"Did you miss me?" Joey asked, returning to the love seat next to Lyn. "Very much so." she replied, giving him a little kiss. Justin’s heart longed for her, and it killed him to see her kissing Joey, when he knew she wasn’t happy with him. ‘I don’t know how long I can last keeping this all inside’ he thought as he looked upon them cuddling from his spot at the conference table. ‘That guy is the luckiest in the world’ he told himself, ‘but I can handle it, I’m strong.’ A few minutes later Lou, Lance, JC and Chris entered the room. "Are you boys ready to discuss a new album?" Lou asked, taking a seat at the head of the table. "Sure are." Joey said, leaving Lyn on the love seat, and walking over to the table to join the rest of the group. "I’m gonna go out in the waiting room with Cassie." she said, blowing Joey a kiss, but looking at Justin, who was sitting right in front of Joey. Justin did everything in his power to hold back the urge to get up and go over to Lyn and kiss her. ‘Stop doing this.’ he told himself, ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone.’ The whole time they were discussing the new album Justin kept telling himself that he didn’t want Lyn, trying to convince himself that it was the truth.
The meeting ended two hours later. "Justin, are you alright?" Lance asked, "You seemed out of it the whole time." he said slightly laughing. "Yea I’m fine." "Well me and Char are gonna go out tonight, do you and Becca wanna join us?" "Oh shit, Becky, I forgot about her." "I thought you called her..." Lance said, somewhat confused. "No, I was unable to make the phone call, Lyn and Joey were in the conference room and would have gotten mad if I had gone in." "Oh." Lance answered, "So call her now, and see if she wants to go." "Alright, do you have your cell on you?" "Yea." he said reaching in his pocket and tossing him his phone. "Thanks, by the way, how did you manage to get a cell phone?" "Um…I went out and bought it." "Oh…right…" He dialed the number and a few rings later a sobbing Rebecca answered the phone. "Hello?" "Becky, it’s Justin, you alright?" "You asshole, how could you even call me? I never want to see your face ever again!" "What are you talking about?" he asked, completely oblivious to the message that was left on her machine. "What the fuck? Are you that inconsiderate? ‘Don’t you want me?" "More than anything’ Don’t play games with me Justin." "Oh my God, you heard that." "Yea, I did, you left it on my machine, and I’d like to thank you. I really appreciate it, really I do." "Rebecca, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean it." "Like hell you didn’t mean it, I never want to see you or that tramp again, ever, so don’t even try. Good-bye Justin, I hope you rot in hell." she screamed at him, then hung up the phone. Justin handed Lance his phone, "Sorry man, can’t make it tonight." "Why what happened?" "She broke up with me." "So she dumped your sorry ass." Lyn said coming up next to them. "Yea…wait my sorry ass, I don’t think so, she broke up with me." "Yea, whatever, I still say she dumped ya." "Shut up Lyn, how would you know." "Cuz I know Becky, and she’s the type of girl who would dump a guy like you." "Well maybe I deserved to be dumped." "Don’t say that." Lance said patting Justin’s back, "It’ll be ok." "Yea." he said, looking over at Lyn out of the corner of his eye.
"That was fun." Marina told Jessica after their game of Frisbee. "Yea, it was." Jessica agreed. "Well, I’m gonna go now." Marina said, gathering all of her stuff that she had brought, "Have fun you two." "Bye Mar." Nick said, watching her as she walked away. When she was out of sight, he slowly turned around to face Jessica, who was sitting down next to him lookin out at the ocean. "Wanna take a walk?" he asked. "Sure." she said, jumping up, putting her hand out to help Nick to his feet. The sun was sinking below the horizon and the sky was red and orange. "It’s beautiful, isn’t it?" she asked, pointing to setting sun. "Yea, but not as beautiful as you." he said, his eyes getting big, ‘Did I just say that?’ he asked himself. "Thanks Nick, that’s sweet." "It’s the truth." he said, slightly blushing. Jessica smiled and looked out at the ocean. "It’s so calm at this time of day." she said, trying to change the subject. "Yea it is, I love the ocean…but you already knew that." "Yea." she said, lookin over at Nick, "Is there something you want to talk about Nick?" "No, not really." "Not really? That means there’s something." she said, "Come on, please tell me." she begged. "Ok." he said, taking a deep breath, "How do I say this?" He paused for some time. "We’ve been friends for 7 years now, and I think it’s time that I told you how I really feel…Jess…I’m in love with you and I wanted to know if you’d be my girlfriend." he said shyly. "Oh Nick." Jessica said, shocked at his confession, "I don’t think that is such a good idea." "Why?" "Your like my best friend Nick, and I don’t look at you like a boyfriend, I don’t mean to hurt you, I’m sorry, we wouldn’t be good for each other." "Oh, well if that’s how you feel…" he said trailing off. "I’m sorry." she said, stopping and giving him a hug, "I should go." and she ran off down the beach to grab her bag, and then drove away.
Nick fell to his knees at the spot on the beach where she had left him. "I guess I just don’t have the luck." he whispered. He was hurt, but tried to pretend that he was ok, even though no one else was there that he had to hide from. He sat there for a few minutes, listening to the waves breaking on the beach. Coming out of his hypnosis, he got up and strolled down the beach to where his Durango was parked. He got in and started the car. Even though he respected her decision, he was still disappointed. He put his head down against the steering wheel. "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep." His head shot up. "God." he screamed, scared by the horn. He started to laugh at what had just happened. ‘Why am I laughing? That wasn’t funny, it scared the living daylights out of me’ he thought. "It must be my sense of humor…" he said shaking his head, as he drove away.
When Joey and Lyn got home from the studio, she went upstairs to write in her diary. "Dear Diary, Today…for the first time…I realized that I don’t hate Justin, in fact, I’m in love with. It’s the strongest love that I’ve ever felt. I don’t want to hurt Joey, and I am the cause of Justin’s and Becca’s brake up. What should I do? I’ve never felt this way about anyone before…not even Nick…and the love I had for him was so strong. I am so confused. I have to act like I hate him, which 12 hours ago wouldn’t have been that hard…but now…and how does he feel about me now? He must hate me for ending his relationship. We could have kept our relationship a secret, he could have been ‘happy’ with Becky, and I with Joey, and we could have been happy with each other. But that would be wrong, but I can’t hide how I feel…but I’ll try." She stopped writing, to see Joey standing in the doorway. "Hey, how long have you been standing there?" she asked, shutting her diary and locking it. "Just a few minutes." he said walking over to the bed. Lyn rolled over on her back and looked up at Joey, who was now hovering over her body. She reached up and kissed him, pulling him closer to her body. He rolled over on his back, pulling her on top of him. "It’s been a while." he said. "Yea." she agreed as she undid his pants, the whole time thinking about Justin. ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this, it’s Justin I love.