Sunday morning rain is falling
Steal some cover, share some skin
Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable
Laid out across Adam's bed, early Sunday morning, I stared at Justin as he unpacked shit that should have been taken out a long time ago. He and Adam spend their days running around the house like idiots, and their nights are usually squandered with the patrons at ESPN Zone. It's actually surprising that after only a week, Justin has found the time to unpack.
"Hey, Alicia," he said, his face still focused on the dresser in front of him, "while you're over there chillin', would you mind helpin' me out?"
I just love his little country accent. He's too cute, man. Too cute. "Anything for you, Justin."
He smiled back at me knowingly-slash-thankfully and turned back to his clothes. I swear, that smile could make me fall in love with him if I let it. Just. Damn. I left Adam's bed to saunter across the room and relocate to Justin's. I sat down and pulled one of his many bags towards me, unzipping shit just because I could. "You ain't got nothin' private in here, do you?"
"Nah, just my whips and chains," he shot back.
"Oh, shit. I like 'em freaky, now. You better watch it!"
"Do you, really?"
With a slap on his cute little ass and a laugh, I added, "Yup. So don't say I didn't warn you." I watched him pull numerous picture frames from one of his boxes and place them on top of his dresser. Just because I have the tendency to be nosy as hell, I got up to gaze at the frames' contents. I scanned through the photographs, finding pictures of either Justin and a skinny white girl with stringy blonde hair and grayish-bluish eyes, or just the blonde by herself. "I hope this ain't your girlfriend."
"Yeah, she's too gorgeous for me, I know."
Ha! "Not really." This girl ain't even cute enough to be his dog. "What's her name again?"
"Missy."
"Oh, yeah." See, she even has a dog's name. I heard the bulky sound of cameramen entering the hallway and I turned just in time to see my favorite camera guy, Andy, walk through the door to Justin's room. "What up, homie."
He shot me the silent deuces just before I felt Justin kick my foot in contempt. "You're not supposed to talk to them!" he hissed.
"Oh, please. They ain't gon' kick me out for being polite."
"You better hope not."
"You better hope not. I know you can't live without me." He gave me that light chuckle that makes his smile seem like it's about 1000 watts and I almost melted - until I saw him stare at his... girlfriend. "So you said you and Missy have been together since high school?"
"Yup. Senior year." He pointed to a picture of the two of them sitting at a picnic table with a guitar randomly between them. "This one is from our graduation night." What a couple of dorks.
"How cute."
"Yeah."
"So, you're honestly not worried that something's gonna break you up?"
"No, I'm pretty sure that we'll be just fine. Maybe I'm naive, but I think that after all we've been through, we can survive something as simple as a little distance, you know?" He bent down to start placing his clothes into drawers. I was thankful that he couldn't see the look of disgust that my face was taking on.
"It's more than distance, though. This is a completely new experience with a bunch of different forces pulling the two of you apart."
"What's pulling us apart?"
"Well - I mean, nothing, yet. But you're on a television show. They put people like us on these shows for exactly that reason."
"I'm stronger than I look," he laughed.
"What about options?"
"What about them?"
"You don't think that living with all these new people, in this new city, with these new experiences, that maybe you're closing yourself off to possibilities?"
"I just know that what doesn't kill us will only make us stronger."
"Uh huh."
"That reminds me - I have to call her." He threw his pile of folded shirts to me on the bed and dashed out of the room.
I watched, sighing as he left and fell into his plush, green comforter. It wasn't long before I heard the sound of Adam and Lindsay giggling into the room quietly. "What up, Licia?" Adam asked, throwing one of his many huge pillows at me.
"Eh."
Lindsay sat down on the bed next to me and pulled the pillow from my chest. "You look troubled, Alicia."
"I'm cool. I'm just - I'm hungry, man. You wanna go to lunch?"
"I'm down."
"I can't," Adam inserted. "Usher's taking me and Justin shopping for 'DC clothes.'"
"Destiny's Child clothes?"
"I think he means the city."
"You better hope he does," I smiled. I got up, heading for the door before turning back to my two roommates. "I'm gonna see if Brit and Christina wanna roll with us and then we can bounce."
I had nearly made it to The Blue room when I heard Adam yell back, "Bring me back something from lunch!"
Laughing at him, I peeked into the aptly titled, Girls' room to see Britney and Christina knocked the hell out. I guess 11AM is early when you got to bed at 4 in the morning. I headed to the next room to see my homeboy, Usher, pawing through his open closet. I climbed into his unmade bed slowly and let out a whiny groan. He turned to my deplorable form before affectionately giggling at me.
"What's wrong with you, girl?"
"Man. I. Want. Justin."
"So. Get. Justin."
"Ursh" - that's my ghetto little term of endearment for him - "if it were that easy, I'd have the damn boy."
"Well, what's stopping you, Licia?"
"Ugh. Missy." I started rolling my eyes.
"What did she do?"
"She made him fall in love with her."
He looked around the room dramatically and scoffed. "I don't see her nowhere in this house."
"But he's in love with her."
"Oh, please. Love ain't nothin' but a word. Outta sight, outta mind."
"Nah, she's definitely on his mind."
Usher came back to his red bed and shook his head at me. "Girl, what am I gon' do with you?"
"What?"
"She's on his mind now. You just have to make sure that you're the one to get her off of it."
::::::::::
"So what do you guys think about Usher?" Lindsay asked. Us four girls were all sitting around at the restaurant, Papa.Razzi, finishing off what was left of our lunch orders and discussing random shit. "I think he's awesome," she added.
I smiled at the fact that Linds likes him. I would've thought his flamboyance would have scared her off. "Girl, you know that's already my ace koom boom. He is a fuckin' trip!"
Britney nodded in agreement, sipping her Cosmopolitan. "I think he's so cute, though. I first saw him, and I was like, 'Why are all the good men gay?'"
"He is cute, isn't he?" Lindsay replied.
"I love his dimples! Oh! And I walked into the bathroom last night when he was getting out of the shower..."
"Girl, those abs are on point, right?" I held up my hand so she could give me the high-five.
"You took the words right out of my mouth!"
The three of us laughed while Christina looked on in boredom. "I dunno. I don't really see it."
Six eyes shot in her direction and three throats cleared before Britney spoke again. "So um, what about Justin? Do we think he's hot?"
Oh, shit. She talkin' bout my man now. "Girl."
"You like him?" she asked me.
I closed my eyes, enjoying the images I'd conjured up in my head relating to him. "I. Want. Him."
"Alicia has a crush!" Lindsay sang.
"Wait. What about his girlfriend?" Christina has a tendency to fuck up the good vibes we have going.
"Minor obstacle."
"I don't think you should mess up a perfectly good relationship just because you wanna whore it up around town."
I felt my eye twitch and I was tempted - really tempted - to tell her about herself, but she, in all honesty, was probably right. I just don't care. I laughed it off and continued conversation. "So anyway, I peeped a few pictures of Missy today.
"Oh, yeah. I saw those," Lindsay interjected. "She's not as cute as I thought she'd be."
"Yo, I told Ursh that I thought she looked like a dog."
Britney suddenly allowed this hideous snort escape her nose, leaving all of us to burst into spontaneous laughter. "Alicia, you are so wrong," she finally replied.
"Well, I'm just keepin' it real."
"Too real, if you ask me," Christina jumped back in.
"Well then it's a good thing I didn't ask you, isn't it?" I smiled smugly and finished the last of my Sprite.
::::::::::
We'd long since gotten home and nighttime was approaching when I was sitting on the floor of my fiery room, staring at the paintings splashed across the ceilings.
Roses are red, yellow and white
Where have you been all my life
Violets are blue, and I'll be too
If you leave, 'cause I just met you
I hate crushes. You always get crushed. And the crazy shit about it is that I've only known dude for like a week. But man, he's just so damn cute. And he's cool as shit - when he ain't talkin' about that damn Missy.
"Yo, Alicia!" Adam was calling up to me from downstairs.
I rolled from my position on the floor into a crawl and headed to the hallway where I could yell down to him from the balcony. "What!"
"You haven't done any confessionals this week! Jackie says you're due for fifteen minutes before the end of the night!"
Damn producer bitch. I have nothing to say in that damn thing. "Aight," I replied, seeing him enter the foyer. "You'll do it with me?"
"Hell yeah, I'll do it with you. Just name the time and place," he smiled.
"I mean the confessional, you horny bastard."
"I'll do it with you in there, but right now, you have to do the confessing by yourself."
"You suck."
"And I hope you do, too. You could really make this house a worthwhile experience."
"Oh, baby, don't test me." I lazily got up from the navy blue carpeted floor and began to head upstairs. Oh, and lucky fuckin' me, when I arrived on the third level, there Justin was, exiting the bathroom with just a towel and a smile. Ooh, baby, I could talk about those abs in the confessional for a good hour or two. He brushed past me in the narrow hall as I watched his little booty underneath the towel bounce past me as I headed to The West Wing.
"Well, apparently, Alicia has a bit of a crush on Justin." I recognized the voice of Christina behind the confessional door when I attempted to open it. What the hell does this bitch have to say now? "And I really don't think she's respecting the relationship that Justin has with his girlfriend. She's overstepping her boundaries and it's not fair to Justin or Missy. Not to mention, she has a boyfriend of her own. Instead of worrying about trying to get in Justin's pants, I think she should make the effort to fix her own relationship."
See, if I'm ever crossed or caught up in the cross
And it's yo' fault ho, I'm goin' off, ho
Oh, no this ho didn't! I banged on the door as she continued to ramble. "Yo, Christina! This motherfuckin' confessional ain't soundproof, bitch!"
She suddenly swung the door open and stared at me blankly. "Excuse me, but this is private."
"Oh, and so are my personal feelings. Where the fuck do you get off puttin' my shit in the street like that!"
See, I'm unemployed with no boss, ho
'Cause I'm da baddest bitch
She moved towards me to close the confessional door just in time for a group of camera guys to find their way upstairs. "You put your own shit in the street!" she yelled back, trying to get out of my way.
"That don't mean you can motherfuckin' talk about it, bitch!"
"And why not?"
"'Cause it's my shit!"
"I can talk about whatever I want in there! It's my shit if I wanna talk about it!"
The next thing I saw were Justin and Adam entering the third floor, trying to decipher what the commotion was all about. "What are y'all yelling about!" Justin asked.
"This bitch is talkin' shit about me!"
"Well what did she say?" Adam next inquired.
Christina rolled her creepy midnight blue eyes between me and Justin to Adam. "It doesn't matter, because I was speaking privately in the confessional. Bitch."
"Oh, I got your motherfuckin' bitch." I almost swung at the ho before Justin's hand caught my arm and he pulled me out of the vicinity of the other two.
"If you hit her, you go home," he reminded me.
"I don't give a fuck! I just want one good slap before y'all send me packin' then."
"Licia, calm down."
"Nah, that bitch has gotten on my last fuckin' nerve since we set foot in this house."
"It's only been a week."
"And that's seven days too goddamn long."
"Walk with me." He continued to pull me down the stairs with him and back into my room. The bright red paint in here there sure wasn't going to help my mood. "Now, do me a favor and calm down."
"But, Justin-"
"Do it for me," he interrupted. "Just talk to me. Tell me exactly what she said."
Uh..."Fuck that. Justin, come on. You know you don't like her either. Just lemme hit the bitch. You can even get a lick in."
"Now you know that ain't right," he answered, laughing hysterically.
"Yeah, that's why you're laughin', right?" I smiled.
"Okay, it was funny," he grinned back, "but it still ain't right. And I may not like her, but I do like you, so I ain't lettin' you get kicked out of the house for her." Aight. I can die happy now. He just made my life complete. That one little statement calmed me down entirely and Christina was just about the last thing on my mind. "Just ignore her for a while."
"Done."
He looked at me skeptically, falling into my bed in comfort. "I don't trust that."
"I'm serious." I climbed into my bed with him and stretched out across his torso, inhaling his intoxicating boy-out-of-shower smell. "As far as I'm concerned, Christina doesn't exist."
He began to absentmindedly run his fingers through my hair while staring into oblivion. "Uh huh."
"And that's that."
That may be all I need
Come and rest your bones with me
On the next Real World :: The housemates find out the true meaning of "Uh Oh." :: Justin finds out Alicia's secret and sets the record straight. Sort of. ::
Author's Chapter Notes:
From Alicia's point of view.
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