THE POLAROID

CHAPTER 6

It had been almost a month since Kerri and Justin had been to England and they hadn’t been able to hang out with one another much after they got back. They’d meet up on their way to work and grab a quick cup of coffee and a muffin and then have to dash off in opposite directions.

Justin had left a few days before, working non-stop to promote his album, and Kerri was finding her work to be a bit draining. She missed the days of being able to wake up late and do whatever the hell she wanted till hitting the club and getting in that booth and just letting herself escape within the music. She didn’t like being on a set schedule like most people in the world. Nine to five just wasn’t her thing. She loved her job, but she just hated having to go to the office everyday…Especially when he was around. And lately he was always around. Speaking of which, there he was. Walking by her booth and waving to her through the glass. Kerri silently cursed him. She’d give that rat bastard the finger if the general manager of the station wasn't walking right next to him. ‘Stress-free environment my ass.' she thought to herself as she faked the biggest smile she could as she waved.

Kerri sat at the table, vigorously moving the mouse, and clicking through different programs on the screen to cue up the next song. She could see the lights on the phone blinking and looked towards Serena who was straight ahead in an even smaller booth holding up a sign that said "Song Request on 1". Kerri moved the mic closer to her face and pressed the button on the phone. "Hey! You’re live on the air with Kerri. Who’s this?"

"Oh my God! Is the Kerri? I’m on the air?! This is Blaine! I am such a huge fan!" the voice exclaimed.

Kerri raised an eyebrow to her friend who was visibly giggling on the other side of the glass. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the guy on the line was not into the ladies. "Thanks Blaine! What can I play for you today?" Kerri chuckled to herself as he kept panting with excitement.

She grabbed her bottle of water and took a sip waiting on his response. “Oh my gosh! Can you please play that new song by Justin Timberlake? That sexy thang gives me the vapor’s.”

Kerri smiled looking over towards Todd, her sound tech who was in the background trying to hold in his laughter. "Oh is that right?" she asked taking another sip of her water.

"Oh yes, Miss Thang! I have two words to describe him…Srump-Tious!"

Kerri had to put her hand over her mouth, so as not to spew water out all over the audio equipment. She, nor any of the rest of the crew in the room, could hold in their laughter. As the snickers died down Kerri said, "I’m sorry Blaine, but we don’t really play mainstream music on our show."

"Why not?"

"Because this isn’t that type of show." she said plainly.

"Well it needs to be. He is hot right now! Why won’t you play him for me?" he whined.

Now at first his banter was cute, but now it was starting to piss, Kerri off. She wasn’t in the mood to deal the bullshit and knew that if it went any further, she would end up saying something that she didn’t mean. "See Blaine, we try to give other artists a chance to have their music heard. But since you did put a smile on everyone’s face this morning, how bout I play someone covering cute ole’ Mista Timberlake?"

"I guess that will do." He huffed exasporatedly. "You’re still the best…Even if you won’t play my song!"

"Good to hear, Blaine. Well folks, here’s Passion singing a medley of Justin Timberlake songs. Blaine, I hope you’re excited, cause he’s almost as good as the real thing!"

Kerri pressed a button on the board and the song began to play. She sat back in her chair sipping her water and put her hand up towards Serena as if to say "What the hell, man?"

Kerri could feel her phone buzzing in her back pocket and pulled it out. She looked down at the caller ID before finally answering, "Speak of the devil. What’s up? You gotta make it quick cause I’m working."

"I just have three words to describe you, Ms. Thang! Fab-U-Lous!"

Kerri immediately recognized the voice of her ‘fan’ Blaine who had just called, "Oh you son of a bitch!" she exclaimed. "You were about to get me fired! I was so close to cussin' you out!"

Justin couldn't help but laugh hard into the phone. "My bad."

"You still in Chicago?"

"I'm back in L.A. right now. I need to do something with this house. It looks so empty right now. You should come help me decorate or something."

"Isn't your mom around to help you with all that?"

"No, she left a few hours ago. She won't be back here till Friday...Speaking of which. She dropped off a 'thank you' card you had mailed me a month back. What's with the $800.00 check?"

"I know it’s not the full amount that I owe you, but I'll get the rest to you as soon as I can."

"Owe me for what?"

"The trip."

"Kerri...You didn't have to pay me back. I told you it was my treat."

"Yeah, but I just don't feel right about it. It feels like I’m mooching off you."

"Well, I know you aren't. I'm going to rip it up, so you can just void out the check."

"No, Justin. Please. I don't feel right not giving you anything for that trip."

"You've given me a lot, Kerri. Don't even sweat over it, girl."

She could see Serena waving towards her, signaling that she had 4 minutes before they were back on the air from commercial. She nodded towards her before returning back to her conversation. "What have I given you?"

"The chance to see things in a new light. Things were looking so bleak and I was starting to have this blasé towards my life and all the things that I have and all these opportunities in front of me. You've got this way about you...This light around you that makes just being in the same room with you an experience within itself."

Kerri was smiling from ear to ear. She could see her reflection in the glass and scrunched up her face in disgust at how goofy she looked. But the smile would not disappear. No matter how hard she tried. "Well if you feel that way about it, maybe I should have been charging you for my services then." she deadpanned.

"Very Cute! Speaking of which, I heard what you said to Blaine on the radio there." He joked. "You think I’m cute huh?"

What was with all this smiling she was doing? She had smiled more in the past 2 minutes talking to him, than she had all week. "Well I didn’t want to hurt your feelings with the truth, ugly." She joked.

"Oh I see how it is!" he laughed. "Seriously though...I really called cause I wanted to know if you wanted to come over and keep me company after you get out of work."

"Where's your boy, Trace?"

"In Memphis, visiting his folks. I won't see him for another week. Plus you’ve never been to my house. You have off for the next couple days, right? Your friend is going outta town too right?"

Yeah."

"Bring some clothes and sleep here in the guest room. I want you to see my place before people start putting their two cents in on how I should decorate it. It's so beautiful right now. Just a blank canvas. I’ll even take you to that spot that you have been wanting to go to…My treat."

Kerri was apprehensive to say yes. Justin could sense her hesitation. "You are about the only friend I have who feels guilty about being pampered by me. Trace and them wouldn't think twice about coming up if I asked them. But it’s like pulling teeth with you."

"I just don't want you to think that I am using you, Justin."

"Well this check proves that you are different from anyone that I've met in a very long time. Don't keep feeling guilty. Would you feel guilty if a guy asked you to go out and he paid for the dinner and movie?"

"No. And I know we've been over this before, but you haven't really given me a chance to ask you to hang."

"Trust me. There will be plenty of time for that. Now get back to work."

Kerri hung up wondering what type of mental deficiency Justin must have been suffering from to want to hang out with her. But she was glad to know that her cynical personality hadn't driven him away...At least not yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Adios Mio!" Kerri exclaimed as her car reached the top of the hill in Justin’s driveway. She got out of her car and just stood in the starring at the house.

Justin was on his cordless phone when he opened the front door to greet her. He expected her to be at the door but instead found her still standing by her car, gawking at his house with her mouth wide open in shock. He told the person on the other end that he would talk to them later and headed towards her. "Bitch, you gonna come in, or do you feel like standing in the middle of my driveway for the rest of the weekend?"

"How many families you got living with you, J?"

"Oh, shut the fuck up." He groaned, taking her bag and pulling her by the arm into the house.

Kerri looked around. Most of her attention was pointed upwards towards the large ceilings. "This place is amazing!"

"I have great taste."

Kerri thought of his ex-girlfriend and started to laugh to herself before teasing him, "Let's not go there, sweetie."

"What? What you got to say? Don't get quiet on me all of sudden, smartass! Speak your mind!"

"Nah. You should never insult your host."

Justin gave her the deluxe tour of the house. All 12,000 plus square feet of it. With five bedrooms, each the size of her apartment and eight and a half bathrooms, the house was way bigger than she expected. With its size, it felt very cold and empty. There was hardly any furniture in the house. Except for the screening room and gym, it hardly looked inhabited. She knew that Justin was on the road a lot and that he didn't have much time off between work, but seeing that he'd bought the house a year ago, she thought it would at least feel like a home.

"So what do you think?" he asked looking towards her.

Hooting like an owl, Kerri listened to her own echo bellow throughout the empty house. "You definitely need my help." She joked.

Justin wrapped his arm around her shoulder and put her in a headlock before dragging her outside to see his cars.

During her stay, Justin took her around Beverly Hills to help him shop for furniture. She’d driven past the stores on many occasions, but had never stepped foot inside of one. She was always curious though. But there was always this deep seeded fear that the employee’s would see right through her and treat her like Vivian from Pretty Woman.

At the few stores that actually had price tags on their items, Kerri would be on her way to looking at the cost, before having her hand slapped away by Justin. He told her to just tell him what she thought of the items...Not their exorbitant cost.

They spent the evenings out at different hot spots in town. From 10 until 3am, Justin would drag her from club to club, VIP room to VIP room. She had to admit that she actually enjoyed being able to just sit around and enjoy herself and not have to worry about mixing tracks. She didn’t remember the last time that she had actually been to a club and wasn’t either working or doing something for the radio station.

This was also the first time she met any of his 'peoples', as he called them. She thought of them more as pariah. In Hollywood, they were better known as entourages. Watching Justin pour out a couple thousand dollars a night to pay for fifteen of his closest friends food and drinks was hard to watch.

There were a few people who Kerri did warm up to though. There was Tommy, who was pretty much born in a tub of money at birth. His family owned a slew of businesses all over the LA area. He actually did offer to pay a few times, but Justin refused. Then there was Marty. He and Justin had met during his touring days with Nsync. Marty was a dancer and choreographer and was hired by Justin to help out with the choreography for his new album. And if you were to see Marty, you knew that Kelly, his assistant, was never too far behind. She was very friendly when Justin first introduced the two women. Kerri knew she was different from the others, just by her smile and the way she was dressed. She looked like a regular chick. She didn’t have a ton of makeup caked on her face, everything on her body looked natural and real. She didn’t dress trashy like the other women he’d introduced her to earlier. Kelly noticed the same in Kerri and the two women hit it off instantly.

She'd only been hanging at Justin’s for two days, but it felt longer. She couldn't fathom how he kept up the same routine every weekend. She took DJ gigs maybe once or twice a month and was always exhausted at the end of the night and couldn’t fathom doing it every weekend.

She sat quietly next to him as he continued to listen to something Tommy was saying. She’d tuned him out ages ago. She watched Justin, studying his face. She smiled when she saw him laugh and lean back into her shoulder. She adored that laugh. It was that hearty laugh that he came from deep down in his chest when he was genuinely enjoying himself.

After awhile, they decided to call it a night. He had to get up early in the morning for rehearsals. As they were about to leave, Marty tipped him off that there were a gang of paparazzi waiting outside for him and other celebs to leave the club. He grabbed Kerri's hand and told her to stick close to him.

His entire demeanor had changed. He was no longer smiling and his jaws were clenched tightly. She watched him take deep breaths as they neared the front door. With one hand entwined with Justin's and the other with Kelly's, who was hitching a ride home with them, they headed outside. Flashes of light seemed to be coming from everywhere. All Kerri could see were bright bursts of white in her eyes. Kerri put her head down and entrusted Justin to guide her to the car. All she could hear were constant clicks from camera's and people yelling out his name. He didn't say a word. He just kept walking towards the awaiting SUV. She felt his hand squeeze hers. His grip was so tight, she immediately started to lose feeling in it, but she never complained to him. He didn’t have to say anything, she already knew. He needed her and that’s all that mattered.

With their heads still down, they waited on Wes to shut the doors so they could leave. Once he pushed a photographer out of the way, he slammed the door, making Kerri jump. Justin finally released her hand, rubbing it between both his, knowing he’d squeezed too tight. She patted his leg before putting her arm around his shoulder and pulling his neck towards her and she rubbed the top of his head.

During the ride home, Justin was unusually quiet. "Tired?" Kerri asked.

"Hmm? A little." He replied, his head turning back to look at something they had just passed.

Kerri turned to see what he was watching so intently. "Whose house is that?"

"My ex's."

CHAPTER 7