j u s t i n

Wandering around aimlessly with Remedy in random craft stores would honestly have to be at the top of my list of things worth doing, next to being fluent in the language of love. ;)

I was dressed in a plain black t-shirt, black jeans and my favorite pair of grey Supras. Remedy was dressed in her old, worn-out Converse, jeans, a lacy white tank top with another grey one over it, and a darker grey cardigan. Her bangs were pinned out of her face, with her hair falling around her shoulders in soft waves. .com/cgi/set?id=30849273

"Hey, Reem. Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?" I asked, awkwardly shoving my hands in my pockets. She walked down an aisle that was stacked to the room with assorted, colored cardboard. I ambled past violet, magenta, baby blue, lime green, neon yellow... I wasn't paying attention to where I was headed until I crashed right into Remedy.

"No, the words never escaped your mouth," she replied emotionlessly, and her eyes moved warily to me. Her stare was naturally intense, her electric blue eyes boring deep into yours. You wanted to break the gaze, but you were virtually stuck. Virtually.

"Well, you are. Tremendously. And, I promise to remind you every day, from now on until my heart stops beating." I closed the distance between us and attempted to hold her in my arms.

"You won't even remember my name when you're heart stops beating," she struggled with the words, as if wishing that she would never get the chance to see them come true.

Just as I neared her, she slipped wryly out of my grasp and waggled her finger at me.

"Oh, save the flirting for someone else, Bieber," Remedy cocked her head, giving me a mysterious smile.

"Why can't it be spent innocently on my beautiful best friend?" I retorted wittingly. She was right; what was I doing? She's my best friend for Christ's sake! Nothing more, and yet here I am, mercilessly flirting with her, when I'm supposedly attached to Selena. What. In. The. Actual. Fuck.

But, I must say, it was completely true at the same time; I might as well have fun while I'm at it, regardless of how much I might hurt later.

Remedy slowly backed away from me, and in response I followed her blindly, cornering her into the far back of the store. She stared up at me with her big, blue Bambi eyes, the expression of a startled fawn trapped in them. I leaned into her, inching closer and closer until my nose was barely pressed against hers. Unexpectedly, her breath caught and she raised her hands to gently place them against my face. Her gaze switched repeatedly from my eyes to my lips. She parted her mouth, unheard whispers leaving her tongue, ready to be pressed against my anxiously waiting mouth...

r e m e d y

You know how you have some really good guy friends who you may have kissed, once of twice, simply because or of an unknown affection for each other? Well, I've never kissed Justin, as you all may be aware, during our friendship. And, although I've dreamt of our first kiss happening in a common, random place where both of us were taken off-guard, I was not about to let him take advantage of me now, and given the opportunity to melt inside.

I guess it's going to occurr later, than sooner.

"Aww, don't tease me by making me wait," Justin practically whined, using her left hand that was resting beside my head to tuck my wavy hair behind my ear.

"But waiting for something is the best part," I smiled sheepishly, quickly pecking him on the cheek, before slinking out of his grasp, once again. He stared after me, astonished, until I ran off, disappearing in another aisle full of novelty costumes and silly objects. I didn't stop running until I heard the hurried footfalls of Justin, and decided to hide behind an assortment of naughty, provocative adult costumes, clambering onto the shelf.

I listened for the footsteps, but it was suddenly quiet. A few moments later, the one and only jumped out with a can of bright, neon-pink silly string, coating me head-to-toe with strings of foam. He was laughing manically as I cowered farther into the grey metallic shelves, crying for mercy.

"Justin! Justin, cut it out!" I screamed, trying desperately to weasel my way out of the costumes.

"NEVER!" Justin kept on laughing, never letting go of the nozzle.

"Please? Please! I'll do anything!"

Justin stopped immediately. His brows furrowed in confusion, then he face relaxed as he contemplated the different possibilites for anything.

"Anything? Alright, suck me off," he said. "Just kidding! Learn to take a joke. Put on that French maid costume," Justin said, he face totally serious.

My face, on the otherhand, dropped. He couldn't be legitimate, but he was. Especially when it came to a sexy French maid costume worn for a thin, small-framed adolescent girl.

"Your kidding me, right?" I questioned, while prying off sticky pieces of gross stringy foam. Did I mention it was pink? Justin knew very well that I strongly disliked pink.

I already had the answer to my question before I even asked it though.

He was one step ahead of me; he grabbed a small costume off the rack, handing it to me without a word. He put his hands on my shoulders, spun me in the opposite direction, pushing me towards the changing rooms. I tried to resist, but my 5'5" stature was no match for his 5'8" build. I just barely cleared his shoulder.

"No way, something else," I begged.

Justin ignored me, and walked confidently up to a sales lady, politely tapping her on the back. She whirled around with a plastic smile slapped on her face, which grew even bigger and real once she realized who was bothering her. She had a tumbleweed of fire for hair, with emerald green eyes, at least mid-thirties, with a name tag that said 'DARLA :)'.

Darla opened her mouth to speak, but Justin beat her to the punch. "Hi, could we just get a dressing room for her?"

Darla glanced at Justin with a new sweet, genuine smile on her face, then glanced at me in bewilderment. I wanted to smack that stupid facial movement off her stupid, pretty face; I wanted nothing more than that. I felt a strange fire burning in the shrunken pit of my stomach to prove that I was good enough to be featured with Justin Bieber anywhere.

Or, maybe it was just proving to myself that I could not appear overweight and fat in a revealing outfit. I set my jaw, and stuck out my chin.

"For her? Sure, why not," Darla broke the silence.

I sneered at Justin, in an awfully nasally voice, "Yeah, why not?"

He just smiled evilly. I rolled my eyes.

'Darla' sauntered up to the almost all vacant rooms, with Justin and I trailing behind.

She stopped at Room Number Seven, jamming her key into the lock and swinging the white door ajar once it clicked. Darla speculated me suspiciously before reluctantly saying, "Here you go. Yell if you need any assistance." And with that, she trod off.

Making sure anybody near wasn't within earshot, I quickly smacked Justin, who was standing idly, pretty well enjoying the spectacle in front of him.

"I was not aware that a seemingly normal dollar store also specialized in an adult novelty costume department," I grumbled, analyzing meticulously the piece of skimpy, materialized outfit that any guy would only dream of his leading lady wearing.

The problem was that I was the farthest thing from Justin's leading lady. I was a best friend, at most.

"Hey, take it or leave it. I can just as easily torture you with some pathetic excuse of a party favor as I did before. Your choice," he said, his beautiful brown eyes locking onto mine in an uncomfortable way.

"Fine, fine! Don't say I didn't warn you," I said as I bustled into the changing room, slamming the door in Justin's face.

That last sentence caught him off guard. "-Wait, what?"

"The value of your virgin eyes," I called out to him as I yanked my Converse and skinny jeans off.

"Hey, I've seen more things than you have!" Justin argued, his fingers curling over the top of the door in an earnest attempt to open the locked door.

I accidently let out a startled yelp as Justin rattled the door loudly. "Justin, piss off," I warned him more calmly while I stood for the second time today in front of the mirror, in my underwear. A grim, disturbed egotistical version of me took over as I mechanically pulled on the black lacy stockings and the black polyester dress that barely covered my fat thighs. The only thing I liked about myself was my feet and hands. Because, compared to every other proportion of my body, they weren't the things that wasn't oversized or ugly.

At least the calories haven't dominated my hands or feet.

I slipped on my old Converse, just to acquire a little bit of class with an outfit as nautical as I happened to be wearing. .com/cgi/set?id=30849359

j u s t i n

I think my eyes were ready to pop out of my head, the satisfied grin on Remedy's face only added more to the urge to claw off the barely-there fabric concealing her curvy, naked body. If only...

I mentally kicked myself. How could I even think about fantasies of my best friend, half naked, in my bed, beckoning to me with every nerve-ending in my being sparking like a live wire at that irrisistable smile of hers igniting fireworks? Oh yeah, and because of this deal I have with Scooter and Selena. I say fuck the hardship.

"Damn..." Did I relly just say that in front of her?

"I call it 'Esclave Sexuelle' by Remedy," she replied jokingly, winking at me, and placing her hands on her delicate hips. "You like?" She bit on her bottom lip.

"I'm glad I attacked you with silly string. If this is the consequence, I'll buy out the whole store," I admitted complacently, and Remedy's face lit up like the midday Sun.

"Really?" She asked breathlessly, her voice soft.

"Yes. I'm buying this and silly string, pronto. Even though you don't need it to feel beautiful," I stated, reaching for her. Out of the blue, one of my personable songs came on, Never Let You Go, and blared through the sound system, echoing throughout the warehouse.

I noticed some parents walking impatiently past with gawking kids at their heels, some too busy to notice their kids weren't cooperating. I wanted nothing more than to stop them and talk to the kids, sign shirts, whatever, but something about the brusque-ness of the parents made me not. I'd meet those kids someday.

I turned my attention back to Remedy. "Right after you dance with me," I added to my previous statement.

"Don't I have a say at all these days?" She protested.

"You're dancing with me," I repeated as I held her small hand in mine and wrapped the other arm around her waist.

"Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya, sweetheart," Remedy said tiredly, as if reciting a hated lesson. She lifted her gaze from her feet, to my lips, to my eyes like she did before as she uneasily cupped her hand around the back of my neck.

'It's like an angel came by, and took me to Heaven...'

'Cause when I stare in you're eyes, it couldn't be better...'

We swayed, and I twirled her around a couple times. It wasn't quite the romantic setting that I would initially hope for, but it would have to do.

"Everybody's watching, Justin," Remedy whispered self-consciously, edging closer to me. She swallowed nervously.

"Is it bothering you?"

"No, I can deal with it," she concluded, and rested her head on my shoulder.

I seriously debated whether my friendship with Remedy was going farther than anticipated. Maybe I was getting more than just "lucky" enough to be her friend. Having her here in my arms, practically cradling her in this crowded public place, where she so willingly took the opportunity to be closer to me, despite what fans would say, and risk being captured in a picture with me by the paps.

It was evident that my feelings for Remedy were stronger than necessary.