I avoided Justin for the rest of that day. Everyone that had gone out to the club the night before had huge ass hangovers which quickly gave away to our Mom’s that we had gone out even though we were told not to. It’s not like we got in trouble, everyone who had gone out was older than 21, but I hate listening to just my mother lecture me; try listening to 6 of them let you have it.

During breakfast, that Justin managed to cook by himself and not burn down the house, we ran out of milk so Trace volunteered to go to the store to pick up a few gallons, and forced me to go with him. We got into the Jeep Justin keeps at home and headed toward the General Store.

“I saw Jay come out of your room.” Great, now I was going to have to hear shit from him about something I was trying to forget about.

“Oh.”

“He slept there?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” Thank God that Trace takes hints.

“Go ahead and ask Trace, because I know you want to you midget.”

“Did you guys do anything?”

“We kissed, but according to him it didn’t mean anything.”

“And according to you?”

“According to me it meant a hell of a lot. The first time doesn’t mean shit, but he kissed me twice when he was well aware of what was going on. And this morning it was a lot different than at my dad’s house. Who the fuck kisses their friend whose had a really bad past with men and then tell them it means nothing?”

“I don’t think he meant it like that. You coming in?” He motioned to the door of the store and I shook my head no. Within five minutes he was back in the truck and not heading in the direction of Lynn’s.

“Where are we going?”

“My mom’s place. They can hold off on the milk for a while, I don’t think you need to be around Justin right now. He’s been stupid in the past when it comes to girls, but this has put the icing on the cake.”

“I’m aware.”

After an hour and half of laying around on Belinda's couches in her living room (and ignoring the phone calls we were getting from the people back at Lynn’s) someone came knocking on her front door as if they were going to knock the damn thing down. My head was in Trace’s lap so I turned it up towards him and away from the TV that we were watching; we both knew Justin was at the door.

“It’s open bitch!” We didn’t pay attention to him as he took his shoes off and plopped down on the couch on the other side of the room.

“Did you two not want to be at my Mom’s or something?” No answer. “Or maybe you guys just feel like being assholes right now. That’s cool, well Rachel dropped me off here so I’m going to take my Jeep and head back over there so I’ll see you when you two stop acting like babies and want to come back over there.” I really don’t understand why he was being an ass to us, it’s not like we did anything serious except leave them without milk. Whoopdy-Fucking-Doo. But it was better not to even say anything to him so I pulled the keys to his Jeep out of my back pocket and threw them at him, blindly might I add; I completely missed his lap that I had hoped I aimed for and hit him square in the face.

“Ow, what the hell? Gee thanks, that was real mature Alana.” I decided not to bite my tongue anymore.

“Ya and you would know about being mature Justin.”

“I’m not following you?”

“You want to know what’s real mature Jay? It’s real mature of you to kiss me twice, knowing how fucking vulnerable I am this time of year and then tell me it meant nothing. You don’t just kiss fucked up people and tell them that it meant nothing to you. You think I care about your girlfriend finding out that you kissed me? No, I care that you had the audacity to kiss me again after climbing in bed with me and cuddling up to me all night.” Somehow I remained calmed when I got it all out and I was surprised that I didn’t raise my voice.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes I’m serious Jay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re always sorry though. I know you’re sorry Justin, I know.” Trace got up and left the room at that point which gave Justin the opportunity to sit next to me.

“I wouldn’t have done it again, I got caught up.”

“Whatever, forget it.”

“If I forget it and you start to ignore me again can we really talk about it?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, forget it Justin.”

After we got everything cleared up the three of us headed back over to the festivities at his Mom’s and the rest of the weekend went off without a hitch. I lied though, I wasn’t fine. I actually liked the feelings I got when we kissed and I couldn’t just forget about them. For two more nights I wasn’t able to sleep and it was hell leaving everyone when it was such a great weekend, and heading back to New Jersey to go back to work. I had Christmas break to look forward to though; Trace, Justin, Rachael and I were meeting up in Aspen the day after Christmas and spending New Years there.