Feeling hurt and alone, Justin had a choice to make.

Try to picture a world where Justin Bieber posters don’t hang on your wall, where “Boyfriend” isn’t playing on the radio everyday, and where Jelena’s relationship isn’t a major topic of conversation at sleepovers. Can tu do it? We didn’t think so. But Justin admits that just a few months ago, it almost happened—-he almost left música behind. It all started when he was faced with the crazy rumor that he had a baby with a fan named Mariah Yeater. Feeling confused and hurt, Justin couldn’t believe that some peeps actually thought it was true. “At the beginning of it all, I was in Florida, away from my friends and family, and I was pretty sad,” he recently confessed. Making matters worse? Even Selena was affected por the drama. Justin explains, “She was like, ‘Do tu see what they’re saying on the Internet?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And she said, ‘So…’ I was like, ‘No, it’s not true.’ Even though Sel trusted his word, the fact that the rumor was taking on a life of its own made Justin feel helpless. “I got to the point where I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this. I just want to be normal,’” he reveals. “It was difficult because I’d never gone through anything like that.” Luckily, Justin didn’t make any rash decisions—-instead, he searched within himself. “I started thinking about all the things I wanted to accomplish in life and where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do,” he says. “And it all led back to music. So that’s why I’m here.” Now, Justin’s turned the whole ordeal into a positive. He channeled his emotions about Mariah into a song called “Maria” (Believe), and is never going to let anything come between him and his música again!