=Chapter Four=First Impressions=

I frantically looked for something to wear.  What I had chosen a few minutes ago now didn’t seem like the right thing.  I pulled a shirt out of my closet and put it up against me.  I looked in the mirror and groaned.  I threw it over my head.  It landed on the ground next to the other shirts that I’d thrown out of my way.

I’ve never been this nervous about what I wear.  I usually wear what is comfortable but today…today was different.  I was meeting Justin today.  We were going out to lunch and we were going to discuss some things about the tour.  I don’t know how much help I was going to be since I’d never done anything like this before.  I had hoped that Dreana was going to be there with me but she had other plans.

I’m terrified that I was going to mess up and spill everything.  And everything would be ruined.  I know I’m going to mess everything up.  I know it.  I’ll see him and I’ll become weak and I’ll spill everything to him.  I’ll screw everything up and the media will get a hold of this and they’ll go crazy with it.  My thoughts were interrupted when I heard someone walk into the room and start laughing.

I turned around and looked at Kenzie standing in the doorway.  She looked terrible.  She should have been in rehab but she hadn’t left yet.  She wanted to make sure I was doing okay.  To be honest I was more worried about her than I was me.  At the moment she was more important than I was.  She needed to get better so she could take this all back.

“Shut up, Kenzie, just shut up,” I said as I began to laugh as I looked around my room. “Kenzie, I don’t know what to wear.”

“What you’re wearing is fine.  You look cute,” Kenzie said as she walked over toward my bed.  She sat down and looked at me.  I looked in my full length mirror and made a face at my outfit.  I was wearing an army green long sleeve shirt and a dark green one over top.  The jeans I was wearing were a little too big.  My hair was down and straight. “You look very cute, Lola.  Justin will think it’s cute.”

That caused me to smile and I wasn’t sure why.  I hadn’t even met the guy and I was smiling because my sister said he thought I would look cute.  For all I know Kenzie could be lying to me and Justin could be an asshole.  He could be the most arrogant person on the face of the earth.  But the thought of him thinking I was cute made me all giddy.

“Are you sure?” I asked as I turned around and looked at Kenzie.  She smiled and stood up.  She walked over to me and I could see the tears in her eyes.  I reached out and put my hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong, Kenz?  Why are you crying?” She shook her head. “Come on, Kenzie.  Tell me.  You can tell me anything.”

“I…I don’t know.  I guess…I’m just scared that’s all.  I mean I feel like I’m forcing you to do this for me.  I feel selfish.  I hate that I’m making you do all of this for me.  I mean I should just suck it up and face the media.  I deserve that…” Kenzie ranted.

“McKenzie, stop that right now.  I know you’re scared.  Hell, I’m scared too but that doesn’t mean that I won’t do this for you.  And Kenzie, you’re not forcing me into doing this.  If I truly didn’t want to do this I would have said no and you would be facing the media.  I’m not going to throw you to the wolves like that.  I’m going to do whatever I can to help you.  That’s what sisters do, isn’t it?” I asked.  Kenzie looked down at the ground and nodded. “Come on cheer up, would ya?  I don’t want to go have this lunch with Justin if you’re going to be upset.  I wouldn’t be able to handle it knowing you were upset.”

“No, I’m fine, you have to go.  People will get suspicious if you don’t go.  Just go I’ll be fine, go have fun with Justin,” Kenzie said with a sigh as she looked up at me.  I smiled and hugged my sister.

=

All right, so I ended up changing my outfit even though Kenzie told me I looked cute.  I couldn’t stand wearing those shirts.  Plus it was warm outside.  I didn’t want to be sweating in front of Justin.  That wouldn’t be a very good impression and that would just be plain embarrassing.  I changed into a dark blue tank top and kept the jeans and sneakers.

I took a deep breath as I walked into the restaurant I was supposed to meet with Justin for lunch.  I nearly tripped over my feet when I saw him sitting in a corner booth talking to the waitress.  He was laughing and flirting with her.  I shook my head and smiled.

This was it. I, Lola Stevens, was about to meet Justin Timberlake.  Someone that I’d been attracted to on since he was with the guys.  I’d never thought that I’d get to meet him.  Even with Kenzie working in the music business.  I’d never gotten involved with Kenzie’s career.  That was her career and medical school was mine, at least at the moment.

I felt a nudge and looked over my shoulder.  I looked at my bodyguard, Marty.  He also knew about the plan but was sworn to secrecy.  Plus Marty had been close to the family and I knew that I wouldn’t get past a glance without him knowing the difference.

“Go on, don’t keep him waiting,” Marty whispered in my ear.  I bit my lower lip and nodded.  I looked back over at the table and smiled.  Justin was now looking over in my direction, he had a smile on his face.  I took one more deep breath and started his way.  As I got closer to the table Justin stood up and held out his arms.

“Hey there, Kido, how are you?” Justin asked as I got closer.  I tilted my head to the side and gave him a playful smile.

“Kido?  Since when do you call me that, Old Man?” I asked trying to act as if we’d known each other for years.  He chuckled as I walked into his arms and he wrapped his strong arms around me.  I could have died right then and there.  This was not happening.  I was hugging Justin Timberlake.

I didn’t want to let go but I was forced to.  I stepped away from Justin and looked up at him.  He was several inches taller than.  I was only 5’6” and that was pushing it.  I was only that height when I wore heals.  Which wasn’t very often but I knew I had to get used to the idea of wearing them.  Since that was pretty much all Kenzie wore.

“Hey, I’m not an old man, I’m only a few years older than you,” Justin said as he chuckled some more.  He gestured for me to sit down and I did.  He sat across from me and looked at me.

“Yeah which, gives you no reason to call me, Kido,” I said as I stuck out my tongue at him.  For some reason I felt like I was able to be myself with him.  Even though I’d just met him my nerves fell away when he called me Kido.  I’d always hated the nickname, my uncle had always called me it so I guess I sort of felt at ease with Justin for it.

“Touché.  So how have you been since the last time I talked to you?” Justin asked with a smile.  I licked my lips.  Here we go, the lies start now.  Well I guess they started the moment that I walked into the restaurant.

“I’ve been fine, busy but fine.  You know, when you have breaks you never truly get a real break,” I said with confidence.  The waitress walked up about then and handed me a menu.  I thanked her and looked back at Justin.

“I hear you.” Justin and I continued to make small talk for a while then we started getting down to business.  I didn’t understand a single thing he was telling me.  I just continued to shake or nod my head.  Or say ‘oh yeah, that sounds good’ or ‘I never thought of that, that would be awesome’ or something along those lines.

I felt comfortable with him as I sat there and listened to his voice.  I actually wasn’t listening to what he was actually saying, I was listening to just his voice.  How every once in a while his southern drawl would show through.  I could tell that he tried to hide it for some reason.

I glanced around the restaurant as he talked and saw a few people looking in our direction.  I felt a chill run down my spine.  This was going to take some major getting used to.  People staring at me all the time, day or night.  People asking for autographs, which I still had to practice so I could get Kenzie’s correctly.  It was mostly just a bunch of scribbles but I wasn’t used to scribbling.  Even though most doctors have sloppy handwriting, I didn’t.

“Kenzie, McKenzie Stevens,” I heard Justin say.  I came out of my daze when I realized he was talking to me and not my sister.  I looked up at him.

“Oh, yeah sorry,” I said.  I could feel my cheeks getting hot.  He shook his head.

“You’re not listening to me, this is important.” I sighed.

“I know, I’m sorry,” I said as I lowered my head.  I looked down at the table.  I was messing everything up.  I had only been pretending to be Kenzie for a few hours and I was already messing everything up.  This was going to be a long couple of months.

“Hey, what’s up with you?” Justin asked as he reached over and lifted my head up.  I looked into his dark blue eyes.  I could get lost in those eyes, I had already once today. “You seem really distant today, like you’re not yourself.” I had to stop myself from laughing.  Of course I wasn’t myself.  I was pretending to be my sister.  Which I wasn’t doing a very good job at it, might I add.

“I don’t know…things have just been complicated lately.  Family problems,” I answered hoping that he would leave it alone after that.  He nodded.

“Yeah, that stuff can get your mind clouded.  You want to talk about it?” Justin asked.  His question caused me to smile.  Kenzie was right, he was a gentleman.

“No, not really.  Maybe later.” I mean I didn’t completely lie to him there.  No I didn’t want to talk about it cause if I started I wouldn’t be able to stop.  Then I’d tell him about the plan and that would ruin everything.  And…I’d probably tell him eventually about the whole thing.  So the ‘maybe later’ part wasn’t a lie either.

“All right, well I’m here if you ever need anything.” I nodded and gave him a half smile.  The rest of the lunch went pretty much like the first part of it did.  He did most of the talking and I listened.  This time I actually listened, well tried to.  After another hour or so, Justin said that he needed to go.  He had other appointments that he needed to get to.  I got up as he stood up.  He pulled me into a hug then held me at the shoulders at arms length away from him so he could look at me. “Remember, you can tell me anything, you’re like a little sister to me.  Day or night, whatever time it is.  If you need to talk about anything, anything at all please let me know, all right?”

“All right, I’ll see you in a couple of days, to do the finishing touches on the tour,” I said as I smiled at him.  He nodded and hugged me again.  I’d never thought Justin would be a hugger but I could tell that I was going to be getting a lot of hugs.  Which I didn’t mind, not at all.