“Alana, honey, will you pass the yams please?” I looked up from the plate of food sitting in front of me and grabbed the bowl of yams and passed them to Lynn, Justin’s mom.
“So what are you three doing later tonight?” Trace, Justin and I looked over at my mom who was sitting across from Lynn and then looked at each other.
“Getting tipsy!” We yelled simultaneously with devilish grins as all the adults, and there were a lot of them, sucked their teeth and continued back in their own conversation. And I call them adults because when the three of us are together we act anything but grown like we should be acting.
“I feel like we should be sitting at the kid table again.” Justin shot at the adults who were completely ignoring us now.
“Maybe if you didn’t act like such a child sometimes Justin you wouldn’t feel like one.” I stuck my tongue out at him from across the table.
“You said you were going to the bar tonight too, not just me Alana.” And he mimicked my actions but crossed his eyes to get one up on me on the ‘Immature Scale’.
“No one is going to any bar or club tonight. All three families have come here to spend this weekend together, which includes you three and whoever else planned on joining them.” Lynn shot dirty looks over at a few of Justin’s cousins who had beamed at our previous statement.
We went out that night anyways; come on it was Thanksgiving and you know that all the old people go to bed early. After the Mom’s, grandparents, aunts, and uncles had gone to sleep the three of us along with Justin’s cousin Rachael, Trace’s cousin Jose and a few other cousins snuck out of Lynn’s house and made our way to Beale Street to Club 152 to meet up with Rachael’s friends and get our party on (and got our party on we did).
“Alana! Dance with me bitch!” I glanced around the noisy club to find Rachael standing in front of me, clearly on the verge of being shit faced. I reluctantly nodded at her and set my drink down on the table next to Jose and followed her out to the dance floor. Just as we stepped on the floor the song changed to the “Beautiful Girls Remix” by JoJo and a lot of the girls in the club started to get a little crazy grinding on their dancing partners, including Rachael. I felt a little dirty dancing with Rachael at first because a lot of the guys around us were gawking, but I had a few drinks in me wasn’t really thinking about how much of a lesbian I looked like at the moment until Justin came over and stepped in between.
“If I didn’t know you two I’d think that you guys were together. How about you dance with me La? Rach, Tiffany needs your car keys.” She mumbled something that I couldn’t hear over the music and walked back towards the area our ‘party’ occupied. Justin stood behind me and his hands found my hands and brought my ass flush against his groin area. I hesitated a little before relaxing against him and really letting him have it; he wanted me to grind against him, I was going to grind my ‘ghetto booty’ (named by Trace) against him like he’s never felt.
“I took you to the floor, had you begging me for more …” Instinctively my head leaned back against the top of Justin’s shoulder and I started to quietly sing the lyrics to the song hoping he’d hear me; although I don’t think I’ll ever be too cool for Justin, “the king of cool”. Oopsies, there goes my sarcasm again.
“Why are you doing that?” He yelled over the music into my ear.
“You wanted to dance with me, I’m dancing. Don’t be such a baby and quit acting like you haven’t wanted to grab on my ass since you met me.”
“I never said anything like that; I was just asking a question La.” I heard the playfulness in his voice and smiled even though he couldn’t see me. The song changed to “Sexy Back”, and the DJ gave a shout out to “Justin Timberlake and his crew who were getting down and dirty” which caused everyone in the club started to go crazy screaming and looking in the direction that he pointed. I turned around just in time to see Justin turn the color of the red heels I was wearing and started to crack up.
“Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed Jay.”
“I hate dancing to my own songs in the club, you know that.”
“We can stop…” I didn’t even have to finish before he started to dance again, which was a good thing because the (numerous) White Russians in me were telling me not to stop, even if I wanted to.
As the interlude to the chorus came flooding through the speakers you could hear everyone we were with singing and egging Justin on to ‘put it on me’ from the tables a few feet away, which I wish they didn’t do because all the attention in the club was drawn to the two of us. He brought his face closer to mine and started to sing along with his voice. I started to feel a little uncomfortable at how close he was to me but let it go and danced.
“Girl let me make up for the things you lack. Cause you’re burnin’ up I gotta get it fast. Dirty babe, you see these shackles baby I’m your slave…” For the rest of the night everyone dance and drank and joked and whatever it is that we do to have fun. Around 3 we all started to head back to Lynn’s house so we would be in bed by the time the adults got up in the morning, looking as if we had never left.
But sleeping wasn’t in the plan for a few of us. I’m guessing someone had insomnia (or was way too hyped to sleep) because at around 4 I felt cold air hit me while I was sound asleep which made me wake up. I tried to make out who it was from the little light that was coming through the window but I had no luck, until I got a whiff of Justin’s cologne as he pulled the covers down over him.
“Sorry to wake you up, I just couldn’t sleep.”
“How did you know I was awake?”
“I saw your eyes open when I was getting into bed. You can go back to sleep, sorry La.” But I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned until I watched the sky start to lighten slightly; no matter how hard I closed my eyelids or how many sheep I counted (257) I couldn’t get any rest and it was because of Justin’s arms wrapped around my waist and his breathing so close to my neck.
Before I knew it, 6 o’clock rolled around and Justin, being the early riser that he is, stirred awake and smiled at me.
“Did you sleep at all?” His voice was soft and sleep-filled.
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. I thought I heard counting but I thought I was dreaming.” I laughed quietly and apologized. I hadn’t realized I was counting out loud. He climbed out of the bed and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth then came back and got right back under the covers.
“Why did you kiss me Justin?” I saw the eye roll he shot in my direction.
“I said I was sorry.”
“I know what you said. Why did you do it though?”
“I wasn’t trying to take advantage of you if that’s what you think. I figured it’d comfort and calm you down. Didn’t it?”
“It did.”
“I did it because I wanted to, and I’ve been wanting to since Philadelphia.”
“What?”
“I didn’t stutter, did I?”
“You wanted to kiss me? You have a girlfriend if I’m not mistaken, you can’t go around kissing everyone that you want to. It’s bad enough Jessica and I don’t like each other, imagine if she finds out that you kissed me Jay, how would she feel about me then? I don’t want to have to set it on your girlfriend if she gets smart on me, and you know that I will. Do you know how much I hate cheaters? You hate them too, and now you’re becoming one…”
“Alana.”
“What?”
“Shut up.” And he kissed me again, and this time I liked it. I blame it on the fact that I didn’t get any sleep and I still had illegal amounts of alcohol in my system. When we finally broke apart his hand had inched its way up the bottom of his beater (that I was wearing) and it was resting on my stomach.
“Sorry. You were talking too much though.”
“One of us has to be the smart one.”
“I’m tired of being smart, it’s your turn for once.”
“Do you realize what you just did?” I sat up and turned the lamp on that was on the night stand.
“It was a kiss Alana, no big deal. People kiss everyday without it meaning anything. We’re just friends, I don’t really see the problem with it.”
“Do you kiss Tammy, or Allison? Do you kiss Trace?”
“No, no, and hell no.” He was laughing, but I was serious.
“Aren’t they your friends?”
“And?”
“Why kiss me Justin?”
“I already told you, and you know I like to kiss La. Look I’m going downstairs to start breakfast so our Mom’s aren’t doing all the work today too, if you want to help me you can,” he started to leave but turned back around when he was standing in the doorway, “if you’re worried abut Jess finding out she won’t so don’t fret. It’ll be our little secret.” I just nodded an inched my way back down in the bed.
We were just friends, and it didn’t mean anything. I’ve heard that so many times before. I’ve heard it from boys who are about to break up with me. But I heard it from Tommy on a regular basis. The bitches he cheated on me with were always ‘just friends’ and it never meant anything to him. It meant a lot to me though, that last kiss with Justin meant a lot to me but it meant nothing to him, as usual. You don’t just kiss a girl who’s been single and heartbroken for years and expect her not to feel anything, friend or no friend.
As usual I was put on the back burner. I had become second string to Jessica, something I would have never imagined happening with Justin. You may think that I’m overreacting, but it’s true. I quickly went from Justin’s best friend to the girl he ‘just kisses’; I went from Justin’s best friend to the girl he cheated on his girlfriend with. In just two meaningless kisses I had become the girl that I always despised; I had become ‘the other woman’.
“Don’t nobody like a home wrecker.” Right?
