Chapter 10

It took minute for his statement to register in her brain.
“Jealous of me?”

“I didn’t stutter Cece.”

“But why? She was the one who was with you; I was just your friend.” Justin cocked an eyebrow. Chanice was saying this like she was the one jealous of Britney.

“I mean,” Chanice started, realizing what she just said, “we’re just friends, why was she jealous of me?”

“I don’t know, but your name was always mentioned in our fights. She’d always be like ‘go to Chanice, run to her like you always do’. She thought we were messing around behind her back.”

“Once again, why would I do that? It’s not like you’re cute or anything,” Chanice replied with a chuckle. Justin threw a broccoli at her and laughed when the sauce from the chicken smeared on her cheek.

“You got a little something right here,” he said, rubbing his cheek.

“Where?” she asked, removing some of the sauce, but moving the rest down to the corner of her mouth.

“Here, lemme get it,” he said before brushing the pad of his thumb across her chin to get rid of the sauce. Chanice looked up and saw his baby blue eyes staring into her hazel ones and gave a faint smile.

“Thank---“ She was cut off when his lips came crashing down softly on hers. They stayed in that position for a little while, until Justin coaxed the kiss further. It didn’t take much persuasion on his part to get her return the kiss. Everything just felt right; like this is way things were supposed to be. Like she and Justin were supposed to be together this whole time…like they should be more than friends.

“Wait. We shouldn’t be doing this!” she exclaimed, pulling away from the kiss.

“What? Why? Was it something I did?”

“No, you were…you were great. But we can’t do this, Justin.” He rubbed his head in confusion. He could’ve sworn that he felt her kissing him back a few seconds ago and now she’s saying that they shouldn’t have done it? Something’s not adding up.

“We’re best friends, Jay.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.”

“Doesn’t this seem a little weird to you? You don’t feel like you’re kissing your sister?”

“Ugh! When you put it that way…no, I don’t feel like I’m kissing my sister. It felt great actually. I’ve wanted to do that since we were twelve.”

“But this is wrong, Jay. We shouldn’t be doing this; you’re like a brother to me.”

“I don’t think that you’d kiss a brother the way you just kissed me,” he replied, chuckling.

“Shut up! I’m tryna be serious here!” she replied, playfully hitting his arm.

“Me too. But I’m serious, that was one hell of a kiss!” Both of them started laughing.

“Wait, so what does this mean?”

“What are you talking about?”

“We kissed.”

“People kiss other people everyday, Cece.”

“But we’re not ‘people’, we’re us.”

“It was just a kiss, Cece.”

“I know, I know, I’m reading too much into it.”

“Yeah, it’s not like you think I’m cute or something,” he replied jokingly.

“Yeah, that’s true,” she shot back nonchalantly.

“Oh really!” Justin started tickling her.

“Stop Jay! I’m gonna pee on myself! Stop! I give up!”

“I don’t believe you,” he continued to tickle her, straddling her waist and pinning her arms above her head on the floor. All of a sudden their breathing was labored and it felt like the room’s temperature went up 100 degrees. Justin leaned forward slowly, gradually eliminating the space between their faces and was just about to kiss her when he heard the front door unlock.

“Anyone home?”

~*~

“OMG, that was close,” Chanice exclaimed breathlessly once the coast was clear. Lynn had gotten off of work early and walked in just in time to prevent Chanice from making the same mistake twice…but was it really a mistake?

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it, I should get going anyway.”

“Wait, you don’t wanna finish eating up in my room? We won’t be interrupted there.” That’s what she was feared…total and complete privacy with him.

“Naw, I have to work on my English paper.” She was lying and he knew it.

“Oh alright,” he replied hesitantly, “I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, I’ll call you later,” she said, slowly rising and walking to the door. She was just about to close it behind her when she heard Justin call her name.

“You don’t regret it do you? I mean, you don’t regret kissing me do you? ‘Cause I don’t.”

“You don’t regret kissing yourself?” she joked, “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“You know what I mean.” She shook her head.

“No, I don’t regret kissing you, Jay.”

“Alright. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Call ya later. Bye!” Justin closed the door behind her and sighed. He’d done it. He’d finally done it. But where were they to go from here?

~*~

“I kissed him! Oh my friggin’ friggin’!!! I kissed him!” Chanice was pacing back and forth in her room. She couldn’t believe that she’d actually kissed him. Did it mean that he felt the same way about her? But where did they stand now? Would everything still be the same between them? Those were the questions that ran through her mind for an hour while she paced the room until she was interrupted by the ringing of her phone.

Dj won’t you play this girl a love song
She really needs to hear this friggin’ love song

Chanice answered it before the third line of the chorus.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey yourself; what are you doing?”

“Wrapping up this paper,” she lied, “You?”

“Watching you pace back and forth.” Chanice looked over to the window and smiled sheepishly at him.

“Must be one helluva paper,” he joked.

“How long have you been watching me?”

“For the past forty-five minutes. So, whatcha thinkin’ about?”

“Honestly?”

“Yeah; honestly.”

“Us. I’m tryna figure out where we go from here, Jay. I know you said that I was over-reacting because it was just a kiss, but it was more than that for me. It felt something when we----“

“Me too,” Justin interrupted.

“You huh?”

“I felt something too. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t wanna scare you or anything.”

“Why would I be scared?”

“Why wouldn’t you be? Who wants to hear that their best friend of 18 years has had the biggest crush on them for the majority of those years? That he’s wanted to kiss her like that everyday for as long as he could remember? That he wants to be more than just friends with her?”

“Me,” Chanice replied in a soft voice, “I do.”

“Yeah, whatever. Don’t patronize me, Chanice.”

“No, I really do. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that.”

“For real?” Justin asked softly, walking over to his mini balcony, before Chanice did the same.

“Yeah, for real. What’s wrong with us?”

“I dunno,” he replied, chuckling.

“OMG, what are we gonna do? Where do we go from here?”

“How about out for a walk or something?”

“I have a better idea, meet me at my car.”