5. Summer Girls Come And Summer Girls Go
Much like any typical day in the studio, the usual group of me, Pharrell, Chad, Drew and Trace, as well as extraneous hangons, were sitting around laughing instead of working, while the music for ‘Let’s Take A Ride’ played on and off in the background as we procrastinated our way through the day.
“Lemme tell you what I gotta do,” Pharrell announced. “Y’all wanna hear this?”
“What?” I asked blankly, stretching the muscles in my face.
“I agreed to take a fan to the prom.”
“Tonight?” Trace asked.
The photographer that had been in the studio for the past hour, whose name I’d yet to catch, added, “So you’re going to the prom tonight?”
“Yeah,” Pharrell answered. “So from 9:00 to 10:30 “ I’ll be back at 10:30,” he told me.
As I laughed at the ridiculous notion, Trace proceeded to ask, “Hey, can we go?”
“Huh?”
“Can we go?”
“Yeah,” he said nonchalantly.
“Hey, let’s go,” Trace said to me. “Let’s go. We’ll take the camera. That shit’ll be funny.”
“Cause if you go, I won’t dress up,” Pharrell explained. “And that’ll be easier on me.”
I sat back in my chair and looked at all of them like they were out of their damn minds. The prom? I was fuckin’ 21 years old. What I look like? “I want you to put a damn suit on,” I finally replied.
“Yeah,” Chad added, “you should put on a tux.”
“I got a tux,” Pharrell nodded.
“You should go in a navy blue tux,” I smiled, scratching my head underneath my hat.
“I got a t“ What am I? A Crip?” he joked. “I got a black tux.”
“Make him dress like Bentley,” Trace inserted as we laughed at Pharrell.
“No, you wanna go?” Pharrell persisted. “‘Cause here’s what I told Trace “ I wanna stay here tonight kinda late.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Me, too.”
“And tomorrow, we’ll start at 2:00 and we can end, like, at a reasonable hour.”
“And he said we’ll throw a party,” Trace animatedly interjected, yet again.
“And I’ll get somebody on the radio,” he began to explain, “tell ‘em all day today, ‘Listen, come to the beach house tomorrow. The Neptunes and Justin is havin’ a party.’ We’ll have our own party. That way, we ain’t gotta keep goin’ out. We’ll have one good night.”
“Right,” I nodded in comprehension.
“You feel that?”
“Definitely.”
I guess we’re havin’ a party then.
Summer, summer, summertime
Time to sit back and unwind
Later that night, while Pharrell, Chad and Trace were at... the prom, Drew and I got to work on several vocals for ‘Let’s Take A Ride’ while Devin came in to do what she does best and talk our ears off in the process.
I sat with Drew at the audio console, directing him to and from specific sound waves here and there as Devin patiently sat behind us on the black leather sofa, playing with her cell phone. “So, what’s this party for?” she asked to whichever one of us was listening.
“What party?” I smiled.
“Don’t fuck with me. Trace told me about the party at Pharrell’s tomorrow.”
“Damn. I wasn’t plannin’ on inviting you.”
“Well, shit, there ain’t a party without me, bitch.”
Yeah, she was kind of right about that. “Whatever.”
“Yeah, whatever.” She sighed and stretched her long legs across the length of the couch. “So, you gon’ bring me with you, or do I have to make my own fabulous appearance?”
“I’m sure you’d much rather make a Delfino entrance,” I rolled my eyes, “but I’ll call you when we’re about to leave the hotel and you can make your own decision.”
“If you call me when you’re leavin’, how am I supposed to go with you?”
“Because you’re gonna hop your happy ass on an elevator, come downstairs and meet me in the lobby?”
“Justin, I’m not staying at your hotel.”
“You’re kidding.” I rolled my chair across the dim room so that I was sitting directly in front of her. “I see you all the time.”
“Are you crazy? I can’t afford a suite at Turtle Cay.”
“So, where are you staying?” I queried.
“I’ve been staying with Lainie.”
“Dude, I would’ve sworn you were staying downstairs or somethin’.”
“What part of ‘I can’t afford it’ do you not understand?” she asked, playfully shoving me with her big, bare foot.
“Girl, don’t be touchin’ me with them ugly feet.”
“Bitch! My feet are not ugly!” she laughed. I let her kick me one more time before grabbing her big toe to pull her off the couch. “Justin!”
I looked down at her, all crumpled between the sofa and the floor and smiled in satisfaction. “Who’s the bitch now?”
Using her dancer flexibility to hop up, she swiftly shoved me out of my rolling chair so that I went crashing to the softly tiled floor. “You still are,” she smiled, taking a forceful seat on top of my stomach so that I couldn’t move.
“Devin, I can’t breathe,” I lied.
“Say what?”
“I can’t breathe!”
“Oh, but you can talk?”
“I’m running out of air. Please,” I beseeched.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe if you shut up it wouldn’t be so bad.”
I continued to gasp for air as she repositioned herself to straddle my waist, which certainly wasn’t about to help the situation. If she wasn’t careful, with the way things were goin’, she was gonna be the one out of breath when I put it on her ass.
“You are so dramatic,” she pointed out, smiling down at me with twinkling blue eyes. “I don’t know how you get any women with that kind of stamina.”
“You were sitting on my damn lungs,” I argued. “You ain’t exactly what I’d call light, mama.”
She grabbed my wrists so that they were thrown against the cool floor, completely restricted from movement, and she leaned over so that her slim face was directly cast over mine. “Justin Timberlake, are you callin’ me fat?”
“Do I look stupid to you?”
“Usually.”
“I’m calling you not skinny... But that’s dope,” I quickly added. “I like a woman with some meat on her bones.”
Her lips brushed against my nose when she returned to her normal sitting position and said, “I’ll have to remember that.”
When her enticing, broad hips slowly moved over my groin, I got that overfamiliar tingle that told me this was gonna be a long night if she didn’t get off of me soon. “Yo, Dev““
“Whoa, Justin,” she chuckled, “I hope that’s your cell phone.”
She followed my gaze to where Drew was sitting at the computer, my cell adjacent to him. “Yo, Drew, could you excuse us?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go pick up some dinner,” he said, quickly shooting up from his chair. “Y’all want anything?”
“Where are you gonna go?” Devin asked.
“I was just gonna run up to Sonic,” he shrugged.
“Oh! Can you get me a burger and one of those Oreo Blast things?” She pulled her purse from the couch before throwing it back. “Justin, give him some money.”
“You wanna eat. You give him some money.”
Evilly, she began to discreetly gyrate over me in only a way that her hips could move. “Give him some money,” she repeated.
“Okay, okay,” I relented quickly. “Okay. But I have to get my wallet from my back pocket.”
I tried to sit up, but she laid me back down with just one finger. “I’ll get it.” She slowly and seductively slid her fingers beneath me so that they inched down my ass and made me even more uncomfortable. See, this was why I didn’t fuck with her. I got myself into shit like this. “Here,” she said, finally handing me the wallet that I didn’t even feel leave my jeans pocket. “Give him a twenty.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answered, rolling my eyes and handing Drew a ten dollar bill.
“You want anything?” he asked me.
“I’m good. Just feed this cow so she’ll get off me.”
I risked a kick to the nuts with that one, but luckily, she only socked me in the stomach. “You just want me to kick your ass, don’t you?”
“You do it anyway,” I shot back.
Finally, she hopped her thick ass off of me and sat back on the couch. “Drew, you want me to go with you?”
“No, that’s quite alright,” he quipped. “Y’all stay here and have fun.”
While I regained all sense of feeling in my body, she scoffed dramatically and kicked me again. “We’ll just stay here.”
“Okay now,” I warned her, “that’s how we got down here in the first place.”
“I hope y’all know that Chad doesn’t like when people have sex in here,” Drew said to us, walking through the studio doors. “I’ll be back.”
Devin wiggled her fat toes over my face and called back, “Thanks, Drew.”
“I’m only gonna tell you once to get your feet out of my face,” I told her solemnly.
“What you gonna do?”
“Devin, get your feet out of my face.”
“Oohh, that was twice,” she chided. Slowly, she retracted her foot from my line of view and smirked down at me like she’d just won something. “You’re such a punk.”
In one agile motion, I shot up from the floor and took a seat right on top of her, making sure that she was suffering from all of my weight on top of her. “What was that?”
“You really wanna play that game?” she asked loudly. “‘Cause I like it rough.”
I couldn’t even help but laugh at her. She was such a loveable bitch. “Nah, I think I’m gonna just chill here for a minute.”
“Oh, is that all you’re gonna do?” She started to playfully, but amazingly forcefully poke me in the back with her long, slender fingers. “You’re kinda heavy, man.”
“That’s the point,” I responded, flinching from her wandering hands. “Stop!”
“Get off of me, then!”
“You stop first.”
“Justin, my knees are going numb,” she whined.
“Stop pokin’ me and I’ll get up.” When her fingers stopped harshly connecting with my skin, I grabbed her arms from either side of me and held them captive by massive grip on her wrists. “Or not.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” she complained.
“Do you see anyone here for me to work with?”
She sighed heavily, finally deciding to stop fighting against me and let her arms go limp in my grasp. “I’mma start bitin’ you in a minute.”
“See, now my mama taught me never to hit a girl, but if you bite me, I’m gonna have to clock your ass.”
Suddenly, I felt the warm wetness of her tongue against my neck and I swear, the most nervously excited chill went crashing down my spine. I swallowed hard and asked, “What the hell are you doing?”
“What?”
“Why are you licking me?”
“Why are you sitting on me?”
Every time I thought I had her cornered, she threw me for another loop. “Okay, you win.” I let go of her arms and began to rise from the couch, but she locked her lengthy legs around my waist, her arms around my neck, and forced me to stay right there while she kissed the side of my face. “Dude.” I didn’t know whether she was the crazy one or if it was me that’d lost it.
“What? I can’t kiss you?” she questioned softly.
“No “ I mean... yeah,” I nervously answered. “I just don’t think I understand... why.”
“‘Cause I fuckin’ want to. Is that a damn crime?”
“No, Devin.”
“You know what.” She released her death grip on my neck, let her legs fall back to the couch and started to push against my back. “Get off of me.”
I stood up and turned around to look at her with misunderstanding. “What? What’d I do?”
“You suck,” she simpered. “You don’t know how to go with the flow and just let shit happen. You gotta ask questions and be in control.”
“Well, I’m sorry if I’m confused when someone that’s never shown any interest in me whatsoever suddenly decides to start licking my neck.”
“I still have no interest in you. I was just fuckin’ around.”
I plopped down beside her, resting my head against the soft leather and stared at her from the corner of my eye. “Well, if you really wanna fuck around, I got an extra bedroom in my suite that you can have.”
“Oh, really?” she replied, carefreeness in her voice as she turned her head to face me. “How convenient.”
“All I’m sayin’ is it’s there if you want it.” I watched in confusion as she suddenly burst into contagiously hysterical laughter. “What are you laughin’ at?” I smiled.
“You,” she cackled. “You are funny as hell.”
“What did I do?”
“Oh, God. You are too much, man. First you give me that lame ass ‘Britney broke my heart’ bit, and now, you’re tryin’ to fuck me sideways with this sorry excuse for an invitation. You are funny!” she continued to chuckle. “Oh, man. We’re gonna have to find you some game, boy.”
“I dunno what you’re talkin’ about.” Frustrated, I crossed my arms and stared into the oblivion of the studio.
“You’re Justin Timberlake, dude. You must have somethin’ better than that.”
“Devin, I’m not tryin’ to throw you any kind of game. I was just offering you somewhere to stay.”
“Then shit, get me my own suite. I don’t wanna stay with you and all your extraneous hoes.”
“I don’t have any hoes,” I countered, feigning outrage.
“Oh yeah, not with game like that,” she realized. “You were doin’ better with the Britney story.”
“Man, I told you that wasn’t a damn story. She cheated on me.”
“And you truly expect me to believe that you just sat back and let that happen? Try again, honey.”
“I hate you,” I stated matter-of-factly, smiling widely.
And I think it’s fly when girls stop by for the summer
“I love you, too, motherfucker.” She got up from the couch, pulling up her white A&F pants in the process, and took a Twizzler from the large jar waiting on one of the many desks in the room. “So, you gonna get me a room at Turtle Cay or what?”
“I ain’t gettin’ you shit. You can take the room in my suite or you can stay where you are.”
I like girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch
I’d take her if I had one wish
“Why you bein’ cheap? I bet Trace got his own suite.”
“You haven’t been my best friend for twenty-one years.”
“I’ve been your church buddy for eight years. That should count for somethin’.”
“Yeah, it counts for the bedroom in my suite.”
“Your stupid trainer, Jayson, gets his own damn room.”
“If you’re just gonna complain, then stay with Lainie,” I instructed.
“Justin,” she whimpered.
“Devin,” I mocked her.
“If I stay in your room, it’s gonna be in the New York Post tomorrow that I’m your new whore or somethin’.”
“Who’s gonna know?”
“I dunno,” she said, chewing on another piece of licorice. “You always have those paparazzi people following you.”
“Girl, there are no paparazzi in Virginia Beach.”
She looked around the dim room and then rolled her blue eyes emphatically, making sure that I knew she wasn’t happy with this. “Dude, if you bring some ho into that room while I’m there, I swear I’ll embarrass you.”
“Devin, I have no doubt in my mind that you would.”
“Okay. Well, in that case... I’ll be movin’ in tomorrow morning.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah, then maybe we can get to work on your game. ‘Cause you’re gonna have a long, dry summer with those weak storylines.”
“I’ll have you know that my shit is perfectly in tact.”
“Justin, how many people can you get with that ‘I’m a regular dude’ ploy?”
“I am a regular dude.”
“Yeah, with“.”
“Hey,” I interrupted, “I got you stayin’ in my room, don’t I?”
“Oh boy, you got a broke ass dancer to stay in the bedroom across from you for three days. You’re really pullin’ ‘em in, man.”
“We’ll see,” I stated simply.
“When you have me in a bed “ actually, when you have me anywhere naked, then we can talk.”
“Like I said. We’ll see.”
Summer girls come and summer girls go
Some are worthwhile and some are so-so
The next night, Trace, Devin and I arrived at Pharrell’s beach house, as planned, somewhere close to 11:00PM, give or take half an hour, greeted by a house and pool full of strangers. I wasn’t sure what happened, but somewhere between the time that I agreed to the party and the next night, my insatiable urge to party had somehow been met when Devin moved into my suite that morning. What the hell would I go out for when I had the cream of the crop in the same damn room with me?
But, as my luck would have it, I did agree to being a co-host for the shindig, so I had to show up. That didn’t mean I had to party. After I talked to an inebriated Pharrell for a total of three minutes, I headed outside to the pool where Mr. Williams “ that would be Pharrell’s dad “ was burnin’ hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Trace and Devin were perched at the edge of the pool with their feet dipped in the water, slugging beer and talking to people I’d never seen before in my life.
Rudely interrupting his conversation, I lightly tapped Trace’s back with my foot. “What’s up.”
He looked up at me with lack of expression. “What’s up, man?”
“What you doin’?”
“I’m talkin’,” he stated in an obvious tone. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you sit down?” Devin inserted. “You want me to get you somethin’ to drink?”
I waited for my presence to intimidate the two strangers away and replaced the seat that they left open. “Nah, I’m good.”
“Justin, you look like somebody just shot your dog,” she acknowledged. “You want a Corona? Coors Light?”
“I don’t want no damn Coors Light. That’s Trace’s shit.”
“Well, tell me what you want, dude. I’m here to serve you.”
Now that’s something I could’ve gotten used to. “Seriously?”
She must’ve seen the devilish glare in my eye because she aptly added, “Don’t be gettin’ used to this. I’m only being extra nice because you look like shit.”
“Oh, well thank you,” I said flatly. “A Corona is fine.”
“Good, then you can tell me what’s wrong,” she hopped up. “Trace, don’t let him slip into the pool and drown.”
“I got him,” he laughed, taking another swig of his nasty brew.
I watched intently as Devin rose from the concrete siding of the pool, her bikini clad curves glistening from the light of the moon, and escaped to the inside of the beachside mansion. Little did I know, sitting behind Devin all along was the next woman on my roster of conquests. Much like me and Trace, she was at the side of the pool, her feet dangling in the water, sipping a drink and engaged in presumably mindless conversation.
This woman, whoever she might’ve been, wasn’t especially gorgeous or anything like that, but there was definitely somethin’ about her that I could get with. She had a typically round face, average height, from what I could see, and not a particularly stunning build. And then, there were the uniquely defining features, like her delectably chocolate skin and short haircut that gave her an air of playful sophistication. She came off as kind of reserved and, I guess you could call it conventional.
I think that was something I was missing in my life, though. Devin “ she was a showstopper, the life of the (sometimes nonexistent) party, all eyes on her kind of person. And then Britney and Beyonce were the superstars with media glitz behind their names and faces. Maybe this woman sitting a mere few feet from me was the touch of normalcy that I needed in my very unconventional lifestyle. Plus, she looked like she could use a little pep to her step “ or, more accurately, a little pop.
“Here.” My thoughts were interrupted by Devin towering over me with a beer bottle extended from her left hand. “I had to hit some bitch to get the last two limes for you.”
“You’re wonderful,” I told her, obliviously.
She sat down again, blocking my view from my stranger. “And don’t you forget it.”
“Would you really ever let me?”
“Well, no,” she laughed.
“Yo, Delfino!” someone called from the balcony above us. We both looked up to see Pharrell staring down at us underneath a Pac-Man trucker hat. “Come here!”
“What is it?” she shouted back over the mellow music.
“I want you to meet somebody!”
“Who is it!”
“Come here,” he repeated.
“I’m sorry, man. I’ll be back,” she assured me, getting up once again.
“Take your time.” I had other things to tend to. Coolly, I inched my way down the edge of the pool so that the feet between me and the stranger turned to inches, and I was sitting beside her, admiring the peach beads around her neck. “Excuse me,” I ventured to disrupt her concentrated stare into the light blue water, “but are you wearing a Shiva necklace?”
She looked at me with surprise laden in her light brown stare. “Yeah. How did you know?”
I smiled at her perceptible Virginia accent, which seemed to be an odd mixture of North and South, and lowered my white T-shirt to show her the light blue and black necklaces that adorned my neck. “I’m a fan.”
“Oh, my God. Those are gorgeous.”
“Thanks,” I grinned. “I couldn’t help but notice yours because not many people know what they are.”
“Hey, I need all the protection I can get in this crazy world,” she smiled, beautifully. “Lord Shiva, be with me,” she laughed.
“I’m Justin, by the way.” I offered her my hand while admiring her infectious smile. “I hope you don’t mind me just rollin’ up on you like this.”
Out of all the guys that approach me
Walkin’ up to me like they know me
“No, not at all. At least you had something to say,” she chuckled. “I’m Summer.”
You were the one that stayed aside
Waited a while and took your time
“What a gorgeous name.”
“Thank you.”
Feeling more comfortable already, I moved in closer to her, realizing that she wasn’t so average after all. “So, are you having as much fun at this party as I am?”
“Well, considering who you are and the fact that you’re sitting here talking to me, I think it’s a fair guess that you aren’t having as much fun as you’re letting on.”
“Oh, you’re an observant one,” I chuckled. “I dunno, it’s not so bad now.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“So, do you know any of the people here or did you get dragged into this, too?”
“Isn’t this your party?” she asked with a laugh.
“I don’t know,” I rolled my eyes. “That’s what they tell me.”
“I see,” she nodded. “Well, yes, I go to school with a bunch of these fools, actually.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, we’re all Virginia Techies.”
“Isn’t that like five hours from here?”
“Yes, but we just got out for the summer. Everybody’s using this party as the ‘I made it through another year, thank God’ bash.”
I laughed loudly and finally took a sip from my beer. “I heard that.”
“Yeah...”
“So, what are you in school for?”
“‘Cause I didn’t know what else to do when I graduated high school,” she said honestly. “But um, I’m an art major.”
“Seriously? Like, what kind of art?”
“Visual. Just this morning, I turned in a twenty-pager for my art history class, so forgive me if I seem a little frazzled. I haven’t slept for more than three hours in about two weeks.”
“I know what you mean. I always tell my friends back home, if they think finals week is hard, just try to make it through that week I have to go through before a tour starts,” I smiled, then reconsidered. “Actually, just try to make it a week on tour.”
“Oh, Lord. I don’t even wanna know what you guys have to go through.”
“It’s crazy,” I assured her. “But, okay. So art, huh? What do you wanna do with that?”
You don’t know how impressing
Your curiosity was to me
“Man, I don’t know. I just love the expression inside of it. It’s very cathartic.”
Suddenly, the party’s music didn’t seem so annoyingly bombastic to me. I felt relaxed. The people didn’t seem to be crowding me anymore. Everything was just cool. I was cool. And in the end, that was really all I wanted out of the night. I looked up to Pharrell’s balcony where Devin had yet to come back down from and then stared back at Summer. “Listen, you wanna go for a walk down on the beach or somethin’?”
“Really?” she beamed. “Umm. Yeah. I’d like that.”
Looked in my eyes and saw that I
I wanted more than just a man, I needed a friend
Someone I could talk to, someone who’ll really listen
Two hours later, Summer and I were still walking along Pharrell’s private sector of Virginia Beach, trampling through the cool, wet sand between our toes, under the 3:00AM moonlight, discussing the beautifully disastrous state that our lives were in. I told her about my trouble with Britney “ the public version, that is. ‘Cause hey, self-promotion starts somewhere.
Conversely, Summer embarked on the trust wave with me and divulged details about her past relationships that were all tainted by the negativity her father instilled in her life by never being around. I wasn’t exactly up for a sob story that night, but I listened anyway. She was too sweet not to listen to.
“He wasn’t like abusive or anything, was he?” I asked cautiously.
“No, not physically. But the scars of constant abandonment never leave you either,” she explained. “I can never get too close to anyone ‘cause I’m so terrified that I’ll get attached and then they’ll leave me hangin’, you know?”
“Yeah.”
“I dunno.” She carefully tip-toed through the sand as the warm water crashed against our feet, putting smiles on both of our faces. “I’m still waiting for that guy that I can just give into “ mind, body and soul. Shoot, I’m tired of bein’ a virgin,” she chuckled.
For a second there, it felt like time stopped and somebody had thrown water on me; like I was just waking up from passing out or some shit. Suddenly, Summer seemed like a waste of a two hour walk. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. Twenty-one years celibate,” she laughed nervously. “I mean, I’m not some religious freak. I just haven’t found the guy that was worth it.”
Well, at least I knew I was still in the running. I could go back to a normal breathing pattern. “I see.”
“Yeah, I’m not like a prude or anything. Just... cautious.”
“That’s... commendable,” I struggled with my words, nodding.
But then, I thought about it, and I realized it was pretty damn cool. How often is it that you find a woman that’s completely pure? Untouched? That’s one luxury you won’t ever find in show business. And hey, I could be that guy.
At that point, I let my romantic side take over and I innocently intertwined my fingers with hers and stared down at her with encouragement in my eyes. “Actually, that’s awesome.”
When you touched my hand, the sun got brighter then
Trusting you, I closed my eyes and felt our love begin
Lyrics:
“Summertime” - Will Smith & DJ Jazzy Jeff (Homebase)
“Summer Girls” - LFO (LFO)
“Summertime” - Beyonce (The Fighting Temptations Soundtrack)
Story Tags: daddyj friendsturnedlovers interracial boyfriendj love angryj tourj
