Digital Strings Attached

Chapter 16

Two weeks after...

1 Text message from Justin. 

: "Georgie babe, we just landed here in Florida. Call you later?" 

: "Okay, babe!" 

Georgia placed her cell phone back on the top of her drawer while she was stacking clothes on her luggage. She was at home in Seattle, preparing to go back to New York for the opening of their course next week with Jovie. They were lucky to find an apartment in the City after hunting for a place for like three days after the band took off to Pennsylvania, two weeks ago. 

It had been a series of late-night calls after the concerts, texts during the morning, AOL emails, and sometimes video conferencing through YM or Skype between the couple, Justin and Georgia, and at times with her family. Gia loves seeing Justin and asking for JC, haha!  They had managed to pass the rough couple of weeks of missing each other.

"Georgia, is JC coming over for Christmas?" Gia even asked her one time during dinner. 

"I'll try. They have to come home to their families, too. But, we'll see.", containing her laughter, she grinned at her sister who was so apparent in having a baby crush on JC.

It was the day before their flight back to New York when Britney's little lap dance at the after-party broke the internet. 

"It seems like Britney had extreme fun with NSYNC heartthrob, Justin Timberlake at their soiree in New York." Jovie read the headline of the article out loud, looking disgusted and staring in disbelief at her computer screen. 

The article implied that the two were spotted a lot of times at the party and were flirting, it did not even cite a thing about Georgia and Justin.

"How dare them?!" Jovie snapped. "How did they manage to dig up pictures of them together and not you two?? Like you guys were so into each other, you even kissed multiple times that night.?"  

Georgia sighed. "That's spot-on. But this is good, Jovie. This is what Justin and I want. It's better that the media wouldn't fixate on us, especially me. I wouldn't want to go to class every day being spied and photographed by them." 

Jovie raised an eyebrow and watched her closely. "So, you're okay with this?" 

"Let it go, I'm okay," she replied and hurried downstairs to get snacks, but truth be told, she didn't want her friend to dig down inside of her, because she was afraid she'd ascertain that it was intolerable for her. This is one of her fears, but practically, it also saved her from the paparazzi's prying eyes. But to see candid pictures of Justin and Britney together, smiling, talking to each other, and the lap dance torments her. 

That was the part of the night she dared not to relive, let alone to be publicized globally. Yet, there it was, breaking the internet for the world to see. 

Last Week of August.

Georgia and Jovie were back in New York, finally settled in their cozy apartment. They had been busy organizing things and still not finished with the kitchen when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," said Jovie, standing up from the floor where she sits and has been in charge of their glassware. 

Georgia was putting the pans and pots in a cabinet when she heard Jovie grasp and cry out, "Hey, you guys!!"  Then she heard the familiar voices coming from their living room.  She immediately made her way to the living room and was met halfway by Justin who was carrying a stem of roses that looked like he randomly handpicked from someone's garden along the way.