Chapter 5: Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

I have a confession to make. This is really bad, but I have to tell you; I have to tell someone. This secret has been weighing heavily on my mind for the past week and I can't take it anymore. Please don't hate me for this.

Here it goes.... deep breath.... I've been seeing Justin for a week now. Oh, thank God I got that off my chest. Man do I feel better. I wonder why I have this need to confess things to you people? Anyway, I've gone out with him three times since that night he hung out with Bobby and me. We went out to dinner twice and the movies once. It wasn't anything fancy or a date. We're friends and that is it. Have I told him about my little secret? What do you think?

Bobby does not know that I've been seeing Justin and he would murder me if he found out...or at least tell Madison about what I've been up to. I've just been telling Bobby that I have to work late or that I'm going out with some friends from work. He buys it or at least pretends to. After Justin left the other night, he proceeded to lecture me about how unfair I'm being to him and myself by not telling him the truth about me. Then he told me about all the things that could potentially go wrong. So I told him, basically, that I did not want to hear it from him and that he had nothing to worry about because I wasn't planning on see Justin again anytime soon.

I went out to dinner with Justin the night after.

"Hey Mel," Bobby greets, barging into my bedroom without any warning. I roll my eyes at his indifferent action and watch through the mirror as he comes to lounge on my bed. I could have been half naked when he walked in! "What are you all dressed up for?"

"Uh-I'm just going out to dinner." I answer vaguely, continuing to apply my makeup. He's probably going to ask with whom am I going out with. That means that I would have to lie again since I can't tell him that I'm going out with Justin. I hate lying, especially to my brother. He doesn't even have to find out for me to feel guilty. Just the thought of it makes my stomach turn.

"You got a hot date or something?"

"No," I reply somewhat defensively. "It's not a date."

"Who is he?"

"Did you come in here to drill me with questions or did you have a real purpose?" I ask, hoping to change the subject. I finish applying my mascara and turn around to face Bobby, with my back to my makeup table. I fluff my curled hair and look at him expectantly.

"Believe it or not I did actually come in here to tell you something important." He laughs. "I found an apartment."

"What?" I ask genuinely surprised at his statement. I knew he had been looking, but I wasn't expecting him to find something so fast. I kind of liked having him here. It wasn't so lonely and I really liked having someone to come home to besides my cat.

"It's really nice," He says seeming to sense my mixed feeling on the situation. "Two bedroom, one and a half bath. It even has a balcony and a skylight. It's really nice and only about twenty minutes from you."

"That's great Bobby." I smile, truly excited for him. I walk the short distance to him and give him a quick hug before moving to my closet to get my shoes. "I'm excited for you."

"Really?"

I sigh with a smile and turn back to him, holding two pairs of shoes in my hands. "Of course I am. Sure I'll miss having you around, but I'm happy to see you get your own place." I answer honestly. It really is great for him to finally get on his own two feet. He's lived off my parent's money his whole life since he worked for my dad so this is great for him. "I want to see this place of yours."

"You'll see it when you help me move in." He laughs and I stick my tongue out at him playfully. "Oh and I got that second interview at County too."

"Great!" I reply enthusiastically. "Now, on to more important things, which shoes?" I giggle, hold up one of each shoe-one plain black heel and one strappy black heel.

"I don't know," He whines. "Uh, the ones in your right hand."

Those are the plain ones. I guess that's a good idea. I don't want Justin to get the wrong idea and the strappy ones are more date like. I should try to look more conservative. Maybe I should wear a sweater over this dress. It's not skimpy, but it's not librarian like either. It's just a simple black dress that falls just at my knees and scoops just low enough in the neck to reveal just the right amount of cleavage. I nod my head at Bobby and slip my feet into the heels.

"How do I look?"

"Like guys are gonna be checking out my little sister." He grumbles, curling his lip in disgust. I laugh and roll my eyes at him. I grab my matching purse off my dresser and my jacket off my bed and head toward the door. Bobby trails behind me. "When will you be back?"

"I don't know Dad, when's my curfew?" I tease snatching my keys off the coffee table he's just sat down next to. He laughs sarcastically and rolls his eyes at me. "I don't know, maybe ten or eleven."

"Hmm," Is all he says in response. You would think I was back in my teenage years with the way he's acting.

"Don't wait up." I wink, before tossing my coat on and heading out to my car.

~*~*~*~

"Wow, you look beautiful."

I blush as his sweet compliment and move to remove my jacket. I keep my eyes on my feet as Justin helps with my coat. One of his fingers just barely skims my collarbone, but it enough to send chills all over my entire body. I shiver at the sensation and quickly sit down, again with his assistance.

"You look nice too." I smile, hoping that my cheeks are no longer flushed.

"Thanks," He chuckles as he opens his menu to being looking over the selections. I take the opportunity to really look him over from head to toe. He really does look great in his casual black pants and royal blue dress shirt. And he always looks so clean. His face always looks so smooth and his scent smells heavenly. I'm sure he's wearing some kind of cologne that mixes perfectly with his soap. "You know what you're gonna order?"

His voice snaps me from my thoughts and my eyes flick up to meet his. I hope he didn't notice me checking him out. "I, uh, can't decide."

"The fillet is excellent."

I nod shyly and pick up my menu to hide my face behind. After a few minutes of silently milling over our choices the waiter finally comes over and takes our orders. We both order the same thing-fillet. It comes with garlic-mashed potatoes a vegetable medley and a side salad. I won't even tell you how much it costs. All I'll I say is that its about as much as I would sped on a weeks worth of food. I may be exaggerating a bit, but still it's a lot.

"So...." Justin trails off.

"How is it that we have nothing to talk about?" I laugh, tucking my hair back behind my ears.

"Maybe we've been spending too much time together."

"Oh, so you're sick of me?" I tease with a coy smile covering my face.

"Pretty much, yeah." He answers back wearing that sexy side smirk of his. Is it just me or did it just get really hot in here? Those eyes of his cut into mine like his trying to look through me and a chill runs down my spine. God he's sexy.

I begin to stand as if I'm going to leave. "I wouldn't want to bore you so I guess I'll help you out and leave you to eat alone."

"Don't forget your coat," He smiles devilishly. "It's awfully cold outside."

My jaw drops and my eyes widen in pretend shock and offense. I can't believe he just said that. I scoff and reach for my jacket, but his hand grasps my arm before I'm able to reach for it. I switch my gaze from his hand to his face and raise my brow at him.

"Sit down." He smiles. When he smiles his eyes get all squinty and wrinkles form in the skin around them. What I notice most though is how his whole face seems to light up and it's as if every feature on his face is smiling. It's adorable and very contagious.

"But you just-" I begin with a sarcastic grin.

"Sit." I sit back down with a small giggle. His hand remains on my arm. My smile falters slightly when his fingertips trail down my arm to my open palm where he traces the lines on my hand. "You're no fun." He whispers, referring to my earlier actions of pretending to be mad.

I swallow thickly and find myself literally unable to form words. His eyes are focused solely on my hand and the patterns he's tracing. I watch his face as he concentrates at little to hard on what he's doing. I clear my throat and shift uncomfortably in my chair.

"Justin," I voice as he begins to lift my hand from the table. He stops mid-movement and looks up at me. Lightly, I jerk back my hand from his. I clear my throat again and sit back in my chair to put some kind of distance between us without physically leaving the table.

"Sorry." I apologize bashfully.

"That's okay." I answer back still feeling a bit light headed from his touch.

He sighs heavily and runs and hand over his head. "I'm no good a being your friend Madison."

"Justin," I sigh right back at him. He's really making this already difficult situation even more difficult by saying such sweet things like that. He's making me feel bad. "I told you that it was friendship or nothing."

"I know, I was just apologizing." He answers, brushing my comment off in the process. "So, uh, how's your brother doin?"

"He's good." I feel my body relax again when he changes the subject. "He found himself an apartment."

"That's great. Your place was a little small for the two of you wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"You're gonna miss him huh?"

"Yeah." I laugh. Isn't odd that he can read me this well after only knowing more for a couple of weeks? "I didn't get to see him much cause he lived back home with my parents in Oklahoma. It was nice to have him here."

"But he's going to stay here in New York so you should still be able to see him when you're not working. Right?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"So are you and your sister close? You're always talking about your brother, but you never mention anything about her. All I know about her is that she's your twin and her name is Melony."

My breath hitches at his line of questioning. The last thing I want to do is tell him about my sister...err me...I guess-ugh, I don't even know what I'm saying. "Oh, uh, she's-we're pretty close. My brother and I tend to get along better though. She's really busy with her work so I don't get to see her much lately."

"What does she do?" He asks, leaning closer to me as he rests his weight comfortably on his elbow.

"She's a-uh OB nurse at County General."

"Wow, impressive." He flashes an impressed grin. See now that comment makes me think that he still would be here with me tonight even if he knew what I really did for a living. You heard him just as well as I did-he's impressed with what I do for a living.

"She really loves what she does."

"That has to be an amazing job. You know to bring live into this world each an every day."

"It is." I answer wistfully, thinking back to the earlier events of today at work. I catch myself before I get too far off and quickly add, "That's what she tells me anyway."

"That's cool." Justin nods, his face showing that he's deep in thought. "I went through a period that I wanted to be a doctor."

"Really?"

"Don't sound so surprised." He laughs.

"Sorry," I blush with a light chuckle. "I just can't picture you doing anything besides.... what you do. You just seem like the type that was born knowing exactly what you wanted to do."

"I did for the most part." He confesses, only pausing as our salads and bread are delivered. "I just got sick of the touring at one point and convinced myself that I should be something more meaningful with my life."

"But what you do is just as important, just in a different way." I respond in all sincerity, unconsciously reach to cover his hand with my own to emphasis my words. "Think of all the joy you bring to your fans and the charities you can help."

"I know; that's why I never pursued the whole doctor thing. I love what I do."

"Good." I concur with a small smile, before pulling my hand back.

"So what about you; did you always know you wanted to be an actress?"

Great, he's asking about me now...or about my sister really. Normally our conversations don't get this serious and I can almost forget that Justin really thinks that I'm Madison. It's times like these that I'm forced to remember and can't help but feel guilty. I pick up my fork and move the lettuce leafs around my salad bowl, picking out the tomatoes and setting them on a napkin. I can answer this question. I know enough about my sister to pull this off.

"Yeah, I was always into drama and stuff."

"After getting to know you, it kind of hard to picture you as an actress. You seem too introverted."

Wow, he is really good at reading me. I shrug in response not really knowing what to say. He just smiles sweetly at me and then changes the subject of topic to a much lighter and not so personal subject matter. Now I can enjoy the remainder of dinner and pretend that I'm me again.

~*~*~*~

"How was your date?" Bobby snickers from the couch. He's all tucked in on the pullout sofa in the living room ready for bed. I can't believe he waited up for me. And I know that he did because I could see his shadow looming at the window when I pulled up. Luckily Justin and I drove separately.

"It wasn't a date." I answer back, annoyance lacing my tone. I slip off my shoes and toss my coat in the empty chair adjacent to the couch. "I just went out with a friend."

"Was this friend of the opposite sex?" He asks in a funny voice that I'm not finding all that funny right now.

"I'm going to bed." I call pushing past him towards my bedroom. "Night Bobby."

"Now I know it was a date!"

"Was not!" I yell back from inside my room.

"Was to!"

"Not!"

"To!"

"Bobby Thomas!" I screech, balling my fists in utter frustration. Brothers can be so annoying sometimes. I swear he never grew up. I mean look at the argument we're having.

"Night Mel." He calls through his laughter and can't help but smile despite myself. "Love ya!"

I peek my head back out the doorway so that I can get a look at his smiling face. I stick my tongue out at him and then smile sweetly. "Love you too."