A Story No Longer About Lili Marlene (Remix)

"Where's Justin? Where'd he go? Whe-e-e-e-re-- Hey! There he is!"

I beam at him and wave my hands around excitedly. I have to admit, this guy is good. Most people, even my mommy and daddy, get pretty bored with this game. I don't know why, it's a cool game. People go away, they come right back, what's not to love? Justin is obviously a man after my own heart.

"What the hell are you trying to do, Timberlake, turn Joey's kid into paparazzi?"

Chris is a grouch, though. I've been playing this game for 17 weeks now. I have never once turned into anything else. I don't think playing with Justin is going to make that much of a difference. It won't, will it? I frown, starting to get worried, but then Justin grabs my nose and makes me giggle. No way, man. Nothing this fun could be bad!

"Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" I squeal as Justin makes another grab for my toes. I wasn't expecting that. Sneak attack, man! No fair. He starts singing back to me, though, and that's cool. My daddy likes to sing to me too, but this is a new song.

I guess Chris doesn't like it, because he bonks Justin in the head with my jingle bell toy. "Where's your fucking loyalty?" he asks. I frown. That's a new word. I wonder if it's like Daddy's, "fuckohcrapicantsaythat." I hear that one a lot.

Justin seems to know it, though, and just laughs and starts singing Bye Bye Bye Bye Bye. I beam and sing along. I know this one! Daddy sings it all the time, usually before he goes away and doesn't come back for a long time. A game that is definitely not as much fun as the coming right back game.

"She's so smart!" Justin says, excited, and I preen. Of course I am smart. I keep singing along, and watch Chris. If Justin is this impressed, maybe Chris will be, too. He isn't looking at me, though, he's looking at Justin. Justin is looking at him, too, now and not at me. I wiggle around a little bit to get his attention, and he starts tickling my tummy. I stop singing and start batting at his hand. They keep talking, though, and I sigh in exasperation. What's a girl got to do to get some attention around here? Mommy and Daddy do this too, sometimes. They talk and talk and look at each other just like Justin and Chris, and do they not remember that I am here?

Okay, here we go. Justin's looking at me now. "You're all mine," he says happily as we switch positions. He ends up on his back and now I'm taller than him, resting on his legs. I kinda like this, I think. Pretty nice view from up here. Not as nice as my sling, but- I scream as I start falling through the air. Then I realize he's still holding on to me, and I'm going back the other way. Well. That was really mean of him. But. . .this is kinda fun. I hold on tightly and giggle as we sway back and forth.

"I wanna marry you," he says to me, and I smile wider. That's what Daddy says to Mommy sometimes.

"I'm telling Joey you have creepy and inappropriate designs on his daughter," Chris warns. I blow a raspberry at him, but he doesn't notice.

"You do that," Justin tells him. "Me and Bri, we have a love that society can't stand in the way of. When she grows up, she's going to make an honest man out of me."

How could a girl not love a man like that? He plays peek-a-boo, he makes me fly, and he's almost as cool as my daddy.

"That'll be the day," Chris says.

Spoilsport.

"You should hold her," Justin says as we stop swaying. I pout. I don't want Chris to hold me. I wanna play with Justin. He's going to marry me.

"I don't want to," Chris says, and that's not fun either. He should want to hold me. I'm small and cute and huggable. My mommy says so.

But Justin wants him to, so Chris joins us on the floor. Justin rolls us over so we're both sitting up and Justin puts me in Chris's lap. Chris has his knees pulled up, and I just kind of rest against them. It's pretty comfortable, actually. He's squishier than Justin, more like my mommy and daddy. I look over at Justin to make sure he's still there. He is.

"Hey. Chris. Look at Chris," he says.

"Huh?" I say. Why? I know Chris is there, I can feel him. I want to make sure Justin doesn't leave. He's more fun than Chris.

"Come on, Briahna, I'm trying to help you seduce this guy. You gotta look at him first, though," Justin explains.

He sounds like he's done this before. But I don't wanna seduce Chris. I cover my eyes and tell him to go bye bye bye.

Chris groans. Hey, he gets it. Good for him.

"That's so cute -- she wants to play peek-a-boo again!" Justin says.

I keep looking at him, confused. No, I don't. Justin keeps telling me to look at Chris, though, and smiles at him.

"Fuck you," Chris says, but he doesn't sound happy, even with Justin's smile.

I turn to look at him. I don't want to hurt his feelings, I just want to play with Justin. But maybe he wants to play with me, too, and just won't say it. Silly Chris. I play with anyone who wants to.

"Hi," he tells me.

I reach out and play with his beard. I try to tell him that my daddy has one, too, only with less things to pull, but he doesn't get it.

"Listen, sweetheart, I'm not your daddy, okay? I'm just here for the free food," he explains to me. He smiles and it's a nice smile, so I smile back, even though he apparently thinks I'm not smart enough to know my own daddy.

The free food thing, though, that I understand. I get free food, too. I giggle at him.

"She can probably sing, I bet. She sounds like Joey," Chris says to Justin.

I blow a puff of air into his face, annoyed. Of course I can sing. I showed him already tonight! Doesn't he remember? But he says I'm cute, so that makes up for it a little. At least he's paying attention to me now.

"What's with that name, though? Briahna? That's so hip it hurts," Chris says and I want to growl at him. It's my name! Like Chris is anything to sing home about? Chris is a boring name. A stupid name. Justin must think so, too, because he wants to marry ME and not someone named Chris. So ha ha ha.

All of a sudden, Justin laughs really loud and my eyes open wide. Does he know what I'm thinking? I don't think so, they're talking about baby names. I wonder if Justin's going to have a baby.

My eyes start to close a little more. I peer at Chris through my eyelashes as he pokes at me. It's kinda like the rhythm Daddy makes on my crib when he's singing me to sleep. Ooh. Sleep.

Chris turns me around suddenly, and my eyes fly open, but then he settles me against his tummy, and that's really squishy and comfortable. My eyes start to close again, and I can feel the rumble of his voice under my cheek. This feels really nice. Maybe if Justin has a baby, he can have it with Chris. It's going to be a long while before I'm big enough to marry Justin, and Chris looks at Justin the way I do and the way Mommy looks at Daddy. They make a good pair. Justin is good for playing and Chris is good for sleeping. Just like this.

index // feedback // read the original // rina main