AJ pulled up to the gate and just stared at it for a minute, trying to figure out what the hell he was doing there. The obvious reason -- that Justin was his friend, and he just wanted to see him -- wasn't the right one this time. He couldn't even lie to himself convincingly that it was.
The best he could come up with was that he owed it to him. Owed it to Justin to tell him about this face to face. Would have owed it to him even without the little ... thing, that happened between them a few days ago.
Taking a deep breath, he even gave the security camera a tiny little wave before hitting the intercom, convinced that Justin was probably watching him sit there and wondering what the fuck he was doing.
There was no answer right away, and AJ frowned. What, was Justin sulking or something? Refusing to see AJ now, even though he'd gone to the trouble to come over? How childish. AJ didn't know why he even bothered to come.
He buzzed again, though, just so his indignance could be complete and justified the next time he and Justin got together. This time an unfamiliar voice came over the speaker. "Who's calling please?"
"Um, it's AJ," he said. That should be enough. It wasn't like he was an infrequent guest these days.
"Mr. Timberlake is unavailable. I'll tell him you came by--"
"Wait, wait," he interrupted. "What does that mean, unavailable? Is he there?" He strained to hear any other noise in the background. Who was this guy? Someone who worked for Justin? If so, he hadn't seen him around before. Some guy that Justin had spent the night with? AJ got a strange feeling in his gut that was the likelier possibility.
"It means he's not available." The voice got a little colder. AJ could understand why, even if he wasn't sorry for it.
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Thanks."
"You'll have to move your vehicle. You're blocking the gate."
Like the gate needed to be available at all times, just in case someone important came by, that would actually be let inside. When he looked in his rear-view mirror, however, he realized that another car had, in fact, pulled up behind him and was waiting there. Someone had even gotten out of the passenger side and was heading toward his door.
Justin.
Which meant that he wasn't inside, which mean that he hadn't been blowing AJ off. But which also meant AJ had to face him in about five seconds. He didn't seem to have any choice but to get out of the car.
"Hey," he said, leaning against the car door and making sure his sunglasses were firmly in place. "I was just coming by to see you."
"Well, I didn't think you were selling girl scout cookies," said Justin, smirking a little. He stopped a couple of feet away. "I went to the beach with Joey and the rugrat. We just got back."
"Yeah, I see that." He looked past Justin to the car and sure enough, there was Fatone, twisted around and fiddling with the carseat in the back. "You and Nick would get along. Y'all have pools in your backyards but you still drive way out to the beach." Probably some private stretch of beach somewhere, too; AJ didn't see any bodyguards with them
"It's not the same thing," said Justin. His smile was only faint and his own eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, too. AJ couldn't read him at all. "I do still want to meet him you know. And anyway, I wanted to get out of town for a little while. See some friends."
"Yeah, I understand."
There was a long, awkward pause, so silent between them that AJ could hear faint giggles from the car, and Joey's much deeper replies. He hadn't really planned how to do this very well at all, turned out, and had no idea what to say next.
"So I hear congratulations are in order," said Justin finally. AJ wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not that he already knew. That he didn't have to find a way to say it after all.
"News travels fast," he replied after a moment, shifting his weight to his other foot and standing up straighter. "Thanks. We're probably gonna--"
"Am I invited even?" Justin interrupted him. It didn't even feel so much like an interruption as Justin just couldn't wait another second to get that out. "At least?" AJ knew he wasn't mistaking the hurt and bitterness in that question. He'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, but a part of him had known all along that it would.
"Of course you are," he said. He wasn't even sure he could exclude Justin from his life anymore. Or he could, but not without some repercussions, and he was trying to get less stress in his life, not more. "Listen, about the other day ... "
"You don't have to explain," said Justin, and this time the interruption was obviously deliberate. "Sometimes these things just happen. We don't even have to talk about it at all."
"I just wanted to say," he persisted. "I didn't mean to lead you on or anything. I guess I was just ... "
"Vulnerable?" suggested Justin. "Easily drawn in by my charms? No, look, I know. It was nothing. I get it. You don't have to ... anything. You don't owe me anything."
"So are we cool?"
Justin hesitated before nodding. "Yeah, we're cool," he said. AJ wasn't sure whether or not to believe him, but he couldn't just call him a liar. "Congratulations. I'm sure you'll be happy."
"Thanks," said AJ. It came out just as dully as Justin's congratulations had. "So you wanna ... something? This weekend?"
"You sure you won't be busy?"
AJ snorted and shook his head. "Sarah's planning a wedding," he said. Already, it had been chaos. "I'm probably just gonna be in the way for, oh, the next year or so. So, we on?"
Justin shrugged. "Yeah, sure, we're on. Call me, we'll make plans." He didn't sound particularly enthusiastic, and for a moment AJ wanted to remind him that it wasn't as though he was doing AJ any favors here or anything. But he kind of was, and AJ bit the response back.
"Um, Justin?" AJ and Justin both looked back at the other car, where Fatone was hanging out the driver's side window. "Sorry, we just had a little apple juice accident here and I'm out of wetwipes. Can we go in?"
"I'll call," said AJ, giving Justin a nod. "And I'll get my car out of the way here. So ... you have a good day."
"Yeah ... you too," said Justin, giving him a bit of a wave as he jogged back to Joey's car.
AJ pulled back out onto the street so they could get by, then idled there for a moment. He watched in his rear-view mirror until the gates closed again. Justin hadn't looked back. AJ tried to convince himself than he hadn't been hoping he would.
A moment later he lit a cigarette and drove away.