Chapter Twenty Five

Later...

Sometimes Justin wished he were back with the band. In the band he didn't have to worry about his career, because there were four other members to worry about it for him. In the band, all he had to do was smile and sing for the screaming girls at his feet. Now, there were meetings left and right. His label was up his ass twenty four seven. Image consultants, designers, and journalists were constantly ringing his phone...and then there was Johnny. He loved the guy, but Justin often felt that he was trying to hold him back from taking a firmer hold of his career. He wished Johnny would realize that he wasn't some cheesy pop icon any longer. He was a musician now, and wanted to be respected as one.

But his mind was wondering. Right now he wished he were back with the band, so that he wouldn't have to deal with the fact that he had to get Dru to the doctor. Yes, he had asked Marissa to come to the house to lend him some support...but it wasn't doing much. Dru had retreated into herself as soon as he had brought her out of Wade's hotel room several hours earlier. She wasn't about to let anybody help her.
It was understandable though. Dru had relived a part of her horrible past today...she handling the situation the only way she knew how.

He knew he should have kicked Wade's ass.

"I'm not going!" Dru yelled.

"Dru...come on," Marissa chimed in. "You need to go."

"I'm not going!" She cried. "Leave me alone!"

Justin had had enough. This had been going on for too long now. Dru needed to get checked out, because neither Dru nor himself knew exactly what Wade had done to her. "Fuck!" He yelled, his nerves finally reaching their limit. "Just fucking come on Dru! Stop being a baby for once!" He took a step toward her, not waiting for her to respond. He would drag her down the stairs if he had to.

Dru's eyes widened and she sunk down to the floor, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. "Don't..." she sobbed. She buried her head in the corner of the wall, and squeezed her eyes shut. "Please don't..."

"Justin..." Marissa said, pulling Justin away from Dru. "You're not helping the situation." She whispered.

"Look at 'er!" Justin said, pointing at his girlfriend. "She's a fucking mess. She needs help."

"Yes Justin, she needs help." Marissa nodded. "But dragging her out of the house by her hair, isn't going to make her better."

"Oh, and you have a better solution right Mar?" He snapped. "You...the person who never wanted her here in the first place."

"Go downstairs Justin." She muttered, pointing at the open doorway. "No one wants to hear your crap right now."

Justin folded his arms across his chest. "No, this is my house...you go down stairs."

Marissa glared at him. "Justin Randall...you better get downstairs."

"Bite me."

She shook her head. "Fine, if you won't do this my way..." She smirked, pulling out her cell phone, "Then I guess I'll just have to call your Mom up..."

Justin gasped. "Mar...wait. Just...don't call my Mom, please," he pleaded with her. "You know how she gets..."

"Are you going to behave...or do I push memory thirty two?" She smiled.

"I'll be in the car," he grumbled. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, mumbling obscenities to himself under his breath.
*************************
When Dru finally mustered the courage to open her eyes again, she found that Justin had left. She was relieved, but at the same time felt a sense of panic. She wanted Justin to be there, even if he was in a bad mood. Where had he gone to? She didn't know. All she knew, was that Marissa was still in the room. "Where'd Justin go?" She got out, with a shaky voice.

Marissa half smiled. "He's just downstairs." She informed her. "You feel a little better now?"

Dru shrugged.

Marissa walked over to where Dru sat, and took a seat on the empty spot of carpet next to her. "I know...you've been through some stuff," she confessed. "I don't know exactly what...but from what I can tell, and from what I already know...it isn't good stuff. Tell me if I'm wrong."

Dru stared at the woman who was sitting beside her for several minutes. Marissa had never seemed to care about her past before...so why did she now? Did Justin ask her to do this? Probably... "You're not wrong," she sniffled.

"Are you scared of going to the doctor Dru?" Marissa asked her, with a knowing smile.

"I-I don't know." Dru said. "I've never been to a doctor...not one I can remember anyway."

"Well maybe that's a good thing." Marissa reasoned. "If you've never been to a doctor...then you don't know if it's going to be as bad as you think. Come on Dru...let's just try it."

"I don't want to go anywhere," Dru said, shaking her head vigorously. "He might be there." She whispered.

"Oh." Marissa frowned. Going to the doctors wasn't the reason that Dru had been so frightened after all. She was actually suffering from an anxiety attack...only Justin hadn't taken the time to see that. She couldn't blame the girl. Wade had done a terrible thing to her. She perked up, not wanting to look gloomy in Dru's eyes. "Don't worry Dru...he's not gonna be there. I promise."

"You don't know." She muttered.

"You know...you're right." Marissa nodded. "I don't know. But I can tell you this. If Wade does show up...I'll bet you any amount of money that he won't stick around long. You know, I heard Lonnie once threw this guy halfway across a football field." She chuckled. Of course it was a lie, but at this point she would do anything to get Dru to ease up.

Dru's eyes widened. "Halfway?"

"Yup. I was there...he went WAAAAAA....Kerplop!" Marissa exclaimed, acting out the scene with her hands.

Dru pictured the scene in her mind...Lonnie throwing a puny looking man across a gigantic football field. She didn't realize that she had started to laugh until she felt the stitch in her side. She glanced at Marissa and realized that she was just as hysterical. She leaned her head on Marissa's shoulder. "Thanks." She whispered. The situation surprised her, for the first time, she felt a connection between herself and Justin's stylist.

Marissa took a breath. "No problem. You wanna go? I don't know how much longer Justin is gonna be able to last." She giggled.

"If I know him," Dru smiled. "He's probably over his limit."

Marissa stood up and helped Dru to her feet. "Listen...I'm sorry if I gave you the cold shoulder in the beginning Dru. I just...didn't understand."

"Not many people do." She smiled.

The two girls hugged.

Yes, it had been an awful day for her. But Marissa had made the impact of the situation lighter. Dru would always be thankful. Up until now, she didn't think anybody cared about her besides Justin. Marissa had proven her wrong.

It felt good to have another friend.
********************
The examination was over quickly, and the pain Dru endured was minimal. She had been nervous, thinking that Wade was going to come bursting through the door, but he never did. The doctor had been nice to her. She had seemed to understand what Dru had been through and had known just how to treat her aching muscles. Dru wished that somebody had been that kind to her back at the sex house...

An eerie silence filled the large car's interior. Justin wasn't playing any music. It left her feeling uneasy. She didn't want to feel this way. Today had been hard enough on her as it was. She wished Marissa were there, but Justin had dropped her off a few miles back. She stared at her boyfriend. He looked tired, and very agitated.

"You feel like ice cream D?" Justin spoke up, causing Dru to jump a little. "There's a Baskin Robbins a few exits up."

It was the first time Justin had spoken to her since they had left his house. She sucked in a breath. "I don't think I'm in the mood Jus'." She whispered. Ice cream? How could he think about ice cream at a time like this? After a day like today?

"Fine," he muttered. "I'm just tryin' to help. If you don't want me to help you...then it's your problem."

She chewed her on her lip for a moment, before getting up the courage to respond. "Why...are you being a jerk?"

Justin slammed on the breaks.

She let out a terrified shriek. "What the hell are you doing!"

Horns blared, and tires squealed as Justin pulled the car over to the side of the parkway. He shut off the engine. "I'm the jerk? You...you went with fucking Wade Dru! Fucking Wade...when I specifically told you that you were to stay away from him!" He punched the steering wheel. The horn beeped. "Dammit Dru...you almost ruined everything for us! You're lucky my doctor knew who I could take you to. Otherwise you would be on the front page of every newspaper across America. You're supposed to be smarter than this Dru." He shook his head.

She looked down at her hands. She didn't know how to respond to his comments. She was a failure. A complete failure. "I...I was confused."

"Bull." He sneered. "You know how I feel about him."

"You...you only hate him because...Britney ran to him because she was afraid of you." She blurted out. She didn't care. She had to let him know what she knew somehow.

His eyes widened. "What?"

"You beat her up," Dru murmured. "So she went with Wade. He told me Justin. He told me a lot of stuff about you."

"Fuck..." he seethed. He shook his head, and placed a hand over his mouth.

"Justin..."

"I hit her...alright. But I didn't beat her up. It was a slap...a hard slap, but that's as far as it went." He remained silent for several moments before speaking again. "Do you believe me Dru?"

She looked into his eyes. No, he wasn't lying this time. "Yes."

"Look," he began, meeting her gaze. "I loved Brit...for a long time. We were little kids together Dru, we grew up in the buisness together." He searched her eyes for a moment, "You get me so far?"

Dru nodded.

"But me...I fuck up right? I fuck up all the time. I mean...you can ask Marissa or Trace if you don't believe me." He said, stumbling with his words. His bottom lip quivered, and he bit down on it to keep it steady. "I never meant to hurt her," he whispered. "I just...I hated that she knew what a big fuck up I was...and that she thought Wade was a better man that I was."

She looked away from him. "So when you said you would never hit a girl...you were lying."

"I couldn't tell you Dru." he whispered. "I had only known you a couple of days."

"I understand."

"She threatened to tell the media that I slept with somebody else. That's what set me off." He stated. "I didn't want that to get out...so I lost it...." he paused, "And I lost her. We stayed together for a couple of years after the fact...but only for the media. It was hard D. Sometimes, I wonder how I got through it all. After we finally broke up, I was so afraid of what she might do...I made it seem like she had broke my heart." He chuckled. "And my next video Dru, the one I told you about...it's gonna be about Brit."

She shot him a confused glance. "What?"

"I have to." He groaned. "To protect myself. It'll be the icing on the cake Dru." He was smiling now. "The press...they'll totally eat it up."

"Don't you think that Brit will be pissed?" Dru questioned. "I mean...Justin, that's kinda degrading."