A Face In The Hall (Justin Timberlake fan fiction)

Chapter 7

"You gotta be fucking kidding me right now!" Justin was thinking just that but Cherish was the one who said it out loud.

Bobby was seething. "What the fuck's going on here!?" He glared down at the two of them, Justin kneeling, hands still planted firmly on Cherish's knees.

Cherish simply turned her chair back around and opened the file folder. "Nothing's going on Bobby." she huffed.

Justin slowly got up on his feet and rested his butt up against the edge of the desk. He folded his arms across his chest and started to explain. "I got drunk last night…She was just helping me home."

Bobby stalked forward and got in Justin's face. "I wasn't fucking talking to you, JT."

Cherish jumped up to stand in between them. Justin never flinching once, raised his hand, signaling for her to stay put. "I'll talk to you later, Cherish." he said, never breaking eye contact with Bobby. He stood up straight and said, "Listen Bobby, I don't have any beef you.  But if there's something you wanna discuss, you know where to find me."

Knowing Cherish was more than capable of taking care of herself, Justin walked out the door, closing it behind him. He was this close! Justin walked down the corridor, punching his fists into the air, frustrated by the fact that he was interrupted during his quest for answers. As he descended down the stairs he could see the little boy from the day before sitting at a table nearby and pulling books out of his book bag,  tapping his foot on a basketball on the floor under his feet. Anne Marie was sitting with him and talking to him about his day. Justin stayed in the shadows and watched him, too afraid to be seen or even approach them. "...Get out! You got an A? We studied our butts off for this one! Anne Marie laughed. "I think that deserves one of Darla's specialty shakes, don't you?"

"Yes!" the boy gleamed.

Justin smiled as the boys eyes lit up. "Extra chocolate please!"

"You got it boss!" she said, before running her fingers through his curly hair, making him frown and push her hand away so he could fix it.

Justin jumped slightly when Anne Marie spotted and called out to him. He quickly pulled his hoodie over his head, terrified that the little boy would somehow see him. "Yeah? What's up?"

Anne Marie raised an eyebrow as she watched him suspiciously slide around the corner and ahead of her towards the bar. "Ummm…I was just gonna tell you Jimmy had them re-do your order since you were upstairs. Let me get it for you."

"I'll come with you," he said, quickly grabbing her arm and pushing her in the back kitchen so as not to be seen by the youngster.

After getting his food from Jimmy, Justin ducked out the side door and headed straight back to his fathers house. He sat on couch staring at the television, not really paying attention to what was going on. His trip back to Boone had turned into a mission for answers, and Justin had no idea what the hell he was going to do now. If he was too scared to come face to face with a mere child, how in the hell was he going to broach such a massive conversation with Cherish after 10 years?  Justin sighed deeply, before getting up from the couch and placing the Styrofoam container of half eaten food into the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water. He didn't want to sit around the house all afternoon drowning in his own thoughts, so he decided to jog over to the basketball courts to toss the ball around and clear his head.