"I can’t believe I’m about to graduate," I exclaimed.

"It’s about time! You’ve only been in high school five years," Chris joked. "Hell even Joey graduated in four."

"Justice has been in high school for five years," I defended myself.

"I took off a year, Justie, I’ve only been in four," she corrected. "But I’m still proud of you," she added hugging me.

"We all are," Josh nodded hugging me as well.

"Yah we are," agreed Joey and Lance.

"I’m not. Any fool can graduate high school, given enough time," Chris joked.

"Yah you proved that," I retorted.

"Ha ha, you’re so funny," Chris replied.

"Come on, boys. Stop being mean to Justin," Johnny said coming into the dressing room. "They’re ready for you on stage and then you gotta hurry to the meet and greet."

"Lets do this," I said getting up. "You comin, Benda?"

"In a minute. I need to make sure everything is ready for tomorrow," she answered.

"All right, don’t forget to have Renee and Edward take a lot of pictures of you," I said.

"Don’t worry I think they bought enough film to take more pictures then you’ll ever wanna see," Justice said.

"They want proof that you can dress like a prissy girl, even if just once," Josh worked.

"Yah, I know," she smiled.

"You’re gonna look great," I said. "Anyway, hurry."

"I will."

"Congratulations, babe," Josh said hugging me.

"Thank you," I smiled, laying my head on his chest. "Wow! I’m a high school gradute," I said after a moment.

"Great, isn’t it?"

"It’s awesome," I nodded, getting up to answer the door when there was a knock. "Hey Benda."

"Hey, Justie," she said. "Hey, JC," she added waving at him.

After Josh told her hello I asked, "You heading out?", noticing she had her bag with her.

"Yep. My plane leave in two hours," she nodded. "I’m proud of you, hon."

"Thanks, sweetie," I said hugging her. "Sure you don’t want me to go to the airport with ya?"

"Naw, you need to get some sleep, you look tired," she shook her head.

"All right well have a good time tomorrow then," I said. "And I will see you next week for your graduation."

"Okay see ya," she said. "Je t’aime." (I love you.)

"Je t’aime aussi," I replied hugging her again. (I love you too.)

"You all right?" Josh asked after I laid back down.

I nodded. "I just hate seeing her leave."

"I know you do, babe, but you’ll see her next week."

"Yah that’s true," I smiled at the thought.

"Justice was right, you need to get some sleep," Josh said after I yawned.

"Stay with me?" I asked, agreeing with them.

"All right," he nodded getting up to turn the lights off.

"Night, Josh, I love you," I said when he climbed in bed next to me.

"Love you too, Jus."

"Hey, Justie," Justice greeted, answering her phone.

"How’d you know it was me?" I asked.

"Who else calls me when it’s the wee hours of the morning in America?" she answered.

"True."

"How was the concert? I caught bits and pieces of it during the interview I had earlier."

"It was great! The fans were great were awesome as always and we were pumped because we got our first number one."

"I noticed. I think I scared the interviewer when you started talking about that. I believe he wrote down the Italian equivalent to obsessive fan," she laughed.

"Your poor image," I chuckled. "By next week it’ll be all over Europe that you’re obsessed with *NSYNC."

She laughed and added, "Don’t forget about my feuding with Brit because she’s with you."

"You are too much," I said still laughing. "Things good in Europe?"

"Things are wonderful, actually. I missed being over here when I was at school," she gushed. "How are you and Josh?"

"We’re good."

"That’s good to hear. You’re heading towards the one year mark soon, huh?"

"Yep we are."

"Any special plans?"

"Well we can’t do a whole lot since we’re on tour so I think we’re gonna wait until our break before we do anything," I answered.

"That makes sense. I’m glad things are working out for you though," she said. "You’re good for each other."

"Thanks."

We talked for a while longer about everything before Renee came and told Justice it was time to get to a photo shoot. After saying good-bye I climbed into bed and fell asleep quickly.

"This is nice," I said looking off the balcony.

"It’d be nicer if Brit and Bobbie weren’t in the other rooms of our suite," Josh sighed.

"Yah it would be. Inviting them is adding fuel to the fire but coming by ourselves would’ve added even more," I replied.

"Yah you’re right. A week in Paris is still wonderful, either way."

"I agree. I love France."

"I’ve noticed. Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why do you and Justice talk to each in French?"

"I’m not really sure, actually. I know that we started taking it after school when we were ten so that we didn’t have to have a baby sitter but I’m not sure how we actually deciding to use French to talk," I answered. "It’s probably because no one else could really understand us."

"That makes sense," he nodded.

"Why’d you ask?"

He shrugged. "I just wondered. I remember watching to you talk at the studio when we were on MMC, especially when Lynn was around, Justice wouldn’t speak in English."

"Yah... by then Justice barely spoke English at home. She’d answer anyone who talked to her, expect Edward or Renee, who spoke to her in French."

We sat in silence for a while longer then Josh suggested we go inside and see what Bobbie and Brit were up to, hoping to change the subject. I agreed glad to have something else to think about.

"Still can’t reach her?" Josh asked when I hung up my phone again, sighing.

"No, she’s not answering. She’s gonna freak," I groaned.

"Everything will be fine, I’m sure. I’ll bet she’ll understand what’s going on and won’t even think about it," he said.

"You think so?" I asked. "Are you okay with this?" I added when he nodded.

"Of course I am, Jus," he said. "It’s great of Brit to do this for us, just so that people don’t question about us anymore."

"I know but I mean I don’t want to hurt you."

"I’m ‘dating’ Bobbie, remember, Jus? You couldn’t hurt me when I told Brit it was okay to suggest it to you."

"You what?"

"Brit didn’t want to talk to you about it before talking to me cause she didn’t want to cause problems and I thought it was a good idea and very nice of her," he explained.

"That’s why you weren’t upset when she started talking about it?"

"Yah," he nodded. "Now come on, the guys are listening to Justice’s album in the green room."

"Still? Rosie’s gonna be so sick of Justice by the time she’s on next week," I laughed, following him to the green room.

"You still send her flowers, Lance? How cute!" Chris teased, the next week when we were all lounging at the hotel watching Justice on Rosie.

Besides flipping Chris off Lance ignored him and continued to watch Justice talk to Rosie with a look I remember seeing on his face many a time when they were dating. I nudged Josh lightly nodding towards Lance to see if he noticed the look as well.

"Don’t get involved, Jus," he whispered in my ear.

"Oh shit! Did you not tell Justice what you were doing last week?" Joey asked looking at her after Rosie asked her what she thought about me announcing Britney and I were "going out".

"No, I couldn’t get a hold of her. She’s gotta be pissed at me since she hasn’t called me since last Monday."

"Well hell yah’s she’s pissed, look at her," Chris said, gesturing towards the screen. "That glare in her eyes is totally for you."

"She’s gonna kill you," Joey laughed.

"Don’t you think I know that?" I sighed.

"You might wanna warn Brit to steer clear tomorrow cause I have a feeling Justice won’t be too happy with her either," Lance said.

"I didn’t even think about them being on TRL tomorrow," I groaned grabbing my cell phone.

"Hello? Justice’s phone."

"Renee, hey, it’s Justin."

"Hey, Justin. Justice is on stage right now."

"I know. I’m watching. Can you have her call me as soon as possible? It’s really important."

"All right, I’ll try to get her to call..."

"How mad is she?"

"Real mad, I’m guessing. She won’t talk about it but she hasn’t talked to you in a week, something she never does."

"True. Is she mad because I didn’t tell her?"

"I think it’s because you broke up with JC," Renee replied. "She was planning on you two getting married, you know."

"I didn’t break up with Josh!" I exclaimed, casting the others dirty looks when they started laughing.

"Oh he broke up with you? Poor dear! Don’t tell Justice that, though. She’d be on the next plan to Orlando to kick JC’s butt."

"Josh and I didn’t break up, Renee. It’s all PR stuff that Brit was nice enough to go along with," I explained.

"Well that’s good to hear! Justice has been seriously pissed off about this."

"I plan on explaining to her when she calls me."

"All right, well I’m make sure she calls you as soon as she can, okay?"

"Okay, thank you, Renee!"

"No problem. Good-bye, Justin."

"Bye, Renee."

"She call yet?" Josh asked, when I came out of my bunk.

"No," I sighed, sitting down next to him.

"She’ll call. You know how busy things get when you’re promoting," he said.

"I know but I’m not used to not talking to Justice for this long. We usually end up talking to each other everyday cause one of us will get the urge to talk and we make time to do it."

"Maybe she’ll call after she’s on TRL," Chris suggested.

"You’re right. What time is it?" I asked grabbing the remote.

"A little bit before it starts," Josh answered.

"Great," I said finding MTV just in time to hear Carson say that Britney and Justice would be on the show today. "Good timing."

"Well she doesn’t look ready to kill Brit," Chris remarked when they came out.

"That’s a good sign," Josh nodded. "You think Britney explained things to her?"

"She might have, I wouldn’t know," I shrugged not sure if I wanted Britney to have or not.

"I’m sure she’ll call soon," Josh whispered to me as we watched Britney and Justice talk about the joint tour Britney was planning with Christina and Jessica Simpson for next summer.

"I hope so," I sighed, laying back against Josh.