I guess you're pretty loveable," I laughed.

"Are you kidding? I'm loveable in lots of ways!" he smirked.

"Yeah, I guess I love you in lots of ways!" I said, and I blew softly
on his nose and he smiled back at me.

Justin smiled, the huge happy smile he had that made me feel so
good when I saw it.

"What about all the ways I love you!" he laughed, and then he
poked me hard in the stomach and ran off up the stairs squealing. I
dropped my bag and ran after him, yelling and laughing as I went.

I didn't know what was going to happen next, or what problems
lay ahead, but I knew we'd get through it together.

And that was all I needed to know.


THE END


-------------------------------

You probably never thought I'd get it done, did you?! Well, I did.
Finally. It's weird because the vast majority of this story was
finished by January, but then it took me forever to actually do
the final edit and get it all posted.

But it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I finally got it finished
and posted. I hope you enjoyed it (and if you didn't, why did
you read it to the end?!)

Thanks to everyone who has written.

Take care,
J.


      "Who do you turn to when the only person in the world
       that can stop you from crying is the one making you cry?"


-------------------------------

My other stories:
    High School: Do What You Can
    Celebrity: Boy Bands: Birthday Blues
    Celebrity: Boy Bands: Chasing Matt