Justin Fan Fiction
Never Again
By Ashley
Chapter 3
At the knock on the door the next afternoon, Skye pulled it open, her mouth dropped open in shock when she saw who was standing there. "You're...You're..Do you know WHO you re?!"Justin gave her a crooked smile, "I believe my name is Justin Timberlake; and you are?"
"Um...Skye." She finally stammered out.
"Hello Skye." Justin gave her a mock bow, that caused her to laugh at this playfulness. "Is Alyssa here?" Justin asked her.
"Alyssa?" Skye seemed slightly confused. "Oh, Alyssa!! No, she's not here right now. Did you need something?"
"Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you."
"Me?"
"Uh huh." Justin nodded, still standing in the hallway. "If you let me in, I'll explain."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Skye opened the door wider and motioned him into the living room, she mixed the graded and ungraded papers off the couch into a stack, and put them on the coffee table; making sure to cover the puzzle picture of Justin Timberlake, before the real one saw.
"Alyssa will probably kill you for mixing her papers." Justin observed, catching a glimpse of the puzzle before it was covered by the papers.
Skye surveyed him carefully, "How well do you know Alyssa?"
Justin gave a slight laugh, "Not very well, that's what I came to talk to you about. Can I sit here?" He pointed to the overstuffed chair next to the couch.
"Oh, sure." Skye nodded, "That's Alyssa's laptop on the chair, you can put it on the table." She wrinkled her nose, "Just don't drop it, Lyssa will KILL you. It has all her stories on it."
Ashley stories. Remember to ask Skye about them. Justin thought as he set the laptop on the coffee table, VERY carefully.
"Can I ask you a question?" Skye asked him from the couch as he sat in the chair.
"Sure." Justin shrugged.
"How much do you know about Alyssa?"
"That's what I want to ask you about."
"She won't talk to you?" Skye guessed, she didn't seem surprised.
"No." Justin WAS surprised that Skye knew Alyssa so well.
"So your going to ask me to tell you about her?"
"If your going to tell me."
Skye watched him for a minute, as she traced imaginary shapes in the fabric of the couch, "It's not a surprise." She said finally.
"What's not?" Justin shifted uneasily under her gaze.
"That she won't talk to you."
Justin agreed, "Probably the following her around didn't help."
Skye looked at him like he was crazy, "You FOLLOWED her? Then it's even less of a surprise."
"Why is it not a surprise?"
Skye considered his question once again, then she spoke, "She's been hurt by someone."
"Who?" Justin asked, and Skye knew what he meant.
Skye didn't answer she picked up Alyssa's laptop, and tapped her fingertip on the black cover. "You." She said, as she met his blue eyes in an almost challenging gaze.
Justin coughed nervously, sure he hadn't heard right. "What?!"
"You did, Justin Timberlake."
"I think your wrong, I just met Alyssa last Friday."
"You may have just met her, but Alyssa has known you for a long time. Not personally," Skye clarified, "She would have though."
"I don't get what you mean at all Skye." Justin told her.
Skye laughed, "Not many people do, but Alyssa does, and I understand her, so I'll try and explain." But she didn't, instead, she opened the laptop, and turned it on, and only then did she start her story.
"Alyssa and I LOVED Nsync." Skye stopped, "By the way, you owe me for telling you this."
"What do you want?" Justin asked, impatiently waiting for the story.
"I want to meet JC."
"Fine, you can meet JC." Justin agreed.
"Okay, then I will tell my story, though I'm not as good at telling stories as Alyssa." She paused, typed something quickly on the laptop, Justin assumed it was a password, then she continued. "Though I was completely devoted to Nsync...And JC, Alyssa was different. I'm telling you this, because I think you know that. Alyssa doesn't judge people on what they look like, or what other people say about them, she accepts them for who they are, and who they can be. And because of this, she also had what I call, an obsession with Britney Spears.
I don't know what it was, but Alyssa saw some good in her. She would always tell me that Britney was getting sadder, though I didn't understand what she meant by that, I still don't, but Alyssa can still tell you any fact about Britney, and she is fiercely loyal to her, and to Nsync. Now I, like most Nsync fans, when you and Britney went public about your relationship, was livid with anger. But Alyssa wasn't. To me, it was crazy. She knew that I loved JC, but I knew she loved Justin; you. But Alyssa, she was just excited, and would defend the both of you against anyone." Skye paused and typed a few more keys on the laptop, clicked a few times with the mouse, and typed another password, Justin couldn't imagine having to remember that many passwords to get into a story. Skye finished then she closed the laptop in her lap.
"Alyssa, she loved you, you know. I also think, that in her mind, Britney was like a sister to her. I mean, Alyssa knew EVERYTHING about the girl."
"Not everything." Justin mumbled, sure that Skye heard it, but chose to ignore his comment.
"She said that you were both meant for each other, she loved everything that had to do with the both of you. Then, you cheated on Britney. I think, to her, that was more devastating thant the two of you admitting that you were going out. I don't think she really knew what to do. To be loyal to Britney, she would have to hate you, but she couldn't do that. And she couldn't hate Britney either. So, she kind of divided her life for awhile. She would defend Nsync, Britney Spears AND Justin Timberlake, but she wouldn't relate any of them to the other. So she bought Nsync concert tickets, and cheered for Nsync. She bought Britney concert tickets, and cheered for Britney."
"And for Justin Timberlake." Justin finished, but Skye shook her head.
"No. She wanted to hit you over the head with her Chemistry Book; she said that not me. But you were SO dumb. Who would name their solo album Justified'?"
Justin groaned, "Alyssa already pointed all of this out."
"Then you probably needed to hear it." Skye told him. "But, against everything, Alyssa bought your 'Justified' CD. And, she went to your concert."
"But you said that-"
"No," Skye shook her head again, "She went to your concert, and I got dragged along with her."
"Poor you." Justin said sarcastically. "What did you think?"
Skye shrugged, "We never went to the concert."
"But you said that-"
"Your not listening Justin."
"Your not making it very clear Skye."
"Alyssa heard that you were coming on your first solo tour. First, as her loyalty to Nsync, she said that if you going on this tour caused Nsync to break up, she would kill you. Then she saved all her money to get tickets. Do you know Meghan and Nicole?"
"Yes." Justin nodded.
"I thought so. Alyssa babysat Meghan everyday for her sister, after school, and all day during the summer, so, her sister, Holly, bought her meet-n-greet passes to your concert as a thank you for watching Meghan. Alyssa was so excited, so she dragged me along with her. We got in line FIVE HOURS early, and we were near the beginning of the line. I listened to your 'Cry Me A River' about a million times in those five hours.
At the meet-n-greets, they gave out Red roses as you got near the great Justin Timberlake. We got up to the table where you were sitting, and you didn't even look up. You signed your name on the picture and handed it back to Alyssa, without a smile or even a hello." Skye paused, "She wouldn't have cared, she would have made an excuse for you, you know. Like that you were probably really tired, and you had probably signed a million and a half other people CD's, pictures and such. But there had been this little girl in line behind us, she was seven, the same age as Meghan, at the time.
As we were standing in the line, Alyssa had talked to the little girl, because the girl had wanted to meet you so bad, it was her wish. The girl's mom had saved every penny so her little daughter could meet you, and go to your concert, she was SO excited. But then, you got up and left. You just left after you signed Alyssa's picture. The little girl cried, and asked you to come back, but you ignored her, so Alyssa tried to talk to you. She got pushed out of the way by you, and your EIGHT body guards. And after that, she wasn't going to make excuses for you ever again. She gave the girl the picture you had signed for her, and we went home."
Skye gave a small smile, "The only song she ever listened to on your CD after that was 'Never Again'. I'm guessing you know the words to that."
Justin finally asked, "Is she Ashley?"
Skye looked shocked, "You know about Ashley? Alyssa told you about Ashley?"
Justin nodded, and Skye actually smiled, she opened the laptop once again, before speaking. "Then she must trust you more than you know."
"Yeah right." Justin gave her a skeptical look.
"Alyssa doesn't just tell people about her Ashley stories, she is very...protective...I guess you cold say about them."
"Well, it was actually Meghan who started to tell me about them. Alyssa filled in the story later, because Meghan was making it sound...different than what it really was. I think she was just protecting her story."
Skye shook her head, "It doesn't matter, she told you about them. If she HATED you, she wouldn't have cared if Meghan told you the story wrong, she wouldn't have told you about them." Skye clicked another password into the laptop, then she stood up and handed the laptop to Justin. "Alyssa will be back in two hours, I suggest that you get to know all you can about her, and so that means you get to know Ashley. So read."
Skye started down the hall, but then she turned back, "And Justin?"
"Yeah?"
"Your not the only one who hurt her. She won't trust you very easily." Skye paused, and Justin thought she was done, then she added one more thing, "You asked if Alyssa is Ashley, and to answer you question, I'll tell you Alyssa's favorite quote, Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur'" Skye quoted, and laughed at Justin's expression.
"Come again?"
"In English, it goes something like this 'With the name changed, the story applies to you.'"
Justin got on the elevator in his own apartment building that night, and leaned against the wall opposite the doors as he thought about his day. After talking to Skye, he had spent two hours reading Alyssa's stories, and he really had learned a lot more about her, as Skye said he would. He had been so caught up in, 'My Everything' the second story of seven, about Ashley and Lance, and everything they had went through, Skye had barely had time to get him out of the apartment before Alyssa had got home.
He had been later to 'work' than he said he would, and Mr. Davis, the apartment manager hadn't been impressed. Then to add to that, it had been pouring rain all day, and Justin was completely soaked.
But he didn't care, he was close to Alyssa, and for him that was all that mattered.
As Justin got off the elevator, and reached the door to his apartment, he could hear the phone ringing. He hurried to unlock his apartment door, where the phone was on it's fifth or sixth ring already. He finally managed to get the door open and hurry across the room to answer before whoever it was hung up.
"Hello?" He finally answered the phone; it was JC.
"Where have you been the last few days, J." JC asked him in greeting.
Justin slumped into the nearest chair, "Being a doorman at an apartment building." Justin answered, surprisingly not unhappily.
"What?! Why?"
Justin sighed, "That is a long story JC, but the long and the short of it is, I met a girl."
"Again?" Justin could see JC rolling his eyes on the other end of the phone.
"It's different this time, JC. She's different."
"It's ALWAYS different, J."
"Did you call for any particular reason, JC?" Justin asked in an annoyed tone.
JC sighed, and decided to play along. "So who is this girl?"
JC could hear the smile in Justin's voice when he spoke, "Her name is Alyssa Adamson, but I call her Ashley, and she's a teacher."
"Why do you call her Ashley if her name is Alyssa?"
"Because she hates me, and she doesn't let me call her Alyssa." Justin stated.
"I'm not going to ask Justin. I'm not EVEN going to ask."
"Yeah," Justin agreed, "You don't want to know."
"So is that all you know about this girl?" JC asked.
"Almost." Justin admitted, "I know she likes to write, she used to like Nsync, and she's shy."
"Oh, is THAT all?" JC asked sarcastically.
"I can hang up on you JC." Justin reminded him.
JC sighed, Justin often found a girl that was 'different', and he always seemed to get hurt; And JC had only seen Justin in love once, and it had almost killed him when that had ended.
"Justin, you always finding someone 'different'; Do you remember Jenna? Every girl after her?" JC paused, "What about Britney?"
Justin didn't say anything for a long time, then he spoke quietly, "She's everything I wanted Britney to be."
