I’m standing outside of Justin’s room waiting for him because we’re late again. I’m about to knock on the door to tell him to hurry up when it opens and he’s standing on the other side looking back at me. He’s wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up and sunglasses covering his eyes. He pushes past me and walks down the hallway without a word. I know immediately what’s got him looking so depressed.
He just got off the phone with Phaedra.
Phaedra Gibson is going to be the death of my best friend. As much as I don’t want to sit back and watch her destroy him, it’s not my place to tell Justin what to do. Yes, I know what’s going on too. I know that Justin has an idea of what she’s been doing, but I won’t be the one to tell him. That has to come from Phaedra, and I’ve said that to her several times.
At first I couldn’t believe what I heard. Some of my boys were telling me that they’d seen “Justin’s girl with another dude”. But they didn’t know Phaedra so they had to have been mistaken. I knew her. She was my friend. She wouldn’t do that to him.
I really try not to use the fact that Justin Timberlake is my best friend to get girls, but I had to make an exception tonight. There were fine ladies everywhere hanging on my every word. Justin is visiting his family for a few days so I came home to take care of a few things before I have to meet back up with him in Chicago for some promo stuff. This is a new club that neither of us has been to before so I’m checking it out before him. That way if it’s whack, he won’t have to be associated with it.
I sit back in VIP looking over the balcony and onto the dance floor. I think I see Phaedra but I’m not sure so I stand and walk over to the railing. It’s dark and hazy, but there are flashing lights across the room. Yeah that’s her. I should go and say—
Who’s that guys she’s with? Friend of hers I suppose. I’ve never seen him before. Maybe she doesn’t even know him. They’re dancing a bit close but that’s not—
Did she just kiss him? Maybe it was an accident. But then why are they still kissing? I can’t be seeing things right. As I head down stairs to find out what’s going on, she grabs his hand and leads him to the back of the club. Oh. Hell. No.
I sprint down there as fast as I can in hopes to see that I’m terribly mistaken. There are people everywhere but I force my way through them and follow her and this guy. I look around but I think I lost them. They’re not by the bar or the bathrooms so I give up, deciding that I was seeing things. I walk back up to VIP and sit amongst my groupies.
“Where you been, Nate?” This blonde girl huge with tits starts talking to me and I can’t remember her name. “I thought I saw a friend of mine downstairs. But I guess it wasn’t her.”
She starts going on about how I owe her a dance when I think I see them out of the corner of my eye. I get up again, ignoring everything that chick was saying to me, and head to the booths that are hidden from view by a black curtain. I pull back the curtain and immediately wish I hadn’t. She’s straddling his waist, kissing him hungrily as he had one hand on her thigh underneath her skirt while the other one was under her shirt, rubbing her back.
“What the fuck are you doing, Phaedra?” I yelled, announcing my presence. She turned around quickly, like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Oh my God. Nathan.” She jumped off his lap so fast someone would have thought it might’ve been on fire.
“Oh my God is damn right. What the hell are you doing with this dude?”
The guy leans forward as if he’s getting ready to start something. “Who the fuck is this ‘dude’ Phae?” He gives me this look as he sizes me up.
She gave him a pleading look then turned back to me. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you Nate.”
“The fuck it doesn’t. Justin is my best friend! How could you do this to him?” I’m a little tipsy so my temper is rising really fast.
“You don’t understand.” I can hear her start to choke up and I almost feel bad for yelling at her. Almost.
“Then enlighten me Phaedra. Explain it to me then.” I can see the guy out of the corner of my eye lean back and stick a toothpick in his mouth. Punk.
“I’m not doing this here with you. Stop now before you make a bigger ass out of yourself.”
“Me? What exactly do you think you’re doing?” She has a damn nerve saying that to me.
“You know what? I don’t need your explanation. I don’t care what your excuse is. There’s nothing you could say to make this alright.” I turn to leave and walk out from behind the curtain. At this point I don’t give a shit about the groupies. I just need to get out of here.
“Nathan, wait!” I hear her call out to me.
She follows me downstairs and grabs my arm just as I get outside. I yank my arm away and turn to look at her. I know what she’s going to say to me so I speak up before she gets the chance.
“You need to tell him what you’re doing before I do.” With that I turn and leave.
To this day she hasn’t said a word to him about it, but Justin’s not an idiot. I know he knows that something isn’t right with her. I just can’t figure out why she would even do this. I’ve known her since the beginning and I know she loved him. And he has done nothing but love her and treat her like a queen.
I thought that they were the best things for each other. They made each other so happy.
But now I can’t stand to see them together because I know how much she’s hurting him. And the worst part about it is that I can’t do anything about it. It’s not my place to tell him what I saw. It has to come from her.
