There is laughter coming from the faraway room and I can hear the sharp cackle and the deep roar. It's deafening, really, but I put up with it anyways because I am alone and that is all that matters. I sit cross legged and I huddle in the bathtub, dealing cards to myself, playing a lone game of solitaire. The one man game, my favorite game of all. So as I deal these cards, my finger slips and the sharp end of the Las Vegas purchased cards scrape against my skin and I can feel droplets of my own self drip onto the bleach white bathtub. To see it against the cool, porcelain makes me smile and I smear the crimson into it, as if I was trying to widen the amount of red liquid that flowed out of my finger like seldom rain drops each tumbling down with special grace on a summer day. I laugh and shake my head, simply letting the blood flow freely upon my fingertips.

As I'm playing this game, my thoughts become clouded and I suddenly become lightheaded. I grab a handful of the hotel's two ply bathroom paper and wrap it around my small puncture wound. Feeling up to it again, I finish the game, and I win every time because I allow myself to. There is no one around to claim victory otherwise. That must be my favorite part of playing this game and my favorite part of being alone in a small restroom, huddled in a tub smeared with my own blood.

I glance at my watch and I notice that it's 6:20PM. One hour until showtime. Taking more bathroom tissue, I wipe up my almost dried blood and smile in satisfactory again at the shining porcelain before me. I climb out of the bathtub and I turn back one last time and whisper goodbye to my solace. To the one and only place I can be Justin Timberlake…and just….Justin Timberlake, no star apparatus attached.

As my hand reaches for the door, I hear a familiar voice on the other end.

"J, it's time for soundcheck. You decent?"

I gulp and count to three. One…two....three.

I open the door with a loud 'swoosh' and I smile wholeheartedly at J.C. who played the part of the messenger today.

"Yup. All ready. Let's go, Jace. I can't wait for what lies ahead for us today."

And then he answers back with the same thing he says every time. "Same thing everyday."

That's what I was afraid of.