| Chapter Twenty-one |
| "Hey Crystal. I didn't see you at the venue last night? What happened?" AJ asked Crystal innocently, catching up with her as she was walking to the meet and greet. Crystal smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?" "Aah I see. You were fucking your boyfriend and couldn't make time for your responsibilities." AJ said in a low voice. "You know what Alex...fuck you ok? Since when did you become such a big asshole?" Crystal shook her head. "Since I found out what a big whore you are." AJ smirked. Crystal stopped in her tracks, whirled around and slapped AJ across his face. "Don't talk to me." She snapped and continued on her way, leaving AJ McLean more shocked than ever. ******* Justin watched as Nick sat down behind the autographing desk in the small room. Besides himself, Nick was the only other person in the room. It was the perfect opportunity to get his feelings he had about Nick off his chest and out in the open. "Hey Justin," Nick half smiled. "Hey," Justin didnt smile. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" "S-sure." Nick said confused. "Look, I dont want to come off like a jerk or anything, its just that Crystal told me about your little "date" that you had a couple of weeks back." Nick glared at him. "It wasnt a date. We just got dinner, and I didn't even know about you then." "Well don't you think the right thing to do would be to ask her if she had a boyfriend before you tried to come on to her?" Justin snapped. "I really don’t appreciate you disrespecting our relationship like that. "Screw you. I wasn't trying to come on to her, and I wasn’t disrespecting anything." The anger started to build up from deep inside Nick's soul. "She's my friend and thats it. Don't worry," he glared at him. "Well Nick do you think you can do me one favor then?" Justin said, slowly approaching him. "What?" Nick rolled his eyes. Justin was right in Nick’s face now. "Stay the fuck away from my girl before I have to kick your ass." Nick stood up, towering over Justin. "Is that a threat?" "Nah, just a warning. She's been through alot of shit Nick and I'm the only guy she needs in her life right now. So just stay away from her if you know whats good for you." Justin said and turned to leave. Nick became enraged. "You know what? No...I'm not going to stay away from her! I have every right to be friends with her!" Nick yelled as he began to follow Justin out of the room. Justin whirled around, and angry expression across his face. "Oh do you? Not as long as I'm her boyfriend...I'm going to say it one more time asshole...stay away from her." Justin said shoving him in the chest. "Fuck you! If it wasn't for me...you wouldn't even be able to be with her because...because she would be dead!" Nick exclaimed not thinking before he spoke. "What the hell are you talking about Nick?" Justin stared at him with confusion. "The person...the person that found her and brought her to the hospital...that was me...it was all me!" Nick exclaimed. "So instead of being the self centered asshole that you are....you should be thanking me!" "You lying son of a bitch!" Justin yelled, not believing a word of his confession. "You’re fucked up! Really fucked up...to say something like that. Were’d you read about the case Nick...the paper? You sick fuck..." "Whats going on?" Crystal said suddenly from her position in the doorway that she had been standing in for several moments. Their fight ceased. They both looked at her. Neither said a word. "Nick...is...is that true?" Crystal said as tears began to stream down her face. Nick said nothing and simply stared at the floor. "Answer me!" Crystal yelled. He still didn’t reply. He was scared to death. He didn’t want to try to explain himself, because he knew there really was no explanation for what he had done. "Answer the question!" Justin supplied. Nicks paid no attention to Justin. His eyes remained glued on Crystal. He knew now, that he had to confess. If he denied it now, it would only make things worse. "Yes....I'm sorry I...I couldn't tell you before. It was too much to take in at the time." Nick looked at her sadly. "Why....why would you keep something like that from me, after...after all I told you? I thought I knew you! I thought I could trust you! And this whole time you have been lying to me!" Crystal screamed. "Come on babe lets go..." Justin said trying to take her hand, but she pushed him away. "Just leave me alone....just...just leave me alone." She cried and ran off down the hallway. "That was really great Nick. You know if you are telling the truth I'm grateful and all.... but it really sucks that you were too much of a chicken shit to confess what you did to the police. I guess I'll see you around. I'm sure Crystal will be leaving in few days." Justin raised his eyebrows and walked out of the room. He smiled to himself. He had gotten his way. He would talk to Johnny. He was sure by now that he would give Crystal a job with the NSYNC staff. He would make him. Crystal needed to be around people that knew about her, and cared about her. Not around these scumbags she was touring with. ************************** Later that night.... Crystal clutched her pillow tighter to her chest as she cried in her hotel room. She hadn't come out all night, she had missed the meet and greet and everything. Management was going to shit, but she didn't care. She couldn't believe everything she had found out in the last few hours. Nick, the one who had befriended her on the spot, was actually the person she owed her life to, and he hadn't had wanted to tell her who he was. Even the night she had poured her heart out to him, he still hadn't come out and told her the truth. She just didn't understand why or how he could do that. Now she realized why he looked so familiar, it was his eyes. The eyes that came to her in her dreams. The eyes that told her everything was going to be ok. Those eyes had guided her through some of her worst nightmares. And they were Nick's eyes. Nick was the person who had found her that day, Nick was the reason that she and Justin were given a second chance; Nick was the reason that she was still alive. How was she ever going to be able to repay him for that? She knew she shouldn’t have gone off on Nick like she had, but she had been so confused. Everything had been thrown at her in that one single moment, it was going to take awhile to accept it all. She and Nick were going to have to sit down and just talk for a few hours. She considered Nick one of her best friends now, and she didn't want to lose that relationship she had with him. They were just going to have to start from scratch. Now, she realized, she could tell him more of what she had been through with Todd, and he would understand. Justin was another story. She didn't know how he was taking this. He probably didn't believe Nick anyway, and even if he did she knew he was scared of the fact that Nick probably liked her. And as much as she didn't like to admit it, she was afraid she might like him a little bit too. But it was just that, a silly attraction. No one could be as good to her as Justin was right? She could never leave him for someone else. It would crush him. But was she in this relationship for Justin or was she in it for them both? She had so many thoughts going through her mind right now, she didn't really know what to think. She just wished she could stay locked in her hotel room for a few days and shut the world out so she could get her thoughts straightened out. Then she would be able to talk to Nick and Justin in a calmer manner. But she couldn't stay in her hotel room. The boys had a radio interview at eight the next morning and she had to be there to go through the days schedule with them. There was no show tomorrow so they day was filled with radio and TV interviews till about eleven that night. That meant she would have to deal with Nick all day long. How was she supposed to do that and be professional at the same time? She couldn't. As far as she was concerned the best thing for her to do was to go downstairs and give in her resignation to the management. She didn't need this stress right now. She had too much to deal with as it was. She needed to get away from everyone and everything, including Justin, for a few days and think. That wasn’t happening. A thumping on her door made her stop thinking for a minute. She didn’t answer. She didn't feel like talking now. "Crys', Crystal it's J...open the door." She heard him say from the outside. She didn’t answer and pulled the covers over her head. "Baby, come on, you haven't talked with me all day. Please, come on, open the door," he pleaded with her. She groaned. Why was he such a good whiner? She rose from the bed and opened the door. Justin stood in front of her looking worried. "Baby...awww.... babe don’t cry." Justin said wrapping his arms around her. "Justin…stop babying me! I need to be alone right now!" She exclaimed, pulling away from him. "You don’t need to be alone. You need to talk to me." Justin said as he followed her into the room. "Why? Why do I need to talk to you? So you can feel like my savior? You don’t even know how I feel right now. I’m so confused Justin. I just need time to think, be by myself." She shook her head. "Oh so I’m wrong because I care about you?" Justin yelled. "That's not what I implied Justin, and you know it." Crystal rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Justin, lets just stop before this turns into something we’ll both regret." Crystal looked at him seriously "What's to regret Crystal? There is no reason why you can't talk to me about this. I thought we didn't keep things from each other." he shook his head. "God! Justin, this isn't about you! This is about me and Nick, and as much as you try to fit yourself into this, there just isn't a place for you ok? You weren't there, he was. I wish you could have been there instead of him, but fate just didn't work out that way. You just have to face it...there are just some things in my life that you just can't be a part of no matter how hard you try! I have to resolve this myself." She yelled trying to get her message across to him. "You think Nick cares about you? Yeah he really cares, he didn’t even want to tell you that he saved your life. Like he was ashamed of it or something, some savior he is." Justin glared at her. "You don’t know a thing about Nick so just leave him out of this." Crystal snapped back. "Oh so you’re defending him now is that it?" Justin glared at her. "I bet you did more than just have dinner with him that night, didn't you Crystal...come on you can tell me. It doesnt matter now." he laughed crudely. "You're being fucking ridiculous." She yelled back. "That's not true and you know it. I love you Justin and I would never hurt you like that." "Right now I woudn't know it. My girlfriend, who I hardly ever see won't talk to me about something hugely important that she just found out, and I'm being ridiculous?" Justin shouted. "Yea...you are! I told you I needed time, and you can't even respect that. If you love me as much as you act like you do, you would have left about ten minutes ago and we wouldn't even be having this conversation." she shook her head as she wiped the tears off of her face. "You know what, I should have left you after you told me that you went out to dinner with Nick. I should have known something else would happen." "Jesus! Sorry if you're jelous J, I figured you were past your immature phase and that you wouldn't care if I went out to dinner with a friend." She glared in response. "You didnt even tell him you had a boyfriend!" he yelled. "I made a mistake Justin. Haven't you ever made a mistake in your life? Oh, wait I forgot. You're JUSTIN from NSYNC. He doesn't fuck up." she rolled her eyes. "Shut up." he replied crudely. "You're scared." she chuckled softly. "What?" Justin gave her a confused glare. "You're scared because you can't solve this problem. You have no idea what to do...because you finally realize that it has absolutely nothing to do with you." she smirked. "Forget this Crystal. I'm not going to take this shit from you." "Then don't!" Crystal screamed. "Fine!" Justin hollered back enraged, and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Crystal buried her head into the pillow and burst into a fit of tears. That had done it. He was gone, and she didn't know if he would ever come back. Why couldn't he just understand? Why did it always have to be about him and her, or just him?Couldn't he just respect what she was going through? She realized he was just as screwed up emotionally as she was, except he could hide it better than she could. His life may have not been threatened, but he had almost lost a huge part of it, and that had to have been hard for him to accept. Just like when she had first come back home it had taken him awhile to come out and talk to her again, he was in denial then, and now he was in his possesive stage. He was scared of losing her again, and she understood. But she needed to figure this whole thing with Nick out first before she could talk to Justin. She needed to talk to Nick. She needed to understand what he was feeling towards her. Their friendship could never be the same again and as much as she loved Justin, she couldn't put her feelings for Nick to the side anymore, weather they were friendship feelings or more than friendship feelings(which she hoped they were not) they had to be resolved before she could continue on with her life. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day. |