A white ball sailed through the air and landed on the lush green grass, rolling forward a few feet before stopping right at the edge of a small body of water.

“Goddammit!” Justin cursed as he swung his golf club over his shoulder. “It wasn’t supposed to go over there.”

“Well, you’re the one who hit it over there,” Chris spoke up from behind Justin where he was sitting up his own tee. He knelt to place his gold ball atop of it. “You have no one to blame but yourself.” Chris straightened his arms and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

Justin rolled his eyes. “Really? I didn’t realize,” he grunted as she tossed his clubs into the back of his golf cart. He took a seat behind the steering wheel and waited for Christ to make his shot. He dragged his arm across his forehead and let out a sigh when he felt his sweat smear across his skin.

Chris didn’t say anything in response but glanced down at the ball once more. His body tensed and Justin knew he was about to swing. Clink! The club connected with the ball and it sailed through the air, becoming a small white speck the further it moved away. Chris brought a hand up to shield his eyes and watch where the ball landed. Unlike Justin’s shot Chris’s landed on the grass and stayed there.

“Perfect,” Chris said with a grin and then turned to walk over to where the golf cart was sitting. “Onward, driver!” He ordered as soon as he had sat down and brought his hat down lower on his forehead. “Geeze, man, how do you people not melt? I’m dying out here!”

Justin shrugged and pressed his foot on the gas. The golf cart jerked forward and the cool wind caressed their bright red, sweaty skin as they rolled over the grass. “You get used to it,” Justin responded shortly. He kept his blue eyes trained on the balls in the grass ahead of them. His fingers gripped tightly onto the steering wheel. So tightly that his knuckles had began to turn white.

“Ease off, J, before your hands permanently turn into claws,” Chris commented.

Justin sighed and let his fingers relax on the steering wheel before jamming his foot against the brake. Chris didn’t dare say a word when it came to the sudden stop that almost made him hit his head. Instead of continued through the game, watching as Justin steadily got worse and worse, missing easy shots and picking up extra strokes that he would normally avoid.

They were at their last hole now. Justin was grinding his teeth and grumbling under his breath, going on as if Chris weren’t there at all. Chris probably could have left ages ago and Justin wouldn’t have noticed. He was off in his own world.

Chris sighed and took a swig from his water bottle. Is this what life has done to him? Left him a bitter old man at the ripe age of twenty-one? Chris could practically see Justin wearing pants practically lifted up to his armpits, knee high white socks, sandals, and glasses perched atop of his nose. He chuckled at the image and got out of the cart all the while studying Justin’s face.

It was so stony it was…ugly. ‘Ugly’ and ‘Justin’ were two words that never belonged in the same sentence, any girl, straight male, or homosexual male would say. The scowl on his face gave his facial features a sort of grotesque look that was fit for Halloween or a nightmare. Not this reality.

“You know, I can feel you burning holes into the back of my head,” Justin commented without turning around. “I have enough, I don’t need two more.”

“I can’t help but notice you’re higher strung here than you were back on tour,” Chris commented as he tossed a water bottle over to his unofficial little brother. Justin caught it with one hand and squirted a stream into his mouth. His cheeks puffed up as he held the water in his mouth and gave the bottle back to Chris. His cheeks slowly deflated as his adam’s apple bobbed from swallowing the liquid. “I think this is the first time you were truly unhappy.”

Justin shook his head. “No, there was that stupid lawsuit against me,” he corrected Chris. “With that fan claiming I berated her and humiliated her.” He shook his head. “When really I just lost my cool for a moment and yelled at her to get out of my way. I was tired but because I wasn’t seen as a normal human being anymore it went that far.”

He slowly shook his head. “It’s almost as if as soon as one becomes ‘famous’ they aren’t people anymore. They don’t have feelings. They aren’t allowed to have a bad day. They aren’t allowed to be normal anymore…”

Chris’s eyebrows crinkled together but he stayed silent. He messed with his grip on the water bottle, shifting it from palm to palm to wipe his sweaty hands on his pants. Justin sighed and shifted his golf club and wiped his hands on his pant as well. He then rested it against the ground and leaned his weight on the handle. His eyes scanned the landscape around them in such a way it came off to Chris that it was his first time seeing it. Really seeing it.

“But I found that normalcy,” Justin finally continued. “In Brit.” He visibly flinched using her name.  Clearing his throat he adjusted his hat again. “Whenever I was with her…it felt like home. Like I was home. She knew what I was talking about when I discussed my home life. She understood the values I looked for, the things I wanted in life. She wanted the same things, Chris. I didn’t even have to look for someone like her, she fell into my lap! It was as if angels had created her specifically for me. I wasn’t Justin Timberlake when I was around her. I was just…Justin. Just Justin. She loved me for me, not for my name or my career or my money.”

He let out a breath and shook his head. As he exhaled it was as if the life in his body went with it. His eyes dimmed, his shoulder slumped, and it was almost as if one could really see weight on his shoulders. “And then I found out about what she was doing,” he sighed. “Not even from her but because of a stupid note I found. And she didn’t deny it at first. She didn’t confirm it either, but she didn’t deny it. And losing her hurt, but that wasn’t the worst part, man. That wasn’t even the fucking worst part.”

“What was?” Chris finally managed to speak.

Releasing a breath through his nose Justin shuffled his feet and then squinted at him. “The worst part was feeling that I was lost,” he revealed. “I know it wasn’t long between breaking up and coming here but…nothing felt familiar to me anymore. Singing, dancing…not even phone calls home. Everything was moving by and I was just…drowning. She was home on the road for me and suddenly home was gone. But then it made me realize…it’s just not the same thing as being home.”

Justin looked up at the trees surrounding them when a light breeze moved through the leaves. He stood up straight and took his golf club in his hand. He straightened his arms and glanced at the hole every now and then while shifting his weight. He drew back and swung forward in a smooth stroke. A shadow of a smile formed on his face when the white ball landed near the hole. The flag stood tall and proud out of the hole.

Chris whistled and held his hand up to shield his eyes. “Nice shot,” he commented aloud.

“Thanks,” Justin responded as she brought the club up and rested it on his shoulder. “It always takes me a little bit to get back into the swing of things.”