Reasons
by Helen
They liked Britney. They expected not to, of course, because Justin had the fucking worst taste in women ever, but Britney was some kind of weird exception. They'd only met her the first afternoon because she'd punched Justin in the mouth by mistake while they were wrestling. She knocked on the adjoining door, and poked her head in.
"Uh--do you guys have any ice?"
They did, and she bustled back to the room, but didn't close the door fully, so they heard Justin's muffled plaintive voice, and Britney's, which carried better, saying
"Stop being such a big fucking baby about it--" and they'd pretty much liked her after that.
"You're an ass--" she yelled the first time she and Justin had a real fight. "I find you to be a complete ass, Timberlake--and y'know, there are a multitude of sins for which being hot in the sack will not make up."
"Oh yeah," Justin said, "Oh yeah? Well, I guess I wouldn't know whether good sex could make up for--"
"You fucker," Britney said. "Don't you even bother to insult how good I am in bed. You won't even let me do anything but scream 'oh, JUSTIN' anyway. What the fuck are you trying to prove, anyhow?"
"You want to do stuff?" Justin said furiously. "Then do stuff--don't blame it on me just because I want you to have a good time."
"Maybe I'll take you up on that," Britney said, "if you ever stop being the hugest ass in the county," but she didn't sound as angry anymore.
Britney and Justin always had pretty entertaining fights, and Britney knew more entertaining things to do in a boring hotel room than anyone they'd ever met.
"It's because," she said, explaining the rules to mini-bar tag, "I'm always trapped in these hotel rooms alone for hours on end, and there's nothing to do--"
"You could watch porn," Joey said.
"My mom would see it on the bill," she said glumly.
JC liked her because she liked Justin.
"a lot, man," she'd whispered to him one night when she'd had too much to drink. "I like him a lot."
"That's...great, " JC had said.
"I mean, it's not just 'cause he's hot, right," she'd said, sitting down on the couch in his room and swinging her legs up on the coffeetable. "I mean. I dig him. for. his. inner. something...what's that called?"
"I don't--"
"His soul. but not as lame as that," she said.
"That's. um. Brit, what are you doing in my room?"
"Oh. um. do you have a condom we can borrow?" she said.
"Why are you--I mean, why isn't Justin over here?"
"We flipped a coin. I lost," she said. "Do you have one?"
"Yes."
"Great," she said. As he closed the door to his room he heard her laughing slyly, Justin saying "hey, wow."
Chris liked her because she reminded him of his little sisters
"If, like, my sisters were freakishly hot jailbait--" he said.
"Don't make me come over there and kick your ass, Kirkpatrick," Britney said.
"You couldn't kick my ass," Chris said.
"I kicked Joey's ass," Britney said.
"You did not," Chris said.
"Yeah, actually, she did," Joey said.
"She did that thing where she twists your arm up behind your back, right?" Justin said, not without sympathy.
"Yeah."
"Why?" Chris said.
"Because I said I could kick her ass, dude," Joey said.
Joey liked her because Justin liked her.
"She's cool. She's nice. She doesn't squeal at me," he said, when Justin finally sat down next to him on the bus and looked at him expectantly.
"Well, no--" Justin said.
"Relax, Timberlake. I don't like her. She's just--"
"I know," Justin said eagerly.
"She's cool."
"yeah," Justin said. "And pretty."
"sure."
"She's really good at Playstation."
"uh-huh."
"Are you listening?"
"Not really."
But Lance liked her mostly because of the concert in Salt Lake City, where she'd shown up to see Justin, and done an encore number with them. After the concert, she had come down the hall, and seen them. He'd finally found an empty alcove, and Chris' legs had been around his waist, his hands clutching at Lance's shoulders, head tipped back against the wall, and it wasn't the perfect position, because Chris was kind of heavy, but it felt perfect, pressing Chris against the wall, kissing his throat until he moaned, and Chris had his eyes closed, so he hadn't seen Britney, and Lance wouldn't have seen her either, except he had caught a glimpse of something brightly colored out of the corner or his eye, and when he looked up, she was there, standing at the end hallway, far enough away that he could barely make out the expression on her face, even though she was wearing a lot of eyeliner, which magnified things considerably.
She didn't look shocked, or horrified, although she did look a little surprised. Then she grinned and raised her left fist and pumped it slightly, and then Chris made an inquisitive noise and pulled his head back into a kiss, and when he checked, glancing up for a moment, she wasn't there any longer.
A little later, when Chris was mumbling "you're too good to me, baby," he heard her, distantly, saying "No, hey, you don't wanna go down there. because. there's. someone spilled soda. I mean. damn." But no one came down the hallway, and later, when Justin said, "What's that on your neck, Lance?" Britney agreed that she'd definitely heard Lance when he said that ham sandwiches gave him hives.